The link for the Across clues is that these are all fruit grown in Australia. Some of them are not at all Pom-friendly, and without the Internet, and especially http://www.campionandcurtis
Across
5 F (EI)< J O A – Holden is Australia’s main car manufacturer. I think this is Auster’s hint to the link. In fact, the name “Auster” should have been somewhat of a clue …
9 PO (ME) LO
10 RAM BUT AN
12 ELDER BERRY – Reference to Chuck Berry – outstanding clue
13 BOY SON BERRY
18 KAFFIR LIME – (IMF FLAKIER)*
22 MUSCATEL – (CAMUS)* (LET)< THis is first across that I got which gave me the idea that we were looking for fruit or wine.
23 PEP IN O
24 O RANGE – i.e zero range – a traditional clue. Made me stop thinking about wine and concentrate on fruit.
25 SAP (OTE)*
Down
1 JILL A ROO – A female version of a Jackaroo : an inexperienced Australian rancher
5 FEELER – The last I got and probably the easiest clue here – a simple double definition i.e “put feelers out”
7 ON AGRA – Knew the Taj was in Agra, needed Internet to confirm this was the Evening Primrose
8 C (RED) ENT IALS – i.e RED in CENT with an anagram of SAIL
14 STRA (TEG)< Y
15 REDEPLOY – (REED PLOY)*
16 CARUSO – CA (OURS)* where Ca. is short for Circa (about)
17 S TAN CE – S(outh) TAN, second half of the word Race
20 ESPIAL – (i LAPSE)*
It’s actually BOY SEN BERRY, referring back to the ELDER BERRY – brilliant!
I didn’t clock that they were all Australian, but there were some seriously obscure fruits here.
Really fun crossword – I actually found it the easiest one this week, since the wordplay was pretty straightforward, even though there were no fewer than 11 words that I’d never heard of before!