Across
1. REVILED. Rev of "deliver" (free).
5. BUCK+RAM. Two males. Not, in itself, strictly a stiffener. OED has "coarse linen or other cloth stiffened with gum or paste and used typically as interfacing and in bookbinding".
9. FACTION. F for "loud" + action. Now why "action" is "rendering of music" is moot. A musical instrument, such as a guitar or piano, has an action (its relative ease of playing); but that's the only possible connection I can find.
10. RUSSIAN. Which can be changed into "Prussian" (blue) if you add a P[ainting]. But the clue doesn't actually say anything of the sort.
11. SURREPTITIOUSLY. Anag with "problem" as the dubious anagind.
12. DROOPS. Here we're simply dependent on the double meaning of "flag": to droop (verb) or else something which might droop in calm weather. The Turner Prize for this one: rubbish badly disguised as art.
14. ROMANCED. Anag of "manor" + rev of DEC[ember].
17. RESISTED. RED (flushing) around anag of SITES.
18. SYRUPS. This one doesn't even get into the Turner Prize. It's simply rubbish with no artistic pretentions whatsoever. What we're expected to do here is to find SPURS (encourages) and reverse it; then insert Y (manY end). I suspect that Dorothy had the elements for this and then muddled them up -- too many Bristol Creams perhaps -- forgetting that the def (sweet drinks) can't be in the middle of the clue.
21. GREYHOUND RACING. Good anag this time. Except the enumeration (8,6) is wrong. There's always something to spoil the occasional good clue, isn't there? And I sure hope the "sport" part isn't an address to the Australian audience!
24. TWINSET. OED: "a woman's matching cardigan and pullover sweater". WIN inside rev of TEST.
25. EPERGNE. OED: "an ornamental centerpiece for a dining table, typically used for holding fruit or flowers". Anag of "pea-green" minus A.
26. AXE+HEAD. Never seen this as an un-hyphenated single word.
27. TRANSIT. NS (poles) inside TRAIT.
Thanks to BG for pointing out that I missed this one in the initial posting.
Down
1. REF + USED.
2. VICAR+IOUS.
3. LOIPE. Obscure (?) German word for cross-country ski run. Inside "carLO I PErhaps". Breaks the rule of unused words in the inclusive -- in this case "Monte". For the punishment, see 6dn. (May not be so obscure today when the whole of Germany is expected to turn into a cross-country ski run?)
4. DON+ATE.
5. BARS+TOOL. As in "Under more pressure than Kim Beasley's ...".
6. CASSOWARY. About (CA) + concealed anag of SOS + WARY. The concealed anag (even as just one part of a clue) is the ultimate Ximenean crime and is punishable by drowning in a vat of Bristol Cream. Except I can imagine Dorothy getting out a couple of times or so for a pee.
7. RAILS. The lowest form of wit.
8. MON+EYED. Are you getting fed up with this kind of construction yet?
13. POST-HASTE. An anag of "as the" with "cook" as the angind.
15. CHURINGAS. Straight anag.
16. REQUITED. QUITE ("in fact") inside RED. This time "red" isn't Russian (10ac) or flushing (17ac) but bust.
17. REGATTA. Anag of "a target".
19. SUGGEST. Take "guest signs in", then delete "inn is", then do the anag thing on what's left. Def = "hint".
20. AD+VENT. Zzzzzzzzzzz.
22. ELITE. Two meanings. One of them typographical (12 point; 12 characters to the inch).
23. ARENA. Nuff said.
And today's actual Times = 24399, 3 Dec 2009
http://community.livejournal.com/times_xwd_times/487199.html
