Charades and insertions mostly this morning from Everyman. Which for an entry-level puzzle is fair enough. But only one full anagram, cluing a word I could only vaguely remember.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Malign revolutionary supplied with answer by me
DEFAME
A charade of FED reversed, A for ‘answer’ and ME.
4 Book, turning brown, about doctor making instrument
BAGPIPES
A charade of B for ‘book’ and GP for ‘doctor’ in SEPIA reversed.
9 Villainous organisation of don, cruel in cunning
SCOUNDRELLY
Is this really a word? I’m sure it’s in dictionaries somewhere, though I can’t ever remember using it myself. An insertion of (DON CRUEL)* in SLY.
11 Pointed tool beginning to work, cutting aluminium
AWL
An insertion of W in AL. And of course (in the plural at least) part of the derivation of ‘cobblers’, as in ‘that is a load of cobblers’.
12 Flower displayed by comrade going around fringes of rally with small song
CHRYSANTHEMUM
A multi-part clue. RY for the outside letters (‘fringes’) of ‘rally’, S for ‘small’ and ANTHEM for ‘song’ all inserted into CHUM for ‘comrade’.
14 Gossip about fight involving mad character?
CHATTERBOX
An insertion of (the mad) HATTER for ‘mad character’ in C for circa or ‘about’ and BOX for ‘fight’. I wouldn’t necessarily say that a CHATTERBOX was a
‘gossip’. More just somebody who won’t shut up.
15 Resort with northern stretch
SPAN
A charade of SPA and N.
17 Hair most important according to report
MANE
A homophone of MAIN.
18 Stewed pear would be yielding a pale colour
POWDER BLUE
Everyman is inviting you to take A out of (PE[A]R WOULD BE)* The anagrind is ‘stewed’.
21 Amazing old partner spinning a torrid yarn
EXTRAORDINARY
A charade of EX for ‘old partner’ and (A TORRID YARN)*
24 Pub sign, one with no odd features
INN
The even letters (‘no odd’) of sIgN oNe.
25 General endlessly astute about person beyond control
LOOSE CANNON
I didn’t like this much, partly because the surface reading is a bit meaningless. It appears to be LOOSE for ‘general’ (‘in a general/loose sense’, I suppose)
and CANN[Y] followed by ON.
26 Delight in object reflected in mirror
GLADNESS
An insertion of END reversed in GLASS for ‘mirror’.
27 Update from vicar and a politician
REVAMP
A charade of REV and A and MP.
Down
1 Hurry with bit of Morse code
DASH
Dots and dashes are the constituents of the Morse code.
2 Hierarchy secure? Scoff over that
FOOD CHAIN
A charade of CHAIN for ‘secure’ and FOOD for ‘scoff’ above that. It works because it’s a down clue, thus ‘over’.
3 Time to climb in perfect tower
MINARET
A reversal (‘to climb’) of ERA in MINT for ‘perfect’.
5 Bad lot aimed to restrict language soon enough
ALL IN GOOD TIME
An insertion of LINGO in (LOT AIMED)*
6 Variable in speech, strangely lacking energy and soul
PSYCHE
You need to take E for ‘energy’ out of SP[E]ECH and then make an anagram of what remains and include Y for a mathematical ‘variable’.
7 Son overwhelmed by prize for song
PSALM
An insertion of S in PALM for a synonym of ‘prize’.
8 Amphibian in cold dish probed by fellow with hesitation
SALAMANDER
An insertion of MAN in SALAD followed by ER.
10 Film that’s eccentric gives errors, admitting swindle
RESERVOIR DOGS
Yet another insertion: DO in (GIVES ERRORS)*
13 Running van into pipe?
SCAMPERING
And another: of CAMPER in SING.
16 Excessive optimist with a plan only getting confused
POLYANNA
(A PLAN ONLY)* for a word I vaguely had heard of.
19 Agree, all awry, to give up good traditional drink
REAL ALE
An anagram of (A[G]REE ALL)* with ‘awry’ as the anagrind.
20 Spoil lake, home for fish
MARLIN
A charade of MAR, L and IN.
22 Country‘s leader for now in flowing garment
TONGA
Another insertion: of N for the first letter of ‘now’ in TOGA.
23 Fixes up bargain
SNIP
A reversal of PINS.
Many thanks to Everyman for this morning’s puzzle.
I liked CHATTERBOX, RESERVOIR DOGS, GLADNESS
I could not parse 25
Thanks Pierre and Everyman
Found this really tough this week for some reason. Couldn’t get the film, the gossip, or scampering.
Thank you Everyman and Pierre.
I, too, found this tough. SCAMPERRING was my last in.
Girls are more likely to have heard of 16d than boys I guess, since it is the name of the heroine in a children’s book entitled POLLYANNA.
On checking, I find that SCOUNDRELLY is given in both the Collins Compact Dictionary and the COED, don’t think I have heard it used – yes, I must have, apparently the line “the tyranny of a scoundrelly aristocracy” is in Vanity Fair by Thackaray which I have read several times.
My favourite clue was that for FOOD CHAIN.
Also surprised to see that 9ac is actually a word. For the most part a breeze, with a little pause for thought on 13/26 at the end.
Jon, I have just been looking the word SCOUNDRELLY up on the web and, to my surprise, have found over 50 authors who have used it as well as Thackeray, for instance Poe, Anne Bronte, Trollope, Conrad, Robert Burns, Buchan, Jack London…
NB, I spell William Makepeace’s surname Thackery, but after searching the dictionaries etc. on the web @3 found they “all” spelled it Thackary, which is not correct – does this indicate that most dictionaries just copy others?
PS, I should have made it clear that one has to key in “the tyranny of a scoundrelly aristocracy” to see the wrong surname go viral.
Thanks Pierre and Everyman.
If you can stand mention of some schlock from the glockhopper, the ghastly Doris Day , in a never-to-soon-to be-forgotten ditty ‘Everybody Loves a Lover’ has the line ‘Guess you might call me a Pollyanna.’
No I didn’t think you could stand it.
Now, where’s that bucket?
Enjoyable, as usual. Favourites included CHATTERBOX, POWDER BLUE, EXTRAORDINARY and GLADNESS. I liked PSYCHE too, but I wonder if that was a bit convoluted for an Everyman?
Back in the 60s, after the Hayley Mills film came out (and I’m sure ever since the book came out in 1913), the term POLYANNA was in general use, so I think back then boys must have heard it too.
Thanks, Everyman and Pierre.
Thanks, Pierre. I struggled a bit with this and couldn’t parse a couple so thank you for the explanations. I had SCARPERING for awhile until I got MANE and changed the r for an m.
Overall nice crossie. Got it out without too many problems though didn’t appreciate some of the parsing. Haven’t really seen PIPE to mean SING. Also can’t say I like END = OBJECT.
Pierre, Pollyanna has two Ls.
I found this a bit harder than usual. I haven’t seen Scoff as a noun before, and didn’t parse Defame or Chatterbox fully.
Rats, I think object/end is ok in their meaning of ‘purpose’ or ‘use’ or ‘intention’.
Thanks Pierre and Everyman.
16 down – Pollyanna – your comments made me smile.
As a 67 year old I used to read all the Pollyanna books.
Pollyanna, by nature, was an extreme optimist, and greatly disliked by my mother – who often called me a Pollyanna for always looking on the bright side of life.
I liked this one also, especially liked Chatterbox…solved it but didnt catch on about the meaning of hatter until I read the blog. Lots of others were
news to me, i solved them other ways but liked the solutions. I cannot see how pipe can mean sing either. anyone know?
Explanation of 3d was good to read as I couldnt work out why it was the answer either…I had letters of TIME but couldnt work out where RAN fitted in.
Good to know.
This was too tough for me to say I enjoyed it and didn’t get them all. Also there were many I couldn’t parse. I didn’t like “pipe” for “sing” either.
I, too, read all the Pollyanna books long before Hayley Mills played her in a film.
Enjoyed reading the kiwi comments. Nice to see some support on PIPE. Also still not too happy with OBJECT meaning END. OBJECTIVE definitely.
Hi all,
Feel like I know you all as I have been following this blog for the last 6 months. Did anyone put in CITADEL
for 3D? Seemed to fit in perfectly with time to climb being t and c in ideal (perfect) – threw me totally and I can’t remember spending so long on the solve. You are right Barrie – scoff as a noun? Scoundrelly? Bit grumpy tonight but will still look forward to next weeks offering – totally addicted.
Hi Everyman, Pierre and all the bloggers (bloggists?). Haven’t been in for a while but still doing the puzzle religiously every Saturday. Felt compelled to speak this week as the crossword was a bit harder than normal. I missed 4a and 6d and had to rely on electronic means to get a few others. I’m not saying this is a bad thing, any excercise of the brain at my age is a definately plus!
Definitely found this harder than in recent times, so pleased to note that I wasn’t the only one. Couldn’t get past “flow chart” for hierarchy, having patted myself on the back for figuring that scoff was wolf so “scoff over” had to be flow right? Wrong! Anyway, that led to “mane” (possibly one of the easier clues) being unfilled so all together a reasonably unsuccessful effort.
Have to say though that despite all of this it was a good puzzle. Thanks to all.
Found this very hard, and some clues were very obscure (pipe for sing) or just plain wrong — scoff does not mean “food”, it means “to eat” (quickly). And “food chain” for hierarchy is tenuous at best.
I got chrysanthemum only by means of a wild card dictionary, and could not parse it — too convoluted.
Got “scampering” only via a wild card dictionary, although I was able to parse that (despite “pipe” for “sing”) once I had the answer.
Couldn’t parse “defame”, although it now seems reasonable, once the parsing is revealed.
Agree that this seemed harder than most and we needed lots of electronic help to get it all out.
Last one in was food chain – because we thought it was going to be something class ( until we got mane for hair) – not because being further down the food chain was an unfamiliar expression.
Had trouble in the bottom left corner with tunic for a flowing garment rather than Tonga for a country ( just up the road from here). Mind you that didn’t parse but then we hadn’t got some of the others to ether. Thank you for explaining them Pierre.
Thanks for all the NZ comments – nice to see so many. And there are, of course, two Ls in POLLYANNA. Apologies.