26:52. Another fine effort from Jeff Pearce, and one that gave me a good deal of trouble. Most of it went in reasonably smoothly, but then I found myself badly stuck in the south-east corner with three clues unsolved. I was slightly miffed by 26ac, where it seems to me there is a duff definition, but I can only blame myself for failing to see 23dn for as long as I did. And I can only give credit to Jeff for a high degree of deviousness in the construction of 24, an excellent clue.
| Across |
| 1 | Odd tin items I lie about as being collectable things? |
| LIMITED EDITIONS - (ODD TIN ITEMS I LIE)*. |
| 9 | Game featuring leg and leg break? |
| PINBALL - PIN (leg), BALL, where ‘leg break’ is an example of a BALL in cricket. The question mark indicates the definition by example. A cricket clue in which cricket turns out not to be the game in question. Good stuff. |
| 10 | There’s nearly twenty-five quid in school’s gold fund |
SPONSOR - PONy (a PONY is one twentieth of a monkey) contained in S'S, OR (gold). Collins gives S as an abbreviation for ‘school’. |
| 11 | Pitches look best cut evenly |
LOBS - LO (look), BeSt. |
| 12 | Where the circus flag might be is a little extreme |
| OVER THE TOP - two definitions, one slightly cryptic. |
| 13 | Pitch to bowl over |
| STAGGER - I think this is just a double definition, but I’m not quite happy with the first. ‘Pitch’ and STAGGER can have similar meanings, but I don’t really think they’re synonymous. Is it just me? |
| 15 | Thai’s ordered us back massage |
| SHIATSU - (THAIS)*, reversal of US. |
| 17 | Clip only includes second of drama |
EXCERPT - EXCE(dRama)PT. |
| 19 | It’s fine to take a golfer’s aid round river … Woods might have one! |
| OAK TREE - O(A)K, T(R)EE. |
| 20 | Muse finally played favourite release |
DELIBERATE - playeD, favouritE, LIBERATE. Nice reference to the Devon trio. Some might say the answer describes their music. |
| 22 | Check cakes on the way back |
| SNUB - reversal of BUNS. SNUB can mean ‘to stop or check the motion of (a boat, horse, etc) by taking turns of a rope or cable around a post or other fixed object’, which was news to me. |
| 25 | The willpower you need to find a solution |
| RESOLVE - DD with a bit of extra padding. |
| 26 | Importance of a Conservative peer? |
| ACCOUNT - A, C, COUNT. I was stuck on this for ages, trying desperately to think of a synonym or example of ‘peer’ that would fit. Eventually I got the answer through an alphabet trawl and realised that I wasn’t looking for a peer at all. Not the best clue in the puzzle. |
| 27 | Powerful diplomat left in prison without toilet facility |
| PLENIPOTENTIARY - P(L)ENI(PO)TENTIARY. PO is a shortening of ‘chamberpot’ that appears from time to time in crosswords, if nowhere else. |
| Down |
| 1 | Mirror in middle of cellar reveals part of jacket |
LAPEL - ceL(APE)Lar. |
| 2 | Fancy pen and books carried by second chef |
| MONT BLANC - MO (second), BLANC (Raymond, TV chef, proprietor of Le Manoir aux Quatre Saisons) surrounding NT (books). Other fancy pens are available. |
| 3 | Reportedly where golfers go just right |
| TO A T - sunds like ‘to a tee’. |
| 4 | Carry, and give birth to, bear |
| DELIVER - slightly odd clue this, but I think there are three definitions: ‘carry to’ and ‘give birth to’ which share the word ‘to’, and ‘bear’, which also means ‘give birth to’. I’m open to alternative interpretations. |
| 5 | Hopes of Parisian fathers |
| DESIRES - DE (of Parisian), SIRES. |
| 6 | Taste a selection? You might need this afterwards |
| TOOTHPICK - TOOTH (taste, as in a sweet one), PICK. |
| 7 | Where actors might be seen starting? |
| ONSET - or ON SET. |
| 8 | Rare pictures enlivened religious text |
| SCRIPTURE - (R, PICTURES)*. R for ‘rare’ is in Collins. |
| 13 | Drug then gin, say, is something drivers might avoid |
| SPEED TRAP - SPEED (drug), TRAP (gin, say). I was a bit puzzled by the word ‘say’ in this clue, because I thought that ‘gin’ just meant TRAP, but according to Collins it’s a particular type. |
| 14 | Soldier consumes a coarse biscuit |
| GARIBALDI - G(A, RIBALD)I. Aka squashed fly biscuits. |
| 16 | Crawler having volunteers managed Russian city |
| TARANTULA - TA (volunteers, although they’re not called that any more), RAN (managed), TULA (a Russian city I had never heard of). |
| 18 | When working with rod, tope could be the fish you want |
| TORPEDO - the electric TORPEDO ray is a species of fish which, like the humuhumunukunukuapua-a, is familiar to me from The Octonauts. |
| 19 | Royal involved in loss of power causes a scandal |
| OUTRAGE - OUT(R)AGE. |
| 21 | Vehicle departs NW city to get fabric |
LISLE - carLISLE. |
| 23 | Eccentric Queen leaves cell |
BATTERY - BATTerY. This was my second to last in, and it took me forever to see. I kicked myself hard when the penny finally dropped! |
| 24 | Animal tail’s trimmed |
| SCUT - S, CUT. And this was my last in, and again it took forever to figure out what was going on. The use of ‘s is really cunning. |