Everyman 3,653

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The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3653.

Unusually for Everyman, I had a couple of minor quibbles among the smooth surfaces and sound constructions. What do you think?

Across
1 AT ONCE Expert carrying weight right away (2,4)
An envelope (‘carrying’) of TON (‘weight’) in ACE (‘expert’).
4 STUBBORN Obstinate objections, on reflection, natural (8)
A charade of STUB, a reversal (‘on reflection’) of BUTS (‘objections’) plus BORN (‘natural’; as in “he is a born comedian”).
10 PRIVILEGE Woeful gripe about wicked entitlement (9)
An envelope (‘about’) of VILE (‘wicked’) in PRIGE, an anagram (‘woeful’) of ‘gripe’.
11 THEME Recurring idea in myth emerging (5)
A hidden answer in ‘myTH EMErging’.
12 CHIFFON Church working to conserve condition with fine fabric (7)
An envelope (‘to conserve’) of IF (‘condition’) plus F (‘fine’) in CH (‘church’) plus ON (‘working’).
13 MENTHOL Concoction of hot lemon lacking nothing in flavouring (7)
An anagram (‘concoction’) of ‘h[o]t lemon’ minus one O (‘lacking nothing’).
14 PARALLEL BARS Match excludes gymnastic apparatus (8,4)
A charade of PARALLEL (‘match’? Close, but not, I think, a very good definition) plus BARS (‘excludes’).
18 ENTANGLEMENT New sharpness in component causing complication (12)
An envelope (‘in’) of N (‘new’) plus TANG (‘sharpness’) in ELEMENT (‘component’).
21 DILEMMA Inspector left with novel problem (7)
A charade of DI (Detective ‘Inspector’) plus L (‘left’) plus EMMA (‘novel’ by Jane Austen, which it happens that I am about to reread).
23 GESTURE Fearful urge set in motion (7)
An anagram (‘fearful’ – I suppose that a synonym such as quaking justifies its use as an anagrind, and it gives the misdirection of looking like the clue’s definition) of ‘urge set’.
24 TRAIN Work out sequence (5)
Double definition.
25 TO NO AVAIL Playing a viola, not without benefit (2,2,5)
An anagram (‘playing’) of ‘a viola not’.
26 ANTEATER Rabbit finally caught by a smarter animal (8)
An envelope (‘caught by’) of T (‘rabbiT finally’) in ‘a’ plus NEATER (‘smarter’).
27 REMEDY Cure obtained by me in revolutionary therapy finally (6)
An envelope (‘in’) of ‘me’ in RED (‘revolutionary’) plus Y (‘therapY finally’).
Down
1 ASPECT Factor that’s warped space and time (6)
An anagram (‘warped’) of ‘space’ plus T (‘time’).
2 ORIGIN Source of old outfit at home (6)
A charade of O (‘old’) plus RIG (‘outfit’) plus IN (‘at home’).
3 CHIEFTAIN Feature about free trade zone with one leader (9)
An envelope (‘about’) of EFTA (European Free Trae Association, ‘free trade zone’) plus I (‘one’) in CHIN (‘feature’).
5 THERMAL IMAGING The group protecting nation and millions with a good method of detection (7,7)
An envelope (‘protecting’) of MALI (‘nation’) plus M (‘millions’) plus ‘a’ plus G (‘good’) in ‘the’ plus RING (‘group’).
6 BATON Stick to disrupting prohibition (5)
An envelope (‘disrupting’) of ‘to’ in BAN (‘prohibition’).
7 OVERHEAD Wild dove, enthralling bird above (8)
An envelope (‘enthralling’) of RHEA (‘bird’) in OVED, an anagram (‘wild’) of ‘dove’.
8 NEEDLESS Pointers, small, not required (8)
A charade of NEEDLES (‘pointers’ eg of a compass) plus S (‘small’).
9 JEAN-PAUL SARTRE A learner just foolishly assuming old man is philosopher (4-4,6)
An envelope (‘assuming’) of PA (‘old man’) in JEANULSARTRE, an anagram (‘foolishly’) of ‘a learner just’.
15 LANDSCAPE Settles on sleeveless garment for painting (9)
A charade of LANDS (‘settles’) plus CAPE (‘sleeveless garment’).
16 VENDETTA Cheers after check about goal in dispute (8)
An envelope (‘about’) of END (‘goal’) in VET (‘check’) plus TA (‘cheers’).
17 STALWART Loyal from outset, accepting poor law (8)
An envelope (‘accepting’) of ALW, an anagram (‘poor’) of ‘law’ in START (‘outset’).
19 CURATE Signal to restrain renegade member of clergy (6)
An envelope (‘to restrain’) of RAT (‘renegade’) in CUE (‘signal’).
20 REALLY Truly relating to partner (6)
A charade of RE (‘relating to’) plus ALLY (‘partner’).
22 MANNA Spiritual sustenance essential to human nature (5)
A hidden answer (‘essential to’) in ‘huMAN NAture’.
completed grid

15 comments on “Everyman 3,653”

  1. Thanks PeterO,

    This was fairly simple, with a special guest appearance by that old cryptic faithful NEEDLES/S.

    The southwest corner slowed me down as I didn’t see vet=check or sequence=train but otherwise it was quite a lot easier than recent Everymans (Everymen?).

    I agree that parallel=match is a little iffy although I didn’t actually notice until coming here, so I guess it was wasn’t too unfair.

    In THERMAL IMAGING, I was confused by the plural in millions as I thought M was the abbreviation for the singular ‘million’?

  2. I could not parse 3d – EFTA is off the radar (or out of mind) in my part of the world!

    My favourite was ENTANGLEMENT.

    Thanks PeterO and Everyman.

  3. Not too challenging Everyman this week. Biggest issue was the fact I had not heard of the philospher.

    Liked 26a and 27a. 🙂

    And I agree on 14 across being a poor fit. Parellel != match.

  4. Thanks Everyman and PeterO

    I think PARALLEL and MATCH can correspond: ‘My experience parallels/matches yours’ is fine to me.

  5. Thank you Everyman and PeterO.

    An enjoyable puzzle. The pilosopher went in from the letter count, parsed afterwards.

    I did not have a problem with match / PARALLEL, but can only think of “in parallel circumstances”, “in matching circumstances”, i.e. the circumstances match / parallel each other ?

    My problem was with VENDETTA, but checking in the dictionary sorted that out.

  8. I thought this was well-pitched, with some very nice surfaces. The trickiest ones for beginners/improvers may have been OVERHEAD (for the inclusion of an unusual non-British bird inside an anagram) and GESTURE (for “fearful” as the anagram indicator).

    Thanks, Everyman and

  10. Think I might have pursed my lips at Parallel, and EFTA is off my New Zealand radar as well – mind you, free trade generally might soon be an endangered species if Mr T. is good to his word. And yes, 23 across could equally have had ‘in motion’ as the anagrind: is that tricky fair or tricky dodgy?

    Everything else good, a satisfactory solve in just under an hour.

    Thanks Peter O and Everyman, you’ve been in good form of late.

  11. Yes. This was more my level. Put chain(series) for train so couldn’t get vendetta. But all in all, an enjoyable puzzle.
    Thanks PeterO and Everyman.

  12. An enjoyable crossword that did take me a couple of lazy hours to finish. No clues that really stood out nice nonetheless.

  14. everyone seemed to find this a doddle- I found it quite a challenge
    with some very easy but
    equally as many hard clues. to me anyway. Had no idea what EFTA was and have I got it wrong, loyal to me is an adjective and stalwart a noun???

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