ARTEXLEN kicks off the week…
A good fun solve. Nice range of clues with some lovely surfaces. I wasted far too much time trying to make PROSPERO work for 1d.
Thanks ARTEXLEN!
ACROSS
1. Quietly manipulated steel kitchen utensil (6)
PESTLE
P (quietly) + (STEEL)* (*manipulated)
4. Function by corporation with editor in fancy dress (8)
COSTUMED
COS (function, cosine) by TUM (corporation) with ED (editor)
9. Vast numbers of pooches aunts regularly collected (6)
OCEANS
[p]O[o]C[h]E[s] A[u]N[t]S (regularly collected)
10. Little money in bank of late (8)
RECENTLY
CENT (little money) in RELY (bank)
12. Extraction of part of book bearing a tear (9)
PARENTAGE
PAGE (part of book) bearing (A + RENT (tear))
13. Old boy’s first to leave firm (5)
STALE
STA[b]LE (firm, B[oy] (first) to leave)
14. Long vehicle carries around hurried railway employee (3,11)
CAR TRANSPORTER
(CARTS (carries) around RAN (hurried)) + PORTER (railway employee)
17. Upset taps wobble (4,3,3,4)
BLOW HOT AND COLD
BLOW (upset) + HOT AND COLD (taps)
21. Wood overlooking motorway and river (5)
TIBER
TI[m]BER (wood, overlooking M (motorway))
22. Restrict suspect, holding central character in banking fraud (9)
TRICKSTER
(RESTRICT)* (*suspect) holding [ban]K[ing] (central character)
24. Conditions favourable before six call for help (8)
PROVISOS
PRO (favourable) before VI (six) + SOS (call for help)
25. Bill reduced by billions easily, say (6)
ADVERB
ADVER[t] (bill, reduced) by B (billions)
26. Land accepting male Yankee that’s omnipotent (8)
ALMIGHTY
(ALIGHT (land) accepting M (male)) + Y (Yankee)
27. Former times with good individual (6)
BYGONE
BY (times, multiplication) with G (good) + ONE (individual)
DOWN
1. Wizard faction seizes power opportunity (8)
PROSPECT
PRO (wizard) + SECT (faction) seizes P (power)
2. Clipper that’s comparatively fine, we’re told (7)
SHEARER
"sheerer" = SHEARER (comparatively fine, "we're told", sheer meaning thin or fine)
3. Crease new cloth (5)
LINEN
5. Have promises broken, causing too much stress (12)
OVEREMPHASIS
(HAVE PROMISES)* (*broken)
6. Cherished walk to keep positive (9)
TREASURED
TREAD (walk) to keep SURE (positive)
7. Name the volatile gas (7)
METHANE
8. Poet penning lines with daughter in home (6)
DRYDEN
(RY (lines, railway) with D (daughter)) in DEN (home)
11. Fish wet on front of boat before trawler gets emptied out (7,5)
RAINBOW TROUT
RAIN (wet) on BOW (front of boat) before T[rawle]R (emptied) + OUT
15. Soldiers fighting — sound worthwhile? (9)
REWARDING
RE (soldiers) + WAR (fighting) + DING (sound)
16. Lovely area on island with cane coming up (8)
ADORABLE
A (area) on (ELBA (island) with ROD (cane))< (<coming up)
18. Fishing bait from bowl upset over room (7)
LOBWORM
(BOWL)* (*upset) + O (over) + RM (room)
19. Very active month egotist admits (2,3,2)
ON THE GO
[m]ONTH EGO[ist] (admits)
20. Heavenly state you reported with first- rate trophy lifted (6)
UTOPIA
"you" = U ("reported") with (AI (first-rate) + POT (trophy))< (<lifted)
23. Child’s pirate top in yellow (5)
KIDDY
KIDD (pirate, William Kidd) + Y[ellow] (top)
Thanks Artexlen and Teacow
18dn (LOBWORM): rm for room is in Chambers 2014, but I have a lot of sympathy for the view that an indication such as “small” or “vacant” would be kinder to the solver.
I agree with your assessment, Teacow. I found the across clues more challenging than the down clues. Favourites were UTOPIA, ADORABLE and PROSPECT. I felt there were a couple of stretched synonyms, which is not unusual for crossword land. And my OED does not contain SHEARER, so I wonder whether it is a word and wait for someone to quote Chambers.
Thanks Artexelen for the enjoyable puzzle and thanks Teacow for the excellent coverage.
Oh, sorry, as soon as I hit send I realised I completely messed up SHEARER – ignore that comment @2 please.
Most enjoyable. There were a couple I couldn’t parse, but I won’t say which, as they weren’t difficult and I should have. New to me: LOBWORM (not BLOWORM, which was my first guess!).
I liked the conciseness of LINEN and METHANE, particularly.
Thanks for the fun, Artexlen and Teacow for a thorough blog.
For KIDDY there’s a different pirate – Johnny rather than William – of Johnny Kidd & the Pirates, the COSTUMED band that had a number one hit in 1960:
Shakin’ All Over – the “wobble” from the clue for BLOW HOT AND COLD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n327ncoU_ZU
Thanks A&T
Thanks for the blog, good set of clues today , I was glad that UTOPIA was not “More work ” for once.
Roz@7, I like “More work” for Utopia, and it fooled me the first six times it appeared. 🙂
This was a fun puzzle; my favourite was 12a PARENTAGE for the deceptive definition and wordplay. Thanks, Artexlan and Teacow.