It seems that Eimi wants to make a point to all us pedants who endlessly carp on about less than 50% checking: more than 57% of the answers are of this type, which is clearly of no concern to him.
Two other things struck me about this offering from Eimi: the apparently large number of full anagrams (seven I think), and what Brian Greer once referred to in his excellent crossword articles in the Times of the late 90s as something whose exact name I can’t remember, but it was typically apposite and referred to anagrams which hit you in the face and can be nothing but anagrams (‘Paint Lucy’, ‘Canopus’, ‘Dench loafs’). Which is not to say that I found it easy: as you’d expect Eimi has included various references to a world that is less well-known to me than to him, and occasionally some rather good clues (I’d have liked the RSC one if it had been printed properly).
Despite the large number of unchecked letters all over the place but especially around the outside, you’d expect something, but if there is then I can’t see it.
| Across | ||
| 7 | LITIGATOR | Tailor unfortunately leaving tag in for one in a suit (9) |
| tig in (tailor)* — it looked as if Eimi had got his letters mixed up, but I now discover that tig is a variant spelling of tag | ||
| 8 | DITTO | Do the longer form of Beth (5) |
| ‘Ditto’ is the longer version of ‘do’, and I think this refers to Beth Ditto, a singer-songwriter of whom I’d never heard until I googled Beth Ditto | ||
| 10 | BERTHA | A girl who’s out of breath (6) |
| (breath)* | ||
| 11 | PERSIAN | There’s a cat for every Welsh girl (7) |
| per [= for every] Sian | ||
| 12 | ISÈRE | River featured in Paradise Regained (5) |
| Hidden in ParadISE REgained | ||
| 14 | CAMERA-SHY | Approached spots at back of infantry, not wanting to be shot (6-3) |
| came rash {infantr}y | ||
| 16 | SCYTHER | One making sweeping cuts in the Royal Shakespeare company with impunity at last when recycling (7) |
| the RSC {impunit}y with the letters after R moved to the front [recycling] — I found this clue difficult because we are given ‘company’ and in the RSC it’s ‘Company’, so I thought there was something significant in that — I can’t see a reason for the lower-case and wonder if it’s a mistake | ||
| 18 | SEA KING | Said to be looking for a helicopter (3,4) |
| “seeking” | ||
| 20 | UNTYPICAL | Paint Lucy tripping, which is not what you’d expect (9) |
| (Paint Lucy)* | ||
| 21 | GOLEM | Animated creature producing cry of encouragement in empty gym (5) |
| olé in g{y}m | ||
| 24 | HAUNTER | Somehow unearth a frequent visitor (7) |
| (unearth)* | ||
| 25 | ODDISH | Over-cook part of meal which is sort of weird (6) |
| OD [= overdose = over-cook] dish | ||
| 27 | GLOOM | Lack of optimism partly affecting loo manufacturers (5) |
| Hidden in affectinG LOO Manufacturers | ||
| 28 | ELECTRODE | Conductor replacing final part of Carmen with opening of song from Beethoven’s Ninth (9) |
| The song in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is the Ode to Joy, so ode is the opening of this song and it replaces something. But what? The a in Electra? The ic in electric? Goodness knows. (After Googling, I suspect it’s this one. Not someone I knew, but no doubt well-known to most.) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MIME | Act out the same note twice, but differently (4) |
| mi me — mi and me are two spellings of the same note | ||
| 2 | MISTER | Man that’s useful with houseplants (6) |
| 2 defs — the second one I didn’t know, but the word demister exists and it’s easy enough to think what a mister does | ||
| 3 | PARAS | Standard antisubmarine troops (5) |
| par AS | ||
| 4 | SOUP CAN | Canopus at sea, as featured as part of a famous Andy Warhol work? (4,3) |
| (Canopus)* — this work | ||
| 5 | CITIBANK | Slyly nick a bit from financial institution (8) |
| (nick a bit)* | ||
| 6 | STONEHENGE | Monument gets rebuilt without a single layer (10) |
| (one hen) in (gets)* | ||
| 9 | BRIEFED | Brought up to date, as French cheese-lovers may be (7) |
| brie-fed — French cheese-lovers may be fed on brie | ||
| 13 | SECOND HALF | Dench loafs around in period after the interval (6,4) |
| (Dench loafs)* | ||
| 15 | GENISTA | Seating tidied up with broom (7) |
| (Seating)* — that use of ‘with’ as a link-word that I dislike, perhaps irrationally | ||
| 17 | TU YOUYOU | First woman in China to win a Nobel prize – second person in France and in GB (twice) (2,6) |
| tu (second person singular in French) you (s p s in English) you — I had never heard of Tu Youyou, but perhaps I should have done | ||
| 19 | CARROLL | Writer of song on the radio (7) |
| “carol” — ref Lewis Carroll | ||
| 22 | ORDERS | Arranges Carnivora and Coleoptera, for example (6) |
| Carnivora and Coleoptera are examples of orders (in biology, ranks between class and family) | ||
| 23 | POUCH | Bag first of Pokémon – that hurt! (5) |
| P{okémon} ouch! | ||
| 26 | SIDE | Team expressed regret audibly (4) |
| “sighed” | ||
*anagram
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