The title - Proceedings - alludes to ‘Carry on’, so this crossword was an entertaining romp down the history of ‘Carry On …….’ films, of which there were twenty-nine original and one compilation made between 1958 and 1978.

We were told that extra letters in the wordplay of most clues, in clue order, would spell out a quotation. Thirty-three of the forty-three clues yielded an extra letter to give the immortal words of Kenneth Williams as Julius Caesar in Carry on Cleo:

Infamy! Infamy! They’ve all got it in for me.

The answers to the remaining ten clues had to be altered thematically. It became apparent that these ten clues generated a word that was one letter different from the subject of a Carry On film, or in one particular case, one letter different from ‘Carry On’ itself.

For example, COBBY was changed to CABBY to give Carry On Cabby and CARPING was changed to CAMPING etc.

The answers to 2 down and 5 down also got adjusted as a consequence of altering the ‘Carry On’ subject, to yield ANIONS and MAIM respectively. All the entries in the grid were real words.

Finally we were asked to highlight one row in the grid. During solving, the plethora of O’s at the left hand end of row 4 seemed to suggest that this would be the row to highlight. With the required adjustment of LATRON to MATRON at the right hand end, we were left with another of Kenneth Williams’ well known phrases:

Ooooooh Matron!

I suspect we could debate how many Os there should be in Oo…oh but the constraints of a crossword allow artistic licence!

Solving time - one evening session, with a little bit of extra time satisfying myself as to the exact positioning of the extra letters in the wordplay. All in all, an excellent celebration of the Carry On era.

An excellent puzzle, with great manipulation of letters in anagrams in many cases to give &lit clues where the whole clue, as well as providing the wordplay, also gives the definition of the answer.   The highish proportion of anagrams made it a reasonably fast solve for me, 22 mins.

* = anagram   < = reversed

ACROSS

1 SATELLITE TOWNS    (Estates will not)*     The first &lit.

12 ENCODES    D (diameter) for R (radius) in encores (repeats).      You know a diameter is twice the length of a radius, don’t you?

13 TR (ACHE) A   art<    The windpipe.

14 STAVE, I think.   This was my last entry, toyed with SOAVE for a bit, but I think it’s a double reference to wood used in barrels and staves in musical bars.

16 APPLE JACK    The Garden of Eden’s temptation

19 FRESCOERS    (socer refs)*    Half-hearted = only one of the cs

20 TITHE    (i = one  tenth less n = number)*     Subtle

25 HO (T SP) TO    tsp = teaspoon(ful)

29 SELF-EXPRESSION      This, if I’ve interpreted it right, refers to Descartes’ famous saying - Cogito ergo sum (Latin) = I think, therefore I am

DOWN

1 AUTOCLAVE    (a cute oval)*    Used in cooking and also in science.

3 E(ng)LAND

6 TEST AMEN T     Another &lit

7 WRATH    hidden

8 SKY LARK

9 LEVEES     (sea-level)* less al(l)    Another excellent &lit

16 AN TIP AS TO

21 E STEEM    Meets<

23 NASA L(middle letter)

24 (An) TWERP

26 TRAMS   smart<

Solving time: 25 minutes.

 Quite devious from young Nimrod today with a couple of ambiguous solutions until you get the intersecting answers.  Very enjoyable with a couple of forehead slapping moments.

 ACROSS  (*) = Anagram   (CD) = Cryptic def   (R) = Reversal

8  MIGNONNE   MIG (Russian Fighter Plane) +  NONE (love, as in tennis) around N (new).

9  OPEN UP   O U P  (Oxford Uni Press) with PEN inside

10 JEJUNE    (CD)  How a stammerer might pronounce the seasonal time!

11  THE STARS  Double def.

12  WENT OVER THE EDGE   I had GONE instead of WENT at first.  THE EDGE is bassist with U2.

13  PERSONA NON GRATA  PER = A (as in miles per hour) ANON in SONG + RAT + A.

16  TURNED A BLIND EYE   EYED NIL BAD E.N. RUT  (All reversed) & lit.  Very clever. 

19  CELLARET  EL +  EARL* inside CT

20 HEARTS     A in HERTS

21  MIMOSA   MO inside AIMS*

22  EINSTEIN     (CD)  Nice clue.

 DOWN

1  RIB-EYE     I BE in RYE

2  IN QUOTES   Anag of QUESTION   -  nice deceptive clue!

3  UNLEAVENED BREAD     BANDLEADER VENUE*

4  BETTER AND BETTER    (CD)

5 SOMETHING IN HAND  (cd)  ref Bridge and other card games.

6  SEETHE  SEE (Date)   on THE

7 OUTRIGHT   OUT + RIGHT

14  EAU DE VIE  ODOUR (Homophone) +  VIE (Contend)

15  REDRAFTS    RED +  RAFTS

17  NELSON   As in wrestling hold and history

18  YTTRIC  TT + I CRY*

The usual pleasing puzzle from Quixote. Quite easy, I found, solving time, 14 mins. Would recommend these puzzles to beginners, clues self-contained with little cultural knowledge required (either classical or modern) to solve.

Notes on some clues below - happy to explain others, if asked.

* = anagram

ACROSS

1 MIS (CON DUC) T

9 DIOPTRE p (small page i.e. abbrevation for it) in (editor)*

19 ROUNDERS A pleasing, not too obvious, ‘hidden’

DOWN

5 CITRIC ACID Cryptic definition misleadingly presented to look like it might be an anagram. Good

11 NO (LI ME) TANG ERE

17 PERU SAL

… the Hispanic Welshman who would have been insulted by both 9a and 4d.

The only bad thing about Shed crosswords are that they don’t come along often enough for my liking. Clever, cheeky and you always learn something from them.
ACROSS

1 P(O-LENT)A

5 SCHEMES - (CHESSMEn)*

9 A-SPIC - apologies to Hispanic people everywhere

10 FLU-ORES-CE

11 BAREFACED CHEEK - two of these make a full “moon”

13 RAG-A

14 G-A(Z)PACH(e)-O

17 TROUSERS - reference to the phrase “she wears the trousers in that relationship”

18 Didn’t get it - ran out of time

21 A-C(COUNT-ABIL)ITY - ABIL is an anagram of BAIL

23 TRO(SSAC)HS - Mama Cass was a singer, stick her into SHORT and reverse for a Scottish glen (”valley” to non-Scots)

24 DUMMY - Reference to the game of Bridge where the Dummy hand is exposed

25 REGRETS - Frank (Sinatra) had a few regrets in “My Way”, Edith (Piaf) had absolutely none in “Moi, Je Ne Regrette Rien”

26 D(ER)ANGE(r)

DOWN

1 P-HAT - if you speak Hip-Hop, “phat” means very good indeed, homeboy.

2 LAP-SANG S(OUCH)ONG - Lap Dancer sang song. The “ouch” is a response to puns - especially this one. The whole thing is a type of “Tea”. Geddit ? Well crafted clue, Shed.

3 Omitted on purpose

4 (t)AFF(RA)Y - Apologies to Welsh people everywhere for the use of the word “TAFFY” to describe them. It’s a reference to the river Taff, I believe.

5 SAU(CEP)AN - A CEP is an edible mushroom and it’s used in crosswords more than it is cookery. The rest is almost the word “SAUNA”, but not quite

6 HAR(DCO)PY

7 MA(STER CRAFTS)MAN - In French “Maman” is “Mother”, the remainder is an anagram of FRCS TREAT. An FRCS is a Chartered Surveyor, so the surface is really pleasing.

8 S(TEAK-H)OUSE

13 PRO(TRA)CTOR - A “Proctor” is a legal official, the rest is an anagram of “Art”. Always thought “Art” and “Craft” were different things, but I’ll let it go.

15 ES(QUIS)SE - Had to look this one up. It is a sketch, and uses the French for “who” (”qui”) and the crossword setter’s friend “ESSE” (the state of “being” as opposed to “non-being” or “potentially being”)

16 Omitted on purpose - simple anagram

19 Omitted on purpose

20 G-LI(e)DER

22 BYTE - sounds like “bite”. I tried for too long to make “Meme” fit here - my punishment for being a smart-alec.