Complex, tricky and entertaining
Across
1 BOLD FACE prominently visible
BOLD (daring) F (female) ACE (outstanding type)
5 AT LAST dd (with humour)
9 GADARENE from swine of Gadera (Bible)
GAD (gosh) ARE N[ations] E[verywhere]
10 BREMEN German state ME (this person) in BREN (gun)
12 TACKY cheap and nasty
TACK (food) [bo]Y
13 HOLLANDER Dutch ship
HOL[e] (difficult situation almost) LANDER (one going down)
14 PADRES clergy PAD (accommodation) RES[idence]
16 PLAY-OFF decisive match
P (power) LAY OFF (football pass)
18 OTTOMAN Turk without capital a low stuffed seat with no back
20 CATCHY memorable CATCH (drawback) Y[ear]
22 FIRESTORM big blazer I REST (I relax) in FORM (class)
23 LATHE machine L (pounds) (HEAT)*
24 ACEDIA sloth AC (account) AIDE< (help for star reversed)
25 HEAVIEST with biggest handicap
VIES (jockies) in HEAT (race)
26 TISANE herbal infusion ENA (girl) SIT (take a seat)< (returned)
27 WEAR THIN get less convincing
WIN (victory) going round EARTH (circumnavigating)
Down
1 BOGOTA capital B (bishop) A TOGO< (a country heads up)
2, 23 LADY CHATTERLEY’S LOVER novel
HATTER (madman) (YELLS)* all in (A VERY COLD)*
3 FORAY attack FOR (to) AY (ever – all eternity)
4 CINCHES pieces of cake 100 inches – average waist 33inches?
6 TERMAGANT scolding woman (TARGET MAN)*
7 ARMED TO THE TEETH dd humorous
6 TENERIFE island TEN (number) FIRE< (shoot up) E (eastern)
11 SLIP strip – underwear
15 REMISSION comes with forgiveness (MISER IS)* ON
17 BOUFFANT puffed up
O (nothing) in BUFF (one who knows a lot) ANT (worker)
19 NOON mad dogs and Englishmen NO (small number) ON (operating)
20 COMPERE TV presenter
C (tory) O[ffice] MP (politician) ERE (before)
21 MERTON Paul & Oxford college
( )* = anagram [ ] = omit < = reverse dd = double definition
Thanks for the blog, Jed.
… and, as always from the Don, enjoyably educational! Thanks, Bradman.
In a couple of clues my parsing was a little different:
1ac: I took the definition as ‘type prominently visible’.
24ac: I thought ‘on account of’ was probably being used for the surface reading only,
with ‘star’ = ACE and ‘help after reverse’ = DAI.
Sorry, in the first post I meant to write DIA.
In 4dn, Bradman uses ‘normal’ rather than ‘average’. For our ancestors on the African plains and for most of humanity since then? Maybe 33 inches is fairly close to the mark!
Mike.
Thanks Bradman for a pleasant puzzle and Jed for the blog, especially for 25ac which I had taken as simply a cryptic definition.
I have commented (many times) before on my dislike of grids which nearly split in half. Here the long answer 2/23dn gives an extra link between the two sides, which compensates sufficiently.