The fact that the explanation takes up close to the same space as the preamble says something for what was going on here. What I hadn’t realised until preparing the grids for the website and actually looking at them for the first time in – oh, yes, easily that many – years, was that the nine-letter word theme crept into the grid design, and there is a quartet of rotationally symmetric 9s formed by the bars. Now that wasn’t intended.
The preamble (including the title) contained three pairs of nine-letter anagrams (TESTAMENT/STATEMENT; MISCHANCE/MECHANICS; UNCORDIAL/RAINCLOUD) and no other nine-letter words (the most blatant way of avoiding a nine-letter word may have been ‘pleonastic’ for the much more common ‘redundant’). These (and phrases like correct anagram) warned that the puzzle’s theme was nine-letter one-word anagrams, and that all nine-letter words discovered were anagrammable. The nine-letter words indicated by the redundant definitions were: CONNOTATE, STREAMING, ISLAMITIC, STAMINATE, CAESARIST, PORTATIVE, HORSEMEAT, STEADICAM and both AUSTRALES and ASSAULTER. The double indication reinforces the ‘shiftiness’ of the nine-letter answers, and all of these can be anagrammed as, respectively: NOTONECTA, EMIGRANTS, ITALICISM, EMANATIST, STAIRCASE, VAPORETTI, HEARTSOME, ACADEMIST and SALERATUS. The barred-off letters (all different) anagram to COASTLINE (as suggested by corrections to misprints which give a direct quote from Chambers: the line or boundary of a coast) but, as the preamble says, this too is misleading. Using SECTIONAL instead gives the required double acrostic of HEAVINESS and ESTIMATES. These, of course, can also be anagrammed to give EVANISHES and STEAMIEST.
ACROSS
1 CRUCIAL; crucia(n) l; Testing
6 PECKER; c,k in peer; Hoe
11 LOTAS; a in lots; also suggest = CONNOTATE
12 MNAS; m(a)n as
13 ACLE; L in ace
14 DECTETS; etc. in sted (all rev.); tEns
15 GEISTS; E in gists; of Muslim religion = ISLAMITIC
16 ESTH; HIDDEN; BaLt
18 GYRES; y in gres(e); rIngs
20 TREE; tre(B l)e; plaNe
21 SATIRIST; sat iris t
23 KOREA; kore a
27 EATEN; ‘Eton’; fEd
28 CARNIVAL; IV in carnal; emperor’s follower = CAESARIST
31 ABLE; (t)able
33 THICK; t hick; slOw
35 NALA; hidden
36 LOATHE; loa(n) the
38 DABSTER; abs t in der; expeRt
41 REME; reme(mber)
42 PITA; pit a; Bread
43 PRASE; ‘praise’; coins in Argentina = AUSTRALES
44 KERRIA; err in kia(-ora)
45 ASSERTS; AS sent s; OK
DOWN
1 CLADES; anag.
2 RONE; r one; gUtter
3 CANTHI; can thi(s); eiNe
4 ISLE; hidden; Dogs
5 AMITY; MIT in ay; organisation of education = STREAMING
6 PARGETER; Arg(ive) in Peter; dAubs
7 ESSE; hidden; Real
8 CAMI-TOP; Tim (rev.) O in cap; ladY
9 ELITE; hidden; tOp
10 REDSEAR; red S ear
17 SAMA; a mas (rev;); showing male tendencies = STAMINATE
18 GRANT; g rant; conFer
19 SKINK; skin k; drUm
22 ISCHEMIA; mi in anag.
24 ET AL; late (rev.); easily carried = PORTATIVE
25 MEAL-ARK; lar(d) in anag; Coffer
26 SEETHER; see the r; bOiling
29 INSURE; n sur in i.e.
30 LARGES; initial letters; quAvers
32 BOREE; bore e; equine food = HORSEMEAT
34 CASAS; a in c ass; support for camera = STEADICAM
37 HOPI; hop I; IndianS
39 BAPS; B A p,s; Tommies
40 EAST; (l)east; attacker = ASSAULTER
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