Some quite convoluted clues here. A fun start on a rainy day. Thanks, Artexlen.
| Across | ||
| 1 | TARIFF |
Argument about a king’s duty (6)
TIFF surrounding A and R for king |
| 5 | SCRUNCHY |
Critical moment replacing contents of seriously elasticised fastener (8)
CRUNCH is the critical moment (as in when it comes to the crunch). It is inserted between S and Y, the first and last letters of seriously (that is to say, it replaces the contents). |
| 9 | COVERAGE |
Reporting old-fashioned chap with great anger (8)
COVE (a Wodehousian term for chap) plus RAGE |
| 10 | GETS BY |
Survives times after men became disheartened (4,2)
Gents (men) without its central letter (disheartened) plus BY (times, as in four by two) |
| 11 | DEFEND |
Guard provided meal for revolutionary before death (6)
A reversal (revolutionary) of fed (proivided meal for) followed by END (death) |
| 12 | TOLERANT |
Liberal English group backed rave (8)
E for English plus lot (group) all reversed or backed, plus RANT |
| 13 | ANTECHAMBERS |
A foul stench around brownish- yellow reception rooms (12)
A plus an anagram (foul) of stench surrounding AMBER (brownish-yellow) |
| 17 | WINTER SAVORY |
Own rarest ivy, exotic plant (6,6)
An anagram (exotic) of own rarest ivy |
| 20 | CLIPPING |
Firmly holding excerpt from newspaper (8)
A double definition. |
| 23 | ENOUGH |
No more energy, almost none (6)
E for energy, plus NOUGH (nought without its final leller). A reference to Orsino’s speech at the beginning of Twelfth Night. |
| 24 | CRANIA |
Managed to infiltrate intelligence agency’s protective structures (6)
RAN (managed) inserted into CIA, the American intelligence agency |
| 25 | EVENTUAL |
Final value is to be replaced with net (8)
An anagram of value and net. The anagram indicator could be misleading. |
| 26 | EDGELESS |
Lad’s gained from blade so blunt (8)
Removing the “edges” (the outside letters) from blade gives lad |
| 27 | TO DATE |
Far end of market with old fruit is so far (2,4)
T , the final letter, or far end, of market plus O for old plus DATE ( a fruit) |
| Down | ||
| 2 | ABODES |
Pads from broken sofa bed abandoned by fellow (6)
Pads here is used in the sense of homes – as in a bachelor pad. An anagram (broken) of sofa bed minus (abandoned by) f for fellow. ADOBES would also be valid, as one definition of an adobe is a house made from mud bricks (cf Speedy Gonzales, that Pat Boone classic) |
| 3 | INELEGANT |
Entwine leg anticlockwise to some extent being graceless (9)
Contained in (to some extent indicates this) the first three words of the clue. |
| 4 | FRAUDSTER |
Shark swimming after us keeping depth right (9)
An anagram (swimming) of after us with D for depth and R for right inserted |
| 5 | SCEPTIC |
One having doubts to persist mostly eating mushroom (7)
STIC (stick, or persist minus its final letter) surrounding (eating) CEP, a type of mushroom |
| 6 | REGAL |
Majestic and grand in honest surroundings (5)
G for grand surrounded by REAL, or honest |
| 7 | NOTER |
Person recording Cockney’s rejection of girl (5)
Not ‘er might be how Dick van Dyke might have pronounced “not her” in Mary Poppins. |
| 8 | HABANERO |
He modelled with a bra on – hot stuff! (8)
An anagram (modelled) of HE with A BRA and ON. Favourite clue for us. |
| 14 | ATONEMENT |
Individual people in a state oddly rejected compensation (9)
ONE (individual) plus MEN (people) in ATT, every other letter of “a state” |
| 15 | BOYCOTTED |
Youth with cuddly toy under bed is spurned (9)
BOY (youth) plus COT (bed) plus TED(dy bear). |
| 16 | PILLARED |
Crowded around the French Resistance, showing support (8)
PILED (crowded) surrounding LA (definite article in French) and R for resistance |
| 18 | ALGIERS |
A girl’s wandering around European capital city (7)
An anagram (wandering) of a girls, surrounding E for European. |
| 19 | AGHAST |
Dismayed, give up bearing husband after a time (6)
A reversal (up) of sag, or give, in the sense of yielding under strain, with H for husband inserted, all after A, plus T for time |
| 21 | PENNE |
100 in our money exchanged for last of train fare from Italy (5)
Pence (British currency) with the C (Roman numeral for 100) replaced by N, the final letter of train. |
| 22 | IRATE |
Mad man at sea has removed top (5)
pIRATE without its first letter (top) |
Thanks Artexlen and D&L
Found this one of the more accessible puzzles by this setter to complete … well filling in the grid at least. Hadn’t realised until coming here that I had failed to parse GETS BY, EDGELESS and FRAUDSTERS. Had also not parsed AGHAST properly – not seeing the SAG bit.
All the rest, I got as per the blog. IRATE was my last in. HABANERO was also my favourite and thought that SCRUNCHY was quite good.
Thanks both. This guy is seriously good. 23 across is a gem, for instance.
And nice to se winter savory getting a look in. Extremely useful herb. Just about to put some in today’s soup.
Happenstance is quite strange … I am sure that I’ve never come across the term HABANERO in any day to day conversation. This afternoon a work colleague came back from lunch in some discomfort saying “Just swallowed a bloody habanero in my salad!” What the …
Thanks D&L and Artexlen.
Completed but failed to parse EDGELESS and AGHAST – both of which were (now I realise) very cleverly constructed.
I’m sure that I have seen both ENOUGH and ALGIERS almost identically clued in recent puzzles – but which was composed first.
Can a salad with a habanero in it still be called a cold meal?