Thanks again Orpheus – nicely crafted!
Across
7 See church and northern lake (4)
LOCH – LO (see) and CH{urch} for the Scottish (northern) name for a lake or arm of the sea.
8 Contemplative monarch of slender build (8)
THINKING – A monarch of slender build might be a THIN KING.
9 Bumpy drive finally fenced in by a French priest (6)
UNEVEN – UN (a or one in French) and VEN{erable} (venerable is an honorific prefix to an archdeacon, hence priest) ‘fencing in’ or containing the last letter of {driv}E (finally).
10 Arrest Greek character involved in racket (6)
DETAIN – ETA (Greek character) inside (involved in) DIN (racket).
11 Fish in burn? (4)
CHAR – Double definition, the first being a fish of the salmon family, and the second being to scorch or burn. I think the question mark is to indicate that sometimes ‘charring’ is a desirable effect, rather than as when Alfred burnt those famous cakes! When I first read this on my I-pad, I misread it as ‘Fish in bum’ which caused an MER until I read it again, properly.
12 Dubliner possibly misusing his main river at first (8)
IRISHMAN – Anagram (misusing) of [HIS MAIN R{iver}] (at first). The ‘possibly’ is because not all Irishmen are Dubliners, nor vice versa.
15 Vocalist keeping extremely popular type of spaniel (8)
SPRINGER – The vocalist is a SINGER into which are inserted the first and last letters (extremely) of P{opula}R. The SPRINGER spaniel is apparently a gun dog useful in copses to ‘spring’ or flush game, although also widely used these days as sniffer dogs.
17 Academic briefly in favour of opening of faculty (4)
PROF – PROF{essor] (academic briefly), and PRO (in favour of) and F{aculty} (opening)
18 Artful youth leader following boat (6)
CRAFTY – CRAFT (boat) and Y{outh} (leader).
21 Went into beginning and end of Tchaikovsky score (6)
TWENTY – WENT (went) inside T{chaikovsk}Y (beginning and end). I am not sure, and haven’t had time to research why SCORE came to mean TWENTY, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some ancient accountants made a ‘score’ on a clay tablet each time 20 sheep passed a gate, or changed ownership, or similar.
22 Eg Ben’s horse, popular around area (8)
MOUNTAIN – MOUNT (horse) and IN (popular) surrounding (around) A{rea}. Ben of course is Scottish and Irish for mountain peak, unless it is over 3,000 feet, when it might be a munro (but is still a ben).
23 Letter incorporated in Riot Act (4)
IOTA – The Greek letter equivalent to I, hidden (incorporated in) {r}IOT A{ct}.
Down
1 Heavyweight vessel holding whiskey in urban area (8)
TOWNSHIP – TON (heavy weight) containing W (whiskey in the phonetic alphabet) and SHIP (vessel).
2 Some initially talk nonsense, producing razor (6)
SHAVER – S{ome} (originally) and HAVER (talk nonsense). I was a little unsure about the equivalence of RAZOR and SHAVER. In my mind the first is what is used in a wet shave whilst the second is more commonly applied to an electrical device, but actually, SHAVER is defined as an electric razor, so I guess it is fine. However, HAVER has left me with a Proclaimers earworm – I would walk 500 miles…
3 Putting up with not having a seat? (8)
STANDING – If one didn’t have a seat, one might be STANDING (but might not be, hence the question mark).
4 Benevolent type (4)
KIND – Double definition.
5 Drawing of ultimately notorious hangman (6)
SKETCH – Last letter (ultimately) of {notoriou}S and KETCH (hangman). John (Jack) Ketch was an infamous English executioner employed by King Charles II.
6 Paint this regularly for an opponent (4)
ANTI – Alternate letters (regularly) of {p}A{i}N{t} T{h}I{s}.
13 Irish girl joins National Trust – a cause of annoyance (8)
IRRITANT – IR{ish} and RITA (girl) join N{ational} T{rust}
14 Turncoat given a job at head of enterprise (8)
APOSTATE – A (a) POST (job) AT (at) and E{nterprise} (head of).
16 Young child identified by foot-soldiers leaving railway (6)
INFANT – Foot-soldiers are INFANT{ry} (leaving railway (RY))
17 Mine includes rising little Scottish shore bird (6)
PEEWIT – PIT (mine) ‘including’ WEE reversed (rising little Scottish).
19 Australian native beginning to fix top of house (4)
ROOF – ROO (short form of KangaROO – Australian native) and first letter (beginning to) of F{ix}.
20 Period of time that’s long? Not altogether (4)
YEAR – YEAR{n} (long – dropping last letter – not altogether).
After that things went very quickly; I was slowed up a bit at the end by my last two:TOWNSHIP and CHAR. And the clock said 8:07, so very quick for me.
I too thought of The Proclaimers as Haver came to mind.
As our blogger says, a nicely crafted puzzle. David
Edited at 2019-04-04 07:30 am (UTC)
NeilC
Struggled with mountain, infant, crafty, township and char but they all look easy now.
Dnk Mr ketch or peewit.
Cod twenty.
Edited at 2019-04-04 07:59 am (UTC)
Thanks for the blog
Brian
FOI LOCH
LOI SHAVER
COD UNEVEN
TIME 3:34
Many thanks as always to setter and blogger.
Edited at 2019-04-04 02:52 pm (UTC)
FOI 12a
LOI 7a no idea why it took me so long!!
Orpheus provided some wonderful surfaces but my COD 21a
WOD Thinking because I enjoyed the vision that entered my head – definitely not Henry VIII.
Templar
PS Phil – the second one in the series was actually “What Katy Did At School”, so “What Katy Did Next” (the third in the sequence) wasn’t due until tomorrow!