Thank you to Moo. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1. Boris and Calvin Klein supping ale? On the contrary (6)
BECKER : CK(abbrev. for the Calvin Klein fashion house) contained in(supping …? On the contrary; obverse of “supping”/containing) BEER(alcoholic drink of which ale is an example).
Answer: …, Boris, former tennis champion.
4. Criminal peers hard at list of his convictions (3,5)
RAP SHEET : Anagram of(Criminal) [PEERS + H(abbrev. for “hard”) + AT].
10. Caretaker moves back around half term (7)
STEWARD : Reversal of(… back) DRAWS(pulls/moves in a specified direction) containing(around) 1st 2 letters of(half) “term”.
11. Mountain seen from coffee shop in southern Lakes (7)
SCAFELL : CAFÉ(coffee shop) contained in(in) [ S(abbrev. for “southern”) + LL( 2 x abbrev. for “lake”) ].
Answer: Mountain in the Lake District, England.
12. What goes round trees? Dog does (4)
BARK : Double defn.
13. Greengrocers often misplacing it? (10)
APOSTROPHE : Cryptic defn: Punctuation mark commonly misused/misplaced in greengrocers’ signs.
15. Girl trailing after boy somewhere in subcontinent (6)
BENGAL : GAL(an informal term for “girl”) placed after(after) BEN(a boy’s name).
Defn: … of India.
16. Various loons maybe beginning to exasperate (7)
DIVERSE : DIVERS(large diving waterbirds, of which loons are an example/maybe) + 1st letter of(beginning to) “exasperate”
20. Natives from down under getting into bed at sea (7)
BEMUSED : EMUS(native flightless birds from Australia/down under) contained in(getting into) BED.
Defn: …/puzzled.
21. Depraved books withdrawn for a number of years (6)
DECADE : “decadent”(depraved/immoral) minus(… withdrawn) “NT”(abbrev. for the New Testament, books in the Bible).
Defn: …, ten, to be precise.
24. I set nobles up, it’s alleged (10)
OSTENSIBLE : Anagram of(… up/excited) I SET NOBLES.
26. Winning English workers over (4)
CUTE : Reversal of(… over) [ E(abbrev. for “English”) + TUC(abbrev. for the Trades Union Congress, a UK organisation of workers) ].
Defn: …/charming.
28. Forgive sailor taking crack (7)
ABSOLVE : AB(abbrev. for “able-bodied seaman”, a sailor) plus(taking) SOLVE(to crack, say, a puzzle).
29. Old object belonging to Ashanti queen (7)
ANTIQUE : Hidden in(belonging to) “Ashanti queen”.
30. Remarkable Republican fiddle Washington conceals (8)
DRAMATIC : [ R(abbrev. for “Republican”) + AMATI(a fiddle/violin made by any member of the famous Amati family of violin makers) ] contained in(… conceals) DC(synonymous with Washington, District of Columbia, capital of the USA).
31. Addictive substance stored in west-facing studio I possessed (6)
OPIOID : Hidden in(stored in) reversal of(west-facing, in an across clue) “studio I possessed”.
Down
1. Child of US president, cute little creature (8)
BUSHBABY : How one might describe a child/baby of US President Bush.
2. The green light for evacuation? (9)
CLEARANCE : Double defn: 1st: …/the go-ahead to do something; and 2nd: …/removal of what is occupying or found in, say, an area or a building.
3. Back-to-front way to acquire a certain panache (4)
ELAN : Last letter of(Back) LANE(a narrow road, a way) moved to the start(to-front).
5. Individual hired to kill animals at home (8)
ASSASSIN : ASS,ASS(animals, specifically, two donkeys) + IN(at home/not out).
6. Bedding Romeo yesterday, wildly romantic (6-4)
STARRY-EYED : R(letter represented by “Romeo” in the phonetic alphabet) contained in(Bedding …) anagram of(…, wildly) YESTERDAY.
7. Check out important personage for a Cockney (3,2)
EYE UP : Pronunciation for a Cockney of “high-up”(an important or senior person in an organisation/personage).
8. One counting up the votes for physicist (6)
TELLER : Double defn: 1st: …, say, in Parliament; and 2nd: Nuclear …, Edwin Teller.
9. Take on cook in appropriate surroundings (5)
ADOPT : DO(to cook food) contained in(in … surroundings) APT(appropriate/suitable).
14. Drunken Australian revelry (10)
SATURNALIA : Anagram of(Drunken) AUSTRALIAN.
Defn: …/merrymaking.
17. Ones rocking the established order (6,3)
STATUS QUO : Double defn: 1st: A rock band.
Ones Rockin’ all over the world:
18. Disease caused by mouldy Brie on more than one occasion (8)
BERIBERI : Anagram of(mouldy) twice(… on more than one occasion) BRIE.
19. Minister always having to tear about (8)
REVEREND : EVER(always/at all times) contained in(having … about) REND(to tear/separate into pieces).
Defn: Term of address for a … in the clergy.
22. One lacking guts shrank from dictator (6)
COWARD : Homophone of(… from dictator) “cowed”/“cow-ed”(backed away/shrank as a result of being intimidated).
An appropriate surface.
23. Barman left in anger after upheaval (5)
ELGAR : L(abbrev. for “left”) contained in(in) reversal of(… after upheaval, in a down clue) RAGE(anger/fury).
Answer: …, Edward, English composer or, whimsically, barman.
25. Briefly try city car (5)
TESLA : Last letter deleted from(Briefly) “test”(to try/to check out) LA(abbrev. for Los Angeles, American city).
Defn: Marque of an electric vehicle/car.
27. Second fund set up in station (4)
STOP : S(abbrev. for “second”, in time notation) + reversal of(… set up, in a down clue) POT(a pool of money/fund for a particular purpose).
Defn: … along a bus route or train journey.
I took COWARD as a homophone of “cowered”.
Nice puzzle/blog. Loved Saturnalia and Beri Beri
Yes Hovis I thought cowered/coward too
Ah, Trades Union Congress? What seemed like half an hour fretting over 26a proved fruitless, as the definition, “winning”, wasn’t much help. Nor did I get SCAFFEL as I’d never heard of it either. Apart from these speed bumps, the experience was enjoyable.
EYE UP is not an expression I’m familiar with.
I agree with Hovis re COWARD.
Geoff Down Under @3 – SCAFELL Pike – the highest mountain in England (as against Ben Nevis, the highest in the UK and Scotland, or Snowdon/Eryri in Wales).
(And I pondered why I didn’t know the highest mountain in Australia – because there’s a higher mountain in Papua New Guinea, Puncak Jaya, is the answer. There was a Geocaching challenge a few years back which had us climbing the highest mountain on every continent. When we’d covered enough distance, measured horizontally, to climb each mountain, we gained a souvenir. When we’d climbed them all, we gained another souvenir.)
When the engineers quote for a project they eye up/check out what is required.
I find Moo can be straightforward and occasionally opaque – this was straightforward, my only hold up not thinking of EMUS as natives down under.
Thank you to Moo and scchua for the puzzle and blog.
Shanne@4, for centuries our highest mountain, Kosciuszko, was misspelt. Named after a Pole, we only corrected it (the Z had been missing) a few decades ago. I hope I’m forgiven for misspelling SCAFELL earlier. 🙂