A new setter for me, I think – and he (if he is a he) gave me a real struggle this morning. A fair fight, mostly, although I felt that there were one or two low blows (at 16 down, particularly).
ACROSS
1. IMPOUND I [one] + M [million] + pound [quid]
5. PRESTO Rest [breaktime] within reversal of op [opus, work]
8. DECK CHAIR Deck [pack (of cards)] + I [one] within char [daily (cleaning lady)]
9. CLIMB C(aubvick) + limb [branch]
11. SPOKE A double definition, I think: a wheel’s spoke goes in to the hub and out to the rim. Seems questionable, though
12. GOOD NIGHT Sounds like good knight
13. ROOMMATE Anagram of Tom amore
15. DRY-ROT Dr [doctor] + reversal of Tory [Conservative]
17. ARCANE Arcade [shopping mall] with N [name] replacing D [diamonds]
19. CONCRETE C [cold] + on [close??] + Crete [Greek island]
22. INTERLOCK Inter [bury] + lock [tuft of hair]
23. ADIEU Die [‘buy the farm’, colloquially] within AU [Australia]
24. TIRED Ire [anger] within TD [Teachta Dála, member of the lower house of parliament in Ireland]
25. SWISS ROLL Swiss [European] + roll [sounds like role, position]
26. CRAYON C [circa, about] + ray [shaft of light] + on
27. TANGENT Tan [(beat with a) cane] + gent [honourable chap]
DOWN
1. INDUSTRIALIST In + dust [clean] + rial [money] + is + t [time]; the allusion is to the steel and ammunition producer
2. PICCOLO Pic [snap, photograph] + col [colonel, officer] + o [old]
3. UNCLE ‘Uncle’ is a slang term for a pawnbroker
4. DRAUGHTS Double definition: a draught from a window might give you neck-ache
5. PARROT Par [the usual] + rot [tosh]
6. ECCENTRIC EC [East Central, postcde for the City of London] + cent [copper (coin)] + ric(h) [affluent]
7. TRIGGER T [time, again] + rigger [oilworker]
10. BITE THE BULLET Double definition
14. MAN FRIDAY F [fellow] within anagram of main yard
16. FORKLIFT F [the fellow from the previous clue, as indicated (inadequately) by the linking ellipses] within anagram of of KL fit; no idea why this is in italics. EDIT: anagram of KL fit for (thanks to MikeC)
18. CATERER Crate [old slang for an aeroplane] with the r ‘moved along’ + ER [Elizabeth Regina, queen]
20. EPISODE (On)e + anagram of poised
21. POISON Prison [chokey] with r [resistance] replaced by o [0, nought]
23. ARSON (P)arson [churchman]
Thanks Ringo and Jason. Enjoyed this. My least favourite was SPOKE. For 16d, I thought it was an anagram (“stacking”) of “KL fit for”. Maybe the italicised “this” is related to double duty of stacking? Can’t quite see why clues 14 and 16 are linked.
You’re quite right, of course, Mike – brain must have seized up at 16dn. The “link” and italicising are still mystifying, though.
Thanks Jason for a pleasant puzzle and Ringo for the blog.
11ac: I think Collins 2000 gives us enough here. We have spoke² 1 a radial member of a wheel, joining the hub to the rim. 2 a radial projection from the rim of a wheel, as in a ship’s wheel – this gives us the justification for “Member going in and out”, and then of course spoke¹ the past tense of speak for “told”, with “is” as a linking word. This is the type of double definition clue that I usually find most satisfying, where two words of completely different origin have converged in spelling.
19ac: I think ON is clued by “close to”.
7dn: I am not completely happy with “on” to mean “following” in a down clue. The counter-argument to my position is that the word is formed horizontally and then entered vertically. As usual, I have no quarrel with those who take this position.
14/16dn: I think the ellipsis is simply to make a complete sentence of the surface meanings.
18dn: I am not completely happy with “moving … along” to mean moving a letter later in a word in a down clue. The counter-argument … (see comment at 7dn).
Very pleasing puzzle, with a great flow to the clues. On the easy side, but nothing wrong with that. Thanks, Ringo, and Jason (and I think I’m giving no major secrets away in confirming it’s a ‘he’ who sets with distinction under many other guises).