A quick solve, although a couple of clues took a little while to parse.
I completed the puzzle fairly quickly, although it took me a few minutes to see BEEF UP so the NE corner held me up for a spell, then I had trouble parsing INGESTING, but I got there in the end.
A fine puzzle, with no quibbles from me. There was a good range of clues, nothing too difficult or obscure, and to my mind at least, nothing contentious.
Thanks, Artexlen.
| Across | ||
| 1 | BEEF UP | Make stronger complaint against university parking (4,2) |
| BEEF (“complaint”) against U (university) P (parking) | ||
| 5 | VERTICAL | Standing up against erroneous article (8) |
| V (versus, so “against”) + *(article) | ||
| 9 | SPURIOUS | Mock London club riven by sign of debt (8) |
| SPURS (“London” (football) “club”) riven by IOU (“sign of debt”) | ||
| 10 | NEATEN | Groom and knight dined (6) |
| N (knight, in chess notation) + EATEN (“dined”) | ||
| 11 | MOBILE | Phone not fixed (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 12 | ELEVENTH | Division line drawn in the ground (8) |
| L (line) +EVEN (“drawn”) in *(the) | ||
| 13 | DECLARATIONS | Announcements not clear, said in garbled way (12) |
| *(not clear said) | ||
| 17 | TOWN PLANNING | Sunbathing outside private place, municipal organisation (4,8) |
| TANNING (“sunbathing”) outside OWN (“private”) + Pl. (place) | ||
| 20 | CONCEDER | One accepting basic, once derelict, houses (8) |
| Hidden in [houses] “basiC ONCE DERelict” | ||
| 23 | ANSWER | Return gutted after receiving bad news (6) |
| [gutted] A(fte)R receiving *(news) | ||
| 24 | RIBALD | Coarse kid, lad with heart in wrong place (6) |
| RIB (“kid”) + (A)L(a)D (the heart of L(A)D in the wrong place) | ||
| 25 | ORIGINAL | Regularly ignoring worrying sign, fault master (8) |
| [regularly ignoring] (w)O(r)R(y)I(n)G (s)I(g)N (f)A(u)L(t) | ||
| 26 | STAPLERS | Order rep’s last stationery items (8) |
| *(reps last) | ||
| 27 | NUGGET | Turning arm, see lump (6) |
| [turning] <=GUN (“arm”) + GET (“see”) | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | EMPLOY | This writer set up device for exercise (6) |
| <=ME (“this writer” set up) + PLOY (“device”) | ||
| 3 | FORBIDDEN | Contraband for bishop concealed without opening (9) |
| FOR + B (bishop) + (h)IDDEN (“concealed” without opening) | ||
| 4 | PROVENCAL | Established source of company’s aluminium in French region (9) |
| PROVEN (“established”) + [source of] C(ompany) + Al (aluminium) | ||
| 5 | VISCERA | Vicars prepared to acquire English organs (7) |
| *(vicars) to acquire E (English) | ||
| 6 | RANGE | Field, originally orchard, lacking in fruit (5) |
| (o)RANGE (the O from “orchard”) lacking in ORANGE (“fruit”) | ||
| 7 | IRATE | Up in arms, rodent in unrestricted view (5) |
| RAT (“rodent”) in [unrestricted] (v)IE(w) | ||
| 8 | ALERTING | Notifying beer society about consignment at the back (8) |
| ALE (“beer”) + RING (“society”) about (consignmen)T [at the back] | ||
| 14 | AGITATION | Unrest when a foreign soldier replaces leader in headquarters (9) |
| A + G.I. (“foreign soldier”) replaces [leader in] (s)TATION (“headquarters”) | ||
| 15 | INGESTING | Eating popular bread covered with scrambled eggs (9) |
| IN (“popular”) + TIN (“bread” as in money) covered with *(eggs) | ||
| 16 | MOTORIST | Driver in second and first tackling hill (8) |
| MO (“second”) and 1ST (“first”) tackling TOR (“hill”) | ||
| 18 | NERVOUS | Worried travelling over in North America (7) |
| *(over) in N (north) US (Amercia) | ||
| 19 | BEWARE | Look out for period with internet being up (6) |
| <=ERA WEB (“period” with “internet” up) | ||
| 21 | CLASP | Buckle from pressure after endless conflict (5) |
| P (pressure) after [endless] CLAS(h) (“conflict”) | ||
| 22 | DODGE | Criminal goaded, removing article for ruse (5) |
| *(goded) (GOADED with A (“article”) removed) | ||
*anagram
For 15d, I just took TIN to refer to the rectangular loaf but either works. Mostly good stuff – I particularly liked “unrestricted view” to clue IE in 7d – but I did think 11a was a poor clue. It’s essentially just saying why mobile phones are called that so is hardly cryptic at all.
Thanks to Artexlen and loonapick.
Funny how the mind can get stuck on something. The first clue I saw was 21d ‘Buckle from pressure…’ which I thought just had to be ‘warp’ even though of course it didn’t fit. Took about ten minutes to expunge it from my consciousness and only then could I get started on the rest. After this, most went in steadily, with the unparsed ELEVENTH holding me up along the way.
A bit more benign than the other puzzles on offer today, and all the more welcome for that.
Thanks to Artexlen and loonapick
Thanks to Artelexen and loonapick. Lots of fun. I’m another who took a long time getting ELEVENTH and also CLASP.
Very good puzzle. Entertaining and relatively straightforward but not a pushover. Thanks S & B
Thanks to loonapick and Artexlen
Pretty much all good except 9a – is Artexlen a Gooner?
Thanks for a satisfying crossword. 11a was so obvious that I missed it! Can someone explain how “mo” means second in the parsing of MOTORIST?
Tony @ 6
A mo is a small amount of time. Very often used in crosswords.
I don’t remember ever doing an Artexlen before, but I do remember doing some eXternal puzzles. Simon over by put me on to it. Not too difficult, but impeccable clueing. I enjoyed it. Thanks, Steve. I’ll try some more in the future.
Thanks Artexelen and loonapick
Similar experience of filling the grid a little quicker than normal for this setter, but in the end didn’t properly parse the second part of ALERTING and didn’t see the [S]TATION = ‘headquarters’ at 14d.
Originally had TIN = ‘bread’ the same as Hovis@1, but twigged to the money connection a bit later.
Finished in the SW corner with the trickily hidden CONCEDER, DODGE and RIBALD the last few in.