The solutions are clear enough but one or two bits in the clues that I can’t explain away. Not the sort of thing you worry about or even notice as a solver, but as a blogger trying to explain each detail these things bother me. Thanks Peter.
| Across | ||
| 1 | POCHARD | Old cat eating head of ornamental Chinese duck (7) |
| PARD (old cat, leopard archaic) containing Ornamental (head, first letter of) and CH (chinese) | ||
| 5 | TROTTER | Extremely tender animal’s foot (7) |
| TendeR (extremes of) then OTTER (animal) | ||
| 9 | LONER | Hermit taking first instalment of annuity from mortgage provider? (5) |
| LOaNER (mortgage provider) missing Annuity (first letter, instalment of) | ||
| 10 | WRESTLING | Fighting faction holding line after period of inactivity (9) |
| WING (faction) containing L (line) following REST (period of inactivity) | ||
| 11 | CLEAN SLATE | Conservative slants overdue a fresh start (5,5) |
| C (Conservative) LEANS (slants) LATE (overdue) | ||
| 12 | MOSS | ‘Plant‘ in security service denied promotion (4) |
| MOSSad (security servcie) missing AD (advertisement, promotion) | ||
| 14 | BLARNEY STONE | Ten boys learn about part of Irish folklore (7,5) |
| anagram (about) of TEN BOYS LEARN | ||
| 18/1D | PLAIN CLOTHES POLICE | Tipsy cops pile in the local with less conspicuous colleagues (5,7,6) |
| anagram (tipsy) of COPS PILE IN THE LOCAL | ||
| 21 | IOTA | Cypriot agreeing to carry letter from Greece (4) |
| found inside (to carry) cyprIOT Agreeing | ||
| 22 | IMPROBABLE | In a prom bible bashing is unlikely (10) |
| ANAGAM (bashing) of A PROM BIBLE | ||
| 25 | PARTRIDGE | Carriage returned with saddle for bird (9) |
| TRAP (carriage) reversed (returned) with RIDGE (saddle). Is a saddle really the same as a ridge? The area between to peaks on a mountain could be either a ridge or a saddle, but being one precludes it from being the other. | ||
| 26 | APART | Estranged parent returning pictures (5) |
| PA (parent) reversed (returning) then ART (pictures) | ||
| 27 | ARSENAL | Letter almost mailed to a liberal magazine (7) |
| AR (the letter R, name of) then SENt (mailed, almost) with A L (Liberal) | ||
| 28 | SLENDER | Slight winds from the east returning over centre of London (7) |
| REELS (winds) reversed (from the east, right-to-left on a map) containing (over) loNDon (centre of). I can’t see what part “returning” plays in this clue. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | See 18 Across | |
| 2 | CONVEX | Outgoing figure claiming virgin’s first kiss (6) |
| CONE (figure) contains (claiming) Virgin (first letter of) then X (a kiss) | ||
| 3 | ADRENALINE | Medic (female) wearing type of garment is something to get the pulse racing! (10) |
| DR (medic) ENA ( a female name) containing (wearing) A-LINE (type of garment) | ||
| 4 | DOWEL | Cope admirably without large pin (5) |
| DO WELL (cope admirably) missing L (large) | ||
| 5 | TREATMENT | Care for leader of rugby team forced into temporary accommodation (9) |
| Rugby (leading letter of) anagram (forced) of TEAM in TENT (temporary accommodation) | ||
| 6 | OATS | German leaving animals out to grass (4) |
| G (German) leaving gOATS. I’m not sure what part “out to” plays. | ||
| 7 | TRICOLOR | Colonel stopping riot waving republican flag (8) |
| COL (colonel) inside (stopping, like a cork) anagram (waving) of RIOT then R (republican) | ||
| 8 | REGISTER | List of soldiers from different countries with incomplete time served (8) |
| RE GIS (soldiers from different countries) with TERm (time, incomplete) | ||
| 13 | ASSEMBLAGE | Garbled message about British Library getting article for collection (10) |
| anagram (garbled) of MESSAGE containing B (British) L (library) all following (getting) A (indefinite article) | ||
| 15 | ROLE MODEL | Revolution declared by maiden joining the French party held up as guide to good behaviour (4,5) |
| ROLE sounds like (declared) “roll” (revolution) M (maiden) then LE (the, French) DO (party) reversed (held up) | ||
| 16 | SPLIT PEA | Beetroot and apple is cooked with legume (5,3) |
| anagram (cooked) of beeT (root of) and APPLE IS | ||
| 17 | PASTURES | Grassland beyond old city on the banks of Euphrates (8) |
| PAST (beyond) UR (old city) on EuphrateS (banks, side letters of) | ||
| 19 | ABOARD | Publicity surrounding animal on ark? (6) |
| AD (publicity) containing BOAR (animal) | ||
| 20 | NECTAR | Almost swallow sticky stuff in drink (6) |
| NECk (swallow, almost) TAR (sticky stuff) | ||
| 23 | REEDS | Ginger squirrels principally eating English plants (5) |
| RED (ginger) Squirrels (principally, first letter of) containing E (English) | ||
| 24 | BRAN | Boycott involving recipe for breakfast cereal (4) |
| BAN (boycott) contains (involving) R (recipe) | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
Not too difficult, but I still managed to muck things up by putting in the unparsed ‘Otto’ for 6d. I thought MOSS was good and I was held up at the end by CONVEX.
I see what you’re getting at about ‘saddle’ for RIDGE. If I thought about it, I would probably regard RIDGE and ‘saddleback’ as being roughly equivalent, but I could well be wrong. In Chambers Thesaurus there’s no separate entry for ‘saddle’, but it does have ‘saddle’ as a synonym for ‘ridge’.
Thanks to PeeDee and Peter.
Very easy for the main part. CONVEX, SPLIT PEA and WRESTLING were a bit tricky but I did like these. Failed to get MOSS, which was a bit annoying as I thought of this as a possibility but couldn’t parse it.
Some clues I didn’t like. As you say PeeDee, SLENDER seems to have two separate reversal indicators, probably a mistake. For a while, I thought 6d would mean ‘out to grass’, but ‘out to’ seem to be there for surface only. Also, according to my Collins, TRICOLOR is the US spelling of TRICOLOUR, but American spelling is not indicated.
I didn’t know A-LINE as a type of garment. Seems to mainly apply to skirts which I’m not in to, despite any secret desires to the contrary – oh what a give away.
Thanks to Peter and PeeDee.
Hovis – fortunately for me A-LINE was used in Azed’s puzzle that I also blogged for today so it was fresh in my mind. The term was coined by Christian Dior apparently.
Fairly straightforward although we struggled to think of OATS, misled by the ‘out to’. We were also held up having spotted 18/1dn before starting and confidently writing in PLAIN CLOTHES BRANCH, which gave us the C of CLEAN SLATE but messed up the rest of the NW corner till we checked the actual anagram fodder. NECTAR was our LOI once we realised that ‘tar’ was the sticky stuff and checked that ‘neck’ can mean ‘swallow’.
All pretty good, but no real favourite.
Thanks, Peter and PeeDee