Another week, another Everyman. Some very good clues, some messy ones.
On the plus side: lots to smile about, including a couple of &lits at 24a and 26a, a neat anagram at 6d, and good surfaces at 25a, 8d and 9d. There’s also a New Zealand bird, perhaps as a response to the Australian one we had last week; hello to all our solvers in NZ, when this puzzle is published there a few weeks after we see it in the UK.
I’d have to say there are still some untidy surfaces, a few questionable definitions (see notes below on individual clues), and a few dubious constructions / indicators (ditto). Ideally, even if the answer is tricky to work out, it should be obviously correct when you get it; here there are too many in the category of “well, I suppose that must be right, but . . . .” for my liking. Or perhaps I’m just being too fussy.
In summary, though: Everyman continues to be 6d and doesn’t seem ready to 2d yet, so perhaps we shouldn’t descend into 1d. I still hope that some 16d (or gender-neutral equivalent) is reading this and our comments will be 23d and acknowledged; 17d possible please!
Definitions are underlined; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ABOVE ALL | At the end of the day, a lovable rogue (5,3) |
| Anagram (rogue) of A LOVABLE. Above all = at the end of the day = most importantly. | ||
| 5 | G-FORCE | German army unit (1-5) |
| G[erman] FORCE (army). G-force = a measure of gravitational forces, though I believe the unit is just called G. | ||
| 10 | AESOP | Strike a pose, fabulous figure? (5) |
| Anagram (strike) of A POSE. Aesop, the writer of fables. | ||
| 11 | STILL LIFE | Composition of quiet soul (5,4) |
| STILL (quiet) SOUL (life). An artistic composition of inanimate objects. | ||
| 12 | HOLLYWOOD | 50 admitted to pious golf club in California suburb (9) |
| L (50 in Roman numerals) in HOLY (pious) + WOOD (golf club). | ||
| 13 | OBESE | Enormous honour’s meeting earl (5) |
| OBE’S (Order of the British Empire) + E[arl]. | ||
| 14 | ASPECT | Face of donkey kissed noisily (6) |
| Homophone (noisily) of ASS PECKED (donkey kissed). “Noisily” doesn’t quite mean “sounds like”, but I suppose it works. | ||
| 15 | EN SUITE | Vociferously against taking pudding through to bedroom (2,5) |
| Homophone (vociferously) of ON (against) + SWEET (pudding). En suite (bathroom) = opening directly off a bedroom. As in the previous clue, “vociferously” isn’t the best homophone indicator. | ||
| 18 | SPENDER | Waster, poet, communist (7) |
| Double definition – the latter referring to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Spender. | ||
| 20 | CARESS | Is concerned about son, gives show of affection (6) |
| CARES (is concerned) around S (son). | ||
| 22 | OWNED | Had put robe on (not grand) (5) |
| GOWNED (put robe on) without the G (grand = slang for £1000). | ||
| 24 | PARTRIDGE | Bigot at heart, host’s without skill, dignity? (9) |
| PRIDE (dignity), around (without, in its older sense of outside) ART (skill), hosting (containing) [bi]G[ot]. “Host’s” is unclear, but I think it means “the host for the G is . . . “, so the G is inserted into the rest of the wordplay. The whole clue is &lit (clue-as-definition) for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Partridge, the spoof TV host. | ||
| 25 | NOTRE-DAME | Wasting time in Tate Modern, busy tourist spot (5-4) |
| Anagram (busy) of TATE MODERN after removing (wasting) one T (time). | ||
| 26 | SAMOA | Early on, state administered by old New Zealander? (5) |
| First letters (early on) of S[tate] A[dministered], with MOA (an extinct NZ bird). Clue-as-definition (&lit), because Samoa was ruled by New Zealand for part of the 20th century before its independence. | ||
| 27 | SADIST | ‘Savage‘!? Sorry, it’s ‘unruly’ (6) |
| SAD (sorry) + anagram (unruly) of IT’S. A slightly loose definition, but savage = violent = sadist, roughly. | ||
| 28 | PEASANTS | What toffs shoot, short-of-height bumpkins (8) |
| PHEASANTS (what toffs shoot – though they shouldn’t do so in the UK at this time of year!) without the first H (height). An old joke but it works. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | APATHY | Flatness of a route’s variable (6) |
| A PATH (a route) + Y (mathematical variable). Apathy = indifference, though “flatness” seems a rather loose definition. | ||
| 2 | OBSOLESCE | Old boy, solitary and square, extremely chaste date (9) |
| OB (old boy, especially of a school) + SOLE + S[quare] + the extreme letters of C[hast]E. Date, as a verb = go out of current usage = obsolesce. | ||
| 3 | EMPTY-HEADEDNESS | Folly to have run into deserted cape (5-10) |
| HEADED (to have run, past tense, as in “they’ve headed for the hills” – the grammar is a little unclear) in EMPTY + NESS (cape = headland). | ||
| 4 | LASH OUT | The French bay is severely run down (4,3) |
| LA (French “the”) + SHOUT (bay = the noise made by a hound). I’m not sure about the definition, though: “run down” suggests a verbal attack, but “lash out” suggests a physical one – at least to me. | ||
| 6 | FULL OF SURPRISES | Tricky to anticipate surplus of rifles in mess (4,2,9) |
| Anagram (in mess) of SURPLUS OF RIFLES. | ||
| 7 | RHINE | In her novel, there’s a valley (5) |
| Anagram (novel) of IN HER. | ||
| 8 | EBENEZER | Breeze drifts over Tyneside, making someone cold (8) |
| Anagram (drifts) of BREEZE, over NE (the postcode for Newcastle upon Tyne). Dickens’ Ebenezer Scrooge, who is “cold” (heartless) until he sees the error of his ways. | ||
| 9 | TIE-DYE | Even the old hippies do this (3-3) |
| TIED (scores even in a sports match) + YE (old form of “the”). Of course the Y in “ye olde” is actually an old English letter for TH, not a Y, but it’s a common enough convention in crosswords and elsewhere. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tie-dye, for anyone not old enough to remember the 60s and 70s. (Been there, done that, T-shirt long since worn out.) | ||
| 16 | INSIDE MAN | Composed of sane mind, I will be a mole (6,3) |
| Anagram (composed) of SANE MIND I. Mole = secret agent inside an organisation. | ||
| 17 | AS SOON AS | Once snared by lasso on a sierra (2,4,2) |
| Hidden answer in (snared by) [l]ASSO ON A S[ierra]. Once = after = as soon as, as in “I’ll get back to you once I’ve sorted out my diary”. | ||
| 19 | REPEAT | Parrot in old TV show (6) |
| Double definition: to say something heard previously, apparently without thinking about it, or a TV programme that’s already been broadcast at least once. | ||
| 20 | CORTEGE | Train company greet stranger (7) |
| CO (company) + anagram (stranger) of GREET. Train = procession. | ||
| 21 | LE MANS | City‘s bankrupt financiers, hard to ignore (2,4) |
| LEHMANS (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lehman_Brothers, bankrupt financiers) ignoring the H (hard). Le Mans = city in France, probably best known for the 24-hour motor race there. | ||
| 23 | NOTED | Celebrated being ruggedly toned (5) |
| Anagram of TONED, though I’m not convinced by “ruggedly” as the anagram indicator. Yes, rugged = rough, but to me it suggests “tough and unlikely to break up” rather than “broken up”. | ||
A difficult Everyman puzzle. I solved the LHS much faster than the RHS.
I could not parse the G in 24a PARTRiDGE but could parse the rest. However, I have never heard of Alan Partridge so I do not really understand/appreciate this clue or definition.
Thanks Peter and Everyman.
Thank you Quirister and, I guess, Everyman. The internet is marvellous as it allows us out here on the other side of the world to get the puzzle at the same time as you do. And with daylight saving having gone today I get to do this before lunch rather than after. The brain seems to work better that way too.
I did not enjoy this much although there were one or two smiles. I felt PARTRIDGE was a bit of a stretch and, as I am currently watching supercar racing from Tasmania, couldn’t believe how long it took me to get LE MANS. I suppose the good bit is that I managed to work it all out eventually, even if there were a number parsed afterwards.
Everyman continues to evolve and I am wondering if today’s effort is from the same person.
And another comment from the Antipodes. I also found Partridge hard to fathom – could work out the answer from the clue, but the definition didn’t make much sense, except that I knew Partridge was a TV host. Is he a bigot? My other challenge was 3D. I have never encountered the word ‘ness’ meaning ‘headland’. I don’t think there’s a place name in Australia or NZ that uses it thus. There are towns called Inverness in both countries but they are inland, don’t have capes! So I happily parsed ’empty head’ as ‘deserted cape’ and was left puzzling over ‘edness’. I also found a number of the anagram indicators a bit fuzzy. On the other hand Samoa came smoothly, and with a smile for the Moa as an old New Zealander.
I lost time at the end over the crosssers LE MANS and SAMOA. Like our blogger I looked twice at ‘severely run down’ = LASH OUT but I think it works as one can lash out verbally as well as physically. I enjoyed the PARTRIDGE clue and in answer to the query above, yes, he is most definitely a bigot along with many other failings. The character has been around more or less constantly now for 28 years and has been hosting a run of new peak-time shows on BBC1 for the past 6 weeks, so the clue had topical value.
It was the imprecision, tha laxity of some of the definitions that rankled a little with me on this one. Some have already been mentioned, and the mental stretches to ‘get’ what was being intended made for a tougher challenge – SAMOA would be an example.
Pleased to report that today’s (3782) is a huge improvement, and very enjoyable.
Thanks to Quirister and Everyman.
I parsed NE in 8ac as Northeast being the location of Tyneside not realising that it was also the Newcastle postcode. I guess it could be either.
Pinky @2 Have a look at Dungeness as a coastal town on a headland.
Not the Everyman of old but a puzzle with lots of excellent clues and a couple of queries – the best puzzle so far in the new Everyman era. That’s what I thought at the time. Quirister – your comments on the clues reflect all my ?s. I’m not as rigorous in my assessment of clues as others so maybe I’m more easily pleased! I had ticks by 1,10,14a and 3,4,20d – ok, maybe they weren’t all “excellent” but by recent standards……. Despite being an Alan P fan I didn’t parse PARTRIDGE not TIE-DYE. Thanks Everyman and Quirister for the blog and clever intro.
I agree with your assessment of this puzzle Quirister and think that the setter here is the same as last week. Like jackkt1, I must have spent as much time on the last two clues (SAMOA and LE MANS) as on the rest of the puzzle. I am getting attuned to the setter’s clueing style and a couple of answers went straight in whereas previously the clues might have seemed quite opaque. On balance I enjoyed this puzzle and there were indeed some very good clues as well as a few iffy ones. My favourite was actually PARTRIDGE which made me smile once I twigged.
Thanks Quirister. Pinky@3 – around where I live on the east coast of Scotland the are lots of nesses sticking out into the sea. Apparently it’s of Scandinavian origin and has the same root as “nose”. Inverness on the other hand means “mouth of the Ness”, the river flowing there from Loch Ness, which I think must have a different derivation.
Don’t usually comment on this site because I ‘ve mostly forgotten the Sunday puzzle by the time the comments appear. This one,however, I remember well as the hardest Everyman I’ve ever attempted.I abandoned it twice and it was only my bloody mindedness that kept me at it. I did finish but, by the time I had I’d ceased to enjoy it.I agree with the blog especially the final comments.
I know this might be a stretch but when a communist poet writes, a “red pens”.
Not knowing Stephen Spender and seeing some of the other unusual constructions this is how I parsed 18a.
Thanks Quirister and Everyman.
DM @ 11:
And don’t forget that Karl Marx’s grave is just a Communist plot ( (c) Bob Mionkhouse)
Am with Skinny and Quirister regarding the laxity of several clues; the definitions are just too loose. Old Everyman was usually pretty precise around meaning but this is not. Like many others, I struggled with Samoa and Le Mans and enjoyment was minimal. Still not what it was, or different enough to be a new challenge.
As for me here in Kenya, had to use every inch of my experience to complete this ‘uneveryman’ Everyman. The current one is easier than the previous two. COD LE MANS.
Everyman used to be entry level cryptic. If I have time, I can do a Guardian crossword a day. Just about. Some are harder than others but they are rarely less than entertaining. I couldn’t finish this and found it unrewarding throughout. I even got Ebenezer from the anagram of breeze, NE for Tyneside and the cross letters but is ‘making someone cold’ a shoo-in for Scrooge? Come off it. ‘Uneveryman’ indeed.
There seems to be a rogue s in 1d, as “a route variable” gives all the letters. The Everyman of old would never have had a spare letter unless it was standing for IS and separating clue and elements.
Tony P: Too smart by half. Get rid of this bloke – it’s not The Times, for crying out loud. And The Times would have much tighter clues. Spender? Rubbish!
Spoilt by too many iffy definitions, like those for lash out, sadist, en suite (that’s the bathroom bit, not the bedroom). Never heard of Spender or Partridge. I dare say the Notre Dame is still busy, but for the wrong reasons. So this was a good workout spoilt.
I’m with all the comments I would say it’s a league above me but I just don’t get the thinking behind the answers —-I can barely do half and many looked-up answers don’t make much sense
Don’t get partridge, lash out, Ebenezer, gforce
I’ll have to find some alternative- this is not enjoyable at all sorry Setter or setters
Many thanks Quirister for the blog. I feel I am slowly getting to grips with our new setter, and nice to have some consistency in style from last week. This was tough, but the clues all fairly reasonable once found. As i mentioned last week, it took me a while to get into Colin’s style as well. If we keep the same setter, all will be well in the end i feel.
Only did about 3 and gave up. I’m not enjoying these either. It does seem like there are several setters and that they haven’t settled on a permanent one yet. After having done Everyman for years, I think I will be giving up unless there is a marked , but probably unlikely, improvement.
An improvement on the previous effort but still way too many poor clues to merit a thumbs up from me. I shall persist a little longer but I’ve been enjoying Picaroons of late so may well end up giving up on the Everyman if there is no improvement …
Got a total of six answers and gave up. Way too hard for the likes of me.
When I saw *some* of the anwers i said “I should have got that.” I was just too put off by the general incomprehensibility to look for relatively simple approaches. Other answers (e.g. “Partridge” were so far over the top that they defied comprehension even when explained.
8d. We parsed Tyneside as the side-of-TyNE. Surely it’s too much to know postcodes?
MikeCaz @24: it’s borderline, but a UK reader would generally be expected to recognise the postcode of a larger UK city such as Newcastle. However, as Frankie the cat @6 points out, NE could mean “North-East”, the location of Tyneside. I’m not sure which one the setter intended, but it happens to work either way.
Even as a born and bred New Zealander, I struggle to muster any enthusiasm for 26a! It doesn’t quite work for me…
Quirister,
Thank you for your help to understand the clues filled in without understanding why (Partridge / Tie-Dye). However, still had gaps for Ebenezer and Le Mans (those were a stretch too far).
Overall a significant improvement on last weeks effort (although it took three days to solve what was achieved). Looking forward to next one!
NE for Tyneside? That was a step too far for us .
Now those of you in England, don’t panic, as a nod to NZ, the settee will never use any of our postcodes ours are entirely hi Eric..
That should be numeric