A relative quick start and a slow finish for me this week, not helped by overconfidently writing in some non-existent words.
I’m not sure if there’s something going on here that I can’t quite identify, but there seems to be quite a male influence in the grid, with things like MALE, MAN and MEN popping up a few times. Perhaps this is simply a coincidence.
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1/14 | PUSS-GENTLEMAN – PUSS + GEN + MENTAL*. |
| 4 | JONGLEUR – ENGL[and]* in JOUR. |
| 9 | REELED – REE[f] + LED. |
| 10 | ONE-ONE – O + NEON + E. |
| 11 | OBDURATENESS – (NUDE BOATERS)* + S[how]. |
| 12 | PYAS – (SAY + P)<. |
| 13 | FAGOTTI – FAG + OTT + I. Organ stops, I believe. |
| 15 | ALTESSE – SET< in FALS[e]. |
| 19 | UNSEAT – A in [s]UNSET. |
| 20 | APOLLO – A + POLL + O’. |
| 23 | MALTESE – M + ALTES[s]E. |
| 24 | DECUMAN – DEC + [h]UMAN. As DEC is clued as “last month”, I wonder if this puzzle was intended to be published in January. |
| 25 | RUSS – RUS[t]S. |
| 26 | IMPERILMENTS – (MP + E[ndorse]) in (L + MINISTER)*. Great surface reading: Liberal Minister upset about MP beginning to endorse risky actions. |
| 27 | SIMMON – (I’M + MO) in Sn. |
| 28 | BAETYL – TEA< in (BY + L). |
| 29 | MALE-FERN – (REAL MEN + F)*. |
| Down | |
| 1 | PROPAGANDISM – (RAP DOGMA + SPIN)*. |
| 2 | SEDATION – S + (NO IDEA + IT)*. |
| 3 | SLUSED – US in SLED. |
| 4/30 | JERUSALEM PONY – (AMPLE JOURNEYS)*. I made this harder by assuming we were looking for something ending in MULE. |
| 5 | NOTAEUM – (NOT ONE EMU)*. |
| 6 | LENOS – NO in LES. |
| 7 | UNSTRAPS – PARTS< in…something I can't identify! Mostly comfortable about film roles being promoted in releases. |
| 8 | RESISTLESSLY – IS in RESTLESSLY. |
| 16 | LIPAEMIA – (AIME[d] + A PIL[l])<. |
| 17 | HEREUNTO – (EURO THEN)*. |
| 18 | ROMAINE – ROMA IN E. |
| 21 | STREEP – R in STEEP. Meryl, of course. |
| 22 | QUEME – QU[it]E + ME[t]. |
Hi Simon
I think the ‘mostly comfortable’ in 7dn is SNU[g].
You seem to have missed out ‘sure’, or similar, near the beginning of the second paragraph of your preamble.