Further to the initial announcement here’s what the crossword editor says about the free service:

“[What] the crossword site now offers you (and from September
1 anyone else who logs on to guardian.co.uk/crossword) will remain
unchanged: all the regular puzzles for both papers, plus a weekly
Quiptic, a monthly Genius and access to the full archive. Since
several people have been kind enough to say that they hope this will
not mean the end of my monthly newsletter, you will also continue to
get a regular serving of my inconsequential thoughts on the world of
crosswords. I shall no longer, though, be able to counter complaints
about the service with my line that it is not bad value for the less
than 50p a week that it costs!”

Only 24 clues here, which I think is about as few as it’s reasonably possible to have in a 15-by-15 crossword where the Ximenean edict of having no answers with more unchecked than checked letters is observed. Not that this helped my time, which was over 30 minutes: some of the films were rather difficult to find.

A very entertaining crossword, with two strong interconnected themes and a very neat trick of having three famous people’s names sitting in the grid (17 21 7, 2 23 7 and 17 6), but without them being directly clued.

• dd = double definition - the answer is based on a double meaning
• cd = cryptic definition - the answer is defined in a roundabout way
• char. = charade - the answer is hidden in the text of the clue
• * = anagram - the answer is based on rearranging the words
• “” = homophone - the answer is based on how the words sound

Across

• 9. OTHER HALF. dd
• 10. ERATO. char. libERATOrs. One of the poetic muses, specifically of erotic poetry!
• 11. SIMON. SIMPLETON - P LET. Let means hindrance as in the tautological ‘without let or hindrance’.
• 12. AARON’S ROD. A yellow flowering plant a.k.a. Goldenrod. The title of a novel by D.H. Lawrence.
• 13. WASTREL. WALTER* around S.
• 14. BACONER. BACON + ER. Presumably a type of pig.
• 17. DAVID. There is a French artist called David, and a Saint, but their names are pronounced differently.
• 19. PEA. “P”.
• 20. ADENI. A + DEN + I. An inhabitant of Aden.
• 21. HERBERT. HER + BET around R.
• 22. WITNESS. IT among W,N,E,S,S.
• 26. ROWEL. char. heRO WELcomes.
• 28. OMANI. O + MAN + I. Someone from Oman.
• 29. CROP-EARED. ROPE inside CARED. A painter is the name for a type of rope on a boat.

Down

• 1. SONS AND LOVERS. SOLVERS* around ON SAND.
• 2. THOMAS. dd., Dylan Thomas and ‘doubting’ Thomas the apostle.
• 3. IRONBRIDGE. IRON + BRIDGE, site of the first cast iron bridge in the world and now a UNESCO heritage site.
• 4. BACALL. B.A. + CALL. The Actress Lauren.
• 6. LEAN. dd.
• 7. LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. ACELEBINAWARFORA*. The name of a movie by Edward Lean, which was about TE Lawrence who features elsewhere in the grid. EDIT: Andrew points out I’m getting confused with all the cross-referencing - the director is David Lean.
• 8. WOOD. dd. a golf club and conductor Henry Wood.
• 13. WIDTH. WITH around D.
• 16. RUINS. RUNS around I. Not very happy with ruins meaning ‘financial collapses’.
• 18. VIRIDIAN. VR around I + INDIAN*. A blue-green pigment.
• 19. PATIENCE. dd., a Gilbert and Sullivan work and a card game.
• 22. WISDOM. The last word of “Seven Pillars of Wisdom” written by T.E. Lawrence
• 23. EDWARD. dd. King Edward and Edward Lear.
• 24. AMOS. Reference to the Book of Amos, plus a char. in fArMhOuSe.
• 25. OMIT. O + M.I.T.
• 27. LADY CHATTERLEY. cd. referrring to the D.H. Lawrence novel.

A bit of a mixed bag from Mudd today. Some good clues and one or two where I am a little less than happy with the wordplay or definition. Nothing too difficult and a gentle start to the day.

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Across

1 OUTCLASS  - I found equating ‘off form’ with ‘outclass’ a bit of a stretch

6 AMBUSH  AM (comes before PM) BUSH (US President)

9 SCRAWL  S (scribe’s initial) CRAWL (a swimming stroke)

10 IMPERIAL  IMP (rogue) E (English) RIAL (Iranian currency)

11 ARAB  A BAR (restriction) reversed

12 BAKING SODA  A KINGS (a college) in BOD (person) A - you need to be ‘of an age’ to equate baking soda with a cleaning agent since this definition is not given in any of the dictionaries I have available. The usual definition is just ’sodium bicarbonate’ which in turn is defined as being ‘used in baking-powder or as an antacid digestive remedy’. Collins does extend the range of uses to ‘fire extinguishers’ but again these don’t ‘clean’

14 STURGEON  T (end of scarlet) in SURGEON (knife wielder)

16 FOPS  F (fellow) OPS (works)

18 PLEA  LEAP (jump) with last letter moved to the beginning (rear first)

19 PICAROON  *(CAPRI) [s]OON

21 DISNEYLAND  *(SEND IN LADY) - I have never been, but I doubt that Disneyland would ‘entertain’ me :-)  Perhaps my grandchildren?

22 GOSH  GO (become) SH (quiet) - it surprised me a little to find that ‘go’ is defined as ‘to become, or to become as if’ in Chambers

24 IGNORANT  *(TRAIN ON G) - ‘G’ being the centre letter of ‘Hungary’

26 MOTHER  M (male) OTHER (different)

27 BOOBOO  BOO (shocker) BOO (shocker)

28 RE-CREATE  *(TREE CARE)

Down

2 ULCER  hidden word in ‘painfUL CERtainly’

3 CHAMBERLAIN  *(CAN HE M BLAIR) - ‘M’ being the first letter of ‘mess’ - Arthur Neville Chamberlain, British prime minister from 1937 to 1940, probably best remembered for his claim to have brought ‘peace for our time’ following his return from signing the Munich Agreement

4 AD-LIBBER  *(I DABBLE R) - ‘R’ being provided by ‘reading’, one of the three Rs - a pleasing double use of ‘improvising’

5 STICKING-PLASTER  STICKING (putting) P (prince) LAST (to the rear) ER (queen) - I rather like the definition ‘cut security’!

6 ALPINE  PIN (flag, in golf) in ALE (bitter, a type of beer) - a poor definition here. Alp is a ‘mountain’, both nouns. Alpine is an adjective, ‘of or relating to a high mountain’ or ‘growing on mountain tops’

7 BAR  dd

8 STAND UP TO  *(PUTT AND SO)

13 SUFFRAGETTE  RAGE (anger) TT (not taking drink) in SUFFE[r] (unending experience) - I wondered about the ‘force-fed woman’ but a bit of research indicated that the suffragettes were repeatedly imprisoned. This resulted in the notorious ‘Cat and Mouse Act’ in 1913 which allowed for the temporary release of suffragettes whose health was endangered by hunger striking and forcible feeding.

15 TALKING-TO  T (last letter of fight) KING (man, chess piece) in ALTO (voice)

17 ACADEMIC  dd - a neat clue!

20 DYNAMO  O (old) MANY (scores) D (send finally) all reversed

23 SCENT S (shilling) CENT (coin) - ‘inferior’ in this case indicating ‘under’

25 ORB  OR (yellow) B (black) - ‘or’ is more usually associated with gold but it can also mean ‘yellow’

Nice puzzle from The Editor with an appropriate Nina for a puzzle that appeared the day after that amazing opening ceremony in Beijing: in the unchecked letters on the grid perimeter we see CITIUS,ALTIUS,FORTIUS (the Olympic motto meaning “faster, higher, stronger”) and OLYMPIC.