Everyman N° 3,425 (27 May 2012)

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I seem to detect a range of clue devices a little more limited than usual for Everyman, but the smooth surfaces are par for the course.

Perhaps the Latin title in 14A might cause a few grumbles; here and in a couple of other places, the anagrind is unusual, although an anagram is clearly called for.

Across
1. What a judge should be, as a precaution (4,2,4)
JUST IN CASE Definition and literal interpretation.
6. Helpful hint about run, journey (4)
TRIP An envelope (‘about’) of R (‘run’) in TIP (‘helpful hint’).
10. Returning once more, artist falls (7)
NIAGARA A charade of NIAGA, a reversal (‘returning’) of AGAIN (‘once more’) + RA (‘artist’).
11. Stock farmer galloped and caught her (7)
RANCHER A charade of RAN (‘galloped’) + C (‘caught’) + ‘her’.
12. Athletic contest in Irish town curtailed after 6, unfinished (9)
TRIATHLON A charade of TRI[p] (‘6, unfinished’, referring to the answer to clue 6A) + ATHLON[e] (‘Irish town curtailed’).
13. Gather donkey seen on a motorway (5)
AMASS A charade of ‘a’ + M (‘motorway’) + ASS (‘donkey’).
14. Hymn blessed defeated Isles (6,7)
ADESTE FIDELES An anagram (‘blessed’?) of ‘defeated Isles’. ADESTE FIDELES is the Latin title of the hymn “O come, all ye faithful”.
18. Student holds her Oscar nervously (6,7)
RHODES SCHOLAR An anagram (‘nervously’) of ‘holds her Oscar’. A Rhodes scholar is the recipient of an international scholarship for postgraduate studies at Oxford University.
20. Article about one female burglar (5)
THIEF An envelope (‘about’) of I (‘one’) in THE (‘article’) + F (‘female’).
21. Golfing term for a handicap (9)
ALBATROSS Double definition. In golf, an albatross is the score of three under par; I doubt if many golfers have much use for the word (yet alone condor or ostrich). In Coleridge’s poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the mariner shoots an albatross, and when the ship is subsequently becalmed, it is blamed on him, and he is forced to wear the albatross round his neck as punishment; hence an albatross is in metaphor a burden or obstacle.
24. Search for a recreational activity (7)
PURSUIT Double definition.
25. Put down roots outside a major US port (7)
SEATTLE An envelope (‘outside’) of ‘a’ in SETTLE (‘put down roots’).
26. Phone engineer around noon (4)
RING An envelope (‘around’) of N (‘noon’) in RIG (‘engineer’).
27. A place where people meet in Paris? (10)
RENDEZVOUS A (barely) cryptic definition.
Down
1. David’s close friend, judge, old biblical character (8)
JONATHAN A charade of J (‘judge’) + O (‘old’) + NATHAN (‘Biblical character’; there is a choice, a prophet of the time of King David, or one of the King’s sons).
2. Religious teacher bathed one (5)
SWAMI A charade of SWAM (‘bathed’) + I (‘one’).
3. Taunt Alexis for popping off inside and continually changing? (2,1,5,2,4)
IN A STATE OF FLUX An envelope (‘inside’) of ‘off’ in INASTATELUX, an anagram (‘popping’?) of ‘taunt Alexis’.
4. Unusually slow rate of movement in cold, bitterly cold, lake (5)
CRAWL A charade of C (‘cold’) + RAW (‘bitterly cold’) +L (‘lake’).
5. Pieces of music composed about a daughter and son (9)
SERENADES An envelope (‘about’) of ‘a’ + D (‘daughter’) in SERENE (‘composed’) + S (‘son’).
7. Learns during proper dry run (9)
REHEARSAL An envelope (‘during’) of HEARS (‘learns’) in REAL (‘proper’).
8. Study training scheme (6)
PERUSE A charade of PE (physical education, ‘training’) + RUSE (‘scheme’).
9. With everything recorded by Satchmo, et cetera? (3,3,4,4)
AND ALL THAT JAZZ Definition and literal interpretation. The Urban Dictionary identifies the source of the phrase as the song in the 1975 musical Chicago.
15. Previously bottled near Loire (7,2)
EARLIER ON An anagram (‘bottled’?) of ‘near Loire’. As Loire is a river, valley or département, the expression ‘near Loire’ does not sit as comfortably as it would for a town or village, say.
16. Worry about fellow, the Parisian in a port down under (9)
FREMANTLE An envelope (‘about’) of MAN (‘fellow’) in FRET (‘worry’) + LE (‘the Parisian’).
17. Sideboards, ones employed backstage (8)
DRESSERS Double definition.
19. Proust’s strange torpor (6)
STUPOR An anagram (‘strange’) of ‘Proust’. I think that the repeated -or is not an asset to the clue.
22. Stationed in vile digs, initially (5)
BASED A charade of BASE (‘vile’) + D (‘Digs, initially’).
23. In the open, perform better (5)
OUTDO A charade of OUT (‘in the open’) + DO (‘perform’). The definition is ‘better’ as a verb.

8 comments on “Everyman N° 3,425 (27 May 2012)”

  1. I found that the hardest Everyman I can remember. I got about 3/4 solved slow than usual but then came to a halt.
    For 1d I had j?n?t??? and I guessed jonathan but had no idea why. I think that such indepth biblical knowledge is asking too much.
    6d I failed to spot composed =serene and s?r?n???s wasn’t enough to enable to be guess it.
    For 22d I had b???d and for 25a I had ??a?t?e with the middle letter of 22d beign the first letter of 25a .Couldn’t see either.
    For 24a I had p???u?t and couldn’t see that.
    For 15d I had ??r?i?? ?n and didn’t spot bottled as being an anagram indicator.
    Which leaves 14a and I nominate myself as grumbler in chief. I don’t see why blessed is an anagram indicator and even if you had told me that I had to make an agram out of defeated isles, even with a???t? f???l?s, I wouldn’t have got it after a week. Hard enough when you haven’t heard of certain English words but nigh on impossible when it is Latin.
    No doubt someone will now come on and say the whole thing was too easy.
    Sorry Everyman, I didn’t like this. Well blogged PeterO

  2. I didn’t find this any more tricky than usual, and just as enjoyable. As has been pointed out often, one person’s arcane obscurity is another’s piece of common knowledge. ‘Adeste Fideles’ was my first entry – though I share Bamberger’s reservation about ‘blessed’ as an anagram indicator. ‘Jonathan’ also leapt out at me – a result, no doubt, of long-ago RE lessons at my primary school.

    Thanks PeterO for the excellent blog.

  3. One person’s easy is another person’s hard, Bamberger, as I know from experience; but I’m with you in finding that there was some uncharacteristically difficult/weak stuff in this one. ‘Popping’ might work as an anagram indicator: if you go to the cinema and you see the popcorn popping about on the counter, then it’s getting all mixed up (okay, I tried …) But ‘blessed’ I agree is hard to fathom, even if it’s meant to have the stress on the second syllable. Same for ‘bottled’.

    And although I put in JONATHAN because nothing else would fit, I still don’t know why he’s David’s friend. I’m guessing a biblical reference?

    So perhaps a bit of a bad day at the office for Everyman, but as was mentioned in Alan Connor’s Guardian piece this week, his puzzles are still one of the best for beginning and improving solvers. It’s here if you’re interested:

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords/crossword-blog/2012/may/31/crosswords-for-beginners-which-papers-are-easiest

  4. It has just occurred to me that Everyman might have been using ‘blessed’ in an old sense of the word: Bless: To wound, hurt; to beat, thrash, drub. (OED, on-line edition.) I think this would work ok as an anagram indicator.

  5. Thanks PeterO,

    Yes there were some very easy clues this week but, there again, there’s always a few that I struggle with.
    It is amazing what people do/don’t know and as an example there was a contestant on a quiz programme recently
    who had never heard of the rand as the currency of South Africa. So I’d never heard of ADESTE FIDELIS and this
    made it one of the last to go in. I guessed FIDELIS quite quickly but couldn’t find anything sensible for the
    first word. Don’t laugh but I came up with ADEETS which obviously proved wrong when I googled ‘hymn fidelis’.

    I am a deeply irreligious person but did know David and Jonathan. In fact, there was even a duo of that name in
    the sixties. They did a cover of the Beatles’ Michelle.

    Favourite clue was SERENADES which had an excellent surface. Thanks Everyman.

  6. Good puzzle as ever, altough I had to look up the religious stuff.

    Blessed is in my Chambers Crossword Dictionary as an anagrind, so I don’t think we can fault the setter for that. Thanks PeterO for a good blog. I looked at 23 for a while thinking that O???O must be an obscure word, but not so!

  7. Thank you, PeterO, as I’ve been waiting all week to understand 12 Across, which was the last word I filled in and only got because of the crossing words. Whenever I see a clue mentioning either athletics or mathematics I start to sweat! Even so, I had never heard of Athlone and I was perplexed by “after 6.” I really shouldn’t have been since the creators of “The Nation” puzzle which I solve every week often refer by number to other clues in the puzzle. So looking at it now, it all makes perfect sense! Other than that the only minor problem I had was with 10 Across because I didn’t know that “RA” referred to an artist. I did get “Niagara” quickly, though, as we used to live in Buffalo and took frquent trips to The Falls. All in all, I enjoyed the puzzle, so thank you, Everyman, and once again, thank you, PeterO. Hope everyone’s having a nice weekend!

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