A good straightforward puzzle. Thank you Artexlen.
| Across | ||
| 1 | TABARD | Snug in little tunic (6) |
| BAR (snug) in TAD (little) | ||
| 5 | CONTESSA | High-ranking Italian with Spanish help going west (8) |
| CON (with, Spanish) then ASSET (helP reversed (going west, right-to-left on a map) | ||
| 9 | CHIMES IN | Interrupts that man in church, not a good thing (6,2) |
| HIM (that man) in CE (Church of England) then SIN (not a good thing) | ||
| 10 | BRONCO | Horse riding clubs acquired by sibling (6) |
| ON (riding) C (clubs) inside (acquired by) BRO (brother, sibling) | ||
| 11 | MOUSER | Cat runs after short time to exercise (6) |
| R (runs) following MO (short time) and USE (to exercise) | ||
| 12 | FRESHERS | Leaving Religious Education out of courses to update students (8) |
| reFRESHERS (courses to update) missing RE (religious education) | ||
| 13 | INVERTEBRATE | Maybe cockroach one time found in tavern drunk with beer (12) |
| I (one) T (time) in anagram (drunk) of TAVERN with BEER | ||
| 17 | COME ON STRONG | Firm with hideous monster, no good to behave aggressively (4,2,6) |
| CO (company, firm) with anagram (hideous) of MONSTER NO G | ||
| 20 | ACCOLADE | Officer Bill overwhelmed by great praise (8) |
| COL (colonel, officer) AD (advertisement, bill) inside (overwhelmed by) ACE (great) | ||
| 23 | ICARUS | Craftsman’s son making section for basilica, Russia (6) |
| found inside (making section for) basilICA RUSsia – son of Daedalus, craftsman and inventor in Greek myth | ||
| 24 | UNISON | Club hosts second concert (6) |
| UNION (club) contains (hosts) S (second) | ||
| 25 | CONFOUND | Do start puzzle (8) |
| CON (do) FOUND (start) | ||
| 26 | LEATHERY | Tough article stuck in meadow track (8) |
| THE (definite article) in LEA (meadow) RY (railway, track) | ||
| 27 | LEEWAY | Room of Spooner’s small place (6) |
| Spoonerism of “wee lay” (small place) | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | ATHROB | A mostly shy beginner in band is drumming (6) |
| A THROw (shy, mostly) then Band (beginner, first letter of) | ||
| 3 | ARMISTICE | End of hostilities from division cities sorted out (9) |
| ARM (division, of a company) then anagram (sorted out) of CITIES | ||
| 4 | DISPROVEN | Criminal provides name shown to be false (9) |
| anagram (criminal) of PROVIDES N (name) | ||
| 5 | CONIFER | Perhaps pine after one’s broken award (7) |
| I (one) inside (after…has broken) CONFER (award) | ||
| 6 | NOBLE | Illustrious inventor’s left to go north (5) |
| NOBEL (Alfred Nobel, inventor) with L (left) moving up one place (to go north, as on a map) | ||
| 7 | EPOCH | Hard to carry on lifting for some time (5) |
| H (hard) COPE (to carry on) all reversed (lifting) | ||
| 8 | SECURITY | Guarantee cruise at sea ends in Turkey (8) |
| anagram (at sea) of CRUISE then TurkeY (end letters of) | ||
| 14 | EMOTIONAL | Moving book about Scottish island lake (9) |
| TOME (book) reversed (about) IONA (Scottish island) L (lake) | ||
| 15 | RIGMAROLE | To set up mother with acting part is hassle (9) |
| RIG (to set up) MA (mother) with ROLE (acting part) | ||
| 16 | LOG CANOE | Whizz round Cologne with a primitive mode of transport (3,5) |
| anagram (whiz round) of COLOGNE with A | ||
| 18 | TREACLY | Very sweet lady disheartened, stuck under collapsed crate (7) |
| LadY (disheartened, no middle) under anagram (collapsed) of CRATE | ||
| 19 | QUINOA | Almost gag, about to bring up a food crop (6) |
| QUIp (gag. almost) then ON (about) reversed (to bring up) A | ||
| 21 | ONSET | Start running group (5) |
| ON (running) SET (group) | ||
| 22 | ANNIE | Musical people like Mary Poppins limitlessly (5) |
| nANNIEs (people like Mary Poppins) missing end letters (limitlessly) | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
Good stuff. 13a has one N and two T’s, so I (one) + T (time) in anagram (drunk) of TAVERN with BEER. Thanks to S&B.
Thank you Hovis, fixed now.
Thanks for the blog, PeeDee
I solved just over half of this and found it neither good nor straightforward. 2 & 19 I find particularly bad.
Thanks Artexelen and PeeDee
Enjoyable tussle taking a little longer than normal for this setter. Interesting to see the three different variations of ON in the wordplay of 10 (riding), 19d (around) and 21 (running).
Hadn’t heard of that definition of ‘snug’ before and an interesting way to define ICARUS which I had to look up to check.
Not too sure what was wrong with 2 or 19 – they look pretty valid clues too me – unless clever misdirection is now qualifying as “particularly bad”.
Thanks to Artexlen and PeeDee. I’m just getting started with downloading FT puzzles, so I’m a bit behind. I did not get Quinoa but much enjoyed the rest.