The online version was a bit delayed today but it’s up now.
Nothing too tough or cheeky from Punk but a gentle start to the working (or not in the case of the crossword) week.
Across
4 Current setter unfortunately punching sweet setter? (3,6)
JET STREAM
SETTER* unfortunately inside punching JAM a sweet setter
8 Comment from a lion on how it prefers its meat, say? (4)
ROAR
Hom of RAW
10 One collecting hard stones (7)
SHINGLE
H(ard) in SINGLE (one)
11 Soup with old meat, ultimately, that’s rubbery (7)
GUMBOOT
GUMBO (a soup) & O(ld) M(eat)
12 Crater leading back to earth’s core (4)
PITH
PIT (crater) & last letter of (eart)H
13 All those present in the late evening have a bop (10)
ATTENDANCE
AT TEN (late evening) & DANCE (bob) . Ten o’clock late evening? These days it is for me during the working week.
15 Medical instruments breaking capsule (7)
SPECULA
CAPSULE* is broken
16,5 ‘A bit outside the outskirts of Kent’ describing this team? (7,7)
PARTICK THISTLE
THIS in the outskirts of K(en)T , all in PARTICLE (a bit)
18 Good luck finding key to secure entrance to lovely old city (3,3,4)
ALL THE BEST
Entrance, first letter of L(ovely) & THEBES (old city) in ALT (computer keyboard key). I still get caught by these types of keys despite working with one every day.
21 Switch hit from the back (4)
KNOB
BONK reversed.
23 Paint – one completed, needing second coat? (7)
IMPASTO
I’M PAST & second letter of cOat
24 Stooge confined to a pen, having a single cell (7)
AMOEBIC
MOE one of the Three Stooges inside A BIC (pen)
25 Part of London that’s very exciting, briefly (4)
SOHO
SO HO(t) briefly. Not sure it is, always seemed dingy too me on the few times I’ve been there.
26 Pulse found by outlaw about to live beyond poverty (5,4)
BLACK BEAN
[LACK (poverty) & BE (to live)] in BAN (outlaw)
Down
5 See 16 across
1 One forced to leave home before commandeering Russian plane (6)
EMIGRE
MIG (Russian fighter) in ERE before
2 Heading for Djibouti capital, desert engulfs a desert animal (9)
DROMEDARY
D(jibouti) & ROME (capital) & A in DRY (desert)
3 Desert marsupial caught by primate (6)
MAROON
More deserts. ROO in MAN
4 Dictator breaking union, pathless revolutionary (6,6)
JOSEPH STALIN
PATHLESS* revolutionary in JOIN (union)
6 Nothing gained after uprising in African country (4)
TOGO
0 & GOT all reversed
7 Choose artist as complex woman? (7)
ELECTRA
ELECT choose & R.A.
9 Rate works in blue, artist producing a sizzler? (7,5)
STREAKY BACON
RATE* working in SKY (blue) & BACON (artist say)
14,22 Fergie, heading for United game, beginning to observe gutless footy held together by idiot (7,2,4)
DUCHESS OF YORK
Header of U(nited) & CHESS game & begining of O(bserve) & F(oot)Y gutted ALL in DORK (idiot)
22 See 14 down
16 Donkey covered in a little butter and a sauce (7)
PASSATA
ASS donkey in a PAT of butter & A. Unlikely surface methinks
17 Initially British Legion out to find base (7)
IGNOBLE
[B(ritish) LEGION]* out
19 PC, perhaps, turning fellow drug-user over? (6)
LAPTOP
POT PAL reversed
20 Criminal finally arrested by policeman, thick and wet (6)
BLOBBY
(Crimina)L in BOBBY (a different PC to 19)
Very enjoyable thank you Punk – a nice start to the solving week. A most unusual grid with an eclectic mix of people therein. Thanks to Flashling too.
Thanks for the blog. I parsed 23A slightly differently. I+MO(second) around PAST ( completed).
Very enjoyable for a rainy Monday morning.
Thanks Punk.
Enjoyable start to the week – thank you, Punk and flashling! Hadn’t heard of either PASSATA or PARTICK THISTLE, but the crosses and wordplay led there unerringly.
GeordyGordy @2: I like your parsing of IMPASTO – I with PAST in a coat of MO. I parsed it as flashling did, but I think your version works better.
Sorry, that should of course read ‘flashling’ – I keep forgetting to turn off autocorrect when posting from my phone.
Count me as another who parsed IMPASTO the same way as GG@2 and I’m pretty sure that’s what the setter intended.
Thanks flashling and Punk. Agreed, not too taxing, but some neat clues. I’m another I PAST in MO. Especially liked LAPTOP – a good spot.
Ok the commenters think differently, still see it as the Royal one saying I’m past & cOat but agree that the other reading is fine and probably right.
Strange grid; fine puzzle and blog.
Nice one Punk. I’m in the I PAST and MO club but what the hell? Who cares who wins?
I agree with what seems to be the majority of people who reckon it’s I + m(past)o. Surely it has to be that, because if it’s as flashling says in his otherwise nice blog then Punk is saying that ‘second coat’ = ‘the second letter of coat’, which is no good at all and not the sort of evil thing that Punk would do.
Why is an émigré (1dn) someone who is forced to leave home? I thought an émigré was simply someone who lives abroad. (I didn’t put the poncey acute accents in — they came up automatically.)
Yeay, ‘one completed’ is I plus PAST, needing ‘second coat’, i.e. ‘a coat of MO’. Not ideal, and that’s why we get a free QM.