Times 25342 - All I'm looking for is a fair sheik!

Solving time: 65 minutes

Music: Bizet, L'Arlesienne Suites, Martinon/CSO






I knew this would happen - three weeks of easy Monday puzzles, and then when I return to blogging, a more difficult offering. Not, however, as difficult as I made it, struggling with relatively straightforward clues and rejecting ideas that turned out to be quite correct. I don't think this setter was quite on my wavelenghth, since I had less trouble with Sunday's rather witty offering.

My final difficulty involved a rather ambiguous 'sounds like' clue. I was so confident which part was the phonogrist and which the literal that I failed to consider the alternate reading. This was my own fault, but when the two homonyms are the same number of letters I would prefer a more straightforward clue. Only after getting the German locale did I see my error.

.

Across
1	PULL ROUND, PULL + ROUND. I got so stuck on the ecclesiastical meaning of 'canon', I quite forgot my music.
6	AWARD, A + WARD. A well-concealed literal, but for a while I thought this was a substitute 'i' for 's' type of clue.
9	LIKENED, LIKE + NED. My first in, had to start somewhere.
10	RECLUSE, RU(E[x]C[e]L[s])SE. Another relatively easy one.
11	TABOO, BAT backwards + O + O.
13	RUMP STEAK, RUM + anagram of KEPT AS. I got stuck thinking 'tea' was the drink part.
14	SEALPOINT, SEA + L + POINT. Another crafty literal, I'm always forgetting the cats.
16	Omitted.
18	SIKH, sounds like SEEK. Yes, I had 'seek' for a long time, the clue reads equally well either way. I was thinking 'Sikh' had five letters or something, and didn't remember how to spell it until I got the German wood.
19	HARSHNESS, HAR([S]crum]H[alf])NESS.
22	FOOLHARDY, FOOL + HARDY. How 'kisser asked for' works, I cannot say. One of the early commenters will know. See the first comment - thanks, McT!
24	CUT IN, CU + TIN. a very metallic clue.
25	TREMOLO, anagram of LOT MORE.
26	ANISEED, A + N (I SEE) D[inner].
28	PUT ON, NOT UP backwards. A missed chance for a tennis clue.
26	DENIGRATE, anagram of T[ime] REGAINED. I was not helped by not remembering how this word is spelt.
Down
1	PILATES, P(I)LATES. It's hard not to go with 'mate' when you see 'China', but here we have the genuine article.
2	Omitted.
3	RANDOLPH, RAN + PLOD backwards + H[ospital].
4	UNDER, [s]UNDER, where 's' = 'beginning to spread'. A very clever letter-removal clue that had me stumped for a long time.
5	DURA MATER, D(anagram of AMATEUR)R. Laboriously worked out from the cryptic by me, since I am only vaguely familiar with the target answer.
6	ACCOST, sounds like A COST. A soundalike where you can't go wrong.
7	ACUTE ACCENT, A CUTE ACCENT, another one that had me fooled for a bit.
8	DOESKIN, anagram of KID? ONE'S in an &lit that is not hard to spot.
12	BLACK FOREST, B + LACK + F[lying]O[fficer] + REST. Not very difficult if you have the correct crossing letters.
15	ISHERWOOD, IS + HER(WOO)D. I saw this right away from the 'is', but failed to parse it and so rejected it.
17	SHOCKING, S(HOCK)ING. I saw the 'sing' right away, but was very slow with the wine.
18	SOFT TOP, S(OFT)TOP. Another one where I was on the right track, recognizing 'saloon' as a car and 'oft' as a probably component, but still couldn't get it.
20	SINE DIE, DENIS backwards + I.E. A quite deceptive clue with a very smooth surface.
21	Omitted.
23	YEARN, YEAR + N[apoleon].
27	ETA, double definition.