Everyman N° 3,445 (14 October)

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The odd less common reference, the inevitable bit of geography, notably coherent surfaces – what more can one say? Everyman continues to produce crosswords which are not pitched too high for most beginners, but have enough spice to satisfy more experienced solvers.

Across
1 AUGUST Inspiring respect and admiration, Pinochet docked (6)
AUGUST[o] cut short (‘docked’). Augusto Pinochet, former Chilean dictator.
4 STANDARD Usual colours (8)
Double definition.
9 CHABLIS Wine, British – left one to be collected by Charles (7)
An envelope (‘to be collected by’) of B (‘British’) plus L (‘left’) plus I (‘one’) in CHAS (‘Charles’).
11 ENDORSE Support back, terribly sore (7)
A charade of END (‘back’) plus ORSE, an anagram (‘terribly’) of ‘sore’.
12 SOLID Weighty Roman coin American lost (5)
SOLID[us] (‘Roman coin’) withour US (‘American lost’).
13 ELEVENSES Cricket team’s grabbing extremely sensible coffee break (9)
An envelope (‘grabbing’) of SE (‘extremely SensiblE‘) in ELEVEN’S (‘cricket team’s’).
14 BACKBREAKING Stop working in finance, it’s exhausting (12)
An envelope (‘in’) of BREAK (‘stop working’) in BACKING (‘finance’).
18 CLUB SANDWICH Double-decker driver, say, coming to Channel port (4,8)
A charade of CLUB (golf, ‘driver, say’) plus SANDWICH (‘Channel port’).
21 BABY-FACED Like George Nelson confronted by sweetheart? (4-5)
A charade of BABY (‘sweetheart’) plus FACED (‘confronted’). George “Baby-face” Nelson, real name Lester Joseph Gillis, was a bank robber in ’30s Chicago.
23 RATEL Animal later let loose (5)
An anagram (‘let loose’) of ‘later’.
The Ratel, or Honey Badger
24 AURELIO Spanish boy in a university (Oriel), revised (7)
An anagram of ‘a’ plus U (‘university’) plus ‘Oriel’.
25 WHIPPET Dog and cat, cherished (7)
A charade of WHIP (‘cat’) plus PET (‘cherished’. as in a pet/cherished project).
26 DRY DOCKS Uninteresting, plants where ships may get repaired (3,5)
A charade of DRY (‘uninteresting’) plus DOCKS (‘plants’).
27 INMATE Prisoner‘s popular partner (6)
A charade of IN (‘popular’) plus MATE (‘partner’).
Down
1 ACCUSE Point the finger at copper in dodgy case (6)
An envelope (‘in’) of CU (chemical symbol, ‘copper’) in ACSE, an anagram (‘dodgy’) of ‘case’.
2 GLADLY Good woman accepting lead in Lolita with pleasure (6)
An envelope (‘accepting’) of L (‘lead in Lolita’) in G(‘good’) plus LADY (‘woman’).
3 SALAD DAYS Youth speaks about contemporary of J. Wayne? (5,4)
An enveolpe (‘about’) of A LADD (‘contemporary of J Wayne’; Alan Ladd, star of Shane and many other films) in SAYS (‘speaks’).
5 THE MERRY WIDOW Operetta article foolishly worried my wife (3,5,5)
A charade of THE (‘article’) plus MERRY WIDO, an anagram (‘foolishly’) of ‘worried my’ plus W (‘wife’).
6 NUDGE Approach groupies’ leader, stark naked outside (5)
An envelope (‘outside’) of G (‘Groupies leader’) in NUDE (‘stark naked’).
7 ACROSTIC Word puzzle, possibly Socratic (8)
An anagram (‘possibly’) of ‘Socratic’.
8 DRESSAGE Groom gaining silver, second in leading equestrian event (8)
A charade of DRESS (‘groom’) plus AG (chemical symbol, ‘silver’) plus E (‘second in lEading’).
10 SPEAKING CLOCK This will tell you when it becomes one (8,5)
Cryptic definition.
15 ACCORDION Correspond with head of institute concerning a musical instrument (9)
A charade of ACCORD (‘correspond’) plus I (‘head of Institute’) plus ON (‘concerning’).
16 SCABBARD One who won’t strike poet as a sword-carrier (8)
A charade of SCAB (‘one who wont strike’) plus BARD (‘poet’).
17 MULBERRY Causing laughter about limitless bulbs for tree (8)
An envelope (‘about’) of ULB (‘limitless bULBs’) in MERRY (‘causing laughter’).
19 UTOPIA More work in best one in outskirts of Uppsala (6)
An envelope (‘in’, the second one; the first just links definition and wordplay) of TOP (‘best’) plus I (‘one’) in UA (‘outskirts of UppsalA‘). Utopia was written by Sir Thomas More.
20 BLITHE Gay bishop, supple (6)
A charade of B (‘bishop’ in chess notation) plus LITHE (‘supple’).
22 FOLIO Fine miscellany in large book (5)
A charade of F (‘fine’, of pencils, for example) plus OLIO (‘miscellany’).

7 comments on “Everyman N° 3,445 (14 October)”

  1. Thanks Peter,

    I found this a little tougher than usual and have a question for you concerning aurelio which was my last answer
    and just sounded right. I could’t find any applicable reference to aurelio on Google and if one translates boy into
    Spanish, it returns ‘el niño’. The Spanish dictionary also doesn’t recognise aurelio as a valid word so where does
    this word come from ?.

    As to the puzzle, I particularly liked CLUB SANDWICH and WHIPPPET. Thanks Everyman.

  3. A/ U/ RELIO* shurely?

    As to the definition, which is presumably what irks Davy, there is certainly a tradition of defining names, particularly in subsidiary indication, as ‘boys’, though normally this is used for shortened forms (like BOB or PETE).

    But what you can’t argue with, I suppose, is that out there right now are many thousands of Spanish boys (and men) called Aurelio.

  4. Davy,

    Forgive me if I am stating what you already know, but your difficulty with Aurelio might be that you did not recall that there is a crossword convention – albeit a tired one – that any male given name may be clued as ‘boy’ (or ‘girl’ on the other side). Curiously, another Google hit on the name gives Oriel as a variant on Aurelio, although it seems that this has nothing to do with the origin of the Oxford College name.

  5. Thanks all…now who says that ?. I’ve never heard of the name Aurelio and was looking for it as a part of speech.
    I obviously need to get out more.

  6. Thanks, Peter.

    I enjoyed solving this one as always, and will simply echo the words in your preamble.

    That ratel has got a bit of a ‘don’t mess with me’ look about him, though.

Comments are closed.