Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
9. One backing search for shark (9)
ANGELFISH : ANGEL(a financial investor in/one backing a business) + FISH(to search/to probe around for something concealed).
Defn: Another name for the angel shark.
10. See 22
11. Cool, calm sort in visits to Iceland (5)
STOIC : Hidden in(in) “visits to Iceland“.
12. Dark story restricting fine entertainment (9)
NIGHTLIFE : NIGHT(the dark/night-time) + LIE(a story/a fabrication) containing(restricting) F(abbrev. for “fine”).
13. Unsettled round greenery, last rook departs (7)
OVERDUE : O(letter representing a circular shape/round) + “verdure”(greenery/lush green vegetation) minus its second/last of 2(last … departs) “r”(abbrev. for “rook”, in chess notation).
Defn: …, describing a debt not paid when due.
14. Axe thus destroyed drain (7)
EXHAUST : Anagram of(… destroyed) AXE THUS.
16. Collection returned to the French engineer (5)
TESLA : Reversal of(… returned) SET(a collection/a group of similar items) plus(to) LA(French for the article “the”).
Answer: Nikola, the electrical and mechanical engineer and inventor.
18. Aeroplane prank: stewardess ultimately vanishing (3)
JET : “jest”(a prank/something done for amusement) minus its last letter(… ultimately vanishing) “stewardess“.
Defn: … powered by jet engines.
19. Vex Gove? (5)
PEEVE : Cryptic defn: Reference to Michael Gove, UK Lord Chancellor who has pet peeves about grammar.
21. Politician, smart, meets gammon? (7)
BURNHAM : BURN(to smart/to feel sore) plus(meets) HAM(that which is cured or smoked to make gammon).
Answer: Andy, British Labour politician and Mayor of Greater Manchestor.
22/10. His clatter was endlessly fantastic (7,5)
CHARLIE WATTS : Anagram of(.. fantastic) [HIS CLATTER + “was” minus its last letter(endlessly) ].
Answer: Drummer with the Rolling Stones, whose drumbeats might (a little harshly) be called clatter/the sound of something hard hitting another hard thing, but was always fantastic. Died 24 Aug 2021.
24. With identity concealed, noticing drunk needs oxygen (9)
INCOGNITO : Anagram of(… drunk) NOTICING plus(needs) O(symbol for the chemical element, oxygen).
26. Dangerous as a bear for example (5)
HAIRY : Double defn: 1st: …/alarmingly difficult.
27. Shine as Chilwell at last appearing in tight 25 (5)
GLEAM : Last letter of(… at last) “Chilwell” contained in(appearing in) anagram of(tight) GAME(answer to 25 down).
28. Stories about theologian confining Catholic Church stars (9)
ANDROMEDA : ANA(a collection of stories and other information about a particular person or place) containing(about) [ DD(abbrev. for “Doctor of Divinity”, a theologian) containing(confining) ROME(the Roman Catholic Church) ].
Defn: A constellation of ….
Down
1. What one needs to go beyond Dover perhaps (8)
PASSPORT : PASS(to go beyond/to go past) + PORT(an example of which/perhaps, is Dover on the English coast).
Defn: What is needed to travel out of the UK, possibly through border control at Dover.
2. Brush aside single stick that knight splits (6)
IGNORE : I(Roman numeral for “one”/a single unit) + GORE(to stick/to stab) containing(that … splits) N(abbrev. for “knight” in chess notation).
3. Disease causing absence of French in Georgian city (5,5)
BLACK DEATH : [ LACK(the absence of/being in need of) + DE(French for “of”/belonging to) ] contained in(in) BATH(a city which had its heyday in the English Georgian era of the 18th and early 19th centuries).
4. Intended one for Resistance in country round Paris (6)
FIANCE : I(Roman numeral for “one”) replacing(for) “r”(symbol for electrical resistance in physics) in “France”(the country round Paris, its capital).
Defn: …/the person one intends to marry.
5/25. Article on splendid match causes political and diplomatic confrontation (3,5,4)
THE GREAT GAME : THE(the article in grammar) placed above(on, in a down clue) GREAT(splendid/impressive) + GAME(a competitive match/contest).
Defn: … between the British Empire and the Russian Empire over Afghanistan and neighbouring countries, in most of the 18th and the early 19th centuries.
6. Academic type pulls up (4)
SWOT : Reversal of(… up, in a down clue) TOWS(pulls along).
Defn: …/one who studies very hard.
7. Bird with posh date arranged going round in carriage (8)
ATTITUDE : [ TIT(a small songbird) plus(with) U(upper-class/posh) ] contained in(…. going round) anagram of(… arranged) DATE.
Defn: …/bearing/deportment.
8. Be agreeable when shipped out (6)
ASSENT : AS(when/at that time, as in “when you do this, do that too”) + SENT(shipped out/transported away).
15. That strange London lecturer must leave after cool event (10)
HEPTATHLON : [Anagram of(… strange) THAT + “London” minus(… must leave) “don”(lecturer at a university, say) ] placed after(after) HEP(hip/cool/trendy).
Defn: An athletic … in which each competitor takes part in the same prescribed seven events.
17. Small stone lodged in baby tooth (8)
SPROCKET : S(abbrev. for “small”) + [ ROCK(stone/a piece solid material from the surface of the earth) contained in(lodged in) PET(to baby/to pamper) ].
Defn: …, one of many on the rim of a wheel.
18. Spot fine, then jail for West Indian (8)
JAMAICAN : JAM(a spot/an awkward situation, as in “please don’t put me in a jam”) + AI(A1/of excellent quality/fine, with the Roman numeral substitution) plus(then) CAN(slang for jail).
Defn: One from the West Indies.
20. Mystery play character always male, reeling in the years (8)
EVERYMAN : EVER(always/at all times) + MAN(a male human being) containing(reeling in) Y(abbrev. for “year/the years”).
Defn: The main character In The Somonyng (Summoning) of Everyman, a mystery play/a popular medieval play based on Biblical stories.
21. Spanner‘s good held by new union member (6)
BRIDGE : G(abbrev. for “good”) contained in(held by) BRIDE(one of the members of/in a new union/marriage).
22. Conservative forte at end of day unclear (6)
CLOUDY : C(abbrev. for a member of the Conservative Party) + LOUD(how to play as instructed by the musical direction, “forte”) + last letter of(at end of) “day“.
23. What one is looking for in new role is to kill time (6)
LOITER : IT(exactly what is desired/what one is looking for, as in “Whatever that was, it wasn’t it”) contained in(in) anagram of(new) ROLE.
25. See 5
Only recently Tees said “In-deed, I am not completely averse to Grauniadisms. I like to QM them though, even where the ism doesn’t fall at the end of the clue” and next “I’ve set another today actually, which really, really is appalling, so if it gets past the Magisterium you can look forward to that humdinger sometime soon”.
And, I assume that here we have it: 19ac.
No cryptic definition, dear scchua, but PEE (Go) + VE.
Many on this site will love it, and find it just as ‘clever’ as EPEE for ‘e/go’ in last week’s Paul.
Clever? For me it’s sort of Philistine nonsense.
That said, I can have it every now and then.
But should the editor too?
I still prefer crosswords that are closer to The Times than to The Guardian.
I don’t mind a good “lift and separate” (I think there might even have been one in The Times a few weeks ago) so enjoyed PEEVE. I didn’t know the ‘Politician’ at 21a so had to do the A-Z run-through until a plausible word for ‘smart’ presented itself. Once I had the crossers in place, I was too lazy to parse OVERDUE and didn’t know what EVERYMAN was all about – thanks for the explanation.
The CHARLIE WATTS clue was the highlight for me today.
Thanks to Tees (the more appalling the better as far as I’m concerned) and scchua
I thought this was a trickier than usual Tees – the SW corner took me ages to sort out although with hindsight, I can’t really see why. I didn’t mind 19a but would agree with WordPlodder that the clue for 22/10 is the highlight of this crossword
Thanks to Tees and scchua
With a No, a Yes and a Didn’t Mind, my Like for PEEVE tips the current balance in favour of the setter. I had worried away at that two word clue for ages and it was last but one to fall. A broad grin of realisation and I’m always happy to see Gove get a bit of a bashing.
It’s tempting to agree on CHARLIE WATTS as COTD, even on sentimental grounds. But, in addition to PEEVE, there were other real pleasures – the definitions of OVERDUE and ATTITUDE, the charades for JAMAICAN and EVERYMAN, the political sideswipe in the surface for CLOUDY and, despite a slightly clumsy surface, the misdirection of ‘stick’ in IGNORE. I have encountered ANA as a collection of stories in previous puzzles – but didn’t remember it, and I didn’t know HEP is ‘cool’ like ‘hip’ so ANDROMEDA and HEPTATHLON were not fully parsed.
Thanks Tees and scchua
Now I fully understand PEEVE, I quite like it I certainly wasn’t expecting that sort of Pauline wit from Tees.
Quite tricky overall, I had to use chambers to parse a few as I didn’t know ANA for stories or GORE as to stick or stab.
I also took it in two bites, with the SW fairly empty, I went off and did today’s everyman in the G then came back and instantly saw… You guessed right EVERYMAN.
Thanks Tees and scchua
Furthermore to 19ac, there is lift-and-separate and lift-and-separate.
[I don’t normally use this term because I think lift-and-separate was originally something else, as confirmed by a comment somewhere on Fifteensquared from the well-informed and knowledgeable Richard Heald]
In-deed, meaning that something is going inside the word ‘deed’, is around for ages. Even Araucaria frequently used it. It is similar to writing ‘underground’ when you mean that something (in a Down clue) goes below a word for ‘ground’. Next, ‘underground’ also became a device for (UNDER)*. And nowadays, ‘underground’ doesn’t have to be just a device anymore. It may well be that ‘under’ is needed for the construction and that ‘ground’ is the definition.
For me, these uses are really distinct but something like ‘e/pee’ or ‘pee/ve’ is of a different category.
Here you’ll have to replace a word within a word, not being bothered by what you don’t change (can be anything apparently). If that is all right, then clueing ‘tar’ with ‘toner’ is also fair.
Unlike Blah @5 I wouldn’t call this ‘Pauline wit’. Because (a) I haven’t seen Paul doing such a thing pre-‘epee’, and (b) I don’t see it as ‘witty’ (‘wit’ is such a subjective term, in my opinion). It is Philistine who came up with this device and turned it into one of his trademarks.
I personally don’t like it at all – that’s why I called it ‘Philistine nonsense’ (BTW, I do appreciate Philistine as a setter, no mistake about that).
But I also said that I can have it every now and then.
The other thing about this particular clue that I do not like very much is setters joining the poo-pee-wee brigade. However, that’s just a matter of taste – many solvers label it as LOL.
Anyway, in the end I just wonder whether Tees really likes what happens in 19ac, or whether he just wanted to provoke (given editorial permission to do so).
Apart (perhaps) from 19ac, this was once more top-notch Tees with, as others said, 22/10 a firm favourite.
So, many thanks to him & scchua for the blog.
Good alternative to EVERYMAN that I really enjoyed.
It’s horses for courses but I actually like the so-called lift-and-separate clues, but then I’m used to solving the Guardian crosswords. So, PEEVE was one of my top picks with ATTITUDE and SPROCKET. CHARLIE WATTS wasn’t a bad anagram, either. I also liked the precise ‘last rook’ in the clue for OVERDUE… I thought: “Surely Tees can’t be using last rook to mean K – and he wasn’t!
Thanks Tees and scchua for the nice pictorial blog.
I’ve got him going. I can tell. He sends me e-mail you know, about such things. And I did put out a warning.
As for Charlie, I’d put him in with Ringo. If you’re a wannabe full-on progger like me then you’re not going to be happy with ‘just doing that’, but the pair of them always got it right, somehow. And millions upon millions were and are happy to dance all night to it. In fact I would have said ‘his delightfully simple but effective percussive perambulations’, but the anagrist (please join with me in despising that word) didn’t allow for it. You’ll have to have ‘clatter’.
Cheers
Tees
Have to confess that I didn’t know of THE GREAT GAME nor ANA so there was work involved in sorting those out from the wordplay and checkers.
All’s well that end well and my favourite was probably CLOUDY.
Thanks to Tees for the workout and to scchua for the review.
Sil@6 that’s a fair and accurate comment re Philistine nonsense vs Pauline wit. Leaving individual perceptions of wit and witty aside (I suspect we may disagree on this, but your take on it being, shall we say in the eye of the beholder? I agree with 100%) I was referring to the toilet humour that Paul is well known for rather than the clueing device, on which I readily defer to your analysis on who used it first.
Oh, you are a Tees! I get where Sil is coming from but I think these tricks are fine if used sparingly, and with genuine wit (which is indeed subjective, but using it as an excuse to mock a senior Tory MP, especially that one, is enough to lift it above mere potty humour for me).
Also, I am wholly in agreement re “anagrist”, and with the general appreciation for the tribute to Charlie Watts.
Thanks to both Tees and scchua.