The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3661.
This seemed harder than usual – I had to cast around to find the first clues to which I could provide an answer – but it solved without too much difficulty once I had a foothold.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SKIRMISHES | Rambling hikers miss engagements (10) |
| An anagram (‘rambling’) of ‘hikers miss’. | ||
| 6 | SCUD | Race about in south of France (4) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of C (circa, ‘about’) in SUD (‘south of France’). | ||
| 9 | MASCARA | Blemish covered by mother with a cosmetic (7) |
| An envelope (‘covered by’) of SCAR (‘blemish’) in MA (‘mother’) plus (‘with’) ‘a’. | ||
| 10 | TOTEMIC | Bear followed by timid animals endlessly symbolic (7) |
| A charade of TOTE (‘bear’) plus MIC[e] (‘timid animals’) minus their tail (‘endlessly’). | ||
| 12 | ROVE | Wander in crowd, having day off (4) |
| [d]ROVE (‘crowd’) without the D (‘having day off’). | ||
| 13 | REPROACHED | Criticised copy, hurt (10) |
| A charade of REPRO (reproduction, ‘copy’) plus ACHED (‘hurt’). | ||
| 15 | RAN OUT OF STEAM | Horrid to fans, our side lost enthusiasm (3,3,2,5) |
| A charade of RANOUTOFS, an anagram (‘horrid’) of ‘to fans our’ plus TEAM (‘side’). | ||
| 18 | HALF THE BATTLE | Important step from fellow in ballet that he adapted (4,3,6) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of F (‘fellow’) in HALTHEBATTLE, an anagram (‘adapted’) of ‘ballet that he’. | ||
| 20 | EVENTUALLY | Level with trade union colleague in the end (10) |
| A charade of EVEN (‘level’) plus TU (‘trade union’) plus ALLY (‘colleague’). | ||
| 22 | TRUE | Genuine regret after time (4) |
| A charade of T (‘time’) plus RUE (‘regret’). | ||
| 24 | ADVANCE | Further loan (7) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 25 | REDCOAT | New cadet or old soldier? (7) |
| An anagram (‘new’) of ‘cadet or’. | ||
| 26 | RIND | Clear about nitrogen outside (4) |
| An envelope (‘about’) of N (chemical symbol, ‘nitrogen’) in RID (‘clear’). | ||
| 27 | PAST MASTER | Stamp designed by flower expert (4,6) |
| A charade of PASTM, an anagram (‘designed’) of ‘stamp’ plus ASTER (‘flower’). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SOMBRERO | Gloomy busker’s ending with nothing in hat (8) |
| A charade of SOMBRE (‘gloomy’) plus R (‘buskeR‘s ending’) plus O (‘nothing’). | ||
| 2 | IN SEVENTH HEAVEN | Jubilant hearts lift after start of seasonal occasion in pub (2,7,6) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of S (‘start of Seasonal’) plus EVENT (‘occasion’) plus H (‘hearts’ in bridge, say) plus HEAVE (‘lift’, with ‘after’ indicating the order of the particles) in INN (‘pub’). | ||
| 3 | MEAN | Average spell (4) |
| Double definition; ‘spell’ in the sense of signify – “it spells disaster”. | ||
| 4 | SCAPEGOAT | One made to take blame in a case got badly broken by pressure (9) |
| An enveloppe (‘broken by’) of P (‘pressure’) in SCAEGOAT, an anagram (‘badly’) of ‘a case got’. | ||
| 5 | ENTER | Record in moment erased (5) |
| A hidden answer ‘in’ ‘monENT ERased’. | ||
| 7 | CAME HOME TO ROOST | Some more chat, too confused, had adverse consequences (4,4,2,5) |
| An anagram (‘confused’) of ‘some more chat too’. | ||
| 8 | DECIDE | Cut up, start to exhibit resolve (6) |
| A charade of DECID, a reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of DICED (‘cut’) plus E (‘start to Exhibit’). | ||
| 11 | TRADE GAP | Old, upset, taken in by trick producing negative balance (5,3) |
| An envelope (‘taken in by’) of DEGA, a reversal (‘upset’ in a down light) of AGED (‘old’) in TRAP (‘trick’). | ||
| 14 | BULLETIN | Report slug at home (8) |
| A charade of BULLET (‘slug’) plus IN (‘at home’). | ||
| 16 | SMELL A RAT | Suspect something is wrong with lines in defamation followed by rising cheers (5,1,3) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of LL (‘lines’) in SMEAR (‘defamation’) plus AT, a reversal (‘rising’ in a down light) of TA (‘cheers’). | ||
| 17 | DESERTER | Renegade erred, set adrift (8) |
| An anagram (‘adrift’) of ‘erred set’. | ||
| 19 | REPAIR | Agent bearing remedy (6) |
| A charade of REP (‘agent’) plus AIR (‘bearing’). | ||
| 21 | ARENA | Stadium in China renamed (5) |
| A hidden answer ‘in’ ‘ChinA RENAmed’. | ||
| 23 | IDEA | Theory supplied by assistant, first to last (4) |
| AIDE (‘assistant’) with its first letter moved to the end (‘first to last’). | ||
Thanks for the blog, PeterO
I didn’t enjoy this as much as recent Everyman puzzles, perhaps because of a number of clunky and meaningless surfaces – for example in 18: “Important step from fellow in ballet that he adapted”. There were also a few clues here more challenging than normal – for example I toiled for a long time on REPROACHED because “repro” was new to me.
I struggled with one. In addition to repro I wasn’t familiar with scud as a race term. Didn’t get trade gap either. First Everyman in quite a while that I haven’t been able to complete.
Thank you Everyman and PetrerO.
I, too, struggled with this one. The clue for SCUD was easy to solve for me, since I live in France, but the word was unknown as was the term PAST MASTER. I liked ROVE, it took a while fore a drove of sheep to come to mind.
Another one here who found this a bit harder than usual for an Everyman. Got there in the end.
SCUD as ‘race’ for me is only in the sense of clouds: ‘the clouds scudded across the sky’.
Thanks to S&B.
To accentuate the positive, I loved the clue for PAST MASTER “Stamp designed by flower expert” which I thought was brilliant. @1 The clue for 18a may have been a bit clunky but certainly was not meaningless. Took a while to get REPROACHED which was my last and also struggled to make sense of the surface for SCUD.
I enjoyed this puzzle. Thanks to PeterO and Everyman.
Kathryn’s Dad @4, yes, of course, clouds sometimes SCUD across the sky, thanks.
Yep, definitely a little harder than par, in my case I think because all the long answers took a while to fall. 6ac was the only unknown for me, so I can’t blame obscurities. Enjoyable as ever, though.
I thought there were plenty of nice surfaces in this one, particularly for SKIRMISHES, SOMBRERO, IN SEVENTH HEAVEN and SCAPEGOAT.
Thanks, Everyman and PeterO.
Thanks Everyman and PeterO. I agree quite difficult, but enjoyable.
Quite difficult and missed a few e.g. Totemic, scud, trade gap, red coat and scud. However I thought some clues were clever. I thought scud was a missile.
Looks like the Kiwis are still away on holiday though it’s unseasonably cold.
Reproached was my LOI too, with Repair and Rind holding up proceedings for a bit too. Yes, on the coromandel Audrey. Seems to be warming up though, time for a swim and then whoever’ left in the tennis after sourpuss Serena and her rather more gracious sister left early.
Thanks PeterO and Everyman.
Barrie, I think the gracious Venus might be still here. I saw a picture of her shaking hands with Bill English yesterday.
warm where we are on holiday! one tree point in northland…enjoyed this particularly as without usual aids. like others scud got me out and trade gap I found unfathomable. .but a good day spent staring at the paper!
I was pleased to read the previous comments, I couldn’t work out scud and have never heard of a trade gap.Liked the rest. Thanks to all
Yes, I too did find this to be a bit of a toughie. Especially ‘totemic” and “trade gap” – and I had no idea why idea was idea but must agree that it was quite a clever clue after all! Thanks to all
I found this puzzle hard but do-able. Eleven down (“trade gap”) was my LOI since
I had trouble in thinking of “trap” as the relevant synonym for “trick.
I also had trouble in thinking of “mean” as a synonym for “spell” (3 down), though
of course the answer could not have been anything else once the two cross letters were in
To matrixmania@1, I thought the surface of 18 across was not just alright but actually very good.