Turbolegs didn’t have time to prepare a blog before flying home from his holiday today so I am a late stand-in.
My initial reaction when solving this puzzle was that it didn’t appear to be up to Artexlen’s usual high standard (some of the clues seemed rather forced) but I came to appreciate it more whilst writing up the parsings below.
Across
1 Curious bears live around Canadian (8)
QUEBECER – QUEER (curious) around (bears) BE (live) C (around)
6 Finish more cooking after church (6)
CHROME – an anagram (cooking) of MORE after CH (church)
9 This will have Austen on one side (new) and the Queen (6)
TENNER – [aus]TEN (Austen on one side) N (new) ER (the Queen) – with an extended def.
10 Precision article cuts tense elastic in opposing directions (8)
NEATNESS – A (article) in (cuts) an anagram (elastic) of TENSE in N S (opposing directions)
11 European home is paradise (4)
EDEN – E (European) DEN (home)
12 Contracted relative to hold party before date is postponed (10)
MOTHBALLED – MOTHE[r] (contracted relative) around (to hold) BALL (party) plus D (date)
14 Capital city has a proportion of brothels in kingdom (8)
HELSINKI – hidden in (a proportion of) ‘brotHELS IN KIngdom’
16 Hit story about female (4)
BIFF – FIB (story) reversed (about) F (female)
18 Contest just beginning in London (4)
DUEL – DUE (just) L[ondon] (beginning in London)
19 Qualified priest by the Spanish Main retired (8)
ELIGIBLE – ELI (priest) plus EL (the Spanish) BIG (main) reversed (retired)
21 Toffee rum put on starter of chicken is secret weakness (4,2,4)
FEET OF CLAY – an anagram (rum) of TOFFEE plus C[hicken) (starter of chicken) LAY (put)
22 Coped without man that’s old (4)
AGED – [man]AGED (coped without man)
24 Plant stem cut with petal getting damaged (4,4)
DATE PALM – DAM (stem) around (cut with) an anagram (getting damaged) of PETAL
26 Caught second of salmon in river Dee (6)
NAILED – [s]A[lmon] (second of salmon) in NILE (river) D (Dee)
27 Son to accept daughter’s bet (6)
STAKED – S (son) TAKE (accept) D (daughter)
28 Sound reason to rewrite note (8)
RESONATE – an anagram (to rewrite) of REASON plus TE (note)
Down
2 Turn posh, write with depth (5)
UPEND – U (posh) PEN (write) D (depth)
3 Out to lunch, place with the very thing for dessert (6,5)
BANANA SPLIT – BANANAS (out to lunch) PL (place) IT (the very thing)
4 Show on day of the week after church, end of July (8)
CEREMONY – RE (on) MON (day of the week) after CE (church) plus [jul]Y (end of July)
5 Arranging dull regime, train climber (4-6,5)
RING-TAILED LEMUR – an anagram (arranging) of DULL REGIME TRAIN
6 Bad-tempered driver crossing river (6)
CRABBY – CABBY (driver) around (crossing) R (river)
7 Was a candidate’s right answer only a third complete? (3)
RAN – R (right) AN[swer] (answer only a third complete)
8 Dominating worries about being involved in attack (9)
MASTERFUL – FRETS (worries) reversed (about) in (being involved in) MAUL (attack)
13 Some alcohol and nuts in our balti, cashews primarily (11)
LUBRICATION – an anagram (nuts) of IN OUR BALTI C[ashews]
15 Effusive, fancy beau, next to embrace queen (9)
EXUBERANT – an anagram (fancy) of BEAU NEXT around (to embrace) R (queen)
17 Something bad indeed, kid’s served up Asian food (8)
BIRYANIS – SIN (something bad) AY (indeed) RIB (kid) reversed (served up)
20 Before attack, a fellow is scared (6)
AFRAID – A F (fellow) RAID (attack)
23 Just on time for occasion (5)
EVENT – EVEN (just) T (time)
25 Animal accommodated by hotel keeper (3)
ELK – hidden in (accommodated by) ‘hotEL Keeper’
Thanks Gaufrid and Artexlen.
I really enjoyed this. Particularly liked BANANA SPLIT and LUBRICATION.
I pondered Just = Due at 18 for a while, concluding it was fine as in “due process”.
Thanks Artexelen and Gaufrid
Continuing the backlog, was able to do this on the flight back from Malaysia without aids and it took about twice as long as it would have if I had them. Made good use of some cooped up time anyway.
Seemed to struggle with 16a for longer than I should have – putting in two wrong answers – a dubious CHER (C HER), then something else that is buried in the overwriting before being able to settle on BIFF. Did like BANANA SPLIT – quite droll !
Finished up in the NW corner with QUEBECER (which I hadn’t seen before) and TENNER (which I guessed as haven’t seen the new polymer note with Jane Austen on it, which I only had as a cryptic definition until I saw the clever wordplay here).