Perhaps slightly harder to get into than some FT crosswords but once started there were no major difficulties, apart from 26a which took me a while to see the wordplay even though the answer was obvious. In fact initially I thought there might be a typo in the clue and that ‘miles’ should have been ‘males’. This would have been quite plausible as a clue but would have been somewhat male chauvinistic, particularly given the presence of the question-mark.
Across
1 PANTRY TRY (shot/attempt) on PAN (film) – pan is not actually ‘to film’ but to move the camera whilst filming
4 TRIBUNAL TRIAL (hearing) about BUN (something sweet)
9 RIGHT dd – ‘Cameron’s lot (the Tory party) so politically’ and ‘correct’ are both right (well, the former used to be a right wing party)
10 BRILLIANT dd
11 DETRACT T (last of freight) CARTED (transported) reversed
12 CLICHES CLInCHES with ‘n’ (knight) removed
13 SOLE sole is a fish and can also mean alone (away from school, ie the rest of the group of fish)
14 STARLING STARING (looking) around L (pound)
17 BY THE WAY dd
19 METE MET (came across) E (end of face) – mete is a measure as is ‘hand’ (a measure of just over 100mm, 4″ in real money, normally used when measuring the height of horses). It has been suggested elsewhere that hand = hand out = mete but I am not happy with this explanation. As a verb, mete is to apportion (divide up) rather than to hand out and also the clue does not include the ‘out’
22 CHATEAU CHAT (bird) EAU (water)
24 ITERATE IE (that is) about T (time) ERA (time) T (time)
25 TARPAULIN TAR (Jack, a sailor) PAUL (boy) IN (wearing)
26 AMISS A MISS – from the saying “a miss is as good as a mile”
27 CREOSOTE *(ROSE) in COTE (a birdhouse)
28 ORDEAL DE (each end of defence) in ORAL (an exam or test)
Down
1 PARADISE IS inside PARADE (show)
2 NIGHTCLUB NIGH (close) CL (150) in TUB (bath)
3 RATTAN RAT (desert) TAN (brown)
5 REINCARNATION RE (religious education) IN CARNATION (flower)
6 BELLINI BELL (call or ring) IN I (Italy)
7 NEATH NEAT (orderly) H (hospital)
8 LATEST LA (Louisiana) TEST (investigation)
10 BITE THE BULLET dd
15 GRENADINE *(GRADE NINE)
16 REVERSAL VERS (verse unfinished) in REAL (actual)
18 TREPANS *(PARENTS) – a trepan is an obsolete cylindrical saw for perforating the scull – Ouch!
20 ACETIC ACE (one) TIC (little jerk)
21 REPAIR REP (salesman) AIR (manner)
23 AGREE A GREE (green cut short)
METE
I’m not sure I agree that a mete is a measure and so = hand. Chambers doesn’t give this sense, and it seems unlikely that even if it is a measure like an inch or a centimetre it’s exactly the same measure as a hand. More likely that Mudd has intended a rather loose equivalence of ‘mete’ with ‘mete out’.
A bit late – I’ve only just done this crossword.
Wil
Chambers (1998) – mete n (a) measure
As indicated in my blog, Chambers also gives ‘mete’ as a verb meaning ‘to measure’ or ‘to apportion’. Even if you add ‘out’ this is not the same as ‘hand out’ or ‘distribute’.