Lorraine: Good morning to you all,
It is nice to be back and finally have the time to do my beloved Everyman.
I enjoyed this weeks puzzle immensely having not done it for several weeks. Thank you to Nick for stepping up and helping me out.
I found nothing too taxing and favourites as always are the anagrams.
Big thank you to Everyman as always.
Nick: A little update this week – certain solutions now have a small blue ‘i‘ along side as a link to information/dictionary search.
| Across | |||
| 1. | Dynamo in our wee shop malfunctioned (10) | ||
| POWERHOUSE | (OUR WEE SHOP)* | ||
| 6. | Luxurious hotel cut credit (4) | ||
| PLUS | PLUS(h) | ||
| 10. | Book finally abridged (5) | ||
| ATLAS | AT LAS(t) | ||
| 11. | Moved abroad, head of group settled in Abu Dhabi with daughter? (9) | ||
| EMIGRATED | (G in EMIRATE)+D | ||
| 12. | Run out of ideas, so planned tea dance doomed? (4,2,1,4,3) | ||
| COME TO A DEAD END | (TEA DANCE DOOMED)* | ||
| 14. | Is a poet on drugs? (7) | ||
| OPIATES | (IS A POET)* ‘on=drunk’ being the anagrind here |
||
| 15. | Good, boy’s looks (7) | ||
| GLANCES | G+LANCE’S | ||
| 17. | Lab gear inappropriate for this school subject (7) | ||
| ALGEBRA i | (LAB GEAR)* | ||
| 19. | Back where witch lived, she with no heart (7) | ||
| ENDORSE | (the witch of) ENDOR+S(h)E | ||
| 20. | Girl needs chopped apple to make a dessert (9,5) | ||
| CHARLOTTE RUSSE i | CHARLOTTE+RUSSE(t) | ||
| 23. | Well-organised firm – join (5-4) | ||
| TIGHT-KNIT | TIGHT+KNIT | ||
| 24. | One worn by sailor, a headdress (5) | ||
| TIARA | (I in TAR)+A | ||
| 25. | Take off before ten for summit (4) | ||
| APEX | APE+X as a side note, on the 100th anniversary of the crossword, APEX was a crossword pioneer |
||
| 26. | Our Greek primate on board pretended disdain (4,6) | ||
| SOUR GRAPES | (OUR+GR+APE) in SS | ||
| … Down |
|||
| 1. | Page on amateur stage production (4) | ||
| PLAY | P+LAY | ||
| 2. | Wife saying yes, rolling about in mud (9) | ||
| WALLOWING | W+ALLOWING | ||
| 3. | Admire skill and integrity (14) | ||
| RESPECTABILITY | RESPECT+ABILITY | ||
| 4. | Single over American finds difficult (7) | ||
| ONEROUS | ONER[single]+O[over]+US | ||
| 5. | Language used within confines of stag party (7) | ||
| SHINDIG i | HINDI in S(ta)G | ||
| 7. | Large Italian male, supple (5) | ||
| LITHE | L+IT+HE | ||
| 8. | Extra portions of food team ruins (4,6) | ||
| SIDE DISHES | SIDE+DISHES (from Collins Dictionary: (British, informal) to ruin or spoil => “he dished his chances of getting the job” |
||
| 9. | Ordinary study in B & B, say (5-3-6) | ||
| BREAD-AND-BUTTER | (READ in B+AND[&])+B+UTTER | ||
| 13. | Vacation so relaxing in Canadian province (4,6) | ||
| NOVA SCOTIA | (VACATION SO)* | ||
| 16. | I may not give you a fair deal (9) | ||
| CARDSHARP | cd | ||
| 18. | Against carrying on, old merchant of Venice (7) | ||
| ANTONIO i | (ANTI around ON)+O | ||
| 19. | One may make one cross, one picking team without leader (7) | ||
| ELECTOR | (s)ELECTOR nice misleading cryptic definition |
||
| 21. | A wild urge to contradict (5) | ||
| ARGUE | A+(URGE*) | ||
| 22. | Prince and son depicted by portrait painter (4) | ||
| HALS i | HAL(prince)+S | ||
A pleasant enough Sunday morning solve. I was held up at the end by CARDSHARP because I always think of it as two words, although post-solve I found that enough online dictionaries say both are acceptable. OPIATES was then my LOI because I hadn’t initially seen “on” as the anagrind, and I’m still not sure I like it.
Thanks Lorraine,
I really enjoyed this puzzle which had plenty of misdirection and great surfaces.
Favourites were PLUS, ATLAS, ENDORSE, WALLOWING, ELECTOR and ARGUE (so simple).
Thanks a lot Everyman.
Thanks Lorraine (and Everyman)
I have been puzzled all week about 1dn. I thought it had to be PLAY but couldn’t parse it, having failed to make the connection between “lay” and “amateur”. I’m still not entirely convinced as I always regarded “lay” as a liturgical word. Would a lay minister regard himself as an amateur? Well, I suppose he’s not a professional and could therefore be considered an amateur.
Time to stop drivelling on…
Thanks to Everyman and Lorraine.
Andy B@1, ‘on’ is in my Chambers Crossword Dictionary as an anagrind – I suppose in the sense of ‘I’m having you on.’
I particularly enjoyed ATLAS, OPIATES, SHINDIG and ELECTOR.
Robi #4,
Look up ‘ON’ in Chambers, and it lists ‘on the way to being drunk’. This is quite an old, but sly anagram indication used in setters now and then.
Nick
I found this unusually simple. Took about an hour. one interesting note in 19a, Endora was the name of Samantha’s mother in the TV show “Bewitched.” It doesn’t have anything to do with the wordplay. just struck me as funny.