“The answers to each pair of clues sharing a number must be MIXED so as to give the DOUBLES (pairs of names) that form the entry. Remaining across clues each contain a misprint in their definition; correct letters in clue order identify a playwright, one of whose works forms the central column. This work, differently punctuated, is part of a line (in ODQ) by another playwright which describes the shaded region of the grid. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”
I am sorry that this is so late. I had an unpleasant and hectic week, and it slipped my mind. My apologies to all, and especially to Ifor. Such an giant of the form deserves punctuality at least.
JOURNEY’S END is a play by R.C. SHERRIFF, whose surname is formed by the correct letters. (Disappointingly, he was not a remote control sheriff.) The other playwright is, of course, Shakespeare. The phrase “journeys end in lovers’ meeting” appears in Twelfth Night.
The meeting lovers are: ORSINO and VIOLA (Twelfth Night), OLIVER and CELIA (As You Like It), EGEON and EMILIA (The Comedy of Errors), NEREUS and DORIS, ALCYONE and CEYX. They are formed by anagrams of the combined pairs of answers to clues of the same number.
What a treasury of tricky clues! 1dn and 8dn were especially slippery. To be fair, though, there were also a number of gimmes (e.g. 24dn).
| Definition | word |
| Indicator | [word] |
| Anagram | WORD* |
| Reversal | <WORD |
| Misprint | beaut |
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| S | 1 | < MALL (Shopping precinct) [brought back] A (absolute) beaut for portage (5) | LLAMA |
| H | 5 | Gems [no longer L (left) on] |
EDGES |
| 9 | [This cause of disease, SAY, could become VI |
VIRION | |
| 9 | Potatoes LOO (can) |
ALOOS | |
| E | 11 | Adopt eDitor’s rEvision oF sTory [in seconds] (4) | DEFT |
| 12 | [Processed] CAL |
ECLAIR | |
| 12 | Fabric { |
VOILE | |
| R | 14 | Aid moving slowly AND (as well as) |
ANDANTE |
| 15 | Hopelessness; A [third of IN |
ANOMIE | |
| 15 | Subject EG (such as this one) [in] LIE (story) (5) | LIEGE | |
| R | 21 | What breaks up stanches [fluid] INAPTLY* (7) | PTYALIN |
| 23 | Live RE (on) SIDE (edge) (6) | RESIDE | |
| 23 | UR (Original) SON (inhabitant), native of Canada (5) | URSON | |
| I | 26 | Lived in Perth, ABLE* [to be relocated] (4) | BLAE |
| 27 | XY (Axes) |
XYLENE | |
| 27 | [Beginning of] A |
ACCOY | |
| F | 28 | More restive, AY (alas), [in] GER (tent) (5) | GAYER |
| F | 29 | Wool [partially] retaiNED DYes (5) | NEDDY |
| Down | |||
| 1 | Like VW |
LOGO | |
| 2 | Once resplendent, [revolutionary] |
ASHINE | |
| 3 | Provide groups of missiles < {V (against) RIM (border)} [engaged in revolution] (4) | MIRV | |
| 4 | ANDEAN | ||
| 5 | EVICT | ||
| 6 | Avengers GO (die), ELS |
GOELS | |
| 7 | Impish {N (note) IF (whenever) LE (the French)} [turned up] (5) | ELFIN | |
| 8 | Cloths SAT (pressed) AS (while) [covering either side of] |
SATARAS | |
| 10 | Draw attention to droop (4) | FLAG | |
| 13 | Seating’s BAG (secure), [supporting] BEAN (head) (7) | BEANBAG | |
| 16 | Incense ADD (put together) [in] MEN (pieces) (6) | MADDEN | |
| 17 | R (Run) [into] LIKE (Banquo’s corpse), D (dead) wrinkled according to Macbeth (6) | LIRKED | |
| 18 | Backs of heads [in] mINIAture (4) | INIA | |
| 19 | Boyfriend, FELL (cruelly) A (absent) (5) | FELLA | |
| 20 | Verbal fluency, O (nothing) RACY (risqué) (5) | ORACY | |
| 22 | Discipline OR (men) [chasing] TUT (piecework locally) (5) | TUTOR | |
| 24 | Former cONCEssion [to some extent] (4) | ONCE | |
| 25 | < YES (Agreed) [after reflection], [keeping] X (times) attractive (4) | SEXY | |
| L | L | A | M | A | J | E | D | G | E | S |
| O | R | S | I | N | O | V | I | O | L | A |
| G | F | H | R | D | U | I | D | E | F | T |
| O | L | I | V | E | R | C | E | L | I | A |
| B | A | N | D | A | N | T | E | S | N | R |
| E | G | E | O | N | E | M | I | L | I | A |
| A | F | O | P | T | Y | A | L | I | N | S |
| N | E | R | E | U | S | D | O | R | I | S |
| B | L | A | E | T | E | D | N | K | A | E |
| A | L | C | Y | O | N | E | C | E | Y | X |
| G | A | Y | E | R | D | N | E | D | D | Y |
No apology necessary, Mr S; never forget that setters and solvers alike are grateful for what you and your fellow bloggers do to enhance the xword experience. It’s particularly helpful when, as here, the published solution gives no indication of what the answers to be jumbled actually are.
And I will confess to being smugly pleased with the Golf / Polo clue!
There is a setter’s blog for this crossword here https://bigdave44.com/2024/02/29/193025/
Thanks anyway, Mister Sting, for the blog, which I found only because I saw that today’s blog was out and decided to search for no. 1630 in case I had missed it. Sorry you had such a bad week.
It was very satisfying to complete this puzzle after being stuck for a while on the middle row. I had found all the other thematic items, including the playwright, the play’s title and the other playwright.
The two clues at 15a remained unsolved, but I didn’t need them to get EGEON and EMILIA and thereby complete the grid. (A weird story follows. Much later, when I had time to revisit those clues for the sake of completeness, I found that I had lost my answer sheet in the recycling! As an exercise, I tried to make two words from those eleven letters, of which seven were vowels, and the only (5,6) pair I could come up with was ANOMIE and LIEGE. I then remembered ‘subject’ being in one of the clues and knew I must be right.)
I liked the neat design of this puzzle – with particular reference to the layout of the shaded ‘mixed doubles’ and the play’s title.
Some of the clues were tougher than I am used to. The hardest was LIRKED because of the unfamiliar word LIRK and the unfamiliar meaning of the word LIKE.
Thanks to Ifor for this unique puzzle with its interesting theme, a clever design (already mentioned) and a very good set of clues.