The pleasant crossword from Everyman that we are now used to. There were some nice clues and one or two I found tricky at the end; as it should be.
Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (homophone, hidden, containment, anagram, juxtaposition, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.
Not many colours here — I couldn’t find anything that really matched [Thanks to Jay@1 who I’m sure won’t be the first to point out that it’s the first/second answers at 6dn and 11dn. How on earth did I miss that?]
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BUMS |
Freely obtains seats (4)
|
| 2 defs — to bum as in “can I bum a night on your sofa”, seats = bums in the sense bottoms | ||
| 3 | ON ALL FOURS |
Starting to crawl – and fall; our son‘s wobbly (2,3,5)
|
| (fall our son)* | ||
| 9 | ACRE |
After starters of awfully creamy rissoles, Everyman‘s beginning to see a bit of a spread? (4)
|
| A combination of the first letters clue and the self-referential clue (in my last blog someone questioned the word “self-referential”: it just means that Everyman is using his name in the clue) — I think that “starters” refers to only “awfully creamy rissoles” and the E comes from “Everyman’s beginning” — otherwise the link to the definition would be rather clunky | ||
| 10 | GUEST ROOMS |
Having made alterations to some rugs where visitors sleep (5,5)
|
| *(to some rugs) | ||
| 12 | STAGE FRIGHT |
Reluctance to having your part in something noticed? (5,6)
|
| A CD — my dislike of CDs, which are OK when they are witty, continues; my impression is that Everyman just felt that at least one CD was necessary in a crossword, so produced this | ||
| 15 | DRAGOON |
Coerce fierce type to accept love (7)
|
| drag(0)on — dragon = fierce type, 0 = love | ||
| 16 | EPISODE |
Poised, aquiver, before House’s final instalment (7)
|
| (Poised)* [Hous]e — “House’s final instalment” would be better for e, but Everyman has to make do with “House’s final” since otherwise “instalment” would do double duty, and it isn’t an &lit. (unless someone can convince me) — the reference, which it’s unnecessary to know but otherwise would make the clue a bit bland, is to the TV series “House”, starring Hugh Laurie | ||
| 17 | FREEDOM |
Loudly repulsed: tick on woodland creature in range (7)
|
| f (mo deer)rev. — f = loudly (forte in music), mo = tick (as in half a tick/half a mo), deer = woodland creature | ||
| 19 | TAKE TEN |
Filming evidently proving problematic? Have a break (4,3)
|
| 2 defs: the first is something that happens in filming, when the first few takes are unsatisfactory (one sometimes hears of an astronomical number of takes, for example in some of the scenes in “Some like it hot” involving Marilyn Monroe), the second is a colloquial way of saying “have a break” — take ten [minutes] — I’d never heard this expression so the clue was hard, and I had TAKE TWO for a while until TENNIS BALL was impossible | ||
| 20 | INFINITIVES |
To have and to hold? (11)
|
| The clue is making the solver look for words that mean both, possibly where one or both of them that can be preceded by “to”, but it’s quite straightforward: “to have” and “to hold” are both infinitives, so this is a sort of CD | ||
| 23 | ROUND ROBIN |
Singer following multi- voice song in competition (5,5)
|
| round robin — round = multi-voice song (as explained in this Wikipedia article), robin = singer (bird) | ||
| 24 | IDEA |
Plan in E End: hole up in this location (4)
|
| “hide here” as it would in crosswords be said in the East End of London: ‘ide ‘ere | ||
| 25 | ABOVE BOARD |
Legitimate position of chess player’s hand (5,5)
|
| A chess player’s hand will be positioned above the chess board | ||
| 26 | POOL |
Kitty to circle back (4)
|
| (loop)rev. — loop = to circle | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BRASSED OFF |
Piqued, as edges of four sofa beds bashed up (7,3)
|
| (f[ou]r sofa beds)* | ||
| 2 | MARMALADES |
Spreads out arms and a medal (10)
|
| *(arms a medal) — spreads as in jams/conserves/preserves | ||
| 4 | NEUTRON |
Found in northern EU (Trondheim), something small and free of charge (7)
|
| Hidden in northerN EU (TRONdheim) | ||
| 5 | LASAGNE |
Chopped sage and piece of lardo: an Italian dish (7)
|
| *(sage l[ardo] an) — is this a misprint for “lardon”? Does the word “lardo” exist? Not that it makes any difference | ||
| 6 | FIRST-AID KITS |
Help following mishaps if it’s dark and it’s stormy (5-3,4)
|
| (if it’s dark it’s)* | ||
| 7 | UFOS |
Represented initially: Uranian fleet overhead, supposedly? (4)
|
| Another first-letters clue, also a sort of &lit., where the fanciful idea of the Uranian fleet being overhead is equated to UFOs | ||
| 8 | SASH |
Blonde perhaps going after small band (4)
|
| s ash — s = small, ash = blonde perhaps | ||
| 11 | SECOND FIDDLE |
Subordinate to assist with con (6,6)
|
| second fiddle — second = to assist with, fiddle = con(fidence trick) — subordinate a noun | ||
| 13 | MONTEVIDEO |
Three-card trick seen on film in S American capital (10)
|
| Monte video — monte = three-card trick, video = film — Montevideo is the capital of Uruguay | ||
| 14 | TENNIS BALL |
Spooner tells us: Franklin’s elevated item for service (6,4)
|
| Spooner would say “Ben is tall”, referring to Benjamin Franklin — service as in tennis | ||
| 18 | MAFIOSO |
Member of a family who may have performed many hits (7)
|
| CD where we have to see it as a Mafia family and “hits” as attacks on people | ||
| 19 | TINNIER |
Smaller around North, and higher pitched (7)
|
| tin(N)ier —tinier = smaller, N = North | ||
| 21 | AREA |
Region better ventilated, did you say? (4)
|
| “airier” | ||
| 22 | OUZO |
Drink bouzoukist’s drunk? (4)
|
| Hidden in bOUZOukist |
The pairing this week are the opening words in the two long down solutions FIRST / SECOND. Everyman occasionally deploys this gimmick rather than a rhyming pair.
I enjoyed this – but the last two or three took a while. Last one in was FREEDOM and I’m still not sure it is the same as ‘range.’ I can’t think of a sentence where one could replace the other.
Re 19A I’ve only heard of ‘take five’ which obviously wouldn’t fit. Ten it had to be.
Thanks to John and Everyman – TAKE TEN took me a while to be certain; I also considered TWO before thinking it had to be TEN, though it’s not a phrase I’m familiar with (I more commonly Take Five)
Yes, I looked for the rhyming pair for a while before spotting FIRST and SECOND. I found this a bit difficult, although that could have been due to post-prandial lethargy. I liked the wobbly son ON ALL FOURS, the tick on creature getting FREEDOM, the MARMALADES spreads, and Spooner’s TENNIS BALL. TAKE TEN is in Chambers, and Wiktionary says it’s N. American.
Thanks Everyman and John.
Thanks for the blog , I think this was much better and more suitable for newer solvers . Like BigMaz@2 , I can’t really see that FREEDOM = range .
Like Tony@3 and Holypeanut@4 I only say and hear TAKE FIVE but as Robi@5 notes , Chambers93 gives TEN as an alternative .
MONTEVIDEO gives the geography link .
NEUTRON very much not free of charge but fine for a crossword .
Thanks for the nice and clear blog John. Also baffled by FREEDOM which was my LOI as well.
Did not finish. Defeated by the Spoonerism as I had TAKE TWO for 19a. Had no idea what 24a was, and had LOIN for 26a. Kitty = Lion (to circle as the anagram indicator) Back = Loin.
Thanks Everyman and John for the explanation!
Lardo is a dry cured meat made from pig back fat often rubbed with spices and herbs. Unlike bacon in that it may be eaten without cooking.
Thanks John.
Mostly agreed as usual. I did like INFINITIVES in particular, as I do part-of-speech definitions in general.