On the gentler side today from Mara. I came in three minutes under my target, with a bit of biffing and help from some familiar clues. There are a limited number of ways of clueing short clues like 6, 11, 17 and 23 across, while remaining accessible enough for a QC, but there was a good amount of originality elsewhere. "Slick stuff" at 5d, for example, along with lots of fun surface readings, such as the wailing YIMBY at 24ac, the mean-spirited pirate at 10ac, and some bonus political intrigue at 13ac and 4d - good stuff, many thanks to Mara!
| Across | |
| 1 | Dash after fresh paper (9) |
| NEWSPRINT - SPRINT (dash) after NEW (fresh), newsprint being the specific word for the low-grade paper used for newspapers. | |
| 6 | Fruitin vogue (3) |
| HIP - double definition - the first as in rose hip, say. | |
| 8 | Knock back burgundy, one with cold drink (5) |
| CIDER - "knock back" or return the letters of RED (burgundy) I (one) C(old) | |
| 9 | Small pebbles fractured leg, bone alongside (7) |
| SHINGLE - anagram (fractured) of LEG, SHIN (bone) going alongside. Etymology obscure, but possibly onomatopoeic, from the earlier chinkle. | |
| 10 | Drunken pirate providing small drink (8) |
| APERITIF - anagram (drunken) of PIRATE, IF (providing). I must take exception to an aperitif being necessarily small. | |
| 11 | Having run into infant, jog (4) |
| TROT - R(un) into TOT (infant) | |
| 13 | Belgians had turned Asian (11) |
| BANGLADESHI - anagram (turned) of BELGIANS HAD | |
| 17 | However, those may be evens! (4) |
| ODDS - In betting, odds can be evens. | |
| 18 | Old fogy making fresh inroads around university (8) |
| DINOSAUR - anagram (fresh) of INROADS around U(niversity) | |
| 21 | Bird finding cold front in Norway (7) |
| BITTERN - BITTER (cold), N ("front" in Norway) | |
| 22 | Cove in film alongside lake (5) |
| INLET - IN (in) ET (film) alongside L (lake) | |
| 23 | Jack cheers Romeo (3) |
| TAR - TA (cheers) R (Romer) | |
| 24 | One crying loudly, getting lift finally installed for tall building (4,5) |
| BELL TOWER - BELLOWER (one crying loudly) getting T (lifT, "finally") installed. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Sweet liquid Cretan stirred (6) |
| NECTAR - anagram (stirred) of CRETAN | |
| 2 | Club where wife is on the brink (5) |
| WEDGE - W(ife) is on the EDGE (brink): wedge as in the golf club. | |
| 3 | Breakfasttime (8) |
| PORRIDGE - nice and concise double definition, the second being stir or jail time. The OED's first citation is from 1950 in Lag's Lexicon: "when a Judge is giving heavy sentences, he is spoken of as ‘dishing out the gravy (or porridge).’ " | |
| 4 | Iranian plot is surprisingly uplifting (13) |
| INSPIRATIONAL - anagram (surprisingly) of IRANIAN PLOT IS | |
| 5 | Work taking little time, slick stuff? (4) |
| TOIL - T (little time) OIL (slick stuff / stuff wot makes a slick) | |
| 6 | Keep to yourself: painting hard for painter (7) |
| HOGARTH - HOG (keep to yourself) ART (painting) H(ard) | |
| 7 | Quite insignificant about first of results (6) |
| PRETTY - PETTY (insignificant) about R ("first" of Results) | |
| 12 | Fellow into crime, pleasure-seeker (8) |
| HEDONIST - DON (fellow) into HEIST (crime). "Hedon" is Greek for pleasure, but I see it's also a small town in Yorkshire, where bloody battles have been fought over the centuries between the godly and ungodly over whether the demonym is Hedoner or Hedonist, culminating in the terrible events of August 2000, when God smote the town,à la Sodom, with hailstones and a freak mini-tornado. But you won't read that in the history books (or anywhere for that matter). | |
| 14 | One studying another's books? (7) |
| AUDITOR - Cryptic definition. | |
| 15 | Group circling the globe to find frozen dessert (6) |
| SORBET - SET (group) circling ORB (globe) | |
| 16 | Speaker welcomed by senator, a Tory (6) |
| ORATOR - welcomed into the letters of senatOR A TORy | |
| 19 | Let everyone down at the centre (5) |
| ALLOW - ALL (everyone) OW (dOWn, at the centre) | |
| 20 | Rosemary, say, in another bed (4) |
| HERB - "in" the letters of anotHER Bed | |