Solving time: 33 minutes. I found this easy but there are a couple of moderately obscure bits of knowledge required which I happened to know without giving them much thought. Others may not be so lucky.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]
| Across | |
| 1 | Language once right to be used in hospital burlesque? (8) |
| SANSKRIT – SAN (hospital), R (right) contained by [used in] SKIT (burlesque) | |
| 9 | Mimic — one getting duty list backed by Cambridge college (8) |
| IMITATOR – I (one), MIT (Cambridge college), ROTA (duty list) reversed [backed]. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. | |
| 10 | Quiet English male lacking funds in Welsh town (8) |
| PEMBROKE – P (quiet), E (English), M (male), BROKE (lacking funds). Very popular all of a sudden, and there’s a castle there too! | |
| 11 | South American girl within borders of Bahrain (8) |
| BOLIVIAN – OLIVIA (girl) contained by [within] B{ahrai}N [borders of…] | |
| 12 | Image-breaker’s current scam finally taking in old clubs (10) |
| ICONOCLAST – I (current), CON (scam) + LAST (finally) containing [taking in] O (old) + C (clubs) | |
| 14 | A day to be overcome with wonder! (4) |
| AWED – A, WED (day) | |
| 15 | Felons surprisingly collecting drug personally (7) |
| ONESELF – Anagram [surprisingly] of FELONS containing [collecting] E (drug) | |
| 17 | Flush individual received by brother and journalist (7) |
| MONEYED – ONE (individual) contained [received] by MY (brother!), ED (journalist). ‘Flush’ can indicate having an abundant supply of something, especially money. “Brother” for “my!” makes a nice change from the more usual “cor!” | |
| 21 | Buy it, trying at first to control weight (4) |
| DIET – DIE (buy it), T{rying} [at first]. More usually used in the past tense, ‘bought it’ means to have died, often as the result of an accident or in battle. | |
| 22 | Kinsman keeping US chopper for leisure (10) |
| RELAXATION – RELATION (kinsman) containing AX (US chopper) | |
| 23 | Advocate a change of course for speakers extremely eagerly (8) |
| ATTORNEY – A, TTORN pronounced [for speakers] in this word as “turn” (change of course), E{agerl}Y [extremely] | |
| 25 | Like some philosophy a politician initially imparted in bar (8) |
| BACONIAN – A + CON (politician) + I{mparted} [initially] all conatined by [in] BAN (bar) | |
| 26 | In small shelter rent out old historical wind instrument (8) |
| CORNETTO – Anagram [out] of RENT contained by [in] COT[small shelter], O (old). It’s a woodwind instrument from the Renaissance era and not to be confused with the brass cornett/cornet, the ice cream or the Italian pastry. | |
| 27 | Vocalist’s slangy greeting to famous countertenor (8) |
| YODELLER – YO (slangy greeting – as in “Yo, Blair!), DELLER (famous countertenor). There aren’t many famous countertenors to choose from and the only two I could name off the top of my head are both called Deller (Alfred, and his son Mark) so I was okay on this one! Solvers lacking that somewhat obscure piece of musical knowledge have my sympathy. | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Heather’s personal introduction to New Statesman? (8) |
| AMERICAN – AM ERICA (Heather’s personal introduction), N (new). Erica being another name for heather. I think a ‘personal introduction’ needs to start with a personal pronoun so I’m not convinced the wordplay actually works. | |
| 3 | Adults may have them, not only children (8) |
| SIBLINGS – Two defintions of sorts, the second being the stronger with reference to ‘only children’ not having brothers or sisters and therefore themselves being siblings. | |
| 4 | Reportedly regretted being cross (4) |
| ROOD – Sounds like [reportedly] “rued” (regretted). A crossword favourite. | |
| 5 | Structural member that is black, secured by gang (3,4) |
| TIE BEAM – IE (that is) + B (black) contained [secured] by TEAM (gang). It’s a horizontal beam acting as a tie in a building etc. I only knew this because it came up once before and caught me out. | |
| 6 | Love letter in post before announcement of party? (6-4) |
| BILLET-DOUX – BILLET (post – position / job), DOUX sounds like [announcement of] “do” (party) | |
| 7 | Good person going over route for flight (8) |
| STAIRWAY – ST (good person), AIRWAY (route) | |
| 8 | Splendid publicity inspiring duke’s older relative (8) |
| GRANDDAD – GRAND (splendid) + AD (publicity) containing [inspiring] D (duke) | |
| 13 | Messy train woman brought round to disinfect (10) |
| CHLORINATE – CHLOE (wonan) contains [brought round] anagram [messy] of TRAIN | |
| 15 | Big guns knight invited into ranker’s function (8) |
| ORDNANCE – N (knight – chess) contained by [invited into] OR DANCE (ranker’s function). Splitting a hair, we have OR for ‘Other Ranks’ every week, often clued as ‘men’, so we know it’s plural whereas ‘ranker’ is singular, so I think we have a misplaced apostrophe here and it should read: rankers’ function, or rankers’s function (if that’s your bag). | |
| 16 | They choose English readers in foreign universities (8) |
| ELECTORS – E (English), LECTORS (readers in foreign universities). SOED explains the significance of ‘foreign’ here although ‘lector’ also has a more general meaning that doesn’t preclude the non-foreign: a reader or lecturer in a college or university, now esp. one in a European country, as Germany or France, or in a foreign country teaching his or her native language. | |
| 18 | Old bird and bloke outside (8) |
| EXTERNAL – EX (old), TERN (bird), AL (bloke) | |
| 19 | Stretch limo originally acceptable in key northern street (8) |
| ELONGATE – L{imo} [originally] + ON (acceptable – more usually in the negative as in ‘that’s not on’), contained by [in] E (key) + GATE (northern street). Many northern towns and cities have roads called ‘gates’. We have them ‘dahn Sahf’ too, e.g. in London. And Milton Keynes is full of them. | |
| 20 | Man about town — Ronnie Winslow, for example? (7) |
| PLAYBOY – Two meanings, the second mildly cryptic and requiring alternative spacing: PLAY BOY. Ronnie Winslow was the eponymous hero of Terence Rattigan’s play, The Winslow Boy, in which he was accused of stealing a 5/- postal order. It was a huge success on stage, made twice into a feature film, the first of which was a classic, and has also been adapted for TV and radio. | |
| 24 | Sharp girl about to go climbing (4) |
| ACID – DI (girl) + CA (about) reversed [climbing] | |
A good puzzle that I was able to finish in a reasonable time for me (36 min). Some interesting clues like ICONOCLAST and ‘buy it’ Had no problems with BOLIVIAN or BILLET-DOUX but didn’t know of the CORNETTO wind instrument nor the ‘counter-tenor’, DELLER.
No other real standouts and finished with ORDNANCE and DIET.