A mix of easy and slightly less easy clues today with some good surfaces. I rather liked 25a which can be a dd or a cd depending on whether one separates the ‘light’ from ‘infantry’. 18a would have pleased me if I hadn’t seen a very similar clue previously and 2d is also worthy of a mention.
The unches on the top row and the start of the bottom row spell out ‘bête noire’ so I spent a little while looking for a Nina but couldn’t find anything further so this is either a coincidence or an attempt at an All Fools’ day prank designed to waste solvers’ time.
Across
9 IMPROMPTU IM PROMPT (ready) U (university)
10 PASSE PASS (amorous advance) [sw]E[et] (sweetheart)
11 COTERIE *(EROTIC) [pressur]E
12 CALIBRE dd
13 TIP dd
14 ANIMADVERTS *(MAIDSERVANT)
17 SUSHI S (south) US (American) HI (greeting)
18 ILK [m]ILK
19 LAIRD I (island) in LARD (fat)
21 ILL-TEMPERED ILL (bad) TEMPER (season) ED (editor)
23 PIE [soa]P I[nsid]E
25 BAYONET dd or cd
27 PATRONS PAT RON (two boys) S (sun)
28 NEARS N (unquantified number) EARS (listeners)
29 IN CONCERT [w]IN[e] CONCERT (musical performance)
Down
1 BIG CAT G (German) C (conservative) in *(BAIT)
2 EPITAPHS cd
3 TOURMALINE TOUR (trip) MA (graduate) *(NILE)
4 EPEE PE (exercises in E[laborat]E
5 NUTCRACKER cd
6 OPAL OP (work) A [leve]L
7 ISOBAR SO (like this) in I BAR (one pub)
8 REVERSED VERSE (output of poet) in RED (debt)
15 IDIOPATHIC IDIO[t] (fool almost) PATH (way) IC (ruling, in charge)
16 VALIDATING *(DATA LIVING)
17 SHINBONE B[r]O[w]N in SHINE (beam)
20 IMPROVED I M (one thousand) PROVED (tested)
22 LAYMAN LAY (put down) MAN (crew)
24 ERSATZ hidden in ‘playERS AT Zurich’
26 NOSH SON (boy) reversed H (hospital)
27 PACE P (pressure) ACE (expert)
Thanks, Gaufrid. I was unaware of the second meaning of “bayonet,” which makes the clue clever indeed.
Not sure about red=debt in 8dn. All I can find in Chambers is “in THE red” = “in debt.”
Hi Agentzero
I raised an eyebrow over debt=red as well. There was a discussion here some months ago about this very topic but I cannot remember in which post or what the final outcome was. In the end, this time I just treated it as a bit of setter’s licence.
I had a bit more of a quibble with the use of ‘display’ as an anagram indicator in 11a.
It was to do with how compilers had been writing their clues for the likes of RE(VERSE)D so as to utilise the ‘debt’ gag.
At the time I mumbled something about there being no need actually to say ‘in the red’ or ‘in debt’ (which causes the problem observed by our blogger today) where a phrase like ‘experiencing financial difficulty?’ would probably do the trick.