One of Everyman’s better crosswords this weekend, at least in my opinion.
As we’ve come to expect, we have a related pair of longish answers (the with / without of 3d / 11d), some imaginative anagram indicators (where 23a is perhaps stretching the limits a bit), and a bit of French (4d). Only one &lit this time (2d). I particularly liked 22a (the idea seems familiar but it’s still amusing) and 14d (the surface presumably referring to recent political difficulties in the States). Thanks Everyman for the entertainment.
Definitions are underlined; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | T E LAWRENCE | ‘Perhaps Stamp Act’s boring?’ – renowned army officer (1,1,8) |
| TERENCE (perhaps the actor Terence Stamp), with LAW (act, as in Act of Parliament) inserted (boring = making a hole in it). The army officer also known as Lawrence of Arabia. |
||
| 6 | SLOP | Second chop is unappealing food (4) |
| S (second) + LOP (chop = cut short). | ||
| 9 | EURYTHMICS | Lacking a piano, music therapy revised for ’80s pop duo (10) |
| Anagram (revised) of MUSIC THER[ap]Y, lacking A + P (piano = quiet in music notation). Eurythmics – was it really that long ago? I must be getting old. |
||
| 10 | BRIE | Berliner oddly taken with cheese (4) |
| Odd-numbered letters only (oddly taken) of B[e]R[l]I[n]E[r]. | ||
| 12 | OBSCURITIES | Little is known about these biscuits baked with roe (11) |
| Anagram (baked) of BISCUITS + ROE. | ||
| 14 | UKELELE | Instrument whereby Europe divides UK and the French, twice (7) |
| E (Europe) between UK and LE (French for “the”) twice. Musical instrument, also spelt ukulele. |
||
| 15 | SCHOOLS | Son loses enthusiasm about, primarily, higher educational establishments (7) |
| S (son) + COOLS (loses enthusiasm), containing (about) the first letter (primarily) of Higher. | ||
| 16 | ENAMOUR | During crash of Euro, fellow returns with charm (7) |
| MAN (fellow), reversed (returns), inserted into (during) an anagram (crash) of EURO. Charm as a verb. |
||
| 18 | YOU’RE ON | Solver’s taking long time? I accept that (5,2) |
You’re on = I accept your offer / challenge. |
||
| 19 | SELF-CENTRED | Narcissistic novelist given small amount of money and wine (4-7) |
| SELF (the author Will Self) + CENT (small amount of money) + RED (wine). | ||
| 22 | EVEN | What odds may – or may not – be (4) |
| Double definition, though it’s hard to say where one definition ends and the other starts. Odds (probabilities in betting) may be even = 50/50; but odd numbers aren’t even numbers. | ||
| 23 | JOHN CLEESE | Comedian‘s heartless joke describes higher echelons (4,6) |
| J[ok]E (heartless = middle letters removed), around (describing) an anagram (higher?) of ECHELONS. | ||
| 24 | TARP | Idiot comes back with waterproof (4) |
| PRAT (idiot), reversed (comes back). Short for tarpaulin, but more common in US English than UK. |
||
| 25 | CRISPY DUCK | Going around Cyprus, Dick gets something to eat (6,4) |
| Anagram (going around) of DICK CYPRUS. Chinese dish, often eaten rolled in pancakes. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | TIES | Draws even with final four of penalties (4) |
| Final four letters of [penal]TIES. “Draws” would have been enough for the definition (tie = draw = a sports match ending with scores level; though in cricket this is always called a tie, and a draw means something different). But you could say “draw even” = tie = achieve a position where the scores are level. |
||
| 2 | LARD | Primarily, lipoid adiposity rendered digestible? (4) |
| First letters (primarily) of Lipoid Adiposity Rendered Digestible. Clue-as-definition (&lit): fat rendered from the adipose tissue of pigs and used in cooking. |
||
| 3 | WITH ONE VOICE | Notice how I’ve given free rein to a man (4,3,5) |
| Anagram (given free rein) of NOTICE HOW I’VE. To a man = with one voice = unanimously. |
||
| 4 | EN MASSE | All together, magically, finally: ‘Open Sesame!’ (2,5) |
| Anagram (magically) of the final letter of [ope]N + SESAME. Everyman likes using French expressions, as we’ve noted before, but this one at least is fairly common in English usage. |
||
| 5 | COCK-UPS | Company with £1,000 invested in support’s making mistakes (4-3) |
| CO (company), then K (slang for £1,000, especially in quoting salary levels) inserted into CUPS (support, as in a bra) – or perhaps CUP’S for the possessive support’s. | ||
| 7 | LORD IT OVER | Act as master in torrid love resort (4,2,4) |
| Anagram (re-sort) of TORRID LOVE. | ||
| 8 | PRESSES ON | Throng, with nose out of joint, continues moving forward (7,2) |
| PRESS (throng = crowd) + anagram (out of joint) of NOSE. | ||
| 11 | WITHOUT DELAY | Wild youth ate nuts hastily (7,5) |
| Anagram (nuts = crazy) of WILD YOUTH ATE. | ||
| 13 | DERAILLEUR | Suppressing a pain, regret inflamed rear that’s used in cycling (10) |
| RUE (regret) + RED (inflamed), all reversed (rear = stand up on end, so upwards in a down clue), containing (suppressing) A ILL (a pain). Derailleur gears = transmission system used in bicycles. |
||
| 14 | UNEASIEST | Independent in US Senate troubled, most troubled (9) |
| I (Independent) in an anagram (troubled) of US SENATE. | ||
| 17 | RANCOUR | Enmity engendered by Franco urgently (7) |
| Hidden answer in (engendered by) [f]RANCO UR[gently]. | ||
| 18 | Y-FRONTS | Norse wearing strangely frosty underwear (1-6) |
| N (Norse) inserted into (wearing) an anagram (strangely) of FROSTY. The abbreviation N for Norse is a little obscure – but ON can mean the language Old Norse, and Cambridge University has a department ASNC (or ASNaC) which stands for Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic. | ||
| 20 | MENU | Assistance in ordering some prime numbers (4) |
| Hidden answer (some) in [pri]ME NU[mbers]. List providing assistance in ordering food in a restaurant. |
||
| 21 | BERK | Queen’s shielded by bishop and king? Idiot (4) |
| ER (Elizabeth Regina = the Queen), between (shielded by) B and K (bishop and king, in chess notation). Berk = idiot, though the derivation (via Cockney rhyming slang) makes it a rather more offensive word than that. |
||
Agreed: an enjoyable crossword, with some lovely surfaces.
In 18ac, ‘solver’s’ indicates YOUR rather than YOU’RE: the last ‘e’ is part of EON.
I enjoyed this puzzle.
Thansk B+S
I had UKULELE for 14a, and was unaware there were other ways of spelling it – so I couldn’t complete 13d. Mind you, now that I know the latter’s solution, I very much doubt I would have got it anyway…. hey ho.
I enjoyed Y-FRONTS, COCK-UPS and T.E. LAWRENCE. Thank you Quirister for the explanations, and Everyman for the challenge.
Fairly straightforward and enjoyable Sunday puzzle.
Some small quibbles; E generally means European, not Europe, and N = Norse is a bit fanciful.
Thanks Everyman and Quirister.
Thanks, Quirister for the explanations. Got 1a by dint of having all the others but a wee bit far fetched? I suppose we have to get used to the obscure references. For some reason, although I’ve finished most of the recent ones, I’m still not altogether on Everymsn’s wavelength. Let’s see what today brings!
I was disappointed that the answer to 14a was UKELELE when the normal spelling is ukulele which is derived from the Hawaiian for “jumping flea” : uku flea + lele jumping.
Apparently the ukulele was brought to Hawaii by Portuguese immigrants who called it a machete. I suspect the word ukelele only exists because of mis-spellings but
it is rarely used.
Apart from 14a, a good enjoyable puzzle. My favourites were OBSCURITIES and WITH ONE VOICE. Thanks to Q and E.
Mike @1: thanks, you’re right. I’ve corrected the blog.
Thanks Quirister and Everyman. I enjoyed this but shared your reservations about ‘higher’ as an anagrind. I also dislike ‘engendered by’ as a hidden indicator – meaning ‘produced, brought into being’ it would be fine as a link word.
Favourite 13.
On the other hand, I’ve always spelt it UKELELE and only when I started doing crosswords did I find out that this was rare, if not actually wrong.
Everyman does love including random authors in the wordplay, doesn’t (s)he.
Finished although a number unparsed as never heard of Stamp or Self
Why is there an apostrophe in supports?
Did anyone else find the surface for 13d convoluted and unsatisfying? Otherwise an enjoyable puzzle. Thanks Everyman and Quirister.
I, too, believe the correct spelling is ukulele, and that is what the Oxford Dictionary has.
Enjoyed most of this but there were quite a few I couldn’t parse.
Duane, Remuera. I found that the most convoluted clue of all.
Like Sara @5 I cannot get on this setter’s wavelength, convoluted is the only word for some clues. (18ac, 13d, 1ac) Having said that, did reasonably well, but wish there were fewer anagrams to up the satisfaction factor
Nice escape for a few hours. Thanks Quipster & Everyman.
Overall I liked this puzzle. Needed a wildcard dictionary to get 13 down (“derailleur”) and even then couldn’t parse it. Otherwise no problems. Thanks to Everyman and to Quirister