Thanks Poins for an enjoyable puzzle. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Flying saucers circling Yemen’s capital city (8)
SYRACUSE : Anagram of(Flying) SAUCERS containing(circling) 1st letter of(…’s capital) “Yemen“.
Defn: … in New York State, USA.
5 Still in charge after position in society is reduced (6)
STATIC : IC(a “in charge”) placed after(after) “status”(ones position in society) minus its last 2 letters(is reduced).
9 Formerly needing more than a quick appraisal (4-4)
ONCE-OVER : ONCE(formerly/previously) plus(needing) OVER(more than/exceeding, as in “the total came to over 100”).
10 Companion not entirely accepting it’s a fruit (6)
CITRON : “crony”(companion/sidekick) minus its last letter(not entirely) containing(accepting) IT.
This is a citron:
… and so is this:
11 Easily transported by river on a piece of rough board (8)
PORTABLE : PO(the river in Italy) plus(on) 1st letter of(a piece of) “rough” + TABLE(board/food provided in a restaurant or household).
12 Not at all petty (6)
LITTLE : Double defn: 1st: Hardly, used to emphasise the smallness of something; and 2nd: Trivial/unimportant.
14 Nonsense to poke fun at small beer (10)
CODSWALLOP : COD(to poke fun at/to play a joke or trick on someone) + S(abbrev. for “small”) + WALLOP(slang for beer/alcoholic drink).
18 Judge by repeated hesitation to embrace result of people’s vote (10)
REFERENDUM : REF(short for “referee”, one who judges/officiates in a competitive match) + [ ER(an expression of hesitation/a pause in speech) + UM(another/repeated expression of hesitation) ] containing(to embrace) END(result/final outcome).
22 Connections in Iceland accommodating a German tenor earlier (3-3)
TIE-INS : [ IS(the international standard code for Iceland) containing(accommodating) EIN(a/one in German) ] placed after(… earlier) T(abbrev. for “tenor”).
23 Aware of heartless Italian poet becoming fashionable (2-2-4)
UP-TO-DATE : [ UP (on) ](aware of, as in “he was up on the latest developments”) + “Dante”(Alighieri, Italian poet of “Divine Comedy” fame) minus its middle letter(heartless).
Could “up to” be substituted for “up on”? I couldn’t find a justification for it, and if I’m right, then, I can’t explain “TO”.
Another complication is that the solution could also be defined by the other end of the clue, ie. “Aware of”. Then “UP TO” by itself has to be synonymous with “becoming fashionable”, which I again could not find justification for.
I could be wrong in all of the above!
24 Ancient city originally associated by students with a mythological god (6)
URANUS : UR(city in Sumeria in ancient Mesopotamia) + 1st letter of(originally) “associated” plus(by) NUS(abbrev. for the National Union of Students in the UK).
Defn: … personifying the sky.
25 Gradually getting through in small pieces (3,2,3)
BIT BY BIT : BY(through/via, refering to a means of achieving something, as in “He survived by sheer luck”) contained in(in) [ BIT,BIT ](2 small pieces of a larger entity).
26 Sign up new clients first off (6)
ENLIST : Anagram of(new) “clients” minus its 1st letter(first off).
27 Profit from popular event split by Greer evenly (8)
INCREASE : [ IN(popular/fashionable) + CASE(event, as in “in the case of non-payment …”) ] containing(split by) 2nd and 4th letters of(… evenly) “Greer“.
Answer: … in something beneficial leads to gain/profit.
Down
1 Work at length to stop secret agent becoming careless (6)
SLOPPY : [ OP(abbrev. for “opus”, a musical or literary piece of work) placed after(at) L(abbrev. for “length”, as used in physical dimensions) ] contained in(to stop) SPY(a secret agent).
2 Left winger stymied by my best ever performance (6)
RECORD : RED(a left winger with regard to one’s political views) containing(stymied by) COR!(my!, expressions of surprise).
3 Engaged in singing exam after church (6)
CHORAL : ORAL(a form of examination with spoken, instead of written, questions and answers) placed below(after, in a down clue) CH(abbrev. for “church”).
4 Bewitched for a short time? Sure (10)
SPELLBOUND : SPELL(a short period of time) + BOUND(sure/for certain, as in “it’s bound to be difficult”).
6 Island‘s secret society involved in row taken aback? Just the opposite (8)
TRINIDAD : TRIAD(a secret society originating in China, usually involved in organised crime) containing(involved in …? Just the opposite) reversal of(… taken aback) DIN(a row/a racket of loud noises).
7 Suppress article containing nonsense about lieutenant (8)
THROTTLE : THE(article in English grammar) containing [ ROT(nonsense/codswallop) + reversal of(about) LT(abbrev. for “lieutenant”, the military rank) ].
8 Party to invite scorn (8)
CONTEMPT : CON(abbrev. for the Conservative Party in the UK) + TEMPT(to invite/to persuade someone to do something).
13 Rees-Mogg finally abandoning common sense in support of fool’s unjustified claim (10)
ASSUMPTION : Last letter of(… finally) “Rees-Mogg” deleted from(abandoning) “gumption”(perhaps even more than common sense/shrewdness) placed below(in support of, in a down clue) ASS(a fool).
15 Push forward from back of crowd to interrupt shocked tour rep (8)
PROTRUDE : Last letter of(back of) “crowd” contained in(to interrupt) anagram of(shocked) TOUR REP.
16 In pursuit of the total amount in spite of everything (5,3)
AFTER ALL : AFTER(in pursuit of/following) + ALL(the total amount/everything).
17 Rector gets Yoko to cut jokes from parts of speech (8)
PRONOUNS : [ R(abbrev. for “rector”) plus(gets) ONO(Yoko, artist widow of John Lennon) ] contained in(to cut) PUNS(jokes playing on words).
19 Casual worker from the outskirts of Jaipur receiving award without a hint of boastfulness (6)
JOBBER : 1st and last letters of(the outskirts of) “Jaipur” containing(receiving) [ OBE(abbrev. for Order of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, an honorific award from the British monarch) containing(without) 1st letter of(a hint of) “boastfulness” ].
20 One easily deceived by lawyer’s letter (6)
LAMBDA : LAMB(one easily deceived/a meek and innocent person) plus(by) DA(abbrev. for “District Attorney”, a US lawyer).
Defn: … in the Greek alphabet.
21 Courage of the French experienced by them initially at the front (6)
METTLE : LE(French for the article “the”) placed below(… at the front, in a down clue) [ MET(experienced/encountered, as in “they met hardship for the first time in their lives when …”) plus(by) 1st letter of(… initially) “them” ].
Particularly liked 1a.
In 5a, unusually, “is reduced” means remove last TWO letters from STATus.
I initially parsed 1d as in blog but then decided I preferred LOP to mean “Work at length” (as in tree lopping).
Thanks to scchua and Poins.
Thanks Hovis Blog corrected.
Thanks for the CITRON pics. I thought it was just a fancy word for the common ‘lemon’ but apparently it’s not the same thing. Regarding 23a and whether UP TO can mean ‘aware’. What about ‘up to speed’ on a matter meaning being ‘aware of’.
I liked, and was deceived for some time by, LAMBDA.
Thanks to Poins and scchua
12 across: surely these are just variations of the same basic meaning – or am I missing something?
Yes, WordPlodder, I too thought of “up to speed”, but if it’s to mean “aware of”, then you need “speed” to complete the phrase.
GW @4. I tend to agree. Thought this clue seemed particularly weak and hoped someone would convince me otherwise. Maybe somebody still might.
As for “up to”, I think I have heard people say “I’m up to your tricks” to mean aware of your tricks – not to be confused with “He’s up to his tricks” which has a somewhat different meaning. Anybody else heard this or am I imagining it?
Thanks scchua
Re 23ac, one of the definitions for ‘up’ in Chambers is ‘well-informed’ and that for ‘aware’ is ‘informed’ so I think it is fair to say that aware=up. One of the definitions for ‘of’ is ‘to’ (in giving the time, eg quarter of five; US) or if you look up ‘to’ it gives ‘of’ as a definition, so I think the parsing is UP (aware) TO (of) DA[n]TE.
Hovis: And I tend to agree with you!
Thanks to sschua and Poins
I think Gaufrid has now covered it but yes, Hovis @6, I have certainly heard it used that way. I think it probably started out meaning “a match for” or “equal to”, but acquired another meaning.
To combine it with the query @12a, I can imagine someone saying “Little did they know I was up to their tricks”