Actually, fairly mild stuff from the octogenarian enfant terrible today - two of his trademark multi-word linked entries, and only a handful of  clues to wind up the purists. But I’m not sure I like reviewing Araucaria - his clues are often better enjoyed without deconstruction. 

 ACROSS:

1. HEREDITARY PEER. HERE + DI(T)ARY PEER. Nice clue - House of Lords reform means they will die out eventually. ‘In the Guardian’ = here.

10. LOW TOBY. ‘Talk of cattle’= LOW (i.e. moo), TOBY is a dog. Had to look in Chambers for LOW—- words for this, to me, unfamiliar word.

11. (s)ICILY. With I—Y I put Islay - I slay, which is giving someone the chop in a very unfriendly way, but would have been an outrageous and unsound clue, unlike this one!

15. COWES. Sounds like ‘cows’, and means a kind of sail, which sounds like ’sale’.

17, 6, 9. BATTERSEA POWER STATION. TATE BR* + SEA POWER + STATION. Dodgy. No  anagram indicator in sight - I suppose ‘that of’ is meant to refer you back to ‘building’ from the definition… I would prefer ‘redevelopment of Tate Britain’ or some such.

20, 13. RIGHT, LEFT AND CENTRE. RIGHT (just), LEFT (abandoned) AND (with) RECENT*. Good straightforward clue.

22. FONDA. FOND = A. Letter for ‘A’ is weak, but it’s not hard to get there. ‘From Henry to Jane’ is not a greatr definition either. ‘Henry or Jane’ would be better.

23. ECOLOGY. (th)E + LOG in COY. Company’s usually co, so easy to forget it can be coy.

24. NUNNERY. An old-fashioned non-cryptic literary allusion, unless I’m missing something.

DOWN

1. HOSPITAL CORNER. As in corner the market, and that special way they have of making the beds - good double meaning.

3. DAILY NEWS. ANY + WILDE’S*.

4. TUNE OUT. ONE TU TU*. Sounds like 1 2 2 if you pronounce it like Archbishop Tutu.  Indirect anagrams are generally frowned on - is this one? We’re given tu tu in two different ways, though it should really be ’said like the archbishop’.

7. EVOCATE. CAT in EVOE. Evoe’s the kind of word that crops up now and then in advanced cryptics, less often in dailies.

8. SYSTEMS ANALYST. NASTY, MESSY + LAST*. Nice anagram. Might there have been a better anag indicator than (possibly)?

14. DEER FENCE. ER in DEFENCE.

16. WIGTOWN. T + OWN under WIG. A town in Galloway. Does ‘more hair’=wig?

17. BYE-BYES. Vales as in Latin for farewells, I believe.

18. TITIANA. TITIAN with I moving + A, ref (Midsummer Night’s) Dream. Enough with the play already - was this a clue left over from the special? 

Solving time: 5:12

The quickest of the week so far for me. A couple of excellent cryptic definitions (12dn/13dn). No theme that I can see, but then I usually can’t.

Beginners’ tips of the day: ‘alien’ = E.T.,’meadow’ = LEA, ‘the main’ = the sea.

* = anagram.

Lots of traditional Christmas references which forced some of the other words to be a little less familiar, I guess, but Quixote gave accessible clues for them. Reminded me of when I first began to tackle crosswords - at Christmastime, and, just like this, they had that seasonal feel.

Solving time: 25 mins

ACROSS

11 HO(L)LY Was tricked by “religious decoration” - in fact the definition/wordplay split is between those two words. Good

13 A + PP + END + IX (nine in Roman numerals). Got this first time round.

20 NO WELL Favourite clue in puzzle. Excellent. Spring meaning well and also “not winter”.

24 PINNER (in Middlesex) in SET

28 AL (Capone) + LEG = on + RO (run out) - the last two are cricket references. Allegro is quickly (musical instruction). No indication of this in definition such as e.g. “scored”. I think this is quite OK.

DOWN

1 DISH (Something like CHRISTMAS PUDDING) + EATEN (consumed) around R last letter (end) of December. Tricky and among the last I solved. “Consumed” is often used as a containing indicator, though not of course here which was part of the trickery of the clue.

3 BINYON - Poet whose works appear often on war memorials . YON = that. “writer originally held up” means, before YON, put NIB (reversed) “held up” in a down clue.

6 P(ASS)IONS little things = small particles (physics). Last clue I solved, though had ASS pencilled in from early on.

7 CUMMIN “Comin’ ”

8 INNS Regularly - take every other letter of Winnings

17 ILL + IN + O (duck - more cricket, i.e. scored no runs) + IS. “State” appearing in a clue always screams to me US state (of which there are only 50, some more suitable to crosswords than others) so I solved this first time round.

19 A P (PAN) AGE Friendly wordplay for the unfamiliar word which means, among other things, a perquisite.

21 WE (Our group) “dominating” (link in a down clue) IR (Irish) DO (party)

25 RAGS Hidden (reversed) Indicator (for a down clue) is “turned over”