I don’t mind admitting that this took me 24 minutes this morning, so is far more difficult than usual, or my mind has been stolen by someone. It might also be due to the large proportion (60%) of clues where the definition comes at the end, rather than the beginning. If you can cope with this without aids, then I’d say that you are ready and able to have a good crack at the 15 x 15 most days. Nothing too oblique though, all fairly clued and not a great call on general knowledge (except, perhaps for 14a). Excellent puzzle Joker
Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated by [square brackets] and deletions with {curly ones}
Across
1 Introduce article by church eminence (10)
IMPORTANCE– To IMPORT is to introduce, AN is the article and CE for the church most often applied in crosswordland
8 Backing for cutting mines financial yields (7)
PROFITS– FOR reversed (backing) and inserted (cutting) inside PITS (mines)
9 Mostly cold European country (5)
CHILE– nice misdirection putting European next to the definition, but CHIL{l} is mostly cold, with mostly indicating that the last letter is dropped, and E{uropean} providing the replacement letter
10 Useful piece of advice about river journey (4)
TRIP– TIP is the useful advice, about R{iver}
11 Pair given permission to form band (8)
BRACELET– BRACE is the pair, added to (given) LET (permission). Brace is usually applied to pairs of birds after they have been shot.
13 Poach small duck (5)
STEAL– S{mall} and TEAL. Again, misdirection. Hands up if you were looking for a cooking answer. The definition of poach needed here is ‘to take illegally, usually from another person’s land’ rather than ‘cooking slowly in simmering liquid’
14 River creature Jeremy Fisher’s creator topped (5)
OTTER– this is much easier to answer if you happen to know that Jeremy Fisher is one of the books written by Beatrix {P}OTTER. I didn’t, but easy enough to guess with all the checkers in place, hence my last one in.
16 Go off a conservative politician in revolution (8)
ROTATORY– ROT is to go off, A is a, and a conservative politician is of course a TORY
17 Have a quick look back (4)
KEEP– A quick look is a PEEK, reversed (back)
20 Captain’s beginning injury appeal (5)
CHARM– C{aptain’s} beginning (first letter) and HARM (injury)
21 Work at home unit and on view (7)
OPINION– A flat pack assembly clue. Work is OP, at home is IN, unit is I, and ON is on to give OPINION
22 Typical revolutionary interrupting artistic friend(10)
ARCHETYPAL– Revolutionary in crosswords is usually either RED or CHE, in this case the latter. An artistic friend might be referred to as an ARTY PAL. Insert (interrupt) CHE for the answer
Down
2 Supply translation of Latin - auspicious (12)
PROVIDENTIAL– Supply is to PROVIDE followed by an anagram (translation) of [LATIN]
3 Mind missing British weather (4)
RAIN– Mind missing B{ritish} is {B}RAIN. I’m not sure where my brain was this morning – this was my LOI (last one in) shortly after getting OTTER
4 Maintain right to divide valuable item (6)
ASSERT– ASSET is the valuable item, divided by R{ight}
5 When one might wake up with two birds (8)
COCKCROW– I shouldn’t need to identify the two birds, but my dictionary hyphenates the word and defines COCK-CROW as ‘early morning, when cocks crow’.
6 Article hidden in tree is perhaps initially a hard thing to reach (4,1,3,4)
WILL ‘O THE WISP– The article is THE hidden in WILLOW (tree) and followed by IS (is) and P{erhaps} (initially) to give the answer. WILL ‘O THE WISP is defined as either ‘ignis fatuus’ (also called friar's lantern. A flitting phosphorescent light seen at night, chiefly over marshy ground), or as ‘any elusive or deceptive person or thing’, hence hard to reach.
7 Make rude remarks about good man Joker (6)
JESTER– To make rude remarks is to JEER, and this surrounds (about) good man S{ain}T. Clever of Joker to include himself as a definition in his own crossword. For a while I thought he had included me as blogger as well, when I looked at the checkers for 14a and saw O_T_R one of the options I considered was ROTTER.
12 Veteran told emir off (3,5)
OLD TIMER– straightforward anagram (off) of [TOLD EMIR]
13 Tidyone part of forest? (6)
SPRUCE– Double definition, the second one slightly cryptic in that a SPRUCE might be in a forest
15 Ornamental clasp open on the ear (6)
BROOCH– homophone clue, sounds like broach, which is to open up or begin, as in ‘to broach the subject’. I’m not personally a big fan of homophone clues because of variations in pronunciation, but this one works ok.
18 Criticise middle two of twelve jurymen? (5)
PANEL– To criticise is to PAN with the middle two letters of {tw}EL{ve}
19 Intelligence about Liberal collapse (4)
WILT– WIT is intelligence around (about) L{iberal}
Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated by [square brackets] and deletions with {curly ones}
Across
1 Introduce article by church eminence (10)
IMPORTANCE– To IMPORT is to introduce, AN is the article and CE for the church most often applied in crosswordland
8 Backing for cutting mines financial yields (7)
PROFITS– FOR reversed (backing) and inserted (cutting) inside PITS (mines)
9 Mostly cold European country (5)
CHILE– nice misdirection putting European next to the definition, but CHIL{l} is mostly cold, with mostly indicating that the last letter is dropped, and E{uropean} providing the replacement letter
10 Useful piece of advice about river journey (4)
TRIP– TIP is the useful advice, about R{iver}
11 Pair given permission to form band (8)
BRACELET– BRACE is the pair, added to (given) LET (permission). Brace is usually applied to pairs of birds after they have been shot.
13 Poach small duck (5)
STEAL– S{mall} and TEAL. Again, misdirection. Hands up if you were looking for a cooking answer. The definition of poach needed here is ‘to take illegally, usually from another person’s land’ rather than ‘cooking slowly in simmering liquid’
14 River creature Jeremy Fisher’s creator topped (5)
OTTER– this is much easier to answer if you happen to know that Jeremy Fisher is one of the books written by Beatrix {P}OTTER. I didn’t, but easy enough to guess with all the checkers in place, hence my last one in.
16 Go off a conservative politician in revolution (8)
ROTATORY– ROT is to go off, A is a, and a conservative politician is of course a TORY
17 Have a quick look back (4)
KEEP– A quick look is a PEEK, reversed (back)
20 Captain’s beginning injury appeal (5)
CHARM– C{aptain’s} beginning (first letter) and HARM (injury)
21 Work at home unit and on view (7)
OPINION– A flat pack assembly clue. Work is OP, at home is IN, unit is I, and ON is on to give OPINION
22 Typical revolutionary interrupting artistic friend(10)
ARCHETYPAL– Revolutionary in crosswords is usually either RED or CHE, in this case the latter. An artistic friend might be referred to as an ARTY PAL. Insert (interrupt) CHE for the answer
Down
1 Where power enters unit possibly (5)
INPUT– a combination clue, the whole clue forming the definition (an &lit), with P{ower} being inserted into an anagram (possibly) of UNIT2 Supply translation of Latin - auspicious (12)
PROVIDENTIAL– Supply is to PROVIDE followed by an anagram (translation) of [LATIN]
3 Mind missing British weather (4)
RAIN– Mind missing B{ritish} is {B}RAIN. I’m not sure where my brain was this morning – this was my LOI (last one in) shortly after getting OTTER
4 Maintain right to divide valuable item (6)
ASSERT– ASSET is the valuable item, divided by R{ight}
5 When one might wake up with two birds (8)
COCKCROW– I shouldn’t need to identify the two birds, but my dictionary hyphenates the word and defines COCK-CROW as ‘early morning, when cocks crow’.
6 Article hidden in tree is perhaps initially a hard thing to reach (4,1,3,4)
WILL ‘O THE WISP– The article is THE hidden in WILLOW (tree) and followed by IS (is) and P{erhaps} (initially) to give the answer. WILL ‘O THE WISP is defined as either ‘ignis fatuus’ (also called friar's lantern. A flitting phosphorescent light seen at night, chiefly over marshy ground), or as ‘any elusive or deceptive person or thing’, hence hard to reach.
7 Make rude remarks about good man Joker (6)
JESTER– To make rude remarks is to JEER, and this surrounds (about) good man S{ain}T. Clever of Joker to include himself as a definition in his own crossword. For a while I thought he had included me as blogger as well, when I looked at the checkers for 14a and saw O_T_R one of the options I considered was ROTTER.
12 Veteran told emir off (3,5)
OLD TIMER– straightforward anagram (off) of [TOLD EMIR]
13 Tidyone part of forest? (6)
SPRUCE– Double definition, the second one slightly cryptic in that a SPRUCE might be in a forest
15 Ornamental clasp open on the ear (6)
BROOCH– homophone clue, sounds like broach, which is to open up or begin, as in ‘to broach the subject’. I’m not personally a big fan of homophone clues because of variations in pronunciation, but this one works ok.
18 Criticise middle two of twelve jurymen? (5)
PANEL– To criticise is to PAN with the middle two letters of {tw}EL{ve}
19 Intelligence about Liberal collapse (4)
WILT– WIT is intelligence around (about) L{iberal}