Happily buzzed through this in 8 minutes.
Hope you enjoyed it as I did.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, deletions and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Get through? I don’t know (4) |
| PASS – double definition. | |
| 7 | Passenger, bank worker, embracing most of party (9) |
| TRAVELLER – bank worker (TELLER) embracing most of party (RAV)e. | |
| 9 | Fish aunt cooked (4) |
| TUNA – anagram (cooked) of AUNT. | |
| 10 | Skin condition irritates husband entertaining artist (6,4) |
| NETTLE RASH – irritates (NETTLES) and husband (H) entertaining artist (RA). | |
| 11 | Show the way in battle — advance (4) |
| LEAD – double definition. | |
| 12 | Radically new vat, a danger if misused (5-5) |
| AVANT-GARDE – anagram (if misused) of VAT A DANGER. | |
| 16 | Group of team members quarrel, losing heads in courtyard (10) |
| QUADRANGLE – group of team members s(QUAD) and quarrel w(RANGLE) both losing their head letters. | |
| 19 | Tea tree initially causes talk (4) |
| CHAT – tea (CHA), (T)ree. | |
| 21 | Downcast, departed drinking brandy, perhaps (10) |
| DISPIRITED – departed (DIED) drinking brandy perhaps (SPIRIT). | |
| 23 | Said of country life all but past (4) |
| ORAL – of country life is past(ORAL) – enter everything except ‘past’. LOI due to taking ages to clear bucolic out of my head to allow other options in. | |
| 24 | He’s bitter about a duke giving one an advantage (4,5) |
| HEAD START – He’s bitter (HES TART) about duke (D). | |
| 25 | Simple English, say, broadcast (4) |
| EASY – anagram (broadcast) of English – E and SAY. | |
| Down | |
| 2 | A pleasantly appealing French accent (5) |
| ACUTE – a (A), pleasantly appealing (CUTE). | |
| 3 | Conventional flag (8) |
| STANDARD – double definition. | |
| 4 | Worker in branch to the north frequently repeated phrase (6) |
| MANTRA – worker (ANT) in branch – arm – going north/upwards (MRA). | |
| 5 | Motel wrong about right wine (6) |
| MERLOT – anagram (wrong) of MOTEL about right (R). | |
| 6 | Short promotional piece gives confused impression (4) |
| BLUR – short promotional piece (BLUR)b. | |
| 8 | Live on TV channel (6) |
| RESIDE – on (RE), TV channel (SIDE). | |
| 13 | Some in opposition, unlike sister (3) |
| NUN – some of the letters in oppositio(N UN)like. | |
| 14 | Interesting story from one cadet at sea (8) |
| ANECDOTE – anagram (at sea) of ONE CADET. | |
| 15 | Discipline press covering Northern Ireland (6) |
| PUNISH – press (PUSH) covering Northern Ireland (NI). | |
| 17 | A bad-tempered over (6) |
| ACROSS – a (A), bad-tempered (CROSS). | |
| 18 | Cake consumed in Gaul, no end (6) |
| GATEAU – consumed (ATE) in (GAU)l – no end letter. | |
| 20 | Gather a crowd (5) |
| AMASS – a (A), crowd (MASS). | |
| 22 | Architectural drawing of factory, incomplete (4) |
| PLAN – factory incomplete (PLAN)t. | |
I did not find this easy – too many long answers. Quadrangle and avant-garde were particularly annoying. It’s hard to believe I didn’t see Merlot at once, but I had to wait for all three checkers even though I knew it was an anagram.
Time: 10:15.
I got stuck towards the end and in order to finish just on my tartget 10 minutes I took a chance and bunged in AFRESH at 17dn, thinking of ‘starting afresh/starting over’. I knew it would be a mistake to hurry like that, and so it proved.
The setter is showing his age by equating SIDE with TV channel as that harks back to the days when there were only two channels in the UK and people would commonly say things like ‘what’s on the the other side?’ I doubt it’s been used in 50 years. That was when to change channels between 1 (BBC) and 9 (ITV) one had to apply considerable force to click a noisy dial on the side of the set through the intervening channel positions which were all blank. One even had to get out of one’s chair to do it!