Solving time: 14 mins

* = anagram

ACROSS

1 DOGS BODY

5 AV Authorised Version (of the Bible) EST (”is” in French) A. Texts from Zoroastrianism (or had you moved on to the next clue if you got it from the - friendly - wordplay?)

9 MEALTIME One o’clock

13 O CELL US It’s the eye.

14 AS RIGHT AS RAIN Any Mancunians dissatisfied with this, as not reflecting Met Office records etc, please contact the crossword editor, not me.

17 CALLED TO ORDER

21 TOP GEAR Surface reading relates to cricket. Cryptic to (1) headwear (bowler) and (2) driving a car.

22 HAPLESS CHAP “HAP-less” = C (1/4 of CHAP)

26 MEN AGE Do you have to remind us?

DOWN

1 DEMOCRAT (Tom cared)*

2 Gunter GRASS

3 BE (TT) ING

4 DOMINO THEORY (Oh no my editor)*

6 VERB ENA Three appropriate examples of verbs.

7 SIDE LINED

8 A GE (IS) M Not content with just 26!

15 RECEPTION r for d in deception

19 OP POSER

23 EDIT H H = henry, the SI unit of inductance, but all you need to remember for the future is H = henry. Convention permits the false capital.

Solving Time:  26 minutes

The answer to my question is contained in today’s 1 across.  Another nice puzzle and, I’m
pleased to say, a great deal easier than his appearance as Pasquale in last Saturday’s
Guardian (more tomorrow!).

The usual elegant clueing from Bradman with 10 across standing out.  I liked 28 across
as well, but I suppose purists may argue that Bogart never starred opposite Garbo,
so the defnition is slightly misleading.

ACROSS  * = anagram (CD) = Cryptic definition    (R) = Reversal

1  GUNSLINGER    SNUG (R) + LINGER.  Ena Sharples and her chums used to drink their Milk Stouts in the Snug of the Rover’s Return.  A small bar adjacent to the main bar.
7  TOSS      Chambers defines “toss” as an affected sign, a toss of the head away to show disdain.     TO + SS
9  ABUT     TUBA (R)
10 PRESS BARON         Great clue!  “Rags” here of course refers to newspapers.
11 DIVERS      The last clue I completed, after spending a few minutes trying to think of a breed of bird to fit.  However it’s a type of bird   DIVERS(E) that’s needed.
12 THURSDAY      YARD SHUT*
13 ANTIPOPE     TIP inside A NOPE - Liked this clue as well.
15 EWER       Hidden answer 
17 CHIN        CHIN(A) - China Plate is Cockney Rhyming Slang for mate. 
19 INCIDENT       CID inside  IN E N T
22 ESURIENT       I SEE RUNT* Whenever I see’esurient’, I am always reminded of the Monty Python Cheeseshop Sketch.
23 ELFISH       (S)ELFISH
25 GIANT PANDA       ANT + PAN inside A DIG (R)
26 LOGO        Double def
27 AGUE        A GUE(ST)
28 GRETA GARBO        Marvellous appropriate anagram -  Google doesn’t seem to show me any films in which they starred together, more’s the pity.

DOWN
2 UNBRIAN       UM (Hesitation) + BRIAN
3 SATIE         SATI (See Chambers - Suttee) + E
4 IMPOSTOR        I + MOST (with P inside)  + OR
5 GOES THE DISTANCE               CONTEST HE IS AGED*
6 RISQUE            QU (Queen) Inside RISE (Tower)
7 TRANSCEND         NERDS CAN’T*
8 STORAGE            OR inside STAGE
14 IGNORANCE      ONE CARING*
16 SCHEMATA               SCH (school) + MA + TA (Volunteers = Territorial Army)
18 HISSING          HIS + SING
20 NASHGAB        A completely new word on me - Nice straightforward clue for it
   NG (No good) with A SH (One quiet) inside + A B
21 SEA PIG       Nice (cd)  Pigs might fly!
24 FELLA      FELL (4th def in Chambers) + A

 On a more serious note, I hope that Don (and Azed) have not been affected by the recent floods in the Oxford area. 

The last time I blogged a Gordius puzzle was just a couple of weeks ago (10th July anyway), and it was memorable for a few things. I had to rush my cat to the vets, I burnt my dinner, and the puzzle was really really hard! So, I approached this with a bit of trepidation, and with good reason. It had a lot of similarities to last time too - some difficult words (e.g. 4dn, 14ac, 15dn, 16dn, 17dn, 24ac), some brilliant clues (I really liked 1ac, 6dn and 20ac, plus 26ac for the scatological anagram!), and another swipe at George Bush (15dn). Last time (5dn) he was defined as a primitive primate.

Across
1 SOME,LI(KEITH)OT - i.e. TOIL rev around KEITH. Penelope Keith is a very well-known British comedy actress, but I don’t know whether anybody’s heard of her anywhere else, so this may have been tricky for non-Brits.
10 CH,ELSE,A
11 TEACHER (the care)* - didn’t like this clue. Where’s the anagram indicator, and where’s the definition? I assume it’s supposed to be &lit, but it doesn’t work for me.
12 RATTY, ref. Wind in the Willows.
13 DURALUMIN - (in mud)* around URAL.
14 HANAP - hidden in “tHAN A Pound”, just as well as H?N?P didn’t look too promising and I was wondering if I’d made a mistake!
15 BRA,IN WASH - BRA=support, and ref. the phrase “it all comes out IN (the) WASH”
20 ARTILLERY - nice cryptic definition.
24 TR(i)ANGLE - pure guess, never heard of it, and it isn’t in any online dictionaries. Hopefully someone will confirm, or I’ll just check Chambers when I get home.
25 TERRIER - terror with I.E. replacing the O.
26 ESTABLISHMENT - easy anagram, but nice (or maybe not very nice) image.
Down
2 OVERT,ONES
3 ESSAY = “S.A.”
4 (l)IZARD - simple enough wordplay, and I knew it anyway from the Listener or Azed or the like.
6 TRAMLINES - another nice cryptic definition.
8 SCORCHED EARTH - and another…
9 FRENCH LETTERS - and another, although this one does have wordplay too.
15 PAR(ALOG)IA - goal* in this Caribbean gulf. A word meaning self-delusion and Gordius’ dig of the week at the US president. He really doesn’t seem to like him much!
16 BRIDEWELL - I got this from B?I?E?E?L, and checked it later. Originally Bridewell Palace, it became a generic name for a prison from the 16th-19th c.
17 A,CAR,IDIAN(India*) - I’ve heard of an acarid as a type of mite, so I suppose adding -ian is OK.
22 YATES - S.E. TAY all rev. I’ve managed to find 2 or 3 writers with the surname Yates, but none seems particularly well-known. Surely Gordius wasn’t thinking of W. B. Yeats? [ A couple of people have suggested Dornford Yates, and he was one of the few I found but had never heard of. ]
23 S.A.,RUM - the Roman name for Salisbury, the Wiltshire cathedral city.

An excellent and thoroughly enjoyable puzzle from Math. There’s a theme too, but you don’t need to know anything about The Simpsons in order to complete the grid as all of the thematic words are separately defined. The long-awaited Simpsons movie opens tomorrow so I’m sure the timing of this puzzle was not a coincidence. I wonder if there were any solvers who finished this and were blissfully ignorant of what was going on?

Another elegant puzzle from Cincinnus that I found a bit more difficult than most of his.

Across
1. TERMINALLY - TALLY about ERMIN[e]
7. SURE - S[nake] + URE, the Ure being a river in Yorkshire
9. SPUD - S + PUD, Murphy’s being a kind of potato
10. DAVENPORT - anagram of PAST VENDOR
11. ORANGE - O[utside] + RANGE
12. RIESLING - [f]RIES + LING
13. COSTELLO - COS + TELL + O
15. G MEN - GEN about M
17. PEAK - homophone
19. LIGHTERS - double definition. Spills may not be well known today. They are very thin strips of wood used like tapers, to light things. I remember my father using spills to light his cigarettes from the fire in our hearth when I was a young lad.
22. REDSTART - D in RESTART
23. INHUME - IN + HUME. I guessed this easily even though I do not recall seeing the word before. I figured if there is an “exhume” then there must be an “inhume”.
25. ATMOSPHERE - anagram of MOPER HATES
26. DROP - DR + OP
27. TALK - hidden word
28. LOTUS EATER - anagram of US TOLERATE

Down
2. ESPARTO - anagram of PEARS + TO
3. MID ON - NOD + IM reversed
4. NED KELLY - D[u]KE in NELLY. I found this a tough one!
5. LIVERPOOL STREET - anagram of LOVELIEST PORTER. An easy clue for those who are familiar with London stations; perhaps a hard one for those who are not. But another lovely anagram.
6. YONDER - anagram of RODNEY
7. SPOTLIGHT - (I am not sure that I fully understand this one)
8. RETINUE - E + UNITER reversed
14. TAKE STOCK - double definition, one slightly cryptic
16. UGLINESS - anagram of SINGLE US
18. ELECTRA - ELECT + RA
20. RUMPOLE - RUM + POLE
21. CARPEL - CARP + E[qua]L
24. HYDRA - hidden word