I enjoyed this one from Everyman, with a couple of clues that I particularly liked.
One or two queries that I’m sure contributors will help resolve. And for those collecting such things, the heteronormative couplet today comes courtesy of the LADY OF THE LAKE and a MAN OF THE CLOTH.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Hope network’s designed to be aware of best practice
KNOW THE ROPES
(HOPE NETWORKS)*
10 No time for getting tied up in pastime
ANGLING
[T]ANGLING
11 Some bigwig ran a dancehall in Spanish city
GRANADA
Hidden in bigwiG RAN A DAncehall.
12 Rose, shunning society, travelled by canoe
OARED
[S]OARED
13 ‘Differently honestly’?
ON THE SLY
(HONESTLY)* The anagrind is ‘differently’, but it’s also a cad, since ‘honestly’ is certainly different to ‘on the sly’. I liked this clue particularly today.
15 Copy published after T S Eliot initially conceals act of plagiarism
TRANSCRIBE
A charade of T and RAN followed by an insertion of CRIB in S and E for the first letter of ‘Eliot’. Another good clue with a nicely deceptive surface.
16 Farmyard youngster that’s just over a foot
CALF
A dd, the second of which is referring to the CALF muscle.
18 Characters in expensive picture, Ben-Hur perhaps
EPIC
Well, the first character in ‘expensive’ and the first three characters in ‘picture’ give you EPIC, but I’m not sure the surface unequivocally tells you to do that.
20 Girl – not a medallist, we’re told – to make a sudden rush
SALLY FORTH
A charade of SALLY and a homophone of FOURTH (which is where you’d be if you didn’t win gold, silver or bronze).
22 Popular actors take these weapons
LONGBOWS
A cd cum dd. For the first definition, you need to separate the answer out into LONG BOWS. Which of course, English being English, is pronounced differently to the second definition.
24 Schoolchild’s twisted effrontery, rebellious
PUPIL
A reversal (‘twisted’) of LIP and UP.
26 After disruption, setter’s most brusque
TERSEST
(SETTERS)* Makes a change from STREETS.
27 Cassock’s slightly altered for cavalryman
COSSACK
(CASSOCK)* The ‘slightly’ bit is just there to point out that you don’t need to move the letters very far to make the anagram.
28 Entered, dimly tingling with purpose
DETERMINEDLY
(ENTERED DIMLY)* with ‘tingling’ as the anagrind.
Down
2 African nation, one with capital in Abuja?
NIGERIA
A charade of NIGER, I and A for the first letter of ‘Abuja’. Abuja is indeed the capital of Nigeria, so this is a cad, and a rather clever one.
3 The Observer embracing Right, that is most odd
WEIRDEST
A charade of WE (The Observer, since that’s the paper that the crossword is in) and R inserted into ID EST. The insertion indicator is ’embracing’.
4 Uttered casual greeting, being drunk
HIGH
A homophone of HI
5 Newspaper, Independent, covers no-good rubbish boxing movie
RAGING BULL
This is made up of RAG, I, NG for ‘no good’ and BULL, but I can’t make sense of how ‘covers’, which is presumably an insertion indicator, is meant to fit into all of this. Unless, since it’s a down clue, ‘covers’ simply means ‘is on top of’.
6 Primarily: poet (… listed alongside Ted Hughes?)
PLATH
The initial letters of the last five words of the clue and a cad. With a meaningful surface, since Plath and Hughes were married.
7 Perhaps pens epistle, angry initially in Welsh city
SWANSEA
A charade of SWANS (of which ‘pens’ are the female variety), E and A for the initial letters of ‘epistle’ and ‘angrily’.
8 Perhaps Rev. Spooner’s butterflies, skippers, etc?
MAN OF THE CLOTH
A Spoonerism of CLAN OF THE MOTH, and an example of why I and others aren’t madly in love with Spoonerism clues. Let’s argue instead about whether moths are butterflies. Here’s a good place to start.
9 A key held aloft, cryptic Arthurian figure
LADY OF THE LAKE
(A KEY HELD ALOFT)* with ‘cryptic’ as the anagrind.
14 Time to study Scott, perhaps – lecturer’s wanting to hold back
TREAD WATER
A charade of T, READ and [WA[L]TER, referencing the Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian, who wrote 9dn.
17 Slightly smelly Greek characters felt shame finally in unexpected ways
OFF-PISTE
A charade of OFF, PIS for the plural of PI, the Greek letter, and TE for the final letters of ‘felt’ and ‘shame’. ‘To go off-piste’ is a common expression for doing things in an unorthodox way.
19 Everyman blushes, admitting sanitation ultimately neglected
IGNORED
A charade of I and N for the last letter of ‘sanitation’ in GORED. I am struggling to equate GORE and ‘blush’ in their verbal sense.
Edit: as several commenters have pointed out, this is N in I GO RED. Muppetry on my part for suggesting otherwise.
21 Artist putting blame on shade of brown, that’s not unknown
RAPHAEL
A charade of RAP and HA[Z]EL.
23 Chicken serving one rejected in French city
BREST
BRE[A]ST
25 Culinary ingredient regularly extracted from saccharin
ACAI
The even letters of sAcChArIn.
Many thanks to Everyman for this week’s puzzle.
Found this one tougher than usual – in the end had to resort to help for the first time in ages for an everyman puzzle.
Liked TRANSCRIBE, LONGBOWS, OFF-PISTE
Did not like 8dn and never heard of OARED and I belong to a canoe club.
Thanks Everyman and Pierre
I started fast then slowed down. It was easier to solve/guess than to parse quite a few clues.
I did not parse:
13ac anagram of honestly but what is the def? I still don’t understand it, Pierre.
Favourite: LONGBOWS, MAN OF THE CLOTH.
New for me: skipper moth (for 8d).
Thanks, both.
* 18ac hidden in expensivE PICture
5d I thought of ‘covers’ as being above / on top of the NG BULL bits.
19D – isn’t it I GO RED for Everyman blushes?
Vee Jay @ 3
That’s what I thought
I agree with Vee Jay and Fiona – that is how I parsed 19d = N (sanitation ultimately) in I GO RED (Everyman blushes)
I agree with all above re. Hidden EPIC and I Go RED in 19d which was my LOI.
I agree with FA @1 that I’ve never oared a canoe. I can imagine oaring a rowing boat but a canoe?!
But that did not detract from the fun of the puzzle.
As spoonerisms go I liked CLAN of the MOTH. I thought ‘clan’ gave quite a bit of wiggle room from complaints about the family structure of moths and butterflies.
Thanks Everyman and Pierre for the blog.
Thanks for the blog , I thought there were some very neat clues here.
Do canoes have OARS ? Fiona Anne can tell us later I hope.
I like the idea of CanberraGirl @6 for CLAN , moths are closely related to butterflies so clan gives good cover.
LONGBOWS was nicely deceptive and I like the use of ID EST for 3D .
Thanks Pierre, splendid blog, agree with you that there are some very nice clues here. I think your guess on 5d is correct – ‘covers’ is simply ‘on top of’. Agree with others re parsing of EPIC and IGNORED.
I’m not normally a fan of spoonerisms but I found 8d amusing, whether or not it’s an accurate definition.
Thanks Everyman too.
Well, when I asked amazon.com for “canoe oars” it understood me to mean “canoe paddles” — so if the AI understood the intent, I don’t see how we mere humans can argue.
I recall the last such ‘heteronormative couplet’ (Pierre’s term) was back in July when we had SERVICEWOMAN and RIGHTHANDMAN. Thanks Everyman and Pierre
Don’t like Spoonerism clues anyway, and this is a good example of why.
Roz @ 7 and Ilan Caron @ 9
[At our club we have canoes and kayaks and we use paddles in both. The paddle for the canoe has a single blade while the paddle for the kayak has a double blade. I will be off to paddle later today in my kayak.
Maybe the AI was pointing out that instead of canoe oars there are canoe paddles?]
I missed the cryptic element of NIGERIA and I agree that the only way to travel in a canoe is to paddle, but otherwise I enjoyed this.
michelle @2, re honestly/ON THE SLY
I took it as a tongue-in-cheek reference to expressions such as ‘differently abled’, which, depending on your point of view, are either non-judgmental and inclusive, or exasperatingly euphemistic. If ‘differently abled’ can mean ‘disabled’, then ‘differently honestly’ can mean ‘I wouldn’t buy a used car from that person’.
Very enjoyable (I’m with the thumbs-uppers on MAN OF THE CLOTH); thanks Everyman and Pierre.
I too found MAN OF THE CLOTH both clever but also I dislike Spoonerisms unless they are unambiguous.
I got to this one only by associating it with what I assume was today’s pair LADY OF THE LAKE
Thanks Pierre
Generally a good Sunday solve.
I particularly liked LONGBOWS, TREAD WATER and RAPHAEL. I join with others in thinking that one uses paddles with canoes rather than oars. However, the Web provided this: A canoeist commonly uses a paddle, but a canoe can also use oars for propulsion if the canoeist knows how to make some basic adjustments to the boat – such as attaching oarlocks. Maybe that lets Everyman off the oarlock. I, too, think that IGNORED is GO RED about N. I didn’t know ACAI, but the clue was clear.
Thanks Everyman and Pierre.
I thought MAN OF THE CLOTH was brilliant, with the Rev initially appearing to go with Spooner but turning out to be the definition.
Like Petert @13 I was flummoxed by NIGERIA, failing to see how it was cryptic, so thanks for the explanation.
Many thanks Everyman and Pierre.
PS, Pierre, I think ‘characters in’ is fine for a hidden word; it’s the last ‘e’ in expensive i.e. (expensiv)E PIC(ture).
Essexboy @14 – good explanation. I think ON THE SLY was probably my favourite clue here – it’s not often we see &lits from Everyman (‘primarily’ clues aside) and this was a very good one, not least for the splendid ‘exasperatingly euphemistic’ definition.
[aside for @Blah, in case you miss it, I’ve left a message for you in GD…]
Thank you Fiona Anne @ 12 enjoy your paddle in the sunshine, perfect day for swimming too .
It bothers me that 2d also just works as a straight clue. I’ve always thought that shouldn’t happen.
Took a while to finish this puzzle and could not parse weirdest, I missed out on the ID EST. Weird is one of those words that does not obey the ‘I before E except after C’ rule. Another one is forfeit. Life is full of exceptions to the rule.
Liked LONGBOWS, CALF and PLATH but my fav has to be MAN OF THE CLOTH which amused me. Clan of the moth indeed. Enjoyable puzzle. Thanks to Pierre and E for the fun.
Ben @21: that’s an interesting point. It can often happen with cryptic definitions, for example, that the solver fails to see both possible readings of the clue and goes straight for a reading that could just be a normal definition, and so concludes that it’s not cryptic at all. Alberich on his site gives this example:
It could be covering someone’s wound (7)
for BANDAGE. The setter intends the two readings to be: (a) This could be covering (verb) a wound (noun); and (b) This could be a covering (noun) that someone has wound (verb). But it’s easy to see only one.
As I said @17, I failed to see how NIGERIA was cryptic, and I wasn’t the only one. Does that make it a poor clue? I suppose that’s a matter of opinion. Pierre thought it was rather clever.
The best Everyman for months.
Monkey @24: I agree, it’s the best Everyman for moths. (Oops!)
Essexboy @14: Thanks – I loved your comment, it gave me my second LOL of the puzzle. The first came from SALLY FORTH, which made me laugh all over again when I revisited it today before checking out 225.
Thanks to Everyman and Pierre and cheers all.
Re Jim @23 in &lit clues ONLY the whole clue is the definition, so in a sense they are all weak in that respect. My fave The jungly mass one cleaves defines MACHETE well enough, but is actually M+AC(HET*)E in the break-down. Here we have the CAD using NIGER/ I/ A-.
What Monkey@24 says. A bit more difficult than most Everymen, but worth the effort.
I liked the spoonerism @8d, with the clever misdirection away from the definition. Have you noticed that people who say they don’t like spoonerisms seldom explain why? (And as Pierre’s link explains, moths and butterflies are both lepidopterae, so that’s their ‘clan’.)
Re 13a ON THE SLY, essexboy@13, I though of “alternative truth” as the equivalent. Loved the clue.
I thought 6d PLATH was one of his best ‘primarilies’ for the reasons mentioned by Pierre.
7d SWANSEA, “epistle” cleverly directs the solver away from the zoological pen.
I still question 12a OARED, Ilan Caron@9 notwithstanding. If you put oarlocks on a canoe, isn’t it then a rowboat? I would like to see Everyman paddling a canoe with an oar.
Thanks Everyman for the fun, and Pierre for the excellent blog.
Lord Jim @23: I take your point absolutely. Sorry I’d missed your earlier comment. I think I just prefer it if the clue cannot be taken in a straight way. I’m not someone who admires the surface of clues that much, which I suppose is just a lack of experience.
Ben: No, it’s a matter of taste, not experience. I get great pleasure from a witty and well-constructed surface, whereas Roz, for example, (who is a more skilled and experienced solver than I’ll ever be) doesn’t care a whit about surfaces – it’s all about the puzzle for her. We all come to cryptics in our own way. It would be a boring world if that wasn’t the case.
cellomaniac @27 – spoonerism clues are too often badly done, requiring tortured, clunky mangling of English, and/or dodgy pronunciations/homophones.
This one worked well and, perhaps even more importantly, was also funny. Plus, as you say, there was the added bonus of the neatly misleading surface.
A very good clue. If only more spoonerisms were like this one…
On Spoonerisms, as a child I greatly enjoyed Bingumy and Thob’s “strange language” in Finn Family Moomintroll. I am not convinced that a Spoonerism has to make sense, but if that is a requirement, perhaps setters could refer to Thingumy and Bob instead of Spooner.
Monkey – it doesn’t have to make sense as such, but it’s a lot more enjoyable if it’s a plausible phrase in English. Beyond that, it’s hard to put a finger on exactly what makes one spoonerism more enjoyable than another, but for example, Paul’s recent “sane chore” felt a bit clunky to me (as well as being a dodgy homophone), while “clan of the moth” is very satisfying.
Never heard of “acai”, but it doesn’t seem to have bothered anyone else.
One definitely *paddles* canoes; one does not “oar” them!
I’d like to add a thumbs-up vote for 8 down. Found it impossibly hard, but rolled about laughing when I finally saw it.
Thanks to Everyman and Pierre.
Yes, a much better crossword than last week. I missed the second definition of CALF stupidly, nice clue.
Didn’t like OARED, still can’t properly parse TRANSCRIBED and didn’t twig that the Observer was ‘we’, partly because the crossword over here is in the NZ Herald.
The twist on the Spooner clue was OK other than the suggestion that butterflies are moths. Really?
Happy New Year to all Kiwis (not to exclude others, but it’s a bit late for the UK readership)
We enjoyed this.
Agree that oared is drawing a long bow.
We liked our alternative answer for 14d – break water.
Happy new year to everyone.
I don’t know. For me spoonerism clues only work if both the words alluded to in the clue and the answer are common phrases. Would anyone actually say ‘Clan of the Moth’?? Ah well…