Everyman 3,628

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Hello all,

Apologies for the crude formatting today: I couldn’t get the usual tool to work, so have been inputting the clues by hand.

I found this pretty tough to be honest, but (as always) am quite prepared to believe that that’s down to me having an off-day rather than Everyman ramping it up.

A couple of raised eyebrows (indicated by question marks) but , again, I suspect that’s me being dim.

Across

1: Coherent quality in broadcast I idly cut (8)

LUCIDITY

Nice easy one to lure me in. Anag (broadcast) of IIDLYCUT

5: Lie about strength of character (5)
FIBRE
FIB (lie) RE (about)
9: Struggle, untrained, to reverse (3)
WAR
Reversal of RAW (untrained)
10: Ponder about alternative hospital for community (11)
BROTHERHOOD
BROOD (ponder) about OTHER (alternative) H (hospital)
11: Nothing in dive except for pub area (6,3)
LOUNGE BAR
O (nothing) in LUNGE (dive), then BAR (except)
12: American man with right conduct (5)
USHER
US (American) HE (man) R (right)
13: Strange air, to me, in popular tribute (13)
COMMEMORATION
Anag. (strange) of AIRTOME in COMMON (popular)
17; Prepare for action decided by editor in rough sketch (5,3,5)
CLEAR THE DECKS
CLEAR (decided?? not sure about that) ED (editor) in anagram (rough) of SKETCH
19: Top grade in final phase (5)
ALPHA
Hidden answer
21: Perform within rules, so unhappily lacking perfume (9)
ODOURLESS
DO (perform) within an anagram (unhappily) of RULESSO
23: Beams from bright sun initially catching opponent (11)
CANTILEVERS
CLEVER (bright) S (sun, initially) around (catching) ANTI (opponent??)
24: Leaders in triumph on reaching peak (3)
TOR
Leading letters in Triumph On Reaching
25: Variable luck, ignoring tips about plant (5)
YUCCA
Y (variable) UC (luck, ignoring the tips) CA (circa, about)
26 Mean to protect half of rare fish (8)
STINGRAY
STINGY (mean) around RAre

Down

1: Sadly dwell on party’s end indecently (6)

LEWDLY

Anag (sadly) of DWELL on Y (party’s end)

2: Automobile book, relative gem (9)

CARBUNCLE

CAR B UNCLE

3: First performance mostly good and free from faults (5)

DEBUG

DEBUt (first performance, mostly) G (good)

4: One fixing problems with nose after time and money (14)

TROUBLESHOOTER

HOOTER (nose) after T (time) ROUBLES (money)

5: Conventional treatment of locum, fair (9)

FORMULAIC

anag. (treatment) of locumfair

6: Stand and kick hard (5)

BOOTH

Boot (kick) H (hard)

7: Constant, objective university group (8)

ENDURING

End (objective) U (university) RING (group)

8: Stirring words of hero set in outlaw band’s domain (8,6)

SHERWOOD FOREST

Anag (stirring) of WORDSOFHEROSET. nice surface

14: Spoil resolution about start of abstinence with a cocktail (9)

MARGARITA
MAR (spoil) GRIT (resolution) around A (start of Abstinence) with A
15: Script one prepared for examiner (9)
INSPECTOR
Anag (prepared) of SCRIPTONE
16: Rough fracas, finally memorable, involving Romeo (8)
SCRATCHY
S  (fracas, finally) CATCHY (memorable) involving R (romeo)
18 Bird in very large quarry (6)
OSPREY
OS (very large) PREY (quarry) another nice surface
20: Film disrupted by an alarm (5)
PANIC
PIC (film) around AN
22: Increased offer is enticing to some extent (5)
RISEN
Hidden answer

14 comments on “Everyman 3,628”

  1. Thank you Matt and Everyman

    I enjoyed this puzzle. YUCCA was a new word for me.

    17a – I was fine with clear-decided, as in “public officials have a decided/clear advantage in the matter:”

  2. Thanks Everyman & Matt.

    Yes, quite tricky, especially the SW corner.

    From Collins for ‘anti’: noun
    2. an opponent of a party, policy, etc

  3. Usual slow start, then a steady solve, and then the last two or three troublesome clues. Nine in a row unaided and all correct.

  4. Thanks Everyman and Matt.

    Just found the blog, it has not been put up in its place – perhaps Gaufrid is waiting for neater homework?

    It took me a while to suss out FORMULAIC and CARBUNCLE, only the abscess came to mind. I liked ODOURLESS, CANTILEVERS, MARGARITA, SHERWOOD FOREST and many others.

  5. The combination of 16/23/25 I found a little tricky. For 16d I was trying to resolve an anagram for too long that just didn’t exist. The rest went in quickly enough.

  6. Yes there are always two or three troublesome clues and like Jon, my last two answers were CANTILEVERS and finally SCRATCHY which appropriately enough, caused much head scratching. Yucca plants were common in offices back in the day and maybe still are.

    A very enjoyable puzzle as ever. Thanks to Matt and Everyman.

  7. I didn’t make any notes about difficulty last Sunday, so I assume I found it a fairly typical Everyman. My favourite was SHERWOOD FOREST, for the very appropriate surface.

    Thanks, Everyman and Matt.

  8. After a quick fire start and a few self congratulatory pats on the back, there was the usual stumble leading to a rather painful stagger to the finish in the bottom left hand corner. Once again those crosses finally helped in “scratchy” and “cantilevers” – solving them by the clues alone was proving rather difficult. Yucca (and I always thought it was Yukka!- but then what would I know?) came a little more easily though, having for some time served as quite a common gift between friends in this part of the world – they probably still do. Thanks to all.

  9. Found this very difficult and didn’t get cantilevers, yucca or scratchy . But having spent several hours puzzling over that corner it was time to give up.

  11. Isn’t it funny how it goes with these puzzles, I really enjoyed this one, yet poor old Hamilton Joe had trouble aplenty. I find that early morning, complete silence and my electronic tablet are vital to success! All the clues today were good, I still struggle with the reasons but if the words feel right and fit then all is well. Thanks to Everyman for your continuing cleverness and to Matt for making sense of it all.

  12. I too got stuck in the south west. Had Centimeters for 23a which didn’t look right but I ran out of puff.

    We had our own ‘Sherwood Forest’ between the bottom of the garden and the golf course when I was a nipper growing up in Wimbledon. Used to shoot squirrels there. Sad, really.

    Thanks Matt and Everyman.

  14. We thought we’d got it all out but we had fable instead of fibre for 5 across. Fable = lie. Able for strength of character (well sort of). But no explanation for the “f”.
    Our last corner was also the SW one.

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