Another entertaining and cleverly clued puzzle from Everyman, although there were – unusually – a couple that didn’t really hit the spot for me this morning. You’ll no doubt tell me if I haven’t understood them. I don’t know about you, but I found this on the hard side.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) missing
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Look towards daughter wearing right cosmetic
FACE POWDER
A charade, of FACE for ‘look towards’ and D for ‘daughter’ in POWER for ‘right’. The insertion indicator is ‘wearing’.
6 Not working, one on dole lacking nothing!
IDLE
A charade of I and D[O]LE.
10 Search for fugitive knight hiding in shed on isle
MANHUNT
The Isle of MAN is followed by N for the chess ‘knight’ in HUT.
11 Exaggerate about something done
OVERACT
A charade of OVER for ‘about’ and ACT for ‘something done’.
12 Such as dates that can’t be kept?
FORBIDDEN FRUIT
A cd, I think, playing on the fact that ‘dates’ could be read in the ‘going out on a date’ sense. Unless someone has a better idea.
14 Snag affected church
HITCH
A charade of HIT and CH. ‘The less well off have been really hit/affected by the coalition’s policies.’
15 Girl fronting group wanting ribbon for hair . . .
ALICE BAND
The girl, ALICE, is up front and personal with the group, BAND. So called because it was worn by the main character in Through the Looking-Glass, and what Alice Found There, by Lewis Carroll. Mainly a girl thing, but David Beckham made it a fashion for boys as well. Don’t think you’d get many rugby players wearing one.
17 . . . left group to get one during commercial
ABANDONED
An insertion of BAND (again) and ONE in AD for ‘commercial’. The ellipses are – as usual – just a distraction for the solver, although the two clues can be read together.
19 I’m driven through illuminated border
LIMIT
An insertion of I’M in LIT.
21 Excited, gents in chopper leaving mall
SHOPPING CENTRE
(GENTS IN CHOPPER)*
24 Ill at ease, a graduate approaching cast
ABASHED
A charade of A, BA for ‘graduate’ and SHED for the verbal definition of ‘cast’. Some creatures like snakes shed their skin all in one go; we are more leisurely about the process, taking on average a month to gradually replace our epidermis.
25 Restrict charges to be made for weaving a carpet
RATE-CAP
(A CARPET)* The anagrind is ‘weaving’.
26 Archer‘s painful back
EROS
A reversal (‘back’) of SORE for the archer most famously found in the middle of Piccadilly Circus in London, and the god of sensual love.
27 Bluff new blue following piece of publicity
PROMONTORY
A charade of PROMO, N and TORY.
Down
1 Celebrity in Cardiff, American
FAME
Hidden in CardifF AMErican.
2 Dupe kind companion
CONSORT
A charade of CON and SORT.
3 Experience the worst extremes, as worker in sewer might?
PLUMB THE DEPTHS
I think I see what Everyman is getting at, but a not very convincing dd cum cd, imho.
4 Comedian, tired after second of shows, is taken out
WITHDRAWN
A charade of WIT, H for the second letter of ‘shows’ and DRAWN for ‘tired’.
5 Girl writer deserted to run off with another?
ELOPE
Everyman is asking you to think of PENELOPE as the ‘girl’ and then remove PEN for ‘writer’. Hard clue; good surface.
7 Eccentric over at university, the French count
DRACULA
A reversal of CARD for ‘eccentric’ followed by U and LA for one of the French words for ‘the’.
8 Car or inheritance tax?
ESTATE DUTY
Another dd cum cd that I didn’t much warm to, although you may beg to differ. ‘Inheritance tax’ is ESTATE DUTY; as indeed would be the road tax that you paid on an ESTATE car.
9 Meat dish given duke following complaint
BEEF WELLINGTON
A charade of the Duke of WELLINGTON preceded by BEEF for ‘complaint’. It’s not named after the Duke, apparently. Haven’t seen it on a menu for ages.
13 Miserly person embarrassed current collector
CHEAPSKATE
It had to be this, but I needed a furtle in the dictionary to confirm why. It’s a charade of CHEAP (’embarrassed’, as in ‘I felt cheap’) and SKATE (‘a current collector on an electric railway train that collects its current from a third rail’). Personally I wouldn’t choose the former as a synonym of ’embarrassed’; and I’d never come across the latter.
16 In Christmas period, old eccentric may show bad taste
INDECORUM
A charade of IN, DEC for ‘Christmas period’, O and RUM for ‘eccentric’.
18 A mostly forthright party delivering fruit
AVOCADO
Another charade, of A, VOCA[L] and DO.
20 Leather supplied by second Italian boy
MOROCCO
And another: of MO for ‘second’ (‘Just a mo!’) and ROCCO for one of many Italian boys.
22 Lowest point in ruptured drain
NADIR
(DRAIN)* with ‘ruptured’ as the anagrind.
23 Alert agent catching leader of ring
SPRY
An insertion of R for the first letter of ‘ring’ in SPY.
Thanks as always to Everyman for today’s puzzle.
Thanks, Pierre.
Like you, I couldn’t parse 13d, although the solution was obvious, and I agree with your criticisms.
Although this only took me about as long as an Everyman puzzle normally does I agree that not all of the clues were of his usual standard. Count me as another who didn’t bother to parse CHEAPSKATE, and I wouldn’t have been able to withour resorting to a dictionary. FORBIDDEN FRUIT was my LOI and the clue just didn’t work for me. Having said that, I quite liked the clue for PLUMB THE DEPTHS.
Thanks Pierre,
Enjoyable as ever but it still takes me an age to get the last few. I saw 12a as a cd but even simpler than you suggest : dates
are a fruit and if you can’t keep them, they may be forbidden. Not the best of clues though.
There was still plenty to like in this puzzle : IDLE was an excellent surface, SHOPPING CENTRE was a neat anagram, and WITHDRAWN was well-disguised. Also liked DRACULA and ESTATE DUTY. Thanks for the entertainment Everyman.
Thanks Everyman & Pierre. I also thought this was a bit more difficult than usual.
I had a QM against FORBIDDEN FRUIT, I think your parsing may be along the right lines. I ticked RATE-CAP, PROMONTORY [bluff had me temporarily confused,] WITHDRAWN, ELOPE and DRACULA. I hadn’t heard of that meaning of skate before. Surely, Andy B@2, that is the point of a dictionary – to look up words that you don’t know. 😉
Yes, I think #3 explains what’s intended in FORBIDDEN FRUIT. A pun on ‘dates’ which are fruit. Seems a fine clue to me.
Robi@4 – my point about “skate” is that Everyman puzzles are usually set at a level where I don’t have to think about going to a dictionary, so from that perspective it was an unusual clue.
Davy@3 and nmsindy@5 – yes, the clue for FORBIDDEN FRUIT is most definitely a pun on “dates”, but I still don’t think it really works.
And to be fair to Everyman, it was a component of the clue and not the word itself that I had to go looking for in CHEAPSKATE. One to store away for future use.
Skates as current collectors are real anorak territory.
20 down is a bit off. First pay ‘mo’ is OK, but I’ve never heard of rocco as an Italian boy.
From NZ-no problems today and comfortable with all my answers although the relevance of some took a while to sink in!-Rocco is a common Italian christian and sirname-also frequently used in America (eg Rocco Mediate golfer)
I flew through this week, although I couldn’t explain cheapskate it had to be.
I’m Auckland. Didn’t get morocco or 12 ac or 25 ac. Seems like I had the same trouble as most people.,
I guess we’re all different. I found most of this a lot easier than some of late. Agree with most of the comments although no issues with Plumb The Depths. Enjoyed Promontory. My main gripe was two clues with the same word so we had Group And Band twice. That’s lazy unless you are making a theme of it which this wasn’t.
Incidentally fresh dates have a very short shelf life – they tell us. So they are indeed a fruit that can’t be kept.
Thanks Everyman and Pierre.
I found this a bit difficult and failed to solve 12a, 17a, 26a, 4d, 18d. I needed help with the parsing of 5d and 13d.
My favourites were 16d and 3d.