Everyman 3,553

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The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3553.

This looked rather formidable at first, but yielded with a little persistence.

completed grid
Across
1 TRANQUIL
Calm, knight and queen about to hang? The opposite (8)
An envelope (‘about’, with the particles swapped by ‘the opposite’) of N (‘knight’, chess) plus QU (‘queen’) in TRAIL (‘hang’; not the most obvious synonym, but Chambers gives among the definitions for TRAIL “(of e.g. a garment) to hang, float or drag loosely behind”)
5 MASSIF
Geographical formation in centre of Germany – I very much doubt it contains sulphur (6)
An envelope (‘contains’) of S (‘sulphur’, chemical symbol) in M (‘centre of GerMany’) plus AS IF (‘I very much doubt’).
9 TEARAWAY
Hothead showing sign of emotion on holiday (8)
A charade of TEAR (‘sign of emotion’) plus AWAY (‘on holiday’).
10 CAREER
Rush job (6)
Double definition.
12 ALIBI
Bail broken? One makes an excuse (5)
A charade of ALIB, an anagram (‘broken’) of ‘bail’ plus I (‘one’, Roman numeral or the perpendicular pronoun).
13 ENVISAGED
Pictured, English editor holding travel document (9)
An envelope (‘holding’) of VISA (‘travel document’) in ENG (‘English’) plus ED (‘editor’).
14 VICTORIA PLUM
Fruit from Australian state, choice (8,4)
A charade of VICTORIA (‘Australian state’)  plus PLUM (‘choice’).
18 HORS DE COMBAT
Both comrades injured, so out of action (4,2,6)
An anagram (‘injured’) of ‘both comrades’.
21 ABOUT TURN
Military command connected with revolution (5,4)
A charade of ABOUT (‘connected with’) plus TURN (‘revolution’)..
23 ELITE
The best of Norse literature (5)
A hidden answer in ‘NorsE LITErature’.
24 ELAPSE
Apprentice ultimately failing to pass (6)
A charade of E (‘apprenticE ultimately’) plus LAPSE (‘failing’).
25 BARNABAS
Save bishop in Irish county town, one spreading the Word (8)
Acharade of BAR (‘save’) plus NABAS, an envelope (‘in’) of B (‘bishop’) in NAAS (‘Irish county town’. It had to be that, but I wa still surprised to find the name of the county town of Kildare). Barnabas was an apostle and companion of Paul, appearing in the Acts and in Paul’s epistles.
26 RATHER
On the contrary, somewhat sooner? Quite (6)
Quadruple definition.
27 SKIN DEEP
Shallow type plugging leak (4-4)
An envelope (‘plugging’) of KIND (‘type’) in SEEP (‘leak’).
Down
1 TITIAN
He painted giant straddling island (6)
An envelope (‘straddling’) of I (‘island’) in TITAN (‘giant’).
2 AGADIR
Sleeveless cardigan lost in Moroccan port (6)
An anagram (‘lost’) of ‘[c]ardiga[n]’ without its bounding letters (‘sleeveless’).
3 QUALIFIED
Professional is guarded (9)
Double definition.
4 I HAVEN’T A CLUE
A vehicle aunt damaged? No idea (1,6,1,4)
An anagram (‘damaged’) of ‘a vehicle aunt’.
6 ADAMS
Former US president, Hoover, say, in to that extent (5)
An envelope (‘in’) of DAM (‘Hoover, say’) in AS (‘to that extent’). The president could be John, the second, or John Quincey, the sixth.
7 SVENGALI
Scandinavian boy and girl, first to identify evil manipulator (8)
A charade of SVEN (‘Scandanavian boy’) plus GAL (‘girl’) plus I (‘first to Identify’), for the character in George du Maurier’s novel Trilby.
8 FIREDAMP
Gas let off by a politician (8)
A charade of FIRED (‘let off’) plus ‘a’ plus MP (‘politician’).Yes, it’s methane.
11 EVERY MAN JACK
Medieval morality play to uplift all of us (5,3,4)
A charade of EVERYMAN (‘medieval morality play’) plus JACK (‘uplift’).
15 AGAMEMNON
Legendary king soon to entertain willing maiden (9)
An envelope (‘to entertain’) of GAME (‘willing’) plus M (‘maiden’, cricket) in ANON (‘soon’).
16 WHEATEAR
Bird in hot weather diving into English river (8)
An envelope (‘diving into’) of HEAT (‘hot weather’) in WEAR (‘English river’).
17 ARROGANT
Disdainful, a bishop over tango dancing (8)
A charade of ‘a’ plus RR (Right Reverend, ‘bishop’) plus OGANT, an anagram (‘dansing’) of ‘tango’.
19 NIMBLE
Active doctor found in African river (6)
An envelope (‘found in’) of MB (‘doctor’) in NILE (‘African river’).
20 MESS UP
Spoil canteen at university (4,2)
A charade of MESS (‘canteen’) plus UP (‘at university’).
22 TASTE
Sip drop of sherry in gallery (5)
An envelope (‘in’) of S (‘drop of Sherry’) in TATE (‘gallery’),

25 comments on “Everyman 3,553”

  1. Thanks Everyman and PeterO,

    Enjoyed this crossword, and found the blog helpful.

    I failed to get BARNABAS.
    15d, first entered ARTHURIAN, well, it’s got a HURI in the middle hasn’t it, but of course it is not correct.

  2. I thought 26ac was 26ac good and completely missed the subtlety of the clue.

    Thanks for the usual excellent blog, PeterO – and Everyman, too, of course.

  3. I am sure that Everyman is getting harder.
    I could not get 24a,25a, 26a & 27a, 11d,15d, 16d and 22d. Must be my least successful attempt for a long time.
    25a I’ve heard of the name Barnabas but to me a very tough clue as Naas is hardly a county town that readily springs to mind.
    11d I wonder how many knew that Everyman was a medieval morality play
    16d seemed very tough. A bird I’d never heard of combined with the Wear which isn’t the first river to come to mind.NE river would have been kind.
    22d I don’t think I’ve seen the first letter of a word clued as a drop of.

  4. Bamberger @3, I took at least three hours to do this crossword, I think it was harder than the one before. Just started today’s, and it seems hard too.

  5. Thanks PeterO and Everyman.

    I thought this was a bit more difficult than normal. As commented above, NAAS is not a town likely to be known by many outside Ireland, I would have thought. The clue construction was clear enough however to reveal it. I also didn’t know that EVERYMAN was a medieval morality play.

    Nice quad definition for RATHER.

  9. Not everybody follows horse racing but the Naas course is very well known to those that do, making the clue a much easier solve.

  10. I have come back to Everyman after a break. I agree that it seems harder tha 2-3 years ago, but maybe I am out of practice.
    Nice one today; bit easier than this one.

  13. I found this one challenging too, and failed to get a number of the clues as many others did. Didn’t get Barnabius, and never heard of wheatear. Nevertheless it keeps the mind active.

  14. Bloody hell! Well I had Wicker for 10 a which buggered up that corner so never got 6 or 7 d. Thought of Agamemnon but Google had heaps of legendary kings and at first glance the parsing wasn’t obvious, so Barnabas didn’t happen either. So fell four short, no make that five as Wicker was wrong. Toughest Everyman for yonks. Another hour might have nailed it but spent the best part of three getting as far as I did. Hard. And I see this week’s Listener crossword is a monster. Oh, well.

  16. Welcome Colleen!

    Yes this was a pig with an unusual number of obscure places, people and things. Don’t be put off!

  17. This was too hard for me. I got 20 down, mess up, and that was it. I should have got 10 across, career, but no, it was too obscure otherwise. I can often solve The Herald cryptic, which by the way comes from the Double Scotsman circa late September 2009. Thank you every one.

  18. I got stymied on 15d, 25a and the final word of 11d. I had BOOK which fitted with COLUMBAS ( a saint with Celtic connections) which went nowhere near a derivative of ARTHUR-this was soon eliminated but conundrums persisted-finally AGAMEMNON and BARNABAS through the crossers and finally everymanjack=all of us became the focus of the clue-not medieval play as I’d thought! I’m encouraging some former colleagues I met at a reunion yesterday to join in and follow the informative explanations in giving them an insight so hopefully we will have a few more Kiwi contributors.
    Thanks to Everyman for an intriguing puzzle and PeterO for his explanations.

  19. Nice to see others found it hard like me – all those who finish much quicker than me – I missed 4, the hothead, the apprentice, the bird and the name of the legendary king (sounds like the start of a joke doesnt it)

  20. This was a really hard one for me too. I didn’t get too far with it and can’t even use the excuse of being on a motor home rally. Looking at the answers I could have stared at it forever and not finished. Hang in there newcomers. It’s an excellent activity for the brain and vocabulary and isn’t usually so hard.

  21. Just noticed the times they are attributing to us must be at least 24 hours out. I know that none of you are doing this in the wee small hours. It must be set to U.K. Daylight time.

  22. Talk about coming late to the party but I gave up on this today. Yes, that’s right, I persevered through the weekend and decided to keep at it for a few more days. In the end I gave up. This was HARD. More like a Times of London crossie than an Everyman. Too many obscure answers like SVENGALI, WHEATEAR, FIREDAMP, MASSIF etc. Till this weekend!

  24. Rats @23

    Pierre is another blogger, two weeks ahead or behind me, but as this is my blog, here is my attempt at a reply.
    Firstly, I shall take “other cryptics” as the Guardian’s with which I am most familiar, although I do the Independent and FT on a less regular basis. Obviously, there is a wide range of difficulty in the Guardian – and, within a narrower compass, Everyman – and, equally obviously, a lot depends on a particular solver’s areas of expertise. I generally find that my range of general knowledge matches Everyman’s fairly closely – of the obscurities mentioned above for this puzzle only Naas was unknown to me; I knew of Svengali and Trilby, but, never having read the novel, I did look it up after the fact, to find a little more about it than was required to answer the clue. This freedom from aids is typical for me and Everyman, but less so for the Guardian. In today’s Tramp, I had heard of the name Coldplay, but beyond that knew nothing of them (although it turned out that Tramp’s extensive references to them in the puzzle were icing on the cake, and you hardly needed any closer knowledge to answer the clues). Perhaps the simplest measure of the relative difficulty of the puzzles is the time taken to blog them. With the time difference, I get the puzzles at 7pm. the evening before the publication date, and always get the blog completed (in as far as I can!) before going to bed. With the Guardian I do not often have much time to do anything else, and occasionally I have to take a night later than my usual 10pm. With the last Everyman the blog was done in time the do the Independent, and, with the exception of one Everyman a couple of months ago, I am quite happy to schedule the publication without having the solution available.

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