I think I may only once have blogged an eXternal puzzle, and goodness me, this one seemed very hard at first. The grid initially filled up very slowly, and from the bottom upwards. In fact I think it was only the following Saturday that the final entries fell into place.
A great puzzle all the same. There are some very well-hidden definitions in there, and the surfaces are especially smooth, so many thanks to eXternal for a very enjoyable Sunday challenge.
| Across | ||
| 1 | HUFFS | Hot winter clothing master’s left for pets (5) |
| H + [m]UFFS | ||
| 4 | DIRECTORS | Those managing to free back, releasing corset (9) |
| RID< + CORSET* | ||
| 9 | NORMANS | Some Frenchmen contracted ordinary Poles (7) |
| NORMA[l] + N + S | ||
| 10 | BRADAWL | Scrap housing commercial, one that bores (7) |
| AD in BRAWL | ||
| 11 | WHIPPERSNAPPERS | Youths showing cheek through separating cat and fish (15) |
| WHIP + PER + SNAPPERS | ||
| 12 | VENDETTA | Feud tortured vet at end (8) |
| (VET AT END)* | ||
| 14 | SONATA | Working inside, modelled a composition (6) |
| ON in (SAT + A) | ||
| 17 | NAILED | Accomplished celebrity cook, Nigella’s beginning to make comeback (6) |
| (DELIA Smith + N[igella])< | ||
| 18 | DOWNHILL | Departs private hospital, sick and declining (8) |
| D + OWN + H + ILL | ||
| 20 | FLIGHT ATTENDANT | In half-light at ten, Dante receives help on lines (6,9) |
| [hal]F–LIGHT AT TEN DANT[e]. Probably the longest hidden answer I’ve seen, and surprisingly hard to spot | ||
| 22 | KATYDID | Eating time, one following jay finished insect (7) |
| (T in JAY) + DID | ||
| 23 | ITEMISE | After reorganisation, site invites in recording company to make inventory (7) |
| EMI in SITE* | ||
| 24 | SPRAWLING | Spread out well to protect a wall’s perimeter (9) |
| (A + W[al]L) in SPRING | ||
| 25 | ERNST | Surrealist showing birds back to front (5) |
| from TERNS, with the T moved to the “front”, and not reversed at all, as might first be inferred. The surrealist in question would be Max Ernst | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | HAND-WOVEN | Prepared with craft broken down in harbour (4-5) |
| DOWN* in HAVEN | ||
| 2 | FOREIGN MINISTER | Powerful person in government, Angela Merkel, for instance (7,8) |
| double definition | ||
| 3 | SCARP | Craps game leads to slippery slope (5) |
| CRAPS* | ||
| 4 | DISCRETE | Separate daughter and son between two islands (8) |
| D + (S in (I + CRETE)) | ||
| 5 | RIBAND | Playing in drab strip (6) |
| (IN DRAB)* | ||
| 6 | CLAMPDOWN | Applaud entertaining maiden and overthrow suppression (9) |
| (M in CLAP) + DOWN | ||
| 7 | ORAL EXAMINATION | Test confidence after losing leader, greatest upset before one country (4,11) |
| [m]ORALE + MAX< + I + NATION | ||
| 8 | SILKS | Gowns, sort to be carried by ship (5) |
| ILK in SS | ||
| 13 | EYE SHADOW | Report of how investigator might describe job application targeted at women (3,6) |
| homophone of “I shadow” | ||
| 15 | ALLOTMENT | Share mental wrangling about destiny (9) |
| LOT in MENTAL* | ||
| 16 | SOOTHING | Very old creature is restful (8) |
| SO + O + THING | ||
| 19 | GANDHI | Granny oddly hid animated film epic (6) |
| G[r]A[n]N[y] + HID* | ||
| 20 | FAKES | Puts on designs after sex-change (5) |
| from MAKES with the M becoming F | ||
| 21 | NIECE | Relative half-chance, that is to be taken in (5) |
| IE in [cha]NCE | ||
* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition
I thought this was a good puzzle, although I wonder if I am missing something at 25ac because surely “birds back to front” means “terns” would become “stern”.
Like Simon I finished the top half of the puzzle after the bottom half, and HUFFS was my LOI after SCARP.
25a ERNST is the subject of the wordplay. It’s “showing birds back to front” because if you bring the back letter to the front you get TERNS.
steveran@2 – thanks. For some reason I just couldn’t see it yesterday but now it makes perfect sense.