I thought this was going to be very easy indeed by Friday standards, as a bunch of answers flew straight in on the first pass, but I ended up getting bogged down in the SW and clocked out at the 8 minute mark.
Easy it may have been but it was a lot of fun, the sort of crossword you do with a wry (awry?) smile on your face throughout. As a boy whose formative years where spent in North Wales, I was very appreciative of 19ac and 8dn (someone not that long ago informed me there are in fact multiple Rivers Dee, but as far as I'm concerned one stands mouth and delta above the best). COD to 19ac, for purely patriotic reasons, then.
As I say, the SW corner caused me the most problems, though they quickly evaporated when 27ac's penny dropped and the Z made 23dn obvious, which dominoed into 24ac and then allowed the slightly tricky wordplay in 17dn to fall.
I, er, haven't quite worked out the optimum mark-up for showing the full clues as well as the parsing yet? I have to go get the girls to school now but I plan to fix it later. If any HTML whizzes have any suggestions before I get back, they couldn't hurt...
Easy it may have been but it was a lot of fun, the sort of crossword you do with a wry (awry?) smile on your face throughout. As a boy whose formative years where spent in North Wales, I was very appreciative of 19ac and 8dn (someone not that long ago informed me there are in fact multiple Rivers Dee, but as far as I'm concerned one stands mouth and delta above the best). COD to 19ac, for purely patriotic reasons, then.
As I say, the SW corner caused me the most problems, though they quickly evaporated when 27ac's penny dropped and the Z made 23dn obvious, which dominoed into 24ac and then allowed the slightly tricky wordplay in 17dn to fall.
I, er, haven't quite worked out the optimum mark-up for showing the full clues as well as the parsing yet? I have to go get the girls to school now but I plan to fix it later. If any HTML whizzes have any suggestions before I get back, they couldn't hurt...
| Across |
| 1 Again order extremely reliable cutting guide (5) |
| REJIG - R{eliabl}E ["extremely"] + JIG [cutting guide] |
| 4 Cut up about small dalliance, almost moved (9) |
| DISPLACED - DICED [cut up] about S PLA{y} [small | dalliance, "almost"] |
| 9 Fail to rise in corporation? On the contrary (2,5,2) |
| GO BELLY UP - If your business GOES BELLY UP it's done for. At the same time, a BELLY is a corporation so in some sense it might rise when it GOES UP? |
| 10 Colour caused by radiation in West? (5) |
| MAUVE - UV [radiation] in MAE [West] |
| 11 Duo promised an unusual way of working (5,8) |
| MODUS OPERANDI - (DUO PROMISED AN*) ["unusual"] |
| 14 Fine, sort of, perhaps brill? (4) |
| FISH - F ISH [fine | sort of] |
| 15 Pantomime character transgressed in speech before everyone turned (10) |
| CINDERELLA - homophone of SINNED [transgressed "in speech"] + ERE [before] + reverse of ALL [everyone "turned"] |
| 18 Incorrigible cold bishop dismissed for organising this? (10) |
| IRRELIGION - (IN{c}ORRIGI{b}LE*) ["cold bishop dismissed", "for organising"] and some semi-&littery going on |
| 19 Viewed from the east, Yr Wyddfa — extremely twisted (4) |
| AWRY - reverse ["viewed from the east"] of YR + W{yddf}A ["extremely"] |
| 21 Quietly and mutually agree over key piece of work? (5,8) |
| PIANO CONCERTO - PIANO [quiet] + CONCERT O [mutually agree | over] |
| 24 State of hanky panky in short ground-breaking musical (5) |
| HAITI - IT [hanky panky] in HAI{r} ["short" ground-breaking musical] |
| 25 Missing a hint: time to slow down (9) |
| TRACELESS - T [time] + RACE LESS [slow down] |
| 27 King in area to perform, extremely unkempt and tired (6,3) |
| ZONKED OUT - K [king] in ZONE DO [area | to perform] + U{nkemp}T ["extremely"] |
| 28 Value of claim ultimately getting exhaust put back (5) |
| MERIT - {clai}M ["ultimately"] + reverse of TIRE [exhaust "put back"] |
| Down | |
| 1 Waif finally wearing a warmer in bad weather (10) | |
| RAGAMUFFIN - G A MUFF ["finally" {wearin}G | a | warmer] in RAIN [bad weather] | |
| 2 Postbook (3) | |
| JOB - double definition | |
| 3 Hail regularly getting inside my shoe (6) | |
| GALOSH - {h}A{i}L ["regularly"] getting inside GOSH [my!] | |
| 4 Dawn said prying should be punished after one is sacked (9) | |
| DAYSPRING - (SA{i}D PRYING*) ["punished", "after one is sacked"] | |
| 5 Top cop, one petitioning for retention of power (5) | |
| SUPER - SUER [one petitioning] for retention of P [power] | |
| 6 Not initially miserable, one not locally a celebrity (8) | |
| LUMINARY - {g}LUM ["not initially" miserable] + I NARY [one | not "locally"] | |
| 7 Vegetable reported as a dog-rose? (11) | |
| CAULIFLOWER - homophone of COLLIE FLOWER, which must be something like a dog-rose... | |
| 8 Mysterious river ending in swamp (4) | |
| DEEP - DEE [river] + {swam}P ["ending in"] | |
| 12 European style of writing I found in academic account (11) | |
| DESCRIPTION - E SCRIPT I [European | style of writing | I] found in DON [academic] | |
| 13 Not strict new diet, so take your time (4,4,2) | |
| EASY DOES IT - EASY [not strict] + (DIET SO*) ["new"] | |
| 16 Old woman entering depression that comes from mister? (9) | |
| DEODORANT - O DORA [old | woman] entering DENT. A mister as in a sprayer, of course... | |
| 17 Idle talk’s left one scrambling around to check opinion (3,1,4) | |
| FLY A KITE - YAK [idle talk], (LEFT I*) ["scrambling"] around | |
| 20 Singular flower, one causing much joy? (6) | |
| SCREAM - S CREAM [singular | flower] | |
| 22 Best public act (5) | |
| OUTDO - OUT DO [public | act] | |
| 22 Faceformer illustrator (4) | |
| PHIZ - double definition. Hablot Knight Browne, better known as Phiz, Dickens's illustrator. | |
| 26 To nearest and dearest it's common sense (3) | |
| EAR - to {n}EAR{est} and {d}EAR{est}, it's common! | |