Independent 8,499 by Phi

As always, Phi has given us a pleasant and sound crossword. He usually has a Nina of some sort, but his Ninas are nearly always too obscure for me and they make no difference to the solving experience (in my opinion this is a good thing), so I haven’t looked very hard. No doubt something is there.

Rather a lot of reversals in the wordplay, it seemed as I was doing the blog. Now that I look, not all that many perhaps.

Definitions in italics.

Across

1 Stop appreciation of music’s charm? (6)
ENDEAR
end ear — a musical ear

4 Clip capturing grandma in Malaysian state (6)
PENANG
Pe(nan)g

10 Sound system not beginning to be a nuisance (5)
ANNOY
{t}annoy

11 Jellyfish, one not initially found in US city (3,6)
SEA NETTLE
Sea({o}ne)ttle

12 Shark lure out of place in inland German city (9)
KARLSRUHE
(shark lure)* — maybe not the most well-known German city, so Phi is kind and helps us with ‘inland’

13 Treasured harking back about volume and gave a good review (5)
RAVED
(dear)rev. around v

14 Clarion and weapons active here? (10,4)
NAPOLEONIC WARS
(clarion weapons)* — &lit.

17 Ministerial outfit to arrest after following many government workers? (8,6)
CLERICAL COLLAR
Not absolutely sure here — it’s ministerial outfit because it’s what a clergyman wears — and I think it’s collar [= arrest] after clerical [= many government workers] but this seems a bit weak for clerical: yes, many government workers are clerical, but is ‘clerical’ a good enough definition of ‘many government workers’? Perhaps ‘clerical is a definition of  ‘following many government workers’. I suspect that there is more here than I can see.

21 Long time before producing facial hair (5)
TACHE
t ache — long, with time coming before it

22 Nice summer to adopt revolutionary cut, slash and burn? (9)
ERADICATE
Nice is that place in France, a staple of crossword setters, so ‘Nice summer’ is été — it’s e(radica{l})te

24 Opens issues about workers’ cartels, primarily (9)
COMMENCES
com(men c{artels})es

25 Friend‘s rule I extracted from 19, possibly (5)
AMIGO
19 is origami, so it’s (origami – r I)* — you can tell that Phi is an Azed solver because he says ‘possibly’ not ‘perhaps’, as was in some major paper recently as an anagram indicator. No doubt Phi follows Azed in feeling that ‘perhaps’ isn’t good enough, but the reasons Azed has given I find hard to follow. All I know is that if I’m entering one of his clue-setting competitions I must be careful with this.

26 Awkward king leaving islands, seizing queen (6)
ORNERY
Or{k}ne(r)y — I had trouble here since I was unaware that ornery = awkward — I had simply thought it was an American version of ordinary — and also for a long time I was reckoning that the queen was going to be ER

27 Game involving touching headwear but not a form of legwear (6)
TIGHTS
tig h{a}ts — tig is a game involving touching

Down

1 Oedipus, say, missing most of the benefit of modern finance? (1-7)
E-BANKING
{Th}eban king, where Th is th{e}

2 Sponsor cross about note being picked up (5)
DONOR
(ro(n)od)rev.

3 Times supporting article girl sent up regarding ocean trenches? (7)
ABYSSAL
a by (lass)rev. — by = times as in ‘2 by 3’ or ‘2 times 3’

5 Facial feature extra raised about end of inane argument (7)
EYEBROW
{inan}e in (bye)rev. row

6 Trivial slips after article describing security software? (9)
ANTIVIRAL
an (trivial)*

7 Girl in valley pursued by US lawyer (6)
GLENDA
Glen DA — District Attorney

8 Fake knowledge occupied sense that’s disordered (13)
PSEUDOSCIENCE
(occupied sense)*

9 Copper for coins? You could make it seem actuarial (8,5)
MATERIAL CAUSE
(seem actuarial)* — but I suspect I’m lost here: what has ‘Copper for coins?’ to do with it? — is it just that copper is a material cause of coins in that it is the original material for them?

15 What’s represented in male cop? (9)
POLICEMAN
(in male cop)* — &lit. — so nice that it must surely have been used before, but it’s new to me — in case you are unhappy with represented, it can be read as re-presented

16 Golfing item in play lifted to reach elevated position? (8)
TREETOPS
(spo(tee)rt)rev.

18 Animal‘s track getting attention on the radio (3,4)
ROE DEER
“road ear”

19 Morning absorbed in mostly beginning paperwork (7)
ORIGAMI
orig(am)i{n}

20 Military leader’s injuries done up in plaster (6)
STUCCO
(CO cuts)rev.

23 Religious group to starve after missing starter (5)
AMISH
{f}amish

*anagram