Lorraine & Nick: Nick this week folks,
Lorraine’s new job involves 12 hours a day (now the summer is here), so she didn’t get the time (also too tired) to do the puzzle this week, so I took over (squeezing in the decorating where I could).
Typical Everyman, pure clean clueing (or is that cluiing?) and some nice cryptic misdirects – 17dn is strange though, and 2dn I am not sure?
| Across | |||
| 1. | Lead astray a group of apprentices (6) | ||
| ENTICE | hidden: apprENTICEs | ||
| 4. | Astuteness shown by a copper confronting workers (6) | ||
| ACUMEN | A+CU+MEN | ||
| 8. | US state capital, a leader in trade pact (9) | ||
| CONCORDAT | CONCORD+A+T(rade) | ||
| 11. | A quarrel about right marker (5) | ||
| ARROW | (A ROW) around R | ||
| 12. | Jam in cupboard (5) | ||
| PRESS | dd press is also another name for a cupboard – I have never heard of it! |
||
| 13. | Inspirational winning fling? It could be (9) | ||
| UPLIFTING | cryptic pun… | ||
| 14. | In which Olympic medals may be won, whatever happens? (2,3,6) | ||
| AT ALL EVENTS | …another cryptic pun… | ||
| 16. | First-hand account of life behind bars? (6,5) | ||
| INSIDE STORY | …and another cryptic pun | ||
| 19. | Second in command, without feeling, wrote cruelly (6,3) | ||
| NUMBER TWO | NUMB+(WROTE*) | ||
| 21. | Picture that is put in supplement? Just the opposite (5) | ||
| IMAGE | MAG in I.E. – the opposite of I.E. in MAG | ||
| 23. | Priest may be caught out soon (5) | ||
| CANON | C+ANON | ||
| 24. | Mix up inn and cheap cafe (4,5) | ||
| HASH HOUSE | HASH+HOUSE | ||
| 25. | Conservationists, aboard mystery tour, set about a task (4,2) | ||
| TURN TO | NT(nation trust) in (TOUR*) | ||
| 26. | Shelter made from loose stones, indefinite number (6) | ||
| SCREEN | SCREE+N | ||
| … Down |
|||
| 1. | Flee European scene (6) | ||
| ESCAPE | E+SCAPE | ||
| 2. | Not relaxed in past, say (5) | ||
| TENSE | not sure here – pun on ‘past tense’? | ||
| 3. | Brass score incompletely orchestrated in parts of cycles (9) | ||
| CROSSBARS | (BRASS SCOR(e))* | ||
| 5. | Tease husband inside snack bar (5) | ||
| CHAFF | H in CAFF Eastenders rings a bell 🙂 |
||
| 6. | Singer-songwriter is merry, and so sad (9) | ||
| MORRISSEY | (IS MERRY+SO)* – an &lit I would say | ||
| 7. | Recently developed mature philosophy (3,3) | ||
| NEW AGE | NEW+AGE | ||
| 9. | Gibberish from one’s wife after large drink (6,5) | ||
| DOUBLE DUTCH | DUTCH after DOUBLE | ||
| 10. | Novelist is wrong about English sets (11) | ||
| TELEVISIONS | (NOVELIST IS*) around E | ||
| 14. | Historical land in area is Roman, I suspect (4,5) | ||
| ASIA MINOR | A+(IS ROMAN, I*) | ||
| 15. | One hilt, I fancy, comes initially from Skara Brae? (9) | ||
| NEOLITHIC | (ONE HILT, I*)+C(omes) | ||
| 17. | Tracked vehicle kept in grounds – no Caterpillar (3-3) | ||
| SNO-CAT | hidden: groundS – NO CATerpillar strange clue, as a ‘sno-cat’ is slang for ‘snow caterpillar’ |
||
| 18. | Mostly dangerous northern river (6) | ||
| SEVERN | SEVER(e)+N | ||
| 20. | German artist, long ago, small number collected (5) | ||
| ERNST | ERST around N | ||
| 22. | Entertain a goddess (5) | ||
| AMUSE | A+MUSE | ||
| … | |||
Thanks Nick, poor Lorraine, my sympathies.
Sno-Cat is a registered trademark so no association with the Caterpillar company. I think it’s rather good.
‘Past’ is an example of a tense. The ‘say’ makes it ok I think.
Enjoyable puzzle. I liked 10d, 16a, 19a, 25a (last in).
New words for me were CONCORDAT, HASH HOUSE.
I parsed 13a as UP (winning) + anagram of FLING IT, and 14a as a dd 1/ at which Olympic medals may be won, and 2/ whatever happens, in any case. For 2d, I also parsed it as a dd of 1/ not relaxed, and 2/ past tense.
Thanks for the blog, Nick.
Thanks for standing in, Nick. A choice between decorating and doing a puzzle would be no choice at all in this household …
HASH HOUSE was new to me as well, and I didn’t realise that ERST was a word by itself – I’d only come across it in ERSTWHILE. I liked CANON for its surface.
2dn is indeed as sidey and michelle have indicated.
The past, the present and the future walked into a bar. It was tense.
I’ll get me coat.
I found this a bit of a struggle. I thought the grid was pretty ugly.
Thanks Nick; one or two negatives – press=cupboard is pretty obscure, I think. As far as I can see, inn=HOUSE is when it is used as a verb, which is archaic. HASH HOUSE is US slang, and does not seem to be in Chambers, although it is in Collins. I thought 5d could have been ‘chafe’ at first, although it doesn’t fit particularly well with the definition.
I did like IMAGE and NUMBER TWO.
Robi #4:
I use Bradford’s a lot, and that includes (one word though) hashhouse under ‘cafe’; it also lists cupboard under ‘press’ (which I guessed was a double def. anyway, and confirmed in Chambers).
As to inn=house, I never gave a second thought being a pub goer all my life.
BTW, Bradford’s Crossword Dictionary is a must get for any crossword lover.
Lastly, reference Collins, I read somewhere that the Guardian does use the Collins dictionary over Chambers. Perhaps somebody could confirm this?
Nick
Nick @5; I don’t think the Guardian uses Collins in preference to Chambers. Words in either are usually regarded as fair game, I think, although Chambers seems to be the pre-eminent one as far as I know.
Yes, I have been known to frequent public houses, but I wouldn’t think of calling a house an inn.
P.S. I would also recommend Chambers Crossword Dictionary, although it doesn’t list HASH HOUSE under café.
I bought the CCD for my Kobo last month using the book tokens I won from Azed, and just done a search in the whole book – it doesn’t list ‘hash house’ anywhere, but then again I guess that is expected as if Chambers doesn’t have it, then the compiled lists from it wouldn’t either!
Nick
Thanks for the blog, Nick.
Another neat puzzle from Everyman.
Yet, in my notes I put a question mark to 23ac (CANON).
According to (all) the reference books I have C may stand for ‘caught’ or ‘caught by’ but I couldn’t find ‘caught out’.
Therefore, I do not really understand the word ‘out’ in this clue.
Any idea?
Sil, again something I didn’t even think about as it was obvious to me ~ but you are right.
Being English, ‘caught’ in cricket is caught by, caught out, etc.
But…. thinking… ‘caught out’ also means ‘stumped’, and to add more mystery Chambers doesn’t list that either!
So I dunno.
Nick
Sil and Nick
You are right, the ‘out’ in the clue for CANON is redundant, but I must say I didn’t give it a second thought when solving. The abbreviation in the scorebook is C. Sil c Nick b Kathryn 2. But ‘he was caught’ and ‘he was caught out’ are interchangeable. So I dunno either.
It may be redundant, it may not be, but it sure as hell helps with the (very amusing, and very topical) surface.