An excellent puzzle from one the Indy’s occasional setters, with a background in the world of advanced puzzles. A mixture of very easy and very hard clues, I found. Excellently crafted with some cunning seamless divisions between definition and wordplay. As with some recent Mordred Indys there’s a theme (or, at least an element of dedication). In case readers want to look themselves first, I will give this info after the clue explanations.
Solving time: 27 mins
* = anagram < = reversed
ACROSS
11 CLEAR (net) AC (N – Henman’s ultimate ie last) E
12 DAIRYMAID R (right) for L (Liberal) in daily maid
13 Starsky and HUTCH cf Lord Sutch h = hard for s = is = ‘s eg the clue’s understood
15 ETH(n)ICAL Yes, there is a word ‘ethnical’ meaning the same as ethnic
18 SHE BANG “Girl on girl affair?” Hmmm!
25 IR ISH STEW s and s in (white)* Very strange one, this – when I saw the enumeration I thought of Irish stew but said it could not be with ‘from Ireland’ in the clue, but it is! There’s a &lit element too of course.
26 IN CUR (RUC NI)< Replaced in recent times by the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland)
27 LATENT cf talent.
DOWN
2 FORT ITUDE Maybe keep = fort (dutie)*
3 EVERY NOW AND THEN h (hard) in (even a down entry)*. Great clue, with excellent surface.
4 CO (CK AD) E Calvin Klein Seb Coe
6 EARTHSHATTERING (heart)*
7 IN N IT The last I solved. Tag = common expression it = the guy who chases others in children’s game. Think that’s it anyway.
9 MED (pad)DLE The best of the many seamless joins in/sea
16 CRUST ACEA retracted means, I think, take away the odd letters of hAd ChElAe
21 CYPRUS All based on first or last letters with three separate indications. Definition is island and it also has an &lit touch.
23 EXI (S) T Another one using an initial letter.
Dedication: Look at central row and column – two boy’s names of six letters.
Agree with Nmsindy – a thoroughly enjoyable puzzle with some nice topical touches.
Nice puzzle. 18A is a bit saucy and I didn’t really get 7D so thanks for explaining that. Was also surprised by IRISH STEW. For 12A, I went for DAILYMAID (“Farm worker right for Liberal domestic servant”), which surely is just as valid as DAIRYMAID, depending on how you read the clue. Or am I missing something super-subtle? To me, it makes more sense for the substitution instruction (“right for Liberal”) to come after the word in which you are doing the substituting.
DAIRYMAID yes, the substitution works either way, but dailymaid ain’t a word.
Ah. Good point. I assumed that “domestic servant” was DAILYMAID but, as you say in your blog, it’s “daily maid”.
7D definition was a bit cheeky – in fact the ? is part of the definition. INNIT is a tag? innit?
More on DAIRYMAID. Looking at it again, I think the substitution works only one way. “right for Liberal” can only mean R for L, not the other way round.