Times 27,689: A 1ac, a 1dn and a 5dn walk into two hostelries…

After a couple of weeks of verdurous green as far as the eye can see over at the Crossword Snitch, I was naturally hoping that this would be the day that the Thunderer would come down on my head like a ton of bricks: alas, in the event this didn’t take me that much longer than the admittedly tricky-by-its-standards QC. Perfectly good crossword with some suitably Timesy words – 11ac, 14ac, 24ac, 1dn, 6dn, 20dn et al but the horses have still never had it so good.

Favourite clue by a distance was the cleverly misleading 13ac; I also always like seeing 16dn show up in a puzzle because of the time Sybil Fawlty herself quite literally sized me up on a bus in Wandsworth with the words “ooh, you’re tall, aren’t you?”

ACROSS
1 US broadcaster pinching round bum (4)
HOBO – HBO [US broadcaster that is an acronym for “Home Box Office”] “pinching” O [round]

3 Vessel always must keep covered in festival (7,3)
PANCAKE DAY – PAN AY must “keep” CAKED

10 Place of refuge, maybe spot in the country (7)
DENMARK – DEN + MARK

11 Retort from male writer after a drink (7)
ALEMBIC – M BIC [as in biro] after ALE

12 Metal, type likely hollow and portable, for work in church (4,6,5)
LEAD KINDLY LIGHT – LEAD [metal] + KIND [type] + L{ikel}Y + LIGHT [portable]. LOI due to unfamiliarity but the wordplay was generous.

13 Direct translation of nothing in books (6)
ORIENT – RIEN [(French) translation of “nothing”] in O.T.

14 Cold area between two hostelries in the shade (8)
CINNABAR – C [cold] + A between INN and BAR

17 It’s hard to walk intoxicated with rage (4,4)
HIGH WIRE – HIGH W/ IRE

18 Unhappy in boozer, about to hit the roof (4,2)
BLOW UP – LOW in reversed PUB

21 Sailor‘s curving, aromatic bananas (15)
CIRCUMNAVIGATOR – (CURVING AROMATIC*)

23 Caught in something afoot? This is shocking (7)
SCANDAL – C in SANDAL

24 Piece of Whitman — it’s essentially about poem (7)
SESTINA – hidden reversed in {whitm}AN IT’S ES{sentially}

25 Coming off horse, perhaps, in retreat (10)
WITHDRAWAL – double def. Horse as in heroin

26 Lacking definition, not very fit (4)
AGUE – VAGUE [lacking definition] minus V for very

DOWN
1 Covered earlier clothing left for gentleman (7)
HIDALGO – HID AGO [covered | earlier] “clothing” L

2 Dressing musicians, no spring chickens (9)
BANDAGING – BAND + AGING

4 Doing a solicitor’s work in a royal capacity (6)
ASKING – or else AS KING

5 Clergyman rested south of cove (8)
CHAPLAIN – LAIN south of CHAP

6 More killings to upset government expert (14)
KREMLINOLOGIST – (MORE KILLINGS TO*)

7 Correct girl coming out, huge when undressed (5)
DEBUG – DEB [girl coming out] + {h}UG{e}

8 Unknown Berlin figure: I’m not sure he has a craft (7)
YACHTER – Y ACHT ER [unknown | Berlin figure = 8, in German | I’m not sure]

9 Man stopping and we would, somehow, for men in pain (7,7)
WALKING WOUNDED – KING [(chess)man] “stopping” (AND WE WOULD*)

15 London area and South Herts town a must for The Archers (9)
BOWSTRING – BOW + S + TRING

16 Silk fabric cut completely from the bottom (8)
PRUNELLA – PRUNE [cut] + reversed ALL [completely]

17 One producing reports saying something cutting (7)
HACKSAW – HACK [one producing (news?) reports] + SAW [saying]

19 Carrying mature wine on top (7)
PORTAGE – AGE [mature], PORT on top

20 Would-be dry people holding clothing for sacred works (6)
AVESTA – AA [= Alcoholics Anonymous] “holding” VEST. The sacred texts of Zoroastrianism

22 Cook‘s pan (5)
ROAST – double def