Solving time: 30’
Good solid wordplay – no quibbles and a reminder that I really must pay more attention to Sean Connery’s films if I’m to continue my relationship with Everyman.
Across
| 1 | CA(C)T,US – My last clue with well-disguised wordplay and definition: “plant, succulent one” (succulence isn’t something I typically associate with cacti). Note that “American” is US but cleverly overlaps the definition since the CACTUS is a N. American plant. |
| 9 | CU,RATE – Doing this without a dictionary so I’m going to guess that the definition “assistant barman in Ireland” is in fact an alternate (ironic?) definition. |
| 11 | AS(FOLLOW)S – Jenny’s a female ASS. |
| 13 | HO(B[ar])BS – Jack HOBBS is another cricketer to join the cricket trivia pantheon. HOB is a kind of gnomish hobgoblin type so I suppose a “lout” as well. |
| 14 | OVER, THE HILL – Everyman must really like this film: it was used recently to clue Harrow-on-the-Hill as well. I’ve never seen it but at least I recognize it now. Note how the definition is just “old” (again clever overlap of definition with the cryptic encoding since “The Hill” indeed is an old (1965) Connery film. |
| 21 | A,LIE,N – Only four bridge players to choose from (like compass points). |
| 22 | DER,RINGER – named after Henry Deringer (sic) a US gun manufacturer. |
| 25 | P(AN)A,MA |
Down
| 1 | COCK.AT,O,O – two “cricket” ducks are O,O. |
| 3 | UN,TIL=rev(“lit”) – “one Parisian” is UN (while one Parisienne would be UNE). |
| 5 | LADY,S[hop], FINGER |
| 6 | SEI WHALES – (while sea’s)* — you get to know your WHALES if you live in the Pacific Northwest. |
| 7 | GA(TSB)Y – I was sure about GAY and Jay GATSBY and turns out that TSB is part of Lloyds bank. |
| 8 | NUDIST – I suppose an anag &lit: (in dust)*, if you consider that a NUDIST probably gets pretty dusty, all over. |
| 12 | OPEN-AND-SHUT – Amusing double/cryptic def for what attaché cases do! |
| 15 | TOCANTINS – (cantons it’s)* – I was sure this was an anagram – but had to wikitrawl to work out which Brazilian state was being referred to. |
| 17 | STAR(WAR)S – rev(raw=”green”) in STARS. Another film… |
| 19 | MAD,CA,P – when I left England (as a boy years and years ago), MAD never meant “angry”, only crazy. When did this shift to the Americanism happen? |
| 20,23 | MIRROR, I,MAG,E – The Daily MIRROR is our “newspaper”, MAG’s our “magazine” and the whole thing defines a “reflection”. |
A curate really is ‘an assistant barman’ in Ireland.