A typical Cinephile, including his penchant for using ‘some’, ‘bit of’ or similar to indicate some of the middle letters in the following word and a number of redundant words to improve the surface (and, in places, mislead). A few old chestnuts (eg 26a, 7d) and some clever wordplay in places (eg 9a, 18a). I particularly liked 13,19 but would argue that in 15,16 (which also appeared in Monday’s Indy) a ‘bolt’ is a flash of lightning rather than the ‘conductor’ that protects the structure to which it is attached.
Across
1 PASTOR PAST (old) OR (gold)
5 MAVERICK AVER (declare) in MICK (small boy)
9 CULLODEN C[harlie] [h]ULLO (‘is acknowledgement) DEN (retreat)
10 REVILE E (English) LIVER (organ) reversed
11 BEARER d&cd
12 INSCRIBE CRIB (cradle) in [t]INSE[l]
14 BAD PUBLICITY BAD PUB (one not in drinkers’ guide) LICIT (within the law) Y (unknown)
18 COVERED WAGON C[aravan] *(ENGRAVE WOOD)
22 BOSPORUS SOB (weep) reversed PO (river) RUS[sian]
25 TAUGHT UGH (I’m disgusted) in TAT (junk)
26 WICKED dd
27 FRICTION FRI (day) *(TONIC)
28 CHERWELL CHER (expensive, in French) WELL (water supply) – Frederick Alexander Lindemann, 1st Viscount Cherwell, scientific adviser to Winston Churchill’s Government in WW2
29 GARAGE GA (Georgia) RAGE (fashion)
Down
2 ACUMEN A [e]CUMEN[ical]
3 TOLERABLE *(ROLE) in TABLE (board)
4 REDBRIDGE RED[brick] [cam]BRIDGE
5 MON DIEU *(NUDE MOI)
6 VIRUS VIR (man, in Latin) US (American)
7 ROVER R (right) OVER (about)
8 COLD BATH OLD BAT (tiresome ancient female) in CH (church)
13,19 CHI-RHO homophone of ‘Cairo’ – according to Chambers the enumeration should have been 3-3 not 3,3
15,16 LIGHTNING CONDUCTOR cd
17 MONOLITH *(OIL) in MONTH (period)
20 WISTFUL *(SWIFT) L (left) U (turn) reversed
21 THRONG TH[e] [w]RONG – there is no indication that only some of the directions are removed so following the clue to the letter the answer would be ‘throg’ (or even ‘thog’)
23 POKER cd&d
24 RIDGE RID (deliver) GE (Earth goddess)