Read through at least 10 clues before spotting the first answer. Not sure why as most of the puzzle filled in on “first pass” (when all clues read) – only about 10 to go. They were teased out till interruption of having to “de-train” and walk home – one of the perils of tackling a puzzle on the outward leg. (On the inward journey, arriving at Waterloo and staying sitting finishing the crossy allows the barrier crush to subside.) Final half dozen fell with thought but not overly taxing.
(Appear to have developed habit of leaving out personal pronouns. Must stop.)
Apologies if no comment replies forthcoming – holidaying on the continent by Monday. Travelling far too cheaply to be guaranteed WiFi
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 7 | WITH A WILL | In the company of one royal familiarly getting end away enthusiastically (4,1,4) WITH (In the company of) A WILL[y] (one royal, Prince William, familiarly, and slightly truncated ) |
| 9 | AT SEA | With drink around, one abandoned seat (2,3) A (one) SEAT* AInd: abandoned |
| 11 | DOUBLE STANDARDS | Norm’s getting in the drinks, as demonstrated by hypocritical ‘family values’ proponents (6,9) STANDARD (Norm) inside DOUBLES (drinks) |
| 12 | LEG-PULL | Member needs to get someone to shag, which is a joke (3-4) LEG (Member) PULL (get someone to shag) |
| 14 | SHOTGUN | Tabloid coverage of Goth ‘orgy’ game-killer? (7) GOTH* AInd: orgy, inside SUN (Tabloid) |
| 15/16 | DEAD ENDS | Stiff tips which thwart advances (4,4) DEAD (stiff) ENDS (tips) |
| 22 | ALGARVE | European area, one very into pisspoor lager (7) A (one), V[ery] inside LAGER* AInd: pisspoor |
| 24 | ABYSMAL | A bit of baby’s malodorous crap (7) Hidden in: bABY’S MALodorous. First answer in. |
| 25 | GOLDEN HANDSHAKE | Midas-like grip usually acquired by the fired top-level manager? (6,9) Double Def. At first though of Golden handcuffs but that is for keeping a perceived essential exec |
| 27/3 | ROYAL MAIL | Maybe George said it wasn’t valued highly enough (5,4) Homophone “Royal male” Maybe George HInd: said |
| 28 | PORTFOLIO | Lacking in a certain ministerial role, Portillo left out of reforms (9) (PORTILLO – L + OF)* AInd: reforms. Ref. the occasional “Minister without Portfolio” |
| Down | ||
| 1 | TWADDLE | Time to ‘shuffle’ Balls! (7) T[ime] WADDLE (shuffle) |
| 2 | STRUGGLE | Labour result diabolical: has to accommodate Clegg’s tail-enders (8) [cle]GG inside RESULT* AInd: diabolical |
| 4 | CLEANSE | Wearing empty codpiece, is inclined be a scrubber? (7) LEANS (is inclined) inside C[odpiec]E |
| 5 | HARD DONE BY | Having an erection finished off youth – dropped ball not treated properly (4,4,2) HARD (Having an erection) DONE (finished off) B[o]Y (youth – O) |
| 6 | DAMSONS | Nuts reversed on lads (they’re fleshy and dark purple)(7) MAD< SONS (lads) |
| 8 | INSULT | Slight lust to get screwed after being elected (6) IN (elected) LUST* AInd: screwed |
| 10 | SPRIG | Holly cut off small penis head and tackle? (5) S[mall] P[enis] RIG (tackle) |
| 17 | DAMNABLE | Bloody awful! End Obama’s dithering – top of list is replacing his no.1 (8) (END OBAMA – O + L[ist])* AInd: dithering. Last In – certainly dithered a bit before seeing this wordplay |
| 18 | HAGGARD | Shag gardener, somewhat shrunken (7) Hidden in: sHAG GARDener |
| 19 | PERHAPS | Nipples engulfing her bust possibly (7) HER* AInd: bust, inside PAPS (nipples) Clue of the grid for tricky wordplay with alternative anagram indicators and well hidden definition in a prurient clue almost worthy of Mail Online’s sidebar of shame |
| 20 | BANNER | Mary Whitehouse type of headline? (6) Double Def. |
| 21 | GLUEPOT | Novel: Top Luge, which is full of goo (4,3) (TOP LUGE)* AInd: Novel |
| 23 | GULLY | Bear up, having extremely leaky passage (5) LUG< L[eak]Y |
| 26/13 | SOFT UNDERBELLY | Blustered on, fly undone, revealing a rather susceptible body part (4,10) (BLUSTERED ON FLY)* AInd: undone. |
Terrible news about Gary Barlow. Apparently he’s still recording music and has no plans to stop.
Example : Pay it back
7.
I think that should be WILL[s] rather than WILL[y] – that’s what the tabloids used to call him, anyway. A minor point.
The subtleties of crossword clueing sometimes pass me by and I made a knight’s move to 27/3 by assuming it had to do with a complaint from the Chancellor about the poor return on the Post Office privatisation. Heigh-ho…