My apologies for a very late and rushed blog today, I hope this hasn’t inconvenienced anyone.
ACROSS
1 STIPENDS: S (small) TIP (gratuity) and ENDS (completes)
5 PANDAS: PAN (criticise) and SAD (moving) reversed
9 CISTERNS: STERN (rigid) inside C (carrbon) IS
10 PRESTO: REST (break) following P (piano, first letter) then O (concerto, last letter)
12 EARLY: dEARLY (at great cost) only the letters to the left (east) of the front letter
13 OVERSHOOT: SHOO (drive away) in OVERT (public)
14 SMALLS: ALL inside SMS (text message)
16 TROTTER: cryptic definition, pig’s foot which I guess it would ‘lead’ with, ie go forward, as in a dance T (leading letter of ‘the’) and ROTTER (swine) & Lit, a pig leads (starts walking/dancing) with it’s foot. Thanks to deke for this.
18 RENAULT: AU (gold) L (last letter of medal) inside RENT (hire)
20 PISANO: hidden inside ‘bitmaP IS ANOmalous’, another name of the mathematician Fibonacci
22 CRAB APPLE: BAP (bread roll) inside PARCEL*
23 CEASE: C (cold) and EASE (comfort)
24 RAISIN: RAISINg (producing) reduced quantities=without grams
25: FINALIST: FINA (the International Swimming Federation) and LIST (tip, lean over)
26 DRYING: R, the tail-ender (last letter) of ‘opener’ inside DYING (final) – definition is ‘wilting’
27 DESTINED: ISNT* inside DEED (legal document)
DOWN
1 SOCCER: C (clubs) inside SCORE*
2 INSTRUMENTALITY: (TURN IS)* with MENTALITY (thinking, understanding) – definition is ‘medium’, the means through which one does something
3 ENEMY: hidden and reversed in ‘manY MEN Eventually’
4 DINGOES: DIN (commotion) and GOES (stes off)
6 ABRASIONS: I one ON playing inside A BRASS (section of orchestra)
7 DISCONTINUATION: DISCO (dance) UNIT (group) reversed inside NATION (country)
8 SPOTTERS: POTTER (do litttle) inside SS (steam ship)
11 TENT: TENNanT (leaseholder) without ‘an’
15 LAUDATION: Niki LAUDA (famous Formula 1 racing driver) and IT reversed and ON
17 PROCURED: PRO (career sprtsman) and CURED (no longer sick)
19 TOPS: SPOT (location) reversed
20: PRECISE: REC (record) and IS inside apPEal (middle of)
21: TESTED: DiSkETTE* with 1K removed
23 CRAFT: ARC (curved line) reversed (drawn up) on FT (paper, Financial Times)
Hi PeeDee. I think in your haste you overlooked that 16A can be read as T (leading part of “the’) + ROTTER (swine), and &lit.
There we are: TROTTER was my last entry (having made a mistake in 7d) and where PeeDee thought it was a CD, I went for a DD – but deke, you are surely right. What a clever clue.
That said, I thought this puzzle had a real overdose of clever clues anyway. We always admire Loroso, Alberich and the like, and then say that there are “too many good clues to single out”. I think, today Styx should get the credits he deserves for an outstanding crossword.
There were only two clues that didn’t really work for me.
24ac: “in reduced quantities” for “less G” is one of them. I do not like the plural (of “quantities”) in this clue.
27ac: I needed the blog to understand what was going on, but still feel uncomfortable with the word “with” in “Tail-ender with opener” – I have been criticised for a similar thing in the past and I do understand why now.
All in all, great crossword.
And a warm welcome back to Styx after a two-months gap!
Yes, a gem of a puzzle. A wide variety of clues, all clever, but with a good range of difficulty. Thanks Styx and also Peedee – bloggers contribute so much to the understanding of puzzles and the fact that you manage to do this when no doubt life intervenes is admirable.
Thanks PeeDee and Styx. Enjoyed overall. I struggled with the combination of 2d and 26a, going for INSTRUMENTALIST and DOTANT. Both are proper words (the latter new to me) and mentalist is a reasonable interpretation of “medium”. Maybe some more editing needed?
Thanks to deke for the explanation of TROTTER.
This was indeed a good crossword, unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to give it the time it deserved. Crosswords are like poetry, best appreciated slowly.