Phi well up to his usual standard today; nothing obvious, but everything clear enough after a bit of thought. A few unfamiliar words, but the wordplay makes it straightforward enough to derive them.
An unusual grid too: I don’t remember seeing 4 black squares starting the first row before.
Too many good clues here to list them all, but I particularly liked the musical clues (8 and 11) and the &lit at 24. Thanks Phi.
Definitions are underlined; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| Across | ||
| 1 | DELIBERATE | Duke and Earl free to take stock (10) |
| D[uke] + E[arl] + LIBERATE (set free). Deliberate, as a verb = consider. | ||
| 8 | ACCORDION | Agreement about restricting one instrument (9) |
| ACCORD ON (on the subject of = about), containing I (Roman numeral 1). | ||
| 9 | GEEK | Techie jargon not right (4) |
| GREEK (jargon, as in “it’s all Greek to me”) without the R. | ||
| 10 | TRENCH | Channel or river filled with fish? On the contrary (6) |
| A classic crossword trick: “On the contrary” after a question mark means “reverse the sense of the wordplay”. So we’re looking for TENCH (a fish) with R (river) in it, not the other way round. | ||
| 11 | RHETORIC | Soprano avoiding confused chorister’s declamation (8) |
| Anagram (confused) of CHORISTER, without the S (soprano). | ||
| 13 | CUMBER | Obstruct doctor engaged in slight modification of treatment (6) |
| MB (Latin abbreviation for a Bachelor of Medicine degree) in CURE (treatment) with a slight modification (swapping the last two letters). This is probably stretching the rules for some crossword purists, but I think it’s clear enough. | ||
| 14 | TALISMAN | Dutch explorer capturing large island fetish (8) |
| Abel TASMAN, after whom Tasmania is named, containing L (large) I (island). | ||
| 17 | ENCIPHER | Long recalled that woman penning start of criminal code (8) |
| PINE (long, as a verb) reversed + HER, containing C[riminal]. Code, as a verb = encode. | ||
| 19 | BLAGUE | Depressed about a grand display of nonsense (6) |
| BLUE (depressed) around A G (=grand, slang for £1000). A new word for me, but easy to deduce from the wordplay; as you might guess, it’s originally French. | ||
| 21 | RINGSIDE | Circles most of plan for sports crowd? (8) |
| RINGS + IDE[a] (most of plan); as in a ringside seat at a boxing match. | ||
| 23 | EGRESS | Go back, having overlooked entry and exit (6) |
| REGRESS (go back) without the initial letter (entry). | ||
| 25 | TAKE | Receipts? Money is overlooked in error (4) |
| MISTAKE (error) without M IS. Take = takings = money collected on a specific occasion, such as admission charges at an event. | ||
| 26 | LOVELIGHT | Nothing insubstantial in expression of affection (9) |
| LOVE (nothing in tennis scoring) + LIGHT (insubstantial). | ||
| 27 | INCLEMENCY | Cycle in unhappily, going round blokes in poor weather conditions (10) |
| Anagram (unhappily) of CYCLE IN, around MEN (blokes). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | DIRT CHEAP | Had t’price altered, offering a very low price (4-5) |
| Anagram (altered) of HAD T’PRICE. | ||
| 2 | LAIR | Study Liberal attitude (4) |
| L (liberal) AIR (attitude or manner). Study, as a noun = private room. | ||
| 3 | BONEHEAD | Idiot’s wrong about atomic number of hydrogen and helium (8) |
| BAD (wrong) about ONE (atomic number of hydrogen) + HE (chemical symbol for helium = He). | ||
| 4 | RIGHT | Justified and fine to abandon something ugly (5) |
| FRIGHT (something ugly) without the F (fine). | ||
| 5 | THEOREM | Opposition to seize source of metal? That’s the hypothesis (7) |
| THEM (opposition, as in us and them) containing ORE. | ||
| 6 | PASTICHEUR | Impressionist, say, broadcasting pushier act (10) |
| Anagram (broadcasting) of PUSHIER ACT. Pastiche = imitation of another’s style, so someone doing such imitation is a pasticheur; another new word for me, but easy enough to deduce. | ||
| 7 | SCREAM | Second best source of humour (6) |
| S (second) + CREAM (best, as in cream of the crop). It’s a scream = it’s very funny. | ||
| 12 | CONDENSATE | Notes dance choreographed to present more intense material (10) |
| Anagram (choreographed) of NOTES DANCE. Something that has been condensed to concentrate or intensify it. | ||
| 15 | ILLEGALLY | One beginning to lean on supporter in an unjustified way (9) |
| I (one) + L[ean] + LEG (=on, in cricketing terms) + ALLY (supporter). | ||
| 16 | PENDULUM | Indication of timing choice about to do for university (8) |
| PLUM (choice = the best) around END (do for = destroy) + U (university). | ||
| 18 | CONTAIN | Embrace ancient murderer, not upset internally (7) |
| CAIN (who murdered his brother Abel in Genesis 4), around an anagram (upset) of NOT. Embrace = include = contain. | ||
| 20 | GREIGE | Say I will have some work to pick up, offering nothing very colourful (6) |
| EG (say = for example) + I + ERG (scientific unit of work), all reversed (to pick up). Greyish-beige, so not at all colourful; Chambers tells me the word comes from the French for “raw undyed fabric” rather than the obvious amalgam of two colours, but if so it’s a neat coincidence. | ||
| 22 | SMELL | Detect nothing missing from a selection of lines (5) |
| SOME (a selection of) + LL (lines), with O (nothing) missing. | ||
| 24 | OVEN | What’s very involved in one’s cooking? (4) |
| V (very) in an anagram (cooking) of ONE. And a neat &lit (clue-as-definition). |
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