Quite a bit of complex wordplay in this puzzle. A couple of obscure allusions but nonetheless accessible.
Across
| 1 | COM(PUT)E – A tour de force pushing the cryptic envelope: here’s the clue: “Number turn up with Putin” (7). The definition is a bit shaky: “number” as in count which is close to COMPUTE but not the same, “turn” hints at reversal, “Putin” hints at well… polonium but no… you take a word that (sort of) means “turn up”, COME and “in” it you put “Put”. Ah… Ximenes must be twitching just a bit. For the record, I’m not complaining – I like these kinds of clues – they are imaginative. |
| 5 | DELI+US – Not my favourite composer – well he might be, but hadn’t heard of Delius but wordplay was straightforward. |
| 10 | M+ILLER – Nice clue referring to the playwright Arthur Miller. |
| 12 | FACE THE MUSIC – “dial” is FACE (of a watch e.g.), “tones” are THE MUSIC. |
| 15 | SCHOLASTIC – (last choic[e]’s)*. A pedant would ask whether SCHOLASTIC means “pedant” or “for a pedant”? |
| 17 | RUN(g) – Nice subtraction clue: a component of a ladder, which can be a run in your tights, is a rung. |
| 19 | ONE – I think this is just a double definition: one refers to oneself as ONE when one is royal one supposes. |
| 20 | WASHINGTON – Rare triple definition: “here” (literally is in fact Seattle, WASHINGTON), the first prez and (saw nothing)*. |
| 22 | RICHTER SCALE – I haven’t heard of either the pianist Sviatoslav Richter nor the organist Ferdinand Richter , they both seem to qualify. |
| 26 | CRADLE – double definition but what’s the “world ruler” part? |
| 27 | CONTRACT – double meaning: nice misleading surface hinting at a row with your therapist. |
| 19 | ESCHEAT – (the case)* — ESCHEAT is a new word for me with easy wordplay (given crossing letters and obvious anagram indicator: “collapses”). |
Down
| 1 | CAMP – double definition |
| 2 | MON+A=”moaner” – the clue is: “She voices a chronic complaint” – but I don’t see how to get the “a” behind the “chronic complaint” for moan though. |
| 3 | (d)UNSTABLE – Subtraction clue that’s pretty easy given the definition of “likely to collapse”. |
| 7 | I(L+LUST)RATE – L for student is a v. common abbrev. |
| 8 | ST(o)RY+CH+NINE – nice clue since 9 is literally NINE and not clue number 9. The only thing I wonder about is the instruction “after church, 9 take…” when really you’d prefer “after church, take 9…”. |
| 13 | AS+CO+T RACES – standard abbrev(“company”)=CO. |
| 16 | STARRY – slightly cryptic definition derived from STARRY-eyed. |
| 18 | ANAL+YTIC – definition is “resolving into first principles”. Wordplay is rev(Lana=”Turner”)=ANAL+rev(city=”E.C.”=postcode for City of London)=YTIC, with “set up” indicating reversal. |
| 21 | STOLEN – (L+notes)*: L for “pound” is an acceptable substitution for anagram fodder purposes. |
| 23 | C+LOVE – the knot referred to is the CLOVE hitch. I suppose you could argue that there is no complete direct definition in the clue. |
| 24 | FAR+E – Last clue for me: deceptively difficult: “Laos” is in the FAR E(ast) of course. |
Re cradle, it’s a reference to a proverb about the power of women. ‘She who rocks the cradle rules the world’.
A few very nice clues here – RUN, ANALYTIC, WHEEL CLAMP I liked. STET at 25 down (‘Initial typeset without’ = T in SET) was even more envelope-pushing than COMPUTE – at least there’s a limit to what ‘Putin’ could mean!
CRADLE is a reference to the saying “the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world”. Not sure where that comes from, though.
Richter: I’m pretty sure he means Sviatoslav – never heard of the other bloke.
Thanks for the cradle clarification… turns out it’s from a poem by William Ross Wallace who must be pretty obscure since doesn’t even warrant his own wiki entry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hand_That_Rocks_the_Cradle_%28poem%29
As “the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world”, it’s given in ODQ as a proverb, derived from the WRW poem which is also given.
Some very good clues – 9a made me laugh. Agree that NUMBER is a weak definition for COMPUTE. I looked on CLOVE as past tense of CLEAVE which is used in some marriage vows (“forsake all others and cleave unto my wife”) so I suppose there is some sort of definition there. Never picked up the nuances of 12a – having been on the phone this morning trying to talk to a human being and getting endless mutilated muzak Vivaldi instead, I knew the answer straightaway!