The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3748.
A few knotty parsings to spice up this week’s offering.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SOMEWHAT | Bowler perhaps after duck trapping opposition’s opener fairly (8) |
| An envelope (‘trapping’) of O (‘Opposition’s opener’) in SMEW (‘duck’) plus HAT (‘bowler perhaps’). Somewhat convoluted for an Everyman clue. | ||
| 5 | TRIPOD | Stand in spot, turning, suppressing tear (6) |
| An envelope (‘suppressing’) of RIP (‘tear’) in TOD, a reversal (‘turning’) of DOT (‘spot’). | ||
| 10 | UNSELFCONSCIOUS | Natural personality breaking out (15) |
| An envelope (‘breaking’) of SELF (‘personality’) in UNCONSCIOUS (‘out’). | ||
| 11 | CREDO | Belief in sacred order (5) |
| A hidden answer in ‘saCRED Order’, with an extended definition – that is, the words making up the wordplay are relevant to the definition. | ||
| 12 | SPINNAKER | Large sail secure in wind? Right (9) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of PIN (‘secure’) in SNAKE (‘wind’, verb) plus R (‘right’). | ||
| 13 | BIG END | Dope put in offer for part of engine component (3,3) |
| An envelope (‘put in’) of GEN (‘dope’, information) in BID (‘offer’), for one end of a connecting rod. | ||
| 14 | OUTINGS | Excursions can, in US, go awry (7) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of TIN (‘can’) in OUGS, an anagram (‘awry’) of ‘US go’. | ||
| 17 | IN SIGHT | Vocal prompt expected soon (2,5) |
| Sounds like (‘vocal’) INCITE (‘prompt’). | ||
| 19 | SMUTTY | Dirty system without interior sealant short of power (6) |
| A charade of SM (‘SysteM without interior’) plus [p]UTTY (‘sealant’) minus the P (‘short of power’). | ||
| 21 | NEWSHOUND | Reporter, having rattled on, we’d shun (9) |
| An anagram (‘having rattled’) of ‘on we’d shun’. | ||
| 23 | THERE | At that point during contest he resigned (5) |
| A hidden answer in (‘during’) ‘contesT HE REsigned’. | ||
| 24 | MOONLIGHT SONATA | Piano piece from host among a lot in broadcast (9,6) |
| An anagram (‘broadcast’) of ‘host among a lot in’, for Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 14. | ||
| 25 | REPOSE | Engineers with attitude rest (6) |
| A charade of RE (Royal ‘Engineers’) plus POSE (‘attitude’). | ||
| 26 | ODYSSEUS | Revolutionary takes action against small party, harbouring yen to be epic hero (8) |
| An envelope (‘harbouring’) of Y (‘yen’, Japanese currency) in ODSSEUS, a reversal (‘revolutionary’) of SUES (‘takes action against’) plus S (‘small’) plus DO (‘party’). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SOURCE | Resentful about English authority (6) |
| A charade of SOUR (‘resentful’) plus C (circa, ‘about’) plus E (‘English’). It took me quite a while to unsee ‘about’ as an envelope indicator. | ||
| 2 | MYSTERIES | Puzzles in sequence by me consuming time (9) |
| An envelope (‘consuming’) of T (‘time’) in MY SERIES (‘sequence by me’). | ||
| 3 | WALK ON EGGSHELLS | Be careful for example with good case, detained by minor parts (4,2,9) |
| An envelope (‘detained by’) of E.G. (‘for example’) plus G (‘good’) plus SHELL (‘case’) in WALK-ONS (‘minor parts’, non-speaking, in a play) | ||
| 4 | ACCUSED | Charged article? Carbon copy, not new (7) |
| A charade of A (indefinite ‘article’) plus CC (‘carbon copy’; the abbreviation has long outlived the carbon paper) plus USED (‘not new’). | ||
| 6 | RECONSTRUCTIONS | Portrayals of past events from fraud among others followed by angry protests (15) |
| An envelope (‘among’) of CON (‘fraud’) in REST (‘others’) plus RUCTIONS (‘angry protests’). | ||
| 7 | PLONK | Place well stocked with new wine (5) |
| An envelope (‘stocked’) of N (‘new’) in PL (‘place’) plus OK (‘well’). | ||
| 8 | DISTRUST | Inspector with swagger arresting second suspect (8) |
| An envelope (‘arresting’) of S (‘second’) in DI (Detective ‘Inspector’) plus STRUT (‘swagger’). | ||
| 9 | INDIGO | Plant yielding dye, imported initially, doing badly (6) |
| A charade of I (‘Imported initially’) plus NDIGO, an anagram (‘badly’) of ‘doing’. | ||
| 15 | NOTRE DAME | Communist among number safe in cathedral (5,4) |
| An envelope (among’) of RED (‘communist’) in NO (‘number’) plus TAME (‘safe’), for various cathedrals, the most famous being the Paris landmark. | ||
| 16 | MISNOMER | Unsuitable term in sermon I’m changing (8) |
| An anagram (‘changing’) of ‘sermon I’m’. | ||
| 18 | TRUDGE | Correct about dog missing old tramp (6) |
| An envelope (‘about’) of ‘d[o]g’ minus the O (‘missing old’) in TRUE (‘correct’). | ||
| 19 | SEDATED | Made calm case, not half old-fashioned (7) |
| A charade of ‘[ca]se’ minus the first two of the four letters (‘not half’) plus DATED (‘old-fashioned’). | ||
| 20 | LE MANS | Scene of motor race with bends covering miles (2,4) |
| An envelope (‘covering’) of M (‘miles’) in LEANS (‘bends’). | ||
| 22 | WHOOP | Exultant cry from western band (5) |
| A charade of W (‘western’) plus HOOP (‘band’). | ||
Good puzzle, that. There seems to have been an increase in the degree of difficulty in the Everyman puzzles of late (today’s being no exception.) Has the setter changed, or has he/she just decided to beef things up a bit?
Thanks Everyman and PeterO.
Yes, I agree with Greensward and found this very slow going. I completed the bottom half quite quickly and then was totally stuck on the top half for ages. Last one was UNSELFCONSCIOUS. i see that the spell-checker doesn’t seem to recognise this word. Having parsed my last one, I realised what a good clue it was. Very enjoyable crossword though, as ever.
Many thanks to Peter and Everyman.
Great Puzzle, great blog so thanks to Everyman and PeterO. I agree with Greensward, the E crosswords seems to be on a par with a midweek G puzzle nowadays. I have always assumed the setter was constant because the ‘feel’ of the puzzle is similar each week. Can anyone tell me the name of the setter and indeed if she/he has changed recently? As to this offering my favourites were WALK ON EGGSHELLS and WHOOP.
To S.Panza @3 – It’s still Colin Gumbrell, and has been for some time. He’s consistently excellent. 20d in today’s puzzle is just terrific.
Smew! The top left corner was challenging, not helped at all by smew. It’s always satisfying to get at least a few answers straight from the clues. But several here, like 3D just jumped into my head and had to be parsed afterwards. A challenge is all good.
I was somewhat exhausted when I solved this, but still, that was definitely on the tricky side for Everyman. The RHS and much of the SW corner went in as expected, but the rest held out for what seemed like a long time for a Sunday. As others have noted, the duck wasn’t the first one I thought of.
Uncleskinny@ 4: thank you for such a swift answer. Yes indeed he is consistently excellent’. I haven’t got to today’s 20d yet but am looking forward to it. I understand Philistine, by his FT name, has set a puzzle for the 18th but I can’t find it online and as I live in southern Spain I can’t buy the newspaper. Can anybody help please?
S. Panza @7
The FT puzzle index can be found here. Yesterday’s prize puzzle was set by Goliath (aka Philistine).
Thanks Gaufrid! Actually I found this, but pathetically I do not have a printer at the moment. I do the FT puzzles online at their ‘experimental website’ but the Goliath puzzle does not seem to be there as far as I can see. I am a big fan of Philistine/Goliath and would like to have a go, but I guess I will just have to be content with the next Philistine in the Guardian, whenever that may be. BTW I would like to say a very big thank you to yourself and all the other bloggers at 225 for the wonderful and selfless work you do to bring us such a wonderful daily experience!
S. Panza @9
I only occasionally visit the interactive FT site but I get the impression that puzzles are indexed and accessible there a week or two after they have appeared in the paper. This may be because a weekly batch isn’t made available until after the closing date for that week’s prize puzzle.
Thanks again Gaufrid. What you say makes sense, I will wait patiently in case it appears next week!
Thank you Everyman and PeterO.
Quite hard going, luckily I know my ducks but it took a wile to twig on to the “angry protests”.
Lovely smooth clues as usual, and good anagrams, especially those for NEWSHOUND and MOONLIGHT SONATA.
Found this very hard especially the long words and NW corner. No idea what a smew is -what a cumbersome word no wonder it is uncommon
3D a favourite amongst a number I got but couldn’t explain all the clue parts which isn’t a total victory imho
Big end and smew terms I learnt this week
Got stuck on the top left corner too. Never heard of SMEW.
Liked smutty, and Moonlight Sonata among others .Knew Big End having had a problem years ago with that car part.
I had to check smew too but felt it had to be. Yes, the NW corner was a bit harder than the other offerings. Good crossword, thanks all.
Like many the NW had me stumped. I gave up and resorted to electronic help but even then I could not get SOURCE and UNSELFCONSCIOUS. Never heard of a SMEW despite being a duck fan (I know my Mallards, Rouens, Indian Runners etc.)
Nonetheless some very good clues. SPINNAKER was very good and MYSTERIES was brilliant. Till next weekend.
Loved this crossword. LOI was source, so much so that It made me unsure about Somewhat (not having heard of smew either). Agree that mysteries was a great clue. Thanks to all