I thought this was going to be reasonably straightforward until I hit stormy weather in the SW corner (points covered in notes below).
Solving time 34 mins (slower than usual for me for Quixote)
ACROSS
4 CHESSMAN Pleasing cryptic definition misleadingly suggesting a boardroom
11 outdrinkING OThers Hidden, playing on the meanings of bar.
14 D = daughter What it must be to get lady, it must be IN LAY. Tricky, and satisfying to work out.
18 DE FERMENT (SW problem No. 1). Distracted for far too long by “deterrent” by the definition “putting off”
20 PASTA Liked this – the lexicographers (well-represented among setters, I’d say) are “off to a good start” because they’ve got past A in their work!
25 ROW in PL (abbrevation for place). A bit slow to get this – would have thought not all prowlers are lecherous, but that’s nit-picking, I guess.
27 READ in THEY
28 T(he)Y (heartlessly) RANT (vociferate)
DOWN
1 OS + CAR (WILD) E OS outsize = huge is a crossword staple.
3 C (cold) + RUM (drink) in SPY (importing) so you get “another” drink
8 ETON upwards in a down clue. Well-known crossword college.
9 D (Democrat) for R in Relegate (put down, head rolling). Definition is “representative”
13 ASS + MEN in HART
15 LEFT ALONE SW problem No 2 and the biggest. I spent too long looking for a port that might have Co (Company) in it somewhere. The definition is the cunningly concealed “untroubled by company”. So Port is LEFT, individual is ONE and they drink A L a litre. Re the surface reading, that’s a lot of port for one person!
17 GO (try) + TA (army) + HEAD (leader)
22 F A RAD (radiator)
24 (SW problem No. 3) “White ball in cricket? Not right!” It had to be SPOT from the crossing letters but why? I’d to go to my third dictionary (Collins) to find out that SPOT can mean the SPOT BALL in billiards. So my misspent youth was not at that game. Also was slow to see R being removed from SPORT. I was expecting something like “cricket, say” as just one example of a sport.
Another Independent cock-up on 24 December: the Beelzebub crossword appears with the previous Sunday’s clues (and not all of those), which don’t match the grid. Are the correct clues available anywhere?
The Indy Crossword Editor put the message below on the Crossword Centre Message Board.
“This is very disappointing, as it’s an excellent puzzle, as I’ve mentioned on these pages before. There has obviously been some repositioning this week for a special festive edition and someone on the paper seems to have performed a very inadequate cut and paste job.
Unfortunately I’m away at the moment and don’t have access to the original, but if I did I’m not sure that it would be fair to paste them here as it is a prize puzzle and this would disadvantage readers without access to or knowledge of this site. The paper has also omitted to publish the preamble, which explains that in certain answers one letter is ignored in the wordplay of their clues.
I have emailed the paper and requested that the puzzle be reprinted in next week’s edition and that the closing date be extended.
Other than that, all I can do is apologise on behalf of the paper for the inconvenience this has caused.”