Everyman No. 3530 (1st June)

by

Lorraine: Good morning to you all.

 

Yet another fine puzzle from Everyman this week. I found a few tricky clues

here so I did need a bit of help from Nick.

Big thank you to Everyman as always.

Across
1. What the grower will sell is brought out of wood, cut by Charlie (4,4)
CASH CROP ASH in (CROP around C)
sort of self inducing clue, very hard to parse
5. Leader of Blackadders in court case concerning clan (6)
TRIBAL B in TRIAL
10. Floating voter atop passenger boat (9)
VAPORETTO (VOTER ATOP)*
11. Letter from Greece from male in dry area (5)
THETA (HE in TT)+A
12. Little boy bitten by Dorothy’s dog in place on Lake Ontario (7)
TORONTO RON in TOTO
13. One taking beer, tucking into variety of feta (3,4)
TEA LEAF ALE in (FETA*)
Cockney rhyming slang – tea leaf = thief = “one taking”
14. To hear all the soccer players on the pitch at once is a frustrating situation, fully (5-6-3)
CATCH TWENTY TWO pun: 22 players on the field – and catch 22 is basically “you have to be mad to fly in a war zone, but if you are mad, you will not be allowed to fly”
17. Guards cursed – skunk let out (14)
KNUCKLEDUSTERS (CURSED – SKUNK LET)*
21. Shakespearean merchant showing giant onions at the centre (7)
ANTONIO hidden: giANT ONIOns
22. What tireless seamstresses do, we hear, for a despicable type? (2-3-2)
SO-AND-SO pun: sew and sew
24. Willow, more healthy-looking right away (5)
OSIER (r)OSIER
25. Huge robin perplexed one next door (9)
NEIGHBOUR (HUGE ROBIN)*
26. Commander about to complete programme (6)
AGENDA AGA around END
27. Access for transport (8)
ENTRANCE dd
pronuncation test – en+TRANCE or EN+trunce?

Down
1. Guinea pig fed it in space (6)
CAVITY IT in CAVY
2. Excellent management, but lacking foresight (5)
SUPER SUPER(vision)
3. Very bad record the Parisian released (7)
CHRONIC CHRONIC(le)
4. Aiming to get the nobleman KO’d (3,3,3,5)
OUT FOR THE COUNT pun
6. Take back religious education pamphlet (7)
RETRACT RE+TRACT
7. Yeoman, no vegetarian it would appear (9)
BEEFEATER pun
8. Game of par golf, surprisingly, including eagle at last (8)
LEAPFROG (PAR GOLF)+(eagl)E
9. Propose father, on the quiet, somehow engages son (3,3,8)
POP THE QUESTION POP+(THE (QUIET+SON*))
15. A home in a somewhat historical region of France (9)
AQUITAINE A+IN in (A QUITE)[somewhat]
terribly difficult clue to parse or understand
16. Fine spiritual leader describing house in a state (8)
OKLAHOMA OK+(LAMA around HO)
18. Similar type, socialist (7)
KINDRED KIND+RED
19. Tutor in pain during most of period (7)
TEACHER ACHE in TER(m)
unfair indirect?
20. Beginning to add gravy, say (6)
SOURCE homophone: SAUCE
23. River in NI county in flood (5)
DROWN R in (county)DOWN
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16 comments on “Everyman No. 3530 (1st June)”

  1. Thank you, Lorraine.

    I parsed 1ac as ASH (wood) and CROP (cut) behind (by) C for Charlie in the phonetic alphabet.

  2. I parsed AQUITAINE by A+ iIN (a home) in A (first word of clue) + QUITE (somewhat) making the historical region.

    Enjoyed this one as usual.

  3. Thanks Everyman & Lorraine.

    I thought this was tougher than usual – SUPER and TEA LEAF being two examples.

    I’m not sure that KNUCKLEDUSTERS are really guards, more like offensive weapons.

  4. Another pleasant Sunday morning solve, although I agree with Robi’s comment about the definition of KNUCKLEDUSTERS. I also agree with Lorraine that CASH CROP wasn’t an easy parse and it was only after I finally got it that I was able to see SUPER at 2dn which was my LOI. Although the wordplay for AQUITAINE was fairly complex for an EVERYMAN puzzle I had no problem with it because I knew the region and could retro-fit the wordplay.

  5. Knuckleduster – a metal guard worn over the knuckles in fighting to increase the effect of blows (‘Oxford Dictionary of English’).

  6. Thanks Lorraine,

    It took a bit of finishing this one, much more so than usual. I got about halfway through then came to a stop.
    It was enjoyable as ever and I did like KNUCKLEDUSTERS for the anagram even though the definition was doubtful.
    Other ones I liked were ENTRANCE, CASH CROP (agree with KD here), CHRONIC, AQUITAINE (remember Eleanor of) and
    OKLAHOMA. Thanks Everyman.

  7. Everyman@5 – interesting, although I can’t find a definition of “guard” as an offensive weapon, and that is most definitely what KNUCKLEDUSTERS are. The definition in my Chambers is “a metal covering for the knuckles,worn on the hand as a weapon in fist-fighting”, and I think that is a far more accurate definition.

  8. I would imagine the dictionary’s reference to guard is that a knuckleduster is used, in part, to protect knuckles from injury when striking a blow. I remain happy with the definition in the clue.

  9. Everyman, thanks for taking the time to respond. ’twas but a minor quibble anyway, and I remain impressed by the way you continually produce puzzles that “do what it says on the tin”.

  10. I had a total mental blank in the se corner. Completely missed the hidden word for Antonio which was annoying. I too thought Guard a bit dodgy for knuckleduster but can’t argue with the dictionary, I just think the protection element is rather secondary to its primary purpose. Hadn’t heard of a cavy either.

  12. Another entertaining puzzle with several answers springing to mind intuitively and the penny dropping much later as more blanks get filled in. I really enjoy his anagrams- happy to put in knuckle dusters with reservations-also the skillful way he hides answers eg Antonio! loi the catch of catch-twenty-two!!

  13. Really tricky this week but finished all except for Oklahoma. Knew It was a US state but couldn’t think of it. Should have waited a bit longer before looking here. Thought Aquitaine was hard since I’m not really that familiar with French regions, but have heard of Eleanor of Aquitaine.
    Laughed at 12 ac.
    Was interested to read the Crossword setter’s comments last week. It is good to have a few more Kiwis now. I used to think I was talking to myself, so glad that others have stumbled, probably accidentally, as I did, onto this blog.

  14. This week taught me I didn’t know what I didn’t know! Didn’t know cavy was a guinea pig, didn’t know a vaporetto was an italian passenger boat etc etc. But I guess that’s why we’re here……..

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