Times 25509 - Comparisons are....

Solving time: 29 minutes
Music: Eric Clapton, Unplugged




This should be pretty easy for most solvers, unless there is something crucial that you just don't know. Fortunately, the definitions and the cryptics are pretty straightforward, so if one doesn't work for you the other is likely to.

After completing the blog, I must say this is a very easy puzzle indeed. I am sure we will have some very fast times. If you have any time left over, please join in the hunt for the unclosed html tag that is creating white space in the blog - I spent 20 minutes looking and can't find it.

Across
1	OVERSHOT, OVERS + HOT. Our cricket bit for the day, easy enough even for US solvers.
6	REAGAN, RE(A)GAN. One of my last in, as I thought 'dramatic' was the literal.
9	MAGNETIC NORTH, double definition, one jocular - and not historically accurate, either. Lord North was far from charismatic, although to be fair nobody was going to be popular pushing George III's policies.
10	ROSTRA, double definition. I didn't quite get the second one, but there is really only one word that fits. You could look it up: the 'beaks' refer to rams mounted on the prows of ships.
11	INFESTED, IN + FE(ST)ED.
12	PENICILLIN, PEN + ICIL + NIL backwards. I really don't quite where ICIL comes from, since 'current' is only 'I'. Audience participation invited. Jack has come up with the solution, it is PEN(I)CIL + NIL backwards, of course.
15	OMEN, [w]OMEN. The literal is a little loose, a bit of definition by example. The writing on the wall may be an omen, but so are many other things.
16	AVID, [d]AVID.
18	COQUETTISH, anagram of CHIT QUOTES.
21	BUDD[-h](+LEI)A. A overly-clever substitution clue - fortunately, I knew the bush.
22	BANANA, BA(NAN)A.
23	TREASURE TROVE, TREASURE + anagram of VOTER.
24	ODIOUS, double definition, the second one a literary allusion to Bottom's famous malapropism, the sort of clue you seldom see nowadays.
26	LONESOME, L(ONE'S O[rder of]M[erit])E.
Down
2	VAMOOSE, V[ide] A MOOSE, originally from the Spanish 'vamos'. It works much better with the moose.
3	RIGHT MINDED, double definition.
4	HYENA, either a cryptic definition or a double, depending on how you look at it.
5	TRIVIAL, TRI(V[erse]I)AL. A mundane clue, too.
6	RING FENCE, double definition.
7	AYR, sounds like AIR.
8	ATHLETE, anagram of HAT + LE([ki]T)E.
12	SPONTANEOUS, anagram of PASS ON NOTE around U.
14	INCREASES, double definition.
17	VAULTED, double definition.
19	QUARREL, double definition. Notice a pattern yet?
20	SUNBEAM, SU[-ri]N(+BE)AM.
22	BATON, BAT + ON.
24	EGO, E.G. + O[ne].