A fun and often tricky solve – my favourites were 14ac, 24ac, 7dn, 8dn, and 18dn. Thanks to Fed
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ROLLER-SKATING |
Waves card around at sport (6-7)
|
| ROLLERS=sea “Waves”, plus KING=playing “card” around AT (from surface) | ||
| 10 | ON THE BALL |
Aware of article following working party (2,3,4)
|
| THE=definite “article” following ON=”working”; plus BALL=”party” | ||
| 11 | LUNGE |
Thrust using energy after breather (5)
|
| E (energy) after LUNG=”breather” | ||
| 12 | IRONY |
Humorous style of club comedy at last (5)
|
| IRON=golf “club”; plus last of [comed]-Y | ||
| 13 | TIME SHEET |
Record of employment from phone company on network in Bristol (4,5)
|
| EE (Everything Everywhere, “phone company”) after MESH=”network”, both inside TIT=”Bristol”
“Bristol” is rhyming slang: ‘Bristol city’=’titty’ |
||
| 14 | EVENS |
Competition missing Tango – Strictly’s biggest character quits (5)
|
| definition as in ‘call it quits’ / ‘call it evens’
EVEN-[T]=”Competition” minus T (Tango, NATO alphabet); plus S-[trictly’s] “biggest character” i.e. capital letter |
||
| 16 | YET TO COME |
However, large book covering business is expected? (3,2,4)
|
| YET=”However”, plus TOME=”large book” around CO (company, “business”) | ||
| 17 | IMPORTUNE |
Press regularly film one in Provence drinking wine (9)
|
| definition: to pester, to make repeated requests
regular letters from [f]-I-[L]-M, and UNE=”one” in French (in the Provence region of France); both around PORT=”wine” |
||
| 19 | YIELD |
Give up in year contestants’ foxtrot’s censored (5)
|
| Y (year) + [F]-IELD=”contestants” with F (foxtrot, NATO alphabet) removed
‘the field’ can refer to the group of contestants in a given [sporting] competition |
||
| 21 | POUNDLAND |
Get bruise opening shop (9)
|
| definition: a British chain of shops
LAND=successfully obtain=”Get”; with POUND=batter=”bruise” |
||
| 23 | BUSTS |
Breaks statues (5)
|
| double definition | ||
| 24 | RABBI |
Teacher‘s tips for our orchestra before musical King and I (5)
|
| end letters (“tips”) of [ou]-R [orchestr]-A, plus BB (B.B. King, the musician) + I (directly from surface) | ||
| 25 | EXPATIATE |
Elaborate move abroad right away (9)
|
| definition: to describe in detail
EXPATRIATE=”move abroad”, with R (right) taken away |
||
| 26 | FRIGHTENINGLY |
Somehow gentrifying centre of Balham in an alarming way (13)
|
| anagram/”Somehow” of (gentrifying lh)*, with the lh taken from the centre of Ba-lh-am | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | OUTVOTE |
Published five books on European defeat at the polls (7)
|
| OUT=”Published” (e.g. the news article is now out/published) + V=”five” in Roman numerals + OT (Old Testament, “books”) + E (European) | ||
| 3 | LIE BY |
Keep out of the way 6 times (3,2)
|
| LIE=”6″ down=TALL STORY; plus BY=”times” (multiplication e.g. ‘four by five’ / ‘four times five’) | ||
| 4 | ROAST |
Schedules with time diminishing for cook (5)
|
| ROTAS=”Schedules” with the T (time) moving down in the word (“diminishing”) | ||
| 5 | KILOMETRE |
Distance remote controlled oven nearly starts (9)
|
| anagram/”controlled” of (remote)*, with KIL-[n]=”oven nearly” placed at the start
“controlled” as anagram indicator, somewhat similar to ‘manipulated’ |
||
| 6 | TALL STORY |
Every way to penetrate politician’s falsehood (4,5)
|
| ALL=”Every” + ST (street, “way”); all inside TORY=”politician” | ||
| 7 | NON-ZERO |
Positive or negative news about old love (3-4)
|
| two ‘news’: N (new) + N (new), around O (old); plus ZERO=”love” [tennis scoring] | ||
| 8 | BODICE-RIPPERS |
Romances by Shakespeare, originally including moving period piece mostly involving Romeo (6-7)
|
| first letters (originally) of B-[y] S-[hakespeare]; around anagram/”moving” of (period piec)* and around R (Romeo, NATO alphabet)
piec in the anagram fodder is piec-[e], mostly |
||
| 9 | FEATHER DUSTER |
Abandoned feud – arrest the cleaner (7,6)
|
| anagram/”Abandoned” of (feud arrest the)* | ||
| 15 | SHREDDING |
Destroying protection from the sun – American becomes red (9)
|
| SHADING=”protection from the sun”, with the A for “American” becoming RED | ||
| 16 | YOU NAME IT |
I may tune out boxing ring – whatever! (3,4,2)
|
| anagram/”out” of (I may tune)*, around (“boxing”) O=”ring” | ||
| 18 | PLUMBER |
Perhaps Mario Balotelli’s header, excellent at first, goes over the bar ultimately (7)
|
| definition: Mario the Nintendo video game character is a plumber
(and for the surface reading, Mario Balotelli is a footballer) first letter (header) of B-[alotelli]; with PLUM=”excellent” going first”; all going over last letters (ultimately) of [th]-E [ba]-R |
||
| 20 | ENSNARL |
Tangle as some girl ran sneakily uphill (7)
|
| hidden (“some”) reversed (“uphill”) in [gir]-L RAN SNE-[akily] | ||
| 22 | DIP IN |
Detectives number sample (3,2)
|
| definition: “sample” as a verb, to try or take a bit of something
edit: a better parsing thanks to KVa in the comments: DI (Detective Inspector) + PI (Private Investigator) as the “Detectives”; plus N (number)
|
||
| 23 | BATON |
Staff stay in? (5)
|
| in cricket, to “stay in” when batting would be to BAT ON |
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