I raced through this puzzle much more quickly than usual for Phi. Then I hit the buffers with 11 and 13. I’m sure I’m missing something very simple.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | RHODES SCHOLAR — RHODES + CH in SOLAR — US students studying in Oxford might be Rhodes Scholars if their lucky/clever. |
| 8 | WOOF — WOO(d)+F — good surface here losing the definition well. |
| 12 | TEA-TABLE — (i)T+EATABLE &lit |
| 13 | ???WOMAN — ? — The full clue is “Wife embraced by excellent old Italian member of armed forces (8)” The only answer I can see fitting is BATWOMAN, a female servant in the armed forces. |
| 16 | SHALOM — SH + initials — |
| 20 | HELSINKI — H + SIN in LIKE* |
| 23 | FLAT RACING — ALF< + TRACING — I had my doubts about this one, it fits but I did wonder if a man other than ALF might provide another solution. |
| 24 | URDU — oUR DUty |
| Down | |
| 1 | ROO — ROO(m) — bounder is ROO as in kangaroo rather than cad or rat. |
| 2 | ORFEO — OR+FE+O — that underworld chap. |
| 4 | SPLIT INFINITIVE — SPLIT + INFINIT(y) + I’VE — excellent ref to Star Trek. |
| 11 | F???H ?E?L?R — ? — I’m sure this is a cryptic definition, FAITH HEALER fits the grid but not the clue. The full clue is, “One keen to get hands-on experience of suffering (5,6)” |
| 17 | MUNDANE — UND in MANE — German and = und. |
| 22 | SQUIB — SQUI(d)+B — ref. damp squib. |
| 25 | DIE — DI(m)E |
I think 13ac is AI + R(W)OMAN – Old Italian=Roman
I think 11D is just a cryptic definition referring to faith-healers wanting to lay their hands on the suffering to cure them.
Thanks to both. I don’t know how I missed AIRWOMAN, and the, now, obvious ROMAN. With FAITH HEALER I think my judgement was affected by my inability to reconcile the checked I. The laying on of hands is as clear as they come.