This took me a little under 10 minutes, so from my perspective at least it wasn’t a difficult puzzle. But that is no bad thing, and I really enjoyed solving this one. It’s mostly impeccably clued and there are a couple of really nice touches. I have a small query about 17ac, and a slightly larger one about 3dn, but it's always good for us nerds to have something to talk about, eh?
| Across |
| 1 | Threatening senior nurse while clutching hip |
| SINISTER - S(IN)ISTER. I'm not sure I knew that a 'sister' was a senior nurse. |
| 5 | Two guys like Rosemary? |
| HERBAL - or HERB and AL. |
| 10 | Campanologist might seem familiar |
| RING A BELL - nearly a DD, this, although you could argue the first half is cryptic if only in the sense that it’s a bit of an odd definition. So I haven't underlined it. |
| 11 | Back in bed without this medicine |
| TONIC - IN contained in COT, all reversed. |
| 12 | It’s apparent that learner’s suffering! |
| PLAIN - L (learner) is in PAIN. |
| 13 | Share out a soft drink to one cricket side |
| APPORTION - A, P, PORT, I, ON. |
| 14 | Is erotic novel written on such? |
| ESCRITOIRE - (IS EROTIC)*, RE (on). Semi-&Lit. |
| 17 | Provokessupporters |
| FANS - DD. I’m not sure about the first definition here. Surely FAN here has to be accompanied by some flames, and even then if you try to provoke a fire with a fan your barbecue will not be very successful. Even in the figurative sense the flames (of rebellion or whatever) have to be provoked before they can be fanned. I'm either missing something or being too picky. |
| 19 | Laid hands onfabric |
| FELT - another DD. |
| 20 | Woman riding barely seen by this sole spectator |
| PEEPING TOM - cryptic definition referring to the story of Lady Godiva, who fared significantly better than Cersei Lannister under similar circumstances. |
| 22 | Wine on tray I ignored for something smelling sweet |
ROSEWATER - ROSE, WAiTER. I didn’t know that a WAITER could be a tray, but it seemed perfectly feasible and the answer was obvious. |
| 24 | Code breaker not quite finished in the city |
TURIN - TURINg. |
| 26 | America win once more |
| AGAIN - A, GAIN. |
| 27 | The German returned to island with note about fish |
| RED MULLET - reversal of DER, MULL, reversal of TE. |
| 28 | Cavalryman retiring mule in unfinished dash |
HUSSAR - reversal of ASS in HURl. |
| 29 | One makes good stand with supplier of metal rod |
| RESTORER - REST, ORE (supplier of metal), R (rod). A rod is a unit of distance, related to the perch, used in crosswords. |
| Down |
| 1 | Like a money belt but unable to fill it! |
| STRAPPED FOR CASH - a CD and then a sort of semi-&Litish definition that relies on the initial CD. I struggle to categorise this clue really but take comfort from the fact that there’s absolutely no need to. |
| 2 | Some assassin in Japan |
| NINJA - contained in ‘assassin in Japan’. &Lit. |
| 3 | Perhaps a saline solution is primarily its home |
SEA SNAIL - I can’t see how this works. It seems to be an angram of A SALINE and Solution. But I can’t see how ‘solution is primarily’ (as opposed to ‘solution primarily’) can indicate the first letter of ‘solution’. Did the word ‘is’ sneak in here somehow? Or am I missing something? |
| 4 | Ultimately nurse has the last word about medical procedure |
ENEMA - nursE, reversal of AMEN. |
| 6 | Milk old mate put on lots of rich cake |
EXTORT - EX (old mate, in the sense ‘partner’ rather than ‘mucker’), TORTe. |
| 7 | Epicure’s oral exam is in German city at start of term |
| BON VIVANT - BON(VIVA)N, T. I bunged in BON VIVEUR here initially, but fortunately the answer to 20ac was sufficiently clear that it didn’t slow me down much. |
| 8 | Beneath lake’s north shore Scotsmen fabricated me? |
| LOCH NESS MONSTER - L, (N SHORE SCOTSMEN)*. Semi-&Lit. Very neat! |
| 9 | Bull's about to sip gin? |
| CLAPTRAP - C, LAP, TRAP. ‘Gin’ for trap is one of those (many) things you see a lot in crosswords and almost never anywhere else. |
| 15 | Chilly times caught by photos from the past |
| COLD SNAPS - or C (caught), OLD SNAPS. |
| 16 | Having finished tune, runs to replace new piece of music |
| OVERTURE - OVER (finished), then TUNE with R replacing N. |
| 18 | Oddly Tony Curtis is prepared to teach |
INSTRUCT - (ToNy, CURTIS)*. This wasn’t hard to solve but it’s a really lovely clue. The problem with being obsessed with speed, as I confess I am, is that you tend not to notice how neat something like 'oddly Tony Curtis' is. One of the great benefits of blogging is that you can't help it. |
| 21 | Republic with war raging around it |
| RWANDA - an anagram (raging) of WAR surrounding AND (with). |
| 23 | Good big dipper, perhaps, but without a long hill |
| RIDGE - RIDE (big dipper perhaps) containing G. The use of ‘but without’ is quite unusual, I think, and I really like it. |
| 25 | Controller and provider of measured information |
| RULER - again, you could almost classify this as a DD but there is an intent to deceive in the second half of the clue. |