Easy, enjoyable and cleverly constructed puzzle from Virgilius with a theme explained in the three across answers in the middle of the grid, all of which are homophones of Ts. Every answer has at least one T in it and there are another 8 black Ts in the grid.

I downloaded the crossword and solved most of it quickly. However, I was called away from home and was back only at about 7 p.m. IST. At that time the bottom left corner had some holes. Am writing this in a brief interregnum before going to the temple for a committee meeting. Typos have since been fixed.

Across

1 BUBBLY - two def.

4 MACHISMO - Mac, his, mo - the second component is gratis and the third one is an obvious abbreviation.

9 (Elementary, my dear) WATSON - anag. of ‘was not’

10 ADVOCATE - two def. - ‘brief’ does a switcheroo as v. as a def.

12 TROPICAL - anag. of ‘cop’ and ‘trial’ ‘Tropical’ is ‘fervidly hot’ - Whether ‘heated’ is an apt def. for word reqd. I am not sure.  

13 SWERVE - s(w)erve - as ‘put’ can also be a verb in the past tense, one first thinks of ’served’ as the answer before further inquiry.

16 HA HA - The ‘boundary’ part I don’t get.

20 STET - A good cryptic def. for a word frequently used. But nowadays there is little chance for this impression to be made; proofreaders are an extinct tribe in newspapers.

23 APEMAN - rev. of ‘name, pa’ - I shouldn’t have taken as much time as I did. The left bottom corner, which proved difficult in my first foray, was filled in during a car ride.

25 BELL ROPE - CD

28 REPAIR - re-pair

30 ANTHEM- Nice CD, eschewing the usual anag. ploy.

Down

1 BEWITCH - b(E W)itch

2 BETROTHAL - anag. of ‘Harbottle’

3 LOOK IN - I am not sure whether the second def is quite apt.

4 AIDA - aid, a

6 HOODWINK - Hood, wink

14 ANISEED - an(I see)d - The word within word indication is not quite satisfactory.

17 OSTEOPATH - Anag. of ‘a stoop the’ - nice surface reading.

18 SEE AHEAD - see, a, head - Until we see that ‘divine’ does a switcheroo as a verb in def. for word reqd., the answer is delayed.

21 THEOREM - anag. of ‘me to her’ - nice surface reading but weak anag. ind.

22 CLUE IN - anag. of ‘nuclei’ - good anag. fodder but an anag. clue after an anag. clue may have been avoided.

24 EXTRA - two def - seamlessly merged

28 TIER - rev. of ‘re it’

One of our Guardian bloggers is stepping down from active duty so we have an opening. You don’t need to be a super solver but you will need to be able to blog once a week. If you’re interested, please email me at blogging@fifteensquared.net.

Neil

see you…

From FT Monday 7 July 2008

Common abbreviations used
dd = double definition
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(fodder) = anagram

Another gem of a puzzle from Dante with some clever wordplay and his usual brand of smooth surfaces. Most enjoyable, although a tad easy

1 DETAIN *(and tie) What a smoothie
4 CONVERSE Cha of CON (learn) VERSE (lines)
9 SERIAL What a deft cd
10 SHORTAGE Simple cha
12 ADEQUATE AD (nowadays) EQUATE (treat)
13 ALUMNI *(Milan U)
15 NOOK Another really smooth and punny clue for “no okay”
16 PORTENTOUS Ins of TENT in POROUS
19 SCRATCHING dd I remember eating deep-fried pigskin in British pubs. Aren’t they also called scratchings although Chambers does not carry this?
20 HELM H (hard) ELM (wood)
23 ACCENT AC (account or bill, disguised as a person with capital letter) CENT (little money)
25 LIFE SPAN Ins of F (first letter of Frank) in LIE (story) + SPAN
27 OLD WORLD dd
28 SIERRA *(is rare)
29 DUTY FREE cd
30 ANNEXE What a clever sound play on “An X” denoting a kiss at the bottom of a letter

Down
1 DISDAIN *(its said)
2 THREE-FOUR Another delightful cd
3 ICARUS cd about the tragic son who flew too close to the sun while escaping from Crete
5 OCHE Dante’s ability to make a mundane ha clue into an almost &lit amazes me
6 VIRULENT *(turn evil)
7 REALM Cha of REAL (actual) M (number)
8 ENEMIES E (battle finishes) *(seem in) Somehow, the wordplay for the first E seemed wrong with the plural finishes. “after end of battle” or “after end of truce” would have been an improvement
11 ATROPHY Simple cha
14 STAND-IN Cha of ST (saint or good man) AND IN (popular)
17 OPEN PURSE Open (frank) PURSE (contract one’s lips into a rounded, puckered shape, esp in order to express displeasure)
18 STAND-OFF dd
19 SEA LORD Corny play of opposites
21 MAN-MADE Ins of MAD in MANE (hair)
22 DESIGN Ins of SIG (rev of GI’s) in DEN (retreat)
24 CADET *(acted)
26 BLUE dd? although ‘choice’ is extraneous