The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/4031.
It has been a while since Everyman has produced a puzzle with alliterative linked long clues, in this case 1A TONGUE TWISTERS (nice anagram), 4D TOOLS OF THE TRADE, and 25A TREASURE TROVES. There are more than the usual geographical clues, in 10A NASSAU and 21A ANKARA, with a third doubling as the self-reference, 5D IBERIA, and the ‘primarily’ clue 22D KIROV.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | TONGUE TWISTERS |
Stuttering, so we mangled these? (6,8)
|
| An anagram (‘mangled’) of ‘stuttering so we’. With or without a hyphen, but with an extended definition.. | ||
| 8 | CROC |
Footwear from scaly reptile (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 9 | LIONEL BART |
The Spanish tucked into chocolate snack before tango with songwriter (6,4)
|
| A charade of LIONELBAR, an envelope (‘tucked into’) of EL (‘the Spanish’) in LION BAR (brand name, ‘chocolate snack’); plus T (phonetic alphabet, ‘tango’). ‘With’ is a link to the composer of Oliver! among much else. | ||
| 10 | NASSAU |
Sixth to recognise fool’s gold, somewhere in the Bahamas (6)
|
| A charade of N (‘sixth to recogNise’) plus ASS (‘fool’) plus (the apostrophe s, for has) AU (chemical symbol, ‘gold’). | ||
| 11 | SPITEFUL |
Malicious, up itself play (8)
|
| An anagram (‘play’) of ‘up itself’. | ||
| 12 | NOISES OFF |
Theatrical farce no one gets rid of (though second character cut) (6,3)
|
| A charade of ‘no’ plus I (‘one’) plus S[e]ES OFF (‘gets rid of’) minus the second letter (‘though second character cut’), for the play by Michael Frayn. | ||
| 14 | SITE |
In announcement, name location on the web (4)
|
| Sounds like (‘in announcement’) CITE (‘name’). | ||
| 15 | CHIP |
Fry – and damage (4)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 16 | CHASTENED |
Humiliated Head of Communications was anxious (9)
|
| A charade of C (‘head of Communications’) plus HASTENED (‘was anxious’?). | ||
| 20 | INSTRUCT |
Advise against ructions (in part) (8)
|
| A hidden answer (‘in part’) in ‘agaINST RUCTions’. | ||
| 21 | ANKARA |
Some out-drank a rake in Turkish city (6)
|
| A hidden answer (‘some’) in ‘out-drANK A RAke’. | ||
| 23 | NOEL COWARD |
Playwright’s retrospective to depict old, cold Spanish kingdom (4,6)
|
| A reversal (‘retrospective’) of DRAW (‘depict’) plus O (‘old’) plus C (‘cold’) plus LEON (‘Spanish kingdom’ independent from 910-1230 and again 1296-1301) | ||
| 24 | RAIL |
A wading bird in a bar (4)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 25 | TREASURE TROVES |
Cut-off trousers and vest are, surprisingly, items of great value (8,6)
|
| An anagram (‘surprisingly’) of ‘trouser[s]’ minus the last letter (‘cut-off’) plus ‘vest are’. The plural looks odd, but Collins on-line gives TREASURE TROVE as a countable noun [usually singular] – and no mention of treasures trove. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | TORNADO |
What’s travelled quickly, leading to stir? (7)
|
| A charade of TORN (‘travelled quickly’, past participle) plus (‘leading to’) ADO (‘stir’). Not the happiest of &lit-style clues. | ||
| 2 | NICKS |
Thieves in prisons (5)
|
| Double definition (thieve as a verb). | ||
| 3 | UMLAUTS |
Marks given to Mötley Crüe? (7)
|
| Cryptic definition. | ||
| 4 | TOOLS OF THE TRADE |
Equipment swap? Quite the reverse! (5,2,3,5)
|
| ‘The reverse’ TRADE OF THE TOOLS would be ‘swap’. | ||
| 5 | IBERIA |
Everyman increasingly intoxicated, overheard in warmer part of Europe (6)
|
| A charade of I (‘Everyman’) plus BERIA, sounding like (‘overheard’) BEERIER (‘increasingly intoxicated’). | ||
| 6 | TABLE WINE |
Bill reduced slightly, Morse’s colleague (Geordie) wanting cheapest plonk (5,4)
|
| A charade of TAB (‘bill’) plus LEWI[s] (‘Morse’s colleague’ in Colin Dexter’s books) minus the last letter (‘slightly reduced’) plus NE (North-East, the ‘Geordie’ area of England).TABLE WINE, particularly in EU regulations, is the lowest ranking. | ||
| 7 | RE-ROUTE |
Find new direction for overture, not very flowing (2-5)
|
| An anagram (‘flowing’) of ‘o[v]erture’ minus the V (‘not very’). | ||
| 13 | SCINTILLA |
Still, I can dance a little (9)
|
| An anagram (‘dance’) of ‘still I can’. | ||
| 15 | CANDOUR |
Honesty also seen in court? Not quite (7)
|
| An envelope (‘seen in’) of AND (‘also’) in ‘cour[t]’ minus its last letter (‘not quite’). | ||
| 17 | SLANDER |
Smear last bit of oil into power tool (7)
|
| An envelope (‘into’) of L (‘last bit of oiL‘) in SANDER (‘power tool’). | ||
| 18 | EARWIGS |
Secretly listens in on (bugs) (7)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 19 | SUDOKU |
Both sides of Atlantic flipping over party puzzle (6)
|
| An envelope (‘over’) of DO (‘party’) in SU plus KU, reversals (‘flipping’) of US ans UK (‘both sides of Atlantic’). | ||
| 22 | KIROV |
Kinaesthetically immaculate Russians’ orchestrated variations, primarily? (5)
|
| The first letters (‘primarily’) of ‘Kinaesthetically Immaculate Russians’ Orchestrated Variations’, for a former name of the Russian ballet and orchestra resident in the Mariinksy Theatre in Saint Petersburg. |
I like this grid and was pleased to see it after such a long time.
Got the top and bottom answers quickly but needed a few crosses to get the middle one.
Favourites included: NOEL COWARD (long time since I have seen Leon as a Spanish Kingdom) SUDOKU, LIONEL BART, NOISES OFF, CANDOUR (my LOI) TABLE WINE
Thanks Everyman and PeterO
Thanks Everyman and PeterO!
Top faves: TONGUE TWISTERS, TABLE WINE and SUDOKU.
TOOLS OF THE TRADE
Unless we take the ‘equipment swap’ together, it doesn’t seem to
lead us to TRADE OF THE TOOLS. Am I missing something?
To the news puzzle (FT) fans: It’s a Julius this week.
I echo Fiona@1 and would like to add UMLAUTS. A good Everyman I think.
Thanks both.
Thanks Peter O for your blog.. I couldn’t wrap my head around TOOLS OF THE TRADE. Thanks for that, too.
I didn’t gel with this puzzle. Didn’t have the GK for the theatrical clues, but I don’t mind that, if the wordplay gets me there and google confirms.. Maybe Everyman thought they’d be too obvious to British solvers from definition, crossers and letter count, so he decided to make the clues for NOEL COWARD and LIONEL BART quite busy, throwing in Spanish, old and new, and a chocolate bar trade name as well. I found NOISES OFF the most difficult, as I couldn’t see the s(e)es off.
Wasn’t very keen on both sides of the Atlantic clued by US and UK, as there are 100+ countries, I read somewhere. But I s’pose the phrase is in common usage in the US and the UK. And it’s not just ‘coz ThE and AtlantiC got me nowhere. 🙂
I also found TABLE WINE a bit of an effort, with lots of particles, also requiring GK.
Not to my taste really, but I was happy to eventually come to the correct answer for each clue with a bit of help.
Favs were TREASURE TROVES and KIROV for the surfaces.
Lots of good clues with SUDOKU being my favourite. Thanks PeterO and Everyman.
Thanks for the blog, I was glad to see the alliteration return, it has been a while. We must have had T before , Jay will know.
KIROV was a very good primarily clue, the name is still used, often in brackets, especially for tours abroad. I suppose it sells more tickets than Marinsky .
I found this a slower solve than I usually find an Everyman, but all in and parsed.
I’ve seen TREASURE TROVES used to decribe a number of troves found in an area – e.g. near larger houses where Royalist families hid goods and church accoutrements as the area was taken by Parliamentary forces during the Civil War.
Noises Off is definitely a farce, could even be shown in the Noel Coward theatre (was the Albery). Having seen it in the 80s, I’m with the critics wondering why it was revived recently, actually in the Phoenix Theatre.
Thank you to PeterO and Everyman.
Roz@6, yes indeed. THICK AS THIEVES appeared in 1a the last time we had a T, no.3956.
I enjoyed this puzzle but I am still rather perplexed with 16a although I put in the answer. Why is ‘was anxious’ ‘hastened’? One might lead to the other but in what way do they mean the same thing? Am I missing something?
Defeated by NOISES OFF. Unfamiliar with the play and the clue was a tricky one. Parsing TABLE WINE was also difficult, unacquainted as I am with Morse and his colleague.
Thanks Jay@8 , just checked my diaries and TONGUE TWISTER ( no s ) appeared in April 2020 , same place , same T alliterations.
Christopher @9 good enough for a crossword I suppose anxious=eager=hasty .
Kva @2 re 4d maybe the whole clue is an extended def or, at a stretch, “quite the reverse” is the def?
Plodded through this all week and made a few mistakes in the end and sitting here feeling the difficulty level just keeps increasing. So many I would never have parsed (Nassau!) but glad I persevered and grateful to everyone here.
Bodycheetah@13
Possible.
My view…
I see the whole clue participating in the wordplay. Def seems to be ‘equipment’ and
nothing else. The ‘equipment’ does overtime?
Thanks Setter and Blogger
Seemed fairly standard – nothing so good or bad that I still remember after 7 days.
I got tongue twisters early and spent rest of puzzle looking for/expecting examples – oh well
Cara @14, I would prefer to say ”attempts” rather than ”mistakes”. NASSAU was a bit tricky. I found this crossword overall a bit of a struggle too. Good on you for persevering.
I really enjoyed this puzzle and thought it a good example of Everyman. There were some usual excellent clues. IBERIA and LIONEL BART are two, but because I wrote in ISTRIA (which doesn’t make sense) I didnt get the the second clue, despite guessing LION BAR. I got all the rest though, so I am definitely improving, as is the plan.
Thanks both Everyman and PeterO
Favourite: SUDOKU.
I could not parse 1d TORNADO.
New for me: LIONEL BART (also LION bar is new for me).
Thanks, both.
I liked SCINTILLA for the poignant (for me) surface.
@14 Cara … think you mentioned in last week’s blog you’d found that one tough? I’d just just attempted this one when I read your comment and thought “That ain’t getting any better”.
I found this one unenjoyable – eventually finishing at third attempt on Monday. I had about 9 answers on my first attempt which lasted about as long as I’d taken to complete the puzzle on previous weeks. Two more attempts netted about 8-9 answers each.
Enjoyed the cluing for SUDOKU and SCINTILLA though!
Though chips are fried, I’m struggling to see how fry=CHIP. I don’t see it working either as a verb or as a noun.
Poc @22 french fry?
I have no actual knowledge but I think the burger take-away places just say fries to mean chips in the UK . My students have a series of jokes involving fries to tease students doing other subjects.
In 1D, “travelled quickly” would be tore, not torn, surely?
poc@22: if fish with (French) fries = fish and chips…
Favourite was SUDOKU. Struggled with all of LIONEL BART, NOISES OFF (LOI) and NOEL COWARD, none of which were known to me.
Otherwise, NOEL COWARD had exactly the same surface as APROPOS from the week before, and TOOLS OF THE TRADE seemed very similar to T-bone’s opposite a fortnight ago but not quite; I’m with KVa@2 on this and agree with Bodycheetah@13 that it’s rather a &lit. (I’d probably welcome something like “Stationery equipment swap? …”)
Thanks for the puzzle and the blog.
@17 Paddymelon – attempts I like a lot more!
@21 HG – it felt like I was wading through quicksand. I may well sink this week…thanks for your kind words : )
I’m very surprised that only Christopher@9 and Roz@12 have addressed hastened = was anxious (in 16ac). It seems too much of a stretch. Anxious = eager = hasty [= was hasty = hastened] is not really very convincing to me. And to say that it’s good enough for a crossword: that goes against the whole idea of crosswords that I have — one needs to be quite precise, and usually Everyman is. But not here.
9ac, LIONEL BART: ‘With’ (meaning ‘using’) works better as [Def] with [wordplay], imo.
10ac, NASSAU: don’t really like apostrophe-S for ‘has’ indicating possession, when it’s only really used to form tenses in natural English.
Roz@24, I would love to hear one of your students’ ‘fries’ jokes.
Wil Ransome@28 et al. Collins online has hasten in BE explicitly as “2. (transitive) to be anxious (to say something)
I hasten to add that we are just good friends“
I enjoyed this! Struggled with LIONEL BART and CHASTENED but could do all the rest! Thanks Everyman and PeterO
Tony @ 29 – They claim that students doing subject X spend 3 years learning to say 6 words.
Will let you have a guess.
What do you say to a subject Y graduate ? – Think about it.
I think that 4dn either lacks a proper definition or requires “Equipment” to do double duty, a minor flaw.
I had a different impression from Roz regarding 22dn (the “primarily” clue). I’m not a big fan of these in general, but I thought that this on was one of the most contrived and silly yet.
[Just used the “edit” feature for the first time to fix a minor but slightly embarrassing typo. Glad it’s there!]
I strongly agree with Wil Ransome@28 about “hastened”. The Collins definition doesn’t convince me and is not supported by either Chambers or the COD.
Robin Gilbert@34 [fwiw, Cambridge Dictionary seems to be d’accord: If you hasten to say something, you want (= are eager, anxious?) to make it clear]
Roz@32, nope, can’t guess either of X or Y. I think I need some wordplay.
My feelings are aligned with what is written above – some very enjoyable clues mixed with some challenging, fiddly clues that were not as rewarding to me.
Being new to the Guardian, I am going to ask a basic question. Guardian seems to have four weekly puzzles – Quiptic, Everyman, Azed and Prize. I get the Quiptic Azed and Prize, but would someone please explain how Everyman fits into the scheme?
[ Roz@32, I have a couple of guesses, but in case I’m right I don’t want to spoil it for others. If the students of X and Y were American, might they have gone to the Library of Congress for some of their research? ]
Martyn @ 37
Everyman is the Sunday puzzle which appears in The Observer, which was an independent newspaper until it was acquired by the Guardian group in 1993.
These days it is little more than a different flag on the overall graun website.
To my knowledge the Everyman crossword is not under the control of the Guardian crossword edditor.
Simon S @39, Everyman IS the Guardian crossword editor.
Martin @37, we also have the monthly Genius puzzle on the first Monday of the month, highly recommended.
Simon S @39 – the Guardian Crossword editor (link to Blog entry announcing this) is the same person who compiles the Everyman (link to Guardian blog Meet the Setter) and the Crossword blog, Alan Connor, since Hugh Stephenson retired recently.
Thank you to Roz, Jayuu, Will Ransome and Robin Gilbert for discussing “was anxious” and “hastened” in 16a. I still have my doubts but just two to solve and understand on 4,032!
That the Guardian crossword editor and the Observer crossword setter are the same person doesn’t de facto mean that they are subject to the same process.
Alan Connor was Everyman well before he took over Hugn Stephenson’s role, initially pro tem, then on a permanent basis.
If as Guardian crossword editor he is also Observer crossword setter and editor he is essentially marking his own homework. That is not a good thing, but essentially supports my point, I bellieve.
The only other editor, to my knowledge, who both edits and has his own puzzles published in the same paper is Mike Hutchinson / Eimi in the Indy, but his puzzles are pretty infrequent.
[ Tony@36 these were old jokes when I was a student, usually about PPE students.
Students of certain unnamed subjects have three years of struggle learning to say 6 words-
Do you want fries with that ?
What do you say to a graduate student of xxxxxx? – I would like a Big Mac and fries please ]
Martyn @ 37 as mentioned above the Everyman is an Observer puzzle , part of the Guardian group but still separate, The editorial position is now somewhat confused. Traditionally it was an entry puzzle for beginners , I learnt to do cryptics using the Everyman, I would suggest it does not fulfil the role so well now.
Azed is also from the Observer and I suspect that no-one dares to edit Azed.
Martyn@37 again. I do not do the Quiptic , it is only online. Maybe it has the Everyman role now ??
Thanks all – I get the picture now
I find the Everyman difficulty varies, often alternating weeks of a crossword that I can solve in a time I can solve many Quiptics with a crossword that takes me the same time as many Cryptics. That said, Quiptics vary too.
Got the gold bit of Nassau, couldn’t parse the rest.
Liked the anagrams as usual.
Liked umlauts (at fifth attempt).
21 minutes, about average. I liked NOEL COWARD and TABLE WINE and CHIP was my LOI.
Basically impossible puzzle. Far too many obscurities and indecipherable intricacies to be enjoyable.
I agree with those who found this tricky, with too many contrived clues or poor definitions, 23 a and 4 d were especially poor imho.
As an amateur actor I have heard of Noises Off but many solvers won’t, and the wp was just forced.
Pity, they have been good recently.
Really enjoyed this especially UMLAUTS; NOISES OFF; NASSAU
Still no idea why @51WhiteDevil thinks we care about their time but hey ho, sun is shining & we have a beer tasting to organise. Thanks all!
I don’t think the parsing of TORNADO quite works. Travellers quickly could be tore, not torn. When i finally got Noises Off it led me to tornado but I don’t think the clue was much help.
For Barrie in Auckland : Dolphin did it a few years back. maybe you were in it!
I actually found this quite enjoyable – not easy tho and a few odd clues.
I must be the only one who found the clue obscure for Table Wine, I have no idea how you would ever work it out. The only reason i got it was ‘cheapest plonk’ and had no idea how any of the other parts of the clue contributed. I’ve never heard of beerier either
Kiwisingle @54 just about every amateur theatre has done Noises Off, it’s a staple (and a good one too). I have done many plays at Dolphin but not that one, in fact I have never done it. One day maybe.
Noises off and tornado really spoilt what was, otherwise a good and tricky puzzle.
Yes, don’t make them easy but make then reasonable.