The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3828.
Much as we have come to expect from Everyman; three &lit clues, where the entire clue may be read as definition or as wordplay, and the pairing (loose in this case, of THIS and THAT in 6D and 9D) in long lights.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | OFFENSIVE | With respect to area around Norfolk, Everyman has to be obnoxious (9) |
| A charade of OF (‘with respect to’) plus FENS (‘area around Norfolk’) plus I’VE (‘Everyman has’). | ||
| 10 | HOO-HAHS | Laugh abruptly with derisive interjections following excitement (3-4) |
| A charade of HOO[t] (‘laugh’) minus the last letter (‘abruptly’) plus HAHS (‘derisive interjections’). ‘Following’ just confirms the order of the particles. | ||
| 11 | CAR WASH | A Rover’s waxed, for starters, when money’s seen around here! (3,4) |
| An envelope (‘seen around’) of ARW (‘A Rover’s Waxed, for starters’) in CASH (‘money’), with an extended definition. | ||
| 12 | SYNOD | Where you find some heresy? No; dogma! (5) |
| A hidden answer (‘where you find some’) in ‘hersSY NO Dogma’, with an &lit definition. | ||
| 13 | PIXIE CUT | Nine getting into pastry, sliced for a do (5,3) |
| An envelope (‘getting into’) of IX (Roman numeral, ‘nine’) in PIE (‘pastry’) plus CUT (‘sliced’), for the woman’s hairstyle. | ||
| 15 | ALBERT HALL | Concert venue, a large place in which to fall asleep entirely (6,4) |
| A charade of ‘a’ plus L (‘large’) plus BERTH (‘place to fall asleep”) plus ALL (‘entirely’). | ||
| 16 | RIGA | A young woman almost flipped somewhere in Latvia (4) |
| A reversal (‘flipped’) of A GIR[l] (‘a young woman’) minus the last letter (‘almost’). | ||
| 18 | ABBA | They made ‘SOS’ a palindrome (4) |
| The palindronic group sang the palindomic song. | ||
| 20 | FAT FINGERS | Gaffer isn’t swayed by facetious excuse for typo in text (3,7) |
| An anagram (‘swayed’) of ‘gaffer isnt’. | ||
| 22 | DEAD CERT | Release redacted; it’s inevitable (4,4) |
| An anagram (‘release’) of ‘redacted’. | ||
| 24 | OVERT | Hush-hush, not about to become public (5) |
| A subtraction: [c]OVERT (‘hush-hush’) minus the C (‘not about’ – circa). | ||
| 26 | GREMLIN | Carelessly malinger without a reason for machine’s downtime (7) |
| An anagram (‘carelessly’) of ‘m[a]linger’ minus the A (‘without a’). | ||
| 27 | SENEGAL | Anglesey spending year struggling to become member of African Union (7) |
| An anagram (‘struggling’) of ‘Anglese[y]’ minus the Y (‘spending year’). | ||
| 28 | ISLE OF MAN | Where Douglas is breaking flamingoes – not good (4,2,3) |
| An anagram (‘breaking’) of ‘flamin[g]oes’ minus the G (‘not good’). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | FLANDERS | Serf working across terrain in mediaeval principality (8) |
| An envelope (‘across’) of LAND (‘terrain’) in FERS, an anagram (‘working’) of ‘serf’. | ||
| 3 | EASE | Losing head, stop being calm (4) |
| A subtraction: [c]EASE (‘stop’) minus its initial letter (‘losing head’). | ||
| 4 | SUCH IS LIFE | ‘Clue is “Fish”.’ ‘Flounders.’ ‘That’s how it goes’ (4,2,4) |
| An anagram (‘flounders’) of ‘clue is fish’. | ||
| 5 | VERDI | Italian scorer, clever dick to some extent (5) |
| A hidden answer (‘to some extent’) in ‘cleVER DIck’. ‘Scorer’as a composer of musical scores, of course. | ||
| 6 | THIS DAY AND AGE | Now – regrettably – Dad’s eating hay (4,3,3,3) |
| An anagram (‘regrettably’) of ‘dads eating hay’. An amusingly bizarre surface. | ||
| 7 | HOBNOB | Biscuit mix (6) |
| Double definition; the biscuit is a brand name. | ||
| 8 | TAI CHI | Exercise and hot drink proposed by Spooner (3,3) |
| A Spoonerism of CHAI TEA (‘hot drink’) – really a reduplication; I take it that ‘proposed’ is to indicate that the transposition follows the pronunciation, not the spelling, even though this is often the case for Spoonerisms. | ||
| 9 | THAT SAYS IT ALL | Revising hastily at last? There’s nothing more to add (4,4,2,3) |
| An anagram (‘revising’) of ‘hastily at last’. | ||
| 14 | D H LAWRENCE | One who told tales when cradle rocked (1,1,8) |
| An anagram (‘rocked’) of ‘when cradle’ | ||
| 17 | INSOMNIA | A minion’s faltering complaint (8) |
| An anagram (‘faltering’) of ‘a minions’ | ||
| 19 | BRACES | Supports British experts (6) |
| A charade of BR (‘British’) plus ACES (‘experts’). | ||
| 21 | ENERGY | What’s displayed by keener gymnasts, in part? (6) |
| A hidden answer in ‘keENER GYmnasts’, with an &lit definition (perhaps better described as an extended definition, as ‘in part’ is not vital to the definition). | ||
| 23 | COLTS | What cowboys may carry; what may carry cowboys (5) |
| Double definition: the revolver and the horse. | ||
| 25 | AS IF | Primarily, announcement showing incredulity flatly! (2,2) |
| First letters (‘primarily’) of ‘Announcement Showing Incredulity Flatly’, with an &lit definition. | ||
I enjoyed the anagrams.
I entered HOO-HAHS @ 10a but could not parse it.
Thanks Everyman and Peter
Thanks, PeterO. I particularly like the way that the typos in your solution to 18A could have been caused by your 20A.
Thank you Everyman and PeterO.
This was fun, only met that biscuit recently…
Largely enjoyable solve; I did try ‘Sala’ as a possible answer to 16A, although that is a little obscure.
I particularly liked THAT SAYS IT ALL and COLTS.
For 28A I would have used a different anagrind, something like ‘disturbing’ to improve the surface.
Thanks Everyman and PeterO.
Andrew @2
Good point – not helped by my cat, who insists on installing his large self on my lap whenever I am trying to write a blog.
Very enjoyable, liked 14 and 23 down. Thought Rover was the car so got CARW and couldn’t parse the rest, so DNF 8D.
One of Everyman’s good ‘uns.
Yes a cracking crossword this one. Liked 8ac 20ac and 24ac personally. Many thanks Everyman and PeterO from the depths of day 3 of the NZ lockdown. Hope all our fellow solvers – particularly any Italian scorers – are well and safe.
That’s 8dn damn lack of editing function.
Plenty of time for the solve today. Don’t know about you but I’m enjoying this bloke, or bloke-ess!
We got Albert Hall (15a) but couldn’t parse it. Never heard of Hobnob biscuits – but fortunately Mr Google had.
The dictionaries are still to hear of Covid-19 though.
Really liked this puzzle. Found it challenging but got it all out without any computerised assistance. Didn’t quite get 10 across (“hoo-hahs”) but was sure it was right. Thanks to Peter O. for the explanation. Had never heard of Hobnob biscuits, but again was sure it was right. When I Googled them just now, the pictures I saw looked like what I’d call Florentines.
Thanks to Everyman for a fine puzzle.
Despite having more time on my hands, couldn’t really focus on this. Times are so strange.
I did enjoy it though I liked18ac, 11ac, 19d
I didnt get Flanders, Pixie Cut or Riga
I have walked 16.5km around Auckland in beautiful weather today!! .. over two bursts without coffee anywhere en route of course. that would have made the day perfect
Late in again. hard to focus but decided I’d better do it before the next one comes tomorrow. Very enjoyable esp 18ac & 14d. Put Sala in 16ac thinking young woman was lass so missed 8d. Thanks PeterO & Everyman. Stay safe everyone.