Everyman 3,669

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Well it’s the Everyman, and this time it’s my turn to blog.

Unlike last week when I’d written it up, posted it in advance and was quietly reminded it wasn’t my go. D’oh. Some nice touches and some dubious surfaces but just the ticket for the Observer slot I thought.

 

completed grid

Across

1 Put down rook and leave pawn in discomfort (7,5)
WRITER’S CRAMP
WRITE (put down) & R(ook) & SCRAM (leave!) & P(awn)

9 Busy part of year, heading off with self-confidence (2,3,2)
ON THE GO
(m)ONTH without its head & EGO

10 Working group going round a province (7)
ONTARIO
ON (working) & A in TRIO (group)

11 Cover evidence without pressure (4)
ROOF
P(ressure) taken from (p)ROOF

12 Control bound to restrict herd is abandoned (10)
LEADERSHIP
[HERD IS]* abandoned inside LEAP (to bound)

14 Brave humour by labourer carrying stone (9)
WITHSTAND
WIT (humour) & ST(one) in HAND (labourer). Spent a while looking for North American tribes….

16 Sentimental Greek character, not bold (5)
MUSHY
MU (greek letter) & SHY

17 Fruit, not right with a type of cheese (5)
GOUDA
R(ight) removed from GOU(r)D & A

18 Renewal of lease isn’t necessary (9)
ESSENTIAL
[LEASE ISNT]* renewed

20 Unclear about answer with knowledge left wrongly (10)
MISTAKENLY
A(nswer) & KEN (knowledge) & L(eft) all in MISTY (unclear)

22 Join in immense amusement (4)
SEAM
Hidden answer

24 Engineer elected to cut very large roots (7)
ORIGINS
RIG (to engineer, fix) & IN (elected) both in O(ver) S(ize)

25 Maintain mature standard (7)
AVERAGE
AVER (maintain) & AGE

26 Bored, having seen tide turn at sea (12)
UNINTERESTED
[SEEN TIDE TURN]* at sea

Down

1 Definitely not having grill (7,8)
WITHOUT QUESTION
WITHOUT (not having) & QUESTION (to grill about)

2 Piece of news for couple (4)
ITEM
Double definition

3 Clear river, catching single rodent (9)
EXONERATE
[ONE RAT] in the river EXE

4 Expression after opening of silver foil? (5)
SWORD
Opening of S(ilver) & WORD (expression)

5 Payment to keep quality up with electronic withdrawal (10)
RETIREMENT
MERIT (quality) & E(lectronic) all reversed in RENT (payment)

6 Island suffering harm as navy tired (7,8)
MARTHA’S VINEYARD
[HARM AS NAVY TIRED]* suffering

7 Regret very end of bitter quarrel (6)
SORROW
SO (very much) & end of (bitte)R & ROW

8 Politician with line admitted to modest yield (6)
COMPLY
M.P. & L(ine) in COY (modest)

13 Increase distortion of case with language about love (10)
ESCALATION
CASE* distorted & 0 (love) in LATIN

15 Anger in place in complaint (9)
DISPLEASE
PL(ace) in DISEASE

17 Heartless mob in prison caper (6)
GAMBOL
M(o)B heatlessly inside GAOL (prison)

19 Weak shell of elegant mollusc (6)
LIMPET
LIMP (weak) & the shell of E(legan)T.

21 Result, guarantee having run out (5)
ENSUE
R(un) from ENSU(r)E

23 Impression derived from study over time (4)
DENT
DEN (study) & T(ime)

19 comments on “Everyman 3,669”

  1. Thank you Everyman for another enjoyable puzzle, and flashling for the blog.

    I remember feeling pleased with myself when I solved MARTHA’S VINEYARD.

  2. Thank you Everyman and flashling.

    Another good puzzle, it took me a while to get WRITER’S CRAMP, LIMPET and WITHSTAND (SKOKOMISH, Brave humour?).
    I thought ‘very large’ was OS, ‘outsize’, as for clothing, that is what the COED gives, this is the second time recently that it has been parsed as ‘O(ver) S(ize)’.

  3. I found this quite tough although maybe I’m just getting old. Took me an eternity (slight exaggeration) to get WRITER’S CRAMP followed lastly by ITEM which I thought was pretty vague. Favourites were EXONERATE and SORROW. Good crossword as ever.
    Tanks to flashling and Everyman.

  4. I remember finding this a bit tricksy, and struggled like Davy and Cookie to get WRITER’S CRAMP. ‘Discomfort’ is a bit of a wide definition, to be honest. But lots of other good stuff elsewhere.

    I see that Davy is sending the tanks in to flashling, which is a bit harsh considering that his only error was not correctly reading the diary for his blog. Muppetry, of course, but armoured vehicles is a bit over the top.

    Thanks to Everyman and our blogger.

  5. Thanks KD. I did notice my error but found it amusing to leave it. It’s obviously given you a bit of ammunition (ouch!) or maybe it’s my Irish ancestry coming out as in “tanks for the memory”.

  6. I see that ‘oversize’ can apply to sports accessories in the States, but OS is used for ‘one size’ there, perhaps ‘outsize’ is considered offensive as regards clothing these days, the term ‘plus size’ seems to be used instead in the UK, or Xs are just added on to L, giving XL, XXL etc.. I wonder if recent editions of Collins and the COED have dropped the OS abbreviation for ‘outsize’?

  7. Like Davy and Kathryn’s Dad, but unlike flashling, I found this quite difficult for an Everyman. It was no less enjoyable for that, though, with favourites including ON THE GO (simple) and ESSENTIAL (liked the surface).

    Thanks, Everyman and flashling.

  8. Definitely on the tricky side for Everyman, and yes I struggled with WRITERS CRAMP too. That, and 6d were my last in – I’d heard of the latter, but had no idea it’s an island, so didn’t even entertain the possibility until most of the letters were in place and the anagram fodder left little other choice.

  9. I remember this being a bit more difficult than par. Quite a few were guess-then-parse whereas usually with Everyman you can simply solve straight from the wordplay. WRITERS CRAMP was an example of “parse later” and was also my last in. Thanks for the blog, flashling.

  10. Found this a little more straightforward this week. Or perhaps my mind was slightly sharper today (only temporarily I might add). Particularly enjoyed “gambol” – not a word I hear of much these days; nor is “gaol” – spelt like that at least. All in all, an enjoyable frolic. Thanks to all.

  11. Gave up on this. To be quite honest I don’t look forward to them like I used to. Too much like doing difficult homework exercises as someone said once before. Think I might be just an occasional blogger from now on. I’m just not on this setter’s wavelength,
    Now off to watch the cricket.

  12. Not your weekend, Audrey! Which was worse, the crossword or the cricket?

    I pulled stumps with this 3/4 done, NE corner was incomplete, not helped by an island I’ve never heard of.

    I don’t like ‘abandoned’ as an anagrind much. I know it’s in Chambers but it’s hardly ever used in its sense of crazy, which is presumably how it’s intended.

    Thanks Flashling and Everyman.

  13. Relieved to find that most found this hard as did I. Actually I found it nearly impossible and had to resort to lots and lots of of help to get anywhere.
    I spend ages insisting ..just to myself that there had to be a mouse in 3d as ouse is a popular river clue. Went through lists and lists of mouse types before I realised I was onto a bad thing. Have never heard of ‘aver’ as meaning maintain and doubt I would ever dare to use it.
    .
    Like another said, felt quite pleased with myself finally working out 6d – only once I got 1ac did I feel I had any hope of getting any more.
    better than being too easy I suppose

  16. Like some others I found this very hard. Got about half the clues “on my own”
    then managed to get the rest using a wildcard dictionary. Pretty well all clues
    yielded an “Ah ha!” once I saw them, but I found a substantial number to be
    extremely obscure. Using “st” to mean “stone” may be legitimate but is really
    beyond the scope of the human mind, which is all that most of us are equipped
    with.

  17. Well we finally finished it Sunday afternoon – with quite a lot more help than usual from a wildcard dictionary and Mr quinapalus.com. He gave us Marthas Vineyard straight off from the harmasnavytired letters. We knew of it from yacht racing way back but had to resort to Google maps to see that it was an island.

  18. Wow, good to find others had troubles. I couldn’t get off first base,(can’t think of the cricketing example) with this one. I only blog when I have something different to say these days. Usually it’s business as usual on a Saturday morning, but this one was a stinker. Still you’ve got to have the hard bastards to appreciate the others!
    I suppose I could have said I went out for a duck, but that isn’t quite true probably clean bowled in the first over would fit. Much like the Black Caps really…….

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