Thank you Tees. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
9/26/8. Closed in, misused other half few met almost done with Bunter? (3,3,3,2,3,6)
THE FAT OWL OF THE REMOVE : TO(closed, as in “he pulled the door to after him” containing(in) anagram of(misused) OTHER HALF FEW MET + “over’(done with/finished) minus its last letter(almost …).
Answer: Nickname of Billy … , bespectacled and overweight schoolboy in the fictional stories set in Greyfriars School aka the Remove.
10. Say two or three runs one Frenchman gets in games? (5)
PRIME : [ R(abbrev. for “runs” in cricket scores) + I(Roman numeral for “one”) + M(abbrev. for “Monsieur”, title of address for a Frenchman, equivalent to “Mr.”) ] contained in(gets in) PE(a. “physical eduation”, a school lesson of games and exercises.
Defn: A mathematical description of numbers such as/say, 2 or 3.
11. See 7 Down
12. Smashing woman’s love for Kent maybe (9)
SUPERHERO : SUPER(excellent/smashing) + HER(woman’s, possessive pronoun for a female) + O(letter representing 0/love in tennis scores).
Defn: An example of which/maybe is Clark Kent’s alter ego.
13. Writer‘s the writer powerless character inspires (7)
EMERSON : ME(writer, using the self-referential pronoun) contained in(… inspires) “person”(a character/an individual) minus(-less) “p”(symbol for “power” in physics).
Answer: …, Ralph Waldo, American writer.
14. A last look back for Greek maiden (7)
ARIADNE : A + reversal of(look back) [ END(the last/the finish) + AIR(an impression of quality or manner that someone gives/look) ].
16. Bird no longer seen on South American islands (5)
SAMOA : MOA(an extinct/no longer flightless bird in New Zealand once) placed after(on) SA(abbrev. for South American).
Answer: … in the Pacific Ocean.
18. Start computer deleting an old autonomous program (3)
BOT : “boot”(start a computer and make it ready to operate) minus one(deleting an) “o”(abbrev. for “old”).
Defn: … on the internet or another network.
19. On booze heading west for river (5)
NIGER : Reversal of(… heading west, in an across clue) [ RE(with reference to/on) + GIN(an alcoholic drink/booze).
Answer: … in West Africa.
21. See 7 Down
22. Fights in unruly mob tigers must devour? (7)
COMBATS : Anagram of(unruly) MOB contained in(… must devour) CATS(of which, a large-sized variety are tigers).
24. Woman never believed as in random canards (9)
CASSANDRA : AS contained in(in) anagram of(random) CANARDS.
Answer: Princess in Greek mythology who was cursed never to be believed.
26. See 9
27. Welshman last to service vehicles (5)
EVANS : Last letter of(last to) “service” + VANS(goods vehicles).
Defn: A Welsh male name.
28. PCP from doctor opening time draws in (5,4)
ANGEL DUST : GELD(to castrate/doctor a male animal) contained in(… draws in) [ ANUS(opening though which solid waste matter leaves the body) + T(abbrev. for “time”) ].
Answer: Street name for the illegal drug, …, the abbreviation of phenylcyclohexyl piperidine.
Down
1. Good sort speaks: does so with spasmodic repetition? (8)
STUTTERS : ST(abbrev. for “saint”, a good sort/virtuous person) + UTTERS(speaks/says out).
Defn: …, that is, speaks falteringly.
2. Country girl entered in spelling competition? (6)
BELIZE : LIZ(a female name, a diminutive of “Elizabeth”) contained in(entered in) BEE(a gathering of people for a particular activity, for example/?, a spelling competition).
Answer: … in Central America.
3. Failing Tesla right — fast beginning to question? (5,5)
FALSE START : Anagram of(Failing) [TESLA + R(abbrev. for “right”) + FAST ].
Defn: …/an invalid start to a race.
4. Toxin from French fish, a second discarded (6)
POISON : “poisson”(French for “fish”) with one(a) “s”(abbrev. for “second”) deleted(discarded).
5. Lorde ultimately inclined to throttle pub trumpeter (8)
ELEPHANT : Last letter of(… ultimately) “Lorde” + LEANT(inclined/slanted) containing(to throttle) PH(abbrev. for “public house”, a pub).
Answer: An animal whose cry is like the sound of a trumpet.
6. Side road to turn down endlessly (4)
SPUR : “spurn”(to turn down/to reject) minus its last letter(endlessly).
7/21A/11. Parrot to be bathed in light: do it twice? Owl was terribly pleased! (4,1,3,4,3,5)
LIKE A DOG WITH TWO TAILS : KEA(a New Zealand mountain parrot) contained in(to be bathed in) anagram of(… terribly) [LIGHT: DO + 2x(twice) IT + OWL WAS ].
8. See 9 Across
15. Ostensibly popular celebrity on left unknown (2,4,4)
IN NAME ONLY : IN(popular/fashionable) + NAME(celebrity/famous person) + ON + L(abbrev. for “left”) + Y(symbol for an unknown quantity in mathematics).
17. Greek character lay back beside anaemic creature (4,4)
MUTE SWAN : MU(twelfth letter in the Greek alphabet) + reversal of(… back) SET(put in a specific position/lay) + WAN(anaemic/pale in complexion or appearance).
18. Many a house in this Manhattan thoroughfare (8)
BROADWAY : Cryptic defn: A thoroughfare/street in Manhattan, New York famous for the many theatre houses found there.
20. Sister to tempestuous Pre-Raphaelite co-founder (8)
ROSSETTI : Anagram of(… tempestuous) SISTER TO.
Answer: …, Dante Gabriel, one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of English painters, poets and art critics.
His art:
21. Immoral women’s group on deck soused (6)
WICKED : WI(abbrev. for the Women’s Institute, the British organisation/woman’s group who brings members together for social, educational and cultural activities) + anagram of(… soused/drunk) DECK.
22. Load for guns in Light Brigade assault? (6)
CHARGE : Double defn: 1st: A shell or cartridge of ammunition loaded into a gun; and 2nd: The famous (or infamous) assault by the British cavalry unit, the Light Brigade during the Crimean War.
23. Unearth urn containing son to Pendragon (6)
ARTHUR : Hidden in(… containing) “Unearth urn”.
Defn: The legendary son of Uther Pendragon.
25. Mistake to ignore leader in church area (4)
APSE : “lapse”(a mistake/failure) minus its 1st letter(to ignore leader).
A mixed bag of clues, it almost felt like 2 or 3 different setters compiled parts of this puzzle
For example, 4(d) POISON, is not terribly good; 5(d), uses the device [ Lorde ultimately ] to produce an E; what’s Lorde supposed to be?
The opening clue, [9/26/8], reads like a nonsense jumble of words, and a contrived way to get to the solution, “Bunter”; ( no sour grapes, I read the books as a kid: “Yaroo!” )
[7/21ac/11 ] is a similar story.
I appreciate that surfaces are not important to many solvers, but as a fan of the well-turned wordplay, quite a few clues here, were not my cup of cocoa.
20(d), was to my liking, ROSSETTI, nice image, nice answer. And, the setter has avoided obscure knowledge, in a well-put-together grid.
Thanks, Tees; super blog, scchua
This was ‘canard, as Del Boy might say.
Lorde is a pretty well known singer/songwriter but I agree that some of the clues were hard to make sense of.
I rather agree with ENB @ 1.
The two multi light anagrams were a lot of hard work for very little pleasure.
Having absolutely no knowledge of Billy Bunter stories I had to resort to Google once the crossers led to me guessing that the answer was likely to be “ the fat owl of the something”
Sorry Tees but thank you and of course Scchua .
Crikey. I guess the puzzle was somewhat dominated by the two very long solutions. I didn’t read Bunter so had to guess at that one from crossers – wondering for ages what O-L could be if not OIL or OWL, neither of which fitted into a helpful phrase. And I was inclined to rule out OWL since it featured in the clue for the other phrase which I guess I must have heard at some time in my life. The anagrams must have needed some serious work by our blogger – who still had to know what a KEA is and to spot that ‘closed’ meant ‘TO’. And I see I totally misparsed ANGEL DUST having looked up what a PCP might be – which unfortunately gave me the answer: I was putting a D for doctor (not an abbreviation I recognise) into ANGELUS + T. I know the angelus bell is rung at certain times of the day and hoped that was what the setter had in mind. nho LORDE but looked her up afterward – I’m not sure why she would want to throttle a trumpeter in a pub but, given all the other ways of signalling an E, I assume there must be some story I have missed. Got there in the end – amazingly with no reveals – but with a fair amount of luck.
Thanks Tees and scchua
The Remove is an old Public School term for a class of students held back, usually for lack of academic progress, which is where I felt I belonged after this puzzle. I managed to get all the right answers without properly parsing the long clues or ANGEL DUST. I liked PRIME and MUTE SWAN.
Thanks both. I was pleased to complete this, having taken assistance only via a semi-desperate Google search for “The Fat Owl of the….” – frankly, that clue is impenetrable, and the source of the answer before even my time. Equally beyond my parsing was ANGEL DUST which was a slightly more confident guess, and I didn’t see the angle for BROADWAY which still doesn’t look greatly cryptic on reflection, but I had some fun along the way, including quite liking SUPERHERO notwithstanding that I regard Clark Kent as something nearer the opposite.
Phew! I’m more familiar with the earthier phrase regarding the happy dog, but it wasn’t too tricky to conjure up the family-friendly version. I’ve also heard of PCP as Angel Dust, although I needed the crossers to bring it to mind.
Bunter, on the other hand – blimey! It took me easily as long as the rest of the puzzle to sort that one out, and having never come across ‘remove’ as a noun, it still didn’t look terribly plausible. But it was all I had.
I liked the amusing surface for ELEPHANT, but then I’ve heard of Lorde, which helps.
Thanks Tees & scchua
Thanks Tees and scchua
Strokes for folks: THE FAT OWL…was my FOI based purely on enumeration, I didn’t even bother to check the grist.
LIKE A DOG… followed soon after, and the whole puzzle tumbled.
As I said, strokes for folks!
As said by others, the two long clues required entering random letters to fill in the gaps of unlikely and unknown phrases. I guess I’m just too lazy to do 15 letter anagrams. Are we missing something with Broadway, half the clue doesn’t seem to make sense?
‘Many a theatre’ is the gag in that CD Eric. Some people call them ‘houses’.
Anyway no mistakes for me in this one apart from setting it in the first place, but I do really like stupid fat boys, and parrots that make owls happy. And even if I do say so meself I reckon ANGEL DUST is a masterpiece. Okay it’s not for the faint-hearted (though it surely is for proctologists and vets), but I just wanted to show m’colleague Halpern that I can do it too.
The stupid boy classes at my school were called, as if to add insult to injury, ‘the P Stream’. I kid you not. The autistic and otherwise challenged attempted to learn, with all their special educational needs, while immersed in a pool of piss.
Montgomery of Alamein: that’s where Colin Firth and yours truly went to school.
I have never heard of either of the two long answers, which made this an uphill climb, I’m afraid. On a positive note, Dante Gabriel Rossetti had an even more famous sister, so that one was extra clever.
What Simon S said: the two long answers went in just from the letter count. Strokes for folks, as he says, or just the old there’s no such thing as an easy question – just one you know the answer to. Thanks to Tees for the fun and for dropping in, and big thanks to scchua for the fabulously illustrated blog
Unusual controversy for a Tees, I feel… no real arguments as I dredged up The Fat Owl from my turgid memory.. which helped a lot.. I then embarked on a quest to find a non-existent Bunter-based theme, so thought the writer might be one of the nom de plumes of Hamilton.. the parrot didn’t register, but the phrase came to mind.. so I needed the blog to explain that, and the PCP thing.. oh, and the BOT.. a Sunday well spent..
Thanks Tees n sschua
@Petert
That isn’t what “the remove” means at all
[Don’t know about two-tailed dogs, but the Keas of Kapiti Island, just north of Wellington, are pleased to see visitors; they’ll walk up your outstretched arm, and then undo your knapsack looking for snacks!]
I’m one of the ones for whom the long answers, whilst not write-ins, were easy to get. My father was a great Bunter fan, and the was a TV series in the early sixties.
Thanks Tees. Much of this was beyond me but how could anyone not like a crossword that had ARTHUR, ROSSETTI, and ANGEL DUST hanging out together? Thanks scchua for the blog.