Not a bad example of the new Everyman, with some quite good clues. My criticisms are more often of the ‘Well I wouldn’t do it that way if I was writing a clue for this word’ type than of the ‘This is quite appalling’ type.
Definitions underlined in crimson. Indicators (anagram, homophone, hidden etc.) in italics. Link-words in green.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | REFRACTION |
What makes a rainbow concerning, a little bit? (10)
|
| re fraction — re = concerning, fraction = a little bit — a rainbow is caused by the refraction of light in droplets of water | ||
| 6 | PALM |
Appropriate site to get dates (4)
|
| 2 defs — if you appropriate something, you take it swiftly and unseen, according to Chambers, and a palm tree produces dates, so in a sense is a site to get dates (this seems very odd: perhaps you can do better) | ||
| 9 | MOOT POINTS |
Low temperature beers – getting round in? They’re undecided (4,6)
|
| moo t p(o)ints — moo = low (as does a cow, for example), t = temperature, pints = beers, o = round (a noun, a round thing, not the sort of thing that we use in daily conversation but common in crosswords) | ||
| 10 | MOON |
Drop undergarments; heavenly body (4)
|
| 2 defs | ||
| 12 | LOSING BATTLE |
Login’s with two characters swapped; tablet acting up: it’s doomed to fail (6,6)
|
| Login’s with the two characters g and s swapped; then (tablet)* | ||
| 15 | ETHICAL |
Drunken outburst suppressed by unnamed others: good (7)
|
| et (hic) al. — ‘hic’ is the drunken outburst; the unnamed others are ‘et al.’, something you sometimes see in the authorship of academic publications: Smith et al = Smith and others (et alia/alii/aliae) | ||
| 16 | NAIROBI |
I endlessly exasperate Scotsman, over in African city (7)
|
| (I bor[e] Ian)rev. — I = I, bore = exasperate (I think this is what it is, although they’re not really the same), Ian is the Scotsman | ||
| 17 | EMIRATE |
Webmail regularly dropped price in Dubai? (7)
|
| [w]e[b]m[a]i[l] rate — rate = price | ||
| 19 | BANSHEE |
Cuban sheepishly conceals spirit (7)
|
| Hidden in CuBAN SHEEpishly | ||
| 20 | TITTLE-TATTLE |
Lie about with ale six times? It’s idle gossip (6-6)
|
| (Lie ale t t t t t t)* — the anagram indicator is ‘about’, t = time | ||
| 23 | ICER |
Perhaps writer of Happy Birthday‘s more friendly? Not initially (4)
|
| [n]icer — nicer = more friendly — the definition threw me for ages and this was my last one in: I couldn’t see what an icer had to do with the people who wrote ‘Happy Birthday’ all those years ago — someone who ices a birthday cake may be writing ‘Happy Birthday’ on it | ||
| 24 | PERMISSIVE |
Lenient – or by the letter! (10)
|
| per missive — per = by, missive = letter | ||
| 25 | NUTS |
Lunatic in daze knocked back (4)
|
| (stun)rev. — lunatic = nuts (we must read lunatic as an adjective), daze = stun | ||
| 26 | STATISTICS |
Immediately, jerks concealing bias regularly in facts and figures (10)
|
| stat. ([b]i[a]s) tics — stat. is an abbreviation for statim (at once), tics = jerks | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ROME |
Wander around noisily in European capital (4)
|
| “roam” — ‘noisily’ tells us that it’s a homophone | ||
| 2 | FOOT |
Part of poem where ‘legend’ is seen in two parts? (4)
|
| legend in two parts is leg end, and the end of one’s leg is the foot | ||
| 3 | APPROACHABLE |
‘Warm and cooked.’ ‘A crab apple. Oh!’ (12)
|
| *(A crab apple Oh) — this rather cries out ‘anagram’ but perhaps that doesn’t matter all that much | ||
| 4 | TRIVIAL |
Rival IT firm? Not so small (7)
|
| (Rival IT)* — a rather odd/imaginative anagram indicator: if something is ‘firm? Not so’ then it’s wobbly | ||
| 5 | OCTAGON |
Autumn month, November, enthralling America: go figure (7)
|
| Oct. (A go) N — an octagon is a figure, October (abbreviated Oct.) is the Autumn month, A = America, go = go, N = November (NATO phonetic alphabet) | ||
| 7 | APOSTROPHE |
Primarily adaptable punctuation: one stroke to represent omission / possession (howsoever erroneously!) (10)
|
| The first letters clue that is a regular part of the modern Everyman — good as usual, although I can’t see why ‘howsoever’ was used when ‘however’ would have done, indeed would have been better in my opinion | ||
| 8 | MONTEVIDEO |
WW2 general caught on tape in Uruguayan port (10)
|
| “Monty” video — Montgomery, known widely as Monty, is the WW2 general, and the homophone is indicated by ‘caught’, video = tape | ||
| 11 | RATIONALISES |
Cuts down on waste with unfortunate realisations (12)
|
| *(realisations) — as I’ve said before, I’m not that keen on ‘with’ as a link-word; you don’t see it in the best places | ||
| 13 | PEDESTRIAN |
Banal, affected pedantries (10)
|
| *(pedantries) — a complete anagram next to a complete anagram, less than elegant | ||
| 14 | THRIFTIEST |
Extremely into economy, taking FT in 30s, wonky (10)
|
| FT in (thirties)* — some would say that this an indirect anagram, since we have to work out that thirties = 30s; they say that one should always have the actual letters which have to be jumbled, but this is borderline I think | ||
| 18 | ENTREAT |
Appeal to characters in Jobcentre attractively (7)
|
| Hidden in JobcENTRE ATtractively | ||
| 19 | BATH MAT |
Bravo that Ma knitted rectangle of fabric? (4,3)
|
| B (that Ma)* — B = Bravo (NATO alphabet again) | ||
| 21 | KIWI |
Flightless bird that’s edible and its flesh is green (4)
|
| 2 defs — a kiwi is a flightless bird, a kiwifruit (also known in some places as a kiwi) is edible and it has green flesh | ||
| 22 | LEES |
Everyman’s beginning to tuck into the French wines’ worst parts (4)
|
| le(E[veryman])s — les = ‘the’ (French) — the lees of a bottle of wine are the gritty bits at the bottom of the bottle, deposits of dead yeast or residual yeast and other particles (that was new to me) — this is the self-referring clue that we always see in the Everyman crossword, which is usually ‘I’ or ‘me’ |
An alternative parsing of 2d has “two parts” referring to both feet, which explains the singular “part” in the definition and its plural in the clue.
Another good puzzle. I got about two-thirds at my first attempt on Sunday am before going out. After coming back got all but one of the rest which I finally got yesterday.
Loved ETHICAL which made me laugh. Also liked MOOT POINTS, STATISTICS and ICER (my LOI too)
Thanks Everyman and John
The on-line Azed has the solution but not the puzzle!
Thanks John.
I liked this. Chuckles for APOSTROPHE, ICER, ETHICAL and PERMISSIVE
And the rhyming pair is LOSING BATTLE and TITTLE-TATTLE.
Both the online Azed and the Pressreader version have the solution of a previous puzzle but not today’s grid! The grid on the online front screen is correct. I’ve managed to put together a usable version with various image manipulators, but I don’t run a website, and this site does not allow either attachment (the file is rtf, for safety) or copied images in posts.
Reading the blog, got to icer and thought, that’s pretty cute but I don’t remember it. Reopened the puzzle and sure enough there was i_er …. dim! Agree, John, that 30 = thirty is ok; others do it, The Rev did it, no quibbles here. Thanks both.
I really enjoyed this Everyman; one of the recent best. Some great surfaces esp. Appropriate site to get dates. My favourite though was ICER after searching the writer of the most famous ditty. I thought firm? Not so was a magnificent anagram indicator, especially given the anagram itself was a giveaway so the whole fun of the clue was working out what the setter was asking for.
Shameful admission was failing to parse KIWI (and I used to work for Zespri). As a pitiful defence, to avoid confusion over here we never refer to the fruit without the “fruit”.
Thanks John (though I disagree with almost all your gripes) and to Everyman.
Thanks for the blog , I thought this one was really good. Paul@7 has stolen exactly what I wanted to say about PALM, ICER and TRIVIAL which is very original. I will add ETHICAL for the drunken outburst, FIONA ANNE has beaten me to this and PDM@4 , plus the rhyming pair.
I will have to start posting before my swim.
{ I hope the Azed is correct in my newspaper , the clues anyway, do not mind if the grid is wrong. ]
Forgot to say that 14D deserves a severe Paddington stare.
Sorry to steal your thunder Roz. Now surely its its not too much to ask a brain the size of a planet (based on much evidence from this site) to write out the letters of 30. Enjoy your swim and save that Paddington stare for your IT team tomorrow.
30s can be thirtys, three o s, and many other things. I never write out the letters of an anagram , it is an admission of defeat. The letters should be visible in the clue.
If the Everyman is an introduction to cryptics and other setters are using digits and words interchangeably, wouldn’t Everyman not be remiss if they didn’t introduce that cluing method? Here it was a bit tricksier as the anagram fodder was THIRTIES from 30s. It took me a while to see ICER too, but I have iced words on cakes so it did click eventually.
Shanne@12, the issue is indirect anagrams . Unfortunately there seems to be a range of definitions for this term. I consider an indirect anagram to be where only a synonym of the anagrist is provided and I agree that is unfair. In this case though THIRTIES is just the spelling of 30s, not a synonym.
Paul, Tutukaka@7. Agree about 6A. Last one to parse and appropriate face palm when I got it..
LOL re your admission about KIWI, particularly given where you worked. The surface was amusing, but we across the Tasman also say kiwifruit. Wiki says that it’s often shortened in North America and Continental Europe to kiwi.
But across our ditch Kiwi just means a New Zealander, or a sports player from NZ, and, occasionally, your famous bird.
I see Woolworths here has a punnet of the smaller variety as kiwiberry, a combination no doubt of kiwifruit and its other name, Chinese gooseberry. Very clever. Love kiwifruit, very versatile and good for you!
[paddymelon, glad you enjoyed my blunder and the produce. The kiwiberry (marketing term) is a fairly recent NZ cultivar of the relative actinidia arguta, also endemic to China.]
A nice puzzle and blog. My totally subjective view on borderline indirect anagrams is that if I can get it reasonably quickly, then it’s fair. So I’m fine with THRIFTIEST which went in straight away. I wonder if Everyman considered “newspaper in thirties wonky”, which would have been harder in my view, though less indirect.
Roz @11 I think the 30/thirty ship has long since sailed and Paddington will be staring at it forlornly as it disappears over the horizon 🙂
If it helps, I’ve made a reasonable attempt to put today’s Azed in a useable version at http://www.lucidity.ltd.uk/Azed%202611.pdf
Good to see a (cunningly disguised) namecheck for ROBI of this parish, as well as another shout-out to the NZ contingent, after MOA a few weeks ago.
Lots to like here, thanks E & J.
Liked THRIFTIEST.
I did not parse 20ac, 6ac.
New: STAT = immediately (for 26ac).
Thanks, both.
Very much as blogged, with some of the definitions, or definitions of clue parts, really off the scale for me. I almost quite liked 9 Across, until I got to… yes, the definition!
Talk about losing battle, but isn’t it the compiler who’s supposed to hoist the white flag? Coming here was my only recourse for some of this, I regret to say, and I don’t think it’s all down to my substandard solving. So, many thanks for your blog, John!
I never say that indirect anagrams are “wrong” or “unfair” but the setter should be able to avoid them, see Petert @16. They should always be pointed out and receive the minimum of a frown with the worst examples getting a tut tut. This one was slightly worse than usual.
[ The Azed grid is wrong in the paper but is pretty easy to construct, the person in charge of the layout deserves the hardest of Paddington stares. When this happened before they needlessly printed the same clues the week after with the correct grid. Whoever made that decision should have been locked in a room with a bottle of whisky and a revolver, ]
eb@19; and I didn’t even notice the (nai)ROBI!
I was fairly relaxed about having to spell out 30s for fodder, but I wasn’t that impressed with an indirect anagrind (firm, not so), if that was what was intended.
LOI was (n)ICER, which needed a bit of lateral thought.
Thanks Everyman and John.
Is the objection to indirect anagrams that they are two cryptic?
Thanks Everyman and John for the excellent puzzle and blog.
The objection is that they are (in general) a synonym for the anagrist. As a result an extra cryptic operation is introduced (guessing the synonym) before the anagram can be solved, and that is seen as poor technically, unfair, and an easy way to improve the surface. Today’s is, as John says, borderline, as we would be forced to admit that 30s=thirties is eminently guessable, though I can’t see how using the numbers improves anything.
There was recently some ranting as to indirectness in connection with a clue of mine that mixed single-letter indication with anagrist. FYI, and FWIW, this is deemed okay in The Times, but not in the DT: we can still mix them in @ DT, but they must be inserted via containment inicators, etc, so as to be passed by the management. In other papers AFAIK I am allowed to anagram in the Times stylee.
Well as we had already seen ‘six times’ = TTTTTT, also indirect but no-one moaned about it, why could not 30s have been OOO? With this setter just about anything goes, or so it would seem, so perhaps in light of that it IS unfair here.
Cellomaniac@26 I do not actually object, I just frown at them . Personally I like to see the actual LETTERS in the clue so I can do the anagram in my head . I do not mind standard first letter abbreviations or things like street=ST or helium=HE , I do frown at one=A or I and things like copper=CU which is what started all this discussion on here a few months back.
I’m waiting for Paul to clue INDIRECT ANAGRAM with an indirect anagram and a definition like that’s frowned upon here.
If only Margana could be some distant cousin to an Arthurian sorceress.
[In 1600, alien messed with Indian queen on Taj Mahal site – that’s frowned upon here! (8,7)]
I included a homophone/double meaning in my comment@26 about indirect anagrams – since no one seemed to notice, I assume it was unfair. 😉
Two. I didn’t notice it at first. But then …
paul b@31 and essexboy@32 – nice ones!
Provoked resistance (8,7)
Roz @36 – very neat! (for someone with no imagination 😉 )
I enjoyed this, ETHICAL was my LOI
[ MrEssexboy @ 37 once again I am being misquoted or at least partially quoted , a bit like Peter Mandelson who said – We are intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich, AS LONG AS THEY PAY THEIR TAXES ]
Intriguing to see the dates on the comments given we are now mid aug it used to only about a month behind
Surprised no one commented on bath mat I would hv thought a rectangular fabric a totally inadequate description
Agree w the comments on 30s it would be fair to spell it out
I actually got icer quite easily once I discovered the actual authors of the song were not the answer
I missed foot so that was LOI cos I gave up with one to go
Didn’t get the HIC of ethical – maybe not a Kiwi term or maybe we and our friends are maturing and avoid such behaviour.
Nice puzzle – liked moot points.
Yes, this wasn’t bad other than some rather bonkers surfaces. 30s for Thirties was pretty gettable so I don’t think unfair. Never heard of a kiwifruit being referred to as a kiwi, which is either a bird or a New Zealander.
Alan and Cath – you obviously never read Andy Capp.