eXternal, one of the Indy’s young breed of setters today.
Not overly difficult today and no obvious themes or ninas, thanks eX.
Across
1 Gunner has job to patrol foreign city (12)
JOHANNESBURG
[GUNNER HAS JOB]* patrolling, walking around
9 Fraud before bid (9)
PRETENDER
PRE (before) & TENDER (bid)
10 Get rid of skin complaint after time (5)
TRASH
T(ime) & RASH
11 Aussie’s toilet with bad smell involved, additionally (2,4)
TO BOOT
B.O. in TOOT (Aus for toilet apparently)
12 Shooters around headland giving comfort (8)
SNUGNESS
GUNS reversed around & NESS (headland). bit of misdirection with around here.
13 Groom‘s had some food following niceties at the start (6)
NEATEN
N(iceties) & EATEN
14 Write graffiti signature on government building (8)
PENTAGON
PEN (write) & TAG (type of graffiti, the “artist”‘s name) & ON
17 His end to get excited? (8)
HEDONIST
&lit I think [HIS END TO]* excited.
19 Composer taking transport back around Australia (6)
MOZART
OZ in TRAM reversed
21 Graduate, learner with decent headwear (8)
BALMORAL
It’s a type of hat as well as the castle. B.A. & L(earner) & MORAL (decent)
23 Heavy diamonds collected by digger (6)
MINDER
Heavy as in bodyguard. D(iamonds) in MINER
25 Passage from some Mexican alehouse (5)
CANAL
Hidden answer
26 Digression put reader off (9)
DEPARTURE
[PUT READER]* off
27 Insult lawbreaker briefly with note to show intolerance (12)
DISCRIMINATE
DIS (insult) * CRIMINA(l) shortly & TE (tonic sol fa note)
Down
2 Extra provision of meals in the Mediterranean, perhaps (9)
OVERBOARD
Well if you are actually in the sea. OVER (extra) & BOARD (provision of meals)
3 A speaker and others certain to be great (7)
AWESOME
A & WE-SOME (the speaker and the rest)
4 To jog – not good without clothing (4)
NUDE
No G(ood) in NUD(g)E (to jog)
5 Athlete to break away, having transferred left to right (8)
SPRINTER
L changed to R in SPLINTER (break away)
6 At college, drunk and anxious (7)
UPTIGHT
UP (at Uni) & TIGHT (drunk)
7 Clearing boy arrested by extremists in gendarmerie (5)
GLADE
LAD (boy) in extremes of G(endarmeri)E
8 Plant container – upended cask with support broken by rook (8,4)
CHESTNUT TREE
CHEST (container) & TUN reversed upended & R(ook) in TEE (support).
9 Sign of gratitude from giving postman a lift (3,2,3,4)
PAT ON THE BACK
postman PAT getting a piggy back
15 Money abroad hidden by haggard relative (9)
GRANDAUNT
RAND (South African money ) in GAUNT
16 I falsely report one of us (8)
ISLANDER
Assuming one of us refers to us Brits, which isn’t the case for most of the fifteensquared audience. I & SLANDER (falsely report)
18 New bags – they were originally made for consumers in Asia (7)
NOODLES
N(ew) & OODLES (bags, loads of)
20 Working around very small Greek character (7)
OMICRON
MICRO (very small) in ON (working)
22 Showing signs of age, told story about introduction of nylon (5)
LINED
N(ylon) in LIED
24 What can show how to get around mounting junk mail (4)
SPAM
MAPS (reversed, mounting)
Thanks eXternal and flashling. Enjoyable and not too hard (good Monday morning fare!). After some thought, I parsed 3d (my LOI) differently, as A WE (speaker and others) SOME (certain) to be “great” (definition).
Thanks eX and flashling. Print version of crossword has a different clue for 22d (well mine does anyway!)
At home, enthralled by sort of TV showing signs of age.
I’d never heard of an LED TV although a quick search shows plenty of noise about them!
Still not sure about 3d really…
@Ben #2, ah, I did this online as I haven’t yet been out for the paper. Wonder why it was changed.
I enjoyed this puzzle, and it seemed just right for a Monday. Strange that there was a different clue for 22dn in the paper. The tricky AWESOME was my LOI.
An enjoyable puzzle, apart from 24 down – another of those ambiguous reversal clues where you don’t know which word to write in until you get a crossing letter. Particularly annoying to me today, as I entered the wrong one to start with. ðŸ™
I was pleased to find that I had a skin disease that was only a “rash” at 10A. It’s usually eczema or psoriasis or even seborrheic dermatitis, and I wouldn’t have a hope of spelling those 🙂
“Awesome” at 3D was my last entry too, taking about 5 times as long as any other clue to fathom. I couldn’t think of anything but “Anemone”! But still not too hard.
Must just be me then. I can’t see “to patrol” as an anagrind.
A pat on the back is a congratulation or an approval, I can’t see it as a sign of gratitude.
Hedonists seek pleasure which may involve excitement, I can think of many more pleasures that don’t though.
And awesome is very odd
Not too many difficulties today. I thought I’d got stuck on the bottom right corner and was about to go and do something else when suddenly everything fell into place.
LED TVs I knew about- when I was looking to buy a new flatscreen TV about eight years ago, the two main contenders were LED and plasma displays.
But “toot” for toilet was a new one for me. I wonder if, when they buy a set of bathroom fittings, they call it a toot suite.3
Enjoyable puzzle but we have the same qualms as sidey@7 over a few of the clues.
Our LOI was also 3d which still seems a litte odd!
However, all good fun and thanks to flashling and eXternal.
Thanks eXternal and flashling
3dn: I could add to the list of incorrect parsings, but I think MikeC@1 has it nailed: some=certain in a sentence like “This only affects certain/some people”.