I must be honest and say that I found this one tough, particularly for a Monday (though recently Mondays haven’t necessarily been easier in the Indy), so thanks for the challenge Punk.
I was misled in various places (eg I wanted the ‘holy man’ in 25ac to be ST and my first thought for 17dn having ?A?N was ‘gain’) and required aids to solve/confirm several entries (eg the artist in 24ac and the ‘rising’ in 2dn).
I rather liked 14/28, not the least because it helped me to get 20ac, 7dn and 17dn which had remained incomplete until nearly the end of the solve.
Across
1 Bill Gates’ centre parting a puzzle (6)
POSTER – [ga]T[es] in (parting) POSER (a puzzle)
4 Reckless plan to arrest a detective (6)
MADCAP – MAP (plan) around (to arrest) A DC (a detective)
9 Drink in remarkable actress, stop those playing to the crowds? (9,6)
SPECTATOR SPORTS – PORT (drink) in an anagram (remarkable) of ACTRESS STOP
10 Work a deceit stopping one’s business? (6)
GOALIE – GO (work) A LIE (deceit)
12 Attempt to catch a partly abhorrent leader, failing (3,1,4)
LAY A TRAP – an anagram (failing) of A PARTLY A[bhorrent]
14/28 20 with sweet cicely, 7 with an Israelite and 17 on the weekend, did you say – all in this? (5,6)
SOLAR SYSTEM – homophones (did you say) of ‘myrrh’ (sweet cicely) ‘curie’ (20), ‘Jew’ (Israelite) ‘pitta’ (7) and ‘Sat’ (the weekend) ‘earn’ (17) giving the planets Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn
15 A tangle to be taken down, erroneously pluralised slum resorts? (9)
SPAGHETTI – a ‘slum resort’ could be a SPA GHETTo which when erroneously pluralised gives the entry
18 Attempt to drink one litre, consuming bottle in frivolous manner (9)
TRIVIALLY – TRY (attempt) around (to drink) I (one) L (litre) around (consuming) VIAL (bottle)
20 I preserve bottles in the name of pioneering scientific research (5)
CURIE – CURE (preserve) around (bottles) I
24 Frog / painter (6)
HOPPER – double def. – take your pick from Edward or his wife Josephine
25 Holy man still holier as converted two-dimensional character (6,3,6)
POPEYE THE SAILOR – POPE (holy man) YET (still) plus an anagram (converted) of HOLIER AS
29 Primarily, frozen solid? (6)
FRIGID – F[rozen) RIGID (solid) – I think this can be considered &lit because ‘frozen’ is the first (primary) def. in Chambers
Down
1 Narrowly beat / a seed (3)
PIP – double def.
2 Press switches under network of veins keeping hairs rising (8,7)
SICILIAN VESPERS – an anagram (network) of VEINS around (keeping) CILIA (hairs) plus an anagram (switches) of PRESS
3 Up past one’s bedtime in middle of schedule (6)
ELATED – LATE (past one’s bedtime) in [sch]ED[ule]
5 Trump’s behind a force of the far right (3)
ASS – A SS (force of the far right)
6 Game to truss and discard, stick around for Scottish pudding (7,8)
CLOOTIE DUMPLING – CLING (stick) around LOO (game) TIE (to truss) DUMP (discard)
7 Climbing near the summit, one’s only risen a little (5)
PITTA – AT (near) TIP (the summit) reversed (climbing)
8 Arrive as smoke (4,2)
ROLL UP – double def.
11 Scent nothing gloomy (5)
ODOUR – O (nothing) DOUR (gloomy)
13 All concluding philosophy so relaxing with a Hindu discipline (4)
YOGA – [philosoph]Y [s]O [relaxin]G A
16 Initially tie with red or white string (5)
TWINE – T[ie] WINE (red or white)
17 Win to pick up having lost lead (4)
EARN – [l]EARN (to pick up having lost lead)
19 Fruit settled on potato, dropping root (6)
LITCHI – LIT (settled) CHI[p] (potato, dropping root)
21 Drunken search for another drink (6)
CHASER – an anagram (drunken) of SEARCH
23 Rings ending in trash, that was careless! (5)
HOOPS – [tras]H OOPS (that was careless!)
26 Female in the Wensleydale? (3)
EWE – hidden in ‘thE WEnsleydale’
27/22 Bum crack? (3,8)
OLD CHESTNUT – cryptic def.
This was tough by Mr Halpern’s standards let alone a Monday. But well worth the battle for such a magnificent punchline.
And thanks for blog.
If I’d been blogging this, I’d have had exactly the same preamble as you, Gaufrid. Tough is putting it mildly. Phew!
Not often a Monday puzzle requires the solver to have a lie down in a darkened room once they’ve finished but this was definitely one of those.
Thanks to Punk for the extreme challenge and also to Gaufrid for the explanations
Blimey, to put it mildly. I needed all the help I could get, short of outright cheating. Even the easy ones were hard and the hard ones (SICILIAN VESPERS in particular) downright vicious. Thanks to Punk for the severe test and a hearty ‘well-blogged’ to Gaufrid. (Wish me luck!)
Too much help needed, even with a few easier clues to seed the grid, to make this really enjoyable. But when 28ac had to be SYSTEM and the second word of 2dn VESPERS things began to fall into place, though I couldn’t understand the references to other clues in 14/28.
But thanks to Punk and especially to Gaufrid.
Chewy Monday indeed. Thanks Gaufrid. Did Punk realise it was tough I wonder?
Staggered to learn that myrrh has anything to do with sweet cicely. I thought it came from tree bark. I used it extensively 60 years ago in my trombone playing days. Sweet cicely I use to replace sugar when stewing apples. My garden is full of it.
Always surprises me what things crosswords turn up.
Conrad @6:
The connection between myrrh and sweet cicely is a similarity in (botanical) name only. See here for an explanation. But thanks for alerting me to the use of sweet cicely as a sugar substitute.
Way above my pay grade today. Had a go before leaving for work this morning; had another go just now. Got started, but got nowhere really. When Gaufrid says it’s tough, then there’s a good chance it is tough.
Thanks to S&B and we’ll have another crack tomorrow.
Definitely tough, and needed help to finish, but by one of those coincidences, I found myself having a discussion about clootie dumplings (and if they were the same as spotted dick) with a Scottish friend at a party on Saturday night.
I’m usually a fan of Paul’s crosswords, but this lacked sparkle. Purely a personal opinion, but it felt as if it was composed with the aid of word search software rather than verve.
Some of the things that made it hard I still don’t entirely follow, such as why spaghetti is ‘to be taken down’, how a chip is a potato or why 20a says ‘research’ instead of ‘researcher’.
But on a more intriguing matter, pardon my ignorance but how do you use myrrh (of whatever kind) to play the trombone?
Hi, Can i get a print version of this and other cryptics?
Robert @12
I assume that you have posted a comment on this 4+ year old blog because this puzzle has been recycled in the i newspaper. So far as I know, the i doesn’t publish its crosswords online so the only way to obtain a copy of one is to buy the paper.
The i is available online to subscribers, in which format you have the option of either printing the page from the paper (I would recommend copying and pasting into Word) or completing the puzzle online.
Robert, at https://puzzles.independent.co.uk/games/cryptic-crossword-independent?puzzleDate=20160523#!201605, and click on the Print button