Everyman 3591/2 August

by

Fine puzzle from Everyman.  Just right for this slot.

I liked this one a lot: I think our not so new setter is getting into his stride.  Most of the clues don’t take up more than one line.  Concision?  Tick.  Surface readings good?  Tick.  Some clever anagrams?  Tick.  No obscure words?  Tick.  I’ll stop now and blog the crossword.

 

Abbreviations
cd  cryptic definition
dd  double definition
(xxxx)*  anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x]  letter(s) removed

definitions are underlined

Across

1 Broadcast omits a cub, extremely small
SUBATOMIC
(OMITS A CUB)*

6 Story reversed within eighty minutes
MYTH
Hidden reversed in eigHTY Minutes

8 Commercial cars and farm vehicles, carbon-free? They’ll manage
ADMINISTRATORS
A charade of AD, MINIS and TRA[C]TORS.

10 Annoying one in front of king and son in capital city
IRKSOME
A charade of I and KS inserted in ROME.

11 Crumbly crisp coating that is more strongly flavoured
SPICIER

12 Voice necessary to debate normally
TENOR
Hidden in debaTE NORmally.  You have to read ‘necessary to’ as ‘part of’.

14 Post-Victorian dawn I read about
EDWARDIAN
(DAWN I READ)* for the EDWARDIAN age, more or less the first decade of the twentieth century.

16 Problem with fraud United Nations beat
CONUNDRUM
A charade of CON, UN and DRUM.

18 Dreams ending in rubble in skips
HOPES
An insertion of E for the last letter of ‘rubble’ in HOPS.

20 Deeds in parties lacking force
ACTIONS
[F]ACTIONS

22 Large alien with soft feathers? It’s a disappointment
LET-DOWN
A charade of L, ET, and DOWN.  Where would setters be without our friendly extra-terrestrial?

24 Play new role in judo team
ROMEO AND JULIET
Great clue for the star cross’d lovers.  Don’t think I’ve ever seen this anagram before.  Or if I have, I’ve forgotten.  (ROLE IN JUDO TEAM)*

25 Slip in small joke
SKID
A charade of S and KID.

26 State perfect answer, suppressing wrong ones
MINNESOTA
An insertion of (ONES)* in MINT, followed by A for ‘answer’.

Down

1 Analyst of data that’s roughly intact as it is
STATISTICIAN
(INTACT AS IT IS)*

2 Yokel having impact on family
BUMPKIN
A charade of BUMP and KIN.

3 Colour and energy in dance
TANGO
A charade of TAN and GO.  Maria Schneider, Marlon Brando and a helping of butter, for those who are old enough to remember.  Those too young are advised not to type ‘butter tango’ into Mrs Google.

4 Soldier, using aromatic substance with hesitation, receiving support
MUSKETEER
The MUSK and the ER are fairly obvious, but ETE?  I had to search online for this.  Apparently it’s short for ‘education, training, and employment’.  The solution is gettable, but the acronym as the insertion is a bit random, imho.  Or perhaps I’ve got it wrong.

5 Run into police group
CORPS
An insertion of R in COPS.

6 Parade involving endless trouble for powerful woman
MATRIARCH
An insertion of TRIA[L] in MARCH.

7 Interim changes for stations
TERMINI
(INTERIM)*  Might have seen this before, but that’s no complaint because Everyman is an entry-level puzzle and anagrams are always welcome to get you going.

9 Substantial artist holding positions popular as singer and actor
FRANK SINATRA
Well, it’s a bit convoluted, but with a few crossers and the enumeration, it couldn’t be much else, could it?  You need to insert RANKS for ‘positions’ and IN for ‘popular’ in FAT for ‘substantial’ and add RA for ‘artist’.

13 Recording’s first tune does sadly deteriorate
RUN TO SEED
(R TUNE DOES)*

15 I’m drained, enthralled by upset today in tennis tournament
WIMBLEDON
Tennis tournament, nine letters, starting with W?  Again, that is absolutely not a criticism: it’s a good clue (and a good surface) for this type of crossword.  Slap it in and parse it afterwards.  I’M BLED in a reversal of NOW for ‘today’.

17 Overall employment system
NETWORK
A charade of NET and WORK.

19 Volume is in poor, distressed condition
PROVISO
An insertion of V and IS in (POOR)*

21 Star initially followed by ardent crowd
SWARM
A charade of S for the first letter of ‘star’ and WARM.  Prescience from Everyman here: caring, sharing Dave C got himself in the guano this week for using this word as a collective noun to describe the immigrants trying to enter the UK from Calais.

23 Clubs in genuine agreement to end hostilities
TRUCE
An insertion of C in TRUE.

Many thanks to Everyman for this morning’s puzzle.  I enjoyed solving and blogging it.

31 comments on “Everyman 3591/2 August”

  1. Thanks Everyman and Pierre

    I enjoyed this puzzle. My favourites were ADMINISTRATORS & ROMEO AND JULIET.

    I had not made a note of not being able to parse MUSKETEER and I don’t recall how (or if) I parsed it!

    * Pierre, you omitted the parsing of 11a which is anagram of CRISP around IE

  2. The support, and you are really going to kick yourself, in MUSKETEER is the thing golfers use, a tee which is received by the hesitation.

    I agree about the setter getting things spot on with this puzzle. Long may they continue.

  4. Thanks to Michelle for doing my job for me and to sidey for explaining MUSKETEER. I have duly kicked myself. Muppetry.

  5. Thanks Everyman and Pierre.

    I had no trouble with this puzzle and was able to solve and parse it in 2 hours, very good going for me, being a half baked biscuit.

    I particularly liked ADMINISTRATORS, IRKSOME, CONUNDRUM, MINNESOTA, MUSKETEER and ROMEO AND JULIET.

  6. Yes, a perfect Everyman with a good variety of entertaining and interesting clues. Loved the anagram for SUBATOMIC which took me quite a while to see; MYTH was well-hidden; IRKSOME was very misleading; ROMEO AND JULIET was such a smooth surface; and TERMINI shows what can be done with just four words.

    Many thanks to Pierre and Everyman.

  7. I agree that this was spot on for an Everyman. It will be a pity if our old contributor Bamberger has indeed given up doing up the Everyman after his travails with the early puzzles from the new setter.

  8. I too enjoyed this one. Just to show some people are never happy, I then moped about because with the previous ones I usually had something to work on all week, but this time I was done by Sunday lunchtime!

  9. That was a very nice Sunday entertainment. My favourite was ROMEO AND JULIET, but I also liked many of the surfaces, particularly those for LET DOWN and SPICIER.

    Thanks to Everyman and PiereO.

  11. Hi, Everyman seems to be at about my level, I manage to finish these, whereas the regular Guardian offering leaves me mostly flummoxed. I was wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of any other regular cryptic crosswords that are about this level of difficulty? Cheers!

  12. jennyk : you are confusing Pierre with PeterO !.

    Lucym : have you tried the Quiptic which appears only on a Monday in the Guardian ?.

  14. I’m a new poster so hello, and thankyou Pierre et al for all the help over the last few months.

    Lucym. I also find Everyman to be the right level and also do the Quiptic and the Monday Cryptic which is usually by Rufus. I leave the rest of the week to the experts.

    As for this puzzle, deep joy after the struggles for the first few weeks of the new setter.

  15. Don’t worry, jennyk. I could think of a football chant that went ‘Pierre, Pierre, PierrO, PierrO, PierrO (bis) which is about as close to fan worship that I’m ever going to come.

    Evan, welcome, and to Lucym too. As well as the puzzles mentioned, have a go at Dac in the Indy on a Wednesday four weeks out of five. This kind of level, always clearly clued and with no obscurities. And the Quiptic is indeed a good option. The Quiptic is available (only) through the Guardian crossword website and there is an indication of how to access the Indy puzzle online through CrosswordSolver in the General Discussion tab at the top of this page. I’ve just forgotten exactly where it is, but someone will post and remind me, no doubt.

  16. The FT on Monday is another possibility if you’re looking for a more accessible puzzle. Rufus (Dante) and the former Everyman setter (Falcon) are both Monday regulars.

  18. I’m quite unable to recall anything as far back as a week, but I do remember thinking that the new setter has now hit the difficulty-nail absolutely squarely on the head. And today’s is, if anything, even better-judged than this.

    So, congratulations ‘New Everyman’.

  20. Sorry, that should be ‘passed’, not ‘past’ of course. I only mentioned the time I took because it is the same time, two hours, which the old Everyman used to take me after I had been doing crosswords for nearly a year.

  22. Down here in NZ I agree that this puzzle is about the same level as with the previous setter. A thoroughly enjoyable way to start the weekend.

  23. Wow, here it is only 7.45am and I’m done and dusted. Agree completely with Pierre, this level of puzzle is ideal. We Antipodeans, who’s Saturdays can’t begin until the puzzle is solved now have the rest of the day for…… ? Thanks Everyman and Pierre, an enjoyable brain work out.

  24. Yes,I too agree that this is the right level. My favourites were subatomic, administrators, and Romeo and Juliet. Have done the vacuuming, finished the crossword and it’s still only 10 o’clock. Now what?

    Thanks Everyman and Pierre.

  25. Hmmm. Yup, enjoyed this but dare I say it was almost just a teeny weeny bit too easy? God we’re hard to please. Ok, spot on, then, mr Everyman.

    My only specific grumble was 21D where I’d say Ardent means rather more than just Warm.

    Gorgeous day here. Amazing, the forecast was rubbish.

    Thanks Pierre et al.

  26. Yes, I solved this completely correctly. But I did not understand the clues or how to reach the answers until reading Pierre’s explanations. So I got it out without knowing why many of the clues led to the answers.
    At least I damn it with faint praise. All right it is not too bad. It kept my interest and attention. Thank you.

  27. um pardon!? up and finished crossie by 7.45am? No housework to do at your place? It’s my sat afternoon treat and was very pleased to finish by early evening. great comments by the many this week. still searching for some clever clues, still dont think this setter is as cunning as the previous . but at least it’s something to look forward to again

  28. Agree that this was much more up our street We don’t usually comment as we usually finish it on Sunday morning (and probably nobody much 7goes back to read posts after then).
    Interesting that Frank Sinatra clue also works completely as a non- cryptic (surface?) clue.

  29. You’d be surprised who goes back and reads the comments the next day. Don’t let that stop you commenting. Everyone’s comments are interesting.

  30. Audrey – thank you for that vote of support. Seldom finish this before Sunday afternoon (and over recent weeks, seldom finish at all) & by that time everyone has made their comments. But I always check here to see what others have to say & help with parsing (esp Frank Sinatra this week).
    I can only agree that this was more in line with the ‘old’ Everyman puzzles – thanks to both Pierre & Everyman for this weeks offering.

  31. You’re welcome, NZ people. Keep telling everyone what you think.

    Bloody cheating Australian cricketers. Obstructing the field? Give me a break.

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