The puzzle may be found as a pdf at https://www.tinyurl.com/Everyman4147.
All present and correct, with a few variations: there is an avian pairing at 8A PELICAN CROSSING and 22A DUCKING THE ISSUE; the ‘primrily’ clue at 23A MEOW; the self-reference at 2D ACCORDION; the geographical reference at 6D SPARTA; and two near misses (thus highlighted palely) at one-word anagrams at 9D LOGARITHMIC and 14D GET BEHIND. Perhaps this puzzle is a little harder than usual for Everyman, although that opinion might be coloured by the time I spent before getting the wordplay for 4D BORSTAL. As usual, the ‘primarily’ clue provides an easy entry, and there is a generous helping of double definitions to keep things moving.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | RASH |
Unguarded hives? (4)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 4 | BALE |
Announced legal collateral package (4)
|
| Sounds like (‘announced’) BAIL (‘legal collateral’). | ||
| 8 | PELICAN CROSSING |
Safe arrangement in which breeding comes with large bill? (7,8)
|
| A charade of PELICAN (‘comes with large bill’) plus CROSSING (‘breeding’). I have split up the wordplay to emphasise how it works, but it is better treated as a whimsical cryptic second definition. See here if you are not familiar with the primary definition. | ||
| 11 | REGARDS |
Compliments looks (7)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 12 | TORPEDO |
Put an end to fuss about Republican games (7)
|
| An envelope (‘about’) of R (‘Republican’) plus PE (‘games’) in TO-DO (‘fuss’). | ||
| 13 | AIR PISTOL |
I will dance with pilots, mostly arm in arm (3,6)
|
| An anagram (‘will dance’) of ‘I’ plus ‘pilots’ plus ‘ar[m]’ minus its last letter (‘mostly’). | ||
| 14 | GO RED |
Stuck flush (2,3)
|
| As one word: GORED (‘stuck’). | ||
| 15 | LET ON |
Allow to board – and squeal (3,2)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 16 | GREAT DANE |
Maybe Hans Christian Andersen, the dog! (5,4)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 19 | MOMBASA |
A mambo’s choreographed somewhere in Kenya (7)
|
| An anagram (‘choreographed’) of ‘a mambos’. | ||
| 21 | ROE DEER |
Uncapped pederero wounded woodland creatures (3,4)
|
| An anagram (‘wounded’) of ‘[p]ederero’ minus its first letter (‘uncapped’). A pederero was an old kind of gun for firing stones. | ||
| 22 | DUCKING THE ISSUE |
Stuck inside – huge blunder – avoiding reality (7,3,5)
|
| An anagram (‘blunder’) of ‘stuck inside huge’. | ||
| 23 | MEOW |
Primarily, mog’s exclamation (or wail!) (4)
|
| The ‘primarily’ clue: first letters of ‘Mog’s Exclamation Or Wail’. If you afe not familiar with it, ‘mog’ or moggy is a familiar word (or name) for a cat. | ||
| 24 | TIDE |
Season limited, did you say? (4)
|
| Sounds like (‘did you say?’) TIED (‘limited’). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | ACCORDION |
Agreement: Everyman never to pick up musical instrument (9)
|
| A charade of ACCORD (‘agreement’) plus I (‘Everyman’) plus ON, a reversal (‘to pick up’ in a down light) of NO (‘never’). | ||
| 3 | HANDSET |
Had sent off for phone component (7)
|
| An anagram (‘off’) of ‘had sent’. | ||
| 4 | BORSTAL |
Muscle collective commit crime – picked up here? (7)
|
| A reversal (‘picked up’ – NOT a soundalike this time) of LATS (the latissimus dorsi muscles of the back, ‘muscle collective’) plus ROB (‘commit crime’), with an extended definition. | ||
| 5 | LOSER |
No-hoper, charlie abandoning one sealing deal (5)
|
| A subtraction: [c]LOSER (‘one sealing deal’) minus the C (‘charlie abandoning’). | ||
| 6 | SPARTA |
A sneaky trick’s backfiring somewhere in ancient Greece (6)
|
| A reversal (‘backfiring’) of A TRAP’S (‘a sneaky trick’s’). Sparta is also a modern city in the same place. | ||
| 7 | AGE-OLD |
Ancient earl sporting a medal (3-3)
|
| An envelope (‘sporting’) of E (‘earl’) in A GOLD (‘a medal’). | ||
| 9 | LOGARITHMIC |
A microlight deployed in concerning operation (11)
|
| An anagram (‘deployed’) of ‘a microlight’. | ||
| 10 | ICEBREAKERS |
They float topics to start conversation (11)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 14 | GET BEHIND |
Support benighted rogue (3,6)
|
| An anagram (‘rogue’) of ‘benighted’. | ||
| 15 | LAMBDA |
Greek character represented by naïve type, US lawyer (6)
|
| A charade of LAMB (‘naïve type’) plus DA (District Attourney, ‘US lawyer’). | ||
| 16 | GLASGOW |
City‘s wing exhausted; goal’s unlikely (7)
|
| An anagram (‘unlikely’) of WG (‘WinG exhausted’) plus ‘goals’. | ||
| 17 | EARSHOT |
Hearing sign they’re talking about you? (7)
|
| EARS HOT. | ||
| 18 | EARNED |
Achieved, somewhat learnedly (6)
|
| A hidden answer (‘somewhat’) in ‘lEARNEDly’. | ||
| 20 | ANISE |
Aromatic slice of flan I served (5)
|
| A hiddel answer (‘slice of’) in ‘flAN I SErved’. |
Pedants corner: 8 should really be ‘pelicOn crossing’ given the definition. When this type of ‘safe arrangement’ was introduced in the UK (late 60s / early 70s?) I well recall they were ‘PEdestrian LIght CONtrolled crossings’ and were spelled as such. Spelling with an A crept in later. Of course the O variant rather ruins the bird pairing in place of the rhyme.
I agree this was a harder than usual Everyman, for the second week in a row.
Thanks to Everyman and PeterO.