Solving Time:  23 minutes

 An enjoyable Saturday romp from Nimrod with a topical theme given the recently announced departure of Des from Countdown.  If the puzzle had a weakness, it was that Countdown per se wasn’t in the puzzle, we got “Countdowner”. 

I like the little gimmick of the clue for 25/8 which meant that there was a countdown hidden in the puzzle. 

29/18  RICHARD WHITELEY  Why Charlie tried - anagram - made a change from seeing ”Dirty Wheelchair”, the usual clever anagram of the late presenter.

5/2  DESMOND LYNAM   Another nice anagram 

 25  CAROL -  C + ORAL with vowels swapped!  An unusual device that worked.

 4  SUSIE  (As in Susie Dent)

 15/21 DICTIONARY CORNER where lurks Ms Dent.  Another clever clue with a reference to 1 across and down  forming a Dictionary Corner COLLINS ac & CHAMBERS dn.

16 CUP MARKED - a new phrase on  me (CD holding UP MARK and E)

All in all, a pleasant way to spend a Saturday breakfast.

Solving time: 11:05

Not the easiest, but I think I made a bit of a meal of some of this, although there were a few difficult words. Nimrod continues a recent theme of including several crossing long entries, including 5 fairly straightforward anagrams today in answers of 10 letters or more. I normally find Nimrod ‘hard but fair’, though I do have a couple of minor quibbles in this puzzle.

Beginners’ tips of the day: ’song’ = AIR, ‘learning’ = LORE, ‘very strong’ = FF (fortissimo).

 Pretty straightforward, took four to five tube stops (10-12 mins).

ACROSS 

9  ABODE. AB + ode - has anyone had to use the abbreviation for Able Seaman outside crossword-land? Sailor can also give ‘tar’ or ’salt’.

10  SCAB. An odd clue - the whole defines a dried blood scab, and the second half (’I go to work’) gives a partial  definition of a blackleg-type scab.

11 DORCHESTER. anag of ‘chord’ and ‘trees’ - but ‘The lost’ seems redundant to the cryptic reading.

20 WRONG UNS. Snug+now rev around R. The last one to fall into place for me - I saw ’snug’ going back, but couldn’t see ‘uns’ as a word at first. Nice clue.

24  DOWN. Party is often ‘do’, here followed by the disheartened w(ome)n.

DOWN 

1  FRACTION. Would not be accepted by some editors. The half in half-brother provides the definition, with brother in the religious sense giving fr. The question mark allows ‘half’ to define ‘fraction’, of which it is one example - i.e. a fraction could be a half.

5  CACHEPOT. Anag of ‘cheap’ in ‘cot’. 

6  HORSE LAUGH. Anag of ‘her goulash’. Not an obvious phrase.

16  EAU DE NIL. (B)eau + ‘lined’ reversed - made easier by the reversed letters being given, rather than alluded to.

18  EASTWOOD. Where else could ‘Dirty Harry’ lead? Ea for each, the ‘two’ in ’sod’, which is a nice way to split the word.

21  REHASH. Anag of ‘has her’, but which is the anagram indicator? Must be cook, with the definition as ‘resurrection pie’.  

I found this very easy, solved in 13 mins.

Typical Quixote style, light in cultural references, homing in on the everyday experience of the solver.Simple constructions with, I think, just three complete anagrams. As always, a freshness and good surface reading to the clues.

 ACROSS

1 GAS TAP - a st (abbrev for stone)in gap = opening

5 GRANGE - g = good + range = stove

10 REAGENT - Time (age) to “fill in” slit (rent).

11 RUINOUS - game = RU (Rugby Union) very common in crosswords   I = one   nous = common sense

13 HYDERABAD - Large city in India   Definition is “city”.  Rest of clue is the wordplay.   Name of Park (Hyde Park in London) by r =river “to the west of” a  wicked = bad.   “To the west of” is used in across clues because that’s where it is when it’s written down, like here.

15 LEAR - Shakespeare’s character (and play):  King LEAR.    Half the students go off = Lear(ners).

25 BATHURST ISLAND  Anagram of “Bird’s last haunt” with anagram indicator “destroyed”.    I’d never heard of it but put “island” in on first run through, when I found the letters.   After getting the other four crossing letters, I guessed right, verifying after.

27 DEMISE - is in Deme(anour) = appearance  Evident is the  containing indicator.  Gallows humour in the surface.

DOWN

2 AWKWARD - A wk (abbrev for week) + ward (as in “ward of court”)

3 TEABERRY - ABE Lincoln (American President) in TERRY    Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865 and is very familiar to solvers in his abbreviated form Abe.  Entertaining is the containing indicator

4 PAINTABLE - Pain (tiresome person) + table    Definition is “may be portrayed”

6 ADONIS - Greek Mythology    (By-word for a handsome man).   Dis = the Underworld i.e. hell.   So it’s “on” in “a dis”

7 GAMBOGE - Yellow resin    Bomb “tossed up” = egg (reversed in a down clue) containing a + anagram “disorderly” of mob  which “intrudes”

8 STARCHIEST - This was a great help in this puzzle as I solved it straightaway and it gave the starting letters of five across words because of its position.   Anything with “Most” is very like to end in –est.     “Archie” “hemmed in” by st and st (2 saints)

16 UNCLE SAM - Anagrams of clues, man.   Personification of America.   Amusing surface.

22 ICECAPS - An  &lit  clue.   Whole clue is definition and also the wordplay .  “Possibly” apices (plural of apex) indicates an anagram of it containing c = cold.     In the surface reading “possibly” shows that not all icecaps are apices, but some may be.  My favourite clue in the puzzle.

21 RICHES - r = King has one = I bottomless box = ches(t).      Bottomless used as it’s a down clue and that’s how you see CHES in the grid.

22 ERROR - fault is definition. All the rest is wordplay.Er + roar (shout) less a

Tip: Dictionary: Indy puzzles,like daily cryptics generally,use everyday vocabulary as people will solve them while travelling etc or in breaks in the working day without a dictionary at hand. However, regular solvers will find it useful to have a dictionary to check or verify or search later, if stuck. I’d recommend the Concise Oxford English Dictionary. This should confirm all the answers and any abbreviations used.The only exception would be the occasional proper noun.