The Sunday Crossword No 3149, Sunday 09 May 2021

Lockdown Day 12 of 26 Stay Safe at Home

ACROSS

1   Fine food, a weakness (8) DELICACY [DD]

5   Primarily unrealistic? Thomas once pictured it acerbically! (6) UTOPIA Acrostic &lit

10 Poet writes; 'special' Queen Elizabeth described! (7) SPENSER {PENS} in {S}{ER}

11 Marmite regularly seen around in France: well, that's relaxing (7)  AMBIENT {mArMiTe} over {BIEN}

12 Reported harvest in country (5) GHANA (~garner)

13 Instilled deeply in English: bad weather and, regularly, feuds (9) ENGRAINED {ENG}{RAIN}{fEuDs}

14 Whirl twig around welcoming back rub for pilot (6,6) WILBUR WRIGHT {WHIRL+TWIG}* over {RUB}<=

18 Theatre backer, not bold, abandoned play (3,9) THE CARETAKER {THEATRE+bACKER}*

21 Shuns cat (hedgehog's partly free from injury) (9) UNSCATHED [T]

23 Horned beast losing oxygen and energy in river (5) RHINE {RHINo}{E}

24 Tax part of ... most of ... unsophisticated neckwear (7) CRAVATS {CRA{VAT}Ss}

25 Pop act of the '80s, The Firm? (7) ADAMANT ( from ADAM and THE ANTS}

26 Where you see Italians get some shut-eye ... and the French (6) NAPLES {NAP}{LES}

27 Given three seconds, revolutionary lefty oddly missing kings, queens, etc (5,3) CHESS SET {SSS} in {CHE}{lEfT}

DOWN

1   A little shade's ignored in sketch (6) DESIGN [T]

2   Change course: slippery fish turns around with room to manoeuvre (6) LEEWAY {WAY}{EEL}<=

3   Country with value on continent (not France) (5,4) COSTA RICA {COST}{AfRICA}

4   He’s fed her bacon, fried, for meaty supper (6,4,4) CORNED BEEF HASH* 

6   Shin up, Everyman? In a bit (5) TIBIA {A}{I}{BIT}<=

7   GNP's fine! Rolling in cash ... once (8) PFENNIGS*

8   A holy book ... solemn vow ... what else? Finally, something to combat evil (8) ANTIDOTE {A}{NT}{I DO}{whaT}{elsE}

9   Terribly bad manners, drinking gallons: a Sirah's drained with meal (7,3,4)  BANGERS AND MASH {BAD+MANNERS}*{A}{SiraH} over {G}

15 Skipping starter, greybeard's chewed baked goods (3,6) RYE BREADS gREYBEARDS*

16 In ancient culture, centaurs made merry (8) ETRUSCAN*

17 Instrument, Japanese (Eastern), sounding out of tune around West (4,4) JEWS HARP {J}{E}{SHARP} over {W}

19 Enemies in European and Irish rising (6) RIVALS {SLAV}{IR}<=

20 A bird going after bee, endlessly (and fly) (4,2) BEAT IT {A}{TIT}<=>{BEe}

22 Conscious of feature missing in tea set (5) AWARE chinAWARE

Reference List

Special = S, Queen Elizabeth = ER, Well in French = BIEN, Bold = B, Oxygen = O, Energy = E, The in Feench = LES, Second = S, France = F, Holy Book = NT(New Testament), Gallon = S, Japanese = J, Eastern = E, West = W