A pleasant challenge that took longer to blog than to solve.
I haven’t quite managed to complete the parsing of the puzzle as I can’t see how you get the second part of 25ac, so as usual, I will throw it out to my betters to fill in the gap for me.
There were a few sports and sportsmen mentioned in the grid and clues, but I don’t think they represent a theme as such.
Thanks, Wanderer.
| Across | ||
| 1 | POSITION | Short of work, those one’s up against for job (8) |
| (op)POSITION (“those one’s up against” short of (ie without) OP (“work”)) | ||
| 5 | ACROSS | Like this clue? It’s central to the puzzle (6) |
| There’s A CROSS at the centre of the grid. | ||
| 9 | FORTIETH | Time to celebrate two scores in a match? (8) |
| Cryptic definition – “two scores” married (“in a match”) would mean you were celebrating your fortieth anniversary. | ||
| 10 | PLACID | Head of clan, dressed in tartan still (6) |
| C(lan) in PLAID (“tartan”) | ||
| 12 | LAPSE | Slip making pass, after missing header (5) |
| (e)LAPSE (“pass”, missing its first letter (“header”)) | ||
| 13 | ISRAELITE | False realities for Jacob’s descendant (9) |
| (*realities) | ||
| 14 | CENTRE | Heart broken in half-decent relationship (6) |
| Hidden in “half-deCENT RElationship” | ||
| 16 | CATCALL | Boo jazz fan beginning to criticise everyone (7) |
| CAT (“jazz fan”) + C(riticise) + ALL (“everyone”) | ||
| 18 | REFUSAL | Game’s official useless? City back: “No!” (7) |
| REF (“game’s official”) + U/S (“useless”) + <=L.A. (“city”, back) | ||
| 20 | CIRCLE | Ringo’s last group? (6) |
| The last letter of Ringo is O (a circle) | ||
| 22 | DORSAL FIN | Fishy bit of fish Ronaldo cooked after removing tails (6,3) |
| *(fis ronald) The amagram fodder is obtained by removing the tails of FIS(h) and RONALD(o) | ||
| 23 | PLEAT | Place to consume tuck (5) |
| Pl.(ace) + EAT (“consume”) | ||
| 24 | ELATED | “Over the moon”, as reported right away (6) |
| (r)ELATED (“reported”, with the R(ight) away) | ||
| 25 | FOOTWORK | Pay to go and see a bit of Messi’s skill (8) |
| FOOT (“pay”) | ||
| 26 | TAHITI | Island that gets confused with two small islands (6) |
| *(that ii) where the two i’s are indicated by “two small islands” | ||
| 27 | LASHINGS | Heather’s carrying wood – a large amount (8) |
| LING’S (“heather’s) carrying ASH (“wood”) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PIFFLE | Females are covered in a layer of soft, fine hair? Nonsense! (6) |
| FF (“females”) covered in PILE (“layer of soft, fine hair”) | ||
| 2 | STRAPPED FOR CASH | Poor dominatrix might have done this? (8,3,4) |
| A dominatrix may be oaid for her “services”. | ||
| 3 | THINE | Article about home that was yours once (5) |
| THE (“article”) about IN (“home”) | ||
| 4, 19 | OUTSIDE LEFT | Tedious rambling by socialist, showing outdated 1 across (7,4) |
| *(tedious) + LEFT (“socialist”)
In football, the outside left is now more commonly called the left winger. |
||
| 6 | COLLECTOR | Prayer circle run for one getting things together (9) |
| COLLECT (“prayer”) + O (“circle”) + R(un) | ||
| 7 | ONCE IN A BLUE MOON | Hardly ever come with a lone bunion needing treatment (4,2,1,4,4) |
| *(come a lone bunion) | ||
| 8 | SUDDENLY | In South of France, study in front of library that’s been evacuated without warning (8) |
| SUD (“south” in French) + DEN (“study”) in front of L(ibrar)Y | ||
| 11, 20 | ERIC CANTONA | Idle chap is unable to, working with a footballer and movie star (4,7) |
| ERIC (Idle) + CAN’T (“is unable to”) + ON (“working”) + A Ex-Manchester United player, Eric Cantona is now an actor. | ||
| 15 | TESTAMENT | Will try people in a court, ultimately (9) |
| TEST (“try”) + MEN (“people”) in A (cour)T, so TEST-A(MEN)T | ||
| 17 | GRADIENT | Reading about time one might be one in 11 (8) |
| *(reading) + T(ime) | ||
| 19 | See 4 | |
| 20 | See 11 | |
| 21 | STOKES | City’s cricketer keeps burning (6) |
| STOKE’S (“city’s”)
The cricketer is Ben Stokes, vice captain of England |
||
| 23 | PITCH | No hesitation shown by player in Baseball Ground (5) |
| PITCH (er) – the baseball equivalent of a bowler, with no ER (“hesitation”) | ||
*anagram
Enjoyed this. 25a is FOOT (pay) + WORK (to go as in operate) etc. STRAPPED FOR CASH was a lol, followed by a whip round perhaps. Liked the misdirection of the phrase ‘one in 11’ in 17d. Thanks to Wanderer and loonapick.
I meant to add that I wasn’t sure about U/S as being ‘useless’ in 18a. I’ve only seen it to mean ‘unsatisfactory’, which isn’t quite the same. As such, I took it to be US(e), i.e. USE less (last letter). I think you may be right though.
U/S is an abbreviation for ‘unserviceable’ (in Chambers).
Sorry to be a killjoy but I remember STRAPPED FOR CASH in an Arachne puzzle. Great clue if you havent seen it before.
Arachne’s clue in Guardian Cryptic 27150 on March 21 this year was
Short dominatrix may have done this
Such similarities occur often in crosswords.
In the years past we had only suspicions when we came across such instances.
Nowadays with modern technology making it possible to use search facility to confirm the ‘already seen’ feeling of solvers, the question arises whether the blogs are doing the right thing by giving the full text of published crosswords.
Annotations/Explanations for select or all clues may be OK for someone who comes looking for them (after having tried the puzzle and having probably given it up).
But to give the whole text of the clue sheet and then the parsing – that probably belongs in a crossword manual.
(What I mean is solvers may be given notes that they use in conjunction with the clue text of the puzzle that they have tried.)
Agreed this kind of exposition brings in new solvers but should that be done on a daily basis for so many crosswords, making life difficult for setters – for one, the setter of the original clue and for another the later setter.
Setters of multiple crosswords under multiple pseudonyms can now be confronted with repeats of their clues in different papers by crossword serial no. and clue number.
Thanks Wanderer and loonapick
Did this on the day but only got to check it off today. Was able to do the puzzle in one short session and complete it on the train ride home.
All went in pretty smoothly and finishing with Messi’s FOOTWORK and PITCH. Didn’t parse POSITION at 1a.
Don’t know whether it is a ‘setter crime’ to present a clue that is similar to an earlier one that has been published. Chances are that there will be a lot of solvers who happen to meet it for the first time. Certainly doesn’t warrant, as Rishi suggests above, to stop a forum such as this which gives detailed solutions to the clues – it has often been quoted by posters how much help that it has been for them to continue to learn the art of cryptic crosswords.