Apologies for the delay, not sure what I did with the earlier write up.
Just a quick run through today to get a blog up, but an enjoyable solve last week,
Across
1 Good article following treatment of blue whale (6)
BELUGA
BLUE* treated & G(ood) & A (article)
4 Ratings for hosts (6)
SCORES
Double defintion
9 Irregular amendment of moral ban (8)
ABNORMAL
[MORAL BAN]* amended
10 Tip by university relating to experience (6)
ENDURE
END (tip) & U(ni)& RE (relating to)
12 Guy in memo creating unusually close control (15)
MICROMANAGEMENT
MAN (guy) in [MEMO CREATING]* unusually.
13 Stick fish next to chips initially (5)
CLING
C(hips) initially & LING (crossword favourite fish that happens to be in my blogging name)
15 Handle contest, entertaining one with type of diagram (5,4)
GIVEN NAME
1 & VENN (diagram) in GAME
17 Unconvincing in praise? Not guilty (9)
BLAMELESS
LAME in BLESS
18 Check odd elements of diet theory (5)
DETER
Odd letters of DiEt ThEoRy
20 Park in New York, driving with difficulty in street (8,7)
FLUSHING MEADOWS
FLUSHING (driving out) & ADO (difficulty) in MEWS (street)
23 Settled problem about dye (6)
LITMUS
LIT (settled) & SUM reversed
24 Increase in sentimentality, resistance turning low (8)
MUSHROOM
MUSH (sentimentality) & R(esistance) & MOO (low) reversed
25 Ridicule some wilder ideas (6)
DERIDE
hidden answer
26 Reveal stake and beam (6)
BETRAY
BET & RAY
Down
1 Porcelain, once cracked, ending in rubbish in bin area (4,5)
BONECHINA
[ONCE* cracked & end of (rubbis)H] in BIN & A(rea)
2 Slow learner on legendary ship (5)
LARGO
L(earner) & ARGO of Jason and the…
3 Writer in terrible rage about meat, unseasoned (6,6)
GRAHAM GREENE
HAM & GREEN (raw, unseasoned) in RAGE* terribily
5 Criticised trick with tips for magician in action (9)
CONDEMNED
CON & tips of M(agicia)N in DEED
6 Beginning in sound way (5)
ROUTE
Sounds like ROOT, unless you’re American when it doesn’t…
7 Disc covered by crest designed to be symbol of sovereignty (7)
SCEPTRE
E.P. (old disc) in CREST* designed
8 Surface in time and supply account (6)
TARMAC
T(ime) & ARM (supply with guns etc) & AC(count)
11 Rodent, hot and bothered rat, moves with purpose (7,5)
HARVEST MOUSE
H(ot) & [RAT MOVES]* bothered & USE (purpose). Use of “moves” a tad sneaky
14 Dog dry enough after a shake (9)
GREYHOUND
[DRY ENOUGH]* shaken. Having just taken the dog for a swim this seems quite a good ‘un
16 Soldier perhaps on boat occupied by journal with collection of poems (9)
ANTHOLOGY
ANT (crossword fav soldier) & LOG in HOY ( a flat bottomed boat)
17 Ran away after great upset, confused (7)
BAFFLED
FAB (great) reversed, upset & FLED
19 Carry on with venture without pawn (6)
RESUME
Pawn taken from (p)RESUME
21 Absolute state (5)
UTTER
Double def
22 Broach reforms, ignoring cold hate (5)
ABHOR
My favourites were BAFFLED, BLAMELESS, MUSHROOM.
New for me were HARVEST MOUSE & VENN diagram.
Thanks Everyman and flashling
Thank you Everyman and flashling – sorry you had to do the write up twice.
Good fun, especially the “Handle contest…” and “Increase in sentimentality…”. Having got the BELUGA, I confidently entered George Orwell at 3d before realizing it would not parse.
I struggled to finish this one and my last two were ROUTE (simple but oblique) and ENDURE. For the latter, I should have twigged that tip=end but it was a long time coming. I liked GIVEN NAME which was well-disguised and the surface for GREYHOUND was classic.
Thanks to flashling and Everyman for the entertainment.
There is a parsing error in 15ac; ‘one’ denotes the letter ‘I’, not the figure ‘1’; as in ‘one is not amused’.
Nick
Had same problem as Davy and was left with ROUTE and ENDURE. Also although I got FLUSHING MEADOWS and LITMUS, the clues strike me as a wee bit flaky.
Another good Everyman. My favourites included GREYHOUND and MUSHROOM.
Thanks, Everyman and flashling.
I thought this was quite difficult for Everyman. 4ac, 6d and 20ac in particular gave me problems. Favourite clue 15ac.
Thanks, flashling
Good to see some classic stalwarts (ling, argo) make an appearance amidst a range of interesting and well concealed wordplays. Last in was MICROMANAGEMENT which I’ve always spelt as two words. Had all the crossers and stared at it for a full 5min before the penny dropped.
PeterO mentioned this one is tough so I am not going to do it this weekend. Instead I will take this crossie, along with 3655, to the cricket in Hamilton next weekend. There, as I lounge in the late spring sun and watch a customary NZ batting collapse, I will endeavour to solve both.
Rats I didn’t think it was that tough. I finished it all except for Given Name and Harvest. Some good clues here that kept the brain working.
Hope the All Blacks do well tonight against Ireland.
Thanks Flashling and Everyman.
A great crossword. I loved Greyhound too
The top right hand corner had me flummoxed (good to see I was not the only one) until I tentatively entered ‘scores’ (in pencil) thinking that was a bit of a stretch. The rest followed quite quickly after that. Even so there were some real good clues I thought. Thanks to all
Agree, NW corner took a little while, not sold on ‘condemned’ for ‘criticised’, everything else fine.
Thanks Flashling and Everyman
Well, I was down at the cricket and in between freezing my a$$ off and waiting for some cricket to be played, I worked on the crossie. This was a good one but I can’t really say it was overly difficult. There’ve been many harder ones in the past. I thought GIVEN NAME was a very good clue.