Another excellent offering from Everyman. I enjoyed solving and blogging this one, partly because it has given me the chance to chunter on about a couple of pieces of English usage that are bugbears of mine. Me, a grumpy pedant? God forbid.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Rock music CD not causing bad behaviour
MISCONDUCT
A nice Easy Annie to get us going. (MUSIC CD NOT)*
6 Saint in middle of appraising wine
ASTI
The middle letters of apprAIsing with ST inserted.
9 Daring entertainer versatile in part
NERVE
Hidden in entertaiNER VErsatile.
10 Rude article popular editor concealed
CURTAINED
A charade of CURT, A, IN and ED.
12 Film star arranged a lover’s debut
SUNSET BOULEVARD
A charade of SUN and (A LOVERS DEBUT)* A film, to please those who liked the ‘old’ Everyman’s movie references, which were frequent.
13 Twitch returning in actual performance
RECITAL
An insertion of TIC reversed in REAL.
15 Very sad soldier in vehicle in retreat
TRAGIC
An insertion of GI in CART reversed.
17 Hesitation after proper introduction
PRIMER
A charade of PRIM and ER. Not your paint PRIMER, but the book type, for example a first reading book for children.
19 Endlessly horrible time in den
HIDEOUT
HIDEOU[S] plus T.
21 Polar explorer adjusted his level, catching stray dog
SCOTTISH TERRIER
The ill-fated Captain SCOTT, followed by (HIS)* followed by ERR in TIER.
23 Carry on with abandon, desperate
LAST-DITCH
Took me a while to see this, but it’s just LAST for ‘carry on’ and DITCH for ‘abandon’. Muppet.
24 Request kind direction
ORDER
Not a dd, but a td – a triple definition. The ‘kind’ bit is from the Linnaean taxonomic classification of the living world: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. Well, it works for me, anyway.
25 Protein from very variable area
SOYA
A charade of SO, Y and A.
26 Courage, pet – it’s a hold-up
BOTTLENECK
The surface works beautifully if you say it in a Geordie accent. A charade of BOTTLE and NECK in its snogging or ‘petting’ sense.
Down
1 Small report missing nothing in government department
MINISTRY
A charade of MINI and ST[O]RY.
2 Father with new alarm
SIREN
A charade of SIRE and N. ‘Father’ is in its verbal sense.
3 Rendition of remote diva set to be exaggerated
OVERESTIMATED
(REMOTE DIVA SET)* Am I the only one to get annoyed with people – including serious journalists in The Observer’s sister paper, The Guardian – who use UNDERESTIMATED and OVERESTIMATED wrongly? ‘Stuart Broad’s contribution to England regaining the Ashes cannot be underestimated.’ Oh yes it can. It can’t be overestimated/It can’t be exaggerated.
4 Credible reforms yielding right measure of intensity
DECIBEL
(C[R]EDIBLE)*
5 Criminal with contented sound turned over in bed
CORRUPT
An insertion of PURR reversed in COT. ‘Criminal’ as the definition and not as an anagrind? What’s going on?
7 Romanians working for republic
SAN MARINO
(ROMANIANS)* Might have seen this once or twice before, but listen, it’s a puzzle for newish solvers.
8 Compound belonging to period identified
IODIDE
Hidden in perIOD IDEntified. Bit of science – bravo, Mr Setter.
11 Poet in east after a nap explored afresh
ALEXANDER POPE
(A NAP EXPLORED)* plus E. He was only 1.37m tall, you know. That’s four foot six in old money.
14 Scoundrel with acknowledgement of debt scheming strangely
CURIOUSLY
A charade of CUR, IOU and SLY.
16 Science fiction series beginning with reference to edge of knowledge
STAR TREK
No, it wasn’t STAR WARS, was it? When in doubt read the clue (this is memo to self, btw). A charade of START, RE and K. To boldly go … and it’s been criticised ever since for splitting an infinitive. Shall I tell you what? The rule about not splitting infinitives is complete bollocks. In fact it’s complete and utter bollocks. To deliberately split an infinitive is not a crime, despite what the grammar police say, because it’s a made up rule.
18 Italian dish ending in disaster? It’s too complicated
RISOTTO
(R ITS TOO)*
19 Devise alien axe
HATCHET
HATCH plus ET for the setters’ fave alien.
20 Sacred songs in front of shrine sheltered by trees
PSALMS
An insertion of S for the first letter of ‘shrine’ in PALMS. It’s a book of the OT, but PSALMS are also exactly what the definition says. Most famous is probably number 23: ‘The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.’
22 Awful din that is not linked to major label
INDIE
A charade of (DIN)* and IE for id est or ‘that is’.
Fine puzzle – thank you to Everyman.
Failed to get 5d. Doh! Otherwise a very nice puzzle. I agree- BOTTLENECK was a good one.
Thanks Everyman and Pierre.
Seem to remember CORRUPT was one of my last in too, along with LAST-DITCH and INDIE, which I had to check in the dictionary.
I did like PRIMER because it reminded me of starting school, the class was called ‘Primer One’, but it was pronounced ‘Primmer One’ in NZ, at least in 1947. ORDER was very good, as were TRAGIC, HIDEOUT, BOTTLENECK, SIREN and many others.
An enjoyable puzzle with a good variety of clue types, but I’ve no particular favourites.
2d works with “father” as a noun too – “that stallion is the father/sire of the foal.”
I can’t overestimate how much I agree with your mini-rant about the misuse of that pair of words. “Over-exaggerate” annoys me nearly as much. It may occasionally be appropriate (for instance “while some exaggeration is acceptable when relating a funny anecdote, over-exaggerating can spoil the effect”), but it’s usually used in situations in which just “exaggerate” would be enough.
Thanks to Everyman and Pierre.
Ah, a fellow pedant in jennyk. Life is good.
Thanks Everyman and Pierre
It ain’t pedantry, it’s having an eye for detail 😉
Another good one from Everyman. I’ve just been looking at the clues that I ticked and I can’t remember the answers to any of them without reference to the grid. What can I remember…nothing ?. If I had to start afresh with this puzzle, it would probably take me just as long.
Anyway, I liked SUNSET BOULEVARD, SAN MARINO (even though it’s probably been done hundreds of times before like carthorse), CURIOUSLY (strangely being the definition rather than an anagrind) and HATCHET (only three words in the clue but not easy to see).
Regarding over/underestimating, I often find opposites confusing and your example is a perfect illustration.
Many thanks to Pierre and Everyman
I do agree about the ‘estimated’ usage, it drives me mad but I think it’s a lost cause. I liked the old usage but I’m trying to accept that ‘can’t be underestimated’ now means SHOULDN’T be underestimated to most people.See also the more subtle ‘beg the question’ problem which upsets me too, but language marches on!
I enjoyed this puzzle, especially all of the anagrams. My favourites were RISOTTO, SCOTTISH TERRIER, BOTTLENECK, LAST-DITCH & SUNSET BOULEVARD.
Thanks Everyman & Pierre
Excellent crossword, lots to like, just as well as the All Blacks were rubbish this morning.
Heartily agree regarding Over- (and especially Under-) estimated.
It’s up there with errant apostrophes, and TV newsreaders who delight in saying “an horrific ….”.
Hour, heir, honour and honest (and their derivatives) are to my knowledge the only words beginning with H that should take an An.
Mumble grumble. Don’t get me started.
Thanks Everyman & Pierre
Nice crossword, and on one of my few Saturdays off, was able to solve.
I’d like to add hotel to Barrie’s list unless my English education was incorrect. Always a possibility in a Scottish secondary comprehensive.
My personal bug bear being misquoted sayings, my favourite being ‘a picture says a thousand words’ when was ‘paints’ replaced with ‘says’?
Thanks Everyman and Pierre, always educational in some way.
Have a nice week all.
Well I’m probably the odd one out but I gave up with 6 left to do. I enjoyed the ones that I did, but couldn’t be bothered puzzling any longer, so missed corrupt, sunset Boulevard(put iodine for 8 d) bottleneck, indie, and hideout.
My personal bugbear is vulnerable being continually mispronounced without the fist l.
CG@10 – I’d say Hotel with a Haitch rather than ‘otel with no ‘aitch so no, it wouldn’t be on my list.
I have seen (and heard) ‘an hotel’ but I don’t buy it, not even in Scotland.
Audrey, isn’t ‘vunerable’ Kiwi for old and wise?
haha isnt it funny what gets us all ‘rarked up’
For me I detest that people insist that the ‘proof is in the pudding’
and too frequent use of ‘gummint’
Lastly, there are some announcers on National Radio who have less than perfect ‘nuciation. One guy won’t change from Zilland and another one who reports on finance and always uses Bainks instead of Banks…. drives me crazy.
Great crossie this week tho.
(am sure someone will hate that I call it a crossie)
I agree with Audrey. I became frustrated with several clues and gave up. I missed curiously, primer, psalms, last, indie, order and soya.
There is nothing that I particularly like about any of the clues or the answers or the explanations. Curiously tragic at best. At least there is some first class rugby to look forward to. England v Wales was a thriller with really impressive goal kicking from both sides. Good luck to England v the Wallabies.
I’m okay with ‘an hotel’ although since the h is aspirated, it should be ‘a hotel’, I know.
My other bugbear is people mentioning the England v Wales match. Thanks for rubbing that one in, Joe … (I had to watch it with a shedload of Welsh supporters.)
Good to see that most of you are getting to grips with our ‘new’ Everyman.
Thanks, Pierre – I didn’t do this puzzle but you know I always enjoy your blogs.
I just dropped in to say I’m overjoyed – and amazed – to see Audrey’s comment re ‘vulnerable’: I really thought I was the only one to have registered it, as I’ve never seen a comment, anywhere, about it and it crops up all the time – I just don’t understand it.
[And, of course, as a fellow pedant, I endorse all the comments about under / over estimation.
I remember learning Latin, ‘vulno, vulnare’ means ‘to wound’, but no one learns Latin these days. But no one will read this unless they look back, will they?