A straightforward and enjoyable puzzle. Thank you.
| Across | ||
| 1 | MATRIARCH | Head of family‘s ordeal cut short during demonstration (9) |
| TRIAL (ordeal) missing last letter (cut short) inside MARCH (demonstration) | ||
| 6 | AFRO | Far out old hairstyle (4) |
| anagram (out) of FAR then O (old) | ||
| 10 | DRAFT | Doctor behind plan (5) |
| DR (doctor) AFT (behind) | ||
| 11 | CASTIGATE | Criticise players getting one wicket (9) |
| CAST (players) with I (one) and GATE (wicket) | ||
| 12 | ANGELIC | Innocent lass meeting setter during party (7) |
| GEL (lass) with I (the setter) inside ANC (a political party) | ||
| 13 | ISRAELI | Person from the Middle East airs broadcast by priest (7) |
| anagram (broadcast) of AIRS then ELI (priest, in Old Testament) | ||
| 14 | SISTINE CHAPEL | Relative, male, scoring point at the Spanish religious building (7,6) |
| SIS (relative) CHAP (male) contains (scoring) TINE (point) then EL (the, Spanish) | ||
| 17 | CREAM OF TARTAR | Mobile camera for capturing dessert ingredient? (5,2,6) |
| anagram (mobile) of CAMERA FOR contains TART (dessert) | ||
| 21 | SWEATER | Top Swedish diner (7) |
| SW (Swedish) and EATER (diner) | ||
| 22 | ACETATE | Film shown in great exhibition space (7) |
| ACE (great) TATE (Tate Gallery, exhibition space) | ||
| 24 | BAILIWICK | False alibi’s bad when editor’s leaving special field of interest (9) |
| anagram (false) of ALIBI then WICKed (bad) missing ED (editor) | ||
| 25 | ELITE | Enamel item contains cream (5) |
| found inside enamEL ITEm | ||
| 26 | RUNE | Cuts edges off carved letter (4) |
| pRUNEs (cuts) missing edges | ||
| 27 | SEDITIOUS | Idiots use mobile, causing public disorder (9) |
| anagram (mobile) of IDIOTS USE | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MADRASSA | A small actress finally admitted to unconventional drama school (8) |
| A S (small) actresS (final letter of) inside anagram (unconventional) of DRAMA | ||
| 2 | TWANG | Twickenham’s first comedian embracing northern regional accent (5) |
| Twickenham (first letter of) then WAG (comedian) contains (embracing) N (northern) | ||
| 3 | INTELLIGENTSIA | Cognoscenti confused senile litigant (14) |
| anagram (confused) of SENILE LITIGANT | ||
| 4 | RECYCLE | Secrecy clearly surrounding a way to combat consumerism? (7) |
| found inside (surrounded by) secRECY CLEarly | ||
| 5 | HASHISH | Drug in dish is heroin (7) |
| HASH (dish, type of food) with IS H (heroin) | ||
| 7 | FLAGEOLET | Instrument in standard box turned up broken by leader of orchestra (9) |
| FLAG (standard) then TELE (television, box) reversed (turned up) contains (broken by) Orchestra (leading letter of) | ||
| 8 | ONESIE | Old Scottish monster eschewing top of Scottish garment (6) |
| O (old) then NESsIE (Scottish monster) missing Scottish (top, first letter of) | ||
| 9 | HIP REPLACEMENT | Pair help to mix adhesive for operation (3,11) |
| anagram (to mix) of PAIR HELP then CEMENT (adhesive) | ||
| 15 | SECRETION | Discharge soldiers in part of platoon (9) |
| RE (Royal Engineers, soldiers) in SECTION (part of platoon) | ||
| 16 | BREEDERS | Book given to so-called academic’s parents (8) |
| B (book) with REEDERS sounds like (so-called) “readers” (academics) | ||
| 18 | MARGINS | Grain scattered in drained marshes’ borders (7) |
| anagram (scattered) of GRAIN in MarsheS (drained, no middle) | ||
| 19 | FRANKED | Fellow judged ready for the post (7) |
| F (fellow) RANKED (judged) | ||
| 20 | ISOBAR | Line on map is over bank at mouth of river (6) |
| IS O (over) BAR (bank at mouth of river) | ||
| 23 | AMIGO | Three notes given to Oriana’s first mate (5) |
| A MI G (three notes, in music) then Oriana (first letter of) | ||
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.
There are a couple of obvious typos in blog (10a and 19d). Thanks to S&B.
Thanks Hovis. I obviously wasn’t giving the write-up my 100% concentration!
I didn’t know the 1d school but discovered that there are many different ways of spelling it – I opted for two wrong ones before 14a set me straight. 7d was buried in the recesses of the mind – puts me in mind of self-harming or a type of bean!
Thanks to Peter and to PeeDee for the blog.
Re ID: me too. There are a couple near where I live in Handsworth, but they don’t spell it this way.
Excellent puzzle (thanks setter and blogger) but why always so few responses on Sundays? You’d think there would be more as people have more leisure time.