*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Celesta: Ce + least*. |
| 5 | Assists: [B]assists. |
| 9 | Mixer: IX in REM<. |
| 10 | Rotten Row: [Johnny] Rotten (of Sex Pistols fame) + row (=barney). Rotten Row is in Hyde Park. |
| 11 | Facebook: &lit. Initial letters of “facility..online” + OK. |
| 12 | Stella: St + Ella (Fitzgerald). Stella McCartney is Paul’s fashion-designer daughter. |
| 14 | Rigoletto: Trio* around go + let. |
| 16 | Next: Net around X (Roman numeral). |
| 18 | Wake: Wake[field]. |
| 19 | Superhero: US< + per (= a) + her 0. |
| 21 | On hand: double def. |
| 22 | Man of God: No F in dogma*. |
| 25 | Lucrative: C in (a rule ITV)*. |
| 26 | Ousel: Ouse + l. |
| 27 | Politic: Politic[o]. |
| 28 | Tyranny: Ran in t[id]y n[urser]y. |
| Down | |
| 1 | Campfire: Cam + fir in PE. |
| 2 | Lexicographical: Cryptic def. Webster and (Dr) Johnson were both writers of dictionaries. |
| 3 | Scrub: Sub (short for sub-editor) around Cr. |
| 4 | Air hostess: Excellent &lit. (She’s a sort at)* around [jetl]i[ners]. |
| 5 | Anti: Anti[CS]. |
| 6 | Sweetener: hom. of suite + Rene<. |
| 7 | Sir Alex Ferguson: &lit. (axing ref re loss)* around U. My knowledge of football doesn’t extend to whether this is a reference to a specific event, although I know Sir Alex does frequently criticize referees. |
| 8 | So What: Sow + hat. |
| 13 | Complacent: Co + MP + l + a cent. |
| 15 | Lie in wait: Lie in + W + Ait. |
| 17 | Coldplay: Old PL in Cay. Chirs Martin is the front man of the group Coldplay. This was the last clue I got and was quite tricky because of the number of things Martin could refer to. I thought for a while it might be the martin bird. |
| 20 | Dollop: Do + poll<. |
| 23 | Odour: O + Dour[o] (a river in Portugal). |
| 24 | Zinc: Hidden in pizzazz in celebrations. |
I found this straightforward enough. My only quibbles were:
2D didn’t seem a very strong CD. I can’t see anything about it that is misleading at all. Are there some other Johnson and Webster known in another field that we were supposed to think of first?
23D “repute”=ODOUR which, for me, wasn’t the clearest of definitions and was paired with a foreign river that I didn’t know either, but I see repute is given for ODOUR in Chambers.
Pleasing puzzle that I found was not too difficult. My favourite clues were NEXT, TYRANNY, ZINC.
Great puzzle, made all the more enjoyable by the opportunity to tackle it in the local, on a day off, rather than on the tube to work.
I would never have got COLDPLAY, though. “Martin’s lot” was such a loose def, plus I spend my every waking moment trying to forget that that infernal band even exists.
Fine puzzle for me except for Coldplay – not sure how (given my limited knowledge of pop music)I could have deduced the answer from the clue.