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Definitely harder than the last one I blogged (2 weeks ago) and probably a little harder than last week. The surfaces here are impeccable pretty much throughout, and overall I felt this had slightly more of the feeling of a weekday crossword than normal. In fact clues very similar to 6ac and 21dn appeared in this week’s (last week’s by the time this goes up) Guardian crosswords.
One minor problem with good surface readings is that they can occasionally come at the expense of total clarity, and as such I am still unsure about one answer (10ac). However , I have to say this has been my favourite Everyman in a while.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | SWEEPSTAKE – WEEP = keen in SS + TAKE = win |
| 6 | OPUS – hidden in “shOP, USefully”. A naughty non-Ximinean comma in there! |
| 9 | CAPRI PANTS – RIP in CAP = top as in upper limit ANTS = worker’s |
| 10 | WELL – dd. By far my least favourite clue and I’m still not certain I’m right on this one. I guess we’re looking at well as in “that was well good” and as in “that’ll do well”, but I’m open to any suggestions for other answers/wordplay. I’ve been back and forth with REAL (since very can mean veritable) but I think WELL is a better fit. |
| 11 | AS GOOD AS GOLD – dd. A great clue albeit containing another naughty comma! Gold in clues often results in ‘or’ in the answer but this is the first time I’ve seen the reverse used. |
| 15 | ACCLAIM – A + C + CLAIM |
| 16 | DANSEUR – (NURSEDA)*. A danseur is a male ballet dancer. |
| 17 | CAUTION – dd. “card” as in on the football pitch. |
| 19 | PIANOLA – (NOAPALI)*. A pianola is a term for a bridge hand so easy it “plays itself” (just like a pianola which is a self-playing piano). |
| 20 | EXAGGERATION – (ONGARAGEEXIT)* |
| 23 | JOIN – JOIN(t) = nightclub |
| 24 | JAMES IVORY – (JVIAMYSORE)*. The J is from Japan. James Ivory is a film director best-known for his collaborations with producer Ismail Merchant under the banner Merchant Ivory Productions. |
| 25 | BAND – dd |
| 26 | DEAN MARTIN – A in DEN + MARTINi |
| Down | |
| 1 | SACK – dd |
| 2 | ESPY – Estate + SPY |
| 3 | PAINSTAKING – PA + IN + STAKING |
| 4 | TEA ROOM – TEAR = rent + MOO< |
| 5 | KATYDID – KATY + Delves Into Digest (“starts to”). A katydid is a type of cricket. |
| 7 | PHENOMENON – Pillory + NEMO< in HEN ON. Nemo was a sea captain in 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. |
| 8 | SALAD CREAM – A LAD in SCREAM |
| 12 | SANTA MONICA – (ASACONMANIT)* |
| 13 | HATCHET JOB – HATCHET + JOB = 14dn. This was made harder by the misprint as a 10 letter word rather than 7,3 but I’ve checked and it has since been changed in the PDF |
| 14 | OCCUPATION – dd |
| 18 | NARRATE – (RARETAN)* |
| 19 | PATTERN – PATTER + N |
| 21 | FORT – “FOUGHT” |
| 22 | LYNN – Hidden in BrookLYN Neighbourhood; |
Common crossword abbreviations this week:
on board = in SS [actually SS can appear anywhere that a ship is suggested]
gold = OR [this week the other way around (or in the clue and gold in the solution) but worth noting nonetheless]
conservative = C [careful with this as conservative can be CON, TORY etc. too]
father = PA
home = IN [as in “he’s home”/”he’s in”]
low = MOO [not so much an abbreviation as a common trick]
northern = N
Hi Arthur,
I didn’t like 10a, where I entered WELL, without thinking of any alternative. It must be among the very last that I solved.
Agree about 10a and Hatchet job comments. Otherwise, a good one.
I’d just like to say that it’s nice to have an Everyman blog, because the crossword is good for beginners, but you’re always fighting the fact that people really want to discuss the crossword on the day they do it.
To me, Everymen seem to have got a tad more difficult recently without being really tough, but they’re always well-constructed and enjoyable. I couldn’t find a definition for ‘pianola’ anywhere, though I thought it must be that. Katydid seems a very inventive name for an insect.
We struggled with 10a, too, but accepted it.
“That lad’s well ‘ard!” – a good Northern phrase, where “well” is synonymous with “very”.
Nicely – also synonymous with well.