Thank you to Leonidas. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1. Coat barrel stuffed with rolled leaves (7)
CASSOCK : CASK(a barrel/cylindrical container bulging out in the middle) containing(stuffed with) reversal of(rolled) COS(leaves, specifically of a variety of lettuce).
5. Warn of something in harbour part of town? (7)
PORTEND : [ PORT END ](that end/part of town where its harbour/port is located).
9. Painter back exactly between 8 and midday (5)
MANET : Reversal of(back) [ TEN A.M. ](time of day exactly between 8 a.m. and noon/midday).
Answer: Edouard, French painter.
10. Object about island starting to make drone (9)
THRUMMING : THING(an object that one cannot or does not wish to give a specific name to) containing(about) [ RUM(an island in the Inner Hebrides, Scotland) + 1st letter of(starting to) “make” ].
Defn: …/a continuous low humming sound.
11. Actor touches rear briefly by statue (3,6)
THE SPHINX : THESP(informal term for “thespian”, an actor) plus(touches) “hind”(the rear/posterior, of a, say, a person) minus its last letter(briefly) + X(symbol for the multiplication process/by as in “2 by 2 =4”)
12. Verse typified by poet: know it? (5)
RHYME : A relationship between words or phrases, an example of which is/typified by the words “poet” and “know it”.
13. Chatterers in shoe shop maybe full of cold (14)
SCANDALMONGERS : SANDALMONGER’S(maybe/what you might call a shoe shop selling sandals) containing(full of) C(abbrev. for “cold”).
18. Start to party with new hot tub at house? (4,3,4,3)
PUSH THE BOAT OUT : 1st letter of(Start to) “party” plus(with) anagram of(new) HOT TUB AT HOUSE.
Defn: To throw a party at extravagant expense to celebrate an event – installation of a new hot tub, perhaps).
20. One who rebukes husband leaving drink (5)
CIDER : “chider”(one who rebukes/chides) minus(… leaving) “h”(abbrev. for “husband”).
22. Idle talk outside of tower with old school class member (9)
GASTROPOD : GAS(idle talk/hot air) + 1st and last letters of(outside of) “tower” plus(with) O(abbrev. for “old”) + POD(collective noun for a herd/school of marine animals, say, whales).
Defn: A member of the class of invertebrate organisms, the Gastropoda, that includes snails, slugs and marine shellfish.
24. A fun adult game dressed as big animals (9)
MEGAFAUNA : Anagram of(… dressed) [A FUN + A(abbrev. for “adult”) + GAME].
25. City nearly finished Guide for Walkers (5)
CAIRN : “Cairns”(city in Queensland, Australia) minus its last letter(nearly finished).
Defn: A mound/stack of rough stones built as a landmark, serving as a … in the countryside.
26. Relentless bridging across Avignon’s to pause (7)
NONSTOP : Hidden in(bridging across) “Avignon’s to pause“.
27. Seducer twice taking time to see ruler (7)
EMPRESS : “temptress”(a female seducer) minus(… taking …) 2x(twice) “t”(abbrev. for “time”).
Down
1. Shy around German with good manners (6)
COMITY : COY(shy/bashful) containing(around) MIT(German for “with”).
Defn: … and considerate behaviour towards others.
2. Criminals having posted for female convicts (9)
SENTENCES : “fences”(criminals who deal in stolen goods) with SENT(posted/sent to addressees) replacing(having … for) “f”(abbrev. for “female”).
Defn: …/declares someone is guilty and states the punishment he/she is to undergo, in a court of law.
3. Endlessly recorded and always available (2,3)
ON TAP : Last letter deleted from(Endlessly) “on tape”(recorded on audio or video tape for playing back).
4. Bird event most birds would avoid, I’d say (9)
KITTIWAKE : , Homophone of(…, I’d say) “kitty wake”(whimsically the vigil/wake by other cats for a cat/kitty that has died, and which most birds would avoid because of the presence of their predators).
5. Glassware on inside of host’s vessel (5)
PYREX : RE(on/about, as in “re your letter of …”) contained in(inside of) PYX(the container/vessel used in Christian Churches to carry the host/Sacramental bread used in the Holy Communion).
6. Mark overwhelmed by silly term “artist” (9)
REMBRANDT : BRAND(an identifying mark burned on livestock) contained in(overwhelmed by) anagram of(silly) TERM.
7. Instruct headless knights over vacuous foolery (5)
EDIFY : 1st letter deleted from(headless) “Jedi”(members of the knightly order in the Star Wars films) placed above(over, in a down clue) 1st and last letters deleted from(vacuous) “foolery“.
8. Clear dirty bits off extremely dire film (8)
DEGREASE : 1st and last letters of(extremely) “dire” + GREASE(1978 film starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John).
14. Return of trawlerman perhaps before match (3,6)
NET PROFIT : [ NET PRO ](what one might call/perhaps a trawlerman, an expert/professional at using trawl nets to fish) placed above(before, in a down clue) FIT(to match/to suit the requirements).
15. Scene on satellite shows bottom part of coast (9)
MOONSCAPE : MOONS(shows/flashes one’s bare bottom/rear end) + CAPE(part of coast, specifically, a headland).
16. Balance supply of issues periodically (9)
EQUIPOISE : EQUIP(to supply with equipment/kit) + 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th letters of(… periodically) “of issues“.
Defn: … of forces.
17. Buzz for one who witnessed a 15 (8)
SPACEMAN : Cryptic defn: Reference to Buzz Aldrin, one the two American astronauts who first landed on the moon and witnessed the moonscape/answer to 15 across.
19. Eye candy gyrating on dais (6)
ADONIS : Anagram of(gyrating) ON DAIS.
Defn: Masculine …
21. Prepare to resist chef’s exhortation (3,2)
DIG IN : Double defn: 1st: …, as in the phrase “dig in your heels”; and 2nd: … to start eating/dig into your food, metaphorically.
22. Bad-tempered person finally taking seat (5)
GRUMP : Last letter of(finally) “taking” + RUMP(seat/the hind part of a mammal’s body).
23. Summary of climbing athlete to follow (5)
RECAP : Reversal of(climbing, in a down clue) PACER(an athlete who sets a fast pace and whom others follow at the start of a race, to help them achieve a very fast time).
I didn’t like this at all. I’d moved Leonidas from my “Don’t attempt” list to my “Good” list recently (I must have enjoyed one), but s/he’s going back. I got less than half out, and reading through this blog, many require specialised knowledge that I don’t have and probably never will. (For example, I had to google to find that Rum Island is in Tasmania, but sure enough here I see it’s in Scotland too.)
Thanks Leonidas and scchua
The parsing of 11ac needs to be completed by X (by).
Like GDU @1, I found this difficult, probably the toughest Leonidas / Wire I’ve done. I had “unparsed” annotated against six answers on my pen and paper copy so needed our blogger’s help to have everything explained. Should have seen CAIRN(S) (stuck for no reason on Cairo) but would have had zero hope in parsing PYREX, with the never heard of PYX. Guessed that RUM was probably somewhere off Scotland but knew nothing about it.
I liked the ‘Buzz’ Aldrin reference, the “kitty wake” and would have enjoyed RHYME if I’d been alert enough to ‘poet: know it?’
Thanks to scchua for working all this out and to Leonidas
Thanks Pelham Barton for spotting. Blog amended.
Although too tough for me, I finished with quite a bit of help from Chambers & Google. Having said that, I thought this was a superb crossword and enjoyed being pushed beyond my limits in this case.
Thanks Leonidas and scchua
Definitely on the tough side.
I’m not convinced by the equivalence of ‘convicts’ and ‘sentences’ in 2D though. In a trial, the jury convicts and the judge sentences. Even magistrates convict before they sentence, and both can sentence on a date later than conviction. My wife, formerly a judge, agrees.
18A is &lit; otherwise the clue does not work properly. I finished this after drawing mostly blanks for the longest time. Once I got a few crossers, it was not that hard. Some nice cryptic devices from Leonidas, though. I also tried to make Cairo work somehow, so that was the only one I could not parse. Thanks for the elaborate blog.
Thanks for the blog, great puzzle, so many imaginative clues, I am not even going to start a list.
I think this must be toughest Leonidas we’ve tackled, and we only got there with wordfinder help. Last in were PYREX and THE SPHINX, neither of which we could parse (aoart from the ‘thesp’ bit.
We agree with Simon S about 2dn.
Thanks, though to Leonidas and scchua.
Thanks Leonidas for the challenge. I liked this crossword a lot even though I needed a word finder to get 4d and 13a. There were bits I couldn’t parse like the RUM of 10a, the HINX of 11a, CAIRN, and PYREX but overall I got most of this. My top choices included RHYME, EMPRESS. COMITY, REMBRANDT, EDIFY, and MOONSCAPE. Thanks scchua for explaining everything.
Thanks Schua, could ‘guide for walkers’ be the dog of the same name(cairn)?
I was so convinced that the city in 25a was going to be one of the cryptic crossword staples LA, NY, EC or even Ur, it didn’t even occur to me that it could be such a charming Aussie city just up the road!