Everyman 3,965

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Everyman sets him/herself several tasks over and above those of the usual setter of a cryptic: the self-referential clue, the first letters clue, the rhyming answers (like BAKEWELL TART and CROSS MY HEART) and no doubt others and almost always does pretty well at this. The standard of the actual clues is the main thing, and they are sound so far as I can see. One or two of the surfaces are a bit lame, though — for example ‘nag a swimmer’ — what does that mean beyond the obvious?

Definitions underlined, in crimson. Indicators (anagrams, homophones, reversal, hidden, etc.) in italics. Link-words in green. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*

 

ACROSS
1 RELUCTANCE
Cleaner cut out unwillingness (10)
(Cleaner cut)*
6 CARP
Nag a swimmer (4)
2 defs
9 DOMINICANS
Monks party with pint-sized beers? (10)
do minicans — do = party, we are being encouraged to think of minicans as small cans of beer, pint-sized beers (pint? more like a quarter of a pint) — pedants will notice that it doesn’t say Monks’, which perhaps grammatically it should but which would confuse the definition
10 MERE
Everyman rues regularly being simple (4)
me r[u]e[s] — me = Everyman, the usual self-referential clue
11 BAKEWELL TART
Proficiently cook pungent almondy dessert (8,4)
bake well tart — bake well = proficiently cook, tart = pungent (they don’t seem to be quite the same, but in the sense ‘a pungent/tart remark’ I suppose it’s OK)
15 TOLSTOY
Novelist related incomplete tale, not right (7)
tol[d] sto[r]y — told = related, and this is incomplete, story = tale, and this loses its r (= right)
16 LIVED-IN
Showing signs of experience, worked from home? (5-2)
I’m not quite sure about this: I think that the definition refers to the way in which one says that a face is ‘lived-in’ if it shows signs of a fully-enjoyed life, and since ‘in’ can mean ‘at home’, if one lived in then one worked at home — but this seems a stretch and perhaps the setter had other intentions [yes, possibly the lived in sense of lived-in, as applied to living-in care etc., as has been pointed out]
17 LACIEST
Most frilly, encased in lilac – i.e., stimulating (7)
Hidden in liLAC — I.E., STimulating
19 MUFFINS
Not good, missing small cakes (7)
muffin[g] s — muffing = missing (as in muffed a catch) and that does not have g (= good), then s (= small)
20 CROSS MY HEART
Interbreed one’s deer, did you say? I swear! (5,2,5)
cross my “hart” — cross = interbreed, my = one’s
23 SPAR
Gently knocks back argument (4)
(raps)rev. — argument as in the facetious use of ‘sparring partner’ — raps = gently knocks [As several point out it’s SPAT, which has the same parsing and is the Guardian’s choice. It could really be either, but SPAT is clearly better]
24 THE RIVIERA
I avert their topless cavorting in Côte d’Azur etc (3,7)
(I avert [t]heir)*
25 DOES
A collection of rabbits suffices (4)
2 defs, the first of which has to be pronounced ‘doze’
26 APPEARANCE
Air arrival (10)
2 defs
DOWN
1 RUDE
Intruder, somewhat impolite (4)
Hidden in intRUDEr
2 LIMA
Large Incan metropolitan area (to begin with)? (4)
The first letters clue, again a feature of the modern-day Everyman, &lit.
3 CONTACT LENS
Get through to little Leonard’s way of seeing things (7,4)
contact Len’s — contact = get through to, little Leonard’s is Len’s
4 ARCHERY
Mischievous English rector with yen for sport (7)
arch E R Y — arch = mischievous, E = English, R = Rector, Y = yen (the Japanese currency)
5 CONCEAL
Obscure, formerly, in California (7)
C(once)al — Cal = California, once = formerly
7 ALEXANDRIA
Home to ancient Wonder, dramatic rain and density in Amazon’s character (10)
(rain d)* in Alexa — the Pharos of Alexandria is one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World, the electronic company Amazon’s character is Alexa (that name one speaks in order to get various things done)
8 PRETTINESS
Bizarrely persistent charm (10)
*(persistent)
12 LIVE FOREVER
Britpop anthem Fever Lover I remixed (4,7)
(Fever lover I)* — I’m afraid I’d never heard of it, but a question one sees on the Google page is ‘Is Live Forever the best song ever?’ — having listened to a bit of it I decided that it wasn’t, but that’s just my opinion — it was written by Noel Gallagher and performed (mainly no doubt) by Oasis
13 ITALICISED
Perversely idealistic and stressed, in a way (10)
*(idealistic) — if something is italicised it’s stressed
14 ELECTORATE
Somehow locate tree for pickers? (10)
*(locate tree) — nice misdirection because it isn’t fruit pickers, but the people who pick the candidates in an election
18 TOYSHOP
Store trifles and beer ingredient (7)
toys hop — toys = trifles, hop = beer ingredient
19 MCENROE
‘Exercise core, men’: former tennis ace (7)
*(core men)
21 LEON
Carol heading north in Spanish city (4)
(noel)rev. — I’ve learnt something, never having known that a noel is a Christmas song
22 BARE
With no coverage, support announced (4)
“bear” — bear = support as in ‘the coffin bearers bear/support the coffin’

41 comments on “Everyman 3,965”

  1. Didn’t register until I came here that I’d “muffed” 21 by mistakenly (stupidly) inserting a misspelled French city. Apart from that I thought this was a perfect Everyman with a good mix of clue types so thanks to E, and John.

  2. Agreed, MOC @1. Is there another rhyming pair with RELUCTANCE/APPEARANCE? I didn’t know the Oasis song either, but not too hard to work it out. Thanks, Everyman and John.

  3. Nice set of Sunday clues, with a sporty rector and a bit of topless cavorting for fun. John, if ‘party’ is a verb, 9a works OK doesn’t it? (Apart from the quantity confusion!). Agree lived-in is vague, and 25a’s rabbits don’t precisely suffice. Nothing too egregious. Thanks EnJ, now for today’s.

  4. Thanks John & Everyman
    In 16A LIVED-IN, perhaps Everyman had, say, “earn a living” in mind, but I agree it does not quite gel.
    I am not sure why you ask for an apostrophe in 9A – how about ‘party’ as a verb?
    Surely the answer to 23A is SPAT?

  5. Favourites DOMINICANS, ITALICISED, CROSS MY HEART, along the same lines as DOES, and ELECTORATE for the misdirection with pickers, as John pointed out.
    I can’t wait for essexboy to post on the carryover clue.

  8. Re 23a, you usually see spar as a verb for argue rather than a noun, and pat seems gentler than rap for a knock, so SPAT is slightly better than spar for the solution.

    My favourites were exactly the same as padymelon’s, with 9a DOMINICANS my clue of the day for the playful mini-cans, and the delightful image of monks quaffing tiny beers at their party.

    Thanks, Everyman for the fun and John for the well-written blog.

  10. Thanks for the blog, I had SPAT as well thinking a tap was gentler, I think they should accept both. I agree with Grant@3 that party is a verb for the monks. “Nag a swimmer” is something I am prone to do when nobody wants to come the beach at six in the morning in February. Never heard of Alexa but the answer was obvious. I thought this was very good overall.

  11. For once I spotted the follow-on clue after MrEssexboy’s mini theme last week, we have had CAROL twice in a row.
    For the complete anagram list of Jay we can add PRETTINESS and ITALICISED, also SIX more places (just about) but no birds.

  12. Found this one easier than last week’s puzzle and finished quite quickly for me but could not get 7d.

    Then on Monday was reading an article in the Guardian about the Rosetta stone which referred to one of the wonders of the ancient world, a library – in ALEXANDRIA.

    Not having amazon’s digital assistant, I had forgotten that it was called “alexa”.

    Favourites included the rhyming pair as well as: TOLSTOY, CONCEAL, CONTACT LENS

    Thanks Everyman and John

  13. Enjoyed this, thanks Everyman. TOY SHOP was my top favourite.

    And thanks for the blog, Andrew. I also put SPAR for 23 but SPAT works better.

    Agree with ginf and Roz about party being a verb. For LIVED IN, I interpreted it as referring to someone like an au pair, who “lives in” at their place of employment.

    I have the misfortune of being familiar with the awful Oasis song. Sorry for those of you who had their blissful ignorance ruined.

  14. Roz@11, thanks, I’d seen those two anagrams when I made the comment last week. I see how you get to six place names, that must be a record!

    Enjoyed this one, thanks to John and Everyman

  15. I had the same interpretation of LIVED-IN as Widdersbel. A pint-sized beer is only a mini-can in a world where the party 7 is the norm. TOLSTOY and TOYSHOP were my favourites.

  16. Sorry… thanks to John for the blog, not Andrew! (I have this problem of forgetting who the blogger is by the time I’ve read through all the comments – must remember to double check before hitting the Post Comment button.)

  17. Roz @11: Ding dong, you’re not wrong! As a bonus, we also have an anagram of idealistic, after last week’s anagram of idealisers.

    I hadn’t thought of Widdersbel’s take on LIVED IN @13, but I like it. Google has lots of live-in jobs advertised – live-in housekeeper, live-in cook, live-in nanny, live-in carer…

    MCENROE took me ages, as I keep wanting to put an A in the MC. Thanks E & J.

  18. I had the same problem with the Pint-Sized Beers clue, but is actually fine if you split it apart. Pint-Sized means Mini and Beers means Cans. Simple!

  19. John@18 Yes. I came to the same conclusion after I had posted. I still wonder how pint-sized has come to mean small, though.

  20. It also took me a long time to
    get MCENROE (essexboy @17)
    and I failed LEON – NOEL. As a bit of a novice, the rest I managed. And I too loved the mental image of partying monks! I’d be interested to read comments from other beginner….Thanks all

  21. Enjoyable puzzle, easier than usual?

    New: LIVE FOREVER (Britpop anthem).
    Did not parse 19ac MUFFINS.

    Liked DO/MINI/CANS.

    Thanks, both.

    * Another SPAT here.

  22. Peter @19, I’ve always known ‘pint-sized’ used to refer to the ‘vertically challenged’ shall we say, although having grown up in more enlightened times, we had plenty of other terms which are probably not acceptable in the humourless world we live in now.:)

  23. Hooray! ‘To begin with’ used instead of primarily for once.

    I thought this was quite straightforward with good clues for DOMINICANS with the small beers and ELECTORATE with a nice definition.

    Petert @19; I found this on the web, speculating about the derivation of pint-sized: ‘Pints used to be the smallest measure that most liquids (such as milk) could be bought in, so you are comparing pint sized with quart or gallon sized, so you are looking at something small.’ And: ‘My guess is that milk used to be delivered, in the UK, in pint bottles (1 pint = about 1/2 litre) on houses’ doorsteps by milkmen. I guess the image is about the height of that small bottle.’

    Thanks Everyman and John.

  24. I really enjoyed this: several genuinely amusing clues, plus the welcome absence of a tortuous and/or lame quasi-spooner.
    TOLSTOY & CONTACT LENS were satisfying – and I was particularly tickled by the mental picture of the once-fearsome “dogs of God” (Dominicanes) enjoying tiddly cans of beer. Then again, lots of fine artisan beers come in cans these days, so perhaps the monks were having a Craft Ales party…
    Many thanks to Everyman and John

  25. A good solid Everyman I thought – nothing too head-scratching but not a walk in the park either.

    I concur with the previous defences of LIVED-IN (as past form of ‘live in’, referring to domestic staff – I think many people were understandably misdirected by the more contemporary concept of ‘working from home’) and DOMINICANS – one only has to separate MINI (pint-sized) from CANS (beers) for the parsing to make perfect sense without seemingly erroneous quantities confusing the matter 🙂

    Oh, and it was definitely SPAT – I Checked.

    Thanks both.

  26. It still has that amateurish air about it, but it is getting better. It’s as if an editor has been found for the puzzles — either that or a message is getting through?

    Agree with John, as I usually do, for the most part, as at 16 where I couldn’t fathom the cryptic. 17 is another -IEST ending, and I’m sure I’ve said before I’m wondering if this is a part of the new ‘style’ such as it is. 19 I think a miss is only really an example of a muff. 23 could be SPAR or RAPS to me, and 7 down has one of those anagram indicators.

    Thanks both.

  27. As I think I’ve said before, John is a very silly name for a blogger. Quite apart from its lavatorial connotations, there must be a lot of people out there with the same name. It’s presumably too late for me to change now, so in order to avoid confusion perhaps it would be better if anyone else who posts with that name added a letter or something after ‘John’ in order to distinguish themselves from me. It wasn’t me who posted at 18 (actually I quite agree with him, although that might not always be the case).

  29. I found this a satisfying steady solve, although I failed on SPAT, entering SPAR. There was a recent Guardian crossword blog which raised inadvertent ambiguities – and this probably fits into that category.

    Jay and Roz, I wondered if you were including those two anagrams into the list when you were posting on laat week’s blog. And you’ve now confirmed you had.

  30. It would appear that tlp@26 had read the blog but not the comments before penning his own. 16a was explained, not by John (at first) but by Widdersbel@13 (and others later), and good arguments for 23a SPAT (being better than SPAR) were given by several commentators. tlp did not address these comments, hence I suspect he didn’t read them.

    Generally I enjoy tlp’s (often) curmudgeonly comments. They are a refreshing change from those of us – myself included – who tend to uniformly praise the efforts of our setters, and he usually explains his criticisms clearly. All part of the fun of this delightful site.

  31. Thank you cellomaniac. I had read widdersbel’s comment, remained unconvinced, and then made my remarks. I can see the ‘worked in a care home’ idea, but I do not feel it communicates in that instance.

  33. Great post – thanks very much. I just started following this site, after years of blundering my way through cryptic clues and failing much of the time. Seeing the explanations is very helpful. I really enjoyed this Everyman crossword, and I’m not saying that just because I was able to solve all the clues! #3966 is a different matter — I’m looking forward to seeing a post that describes the solutions.

  34. I had issue with pint sized beers being MINICANS as well (you’re doing well if you can find a pint can!), but now I see the misdirection, I appreciate it more.

    Otherwise, a nice quick one (22 mins), with ALEXANDRIA being my CoD.

  35. At last! A crossword at my level. I enjoyed this and can’t believe it’s the same setter as we had a year ago.

  37. I’m with Audrey, there has been a definite shift in style of late for the better.

    McEnroe took me ages as well, didn’t parse Muffins, thought a couple of the DDs were a bit weak but overall enjoyable.

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