dd = double definition
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(fodder) = anagram
A painless start to the week. Quite solvable and entertaining
ACROSS
1 SEATING PLAN Cha of S (first letter of slimmer) eating plan (diet) What a beautiful surface
9 IMPASTO Ins of PAST (history) in I (one) MO (moment or little time)
10 OSBORNE OS (Rev of so, like this) BORNE (carried) John James Osborne (1929–1994)
11 ULULATION Reversal of NO I (no one) TA (thanks or cheers) Lulu (pop singer – To Sir With Love)
12 ROPES They know thew ropes
13 DOGE Cha of DOG (follow) E (eastern) formerly the title of the chief magistrate in republican Venice and Genoa.
14 MARSHALSEA Cha of Marshal (order) Sea (a lot of water) until 1842 a prison in Southwark
16 KINGPRAWNS Cha of Kin (family) + GP (general practitioner or doctor) + *(warns)
19 TEES odd letters of ThEsEuS
21 ERROR Ins of R (rook) in ER (Queen, Elizabeth Regina) OR
22 ASSISTANT Cha of ASS (fool) (d) ISTANT
24 ENACTED *(a recent)
25 ISHMAEL *(lies ham)
26 SPRING ROLLS In The Magic Roundabout, the character Zebedee moves by jumping on springs and of course we know the Rolls Royce. Spring roll is quite a common opening dish (starter) in a Chinese meal
DOWN
1 SEPTUAGENARIANS *(Spain guarantees)
2 AT SEA dd
3 IWO JIMA Cha of I wo (almost won) JIM (James) A (the first letter in the alphabet)
4 GROUNDS dd
5 LIBERIAN L (first letter of local) Iberian (Spanish or Portuguese or European)
6 NORD-PAS-DE-CALAIS *(Paris can do deals) region in France
7 PIQUED sounds like peaked
8 GEISHA *(she a GI) a nearly &lit
15 OPERATOR Ins of PE (outskirts of Prague) in Oratot (speaker)
16 KEEPER Cha of KEEP (dungeon) ER (middle letters of confERence)
17 ABANDON dd
18 NASTIER Ins of Asti (wine) in NER (dinner minus din or noise)
20 SETTLE dd for a small market town within the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England
23 SAHEL *(has) el (external borders) The Sahel or Sahel Belt is a semi-arid tropical savanna eco-region in Africa
Thanks for a typically informative post, Uncle Yap.
For those of us in the UK, 14ac has a topical reference: the MARSHALSEA was a debtors’ prison, which features prominently in Dickens’s novel ‘Little Dorrit’, a BBC adaptation of which has just finished its run.
The two long anagrams (1dn, 6dn) are splendid. 8dn has a rather good ‘Madama Butterfly’ connotation.
10ac is especially nice, since Osborne wrote Look Back in Anger, which receives a nod in the clue. 🙂
Orlando scores yet again with a well clued puzzle!
Excellent anagrams and witty cryptics. An excellent start to the week.
We had to look up MARSHALSEA, and had thought it a bit obscure – but then we’re not watching ‘Little Dorrit’ !
An enjoyable crossword. Not quite so solvable as you seem to imply, Uncle Yap, but very entertaining. Thanks for the lucid blog.
Overall, not a difficult one but got to agree with Uncle Yap – some witty cryptic definitions and elegant surfaces. The two big anagrams were clever but far too obvious – I was writing them in almost before I’d finished reading the clue.
Well done Orlando & Uncle Yap
I have to agree this was a nicely clued crossword, after one or two heavier going crosswords last week, a nice start to the week and this will give us new solvers heart for the tougher crosswords that im sure will follow in the week