The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/4063.
Everyman in an unbuttoned mood, with 6D ORIGAMI being the most difficult parsing. For those less familiar with his style, I have highlighted in the grid his trademarks: the paired long clues, the self-reference, the geographical reference and the ‘primarily’ clue giving an easy entry to the solve.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DIAMONDS |
Suit as may be worn by wealthy (8)
|
| 5 | HOOF IT |
Walk – gosh – flipping healthy (4,2)
|
| A charade of HOO, a reversal (‘flipping’) of OOH (‘gosh’) plus FIT (‘healthy’). | ||
| 9 | SANITISE |
That’s a nit I see – just a bit – get clean! (8)
|
| A hidden answer (‘just a bit’) in ‘thatS A NIT I SEe’. Your choice whether you regard ‘get’ as part of the definition or a link word. | ||
| 10 | VIENNA |
Where a waltz started in ‘80s pop hit (6)
|
| Double definition: the ’80s .pop hit’ would be the one by Ultravox; Billy Joel’s song of the same name dates from 1977. | ||
| 11 | ROTOR |
It spins forward – and backward? (5)
|
| A palindrome, and a clue with a long history. | ||
| 13 | REREADING |
Studying again, finally, Oscar Wilde: where was his Gaol? (9)
|
| A charade of RE (‘finally OscaR WildE‘) plus READING (in Berkshire, ‘where was his Gaol?’). | ||
| 15 | BACK-PEDALLING |
Climbing down, band pick legal high (4-9)
|
| An anagram (‘high’) of ‘band pick legal’. | ||
| 17 | FRONT-BENCHERS |
Top politicians, decadent French-born set (5-8)
|
| An anagram (‘decadent’) of ‘French-born set’. | ||
| 21 | HILLSIDES |
Where lands steepen, in shelters, the writer’s going to sleep (at first) (9)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of I’LL (‘the writer’s going to’) plus S (‘Sleep at first’) in HIDES (‘shelters’, noun or verb). | ||
| 22 | PROMO |
In favour of second ad (5)
|
| A charade of PRO (‘in favour of’) plus MO (moment, ‘second’). | ||
| 23 | THEORY |
That man is smothered by right-wing presumption (6)
|
| An envelope (‘is smothered by’) of HE (‘that man’) in TORY (adjective, ‘right-wing’). | ||
| 24 | MACARONI |
Getting to Italy, M. le Président will eat a kind of pasta (8)
|
| An envelope (‘will eat’) of ‘a’ in MACRON (‘M. le Président’) plus I (‘Italy’). | ||
| 26 | MESMER |
Primarily, man espousing strange ‘magnetism’ – especially restoratively? (6)
|
| The ‘Primarily’ clue as the usual easy entry for a solver: first letters of ‘Man Espousing Strange Magnetism Especially Restoratively’. | ||
| 27 | REINED IN |
Bridled, noise of downpour heard (6,2)
|
| Sounds like (‘heard’) RAIN DIN (‘noise of downpour’). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DESCRIBE |
Paint picture of Claude’s crib, expertly ignoring parts (8)
|
| A hidden answer (‘ignoring parts’) in ‘ClauDES CRIB Expertly’. | ||
| 2 | ANN |
Live-in childminder saving skin … her name? (3)
|
| A subtraction: [n]ANN[y] (‘live-in childminder’) minus the outer letters (‘saving skin’). | ||
| 3 | OUTCROP |
Rock, passé, cut … (7)
|
| A charade of OUT (‘passé’) plus CROP (‘cut’). | ||
| 4 | DISCREDITED |
… record by Queen censored having fallen from favour (11)
|
| A charade of DISC (‘record’) plus R (Regina, ‘Queen’) plus EDITED (‘censored’). | ||
| 6 | ORIGAMI |
Not fashionable, friendless originally: is Everyman folding? (7)
|
| A charade of ORIG, which is ‘orig[inally]’ without IN (‘not fashionable’) and without ALLY (‘friendless’); plus AM I? (‘is Everyman … ?’). | ||
| 7 | FINDING NEMO |
Evidence of shark; men doing badly in fishy film (7,4)
|
| A charade of FIN (‘evidence of shark’) plus DINGNEMO, an anagram (‘badly’) of ‘men doing’. | ||
| 8 | TWANGY |
A little faint, wan gynaecologist with nasal tone (6)
|
| A hidden answer (‘a little’) in ‘fainT WAN GYnaecologist’. | ||
| 12 | TACTFULNESS |
Flatus scent – moved: discretion (11)
|
| An anagram (‘moved’) of ‘flatus scent’. | ||
| 14 | ROLLER SKATE |
After components switched, Wills’s missus’s posh car is fun way to get about (6,5)
|
| Everyman is asking you ‘after components switched’ in the answer to get (glossing over punctuation) KATE’S ROLLER (‘Will’s missus’s posh car’), Will and Kate being more formally known as the Prince and Princess of Wales, and a Roller being a Rolls Royce. | ||
| 16 | ESTONIAN |
Public schoolboy sheltering second old Soviet (8)
|
| An envelope (‘sheltering’) of S (‘second’) in ETONIAN (‘public schoolboy’). | ||
| 18 | OBSERVE |
With ceremony, keep watch (7)
|
| Double definition; note the placing of the break between the two, between ‘keep’ and ‘watch’. | ||
| 19 | CAPTAIN |
Naval officer, a little indolent, put in ill-considered catnap (7)
|
| An envelope (‘put in’) of I (‘a little Indolent’) in CAPTAN, an anagram (‘ill-considered’) of ‘catnap’. | ||
| 20 | RHYTHM |
Time to go with the Blues? (6)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 25 | ODD |
Peculiar to regularly ignore ‘Howdy-do?’ (3)
|
| Alternate letter (‘to regularly ignore’) of ‘hOwDy-Do’.
|
Dunno flatus about having what you’d call a scent, but the anagram works. The major subtraction for origami was fun, as was Kate’s roller. Enjoyed, thanks both, now for today’s.
Thanks Everyman and PeterO!
Loved ROLLER SKATE (auto-manual switching: fun), ORIGAMI (innovative, not the usual paperwork) and OBSERVE (keep(‘s)sake).
RHYTHM
A CD rather than a DD?
KVa@2. I saw RHYTHM as a double def, the second one cryptic.
Thanks PeterO for your blog, and for explaining OBSERVE. I failed to see or hear the caesura.
The word picture of the gynaecologist in TWANGY was a little off-putting.
Chuckled at the surfaces for DISCRETION, BACK-PEDALLING, OUTCROP, FINDING NEMO, THEORY and HOOF IT.
paddymelon@3
RHYTHM
If the clue read, ‘Time that goes with the Blues?’, I would have called it a DD.
‘to go with…’ & RHYTHM don’t seem to match part-of-speechically (to be
translated into English).
Enjoyed the puzzle and as usual the blog is helpful and clear. I still don’t understand the parsing for 18 though – could someone explain please?
Greyhound @6
OBSERVE
Def1: with ceremony, keep
Def2: watch
KVa @5
I would have said that “Time that goes with the Blues” reads more like a CD (of sorts) than Everyman’s version, with ‘that’ introducing a clause descriptive of ‘time’. Reading your version as a DD essentially means reading ‘that’ as ‘something that’ – and equally in the clue as it stands, reading ‘to’ as ‘something to’. I do not see why you seem to find a parts of speech problem with the latter but not the former.
Greyhound @6
Perhaps you puzzlement is with the first definition, in which case something like “Do you keep Christmas?” might point you in the right direction.
PeterO@8
RHYTHM
My perception is mainly based on the convention I am used to (certainly there is more I haven’t seen).
‘One reads’ is ‘one who reads’, ‘that/which does’ is ‘one that/which does’ etc., are examples in this context.
Your question is logical and I have no answer except the above (which may not be convincing).
DIAMONDS: Didn’t have any problem with the second def. Read the missing ‘something that/which’.
Thanks PeterO. I will keep your words in mind for future parsings.
Apologies to paddymelon.
My grandparents used to keep the Sabbath, but the next generation didn’t.
Everyman has clued ORIGAMI at least three times before. It seems to pop up about once a year. This clue seemed rather Azed-ish in style (subtraction based on synonym indication). No complaints from me.
Thanks to Everyman and PeterO
A lovely puzzle with some amusing surfaces.
I thought ORIGAMI was brilliant, with the subtractive device and the amusingly ambiguous ‘is Everyman folding’.
I also enjoyed the pair of anagrams, FRONT-BENCHERS and BACK-PEDALLING.
ROLLER SKATE was clever and fun and I laughed at M le President in MACARONI.
Thanks Everyman and Peter O.
Can someone please explain why, occasionally, two clues are separated by dots, as though the two questions are linked in some way? I have never been able to find a connection.
ACT@14. Sometimes the dots (ellipses) mean something. Sometimes they don’t. It’s up to us, the solvers, to figure it out. One of the weapons in the setter’s arsenal for misdirection.
The connection between 3 and 4 down, as I saw it, was rock and Queen. Queen was a rock band, and what bands did was to cut (a) record. It had no impact on the solve of DISCREDITED. Both 3 and 4 were standalone clues.
Thank you for explaining ORIGAMI. It was clear that that was the answer but couldn’t work it out.
I did not parse 18d and I got the 27ac homonym wrong as I was thinking of ‘rained in’ which didn’t make much sense 😉
Thanks, both.
Lovely Everyman that I recommended to the Quick Cryptic solvers instead of last week’s Quiptic.
Thank you to PeterO and Everyman
I enjoyed this, with particular ticks for the well-hidden SANITISE, the good anagrams for FRONT-BENCHERS and FINDING NEMO, and the wordplays for DISCREDITED and ORIGAMI.
Thanks Everyman and PeterO.
Truly accessible for the most part, with devilish clever ORIGAMI. Is ROLLER actually being used to denote a Rolls? 😮
Thank you, Everyman and PeterO
10a: I was stumped by this at first, I thought “this means nothing to me” then in a tea tray moment I thought “Oh! Vienna!”
BACK PEDALLING – Didn’t have a clue until I solved FRONT BENCHERS, which had a more obvious anagrind, then came back to it and realised that the first word might be BACK, and that “high” might be an anagrind. A good example of a regular Everymanism helping me out.
Liked: FINDING NEMO
ROTOR and REREADING – I feel as if I have seen these before?!
Another Everyman I’ve managed to get through, although with some guessing and letter tries and ‘check this’. Enjoyable though. Thanks Peter O for the wordplay explanations which I needed to make sense of somethings.
God fun! I ticked Rereading, Theory, Origami and Rhythm.
Not too tough. I’m not good on 80’s music but Strauss and all that. Estonian was clever .
I had to check before writing that it also reminded me of The Ying Tong Song. If you don’t know it Google it and cheer yourself up.
And a credit for Johnny Kidd
About the right level, thank you.
Having the flu definitely impacted our solving abilities but we got there. HOOF IT; HILLSIDES; BACK PEDALLING our top picks. And Aotearoa NZ reclaimed the Auld Mug! Great racing by the British team.