The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/4003.
This week’s puzzle struck me at first as harder than usual, because the structure so many of the clues was not obvious to me. However, with a little perseverance, all became clear. The grid highlights the usual rhyming pair (with another at 9A and 26A, but a poor rhyme and not symmetrically placed), the self reference, and the ‘primarily’ clue (always a helpful entry for the less experienced). I might also have pointed out the one-word anagram at 13D, another Everyman favourite, and perhaps 24A as a geographical reference.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | FLASHBULBS |
VIPs often see these fancy shallots? (10)
|
| A charade of FLASH (‘fancy’) plus BULBS (‘shallots?’ for example). | ||
| 6 | LISP |
Thane would be sane but for this? (4)
|
| Obvious, but this needs careful analysis to make sense: to rephrase, “If I wanted to say ‘sane’, but had a lisp, it would come out ‘thane'”. | ||
| 9 | MISEDUCATE |
Recklessly medicate us and impart inaccurate information (10)
|
| An anagram (‘recklessly’) of ‘medicate us’. | ||
| 10 | MOOR |
Fell in dock (4)
|
| Double definition, the first as in Dartmoor. | ||
| 11 | MADE THE GRADE |
Team with hard edge played and succeeded (4,3,5)
|
| An anagram (‘played’) of ‘team’ plus ‘hard edge’. | ||
| 15 | MEANDER |
How Cockney refers to himself and wife (snake) (7)
|
| A Cockney and wife may be ME AND ‘ER. | ||
| 16 | DIVERSE |
Assorted underwater explorers with energy (7)
|
| A charade of DIVERS (‘underwater explorers’) plus E (‘energy’). | ||
| 17 | RUSSELL |
Philosopher to whisper softly but audibly (7)
|
| Sounds like (‘audibly’) RUSTLE (‘whisper softly’) | ||
| 19 | MEASURE |
Survey‘s proceeding (7)
|
| Double definition, but I think the second is doubtful. | ||
| 20 | STOCK-IN-TRADE |
Familiar characteristics in hosiery trade that’s not grand (5-2-5)
|
| STOCKIN[g] (‘hosiery’) minus the G (‘not grand’) plus ‘trade’ – rather a substantial item to be transferred directly from clue to answer, when the clue could have used ‘business’ instead.
Lo and behold: since I wrote up the blog, the clue has been altered just as I suggested, and the clue now reads: Familiar characteristics in hosiery business that’s not grand (5-2-5) |
||
| 23 | IBIS |
Its bill is slender, primarily! (4)
|
| The ‘primarily’ clue: ‘Its Bill Is Slender’. | ||
| 24 | AUSTRALIAN |
Foreign national, first to attend university in retirement, to sail through non-technical studies (10)
|
| A charade of A (‘first to Attend’) plus U (‘university’) plus STRALIAN, a reversal (‘in retirement’) of NAIL ARTS (‘sail through non-technical studies’ – ‘nail’ in the sense of accomplish easily). | ||
| 25 | NUTS |
Flabbergast, being contrary and deranged (4)
|
| A reversal (‘being contrary’) of STUN (‘flabbergast’). | ||
| 26 | ADULTERATE |
Corrupt senior, time after time, to the end of time (10)
|
| A charade of ADULT (‘senior’) plus ERA T (‘time after time’) plus E (‘end of timE‘). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | FAME |
Out of order, Ray’s followers achieving renown (4)
|
| The solfa: do ray (more commonly rendered re) ME FA … | ||
| 2 | APSE |
An extra note before end of course’s recess (4)
|
| A charade of A PS (‘an extra note’) plus E (‘end of coursE‘). | ||
| 3 | HIDE AND SEEK |
Austrian composer, religious type, called out in children’s game (4-3-4)
|
| An audible pun (‘called out’) on HAYDN (‘Austrian composer’) SIKH (‘religious type’). | ||
| 4 | UNCLEAR |
Dubious relative’s a Republican (7)
|
| A charade of UNCLE (‘relative’) plus ‘a’ plus R (‘Republican’). | ||
| 5 | BITCHED |
Moaned, attacked with teeth – and again, removing heart (7)
|
| A charade of BIT (‘attacked with teeth’) plus CH[ew]ED (‘again’ – that is, ‘attacked with teeth’) minus the two central letters (‘removing heart’). | ||
| 7 | IDOLATROUS |
Worshipful words at wedding: our last, regrettably (10)
|
| A charade of I DO (‘words at wedding’ – the section of the marriage service where the couple respond to questions with “I will” is known as the “I DO’s”) plus LATROUS, an anagram (‘regrettably’) of ‘our last’). | ||
| 8 | PERSEVERED |
Bashed on a cut (10)
|
| A charade of PER (‘a’ – “only one per/a person”) plus SEVERED (‘cut’). | ||
| 12 | GIVE AND TAKE |
Slyly evading Kate’s compromise (4,3,4)
|
| An anagram (‘slyly’) of ‘evading Kate’. | ||
| 13 | IMPRESSION |
Thought permission renewed (10)
|
| An anagram (‘renewed’) of ‘permission’; Everyman is fond of one-word anagrams. | ||
| 14 | BASSOONIST |
Musician offering some sambas soon is tantalising (10)
|
| A hidden answer (‘offering some’) in ‘samBAS SOON IS Tantalising’. | ||
| 18 | LANGUID |
Uninterested in lauding bananas (7)
|
| An anagram (‘bananas’) of ‘lauding’. | ||
| 19 | MARITAL |
Concerning coupling is all about conflict where one needs to step up (7)
|
| MARTIAL (‘about conflict’) with the I moved (‘where one needs to step up’ in a down light).
|
||
| 21 | DIVA |
Everyman tucked into starters of diced venison, a demanding type (4)
|
| An envelope (‘tucked into’) of I (‘Everyman’ as setter) in DV (‘starters of Diced Venison’) plus ‘a’. | ||
| 22 | ONCE |
Concertina piece? Not now (4)
|
| A hidden answer (‘piece’) in ‘cONCErtina’. |
I thought 3d was referring to Australian composer Miriam Hyde, and that “Austrian” was a misprint. Then again, I don’t think Miriam’s well enough known beyond these shores. But it could have made a nice cross-reference to 24a.
[Tourists to Austria are often confused. I saw t-shirts on sale there emblazoned with No kangaroos in Austria.]
Thanks, Everyman and PeterO!
Liked MEANDER, AUSTRALIAN, FAME, BITCHED and PERSEVERED.
MEASURE
legal MEASURES are legal proceedings?
MOOR beat me. Hadn’t thought of fell in that sense (though had thought of it in the sense of “dread” – not that that helped). I’ve never thought of the fells being moors. Nor vice versa.
But then PERSEVERED beat me too. Couldn’t figure out that clue at all. I came here to understand what had been eluding me all week.
Thank you Peter O.
Doubly misled by Ray in FAME as alternative spelling for ‘re ‘ and the capitalisation.
AUSTRALIAN last to parse. Took me forever to find the reversed hidden at the end as I couldn’t unsee the letters for ‘sail’ ‘through’ the answer and ‘nail’ as a synonym certainly was hiding from me.
The puns were interesting in that they weren’t homophones, but what I call ‘visual puns’, eg MEANDER. HIDE -N- SEEK required an extra step in visualisation.
Favourite ADULTERATE for the humour.
I also found that it took me longer than usual to solve this one. And also thought the second definition for MEASURE was doubtful.
Did not parse FAME. Got HIDE AND SEEK from the first letter but didn’t parse till yesterday.
Liked ADULTERATE (my favourite) MEANDER (lovely word) BITCHED, IDOLATROUS, AUSTRALIAN
Thanks Everyman and PeterO
Like pdm it took me forever to parse AUSTRALIAN, when I eventually saw it , I coild have kicked myself. I still seem to have some funny bruising from last week.
Like PeterO, I found it on the harder end of the Everyman scale, early intermediate rather than beginner, but I think he is providing a progressive course.
Thankyou both, I enjoyed both puzzle and blog.
PS. I am sure I said I DO at my wedding, not I WILL. I can’t say I listen anymore.
Thanks for the blog, I also noticed the TRADE in 20Ac but no corrected clue in the paper. IMPRESSION is a good complete anagram for Jay’s list. Overall I thought this was going too far at times for an Everyman, there are plenty of other puzzles for solvers who are improving, I would not have liked this when I was learning to do cryptics.
Idolatrous for worshipful is interesting… it’s accurate but feels dissonant …
Took me too long to see AUSTRALIAN, as I was misled by ‘foreign’! Just needed a change in perspective. Nice to see Bertie Russell get a guernsey. Thanks, Everyman and PeterO.
[Essexboy, hope you’re okay. Haven’t seen you here for a while. And if you’re feeling poorly, let’s not do the homophone thing. Who cares? 🙂 ]
Enjoyable puzzle.
Favourites: STOCK-IN-TRADE, HIDE AND SEEK, FLASHBULBS, APSE.
Thanks, both.
Thanks Everyman and PeterO
1d simply doesn’t work. If you have Ray (from the song, presumably) you get FARME; if you take it as RE, you get FAMI (unless a minor third is specified).
Muffin @13. The son is based on the sol-fah scale. Now usually written Do, Re, Me, Fa. So
song
Agree on the relative difficulty. Love AUSTRALIAN. Thanks PeterO and Everyman.
nicbach @14
If you have “ray, a drop of golden sun”, then you need to have “far, a long long way to run”.
In the classic solfa, the third note is mi, not me.
I liked the charade for FLASHBULBS, the ME AND ‘ER, the STOCKIN(g) TRADE, FAME, where I looked up that Gene Anthony Ray portrayed a dancer in FAME (who knew that?), the Haydn Sikh, and PERSEVERED for the tricky a = PER.
Thanks Everyman and PeterO.
I agree with Muffin. 1d had to be FAME but the logic of the parsing makes no sense.
Do FLASHBULBS even exist these days? The word does of course, but the clue would be better referring to the past.
muffin@17
Collins:
Ray
(in tonic sol-fa) the second degree of any major scale; supertonic.
In a couple of online dictionaries, ‘ray’ is given as an alternative spelling of ‘re’.
‘me’ is given as an alternative spelling of ‘mi’ in Collins and a couple of other dictionaries.
Maybe the clue is not referring to the song but to these alternative spellings of ‘re’ and ‘mi’.
At the tricky end of Everyman, and a bit uneven. FAME is rather dodgy (though not difficult to solve), and MEASURE doesn’t do it for me either.
I agree with Mandarin @21 and would also say that “Bashed on” is not a common expression. I’ve never heard anyone say it. The clue would have read better as “Refused to give up a cut”. Favourite clue was MEANDER. This was definitely at the harder end of Everyman.
3D Just to be fussy, I’ll remark that while we English speakers pronounce”Sikh” as “seek,” in its home country they pronounce it “sick.” It’s understandable that we don’t pronounce it that way, though, it would lead to too much confusion.
I have the impression that “I do” is the wedding response in the US and “I will” in the UK, though that’s not based on much. It must depend on the modal verb in the question that precedes the response.
Thanks to Everyman and PeterO.
I’m with Tassie Tim. Australian is the last thing I’d think about for a foreign national, and the reversal indicator for nail arts was disguised by the comma. Got it eventually.
Done in reasonable time, which is good after a string of failures. STOCK IN TRADE, HIDE AND SEEK and BITCHED were my favourites.
Very tough. Failed to get “apse”; I put “arse” (“a” being the extra note and “rse” being the end of “course”). Well, an arse is *sort of* a recess. 🙂 And I figured if “bitched” is acceptable, then “arse” is acceptable.
Could not parse “fame” nor could I completely parse “marital”.
I thought measure = proceeding was bad.
I didn’t like moor: thought of fell ( went to the top of Scafell years ago) dock and moor are not the same thing and in dock would be moored.
NEVER heard miseducate in all my years. Idolatrous for worshipful – nah. Measure for procedure – dodgy.
All in all I thought this one a level more difficult than usual.
Dwfinitely a bit harder than usual from Kiwiland
And after seeing the ABs lose and the FLASHBULBS!
10A and 24A tricky
Rob
Good puzzle and we got through.
Measure was a bit dodgy but the rest were good.
Go Fiji, we the ABs are toast.