Thank you to Monk. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Re the significance of the cryptic preamble: ??
Edited: Doh! Missed it completely.
Across
7. Sun god’s head between two levels? (6)
APOLLO : POLL(a person’s head) contained in(between) A,O(abbrev. for “Advanced” and “Ordinary”, two levels of school exams in the UK and other countries).
Defn: … in Greek mythology.
8. Unruly man with spare cheese (8)
PARMESAN : Anagram of(Unruly) [ MAN plus(with) SPARE ].
9. Rebellious lot blunder when occupied by rug’s backing (4-1-3)
RENT-A-MOB : Reversal of(…’s backing) [ BONER(a blunder/a stupid mistake) containing(when occupied by) MAT(a small rug) ].
Defn: … who protest in a seemingly irrational manner, as if hired for the purpose of protesting.
10. Fully enthusiastic about skin of tomato (2,4)
IN TOTO : INTO(enthusiastic/keen on) containing(about) 1st and last letters of(skin of) “tomato”.
11. Avenue on lake, bad round Welsh town (8)
LLANELLI : [ LANE(avenue/road) placed after(on) L(abbrev. for “lake”) ] + reversal of(… round) ILL(bad/unfavourable, as in “ill luck”).
12. Cut from memory, fabricate temperature (6)
FORGET : FORGE(to fabricate/create) + T(symbol for “temperature” in physics).
13. Eastern poet ahoy dancing around record one month back (4,7)
OMAR KHAYYAM : [Anagram of(… dancing) AHOY containing(around) MARK(a sign made to record something)] + reversal of(… back) MAY(one of the 12 months in a year).
18. Ready to work some shellac novelty boomerangs (2,4)
ON CALL : Hidden in(some) reversal of(… boomerangs) “shellac novelty”.
20. Enter claw in shelter for much less (3,5)
LET ALONE : TALON(claw of a bird of prey) contained in(Enter … in) LEE(shelter/cover from wind or weather provided by an object).
Defn: …/not to mention as in “he could not even boil an egg, much less cook a steak”.
22. Away pursuing odd characters in superb shoot (6)
SPROUT : OUT(away/not in) placed after(pursuing) 1st, 3rd and 5th letters of(odd characters in) “superb”.
Defn: … of a plant.
23. DNA, much altered, limiting tense European (8)
DUTCHMAN : Anagram of(… altered) DNA, MUCH containing(limiting) T(abbrev. for “tense” in grammar).
24. Individual who’s misanthropic in no matter which element (8)
ANTIMONY : TIMON(a legendary Greek misanthrope) contained in(in) ANY(whatever is there/no matter which).
Defn: A chemical ….
25. Northern city regularly sized small dog (6)
YORKIE : YORK(city in Northern England) + 2nd and 4th letters of(regularly) “sized”.
Defn: …/a breed of toy dog of the terrier type.
Down
1. Gestures ‘owzat!’, perhaps while stifling quiet and loud sound (7)
APPEALS : AS(while/at the same time that) containing(stifling) [ P(abbrev. for “piano”, a musical direction to play quietly) + PEAL(a loud sound, specifically the ringing of bells) ].
Defn: An example/perhaps is when a cricketer ….
2. Silvery metal briefly offered by gutted Poirot (8)
PLATINUM : Reverse clue: Inner letters deleted from(gutted) “Poirot” gives(offered by …) the symbol for(briefly) PLATINUM.
3. Not casual, order starters from Avon Ladies (6)
FORMAL : FORM(an order/a sort) + 1st letters, respectively, of(starters from) “Avon Ladies”.
4. Old pears, say, might feed this fitful yachter on vacation at sea (5,3)
FRUIT FLY : Anagram of(… at sea) [ FITFUL + “yachter” minus all its inners letters(on vacation) ].
5. Neat in Ireland on the right-hand side (6)
DEXTER : Double defn: 1st: Breed of cattle/neat from Ireland; and 2nd: Located ….
Aka poor man’s cow:
6. Spendthrift lived in olden days on bottom of barrel (7)
WASTREL : WAST(archaic/in olden days term for “was”) + RE(with reference to/on) + last letter of(bottom of, in a down clue) “barrel”.
8. Errant idiocy, all about husband supporting bar’s time off? (6,7)
PUBLIC HOLIDAY : [Anagram of(Errant) IDIOCY, ALL containing(about) H(abbrev. for “husband”)] placed below(supporting, in a down clue) PUB(a bar/an establishment selling alcoholic drinks).
14. Niece for one on the subject of zip in tongue (8)
RELATION : RE(with reference to/on the subject of) + [O(letter representing 0/nothing/zip) contained in(in) LATIN(tongue/language)].
15. Sound in mind, parcel out with present has nothing going astray (3,5)
ALL THERE : “allot”(to parcel out/to distribute) plus(with) HERE(present/in this place) minus(has … going astray) “O”(letter representing “nothing”).
16. Impugning small child (not half) in prison (not half) (7)
SNIPING : “nipper”(a small child) minus it last 3 letters(not half) contained in(in) “Sing Sing”(an American prison) minus “Sing”(not half).
Defn: …/making a verbal attack/criticising.
17. Continue to live in Haiti with exhausted Bermudan flies (7)
INHABIT : Anagram of(… flies) [ HAITI plus(with) all inner letters deleted from(exhausted) “Bermudan”].
19. Adult cat maybe in charge of a bomb? (6)
ATOMIC : A(abbrev. for “adult”) + TOM(an example/maybe of a cat, in this case a male one) + IC(abbrev. for “in charge”).
21. Last of goulash eaten by testy, angry sea goddess (6)
TETHYS : Last letter of(Last of) “goulash” contained in(eaten by) anagram of(…, angry) TESTY.
Defn: … in Greek mythology.
Parody? As if! (LOL) anagram (as noted in the blog).
First letters of all across solutions.
Liked RENT-A-MOB, LET ALONE, WASTREL, ALL THERE and SNIPING.
Thanks Monk and scchua
Spotted the acrostic but forgot about the initial words.
Thanks Monk and Scchua. As well as the first letters of the across solutions noted by KVa@1 (which I did not spot), we also have the first letters of all the clues (which I noticed just before solving the last of them).
2dn: I liked the way that Monk gave us the name Poirot, so that when gutted it becomes Pt, with the correct capitalisation for a chemical symbol.
A really clever piece of crossword setting, from the acrostic and the initial letters of the Across solutions to the nonsensical surface readings
Many thanks to Monk and scchua
Phew! As always with Monk, I had to work hard – for the unknown poet in particular. I saw OMAR as a possibility, but just couldn’t separate out the wordplay. Belatedly spotting the trick in the grid gave me greater confidence, and I eventually was left with a choice between “one month back” being MAY<, or perhaps MAR given we're now in April. KHAYYAM looked a slightly more likely choice than KHAYMAR – "a whole month back" would've given me greater certainty that I didn't need an abbreviation.
Thanks to Monk for an enjoyable tussle, and to scchua for the blog.
Now that they’ve been pointed out, the two acrostics are slyly amusing. But I would never have figured them out on my own. One reason is that I solve on my phone, so I never actually look at the list of clues as a whole (you can get it, but it’s easier to solve without it). I’m assuming that all of this is a 4/1 thing; if so, well played.
Amoeba @5: The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, as translated from Farsi into English by Edward Fitzgerald in 1859, became hugely influential on late 19th-century poets and artists. Because of that, certainly Omar Khayyam is the best-known Middle Eastern poet here.
I guess this was an attempted April fool joke on solvers that like neat and meaningful surfaces.
I found a few clues easier to solve than parse, so thanks for the guidance scchua. Just a bit too much general knowledge needed for my liking.
Thanks Monk and scchua
Finished this after getting within four answers of finishing the Ludvig puzzle in the Guardian. Both excellent puzzles. I didn’t see any of the tricks in this puzzle until pointed out by the comments above – now I do see I’m well impressed! The nonsensical surface readings are very funny. Thanks to Monk (and Ludvig).
Liked the surface readings. Very funny.
Thanks Monk, I was fooled in that I failed to see the clever acrostic. I agree with Martyn @7 about the odd surfaces — I’m used to much better from Monk but I guess on April Fools Day anything goes. FRUIT FLY was my top pick. Thanks scchua for the blog.
I missed all the trickery which clearly is very clever. But too many clues (seven in my case) were unparseable for my liking. It was a case of figuring out the answer and then working out how the clue worked, which I’m afraid I don’t enjoy.
Missed Dexter, even though I thought the answer might be a cow.
I thought this was a lot of fun. As a crossword it wasn’t too challenginging but I managed to miss all the thematic elements, until I read the comments above. My favourite nonsensical surface reading was 10ac. Thx to Monk for this and many others.
Missed both acrostics, though the puzzle was pretty plain sailing…
Couldn’t parse 5d at all, not knowing “neat” was a word for cow or that “dexter”was a breed of cattle…also first misspelt “Tethys” as “Thetys”.
Thought 2d was clever and some of the surface readings were pretty amusing.
Thank you to Monk and to Scchua for the blog
I think this was a tour de force. Looked for a Nina but missed the acrostics.
Thank you Monk and Scchua.
Thoroughly enjoyable, even though I came up short on about 4.
I really liked Omar Khayyam, whose poems I once read. All the clues needed a bit of thought, but not too much.
Thanks