Fearing another vintage torture session alongside a Championship Qualifier, I was relieved - or even a little disappointed - to receive this relatively straightforward but enjoyable puzzle, solved in 20 minutes over the tea and toast.
There's quite a wild collection of nouns in these answers; I started to speculate about the short story you could come up with, if instructed to use as many of these words as possible in it; drugs, toilets, dodgy trousers, a vertically challenged artist, seductive women... best entry wins a turn head-first down 27a? [enough - Ed.]
| Across |
| 1 | SUPPORTER - SUP = drink, PORTER = a drink, def. one behind another, a backer. |
| 6 | TURIN - TURN = go, around the I of Italy; Turin or Torino was the first capital city of Italy from its proclamation in 1861 and in my experience has the best restaurants in the country. |
| 9 | GANJA - NAG = horse, reversed GAN, JA = yes in German etc., def. drug; marijuana, pot, weed, cannabis, especially so-called in the Caribbean. |
| 10 | BRAINLESS - B = ultimately dumb; RAINLESS = clear; &lit. |
| 11 | TOULOUSE-LAUTREC - TOULOUSE = European city, (CLARET U)*; I can recommend a visit to the T-L Museum in Albi, just up the road from Toulouse. |
| 13 | LANDLORD - LAND = to catch, 'supposedly drunk' = drunk as a LORD; def. innkeeper. |
| 14 | TENDON - TENON = part of a joint, insert D for died, def. tissue. |
| 15 | OEUVRE - The LOUVRE = museum, not initialled = remove the L, insert E = heading for exhibition; def. work of art. Old French word for work. |
| 18 | LAVATORY - LAVA = hot flower, TORY = blue, def. for the Ladies, perhaps. I spent a minute or two thinking H - river - loo before the penny (to spend) dropped. |
| 21 | PITHECANTHROPUS - (NAP THE COURTSHIP)*, anagrind 'sadly'. Java Man, homo erectus, hence 'old man'. |
| 23 | NEW JERSEY - Double definition; US State, and a possible new 'top'. From Top Shop, perhaps. |
| 25 | BAKER - BANKER = financier loses N = unspecified amount; def. one making a bloomer? A bloomer being a type of loaf. |
| 26 | SEWER - Double definition, different pronunciations. |
| 27 | CRESTA RUN - (AS CURRENT)*, anagrind 'swirls'. I suspect 'thrilling' descent is an understatement. |
| Down |
| 1 | SIGHT - Sounds like 'site'; or even 'cite' (see below); a faculty or sense. |
| 2 | PENGUIN SUIT - Cryptic definition, nickname for a dinner jacket. |
| 3 | ON A ROLL - Double definition. |
| 4 | TO BE SURE - (TRUE SO HE)*, anagrind curious; def. certainly. Bit of a weak anagram. In 14 years living in Ireland I can't once remember a local saying 'to be sure' once, never mind twice (as in the yellow lines joke). |
| 5 | REALLY - Cryptic double definition, of a sort. |
| 6 | TONSURE - TON = heavy weight, SURE = certain, def. severe haircut. |
| 7 | RUE - ROUE = philanderer, remove O = love; def. cry over. |
| 8 | NOSE CANDY - NO, SEC = little time, AND = with, Y = end of February, def. snow, cocaine, blow. |
| 12 | RED-HOT POKER - RED-HOT = passionate, POKER = game, def. one bedded. Kniphofia, a flower often found in beds and crosswords. |
| 13 | LOON PANTS - LOTS = many, 'clothes' ON PAN = on youthful boy, LO(ON PAN)TS; def. seventies fashion; ridiculous looking trousers, now you see the photos, although at the time we thought they were pretty cool. |
| 15 | CAT THYME - (AM TETCHY)*; def. plant. Teucrium Marum, for those who like to know these things; not a true thyme, a relative of germander, supposed to deter cats. |
| 17 | ROE DEER - Sounds like 'row, dear'; def. Bambi. Worth a groan. |
| 19 | ACROBAT - A CROAT, insert B = bishop; def. one taking a tumble? |
| 20 | PARSEC - PARSE = dissect, C = speed of light; def. a measure of astronomy. A parsec is the distance from the Sun to an astronomical object that has a parallax angle of one arcsecond; about 31 trillion kilometres. Our nearest star Proxima Centauri is about 1.3 parsecs away. |
| 22 | SIREN - SIRE = father, N = Brown's ultimate; def. charmer. |
| 24 | WOW - Palindrome, def. incredible! |