Two slightly tricky clues exploiting the is=’s=s ambiguity. I am unsure of the parsing of two others–any assistance is welcome! Thanks to Phi and Paul B for their help, noted below
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | LANDLORD L (left) AND (with) LORD (peer) |
| 6 | APACHE A ACHE (a pine) around P (head of Punjabi) |
| 9 | FACILE FILE (catalogue) containing AC (account) |
| 10 | FLAGSHIP FLAGS (gets worn out) before HIP (joint) |
| 11 | DENY DEN (study) Y (yard) |
| 12 | CONCLUSION *(on councils) |
| 14 | PLEASANT L (Liberal) in PEASANT (bumpkin) |
| 16 | ALLY SALLY (go out) without the S (son) |
| 18 | SWAT reversal of TAWS (marbles) |
| 19 | APERITIF A (adult) + *(TRIPE) + IF (“despite being;” as in “the weather was pleasant, if somewhat chilly”) |
| 21 | FORECASTLE *(FLEET plus OSCAR) |
| 22 | GASH dd |
| 24 | MECHANIC ME (Jason) CHAN (Jackie, of Shanghai Noon and many other films) IC (in charge) |
| 26 | VIOLET VIOLENT (rampant) without the N (“end of maturation”) |
| 27 | LYCEUM *(my clue) |
| 28 | ENSEMBLE hidden answer |
| Down | |
| 2 | AGAPE A GAPE (GAPE as a noun, meaning a wide open mouth). Having the initial “a” and the final”e”, I was all ready to write in “adore,” but instead it is the Greek word for spiritual love |
| 3 | DAIRY CATTLE These are certainly “milkers,” but I can’t work out the cryptic part. Is RIAD a Welsh name, such that “Welshman upset over unknown” gives DAIR + Y? And in that case CATTLE = colt? As explained by Phi and Paul B, this is DAI (Welsh diminutive for “Dafydd,” i.e., David) + Y, C in RATTLE (upset). |
| 4 | OVERCOAT OVER (finished) C (cold) OAT (cereal) |
| 5 | DEFINITE ARTICLE dd |
| 6 | ARABLE PARABLE (story) without the P (page) |
| 7 | ASS AS (like) + S (southern) |
| 8 | HOI POLLOI Shouldn’t a dd involve two different senses of the same word? I don’t really think this does |
| 13 | SHAVING FOAM ‘S HAVING FOAM (“is experiencing surf”). |
| 15 | LOW COMEDY W (wife) in LOCO MED (crazy sea) Y (ending in “funny”) |
| 17 | RESERVES RE (on) SERVES (tennis openings) |
| 20 | BARNUM BUM (tramp) around A RN (a fleet). Phineas T. Barnum, who apparently did not say “there’s a sucker born every minute” |
| 23 | SHELL S (‘s) HELL (a terrible place) |
| 25 | HUE I am unsure about this one as well. The definition would be “aspect;” I think in the cryptic part of the clue we are being told to remove (“obscure”) O (old) and S (beginning to story) in HOUSE (college). Confirmed by Paul B in comment #3 below, but as he notes, to make the cryptic grammar work, “obscure” should be read as “hidden” |
Not having seen the puzzle I can’t do other than guess 3d’s clue, but if it contains ‘Welshman upset over unknown colt’ then I’d say it was Y (unknown) C (colt) in DAI RATTLE (Welshman upset). I don’t like that use of ‘over’ – ‘about’ would do in the reconstructed version I produced. I cannot see how ‘milkers’ fits in with that version, though, and perhaps knowing that would explain why ‘over’ was chosen.
Phi, it’s ‘Milkers Welshman upset over unknown colt’, and so DAI+R(Y/C)ATTLE as you suggest.
‘Obscure old beginning to story in college’s aspect’ = H o U s E, but for the cryptic reading to work, we’d need the adjectival use for ‘obscure’.
Speaking of which, I can only find ‘house’ as part of a college, or the pupils in it, in Collins. Chambers is the same but for Aedes Christi – The House (of Christ). I have to confess I was not aware of that connection.
Phi and Paul B, thanks to you both.