Enjoyable. Clearly and, for the most part, elegantly clued. One answer that I didn’t know (20d) but that was clear enough
| Across | ||
| 1 | SEPULCHRAL | Dismal churl’s plea out of order (10) |
| A nice straightforward anagram to kick things off. Brought to mind a quote from cheery Joseph Conrad: “I found myself back in the sepulchral city resenting the sight of people hurrying through the streets to filch a little money from each other, to devour their infamous cookery, to gulp their unwholesome beer, to dream their insignificant and silly dreams. They trespassed upon my thoughts.” |
||
| 6 | SWIM | Fancy missing hour after second reel (4) |
| W(h)IM (fancy missing Hour) after S(econd). I like definitions that use the secondary, or tertiary meaning of the word in question. | ||
| 10 | CONSORT | Deceive kind partner (7) |
| Charade | ||
| 11 | COFFERS | Funds from hundred volunteers (7) |
| C (hundred) OFFERS (volunteers) | ||
| 12 | EASY LISTENING | Undemanding music, say, is in gentle broadcast (4,9) |
| Nice &littish clue, with a clever use of ‘say’ to throw us off the scent. SAYISINGENTLE, broadcast |
||
| 14 | PROFESSOR | Academic posers for unravelling (9) |
| Anagram (unravelling) of POSERSFOR. | ||
| 16 | DRAIN | Empty clamour surrounding artist (5) |
| DIN (clamour) surrounding RA. | ||
| 17 | RATED | Blushing about thanks, in retirement, deserved (5) |
| RED (blushing) around a reversal of TA | ||
| 19 | OILFIELDS | Old life is transformed in areas yielding fuel (9) |
| Love the perfect surface reading. Anagram of OLDLIFEIS | ||
| 21 | WILLOW PATTERN | Sales talk in particular behind desire for ceramic design (6,7) |
| WILL (desire) OWN (particular) around PATTER (sales talk). | ||
| 24 | ABSOLVE | Clear sailor with volume in fish (7) |
| AB (sailor) SOLE (fish) around V (volume) | ||
| 25 | BEAR OUT | Confirm contest to grab attention (4,3) |
| BOUT around EAR | ||
| 26 | ELSE | Back in classes learning more (4) |
| Reverse (back) hidden in classESLEarning | ||
| 27 | SEPARATELY | Soldier enters inflexible city alone (10) |
| PARA in SET, ELY. Uncharacteristically clunky surface, I thought. Sure there’s a better word than inflexible for SET. |
||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SICK | Excerpt from classic known poorly (4) |
| An excerpt from clasSICKnown | ||
| 2 | PENTECOSTALISTS | Write meal menus, including price for church members (15) |
| PEN (write) TEA LISTS (meal menus) around COST (price) | ||
| 3 | LOOK-SEE | Viewing river going north in Cornish town (4-3) |
| ESK, backwards (going North in a down clue) in LOOE Plenty of nostalgia for me here: I grew up very close to Looe, and had several summer / Saturday jobs there. It’s great.  |
||
| 4 | HOTEL | Part of Bible taken in by man and left in place for guests? (5) |
| OT in HE L | ||
| 5 | ANCESTRY | Name received by experts on search yielding weight of family history (9) |
| N (name) in ACES (experts) on TRY (search, I guess??). Or maybe TRY is search yielding weight. | ||
| 7 | WHEN I FALL IN LOVE | Song on life will have moving, overwhelming emotion finally (4,1,4,2,4) |
| Anagram (moving) of ONLIFEWILLHAVE, around N (emotion, finally), for this brilliant song. Which inspired this other great tune. | ||
| 8 | MISOGYNIST | Not loudly, signify most cranky person averse to women (10) |
| Took me a while to unravel the parsing here: SIGNI(f)Y (not loudly) MOST, anagrammed (cranky) | ||
| 9 | OFFEND | Hurt, not on purpose (6) |
| OFF (not on) END (purpose). Succinct and elegant. | ||
| 13 | SPERM WHALE | Sea creature well below wave in south-west (5,5) |
| HALE (well) PERM (wave) SW (south-west). Sadly the opposite of the truth, for the poor creatures beached in the North East this week. |
||
| 15 | SHOWPIECE | Whose epic developed into outstanding example? (9) |
| I was blind to the answer here for a long time. Anagram (developed) of WHOSEEPIC | ||
| 18 | DOODLE | Drawing line in poem supporting party (6) |
| DO (party) ODE (poem) around L | ||
| 20 | IKEBANA | Restriction in furniture seller’s floral art (7) |
| BAN in IKEA. Is this unusually obscure for an Everyman? The parsing was fairly clear, but I had never heard of this kind of flower-arranging. |
||
| 22 | TIBIA | Bone identified by one cutting a fragment up (5) |
| Reversal (up) of A I (one) BIT (fragment) | ||
| 23 | STAY | Wait for prop (4) |
| Double definition | ||
*anagram
Thanks Matt and Everyman
5D is ANCESTRAL, with TRA[w]L (‘search’) minus the W (‘yielding weight’), the definition starting with ‘of’
Thanks Matt. Although I finished the puzzle, I needed your explanations for several of the solutions, though I had managed to work out 5d as PeterO did.
Thanks Everyman and Matt.
I enjoyed doing this puzzle last Sunday. It took me a while to get IKEBANA, even though I knew this ‘floral art’, and had no problem with ANCESTRAL, but I did need help in parsing SEPARATELY.
In 4d I am having trouble in substituting HE for ‘man’… there must be a sentence where this is possible?
Another enjoyable Everyman. I don’t see IKEBANA as obscure, but that may be an age issue, Matt. I think it was more popular in the UK in the 60s or 70s, perhaps. Favourites were EASY LISTENING and the elegant OFFEND.
Thanks, Everyman and Matt.
Thanks Matt and Everyman.
Perhaps a more familiar clue for 27A would be: Soldier enters home counties model city alone (10)
Thanks Everyman and Matt. IKEBANA was my last one in as well, an entirely new word for me. Interestingly (for me), it appeared in last week’s Inquisitor as well and in working that out I twigged that it must be the same word in the Everyman 🙂
Started with a hiss and a roar but ground to a slow crawl with not having heard of neither Looe nor Ely. However, staggered there in the end except for getting my i’s and y’s mixed up in misogynist(with no ill effect though),so had to mark that one wrong. Damn!
Thanks to all.
Not as enjoyable as last week’s. Had a few problems. Although I got 27 ac eventually, I didn’t like the clue.
In spite of having two cousins in the Parachute Regiment, I too had difficulty with 27across.
The rest was straightforward.
In spite of having two cousins in the Parachute Regiment, I too had difficulty with 27ac.
The rest was straightforward.
To my mind some word meanings are not correct. Swim does not mean reel, rated does not mean deserved, and else does not mean more.
I cannot believe some of the learned UK followers had never heard of ikebana…I didnt like 6ac clue either but i can see that your mind can swim as your mind can reel
thought 10ac very clever clue
My head is in a reel and my mind is in a swim.
My head is reeling and my mind is swimming.
The lexicographer is highly rated.
The lexicographer is highly deserved.
The lexicographer deserved to be highly rated.
The lexicographer is highly deserving.
Would you like some more?
Would you like some else?
What more is there?
What else is there?
Today’s cross is not too bad. I quite liked 21 a Willow Pattern, 24 a Absolve, 12 a Easy Listening and others.
I guess it’s my relatively novice skills that cause my problems, but the clues are looking better to me. I am almost happy with the direction the setter is going. Many thanks to all.