The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3680.
I thought this and the previous week’s Everyman were just a shade harder than usual. My last in was 9D AS FIT AS A FIDDLE: I had got the answer much earlier, but could not see the wordplay for the latter half.
| Across | ||
| 1 | FACTOR | Element in favour of keeping law (6) |
| An envelope (‘keeping’) of ACT (‘law’) in FOR (‘in favour of’). | ||
| 4 | SCULLS | Race between boats son selects (6) |
| A charade of S (‘son’) plus CULLS (‘selects’). | ||
| 10 | NUMBER CRUNCHERS | Senseless blunders about critical point by electronic statisticians (6,9) |
| An envelope (‘about’) of CRUNCH (‘critical point’) plus E (‘electronic’) in NUMB (‘senseless’) plus ERRS (‘blunders’). | ||
| 11 | ACCENTUATE | Correct, right away, to screen half of entire highlight (10) |
| An envelope (‘to screen’) of ENT (‘half of ENTire’) in ACCU[r]ATE (‘correct’) minus the R (‘right away’). | ||
| 12 | YETI | Hairy creature of legend one follows so far (4) |
| A charade of YET (‘so far’) plus I (‘one’), with ‘follows’ indicating the order of the particles. | ||
| 14 | SADDO | Pathetic type, casual when retreating (5) |
| A reversal (‘when retreating’) of ODD (‘casual’) plus AS(‘when’). | ||
| 16 | FORSYTHIA | Shrub in fine area full of unusual history (9) |
| An envelope (‘full of’) of ORSYTHI, an anagram (‘unusual’) of ‘history’ in F(‘fine’) plus A (‘area’). | ||
| 17 | ALL ENDS UP | Plans duel ruined completely (3,4,2) |
| An anagram (‘ruined’) of ‘plans duel’. | ||
| 20 | NINJA | Spy kept in isolation in jail (5) |
| A hidden answer in ‘isolatioN IN JAil’. | ||
| 21 | NAVE | Part of church, one lacking nothing, containing Bible (4) |
| An envelope (‘containing’) of AV (Authorised Version. ‘Bible’) in ‘[o]ne’ minus the O (‘lacking nothing’). | ||
| 22 | CANNELLONI | Endless recorded lines about Italy producing pasta (10) |
| A charade of CANNE[d] (‘recorded’) minus its last letter (‘endless’) plus LL (‘lines’) plus ON (‘about’) plus I (‘Italy’). | ||
| 25 | OUR MUTUAL FRIEND | Novel rumour, futile and garbled (3,6,6) |
| An anagram (‘garbled’) of ‘rumour futile and’, for the novel by Charles Dickens. | ||
| 26 | DAPPER | Neatly dressed agent with stuff going around (6) |
| A reversal (‘going around’) of REP (‘agent’) plus PAD (‘stuff’). | ||
| 27 | SEETHE | Look at article and be incensed (6) |
| A charade of SEE (‘look at’) plus THE (definite ‘article’). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | FINIAN’S RAINBOW | Musical info in brain was varied (7,7) |
| An anagram (‘varied’) of ‘info in brain was’. Note that, following the common convention, the apostrophe is not indicated in the enumeration. | ||
| 2 | COMIC | Funny business with microphone (5) |
| A charade of CO (company, ‘business’) plus MIC (‘microphone’). | ||
| 3 | OCEAN-GOING | Call for attention received by gang once trained and suited for sea travel (5-5) |
| An envelope (‘received by’) of OI (‘call for attention’) in OCEANGNG, an anagram (‘trained’) of ‘gang once’. | ||
| 5 | COUNTER | Token answer (7) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 6 | LOCK | Piece of hair from player in scrum? (4) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 7 | SHERE KHAN | Man in novel hankers to find tiger (5,4) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of HE (‘man’) in SREKHAN, an anagram (‘novel’) of ‘hankers’, for the tiger in Kipling’s The Jungle Book. | ||
| 8 | SCRUFF | Republican in scrape? Not a smart person (6) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of R (‘Republican’) in SCUFF (‘scrape’). | ||
| 9 | AS FIT AS A FIDDLE | Fine article on science fiction one cheers, with load about rising uncertainty (2,3,2,1,6) |
| A charade of A (indefinite ‘article’) plus SF (‘science fictiion’) plus I (‘one’) plus TA(‘cheers’ in the sense of “thank you”) plus SAFIDDLE, an envelope (‘about’) of FI, a reversal (‘rising’ in a down light) of IF (‘uncertainty’) in SADDLE (‘load’). | ||
| 13 | BY AND LARGE | Generally unknown land newly rounded by boat (2,3,5) |
| An evelope (’rounded by’) of Y (mathematical ‘unknown’) plus ANDL, an anagram (‘newly’) of ‘land’ in BARGE (‘boat’). | ||
| 15 | DELIVERED | Provided research about island with colour (9) |
| A charade of DELIVE, an envelope (‘about’) of I (‘island’) in DELVE (‘research’) plus RED (‘colour’). | ||
| 18 | STATURE | Tasteless stuff covered by certain reputation (7) |
| An envelope (‘covered by’) of TAT (‘tasteless stuff’ – not a definition I would have chosen, but it seems OK) in SURE (‘certain’). | ||
| 19 | PUNILY | Weakly carry on about place of education (6) |
| An envelope (‘about’) of UNI (university, ‘place of education’) in PLY (‘carry on’). | ||
| 23 | OVERT | Plain to see across time (5) |
| A charade of OVER (‘across’) plus T (‘time’). | ||
| 24 | PUMP | Quiz to identify type of shoe (4) |
| Double definition. | ||
Yes, I thought this was quite a bit harder than usual too, owing to the presence of several proper nouns and titles, which required some cultural knowledge and still weren’t obvious even when all the crossers were in, i.e. FORSYTHIA, SHERE KHAN, FINIANS RAINBOW and OUR MUTUAL FRIEND. It helped that all four involved anagrams, but I don’t normally have to resort to checking so many solutions with Google or Wikipedia when doing the Everyman.
Thanks for the blog, PeterO. I thought this was a tougher than normal Everyman. I needed this blog to parse NUMBER CRUNCHERS and I’m still not convinced that NINJA is a fair definition for spy. Last one in was the relatively easy SCULLS where it took me an age to see culls for selects.
I failed to solve 14a – have never heard the word SADDO before. I thought of ‘Sadie’ (got the AS reversal bit), but could not parse it.
I solved but could not parse 3d, or 9d beyond AS FIT AS – I had wrongly thought of ‘cheers’ as ‘tas’ rather than just TA.
Thanks PeterO and Everyman
Thank you Everyman and PeterO.
I also found this harder than usual. I could not enter the pasta until I had PUNILY, ‘canned’ not coming to my mind for ‘recorded’, and ‘farfalloni’ would have fitted. NUMBER CRUNCHERS was the last in.
matrixmania @2, I checked NINJA in the dictionary, apparently it is the Japanese word for ‘spy’.
Yes, quite a toughie this week. Slow to get started and slow to finish with SCULLS being my last too.
I liked the apposite clue for SHERE KHAN. Thanks to all.
Tougher than usual, perhaps, but still satisfyingly doable.
As a former statistician, I got 10a quite early on, but it remained my least favourite!
Definitely tougher than usual, with a few answers / definitions I was unfamiliar with. Last in 1d, which I was most definitely unfamiliar with.
Very enjoyable ( but could not work out fit as a fiddle ….. so thanks for the explanation )
How strange. I found this much easier to solve and for once completed it bar one. (7down: I filled it in with Steve Chan!!! I’m sure I’ve heard that name somewhere.) Helped by solving all the longer ones early on and then had lots of crossers to work with. Teenage Ninja Turtles was a popular show here, not that I watched it.
I wasnt convinced that cull = select, I thought it meant get rid of.
Was completely unstuck about reason for Nave, but it comes up so often I put it in and worried about the reason later, Never heard of AV;must remember that. One of my favourites was the last one in 27ac
Some answers are a real tangle to understand like 3d, 9d but anyway, it makes good reading.
LOL! I only just gave up on this crossie this morning. Admittedly I spent perhaps only a few hours doing it but it did span 10 days!
This was a much tougher proposition. Didn’t get NAVE, PUNILY, OVERT or CANNELLONI. In hindsight both PUNILY and OVERT are obvious.