The usual very neat Friday crossword. There were several about which I was doubtful of the soundness, but my doubts were all settled. Everything was fine so far as I could see.
Definitions in green, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics.
Can’t see a Nina. Which doesn’t mean much.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | HALF-COCKED | Henry dined, consuming chicken not thoroughly prepared (4-6) |
| Hal f(cock)ed | ||
| 6 | SPAM | Chances morning will bring unwanted correspondence (4) |
| SP a.m. — starting price, ante meridiem | ||
| 10 | AGAIN | Muslim leader elected for a further time (5) |
| aga in | ||
| 11 | LIBELLING | Member of political party spilling the beans but not initially making false claims (9) |
| Lib [t}elling — at least I think that telling = spilling the beans, not selling or something else | ||
| 12 | TWO | There was one for starters – and now another? (3) |
| T{here} w{as} o{ne} | ||
| 13 | LONER | Solitary individual city dweller dismissing academic (5) |
| Lon{don}er | ||
| 14 | RED CARPET | Back favourite to accept current special treatment? (3,6) |
| re(DC)ar pet | ||
| 15 | MIDDLE-DISTANCE | Mile addicts end with damage – such runners? (6-8) |
| (Mile addicts end)* | ||
| 18 | TASMANIAN DEVIL | What could be seen as a native island marsupial, primarily? (9,5) |
| *(a native island m{arsupial}), &lit. — I’m always coming across Tasmanian Devils in crosswordland; there must be something in the letters | ||
| 22 | FLUORESCE | Rocks caught in chimney glow (9) |
| flu(ores c)e — my last one in and I had to cheat as I couldn’t even think of a word that fitted | ||
| 24 | APRON | Protective item, article inclined to be cut (5) |
| a pron{e} — I always thought that prone was lying flat, but Collins has it as an adjective ‘sloping or tending downwards’, and also ‘having an inclination to do something’, so whichever meaning Phi is using is OK | ||
| 25 | GIG | Most of a truism about computing performance (3) |
| 26 | RADICCHIO | Broadcast medium covering awfully chic salad vegetable (9) |
| *(chic) in radio | ||
| 27 | GUILT | One Liberal assuming instinctive responsibility (5) |
| gu(1 L)t — gut feeling/instinctive feeling — does guilt = responsibility? I wasn’t sure, but it’s there in Collins — assuming in the sense of wearing, being inside | ||
| 28 | YARN | Tale ends in stormy sea meeting sailors (4) |
| [storm}y {se}a RN | ||
| 29 | MATTERHORN | Concern linked to side of Himalayan mountain (10) |
| matter H or n — the side of Himalayan is H or n since we don’t know what side it is | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | HEADLAMP | Dead-beat boarding shabby car – here’s one of its features (8) |
| hea(d-lam)p | ||
| 2 | LEARNED | Brought home after lake picked up (7) |
| l earned | ||
| 3 | CENTRAL AMERICA | Part of world manufacturing camera and clarinet? (7,7) |
| *(camera clarinet) | ||
| 4 | COLORADAN | Ethnicity in the US: nothing of Spain turning up in Midwest resident (9) |
| color (nada)rev. — color is the US spelling of colour | ||
| 5 | EMBED | Plant journalist receiving honour (5) |
| e(MBE)d. | ||
| 7 | PRIAPIC | Couple standing up in photo, ready for sex? (7) |
| (pair)rev. in pic | ||
| 8 | MIGHTY | Mass and energy extracted from a number having strength (6) |
| m {E}ighty | ||
| 9 | CLOAK-AND-DAGGER | Intriguing gang deadlock resolved without a start to rioting (5-3-6) |
| a in (gang deadlock)*, then r{ioting} — without in the sense outside | ||
| 16 | SCAPEGOAT | Person punished positioned to welcome better self (9) |
| s(cap ego)at — sat = positioned, cap = better, ego = self — it took me a while to work this out; could see the answer as I had all the checkers, but at first thought it was a very feeble CD | ||
| 17 | PLANKTON | Marine creatures, a great many below section of deck (8) |
| plank ton — one would think it was tons that was a great many, but according to Collins in US usage a ton is ‘(often plural); (informal) a very large amount or number’ | ||
| 19 | ASUNDER | A German article about star is in at least two parts (7) |
| a (sun) der — German article as in der, die, das | ||
| 20 | VERTIGO | Tiger released in very old film thriller (7) |
| (tiger)* in (v o) | ||
| 21 | AFFRAY | A very strong beam reveals disturbance (6) |
| a ff ray | ||
| 23 | SCHWA | Indistinct sound was cut short after request for silence around clubs (5) |
| s(C)h wa{s} — a schwa is a sort of ‘er’ sound made in words like ‘alone’ and ‘pencil’ — ‘er’lone, penc’er’l | ||
I liked the geography here. I usually think of Colorado as a western state but I have to admit its quite a schlep from there to the coast.
Great clue construction. Loved Matterhorn, and there was Tasmanian and Central America.Around the world in thirty clues?
Thanks Phi and John
GIG was unparsed and never would have been however long I had spent trying to work it out; well done for working it out. Everything else went in steadily, until I mucked it up by putting a lazy ‘half-cooked’ for 1a, meaning I spent ages at the end on 4d, until I saw the error of my ways.
The usual enjoyable Friday solve from Phi with the usual fruitless search for theme or Nina.
Thanks to Phi and John
Excellent, though I couldn’t parse Gig or Matterhorn, both being very cleverly clued. Needed too much reference to the word list for comfort. Thanks Phi and John.
GIG is also short for “gigabyte”, a measure of computer storage.
Yes, GIG was the killer; I didn’t know GIGO, which seems to be a euphemism for what I’d always known as SISO (work it out). Still, kicking myself, as a muso.
MATTERHORN was indeed excellent. Is there no end to our setters’ ingenuity?
Good puzzle. Thanks to both.
Copmus @1, you are right that Colorado is not usually (or ever, to my knowledge) considered to be in the Midwest. (Rather, Southwest or Mountain will do.) It is certainly not part of the official Midwest census region.
We finished it all but found the SE corner a bit tricky. GIG was our LOI – we saw ‘gig’ as short for ‘gigabyte’, a possible measure of computer performance and thin suddenly realised about GIGO being certainly a truism; don’t know why we never thought of gig as a music performance.
Our first thought for 22ac was ‘luminesce’ from ‘lum’ for a chimney, although we couldn’t see how it could be parsed. Then 3dn ruled it out anyway but it wasn’t till we got 21dn that we saw FLUORESCE.
Too many good clues to name a favourite. Thanks, Phi and John.
Failed to parse GIG. Retired from computing almost 20 years ago, and hadn’t heard of the phrase since the BBC Basic days of almost 40 years ago.