ACROSS
1 Finger problem exhibited by party pooper (4)
TYPO – hidden in[par]TY PO[OPER]
3 Fail to criticise a suggestion about power (10)
DISAPPOINT – P (power) in DIS (variant of diss) A POINT
9 Completed a couple of lines on average (7)
OVERALL – OVER A LL
11 Confident when taken to court about source of revenue (7)
ASSURED – R[evenue] in AS (when) SUED
12 Living area accommodating French art gallery (7,6)
HOUSING ESTATE – HOUSING (accommodating) ES (French for ‘[you (s)] are’ – as in ‘Tu EStrès méchant’) TATE
14 Emperor backs a follower of another one (5)
RASTA – reversal of A TSAR; besides carrying a ghetto blaster a RASTA traditionally reveres Haile Selassie, erstwhile Emperor of Ethopia
15 A nice long novel can be relaxing (9)
CONGENIAL – anagram* of A NICE LONG
17 Stimulate boxer to eat large starter (5,4)
SPARK PLUG – SPARK L in PUG
19 Reserves place for supplier of ham that’s appetising (5)
TASTY – TA (Territorial Army, renamed Army Reserve in 2014 after Gareth Keenan had done irreparable harm to the body’s reputation STY
21 Real sociable type’s a help for builder (8,5)
CONCRETE MIXER – CONCRETE (real) MIXER (sociable type); not the sort of clue they’d give you if you were an aspirant to Bletchley Park duties
24 Fortress initially constructed with ornate detail (7)
CITADEL – C[onstructed] DETAIL*
25 Running races after rocket: that’s guts! (7)
VISCERA – VI (a rocket developed by the Nazis) RACES*
26 Take weight off Green politician in bandage (10)
DECOMPRESS – ECO MP in DRESS
27 Turning, smack annoying flier (4)
GNAT – TANG reversed; ‘tang’ as in ‘You’ve given quite a smack to your spaghetti alla puttanesca’
DOWN
1 Also spotted singer keeping book cleaner (10)
TOOTHBRUSH – TOO (also) B (book) in THRUSH (spotted singer)
2 Union rules schools introducing new uniform (7)
PRENUPS – N U in PREPS; prenups should be banned and couples forced to have joint bank accounts instead
4 Having no base in Paris he meets soldier in pub (9)
ILLOGICAL – IL (in Paris ‘he’) GI in LOCAL
5 Stockpile a lot of documents head of army sent in (5)
AMASS – A (a) A (head of ‘arm’) in MSS (manuscripts/documents)
6 Frank often replaces these collector’s items (7,6)
POSTAGE STAMPS – a cryptic definition (CD); franking is a means of replacing the good old stamp, which can be valuable enough to collect
7 Someone in acre with capital? (7)
ISRAELI – another CD; ACRE is in northern Israel
8 Flap over Dorothy lifted (2-2)
TO-DO – reversal of O (over) DOT (abbreviation of Dorothy)
10 A milkman doing trips for beasts in general (6,7)
ANIMAL KINGDOM – A MILKMAN DOING*
13 Miss school drama article placed for son in trust (4,6)
PLAY TRUANT – PLAY (drama) AN instead of S in TRU[s]T
16 Original shots, say, drunk by locals (9)
NEGATIVES – EG in NATIVES
18 Frugal, like soccer team having had to spend pounds (7)
ASCETIC – AS (like) [Glasgow] CE[l]TIC sans the L
20 Observed transporting nine tons in square (7)
SIXTEEN – IX T in SEEN for the number that is 4×4
22 One who regrets imprisoning Liberal head of state? (5)
RULER – L in RUER; an escapee from the Quickie
23 Dispatched two varieties of diamonds (4)
ICED – ICE D; 22’s accomplice…
‘Israeli’, however, was my LOI, as I finally put it in as the only word that would fit, and then saw how it works.
I do agree that the rest of the puzzle was easy.
Otherwise very enjoyable.
I had no sweet clue how ISRAELI worked at the time and was even starting to type the question “What’s ‘with capital’ got to do with it?’“ when it finally occurred to me that the city of Acre has a capital letter. Curse these setters and their cunning ways.
Good fun. Thanks setter and u
Not questioning the validity, but isn’t SPARK PLUG a more recent addition to the language than the ‘sparking plug’?
I’m happy enough with 14.45, with most answers going in promptly. DISAPPOINT took longer than most, and CONGENIAL resisted while I tried to make it end in -ING.
I could be ultra picky and aver that no Israeli lives in Acre: to them it’s Akko (I transliterate and reverse for those of you not familiar with Hebrew), but I liked the clue well enough to make it my COD for originality.
The TO-DO clue fell into place without much reference to the wordplay, rather because that’s what, throughout the film, that’s what Dorothy calls her dog
Sometimes (admittedly not always), we just go with the flow.
DNK Acre so bemused by Israeli. But hat off to the setter for cluing it without the usual reference to Disraeli or Lear.
I thought the pug/boxer had to be a dog breed thing that I didn’t know, but it looks like it is a boxer/pugilist slang thing that I didn’t know.
Mostly I liked: Citadel with the ornate detail.
Thanks setter and U.
PS. I wonder if the boxer pug is pronounced ‘pyooj’. I’ll ask a couple.
Edited at 2019-04-15 07:38 am (UTC)
Regardless, I enjoyed this crossword, clever and neatly clued; not hard but none the worse for that. Liked Acre..
Clever it may be, but I disagree about ISRAELI being a good clue on the basis that the surface makes no sense without the capital letter.
Thanks for the blog
DavidB
No real problems here, although I only parsed ILLOGICAL and DECOMPRESS after finishing.
FOI TYPO (avoided those today)
LOI DECOMPRESS
COD POSTAGE STAMPS
TIME 8:10
Thank you setter – you’ve made our day!,
Very windy and cold in Northumberland.
Done over a couple of short sessions – the first one being an interrupted coffee break. As with most, everything went in very smoothly until coming to the tricky PRENUPS and the devious device used for ISRAELI (made for a “You (un)shifty beggar!” when the penny dropped.
Didn’t quite get the ‘Frank’ part of POSTAGE STAMPS – and another clever (shifty again) trick.
It has always been a SPARK PLUG for me, although it did trouble me a little as being the ‘starter’ rather than just a component of the starting process.
Nice and enjoyable puzzle.