Not a lot to say about this crossword: Everyman seems to get better every time I blog. I have slight misgivings in places, but will no doubt be corrected.
Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (homophone, reversal, anagram, juxtaposition, etc) in italics. Link-words in green. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ON OCCASION |
Sometimes undergoing metamorphosis, as in cocoon (2,8)
|
| *(as in cocoon) | ||
| 6 | CHAI |
The writer, Conservative, suppressing surprised expression, knocked back strong tea (4)
|
| ((I C) with ah suppressed)rev. — I = the writer (the self-referential clue is at 8dn, so Everyman doesn’t bother to say ‘Everyman’ instead of ‘The writer’ (or perhaps he doesn’t want to say that he’s a Conservative)), C = Conservative, ah = surprised expression | ||
| 9 | BANK ROBBER |
One making unauthorised withdrawal: restriction on a thousand nicker? (4,6)
|
| ban k robber — ban = restriction, K = a thousand, robber = nicker | ||
| 10 | STOP |
Reversal of drug’s discontinuance (4)
|
| (pot’s)rev. — pot = drug | ||
| 11 | ROARING TRADE |
The career of a successful lion tamer? (7,5)
|
| CD relying on the meaning of the two-word phrase and the fact that a lion roars | ||
| 15 | INDIANA |
Perhaps Jones, in a state? (7)
|
| Indiana Jones, and Indiana is a state of the US — why the question mark? There’s no doubt that Indiana is a state | ||
| 16 | ANNUALS |
Books showing plants (7)
|
| 2 defs — as in the Beano Annual and hardy annuals in gardening | ||
| 17 | LATTICE |
Window fitted in colossal attic extension (7)
|
| Hidden in colossaL ATTIC Extension | ||
| 19 | THERETO |
Between times, present nothing in addition (7)
|
| t(here)t 0 — both t’s are time, here = present (PRESent not preSENT), 0 = nothing | ||
| 20 | FINANCIAL AID |
Support Finland with AI CIA supply (9,3)
|
| (Finland AI CIA)* — not sure if it’s AI or A1, but either way it doesn’t seem to me to be much of a surface: what is artificial intelligence CIA (if it’s that, surely not) and if it’s A1 CIA, then why does the CIA have to be described as first class? — ‘supply’ has to be read as a noun in the surface and, in the wordplay, as an adverb ‘supple-ly’ | ||
| 23 | ATOP |
Covering some potato planters (4)
|
| Hidden in potaATO Planters | ||
| 24 | PRE-EMINENT |
Superior men preen; it’s revolting (3-7)
|
| (men preen it)* | ||
| 25 | EATS |
Cockney provides warmth and grub (4)
|
| ‘eats — heats = provides warmth, heats with the h dropped, as in Crosswordland all Cockneys drop their h’s | ||
| 26 | SAUSAGE DOG |
Season in South Australia to worry a pet (7,3)
|
| age in (s Aus dog) — age = season (I think), s = south, Aus = Australia, dog = worry — at least that’s what it seems to me to be, although I’m not comfortable with age = season — you may be able to do better — a second thought: perhaps it’s sage in (s Au dog), but I would have thought that sage is seasoning not season, and does Au = Australia? | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ORBS |
Gold, beauteous, hollow pieces of regalia (4)
|
| or b[eauteou]s — or = gold (heraldry) | ||
| 2 | OWNS |
Has possession of topless flowing garments (4)
|
| [g]owns — gowns = flowing garments | ||
| 3 | CORPORATION |
Gut the BBC? (11)
|
| 2 defs — gut = stomach = corporation, BBC stands for British Broadcasting Corporation | ||
| 4 | SIBERIA |
Southern European peninsula, or most of Northern Asia? (7)
|
| S Iberia — S = Southern, Iberia is the European peninsula | ||
| 5 | OCEANIA |
I will wander around with a canoe in Melanesia, Micronesia, etc (7)
|
| (I a canoe)* — nice to see that Everyman includes ‘will’; if he hadn’t he’d have been un-Ximenean: Ximenes made the point that without ‘will’ it would grammatically have been ‘I wanders (not wander) around …’ — sloppy setters make this mistake | ||
| 7 | HIT PARADES |
Strike files, ordered lists of numbers (3,7)
|
| hit parades — hit = strike, parades = files (as with soldiers) — the hit parades are the musical lists | ||
| 8 | IMPRESSION |
Everyman’s getting media attention, anticipating item with charge: a sensation (10)
|
| I’m press ion — I’m = Everyman’s, press = media attention, ion — the word ‘attention’ looks superfluous and only there to make the surface read OK, but it’s as ‘After this performance, xxxx was getting plenty of media attention/press’ | ||
| 12 | TENDERISING |
Preparing meat having prepared ingredients (11)
|
| *(ingredients) | ||
| 13 | BILL OF FARE |
Menu showing ‘Ball of Fire’ needing slight adjustment (4,2,4)
|
| Ball of Fire with a slight adjustment: the i and the a are swapped | ||
| 14 | EDITING OUT |
What’s a striker doing? ‘I got United transferred‘ (7,3)
|
| (I got United)* | ||
| 18 | ERITREA |
Elected republic in the region East Africa, primarily? (7)
|
| The first letters clue — for the first time ever this wasn’t instant for me, which may suggest that the clue-type is particularly well-hidden | ||
| 19 | TILLERS |
Cultivators‘ levers (7)
|
| 2 defs, one of them referring to the mechanism for steering a boat | ||
| 21 | SEED |
Vocally abandon tournament player (4)
|
| “cede” — cede = abandon | ||
| 22 | STAG |
Small game: deer? (4)
|
| s tag — s = small, tag = game otherwise known as ‘it’ — initially I thought how feeble the surface was until I realised that it uses two meanings of ‘game’ — something you can play and wildlife you might eat, so a nice clue because a deer is an example of small game |
AU is the IRL tag for Australia, John – i.e. in website addresses. I must admit I had it (loosely) parsed as SA (=South Australia) and DOG (=worry) with USAGE in it, but I now see that season = usage isn’t very good. Otherwise, the usual pleasant Sunday solve. Thanks, Everyman and John.
I think the surface of 20A could be paraphrased as ‘Support Finland with the artificial intelligence which the CIA supply’, with supply being a verb in this context. Still not very meaningful, mind you.
Lots of food and drink this week, and some clever manipulation of the grid to produce three rhyming place names in the down clues, and STOP and ATOP in opposite corners.
SAUSAGE DOG parses S (south), AUS (Australia, IVR), AGE (to season as a verb, as in to mature or ripen), DOG (to worry, also a verb).
A nice 11 letter single word anagram in INGREDIENTS/TENDERISING for the ever growing list of such things.
Regarding ?8d, Alan Connor is the question editor for Richard Osman’s House of Games, so perhaps that’s the media attention (press) he speaks of.
Thanks to John and Everyman.
Maybe I’ve misunderstood points made by John and Mike, but I read FINANCIAL AID as simply def = support, and the wordplay with the old anagrind chestnut ‘supply’, and what the AI and CIA means doesn’t really matter.
Don’t know about SAUSAGE DOG. My parsing was the second option given by John. Interesting it should be South Australia. The word Dachshund would have been proscribed in South Australia by an Act of Parliament in WWI, which resulted in a lot of originally German names for towns, foods and people being anglicised.
ON OCCASION brilliant.
I enjoyed this weeks crossword. Challenging but getable. 7D cleverly included the double meaning of “numbers” for songs, which has fallen rather out of use but was common in the 60’s and 70’s.
For 26A I also parsed age = season but relating to time – as in “The Season of the Witch”. (Old Zombies number.)
Ah just remembered “Season the the Witch” was Donovan and “Time of the Season” was the Zombies. I got my numbers confused
Completed more quickly than usual.
Liked BANK ROBBER, ROARING TRADE, THERETO, SAUSAGE DOG, TILLERS
Thanks Everyman and John
Thanks for the blog, another very good Everyman puzzle, the rhyming pair going across is a little unusual I think , but I am not counting. SAUSAGE DOG I agree with Jay and your first version, Chambers has age/season = mature but I now prefer the ideas from Ray@6 , a period of time, and will add The Age of Aquarius .
For FINANCIAL AID I agree with PDM@5 , no problem for me but I do not “read” the clues.
Lots of places but only ERITREA for Jay’s list.
I like your idea for STAG , as you say it is “small game” , so two definitions plus one word play.
I thought the surface of 20ac was actually rather good – I agree with Mike @2 that it’s the artificial intelligence which/that the CIA supply – and given Finland’s recent accession to Nato, and the heightened threat level it faces from across the border, the clue is certainly topical. (Anna may have a different perspective!)
My quibble is with ERITREA: what’s an “elected republic” when it’s at home? You can have a republic with an elected government, but Eritrea certainly doesn’t. It’s a one-party dictatorship with an appalling human rights record. I suppose Everyman may have been thinking of the 1993 independence referendum? – but since then there have been no elections, free and fair or otherwise.
Enjoyed the rest of it, though; thanks E & J.
I agree with Mike and essexboy about 20ac. I just wondered whether the artificial intelligence was clever programming or fake news. My SAUSAGE DOG was seasoned with SAGE but I think AGE is better now.
Good, entertaining Sunday solve.
I liked the anagrams for ON OCCASION and TENDERISING with interesting surfaces. I agree with Mike @2 for the AI interpretation of the surface.
Thanks Everyman and John.
I was thinking e.g. wood in terms of age and season. They’re listed as synonyms of one another in Chambers 21st, but the definitions proper are rather less helpful.
Easier than usual but I was not sure how to parse:
11ac ROARING TRADE – which I guessed might be a cd
and
26ac SAUSAGE DOG. As an Australian, when I see the words South Australia(n) I tend to immediately think SA which is how we abbreviate the state, ditto WA = West Australia. After that it can get confusing when we have to choose between AU and AUS for abbreviations of Australia the country. I prefer the abbreviation Oz! So in the end, I gave up on parsing the sausage dog 🙂
Thanks, both.
19 minutes this time, so maybe I’m getting better. HIT PARADES was my LOI. I enjoyed THERETO and SAUSAGE DOG. I’m happy with ‘age’ meaning ‘season’, as it you age something (by leaving it alone for several months), you season it, don’t you?
WhiteDevil@15 – I don’t give times, because I found it so depressing when I was starting out, but as you have I’ll say I was 5 minutes quicker than you. I find Everyman often alternates between fast solves and slower, and last week was fast.
I also find slower solves let me relish the cleverness in the cluing and enjoy the penny drop moments, whereas speed solving means I miss subtleties. And also mean I don’t worry about the intricacies of SAUSAGE DOG.
Thank you to John and Everyman.
I thoroughly enjoyed this Everyman, although as a novice it took me all week to get it. I thought the HIT PARADES clue was excellent and it was key to finishing the bottom right hand corner. Thank you both John and Everyman for a lot of fun and ultimately validation that I’m getting better.
Beaten by ROARING TRADE. I looked here to understand it. Lions roar I suppose and a successful trade is a roaring one. I dunno. I still think it’s a little feeble and I never mind being beaten by those. Life’s too short to worry about it, isn’t it?
I thought age = season was fine, as “season” doesn’t necessarily have to be a short period. To everything there is a season, you know. But I like the verb explanation supplied by Jay@4 better (with both meaning ripen).
Liked 1ac ; had to think about 4ac
Also liked 19ac; 26ac at first tricky.
12d I’ve added to my list
Wirh 14d grey cells required on my part for parsing.
ERITREA – this place has NO elections!!
Rob.
I enjoyed this and found it a lot easier than last week. Roaring Trade was fun.
Anyone else find bragging about solving times as tedious as me?
I agree Barrie, but each to their own. I love spending the time to parse the clues completely and appreciate the wordplay. It would be far less enjoyable just to bung in an educated guess and move on. On occasion, thereto, roaring trade and tenderising were excellent.
Struggled and had to use wildcard dictionaries. Like Gliddofglood@18 I thought that “roaring trade” was weak. Could not parse “sausage dog”;
figured that “season” had something to do with “sage”. Never thought of age = season, even though there are two distinct ways to get this synonym pair.
Without my partner in crime I failed to get Roaring Trade; nor Hit Parades grrr. Enjoyed SAUSAGE DOG and ON OCCASION.
thanks to all involved, always good to see how my parsing compares and no, never bother timing how long it takes!
It’s ok Barrie @21, you’re not boring!
whether 26 ac was meant to mean age or sage for season is neither here nor there for me, but i think neither S AU or S Aus are correct for South Aus. Admit it’s a bit presumptuous as a kiwi to go on about it, but i have always thought South Australia only has one abbrev and this is SA.
Oh well
I enjoyed this, few anagrams more than usual but won’t deny they helped…
roaring trade and hit parades ..bth were voted by me as most fabulous clues this week.
Yeah, nah.
Ok. Chai and bank robber were stretched but overall a nice way to spend Monday evening.
No time at the weekend – we were at the Michael Hill international violin competition.
Great show – loved the winner Yeyeong Jenny Jin.