The consensus seems to be that the difficulty level of the Everyman puzzle has moved upwards in recent times. They are still well-constructed and pleasing puzzles, though, in my opinion. I enjoyed solving and blogging this one, which contained its usual trademark rhyming pair, self-reference and (rather short) first letter clue.
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 Is no longer interested in row, abandoned with gusto
OUTGROWS
(ROW GUSTO)* with ‘abandoned’ as the anagrind.
5 Amateur scales back, being more than dozy
ASLEEP
A charade of A and PEELS reversed.
9 Starts to figure out problem? Dandy!
FOP
The initial letters of ‘figure’, ‘out’ and ‘problem’.
10 Falling apart with bile, pair of unionists: slow down there!
BUILT-UP AREA
(APART BILE UU)* with ‘falling’ as the anagrind.
12 One observes small tattoo put on part of chest as an alternative
SPECTATOR
A charade of S, PEC, TAT and OR.
13 Again performed piece of theatre didactically
REDID
Hidden n theatRE DIDactically.
14 Agitated, caused queasy feelings in the main
ROCKED THE BOAT
A dd cum cd.
18 Often the alias is deployed to appear insincere
HIT A FALSE NOTE
(OFTEN THE ALIAS)* with ‘is deployed’ as the anagrind.
20 One of our feathered friends who travelled around the world?
DRAKE
A dd. I shouldn’t really, since the answer is not the bird, the whole bird and nothing but the bird, but Everyman doesn’t often give me the opportunity, so I will indulge myself. Although colloquially it’s used to refer to the mallard, DRAKE strictly is the male of any duck, so I have chosen the Mandarin duck for the obligatory Pierre bird link, because he is very colourful and might brighten your Sunday morning.
22 Rebooted downloads that may include many boxes
WOODLANDS
(DOWNLOADS)* with ‘rebooted’ as the anagrind, and referring to the box tree.
24 Husband wearing band, constant love token, beginning to sigh soft sounds
WHISPERINGS
An insertion of H in WISP, followed by E for the mathematical ‘constant’, RING and S for the initial letter of ‘sigh’.
25 Sense of self, such as love
EGO
A charade of EG and O.
26 Understand IT’s 1s and 0s?
DIGITS
A charade of DIG and ITS.
27 Demonstrations in favour of taxes
PROTESTS
A charade of PRO and TESTS.
Down
1 Clumsy pronouncement by easily surprised patron of seafood restaurant
OAFISH
Whimsically, if a seafood restaurant customer didn’t twig that there was only a pescatorial menu, when the waiter arrived, he or she might say: O! A FISH?
2 Location up by Crete in resort for privileged
TOP-SECRET
A charade of SPOT reversed (‘up, since it’s a down clue) and (CRETE)* with ‘in resort’ as the anagrind.
3 Discredit potato, on reflection?
REBUT
A reversal of TUBER.
4 Kettle, perhaps one that’ll leak
WHISTLE-BLOWER
A cd cum dd.
6 Wonderful sandwich one found in Cape
SUPERHERO
A charade of SUPER and HERO. HERO is a type of sandwich, pretty much the same as a SUB. Both are more common in AmEng that BrEng, so those that don’t like the absence of an American usage indicator can have their usual whinge.
7 At first, Everyman’s rattled, then embarrassed, having made mistakes
ERRED
A charade of ER for the initial letters of ‘Everyman’s’ and ‘rattled’, and RED.
8 Theatrical work, sweet thing in which children have fun
PLAYDATE
A charade of PLAY and DATE.
11 Pick up and convert this particular set piece
TURN THE CORNER
A charade of TURN for ‘convert’ and THE CORNER for a specific set piece in the beautiful game.
15 Supplier of stimulant high after cocaine, ecstasy (twice) and weed
COFFEE POT
A charade of C, OFF, E then another E, and POT. Probs not a great combination of drugs (at least, not in that order).
16 Flowers sourced here, from Cole and Erskine
OLEANDERS
Hidden in COLE AND ERSkine.
17 Dogged son had borrowed money
SHADOWED
A charade of S, HAD and OWED.
19 A Caledonian’s fancy neckwear
ASCOTS
A charade of A and SCOTS.
21 Imitating sound of mobile phone alert?
APING
The potentially annoying sound of your smartphone alert could be described as A PING.
23 In sound, tip for composer
LISZT
Aural wordplay (‘in sound’) for LIST.
Many thanks to Everyman for this week’s puzzle.
Re 23D. Is tip a synonym for list? Cant see that myself. What am I missing?
@Ray, yes, tip as in lean to one side, so list (perhaps in a nautical sense).
Finished this without much problem, over thought 24a, forgot “e” completely and was convinced Pi was the constant and that “Whisperings” was wrong…
I liked 9a and 4d…
If not already, “Kettle” should be common parlance for a whistle blower as in “We have a Kettle. Find it. Fast. Before the papers run with the story Monday”
Thank you to Everyman and to Pierre for the blog and that picture.
Liked OUTGROWS, WOODLANDS, TURN THE CORNER and APING.
OAFISH and TOP-SECRET(Or is it TOP SECRET generally?):
The blogger’s parsings work perfectly all right.
When I solved OAFISH I thought it was a homophone of ‘Oh FISH’ (didn’t think O A FISH).
When on TOP-SECRET I had two thoughts:
One as mentioned in the blog.
The other one was to consider the ‘for (the) privileged’ as the def. I could well be wrong on this.
Just sharing…
Thanks Everyman and Pierre!
Thanks Pierre. What a spectacularly beautiful bird is the mandarin drake. Definitely brightened up my cold and bleak Sunday morning.
I take it the ”beautiful game” is chess in TURN THE CORNER. I thought it was a piece of furniture but couldn’t parse to my satisfaction. When will I remember when I see the word ”piece” to first look up chess?
KVa@4. Me too, re OH FISH. But I did wonder about the ”easily” surprised. Now I appreciate the clue even more. And agree the def for TOP-SECRET could have either interpretation.
I liked SHADOWED for the misdirection with ”dogged”, adjective and verb, and WOODLANDS for the misdirection of ”boxes” in the downloads surface.
Not a bad grid by any means but pitched more like a cryptic imo.
Thanks both
paddymelon@5
TURN THE CORNER
I think the beautiful game referred to is football/soccer.
Wiki:
The term set piece or set play is used in association football and rugby football to refer to a situation when the ball is returned to open play, for example following a stoppage, particularly in a forward area of the pitch. In association football, the term usually refers to free kicks and corners, but sometimes penalties and throw-ins.
Pierre’s appreciation for the surface may be seen in this context.
Pdm@5 and Kva@7: For more on TURN THE CORNER, I suggest you watch Bend It like Beckham. You might not learn a great deal about football, but you will have had a very enjoyable 90 mins.
A corner is given when the defending team puts the ball over their baseline. It is an opposed kick taken from the corner flag and a good player can bend/turn it towards the foul.
The beautiful game is a phrase first uttered, I think, by Matt Busby. I’m sure I’ll be put right.
Oh! Thanks KVa@7 and nicbach@8. Now I have to check both chess and soccer, and other football codes, when I see ”set” and “piece”. And I’ll remember the ”beautiful game” as well. Asleep at the wheel today.
I got this out (not a given for me) and found it on the whole enjoyable and easy to parse. I’m still confused by 24 though. Where does the ‘Wisp’ come from? I also wasn’t sure whether ‘ring’ was the band or the love token, both of which seem to fit.
Thanks Pierre for the blog and the lovely drake, and Everyman for the puzzle.
Pierre, there’s a wee slip of the pen at 1a – the answer should be OUTGROWS, to match the anagrist.
Also, I think you should take a liberal approach to your bird links, without apologizing. This one was beautiful.
I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle. I’m not sure I see band as a synonym for WISP at 24a, but that didn’t keep me from enjoying the surface of that clue. And I loved the wordplay of 1d OAFISH, my clue of the day.
Thanks Everyman and Pierre for the fun.
nicbach@8
TURN THE CORNER
Thanks.
I have watched Bend It Like Beckham over a year or so ago. Loved it.
I was lazy to type what a set piece was using my own words and so
copied and pasted it from Wiki. :-
A WISP or band of cloud.
Thanks for the blog, WOODLANDS very neat with the box reference and a complete anagram for Jay . SHADOWED a bit clumsy with had in the clue and answer. HERO is new to me but the clue was fair enough.
PDM@5 CORNER and the beautiful game are referring to water polo.
Thanks Roz @13. It’s not an association I’d make but I’ll know in future!
Really enjoyed this. Worked out all but OAFISH, just couldn’t see what would come between the O and the F!! Thanks Everyman and Pierre for a pleasant Sunday morning hour. Ps we have a lot of Mandarins on our local duck pond, I love them most at their scraggly teenage stage!
New for me: HERO=sandwich and thanks for explaining that THE CORNER = a set piece in soccer. Tbh I never understood why it is called “the beautiful game”, obviously I am not a fan of soccer, football and rugby!
Thanks, both.
TURN THE CORNER
The beautiful game
Nicbah@8 says the phrase was first used by Matt Busby.
Some say Pele coined it.
Someone will tell us why ‘football/soccer’ is called ‘the beautiful game’.
(Collins recognises this as an informal phrase in this sense).
KVa@18 coined by Ervin Zador at the 1956 Olympics .
[Soccer: More like “the game where not much happens most of the time”. Or “the game where people roll on the ground and howl at the slightest touch”. Give me real footy any day.]
Entertaining crossie, Everyman, and thanks for the blog, Pierre.
Wiki says this:
The exact origins of the term are disputed. The origin has been attributed to Brazilian footballer Waldyr “Didi” Pereira, and the presenter Stuart Hall claimed to have originated it in 1958.
Anyway, Roz@19 Your version may well be right.
TURN THE CORNER
The beautiful game
I’m sure there are logical reasons for why it is called “the beautiful game”. For those who love soccer, I suppose it is a perfect name for the sport, and for those who do not enjoy soccer, it sounds rather silly or even pompous. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder 😉
Cellomaniac @11: thanks for pointing out the typo. I’ve corrected the blog now.
Cricket is actually more beautiful in my opinion, and certainly features more in crossword clues.
It almost certainly wasn’t, but I feel the phrase “the beautiful game” should have been coined to describe the football played by the 1961 Double-winning Tottenham team, captained by the great Danny Blanchflower. Of course I may be biased.
The blog shows OUTGROWN for OUTGROWS. I made the same error in solving, and thought Everyman had got the anagram wrong. I wasn’t sure about WISP for band. ASCOTS and “boxes” are bits of general knowledge I have acquired through crosswords past. “One found in Cape” is a nice definition for HERO.
Thanks to Everyman for the customary fun puzzle with the usual bits, and merci to Pierre for sorting it all out.
There have been mandarin ducks in St James’s Park forever, (I used to plan my journey to work thirty plus years ago so I could walk across the Park and carried a bird book in my bag so I could identify new birds to me), stunning birds.
I found I solved this in Cryptic time, but all in and parsed. I thought of WISPs of mist lying around a river.
Subway sells HEROs and half-hero rolls.
Thank you to Pierre and Everyman.
Couldn’t parse 1A or 1D, so stuck on an Everyman NW corner again. Still don’t see how 1D works other than being a poor clue.
I found this on the hard side (again), but very enjoyable. Chalk me up as another who parsed “Oh! Fish”, and appreciate the clue even more now I see the better interpretation.
Thanks for the explanation of WOODLANDS – I’d never head of a Box Tree, so this has been puzzling me all week.
I was also confused by the ‘E’ in WHISPERINGS, so good to have that cleared up (I’m assuming that the ‘e’ in question is the base of natural logarithms) – it’s the first time I’ve seen this used, so will file it away for future reference. I presume setters might also clue ‘pi’, ‘c’ and others by the same mechanism?
Thanks again to Everyman and Pierre.
Not a fan. ‘In resort’ as an anagrind? (rather than just ‘resort’). What is ‘high’ doing in 15d? Apparently nothing.
2D grammatically, in resort (adjectival phrase) is way better than resort (noun or verb) as an anagrind.
15D high = OFF, so it’s needed.
This was very enjoyable, with many a nice clue, too many, actually, to name all here 😮
Thank you, Everyman and Pierre
TURN THE CORNER
The beautiful game
haha, I agree with Pierre@23 that cricket is more beautiful but as I said earlier, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Paul B@29: Why is ‘high’=OFF?
poc @ 32
If meat goes off it is said to be high.
I put CAP FERRAT down for 2D (resort for the privileged, though I couldn’t parse it) which meant I didn’t get 1A. A good lesson in not putting in a solution if you can’t work out the cryptic explanation!!
Regretfully I’ve decide the Everyman is no longer for me – some weeks I would almost finish but last week completely stumped me and I realised this was no longer an enjoyable activity :-(.
Disappointed @35, please don’t give up. 15^ really helps with understanding parsing.
I think “the beautiful game” is used because it was first coined in the football context. I always thought it was by Pele, but I may well be wrong…
Liked: WHISTLE BLOWER
Didn’t like: SPECTATOR – too much wordplay. Maybe it’s me, I just struggle with charades.
OAFISH: I think I sort of laughed at this one when I eventually got it.
DIGITS: I know I definitely didn’t laugh when I eventually got this, more of a groan.
BUILT UP AREA: understood the wordplay ok, only sort of understood the defn.
I agree with disappointed. I could usually complete Everyman and then the Quiptics on a Monday which gave me encouragement for the rest of the week. Not everyone attempting the daily crossword will ever find it easy and eventually get it. Some of us have all reached out natural solving level. If you want these solvents to stop doing crosswords in Guardian you will achieve your target and make the Guardian crossword community smaller
Roz@14. LOL. I would hardly call water polo a ‘beautiful game’ to watch, but it is impressive.
poc@32 for me high = OFF (your head)!
Disappointed @35. I’m prob similar level to you. I spent 3 days looking at this and had 4 clues solved. Started to question my ability to tackle the Everyman. Then a few more clicked and I took a day (on and off) to complete the whole thing. My first completed one in a few weeks. Don’t give up. KETTLE and OAFISH my faves.
A bit on the easy side this one, but still think 1ac should be OUTGROWN with abandoned and interested.
Waiting anxiously for tonight’s test with the Poms,
Rob.
I thought ‘oh, fish’ too
Had Take the corner so dnf
Shouldn’t the def in 12 be ‘one who observes’?
Similarly the syntax in 1A looks off to me. The def is past tense, the answer is present tense.
Had to look up Ascot.
Nice tussle all the same but no harder please.
Definitely pushing us but very enjoyable. Lots of good solid cryptic clues today. Come on England for the Euro finals!!
Exactly my level this week. Many thanks to which ever Everyman for a delightful set and to you Pierre for confirmation of my suspicions.
I felt like Jonathan and Yoakam. At this rate I will give up Everyman when fifteen squared stops.
Loved it. Took us a few goes as we are building a house and nothing is simple. The old subconscious flows all over the place. A bit like treacle vey hot.
Had enough left to really enjoy the sport of this. SUPERHEROS – yes we need a few of those. HIT A FALSE HOT – yeah, nah, working in a music shop we get too many of those but liked the clue.
Keep it coming please- it keeps us sane.