Paul is in fine form on rather a tough solve, I thought.
I hope that I have managed to explain everything adequately.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PREDAWN |
Early man planting tomato, cherry or chestnut (7)
|
| RED (tomato, cherry or chestnut) inside (planting) PAWN (man) | ||
| 5 | GORILLA |
Pass small runner, a thug (7)
|
| GO (pass) + RILL (small runner) + A | ||
| 10 | TUTU |
Old archbishop in tie, reportedly? (4)
|
| Homophone of (reportedly) TWO-TWO (tie, as a score), referring to Desmond Tutu | ||
| 11 | GOODFELLOW |
Puck, wicked soul (10)
|
| GOOD (wicked) + FELLOW (soul) | ||
| 12 |
See 29
|
|
| 13 | HEREUPON |
Hydrogen pure, one gathered, as of now (8)
|
| H (hydrogen) + anagram of (gathered) {PURE ONE} | ||
| 14 | TEA FOR TWO |
Wrote to couple in cafe needing a brew – their request? (3,3,3)
|
| Anagram of (needing a brew) {WROTE TO + interior pair of letters of (couple in) [C]AF[E]}, “their” referring to the aforementioned couple | ||
| 16 | JOLLY |
Really cheerful (5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 17 | SPACE |
Void, step beyond limit of consciousness (5)
|
| Last letter of (limit of) [CONSCIOUSNES]S + PACE (step), with “beyond” indicating the order of the wordplay | ||
| 19 | SOUR CREAM |
Guardian readers’ piercing cry, food dropped on jacket? (4,5)
|
| OUR (Guardian readers’) inside (piercing) SCREAM (cry), referring to a topping for a jacket potato | ||
| 23 | PINOCHLE |
Help! Coin lost in card game (8)
|
| Anagram of (lost) HELP COIN | ||
| 24 | LARDER |
Cool place for a cocktail if after 23, reportedly? (6)
|
| If we place this solution after the solution to 23[A], we have “PINOCHLE LARDER,” which is a homophone of (reportedly) PINA COLADA (cocktail) | ||
| 26 | STRIKE ZONE |
Area for swingers in action, number observed after opening of zip (6,4)
|
| STRIKE ([e.g., industrial] action) + first letter of (opening of) Z[IP] + ONE (number), with “observed after” indicating the order of the wordplay, referring to batters in baseball | ||
| 27 | GRIT |
Steel crushed stones (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 28 | FREEZER |
Cool place for a song if before 16 11, reportedly? (7)
|
| If we place this solution before the solutions to 16[A] and 11[A], we have “FREEZER JOLLY GOODFELLOW,” which is a homophone of (reportedly) FOR HE’S A JOLLY GOOD FELLOW (a song) | ||
| 29, 12 | LET THAT SINK IN |
Really think on it, and open the door to a new basin? (3,4,4,2)
|
| Double/cryptic definition, the latter being a command that a plumber might utter during a home renovation, for example | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | ROUTINE |
Boring, boring affair out in Europe (7)
|
| Hidden in (boring) [AFFAI]R OUT IN E[UROPE] | ||
| 3 | DRUNK |
Lush dip crossing river (5)
|
| DUNK (dip) around (crossing) R (river) | ||
| 4 | WAGONER |
Romantic broken by love for driver (7)
|
| [Richard] WAGNER (Romantic) around (broken by) O (love) | ||
| 6 | OXFORD |
Eight, third of those with two crosses? (6)
|
| Third [letter] of [TH]O[SE] + {X + FORD} (two crosses), referring I assume to one of the university rowing teams | ||
| 7 | ILL-HUMOUR |
Bile in funny jokes? (3-6)
|
| ILL (funny) + HUMOUR (jokes) | ||
| 8 | LOO ROLL |
Jumper turned up in lounge, sheets in lavatory (3,4)
|
| ROO (jumper) inverted (turned up) inside (in) LOLL (lounge) | ||
| 9 | GO THE WHOLE HOG |
Fully commit, having found form before opening corner (2,3,5,3)
|
| GOT (found) + HEW (form) + HOLE (opening) + HOG (corner, as in “corner the market”) | ||
| 15 | FACTORISE |
Upset I forecast, list those contributing to result (9)
|
| Anagram of (upset) I FORECAST, referring presumably to arithmetic, the factors of a number being a list of all the numbers which divide into the original number without a remainder | ||
| 18 | PAINTER |
Bacon, say, a plant-based protein, initially (7)
|
| First letter of (initially) P[ROTEIN] + A + INTER (plant, i.e., bury), referring to Francis Bacon, with “based” indicating the order of the wordplay, i.e., “provided the base for” | ||
| 20 | RELIEVE |
Cover for ever, unfortunately having buried high priest (7)
|
| Anagram of (unfortunately) EVER around (having buried) ELI (high priest, in the First Book of Samuel) | ||
| 21 | AMERICA |
Setter in a state over ‘mouth’ in Cockney, a North and South, perhaps? (7)
|
| I think this parses as: ME (setter) inside (in) {A + RI (state, i.e., Rhode Island)} + first letter of (“mouth” in) C[OCKNEY] + A, referring to the continents | ||
| 22 | WHEEZE |
Clever scheme taking more than one minute, we hear? (6)
|
| If WEE is minute (stress on the second syllable, meaning “small”), then a homophone of (reportedly) this solution is WEES (more than one minute, i.e., plural) | ||
| 25 | RIGHT |
Blue in the pink (5)
|
| Double definition, the first referring to the Conservative Party |
This was Paul at his very best with tricky, funny and ingenious clues showing a wonderfully wide and inventive vocabulary with GOODFELLOW, GRIT, JOLLY, RIGHT, DRUNK and GO THE WHOLE HOG.
Our foi was HEREUPON, but we had to return to parse five clues including the tortuous
construction of our loi AMERICA and hope that we have correctly explained 29/12 and 19! However are favourites have to be the triplet of homophones PINA COLADA, WHEEZE and FREEZER.
Hats off to P and thanks to C for confirmation
PAINTER and the SE corner defeated me. Got nowhere near solving “Blue in the pink”. Kept trying at bedtime. I enjoyed many of those I solved: not least OXFORD and TUTU.
The minute in clueing WHEEZE is pronounced “my-newt”. Ah. Cineraria has covered that.
Many thanks, Paul and Cineraria
Typically I’m not a big fan of Paul’s homophones, but Freezer Jolly Goodfellow did make me chuckle. Not so sure about Wheeze. Felt a bit meh.
Took me until yesterday morning to finish this. It was a cracker. Thanks Paul.
And Cineraria for the blog.