An enjoyable puzzle that I found harder than usual for Poins. Thank you Poins.
| Across | ||
| 1 | CHANCE |
An opportunity for revolutionary to seize South African political party (6)
CHE (revolutionary) contains ANC (South African political party) |
| 4 | PIDDLE |
Penny lied about getting round daughter to go (6)
P (penny) LIED* anagram=about containing (getting round) D (daughter) – to go for a wee |
| 9 | ANTI |
Opposed to a character like Hamlet? Not half (4)
ANTI-hero (a character like Hamlet) half missing |
| 10 | NOEL COWARD |
Famous player‘s role can do with being revised (4,6)
anagram (beong revised) of ROLE CAN DO and W (with) – a writer of plays |
| 11 | MODENA |
Vogue article featuring northern Italian city (6) MODE (vogue) A (article) contains (featuring) N (northern) |
| 12 | ENTIRELY |
Dishonest bishop leaves Irish city altogether (8)
bENT (dishonest, B=bishop missing) IR (Irish) ELY (a cathedral city) |
| 13 | SMALL ARMS |
What little kids have as weapons (5,4)
definition/cryptic definition |
| 15 | AGOG |
Excited by Gone Girl’s opening (4) AGO (gone) Girl (opening letter of) |
| 16 | ROBE |
Dress designer finally gets an award (4)
designeR (final letter of) with OBE (award) |
| 17 | INSTITUTE |
Found in an FE college perhaps (9)
double definition |
| 21 | START OUT |
Begin to set up in the open air (5,3)
START (to set up) and OUT (in the open air) |
| 22 | REASON |
About to eject Republican from crime debate (6)
RE (about) with ArSON (a crime) missing R (republican) |
| 24 | PALINDROME |
Bob for example finds prime land to develop around Ohio (10)
anagram (to develop) of PRIME LAND containing O (Ohio) |
| 25 | IONA |
Contributing to erosion around island (4)
found inside (contributing to) erosION Around |
| 26 | THEORY |
Right to ring ambassador for an explanation (6)
TORY (right) to contain (ring) HE (His Excellency, ambassador) |
| 27 | STROKE |
An inspired act of resistance to contain City? Just the opposite (6)
STOKE (city) contains R (resistance). I wanted this to be BREATH (an inspired act) – BATH containing RE but it doesn’t quite work. |
| Down | ||
| 1 | CONFORM |
Correspond with head of college about criminal record (7)
College (head, first letter of) On (about) FORM (criminal record) |
| 2 | ASIDE |
In reserve team after Adrian’s debut (5)
SIDE (team) follows Adrian (debut, first letter of) |
| 3 | CANTATA |
Jazz fan collects American books on advanced musical composition (7)
CAT (jazz fan) contains (collects) A (american) NT (books, of Bible) on A (advanced) |
| 5 | INCITE |
Encourage awareness in speech (6)
sounds like (in speech) “insight” (awareness) |
| 6 | DOWNRIGHT |
Frank‘s at a disadvantage – just (9)
DOWN (at a disadvantage) RIGHT (just) |
| 7 | EARPLUG |
Organs fitted with adaptor essentially as a protective device (7)
EAR and LUG (organs, of the body) contain (fitted with) adaPtor (essentially, centre letter of) |
| 8 | DETERMINATION |
Firmness of purpose shown by Will (13) double definition |
| 14 | LIBERTINE |
Initially looked into borrowing before accepting money for rake (9)
initial letters of Looked Into Borrowing then ERE (before) containing TIN (money) |
| 16 | RETRACT |
Withdraw pamphlet in support of Religious Education (7)
TRACT (pamphlet) underneath (in support of) RE (religious education) |
| 18 | TORMENT |
Wrong to retain workers from Harrow (7) TORT (wrong) to contain MEN (workers) |
| 19 | TROUNCE |
Right about needing a small amount of paste (7)
RT (right) reversed (bout) with OUNCE (a small amount of) |
| 20 | BORDER |
Practice needed after Bangladesh’s opener gets an edge (6) ORDER (practice) following Bangladesh (opening letter of) |
| 23 | AMIGO |
A friend of a friend in Paris meets with success (5)
AMI (friend French, in Paris) with GO (success) |
definitions are underlined
I found this a strange puzzle, inasmuch as I raced through three quarters of it before grinding to a halt in the SE, a quadrant which had the feel of being compiled by a different setter. It seemed like it took me twice as long to finish the SE as it did the rest of the puzzle, and TROUNCE was eventually my LOI after INSTITUTE.
Agree this was harder than usual for Poins, none the worse for that.
I think you have rather undersold Noel Coward in describing him as a “writer of plays”. I don’t think this is what meant anyway, a player is a term for an actor. Not only did he write plays and musicals and perform in them, he wrote a significant number of songs, some still well known, was a cabaret artist, musician, singer, film actor and highly diverting wit and diarist.
Thanks to Poins and Pee Dee.
A bit of a mixture, with some easy clues and others that took some teasing out. Maybe it’s just me, but i found 9ac a bit unsatisfactory, possibly because I tend not to think of ANTI as a stand-alone word but as a prefix. And thanks, PeeDee for explaining 7dn; I thought it was simply EAR + PLUG (a plug being a sort of adaptor) and that the clue should have had either “organ” or “organ’s”.
But thanks, too, to Poins