Solving time: 15 mins

* = anagram

ACROSS

1 BACK Pleasing double definition

10 LIME (RICK) S

11 Don’t cast a CLOUT till May is out. Old proverb re clothes. Puzzle is first to appear in May

17 A MAL (Malachi - Book of the Bible) GAM (School of whales)

20 MOBILE LIBRARY Rider Haggard’s book She.

23 BOATLOADS More showing it’s a plural

DOWN

1 BALA (Lake in Wales) C LAV = John ‘AS

2 a luna (moth) p (quiet - music) mac (Scotsman) all “climbing” to give CAMPANULA

6 Golf clubs Jeremy IRONS

9 S(C)HEM E Noah’s son Shem going round c = about with e = energy

13 LAID EYES ON (Isle one day)* Saw = definition “Sailing around” chosen as anagram indicator to fit the words

18 M (A LAB) AR Region of India

19 BELDAM cf Bedlam

20 MINOR “Miner” “This” child shows which of the two is the correct answer

21 EELS (h)EELS Cockneys dropping the initial h

Nestor (Kea to Listener solvers) is a very gifted setter. This was a very hard puzzle and I do have some doubts, set out below. I’ll edit to include any corrections received. (All doubts explained below - thanks esp to Peter - and I did solve the whole puzzle correctly!)

* = anagram

Solving time: 71 mins

ACROSS

9 IN HER(m)IT Definition is “Be left”

11 ERROL Flynn (cf error)

15 H A WICK(ed) Scottish Rugby Union club who play at Mansfield Park - so nothing to do with Jane Austen.

17 Not sure of this one at all - my best guess is LEAVEN = Raise

20 O (BED IE) NCE

23 CAST(l)E Englishman’s home is his castle

26 A (EROS) PACE

27 REPLICA c = carbon in ail per reversed Very hard - cunning use of carbon/copy.

28 has to be GEORDIE (person from Newcastle) but wordplay not understood.

DOWN

1 JO(b) G(oo)GLE

3 S EXIST Brilliant Last Letter + exist = are

5 RHESUS Use (reversed) in Royal Horticultural Society

10 TINKER cf The Thinker (I “think”!)

16 KANDAHAR One the best hiddens I’ve ever seen using a well-known phrase with an & lit touch to it all.

19 MO(c)HA IR

22 ENRAGE = Incense (I think) Wordplay not understood but (near)* may be part of it.

24 EYELET “Islet” Definition is “Opening line may go to”

Then fall, Tony! Thrice hath the crowd asked Caesar to stay, but… That’s showbiz! Maybe Blair will follow his old mate Clinton and set a special crossword?  ( http://www.nytimes.com/ref/crosswords/clintonpuz.html ) if you haven’t seen it).

I don’t feel betrayed by Gordius myself, but perhaps mildly let down by what feel like a few instances of loose clueing. Also quite possible I’ve missed a few tricks, there were some quite hard clues here and a couple of unfamiliar words. Some good ones too. High Barnet-Camden Town, 30 mins.

ACROSS:

9. ENATE. (EATEN*). I didn’t know this word, but guessed it. ‘Through having … junk’ as an anagram indicator seems convoluted.

12. ESNE. An old word for a slave that I know form advanced cryps, but I don’t see the wordplay unless ENSE gives English.

18. STARTING GUN. I.e. Gun starts with G. Nice clue.

25. DISCOUR(ag/S)E. Replace AG (silver) in ‘discourage’ with S. Why? Because ‘it’ in Crosswordese = Sex Appeal = SA, and S is ‘a bit of it. I don’t like SA particularly anyway, but I think I’d draw the line at ‘a bit of it’ for S.

27. ROSTRUM. Latin for beak.

DOWN:

1. PS EU DO. Not bad. Bizarrely, I got to PS thinking ‘Strasbourg party’ might refer to the Parti Socialist for whom Segolene Royal just lost the election, but of course it’s ‘EU do’.

2. ORACLE (?) The clue’s not clear and my answer’s not reliable. I see an anagram of ‘clear’, but where’s the O come from? Anyone got an explanation or a better answer?

3. PRECIOSITY. 1 CITY POSER*.

 5. D(ANNEBR)OG. The Danish national flag, I now know.

8. SUSPECTS. CD, but too much D and not enough C for me.

16. ISLANDER. Sneaky. Sounds like Cowes liver, i.e. inhanbitant of the isle of Wight. Remember ‘What’s brown and comes steaming out of Cow(e)s?’ The IoW ferry.

17. NARCOSIS. Another guess. With narcosis you aren’t with it. Doesn’t quite work for me.

19. BEWARE (ERA WEB<). Good clue.

20. (k)ITCHEN. If you can’t stand the heat…