The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3760.
Plenty of envelopes, with well varied indicators, and some intricate parsing.
| Across | ||
| 1 | REMOVE | Withdraw and wander across border, not hard (6) |
| An envelope (‘across’) of [h]EM (‘border’) minus the H (‘not hard’ – a standard abbreviation for a grade of pencil) in ROVE (‘wander’). | ||
| 4 | STRAPPED | Poor saint given the blame (8) |
| A charade of ST (‘saint’) plus RAPPED (‘given the blame’). | ||
| 9 | PAPER-THIN | Flimsy place in Australia with pest outside (5-4) |
| An envelope (‘with … outside’) of PERTH (‘place in Australia’) in PAIN (‘pest’). | ||
| 11 | AXIOM | Combine in retreat, filled with love, following a principle (5) |
| A charade of ‘a’ plus XIOM, an envelope (filled with’) of O (‘love’) in XIM, a reversal (‘in retreat’) of MIX (‘combine’). | ||
| 12 | BERYL | Precious stone in course of robbery lost (5) |
| A hidden answer (‘in course of’) ‘robBERY Lost’. | ||
| 14 | ROUGHCAST | Plaster in unfinished project (9) |
| A charade of ROUGH (‘unfinished’) plus PROJECT (‘cast’). | ||
| 15 | INCONTESTABLE | Certain tin, once damaged, fixed (13) |
| A charade of INCONTE, an anagram (‘damaged’) of ‘tin once’, plus STABLE (‘fixed’). | ||
| 18 | THEATRICALITY | Act heartily, in unreal style, embracing it (13) |
| An envelope (’embracing’) of ‘it’ in THEATRICALY, an anagram (‘in unreal style’) of ‘act heartily’, with an &lit definition (I have underlined ‘it’ as being the crucial element in getting the right meaning). | ||
| 20 | OVERSHOOT | Drive away into plain and go too far (9) |
| An envelope (‘into’) of SHOO (‘drive away’) in OVERT (‘plain’). | ||
| 22 | NITRE | Fool soldiers in compound (5) |
| A charade of NIT (‘fool’) plus RE (Royal Engineers, ‘soldiers’), for the compound better known to chemists as potassium nitrate. | ||
| 23 | AROMA | Smell air for meat at regular intervals (5) |
| Altenate letters (‘at regular intervals’) of ‘AiR fOr MeAt’. | ||
| 24 | VERBALISE | Articulate poetry about Indonesian island (9) |
| An envelope (‘about’) of BALI (‘Indonesian island’) in VERSE (‘poetry’). | ||
| 26 | CATEGORY | Group around judge filled with self-esteem (8) |
| An envelope (‘filled with’) of EGO (‘self-esteem’) in CA (circa, ‘around’) plus TRY (‘judge’). | ||
| 27 | RECESS | Resolution keeping experts going without a break (6) |
| An envelope (‘keeping’) of [a]CES (‘experts’) minus the A (‘going without a’) in RES (‘resolution’). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | REPUBLIC | Country club ripe for reform (8) |
| An anagram (‘for reform’) of ‘club ripe’. | ||
| 2 | MAP | Mother quietly forming plan (3) |
| A charade of MA (‘mother’) plus P (piano, musically ‘quietly’). | ||
| 3 | VIRULENCE | Government ending in ruin, engulfed by corruption and acrimony (9) |
| An envelope (‘engulfed by’) of RULE (‘government’) plus N (‘ending in ruiN‘; some object to the use of ‘in’ in this construct) in VICE (‘corruption’). | ||
| 5 | TONGUE-TWISTER | Hard thing to say to new visitor involving mixture of wit and hesitation (6-7) |
| A charade of TONGUETWIST, an envelope (‘involving’) of TWI, an anagram (‘mixture of’) of ‘wit’ in ‘to’ plus N (‘new’) plus GUEST (‘visitor’); plus ER (‘hesitation’). | ||
| 6 | ABASH | Embarrass sailor when joined by husband (5) |
| A charade of AB (able-bodied ‘sailor’) plus AS (‘when’) plus H (‘husband’). | ||
| 7 | PHILATELIST | Student of stamps from Hawaii absorbed by illustration on catalogue (11) |
| An envelope (‘absorbed by’) of HI (‘Hawaii’, US Postal Service abbreviation) in PLATE (‘illustration’) plus LIST (‘catalogue’). | ||
| 8 | DEMOTE | Protest over central features of latest downgrade (6) |
| A charade of DEMO (‘protest’) plus TE (‘central features of laTEst’). | ||
| 10 | HERBERT HOOVER | Allotted place held by one who’s admired more than US president (7,6) |
| A charade of HERBERTHO, an envelope (‘held by’) of BERTH (‘allotted place’) in HERO (‘one who’s admired’); plus OVER (‘more than’). | ||
| 13 | ROCK THE BOAT | Create problems getting back to other ground (4,3,4) |
| An anagram (‘ground’) of ‘back to other’. | ||
| 16 | BRAINWAVE | Inwardly, not half grabbed by courageous idea (9) |
| An envelope (‘grabbed by’) of INWA (‘INWArdly, not half’) in BRAVE (‘courageous’). | ||
| 17 | PYRENEES | Write about railway climbing above spot up in mountains (8) |
| A charade of PYREN, an envelope (‘about’) of YR, a reversal (‘climbing’, in a down light) of RY (‘railway’)in PEN (‘write’, verb); plus (‘above’) EES, a reversal (‘up’) of SEE (‘spot’). | ||
| 19 | MOSAIC | Doctor’s account about one work of decorative art (6) |
| An envelope (‘about’) of I (‘one’, the Roman numeral or the impersonal personal pronoun) in MO’S (‘doctor’s’) plus AC (‘account’). | ||
| 21 | SLANG | Jargon from south and north taken in by convict (5) |
| A charade of S (‘south’) plus LANG, an envelope (‘taken in by’) of N (‘north’) in LAG (‘convict’). | ||
| 25 | ICE | Essential part of Arctic ecosystem (3) |
| A hidden answer (‘essential part’) in ‘ArctIC Ecosystem’, with an &lit definition, the whole clue being the definition as well as the wordplay. | ||
My favourites were 9a and 10d.
I could not pass 26 apart from EGO.
Thanks Peter and Everyman – this was a very enjoyable puzzle
Thank you, PeterO, I needed your explanations for parsing 26 and 27.
Some of the parsing was intricate at times, but all perfectly gettable. Overall about par for Everyman, and as enjoyable as ever.
Thank you Everyman and PeterO.
Good fun as usual – let alone a “hard thing to say”, TONGUE TWISTER was hard to parse…
Very difficult for me but I expect some will say it was easy. I was looking for a verb for 18ac – not a noun so put theatricalise, which didn’t work. Don’t like the parsing. Peter O I think theatrically has two l’s.
Liked 24 ac but there were many I couldn’t parse in this one. Not as enjoyable today as some recently.
no not easy for this solver! A few were straightforward but I was looking forward to the explanations as I couldn’t work them out
I found 15ac 18ac 3d a bit round about
but liked it overall…
Wow! Two &lits in one crossword?! Even the humble Everyman surprises. Bravo Everyman, bravo!
A very enjoyable crossword with too many good clues to mention them all. Thanks Everyman and PeterO for the parsing.
Audrey, Albany @5
Indeed the word is theatrically; but I was not intending to say that the one-l version was a word, but an anagram (ok, that might suggest that the result is a word, but not always so in cryptics, where a word answer may be cobbled together from parts that are not necessarily whole words) of ‘act heartily’, which, with the inserted ‘it’, does form the answer, a word correctly spelled.
Very nice puzzle. Struggled, but got it all out, *including* all of the parsings!
Got stuck for a long while on 15 across, because I was sure that it was an anagram of “Certain tin once” and that “fixed” was the literal meaning. Finally I realised that “Certain tin once” has *14* letters, not 13. Duhhh. There are three sorts of people: those who can count and those who can’t.