Times 26,279: Young Men In Spats

Enjoyed this puzzle immensely – there was an excellent rogue’s gallery of characters at 11ac, 19ac, 22ac, 2dn and 18dn, giving a real sense of personality which is not always evident in a Times grid thanks to the anonymous setter and no-living-persons rules. And a real sense of fun throughout the clues to boot. 11ac, probably my Clue of the Day, fully justifies its use of the perhaps controversial new kid on the anagrind block that is “pants”, and I was a big fan of the purring protester at 16dn too.

Finished this in about 9 minutes despite the protests of an increasingly sluggish five-year-old computer – hopefully a Christmas bonus will materialise (I hear the Adele record is selling well) so I can buy a new one and then you’ll all be in trouble. I suppose that, as much as I liked 11ac and 22ac, they were above averagely biffable with a few letters in and I’ll confess to fully parsing them both only post-submission. LOI was 23d, a fine example of this grid’s down-with-the-kidsness. I suppose it’s a sign of my ever-increasing age that I got something like 5dn much more speedily than this.

Many thanks then setter – nothing 1ac or 5ac about this puzzle in my opinion!

Across
1	HOGWASH – rubbish!: double def with “that should get the hog clean”
5	HUMDRUM – tedious: HUM [drone] with DRUM [instrument]
9	LIGHTEN UP – appear more buoyant: (THE PLUG IN*) [“forced”]
10	TAMPA – US city: homophone of TAMPER [tinker “reported”]
11	ROCKY MARCIANO – heavyweight: ROO [Australian boxer (as in “boxing kangaroo”)] covering (A CRACK IN MY*) [“pants”]
13	CANISTER – holder: IS cutting CANTER [“the pace”]
15	MORTAL – human: MORAL [right] to receive {suppor}T [“ultimately”]
17	REMARK – comment: RE MARK [on | holy book]
19	BESSEMER – inventor Sir Henry: BEER [bitter] about reverse of MESS [“backfiring” shambles]
22	BERTIE WOOSTER – literary idler: BOOSTER [a fillip] when about TIE W [to marry | wife] after ER [hesitation]
25	AMATI – inscription on an old violin: in {monogr}AM A TI{ny}
26	BARTENDER – pub worker: ART [tattoo possibly] etched into BENDER [knee, say]
27	DRAUGHT – current: double def with “man on the board”
28	TUTORED – taught: TUT [old king] and O RED [old | cardinal]

Down
1	HULA – dance: HUL{k} [incredibly large person “shortly”] having A
2	GAGARIN – cosmonaut: silence [GAG] + A RIN{g} [a feature of Saturn? “Not quite”]
3	ATTIC – Greek: double def with “prison for Rochester’s wife?”
4	HONEYDEW – saccharine stuff: HONEY [darling] + homophone of DUE [expected, “it’s said”]
5	HEPCAT – cool dude: HEAT [scorcher] taking in P.C. [Bobby]
6	MOTOCROSS – sport: MO TO CROSS [very little time | to | pass the ball]
7	RAMPART – fortification: RAM PART [to hit | a bit]
8	MEADOWLARK – a bird: ME A + OWL [nocturnal flier] in DARK [the night]
12	SCOREBOARD – match reference: B [book], (A RECORD SO*) [“extraordinarily”] stopping
14	STRAINING – function of a colander: double def with “stretched to the limit?”
16	DEMOCRAT – politician: R [right] to punch DEMO CAT [purring protester?]
18	MORGANA – a sorceress: ORGAN [instrument] adopted by MA [mother]
20	MIRADOR – a high window: reverse of ROD A RIM [stick | a | border “up”]
21	TWO-BIT – in America, petty: TWIT [idiot] constrains O{ur} B{ritish} [“leaders”]
23	TWEET – message: T{act} [“a minimum of”] + WEE T [little | time]
24	TRAD – conventional: reverse of DART [missile “sent up”]