This must be the most difficult IoS puzzle I’ve solved/blogged for a long time. It took me three goes to get it to lie down, whereas normally I’m done and dusted before getting Sunday lunch on the go. Could just be me.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) missing
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Pamper group on Greek island
COSSET
A charade of COS and SET.
4 Area with clubs a couple snubbed possibly in Mexican resort
ACAPULCO
A charade of A, C, A and (COUPL[E])* Good job the solution was easily gettable once you had a few crossers.
9 Robust rule observed in musical composition
STURDY
An insertion of R in STUDY.
10 Some seconds include principally ices and trifles
MINUTIAE
An insertion of I and A for the first letters of ‘ices’ and ‘and’ in MINUTE.
11 Possible follower of Green largely blooming as a politician
AMBER RUDD
Well, she is the Home Secretary, so I guess she’s fair play as ‘a politician’. AMBER follows ‘green’ on traffic lights in the UK, then you’ve got RUDD[Y] as ‘largely blooming’.
13 Early signs of po-faced reactions usually display existence – of one?
PRUDE
The first letters (‘early signs’) of the middle words of the clue, and an extended definition.
14 Cook snaring port – part of cook’s habit?
APRON STRING
‘Cook’ is the anagrind, so it’s (SNARING PORT)* Good surface, imho.
18 With sum of money, minister tours variable tourist attraction
GRAND CANYON
A charade of GRAND for a thousand pounds or ‘a sum of money’ and Y for a mathematical ‘variable’ in CANON.
21 Figure that’s beyond a minority?
ADULT
A cd, which I didn’t much care for because ADULT and ‘figure’ are pretty remote synonyms.
22 A classic car with which old French director shows conceit
ARROGANCE
A charade of A, RR for Rolls-Royce or ‘classic car’, O and GANCE for the (not so) well-known French silent film director, Abel GANCE.
24 Retired volunteers engaged in complex computing etc are very busy
HARD AT IT
An insertion of TA for Territorial Army or ‘volunteers’ reversed in HARD for ‘complex’ and IT for information technology or ‘computing etc’.
25 Mafia’s constructed casing for bomb
FIASCO
Hidden in maFIAS COnstructed.
26 One in school with coat before start of lesson
MACKEREL
I think that this is MACK for ‘coat’ and ERE for the archaic word for ‘before’ followed by L for the start of ‘lesson’ to describe the fish that might be in ‘a school’. But I would never write MACK for the shortened version of MACKINTOSH, preferring MAC. However, internet dictionaries give both.
27 Cartoonist, maybe, about to get prize
REWARD
A reversal of DRAWER, or ‘cartoonist, maybe’.
Down
1 Game lacking a new style is worthless
CASTAWAY
A charade of C[AN]ASTA and WAY.
2 Rigid objections brought up and almost tolerated
STUBBORN
A reversal of BUTS for ‘objections’ and BORN[E]
3 I’ve noted down wine that is lifted
EIDER
Another reversal, of RED for ‘wine’ and IE for id est or ‘that is’. The reversal indicator is ‘lifted’, because it’s a down clue. And happily, a chance for the obligatory Pierre bird link. I’ve chosen the spectacled Eider, because you couldn’t make it up. And of course Hypnos is referring to EIDERDOWN. The UK’s heaviest duck, and very fond of mussels.
5 One professionally managing issue?
CHILDMINDER
A cd.
6 Footballer, one stopping rubbish defensive error by defender (missing second half)
PAUL POGBA
A bit unfair, since most solvers won’t be into football. And not a great clue, imho, because it’s A for ‘one’ in PULP for ‘rubbish’ followed by OG for own goal or ‘defensive error’ followed by BA, which is ‘missing second half’ of BA[CK], who is a ‘defender’ in football. Very clever for a Thursday ‘hard’ Indy, perhaps, but for an IoS? I don’t think so.
7 Face maybe being confined to bed?
LAID UP
A slang word for ‘face’ is a DIAL; so if you use ‘up’ as an anagrind then you’ll end up with LAID UP.
8 Work Frenchman took up in introduction
OPENER
A charade of OP for opus or ‘work’ and RENÉ for the famous ‘Frenchman’ reversed gives you the answer. Except that shouldn’t it be ‘taken’ rather than ‘took’? Of course then the surface wouldn’t make any sense.
12 Tone of extremist republican in US state
ULTRAMARINE
A charade of ULTRA for ‘extremist’ and R inserted into MAINE.
15 Piece worthy to be heard? It makes one restless
NIGHTMARE
This appears be a homophone of KNIGHT for the chess ‘piece’ and MAYOR, for ‘worthy’. I have no problems with KNIGHT, but at the risk of getting into an ultimately fruitless discussion about homophones, there is no way that MARE sounds like MAYOR.
16 First off, big man, say, trained here?
GYMNASIA
([B]IGMANSAY)* The anagrind is ‘trained’ and it’s an extended definition.
17 Coroner ordered date to be officially acknowledged
ON RECORD
(CORONER)* plus D.
19 What’s soothing about hot yoga ultimately in London suburb
BALHAM
An insertion of H for ‘hot’ and A for the last letter of ‘yoga’ in BALM.
20 Problem over short outrageous heading
RUBRIC
A charade of RUB for ‘problem’ (‘aye, there’s the rub’) and RIC[H] as in ‘that’s a bit rich’.
23 Repellent drug, an ingrained phenomenon
GRIME
A charade of GRIM and E. What’s in my bathroom at the minute.
Many thanks to Hypnos for this morning’s puzzle.
It’s not just you, Pierre. I also found this a bit of a slog, though with some nice ‘aha’ moments.
I liked the wit in APRON STRING, EIDER, CHILDMINDER and LAID UP, but there were a few too many obscure references for me today. I got AMBER RUDD and BALHAM from the wordplay, but not being a local, had to confirm with Wikipedia.
I solved but couldn’t parse NIGHTMARE, even though my antipodean ear doesn’t distinguish between ‘mare’ and ‘mayor’. The biggest hold-up though was the footballer at 6dn, not least because I was trying to find a name fitting P_GOA, with ‘goalie’ for the defender.
Yup, I struggled too but there was good stuff in there.
I think in UP in 7d is telling us that DIAL is written vertically ‘upwards’.
Thanks to Hypnos and Pierre. Go and get the lunch on, you’ve earned it.
A curate’s egg – “parts of it are excellent” – actually most of it was, but I share your reservations about 21ac and 6dn. MINUTIAE was my favourite.
The occurrence of AMBER (Rudd) clued as ‘follower of Green’ plus BALHAM put me in mind of the Peter Sellers sketch, Balham, Gateway to the South with its ‘ever changing lights’ – “Green, amber, red …”
Thanks, Hypnos and Pierre.
Couldn’t finish this, but not helped that I’d misspelled 4ac. Never head of 6dn, but I was able to work out his surname and googled him.