I found this distinctly easier than last week’s Everyman, with mostly simple wordplays, which should help if the range of your general knowledge does not coincide with the compiler’s.
| Across | |||
| 1. | Win and celebrate (7) | ||
| TRIUMPH | Double definition. | ||
| 5. | Popular – word describing one caretaker (7) | ||
| INTERIM | Charade of IN (‘popular’) + an envelope (‘describing’) of I (‘one’) in TERM (‘word’). | ||
| 9. | Report coarse players (9) | ||
| BROADCAST | Charade of BROAD (‘coarse’) + CAST (‘players’). | ||
| 10. | Awkward drunk (5) | ||
| TIGHT | Double definition. | ||
| 11. | Commercial outlet in period before Christmas (6) | ||
| ADVENT | Charade of AD (‘commercial’) + VENT (‘outlet’). | ||
| 12. | Viceroy, first to knock male club that’s disreputable (7) | ||
| KHEDIVE | Charade of K (‘first to Knock’) + HE (‘male’) + DIVE (‘club thats disreputable’). The title was originally assumed by Muhammad Ali Pasha, governor of Egypt and Sudan under the Ottoman Empire; it was later recognized as an official title. | ||
| 14. | Poisonous plant, British, brought in by her boy (4,11) | ||
| HERB CHRISTOPHER | Charade of ‘her’ + B (‘British’) + Christopher (‘boy’). The enumeration was a tip-off. Herb Christopher is rare in Britain; its berries (unusual for the buttercup family ) are dangerously poisonous, as is the whole plant, but it has been used, and is still available, as a homeopathic remedy for rheumatism and cramps. | ||
| 16. | Columbian one, one drunk very rarely (4,2,1,4,4) | ||
| ONCE IN A BLUE MOON | Anagram (‘drunk’) of ‘Columbian one, one’. A lunar month, from full moon to full moon, is about 29½ days, so that every few years there are thirteen full moons rather than the usual twelve. The extra one is referred to as a blue moon – not the norm, but not as rare as the saying might suggest. | ||
| 19. | A giant, swine holding queue back (7) | ||
| GOLIATH | An envelope (‘holding’) of TAIL (‘queue’) in HOG (‘swine’), all reversed (‘back’). | ||
| 20. | Say name of Island (6) | ||
| STATEN | Charade of STATE (‘say’) + N (‘name’). Staten Island is one of the five boroughs of New York City; it used to be known as Richmond. | ||
| 23. | Love huge Greek character (5) | ||
| OMEGA | Charade of O (‘love’) + MEGA (‘huge’). That’s how the Greek letter gets its name, to distinguish it from omicron, the little o. | ||
| 24. | Not connected by marriage, a Parisian’s told (9) | ||
| UNRELATED | Charade of UN (‘a Parisian’) + RELATED (‘told’). | ||
| 25. | Swing – net added to facility, reportedly (7) | ||
| TRAPEZE | Charade of TRAP (‘net’) + EZE, a homophone (‘reportedly’) of ease (‘facility’); with an &lit definition. | ||
| 26. | Where youngsters play could make one spit, perhaps (7) | ||
| SANDPIT | A little deviousness, in that the parsing seems to call for an anagram of ‘one spit’; but the correct wordplay is that ‘spit’ is made for one from S and PIT. | ||
| Down | |||
| 1. | Punch’s dog in play about bishop (4) | ||
| TOBY | Envelope (‘about’) of B (‘bishop’) in TOY (‘play’). Formerly, dog Toby was a common character in Punch and Judy shows. | ||
| 2. | Appropriate batting line-up (2,5) | ||
| IN ORDER | Double definition. | ||
| 3. | Fly military aircraft across Germany and Spain (5) | ||
| MIDGE | Charade of an envelope (‘across’) of D (Deutschland, ‘Germany’) in MIG (‘aircraft’) + E (España, ‘Spain’) | ||
| 4. | Sadness shown by audience coming from play (10,5) | ||
| HEARTBREAK HOUSE | Charade of HEARTBREAK (‘sadness’) + HOUSE (‘audience’). A play by George Bernard Shaw, written just after the First World War, and set just before it. | ||
| 5. | Saying last rites, talk so differently (2,5,3,5) | ||
| IT TAKES ALL SORTS | Anagram (‘differently’) of ‘last rites, talk so’. ‘Saying’ is the loose definition. | ||
| 6. | Main part, perhaps, I retell to comic (5,4) | ||
| TITLE ROLE | Anagram (‘comic’) of ‘I retell to’. The ‘perhaps’ is necessary; I was once allowed to play the title role in Waiting for Godot. | ||
| 7. | Is lying in light rough that’s deceiving (7) | ||
| ROGUISH | Envelope (‘lying in’) of ‘is’ in ROGUH, an anagram (‘thats deceiving’) of ‘rough’. | ||
| 8. | Old French president needing hand with job (10) | ||
| MITTERRAND | Charade of MITT (‘hand’) + ERRAND (‘job’). François Mitterrand was the President of France from 1981 to 1995. | ||
| 13. | Rejected, we hear, in every part (10) | ||
| THROUGHOUT | Homophone (‘we hear’) of threw out (‘rejected’). | ||
| 15. | A new chair vandalised, and crockery? (9) | ||
| CHINAWARE | An anagram (‘vandalised’) of ‘a new chair’. | ||
| 17. | Yorkshire river passing over a large crater (7) | ||
| CALDERA | Charade of CALDER (‘Yorkshire river’; there are several rivers Calder in Britain. One is a tributary of the River Aire in Yorkshire) + ‘a’. | ||
| 18. | Dance on stage, saving energy (3-4) | ||
| ONE-STEP | Envelope (‘saving’) of E (‘energy’) in ‘on’ + STEP (‘stage’). | ||
| 21. | Ready to drop a couple of lines home (3,2) | ||
| ALL IN | Charade of ‘a’ + LL (‘couple of lines’) + IN (‘home’). | ||
| 22. | This may turn up? Correct (4) | ||
| EDIT | Reversal (‘up’) of TIDE (‘this may turn’). | ||
Thank you PeterO.
But are you sure about 7d (ROGUISH)?
I think the definition is ‘deceiving’ [so, not the anagrind] while the anagram indicator is ‘light’ [new to me, but as such having a mention in Chambers Crossword Dictionary].
Thank you PeterO.
I agree with Sil@1 in that the actual clue is “deceiving” and IS lies in a rearrangement of ROUGH.
I appreciate your explanation of 26ac as I found I could not easily explain why I had the answer, so the deviousness worked.
Apart from that a straightforward solve and I did discover a new (to me) herb!
Thank you, Peter. I found this generally straightforward, but there were two or three clues where I really struggled and in fact couldn’t understand the parsing till I came to your blog.
I’m sure it’s been used before, but I liked STATEN; and ONCE IN A BLUE MOON was a clever anagram. There’s debate about the origin of the phrase, but as you say, it’s not that rare – on average between two and three years.
Sil @1- is this a first for you, having the first comment? You make a timely correction; in writing up the blog, I just grabbed at the most likely anagrind, not noticing that it left me without a definition!
Couldn’t get 12a -never heard of it.
4d OK if you’ve heard of it but if you have h?a?t?r?a? h?u?e which you might or might spot as heartbreak house, if you don’t know it, then it is off to google.
14a Similar to 4d-fine if you know it, otherwise you have h?r? c?r?s?o?h?r .
I thought those three clues made it a tough one to complete.
Thanks PeterO for your usual colourful blog.
I wondered about ‘light’ as an anagrind. Then when I came here and puzzled over it again, it occurred to me that the ‘g’ has been moved up – something to do with gravity? Just a thought 🙂
In 2d, I think it’s a charade rather than a dd: ‘batting’=IN+’line-up’=ORDER
Thanks Everyman.