As usual, an excellent puzzle from the ever-reliable Phi. Solving time, 21 mins.

* = anagram < = reversed

ACROSS

1 (PIPPED) (AT THE POST) Tempted at first by the 15 letters after ’stoned’ which suggested an anagram.

9 L ((r)A SCAL) A

10 P (ROT E.G). E

11 COO (l)

12 A U CONTR (AIR) E (counter)*

13 COR ROSION (so iron)*

15 P (AYE) E Complicated. A couple of pence = PEnce AYE = certainly. On the contrary = rather than put PE inside AYE, do the opposite.

16 Thomas N ASHE(s) from the late 1500s

18 TRUCELESS (ulcers set)*

20 TREAC (HERO) US (act sure)* Join at deceitful/act was cleverly misleading.

22 GYM Cryptic definition   (More to it than this, thanks, Rayfolwell for comment 2 below)

23 B (ALAN) CE BCE = Before the Common Era, same as BC

24 A MATE (yoU) R Tip-top surface

25 ESCHERICHIA COLI (choice chilis are)* Better known as E COLI

DOWN

1 POL (lop<) ICE CONS TABLE

2 P IS SOIR (evening in French)

3 ERA Hidden Another good join period/furniture

4 AN (ARCH IS) T

5 TA P-IN

6 E GO TRIPPERS

7 OBE (SIT) Y

8 THE S (EVEN S) AMURAI (amateurish)* nmsindy is normally weak on films, but, not only knows this one but saw it around 1960, I think.

12 A DOLE SCEN (C) E

14 NEUROPATH (upon earth)*

17 S (HELL) AC

19 EL G(a)R Exciting CO

21 ELEMI hidden< Ain’t seen this word, so familiar in crosswords, for quite a while now.

25 ADA I think this appears in datA DAta i.e. repeatedly

Great pangrammatic puzzle from the Bulletprooof one. Not sure about 2 and 3 though. I think they’re both right but I can’t say why.

Hmm, well as today’s fifteensquared quality controller I have a few negative items to feedback here (OK, that’s enough of that - internal ed). Too many rather straightforward cryptic defs for my liking. Sorry if I seem over-critical - the clues I don’t mention are mostly ones I don’t have an issue with! 

ACROSS:

1,5.  QUALITY CONTROL. ‘It’s testing to keep the standard up’. Er, yes, that’s exactly what it is. Only works as a CD if you try to make the sentence mean something else by reading the first two words with a subtly different emphasis.

9. INCUS. The last one I got, due to a shortfall in anatomical knowledge, though it was clear from the outset that the clue led to a bit of the ear.Eventually I guessed the word correctly then looked it up. But this sort of word really needs some wordplay, not another CD.

10. UNEXPOSED. E in EXPOUNDS IN*. I really can’t see the objection some people have to nouns as anagram indicators - a confusion of ‘expounds in’ - nothing wrong with that at all.

13. NAIVE. EVIAN<. One of my favourite reversals, neatly handled.

18. ELECTABLE. I thought at first this was a CD, but the first half (’fit to pick first’) is actually a charade, fit = ABLE and to pick = ELECT. Trouble is, those are the etymological halves of the whole word, which makes this a dud for me.

21. RHO MB. Neither the most common Greek character not the most common doctor.

23. GYROSCOPE. Another CD of sorts - a paradoxical definition you could call it.

27, 28. KITCHEN CABINET. CD. +’Downstairs’ refers to servants in the old days, as in the ’70s BBC series (oops, and book before that, I believe) ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’.

 DOWN:

1. QUIDS IN. Nice charade with a good surface, probably my favourite here.

2. ANCHORITE. I (l)ONER + H ACT*. My second last answer, and I still don’t quite get it. The clue is ‘I, loner, left out, with hard act to follow, possibly. But the definition appears to be in the first two or four words, coinciding with the wordplay in the first seven, and the last three are purely for surface, unless I’ve missed something.

5. C(HEA(p))T.

6. NO. PROBLEM. Indeed.

7. ROS(I)E. Good to have more than just ‘girl’ for the definition - the reference could be either to Laurie Lee’s novel Cider with Rosie or to Rosie Lee, Cockney rhyming slang for tea. You choose.

8. LUDDITE. (DUD TILE) The followers of Ned Ludd. Hmm, wonder if there’s a Luddite Facebook group yet?

14. ESTABLISH. One of those (unsatisfying, to me) double meaning clues which relies on two definitions actually leading to the same meaning of the word required as an answer. If you see what I mean.

16. THEORETIC. HERETIC TO*. The anagrind must be ‘waver’, and here I don’t think it works - to affect the fodder, it would need to be ‘wavering’.

18. EARMARK. Two meanings, I think referring to a clip you might see on a farm animals ear, which would leave a mark.

20. CHE ROOT. (hom. route). Symetrically opposite the other tobacco clue - was that deliberate?.