Oh the shame! I am sorry everybody, I've had such a busy weekend that I had forgotten I was on duty this morning and have been tidying up admin tasks since 7.00 am instead of doing this!
I'm only going to have time to say:
FOI: 1A, pretty straightforward.
LOI and COD: 8A, nice cryptic with a continental flavour.
Plenty of other very enjoyable clues, really enjoyed it and found it a bit towards the more difficult end of the spectrum. What did everybody else think?
Many thanks to Grumpy, whom I can't remember if I have encountered before. But I like the name as it's what my wife and I call each other whenever one of us gets, well, grumpy!
Definitions are underlined, and everything else is explained just as I see it in the simplest language I can muster.
| Across | |
| 1 | Rastafarian leaders backing former emperor (4) |
| TSAR - the first four letters (leaders) of RASTafarian reversed. | |
| 4 | Musician rings any number to get mother admitted (8) |
| BANDSMAN - BANDS (rings) + N (any number) admitting MA (mother). | |
| 8 | What retired teller did in Parisian milieu? (4,4) |
| LEFT BANK - a cryptic retired teller might have LEFT a BANK. | |
| 9 | Unprepossessing, lumpy, extremely unpleasant (4) |
| UGLY - the 'extremes' of UnpreposessinG and LumpY = UGLY. | |
| 10 | Prison agitation (4) |
| STIR - double definition. | |
| 11 | Stubborn old boy expected to hold rodent (8) |
| OBDURATE - OB (old boy) + DUE (exoptected) 'holding' RAT (rodent). | |
| 12 | Go through ruined arches (6) |
| SEARCH - anagram of ARCHES ('ruined'). | |
| 14 | Praying mantis, say, as part of religious group? (6) |
| INSECT - an example of an insect, which could be read as IN SECT (as part of religious group). | |
| 16 | Regret of stumbling high jumper (4,4) |
| TREE FROG - anagram of REGRET OF ('stumbling'). I don't think tree frogs are particularly high jumpers in terms of jumping many times their body height, but they can be seen cryptically as high jumpers (jumpers who live in trees). | |
| 18 | Expensive honey (4) |
| DEAR - double definition. | |
| 19 | A bit of fluff in one's sherry (4) |
| FINO - hidden in flufF IN One's. | |
| 20 | Child runs with unknown soldiers (8) |
| INFANTRY - INFANT (child) + R (runs) + Y (unknown in the algebraic sense). | |
| 22 | Most verdant meadow seen before short holiday abroad (8) |
| LEAFIEST - LEA (meadow) before FIESTa with the end chopped off (short holiday). | |
| 23 | Guy useless before 4th of November (4) |
| DUDE - DUD (useless) before E (4th letter of NovEmber) | |
| Down | |
| 2 | That woman has two articles to enclose (7) |
| SHEATHE - SHE (that woman) + A + THE (two articles). | |
| 3 | Part of helicopter going up and down (5) |
| ROTOR - a palindrome ('going up and down' in this down clue). | |
| 4 | Sort of scarf for snake (3) |
| BOA - double definition. | |
| 5 | Really expressing agreement about King and I (2,7) |
| NO KIDDING - NODDING 'about' K + I (King and I). | |
| 6 | Royal family united in launches (7) |
| STUARTS - U (united) 'in' STARTS (launches). | |
| 7 | Missing first vote for grant (5) |
| ALLOT - BALLOT (vote) mising its first letter. | |
| 11 | White rose represented differently (9) |
| OTHERWISE - anagram ('otherwise') of WHITE ROSE. | |
| 13 | Stagger away, say, without apparent effort (4,3) |
| REEL OFF - REEL (stagger) + OFF (away). When you REEL OFF something that you have committed to memory then you say it without apparent effort. | |
| 15 | Vegetable, we hear, that's scorched (7) |
| CHARRED - homophone, sounds like CHARD. The only vegetable I know of that traditionally comes from Switzerland. | |
| 17 | Right height in English river (5) |
| RHINE - nice bit of misdirection here, as the English is part of the wordplay and not a dsecription of the river in question. R (right) + H (height) + IN + E (English). | |
| 18 | Row before editor had a meal (5) |
| DINED - DIN (row) + ED (editor). | |
| 21 | Suitable starters for feast in trattoria (3) |
| FIT - first letters of Feast In Trattoria. | |