This was a bit of a struggle in places, but not enough to take me past my 15m target. The two long answers ending in …MONIOUS came to me fairly easily, which helped, but I struggled to remember 13 down before constructing the answer from wordplay, and I think this answer alone may cause some problems for the SCC. See my comments below regarding my MER at 18 down and a question mark over the classification of 6 down. My only other real problem was deciding between ANTI and ANTE for 1 across, but that is entirely my fault – at 70 years old I should be able to distinguish between a frequently seen gambling term and a common enough prefix or term for someone who is against something. On the other hand, I thought that 11 across was simple, if novel.
Many thanks to Joker for exercising the old grey matter. Please let me know how you found it this morning.
Across
1 Stake a new note (4)
ANTE – A (a) and N{ew} followed by TE (note – from do, ray, me, fa, so, la, te).
3 Act of taking over commercial selection (8)
ADOPTION – AD{vertisement} (commercial) and OPTION (selection).
9 Deal with company backed in printed media (7)
PROCESS – OC (CO backed – reversed) inside PRESS (printed media).
10 Female in army group is out of condition (5)
UNFIT – F{emale} inside UNIT (army group).
11 Dispute in Camargue when river’s blocked (5)
ARGUE – {cam}ARGUE (when river’s blocked – take the river CAM out of Camargue).
12 Reddish-brown and gold stream (6)
AUBURN – AU (gold) and BURN (stream).
14 Affecting moral superiority to nuncio’s aims for reform (13)
SANCTIMONIOUS – Anagram (for reform) of [TO NUNCIO’S AIMS].
17 Young cat – chap embraces it tons (6)
KITTEN – KEN (chap) containing / embracing IT and T{ons}. In my version of the crossword on-line, the enumeration for this clue was wrongly given as (3) when there were clearly (6) squares to be filled for the answer!
19 Weld remade around ring for fixing pin (5)
DOWEL – Anagram (remade) of [WELD] around O (ring).
22 Caught looking embarrassed over initially expression of belief (5)
CREDO – C{aught} (cricket scoring notation) with RED (looking embarrassed) and O{ver} (initially – cricket scoring notation again).
23 Individual’s trapped male deer – a tragedy may unfold here (7)
ONSTAGE – ONE (individual) containing / trapping STAG (male deer). The definition is a cryptic hint. This word is hyphenated in my on-line Chambers, and I don’t think I have seen it expressed as a single word before.
24 Solitary revolutionary supporter of Charles 1 (8)
ROYALIST – Anagram (revolutionary) of [SOLITARY].
25 Refuse dumped beside northern motorway, last of all (4)
DENY – last letters (last of all) of {dumpe}D {besid}E {norther}N {motorway}Y.
Down
1 Value a very quiet increase in salary (8)
APPRAISE – A (a) with PP (very quiet – pianissimo in musical notation) and RAISE (increase in salary)
2 Skimpy garment a great many have thrown right out (5)
THONG – TH{r}ONG (a great many with R{ight} thrown out. ‘With a thong in my heart…’
4 Clashing recipe with part of octopus and a lot of onion put before us (13)
DISHARMONIOUS – DISH (recipe) with ARM (part of octopus), a bit of ONIO{n}, all before US (put before us).
5 Fruit black? Exactly! (5)
PLUMB – PLUM (fruit) and B{lack}. If something is PLUMB it is exactly right.
6 Non-fire? That’s wrong (7)
INFERNO – This is a combination of an anagram (that’s wrong) of [NON-FIRE] as well as an &Lit, where the whole clue gives the[JM1] definition. &Lits are my weakness – if I have misled you, I am sure that someone will put us right.
7 Fruit mostly smelt awful when brought up (4)
NUTS – STUN{k} (smelt awful – mostly), when brought up (reversed).
8 Change one’s mind regarding church fast (6)
RELENT – RE (regarding) and LENT (church fast).
13 Pressure initially seems to change unknown instrument (8)
PSALTERY – P{ressure} and S{eems} (initially) with ALTER (to change) and Y (unknown – in equations). A PSALTERY may not be familiar to everyone, but is a zither-like instrument that is plucked by the player.
15 Lack of wisdom I test in statement of denial (7)
NAIVETY – I VET (I test) inside NAY (statement of denial).
16 One regularly uncovered chap in barrel turning up (6)
NUDIST – SID (chap) inside TUN (barrel) all reversed (turning up).
18 Time to crush online troublemaker (5)
TROLL – T{ime} and ROLL (crush). ROLL = crush caused some consternation hereabouts. The best I can excuse it is that to ROLL someone is to attack, crush and rob them, or that a steam-roller is designed to roll / crush a newly laid layer of tarmacadum in the same way that the heavy roller in cricket is used to roll / crush the pitch between innings. Can someone do any better than this?
20 Large mammal is healthy when putting on weight (5)
WHALE – W{eight} and HALE (healthy).
21 Steep cliff is mostly frightening (4)
SCAR – SCAR{y} (frightening – mostly).
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