Solving time: 25′
Good puzzle with strong clear wordplay leading unequivocally to the right answer: pleasant diversion over morning tea (even coffee)
Across
| 4 | WAG,E SLAVE – leaves* follows WAG for “jocular type”. I no longer belong to the WAGE SLAVE community. |
| 11 | RASTA – hidden in “orchestRA STAlls”. |
| 12 | C,AMBRIDGE – turns out that AMBRIDGE is where Brit radio programme “The Archers” is set (I know about this only because I’ve been reading Inspector Morse books lately). |
| 13 | BIRD ON A WIRE – (in wardrobe I)* — I know the Judy Collins song but there must be a film of same name as well. |
| 17 | TAKE(HOME)PA,Y – “nett” is Brit net — Y is an algebraic “variable”. |
| 20 | LEICESTER – two meanings: nice clue — I think the first meaning (“Queen’s favourite”) is ref Elizabeth I who had pet courtiers (I should probably check this). |
| 23 | CH(IN)A – nice containment &lit for what you serve tea in! |
| 25 | SC(HED)ULE,D – “He’d” in clues* followed by last letter of “crossworD”, note that “arranged” is the definition not the anagrind which is “cryptic”. |
| 26 | M(I,M)ED – M for Malta (really should check if this is a valid abbrev) inside the “sea” (MED) that it’s in. Good clue: def is “took off”. |
Down
| 1 | DI,A,TRIBE – homophonic experts will no doubt tell me which Welsh name DI is similar to: “Torrent of abuse from a Welshman reportedly attached to a clan”. |
| 3 | THE FAT OF THE LAND – my first clue: clear consistent surface linking together two clean meanings. |
| 5 | G.L.E.A.M. – All those proper names left no doubt that we were to look for initials. |
| 6 | SOMERSET MAUGHA,M – (mag housemaster)*. I have a story involving Lord Beaverbrook, Somerset Maughham and my father. But I’ll take it offline. |
| 7 | ARMADA – clever cryptic def masquarading as, say, two meanings: roughly 427 “years ago”. |
| 8 | EX,OC,ET – The missile made famous by the Falkland Islands war. |
| 16 | BY,PASSE,D – I was misled into looking for an anagram of “duke” (“fashioned” seemed like a good anagrind candidate) but it’s just PASSE for “old-fashioned”. |
| 18 | F,LICKS – def is “seen in the cinema” and the only clue for which I’m uncertain about the wordplay: how are LICKS and “tanks” related? |
| 19 | FINISH – excellent double definition: “perfect” shifting from adjective to verb. |
| 21 | TA(M)IL |
tank and lick both mean to defeat heavily