The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3940.
This week, a slight variation on the ‘primarily clue (how shocking).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DRESSING DOWN |
Berating daughter, not grand in dress that’s far from formal (8,4)
|
| DRESSING GOWN (‘dress that’s far from formal’; the appearance of ‘dress’ in clue and answer is unfortunate) with the G replaced by D (‘daughter not grand’) | ||
| 10 | INSTANT |
Coffee time (7)
|
| Double definition, although I would object to the first on grounds of taste. | ||
| 11 | ANAEMIA |
A Maine resort with a lack of vitality (7)
|
| An anagram (‘resort’) of ‘a Maine’ plus ‘a’ (which you can include in the anagram, or not, as you wish). | ||
| 12 | U-TURN |
In France, you tucked into vessel of coffee … leading to change of plan (1-4)
|
| An envelope (‘tucked into’) of TU (‘in France, you’) in URN (‘vessel of coffee’). | ||
| 13 | DEFERRAL |
Dutch doctor’s note unopened, producing delay (8)
|
| A charade of D (‘Dutch’) plus [r]EFERRAL (‘doctor’s note’) minus its first letter (‘unopened’). | ||
| 15 | EAST INDIES |
I end siesta groggily in Malaysia – or maybe Philippines? (4,6)
|
| An anagram (‘groggily’) of ‘I end siesta’. | ||
| 16 | BLOC |
British left starts to organise communitarian alliance (4)
|
| A charade of B (‘British’) plus L (‘left’) plus OC (‘starts to Organise Communitarian’). | ||
| 18 | KNEW |
Was aware of latest via report (4)
|
| Sounds like (‘via report’) NEW (‘latest’). | ||
| 20 | WELLINGTON |
A famous Peruvian has more than one way of serving beef (10)
|
| Double definition. The first refers to Paddington Bear, who is generally depicted as wearing a pair Wellington boots – although that is not taken from the original stories; the connection arose from a Teddy bear dressed as Paddington, which was given some clodhoppers to let it stand upright. Beef Wellington is an elaborate dish of fillet steak – tenderloin – in puff pastry. | ||
| 22 | TRIPLETS |
Let’s Dance first offers rhythmic groups of notes (8)
|
| A charade of TRIP (the light fantastic, ‘dance’) plus ‘lets’. | ||
| 24 | ELECT |
Somewhat undelectable pick (5)
|
| A hidden answer (‘somewhat’) in ‘undELECTable’. | ||
| 26 | NUREYEV |
Dash back to look at very famous dancer (7)
|
| A charade of NUR, a reversal (‘back’) of RUN (‘dash’) plus EYE (‘look at’) plus V (‘very’). | ||
| 27 | SURGEON |
After brief second, press ‘one’ endlessly for operator (7)
|
| A charade of S (‘brief second’) plus URGE (‘press’) plus ‘on[e]’ minus the last letter (‘endlessly’). | ||
| 28 | ALL IS NOT LOST |
Install tools following crash: there’s still hope (3,2,3,4)
|
| An anagram (‘following crash’) of ‘installs tools’. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | RESCUES |
Secures extraordinary saves (7)
|
| An anagram (‘extraordinary’) of ‘secures’. | ||
| 3 | SEA SNAIL |
Hosts catch marine gastropod (3,5)
|
| A charade of SEAS (‘hosts’ – “to take arms against a sea of troubles” Hamlet) plus NAIL (‘catch’). | ||
| 4 | IOTA |
Leading character in Iliad (likewise in our translation, additionally?) (4)
|
| First letters (‘likewise’ – ie first characters) of ‘In Our Translation Additionally’. The definition refers to the first Greek character in the word ‘Iliad’, not the text. | ||
| 5 | GRACE KELLY |
Aussie criminal’s after favour for movie star (5,5)
|
| A charade of GRACE (‘favour’) plus KELLY (Ned, ‘Aussie criminal’). | ||
| 6 | ORATE |
Regularly taking hour, tatty Everyman’s beginning to deliver speech (5)
|
| A charade of ORAT, alternate letter (‘regularly taking’) of ‘hOuR tAtTy’; plus E (‘Everyman’s beginning’). | ||
| 7 | NUMERAL |
Perhaps one playful Ulsterman’s no saint (7)
|
| An anagram (‘playful’) of ‘Ul[st]erman’ minus ST (‘no saint’). | ||
| 8 | FIGURE SKATING |
Judges royal personage fencing at Olympic event (6,7)
|
| An envelope (‘fencing’) of ‘at’ in FIGURES (‘judges’) plus KING (‘royal personage’). | ||
| 9 | HALLUCINATING |
Chill with Antiguan, tipsy, under the influence? (13)
|
| An anagram (‘tipsy’) of ‘chill’ plus ‘Antiguan’. | ||
| 14 | ADJECTIVES |
There’s one of these in The Ugly Duckling and two in The Little Red Hen (10)
|
| Cryptic (until you see it) definition. ‘The’ is an article, regarded as a part of speech separate from an adjective. | ||
| 17 | INTEGRAL |
Solution of triangle not involving fractions (8)
|
| An anagram (‘solution’) of ‘triangle’. | ||
| 19 | ERITREA |
Elizabeth I gets cheers, touring about country (7)
|
| An envelope (‘touring’) of RE (‘about’) in ER (‘Elizabeth’ Regina) plus I (‘one’) plus TA (‘cheers’). | ||
| 21 | TEETERS |
Wobbles: support’s abrupt, abrupt (7)
|
| A charade of TEE (golf ball or other ‘support’) plus TERS[e] (‘abrupt’, the first) minus its last letter (‘abrupt’, the second). | ||
| 23 | LOYAL |
Put up with old lecturer that’s reliable (5)
|
| A reversal (‘up’ in a down light, which needs to refer to the particles before and after it) of LAY (‘put’) plus O (‘old’) plus L (‘lecturer’). | ||
| 25 | OSLO |
Capital of Laos: Louangphabang? (4)
|
| A hidden answer (‘of’) in ‘LaOS LOuangphabang’. Of course, OSLO is not the capital of Laos – nor is Louangphabang, although the latter is a city in that country; the capital is Vientiane |
ADJECTIVES was a fun PDM, but as usual, I’m just not on Everyman’s wavelength. “Dress that’s far from formal” = DRESSING GOWN? Doctor’s note = REFERRAL? Failed to finish yet again, and yet again decided to stop tormenting myself with Everymen.
Got the nail bit, but didn’t think of Hamlet’s sea of troubles, so sea snail was a half bung. Figure for judge is a bit oblique, and had no idea of the Peruvian connection for Wellington (still don’t). Hey ho, otherwise pretty fair, ta both.
I loved the surface for SURGEON. FIGURE SKATING was pretty good too. Was very tempted to bung in PADDINGTON until I thought a bit harder. IOTA was much trickier than usual. A lot of fun all round. Thanks PeterO & Everyman.
Found this one a bit trickier than usual but enjoyed it. Did not get WELLINGTON annoyingly.
Liked FIGURE SKATING, ERITREA, ADJECTIVES ( think I’ve seen one like this before – still took me a while to get it).
Thanks Everyman and PeterO
grantinfreo@2 I only learned the Peruvian connection from a Guardian cryptic. Can’t remember which.
The wiki article on Paddington Bear gives the origin in the Michael Bond story.
Didn’t know about the Wellington boots though.
I was ‘got’ by not seeing the break between ‘more than one’ …. ‘way of serving beef’.
I also enjoyed the surfaces in Paul, Tutukaka’s picks. IOTA was a goodie.
Particularly liked the anagrinds in HALLUCINATING (tipsy), and EAST INDIES, (groggily), and INTEGRAL (solution)
Thanks for the blog, I remember the Paddington craze in the 70s so WELLINGTON was great for me, I still use the Paddington stare for people talking about cricket or IT.
TRIPLETS was very neat and agree with PDM@5 that HALLUCINATING is a great anagram, NUMERAL was cleverly done.
It is hard for me to judge but I remember thinking this puzzle would have been a bit of stretch when I was learning to do cryptics.
Yes, Roz@6. Forgot to mention NUMERAL. It was my number one at the time. Brilliant.
Some lovely anagrams here, NUMERAL, EAST INDIES, to mention two, and some interesting bits of lateral thinking, ADJECTIVE and particularly WELLINGTON, which was my LOI, and a real PDM. I grew up with Paddington, as did my daughter. The Peruvian connection isn’t just in the books, it’s in the films too. Tougher than the week before, but that had many comments about how easy it was.
We had ‘It’s either PADDINGTON or WELLINGTON’ for a bit, then the beef tipped it. Apart from dress/dressing, we thought this was pretty good. I think most of our favs have been mentioned, except NUREYEV. Thanks, Everyman and PeterO.
Thanks PeterO and Everyman. Generally very enjoyable. The IOTA clue is superb. Took me far too long to get HALLUCINATING, which I put down to the definition being a bit of a stretch, but I agree with others that it’s a neat anagram. And I agree with you, PeterO, that the powdered stuff you get in jars bears very little resemblance to coffee.
Widdersbel@10. INSTANT was (maybe not) surprisingly one of my LOI. As we’d been around the world with the other clues, I was looking for something a bit more exotic.
Another Everyman as fun, fair and relatively untaxing as it has been for many years. I always appreciate the paired clues and other signature tricks of the current setter(s). Just because they aren’t on the Vlad or Paul scale of difficulty, doesn’t mean there isn’t generally plenty to admire and smile at in an Everyman.
Favourite was probably IOTA for the deceptive definition. Wasn’t sure about “up” in 23down, whether it is in the rules for it to refer to words both in front and behind.
Thanks to both setter and blogger
Whilst I got it from the crossers and knowing it couldn’t be anything else, the one I’ve had to wait all week for the parsing is Eritrea. Finally I see it, thanks PeterO – I’d presumed that Elizabeth I took care of the initial letter but nothing else made sense – although, in my defence, it’s a rather convoluted clue. Indeed, after a couple of relatively simple and straightforward weeks, this one was somewhat slower over all for me to reach the finishing line.
Liked SURGEON, ERITREA.
I agree with PeterO that 10ac INSTANT=coffee is weak.
Thanks, both.
michelle@14. LOL. weak coffee.
Well back to reality this week! You were correct Roz @6 as a beginner this was a bit of a stretch. I shall persist and take encouragement from 28ac. I certainly learn from the blog – so thanks everyone
Nice and straightforward, a good way to finish a tricky week.
Was 20 across really referring to a famous Peruvian’s footwear? That seems very weak. It may have been a deliberate misdirection because both Paddington and Wellington have common elements and the same number of letters. But getting to Wellington because Paddington wore them was obscure.
“More than one way” could have suggested replacing P and A with W and E. But getting the 2 Ls made no sense.
grantinfreo@2 Nobody seems to have actually explained the Peruvian connection. Paddington Bear comes from “Darkest Peru.” I knew a couple who had a very large Paddington Bear to and a little son who could and did wear his boots.
Thanks, Everyman and PeterO.
Ooops — Paddington Bear toy.
Phew, thanks Valentine, I thought someone’d never say ?
? = 😉
My Paddington Bear has been handed down, our MiddleSprog has it somewhere. Blue duffle coat, black hat and red wellingtons.
Another outstandingly awful Everyman for this solver, though I’m not going to do a list of complaints on this occasion. Maybe mention one and thirteen across as being the worst offenders, per gladys at comment #1.
It’s only a crossword… but I liked it.
Vive Monsieur Tout le Monde !
(et merci, PeterO)
One of the main tasks for a GP is to notify a consultant when a patient needs more specialist help, this is always called a REFERRAL. 13Ac works perfectly for me.
essexboy@25 I wondered how you could translate Everyman into French and apparently I am not alone.
Sorry the link didn’t work https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/everyman.1327391/
[Thanks for the link, Petert @27/28. Glad someone thought Monsieur Tout le Monde was OK – although not till post #15! One of the more intriguing alternative suggestions is ‘citoyen lambda’ ( ≈ average Joe/man on the Clapham omnibus)]
[They’re all a bit exclusively male, aren’t they?]
[Peter@28 and eb@29, interesting about the lambda.
eb, you’re right about the male-ness. It irks me when doing Everyman on Sundays. Who knows? Everyman may be a woman.
But what’s the alternative? The PC pronoun ‘they’, even if it’s non-sensical/grammatical in the context?
The man or woman in the street? The man will always come first … they don’t walk beside the gutter to protect us from horse poo any more, and I’m quite capable of opening my car door. 🙂 ]
Regarding the default pronoun (I read it may no longer be regarded as the default pronoun, but alternatives are just as jarring) I think English deserves a new and gender-neutral word.
https://uwm.edu/lgbtrc/support/gender-pronouns/
Having been bought up with the term ‘dressing gown’, we liked this clue. Alan’s USA friends banned it use – they could only countenance the use of the term ‘robe’. I can see why, as dressing gown does suggest a certain life style.
Iota was great- Cath’s a greek scholar so she both got and enjoyed the clue.
Peruvian? A bit of guess work was required for antipodians.
A good puzzle.
Very difficult from my pov. Needed wildcard dictionary to finish.
Was unable to parse several answers. Thanks to Peter O for the explations.
Favourite was 14 down.
Loved Bloc and Iota, and groaned (appreciatively) when I (eventually) got Instant – an excellent, concise clue.
Dress in 1a and let’s in 22a took the gloss off this for me. Didn’t get the Paddington reference but I had no idea he came from Peru. Not a fan of hosts = seas either. But this was above par for this setter.
Didn’t get 3d.
Rest, easy.
Rob.
We found this one harder than in recent weeks but that’s no bad thing. Wellington a favourite and most timely with that delightful piece made for the Jubilee; Dressing Down also a goodie. Thanks all!