A very tough puzzle from Dac, with some excellent misdirection and great variation all through. Very satisfying to finish, solving time, 36 mins
* = anagram
ACROSS
1 (B)RIGHTO(n)
4 TASHKENT (The tanks)* Capital of Uzbekistan
9 P(RAW)N
10 SHIEL (D) ING Scottish word for a hut
11 Thomas CARLYLE (19th century writer) “Karl” (as in Marx) “aisle” (passage)
12 A CONITE (once it)* &lit as it’s a poisonous plant
13 TAGLIATELLE (galette All I)*
17 CHIPPENDALE Double definition – great surface
20 UNI DEAL
21 RE (FRA) IN
22 MER (CENA) RY (cane)*
24 A (M1) GO go = journey
25 LIGHTEST “lie test”
26 BREEZE My last entry – from ‘breeze blocks’ and two definitions (‘quarrel’ and ‘refuse’)
DOWN
1 RAP A CITY A = highly-rated
2 G (LAD R) AGS
3 TAN SilverY
5 A BIG (AILS) PART Y 1970s play by Mike Leigh
6 HALL O (WE) EN (one)* indicated by decorated, I think
7 E (first letter) L (long) XI (Roman numeral for nine) IR
8 TAGGED Double definition (ref: children’s game of tag)
10 S (WEE) T WILLIAMS Tennessee Williams, dramatist st = street = road. Only got this near the end.
14 IN CRE (MEN) T(e)
15 C (college) AL (AMIN)E Idi Amin = dictator calamine lotion = application
16 BEANPOLE Refers to runner beans, I think
18 HUM MEL Two of the Spice Girls were called Mel
19 OI L RIG My favourite clue with a great misleading surface Ten, northbound = 10 (going up) (girl)*
22 FLAIR Hidden reversal
Thanks for explaining HALLOWEEN (I’m sure you’re right but I’m not keen on “decorated” as an anagrind) and BREEZE (the quarrel meaning is new to me).
Misspelling tagliatelle as tagliatelli was my downfall on this (should have checked the anagram more carefully). It meant I was completely stumped on 6 down until I went online to check all the crossing answers. I finished it pretty quickly after that, although I thought shieling was a bit obscure (but, then again, I’m not from Scotland). I’d never heard of either quarrel or refuse as alternative meanings for breeze, so only got it from the building blocks bit.
26ac was difficult, I thought. I read it as ‘Quarrel’, and ‘refuse to make building blocks’, with ‘refuse’ a cleverly disguised noun. Perhaps this is not the case, although I suspect that breeze blocks are an amalgam of recycled material; certainly to equate ‘building blocks’ and ‘breeze’ seems wrong.
The refuse used to make breeze blocks is ashes of coal, coke or charcoal, so I think the clue is as Wil suspects in his first analysis.
In the building trade ‘breeze’ is synonymous with ‘breeze blocks’, but IMO ‘refuse’ isn’t specific enough to equal ‘ashes of coal’ etc.