Lorraine: Another enjoyable puzzle from Everyman, but alas I fear I am running out of ways to praise the Everyman puzzle, so why not have a go! As always a big thank you to Everyman and a massive thank you to all of you, the fifteensquarer’s.
| Across | |||
| 1. | Fail to avoid young lady (4) | ||
| MISS | dd | ||
| 3. | Mount unlikely check, about work of little value (3,4,3) | ||
| NOT MUCH COP | (MOUNT*)+CH+C+OP | ||
| 9. | Name one volatile gas (4) | ||
| NEON | N+(ONE*) | ||
| 10. | TV lawyer, character defending army suspect (5,5) | ||
| PERRY MASON | PERSON around (ARMY*) | ||
| 12. | Provider of childish amusement, card giving evidence? (4-2-3-3) | ||
| JACK-IN-THE-BOX | JACK+’IN THE BOX’ | ||
| 14. | Drink from trophy after Cambridge college lost at last (6,3) | ||
| CLARET CUP | CUP after (CLARE[college]+(los)T) | ||
| 16. | Fortunate? Very possibly (4) | ||
| WELL | cdd | ||
| 17. | Opposed to some in Constantinople (4) | ||
| ANTI | hidden: constANTInople | ||
| 18. | Volunteers to feed US artist’s fish (5,4) | ||
| MANTA RAYS | TA in MAN RAY’S see US Artist Man Ray |
||
| 20. | One eager to leave bang on time caught guard breaking into cupboard (5-7) | ||
| CLOCK-WATCHER | C+(WATCH in LOCKER) | ||
| 24. | Drudge recalled being beaten about at home (10) | ||
| CINDERELLA | (RECALLED*) around IN | ||
| 25. | First to recognise a French character (4) | ||
| RUNE | R(ecognise)+UNE[Fr. ‘a’\’an’] | ||
| 26. | Weak type, complete killjoy (3,7) | ||
| WET BLANKET | dd | ||
| 27. | Extremely clever? Yes, to some extent (4) | ||
| VERY | hidden: cleVER Yes | ||
| ……………………………… | |||
| Down | |||
| 1. | Leader of military junta shot head of charging animal (7) | ||
| MUNTJAC | M(ilitary)+(JUNTA*)+C(harging) | ||
| 2. | They provide traction, as shown in broadcast about foremost of cars (4,6) | ||
| SNOW CHAINS | (AS SHOWN IN*) around C(ars) | ||
| 4. | Clear above top of tower (5) | ||
| OVERT | OVER+T(ower) | ||
| 5. | One keeping score by enclosure with a felt-tip (6,3) | ||
| MARKER PEN | MARKER+PEN | ||
| 6. | Accepted the law needs changing in a protectorate (12) | ||
| COMMONWEALTH | COMMON[accepted]+(THE LAW*) | ||
| 7. | Mould in shed (4) | ||
| CAST | dd | ||
| 8. | Evergreen, over in glen, I pollarded (4) | ||
| PINE | hidden rev.: glEN, I Pollarded | ||
| 11. | The enemy is bound to take its toll? Wait and see (4,4,4) | ||
| TIME WILL TELL | TIME(cryptic pun ref. quote time is my enemy)+WILL TELL[is bound to take etc.] | ||
| 13. | Book desolate inn (5,5) | ||
| BLEAK HOUSE | BLEAK+HOUSE; A novel by Charles Dickens. | ||
| 15. | Tell all to move nearer fair (4,5) | ||
| COME CLEAN | COME+CLEAN[fair, as in ‘clean fight’] | ||
| 19. | Contemptible involving Church of England in witchcraft (7) | ||
| SORCERY | SORRY around CE | ||
| 21. | Reportedly distraught playwright (5) | ||
| WILDE | homophone: WILD | ||
| 22. | Broadcast about introduction of cigarette lighter (4) | ||
| SCOW | C(igarette) in SOW[broadcast] a flat-bottomed boat, hence lighter |
||
| 23. | A single person, out of condition, losing heart (4) | ||
| UNIT | UN(f)IT | ||
| … | |||
Thanks Lorraine, nice crossword as usual.
I solved 11d of course but I don’t understand the parsing: I get “time” and “will” but why “tell”?
I think you’ve forgotten the C (= about) in 3a.
This was an enjoyable puzzle which gave me a few chuckles. My favourites were CLOCK-WATCHER, SCOW, WELL, VERY, CINDERELLA.
New words for me were MUNTJAC, SCOW, NOT MUCH COP.
Thanks for the blog, Lorraine. I think there are two typos in the blog above. For 3a, NOT MUCH COP, you are short of one ‘C’. I parsed it as an anagram of MOUNT + CH (check, as in chess) + C (circa, about) + OP (work). And for 27a, the first ‘E’ should not be in bold type as your answer is VERY (not ‘every’).
crosser@1
Sorry, I took too long to type my post and you had already mentioned the missing C in 3a.
And now that you mention it, I also do not completely understand the parsing of 11d.
Many thanks Lorraine & Everyman – well not quite ‘every man’ just the very special one.
MUNTJAC was a new one for me and now I want one!
So, I’m now off to the New Forest and, hopefully, I can then also meet my favourite barmaid.
Thanks Everyman; I thought this was more difficult than normal.
Thanks Lorraine; in 11d ‘is bound to’= will, ‘take its toll’= tell in the sense of: ‘the strain was beginning to tell on him.’ Difficult but fair construction for CLOCK WATCHER – I thought the ‘bang on time’ was part of the wordplay.
I particularly liked MUNTJAC and SNOW CHAINS – broadcast often causes problems as an alternative homonym indicator.
I don’t get either of the alleged dd’s for WELL (although I suppose ‘I wish you well’ has a hint of fortune to it, but it’s not the right part of speech), and I don’t think ‘weak type’ is a definition of WET BLANKET. I got the answers, but the clues weren’t as good a usual I thought.
Thanks Lorraine. This was mostly smooth sailing but I left 16ac because I could not parse WELL. You have it as a cdd but even if it is a dd as John@6 implies I cannot see it. “Very” as a dfinition is fine, as in “well pleased”, but why the “possibly” and how is fortunate a d or cd?
And to John@6, I parsed 26ac as a charade. Wet = weak type and blanket = complete as in blanket coverage. Killjoy is the definition.
John @6, HKColin @7; I think this might be: fortunate in well-heeled, well-to-do, well off etc and ‘very possibly’ as in ‘you may well be right.’
Thanks Robi. That works for me.