The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3796.
A few niggles in this week’s offering; and then there is 1A; all I could see in it was a rather odd straight definition. I owe it to Gaufrid, to whom much thanks, for pointing out the intent of the clue.
| Across | ||
| 1 | WILBUR WRIGHT | Partner of Orville declaring ‘I Wish I Could Fly’? (6,6) |
| A cryptic definition: the ‘Orville‘ of the clue’s surface is a duck. And green. It was the puppet of ventriloquist Keith Harris, and had the catchphrase “I wish I could fly”. As I pointed out in the preamble, this meant nothing to me when I solved the puzzle, and the apparent straight definition left me nonplussed. Department of sour grapes: since Orville the duck was named for Orville Wright, I do not find this ranking very high even among cryptic definitions. With Peppa Pig last week, we may have some indication of the breadth of Everyman’s cultural references. The old Everyman was keen on films; the new extends the range to include TV. | ||
| 10 | INSPECT | Pakistan’s opener caught in cricket maybe leading to review (7) |
| An envelope (‘caught in’) of P (‘Pakistan’s opener’) in INSECT (‘cricket, maybe’; the ‘maybe’ justifies the indication by example). | ||
| 11 | SHAR PEI | Dog in pen with tail tucked in (4,3) |
| SHARPIE (‘pen’) with the last letter moved up one (‘with tail tucked in’). | ||
| 12 | E-BOOK | Europe to show disapproval of amount of data needed for downloaded literature (1-4) |
| A charade of E (‘Europe’. This has come up before, including last week: the abbreviation is of European, not Europe) plus BOO (‘show disapproval’) plus K (‘amount of data’). I suppose one might take an E-BOO as Europe showing disapproval. | ||
| 13 | STEEPISH | Embarrassed with Thai starter, not hot but quite exorbitant (8) |
| SHEEPISH (’embarrassed’) with the first H replaced by T (‘with Thai starter, not hot’). | ||
| 15 | FREE-FOR-ALL | Big fight that no-one needs a subscription to watch (4-3-3) |
| Definition and literal interpretation. | ||
| 16 | LEGO | Heartlessly fire children’s entertainer (4) |
| LE[t] GO (‘fire’) minus the middle letter of the phrase (‘heartlessly’), with an unexpected definition. | ||
| 18 | ALAS | Pinched by personal assistant, I’m sorry to say (4) |
| A hidden (‘pinched by’) answer in ‘personAL ASsistant’. | ||
| 20 | OPEN SECRET | Everyone knows that duck and swans on east end of island disappeared (4,6) |
| A charade of O (‘duck’) plus PENS (female ‘swans’) plus E (‘east’) plus CRET[e] (‘island’) minus its last letter (‘end of … disappeared’). | ||
| 22 | SABOTAGE | Clever, introducing a computer to get rid of machinery (8) |
| An envelope (‘introducing’) of ‘a plus BOT (‘computer’; generally a program, but perhaps the original formation from robot is nearer the mark) in SAGE (‘clever’). | ||
| 24 | DELVE | Go rummaging with some wood elves (5) |
| A hidden (‘some’) answer in ‘wooD ELVEs’. | ||
| 26 | GET IT ON | Do you understand my joke about T Rex song? (3,2,2) |
| A charade of GET IT (‘understand my joke’) plus ON (‘about’). ‘Do you’ hardly contributes to the wordplay. | ||
| 27 | OREGANO | Leaves Lear’s daughter caught between two loves (7) |
| An envelope (‘caught between’) of REGAN (King ‘Lear’s daughter’) in O O (‘two loves’). | ||
| 28 | READ AND WRITE | Water drained after scrubbing: what we teach children to do (4,3,5) |
| An anagram (‘after scrubbing’) of ‘water drained’. | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | IN STORE | Those elected ran as expected (2,5) |
| A charade of INS (‘those elected’) plus TORE (‘ran’). | ||
| 3 | BREAK OFF | Two noises a donkey’s vet might hear and stop abruptly (5,3) |
| Sounds like (‘might hear’) BRAY COUGH. | ||
| 4 | RITZ | Legal papers delivered to luxurious establishment (4) |
| Sounds like (‘delivered’) WRITS (‘legal papers’). | ||
| 5 | RESETTLING | Linger awkwardly outside home of badger that’s moving (10) |
| An envelope (‘outside’) of SETT (‘home of badger’) in RELING, an anagram (‘awkwardly’) of ‘linger’. | ||
| 6 | GRAVE | Good to arrive at party sober (5) |
| A charade of G (‘good’) plus RAVE (‘party’). | ||
| 7 | TOPSIDE | Beef is better than fish (7) |
| TOPS IDE (‘is better than fish’). | ||
| 8 | RITE OF PASSAGE | Ritual consumption of foie gras pâtés (4,2,7) |
| An anagram (‘consumption’) of ‘foie gras pâtés’ (minus the accents). | ||
| 9 | RIGHT ON THE DOT | Topless resort party restricted by the tense? Just so (5,2,3,3) |
| A charade of [b]RIGHTON (‘resort’) minus the first letter (‘topless’) plus THEDOT, an envelope (‘restricted by’) of DO (‘party’) in ‘the’ plus T (‘tense’). | ||
| 14 | PROPAGANDA | In report, very cursory examination of fake news (10) |
| Sounds like (‘in report’) PROPER (‘very’) GANDER (‘cursory examination’). | ||
| 17 | HEADGEAR | Nightcap, perhaps, for acid-user anticipating stash of drugs (8) |
| A charade of HEAD (‘acid-user’) plus GEAR (‘stash of drugs’). Interesting that the clue pairs two items of drug slang in a quite innocent package. | ||
| 19 | ARBITER | Judge reviewed trial, oddly ignored dangerous dog (7) |
| A charade of AR, a reversal (‘reviewed’) of RA (‘tRiAl oddly ignored’) plus BITER (‘dangerous dog’). | ||
| 21 | RELIANT | Dependent given latrine for movement (7) |
| An anagram (‘for movement’) of ‘latrine’. | ||
| 23 | TETRA | Fish that’s engagingly technicolour roaming aquaria primarily (5) |
| First letters (‘primarily’) of ‘That’s Engagingly Technicolour Roaming Aquaria’, with an extended definition. | ||
| 25 | BOND | For Sévérine, good to go on date with 007 (4) |
| A charade of BON (French – ‘for Sévérine’ – ‘good’) plus D (‘date’). | ||
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Thanks PeterO (and Everyman) – I agree with your niggles, but otherwise I enjoyed this.
The new Everyman also likes to include a set of entries that match in some way. Here it’s a set of four homophones WRIGHT / WRITE / RITE / RIGHT in the clues around the edge.
I found this more difficult than the Saturday Prize puzzle last week. It might just be me, but don’t want to spend so long on a Sunday puzzle.
I could not parse 1a (Wilbur Wright), or the ON in 26 GET IT ON.
I did not like the branding/advertising of SHARPIE in the puzzle, and was not very keen on INS (those elected) TORE (ran) for 2d.
Thanks Everyman and Peter.
Note: I experience the same problem this week – I find it harder than the Prize puzzle which I enjoyed solving yesterday.
The write/rite/Wright/right connection is clever, but not for the first time in the new Everyman, we have a phrase that isn’t in a dictionary – i.e. right on the dot. I don’t think the clue (and crossers) were particularly helpful, considering. A very nice idea, but there’s arguably an imbalance in the setter’s favour.
Lots to like though. The foie gras anagram was a nice find (could the rite/ritual clash have been avoided?)
It’s not noted in the blog, but in case it’s not obvious, in 25d Severine was a character in Skyfall. Purists might baulk at ‘with’. 😉
Boring point that isn’t a criticism of the setter: 26a might baffle American setters – T. Rex’s ‘Get It On’ was ‘Bang A Gong’ in the US to avoid confusion with Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get it On’.
Never heard of SHARPIE as a pen. Needed aids for LEGO, misled by the definition. Wasn’t sure of T = ‘tense’ but it’s in all my usual dictionaries; I just don’t recall seeing it before. I agree with Nila Palin (at #3) about ‘right on the dot’ . In terms of exactitude ‘on the dot’ is sufficient. I’m new in this forum (though not to the Everyman which I have been doing every week for decades) so it’s nice to see a familiar name, Nila. We had an interesting discussion elsewhere last year about the A on B = BA positional indicator convention in Across clues.
Quite enjoyable with a few reservations :-
1a just does not make sense despite the explanation
I’d never heard of a Sharpie or even the dog, sounds more like a town in China
I coundn’t parse LEGO although it looks obvious now
I got 2d wrong and put ‘IN SCOPE’ and indeed INS for ‘those elected’ is quite strange
I don’t think ‘get rid of machinery’ is an adequate definition of SABOTAGE
HEAD on its own is not good enough for ‘drug user’. It’s usually accompanied by another word eg drug head or dope head
Thanks to PeterO and Everyman
Yet another slightly unsatisfactory puzzle. I still find some of the very loose clueing quite difficult, not necessarily to solve, but in the definitions. Some very obvious, others a bit off, hampered by the moveable levels of difficulty. Not so keen on a lot of TV references but it seems this is what we will get. Did get 2d but could not work out why! Of course, with the answer it seems simple. Would like it to develop with a bit more rigour in the definitions.
Hi Jackkt @4. Yes, I remember the discussion about “on” in across clues in the Times – a rule that seems to apply only to their puzzles (it took me a while to realise), and not even in the Sunday Times. Some traditions never die!
Good to see you still blogging over there.
Thanks Nina @7. Yes I’m up to blog #400 on the main Times puzzle this week and not that far off #200 on the Quickies!
^ Congratters! I’ll drop in for a virtual handshake.
Davy@5 – re 17d, I meant to make the point earlier that Chambers confirms that HEAD on its own can mean someone who uses drugs, and not just when it’s hypenated by a particularly drug.
Nila @9 Even though Chambers confirms that HEAD on its own can mean someone who uses drugs, I can’t think of a sentence that would sound right.
If one met a drug user and said “Are you a head ?.”, it would sound odd and be a homophone for “Are you ahead ?.” Just saying.
I found this difficult, but my difficulties were largely due to my own shortcomings. I couldn’t see how to parse RIGHT ON THE DOT, and I wasn’t sure I had it right until I saw it matching all the crossers. I also failed to parse HEADGEAR, making it a 50-50 guess with HEADWEAR. (Fortunately, I guessed right). I didn’t know this slang meaning of “gear”: I would have thought that the word would refer to drug paraphernalia (needles, etc.) rather than the drugs themselves, but (presumably like most readers of this site) I am quite far from that subculture.
I am another who found 1a quite unsatisfying. I penciled in the answer, but I kept wondering if I was missing something. Thanks for explaining the cryptic intent, even if I agree it doesn’t work very well. On the other hand, I did enjoy the misleading definition in 16a.
‘On the dot’ means, very specifically, ‘exactly on time’ (no ‘right’ required). ‘Just so’ seems a rather weak equivalent to me.
Ever since Collins left, I can only describe the setting nowadays as whimsical,eg 1ac.LOI SHAR PEI.
^ I thought SHARPEI was very good, not a whimsical stretch at all compared to others. Wouldn’t have looked out of place in a Times puzzle.
Sara@6 says “Yet another slightly unsatisfactory puzzle.” Slightly? That has to be the understatement of the millenium! This puzzle was just ridiculously bad from my pov. I’d never heard of “sharpie” pens, never hear of “shar pei” dogs, never heard of “ide” fish, and to associate “Brighton” with “resort” is so much of a stretch that it beggars belief.
And “t” for “tense”? Give me a break!!!
The word “gear” meaning “drugs” is very obscure and very passé.
Never heard of Orville the duck either, but the answer was pretty much a write-in anyway — what else could go wih “Orville” given the letter count?
If it doesn’t get better, I’ll give Everyman a miss in the future.
Concur with all the above brickbats and the odd bouquet. Interestingly there were two slightly different versions of 10 and 13A in the NZ version: 10 A is Assess Plunkett’s opening in cricket, perhaps for INSECT. No problem with that, but the UK version is better, I think. 13A is all over the place though, Thai starter, not hot, embarrassed it’s quite exorbitant. I failed to parse that, with Embarrassed stuck in the middle like that. Again the UK version is much better and I reckon I would have picked up the Sheepish bit. As it was I bunged in Steepish with a big question mark on the side.
Could it be that Everyman’s checkers are now doing their job a bit better, but the changed versions don’t make it over here?
PS re ‘on’ I thought the convention was pretty universal that in across clues A on B is BA and in down clues AB, not just The Times. It isn’t helpful to have variations.
And am I alone in not liking (or at least not liking the order of) ‘end of island disappeared’ for Cret? So with the errant ‘on’ this is poor wordplay imho.
Oh, and since when was ‘consumption’ an anagrind? Preparation would have been a much better word in the clue.
I’ll shut up now,
I agree with the other Kiwis. There were quite a few clues here that meant nothing to me. Also we seem to have a different version in several of these clues as Barry @16,17 and 18 has written. Another one was 25 d. Who is Madeleine? I thought this was a pretty poor effort and don’t think I can be bothered doing any more like this.
There were a couple I liked . Open secret and Ritz.
Interesting that we kiwis are getting different clues. Interesting and not on.
I enjoyed this – who can complain with 27ac? Tickled my fancy that one.
The semi Nina (‘right’ in the corners) helped me out this time.
Hear hear all the Kiwi comments. I wonder why some of the clue are changed for us, who does this and why >? Too intriguing. Moving the clue around in 13ac meant it was not possible to solve properly imho. Agree Audrey who on earth is Madeline and what was the point of transposing names. Hmm
Clues i did like were Oregano, Ritz, Free for All,
I would love someone to explain further the fish ref in tops ide – I don’t get that at all. Can anyone clarify. Otherwise, apart from the quarter I never was able to get – i quite like the three quarters i did finish.
Still finding it hard to get used to this style…ho hum
I got BOND from ‘secret agent’ once I had 27a and 28a so I figured Madeleine (in the Kiwi version of this Everyman) might be a reference to Madeleine Swann from the film Spectre but I couldn’t parse the clue.
Very unsatisfactory and couldn’t even be bothered with preserving with this one. All expect 14d which made me laugh out loud.
I can’t remember we Kiwis ever getting different clues
before for these crosswords. Is it an issue we need to raise with the Herald people?
Makes it very difficult to solve, disappointing really.
Vanessa @21 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ide_(fish)
I had to look it up too, but it’s actually not a bad clue. Is better than = tops, IDE is a fish.
For Kiwis – Madeline is the title character in a series of children’s books about a little girls’ school in Paris. Much enjoyed by my granddaughter. ‘In an old house in Paris, all covered in vines, lived twelve little girls in two straight lines.’ So, for little French Madeline, GOOD would be BON. ?
I wasn’t as disturbed by this puzzle as a some other commenters. I did find 1ac puzzling, knowing nothing of Orville the duck. And IDE the fish was new to me. But then I often learn something new from a cryptic.
Thank you Pinky.
I think our version was harder than the original. Unless you knew the book, it’s nit an obviously French name.