One or two I’m not quite sure about but a typically high-class thing from Dac.

The on-line image was smaller than usual today and I couldn’t read some of the clues either on-screen or when printed out (normal size or enlarged) so I had to actually buy a copy of the paper!

A number of relevant definitions appear in COD but not in Chambers, and vice versa, at least in my rather old copies.

I would like to be able to say that I was ‘tickled pink’ by this crossword but sadly that was not the case.

Across

9 CHAMPAGNE  homophone of ’sham pain’

10 FLOYD  - Pink Floyd the rock group and Keith Floyd the chef who had a number of TV series and books in the ’80s and ’90s entitled ‘Floyd on …..’

11 DUBBING  dd - ‘to dub’ is to confer a knighthood upon

12 MORELLO  OR in MELLO[w] (nearly ripe)

12, 22 CAR NATION  ‘in this’ is ‘in carnation’ and an incarnation is a manifestation or ‘one manifested’ - my thanks to Agentzero for pointing me in the right direction (see comments)

14 TRAIN-BEARER  cd

17 CLARA  LAR (domestic god) in CA (accountant) - Clara Bow was a famous silent film actress

18 GIN  dd - a trap and pink gin commonly known as ‘mother’s ruin’

19 GLEAM  L[ik]E in GAM (school, particularly of whales)

21 DENSE FOREST  *(NEEDS SOFTER)

23 EYE  dd - pink-eye is an acute contagious infection in horses

25 LITTLER  *(TITLE L R) - ’sinistrodextral’ means moving or extending from left to right (from the Latin sinister and dexter, left and right)

27 PANTHER  P ANTHER (part of a flower) - de dum, de dum, de dum de dum de dum, de dum de dum …..

28 ALOUD  homophone of ‘allowed’

29 SONATINAS  *(NATION) in SAS (special forces)

Down

1 ACIDIC  CID (detectives) in CIA (agents) reversed

2 CANBERRA  CAN BE (potentially) RR (two of the Three-Rs) A

3 SPRINT RACE  SPRIN[g] (well) TRACE (a little)

4 AGOG  [m]AGOG - as well as the Biblical nations associated with the Apocalypse, Gog and Magog were the last two survivors of a mythical race of giants inhabiting ancient Britain. I do not understand the inclusion of ‘(or two-headed?)’. Edit - Despite extensive searching, I can find no reference to Magog (or even Gogmagog) being two-headed

2nd edit  [m]AGOG and [tw]A GOG - ‘twa’ being ‘two’ in Scottish which is (be)headed. Normally only the fist letter would be removed in this type of wordplay, so there is still room for doubt, but I cannot come up with any other plausible explanation

5 PERMANENCE  *(R NAME) in PENCE (change as in ’small change’)

6 AFAR  [s]AFAR[i]

7 COLLAR  dd -  ‘collar’ can mean ‘take’ (especially illegally) and ‘appropriate’ is defined as ‘take posession of’

8 IDEOGRAM  *(gored) in I AM

15 ANGLO-IRISH  *(LONG HAIR IS)

16 EIGHTH NOTE  EIGHTH (12.5%) NOT E (all the ‘e’s removed from ‘twelve point five per cent’)

17 CADILLAC  DILL in AC (bill) revesed AC (bill) - written and first recorded by Bruce Springsteen

20 ELEPHANT  *(THE PLANE)

24 EGRESS  [n]EGRESS

26 LADY  hidden word in ‘gLAD You’re’

27 PINK  hidden word in ’striP IN Klein’ - one definition of ‘pink’ is “to stab or pierce with a sword or rapier”, hence ‘run through’

* = anagram
() = removed
[] = charade
“” = homophone
cd = cryptic definition
dd = double definition

Medium difficulty but very entertaining with some inventive cluing (9A is a favourite), and a couple of words that were new to me (20D, 8D).

Across

1 MOLOCH (G)LOOM* + CH. A nice &lit clue as Moloch was an ancient god who demanded child sacrifice.
4 SMOCKS S + MOCKS.  Took me a while because I was assuming saint was st.
9 ELECTRIC CURRENT The italic I in the clue is the symbol for electric current, the rest is a cd.
10 BRENDA END inside BRA
11 RANSOMED (A SERMON D)*. I should confess I thought ransomed meant ‘held to ransom’ but it seems to be ‘paid a ransom’
12 CASHLESS A cd.
14 DOCTOR ROT and COD backwards
15 ANIMUS N in AIM + US
18 PERVERSE PER + VERSE.  The meaning of ‘difficult’ isn’t the first that springs to mind.
21 THALLIUM TH(e) + ALLIUM
22 STRUCK ST + RUCK.  The tense seems wrong here, ‘got hit’ would be better I think?
24 SPEYER CATHEDRAL THESACREDPLAYER*. Never heard of it, but spotted CATHEDRAL early so it was easy to check with a few letters in.
25 RENOWN theat[RE NOW N]eeds
26 SPONGE dd

Down

1 MALARIA presumably MARIA around LA but I’m unsure how that is ‘little boy’
2 LUCAN dd. Both the missing lord, and meaning ‘of Luke’
3 CORSAGE CORE around SAG
5 MOURNED DOURMEN*
6 CARTOUCHE ART + OUCH in CE.  More of a relief than a sculpture.
7 SAN REMO ROMESAN*
8 ACORUS Last clue I got.  CORUS is a company who make metal, and a flag is a type of plant, of which this is an example.
13 HIMALAYAN HIM + A LAY(M)AN
16 NO-HOPER NOH OPER(A).  Japanese musical drama
17 SKID ROW WORKIS* around D
18 PAMPAS PAM + PAS(S).  A South American plain
19 ROSEHIP
20 SACCADE “SACK AID”.  A smasmodic movement
23 RADON Guessed from checking letters.  ON is ‘functioning’ so presumably RAD is ‘part of CH system’?