As always seems to be the case this is well-constructed and there are no criticisms really. The usual things are there — the first letters clue, the rhyming pair, the self-reference. My moan at 6dn about the fact that it’s a CD is a voice crying in the wilderness: lots of people, including some good setters, like them.
Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (anagram, homophone, juxtaposition, hidden, etc) in italics. Anagram indicators shown like *(this) or (this)*, link-words in green.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SOHO |
Directions announced for seamstress and farmer somewhere in London (4)
|
| “sew hoe” | ||
| 3 | REFRACTION |
This may show you a rainbow meandering for certain (10)
|
| *(for certain) | ||
| 9 | DEWY |
Organiser of libraries said to be somewhat wet (4)
|
| “Dewey” — the man who set up the decimal filing system for libraries | ||
| 10 | OFF THE WALL |
No longer enjoying Pink Floyd album? Crazy (3-3-4)
|
| Off The Wall — Off = No longer enjoying, The Wall is a 1979 album by Pink Floyd | ||
| 11 | CHANGE COURSE |
Scarce enough to manage? Take a new approach (6,6)
|
| (Scarce enough)* | ||
| 15 | REEBOKS |
Footwear? They’ve got cloven hooves! (7)
|
| 2 defs, referring to the make of shoe and the antelope from southern Africa | ||
| 16 | SECRETE |
Hide in quarter of Greek island? (7)
|
| SE Crete — the south-eastern quarter of Crete | ||
| 17 | STOPGAP |
Caretaker sent back copper and silver vessels (7)
|
| (p Ag pots)rev. — p = copper (the coin), Ag = silver (the chemical symbol), pots = vessels | ||
| 19 | PROJECT |
It might be some homework, Chuck (7)
|
| 2 defs — if the stress is on the first syllable (pronounced to rhyme with hot) it’s the sort of project that a child may bring home to work on; to chuck is to project (pronounced pr’ject, with the stress on the second syllable) — ‘Chuck’ not ‘chuck’ to make the surface reading smoother: it’s considered OK for this sort of thing to happen (but not the other way round — a clue couldn’t contain ‘london’ where ‘London’ is meant) | ||
| 20 | CLOTHES HORSE |
Fashionista puts on bridle, saddle, etc? (7,5)
|
| The definition is an informal name for someone who models fashionable clothes; if you put on the bridle, the saddle, etc, you are clothing the horse | ||
| 23 | BLUE CHEESE |
Conservative: I’m ready for my photo and something to eat (4,6)
|
| blue cheese — blue is the colour of the Conservative party, “cheese” is something typically said by someone who is having their photograph taken — “say ‘cheese'” | ||
| 24 | STAG |
Male host, agreeable – to some extent (4)
|
| Hidden in hoST AGreeable | ||
| 25 | DROWSINESS |
Lethargy resulting from some heated rows in Essex (10)
|
| Hidden in heateD ROWS IN ESSex | ||
| 26 | IDOL |
Behold: Detective Inspector’s flipping hero (4)
|
| (Lo DI)rev. — Lo = Behold, DI = Detective Inspector | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SEDUCTRESS |
Dresses cut outrageously – for this one? (10)
|
| (Dresses cut)* | ||
| 2 | HOW DARE YOU |
Duke included in inquiry about health? The nerve! (3,4,3)
|
| How (D)are you? — How are you? is the enquiry after health (it’s my impression that this is something that’s made far more often nowadays than it used to be), D = Duke | ||
| 4 | EFFECTS |
Carries out belongings (7)
|
| 2 defs — I was slow with this because it seemed to be an anagram of ‘carries’ | ||
| 5 | RAT RUNS |
Contemptible sort oversees conveniences for motorists (but not residents) (3,4)
|
| Rat runs —rat = contemptible sort, runs = oversees | ||
| 6 | CHEESECLOTH |
What may be seen all around Lancashire? (11)
|
| CD — round in the three-dimensional but not the two-dimensional sense — ref Lancashire cheese — this mucked me up for a while since I had CHEESEBOARD, which makes just as good sense (2D not 3D). That’s why I dislike CDs. You’re not led to the answer | ||
| 7 | IPAD |
Everyman had to take on assistant, one dealing with email etc (4)
|
| PA in I’d — PA = Personal Assistant, I’d = Everyman had — the self-referential clue | ||
| 8 | NILE |
Nightingale’s wings in site of literary murder (4)
|
| Ni[ghtinga]le — ref Agatha Christie’s ‘ |
||
| 12 | GEORGE LUCAS |
Fidgety recluse agog, seeing Hollywood big-shot (6,5)
|
| *(recluse agog) | ||
| 13 | CELEBRATED |
Had fun? Noted (10)
|
| 2 defs | ||
| 14 | WEST BENGAL |
Gentle swab for treatment somewhere in India (4,6)
|
| (Gentle swab)* | ||
| 18 | PATTERN |
Guide is glib, high-flying type (7)
|
| pat tern — pat = glib, tern = high-flying type (the bird) | ||
| 19 | PRESSES |
A printmaker has these urges (7)
|
| 2 defs: a printmaker has printing presses, and urges = presses | ||
| 21 | ABED |
Lamb and Teddy regularly tucked up (4)
|
| [L]a[m]b [T]e[d]d[y] | ||
| 22 | SUMO |
Sport unleashing mammoth opponents, primarily? (4)
|
| The usual first letters clue |
Thank you John. I do like CDs (when I can get them), a bit like a clever Christmas cracker joke. Had no idea of the CD for CHEESECLOTH, and I did have to get it from crossers, but it made me laugh. I love cheese and Lancashire I had heard of, but CHEESECLOTH had another meaning for me …. the cheapest kaftan material you could get in the hippie 70s, and very suitable for Australian summers.
I couldn’t care less about fashion (as you can tell from my comment@1) but I disagree with the def for CLOTHESHORSE from the wordplay. A fashionista is usually a designer or follower of fashion. I know it’s early but here’s today’s earworm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stMf0S3xth0 Very kinky 🙂
I thought cheesecloth, the material, was used for both wrapping cheeses and making clothes. I enjoyed the clue.
I also thought this was back in proper Everyman territory after the last two weeks.
Thanks both.
Thanks, John for the blog!
Liked SOHO, CLOTHES HORSE and CHEESECLOTH.
KVa@4, so many of those letters are shared. Is there something going on here?
paddymelon@5
Must be a coincidence. I didn’t see anything special.
NILE
As John points out, Nightingale’s wings are unusually long.
Thought this one was just right
Likes DEWY, OFF THE WALL, CLOTHES HORSE, NILE
Thanks Everyman and John
I also thought CHEESEboard but had crossers that meant I couldn’t enter it, but I find cryptic definitions harder than many other clues. CHEESECLOTH is still sold, just as cotton muslin, I have some sitting waiting to be made up. Currently there’s a lot of double muslin around, which is less transparent than the 70s clothing. (On a school field trip, wearing a cheesecloth shirt over a skimpy vest, as we toiled up the chalk hill, the teenage boys behind me were commenting how either garment would be devastating alone, but together they were disappointingly decent.)
This Everyman took me about the same time as the week before, so the usual alternating longer time.
Thank you to Everyman and John.
Thanks for the blog , really enjoyed this and I think the standard was just right. For NILE I did like the use of the longer wings, in fact wings are rarely just the outer tips. CHEESECLOTH I think the definition is just right for this word so a good CD , like PDM I know the material for clothes , very good in hot weather .
DEW(e)Y I met in To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout gets it wrong and thinks it is a reading scheme.
One small query, John. How does PROJ rhyme with HOT?
Crispy@10 I do not think John quite means rhyme, he means a short O sound for a school prOject like in hOt .
Another tough one from Everyman. Lately I find the weekday and Saturday Prize puzzles to be easier. I would not recommend Everyman for beginners.
Thanks, both.
I really enjoyed the puzzle but didnt get STOPGAP and as a result didnt get PATTERN. For the latter I had convinced myself the answer was BITTERN, but didn’t know why, which is a sure sign it’s wrong.
I loved the CLOTHESHORSE clue. It really made me smile and opened up the puzzle nicely.
John, re CHEESECLOTH: I think there could be said to be a third dimension here as Lancashire, in the days of the cotton mills, was known for its cloth as well as cheese.
I saw somewhere that the English spelling of the antelope is RHEBOK, REEBOK is Afrikaans, so perhaps should have had an indication.
CHEESECLOTH took me back to when I worked in Sainsbury’s. One of my jobs was to take it off to prepare the cheese. I liked the glib high-flyer.
@John: Not that it affects the answer, but the Agatha Christie book is Death On The Nile, not Murder … It has been filmed several times.
Only got CHEESECLOTH from the crossers, and had to wait for the blog to understand it – probably because I’d never heard of Lancashire cheese until today. Also couldn’t figure out where the ending P was coming from in STOPGAP, thinking it was a contraction of PC – hadn’t thought of a penny.
At the time I found this on the difficult end of the Everyman spectrum, but looking over it today I’m not really sure why.
I particulalry liked SOHO, DEWY and HOW DARE YOU.
Thanks to Everyman for the puzzle, and to John for a very clear blog.
I, too, found this more difficult than usual, but perhaps I was having a bad day (or weekend as I also found the Paul Prize very tortuous).
I liked the sew hoe for SOHO, the SE CRETE, the well-hidden DROWSINESS, the good extended definition for SEDUCTRESS, and I did like CHEESECLOTH although I needed some crossers to get it (but it is a cross-word after all).
Thanks Everyman and John.
Everyman is getting harder by the week and today’s is no exception – I’ll comment more fully next week. This is no longer an entry level crossword and is significantly more difficult than the two published in the Guardian on a Monday.
I grew up in Lancashire, so know the cheese well. It didn’t stop me entering CHEESECAKES though, which almost works.
Didn’t parse CHEESECLOTH, but I got it OK. 14 minutes, almost a personal best, so pleased. OFF THE WALL and SECRETE were my favourites.
Just noticing a running on of answers: BLUE CHEESE – CHEESECLOTH – CLOTHESHORSE. Is there a name for this phenomenon?
Daisy-chain.
Like Project after I eventually worked it out. Couldn’t parse Cheesecloth. Liked George Lucas and Refraction. Maybe anagrams are my favourite.
I have never really “got on” with the current Everyman, but I agree that the Everymen are getting tougher. Of course, there is always an easy starter from the “primarily” clue, and a bit of help from the rhyming or related pair, but some of the other clues are definitely not entry-level, and I wouldn’t still routinely recommend it to beginners.
From this week’s, the sew hoe made me smile, as did SE CRETE. Liked SEDUCTRESS, HOW DARE YOU and CHEESECLOTH when the penny finally dropped (it was my last in).
I’m with you on that Gladys. At the beginning of ‘new Everyman’ the cluing style was so different, I did wonder whether it could ever come back to the gentle precision of its previous compilers.
Alan Connor/Everyman has written columns for years on all things cryptic. And now he’s the Editor of the Guardian puzzles. He may be finding it difficult to maintain that entry level, compiling cryptics based on his advanced knowledge, and tastes, no doubt. And now he’s even busier, maybe too busy to read the blogs here. He did drop in earlier to but haven’t heard from him for a while. Don’t know who is the Observer’s crossword Editor, or if indeed there is one. Don’t get me wrong. I like his puzzles, but they do seem to be getting increasingly difficult.
I agree with pervious comments that this week’s was more a return to normal service. I’d like to add my thanks to Fiona for her well-worded comments on the unfortunate spate of solving time postings. I’m not really sure why I find it so distasteful but I’m pleased its almost ceased.
lg@26, as a perennial beginner I much prefer the ‘new Everyman’ over his predecessor, where, having stored a bank of 1 to 3 letter words and abbreviations, it was a just matter of following the instructions to piece them together. I find the current style a comforting bend of novelty and familiarity.
Thanks John and Everyman.
Tutukaka sounds like an embarrassing accident at the Royal Ballet School, but I see that it’s a delightful city in the North Island.
Paul@28 totally agree, “I solved this in 15 minutes” is a right turn-off.
Sadly WD either doesn’t read this blog or is too thick-skinned to take the hint.
paul b@29 🙂
[ChromeOS is telling me I last came to this blog 154,481 days ago, so Happy New Year 1600.]
I’m a Kinks fan, so I liked paddymelon@2’s earworm. Surprised that the word Carnabetian hasn’t earned a place in every dictionary after all this time.
Thanks E&J
Now that I’ve solved this I thought it was fine despite never having heard of the library system and Google giving a different spelling of Rhebok.
Did not finish – might be the heat & humidity here in Whangaparaoa! STOPGAP & PATTERN the two we didn’t get. However liked CLOTHESHORSE & OFF THE WALL & CHEESECLOTH. Thanks Everyman!
The Everyman cryptics are definitely getting harder. Too hard for me.
As I have for the last few puzzles, I found this one impossible.
To the “I solved this in 15 minutes” crowd: go stick your head in a pig! 🙂
Much more difficult working through the clues in sticky Epsom Auckland,
I did like SOHO, HOW DARE YOU – took me a while to get cheeseCLOTH
Rob.
I loved that fans of two distinct genres of music were able to get Off the wall
I wonder how many of us would own up to liking both
I’m one and happy to admit to it!
Another clue I loved ‘how dare you’ which is oddly the name of another album I abs adore fm similar era
I thought 2D was brilliant. I’d heard of blaubok etc so reebok was OK but opted for the other spelling.
I agree with paddy about fashionista.
EVERYMAN is about the top of my level – I don’t think it can honestly described as entry level.
As for Pink Floyd they were after my time. Id like to see a clue for Awopbopaluma alopbamboom.!
20a Isn’t ‘clotheshorse’ single word meaning dandy?