A slightly harder for me to get going Everyman.
Apolologies for the late posting –
it’s been a busy week, all’s fair here and nothing to quibble about, this Everyman chap is quite good 🙂
Across
1 King tucked into fruit, very first from exotic tree (8)
MANGROVE
R for Rex – king inside MANGO & V(ery) & first of E(xotic). All fair but not the first tree you might think of.
5 Effect produced by demon with performance (6)
IMPACT
IMP – demon & ACT – performance
9 Small issue with single interval (8)
SEMITONE
S(mall) & EMIT- issue & ONE – single
10 Snips round firm plaster (6)
STUCCO
It’s surprising how often this word appears in crosswords. Its CUTS – snips reversed & CO(mpany) – firm
12 Hard theory, endlessly obscure (4)
HIDE
H(ard) & an endless IDE(a)
13 Month consumed with detention of American novelist (4,6)
JANE AUSTEN
Jan(uary) with U.S. inside – detained by EATEN – consumed
15 Unruly peers deny civic status of deputy leader (4-10)
VICE-PRESIDENCY
an unruly [PEERS DENY CIVIC]* Shades of The Donald and his on/off visit to the UK.
17 Game about to end in grief with prize going back in storage unit (5,2,7)
CHEST OF DRAWERS
TO & the end of (grie)F & REWARD – prize reversed all inside a game of CHESS
21 Change round entire broadcast concerning treatment of animals (10)
VETERINARY
ENTIRE* broadcast inside VARY – change
22 Sword with items used regularly in set pieces (4)
EPEE
Answer appears regularly in sEt PiEcEs
24 United in line after time in company (6)
TROUPE
T(ime) & U(nited) inside ROPE – line
25 Man, before large fall, foremost in investing capital (8)
HELSINKI
HE – man & L(arge) & SINK – fall & first if I(nvesting)
26 Artist at that point losing energy somewhat (6)
RATHER
R.A. – artist & E(nergy) removed from THER(e)
27 Approach filthy place inhabited by scoundrel, for example (8)
STRATEGY
RAT and E.G. inside STY
Down
1 Essential problem brought up with article about Bible (4-4)
MUST-HAVE
SUM – problem reversed & THE – article around the A(uthorised) V(ersion) – bible
2 Travelling inspector taken into account under French name (7)
NOMADIC
NOM – french for name & D.I. inside AC(count)
3 Tempo in class (4)
RATE
Double definition
4 Vehicle on exercises, good at climbing, moving into position with clear view (7,5)
VANTAGE POINT
VAN – vehicle & [P.E. & G(ood) & AT] all reversed & a moving INTO*
6 Old man, satisfied, raised beer in silence (10)
METHUSELAH
MET – satisfied & ALE reversed inside HUSH. Apparently 969 years old when he died, so a rather old man…
7 Doubter ignoring pressure to support a hermit (7)
ASCETIC
A supported by a P(ressure)less SCE(p)TIC – doubter
8 Problematic god, name unknown (6)
THORNY
THOR & N(ame) & a mathematics unknown Y
11 Dim rebel went all over the place creating confusion (12)
BEWILDERMENT
[DIM REBEL WENT]* all over the place
14 Primate holding very large cup almost showing sign of possession? (10)
APOSTROPHE
O(ver) S(ize) & most of TROPH(y) – cup all inside APE – primate
16 Harshness in treatment of irate spy (8)
ASPERITY
A treated [IRATE SPY]*
18 Popular measure without delay (7)
HOTFOOT
HOT – popular & FOOT – measure
19 Former partner writes invoice finally revealing cost (7)
EXPENSE
EX & PENS – writes & end of (invoic)E
20 Movable icon in Java targeted (6)
AVATOR
Hidden answer
23 Centres of trade, bases doing deals for continent (4)
ASIA
Middle letters of trAde baSes doIng deAls
Thanks both. Good stuff. Had trouble with the spelling of 21a – it always seems to be pronounced without the ER as “vetinary” by us oiks
@Shirl me too – held me up for a while until I realised I’d got the entry in the grid wrong…
Thanks both. A slight typo in 20d. It should be AVATAR.
@Bracoman, oops so it should, I’ve even said it’s a hidden answer.
Thank you Everyman and flashling.
A very enjoyable puzzle with super anagrams for VICE-PRESIDENCY, BEWILDERMENT and ASPERITY.
typo, 20d should be AVATAR.
Enjoyable as ever. Being a muso, I liked SEMITONE : also HIDE and APOSTROPHE.
I too fell into the vetinerary trap but corrected when I got 14d.
Thanks to flashling and Everyman.
apologies, I had only seen Shirl’s comments before posting.
I don’t think many people pronounce VETERINARY as it probably should be, the COED only gives two alternatives, ‘vetrnri’ or ‘vetnri’!
PS, Davy, you have fallen into it again …
Just trying to bring up the pronunciation correctly as given in the COED, v?t(?)rn(?)ri or v?t(?)nri – incidentally my old dictionary gives v?t?rn?ri, it seems that most of us have become sloppier.
I have my doubts that this will work …
Cookie at 8. The wrong spelling was the trap and so I entered “vetinerary” into the grid.
Davy @10, I fell into your trap!
Thanks flashling (and the Everyman)
Me too with the vet (what a cop-out!)
I found this to be above average difficulty for Everyman, with 17ac and 18d causing a little difficulty at the close. 6d was one of those clues where I knew the answer but needed the cryptic to work out how to spell it properly.
My favourite was CHEST OF DRAWERS (loi)
Thanks Everyman and flashling
Wow, this was a notch up from the last couple of weeks
My only query was where the HU came from in 6D – I stopped at ALE up in SH, didn’t think of HUSH
Looks like the boot’s on the other foot in the cricket – right now NZ is 36 for 5 chasing 300 odd. Let’s hope our tail wags like England’s did
Some nice clues here, thanks Everyman and Flashling
Happy Easter everyone in NZ
Surprised to be the first Kiwi, but since it’s Easter I guess some are away or else watching the cricket.
Some difficult ones in this week’s puzzle, but I liked vice – presidency, rather, vantage point.
What a disaster to see the BlackCaps top order collapsing in the test against England today!. After England’s pretty average first innings I thought NZ were in for a good chance.
Don’t forget to turn the clocks back tonight.
.
Woops, Barrie must have posted a second before me.
My favourite was apostrophe and was a clever trick in 13ac to lead us looking for American novelists I must remember to watch for that trap
I had 3 to go after just 15 mins! Was cruising until I got stuck in the SE corner. Took me a while to parse 17ac then 26ac and LOI was 19dn. 14ac was an excellent clue.
A bit of a recovery in the cricket. Long may it continue!
Fell for the same traps as everyone else but finally got there. A number of great clues I thought especially apostrophe. Enjoyed Vet………. as well mainly because it reacquainted me with the correct spelling. Last in by some distance was troupe. Couldn’t get troops out of my mind but finally managed to get the u into the answer somewhere. Would have been Barrie’s first one in I’d imagine!
Lol Mark @20 no, SW corner was my last. I don’t go through all the clues methodically (even though that’s recommended), if I get a toehold somewhere I stay in that spot and only move on if I run dry. This one seemed to go it from NE to SW and Troupe was one of the last. Nice thought though, first read through of new play tomorrow night.