The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3960.
Some tricky clues here – 15A and particularly 20A held me up. Otherwise, the Everyman trademarks are in evidence.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DISCONSOLATE |
Consolidates, unusually low (12)
|
| An anagram (‘unusually’) of ‘consolidates’. | ||
| 10 | ATTUNES |
Batty, naked, one in France getting sun acclimatizes (7)
|
| A charade of ‘[b]att[y]’ minus its outer letters (‘naked’) plus UNE (‘one in France’) plus S (‘sun’). | ||
| 11 | TRIGGER |
Pooh’s friend Rabbit’s beginning to intervene and provoke (7)
|
| An envelope (‘to intervene’) of R (‘Rabbit’s beginning’) in TIGGER (‘Pooh’s friend’). | ||
| 12 | LARGE |
Considerable part of molecular genetics (5)
|
| A hidden answer (‘part of’) in ‘molecuLAR GEnetics’. | ||
| 13 | HANGER-ON |
Dependent sweetheart suppressing fury (6-2)
|
| An envelope (‘suppressing’) of ANGER (‘fury’) in HON (‘sweetheart’). | ||
| 15 | HOMOPHONES |
A pair such as the solver and a sheep? (10)
|
| YOU (‘the solver’) and EWE (‘a sheep’) are such. | ||
| 16 | NEON |
Natural element, odourless and noble, primarily? (4)
|
| First letters (‘primarily’) of ‘Natural Element Odourless and Noble’ | ||
| 18 | VIAL |
Temperature dropped in important medicine bottle (4)
|
| A subtraction: VI[t]AL (‘important’) minus the T (‘temperature dropped’). | ||
| 20 | CLOUDINESS |
Enormous pleasure boat navy’s left in condition of poor visibility (10)
|
| A charade of CLOUD [n]INE (‘enormous pleasure’) minus an N (‘navy’s left’) plus SS (steamship, ‘boat’). | ||
| 22 | EL DORADO |
Adore old resort, fabulous place (2,6)
|
| An anagram (‘re-sort’) of ‘adore old’. | ||
| 24 | SIEGE |
Say earl is retreating seeing military blockade (5)
|
| A reversal (‘retreating’) of EG (‘say’) plus E (‘earl’) plus ‘is’. | ||
| 26 | REEKING |
Stinking king, endeavouring to abandon son (7)
|
| A charade of R (rex, ‘king’) plus [s]EEKING (‘endeavouring’) minus the S (‘to abandon son’). | ||
| 27 | CONQUER |
Rise above horse chestnut, we’re told (7)
|
| Sounds like (‘we’re told’) CONKER (the nut of the ‘horse chestnut’). | ||
| 28 | SEAMSTRESSES |
Needleworkers with southeastern American accents (12)
|
| A charade of SE (‘southeastern’) plus AM (‘American’) plus STRESSES (‘accents’). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | INTERIM |
Caretaker in Bury on WhatsApp? (7)
|
| A charade of INTER (‘bury’) plus IM (instant messaging, ‘WhatsApp’). | ||
| 3 | CONTEMPT |
Right-wing politician to invite scorn (8)
|
| A charade of CON (‘right-wing politician’) plus TEMPT (‘invite’). | ||
| 4 | NOSY |
Meddlesome Everyman too bumptious and fussy in the end (4)
|
| Last letters (‘in the end’) of ‘EverymaN toO bumptiouS and fussY. As in 16A, the ‘and’ does not contribute. | ||
| 5 | OUTRAGEOUS |
New Age, tortuous, time wasted: intolerable! (10)
|
| An anagram (‘new’) of ‘age [t]ortuous’ minus a T (‘time wasted’). | ||
| 6 | APING |
Copying what a microwave might produce (5)
|
| A microwave might give A PING when the cooking is done. | ||
| 7 | EN GARDE |
Agitated, enraged swordsman’s call (2,5)
|
| An anagram (‘agitated’) of ‘enraged’. | ||
| 8 | WALLS HAVE EARS |
Everyone getting trim in sports: is anyone listening? (5,4,4)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of ALL (‘everyone’) plus SHAVE (‘trim’) in WEARS (‘sports’). | ||
| 9 | PRUNING SHEARS |
What could be sharp, ensuring reshaping? (7,6)
|
| An anagram (‘reshaping’) of ‘sharp ensuring’, with an extended definition. | ||
| 14 | BOILED EGGS |
According to Spooner, Holmes’ creator pleads for simple culinary fare (6,4)
|
| A Spoonerism which relies on treating the D as belonging with EGGS, to be swapped with the B: DOYLE BEGS. | ||
| 17 | DISSENTS |
Fussy dustiness: no university objects (8)
|
| An anagram (‘fussy’) of ‘d[u]stiness’ minus the U (‘no university’). | ||
| 19 | ADDRESS |
Lecture that might be a little flat (7)
|
| Double definition, the second somewhat cryptic. | ||
| 21 | EXECUTE |
Carry out – take out, officially (7)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 23 | RAITA |
Self-portrait ‘accidentally’ includes healthy foodstuff (5)
|
| A hidden answer (‘includes’) in ‘self-portRAIT Accidentally’. | ||
| 25 | SCAR |
Cliff and Mark left following injury (4)
|
| Double definition. |
Yes, needed help to get 15, then groaned sheepishly at you/ewe, and had no idea how cloudiness parsed till this minute. So, my recent indifferent form continues [and the Freo Dockers lost their quarter final and are out, teary emoji]. Thanks PnE.
Enjoyed this and like last week’s found it easier than the previous two weeks. But did not parse CLOUDINESS
HOMOPHONES made me laugh when I got it. Also liked APING, BOILED EGG, WALLS HAVE EARS
Thanks Everyman and PeterO
Took me a while to get going but it all fell out at the second sitting. Groaned, in a good way, at 6D. I also failed to parse 20A and it was my last in when I was sure it couldn’t be anything else. Overall an enjoyable Everyman.
Thank you Peter O, needed your help with CLOUDINESS. Should ”healthy” be included in the def for RAITA?
Didn’t get the ‘temperature dropped” in VIAL. Was looking for a word with a ”c” for ”h” substitution.
OUTRAGEOUS a favourite. Thought the other ”t” deletion, ”time wasted”, was very apt for the surface.
APING, ADDRESS and BOILED EGGS all good fun.
paddymelon@4
Agree with you on the def for RAITA. Otherwise, ‘healthy’ has no role.
Liked HOMOPHONES, CLOUDINESS, PRUNING SHEARS and BOILED EGG quite a lot.
Fun crossword, though I found this tricky, eventually needing my Nephew’s help (who I was “teaching”) to solve HOMOPHONES and parse CLOUDINESS. They were my favourites.
Thanks PeterO and Everyman.
Thanks for the blog, I thought this had a lot of very neat clues. My top three, sharing with Paul and KVA and PDM and Fiona Anne, were HOMOPHONES , CLOUDINESS and APING which is almost a reverse Gossard,
Never heard of WhatsApp or IM but the answer was very easy. Dare I mention the Spoonerism ? For once it does not really work for me, I seem to have an extra syllable saying it one way.
We await our eagle-eyed contributors for the follow-on clue which has escaped me completely.
This one was a lot of fun! Even after solving I still couldn’t parse the clues for CLOUDINESS, REEKING, or SCAR; many thanks, PeterO, for the explanations. I never knew scar could refer to a protruding rock, which meant the double definition was lost on me. The long downs on the sides were clued quite cleverly, and I loved SEAMSTRESSES, especially as that word reminds me of Terry Pratchett. I also have a soft spot for the spoonerisms. Cheers, Everyman.
Roz@7. I find the Spoonerism works if the word break is ignored, or repositioned.
DOYLE BEGS> BOYLE DEGS> BOIL DEGS> BOILED EGGS
I didn’t parse CLOUDINESS, and reading the blog, I’m not surprised.
I saw a possible EN GARDE this week and EN SUITE the week before as follow on pairs, but wasn’t sure. And/or PHONE BOXES and HOMOPHONES
Thanks PDM , for me going from BOIL DEGS to BOILED EGGS introduces a sort of half syllable. I am not really that bothered, like homophones if it sort of works for the clue it is fair enough.
Shanne@ 10 both of your ideas work for me, I did not spot either.
What I couldn’t say last week was that the TRACK SUITS, EN SUITE sequence looks more plausible in the light of EN GARDE this week.
I can’t do better than than Shane and Petert in terms on follow-ons. Well spotted.
I was minded last week to look for the derivation of the phrase ON CLOUD NINE. The ODE gives the explanation as referring to “a ten-part system of classification of clouds in which “nine” was next to the highest”. Odd then that we don’t say “on cloud ten”. I suppose being on cloud “nine” allows the for possibility of an even greater state of happiness!
Re follow-ons, there’s also NINE from last week, and ‘Cloud Nine’ in the wordplay for 20ac this week. Maybe more tenuous than the suggestions above, but I like it because I like enormous pleasure.
[Jay @13, thanks for the derivation. I’ve always thought it curious that Clouds 1 to 8 don’t quite make the grade. In a similar vein, I sometimes wonder why the eleventh of never is not considered sufficiently distant, or if the Proclaimers could have called it a day after 490 miles, or if nuclear apocalypse could have been averted if Nena only had 98 balloons. My favourite musings on the subject come from Russell Thompkins Jr of the Stylistics, who regales his girlfriend with promises of what lies in store for her if he had 7000, then 50 000, then 100 000 dollars. But… 😢 (teary emoji for ginf) ]
Like pdm @9 I tend to say BOILED EGGS as ‘boildeggs’ (I clearly slur my words more than Roz), so it works for me. I would suggest that Spoonerisms, as attributed to the Rev, are all about sounds, and mix-ups between sounds, rather than the written word, so we don’t need to be too respectful of word boundaries.
Thanks E and P.
I wonder if CLOUD NINE became popular because of the George Harrison album or even the earlier Temptations album. This also included ” I heard it through the grapevine” which reminds me of my favourite TV advert for the Marvin Gaye version.
I did not parse 20ac CLOUDINESS.
Liked 15ac HOMOPHONES, WALLS HAVE EARS (loi).
Thanks, both.
[ MrEssexboy , your Azed clues today a rather simple 13AC and rather tricky 20AC and 15D ]
[Thanks eb @14, How do you that one, with the actual ?… wait, it popped up on the suggest bar, so let’ see … ]
[No, no luck ? ]
Beaten by instant messaging & HOMOPHONES. Thanks for explanations
Good puzzle.
[Thanks Roz @17, I’ll take a look]
[ginf @18, it’s a bit of a faff, but you can do it by typing 😢 followed (without a gap) by a semicolon. See here for a whole world of emotico-possibilities.]
😢
😁:
128513
Sorry, I’ll stop now and have a Shiraz 🙂
[EB@21 yesterday in the Guardian main paper there was a long article about the Magic Roundabout. They are remaking it but it was mainly about the French original and the UK adaptation . ]
[Roz @26 – thank you!! Yes, it’s here, for those interested.]
[ginf: 🙂 🍷 ]
I seem to remember HOMOPHONES foxed me last week, as the definition appeared to be calling for the singular. Some odd indicators here and there, such as we do get with new Everyman, but everything else sort of slid in okay.
U+1F377
Can anyone explain why 8 & 9 are highlighted in the grid please? Apologies if I’ve missed the explanation.
Bill W@30. They’re Everyman’s signature rhyming pair.
Thank you paddymelon@31.
Completed but didn’t manage to parse Homophones (drat) or Cloudiness (ugh) or the IM bit of Interim.
Liked Aping.
Everyman seems to have been on a better run recently, keep it up son.
This was a goodie but like most others did not parse Cloudiness. Favourites were Aping, Address, Homophones. Thanks all!
Lots of fun to be had with this puzzle. Barrie, I’m not sure that we’ve established how Everyman identifies or their personal pronouns, but the Dad joke at 6d is a fair indication ?.
? should have been 😉
Some good clues but I seem to remember ‘aping’ being on this crossword previously, quite some time ago.
Some good clues but I seem to remember ‘aping’ being on this crossword previously, quite some time ago.
Like others I didn’t get “IM” == “instant messaging” (the answer was obvious but, so it didn’t matter). And likewise could not parse “cloudiness”. Needed a wildcard dictionary to get “homophones” and then simultaneously kicked myself and rolled around on the floor, laughing. This was my favourite clue.
Great puzzle. Thanks to Everyman, and to PeterO for the explanations (particularly of “cloudiness” and “nosy”).