An unintentional train journey led me to buy the Independent on a Saturday and solve most of this puzzle on the way home (London to Durham so not that fast!) Then a forgetful blogger failing to get a paper gave me the chance to write this. So, the Independent didn’t increase their sales but I did enjoy this puzzle from Quixote. It was at the easy end of thematics but with very good cluing from Quixote and not too many unusual words.

There were enough straightforward cryptic clues to get a few answers in and then use the checked letters to find the letter mixtures. Unless a letter mixture stands out at you it is worth waiting until you have enough checked letters to narrow down the search area of the clue. Using the additional rubric of starting at the start or ending at the end further narrows down the search.

The extra letters in the mixture spelt out MY NAME IS LEGION. I’m not a Bible expert but ODQ gave me a reference to Mark 5:9 where I was reminded that Legion was an unclean spirit who was cast out into the Gadarene swine. Thus to finish the puzzle the four down entries were spirits in pigs.

DD = double definition.

Some unusual features in this.

Solving time: 30 mins

* = anagram

ACROSS

1 A W(i)RY Thought of ‘awry’ as a possibility from the start, but took much longer to confirm through the wordplay. “One coming out”

8 THE NUMBERS GAME A little puzzled by the reference to “spurious”, quick look in dicts suggest argument using figures, but not necessarily false.

10 NOB LES

13 HI(EM)AL ‘em = them in (hail)* Easy wordplay for the unfamiliar word.

15 C(HER)UB Excellent surface.

21 AWEIGH “Away”

22 COMMON INTEREST No big problem getting this, but it’s not included as a phrase in any of my dicts.

24 CH (church) (n)IC(e)

DOWN

1 ASHT(OR)ETH OR (men = other ranks) in (she that)* I’d seen the possible wordplay, but it took me quite a while to find the goddess (Old Testament)

2 RING LET Amusing pun.

3 ONE’S HOT

6 EMANATE Hidden

7 STERE Also hidden, and the last I got (I was trying to put a v = volume into something with ‘consumed’ as a possible containing indicator). It means one cubic metre - new to me, but it’s in the Concise OED.

9 MASTER BEDROOM (Members at door)* ‘in line specially’ indicates the anagram.

14 ANALGESIC (angelica’s)*

16 REGIMEN(t)

17 CON SIGN

18 UNEARTH (a hunter)*

20 ASCOT The racecourse - Willie Carson, a Scottish jockey.

Solving Time: 23 mins
  

A nice puzzle for a Thursday from Punk.  I really liked the big clue at 8/12 several of the
other answers.  Fairly large smattering of cryptic defs today as well, plus the usual clues that make you laugh out loud, 21 across especially!.
ACROSS  * = anagram    CD  -  Cryptic def  r =reversal    
1  MUGGINS  MUG + GINS
5  SATSUMA  AT MUST AS (r)
9  DEEPSPACE  SPEED (r) + RACE
10 ARENA  N inside AREA
11 MANDINGO  MAN + DINGO
12 sEE 8
15 BAGS   Double def
16 ARCHETYPAL  EACH PARTLY*
18 THE GUNNERS  T H + EG = (R)UNNERS
19 ROAN   RAN about O
21 EUNUCH  I think I’ll leave it to your imagination!
22 METEORIC  E + O inside METRIC
24 FARSI  FAR + S + I
26 GUTCH BARN  DUTCH (rhyming slang for WIFE) +BA(I)RN
27 YAOUNDE
28 NEW DEAL  NUDE EEL (Homophone)

DOWN
2 GRETNA GREEN  TEENAGER + RNG*
3 INSTIL  SIN* + TIL = Lit up = illuminated!  Hmmmm!
4 STAGGERING  cd
5 SUET   SUE + T (LAST LETTER IN DIET)
6 TEA PARTY  EA + P inSIde TARTY
7 USE   U.S. + E
8 /12 A MAN, A PLAN, A CANAL, PANAMA   One of the most famous of palindromes with a delightful   cryptic definition.  All about Ferdinand de Lesseps’ magnum opus.
13 APPROPRIATE  Two definitions
14 CHARLESTON  CHARL (TON H)ESTON  Very clever!
17 FUNCTION  Double definition
22 ADZE   Homophone for ADDS
23 ROO  Bit baffled by this one - the floor is open.

Across
1 ROMULUS founder of Rome, and I otherwise have no idea what the clue means. (Hangs head in shame.)
5 CHAR QUI is a sort of South American dried meat jerky. Char is tea, and the second half is ‘quit’ without t(ea).
9 EASE L Being leisure (ease) and the first letter of leisure.
10 IMPLEMENT being (s)imple men before t(ime)
11 RECONNAISSANCE means scouting, and is the Renaissance with con, to study, in the middle.
13 HUMP – most of Humph (no connection with Mr Lyttleton), as a term of disbelief, as is pouffe, though I thought that sort was ‘poof’.
14 SCOOPFUL Clever – an anagram of ‘opus of’ and Latin 150 – CL
17 RARA AVIS RA stands for Royal Academy, and therefore artist, and avis is French for a warning. Rara Avis is Latin for a rare bird. Twitchers are bird watchers, and a rare bird would be a trophy spot for such an enthusiast.
21 “O TO BE IN ENGLAND (now that April’s here)” Robert Browning. Anagram of bone at dog, Lenin, indicated by ‘throw’.
23 TOO LITTLE TOO LATE is an anagram of ‘let it” between two tools, or implements (10 ac) with AT E, the ‘E’ being a point of the compass.
24 SUGAR – RAG US in reverse.
26 LA YET TE is much of 25 across, LATE, around YET, meaning still.

Down
15 1 TAKES IN A REEF - anagram of ‘it’s a keen fear’. Reefing in the sail is what you do on a yacht when the wind gets up, and you want a smaller area of sail.
2 MESSER MAR CO POLO is the name of a book by Donn Byrne.
3 LOLLOP is lollipop minus 1 P (first page).
4 SK INN Y
6 A VERSION – one way.
7 QUEEN OF THE NIGHT is one of the more difficult parts in the coloratura repertoire. It is from The Magic Flute, by Mozart.
8 IN THE FLESH – anagram Flint, he, she.
12 THE R MOST AT. The most with rat around most.
16 VIGNETTE ‘Turns’ suggests an anagram of TEN and G(ood) in VITE.
19 UN WELL as in United Nations spring.
20 FL ASH Y is an insect eating a type of wood.

Mudd provided what proved to be the hardest, longest-time-to-solve puzzle I have done in a considerable time. There were several clues that I completed only thanks to my dictionary. I like a good challenge once in a while but I am glad they are not all like this!

Across

1. ENCHANT - [p]ENCHANT
5. CHAPATI - CHA + PAT + I
9. AIRER - AIRE + R, the Aire being a river in crossword puzzles. Sorry, I mean in Yorkshire.
10. OVERTRICK - OVERT + RICK. This clue was one of the hardest for me. I have come across the term but, not being a card player, it is not one that readily came to mind.
11. SLOUCH HAT - anagram of U (bend) and CLOTH HAS. This was another tough one for me and I had to resort to my dictionary.
12. PANEL - double definition
13. SWAMP - SWAM + P
15. INCESSANT - anagram of INSTANCES
18. OUTSPOKEN - anagram of SET UPON about OK (right)
19. OUGHT - OT (old testament) about UGH
21. BOGUS - GO (try) in SUB (replacement player), all backwards.
23. BONE CHINA - ONE CHIN (single feature) in BA (for degree)
25. TRICOLOUR - homophone and a challenging one.
26. EXIST - SIX (figure) backwards in ET film)
27. LOTTERY - OTTER in L[avator]Y. It may be fair but I do not care for this clue.
28. MASSEUR - MASS + EUR[o]. Not having much idea how a Euro is worth these days, this one eluded me for a long time.

Down

1. ELAPSES
2. CORMORANT - CORM (part of plant) + OR + ANT
3. AURIC - UR (ancient city) + AI (perfect) + C (condition initially)
4. TOOTHPICK - TO + anagram of HOT + PICK. Tough but excellent clue!
5. CHEAT - at least I hope this is CHEAT. I am unsure of the wordplay here.
6. ANTIPASTO - anagram of ITALIAN POTS with one I omitted
7. AVIAN - hidden word
8. INKBLOT - anagram of TO LINK + B (black)
14. POPES NOSE - anagram of POSE OPENS. I had heard of a pope’s nose although I could not have told you what the term meant until I looked it up.
16. CONUNDRUM - NUN (woman of pure mind) in COD (swimmer) + RUM (odd)
17. ANGLICISE - anagram of GAELIC + SIN
18. ORBITAL - BIT (section) in ORAL (test). I have not searched every dictionary but I am not happy about “indirect” as a definition of orbital.
20. TRACTOR - ROT (break down) + CART (another [farm vehicle]) all backwards.
22. GLINT - G[ordon] + LINT (dressing). Clever!
23. BOOBY - double definition
24. CHESS - C[hile] + HESS [Nazi]