Hello all. I liked this puzzle and am struggling to pick out a favourite clue. 9a is one contender, so I’ll go with that, but there are many options. It took me a little over my average time, but other than a wild rodent chase for my LOI I’m not sure why I was such a tortoise today. I will be interested to see how you found it. Thanks Alex!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics, specified [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
| Across | |
| 1a | Entertain crowd (4) |
| HOST — Two definitions | |
| 3a | Drink expert easily carried about (8) |
| PORTABLE — PORT (drink) + ABLE (expert) | |
| 9a | Harmful promises to pay off debts introduced by Number 10 (7) |
| NOXIOUS — IOUS (promises to pay off debts) preceded by (introduced by) NO (number) and X (10) | |
| 10a | Contest marriage (5) |
| MATCH — Double definition | |
| 11a | Char works in Germany partly (5) |
| SINGE — The answer is embedded in (… partly) workS IN GErmany | |
| 12a | Encounters European returning respect (6) |
| ESTEEM — MEETS (encounters) and E (European) reversed (returning) | |
| 14a | Group of extremists cleaning fruit badly (7,6) |
| LUNATIC FRINGE — An anagram of (… badly) CLEANING FRUIT | |
| 17a | One politician has fake collision (6) |
| IMPACT — I (one) + MP (politician) + ACT (fake) | |
| 19a | Portion of small rodent (5) |
| SHARE — S (small) + HARE (rodent) | |
| My last in after a long mental rodent hunt. The setter is backed up by Chambers, but not any other modern source I could find. Hares are lagomorphs, which are related to rodents and share a common ancestor, but while they used to be considered rodents this is no longer the case. Feel free to follow me down a Wikipedia rabbit(/hare) hole! | |
| 22a | Gasp with love for seasonal entertainment (5) |
| PANTO — PANT (gasp) + O (love) | |
| 23a | Charity leaflet (7) |
| HANDOUT — Another double definition | |
| 24a | Sheepdog by railway is mine (8) |
| COLLIERY — COLLIE (sheepdog) by RY (railway) | |
| 25a | Sell volume before conclusion (4) |
| VEND — V (volume) before END (conclusion) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Fairly pious around home (8) |
| HONESTLY — HOLY (pious) around NEST (home) | |
| 2d | Wind instrument positioned above old person (5) |
| SAXON — SAX (wind instrument) + ON (positioned above) | |
| 4d | Distribute, say, the correct flyer (13) |
| OYSTERCATCHER — Make an anagram of (distribute) SAY, THE CORRECT | |
| 5d | Seduce occasional office worker over time (5) |
| TEMPT — TEMP (occasional office worker) above (over) T (time) | |
| I did not forget the first word of the clue as I was writing this in and only correct my TEMPO once the crossing entry prompted me to, oh no | |
| 6d | Cold November for bird (7) |
| BITTERN — BITTER (cold) + N (November) | |
| 7d | Copy part of Erasure chorus (4) |
| ECHO — Part of ErasurE CHOrus | |
| 8d | Company man is convincing (6) |
| COGENT — CO (company) + GENT (man) | |
| 13d | Head of department getting ousted is downcast (8) |
| DEJECTED — The first letter of (head of) Department + EJECTED (ousted) | |
| 15d | Token is old penny dropped from broken mandolin (7) |
| NOMINAL — D (old penny) is dropped from an anagram of (broken) MAN[d]OLIN | |
| 16d | Begrudge attending without leader (6) |
| RESENT — pRESENT (attending) missing its first letter (without leader) | |
| 18d | Oil I mixed with a sauce (5) |
| AIOLI — An anagram of (mixed) OIL I with A | |
| 20d | Make amends with a character (5) |
| ATONE — A + TONE (character) | |
| 21d | Large scale European production in chaos initially (4) |
| EPIC — First letters of (… initially) European Production In Chaos | |
At last a puzzle that was pitched at about the right level of difficulty for a quick cryptic. I hope this continues. Those who prefer more of a challenge have the 15×15 after all.