1 Take a big risk with stage production using flames (4,4,4)
PLAY WITH FIRE
8 Obscure relative has ward but no wife or daughter (7)
UNCLEAR
UNCLE (relative) has [w]AR[d] (no Wife or Daughter)
9 British managed to acquire island with energy supplying land (7)
UKRAINE
UK (british) + (RAN (managed) to acquire I (island)) with E (energy)
11 Main man’s best friends are old sailors (7)
SEADOGS
SEA (main) + DOGS (man’s best friends)
12 Tradesman’s beginning to paint old furniture (7)
PLUMBER
P[aint] (beginning) + LUMBER (old furniture)
13 Verbal prompt gets people in line (5)
QUEUE
14 Home and Away’s tackling serious suffering (2,1,3,3)
IN A BAD WAY
IN (home) and (AWAY tackling BAD (serious))
16 They protect viewers with opinion getting attacks (9)
EYELASHES
EYE (opinion) getting LASHES (attacks)
19 Joan Baez initially composed for a stringed instrument (5)
BANJO
(JOAN B[aez] (initially))* (*composed)
21 Sets off to bring in work left uncovered (7)
TOPLESS
(SETS)* (*off) to bring in (OP (work) + L (left))
23 Warning when sale’s about to go ahead (7)
CAUTION
AU[C]TION (sale), C (about) to go ahead
24 Pulling any trick’s essentially legit to protect family (7)
YANKING
((ANY)* (*trick) + [le]G[it] (essentially)) to protect KIN (family)
25 Reach consensus about a good time to bring in soldiers (5,2)
AGREE ON
(A + G (good) + EON (time)) to bring in RE (soldiers)
26 Employer led in new cook described as easy to work with (4-8)
USER-FRIENDLY
USER (employer) + ((LED IN)* (*new), FRY (cook) described)
1 Parcel from old servant contains even bits of oatcake (7)
PACKAGE
PAGE (old servant) contains [o]A[t]C[a]K[e] (even bits)
2American partners take a bit of inspiring (7)
AWESOME
A (American) + WE (partners, West, East) + SOME (a bit)
3 Lakeland poet’s semi-legend we hear, a master of language (9)
WORDSMITH
WORDS[worth] (Lakeland poet, semi) + “myth” (legend, “we hear”)
4 High time rising upper class politician gets beat (5)
THUMP
5 In favour of a Disney heroine endlessly following blueprint (7)
FORMULA
FOR (in favour of) + MULA[n] (Disney heroine, endlessly)
6 Coloured arch made by artist’s cool with nothing in black and white (7)
RAINBOW
RA (artist) + IN (cool) with (O (nothing) in B W (black and white))
7 Slyly keeping most of series for later (12)
SUBSEQUENTLY
SUBTLY (slyly) keeping SEQUEN[ce] (series, most of)
10 Listener to lament on radio’s lounging about first thing (5,7)
EARLY MORNING
EAR (listener) + (“mourn” (lament, “on radio”), LYING (lounging) about)
15 Fool’s put up to trapping spies by English colleague (9)
ASSOCIATE
ASS (fool) + ((TO)< (<put up) trapping CIA (spies)) by E (English)
17 Spandex is designed for stretches (7)
EXPANDS
18 Top class model expressed hesitation about couch in artist’s studio (7)
ATELIER
A (top class) + T (model) + (ER (expressed irritation) about LIE (couch))
19 Depressed about rights Germany’s made vague (7)
BLURRED
BLUE (depressed) about RR (rights) + D (Germany)
20 Etna’s eruption engulfed four, young with a lack of experience (7)
NAIVETY
(ETNA)* (*eruption) engulfed IV (four) + Y (young)
22 Sweetheart used up pasta sauces (5)
SUGAR
(RAGUS)< (pasta sauces, <used up)
I completed this more quickly than usual, but was hijacked en route by a couple of googlies. Thanks, Zamorca, for the good Monday fare, and Teacow for your gloss.
Even I found this one reassuringly straight forward.
Loi Caution.
Thanks to all.
After a slow start I managed to complete this fairly methodically with AWESOME the LOI. Liked BANJO, RAINBOW, and ASSOCIATE; thought the surface in 10d was awkward — thanks Teacow for parsing that one as well as WORDSMITH, another one I couldn’t parse fully. I thought a pangram was in the works until I got to Z — thanks, Zamorca.
We found this a goldilocks puzzle – just right. Having said that we slipped up on 4dn which we got as ‘trump’ – nothing to do with a certain idiot across the pond but as in “to trump someone’s ace” in card games; we took ‘high time rising’ as an indication to take the first (top, therefore high, in a down clue) letters of Time and Rising. Well, it sort of works.
And we thought 11ac should be enumerated as either 3-4 or 3,4 – the latter is supported by Chambers.
Very enjoyable nevertheless.
Thanks, Zamorca and Teacow
Thanks Zamorca and Teacow
Took a bit longer than normal for this setter today with a couple of tricky plays holding up the solve. Never really got my head around the parsing of EARLY MORNING, took a while to see the easy anagram of JOAN B and a hastily written in EXPOSES at 21 caused delays.
Second time in recent days that LUMBER in this sense has come up after not knowing it previously.
Finished by eventually getting TOPLESS and then working out SUBSEQUENTLY. A good prodding puzzle to wake up for the week !