I found this quite challenging and it took a couple of goes to complete it. However, once you saw the solution, most of the clues seemed sound and gettable, which the possible exception of 7 which required a degree of specialist knowledge.
| Across | |||
| 1. | Get Wally to ad-lib (4,2) | ||
| Wing it | Win(=get) + git(=wally) | ||
| 4. | Recommended reminder to include singular 22D (8) | ||
| Promoted | Prod around mote (22d being speck) | ||
| 10. | Smear resin on to some pottery (9) | ||
| Ironstone | (Resin on to)*. I was held up here by not being sure whether the second part of the anagram was (on to) or (some). | ||
| 11. | Reportedly embroider native product (5) | ||
| Pearl | Hom of purl, a type of stitch | ||
| 12. | Acclaim return of some continental Celts (5) | ||
| Eclat | Hidden, rev in continenTAL CElts | ||
| 13. | Proposes key condiment (5,4) | ||
| Table salt | Tables + ALT | ||
| 14. | Posh county’s about to incorporate Frenchman’s firm (7) | ||
| Unmoved | U + Devon< around M(onsieur) | ||
| 16. | Detective describes international assembly (4) | ||
| Diet | Det(ective) around I(nternational) – a diet is a parliament | ||
| 19. | A mother’s gardener? (4) | ||
| Adam | A + dam, Adam being a dweller in the Garden of Eden, hence a sort of gardener | ||
| 21. | Agent comes back to court to defend a French invalid (7) | ||
| Defunct | Fed< + ct around un | ||
| 24. | Victim enters offices to get stamps (9) | ||
| Postmarks | Mark in posts, which would be office in the sense of the “the office of Prime Minister”, referring to the PM’s job. | ||
| 25. | Quick type of pastry (5) | ||
| Short | DD | ||
| 26. | Large, not small, entertainer (5) | ||
| Comic | Co[s]mic | ||
| 27. | Sit restlessly with gunner and guerrilla (9) | ||
| Insurgent | (Sit + gunner)* | ||
| 28. | Mix up an order to depart (8) | ||
| Scramble | DD | ||
| 29. | Misrepresents son in Roald Dahl’s family (6) | ||
| Twists | S(on) in Twits, a Dahl novel | ||
Down |
|||
| 1. | Cover up wine in the open (5,3) | ||
| White out | White (wine) + out(=in the open) | ||
| 2. | That man leaves phenomenal redesign for advertising feature? (4,4) | ||
| Neon lamp | P[he]nomenal* – can’t say I’ve come across neon lamps much, neon lights being somewhat more common. | ||
| 3. | Small picture of cricket maybe omitting its head (5) | ||
| Inset | Inse[c]t | ||
| 5. | Young woman and animal return to wetland area (7) | ||
| Reedbed | (Deb + deer)< – did think for a while it might be flowbed | ||
| 6. | Pale flame flickers in national symbol (5,4) | ||
| Maple leaf | (Pale flame)* | ||
| 7. | Gunpowder container used to protect Russian Caravan? (3,3) | ||
| Tea bag | CD. This lost me for a long time. I knew that Gunpowder was a type of tea but hadn’t a clue what it had to with Russian Caravan until I looked up the latter and found it’s also a type of tea. | ||
| 8. | Tone down sound of Welshman’s musical instrument (6) | ||
| Dilute | Hom of Dai + lute | ||
| 9. | Ordered annoyed director to tour Thailand (6) | ||
| Sorted | Sore + d(irector) around T(hailand). | ||
| 15. | Head off escape with me going before guide (4,5) | ||
| Vade mecum | [E]vade + me + cum(=with) | ||
| 17. | Spies sappers in court with spades upraised (8) | ||
| Snoopers | (RE in spoon + s(pades))< | ||
| 18. | Holy woman oversees creation of astute laws (8) | ||
| Statutes | St + astute* | ||
| 20. | Military market paper and metal (7) | ||
| Martial | Mart + I (Indy’s sister paper) + Al | ||
| 21. | Give up district around El Salvador (6) | ||
| Desist | Dist(rict) around ES | ||
| 22. | Spots announcement of plans (6) | ||
| Specks | Hom of specs (short for specifications) | ||
| 23. | Chemical compound is more refractory (6) | ||
| Isomer | (Is more)* | ||
| 25. | Orchestra wives embrace Labour politician (5) | ||
| Straw | Hidden in “OrcheSTRA Wives” – John Whitaker Straw, who supposedly adopted the name Jack after a leader of the Peasants’ Revolt. | ||
Found this on the easy side, apart from 7d, which I couldn’t parse.
19a. Those of us of a certain age will probably remember the weekly feature “Adam the Gardener” in the Sunday Express”.
Count me as another who didn’t know the Russian Caravan reference but fortunately I have come across gunpowder=tea before so TEA BAG had to be the answer. I also got TWISTS from the definition only because I didn’t know the Roald Dahl reference.
I too had problems with 7dn, not knowing the Russian Caravan reference. But gunpowder is the tea that comes rolled up like little black grains (hence the name) which open out when the water is added – so hardly likely to be found in a teabag as they need room to expand. And should the enumeration be (3,3) or simply (6)? WING IT was new to me, and I only remembered the Roald Dahl reference after getting 29ac from the definition.
But a pleasant enough diversion for a Monday morning. Thanks Kairos and NealH.
I found this tough too; have only just finished it at a second sitting (which is unusual for me, because if I can’t finish I don’t usually come back).
It’s all sound as far as I can see, but some tricky clueing. I liked DILUTE and TABLE SALT today. Keys on keyboards seem to be all the rage with setters these days.
The Roald Dahl book is actually called The Twits, which makes sense of the surface.
Thanks, both.
Well, this one completely defeated me. Came back to it several times during the day, and still only have about a third done. Time to give up.
Liked this. I got much of it fairly easily then became quite stuck and thought I’d have to give up, then managed to finish, putting in TEA BAG without knowing what was going on with the Russian Caravan.
Why is St, which is presumably saint, a holy woman?