Thank you to Pasquale. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Primate in role, as protection against the enemy? (7)
PARAPET : APE(a primate – the mammal that’s not of the clerical sort) contained in(in) PART(a role, as in a play or movie).
5 The French going after instant sea food (6)
WINKLE : LE(French for the article “the”) placed after(going after) WINK(an instant of time, as in the time taken by a wink).
9 Alloy with which Gypsy plugs opening (8)
NICHROME : ROM(a gypsy man or boy) contained in(plugs) NICHE(an opening/a recess, like one in a columbarium).
Defn: … of nickel and chrome.
10 Agree about journalist being taken in by star (6)
ACCEDE : [C(abbrev. for “circa”/about in reference to a year or era) + ED(abbrev. for “editor”/a journalist)] contained in(being taken in by) ACE(star/the best).
12 Structural weakness of fairly big tin potty (12)
FRANGIBILITY : Anagram of(… potty) FAIRLY BIG TIN.
15 Very soft bit of apple expanded (10)
PIANISSIMO : 2nd and 3rd letters of(bit of) “apple” in full/not abbreviated(expanded).
Defn: … as a musical direction to play very softly.
17 Atmosphere around sort of valley (3)
RIA : Reversal of(… around) AIR(atmosphere around the planet).
19 President once popular, having removed extremists (3)
IKE : “liked”(popular) minus its 1st and last letters(having removed extremists).
Defn: Nickname of a once US President.
20 Legal statement by Welby, maybe as a precaution (4,2,4)
JUST IN CASE : CASE(a legal statement/an agreed summary of the facts relating to a legal case put up for consideration by a higher court) placed after(by) JUSTIN(Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury for example/maybe).
22 Ten fools, cavorting with glee, lose all inhibitions (3,7,2)
LET ONESELF GO : Anagram of(…, cavorting …) [TEN FOOLS plus(with) GLEE].
26 Very little vigour when one’s absorbed bacterium (6)
VIBRIO : [V(abbrev. for “very”) + BRIO(vigour in style or performance)] containing(…’s absorbed) I(Roman numeral for “one”).
Defn: … including that which causes cholera.
27 Musical phrase, last thing from radio station to be played (8)
OSTINATO : Anagram of(… to be played) [last letter of(last thing from) “radio” + STATION].
Defn: … that is repeated continually.
28 We hear No 1 songs (6)
LIEDER : Homophone of(We hear) “leader”(No 1/the chief).
Defn: … of German origin.
29 Plant that’s crimson gets weak in time when secluded (7)
RAGWEED : RED(crimson colour) containing(gets … when secluded) [W(abbrev. for “weak” in particle physics) contained in(in) AGE(a long period of time)].
Down
1, 2 Joke doddery oldie heard in musical form (4,4)
PUNK ROCK : PUN(a joke/a play on words) + homophone of(… heard) “crock”(a doddery oldie/a feeble old person).
2 See 1
3 Artist has left it for framing? (8)
PORTRAIT : RA(abbrev. for “Royal Academician”, a member of the Royal Academy of Arts, an artist) contained in(has … for framing) [PORT(the left side of a ship) + IT].
Answer: The “it” in the whole clue.
4 Athenian character penned by dramatist — I’m one (5)
TIMON : Hidden in(penned by) “dramatist — I’m one“.
Answer: … of Athens, a legendary misanthrope.
6 Island is area for Greek character to occupy (6)
ISCHIA : [IS + A(abbrev. for “area”)] containing(for … to occupy) CHI(the 22nd letter of the Greek alphabet).
Defn: … in the Bay of Naples.
7 Pirate out of place in part of ship, be honest (4,2,4)
KEEP IT REAL : Anagram of(… out of place) PIRATE contained in(in) KEEL(the lengthwise structural part at the base of a ship).
8 Old comic publication seen as abrasive (5,5)
EMERY PAPER : EMERY(Dick, the late radio and television comedian/actor) + PAPER(short for a newspaper/a publication).
Defn: … as a noun.
11 Fate encountered after short embrace (6)
KISMET : MET(encountered) placed below(after, in a down clue) “kiss”(an embrace, though the latter may or may not involve a kiss or even an air kiss) minus its last letter(short …).
13 Rent flat with floors at different heights (5-5)
SPLIT-LEVEL : SPLIT(rent/torn) + LEVEL(flat/smooth).
14 Dish and item of furniture that may be put on list of inventions (10)
PATENTABLE : PATEN(a shallow plate or dish) plus(and) TABLE(an item of furniture).
Defn: … setting out the rights granted to the inventor.
16 Snub in game (6)
SQUASH : Double defn: 1st: To humiliate.
18 Second drink and girl’s beginning amorous activity (8)
SNOGGING : S(abbrev. for “second” in time notation) + NOGGIN(a small quantity of alcoholic drink) plus(and) 1st letter of(…’s beginning) “girl“.
21 Trendy Parisian quickly making request for company (6)
INVITE : IN(trendy/in fashion) + VITE(a Parisian’s translation of the English “quickly”).
23 Tricky roles for one always taking second place? (5)
LOSER : Anagram of(Tricky) ROLES.
24, 25 Was successful, like a reluctantly disciplined child? (4,4)
MADE GOOD : Like an unruly child who has been disciplined/made to be well-behaved, perhaps reluctantly by a parent. OR What an unruly child had to do, viz. repair/recompense for damage after being, perhaps reluctantly, disciplined.
25 See 24
Thanks Pasquale and scchua
I was on Pasquale’s wavelength today, so this didn’t take long. Favourite was PARAPET, as I built it up from its parts then realised the misleading definition.
I hadn’t heard of ROM, only ROMA for “gypsy”.
Not too keen on the looseness of “bit of apple” to give the PP for 15a. Also, isn’t “popular” doing double duty in 19a, both to give “liked” and to indicate IKE rather than Eisenhower?
Oh, and I thought for some time that the “dish” in 14d was “pate”, leaving a missing N, until I looked up “paten”.
A remarkably approachable Pasquale I thought – not too many obscurities. “paten” was new to me but guessable once “patent” was clear, “ischia” had to be built up bit by bit but the crossers helped. Some neat anagrams helped get started, and some lovely surfaces (“snogging” for example) made this more enjoyable than I’ve found the Don’s puzzles in the past.
Tip of the hat to “frangibility” which shares a Latin root (“frangere”, to break) with “refraction” the physics phenomenon where light changes direction on changing medium which causes a straw placed in a glass of water (or gin…) to appear broken at the surface.
Muffin @1 and @2 ditto re “pp”, not really well-defined and ditto re “pate”!
BTW forgot to say “thank you” to scchua for the blog of many pictures…lovely work.
Thanks both,
A bit strong on the GK today. Ischia, ria,vibtrio,ostinato being among the most obscure perhaps.
‘Vibrio’
Completed this at a steady pace, and enjoyed a lot of it, but ended with a few queries.
“Bit of apple” was indeed a bit soft, though clever to get such a long answer from such small fodder, ROM was new to me, as indeed was NICHROME, though the clue is fair, and Roma is more familiar.
RIA, VIBRIO, PATEN (I thought it might be PATE and an undiscovered N) also gave opportunities to learn something new.
RAGWEED was a plausible and fairly clued guess. I thought “weak” for W was weak, but I’m not as up on particle physics as I might be.
I missed the recompensing overtones of MADE GOOD.
Loved WINKLE, PORTRAIT and TIMON.
Thanks Don and Scchua.
As is often with the Don, too much to like here. Special mentions to 20ac (remindes me of the joke, “Do you think it’s wise to call him Justin, Mrs Time?”
Lots of new learning – “FRANGIBILITY” (of course, I was trying by Procrustean methods to fit “FRAGILITY” in there… ), “VIBRIO”….
Loved the blog, especially “the mammal that’s not of the clerical sort” – very inventive, you should compile crosswords, scchua…. (perhaps you do)
LOI was “PUNK ROCK”, perhaps because being a “crock” I had a mental block against it….
I thought a musical theme was emerging after OSTINATO, PIANISSIMO and LIEDER emerged, but perhaps those reflect the compiler’s knwledge domain? I’m sure if I tried to compile a crossword it would include many words from my (very) particular areas of expertise.
Ta v much pasquale and scchua
I agree with the commenter at @1, pianissimo is loosely clued. I was generally enjoying the crossword until only that and ‘squash’ were left, and stayed that way for a long time. I don’t like ‘squash’ much either- perhps i had been misdirected, but i don’t see squash and snub as synonymous, nor really is squash a game though you do play games of it. Bar these two it had been an enjoyable, steady solve.
I missed PATENTABLE and WINKLE and wasn’t sure about PIANISSIMO. For JUST IN CASE I’m embarrassed to admit I didn’t know who the Archbishop of Canterbury was and the name that instantly sprang to mind for ‘Welby’ was ‘Marcus’, of the MD variety.
Adding a couple of unknowns in NICHROME and FRANGIBILITY made this quite hard work.
Thanks to Pasquale and scchua – liked the pics, especially Dick Emery
@5&6 Tyngewick
Agree about the general knowledge, though all fairly clued and it’s always good to expand one’s knowledge! I also wonder how familiar Justin Welby and Dick Emery will be to non-UK solvers.
Ditto with Tyngewkck re the alloy, the valley, the germ and the musical phrase, plus a few ‘vaguelies’: frangibility, the island, and Dick Emery. But all good, gettable, so chapeau to the Don’s great cluing. Ike always evokes cartoons (Vicky?) of him golfing in plus fours. A few gimmes like parapet, kismet and invite helped lubricate a most enjoyable solve. Punk rock was cool, along with many others. Lazy, didn’t look up paten, so came here to find out where the ‘n’ after pate came from. Great pics as always scchua, thanks both.
Reading those I’ve crossed with, a couple more unparsed confessions: I too forgot about the Archbish and thought Marcus, and missed w as the weak force–should have sussed that. Clever Don as per…
I agree this was a very approachable Pasquale puzzle – and very enjoyable with the usual smattering of words new to me NICHROME FRANGIBILITY VIBRIO OSINATO but all very gettable. I liked all the clues mentioned already but my favourite was PUNK ROCK for the image of doddery oldies pogoing that came to my mind. Thanks to Pasquale and to scchua for the colourful blog.
…Very soft, supple, middle expanded…?
As expected with this setter, I learned several new words today, all those listed by WhiteKing @14 along with RIA and ISCHIA. I got all of those thanks to Pasquale’s excellent cluing, but stumbled on PIANISSIMO and couldn’t parse it even after revealing it. I agree with those who have called it loose, but thanks to Scchua for the explanation and to Pasquale for the usual enjoyable experience.
I knew about Justin, but had to look up Dr Marcus Welby, who was the lead character in an American TV serial 1969-76. Seems that it was one of the first series featuring a doctor, and that real practitioners began to notice a ‘Marcus Welby syndrome’, whereby people would turn up in their surgeries on the morning after an episode, claiming to have the symptoms of the condition that Dr Marcus had been treating on TV. Oh – and thankyou, Pasquale and scchua, enjoyed it despite missing a couple which it would be embarrassing to identify.
I wasn’t quite aware of Dick Emery, and made it ‘emer.’ for ‘old’ plus ‘Y’ which I imagined to be the title of a comic book series, which it apparently is.
Had ‘paté’ for dish, the ‘n’ just representing ‘and’ as in dish ‘n’ furniture item.
Oh well.
And yes, ginf @15, that would have been better.
Well, I tried a Pasquale without any references to hand, and I nearly finished it! I failed on what was, for me, a ‘double obscurity’ clue at 9a, as I have never come across either ROM or NICHROME before. That stopped me from getting 1d/2d too, which with their crossers was easily gettable.
I liked the ‘?’ in 23d LOSER, as a loser is not necessarily one who comes second. I also liked very much the clues for 27a OSTINATO, 3d PORTRAIT and 13d SPLIT-LEVEL.
Thanks to Pasquale and scchua.
I’m not convinced by W=Weak “in particle physics”. The W Boson might be a carrier of the weak force but so is the Z. And I don’t think people talk (or write) of the W and S forces, they’re the weak and the strong.
Finished early but dinner etc got in the way here around the time of the blog publication. So I am late to the party.
I always love your pictorial accompaniment, scchua. Thank you for the enhanced blog.
I really enjoyed this solve, so thank you to Pasquale. I gave extra ticks for PUNK ROCK at 1 and 2 down. I thought FRANGIBILITY, my FOI, was a beautiful word.
Is that Marcus Welby phenomenon something like Stockholm Syndrome, Harhop@17?
Nice gentle solve, with PORTRAIT a favourite today. For a short while wrestled with COCKLE as an (incorrect) alternative to WINKLE.
The only thing I have to add to what’s been said already is that I thought 17a RIA a perfectly good clue, but with a nasty characteristic. I say that because it is of the form THING1 OPERATION THING2 and there is no way to know if the definition is given by THING1 or THING2 without crossers, even if you’ve figured out everything else about the clue.
Dr. W @24, I understand your point and have been bothered by such clues in the past, but this one seems okay to me. ‘Atmosphere around’ strikes me as a more likely wordplay instruction than ‘around sort of valley,’ although I’ll admit that’s a subjective judgment.
Dr. WhatsOn @24
I agree with you about 17a RIA. I believe one of the principles of cryptic clueing is that the answer is unique, and if there is a dual it is a blemish. Unlike straight clues in non-cryptic crosswords, they should not depend on crossers to decide which one of multiple solutions is the intended (correct) one.
Another example of elegant setting from The Don.
A dnf for me strictly as I had CAME GOOD instead of MADE GOOD.
New words include FRANGIBILITY, RIA, & VIBRIO which, in common with all good crossword clues, were still perfectly soluble.
Many thanks both, nice week, all.
I’d actually parsed 14d as PATE ‘N’ TABLE with the n as ‘and’ as in rock ‘n’ roll. I didn’t know paten was a dish.
Thanks to scchua and Pasquale
I took 15a as an instruction – Expand the bit of “apple” that means “very soft”.
Pasquale is usually quite rigorous with his cluing and I don’t think he would indicate “2nd and 3rd letters” by “bit off”.
Quite liked this and it was just right for me confined as I am to the sofa having put my back out. Inevitably there were new words- FRANGIBILITY, RIA and VIBRIO but nothing too difficult to get. Liked JUST IN CASE.
Thanks Pasquale.
Dansar @29: Yes, me too. I once went to a crossword-setting workshop at which he was presenting, and recall him saying that setters who clued, for example, ‘T’ as “first train” were ‘surely destined to burn in hell’.
A little harsh perhaps but I took his point to heart.
Dansar@29, re 15a.
To clarify, my reference to the 2nd and 3rd letters was to identify, in explanation, which “bit of apple” is used in the wordplay, and not to suggest that the setter is cluing the 2nd and 3rd letters per se.
scchua @32
I wasn’t thinking of the blog when I posted, but of various comments (nnnpd), labelling the clue “loose” and “vague”.
Was anyone else confused by niche = opening in 9a ? The word’s origins go back to the idea of nesting, hence somewhere that is cosy, surrounded and ‘closed’. An unplugged niche wouldn’t be a niche.
I’m a physicist, and I don’t recall ever seeing W used as an abbreviation for “weak”. It’s true that there is a W particle, and that particle is associated with the weak force, and I suppose it’ possible that it was originally called the W particle because of this association, but as bdg @21 says, the Z particle also carries the weak force, and there are lots of other particles whose names don’t stand for anything, so I don’t think we can rely on that fact for justification. My dictionaries don’t include this abbreviation, although as usual this may mean that I don’t have the right dictionaries.
I also don’t understand the function of “when secluded” in this clue, or of “reluctantly” in 24d.
Other than these quibbles, I found this a very enjoyable puzzle, not easy by any means, but all the more satisfying when it eventually yielded.
Thanks Pasquale and scchua
Ted @ 35
Chambers has WEAK as its first definition for W (“or W.”.
‘Secluded’, as I see it, is in the sense of being contained in isolation.
And ‘a reluctantly disciplined child’ is one who has been made to be good after some transgression, rather than one who is good ab initio.
Me @ 36: insert missing parenthesis.
I don’t care if they are “gettable”, I really hate these obscurities. Sucks the fun out of it for me, especially when compared to yesterday’s much fairer offering.
Enjoyed this, but as a relative beginner I sometimes cheat a bit with the “check” button rather than leaving unfinished. Often more confused by the blogs rather than the puzzles (what does TheZed mean by ” and some lovely surfaces”?) but find the explanations enlightening and the admissions of confusion reassuring. Thanks to all.
Unlike @38Oofyprosser, I find the acquisition of new words (like today’s VIBRIO) one of the incidental joys of solving. Not being much of a purist, I am happy to check in the dictionary after guessing to see if they really exist, and consider myself blessed if they do.
My favourites were KEEP IT REAL, PORTRAIT.
New for me were NICHROME, VIBRIO, and ‘paten’ = plate or dish.
Thanks B+S.
Annoyingly got stuck on the NICHROME / PUNK ROCK corner after breezing through the rest, and had to cheat. PUNK ROCK reminds me that Škoda’s replcament for the Yeti is called the Karoq. I still can’t work out if that’s meant to be a joke.
Im surprised how many NICROME was unfamiliar too. In school chemistry, nichrome wires are used for flame tests – the wire is heated then dipped in a little of the unknown powder, then put back in the flame. Some metal cations give characteristic colours to the flame (everyone is familiar with the golden-yellow of sodium, I expect).
Thanks for the information, Simon S @36!
The Chambers that’s available on line at chambers.co.uk does not include “w = weak”, but that’s just further evidence that this is not the One True Chambers. I bought the Chambers app at one point, but it’s only available on a device that I don’t always have with me when solving. I need to remedy this situation.