Times 24687 – Still No Stinker!

I thought I was heading for a sub 30 minute solve which would be quite good for me but I got a bit tied up in the NW with 9, 2, 4 and 11, and then  in the NE with 7ac, 8 and 13 and eventually finished on 40 minutes.

This was quite lively and entertaining a puzzle but I expect to hear that it was too easy for some after a week of relatively easy puzzles and possibly the subject of the Times cryptic being dumbed down will be raised again.

I don’t think there’s much if any special knowledge required today. The physicist is one that surely everyone knows of but possibly the two literary references may delay those who aren’t familiar with them, though both the answers should be solvable by other means. Knowing the  type of coal needed at 7ac is possibly as hard as things get.

On edit later: I forgot to mention that no aids were required. I’ve had some problems avoiding them completely this week despite the puzzles being generally much easier than usual.

Across
1	SHOWJUMPER – ‘Sport’ = SHOW followed by ‘top’ = JUMPER as in the item of clothing. ‘s stands for ‘has’ here.
7	SACK – SlACK – In these days of central heating I’m not sure how many will be familiar with slack as a type of coal. My childhood home was originally heated entirely by open fires and I remember one could order bags of ‘nutty slack’, an inferior and therefore cheaper alternative to the best quality stuff.
9	TUTORIAL – Out* inside TRIAL. This one delayed me longer than necessary as I was trying to make the examination ‘oral’.
10	PRIMAL – P(RIM)AL
11	SEAWAY – Scrambled Egg, AWAY
13	MASON BEE – (Obese man)*.  Unaccountably my last in. This is a type of bee that leads a solitary life and uses sand to build its nest.
14	CONSTRUCTION – CONS,T’RUCTION – Another one that delayed me as I couldn’t see the definition. It seems to be simply ‘mill’ as a type of building. I was looking for something more complicated than that.The definition by example is clearly signposted so allowable.
17	PIGS MIGHT FLY – PIG,S(ucceeded), MIGHT, FLY – Napoleon was the pig in Orwell’s Animal Farm.
20	REDACTOR – RED,ACTOR
21	Deliberately omitted
22	BIKINI – Beachwear Items, KIN,I(sland)
23	OLD TIMER – (Rime told)*
25	PLAN – PLANt
26	GAINSAYERS – GAIN,SAYERS – a reference to Dorothy L Sayers (1893-1957) probably best remembered for her detective fiction featuring Lord Peter Wimsey.
Down
2	HOUSETOP – HO(USE)T,OP
3	Deliberately omitted
4	UNITY – UN the French for ‘a’ then cITY
5	POLEMIC – POLE,MIC(rophone)
6	RIPOSTING – 1, bloggeR both reversed then POSTING
7	SPINNING TOP – S(PINNING)TOP
8	CHASER – CHA for ‘tea’ then SERvice
12	WESTPHALIAN – (Taiwan helps)* – of a region of Germany
15	RIGHTWING – RIGHT,WIN,pollinG
16	ALL-CLEAR – It was indeed
18	MARCONI – CRAM reversed, ON, then I for current
19	MENIAL – ME(NIne)AL
21	INDUS – wIND(burUndi)S
24	ICY – 1,C(elsius),januarY – I’m probably being picky to point out  that 1C is hardly ‘very’ cold and not even cold enough for ice to form.