Sorry this is late, forgot it was my turn to blog. I whizzed though this one employing a few electronic cheats to get the blog out quickly. A shame because I think this is an elegantly constructed puzzle which deserved some more appreciation. Thank you Hypnos/Nitsy.
| Across | ||
| 1 | EUROPE | Group of around 50 states regret over wish to leave here, initially? (6) |
| RUE (regret) reversed (over) then hOPE (wish) inital letter leaving | ||
| 4 | ACCENTED | About to return money? Editor’s stressed (8) |
| CA (circa, about) reversed (to return) and CENT (money) ED (editor) | ||
| 9 | PALLOR | Paleness from friend left in front of soldiers (6) |
| PAL (friend) L (left) then OR (other ranks, soldiers) | ||
| 10 | INSTANCE | Batting posture, for example (8) |
| IN (batting) and STANCE (posture) | ||
| 12 | AWAKE | Come to a king in terror (5) |
| A K (king) in AWE (terror) | ||
| 13 | ELEVATION | Promotion? No – leave it out! (9) |
| anagram (out) of NO LEAVE IT | ||
| 14 | ILLUSTRATES | Shows poorly American costs after start of treatment (11) |
| ILL (poorly) US (American) then RATES (costs) following Treatment (starting letter of) | ||
| 18 | RESTAURANTS | Unrest as art’s circulated, where you’ll find plenty of scoffing (11) |
| (UNREST AS ART) | ||
| 21 | ABUNDANCE | Host a ball after food (9) |
| A then DANCE (ball) following BUN (food) | ||
| 23 | TRIAL | Pilot‘s path – one moving west (5) |
| TRAIL (path) with I (one) moved to teh left (west, on a map) | ||
| 24 | DECREPIT | Harry cried – pet’s old and feeble (8) |
| anagram (harry) of CRIED PET | ||
| 25 | THREAT | Warning from nurse outside hospital (6) |
| TREAT (nurse) contains H (hospital) | ||
| 26 | DRESSAGE | Time to follow groom? Horse is prepared for it (8) |
| AGE (time) following DRESS (groom) | ||
| 27 | PRAYED | Look after piano, Edward’s implored (6) |
| RAY (look) following P (piano) then ED (Edward) – I was not familiar with ray meaning a glance | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | EMPHASIS | Stress as he is worried about rise of Theresa May (8) |
| (AS HE IS)* anagram=worried contains PM (Teresa May) reversed | ||
| 2 | RELIABLE | Religious Education likely to be well grounded (8) |
| RE (religious education) LIABLE (likely) | ||
| 3 | PROFESSOR | One’s given a chair for female – terribly sore, clutching bottom in distress (9) |
| PRO (for) F (female) and SORE* containing distesS (bottom letter of) | ||
| 5 | CONCENTRATED | Caught dace on Trent when spinning intensified (12) |
| C (caught) and (DACE ON TRENT)* | ||
| 6 | EXTRA | Former lover capsizing craft, unusually (5) |
| EX (former lover) and ART (craft) reversed | ||
| 7 | TENNIS | Sport journalists in Netherlands locked up? (6) |
| found inside journalistS IN NETherlands reversed (up) | ||
| 8 | DYEING | Colouring‘s fading, it’s reported (6) |
| sounds like (reported) dying (fading) | ||
| 11 | REPRESENTING | Salesman feeling bitter about exhibiting (12) |
| REP (salesman) RESENTING (feeling bitter) | ||
| 15 | STRETCHER | Reach hospital department on this? (9) |
| STRETCH (reach) ER (hospital department) | ||
| 16 | ENTIRELY | Fully entitled to leave 50% with bank (8) |
| ENTItled (50% of) and RELY (bank) | ||
| 17 | ISOLATED | Remote island – nothing to get criticised about (8) |
| I (island) then O (nothing) inside SLATED (criticised) | ||
| 19 | CANDID | Frank regularly warned when caught by detectives (6) |
| wArNeD (regularly) inside CID (detectives) | ||
| 20 | MUSCLE | Might heads of security come to be taken in by drug smuggler? (6) |
| Security Come (heads, first letters of) inside MULE (drug smuggler) | ||
| 22 | DREGS | What’s at the bottom of the bottle, for example, doctor’s swallowed (5) |
| EG (for example) swallowed by DR’S (doctor’s) | ||
*anagram
definitions are underlined
Interestingly enough, the app says this is puzzle 9358, and the compiler is NITSY. The curse of the four year old editor strikes the crossword! Why not, indeed? The rest of the ‘paper’ is full of errors, even in headlines.
Anyway I liked the puzzle itself. Plenty of gettable anagrams, all in English, no 300 year old operas, and only one oddity. I’ve never heard of ray meaning look either PeeDee.
A bonus point to Nitsy/Hypnos for using ER as the hospital department, not the ubiquitous ENT.
Thanks to both, or possibly all three.
Apologies to Nitsy and solvers. The app has the correct attribution and this crossword is indeed by Nitsy and not Hypnos.
Perhaps I have blogged the wrong puzzle? Is this the puzzle for Sunday 25th
OctoberSeptember?25th October is a Tuesday, so we’ll see ?
Nice and gentle workout, as per the new Sunday norm. EUROPE at 1ac brought an ‘Oh no another Brexit theme’ moment, but thankfully not.
Thanks to whoever the setter was and to Peedee
Whether or not it’s the wrong puzzle, it’s the one I solved, and has all the appearances of a gentle Sunday puzzle, all very straightforward. I came across INSTANCE clued the same way not long ago – probably in an Indy reprint in the i – not that it matters, words are bound to get clued the same way now and again.
Incidentally, as yesterday’s Indy was 9344 so 9358 ought to appear in about 2½ weeks.
Anyway, an enjoyable solve. Thanks to setter and blogger.