The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3952.
We have the rhyming pair at 7D and 8D, the ‘primarily’ clue at 3D, the amusing self-reference at 15A and the (somewhat unexpected) film at 16D. Apart from a very few minor niggles, all’s well in the Everyman world.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CREDENTIALS |
Centralised arrangement for employment qualifications (11)
|
| An anagram (‘arrangement’) of ‘centralised’. | ||
| 9 | OARSMEN |
Ransome’s written about a group in a boat (7)
|
| An anagram (‘written about’) of ‘Ransome’. | ||
| 10 | TRAVAIL |
Revolutionary painting? Very upset: it’s hard work (7)
|
| A charade of TRA, a reversal (‘revolutionary’) of ART (‘painting’) plus V (‘very’) plus AIL (‘upset’). | ||
| 11 | OMITS |
Leaves out some whom I.T. suggests (5)
|
| A hidden answer (‘some’) in ‘whOM I.T. Suggests. | ||
| 12 | FLAMINGO |
Blasted duck – or beautiful bird (8)
|
| A charade of FLAMING (‘blasted’) plus O (zero, ‘duck’). | ||
| 14 | UNAMERICAN |
United appoint endlessly wealthy Australian dietician, ultimately opposed to apple pie? (10)
|
| A charade of U (‘united’) plus NAME (‘appoint’) plus RIC[h] (‘wealthy’) minus its last letter (‘endlessly’) plus A (‘Australian’) plus N (‘dieticiaN ultimately’). | ||
| 15 | IDEA |
Everyman finally did change a lightbulb – in a manner of speaking (4)
|
| A charade of I (‘Everyman’) plus D E, the last letters (‘finally’) of ‘diD changE’ plus ‘a’. | ||
| 17 | BUDS |
Friends: they’ll give you flowers (4)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 19 | SCREECH OWL |
Mountain rock by cape; piercing yell – who’s making it? (7,3)
|
| A charade of SCREE (‘mountain rock’) plus C (‘cape’) plus HOWL (‘piercing yell’). | ||
| 21 | TOMAHAWK |
Male bird of prey one captured with weapon (8)
|
| An envelope (‘captured’) of A (‘one’) in TOM (‘male’) plus HAWK (‘bird of prey’). | ||
| 23 | REPOT |
Provide new container for flipping drunkard (5)
|
| A reversal (‘flipping’) of TOPER (‘drunkard’). | ||
| 25 | ECUADOR |
Land in trouble tucking into dodgy cure (7)
|
| An envelope (‘tucking into’) of ADO (‘trouble’) in ECUR, an anagram (‘dodgy’) of ‘cure’. | ||
| 26 | DEAD-EYE |
No longer working, detective, unerring marksman (4-3)
|
| A charade of DEAD (‘no longer working’) plus EYE (private of that kind, ‘detective’). | ||
| 27 | BESTSELLERS |
Blockbusting books from footballer and comedian (11)
|
| A charade of BEST (‘footballer’, George being the most famous) plus SELLERS (Peter, ‘comedian’). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CORSICA |
I’m taken aback and largely ill on a French island (7)
|
| A charade of COR (‘I’m taken aback’) plus SIC[k] (‘ill’) minus its last letter (‘largely’) plus ‘a’. | ||
| 2 | ENMESHED |
Needs hem altering, being tangled up (8)
|
| An anagram (‘altering’) of ‘needs hem’. | ||
| 3 | ERNE |
Eagle – rather nautical eagle, primarily? (4)
|
| First letters (‘primarily’) of ‘Eangle Rather Nautical Eagle’, with an &lit definition – that is, the entire clue functions as definition as well as wordplay. | ||
| 4 | TITILLATED |
Tantalised by a little bird, I will have dined on starter of duck (10)
|
| A charade of TIT (‘a little bird’) plus I’LL (‘I will’) plus ATE (‘dined’) plus D (‘starter of Duck’). | ||
| 5 | ALARM |
Rattle and bell, often (5)
|
| I suppose one would call this a double definition. | ||
| 6 | STAINED |
A little barista in Edinburgh is covered in blotches (7)
|
| A hidden answer (‘a little’) in ‘bariSTA IN EDinburgh’. | ||
| 7 | COCONUT BUTTER |
Unhealthy cornet cut out, assuming bachelor’s wanting vegan fare (7,6)
|
| An envelope (‘assuming’) of B (‘bachelor’) in COCONUTUTTER, an anagram (‘unhealthy?) of ‘cornet cut out’. ‘Wanting’ as a link word has been used by Everyman before, and I still do not like it. | ||
| 8 | ALL OF A FLUTTER |
Regrettably, a tour fell flat making you nervous (3,2,1,7)
|
| An anagram (‘regrettably’?) of ‘a tour fell flat’. | ||
| 13 | MINCE WORDS |
Minister having disagreement about church to speak with delicacy (5,5)
|
| An envelope (‘about’) of CE (‘Church’ of England) in MIN (‘minister’) plus WORDS (‘disagreement’). | ||
| 16 | SCARFACE |
Protection from wind given to top pilot in film (8)
|
| A charade of SCARF (‘protection from wind’) plus ACE (‘top pilot’). Decidedly misleading. | ||
| 18 | DIM BULB |
Chump and onion that’s hard to see? (3,4)
|
| Definition and literal interpretation. | ||
| 20 | ORPHEUS |
Shore up revival for legendary musician (7)
|
| An anagram (‘revival’) of ‘shore up’. | ||
| 22 | HIDES |
Doesn’t show animals’ skin (5)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 24 | IDOL |
Superstar’s out of work, we’re told (4)
|
| Sounds like (‘we’re told’) IDLE (‘out of work’). |
Enjoyed this and managed to get through it quite quickly until my last two. For 24d I knew I was looking for a word meaning “out of work” that sounded like a word meaning Superstar but it took me ages. I don’t really think of an IDOL being a super star although I can see that it could be.
Anyway once I had that I finished with my LOI being DEAD-EYE which is a term I haven’t heard before (I had the eye early on – just couldn’t think of the first word – so obvious when I got it.)
Liked MINCE WORDS, SCREECH OWL, UNAMERICAN, BESTSELLERS
Thanks Everyman and PeterO
I never look for the pairs going through, but this time that may have helped with my LOI COCONUT BUTTER. As Peter O indicated, the anagrind ‘unhealthy’ was a bit unusual, and there’s that ‘wanting’ again. Maybe I was the DIM BULB (didn’t know the expression).
Favourites for the surfaces and chuckles were FLAMINGO, IDEA, MINCE WORDS, ORPHEUS.
Thanks E and P.
Also noticed that we have Erne, flamingo, tit, owl, hawk – “all of a flutter”!
Thanks to Everyman and PeterO.
Good spot Jay. I never look for a theme from Everyman. Is this a first? I parsed DIM BULB differently, but I think PeterO’s is correct. Particularly liked the UNAMERICAN definition.
Thanks PeterO & Everyman.
Thanks for the blog, Jay has beaten me to the bird link, I have them all circled , duck is in a couple of clues. Swallows and Amazons ???? too tenuous.
Not heard of COCONUT BUTTER but it was nicely clued, is it as wonderful as cocoa butter?
Fiona Anne and PDM have good lists, I will add SCARFACE.
I thought this was really good overall.
Paul@4 , a long time ago there would sometimes be a Christmas theme.
I remember that Roz, but in those days I solved in the paper like you and it was closer to Easter by the time it appeared in the NZ Herald.
I thought OARSMEN was really excellent, with such a smooth surface, making me think immediately of Swallows and Amazons (snap, Roz). The rest was pretty good too. Thanks, Everyman and PeterO.
I found this quite tough: I took longest on the lower half.
I did not parse 5d ALARM.
Thanks, both.
Paui@6 now you mention Easter I do recall an Easter theme once , no doubt you got that in the middle of winter. Yesterday I actually saw the time and season difference for NZ . Our Sprog3 surprisingly came round for breakfast but it was all a ruse so he could watch the rugby with my lesser half. I was told not to mention the rugby so I won’t.
Yes well spotted, Jay.
I was hi jacked by 16d, trying to connect Tom Cruise and Top Gun. It was my last one in. I was happy to have completed another Everyman. This week’s will no doubt be another challenge! I wonder how other beginners are faring? Thanks.
[Thanks for that Roz. I’m celebrating my Liverpool-Irish heritage.}
Pierre would have been in his element with this one. I agree with others’ favourites, plus I liked the combination of the lightbulb/dim bulb.
‘Dim’ featured in last week’s puzzle – it had to be ‘flipped’ to give the MID in AMID. Not sure if that’s enough to make it this week’s ‘continuity clue’ (there’s definitely one for next week though! – lips sealed till then)
Thanks Everyman and PeterO.
eb@12 a little bird tells me you’re right.
Are the continuity clues forming discrete pairs or a continuous overlapping sequence ? Last week we had humanities matching up with the week before. This one and today’s puzzle have a definite pair.
Marie@10 , 16D was the most misleading one of the puzzle, a very good clue. I suspect you will enjoy the puzzle today as well, we seem to be in a good run.
[Roz @14, we’ve had at least one overlap (i.e. a week in which we had Part 2 of one pair, and Part 1 of the next):
3947 STEWARD (“flight attendant”)
3948 AIR HOSTESS (“former attendant”)
3948 RAINBOW (“seven colours”)
3949 REFRACTION (“what makes a rainbow”)
3950 SOCIAL SCIENCES (“subjects such as history”)
3951 HUMANITIES (“history etc”)
3952 ???
3953 ??? 😉
Then there’s the rather tenuous AMID/DIM link between 3951 and 3952. Maybe there’s also a 3949/3950 linked pair I haven’t spotted? ]
Nice and straightforward. TOMAHAWK was my favourite.
I recall this as relatively straightforward and enjoyable. I remembered that one of Everyman’s trademarks is the rhyming long downs, and that helped me get ALL OF A FLUTTER much more quickly than I otherwise might have. And I do like finding long words with direct anagrams and so was pleased with centralised / CREDENTIALS.
At first I thought no one had noticed the Arthur Ransome connection, but Roz@5 disabused me.
MINCE WORDS is one of those “negative only” expressions, I think. You might find “I won’t mince words,” but not “I’ll mince words.”
Thanks to Everyman and PeterO.
Marie@10…well, was another DNF for me (4 left) but somewhat relieved to realize I would have got neither SCARFACE nor ECUADOR…which shows what a total beginner I am : ) thanks all for your help…am loving the rhyming pairs/overlaps/themes which I’ve started to look
out for and which actually help me now (paddymelon@2) Happy Sunday : )
Good research MrEssexboy @ 15, I will start to look every week, the new blog and the new puzzle that day. Your dim is somewhat speculative I feel.
I think I can just about contort 7dn in such a way that “wanting” makes sense. COCONUT BUTTER, assuming B[achelor] is wanting, becomes COCONUTUTTER, which is an anagram (indicated by “unhealthy”) of the fodder. That is, it’s (answer – B) gives fodder, rather than (fodder + B) gives answer.
I’m not claiming it’s terribly elegant.
Nice try Ted. The assuming is a container indicator however, at least as far as I can see, as it can mean ‘to adopt’. Everyman’s fave link words at the moment seem to be wanting and needing followed immediately by the definition, whereas for some people it’s the definition that ‘needs’ or ‘wants’ some wordplay.
Another easy one with a few LOI moments. Glad it wasn’t just me who found 16d delightfully deceptive – it was my last one in. I was expecting to read grumbles in the blog about 22d but I guess the Herald introduced a typo with animal’s instead of animals’.
Had to use a wildcard dictionary to get “Scarface”. Then kicked
myself, because in retrospect it was obvious.
It seems to me that “Rattle and bell, often” can be parsed as
rattle = alarm + “alarm” is often (though not always) succeeded by “bell” (or put another way, alarms are often — though not always — in the form of bells).
Enjoyable puzzle. Thanks to Everyman and PeterO.
P.S. Can’t resist mentioning that last night, in the only spectator sport that’s worth watching, the Swans (a bit unexpectedly) beat Melbourne in a qualifying final; 91 to 69. Yayyyyyy!!!
Unlike most 16d was one of our first words- Great clue! Also really liked Unamerican and Mince Words. Great crossword, thanks Everyman.
Liked this a lot. Favourite was bestsellers.
Was surprised there was no grumbles over 4d ‘I’ll ate’ does not make grammatical sense, and thought it was clunky. Overall enjoyed this and did better in the end. Liked Bestsellers, Flamingo best
Nice puzzle. Liked scarface but struggled with unamerican.
Did this online as our Herald arrived incomplete. On looking for it online saw we are nearly two months behind. That seems rather ridiculous.
DNF, got bored to be honest so SW corner incomplete but doubt if I’d have got many of them anyway. Wrong wavelength.
Don’t understand Unamerican.
Demons supporter hurting Rolf, this week’s puzzle very enjoyable and succesful unlike the end to Friday’s game.