The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3912.
Primarily clue? Check. Rhyming pair? Check. It must be Sunday (except that it is actually still Saturday here).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | STABLE |
Bay’s home, standing firm (6)
|
| Double definition; in the first, ‘bay’ is a horse. Having twigged that, I spent far too long wondering why the answer was STALLS. | ||
| 4 | THICKENS |
Clots in kitchens, cooking (8)
|
| An anagram (‘cooking’) of ‘kitchens’. | ||
| 9 | ENGELS |
Communist, English, ultimately smitten with posh ladies (6)
|
| A charade of E (‘English’) plus N (‘ultimately smitteN‘) plus GELS (‘posh ladies’). | ||
| 10 | VALENCIA |
Cave in, having consumed most of ale, in resort port on the Med (8)
|
| An envelope (‘having consumed’) of AL (‘most of ALe’) in VENCIA, an anagram (‘in re-sort’) of ‘cave in’. | ||
| 12 | TILL |
Up to cultivate the land (4)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 13 | FALL BEHIND |
What moon reveals after autumn in Oregon Trail (4,6)
|
| A charade of FALL (‘autumn in Oregon’, using the primarily American term for the season) plus BEHIND (‘what moon reveals’, another Americanism, but I think it has travelled). | ||
| 15 | UNCHASTENED |
With no humility, half of mum’s brothers advanced (11)
|
| A charade of UNC[les] (‘half of mum’s brothers’) plus HASTENED (‘advanced’). | ||
| 18 | ABSTRACTION |
Pulling muscles earlier in inattentive state (11)
|
| A charade of ABS (‘muscles’) plus TRACTION (‘pulling’). | ||
| 21 | SUNDAY BEST |
‘Pudding!’ announced by footballer in glad rags (6,4)
|
| A charade of SUNDAY, sounding like (‘announced’) SUNDAE (‘pudding’? – perhaps in the general sense of dessert); plus BEST (George, most likely, ‘footballer’). | ||
| 22 | BOAR |
By sound of it, put up with a swine (4)
|
| Sounds like (‘by sound of it’) BORE (‘put up with’) | ||
| 24 | BOOK CLUB |
Arrest, finding weapon in bibliophiles’ association (4,4)
|
| A charadde of BOOK (‘arrest’) plus CLUB (‘weapon’). | ||
| 25 | GUN DOG |
Trained gudong, one working with hunters (3,3)
|
| An anagram (‘trained’) of ‘gudong’. Maybe there is nothing to demand that the anagrist must be a word, but one suspects that Everyman meant dugong, which at least exists, | ||
| 26 | REBIRTHS |
Stir herb stews; they’re regenerative (8)
|
| An anagram (‘stews’) of ‘stir herb’. | ||
| 27 | CYPRUS |
Fancy: ‘Prussia’ contains name of another country (6)
|
| A hidden answer (‘contains’) in ‘fanCY PRUSsia’. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SPECTRUM |
Range small, not large – pick! (8)
|
| A charade of S (‘small’) plus P[l]ECTRUM (‘pick’) minus the L (‘not large’). | ||
| 2 | ANGELICA |
Perhaps Merkel’s eaten 40% of icing that’s used on cakes (8)
|
| An envelope (‘eaten’) of IC (‘40% of ICing’) in ANGELA (‘perhaps Merkel’). | ||
| 3 | LILY |
Flower, gilt edges removed, clutched by gutted lady (4)
|
| An envelope (‘clutched by’) of IL (‘gILt edges removed’) in LY (‘gutted LadY‘). | ||
| 5 | HEADLONG RUSH |
Old range destroyed in quiet stampede (8,4)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of EADLONGR, an anagram (‘destroyed’) of ‘old range’ in HUSH (‘quiet’). | ||
| 6 | CLEVER DICK |
Smarty-pants, cold, the French musician, vacuous crook (6,4)
|
| A charade of C (‘cold’) plus LE (‘the French’) plus VERDI (Guiseppe, ‘musician’) plus CK (‘vacuous CrooK‘). | ||
| 7 | EUCLID |
Setter had cryptic clue earlier: ‘father of geometry?’ (6)
|
| A charade of EUCL, an anagram (‘cryptic’) of ‘clue’ plus I’D (‘setter had’). | ||
| 8 | SHANDY |
‘How do you spell “shy”?’ That’s pretty light stuff (6)
|
| SH AND Y | ||
| 11 | DAFT AS A BRUSH |
Silly, stupid, bad: a fast scramble (4,2,1,5)
|
| A charade of DAFTASAB, an anagram (‘stupid’) of ‘bad a fast’; plus RUSH (‘scramble’). | ||
| 14 | MADAGASCAR |
Primarily modernized African democracy, although governor’s a strongman called Andry Rajoelina? (10)
|
| The trademark Everryman ‘primarily’ clue, and, yes, Andry Rajoelina is the President of Madagascar. | ||
| 16 | DISORDER |
Incomplete romantic gift Everyman had offered up in muddle (8)
|
| A reversal (‘offered up’ in a down light) of RED ROS[e] (‘romantic gift’) minus the last letter (‘incomplete’) plus I’D (‘Everyman had’). | ||
| 17 | INERT GAS |
Perhaps krypton might make you angriest? (5,3)
|
| An anagram (‘might make you’) of ‘angriest’. | ||
| 19 | ISOBAR |
Weatherman’s line: ‘I weep over a drop of rain’ (6)
|
| A charade of ‘I’ plus SOB (‘weep’) plus ‘a’ plus R (‘drop of Rain’). | ||
| 20 | ENTOMB |
A little belligerent ombudsman in Bury (6)
|
| A hidden answer (‘a little’) in ‘belligerENT OMBudsman’. Like 13A, the definition has a misleading capital letter. | ||
| 23 | QUAY |
Report of low reef in wharf (4)
|
| Sounds like (‘report of’) KEY (‘low reef’). |
A bit chewier than most Everymans, I thought, though none the worse for that. The rhyming pair helped me get the phrase DAFT AS A BRUSH – one I have never heard of. I liked the Commie who wasn’t a ‘red’, FALL BEHIND, UNCHASTENED and CLEVER DICK. I had bunged in NOBLE GAS at 17d and had to rethink when the parsing looked difficult.
Like PeterO, I thought: surely there is a mistake in 25a – “gudong” ought to read “dugong”? Thanks, Everyman and PeterO.
GUDONG, or GU DONG, it seems, is a village in China. Whereas my neighbour here has a trained dugong, which does the shopping and puts the rubbish out, as long as it gets an occasional swim.
Another one who thought that Everyman must have meant a dugong in 25A.
The idea of training a dugong is hilarious. DAFT AS A BRUSH (which I hadn’t heard of).
Hard to start. NW corner last in.
Favourites: DISORDER, SHANDY.
New: DAFT AS A BRUSH.
13ac FALL BEHIND was groanworthy.
I agree that in 25ac it was probably supposed to be dugong not gudong, but it was easily solved as an anagram.
Thanks, both.
I enjoyed this one (although I failed to get 21ac -easy when you see it). Some really clever clues, all fair and reasonable, which revealed themselves slowly as good cryptics should. Particularly liked SHANDY and as a guitarist, SPECTRUM. Thanks Everyman and PeterO
Enjoyed this and made good progress until I got to the last four. Held up by putting *plectrum* instead of SPECTRUM and not spotting the anagram for VALENCIA. Eventually got there.
Also put noble gas first for 17d.
Favourites: SHADY, FALL BEHIND, DAFT AS A BRUSH, HEADLONG RUSH,, ABSTRACTION
Thanks Everyman and PeterO
Thanks for the blog , I thought this was very neat and enjoyable , I did not even notice GUDONG , I just used the letters.
Have a lot of favourite clues ticked, most mentioned by Fiona Anne @6. I will add SPECTRUM and MADAGASCAR as a very neat primarily plus &Lit .
Very enjoyable, like Roz I didn’t notice gudong, luckily for a typo it was in the fodder not a word play indicator.
Thanks Everyman and PeterO
11 Down DAFT AS A BRUSH may be primarily a Geordie term. Made famous at the time by footballer Paul Gascoigne’s manager Bobby Robson, and used by him, or his ghost, as title for his autobiography
https://visionsport.tv/2018/01/16/gazza-daft-brush-football-genius/
Only a minor gripe, but obvs one that will niggle at me for days but isn’t ‘to put up’ actually bear not bore. It’s the boring person that would need to be put up with, not doing the putting up. Also hamstrung myself putting plectrum not spectrum. Gah.
I think I struggled with this (a week can seem a long time) but looking back over the clues they all seem pretty reasonable. Favourites were Spectrum & the other hidden country.
Jake@10 I think its put up with in the past tense, with bore being the past tense of bear.
Thanks Everyman and PeterO. Agree with TassieTim that this was a bit chewier than usual for Everyman but all good stuff.
For 25a, I read the word in the clue as GUNDOG so spent a while trying to come up with an anagram of GUNDOG that also meant GUNDOG…
A show horse stalls and stands firm when refusing a jump, as well as living in a stall so a fitting solution, as stable is too. A very ambiguous clue to 1d
Jake @10. I had the same thought as you until “he bore it well” = “he put up with it well” occured to me. I think Paul @12 is saying much the same.
I was scratching my head over a possible STALLS at 1a too, before the penny finally dropped.
I thought this was great fun. The surface of 27a was very clever (because of course “Prussia” does contain the name of another country). I loved the weatherman weeping over a drop of rain at 19d. And 13a made me laugh out loud – “What moon reveals”!
Many thanks Everyman and PeterO.
I particularly liked FALL BEHIND and SHANDY.
A few superfluous words: the ‘in’ before resort in 10 would normally be part of the anagram fodder, although I realise it was needed for the surface. Likewise, the ‘you’ in 17.
Thanks Everyman and PeterO.
Sometimes the ‘Primarily’ clue is a real gem and MADAGASCAR was, easily, COTD for me.
Robi @17: personally I didn’t think those words were superfluous. In 10a, as PeterO says in the blog, CAVE IN and AL are in a re-sort. And the “you” in 17d implies “for you”, as in “I could make you a cup of tea”. INERT GAS could make for you (the solver) “angriest”.
Some people would possibly argue that 10 is an anagram rather than an anagram/ container, since CAVE IN, according to the wording, has consumed the AL before the re-sort. They might also say that 17 is the wrong way around, as what something makes for the solver should really be the answer and not the anagrist. The use of ‘you’ is common enough though, where for example stale lamb could make you a meat dish.
Fiona Anne @6
Although it doesn’t parse, NOBLE GAS is more correct – they haven’t been called “inert gases” since the sixties, when compounds of the heavier ones (xenon and krypton) were synthesised.
I look forward to the Everyman, as it’s the only crossword I can do reliably. I was really struggling with STABLE until I forced SPECTRUM in and then there was light.
Familiar with ‘daft as a brush’. Wondered recently why a brush should be daft. Apparently the original was ‘daft as a brush with no bristles’.
For some reason I found this impenetrable. Just couldn’t get going, only solved five clues, my first Everyman dnf for a good while.
Could not parse 9 across; “gels” (gals pronounced poshly?) for
“posh ladies” never occurred to me, and probably wouldn’t have in a million years. Thought 1 down was ambiguous — the answer could be either “plectrum” or “spectrum”; had to get 1 across first in order to decide which was right.
Never heard the phrase “daft as a brush”.
Found this one difficult, and had to resort to wildcard dictionaries, but with their help got it all out. In the end it was pretty satisfying.
Thanks to Everyman, and to Peter O for some of the parsings.
Nice crossword. Didn’t think boar would work as bore doesn’t mean “to put up with” so thanks for explaining it as past tense of “to bear”. Laughed at isobar and thickens. Daft as a brush is a familiar expression to me – both given and received. Thanks all!
Why oh why could I not get Sunday Best? Gave up thinking it must be some weird dessert I’d not heard of. Everything else fine.
Daft as a brush – new to me.
Rob.
Nice puzzle.
Got it all today.
I havent seen Barrie lately due to lockdown, but I’ll report back in a few weeks regarding his state of attire.
Isn’t it strange that some of the regular contributors to this blog found this puzzle more challenging, but I found it to be quite straightforward.
I believe that if you get a good start on the first ring through, this sets you up for a good finish.
Thanks to setter and blogger