A rigorous workout today from Bobcat, with precise but sometimes complicated clues . . .
. . . but with at least the assurance of the customary feline nina helping out.
I do not know how to parse 10A, but I have given it the old college try. I think I have it now.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | AU REVOIR |
A flower to see in France? I’m going there (2,6)
|
| A + URE (flower, i.e., river) + VOIR (to see in France, i.e., in French), the definition properly punctuated being: “I’m going” there, i.e., in France. | ||
| 9 | ACAPULCO |
Active California couple endlessly dancing in city (8)
|
| A (active) + CA (California) + anagram of (dancing) COUPL[E] minus last letter (endlessly) | ||
| 10 | ABET |
Help or, for one paying attention, insight (4)
|
| 11 | HOUSE OF CARDS |
Fraud chooses to run inherently unstable scheme (5,2,5)
|
| Anagram of (to run) FRAUD CHOOSES | ||
| 13 | BLAMED |
Strike hard to break plot Trump’s damned (6)
|
| LAM (strike hard) inside (to break) BED (plot), with “Trump’s” indicating that this an American usage, meaning “confounded” | ||
| 14 | FULL MOON |
Doctor’s charging not restrained? That’s a regular occurrence (4,4)
|
| MO (doctor) inside ([is] charging) FULL-ON (not restrained) | ||
| 15 | RAILING |
Trail in Glamorgan goes round fencing (7)
|
| Hidden in (goes round) [T]RAIL IN G[LAMORGAN] | ||
| 16 | GRANTOR |
One making allowance for soldiers led by Ulysses? (7)
|
| GRANT (Ulysses?) + OR (soldiers), with “led by” indicating the order of the wordplay | ||
| 20 | TRAPDOOR |
Crosspiece held back cover for opening (8)
|
| {ROOD (cross) + PART (piece)} all reversed (held back), with a spacing misdirection | ||
| 22 | PISCES |
House in bits, trail of debris covering central source of explosion (6)
|
| PI[E]CES (bits), with last letter of (trail of) [DEBRI]S substituted for (covering) the middle instance of the first letter of (central source of) E[XPLOSION], referring to astrology | ||
| 23 | INTERMINABLE |
Seemingly endless output from Bernini working with metal (12)
|
| Anagram of (output from . . . working with) {BERNINI + METAL} | ||
| 25 | RUTH |
Book on sport’s extremely thorough (4)
|
| RU (sport) + outside letters of (extremely) T[HOROUG]H, in the Old Testament | ||
| 26 | EXCELLED |
Out of prison, journalist was exceptionally good (8)
|
| EX (out of) + CELL (prison) + ED. (journalist) | ||
| 27 | ARCADIAN |
Rustic Scots islander gets acre for nothing (8)
|
| [O]RCADIAN (Scots islander) substituting (gets . . . ) A (acre) for O (nothing) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | UMBRELLA |
Cover length cloaked in shadow (8)
|
| ELL (length) inside (cloaked in) UMBRA (shadow) | ||
| 3 | EAT HUMBLE PIE |
Earl possibly imputable — he is to suffer abasement (3,6,3)
|
| E (earl) + anagram of (possibly) {IMPUTABLE HE} | ||
| 4 | OPIUM DEN |
Recreational facility having dope in much supply (children excluded) (5,3)
|
| Anagram of (supply) {DOPE IN MU[CH] minus (excluded) CH. (children)}, with the whole clue arguably reading as &lit in support of the definition | ||
| 5 | RAKE-OFF |
Roué on vacation, getting his bit on the side? (4-3)
|
| RAKE (roué) + OFF (on vacation) | ||
| 6 | EARFUL |
Weepy’s not tense — too much talk (6)
|
| [T]EARFUL (weepy) minus (not) T (tense) | ||
| 7 | SLUR |
Slight noise made by consumer finishing early (4)
|
| SLUR[P] (noise made by consumer) minus last letter (finishing early) | ||
| 8 | POISONER |
Convict’s right, in the first instance, to give way to old potential killer (8)
|
| P[R]ISONER (convict) substituting (to give way . . . ) the first instance [of] R (right) for ( . . . to) O (old) | ||
| 12 | ADMINISTERED |
Naked woman, finding clergyman on couch (minus head), ran (12)
|
| [L]AD[Y] (woman) minus outside letters (naked) + MINISTER (clergyman) + [B]ED (couch) minus first letter (head) | ||
| 15 | RETAINER |
Keeper from Orient regularly put off by opposing players breaking into song (8)
|
| Alternate letters of (regularly put off) [O]R[I]E[N]T + {N + E} (opposing players, in bridge) inside (breaking into) AIR (song) | ||
| 17 | REPUBLIC |
Memorial probed by local government type (8)
|
| RELIC (memorial) around (probed by) PUB (local) | ||
| 18 | OPERETTA |
Latte reportedly served up part way through light entertainment (8)
|
| Hidden in (part way through) [L]ATTE REPO[RTEDLY] inverted (served up) | ||
| 19 | GRENADA |
Gullible American lawyer taking off east, lands in Caribbean (7)
|
| {GRE[E]N (gullible) + A (American) + DA (lawyer)} minus (taking off) one E (east) | ||
| 21 | ORMOLU |
Alloy of gold and molybdenum initially lacking use (6)
|
| OR (gold) + MO (molybdenum) + first letters of (initially) {L[ACKING] + U[SE]} | ||
| 24 | TACK |
Equestrian gear in bad taste (4)
|
| Double definition |