Tees can do mainstream; Tees can do left-field. In places this was the latter.
This took me a long time to solve. Tees will always reward your patience and lead you to a completed grid if you hold his hand tightly enough, but I was clinging on for dear life with this offering. My efforts to finish were not aided by a reference to a band I had never heard of clued in a rather roundabout way. Brain cells (and patience levels) were definitely exercised here.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
9 Give address on back cover and melt away
EVAPORATE
A charade of PAVE reversed and ORATE. ‘The streets of London are paved with gold.’ ‘Melt’ and EVAPORATE are definitely not the same chemical processes, but ‘melt away’ is a perfect synonym for the latter.
10 Believer pulled from filth in dungeon
HINDU
Hidden in filtH IN DUngeon.
11 Heating unit in the space vacated
THERM
A charade of THE and R[oo]M.
12 Poet‘s last letter in time associated with pen
EZRA POUND
A charade of Z in ERA followed by POUND.
13/8 Loudly accuse Mrs Peacock?
CRY BLUE MURDER
A cd. Confused? Click here. Still confused? Google the game.
14 Plug connecting to a different port?
ADAPTOR
A charade of AD for ‘plug’ in the promotional sense, A, and (PORT)* The anagrind is ‘different’. A cad.
16 Fold encompassing grassy area in part
PLEAT
An insertion (‘encompassing’) of LEA in PT.
18/20/17 Reward band name hated report may suggest?
THE TEARDROP EXPLODES
Give me a break. If you got this without all the crossers, knew the band and solved it without reference to tinternet, you have my respect. Solving this was key to getting a foothold in the south of the puzzle so what it is doing as a clue in a daily cryptic I have no idea. I’ve seen some random references in my time blogging, but this has just gone into top spot. I’m sure there’s a reason that Tees chose to include it. Here’s what Wiki says: The Teardrop Explodes were an English post-punk/neo-psychedelic band formed in Liverpool in 1978. Best known for their Top Ten UK single “Reward”, the group originated as a key band in the emerging Liverpool post-punk scene of the late 1970s. So it’s a reverse anagram thingy: (HATED REPORT)* is an anagram (‘explodes’) of THE TEARDROP.
19 Books to get on earlier vehicle
AGENT
A charade of AGE and NT for New Testament or ‘books’.
21 Nick wants height advantage
TOP EDGE
A cricketing reference (I can do those). A TOP EDGE is a mistimed shot from the batsman where the ball flies skywards from the upper edge of the bat and often results in a simple catch for the fielder. A charade of TOP and EDGE.
22 Volcanic crater about to swallow tree
CALDERA
An insertion (‘to swallow’) of ALDER in CA for circa or ‘about’.
24 Dustman idle outside Job Centre?
DOOLITTLE
Not keen on neo-psychedelic punk? Try George Bernard Shaw instead. Alfred DOOLITTLE is the dustman in Pygmalion, and it’s an insertion of O for the middle letter or ‘centre’ of ‘job’ in DO LITTLE. No talking to the animals, please.
26 Starter of duck becoming duck and egg?
OVOID
A charade of O and VOID. ‘Becoming duck’ is Tees’ whimsical way of suggesting VOID – becoming nothing.
Edit: thanks to Dansar for a better parsing. It’s AVOID (duck) with A becoming O.
27 Nurse removes husband from danger
TREAT
T[H]REAT
28 Drunk bowled in to serve old committee
POLITBURO
An insertion of LIT for ‘drunk’ and B in POUR followed by O.
Down
1 Killer naturally hated unstable explosive
DEATH CAP
A charade of (HATED)* and CAP (as in cap gun).
2 Stallone to conceal his 72 years as wise man?
SAGELY
Stallone is SLY and inserting AGE into that gives you your answer.
3 Expressed clearly for Greek character on preceding day
FORMULATED
A charade of FOR, MU, LATE and D.
4 Composer changes not one note
VARESE
A charade of VAR[I]ES and E for the musical ‘note’.
5 Remove fat when dividing amount
DEGREASE
An insertion of AS in DEGREE.
6 Dessert has whiskey with it
WHIP
A charade of W and HIP. The spelling of ‘whiskey’ is deliberate, since the reference is to the phonetic alphabet, where it is so spelled.
7 Spurious blues tune almost without nuance
UNSUBTLE
(BLUES TUN[E])*
15 American demanding expenses whatever happens
AT ALL COSTS
A charade of A, TALL and COSTS. ‘That’s a tall order.’
18 Wherein planes perhaps reach their ceiling?
TREETOPS
A cd.
21 Thus far the lonely heart’s desire?
TO DATE
A cd cum dd.
22 Way to cook cabbage catches on
CREOLE
An insertion of RE in COLE gives you the cuisine.
23 Book flight
EXODUS
A dd. The ‘book’ is the Old Testament’s second.
25 First nine letters sent north — the ninth from Greeks
IOTA
The first nine letters of our alphabet are A to I. Reverse that (‘sent north’, since it’s a down clue) and you’ve got the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet.
Thanks to Tees for this morning’s puzzle. See me later in my office to explain yourself about 18/20/17, please.
Definitely not ‘Monday Tees’ – I certainly had to work quite hard in places. As for the group – it was my last one in and I did have to work through the alphabet to get 20d and then I remembered the rest of the name
Thanks to Tees for a testing of the grey matter and to Pierre for the blog
Thanks to Pierre and Tees
Very good.
I saw 26a as AVOID (duck) with A becoming O and the ? because OVOID is egg-shaped rather than EGG
Dansar: Chambers gives ovoid (noun) = “an egg-shaped figure or body”. I had the same parsing as Pierre, but yours is much more satisfying.
Thanks, Dansar – Andrew is right that your parsing is better. We’ll go with that and I’ll amend the blog.
Did this on a train travelling from Prague. Must admit I used the check (Czech?) button a couple of times. I had heard of the group and did get it from the crossers, but 4dn is more my musical cup of tea.
We had never heard of the band, either; we did know the composer but it wasn’t a name that came readily to mind and we had to use a wordfinder for it. And we took 14ac to be simply a (not terribly) cryptic definition on the basis of port = socket.
In 24ac could the dustman be idle because he’s succumbed to middle-class morality?
Favourites were the aforesaid DOOLITTLE, EZRA POUND. CALDERA and IOTA.
Thanks, Tees and Pierre.
Well, I thought that was good.
Nice to see The Teardrop Explodes appear (I actually own of both their cds, and also have a few of Julian Cope).
Always had a soft spot for this (short-lived) band, and, being a classical music fan too, I do know Varese but – unlike Dormouse – I don’t like that kind of music at all.
Although Tees behaved himself today, of late he’d written an increasing number of cryptic definitions.
13ac etc was my LOI (and I cannot say ‘wow’ – well, I can, but then I do not mean it).
Double definitions are my least favourite device but, in my opinion, 23d (EXODUS) is an example of a very good one.
Both ‘Book’ and ‘flight’ are definitions for the solution while in the surface they mean something else. That is not very often the case with DD clues.
Many thanks to Pierre & Tees.
You didn’t like that one then Pierre.
So much for my taste in music. Though I never cared much for TTE myself.
Thanks all!
Only that clue, Tees. The rest was fine …
We are glad that we weren’t blogging this Pierre.
Joyce worked out that TEARDROP fitted in 20d after we had all the crossing letters and then Bert remembered the group. As we only had the initial letter for 17d, without this team work we would never have completed the puzzle this evening.
Thanks to S&B.