Lorraine: Good morning one and all. Straight forward Everyman this week with some very enjoyable clues.
Big thank you to Everyman.
| Across | |||
| 1. | Right to go after bankrupt agent (6) | ||
| BROKER | R after BROKE(bankrupt) | ||
| 4. | Calmed down sailor on disastrous date (6) | ||
| ABATED | AB+(DATE*) | ||
| 8. | Musical drama in which she (Greta Garbo) performed, receiving extremes of praise (3,7,5) | ||
| THE BEGGARS OPERA | (SHE GRETA GARBO*) around P(rais)E | ||
| 11. | Additional passage from book court ignored (5) | ||
| EXTRA | EXTRA(ct) | ||
| 12. | Five in tug and ten lost in pontoon (5-2-2) | ||
| VINGT-ET-UN | V(five)+IN+(TUG TEN*) the card game ‘pontoon’, literally ‘twenty-one’ in French |
||
| 13. | A Peebles spread cheese (3,5) | ||
| BEL PAESE | (A PEEBLES)* a mild Italian cheese |
||
| 14. | Fish, black when small (4) | ||
| BASS | B+AS(when)+S | ||
| 17. | Fish, a freak, thrown back (4) | ||
| TUNA | (A NUT<) | ||
| 18. | Forward subbed (8) | ||
| ADVANCED | dd | ||
| 21. | Discover arsenic? Sure (9) | ||
| ASCERTAIN | AS(chemical symbol for arsenic)+CERTAIN | ||
| 22. | No power in golf club, say (5) | ||
| UTTER | (p)UTTER | ||
| 24. | Soldier’s operation, not the NHS’s concern (7,8) | ||
| PRIVATE PRACTICE | PRIVATE+PRACTICE | ||
| 25. | The person to give one a hand (6) | ||
| DEALER | cd ref. card player | ||
| 26. | Mineral’s exhausted, for the most part, in the Beaver State (6) | ||
| OREGON | ORE+GON(e) | ||
| Down | |||
| 1. | Intensely cold beer (6) | ||
| BITTER | dd | ||
| 2. | Clear above top of tower (5) | ||
| OVERT | OVER+T(ower) | ||
| 3. | Stares at the old globes after end of lecture (8) | ||
| EYEBALLS | (YE(old the)+BALLS) all after (lectur)E | ||
| 5. | Helplessly drunk, bishop before game (6) | ||
| BLOTTO | B+LOTTO | ||
| 6. | London street that nerds vandalised (3,6) | ||
| THE STRAND | (THAT NERDS)* | ||
| 7. | Identify San Diego criminal (8) | ||
| DIAGNOSE | (SAN DIEGO)* | ||
| 9. | Fair exchange of repartee after somehow evading capture (4,3,4) | ||
| GIVE AND TAKE | (EVADING*)+TAKE(capture, i.e. in chess) | ||
| 10. | Phones harsh critic for a box wrench? (4,7) | ||
| RING SPANNER | RINGS+PANNER(critic) | ||
| 13. | Steal mate’s porcelain (4,5) | ||
| BONE CHINA | BONE(slang, to seize or nab)+CHINA(cockney rs ‘china plate’=mate) | ||
| 15. | Son caught and punished (8) | ||
| STRAPPED | S+TRAPPED | ||
| 16. | Act up during search for reconnaissance vehicle (5,3) | ||
| SCOUT CAR | (ACT<) in SCOUR(search) | ||
| 19. | Understood by few, British composer seen round about (6) | ||
| ARCANE | ARNE around CA(circa=about) | ||
| 20. | Encourage operator to appear topless (4,2) | ||
| URGE ON | (s)URGEON | ||
| 23. | Fine German object (5) | ||
| THING | THIN+G | ||
Thanks Lorraine,
Another well-clued puzzle from Everyman. I particularly liked BROKER, VINGT-ET-UN, UTTER, DIAGNOSE and URGE ON.
The best laugh of the puzzle was the clueing of YE BALLS for old globes. Excellent stuff.
Many thanks, Lorraine.
As Davy says, well-clued – as always with Everyman. My favourite was EYEBALLS too, although THE BEGGARS OPERA was a close second.
Thanks, nice puzzle Everyman and good blog, Lorraine.
I, too, particularly liked EYEBALLS, as well as OREGON and THE BEGGARS OPERA.
Thanks, Lorraine; clear and concise explanations.
I’m not entirely happy with 10d – “box wrench” or “box-end wrench” is American for “ring spanner”, and there is nothing in the clue to suggest we are looking for an Americanism. Ask for a box wrench in a UK hardware store and you will get a box spanner, which is not at all the same thing.
I agree with RichWA @4; the following is from Wikipaedia:
US: box-end wrench GB: ring spanner
US: spark plug wrench GB: box spanner/tube spanner
And this picture shows a UK box spanner set (which isn’t a ring spanner set.)