A fine and straightforward puzzle with good surface readings.
Thank you Artexlen.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | LEFT-WINGER | Player taken off before victory against Germany (4-6) |
| LEFT (taken off) then WIN (victory) with GER (Germany) | ||
| 7 | DEBT | Start avoiding university money owed (4) |
| DEBuT (start) missing U (university) | ||
| 9 | BARE | Empty pub close to collapse (4) |
| BAR (pub) then collapsE (closing letter of) | ||
| 10 | PROFESSION | Calling for loud noises to disperse (10) |
| PRO (for) F (forte, loud) then anagram (to disperse) of NOISES | ||
| 11 | GANDER | Look good with Cockney woman (6) |
| G (good) AND (with) ‘ER (her, woman for a Cockney) | ||
| 12 | ENERGISE | Motivate men heading off before capturing US soldiers (8) |
| mEN (with heading off) then ERE (before) containing GI’S (US soldiers) | ||
| 13 | DEBONAIR | Urbane director receives an honour when retired (8) |
| DIR (director) contains (receives) AN OBE (honour) reversed (when retired) | ||
| 15 | ARMY | Host involved in popular mystery (4) |
| found inside populAR MYstery | ||
| 17 | MEME | Cultural feature this writer duplicated (4) |
| ME (this writer) duplicated | ||
| 19 | ICEBERGS | I caught bird around small calves, perhaps (8) |
| I C (caught) then GREBE (bird) reversed (around) S (small) | ||
| 22 | NUTHATCH | Bird’s to head-butt door (8) |
| NUT (head-butt) HATCH (door) | ||
| 23 | BANJAX | Thwart outlaw sailors reported (6) |
| BAN (outlaw) then JAX sounds like (reported) “jacks” (sailors) | ||
| 25 | RAMSHACKLE | Neglected sheep attached to tether (10) |
| RAM (sheep) with SHACKLE (tether) | ||
| 26 | ROUT | Apart from head, fish is thrashing (4) |
| tROUT) fish) missing first letter (apart from head) | ||
| 27 | LEVY | Large sin avoiding new tax (4) |
| L (large) then EnVY (sin) missing N (new) | ||
| 28 | TASKMASTER | Authoritarian marks a test wrong (10) |
| anagram (wrong) of MARKS A TEST | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | EMANATE | Letter from Greek celebrity raised issue (7) |
| ETA (letter, from Greek) and NAME (celebrity) all reversed (raised) | ||
| 3 | TREAD | Engineers puncturing little part of tyre (5) |
| RE (Royal Engineers) inside (punctuating) TAD (little) | ||
| 4 | IMPERIAL | Supreme folkloric spirit of the skies with no leader (8) |
| IMP (folkloric spirit) then aERIAL (of the skies, missing leading letter) | ||
| 5 | GLOBE ARTICHOKES | Girl chose to bake mixed vegetables (5,10) |
| anagram (mixed) of GIRL CHOSE TO BAKE | ||
| 6 | REELED | Fish restricted by bloody wound (6) |
| EEL (fish) inside (restricted by) RED (bloody) | ||
| 7 | DESIGNATE | Select dress, oddly, that is invaded by insect (9) |
| DrEsS (oddly, every other letter) IE (that is) contains (invaded by) GNAT (insect) | ||
| 8 | BLOSSOM | Prosper as gang from the south admits defeat (7) |
| MOB (gang) reversed (from the south, up the grid) contains LOSS (defeat) | ||
| 14 | OVERHASTY | Too eager a shot very botched (9) |
| anagram (botched) of A SHOT VERY | ||
| 16 | SEA-BREAM | Swimmer from south-east region acquiring bye (male) (3,5) |
| SE (south-east) AREA (region) contains B (bye) then M (male) | ||
| 18 | EDUCATE | Inform journalist you heard about alien uprising (7) |
| ED (editor, journalist) U sounds like (heard) “you” CA (circa, about) then ET (alien) reversed (uprising) | ||
| 20 | GRANULE | Turned up extract from Phoebe: Lunar Goddess – fine piece (7) |
| found inside (extract from) phoebE LUNAR Goddess reversed (turned up) | ||
| 21 | STUART | Begin cladding front of ugly house (6) |
| START (begin) contains (cladding) Ugly (starting letter of) | ||
| 24 | NORMS | Rules indoors most regularly ignored (5) |
| every other letter (regularly ignored) of iNdOoRs MoSt | ||
7d missing IE for that is. Otherwise spot on both.
Wish we saw more of this setter. Found this to be excellent with loads of top class clues. Among my favourites were: PROFESSION, IMPERIAL, GLOBE ARTICHOKES & STUART. Nice to see the word BANJAX. Not seen that for some time but kinda like it for some reason. To be picky, the blog should have EEL in 6d.
Thanks to Artexlen and Peedee.
Thanks Jaydee for the correction. Fixed now.
..and thanks to Hovis too. I like it that people take the time to read all the explanations and fix the bits that I have missed.
Enjoyed this one. Liked 10a — good concise clue. BANJAX was new to me. Thanks Artexlen and PeeDee.
Curiously ‘imp’, ‘peri’, & ‘Ariel’ were all fairies hovering in the air around 4 Down, which was charming but more or less irrelevant.
As a Richard Dawkins fan – that man is a god to me – I liked ‘meme’ because it’s a new word whose d.o.b. Is, fascinatingly, set in time.
Good puzzle, thanks to both.
Thanks Artexlen and PeeDee
Am another who likes the crisp clueing and excellent surfaces of this setter. No real holdups, although BANJAX was a new term and had to check the verbal use of NUT. Liked the construction of SEA BREAM and thought that STUART was clever.
Finished in the NE corner with ENERGISE, PROFESSION (good misdirection of the definition) and IMPERIAL the last few in.