There are four of us who blog the Everyman, and there have certainly been some ropy ones recently to cover and explain. I seem to have landed some of the better offerings: this puzzle was fine, I thought – nicely pitched and generally clearly clued. Progress, perhaps, toward consistently good Sunday puzzles for those solvers who prefer the easier end of the cruciverbal spectrum.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 On postcard, she composed phrase describing America
ACROSS THE POND
An Easy Annie to get us going: (ON POSTCARD SHE)*
10 Unpleasantly cold, a roly-poly pudding
ALOOF
A charade of A and FOOL reversed (‘roly-poly’). Might have confused overseas solvers: FOOL for a cold dessert made of pureed fruit is a distinctly British invention, I fancy.
11 Musical number requiring tenor with nifty footwear
TEA FOR TWO
A charade of T for ‘tenor’ and (FOOTWEAR)*
12 Kohl has row in Europe, the old rivals taking sides
EYELINERS
Goodness, this was a parsing and a half (and a questionable definition). The surface reading is reminding you of Helmut Kohl, the German Chancellor from 1982 to 1998, but the definition is the following:
kohl noun: a black powder, usually antimony sulphide or lead sulphide, used as eye make-up especially in Eastern countries
Can EYELINERS be plural in this context? You are asking the wrong person. Whatever, the parsing is LINE for ‘row’ in E for ‘Europe’ and YE for the old word for ‘the’ and RS for the outside letters of ‘rivals’.
13 Samson gutted, full of anger: ‘Delilah!’
SIREN
The setter is asking you to remove the inner letters (‘gutted’) of ‘Samson’ and then fill the gap with IRE. SIREN in this sense refers to the sea nymphs of Greek mythology, part woman and part bird, who lured mariners to destruction by their seductive singing. It is used in a contemporary sense to refer to a woman who is attractive but dangerous. Delilah of Biblical fame would fit that description, I think. Nice surface reading in this clue.
14 Nosing around, taking in north Berkshire village
SONNING
An insertion of N in (NOSING)* gives you the Berkshire village that is famous for nothing, as far as I can see. Apart from being the home of Teresa May, when she’s not in Downing Street or begging on the streets in Brussels.
16 Play a game
OTHELLO
A dd.
18 One’s in independent company, producing French playwright
IONESCO
I knew him, but a bit obscure for an Everyman, perhaps. Gettable from the clear cluing and a few crossers, though: it’s ONES in I and CO.
20 Holy man threw up: blimey
STREWTH
A charade of ST and (THREW)*
22 Impersonating wild dingo
DOING
(DINGO)*
24 Full of wickedness, Lawson’s cooking for family
SONS-IN-LAW
An insertion of SIN in (LAWSON)* Another good surface reading, referencing the TV chef Nigella Lawson. The ‘wickedness’ is perhaps apposite: her choice of attire when presenting is often décolleté and she has been christened ‘the Queen of Gastroporn’. She may well be, but her recipe for Parmesan French Toast is awesome.
26 No matter which of you hoovers, we will be messy
WHOSOEVER
Plenty of anagrams in this Everyman, which is as it should be. (HOOVERS WE)*
27 Feminist with endless desire, foremost of radicals
GREER
‘Feminist’, five letters starting with G is a bit of a gimme. GREE[D] plus R for the first letter of ‘radicals’. Could be considered a cad (the clue, not her), because Professor Germaine GREER has just turned 80, is still active, and could certainly be described as ‘radical’.
28 In part of Australia, to interbreed is epitome of bravery
VICTORIA CROSS
A charade of the Australian state VICTORIA and CROSS in its hybrid sense.
Down
2 Shorten to make tight and fashionable
CLOSE IN
A charade of CLOSE for ‘tight’ (as in a ‘close/tight fit’) and IN for ‘fashionable’. The only correspondence I can think of is ‘the nights are shortening/closing in’.
3 Restricted, slim fit of pants
OFF-LIMITS
(SLIM FIT OF)* with ‘pants’ as the anagrind.
4 ‘Insatiety’ describes creative Frenchman
SATIE
After IONESCO, another ‘creative Frenchman’. This one is the composer and pianist Erik SATIE, and he’s hidden in the middle of inSATIEty.
5 Photos identifying leaders: ‘laughable tosh’
HEADSHOTS
A charade of HEADS and (TOSH)*
6 Boat capsized in still waters
POOLS
A reversal, or inversion since it’s a down clue, of SLOOP.
We come on the Sloop John B
My grandfather and me …
… for those old enough to have lived through the sixties and who are still capable of remembering them.
7 Ant scrambled up mountain without man’s involvement
NATURAL
A charade of (ANT)* and URAL. If you read ‘up’ as ‘on top of’, then the clue works, but I’m not madly in love with URAL for ‘mountain’ in the singular.
8 With trendy element, weakens story
WATERSHIP DOWN
An insertion of HIP for ‘trendy’ in WATERS DOWN gives you Richard Adams’ rabbit adventure story. I’m not madly in love either with the use of ‘with element’ as an insertion indicator; it’s novel, that’s for sure.
9 Not working until The Telegraph’s approaching deadline
DOWN TO THE WIRE
A charade of DOWN, TO THE and WIRE.
15 Ignore Brexiteer admitting defeat before start of referendum
GLOSS OVER
An insertion of LOSS in [Michael] GOVE followed by R for the first letter of ‘referendum’. You didn’t know Gove was a Brexiteer? Have you not been listening carefully these last three years?
17 Bring her a sinister omen
HARBINGER
(BRING HER A)*
19 City‘s ‘New Look, Old Vibe’ essentially retrograde
NAIROBI
A charade of N, AIR, O and BI. The last element is the central letters (‘essentially’) of vIBe reversed (‘retrograde’).
21 With tweaks, could be an award-winning actress
WALTERS
A charade of W and ALTERS gives you Julie WALTERS, who is a multi award-winning actress. My faves are her roles as the ballet teacher in Billy Elliot and as Rita in Educating Rita, but she’s done shedloads of other good stuff.
23 Leave to become less popular
GO OUT
A dd.
25 Coronary artery bypasses? No!
NARY A
Hidden in coroNARY Artery. A rather old-fashioned phrase, meaning ‘not a’ or ‘no’. Nary a week goes by when I don’t miss the old Everyman. But this one was, let’s be fair, pretty good. Thank you to the setter.
Well, I am one of the other three. See what tomorrow brings but I wasn’t that lucky thus far.
We [I did this one with my Guardian solving partner] thought that this was indeed a puzzle that suited the bill rather well.
But, JC, why on earth having SONNING when ‘sending, ‘sinking’ and ‘Sun King’ would fit too?
Same in 25d where ‘Norma’ would have been a bit more ‘normal’.
In 12ac, E for ‘Europe’ is just plain wrong – it isn’t.
But, altogether,one of the better Everymans [or should it be Everymen?].
Thanks to Pierre & Whoever-Everyman-Is-Nowadays.
Definitely a step up from Everyman – and a dnf as I had STRETCH rather than STREWTH so didn’t get WALTERS. Looking back I also had SATRE? rather than SATIE so definitely not one of my best efforts. I had ticks by ALOOF, WATERSHIP DOWN and GLOSS OVER. Thanks to Everyperson and Pierre.
Thank you to both as this was a much more “generous” Everyman and so much the better for it.
I had to check all the people internet-wise as my knowledge there is minimal, but the clueing was sound. I looked askance at EYELINERS as I could not parse it and kohl seemed a bit of a stretch. I too thought of the chancellor first, especially as it was capitalised. Nice misdirection.
Some of the others, as has been mentioned above, were odd choices of words which sent me village searching on line. Still, it is a step in the right direction.
Rather a lot of GK / cultural references and some obscure terms, but all clued easily enough for an Everyman.
Much, much better than recent offerings. Getting to be more like Colin’s puzzles, and all the better for it.
Thanks to Pierre and Everyman.
This was a good challenge. Unfortunately today’s Everyman seems to be like those of the previous couple of weeks – not very good.
After starting out on a 13x UK crossword reproduced in a Madras eveninger, I graduated to Everyman appearing in another morning newspaper every Sunday. In the early years I used to do a lot of dictionary work to complete or very nearly complete the puzzle. The period goes back to the Seventies. Do the recent crosswords give me as much pleasure as they did in those years? I am afraid not. Last week I did not complete Everyman but then work until then had not provided me the impetus to go on and cry ‘Done!’. The touch – as much of the setter’s as that of mine too perhaps – is gone. This week (3783) I am yet to try but a mere reading of 2 dn put this Madras man off. I shall wait till next week to see what the reaction of blogger and commenters is and whether I have been left behind at some time or the other.
New for me were the village SONNING, and the game OTHELLO although I know the play, of course.
My favourite was ACROSS THE POND.
Thanks Everyman and Pierre
A distinct improvement for me too; its the first of the Nu-Everymans I’ve completed !
No-one has mentioned the ACROSS and DOWN in the solutions to the four long clues.
ALOOF was my favourite, not keen on SONNING (as Sil @1 says, better solutions were available) and agree with Pierre on 8d
Thanks to Pierre and setter
Do we know that there is only one Everyman? The quality is so variable – the puzzle blogged here (for which many thanks Pierre) was pretty decent, but today’s is a big step back with surfaces so clunky in places that I had to finish through gritted teeth as it were.
Thanks to Pierre and Everym
Not quite the final article, but getting there. Some clues could just do with a little more attention. For 1a why not simply:
On postcard he’s composed America?
I don’t think 12a quite works, as kohl is uncountable.
28a Is the award the epitome or the person who receives it?
On the other hand 24a, 26a and others I thought were just fine.
Sonning got its 15mins when George and Amal Clooney bought a house there, so perhaps not quite as obscure as it seemed at first sight.
BTW When winter closes in the nights get longer!
Regarding 12a, kohl is often sold in the West as eyeliner pencil / kohl pencil etc. Fewer women in the West use the original kohl powder. I would class it as a term that started off as a foreign word and then changed over the years in form, like rouge perhaps. Sorry, not explaining myself very well here! I mean like how rouge in 16th Europe is different from 21st century rouge. Ditto kohl and kohl eye pencil (which I use).
I don’t see why 1ac needs ‘more attention’, Dansar. It reads well and parses perfectly as it is.
Why on earth not have SONNING, Sil? As I mentioned, it’s not famous for anything, but that doesn’t mean it’s unknown to British solvers. It’s an obvious anagram, and can’t be anything else once you’ve got a crosser or two. Not sure why we have to evoke JC.
The clue is certainly valid and parses perfectly well but my point is that, although Everyman is pitched at the easier end of cryptics, it is nevertheless a prize crossword in a national newspaper. With this in mind I think, PHRASE DESCRIBING AMERICA, is a bit of a giveaway when we may have been misdirected to seek the name of a writer one of the many songs entitled AMERICA – “PONCHO” TED RASS for instance the famous country singer.
Also, my preference is for clues with as few words as possible, but I accept that that is a matter of taste.
Just to be contrary, I actually enjoyed last week’s puzzle far more than this which I found rather bland and humourless.
Last week’s had some great clues and more of an identity. I agree with you Pierre about Sonning which I had never heard
of but the answer was pretty obvious.
Now, as a keen walker I’ve probably seen more UK villages and parish churches than the average Brit. Sonning, however, wasn’t on my list. But then I googled it and found out that it is a small asylum for the rich, famous and religious, the perfect setting for Midsomer Murders or the like. That I wasn’t keen on it, has two reasons. Firstly, many years ago I was ticked off for clueing a Cheshire village (which only George Osborne had heard of) – too obscure or, at least, unknown. Secondly, the Everyman crosswords also appear down under, albeit a few weeks later, and I cannot imagine anyone over there having heard of it (even though, as Davy rightly says, the clueing was pretty obvious). I know The Observer is a British paper but even so.
JC was ‘Johan Cruijff’ – quite happy to bring back memories of Him!
Surely most people must have read Three Men in a Boat …
We got out at Sonning, and went for a walk round the village. It is the most fairy-like little nook on the whole river. It is more like a stage village than one built of bricks and mortar. Every house is smothered in roses, and now, in early June, they were bursting forth in clouds of dainty splendour. If you stop at Sonning, put up at the “Bull,” behind the church. It is a veritable picture of an old country inn, with green, square courtyard in front, where, on seats beneath the trees, the old men group of an evening to drink their ale and gossip over village politics; with low, quaint rooms and latticed windows, and awkward stairs and winding passages.
Thank you Everyman and Pierre.
I’m afraid I disagree with you again, Sil. The fact that the crossword is syndicated elsewhere in the English-speaking world should not influence in any way the clueing or content of the puzzle. It’s a British paper and therefore a British-based crossword; our NZ solvers recognise that and while they will occasionally comment that they weren’t familiar with a place name, a personality, or a soap opera, I can’t remember any of them seriously complaining about it. Let’s see what they have to say about SONNING in three weeks’ time.
OK, let’s bury the hatchet.
It’s clear that I am going to lose this battle which, indeed, I started but without wanting me to win actually. In fact, I didn’t want to have a battle anyway.
Sonning will live with me forever from now on! 🙂
Like Adlestrop, perhaps?
Sorry – I didn’t do this puzzle but I do enjoy reading the blogs. 😉
This Kenyan got SONNING from checkers and then google. The setting style seems to vary every week since Colinses departure. l found this week’s to be more typically Everyman.
Agree with other posts here. I too feel there are different setters contributing to the everyman
I like this weeks more than the other recent ones. Perhaps if this setter stayed and improved a bit we would get used to,him. I am sure there have been a group of setters lately.
Although I did not finish the top left corner, I got further than I have for a while. I liked siren, Tea for Two, Victoria Cross among others. 20 ac is not the spelling I am used to. And of course, I didn’t get the village, but we Kiwis are used to doing UK crosswords with unfamiliar place names.
We lived in England for 20 years and had not heard of Sonning – had to google it. Not complaining as hadn’t heard of Ionesco either so learning a lot this week!
Much better offering than previous ones, didn’t like 20ac or 12ac but otherwise definitely testing us again.
I had to read Pierre’s intro before investing in the Saturday Herald. Pretty good I thought & almost completed. I often have to google the answer or part of the clue such as the Brexiteer, so I had no problem with Sonning. Provided the crossword is set well our lack of UK general knowledge shouldn’t be an insurmountable barrier, and we get to learn something new. Once again, happy Saturday afternoon!
I agree with Paul, Titirangi, much more like the ‘old’ Everyman, this crossword felt like a return to form like Liverpool FC. Tricky but ultimately – in the sense that I finished it – enjoyable. It’s been a testing few weeks for solvers of late so whoever this setter is, thank you and long may you continue. Thanks also as ever to Pierre
Good analogy Neil. I’m a fair weather fan due the heritage so nice to enjoy football again.
Over all an enjoyable puzzle. Got it out with some struggle and a lot of use of a wildcard dictionary.
For a long while I was guessing “eyeshadow” for 12 across — which would have fitted the literal meaning of kohl much better — but it didn’t fit with 3 down and 4 down, so had to go. Couldn’t actually parse “eyeliners” and like Pierre I was put off by the ineffective fit with the literal meaning.
Got 21 down from the cross letters, but could not parse it; thanks to Pierre for the explanation.
I nearly finished … huge change fm last week but it took me two days ! ….letting it lie for hours. Some of we kiwis use the maps to find places like sonning without issue. I’d never heard of Gove tho.
Didn’t like plural for kohl but the rest mostly ok if definitely still very hard for this solver. I struggle with the apostrophes and don’t always get their relevance -can anyone clarify?
This one was mostly quite horrible, I thought. In the same vein as last week’s. But I enjoyed it even less.