Quiptic 1,209 by Bartland – Fifteensquared

Another puzzle from a fairly new Quiptic setter; I think this is Bartland’s third.

As a puzzle to introduce new solvers to the joy of cryptic crosswords, this fits the brief pretty well, with straightforward constructions and nothing too obscure. (Any beginners who haven’t come across Io before would do well to remember her – she’ll probably be back in another puzzle soon. The same applies to the trick used in 10a and 3d.) However, I wasn’t quite convinced by the grammar of 13a, nor by the rather heavy-handed “hidden answer” indicators of 20d and 23d, though it’s obvious enough what the setter intended. 16a, 25a and 5d are lovely anagrams with good surfaces. Thanks Bartland for the fun.

Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.

ACROSS
9	AUROSCOPE	It’s used to study the ear and scoop urea out (9)
		Anagram (out) of SCOOP UREA.
10	CAMEL	Beast of burden arrived at Leatherhead (5)
		CAME (arrived) + first letter (head) of L[eather] – we have to split the Surrey place-name into “leather” and “head” to make sense of this one.
11	DIPLOMA	Drop Laurence Olivier’s initials onto graduate certificate (7)
		DIP (drop, as in a sudden dip in temperature) + initial letters of L[aurence] O[livier] + MA (a graduate from a master’s degree course).
12	ELITIST	Snob put it into menu alongside exquisite starter (7)
		IT inserted into LIST (menu), all after (alongside) the starting letter of E[xquisite].
13	ISSUE	Effect of insidious banks taking legal action (5)
		Outside letters (banks) of I[nsidiou]S, then SUE (take legal action). The grammar seems a little suspect here (take / taking), unless I’m missing something.
14	STRETCHED	Holy man gagged and put on the rack (9)
		ST (abbreviation for saint = holy man) + RETCHED (gagged).
16	HALF-HEARTEDNESS	She’s a left-hander in disguise, showing no real enthusiasm (4-11)
		Anagram (in disguise) of SHE’S A LEFT-HANDER.
19	STEPCHILD	Wife’s son, perhaps, lets hip CD play (9)
		Anagram (play) of LETS HIP CD.
21	OTHER	Separate article is covered in gold (5)
		THE (grammatical article) covered in OR (heraldic term for gold, from French).
22	BRITAIN	It punctures intellect in this sceptred isle (7)
		IT inserted into (puncturing) BRAIN (intellect). The phrase is originally from Shakespeare, and was later used as the title of a radio series about Britain.
23	ENDURED	Put up with conclusion to rude shenanigans (7)
		END (conclusion) + anagram (shenanigans) of RUDE.
24	ALIVE	A bad back but not dying (5)
		A, then EVIL (bad) reversed (back).
25	RESISTANT	Unwilling to move train sets (9)
		Anagram (to move) of TRAIN SETS.
DOWN
1	SANDWICHES	Squeezes tightly in swish dance manoeuvres (10)
		Anagram (manoueuvres) of SWISH DANCE.
2	PROPOSAL	Support nothing prior to Sarah’s offer (8)
		PROP (support) + O (zero = nothing) + SAL (a shortened form of the name Sarah).
3	ASHORE	Cinders or sweetheart washed up (6)
		ASH (cinders) + OR + middle letter (heart) of [sw]E[et] – splitting the word sweetheart into two.
4	IOTA	Lover of Zeus thanks another Greek character (4)
		IO (in Greek mythology, one of the many women seduced by Zeus) + TA (thanks = “thank you”). The Greek name for the letter I.
5	CELEBRATED	Bet declared invalid but is honoured (10)
		Anagram (invalid) of BET DECLARED. UPDATE: As muffin@1 points out, this doesn’t actually work because there’s a surplus D.
6	SCRIPTED	Unexpectedly predicts what’s written down (8)
		Anagram (unexpectedly) of PREDICTS.
7	IMPISH	Mischievous chimp is hassling constituents (6)
		Hidden answer (constituents = parts) in [ch]IMP IS H[assling].
8	BLOT	Smear black mass (4)
		B (abbreviation for black) + LOT (mass = a large amount).
14	STATIONARY	Fixed terminus on a railway (10)
		STATION (terminus) + A + RY (abbreviation for railway).
15	DISCREDITS	Brushes aside colour with it in circles (10)
		RED (colour) + IT, in DISCS (circles).
17	HECTARES	Teachers reinterpreted units of measurement (8)
		Anagram (reinterpreted) of TEACHERS. Units of measurement for land area.
18	ETHEREAL	Finally settle the legitimate fine (8)
		Last letter (finally) of [settl]E + THE + REAL (legitimate). Fine in the sense of very thin and insubstantial = ethereal.
20	ELICIT	Bring out some of Israeli citizen’s contents (6)
		Hidden answer (some of . . . contents) in [isra]ELI CIT[izen].
21	ODDISH	Rather weird headless fish on plate (6)
		[c]OD (fish) without the first letter (headless), before (above, in a down clue = on) DISH (plate).
22	BEAR	Put up with Rupert, perhaps? (4)
		Double definition. To endure; or the cartoon character Rupert Bear.
23	ELSE	Inmates of Belsen freed otherwise (4)
		Inner letters (inmates . . . freed?) from [b]ELSE[n].