Quite a stiff challenge from Wanderer today with some unusual devices in the wordplay which may have caused some parsing difficulties for the less experienced solvers.
I enjoyed the tussle so thanks Wanderer for a pleasing start to yet another dull, grey day.
Across
9 Somehow it’s right, following A-road to Heanor after accident (3,3,2,7)
ONE WAY OR ANOTHER – R (right) after (following) ONE (A) WAY (road) plus an anagram (after accident) of TO HEANOR
10 Essentially Micra is easy to jack up (5)
RAISE – contained in (essentially) ‘micRA IS Easy’
11 What some artists use as representation of a lion and its pride, primarily (3,6)
OIL PAINTS – an anagram of (representation of) A LION ITS P[ride]
12 Rum guy, member of secret society (9)
ODDFELLOW – ODD (rum) FELLOW (guy)
A member of the Independent Order of Oddfellows, a secret benevolent and fraternal association founded in England in the 18th century (Chambers)
14 Short program with concealed bug (5)
APHID – AP[p] (short program) HID (concealed)
16 One with testing work, reassembling electronic motorbike part? (3-6,6)
TWO-STROKE ENGINE – an anagram (reassembling) of ONE TESTING WORK followed by E (electronic)
19 Female flyer about to meet first lady (5)
REEVE – RE (about) EVE (first lady)
The female of the ruff
21 Take a little time getting into a clinch, oddly, as a circus act? (9)
ACROBATIC – ROB (take) A T (little time) in (getting into) A C[l]I[n]C[h] (clinch, oddly)
23 If so, could be no number nine playing with Gulf State’s right winger (9)
UNFEELING – an anagram (playing) of NINE GULF [stat]E
25 Former footballer, throwing last boot out (5)
EXPEL – EX (former) PEL[e] (footballer, throwing last)
26 Work with skipper and his two best mates? (5,3,2,1,4)
THREE MEN IN A BOAT – non-cryptic def.
The book written by Jerome K Jerome
Down
1 After second day out, David’s back in bed (4-6)
FOUR-POSTER – removing (after … out) the second d (day) from David gives davi which when reversed (back) becomes IV (four) AD (poster)
An ingenious clue!
2 Supporting retirement of unfinished clue? (6)
BEHIND – HIN[t] (unfinished clue) in BED (retirement of)
3 Irish nationalist sect, with name changed (8)
CASEMENT – an anagram (changed) of SECT NAME
Sir Roger (David). 1864–1916, British diplomat and Irish nationalist: hanged by the British for treason in attempting to gain German support for Irish independence (Collins)
4 A little Italian flower firm (4)
POCO – PO (Italian flower {river}) CO (firm)
5 Roughly deflower a lass? No fool, but arguably a horny beast (6,4)
FALLOW DEER – an anagram (roughly) of DEFLOWER A L[ass]
6 Work as Nato manager? (6)
SONATA – an anagram (manager) of AS NATO
I’m not keen on ‘manager’ as an anagram indicator
7 Port in a combination of single, double and treble (8)
SHANGHAI – double def.
The feat of scoring a single, double and treble of the same number with a set of three darts (Chambers)
8 Flower girl having one-night stands, reportedly (4)
IRIS – I (one) SIR (knight {night … reportedly}) reversed (stands)
13 Can 1960s film contain terrifyingly destructive goddess doubles? (10)
LOOKALIKES – LOO (can) KES (1960s film) around (contain) KALI (terrifyingly destructive goddess)
A Hindu goddess, Durga, wife of Siva, as goddess of destruction (Chambers)
15 Reduce intensity of drama’s opening, having drunk ale with cast (2-8)
DE-ESCALATE – DEE (drama’s opening {initial letter}) followed by an anagram (drunk) of ALE CAST
17 Frank has to get rid of old-fashioned heater (4,4)
OPEN FIRE – OPEN (frank) FIRE (to get rid of)
18 Aristocrat upset good French lover (8)
NOBLEMAN – BON (good French) reversed (upset) LEMAN (lover)
20 Not easily excited, supporting the Spanish team (6)
ELEVEN – EL (the Spanish) EVEN (not easily excited)
22 Excellent clue, including helpful abbreviation for the reader (6)
TIPTOP – TIP (clue) around (including) PTO (helpful abbreviation for the reader)
23 As far as possible, starting out afresh (2,2)
UP TO – an anagram (afresh) of P[ossible] OUT
24 Walk through part of airport, say (4)
GAIT – sounds like (say) ‘gate’ (part of airport)
Did enjoy this workout. FOUR POSTER took me a while to decipher but eventually saw it. A few answers needed a check to see if they were correct, such as ODDFELLOW & CASEMENT. Pondered for a bit on how SONATA could mean “manager” then realised this was a (poor) anagram indicator.
I knew POCO from Spanish but don’t know Italian so assumed Italian just went with ‘flower’. Then wondered how a Spanish word could be an answer. Liked the use of ‘one-night stands’ in 8d. Also thought UP TO was a well-constructed clue. Seen the construction for BEHIND before but this was another good clue.
Thanks to Wanderer and Gaufrid.
I just looked up POCO and see it is used in music for “a little” so no need to include Italian as part of definition in blog (maybe that was a mistake).
Thanks, Gaufrid – ‘stiff challenge’ and ‘enjoyable tussle’ sums it up!
I loved the A-road/ONE WAY device in 9ac – my first one in – and the clever definition in 23ac, along with the fiendish parsing of 1dn, which produced a gasp of delight when I saw it.
I couldn’t fathom the parsing of SHANGHAI, not being a darts enthusiast and didn’t think of the possibility of a double definition, so didn’t look it up. I chuckled at IRIS and liked LOOKALIKES – nice to see KES back!
A hugely satisfying puzzle – many thanks, as ever, to Wanderer.
A rare day in that I disagree with Eileen as I didn’t find it a stiff challenge at all.
I agree with Hovis that the definition for 4d is just ‘a little’, the Italian bit just referring to the ‘flower’
Even though it didn’t last long, I did enjoy the experience so thank you to Wanderer and Gaufrid
Thanks to Wanderer and Gaufrid. Tough going for me. I did not know SHANGHAI from darts or Sir Roger CASEMENT (though I did parse the latter and got the former from the crossers), but I did not know PTO and could not parse FOUR-POSTER. I did dredge up REEVE as a female ruff from a previous puzzle.
This was tougher for me than Paul’s today. I don’t think l could parse 1d in a hundred years but checkers helped. FOI SONATA, LOI IRIS which is also my COD ‘one -night stands’ he he.
Thanks Wanderer & Gaufrid.
I found this much easier than usual from Wanderer, with only a few clues unsolved and a couple unparsed. The numerical theme helped, except in 23 across where I forgot the other (crossword) meaning of ‘number’.
Thanks Wanderer and Gaufrid
Struggled a bit with this, taking over the hour to get it done. There were a couple that I didn’t parse fully – missing the E (electronic) at 16a and the DEE (for drama’s opening) at 15d. Also didn’t pick up on the numbers mini-theme until seeing the comment of psmith@7.
Enjoyed the same clues as Eileen – with the parsing of 1d the highlight of them all when it finally twigged. Finished in the SE corner with DE-ESCALATE, EXPEL (when 15d proved that the unparsed EXILE that was initially entered was wrong) which then allowed me to get TIP-TOP.