One or two unfamiliar words for me today. I think I have met 23ac before (but had forgotten it) but 17ac was certainly new and I don’t think I would have got it without most of the checked letters and a wildcard search of Chambers.
Across
1 Embrace before greeting English boy (6)
HUGHIE – HUG (embrace) HI (greeting) E (English)
4 Unenlightened old boy’s made better (8)
OBSCURED – OB’S (old boy’s) CURED (made better)
9 Role of some toothpaste advertisements (5)
STEAD – hidden in (some) ‘toothpaSTE ADvertisements’
10 Sister employs shopping centre worker of little importance (5,4)
SMALL BEER – SR (sister) around (employs) MALL (shopping centre) BEE (worker)
11 Duck having trouble after a drink? (7)
PINTAIL – PINT (a drink) AIL (trouble)
12 Mother cuts lawn perhaps for railway worker (7)
LINEMAN – MA (mother) in (cuts) LINEN (lawn perhaps)
13 Likes citations to be written on page (11)
PREFERENCES – P (page) REFERENCES (citations)
17 Greek character with top grade range, mostly stuff from the east (11)
CHINOISERIE – CHI (Greek character) NO 1 (top grade) SERIE[s] (range, mostly)
20 Two quintets perform chorally, becoming uptight (7)
TENSING – TEN (two quintets) SING (perform chorally)
21 Salt put in apple tart induces turns (7)
NITRATE – hidden (put in) reversal (turns) in ‘applE TART INduces’
23 Surprisingly rare pets run inside areas of garden (9)
PARTERRES – R (run) in (inside) an anagram (surprisingly) of RARE PETS
24 Scout leader regularly wanting hankie clean (5)
AKELA – alternate letters (regularly wanting) in [h]A[n]K[i]E [c]L[e]A[n]
25 Opponents in French version of bridge coming second to former champion (8)
EXPONENT – EX (former) plus NE (opponents) in PONT (French version of bridge)
26 After higher education, Edward married (6)
UNITED – UNI (higher education) TED (Edward)
Down
1 I’ll provide water: see hippo splash about (8)
HOSEPIPE – an anagram (splash about) of SEE HIPPO
2 With difficulty, René’s squeezed into man’s jumper (8)
GUERNSEY – an anagram (with difficulty) of RENE’S in (squeezed into) GUY (man)
3 Land in need ultimately – centre for Asians (5)
INDIA – IN [nee]D (need ultimately) [as]IA[ns] (centre for Asians) – with the whole clue providing an extended definition
5 Subscribe to everything bank offers? That’s non-U, apparently (2,3,8)
BY ALL ACCOUNTS – B[u]Y ALL ACCOUNTS (subscribe to everything bank offers? That’s non-U)
6 Settlers appearing in scenes of conflict, supporting commander (9)
COLONISTS – CO (commander) plus ON (appearing) in LISTS (scenes of conflict)
7 Hires cycles, covering miles in French city (6)
RHEIMS – an anagram (cycles) of HIRES around (covers) M (miles)
8 Brave group of attorneys? (6)
DARING – DA RING (group of attorneys?)
10 Linger indoors, repairing tool (9,4)
SOLDERING IRON – an anagram (repairing) of LINGER INDOORS
14 Priest and faculty head go round University College concerned with ancient Greek? (9)
EUCLIDEAN – ELI (priest) DEAN (faculty head) around (go round) UC (University College)
15 Dull-sounding ordeal for Muhammad Ali once? (8)
GREATEST – a homophone (sounding) of ‘grey’ (dull) plus TEST (ordeal)
16 Rebel in attendance departs after battle (8)
HEREWARD – HERE (in attendance) WAR (battle) D (departs)
18 Basic way to have fruit cored (6)
STAPLE – ST (way) AP[p]LE (fruit cored)
19 Trick mate, endlessly upset (6)
ENTRAP – PARTNE[r] (mate, endlessly) reversed (upset)
22 Pictures put up in school (5)
TRAIN – ART (pictures) reversed (put up) IN
Not everything was a write-in on the first pass, though nearly so. CHINOISERIE was actually my immediate guess at 17, but I couldn’t parse it at first, so I left it out until the crossers made it inevitable. Nothing objectionable in this one, though. Thanks, Dac and Gaufrid
A fairly gentle ride from Dac today. I missed out HEREWARD as I had never heard of him, and couldn’t parse COLONISTS though I got it, but the rest was accessible and entertaining.
Thanks to Dac and Gaufrid!
A doubt: I don’t think OBSCURED is defined correctly. It means “made unclear”, which doesn’t seem to tally with the definition “unenlightened”. It *could* be read as a cryptic definition (a whimsical way of saying “took away the light”, for instance), but it doesn’t quite work for me.
Thanks, Gaufrid.
It’s funny, I got CHINOISERIE once I’d got the starting C. Not a word in my active vocabulary, but what passes for my brain started flashing lights and a bit of French helped. Some tricky ones here, mind you.
BY ALL ACCOUNTS I especially liked today.
I was very much on Dac’s wavelength today. I had the necessary GK for HEREWARD to have been practically a write-in once enough checkers were in place, and I had come across CHINOISERIE and PARTERRES before so I didn’t have any problems there either. EXPONENT was actually my LOI after ENTRAP.
As an occasional viewer of antiques programmes, I’d come across chinoiserie before, so got it fairly quickly once I’d guessed the Greek letter. I’m still a bit lost on why lists are scenes of conflict, though.
Abhay @3
I took them both to have a similar meaning of ‘darkened’.
NealH @6
“I’m still a bit lost on why lists are scenes of conflict, though.”
From Chambers: “list² – (in pl) the boundary of a jousting-ground or similar area, hence the ground itself, combat”.
A nice puzzle that got filled in from all angles and directions! Thanks to both.
Thanks for explaining colonists which I’d been looking at for a while.