Lorraine: Good morning to you all,
I dont know about you but I enjoyed this puzzle tremendously. Some of my favourites were, 4, 14, 17 and 24ac. 2, 5 and 19dn. I hope you all enjoyed it also.
Big thank you to Everyman for another fine puzzle.
| Across | |||
| 1. | Quick exercises after concert (6) | ||
| PROMPT | PT after PROM | ||
| 4. | Child’s play? (5,3) | ||
| PETER PAN | cd | ||
| 10. | Member blowing hard, trumpet player (9) | ||
| ARMSTRONG | ARM+STRONG | ||
| 11. | Behave badly at college after work (3,2) | ||
| ACT UP | UP after ACT | ||
| 12. | Children’s author and poet shortly to be given extremely excellent time (7) | ||
| BURNETT | BURN[s]+E[xcellen]T+T | ||
| 13. | Mimic one friend eating Italian (7) | ||
| IMITATE | I+(IT in MATE) | ||
| 14. | A careless seamstress may forget her train of thought? (4,3,6) | ||
| LOSE THE THREAD | cd | ||
| 17. | What a child may have to wear even on train (or coach)? (6,7) | ||
| SCHOOL UNIFORM | UNIFORM(even) after SCHOOL(coach) | ||
| 21. | In conflict with commander this month (7) | ||
| AGAINST | AGA(commander)+INST(this month) | ||
| 22. | Crow put him off? That’s about right (7) | ||
| TRIUMPH | (PUT HIM*) around R | ||
| 24. | Is it possible for a learner to navigate this? (5) | ||
| CANAL | CAN+A+L | ||
| 25. | Guns lay by sacks (3,6) | ||
| AIR RIFLES | AIR(lay, song)+RIFLES(sacks) | ||
| 26. | Average speed on way (8) | ||
| MODERATE | MODE(average)+RATE | ||
| 27. | Workmen’s tools left in crooked spire (6) | ||
| PLIERS | L in (SPIRE*) | ||
| Down | |||
| 1. | Work willingly with others in activity ahead of dance (4,4) | ||
| PLAY BALL | PLAY+BALL | ||
| 2. | Shell daughter removed from window (5) | ||
| ORMER | [d]ORMER | ||
| 3. | Cool case (7) | ||
| PATIENT | dd | ||
| 5. | Condiment game colonel put underneath tongue (7,7) | ||
| ENGLISH MUSTARD | (colonel in the game Cluedo©) after ENGLISH(language, i.e. [mother] tongue) | ||
| 6. | Inspect burst main feeding SW river (7) | ||
| EXAMINE | (MAIN*) in EXE | ||
| 7. | Drunken do up at pit ended (3,4,2) | ||
| PUT PAID TO | (DO UP AT PIT*) | ||
| 8. | Quietly he interrupts young relative (6) | ||
| NEPHEW | (P(quietly)+HE) in NEW(young) | ||
| 9. | Mainly intended to reach those people top star harassed (3,3,4,4) | ||
| FOR THE MOST PART | FOR THEM(those people)+(TOP STAR*) | ||
| 15. | Supported American coming in injured (9) | ||
| SUSTAINED | US in STAINED | ||
| 16. | Force when entering Tennessee port, leaderless (8) | ||
| EMPHASIS | AS(when) in [m]EMPHIS | ||
| 18. | Boxer’s second name’s King (7) | ||
| HANDLER | HANDLE+R definition here is ‘boxer’s second’, which could lead the solver to think of ‘O’ |
||
| 19. | First home, one with tail wagging (7) | ||
| INITIAL | IN+I+(TAIL*) | ||
| 20. | Powder copper put in malt extract (6) | ||
| TALCUM | CU in (MALT*) | ||
| 23. | Children’s author’s line seen in pit (5) | ||
| MILNE | L in MINE | ||
| ……………………………………. | |||
Thanks, Lorraine. After I’d solved 17a, I couldn’t account for “(or coach)”, which puzzled me a bit. Surely it’s redundant because “train” already does the job?
As a beginner-cum-improving solver I found this puzzle quite difficult, so it was especially satisfying when I eventually finished it. And like Lorraine, I enjoyed this puzzle tremendously.
My favourites were 12a, 26a, 2d and 16d.
I learnt two new words when solving 2d – dormer and ormer.
Last ones in were 18d and 21a. I had inserted ‘alarums’ as the answer to 21a (‘in conflict with’ but of course it was just a guess and I couldn’t parse it), and had all but given up on 18d. I think that often I get in a panic when certain sports are referred to in the clues, and so in this case I wrongly assumed that the answer was a famous boxer and I spent a lot of time on google looking for a boxer whose name starts with “H”. When I finally managed to read the clue correctly, it was much easier to solve ‘HANDLER’, and then I was able to correct 21a ‘alarums’ to ‘AGAINST’.
Regarding 5D, although I did put in ‘ENGLISH MUSTARD’, I could not parse the mustard part, so thanks for this blog, Lorraine. I enjoyed reading your detailed parsing of all the clues.
Thanks, Lorraine. The usual elegant and accessible stuff from Everyman here. PUT PAID TO and PLIERS were particularly good, I thought.
I too wondered for a moment or two about SCHOOL UNIFORM, crosser. The clue does work as it stands, but as you say, the ‘or coach’ part does seem redundant.
Thanks Lorraine, nice blog – just a slight slip: in 6d, *MAIN is in EXE, not after it 🙂
I think “(or coach)” serves to clarify the intention of the wordplay in 17ac, which might otherwise have been a little more obscure than is usual for an Everyman; it might have been added as an afterthought, to simplify.
OK, Stella, I’ll buy that. Thanks.
Failed on 4a. I thought Peter Pan was a book and not a play.
Lorraine
Thank you to everyone for all your comments.
I always look forward to reading them.