This is the usual tidy and clear offering from Phi. OCTILLION defeated me until the bitter end but I more or less have it now.
Definitions in crimson, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics.
Well yes probably there is a Nina, but goodness knows what. [As was quickly pointed out by NeilW, the three-letter abbreviations of the twelve months are in the answers. Very nice and thanks NeilW.]
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | JANITOR | Shock to receive refusal about it from caretaker (7) |
| ja(n(it)o)r | ||
| 5 | FEBRILE | Document about English and British affected by fever (7) |
| f(E Br)ile | ||
| 9 | LUBRICATE | Get drunk – Cuba libre (time for a Bishop to get drunk) (9) |
| (Cuba libre)* with one of the b’s replaced by t | ||
| 10 | SUPER | Very good meal with no repeated component (5) |
| supper with the p not repeated | ||
| 11 | PYLON | Supporter to arrive with many others, we hear (5) |
| “pile on” | ||
| 12 | OCTILLION | Company doing volte-face in lively dance number (9) |
| Well an octillion is a number, one of those huge numbers that are so huge you tend to ignore just how huge — 10 to the power 27, or 1 followed by 27 0’s — but the rest of it … perhaps when I do the blog finally inspiration will strike — [later] no it hasn’t and I’m just as lost as I was at first — [even later] just seen it: it’s co [company] reversed [doing a volte-face] in cotillion, a word that I was only vaguely aware of and so far as I can see has a number of meanings, but it seems to refer to some sort of dance, although whether or not that’s lively isn’t obvious to me — it looks as if it’s stately and formal | ||
| 13 | MARTINET | Rigorous person in market securing point (8) |
| mar(tine)t | ||
| 14 | SEPTIC | Festering group in charge retaining power (6) |
| se(P)t i/c | ||
| 17 | YEARLY | Showing regularity unknown at the beginning (6) |
| y early — y is the unknown, early is at the beginning | ||
| 19 | JUNCTION | Meeting Judge – purpose is to dismiss fine (8) |
| J {f}unction | ||
| 22 | LARCENOUS | Clear criminal talent, working as a thief (9) |
| (Clear)* nous | ||
| 24 | NOOSA | Australian resort area: Australian willingly returning here (5) |
| (A soon)rev. — I had never heard of Noosa — my Australian knowledge is rather limited to the test grounds, but Phi, in New Zealand, obviously knows it well — soon = willingly also didn’t occur immediately, so I was struggling here | ||
| 26 | WICKS | Illuminated points with expressions of approval (except the first) (5) |
| w {t}icks | ||
| 27 | INTERRING | Getting buried amongst Wagner’s operas? (9) |
| inter [amongst] Ring [the Ring cycle] | ||
| 28 | RETINUE | Followers regret holding on to European money (7) |
| r(E tin)ue | ||
| 29 | DECIDER | Curtailed study applied to alcoholic drink, one’s settled (7) |
| de{n} cider | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | JULEP | Magistrate buttonholes university lecturer with energy drink (5) |
| J(u l e)P — I didn’t really know of a julep, but it was fairly obvious once one is aware of a mint julep | ||
| 2 | NEBULAR | Closely storing a lot of nonsense in the cloud? (7) |
| ne(bul{l})ar | ||
| 3 | TRIENNIAL | Working in retail, securing name over a number of years (9) |
| *(in retail) round n | ||
| 4 | REASONED | One’s active in study of rationality (8) |
| (one’s)* in read | ||
| 5 | FIESTA | Celebration in France is held by motor-racing authority (6) |
| FI(est)A — in France is = est — the FIA is the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile | ||
| 6 | BASIL | Security required around Saint, Russian Saint (5) |
| ba(S)il | ||
| 7 | IMPRINT | One unblemished after involving publicity team to produce publisher’s mark (7) |
| 1 m(PR)int — not sure what the team is doing: I thought that PR, public relations, was just publicity | ||
| 8 | EIRENICON | European country and its neighbour study peace proposal (9) |
| Eire NI con | ||
| 13 | MAYFLOWER | Historic ship has the potential to succeed? (9) |
| It may come into flower … | ||
| 15 | ECCENTRIC | City not entirely awash with money, receiving coin from oddball (9) |
| EC (cent) (ric{h}) — EC = city, the area of London where ‘The City’ is | ||
| 16 | PULSATED | Beat to mash, mostly – satisfied? (8) |
| pul{p} sated — beat in the past tense | ||
| 18 | APRICOT | Fruit and grain mostly in a container (7) |
| a p(ric{e})ot | ||
| 20 | IVORIED | I competed to secure gold, displaying teeth? (7) |
| I v(or)ied | ||
| 21 | NOVICE | Monastery figure about to take up sinning? (6) |
| (on)rev. vice — on = about | ||
| 23 | ESSEN | German city to wane in importance after dismissing leader (5) |
| {l}essen — the German city that so often appears in crosswords | ||
| 25 | AUGUR | Be ominous for Emperor (not half) and King (5) |
| Augu{stus} R | ||
Thanks, John – especially for the explanation of OCTILLION, which I only filled in near the end because I had spotted the Nina: all the months of the year are abbreviated around the grid.
Thanks, John and Phi. Regarding 12A, COTILLION was an 18th century French dance. Hence, reversing CO for company, gives OCTILLION. Cheers.
Was never going to get NOOSA , so DNF for me. Spotted the Nina but no help with 24a unfortunately.
Needed a word fit to get the unknown EIRENICON. Must try to remember that. I have a vague (possibly erroneous) memory that the name Irene means “peace” so I guess there’s a link there.
In 26a, I took the removed T to be the first letter of “the” (except the first) rather than just saying TICKS loses its first letter. (Perhaps that’s what the blog meant?)
Thanks to Phi and John.
Meant to add that CORTILLION was an exuberant dance where the ladies lifted up the hems of their skirts (or petticoats) to reveal their ankles.
Thanks Phi, John
Didn’t see the months, but a nice feature.
I clearly remembered OCTILLION (which incidentally is given away in the intro to the blog appearing on the home page) being clued with cotillion previously. I’m dismayed to find it was more than two years ago, Alchemi with: Twist at start of lively dance for a very large number.
I also failed on NOOSA, couldn’t see any way to get it. I thought the A was from area, so tried briefly to think of an Australian word for ‘willingly’ before giving up. I don’t think I would have guessed soon for willingly anyway.
I managed to get (and parse) OCTILLION but EIRENICON (Chambers confirms you’re right with the (e)irene link, Hovis @3) held out the longest – I’d never even vaguely heard of it and had to trust to wordplay.
For 7d, I took PR to refer to the PR Department of an organisation, in the same way as HR is shorthand for the HR Department. I’m familiar with NOOSA, but still had trouble with the parsing. Soon for ‘willingly’? I suppose so.
Another missed Nina (with YEARLY to tie it together) so well done to those who spotted it.
Thanks to Phi and John
We download the crossword via the link on 15squared and couldn’t help seeing OCTILLION in the preamble to the blog while doing so, which slightly spoilt it for us; otoh we might not have got it otherwise. But we did get NOOSA by googling for a list of Aussie resorts where we saw the name and thought “can ‘soon’ mean ‘willingly’?” and, on checking in Chambers, yes it can.
LARCENOUS took a while to get; we had LARCEN— and thought it should end ‘…ious’ by analogy with ‘arsenious’.
We failed to spot the nina, but what’s new?
An enjoyable solve, though. Thanks, Phi and John
I’d as soon clue SOON by “willingly” as I would by the other meanings in Chambers, I suppose. Though perhaps not in NOOSA.
When we went to The Gold Coast we ended up in places called Mooloolaba and Indurophilly so perhaps you got off lightly.
Good try Phi.
Indooroopilly.
I should have looked at Mooloolaba for the ‘oo’ rather than trusted to memory. My other recollections of I….y are a shopping mall, a bus station, and stinking bats, but they may be faulty too.