Times 25407 - "Be sure to hide the fishes....

Solving time: 35 minutes

Music: Mahler, Symphony #1, Horenstein/LSO (yes, on Unicorn Records)



This should have been quite an easy puzzle. It is heavily dependent on general knowledge, and in general, I had the knowledge. Unfortunately, there were two important things I did not know that held me up considerably on my last one in, and in the end I had to guess and Google. Look what I found!

At least the two long ones were quite self-evident, making for a quick start. A few around the edges proved a little stubborn, though, and needed careful attention to the cryptic to crack. I didn't immediately grasp who Juan Domingo was, or what kind of dissenter was required.

One other little semi-off-topic item. If you want to see the one of the most outrageous clues ever published, I suggest you take a look at this week's Guardian prize puzzle. The whole thing is really quite entertaining, but there is one bit that absolutely off the charts - definitely not recommended for our conservative harrumpers. Since this is a prize puzzle, I can say no more.

Across
1	ALCATRAZ, A(L CAT RA)Z. I thought of Stubbs immediately, of course, but no dice.
5	SEAMUS, SEA MUS[t]. This is actually the Irish-language equivalent of James, and entered the language through the French pronunciation of Iacomus.
10	SQUARE THE CIRCLE, double definition, one jocular.
11	RATTLER, double definition, a rattling good one
12	TEA GOWN, anagram of GOT A NEW. Not a garment much in demand nowadays.
13	SCOTSMAN, S(COT S[ergeant]M[ajor])AN.
15	HAHAS, HAHA + S[on], a GK-type clue.
18	ROACH, [rep]ROACH. A simple subtraction clue if you know the fish.
20	DREAMILY, DR E(A)MILY, very cute.
23	CANASTA, C(AN)AST + A[ce], easy enough if you know the card game.
25	PARABLE, P[enetrate] A RAB[b]LE.
26	BEER AND SKITTLES, BEER, SKITTLES, 'eating' AND (with), a very feeble sort of clue.
27	TASTER, TA(S)TER, where taters are 'common' in the sense of being slangy.
28	WESLEYAN, anagram of L[ine] SEEN WAY. I wanted to put 'naysayer' but couldn't justify it.
Down
1	ASSERT. As the betters say, 'a dead cert'.
2	CRUSTACEA, anagram of CURSE A CAT. Waiter, do you serve crabs?
3	Omitted!
4	ASTER, [poet]ASTER. Another simple subtraction clue - if you have the GK.
6	EPITAPH, cryptic definition.
7	MACHO, CAM upside down + HO[use].
8	SKEGNESS, S + KEG(S[tate] E[nrolled] N[urse] upside down)S. My near-downfall. I did not know the resort or the abbreviation, but strongly suspected that it was one of those northern seaside places ending in '-ness'. 'Sheerness' was a no-go, but this seemed to fit. Bingo!
9	SENTENCE, double definition, more GK.
14	MIDLANDS, DIM upside down + LANDS. I admit, I didn't even look at the cryptic.
16	HILLBILLY, HILL(BILL)Y.
17	BRICKBAT, BRICK + BAT. 'Brick' seems to be early 20th-century English school slang, the sort of thing you would find in Swallows and Amazons or the Chronicles of Narnia. My childhood reading pays off here.
19	HOSTAGE, HOST + A + E.G. upside down. A lot of this puzzle seems to be upside down!
21	MARITAL, MAR(IT)AL, i.e. IT enclosed in an anagram of ALARM.
22	PERSON, PER(S[aint])ON. I didn't recognize who was meant, but eventually saw how the literal worked. A good clue!
24	NEEDS, sounds like KNEADS. This needs must be the answer, right?
25	PEKOE, PEK(O)E. Pekoe is actually a technical term of tea grading having to do with the size of the leaf, but we can't expect setters to be up on this sort of thing.