Unusual to see NEO featured on a Friday but definitely welcome nevertheless. On the easier side of his offerings, with only a couple of parsings holding me up from a quick finish. Thanks, NEO!
FF : 9 DD: 7
| Across | ||
| 1 | LETITIA | Female bird, one seen in meadow (7) |
| [ TIT (bird I (one) ] in LEA (meadow) | ||
| 5 | BUS PASS | Concession for those getting on? (3,4) |
| cryptic def | ||
| 9 | OVERT | Conspicuous poverty traps (5) |
| hidden in “..pOVERTy..” | ||
| 10 | TESTAMENT | Witness mates, hammered, opening old wine (9) |
| MATES* in TENT (old wine) | ||
| 11 | OUTSMARTS | Exposes market’s tricks (9) |
| OUTS (exposes) MARTS (market’s) | ||
| 12 | OMEGA | Old and excellent letter to Greeks (5) |
| O (old) MEGA (excellent) | ||
| 13 | DREAM | Doctor West returns in vision (5) |
| DR (doctor) EAM (west, MAE, reversed) | ||
| 15 | ADDRESSEE | Recipent in area with Wear feeding Dee? (9) |
| A (area) [ DRESS (wear) in DEE ] | ||
| 18 | JET STREAM | Current setter involved in predicament (3,6) |
| SETTER* in JAM (predicament) | ||
| 19 | ALLOW | Leaving south-west, migratory bird’s okay (5) |
| swALLOW (migratory bird, without SW – south west) | ||
| 21 | CREDO | Firm embracing socialist principles (5) |
| RED (socialist) in CO (firm) | ||
| 23 | TONED DOWN | Less harsh one, theologian comes into metropolis (5,4) |
| [ ONE DD (theologian) ] in TOWN (metropolis) | ||
| 25 | BADMINTON | Black dominant on move in game (9) |
| B (black) [DOMINANT]* | ||
| 26 | ROBIN | Day was one men brought back skip (5) |
| RO (men = OR, reversed) BIN (skip) | ||
| 27 | NEWSMAN | Reformed character receiving second journalist (7) |
| [NEW (reformed) MAN (character)] containing S (second) | ||
| 28 | EXCERPT | Piece of work runs into bar (7) |
| R (runs) in EXCEPT (bar) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | LEOPOLD | Austrian duke takes poodle out by lake (7) |
| L (lake) POODLE* | ||
| 2 | TREATMENT | Management team thrown in river (9) |
| TEAM* in TRENT (river) | ||
| 3 | TOTEM | Carry Frenchman’s tribal symbol (5) |
| TOTE (carry) M (frenchman, Monsieur) | ||
| 4 | ALTERNATE | Take turns thus to get neat? (9) |
| cryptic def; NEAT can be clued as ALTER NATE | ||
| 5 | BASIS | Current entering fish grounds (5) |
| I (current) in BASS (fish) | ||
| 6 | SOAP OPERA | Bar work that might involve The Woolpack? (4,5) |
| cryptic def; woolpack is a fictional bar in the soap opera emmerdale | ||
| 7 | ADELE | Woman in a strike at publisher’s (5) |
| A DELE (strike at publisher) | ||
| 8 | SATIATE | At sea it cooked stuff (7) |
| AT SEA IT* | ||
| 14 | METHODISM | Do Mark E Smith, slamming Christian outlook? (9) |
| DO M (mark) E SMITH* | ||
| 16 | DOMINANCE | Monk in ANC beginning to establish control (9) |
| DOM (monk) IN ANC E (beginning to Establish) | ||
| 17 | SALOON BAR | Drunken baron also drinks here (6,3) |
| BARON ALSO* | ||
| 18 | JACOBIN | Radical adherent entertaining Mister Swan (7) |
| JAIN (adherent) containing COB (male swan) | ||
| 20 | WING NUT | One readily turns extremist joining faction (4,3) |
| WING (faction) NUT (extremist) | ||
| 22 | ENDOW | Finance some men do without (5) |
| hidden in “..mEN DO Without..” | ||
| 23 | TITAN | Great man wrests second one from painter (5) |
| TITiAN (painter, with the second I removed) | ||
| 24 | DORIC | Order to carry out, endlessly elaborate (5) |
| DO (carry out) RICh (elaborate, endlessly) | ||
*anagram
Failed to parse ADELE. Didn’t know “dele” for delete.
I parsed 6 slightly differently as a ‘bar’ of soap + ‘opera’ (a work) with the rest of the clue as def.
Liked the Robin Day def, though the surface is a bit of a head-scratcher.
The misdirection in DORIC was nice, since it can mean the exact opposite of ‘elaborate’.
Good fun. Thanks to both.
As a change from agreeing with Eileen, I’ll agree with Grant today
Thanks to Neo and Turbolegs
Sense of deja vu with 9a, l thought l’ve seen a similar somewhere recently. FOI 8d, LOI 28a. Still don’t understand ADELE though l guessed it from ‘woman’. Help somebody.
Chadwick @4. As I mentioned @1, dele = delete. It is a publisher’s mark-up to signify something needs deleting/striking so also a cunning play on the meaning for “strike”.
Thanks to Neo and Turbolegs. I knew dele for ADELE and parsed SOAP OPERA without knowing the link to Emmerdale but did not know Jain for JACOBIN.
Thirty years in publishing and I have never seen ‘dele’ as an abbreviation for delete. ‘Del’ yes, but ‘dele’ never.
JAIN no more defines ADHERENT than CATHOLIC, PROTESTANT or any other adherent of any religion does. I’m at half past third bottle o’clock, but I’d be surprised if I am successfully challenged in the morning. Surprised, mind, not astonished.
Thanks Neo and Turbolegs
Found this on in the mid-range of his difficulty scale myself. Agree with Grant’s parsing of SOAP OPERA which I thought would have been close to clue of the day – given it’s great surface and the subtlety of the word play. Thought that the cryptic BUS PASS was also very good.
Finished all over the place, with ADELE (and that obscure ‘DELE’ which I think that I’ve seen in other crosswords and nowhere else), WING NUT (which I made harder work than was probably necessary for it) and ROBIN (at a disadvantage of not knowing of the political broadcaster until after looking him up for confirmation).
Aha. How do you do a smug face?