Yes, it’s me again. That’s two days in a row you’ve had to put up with me! During a first quick pass through the clues this puzzle seemed to be rather tricky, with only seven entries in a rather unfriendly grid (basically four puzzles in one). However, these seven were spread around the grid so at least I had an entry point into each quadrant. After this, progress was steady, if a little slower than usual. The NW corner fell first, followed by the SE, NE and finally the SW.
I think there is a typo in the clue for 12ac, and an incorrect enumeration in 17dn, but these didn’t detract too much from what turned out to be something of a challenge in places. It doesn’t help when you get ?E?E?E, as in 21dn, and some rather cryptic wordplay, but that is what cryptic puzzles are all about and why I enjoy them.
Across
1 Flower border described by plain language (8)
PRIMROSE – RIM (border) in (described by) PROSE (plain language)
5 Huge comedian with second entrant (6)
COSMIC – S (second) in (with … entrant) COMIC (comedian)
9 How to get at coke? Call and pick up (4,4)
RING PULL – RING (call) PULL (pick up {as young men do to young ladies, and vice versa})
10 Escort’s garage is handy to some extent (6)
GEISHA – hidden in (to some extent) ‘garaGE IS HAndy’
11 Secure building through lock (8)
FORTRESS – FOR (through) TRESS (lock)
12 Provide a fine crossing pace (6)
AFFORD – A F (fine) FORD (crossing place) – a typo in the clue methinks
14 A chance to discuss fruit (10)
CONFERENCE – double def.
18 Chatty partygoer without reserve vessel (10)
ICEBREAKER – cryptic def. & def.
22 Gunman with head covered causes alarm (6)
HOOTER – [s]HOOTER (gunman with head covered)
23 Reckon one is into property (8)
ESTIMATE – I’M (one is) in ESTATE (property)
24 Fellow is stiff and cold (6)
FRIGID – F (fellow) RIGID (stiff)
25 Steer through the loud labourer’s entry (8)
NAVIGATE – homophone (loud) of ‘navvy’ (labourer) GATE (entry)
26 Recently left for small city (6)
LATELY – L (left) AT (for) ELY (small city)
27 Exercises search on European bloodline (8)
PEDIGREE – PE (exercises) DIG (search) RE (on) E (European)
Down
1 Free from guilt I’ll get into fantastic fry-up (6)
PURIFY – I in anagram (fantastic) of FRY-UP
2 Walk away from one knight among carnage (6)
IGNORE – I (one) N (knight) in (among) GORE (carnage)
3 Right metaphor, say, turned up in assessment (6)
REPORT – R (right) TROPE (metaphor, say) reversed (turned up)
4 Possibly Selma saw no person on the counter? (10)
SALESWOMAN – anagram (possibly) of SELMA SAW NO
6 Get rounds in with unrestrained vigour (4,4)
OPEN FIRE – OPEN (unrestrained) FIRE (vigour)
7 Flipping card, nobleman makes a total boob (8)
MISCOUNT – SIM (card) reversed (flipping) COUNT (nobleman)
8 Old storekeeper caught by one of the dog squad! (8)
CHANDLER – C (caught) HANDLER (one of the dog squad)
13 Desserts include alcohol to splash on, say (10)
AFTERSHAVE – AFTERS (desserts) HAVE (include)
15 Just terrible giving up first place (8)
RIGHTFUL – [f]RIGHTFUL (terrible giving up first place)
16 Thrill-seeker to slip into crime on the outside (8)
HEDONIST – HEIST (crime) around (on the outside) DON (slip into)
17 This agency of choice cut film title (8)
FREE WILL – FREE WILL[y] (cut film title) – I think the enumeration should have been 4,4
19 Using a cycle for the most part, I’ll find old bomb site (6)
BIKINI – BIKIN[g] (using a cycle for the most part) I – this old bomb site
20 Unknown article seen in busy Arab market (6)
BAZAAR – Z (unknown) A (article) in anagram (busy) of ARAB – how many of you wanted the definition to be ‘Arab market’ and were then unable to parse BAAR from ‘busy’? Nice misdirection!
21 Critical hack with another repetition (6)
SEVERE – SEVER (hack) E (another repetition {ie there are two Es in sever})
I spend 40 minutes on this and only solved 4d and 10a .Some of my feeble attempts were:
1a I correctly guessed that the definition was flower but as in river and tried edge, side, haha etc but all no to avail. Never thought of rim.
9a I thought this was the coke that comes from South America so thought of variations on razor blade, pipe, crack dealer –none of which were near the mark.
11a I did think of tress but I didn’t think of for=through. I don’t get that bit. He went through the gate doesn’t equate to he went for the gate. Through hard work he solved the crossword doesn’t equal for hard work. Help please.
12a When you have no crossing letters a typo gives you no chance.
27a All I could think of was ancestry which had the right number of letters.
3d I don’t think I’ve come across trope which doesn’t help.
7d If you have 5a and therefore m?s to go on, I can see that you might think of sim but otherwise it is hard. I was thinking it had to be card in the sense of a bit of a lad.
20d I thought that a souk had to be involved somehow but wrong again.
Some of the other clues look quite straightforward now but if you can’t see them, you can’t see them. Well blogged sir
Hi Bamberger
Yes, I agree that the synonym in 11ac does seem like a bit of a stretch. I eventually found confirmation in Collins which, under ‘for’, has “because of; through [as in] she wept for pure relief“.
12a Afford can mean provide as in ‘the trees afforded shade to the cattle’ and is given this meaning in most dictionaries.
Sorry, Gaufrid. Ignore my earlier post. I see now that the typo you were referring to was ‘pace’ instead of ‘place’.