Everyman 3274
A case of far too clever for my own good. 14 across, chess ending overwhelmed friend (9,4)
I remembered a chess gambit (from long ago!!) called the "proffered pawn", I had the o and the r and the d, so managed to convince myself it was right. Small problem with the sense of the thing, but, hey ho tthat's never stopped me in the past. I then got the a in the 4 letter word, so was quite please with myself. But something wasn't quite right, the final letter of the four letter word didn't fit with "guinevere" that was looking odds on.
Rarely have I gone down such a well paved false road!! Of course "smothered mate" is so obvious, I would have probably found it in the same chess book that I was looking for to justify proffered pawn!!
A small chess playing detail.... the proffered pawn is in fact an opening gambit! So if I'd have looked a bit more carefully, I'd have ruled it out!!
Regards
Terry