Lorraine: Good morning. Another lovely solve from Everyman this week.
Favourites were, 1, 9, 14, 16, 22 and 23ac, 8, 13 and 10dn. I struggled quite a bit this week until I realised that I had put 23ac in at the end of 20ac, Doh. I am always doing stupid things like that, too eager to put them in I suppose.
Big thank you to Everyman as always.
| Across | |||
| 1. | Follow, behind stage, a pet (6) | ||
| LAPDOG | DOG after LAP can’t work out the ‘stage’ equals ‘lap’ here, unless Everyman was thinking of part of a race, but that is a bit tenuous |
||
| 4. | Setback could make naval captain tense (6) | ||
| BLIGHT | [captain]BLIGH+T | ||
| 9. | What tireless seamstresses do, reportedly, for whatsit (2-3-2) | ||
| SO-AND-SO | homophone: SEW and SEW | ||
| 10. | Agreed to move simultaneously (2,3,2) | ||
| AT ONE GO | (AT ONE)+GO | ||
| 11. | Electoral system providing veto, by implication? (11,4) | ||
| ALTERNATIVE VOTE | pun that VETO is an anagram(alternative) to VOTE | ||
| 12. | Girl given carbon copy (5) | ||
| MIMIC | MIMI+C | ||
| 14. | Overworked journalist examined around noon (9) | ||
| HACKNEYED | (HACK+EYED) around N | ||
| 16. | Oarsman in races representing republic (3,6) | ||
| SAN MARINO | (OARSMAN+IN)* | ||
| 18. | Having a pleasant taste, sauce as written about (5) | ||
| SAPID | (DIP+AS)< | ||
| 20. | Serving only favoured customers further down the bar (5-3-7) | ||
| UNDER-THE-COUNTER | UNDER+THE+COUNTER | ||
| 22. | Relatives in Mexico, US insurgents (7) | ||
| COUSINS | hidden: mexiCO, US INSurgents | ||
| 23. | Thicken soup in cookhouse (7) | ||
| KITCHEN | (THICKEN)* | ||
| 24. | Land close to shore, say (6) | ||
| ESTATE | (shor)E+STATE | ||
| 25. | Scoundrel with gag (6) | ||
| WRETCH | W+RETCH | ||
| ……………………………………. Down |
|||
| 1. | Young woman touring tourist centre and port in the Canary Islands (3,6) | ||
| LAS PALMAS | LASS around PALMA | ||
| 2. | Bit of humbug in Xmas show, on top of Marley’s ghost! (7) | ||
| PHANTOM | (H(umbug) in PANTO)+M(artley) | ||
| 3. | Instruct class (5) | ||
| ORDER | dd | ||
| 5. | Free tips, details yet to be explained (5,4) | ||
| LOOSE ENDS | LOOSE+ENDS | ||
| 6. | Beginning to grieve about bloodstained boy (7) | ||
| GREGORY | G(rieve)+RE+GORY | ||
| 7. | Character eating British steak (1-4) | ||
| T-BONE | TONE around B | ||
| 8. | Has long struggles involving number from a range of hills (5,7) | ||
| GOLAN HEIGHTS | EIGHT in (HAS LONG*) | ||
| 10. | What one may eat at a birthday party or a picnic? (1,5,2,4) | ||
| A PIECE OF CAKE | sort of cd: ‘a picnic’ = ‘piece of cake’ = ‘easy’ | ||
| 13. | Something for the upwardly mobile in St Moritz, perhaps? (9) | ||
| CHAIRLIFT | cd | ||
| 15. | Crude hand employed in US holiday centre (4,5) | ||
| DUDE RANCH | (CRUDE HAND)* I only knew this as my Parents visited one whilst on holiday in the USA once |
||
| 17. | Almost certainly agree on bout being fixed (2,5) | ||
| NO DOUBT | NOD+(BOUT*) | ||
| 19. | Critical remark made on finding earthenware vessel with crack (3,4) | ||
| POT SHOT | POT+SHOT(as in have a shot/crack) | ||
| 20. | Pawnbroker having soiled article taken away (5) | ||
| UNCLE | UNCLE(an) | ||
| 21. | Dairy product with lid removed, say (5) | ||
| UTTER | (b)UTTER | ||
| … | |||
Even with e?t?t? and ?r?t?h I couldn’t get 24 & 25a. Pity as I’d had no hold ups elsewhere.
I enjoyed this puzzle. I particularly liked 2d, 6d, 7d, 4a.
New words for me were DUDE RANCH, SAPID, LAS PALMAS, UNCLE = ‘pawnbroker’.
Thanks Everyman and Lorraine. I was fine with stage = lap, as in “the last lap/stage of the race”.
Thanks L & E,
Very entertaining puzzle as ever. Clue of the day has to be “Thicken soup in cookhouse”. Brilliantly simple.
Good Everyman; I had to check SAPID and didn’t know DUDE RANCH.
Thanks Lorraine; I particularly liked KITCHEN and PHANTOM.
Hi Davy, @3
This clue has come up several times and I saw it straight away. I think it is a bit of an old favourites with setters?
Thanks for the comments everyone.
I entered SIPID at 18a. Couldn’t understand the wordplay but after looking up that the word existed I assumed it must be right. Bah.