Everyman 3,720

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3720.

I thought this a particularly good puzzle from Everyman, with some cunning misdirections, and a couple of exemplary double definitions – and of course the meaningful surfaces.

Across
1 AFFECT Court after blunder not having good influence (6)
A charade of [g]AFFE (‘blunder’) minus the G (‘not having good’) plus CT (‘court’). ‘after’ indicates the order of the particles.
4 LUSTROUS Shining passion, right? Love our team (8)
A charade of LUST (‘passion’) plus R (‘right’) plus O (‘love’) plus US (‘our team’).
9 GAS LAMP Attack in space seen in old-fashioned light (3,4)
An envelope (‘in’) of SLAM (‘attack’) in GAP (‘space’). ‘seen in’ just links the wordplay to the definition.
11 PIONEER Lord going round island aboard launch (7)
An envelope (‘going round’) of I (‘island’) plus ON (‘aboard’) in PEER (‘lord’).
12 REPRESENT Stand for  picture (9)
Double definition.
13 PLAIN Clear sound of aircraft (5)
A homophone (‘sound of’) of PLANE (‘aircraft’).
14 ATLETICO MADRID Football club omitted radical reforms (8,6)
An anagram (‘reforms’ – or re-forms) of ‘omitted radical’
17 COLONEL-IN-CHIEF Regiment’s patron, old and single, in embrace? That is fine (7-2-5)
A charade of COLONELINCH, an envelope (‘in’) of O (‘old’) plus LONE (‘single’) in CLINCH (’embrace’); plus I.E. (id est, ‘that is’) plus F (‘fine’). A convoluted wordplay, and not a use of ‘patron’ that I had come across before.
21 DEGAS Artist and revolutionary son getting on (5)
A reversal (‘revolutionary’) of SAGED, a charade of S (‘son’) plus AGED (‘getting on’).
23 CYBERPUNK Stirred up, be cranky, dismissing a science fiction genre (9)
An anagram (‘stirred’) of ‘up be cr[a]nky’ minus the A (‘dismissing a’).
24 MAUDLIN Democrat in heavy defeat almost tearful (7)
An envelope (‘in’) of D (‘democrat’) in MAULIN[g] (‘heavy defeat’) minus its last letter (‘almost’).
25 EYEBALL Look at you, getting into European dance (7)
An envelope (‘getting into’) of YE (‘you’) in E (‘European’) plus BALL (‘dance’).
26 CULOTTES Portion covered by pretty small item of clothing (8)
An envelope (‘covered by’) of LOT (‘portion’) in CUTE (‘pretty’) plus S (‘small’).
27 STRESS Tension, some assert, still around (6)
A hidden answer (‘some’) reversed (‘around’) in ‘aSSERT Still’.
Down
1 ANGORA Cat shown by artist under tropical tree, miles away (6)
A charade of [m]ANGO (‘tropical tree’) minus the M (‘miles away’) plus RA (‘artist’).
2 FUSSPOT Worrier in place supporting loud American (7)
A charade of F (forte, in music ‘loud’) plus US (‘American’) plus SPOT (‘place’). In a down light, A ‘supporting’ B, as here, generally means that B is on top.
3 CHAMELEON Trick involving meat and eel confused with lizard (9)
An envelope (‘involving’) of HAM (‘meat’) plus ELE, an anagram (‘confused’) of ‘eel’ in CON (‘trick’). ‘with’ is not the happiest of links between wordplay and definition, but defensible.
5 UNPUTDOWNABLE Powerless to protect deposit? Extremely interesting (13)
An envelope (‘to protect’) of PUT DOWN (‘deposit’) in UNABLE (‘powerless’).
6 TROOP March broke up after time (5)
A charade of T (‘time’) plus ROOP, a reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of POOR (‘broke’).
7 OPEN-AIR Start broadcast outside (4-3)
A charade of OPEN (‘start’) plus AIR (‘broadcast’).
8 SERENADE Song from Scandinavian about climbing in south-east (8)
An envelope (‘in’) of ERENAD, a reversal (‘climbing’) in a down light) of DANE (‘Scandinavian’; you may think of Scandinavia as covering just Norway and Sweden, but there are grounds for including Denmark and even Iceland) plus RE (‘about’ – at last, not the envelope nor the reversal, but the right purpose for this word in this clue) in SE (‘south-east’).
10 POETIC LICENCE Allowable departure from fact in Celtic epic one translated (6,7)
An anagram (‘translated’) of ‘Celtic epic one’.
15 ABHORRENT Born hater, unusually detestable (9)
An anagram (‘unusually’) of ‘born hater’.
16 ACADEMIC Studious expert about plug and microphone (8)
A charade of ACADE, an envelope (‘about’) of AD (advertisement, ‘plug’) in ACE (‘expert’); plus MIC (‘microphone’).
18 LEG-PULL Joke for example with piano during interlude (3-4)
An envelope (‘during’) of E.G. (exempli gratia, ‘for example’) plus P (‘piano’, the companion of forte above) in LULL (‘interlude’).
19 EMULATE Bird above former rival (7)
A charade of EMU (‘bird’) plus LATE (‘former’).
20 SKILLS Gifts in first of seasonal dispatches (6)
A charade of S (‘first of Seasonal’) plus KILLS (‘dispatches’).
22 SPLIT Leave  rent (5)
Double definition.
completed grid

10 comments on “Everyman 3,720”

  2. Thank you Everyman and PeterO.

    A pleasant solve after the struggles of the week.

    COLONEL-IN-CHIEF was fun as he/she is a penguin, Sir Nils Olav, in the Norwegian Army, scroll down for photo!

  3. Quite difficult this week I thought, with 5d and 17ac especially causing some difficulties. Last in 6d which I wanted to be TRAMP / TROMP, or in fact anything apart from what it actually was.

  5. Peter @4

    UNPUTDOWNABLE seems to be a recent (and maybe jokey) coinage – Collins online records its first usage around 1975 – but it is in recent editions of Chambers, and in Oxford and other dictionaries online

  6. Difficult this week. Gave up with lots missing. Never heard of the Football Club. 5 d and 23 ac were particularly hard for me.

  7. Lots to enjoy about this one this week with nothing particularly easy but enjoyably challenging.  Learned lots as always and interested to learn angoras are cats as well as rabbits and goats.  I enjoyed Peter’s makeableupped comment – seems there is a new word every day, does anyone else just ‘love’ hearing people say ‘ a whole nother….’  Heaven forbid that ‘nother’ should ever turn up in a crossword but I suppose it is a flagrant kiwiism.  So pleased with myself that I did get the football club which was definitely tricky given it wasnt even english language.

  8. A very enjoyable crossie. After some slim pickings over the last couple of weeks this one really got me going. Enjoyed several clues though I almost compulsively penned in <b>CLINTON</b> for 24!!!

     

    21ac, 26ac, 9ac, 11ac, 25ac, 19dn and 17ac were all enjoyable clues.

    re: 5d, despite never having heard the word the clue was well formed enough for me to work it out without too many problems.

  10. Had to Google “Atletico Madrid” to make sure that this was indeed a football club.  (I don’t follow football.)  Took me a long while to see “troop” as a synonym for “march” but finally realised that it is indeed a legitimate usage (as Googling “march synonym” later confirmed).  “Trooping in” is the same as “marching in”.  At least sort of.

    I liked this puzzle.  Lots of tough clues, but all eventually do-able, with many “Ah-ha!” moments.

Comments are closed.