I have no solving time for this as I nodded off and lost track of it. Probably just as well as I struggled throughout and needed a lot more than my target half-hour.
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 | Dropping sadly can limit cacti in development (13) |
| ANTICLIMACTIC – Anagram [in development] of CAN LIMIT CACTI | |
| 9 | Illusory images of neutrino particles? (2,3) |
| OP ART – Hidden in [of – belonging to] {neutrin}O PART{icles}. ODE: A form of abstract art that gives the illusion of movement by the precise use of pattern and colour, or in which conflicting patterns emerge and overlap. | |
| 10 | Gross rage is out of order for assailant (9) |
| AGGRESSOR – Anagram [out of order] of GROSS RAGE | |
| 11 | Unimportant note, for instance, readable with a typo? (10) |
| NEGLIGIBLE – N (note), EG (for instance), LIGIBLE i.e. LEGIBLE (readable) [with a typo]. I don’t like this device at all and hope it will not become commonplace. | |
| 12 | Letter of thanks after Beeb has abolished repeats (4) |
| BETA – BE{eb} [abolished repeats], TA (thanks) | |
| 14 | Scrap, a bit of thin muslin (7) |
| TIFFANY – TIFF (scrap), ANY (a bit of). Would you like any / a bit of, cake? | |
| 16 | Italian composer writes music endlessly, flipping bad (7) |
| CORELLI – {s}CORE{s} (writes music) [endlessly] then ILL (bad) reversed [flipping] | |
| 17 | Gradually losing stone, say, cut by sculptor (7) |
| ERODING – E~G (say) containing [cut by] RODIN (sculptor) | |
| 19 | Atonement not unknown in pirates’ home (7) |
| PENANCE – PEN{z}ANCE (pirates’ home) [not unknown in…]. The Pirates of Penzance is a comic opera by Gilbert and Sullivan. | |
| 20 | What’s used to catch birds in tree (4) |
| LIME – Two meanings. I didn’t know the first: lime aka birdlime is a sticky adhesive smeared on branches to capture small birds. | |
| 21 | Big and impenetrable loch I’m into, swimming (10) |
| MONOLITHIC – Anagram [swimming] of LOCH I’M INTO | |
| 24 | Hors d’œuvre of fish I love after starters of artisanal cold cuts (9) |
| CARPACCIO – CARP (fish), A{rtisanal} + C{old} + C{uts} [starters of…], I, O (love). An Italian hors d’oeuvre consisting of thin slices of raw beef or fish served with a sauce. | |
| 25 | West end of Hispaniola island — not all of it? (5) |
| HAITI – H{ispaniola} [west end of… ], AIT (island), I{t} [not all of…]. A very good &lit clue, perfectly combining wordplay and definition as this description from Wiki indicates: Haiti…is a country in the Caribbean Sea on the island of Hispaniola. It occupies the western side of the island, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. | |
| 26 | Washing car outside university residential area (7,6) |
| HOUSING ESTATE – HO~SING ESTATE (washing car) containing [outside] U (university) | |
| Down |
|
|---|---|
| 1 | Where hands go through three consecutive eight-hour shifts? (6,3,5) |
| AROUND THE CLOCK – Cryptic | |
| 2 | Tons persistently worry over nasal sound (5) |
| TWANG – T (tons), then GNAW (persistently worry) reversed [over] | |
| 3 | What could be sharp chintz raincoat child’s regularly taken out (6,4) |
| CITRIC ACID – C{h}I{n}T{z} R{a}I{n}C{o}A{t} C{h}I{l}D [regularly taken out]. Not sure why ‘could be’. | |
| 4 | Foolishness and madness banishing son (7) |
| INANITY – IN{s}ANITY (madness) [banishing son] | |
| 5 | Pure northern Gaelic must be translated (7) |
| ANGELIC – Anagram [translated] of N (northern) GAELIC | |
| 6 | One securing rank (4) |
| TIER – Two meanings, the first pronounced ‘tie-er’ | |
| 7 | Star locked up by prison governor (9) |
| CASTELLAN – STELLA (star) contained by [locked up by] CA~N (prison). The governor of a castle. | |
| 8 | Is Carmine gored getting involved in this? (9,5) |
| ORGANISED CRIME – Anagram [involved] of IS CARMINE GORED. Okay, the anagram works, but in my opinion if the definition is a reflexive word such as ‘this’ there ought to be something in the rest of the clue to indicate the subject it’s referring to, and I can’t see that here. When I saw ‘gored’ I thought bullfighting but that was no help at all so I was left with simply arranging the anagrist into something that fitted the grid. |
|
| 13 | Excitedly waves health food recipes (10) |
| BRANDISHES – BRAN (health food), DISHES (recipes) | |
| 15 | Forcibly move ornamental coat fastener on border (9) |
| FROGMARCH – FROG (ornamental coat fastener), MARCH (border). Collins: march / marchland – a frontier, border, or boundary or the land lying along it, often of disputed ownership. The ornamental frog has come up before. | |
| 18 | Dumplings — no small volume covered in butter (7) |
| GNOCCHI – NO + CC (small volume) contained by [covered in] G~HI (butter) | |
| 19 | Delay Broadway’s opening of play around November (7) |
| PROLONG – PROLO~G (Broadway’s opening of play – US spelling) containing [around] N (November) | |
| 22 | Port city of Nova Scotia unfinished and not large (5) |
| HAIFA – HA{l}IFA{x} (city of Nova Scotia) [unfinished and not large] | |
| 23 | Cross about book being forbidden (4) |
| TABU – TA~U (cross) containing [about] B (book) | |
Carmine seemed sufficiently generic as a gangster name to justify the answer, with its excellent misdirection from gored as an anagrist, I’m another non Sopranos watcher.
PLOI acid confirmed the any of tiffany.
I thought I knew that type of frog, bring a knot of cord inserted in a loop, as seen on Chinese robes, but it is defined as a spindle of bone in a loop on uniforms.
thanks to setter and blogger, this one got me through an hour of summer cold in the nose.
Did this quickly, with 1a and 1d going in straight off the bat, and most of the rest following pretty smartly. ( Apart from CASTELLAN, which I knew of as a word, but unfortunately I’d spelt CORELLI incorrectly, and so had the wrong crossers for it. Had a bit of a break once I felt a hiatus looming ( on TIFFANY and FROGMARCH especially) and came back with renewed vigour and finished it off in a respectable time (for me!). Enjoyed the long anagrams mostly, but admit that I’d missed the subtlety of Carmine in the crime clue.
See above