Everyman No. 3504 (1st December)

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Nick:  Me again this week folks, Lorraine’s work load is a bit heavy.

Usual pleasant stroll with Everyman and some nice misleading clues.

I will draw your attention to 14dn – please visit the link, it will make you chuckle.

 

Across
1. Formal caution suggested by this court (4,7)
STAR CHAMBER STARCH+AMBER
9. Spanish mayor called a lunatic (7)
ALCALDE (CALLED A)*
10. Smiled broadly having good cooked dinner (7)
GRINNED G+(DINNER*)
11. Match between local teams in English city (5)
DERBY dd
12. Governor worried about wicket covered with weeds (9)
OVERGROWN (GOVERNOR*) around W
13. Scoff, upset by famous industrialist’s film (10)
GETTYSBURG (GRUB<) after GETTY’S
15. Love quiet American work (4)
OPUS O+P+US
17. Girl in public school, losing heart (4)
RUBY RU(g)BY
18. Most uncommon to receive gen in jungle (10)
RAINFOREST INFO in RAREST
21. Admonished, head of council went quickly (9)
CHASTENED C+HASTENED
23. Exercise may make doctor unwell! (5)
DRILL DR+ILL
24. Variety of kilts, notice, back in Hebridean archipelago (2,5)
ST KILDA (KILTS*)+(AD<)
25. Business interest (7)
CONCERN dd
26. Favourite in form? Note odds in the race fluctuating (8,3)
TEACHERS PET TE[note]+(SP in (THE RACE*))
lovely misleading definition
…
Down
1. Protection across the board? It may help one sleep at night (8,7)
SECURITY BLANKET cdd
2. Yale elmy? That could be nonsense (3,2,3)
ALL MY EYE (YALE ELMY)*
3. About to be included in Conservative party’s statement of belief (5)
CREDO RE in (C+DO)
4. Metal bracket in corner by press (5,4)
ANGLE IRON ANGLE+IRON
5. Game bird, initially with crest (6)
BRIDGE B(ird)+RIDGE
6. What Carter once did successfully, but not his predecessor? (3,3,9)
RAN FOR PRESIDENT factual clue: Gerald Ford became President after Watergate
when Richard Nixon resigned, and thus never ran for
president at all!
7. Mean scoundrel after drink for pet (6)
LAPDOG DOG after LAP
8. Handsome youth a lecturer is after (6)
ADONIS A+DON+IS
14. Bairn, surprisingly, was hard to indoctrinate (9)
BRAINWASH (BAIRN*)+WAS+H
this was the Azed No. 92 competiton word to clue:
the winning clue is quite brilliant
16. Frosty spell may cause viral infection to flare up (4,4)
COLD SNAP COLD+SNAP(i.e. lose one’s temper)
17. Suspension of business in bay (6)
RECESS dd
19. Special gift adult left in shelter (6)
TALENT (A+L) in TENT
20. Girl is excellent right away (6)
STELLA STELLA(r)
22. Extremely debatable, my colour scheme (5)
DECOR D(ebatabl)E+COR[!](my[!])
…

13 comments on “Everyman No. 3504 (1st December)”

  1. Thanks for the blog. A rare completion for me (I even posted it in).
    I was briefly worried though, as I put ran rather than run for president, as it seemed to suit the tense better. All is well though as it’s ran that appears in the paper.

  2. Thanks Nick,

    Another enjoyable puzzle. You have 3502 at the top and it should be 3504.
    I particularly liked RAINFOREST, BRAINWASH and DECOR. Thanks as ever to Everyman.

  3. I find that, if I have time to make a dent in the Everyman on the Sunday, then I can at least come close to finishing it during the week. However if I’m only getting chance for a quick look on a Sunday then the lack of progress seems to carry through the week.
    I still don’t make much progress, on the rare occasions I attempt a daily. It’s partly a time issue but even when I check the blog, I think I wouldn’t have got a lot of be them, even with more time.

  5. Enjoyable crossword that I thought was a bit more difficult than usual.

    Thanks Nick; I liked your clue link. I knew ‘MY EYE,’ but not with the ALL. I parsed 16 as COLDS + NAP< and wondered why the virus infection was singular. πŸ™

    I particularly liked STAR CHAMBER, RAINFOREST and my favourite, TEACHERS PET (the 'odds' threw me for a while.)

  6. Thanks for the blog, Nick.

    Not only did Ford never run for president, he never ran for vice president either, as he was appointed to that job to replace Spiro Agnew.

  7. Thanks for this. I managed to finish it – but missed the post yesterday! I still can’t work out why some of the solutions are correct. Could you explain a bit more how you got there?

    1. STAR CHAMBER STARCH+AMBER – where did this come from?

    24. ST KILDA (KILTS*)+(AD<) – I got the anagram but AD<?

    26. TEACHERS PET TE[note]+(SP in (THE RACE*))

    3. CREDO RE in (C+DO)

    5. BRIDGE B(ird)+RIDGE

    7. LAPDOG DOG after LAP

    22. DECOR D(ebatabl)E+COR[!](my[!])

    Thanks very much

  8. Actually Ford did run for President in 1976, but (as the clue says) not successfully, as he was beaten (quite narrowly) by Jimmy Carter.

  9. Although I entered the correct “ran” rather than “run” for 6dn I don’t really see how the solver is supposed to choose which of them is correct because they both work. I agree that this puzzle seemed a little harder than the usual Everyman, and I made a stupid mistake at 9ac when I didn’t read the anagram fodder properly and entered a careless “alcelde”. Ho hum.

  10. Hannah @ #7,

    1. STAR CHAMBER STARCH+AMBER – where did this come from?
    Formal=starch + amber=caution (as in amber warning)

    24. ST KILDA (KILTS*)+(AD<) – I got the anagram but AD<?
    notice is an advert, abbreviated to 'ad' reversed (back)

    26. TEACHERS PET TE[note]+(SP in (THE RACE*))
    SP is short for 'starting price' hence 'odds'

    3. CREDO RE in (C+DO)
    about=re in C(onservative)+party=do

    5. BRIDGE B(ird)+RIDGE
    'bird initially, indicates the first letter, hence B + crest=ridge (as in the crest of a hill)

    7. LAPDOG DOG after LAP
    horrible person (dog) after drink=lap

    22. DECOR D(ebatabl)E+COR[!](my[!])
    the extremes of debatable=the end letters=DE, and if you say 'my!' (as in my word!)=Cor!

    Hope that helps.

    Nick

  11. Andy B @ #9

    I changed the blog above to ‘RAN…’ as that is the solution, but I agree ‘ran/run’ are both correct, and to me, ‘run…’ sounds more of a natural thing to say.

    Nick

  12. First of all, forgot – thanks Gaufrid @ #4 – a bit of cut ‘n’ pasting I forgot to edit.

    Actually, thinking more about 6dn, the clue does lead to ‘RUN FOR PRESIDENT’ due to the ‘once’, which places the solver ‘there at the time’.

    Take the ‘once’ out:

    What Carter did successfully, but not his predecessor? (3,3,9)

    and this then leads to ‘RAN FOR PRESIDENT’ as we are now talking about a past event.

    Nick

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