Smiffy has had to get his priorities right and put business before pleasure today so unfortunately we won’t be seeing his cheerful avatar.
I found this an interesting and entertaining set of clues from Bradman, some of which required a bit of thought to unravel.
Across
1 PICADOR homophone of ‘pick a door’ – a mounted bullfighter with a lance
5 DIVERT DIVER (one taking the plunge) T (time)
8 WAISTBAND homophone of ‘waste banned’ – I liked the definition!
9 SEGUE hidden in ‘thoSE GUEsts’ – a musical term meaning ‘to proceed without pause’ or ‘follow on’
11 RUSTY [t]RUSTY (reliable)
12 THE FIVE KS *(HK FESTIVE) – the symbols of a Sikh’s spiritual and cultural allegiance to Sikhism (kaccha, kangha, kara, kesh and kirpan), worn by baptised Sikhs.
13 RANDIEST DIES (passes out) in RANT (wild party) – Collins defines ‘rant’ as a, principally Scottish, term for ‘wild revel’
15 GUN DOG cd
17 SPLASH PL (place) in SASH (band) – a slight quibble with the definition here; ‘to trumpet’ is vocal and ‘to splash’ relates to printed material
19 GUJERATI I TAR (one sailor) E (eastern) JUG (vessel) reversed – the Indian state is Gujerat so the definition must be ‘from region of India’
22 ICELANDER homophone of ‘I slander’
23 CRASS CR (Charles Rex) ASS (fool)
24 GHOST G (good) HOST (entertainer) – usually used in the term ghost-writer but can stand alone
25 STIMULATE S (second) TIM (boy) U (university) LATE (after the normal time)
26 ANDREA hidden in ‘mAN DREAms’
27 NEGATED [o]NE GATED (kept in)
Down
1 POWER DRESSING *(EDWIN PROGRESS)
2 CRIMSON CRIM[inal] (villain) SON (boy)
3 DITTY TT (completely sober) in DIY (activity of amateur enthusiast)
4 ROAD TEST O in *(STARTED)
5 DODDER D (day) ODDER (stranger)
6 VESTIBULE VEST (garment) I (one) *(BLUE)
7 RAGWEED WE in RAGED (was wild)
10 EAST GRINSTEAD *(A STREET SIGN) AD (advertisement) – a town in West Sussex
14 INSTANTER *(TEN TRAINS) – a legal term meaning ‘without delay’
16 GUARDIAN A RD (a road) I A (one lying on a) in GUN (weapon)
18 LIE DOWN *(WILD ONE)
20 ADAMANT ADAM (man ahead of all others) ANT (member of hard working community)
21 ODESSA [p]ASSED O[n] reversed – a port on the Black Sea in southern Ukrane
23 CLUNG C (about) LUNG (breather)
Hi Gaufrid. Surprised to see you today. Could 23a be from RC, Roman Catholic reversed, as the clue says ‘backing C’s enemy’?
Octofem
Re 23a, I don’t think so. If ‘backing’ was indicating the reversal of RC the result would be ASSCR. For the clue to produce CRASS, ‘backing’ has to be the indicator that ASS is behind CR.
OK! I concede. This was a good puzzle. I particularly liked 12a