I found this one to be very much towards the easier end of the Genius spectrum (probably welcome to some after last month’s Enigmatist), perhaps because I started with the down clues and all the clues lacking a definition were across ones.
By the time I moved on to the across clues, I had sufficient checked letters to make a stab at the long anagram in 1,5,9. The obvious start of this was I KNOW AN and the rest quickly followed. After that it was plain sailing, whilst keeping an eye out for the undefined entries.
I will admit to looking up the lyrics of the ditty because I couldn’t remember how it went after swallowing the dog. This was just as well because I initially wondered if ANGORA was the cat rather than the goat that I had forgotten about.
The eight solutions, not further defined, that complete the intro were:
fly – GNAT (10ac)
spider – BLACK WIDOW (26ac)
bird – PIGEON (12ac)
cat – LION (27ac)
dog – SCHIPPERKE (11ac)
goat – ANGORA (24ac)
cow – DAISY (16ac)
horse – STEED (17ac)
A pleasant way to start a fine Bank Holiday Monday, with plenty of time left to enjoy the sunshine, so thanks Crucible.
Across
1,5,9 Ask Woody Allen, woodwind wallah, to play song’s intro (1,4,2,3,4,3,9,1)
I KNOW AN OLD LADY WHO SWALLOWED A – an anagram (to play) of ASK WOODY ALLEN, WOODWIND WALLAH
10 Good article in good books (4)
GNAT – G (good) plus A (article) in NT (good books)
11 School president hosts very subdued monarch (10)
SCHIPPERKE – SCH (school) IKE (president) around (hosts) PP (very subdued) ER (monarch)
12 Perhaps sow one ground (6)
PIGEON – PIG (perhaps sow) plus an anagram (ground) of ONE
13 Mollusc eating weed as sole security? (4,4)
SHOE NAIL – SNAIL (mollusc) around (eating) HOE (weed)
14 Stop working with artist said to be regime changer? (9)
DIETICIAN – DIE (stop working) plus a homophone (said) of ‘Titian’ (artist)
16 Every so often draw in Skye (5)
DAISY – alternate letters (every so often) in ‘DrAw In SkYe’
17 Fancied player gains lead in tennis (5)
STEED – SEED (fancied player) around (gains) T[ennis] (lead in tennis)
19 Open trophy ultimately kept in county jail (6,3)
CLARET JUG – [kep]T (ultimately kept) in CLARE (county) JUG (jail)
23 Ban papers backing everyone in broadcast (8)
DISALLOW – ID (papers) reversed (backing) plus ALL (everyone) in SOW (broadcast)
24 A new artist saves energy (6)
ANGORA – A N (new) RA (artist) around (saves) GO (energy)
26 Boycott wives defending union response (5,5)
BLACK WIDOW – BLACK (boycott) plus WW (wives) around (defending) I DO (union response)
27 Large one running (4)
LION – L (large) I (one) ON (running)
28 Cooler fish dish (4-3)
STIR-FRY – STIR (cooler) FRY (fish)
29 My 10s flummoxed athlete on horse (7)
GYMNAST – an anagram (flummoxed) of MY GNATS
Down
2 “I think it’s OK at sea, barring hits”, an adventurer wrote (3-4)
KON-TIKI – an anagram (at sea) of I T[h]INK [it’s] OK with the whole clue being a sort of cryptic def.
3 Not all accoutrements are off the wall (5)
OUTRE – contained in (not all) ‘accOUTREments’
4 A nurse in charge guards rare poison (7)
ARSENIC – A SEN (nurse) IC (in charge) around (guards) R (rare)
6 PC likely to staunch cut (6)
LAPTOP – APT (likely) in (to staunch) LOP (cut)
7 Prepare to ambush 27 with heavy object to the ear (3,2,4)
LIE IN WAIT – sounds like (to the ear) ‘lion’ (27) ‘weight’ (heavy object)
8 Ruminants slip on leather, falling over (3-4)
DIK-DIKS – SKID (slip) KID (leather) reversed (falling over)
15 Pavlova, for one, reacted on being whipped (3,6)
TOE DANCER – an anagram (being whipped) of REACTED ON
18 Three notes for two from treble and tenor (7)
TRIPLET – TRIPLE (treble) T (tenor)
20 New York street eclipsing British one (7)
ROADWAY – [b]ROADWAY (New York street eclipsing British)
21 Drives out superior special troops (7)
UPROOTS – U (superior) plus an anagram (special) of TROOPS
22 Phone left in literary lady’s bedroom (6)
BLOWER – L (left) in BOWER (literary lady’s bedroom)
25 Information about a liberal physician (5)
GALEN – GEN (information) around (about) A L (a liberal) – this physician
Many thanks for the blog, Gaufrid. I enjoyed this puzzle too. Just a small typo in the blog – the answer to 29a should be GYMNAST.
Giudice @1
Thanks, typo corrected.
Yes, that was good fun and as you say Gaufrid, not too difficult. I’d never come across a SCHIPPERKE before, despite being a dog person, but it was obvious from the clue.
Thanks to Crucible and Gaufrid.
Thanks. Agreed, a welcome relief after last month’s. But the gnomic instructions were intriguing and the first few undefined clues we got: PIGEON, ANGORA, DAISY, GOAT (our original entry for 10a, which worked equally well) gave no clue as to the theme, so it was a big moment when the penny finally dropped!
Btw this was a rather refined version of the rhyme. I remember it as “I know an old WOMAN…..” not LADY.
And I too had forgotten about the goat.
The goat had skipped out of my memory too. This all came together very enjoyably. Thanks to Crucible and Gaufrid.