The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28070.
Anto has graduated from an occasional Quiptic, which were not well received. Here he or she has some interesting ideas for clues; there were a couple of things I did not like, but on the whole I enjoyed it.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BLUSHER | One’s embarrassed to involve woman in smear (7) |
| An envelope (‘to involve’) of SHE (‘woman’) in BLUR (‘smear’). | ||
| 5 | DINGBAT | Eccentric involved in defending battleships (7) |
| A hidden answer (‘involved in’) in ‘defenDING BATtleships’. | ||
| 9 | AUDIT | Verification is essential to clause ceding title (5) |
| Middle letters (‘essential to’) of ‘clAUse ceDIng tiTle’. | ||
| 10 | CAST ASIDE | Abandoned area separating two sets of players (4,5) |
| A (‘area’) between CAST and SIDE (‘two sets of players’). | ||
| 11 | DEEP THROAT | Red hot tape turned out to be highly informative porn! (4,6) |
| An anagram (‘turned out’) of ‘red hot tape’. The definition goes back a bit, to 1972: originally it was the title of a pornographic film, then taken up for the informant, originally anonymous, in the Watergate scandal. | ||
| 12 | AGRA | City that can be stimulating after six (4) |
| Put AGRA after VI (Roman numeral, ‘six’) gets VIAGRA (‘that can be stimulating’). | ||
| 14, 26 | EXISTENTIAL ANGST | Worry about being disturbed as taxi lets gent in (11,5) |
| An anagram (‘disturbed’) of ‘as taxi lets gent in’. | ||
| 18 | EMERALD ISLE | Stone passage reportedly found in Europe (7,4) |
| A charade of EMERALD (‘stone’) plus ISLE, sounding like (‘reportedly’) AISLE (‘passage’). | ||
| 21 | NARK | Nettle or grass? (4) |
| Double definition, the first in the sense of annoy, the second an informant. | ||
| 22 | SCORESHEET | Record film music first (10) |
| A charade of SCORE (‘music’) plus SHEET (‘film’). | ||
| 25 | SHORTSTOP | Baseball player‘s casual clothing combination (9) |
| A charade of SHORTS and TOP (‘casual clothing combination’). | ||
| 26 | See 14 | |
| 27 | NOT FAIR | Against the rules to have one buried in the neighbourhood (3,4) |
| An envelope (‘buried’) of I (‘one’) in NOT FAR (‘in the neighbourhood’ – with FROM and ‘of’ respectively). | ||
| 28 | ON EARTH | Close and terribly hot around where we live (2,5) |
| An envelope (‘around’, awkwardly placed) of NEAR (‘close’) in OHT, an anagram (‘terribly’) of ‘hot’. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BRANDY | Strong drink makes bishop up for it (6) |
| A charade of B (‘bishop’) plus RANDY (‘up for it’). | ||
| 2 | UNDIES | Abandoned by commandos, comes back to life perhaps (6) |
| Double definition, kind of; the first referring to the expression “going commando” – that is, without underwear – and the second the whimsical UN-DIES. | ||
| 3 | HITS THE BAR | Goes drinking and nearly scores (4,3,3) |
| Double definition, the second referring to soccer, say. | ||
| 4 | RECUR | Remove dry pieces from red curry — they can repeat (5) |
| ‘Just as it says: re[d] cur[ry]’. ‘They can’ belongs only in the surface. | ||
| 5 | DESCARTES | French philosopher who thought SS created mayhem (9) |
| An anagram (‘mayhem’) of ‘SS created’. Your average philosopher probably thinks, but Descartes is noted for the phrase “Je pense, donc je suis”. | ||
| 6 | NOAH | Animal conservationist starting national organisation against hunting … (4) |
| First letters (‘starting’) of ‘National Organisation Against Hunting’ with a nicely cryptic definition. | ||
| 7 | BRINGS IN | … introduces British group with pride, perhaps (6,2) |
| A charade of B (‘British’) plus RING (‘group’) plus SIN (‘pride, perhaps’). | ||
| 8 | TOENAILS | Weird one tucked into end bits found on little piggies? (8) |
| An envelope (‘tucked into’) of OEN, an anagram (‘weird’) of ‘one’ in TAILS (‘end bits’). | ||
| 13 | INTERSTATE | Unwilling republican intervenes between countries (10) |
| An envelope (‘intervenes’) of R (‘republican’) in INTESTATE (‘unwilling’). | ||
| 15 | INDICATOR | It shows popular autocrat taking first time off (9) |
| A charade of IN (‘popular’) plus DIC[t]ATOR (‘autocrat’) minus the first T (‘taking first time off’ – precisely indicated). | ||
| 16 | TENNYSON | Poet composed sonnet about New York (8) |
| An envelope (‘about’) of NY (‘New York’) in TENSON, an anagram (‘composed’) of ‘sonnet’. | ||
| 17 | REARMOST | In the end, brings together seat majority (8) |
| A charade of REAR (‘seat’) plus MOST (‘majority’; most can be a noun). | ||
| 19 | VERGER | Voltaire, ridiculing error, gutted church official (6) |
| Outer letters (‘gutted’) of ‘VoltairE RidiculunG ErroR‘. | ||
| 20 | STITCH | It helps to heal and keeps you from running (6) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 23 | REPRO | Criticism of missing copy (5) |
| A subtraction: REPRO[of] (‘criticism’) minus OF (‘of missing’). | ||
| 24 | ETNA | It blows up in Estonia occasionally (4) |
| Alternate letters (‘occasionally’) of ‘EsToNiA‘. | ||
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