Some tricky parsing but all is getable if you persevere. Thanks Monk for another good one.

Across | ||
1 | MATRICULATOR | One entering college hashed 28 (12) |
anagram (hashed) of COURT MARTIAL (solution to 28 across) | ||
10 | VEDETTE | Duty reported by extremely valuable sentry (7) |
DETTE sounds like (reported) “debt” (duty) following (by) ValuablE (extremes of) | ||
11 | ART DECO | Style shown by little boy Oscar after one month (3,4) |
ART (Arthur a boy’s name, little=abbreviated) then O (Oscar, phonetic alphabet) following DEC (December, one month) | ||
12 | RIVEN | Compelled to abandon daughter in split (5) |
dRIVEN (compelled) missing D (daughter) | ||
13 | UTENSILS | Implements silent manoeuvres in America (8) |
anagram (manoeuvres) inside US (America) | ||
15 | EUROTUNNEL | It offers submarine training to the UK (10) |
cryptic definition – the train service between France and the UK | ||
16 | EMIR | European space station, one over parts of Asia? (4) |
E (European) MIR (space station) – a ruler over… | ||
18 | CAGY | Frank’s opposite starts to come and go? Yes (4) |
first letters (starts to) Come And Go Yes | ||
20 | PINA COLADA | About to welcome ordinary boy – first fix a drink (4,6) |
CA (circa, about) contains (to welcome) O (ordinary) LAD (boy) following (first is…) PIN (fix) A | ||
22 | IN SPADES | During spring, heart of bride sank in an extreme way (2,6) |
IN (during) SPA (spring) then middle letters (heart) of briDE Sank | ||
24 | NAPOO | Kill number two following an upset (5) |
POO (number two) following AN reversed (upset) | ||
26 | NARGILE | Priest and old lady returning bong (7) |
ELI (priest in OT) and GRAN (an old lady) all reversed (returning) | ||
27 | CLAMOUR | Constant love for French people’s outrage (7) |
C (constant) L’AMOUR (love, in French) | ||
28 | COURT MARTIAL | Perhaps try private rendition of 1 (5-7) |
anagram (rendition) of MATRICULATOR (answer to 1 across) | ||
Down | ||
2 | ANDOVER | Hampshire town picked up Eastender’s transfer (7) |
‘ANDOVER (handover, transfer) heard in East-end accent (picked up Eastender’s) | ||
3 | RITENUTO | Ceremonial followed by head, old and slowing down (8) |
RITE (ceremonial) followed by) NUT (head) then O (old) | ||
4 | CLEF | Will one fix score on pitch? Au contraire (4) |
cryptic definition – a clef fixes the pitch on a musical score | ||
5 | LEAD THE WAY | Guide had time to demote leader when cutting allowance (4,3,3) |
HAD T (had time) with H (leading letter) moved to the back (demoted) inside LEEWAY (allowance) | ||
6 | TITAN | Giant trip train regularly offers (5) |
every other letter (regularly offers) of TrIpTrAiN | ||
7 | RHENIUM | Metal layer, one with unusual casing (7) |
HEN (layer, something that lays eggs) I (one) inside (with…casing) RUM (unusual) | ||
8 | OVERREACTIONS | Worried 9 panics, perhaps (13) |
anagram (worried) of CONSERVATOIRE (answer to 9 down) | ||
9 | CONSERVATOIRE | 8 worked in a special school (13) |
anagram (worked) of OVERREACTIONS (answer to 8 down) | ||
14 | INSIDE LEFT | Footballer indicating where Spain meets France? (6,4) |
INSIDE LEFT you will find E (Espana, Spain) meeting F (France) | ||
17 | DOWNCAST | Dejected players not running up-front (8) |
CAST (players) following (with…up front) DOWN (not running) | ||
19 | GASTRIC | Go on about endless deception of the corporation? (7) |
GAS (go on about) then TRICk (deception, endless) – a corporation is a big belly, the question mark indicates a cryptic definition | ||
21 | AMPHORA | Harpo Marx’s half-broken jar (7) |
anagram (broken) of HARPO and MArx (half of) | ||
23 | ADIEU | Stamp gold rings for so long (5) |
DIE (stamp) inside (that…rings) AU (gold, chem symbol) | ||
25 | ACTA | Watch team getting oddly dismissed in minutes (4) |
every other letter (getting oddly dismissed) of wAtCh TeAm – the minutes of a meeting |
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.
Excellent, one of the best puzzles for a while. Two pairs of long, not easy anagrams, five unknowns (all of which could be solved from the wordplay) and some great clues including CLEF, the cryptic def for EUROTUNNEL and my pick, the sneaky INSIDE LEFT.
Thanks to Monk and PeeDee
Am I alone in thinking that the way the long mutual anagrams were clued is unfair? They are no more than pairs of indirect anagrams, a clue type generally (and rightly) eschewed.
I agree with WordPlodder – such a treat of a crossword – great fun to solve while having to really work at some of the clues, all of which had fair wordplay – just what you want in a cryptic crossword. The clue for 15a was my top favourite
Thanks to Monk for the fun and PeeDee for the blog
Always happy to see Monk. But I couldnt see his “signature” at the end-no diagonal nina etc
Couldnt see it in Serpent’s last-nor could others until he popped in and spilt the beans.
Thanks all.
Hello Goujeers – that is an interesting question whether having no explicit anagram fodder for the outer clues is fair. Unlike sports such as football or cricket there is no rule book to go to to cite a contravention of “rule x paragraph y”, so I think fairness in puzzles is really a pesronal thing, it comes down to whether you as an individual felt cheated or felt good about the clue.
Personally I found it a help that having two solutions with the same anagram fodder gave double the number of crossers: for example the bottom solution, in addition to the crossers already there, must also contain an R, C and T because they are crossers in the top solution. Also there were two definitions to go at: given the group of letters known for each pair there were two possible options to try for: think of a 12-letter word word containing R, C, T A etc that means “one entering college”. If that doesn’t work straight away then while the letters are fresh in my mind think of a word including the same letters that means “perhaps try private”. I got two guesses for the price of one. There seemed to be a lot go at, almost as good as standard clues.
I appreciate that this is a personal thing so I don’t suggest at all that that this is the “right” way of thinking about the clue, just my way of getting to the solutions.
Had a ball solving this, thanks Monk and blogger.
Thanks to Pee Dee and Monk
All top quality except I can\’t make 19d work.
The wordplay gives GATRICS or SAGTRIC
Dansar – I don’t think about is a reversal indicator, it is part of the definition for gas, to go on about
Thanks PeeDee, yes I see how we are meant to read it, and it only stands out because Monk is so scrupulous in his cluing, but:
I can’t see “gas” as “go on about” e.g.- “Did you hear Harry go on about his new car” can’t be read as “Did you hear Harry gas his new car”.
In every example I can think of “gas” is followed by “about” in the same way that “go on” would be.
Hi Dansar, I misunderstood your original comment. Yes, you are certainly right that it isn’t a slot-in replacement, and it doesn’t meet the strictest rules for what makes a definition. Something similar crossed my mind at the time. I was enjoying the the puzzle a lot so I didn’t really care that much whether it was a tight definition or a loose one.
I wasn’t that bothered either, but Harry’s wife may have been if had been going on about her
Thanks PeeDee for a characteristically meticuoloust blog and to others for the positive feedback. Sorry about the late appearance here but, in the exciting world of FT setting, one never knows publication dates a priori so I’ve only just stumbled onto this thread.
Mea culpa for the ‘gas saga’. My original clue had ‘Chat about …’ but, during so-called ‘polishing’, I changed it to ‘Go on about …’ to make what I thought was a better surface. In doing so, I forgot that I’d originally used the nounal ‘chat’ deliberately … and the rest is history. Can you ever forgive me? There’s a crude old saying that ‘You can’t polish a wxyz‘ but, in this case, the polishing actually produced one from nowhere 😉
While I’m here, I think that cross-referencing anagrams is OK as long as the unches of the two entries differ sufficiently, but quantification of this qualifier is another matter, for extended debate.
Thanks Monk and PeeDee
Took about an aggregated hour across four sittings to get this one out. Started off by getting AMPHORA (which was quite tricky, but only one of many that got trickier). Didn’t end up getting the working of INSIDE LEFT, could only picture that Spain was on the inside left of France geographically, somehow. Struggled with both long anagram pairs and they didn’t fall until the second half of the solve.
Thought that EUROTUNNEL was a gem when the penny finally dropped and it was one amongst many very clever and entertaining clues.
Finished all over the place with a couple of the cd’s in CLEF and EUROTUNNEL and the trickiest of them all, INSIDE LEFT.