Everyman 3,634

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Maybe a post-holiday malaise but I made heavy weather of this.

All fairly clued however – thanks Everyman

completed grid

Across

1 Iron commitment ultimately put into state security (6)
SAFETY
FE & (commitmen)T all in SAY (state)

4 Correct answer about cleric (8)
ACCURATE
A(nswer) & C(irca) & CURATE

10 Mineral starts to appear blue and silver in turn (9)
ALABASTER
Starts of A(ppear) B(lue) A(nd) S(ilver) in ALTER (turn)

11 Feeling essential to brass ensemble (5)
SENSE
Hidden (essential to) answer

12 Text’s aims lie in unravelling philosophy (14)
EXISTENTIALISM
[TEXTS AIMS LIE IN]* unravelled

14 Charges to screen large fights (5)
DUELS
Originally I tried L(arge) in FEES for FLEES and suspected a misprint for FLIGHTS not FIGHTS, but no, it’s L in DUES

16 Trace idea reforms wipe out (9)
ERADICATE
[TRACE IDEA]* reformed

17 State endless desire, then deceive with misdeed (9)
WISCONSIN
Endless WIS(h) & to CON (deceive) & SIN

19 Joint work about semi-aquatic mammal (5)
HIPPO
HIP (a joint) & OP(us) reversed

21 Opposing action from token ruler? (14)
COUNTERMEASURE
COUNTER (token) & MEASURE  (a ruler say)

24 Notice colour around snake (5)
ADDER
AD (notice) & RED reversed

25 Queen with sign joined by secretary in court before artist (9)
CLEOPATRA

LEO (star sign) & P.A. both in C(our)T & R.A.

26 Settle with noble publican (8)
LANDLORD
LAND (settle) & LORD (noble)

27 Performed unusually adeptly, short of time (6)
PLAYED
T(ime) removed from [ADEP(t)LY]* unusally

Down

1 Reduced depth in amendment of second law (6-4)
SCALED DOWN
D(epth) in [SECOND LAW]* amended

2 Delicate piece of cloth in folder (7)
FRAGILE
RAG in FILE

3 Child, when tucked in, warm (5)
TOAST
AS (when) in TOT (child)

5 Character at home with a burden accepting new one? (8,6)
CARDINAL NUMBER
CARD (character) & IN (at home) & A & N(ew) in LUMBER (burden)

6 Comedian finally among us, mischievous kind (9)
UNSELFISH
(comedia)N in US & ELFISH

7 Inability to remember bad men dividing continent (7)
AMNESIA
MEN* bad in ASIA

8 Always this crossword? Not half (4)
EVER
Only half of EVER(yman)

9 Painter showing variety of planet’s scenery (7,7)
STANLEY SPENCER
English 20th Century painter [PLANETS SCENERY]* varied. Nice anagram spot

13 Earlier group full of energy loudly followed by rising idol (10)
BEFOREHAND
E(nergy) & F (loud) & HERO reversed all in BAND

15 Rogue doctor absorbed by working on clues (9)
SCOUNDREL
DR inside [ON CLUES]* worked

18 Today, surrounded by signs of approval, climbing mountain (7)
SNOWDON
NOW (today) inside NODS reversed

20 Quiet duck, truly wild fowl (7)
POULTRY

P (quiet) & 0 (a duck in Cricket) & TRULY* wild

22 Shock upset father and friend (5)
APPAL
PA reversed & PAL

23 End story in hearing (4)
TAIL
Sounds like TALE

14 comments on “Everyman 3,634”

  1. I enjoyed this puzzle. My favourites were COUNTERMEASURE, EXISTENTIALISM & BEFOREHAND (LOI)

    I had not heard of the painter Stanley Spencer before.

    Thank you Everyman and flashling.

  2. Thanks Flashling – especially for the unpacked OP(us) for WORK in 19. For months, I’ve wondered why OP = WORK, and have never come across an explanation. I probably should have done a bit more homework.

    DUELS would have been my LOI but I was stumped :-/ I think 15 SCOUNDREL was my favourite.

  3. Thank you Everyman and flashling.

    I found this hard going, and several answers were parsed post solve.

    ACCURATE, DUELS, SCOUNDREL, COUNTERMEASURE and LANDLORD were my favourites.

  5. Definitely more straightforward than last week’s, though I did need to pause for thought on 9d (new to me) and 21ac.

  6. I thought it was a good Everyman. I had a similar problem to flashling with FEELS, taking far too long to realise it was DUELS. Favourites included PLAYED, SCALED-DOWN, the cheeky EVER and POULTRY.

    Thanks, Everyman and flashling.

  8. Please note that the post from kevin @2 is not from me who usually, but not that frequently, posts about guardian cryptic crosswords and scchua’s picture puzzles. I’m surprised this site allows two users to have the same displayed name.

  9. Again straightforward, except I had difficulty with Alabaster and Hippo, perhaps it was the abbreviation.

  10. Found this much more to my liking than past weeks and managed to solve all without resorting to any help except my thesaurus. I liked toast, hippo, and Cleopatra.
    Thanks Flashling for your clear explanations , and thanks Evdryman. This level of difficulty is right for me.

  11. I’m with Audrey. Just right, although my first sweep only yielded one across and a couple down

    I’ve never heard of the painter either but with a few crossers he wasn’t hard to fathom.

    Thanks Flashling, Ever-yman and well done Wales.

  12. Yes this was a lot more fun than the last couple of weeks – for me anyway. Particularly liked “alabaster” even if it was the last clue I got – very clever. Wales all the way? Hope so – now.

  13. Took all day to solve this enjoyable puzzle but got there eventually. First in 2a Accurate (so drole), last in was 1d Scaled Down. Lots of clever clues as mentioned above. Liked 19a Hippo, and 24a Adder. 9d Stanley Spencer is a well signalled anagram. Never heard of the painter, but learned something new. Thanks to the Setter and to Flashling for explaining how one should do it.

  14. Thoroughly enjoyable, solved in one sitting and a couple of ciders which is my benchmark. I wonder how Herald readers who may be unaware of the puzzle’s Everyman origins got on with 8D

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