Sorry the post is so late. Christmas stuff has thrown my routine and I forgot what day it was. I solved and blogged this in a big rush, hopefully I have most of it right. Thank you Monk.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CHURCH | Former PM ousting difficult clergy (6) |
| CHURCHill (former PM) missing ill (difficult) | ||
| 4 | ASSEMBLY | Cleverly hiding bungle, backing company (8) |
| ABLY (cleverly) contains (hiding) MESS (bungle) reversed (backing) | ||
| 9 | TORRID | Very hot temperature – nasty for Cockneys (6) |
| T (temperature) then ‘ORRID (horrid, Cockney) | ||
| 10 | GO TO TOWN | Dress-wearing friend of Dorothy is to proceed enthusiastically (2,2,4) |
| TOTO (Dorothy’s dog in The Wizard of Oz) wears GOWN (dress) | ||
| 12 | AVIATRIX | Johnson, perhaps through, cheats in speech on article (8) |
| VIA (through) TRIX sounds like (in speech) “tricks” (cheats) all following (on) A (indefinite article) – Amy Johnson | ||
| 13 | JUNKIE | Tripper that is on a slowboat to China? (6) |
| IE (that is) follows (on) JUNK (a slow boat, in China) | ||
| 15 | SKIT | Start to strip outfit in hoax (4) |
| Skit (starting letter) then KIT (outfit) | ||
| 16 | WEST INDIES | Islands I witnessed when swimming (4,6) |
| anagram (when swimming) of I WITNESSED | ||
| 19 | FINGERTIPS | E-print gifs encrypted as digital bits (10) |
| anagram (encrypted) of E PRINTS GIFS | ||
| 20 | SCAR | Mark Antony’s first to appear in finale of Julius Caesar, the film (4) |
| C (mark, in an exam?) Anthony (first letter of) inside (to appear in) juliuS caesaR (last letters of, finale) – The Scar, US title for the film Hollow Triumph. I am less than fully convinced by this explanation. | ||
| 23 | NUDIST | One cutting threads as a matter of principle (6) |
| cryptic definition – threads are clothes | ||
| 25 | RESPIGHI | Old composer and poet composed, eg Irish poetry at first (8) |
| anagram (composed) of EG IRISH and Poetry (first letter of) – was Respighi really a poet? | ||
| 27 | LONDONER | Capital fellow, an isolated sort on the outside (8) |
| DON (fellow) inside (with…on the outside) LONER (isolated sort). This explanation uses fellow twice, an unusual construction. Has anyone got any other ideas? | ||
| 28 | ON-SITE | Model pressed by unit in factory, say (2-4) |
| SIT (model) inside (pressed by) ONE (unit) | ||
| 29 | BRUSSELS | Rub injured lower back before beginning to shampoo a carpet |
| anagram (injured) of RUB then LESS (lower) reversed (back) before Shampoo (beginning letter of) | ||
| 30 | SPROUT | Shoot French writer once son becomes leader (6) |
| PROUST (French writer) with S (son) moving to the front(becomes leader) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CUTLASS | Girl going below hurt old sailor’s arm (7) |
| LASS (girl) underneath) CUT (hurt) | ||
| 2 | UKRAINIAN | Former Soviet sulks off-and-on about Gulf republic head dropping two places (9) |
| UK iRAINIAN (about Iran, a Gulf republic) missing first letter (head off) | ||
| 3 | CHINTZ | Borders of topaz adding feature on printed fabric (6) |
| TopaZ (borders of) following (adding to) CHIN (a feature) | ||
| 5 | SHOW | Badger female to host hotel display (4) |
| SOW (badger, female) contains H (hotel) | ||
| 6 | ELOQUENT | Articulate English ruler heartlessly crushed by destiny (8) |
| E QUeEN (ruler, heartlessly) inside (crushed by) LOT (destiny) LOT | ||
| 7 | BLOCK | Choke bishop with wrestling hold (5) |
| B (bishop) with LOCK (wrestling hold) | ||
| 8 | YANKEES | Americans wise, according to police comms? (7) |
| A single YANKEE in is the radio communications code (according to police comms) for Y. Hence the plural of would be Ys (pronounced like wise) | ||
| 11 | LIBERTY | Consort beheaded before Yard secures international disposal (7) |
| aLBERT (Prince Albert, consort, beheaded) and Y (yard) contains (secures) I (international) | ||
| 14 | STOPPER | Bung small-time policeman, but not chief (7) |
| S (small) T (time) cOPPER (policeman) missing first letter (chief) | ||
| 17 | INCOGNITO | Criminal coming into money, initially hiding false ID (9) |
| anagram (criminal) of COmING INTO missing (hiding) Money (first letter of, initially) | ||
| 18 | SEX SHOPS | Lower form of IT-related outlets? (3,5) |
| cryptic definition? | ||
| 19 | FAN CLUB | Group of bodies encircling a star? (3,4) |
| cryptic definition | ||
| 21 | RAIMENT | Plan to wear ripped clothing (7) |
| AIM (plan) contains (to wear) RENT (ripped) | ||
| 22 | OPEN UP | Disclose work on foreign article about Portugal (4,2) |
| OP (work) then UNE (one in French, foreign article) reversed (about) then P (Portugal) | ||
| 24 | DONAU | River protected by London authority (5) |
| found inside lonDON AUthority | ||
| 26 | BELL | Ring British Telecom’s second and third line (4) |
| B (british) tELecom (second and third letter) then L (line) | ||
The usual enjoyable battle – I too noticed the double fellow in 27a. Apparently 25a composed orchestral tone poems so that makes him a composing poet! Lots to like but I’ll just give special mention to the “American wise” in 8d
Thanks to Monk and to PeeDee – I don’t know about routine, I just keep writing lists and reminding myself that it is all very well planning food for Christmas but what are we actually going to eat in between now and then?
Thanks Monk and PeeDee
A few more things to add on this one:
It’s a pangram
The paired solutions !a & 4, 29 & 30, 11 & 26, 5 & 14 form phrases in their own right.
For 20, I had SCAR as the definition, the wordplay being A(nthony) inside juliuS and CaesaR, the C & R being a wrapping film/surface, as in clingfilm.
In 2, the initial I isn’t off (‘head dropping’), it’s ‘head dropping two places’: IRANIAN > RAINIAN
Sorry, got my shift key wrong: 1A, not !a
Thanks to PeeDee and Monk
20a Def Mark – A (Anthony’s first) to appear in S (finale of Julius) CR (Caesar the film (of))
Just noticed Simon S already has this one.
Too late for me yesterday-just wanted to say I loved it, pangram paired answers, everything
Thanks all.
Thanks Monk and PeeDee
Enjoyed this much more than his previous puzzle with its subtle definitions in places, a number of new terms and the continuing battle to the end to get it finished. Noticed the likelihood of a pangram quite early on, not that it really helped in the end but although cognisant of the probably of some sort of theme, failed to pick up on the doubles.
Thought that the clever clues for CHURCHILL and BELL, which I thought was the highlight of the lot. Enjoyed learning of the DONOU and finally being able to untangle the wordplay for OPEN UP.
Finished with the witty NUDIST, the previously unknown BRUSSELS carpet and well-defined SEX SHOPS.
Thanks for the blog, Peedee.
This wasn’t too bad for a Monk. 18dn doesn’t work for me though, and I thought most of the other clues in the bottom left corner were a bit dodgy.