Full marks to the setter for this nutritious and substantial puzzle. Delicious without being at all fattening!
ACROSS
1 One serving cooked meal: it’s eaten very warm (6,6)
MAITRE D’HOTEL – (MEAL IT*) [“cooked”] has “eaten” RED HOT [very warm]!
9 Hard nuts cracked by unknown group of stars (5)
HYDRA – (HARD*) [“nuts”] “cracked” by Y [the unknown that isn’t X or Z]
10 Company at sea drink a nutritious substance (9)
COLOSTRUM – CO LOST RUM [company | at sea | drink]
11 Bit of smoke’s back in top piece of lab kit (4-4)
TEST-TUBE – BUTT’S [bit of smoke’s] is reversed in TEE [top]
12 Return of banknote, which may be in Leicester, say (6)
RENNET – TENNER [banknote] reversed. Leicester as in, a cheese.
13 Show competitors where to fly a kite? (8)
AIRFIELD – AIR [show] + FIELD [competitors] = where to fly a kite as in a plane.
15 Ideal sample of medicine, decoction from the east (6)
EDENIC – hidden reversed in {medi}CINE DE{coction}
17 This person’s about to enter a shade abrasive (6)
PUMICE – reversed I’M [this person is] to “enter” PUCE [a shade]
18 Hostility’s accepted if not a sin (8)
ENORMITY – ENMITY [hostility] has “accepted” OR [if not..]
20 Getting mobile, men are to call another way (6)
RENAME – (MEN ARE*) [“getting mobile”]
21 Material from the web, or feasible plan to keep a lot back (8)
GOSSAMER – GOER [feasible plan] to “keep” reversed MASS [a lot]. Web as in spiderweb, not the internet.
24 Maybe crude part in hissy fit? I’m not sure (9)
PETROLEUM – ROLE [part] in PET UM [hissy fit | I’m not sure]
25 Note wheels by motorway (5)
MINIM – MINI [wheels, as in car] by M [motorway]. I am slightly embarrassed to admit how long I just spent trying to work out how “nim” could be a slang word for a vehicle.
26 What may pick up fool with no work, feeling pressure to return (12)
DESSERTSPOON – reverse all of NO OP STRESSED [no | work | feeling pressure]. Fool as in the fruit pudding.
DOWN
1 Sage Derby, say, swallowed by lady with issue (7)
MAHATMA – HAT [Derby, e.g.] “swallowed” by MAMA [lady with issue = children]
2 Overly broad daughter is cutting finger (14)
INDISCRIMINATE – D(aughter) IS, “cutting” INCRIMINATE [finger]
3 Tear a strip off a piece of meat (5)
ROAST – double def, the first as in “to criticise harshly”
4 Try to avoid payment for amphibian (8)
DUCKBILL – or try to avoid payment by DUCKing the BILL
5 Socially, oddly withdrawn and unctuous (4)
OILY – {s}O{c}I{a}L{l}Y
6 Constituent of soap tablet, equally gentle (4,5)
EAST ENDER – E AS TENDER [tablet | equally | gentle]
7 Spanish edict sister spies me breaking soon (14)
PRONUNCIAMENTO – NUN CIA ME “breaking” PRONTO
8 Repeat my words over a kind of medicine (6)
EMETIC – reverse the phrase “CITE ME” [repeat my words]
14 Put out half of modest income, sadly (9)
INCOMMODE – (MOD{est} INCOME*) [“sadly”]
16 Playing well, accompanying Queen’s singer? (8)
INFORMER – IN FORM [playing well] + E.R.
17 Flourish every year, getting hit hard (6)
PARAPH – P.A. + RAP H. A flourish beneath one’s signature… I’ve been doing one of these for decades and never knew it had a name!
19 Vehicle lifted pieces for workers on track (7)
YARDMEN – reversed DRAY + MEN [(chess) pieces]
22 Island nation’s losing a part of Greece (5)
SAMOS – SAMO{a}’S, losing its A
23 Head from German city, going north, not east (4)
NESS – reversed {e}SSEN
Same applies to paraph and I would have included colostrum but for some reason it came to me unprompted. Working to a conclusion on this one makes up for the stupid mistakes committed earlier in the week!
I learned several new words today – EDENIC, MAHATMA, EMETIC, PARAPH and PRONUNCIAMENTO – but just about managed to get them from the definitions and checkers in place.
There were some quite straightforward ones – ROAST, OILY, RENNET and RENAME which gave me the inspiration to continue.
COD goes to MAITRE D’HOTEL for its clever construction and the satisfaction of working it out.
Thanks to the setter and to V for putting me out of my misery on the tough ones.
I couldn’t get Airedale as the show competitor or Parade as a flourish out of my mind. Two up to the setter.
I learnt whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, so quavers and Minims usually throw me, but the clue today was very clear.
We had Yardmen a couple months ago with a similar clue, and I tried Navvies then, so (with unwarranted smugness) I wasn’t fooled this time.
Thanks Verlaine. Special thanks setter and ed.
Edited at 2020-08-21 03:31 pm (UTC)
Nice to have 2 Greek islands Hydra and Samos.
Good time Olivia!
Well blogged V.
if the business is a goer, the entrepreneur moves on
A lovely end to a challenging week!
I am not a Hillary fan (though I voted for her, bien sûr), and it was frightening (despite the polls) to see her—to not see her—seeing no need to give a press conference for six long month (while Trump dominated the airwaves) and neglecting to campaign even just once in the three swing states she wound up losing by such a thin margin.
She assumed Trump would self-destruct—and yet her ads were mainly about Trump and not her own program.
She, like so many Democrats who blithely sat at home on Election Day, and even like some people of both parties who voted for Trump but did it merely as a “protest vote,” thought there was no chance in hell Trump could win.
Everyone is singing a different tune this year.
Never heard of paraph before and I’m sure I will have forgotten it by the next time it comes round.