Thank you to Tees. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
9. Note sharp double bends laid with a square floor (9)
MEZZANINE : ME(or “mi”, the third note of a major musical scale) + ZZ(letters representing two double bends, each shaped like a “Z” – bends in a road, say) plus(laid with) A + NINE(the square of the number 3).
Defn: A floor between two others in a building.
10. Bread is mine, thanks (5)
PITTA : PIT(a mine/a hole mad in the ground to extract, say, minerals) + TA(short for “thank you”).
11. Governess protecting current brood here (5)
EYRIE : EYRE(Jane, the main character who worked as a governess in the Charlotte Bronte novel) containing(protecting) I(symbol for electric current in physics).
Defn: The nest holding a brood/the young of an eagle or other birds of prey.
12. Non-university man: old-school worker for instance? (9)
ARTHROPOD : “Arthur”(a man’s name) minus(Non- …) “u”(abbrev. for “university”) + O(abbrev. for “old”) + POD(a school/herd of marine animals, such as whales).
Defn: An invertebrate animal such as an insect, an example of which/for instance is the worker ant.
13. Tasteless cool drink princess once sent back (7)
INSIPID : IN(cool/trendy, as in “the in-crowd”) + SIP(to drink in small mouthfuls) + reversal of(… sent back) DI(short for “Diana”, the late/once Princess of Wales).
14. Broadcasts with it showing Hindenburg for example (7)
AIRSHIP : AIRS(broadcasts, as with a radio programme, say) + HIP(with it/aware of the latest trends/fashions).
Not the Hindenberg:
16. Retroaction occasionally one to inspire (5)
ERATO : 2nd and every other letter after it of(… occasionally) “Retroaction“.
Defn: The one of the nine Muses to inspire writers of lyric and erotic poetry.
18/7. An individual ends short trip in general store (3-4,4)
ONE-STOP SHOP : ONE(an individual/a single person or thing) + STOPS(ends/ceases) + HOP(a short trip/journey)
19. Somehow gets by police to smuggle in drug (5)
COPES : COPS(informal term for members of the police force) containing(to smuggle in) E(abbrev. for the drug, Ecstasy).
21. Second-rate beer? Drunk endlessly threatening (7)
BALEFUL : B(after A, the best grade, B would be second-rate) + ALE(beer) + “full”(informal term for “drunk”/inebriated) minus its last letter(endlessly).
Defn: …/menacing.
22. Space age opportunity for school-leavers? (3,4)
GAP YEAR : GAP(a space/a break between two things) + YEAR(a unit of measurement of the time of existence/age).
Defn: A break from studies, taken by school-leavers before going on to further education, first common in the 1960s, which could be considered early space age.
24. Rescued from incredibly deep river (9)
REPRIEVED : Anagram of(incredibly) DEEP RIVER.
26. Make good your sins an hour after midday? (5)
ATONE : [AT ONE](… o’clock, that is/at an hour after midday/noon).
27. Money the attraction that traps Conservative (5)
LUCRE : LURE(attraction/the quality of a person or thing that draws one to it) containing(that traps) C(abbrev. for a Conservative, a member of the British Conservative Party).
28. Area held by soldiers effectively home after 1984 (9)
ORWELLIAN : A(abbrev. for “area”) contained in(held by) [OR(abbrev. for “other ranks”, non-commissioned soldiers) + WELL(effectively/in a way that achieves results) + IN(at home/not out) ].
Defn: Following the characteristics of/after the situation, idea or society described in George Orwell’s novel, 1984..
Down
1. Stupid to have insects turning up in timber centre? (8)
IMBECILE : Reversal of(… turning up, in a down clue) LICE(parasitic insects) contained in(in) middle 4 letters of(… centre) “timber“.
2. Lazy? Work less, employing couples within the islands (6)
AZORES : Middle 2 letters, respectively, of(…, employing couples within) “Lazy? Work less“.
3. Mac adding strength of spirit to general excellence (10)
WATERPROOF : PROOF(a scaled measure of the strength of distilled alcoholic spirits) plus(adding … to) WATER(excellence/quality, as in the degree of brilliance in a diamond, and in the phrase “of the first water” – I presume “general” is included for the surface reading).
Defn: A garment that keeps out water, an example of which is the mac, short for “mackintosh”.
4. Fantastic reptile with head becoming wide (6)
WIZARD : “lizard”(a four-legged reptile with a long body and tail) with its 1st letter(head) replaced by(becoming) “w”(abbrev. for “wide” in cricket scores).
Defn: …/excellent!
5. Weather mostly terrible includes a very hot spell (4,4)
HEAT WAVE : Anagram of(… terrible) “Weather” minus its last letter(mostly) containing(includes) [ A + V(abbrev. for “very”) ].
6. Encourage son without stain to abandon east (4)
SPUR : S(abbrev. for “son”) + “pure”(without stain/unblemished) minus(to abandon) “e”(abbrev. for “east).
7. See 18 Across
8. Poor Republican put inside summoned to court (4,2)
HARD UP : R(abbrev. for a member of the Republican Party) contained in(put inside) [HAD UP](summoned to court/ordered to appear in court to be tried/to be up before the magistrate or judge).
15. One holding Erdogan’s éclat to be false? (10)
RECEPTACLE : RECEP(… Erdogan, the President of Turkey) + anagram of(… to be false) ÉCLAT.
17. Powdered seed tablets — first couple taken last — one must swallow (8)
ALLSPICE : [ PILLS(tablets, of medicine, say) with its 1st 2 letters(first couple) moved to the end(taken last) ] contained in(… must swallow) ACE(one, as in the playing card, “the ace of heats”).
Defn: …/dried fruit used as a culinary spice.
18. Forgetfulness leads to our best violin being smashedsmashed {sic} (8)
OBLIVION : 1st letters, repectively, of(leads to) “our best” + anagram of(… being smashed) VIOLIN.
20. Constable’s superior as painter we’re told (8)
SERGEANT : Homophone of(… we’re told) “Sargent”(John, portrait painter).
Defn: …, a police constable that is, and not another painter.
21. Vomit left by unknown drinker (6)
BARFLY : BARF(vomit) + L(abbrev. for “left”) + Y(symbol for an unknown quantity in mathematics).
Defn: A heavy …/one who spends lots of time drinking in bars.
22. Party wearing dress in warehouse (6)
GODOWN : DO(a party/a social function) contained in(wearing …) GOWN(a formal dress for a girl or woman).
23. Pornographic books stored in Clapton? (6)
EROTIC : OT(abbrev. for the Old Testament, the collection of books in the Christian Bible) contained in(stored in) ERIC(… Clapton, rock guitarist).
25. One burns reportedly tough goat (4)
IBEX : I(Roman numeral for “one”) + homophone of(… reportedly) “becks”(burns/fast flowing small streams, particularly in N. England).
A tough guy:
Enjoyable Sunday fare. Particularly liked the clues for COPES & HEATWAVE. Didn’t know who Erdogan was but the answer was clear. Also never heard “full” used to mean “drunk”.
GODOWN was a DNK and I slapped myself for not getting BARFLY – so obvious in retrospect.
Knew Erdogan was a Turkish politician but had to resort to google to confirm his first name.
Quite a lot of parsing after the fact today, and couldn’t work out ALLSPICE.
Briefly wondered if smashedsmashed was some new Pauline device before deciding it was just a mistake.
Thanks Tees and scchua.
Good puzzle with a few unusual words and senses to provide the necessary Sunday mental stimulation. I didn’t know the Turkish politician so RECEPTACLE had to go in from the (somewhat oblique) def. The parsing of ORWELLIAN and ALLSPICE also took a bit of figuring out.
Hovis @1, sometimes “full” by itself and more commonly “full as a boot” is a term frequently used here for ‘drunk’.
Thanks to Tees and scchua
“Full as a boot”. Who comes up with these? Guess that might not be so full if “legless”.
Another fine Sunday crossword – thanks to Tees and scchua
Boom, boom. Very good, Hovis @4.
Smashedsmashed eh? Don’t know how that crept in. Also the Erdogan clue was changed, and now isn’t. Gremlin was ‘ere.
Had a few sticky moments with the random fellow in 12a, the unknown term for ‘drunk’ and the first name of the Turkish president so this was a slow solve for me. Least said about 21d the better……..
May well be something of a chestnut but my favourite was ATONE with LUCRE following close behind.
Thanks to Tees and to scchua for the review.
I was just musing on the “full as a boot” phrase. I wonder if it is an offshoot of the phrase “fill yer boots”, which doesn’t necessarily relate to alcohol but could.
Yes Hovis @9, “fill yer boots” could apply to alcohol, but having your fill of other things as well. Looking at the OED, the first quotation for the term is from 1969, though some other sites suggest it may have been a naval term from the early nineteenth century.
Again from the OED, “full” by itself in the sense of being drunk goes way back to the 14th century. When used as in “full as a …”, it’s described as Aust. & NZ colloquial in later use, but with the first quotation from Ben Jonson in 1631, so I don’t think it’s directly related to “fill yer boots”. My favourite quotation is from the Brisbane Courier-Mail in 2005: “[He] has rejected a report he was ‘as full as Santa’s toy sack on Christmas Eve’ while at a charity golf event”.
The coincidental appearance of SPUR and Sargent in recent crosswords was helpful. A nice Sunday afternoon crossword. Thanks, both.
One or two things we took a while to work out, such as ALLSPICE and BARFLY (‘barf’ being American slang, shouldn’t it have been indicated as such?). But plenty to like and a fairly quick finish.
Favourite was our first in , MEZZANINE, although having seen ‘sharp double bends’ as ZZ we momentarily thought of ‘terazzo’ – a type of flooring – but it obviously didn’t fit the clue.
Thanks, Tees and scchua.
Thanks Tees for a pleasant Sunday afternoon crossword. I liked INSIPID, AZORES, BARFLY (perfect surface), and EROTIC. I was able to derive/guess what I didn’t know — GODOWN, “water” as excellence, and “full” as drunk. I don’t think there are enough years in the century for me to learn all the British words and expressions for being intoxicated but it’s fun learning. Thanks scchua for the informative blog.
I was hoping the vomit reference was to BOAK – which I recently learned in crosswordland. It would have been so good to have it come back up. Failed on IBEX. thanks Tees and scchua