The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3676.
For quite a time as I solved this, the grid looked rather motheaten, with largely unconnected answers scattered around. All the long answers were late in coming, which did not help.
| Across | ||
| 1 | TACK | Change course, producing equestrian gear (4) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 3 | EXERCISE | Work out duty to admit hesitation (8) |
| An envelope (‘to admit’) of ER (‘hesitation’) in EXCISE (‘duty’). | ||
| 8 | PRESERVED | Kept quiet, not demonstrative (9) |
| A charade of P (piano, ‘quiet’) plus RESERVED (‘not demonstrative’). | ||
| 9 | MARRY | Unite in reversing your strike (5) |
| A reversal (‘reversing’) of YR (‘your’) plus RAM (‘strike’). | ||
| 11 | CARELESS WHISPER | Song raises crew’s help at sea (8,7) |
| An anagram (‘at sea’) of ‘raises crews help’, for George Michael’s song. | ||
| 12 | SUCCOUR | Support gullible person in hearing (7) |
| Sounds like (‘in hearing’) SUCKER (‘gullible person’). | ||
| 14 | DUSTER | Expected to cover stone with right cloth (6) |
| A charade od DUSTE, an envelope (‘to cover’) of ST (‘stone’, standard abbreviation for the 14 Lb, weight) in DUE (‘expected’); plus R (‘right’). | ||
| 16 | GALLOP | Delay retreating, then cut and run (6) |
| A charade of GAL, a reversal (‘retreating’) of LAG (‘delay’) plus LOP (‘cut’). | ||
| 17 | SCORPIO | Note restricting most of military unit I sign (7) |
| An envelope (‘restricting’) of CORP[s] (‘military unit’) cut short (‘most of’) plus ‘I’ in SO (‘note’ of the sol-fa). | ||
| 19 | EXTRAORDINARILY | Remarkably bad error in daily tax (15) |
| An anagram (‘bad’) of ‘error in daily tax’. | ||
| 22 | FLUSH | Wealthy level (5) |
| Double definition, | ||
| 23 | AUSTRALIA | Strange rituals held by motoring organisation in country (9) |
| An envelope (‘held by’) of USTRALI, an anagram (‘strange’) of ‘rituals’ in AA (Automobile Association, ‘motoring organisation’). | ||
| 24 | BETRAYAL | Disloyalty in university mostly after letter about resistance (8) |
| A charade of BETRA, an envelope (‘about’) of R (‘resistance’, physics symbol) in BETA (‘letter’ of the Greek alphabet); plus YAL[e] (‘university’) cut short (‘mostly’). | ||
| 25 | SOUL | Declaration of single spirit (4) |
| Sounds like (‘declaration of’) SOLE (‘single’). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | TYPECAST | Print and mould always in similar parts (8) |
| A charade of TYPE (‘print’) plus CAST (‘mould’). | ||
| 2 | CLEAR | Easy to understand pay (5) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 3 | EAVESDROP | Spy arranged adverse procedure (9) |
| A charade of EAVESDR, an anagram (‘arranged’) of ‘adverse’; plus OP (‘procedure’). | ||
| 4 | ENDOW | Provide conclusion with cry of pain (5) |
| A charade of END (‘conclusion’) plus OW (‘cry of pain’). | ||
| 5 | COMMISSIONAIRE | Order answer and anger door attendant (14) |
| A charade of COMMISSION (‘order’) plus A (‘answer’) plus IRE (‘anger’), | ||
| 6 | SCRAPHEAP | Hotel in predicament over a page showing pile of rubbish (9) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of H (‘hotel’) in SCRAPE (‘predicament’) plus ‘a’ plus P (‘page’). | ||
| 7 | HELL FOR LEATHER | Torment parent, embracing naughty role very quickly (4,3,7) |
| An envelope (’embracing’) of ORLE, an anagram (naughty’) of ‘role’ in HELL (‘torment’) plus FATHER (‘parent’). | ||
| 10 | YARN | Story long devoid of energy (4) |
| A subtration: Y[e]ARN (‘long’) minus the E (‘devoid of energy’). | ||
| 13 | CHANTEUSE | Singer with stake in church employment (9) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of ANTE (‘stake’) in CH (‘church’) plus USE (’employment’). | ||
| 14 | DISMISSAL | Is suitor initially overwhelmed by awful rejection? (9) |
| An envelope (‘overwhelmed by’) of ‘is’ plus S (‘Suitor initially’) in DISMAL (‘awful’); | ||
| 15 | PONYTAIL | Hairstyle that could have distracted any pilot? (8) |
| An anagram (‘distracted’) of ‘any pilot’. | ||
| 18 | BEEF | Worker perhaps with loud complaint (4) |
| A charade of BEE (‘worker perhaps’) plus F (forte, ‘loud’). | ||
| 20 | READY | Study variable set (5) |
| A charade of READ (‘study’) plus Y (‘variable’). | ||
| 21 | IGLOO | One with despondency missing last house (5) |
| A charade of I (‘one’) plus GLOO[m] (‘despondency’) cut short (‘missing last’). | ||
Thanks for the blog, PeterO. I remember this being fairly tricky but now, a week later, I can’t see why because the clues are all well constructed and there are no unfamiliar words. I do recall that at some clues I wasn’t sure what the wordplay device was – at TACK, for example, I spent a long time looking for anagrams because of “change” and “producing”.
I enjoyed this puzzle, although it took me a while to work out CARELESS WHISPER as I have never heard of this song before.
Thanks PeterO and Everyman
Thank you Everyman and PeterO.
I also enjoyed this puzzle, but, like michelle, it took me a while to work out CARELESS WHISPER never having heard of it before. I failed to get SOUL! Grrr, I feel really stupid…
Very slow to get started, but once I had three or four answers the grid filled pretty rapidly, with a finish time that was pretty sharpish. Just needed some of those crossing letters to spot the definitions I guess.
Jon @4
Yes, tricky definitions seem to be a hallmark of the current Everyman.
I didn’t get to do this last weekend, but I thought I’d tackle it this evening. I found it mostly fairly straightforward – a nice way to relax before bedtime. I’d vaguely heard of the song, though I didn’t know whose it was, so it was actually one of my earliest entries and it gave some useful crossers.
Thanks, Everyman and PeterO.
Only a few former George Michael fans I see! On the anniversary of Prince’s demise am reminded of the others who disappeared from view in 2016
Reading the reasoning for Scorpio had me tied up in knots as did Betrayal
Favourites were 1d, 6d,12ac all clever
Good fun
A couple of last minute additions, the singer and the sign, it really is amazing how clues come to you after you’ve done something else for a while ( in my case, afternoon snooze).
All good, thank you mr setter and blogger. Both of you enrich the soul.
Found this one a real struggle with a number of tricky clues halting progress several times. Sitting on the beach in Fiji doing it on my phone didn’t help but that’s no excuse. Got there in the end but guessed wrongly on SOUL, so like Cookie above, a hearty GRRR from me too! Seems like an excellent clue now.
All in all an interesting puzzle, thanks to all.
Found this quite tricky but like Barrie, I found having a break helped. A day’s break in my case. Didn’t get beef as I had put plush instead of flush for 22 ac.
Thanks everyone.