Thank you to Falcon. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1. Tolerated temperature in a bizarre botanical garden (9)
ARBORETUM : [ BORE(tolerated/withstood) + T(symbol for “absolute temperature”, in physics) ] contained in(in) [A + RUM(bizarre/odd) ].
Defn: … devoted to trees.
6. Daughter’s after dainty material (5)
TWEED : D(abbrev. for “daughter”) placed after(…’s after) TWEE(dainty/excessively cute).
9. Beginning to devour a tea in Vladimir’s country cottage? (5)
DACHA : 1st letter of(Beginning to) “devour” + A + CHA(informal term for tea, from Mandarin).
Defn: …, in the country Vladimir and his ilk come from.
10. Bedcover we’d ironed badly (9)
EIDERDOWN : Anagram of(… badly) WE’D IRONED.
11. Comic strip character close to Sweep stabbing nasty brute in back (6,4)
RUPERT BEAR : [ Last letter of(close to) “Sweep” contained in(stabbing) anagram of(nasty) BRUTE ] contained in(in) REAR(the back/hind part).
12. Rosemary, for one, in Father Brown (4)
HERB : Hidden in(in) “Father Brown“.
Defn: …/as an example of.
14. Play moderately slowly with stake money (7)
ANDANTE : AND(with/plus) ANTE(stake money put up by a player in poker or similar card games).
Defn: …, as a musical direction.
15. Suspend boxer, perhaps showing a sense of guilt (7)
HANGDOG : HANG(suspend/dangle) + DOG(an example of which/perhaps, is a boxer).
… apparently, it’s not guilt.
17. Conspicuous foreigner in street (7)
SALIENT : ALIEN(foreigner/stranger) contained in(in) ST(abbrev. for “street”).
19. Quite some distance? It may be between tee and green (7)
FAIRWAY : FAIR(quite some/a considerable amount) WAY(the distance travelled or to be travelled).
Defn: … on a golf course.
20. Piece of information I came across in retirement (4)
ITEM : I + reversal of(… in retirement) MET(came across/encountered).
22. Lawyer‘s dull speech unsettled court (10)
PROSECUTOR : PROSE(dull speech/form of language ordinarily used by people, as opposed to poetry) + anagram of(unsettled) COURT.
25 Found his stable out of form (9)
ESTABLISH : Anagram of(… out of form) HIS STABLE.
26. Hera losing husband to another goddess (5)
ERATO : “Hera” minus(losing) “h”(abbrev. for “husband”) + TO.
Defn: …, the Muse of lyric and love poetry.
27 Rant I ignored in traffic (5)
TRADE : “tirade”(rant/an angry and long speech of criticism) minus(… ignored) “I“.
28. Queen mother leaving country for Hope’s place (9)
RURITANIA : R(abbrev. for “Regina”/Queen) + “ma”(familiar term for one’s mother) deleted from(leaving) “Mauritania”(country in Northwest Africa).
Defn: The fictional country that is the setting for Anthony Hope’s novels.
Down
1. Dread flying snake (5)
ADDER : Anagram of(… flying) DREAD.
2. Renege on an earlier decision, and support new deal under pressure (4-5)
BACK-PEDAL : BACK(to support/champion) + [ anagram of(new) DEAL placed below(under, in a down clue) P(symbol for “pressure” in physics). ]
3. Long-tailed bird in way on river? (10)
ROADRUNNER : ROAD(way/thoroughfare) placed above(on, in a down clue) RUNNER(what you might call a river, because it runs).
… a member of the cuckoo family.
4. Shake doctor heading for Lisbon in plane? (7)
TREMBLE : [ MB(abbrev. for “Bachelor of Medicine”/doctor) + 1st letter of(heading for) “Lisbon” ] contained in(in) TREE(an example of which/? is the plane).
5. Slander bishop at hospital for medical treatment (7)
MUDBATH : MUD(slander/damaging allegations or information) + B(symbol for a “bishop”, a chess piece) + AT + H(abbrev. for “hospital”).
… doing what comes naturally.
6. Go for a spin (4)
TURN : Double defn: 1st: As in “one’s turn to do something”.
7. Couple ultimately bound to run away to Gretna Green? (5)
ELOPE : Last letter of(… ultimately) “Couple” + LOPE(to bound/to walk or run with long springy strides).
Defn: …, the Scottish parish where couples who could not marry in England or Wales go to get wed.
8. Out of order, nudge guy astride black recreational vehicle (4,5)
DUNE BUGGY : Anagram of(Out of order) NUDGE GUY containing(astride) B(symbol for “Black”, one of the players in a chess game).
… not just on the beach.
13 Current record about E.T. may be ill-advised (10)
INDISCREET : IN(current/now in fashion) + DISC(a phonograph record) + RE(about/with reference to) + E.T.
14. Like one on the wagon missing imbibing can (9)
ABSTINENT : ABSENT(missing/not to be found) containing(missing) TIN(a metal can).
Defn: …, abstaining from alcohol.
16. One may be leaving Euston in blue coach (4-5)
DOWN-TRAIN : DOWN(blue/sad) + TRAIN(to coach/to instruct).
Defn: One (train) travelling away from/leaving a major terminus like Euston Station in London.
18. Row about stray dog (7)
TERRIER : TIER(one of the rows/levels placed one above the other in a structure) containing(about) ERR(to stray/to do wrong).
Defn: An example of a ….
19. Mostly glowing about school chess champion (7)
FISCHER : Last letter deleted from(Mostly) “fiery”(glowing/having the bright colour of fire) containing(about) SCH(abbrev. for “school”).
Answer: Bobby …, the 11th World Chess Champion.
21. Taken out of context, rapper added (5)
EXTRA : Hidden in(Taken out of) “context, rapper“.
23 Dieter’s OK after port wine (5)
RIOJA : JA(German for “OK”/yes, as spoken by one named Dieter) placed below(after, in a down clue) RIO(de Janeiro, Brazilian port).
Defn: … from this particular Spanish region.
24. Instrument that’s blown in Bow boozer, regularly (4)
OBOE : 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th letters of(…, regularly) “Bow boozer“.
Not too taxing but definitely enjoyable. Loved the deceptively vicious surface in the RUPERT BEAR clue 😂 Thanks s and F.
I enjoyed this. The top half went in quite quickly – the bottom half took longer.
Liked: ARBORETUM, RUPERT BEAR, INDISCREET, PROSECUTOR, TERRIER
Thanks Falcon and sichuan
Thanks for the blog, good set of clues , neat and clever wordplay . I liked Dieter for RIOJA , RURITANIA is a good construction. Fortunately no dreary Guardian theme.
DOWN-TRAIN , I think it is still conventional to call trains leaving London as down and those arriving as up .
Liked this, no overly clunky constructions, Dieter in “Rioja” was nicely misleading and was happy the answer to “Chess Champion”, for once, didn’t include “Ding”… Couldn’t parse “Ruritania” (Got it only from “Hopes Place”)
Thank you to Falcon and to Scchua for the comprehensive, illustrated blog.
23 down was essentially the same clue as yesterday’s 23 down “wine and port getting nod from Benedict XVI”, which was strange
So many concise clues with nice surfaces makes a puzzle very enjoyable for me. I had too many ticks to list all my favourites, but I will mention HANGDOG at the top of my list, re-enforced by the great photo from scchua. I did not parse RURATANIA or ARBORETUM, so thanks for the leg up on those. I was slightly surprised that PROSE is dull.
Thanks Falcon and scchua
Nice accessible puzzle with clean cluing and some nice surfaces as others have noted. HANGDOG, ANDANTE, SALIENT, PROSECUTOR, TREMBLE, ABSTINENT, TERRIER and FISCHER were my faves today. Not sure I have seen a mudbath described as medical treatment rather than cosmetic/relaxing/therapeutic but I guess they are all on one scale.
Thanks Falcon and scchua
PROSE is traditionally dull in comparison to poetry , hence prosaic , not actually true for many writers.
Mario Cuomo – Campaign in poetry , govern in prose.
Thanks Falcon and scchua
22ac: I too was slightly surprised by the use of “dull writing” for PROSE, but ODE 2010 includes among its definitions “plain or dull writing, discourse, or expression” with the illustration “closely typed in best office prose“. Similar definitions can be found in Chambers 2016 and Collins 2023.
Scchua, you found the perfect illustration of 15a HANGDOG.
I got 28a RURITANIA from thinking of Bob Hope’s Road to… movies – I took the wrong path but arrived at the right place.
[ I also thought, equally incorrectly, of Dorothy Parker’s classic poem: “Oh life is a glorious cycle of song, a medley of extemporanea, And love is a thing that can never go wrong, and I am Marie of Romania.” ]
Thanks Falcon and scchua for the fun.