A lovely little puzzle from Flimsy on a pretty miserable morning in north Leeds. Nothing too demanding, but a good mixture of methods and and some cute clueing (plus a scattering of general knowledge-related clues, which always ensures a good review from me).
ACROSS
1. GOOSEBERRY Go [try] + anagram of be sorry including (aunti)e
7. EXAM Reversal of axe [chopper] + m(ilitary)
9. LAMB Lam [hit] + b(ook) to give essayist Charles Lamb
10. LOINCLOTHS Anagram of l(eft) in school t(ime) to give the skimpy undies favoured by Tarzan, Gandhi etc.
11. SILENT Anagram of isnt incorporating le [‘the’ in French] to give ‘silent’ as in ‘keeping mum’
12. CAT’S-EYES Cryptic definition of Percy Shaws’s most famous invention
13. MANTELET Manet [Edouard, the artist] incorporating t(he) E(gyptian) l(adies)
15. ABET A(dult) + be + t(ense)
17. ECHO A ‘response’ that sounds like the name of the Italian novelist Umberto Eco
19. ACHIEVED Ached [was uncomfortable] incorporating i(nsurrection) e(xtremely) v(iolently); a repetition of the technique used in 13ac. that I could have done without
22. CASHCARD Cash [as in former Wimbledon champion Pat] + card [joker]
23. NIPPER Double definition: one who pinches or nips, and, colloquially, a child (you could also, by the way, read the clue as a (very weakly) cryptic definition, and end up with napper)
25. FLOORCLOTH Floor [sounds like ‘flaw’, problem] + clot [silly (noun)] + h(ospital)
26. SANE Anagram of sen(t) incorporating a [indefinite article] to give the contrary of mad
27. EDIT
28. DESPICABLE Anagram of spiced + able [likely]
DOWN
2. OCARINA Anagram of a(dvising) air con to give the flute-like woodwind instrument
3. SABLE Hidden in ageS A BLEssing
4. BELITTLE Be [live] + little [hardly any]
5. RAIN CATS AND DOGS R(ehearsal) + anagram of gin and soda cast to give a colloquialism meaning ‘pour (with rain)’
6. YACHTS Anagram of stay incorporating Ch(ina) to give the sailing boats on which you might literally be ‘at sea’ (with at sea doing double duty as an anagram indicator)
7. EXONERATE Exe [river] incorporating one [single] rat [rodent]
8. ATHLETE Anagram of the metal minus m(ark) to give one such as Usain Bolt
14. TOOTHWORT Too (over, excessively) + (compos)t + anagram of throw to give the parasitic plant Lathraea squamaria
16. SHANGHAI Double definition: the Chinese city, and a darts term for hitting the single, double and triple of the same number with three darts
18. CRAWLED C [about, circa] + raw [naked] + l(i)ed [fibbed]
20. ETERNAL E(uropean) + tern [seabird] + a l(och)
21. RANCID Ran [managed] + CID [Criminal Investigation Department; detectives]
24. PASTA Past [gone] + (b)a(d)
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