Thank you to Mudd. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1. After party, artist drawing dog (11)
LABRADOODLE : LAB(short for the UK Labour Party) plus(After …) RA(member of the Royal Academy of Arts, an artist) + DOODLE(a rough drawing made absent-mindedly).
Defn: … breed from crossing a labrador with a poodle.
7. Go down the front (3)
BOW : Double defn: 1st: …/to bend downward with age or under pressure; and 1st: … of a craft, say, a ship.
9. Spirit in Canada, I anticipate, going west (5)
NAIAD : Hidden in(in) reversal of(…, going west, in an across clue) “Canada, I anticipate“.
Defn: One of the nymphs of flowing water … springs, rivers, lakes, and (mad-made) fountains.
10. Brush – object briefly applied to kitchen surface (9)
ENCOUNTER : “end”(an object/objective/a desired result) minus its last letter(briefly) plus(applied to) COUNTER(a long flat work surface found in, say, a kitchen).
Defn: …/a brief meeting with someone or something unpleasant, as in “a brush with a racist”.
11. Fading away, full of contempt (9)
WITHERING : Double defn: 1st: …/dying, as with an unwatered plant, say; and 2nd: …/very scornful.
12. Spear caught road hogs (5)
LANCE : C(abbrev. for “caught” in cricket scores) contained in(… hogs) LANE(a narrow road).
13. Pine table’s supporter in position (4,3)
LONG LEG : LONG(to pine for/to yearn for) + LEG(one of the supports of, say, a table).
Defn: A fielding position in cricket.
15. Feature has the information, so to speak (4)
NOSE : Homophone of(…, so to speak) “knows”(has the information/is aware of).
Defn: … on, say, a person’s face.
18. Join fool in conversation? (4)
KNIT : Homophone of(… in conversation) “nit”(a fool).
Defn: …/to unite.
20. Country importing Rodins originally, one seeking Italian sculptor (7)
BERNINI : BENIN(West African country, formerly Dahomey) containing(importing) 1st letter of(… originally) “Rodins” + I(Roman numeral for “one”)
Answer: Gian Lorenzo …
23. Thunderer has a point – as does this (5)
THORN : THOR(in Norse mythology, the hammer-wielding god associated with, among other things, thunder) plus(has) N(abbrev. for “north”, the compass point).
Defn: “this” in the clue has a (sharp) point.
24. Lift little toe of child in the opposite direction (9)
PIGGYBACK : PIGGY(a child’s word for a toe, as in the nursery rhyme and fingerplay/toeplay) + BACK(in the opposite direction from where you’re heading in the first place).
In case you’ve forgotten:
This little piggy went to market,
This little piggy stayed home,
This little piggy had roast beef,
This little piggy had none,
And this little piggy cried “wee wee wee” all the way home.
26. These works of uncertain origin, approach mystery ultimately a different way (9)
APOCRYPHA : Anagram of(… a different way) [APPROACH + last letter of(… ultimately) “mystery“].
Defn: …/writings of doubtful authenticity.
27. Old craft retreating further (5)
EXTRA : EX-(prefix indicating “old”/former) + reversal of(… retreating) ART(craft/skill).
28. Peck at horse (3)
NAG : Double defn: 1st: …/to constantly find fault with.
29. Beastly contest, important county team goes after Bradman, say (6,5)
DONKEY DERBY : [ KEY(important/crucial) + DERBY(… County, a professional football team in the English League) ] placed after(goes after) DON(an example of/say, of someone with the surname, Bradman is Don, the cricketer).
Defn: A race where asses instead of horses are ridden.
Down
1. No team player, no fellow playing? (4,4)
LONE WOLF : Anagram of(… playing) NO FELLOW.
2. Sea walls in tatters torn apart, initially, somewhere in north-western France (8)
BRITTANY : BRINY(the …/informal term for “the sea”) containing(walls in) 1st letters, respectively, of(…, initially) “tatters torn apart“.
3. Turn oar, skimming off surface (5)
ADDLE : “paddle”(a short pole/oar used without a rowlock) minus its 1st letter(skimming off surface, in a down clue).
Defn: …/go off/become sour.
Nice clue surface associated with rowing.
4. First number on page in advance set up (7)
OPENING : Reversal of(… set up, in a down clue) { NINE(a number) plus(on) P(abbrev. for “page”) ] contained in(in) GO(to advance/to proceed) }.
5. Figure shipload’s dropped right into office (7)
DECAGON : “cargo”(a shipload/what a ship’s conveying) minus(…’s dropped) “r”(abbrev. for “right”) contained in(into) DEN(a private room where one can, say, work in, ie. serving as an office).
6. Leveller, English squire, a leader of liberal reforms (9)
EQUALISER : E(abbrev. for “English”) + anagram of(… reforms) [SQUIRE, A + 1st letter of(leader of) “liberal“].
7. Cold metal, large cups (6)
BITING : TIN(the metallic chemical element) contained in(… cups) BIG(large/sizeable).
8. Screw, colour green, screwed up (6)
WARDER : Reversal of(…, screwed up, in a down clue) [ RED(a colour) + RAW(green/inexperienced) ].
Defn: A prison guard/a “screw” in slang.
14. Baltic city once learning about Germany (9)
LENINGRAD : Anagram of(… about) LEARNING + D(International Vehicle Registration code for Germany).
Defn: …, now called Saint Petersburg.
16. Turkey twizzles I assert beyond dreadful for starters (8)
DISASTER : Anagram of(twizzles) I ASSERT placed below(beyond, in a down clue) 1st letter of(… for starters) “dreadful“.
Defn: …/an utter failure.
17. Drunken alky, dipso (so gone) drinking new cocktail (4,4)
PINK LADY : Anagram of(Drunken) [ ALKY + “dipso” minus(… gone) “so” ] containing(drinking) N(abbrev. for “new”).
19. What might tennis player try? Shorts pulled up under jumper (7)
TOPSPIN : Reversal of(… pulled up, in a down clue) NIPS(shorts/small quantities of spirits/liquors) placed below(under, in a down clue) TOP(a garment covering the upper part of the body, an example of which is a jumper).
20. Lions, perhaps, in cup final? (7) {sic}
BIG GAME : Double defn: 1st: In hunting for sport, … are examples/perhaps of this; and 2nd: …, an example of an important sporting match.
And of course, the British and Irish Lions are a rugby union team.
21. Air pressure (6)
STRAIN : Double defn: 1st: …/a short melody; and 2nd: …/force that may damage whatever it is exerted on.
22. I’ll see you look to cut number (2,4)
SO LONG! : LO(look, as in “lo and behold”) contained in(to cut) SONG(a number/a tune).
Defn: … again!
25. Financial return back down (5)
YIELD : Double defn: 1st: … from an investment; and 2nd: …/to concede/retreat from one’s stated position.
A teasing and tricky puzzle from Mudd featuring a bevy of his trademark double definitions; 21 was typical.
Was held up for some time by the wrong enumeration of 20d which read (7) and not (3,4) but eventually, I could make sense of the sculptor which followed.
Finished in the NE with 7a my LOI – even thought this could be a triple def with ‘bows’ worn, say down the front of a blouse.
Liked 8, 17, 18, 20, 24 and 25.
Thanks to Mudd and Scchua for the thorough and well-illustrated blog.
Re 23a, I couldn’t parse the ‘n’ of ‘thorn’ and got to thinking it was the thorn – a letter in old English, equivalent to ‘th’ today and with a little tail on it.
I’m still waiting for a Rottoodle to appear on the scene
Now called St Petersburg? Always was apart from that slice of the last century.
Thanks Mudd and Scchua
ACD.
Thanks o Mudd and scchua. I didn’t parse BRITTANY (I missed briny) and had trouble with he SE corner because I did not know DONKEY DERBY and needed the crossers to get PIGGYBACK and my LOI DISASTER.
At the easier end of Mudd’s range, I thought, with no real problems and no quibbles except the enumeration typo. A pleasant solve, though, with enough variety. A good few days of puzzles, in fact, with the delightful Buccaneer/Picaroon Saturday challenges and yesterday’s good Monday FT effort.
Harder than the usual FT Tuesday. BERNINI joins that ever-increasing “Famous people who I’ve never heard of” list and I had no hope of parsing OPENING. A pity about the wrong enumeration for 20d, but especially with the crossers in, it didn’t seem as though it could be anything but BIG GAME.
My pick was the surface for PINK LADY.
Thanks to Mudd and scchua
Thanks for the blog and the lovely pictures. Many good clues here and BIG GAME did become inevitable.
I thought BRITTANY and DECAGON were very neat but so were many others.
Thanks Mudd for a surprising mid-week appearance. While stumped by several I generally enjoyed this with LANCE, BRITTANY, and TOPSPIN being particular favourites. Thanks scchua for your usual informative blog.
Tricky in places but we got there in the end. Held up in the SE corner by the incorrect enumeration of 20dn but once we realised that we were OK. LOI, though, was WARDER which we puzzled over for ages.
Copmus’s comment at 3 reminded us of the Russian who was born in St Petersburg, grew up in Petrograd, worked in Leningrad and retired in St Petersburg – all without ever moving house.
Thanks, Mudd and scchua.
Thanks Mudd and scchua
Further to copmus at 3 and allan_c at 9, I heard a version of this story as a Soviet era joke about a census form, with questions
Where were you born? (St Petersburg)
Where were you educated? (Petrograd)
Where do you live now? (Leningrad)
Where would you like to live now? (St Petersburg)
Thanks Mudd and scchua
Was a surprise to see this setter midweek again and this took about one and a half times as long as the average FT solve. THORN was the first one which allowed the SW corner to be mostly finished early on.
Nice to see the Don get a mention in one of my favourite clues.
Finished in the SE corner with DISASTER (with its devious definition), BERNINI (not a sculptor that I knew off the top of my head with BENIN not a country that would normally spring to mind at first) and BIG GAME (where, like others, struggled with the erroneous enumeration and then entering BIG NAME first without a sensible parse).