Smooth and 5 down
Across
1 LIQUIDISER blender I QUID (one pound) in LE (the French) R[estaurant]
7 DEAN college administrator A in DEN (study)
9 FEAT achievement FE (iron) A (ace) T[urnberry]
10 WORD SQUARE puzzle WORD (name) SQUARE (old-fashioned)
11 ZAGREB Croatia G[uildhall] in (ZEBRA)*
12 INSOLENT fresh INSOLVENT (out of money) minus V (five)
13 HARD CASH money (CARD)* in HASH (key)
15 DIME coin DIM (obscure) E (European)
17 ISLE of Dogs AISLE (passageway) minus first letter
19 FERRYMAN of Hades F (fellow) ERR (sin) (MANY)*
22 EXAMINER judge A in EX MINER (former pitman)
23 GATHER understand THE (article) in RAG< (paper revolutionary)
25 HAVE A HEART dd
26 AJAX Greek hero A JA[w] (short talk) X (by – maths)
27 ITEM thing I MET< (encountered retired)
28 RED SNAPPER fish RED (sounds like READ) SNAPPER (photographer)
Down
2 IKEBANA Japanese flower arranging
IKE (former president) B (book) AN A (American)
3 UTTER dd
4 DOWNBEAT casual DOWN (county) BEAT (defeated)
5 STRAIGHTFORWARD simple STRAIGHT FOR WARD
6 RESIST oppose S (small) I (island) in REST (all others)
7 DOUBLEDAY publisher DOUBLE (spitting image) DAY (era)
8 ACRONYM initial letters A CRONY (friend) M[oulder]
14 DREAM TEAM ideal people (AM DRAM TEE)*
16 BRIGHTON resort town B (born) RIGHT ON (trendy)
18 SEXTANT navigational instrument S (small) EXTANT (surviving)
20 AVERAGE typical VERA (girl) in AGE (long time)
21 ANCHOR TV presenter AN CHOR[e] (tedious task)
24 TRAMP derelict M (male) in TRAP (gin)
( )* = anagram [ ] = omit dd = double definition < = reverse
Thanks Jed and Falcon,
For me, the pangram helped me finish of with AJAX, which I thought was very nicely clued.
Thanks Jed and Falcon. Another good one – like Muffyword, I was “detained” by AJAX, but it’s an excellent, concise clue. Not sure whether I liked 5d – perhaps anything that produces an audible groan has to be good! Needless to say, I didn’t spot the pangram.
Lovely easy stuff, Ajax took a few seconds to really get, guessed pangram early on but didn’t actually check.