The Observer crossword from Sep 1, 2019.
I never thought it would happen but I actually quite like the Everyman crosswords nowadays.
Not that everything’s perfect.
There are still a handful of things that are not 100% my cup of tea.
However, our setter has a style that’s become more and more recognisable.
I also think the level of difficulty is better judged than it was in the beginning.
One of the features of Everyman’s crosswords is that there is often something going on around the perimeter.
Today I could only see the antonyms ‘shallow’ and ‘deep’ (top/bottom) but nothing on the left and right hand sides.
Perhaps, I am missing something?
| Across | ||
| 1 | SHALLOW GRAVE | Saint to make holy, solemn film (7,5) |
| S (Saint) + HALLOW (to make holy) + GRAVE (solemn) Danny Boyle’s debut film from 1994 featuring, among others, Ewan McGregor. Here’s the trailer. One so unappealing that I am more than happy to say that I never watched this movie. |
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| 9 | AERATED | Amateur catered poorly, without cold bubbly (7) |
| A (amateur), followed by an anagram [poorly] of CATERED minus the C (cold) | ||
| 10 | LACQUER | In audition, one needing a coat? (7) |
| Homophone [in audition] of LACKER (one needing) If you’re in need of something, you lack something and therefore they might call you a ‘lacker’. The problem here is that, in that sense, ‘lacker’ does not get a mention in the dictionaries. It does, though, as a variant spelling of ‘lacquer’ which – from a cryptic POV – is somewhat unfortunate. |
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| 11 | IBSEN | Norwegian with complaint: menu lacking cover (5) |
| IBS (complaint), followed by [m]EN[u] with the outer letters removed IBS stands for Irratible Bowel Syndrome. For some the definition may be a bit loose but, true, Ibsen was one of Norway’s famous sons. |
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| 12 | OFF AND ON | Occasionally switch options (3,3,2) |
| Double definition | ||
| 14 | PLAY TRUANT | Avoid school of tuna raptly swimming (4,6) |
| Anagram [swimming] of TUNA RAPTLY | ||
| 15 | FREE | Frank force-fed regularly (4) |
| The odd letters [regularly] of: force-fed | ||
| 17 | EDDY | Topless undergarment is kind of current (4) |
| TEDDY (undergarment) with its first letter T removed Some may object to ‘topless’ being used in an Across clue. Whether it is right or wrong, I would certainly have tried to avoid it. |
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| 19 | ISLE OF DOGS | As one who adores setters may be heard to say somewhere along the Thames (4,2,4) |
| Homophone [may be heard] of: I LOVE DOGS (as one who adores setters) That kind of ‘setters’. I liked this clue and also the fact that Everyman didn’t omit the word ‘somewhere’ [hello Chifonie, if you’re there, did you here me?] |
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| 21 | IDLE TALK | Gossip from speech by Monty Python performer? (4,4) |
| IDLE (Monty Python performer, Eric Idle) + TALK (speech) This year – actually Oct 5 – marks Monty Python’s 50th Anniversary . See also this week’s Radio Times. And last night’s BBC2 (but that was yesterday …..). No doubt there will be a lot more to come in the next few weeks. |
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| 23 | U-TURN | ‘Policy change? Terribly untrue (mostly)!’ (1-4) |
| Anagram [terribly] of most of UNTRU[e] | ||
| 25 | UNDERGO | English in ground, exercising to gain experience (7) |
| E (English) inside an anagram [exercising] of GROUND I took ‘to gain’ as link word(s) but I am happy to include it in the definition (as perhaps some would). |
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| 26 | CUT-RATE | Competitive clergyman getting tense (3-4) |
| CURATE (clergyman) around T (tense) | ||
| 27 | DEEP-FAT FRYER | Wise, large QI host, British icon, is a sizzler (4-3,5) |
| DEEP (wise) + FAT (large) + FRY (QI host, Stephen Fry) + ER (British icon, Her Majesty) Stephen Fry presented QI (which actually means Quite Interesting) from 2003 until 2015, the year in which Sandi Toksvig took over. For me, as a hardcore Blackadder fan, he made a huge impression as Lord/General Melchett (and in the 3rd series as the Duke of Wellington). It will be a hard year for him as his beloved Norwich City is already moving dangerously close to the bottom – despite Teemo Pukki. |
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| Down | ||
| 2 | HARISSA | Cathar is sanctimoniously offering oily concoction (7) |
| Hidden solution [offering]: Cathar is sanctimonious Harissa is a paste of olive oil, chilli, garlic and spices used in North African cooking. And in my kitchen too! |
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| 3 | LATINATE | The Gallic metal corroded, like the Roman (8) |
| LA (the, Gallic i.e. in French) + TIN (metal) + ATE (corroded) I’m not sure whether I liked the use of ‘Gallic’ here. And the definition is a bit so-so too, in my opinion. |
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| 4 | ODDS | Chances of dad dancing slim … to begin with (4) |
| First letters [to begin with] of: of dad dancing slim Funny, these dots (instead of, for example, just a comma). |
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| 5 | GOLDFINGER | Grand old organ on German novel (10) |
| G (grand) + OLD + FIN (organ) + GER (German) I don’t know what an ‘organ on German novel’ is [see Simon S @4] but I do know a bit about Goldfinger! It’s a 1959 James Bond novel by Ian Fleming, turned into a movie five years later: read all about it . |
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| 6 | ACCRA | Kleptomaniac craftily concealing capital (5) |
| Hidden solution [concealing]: Kleptomaniac craftily Accra is the capital of Ghana. |
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| 7 | ECUADOR | Country dancing: cure suppressing troubles (7) |
| Anagram [dancing] of CURE, written around ADO (troubles) Troubles? Trouble? Ecuador is Peru’s and Colombia’s neighbour. And, something I didn’t realise, the Galapagos Islands are part of it. |
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| 8 | PRINCESS ANNE | Hype practically non-stop over Tyneside Olympian (8,4) |
| PR (hype, short for Public Relations), followed by INCESSAN[T] (non-stop, practically i.e. almost, minus the T at the end), then + NE (Tyneside, the famous North East) Princess Anne – only daughter of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh – took part in the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, riding the Queen’s horse Goodwill. In 1987 she became the first member of the Royal family to take part in a TV quiz show, A Question of Sport. |
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| 9 | A BIT PREVIOUS | Exchange about privies to be seen as premature (1,3,8) |
| Anagram [exchange] of ABOUT PRIVIES | ||
| 13 | DUSSELDORF | Lords’ feuds erupted in city on the Rhine (10) |
| Another anagram [erupted], this time of LORDS FEUD The home of electronic pioneers Kraftwerk . They recently were in Rome, Barcelona, Ibiza … and in, of all places [sorry Richard], Macclesfield! |
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| 16 | AFLUTTER | One bet gets you tingling (8) |
| A (one) + FLUTTER (bet) | ||
| 18 | DELUDED | Crazy daughter escaped (7) |
| D (daughter) + ELUDED (escaped) Perhaps, ‘crazy’ is a bit strong but I heard the word being used in connection with staunch Brexiteers. |
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| 20 | OVULATE | Prepare for reproduction old version of Bible, omitting Genesis at beginning (7) |
| O (old), followed by VUL[G]ATE (version of Bible) from which the G (Genesis, at (the) beginning) is omitted Being an uncompromising non-religious person, the Vulgate was new to me but my Partner-in-Crosswords came to the rescue. [and, what a coincidence, the term was mentioned a few times in last Thursday’s Vlad blog] |
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| 22 | THREE | Number provided by Support, ringing Personnel (5) |
| TEE (support) around HR (Personnel, short for Human Resources) | ||
| 24 | SCAT | Primarily: sing crazily, absent text? (4) |
| The first letters [primarily] of: sing crazily absent text Nothing’s underlined here by me, so it must be an &lit (the clue as a whole being the definition). |
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The basis for 24D:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scat_singing
I enjoyed this puzzle. I forgot to keep any notes on it, but ISLE OF DOGS was a favourite.
Thank you Everyman and Sil – I agree with your comments in the preamble:
the “setter has a style that’s become more and more recognisable.
I also think the level of difficulty is better judged than it was in the beginning.”
I really like the current Everyman crosswords. The level of difficulty is just about right, and the clues tend to be clever and witty. This was certainly the case here, and I particularly liked 14a PLAY TRUANT, 8d PRINCESS ANNE and 18d DELUDED, the last of which was beautiful in its simplicity.
The one where the surface didn’t quite seem to make sense was 5d GOLDFINGER. Are we supposed to picture the organ on the cover of the book? Is “organ” supposed to be a bit rude?
Anyway, many thanks Everyman, keep up the good work. And thanks, Sil, I always enjoy your ramblings. As you said a couple of weeks ago, the number of comments on this site seems to decrease as the quality of these puzzles improves – will that continue today I wonder?
Thanks Everyman and Sil
Re 5D, I think ‘organ’ is to be understood in the sense of a newspaper, as often occurs in Private Eye. Hence the surface can be read as referring to a review of a German novel in a grand/august journal of long standing.
Simon S – ah yes, that makes sense, thanks.
I also enjoyed this puzzle. Particular favorites were my last two in: PRINCESS ANNE and LACQUER. I don’t mind that “lacker” isn’t a dictionary word: that level of playful flexibility seems to me to add to the pleasure of our pastime.
GOLDFINGER struck me as the weakest clue, although it’s perfectly sound. OLD = OLD seems weak, and I would never have thought of a FIN as an organ. Especially given the dodgy surface (although Simon S’s comment does help a good deal with that), it seem like the setter could come up with something better. Still, setting is a tough job, and they can’t all be gems!
Hmmm: as a German speaker I would say the city is spelled Duesseldorf (since it is Düsseldorf in German) bit I realise that airlines spell it as it is given here. I needed help for ‘Princess Anne’. Otherwise all good.
Not my cup of tea. I found it very hard to get started, and the parsing was often beyond me.
Got there in the end but failed to parse 10ac, 5d & 20d. I thought 12ac was clever in its simplicity. Thanks Everyman & Sil.
Chambers says a fin is an organ with which an aquatic animal steers balances or swims. So does make arms and legs organs as well?
Isle of Dogs was nice.
Some characteristically loose definitions, unworthy of Everyman of yore, but another step up for Everyman of late.
I too had difficulty with Princess Anne (just me and Mark Phillips?). Otherwise very enjoyable.
some interesting explanations – I needed to read the blog to understand. I would never have known the OT term Vulgate and Ibsen was a bit convoluted but liked Isle of Dogs, Lacquer Eddy
I had a few wrong, go stuck on Deep Fry and couldnt go further. Had ‘A bit Precious’ for 9d though knew it didnt mean premature, andI had Cot Case for 26 ac and didnt really understand why scat was scat but an enjoyable afternoon spent.
Another good one for me. Several clues raised a smile once completed – often I missed them the first time round due to over thinking. Many thanks Everyman and Sil.
Found this very *VERY* tough. Got it all out, with a huge amount of help from wildcard dictionaries, but there were many answers that I couldn’t parse (among them 8 down, “princess anne”). Could not understand 5 down (“goldfinger”) at all, except for the literal meaning (“novel”), which I recognised.
The comment from Simon S@4 makes no sense to me.
Just seeking some help (if anyone is following this so late in the piece):
Is the setter actually referring to the post code for Tyneside in the clue? (yes, I understand it is NE England and that makes sense).
I have always parsed this as ‘NE’ being the side (last two letters) of Tyne.
Both work, but perhaps the latter is more understandable given the overseas audience.
Interesting question.
I always assumed that NE stood for ‘the North East of the UK’ = ‘Tyneside’.
But, indeed, NE is also the postcode for the area around Newcastle (which, coincidentally, is a city in the North East).
Two different kinds of NE but, yes, both work.
However, I wouldn’t go for ‘Tyneside’ = ‘side of Tyne’ = ‘ne’.
Sil,
Thanks for your help – that makes it somewhat clearer!