Lorraine: Good morning to you all,
nice non-taxing puzzle this week, no particular favourites, just a nice well rounded solve.
Thank you Everyman as always.
| Across | |||
| 1. | Excellent English poet capturing hearts (8) | ||
| CHAMPION | H in (thomas)CAMPION | ||
| 5. | Order to strike – caught leaving at top speed (3,3) | ||
| ALL OUT | (c)ALL OUT | ||
| 10. | Left river, in past, slowly (5) | ||
| LARGO | L+(R in AGO) | ||
| 11. | Pleased, having stumped one former PM (9) | ||
| GLADSTONE | GLAD+ST(umped)+ONE | ||
| 12. | Bird article written in pencil, unwisely (7) | ||
| PELICAN | A in (PENCIL*) | ||
| 13. | See crushed ice does (7) | ||
| DIOCESE | (ICE DOES)* | ||
| 14. | Book different course, following Heath, perhaps (8,6) | ||
| ROBINSON CRUSOE | (heath)ROBINSON+(COURSE*) | ||
| 18. | Mixed up metal dealer with war poet (6,2,2,4) | ||
| WALTER DE LA MARE | (METAL DEALER… WAR)* | ||
| 20. | Theatre role about Kit Carson, for example (7) | ||
| TRAPPER | (REP+PART<) | ||
| 23. | Shakespearean actor, one in musical (7) | ||
| OLIVIER | I in OLIVER | ||
| 24. | Mean male, an intermediary (9) | ||
| MIDDLEMAN | MIDDLE+MAN | ||
| 25. | Old-fashioned old man penning note (5) | ||
| DATED | DAD around TE | ||
| 26. | Fish seen round mouth of river? It’s a wonder (6) | ||
| RARITY | RAY around (R+IT) | ||
| 27. | See it run off, hungry (8) | ||
| ESURIENT | (SEE IT RUN)* | ||
| Down | |||
| 1. | Check across a border for a religious leader (6) | ||
| CALIPH | CH(check, in chess) around (A LIP) | ||
| 2. | Sadly I fall, poor hoax victim (5,4) | ||
| APRIL FOOL | (I FALL, POOR)* | ||
| 3. | Exile for writer (9) | ||
| PROSCRIBE | PRO+SCRIBE | ||
| 4. | Imagine records involved the Mafia? (9,5) | ||
| ORGANISED CRIME | (IMAGINE RECORDS)* | ||
| 6. | Catch girl with nothing on (5) | ||
| LASSO | LASS+O | ||
| 7. | Ring precinct for gas (5) | ||
| OZONE | O+ZONE | ||
| 8. | Temperate? Not half, before daughter wavered (8) | ||
| TEETERED | TEET(otal)+ERE(before)+D | ||
| 9. | Main directions given by all the bridge players? (8,6) | ||
| CARDINAL POINTS | cd N, S, E, W | ||
| 15. | Jogger grabbing a rest (9) | ||
| REMAINDER | REMINDER around A | ||
| 16. | Struggle in Queer Street? This may give you some protection (9) | ||
| SERVIETTE | VIE in (STREET*) | ||
| 17. | Pair watch for unfaithful type (3-5) | ||
| TWO-TIMER | TWO+TIMER | ||
| 19. | Extremely clever to reword trust (6) | ||
| CREDIT | C(leve)R+EDIT | ||
| 21. | Run to avoid large snake (5) | ||
| ADDER | (l)ADDER | ||
| 22. | Guide the Italian aboard vessel (5) | ||
| PILOT | IL in POT | ||
| … | |||
Pleasant solve.
Thanks Lorraine for the nice blog. Good imagine records/ORGANISED CRIME anagram. I liked ROBINSON CRUSOE and TEETERED.
Re TEETERED – I bodged it together from the letters TEETER being not half the letters of TEmpERaTE. Your parsing is much nicer.
Many thanks, Lorraine, for the blog.
Yes, all good stuff from Everyman. Like Robi, I liked the ORGANISED CRIME and ROBINSON CRUSOE clues. CHAMPION does mean ‘excellent’, but I fancy it’s regional: it’s certainly common in my native North-East, but I’m not sure I’ve heard it much outside there.
And 12ac was very topical, because I went out for a pelican curry with my mates last night. It was delicious, but the bill was enormous.
I’ll get me coat …
Thanks Lorraine,
Yes, another very enjoyable puzzle from Everyman. It may be on the easier side but is usually the most entertaining.
As well as previously mentioned, I particularly liked REMAINDER, SERVIETTE (loved Queer Street) and ADDER (wonderful surface).
Thanks KD for letting me know how expensive pelican curries are…
… great joke by the way, it certainly gave me a good laugh.
Thanks Everyman.
I failed on 8d and 20a. I assumed Kit Carson was some of Western character. Unless you google , how does he cross your radar?
Liked the joke KD
Thank you, Everyman and Lorraine! I was able to get 8 Down from the crossing letters and straight definition but I couldn’t account for TEET. Like John, I used the letters in “temperate.” At 27 Across, I knew the answer was an anagram of “see it run” which meant “hungry,” but had to check Chambers Crossword Dictionary for the answer. “Esurient” is a new word to me, but I’m now quite sure that Kathryn’s Dad must have been feeling extremely esurient to eat pelican curry! Cute joke!