Here is a belated analysis of yesterday’s puzzle. Apologies for the delay but I didn’t notice that the scheduled blogger had gone AWOL until this morning.
I found this a most enjoyable puzzle with some very entertaining and amusing clues. 15d deserves a special mention despite the misprint (willl) and several others are not far behind.
Across
9 TOOTHSOME TOO (excessively) *(HOST) ME (this person)
10 BRAVE BRA (piece of underwear) VE[x] (tease with kiss denied)
11 OTTOMAN OTTO (fragrant oil) MAN (chap)
12 TANGOED *(GONE) in TAD (a bit)
13 ERR hidden in ‘naughtiER Rector’
14 EXTRADITION EX (abandoned) TRADITION (custom)
17,18,19 CHEAP AND NASTY *(PAD TENANCY HAS)
21 GIANT PANDAS *(STAND IN A GAP)
23 MAC CAM (river) reversed
25 THAW OUT = *(WHAT)
27 SCHOLAR CH (central heating) in SOLAR (old-fashioned upper room)
28 TRENT R[ise] in TENT (part of camp)
29 NEUTRINOS *(OUR TENNIS)
Down
1 STROKE dd
2 NOCTURNE homophone of ‘knock turn’
3 CHAMBER POT MBE (honoured person) RPO (orchestra) in CHAT (talk) – a cheeky definition!
4 BONN BONN[e] (beautiful falling short)
5 LEFT-HANDED cd
6 EBON hidden in ‘thE BONhomie’
7 SATORI SA (it) TOR (hill) I (island)
8 READ-ONLY A DON (a fellow) in RELY (bank)
15 TEA TASTING TEAT (milk supplier) A STING (smart)
16 IONOSPHERE *(POISON) HERE (in this place)
17 COGITATE I (one) in *(COTTAGE)
20 SAMPLING SAMP (porridge) LING (fish)
22 AMAZED A MAZE (feature of Hampton Court) D (daughter)
24 CERISE IS in CERE[mony] (formal occasion half way through)
26 ORTS [s]O[c]R[a]T[e]S
27 SOUP SOUP[con] (dash – prisoner has escaped)
Thank you for the blog, Gaufrid.
I liked this crossword very much, very precise and faultless.
I think, more people – especially Guardian solvers – should from time to time
take a look at the FT crosswords, as so many setters publish in both papers
(like Bradman/Pasquale).
And since the prints are perfectly alright (thanks to Uncle Yap), that can’t be a drawback either any more.
Anyway, the only solution I didn’t find was THAW OUT, a clever “reversed anagram” – something that we see more and more.
In 4dn, I think, it should be BONN[y].
(By the way, I first had ‘Rome’ as ‘Rome[o]’)