Everyman 4,082 by Everyman

by

Everyman time once again so walk dog, grab paper, find pub, buy beer and locate the dog biscuits.

I found this much less tortuous than some of my recent Everyman blogs, perhaps the setter has heard some of the moans, rhyming couple, primary letter, self reference place name all seem present, over to you. Thanks Everyman

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Loose rope – vessel misses the alarm? (10)
OVERSLEEPS

A loose [ROPE VESSEL]* not convinced it’s the greatest surface reading

6. Hot beverage, somewhat archaic (4)
CHAI

Hidden in arCHAIc

9. In Paris, Peter embraces girlfriend in townhouse? (4-1-5)
PIED A TERRE

DATE for girlfriend in PIERRE – Peter in French

10. City consultor regularly ignored (4)
OSLO

Alternate letters in cOnSuLtOe

11. Location for evening dress? (7,5)
IRONING BOARD

Cryptic def

15. Recovered from gangrene, wallaby’s fresh start (7)
RENEWAL

hidden in gangRENE WALlaby

16. Location with unpleasant smell: its effect is psychological (7)
PLACEBO

PLACE – location & Body Odour

17. ‘I cry a river’: first of stanza’s lines showing who’s under pressure (7)
ISOBARS

I & SOB & A & R(iver) & S(tanza). Not convinced the def is accurate here

19. Caribbean island offering halos, certificates of miracles, did you say? (2,5)
ST KITTS

Sounds like saint kits

20. Emulate xylophonist: ring any bells (6,1,5)
STRIKE A CHORD

Cryptic defs

23. Frank in tennis championship? (4)
OPEN

Double def

24. In stomped University College head, now and again brought into use (10)
INTRODUCED

IN & TROD – stomped & U(niversity) C(ollege) & alternate letters of hEaD

25. Everyman’s eating spot of acrid duck sauce (4)
MAYO

MY – Everyman’s with A(crid) inserted & O – duck, zero

26. Artist to draw outline of the old mine? Almost (6,4)
TRACEY EMIN

TRACE – draw outline & YE – the old & most of MIN(e)

DOWN
1. Supermarkets not opening? Oh dear! (4)
OOPS

No initial letter in (c)O-OPS

2. Earl to go for duelling sword (4)
EPEE

E(arl) & PEE – to go, urinate

3. As Spooner tells it, public school’s meat is a bird of prey (11)
SPARROWHAWK

A spoonerism of HARROW’S PORK

4. Seeing back half of salter, in lane, reversing – it’s going on forever (7)
ETERNAL

Second half of (sal)TER in LANE reversed

5. Rod’s to knock up root vegetable (7)
PARSNIP

PIN’S – ROD’S & RAP – knock all reversed

7. Monarch, one surrounded by hams, cracked joke with dirty ending (3,7)
HIS MAJESTY

I – one in HAMS* cracked & JEST – joke & end of (dirt)Y

8. To odiously fudge announcement after the event (1,4,3,2)
I TOLD YOU SO

A fudged [TO ODIOUSLY]*

12. Time for shopping – badly, if rack damaged (5,6)
BLACK FRIDAY

[BADLY IF RACK]* damaged. I’m still seeing some web sites offering black Friday deals, it’s going to all year soon. Not to mention we don’t do Thanksgiving let alone black Friday.

13. Occasion hoping for bright ideas after British wet weather (10)
BRAINSTORM

B(ritish) & RAINSTORM

14. Tipsiness: so tiny crackers sandwiching French cheese (10)
INSOBRIETY

BRIE in a crackers [SO TINY]*

18. Tool for bridge? (7)
SPANNER

Double def cum def & cryptic def

19. Primarily solid – perhaps heavenly, endlessly rotating in circles? (7)
SPHERIC

Primary letter clue

21. Apple computers lifted in con (4)
SCAM

MACS reversed

22. Last bit of wine – private room – paradise! (4)
EDEN

End of winE & DEN – private room

 

57 comments on “Everyman 4,082 by Everyman”

  1. Favourite was PIED A TERRE

    A couple of passing comments. I originally had trestle for 18dn, but a very real difficulty in finding answers for the crossers made me rethink. MAYO is hardly a sauce. I was OK with ISOBARS, but I have no clue why is an IRONING BOARD a place for evening dress. It is the last place I would put mine.

    Would you mind explaining the colour coding in the grid, please? I rarely do Everyman, so apologies to the regulars who probably get it and are undoubtedly rolling their eyes.

    Thanks Everyman and flashing

  4. Agree that this was relatively straightforward, flashling. Martyn, an IRONING BOARD is where you ‘even out’ your dress, so a cryptic definition. And flashling has mentioned the regular inclusions those of us who do Everyman have come to expect – have a look and see which colour indicates which. MAYO isn’t a sauce, I agree, and it turns up everywhere, ruining sandwiches for one. Thanks for crossie and blog, Everyman and flashling.

  5. A really nice amusing puzzle, and though I have never thought of it as such, I don’t think mayo is clearly NOT a sauce. The English may have only had one sauce in the past, custard, and smothered everything in it, but these days mayo fits just as well, and the French can hardly complain about us eating a lot of it!

  6. I found this the easiest Everyman for a while, none-the-worse for that. TassieTim @4, was there supposed to be a link to the colour coding guide in your comment? It would be good to see that, I haven’t yet found it. On that subject, should 2 & 3 also have colours for Everyman’s customary “bodily functions” and spoonerism inclusions?
    Thanks Everyman & flashling.

  8. Thanks flashling. I actually liked the def for ISOBARS lines showing who’s under pressure.. I’m someone who goes to pieces when a storm’s brewing (of which we’ve had days and days here lately) and have learned to interpret that as it’s not me, but the barometric pressure, and it will soon pass, although maybe after some damage like hail and winds yesterday which brought trees down.

    Does anyone still say PIED A TERRE? Genuine question.

    Favs were I TOLD YOU SO, IRONING BOARD, and RENEWAL.
    I thought the hidden indicator recovered from in RENEWAL was novel. The surface was a bit yukky, whether it was a player in the Australian Rugby Union team, a Wallaby, or the marsupial, who was suffering the gangrene. Made me flinch.

  9. Graham@6: no. In the introduction, flashling has listed the regular features: “rhyming couple, primary letter, self reference, place name”. There are four types, and four colours. Both flashling and I were leaving it to the reader to sort out which colour indicates which answer type.

  10. Graham@6. You might add to the list the ”character” clue of which we’ve had several. But it started off with the rhyming pair, or pairs of some kind including alliteration, or word associations, as well as the primary clue and the self-referential clue. Now flashling’s highlighted the geographical clue, also an Everyman trademark. Different bloggers have different ways of highlighting these, or leave them to us to figure out.

  11. PM@8: I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say PIED-À-TERRE, only ever read it. I didn’t really notice the yuckiness of RENEWAL until you pointed it out, so thanks for that.
    An enjoyable puzzle, pitched in the right spot, thanks both.

  12. Liked ISOBARS (the def appealed to me like it did to paddymelon@8), PIED A TERRE (‘In Paris’ is playing a dual role?) and STRIKE A CHORD. Tho the ‘evening’ trick is not quite fresh, liked IRONING BOARD for the way the idea is used.

    RENEWAL
    No worries paddymelon. Gangrene is gone. That Wallaby has a fresh start now.

    Thanks flashling and Everyman.

  13. Enjoyed this – thanks Everyman and flashling. One question: when I lived in the UK (admittedly quite a few years ago) I saw co-ops as corner stores – the opposite of supermarkets. So I immediately dismissed co-ops as having anything to do with 1d. What do UK dwellers think? Thanks!

  14. SPARROWHAWK
    FrankieG@7
    Do Spoonerism clues require homophone indicators? Isn’t Spoonersim associated only with
    spoken English?

  15. Thanks bm@2 and tt@4 for straightening me out on evening dress. Very clever indeed! I like that, even though it flew straight over my head at the time

    Thanks for the help with the colour coding. I confess I am still not sure which is the self reference and which is the primary letter (of which there are many in the puzzle). I realise I am asking the obvious, but further help would be appreciated

  16. Martyn@15
    Self reference: MAYO (Everyman’s)
    Primary letter: SPHERIC (The &lit construction of such clues makes them even more special).

  17. My favourite was IRONING BOARD, it really made me smile. I also liked PLACEBO.

    Thanks flashling and Everyman.

    Martyn, the primary letter means first letter of a sequence of words in the clue. Hope this helps.

  18. Pierre hugging his date and the kits for saints were pretty cute. Looked up Black Friday, apparently we do have them here, not in my orbit. Nice puzzle, ta both.

  19. Aha! Rhyming refers to answers and both self-reference and primary letter refer to clues. I was badly overthinking it and missed the obvious. Thanks all for the advice.

  20. Thanks for the blog , it seemed to be a very suitable puzzle for newer solvers .
    JFH@13 , Co-op supermarkets still fairly common in the NW of England .
    I took St Kitts as the geography reference .

    [PDM@10 , I only seem to get a headache when the pressure is low and I know a storm is coming. ]

  21. Thanks Everyman and Flashling

    Perfect Everyman puzzle. I would say 2025 has been nicely judged in terms of the puzzles difficulties. Congratulations Ed.

    By the way Mayonnaise is definitely a Sauce. It is one of the Mother/Grande Sauces of French Haute Cuisine (Escoffier La guide culinaire) Although others have it as a Daughter/Derived Sauce

  22. I didn’t solve this as quickly as the previous week’s (which went in a bit quick) but still found it an accessible Everyman and was amused by some of the clues.

    We have Co-op supermarkets down south too. We used to have one in town, now an M&S food, but it suffered from the centralised ordering system – which meant lots of bargains from stuff going out of date for me. (A bit like the Sunderland supermarkets suddenly having lots of cheap Greek food just after the Greek Erasmus students went home). I liked their Fair trade section.

    Thank you to flashling and Everyman

  23. Enjoyable puzzle.

    Favourites: ST KITTS, MAYO.

    Re MAYO, I am on the side of mayonnaise is a sauce – it is made with egg yolks, oil, mustard, and lemon or vinegar.

  24. Who knew mayo would cause such controversy ? Clearly a sauce btw.

    Ironing board was clever and my LOI , for a rarely completed Everyman. Agree it was an easier offering.

    St kits is still confusing me , not the place but can’t seem to find the saint who apparently issues miracles??

    Thanks F and E

  25. Enjoyed this very much, thanks Everyman and Flashling.

    Could someone explain to me the parsing of 5D – PIN’S – ROD’S & RAP? I googled it but only get results for some obscure rapper named Rod.

  26. Ben@24 it is quite whimsical , a new saint could be issued with a kit containing a halo and a certificate of their miracles performed.

  27. N7 Ben@24
    ST KITTS (my understanding)
    Just like do-it-yourself kits, these are ‘kits to help people become saints, I guess.
    There are halos and certificates of miracles in these kits. Wear a halo and hold a
    certificate, you are a saint!!!

    (Sorry Roz. I posted my comment without refreshing the page)

  28. Does anyone know if the Everyman has a new setter? I don’t want to get ahead of myself (and perhaps it’s just me) but I get a distinct impression over the last couple of weeks there is a return to the ‘old’ Everyman style, clear, witty clues that leave little doubt you’ve got the right solution and none of the irritations that seem to have dogged the puzzle for at least the past year and made me want to give it up………

  29. Seb@25 , rods =PINS, think bone setting, to knock=RAP . “Up” means they go upwards in a Down clue so it is all reversed

  30. Ahhhh those kits 🙏…Will keep a look out for such saint kits next time I’m in the co-op or such like. Thanks all.

  33. Martyn@1: it took me a long time for the penny to drop on IRONING BOARD. You are not alone.

    I’m fairly sure there was never a saint called KITTS – probably short for St. Christopher. I like idea of the kits for instant sainthood, though.

  34. I was solving this on the train up to Oxford to return to University College, so was amused to see that show up in a clue! Even though there are a million of them of course

  35. Good clue for evening dress, which raised a smile. I also liked the SPARROWHAWK Spoonerism and the I TOLD YOU SO anagram.

    Thanks Everyman and flashling.

  36. I’m another who enjoyed this, finding it relatively straightforward with a few chewier parsings.

    I initially bunged in St. Lucia instead of ST KITTS, purely because it fits the enumeration and definition – I have a neighbour who’s family is from there, so it sprang to mind. Didn’t work with the crossers, obviously, so it got changed later, but I needed the blog for the parsing.

    IRONING BOARD was my loi and made me lol, so it gets my fav for the week.

    KVa @12 – I don’t think “In Paris” is doing double duty for PIED A TERRE – it’s just giving us the the Peter-PIERRE link, with “embraces” for the envelope?

    Thanks Everyman and flashing.

  37. IRONING BOARD was clued as “Support for the evening” in the Telegraph a few weeks ago, so anyone who saw that would have had a head start!

  40. PIED A TERRE
    TanTrumPet@36 Thanks for your response.
    Chambers indicates P A Terre as French. I thought ‘In Paris’ applied to Pierre for the WP
    and was there to indicate the def as French. I must be wrong in assuming that a French
    indicator is needed for the def.

  41. KVa@40 I suppose the setters’ thinking is that if it appears in the English dictionary then it doesn’t need a foreign marker. I don’t know if all foreign phrases in the dictionary are regarded as having been assimilated into English – though if they aren’t then it raises the question of why they’re there at all.

    This was an enjoyable, gentle puzzle. Thanks both!

  43. Liked the IRONING BOARD. Puzzle included both Brie (the official crossword cheese) and EMIN (the official crossword artist).

    Thanks to Everyman and flashling.

  44. KVa@12 I think you have a general point , “In Paris” is needed for Peter but also contributes to the overall atmosphere of the clue.

  45. KVa @41 I misunderstood your point, apologies. I agree with Roz @44 that, while a foreign indicator isn’t required, “In Paris” also adds to the surface.

  46. I think it’s quite a relief to see the commenters generally liking rather than saying they’ll never do the Everyman again. Sorry I didn’t expand on the ironing board clue but try to explain the joke and the value of the blog is decreased.

  47. Re Paddymelon @8: “Does anyone still say PIED A TERRE?”

    Well, it’s a common phrase on my patch! I live in a Council-owned ancient mansion block in central London where a lot of the homes have had their leases bought under Thatcher’s right-to-buy scheme (leading to a great loss of social housing, of course). The leasehold flats are frequently bought and sold as investment properties, with some of them – if they’re not illegal AirBnBs – ending up being used by rich “little job in The City” types who commute into the centre a day or two a week from their real homes on the fringes of London. This surely very much fits with the definition of a pied-a-terre (is there another succinct term for this?); hence all the locals who actually live around here use the term quite a lot when grumbling about the deteriorating housing situation.

  48. Albert@47. That’s very interesting, thank you, and as you say fits the definition of pied-a-tierre. And yet another failure in social housing, which here in Oz is woefully inadequate.

  49. Interesting reading the comments about difficulty. I’ve always assumed that the epithet “Everyman” indicates that the puzzles are relatively easy. Accordingly, I completed this Everyman and the previous one in under 15 minutes each. By contrast, the weekday puzzles have been taking me at least twice as long.

  50. This was the first time, after several years, that I have completed an Everyman! Either I’m getting better or they’re getting easier.

  52. Not far behind you Rod although I didn’t bother with the artist who I’ve never heard of. Fine with mayo being a sauce and ironing board is a bit of a hardy annual.

    Agree these crosswords have been much more accessible of late but some of the surfaces are random.

    Now on to Styx.

  54. Not sure we like the use of our surname to be a sauce especially in a far from prominent position. Well suppose it is better to wb talked about than…
    A good even puzzle without being taxing. Either we are getting better or it is getting easier.

  55. I remember the co-op but I guessed at oops first.
    I seem to recall that some French chef invented Sauce Mahonnaise as a cream substitute. “BOG” was schoolboy slang for a smelly place but I don’t know where the G went. My favourite was xylophonist.

Comments are closed.