All the usual trademarks in this week’s Everyman. As always, a sound and pleasing puzzle.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Wise woman displays this in advance of chemistry?
PRESCIENCE
A charade of PRE and SCIENCE.
6 Spy’s promise
BOND
A dd.
9 Robots care about language
SERBO-CROAT
(ROBOTS CARE)* with ‘about’ as the anagram.
10 Refrain from organ piece
STOP
A dd.
12 Man and lady host gathering for poet
DYLAN THOMAS
(MAN LADY HOST)* with ‘gathering’ as the anagrind gives you the Welsh poet.
Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs
About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green,
The night above the dingle starry …
15 Illicitly trade in what may protect limb
BOOTLEG
A charade of BOOT and LEG.
16 Fails modern subject and blows a fuse
LOSES IT
A charade of LOSES and IT for Information Technology. Not that new or modern any more, but I know what Everyman means.
17 Free lunch: main but no starters
UNCHAIN
[L]UNCH plus [M]AIN.
19 That man, fat, vacuous: Everyman with uncertain expression, having gained weight
HEFTIER
A charade of HE, F[A]T, I and ER.
20 Lack of effort in cloakroom
CONVENIENCE
A dd.
23 Wally rejected covering for playing area
TARP
A reversal of PRAT and an abbreviation for TARP[AULIN].
24 Roving over dunes with Zulu? It’s a date!
RENDEZ-VOUS
(OVER DUNES Z)* with ‘roving’ as the anagrind. Z for Zulu is from the phonetic alphabet.
25 Reportedly avoided where tears may be flowing
DUCT
Aural wordplay for DUCKED.
26 Open-air locations where gunpowder may be disposed of?
TEA GARDENS
A cd: ‘gunpowder’ is a type of tea as well as an explosive.
Down
1 What’s held by Royal Mail employee, in more ways than one?
POST
A dd: the postman brings your POST, but they also hold the POST as part of their employment by Royal Mail.
2 What’s enumerated Zion’s returnees assiduously, primarily?
EZRA
The initial letters of the second, third, fourth and fifth words of the clue, and a cad. Referring to the book of the Old Testament.
3 Run, after group of three – pray for draw
CROWD-PLEASER
Two’s company, three’s a … CROWD, followed by PLEASE for the archaic ‘pray’, and R.
4 Listen to Cockneys: drink up, one’s headed for the canal
EARPLUG
A charade of ‘EAR, the allegedly h-dropping pronunciation of the Cockney accent, and GULP reversed (‘up’, since it’s a down clue). A whimsical definition.
5 BBC1, perhaps in gutter
CHANNEL
A dd.
7 Looking up, eye’s taking in fine rain over island
OPTIMISTIC
An insertion of MIST and I in OPTIC. The insertion indicator is ‘taking in’.
8 Droopy ties rearranged in store
DEPOSITORY
(DROOPY TIES)* with ‘rearranged’ as the anagrind.
11 Children unbound by rules breaking zester, faulty appliance
CHEST FREEZER
A charade of CH and FREE inserted into (ZESTER)* The anagrind is ‘faulty’ and the insertion indicator is ‘breaking’.
13 Old boy doomed to circle American cape hidden by fog?
OBFUSCATED
A charade of OB and US plus C inserted into FATED. The insertion indicator is ‘to circle’.
14 Little money invested in two scams, one’s fleeced in certain circles thus?
CONCENTRIC
An insertion of CENT in CON and TRIC[K]. ‘Fleeced’ is inviting you to remove the final letter.
18 Some tuna I’ve tenderised in state of ignorance
NAIVETE
Hidden in tuNA IVE TEnderised.
19 Spooner’s cursed swine with guilty look
HANGDOG
A Spoonerism of DANG HOG.
21 Drill giving you headache?
BORE
A dd cum cd, I think, suggesting that a BORE might go on so much they would give you a headache.
22 Fantasist somewhat unchanged
AS IS
Hidden in fantASISt.
Many thanks to Everyman for this week’s puzzle.
Great blog Pierre! Thanks.
CONCENTRIC
A minor correction
CON CENT RIC
(t)RIC(k) fleeced.
I actually found this a little more difficult than usual.
EZRA: Not the first time I haven’t known the primarily but no complaints as the parsing is clear. However this time with the what definition I had no clue and had to look it up. Thanks Pierre for ‘spelling it out’.
Also to look up CROWD-PLEASER and TEA GARDENS for the full significance of the definitions.
Enjoyed Everyman’s trademark amusing surfaces. Fav: UNCHAIN
Drum roll: And the rhyming pair is CROWD-PLEASER and CHEST FREEZER, the self-deprecating, self-referential HEFTIER.
I also found this more difficult than usual.
Was held up in the SW for ages because I entered prat for 23a instead of TARP having reversed tarp instead of prat – which I think was reasonable to do.
Liked UNCHAIN, HEFTIER, TEA GARDENS, FRIDGE FREEZER
Thanks Everyman and Pierre
Thanks for the blog, I agree with Fiona@4 for TARP , the rejected in the middle lets it work both ways. I try not to criticise Everyman as it is not aimed at me anymore but I do think this one goes too far at times. I would not have liked this when I was learning to do cryptics.
A DNF for me as I had TURF instead of TARP. Can’t remember what I made of ‘Wally’ now. I do remember doing a complete alphabet trawl for BORE, before entering it as the least bad of all the vague possibilities I could come up with. So, yes, on the more difficult side. Thanks, Everyman and Pierre.
A DNF for me. Defeated by BORE and RENDEZVOUS. Thanks Everyman and Pierre.
Tassie Tim@6. My first guess for TARP was also turf. for tarp. And I couldn’t work out what a frut was, although it sounds like a very good alternative to a prat. Remembered though that my son, who has been curating cricket grounds, mentioned the tarp as well as the turf. (But we’re not mentioning the cricket, are we? )
Like TassieTim@6 I had not-really-parsed TURF until I clicked the Check button today. No problem with TARP vs prat – it’s a crossword, the crossing letters are part of the solving process.
I usually have a few dislikes among Everyman clues, but other than the boring ‘primarily’ clue, no complaints with this one.
Thanks Pierre and Everyman.
Very difficult. I was not on the setter’s wavelength.
New for me: CHEST FREEZER.
I could not parse 16ac LOSES IT apart from the def ‘blows a fuse’.
Thanks, both.
Everyman used “gunpowder” in the tea sense in a clue earlier this year. Not sure why we need “playing area” in 23a as an TARP can be used to cover pretty much anything and 21d left me thinking a BORE is more likely to send you to sleep than give you a headache!
Thanks to E and P
Thanks Everyman and Pierre. Enjoyed the crossword and finished it unlike last week. Favourite Crowd Pleaser.
The only clue that really threw me was, annoyingly, 1A –
Any thoughts as to why the wording is using ‘wise woman’ rather than ‘wise person’? I spent too long trying to work in names, pronouns etc into something seems spurious now I see the answer!?
Alliteration and the fact we live in a gender-fluid world, perhaps, Paul T.
Nice Crossword.
Paul T, I was expecting this question to come in, and pretty sure it would be before why chemistry? The question is why not?
Thanks Everyman and Pierre.
Paul T @13: because there is such a thing as a wise woman (“a witch or seeress”, Chambers), whereas a wise person would just be a learned or sensible person. Anne Hathaway is depicted as a wise woman in Maggie O’Farrell’s “Hamnet”.
Also see this explanation from Blackadder:
Blackadder: I seek information about a Wise Woman.
Young Crone: The Wise Woman? The Wise Woman?!
Blackadder: Yes. The Wise Woman.
Young Crone: Two things, my Lord, must ye know of the Wise Woman. First… she is a woman! And second… she is…
Blackadder: Wise?
Young Crone: Do you know her, then?
Ok, whinge time. As a completely non-religious person I’ve got used to having to know names of some books of the bible to complete crosswords. I draw the line at having to know the contents of the book ( Ezra) in order for the clue to make sense. Sorry.
Pete HA3@17 and a bit of a spoiler for those of us who haven’t read it yet. 🙂
Thanks Everyman.
Really enjoyed that, though totally unable to parse Crowd Pleaser.
Particularly liked Unchain and Earplug.
PaulT, maybe Everyman is aware that there are not enough women going into scientific fields, and wanted to do his part against the stereotype by having a woman chemist instead of a man for a change?
One year in middle school my music class was both AFTERMATH and PRESCIENCE (though I’m aware that the former doesn’t work in British English.)
Separately, this is not by any means the first time that this Everyman has given us a self-deprecating clue about his own weight. Hmm.
Oh, and I wanted to register my disagreement with those who dislike the Everyman “primarily” clues. They may be easy to solve, but it’s almost always clever how he gets the first-letter words to describe the object. It’s like an acrostic (the poem type, not the puzzle type) but with each line a single word. They must be satisfying for him to set.
I didn’t get too many this time, lots of the answers were unknown to me. Really enjoyed UNCHAIN and RENDEZVOUS.
This was a DNF for me – I had ZEN GARDENS instead of TEA GARDENS – never heard of gunpowder tea or tea gardens, so zen went in even though I couldn’t parse it.
Having been learning cryptics for about 6 months now, I do look forward to Everyman on a Sunday, but I’ve found it a bit harder side for the past 3 weeks or so, but this was my first DNF for a few months. Never mind, I’ll keep trying.
In OBFUSCATED, I can see the C is an abbreviation for ‘cape’ – is this a common abbreviation? I haven’t come across it before.
Favourite was UNCHAIN.
Thanks to Everyman and Pierre – off to try this week’s now!
Eddie and TanTrumPet , I have been doing Everyman for many years but I still remember being a beginner . I thought this was too tricky really and the last few have not been very friendly. Everyman did have a good run of getting them just right so we can hope for a return to those standards,
C=cape turns up occasionally, it is widely used on maps.
New to Everyman, and I did not about the tea. However, google told me there was an old gunpowder works near KEW GARDENS, so I went with that.
17 minutes, so fairly straightforward after a bunch of struggles. PRESCIENCE and OBFUSCATED got a tick.
Would have been impossible for me without (heavy) use of wildcard dictionaries.
Agree with TassieTim@6 that “bore” is “the least bad of all the vague possibilities”.
I was baffled by 23a
25a could also be ZEN Gardens
Rob.
I was almost too depressed after the rugby to bother with the crossword. That was before I saw the cricket score.
Had TURF for 23A. Couldn’t parse it but had just watched the rugby like Rob.
Got CROWD PLEASER but couldn’t parse it. Was thinking of play for a draw!
We got stuck on OPTIMISTIC, completely overthinking that one. Liked RENDEZVOUS; PRESCIENCE; CONCENTRIC. Rugby score was not great but the better team won on the day; the cricket however – HUZZAH!!
Enjoyable but hadn’t heard of the tea. Sounds horrible.
Hard!
I too put Kew gardens and also wondered what a wise woman was specifically
I weirdly got some of the harder ones like obfuscate but struggled with most of this whole puzzle – at my level it’s tough
Did not like 19d —hangdog is fine but no one would ever say dang hog would they?
Really late response. Found this very difficult and still don’t really get ‘chest freezer’ even with the explanation .
Still enjoy doing it every week though.