Everyman 3,540

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A straightforward Everyman, easier than the last one I did.

Nothing much to report, really. There wasn’t anything that I found at all questionable or objectionable, but neither will any of the clues stick in the memory. A pleasant solve all the same.

Across
8 SGT PEPPERS LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND See 1
Solicitor General, tense, attacks column in newspaper on disco and reportedly outlawed album

A charade: SG (Solicitor General) T (tense) PEPPERS (attacks) LONELY HEARTS (column in newspaper) CLUB (disco) BAND (‘reportedly’ sounds like banned [outlawed]).Perhaps the most famous album ever made, and the first one to spring to mind, but the numbering (SGT / SERGEANT) caught me out, and it was only later that I realised my foolishness.
11   See 1
12 BODEGA Person, for example, visiting a shop selling wine (6)
Charade: BOD (person) EG (for example) A
14 MAPLE He brings in soft wood (5)
Insertion of P (soft) within MALE (he)
15 EYESTRAIN Tiredness when reading with damaged retina? That’s about right (9)
Anagram (damaged) of RETINA*, about YES (right)
17 INSINCERE Hypocritical, some “virgins” in ceremonies (9)
Hidden answer: virgINS IN CEREmonies. Nice clue – always surprised at how difficult I find it to spot these clues.
18 EXTRA Not included in special edition (5)
Double definition
20 LADDER Set of steps left by counter? (6)
L (left) by ADDER (counter)
22 GREEN TEA Young side cut short a drink (5,3)
GREEN (young) with TEAm (side, cut short)
24 GRIND TO A HALT Be unable to move further at night, a lord, ill at ease (5,2,1,4)
Anagram (ill at ease) of “at night a lord”
25 LAY READERS Editorials about Scottish town preachers (3,7)
LEADERS (editorials) around AYR (Scottish town)
Down
2 GREEN BERET Commando not prepared to risk protecting monarch (5,5)
GREEN (not prepared) with BET (risk) around (protecting) ER (monarch)
3 PAYS Benefits in French country (4)
As in “It pays to increase your word power”, and Pays d’Oc
4 PEER OF THE REALM Emperor – he felt uneasy about a duke, perhaps (4,2,3,5)
Anagram (uneasy) of EMPEROR HE FELT, with A inserted
5 EERIE Spooky eastern lake (5)
E with lake ERIE
6 SUSTAIN Spot inhabited by American bear (7)
STAIN (spot) around (inhabited by) US (American)
7 DOUBLE ENTENDRE Ambiguous comment, blue? Ended tenor, unfortunately (6,8)
Anagram (unfortunately) of BLUE ENDED TENOR
9 SCAM Racket coming from small tributary of the Great Ouse (4)
S (small) then CAM, the river that flows into the Great Ouse
10 RUMPUS Disturbance behind us (6)
RUMP (behind) US
13 RESEARCHER Her career’s varied, as analyst (10)
Anagram (varied) of HER CAREERS
16 ASTUTE Shrewd, like Egyptian king, last of line (6)
AS (like) TUT (abbreviation of tutankhamun) and E (last letter of line)
17 ILLEGAL Bad carrying on with a criminal (7)
ILL (bad) around (carrying) LEG (on, in cricket terminology) and A
19 ALAS Pseudonym I omitted, unfortunately (4)
ALiAS (Pseudonym) with the i taken out
21 DAILY Cleaner in Irish house close to Killarney (5)
DAIL, as in the Irish house of government , with Y: the last letter of Killarney
23   Prominent bishop, advanced in years (4)

*anagram

24 comments on “Everyman 3,540”

  1. Many thanks Matt & Everyman

    ‘Nothing much to report’ … Really?

    I fainted when I saw the Grid and, after I had recovered, my first thoughts were of Lorraine …

    Should I call for an ambulance? Or what?

    In the event, it all fitted together very nicely and I found it VERY ENJOYABLE.

  2. I enjoyed this puzzle a lot even though I rather hastily entered LORD of the realm at 4d without parsing it, so it made it hard to get 1/8/11 until i had corrected 4d to PEER of the realm – which I actually could parse!

    My favourites were 16d, 17d, 10d,2d, 4d.

    Thanks you Everyman and Matt

  4. I enjoyed this puzzle. When I saw the grid and the first clue I actually wondered if there had been a change of setter. Just in case it was a complicated anagram I decided to tackle the rest of the clues before the long one, and once I had enough checkers the name of the album fell into place, together with how it was parsed.

  5. Certainly a strange grid; very unlike Everyman. But I suppose the long answer (again, very unusual) made that necessary. I didn’t see the long one until near the end.

    I am going to nominate GREEN TEA as my favourite, because it wasn’t (TEENAGER)*

    Thanks to Matt for the explanations and to Everyman for the puzzle.

    [Matt, where is the stone structure in your picture?]

  7. That is strange, Andrew. Perhaps Everyman was on work-to-rule at the time and wanted to produce a puzzle with the least possible number of clues.

  8. Thanks Everyman for a nice puzzle with a ghastly grid.

    Thanks Matt, I think Everyman must have started with SERGEANT PEPPERS across the top and then given up when filling the grid. I did try out a grid with the full name across the top and the rest of the album and it would fill with reasonable words. When I started I thought of SG and T and then thought, no, this must be an envelope or something.

    I liked EYESTRAIN, even if I couldn’t see it properly. 😉

  9. Thanks Matt,

    Yes, there wasn’t much to this puzzle and I do remember the awful grid which Andrew referred to
    which seemed like half a crossword. Better than none I suppose.

    I did like the long one being of that era, SUSTAIN was well disguised and DOUBLE ENTENDRE.
    Thanks to Everyman and to Robi for his joke which amused me.

  10. Hi all,
    THanks for the comments, and apologies for the rather terse blog, and lapse with BOLD. I agree that it’s a bit of a lopsided and truncated grid.
    Kathryn’s Dad – the stone formation is a granite tor on Bodmin Moor (close to where I grew up) called the Cheesewring.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheesewring

  11. Many years ago large areas of black squares were a bit of an Everyman trademark. I don’t mind as long as there is a reasonable ratio of checked to unchecked letters and the clues are as good as usual.

  12. I thought the Sgt Pepper clue was brilliant – almost the last in and then it all slotted into place. The usual witty collection of anagrams – thanks Everyman. And thanks also to Matt – I couldn’t parse DAILY but will remember it next time I see something about an Irish house.

  13. Ugly grid which rather tainted my enjoyment of this. I didn’t realise Sergeant was abbreviated in the Beatles record which messed me for a while, plus is T an accepted abbreviation for tense? It’s a new one on me.12a was a bit hard without saying it’s a Spanish shop. Missed the ‘yes’ in 15a and we seem to have had clues like 5d a lot recently. Missed the ‘on’ in 17d which made me cross as I used to play heaps of cricket. Probably a better crossword than I’m prepared to give it credit for because of the foulness of the grid. Harrumph.

  14. Didn’t like this crossword or the grid. I also was thrown by not knowing that The Beatles album had an abbreviation for Sergeant. Missed quite a few but I liked 16 d.

  15. Took me much longer than usual and like others was thrown by the abbreviation Sgt. Enjoyable though and didn’t mind the grid.

  16. It took me to 17a before I could fill one in with absolute certainty and when I reached 5d another (I could almost hear Barrie having a bleat that we’d seen it before but bear in mind we are several weeks behind the possible original). I am unaware if these puzzles still originate from ARAUCARIA but in the past he sent special puzzles in a diamond form without any black squares at all to his brother! Hence this grid, while startling, didn’t really alter the spectrum of challenge which I personally found quite considerable, once I got lonely hearts from the letters 1a fell into place and finally 9d and 14a. Thanks to Matt and to EVERYMAN for another interesting puzzle with lots of subtle anagrams.

  19. Thanks Barrie I was aware that he had died of cancer last November (at 92!) and presumed that he had probably not left enough puzzles in the current pipeline. His obituary made for interesting reading and he did leave a legacy of initiating a style crossword setting. I’ll google Alan Scott to find out more info.

  20. I was awed by the grid when I saw it this morning and it has taken me two sessions to solve it. I thought Sgt Pepper was brilliant and eyesore was my last one in. I really enjoyed this week, makes you feel good when you finally figure a puzzling clue out.

  21. It appears that Alan Scott aka Everyman has been this particular compiler since 1994! I wonder how often he has used this particular template?

  23. Hated it then loved it, found it a good mental challenge, I never look,at the blog until I have come to end of my abilities. Got everything except eyestrain, kept focussing on a four letter first part of that clue.
    Thought some of the clues mah-vellouss to quote john . Campbell

  24. Got stuck on green beret , eye strain and lay readers and bodega ……but got there in the end

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