Very tough puzzle to finish the year. There is a theme, which I’ll give after the clue explanations in case anyone wants to have another look at the grid. I found it after 14 mins, but solving took 50 mins in all. I’m confident of the answers, but there are quite a few I do not fully understand. These are listed below.
* = anagram < = reversed
ACROSS
8 A CORN Oaks from acorns . Corn(wall)
10 DENTOID (note)* in did = made do
11 ALEWIFE From Mistress Quickly in Henry IV and maybe others by the Bard.
12 (T)OKAY
19 S(HE)NANDOAH he in (a hands-on)*
21 EMIT “Time is the enemy” Time<
23 AMPULLA (All up ma)<
25 ENROBES (SE borne)<
26 EARLS “What real spoilt kids ultimately become?” (real)* last letter of kids. But I don’t understand the definition. I thought an earl might perhaps be a breed of goat but it seems not.
27 STAMINODY (It’s Monday)*
DOWN
2 NOHOW “Auditor’s expertise under any conditions”(5) “Know-how” but ‘under any conditions’ seems to mean the opposite of NOHOW so I’m a little perplexed.
3 WIND Part of orchestra = only some players
4 INCA “Carmel, say, is Peruvian (4). I wrote this in straightway and it was confirmed by crossing letters but I don’t understand the reference to Carmel (thanks neildubya for explaining this – Carmel in California ie IN CA)
5 TA (K (E H) EA) RT Nestor and Kea are NZ parrots and also pseudonyms of one of the top setters who originally comes from there. Nestor in the Indy.
6 HOL (I’S)M Favourite clue. “One’s hiding in tree seeing the big picture?”
7 MAD COW DISEASE (was diocese)* = cow disease. BSE = first letters, but you could say this clue has no definition.
14 STEED For once, a TV or film reference I understand – main character in Avengers way back when.
15 THE TA An army well-known by solvers.
18 AI(M A BL)OW (lamb)* in (Iowa)*
22 ERNIE Another one I wrote in straightaway and had confirmed by crossing letters but do not understand “Wise going around Northern Ireland climbing?” It’s Ernie Wise, I think, and NI but I do not see the rest. (Thanks R Heald for this – N in EIRE (Ireland)<)
25 ELAN Hidden in both.
Theme: Top and bottom rows spell IN WITH THE NEW
The only one I can help with is 4d – Carmel is a town in California or IN CA. I’m also baffled by other clues you mention. I think you’re right that 7d doesn’t have a definition.
Actually, I’d thought of that possibility for Carmel, but a quick Google turned up a town in Indiana as the top hit.
22dn – looks like the wordplay here is N(= Northern) in EIRE (= Ireland) reversed.
CARMEL – there may well be others but the CA one became famous as it’s the one where Clint Eastwood was elected mayor.
My reading of 26 is that it is a kind of &lit on the assumption that Earls (having had an aristocratic upbringing)were once really spoilt kids.
Regarding 1D I agree that NOHOW means the opposite of “under any conditions” and the only phrase that I can think where it might be construed as being synonymous is something like “no way, not nohow” but here it is actually a being used incorrectly as a double negative.
More theme: OUT WITH THE OLD can be found on one of the main diagonals.
It can indeed – I did not spot that! Many thanks, Peter. Pity that, probably for space reasons, the solution today in the Indy was in list format.