As the south scorches and the north gets comfortably warm Dalibor provides a Saturday puzzle.
Oh and the world cup continues at anti scocial hours played in strange atmospheres.
Some complex clue constructions from Dalibor and a couple of unfamiliar answers (for me anyway) – one latin, one american slang. I liked 15 ac linking Keir and Kemi, the straight humour of 23ac, 5dn for its smooth surface and relevant message, but 1dn was arguably my favourite – linking three cities to get an artist who only obviously has one.
Is there a hidden theme / message? Very possibly but it eludes me.
Thanks Dalibor – some complex parsings but good fun.
Key * anagram; underline definition; Rev. reverse
Across
1 Wind from the east Portuguese region wiping out half of five hundred, say, in city centre (9,6)
Rev fart (wind) = Algarve (Portuguese region) – ve (half of five) + square (hundred say) = TRAFALGAR SQUARE
9 Loveless workers’ association introducing tea for free (7)
union (worker’s association) – o (loveless) around cha (tea) = UNCHAIN
10 Tireless criminal abandons a son for being unproductive (7)
(tireless – s)* = STERILE
11 After retirement I see a way of working in US city (5)
Rev. aha (I see) + Mo (way of working) = OMAHA
12 Try to follow lunar astronaut circling earth who’s missing in Hampshire town (9)
Aldrin (astronaut) – in around e (earth) + shot (try) = ALDERSHOT
13 House dependency, conservatory, in the end leaves a mark (9)
semi (house) + colony (dependency) – y (conservatory in the end) = SEMICOLON
15 Sign Keir’s opponent is losing her head when drinking orange juice (5)
Kemi (Keir’s opponent) – k around oj (orange juice) = EMOJI
16 Wrongly ordered energy drinks, a mistake (5)
e (energy) + laps (drinks) wrongly ordered = LAPSE
18 Criminal activity in team work (6,3)
in + side(team) + work (job) = INSIDE JOB
20 A mixture of sad and humane but not embarrassed (9)
(sad + humane)* = UNASHAMED
23 Opera stars covering Bob Marley? (5)
Hidden opeRA STArs = RASTA
24 Right around fireplace is a butterfly (7)
rt(right) around ingle (fireplace) = RINGLET
25 Inferior school shut (7)
sch(school) + lock (shut) = SCHLOCK – a new word on me American Yiddish slang it would seem
26 Anarchic contra not pro FBI’s measure of green policy (6,9)
(contra not pro FBI)* = CARBON FOOTPRINT
Down
1 With added height, being short, this artist would represent three cities (8-7)
3 cities TOULOUSE LA and UTRECHT – ht (height) = TOULOUSE LAUTREC
2 Surprisingly AC Milan dropping name for club initially gets praise (7)
(ac milan – n + c)* = ACCLAIM
3 A drapery that’s hard to break is falling down? (9)
a valence (drapery) around h(hard) = AVALANCHE
4 A dose of Farage no alternative for the City (5)
Hidden faraGE NO Alternative = GENOA
5 People like Trump and Putin lacking leadership for members of the local community (9)
presidents (People like Trump and Putin) – p = RESIDENTS
6 Unconventional rock band dismissive of new record’s opening (5)
Queen (rock band) – n for r (record’s opening) = QUEER
7 Symptom of a cold caught an hour after noon – go away! (7)
at 1 (an hour after noon) + shoo (go away) = ATISHOO
8 Exciting comprehensive that won’t leave you cold (8,7)
electric (exciting) + blanket (comprehensive) = ELECTRIC BLANKET
14 Working title of film oddly omitted recurring theme (9)
(title + of + im)* = LEITMOTIF
15 Position in church Liz mostly combined with shepherd after second husband left (9)
(li + shepherd – h)* = ELDERSHIP
17 One organises nationals in real power going to heaven (7)
Rev. real p (power) around nn(nationals) = PLANNER
19 Swedish tenor Björling accepting old incomplete birthright citizenship (3,4)
Jussi (Swedish tenor Björling) around ol (old incomplete) = JUS SOLI (another unfamiliar word for me)
21 Instrument’s initial temperature increases which is welcome (5)
cello (instrument) swapping h (hot) for c (cold) = HELLO
22 TV channel doesn’t show very popular dance music (5)
discovery (TV channel) – very = DISCO
Well I learnt something today, had never heard of the RINGLET butterfly although it couldn’t have been anything else. JUS SOLI required a google of the singer and then a check of the term so not a clean finish. SCHLOCK also new to me, I doubt it will ever enter my regular lexicon.
Twencelas your constituents for 14d should use +im and 2d needs an added C and a subtracted N.
I agree 1d was a cracking clue.
Thanks both
Beaten by JUS SOLI having encountered neither the Swedish tenor nor the solution making a solve pretty much impossible. Yes, some very complex constructions (and a sixteen word clue, even for a 15 letter solution, is a bit much to get my head around in the early hours). With several cities appearing in clues and solutions, I wondered if there was a theme but suspect that is coincidence.
I agree with Doofs re ACCLAIM. ‘Dropping name for club initially’
Thanks both
Thanks both – have corrected parsings.
Liked T SQUARE, EMOJI, T LAUTREC (was tough, had to google) and ACCLAIM.
JUS SOLI was another, which could be filled in only with Google’s help.
Thanks Dalibor and twencelas.
Like the blogger and the other commenters, I had also never heard of JUS SOLI or the tenor mentioned in the clue, so I had to resort to cycling through the alphabet until I landed on the right answer (which given I needed a U and an S took me a while!)
I’d also never heard of SCHLOCK or RINGLET but both were relatively straight-forward to get from the wordplay
There were several clues I liked for their clever use of wordplay – TRAFALGAR SQUARE, ALDERSHOT, EMOJI, TOULOUSE-LAUTREC, HELLO and ATISHOO, and overall it was a very enjoyable offering from Dalibor
Thanks D & T
Very heat wave appropriate to find a bit of the Algarve in Trafalgar Square. Jus Soli Is very topical, too. An excellent puzzle.
Very much enjoyed this. Got Trafalgar Square and Toulouse -Lautrec on the letter count, but then really enjoyed parsing them out. So clever. Knew of Jussi, but not the legal phrase he led to. Quite surprised how many has not come across SCHLOCK. I neither speak Yiddish nor am from New York, but it’s definitely in my every day vocabulary. Thanks to D and T. Yes, an excellent puzzle and blog.
Thanks both. A day late as attended Chester Races then wasted more time watching England. All enjoyable with the very notable exception of JUS SOLI which frankly I thought was a poor clue for an uncommon solution.