A gentle puzzle, and an enjoyable one. Thank you Nitsy.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | VERY | Each head’s scratched fiercely (4) |
| eVERY (each) with first letter (head) missing (scratched, deleted) | ||
| 3 | SPACE BAR | Stretch bra out of shape? Nothing is revealed when it’s pressed (5,3) |
| SPACE (stretch) then anagram (out of shape) of BRA | ||
| 10 | HAVE A SCREW LOOSE | Be unbalanced as cow almost leaves horse rattled (4,1,5,5) |
| anagram (rattled) of AS COW with LEAVEs (almost) and HORSE | ||
| 11 | MINESHAFT | Passage for those who are boring? (9) |
| cryptic definition | ||
| 12 | ENDS | Conclusions from The Guardian panned Boris’s aims (4) |
| final letters (conclusions) from thE guardiaN panneD boriS | ||
| 13 | NO-HOPER | Poor hen shifting – one’s likely to lay an egg (2-5) |
| anagram (shifting) of POOR HEN – to lay an egg is to fail (theatrical slang) | ||
| 15 | DETAIL | Particular dock? (6) |
| double definition | ||
| 17 | SPEECH | Sons go before church sermon (6) |
| S (sons) PEE (go, to the toilet) and CH (church) | ||
| 19 | RIVIERA | Shannon maybe embracing one by a holiday destination (7) |
| RIVER (River Shannon maybe) contains (embracing) I (one) then A | ||
| 20 | ACNE | Spots Mickelson finally securing hole-in-one? On the contrary (4) |
| micklesoN (finally) inside (the contrary of contains, secures) ACE (hole in one) | ||
| 21 | DIMENSION | Weak with emotional strain? Not the first aspect (9) |
| DIM (waek) with tENSION (emotional strain) missing first letter | ||
| 24 | OPTICAL ILLUSION | Abandoned soul in political vision (7,8) |
| anagram (abandoned) of SOUL IN POLITICAL | ||
| 25 | ADHESION | Bond‘s wound is on head (8) |
| anagram (wound, twisted) of IS ON HEAD | ||
| 26 | AGES | Gets old, wise person to move south (4) |
| SAGE (wise person) with S (south) being moved to another position | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | VEHEMENT | Strong old soldier captures macho blokes (8) |
| VET (old soldier) contains (captures) HE-MEN (macho blokes) | ||
| 2 | RAVEN | Yellow topped black (5) |
| cRAVEN (yellow, cowardly) missing first letter (topped) | ||
| 4 | PLEATED | Folded page and left to dine with editor (7) |
| P (page) and L (left) EAT (to dine) with ED (editor) | ||
| 5 | COLLECTIVE NOUN | Gang perhaps developing cult with no violence (10,4) |
| anagram (developing) CULT with NO VIOLENCE – definition by example | ||
| 6 | BROADSIDE | Attack American woman on team (9) |
| BROAD (American woman) on SIDE (team) | ||
| 7 | RUED | Regretted being offensive on the radio (4) |
| sounds like (on the radio) “rude” (offensive) | ||
| 8 | FALSE PRETENCES | Deception involving secret plan with fees (5,9) |
| anagram (involving) of SECRET PLAN with FEES | ||
| 9 | ECLAIR | Den is after peach, oddly leaving cake (6) |
| LAIR (den) follows pEaCh (oddly leaving, the odd-numbered letters leave) | ||
| 14 | HOPSCOTCH | Game husband having drink after work (9) |
| H (husband) with SCOTCH (drink) following OP (opus, work) | ||
| 16 | EARNINGS | Wants no yen for pay (8) |
| yEARNINGS (wants) missing Y (yen) | ||
| 18 | HIDALGO | Gentleman concealed a large repair (7) |
| HID (concealed) A L (large) GO (repair, e.g. The gentlemen repair to the drawing room after dinner) | ||
| 19 | RUMBLE | Discover the truth about low noise (6) |
| double definition | ||
| 22 | ICING | It might be used to cover cake in picnic in garden (5) |
| found inside picnIC IN Garden | ||
| 23 | SOFA | Very plump bottom goes on this? (4) |
| SO (very) FAt (plump) missing last letter (bottom goes) | ||
A small correction.
9D. Oddly leaving, the even-numbered letters.
Thanks for that Pradeep. Fixed now.
As PeeDee said, a gentle one for a Sunday morning, no queries, no quibbles, so very much enjoyed. Thanks Nitsy and PeeDee.
Fairly gentle but that doesn’t mean all were write-ins. HIDALGO wasn’t the first word that came to mind for ‘Gentleman’ and I took a while to get RUMBLE. Some good surfaces too, especially for SPACE BAR, COLLECTIVE NOUN and SOFA.
Just the right way to kick off a leisurely Sunday. Thanks to Nitsy and PeeDee
Yes Nice Solve liked 23d S =sons? Surely ‘son’?
Nicholas @ 5
Presumably you mean 17A?
S = sons comes from genealogy, where records can show ‘[name] 2s 2d’ for offspring.
As WordPlodder says, fairly gentle but that doesn’t mean all were write-ins.
We saw an alternative parsing for ACNE with N securing, (making), a hole in ACE (= 1); except that then ‘On the contrary’ doesn’t apply.
DETAIL, ADHESION and RUMBLE were among those we particularly liked.
Thanks, Nitsy and PeeDee