Time taken: 10:11 but with a very silly typo in 14 down!
I am doing the puzzle a little later than I usually do, and noticed some very fast times indeed. I needed longer as a number of answers did not come quickly and needed to be pieced together from wordplay. I was nervous about a few, but in the end it was a glaring typo that did me in!
How did you get along?
| Across | |
| 1 | Plant fake diamond (8) |
| SHAMROCK – SHAM(fake), ROCK(diamond) | |
| 9 | Diverse city, large, frenzied according to an Eastender (8) |
| ECLECTIC – EC(city), L(large), then ‘ECTIC(frenzied, HECTIC, dropping the aspirant) | |
| 10 | Spot Greek character nursing temperature (6) |
| STIGMA – SIGMA(Greek character) containing T(temperature) | |
| 11 | Mesh bag carrying flask right at the bottom (10) |
| NETHERMOST – NET(mesh bag) containing THERMOS(flask) | |
| 12 | Rubbish pud (4) |
| DUFF – double definition | |
| 13 | Agent with alias deployed somewhere in England (4,6) |
| EAST ANGLIA – anagram of AGENT and ALIAS | |
| 16 | US city railway dispensing with silver leaf (7) |
| CHICORY – CHICAGO(US city) and RY(railway) minus AG(silver) | |
| 17 | Bachelor appeared, having acquired some flowers (7) |
| BLOOMED – B(bachelor), LOOMED(appeared) | |
| 20 | Chart-topping production of Paperback Writer? (4,6) |
| BEST SELLER – Cryptic definition | |
| 22 | Fish or beef? (4) |
| CARP – double definition | |
| 23 | Ban 19 pitching tent (10) |
| TABERNACLE – anagram of BAN and ELECTRA(the answer to 19 down) | |
| 25 | Reordered school uniform rather vulgar (6) |
| KITSCH – the school uniform is SCH KIT, swap the order | |
| 26 | The old King, after eating odd pastry dish, is in a worse mood (8) |
| GRUMPIER – GR(the old King), containing RUM(odd), PIE(pastry dish) | |
| 27 | Wandering, initially rambling content of Lincoln bombast (8) |
| ABERRANT – the first letter of Rambling inside ABE Lincoln, RANT(bombast) | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Feeling of warmth from renovated loft bathed in quiet (3,5) |
| HOT FLUSH – anagram of LOFT inside HUSH(quiet) | |
| 3 | I’m facing a tricky introduction to traditional canticle (10) |
| MAGNIFICAT – anagram of I’M,FACING,A, then the first letter of Traditional | |
| 4 | Crop producer phoned in “O to be in France, free at last” (6,4) |
| ORANGE TREE – RANG(phoned) inside O, ETRE(“to be” in French), and the last letter of freE | |
| 5 | Resembling Clark of Sevenoaks? (7) |
| KENTISH – double definition, the first one referencing Clark Kent, the alias of Superman | |
| 6 | Fruit regularly featuring in Psalm One (4) |
| SLOE – alternating letters in pSaLm OnE | |
| 7 | Every type of person, each topless, turned up for a walk in the park (6) |
| STROLL – every type of person is ALL SORTS. Remove the first letters of each and reverse | |
| 8 | Nation applying old tax to estate (8) |
| SCOTLAND – SCOT(old tax) and LAND(estate) | |
| 14 | City that is supportive of new UK leader (4,6) |
| AULD REEKIE – IE(that is) under an anagram of UK,LEADER | |
| 15 | Royal Duke losing double topping of cheese (10) |
| GLOUCESTER – the cheese is DOUBLE GLOUCESTER, remove DOUBLE | |
| 16 | Coastal shipping navigation has explorer arriving on time (8) |
| CABOTAGE – the exporer John CABOT, then AGE(time) | |
| 18 | Old Italian embraced by Petrus Canisius (8) |
| ETRUSCAN – hidden inside pETRUS CANisius | |
| 19 | Vote in Republican leader from Alabama who had family issues (7) |
| ELECTRA – ELECT(vote in), R(republican) and the first letter in Alabama | |
| 21 | Quiet coach from the south expected (6) |
| SUBDUE – BUS(coach) reversed, then DUE(expected) | |
| 24 | Leading motorsport article upset Green (4) |
| NAIF – F1(leading motorsport) and AN(article) all reversed | |
44:21
Started off confidently with ECLECTIC (a favourite word of mine), which led me to KENTISH, but then an unfortunate MESS, which held me up for a while in the NW corner. Failed to spot the anagram for AULD REEKIE, which would have helped a lot in the SE corner. Some nice clues, like HOT FLUSH and GRUMPIER, among many others. NHO SCOT as a tax, so no joy there, but write-ins CARP an GLOUCESTER helped a lot. No time, as I did it between housework, as usual.