I hope Julius will forgive me for saying that this puzzle contains a lot rubbish. Thank you Julius.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | LITTER BAGS | Spooner’s resentful convicts found down in the dumps (6,4) |
| Spoonersim of “bitter lags” (resentful criminals) – things found at the dump | ||
| 7 | EARL | Nobleman almost naked (4) |
| nEARLy (almost) with no outside letters (naked) | ||
| 9 | ORCA | Creature seen in our ocean frequently (4) |
| every other letter (frequently) of OuR oCeAn – a killer whale, seen in the ocean | ||
| 10 | DIRTY BOMBS | Toxic, explosive articles stirring up Brits by Dom (5,5) |
| anagram (stirring up) of BRITS BY DOM | ||
| 11 | TECHIE | Energy saved by support bod working in IT (6) |
| CHI (energy) inside (saved by) TEE (support) | ||
| 12 | PANDEMIC | Strongly criticise Ms Moore, about to become viral worldwide? (8) |
| PAN (strongly criticise) DEMI (MS Demi Moore, actress) and C (circa, about) | ||
| 13 | BIN LADEN | Notorious individual describing one stuffed with 1? (3,5) |
| definition / cryptic definition – Osama Bin Laden | ||
| 15 | IMHO | Leader of Italian resistance unit retired, giving modest address (4) |
| Italian (first letter, leader of) then OHM (resistance unit) reversed (retired) – in my humble opinion | ||
| 17 | SPIV | Sun’s leader, page 4, such a disreputable character! (4) |
| Sun (first letter, leader of) then P (page) IV (four) | ||
| 19 | HIERATIC | Discuss loftier garret of priests (8) |
| sounds like (to discuss) “higher attic” (loftier garret) | ||
| 22 | PROSPERO | The Duke of Milan’s quite correct to defend son, Oscar (8) |
| PROPER (quite correct) contains (to defend) S (son) then O (oscar, phonetic alphabet) – the Duke of Milan in The Tempest | ||
| 23 | REFUSE | France pitching in to recycle garbage (6) |
| F (France) inside (pitching in to) REUSE (recycle) | ||
| 25 | GARTER BELT | Bra – letter G – tailored item of ladies underwear (6,4) |
| anagram (tailored) of BRA LETTER G | ||
| 26 | TALE | Hear end of story (4) |
| sounds like (head) “tail” (end) | ||
| 27 | HEAP | At a knockdown price, Charlie shifted pile (4) |
| cHEAP (at knockdown price) missing (with…shifted) C (charlie, phonetic alphabet) | ||
| 28 | SINGS ALONG | Participates vocally in hairdressing salon gossip (5,5) |
| found inside hairdresSING SALON Gossip | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | ISRAELI | National Inquirer’s no.1 serial criminal (7) |
| Inquirer (first letter, no. 1) then anagram (criminal) of SERIAL | ||
| 3 | TRASH | Waste time being over-hasty (5) |
| T (time) on (being over) RASH (hasty) | ||
| 4 | REDHEADS | Embarrassed leaders such as Kinnock and Kennedy? (8) |
| RED (embarrassed) and HEADS (leaders) – JFK and Neil perhaps | ||
| 5 | A DROP IN THE OCEAN | Insignificant event preceding tsunami (1,4,2,3,5) |
| double/cryptic definition | ||
| 6 | SPYING | Working with intelligence, start to plant yard with grass border (6) |
| Plant (first letter, start to) inside (with…border) SING (grass) | ||
| 7 | ESOTERICA | I see actor throwing out collection of arcane items (9) |
| anagram (throwing out) of I SEE ACTOR | ||
| 8 | RUBBISH | Poor Bobbie regularly given the run around (7) |
| every other letter (regularly) of BoBbIe inside (given…around) RUSH (run) | ||
| 14 | LIVES IT UP | Copies Riley doing real-time tummy exercise? (5,2,2) |
| LIVE (real-time) SIT-UP (tummy exercise) – living the life of Riley | ||
| 16 | DETRITUS | Litter? New duster will collect it (8) |
| anagram (new) of DUSTER contains (will collect) IT | ||
| 18 | PERVADE | Rising salesman Dave struggling to spread effectively (7) |
| REP (salesman) reversed (rising) then anagram (struggling) of DAVE | ||
| 20 | INSULIN | Puttin’ down timeless drug (7) |
| INSULtIN’ (puttin’ down) missing T (timeless) | ||
| 21 | DEBRIS | Conclude Bristol is packed with dross (6) |
| found inside (packed with) concluDE BRIStol | ||
| 24 | FATAL | Deadly river claiming reserves (5) |
| FAL (River in Cornwall) contains (claiming) TA (the former Territorial Army, reserves) | ||