Everyman crossword No 3,388

by

I found this on the easy side for Everyman, but no less a pleasure to solve, and with at least one unfamiliar usage.

Across
1. Pudding poorly cooked – extremely lumpy (4-4)
ROLY POLY *POORLY + LumpY
5. King declared war – disastrously? Not entirely (6)
EDWARD Hidden in “declarED WAR Disastrously”,  is the name of seven or eight English kings, to date.
9. First of players to drive, having honour (5)
PRIDE P, 1st letter of “players”, + RIDE
10. Queen’s lodged in Venice, surprisingly, from then till now (4,5)
EVER SINCE ER’S in *VENICE
12. Crazy about a dance popular in the 1960s (5,3,5)
ROUND THE TWIST ROUND = “about”, + THE TWIST
14. Hairstyle popular in Utah? (7)
BEEHIVE Definition and cryptic definition, the first referring to a style favoured my the late, great Amy Winehouse, and the second to the state’s nickname.
16. Severe south wind close to coastline (7)
AUSTERE AUSTER, the Latin personification of the South Wind, + “coastlinE”
17. A rugby player, very large by the way (7)
APROPOS A + PROP + OS
19. Hors d’oeuvre with portion of bread, and sponge to follow (7)
ROLLMOP ROLL + MOP, for a pickled herring preparation.
21. Comedian in lace factory I scold constantly? On the contrary (5,8)
SPIKE MILLIGAN SPIKE (a drink, = “lace”) + MILL + I + <NAG
24. Female figure in Rabat in assassination (9)
BRITANNIA *IN RABAT IN – anagrind:“assassination”
25. Pole maiden has to carry at the front (5)
TOTEM M(aiden) after TOTE
26. Soccer team finding time for a drink? (6)
ELEVEN Double definition, the second one refers to “elevenses”
27. Drum major’s beginning to get in my punt – a lunatic (8)
TYMPANUM M(ajor) in *MY PUNT A, for the scientific name of the eardrum
Down
1. Murdoch to produce a comic strip? (6,4)
RUPERT BEAR RUPERT, the media mogul, + BEAR, a child or fruit, ie. “produce”. At first I thought of author Iris. Just as well I left it till I had a few crossing letters.
2. The Parisian one certainly provides relaxation (7)
LEISURE LE + 1 + SURE
3. Quietly go ahead and claim (5)
PLEAD P + LEAD
4. Country line, the nicest possibly (13)
LIECHTENSTEIN *LINE THE NICEST. I always doubt the spelling here, despite having studied German at school. Fortunately the crossing letters made it impossible to go wrong.
6. Ring about Society girl’s notice (9)
DISMISSAL DIAL around S + MISS
7. Sounds like a catch for a girl (7)
ANNETTE sounds like “A NET”
8. A legal document, whichever way you look at it (4)
DEED A palindrome
11. Remarkable run on old bicycle (13)
EXTRAORDINARY EXTRA (run) + ORDINARY. I’d never met this name for a penny-farthing:
13. Holding on to old lady not saying a word (7,3)
KEEPING MUM Double definition
15. Elected soldier behind closed doors (2,7)
IN PRIVATE IN + PRIVATE
18. Rest of English giving support to turbulent priest (7)
RESPITE E after *PRIEST. A curious misdirection towards Thomas à Becket 🙂
20. Unit of explosive power – got name wrong (7)
MEGATON *NAME GOT
22. 18? Could get grant at university (3-2)
LET UP LET =”grant” + UP
23. All there over in Kinmel Bay (4)
ABLE Hidden reversed in KinmEL BAy

8 comments on “Everyman crossword No 3,388”

  1. Thanks Stella. Another gentle ramble from Everyman although, like you, I had not heard of an ORDINARY before. That sort of clue gets the fingers working on references. But I am a little puzzled by your comment on Thomas a Becket. I didn’t take that from it at all, although I thought of him when I saw the turbulent bit. Then I found I didn’t need him as it worked fine.

    Actually, none of the clues seemed to particularly stand out. But it was a nice time-filler.

  2. Thanks for the blog.
    I hadn’t heard of auster for the south wind or ordinary.
    Had to check the spelling of lictenstein/leichenstein before putting it in.Only one gripe -26a I had always taken elevens to be a snack-say an apple or kit kat and not merely a drink.

  3. Hi Stella

    Thanks for the blog. Quite a pleasant and straightforward offering from Everyman. 27ac ‘tympanum’ is simply defined by drum I think – hence the tympani section of the classical orchestra. The eardrum reference is correct but unnecessary I think.

    Does Everyman have a thing about mental illness I wonder? In the past month he has offered ‘nutcase’ (twice!) as a solution; this time we have ’round the twist’.

  4. Thanks all for your comments.

    At 18ac, with the reference to Henry II’s supposed outburst which provoked the murder in the cathedral, I imagined the rest of the country, as opposed to the Plantagenet king, being in favour of the priest – probably not historical 😉

    I too had my doubts about 26ac, but I was actually thinking of tea-break in the work-place, which is usually around 11.00, I believe.

    According to Wiki, the kettle-drum section of the orchestra is the “timpani”, with an “i”, presumably from the Italian. The first acception for “tympanum” are architectural and anatomical. I didn’t check this at the time, and indeed consider the instrument, but couldn’t remember it actually being called so.

  6. Many thanks, Stella, especially for explaining the ORDINARY bit of EXTRAORDINARY. I too took tympanum simply as a musical drum. Although it’s obvious, just to add that in 22dn the reference to ’18’ is to 18dn, where RESPITE is the definition of LET-UP. Usual pleasing puzzle from Everyman, with ROLY-POLY taking me back to school dinner days.

    Btw, I was, in a slightly perverse way, pleased to see your comment about LIECHTENSTEIN. I’d consider myself good at spelling, but this – together with MASSACHUSETTS – is a complete blind spot every time I have to write down the word. Pub quiz trivia: the national anthem of Liechtenstein – Oben am jungen Rhein – is sung to the same tune as God Save the Queen.

  7. Thanks Stella,

    An entertaining offering from Everyman and it’s nice to see Spike getting a mention. I would love to see his Q series again but it will never happen.

    Favourite clues were ROLY POLY (liked ‘poorly cooked’), APROPOS (very good surface), RUPERT BEAR (wasn’t NOTW largely a comic ?) and DISMISSAL.

    Thanks Everyman.

  8. Dead easy. 15 minutes is about as good as things get for me with a cryptic puzzle. Didn’t know the beehive state reference.

Comments are closed.