Everyman 4,019

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The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/4019.

All the Everyman trademarks, with slight variation: the two long down lights, 4 SUMMER PUDDING and 7 THE WINTER’S TALE, are linked by contrasting seasons, and there are two symmetrically placed geographical references at 8A BETHLEHEM and 24A ARGENTINE. He even manages three appearances in 19D ONE-TIME, and where would we be without the ‘primarily’ clue, at 2D ARTISAN. This time no one-word to one-word anagram, but 20A UNDERESTIMATE pushes it close.

ACROSS
1 STAIRS
Audibly gawps in flight (6)
Sounds like (‘audibly’) STARES (‘gawps’).
4 STEADY
Careful now, girlfriend (6)
Double definition.
8 BETHLEHEM
Liz seen by the French border in holy town (9)
A charade of BETH (‘Liz’, both answering to Elizabeth) plus LE (‘the French’) plus HEM (‘border’).
9 GRAND
£1,000 in German currency (5)
A charade of G (‘German’) plus RAND (South African ‘currency’).
11 SUMO WRESTLERS
Those seen in total swelter, sore, endlessly struggling? (4,9)
A charade of SUM (‘total’) plus OWRESTLERS, an anagram (‘struggling’) of ‘swelter sor[e]’ minus the last letter (‘endlessly’); with an extended definition.
13 TUNED IN
Knowledgable, listening to the radio (5,2)
Definition and literal interpretation (or double definition if you prefer).
14 PRESSES
Requisitions fruity drinks (7)
Double definition.
16 NEBULAE
I will leave banlieue swirling in clouds (7)
An anagram (‘swirling’) of ‘banl[i]eue’ minus the I (‘I will leave’).
18 DOG ROSE
Revolted by Harry offering flower (3,4)
A charade of DOG (‘harry’) plus ROSE (‘revolted’).
20 UNDERESTIMATE
It’s enumerated poorly? (13)
An anagram (‘poorly’) of ‘its enumerated’, with an &lit definition.
23 SEVER
Abrupt, harsh split (5)
A subtraction: SEVER[e] (‘harsh’) minus its last letter (‘abrupt’ – cut short).
24 ARGENTINE
S. American, somewhat peculiar gent, in essence (9)
A hidden answer (‘somewhat’) in ‘peculiAR GENT IN Essence’.
25 BLONDE
Journalist with ‘no weight’ rejected: fair? (6)
A reversal (‘rejected’) of ED (‘journalist’) plus ‘no’ plus LB (pound ‘weight’).
26 ADVERB
Commercial extremely detailed on Bravo. ‘Extremely‘? (6)
A charade of AD (‘commercial’) plus VER[y] (‘extremely’) minus its last letter (‘de-tailed’) plus B (‘bravo’, NATO alphabet), with the answer indicated by an example (hence the question mark).
DOWN
1 SOBS
Help to circumvent bachelor’s woeful utterances (4)
An envelope (‘to circumvent’) of B (‘bachelor’) in SOS (‘help’!).
2 ARTISAN
Appelation reckoned to indicate something’s authentically ‘natural’, primarily? (7)
First letters (‘primarily’) of ‘Appelation Reckoned To Indicate Something’s Authentically Natural’, with an &lit definition. No harm to the clue, but the first word should read “Appellation”.
3 ROLE MODEL
Doddery older mole, one that’s admired by others (4,5)
An anagram (‘doddery’) of ‘older mole’.
4 SUMMER PUDDINGS
During first half of supper, DMs me about desserts (6,8)
An anagram (‘about’) of ‘during’ plus SUP (‘first half of SUPper’) plus ‘DMs me’.
5 EIGHT
Group of rowers fed, we can hear (5)
Sounds like (‘we can hear’) ATE (‘fed’).
6 DRAWERS
Here you may store socks and pants (7)
Double definition.
7 THE WINTER’S TALE
Time to cut – and put to rest – uninspired play (3,7,4)
A charade of T (‘time’) plus HEW (‘cut’) plus INTER (‘put to rest’) plus STALE (‘uninspired’). Shakespeare’s play is most definitely not uninspired.
10 DISASTER
Fragment of asteroid? Is asteroid bringing cataclysm? (8)
A hidden answer (‘fragment of’) in ‘asterioD IS ASTERoid’. A timely topic.
12 STAND-UPS
Comedians cancel date with a hint of shame (5-3)
A charade of STAND UP (‘cancel date’) plus S (‘a hint of Shame’).
15 ENGRAINED
England having wet weather, pervasive liquid finally permeated (9)
A charade of ENG (‘England’) plus RAIN (‘wet weather’) plus ED (‘pervasivE liquiD finally’).
17 BEDEVIL
Trouble: bishop lived up to expectations (at first) (7)
A charade of B (‘bishop’, chess notation) plus E (‘Expectations at first’) plus DEVIL, a reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of ‘lived’; ‘to’ just about indicates the order of the particles.
19 ONE-TIME
Thrice, Everyman having temperature taken, being old (3-4)
An envelope (‘having … taken’) of T (‘temperature’) in ONE I ME (‘thrice Everyman’ – three ways of indicating the grammatical first person).
21 RE-RUN
Arles, Rouen regularly ignored; it’s all been seen before (2-3)
Alternate letters (‘regularly ignored’) of ‘aRlEs RoUeN‘.
22 HERB
Rosemary? That lady’s bold (4)
A charade of HER (‘that lady’s’) plus B (‘bold’).

picture of the completed grid

28 comments on “Everyman 4,019”

  1. Found this tougher than usual or maybe just not on the right wavelength.

    Favourites included: THE WINTERS TALE, BEDEVIL, BLONDE, BETHLEHEM

    Thanks Everyman and PeterO

  3. Thanks for the blog , I thought this was very good and just the right standard. SEVER was very neat and concise, BEDEVIL a clever construction . There is a BETHLEHEM village in SW Wales , some people go there to post their Christmas cards and get the postmark .
    For SUMMER PUDDINGS I am not sure about DMs, it is what the students call Doc Martens (boots) but it seems a bi odd in this clue.

  4. Good fun I thought. I took “DMs” to mean “direct messages” (verb) for the purpose of the surface read. I’ll add SUMMER/WINTER to the list of connected pairs. It’s been a long time since we saw the alliterations grid.
    Thanks to Everyman and PeterO

  5. Thanks Jay , DMs to mean “direct messages” is well beyond me and Chambers 93, but it does have Doc Martens , the students always say DMs and very fashionable at the moment.

  6. I know DMs as both the Doc Martens I wear on my feet all winter (and have done for decades. They come and go in fashion, but unlike fashion shoes they survive being walked in.) and Direct Messages in various forms of social media that I use. My daughter in her 30s would use both, but I’m not sure the (pre-)teenagers I work with would.

    I found this a steady solve, not as fast as the Maskerade Prize, or as I can solve the Everyman, but not particularly slow. PRESSÉS was slower than it should have been, considering how often we saw it a while back.

    Thank you to Everyman and PeterO.

  10. SUMMER PUDDINGS: I found summer porridge, which does look yummy and healthy, but couldn’t parse it, and sent me looking for a rag rose. I felt I could justify rag for harry. I did find a rag rose, a cloth one.
    Everyman used ”abrupt” recently as a truncation indicator in a clue for McEnroe, so was a wake-up to that in SEVER.
    DISASTER, STEADY, and SUMO WRESTLERS my picks for the surface. I thought UNDERESTIMATE was very clever.

  11. Several unsolved clues in, I had to check if I was doing the prize or the Everyman – I found this quite tough!

    Favourites: UNDERESTIMATE, THE WINTER’S TALE, STAIRS.

    I did not parse 4d and PRESSES = fruity drinks in 14ac.

    Thanks, both.

    Like Shane@6 I know both abbreviations of DMs. I wear my DMs all winter and all summer too! That said, I tend to call text messages SMS rather than DMs. However, as mentioned above, I did not even manage to parse 4d 🙁

  12. I liked the puzzle. For me it was easier than the week before. Can someone explain why Harry = DOG? Is it some sort of Shakespearian thing?

    I liked the ADVERB clue in this one. The double use of extremely was neat.

  13. I liked the anagrams for UNDERESTIMATE and SUMMER PUDDINGS, the well-hidden ARGENTINE, the dd DRAWERS, and the wordplay in THE WINTER’S TALE.

    Enjoyable Sunday solve.

    Thanks Everyman and PeterO.

  15. Thanks Everyman and PeterO

    michelle @ 11 SMS is a message direct from one phone to another, whereas a DM is a private message sent to someone on the same social media platform that you don’t want to appear in the public space.

    Tipsy @ 12 both ‘harry’ and ‘dog’ share a meaning of ‘harass’.

  16. [I just wait 30 years and I am (nearly) back in fashion, DMs are all the rage now with the female students but virtually all black , mine are cherry red and 30 years ago black were quite rare. ]

  17. Tipsy@12, Robi@14 yes, to harry and to dog as verbs both mean to pester, nag, trouble etc. I much prefer to use a word like harry at the start of the clue to avoid the need for misleading capitalisation in the middle

  18. My LOI was PRESSES which I only put in as it worked IMO for half of it and I could come up with nothing other. But requisitions? It might juuuust about work(ish) for ‘pressures’ but ‘presses’? Not pour moi.

  21. Simon S @20 Cheers mate but I’m still not having it. 🙂
    btw – a few people seem to have found this a tad chewy for an Everyman but it was pretty much on my wavelength. This week’s offering on the other hand…

  22. Simon@20, BlueManc@21, I had no problem with PRESSES as requisitions, but it took me longer to see it as fruity drinks.

    I found this slightly chewy in a good way – somewhat tricky in spots, but eminently fair throughout. The trademark clues were all well done. My favourite was the excellent charade @7d THE WINTER’S TALE, definitely not uninspired. I also liked the long anagram at 20a UNDERESTIMATE. (I’m not good at – and don’t really care about – categorizing clues, but is 20a an “and-lit”?)

    Thanks Everyman and PeterO for the Sunday fun.

  23. Cellomaniac @22
    20A UNDERESTIMATE needs a definition, and the answer as a noun &lit is the best I could do.
    BlueManc @18, 21
    I am not sure of why you object to this meaning of PRESSES, nor why you think “pressure” might be a marginally better synonym for ‘requisition’. It seems that the press-gang sense has a different derivation from the press/squeeze nexus, but has converged on the same spelling. Perhaps a visit to the dictionary of your choice might help.

  26. Very enjoyable, albeit didn’t fully parse Summer Puds and I’ve not heard of a drink called a ‘press’. Squash yes, Crush yes, press no.

    Actually Summer Pudding isn’t really a kiwi thing so my fellow locals might struggle with that. Initially I goofed with Red Rose but it all came right in the end.

  28. I met with
    Citron presse (I don’t know how to put an acute accent) many years ago as a schoolboy but putting it in an English crossword is a bit OTT.

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