Everyman 3,621

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The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3621.

I am getting used to Everyman’s style, with its more elaborate wordplay and misleading definitions, as well as smooth surfaces , and consequenty found it a straightforward solve. I hope others are going the same route as well.

Across
1 REMEDY Thin clothes ending in storeroom? Correct (6)
An envelope (‘clothes’) of M (‘ending in storerooM‘) in REEDY (‘thin’).
4 ASCENDED Rose, when cold, finished (8)
A charade of AS (‘when’) plus C (‘cold’) plus ENDED (‘finished’).
9 GENUS Star for example going around in group (5)
A reversal (‘going around’) of SUN (‘star’) plus EG (‘for example’).
10 DEPRESSED Journalists breaking achievement down (9)
An envelope (‘breaking’) of PRESS (‘journalists’) in DEED (‘achievement’).
11 LACKLUSTRE Dull king with desire to occupy large land area (10)
An envelope (‘to occupy’) of K (‘king’) plus LUST (‘desire’) in L (‘large’) plus ACRE (‘land area’).
12 HERE Reportedly gather in this place (4)
Sounds like (‘reportedly’) HEAR (‘gather’ as in “I hear/gather that Britain may leave the EU”).
14 AVERSION THERAPY A kind, sad heart with quiet yen to give treatment for bad behaviour (8,7)
A charade of ‘a’ plus VERSION (‘kind’) plus THERA, an anagram (‘sad’) of ‘heart’, plus P (‘quiet’) plus Y (Japanese currency, ‘yen’).
16 PETER AND THE WOLF Strange new depth of later orchestral piece (5,3,3,4)
An anagram (‘strange’) of ‘new depth of later’, for Prokofiev’s best-known work.
18 ROUT Resistance extinguished in defeat (4)
A charade of R (‘resistance’) plus OUT (‘extinguished’).
19 ASSORTMENT Choice mattress on ground (10)
An anagram (‘ground’) of ‘matress on’.
22 DIANA ROSS Rubbish about one area not available for singer (5,4)
An envelope (‘about’) of I (‘one’) plus A (‘area’) plus NA (‘not available’) in DROSS (‘rubish’).
23 INTRO First part covered by paint roller (5)
A hidden answer (‘covered by’) in ‘paINT ROller’.
24 SPECKLED Spotted having kiss in vehicle (8)
An envelope (‘in’) of PECK (‘kiss’) in SLED (‘vehicle’).
25 UNMASK Expose politician finally amid hesitation before appeal (6)
An envelope (‘amid’) of N (‘politiciaN finally’) in UM (‘hesitation’) plus ASK (‘appeal’).
Down
1 REGALIA Emblems of royalty relating to festive occasion involving island (7)
An envelope (‘involving’) of I (‘island’) in RE (‘relating to’) plus GALA (‘festive occasion’).
2 MANIC Feverish fellow in charge (5)
A charade of MAN (‘fellow’) plus IC (‘in charge’).
3 DISCLOSURE Look certain to support record supplying revelation (10)
A charade of DISC (‘record’) plus LO (‘look’) plus SURE (‘certain’), with ‘to support’ indicating the order of the particles in a down light.
5 SUPERSTITIOUS Great saint, one worked out, is believing irrationally (13)
A charade of SUPER (‘great’) plus ST (‘saint’) plus I (‘one’) plus TIOUS, an anagram (‘worked’) of ‘out is’.
6 EVEN Happening to omit last level (4)
A subtraction: EVEN[t] (‘happening’) minus its final letter (‘to omit last’).
7 DESPERADO Criminal dictator endlessly holding venture up (9)
An envelope (‘holding’) of ERAD, a reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of DARE (‘venture’) in DESPO[t] (‘dictator’) minus its last letter (‘endlessly’).
8 DODDERY Frail and thirsty, consuming rum with enjoyment initially (7)
An enveope (‘consuming’) of ODD (‘rum’) plus E (‘Enjoyment initially’) in DRY (‘thirsty’).
10 DISCOUNT STORE Passes over rent for shop selling bargains (8,5)
A charade of DISCOUNTS (‘passes over’) plus TORE (‘rent’).
13 PEDESTRIAN One on foot scattered seed in part (10)
An anagram (‘scattred’) of ‘seed in part’
15 ENTOURAGE Followers in tune or otherwise with era (9)
An anagram (‘otherwise’) of ‘tune or’ plus ‘era‘ AGE (‘era’).
16 PARADES Cuts restricting commercial processions (7)
An envelope (‘restricting’) of AD (‘commercial’) in PARES (‘cuts’).
17 FETLOCK Alien surrounded by crowd in joint (7)
An envelope (‘surrounded by’) of ET (the extraterrestrial of the film, ‘alien’) in FLOCK (‘crowd’). FETLOCK is a tuft of hair above a horse’s hoof, or the joint in that area between the cannon bone and the pastern (the shinbone and the ankle, approximately).
20 EXTRA Former partner beginning to torment artist more (5)
A charade of EX (‘former partner’) plus T (‘beginning to Torment’) plus RA (‘artist’).
21 RANK Standing and revolting (4)
Double definition.
completed grid

16 comments on “Everyman 3,621”

  1. Hi,

    I’ve been getting through recent editions in about an hour, but this took me all week. Either I’m having a mental episode, or this one was much harder than of late. My last one in was METE for 12 across (reportedly gather, geddit?), erroneous apparently. Just one beef – in 3 down, LO for Look. Really?…

    Kevin

  2. Thanks for the blog, Peter. It certainly took me a while to get used to Everyman’s style after the change of setters last year, and his more complicated wordplay is certainly a feature. But I personally need a period of accommodation with every new compiler that comes along.

    Kevin, well done with making progress with these puzzles. Lo! comes up very often. It’s an archaic word for ‘look’. Think Christmas carols:

    Lo! Within a manger lies
    He who built the starry skies

  3. Thanks Everyman & PeterO.

    I seem to remember I found this one a bit tricky. 15D doesn’t quite work for me; the wordplay seems to be tuneor* + era.

  4. Ah, Lo and behold! Yes, of course – thanks. I’d been thinking it was a suspect abbreviation. Makes perfect sense now. First time I’ve come across it. (so much to learn…)

  5. Thanks Everyman and PeterO.

    This puzzle took me longer than usual, as it did for Kevin. PETER AND THE WOLF went in as soon as “and the” was guessed. I seem to remember AVERSION THERAPY was the last in.

  8. A little trickier I thought than the last couple of weeks. That said, when I managed to get a couple of entries in, the grid filled up pretty rapidly. 5d, for reasons that elude me now, I’d convinced myself must be an anagram, and refused resolutely for a long time to enter the blatantly obvious answer.

  9. I’m enjoying these puzzles, but I haven’t done any by the previous Everyman so I can’t compare. I didn’t make any note about the relative difficulty of this one relative to recent weeks.

    Thanks, Everyman and PeterO.

  10. Looks like I’m the first from Auckland this week. This one took me ages. I certainly don’t feel that I am getting used to this setter or that it is getting easier, but today’s was more difficult than the last two weeks have been.
    Completed the bottom half first but the top half took some time.
    Daylight Saving ends today so Autumn is well and truly here now.

  11. Got slightly held up in the north east corner and hadn’t heard of Aversion Therapy but this was all over in under an hour. I was torn between here and mete for 12A. Given my crap Geography I figured there would be a town called Mete somewhere (and there is, in Africa) so plumped for that. Pleased to have got 19D, I always miss Ground as an anagrind.

    Good luck with the T 20 England, good luck Lydia Ko with the first major of the year.

    And an extra hour’s kip for us Kiwis tonight.

    Thanks Peter and Everyman.

  12. Yes Audrey A, I had the Ottoman done and had to really concentrate on my digital devise to finish the top. I liked 19a, the anagram was well hidden and 5d which I was sure was an anagram but wasn’t. Once again I put in answers that I could partially parse and fitted, this method works for me.

  14. I was wondering what the ottoman meant too! Must say the more you do this setter the clearer the weird clues seem, I quite liked a few of these… I like how the make up of the clues often have fish hooks in them which if not careful can put the solver on a wrong path

  15. Yes this was difficult for me but I solved it, but not by the methods PeterO describes.
    It took me all day to get there the hard way. Like ‘Desperado’, I would never think of ‘venture’ = ‘dare’ = ‘erad’ (up) and despot minus ‘t’.
    Sorry but this is too convoluted for me. Last ones in were ‘remedy’, ‘regalia’ and ‘genus’. I could not figure out what the setter was getting at.
    Not much fun really. I plugged on doggedly not letting the setter beat me.
    Thank you to PeterO.

  16. First one I have managed to get completely correct for a few weeks; although I must say that had I thought of it I probably would have chosen ‘mete’ rather than ‘here’ also. I get the gather/ hear thing now but didn’t at the time and only stuck it in ‘cos that’s all I could think of.

    Thanks to all.

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