For some reason I romped away with this one, finishing the SW and NE quarters in little time at all, with a few write-ins like 8d, 13d, 15a,20a, 16d. Then the SE fell into place, once I'd unravelled the anagram at 27a. Soon I was left with 1d, 2d and 9a. In retrospect, there's nothing really difficult there, but it took me a good 15 minutes to get them all, especially as I'd tried hard to justify ROGER BACON for the cleric. However all was well in the end; no doubt the usual suspects found this a stroll in the park and my struggles were self-imposed due to blogging stress.
| Across |
| 1 | BORED STIFF - A row (argument) of futons could be a BEDS TIFF (groan); insert OR for men; def. yawning a lot? |
| 6 | CHOP - CH chapter, OP start of OPUS work; def. cut. That easy. |
| 9 | MINOR CANON - ON = working, alongside MINORCAN = islander; def. cleric. You wouldn't believe how many wrong roads I went down before seeing the right islander. |
| 10 | SNOG - S small, NOG drink, def. pet. In my day petting was next after snogging, but we'll not go into more detail. |
| 12 | ISOLATIONIST - You probably biffed this, but it's I (one) SO (very), LATINIST (classical scholar) with O (old) inserted; def. a loner. |
| 15 | ENTRECOTE - ENTREE = starter, insert CO (firm) T (initially tender); def. steak. |
| 17 | TIGER - G in TIER (bank); def. dynamic Asian economy. Fast becoming a historical term, it seems, at least as far as China is concerned. |
| 18 | RAIDS - R for resistance leader, AIDS = helps; def. forays. |
| 19 | EXTEMPORE - an EX TEMP is an old office worker; (T)ORE is 'ran, out of time'; def. unexpectedly. |
| 20 | BIT ON THE SIDE - witty(ish) cryptic double definition. |
| 24 | EVAN - (K)NAVE is a scoundrel, remove the K and reverse; another four letter Welsh chap, to go with IVAN and EWAN and EUAN and the rest. |
| 25 | QUADRANGLE - (S)QUAD is team, heading off; RANGLE sounds like WRANGLE = fight; def. playground. I'm sure there were times when we treated Peckwater as a playground, but it seems an odd definition. |
| 26 | KEEP - A treble (triple?) definition; PEEK reversed = look round; part of a castle, and your keep is your B&L. |
| 27 | NEOREALIST - (ONE SERIAL)*, anagrid 'shot', T from Technicolor; def. particular filmmaker. I thought neorealism was an art movement, so I've learnt something new. |
| Down |
| 1 | BOMB - Pack, up, is MOB, reversed, then B is second-rate; def. turkey, a flop. Even with B*** this took me an age, although it's easy enough and maybe a chestnut. |
| 2 | RUNT - Another little clue which took me an age; I was fixated on it ending in L (animal finally) and invented a RATL for a while; RUN = control, T = end of 'brought'; def. small animal. |
| 3 | DORIS LESSING - Recently read one of hers, so this went in quickly; DO = achieve, then LESS inside RISING. |
| 4 | TRAIL - TR = right (rt) reversed; AI - main road, L; def. move slowly. |
| 5 | FROSTIEST - ROSTI (or RÖSTI) is a potato dish, inside FEST for celebration, not half; def. extremely cold. |
| 7 | HUNTINGDON - double definition, one sounds like a teacher of hunting, one a place near Cambridge. |
| 8 | PAGE-TURNER - another double definition, not the strongest clue of the week. |
| 11 | COSTUME DRAMA - (ACTORS MADE)*, anagrind 'merry', around UM = hesitation, def. historical production. |
| 13 | HEARTBREAK - HEAR (discover), TEAK (tree) around BR (brother); def. suffering. |
| 14 | STRIPTEASE - STRIPE (band) around TE (first 2 of tenor) AS (when); def. show. |
| 16 | OPEN HOUSE - OPEN is alternate (regularly offered) letters of cOuPlE iN; HOUSE = parliament; def. hospitality. |
| 21 | SEDER - SE = extremely severe, DER = red (cardinal) reversed; def. ceremony. A Jewish dinner ceremony at Passover, apparently, I'd never heard of it. |
| 22 | UGLI - fruit, hidden reversed in ev(IL GU)y. |
| 22 | REST - RESIT is to take exam again, remove (but not) I; def. the others. |