I often find with Everyman that his references make me go and look up stuff that I kind of knew, but had forgotten. So once I’d finished solving the puzzle this morning I spent more time than I should have searching for and learning about novels, songs, films and history.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) missing
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Benefits from book by novelist, Doris’s last
BLESSINGS
First one attempted; last one in. But it is a teasing clue: Everyman, in a roundabout way, is prompting you to think of a novelist called Doris. That’d be DORIS LESSING. Then it’s B for ‘book’, LESSING, and S for the last letter of ‘Doris’. Liked this one. The 2007 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, and a great author.
6 Shoot bishop after all others
BLAST
B for ‘bishop’; now B for ‘book’. A charade of B and LAST
9 Punch a mate
CHINA
A charade of CHIN and A.
10 Big top musical? Backing provisional
TENTATIVE
A charade of TENT and a reversal (‘backing’) of EVITA.
11 Actor, in the guise of Scottish king, about to wade across behind duke
ROBERT REDFORD
The setter is alluding to ROBERT THE BRUCE; then it’s RE for ‘about’, D for ‘duke’ and FORD for ‘to wade across’. He’s done shedloads of great stuff, but my favourite is his role in All the President’s Men.
13 Drunk loiters in a Portuguese resort
ESTIROL
(LOITERS)* There is no such resort as ESTORIL, by the way, despite my attempts to shoehorn this in as an answer.
Correction: I meant this the other way round, of course. The answer is ESTORIL and I was trying to make ESTIROL fit. Apologies and thanks to Dougal at comment no 1.
14 An expert in Pennsylvania helps to produce a universal remedy
PANACEA
An insertion of AN ACE in PA.
16 Ruby? Girl in former tin mining town
REDRUTH
A charade of RED and RUTH. Nice surface. Tin mining in Cornwall was once a major industry.
18 Vulgar about Salvation Army campaign
CRUSADE
An insertion of SA in CRUDE.
19 Baffling drama? Pretend not to be interested
PLAY HARD TO GET
This has no doubt been done before, but I get to the top of the stairs sometimes and think why I’ve gone up there, so I can’t remember if it has or not. It’s a cd cum dd, which made me smile.
22 House in historic city
LANCASTER
A dd. The House of Lancaster is apparently responsible for founding Eton College.
23 Miss Grey, a long time entertaining knight
AGNES
I vaguely knew this, and the wordplay was pretty clear once I’d got some crossers. Referring to AGNES GREY, from the novel by Anne Brontë.
24 Box containing English throwing weapon
SPEAR
An insertion of E in SPAR.
25 Began to check boundary not rigorously fixed
OPEN-ENDED
Another (slightly more devious) insertion: of END in OPENED. The insertion indicator is ‘checked’.
Down
1 Reverse taxi over, parking at centre
BACK
For those of you who followed the same path as I did, there is no such word as BACP. It’s BAC (a reversal, ‘over’, of CAB) and K for the middle letter (‘centre’) of ‘parKing’.
2 Moved abroad – good being in Dubai, for example, with daughter
EMIGRATED
An insertion of G in EMIRATE followed by D.
3 Groucho’s Bar playing show song
SCARBOROUGH FAIR
(GROUCHOS BAR)* with ‘playing’ as the anagrind followed by FAIR for ‘show’. Made famous by Simon and Garfunkel’s Scarborough Fair/Canticle, but it’s in fact a traditional English folk song which Simon learned from Martin Carthy. It’s all about contradictions. And the S&G version featured on The Graduate, which made Dustin Hoffman famous and whose director, Mike Nichols, died last week. Brill film.
4 Turning brown – Russian river, as is to be expected
NATURAL
A charade of NAT (a reversal or ‘turning’ of TAN) and URAL.
5 Star member up in tanning area?
SUNTRAP
A charade of SUN and PART reversed.
6 Gunner grabbed unexpectedly, crossing at a landmark near to Checkpoint Charlie
BRANDENBURG GATE
The definition and the enumeration were a bit of a giveaway, but it’s still a good clue and surface. An insertion of AT in (GUNNER GRABBED)*
7 I travel, giving support to a male friend
AMIGO
Since it’s a down clue, it’s I GO under A M.
8 Fail to make any progress, as war treated suspiciously
TREAD WATER
(AS WAR TREATED)*
12 Chief city in Middle East – large container port set up
METROPOLIS
A charade of ME and a reversal (‘set up’) of SILO and PORT. Nice spot by the setter.
15 Humiliated Conservative hurried
CHASTENED
A charade of C and HASTENED.
17 Hornblower‘s short speech after end of skirmish
HORATIO
A charade of H for the last letter of ‘skirmish’ and ORATIO[N]. And Admiral Nelson nowhere to be seen. He’s a character from the C S Forester novels.
18 Group from lake bed shown first
COTERIE
A charade of COT and ERIE.
20 Girl, one interrupting queen
ANNIE
Not my favourite kind of clue, since ‘girl’ could be a squillion things. But it’s I in ANNE, who was indeed a Queen. Any road up, no orphans were harmed in the writing of this clue.
21 Exploited group in House, Democrats
USED
Hidden in hoUSE Democrats.
Top stuff as always from Everyman. Thanks to him.
13 Across I’ve never heard of Estirol but Estoril is a resort in Portugal. I’ve been there and it has a motor racing circuit.
Thanks, Dougal, my silly mistake in 13 across. Corrected now.
Enjoyed this, and the nice literary reference.
First one I’ve completed in full in ages . 1a was my last one in only by guessing blessings -had no idea what the reference to Doris was. Doris who?
Another general knowledge test at 23a but got the cryptic.
Thanks for the blog, Pierre. This particular crossword made me look up “The Eve of St Agnes” by Keats (which was my knight’s move towards the solution of 23ac)
Thanks Everyman and Pierre.
Took me a little more than my usual three hours to do last Sunday, then redid it just now.
Favourites were METROPOLIS, TENTATIVE ans PLAY HARD TO GET among others.
Could LANCASTER also refer to The House of Lancaster in the Wars of the Roses? It also founded King’s College Cambridge.
Thanks Everyman and Pierre.
Reasonably straightforward although I had to look up AGNES Grey. Nice anagram for SCARBOROUGH FAIR. Enjoyable solve.
I think you are right about the House of Lancaster and the Wars of the Roses, Cookie.
Thanks Everyman and Pierre. Enjoyed this.
Also first one I’ve managed to complete for a while. Foi 16ac, loi 18d – with geography as common factor.
Favourites included blessings, tentative, play hard to get and Scarborough Fair amongst many.
Is this your first comment, slowmelter? If so, welcome and well done on completing it today.
Thanks to Everyman for another stimulating challenge and start to our holiday weekend.
Fortunately, although I had only answered half the clues first time through, there were no blank quadrants and I was able to gradually fill in the blanks. I had none of the above difficuties with 1a,13a,22a and once I got Redford I changed sunlamp(x) to suntrap which made much more sense!! My last two in were 23a and 9a which I was able to confirm with a little research.
Apologies Pierre also a belated thankyou to yourself. I was sidetracked by incoming phone calls.
First one I”ve completed for a while too. Made me think a bit. Enjoyed this very much though I had to research Portuguese resorts. Still don’t get the parsing for 9ac and what it has to do with a ‘mate’ .
Hi Audrey, china is cockney slang for mate, the full saying being “me old china plate”. I thought I was going to bomb out completely after my first run through which only produced three answers. But with a bit of use of the grey matter and my tablet I had filled all the squares. I liked 19a and 6d the most.
Like Audrey I don’t get 9 ac. I know china is cockney slang for mate but where does the punch come in.
Took me longer today but enjoyed it.
A nice mental workout for a fine summer’s day. Not too difficult this one. I didn’t get REDRUTH or COTERIE but with time I might have. Thanks to Everyman for the crossie and Pierre for the blog. Till next weekend.
P.S.
Belated Merry Christmas to all! 🙂
Steph and Audrey, I think if you chin someone it means you punch them on the chin, so punch = chin here. I’ve seen ‘deck’ used similarly. It’s ok I think.