Another good’un from Everyman this morning. All clear, with some good surfaces and a nod to my favourite singer-songwriter.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) missing
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Job with appeal after time
TASK
A charade of T and ASK.
3 Irreverent type using ample herbs differently
BLASPHEMER
(AMPLE HERBS)*
9 Flower is back in clear area
FREESIA
An insertion of IS reversed in FREE A. I’m not good with plant-related clues, but this was clearly indicated; and at least it wasn’t FUCHSIA, which I can never spell without looking it up.
11 Guy enthralled by interior of royal residence in handbook
ALMANAC
Everyman is asking you to use [P]ALAC[E] to surround MAN.
12 Jubilant about one manager, initially popular, being removed
ELIMINATED
Everyman does these multi-part clues. I plus M for the first letter of ‘manager’ plus IN for ‘popular’ in ELATED for ‘jubilant’.
13 Mistake in party politics
TYPO
Hidden in parTY POlitics.
15 Have help, lost or otherwise in disarray
ALL OVER THE SHOP
(HAVE HELP LOST OR)*
17 Officer with bag, carrying work around, useful in many ways
GENERAL-PURPOSE
A charade of GENERAL and PURSE with OP reversed inserted into it.
20 Sound of healthy acclaim
HAIL
A homophone of HALE for ‘healthy’. Most often found in the phrase ‘hale and hearty’. Can you just be ‘hale’? Who knows these things? It’s related etymologically to WHOLE.
21 Start of hype heralding stirring film with Sean Connery
HIGHLANDER
(H HERALDING)* for our Scottish actor’s film of 1986. The anagrind is ‘stirring’.
This week’s rubbish joke: ‘When does Sean Connery turn up for Wimbledon? Tennish.’
24 Article with endless value about Simon and Garfunkel song
AMERICA
One of my favourite songs. Simon and Garfunkel were a bit precious about themselves, but Simon’s songwriting is up there with the best and Artie couldn’t half sing.
Let us be lovers; we’ll marry our fortunes together
I’ve got some real estate here in my bag
Later on we get to
And the moon rose over an open field
which is beautifully evocative in the context of the song.
A charade of A, MERI[T] and CA for circa or ‘about’.
25 Certainly nothing right in middle of speech, ugly thing
EYESORE
More multi-part stuff: YES, O and R in EE, which are the middle letters of spEEch.
26 Tool‘s essential difficulty noticed
KEYHOLE SAW
A charade of KEY, HOLE and SAW.
27 Run into swarm going west
MEET
A reversal (‘going west’) of TEEM.
Down
1 Material error, not good, in silly tat
TAFFETA
Everyman is inviting you to insert [G]AFFE in (TAT)*
2 See placid broadcast on uniform postal service
SPECIAL DELIVERY
(SEE PLACID)* plus LIVERY. The anagrind is ‘broadcast’.
4 Catch up with a climber
LIANA
A reversak of NAIL plus A for the group of tropical climbing plants.
5 Small steps on projecting part in interstellar craft
SPACESHIP
A charade of S, PACES and HIP.
6 Drone on soft mound
HUMP
A charade of HUM and P for the musical ‘soft’, piano.
7 Profit easily made from food only emperor ordered
MONEY FOR OLD ROPE
(FOOD ONLY EMPEROR)* with ‘ordered’ as the anagrind.
8 Think ahead after ruin, losing weight
RECKON
A charade of [W]RECK and ON.
10 Avoids work, keeping six servants
SKIVVIES
An insertion of VI for ‘six’ in Roman numerals in SKIVES. A northern, or even Scottish, expression, I fancy.
14 Measure designed to protect new online identification
USERNAME
An insertion of N in (MEASURE)* with ‘designed’ as the anagrind.
16 Revive, swimming near island with friend
REANIMATE
A charade of (NEAR)*, I and MATE for ‘friend’.
18 Serious gain established
EARNEST
A charade of EARN and EST.
19 Be quiet with status diminished
SHRANK
A charade of SH and RANK.
22 Scavenger with cry of triumph securing desire
HYENA
The natural world’s best-known scavenger is an insertion of YEN in HA!
23 Book club giving away last pen
BIRO
A charade of B and IRO[N] for the inventor of the ball-tip pen (and the pen itself, of course).
Many thanks to Everyman for an enjoyable Sunday morning outing.
Thank you Everyman and Pierre.
This was a good break while struggling with Maskarade last weekend. KEYHOLE-SAW was the last in. I especially liked ALMANAC, LIANA, GENERAL-PURPOSE, SPACESHIP, MONEY FOR OLD ROPE and SKIVVIES!
The usual good set of clues from Everyman. I particularly liked SHRANK and like Cookie, my last one was KEYHOLE SAW which took ages to get. I’d never heard of this saw but once I saw saw(noticed), I was nearly there.
Thanks to Pierre and the ever-reliable Everyman.
Yes, Paul Simon is one of the great writers of our time writing words like poetry. Of many favourites of his, I would choose “Still crazy after all these years” (the words resonate so much), “Something so right” and “Trailways Bus”. Favourite line maybe of any songwriter: “a pocketful of mumbles such are promises”. Just brilliant stuff.
Another good Everyman. A bit of a struggle with 24ac, 26ac and 4d at the end, but all good apart from that.
Failed on one, Liana. Don’t see how Difficulty = Hole. Everything else good, liked
Livery in 2D.
Thanks Pierre and EM.
Missed eyesore and username. Don’t know why. Should have got them. Good crossword. I enjoyed this.
Pierre, a good way to remember the spelling of Fuchsia, is to know that it is named after a chap called Fuchs.
Started this one with a hiss and a roar but got stuck on the bottom left. At the risk of embarrassment the song was the last one I got and even then only by filling in the holes. Never heard of it much to my shame – not by it’s title anyway. Have to acknowledge though, that there were some real neat clues and I enjoyed it even though I could have been accused of being an “irreverent type” at some point through the process. Thanks to all.
Barrie, you could say that ‘He’s in difficulty’ or that ‘He’s in a hole’. At least you can where I come from.
Wow, well that was a toughie. After last week’s one which I finished in next to no time, this took me ages to do and even then I didn’t get LIANA (penned in LLAMA), AMERICA and EARNEST. Needed digital assitance for some synomyms but MS Word was pretty useless in providing any assitance. The only one that I got via Word thesauraus was FREE for CLEAR giving Freesia. My fav clue was ELIMINATED as I initially had this parsed incorrectly. I was looking for a word for MANAGER and then removing P from it. Eventually I clicked that it was M and IN for popular. That “,” screwed me over.
I really enjoyed this crossie. I like the harder ones since I am prepared to work on them through the week at work. Not long to wait before I tackle this week’s one. 🙂
Pierre – I don’t like it. The “a” means they aren’t interchangeable.
Blimey, the NZH has recycled this in August 2019. We’ve been diddled
That is hilarious, I read all the commentary taking no notice of the dates until Barrie’s comment. Anyway it seemed new to me, and it was to my level, perhaps it was our past compiler that we now miss so much
Very much like Taffeta, Spec Delivery Skivvies and Biro. Great clues
what will we get next Sat I wonder
I wasn’t surprised to see it had been recycled. The style is quite noticeably unlike the new Everyman’s i.e. very little to criticise.
Ah-ha! It was by the “old” Everyman! No wonder I found it so satisfying.
Don’t recall having done it before, but that could just be my aging memory!
Struggled with “eliminated” (12 across) and with “liana” (4 down) — had never heard of the latter
This is the second week in a row the NZH has screwed us over. A well worded letter from you, Barrie, is needed!