Lorraine: Good morning one and all,
Nothing to taxing this week although I got the answers there were a few I had trouble working out. I had never heard of ‘dodge the column’ before.
Last in which had me stumped until Nick sorted it out for me was 23dn – we are still not sure of 11ac.
Big thank you to Everyman lovely puzzle as always, keep up the good work.
| Across | |||
| 1. | One from a special service brigade to order start of onslaught (8) | ||
| COMMANDO | COMMAND+O | ||
| 5. | A good man in coal mine is now too old (4,2) | ||
| PAST IT | A ST[saint] in PIT | ||
| 10. | Incidental remark from a subordinate (5) | ||
| ASIDE | A+SIDE | ||
| 11. | Sleep in Happy Valley (9) | ||
| DREAMLAND | cd? – ‘Happy Valley’ appears to be a synonym of ‘Dreamland’ (as well as theme parks!), as like (typical) ‘Never Never Land’ | ||
| 12. | Excellent penalty, with both sides in disarray? (4,3,5) | ||
| FINE AND DANDY | FINE[penalty]+AND[with]+D AND Y [‘D and Y’ are the sides of ‘disarray’!] | ||
| 15. | Diadem found in Haiti, a rarity (5) | ||
| TIARA | hidden: HaiTI, A RArity | ||
| 16. | US writer who ran the comic (9) | ||
| HAWTHORNE | (WHO RAN THE)* this American writer -> HERE |
||
| 18. | An overwhelming influx in a new church in a dell (9) | ||
| AVALANCHE | A+N+CH in A VALE | ||
| 19. | Tight-fisted type causing endless hardship (5) | ||
| MISER | MISER(y) | ||
| 20. | New record cover’s for an old ballad (12) | ||
| GREENSLEEVES | GREEN+SLEEVES | ||
| 24. | Two articles about lawlessness in a region of Ukraine (3,6) | ||
| THE CRIMEA | THE+A around CRIME | ||
| 25. | Oxygen needed by very great Greek character (5) | ||
| OMEGA | O+MEGA | ||
| 26. | Foremost of players, say, in a golf club (6) | ||
| PUTTER | P[layers]+UTTER | ||
| 27. | Sutures for small and very small people (8) | ||
| STITCHES | S+TITCHES | ||
| Down | |||
| 1. | Cleaner has appeal, no end (4) | ||
| CHAR | CHAR(m) | ||
| 2. | Help to support married servant (4) | ||
| MAID | AID after M | ||
| 3. | Stories about male and female bringing collectible items from the US (9) | ||
| AMERICANA | ANA[gossip, stories] around M+ERICA | ||
| 4. | Steer clear of the post to evade one’s duties (5,3,6) | ||
| DODGE THE COLUMN | dd | ||
| 6. | Tooled up, a revolutionary crossing top of mountain (5) | ||
| ARMED | A RED around M(ountain) | ||
| 7. | This car ran off the rails – in this? (5,5) | ||
| TRAIN CRASH | (THIS CAR RAN)* &lit | ||
| 8. | Toys by tree dad’s repackaged (5,5) | ||
| TEDDY BEARS | (BY TREE DAD’S)* | ||
| 9. | Make no progress dispelling new ghetto fears (3,7,4) | ||
| GET NOWHERE FAST | (NEW GHETTO FEARS)* | ||
| 13. | Tidy at university – honestly (8,2) | ||
| STRAIGHT UP | STRAIGHT+UP | ||
| 14. | Busy magnate bringing in staff for administration (10) | ||
| MANAGEMENT | MEN[staff] in (MAGNATE*) | ||
| 17. | Resolve, after much discussion, throwing event abroad (6,3) | ||
| HAMMER OUT | HAMMER+OUT | ||
| 21. | Hospital worker inside comes running over (5) | ||
| NURSE | hidden reverse: comES RUNning | ||
| 22. | Lot, husband of biblical character (4) | ||
| SETH | SET[lot, as in ‘job lot’]+H | ||
| 23. | Voice of inferior quality? Sounds like it (4) | ||
| BASS | homophone of BASE | ||
| …. | |||
16a Didn’t think much of this-how many will have heard of him? Not me.
3d I think ana is only used in crosswordland
4d -I hadn’t come across this either
23d I’m usually useless at homophones but for once I got this at first glance.
To me 16a & 4d spoilt an otherwise good crossword.
Have you not heard of “The Scarlet Letter”? Nathaniel Hawthorne’s most famous book.
Thanks Lorraine.
I have to say that DODGE THE COLUMN was new to me as well, but Everyman often will include a phrase that’s a little out of the ordinary – however, the answer was clear once you’d got a number of crossing letters.
I am struggling to understand how DREAMLAND can be equated to ‘Happy Valley’, if that is indeed how the clue works.
STITCHES made me smile.
John @2. Not at all.
We won a book token!
NZ Herald carries this several weeks after original publication. I understood 11a as Happy(Dream)and Valley(Land)= sleep?