Pretty tough going this week, especially if you didn’t know the
names of the film, the novel, the UK TV programme and the famous Russian(s).
Legend to solution comments:
* = anagram.
< = word reversed.
| Across | ||
| 1. | PAVLOV |
PAVLOV(a) (i.e. snubbed = last letter removed); Famous Russians Anna Pavlova and Ivan Pavlov |
| 4. | ADAM BEDE | BED in A DAME; The George Eliot novel Adam Bede |
| 9. | TARIFF | AR in TIFF |
| 10. | CARRY OUT | CARRY + OUT |
| 12. | LOCAL HERO | LOCAL + HERO; The film Local Hero |
| 13. | OLIVE | O + LIVE |
| 14. | COUNTER-TENOR |
COUNTER + TEN + OR |
| 18. | MAID OF HONOUR |
Sort of cryptic definition |
| 21. | ARENA | N in AREA |
| 22. | NEEDS MUST | (MEND SET)* around U.S. |
| 24. | EARL GREY | G + RE in EARLY |
| 25. | LOLITA | This just seems a straight definition clue? Comments welcome. |
| 26. | TAMARISK | TAMAR + IS + K |
| 27. | TRENDY | END in TRY |
| Down | ||
| 1. | POT BLACK | POT + BLACK; UK TV snooker programme Pot Black |
| 2. | VERACRUZ | VERA + CRUZ (homophone of cruise) |
| 3. | OFFAL | OFFA + L |
| 5. | DRAG ONES FEET |
D + (GREASE OFTEN)* |
| 6. | MARCO POLO | ARC in MO + POLO |
| 7. | EROTIC | (IT in CORE)< |
| 8. | ESTEEM | E + STEEM (homophone of steam; strangely Chambers states steem is another word for steam!) |
| 11. | MERRY DANCERS | Cryptic definition; A name for the Aurora Borealis; see also here |
| 15. | TRAFALGAR | (FLAG A TAR)* + R; Aptly, our blog name derives from the Trafalgar Arms in Pompey, our local boozer. We wonder if Everyman reads here and put this in for us! |
| 16. | SOLUTION | Double def. |
| 17. | BRITTANY | BRITTAN + Y; Homophone of (Benjamin) Britten |
| 19. | TALENT | TALE + NT; Poor clue as NT is there in the wordplay |
| 20. | RED RUM | RED + RUM; Bloody hell! No sign of murder! |
| 23. | SCOUR | Double def. |
All correct after a mistake last week. I agree, general knowledge needed very UK based
25a is IT (sex appeal) in LOLA (girl) &lit
Thanks Gaufrid – we see it now you explained, but didn’t at the time.
I think 18ac is more of a dd – a Maid of Honour is a kind of cake as well as a bride’s attendant.
Andrew, we wasn’t sure what type of clue this was, as the ‘whole’ clue sort of says:
Maid of honour is not a tart (but she could be!). Also there is possibly the two defs. there, even if the second one is referred to obliquely.
I would have thought Pot Black, Local Hero and Pavlov hardly obscure. And serious crossword solvers are surely aware of Adam Bede – it’s an established canonical classic! (I have often wondered why Dickens, and not the much better writer George Eliot, is the definitive English Victorian Novelist, but hey ho!)
I don’t understand why this puzzle is particularly UK-centric. Even though it is in a UK newspaper… The previous day’s Guardian puzzle was much more Aussie-centric.
enitharmon: You’re right about George Eliot. Middlemarch is the best (English) 19C novel.
Hi trafites
To redeem 19dn?: the parable of the talents is in the New Testament.
I think 25a is actually an &lit:
IT in LOLA
where IT is ‘sex appeal’.
Joachim
Isn’t that what I said in comment #2?
Sorry for late reply – it was our last game of ‘inter-pub’ rounders yesterday (Trafalgar lost 4 – 3) and we got pretty steaming drunk last night (too many Pimm’s No.1 and sambuca…
Ref. ADAM BEDE; defined as ‘a novel’ is pretty tough if you didn’t know the novel (as we didn’t), and we have asked all the x-word enthusiast’s in our pub (including a part-time librarian), and not one of them had heard of it!
Eileen – we didn’t know that re the bible as we are not religious nor particularly au fait with biblical references.
After completing this wek’s AZED, thought I’d whizz thru Everyman. Not so! Tough!! Await next blog with interest. This puzzle seems to be tougher than it was a fee months ago.