Sunday Times 4674 by Jeff Pearce - Hertz So Good

26:12. I found this decidedly challenging, but also very enjoyable. As I and others have commented before, Jeff Pearce really seems to have upped his game in recent months.

Not all of this seems to have met with universal approval, judging by the club forum. There was the odd grumble about 17ac, which I thought was rather good, but more ire was reserved for 16dn, which requires knowledge of the old Avis tag line ‘We Try Harder’. I confess I only parsed this post-solve, but when the penny dropped I laughed, and I thought the slogan was sufficiently well-known to be fair game: apparently it was used for fifty years! I certainly don't mind the use of advertising slogans in these puzzles: it seems perfectly in keeping with the more light-hearted tone we expect on a Sunday.

There’s one thing I don’t understand in here: according to my parsing 4dn/7ac requires ‘game’ to indicate HE, and I don’t see how it does. Help gratefully received!

Thanks to Jeff, and here’s wishing all setters, bloggers, commenters and lurkers health and happiness in 2016.

Across
1	Damaged spears must do
	PASS MUSTER - (SPEARS MUST)*.
9	Gounod’s opera doesn’t open with new 24 about Haydn, say
	AUSTRIAN - fAUST, then a reversal of N, AIR (the answer to 24 down).
10	Tory newspaper accepts one version of canard
	CONFIT - CON, F(I)T. A duck being one of the things you’re most likely to see prepared in this way, i.e. cooked in its own fat. Mmmm, fat.
11	See rook in a tree from seat
	BREECH - B(R)EECH. Not a meaning of the word I was familiar with but the wordplay is kind.
13	Game’s extremely messy after a couple of drinks
	GIN RUMMY - GIN, RUM, MessY.
14	Why, say drug user hid horrible instruments
	HURDY-GURDIES - (Y, DRUG USER HID)* where Y is a homophone (say) of ‘why’. ‘Horrible’ is the anagrind, although it could also be part of the definition.
17	The order of chimps?
	ALPHABETICAL - CD, and a very clever one too, based on the fact that the letters of the word CHIMPS appear in ALPHABETICAL order. I hope I wasn’t alone in 1) trying to fit some derivative of ‘primate’ into the grid and 2) thinking the clue didn’t seem very cryptic.
20	They’re said to be the same but they don’t mean it
	HOMONYM - CD. I was confused by this because I thought a HOMONYMity was to do with spelling rather than sounds, but it can be either, or both.
21	Sense belt is fashionable
	WITH IT - WIT, HIT.
22	Odd fish party spotted behind dam
	WEIRDO - WEIR, DO.
23	Monopoly could be badly affected by this pessimistic forecast
	NO CHANCE - if you had NO CHANCE, or no Community Chest for that matter, then your game of Monopoly would be badly affected. Although it might stop you playing the game at all, which would be a very positive effect in my book.
25	Tie? One’s not required on beach
	BOND - BONDi.
26	Camp kind of guy following priest in fashionable shade of purple
	HELIOTROPE - tricky construction here: ELI the priest (also a prophet in the Torah, as we discovered recently) is contained in HOT, then followed by a ROPE: the kind of guy you would find in a camp.

Down
2	It could be bleak in such a tank
	AQUARIUM - CD. A bleak is a kind of fish.
3	TVneeding to be studied for English Lit exam
	SET - DD, one a reference to the phrase ‘SET text’
4, 7a	Uni gym backed hosting musical about game villain
	URIAH HEEP - another tricky one where there’s something I can’t explain so I’m unsure of the construction. I think it’s U (university) and PE (gym) reversed and containing (hosting) a reversal (about) of HAIR (musical) and… HE. I’ve no idea how HE relates to ‘game’. Perhaps I’ve got the wrong end of the stick.
5	Sailor eats grouse — term for game bird
	TANAGER - TA(NAG, gamE)R. I vaguely remembered this bird but I needed all the wordplay to be confident of it.
6	One circle turned into square
	RECONCILE - (ONE CIRCLE)*.
7	One may get cross when it’s published
	HONOURS LIST - CD, and a prescient one considering the current fuss about assorted mates of Dave getting gongs in the most recent list. MBEs, OBEs and whatnot are cross-shaped medals.
8	One leaves Imagine playing to get a puzzle
	ENIGMA - (IMAGiNE)*. The surface would make more sense if you replaced the words ‘get a puzzle’ with ‘clear the room’ or ‘extract information under duress’.
12	Being tried English knight scoffed outside front of assizes
	ENDEAVOURED - E, N, DE(Assizes)VOURED.
15	Insecure pygmy shot six-footer
	GYPSY MOTH - (PYGMY SHOT)*. I have seen ‘six-footer’ and similar for insects enough times to be wise to it these days but it has caught me out in the past.
16	Would those who once tried harder get support in this event?
	DAVIS CUP - D (would), AVIS (‘We Try Harder’), CUP (support).
18	Starts to arrange ways to return weapons
	ARSENAL - ARrange, reversal of LANES.
19	About to throw up over old jacket
	BOLERO - RE, LOB reversed (up), O.
21	Tips of wild asparagus and crushed kernels of nuts
	WACKO - first letters (tips) of wild asparagus and crushed kernels of.
24	Put out caviare evenly
	AIR - the even letters in caviare.