The puzzle may be found in interactive form at https://observer.co.uk/puzzles/everyman/article/everyman-no-4107, and as a pdf at https://cdn.observer.co.uk/media/documents/obs.everyman.20250706.pdf.
I found the NW corner gave me some pause, but apart from that a typical Everyman, with a rhyming pair, the ‘primarily’ clue, two geographical references, the personal reference, and a variant on the one-word anagram at 20D, all highlighted in the grid.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DEFECT |
Desert’s imperfection (6)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 4 | EMISSARY |
Young woman clasped by topless emotional agent (8)
|
| An envelope (‘clasped by’) of MISS (‘young woman’) in [t]EARY (’emotional’) minus its first letter (‘topless’). | ||
| 9 | UNREAL |
In audition, roll out fairytale (6)
|
| Sounds like (‘in audition’) UNREEL (‘roll out’); ‘fairytale’ as an adjective. | ||
| 10 | MCKELLEN |
Master of Ceremonies: ‘Kneel, trembling, left enthralled’ … and this actor is knighted (8)
|
| A charade of MC (‘Master of Ceremonies’) plus KELLEN, an envelope (‘enthralled’) of L (‘left’) in KELEN, an anagram (‘trembling’) of ‘kneel’; and indeed, Sir Ian McKellen was knighted in 1991. | ||
| 12 | LOSING THE PLOT |
Going crazy, like the 7d user growing only weeds? (6,3,4)
|
| Definition and literal interpretation. | ||
| 14 | CATALONIA |
Liberal to oust technocrat finally in stunned state, part of Iberia (9)
|
| CATATONIA (‘stunned state’) with the second T replaced by L (‘Liberal to oust technocraT finally’). | ||
| 16 | CREDO |
About right: song of praise withdrawing beliefs (5)
|
| A charade of C (circa, ‘about’) plus R (‘right’) plus EDO, a reversal (‘withdrawing’) of ODE (‘song of praise’). | ||
| 17 | IBSEN |
Playwright’s uncomfortable condition, ‘vacuous’ Elton (5)
|
| A charade of IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome, ‘uncomfortable condition’) plus EN (‘vacuous EltoN‘). | ||
| 19 | EDGBASTON |
Absent dog recovered where many balls thrown (9)
|
| An anagram (‘recovered’) of ‘absent dog’, for the cricket ground in Birmingham. | ||
| 21 | AS LIKELY AS NOT |
Following Restoration, loyalist – sneak, probably (2,6,2,3)
|
| An anagram (‘following restoration’) of ‘loyalist sneak’. | ||
| 24 | IN SPIRIT |
Encourage – not entirely – with tech that’s not actually there (2,6)
|
| A charade of INSPIR[e] (‘encourage’) minus its last letter (‘not entirely’) plus IT (Information Technology, ‘tech’). | ||
| 25 | FRAPPE |
Cold drink? Fine. ‘Ice T’, perhaps? Not quite (6)
|
| A charade of F (‘fine’) plus RAPPE[r] (‘Ice T perhaps) minus the last letter (‘not quite’). | ||
| 26 | HEAVY-SET |
Stocky Yves suffering in high temperature (5-3)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of VYSE, an anaagram (‘suffering’) of ‘Yves’ in HEAT (‘high temperature’). | ||
| 27 | EMBLEM |
Sign Everyman’s backsliding twice, defending bull regularly (6)
|
| An envelope (‘defending’) of BL (‘BuLl regularly’) in EM EM (‘Everyman’s backsliding twice’). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DOUBLE CHIN |
Feature cryptic depiction of toast? (6,4)
|
| CHIN CHIN is a toast. | ||
| 2 | FARES |
Succeeds – where Chair-O-Planes are seen – to be heard (5)
|
| Sounds like (‘to be heard’) FAIRS (‘where Chair-O-Planes are seen’ – a variant on the merry-go-round). | ||
| 3 | CHANNEL |
Embody spirit of BBC2? (7)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 5 | MICHELANGELO |
Is his the finest of Renaissance art? It’s up there (12)
|
| Essentiaally just a definition, with reference to the Sistine chapel. | ||
| 6 | SHELLAC |
That woman will account for varnish (7)
|
| A charade of SHE”LL (‘that woman will’) plus A/C (‘account’). | ||
| 7 | ALLOTMENT |
All holy books giving people time, room to grow (9)
|
| A charade of ‘all’ plus OT (Old Testament, ‘holy books’) plus MEN (‘people’) plus T (‘time’). | ||
| 8 | YANK |
Pull one across the pond (4)
|
| Double definition, the second being an American. | ||
| 11 | STANLEY KNIFE |
Stifle Kenyan with review that’s cutting (7,5)
|
| An anagram (‘with review’) of ‘stifle Kenyan’. | ||
| 13 | DOWNSTREAM |
Consumes, in the north, the headless fish where it was caught? (10)
|
| A charade of DOWNS (‘consumes’) plus T (‘in the north, the’ – a reference to northern English dialects with a tendency to reduce “the” to a stop attached to the previous word) plus [b]REAM (‘fish’) minus its first letter (‘headless’), with an extended definition. | ||
| 15 | TASMAN SEA |
Carried by Qantas, man’s eastbound – here? (6,3)
|
| A hidden answer (‘carried by’) in ‘QanTAS MAN’S EAstbound’. Qantas is Australia’s flag airline, and a flight eastbound from Australia to New Zealand would cross the Tasman Sea. | ||
| 18 | NULLIFY |
Fully in flames; declare void (7)
|
| An anagram (‘flames’) of ‘fully in’. | ||
| 20 | ANAGRAM |
Integral of triangle, say? (7)
|
| And indeed ‘integral’ is an anagram of ‘triangle’. | ||
| 22 | NEPAL |
In the Pyrenees, the swan rises finding mountainous land (5)
|
| A reversal (‘rises’ in a down light) of LA (‘in the Pyrenees, the’ – the feminine definite article in either French or Spanish) plus PEN (adult female ‘swan’). | ||
| 23 | SIKH |
Someone in Kachera – holy, primarily? (4)
|
| First letters (‘primarily’) of ‘Someone In Kachera Holy’. Kachera are underpants worn by Sikhs. |
Defect and desert may be a double definition but it’s one that escapes me.
I’m clearly not spending enough time in funfairs : chair o planes meant nothing to me. Also eluded by Downstream although I suspected that a headless bream might be involved. I just couldn’t think of any convenient streams.
Thanks for the elucidation.
Liked LOSING THE PLOT, TASMAN SEA and SIKH.
Thanks PeterO and Everyman.
writing in “elon” for the technocrat held me up 😂
Gliddofglood @1 Burgess and Philly defected to Russia thus deserting Blighty. Were they imperfect by having defects?
Anyone found this week’s Everyman? I can only find last week’s grid.
Sp@4. I can’t find it either.
(I’d put in 3 or4 answers before I realised it was last week’s grid 🙂
Thanks Peter O. I needed your explanation for 1D. I couldn’t stop thinking of bread, and whether toast was double cooked or something!
@Sp : Many thanks! All clear now. I was only thinking in terms of Gobi or Kalahari. Doh!
Sp@4 it’s got the right number and today’s date, but it’s last week’s crossword again!
Thank you to PeterO and all who contribute to here. i was always view this but do not usually comment. i think Everyman is on a good run at the moment. however, there is often an answer which i have but i am not sure how to parse it and the platform here helps. last week it was 13down but then i am not a northerner. i was also help up by the NW corner and it took me a while to see ‘chin chin’ but thought it was an excellent clue once the penny had finally dropped. Christopher
Tortoise appear to have uploaded last week’s EM (1407) into today’s EM (4108) online slot – but if you go to today’s pdf version, it’s different from last week’s, so presumably the correct version for today. https://cdn.observer.co.uk/media/documents/obs.everyman.20250713.pdf
I can’t get today’s Observer puzzles to appear at all, so thank you for this . The site just freezes – anyone else?
Well that was a resounding failure this week – just ended up with random answers across the grid but nothing that seemed to give me quite enough to make any sort of meaningful progress with.
NW corner a disaster for me as I put MIRAGE in for 1a and tried to justify GEMINAL for 3d.
@12 Lazarus my feeling entirely. This felt to be on a totally different level from last week’s. I felt completely lost at some points and was unable to parse most of what I put in. Thanks for sharing the grief…
2d is pretty poor. You can fare well or badly, so ‘fares’ as a synonym for ‘succeeds’ simply doesn’t work.
As others have commented, today’s puzzle is currently missing in action. The new management at The Observer don’t seem to be any more on the ball than the old.
Technical gremlins appear to have been removed – this week’s puzzle now available at https://observer.co.uk/puzzles/everyman/article/everyman-no-4108
Meanwhile, thanks to Everyman for last week’s offering, and to PeterO for the ever-exemplary blogwork
Really nice puzzle this one, only definition that felt a bit dubious was Fares, as others have commented.
I managed most the crossword without too much trouble but I have to confess I got NEPAL and CREDO from the definition alone.
On the plus side I learnt the name for a female adult swan and an Australian sea.
Not only is the puzzle back, but printing has been fixed, after several weeks in which you would always get the PDF version even when not selecting it. I had reported this to the support people, so perhaps someone took note.
Yep, all good now and even the pdf version prints out nicely and clearly.
I did not think this a typical Everyman. It seemed above the level and I found some of the clues a bit dodgy.
Thanks anyway
poc @15 you might want to check the dictionary – Chambers: FARE 1. To get on or succeed
I really enjoyed this which usually means it wasn’t suitable for the Everyman slot
[Btw there’s a charming article about Jonathan Crowther / AZED in the Observer today. There’s a new setter called Gemelo in the AZED slot – quite accessible (relatively speaking)]
Cheers P&E
I can get the pdf, which I have to use as the actual print button just gives a blank page, but can’t find last weeks answers as they are no longer in the pdf.
Feared the worst after first Across sweep yielded just two but it all gradually unfolded. Double chin was a guess as I’ve not heard of the toast. Yank was nice. Agree with the comments on Fare, guess I need to look it up now.
Tougher than last week, but that’s a good thing. Liked Frappe, Michelangelo, Downstream. Feel like we’ve had a similar clue for Anagram before from Everyman.
Definitely harder than last week but we eventually got there. Favourites are DOWNSTREAM, DOUBLE CHIN, EMISSARY. Thanks all!!
“Fare” as a synonym for “succeed” is toadally off.
Never heard of Edgbaston.
13 down was imparsible (:-)); got it only by using a wildcard dictionary.
Liked 1 down.
Absolutely agree with Rolf – you can fare badly or well. IT does NOT mean succeed. You need to be about 100 to have used Chin Chin as a toast. I’ve watched games at Edgebaston but only on TV.
IBS and catatonia I know but they are well behind the front of my mind so I got these but couldn’t parse them. I liked LOSING THE PLOT & AS LIKELY AS NOT. As for t’northern bit with the glottal stop… at least they weren’t picking on cockneys this time.
Be careful about using ‘chin chin’ – i n colloquial Japanese it is a penis!
Rpb from Auckland’s EPSOM.
I’ve said before, there is Everyman and then there’s his brother, the b#$%rd.
This week was brother’s turn.
Thanks for making sense of it all PeterO, let’s hope transmission resumes as normal next week.
I save my New Reviews and pick an Everyman randomly when I have a moment. If the comments are still open I’ll comment, long after you’ve all forgotten all about the puzzle. I’m new to Everyman, got about half of this one before checking with this fab blog. Loved Double chin, shellac, catalonia and emblem. I’ll keep at it!