The scheduled blogger has been having Internet access problems but he hoped to have been able to publish a post earlier today. It is now early evening and his blog has still not appeared so it looks as if the problems have gone on for longer than anticipated.
Here, therefore, is an analysis of the clues without any further commentary (apart from 21ac!).
Across
1 Bishop managed church department (6)
BRANCH – B (bishop) RAN (managed) CH (church)
4 Taste article, soft and dainty (8)
APPETITE – A (article) P (soft) PETITE (dainty)
9 Share speech, omitting nothing (6)
RATION – [o]RATION (speech, omitting nothing)
10 Prompt start of medication with iodine in present (8)
REMINDER – M[edication] (start of medication) I (iodine) in RENDER (present)
12 Airman, quiet during praise for achievement (14)
ACCOMPLISHMENT – AC (airman) plus SH (quiet) in (during) COMPLIMENT (praise)
14 Deliberate deception by minor communist (10)
CONSIDERED – CON (deception) SIDE (minor) RED (communist)
16 Passage without a key? (4)
ISLE – [a]ISLE (passage without a)
18 Wrong weight in your answer, on reflection (4)
AWRY – W (weight) in YR (your) A (answer) reversed (on reflection)
19 Catch in complicated test we love (10)
SWEETHEART – HEAR (catch) in an anagram (complicated) of TEST WE
21 Banter about disturbance thus followed by anger in film (8,2,4)
CHARIOTS OF FIRE – CHAFF (banter) around (about) RIOT (disturbance) SO (thus) plus IRE (anger) – the only film I have watched in a cinema during the last 50+ years!
24 Appeal occurs during tea with mother (8)
CHARISMA – IS (occurs) in (during) CHAR (tea) MA (mother)
25 Clubs with permission split (6)
CLEAVE – C (clubs) LEAVE (permission)
26 Establish communication finally in alien language without force (8)
ENTRENCH – [communicatio]N (communication finally) in ET (alien) plus [f]RENCH (language without force)
27 Notice opening time before Christmas (6)
ADVENT – AD (notice) VENT (opening)
Down
1 Official objection about a cure mixed with radium (10)
BUREAUCRAT – BUT (objection) around (about) an anagram (mixed) of A CURE plus RA (radium)
2 Cheers up with mark of approval mostly for loft (5)
ATTIC – TA (cheers) reversed (up) TIC[k] (mark of approval mostly)
3 Peculiar whim once resulting in dish with noodles (4,4)
CHOW MEIN – an anagram (peculiar) of WHIM ONCE
5 Public statement with force concerning rent (5,7)
PRESS RELEASE – PRESS (force) RE (concerning) LEASE (rent)
6 Mystery unravelled in game (6)
ENIGMA – an anagram (unravelled) of IN GAME
7 Popular ideas on changing nation (9)
INDONESIA – IN (popular) plus an anagram (changing) of IDEAS ON
8 Make name following attention (4)
EARN – N (name) after (following) EAR (attention)
11 Band foolish to welcome fad (9,3)
FLEETWOOD MAC – an anagram (foolish) of TO WELCOME FAD
13 Hamlet? Singular part, enthralling time after time (10)
SETTLEMENT – S (singular) ELEMENT (part) around (enthralling) TT (time after time)
15 Direction from another wayward saint (5-4)
NORTH-EAST – an anagram (wayward) of ANOTHER plus ST (saint)
17 Mixed signals, initially, bad mood caused (8)
SHUFFLED – S[ignals] (signals initially) HUFF (bad mood) LED (caused)
20 Cook book put up (6)
BRAISE – B (book) RAISE (put up)
22 Silly part of screen animation coming up (5)
INANE – hidden (part of) reversal (coming up) in ‘screEN ANImation’
23 Time to go north around cold area (4)
ACRE – ERA (time) reversed (to go north) around C (cold)
Thanks both. Good stuff. I was going to whinge about “yr” in 18a but I see it dates back to the 1950’s!
A very enjoyable crossword, but some tricky clues. Favourites included CHOW MEIN, INDONESIA and FLEETWOOD MAC.
Thanks to Everyman, and to Gaufrid for stepping into the breach.
A little trickier than usual for Everyman, but this was an excellent puzzle, the best we’ve seen for a while, so I’ll forgive him.
Thank you Everyman and Gaufrid;
An enjoyable puzzle, last in, if I remember rightly, was BRAISE, I cannot think why, and it took me a while to get SIDE = minor at 14a, “a side/minor issue”.
On the first pass I whizzed confidently through half the clues and thought I’d clear up the other half easily now that I had enough crossers in place. My confidence was misplaced, however, and the rest of the puzzle was a real challenge! I didn’t bother to parse CHARIOTS OF FIRE, having guessed it from crossers and the enumeration – and I see now I would probably have struggled if I’d tried – I didn’t know CHAFF in that sense. AWRY was my last in. I did raise an eyebrow at the use of txt spelling so thank you, Shirl, for clarifying this point!
Thanks to Gaufrid and Everyman.
Add me to those who griped at Yr with no indication. Bah humbug.
I also don’t get Key. I got it through the wordplay but is there an isle of Key? Or am I missing something else?
Everything else good, thanks all.
Isle = key as in the Florida keys. Key Largo etc. is my guess.
Really? Key Largo?
Never’eardofit..
Oh dear, found a couple of these really hard to solve. In fact I had to sleep on “isle” and “settlement” overnight until they finally came to me after hours of staring and contemplation – mainly staring I must say.
Can’t really complain about anything though – apart from the dullness of my brain. Thanks to all
Could not think of “petite” for “dainty” and had to use a wildcard dictionary
to get 4 across. Then smacked myself on the forhead.
Barrie@8 — never heard of “Key Largo”??? The film starred Humphrey Bogart,
Lauren Bacall, and Edward G. Robinson. Hard to get a more famous set of film
stars. Also the Florida Keys are a well-known geographical feature.
Not an easy solve for me. Got ‘key’ as it has been used in one of these before and I remember someone telling me then that is a name for an island e.g. Florida Keys.
Thought some very clever clues here, faves were 13d and 1d
like others stumbled on 18ac and didnt even get it and then thought the explanation a bit weird. Am sure even I could have come up with a cleverer clue than that.
Have enjoyed these over the holidays having less access to traditional resources…makes it more of a challenge and oddly ended up with a better result.
Okay, Everyman, if you are out there, concensus is your crosswords are cool but yr for your doesn’t cut it.
Harsh words, but these things have to be said.
You do of course have the right of reply?
Barrie, Remuera @13
Are you saying that all three of the usual references are wrong? They all give the abbreviation so it is quite fair for Everyman to use it.
Chambers
yr
abbrev
1. Year
2. Younger
3. Your
Collins
yr
abbreviation for
1. year
2. younger
3. your
Oxford
yr
1 Year or years.
2 Younger.
3 Your.
Gaufrid, I stand rebuked (and corrected). I just assumed it was txt speak, which it probably now is, but as you point out it does have more historical authority than that.
Clearly our ancestors were into txt speak way ahead of all the millenials…what did they know back then…