Lorraine: Good morning to you all.
Yet another fine crossword from Everyman, some wonderful clues this week I feel. Not happy with 17ac, as not using punctuation always throws me. I know it is considered okay in crossword land but I don’t like it. Favourites this week are, 11, 14,22 and 25ac. 1, 2, 5, 6, 16 and 19dn.
Thank you Everyman for another fine puzzle even though 17ac had me baffled for some considerable time. 🙂
| Across | |||
| 1. | Grounds for action involving large section of will (6) | ||
| CLAUSE | CAUSE around L | ||
| 4. | Behind everyone, in spite of everything (5,3) | ||
| AFTER ALL | AFTER+ALL | ||
| 10. | One holds a chair for female with nasty sores (9) | ||
| PROFESSOR | PRO[for]+F+(SORES*) | ||
| 11. | Clergyman overlooking original crime (5) | ||
| ARSON | (p)ARSON | ||
| 12. | Sad being around eastern port (7) | ||
| TRIESTE | TRISTE[sad] around E a port in NE Italy |
||
| 13. | Baseball score in series (4,3) | ||
| HOME RUN | HOME[in]+RUN[series] | ||
| 14. | Drink in Wild West hostel – wine? (3,4,7) | ||
| WET ONES WHISTLE | (WEST HOSTEL – WINE)* | ||
| 17. | Maiden secured by one fairly good ball – never mind the others (2,3,5,4) | ||
| IM ALL RIGHT JACK | (M in (I+ALL RIGHT))+JACK[ball in bowls] | ||
| 21. | Possible reason attempt to secure TT is dashed? (3,4) | ||
| PIT STOP | (TT IS*) in POP[attempt] &lit | ||
| 22. | Newspaper on Jura cut by pound? (7) | ||
| JOURNAL | (ON JURA*)+L | ||
| 24. | Mechanical man, British in origin (5) | ||
| ROBOT | B in ROOT | ||
| 25. | New arrival’s special art – miming (9) | ||
| IMMIGRANT | (ART – MIMING)* | ||
| 26. | Event for rider in period costume, primarily (8) | ||
| DRESSAGE | DRESS[costume] before AGE[period] | ||
| 27. | Likely lad after rum (4-2) | ||
| ODDS-ON | SON after ODD | ||
| … Down |
|||
| 1. | We can opt for a change in South African city (4,4) | ||
| CAPE TOWN | (WE CAN OPT)* | ||
| 2. | Dressing made from first-rate cooking oil (5) | ||
| AIOLI | AI+(OIL*) | ||
| 3. | Hat put back on after end of prayers (7) | ||
| STETSON | STET[restore, put back]+(ON after (prayer)S) | ||
| 5. | About to be reprimanded because of article on field event (3,3,4,4) | ||
| FOR THE HIGH JUMP | FOR[because of]+THE+HIGH JUMP | ||
| 6. | Dutch scholar helping to make operas, musicals . . . (7) | ||
| ERASMUS | hidden: opERAS, MUSicals | ||
| 7. | Film of a lake in European country (9) | ||
| AUSTRALIA | (A+L) in AUSTRIA the definition here is the film Australia, not country |
||
| 8. | Inlay in poplin in garment (6) | ||
| LINING | hidden: popLIN IN Garment | ||
| 9. | Commercial practice has topless group dancing exotically? (5-9) | ||
| ASSET-STRIPPING | (h)AS+SET+STRIPPING | ||
| 15. | Programme I came across in desk (9) | ||
| TIMETABLE | (I MET) in TABLE | ||
| 16. | Bones from Wounded Knee? Lots (8) | ||
| SKELETON | (KNEE LOTS) | ||
| 18. | Untruths about toddler? That could be an understatement (7) | ||
| LITOTES | LIES around TOT | ||
| 19. | After short time, Dickens character, duke, plodded wearily (7) | ||
| TRUDGED | T+(barnaby)RUDGE+D | ||
| 20. | Let off extra duties, initially (6) | ||
| SPARED | SPARE+D(uties) | ||
| 23. | Approaches mean head of syndicate (5) | ||
| NEARS | NEAR(stingy, mean]+S(yndicate) | ||
| … | |||
I’d be grateful for enlightenment on 21a which was my last in.
Why is a possible reason a pit stop? Thanks
Bamberger@1
I would say this is a semi-&lit clue.
&lit is short for “and literally so”.
In a semi&lit clue the whole of the clue acts as the definition and part of the clue provides the wordplay.
In this case the wordplay is “attempt to secure TT is dashed”. The whole clue is a cryptic definition, implying that a pit stop was the reason someone failed to win the TT race.
A fully &lit clue would have the whole clue acting as wordplay and as definition, although it seems people argue a bit about this…
Thanks Muffyword that is a very clear explanation
This was an enjoyable puzzle by Everyman. My favourites were AFTER ALL & I’M ALL RIGHT JACK.
LITOTES was a new word and FOR THE HIGH JUMP was a new phrase for me.
Thanks for the blog, Lorraine. I appreciated your parsing of 21a and 9d which I now realise I hadn’t parsed.
Good entertaining crossword.
Thanks Lorraine; I wasn’t concerned about I’M ALL RIGHT JACK – the cluing seemed accurate to me, and what’s an apostrophe between friends. 🙂
I see that my Thesaurus gives: ‘she’s too near to spend that much money,’ but I’ve never heard ‘near’ used in that way. Is it a dialect thing? 9 had me trying for a topless group for a while until I realised it was the ‘has’ that was topless – nice clue. The PROFESSOR='(for)female with nasty sores’ conjured up a rather unpleasant image that was slightly humorous.