Everyman 3,860

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The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3860.

Another Everyman with the trademark ‘primarily’ clue (reverting to form after last week’s variant), a weakish rhyming pair, and a bunch of &lits, all a little forced.

ACROSS
1 CARGO PANTS Critic’s starting on Affleck war film: ‘Terrible piece of costume‘ (5,5)
A charade of C (‘Critic’s starting’) plus ARGO (‘Affleck war film’; ‘war film’ often means Second World War, but not here) plus PANTS (‘terrible’).
6 APED Took ideas from some flipping trade paperback (4)
A hidden (‘some’) reversed (‘flipping’) answer in ‘traDE PAperback’.
9 SPIN DOCTOR (n.) I do PR; cost is ludicrous (4,6)
An anagram (‘ludicrous’) of ‘n I do PR cost’, with an &lit definition – that is, the entire clue may be read either as wordplay or definition.
10 WARM Regularly tweak rump that’s kind of hot (4)
Alternate letters (‘regularly’) of ‘tWeAk RuMp’.
11 CROP ROTATION Corn, potato and grain regularly moving? (4,8)
An anagram (‘moving’) of ‘corn potato’ plus RI (‘gRaIn regularly’), with an &lit definition.
15 REBUFFS Live regressively, wearing Elizabethan garb, getting expressions of disrespect (7)
An envelope (‘wearing’) of EB, a reversal (‘regressively’) of BE (‘live’) in RUFFS (‘Elizabethan garb’).
16 EXCUSES Forgives cuts wherein university ousts Italian (7)
EXCISES (‘cuts’) with the I (‘Italian’) replaced by U (‘university’).
17 PHOTO OP Tire out, made to include ‘exciting’ meeting with press (5,2)
An envelope (‘to include’) of HOT (‘exciting’) in POOP (‘tire out’).
19 SNIFFLE Inhale a little nasty smell, tucking into starter of snails with the French (7)
An envelope (‘tucking into’) of NIFF (‘nasty smell’) in S (‘starter of Snails’) plus LE (‘the French’).
20 IN MODERATION During mass, lecture describing Dutch and English puritans’ approach to pleasure (2,10)
An envelope (‘describing’) of D (‘Dutch’) plus E (‘English’) in IN (‘during’) plus M (‘mass’) plus ORATION (‘lecture’).
23 TELL Swiss legend that helps you beat poker rivals (4)
Double definition; for the first, William Tell of Rossini’s famous overture (and the following opera); for the second see this.
24 CHEESED OFF Perhaps a little blue shed makes you disgruntled (7,3)
A charade of CHEESE (‘perhaps a little blue’) plus DOFF (‘shed’).
25 RAYS Noisily erect beams (4)
Sounds like (‘noisily’) RAISE (‘erect’).
26 SCREENPLAY Part of film where Rock Hudson finally gets trifle (10)
A charade of SCREE (‘rock’) plus N (‘HudsoN finally’) plus PLAY (‘trifle’).
DOWN
1 CASE Salesman might travel with this suit (4)
Cryptic/double definition.
2 RAIN A shower are in charge, we’re informed (4)
Sounds like (‘we’re informed’) REIGN (‘are in charge’). In the surface, ‘shower’ in the sense of a disparaged group of people could justify the plural ‘are’.
3 OLD TRAFFORD Cocky, losing head, leaders of Tranmere Rovers find cash for 75,000-capacity ground (3,8)
A charade of [b]OLD (‘cocky’) minus the first letter (‘losing head’), plus TR (‘leaders of Tranmere Rovers’) plus AFFORD (‘find cash’), for Manchester United’s ground of around 75,000 capacity.
4 ACCEPTS Puts up with ridiculous spectacle endlessly … and again (7)
An anagram (‘ridiculous’) of ‘spectac[le]’ minus the last two letters (‘endlessly … and again’).
5 TWOSOME Pair of moody teenagers with pained expression: time to get up (7)
A reversal (‘to get up’ in a down light) of EMOS (‘moody teenagers’, adherents of emo music) plus OW (‘pained expression’ – expression as something said, not facial) plus T (‘time’).
7 PLAY IT SAFE Fat Paisley comic? Don’t take chances (4,2,4)
An anagram (‘comic’) of ‘fat Paisley’.
8 DIMINISHED Weakened, foolish Everyman, regularly unfit, dropped (10)
A charade of DIM (‘foolish’) plus I (‘Everyman’ as the writer of the clue) plus NI (‘regularly uNfIt’) plus SHED (‘dropped’).
12 ARCTIC OCEAN Ice can coat river flowing into this! (6,5)
An anagram (‘flowing’) of ‘ice can coat’ plus R (‘river’), with an extended definition – or if you are feeling generous, you might give ‘flowing into this’ as the anagrind, and declare the clue as an &lit.
13 PROPRIETOR Landlord in favour of clergyman being denied special old rum, to begin with (10)
A charade of PRO (‘in favour of’) PRIE[s]T (‘clergyman’) minus the S (‘being denied special’) plus OR (‘Old Rum, to begin with’). The definition refers to the host of an inn.
14 ABNORMALLY Uncommonly able-bodied seaman? No: Royal Marine and partner in war (10)
A charade of AB (‘able-bodied seaman’) plus ‘no’ plus RM (‘Royal Marine’) plus ALLY (‘partner in war’).
18 PYRRHIC Primarily, practically, your really resolute hardship is counter-productive? (7)
One of Everyman’s famous ‘primarily’ clues, formed from the first letters of the remaining words, with an &lit definition, generally encountered in the expression ‘Pyrrhic victory’, named after King Pyrrhus of Epirus, who, in 279 BC, won the Batttle of Asculum against the Romans, but at such high cost that he was essentially unable to continue the campaign.
19 SO THERE Drunk receiving present delivers rude expression (2,5)
A charade of SOT (‘drunk’) plus HERE (‘present’).
21 JOEL Essentially meddlesome: drink rejected in book of Bible (4)
A reversal (‘rejected’) of LE (‘essentially meddLEsome’) plus OJ (orange juice, ‘drink’).
22 IFFY Uncertain moment, scratching head (4)
[j]IFFY (‘moment’) minus the first letter (‘scratching head’).

 

image of grid

25 comments on “Everyman 3,860”

  1. I rather enjoyed that, I seem to remember, though I did not know the poker aspect of TELL, and did not think to google it. In a sense all cryptic crossword clues are forced, but I do know what you mean. Thanks anyway to you, PeterO, and to Everyman.

  2. I = Italian?

    Don’t think so, but Everyman told us before (on more than one occasion) that E = Europe, so he may possibly think he can justify it.

    I cannot, though.

  3. Well done PeterO, justifying every answer from it’s clue is very good in my book.

    JOEL, Pyrrhic, and Doff all defeated me!

    I got the answers but could see why completely.

     

    One of the harder Everyman puzzles for my short return to puzzles.

    Without ‘check’ options I’d definitely have failed to get the answers.

     

    I did not know Joel, and thought Noah was the answer before I checked this.

     

  4. Sil van den Hoek @2, my Chambers Crossword Dictionary gives I for Italian.

    I enjoyed this, partly because I got it all out. Thanks to Everyman, and to PeterO for the explanations.

  5. Pretty standard Everyman fair… not too hard… some clues quite good… some not. Liked the construct for ACCEPTS. Biggest quibble: Argo is a thriller, but not in any way a war film.

    Thx to setter/blogger/commenters…

  7. Alison @4. Re I = Italian, I wonder why Chambers Crossword Dictionary would have an abbreviation that’s not in their main dictionary, nor in any of the other usual sources such as Collins or the OED, but all of which have I = Italy (IVR).

    E = European (as mentioned by Sil van den Hoek) is in the standard Chambers and the Shorter Oxford but missing from Collins and OED.

  8. Michelle @ 6 , thanks for mentioning “twosome”.

    I did not spend hours on that one before “check this” confirmed it.

    So, I forgot I hadn’t understood how you were supposed to get “some” out of it.

    Blooming brilliant PeterO – my admiration increases with that one, and I have picked up another weapon in my quest to avoid the use of checks.

  9. I thought time was “MO” or “MOS” leaving SE, or more likely,  “E” to find.

    The practice of using the first or last letter of a word (which I dislike) gave a reason for “expression” to be there.

    “pained” , I thought, must be another way of suggesting “initially” which I often do not get ( one of the reasons for my dislike). They are disguised too well for me.

    So I thought I had solved that one.

  10. Returned to today’s and realise there is no check tis on Everyman, oh what a fool I am!

    Put in my first answer and thought it was wrong when it cleared!!! Clear this has that effect.

  12. Jakkt@7, I’ve no idea, but it’s definitely there. It would be interesting to know how they compile the Crossword Dictionary.

  14. Alison@12. I wasn’t doubting your statement for a moment. TBH I’ve never come across Chambers Crossword Dictionary before today despite a lifetime devotion to cryptic puzzles and I’ve been blogging at TfTT for 13 years, so I have sent for a copy to find out what it’s all about and I look forward to exploring it.

  16. Got 5d in sense of it not possible to be anything else ,but without Peter O’s explanation, would never have known why. Happens more often than I’d like. Overall, quite a good one with some stretches – of the definitions, as well as the imagination.

  17. I have two quibblets: 15a was clearly going to be REBUFFS, but describing this as disrespectful is a bit of a stretch. Rebuffing shows a lack of enthusiasm, certainly, but not necessarily a lack of respect.
    In a similar vein, my first thought for 19d’s rude expression (2,5) was “up yours” – but then SNIFFLE leapt up at me and ruled that out.
    I suppose one might urge a 4 year old not to say it (I tend to think of it as being followed by “ner-ner!”) but is SO THERE really rude? In a world where certain Prime Ministers and Presidents spray insults and venom with insouciance, “so there” seems sweetly tame to me. Hey ho.
    I liked the neatness of EXCUSES; PROPRIETOR and CHEESED-OFF made me grin.
    Thanks to PeterO and Everyman.

  18. jakkt @14: just out of curiosity, what is TfTT?

    I’d agree with both PeterO and Beobachterin @1 on the slightly forced result with the &lits – but I have to say I smiled at both SPIN DOCTOR and ARCTIC OCEAN when they dropped. And CROP ROTATION was probably my COTD.  My other couple of ticks have been mentioned by michelle – TWOSOME and OLD TRAFFORD which, whilst not exactly smoothly clued, was quite an assemblage.  Overall, I didn’t really enjoy the surfaces which were a tad clumsy.  And there’s something ironic about PYRRHIC: Yes, Everyman’s weekly ‘primarily’ clue is always a bit of a giveaway but, in achieving the objective, the setter has had to produce such an obvious clue/surface, it’s self defeating.  Which is essentially a definition of Pyrrhic.

  19. I also liked both 9a SPIN DOCTOR and 12d ARCTIC OCEAN, both good CADs, the former in particular with its clever dictionary entry format.  And I liked the moody teenagers in 5d TWOSOME.

    I thought it a bit odd to describe SCREENPLAY as “part of film” (26a).  And I agree with OddOtter @5 that Argo is not a war film.  [It is, even more than most, a film that outrageously misrepresents the facts to exaggerate the American actions and denigrate their friends and allies.  See the Wikipedia article, particularly the section on “historical inaccuracies” with five (!) sub-sections.]

    Many thanks Everyman and PeterO.

  20. Postmark @18: TfTT is Times for the Times, a site that does for the Times crosswords roughly what Fifteensquared does for the Guardian, Observer etc.

  21. Alison @12. Thanks for drawing my attention to the Chambers Crossword Dictionary (now received, same day delivery courtesy Amazon Prime!). It looks very interesting, not least because its named contributors consist mainly of Times Newspaper setters, including Peter Biddlecombe who founded ‘Times for The Times’ where most of my on-line crossword activity is focussed. My only slight reservation may be with the title as at first glance it’s more what I would describe as a thesaurus rather than a dictionary. This is fine as long as one always bear in mind that words listed in entries are not necessarily directly synonymous with the lead word and therefore available as valid definitions in crosswords; they may only be words in the same area of meaning.

  22. Not bad. Held up for a while having ‘Endures’ for 4D which was sendup (spectacle) with the two ends deleted, and REs = and again. That left 11A with an unsolvable -R-R.

    Amended it to Accepts which I failed to parse.

    Lordy, when will this debacle in the US end?

  23. I found this extremely hard and needed lots of help
    I would never have solved Joel… and didn’t
    Did not like the grammar of 2d
    or the contrived Twosome
    But lots to like especially abnormally, photo op, cheesed off, crop rotation and iffy
    Does anyone know why pants = terrible?
    Never heard of niff either a new one on me

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