loonapick is having IT problems today so here is a quick analysis of the clues.
Apologies for any typos. I have an ocular migraine at the moment and it’s difficult to read what’s on my monitor.
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Across
1 Extracting a bit of collagen daily may be a plan (6,6)
HIDDEN AGENDA – AGENDA is HIDDEN in ‘collAGEN DAily’
10 Hormone produced by offence mainly at home (7)
INSULIN – INSUL[t] (offence mainly) IN (at home)
11 Help for a newsreader reporting traffic tailback? (7)
AUTOCUE – sounds like (reporting) ‘auto queue’ (traffic tailback)
12 Number required to understand study of computer systems (5)
DIGIT – DIG (understand) IT (study of computer systems)
13 Hairy bikers finally finding safe place after topless race (8)
UNSHAVEN – [biker]S (bikers finally) HAVEN (safe place) after [r]UN (topless race)
15 They may be turned on, seeing women streak or stupidly crossing wicket (10)
WATERWORKS – W (women) plus an anagram (stupidly) of STREAK OR around (crossing) W (wicket)
16 First-class returns on a small part of our planet (4)
ASIA – A S (small) plus AI (first-class) reversed (returns)
18 Gangster going after neighbour? (4)
HOOD – HOOD can go after ‘neighbour’ to form another word
20 The effect of drinking with no good Scotsman of a royal house (10)
HANOVERIAN – HAN[g]OVER (the effect of drinking with no good) IAN (Scotsman)
22 The worst and best breaks for a driver? (3,5)
PIT STOPS – PITS (the worst) TOPS ({the} best)
24 Problematic / drunk (5)
TIGHT – double def.
26 Give details of former plot to kidnap one (7)
EXPLAIN – EX (former) PLAN (plot) around (to kidnap) I (one)
27 Cooking range covered in eggs and herb (7)
OREGANO – an anagram (cooking) of RANGE in (covered in) OO (eggs)
28 Determined to see one looked after (6-6)
SINGLE-MINDED – SINGLE (one) MINDED (looked after)
Down
2 Understanding boundaries of Indian tourist attraction (7)
INSIGHT – I[ndia]N (boundaries of Indian) SIGHT (tourist attraction)
3 Laid out right-winger for wasting time (8)
DILATORY – an anagram (out) of LAID plus TORY (right-winger)
4 Rising star may keep northern women in order (4)
NUNS – SUN (star) reversed (rising) around (may keep) N (northern)
5 Insecure link offered by relative speed (6,4)
GRANNY KNOT – GRANNY (relative) KNOT (speed)
6 Nick cannot change on the inside (5)
NOTCH – contained in (on the inside) ‘canNOT CHange’
7 A case of lawyers accepting endless desire for recesses (7)
ALCOVES – A L[awyer]S (case of lawyers) around (accepting) COVE[t] (endless desire)
8 Person just looking for skipper to support opportunities (6-7)
WINDOW-SHOPPER – WINDOWS (opportunities) HOPPER (skipper)
9 Soldiers in pink? It’s a religious belief (13)
REINCARNATION – RE (soldiers) IN CARNATION (pink)
14 Current device developing in all operas except the first (5,5)
SOLAR PANEL – an anagram (developing) of [i]N ALL OPERAS
17 Find out about article made of skin (8)
LEATHERN – LEARN (find out) around (about) THE (article)
19 Rising firm best supported by American swimmer (7)
OCTOPUS – CO (firm) reversed (rising) TOP (best) US (American)
21 Unappreciative type who’s angry about heartless nag (7)
INGRATE – IRATE (angry) around (about) N[a]G (heartless nag)
23 Educate at home after putting pictures up (5)
TRAIN – IN (at home) after ART (pictures) reversed (putting … up)
25 Destiny of daughter getting low returns (4)
DOOM – D (daughter) plus MOO (low) reversed (returns)
Thanks for the blog, Gaufrid. Hope the migraine clears up soon. Enjoyed this but annoyed I didn’t get AUTOCUE. I saw that ‘attache’ fit and, thinking an attaché could be referred to as a ‘help’, I spent a while trying and failing to parse it. Rats!
Autocue was my LOI, after Reincarnation. 22A Pit Stops was my favourite.
Thanks Orense and Gaufrid
Not a particularly long solve, but also not without it’s hitches.
Could visualise what the answer was at 11a, but it took a while for the word AUTOCUE to come to mind – still didn’t see the homophone until coming here. At 20, I spotted the IAN bit and with only one light left, entered CAROLINIAN (Carolingian with no good) – unparsed and causing LEATHERN to be un-gettable for a while until sense finally prevailed. It also took longer than it should have to parse INSULIN.
Really liked the HIDDEN AGENDA (both hidden words (and NOTCH) were cleverly done) and thought that both WATERWORKS and OCTOPUS were quite good as well.
Finished with REINCARNATION (tricky definition of the word and of carnation as the colour rather than the flower) and that HANOVERIAN (after realising the initial faulty entry).