Last time I completely misjudged the mood of the room and praised a puzzle that you all thought was a stinker. This week, I'm going to stick my neck out again and risk my remaining shreds of credibility by giving this one the thumbs up too. Mainly straightforward but with a few witty clues and a new anagrind (for me at least.). 8 Minutes.
| Across | |
| 1 | Woodman to add to sailor's burden? (10) |
| LUMBERJACK - LUMBER (add to burden of) + JACK (tar, sailor). I always thought it was 'woodsman', but both are apparently valid | |
| 7 | Smoke starts to creep into half of garden (5) |
| CIGAR - CI (initials of Creep Into) + GAR | |
| 8 | Surprised exclamation about capital city, recalled in nostalgia (6) |
| MEMORY - MY about ROME backwards | |
| 10 | Plan, article adopted by legislator (3) |
| MAP - A inside MP | |
| 12 | It is back in Iceland, unexpectedly — the very same (9) |
| IDENTICAL - IT reversed, inside an anagram ('unexpectedly') of ICELAND | |
| 13 | Medical assessment has one probing temperature and madness (6) |
| TRIAGE - T is temperature, RAGE is madness, stick I inside. From the French trier, to sort. | |
| 14 | A doctor with it is covering round with skill (6) |
| ADROIT - A + DR + IT with O (round) inside | |
| 17 | Is it ever wrong about blood group types? (9) |
| VARIETIES - A is the blood group, inside an anagram ('wrong') of IS IT EVER | |
| 19 | A lot of wrestling in total (3) |
| SUM - Most of the word SUMO | |
| 20 | Conservative in E-type getting armed guard (6) |
| ESCORT - E-type is E SORT with C for Conservative inside. Nice. | |
| 21 | Best I do some trading (5) |
| IDEAL - barely even cryptic | |
| 23 | Torture device butchers heads of men and women indiscriminately (10) |
| THUMBSCREW - this is nice: an anagram ('indiscriminately') of BUTCHERS + M + W | |
| Down | |
| 1 | See company incentive and train (10) |
| LOCOMOTIVE - LO + CO + MOTIVE | |
| 2 | Fool thinking to disregard sin (3) |
| MUG - MUSING without SIN | |
| 3 | Wrong about a piece of jewellery (7) |
| EARRING - wrong is ERRING, add A | |
| 4 | Sweater bound to come with little hesitation (6) |
| JUMPER - JUMP (bound) + ER | |
| 5 | Astronomical phenomenon to arrive on time (5) |
| COMET - COME + T | |
| 6 | Curried rice soup is greatly appreciated (8) |
| PRECIOUS - anagram ('curried') of RICE SOUP. I don't think I've come across that anagrind before. Nice. | |
| 9 | Two ill with meal dished up? That's the nadir (3-4,3) |
| ALL-TIME LOW - anagram ('dished up') of TWO ILL MEAL | |
| 11 | Flower in formal lines, we hear (8) |
| PRIMROSE - sounds like PRIM ROWS | |
| 15 | Sack girl after course has finished early (7) |
| DISMISS - Girl is MISS, after DIS which is short for DISH | |
| 16 | One suffers endless prison sentence after endless crime (6) |
| VICTIM - endless crime is VIC(e), endless prison sentence is TIM(e). Nice | |
| 18 | Hard to manage standing up for a long time (5) |
| EPOCH - Hard is H (as in pencils), Manage is COPE, all upside down. | |
| 22 | Each source of riches gets attention (3) |
| EAR - Each is EA, source of riches is R | |