Thank you to Hamilton. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
7, 8. How can spitting feathers make one miserable? (4,2,3,5)
DOWN IN THE MOUTH : Cryptic defn: Reference to literally having feathers/down in one’s mouth/the spitting organ.
10. Block opportunity for provisional admittance to theatre (8)
STOPPAGE : OPP(abbrev. for “opportunity”) contained in(… admittance to) STAGE(the theatre/the acting and associated professions).
I’m not certain of the role of “provisional”.
11. Public relations (6)
PEOPLE : Cryptic defn: Those with whom you relate to, in the general population.
12. Surrealist’s core determination (4)
GRIT : Middle letters of(…’s core) “Magritte”(Rene, the Belgian surrealist artist).
13. Comes out with previous demands (8)
EXCLAIMS : EX-(prefix signifying former/previous) + CLAIMS(demands/formal requests).
15. Counter with “spend or be damned!” (7)
RESPOND : Anagram of(… be damned) SPEND OR.
Defn: …/to react to.
17. It’s descriptive of Yellowstone and Yosemite but it’s pants! (1-6)
Y-FRONTS : How to describe “Yellowstone ” and “Yosemite“, ie. having the letter “Y” at the front/start (or Y-fronted, to be more exact).
Defn: A form of underwear.
20. When a suit’s to be pressed, one can do it for you! (8)
ADVOCATE : Cryptic defn: Reference to bringing forward/pressing a lawsuit.
22. Without it, guilty as charged, which is shocking (4)
UGLY : Anagram of(… as charged) “guilty” minus(Without) “it”.
25. Eve begins correspondence in this philosophical issue (6)
ETHICS : E(abbrev. for “Eve”/evening) + [1st letter of(begins …) “correspondence” contained in(in) THIS].
26. On the farm, one‘s outrageously daring between the lines (4,4)
LAND GIRL : Anagram of(outrageously) DARING contained in(between the) L,L(2 x abbrev. for “line”).
Defn: …, during WWII as a member of the Women’s Land Army.
27, 28. The fewer the hits, the more successful it’s been! (5,5,4)
GREEN CROSS CODE : Cryptic defn: In the UK, the set of procedures designed to reduce the number of vehicles hitting pedestrians crossing streets.
Down
1. Prize Scotch two-thirds gone, drunk by youth (5)
BOOTY : ‘Scotch” minus 4 out of its 6 letters(two-thirds gone) contained in(drunk by) BOY(youth/lad).
2. Marksman gets the bird, right? (6)
SNIPER : SNIPE(a wading bird) + R(abbrev. for “right”).
3. Organisation quick to measure disconnect (8)
UNFASTEN : UN(abbrev. for the United Nations Organisation) + FAST(quick/at great pace) plus(to) EN(a unit of measurement of space used in printing).
4, 19. Retailers chasing cyclist are wide boys! (7,7)
WHEELER DEALERS : DEALERS(retailers/those who buy and sell) placed below(chasing, in a down clue) WHEELER(what you might call one on wheels/a cyclist).
Defn: …/those who use devious or unscrupulous or dishonest means to achieve their ends.
5. American’s tone is trouble for state (8)
COLORADO : COLOR(the American spelling of “colour”/tone/shade in relation to music or pigments) + ADO(trouble/a bother).
Defn: … in the US.
6. Carrying on? No, so gone off to make love (9)
STALEMATE : STALE(gone off/be no longer fresh nor pleasant) + MATE(to make love/to copulate).
9. Impressive Ealing comedy first to feature detective (4)
EPIC : 1st letters, respectively, of(… first) “Ealing comedy” containing(to feature) PI(abbrev. for “private investigator/detective).
14. H has the advantage! (4,5)
HEAD START : A reverse clue: H = “START” of the word “HEAD“.
16. Laid on expert who struggled to keep date (8)
PROVIDED : PRO(short for “professional”/an expert in a particular field) + VIED(struggled/competed for) containing(to keep) D(abbrev. for “date”).
18. Profanity on island in Essex (8)
FOULNESS : Double defn.
The road (tide willing) to Foulness:
19. See 4
21. Partially collapsed during recess (4)
APSE : Hidden in(Partially) “collapsed“.
23. Gift, for example, wrapped in something ornate (6)
LEGACY : EG(abbrev. for “exempli gratia”/for example) contained in(wrapped in) LACY(ornate/like lace, a delicate and decorative fabric).
24. Mrs Grundy is cautious and wise? Not half! (5)
PRUDE : “prudential”(cautious and wise/acting carefully and thoughtfully) minus 5 of its 10 letters(Not half).
Defn: …/one with very conventional ideas of propriety, originating from the name of a fictional character.
I think at 24D prude is meant to half of “prudential,” which means about the same as prudent. Thanks to both. I enjoyed the puzzle and always like the illustrated blogs.
Thanks ub, for saving me! Doh! Blog duly amended.
Needed a little help with the amusing 17a but otherwise, an entertaining and moderately challenging grid from Hamilton.
Favourite clue was GRIT, followed by the two long crossers which really got the ball rolling.
Didn’t know Mrs Grundy and obtained the answer by way of ‘prudent’ but thanks to ub and Sschua for clarification. Another great illustrated blog, by the way!
Found this one to be a slog. Gave up on GREEN CROSS CODE as, being not from the UK, I wasn’t aware of it and neither did the wordplay help. I wasn’t aware of Y-FRONTS either but guessed and checked using wordplay (also learnt Y-START is a brand of knife :))
Thank you for the blog, sschua.
Thanks Hamilton and scchua
A good challenging puzzle from Hamilton that stretched the coffee time quite a bit and with still a few to be finished off in the NE corner when I got home again.
Had PEOPLE as more a double definition – with the first referring to the people in the public versus say the government and the second directly defining one’s relations (as in ‘my people’).
Didn’t know the term GREEN CROSS CODE and needed all of the crossers, solved each word from the back to the front and then looked up the phrase to see what it meant. Had written in an unparsed DOWN IN THE DUMPS initially at 7,8 but after struggling to get 5d and 6d was eventually able to correct it. Was then able to get COLORADO, STALEMATE and that tricky PEOPLE as the last few in.
Same as Adriana @4, didn’t know about GREEN CROSS CODE and was unsure about PRUDE, which didn’t help. Also found PEOPLE, STALEMATE (tricky def) and FOULNESS (lack of geographical knowledge) quite hard.
I liked Y-FRONTS and WHEELER DEALERS.
Thanks to Hamilton and scchua
I think Hamilton has done better than this (apart from F1)
Apart from 7/8, which was a write-in as well as an old chestnut, we found this a struggle. But we persevered and finished it without help. We couldn’t see what ‘provisional’ signified in 10ac, and we couldn’t parse 24dn properly. But we liked GRIT, RESPOND (for the misleading punctuation) and HEAD START.
Thanks, Hamilton and scchua.
Like others I had no trouble to finish this crossword.
(however apprehensive I usually am as Hamilton’s puzzles can be quite quirky in places)
Let’s not start talking about whether ‘Ealing comedy first’ = EC, or ‘expert who struggled’ = PRO VIED.
But.
Where can I find E = ‘Eve’ or ‘evening’? (25ac)
What about ‘is’ in 5dn?
Or ‘on’ in 18dn?
Or ‘during’ in 21dn?
And is LACY ‘something ornate’?
No-one seems to be bothered and so, once more, I totally blame it on me myself for not understanding the techniques of writing crosswords.
Public Relations = People
FFS!
Probably too late, but, hey, I think public relations = people is fine as a double defn: the public is the people, and my relations are my people……