Later than normal, due to me spending an hour or so on the Genius before realising I’d clicked on the wrong puzzle!
dd = double definition
cd = cryptic definition
* = anagram
Across
1. WORKHORSE. WORK + HORSE. A Punch is a horse, presumably ‘a go’ is work?
6. CHIP. dd. A chip shot vs a chip used in games like Poker.
10. TRACT. Diminish is CONTRACT minus CON (‘study’).
11. AMBERGRIS. AMBER + RIGS*. Waxy substance secreted by whales and used in the perfume industry.
12. ROMANCE. MANOR* + CE.
13. RISOTTO. R + I + SOT + TO.
14. ARCHBISHOPRIC. ARCH + BISHOP + R + I + C.
17. BETWEEN WHILES. Whiles are ‘cunning devices’, I assume.
21. PRETEXT. cd.
22. MEANDER. RENAMED*
25. NERVELESS. dd
25. SHAKO. HAS* + KO. A fairly silly-looking hat.
26. RAMP. R.A. + M.P. I think ramp=racket in the sense of ‘rage’.
27. TRAMLINES. dd. Tramlines are the sets of differe ‘out’ lines on a tennis court for doubles/singles.
Down
1. WATERWAY. WA(I)TER + WAY.
2. REALM. REAL + M.
3. HOT AND BOTHERED. THERHANDEDBOOT*
4. READERS. dd. People ‘reading’ something at university, and people newspapers ‘rags’ are for.
5. EMBARGO. (d)EMO around GARB*.
7. HERETICAL. ICLEARTHE*
8. PISTOL. PI + LOTS rev.
9. DRESS REHEARSAL. dd
15. CABLEGRAM. GAMBLERAC*. Where does the S go?
16. USURIOUS. cd
18. ENTREAT. ENT (Ear Nose and Throat) + RATE*
19. NEMESIA. Hidden backwards in prAISEMENtioned.
20. OPENER. cd. Cricket reference
24. DRAWN. dd.
26a I had this as ramp = swindle = racket
In 15 down, I think “Gambler’s account shortly” should be read as “Gambler has A/C”, so the apostrophe-S is just a joiner.
For 17 across, I always thought the “cunning devices” were “wiles”…
4dn – “Reader” is a position in British universities that is above a lecturer but below a professor.
17ac – I agree with mhl: I can’t make this work without a homophone indicator. (Could it be reusing the “say” from the previous clue? Even so, it’s attached to the wrong part of this one.)
I agree with the comments on apostrophe-S and wile/while. I also assumed that the latter was meant to be covered by the “say” in the previous clue. I also have certain reservations about “tramlines” and “guiding principles”. Can anyone offer more explanation?
Chambers gives “a rigid set of principles” as one of the definitions of TRAMLINES, as well as the tennis/badminton sense.
Some of these clues are brilliant, e.g. 3 dn, , 19 dn, which makes the weaker ones all the more disappointing.
E.g. I can’t accept that ‘s is valid for “has” in 15 dn, and agree that there is a missing hompohone indicator in 17 ac. And in 25 ac, is “remove” really valid as an anagram indicator?
On a wider note I’ve never been clear about what the rules are for linking consecutive clues via …….
Are there any?
… that there should be some connection or other? I dunno.
There was (what seemed to be) a competition between the Grauniad setters to see who could do most dot dot dot links, and it did get rather silly. So Paul came along and did a puzzle about Cluedo that linked the lot, and that was the end of it. Apparently it took a significant number of man-hours.
Not sure about some of the cryptic grammar in this puzzle, but it is indeed punctuated as by some excellent Quantum clues. ‘Re-moved’ is not for me, but I admired greatly the plural usage deployed in ‘go with’ at 13 across. Go = work I would support, in the sense of ‘does it go?’.
A bit of a stretch: “moved” would be OK as an anagram indicator; is “removed” moved again?
A bit late, but can anyone explain 16D, please?
16dn is USURIOUS – a cryptic def: charging exceptional (excessive) interest is an example of usury
1ac: “go” = “work” as in “he managed to get the engine going”.
I agree with the others that 17ac is reusing the “say” from the previous clue to turn “wiles” into “whiles”. As always with these clues linked by ellipses, though, I would find it much more satisfying if there was some thematic relationship between the two solutions.
Although I suspect no one is likely to read this comment now, the crossword that Paul B is referring to is in the “Paul” book in the Guardian Cryptic Setters Series – it’s puzzle number 8 in that compilation. I’m afraid it must be from before July 1999, since it’s not in the online archive. All the across clues tell a story, and all but one of those are joined with ellipses 🙂