Everyman 4,085/2 February

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Another approachable offering from Everyman this week, with plenty of anagrams to get you going, as well as the ‘primarily’ 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 Aplomb – or kind of a trick?
CONFIDENCE
A dd.

6 4, whichever way you look at it!
BOOB
4dn is ERROR, and the solution is a palindrome, indicated by the surface.

9 Cutter between Channel Islands, losing direction, distressed
INCISOR
A charade of IN, CI and SOR[E].

10 Bullfighter Damon shown exit, we hear
MATADOR
Aural wordplay (‘we hear’) for MATT [Damon] and A DOOR.

12 ‘Paella?’ groaned displaced American writer
EDGAR ALLAN POE
(PAELLA GROANED)* with ‘displaced’ as the anagrind.

14 Jury’s findings after court’s thrown out Italian scorer
VERDI
VERDI[CT]

15 Runners’ trainers?
BEANPOLES
A cd, referring to the poles up which runner beans are trained.

16 Excess denim – rare – fancy!
REMAINDER
(DENIM RARE)* with ‘fancy’ as the anagrind.

18 Part of caterpillar going slowly
LARGO
Hidden in caterpilLAR GOing is the musical direction.

20 Per Spooner, the time for gardening had come: no-one told me
HOW WAS I TO KNOW
A Spoonerism of NOW WAS I TO HOE.

23 To begin with, thoroughbred turned, went at moderate pace
TROTTED
A charade of T for the initial letter of ‘thoroughbred’ and ROTTED.

24 Mix using seeds to augment relish – delicious, primarily?
MUSTARD
The initial letters of the first seven words of the clue, and a cad.

25 Confines swans
PENS
A dd.

26 Buff and shine statue, mostly vigorously
ENTHUSIAST
(SHINE STATU[E])* with ‘vigorously’ as the anagrind.

Down

1 Prune extract
CLIP
A dd.

2 Heavily armed and dim – peacekeepers flipping!
NUCLEAR
Everyman is inviting you to reverse the first two letters of UNCLEAR.

3 At home, Mark supposing that Everyman is able to take time to be petty
INSIGNIFICANT
A charade of IN, SIGN, IF, I, CAN and T.

4 Fright being topless, a mistake
ERROR
[T]ERROR. This one has been round the houses a bit, but it’s a crossword aimed at less experienced solvers, so fair play.

5 Chair reupholstered with lamé fabric
CAMEL HAIR
(CHAIR LAME)* with ‘reupholstered with’ as the anagrind.

7 Crossword setter’s into dictionary, mate: that’s kind of complex
OEDIPAL
An insertion of I for the ‘setter’ in OED for Oxford English Dictionary and PAL.

8 Where you might get a flat top – hopefully not from the tenor
BARBERSHOP
A kind of cd cum extended definition, I suppose – the references are to a haircut, and a barbershop quartet, where one of the members would be a tenor, whom you would want not to sing flat.

11 They go up and down in tailspin, storm raging
TRAMPOLINISTS
(TAILSPIN STORM)* with ‘raging’ as the anagrind.

13 Somewhat extrovert, he topes too much
OVER-THE-TOP
Hidden in extrOVER THE TOPes.

15 Badly bred, dined staying in PJs?
BEDRIDDEN
(BRED DINED)* with ‘badly’ as the anagrind.

17 Butcher’s second wife unhappy
MOW DOWN
A charade of MO, W and DOWN, with the definition one of being MOWN DOWN in battle.

19 Basic facts; a little conflict’s arisen
RAW DATA
A reversal of A TAD and WAR. ‘Arisen’ works because it’s a down clue.

21 Va-va-voom, or emphatically minimal speed?
OOMPH
Zero, zero miles per hour would really be a minimal speed.

22 Change hearts of greedier visitors
EDIT
The central letters of greEDier visITors.

Many thanks as always to Everyman for this week’s puzzle.

26 comments on “Everyman 4,085/2 February”

  1. In CIs [s]or[e], or in CI sor[e]? The latter I think, otherwise it would need to be “losing directionS“

  2. Two rhyming pairs, and perhaps a mini theme of [OVER] CONFIDENCE – NUCLEAR ENTHUSIAST, OVER-THE-TOP with OOMPH, making BOOBS/ERRORS: HOW WAS I TO KNOW? Could be Peter Dutton (Aussie reference). Lovely – thanks, Everyman and Pierre.

  3. There were some lovely clues in this. I particularly liked the Spooner clue. Some of them were quite easy, like BARBER SHOP, unfortunately I didn’t get that BEANPOLES was a cd, I have become used to reading two word clues as double definitions, and I didn’t get it. But a great puzzle.

  4. A pleasant outing – but where’s our place name?! Favourites were HOW WAS I TO KNOW, NUCLEAR, OVER THE TOP and BEANPOLES.

    I thought BARBERSHOP was odd in that the presumably cryptic definition was just a plain def for me, and then I had to try to understand the cryptification; in other words it took longer to interpret “flat top” musically than it did to link it to hairdressing!

    Reupholstered is a lovely anagrind in CAMEL HAIR, and so it feels slightly disappointing that the CHAIR is left unground; the charade lends itself better to an inclusion, so much so that I was doubting whether I had the right answer…

    I can’t quite see how OEDIPAL is “kind of complex”. Related to / pertaining to a kind of complex, certainly…  I feel the clue would be better if it read “like kind of complex, which also fits with the informality of the wider surface.

    Thanks both

  5. I enjoyed this one. Some fun surfaces, anagrams and misdirections.
    Favourites were the rhyming pair of EDGAR ALLEN POE for the anagram and HOW WAS I TO KNOW for the Spoonerism that worked.
    Other likes: NUCLEAR for the flipping peacekeepers, very clever; BEANPOLE for the misdirecting runners’ trainers; VERDI the Italian scorer; MOW DOWN for the unhappy second wife.
    Thanks to Everyman and Pierre.

  6. Liked BEANPOLES (crisp) and OOMPH (emphatically).
    OEDIPAL
    Agree with AP@4
    BARBERSHOP
    Took ‘flat top’ as a guitar. Looks like I was wrong.
    Thanks Everyman and Pierre.

  7. I had CROP instead of CLIP for 3 d which held me up in the NW for a while.

    Liked BEANPOLES, HOW WAS I TO KNOW (both reminders that I need to get going at the allotment) and thought OVER-THE-TOP was well hidden

    Thanks Everyman and Pierre

  8. I took flat top as a hairstyle – particularly found among the Afro-Caribbean lads I used to work with.

    I don’t remember having any difficulties with this puzzle, but I don’t remember parsing INCISOR either, although presumably I did.

    Thank you to Everyman and Pierre.

  9. Incisor left me floundering.

    Sore as in loser I’m guessing , either way one of 2 I didn’t get.

    Thanks all.

  12. Enjoyable and mostly not too difficult. 17dn did raise my eyebrows with the ‘s on the end of ‘Butcher’. To my mind this defines the word as a possessive noun, whereas the definition has to be a verb. Noun/verb ambiguity is everywhere in crosswordland, but the ‘s removes any ambiguity. What do others think?

  13. DavidMW@12, it’s a standard misdirection; in the cryptic reading, ” ‘s ” when attached to the definition, should be interpreted as “is” (“is made up of” / “is arrived at via”). When attached to wordplay it should be interpreted as “has” (“contains” / “is composed of”).

  14. I correct myself; in fact both of those cases apply to the definition. In the wordplay it should often be interpreted as “has” in the sense of “can be found next to” / “by”.

  15. Sorry but don’t understand 9 across. How does ‘direction, distressed’ fit in?
    Otherwise really enjoyed this one . Thanks Everyman and Pierre.

  16. Branwen @15

    It’s “losing direction, distressed.”

    distressed gives SORE and when it loses the direction East it loses the E to give SOR the last three letters of the answer.

    (Incidentally the blog gives CIS for Channel Islands but it should just be CI.)

  18. Really enjoyed this. BEANPOLES was my loi, partly because I always struggle with cryptic definitions, and partly because I had bunged in a half-parsed OEDIPus in 7d.

    I couldn’t parse INCISOR, hadn’t considered SORE for distressed.

    Many thanks to Everyman and Pierre.

  21. I didn’t understand “oomph” – it had to be, but I couldn’t work out why. I had completely forgotten about miles-per-hour, not having used that measurement since some time in the 1970s!

  22. Another great effort by EM, this is the sort of puzzle that keeps me coming back.
    Thanks Pierre for confirming some of my guesses!

  23. Really solid crossword this week. Our top picks – INSIGNIFICANT; NUCLEAR; EDGAR ALLAN POE; HOW WAS I TO KNOW.
    Thanks to all, off to enjoy yet more sunshine here in Aotearoa!

  25. I had Snip for 1D which I refused to change. We use a Snipping pc tool at work and so snip seemed 100% right.

    Except never found a word to fit 1A.

    Bean posts was nice.

  26. TOOK ME A WHILE.
    Had to hunt for an explanation of va-va-voom.
    I like Verdi and over the top . I call that sort of thing a run-on.

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