Excellent puzzle based on James Bond villains on the centenary of the birth of Ian Fleming, with some inventive and amusing clues.

Once I’d twigged that we were looking at SCARAMANGA (which led me to the Bond theme), not SCARAMOUCH, the outside ring fell out quite easily (after a bit of Wiki-ing), the villains in clockwise sequence being:
SCARAMANGA, HUGO DRAX, BLOFELD, MR. BIG, LE CHIFFRE and ROSA KLEBB.

The misprinted letters in across clues 11, 24, 38, 40 spell BOND; misprints in down clues 8, 19, 20,28,32,33,34,35 spell VILLAINS

I spent a long time trying to spell something like “Ian Fleming Centenary” with the letters unclued in the wordplay, before realising that it was WHERE they were not WHAT they were that mattered. Inevitably they were 007 when highlighted.

Solving time : Lots and lots!

BOLD letters are letters with no wordplay, misprints are indicated by BOLD and italic in the definition.

Sory about the lack of colour, the software removes it all when I save the draft! 

The puzzle was uploaded later than usual and just about that time there was power failure in my flat. Hence the delay in posting the blog.

29dn gave a quick foothold onto the grid. I have not solved three clues as yet. Anyone may post the answers (all of them are short and in top left corner). I have not been able to explain the answer for 18dn fully. 

 Across

1 WINDOW DRESSING - Cryptic def. 

10 Not solved

11 RETENTIVE - charade with a deletion - R.E., tent(-at)tive

13 EULOGIA - anag. of ‘agile O U’

14 Not solved

16 ROWAN TREE - anag. of ‘roar E went’

19 RACKETEER - Cryptic def.

20 SHIFT - Two def.

25 MACHETE - I worked out the wordplay only now - container/contained with an anagram - ‘het ‘(anag. of ‘the’) in ‘mace’ ([a]club)

27 REMBRANDT - Rem(brand)t* - ‘brand’ in ‘remt’ (anag. of ‘term’, ’school’ being the anagrind.)

28 INVOICE - Two def.? One is complete def and another is def. by ellipsis (’invoice’ being ‘account’)

Down

2 ISOMETRIC - anag. with a deletion - anag. of ‘I’m costier’ after deleting l (line) from ‘I’m costlier’

4 WORK FORCE - charade work (fix), force (drive, v.)

5 RETIE - charade with tail off - re, tie(-r)

6 SUNBLINDS - Two def? One straight, another interpretation of the answer word after dividing it as ’sun blinds’

7 ICING - I don’t see why baker’s should be italicised. 

8 GRENADE - anag. of ‘E garden’

9 Not solved

15 STEAM IRON - no charade but an anag. of ‘master on I’ (one)

17 WORKMATES - Non-cryptic def. - 4 here is the answer to Clue 4D

18 RHINE WINE - got from crossings and the word ‘tipple’ - The ‘poet’ part eludes me.

19 ROSTRUM - charade with an anagram - rost (anag. of ’sort’), rum

21 TEETER - anag. with a deletion - anag. of ‘t(-h)e tree’

24 RANCH - deletion - (-b)ranch

26 COVER - two def.

A pleasing, innovative, puzzle which I found on the easy side.   Solving time, 18 mins.

* = anagram  < = reversed

ACROSS

1 GUARDIAN   (A = American in a drug)*

5 P (EOPL) E   (pole)* in PE

10 ZIP-UP    Double definition, though the meanings are a bit similar

11 TURBO (t) PROP    A type of plane

12 T (RY) ON    Pun on ‘gear’  Ton = 100 mph   ry = railway i.e. track

13 bREakers SURF ACE

14 (v)ERSE    Old name for Irish (language)

16 IN THE PRESS   e (earl) in (she prints)*

19 PAPER ROUND   As a present would have

20 (n)OTIC(e)

23 OR AL (STAG) E

25 HAIKU   “high coo”

27 ENDPAPERS   (apprehends)* less h

28 LICHI   Hidden

29 RECORD   Grocer< with d (old penny) for g

30 EX A MINER

DOWN

1 GAZETTE    a small gaze punningly

2  A MP L(ad)Y

3 DOPING   Cryptic definition

4 ALTER  “Altar”

6 E GO T  RIPS

7 PARRAKEET   (take rap re)*

8 EX PRESS    express = say (to speak)

9 G R O SCH EN    Former money in Austria

15 SEPHAR DIC   (phrase)*  in Roman numbers   DIC = 599 (end of sixth century - well very near it anyway - I won’t start the millennium argument again)

17 NEONATES   (sane note)*   pun on ‘labour’

18 F (RE-SH) AIR      Shut up again = re-sh!

19 PIONEER   Hidden

21 COUR(t)IER

22 SHALOM   if you changed h (hard) to l (left) you’d get slalom

24 ESSE X

26 INCAN    film finished = in can    I’d some initial doubt about the part of speech here, but I think it’s OK,

As an occasional sub now, I’ll try to remember the rules - bear with me. In keeping with my philosophy that daily puzzles should be doable without recourse to reference works, there are a few guesses that I haven’t verified, and one (24ac) that I just can’t get. Offers welcome. 

ACROSS:

5. CARPET. A guess, but if there is such a thing as a carpet shark, this is a perfectly good CD.

6. BORROW. An even wilder guess - is this a golfing term?

10. UNCHASTE. EACH NUT’S*. Unfortunately the anagrind is also the definition.

11. (w)ARCH(est). Nice hidden.

13. PRISON HOUSE. CD punning on ’stir’ meaning prison - in the sense of time spent there, rather than the building, but it still works (is this derived from ‘porridge’?)

18. BACK STROKE. Not sure about the definition - ‘treatment in the water’ seems a bit loose.

21. LUSH. Double Def, but I think a lush is an alcoholic rather than a drink, so ‘drink is redundant here. Would ‘It’s green and alcoholic’ have been better?

22. CON SERVE. Con=vote against, husband as a verb.

23. AUSTER(e). A word I suspect I know only from thematic puzzles about winds.

24. S_E_A_, “One of life’s ups and downs”. Looks like a CD, but I can’t get it.

DOWN:

1. BREATHER. DD. Not sure what the surface is hinting at though - a gill of lush, perhaps?

2. GE MINI. Good simple clue, middle-aGEd giving GE.

4. CREASE. The third of my guesses. Looks like a CD, but though it’s literally true, I can’t see a cryptic reading.

7. WI THE R. It may not be logical, but I prefer ‘piece of’ to indicate one letter rather than two. Otherwise, why not say ‘two pieces of’? As I say, it’s not logical, and there’s no reason why ‘piece of’ should mean the first letter rather than one in the middle, but it’s a useful convention.

8. BUTTONHOLES. CD, matches meaning weddings.

14. SATURDAY. Sat being its abbreviation. I thought of satellite first, but that’s just silly.

15. SALESMEN. (NAMELESS*). Good one because it wasn’t obvious (to me, anyway). I started groping for a synonym for pedlars that could mean poor if you lost an N.

16. MAJORS. Guess number 4 - do you talk about major and minor suits in cards?

17. A SCENT. Plain but satisfying.

19. KIS(ME)T. Kist’s a fairly obscure word, but there aren’t that many synonyms for fate, and most people know this from the (apocryphal?) “Kiss me Hardy” (memorably clued by Nimrod/Enigmatist as “Pecking order”).

20. ELAPSE. ASLEEP*. I almost put ‘please’ as a synonym for ‘pass’ but AUSTER set me right.

1.

From FT Monday 9 June 2008
Common abbreviations used
dd = double definition
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
* = anagram

What a pleasant change from the rapid-fire easy puzzle we have come to expect from Dante. This one has a marvellous &lit clue and other clever devices, both challenging and deceptive. The winner has to work harder than normal to earn the Bloombury Concise English Dictionary.

Across
1 RESIDENT Ins of ID in RESENT (feel indignant)
5 EDWARD Old dd chestnut alluding to the writer Edward Lear
9 SEARCH ME *(cashmere)
10 OBLIGE dd
12 GILTS Cha of G (a note can be anything from A to G) ILTS *(list)
Gilt-edged securities came from the fact that the edge of the document was given a golden colour and now mean securities of the highest quality, usually issued and guaranteed by governments
13 SECATEURS *(curse a set)
14 MISSES Punny clue that brought a smile
16 SANDBAG cd for something used to stem a river that breaks its bank or a small cosh used by a mugger, perhaps
19 BREADTH *(the Bard)
21 SEE YOU dd When one calls in a poker game, it’s like “Let me see your cards”
23 SECTIONAL *(coastline)
25 BADGE Cha of BAD (defective) GE (rev of EG, for example)
26 INRUSH
27 LACERATE Ins of ACER (tree) in LATE (dead)
28 GALLEY Cha of G (note) ALLEY (passage)
29 GAZETTES GAZE (steady look) TTES *(test)

Down
1 RESIGN cd
2 SMALL TIME *(steam mill)
3 DUCKS dd
4 NEMESIS *(seems in)
6 DEBUTANTE *(be taunted)
7 ADIEU Ins of DIE (fade away) in AU (to the French)
8 DRESSAGE Cha of DRESS (don) AG (silver) E (note)
11 ACES What a superb cd which I immediately got since it was only hours after watching Nadal annihilate Federer at Roland Garros
15 SIDE ISSUE
17 BROADCAST A delightful &lit clue being Cha of BROAD (wide) CAST *(acts)
18 ABASHING
20 HAND dd - a measure of four inches; a division of a bunch of bananas;
22 REVERS any part of a garment that is turned back, such as a lapel
24 CAROL Another delightful cd alluding to Christmas
25 BREVE B (key) REVE (rev ever, always)