A fairly typical Paul, though without some of his customary smut or risqué clues. Solving didn’t take long and I didn’t have to return to any clues to sort out the parsing since they were all reasonably straightforward once 7,19 had been determined (though there appears to be a Guardian gremlin in 8ac).
Across
8 Surrealist into in any old mixture of compounds (4,4)
SODA LIME – DALI (surrealist) in SOME (any) – we seem to have two inclusion indicators, presumably one should have been deleted before publication.
9 Afford, might you say, an island? (5)
CAPRI – double def. with one a homophone (might you say) of ‘afford’ ie ‘a Ford’
10 Possibly welcoming time for support (4)
STAY – SAY (possibly) around (welcoming) T (time)
11 Selfish nature with Gulf crude (10)
UNGRATEFUL – anagram (crude) of NATURE GULF
12 Disreputable left that hurt McCarthyite, finally (6)
LOUCHE – L (left) OUCH (that hurt) [mccarthyit]E
14 7-19 thing with feathers in lift (8)
HEIGHTEN – HEN (thing with feathers) around (19) EIGHT (7)
15 Provider of satellite TV adventure for bird (7)
SKYLARK – SKY (provider of satellite TV) LARK (adventure)
17 7-19 girl, one feels (7)
ANTENNA – ANNA (girl) around (19) TEN (7)
20 Poisonous element applied to ulna, if poorly — disease resulting (5,3)
ASIAN FLU – AS (poisonous element {arsenic}) anagram (poorly) of ULNA IF
22 This once spent, put in bullet for shooter? (6)
PESETA – SET (put) in PEA (bullet for shooter)
23 Standard happy chappy? (5,5)
JOLLY ROGER – JOLLY (happy) ROGER (chappy)
24,2 Spooner’s man unshaven? Say it with remorse (4,4)
HAIL MARY – Spoonerism of ‘male hairy’ (man unshaven)
25,3 Fibre including resilience, classy for a long-running show (4,1,6)
JUST A MINUTE – JUTE (fibre) around (including) STAMIN[a]U (resilience with U {classy} replacing the final A)
26 7-19 part of church without a biblical text — that’s not significant (3-5)
NON-EVENT – N[a]VE (part of church without a) NT (biblical text) around (19) ONE (7)
Down
1 7-19 split with an extra circle — something fancy? (8)
FOOTWORK – FOORK (split with an extra circle) around (19) TWO (7)
4 I travel round hospitals beneath man — how tiresome! (5-2)
HEIGH-HO – HE (man) I GO (I travel) around (round) HH (hospitals)
5 Business looking up when individual blocking party time (8)
OCCASION – CO (business) reversed (looking up) AS (when) I (individual) in (blocking) CON (party)
6 Dumb view about first of players, learner in game (10)
SPEECHLESS – SEE (view) around (about) P[layers] L (learner) in CHESS (game)
7,19 Fruit pressing, squeezing huge nuts so tight (6-7)
FIGURE-HUGGING – FIG (fruit) URGING (pressing) around (squeezing) anagram (nuts) of HUGE
13 Unable to drive round Rolls, limited, as in an informal shirt? (10)
COLLARLESS – CARLESS (unable to drive) around (round) [r]OLL[s] (Rolls, limited)
16 Handing over a variety of free rights, almost everything (8)
REFERRAL – anagram (a variety of) of FREE RR (rights) AL[l] (almost everything)
18 Even bits of meat in turn when cooked, providing something nourishing (8)
NUTRIENT – anagram (when cooked) of [m]E[a]T IN TURN
21 Runner’s almost finished work on outskirts of Japanese capital (6)
SKOPJE – SK[i] (runner’s almost finished) OP (work) J[apanes]E
22 Constant worrier needing secretary to hire (6)
PARENT – PA (secretary) RENT (hire)
24 Queen’s home has impressed various European leaders (4)
HIVE – H[as] I[mpressed] V[arious] E[uropean]
HAIL MARY and JOLLY ROGER made me chuckle. Lovely, smooth crossword on the easy side from Paul. Thanks to Gaufrid and Paul.
I only solved 7/19 when I was about halfway through the puzzle and realised I could not proceed without cracking 7/19. And after solving it I took a while to work out how to use that key clue. But how clever! I really enjoyed 7/19 and all of the related “figure-hugging” clues.
I also particularly liked 16d, 6d, 4d , 22a and my favourite was 23a JOLLY ROGER.
I couldn’t parse 13d.
Thanks for the blog, Gaufrid.
Thanks Gaufrid. An hour for this, just right for a Saturday. Last in was 9a, though I had CAPRI in my head from the start: had I already done Puck’s 30 July Ford puzzle I probably would have twigged. SKOPJE was neat – but even better was Orlando’s on 27 March: “Stand by Jack in some evacuated capital.”
Many thanks, Gaufrid, you have been a busy boy recently.
Will you also be tackling any others today?
And thank you Paul for another very enjoyable puzzle.
Good Saturday puzzle.
Thanks Gaufrid; I put in AVIAN FLU at the beginning for 20 [Va, although backwards is a poisonous element,] leading to all sorts of mental gymnastics for the capital in 21.
I particularly liked the LOUCHE that hurt McCarthyite and HAIL MARY.
Thanks for the blog. I was fooled into thinking 7-19 was about fruit so it took me ages to get that … In fact I “got” a few of the related solutions by realising that there was a number hidden in each, but not knowing why.
Very enjoyable, clever theme.
Paul is always good value, so thanks again to him – and also for being in the wider context such an enthusiastic spokesperson for crucibervalism.
I use that posh word because ‘crosswords’ seems more appropriate for last week’s heat generation.
Thanks to Gaufrid for blog and general oversight – and to all posters who remain polite, and who think twice and post once (the majority in fact) 🙂
Thanks Gaufrid and Paul
An enjoyable puzzle with an amusing mini-theme.
I particularly liked 24,2, 26a, and 1d.
After yesterday’s todoment, let me start by thanking Paul for an amusing puzzle and Gaufrid for an informative blog. I must confess that I did not see the double prepositional indicator in 1ac until you pointed it out.
12ac, where the expression “that hurt” is used in a context where one would be thinking that “that” is merely a pronoun, is elegant. Definitely my Clue of the Day.
Thanks, Paul for the laughs and Gaufrid for the blog. (I love your owl!)
HAIL MARY, JOLLY ROGER and JUST A MINUTE were favourites – all with memories attached.
More please both of you.
Giovanna xx
Now I’m only a beginner but this one just kept unfolding until I was left with the seemingly impossible 7,19. Eventually I twigged that all the associated clues contained numbers. But when the day finally dawned, I was still left wondering why the rest of the clue was hugging [surrounding] the number. The syntax definitely shows the figure hugging the rest of the clue. Or do some people hug differently?
A most enjoyable crossword, Paul. I’m just horrified the others found it so easy! It took me eight days.
Hi JJ @11
This is a difficult one for me to explain because when I solved the puzzle I had no problems with the 7,19 related clues but when I came to blog it my initial thought was that the containment was the wrong way round.
Had 7-19 not been hyphenated then, yes, the figure (number) would have to be around the rest of the clue but with the hyphen it can be read differently which I can only explain by use of a different example.
If you have ‘insect eating bird’ the bird would be in the insect, but with an ‘insect-eating bird’ the bird would eat the insect.
I’m sorry I’ve not been able explain this more clearly but I don’t know how.
That sounds eminently plausible, Gaufrid. Thank you. And keep up the good work!