A fairly straightforward puzzle from Everyman this week, with a profusion of anagrams and simple charades, and nothing too obscure save, perhaps, 2 down.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PASTEURISE | *PARTS IE USE |
| 6 | SCAR | Hidden in ‘FranceSCA Recently’ |
| 10 | TULIP |
TIP around first and last letters (‘extremely’) of ‘UltimatelY’ |
| 11 | PRODUCERS | *CRUDE in PROS |
| 12 | BOARDING SCHOOL | BOARDING + SCHOOL (=’train’) |
| 14 | HOVERED | *HE DROVE |
| 15 | PIERROT |
ERROr in PIT, for the archtypal sad clown of the Commedia dell’Arte |
| 17 | QUEUE UP | Homophone of ‘cue’, = signal to act, + UP, = ‘at college’ |
| 19 | SCORPIO |
The zodiac sign represents the animal, but is written without its last letter, or tail – to remove its sting? |
| 20 | ENGAGEMENT RING | Cryptic definition |
| 23 | APPLIANCE | *PLACE A PIN |
| 24 | IMAGE | IE (that is) outside MAG(azine, or Sunday supplement), rather than the other way round. |
| 25 | DARK | D+ARK |
| 26 | LOVE LETTER | 😉 |
| Down | ||
| 1 | PATH | Hidden in ‘bellhoP AT Hotel’ |
| 2 | SULLOM VOE |
 *VOLUME SO L(arge) – the anagram fodder was obvious, but I’d never heard of the place. |
| 3 | EMPEROR PENGUIN |
*UPPER REGION MEN, but they live in the Antarctic, so from most of our point of view, the ‘lowest’ region 🙂 |
| 4 | REPLIED | REP + LIED |
| 5 | STOPGAP | STOP + GAP |
| 7 | CREDO |
C + RED + O The inner ring, or bull’s-eye, in darts is red |
| 8 | RESOLUTION | RE + SOLUTION, though I’ve a feeling the chemists among us will tell us that a suspension is not the same thing. |
| 9 | QUICHE LORRAINE |
 QU + 1 + LORRAINE around CHE |
| 13 | CHEQUE CARD | Homophone of ‘Czech’ + CARD as in “He’s quite a card/character!” |
| 16 | REPENTANT | REP + *TENANT |
| 18 | PIMENTO | *POINT ME. I know allspice is also known as Jamaican pepper, but I didn’t know it can also be referred to as ‘pimento’, as it is in fact not a pepper. |
| 19 | SINCERE | SINCE + RE, the second note in the solfège |
| 21 | GAPER | APE in GR |
| 22 | HEAR | Cryptic definition |
*anagram
Hold mouse over clue number to see clue, click a solution to see its definition.
Many thanks Stella & Everyman this was very enjoyable and, in my opinion, rather harder than usual but all the better for it.
I’d never before heard of SULLOM VOE – after all I live in England and I’ve never ventured into The Highlands.
Sadly, the excellent clue to CHEQUE CARD is out-of-date: such cards haven’t worked since 30 June 2011.
When I saw QUICHE LORRAINE, I assumed it was a tribute to our Lorraine and I am sure that if Everyman had known that she would be away today (gone to Paul’s wedding maybe?) then he would have provided a more relevant clue which you could have solved with great aplomb:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=stella+lager&hl=en&rlz=1R2GFRE_enGB331&biw=1024&bih=581&prmd=ivns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=tu00TtquHcyp8QPAmrSgDg&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CCUQ_AUoAQ
Thanks as ever for the entertaining blog Lorraine, and to Everyman.
A couple of scientific quibbles: as you indicate in the blog, a suspension is certainly not the same as a solution. Nor is ‘pasteurise’ (1ac) a synonmym for ‘sterilise’. Sterilisation requires a substance to be treated (usually by heating) to kill all microbes, whereas pasteurisation is a form of heat treatment that slows down the growth of microbes without eliminating them completely. Hence pasteurised milk will curdle after a few days whereas sterilised milk will remain drinkable for a lengthy period.
Hi Bryan and Wolfie, who must have been affected by all that lager!
Thanks for your comments. Personally, I prefer milk that goes off in a few days if this leaves the taste unaltered.
Apologies to you Stella (and to Lorraine) for getting the two of you mixed up. In my case I can’t blame the lager for my confusion; must have been the after-effects of my day at the Trent Bridge test match!
Here’s another one with the after-effects of Trent Bridge: nearly losing my voice screaming at Broad’s hat-trick and getting sunburnt despite slapping on lots of factor whatever.
As for the puzzle: straightforward and sound stuff, although I do agree with Wolfie’s comments about the lack of exactness in the ‘scientific’ answers. (But listen, setters get away with equating ‘Ulster’ and ‘Northern Ireland’.) I did know SULLOM VOE – must have been in the news in the past for some reason – but I had to check its spelling.
Thanks to Stella for the blog.
Small point, the ‘inner’ in 7d is the ring round the bull on an archery target.
I stick to what I know, sidey. I haven’t the strength to pull a bow 🙂
I envy those who have occasion to suffer the stress of a Test match. The best I get is Nadal not winning Wimbledon – he’s had a bad year – and Alonso and his Ferrari edging up on Red Bull, occasionally.