Everyman 3,658

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As per usual a classy smooth Everyman

Lots to like, the New Everyman’s style gets better I feel with mostlt gentle but entertaining clues.

completed grid

Across

1 Cunning search securing one result (8)
FIENDISH
FISH (search for) with 1 & END (result) inserted

5 Open University pledge, on reflection, about right (6)
UNWRAP

u(niversity) R(ight) in PAWN (pledge) reversed, nicely sneaky mixing open university together

10 Swimming suit in pool containing colour about to create deceptive image (7,8)
OPTICAL ILLUSION
LILAC reversed in [SUIT IN POOL]* swimming

11 Satirical film about a bar (7)
PARODIC
A ROD in PIC

12 Animal I release, initially caught by mistake (7)
GIRAFFE
[I & R(elease)] inside GAFFE

13 Proprietor losing heart after time in tall building (5)
TOWER
T(ime) & (o)WNER.  Thought we might be back to Trump for a second…

15 Funny line, in short, mostly for children (8)
TODDLERS
[ODD & L(ine)] & in TERS(e) mostly

17 Emperor, a guy I call unbalanced, not unknown (8)
CALIGULA
y (maths unknown) removed from [A GU(y) I CALL]* unbalanced, well Caligula was rather unbalanced….

19 Take action against editor returning material (5)
SUEDE
SUE & ED reversed

21 Copy filled in by English learner with name and grade (7)
ECHELON
[E(nglish) & L(earner)] in ECHO & N(ame)

22 Less easy to admit love for collector (7)
HOARDER
0 (love in tennis say) in HARDER

24 Singer with sad, stern air distracted after hurtful remark (6,9)
BARBRA STREISAND
BARB & [SAD STERN AIR]* distracted

25 Pretentious youth with theory having no energy (2-2-2)
LA DI DA

LAD & no E in ID(e)A

26 Put another way, sun god inhabits different sphere (8)
REPHRASE
RA (Egyptian sun god) in SPHERE* differently

Down

1 Way of lifting and shaking top hat (8)
FOOTPATH
OF reversed (lifted) & [TOP HAT]* shaken

2 Go into part of forbidden territory (5)
ENTER
Hidden answer, simple but elegant

3 Gambled, rising above hesitation in crucial game (7)
DECIDER
DICED & ER

4 Concern caused by ridiculous issues isn’t cool (14)
SOLICITOUSNESS
[ISSUES ISNT COOL]* ridiculously

6 Not involved in arrangement of late run (7)
NEUTRAL
[LATE RUN]* arranged

7 Strengthen control in favour of church (9)
REINFORCE
REIN & FOR & C.E.

8 Joke with trap in basket (6)
PUNNET
PUN & NET

9 Waste time on lost cause in sport, upset with advertisement, suffering sore head (4,1,4,5)
FLOG A DEAD HORSE
GOLF reversed & AD (vert) & [SORE HEAD]* suffered

14 Seasoned old man lacking force to cut unwanted plant (9)
WEATHERED
F(orce) removed from (f)ATHER inserted in WEED

16 Resent for example resistance during move (8)
BEGRUDGE
[E.G. & R(esistance)] inside BUDGE

18 Crude amendment of bill supported by revolutionary (3-4)
ILL BRED

BILL amended & RED

19 Language course is hard (7)
SPANISH
SPAN & IS & H(ard)

20 Clever ballad partly spoken (6)
VERBAL
hidden anser

23 Play lawyer with inner force (5)
DRAMA
RAM inside D(istrict) A(ttourney)

22 comments on “Everyman 3,658”

  1. Thank you Everyman and PeterO.

    I certainly found this crossword FIENDISH, “Open University” capitalised, having to get LILAC out of the blue and reverse it, the French words GAFFE and ECHELON (OK, they are in the COED)… but all good fun, and it took me a while to spot VERBAL.

  2. I liked this too and was also misled by Open University. As well as UNWRAP I particularly liked CALIGULA.

    My FOI was TOWER and my last ECHELON which I did struggle with.

    Thanks to Everyman and Flashling.

  3. An enjoyable, pretty straightforward solve this week I thought. Surprised by the spelling of 24ac’s first name, and wanted 10ac to be something a lot more obscure, but the rest went in without difficulty.

  4. Thanks Everyman and flashling

    Pace your comment in York about picking up on parsing, sorry to point out that 13 is actually T + OW(n)ER 😉

  5. Another fine puzzle as I have come to expect. I thought FOOTPATH and FIENDISH were very good and it took me a long long time to spot VERBAL although I was convinced that the definition was ‘Clever’. Like Jon, I too was surprised by the spelling of BARBRA but maybe should not have been. I knew a guy called Kneale once and it was pronounced Neil. Nowt so queer as folk.

    Thanks to flashling and Everyman.

  6. Thanks to Simon for pointing out the deliberate mistake 🙂 serves me right for writing it up at gosh it’s early. A few tyops seem to have crept in.

  7. flashling @6

    Your last sentence amused me “A few tyops seem to have crept in.” Was this deliberate ?. There should be a word for a correction that contains an error.
    Maybe there is.

  9. Thank you PeterO and Everyman, the long anagram/charade clues caused me a bit of bother but I eventually managed to solve first – parse later. LA DI DA, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen in writing before, was my favourite clue.

  12. Sorry flashling, thank you for the blog. I was very tired this morning having had a to-do yesterday with PeeDee since I wanted to draw attention to this week’s Prize crossword, it was relevant to World Toilet Day, I gave nothing away as regards the Prize, but he deleted my comment – I was very upset – incidentally, one can still contribute to the cause at http://www.toilettwinning.org.

    Apologies also to PeterO. Also, I wonder if other people today had a problem with joining fifteensquared, and it was impossible here in France to get the interactive version of the Everyman up – in the end I managed to get the pdf version.

  13. Enjoyable as always. I thought there were some tricky clues, but fair. UNWRAP was my favourite – nice misdirection.

    Thanks, Everyman and flashling.

  14. I enjoyed this one and agree with Flashing’s comments. I recently revisited a few AS back-issues and was surprised by how challenging I found them at first. The main difference I think is that the “new” setter’s answers tend to be less obscure, but the clue construction more convoluted. This means I’m more likely to solve them from the main clue part and then parse the rest for confirmation. Having made that adjustment they are just as much fun, though I do miss Mr Scott’s cryptic definitions which always made me chuckle. One of my favourites was: “Every second one is a starter (12)”.

  17. Enjoyed this thoroughly except I found I had got La Di Da wrong. Have always thought the spelling was La De Da as per the Kiwi rock group “The La De Da’s” who were world famous in New Zealand in the 70’s. Hmmm!

  19. Had I not reread last weeks comments I probably wouldn’t have spotted that this too was recycled. I didn’t notice it while solving it. No real issues and some nice clues.

    Happy New Year to all Kiwis.

  20. Interesting to compare the two setters. This seemed much more straightforward than the current. Also surprised I didn’t recall any of the clues & I can’t even get my previous comment @14. At least I know I can keep myself entertained with back-issues.

  21. Paul @14 and 20
    Scary when you realise you don’t recognise your own comments ! Like when given back a bundle of letters you wrote to yr parents decades ago while away overseas and want to say ‘who wrote that (some drivel in my case ) ‘

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