Thanks to Loglady for a puzzle as challenging as any weekday Independent. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Odd features of chakra coach (3)
CAR : 1st, 3rd and 5th letters of(Odd features of) “chakra“.
Defn: A railway carriage.
3 Pair having argument – one side might lose it after this? (5,5)
MATCH POINT : MATCH(to pair with, as with a matchmaker) plus(having) POINT(an argument/a reason in support of an idea or theory).
Defn: After this, one side in, say, a tennis match will lose it (the match) .
10 Esteemed flier stuck on the ground (7)
ADMIRED : AD(abbrev. for “advertisement”, which can take the form of a distributed pamphlet/a flier/a flyer) + MIRED(stuck on the ground/in a mire).
11 Friendly uncle grew up free as a bird? (7)
UNCAGED : UNC(an informal/friendly term for “uncle”) + AGED(grew up/grew older).
12 Kitty, a psychic zealot (14)
FUNDAMENTALIST : FUND(a kitty/a quantity of money set aside for a particular purpose) + A + MENTALIST(a psychic/one demonstrating supposedly extraordinary mental powers, like mind-reading).
14 Great footballer retiring, hasn’t played for Ivory Coast national team? (9)
ELEPHANTS : Reversal of(.. retiring) PELE(a great Brazilian footballer, since retired) + anagram of(… played) HASN’T.
Defn: Nickname of the Ivory Coast national football team.
16 Shot adult type of film (5)
DRAMA : DRAM(a shot/a small drink of whiskey or other spirits) + A(abbrev. for “adult”).
17 Horse hurdling width of tree (5)
ROWAN : ROAN(a horse with a coat of a main colour interspersed with hairs of a different colour) containing(hurdling) W(abbrev. for “width”).
19 See 9 Down
21 No rule getting hitchhiker to disembark in border area (14)
NORTHUMBERLAND : NO + R(abbrev. for “rule”) plus(getting) THUMBER(what you might call a hitchhiker/one who uses his/her thumb to signal) + LAND(to disembark from a plane or ship on to, well, land).
Defn: … on the English side of the border with Scotland.
23 Geoffrey’s first tune in Shine (7)
GLISTEN : 1st letter of(…’s) “Geoffrey” + LISTEN(to tune in/to listen to, say, a radio station or a particular broadcast, as “do tune in next week”).
And of course, Geoffrey Rush starred in the move “Shine”, about the life of pianist David Helfgott.
24 Fraud opening religious community (7)
CONVENT : CON(a fraud/a confidence trick) + VENT(opening that allows gas or liquid to pass out of or into a space).
Defn: … of nuns.
25 Honey sandwich for half-cut valet’s tea (10)
DARJEELING : DARLING(like “Honey” a term of endearment for one’s beloved) containing(sandwich for) last 3 letters deleted from(half-cut) “Jeeves”(the fictional valet in the series of short stories and novels by P.G. Wodehouse).
Defn: … named after the Indian area where it is planted.
26 Pigments losing original character naturally? (3)
YES : “dyes”(pigments) minus its 1st letter(losing original character).
Defn: …/of course.
Down
1 Professionally transports in theatrical performance; hides in audition (10)
CHAUFFEURS : Homophone of(… in audition) [“show”(theatrical performance) + “furs”(hides/skins of animals with fur, used as material for garments) ].
2 Relationship of Vatican with Church of England (7)
ROMANCE : ROMAN(of/relating to the Vatican, the city-state centre of Roman Catholicism situated in Rome) + CE(abbrev. for the Church of England).
Defn: … of the loving kind.
4 Row’s origin lost in muddle (5)
ADDLE : “paddle”(to row with, well, a paddle) minus its 1st letter(…’s origin lost).
5 Prostitute can’t rouse drunk (9)
COURTESAN : Anagram of(… drunk) CAN’T ROUSE.
6 Guided German guy in selecting Nordic food (7,7)
PICKLED HERRING : [ LED(guided/showed the way) + HERR(form of address for a German guy/man) ] contained in(in) PICKING(selecting).
7 Teasing out that which was internalised: … (7)
INGESTA : Anagram of(… out) TEASING.
Defn: …/substances that were taken in the body as nourishment, ie. food and drink.
8 … small amount of information briefly recalled (3)
TAD : Reversal of(… recalled) [ “data”(information) minus its last letter(briefly) ].
9/19 Tight chaperone making needless overtures? (9,2,3,9)
PREACHING TO THE CONVERTED : A reverse clue: Anagram of(… CONVERTED) [PREACHING TO THE] = “Tight chaperone“.
13 Open seat, varied nominees (10)
CANDIDATES : CANDID(open/straight-shooting) + anagram of(…, varied) SEAT.
15 Lacking energy, cannot rule out sleeping through the day (9)
NOCTURNAL : Anagram of(… out) [ “e”(abbrev. for “energy” in physics) deleted from(Lacking …) “cannot rule” ].
18 With more trees and weird enchanted rings within (7)
WOODIER : Anagram of(… enchanted) WEIRD containing(… within) OO(2 x letter representing a ring).
20 Crack across old filling is calamity (7)
TRAGEDY : TRY(a crack/a shot at/an attempt at) containing(across … filling) AGED(old).
22 This meat‘s not off, as top cook announced (5)
BACON : Homophone of(… announced) “bake on”(in contrast to/not “Bake Off”, short for the TV competition, The Great British Bake Off, at the end of which the winning/top cook/baker is announced).
23 Perhaps a Rover’s Return idol? (3)
GOD : Reversal of(…’s Return, in a down clue) “dog”(an animal that might be a/perhaps named “Rover”).
Defn: A person who is worshipped or adored.
An entertaining Sunday puzzle with plenty to keep the mind ticking over. 9/19 was as good a reverse anagram as I’ve seen and my (appropriately) last in MATCH POINT held me up for about 10 minutes at the end. Thanks for pointing out the Geoffrey Rush angle to 23a which I missed.
Soccer (football) is not my strong point and although I could identify the ‘Great footballer retiring’ necessary for solving 14a, checking up the name of the national team post solve, I think there’s another footballer also being referred to in the clue.
Thanks to scchua (I loved the Thunderbirds pic) and to Loglady.
Agree that this was tough for Sunday; very enjoyable puzzle. As with @1Wordplodder my LOI was MATCH POINT, for which I needed all the crossers I could get. Also agree that 9/19 was a brilliant reverse anagram, though think that “making” is not part of the definition.
For 22A I confidently entered JAMON, priding myself on knowledge of the pronunciation, but was later disabused.
Excellent stuff. Thanks to Loglady and to scchua for the blog.
It took me a long while to get on the right wavelength but I’m very glad I persisted because this was a lot of fun and a very enjoyable challenge.
I didn’t understand 22d although the answer couldn’t have been anything else. It still doesn’t make sense to me despite Scchua’s explanation. Perhaps it’s because I find all the seemingly incessant cookery programmes on television utterly boring and I’ve never watched more than few minutes of any of them.
7d was a new word for me.
Fighting it out for my podium places were: 3a, 12a (not our Kitty surely?), 1d (an excellent homophone – though doubtless some will disagree) & 9d/19a (my favourite).
Many thanks to Loglady and to Scchua.
I must have been in the zone today. Maybe boosted by FUNDAMENTALIST, though as RD says it must be describing a different kitty …
All very much enjoyed anyway.
RD@3 22d is ON (not off) with a homophone of bake (cook) on top.
Thanks to Loglady and scchua.
I enjoyed this very much and didn’t find this as tough as some early commenters
Thanks to Loglady and scchua
Kitty@4. Thank you for putting me out of my misery re 22d. It’s so simple how could I not see it? I get these blind spots from time to time.
RD@6: yes, I know about blind spots!
I also have a habit of misreading clues. I wasn’t sure whether to mention that my first reading of 12a was “Kitty, a psychotic zealot.”
Thoroughly enjoyed this one and must have tuned into the right wavelength as I didn’t come across many problems.
I particularly liked 3a & 1d but, like others, I put the 9/19 anagram on the top of the pile.
Many thanks to Loglady and to scchua for the blog and the extra info on 14 & 23a.
Enjoyed this. Struggled a bit with the bake off story but I like kitty’s explanation – and lovely to see her namecheck. Nordic is true though the delicacy is also typical of regions slightly further south. I spent some time in 16a trying to find an anagram of adult (without success).
Many thanks loglady and thanks scchua
We worked steadily through this and solved it without help, although we did check INGESTA afterwards in Chambers and we weren’t familiar with ‘unc’ as a familiar form (it’s not in chambers or Collins). Difficult to nominate a CoD but we’ll go for BACON.
Thanks, Loglady and scchua.
Late as usual, but just for the record there’s a theme amongst both clues and answers. In clues: shot, half-cut, tight x3, drunk, Rover’s Return idol. In answers: uncaged, mental, elephants, dram, addle, pickled. There may be others.
Thanks scchua, and all commenters. Tatrasman@11 the theme is completely accidental funnily enough. It probably says more about my limited range of motivational material than anything else, half the clues in the next one will be referencing tea and cigarettes no doubt!