A pretty straightforward puzzle, by and large, which took me about 15 minutes. The long answer at 1, 26 across was vaguely familiar, but felt a tad obscure – is it a common enough phrase?
ACROSS:
1. CHIEF COOK AND BOTTLE-WASHER (anag of first five words). Not sure about the origin, but the phrase means someone who has to do everything. In my line of work this is called multi-skilling, and apparently it’s very good for one’s career development, as well as saving one’s employer money. There also seems to be a rude meaning, but company web access policy won’t let me explore it, so I’ll have to use my imagination.
8. CHIC AGO. Nice clue, more satisfying than using IN, as I expected.
9. A(MATE U)R. As said before, I think U is now non-U, but never mind.
12. TRIP LET. (?) Not absolutely sure about this one, as inaccuracy = trip seems an imprecise fit.
14. P(OSTH)ASTE. Should it be two words?
16. OR CHEST RA. OR = ordinary ranks.
23. OPT I MUM. I like this one – good surface, reflecting what kids do when trying to get round you.
25. (D)ELUSION. Empty-headed as an alternative to headless.
DOWN:
1. CLIP PIE. Old word for a bus conductor. For younger readers, that’s the person who sold you tickets before the advent of multi-skilling (see 1ac).
3. FLOWERPOT. Again, I’m not sure of this, as I don’t quite see the wordplay. You pick a flower, and to pocket a snooker ball is to pot it, but how does ‘used by pickpocket’ give ‘flowerpot’?
5. K NAVISH (HIS VAN*).
6. NEED LES. Sewers = things that sew.
7. OCEANOLOGIST. A lone cryptic definition – ‘main’ referring to the sea.
10. RE(TRENCH ME)NT. ME being a mining engineer, I gather.
15. SO(A)POP ERA.
19. RETOUCH. (HE CUT OR).
22. SATI(r)E. Ref French composer Erik Satie.
just a tad curious as to the 5 clues not mentioned – by coincidence the same 5 that I couldn’t get and the reason I did the search that led me to this posting in the first place.
(11, 21 & 24 ac. 17 & 18 d.)
Pip pip!
Chambers gives POSTHASTE only as one word, sans hyphen.
It doesn’t give any unexpected definitions of FLOWERPOT to shed light on the mysterious pickpocket connection.
Re PICKPOCKET. Chambers includes, for “flower”: “The best of anything”, which would seem to be equivalent to the “pick” of anything. Hence Pick-pocket could = flower-pot.
Robin, sorry my choice of which answers to leave out was unhelpful – we never give all the answers, but my selection tends to go on how much I have to say about them. I actually skipped ten, but here are the ones you mention:
11 ac: A(PP)RISE.
21 ac: ILL NESS (ill=bad, ness=head, +lit).
24 ac:T(E MP)EST (screen= test as a verb).
17 dn: C(O L)OMBO.
18 dn: LUM PIER. Lum”s an old word for chimney, and support is quite often pier (when it isn’t bra).
As for PICKPOCKET, I suspect Rufus has the correct explanation, in which case ‘used by’ is just linkage.
thanx – luckily life in the office has slowed down so I managed most of the rest. Pickpocket is a good example of the drawbacks of having an internet connection when solving a crossword – I picked up on the ‘used by’ and was deep into research into criminal slang before realising, as you say, that it’s just a link. What did you make of 18 down, which still has me beat? (‘lumpier’ is 20 dn).
Okay – ‘element’ – just figured it out – E=LE(MEN)T – these early starts are playing havoc with my brain!
Depends on your point of view, but {answer ‘used by’ subsidiary parts} would possibly excite me rather less than some other options.