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.
GrahaminSydney @1
Wikipedia seems to disagree. In the link I gave, it agrees that the term derives from the portmanteau you note, but shows the cover of the Statuory Instrument by which they were introduced in 1969, which announces them as “Pelican” Pedestrian Crossings; that is not to say that some people did not use the etymological form.