An efficient and professional puzzle that I was far too much on the wavelength for, resulting in a time of barely 6 and a half minutes (under pen and paper conditions) that left me feeling a bit shortchanged for a Friday. But there are many worse problems to have. A preponderance of religious terminology and personnel lurking among the answers has suggested a possible identity of the setter to some, on which subject I could not possibly comment, other than to say I thought Tuesday's Guardian cryptic was excellent and even more so if you like that kind of thing.
Got to hurry to do the school run - shouldn't have stayed up late last night to do today's Elgar Toughie before going to bed (check out my ecumenism) so a brief but still wholehearted thank you to our setter. COD 5dn for the clever surface which would necessitate a whole different 8 letter answer in a concise crossword! Boo of the day to 7dn, for being one of those clues that you have to re-read four times to try and decide if you're putting the right answer in. As I didn't submit this over at the Club it is of course possible that I didn't, and have 9ac my face. Let me know!
| Across |
| 1 | CERISE - sort of red: RISE [rebel] going against CE [church] |
| 4 | BEMUSED - disconcerted: SUM reversed [tot "turned over"] + {nightmar}E in BED [cot] |
| 9 | EGG ON - stir: EGG [cake ingredient] + ON [about] |
| 10 | RESURGENT - recovering from failure: USER reversed [employer "brought back"] + R GENT [right | man] |
| 11 | CAMBRIDGE - city: M [maiden] in CAB RIDE [taxi journey] about G [good] |
| 12 | GRAVY - something saucy: V [verse] "penned by" GRAY [poet] |
| 13 | NUNS - religious types: N [any number] "infiltrating" NUS [student organisation] |
| 14 | DISTILLATE - something essential: IS TILL [is | work] in DATE [time] |
| 18 | SEPTUAGINT - translation of the Bible: (SETTING UP A*) ["new"] |
| 20 | CLIP - double def: something gripping / that makes you want to see the whole film |
| 23 | SPREE - double def: merry frolic / European river |
| 24 | PNEUMATIC - sort of drill: (TEAM IN CUP*) ["trained"] |
| 25 | RABBINATE - more than one teacher: (BEAT BAIRN*) ["cruelly"] |
| 26 | RAITA - dish: {c}R{e}A{m} I{s} T{h}A{t} ["to be regularly given a miss"] |
| 27 | PRESTON - city: PRESTO [very quickly] + N [knight] |
| 28 | CAUGHT - trapped: CAT [animal], UGH [how horrible] "to be cornered" |
| Down |
| 1 | CRESCENTS - certain shapes: CENT [money] "invested in" CRESS [plant] |
| 2 | REGIMEN - administration: REGIMEN{t} [group of soldiers "inadequate"] |
| 3 | SUNDRY - several: DRY [shrivelled, maybe] under SUN [UV source] |
| 4 | BASTE - beat: T [time], BASE [mean] "to keep it" |
| 5 | MARIGOLD - flower: MAR 1 [St David's Day] associated with GOLD [yellow] |
| 6 | SMETANA - music he composed: (A MAN'S*) ["excited"] about E.T. [SF film] |
| 7 | DOTTY - crazy: D{i->O}TTY [song "offering love (O) for one (I}"] |
| 8 | BRIDLING - showing indignation: BRIDLING{ton} [Yorkshire resort "lacking style (TON)"] |
| 15 | TENDERED - offered: {wa}R in DEED [legal document] at end of TEN [decade] |
| 16 | EXPECTANT - eager: EXTANT [surviving] "full of" PEC [muscle] |
| 17 | QUIETIST - religious mystic: QUIT [left] "keeping" SITE reversed [place "for reflection"] |
| 19 | PARABLE - the story of the sower: P [soft] + ARABLE [like some ground in (that story)] |
| 21 | LATHING - turning by machine: LATHI N.G. [heavy piece of wood | no good] |
| 22 | SMYRNA - old port: AS reversed [when "turning up"], MY + RN [this person's (joining) the navy] "in that" |
| 23 | SYRUP - sticky stuff: SUP [drink] containing YR [your] |
| 24 | PLAIN - obvious: PAIN [hurt], L [left] "repressed" |