Nick: Me again this week folks,
…as Lorraine has gone camping at Blissfields music festival with her friends.
Typical Everyman, with some nice clues. I didn’t have the foggiest about 7dn, but an inspired guess at ‘O Sole’ and googling revealed the song.
| Across | |||
| 1. | Hero of poem (Will’s second) Hathaway, mostly, edited (8) | ||
| HIAWATHA | ((w)I(ll)+HATHAWA(y))* | ||
| 5. | Start series of 20 games poorly (3,3) | ||
| SET OFF | SET(ref. 20dn tennis)+OFF | ||
| 9. | Fish can do on lines (4,4) | ||
| JOHN DORY | JOHN(toilet, can)+DO+RY(lines, railway) | ||
| 10. | Short article on what sounds like unlawful crowd (6) | ||
| THRONG | TH(e)+homophone WRONG | ||
| 11. | Tight finish (5) | ||
| CLOSE | dd | ||
| 12. | It shows what’s to be sung then – my composition about the woman (4,5) | ||
| HYMN SHEET | (THEN MY*) around SHE | ||
| 14. | Cold counter containing cod? (11) | ||
| STANDOFFISH | pun on STAND OF FISH | ||
| 18. | US state: join copper going through it (11) | ||
| CONNECTICUT | CONNECT+(CU in IT) | ||
| 21. | American bandleader’s open-air restaurant (9) | ||
| TEAGARDEN | dd | ||
| 23. | To rub out is simplicity once end of rubber’s held (5) | ||
| ERASE | (rubbe)R in EASE | ||
| 24. | Draw French artist framing original for gallery (6) | ||
| MAGNET | MANET around G(allery) | ||
| 25. | Target in range on circling island (8) | ||
| AMBITION | (AMBIT+ON) around I | ||
| 26. | Par got by an Australian golfer (6) | ||
| NORMAN | NORM+AN | ||
| 27. | What can make lemon melon and peach cheap? (8) | ||
| ANAGRAMS | punning clue | ||
| … Down |
|||
| 1. | Commandeer hospital, one overlooking London, say (6) | ||
| HIJACK | H+I+JACK(london, author) | ||
| 2. | Choreographer has unfortunately not returned (6) | ||
| ASHTON | (HAS*)+(NOT<) | ||
| 3. | Intended recipient of letter to speak to key European (9 | ||
| ADDRESSEE | ADDRESS+E(key)+E | ||
| 4. | Unfeeling, like Hannah or Ethel? (4-7) | ||
| HARD-HEARTED | ref. the song ‘hard hearted hannah’ and a pun that H(hard) is the ‘heart’ of ethel | ||
| 6. | Distinctive character of Harriet Hosmer (5) | ||
| ETHOS | hidden: harriET HOSmer | ||
| 7. | Only note in old old song (1,4,3) | ||
| O SOLE MIO | (SOLE+MI) in O+O | ||
| 8. | Avoid argument with cast (5,3) | ||
| FIGHT SHY | FIGHT+SHY(cast) | ||
| 13. | Magician in Florentine banking family – note title brought up (8,3) | ||
| MEDICINE MAN | MEDICI+N+(NAME<) | ||
| 15. | Creating large male band (9) | ||
| FATHERING | FAT+HE+RING | ||
| 16. | Northerner once seen flying along the track? (8) | ||
| SCOTSMAN | cd ref. the ‘flying’ steam train | ||
| 17. | Threaten to close, wind up (8) | ||
| ENDANGER | END+ANGER | ||
| 19. | Airman out of place in yacht station (6) | ||
| MARINA | (AIRMAN)* | ||
| 20. | Evil trap set up for game (6) | ||
| TENNIS | (SIN+NET)< | ||
| 22. | Ring any number in region (5) | ||
| ARENA | N in AREA | ||
| … | |||
I enjoyed this puzzle. I liked 13d, 2d & 10a and my favourites were 7d O SOLE MIO, 9a JOHN DORY, 14a STANDOFFISH &15d FATHERING (last in).
Thanks for the blog, Nick. I needed your help to parse 4d.
Thanks for explanation of 4d -never heard of that song.
21a I only got because I’d seen it before -is a tea garden really a restaurant as opposed to a cafe/snack bar?
I found this slightly harder than the usual Everyman. The NW corner was where I had a little difficulty. I had never heard of “Hard-Hearted Hannah” either, so 4dn only went in once I had the checker from JOHN DORY, which had only fallen into place once I had solved HIJACK. JOHN DORY also gave me ASHTON from the wordplay, although I had never heard of Sir Frederick Ashton, and CLOSE was my LOI.
Another excellent crossword.
The only one that defeated me was 25A.