A fine, well balanced puzzle from Joker again, IMO easier than Wednesday's blog although that might be down to a lack of hangover today. Nothing obscure and a few to make you smile when the penny drops. It took me 8 minutes to solve before starting the write-up. Excuse some brevity, we have visitors.
| Across |
| 1 | WON TON - Later = NOT NOW, reversed, tasty Chinese dumpling. |
| 5 | SUPPLY - Drink = SUP, alternate letters of pally = PLY, def. 'provide'. |
| 8 | TAKE A BACK SEAT - Surprise = TAKE ABACK, chair = SEAT, def. 'to act in a subordinate role'. |
| 9 | EYES - E (top of Everest) YES (certainly), def. 'views', as a verb. |
| 10 | CONFRONT - CON (servative) FRONT (boldness), def. 'face up to'. |
| 11 | SHINTO - Very much = SO, divided by HINT (suspicion), S(HINT)O, def. Religion in Japan'. |
| 13 | ASPIRE - (PRAISE)*, indicated by 'excitedly', def. 'strive for higher things'. |
| 15 | CROCKERY - C (cold) ROCKERY (stony part of garden), def. 'all kinds of earthenware.' |
| 17 | SACK - SLACK (careless) with the L left out, def. 'bag of material'. |
| 19 | ROUGH AND READY - (OUR HYDRANGEA'D)*, not very elegant, indeed a slightly clumsy anagram. |
| 21 | UNTRUE - UN(I)T, RUE (regret), def. 'false'. |
| 22 | MORSEL - The Oxford detective plus L for learner. Apologies for omitting this earlier, my printscreen - paste method of getting the quickie on paper dropped this last clue off the page. |
| Down |
| 2 | OVARY - Madame Bovary loses her head (B), def. 'part of flower'. I read this recently because it's free on Kindle, it was less bad than I expected. |
| 3 | TREASON - T (turncoat's first) REASON (justification), def. 'disloyalty'. |
| 4 | NUB - Hidden word reversed in DE(BUN)KERS, def. 'the central point'. |
| 5 | SECONDARY - (A DRY SCONE)*, def. 'inferior'. |
| 6 | POSER - Double definition. |
| 7 | LEARNER - Def. 'student', removing the central R would give you LEANER = more unproductive. |
| 10 | COOPERATE - COOPER (cask maker) ATE (took in), def. 'work with other (joiners)'. |
| 12 | HARPOON - HARP (instrument) + O + ON, def. 'whaling ship will have this'. |
| 14 | PASTEUR - PAST (former) EUR (European), Louis Pasteur, 1822-95, French chemist and bacteriologist chap, immortalised in 'pasteurisation'. |
| 16 | CIGAR - GI (american soldier) reversed, IG, in CAR (motor), def. 'smoke'. |
| 18 | CADRE - CARE (feel concern) about D (firebrand's end), CA(D)RE, def. 'revolutionary group'. |
| 20 | DAM - MAD (very angry) reversed, def. 'flood prevention barrier'. |