Everyman 3,830/8 March

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It’s been around a year now since the ‘new’ Everyman took over the slot in The Observer. I think he’s settled now into a recognisable style and is producing entertaining and accessible puzzles week in and week out. Which, as setters will tell you if you talk to them, is a big ask. So well done him and let’s have some more like this.

 

I didn’t spot today any of the clue pairs which this setter often introduces, but he does like a clue as definition or cad, and there are several here.

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 According to Spooner, conveniences for pets are symbols of the working class
FLAT CAPS
This one’s been round the block a bit. A Spoonerism of CAT FLAPS.

5 Church music: where to be seated
CHAIR
A charade of CH and AIR.

9 So, an African country, a nation of Africa
SOMALIA
A charade of SO, MALI and A.

10 What’s caused by cold weather? I see, I see: son’s skipping lesson
ICICLES
A charade of IC twice and LES[SON].

11 Respected figure among midfielders
ELDER
Hidden in midfiELDERs.

12 A pony went bananas: that’s seen all the time
TWO-A-PENNY
(A PONY WENT)*

13 Use your wits: plunge into water and plunge into water
DUCK AND DIVE
A simple charade, relying on the two verbs for ‘plunge into water’, the first transitive (witches beware) and the second instransitive.

17 Trail guides displayed technique with axe
SLIDE GUITAR
(TRAIL GUIDES)* with nice misdirection of ‘axe’ for GUITAR.

20 To ridicule the French, Trump recalled battle they lost
TRAFALGAR
A reversal of RAG, LA and FART.

22 NY sportsmen filled with energy for fixtures
MEETS
An insertion of E in METS for the New York baseball team.

23 Consume some buckwheat in tortilla
EAT INTO
Hidden in buckwhEAT IN TOrtilla.

24 Hastily ‘reunited’ with North excluded – very clever
ERUDITE
(REU[N]ITED)* with ‘hastily’ as the unlikely anagrind.

25 Neuroses involving money
EUROS
Hidden in nEUROSes.

26 In Yorkshire you will enter hostelry, with a little drink sooner or later
IN THE END
An insertion of THEE in INN followed by D for the first letter of ‘drink’. They do indeed say ‘thee’ for ‘you’ in Yorkshire. As well as much else.

Down

1 Believer during Ramadan getting more resolute
FASTER
A dd. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and a time of fasting.

2 Primarily, ancient Royal Marines’ adversaries Drake annihilated?
ARMADA
The first letters of the last six words of the clue, and a cad.  Altough some historians might argue with the ‘annihilated’ bit: the Spanish managed in large part to screw it up themselves.

3 Between mountain pass and narrow elevation, English versifier
COLERIDGE
An insertion of E in COL and RIDGE. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), perhaps best known for The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.

4 Corpulent sags I cut up!
PLASTIC SURGEON
Another cad. (CORPULENT SAGS I)*

5 Junk food firm
CRISP
A dd.

6 What can be seen in book of maps? Not this island, for starters!
ATLANTIS
Another cad. An insertion of NTI for the first letters of ‘not this island’ in ATLAS. ATLANTIS wouldn’t be found in an atlas because it’s a fictional island described in Plato’s works.

7 Filthy location left amid tall grass given new appearance
RESTYLED
An insertion of STY and L in REED.

8 Countries getting along swimmingly? She might not agree
NICOLA STURGEON
And yet another cad, and a rather apposite one. (COUNTRIES ALONG)* For overseas solvers, NICOLA STURGEON is Scotland’s First Minister and leader of the Scottish National Party. She’s quite keen on Scottish independence, which is the thrust of the clue.

14 Fly south, taking minutes, not seconds, to coastal town
DARTMOUTH
Everyman is inviting you to take the S out of ‘south’ and replace it with an M. If you put this after DART for ‘fly’ you’ve got your answer and a town on the Devon coast.

15 A model? The Observer is, in a way
AS IT WERE
A charade of A, SIT and WE’RE for ‘The Observer is’. It’s a crossword convention for the setter to be able to refer to the publication he or she is compiling for as WE or US.

16 Type of movie where star dies surprisingly?
DISASTER
I suppose you could count this as another cad, or at least say it’s caddish. (STAR DIES)*

18 City, European, very pleasant to go around?
VENICE
An insertion of E in V NICE.  Plenty of hotel rooms available there at the time of writing.

19 Wasted, stoned in European city
OSTEND
(STONED)* gives you the Belgian city and port which is OOSTENDE in Dutch (from Oost Einde, ‘East End’).

21 Unionist soldiers surrounding female family members
AUNTS
An insertion of U in ANTS.

Many thanks to Everyman for this morning’s puzzle.

27 comments on “Everyman 3,830/8 March”

  1. 4D rhymes with 8D — that is the ‘pairing’ (which I spotted very early on in my solving of this one).

  2. Enjoyed this, so thanks both, but is 1ac really a Spoonerism?
    If so is ‘pip stroker’ a Spoonerism of ‘strip poker’?

  3. After a year I think Everyman can be relied upon to produce an accessible puzzle with style and wit. This puzzle was a fine example of that.

    That said I do wish he or she would stop with the &lit clues using an acrostic + the word “primarily” (as in 2 down) unless the resulting clue really does allude to the “primary” meaning of the word. Surely many people use ARMADA with no reference to the Spanish Armada? “Spaced, Ideal, Taxi, Catastrophe, Outnumbered, Miranda and Seinfeld primarily (6)” for SITCOM a few weeks ago was even more random. You might as well clue DOG as “Dane or greyhound, primarily (4)”.

    I do appreciate that this is a generous device for new solvers, however. Everyman in general is certainly a good way into this hobby, so here’s to the next year of puzzles! Thank you.

  4. Gonzo @2, yes and yes. A Spoonerism doesn’t always have to be a swap of the initial consonants. Bad dog can be dad bog and Dodd bag!

  5. For the record, Nila @4, (and I realise everyone out there is waiting with baited breath for my assessment for their own records) I don’t think Dr Spooner would have come out with Dodd Bag (perhaps we should hestion quim…). Apparently he was in the Royal Arse Hortillery and a great favourite of the queer old dean.

    As far as I am aware, Everyman is meant to be…well, a crossword for every (wo)man and hence what we have here is the epitome thereof. The problem is, what would be the point of 225 if the only possible response is a benign smile ;-}

    I thought it was simply fun and pretty much the whole point of such a crossword. I’ll get me cost…

  7. I only came across the sunday Everymans (or maybe that should be Everymen) a few months ago and so hadn’t realised this particular one is a relative newcomer. I do enjoy his/her work – and am beginning to get to grips with the style. Like John E, I took STURGEON and SURGEON to be this week’s pairing, and TRAFALGAR was pleasing too. I have to confess though, I’m not wild about faux-spoonerism clues, some of which can be pretty uninspired and rarely amusing – unlike the good reverend gentleman himself.
    And speaking of good gentlemen: Pierre, your blog is always a delight to read! Thanks for today’s and thanks to Everyman for all the fun.

  8. I enjoyed this, my favourite being 6d ATLANTIS.  Pierre, I like your term “clue as definition” (cad), which is perhaps a bit less off-putting for newer solvers than the more traditional “&lit”.

    Contrary to what some people seem to think, the Reverend Spooner did not invent a game with strict rules: he had an idiosyncrasy of speech which involved switching sounds in a variety of ways, including for example “Kinkering congs their titles take” (instead of “Conquering kings”).

    Many thanks Everyman and Pierre.

  9. (My favourite – no doubt, apocryphal – anecdote about Dr Spooner was one where he and various associates agreed to meet one evening at The Green Man pub in Dulwich. The good Reverend never showed up. His friends later discovered he’d spent the evening wandering round Greenwich, looking for a pub called The Dull Man.
    Yes, I know – but I so WANT it to be true…)

  10. Thanks for your thumbs-up for ‘clue as definition’, Lord Jim.  I made it up a while ago now exactly because people (especially newer addicts) did find ‘&lit’ off-putting.  What does it stand for?  What does it mean?  And they were also put off by long discussions as to what qualified as an ‘&lit’, or ‘&littish’.  So I think ‘cad’ covers all those bases (and caddish has a certain ring to it too …)

    And if you are that lurker wondering what ‘&lit’ does mean, it’s ‘and literally so’.  I don’t know who made it up.  Probably He Who Must Be Obeyed.

  11. Thank you Everyman for a fun puzzle and Pierre for an interesting blog.

    Quite a naval “theme”, unintentional I guess – it has been proposed that the ATLANTIS story was a warning of Plato to his contemporary fourth-century fellow-citizens against their striving for naval power, and here in the puzzle we have TRAFALGAR, ARMADA, DARTMOUTH, VENICE, OSTEND …

  12. Yes, entertaining Sunday solve.

    I also queried the use of hastily as an anagrind. I ticked SLIDE GUITAR, TRAFALGAR and PLASTIC SURGEON.

    Thanks Everyman and Pierre (what a cad.)

  13. Here is an interesting history of FLAT CAPS from Wikipedia

    A 1571 Act of the English Parliament was enacted to stimulate domestic wool consumption and general trade. It decreed that on Sundays and holidays, all males over 6 years of age, except for the nobility and “persons of degree”, were to wear woollen caps or pay a fine of three farthings (0.75 penny, or about £0.003) per day. The Act was not repealed until 1597, though by then the flat cap had become firmly entrenched as a recognised mark of a non-noble subject.

  14. Glad to have stimulated some comment. My point was that the natural Spoonerism of ‘cat flap’ is ‘fat clap’ – unless we allow more latitude as to the ‘initial sound’, in which case where do we draw the line.

  16. I like the current Everyman’s output (although I very much liked his predecessor too).  There are some belters here.  I thought the NICOLA STURGEON clue was terrific with PLASTIC SURGEON and SLIDE GUITAR not far behind.  I did think the ICICLES clue was a bit unfair in that it implied a singular answer with “what’s”.  “What’re” would be fairer, but I guess the surface suffers.

    There used to be a time when hidden words were always found spanning mutliple words.  Not so these days, e.g. ELDER and EUROS here.  Did some memo go around to all the setters at some point?

    Thanks, Everyman, and Pierre for the excellent blog.

  17. Cookie, as so often, you’ve kindly added to my general knowledge! The info on flat caps is fascinating – and it reminds me of the Alex Glasgow song, A Little Cloth Cap (check it out via YouTube)

  18. Hi Pierre @10.  I believe you are correct as to who invented the term “&lit”, assuming that by “He Who Must Be Obeyed” you mean Mr Ximenes.  I’ve just had a look in my copy of Ximenes on the Art of the Crossword, published 1966, and in Chapter VIII entitled “& Lit. Clues” he introduces “this type of clue”, and interestingly says “the name I have given it for the sake of brevity is not self-explanatory and has from time to time caused misunderstanding among my solver-competitors”.  I think this just bears out the fact that your “clue as definition” is more readily understandable!

  19. Thanks, Lord Jim.  I am humbled to be mentioned in the same paragraph as HWMBO.  I don’t always agree with some of the other stuff that he laid down in law, because crossword conventions (and that’s all they are) move on, and it’s interesting to be reminded that his book is now over fifty years old.  I’ll go and self-isolate now before I get publicly stoned by his contemporary acolytes.

  21. arib@20: There is this – https://thamesandhudson.com/writer-s-map-9780500519509

    probably others exist, too

  23. First time ever we finished in an hour! Thoroughly enjoyed this, esp Icicles & Slide Guitar. Happy Easter one and all, stay in your bubble and enjoy some treats.

  24. Nicola Sturgeon is unknown to me though, so missed that and couldn’t figure out what I was looking for in 4 down. Also, I have never heard a guitar called an axe.
    Enjoyed many of these clues though, especially icicles and Coleridge.

  25. An enjoyable puzzle to give some ritual and routine to a completely unconventional Easter

    particularly liked Icicles, Duck and Dive, Atlantis, Venice

    Didn’t understand much about the reason for In the End,

    Chin up everyone can we get to the end, pat on back, we’ve done 17 days already….

  26. Great puzzle. Missed 17d though it was a great clue. I wrote in cutter from the crossers & didn’t get 15a to help with the start. Thought the pairs down clues were fantastic. Now into the second half of this test match. Lets just hold our positions.

  27. Loved this puzzle; got it all out, though I needed help from  Google to get 8 down (Nicola Sturgeon).  Never noticed the anagram and figured that “swimmingly” had something to do with the fish.

    My favourite was 17 across (Paul@26 take note; across not down!) “slide guitar”. Took me forever to get it, but when I did, it was a real forehead slapper!

    Thanks Everyman and Pierre.

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