Lorraine: Good morning to you all,
Very good smooth crossword this week with lovely cluing. I sometimes look too deeply into the clues and miss the bleedin’ obvious, which is what I did with a couple of clues this week, Doh.
No personal favourites this week as I enjoyed every single clue.
Big thank you to Everyman.
| Across | |||
| 1. | Check opening for caretaker (7) | ||
| STOPGAP | STOP+GAP | ||
| 5. | Groom leader of Hispanic American group (7) | ||
| HUSBAND | H(ispanic)+US+BAND | ||
| 9. | Deposit for gatehouse (5) | ||
| LODGE i | dd | ||
| 10. | Right one developing small firearms (9) | ||
| REVOLVERS | R+EVOLVER+S | ||
| 11. | Simultaneously, however (2,3,4,4) | ||
| AT THE SAME TIME | cdd | ||
| 13. | Sound coming from car with disc on (5) | ||
| AUDIO | AUDI+O[disc] | ||
| 14. | In doubt, new curate about new home (9) | ||
| UNCERTAIN | ((CURATE*) around N)+IN | ||
| 16. | Delivery securing wicket before end of league game (9) | ||
| BAGATELLE i | (GATE in BALL)+(leagu)E | ||
| 18. | Bird, yellow, all but head (5) | ||
| RAVEN | (c)RAVEN yellow = cowardly |
||
| 20. | Eventually seeing rather remarkable rare lot (6,2,5) | ||
| SOONER OR LATER | SOONER+(RARE LOT*) | ||
| 23. | Noticing novel written by Oscar under an assumed name (9) | ||
| INCOGNITO | (NOTICING*)+O | ||
| 24. | Racket revealed by informer, one inside (5) | ||
| NOISE | I in NOSE | ||
| 25. | Reflect it’s good to pay attention (7) | ||
| GLISTEN | G+LISTEN | ||
| 26. | Former player, demanding type (7) | ||
| EXACTOR i | EX+ACTOR | ||
Down |
|||
| 1. | QC in second class (4) | ||
| SILK i | S+ILK QC = Queens Counsel in English law courts – slang ‘the silk’ |
||
| 2. | Spinster’s game (3,4) | ||
| OLD MAID i | dd a great old card game that I doubt kids today wouldn’t have a clue |
||
| 3. | What a soldier may have on in fine film (9) | ||
| GREATCOAT | GREAT+COAT(think of ‘a coat of paint = film’ | ||
| 4. | Always going up to Montpelier, a criminal (9,6) | ||
| PERPETUAL MOTION | (UP TO MONTPELIER, A)* | ||
| 5. | Brand new item from carpenter shouldn’t be defective? (4,1,5,5) | ||
| HAVE A SCREW LOOSE | sort of deep cryptic definition… I think? | ||
| 6. | Work out volume in one (5) | ||
| SOLVE | V in SOLE | ||
| 7. | A married girl in the USA (7) | ||
| AMERICA | A+M+ERICA | ||
| 8. | Having good taste, Cinders poured out gin cocktail (10) | ||
| DISCERNING | (CINDERS*)+(GIN*) | ||
| 12. | Hearing, sadly, about graduate’s lengthy scolding (10) | ||
| EARBASHING | (HEARING*) around BA’S | ||
| 15. | Land of Hope and Glory’s fourth air aunt and I performed (9) | ||
| RURITANIA | (glo)R(y’s)+(AIR AUNT+I*) | ||
| 17. | Dumplings and odd-looking conch collected by soldier (7) | ||
| GNOCCHI i | (CONCH*) in GI | ||
| 19. | Finding of court in support of composer (7) | ||
| VERDICT | CT after[supporting] VERDI | ||
| 21. | Freighter’s crew? (5) | ||
| EIGHT | hidden and sort of & lit: frEIGHTer’s | ||
| 22. | Raise back (4) | ||
| REAR | dd | ||
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Thanks Everyman & Lorraine.
I thought the ‘film’ in 3d was going to be one of Everyman’s movies; nice misdirection. Of course, HAVE A SCREW LOOSE is also the phrase that denotes someone is eccentric or mentally disturbed. Nice clue for INCOGNITO.
I actually had one wrong because at 12dn I put in “lambasting” when I saw “scolding” and I didn’t bother to parse the clue. I’d say “that’ll teach me” but it never seems to. My error notwithstanding I found this to be the usual pleasant Sunday morning puzzle from Everyman.
Thanks Lorraine,
Very enjoyable as ever. Particularly liked REVOLVERS, RAVEN and INCOGNITO.
Thanks Everyman.
Thank you for blogging, Lorraine.
I liked BAGATELLE in this one for its cricket-related surface reading.
You are pretty much right with your parsing of HAVE A SCREW LOOSE. I’d put it down as a cd cum dd, with ‘brand new item from carpenter shouldn’t’ and ‘be defective’ as the two definitions. Perhaps that was what Robi was saying earlier.
Could someone please explain where ‘sooner’ comes from in 20a?
Tom W@5 – sooner is a synonym of rather. The words are interchangeable in an expression like “I’d rather/sooner go to the pub than the cinema”.
Aha, seems obvious now! Thanks Andy