*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed

A varied puzzle with some interesting clues, including one or two I didn’t fully understand.

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

As usual, Rufus showed his forte, the craft of writing clues, smooth and slick. Only complaint is that it’s too easy; so the fun and pleasure are short-lived.

Across
5 WOODEN Cha of WOO (court) DEN (room)
6 ZEBRAS cd
9 CLERKS cd
10 MEPHISTO cd of the devil from Faust
11 YOKE Ins of OK in YE (the old)
12 SPLIT HAIRS *(parish list)
13 ALTERCATION *(action later)
18 CHEESECAKE dd
21 EVEN (t)
22 SLAP-BANG slap (rev pals) bang (report)
23 DOTAGE Ins of TAG (attachment) in DOE, a deer, a female deer
24 SCOTCH dd
25 BANKER cd

Down
1 DOORBELL cd
2 VERSUS cd
3 KEEP AT IT keep a tit
4 TROIKA cd, a troika is indeed a carriage drawn by three horses
5 WALLOP dd slang for beer
7 SATIRE *(it’s a) + RE (concerning)
8 SMALL CHARGE What a smooth dd
14 ELEGANCE Cha of E (east, point) LEG (member) *(cane) Somehow, the surface would have been perfect if twiddling were replaced by twirling
15 OVERTAKE Over (completed) Take (snap a picture)
16 SHELLS cd
17 LEDGER Ins of EDGE (margin) in L & R
19 EMPLOY dd
20 ENDEAR end (conclude) EAR (feature)

I was looking forward to the Guardian’s free crossword this morning (Sept. 1) but even past noon IST it has not appeared.

I have been a registered user of the website (though not a paid subscriber to the crossword) and now when I click on Crosswords on the Home page I am taken only to the announcement.

When does The Guardian usually upload the puzzles (in GMT)?

Has anyone been able to get the freed crossword?

Rishi

in Madras that is Chennai, India

Although I’ve been a subscriber to the Guardian crossword website for some years now, this
is the first time that I’ve attempted a Genius crossword.  Having managed to complete this
one without too much difficulty (with one exception) I’m kicking myself for not having done
them previously.  Solving time was about a day (not spent exclusively on it).

Lavatch is a new name to me (it doesn’t appear in Jonathan Crowther’s A-Z of Crosswords) and
there was nothing about the setter in Hugh Stephenson’s monthly email newsletter.  Perhaps
there will be next month.  The puzzle used a variation on a theme sometimes used by Azed,
where crossing solutions clash, and the solver has to determine which letter to insert.

Here the instructions were to be found by taking the first and last letters of redundant
words in the synthesis clues, as follows:

MemO
AlooF
KnighT
ElizabetH
NicE
EntraP
WelsH
RabbI
EviL
AfrO
LasS
WeirdO
Over-the-toP
RicH
DicE
SinisteR

Which gives the following messages: Make new real words, of the philosopher.

Sure enough, in every case it proved possible to substitute a letter where the clash
occurred which provided a new word for both solutions.  It soon became apparent that the
clashes formed a downwards diagonal, and after considering Socratic and Platonic, it became
obvious that Hegel was the philosopher in question.  One additional element of difficulty
was that there was no definition in the clue to verify the new words, but they all seemed to
work for me (except one…)

The clues themselves were pretty straightforward and there were not many obscure words.  I
found it easiest to start by solving the (S) clues and identifying the redundant words.  I
knew that solutions to these clues could be written into the diagram immediately, whereas at
first with the T and A clues, it was necessary to leave gaps for possible clashes.

I’ll be away when the blog appears and probably unable to respond to any comments until September 8th.

Across

1    WEEDS - weed = grass + S; changed to HEEDS on entry in the puzzle
4    GARBOLOGY - Garbo, Loy with G inserted
9    FLIER - f + ie between L and R; changed to FLEER on entry
10    AGUECHEEK - an ague is a fit and a cheek is part of an ass; Sir Andrew Aguecheek is
a minor comic character in Twelth Night
11    ENRACED - race in end: changed to ENRAGED on entry
12    COLDITZ - col + ditz(y); Colditz castle was used by the Germans as a prisoner-of-war
camp for prisoners who had staged escapes from other camps
13    PALLID - ll in paid; changed to PALLED on entry
15    MIGNON - mooning* less o
17    CANADA - CA + nada
18    PRAGUE - pr + (H)ague; changed to PLAGUE on entry
22    ATHLETE - let in anagram of heat
23    TARPANS - a simple anagram of Spartan; tarpans are a breed of horse.  Changed to
TAIPANs on entry
26    BLUE MOVIE - another anagram
27    SCORE - c in sore; changed to SCARE on entry
28    ETERNALLY - (R)eally around tern
29    TENOR - ten + 0 + R(egina); changed to TENON on entry

Down

1    DUFFER - I think; or it could be DUFFED; there are very few words which start with H
and have F as their their third letter, so working backwards after inserting the H
for Hegel, that’s what I came up with, though I admit that it doesn’t seem to fit     the
clue.  By the time that this blog appears, the answer should be available on the
website so that we can all see where I went wrong
2    EMBER - (M)ember; entered as EMEER
3    SCRAP - sap round cr; entered as SCRAG
4    GRANDER - GR and ER; entered as GRANDEE
5    RAUNCH - launch, with r for l
6    OCCULTING - hidden, but you can’t see it until you remove the redundant word
7    OBEDIENCE - O(ld) Bede round an anagram of nice
8    YOKOZUNA - Yoko (Ono) + Zun(i) + a; a yokozuna is a champion sumo wrestler
13    PENTHOUSE - two definitions
14    LADIES MAN - anagram of maidens + al(l)
16    SCRABBLE - s(i)c + rabble
19    POTTERY - entered as LOTTERY
20    WEEVIL - wee + vil(e); there’s a running joke in the Patrick O’Brian novels  (set
in the Royal Navy in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries) about
choosing the lesser of two weevils…
21    ASTERS - another simple anagram, entered as ASTERN
24    ONSET - on + set: entered as INSET
25    AGRIN - r(ector) in a gin; entered as AGAIN

An entertaining puzzle in more than one sense - I enjoyed it - and there are clues using “entertained by” as “container and contents” indicator more than once, but I only point this out because I noticed it, they are both very good clues. (I’m sure no-one notices these things unless e.g. doing a blog.)
Not as easy as last time, but nothing dreadfully hard.