Everyman No. 3508 (29th December)

Nick:  Me again folks, Lorraine has been laid up with flu for 5 days.

Fairly tough for an Everyman, I thought, but some great anagram work going on.
I have a slight query with 7dn – not sure what is going on there.

 

Across
1. Dance with former copper and seem clumsy (6-2)
EXCUSE-ME EX+CU+(SEEM*)
5. Material‘s marvellous, very amusing once abridged (6)
FABRIC FAB+RIC(h)
10. Very little fly found in tin (7)
SMIDGEN MIDGE in SN
11. Understanding of current things in variety (7)
INSIGHT I(i = electric current)+(THINGS*)
12. Show deficit after end of trading (5)
GLOSS LOSS after (tradin)G
13. Active at night? No? Go in around beginning of Lent (9)
NOCTURNAL NO+((TURN in (CA+L))
14. Film makers run into trouble blocking those advising caution? (6,8)
WARNER BROTHERS i (R in BOTHER) in WARNERS
17. Crony, architect, organised benefit show (7,7)
CHARITY CONCERT (CRONY ARCHITECT)*
21. We do, after a struggle, accommodate writer (9)
WODEHOUSE i (WE DO*)+HOUSE
23. Trouble after advertising Madrid gallery (5)
PRADO i PR+ADO
24. Stylish defence saving one heading towards trouble (2,3,2)
IN FOR IT IN[stylish]+(I in FORT)
25. English PM suppressing ambassador’s nickname (7)
EPITHET i E+(HE in PITT)
26. Go round Ayr and get lost (6)
GYRATE (AYR+GET)*
27. Ratings cooked unknown fish (8)
STRINGRAY (RATINGS*)+Y[unknown]

Down
1. Soldier who carries the Colours in? Gen’s misleading (6)
ENSIGN (IN? GEN’S)*
2. Fried potato – a lot cooked, served with a sausage (9)
CHIPOLATA CHIP+(A LOT*)
3. Hires Mark, disciple (5,2)
SIGNS ON SIGN+SON
4. Unseen establishment figures, good inside foreign ministry? (Unseen mostly) (3,2,4,5)
MEN IN GREY SUITS G in (MINISTRY+UNSEE(n)*)
6. Offensive, a sailor reportedly (7)
ASSAULT homophone: A SALT (i.e. a sailor)
7. Possessed girl, a daughter of King Lear (5)
REGAN this seems to be a cryptic plain definition? See comments #1 and
#2 – ref ‘The Exorcist’
8. Spurn girl initially, girl with a refined accent? (3-5)
CUT GLASS i CUT+G(irl)+LASS
9. Military manoeuvre – could it be the making of prince? (6,8)
PINCER MOVEMENT i pun that movement of PINCER = PRINCE
15. Attention given to female in pub, incessant talker (9)
EARBASHER EAR+(SHE in BAR)
16. Heather following barge, glowering (8)
SCOWLING LING after SCOW
18. Be left at home with that girl, Italian (7)
INHERIT IN+HER+IT
19. Legend, suitable, I displayed in study (7)
CAPTION (APT+I) in CON
20. Somebody deserving (6)
WORTHY cdd
22. Give way in Grande ferry (5)
DEFER hidden: granDE FERry

11 comments on “Everyman No. 3508 (29th December)”

  1. Thanks Nick and Everyman,

    I agree that this was on the tough side for an Everyman.

    7dn is a double definition/reference: The other half is Regan MacNeil, from The Exorcist.

  2. Thanks Nick and Everyman. Found this rather easy. Had out-class in 8d which made 5a difficult. 4d and 9d came very quickly for such long clues. I think the enumeration helped. 21a was quite nice.

  3. Many thanks Nick & Everyman.

    I was sorry to hear about Lorraine. Please tell her to get well soon. We do miss her.

    The only daughter of King Lear I could remember was Regan – which was fortunate because the allusion to ‘The Exorcist’ was way above my head.

  4. Thanks for comments #1 & #2 – I have corrected the entry @ 7dn.
    Now, having never seen The Exorcist, I could have stared at that clue for days without ever getting it.

    Thanks,

    Nick

  5. Count me as another who only got 7dn from the daughter of King Lear. I liked the clue for PINCER MOVEMENT. CHARITY CONCERT was my LOI after SCOWLING.

  6. (From Everyman 3501)

    After solving the above-mentioned Everyman in its local appearance, a solver wrote the following in the Comment section of an India-based blog
    http://thehinducrosswordcorner.blogspot.in/

    Quote begins

    From today’s TH Sunday CW:

    26 Extracting pounds from sport (8) WREST(-L)ING

    Is extracting doing double duty?

    Quote ends

    I would think that the observation is right.

    Yet I find that in the blog on this site PeterO wrote (in the main blog itself): “The subtraction is indicated by ‘from’, so that ‘extracted’ does not have to do double duty.”

    My question is: Is “pounds from sport” enough as an instruction to delete L from ‘wrestling’ (sport)?

  7. Rishi,

    To me just ‘from’ doesn’t indicate a removal, ‘removed from’, or ‘taken from’ yes.

    But having said that, Chambers first entry for ‘From’ is ‘out of’ – so transpose the clue:

    ‘pounds out of sport’ works.

    Nick

  8. I found this crossword rather hard and didn’t get too far with it. Too cryptic for just my brain and needed someone else to ‘spa off’. It doesn’t help having 2 grand-daughters living here at the moment. Not getting a couple of the longer answers is always a hindrance, too.
    I’ve never heard of ‘cut-glass’ as meaning a refined accent. An English term?
    So saying, looking at the answers there were a few I should have got easily.
    Oh well, next week….

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