No. 10718, Tuesday, 12 Mar 13, xChequer

A crossword in which many clues have smooth surfaces and the components are handled deftly.
I think a theme may be going on. See colorised solutions below.

Across

1  and 11a XX movies? (6,5) DOUBLE CROSS – why ‘movies’ rather than just movie, or film, in the singular? I need help to understand the definitional part. 

4   Properties vary after use (8) FEATURES – anag. of AFTERUSE – Pithy.

10 Bird gets fish and insect (9) COCKROACH – A neat charade.

Sorry if the above pic caused distress to any woman reader and she fell out of the chair.

11 See 1a.

12 Disjointed King Husain eats lizards (7) IGUANAS – Got from the def and crossings. Anno deferred.

One upon the other

13 Something that bells a monster (7) CHIMERA - CHIMER A – Concise and clear.

14 Bigfoot maybe, man's own? (4) YETI –  "Bigfoot maybe" is the def. read: YET I? I will leave the exact anno for discussion by members.

How big is big?

15 Union provided food and drug allowance (10) FEDERATION – FED E RATION – Smooth surface reading.

19 Telescopic aids to furtively observe girls without a trace of guilt (10) SPYGLASSES - SPY (G) LASSES – Superb surface reading. I may observe lasses without a shadow of guilt but I am not sure if I need to be furtive at all. After all, what with many of the girls now wearing what I believe are called leggings, first, the garment makes the leg shapely and then what in fashion circles is called the thigh gap is quite apparent and finally the fabric appears to be thin (not felt). Incidentally, a Tamil magazine this week refers to this garment as 'leg-in' (in Tamil without the hyphen). The writer perhaps thought that because each leg goes into it, it's called leg-in.

20 Clubs to attack deceitfully? (4) – BATS – rev. of ‘stab’ (‘attack’) – Is this a rev. of STAB (‘deceitfully’ being a rev ind or is this a concealed anagram, the anagram fodder being STAB and the AInd being ‘deceitfully’? I can’t say!

Coming to hit?

23 Satirical poem in which one animal revolves around another (7) EPIGRAM – Good surface reading. But don’t jump to conclusion as to the anno. We take a sec to determine what is going on here. It’s rev. of MARE around PIG. The def for the word reqd is apt.

26 Good, grand jury to go over cause of action (7) TRIGGER – TRI(G G) ER – TRIER comes from ‘jury’.

27 Initially insincere tears shed for child (5) BAIRN - While appreciating that the word breakup is not I in BARN,  I leave the anno for any member.

28 Potentially dangerous situation is cause for being late at corner (9) DEATHTRAP -  DEATH (being late) TRAP (corner)

29 Backing secured atmosphere in concert (8)  TOGETHER - xChequer, it seems, doesn't want to get her. Be that as it may, the anno for this clue is left to my reader.

30 Confused and burdened, lay head down (6) ADDLED - I think a letter shift is involved here but I will let my reader to be a little confused and leave him or her burdened with the task of providing the anno.

                                                                                                             

Down   

1 Robbery from rear end concealed in time (7) DACOITY  - DA(COIT)Y - I had to do some checking before I fully comprehended the surface. 'Coit', I learnt, is Aus slang for the buttocks defined here euphemistically as 'rear end' . Why this sudden gravitation among setters towards ‘down under’? Smooth surface.

2 Interior part of region reckoning to divide state line (9) UPCOUNTRY - UP(COUNT)RY – RY comes from line here and the State is UP as often in Gridman’s clues.

3 Sound producer sloppy about track number (6) LARYNX -  LA(RY N)X - Good surface, good def, components indicated with suitable def. RY comes from track, the setter choosing his indication carefully to suit the context.

5 Regressive view reportedly overcoming husband's moral principle (5) ETHIC -  H in rev. ('regressive') of hom. ('reported'] of 'view' – In 'overcoming' we have an apt c/c ind. 

6 Foxy animal retreating with curled tail caught in the middle (8) TACTICAL -  TAC< TI(C)AL* - We don't know where the tail got entangled; the tail having been 'caught [in the middle]', how was it able to be 'retreating', I wonder.

7 About to dam dear waterway (5) RHONE - R(HON)E - 'hon' is short for 'honey' meaning 'dear' as one might address his GF. It would appear that generally it’s a man who calls his GF or wife ‘Honey!’ Even in our Tamil films it’s a man who addresses a woman as ‘kannae, maniae, muththae, manikkamae, maragadhamae, etc. (When the woman asks him to buy any of the stones for her, he may back out.) What does a woman call her BF? I suspect that  even this abbr. in our country generally stands for ‘brought forward’ (as our CA friends here always have that on top of columns in their account statements) rather than ‘boy friend’’.

8 Support country in disgrace (7) SUSTAIN -  S(US)TAIN - A c/c written concisely and clearly.

9 Terms broken and violated, possesses pets perhaps (8) HAMSTERS – HA(MSTER*)S  - Another clue whose anno did not occur to me immediately and which I had to pass over for reconsideration in a leisurely manner. ‘Terms’ is anag fodder, ‘broken’ is anag ind, ‘possesses’ fetches HAS, ‘violates’ I take to be inserticator. I shall stop any further expatiation.

These hamsters are the pets of my cousin's young daughters who live in Coimbatore. 

Photo by special arrangement.

16 Ultimate proceeding suitable for all, all but one? (8) EVENTUAL -  EVENT U AL[l]  -  The componets gel into neat surface - The corrective, hesitant, tentative addition  'all but one' stands well in the clue sentence.

17 Batting forecast a half-century, delivers maiden (9) INAUGURAL - IN AUGUR A L - The components are well-indicated but they don't gel into a neat surface.

18 Instrument for wine bottling at home (8) CLARINET - CLAR(IN)ET - Familar word breakup, but smooth surface reading with a good c/c ind.

19 Drink prepared with infusion of peppermint for example (7) SHERBET -  S(HERB)ET - Smooth surface reading with a good c/c ind. The defs. here and in the above clue are quite broad as they must be - and can be - sometimes.

21 Mature daughter appearing after way is barred (7) STRIPED - ST RIPE D - Smooth surface reading even as different components are indicated clearly. 

22 We gathered his troubled, disturbed end was called for (6) WISHED - W(ISH*)E -[disturbe]D  -  Smooth, plausible surface reading, though we might actually wish that the end of our near and dear, when it comes, is peaceful.

24 Ward off seductive glaze (5) ICING -  [ent]ICING - 'ward' here is the medical department known as ENT - the def. 'glaze' is not too apparent as 'cake topping' or some such phrase might be.

Warding off 

Cartoon by Rishi

25 Fly upwards for instance, a bit slow perhaps? (5) MIDGE - reversal of  EG DIM - 'Fly' is v. in surface reading and n. as def. The subsidiary ind. 'a bit slow, perhaps' goes well with the surface reading but is also quite apt as def for component reqd. 

Where the flier landed (magnified)

Note: I have been able to write this long, detailed blog with a cartoon of my own and an asked-for photo because I got access to the clue sheet some hours in advance.       

SOLVED GRID

LINK TO SOLUTION

The grid is in Italian style