A quick Tuesday solve but with some notably elegant surfaces.
Enjoyed 7, 10, 21 & 26 particularly. Nothing hard, just solid and unstrained clueing. Thanks to Orense.
| Across | ||
| 1 | FOURTH ESTATE | Just out of the medals – last of course, say the papers (6,6) |
| FOURTH (in sport, not finishing in 1st 3, ‘out of the medals’ ) + E (last letter of ‘coursE’) + STATE (‘say’). | ||
| 10 | ATTACHE | Empty threat in a long sort of case (7) |
| A + TT (ThreaT, ’emptied’) + ACHE (‘long’). | ||
| 11 | LUMPISH | Dull person elected – one welcomed by heavy drinker (7) |
| MP (‘person elected’) + 1 in LUSH (‘heavy drinker’). | ||
| 12 | LEMUR | Problem urgently detaining primate (5) |
| Inclusion (‘detaining’) in ‘probLEM URgently’. | ||
| 13 | IMITATOR | Working at it, Miro must be an impressionist (8) |
| Anagram (‘working’) of AT IT MIRO. | ||
| 15 | WUNDERKIND | Prodigy finding women less than generous (10) |
| W[omen] + UNDER (‘less than’) + KIND (‘generous’). | ||
| 16 | VETO | Check out oxygen bar (4) |
| VET (‘check out’) + O[xygen]. | ||
| 18 | HACK | Poor journalist getting chop (4) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 20 | INTERLOPER | A fresh preparation of retinol for each person entering uninvited (10) |
| Anagram (‘a fresh preparation’) of RETINOL then PER (‘for each’). | ||
| 22 | MOUNTAIN | Part of chain found on such a bike (8) |
| Double def., with a sort of whole-clue cryptic. Bit loose, I felt. | ||
| 24 | SUNUP | The lad is heard stirring at dawn! (5) |
| Homophone. The SON is UP! | ||
| 26 | UPSURGE | Swelling increases itchiness (7) |
| UPS (‘increases’) + URGE (‘itchiness’). | ||
| 27 | TREACLE | A sweet spread for tea, say, with mixed cereal (7) |
| T, homophone (‘say’) of ‘tea’, + anagram (‘mixed’) of CEREAL. | ||
| 28 | RINGSIDE SEAT | There’s one on the brink of a fight (8,4) |
| Whole clue cryptic def. | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | OTTOMAN | Settle in over-the-top sultanate (7) |
| OTT (‘over the top’) + OMAN (a ‘sultanate’). | ||
| 3 | RECORDER | Instrument used by logger? (8) |
| Cryptic def. A ‘logger’ records data. | ||
| 4 | HOES | Works on garden dwellings with no end of charm (4) |
| HOmES (‘dwellings’) with no M (end letter of charM). | ||
| 5 | SALAMANDER | This creature unfortunately turned up on remand in a panic (10) |
| ALAS (‘unfortunately’), turned upwards in this Down clue, then an anagram (‘in a panic’) of REMAND. | ||
| 6 | ADMIT | Confess and grant access (5) |
| DD. | ||
| 7 | EPISTLE | Palestine ordered to release an apostle’s letter (7) |
| Anagram (‘ordered’) of PaLESTInE, the letters of AN being ‘released’. | ||
| 8 | GALLOWS HUMOUR | Style of comedian facing the drop? (7,6) |
| Darkly jocular whole-clue cryptic def. | ||
| 9 | CHOREOGRAPHER | Professional person who may develop a routine (13) |
| CD again. | ||
| 14 | SKIN-DIVERS | Such people in the main may be workshy types, taking Independent (4-6) |
| SKIVERS (‘workshy types’) includes IND[ependent], with cryptic def. | ||
| 17 | GLISTENS | Shines, being first in the valleys (8) |
| 1ST in GLENS (‘valleys’). | ||
| 19 | CRUISER | A boxer’s craft? (7) |
| A ‘cruiser’ is a heavyweight boxer, max weight 13st 8lb. | ||
| 21 | PANACEA | Slate expert with a cure for everything (7) |
| PAN (to ‘slate’) + ACE (‘expert’) + A. | ||
| 23 | TURIN | Shot across centre of Irish city (5) |
| TURN (a go, a ‘shot’) surrounds I (middle letter of ‘irIsh’). | ||
| 25 | STUD | Incomplete analysis for boss (4) |
| STUDy, ‘incomplete analysis’). | ||
*anagram
Top half was so easy I thought I was in for the quickest solve ever, but the bottom half slowed me down somewhat. Liked WUNDERKIND and UPSURGE, when I finally got them. EPISTLE was easy but a nice clue. Didn’t care for 9d, which was barely cryptic – more of a straight definition I thought. Thanks to S&B.
Thanks to Orense and GB. I needed all the crossers to get CHOREOGRAPHER and was held up in the SW corner until I finally got UPSURGE so that MOUNTAIN and CRUISER followed. An enjoyable exercise.
Thanks Orense and Grant
Sounds like an almost identical solving experience to ACD@2 for me.