Lots of food and geography in this puzzle, and a pair of colourful deceased celebrities. I enjoyed the 16 minutes it took me to finish it.
Definitions underlined in bold, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, anagrinds in italics
| Across | |
| 1 | Service good or grand here? A state! (8,4) |
| MIDNIGHT MASS – G (good, or grand) being MID the word NIGHT; MASS as in Massachusetts. | |
| 9 | Practise meditation perhaps every month, for example (5) |
| DOZEN – if you DO ZEN you practise meditation. Every month is a dozen months. | |
| 10 | Back turned on beach, briefly, in Scottish town (9) |
| STRANRAER – STRAN(D) = beach briefly; RAER = REAR reversed. Port town in SW Scotland, miles from anywhere in Scotland but only 32 miles by boat to Larne in N. Ireland. | |
| 11 | A pity gent cut off from part of Africa (8) |
| EGYPTIAN – (A PITY GEN)* where GEN = gent cut. | |
| 12 | Drop off family’s cleaner (6) |
| NAPKIN – NAP = drop off, KIN = family. | |
| 13 | Uncontrolled descent of alpinist taking a tumble (8) |
| TAILSPIN -(ALPINIST)*. | |
| 15 | In conversation, mention accessory (6) |
| BROOCH – sounds like BROACH which means raise a subject. | |
| 17 | Evil country garden evacuated (6) |
| MALIGN – MALI a country, G(arde)N. | |
| 18 | An arm casually wrapped round American love, sweet thing (8) |
| MARZIPAN – (AN ARM)* with ZIP (American meaning zero) inside. | |
| 20 | Tyrant, son punching revolutionary was a drunkard (6) |
| DESPOT – TOPED (was a drunkard) reversed with S inserted. | |
| 21 | Old boy back tucking into wine and curry (8) |
| VINDALOO -O (old) LAD (boy) reversed inside VINO = wine. Are my tastebuds getting less sensitive, or are vindaloos getting less fiery? | |
| 24 | Trash in cities I tidied up, cleaner on the outskirts earlier (9) |
| CRITICISE – CR (outskirts of cleaner) then (CITIES I)*. | |
| 25 | Island salutation reversing a greeting on Majorca? (5) |
| ALOHA – A, HOLA! (as Spaniards say) reversed, Aloha being a greeting in Hawaii. | |
| 26 | Hand-held device showing western, old film featuring boozer (6-6) |
| WALKIE-TALKIE – W(western) ALKIE (boozer) TALKIE (old film). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Film about mad cow disease, all ending in Ohio, say (7) |
| MIDWEST – MIST (film) around D W E, where D W E are the end letters of maD coW diseasE. | |
| 2 | Old musician woozy, measure of drink found slightly lacking (5,9) |
| DIZZY GILLESPIE – woozy = DIZZY, GILL (measure of drink) ESPIE(D) = found, lacking the D. Jazz trumpeter and bandleader, died 1993. | |
| 3 | Moonlight in Nice somewhat uplifting, don’t you agree, mate? (5) |
| INNIT – reversed hidden, as above; Essex speak, innit. | |
| 4 | Iberian, say: what had him in a funk? (8) |
| HISPANIC – HIS PANIC had him in a funk. | |
| 5 | Queen sees king hiding in tree (4) |
| MARY – MAY tree with R inside. | |
| 6 | US city offering boat trip round Lapland, might you say? (5,4) |
| SANTA CRUZ – A Santa cruise might be a Lapland boat trip, on a lake, perhaps; Santa Cruz is also a city in California, although I’ve only visited the one in Tenerife. | |
| 7 | Splashing American, swimmer from Mississippi? (7,7) |
| JACKSON POLLOCK – a pollock being a fish, so one from Jackson in Mississippi; artist known for his seemingly random splashings of paint to create his abstract works. | |
| 8 | Moment of truth — for the crisp eater? (6) |
| CRUNCH – cryptic definition. | |
| 14 | First of suitors snubbin’ a young girl (9) |
| SIGNORINA – S(uitors), IGNORIN'(G), A. | |
| 16 | Indonesian business protected by foundation (8) |
| BALINESE – LINE (business) inside BASE (foundation). | |
| 17 | Doctor, one brought into wine region where the last couple sent spinning (6) |
| MEDICO – MEDOC a Bordeaux wine region, bring in ONE / I gives you MEDIOC, then reverse the last two letters. | |
| 19 | Gas worried baby (7) |
| NEONATE – NEON a gas, ATE = worried. | |
| 22 | Tot put on a performance (5) |
| DRAMA – DRAM (tot), A. | |
| 23 | Second little creature? That’s right! (4) |
| TICK – triple definition. | |
One of the other commenters mentioned “ being off the wavelength” being related to “a lot on one’s mind”, and I think that was my problem this morning, as seeing the solutions here, I don’t see what else held me up so badly.
So much to like, and I missed out on those PDMs so important in a good cryptic, like JP and DG. Have to do a bit of mind-sweeping before tomorrow morning.