One of the things I like about Lohengrin’s puzzles is the misdirection and today was no exception.
Many times I was misled as to the definition, which seemed obvious on first reading the clue but turned out to be at the other end when I finally sorted out the parsing. Also some of the anagram indicators were well disguised so that it wasn’t immediately obvious that an anagram was involved.
These and other tricks meant that it wasn’t simply a case of going through the clues and writing in the answer, in a number of cases I had to wait for a checked letter or two before being able to interpret a clue correctly, which is just how it should be for a Crossword.
Across
1 Pick up ideal broadcast with set-top boxes? That’s wonderful! (7,2,4,2)
PLEASED TO HEAR IT – an anagram (broadcast) of IDEAL SET-TOP around (boxes) HEAR (pick up)
9 Leadership lacking in biased manual worker (7)
ARTISAN – [p]ARTISAN (leadership lacking in biased)
10 Lohengrin sheltering land’s first colonist (7)
SETTLER – SETTER (Lohengrin) around (sheltering) L[and] (land’s first)
11 Bitter, maybe, about new style (4)
ELAN – ALE (bitter, maybe) reversed (about) N (new)
12 Harry Potter eyes cast predictably (10)
STEREOTYPE – an anagram (harry) of POTTER EYES
13 Covered patient with close bandaging (7)
ENCASED – END (close) around (bandaging) CASE (patient)
15 Fine film coating on lawn now and again (7)
ELEGANT – ET (film) around (coating) LEG (on {cricket}) [l]A[w]N (lawn now and again)
17 Manage hot American group (7)
HUSBAND – H (hot) US (American) BAND (group)
19 One working on board boat before start of regatta (7)
CATERER – CAT (boat) ERE (before) R[egatta] (start of regatta)
20 Bribe investor withholding assistance (10)
BACKHANDER – BACKER (investor) around (withholding) HAND (assistance)
22 Girl returning unfinished sandwiches with dip (4)
SWIM – MIS[s] (girl … unfinished) reversed (returning) around (sandwiches) W (with)
25 Retired soldiers blocking article on field of operations (7)
THEATRE – TA (soldiers) reversed (retired) in (blocking) THE (article) RE (on)
26 Bond hit for Spanish tenor (7)
RAPPORT – RAP (hit) POR (for Spanish) T (tenor)
27 Dangerous game, stunt, or a leisure activity (7,8)
RUSSIAN ROULETTE – an anagram (activity) of STUNT OR A LEISURE
Down
1 Cover head around capital of Libya (5)
PLATE – PATE (head) around L[ibya] (capital of Libya)
2 Ant screen manufactured for doors? (9)
ENTRANCES – an anagram (manufactured) of ANT SCREEN
3 Garment that doubles as hospital clothes (4)
SASH – hidden in (that … clothes) ‘doubleS AS Hospital’
4 Gave old drinks to half-cut nationalist (7)
DONATED – DATED (old) around (drinks) [t]O (to half-cut) N (nationalist)
5 Ever so bothered about Britain, say (7)
OBSERVE – an anagram (bothered) of EVER SO around (about) B (Britain)
6 Social run cut short due to temperature (9)
EXTROVERT – EXTR[a] (run {cricket} cut short) OVER (due to) T (temperature)
7 Pass on outsiders in race over bet (5)
RELAY – R[ac]E (outsiders in race) LAY (bet)
8 Rank hotel in bay, perhaps, upon increase of vermin (5-4)
THREE-STAR – H (hotel) in TREE (bay, perhaps) RATS (vermin) reversed (increase {going up})
13 Shower seen in centre of Birmingham? (9)
EXHIBITOR – def. & cryptic indicator referring to the NEC
14 The gap developing between infection and food (9)
SPAGHETTI – an anagram (developing) of THE GAP in (between) STI (infection)
16 Arrival that hurt foundation growth (9)
ARROWROOT – ARR (arrival) OW (that hurt) ROOT (foundation)
18 Brown getting no say after uprising in prison (7)
DUNGEON – DUN (brown) plus NO EG (say) reversed (after uprising)
19 Singer on satellite penning European farewell (7)
CHEERIO – CHER (singer) IO (satellite) around (penning) E (European)
21 Musical chairs opponents replacing piece of music (5)
CHESS – E S (opponents (bridge) replacing ‘air’ (piece of music) in CHairS
23 Headdress American university studies religiously (5)
MITRE – MIT (American university) RE (studies religiously)
24 Stone Roses appearing later with just seconds left (4)
OPAL – [r]O[ses] [a]P[pearing] [l]A[ter] (Roses appearing later with just seconds) plus L (left)
Despite the evidence I’m still trying to force 13 Down, EXHIBITOR, to include ‘B1’ – the postcode for ‘central Birmingham’ – somewhere in the answer and it doesn’t. Damnation.
Since when has the NEC been in the centre of Birmingham?
sidey @2
The NEC isn’t in the centre of Birmingham but it is a Centre in Birmingham.
Ah ha! Thanks.
Thanks, Gaufrid, for the write up.
GB @ 1, wish I spotted the possibility!
Thoroughly enjoyable. For me it was hard but not impossible – which is exactly what you want. Many enjoyable clues, but I especially liked 15D. I wasn’t able to parse 13D so thanks for that.
Thanks to Lohengrin and Gaufrid.
Thanks to Lohengrin for a most enjoyable puzzle and to Gaufrid, especially for the parsing of DONATED, which eluded me
The clue for 8dn in the version of the crossword I solved was: Rank second in 25 potentially, getting silver at last