Guardian 24030/Araucaria – Fifteensquared

A relatively easy Araucaria today. There were few uncommon words, resolved by their word play, that I had to check just to make sure. As is the case with Araucaria there were one or two small liberties taken and some strange surface readings. Very enjoyable though.

Across
1, 5	FAST AND FURIOUS — FA+STAND+FUR+IOUS
9	NEVER — N(EVE)R
10	SCISSORER — SC(IS+S(een))ORER — I didn’t appreciate the definition here until checking Chambers. A scissorer is a cut-and-paste compiler, ie they don’t produce their own work.
11	EAGLE-HAWK — EAGLE + HAWK and H in (A LEG WAKE)* — very strange surface but as well as the anagram there is a secondary hint as word play.
12	RESIN — RE-SIN
13	SEDUM — -ED in SUM — -ed is an ending for past tenses.
15	TUMMY ACHE — (U + MYTH CAME)* — nice anagram that took me a while to resolve.
18	KOMINTERN — KO+M+INTERN — an alternative spelling for Comintern, the Communist International 1919 to 1943, the Third International. Intern is not such a common doctor in UK puzzles so I suffered here by looking for KOMMO… solutions
19	DEMOB — DEMO+B
21	ERASE — ER(AS)E
23	KICK-START — KICKS+TART
25	EPITOMISE — E+PI(TOM IS)E
26	BRIER — BRIE+R — I didn’t think of types of cheese to start with and into as being an insertion indicator rather than wordplay going into definition.
27, 28	SHUTTLE SERVICE — double cryptic def. — shuttles are found in looms, and thus in cotton mills.

Down
1, 18	FINDERS KEEPERS — (FRIENDS)* + KEEPERS — good misleading definition.
2	SAVAGEDOM — S(A V AGED)OM(e) — I’d not come across this word before.
3	AGREE — A G(R)EE — I’m not certain about the definition in this clue. Maybe I have the word play wrong?
4	DISMANTLE — D(ISM)ANT(L)E — apart from here works to tell us to insert ISM and L separatedly rather than together.
5, 23	FLICK KNIFE — double def. one a little cryptic.
6	RESPRAYED — RES +PRAYED — those Royal Engineers again.
7	ORRIS — (m)ORRIS — Morris dancing is a strange (to me) style of English country dancing.
8, 20	STRANGE BUT TRUE — ST+RANGE+BUTT+RUE — strange surface but excellent charade.
14	MANGETOUT — MAN+GET OUT — the vegetable’s name means eat all.
16	MANICHEES — MA(NICHE)E’S — a Manichee is a follower of Manichaeus who believed that everything sprang from two opposing forces, good and evil, light and dark, etc. West (note the capital) is Mae West.
17	CAMPANILI — CAMP(ANIL)I — anil, an indigo dyestuff, was in the back of my head somewhere but I tried champs rather than campi for foreign fields at first.
22	ADIEU — A(DIE)U — straight as a die.
24	SOBER — SOBER(s) — sober as a judge. Sir Garfield Sobers is one of the cricketing greats.

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