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Thank you to Shabbo. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1. A few good-looking bananas dropped off (4)
SOME : “handsome”(good-looking/physically attractive) minus(… dropped off) “hand”(a bundle or cluster of bananas).
3. Open up a Conservative party – leadership of Boris is revoked (10)
ACCELERATE : A + C(abbrev. for the Conservative Party or a member of it) + “celebrate”(to acknowledge by holding a party, as was done by Boris in Downing Street) minus 1st letter of(leadership of … is revoked) “Boris“.
Defn: …/to widen the engine throttle of a motor vehicle, and thus, picking up speed.
10. Induct a couple of trainees at the end of this month (7)
INSTALL : [ A + L,L(a couple of the letter displayed by a trainee driver) ] placed after(at the end of) INST.(abbrev. for “instante mense”/Latin for “this month”).
11. In retrospect, rehearse for Phantom (7)
SPECTRE : Hidden in(In) “retrospect, rehearse“.
12. Daft to adopt city plan (7)
DIAGRAM : DIM(daft/not clever) containing(to adopt) AGRA(Indian city, site of the Taj Mahal).
13. Got rid of Times journalist (6)
ERASED : ERAS(long periods of time) + ED(abbrev. for “editor”, a journalist).
15. Watches bridge opponents struggle at first (5)
VIEWS : W,S(abbrev. for “West” and “South” respectively, representing players in opposing partnerships in the card game, bridge) placed after(… at first) VIE(to struggle/to fight for).
16. Glorified newspaper editor entertains drunken ladies (9)
IDEALISED : [ I(in lower case, the British national morning paper) + ED(abbrev. for “editor”) ] containing(entertains) anagram of(drunken) LADIES.
18. Get back together having never once fallen out (9)
RECONVENE : Anagram of(… fallen out) NEVER ONCE.
21. Freight container originally placed on old ship (5)
CARGO : 1st letter of(… originally) “container” plus(placed on) ARGO(in Greek mythology, the ship in which Jason and company sailed).
23. Foundation student abandons drunken Frenchman (6)
BOTTOM : “L”(letter displayed by a student driver) deleted from(abandons) [ “blotto”(extremely drunk) + M(abbrev. for “Monsieur”, a form of address for a Frenchman) ].
25. Question some emoticons ultimately (7)
CONSULT : Hidden in some () “emoticons ultimately“.
Defn: …/seek knowledge or advice from someone.
27. A uniform’s required to sit these? (1,6)
A LEVELS : A + LEVEL(uniform/with a even surface)‘S.
Defn: …/exams that one sits to obtain the Advanced Level Certificate in the UK.
28. Unproductive tiler working in Kent? (7)
STERILE : Anagram of(… working TILER) contained in(in) SE(abbrev. for “South East”, in this case, the region of England that includes Kent).
29. Academic Derby winner? (10)
CLASSICIST : Double defn: 1st: …/one who studies, in this case, the Classics, the ancient Greek and Roman cultures; and 2nd: What you might call the winner of The Derby, one of the British Classics horse races.
30. Audibly taunt supporters (4)
TEES : Homophone of(Audibly) “tease”(taunt/to make fun of).
Defn: …/small pegs on which golf balls are placed when driving off from the tee box.
Down
1. Film various people swimming under water (4-6)
SKIN-DIVERS : SKIN(film/a thin outer layer) + DIVERS(various/of several types).
Defn: … without using breathing apparatus.
Skin-diving for pearls:
2. Motorway hazard mix-up (7)
MISTAKE : MI(M1, the major motorway in England, with the Roman numeral substitution) + STAKE(to hazard/to risk something of value by gambling with it).
4. Flux discovered in pool plant (9)
COLUMBINE : Middle 2 letters of(… discovered) “Flux” contained in(in) COMBINE(to pool/to merge into a single unit).
Just 2 of the many varieties:
5. Follow relations leaving bathroom (5)
ENSUE : “en suite”(a bathroom that immediately adjoins a bedroom) minus(… leaving) “it”(slang for sexual intercourse/sexual relations).
6. Looker seen at Suffolk town dance (7)
EYEBALL : EYE(Suffolk market town) + BALL(a dance/a social function that includes dancing).
7. Put key in a lock for film star? (7)
ACTRESS : C(the key of C is a major scale in music) contained in(Put … in) [A + TRESS(a long lock of a woman’s hair) ].
8. Drawn game of rugby with both wings sent off (4)
EVEN : “sevens”(a game of seven-a-side rugby) minus its 1st and last letters(with both wings sent off).
Defn: …/describing a match with tied scores.
9. Graduate doctor regularly eats curry (6)
MADRAS : MA(abbrev. for “Master of Arts”, a graduate with that degree) + DR(abbrev. for “Doctor”) + 2nd and 4th letters of(regularly) “eats“.
Defn: A …/a dish of meat, fish or vegetables in hot curry sauce.
14. Changing into a dress shows finesse (10)
ADROITNESS : Anagram of(Changing) INTO A DRESS.
17. Uses taxes to protect the queen (9)
EXERCISES : EXCISES(taxes levied on certain goods and commodities) containing(to protect) ER(abbrev. for “Elizabeth Regina”, Queen Elizabeth).
19. Reportedly catch a disease (7)
CHOLERA : Homophone of(Reportedly) “collar”(to catch/to arrest, a criminal, say) + A.
20. Problems initially advanced at talks (7)
NATTERS : “matters”(problems/troubles, as used in, in the singular, “Is there something the matter with …?”) with its 1st letter moved one position forward in the alphabet(initially advanced).
21. Enforce endless changes to debate (6)
CONFER : Anagram of(… endless) [ “Enforce” minus its last letter(endless) ].
22. Way to describe batting performance (7)
ROUTINE : ROUTE(a way/a course to go from start to destination) containing(to describe) IN(in cricket, describing the team that is batting, as in “which side is in?”).
Defn: A set sequence making up a performance, a dance or comedy act, say.
24. Add up one hundred notes (5)
MUSIC : Reversal of(… up, in a down clue) SUM(to add up/to total) + I(Roman numeral for “one”) + C(Roman numeral for “hundred”).
Defn: A beautiful combination of … equating to vocal or instrumental sounds.
26. Runner-up gets brandy (4)
MARC : Reversal of(…-up) CRAM(Steve, a British middle distance runner, prominent in the 1980s).
Defn: … distilled from marc, the refuse of grapes after being pressed in making wine.
Liked hugely. COLUMBINE went in last. Lovely clue/misdirection. Typical of an absorbing and entertaining puzzle. From such consummate clueing I’ll plump for SKIN DIVERS, BOTTOM, NATTERS (‘initially advanced’ :)) and EVEN as favorites. Thanks Shabbo. Couldn’t parse ACCELERATE but I can now. Thanks scchua (for the images too).
Thanks Shabbo and scchua.
Needed parsing for NATTERS and MARC, thanks. Good puzzle.
More than a gentle Sunday stroll, particularly to parse everything. I’ve probably come across it before and forgotten it, but I didn’t recognise EYE for ‘Suffolk town’ and I needed the crossers to see which sense of ‘Open up’ was needed for 3a.
Favourites were the ‘Academic Derby winner?’ and the misleading ‘In retrospect’, which wasn’t the expected reversal indicator, at 11a.
Thanks to Shabbo and scchua
Strange mixture of very hard and very easy. Used a word fit for COLUMBINE but managed to complete and parse everything. For CLASSICIST, I had CLASSIC = ‘Derby’ + IST = ‘winner/first’.
As so often, I am with Hovis on the parsing of CLASSICIST. All went in fairly straightforwardly though I’m kicking myself for not parsing ENSUE, misdirected precisely as our setter intended by running though lists of short relatives – abbreviated relatives, that is, before anyone thinks I’m somehow kin to Happy, Dopey, Doc etc al …
Particular favourites this morning include SPECTRE (beautifully hidden), RECONVENE (for the surface), BOTTOM (very tight – if you’ll excuse pun), STERILE (again, very succinct), COLUMBINE (pool for combine is nice misdirection), MADRAS (good simple Lego) and NATTERS (for the simple but effective device). I suspect there may be some solvers for whom Steve Cram is not such an easy name to recall – he was in his pomp as an athlete some 40 years ago – which seems like yesterday to an old timer like me!
Thanks Shabbo and scchua (another combo that I doubt I’d ever find myself writing without 225!)
A lovely puzzle with a good mixture of clue types and nice smooth surfaces throughout.
My only query is – is “at” a valid link between wordplay and definition in 20d? “In” would have been fine without disrupting the surface.
CLASSICIST (as parsed by Hovis @4) was my favourite.
Many thanks to Shabbo and scchua.
Morning all
Many thanks for your very kind comments. They are much appreciated.
RD – yes, I agree – “in” would probably have been better.
I actually wrote this puzzle back in January, so 3a now seems prescient. If you want any more political predictions, just let me know!
I agree with all the praise for this. I tried to make NUTTERS work for NATTERS ,(i)N + UTTERS, but no definition.
Another perfectly pitched puzzle from our setter and I do appreciate good surface reads.
I know the IoS crosswords don’t garner as many comments as those on weekdays but I do hope more folk give this one a whirl once they’ve got Sunday lunch tucked inside them.
Many thanks to Shabbo and to scchua for the review.
Thanks scchua and Shabbo. Some very nifty clueing here – particularly liked SOME, ACCELERATE, COLUMBINE, CLASSICIST (which I parsed the same way as Hovis, but I think it works either way).
Very enjoyable and very clever Shabbo.
Was moving towards a swift completion until Devon and Cornwall held me up a little, though I have to say a few of the solutions arrived first class with the parsings second.
The excellent 1a set the tone and I also particularly liked 23&29a plus 4,24&28d.
Thanks and thanks scchua for the review…. (and Jane for giving a heads up on The Telegraph blog)
An enjoyable puzzle with several delightful penny-drop moments, particularly for SOME and NATTERS. And a chuckle at the surface for ACCELERATE. Thanks, Shabbo and scchua.