| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | QUAKERS – r, square (anag). The formal name for the Quakers is the Religious Society of Friends. |
| 5 | PELISSE – a long cloak, often with a fur lining. Homophone clue as the word is pronounced to sound like “police” (force). |
| 9 | Us in Atria – an atrium being a hall. |
| 10 | PLUMBER – p=soft, lumber=wood but the definition appears to be at the beginning and end of the clue – “worker” “with pipes”. Can’t really be an &lit as a plumber doesn’t work with softwood. Not without an outrageous callout charge anyway. |
| 11 | TOUGHNESS – anag. and &lit. |
| 12 | r in dive (“disreputable resort”) – I think some xwd eds come over all peculiar when they see “r” as “redhead” (or Peterhead for “p” etc) but the Guardian ed is obviously made of sterner stuff. |
| 15 | MAZE in anag of “at men”. |
| 17 | SOUTHWELL – which is a diocese or “see”. S(outh)well – see? |
| 23 | CANTONESE – hidden in “can’t one see” (which took me a while to spot for some reason) but I’m not sure how “how to make a start” indicates that it’s hidden. |
| 26 | TEACAKE – very good. Misleading surface and good homophones – “teak” (hardwood) and “ache” (pine). |
| Down | |
| 1 | QUARTER – as in “show no quarter” and “hung, drawn and quartered”. |
| 2 | As,sa(u)lt – a sailor in a crossword is usually AB, Tar, RN or salt. And one or two others that I’ve forgotten. |
| 6 | La,undress – I was expecting a French word here because of “give them a wash” and the clue having already referred to “the French”. |
| 7 | SUBLIME – ref “Unter den Linden”, a street in Berlin which translates as “under (sub) the lime trees”. Nice clue I thought. |
| 8 | EARNEST (anag) – ref “Importance of Being…” |
| 17 | SUMMERS – saucy. |
| 18 | Up,is(rev),lon(g) – the 20th letter of the Greek alphabet. |
| 21 | PRECESS – new word to me. Precession is the “motion of a spinning body…in which it wobbles so that the axis of rotation sweeps out a cone”. “Ce” is Church of England (establishment) in “press” (media), although strictly speaking the press are just one part of the media, aren’t they? |