Very enjoyable puzzle …
… with 14a the last one to fall in place. It was fun unravelling the cleverly disguised definitions and intricate wordplays. Although the cryptic definitions in 20a and 5d were not to my taste, I liked several others – CLAUSE, ACID, INCREASE, MISPRINT, DOCTOR WATSON and RADIUM. Thank you PHSSTHPOK for a 29a start to the day.
Definitions in clues marked like this
* anagram, + charade, – deletion, ~ homophone, H hidden, <- reversal, <-> palindrome, inside/outside containment
ACROSS
1 Rider’s foal ending in ground (6) CLAUSE [foaL inside ground=CAUSE]
4 Quiet strolls or unsteady walks (8) SHAMBLES [quiet=SH + strolls=AMBLES]
9 Get blood drop off first cloth (6) NAPKIN [drop off=NAP + blood=KIN]
10 More than one cabinet minister lost his head very corruptly (8) VITRINES [mINISTER + Very]*
12 Sulphur leached away from cut wood (4) TEAK [cut=sTEAK]
13 Unacceptable either way (3,2) NOT ON [<->]
14 Started to tender exchange of consecutive characters (4) ROSE [tender=SORE with S & R swapped]
17 Here at lunchtime working on Powerpoint perhaps (12) PRESENTATION [here=PRESENT + AT + lunchtime=1 + working=ON]
20 Race to Eiffel Tower? (4,2,6) TOUR DE FRANCE [CD]
23 Bitter article on police (4) ACID [article=A + police=CID]
24 Destruction of Hamburg achieved victory over communism’s leading figures (5) HAVOC [Acrostic]
25 Stuffed female headless animal (4) FULL [Female + animal=bULL]
28 Where you can’t be stumped for profit (8) INCREASE [can’t be stumped when IN CREASE]
29 In prison, get hard time for being cheerful (6) BRIGHT [prison=BRIG + Hard + Time]
30 Characters wrongly placed in London to Leeds race? (8) MISPRINT [London to Leeds race=M1 SPRINT]
31 Inclined towards being nurse and journalist (6) TENDED [nurse=TEND + journalist=ED]
DOWN
1 Monument is not cheap, unfortunately (8) CENOTAPH [NOT CHEAP]*
2 Be in mountain top to get letters (8) ALPHABET [BE inside mountain=ALP + top=HAT]
3 Stab tip of syringe on virus (4) SHIV [Syringe + virus=HIV]
5 Animal homeopathy? (4,2,3,3) HAIR OF THE DOG [CD]
6 Another river parted by Moses? Just the opposite (4) MORE [River inside Moses=MOE ?]
7 Author wrote line on professor (6) LONDON [Line + ON + professor=DON]
8 First in series is relative (6) SISTER [first=1ST inside SERies]
11 Clue was not a help to detective (6,6) DOCTOR WATSON [WAS NOT] reverse anagram wit DOCTOR as anagram indicator
15 Procedure comes back to house furnishings (5) DÉCOR [H<-]
16 Mass recited for husband (5) HOARD [~mass=HORDE]
18 Suffered as diseased lung died (8) INDULGED [LUNG DIED]*
19 Old magical elf broke in and collapsed (8) DEFLATED [old=DATED outside ELF*]
21 Ra’s spirit possessed a princess (6) RADIUM [spirit=RUM outside A + princess=DI]
22 Exhibition in Oxford or Cambridge, perhaps (6) CIRCUS [DD]
26 Combine date, head of rosemary and sage (4) SEER [date=SEE + Rosemary]
27 Generous bonus gathers resistance (4) FREE [bonus=FEE outside Resistance] bonus=fee?
I got just over half of this in 46 mins. There were a lot of overstretched and obscure synonyms.
Using ‘lunchtime’ to define the letter i is ridiculous in my opinion, but this setter does the old ‘one’ = ‘i’ trick multiple times in this crossword.
Thanks Bhavan and Phssthpok. Enjoyed this one mostly but failed in NE corner. VITRINES was outside my gk, so the tricky wordplay completely bamboozled me. I did think of MORE for 6d but was unsure of Moe for Moses. 14a is good when you get it but one of those elusive 4-letter answers when you don’t!
Thanks Bhavan and Phssthpok
I was some way off completing this although I had several guesses that were correct but couldn’t convince my self enough to write in.
however “Hair of the dog” was wonderfully clued so a special thanks for that
Thanks Phssthpok and Bhavan
Have only done a handful of crosswords by this setter – and they have all been good. This was no exception. Like fearsome@3, I also thought that HAIR OF THE DOG was the clear clue of the day.
My last in was the very clever ROSE – it is always very satisfying to ‘twig on’ to what is happening with this type of clue – it was very clever.
Moe is a common abbreviation of Moses – as in Moses ‘Moe’ Horwitz of Three Stooges fame.
Thought that it was a bit of a stretch to equate SEER to sage at 26d.