Extremely difficult and I failed with it, guessing two answers at the end which turned out to be wrong. There are a few others I do not understand either. As a late stand-in, please forgive a less fully-considered blog, and happy to have those I missed explained.
* = anagram < = reversed
ACROSS
1/8 COMMISSIONED OFFICER (if decision comes from)* I tend to look for long anagrams esp at perimeter in Nimrod puzzles and this one came quickly enough.
9 ONESELF e in on shelf less h
11 BUR(ME)SE (rebus)*
12 RHO N CHI
13 YET IS
14 IN PASSING “Across the board, Englishmen make progress thus from the French” Thought it might be the English translation of “en passant” used in chess i.e. board, but understand no more.
16 UNDERSEA L
19 PEE EM One of those I got wrong – it seems to be PM (afternoon) spelled out but I cannot understand the rest “Top man’s premium following Death in the Afternoon?”
Maybe the top man is the PM
21 FELT TIP Cos it writes in bold, I guess
25 CURLING “Revolutionary activity in which one may aim stones at house” Not understood, I guessed ‘curving’
24 TIMBALE (Blame it)*
25/26 CHINESE WATER TORTURE (Were that intercourse)* Fairly clear it was an anagram from early on, but took ages to work out.
DOWN
1 C OFF RET First three letters of the two words C = 100
2 MOCKERS Double definition
3 ISRAELITE (realities)*
4 SPO (ns) OR NS = Nova Scotia
5 ONE ROUS(e)
6 ELENCHI Hidden
7 COWBOY OUTFIT Definition, botchers, I think, but don’t get the rest “Botchers R Us of which chaps would normally be a part?”
10 FRIDGE MAGNET Cryptic definition
15 POL (ICE C) AR
17 DIL EMMA lid<
18 RA T RACE ar<
19 PURLIEU ur (from phone texting) in lie up (cycling)
20 EV I L EY E ley = land Eve = first mate
22 PLEAT hidden
19a PM is an abbreviation for Prime Minister (top man), premium, post mortem (following death) and afternoon.
7d ‘Botchers R Us’ is a cowboy outfit (a firm that does shoddy work) and ‘chaps’ is a shortened form of chaparajos which are a cowboy’s leather riding leggings.
Very hard, with a lot of words I would consider too obscure for an everyday crossword. I think using such words is only justified if there is a Nina or some sort of theme and I didn’t spot one.
19A I didn’t get this but I think it is 4 different abbreviations of pm
23A I guess it is a reference to the silly game played on ice. I don’t know why it is ‘revolutionary’
7D Chaps are worn by cowboys
10 I didn’t get this and after seeing the answer I don’t like it
Richard
23a ‘revolutionary’ because the stones usually have a degree of spin (or revolutions) put on them when they are released towards the house.
1D To me “all but the first three” suggests ICERETURNS or perhaps ICEURNS. I can’t quite interpret it as “just the first three of each word”
To me 10D is a craptic definition.
23a is presumably a DD, “revolutionary activity” being CURLING in the twisting round sense.
Is there a Nina that I’m missing which merited the inclusion of (to my mind) obscure words like RHONCHI, ELENCHI, PEE EM?
There were quite a few good ones too though (I liked POLICE CAR).
PS I forgot to say that I didn’t understand the necessity for “Aging” in 12A
Blimey, well done to anyone who finished this one! The clues I managed to get were fun though.
Could someone help me out with the “those put on to end proceedings” meaning of MOCKERS?
19 across is bizarre.
‘put the mockers on’ is slang meaning ‘to put an end to’, ‘put paid to’
Chambers doesn’t give it direct derivation but it is part of ‘mock’
Just been forced to go downstairs and consult Brewers. It suggests that it was Australian slang from early 20th century but may have originated in English markets prior to that. A suggestion is that it is from the Hebrew ‘makot’, via the Yiddish ‘makkes’, meaning plagues or visitations.
Re comment 5, I thought the ‘aging’ was as it was the old Greek alphabet.
Thank you for explaining that, Colin.
MOCKERS I should have explained ‘put the mockers on’. I’d thought it was more well-known. A quick look at dicts shows they generally explain it, however.
I know we often tend to think of everything Greek as being ancient but aren’t Rho and Chi in the modern Greek alphabet too?
cowboy outfit:
Also note that “Botchers R Us”, minus the Bch, is an anagram of trousers.