After the excitement last week of the publication of the themed 4000th puzzle, it’s back to normal this week for Everyman, with the usual trademark inclusions.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Street fight: Dutch doctor’s lost for words
STRUCK DUMB
A charade of ST, RUCK, DU and MB.
6 Elephant seals, somewhat tiny creatures?
ANTS
Hidden in ElephANT Seals.
9 According to Spooner, bargain: money for lingerie
GARTER BELT
A Spoonerism of BARTER GELT. GELT is a slang word for ‘money’. If you have a passing acquaintance with German, you’ll recognise it as being cognate with their word for ‘money’, das Geld, and it’s also a Yiddish word, found in the tradition of Hanukkah gelt.
10 So, fierce type’s in retreat
ERGO
A reversal of OGRE.
12 Checking son’s in further education
RESTRAINING
An insertion of S in RETRAINING. The insertion indicator is ‘in’.
15 Kindly: is the crossword setter displaying competence?
AMIABLY
A charade of AM I ABLY. Since ‘kindly’ is both an adverb and an adjective, AMIABLE also works as a solution but doesn’t fit with the crossers.
16 In Yorkshire, the motive for sedition
TREASON
If there were trouble at t’mill in Yorkshire, ‘appen tha’d try ter find out t’reason fer it.
17 Ottoman ruler, a sweet little thing
SULTANA
A dd.
19 Sibling, base and negative, sent back book
GENESIS
A reversal of SIS, E for the mathematical ‘base’ and NEG. Still at number one in the Old Testament after all these years.
20 Look: handle smeared with blood
LO AND BEHOLD
(HANDLE BLOOD)* with ‘smeared’ as the anagrind.
23 Arrest Brad
NAIL
A dd.
24 Police officer’s performance to cause concern
DISCONCERT
A charade of DI’S and CONCERT.
25 Gesture: a wave, did you say?
SIGN
An aural wordplay for SINE, which is a type of ‘wave’.
26 Monthly magazine that’s set in the Napoleonic Wars
VANITY FAIR
Another dd: the second element referring to the novel by William Makepeace Thackeray.
Down
1 Leaves, being wise
SAGE
Another dd.
2 Bloody sparse
RARE
And another.
3 Booze concocted by dry rancher
CHERRY BRANDY
(BY DRY RANCHER)* with ‘concocted’ as the anagrind.
4 Musician in bed, laid up. Demanding? Not at first
DEBUSSY
A charade of BED reversed (‘laid up’, since it’s a down clue) and [F]USSY.
5 Spot a canary and a rodent
MOLE RAT
A charade of MOLE with its ‘mark on the skin’ meaning and RAT. ‘Canary’, like RAT, has the sense of an informer or snitcher.
7 Man’s crisis: awful vanity
NARCISSISM
(MANS CRISIS)* with ‘awful’ as the anagrind.
8 Edits songs displaying tedium
STODGINESS
(EDITS SONGS)* with ‘displaying’ as the anagrind.
11 OK if Nan, Dan, Eddy becoming tormented
FINE AND DANDY
(IF NAN DAN EDDY)* with ‘becoming tormented’ as the anagrind.
13 Figures denoting corporations’ growth?
WAISTLINES
A cd. ‘Corporation’ is another word for ‘fat’, usually of the excess variety.
14 Everyman’s on the up, succeeded, getting ahead? Not entirely accurate
MISLEADING
A charade of I’M reversed, S and LEADING.
18 Land in Birmingham Eric acquired
AMERICA
Hidden in BirminghAM ERIC Acquired.
19 Originally grainy nodules; often cheesy; cuisine’s highly Italian!
GNOCCHI
The initial letters of the last seven words of the clue and a cad.
21 Product of Greece, regularly effectual
FETA
The even letters of eFfEcTuAl.
22 Luminary‘s heavenly body
STAR
And a final dd.
Many thanks to Everyman for this week’s puzzle.
Tripped up on GARTER BELT, which is annoying. Also been a long time since A level Maths – how is E a base? I liked VANITY FAIR.
I could not parse:
– 25ac – SIGN = gesture, wave?
– the DU in 1ac ST + RUCK + DU + MB – does DU = Dutch?
I got 5d wrong – for some reason I entered MALL RAT.
Thanks, both.
* posting now as I could not access the site since 27 June. I use a Mac and it would not even work with http instead of https
In 17a, does the ‘a’ in the clue not belong with ‘Ottoman Ruler’ as wordplay? So you get Ottoman Ruler (SULTAN) + A = ‘sweet little thing’. I don’t think that Sultanas ever got to do much ruling …
WD @1; from Chambers: The base of the natural system of logarithms (see Napierian) (mathematics)
Thanks! I enjoyed the (slight) maths theme, of sine and e.
Spooner’s catflap @3 A Sultana is the wife of a Sultan.
Thanks for the blog, I agree that there were a lot of double definitions .
GARTER BELT must be US , we say suspender belt, a garter is simply a band used to cut off all circulation.
SC @ 3 – I think the same
I still don’t get WAISTLINES
Fiona@ 9 Corporation is a slang term for the stomach .
Roz @ 10
Thanks
Great puzzle.
Could not parse “mole rat” (of which I’d never heard; had to do a web search) — did not see the canary/rat = informer connection.
Agree with SC@3 and BMO@8.
Thanks to Everyman and to Pierre.
Like Michelle @2 I mistakenly put Mall Rat. Last one in and I gave up trying to find something more satisfactory. A good crossword, and a couple of humorous notes in the blog to add to the fun.
Oh, and although people on this site are generally down on spoonerisms, I thought today’s was very neat.
Left AMIABLE in 15A which I think is a better answer, so DNF on Debussy and never heard of a garter belt. Barter Gelt? Strained methinks.
Treason was nice though.
NOT a Garter belt surely
And 26a – had me thinking
Rob.
Waistlines could work as an anagram for figures in 13d. I also put mall rat.
Favourite was 16a.
Did not get WAISTLINES, & don’t like it! Enjoyed the Spoonerism; SULTANA & VANITY FAIR our faves.
Finished with a flourish while driving home from weekend away
Top corner tough – in NZ a ruck is not a fight, since around 198 when the rugby rules were toughened up.
Never heard of a garter belt – Barrie you are hanging around with the wrong people.