Satisfyingly diverse bunch of words here and some great wordplay. Paul’s clues are short and without a wasted word – like Bach to Araucaria’s Mozart . A few straight anagrams made it easier than the average Paul puzzle.
ACROSS
9 THUMBS-CREW : Part of the torture theme. It’s “way” in the sense of “road” and we’re hitch-hiking
10 TA(RAN)TA-RA : “Vale” is goodbye or “ta ta”, RA is the centre of bRAe. The whole thing is a hunting call
11 LES(DAW)SON : (WAD)< in LESSON
12 Omitted on purpose
13 STRETTI : Plural of stretto, which is a musical notation asking for a burst of speed
15 Omitted on purpose
17 R(HE)UM
18 Omitted on purpose
20 ELENA : reversed in africAN ELEphant
22 WOMBLES(s) : clue of the year; assuming you’ve ever encountered the cult children’s programme.
25 ART DECO : (red coat)*
26 I-LIAD : the Irish parliament is the DAIL
30 OVERWHE-LM : (however)* with LaMe
DOWN
1 ET AL : Latin for “and the rest”, and cryptically “LATE RISING”. What’s the technical term for a “reverse cryptic” ?
2 SUBSERVE – (use verbs)*
3 ABBA
4 STA(SHIN)G
5 ?R?N?S – Didn’t get it – is it “brands”?
6 INSTRUMENT OF TORTURE : Les Dawson used to play famous tunes very badly on purpose. Can’t get his take on “Side by Side” out of my head now.
7 D.A-MASK
14 T(‘UMBLED)OWN
16 P(IAN)O
19 ME-ANTI-ME : such a “Paul” clue, would recognise his style anywhere
21 EXE-CUTOR
24 SHOWER : wonderful double-meaning
26 IRON MAIDEN : Reference to Maggie Thatcher (‘The Iron Lady’)
28 RACK
29 (s)EWER
5dn is BRANKS, I think. It’s a torture helmet. B (secondary) + RANKS.
Thanks for explanation of 1dn. It had to have been ET AL but I thought that the ‘still’ referred to dead, as in late. Clearly not.
Agree with Diagacht that 5dn is BRANKS. My last entry – not a word I knew, but guessed from the word play and confirmed by Chambers (Scots word for a scold’s bridle: iron mask with tongue depressor).
Quite easy for one of Paul’s (I thought) but great fun as always.
Where doea the DA come from in DAmask?
A D.A is a 1950s haircut – I believe it stands for “Duck’s Arse”
Trivially I read 1d as “LATE UP”.
And, ridiculously I had 4d as ST(ASH)ING despite the answer staring me in the face and thinking (bone) ASH was a bit weak and STING was a bit of a jump for a man’s name.
Overall a very British crossword requiring knowledge of the Wombles and Les Dawson’s piano playing skills.
Agree it was very British – and the under 30s probably had to ask their parents too I suspect. Margaret Thatcher, The Wombles, Iron Maiden, Les Dawson … flashback to the 1970s.
Iron Maiden were very much of the 80s rather than 70s, as was Thatcher. I think all the people/acts referenced are famous enough for younger solvers to know them.
Pace Stan and Chris, Paul makes no reference whatever to Iron Maiden the hard rock band – the word play is around the primary meaning of IRON MAIDEN as an instrument of torture (from which the band presumably took their name), and the nubile state of a youthful Iron Lady. At least, this was so in the paper version, where the clue for 26, 23 reads: “6 27 for the unmarried Maggie, possibly?” Haven’t checked the online clue – was this different?
The DA was a hairstyle used by Teddy Boys, so called because the hair at the back of the head was greased to a point, resembling a duck’s backside