Solving Time:  17 minutes

Another breathtaking puzzle from Virgilius, who is surely in the elite of setters. 
The clues are all thematic, concise, read splendidly and bring a smile to the face
(Especially 14/18 across!!).

As always, a shining example to aspiring setters that the most obvious can be
hidden in a beautiful clue.

ACROSS   * = ANAGRAM  /  CD  =  CRYPTIC DEF / R = REVERSAL

1 CHARGE  Triple definition all science related!
5 PARALLAX PAR + A L (a line) + LAX
9 BUTANE  BUT + A + NE (neon)
10 TITANIUM (IT + A MINUT (Less than a minute!!)*
11 HEIGHTEN EIGHT inside HE + N
12 LASER  The only clue to cause me some concern -  This looks like
   a homophone for LAZER, one who lazes.
14/15 PERIODIC TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS Stunning!  He is Helium (element number 2) and I (Iodine) is no 53.
18 MESON  Hidden answer
19 NICHROME (IRON + CHEM)*
22 PURIFIER PURI + FIRE*
23 APOGEE  A P + OGEE (a curve)
24 GEOMETRY GEO (George) + ME + TRY (Experiment)

DOWN
2 HOUSE  2 Defs
3 REALGAR  Hidden answer
4 ELECTRODES D in STEEL CORE*
6 RATS  As used by Charlie Brown!  Dbl def.
7 LINEAR B A in LINER + B
13 ATOMIC MASS Nice cryptic def
14  PROCEDURE REPRODUCE*
16 THORIUM  HOT* + I in RUM
17/25 NERVOUS SYSTEM RUNS MESSY VOTE*
21 GILT  Initial letters

Bravo Virgilius!

Apologies for the delay in posting this - I solved the puzzle but then didn’t get a chance to blog it. This is the first Saturday crossword from Math, and it has a Britpop-type theme to it, but you don’t need to know anything about contemporary music in order to solve it. I’ve asterisked all the answers that contained bands that I’d heard of although it’s possible I missed a couple.  All in all, a very enjoyable puzzle and I’m impressed that Math managed to squeeze so many thematic answers into the grid.

Good stuff - one of two 3 downs for me in the other downs, but lots of decent clues too. 

 ACROSS:

9.  DER RING DO. Very nice - Bayreuth made me think Wagner and the Ring, but a good use of the title in German (without des Nibelungen, of course).

11. LA(SAG)NE. I’ve never quite understood why we use the French spelling of an Italian dish - Chambers lists ’lasagna’ as well, but it’s less often seen.

12. TEST(IF)Y. ‘If’ being ‘condition’.

14. A(PART MEN)T. Good simple surface and construction.

16. EARTH SHATTERING. TREATING THE RASH*.

21. (w)INNER. Another good surface.

22. H O SPICE. I’m not sure about ‘hand’ for H - it’s not in Chambers, but may be supported by other dics. ‘Round’ as in a ring = O.

24. SPRI(n)G. As well as K, knight can give N, as in chess notation, where of course it has to be distinguished from King.

25. CON TENDER. Tory-loving - very nice.

DOWN.

1. A(DOLE)SCENT. More often than not, benefit is dole.

3. NI(GG)LE. As in “Thanks to Kieron, I had a win on the gee-gees” (the lawyer asks me to point out this is a hypothetical example with no bearing on any current court case).

5. POST(MAST)ER. You get so conditioned by misleading surfaces that I was convinced ‘delivery supervisor’ would be a midwife or obstetrician. D’oh!

6. CAS(SET)TE. As in the magazine of a gun, I think.

7. MA(R)INE. Jolly as a nickname for the Royal Marines, which can also give RM.

15. TIGERS HARK. I don’t think this works - the Leicester Tigers play rugby, and while the name of the game may officially be ‘rugby football’, would you really call a rugby player a footballer? I wouldn’t (but I couldn’t make a fish out of ‘Foxes’!)

18. INNU(END)O. Shouldn’t amalgamation involve two separate things being fused, rather than one confused?

20. (c)ENSURE. Protect seems to me to be a better synonym for ‘insure’, but there may be a sense for which this works.

22. marsH ASPhodel.

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