Solving time: probably 35’ total with lots of interruptions
Everyman grew up in the post-war Observer as Ximenes’s relatively easy puzzle. His guidelines (as I just learned in his “Art of the Crossword”) included straightforward vocabulary and as per usual fairness. This puzzle is a good example: only two answers (6D, 7D) forced me to use 16D in order to check their meaning. Suppose you could say has a bestial theme given: HOODIE, PALM CIVET, COLLARED DOVE, AIREDALE.
Across
| 1 | R+WANDA – There’s a girl called Wanda – not just a fish. |
| 4 | SLIPS+HO(l)D – Cricket-saturated clue: SLIPS are cricket fielders and then subtract “l” from a word meaning keep. |
| 9 | PARIS – Matthew Paris is a 13th century chronicler. [Thanks to PeterB for this tidbit] [Fixed link: Mon Nov 13, 2006] |
| 12 | OLIGARCHIES – anag(“oil charge is”). Nice and topical given the extraordinary wealth being generated, probably criminally, in Russia. |
| 13 | COLLARED DOVE(r) – Another subtraction clue: take “r” away from a well-known port. I had to check 16D to reinforce my suspicion that there was such a fowl. |
| 23 | ARIS(TOT+L)E – the “close” of “cardinal” gives us the L – “cardinal and philosopher” is nice and misleading (I’m sure there have been those who’ve been both). |
Down
| 2 | AIRED+ALE – Couple of idioms here: AIREDALE given its v. common letters crops up frequently in cryptics as a dog or Yorkshire-related. I’ve never ordered porter frankly and I wonder how many bartenders would recognize it as ale. |
| 6 | PALM C+I+VET – Had to check 16D for this beast: but the wordplay was eminently fair and led to the answer given P?L? C????T. |
| 7 | HOOD + IE – 16D reports that HOODIE is a kind of crow. |
| 16 | CHAMBERS – inevitable double meaning and v. familiar to regular cryptic solvers. |
| 19 | HOSIER – anag(“or is he”): a bit weak since “shopkeeper” is such a big set. The question mark: “or is he?” is thus necessary. |