Everyman 3,649

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The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3649.

A couple of quite tricky parsings here, and some ingenious misdirections.

Across
1 SEISMIC Is note written in moment having enormous impact? (7)
An envelope (‘written in’) of ‘is’ plus MI (‘note’ of the Aretinian scale – do re mi) in SEC (‘moment’).
5 STOPPER Plug given by agent with cookware going around (7)
A reversal (‘going around’ – here not an envelope indicator) of REP (‘agent’) plus POTS (‘cookware’).
9 ONCE IN A BLUE MOON Love, with noble union, came sadly very rarely (4,2,1,4,4)
A charade of O (‘love’) plus NCEINABLUEMOON, an anagram (‘sadly’) of ‘noble union came’.
10 EARNS Gains attention, north and south (5)
A charade of EAR (‘attention’) plus N (‘north’) plus S (‘south’).
11 LOOSENED Playing solo, need to be relaxed (8)
An anagram (‘playing’) of ‘solo need’.
12 FELLOWSHIP Cut down work, occupied by pathetic wish for company (10)
An envelope (‘occupied by’) of WSHI, an anagram (‘pathetic’) of ‘wish’ in FELL (‘cut down’) plus OP (‘work’).
14 PLOT Scheme formed by pressure group (4)
A charade of P (‘pressure’) plus LOT (‘group’).
17 ROUT Resistance absent in defeat (4)
A charade of R (‘resistance’) plus OUT (‘absent’).
18 PERIPHERAL Minor danger keeping quiet hare agitated (10)
An envelope (‘keeping’) of P (piano, ‘quiet’) plus HERA, an anagram (‘agitated’) of ‘hare’ in PERIL (‘danger’).
19 ACID RAIN Area around island empty in consequence of pollution (4,4)
A charade of A (‘area’) plus C (circa, ‘around’) plus I (‘island’) plus DRAIN (’empty’).
21 RAVER Uninhibited type showing some extra verve (5)
A hidden answer (‘showing some’) in  ‘extRA VERve’.
24 CAPABILITY BROWN Garden designer covering a part around one lake with variable colour (10,5)
A charade of CAP (‘covering’) plus ABILIT, an envelope (‘around’) of I (‘one’) plus L (‘lake’) in ‘a’ plus BIT (‘part’); plus Y (mathematical ‘variable’) plus BROWN (‘colour’).
25 ENDORSE Purpose less good without wide support (7)
A charade of END (‘purpose’) plus [w]ORSE (‘less good’) minus the W (‘without wide’).
26 DECLARE State leader shivering, catching cold (7)
An envelope (‘catching’) of C (‘cold’) in DELARE, an anagram (‘shivering’) of ‘leader’.
Down
1 SPOKEN FOR Broadcast on perks of being romantically attached (6,3)
An anagram (‘broadcast’) of ‘on perks of’.
2 INCUR Arouse extremes of irritation with aggressive dog (5)
A charade of IN (‘extremes of IrritatioN‘) plus CUR (‘aggressive dog’).
3 MAILSHOT Slight upset about article on recent leaflet (8)
A charade of MAILS, an envelope (‘about’) of A (indefinite ‘article’) in MILS, a reversal (‘upset’ in a down light) of SLIM (‘slight’) plus HOT (‘recent’).
4 CHARLES DE GAULLE Criminal case, legal hurdle for French leader (7,2,6)
An anagram (‘criminal’) of ‘case legal hurdle’.
5 SELF-OPINIONATED Arrogant creature in folklore going over judgement in full (4-11)
An envelope (‘in’) of ELF (‘creature in folklore’) plus (‘going over’, in a down light) OPINION (‘judgement’) in SATED (‘full’).
6 OBESE Overweight old drone, say, eating seconds (5)
An envelope (‘eating’) of S (‘seconds’) in O (‘old’) plus BEE (‘drone, say’, with ‘say’ justifying the indication by example).
7 PROPELLER Fitting broken by learner with large end of machine screw (9)
An envelope (‘broken by’) of L (‘learner’) plus L(‘large’) plus E (‘end of machinE‘) in PROPER (‘fitting’).
8 RANK Disagreeable class (4)
Double definition.
13 LAUNCH PAD Point of departure from boat with stuff (6,3)
A charade of LAUNCH (‘boat’) plus PAD (‘stuff’). This could also be described as, in my terms, a definition and literal interpretation.
15 TOLERANCE Understanding flaw, not hard in hypnotic state (9)
An envelope (‘in’) of [h]OLE (‘flaw’) minus the H (‘not hard’) in TRANCE (‘hypnotic state’).
16 CHERUBIC Like an angel, stylish, full of energy and polish (8)
An envelope (‘full of’) of E (‘energy’) plus RUB (‘polish’) in CHIC (‘stylish’).
20 DEBAR Book suppressed by costly ban (5)
An envelope (‘suppressed by’) of B (‘book’) in DEAR (‘costly’).
22 VIOLA Interested initially in unusual oval instrument (5)
An envelope (‘in’) of I (‘Interested initially’) in VOLA, an anagram (‘unusual’) of ‘oval’.
23 ACRE Area covered by tarmac recently (4)
A hidden answer (‘covered by’) in ‘tarmAC REcently’.
completed grid

15 comments on “Everyman 3,649”

  1. Thank you Everyman and PeterO.

    An enjoyable solve, even though I rushed in with GENERAL DE GAULLE which held me up for a while. SEISMIC was the last in, SELF-OPINIONATED my favourite.

  2. A few tricky parsings as you say, but the definitions for the most part leapt out so they could be safely skipped over. ? LOI 3d, which did cause me a little difficulty.

  3. Like Jon, my last one was MAILSHOT. Lots of write-ins and also a few to struggle over but that’s normal for me. As soon as I saw “Garden designer”, only one name sprang to mind. In fact, I don’t think I know any others.

    Entertaining as ever, thanks Peter and Everyman.

  5. As usual, very enjoyable. I was saved from General de Gaulle (my first thought too) by having already entered LOOSENED, giving the L in the wrong place for “General”.

    Thanks, Everyman and Peter.

  6. Mostly easy but with four tricky clues. Self opinionated and Capability Brown went in unparsed from the definitions alone. And it took me ages to see the anagram indicator for declare. I failed on one – mail shot which I had always thought as two words.

  7. First Everyman I’ve done for a while – thanks Everyman and PeterO. My LOI was also mailshot, and Capability Brown was also the only garden designer that sprang to my mind! I liked Once in a blue moon, an easy FOI.

  8. Another easy offering which took about an hour. I liked CAPABILITY BROWN. Took some parsing but figured it out. I got lazy and MS Worded a couple of synonyms (PERIL for DANGER and HOT for RECENT). Probably would have figured them out in time but couldn’t be ar5ed. 🙂

    Seems to be a bit of a mixed bag from Everyman. A lot of simple outings with the occasional toughie. I wish there were more of the harder ones so I can continue working on them through my work week!

  9. Mailshot was my LOI too, never actually heard the word, had to be MAILS-O- and Mailsnow doesn’t exist. Eventually resorted to the dictionary to find a word to fit.

    Everything else was good and a nice level for me.

    Thanks PeterO and Everyman

  10. A couple of real good clues here I thought, namely Capability Brown and Peripheral which were also the last ones in for me. Had heard the name Capability Brown many times in the past but didn’t have a clue who he was so at least I learnt something new today. Although I managed to get mailshot reasonably early I did check later for confirmation and couldn’t see it in the ancient dictionary in my household so I’m pleased I didn’t have to go trawling on this occasion.
    Thanks to all.

  11. A good crossword. Took me about an hour which is quite long enough for me. Liked peripheral, and endorse. The lower right corner was my last to complete and tolerance was the last one in.
    A great activity to do after being washed out by heavy rain at bowls today.

  12. Filled in all the correct answers but didn’t necessarily parse the clues as described. Took a long time to get earns – couldn’t understand why an across clue included a reference for a down (and up) clue palindrome!
    Totally lost the ‘broadcast’ anagram indicator for 1 down (thought that was reference to spoken) and then couldn’t figure what ‘for’ had to do with perks.
    Thanks PeterO for your explanations!

  13. I had never heard the word “mailshot”; I expect that nobody I know has ever heard it either. Had to resort to a wildcard dictionary to get it. Also “hot” for recent is pretty tenuous.

    The other clues were all fair, however.

  14. Rats @8

    I probably should not be asying this at the moment, but look out for this week’s Everyman 3654, which should reach you in three weeks time (unless you pick it up now from the Guardian site).

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