I was a little apprehensive about my task this week, following the previous setter’s retirement and the disappointment of last week’s interim puzzle. But I’m told someone else has now taken on the role, and this week’s puzzle is much more encouraging. Welcome and thank you to the new Everyman setter.
Some neat double definitions here (particularly 10a and 5d), and a gloriously awful pun in 16d. My favourite clue was probably 11d for the misdirection in the surface.
A few answers seem to require a basic working knowledge of French; most of the words can be found in English with more or less equivalent meanings, but one or two might be a bit of a stretch, and I’m not sure exactly how 22a should be parsed. But, all in all, an enjoyable challenge.
Definitions are underlined; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PRIMPS | Preens: repeatedly improves make-up, plucks and shaves – just for starters! (6) |
| Initial letters (just for starters) of Preens Repeatedly Improves Make-up Plucks Shaves. Clue-as-definition (&lit): primp = to smarten one’s appearance. | ||
| 4 | INIMICAL | Taken aback in lilac, I’m initially hostile (8) |
| Hidden answer, reversed (tacken aback in) from [li]LAC IM INI[tially] | ||
| 9 | ESPRIT | Unorthodox priest presents wit from France (6) |
| Anagram (unorthodox) of PRIEST. A French word, but it means much the same in English. | ||
| 10 | ACADEMIC | This person may be a professor: it’s irrelevant (8) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 12 | LUNETTES | Unsettle, unsettle and make spectacles (8) |
| Anagram (unsettle) of UNSETTLE! French for eyeglasses, as in “half-moon lenses” perhaps. The word exists in English but Chambers doesn’t give it the meaning “spectacles”, and nor does any other dictionary I can find. But the anagram is rather neat. | ||
| 13 | ALLURE | Appeal of ‘hysterical’ Laurel (6) |
| Anagram (hysterical) of LAUREL. | ||
| 15 | DUTCH AUCTION | Lots of Netherlanders? (5,7) |
| Cryptic definition: “lots” as in individual items to be sold at auction. A Dutch auction (roughly) is one that doesn’t use the usual bidding rules; for example, one where the auctioneer starts at a high price and then reduces it until someone agrees to pay. | ||
| 18 | STRAIGHT FACE | Candid features? One gives nothing away (8,4) |
| STRAIGHT (candid) FACE (features), or not revealing one’s emotions by one’s facial expression. | ||
| 21 | RENEWS | Makes born again, putting Bible classes before recent events (6) |
| RE (Religious Education) before NEWS. | ||
| 22 | ENSEMBLE | The Arles together? (8) |
| I’m not sure about this one. ENSEMBLE means “together” in French (eg in the city of Arles), and just about in English too, but that seems a bit loose for a cryptic definition. “Arle” also means a down-payment but I can’t make that fit. | ||
| 24 | EXTERIOR | Former husband, reformed rioter, is outside (8) |
| EX (former spouse) + anagram (reformed) of RIOTER. | ||
| 25 | LOUCHE | Seedy, the French housing? ‘That hurts!’ (6) |
| LE (French “the”) housing (containing) OUCH. Seedy = louche = disreputable. | ||
| 26 | SCHEDULE | ‘You don’t see loafers on this,’ she’d clue cryptically (8) |
| Anagram (cryptically) of SHE’D CLUE. Loafers (lazy people) are unlikely to be on schedule. | ||
| 27 | ADVENT | Most of December in commercial outlet (6) |
| AD (advertisement = commercial) + VENT (outlet). The period leading up to Christmas. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PRECLUDE | Caught interrupting musical intro in bar (8) |
| C (caught, cricket abbreviation) interrupting PRELUDE (musical intro). Bar (as a verb) = preclude. | ||
| 2 | IMPUNITY | Mischief-maker’s solidarity bringing impossibility of punishment (8) |
| IMP (mischief-maker) + UNITY (solidarity). | ||
| 3 | PAINT THE TOWN RED | Celebrate winter at the pond, drunk (5,3,4,3) |
| Anagram (drunk) of WINTER AT THE POND. Paint the town red = go on an enthusiastic spree of celebration. | ||
| 5 | NICK | Thieve where thieves are (4) |
| Double definition: slang term for either “steal” or “prison”. | ||
| 6 | MIDDLE-OF-THE-ROAD | Safe place for dangerous drivers? (6-2-3-4) |
| Double definition. Safe as in routine or undemanding – but clearly a driver in the middle of the road is likely to be doing something dangerous. | ||
| 7 | CAMPUS | French novelist is seen around quiet college grounds (6) |
| Albert CAMUS (French novelist) around P (piano = musical notation for quiet). | ||
| 8 | LACKEY | Servant given black eye endlessly (6) |
| [b]LACK EY[e] without the ends. | ||
| 11 | PERUSAL | Reading-Paddington’s home straits, approaching London primarily (7) |
| Darkest PERU (Paddington Bear‘s home) + first letters (primarily) of Straits Approaching London. Peruse = to read in detail. | ||
| 14 | STAGING | Little saint getting on with putting on a show (7) |
| ST (abbreviation for saint) + AGING (getting on in years). | ||
| 16 | BARBECUE | Sounds like the dolls are lined up to cook burgers, say (8) |
| Sounds like BARBIE QUEUE – a line of Barbie dolls. | ||
| 17 | REVERENT | Always tore around showing great respect (8) |
| EVER (always) with RENT (as a verb in the past tense = tore) around it. | ||
| 19 | GREEKS | Olympian team stinks, going after gold at first (6) |
| REEKS (stinks) after G[old]. Bonus points to Everyman for avoiding the usual crossword representations of gold, OR (heraldry) or AU (chemistry). | ||
| 20 | SNITCH | Headlouse seen in school, briefly? I’m telling! (6) |
| NIT (headlouse) in SCH[ool]. Snitch = informer. | ||
| 23 | GOAL | Globally evens out, revealing an end (4) |
| Even-numbered letters removed from G[l]O[b]A[l]L[y]. Goal = end = target. | ||
Thanks for the blog.
I am not enjoying today’s / this current week’s puzzle much. I wish we had the old Everyman back! I used to really enjoy doing an Everyman on Sunday morning, but not anymore.
At least I could solve last week’s Everyman. I just gave up on this week’s. WTF?!
That is to say, I gave up on this next week’s(3,774).
I managed to finish the Prize puzzle and enjoyed it, but I have left 3 clues unanswered in today’s Everyman. It was not really a pleasure to (attempt to) solve it.
In ref to my post above: I have now solved all but one of today’s Everyman
And finally solved the last one that had stumped me.
3,773 and 3,774 are an improvement on the misjudged 3,772, but to me they still have peculiarities that make them not ideal for the Everyman slot. Many clues have a looseness that may be okay in an occasional Guardian weekday puzzle, but not here. Shouldn’t ‘Everyman’ be watertight and Ximean?
I don’t want to be a negative Nancy because some of the clues are fine, but I’m used to Everyman being somewhere between a Quiptic and, say, a toughish Arachne, and all the surfaces making sense.
^ “Ximenean”, sorry.
Remember that some people were not happy with the recently retired Everyman when he first took over. So it may take time to get comfortable with this new style. I found 3773 quite enjoyable and about right. (3774 another story 🙂 ).
I also found today’s (3774) Everyman much tougher than usual. Managed to complete finally, after some googing.
I found this one (3773) pretty straightforward. Today’s (3774) – some toughies, but got there in the end. Apropos nothing at all, I found this tweet interesting…
https://twitter.com/anaxcrosswords/status/1093148933960990720
Bonjour. I have just finished solving this week’s Everyman (3774) and you’ll see my blog next week. Just to gently remind everyone that the Everyman is a Prize puzzle, so we shouldn’t really be discussing today’s puzzle at all.
I think Pinky is right. We will have to get used to the new setter’s style before we can judge properly. If there are a few quirks in the first couple of puzzles, by all means let’s have a bit of constructive feedback here, but we shouldn’t write him or her off straight away.
I enjoyed this one and enjoyed today’s (3774) even more. I’m a relative beginner – it was a rare delight to finish an Everyman without resorting to artificial help – but finish it I generally did.
Without giving any spoilers I thought that today’s was going to go unfinished because, unlike previously, I reached the limit of my ability without unique enough letter patterns. This would have been fine of course but having entered the letters to a couple and stared despondently at the too many pages of results in both cases I had a much more satisfying ‘a-ha’ moment and a chuckle as I realised I knew the answer after all.
And so I’m optimistic about this new setter. I’m far from a purist, my criteria is “can I get it?” and that most personal variable “did I enjoy it?”. I would always look forward to completing Old Everyman but I did feel it sometimes lacked the sparkle of the week day named setters who are not under the strain of clueing a full grid every 7 days. I don’t say this lightly but I feel there is the potential of a new Araucaria here in the “not necessarily following the rules but being nonetheless fair”. With many thanks to Colin Gumbrell for many years of pleasure, I nonetheless look forward to a new style.
(And as is customary in a first post here – thank-you, bloggers and commenters both for the deeper understanding that this site provides and the many wonderful setters who, I don’t know how, manage to regularly give in so gracefully and bring a smile to my face in doing so.)
I thought this was an ok puzzle and, like Quirister, particularly enjoyed the surface of 11d and the pun in 16d. Forewarned, I’m going to take on the challenge of today’s offering now and also hope an Everyman style eventually emerges from the eclectic mix we’ve had since CG left.
With thanks to the setter and the blogger.
Skinny @11, an intriguing tweet, but that would be a first for Anax in the Observer/Guardian I think.
While we’re speculating, the Barbie queue homophone at 16d was previously done by Qaos in the Guardian.
Nila @16, thanks – I thought I’d seen something similar before but couldn’t remember where.
Dougalf @14, welcome to Fifteensquared, and glad you enjoyed it.
This puzzle did seem overly loose for the Everyman slot (as I understand this puzzle’s place in the cryptic ecosystem), such as for instance the definition in 12a, which as Quirister points out appears to be incorrect. (The French word “lunettes” does refer to eyeglasses, and “lunette” can be an English word, but not with that meaning.) But as we know from the previous week, it could have been a lot worse! I’m happy to give the new setter a chance to settle in. (In case you’re wondering, I’m writing this before looking at the next Everyman.)
22a is the only one I’m seriously puzzled by. If The Arles were a well-known vocal group, then I would understand it as a quite good &lit: the wordplay is “the Arles [word for] together”, and whole clue is a definition by example, indicated by the question mark. I see that there is such a thing as the Ensemble Vocal d’Arles, but unless that’s much better known than I think it is, and is at least sometimes called “the Arles”, I don’t think we can pass that.
Yes, I found the vocal ensemble too, but I thought that was too obscure. (a) The group’s website is exclusively in French, so I wouldn’t expect to find it in an English-language crossword; (b) I spend a lot of time in the world of choral singing and I hadn’t heard of them. The clue only works if there’s some reasonably accessible English meaning of “The Arles” corresponding to “ensemble”, and I haven’t been able to find one.
In music, “ensemble” means “all together”. “Arles” is pronounced “all” and is doing double duty as part of the clue and an indicator that the answer is a French word. A bit whimsical but it’ll do for me.
(Thinking of my Yorkshire Gran laughing uproariously and saying “and when they looked behind the curtain, there he was, in the all together” but that’s something else 🙂
Dougalf – yes I think you’re right. I’m not convinced that the two words are pronounced the same, and as always the pronunciation depends on where you come from, but they’re close enough. And it’s the best answer that anyone has come up with so far!
Indeed, a bit whimsical and if that is the new Everyman standard, then count me out.
[nothing against the idea itself, and dougalf or Quirister in particular]
Dougalf @20 – disagree with the pronunciation of “Arles”; I say the R, whereas “all’ I pronounce the same as “awl”. But even so, what is the “The” doing in the clue ? Needless to say 22ac was the only light in 3773 I didn’t solve. Also “ensemble” is, as I recall, a term to denote a group of musicians. The indication that all should be playing is the Italian “Tutti”
Incidentally 3774 is the same for me – a DNF (at the moment, at least!) due to 21ac – I wonder if this is the trend with this new setter ….
A call from afar says all Arles is up in arms about the lousy pun in 22ac. And I doubt that its little-known choral group would ever appear in a mainstream music crossword (e.g. the one in BBC Music Magazine).
20a. Isn’t the nit the egg of the louse, not the louse itself? A clue that felt all too close to home for our family recently!
I like dougalf @20’s ingenious idea, but then aren’t we short a homophone indicator?
The current Everyman is a toughie which might scare away those used to its traditional style. ln fact it was harder for me than Paul & Redshank’s prize ones.
An Everyman puzzle used to represent an object lesson in accuracy which I would hold up as an example to people looking to develop their understanding of clue construction. It seemed that the relatively positive comments on this puzzle might indicate that order had been restored after the lawlessness of 3,772, but having read through the clues and solutions above, it seems to me that the improvement is not nearly as great as I would have hoped – I would certainly not recommend the puzzle to solvers honing their skills or to aspiring setters. But perhaps this is just another stopgap solution…
Will miss the old Everyman but thanks to the retired setter for many enjoyable Sundays. Pretty stumped by 3774 and hope it gets better than this!
I completely agree with DRC above.
I’m somebody that’s loved Everyman because I want to become a better solver. It strikes the right balance between challenging and enjoyable. This week’s is the worst yet for it’s whimsical clues bad puns and disappointing reveals.
At this rate I’m going to have to find another puzzle, or start from Everyman #1000.
🙁
I really enjoyed this puzzle, especially the cryptic definitions. Only gripe I have is the introduction of French (just as Britain cuts ties with Europe). I thought it could easily have been penned by Alan Scott, so it was interesting to read comments wishing for the return of the “old” Everyman. No doubt we’ve become conditioned to the mechanical precision of Colin’s puzzles over the last four yours, but I’m hopeful we will re-adapt to a more lateral thinking style which invariably requires some “looser” cluing. Thank you Everyman and Quirister.
Looks like both Paul and I have leap frogged our kiwi compatriots!
Not sure what to say about this puzzle. I started off fast enough but slowed down for both NE and SW. Got there in the end though could not parse ensemble.
Tho many curmudgeons here. Lighten up folks and enjoy what is on offer. Solved all today fairly easily, but still don’t see proper connection for ensemble. Wikipedia says Arles is a commune – I wonder if that is a possible take on being together.
How funny to see the many gripes from the UK I did find this a challenge but we will all have to get used to this new setter or else!
Yes a nit is the egg and not really a louse but nits are commonly referred to as head lice .. argh
And 100%agree re the Arles debate that was obscure
Loved 16d and 14 d the most
Yes, there were some nice clues here, but it was all over rather quickly, and a few too many ‘meeh’ clues.
Add me to the list of those who found 22a rather baffling.
Didn’t think it was all that bad but I couldn’t get the north west corner. Goodness the Poms take their crosswords seriously.
Found this one mainly easy, but got stuck on 22 across (“ensemble”). Had to use a wildcard dictionary to get it.
Like everyone else, I didn’t/don’t get “Arles”. It didn’t help of course that my feeble ageing eyes read “Aries” rather than “Arles”. Not that it made any real difference; I would never have thought “Arles” to be a homophone of “all”. (For a while I tried to think of a word for a collection of rams; I don’t believe there is any such word. 🙂 )
I got completely sucked in by the “g” for “gold” in 19 down. Since I had “_R…” at the start I was *sure it had to be “OR____”, which of course does not work. I really kicked myself when I eventually worked it out, because I thought of “reeks” for “stinks” but was too damned fixate on the “OR” start to get through to the answer.
As peterfitz@33 says, too many curmudgeons, lighten up.