I’m late, I’m late, I’m late… so no time for small-talk, except to say that this was was enjoyable puzzle that I would have been done with in half the time had it not been for the long clues at 3dn and 11ac. Now on with the blog…
ACROSS
1. ROAST BEEF Anagram of bes(t) for tea
6. LASSO Lass [young woman] + o(pposed)
9. BRAVE Bra [support garment] + v(ersatil)e
10. IN CONCERT In [at home] + concert [agreement]
11, 22. THE DOORS OF PERCEPTION The Doors [rock band] + of [characterised by] + perception [box set – i.e. the senses, which are associated with one’s ‘box’ (head) ??]
12. BLUE Double definition
14. SUNBEAM Anagram of submarine minus r [right] and I [one]
15. FREEBIE F [fellow] + reversal of beer [drink] + ie [id est, that is]
17. TANGENT Tan [beat] + gent [man]
19. IMPEDED Impended [threatened] minus N [knight, in chess notation]
20. QUIZ Qu [question] + iz [sounds like is]
22. See 11ac.
25. AGENT NOUN Agent [one representing another] + O [ring] within nun [sister]
26. INTER Winter [season] minus w(ingers)
27. ENTER Double definition
28. STEPHANIE Anagram of see hatpin
DOWN
1. ROBOT B [British] within root [origin]
2. AGAMEMNON Game [willing] + m [maiden (over)s] within anon [soon]
4. EPIGRAM E [English] + pig ram [farm animals]
5. FACE-OFF Face [special appearance (?)] + off [cancelled]
6. LYNX Sounds like links [golf course]
7. STEAL Double definition
8. ON THE MEND Them within on end [continuously]
13, 3. KEEP UP WITH THE JONESES Cryptic definition
14. SET SQUARE Set [series of games] + square [level]
16. BADMINTON Bad [immoral] + mint [a fortune] + on [playing]
18. THE GODS Anagram of she’d got
19. INCENSE In [batting] + anagram of scene
21. ID EST Hidden in sIDES Technique
23. NERVE (Bee)r within reversal of even [square]
24. STAR Star(t) [beginning]
Many thanks Ringo – you are a real STARR for figuring out 11a/22a.
I had deluded myself into believing that it was a Rock Band but I now find that it is a book by Aldous Huxley:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Doors_of_Perception
And a rather naughty one, too!
Also many thanks Falcon for introducing me to this book. As you may guess, I’ve led a very sheltered life.
Thanks Ringo
After some research, I think perhaps PERCEPTION in 11,22 comes from the title of a 12 CD ‘box set’ of The Doors tracks which was released in 2006:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perception_(The_Doors_album)
Wikipedia also informed me that the band took its name from the title of this Aldous Huxley book.
I understand the rock band took their name from that of the book
Thanks Falcon for a puzzle with much to enjoy and Ringo for the blog. Seeing LYNX and QUIZ in the same grid leads one to suspect a pangram. In this case, I completed it with 13dn/3dn containing the only J, K, and W in the grid.
I have nothing against the long answers as such, but I do not like it when two answers cross each other more than once. Of course, as with less than 50% cross-checking, the longer the answers, the less of a problem it is. Having got 13dn/3dn I then had full cross-checking with which to guess correctly at 11ac/22ac, my last answer.
I thought 7dn was a weak clue: two very similar meanings of the answer. I also found 10ac less than completely satisfactory, because CONCERT was given the same meaning when defined alone as it took in the phrase.
Having said that, the good points of this puzzle far outweighed the small grumbles as far as I was concerned.
I should have said thanks to earlier commenters for filling in the details about 11ac/22ac.