This is the first puzzle I've blogged from Pedro, and a lovely one it was too. I thought some of the surface readings were excellent, adding a rich extra layer to the answer. I particularly liked 4ac, and had a good chuckle at 11ac, but also enjoyed the forelock-tugging lord at 12ac, the struggling ship at 22ac, and the dodgy dancer at 14d. Lots of other good things going on as well. It took me slightly over my target, coming home a bit shy of 11 minutes, with my main hold-ups being in the far East (7d and 16d, and their crossers, 4ac and 19ac). Thoroughly enjoyable - many thanks to Pedro!
| Across | |
| 1 | Say no tojunk (6) |
| REFUSE - double definition. | |
| 4 | Neckwear twisted after suppressing a disturbance (6) |
| FRACAS - SCARF (neckwear) - twist/reverse it, contain/suppress an A. | |
| 8 | Difficult individual to wake? Not entirely (7) |
| ONEROUS - ONE (individual) to ROUSe (wake - not entirely: cut the last letter) | |
| 10 | Rubbish used to be placed next to note (5) |
| WASTE - WAS (used to be) placed next to TE (note, also spelt ti) | |
| 11 | Strip to highlight one’s naked glory, primarily (5) |
| THONG - First letters of the five words preceding "primarily". | |
| 12 | Me, a Lord, excited in peer's estate (7) |
| EARLDOM - anagram (excited) of ME A LORD. You could take "estate" to refer to the earl's position/rank, or to the actual land. | |
| 13 | Fool is amusing or funny (9) |
| IGNORAMUS - anagram (funny) of AMUSING OR | |
| 17 | Astronomical phenomenon in bits of film shown in middle of week (7) |
| ECLIPSE - CLIPS (bits of film) shown in EE (middle of wEEk) | |
| 19 | Mere husband taken in by prophet (5) |
| SHEER - H(usband) taken in by SEER (prophet): sheer = mere = pure. | |
| 20 | Failure, involving new argument (3-2) |
| RUN-IN - RUIN (failure) involving/including N(ew) | |
| 21 | Security is regressive in storehouse (7) |
| DEPOSIT - SI (backwards/regressive "is") in DEPOT (storehouse). | |
| 22 | Ship entering sound exhibiting difficulty (6) |
| HASSLE - SS (SteamShip) enters HALE (sound/well) | |
| 23 | Larder with unknown level (6) |
| STOREY - STORE (larder) with Y (maths unknown) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Marsupials circling stone to find places to rest (6) |
| ROOSTS - ROOS (marsupials) circling ST (stone) | |
| 2 | Deafen sailors at sea in North Atlantic location (6,7) |
| FAEROE ISLANDS - anagram (at sea - as in "all at sea") of DEAFEN SAILORS | |
| 3 | Firearm that’s initially carried by Japanese VIP (7) |
| SHOTGUN - T (That's, initially) carried/held by SHOGUN (Japanese VIP). Broadly synonymous with "tycoon", the shogun was the hereditary military commander of feudal Japan, and the de facto ruler of the country, from 1185 until feudalism was abolished in 1867. | |
| 5 | Apparently argumentative boatman? (5) |
| ROWER - Cryptic definition, with a pun on arguing/rowing. | |
| 6 | Princesses had unusual source of funds (4,9) |
| CASH DISPENSER - anagram (unusual) of PRINCESSES HAD | |
| 7 | Erotic extremes in story about sporty group (6) |
| STEAMY - SY (extremes in StorY) going around TEAM (sporty group). I was toying with something like E(CE)LAT for a sporty group. | |
| 9 | Lead that woman with a daughter to eat fruit (9) |
| SPEARHEAD - SHE (that woman) with A D(aughter) to eat PEAR (fruit) | |
| 14 | Stop him dancing in part of rock arena (4,3) |
| MOSH PIT - anagram (dancing) of STOP HIM. Good image of sweat flying from a wet, tousled mane a-leaping, to a sufficiently antisocial level to necessitate immediate cessation. | |
| 15 | Expensive getting only half of this in shortage (6) |
| DEARTH - DEAR (expensive) getting only half of THis | |
| 16 | Fairly unimportant to bridge river (6) |
| PRETTY - PETTY (unimportant) to bridge R(iver) | |
| 18 | Review body, perhaps, to criticise closures of theatre and hospital (5) |
| PANEL - PAN (criticise) "closures" of theatrE and hospitaL. | |