A very tough puzzle by Bannsider.   Solving time, 64 mins.    Tremendous rigour and invention in clueing.   Just two that I do not fully understand, though I got them from definitions and crossing letters.   I’ve verified them using ‘reveal’.     Don’t think I could do puzzles like this every day, but they’re a real pleasure when they come around.

* = anagram < = reversed

ACROSS

1 A (N) FIELD    n in (failed)*      Home of Liverpool Football Club

5 ENMITY    M (married) for T (time) in entity i.e. being

9 O RIFL (A MM) E

10 TIT US (Groan)     Mervyn Peake’s work, which I’d heard of, but am not familiar with.  us = our party.    This was my last entry

11 IZ ZAT    Centre of prIZed  and Zat Knight (footballer - a defender).    Hard for non-footy types, perhaps.

12 ENTER INTO   (retention)*   A very well-concealed anagram.

13 Brian EP (Jock) STEIN    Manager of the Beatles - I’d a feeling it would not be a manager of Liverpool FC,  though tantalisingly their three most famous managers all have seven letters, Shankly, Paisley, Benitez.    One played for extended period = EP (extended play - record).

15 O VERSE A

16  ARM    Very subtle, this, if I’ve understood it right.   Proper variety of poplar = Poplar (in London).    So wound = harm = ‘arm.

17 AUGUST E (Rodin)   S

19 AD END DA

21 SUN (daily newspaper)  SCREEN

22 SKI (M) P    Nothing to do with ‘Holly’ from Breakfast at Tiffany’s.  Go lightly = skimp.     On the borders of fairness, I felt.

23 O MEGA    Fine = end of a musical piece.

24 ANTI PAST O    anti past = for future  O centre letter of archaeologist.   An Italian starter (dish)

25 CARRIE   “Carry” = bear

26 CO-LET T(i)E

DOWN

1/8 A POLICEMAN’S LOT IS NOT A HAPPY ONE.    PC = policeman, but I was mainly toying with ‘politically correct’ and got this only near the end after which I finished the puzzle (reasonably) quickly.    From Gilbert & Sullivan (Pirates of Penzance).

2 FRIZZES   Fizzer  with r brought up = f(rizze) s = edge of stone (first letter)

3  ECLAT    The only clue I solved on first run through!    Final letters (among them those of nil and eight)

4 DAME EDNA EVERAGE    “Clothes off peg are Vendee-made, brought up to dress a “lady”  “.     All the letters of Vendee-made are in there, but I cannot put it all together.

5 ELECTROMAGNETIC    (eclat n geometric)*

6 M (OTORHE)AD   (hooter)*    As my interest in pop music began to decline naturally around the time of the demise of 13, I was pleased to work this out from the wordplay and confirm after that they exist.

7 TE (TAN) US   Suet<

14 EASY CHAIR   “Where a sitter might be missed?”   All except the last word seem to give the definition = maybe it just means you would not see the person in such chair or maybe there’s something that I’ve “missed”

18 GUNNER A

20 N (AIL S) ET

22 SeEn PAL    & lit.

Solving time, 24 mins.

* = anagram < = reversed

ACROSS

1 DEB T OR

4 M ERIN O

8 VICIOUS CIRCLE

10 BRA (w) N

11 SERBO-CROAT (a rector sob)*

12 WO (O D S) MAN

14 SK (I MP) Y

16 DE (Ed< = editor) SPOT

18 CORONA CH

20 SPERMACETI (me carpet is)*

22 B (A) IT & lit. My favourite clue in the puzzle.

23 LAUGHING STOCK cf Staffing lock

24 THE (t)ORY

25 DEXTER Double definition

DOWN

1 D (OVER S) OLE Six balls (deliveries) in an over in cricket

2 Roger BA CON From the 1200s

3 O (PO) S SUM

5 EDITORS (so tired)*

6 INCUR SION Sion = Zion = Jerusalem “Northern border” shows, in a down clue, the positions of the two parts.

7 OPERA Hidden

9 SPRING C LEAN C = about

13 DEPARTURE (true padre)*

15 PICNICKER

17 TEACHER Skilfully hidden

19 RE ISSUE

21 PI LOT The possible anagram of ‘trial’ tempted at first.

This was by no means easy, with some unusual words, and some unsolved wordplay.

There were three kinds of clue here:
13 were ‘beset by inflation’ — they each included an extra letter.
13 were ‘beset by recession’ — a character string (not necessarily a whole word) within the clue needed to be reversed before solving.
The rest were normal, but their solutions had to ‘suffer property repossessions’ before being entered in the grid. This meant that a word for a property had to be removed. Nice idea, though I think some were a touch sub-prime execution-wise, when what was omitted was half of a two-word phrase (although, to be fair, at least all entries were proper words).

Solving time: no idea — I did it in bits.

Grid entries are shown in BOLD. Deleted properties are shown CROSSED OUT.

Satisfyingly diverse bunch of words here and some great wordplay. Paul’s clues are short and without a wasted word - like Bach to Araucaria’s Mozart . A few straight anagrams made it easier than the average Paul puzzle.

ACROSS

9 THUMBS-CREW : Part of the torture theme. It’s “way” in the sense of “road” and we’re hitch-hiking

10 TA(RAN)TA-RA : “Vale” is goodbye or “ta ta”, RA is the centre of bRAe. The whole thing is a hunting call

11 LES(DAW)SON : (WAD)< in LESSON

12 Omitted on purpose

13 STRETTI : Plural of stretto, which is a musical notation asking for a burst of speed

15 Omitted on purpose

17 R(HE)UM

18 Omitted on purpose

20 ELENA : reversed in africAN ELEphant

22 WOMBLES(s) : clue of the year; assuming you’ve ever encountered the cult children’s programme.

25 ART DECO : (red coat)*

26 I-LIAD : the Irish parliament is the DAIL

30 OVERWHE-LM : (however)* with LaMe

DOWN

1 ET AL : Latin for “and the rest”, and cryptically “LATE RISING”. What’s the technical term for a “reverse cryptic” ?

2 SUBSERVE - (use verbs)*

3 ABBA

4 STA(SHIN)G

5 ?R?N?S - Didn’t get it - is it “brands”?

6 INSTRUMENT OF TORTURE : Les Dawson used to play famous tunes very badly on purpose. Can’t get his take on “Side by Side” out of my head now.

7 D.A-MASK

14 T(’UMBLED)OWN

16 P(IAN)O

19 ME-ANTI-ME : such a “Paul” clue, would recognise his style anywhere

21 EXE-CUTOR

24 SHOWER : wonderful double-meaning

26 IRON MAIDEN : Reference to Maggie Thatcher (’The Iron Lady’)

28 RACK

29 (s)EWER