For some reason I found this unusually hard for a Dac, but the trademark qualities are still all there — just as good as ever. Perhaps it was because there seemed to be slightly fewer clues than normal involving anagrams. I don’t know.
Definitions underlined.
| Across | ||
| 1 | POST CHAISE | After tea one has little energy: carriage required (4,6) |
| post cha 1’s e | ||
| 6 | LEAH | Woman from field hospital (4) |
| lea H | ||
| 9 | DEMONIACAL | Evil murderer repulsed almost everyone joining protest (10) |
| demo ((Cain)rev. al{l}) | ||
| 10 | MIEN | Uttered unkind expression (4) |
| “mean” | ||
| 11 | INSIDE STORY | Secret account of home team’s right-winger (6,5) |
| in side’s Tory | ||
| 15 | AIRHEAD | Charlie and Henry into very good book (7) |
| A1 r(H)ead | ||
| 16 | PRUSSIA | American in Paris remade in the old country (7) |
| US in (Paris)* | ||
| 17 | TIPPETT | Clue: largely unimportant composer (7) |
| tip pett{y} — ref Michael Tippett | ||
| 19 | CANDIDE | To some extent, American did enjoy book by Voltaire (7) |
| Hidden in AmeriCAN DID Enjoy | ||
| 20 | MAINTENANCE | Support ‘X’ ban initially ignored in refurbished cinema (11) |
| (ten {b}an) in (cinema)* | ||
| 23 | MUTE | Mounties oddly silent (4) |
| M{o}u{n}t{i}e{s} | ||
| 24 | COORDINATE | Organise rearrangement of decoration (10) |
| (decoration)* | ||
| 25 | SURF | Mostly confident fellow is to spend time on-line (4) |
| sur{e} f | ||
| 26 | PROPAGATES | Promotes professional assistant attached to IT supremo (10) |
| pro PA Gates — ref Bill Gates | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PADS | Homes with power plugs (4) |
| p ads | ||
| 2 | SUMO | Order us to rise up, fighting (4) |
| (O.M. us)rev. | ||
| 3 | CONFINEMENT | Trickster gets financial penalty intended to avoid a period in jail (11) |
| con fine me{a}nt | ||
| 4 | AMASSED | Gathered a boat is moored in a stretch of water off Perpignan (7) |
| a M(a SS)ed — nothing all that special about Perpignan except that it’s on the Mediterranean, more or less | ||
| 5 | STAND-UP | Comedian‘s rise? (5-2) |
| 2 defs | ||
| 7 | EDITORSHIP | Top job in transformed Irish depot (10) |
| (Irish depot)* | ||
| 8 | HONEY-EATER | Bird I spy at last in warmer surroundings (5-5) |
| h(one {sp}y)eater — I = one, perhaps a bit of a stretch since really it’s 1 that = one | ||
| 12 | SQUANDERING | Wasting shillings when in France, Ireland and German capital (11) |
| s quand [= when, in French] Erin [= Ireland] G{erman} | ||
| 13 | PANTOMIMES | Shows old man to front of ‘mairie’ in French city (10) |
| Pa N(to m{airie})imes — it struck me that the word ‘mairie’ was rather an odd choice for something beginning with m, but then I looked it up and see that it’s the French for town-hall, so it’s a good choice | ||
| 14 | PROPRIETOR | Rebel, some might say, backs support for owner (10) |
| prop “rioter” | ||
| 18 | TANDOOR | Flog way-out oven in Pakistan (7) |
| tan door [= way out: perhaps some dictionary somewhere gives it as way-out] | ||
| 19 | CANTRIP | Scottish trick has power to wrong-foot (7) |
| can [= has power tp] trip — to me rather a rare word, which I had to look up to confirm | ||
| 21 | RANT | Rail operated on time (4) |
| ran t | ||
| 22 | NESS | One’s spurned shortened cape (4) |
| Hidden in oNE’S Spurned | ||
*anagram
Thanks to John and Dac.
One found this relatively straightforward, to use the Chambers def of ONE as (inter alia) a pronoun meaning “I, me (formal)” and so used, one feels, in HONEY-EATER.
Held up by initially entering ‘pins’ (sort of worked) for 1d, but otherwise I didn’t find this too difficult. I liked PANTOMIMES and it was good to see CANTRIP appear, one of those words I’ve learnt from cryptics.
A pleasant way to pass an hour or so on a Wednesday evening.
Thanks to Dac and John.
I too found this unusually hard for a Dac; can’t really say why unless it’s that I was trying to concentrate on other things at the same time. AIRHEAD was one of my last in; I kept thinking that there had to be a C in it (C = Charlie) in the NATO alphabet) – maybe that was a deliberate misdirection.
Thanks, Dac and John