A good varied crossword with some easy clues and some tricky ones – something for everyone. Thanks Hypnos.
| Across | ||
| 1 | REVOLT | Rising priest meets old officer (6) |
| REV (reverend, priest) with (meets) O (old) LT (officer) | ||
| 4 | ESCAPADE | Prank ceased possibly with intervention of old man (8) |
| CEASED* anagram=possibly contains (with intervention of) PA (old man) | ||
| 9 | LONDON | US writer snubbed single academic fellow (6) |
| LONe (single, snubbed=shortened) DON (academic fellow) – Jack London | ||
| 10 | DETRITUS | Rubbish I trusted to be shifted (8) |
| (I TRUSTED)* anagram=shifted | ||
| 12 | CLOSE TO THE BONE | Almost offensive like an intense osteologist? (5,2,3,4) |
| double/cryptic definition | ||
| 14 | ATHLETE | Jumper, say, left among articles, extremely threadbare (7) |
| L (left) among A and THE (two articles) then ThreadbrE (extremes of) | ||
| 16 | RETRACT | Withdraw spiritual booklet? (7) |
| RE TRACT (religious eduction tract, spiritual booklet) | ||
| 17 | CHORIZO | Cafe’s beginning observable line mostly in foreign meat (7) |
| Cafe (beginning, first letter of) HORIZOn (observeable line, mostly) | ||
| 19 | SICK BAY | Recourse for those with complaints? (4,3) |
| cryptic-ish definition | ||
| 21 | CAREER DIPLOMAT | Long-standing envoy, say, represented maladroit creep (6,8) |
| (MALADROIT CREEP)* anagram=represented | ||
| 24 | PAINTING | Artistic work, popular element in retrospective opening (8) |
| IN (popular) TIN (element) in GAP (opening) reversed (retrospective) | ||
| 25 | CUCKOO | Daft flier? (6) |
| double definition | ||
| 26 | LANCELOT | Knight from county set with son going to Spain (8) |
| LANCs (county) LOT (set, film studio) with S (son) becoming E (Espana, Spain) | ||
| 27 | WHINGE | What’s turning point after Western protest? (6) |
| HINGE (turning point) following (after) W (western) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | RELUCTANCE | Wariness about African politicians in unusual cult close to questionable (10) |
| RE (about) ANC (African politicians) in CULT* anagram=unusual questionablE (close to, last letter) | ||
| 2 | VAN GOGH | Artist showing fruit without marks in very good hotel (3,4) |
| mANGO (fruit) missing M (marks) in VG (very good) H (hotel) | ||
| 3 | LOOSE | Liberal sun in Cornish resort (5) |
| S (sun) in LOOE (Cornish Resort) | ||
| 5 | SHEPHERDS PIE | One with crook viewed endless food (9,3) |
| SHEPHERD (one with crook) SPIEd (viewed, endless) | ||
| 6 | ACROBATIC | A bachelor blocking Balkan in charge of a circus performer? (9) |
| A BA (bachelor) inside (blocking) CROAT (Balkan) then IC (in charge) | ||
| 7 | ANTENNA | Feature of dish enabling woman to retain figure? (7) |
| ANNA (woman) contains (to retain) TEN (figure) – a satellite dish | ||
| 8 | EASE | Comfort in coffee as expected (4) |
| found in coffeE AS Expected | ||
| 11 | JOSE MOURINHO | Manager in juniors’ home ground gathering ball (4,8) |
| (JUNIORS HOME)* anagram=ground containing O (a ball) – manager of Chelsea | ||
| 13 | STAY AT HOME | Unadventurous talk almost in host team before playing (4-2-4) |
| sAY, YAp or YAk (talk, almost) in (HOST TEAM)* anagram=before playing | ||
| 15 | EPICENTRE | Marker of collapsed crust? (9) |
| cryptic definition – a collapsed crust could be an earthquake | ||
| 18 | OVATION | New policy in North thrown out? There’s great applause (7) |
| innOVATION (new policy) missing (thrown out) IN N (north) | ||
| 20 | BUMPKIN | Rustic fruit given different cover (7) |
| pUMPKIN (fruit) with new first letter (given different cover) | ||
| 22 | LAUGH | Scream in US city, repugnant sound (5) |
| LA (US city) UGH (repugnant sound) – it was a laugh, it was a scream | ||
| 23 | OPAL | Precious stuff round china (4) |
| O (somerhing round) PAL (china, rhyming slang) | ||
*anagram <br />definitions are underlined
This was a good workout: I completed it as two puzzles, finishing the RHS first before moving on to the LHS.
My favourites were 7d, 20d, 1d, 17a.
I needed help to parse 26a. For 13a, I was thinking of YAp.
Thanks Hypnos and PeeDee.
Another good IoS puzzle, IMHO. I got LONDON from the definition because I didn’t think of the required meaning of “snubbed”, so thanks for that PeeDee. The BUMPKIN/WHINGE crossers were my last ones in.
I don’t think there are too many opportunities for this type of thing, but with slight alterations the clues for SICK BAY and BUMPKIN could have led to SICK PAY and PUMPKIN instead.