A nice mixed bag of clues. Thank you Tees.
| ACROSS | ||
| 9 | ICELANDER | Just one left with Cinderella, beaten in National (9) |
| anagram (beaten) of CINDERELLA with only one L (left) | ||
| 10 | AGGRO | Violence in the past involving King George (5) |
| AGO (in the past) contains (involving) GR (George Rex, King George) | ||
| 11 | AT LARGE | Big feline seen first, not caught, free and threatening (2,5) |
| LARGE (big) following (…seen at first) cAT (feline) missing C (caught) | ||
| 12 | SIGMUND | Hero in MiG crashing into sun died (7) |
| anagram (crashing) of MIG inside SUN D (died) – legendary hero in Norse mythology | ||
| 13 | SAND | Writer George dresses knight in blue (4) |
| N (knight, chess) in SAD (blue) | ||
| 14 | ADMONITION | Warning poster having proposal about Ulster? (10) |
| AD (poster) with MOTION (proposal) contains (about) NI (Northern Ireland, Ulster) | ||
| 15 | ABRAHAM | Patriarch sees a female supporter with Noah’s son (7) |
| A BRA (supporter, for females) and HAM (Noah’s son) | ||
| 17 | PANACHE | Goat god longing to show spirit (7) |
| PAN (goat god) and ACHE (longing) | ||
| 19 | IAN FLEMING | Newspaper article by Belgian writer (3,7) |
| I (i, a newspaper) AN (indefinite article) with FLEMING (a Belgian) | ||
| 22 | BIER | German booze stand at wake (4) |
| double definition – a stand for a coffin | ||
| 23 | TRIVIAL | Six in court case that’s unimportant (7) |
| VI (six) inside TRIAL (court case) | ||
| 24 | HOSTAGE | Security men only breaking tool (7) |
| STAG (men only) inside (breaking) HOE (tool) | ||
| 26 | CHECK | Arrest to put king in trouble (5) |
| double definition | ||
| 27 | DENIGRATE | Blacken as one occupying room with fireplace (9) |
| I (one) inside DEN (room) with GRATE (fireplace) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | VITAL STATISTICS | Proportional representation given in three figures? (5,10) |
| cryptic definition | ||
| 2 | BERLINER | City-dweller to live right next to ship (8) |
| BE (to live) R (right) then LINER (ship) | ||
| 3 | PAIR | Sound of French pop duo (4) |
| sounds like “père” (father, pop, in French) | ||
| 4 | ADDENDUM | An emu three daughters trained for rider (8) |
| anagram (trained) of AN EMU D D D (daughter, three times) | ||
| 5 | PRESTO | Deposit balance in Post Office without delay (6) |
| REST (balance) inside (deposited in) PO (post office) | ||
| 6 | GANGLION | Pack animal has problem with tendon (8) |
| GANG (pack) LION (animal) | ||
| 7 | AGOUTI | Rodent in the open an American soldier traps (6) |
| OUT (in the open) inside (that…traps) A GI (an American soldier) | ||
| 8 | GOLDEN RETRIEVER | Kind group almost always billets old dog (6,9) |
| GENRE (type) TRIo (group, almost) EVER (always) contains (billets) OLD | ||
| 16 | HELSINKI | Ambassador fashioned links with one city (8) |
| HE (His Excellency, ambassador) then anagram (fashioned) of LINKS then I (one) | ||
| 17 | PENCHANT | Bent author to keep repeating (8) |
| PEN (author) CHANT (to keep repeating) | ||
| 18 | CHINAMAN | Delivery service fellow provides (8) |
| CHINA (dinner service) with MAN (fellow) – a chinaman delivery in cricket | ||
| 20 | NAILED | Scots hooligan embracing trouble is done (6) |
| NED (Scots hooligan) contains (embracing) AIL (trouble) | ||
| 21 | MALADY | Complaint from youth in Spring month (6) |
| LAD (youth) inside MAY (spring month) | ||
| 25 | SAGO | Grain used in pudding — try it first (4) |
| GO (try) follows (with…first) SA (sex appeal, it) | ||
Good fun. I entered GOLDEN RETRIEVER on enumeration and crossers, didn’t parse it, but enjoyed the clever wordplay as parsed by PeeDee.
ICELANDER and IAN FLEMING were nicely done, also liked DENIGRATE and SAGO.
11A, I think that should be “following” rather than “followed by”.
Thanks to Tees and PeeDee.
Sheesh! Scuppered once again by an unknown (to me) cricket term. The rest followed pretty easily with GOLDEN RETRIEVER taking the longest to parse. Note: in blog for 27a, should have GRATE not RANGE.
Thanks to Tees and PeeDee.
Tees providing us with yet another dose of fun to keep us going in these trying times
Too many lovely clues to pick a favourite
Thanks to him and PeeDee
Thanks for the corrections. I thought of RANGE for my fist attempt at 27. I seem to have been unable to get the word out of my head.
Very good, though I found this harder than usual for a Sunday. I had to finish it off in two sessions, being stuck in the SE until solving PANACHE finally opened things up.
Ticks from me for IAN FLEMING and GOLDEN RETRIEVER and especially VITAL STATISTICS.
Thanks to Tees and PeeDee
I couldn’t parse ‘golden retriever’ and thought ‘hostage’ for ‘security’ is a bit of a stretch, but otherwise much enjoyed. Thanks Tees and PeeDee.
Another quality Tees puzzle.
Just one question: is “next to” all right in a Down clue? [2d]
Many thanks to PeeDee (for the blog) & Tees (for the crossword).
Another satisfying Tees puzzle.
Plenty to enjoy – ICELANDER was good, and SAGO reminded us of the old chestnut: How do you start a pudding race? – Say ‘go’.
We don’t see any problem with ‘next to’ in a down clue – it doesn’t specify a direction as would ‘on’ or ‘going north’. In 2dn ‘on’ could be used but ‘next to’ gives a better surface.
Hovis@2: That cricket term may well be unknown to quite a lot of people. In these politically correct days the said delivery is described in Wisden (the cricketer’s bible) as ‘left-arm unorthodox spin’.
Thanks, Tees and PeeDee.
Loved the emu clue
re 12AC
How do you get Sigmund? I thought he was spelt Siegmund.
Hi Doug – I only know what I read on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund. I have no idea if they have it right, not really my specialist subject Sorry I can’t be of more help.
For clarity (maybe!). From Collins:
Sigmund
noun
1. Norse myth The father of the hero Sigurd
2. Also called Siegmund German myth King of the Netherlands, father of Siegfried