I’ve probably said this before, but I find it very difficult to find something to write about in an Everyman preamble because the puzzles are so consistently good, and today’s was no exception.
It perhaps took me a little longer than usual to get a decent foothold into the grid, but having done so progress was quite rapid with no particular hold-ups. This, I think, reflects the accuracy of the cluing.
Across
1 Reject plant in row (6)
DISOWN – SOW (plant) in DIN (row)
4 Benefit to a smaller extent during spree, losing energy (8)
BLESSING – LESS (to a smaller extent) in (during) BING[e] (spree, losing energy)
9 Opener getting frantic rocks team (9)
CORKSCREW – an anagram (frantic) of ROCKS plus CREW (team)
11 Fly westward for example and fade (5)
MIDGE – EG (for example) DIM (fade) reversed (westward)
12 Contemplate / display (7)
REFLECT – double def.
13 Replace / work (7)
SUCCEED – double def.
14 Excessively excited by role as a nun (12)
UNREASONABLY – an anagram (excited) of BY ROLE AS A NUN
18 Serious line receiving chop in silly pictorial story (7,5)
GRAPHIC NOVEL – GRAVE (serious) L (line) around (receiving) an anagram (silly) of CHOP IN
21 Sharp expert in charge capturing rook with bishop (7)
ACERBIC – ACE (expert) IC (in charge) around (capturing) R (rook) B (bishop)
22 Outburst from worker perhaps with spirit after end of shift (7)
TANTRUM – ANT (worker perhaps) RUM (spirit) after [shif]T (end of shift)
24 Servant taking the box back full of drink (5)
VALET – TV (the box) reversed (back) around (full of) ALE (drink)
25 Writer emerging from cinema terribly pale (3,6)
IAN MCEWAN – an anagram (terribly) of CINEMA plus WAN (pale)
26 Odds rise rapidly in projection (8)
SPROCKET – SP (odds) ROCKET (rise rapidly)
27 Prime fodder injected with revolutionary colourant (6)
HEYDAY – HAY (fodder) around (injected with) DYE (colourant) reversed (revolutionary)
Down
1 Proper defeat, lacking time to break fiendish codes (8)
DECOROUS – ROU[t] (defeat, lacking time) in (to break) an anagram (fiendish) of CODES
2 Browse, catching update finally? Anger guaranteed (4-4)
SURE-FIRE – SURF (browse) around (catching) [updat]E (update finally) IRE (anger)
3 Run through / desert (5)
WASTE – double def.
5 Racing driver revealed consuming desire and raised capital (5,8)
LEWIS HAMILTON – LET ON (revealed) around (consuming) WISH (desire) LIMA (capital) reversed (raised)
6 Company, restricted by trees coming up, about to give signal for pause (9)
SEMICOLON – CO (company) in (restricted by) LIMES (trees) reversed (coming up) ON (about)
7 Truly denied going wrong (6)
INDEED – an anagram (going wrong) of DENIED
8 Uncertain about editor being eager (6)
GREEDY – GREY (uncertain) around (about) ED (editor)
10 Crept over site nervously looking back (13)
RETROSPECTIVE – an anagram (nervously) of CREPT OVER SITE
15 Agile graduate absorbed by word puzzle, not small (9)
ACROBATIC – BA (graduate) in (absorbed by) ACRO[s]TIC (word puzzle, not small)
16 Poor old weaver, left out, intimidated (8)
OVERAWED – an anagram (poor) of O[l]D WEAVER
17 Vicious cycle stopped by people showing mercy (8)
CLEMENCY – an anagram (vicious) of CYCLE around (stopped by) MEN (people)
19 Preserve most of immense painting (6)
CANVAS – CAN (preserve) VAS[t] (most of immense)
20 Merchant involved in nationwide alert (6)
DEALER – hidden in (involved in) ‘nationwiDE ALERt’
23 Man under arrest not entirely in ideal position (5)
NICHE – HE (man) after (under) NIC[k] (arrest not entirely)
I found this one a bit more difficult than usual, and I failed to solve SPROCKET – never heard of that word, but the clue was a good one.
My favourites were VALET and HEYDAY.
Thank you Pierre and Everyman.
Thank you Everyman and Gaufrid.
I, too, found this a little harder than usual, SEMICOLON was last in, if I remember rightly, and it took me a while to spot DEALER! I also took a while to parse SPROCKET, having forgotten that SP stood for ‘starting price’.
The surfaces of the clues were very smooth, too hard to pick out a favourite, perhaps that for RETROSPECTIVE, a good anagram.
I work with a Louis which rather made for a messy time entering wrong name… Oops. Thanks Everyman and Gaufrid
Was also slow to get started, though at the time I put that down to the stress of an extended conversation with my mobile phone company – “it won’t taking 5 minutes” turning into 30. After that things fairly flew by.
You are so right about the consistency on the Everyman puzzles Gaufrid – they always have a variety of clue types, are always cleanly clued, are always doable and enjoyable on a Sunday evening when we don’t want to be exercised too much. Today’s is another of the same standard. Thanks to you for the blog and to Everyman for the puzzle.
I also found this puzzle much harder than usual, and for the first time in a while gave up on it. Hopefully this weeks will be better.
Tough one , but a really good puzzle. Got there in the end but got stuck for ages on Blessing , Sproket and Graphic Novel ( stupidly thought it might be cryptic novel
)
I thought this was tricky also, good to know others did too Got stuck on waste = runthrough ? is that a UK expression?
Loved 27 ac 4 ac, in fact lots of really clever clues I thought
sprocket caught me also, I hate any clues related to tools!
Sp = odds?
Projection = sprocket?
Please explain to a dumb Kiwi.
Thanks
Hi Lindsey & Marion Pakuranga @9
“Sp = odds?”
SP is the starting price for betting on a horse race, ie the ‘odds’ of winning or losing.
As for ‘sprocket’, the ODE gives “each of several projections on the rim of a wheel that engage with the links of a chain or with holes in film, tape, or paper”.
This took me ages too. Put Flick for 3D which didn’t help. Never heard of a graphic novel, so put in cryptic thinking it might be wrong. More DDs and long anagrams than usual for this setter.
24A was nice though.
Thanks Gaufrid and Everyman.
Found this very hard, but got it out with the aid of a thesaurus;
did have to resort to a wild card dictionary.
Could not parse “Lewis Hamilton” but that was obviously the answer,
given the cross letters.
“Sprocket” was loi.