It would appear that the scheduled blogger is unable to be with us today so here is an analysis of the clues instead. Someone will have to help me out with 27dn and also provide some insight on what might be a theme.
I can see several Dons in the grid, and various entries/clue components could be associated with a don, but I don’t have time at this late stage to research further.
Across
9 Sheltered in shady spot he had located outside (9)
HARBOURED – ARBOUR (shady spot) with HE’D (he had) around it (located outside)
10 Element not in usual form — wrongly ordered an ounce (5)
OZONE – ONE (an) OZ (ounce) with positions swapped (wrongly ordered)
11 Applied, turned down (3,2)
PUT ON – NOT UP (down) reversed (turned)
12 Unfed, yell out in way reflecting poverty (9)
NEEDFULLY – an anagram (out) of UNFED YELL
13 Old scientist I spotted in sailing ship that’s docked (7)
GALILEO – I in (spotted in) GALLEO[n] (sailing ship that’s docked)
14 Anger about working with gold as product of mine (4,3)
IRON ORE – IRE (anger) around (about) ON (working) OR (gold)
17 It conveys how setters continue to show pleasure? (5)
WAGON – WAG ON (how setters continue to show pleasure)
19 Sign agreement backing 11 as opposed to 6 (3)
DON – NOD (sign agreement) reversed (backing)
20 Cover body university excepted from constraint (5)
DRESS – D[u]RESS (university excepted from constraint)
21 Power held by male family members, otherwise godfather (7)
SPONSOR – P (power) in (held by) SONS (male family members) plus OR (otherwise)
22 Reproduce text about one kiss for romantic hero (7)
QUIXOTE – QUOTE (reproduce text) around (about) I (one) X (kiss)
24 Turn to play, as I’d a term off (9)
DRAMATISE – an anagram (off) of AS I’D A TERM
26 Group of criminals in a car tailed on motorway (5)
MAFIA – M (motorway) A FIA[t] (a car tailed)
28 Piece of poetry penned by significant other (5)
CANTO – contained in (penned by) ‘signifiCANT Other’
29 Odd charmer back without a penny from US (9)
ECCENTRIC – CIRCE (charmer) reversed (back) around (without) CENT (a penny from US)
Down
1 Starts in college, having accepted post as fellow (4)
CHAP – initial letters of (starts in) C[ollege] H[aving] A[ccepted] P[ost]
2 Inhuman and boring routine in research site set up (6)
BRUTAL – RUT (boring routine) in LAB (research site) reversed (set up)
3 From launch, fish — abandoned little ones (10)
FOUNDLINGS – FOUND (launch) LINGS (fish)
4 Play lead in Othello as famous actor (6)
BRANDO – BRAND (play) O[thello] (lead in Othello) – presumably I should have known this Ibsen play, but I didn’t!
5 Male is held up, secured by an academic in strong grip (8)
ADHESION – HE (male) IS reversed (held up) in (secured by) A DON (an academic)
6 Remove from board of firm or suspend officially (4)
DOFF – contained in (from) ‘boarD OF Firm’ and ‘suspenD OFFicially’
7 Old part of Spain in centre — and central part for 4 (8)
CORLEONE – LEON (old part of Spain) in CORE (centre)
8 Behave very heartlessly in a lot of larks (4)
BEVY – B[ehav]E V[er]Y (behave very heartlessly)
13 Coverage for scholars from first of government grants (5)
GOWNS – G[overnment] (first of government) OWNS (grants)
15 Installation of minister wrongly nominated without right (10)
ORDAINMENT – an anagram (wrongly) of NOMINATED around (without) R (right)
16 Final pieces in the Guardian puzzles you solve come after some time (5)
ENSUE – last letters of (final pieces in) [th]E [guardia]N [puzzle]S [yo]U [solv]E
18 In vain, go crazy making name in opera (8)
GIOVANNI – an anagram (crazy) of IN VAIN GO
19 Having gone off line, what could be deadlier? (8)
DERAILED – an anagram of (what could be) DEADLIER
22 Put out as check follows piece surrendering centre (6)
QUENCH – CH (check) after (follows) QU[e]EN (piece surrendering centre)
23 Its rival’s sporting gear is a shade lighter (6)
OXFORD – cryptic def. referring to the colour of the ‘sporting gear’ at Oxford and Cambridge universities
24 Fortune initially increased tenfold, dear (4)
DUCK – LUCK (fortune) with its first letter changed to D (initially increased tenfold)
25 A car carrying head of one state (4)
AVOW – A VW (a car) around (carrying) O[ne] (head of one)
27 Playfully teasing / principal (at start of term) (4)
ARCH – double def. – but I don’t understand the ‘(at start of term)’
Re 27D: ARCH as in e.g. arch-enemy, arch-rival etc
For 27a, think of archbishop, archenemy,…
I took “at start of term” simply to mean that it’s a prefix.
I agree with passerby. Arch can mean principal by itself or as a prefix-hence the brackets.
Thanks Brendan, and Gaufrid for standing in at short notice
I found this very difficult, and didn’t understand the BRAND part of BRANDO, DUCK or the last part of the ARCH clue. Favourites were WAGON and CANTO.
Brendan’s namesake BNTO would laugh at me. When I entered QUIXOTE I noticed that I was only short of a J for a pangram, so tried unsuccessfully to fit one into the largely blank SE corner!
I agree with Passerby.
I think the puzzle is a tribute from (for my money ) the best of the daily setters to another great. I was slightly held up by the absence of “Pasquale”. As ever with Brendan, perfect cluing and a beautifully composed diagram. I think his level of difficulty ideal for a Monday puzzle.
Re 27d: It occurs to me that arche is Greek for beginning.
Some hard clues and obscure parsing for a Monday, I thought.
Thanks Brendan and Gaufrid.
Don’t think ozone is an element, or am I missing something? Favourite was 19d
Dinsdale @8
Ozone is an allotropic form of oxygen hence the definition ‘element not in usual form’.
Ozone is a form of the element oxygen.
arches or archos is chief as in “arch-enemy”.
arche is beginning as in “menarche” or “acritarch” (Sorry, I can’t think of any more common examples!)
Apart from not knowing Brand (in BRANDO) as a play, the only mystery for me was ‘(start of term)’, which surely must be an indication that in the sense ‘principal’ it is a prefix, as others have explained.
I got a bit stuck on QUENCH, which I finally worked out from the wordplay before confirming it with the definition ‘put out’. I thought that was a good clue, with a chess piece (Queen) as well as CH = ‘check’ (a chess term) in the wordplay. There were several other good clues as well in a puzzle that I found to be as challenging as most of last week’s puzzles.
Thanks to Gaufrid for standing in and to Brendan for the puzzle.
Chambers explains it authoritatively:
arch adj.chief, principal (now esp in compounds; see arch-)
On re-reading, I’d like to forget arche=beginning. The prefix explanation is just fine.
Thanks, Gaufrid.
Several linking mini-themes. DON GIOVANNI, DON QUIXOTE, DON[ald] DUCK, DON CORLEONE, linking to BRANDO, MAFIA and godfather [21ac] – and then the DON, PUT ON and DOFF combination. Very neat, I thought.
My favourites were GALILEO, PUT ON, WAGON and [Ey oop me] DUCK.
I’ve never come across ORDAINMENT before – I only knew ‘ordination’ – but it’s in both Collins and Chambers.
Many thanks to Brendan – lots of fun and most enjpyable!
I have been hoping to see “a Brendan” for a long time!! This was fun, as expected. I’m going to take a crack at the themed answers: DON the verb was linked to PUT ON, DRESS and DOFF. DON the name was linked to QUIXOTE, GIOVANNI, CORLEONE and DUCK. (And, happily for me, not Tump.) then there were also OXFORD and MAFIA dons. And on the Corleone-mafia side of things, there is BRANDO who starred in the movie, and godfather in the clueing for 21ac, and also the clueing for MAFIA is reminiscent of how Sonny Corleone was killed. Did I miss anything?
Many thanks to Brendan and Gayfrid and other commenters.
Eileen @14,
Sorry, your post was not up when I started typing. (And I took a phone call midway through typing my post, which made me take even longer to type than usual!)
Thanks to Brendan and Gaufrid. I needed help parsing DUCK and ECCENTRIC (I missed the Circe). I rarely spot themes, but no one has mentioned the Godfather items here (and BRANDO was my LOI).
Thanks for the BRAND bit of Brando – never heard of it, and I see I’m not the only one. Favourite clue was DUCK for the unusual wordplay.
It happens all the time, DaveMc! – I was surprised no one else had done it before I’d typed mine. [I did get OXFORD DON – which is yet another strand – but forgot to include it. ]
[DaveMc @15
Thanks for your comment the other day in our mini-exchange on ‘palaver’ and especially for the instant clue you came up with (‘Dad and Rod …’) for that word – great fun.]
I was at the dentist’s this morning, just for a check-up, and appropriately this puzzle was a bit like pulling teeth towards the end.
A very quick start, and I thought it was going to be a nice relaxing Monday puzzle and then I ground to a halt. I had most trouble with the same ones Gaufrid quotes: never heard of BRAND as a play; couldn’t understand the end of term bit for ARCH.
Struggled with QUENCH, DUCK,QUIXOTE. And as for CANTO, I had to come here for the parsing. I seem to be “hidden word” blind.
In retrospect I think this a really good puzzle. Favourite was DUCK. And nothing to quibble about!
Thanks Brendan, and Gaufrid for the explanations and stepping into the breach once more.
I did rather enjoy this, in spite of the obscurity at times (4d being a shining example, as others seem likewise mystified by BRAND as a play…). Obscurity is, I think, a rather cheap trick to make crosswords more “difficult” or “challenging”, but hey-ho.
I very much needed explanations for 24d DUCK and 25d AVOW – didn’t see AVW as A VW, so many thanks to Gaufrid for that.
I thought the theme was around the Godfather movie, but could only see a mini-theme – BRANDO, CORLEONE, MAFIA and a reference in the clueing of 21a. So thanks again to blogger and commentators for showing it was wider than that.
Like Eileen @14 I tried ORDINATION at 15d, but the check button wouldn’t have it…. OK, I’ve been found out cheating…
Many nice clues, and lots of good surfaces (1d to pick an example), so huge thanks to Brendan for the fun.
My experience was exactly the same as Crossbar@21 (apart from not actually going to the dentist) and I didn’t even see the double hidden word for DOFF. Mrs W came to the rescue with a fresh pair of eyes to polish off the SE corner. As Alan B said this was every bit as tough as any of last week’s.
Thanks Crossbar for making my post easy, and to Brendan and Gaufrid.
Oh, and I also held myself up for a long time by not bothering to check 15d against its fodder and having INATION rather than INMENT. Will I ever learn?
Thanks to Brendan and Gaufrid. Found this a bit tough for a Monday. A puzzle of two halves for me, left hand went in rather steadily but right hand took much longer. I spotted the Mafia connection but not the general don theme. Got there in the end with arch being the last one in. I had to come here to understand the parsing of Brando and arch. That said, an enjoyable solve and liked Quixote and duck. Thanks again to Brendan and Gaufrid.
Sorry to disagree with what Goujeers said earlier in the thread, but there is absolutely no way this is ideal for the Monday slot. Yuk ! However thanks and kudos to Gaufrid for unravelling it all at short notice.
Thoroughly enjoyed this. Great to see a Brendan puzzle again!
What Eileen said
Thanks to Brendan and to Gaufrid for the review
You’re welcome WhiteKing @23. And I also had problem like you @24, and others with the ORDAINMENT/INATION.
gsol @27 – that’s another thing I meant to say: four months is far too long! …
… and I just wondered if anyone else, like me, on the first run-through, when I had only the final F for 6dn, first thought of ‘huff’ [remove from {draughts} board]? it’s a word from childhood that I’d forgotten I knew – it’s amazing how they pop into the mind!
Me @15 – Gaufrid, apologies for misspelling your name. I was on my mobile at the time – fat fingers!
Alan B @20 – Haha – I was wondering after posting that if the great Rod Laver was now so many generations of tennis players ago that clueing “Rod” for “Laver” would be held my many to be too obscure. (Sort of like the Ibsen play “Brand”?)
WhiteKing @24 and others – I did not mention it when I posted before, but I also wrote in (lazily) “ordination” first, before QUIXOTE caused me to go back and see that I had not properly used the anagram fodder of 15d.
Muffin @5 – the Castellano spelling of the name “Quixote” is “Quijote”, so Brendan missed an opportunity to have a pangram – if he’d found a way to clue “Quijote” accurately! But that would have made it a lot harder for non-Spanish speakers.
However, in my view, pangrams are no big deal….
A fairly enjoyable – harder-than-some-Mondays – offering from Brendan, no real problems here. I wasn’t sure about the theme – if it’s all about “DON”s, should Don[ald] DUCK be one of the themers? Just as well we didn’t have a T***P! But equally, it could have an Italian flavour, adding in GALILEO, but then QUIXOTE doesn’t belong.
I didn’t recognise BRAND the play – and we did several Ibsen plays at school – shows how much I remember! I’m fairly sure we did The Master Builder, A Public Enemy, Ghosts, and Hedda Gabler. But probably not Brand.
OXFORD was perhaps easier than usual, seeing as we had the Boat Races last Saturday. Is this coincidence?
Anyway, thanks to Brendan (after a long wait) and Gaufrid for filling-in twice now…
Got stuck in the SE (well I suppose i have been most of my life) due to putting in ordination. Returned later and realised this didn’t work as a granma. Then i could finish.
Liked wagon and oxford was nice and unusual.
Laccaria @32 – see me @14
‘Just as well we didn’t have a T***P!’: I’d like to think Brendan restrained himself here – such rich pickings for setters, illustrated so many times, so wittily, here. I never know whether to laugh or cry.
Loccaria @32 – forgot to copy and paste ;should Don[ald] DUCK be one of the themers?’
Eileen@29 – yes we had HUFF with the draughts connection in the abscence of anything else – but couldn’t make it work.
Being a Brendan, I was looking for a theme from the start; almost finished before I saw it. 16d surface I took as a commentary on this. I should have taken more note of the middle clue, as it is often important with a Brendan.
Nice surface for QUENCH, too, especially the double work of “surrendering centre”
Thanks Gaufrid and Brendan
Started well and ground to a halt in the SE corner-I was at the dentist this afternoon too-which took me quite a time. Not as enjoyable as Brendan usually is. I thought this fell between two stools- too difficult for a Monday/ too inconsistent for Brendan at his best.
As good a puzzle as ever from Brendan, and a nice tribute presumably to another setter. Not too tricky, but not an easy Monday puzzle either. I wonder if there’s any reason for the timing?
I had not trouble with 4dn but couldn’t get 7dn. I wonder if I’m the only person here to have seen Brand but never seen The Godfather.
Very nice puzzle, witty and clever. I thought it was harder than most Mondays, but easier than most rest-of-the-weeks, and therefore just right for the slot. I didn’t see the theme, as usual, but it was the right kind of theme – a head-smacker when it is shown to you, but not an impediment to completing the puzzle. LOI was ARCH; I didn’t understand the “start of term”, until I read the blog. Too many ticks to mention, but I especially liked the clever construction of DUCK and PUT ON.
Thanks Brendan for a challenging but rewarding start to the week, and Gaufrid for filling in again so ably.
We understood ARCH as a def. of principal but don’t get either the playfully teasing or start of term bits.
Jan and Tom in Toronto (months later).
Jan & Tom @42
From Chambers under ‘arch’:
1. Chief, principal (now esp in compounds; see arch-)
2. Waggish, mischievous
Def. 2 is synonymous with ‘playfully teasing’ and the ‘(start of term)’ indicates its use as a prefix as in def. 1.
Thanks again Gaufrid.
After much searching I did discover the Waggish def. We’ve come across arch as principal many time in the ST Cryptic (the other xword carried by Toronto Star).
Wonder if the (at start of term) isn’t another definition. Found that RCH is an engineering term. It’s a rude acronym for the thickness of a hair. So the start of at is a + rch
Maybe it’s just my bad mind (for which I have quite a reputation).
T & J.