This puzzle can be found at https://observer.co.uk/puzzles/everyman/article/everyman-no-4130
A more or less common or garden Everyman puzzle, albeit without the usual linked/rhyming pair of solutions – unless you see 2d and 7d as linked by the words ‘common’ and ‘garden’. Just a thought.
My personal favourites this time round: ADIEU for the disguised definition, SEMICOLON for its pleasing double usage of Mark/mark, and the clever RIOTOUS. Thanks to Everyman and merry Christmas one and all.
Moh’s festive cruciverbial hardness scale rating: Ho ho ho
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | AGASSI |
American great Andre – super server incarnate, primarily (6)
|
| First letters (primarily) of the first six words of the clue, referring to the US tennis player Andre Agassi
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| 5 | DIRECT |
Outspoken usher (6)
|
| Double definition, the second being a verb | ||
| 8 | READING ROOM |
Location of Gaol on rolling heath, as can be seen in library (7,4)
|
| READING (location of Reading Gaol, where Oscar Wilde was incarcerated and wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol) + reversal (rolling) of MOOR (heath)
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| 11 | OVERBUILT |
Louvre: bit ugly, with too much development (9)
|
| Anagram (ugly) of LOUVRE BIT | ||
| 12 | ODOUR |
Band with grim smell (5)
|
| O (band, as in a round thing) + DOUR (grim) | ||
| 13 | OFFBEAT |
Eccentric very loudly getting into flipping Korean exercise (7)
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| Insertion (getting into) of FF (very loudly in musical notation) into a reversal (flipping) of TAE BO (Korean fitness discipline)
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| 14 | PASSKEY |
Recast, Peaky Blinders actors ultimately getting access to multiple places (7)
|
| Anagram (recast) of PEAKY and the last letters (ultimately) of blinderS actorS. Nothing to do with the oddly stylised TV crime drama series Peaky Blinders | ||
| 15 | CURDLED |
Sour, nasty, heartless, dead cruel (7)
|
| Anagram (nasty) of D[ea]D (dead, heartless) CRUEL | ||
| 17 | LAMPOON |
Satirise nitwit hiding electrical unit (7)
|
| LOON (nitwit) around (hiding) AMP (electrical unit) | ||
| 20 | ADIEU |
Take care of gold-plated cube (5)
|
| AU (chemical symbol for gold) around (hence ‘gold-plated’) DIE (cube) | ||
| 21 | SEMICOLON |
Lion comes to represent Mark (9)
|
| Anagram (to re-present) of LION COMES for the punctuation mark. The capital M is there partly for misdirection, but also because the winged lion of St Mark is used in various places (notably Venice) as a symbol of the evangelist
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| 22 | UNDER A CLOUD |
Our dad and uncle misbehaving in the doghouse (5,1,5)
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| Anagram (misbehaving) of OUR DAD (and) UNCLE | ||
| 23 | MERSEY |
Duck leaving Rome? Yes, swimming in river (6)
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| Anagram (swimming) of R[o]ME (duck, or 0, leaving Rome) YES | ||
| 24 | LEERED |
Looked unpleasantly flushed following return of slippery character (6)
|
| RED (flushed) after reversal (following return) of EEL | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | GARDEN FURNITURE |
Harry nurtured a fringe that’s brought out in summer (6,9)
|
| Anagram (harry) of NURTURED A FRINGE | ||
| 3 | SHAMBLE |
Some characters from Lewisham blearily totter (7)
|
| Hidden solution (some characters from) in lewiSHAM BLEarily. As a former resident of Lewisham, I found this word picture entirely believable | ||
| 4 | INITIATED |
Everyman’s description of restaurant trip – given starter of daikons – kicked off (9)
|
| Everyman’s description of a restaurant trip might, employing poetic inversion, be ‘IN IT I ATE‘, plus (given) D (starter of Daikons), another name for mooli or Japanese white radish. They’re very good roasted
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| 5 | DIGIT |
What to do to a whole (reportedly) number!? (5)
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| The clue (rather than, as more usual, the solution) contains a homophone, of ‘hole’ (whole, reportedly). What to do to a hole? DIG IT | ||
| 6 | RIOTOUS |
Rowdy: summary of journey starting in S America, ending in N America? (7)
|
| If you take a journey from RIO TO (the) US you start in S America and end in N America | ||
| 7 | COMMON KNOWLEDGE |
It’s generally understood what’s possessed by Wombles (6,9)
|
Double def, the second referring to the children’s books by Elisabeth Beresford – the Wombles were furry creatures who lived on Wimbledon Common in SW London and generally tidied up after humans. They were early proponents of reuse and recycling |
||
| 9 | POLO |
Game in which you need a horse or a car (4)
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| Double def, the second referring to the VW Polo | ||
| 10 | PRAY |
I ask you for victim, did you say? (4)
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| Soundalike (did you say?) of ‘prey’ | ||
| 14 | POLEMICAL |
Belligerent, the writer’s sent up European state cops (9)
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| POLE (European) + CAL (California, state) around (cops) a reversal (sent up, in a down clue) of I’M (the writer’s) | ||
| 15 | CHAR |
Burn arch in ruins (4)
|
| Anagram (in ruins) of ARCH | ||
| 16 | LOURDES |
Splash of colour desired in holy site (7)
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| Hidden answer (splash of) in coLOUR DESired | ||
| 18 | MICROBE |
Nick covered in rodents: this might make you sick (7)
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| ROB (nick, steal) inside (covered in) MICE | ||
| 19 | NINE |
Square getting verbal refusal in Rheinland (4)
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| Soundalike (verbal) of ‘nein’ German for ‘no’, hence ‘refusal in Rheinland’ | ||
| 21 | STRAY |
Holy man with beam? Get lost (5)
|
| ST (saint, holy man) + RAY |
I liked ADIEU. i also liked 14a PASSKEY, 4d INITIATED and 5d DIGIT. A pleasant and very enjoyable puzzle.
Thanks. Festive greetings!
I liked the ‘ho ho ho’ rating. Great blog moh. Thanks.
My faves: AGASSI, U A CLOUD, INITIATED and RIOTOUS.