An excellent puzzle with some inspired clues.
There’s an amusing Nina across the top and bottom. Spotting this did help me somewhat with some of the slightly more difficult clues like 3dn.
| Across | ||
| 9 | A FORTIORI | Stronghold with excellent fencing or one with better grounds (1,8) |
| Fort in AI + Or I | ||
| 10 | DREAM | King had this made afresh with Republican input (5) |
| R(epublican) in made*. Ref isn’t to a monarch, but to Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech. | ||
| 11 | HYENA | Animal in elevated position heard female (5) |
| Hom of high + Ena | ||
| 12 | BEEFEATER | Royal servant‘s third little piggy? (9) |
| DD. Not having children, my knowledge of nursery rhymes is non-existent, so I had to look this up. But the rhyme goes “This little piggy went to market, This little piggy stayed home, This little piggy had roast beef…” | ||
| 13 | CLEANSE | Remove sin from learner Seneca corrupted (7) |
| (L Seneca)* | ||
| 14 | ANGUISH | Grow weak after the first severe pain (7) |
| [L]anguish | ||
| 17 | ALONE | Perhaps bitter about performing solo (5) |
| Ale around on(=performing) | ||
| 19 | ICE | Diamonds set evenly in circlet (3) |
| Even letters of cIrClEt | ||
| 20 | ANGST | Gangster’s existential anxiety (5) |
| Hidden in gangster – an unusual way of cluing it. I suppose it’s something like the angst exists in gangster. | ||
| 21 | MUTATED | Damaging allegations about gallery took new form (7) |
| Mud around Tate | ||
| 22 | DEDUCED | Worked out as French duke in action (7) |
| Duc in deed | ||
| 24 | PENTAGRAM | Star, confined, gaining little weight (9) |
| Pent+ a gram | ||
| 26 | IN OFF | Home and Away is diversion going to pot (2-3) |
| In(=home) + off(=away). Ref to snooker or billiards where a ball is potted after first striking another ball. | ||
| 28 | LOTUS | Flower for all to see among many (5) |
| U(old cinema classifications) in lots. | ||
| 29 | CLIENTELE | Customers given two keys allowed man back inside (9) |
| CE (musical keys) around (Let Neil)> – wrong spelling of Neal, though! | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | HASH | Enjoys hot dish (4) |
| Has + h(ot) | ||
| 2 | EOCENE | Era in which Oriental individual embraces church (6) |
| E(astern) one aound CE, although I think the eocene was technically an epoch rather than an era. | ||
| 3 | ATTAINMENT | Soldiers in disgrace or laudable exploit (10) |
| Men in attaint. Attaint seems to be mainly a legal term. | ||
| 4 | DOUBLE | Stand-in showing twice the spirit? (6) |
| DD (as in “make mine a double”) | ||
| 5 | LIBERATE | One carpet under pound? It’s free! (8) |
| L + i +berate(=carpet, as a slang term for taking someone to task) | ||
| 6 | IDLE | Unemployed daughter visits French island (4) |
| D(aughter) in ile | ||
| 7 | NESTLING | Young bird settling snugly (8) |
| DD | ||
| 8 | EMIR | Muslim ruler wants Ancient Mariner’s tale written up (4) |
| Rime< (as in Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner) | ||
| 13 | CHARM | Damage follows cold spell (5) |
| C(old) + harm | ||
| 15 | GRAND PIANO | Super-soft one getting tickled? (5,5) |
| Grand(=super) + piano(=soft) | ||
| 16 | HATED | Horrible death not exactly cherished (5) |
| Death* | ||
| 18 | OSTINATO | Repeated phrase, from Taoist, on Reformation? (8) |
| (Taoist on)* | ||
| 19 | INDIRECT | Not being straight in dreadful court (8) |
| In + dire + ct(=court) | ||
| 22 | DOMAIN | Murder mother for the estate? (6) |
| Do Ma in – great clue | ||
| 23 | CLOSET | Someone’s skin fool keeps in cupboard (6) |
| S[omeon]e in clot | ||
| 24 | PELF | Money taken from chapel funds (4) |
| Hidden in chaPEL Funds | ||
| 25 | ALSO | Laos in rebellion too? (4) |
| Laos* – not sure why the clue needs a question mark. | ||
| 27 | FLEE | Armada almost making escape (4) |
| Flee[t] | ||
*anagram
Rattled this off but enjoyed it very much. Like you, Neal, I have no children but, believe it or not, I was one once so remember the nursery rhyme well.
I don’t think ‘carpet’ for ‘reprimand’ is “slang”.
Spotted the Nina, which helped me get the anagram at 18d at first guess – not a term I remember seeing before.
Thanks to Tees and Neil, I mean Neal.
Thanks Neal and Tees.
Couldn’t agree more about 22 down. Whenever I wonder in future whether I could ever be a setter, I shall think of this clue and tell myself ‘never’. 🙂
Thanks Tees and Neal
Interesting that both LOTUS and CHARM appeared in last week’s FT Neo, the former being clued almost identically.
Like Hovis, we rattled this off, solving a lot of clues faster than we could write the answers in. Tees is obviously in a very benevolent mood today, which is as it should be for a Monday. We saw the nina when we were about two-thirds of the way through and it served to confirm some of the answers.
Too many great clues to nominate a CoD but honourable mentions to BEEFEATER, IN-OFF, EOCENE and DOMAIN.
One minor niggle – the repetition of ‘about’ in 17 and 21, but who’s worried!
Thanks, Tees and NealH.
Conrad@2: Don’t let the brilliance of 22dn put you off setting if you want to have a go. Clueing can be a bit tedious but then comes the occasional inspired moment which makes it all worthwhile. Not that I’ve set many, and they’ve only been for S&B events and on another crossword website.
I agree with exit. If you feel like settting then just have a go. You’ll probably find that at first the filling in of an empty grid will take the most time (unless you use a sofware aid).
When you’ve been solving for almost 50 years and setting for over 40 the difficulty is keeping the ideas fresh. 22dn is an old chestnut, but always makes me grin when I encounter it.
Nice puzzle – thought BEEFEATER was excellent.
Typo in 10A – parsing is R(epublican) in made*.
I’m with the majority, finding this very nice and not too hard. Spotting the nina in time for it to be of help added to the enjoyment.
Thanks Tees and Neal.
missed the nina, i didn’t look.
enjoyed this, gentle in parts with challenging bits elsewhere. I stupidly parsed nestling as an anagram of settling, with concerns about the indicator, but of course that doesn’t work at all. Thanks Neal for putting me right. Enjoyed beefeater & domain most. Also enjoyed grand piano.
Many thanks Tees