Thanks to Slormgorm for an enjoyable crossword. There are many amusing and apt surfaces here. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Police unit to probe a principal drug user (4-4)
ACID-HEAD : CID(abbrev. for the Criminal Investigation Department, a police unit) contained in(to probe) [A + HEAD(the principal/the chief)].
Defn: …, of the drug LSD/acid.
5 Fine player that contributes to final result (6)
FACTOR : F(abbrev. for “fine”) + ACTOR(a player on stage or in films).
9 Smack around the lughole? Get off! (5,3)
CLEAR OUT : CLOUT(a smack/a hard blow with the hand or hard object) containing(around) EAR(in slang, the lughole).
10 Row over heartless administrator’s fee (6)
TARIFF : TIFF(a row/a quarrel) containing(over) “administrator” minus all its inside letters(heartless …).
11 French article about hooligans and betrayers (8)
SELLOUTS : Reversal of(… about) LES(article in the French language) + LOUTS(hooligans/rowdies).
12 Army loses head with half-cut bugler, a stable man once (6)
OSTLER : “host”(an army/a large number of people or things) minus its 1st letter(loses head) plus(with) last 3 letters of(half-cut) “bugler“.
Defn: Formerly/once, a man who looks after horses in an inn’s stable.
14 Peace pact broken by angry uncle’s hostility (10)
TRUCULENCE : TRUCE(a peace pact/a ceasefire) containing(broken by) anagram of(angry) UNCLE.
18 New transept houses holy books for pious type (10)
PROTESTANT : Anagram of(New) TRANSEPT containing(houses) OT(abbrev. for the Old Testament/holy books in the Bible).
22 Going out, say, on ship (6)
EGRESS : EG(abbrev. for “exempli gratia”/for example/say) + RE(with reference to/on, as in “on the subject of …”) SS(abbrev. for “steamship”, as is used in its full name).
Defn: …, as a noun.
23 Sort of cake old lady’s given to new lover (5,3)
FANCY MAN : FANCY(a cake decorated with icing) + MA(short for one’s mother/in slang, “the old lady”) plus(given to) N(abbrev. for “new”).
Defn: …, obviously one she’s taken a fancy to.
24 I eat after ten (6)
IODINE : DINE(to eat) placed after(after) IO(ten/10/Roman numeral for “one” + letter signifying 0/nothing).
Defn: The chemical element symbolised by I.
25 I forage around woods ultimately to find delicacy (4,4)
FOIE GRAS : Anagram of(… around) I FORAGE + last letter of(… ultimately) “woods“.
26 Tip of elbow nurse must keep very, very still (4,2)
EVEN SO : [1st letter of(Tip of) “elbow” + EN(abbrev. for “enrolled nurse”) ] containing(must keep) V(abbrev. for “very”) + SO(very/to such a great extent).
Defn: …, as in “Still, there is no cause for that”.
27 When servant’s punched by old knight and earl together (2,3,3)
AS ONE MAN : [AS(when, as in “as you enter the room”) + MAN(a servant/a butler, say)] containing(punched by) [O(abbrev. for “old”) + N(abbrev. for “knight”, in chess notation) + E(abbrev. for “earl”)].
Down
1 Stop a payment via the telephone (6)
ACCOST : A + homophone of(… via the telephone) “cost”(a payment/a price to be paid).
Defn: …, as a sentry might do to you.
2 Island trade Samoan leader values (6)
IDEALS : I(abbrev. for “Island”) + DEAL(a trade/an agreement) + 1st letter of(… leader) “Samoan“.
3 Many will eat slice of Roquefort after hot tart (6)
HARLOT : {[A LOT](many) containing(will eat) 1st letter of(slice of) “Roquefort“} placed after(after) H(abbrev. for “hot”).
Defn: … on two legs/a trollope.
4 Corrupt deal utter shambles, article claimed (10)
ADULTERATE : Anagram of(… shambles) DEAL UTTER containing(… claimed) A(a grammatical article).
6 Water mother gets in a market (5,3)
ADAM’S ALE : DAM(a mother, especially of a domestic animal) contained in(gets in) [A + SALE(an event where, well, sales are made/a market as in the Sunday market)].
7 Somehow flirting is of little importance (8)
TRIFLING : Anagram of(Somehow) FLIRTING.
8 Grass with criminal past put inside, becomes this? (8)
REFORMED : REED(grass/a plant with a long stem) containing(with … put inside), FORM(a criminal past/a criminal record).
Defn: What a grass/one who informs on fellow criminals and with form might become after being put inside jail. A well-constructed, apt surface.
13 Terribly cold saunas? That’s shocking! (10)
SCANDALOUS : Anagram of(Terribly) COLD SAUNAS.
15 Retired old man with little desire for sex? (8)
APPETITE : Reversal of(Retired) PA(one’s father /an old man) plus(with) PETITE(little/small and dainty).
Defn: …, perhaps/? Well, there’s still wine and song in your retirement.
16 Bird food (8)
PORRIDGE : Double defn: 1st: Both defn. and answer are slang for a term in jail.
17 Some game husband’s left out for country folk (8)
PEASANTS : “pheasants”(some type of hunted game) minus(…’s left out) “h”(abbrev. for “husband”).
19 Sort of shield (6)
SCREEN : Double defn: 1st: To sort by allowing some in and keeping others out.
20 Non-Equity production shot in the morning? (2-4)
AM-DRAM : A DRAM(a shot/a small quantity of an alcoholic spirit) taken in the AM(abbrev. for “ante-meridiem”, the morning hours of the day).
Defn: Short for “amateur dramatics”/a performance/a production by amateurs, non-members of the Equity Trade Union of personnel connected to the theatre.
21 Harmony in marriage is scarce, primarily (6)
UNISON : UNION(a marriage) containing(in … is) 1st letter of(…, primarily) “scarce“.
The setter used to have a really useful site about crosswords, and I remember him saying that clues should ideally have no more than 50 characters in them. That’s harder than it looks but he manages it with all the clues here, and some of the very short ones – IODINE, PORRIDGE, EGRESS – are superb. The latter has three components of wordplay after the definition in just nine letters.
Excellent throughout. My favourite was probably EVEN SO for a really neat surface.
It’s almost a crossword chestnut, but I still managed to miss ‘I’ for IODINE until almost the very end. PORRIDGE was my favourite; fooled by the surface and went through a mental list of many of our avian friends before the penny eventually dropped.
Thanks to Slormgorm and scchua
There’s a small error in the blog for 11a. “about” is only used for the initial reversal – there is no “containing”.
As others have said, a well-constructed crossword. Thanks to Slormgorm and scchua.
Never heard of AM DRAM but may have been guilty in the past.
Have heard of HARLOT but my lips are sealed.
Sometimes a fine line between a chestnut and a retread but hey…
Thanks muchly.
Thanks, Hovis. Error corrected.
much enjoyed, thanks slormgorm and scchua
Thanks Slormgorm and scchua
An entertaining puzzle which I was able to complete in a single session during an awake session early this morning. Some neat surfaces … did grin at 15d and although there was some old favourites scattered amongst the clues, it didn’t feel like there were.
A couple of new terms – didn’t know the FANCY (as a cake, we have jam fancy biscuits down here) or SELLOUT (in the nounal sense for a traitor).
Finished in the SW corner with PORRIDGE (having to recall ‘bird’ as time in prison), EVEN SO (with the cluster of very’s) and that APPETITE.
Thanks to Slormgorm: I always learn something from him/her(?) and from all of you. I could never get AM-DRAM; I did get AS-ONE-MAN, but I thought it was not very elegant to have man being the meaning of servant and also as part of the answer.