Everyman N° 3,380 (July 10)

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A fine offering from Everyman, abounding in smooth surfaces, a good variety of clue types and no outlandishly convoluted wordplays.
There are a couple of less common words at 5A and 16D, with the former being originally a trade name, which is not to the liking of everyone.

Across
1. Cheek from defensive player about bowler, for example (8)
BACKCHAT Charade of BACK (‘defensive player’) + C (circa, ‘about’) + HAT (‘bowler, for example’).
5. Child aboard very old snowmobile (6)
SKIDOO Envelope (‘aboard’) of KID (‘child’) in SO (‘very’) + O (‘old’). Originally a brand name for a snowmobile (with a hyphen), but it has reached Chambers as an uncapitalised generic (without). Wikipedia proffers an unusual origin for the word.
9. Work on cheek with second cosmetic (8)
LIPSTICK Charade of LIP (‘cheek’) + S (‘second’) + TICK (‘work’; as in “What makes him tick?”).
10. Embarrassed top MP (6)
REDCAP Charade of RED (’embarrassed’) + CAP (‘top’). MP for Military Police(man), not Member of Parliament.
11. Order in Japanese dictionaries (5)
EDICT Hidden answer (‘in’) in ‘JapanesE DICTionary’.
13. Stands down, putting seaman in charge during engagements (9)
ABDICATES Charade of AB (able-bodied ‘seaman’) + an envelope (‘during’) of IC (‘in charge’) in DATES (‘engagements’).
15. Male injured too, unfortunately, in play (5,3,6)
ROMEO AND JULIET Anagram (‘unfortunately’) of ‘male injured too’.
18. Is in charge of a disciplined organisation in Hastings – Ruth, I suspect, ahead of Penny (4,1,5,4)
RUNS A TIGHT SHIP An anagram (‘suspect’) of ‘Hastings Ruth I’ + P (‘penny’).
20. Edible fruit in cask we brought back – money’s needed upfront? (6,3)
CASHEW NUT Charade of CASH (‘money’ with ‘needed upfront’ indicating that this particle comes first) + EW NUT, a reversal (‘brought back’) of TUN (‘cask’) + ‘we’.
Cashew nuts
22. Sponger left separately, reportedly (5)
LEECH Charade of L (‘left’) + EECH, a homophone (‘reportedly’) of EACH (‘separately’).
23. Join a navy? I may have (6)
SEAMAN Charade of SEAM (‘join’) + ‘a’ + N ‘navy’, with an &lit definition.
24. Speak amusingly about very loud artist producing rubbish (8)
RIFFRAFF Envelope (‘about’) of FF RA (‘very loud’ ‘artist’) in RIFF (‘speak amusingly’). My editions of Chambers do not give this definition of RIFF, which generally appears as a noun, for example “a clever or inventive remark”. However, Chambers does give RIFF-RAFF (with a hyphen, but hyphens have a tendency to disappear) as rubbish, as well as the more common definition, a contemptuous term for undesirable people.
26. Favour parking by river – could be free (6)
PREFER Charade of P (‘parking’) + R (‘river’) + EFER, an anagram (‘could be’) of ‘free’.
27. Hairstyle of son, top dog around family (8)
SKINHEAD Envelope (‘around’) of KIN (‘family’) in S (‘son’) + HEAD (‘top dog’). The definition might be accused of missing the point.
Down
1. British tree with less on top (6)
BALDER Charade of B (‘British’) + ALDER (‘tree’)
2. Sign of growth to the south of island off Italy (9)
CAPRICORN Charade of CAPRI (‘Island off Italy’) + CORN (‘growth’ on ones foot, perhaps; ‘to the south of’ – in a down clue – indicates the order of the particles). Definition: the zodiacal ‘sign’.
3. Lower score (3)
CUT Double definition.
4. Praise Catholic priest during hostilities (11)
ACCLAMATION Envelope (‘during’) of C + LAMA (‘Catholic’ ‘priest’; I think we can say we have two separate defintions) in ACTION (‘hostilities’).
6. Remain brief, and don’t reveal one’s thoughts (4,7)
KEEP COUNSEL Charade of KEEP (‘remain’) + COUNSEL (‘brief’ as a legal representative).
7. Old coin adult found in passage (5)
DUCAT Envelope (‘found in’) of A (‘adult’) in DUCT (‘passage’).
8. Facing one’s counterpart on location (8)
OPPOSITE Charade of OPPO (‘ones counterpart’; a weakness of the clue is that this is a abbreviation for “opposite number”) + SITE (‘location’).
12. Book at that time peaked (a novel) (3,5,3)
THE NAKED APE Charade of THEN (‘at that time’) + AKED APE, an anagram (‘novel’) of ‘peaked a’. Definiton: the ‘book’ by Desmond Morris.
14. Brought about, as if by magic? (3,3,5)
DID THE TRICK Definition and cryptic definition (or cryptic allusion, or whatever).
16. Travel from place to place in Italy with nervous trainee (9)
ITINERATE Charade of IT (‘Italy’) + INERATE, an anagram (‘nervous’) of ‘trainee’. Not as common a word as the noun itinerary.
17. Expert on drink has a breakdown (6,2)
CRACKS UP Charade of CRACK (‘expert’, adjective) + SUP (‘drink’).
19. Irritated husband in coffee shop, then daughter (6)
CHAFED Envelope (‘in’) of H (‘husband’) in CAFE (‘coffee shop’) + D (‘daughter’).
21. Husband admitting love for Italian wine (5)
SOAVE Envelope (‘admitting’) of O (zero, ‘love’) in SAVE (‘husband’; note the different function of the same word in the previous clue). Definition: the white wine from the Veneto region, not far from Verona.
25. Endless finance for entertainment (3)
FUN FUN[d] (‘finance’, verb, ‘endless’).

6 comments on “Everyman N° 3,380 (July 10)”

  1. Many thanks PeterO & Everyman

    I’d never heard of SKIDOO but I guessed it correctly and, even though I now do recall THE NAKED APE, it eluded me last week.

    Is my memory going?

    However, very enjoyable.

  2. I found this a bit harder than usual. 2d was especially well clued – I couldn’t see the definition (I couldn’t think beyond ‘sign of growth’). And I didn’t see ‘husband’ in 21d as anything other than an abbreviation. Many thanks for the explanation.

  3. Couldn’t finish this unaided.
    15a despite having lots of checking letters and knowing what the angram material was , I just couldn’t spot the answer.
    12d Ditto -some days they drop out and some they don’t.
    20a A nut being a fruit didn’t come to mind.
    21d I have no interest in wine so clues like this are goign to be hard especially as husband =save is not what springs to mind.
    Still all prefectly fair.

  4. Thanks, Peter. Sound and enjoyable as usual. I liked BACKCHAT because of the surface reading; also CAPRICORN and ACCLAMATION for their clever clueing.

  5. Thanks, PeterO. I finished it but needed explanations for 10a (I hadn’t thought of Military Police) and 8d (I didn’t know OP as an abbreviation for opposite number). As you say, rather unfortunate since the solution was implicitly in the clue.
    But a very enjoyable puzzle, thank you, Everyman.
    I liked 2d.

  6. Thanks PeterO for your excellent blog. I thought this was Everyman in top form and I was amused by C+LAMA = Catholic priest in 4d. I have ticked ten clues as being worthy of mention and from those I’ll select REDCAP (a very neat clue indeed), ROMEO AND JULIET (very apposite anagram), PREFER (nice surface) and CRACKS UP (another colourful image). Thanks Everyman.

    A quick note to Bamberger. A crossword is about solving clues irrespective of the answer. Just follow the wordplay and arrive at the answer, even if it’s a word you have never heard of.

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