As usual with Aardvark there was a lot of repetition of the type of wordplay used in clues, as can be seen by the number of *( ) and [ ] in the following analysis, and this can become rather wearisome after a while. My overall impression of the puzzle was not helped by fact that many surfaces made little sense to me.
Four clues (13a, 17a, 10,5d & 15d) have me somewhat puzzled. I cannot fathom 13a, 17a appears to be too simple (is there some wordplay I have missed?), 10,5d uses something I have not seen on an envelope for many years (there again I have been able to avoid correspondence from what used to be the Inland Revenue or any other official body) and 15d seems to be missing an insertion indicator. Of course all this assumes I have not missed something obvious.
Across
1 BOGOTA GO (work) [assistan]T in BOA (stole)
4 ESCAPISM CAP (excel) in *(SEMIS)
9 MAFIA FA (footballers) in AIM (intend) reversed
10 ONCE A WEEK ON (running) WEE (short) in *(CAKE)
11 STRETCH S[ervan]T RETCH (vomit)
12 E-MAILED LIAM (Irishman, perhaps) in DEE (river) reversed
13 TO-DO – I assume this is meant to be a dd but I cannot equate ‘to-do’ with either ‘cook’ or ‘stew’ as its meaning is ‘a commotion or fuss’
14 BRUSSELS hidden reverval in ‘iS LESS URBan’
17 PODIATRY – this appears to be a simple single definition since I cannot find any wordplay in the clue
19 BUMF BUM (tramp) F[ind]
22 UPSURGE *(GR[o]UPS) in U[krain]E
24 IMAGINE G[eography] in I (one) MAINE (US state)
25 DISMANTLE T[urk] in *(MELINDAS)
26 G AND T GAND[hi] (Indian boss ignores welcome) T[he]
27 ACID TEST CID (Bill) in *(STATE)
28 HORNED dd
Down
1 BOMB SITE SIT (model) in BOMBE (dessert)
2 GO FOR A DIP G[et] O (ring) *(PAID FOR)
3 TOASTY *(OAT) STY (place for pigs)
6 AT A PACE A TAP (a strike) [m]A[r]C[h]E[s]
7 IDEAL *(DELIA)
8 MAKE DO MA (degree) KE[n]DO (oriental fencing, no middle)
10,5 ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE E (English) CREST (emblem) with S (son) moved to the beginning in OHMS (stamp on envelope)
15 SAUVIGNON AU (at, in French) V[inyard] in SIGN ON (meet operative) – I assume, though there doesn’t appear to be an insertion indicator in the wordplay
16 AFFECTED FF (females) [forc]E in *(CADET)
18 DORMANT DO[o]RMAN (guard misses ordinary) T[rouble]
20 BUDDHA A DD (clergyman) in HUB (axis) reversed
21 FANGIO *(GINA) in OF reversed
23 SUSHI US (American) reversed SHI[p] (boat mostly)
Hi Gaufrid
I think 15D contains an anagram of ‘NOSING’, with ‘operative’ being the indicator
Thanks ChrisM, a much better explanation. I failed to see the anagram but it means that the insertion indicator must be ‘to meet’, which can mean ‘to be introduced to’ but this is in a different sense of ‘introduce’.
Quite a tricky puzzle to tackle.
Bumf had me scratching my head for quite some time!
17ac appears to be little more than 10% CD and 90% GK.
All in all though, a very well put together challenge.
Gaufrid – re 13ac ‘to-do’. Don’t quote me on this but I figured the clue out as
if one (person) is in a stew about something, another person could ask them
“what are you ‘to-do’ about resolving the matter”?
And cook may indicate to sort the matter out.
My solution may-be way off track, but it worked out in getting the answer.
Puzzle was tricky, in fact, it may be the second puzzle I’ve attempted by Aardvark.
I must have been on his wavelength as I finished it – even without fully
understanding all the cluing.
Sorry for delay,I went on holiday and haven’t caught up yet…
10:The postmark was just OHMS,not OHMSS
OHMSS is a Bond novel,so that’s the main definition. How it works from there I’ve no idea. Terce+S reversed maybe?