Thanks to Pasquale. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1. Dog eating two thousand caterpillars? Only one! (7)
CUTWORM : CUR(an aggressive dog, especially a mongrel) containing(eating) TWO + M(Roman numeral for “thousand”).
5. Remain at Oxford maybe and don’t retire (4,2)
STAY UP : STAY(to remain/not move away) + UP(at/studying at a university, maybe Oxford U).
Defn: … to sleep.
9. Quality of authentic meal being reported (8)
PROPERTY : Homophone of(… being reported) “proper tea”(an authentic/genuine meal taken in the afternoon).
Defn: …/a characteristic.
10. Gold container — on the inside black and a sort of red (6)
AUBURN : [AU(symbol for the chemical element, gold) + URN(a container/a tall rounded vase)] containing… on the inside) B(abbrev. for “black”).
12. Displaying guile, Oscar is terribly irreverent (12)
SACRILEGIOUS : Anagram of(Displaying … terribly) GUILE, OSCAR IS.
15. Obstructive international organisation attended by soldier wearing flashy stuff (10)
UNOBLIGING : UNO(abbrev. for the international United Nations Organisation) plus(attended by) GI(nickname for a US soldier) contained in(wearing) BLING(flashy stuff/expensive and showy possessions as an indication of wealth or status, including such jewelry).
17, 19. Hooligan facing test, all about being female, not ladylike (6)
TOMBOY : Reversal of(…, all about) [YOB(a hooligan/a lout) plus(facing) MOT(a test undergone by road vehicles in the UK to prove their roadworthiness).
19. See 17
20. Like the Queen’s coach, moving her onwards (5-5)
HORSE-DRAWN : Anagram of(moving) HER ONWARDS.
22. Take a risk, as a tree surgeon might? (2,3,2,1,4)
GO OUT ON A LIMB : A tree surgeon might literally do this while performing his/her job.
26. In one’s element here! (6)
INDIUM : The chemical element whose symbol is IN.
27. Herb providing revenue for the farmer, we hear? (8)
AGRIMONY : Homophone of(…, we hear) “agri-money”(what one might call revenue obtained from agriculture as practised by a farmer).
28. Loud crone holding gentleman back (6)
GARISH : Reversal of(… back) [HAG(a crone/an old ugly woman) containing(holding) SIR(a form of address for a gentleman)].
Defn: …/obtrusively showy.
29. What may help car to restoration of power (3,4)
TOW ROPE : TO + anagram of(restoration of) POWER.
Defn: … that has broken down/is powerless.
Down
1. Hat on old Mafia boss (4)
CAPO : CAP(a hat/headwear) placed above(on, in a down clue) O(abbrev. for “old”).
2, 18. Thought badly and used 23 4 ineffectively? (4,1,3,4)
TOOK A DIM VIEW : If a photographer used a light meter/solution to 23,4 ineffectively/wrongly, then he/she might have taken a photo that turned out dark/dim.
3. Like the supreme ruler with the ultimate in sumptuous loose attire (8)
OVERALLS : [OVER ALL](descriptive of/like the supreme/highest of all, ruler) plus(with) last letter of(the ultimate in) “sumptuous“.
4. See 23
6. The lowly worker — being released, he’d plod on (6)
TRUDGE : [“The” + “drudge”(the lowly worker/one given menial and tedious labour] minus(being released…) “he’d“.
7. Accusation delivered to silent person that is so obvious! (3,4,3)
YOU DON’T SAY! : Cryptically, what one might accuse a person of doing, or rather, not doing, ie. keeping silent and not saying anything.
Defn: Expression in response to being told something …
8. Joke this bad keeps chaps hiding? (10)
PUNISHMENT : PUN(a joke/a play on words) + anagram of(… bad) THIS containing(keeps) MEN(chaps/fellows).
Defn: A form of which/? is a …
11. Bits of mischief with Left ousting Right to establish political platforms (6)
PLANKS : “pranks”(bits of mischief/practical jokes) with “l”(abbrev. for “left”) replacing(ousting) “r”(abbrev. for “right”).
13. Like a tight garment for Spooner, being deceptive (10)
HUMBUGGING : Spoonerism of “bum-hugging”(descriptive of/like a tight-fitting garment round one’s buttocks).
14. Old-fashioned printer needed this — as in lithographic op? Yes? (10)
COPYHOLDER : What one might describe/as in, “lithographic op? Yes“, which contains/holds “copy”.
Defn: A device holding in place copy/matter to be printed, while it is being worked on, before going to press.
16. Venue offering good game of golf? (6)
GROUND : G(abbrev. for “good”) + ROUND(a game of golf consisting to 18 holes played).
18. See 2
21. Drinks in barrels dodgy dealer smuggled in ship (6)
STOUTS : TOUT(a dodgy dealer/one who buys tickets to an event to resell them at a profit) contained in(smuggled in) SS(abbrev. for “steam ship”, as used in the names of such craft).
23, 4. Eminent person came face to face with the monarch — photographer’s got it? (5,5)
LIGHT METER : LIGHT(an eminent person, as in “a leading light in the industry”) + MET(came face to face with someone) + ER(abbrev. for “Elizabeth Regina”, the UK monarch).
24. Traveller in a VW (4)
POLO : Double defn: 1st: Marco, the Venetian merchant who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road; and 2nd: A model of car manufactured by the VW/Volkswagen Group.
25. Old city band on the road (4)
TYRE : Double defn: 1st: … in Phoenicia, now a city in current Lebanon; 2nd: …/the band of rubber, mostly, where the car meets the road.
Sadly a DNF for me today because I misspelled SACRILEGIOUS 🙁 but cobro managed a perfect score.
Did not know AGRIMONY or CUTWORM but managed to get the correct answer through parsing.
Favourites were OVERALLS and PUNISHMENT.
Thanks B & S
Thanks both. I think that 6d is HE’D being released from THE DRUDGE
Thanks to Pasquale. I liked this one. I know some others don’t enjoy clues that are sayings/turns of phrase, but I do. So here I had ticks for 22a GO OUT ON A LIMB and 2,18d TOOK A DIM VIEW. When I solved the latter, it confirmed that 23,4d was LIGHT METER, although I have only heard of that meaning of “light” in conjunction with “leading”, as scchua said. I laughed aloud at 13d HUMBUGGING. Thanks also to scchua for the blog – the visual cues/clues are always welcome.
With regard to 6 down I parsed it as THE DRUDGE less HED. Not that it makes any difference to the solution! Thanks to Pasquale for the work-out and to scchua for the blog
That was hard work. FOI 1d and DNK 1a. Loved the long phrases and had very lucky guesses on all of them – I obviously talk in idioms too much!
Good Thursday fun – thanks Pasquale and scchua!
I parsed TRUDGE as ‘the drudge’ (the lowly worker) with ‘hed’ going (being released) leaving definition ‘plod on’. May be wrong but it got me there. Never thought of Barnaby.
Thanks Pasquale and scchua
Thanks for parsing 6dn, Scchua. I could not see how drudge became trudge. I still am a bit sceptical about “the Rudge” but it works. (I get the Dicks ref but on checking I cannot find rudge being other than a variation of ridge – but the urban dictionary has a more interesting and disturbing offer.) Thanks for a great crossword – not too difficult but enough of a challenge.
[Julie in Australia @3 – I love the long phrases!!!]
Brojo @ 1 – I initially misspelled SACRILEGIOUS, something to do with mistakenly associating it with the word “religion” rather than “sacrilege”.
I see responses 2, 4 and 6 have got a more convincing versions of the parsing of 4d. I take too long to type…
Thanks Shirl for pointing out my fail (I had thought about drudge but I took it to mean the labour itself and not the labourer). Blog amended.
Isn’t 29a TO + (ROPE)* ?
Auriga. You mean TO + (POWER)*. I was just about to post that.
Thanks Auriga. Blog amended.
I mean TO + (POWER)*
Oops! all crossed up.
I do find clues like 20ac, where the definition, the anagrind and the letters to be anagrammed all form part of a completely natural and unforced sentence, particularly neat.
I, too, liked 13dn. Though the solution was yet another reminder of what a loathsome specimen the Dear Leader is at times – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsLd5yWqVOI
When I see Pasquale’s name I’m always prepared for words I’ve never encountered before, and frequently find myself DNF-ing as a result.
Today however I had the same experience as brojo @1: the only two unknowns were CUTWORM and AGRIMONY, and both were nicely gettable from the crossers and wordplay.
TRUDGE came much more easily than it might have done, because I still had A HARMLESS DRUDGE fresh in my memory from Crucible’s masterpiece last week.
But my Clue of the Day pick goes to 3d. The surface conjures up images of sultans and maharajas in long flowing robes, and then what’s the answer? OVERALLS ! Brilliant clue.
Many thanks Pasquale and scchua.
Well I had ROYAL TRAIN for 20a. It then baffled me for 2 and 18d. But entirely my fault. I just got overconfident as it fitted so many crossers. 1a and 3D also defeated me. Definitely a DNF. Hope things go better tomorrow.
As I had IS instead of GO for 22ac, took a long while to realise I was mistaken and therefore HUMBUGGING loi. Not knowing CUTWORM meant that NW corner didn’t yield easily. Liked the PUNISHMENT clue. Thanks Scchua and Pasquale.
Thanks Pasquale and scchua
Mostly straightforward, though I didn’t parse TRUDGE. Favourites were CUTWORM and LOI PROPERTY.
I don’t see how “in barrels” fits in to 21. I wondered if it was a reference to a stout person being barrel-shaped?
I don’t think LIGHT by itself gives “eminent person”.
There’s no wordplay for POLO; just two bits of GK.
Omg and Well I never, of course 12ac is from sacrilege, not religious, and I’ve said it wrongly all my life! Apart from that embarassment (not alone it seems), this was quite nice from the Don. Wondered about the O in UNO, and the actual def for Indium, but liked the neat indicator for horse-drawn. Fooled for a bit by 3d which turned out to be simple, and 14d was a wot?..never used one. Like JinA, wondered whether ‘light’ could stand alone without ‘leading’, and forgot about the VW Polo, so Marco took a bit of dredging via the check button…more embarrassment as he’s a cw standard. GoD (Groan of [the] Day) split between proper tea and tyre. All fun, ta Pasquale and Scchua.
A DNF for me today, as CUTWORM is new to me. Fun, though!
Thanks to scchua and Pasquale.
Like JinA, I liked the long phrases and I had ticks for CUTWORM (which I’d never heard of but enjoyed working it out) and 8dn PUNISHMENT, again for its construction.
25dn reminded me of a brilliant Rufus clue. (I’ve looked it up and it was twelve years ago (!) but it’s in my book of classic clues: ‘Gluttons may have one; Alexander the Great didn’t (5,4)’)
NeilH @17 – many thanks for your comment, beautifully expressed. I agree with every word of it.
I knew COPYHOLD from history lessons as an obsolete type of property “ownership”.
The Don in whimsical mood this morning…much fun…loved bumhugging!
Had to look up the spelling of SACRILEGIOUS and realised I’ve had the etymology wrong all these years. Always assumed it was some combo of sacred and religious, but see that its second root lies in legere = to take, hence to take something sacred. No wonder I couldn’t spell it.
Lovely stuff as usual from this master-setter.
Like others, I was stumped by CUTWORM, but it was my only DNF. Enjoyed many clues, including TYRE, HUMBUGGING and especially INDIUM.
Unlike everyone else, I know how to spell SACRILEGIOUS though. :p
Pasquale is never a disappointment. Thanks Don and scchua
A good challenge, and enjoyable. But I couldn’t work out the wordplay for INDIUM — can anyone explain for me?
Down under, humbugging can mean begging .. doubtless nothing to do with ‘bum’ in the Spoonerism 🙂
re: @28 — Oh! OK, OK. The leading “In” = the chemical symbol for INDIUM; hence the “here” wording. (Not sure about “one’s”, which could translate to IM = “I’m”?)
Boffo @27. I hopeless at all things horticultural (and have zero interest) so I’m not suprised this was an DNK for me, but I just checked with one of my US co-workers who tells me that CUTWORM is very common there. Which makes me wonder if Pasquale has a North American connection (although “PROPER TEA” which was a laugh-out-loud would say not…)
An enjoyable and not too tricky crossword despite not knowing CUTWORM, AGRIMONY and COPYHOLDER , these being gettable though with a couple of crossers and the word play. I liked the interplay of LIGHT METER and TOOK A DIM VIEW.
I was only able to spell sacrilegious correctly by ensuring I’d used up the letters in the anagrist as I’d have instinctively spelled it wrongly.
I seem to remember CAPO appearing recently and POLO was also familiar.
Many thanks to Pasquale and scchua. Loved HUMBUGGING. Eileen, thanks for the Rufus memory.
I would have said this was on the very easy side for Pasquale – except that a couple of glitches made this a DNF. I guess I am far from alone in the 12a one, but I also had one of my very own – COPYFOLDER.
Eileen @24, I’m sure I’ve put in that answer, the one that solves the Rufus clue, but can’t believe it was 12 years ago…
I did exactly as Pentman @32 suggests, making sure I had used up all the anagrist and only the anagrist, but I still managed to spell SACRILEGIOUS wrong! [I used to be really good at spelling, but since starting to use a computer keyboard instead of a pen (25 years ago?) I have got progressively worse. That’s no excuse in this case, as I complete the crossword in the paper, but it’s a general trend.]
I was held up by having bodyhugging for Spooner’s tight garment, but got there eventually. CUTWORM was an “if all else fails” job (see Tuesday’s 1d, etc), but I only got there after seeing that the word TWO (rather than two Ms=MM) would fit nicely between the initial letters of 2d and 3d. It’s not often that a word in the clue also appearing in the answer could be called deceptive…
I know, grant. 🙁
Yes, bumhugging was chuckleworthy.
[Why do socialists drink herbal tea? Because proper tea is theft.
That’s an old one! You don’t say.]
In our house, standard British style tea is known as “theft” as “all proper tea is theft “
I would have got 27a sooner if I didn’t mentally pronounce it as a-GRIM-ony rather than agri-money (I don’t think I’ve ever had occasion to say it aloud, so nobody has ever had the chance to correct me). Need I say that of course I couldn’t spell SACRILEGIOUS either?
Thanks sccchua for parsing TRUDGE.
gladys @40
Your pronunciation is the only one I’ve ever heard – it makes the clue a bit loose, doesn’t it?
Alas too many write-ins, obvious anagrams etc, so over very quickly. But one or two amusing clues (PUNISHMENT, PLANKS, INDIUM etc) and who could help guffawing at HUMBUGGING – old Dr William Archibald is only known to have made one such remark, yet crossword setters have been taking his name in vain ever-after – where would they be without him. By the way, I’m not about to apply for membership in the homophone-cops, but PROPERTY ! – really?
Great crossword; 13d unusually ribald for Pasquale, though only mildly so, and it raised a laugh.
Both Chambers and Wiktionary (a great resource, if you haven’t already discovered it) list only the pronunciation AGrimony, with the stress on the first syllable. But as it’s a word that few people ever have occasion to say out loud, it’s perfectly understandable that there should be doubt about it.
Eileen @24: Ho-ho! Just got it! What a beauty.
So 20a wasn’t royal train after all? (Queen’s coach moving her onwards)
A gem of a puzzle, though my own experience was diminished a bit by POLO. I never heard of that VW model and wonder if it is sold here, so I had an equally unparsed HOBO for the traveler. Thanks to scchua for clearing that up and also for explaining the MOT in TOMBOY and the O in UNOBLIGING.
Can I question the definition for 5d? The blog says;
5. Remain at Oxford maybe and don’t retire (4,2)
STAY UP : STAY(to remain/not move away) + UP(at/studying at a university, maybe Oxford U).
Defn: … to sleep.
Shouldn’t the defintion be “to not sleep” or have missed something?
MaidenBartok @47. You are quite right. It looks like everyone else has done what I did and not bothered to read that part of the blog (or not read it carefully, anyway) because this was one of the more obvious clues. I would have used “not go to bed” rather than “not sleep”, because it’s quite possible to retire for the night but not get a wink of sleep.
MaidenBartok@47: I don’t understand your query. STAY UP = don’t retire.
Nice puzzle. Like someone else I misspelt SACRILEGIOUS.
Gervase @43
My wife, who’s a botanist, always calls it aGRIMony – that’s where I’ve heard it.
Maidenbartok @47
If you don’t retire (to bed), you STAY UP?
Ah! A typo in the blog, not the clue.
MaidenBartok @47, note the ellipsis in the blog. Scchua is clarifying the definition as “don’t retire … to sleep.”
It was hard for me to get started on this puzzle. I found it quite difficult. There is a good chance that I am getting dumber due to the pandemic situation 🙁
Liked PROPERTY; TYRE (loi).
New: COPYHOLDER (and could not parse it); INDIUM (and could not parse it, although I spotted the hidden COPY); CUTWORM.
Thanks, B+S
Re 5d…nothing wrong with the clue nor the blog. I use ellipsis to denote the definition part of the clue, throughout the blog. Thus:
Defn: … to sleep = Defn: Don’t retire to sleep.
Thanks DaveinNCarololina. You were faster than I!
For what it’s worth, I tend to agree with the reservations about LIGHT equating to EMINENT. We hear quite a lot, understandably, about “leading lights”, whilst conveniently forgetting or ignoring the “lesser lights” toiling away at the lower levels -’twas ever thus, of course.
[That is a revolutionary thought which might encourage me, in homage to Penfold, Arib and Proudhon, to refer to my favourite brew as “theft” from now on.]
scchua @54 – understood! Thanks.
Missed CUTWORM and AGRIMONY but it looks like I’m in good company — overall I enjoyed this with PROPERTY, GARISH, and PLANKS being favourites. I agree with Neil @17 on the beauty of 20a. Thanks to P & S.
@ Penfold et al I love theft. CUTWORM is the first time I have ever got to a word I didn’t know before just from the word play. I’m another SACRILEGIOUS misspeller. Still not totally convinced by INDIUM
Thanks both,
Was it only me reminded of Michael Flanders’ translation of the the German National Anthem as ‘German, German overalls’?
Fewer obscurities than usual for Pasquale. I echo the praise for 20a HORSE-DRAWN, so smooth and neat.
muffin @21: isn’t it just because stout comes in barrels?
Eileen @24: thanks for the Rufus clue, very good. But I wonder how many people these days would know of Alexander’s connection with Tyre? Although the clue dates from 2008, it seems to hark back to an earlier time when the average crossword solver could be expected to have been educated in the classics.
Similarly I wonder if people do still talk of being “up” at university (5a), and of being “sent down”, of going “up” to London, and so on?
Many thanks Pasquale and scchua.
I used to work in a herb shop and we always called it aGRIMony.
Here’s another one – how do you pronounce biopic? OED says BIopic but biOPic is much more satisfying.
Thanks both, enjoyed this after a completely blank start!
I enjoyed this, especially the deceptive simplicity of GROUND and CAPO, whilst STOUTS HORSE-DRAWN were both very satisfying.
[In the part of France where I live it’s tricky getting hold of good quality drinkeable British tea (they have a product they call “English Breakfast”: dog’s dinner would be nearer the mark) but the worst of all offerings is some brownish powder called Lipton’s Yellow Label. We’ve always called it Marx’s Brew because, of course, he himself would never have drunk proper tea…]
Lord Jim, I may well be beaten to this, but it is – or was – Oxbridge types who were most likely to speak of going “up” to varsity. The rest of us generally described the journey from home to university by using whichever direction was geographically appropriate.
Thanks to Pasquale and to Scchua
Re: 21d, did no one else think that “barrels” was superfluous? I drink mine from cans and bottles and it didn’t add to the clue (for me) except, perhaps, to indicate it was an alcoholic drink.
A great puzzle all the same. A couple I couldn’t parse and I needed a word search for HUMBUGGING (never heard that usage) and so, technically, a dnf. 20a was a jewel of a clue.
Thanks to Pasquale and to scchua
[wellbeck @63 – There is only one liquid weaker than Lipton’s Yellow Tea and polite company stops me from mentioning this. In the US, we had a Keurig machine with Twinnings English Breakfast “pods” which was undrinkable filthy muck. In France it is not helped by being given a limp teabag and luke-warm water – ugh…]
A “CAPO” is also the device used to change the tuning of the open strings on guitar (or similar) meaing “Head.”
[MaidenBartok at 65: I completely agree!
I wonder if that’s why they chose to call it Yellow Label?…]
Tyngewick @60 – I certainly hope so. It might have been funny once, but that verse of the German national anthem has been outlawed in Germany since 1945. I do wish we Brits could move with the times.
Not sold on O=organization in UNO… seems too blunt. There’s a UN Orchestra, or (more to my liking) one might see int. org. as a UN branch or subunit, some of which are Offices, i.e UNOxxx.
Like some, wondered re INDIUM, but taking “one’s” as “one has” helps. And like how one can also get there by “one’s element” = (1 has nitrogen) = (I + N) = In.
As a nature nerd, knew CUTWORM & AGRIMONY from hikes here and there 🙂
COTD: HORSE-DRAWN… delightful!
Thx to setter/blogger/commenters…
[ Re @60/67 – contrary to popular belief, the first and second stanzas of ‘Das Lied der Deutschen’ have never been outlawed in Germany – it’s just that only the third (‘Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit’) is now sung as the national anthem.
The origins of the song are liberal and republican, which is why all three stanzas were still considered an acceptable anthem for the Weimar Republic.
The first stanza is now wildly geographically inaccurate, and the second is cringingly (male) chauvinistic – but arguably neither is any more objectionable than parts of our own anthem, or indeed the blood lust of the Marseillaise. ]
[OddOtter @68: UNO, pronounced “you know”, featured in one of the “Kenneth Horne, master spy” spoofs they used to do on Round the Horne. If I remember rightly, Haverstrap of MI5 phoned Horne and announced “Horne, it’s Haverstrap. I’m in New York. My secretary Miss Golightly and I have been at UNO all day…”. Haverstrap also phoned Horne in another sketch involving the character Colonel Brown-Horrocks, saying “Ah Horne, it’s Haverstrap. I’ve got Brown-Horrocks on my extension”, to which Kenneth Horne replied: “Well, that’s your problem…”]
[Wellbeck @66 – you need to eat more beetroot]
Solved this without dictionary access, so failed on COPYHOLDER, my first two attempts being COPYPOWDER and COPYFOLDER.
For the UP in STAY UP I was thinking (Oxford) University Press, but the blog is probably right.
Thanks both.
I didn’t like the wording in the INDIUM clue much. OddOtter’s suggestion @68 of 1 + N doesn’t quite cut it for me, as this leads only to In, which is already in the clue, not to the actual entry, INDIUM. So I still see it as a sort of CD.
For HUMBUGGING, I think Pasquale could have been a bit more specific with, say “Like tight trousers for Spooner…”.
Re: LIGHT METER, Collins online has for LIGHT – “a person considered to be an authority or leader”, so I think the setter’s well covered here.
My favourite was 10, but HORSE DRAWN and TOW ROPE were high on the list too.
Good puzzle. Thanks, Pasquale and scchua.
Late to the blog again, having solved in the morning early, before it appeared. Loved this though there were a couple I did not parse and I still don’t understand INDIUM. To me it also looks like a CAD. I had STAYS UP as a DD: “stays up” at Oxford or Cambridge, say for the Easter vacation, and “stays up” and does not retire to bed. It would be nice to have CAPO as a musical term sometime instead of as a mafia boss. Thank you to sschua fir the explanations, especially of COPYHOLDER, and to Pasquale for the puzzle.
Oh and thanks to all who explained TRUDGE. Very clever!
essexboy@69:
There’s actually a very good third verse to the Brit National Anthem:
Not on this land alone,
but be God’s mercies known
on ev’ry shore.
Lord, make the nations see
that all humanity
should form one family
the wide world o’er.
It may look like something from a 1960s CND rally, but it was actually written by William Hickson in 1836 (slight modern amendments to make the language gender-inclusive).
Thanks NeilH. Amen to that.
Beobachterin @74 – with you on the musical terms being a musician although the mafia seems to be quite apt being a musician… jus’ sayin’
COPYHOLDER had me wondering if there was some other usage as round these parts there is a “Copyhold Lane” (near Haywards Heath) that is quite obviously ancient and potentially pre-dates printing.
And indeed there is relating to manorial rights possibly still in force:
“Before 1926, in addition to freehold land and tenanted land, there was also a form of tenure called copyhold. A copyholder held his rights in land from the lord of the manor and the lord of the manor had certain manorial rights which he could exercise over the land.
Some copyhold land was converted into freehold land in the nineteenth and early twentieth century and all remaining copyhold land was automatically enfranchised on 1 January 1926. When the land became freehold, certain manorial rights may have been reserved by the lords of the manor, mainly in connection with mines, minerals and sporting activities.”
https://www.roythorne.co.uk/site/blog/agricultural-blog/manorial-rights-should-you-be-worried-about-them
Struggled with the volkSWAGen clue. Initially thought SWAG might be a name for someone “on the road”. Ended up with HOBO but now accept that … in the UK at least … the POLO is the better known VW model! Many thanks, Pasquale.
I also had ROYAL TRAIN at 20a. It was such a good fit I never went back to it. I thought I’d try completing this at the weekend. This moring I gave up and looked at the solutions. No wonder I couldn’t finish!