The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3840.
This week we have a vestige of paired long clues, in Bed and Breakfast, bottom and top, with perhaps EARLY DAY linking them (although the full answers do not hang together very naturally).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DOG’S BREAKFAST | A complete shambles, maybe setter’s to be given time out, quick! (4,9) |
| A charade of DOG’S (‘maybe setter’s’, the canine, not Everyman) plus BREAK (‘time out’) plus FAST (‘quick’). | ||
| 8 | EMMA | Primarily, extremely meddlesome matchmaker (Austen’s) (4) |
| An Everyman trademark: first letters (‘primarily’) of ‘Extremely Meddlesome Matchmaker (Austen’s)’, with an &lit definition. | ||
| 9 | TARTE TATIN | Acerbic Greek character can provide pudding (5,5) |
| A charade of TART (‘acerbic’) plus ETA (‘Greek character’) plus TIN (‘can’). The prime excuse for making some crème fraîche. | ||
| 10 | IN TOTO | Altogether where Dorothy’s dog food ended up (2,4) |
| Double definition, the second with reference to The Wizard of Oz. | ||
| 11 | YADA-YADA | ‘Blah blah blah‘: review of 48 Hours? (4-4) |
| A reversal (‘review’) of A DAY A DAY (’48 hours’). | ||
| 12 | ROUNDHEAD | Parliamentarian to persecute revolutionary, Spooner reports (9) |
| A spoonerism of HOUND RED (‘persecute revolutionary’), for an opponent of King Charles I of England and the Cavaliers. | ||
| 14 | JOHN | Perhaps, Sergeant Major, perhaps (4) |
| Double definition, referring to two people: John Sergeant, the journalist, and John Major, the Conservative politician. | ||
| 15 | BEST | Famous sportsman, ‘The Greatest’ (4) |
| No, not Ali, but soccer player George, for a double definition. | ||
| 16 | SMALL TALK | Stride around shopping centre making chit-chat (5,4) |
| An envelope (‘around’) of MALL (‘shopping centre’) in STALK (‘stride’). | ||
| 20 | TYPECAST | Print pitch for pigeonhole (8) |
| A charade of TYPE (‘print’) plus CAST (‘pitch’ in the sense of throw). | ||
| 21 | DANUBE | Dicky Benaud is one going from Vienna to Belgrade (6) |
| An anagram (‘dicky’) of ‘Benaud’. It does not add much to the surface, but ‘Dicky Benaud’ could refer to Australian cricketer and commentator Richard Benaud, but, as far as I know, he used the diminutive Richie. | ||
| 23 | BELA LUGOSI | Horror-movie figure harshly bullies a headless dog (4,6) |
| An anagram (‘harshly’) of ‘bullies’ plus ‘[d]og’ minus its first letter (‘headless’). | ||
| 24 | BRIE | Lawyer’s not finishing cheese (4) |
| BRIE[f] (‘lawyer’) minus its last letter (‘not finishing’). | ||
| 25 | FOUR-POSTER BED | Furniture that might be rust-proofed and extremely baroque? (4-6,3) |
| An anagram (‘that might be’) of ‘rust-proofed’ plus BE (‘extremely BaroquE‘) .. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DOMINGO | Tenor spotted piece to include: grand! (7) |
| An envelope (‘to include’) of G (‘grand’) in DOMINO (‘spotted piece’), for Placido Domingo, who sang tenor roles for most of his career. | ||
| 2 | GUANO | Some ragù: a nourishing substance with distinctive smell (5) |
| A hidden answer (‘some’) in ‘raGU A NOrishing’. | ||
| 3 | BETROTH | Promise to put a wager on US novelist (7) |
| A charade of BET (‘wager – or ‘put a wager on’)’) plus ROTH (Philip, ‘US novelist’). | ||
| 4 | EARLY DAY MOTIONS | Parliamentary business, one May’s adroitly amended (5,3,7) |
| An anagram (‘amended’) of ‘one May’s adroitly’. If you are not familiar with the Westminster manoeuvre, Wikipedia provides some information. | ||
| 5 | KNEADS | Prepares sourdough loaves, perhaps: essential things (we’re told) (6) |
| Sounds like (‘we’re told’) NEEDS (‘essential things’). I get a bread machine to do the work for me, at least for sourdough. | ||
| 6 | AT ANY COST | Nasty coat needing alteration, no matter the price (2,3,4) |
| An anagram (‘needing alteration’) of ‘nas ty coat’. | ||
| 7 | TRIED ON | Sick, tired, essentially stoned … considered fit (5,2) |
| A charade of TRIED, an anagram (‘sick’) of ‘tired’ plus ON (‘essentially stONed”). | ||
| 13 | NOSFERATU | A fortune’s laid out for horror movie (9) |
| An anagram (‘laid out’) of ‘a fortune’s’, for F W Murnau’s 1922 film. | ||
| 15 | BAYLEAF | Piece of Laurel and Hardy finally, a fable that’s funny (7) |
| An anagram (‘that’s funny’) of Y (‘HardY finally’) plus ‘a fable’. I have just inherited a potted bay tree, which stands about eight feet tall. As it is not winter hardy, it will need some pruning by next winter before getting it into my living room – or, even if I manage to kill it before then, I will have several lifetime’s supply of bayleaves for stews and like. | ||
| 17 | LUDDITE | ‘Salud!’, dit Emile (un peu reactionary) (7) |
| A hidden answer (‘un peu’) in ‘saLUD DIT Emile’. | ||
| 18 | LOBBIED | Tried to influence bid with bloke losing £1,000, sadly (7) |
| An anagram (‘sadly’) of ‘bid’ plus ‘blo[k]e’, minus the K (‘losing £1,000’) | ||
| 19 | GAZUMP | Adjudicator, curtly, after brief look, to increase price unfairly (6) |
| A charade of GAZ[e] (‘look’) minus its last letter (‘brief’) plus UMP (umpire, ‘adjudicator, curtly’). | ||
| 22 | NABOB | Bigwig to apprehend rising pong (5) |
| A charade of NAB (‘apprehend’) plus OB, a reversal (‘rising’ in a down light) of BO (body odour, ‘pong’);. | ||
Got it all done pretty straightforwardly, save 14a. I stated and stared at it on and off all week. JOHN was even one of the words I considered, several times. The closest I could get was GOON (‘go on’ = perhaps??, SM = nasty shouty type = goon???) – but these thoughts weren’t convincing so it stayed blank. No wonder I couldn’t crack it. NHO John Sergeant, though I have heard of John Major. A pity, as there were quite a few very nice clues: DOGS BREAKFAST, IN TOTO, YADA YADA, BAY LEAF, GAZUMP among others. Thanks, PeterO, for putting me out of my misery.
Like TassieTim @1, I also considered GOON before getting JOHN.
I thought the double Dracula reference with BELA LUGOSI and NOSFERATU might lead to a broader vampire/horror theme, but no.
@TassieTim agreed – several enjoyable clues but stumped by 14a.
I liked Tarte tatin, and anagrams nosferatu, early day motion, four poster bed.
Thanks PeterO and Everyman.
The “primarily” &lit clues, while being a bit of a trademark are rather overused and obvious. I wonder if there will be one this week…
As for possible paired clues: Early Day Motions are what some people have between bed and breakfast 🙂
Richie Benaud indeed; pity it wasnt Dicky as the anag allusion would then have been very nice.
Enjoyed the solve. In Toto was a favourite (10A). For 14A we had ‘noun’, which we thought was rather good, with both sergeant and major being sometimes a noun and sometimes an adjective, hence ‘perhaps’. We were confused by 1A because for us it’s pig’s breakfast or dog’s dinner (but saw in dictionary it could be d.breakfast).
Isn’t bay leaf two words? Just trawled several dictionaries and they don’t seem to have it as a seven letter word.
Agree with wzevon above and cannot resist saying I love the email name! Werewolves of London rule still. Makes the crossword even more fun.
Found this one relatively straightforward but agree too with the comments about the ‘primarily’ clues. Will probably pay for this with ridiculously obscure clueing this week….
Entertaining puzzle from Everyman. I particularly liked YADA-YADA and EARLY DAY MOTIONS (and cosmic @5’s explanation!)
I did know both JOHNs but I thought the clue was weak and there are plenty of other words that are ?O?N that could have been used. I also thought ‘Print pitch for pigieonhole’ was a bit nonsensical, although perhaps I’m missing something (some screws possibly.)
It’s fairly conventional to have one acrostic clue in a crossword, but perhaps it could be indicated in a slightly more inventive way than using ‘primarily’ each time.
Thanks Everyman and PeterO.
I really liked 15d BAYLEAF (whether or not it should have been 3,4) with its nice Laurel and Hardy surface. 14a JOHN was my last one in, and when the penny finally dropped I thought it was great. John Sergeant is a well-known journalist and broadcaster, and received massive media coverage when he appeared on Strictly Come Dancing, so even if, like me, you don’t watch that programme, he is hardly obscure. (On checking, I’m amazed to see that the Strictly business was as long ago as 2008!)
Is the surface of 1a a wry comment on the criticism that crossword setters sometimes get?
Many thanks Everyman and PeterO.
I had NOUN instead of JOHN too. It’s not as much fun, but there’s nothing wrong with it as a solution, and it can’t be resolved by the crossers. I think this is referred to as a “double”.
IN TOTO made me smile.
Sorry – Thanks PeterO and Everyman.
Lord Jim @10 – hardly obscure in the UK might be completely obscure in Tasmania.
This was a bit of a curate’s egg for me. I know there are many who dislike the “primarily” clues – but I’ve grown to accept them as, at the very least, an easy and obvious first answer and an inevitable element in an Everyman oeuvre. By the same token I really should be able to get past my dislike for the weak “Spooner” clues, and I’m sure there are lots of folk who find them funny. I’m just not one of them, I’m afraid. Sorry.
On the plus side, 10A made me grin, and I liked the idea of starting a crossword with a dog’s breakfast. I can see there’s a connection, in part, between that and 25A, but I thought the gruesome twosome of BELA LUGOSI and NOSFERATU was the pairing of the week… Hey ho. Thanks to Everyman for the challenge and PeterO for the blog
I enjoyed this puzzle a good deal, although I disappointed myself by failing to complete it. I don’t believe I’ve ever heard the word “gazump” and didn’t manage to guess it from the wordplay.
I particularly enjoyed 11ac and 15dn (although I also wondered about the enumeration). I think that 21ac would have been an outstanding clue if the fellow in question had actually been called “Dicky”, but since he wasn’t, I find it a very weak clue.
17dn is strange, because “Salud” isn’t a French word. It doesn’t make any difference to the cryptic reading, but it does make the surface a bit odd: why is that Frenchman speaking Spanish? Unfortunately, there are no obvious French words that could be substituted.
wzevon1951 @7
I was a little surprised to find that the dictionaries largely agree with you. It did not – and does not – look odd to me, in the way PLAYBALL in last Tuesday’s Crucuble does. There is some tenuous evidence for the use of bayleaf as one word, for example in restaurant names (and they should know).
Wellbeck @ 14
I went with 1A/25A as pairing of the week because Everyman usually links the longest (and symmetrically placed) answers.
Ted @15
The word GAZUMP had a brief heyday just 50 years ago, when house prices in England were rising so rapidly that it was difficult to make a purchase legally binding before a higher offer intervened.
When writing the blog, I did not notice the problem with ‘salud’. I suppose that there is nothing extraordinary in a Frenchman, using a Spanish borrowing for “Cheers” any more than an Englishman, but my suspicion would be that Everyman was confusing it with the real French ‘salut’ – which would not fit the clue, of course.
New for me was GAZUMP.
14a was loi. I found John Sergeant via google search, but knew of John Major.
Thanks PeterO and Everyman.
Failed on 14 and 23A, cheated on 13D
Everything else good, ticked 10A
Agree ‘primarily’ is getting wearisome although there are only so many acrostic indicators (unlike anagrinds where this setter usually invents a new one every week)
Failed on most of this. But just for the record, John Sergeant has often been on TV programmes in NZ so I wouldn’t call him obscure.
I struggled with some of the same ones 14 ac 23 ac 13d, 22d horror movies never was not my thing. Never heard of a nabob either and probably never will again
liked 11ac, 16ac, 5d, 15d
still quite hard to decipher the anagram markers – that is a puzzle in itself
Failed on 14a, overall a good crossword for us (ie we finished it all bar that one!)
DNF. Like many others I was stumped by 14 across. Never heard of John Sergeant. If he’s not obscure, then the word obscure has acquired a new meaning with which I am not familiar.
Found this puzzle very tough. I’d never heard the term “early day motions”, nor had I ever heard of “tarte tatin”.
Loved 10 across.