Work commitments have prevented Ringo from blogging today. I hadn’t intended to solve this puzzle, and certainly hadn’t allowed any time for writing this post, so I have had to limit my input to an analysis of the clues and will leave others to comment on the puzzle itself.
| Across | ||
| 1 | CHEMIST | HEM (edge) IS in CT (court) |
| 5 | ACCEPT | ACT (sketch) around CEP (mushroom) |
| 8 | SMALL BEER | double def. |
| 9 | TRAMP | TRAM (city vehicle) P (power) |
| 11 | DRIFT | [roun]D RIFT (break) |
| 12 | PEPPERONI | PEER (look) around PP (pages) ON (about) I (one) |
| 13 | SUNDRESS | SUN (start of week) DRESS (clobber) |
| 15 | GRAPPA | GRA[s]P (understand) PA (dad) |
| 17 | EVINCE | [th]E VINCE (Cable) |
| 19 | UNCLOTHE | UN (peacekeepers) CLOT (set) HE (high explosive) |
| 22 | SOFT PEDAL | anagram (frightfully) of DATES FLOP |
| 23 | AMBLE | M (Monsieur) in ABLE (fit) |
| 24 | RINSE | RISE (get up) around N (noon) |
| 25 | INSIDE JOB | INSIDE (locked up) JOB (book {of the Bible}) |
| 26 | MYRTLE | anagram (entwined) of TRY ELM |
| 27 | MANAGER | A (answer) in MANGER (crib) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | CASH DISPENSER | anagram (foreign) of PRINCESS HEADS |
| 2 | ELATION | [r]ELATION (sister, say, runs away) |
| 3 | ISLET | homophone (is said) of ‘eyelet’ (small hole for peeping) |
| 4 | TRESPASS | SPAS (spring resorts) in TRES (France most) |
| 5 | ABRUPT | A B (British) RU (game {Rugby Union}) PT (point) |
| 6 | CATHEDRAL | anagram (extraordinary) of CARTEL HAD |
| 7 | PEA SOUP | hidden in ‘hoPE AS OU Proposes’ |
| 10 | PRIVATE MEMBER | double def. |
| 14 | RECIPIENT | anagram (is altered) of NET PRICE I |
| 16 | UNCLE SAM | cryptic def. – see Wikipedia |
| 18 | INFANCY | N (northern) FAN (supporter) in ICY (chilling) |
| 20 | TOBY JUG | cryptic def. – a beer mug or jug typically in the form of a stout seated man wearing a three-cornered hat and smoking a pipe. |
| 21 | ADMIRE | DA (attorney) reversed (rising) MIRE (a sticky situation) |
| 23 | ADD-ON | A D (daughter) DON (senior collegian) |
Thanks Jason for a nice gentle puzzle and Gaufrid for blogging it. Two clues I particularly enjoyed were 19ac and 1dn.
Bit of poetic licence in 4dn as “most” approximates to PLUS. “very” would be more accurate for TRÈS.
But then the clue might need to read:
“Spring resorts enter France very illegally”