The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/4039.
That went down very easily – parhaps Everyman has noted some of the comments on his recent puzzles (11A SOLVE and 8D FIENDISH might be relevant in this context). Anyway, the constructions here are particularly straightforward, and his usual trademarks, all present and correct, are highlighted in the grid – this time a paired contrast of WHITE and BLACK in 4D and 19D, the ‘primarily’ clue, the self reference, the geographical reference, and two one-word anagrams.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BESTREWS |
Covers loosely with cropped top and trousers (8)
|
| A charade of BES[t] (‘top’) minus its last letter (‘cropped’) plus TREWS (‘trousers’). | ||
| 5 | RAN OFF |
Printed – and hightailed it (3,3)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 9 | MAESTRI |
Musical aces exhibiting supreme talent regarding instrumentation, primarily? (7)
|
| First letters (‘primarily’) of ‘Musical Aces Exhibiting Supreme Talent Regarding Instrumentation’, &lit. | ||
| 10 | BRIOCHE |
Round child tucked in to cheese roll (7)
|
| An envelope (‘tucked into’) of O (’round’) plus CH (‘child’) in BRIE (‘cheese’). | ||
| 11 | SOLVE |
Decipher crossword’s clues? Only about five (5)
|
| An envelope (‘about’) of V (Roman numeral, ‘five’) in SOLE (‘only’). | ||
| 12 | ENAMOURED |
Attracted by quirky demeanour (9)
|
| An anagram (‘quirky’) of ‘demeanour’. | ||
| 13 | DRUNKENNESS |
Ken sends urn toppling in debauchery (11)
|
| An anagram (‘toppling’) of ‘ken sends urn’. | ||
| 17 | I PROMISE YOU |
Everyman has room for improvement, reader: honestly! (1,7,3)
|
| A charade of I (‘Everyman’) plus PROMISE (‘room for improvement’) plus YOU (‘reader’). | ||
| 20 | AMPERSAND |
Central character in Dungeons & Dragons? (9)
|
| The exact centre only if you include the question mark. | ||
| 22 | HEADS |
Manages nuts and loaves (5)
|
| Triple definition. | ||
| 23 | TRIFLES |
Desserts with flirts (7)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 24 | ERITREA |
Land – ground – earthier – not hard (7)
|
| An anagram (‘ground’) of ‘eart[h]ier’ minus the H (‘not hard’). | ||
| 25 | CIGARS |
Vacantly idling in vehicles: they’ll produce smoke (6)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of IG (‘vacantly IdlinG‘) in CARS (‘vehicles’). | ||
| 26 | ESTRANGE |
Some priest ran Georgia, leading to disunite (8)
|
| A hidden answer (‘some’) in ‘priEST RAN GEorgia’. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BEMUSE |
Live around flightless birds in muddle (6)
|
| An envelope (‘around’) of EMUS (‘flightless birds’) in BE (‘live’). | ||
| 2 | STEALS |
Nicks from old swords caught (6)
|
| Sounds like (‘caught’) STEELS (‘old swords’). | ||
| 3 | ROTTERDAM |
Scoundrel and lunatic brought up in N Sea port (9)
|
| A charade of ROTTER (‘scoundrel’) plus DAM, a reversal (‘brought up’ in a down light) of MAD (‘lunatic’, adjective). | ||
| 4 | WHITE RUSSIANS |
Alcoholic drinks, assuredly not some 1917 reds (5,8)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 6 | AMIGO |
Old soldier and mother heading up to see friend in Seville (5)
|
| A reversal (‘heading up’ in a down light) of O (‘old’) plus GI (US ‘soldier’) plus MA (‘mother’). | ||
| 7 | OCCURRED |
Took place in company, rising, better – about right? (8)
|
| An envelope (‘about’) of R (‘right’) in OC, a reversal (‘rising’ in a down light) plus CURED (‘better’). | ||
| 8 | FIENDISH |
Tricky; finished struggling (8)
|
| An anagram (‘struggling’) of ‘finished’. | ||
| 10 | BLACK-EYED PEAS |
Pleased by ‘cake’ that’s reconstituted pulses (5-4,4)
|
| An anagram (‘that’s reconstituted’) of ‘pleased by cake’. | ||
| 14 | NAUGHTIER |
Less well behaved; more like Fanny Adams? (9)
|
| A whimsical play on NAUGHT as zero (sweet ‘Fanny Adams’). | ||
| 15 | DIDACTIC |
Performed with a cold jerk that’s preachy (8)
|
| A charade of DID (‘performed’) plus ‘a’ plus C (‘cold’) plus TIC (‘jerk’). | ||
| 16 | TRIPPING |
On LSD, that’s staggering (8)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 18 | MACRON |
President’s computer working to suppress resistance (6)
|
| An envelope (‘to suppress’) of R (‘resistance’, electrical symbol) in MAC (‘computer’) plus ON (‘working’). | ||
| 19 | ESCAPE |
Avoid dunce’s cap, excelling (though only somewhat) (6)
|
| A hidden answer (‘though only somewhat’) in ‘duncES CAP Excelling’. | ||
| 21 | RULER |
Governor that’s needed by draughtsman (5)
|
| Double definition. |
Top faves: I PROMISE YOU (for the ‘room for improvement’…there is always!), WHITE RUSSIANS (may not be revolutionary; nice one tho), NAUGHTIER (FAer-fetched? No. I love these whimsies) and CIGARS (Remembered The Big Smoke).
Thanks PeterO for your lovely and neat blog (after blog after blog)!
AMPERSAND
If the abbreviation D&D is considered, the & is at the centre. & it seems to work!
AMPERSAND
I think PeterO’s parsing is plausible as a question mark is a character too.
Apologies for not appreciating it (due to lack of understanding) earlier.
I don’t think we need to be so picky (or precise), KVa: in a three word phrase, the second is the middle no matter how long the outside words are. I took PeterO’s comment to be whimsical. I do agree with your favourites, though, and that the level here was friendlier. Thanks, Everyman and PeterO.
Agree this seemed more straightforward but no less enjoyable. & the run of special keyboard characters continues. Thanks PeterO & Everyman.
TassieTim@3
& again
Thanks for your comment. If a clue is precise, it pleases more than when it’s less precise. That said, there is so much I miss every day. So what to say!
Something in the context:
In the clue to GNAW, I noted that the word was in the centre of ‘Design a whirl’.
(yesterday by Alan B@35-G Brummie)
A nibble nonetheless. Just got yummier with what Alan B accentuated).
26ac’d be credibler if the priest rang Estonia rather than running Georgia 🙂 . (Just musing, I couldn’t compile a crossword to save my life!) Anyway, nice Sunday puzzle, not at all a fiendish solve, thanks PnE.
Top ticks for AMPERSAND, I PROMISE YOU and HEAD as it’s always nice to see the lesser-spotted triple def in the wild
Cheers P&E
WHITE RUSSIANS was my FOI and it made me smile.
Other favourites were: CIGARS, I PROMISE YOU, BEMUSE, MACRON (took me ages to get the computer even tho it’s mine), BRIOCHE
And agree it was more straightforward than some a few weeks ago
Thanks Everyman and PeterO
Thanks for the blog, I thought this was much better, I hope the newer solvers enjoyed it, perhaps 17Ac was the message.
ERITREA makes it into Jay’s list and was a very good clue, two long, complete anagrams as well .
AMPERSAND continuing the theme as noted by Paul@4 , D & D was always a useful warning sign when I was a student.
Pleasant puzzle, good for beginners.
New for me: TREWS = trousers.
Thanks, both.
grantinfreo@6
ESTRANGE
I am not getting the Estonia-Georgia joke. What is it about?
Roz@9
I PROMISE YOU
perhaps 17Ac was the message
🙂
KVa@11 Grant may not be back? depends on time zones, his very clever comment was a different way of hiding the answer.
I did wonder if the clue was a reference to Stalin who nearly became a priest in Georgia.
Thanks Roz@12
ESTRANGE
I saw the hidden ESTRANGE in his suggested clue but couldn’t understand the surface/context. Thanks.
I agree this was a more straightforward puzzle than of recent times.
Thank you to PeterO and Everyman.
Indeed, quite inoffensive for a change, but no complaints about it – was done in time for making the lunch 😮
Liked SOLVE, I PROMISE YOU, HEADS and DIDACTIC. NAUGHTIER was a bit like TIDIEST a couple of weeks ago. Didn’t know there was the same bestrew in English as bestreuen in German.
Thank you, Everyman and PeterO
Good misdirection in 19d – I spent too long looking for a word beginning with D (Dunces ‘cap’)
I ripped through most of this but then got stuck on the BESTREWS / STEALS pairing. Gave them another 20mins and gave up. Came back later and tentatively bunged them in but had no idea of why steals was correct until a friend explained the homophone.
Bestrews seems almost a contrived word and certainly one I never imagine I will use, hear or read. I looked up “SWORD” in an online thesaurus which had something like 39 alternatives and STEEL was not one of them. Using “caught” as a homophone just makes the clue ever more not beginner-friendly.
To me that’s poor if the idea of the Everyman is to make it accessible. Having started doing these when I was a beginner I accepted there was stuff I wouldn’t get. But as I’ve improved these have also got harder.
I’ve been expecting a Sunday morning solve which I know I will complete fairly quickly and without getting stuck by the last 2-3 clues being stupidly tough as has regularly happened over the past few months. Consequently it is with heavy heart it’s reached the time to drop Everyman from my regular crosswording. I bid you all farewell and the best of solving.
HG@17 – you needed to look up STEEL: ‘2 (countable) Any item made of this metal, particularly including: Bladed or pointed weapons, as swords, javelins, daggers’
And “caught” is a very common homophone indicator.
Examples of bestrew in a Sentence – the flower girl delightedly bestrewed the aisle with rose petals – Recent Examples on the Web:
Home to more than 230 species of plants and a balanced assortment of insects—bees prominent among them—the garden is bestrewn with colorful placards educating summer strollers as to the wonders of pollination and the tiny creatures responsible. —Ryan P. Smith, Smithsonian, 17 May 2018
Why, Daedalus wondered, are the world’s cities bestrewed with graffiti even though scientists, years ago, had perfected the porcelain enamel surfaces that make self-cleaning ovens possible? —Sam Roberts, New York Times, 30 July 2017
Trifles: is it a DD? Can trifle mean flirt?
Liked: White Russians: tried to think of drinks that rhymed with peas, then I remembered the pair isn’t always a rhyming pair.
Fans of swashbuckling books and drama, like myself, remember the phrase “Taste my steel!” in swordfights HG@17. I hope you don’t drop Everyman from your regular puzzling. I’d consider myself just above beginner level, and I think this was an approachable puzzle. Without giving any spoilers, I’d strongly suggest trying today’s.
Thanks S&B.
Zihuatanejo@19, yes Collins and Webster’s gives “flirt” as a synonym of “trifle with”, as in “to trifle with someone’s affections”.
HG@17 I agree with Lechien@20 , keep going , crossword solving is all about being stubborn and with time we get better even if sometimes it does not feel like it.
Lechien@20 Re: I’d strongly suggest trying today’s. – No, not here, 5 in the south still to get 🙁
jayuu@23: OK, this was 20 minutes too early – done now 🙂
People must be getting tired of my moans (when I blog as John) about ‘with’ as a link-word (rather than a juxtaposition indicator, as in 15dn). Here we have it twice: at 1ac, where I can’t off the top of my head see how it can be avoided except with a complete re-write, and at 23ac, where the surface would in my opinion be improved if it were “Flirts with desserts”, painting a picture of someone who is trying to stay off desserts but finds it hard; as it is the surface seems meaningless to me; and the ‘with’ would then be correctly part of the definition, trifles = flirts with. But perhaps Everyman thinks it’s OK. If so I’d find that surprising, since he is so Ximenean in everything else he does.
Cheers Lechian@21, thanks for that. Every day is a school day. I think these pesky cryptic crosswords are improving my vocab if nothing else.
Wil Ransome@25: This is probably a valid point in some cases, but adding with to the definition of 1ac (Covers loosely with = BESTREWS) would possibly solve it in the same way as Flirts with desserts (which would indeed be better imo) does.
[Dresses (say, a salad) in cropped top and trousers might perhaps work as well, if you’re OK with in instead of with.]
My thought on BESTREWS (my LoI) was that you have to get top=BEST, lop off the T and then immediately add it on again as the start of TREWS. It all seemed rather inelegant to me and made me pause for some time before entering it.
jayuu@27: that’s a good adjustment for BESTREWS. It could even be ‘Dresses loosely in …’.
This was pretty okay going, apart from BESTREWS needing parsing (trews is a new word) and I am not familiar with the use of “Steels” in the plural to signify swords…to use Lechien@20’s example it would be “Taste our Steel!”, but I’m just being pernickety. Thanks to Everyman and to PeterO for the blog
Liked the special Paddy’s Day colours, PeterO! 😉
Liked 17ac & D&D!
After a long while i saw trews – was it Donald who lost his trews?
Getting colder here in Auckland’s Epsom.
Rob.
Great puzzle, certainly tested us here in Whangaparaoa. DIDACTIC; AMPERSAND; WHITE RUSSIANS our favourites today. Brains are a tad slow after hosting drinks last night so that’s our excuse for having to look up BESTREWS even though I had the TREWS part!
Thanks for the blog & to Everyman for another great cryptic crossword
Finished it off this morning.
Good puzzle withonly quibble that ‘suppresses’ as used in 18d to kean surrounds seems a bit odd.