I rattled through this puzzle but fell at the final hurdle, well as 24ac and 17dn.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 5 | PAYSLIP — PAYS + LIP — pays is French for country. |
| 9 | DOUBLE-BARRELLED — DOUBLE + BARRELLED — double = spit(ting image) |
| 11 | NYLON — shiNY LONg — simple hidden clue but a nice augmented definition. |
| 16 | RENEWER — RE+N+EWE+R — a renewer is one renewing their library books. |
| 18 | GESTATING — STATIN in EGG* — statins are drugs that regulate cholesterol. Apparently we’ll all be taking them routinely in years to come, if we want plenty of years to come. |
| 19 | XEROX — REX< + OX |
| 21 | TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT — TAKE I.T. + I in ELEVATOR* — take IT = study computing |
| 24 | HARDISH — ? — I think this is HAR + DISH but “Most of uncommon…” suggests RAR(e) to me. What am I missing? |
| Down | |
| 2 | AIDE — A(s)IDE — a nice clue suggesting a scene from the West Wing. |
| 3 | UNGROOMED — double def. — excellent cryptic second definition in Jilted? |
| 6 | SUBCOMMITTEES — SUB+COMMIT+TEES |
| 8 | WELL-PRESERVED — WELL+P+RESERVED |
| 10 | AXEL — AXE+L — an Axel is a skating move named after a Mr Axel. |
| 13 | TESTATRIX — T in (SEX TRAIT)* — this is an excellent clue. A testatrix is a female testator, ie someone who makes a will. |
| 17 | ONER — ? — a oner is an expert but I’m lost with the word play in “Expert’s limited education (4)”. |
| 20 | OTIOSE — magazinE SO IT Obviously — turned up indicating the reverse in this hidden clue. |
| 22 | EGAD — AGE< in AGED |
17d Education is ‘the three Rs’ so ‘one R’ would be a ‘limited education’, I suppose.
Bah! That’s annoying Will, I should have seen that one.
24 – my thoughts exactly.
Great puzzle – as you say, 3D and 13D are both excellent.
There is a theme! Have a look at grid. Will post with detail later.
Not wishing to reveal all, and I did not see it myself till quite a bit after I had the grid full with similar doubts as Colin re 24ac. Look at across entries.
Having missed recent Phi ninas and seen phantom ones that were not there, once I saw that the convention that 50% of cells should be checked was not being observed, I suspected there must be something more here. I filled the grid with one doubt (24ac) and it took me quite a while before I saw it. But then I did which was a good penny-dropping moment. In all across entries the word has the same first and last letter eg PAYSLIP, ENTWINE. This confirms HARDISH.
Thanks Niall, I can now see that the clue should be parsed as, “Most of uncommon meat…” = HAR(e)