A pleasant Sunday morning solve with, for me, several highlights.
I particularly enjoyed 13ac, 25ac and 20dn so thanks to Nitsy and the 14ac 3dn.
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Across
1 Resisting whimsical carol we hear (6)
FACING – sounds like (we hear) ‘fey’ (whimsical) ‘sing’ (carol)
4 Flatter flower – cold leaves (6,2)
BUTTER UP – BUTTER[c]UP (flower – cold leaves)
9 Bird removing top to have fame (6)
RENOWN – [w]REN (bird removing top) OWN (to have)
10 Sailor one caught in engagement to surrender (8)
ABDICATE – AB (sailor) plus I (one) C (caught) in DATE (engagement)
12 Flower border planted by you in Paris (5)
TULIP – LIP (border) after (planted by) TU (you in Paris)
13 How’s your father, / mother and sister? (9)
RELATIONS – double def., the first a euphemism
14 Freelance writer intended novel to be gripping (11)
INDEPENDENT – an anagram (novel) of INTENDED around (to be gripping) PEN (writer)
18 Substitute‘s position – behind referee, almost (11)
REPLACEMENT – PLACEMENT (position) after (behind) RE[f] (referee, almost)
21 Catholic accepted the medic in front of a large, large church (9)
CATHEDRAL – C (Catholic) A (accepted) THE DR (medic) A L (large)
23 Bachelor party’s daring (5)
BRAVE – B (Bachelor) RAVE (party)
24 Slants round wings (8)
OPINIONS – O (round) PINIONS (wings)
25 Blair’s dodgy dossier initially offensive (6)
RIBALD – an anagram (dodgy) of BLAIR followed by D[ossier] (dossier initially)
26 Tension from hearing perhaps about American power (8)
SUSPENSE – SENSE (hearing perhaps) around (about) US (American) P (power)
27 Admitted Marge regularly cut grass (6)
AGREED – [m]A[r]G[e] (Marge regularly cut) REED (grass)
Down
1 Hard cutting bottom and sombre getting treatment (5,3)
FIRST AID – FIR[m] (hard cutting bottom) STAID (sombre)
2 Wind up / judge (8)
CONCLUDE – double def.
3 Print novel, perhaps, circulating no end of rubbish (9)
NEWSPAPER – NEW (novel) plus an anagram (circulating) of PER[h]APS (perhaps … no end of rubbish) reversed (circulating) Another edit, this time thanks to WordPlodder @2
5 Chewing vile blue bean – hard to swallow (12)
UNBELIEVABLE – an anagram (chewing) of VILE BLUE BEAN
6 Trump’s source is not corrupt (5)
TAINT – T[rump] (Trump’s source) AINT (is not)
7 Infidelity – no time to think rationally (6)
REASON – [t]REASON (infidelity – no time)
8 Want two bridge players to follow suit (6)
PLEASE – S E (two bridge players) after (to follow) PLEA (suit)
11 13 large pets ran off (12)
GRANDPARENTS – GRAND (large) plus an anagram (off) of LARGE PETS RAN Edited to correct the parsing, thanks Graham @1
15 Showing fear, starts to tidy room, excluding mother’s jewellery (9)
TREMBLING – T[idy] R[oom] E[xcluding] M[other’s] (starts to tidy room, excluding mother’s) BLING (jewellery)
16 Different primates picked up speed (8)
SEPARATE – APES (primates) reversed (picked up) RATE (speed)
17 Turned up at a motorcycle race wrapped up (8)
ATTENDED – A TT (motorcycle race) ENDED (wrapped up)
19 On the other side of a bridge (6)
ACROSS – A CROSS (bridge)
20 The broadcast is about Conservative morals (6)
ETHICS – an anagram (broadcast) of THE followed by IS around (about) C (Conservative)
22 First-class travel – it excludes only some (5)
ELITE – contained in (only some) ‘travEL IT Excludes’
11d Large = Grand + anagram of PETS RAN
Went in at the expected rate for a pleasant Sunday afternoon solve, until I came to the NW which held me up a bit and my last in was FIRST AID, not a difficult clue in retrospect. I liked the ‘whimsical carol’ in 1a.
Just a few queries/comments. I’m probably missing something, but I don’t know what ‘cut’ is doing in 27a as A and G precede REED and are not included in it. Maybe it’s REED for ‘cut grass’ in the sense of ‘thatching’. I thought 3d was NEW (novel) PER[h]APS (anagram (circulating) of perhaps without the letter h (no end of rubbish)).
Thanks to setter (second in a few days after the FT Flimsy on Thursday) and to Gaufrid.
Graham & WordPlodder
Thanks for the corrections. I’m not having a very good day, am I? My only excuse is that it is very wet and dull this morning and my eyesight is rather poor in low light conditions, to say the least, so proof reading the post was somewhat problematic.
Wordplodder @2. I think the parsing of 27a is fine. Cut goes with ‘regularly’ and is there to improve the surface. So ‘regularly cut’ means ‘cut the odd letters’ here.
Found this very easy, apart from getting stuck in the NW after entering RISING (wry sing) for 1a. Eventually saw CONCLUDE for 2d giving 1a and 1d as my last two.
I think this is a great example of how to write a beginner’s level cryptic with a lot to be enjoyed by any solver I would hope. My favourite was 13a – such a great clue. Thanks to Nitsy and Gaufrid.
I was also held up in the NW corner having entered RISING.
All fairly straightforward. We too were held up in the NW corner; not that we put ‘rising’ for 1ac but couldn’t think of anything for a bit, then 1d and 2d settled it though we couldn’t see the parsing for a while. And we weren’t sure about PLEASE meaning ‘want’ but eventually decided that one might say ‘please’ to indicate ‘want’ as in ‘two beers, please!’
No real favourites, it was all good.
Thanks, Nitsy and Gaufrid.
As a beginning level cryptic solver, I have to agree with Hovic @4. A lovely and approachable romp, with some toughness in the NW, that all-in-all lets this novice believe he might actually be getting better at this after doing it for a year or so. Thanks so much to Nitsy and Gaufrid!
Thanks for stepping in this week, Gaufrid.