Nice sound crossword with quite a few double definitions here, I thought — not perhaps too many, though. They are usually easy for the solver because it’s generally pretty obvious what has to be done, and they are often easy for the setter since one only has to find some appropriate synonyms.
Definitions underlined, in crimson. Indicators (homophone, hidden, juxtaposition, etc.) in italics. Anagrams indicated (like this)* or *(like this). Link-words in green.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | OPAL |
Micropalaeontologist’s hiding a gemstone (4)
|
| Hidden in MicrOPALaeontologist | ||
| 3 | MIDWESTERN |
Stemwinder repaired in Central America? (10)
|
| (Stemwinder)* — a nicely misleading definition because one is led to think of Panama, Colombia, etc. whereas it refers to the centre of the USA | ||
| 9 | EAST |
Few assets periodically offering direction (4)
|
| [F]e{w] a[s]s[e]t[s] | ||
| 10 | ALAN TURING |
British genius’s drunk natural gin (4,6)
|
| *(natural gin) | ||
| 11 | STANLEY KNIFE |
Friend of Oliver King has nickel–iron tool (7,5)
|
| Stanley K Ni Fe — Stanley is Stan Laurel, a friend of Oliver Hardy, K = King, Ni = nickel, Fe = iron | ||
| 15 | CONQUER |
What William came to do with horse chestnut, you say? (7)
|
| “conker” — ref. William the Conqueror, not William Brown | ||
| 16 | TIE DOWN |
Hamper with feathers from Siam, we’re told (3,4)
|
| “Thai down” | ||
| 17 | ENRAGED |
Pieces of doom-laden rag edited in a fury (7)
|
| Hidden in doom-ladEN RAG EDited | ||
| 19 | WHOPPER |
Monster in a fairy tale? (7)
|
| 2 defs — the second one referring to a popular way of referring to lying | ||
| 20 | A SLICE OF LIFE |
Office ‘allies’ differing in everyday scene (1,5,2,4)
|
| (Office allies)* | ||
| 23 | TENNIS BALL |
Bouncer or 10 at Northern Ireland’s dance (6,4)
|
| ten NI’s ball — ten = 10, NI’s = Northern Ireland’s, ball = dance | ||
| 24 | HELL |
That man’s going to somewhere very hot (4)
|
| he’ll — this is another way of saying ‘that man’s going to’ | ||
| 25 | REGISTERED |
Checked in to hotel and did sink in (10)
|
| 2 defs — I can’t see why the second one isn’t ‘sank in’ — perhaps Everyman was trying, in the surface, to indicate tired sinking into a bed in a hotel room, but ‘sank’ seems to do that well enough — registered = realising that something is true or learning it thoroughly | ||
| 26 | STUD |
Bolt, horse (4)
|
| 2 defs — or at any rate I think this is what is intended, but how does horse = stud? Surely it should be horses? I can’t find any dictionary definition of stud that gives horse rather than horses. [But some commenters have.] | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | OPEN SECRET |
Duck, swans and egret – cold, not good – and everyone knows it! (4,6)
|
| 0 pens e{c}ret — 0 = duck (cricket), pens are female swans. and you replace the g (good) of egret with c (cold) | ||
| 2 | ABSTAINERS |
Teetotallers ordering teas in bars (10)
|
| *(teas in bars) | ||
| 4 | IPLAYER |
Everyman competes – with, | in final stages, prize winner – in BBC shows (7)
|
| I play [priz]e [winne]r — I = i, play = competes — it’s really iPlayer not IPlayer, but Everyman has used I to indicate i — which is acceptable but wouldn’t have been if he’d used i to indicate I | ||
| 5 | WING NUT |
What implement niftily gyrates, nearing ultimate tightness primarily? (4,3)
|
| Everyman’s usual first letters &lit. — not quite so convincing as usual, since implement is a bit odd | ||
| 6 | SHUFFLED OFF |
Dealt a bad hand, left this mortal coil? (8,3)
|
| 2 defs I think, although I can’t quite see the first one; something about the shuffle (and deal that follows it) being off, or rotten — the second one refers to ‘shuffled off this mortal coil’ (Hamlet’s ‘To be or not to be’ soliloquy) and may be remembered more from the Monty Python parrot sketch | ||
| 7 | EVIL |
In uprising, be malevolent (4)
|
| (live)rev. — live = be | ||
| 8 | NAGS |
Badgers and horses (4)
|
| 2 defs | ||
| 12 | LOUNGE SUITS |
Relaxes, taking in clubs perhaps in informal attire (6,5)
|
| lounge(suit)s — lounges = relaxes, suit = clubs, perhaps (as opposed to hearts, diamonds or spades) — Everyman must dress very conservatively if this is informal attire | ||
| 13 | COMPLIMENT |
Praise remark describing | snarled lip (10)
|
| com(pli)ment — comment = remark. pli = *(lip) — describe for surround seems a bit of a stretch — I thought there was a mathematical sense, but not quite, so far as I can see | ||
| 14 | SNORKELLED |
Son enrolled uncertainly | having invested £1,000, and explored underwater (10)
|
| (S enrolled)* containing k — s = son, k = £1000 | ||
| 18 | DRIBBLE |
What a very young footballer might do, repeatedly? (7)
|
| CD referring to the fact that a footballer dribbles, and a baby also dribbles repeatedly (repeatedly?) | ||
| 19 | WHEELIE |
BMX trick from Jonathan Ross: honestly! (7)
|
| Everyman reckons that Jonathan Ross, who can’t pronounce his r’s, would pronounce ‘really’ as something like ‘wheelie’ — really = honestly | ||
| 21 | STAR |
Upset, curses celebrity (4)
|
| (rats)rev. — rats! = curses! | ||
| 22 | SNUG |
Poles’ uniform, grand and tight- fitting (4)
|
| SN u g — SN are the two poles South and North, u = uniform, g = grand |
I really enjoyed this – pitched just right I thought. I didn’t have a problem with stud – you can speak of a stud horse, and I’ve heard a man who’s popular with women described as a real stud. Thanks Everyman and John.
Thanks Everyman and John!
DRIBBLE
Is it something like…
‘A young (might) (& a) footballer might DRIBBLE & DRIBBLE in two senses (as mentioned in the blog)?’
SHUFFLED OFF
Just like the blogger, I am not sure how the first def works.
Chambers has under off several meanings out of the following two seem to suit the context:
Out of continuity
In deterioration or diminution
More of CD?
Thanks John. Agree with your comments about REGISTERED and SHUFFLED OFF.
OPAL I don’t think I’ve seen a 20 letter word hiding a 4 letter word before. Looking at
micropalaeontologist, it’s ripe for hidden 4 letter words.
Didn’t find WHEELIE amusing, but I s’pose I’ll be howled down for lacking a sense of hyoomuh.
Great surface in ABSTAINERS, and a nice spot in the anagrist. Also liked ALAN TURING, although if you didn’t know the genius, it could be a challenge to solve, before crossers.
KVa @2 . DRIBBLE I must admit I didn’t get the second def, thinking maybe it was a CD and a football thing. Wondered why it was clued ‘‘very young”. Now I know, I quite like it.
3a MIDWESTERN – nho “Stem-winder“: ‘U.S. 1875– a. A keyless watch; b. a geared logging locomotive (Webster, 1911); c. slang a person or thing that is first-rate; also, an enterprising or energetic person; an impassioned talker or public speaker; d. slang a rousing speech.’
Also looked up 26a STUD: ‘… 4. With reference to a single animal. … 4.b. 1803– U.S. An uncastrated adult male horse; a stallion. …
1959 Tennessee stud. ‘J. Driftwood’ (title of song)’ — [nho the singer or the song…
…but here it is anyway: Jimmie Driftwood’s Tennessee Stud (1959, a 65th (Blue Sapphire) anniversary).]
The clue for REGISTERED could be suggesting that, after checking in, the hotel guest broke a wash-hand basin.
Thanks to Everyman and John
It seems to have returned to it’s previously benign mode.
DuncT@8
😄
I solved this Everyman faster than the Quiptic last week (and this week).
I didn’t have a problem with STUD or DRIBBLES but wondered about the first part of SHUFFLED OFF too.
Thank you to John and Everyman
DuncT@8
Love it!
Excellent puzzle, just right for the Everyman slot.
Favourite: SHUFFLED OFF.
New for me: 19d Jonathan Ross’s way of speaking (never seen him on TV).
Thanks, both.
STUD = a stud horse is in Chambers: STUD 2, noun, 4.
Michelle@13 same here. LoB’s Caesar may have been better for us, but challenging for Everyman with the BMX trick.
Given the Quiptic is aimed at “beginners and those in a hurry”, and Everyman now seems to occupy a slot between the Quick Cryptic and the Quiptic, I’m intrigued to know how the editor would describe the Everyman’s target market?
I think the informality of lounge suits is relative to the more formal clobber they wore in the 19th century
Cheers J&E
Thanks both, was enjoyable. I had not considered shuffled / dealing to be problematic, and if it helps I think dealing serves the purposes of providing cards to players and randomising the cards (certainly the randomisation emphasis was how a stats lecturer described it).
Loved this puzzle, completed all but STUD and COMPLIMENT. Favourites were HELL and SHUFFLED OFF.
For the first definition of SHUFFLED OFF I very happily interpreted it as not from the perspective of someone being dealt a bad hand, but a dealer who dealt a bad hand! If you dealt a bad hand, maybe it’s because you SHUFFLED OFF, like you did a rubbish shuffle.
This was fairly simple, though I couldn’t parse WHEELIE for the life of me, so relied on the def only. Liked all of the charades and having ALAN TURING mentioned. Btw, Collins also has STUD as “any male animal kept principally for breeding purposes, esp a stallion”.
Thank you, Everyman and John
It’s poetry time.
1) Off we’re gonna shuffle
Shuffle off to Buffalo.
2) The Tennessee stud was long and lean
The color of the sun and his eyes were green
He had the nerve and he had the blood
There never was a horse like the Tennessee stud
I enjoyed this puzzle, with no excessively convoluted clueing, and some smiles.
For the second straight week, I presumed with this that Everyman had returned to it’s previously benign mode. Without giving else away re this week’s, don’t expect that to last, as doubtless many know already. I’m already looking forward to having some of the parsings explained to me next week.
Liked: ABSTAINERS – it seems like this should be an old cryptic crossword staple used many times; and also liked HELL.
Sort of liked: SNORKELLED, was stumped for a while because I thought snorkelled has one L.
STANLEY KNIFE: Friend of Oliver Hardy, not Oliver Twist! D’oh!
I don’t really understand the definition for 4dn. iPlayer is the app that you use to watch BBC stuff, not the programmes themselves, right? I ‘m also not quite sure about 6dn, although probably Eddie @18 has it right.
I don’t know anything about Jonathan Ross, so the wordplay for 19dn eluded me, but that’s OK. I also don’t think I know the phrase STANLEY KNIFE, but I managed to figure it out, and in any case I’m not blaming Everyman for my ignorance.
Best in a long while with lots of good humour in the clues and the blog and some funny comments above. Paul @15, apologies for being pedantic but it was Pontius Pilate in LoB (“welease woger”) – the best comedy film ever made!
Great crossword, we thoroughly enjoyed it. SHUFFLED OFF and WHEELIE were two top hits for us, used to love watching Jonathan Woss back in the day. Thanks Everyman.
Back to the thunder and lightening show outside.
Much much better. Enjoyed the Turing clue, the Thai down, the abstainers anagram (although I might have seen that before). Solved but not familiar with iplayer. But Live/evil and the tiresome primarily clues have outstayed their welcome.
Agree with WinstonSmith@9.
Depressed by the news from WinstonSmith@22.
Never heard of iPlayer, but the clue made it clear what the answer had to be, so I was able to do a web search.
Never heard of Jonathon Ross either, although the definition and the cross letters made the answer clear. Agree with Duane@25 — on all points.
Agree this was much more weekend standard and pleased to hv got it finished quickly
Down here we don’t know iplayer but I guessed it had to be that
I’m ok with the primarily clues when the whole thing is a stinker ! This was great
Iplayer – quoting the great John McEnroe, “you cant be serious.”
Otherwise good puzzle without being great.