12:04 on the Club timer, which puts me within my daily target of 2 Magoos, so I was clearly on the right wavelength - a sprinkling of classics and religion gave this an old-fashioned feel which I'm usually quite happy with, so maybe that's why. A couple of raised eyebrows (one later lowered); on the whole, a very pleasant and 10ac puzzle.
| Across |
|---|
| 1 | BERTH - one which went in very late, as it normally helps to have the checkers when the clue is one of those "pick a girl's name, any girl's name" type of clues. In this case it's BERTHA. |
| 4 | CARBUNCLE - CAR(vehicle), Black, UNCLEAN. |
| 9 | OVERSLEEP - OVERS(a maiden over is one where no runs are scored in cricket), (PEEL)rev. |
| 10 | SOLID - Stilton, OLID, a satisfying word for "foul-smelling" which will be more familiar to those who have a bit of Latin (non pecunia olet and all that). |
| 11 | ETHNOGRAPHERS - (PERTHNAGHORSE)*. It's Melbourne Cup day today, which makes the surface very appropriate, but I don't know if that's intentional. (For those who don't know it, that race is the Aussie equivalent of the Grand National, in that it's an event of national interest, even to people who don't really follow racing. One of our Antipodean solvers may even have won a fortune at the bookies). |
| 14 | DOME - raised eyebrow #1; the answer is a charade type scene, where the setter asks his or her cleaner to "DO ME"; but I always thought the phrase was "DO FOR ME", as in "The Reverend Spooner is unmarried, but Mrs Miggins does for him". "DO ME" has far more risque connotations, if you ask me. |
| 15 | LEAP SECOND - as well as leap years, where an extra day is added to February every four years, there is the occasional leap second, which keeps our time system in sync with the movement of the Earth and sun, which isn't as regular as atomic clocks. The last one was in 2012. |
| 18 | WAITRESSES - With A1 TRESSES. Concise. |
| 19 | CAPE - double def., the item of clothing and the head(land). |
| 21 | GORDON BENNETT - [O RD.] in (GENTBENTON)*. A full explanation of why an American newspaperman became an exclamation of surprise can be found here. |
| 24 | OVINE - remove the Born from BOVINE (relating to cattle) and you get OVINE (relating to sheep). |
| 25 | ASTERISKS - AS THE RISKS; and the symbol which may replace rude words in print if you prefer to spare your readers' blushes by using **** or B******, instead of "swut" or "Belgium". |
| 27 | OLD STAGER - GATS in [RED, LO]all rev. |
| 28 | MAYOR - MAYO, Regina. |
| |
|---|
| Down |
|---|
| 1 | BROKEN DOWN - double def., one involving analysis of data, the other waiting at the roadside for a recovery service. |
| 2 | RUE - RUDE minus Daughter. |
| 3 | HESTON - as in Charlton Heston - get your hands off me, you stinking ape - and the place best known for the nearby services on the M4. I initially raised my second eyebrow here, as Heston is a full 10 miles from the geographical centre of London, but I have to agree it's sneaky rather than wrong, as my research reveals it's well within the boundaries of Greater London; I imagine it's because I only think of it as a stop on the motorway and not part of the city that I queried it in the first place. Anyway, since Charlton is a real part of London (in the other direction to Heston) it's a fine, and factually-correct, surface. |
| 4 | CHEERLESS - LEER=stare, which "beginning to end" is EERL, inside CHESS. |
| 5 | RIP UP - R.I.P.("final wish"), UP(at Oxford). |
| 6 | UNSEEDED - double def., one natural history, one relating to, say, the draw at the Wimbledon championships. |
| 7 | COLD STORAGE - i.e. if you put C(=cold) into storage inside I.E., you get ICE. I'll be honest and admit that I put this one in from the definition and only parsed some time after I'd finished the puzzle...just me? |
| 8 | EDDY - D.D.(Doctor of Divinity) in (YE)rev. |
| 12 | HUMMINGBIRD - which, if Spoonerised, would become "BUMMING HERD". If you like Spoonerisms in your crosswords, that's a pretty inventive one; if you don't, you're not going to like it. |
| 13 | ADVERTISER - (IT'SAVERRED)*. |
| 16 | PRESBYTER - BY inside [Piano, REST, ER]. I managed to stop myself writing in PRECENTOR when I just had the first and last letters, as it doesn't fit the wordplay, and would have delayed me no end. |
| 17 | PRURIENT - (INTERRUPT)*. |
| 20 | ANTRUM - N.T. in A RUM; again, a spot of Latin makes this leap off the page. |
| 22 | ORANG - ORANGE. I presume I'm not the only one who didn't realise there are other orangs apart from the utan? It turns out there are, though their existence is shrouded in mystery, as their natural habitat is remote rain forests in the mountains of Sumatra, where it's easy to remain hidden. A quick Google will reveal all, if you're interested. |
| 23 | TOGO - as in "Do you want that sandwich to eat in or to go?" |
| 26 | SPY - SPRINGY minus the RING. |