Everyman N° 3,392 (2nd. October 2011)

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This would have made for a pleasant Sunday afternoon, except that I finished it Saturday evening.

I see nothing more demanding than a piece of common French, and a few misdirections to spice things up.

Across
1. Instrument, Gallic warning device (6,4)
FRENCH HORN A charade of FRENCH (‘Gallic’) + HORN (‘warning device’).
6. Blow the whistle on store (4)
SHOP Double definition.
9. Language of malicious woman in front of boy (7)
CATALAN A charade of CAT (‘malicious woman’) + (‘in front of’) ALAN (‘boy’).
10. Constable I included as very good artist (7)
PICASSO An envelope (‘included’) of ‘I’ in PC (‘constable’) + ‘as’ + SO (‘very’). Note the capital letter of Constable, suggesting the wrong artist, the wrong century, and the wrong country.
12. Poles thinly dispersed, for the most part (5)
SPARS A subtraction: SPARS[e] ‘thinly dispersed’ ‘for the most part’. The standard reaction to the word ‘poles’ is S & N, but here it is the definition.
13. Docker’s severed toe finally amputated, unfortunately (9)
STEVEDORE An anagram (‘unfortunately’) of ‘severed to[e]’ (‘finally amputated’).
14. Early star or moon excited Halley, say (10,5)
ASTRONOMER ROYAL An anagram (‘excited’) of ‘early star or moon’. Edmond Halley (1656-1742), best known for the comet whose orbit he calculated, was the second Astronomer Royal.
16. Working lunches with a macabre lawyer (9,6)
AMBULANCE CHASER An anagram (‘working’) of ‘lunches’ ‘a macarbre’. You might say that ‘macarbre’ is doing double duty.
19. The missile to backfire? (9)
BOOMERANG Double definition.
21. Cook nearly all staple food Greek-style (5)
DORIC A charade of DO (‘cook’) + RIC[e] (‘nearly all’ ‘staple food’). Doric is one of the orders of Greek architecture.
The Parthenon, a temple largely in the Doric order (cooking not recommended)
23. Pulls to pieces product of Pasteur (5,2)
TEARS UP An anagram (‘product of’) ‘Pasteur’.
24. Enclosed area for 150 in eastern part of church (7)
ENCLAVE An envelope (‘in’) of CL (‘150’, Roman numerals) in E (‘eastern’) + NAVE (‘part of church’).
25. Building area? Eyesore, from what one hears (4)
SITE A homophone (‘from what one hears’) of sight (‘eyesore’).
26. Nastiness surprisingly involving a French composer (5-5)
SAINT-SAËNS An envelope (‘involving’) of ‘a’ in an anagram (‘surprisingly’) of ‘nastiness’. Defined is Camille Saint-Saëns, well known for The Carnival of the Animals and Danse Macarbre.
Down
1. Foreign Office caught out over American target (5)
FOCUS A charade of FO (‘Foreign Office’) + C (‘caught out’ in cricket summariesl more commonly rendered as simply caught) + (‘over’) US (‘American’).
2. Competitor in event ran third (7)
ENTRANT Answer hidden ‘in’ ‘evENT RAN Third’.
3. Cuts of meat in the refrigerator? (4-9)
COLD-SHOULDERS Definition and cryptic definition: ‘cuts’ (verb) is the straight definition.
4. Members of a ship’s crew losing easily (5,4)
HANDS DOWN A charade of HANDS (‘members of a ships crew’) + DOWN (‘losing’).
5. Drill found in boulevard, and a little bit of money (5)
RUPEE An envelope (‘found in’) of PE (physical education, ‘drill’) in RUE (‘boulevard’; French, but fairly well known).
7. Having blown top, this Conservative in the past (7)
HISTORY A charade of ‘[t]HIS’ (‘having blown top’) + TORY (‘Conservative’).
8. Measure of cloth put inside appropriate mechanical device (9)
PROPELLER An envelope (‘inside’) of ELL (‘measure of cloth’) in PROPER (‘appropriate’).
11. Empty the packs and prepare for action (5,3,5)
CLEAR THE DECKS Definition and cryptic definition (DECKS – ‘packs’ of cards).
14. Nervously sat with an able actor (4,5)
ALAN BATES An anagram (‘nervously’) of ‘sat’ ‘an able’. The definition is this English actor.
15. Ivy, perhaps, always growing (9)
EVERGREEN Definition and cryptic definition.
17. Resilient youth, reportedly leading worker (7)
BUOYANT A charade of BUOY, a homophone (‘reportedly’) of boy (‘youth’) + (‘leading’) ANT (‘worker’).
18. Top expert on a Malibu board? (7)
SURFACE A charade (if that’s the right description) of SURF ACE (‘expert on a Malibu board’)
20. Greek starter? (5)
ALPHA Cryptic definition: the first letter of the Greek alphabet.
22. Chapter on English pianist making musical (5)
CHESS A charade of C (‘chapter’) + HESS (Myra, ‘English pianist’).

7 comments on “Everyman N° 3,392 (2nd. October 2011)”

  1. Thank you, Peter.

    This was a pleasant Sunday morning stroll for me, in which I especially liked ASTRONOMER ROYAL for its nice surface, and AMBULANCE CHASER, which made me smile.

    The Everyman and the Guardian Quiptic are still the best puzzles for beginning and improving solvers, imho. Once you get used to Everyman’s style, as a less experienced solver you’ll always have a good chance of finishing.

  2. A straightforward but enjoyable offering from Everyman. Thanks to PeterO for the clear and illuminating blog.

    My grandfather would have been distressed by the clueing of 13ac. He was a stevedore at Liverpool docks and always insisted on maintaining the distinction between a stevedore – the skilled operative who was in charge of the complex process of loading and unloading the ships – and the docker, who carried out the unskilled manual jobs under his direction. This distinction is not reflected in the dictionaries however, so I cannot fault Everyman for eliding the two terms.

  3. I have waited all week to find the answer to 19ac. I was left with B-U-E-A G by the downward clues and could find no word to fit. I now see the answer is BOOMERANG but that conflicts with the spelling of BOUYANT. Have I missed something? No-one else has mentioned anything regarding this.

  4. Miss Tyrell

    I’m afraid you have been held up by your mis-spelling of ‘Buoyant’.

    If it’s any comfort, I wasn’t sure of the spelling either, and needed to check before entering it.

  5. Thanks Wolfie – I should have checked more carefully. Was misled by the answers given above to think I had spelt it correctly. Thanks again.

  6. Miss S Tyrrell – as you probably saw, you are not the only one to misspell buoyant (you won’t see it any more, because I have corrected it). I got it right when solving the puzzle, and in the explanation of the clue, but still managed to get it wrong in giving the answer. In the non-prize puzzles, this would not be an issue, because with the utilities I use the answers are taken straight from the website, and any misspellings are the Grauniad’s fault, but with a prize puzzle like the Everyman, I have to fill in the answers myself, and typos are a little more likely to creep in.

  7. Hi PeterO – thanks for taking the time to reply. I am very much a novice at these crosswords and hardly ever complete them. So I am very grateful to this blog to help understand where I have gone wrong and, hopefully, improve my technique. Thanks again.

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