Everyman Crossword No. 3265 (Apr 26)

Three clues 1ac, 1dn and especially 2dn, held me up for some minutes before I completed the crossword.

Across

1 CHOP-SUEY – CHOP (cut into pieces), SUEY, rev. of YE (the old), US (American)

5 CARPET – P (packed initially) in CARET (anag. of CRATE)

10 OTTER – deleting R from ROTTER (scoundrel)

11 POKER DICE – POKER (card game), D (daughter leading), ICE (diamonds)

12 CHOLERA – CHOLER – hom. of ‘collar’ (catch), A (a)

13 MINSTER – deleting the second instance of I in MINISTER (clergyman)

14 ARTS AND CRAFTS – anag of SCAN DRAFT STAR

18 FROM THE WORD GO – Two def

20 SIDEARM – anag of ADMIRES

22 PIONEER – I (one), ON in PEER (nobleman)

24 ALICE BAND – ALICE (girl), BAND (group)

25 FRUMP – F (prime piece of fillet), RUMP (steak)

26 ELEVEN – EL (the Spanish), EVEN (square)

27 ONE-LINER – ON (about), E (Eastern), LINER (ship)

Down

1 CHOICE – deleting C (literally the central letter, also an abbr. for centre) from choC-ice

2 OUT FOR A GOOD TIME – I had ‘… FOR A GOOD TIME’ from the crossings (had to look up what that w word meant, though!) and I put in OUT only after I got T from 10ac.

3 SERGE – two definitions

4 ESPLANADE – ESPLAN (anag of Naples), AD (notice), E (close to landing-stagE).

6 AARON’S ROD – Two definitions – As I knew the title of D.H. Lawrence’s novel, I solved this. Subsequently, on looking up the word ‘mullein’ in Chambers, I learnt that that plant is known also as Aaron’s rod.

7 POINT OF NO RETURN – anag. of FLIGHT UP FRONT R(Russia’s capital)

8 THEORISE – THEO (Lt. Kojak, movie character), RISE (to be promoted) – I solved it from def and the latter part of wordplay. Later I did an Internet search to understand the earlier part.

9 SKIM – S (second), Kim (Kipling novel)

15 TETE-A-TETE – actually TÊTE-À-TÊTE – A (first of all) in TETE, TETE (two Parisian heads, tête being the French term for ‘head’) – accent marks are ignored in fill-ins and these letters don’t affect crossings which may not have accent marks

17 DROPPED IN – DROPPED (left), I (one), N (noon)

19 PROPER – PRO (in favour of), PE (exercises), R (runs)

21 OFFAL – OFF (spoilt), A(a), L (lake)