Im afraid there has been a prolonged internet outage here. My provider said an hour ago it should be fixed by 10pm however at noon they said it should be fixed by 4pm so who knows. Im posting from my phone, when i can get my laptop connected ill have the report up. Sorry for the delay. Feel free to discuss the clues in the comments and hopefully i dont have to get up early in order to post.
It is now 9:30pm my time, and hopefully the internet will stay up long enough for me to post this. I thought this was on the gentler side of Paul McKenna Mephistos, though I was held up a while by confidently entering GO KARTS in for 1 down.
Away we go…
| Across | |
| 1 | Good fitter chucking out British Gas reducer (6) |
| GETTER – G(good) then BETTER(fitter) missing B | |
| 5 | Costermonger beginning to peddle with the larks? (6) |
| PEARLY – First letter of Peddle, then EARLY(with the larks) | |
| 10 | Lad on lane unsettling every Tom, Dick, and Harry (9, three words) |
| ONE AND ALL – Anagram of LAD,ON,LANE | |
| 11 | Fancy forgetting a tabard (6) |
| CHIMER – CHIMERA(fancy) missing A | |
| 13 | Passengers left inside spread out (5) |
| FLARE – FARE(passengers) containing L(left) | |
| 15 | Profit by free means of access (6, two words) |
| USER ID – USE(profit by) next to RID(free) | |
| 16 | Backsliding offender bagging new agents of clottiness? (7) |
| RENNINS – SINNER(offender) reversed containing N(new) | |
| 17 | See one on dual screen? The answer is more than one (4) |
| VIDS – V(see), I(one), DS(dual screen). I wonder if DS had meaning before the Nintendo console I played for years | |
| 18 | On tour test progressive rock (10) |
| TROUTSTONE – Anagram of ON,TOUR,TEST | |
| 21 | A few without getting into legal wrong here, possibly (10, three words) |
| TWO OR THREE – W/O(without) inside TORT(legal wrong) then an anagram of HERE | |
| 23 | Pretend to be quiet in the morning (4) |
| SHAM – SH(be quiet), AM(in the morning) | |
| 24 | Part-way through ill-considered biblical exegesis (7) |
| MIDRASH – MID(part-way through), RASH(ill-considered) | |
| 26 | City used to be verdant, looking from the east (6) |
| WARSAW – WAS(used to be) RAW(green, verdant) all reversed | |
| 28 | Greengrocer, eg, sells this item which shoots, hard to shift (5) |
| EATER – HEATER(gun, item which shoots) missing H(hard) | |
| 29 | Offering direct from Vatican City, surprisingly too (6, two words) |
| EX VOTO – EX(direct from), V(IVR coe for Vatican City) then an anagram of TOO | |
| 30 | Sift loose rock and anger no end (9, two words) |
| SCREEN OFF – SCREE(loose rock), ‘N (and), then OFFEND(anger) missing END | |
| 31 | Blasted hype is full of cold soul (6) |
| PSYCHE – Anagram of HYPE,’S containing C(cold) | |
| 32 | Renegade detained by soldiers without charge (6) |
| GRATIS – RAT(renegade) inside GIS (soldiers) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Zip about with cunning in Grammar School racers (7) |
| GO-CARTS – O(zero, zip), C(about), ART(cunning) inside GS(Grammar School) | |
| 2 | One article in ten is to do with the poet Anacreon (5) |
| TEIAN – I(one), A(article) inside TEN | |
| 3 | Sort of cross about bloke’s very tall tree (6) |
| TAMANU – a TAU cross surrounding MAN(bloke) | |
| 4 | We got up around noon, finally time to dive in? (4) |
| ENEW – WE reversed surrounding N(noon) and the last letter of timE | |
| 5 | Where baby sits up with posh Australian living near Slough? (10) |
| PALUSTRINE – a baby could sit in a LAP, reverse it, then U(posh), STRINE(Australian) | |
| 6 | “Bewitched” personality skipping opening spell (7) |
| ELFSHOT – SELF(personality) missing the first letter, then SHOT(spell) | |
| 7 | Mostly travelling funfair attraction, but deserted, is noisy in Nairn (6) |
| ROARIE – ROAD(travellling) missing the last letter, then RIDE(funfair attraction) missing D(deserted) | |
| 8 | State of sensational staginess as snide slur gets snarled (9) |
| LURIDNESS – anagram of SNIDE,SLUR | |
| 9 | Hostel exploits first date released for proceeds of old poetry (5) |
| YEEDS – Y(youth hostel), then DEEDS(exploits) missing the first D(date) | |
| 12 | Malign program managed conflict amongst a few (10) |
| RANSOMWARE – RAN(managed), then WAR(conflict) inside SOME(a few) | |
| 14 | Ban rash soaring with, eg, eagles (9) |
| BERGHAANS – anagram of BAN,RASH and EG | |
| 19 | NZ settlement to cut that which enlightens chap in charge (7) |
| TOPARCH – PA(Maori settlement) inside TORCH(that which enlightens) | |
| 20 | Conveniences exist near trotters (7) |
| BEHOOFS – BE(exist), HOOFS(trotters) | |
| 21 | One keen on flip-flops edges from lefty in snappish manner? (6) |
| TARTLY – TART(one who changes pollitical affiliations, flip-flops), then the exterior letters of LeftY | |
| 22 | Personnel dept picked up one about van’s first smash in Kyiv (6) |
| HRYVNA – HR(personnel depr) then ANY(one) reversed surrounding the first letter in Van. Smash is slang for cash here | |
| 23 | Society in Gretna greet sausage-loving hound? (5) |
| SWEEP – S(society) then WEEP(greet in Scots can mean weep). Reference to Sooty and Sweep | |
| 25 | Actively start to attack erstwhile leader of the House (5) |
| AFOOT – first letter of Attack, then former leader of the House of Commons Michael FOOT | |
| 27 | A hurdle to get over — Eastern xenophobe banning book (4) |
| OXER – BOXER(Chinese xenophobe) missing B(book) | |
My LOI was oxer, never saw the cryptic, and realized how it works the next day.