A good puzzle with consistently high quality defs and wordplay (the latter providing clear direction to answers in some cases even when the def was unknown to me). Incidentally had I not known it was by Orlando I would have guessed Paul given the slyness in some cases (e.g. 24A, 11A). Dick Emery is a name I’ve heard of though couldn’t begin to tell you what he’s been in. Mold, Manchester, Menton and Motown are four far-flung and different towns.
Across
| 1 | RAM,IF,Y – First Paulianism: “playback” producing Y. Also my only quibble: “hard disk” defining RAM is rather loose, while it is true that a hard disk does provide random access services, you would never use RAM in place of “hard disk”. |
| 4 | S(CUTTLE)D – the wordplay is clear, so I didn’t even bother confirming that there is indeed a fictional Captain CUTTLE (there is I hope). |
| 9 | WALES,A – Ref. Lech. Sort of paired with its intersecting 2D. |
| 11 | DOUBLE NEGATIVE – this as solvers say is a good clue. |
| 14 | ERSE – hidden in “AlexandER SElkirk” who unfortunately is Scots (unless ERSE is more than Irish and includes the Scottish variant??). Incidentally the possessive “’s” is the minimal hidden operator here. |
| 18 | PRE(BEND)ARY – BEND in prayer*. |
| 21 | MANCHESTER CITY – (synthetic cream)* and it’s a football “side” too. |
| 23 | TRIM,ARAN – ref. the ARAN islands, to which the ferries no longer run in October as I found out last Oct. |
| 24 | MO(TO)WN – elegant economical clue, ref. the epicenter of late 60s soul music (Supremes et al) |
Down
| 2 | MOLD,OVA – must be a MOLD in Wales: 9A’s twin. |
| 3 | FAST,BACK – FAST as in to “hold FAST”. |
| 6 | T(H)E WAR – H in water*: not to be mentioned especially when you have German guests at Fawlty Towers. |
| 7 | LOO,PIER – LOO is a card game beloved of cryptic setters. |
| 8 | DICK,EMERY – Brit TV personality – which is all I know. |
| 12 | EMPIRE, STATE=”say” – but I do know that this is the nickname of New York (state) which is where I live now. Ref. the EMPIRE cinema (movie “theatre”) in London. |
| 15 | KNOCKOUT – KO=rev(OK): nice clue. |
| 17 | MENT(I)ON – ref. MENTON in the Riviera. |
| 19 | AR(TWO,R)K |
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