I’m seldom at my best when I have to call on my scanty reserves of French to complete a crossword, and Dogberry made me do it not once but twice this morning. Still, I muddled through, and in the end I found this very enjoyable, with a handful of lovely charades and Russian dolls and, at 26dn, even a spot of smut to round things off. Thanks, Dogberry.
ACROSS
1. PIEMAN I.e. [id est, that’s] + m [a thousand, large number] within pan [skillet]
4. TROPICAL Reversal of port [drink] + anagram of Alic(e)
9. RELATE Double definition
10. SOLARIUM Anagram of murals IO [10] (I’m not a fan of 10 being clued in this way, but I love ‘tannery’ as the definition for ‘solarium’, so I’ll let it go)
12. GANGLAND Reversal of nag [horse] + gland [secreting structure]
13. STUPOR Anagram of proust
15. NAIL A [one] within nil [zero, love]
16. PHRENOLOGY Anagram of log on hyper
19. GREYFRIARS Anagram of fairy g(odmother) errs
20. SCAB Initial letters of Scoundrel Cad And Bounder
23. DITHER Dit [so-called (in French), as in dit-name] + her [woman]
25. SINGULAR Reversal of lug [ear] within an [indefinite article] within sir [teacher]
27. EXPEDITE P [piano, quiet] + reversal of tide within Exe [river]
28. SCRAPE Scrap [fight] + (on)e
29. DISCRETE Dis [sounds like diss, slag off] + Crete [island]
30. SPLEEN P [piano] + l [left] within seen [spotted]
DOWN
1. PARAGON Par [standard] + agon [struggle]
2. EGLANTINE A + NT [New Testament, portion of scripture] within eglise [French for church] with S [south] replaced by N [north]
3. ATTILA Reversal of it within Atla(s) [Titan said to carry the earth (or heavens) on his shoulders]
5. ROOT Double definition (grub is a verb here)
6. PLANT-POT Ant [insect] + p [piano, quiet (again)] within plot [scheme]
7. CRISP Double definition
8. LAMPREY Lam [strike] + prey [victim]
11. UNCHAIN Anagram of inca hun
14. REFRAIN Double definition
17. OSCILLATE Cilla [girl] within anagram of toes
18. OFFENDER End [goal] within offer [bid]
19. GODHEAD Go [hasten] + he [male] within dad [father]
21. BURGEON B [black] + urge on [spur]
22. EGGCUP Eg [for example, maybe] + Cu [chemical symbol of copper] within GP [General Practitioner, doctor]
24. TAPAS TA [Territorial Army, volunteers] + reversal of sap [juice]
26. AT IT A tit [a bird]
Enjoyed this one! Thanks dogberry!
Ringo thanks for explanation of “dither” – got the answer but O-level French failed me on that one…
Thanks Ringo. And Dogberry, may I hope you don’t equate the relative lack of comments with any lack of enthusiasm for yet another of your typically ingenious puzzles.
I enjoyed it very much too. Thanks to Dogberry and Ringo