We need to reduce the workload of our bloggers so we would like to stop blogging the two puzzles at the easier end of the scale which get read and commented on the least: Everyman and Quixote. Instead, we will post a short message once a week so that solvers who are stuck on a clue or don’t understand an answer in either of the puzzles can post the clue in a comment to get some help with it.  We would like to stress that we are not doing this because we don’t like these puzzles; it’s just that with limited time and manpower available to us something has to give.

We will start doing this next week unless we get a significant amount of feedback asking us to continue with the status quo so now is your chance to speak up.  

This had a theme, but I proved you did not need to know it to solve the puzzle, because I tumbled to it only when verifying for this blog having filled the grid in. I give details of this after the clue explanations. Quite an easy puzzle, I thought.

< = reverse * = anagram

Solving time: 17 mins

ACROSS

1 T (RE) AD

4 ST (street = way) ONE

9 OGRE S ergo< S a quarter, like N, W, E

12 oRATIOn

13 BO (UR) NE Ilium is an example of a bone, hence “Ilium maybe”

14 I DEN (TIT) Y

17 UN AB (A T) ED A t in abed (resting)

21 J AS ON

24 UL (TIM) ATUM (mutual)* Tiny Tim

26 YOR (K SHIR) E Shirt tail cut was a bit of a giveaway here.

28 BEANS “Like black French coffee” Has to be right because of 8 down, and coffee = beans but do not see the wordplay just now.

DOWN

3 DIS MAY Miss (Doris) Day

4 SAP HEADS

7 LONG Hidden

8 SYNONYMS “Beans Meanz Heinz”

13 BLUE (JAY) S Screamin’ Jay Hawkins

16 P ETUNIAS (aunties)*

23 S (CR) UB

25/29 MATT DAMON nomad<

Theme: 25/29 in films the 13 across 10, 14, and 24 playing 23, I think, but I’m v weak on films.

Across
1 BAY RUM anagram of may rub. In the old days barbers would offer it as an after shave , posh barbers still do. It’s a distillate from Rum and the leaves of the West Indian Bay tree.
5 INTERVAL anagram of travel in.
9 SCRUBBED
10 STUMPS
11 HOLY MACKEREL
13 A C RE I held myself up by being certain this was ‘dene’, an anagram of Eden. It was only when I got 12Dn that I realised my error.
14 TASMANIA anagram ‘it’s a man’, on a.
17 BOOK CLUB
18 I O TA A short neat satisfying clue.
20 SLOW MOVEMENT was, on the other hand, rather pedestrian.
23 SALO ME anagram of ‘also, set next to ‘me’, and she it was who asked for John the Baptist’s head on a plate.
24 EN TITLE D A championship is a title, and it is held by ‘end’, giving entitled which means to be styled, or named.
25 BEDPOSTS, are uprights, and secrets are shared between you, me and the bedposts.

Down
3 ROUGH NECK, neck meaning audacity.
5 INDOMITABLENESS
6 TEST CASE
7 ROUSE, homophone for rows.
8 APPRECIATE
12 SCHOOL MATE
15 ARISTOTLE anagram of ‘tries a lot’.
16 BLOOMERS are mistakes, knickers, and flowers.
19 BEATER
21 WHO OP Dr Who is a well liked, and long running, children’s TV programme in the UK.
22 PE RU Physical Education is P.E., and RU is Rugby Union