The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3668.
That was a close one: I normally get the Everyman blog put to bed immediately after solving it, but for whatever reason, I did not do so this time. Most of the spadework was done a week ago, but I did not transfer it to fifteensquared and do the necessary tidying up. Fortunately, this occured to me about two hours before publishing time. One result is that the solving is not fresh in my mind; as far as I remember, it was on the easier side, but I will have a look through before publishing to see if anything jogs my memory.
| Across | ||
| 1 | TACT | Pamphlet lacking right sensitivity (4) |
| T[r]ACT (‘pamphlet’) minus the R (‘lacking right’). | ||
| 3 | FORGIVEN | Pro, present before noon, excused (8) |
| A charade of FOR (‘pro’) plus GIVE (‘present’) plus N (‘noon’). | ||
| 10 | PERENNIAL | Enduring ring receiving private backing (9) |
| An envelope (‘receiving’) of RENNI, a reversal (‘backing’) of INNER (‘private’) in PEAL (‘ring’). | ||
| 11 | NOTCH | Drama about time beginning for convict in nick (5) |
| An envelope (‘about’) of T (‘time’) plus C (‘beginning for Convict’) in NOH (Japanese ‘drama’). | ||
| 12 | CROCODILE DUNDEE | Film in city following line of people (9,6) |
| A charade of CROCODILE (‘line of people’ two by two) plus DUNDEE (‘city’). | ||
| 13 | GRIEVING | French wine consumed by composer feeling sorrow (8) |
| An envelope (‘consumed by’) of VIN (‘French wine’) in GRIEG (Edvard, Norwegian ‘composer’). | ||
| 14 | PERMIT | Allow appeal after wave (6) |
| A charade of PERM (‘wave’) plus IT (‘appeal’). | ||
| 16 | GREENS | Environmentalists in meagre ensemble (6) |
| A hidden answer in ‘meaGRE ENSemble’. | ||
| 17 | TRIAL RUN | Resistance during ritual shaken by new test (5,3) |
| An envelope (‘during’) of R (electrical symbol, ‘resistance’) in TRIALU, an anagram (‘shaken’) of ‘ritual’ plus N (‘new’). | ||
| 20 | WASHING-UP LIQUID | Wife pounds clothing in huge pails, badly short of energy and detergent (7-2,6) |
| An envelope (‘clothing’) of ASHINGUPLI, an anagram (‘badly’) of ‘in hug[e] pails’ minus the E (‘short of energy’) in W (‘wife’) plus QUID (‘pounds’; note the plural e.g. “Lend me five quid”). | ||
| 23 | THORN | Projection? Hard to cut rent (5) |
| An envelope (‘to cut’) of H (‘hard’) in TORN (‘rent’). | ||
| 24 | OPERATION | Clear about proportion in campaign (9) |
| An envelope (‘about’) of RATIO (‘proportion’) in OPEN (‘clear’). | ||
| 25 | RELIEVED | Thankful to take cover, lying back in grass (8) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of LIEV, a reversal (‘lying back’) of VEIL (‘cover’) in REED (‘grass’). | ||
| 26 | PLUM | Feather mostly purple (4) |
| PLUM[e] (‘feather’) minus its last letter (‘mostly’). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | TOPIC | One caught after leading question (5) |
| A charade of TOP (‘leading’) plus I (‘one’, Roman numeral or impersonal personal pronoun) plus C (cricket summaries, ‘caught’). | ||
| 2 | CORROSIVE | Lifting mask, in essence, is damaging (9) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of ROSIV, a reversal (‘lifting’, in a down light) of VISOR (‘mask’) in CORE (‘essence’). | ||
| 4 | OPINION | Idea from sleuth, breaking bulb (7) |
| An envelope (‘breaking’) of P.I. (Private Investigator, ‘sleuth’) in ONION (‘bulb’). | ||
| 5 | GOLDEN | Favourable record written up before retreat (6) |
| A charade of GOL, a reversal (‘written up’ in a down light) of LOG (‘record’; or you could attach ‘written’ here) plus DEN (‘retreat’), with ‘before’ indicating the order of the particles. | ||
| 6 | VENTURE CAPITAL | Summarise, in change of tune, vital funding for new business (7,7) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of RECAP (‘summarise’) in VENTUITAL, an anagram (‘change’) of ‘tune vital’. VITAL remains in order in the answer, but the clue does not specify this. | ||
| 7 | NOTED | Famous piece of music with depth (5) |
| A charade of NOTE (‘piece of music’ – a smaller bit that the phrase conjures up) plus D (‘depth’). | ||
| 8 | UNCONVENTIONAL | Strange place occupied by nuns in alliance with Capone? (14) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of CONVENT (‘place occupied by nuns’) in UNION (‘alliance’) plus AL (‘Capone’). | ||
| 9 | THREATEN | Endanger number, supporting spoliation of earth (8) |
| A charade of THREA, an anagram (‘spoliation’) of ‘earth’ plus TEN (‘number’). ‘Supporting’, in the down light, indicates the order of the particles. | ||
| 13 | GIGAWATT | Measure of power mostly absent in performance, dry (8) |
| A charade of GIG (‘performance’) plus AWA[y] (‘absent’) minus its last letter (‘mostly’) plus TT (teetotal, ‘dry’). | ||
| 15 | MERCURIAL | Spymaster with cruel air, terribly volatile (9) |
| A charade of M (James Bond’s ‘spymaster’) plus ERCURIAL, an anagram (‘terribly’) of ‘cruel air’. | ||
| 18 | REPLETE | Satisfied agent with tons in shelter (7) |
| A charade of REP (‘agent’) plus LETE, an envelope (‘in’) of T (‘tons’) in LEE (‘shelter’). | ||
| 19 | IGNORE | Disregard good number seized by rage (6) |
| An envelope (seized by’) of G (‘good’) plus NO (‘number’) in IRE (‘rage’). | ||
| 21 | SCOUR | Search, getting bad-tempered, catching cold (5) |
| An envelope (‘catching’) of C (‘cold’) in SOUR (‘bad-tempered’). ‘Getting’ serves just to link definition to wordplay. | ||
| 22 | DENIM | Material dug up (5) |
| A reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of MINED (‘dug’). Rather familiar. | ||
Thanks for the blog, PeterO. I solved CROCODILE DUNDEE and WASHING-UP LIQUID straight off the bat – although I hadn’t fully parsed the latter – and so had lots of crossing letters to make the rest of the puzzle relatively easy. I thought there was even the hint of a theme with Paul Hogan’s aforementioned movie, a James Bond reference, and GIGAWATT which will be familiar to fans of Back to the Future.
UNCONVENTIONAL was my favourite and, I think, my last in. Lovely misdirection which had me at first looking for an anagram (strange) of place containing (occupied by) nuns + a synonym for alliance.
I remember enjoying this puzzle. It took a while for me to work out Crocodile Dundee even though I am from the antipodes!
Thank you PeterO and Everyman
Thank you Everyman and PeterO.
An enjoyable puzzle. I did not have to dig for the chestnut but, like matrixmania @1, I had quite a run round trying to find UNCONVENTIONAL, also my last in and favourite.
Fairly straightforward, with the NW corner last to fall. A careless bung in of MEGAWATT at 13d is no doubt responsible for some of that delay.
Became simple after crocodile dundee, washing up liquid and venture capital. Like Jon I was caught up with megawatt. Very enjoyable hour and a half. Now waiting for Blackcaps to win 3rd odi.
There were plenty of eye-rolls over these clues! These are the ones were the relevance only shows up once the answer is in and you are wondering how you got there. Amongst the good clues though were the infuriating once 10ac , 25 ac
must remember the use of M as spymaster – suppose that is legit!
Very clever to use crocodile as a line of people – who else was determined had to be queue in there somewhere – hard to get out of the head when you are sure it doesnt actually belong.
Solved it. Not one of my favourites. Did wonder about the surplus S in pounds, guess it’s ok.
Everyman is leaving me short of smiles recently. Not a lot of aha, they are simply mechanical.
Is that harsh?
no not harsh Barrie I agree! I hadnt noticed that, but I’m usually personally pedantic too, after all, it’s how we solve them sometimes by being tiresome over grammar
Found the top half mostly very hard. Got enough cross letters so that I
could get it out using a wild-card dictionary. I thought that (almost) all of
the clues were good in retrospect, i.e. they were solidly put together, but
many of them were impossible to see without staring at the word(s) revealed by
the wild-card dictionary and struggling to match up parts with the clue.
Could not parse gigawatt, but it was a cert from the cross letters and the
literal meaning (“Measure of power”).
Found this difficult also, particularly the top right. Ironically “unconventional” came real quickly but I was soon struggling. In retrospect I agree that the clues were mostly cleverly structured but there was a vagueness to some of the answers that hasn’t been there much lately. Still waiting for the Black caps to win the 3rd ODI but at least the demise was quick and relatively painless. Thanks to all