Across
i COWARDLY Lily-livered
The fish course, as the WARD, your protégé, tucks into COLeY without the Energy
5 SHADOW suspicion
As in the shadow of a smile crossed her face. Assemble the given pieces: S(on) HAD (entertained) OW (that hurt). Exclamation marks not required
8 MARTINIQUE Island
Being French(ish) it doesn’t seem to go in for TEAROOMS (18 qv), but it looks a nice enough place to have one. The make of car, despite M?R?I at the start, is not Morris, but just the generic MARQUE, in which you place the metal TIN and 1.
9 PUMA Big cat
UP for over (the game’s up, sonny) “retreats” unaccountably accompanied by MA
10 APPLES AND PEARS flights for some Londoners…
… or “They bear fruit” if you prefer. presumably the “trees” is understood, just as the “of stairs” other bit. A+P is CRS for stairs. CRS is an abbreviation for Cockney Rhyming Slang, though I don’t think this example can do the CRS trick of just using the first word: I’m orf up the apples for a sooty?
11 DRAFTEE US conscipt
Say what you see D(eparts)
13 FINESSE bluff at table
Probably a bridge table. It’s where you attempt to win a hand by leading with a lower card than the high one you’re holding. Or something. FIE one of the many expressions of disgust that any lead of mine would elicit from ‘er indoors what knows how to play proper, NESS is the head. I’m off back to the tearoom
15 PRECEPT Canon
Both are ” a rule of action”, nothing to do with clerics. P(arking) by REC(reation ground) and a PET exercised beyond its capacity to stay in order.
18 TEA ROOM Where Earl Grey could be
Ah, there it is! TOO M(odest) grabs EAR
21 SCOTCH PANCAKES griddled food
Pleasant accompaniment to your Earl Grey. made by dropping thickish batter mix on a suitably hot surface. PANCAKES: makes an emergency landing, wheels up. SCOTCH is a version of 24 ac’s SPIRIT. Not to worry, this is Martinique, and there’s this nice little tearoom…
22 CHAD Land in Africa
Conservative give you the C, “owned” HAD
23 AQUAMARINE Maybe beryl
Three years back we celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary, so I had to do some research on beryl, which is why this was a gimme. QU(estion) and A(nswer) are embraced by A MARINE, who might indeed be a commando.
24 SPIRIT strong drink
Dillon rum is Martinique’s favourite tipple, apparently. Here the concoction is a suble blend of SIT (convene) penning RIP, the “final exhortation” reversed.
25 FLUMMERY oatmeal pudding
Those unfamiliar with the ouevre of Leslie Phillips may not recognise LUMME as an expression of surprise, but it is. FRY is “cook”. I know flummery more from its derived sense of “empty compliment, humbug or pretentiousness”. Not sure the tearoom sells oatmeal pudding, nor whether I’d buy it if it did.
Down
1 COMMAND Charge
Again, assemble the pieces. MAN, fellow, CO Care Of, MD doctor. keep jiggling until they fit.
2 WORKPLACE the office
Not while we’re here in Martinique, it’s not. Anagram, “woefully”, of LACK POWER.
3 RAIMENT Clothing
Anagram, “unfortunately” of MINE, chewed, so to speak, by a RAT.
4 LAIRAGE animal accommodation
Today’s best candidate for a made up word not found outside crosswords. EG from “for example”, A from “a”, RIAL from “sum abroad” (Saudi Arabia et al) all “raised”
5 SHEEPLIKE being similar to Jacob, perhaps
I SEEK HELP which is found by taking “desperately” to be an anagram indicator.
6 APPEASE Calm down
Verb transitive here, and “download” APP with “rest” EASE. Auntie Crossword gets down and dirty with the kids.
7 OSMOSIS assimilation
As in the process by which poms are integrated into Australian culture. Follow carefully: OS has to be “outstanding” (I think), MOSES is the lawgiver, but his E(astern) is nicked and replaced by a 1.
12 EXPECTANT in the club
Lumme.Surviving is EXTANT, insert P for quiet, and EC for what the Times still thinks of as London’s business area.
14 STOCKPILE Accumulate
“Standard food” is, slightly whimsically, a STOCK PIE. insert L(eft)
16 ROSE HIP Fruit
Though I couldn’t eat a whole one without a lot of processing. Perhaps the tearoom sells it in infusion form. Moved upwards (ignore the “is”) gives ROSE, HIP means “with it”. Auntie Crossword gets down and dirty with the kids. Again
17 CHOWDER stew
A mélange of “way in which” HOW, trotskyist RED (reversed) and C(old). More gastronimic delight.
18 TRAVAIL Laborious effort
Troop leaders are the T and the R, benefit translates as AVAIL
19 ACCLAIM praise
A C(onstant) CLAIM, “demand”. Simple, really.
20 MASTERY Dominion
MARY, undoubtedly a girl, is “visited” by SET “out”. Here’s Richard Burton reading Dylan Thomas’ “And death shall have no Dominion” to give the word a bit of context.
I lost a lot of time at 17dn because I couldn’t read my own writing and thought I was looking for a word to fit C?O?O?R.
Running late and short of time I eventually gave up on 4dn and cheated as I was unable to come up with any word that fitted the checkers, so I was quite pleased to find the answer is a silly made-up word that’s somehow found its way into respectable dictionaries. I also excuse myself by doubting that any unit of currency clued as ‘sum’ is entirely fair. And as mohn2 has pointed out ‘rial’ is not the usual spelling anyway.
Edited at 2014-11-27 09:16 am (UTC)
dnk PANCAKES=emergency landings, half-knew FLUMMERY, I too would think of CHOWDER more as soup than stew.
PS I found yesterday’s very tough, but as someone else on here commented, once I realise that it’s a prize one, I get a kind of brain-freeze…
Edited at 2014-11-27 09:37 am (UTC)
Help up by SPIRIT where “convene to pen” set me thinking of poteen until I saw through “final exhortation”. Nice blog z8
Count me as a chowder=soup person. I only knew “flummery” from Georgette Heyer as flattery.
Happy Thanksgiving to all our readers!
Edited at 2014-11-27 11:04 am (UTC)
I agree with z8 that the best CRS is where only the first word is used, sometimes developing a life of its own with some unaware that it even is CRS. Eg, ‘lets have a butchers’, derived from butcher’s hook = look.
Liked SPIRIT.
Edited at 2014-11-27 11:47 am (UTC)
I’m not sure there isn’t a Nina in here, Z8. With suitably nuanced delivery, the across clues, read in sequence, produce a thoroughly postmodern version of what Dave Gorman likes to call “a found poem”.
I’m actually quite fond of the practice of making new words by adding -age to existing ones. At beer festival organising committee meetings we’d make sure we had plenty of crispage to soak up the beer.
A decent crossword and an excellent blog. Thanks z8b8d8k.
Perhaps we should explain. If the hand in open view contains the Ace and Queen of Spades and declarer, lacking the King, plays a spade from his hand then if declarer’s left hand opponent holds the King he has a problem. Play it and declarer tops it with an Ace. Don’t play it and declarer wins with the Queen – which is called a FINESSE. If declarer’s right hand opponent holds the King then the FINESSE fails.
I have some rosehip teabags in my Cupboard of Infusions. Its popularity may be gauged by it sell by date: July 2004.
It certainly looks as if you can count today’s brick wall experience as a complete aberration, and I look forward to hearing that you find tomorrow’s Friday stinker an absolute breeze!
When I was learning with a group of friends, before we had blogs, we had to wait until the next day for the solution and then we used to sit round in a group and discuss clues and answers. Any we couldn’t work out we took to our English master who then enlightened us.
Whatever you do don’t give up!