This was hard work - with some answers really belonging in an advanced weekend puzzle — I found myself pulling out Chambers more than zero times, which is too many for a daily. I only fully understood the pair of 19 and 24 once I’d completed the puzzle — probably since I didn’t grow up in England in the 80s.

Across

Down

Another excellent themed puzzle from Virgilius, the theme becoming apparent to me only quite late on.

The middle row is PARTS OF SPEECH and every row, sometimes in one word, sometimes reading across two, contains one in order ADVERB, CONJUNCTION,  PRONOUN,  PREPOSITION,  PARTICLE,  VERB.   Solving time, 30 mins, and the usual brilliant clues from the master.

* = anagram  < = reversed

ACROSS

6 GAL A HAD

9 VER (BEN) A

10 A N CON

11 J UNCTIONS

12 PRONOUCE D

13 V (I.E.) W   Volkswagen

15 PARTS OF SPEECH   Clue refers to theme and other answers.

19 R ASP

20 REPOSITION   (Top senior I)*

24 PARTICLES   ‘declines’ refers to grammar

25 HOSE A

26 OVER BUY    Two cricket reference   deliveries = over (six balls bowled)  “Bye” one type of extra run.

27 SOR (CE) RY

DOWN

1 A LECTO (r)    Greek mythology

2 AV (ENG) ERS    Surface refers to cricket again.

3 BRUTE    I think this refers to “Et tu, Brute”  - last words of Julius Caesar when assassinated.

4 DEMONIAC   (comedian)*

5 WAR SAW   (was raw)<     The Warsaw uprising, late in WWII

6 GRAPPA    Very cleverly hidden

7 HANG-OUTS   (A shotgun)*

8 D (I) J ON    DJ = dinner jacket

14 PERIS HER

16 ASS OR TED

17 OVERLAYS  (lover say)*    Amusing surface

18 UN EASY

19 RAPTOR  (parrot)*

21 O AS IS

22 IN STEP

23 LIMBO    Double definition, the second one referring to the dance, I think, where the dancer goes under a bar

*=anag, []=dropped, <=rev.

Very tough puzzle by Scorpion, I thought.   There were three I didn’t fully understand.

Across

7  Mincer:  cryptic definition.
8  Heighten:  he + (the gin)*
9  Leo Minor:  Odd letters of sleep + minor.
10 Bistro:  (Brit[ish] + so)*
11 Meat Loaf:  (fame a lot)*.   I found the “arrests” a bit confusing and didn’t seem to add much to the clue.
12 Cherry:  C[las]h + err + y.   I think cherry is sometimes used to mean a ball in cricket.
13 Arthur’s Seat:  Didn’t understand this apart from camelot = (King) Arthur’s seat.   The clue was “Camelot providing attraction in former home of Thunderball player ?”
18 Posses:  posses[s]
20 Snowball:  Snob around w + all.
22 Aghast:  Hidden.
23 Improper:  Rope in (prim)*.
24 Pittance:  Pitta + even letters of snacked.
25 Shiraz:  Hairs* + z.

Down

1  Pikelet:  Cryptic def.  Had to do reveal to get this since I’ve never heard of pikelet meaning a type of food.  I thought it was a small fish.
2  Scimitar: (armistice - e)*
3  Bronco:  B + roo around nc.
4  Big Bucks:  Big Buckinghamshire + pile (of money).
5  Chaste:  t in chase.
6  Ferrari:  Fear around RR (Rolls Royce) + i.
8  Herefordshire: Here + for + d + (heirs)*.
14 Hesitant:  He’s + titan with t moved to end.
15 Ambrosia:  Didn’t get this at all.  Clue was “Seaman in Wales once caught leaves - delicious food”.  Delicious food is obviously the def, but I didn’t understand the other wordplay.
16 Rough it: Didn’t understand this either. Clue is “Three characters together in retreat live basically”.
17 Glue Ear:  (U E + large)*.
19 Scatty:  Scat + t[enb]y.
21 Oppose:  Op + pose.

After thirty minutes with the puzzle, I didn’t get 21ac and 24ac and 16dn. Any of my readers may please post the answers.

Across

1 DESCRIBE - des, crib, E

5  HECTIC - ethi (anag. of E, itch), C

10 SATSUMA - a, must, as reversed This fruit is new to me. I got it from wordplay.

13 DELFTWARE - de(L, FT, w.)ar,e

18 TALENT SCOUTS - talents, C(out)S ‘bent’ in the sense of talent; it is an adj. qualifying gifts in the surface reading; the def. is “(Those) who look for ones with the bent”

21  not solved - (On edit) The clue is: Clerk on fixed programme to jail trafficker (9)

23 LINER - two def.

24 not solved - (On edit) The clue is: Barnet’s cleaner - bogus collection largely (7)

25 OPENING - anag. of pig, none

26 SENTRY - sen(-d), try

27 PENTAGON - pe(n, tag)on(-y) I am not happy with the surface reading.

Down

1 DUSTER, two def.

2 SATIRE - I take ‘Swift writing’ as ‘writing by Swift’ which I know is satire. But I don’t see how ‘a bore’ fits

3 ROUGH-HEWN - anag. of ‘how hunger’ but not a very pleasing surface reading

4 BOARDING SCHOOL - cryptic def. -‘to get one’s head down’ = to fall to = to begin to eat

6 EVENT - even, t

7 TEA PARTY - anag. of ‘ape ratty’, again not a very satisfying surface reading

8 CAT’S EYES - (trademark) these are reflectors embedded in road surface to make traffic lanes visible at night

9 FOLLOW YOUR NOSE - there was some hold-up in my solving as I first put in ‘follow one’s nose’

15 INTELLECT - two def.

16 not solved - (On edit) The clue is: More people possibly turning to sit-ups (8) 

17 PLANTAIN - (to)plant, AI, n

19 ENDING - reversed letter string from ‘campaiGN I’D NEgotiated’

20 DRAGON - drag on

22 INNER - (-d)inner, ref. to ‘inner sole’ (On edit) The reason why I didn’t get some answers is this solution is wrong. I now realise that the correct answer is (-s)UPPER. The clue was: Meal without starter, complementing to sole perhaps (5) Now, does this exclude my answer?

Apologies for the problems you all experienced yesterday in trying to reach the blog - it was out of action for pretty much for the whole day. Unfortunately the problem was at the server end, that is, with the company that hosts the site rather than with the blog itself, so there was nothing I could do to fix things, which was somewhat frustrating. I’m now trying to find out from the hosting company what the problem actually was and if it was solved satisfactorily.

Neil