This was a real challenge – 1,6 27,28 and 8,23 as yet unexplained
Across
1,6 SUBMERGED TENTH the struggling masses – underclass
9 BALSA wood A SLAB< (a piece of cake reversed)
10 INSULTING offensive (SIGN UNLIT)*
11 LITIGATORS people in suits LIT (drunk) [all]IGATORS
12 HESS Dame Myra [c]HESS (musical)
14 TIDDLER small thing TIDDLES (cat who lived in the Ladies Room at Paddington Station – minus S – tailless) R (right)
15 SWINLE ramp SWIND[on] (not on = off) L (latin) E (quarter)
17 ODYSSEY long tale [b]ODY [a]S [i]S [v]E[r]Y
19 RED CARD hearts suit REDCAR (seaside resort) [goo]D
20 NOUS intellect (French for us)
22 BROWN TROUT fish (NOW R TURBOT)* (R – first letter of regularly)
25 INFLUENZA complaint IN (popular) (FUNEZAL)* (Z for R)
26 RAITA yoghurt dish hidden backwards in [chap]ATI AR[e]
27,28 ELDER STATESMAN perhaps Clinton or Bush
Down
1,14 SYBIL THORNDIKE actress (BLINKED HISTORY)*
2 BELATEDLY after date (DATE)* in BELLY (stomach)
3 EVANGELIST Mark VANGELIS (composer) in ET (film)
4 GLITTER sparkle G (good) LITTER (group of young ones)
5 DESERTS leaves ((D[eciduou]S) TREES)* &lit
6 TOLD related TO L (liberal) D (democrat)
7 NAÏVE not streetwise NA (Scottish no) IVE (setter has)
8, 23 HIGH-SPEED TRAIN form of transport (maybe Train a Grande Vitesse?)
13 PIED-A-TERRE temporary home DATE (fruit) in PIERRE (French boy)
16 DIABOLISM devil-worship SI[p] LOB (high ball) in MAID (servant) <
18 Y-FRONTS item of clothing FR (father) in (STONY)*
19 RAW DATA unchecked stats A TAD WAR< (a little conflict about)
21 UNFED having nothing to eat UN (a French) FED (agent)
24 BURR feature of dialect RUB< (polish up) R[ough]
( )* = anagram [ ] = omit < = reverse
Thanks Jed
1,6 TENTH is SUBMERGED (hidden) in ‘lisTEN THere’s’
27,28 ELDER (bush) STATE (say) M (month) in SAN (hospital) – def. ‘Clinton’
8,23 I think this must just be a cryptic def. as I cannot see any wordplay but I don’t know if the first HIGH-SPEED TRAIN to pass through the Channel Tunnel departed from France.
Well done Jed and Wanderer. I think 1,6 is “tenth” hidden (submerged) in “Lis/ten th/ere’s”
Also 27,28 Bush = elder (plant) and “state” = say and month = “m” in “san” = hospital
8,23 haven’t a clue
I think…
27,28 ELDER STATESMAN Perhaps Clinton – Bush, a plant (ELDER) Say (STATE) month in hospital S(M)AN
8,23 I just had down as a slightly weak cryptic clue in that the French were the first to have high speed trains (Tokyo??)
Can’t fathom 1,6 either…
Just dawned on me…
8,23 High-Speed Train (HST) “initially seen” (initials hidden in) “frencHSTation”
peterj #4 – very impressed, I may need a lie down in a darkened room after this one! I don’t think I’ve seen Wanderer before, has this setter an alter ego?
Thanks Wanderer for a challenging puzzle and Jed for the blog.
1/6ac: I took the answer on trust from the definition. Thanks Gaufrid@1 and paulwaver@2 for shedding light on this. If I have understood correctly, it is an inverse clue taking the wordplay as “lisTENTHere has this”, and then “hidden underclass” as the definition. I think that reading uses all the words of the clue once each.
I also took 27/28ac and 8/23dn on trust but I think these have been fully explained above.
1/14dn: I managed to mis-spell Dame Sybil’s name as Sibyl. This is the sort of example where an anagram does not help.
While I did enjoy Wanderer’s debut some time ago, I remember me qualifying his cluing style as “a bit clinical”. And also, that crossword I did not find very particularly hard.
Quelle difference today.
The lower half went in rather smoothly, the upper half caused me a lot of trouble.
Dear Wanderer, whoever you are, what a splendid puzzle this was!!
I couldn’t explain 8,23 but with hindsight (thx to peterj) it is very clever.
Everything’s so precise, while there is still room for non-Ximenean cluing like in 15ac (off = not on).
Wanderer must surely be an experienced setter (elsewhere). If not, then I would say “what a talent”.
I enjoyed this tremendously.
Many thanks to Jed.
But even more to Colin Inman (the FT’s editor) for discovering another first-class setter!