Lots of entertaining clues here with most of the surfaces telling a plausible story, but I shall bestow my Clue of the Day upon 16dn because it reminded me of the great Inquisitor barred puzzle CTRL-ALT-DELETE by Ifor from last year, and also of the mighty Poet Laureate himself of course. Once a TLS blogger, always a TLS blogger…
ACROSS
1 Put hands together round middle of stomach and squeeze hard (5)
CLAMP – CLAP [put hands together] round {sto}M{ach}
4 Frank not needed here relieved of job (4-4)
POST-FREE – quirky double def. If the envelope says “post-free” you don’t need to add a stamp or frank, if you are made redundant or relieved of your job you are freed from your post.
8 Ground the chopper, conflict being over (4,3,7)
BURY THE HATCHET – quirky cryptic def, a hatchet being a chopper and burying it involving sticking it in the ground
10 Love speed, joining a modern industry (9)
AEROSPACE – EROS PACE [love | speed], joining A
11 See smoke circling: reason? (5)
LOGIC – LO [see] + CIG reversed [smoke “circling”]
12 English girl said to be a sweet little thing (6)
ECLAIR – E [English] + homophone of CLAIRE or CLARE
14 You’re blocking my view? How should I react? (3,2,3)
LET ME SEE – double def of the highly literal and slightly figurative meanings of LET ME SEE.
17 After terrible weather, no heart to unite in prayer (4,4)
HAIL MARY – After HAIL [terrible weather], MA{r}RY [“no heart to” unite]
18 Good and ancient, this age? (6)
GOLDEN – G + OLDEN [good + ancient], semi-&lit
20 Indicates approval of some clock noises (5)
TICKS – double def
22 Possibly heat burns for her? (9)
SUNBATHER – (HEAT BURNS*) [“possibly”], semi-&lit
24 Rasher to enter this high-level discussion? (5,9)
POWER BREAKFAST – cryptic def, rasher indicating here a slice of bacon, not “more reckless”.
25 Orchestra, heading off to play in cathedral (8)
CHARTRES – ({o}RCHESTRA*) [“heading off”, “to play”]
26 House train unruly dog, offering reward upfront (5)
TUDOR – T{rain} U{nruly} D{og} O{ffering} R{eward}
DOWN
1 Flyer taking taxi: airline say upset as snow appears (7,5)
CAB [taxi] + B.A. [airline (British Airways)] + E.G. reversed [say “upset”] + WHITE [as snow appears]
2 Republic once sounded drier (5)
AIRER – dodgy, depending on your tastes, homophone of EIRE [republic once, “sounded”]
3 Wrong assumption, discounting knight — here’s a K (9)
POTASSIUM – (ASSUMPTIO{n}*) [“wrong” “discounting (N for) knight”]. K is the chemical symbol for potassium, not to be confused with P for phosphorus, though *I* reckon if would be easier if P was potassium, F was phosphorus, Fl was Fluorine and Flerovium could be quietly undiscovered.
4 Home not yet wonderful? (6)
PREFAB – quirky double def, positing that PREFAB could also stand for pre-fabulous, cue various Beatles and Rutles gags.
5 A lake confined by raised banks that should be higher than this (3,5)
SEA LEVEL – A L [a | lake] confined by reversed LEVEES [“raised” banks], semi-&lit
6 Such an attractive point about breaking a horse (5)
FOCAL – C [about] “breaking” FOAL [a horse]
7 With queen’s entrance, intended briefly to rise with new vigour (9)
ENERGISED – with ER [queen] entering, DESIGNE{d} reversed [intended “briefly”, “to rise”]
9 Worker in Hollywood to vet, heard to be not so leftwing?(12)
SCREENWRITER – SCREEN [to vet] + homophone of RIGHTER [“heard to be” not so left wing]
13 Colin strangely reluctant to put this on? (9)
LOINCLOTH – (COLIN*) [“strangely”] + LOTH [reluctant], semi-&lit
15 Company about to put old sailor in revolutionary clothing (3,6)
MAO JACKET – TEAM reversed [company “about”], to put O JACK [old | sailor] in
16 One links posts, as Tennyson finally expected to (8)
CROSSBAR – that which links goalposts, and referencing the wonderful 1889 Tennyson poem, Crossing The Bar
19 Gets down name to board ships (6)
KNEELS – N [name] to “board” KEELS [ships]
21 Unpleasant expression when born cradled by sister (5)
SNEER – NEE [born] “cradled” by SR [sister]
23 Sort of frost on front of department store (5)
HOARD – HOAR [sort of frost] on D{epartment}
Late again today as I visited Sasha’s for lunch and not a lady dentist in sight!
39 minutes
FOI 1ac CLAMP
LOI & COD 19dn KNEELS
WOD 15dn MAO JACKET
Not much sign of the Lord Verlaine this week – today a v.short blog with no subsequent interjections or bon mots. Might the new job be cramping your style?
Meanwhile back on the Korean Peninsula………
Edited at 2018-04-27 01:17 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2018-04-27 01:36 pm (UTC)
It’s been three years since I first picked up the QC and I’ve already achieved my ambition of being able to complete the crossword more often than not.
Couldn’t have done it without these blogs, so thank you to all who take the time to explain the answers, and to all who comment on them.
Edited at 2018-04-27 06:48 pm (UTC)
13:53, all very enjoyable.
Dear Verlaine, I have read your recent comments re: science (and med?) and don’t understand your probs….you being a classicist. Eg ‘carbohydrate’in Monday’s xword. As I understand it, the etymology of carbohyrate derives from the Gk for sugar: saccharide so, if ‘carbohydrate’ is the definition, it’s likely to be prefaced by either mono,di,oligo or poly.
Similarly, if an alkane (gas,oil,wax,or paraffin) is clued then it’s likely to be methane,ethane,propane,butane,pentane,he
I’m just a newbie to the cryptics (since March 2017) and I’m sure there are many others who are better qualified and can give better advice but I don’t think you need to start learning science or understand the mechanisms – it’s just words.
In the meantime, my thanks to you for your terrific blogs and to the setter for a v. entertaining xword. I didn’t quite finish but sometimes I do and it is due, in large part, to all the very helpful and generous bloggers.