The puzzle may be found (as long as it is made available) at https://observer.co.uk/puzzles/everyman/article/everyman-no-4111.
This week we have the rhyming pair (12A DRINKING GAME and 21A A CRYING SHAME), the acrostic (27A SRI LANKA), the self reference (8D AMATEURISH) and a choice of geographical references (5A CRIMEA, 27A SRI LANKA again, and 10A SIERRA, as well as a generic, appears in the name of many mountain ranges around the world). Also, there are two examples of an occasional Everyman favourite, the one-word anagram, at 1A COMEDIAN and 13D STAGNATION. I did not get round to highlighting them in the grid. I recall last week’s Everyman as being a little more difficult than usual; if so, this one is a course correction.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | COMEDIAN |
Frenzied demoniac – scream! (8)
|
| An anagram (‘frenzied’) of ‘demoniac’. Everyman likes one-word anagrams. | ||
| 5 | CRIMEA |
Part of Pacific Rim, Eastern Peninsula (6)
|
| A hidden answer (‘part of’) in ‘PacifiC RIM EAstern’. | ||
| 9 | MUTE SWAN |
Mum with pen, perhaps one that glides across water (4,4)
|
| A charade of MUTE (‘mum’) plus SWAN (‘pen, perhaps’ – the female of the species). | ||
| 10 | SIERRA |
In report, recognise clotheshorse and range (6)
|
| Sounds something like (‘in report’) SEE (‘recognise’) plus AIRER (‘clotheshorse’). | ||
| 12 | DRINKING GAME |
Contest in which losers are roaring? (8,4)
|
| Cryptic definition: in a typical drinking game, the losers drink more, and thus may well endd up roaring drunk. | ||
| 15 | TAPESTRIES |
Records what judge does: hangings (10)
|
| A charade of TAPES (‘records’) plus TRIES (‘what judge does’). | ||
| 17 | STAR |
Household name, the PM? For the most part (4)
|
| STAR[mer] (Sir Keir, ‘the PM’, currently, of the UK) cut short (‘for the most part’ – at least, the greater part) | ||
| 19 | GIST |
Is tucking into gin and tonic, in summary (4)
|
| An envelope (‘tucking into’) of ‘is’ in GT (G & T. ‘gin and tonic’). | ||
| 20 | AS IT STANDS |
Currently, Satanists carousing having imbibed drop of Dubonnet (2,2,6)
|
| An envelope (‘having imbibed’) of D (‘drop of Dubonnet’) in ASITSTANS, an anagram (‘carousing’) of ‘Satanists’. | ||
| 21 | A CRYING SHAME |
Many cigars he misplaced: pity (1,6,5)
|
| An anagram (‘misplaced’) oh ‘mant cigars he’. | ||
| 26 | IMPEDE |
Get in the way of somewhat dim pedestrian (6)
|
| A hidden answer (‘somewhat’) in ‘dIM PEDEstrian’. | ||
| 27 | SRI LANKA |
‘Socialist Republic’ India lies alongside, now known as, primarily … this (3,5)
|
| First letters (‘primarily’) of the first eight words of the clue. | ||
| 28 | NIECES |
Crazy scene accommodating first of Italian relatives (6)
|
| An envelope (‘accommodating’) of I (‘first of Italian’) in NECES, an anagram (‘crazy’) of ‘scene’. | ||
| 29 | EYESIGHT |
Crossword setter, we’re told, ridiculous thing to behold? That makes sense (8)
|
| A charade of EYE, sounding like (‘we’re told’) I (‘crossword setter’) plus SIGHT (‘ridiculous thing to behold’), for one of the five senses. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CAMO |
Recording equipment, love, in which you won’t be seen (4)
|
| A charade of CAM (camera, ‘recording equipment’) plus O (‘love’). | ||
| 2 | MOTH |
June maybe taking heart in winged creature (4)
|
| MO[n]TH (‘June maybe’) minus its middle letter (‘taking heart’) | ||
| 3 | DISTRESS |
Upset? Shave? (8)
|
| Double definition, sort of. To DIS-TRESS – remove hair – msy be done by shaving the head. | ||
| 4 | AGAIN |
Once more, a win (5)
|
| A charade of ‘a’ plus GAIN (‘win’). | ||
| 6 | RUING |
Regretting being in Peru, in general (5)
|
| A hidden answer (‘being in’) in ‘PeRU IN General’. | ||
| 7 | MARK ANTONY |
Roman currency of old given to worker only (not ‘pounds’) (4,6)
|
| A charade of MARK (‘currency of old’) plus ANT (‘worker’) plus ‘on[l]y’ minus the L (‘not pounds’). | ||
| 8 | AMATEURISH |
A familiar query, regularly seen: Everyman, quiet and unprofessional? (10)
|
| A charade of ‘a’ plus MATE (‘familiar’) plus UR (‘qUeRy regularly seen’) plus I (‘Everyman’) plus SH (‘quiet’). | ||
| 11 | NICEST |
Most pleasant rue on the Riviera (6)
|
| NICE ST (that is, street in Nice – ‘rue on the Riviera’ – with ‘rue’ as the French for street). | ||
| 13 | STAGNATION |
Antagonist wrecked, seeing low times (10)
|
| An anagram(‘wrecked’) of ‘antagonist’. | ||
| 14 | APOSTROPHE |
Possessive character? (10)
|
| Cryptic definition (when followed by s). | ||
| 16 | RESIGN |
Cringes, losing head, wobbling – give up! (6)
|
| An anagram (‘wobbling’) of ‘[c]ringes’ minus its first letter (‘losing head’). | ||
| 18 | STUMBLES |
Moves unsteadily – after second, falls (8)
|
| A charade of S (‘second’) plus TUMBLES (‘falls’). Alia had the same idea in Tuesday’s Guardian Cryptic. | ||
| 22 | INDIE |
Part of the German arthouse? (5)
|
| A charade of IN (‘part of’) plus DIE (‘the German’, feminine). | ||
| 23 | HARPY |
Mythological beast resembling Irish instrument? (5)
|
| A whimsical formation: like a HARP (‘resembling Irish instrument’). | ||
| 24 | SNUG |
Close-fitting when arms raised (4)
|
| A reversal (‘raised’ in a down light) of GUNS (‘arms’). | ||
| 25 | CAST |
Shy collection of actors (4)
|
| Double definition; ‘shy’ in the sense of throw. |
Thanks PeterO. I agree with your summation, an improvement on last week’s.
DRINKING GAME was my LOI. Only did the crossword just now before the post came up and wasn’t looking for the rhyming pair. I didn’t get the “roar”, which misdirected me, thinking the second word must be ”cage”. I think ”roaring drunk” is a bridge too far, but then it might be sour grapes. I suppose there is the QM.
Quibble with CAMO, two unindicated abbreviations, including the answer. But then CAM and CAMO aren’t part of my vocabulary.
I quite like Everyman’s playing around with ”characters” as in APOSTROPHE. We can probably add that to his list of standard tricks.
Liked HARPY Glad it wasn’t a cranky old woman this time, or this cranky old woman would have been even crankier. On the other hand, I should take heart that the “beast” after whom the woman is named is “mythological”.
ROMAN (currency) was a nice misdirection.
Agree the difficulty level was a step down from last week (not a bad thing!). Going back to my notes I realise I hadn’t fully parsed 8, otherwise this all went in very smoothly.
Thanks to Everyman & PeterO
DNF for me with three unsolved. 2d and 9a are NHO and couldn’t find a satisfactory association for “roaring” in 12a (i agree with paddymelon@1, that the solution appears to be a stretch).
Thanks, Everyman and PeterO
Liked SIERRA, SRI LANKA, MARK ANTONY and NICEST.
DRINKING GAME
Agree with paddymelon and WordSDrove.
IMPEDE
I think the def should include ‘of’.
Thanks Everyman and PeterO.
I also disliked CAMO – I’ve never seen or used either abbreviation.
Thought GIST was neat. Also liked MARK ANTHONY (and the misdirection), MUTE SWAN, NICEST
(there’s a typo in the explanation for 21 ac)
Thanks Everyman and PeterO
Enjoyable puzzle.
Yes a good week for Everyman and for me. I also enjoyed MARK ANTHONY, TAPESTRIES, and particularly APOSTROPHE. I agree it was easier than last week. Despite looking at it for ages with the full grid completed, I could not get the homophone on SIERRA. I kept thinking that there must be a model (clotheshorse) called Erra. In the end I asked a friend for the parse.
Thanks to PeterO for the blog and Everyman for the continued good setting.
Thanks Everyman and PeterO
Another who had never heard of CAMO, though cam is quite a common abbreviation for camera.
The clue for MUTE SWAN is weak because the wordplay uses a swan to define….a swan!
I couldn’t parse SIERRA as See Airer and Sierra sound quite different to my Scottish ears – ‘homophones’ are a perennial problem with cryptics.
I put DRINKING GAME in as had the crossers but wasn’t 100% sure.
Very enjoyable this week, the level was where I would expect it to be for an Everyman and managed to finish which was good. Couldn’t fully parse 8D – I got most of it but couldn’t work out the familiar = mate part so had to resort to the crossers to get the answer. The other one that gave me trouble was 10A – I had the ‘airer’ part running round my head but still couldn’t work out what the answer was without resorting to the Thesaurus. Was a bit of an ‘ahh’ moment when I saw it. Possibly my favourite clue.
Also managed the Quiptic last week so a successful Sunday all round.
Wasn‘t sure if it was DRINKING GAME or DRINKING RACE.
Peter@9: agreed. SIERRA fails on two counts for me: 1) as you say, AIRER=ERRA doesn’t work for a large number of English speakers, and 2) as the word is Spanish the first syllable is not SI (= ‘see’) but SIE, giving SIE-RRA, not SI-ERRA.
I thought (not that I have ever participated) that the winners in a drinking game drank more and the point of the game is to prove how much you can drink. The losers get to the point when they can drink no more earlier, and in that sense might be more drunk.
I thought this was a good ‘un. On checking the Collins pronunciation of SIERRA, it does sound a bit like SEE AIRER. I liked the TAPESTRIES, AS IT STANDS, NIECES, RUING, and AMATEURISH.
Thanks Everyman and PeterO.
It wasn’t the previous week’s which got me flummoxed but that of a fortnight back when I inserted EYEBALLS. LOI was CAMO which, while not tough from the cluing, I sat on for a while, not sure if such an abbreviation is a word.
Re 9ac. I came to “pen” from a different reference point. Swan was a much desired fountain pen brand when I grew up, back in the day. Swan pens have a history going back 100 years. Maybe a double reference?
Just to add my thanks for this blog. I find it really useful to improve and learn.
Cogmax@16 – yes, I thought the same regarding pens.
I had heard of camo, and it’s in Chambers. Mr T hadn’t heard of it but then it came up a couple of days later on The Sewing Bee. So that settled it!
I failed on DRINKING GAME.
I gather that there’s such a thing as the Grinning Game, where the loser is he or she who actually laughs out loud, and so in it went.
Oh, how I roared when I found out that I was wrong…
Cheers one and all.
I didn’t really understand what “roaring” had to do with DRINKING GAME but obviously it was a rhyming pair and I wonder if “roaring” was there as a hint to think of lions and therefore game (animals).
I thought it was Roaring as in ‘roaring drunk’
Missed a couple but generally good, enjoyed Tapestries.
Speaking of tries – no, best not.
Tough, IMHO, but managed to get it all out. I was OK with “camo” when I finally saw it. I found 8 down (“amateurish”) to be im-parseable (:-)) but it had to be the answer. “Mate” == “familiar” is a bridge too far.
A lot of the clues were too vague for my liking.
My morning plan didn’t involve Everyman but nothing else went to plan. One of those crozzies when the phrases spring complete out of nowhere. I liked Drinking Game, a crying shame, as it stands, tapestries ( ironic as my Sky recorder collapsed overnight and it didn’t record anything!) and Crimea. I’ve learned to recognise Everymans geographic red herrings so I knew it was NOT in the Pacific.
Delayed solving of this due to delayed viewing of the semi final – damn. The best team definitely won. Next week should be great.
Anyway – overall easier than last week. DRINKING GAME; A CRYING SHAME; TAPESTRIES our top picks.
Thanks Everyman.
DRINKING GAME was a very enjoyable aha! moment
Rather good.
Mark Antony, tapestries, Sierra were excellent.
Not so sure about drinking games – perhaps the antibodies are better exponents and we don’t have such obvious winners and losers