ACROSS
1. DICKENSIAN – anagram* of IDEA NICK N.
6. STOP – POTS (as in snooker) reversed.
10. PASTEUR – ER around U after PAST.
11. SCALPEL – S[urgeon] + PE in CALL.
12. EYESTRAIN – E + YES + TRAIN.
13. CARDI – I preceded by CARD (‘comb and clean wool etc with a sharp-toothed instrument in order to disentangle the fibres before spinning’ – vaguely remembered post-solve, but not during, when I bunged in ‘torsi’); a cardy or a cardie (or, indeed, very occasionally, I would imagine) a cardi is short for a cardigan. I’m not beating myself up about this one – there’ll be no heartache tonight.
14. PROMO – PROM + O.
15. MALADROIT – LAD in MAR + O + IT.
17. PLENITUDE – INEPT DUEL*.
20. ENEMY – MEN in YE reversed. One for the new kid in town?
21. REALM – AL[l] in REM.
23. EN PASSANT – N in PEASANTS*.
25. VERDICT – VERDI + C[ontralto] and T[enor]. One of these nights I’ll look for the literal at the right end of the clue.
26. OVATION – [inn]OVATION. Nice.
27. ROLL – [t]ROLL. JS Mill would have called him an eccentric with individual spontaneity who provided needful difference of opinion, and, you know, I’m inclined to agree with him.
28. INSTALMENT – ‘chapter’, as in ‘Stay tuned for the next instalment of The Girl from Yesterday’; I + N + S + M in TALENT.
DOWNS
1. DUPLE – ‘in two’ (‘based on two main beats to the bar’); L in DUPE.
2. CASSEROLE – ASS in CE + ROLE.
3. ELECTRONIC MAIL – CINEMATIC ROLE + L*.
4. SARCASM – CAS[h] in MARS*.
5. ARSENAL – S in ARENA + L; I never thought it could happen, but after watching the hapless display of my team at Old Trafford on Saturday evening, I saw an equally hapless display from my daughter’s team last night. Well, maybe not the team as much as the elderly chap with the frown on the sidelines who suffers from an acute case of lyin’ eyes.
7. TAPIR – TAP + IR.
8. PALMISTRY – PAL + MISTY about R[ough].
9. FANCY DRESS BALL – um, I put ‘party dress ball’. Just did. Amazing what one can do when the heat is on.
14. PAPER OVER – if you put ‘through’ with ‘the Times’, you might get ‘paper over’. I’m not sure this is a brilliant clue, but I’m going to take it easy because a) others may like it and b) I may be missing something and close to making a fool of myself – again. Oh, and c), after watching United, Arsenal and Liverpool over the weekend, I’d have to say this clue is a lot better than any of that overpaid lot.
16. OPERATIVE – EVITA reversed after OPER[a].
18. UNEATEN – UNBEATEN (what a South African batsman is after an Englishman drops him again) with the B[owled] taken out.
19. EXPLOIT – EX PILOT with the ‘I’ shoved back.
22. APRIL – AIL around P + R.
24. TENET – E in TENT. Worthy of a tequila sunrise.
The best of my love to you all.
Still a bit of a cakewalk in the park this morning — even though it was at least 27˚C by the time I started.
Wondered who Nick N could be (1ac) — any offers?
And if PALMISTRY is a “methodology”, I’m the Vicar of Dibley. Might, at the limit, be a method.
Quite liked the &lit flavour of SCALPEL but.
A couple of minor points:
1. A casserole does not necessarily contain meat, although it often does.
2. The ‘IR’ in ‘tapir’ is Inland Revenue, which is now called something else.
3. ‘Cardi’ is a rather sad comedown for a noble gentleman, who, it must be admitted, cut a less than impressive figure as a general. Still….
Edited at 2016-01-25 03:43 am (UTC)
Thanks setter and blogger (party dress ball, lol).
Edited at 2016-01-25 11:26 am (UTC)
No progress on those 5 clues after another half hour, and I’m not sure if I could have got them either.
As the owner of at least 3 cardis, (it’s something to do with my age) 13a was no problem.
My interpretation for 14d is “I’m through with the Times!”, i.e. “As far as I’m concerned, the paper’s over”, so from my point of view a better clue that you maybe thought, Ulaca. However I do sympathise with your frigid digits.
Edited at 2016-01-25 11:52 am (UTC)
5d is factually incorrect. Not second. Third. And falling (teehee).
4dn aimed at 5dn by one of the 20ac is of no consequence but I share ulaca’s despair at some of the big names, so Forza Leicester!
I think there’s another angle to the ARSENAL clue as yet unmentioned – the ‘second team’ of course referring to the second team in North London. Where’s Pip when you need him…
The Sky box is working fine however, well enough to see ARS have an off day and that West London shower look more like the 2015 chamions than they have for a while. Nevertheless I am open to wagers on the relative end of season positions of ARS and TH.
You knew I’d not be able to keep quiet.
My only NHO was DUPLE, and I spent a short while wondering if “dople” was a word, but fortunately decided it wasn’t.
DUPLE may apply to you and I as we are clearly “the two (no-one) beats to the bar”?
Nowadays, that much alcohol only makes me *think* I’m good at darts..
I caused myself a bit of trouble at 23 by reading the last word of the clue as MOVIE rather than MOVE and I didn’t like the use of “first one” to indicate the T in TROLL as that had me looking for a word from which I cold remove the first of two letter Is.
Nice Eagles tribute Ulaca.
I thought this was quite enjoyable, especially for a Monday, though a bit too biffable for my liking – I hadn’t parsed 26ac, 14dn, for two…
I’m almost certain I’ve come across CARDI in a crossword before, but I’ve no record of it in a Times cryptic in the last 10+ years.
A pleasant, straightforward start to the week.