Fairly standard daily fare, a sprinkling of anagrams, a few stretched definitions for me, but I’ve learnt that it’s risky to cast such aspersions without a dictionary. Theme? Well, there was a band called the Wolfe Tones, and another called the Chillum Brothers… then there’s Maxi/ Judas Priest according to taste. Put that in your pipe and smoke it!
ACROSS:
1. PRIES T.
4. (hig)HER MES(senger). Nice hidden.
10. FIR(STAID)ER. Never heard ‘firer’ used to mean arsonist, but guess it can be.
12. HO(NEST)LY. Gang as in ‘a nest of criminals’.
13. LOO(NINES)S. I’d say looniness was more about madness than stupidity, but perhaps the dictionary says otherwise.
15. NO(A)H. Ref. Japanese Noh theatre.
17. BRASS(ER)IE. A brassie’s a kind of golf club, though I’ve only wielded one on a crossword grid.
21. LI(GAME)NT.
22. IN TACT. In = batting, though I don’t think out = fielding.
24. AL PEN STOCK. That’d be Alabama State Pen then.
DOWN.
1. PI(MEN)T O. Another word for a pepper, or capsicum.
3. SAFFRON. FOR FANS*. I haven’t seen fashionable used as an anagrind before. Seems questionable at first sight, but I suppose ‘pliable’ or ‘malleable’ are not dissimilar.
6. MAIDS TONE. Wolfe Tone, 18th century Irish nationalist.
8. O(R CHEST)RATION.
14. NEW(SAGE)NT.
16. CH(ILL)UM. I’m sure I used to smoke something in one of these now and then, but it’s all a bit of a haze now.
19. IN C LINE. Does this mean prejudice?
22ac: If batting=IN then perception=TACT?
Yes I think perception can be tact
Wasn’t happy with 24A. Strictly speaking it seems to me we’re given AL+PEN’S+STOCK which is an S too many.
I think arsonist=FIRER, perception=TACT and prejudice=INCLINE are all a bit dodgy. Isn’t a FIRER someone who fires something (eg a gun), or maybe sacks people, but not someone who sets fire to things?
Agreee 24A has one S too many. Guessed 6dn but way too obscure a reference for me.
Online dictionaries seem to ok tact+perception, which isn’t to say that I got it but…
I agree that firer and incline are also pushing things although I suspect they would also turn out to be there in thesaurus.
19dn: prejudice=INCLINE is iffy. Prejudice as a noun is a preformed opinion; as verb to prejudge. Incline as a noun is a slope; as a verb to slope or tend toward. They just don’t quite match.