I have no solving time for this as I worked over 3 sessions and nodded off during one of those. Much of it was straightforward enough but other bits seemed unnecessarily obscure. I bunged in several answers with a shrug knowing they had to be correct but still having doubts about the clues.
Many thanks to vinyl1, galspray, glh and mike harper for covering during my absence.
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]. “Aural wordplay” is in quotation marks. I now use a tilde sign ~ to indicate an insertion point in containment clues. I usually omit all reference to juxtaposition indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
|---|---|
| 1 | Overcome by male brown bears falling down crack? (5,3) |
| STUNT MAN – STUN (overcome), T~AN (brown) contains (bears) M (male). One meaning of ‘crack’ as a noun is an expert. | |
| 6 | Quit roughly filling barrel with earth (6) |
| VACATE – CA (roughly) contained by [filling] VA~T (barrel), then E (earth) | |
| 9 | Film star playing Lance Armstrong originally British? (9,4) |
| CHRISTIAN BALE – Anagram [playing] of LANCE A{rmstong} [originally] BRITISH | |
| 10 | Walk in street, then travel by bus? (6) |
| STRIDE – ST (street), RIDE (travel by bus?) | |
| 11 | Perhaps Pedro Sánchez drops back to probe political adviser (8) |
| SPANIARD – RAIN (drops) reversed [back] contained by [to probe] SPA~D (political advisor – SPecial ADvisor). He’s the PM of Spain, but we didn’t need to know that. | |
| 13 | After beginning of incarceration, very brave group put back in cells (10) |
| ISOGAMETES – I{ncarceration) [beinning of…], SO (very), GAME (brave), then SET (group) reversed [put back]. I got so far with constructing this from wordplay then gave up and used aids. NHO it, and this is its first appearance in any puzzle in TfTT’s 20 years. | |
| 15 | House-trained, thanks setter (4) |
| TAME – TA (thanks), ME (setter) | |
| 16 | The right way to eat cold Mexican food? (4) |
| TACO – TA~O (the right way) contains [to eat] C (cold). In Chinese philosophy Tao is the way or code of behaviour that is in harmony with the natural order. | |
| 18 | To obtain fondle, one must be good at pulling (6-4) |
| TOWING-ROPE – TO WIN GROPE (to obtain fondle). The usual sources have this as an alternative to ‘tow rope’, but I’ve never heard of ‘towing-rope’ before today. Collins lends support to the hyphen. | |
| 21 | Now smile about extremely tractable protein (8) |
| INTEGRIN – IN (now) ~ GRIN (smile) containing [about] T{ractabl}E {extremely]. I don’t know how ‘now / IN’ is supposed to work. Another NHO that until today had managed to escape the attention of Times setters since TfTT was founded. | |
| 22 | Cheers as I’ve made a mistake (6) |
| WHOOPS – Two meanings – cheers as in whoops of joy | |
| 23 | Our bubbly guest’s first to give money cobbled together (5-3-5) |
| ROUGH-AND-READY – Anagram [bubbly] of OUR, then G{uest’s} [first], HAND (give), READY (money) | |
| 25 | American politician following clergyman and pimp (6) |
| REVAMP – REV (clergyman), A (American), MP (politician). Collins: pimp – to adapt or embellish in an ostentatious manner. | |
| 6 | Problem with gas having surfaced, is inclined to throttle man, bachelor (3,5) |
| THE BENDS – T~ENDS (is inclined) containing [to throttle] HE (man) + B (bachelor) | |
| Down |
|
|---|---|
| 2 | Historian’s outrageous catsuit (7) |
| TACITUS – Anagram [outrageous] of CATSUIT | |
| 3 | What psychometry is doing in care facility (7,4) |
| NURSING HOME – What psycHOMEtry is doing | |
| 4 | Stroke hunk on bottom in lounge (5) |
| MASSÉ – MASS (hunk), {loung}E [on bottom]. In billiards and snooker this is a stroke that swerves the ball. | |
| 5 | Ale isn’t fantastic in punch (7) |
| NAILSET – Anagram [fantastic ] of ALE ISN’T. NHO. This had one outing here 6 years ago when I also didn’t know it. | |
| 6 | Having space in containers at home is minor infraction (6,3) |
| VENIAL SIN – EN (space) contained by [in] V~IALS (containers), IN (at home) | |
| 7 | Tea and conversation cut short (3) |
| CHA – CHA{t} (conversation) [cut short] | |
| 8 | Proposition in article more convoluted (7) |
| THEOREM – THE (article) then anagram [convoluted] of MORE | |
| 12 | Make a mistake blocking a fan of opening question (11) |
| INTERROGATE – ERR (make a mistake) contained by [blocking] INT~O (a fan of) + GATE (opening) | |
| 14 | Second body missing foot in boat (9) |
| MOTORSHIP – MO (second), TORS{o} (body) [missing foot], HIP (in) | |
| 17 | Description of fair racecourse? (7) |
| AINTREE – I had no idea what was going on here although AINTREE was obvious from ‘racecourse’. Google advises: “Aintree Fair” usually refers to the popular Aintree Antique and Collectors Fair, a large monthly event held at the iconic Aintree Racecourse near Liverpool. Who knew? I had this down as two definitions and thought it one of the most feeble of that type I have ever seen in a Times crossword because they are linked to the same venue. |
|
| 19 | One helps to secure arm and head (4,3) |
| WING NUT – WING (arm), NUT (head) | |
| 20 | Church leader, you once said, finally agog (7) |
| POPEYED – POPE (church leader), YE (you once), {sai}D [finally] | |
| 22 | Inferior son was dressed in trousers (5) |
| WORSE – WORE (was dressed in] contains [trousers] S (son) | |
| 24 | Lizard found in Bhutan (3) |
| UTA – Hidden [found] in {Bh}UTA{n}. NHO. | |
This was more fun than today’s (I just finished both), though two biological terms drove me, like Paul, to the dictionary. NURSING HOME was great, for one… Apparently, Christian Bale was once considered for the role of Lance Armstrong in a biopic, around 2020.
I did this a day late and felt happy to finish all correct without resorting to aids. Like everyone else I’d not heard of the biological words, nor the lizard. But I worked them all out from the wordplay.
All a bit too obscure AND a bit too clever for me, and what with being distracted, didn’t make a good fist of this. Most of my guesses were right , but I couldn’t parse them, so they didn’t really count. NHO ISOwhatsits nor INTEGRIN , nor MOTORSHIP, come to that, and had forgotten the meaning of VENIAL. HO HUM, another crossword, another day.