Not a bad puzzle, this, but a rather workmanlike one.
No serious grumbles, but the number of envelope-type clues seemed disproportionate, and the clueing of 1ac. (with the m of “hum” being removed to make room for, erm, another, ‘different’ m) was to my mind a bit lazy. A decent solve, though – thank-you, Sleuth.
| Across | ||
| 1 | HUMDRUM | Dull tone largely set by company executive before drink (7) |
| Hu(m) [tone] MD [Managing Director, company executive] rum [drink] | ||
| 5 | HEINOUS | A German occupying limited store that’s very awful? (7) |
| Ein [German for “a”] within hous(e) [store] | ||
| 9 | SHRED | Dispose of wine behind small hotel (5) |
| S [small] h [hotel] red [wine] | ||
| 10 | OSTRACISM | A storm is erupting about Catholic getting banishment (9) |
| C [Catholic] within anagram of a storm | ||
| 11 | AYATOLLAH | Religious high-up returns greeting volunteers after a year (9) |
| A y [year] reversal of hallo [greeting] TA [Territorial Army, volunteers] | ||
| 12 | CHEER | Applaud food (5) |
| Double definition | ||
| 13 | EVICT | Throw out bunch blocking crime victims (5) |
| Hidden in crimE VICTims | ||
| 15 | GARIBALDI | One in outfit taken with supermarket biscuit (9) |
| I [one] within garb [outfit] Aldi [supermarket] | ||
| 18 | CHARLATAN | Fake US city immersed in daily sun (9) |
| LA [US city] within char [daily, cleaner] tan [sun] | ||
| 19 | EPSOM | Poems analysed in course (5) |
| Anagram of poems | ||
| 21 | ULCER | Monarch heading off having acquired cold sore (5) |
| C [cold] within (r)uler [monarch] | ||
| 23 | SOFT DRINK | Perhaps, cordial fellow, Irish politician, put in order timeless writing material (4,5) |
| F [fellow] TD [Irish politician] within sort [order] minus t [time] ink [writing material] | ||
| 25 | HIT-AND-RUN | Criminal activity associated with aggressive batsman? (3-3-3) |
| Double definition | ||
| 26 | BRUNO | Famous boxer, British one found in Italy (5) |
| Br [British] uno [“one” in Italian] | ||
| 27 | PREFECT | School authority in cheap refectory (7) |
| Hidden in cheaP REFECTory | ||
| 28 | ENTREAT | Petition beginning to exercise northern doctor (7) |
| E(xercise) n [northern] treat [doctor] | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | HOSTAGE | Label carried by old gear providing security (7) |
| Tag [label] within hose [old gear, archaic clothing] | ||
| 2 | MARGARITA | Festivity with artist arising in US college associated with a cocktail (9) |
| Reversal of rag [festivity] RA [Royal Academy (member), artist] within MIT [US college] A | ||
| 3 | RODEO | What injured jockey did in stock venue? (5) |
| Rode O [zero, none – i.e. injured jockey did not ride] | ||
| 4 | MOONLIGHT | Low thing possibly to hoard pounds and work illegally (9) |
| L [pounds] within anagram of low thing | ||
| 5 | HUTCH | Old TV cop that’s hard and tough hiding head (5) |
| H [hard] (b)utch [tough] | ||
| 6 | IRASCIBLE | Hot-headed manoeuvring of basic flier ignoring fighter plane (9) |
| Anagram of basic flier minus f(ighter) | ||
| 7 | OLIVE | Fruit all recorded presumably? (5) |
| O [zero, none] live [not recorded – so we can infer that all are recorded] | ||
| 8 | SAMURAI | Military figures putting missile on old city road (7) |
| SAM [surface-to-air missile] Ur [old city] AI [A1, road] | ||
| 14 | TOLERANCE | Expression of approval in ecstatic state for permissiveness (9) |
| Olé [expression of approval] within trance [ecstatic state] | ||
| 16 | RING-FENCE | Group with criminal to reserve funds? (4-5) |
| Ring [group] fence [criminal] | ||
| 17 | LASSITUDE | Weariness in boss not having succeeded in film (9) |
| Stud [boss] minus s [succeeded] within Lassie [film] | ||
| 18 | COUGH UP | Pay out with sign of illness on the increase? (5,2) |
| Cough [sign of illness] up [on the increase] | ||
| 20 | MAKE OUT | Discern type in error (4,3) |
| Make [type, brand] out [in error] | ||
| 22 | CUTIE | Line with support, we hear, for smart girl (5) |
| Sounds like queue [line] tee [support] | ||
| 23 | SPRAT | Petty row about river fish (5) |
| R [river] within spat [petty row] | ||
| 24 | DEBIT | Charge one coming out on appeal (5) |
| Deb [debutante, one coming out] it [(sex) appeal] | ||
Many thanks Ringo & Sleuth
This was very enjoyable and everything fell into place nicely.
Thanks Ringo and Sleuth. I enjoyed this one. A couple of minor edits:-
10ac: The anagram to be considered is “a storm is”
4d: Parsing should read MOO (low) [L (pounds) in anagram of THING)]
Thanks, Ringo, I agree with you, and would add to your double-m observation the use twice of ‘o’ meaning zero. But, as usual with Sleuth, it was a good-fun romp. Thanks, Sleuth.
For 1A I thought that it might be hu(e) for tone which would eliminate Ringo’s problem.
Thanks for the blog, Ringo
I found this the worst cryptic crossword I’ve attempted to solve in a long time.
I do wish compilers would understand the the letter O is not the same as zero.
appeal = it?
cheer = food?
Letter O to mean ‘nothing’ and ‘old city’ = UR are both old setters’ cliches which should be obsolete by now.
As for the phrase ‘one coming out’ – it hasn’t been used to refer to a ‘debutante’ since the days of gay liberation!