A fitting centenary tribute from Everyman, with four thematic entries around the perimeter.
Three of these (1a, 27a, 10d) are titles of poems associated with the First World War (links below), but I can’t find a match for 7d; maybe I’m reading too much into the others, but please let me know if there is one. A knowing smile from me for 10d because I sang Elgar’s setting of it in a concert the previous evening.
As well as the thematic entries, there are some very neat surfaces here, particularly 21a and 4d.
Definitions are underlined; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ARMISTICE DAY | Occasion of remembrance that’s made city’s air altered (9,3) |
| Anagram (altered) of MADE CITY’S AIR Armistice Day, 1918, poem by Robert Graves |
||
| 8 | ADORNED | Decorated knight embraced by beloved (7) |
| N (knight in chess notation) within ADORED | ||
| 9 | TAIL OFF | Follow bad decline (4,3) |
| TAIL (follow) and OFF (bad) | ||
| 11 | LAYERS | Levels attained by performers free from pressure (6) |
| PLAYERS (actors), omitting P (pressure) | ||
| 12 | ENGINEER | Contrive pretence, first off, about card game (8) |
| VENEER (pretence, as in “a veneer of respectability”), missing its first letter, containing (about) GIN (a version of rummy) | ||
| 14 | DOUBLE ACT | Uncertainty about field set by captain initially for entertaining pair (6,3) |
| DOUBT containing (about) LEA (field) and C[aptain] | ||
| 15 | DEPTH | Hard to follow editor, coming back with point showing intensity (5) |
| ED backwards + PT (point), followed by H (hard, as in grades of pencil lead) | ||
| 17 | OPTIC | Visual work with idiosyncrasy (5) |
| OP (short for opus = a musical work) + TIC (idiosyncrasy) | ||
| 19 | FOOLPROOF | Infallible dessert with soft top (9) |
| FOOL (fruit and cream dessert) + P (musical term for soft) + ROOF (top) | ||
| 21 | IN THE RED | Overdrawn? Some restraint here desirable (2,3,3) |
| Hidden in [restra]INT HERE D[esirable], with a nicely appropriate surface | ||
| 23 | ORDEAL | Nothing right with bargain in trial (6) |
| O (nothing) + R + DEAL | ||
| 25 | DITCHES | Scraps in trenches (7) |
| Double definition: scraps (verb) = throws away | ||
| 26 | EPISTLE | Letter from saint in English collection (7) |
| ST within E PILE | ||
| 27 | ELEVENTH HOUR | Last moment in episode with leaders in historic hostilities, once in control, retreating (8,4) |
| EVENT (episode) + leading letters of Historic Hostilities Once, inside RULE (control) reversed (retreating). The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. The Eleventh Hour, poem by Herbert Swaffield |
||
| Down | ||
| 1 | AGONY AUNT | Soldier for instance carrying on, a guy trained to be an adviser (5,4) |
| ANT (for instance a soldier ant) carrying (containing) an anagram (trained) of ON A GUY | ||
| 2 | MINERAL | Inorganic substance during time breaking large mass up (7) |
| L (large) M (mass), reading upwards, with IN ERA (during time) breaking into it | ||
| 3 | SIDE | Bank’s team (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 4 | INTONATION | Chanting, enthusiastic about country (10) |
| INTO (enthusiastic about) + NATION. A rare example of “about” used literally, rather than as an anagram or reversal indicator. | ||
| 5 | EDIFIED | Improved condition that is seen in teddy’s stuffing (7) |
| IF (condition) + IE (that is), within [t]EDD[y] – “stuffing” meaning the filling without the outer layer | ||
| 6 | ALONE | Unaccompanied in general on errands (5) |
| Hidden in [gener]AL ON E[rrands] | ||
| 7 | CALLED TO MIND | Name elevated poem about time with care remembered (6,2,4) |
| CALL (name), ODE elevated (upwards in a down clue) containing T (time), and MIND (care, as in “I don’t mind”) | ||
| 10 | FOR THE FALLEN | Poem read as memorial with frequency here, not out of order around autumn (3,3,6) |
| F (frequency) + anagram (out of order) of HERE NOT, around FALL (autumn) For the Fallen, poem by Laurence Binyon: includes the stanza “They shall grow not old . . .” regularly used in Remembrance Day services. |
||
| 13 | HALF NELSON | Hold hot flannel so anxiously (4,6) |
| H (hot) + anagram (anxiously) of FLANNEL SO. Hold as in wrestling. | ||
| 16 | PROTESTER | One who demonstrates corruption getting into trouble (9) |
| ROT (corruption) inserted into PESTER (trouble as a verb) | ||
| 18 | CHEKHOV | Playwright in church sorry about end of talk on old verse (7) |
| CH (church), EH (eh? = sorry, I didn’t hear that) around [tal]K, O (old), V (verse). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Chekhov | ||
| 20 | PORTICO | Left company outside one entrance to building (7) |
| PORT (left in nautical terminology) + CO (company), outside I (one) | ||
| 22 | TOTAL | Child, a learner, unqualified (5) |
| TOT (child) + A L (as in L-plate for learner driver). Total = unqualified as in “an unqualified disaster”. | ||
| 24 | MESH | Network in south restricted by northward border (4) |
| S (south) within (restricted by) HEM (border) going northward (upwards in a down clue) | ||
*anagram
Thank you, Quirister, I needed your explanations for the parsing of 27a and 10d. The rest was straightforward and, as you say, a fitting tribute.
(I need to go out for a couple of hours, but I’ll respond to any further comments when I get back.)
As you say, a nice tribute. Nothing too tricky, perhaps helped by the mini-theme.
Thank you Everyman for this centenary tribute and Quirister for an interesting blog.
Enjoyed this. No problems this time. Thank you Quinster. I think this is your first blog.
Great work Everyman.
Nice crossie. Enjoyed the WWI references.
Amazing win for the BCs overnight.
Very nice.
And for those in the UK (or elsewhere for that matter) in NZ we are ashamed at the low life amongst us who took the life of that lovely tourist. Gut wrenching. They have found both the body and the perpetrator but that is scant consolation. So, so sorry. ?
Particularly enjoyed 26a with ‘saint’ being part of both the straight clue and the answer (someone else put this far more eloquently the other week!).