A most pleasant Everyman, my word creating easy to solve but elegantly clued crosswords can’t be easy. However I printed it out, I appeared to be in a Listener type twilight zone when I looked at the clues.
Fortunately I was able to buy the paper so solving time was probably reduced by a few months…
All quite beautifully done in the end. Thanks Everyman.
| Across | ||
| 1 | EVINCE | Electronic fault restricting new display (6) |
| E for electronic & N(ew) in VICE for fault. Evince means to show clearly hence display | ||
| 4 | OBSCURED | Old bottles, emptied and preserved, hidden (8) |
| O(ld) & an empty B(ottle)S & CURED = preserved | ||
| 9 | DETRACTOR | Revolutionary nonsense transported critic (9) |
| ROT for nonsense & CARTED – transported all reversed. | ||
| 11 | MOUSY | Shy maiden, poor, left out (5) |
| M – maiden in cricket scoring & L(eft) out of (L)OUSY – poor | ||
| 12 | VERTIGO | Rig vote designed to cause feeling of instability (7) |
| A designed [RIG VOTE]* Politics in the Observer? Is there a term for using clues as allegories or unsubtle commentary on recent events. | ||
| 13 | AMATEUR | Inexpert, united, right behind a friend (7) |
| A & MATE – friend) & U(nited) & R(ight) | ||
| 14 | PRIMA BALLERINA | Important dancer having cracked rib, in alarm, pale (5,9) |
| a cracked [RIB IN ALARM PALE]*. Nice surface to fit. | ||
| 17 | WITH A VENGEANCE | Sense retreat, for example, brought about by champion defending north vigorously (4,1,9) |
| WIT = sense & HAVEN = retreat & EG reversed – brought about & N(orth) defended by ACE – champion | ||
| 21 | LAMBADA | Monk admitting naughty dance (7) |
| BAD for naughty inside a LAMA – monk | ||
| 23 | OMICRON | Letter, second sent round by Conservative in club (7) |
| MO for second sent back & C(onservative) inside IRON a golf club. Greek letter | ||
| 24 | IDLED | One day, provoked, did nothing (5) |
| 1 & D(ay) & LED – provoked | ||
| 25 | ELECTRODE | Conductor using baton with energy after return (9) |
| ELECT = return to parliament say. Return is normally a reversal indicator, hurrumph, & ROD – baton & E(nergy). Nice image of conductor in front the carthorse* | ||
| 26 | GLADNESS | Aim to go back aboard schooner perhaps for pleasure (8) |
| END for aim inside GLASS – a schooner is a style of drinking glass. Surface hints at sailing ship however | ||
| 27 | ERASED | Blunder, as edited, partly rubbed out (6) |
| it’s partly inside blundER AS EDited | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ENDIVE | Leaf vegetable? Need, in a stew, about four (6) |
| A stewed NEED* with IV = four inserted | ||
| 2 | INTERPRET | Vignette, proper text with odd parts missing, read (9) |
| Read into that what you will, it’s alternate letters of the first three words. | ||
| 3 | CRANIUM | Beginnings of markings usually in curve upward in skull (7) |
| M(arkings) U(sually) & IN & ARC – curve all reversed – upwards | ||
| 5 | BARNACLE GOOSE | Bird found around rocky crag, lone duck (8,5) |
| A rocky [CRAG LONE]* & O = duck in cricket all inside BASE for found | ||
| 6 | COMPARE | Contrast in heart broken by politician, heart of oak (7) |
| MP for politcian & the heart of (o)A(k) all inside – breaking into CORE for HEART | ||
| 7 | ROUTE | Speaker’s beginning course (5) |
| Hom. for ROOT – beggining | ||
| 8 | DAYDREAM | Pleasant fantasy story finally penned by father on quantity of paper (8) |
| End of (stor)Y inside DAD – father & REAM – lots of paper | ||
| 10 | TROUBLEMAKERS | Agitators break rule most recklessly (13) |
| Another well worked anagram – this time a reckless [BREAK RULE MOST]* | ||
| 15 | INCURIOUS | Run up with documents from debtors? Not interested (9) |
| INCUR = run up say debts & IOU S – I OWE YOUs | ||
| 16 | DWELLING | Satisfactorily located in row, good home (8) |
| WELL for satisfactorily inside a DIN = row & G(ood) | ||
| 18 | ABANDON | Gang ahead after a scrap (7) |
| A & BAND – gang & On as imperative for ahead | ||
| 19 | A-LISTER | Top star is in remake (1-6) |
| IS inside ALTER – to remake. Very simple but beautiful clue. | ||
| 20 | INTEND | Batting, lean and mean (6) |
| IN – the team that is batting goes out until they’re out when they they come in, beause they’re out etc, A lot of cricket today & TEND for LEAN | ||
| 22 | MALTA | Type of whisky available initially in country (5) |
| MALT whisky & the inital letter of A(vailable) | ||
*anagram
My favourites were 1a, 17a, 26a
New BARNACLE GOOSE
Thank you flashling and Everyman
Thank you Everyman for an enjoyable crossword and flashling for persevering with the blog (think you would have needed more than a few months to solve that lot now that Bletchley Park is just a museum).
I was fooled by the ‘schooner’ in 26a. The clues for DETRACTOR, VERTIGO (!), OMICRON, A-LISTER and CONDUCTOR (a chestnut carthorse, flashling?) were great, as were the anagrams for PRIMA BALLERINA and TROUBLEMAKERS.
A little trickier this week, partly due to 5d. A what? Good as always.
Failed with the goose. Not helped by it not being listed as a goose breed in Wikipedia. Hmph.
Got stuck on 2 d for a while until I realised it was there in front of my eyes. Like Barrie I couldn’t find the goose in a list of goose breeds but managed to guess it from the letters.
I don’t get ‘BASE for found’ – could somebody evince for me?
Many thanks Flashling for the blog I agree with your description of 19 down, a beautiful clue.
Found as in ‘is founded on’ as in foundations. Bit biblical maybe. Looking for a modern use, something is founded on logic?
I agree; some great clues. Managed 5d eventually but would never have done so from the clue alone – lucky for me I thought barnacles are found stuck on rocky crags. A few relatively little used words; omicron and evince to name a couple but they were all pretty well structured in my view. And I managed to get a few while watching the All Blacks win so all good! Thanks to all
Could not parse “barnacle goose” (of which I had never heard). Figure that that the second word had to be “goose”, looked this up in a thesaurus and got the “barnacle” bit.
Overall I found this one to be very tough. Except for “barnacle goose” however, all of the struggles finally led to “Ah-ha!” moments.
Pretty straight forward crossword. Took about 30 mins tops to get it all out. Some nice clues as well. Enjoyed OMICRON and GLADNESS.