Everyman 3,942/1 May

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Another pleasing Sunday puzzle from Everyman. Since it’s primarily aimed at newer and improving solvers, I have tried to give full explanations of the parsing, but if there is anything that is not clear, you know where to ask.

I found the SW quadrant most tricky to get started in, but once I had a couple there, the rest fell out nicely. There is the trademark ‘primarily’ clue in the last down solution, and collectors of the paired solutions will need to add MONEY-SPINNER and SUNDAY DINNER to their spreadsheet.

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 Goes for salad?
LEAVES
A dd.

4 Princess is embarrassed describing old boy in state of undress
DISROBED
A charade of DI’S for ‘Princess is’ and OB inserted into RED. The insertion indicator is ‘describing’.

9 Self-service meal? That’s a blow
BUFFET
A dd.

10 Police Chief has surrounded site of major battle
HASTINGS
An insertion of STING in HAS. STING as in Gordon Sumner, front man of the band Police, and ‘battle’ as in 1066 and all that.

11 Time for solver and setter’s announced
HOUR
A homophone (‘announced’) of OUR, which is crosswordspeak is ‘solver and setter’s’.

12 Everyman’s wanting praise, or otherwise he’ll initiate a performance
IMPRESARIO
A charade of I’M for ‘Everyman is’ and (PRAISE OR)* with ‘otherwise’ as the anagrind.

15 Source of cash – or ‘penny mines’, whimsically?
MONEY-SPINNER
(OR PENNY MINES)* with ‘whimisically’ as the anagrind.

18 Nuns drained bubbly to suppress yen for large meal
SUNDAY DINNER
An insertion of Y for ‘yen’ in (NUNS DRAINED)* The anagrind is ‘bubbly’ and the insertion indicator is ‘to suppress’.

21 Successful sorcerer’s American
PROSPEROUS
A charade of PROSPERO and US. PROSPERO is the protagonist – and magician – in The Tempest.

My high charms work,
And these, mine enemies, are all knit up
In their distractions. They now are in my power. (Act 3)

22 Sent back the French starters of offal, flageolets and a little horse
FOAL
I’m not surprised – sounds disgusting. The French used to eat serious amounts of horse meat, but horse butchers are a rarity now. It’s a reversal of LA for one of the French words for ‘the’ and O and F for the initial letters of ‘offal’ and ‘flageolets’.

24 Pursue hint about … about money
CONTINUE
An insertion of ON for ‘about’ and TIN for ‘money’ in CUE. The insertion indicator is the first ‘about’.

25 Green, unrefined
COMMON
A dd. I got fixated here with looking for a ‘naive’ definition of ‘green’, but it turns out it’s the village variety.

26 Revolutionary runs for Elizabeth I et al
REDHEADS
A charade of RED and HEADS. Elizabeth I was one of history’s famous auburn-locked people. The et al category would cover a few more, including me (but only 1-2% of the population worldwide). Be nice to us, please. We’re not part of a freckled, ginger freak show.

27 Romeo’s seen before these mountains?
SIERRA
In the phonetic alphabet, R for Romeo comes before S for Sierra.

Down

1 Finales of Figaro, Macbeth and Salome involved in Melba’s orchestration for operatic show
LA BOHÈME
An insertion of O, H and E for the final letters of ‘Figaro’, ‘Macbeth’ and ‘Salome’ in (MELBA)* The anagrind is ‘orchestration’ and the insertion indicator is ‘involved in’. La bohème is Puccini’s opera featuring Mimi and her friends.

2 Australian fellow’s far from tongue-tied – that’s rich
AFFLUENT
A charade of A, F and FLUENT.

3 ‘Somewhat unprecedented’ state of happiness
EDEN
Hidden in unprecEDENted. Not sure why we need the inverted commas here.

5 Stormy, raw and rainy out, to be sure
I WARRANT YOU
(RAW RAINY OUT)* with ‘stormy’ as the anagrind.

6 Stuffing Parrot is series where you see bird being cooked
ROTISSERIE
Hidden in parROT IS SERIEs.

7 In which this clue would be numbered 111th?
BINARY
My last one in, which I saw when I had all the crossers. A devious cd: 7, which is the clue’s number, when rendered in binary notation, would be 111.

8 Head’s journalist in the ascendant, tyrannical type
DESPOT
A reversal of TOPS and ED. The reversal indicator, since it’s a down clue, is ‘in the ascendant’.

13 Vehicle jars, having moved without clear direction
MOPED AROUND
A charade of MOPED and A ROUND for a slightly left-field definition of JARS. In a pub, you might offer to get the next ‘jars’ in if it were your turn to buy A ROUND.

14 For Spooner, online reward arriving unexpectedly
BY SURPRISE
A Spoonerism of CYBER PRIZE.

16 Adeptly performing The Queen and Traitor
INFORMER
A charade of IN FORM and ER for Her Maj.

17 Ran a silk works somewhere in the Indian Ocean
SRI LANKA
(RAN A SILK)* with ‘works’ as the anagrind.

19 Summary’s offered up: it keeps items separate
SPACER
A reversal of RECAPS.

20 Bird once keened: not half made sorrowful sounds
MOANED
A charade of MOA and [KEE]NED.

23 What’s primarily gigantic, open, barren and inhospitable?
GOBI
The trademark ‘primarily’ clue: the first letters of the third, fourth, fifth and seventh words of the clue, and a cad.

Many thanks to Everyman for this Sunday’s puzzle.

 

53 comments on “Everyman 3,942/1 May”

  1. Apologies for the late appearance of the blog. Muppetry on my part with use of the clock on the blogging software. Memo to self: am and pm are different things.

  2. Wot no bird links!? Super crossword and brilliant blog. JARS was a bit out there but good to give the grey matter something to ponder

    Cheers

  3. Thanks for the blog, no apology needed. When the blog is late it simply reminds us of how much we appreciate them and the effort involved.
    I thought this was spot on, I hope it was the same for newer solvers.
    BINARY was clue of the week.

  4. I never look for or see the pairs for solving.
    Didn’t know there was such a thing as CYBER PRIZE.
    Liked FOAL. I lived in Germany in the day, and remember the signs outside the butcher’s shop with a head of cow or a horse or whatever. I was a a butcher’s daughter and loved offal, but my dad wouldn’t touch it.
    BINARY also my LOI.

  5. Correction. HASTINGS was my LOI. Loved the police chief, although I’ve been told it’s not original.

  6. Thanks for the explanation of 10ac. The first connection that sprang to my mind between Hastings and the police was via Poirot. But of course Hastings was Poirot’s Dr. Watson and the policeman was Japp.
    Then again, Inspector Foyle was based in Hastings.

  7. Thanks Everyman and Pierre. 24a was my LOI though it took me until Weds. a.m. to parse it. :o(

  8. I enjoyed this one better than the last two though took me ages to get HASTINGS – I understand that the construction has been used before. but I have not seen it.

    FOI was LA BOHEME. My LOI was SIERRA which was annoying as the last time there was a clue using the phonic alphabet like this I got it straightaway.

    My favourite was MOPED AROUND. Also liked IMPRESSARIO, REDHEADS BINARY

    Thanks Everyman and Pierre

  9. Thanks Pierre, when the blog was missing I was worried that I’d forgotten. At least I’ve got this week’s ready…

  11. BINARY numbers have a number base of 2 instead of our usual 10 .
    This means 1 = 1 10 = 2 11 = 3 100 = 4 101 = 5 110 = 6 111 = 7.
    Clue 7 is 111 in BINARY

  12. I concur with the accolades above, but my favourite was the cleverly hidden ROTISSERIE, which brought to mind MP’s Dead Parrot Sketch. Thanks Pierre & Everyman.

  13. For HASTINGS I immediately thought of Superintendent Hastings from BBC’s Line of Duty!

  15. Good Everyman, although I didn’t really like the Spoonerism.

    I particularly enjoyed Sting as Police Chief, SUNDAY DINNER for the surface, ROTISSERIE as very well-hidden.

    Thanks Everyman and Pierre.

  16. Fell down on the SW corner, but some lovely clues in there, and BY SURPRISE got a massive groan.

  17. Tough puzzle. Not particularly enjoyable for me. I still miss the old Everyman puzzles which were a very pleasant part of my Sundays in the past.

    I did not solve HASTINGS – I wrongly assumed it had something to do with the TV series LoD.

    Also did not parse ‘around’ in 13d.

    Thanks, both.

  19. Thanks for the blog, I’m French and I made huge progress now that I understand how the clues work. 16d remains unclear. I get the ER part but could someone please explain where IN and FORM come from? Thanks

  20. Nathygirl49 @19 it is from “adeptly performing” , when we perform well , in sport for example , we are said to be IN FORM.

  21. ON FORM is much more common in BritE, I would think. Pity that the letters FORM were also in the clue. Everything else was top notch IMHO.

  22. It depends on the sentence construction. The race is tomorrow , X is on form and should do well.
    OR X is the in form runner and should do well in the race tomorrow.

  23. Many thanks Roz And GrahamP. I thought this might be the explanation but was’t sure about it.

  25. Gonzo @ 24

    Assuming ‘salad’ is the definition, how does ‘greens’ equate to ‘goes’?

  28. [If anyone really doesn’t like discussions of spoonerisms/homophones/phonetics, they might be advised to skip this post!]

    A couple of people have expressed discomfort with the ‘spoonerism’ cyber prize → BY SURPRISE. I think what may be contributing to that discomfort is this: when a three-syllable phrase is spoonerised, it’s conventional to swap over the initial consonants/consonant clusters of the two stressed syllables, eg

    blushing crow → CRUSHING BLOW
    dear as clay → CLEAR AS DAY
    slight leaper → LIGHT SLEEPER

    On that pattern, ‘by surprise’ would give picer brize, or pricer bize (if those words existed).
    ‘Cyber prize’ would give pryber size.

    The three syllables in BY SURPRISE are PRISE (major stress), BY (minor stress) and SUR (unstressed). I don’t think it’s plausible (even on the most generous view, which is appropriate for Crosswordland) that someone with the Rev’s propensity for verbal mix-ups would swap over the initial consonants of the unstressed and the minor stress syllables, while leaving the major stress syllable unaffected.

    That said, I know I defended set a date/data set recently, so I suppose I’m on shaky ground 😉

    In other news – nice to see the MOA at 20d, even if Pierre didn’t provide a bird link (as well as the ‘whole bird, nothing but the bird’ issue, I suppose a photo would have been difficult). I’m sure that when this puzzle eventually reaches New Zealand they’ll appreciate it. Quite something to imagine the sight of a bird over twice my height! I gather it’s also the name of a beer?

    Thanks Everyman & Pierre.

  29. EB@28 I was so smitten with the parrot clue I ignored the poor moa. I’m sure as you say my fellow Kiwis will make amends in a few weeks. [It’s thought that adaption to moa browsing accounts for the large proportion NZ native shrubs with divaricating branches. Some species of hebe, which i’ve learnt from this blog are now common in UK gardens, are examples.]

  32. For the Spoonerism , if we are starting with CYBER PRIZE to give the answer then it is only the first word that is really Spoonerised . I think of Spoonerisms as mixing two words, although I have no strong views. Apparently very few actual Spoonerisms can be attributed to the Rev reliably .

    Paul@30 very interesting snippet on the Hebe, we have several in our garden. I have seen a giant Moa skeleton in York museum, as MrEssexboy says they were twice human height. I did learn their about a range of species and apparently most were the size of turkeys, hence grazing on the Hebe.

    crosser@31 you are very welcome.

  34. Roz @32, my first thought for 14d was that the Spooner indicator only applies to the ‘online’, hence cyber → BY SUR, but then wouldn’t you need a separate homophone indicator for the rest of the wordplay, as ‘reward’ = PRIZE, not PRISE?

    If, as you suggest, Spooner = swapping initial sounds of 2 words, then BY SURPRISE → cyber prize works fine (though not in reverse). My slight quibble would be that real-life verbal slips (as presumably Rev Spooner was prone to, though as you say most attributions are apocryphal) follow a pattern which may differ from the ‘word boundary’ principle, depending on which syllables are accented.

    Paul @30 – now there’s a thought 😉
    Garden helper called lonely bird from the old days (9)

  35. [Alternatively – Spooner’s early-day milk deliverer could help with the gardening? (9) ]

  36. Late to this as I was out yesterday when the blog appeared. I completed the crossword on the Sunday, didn’t parse the Spoonerism, but Spoonerisms are not my favourite cluing methods.

    I’m with those who thought this challenging for an Everyman. I found it took me significantly longer than the cryptics of that week, and pretty near double that of this week’s Everyman (just under an hour vs half an hour). The only crossword of last week that also took me this long was Paul’s prize, and I’m not sure that the Everyman is meant to be at that level.

  37. [EB @35 – I thought I’d solved the clue @34, but @35 confused me entirely. It could be my dislike of Spoonerisms.]

  39. A bit tough for an Everyman. And I think 14 is not a good clue at all. A Spoonerism is only transposition of initial letters in my experience, it doesn’t involve homophones. So this should definitely have been indicated by one of the usual devices which show that the answer only sounds like the word used (‘heard’ or suchlike).

  40. essexboy @34 and 35. I don’t understand either of your clues. Morning cow/corning mow (not pronounced like grass-cutting)?

  41. Valentine@40 , for 34 we have lonely = LORN bird from,,,, = MOA , sounds like lawnmower.
    For 35 we have early day = MORN milk deliver = LOWER ( cow ) Spooner gives lawnmower.

  42. EB@34 I think of it as two words but not necessarily initial sounds, other syllables can be swapped.
    Anyway, much ado about nothing, the clue sort of works just about.
    There was a full Spoonerism Azed last summer , the blog should still be on here.
    Splendid clues @ 34/35 .

  43. [Thanks Roz @42, that’s very generous of you.
    Shanne @37, sorry to cause confusion, and Valentine @40, I owe an apology to you and all English speakers who actually pronounce their R’s. As Roz indicates, both clues rely on lorn/lawn being a homophonous pair, and the one @34 additionally requires ‘moa’ to sound like ‘mower’. If I were looking for some sort of weaselly excuse, I could say I was put up to it by fellow-non-rhoticist Paul in Tutukaka (NZ) @30 😉 Coming soon: an incredibly dodgy clue for MAUNA LOA.]

  44. Favourite was definitely REDHEADS, although I needed all the crossers to get it. I also got waylaid by DCI Hastings from Line of Duty and could not parse. Need to backdate my cultural references! I love a spooner, will look that one up Roz@42. Thanks Pierre and Everyman.

  46. Garson@44 it was May 2nd 2021 , you will need the preamble if you find it and it is not for the faint-hearted.

  47. Not bad. I thought the secondary sounding of 14D was ‘Buys a prize’ so I too queried its Spoonerific quality, but Cyber Prize is fine – acknowledging that Spoonerisms are not everyone’s cup of tea and there is a bit of doubt about how he actually said them anyway.

    Chief of Police was nice. Was new to me.

    LOI was 24A which I didn’t fully parse, but was a bit bored by then.

  48. Agree completely with Pierre’s opening sentence. Loved this puzzle. Found it to be hard work, but got it all out, and parsed all anwers, without any artificial aids. Rolled about laughing when I realised that “Police Chief” was Sting! All of us mathematicians got 7 Down instantly. I *knew* that there would be whinging about the Spoonerism! 🙂 Personally I thoght it was great.

    Thanks Everman.

    Gonzo@24: In addition to what Simon S@27 has correctly said,
    “greens” doesn’t fit (*any* of) the crossers!!!

  49. Another happy Saturday morning solve for me with some amusing clues, 12a being the best. I’m keen to know which other UK crosswords the NZ contingent tackle on a regular basis, and how they compare to the Everyman in respect of difficulty, consistency and quirkiness.

  51. Duane@49. For a year or so I’ve been doing the Guardian cryptic most weekdays. Although Everyman is supposed to be more accessible I don’t find most of them markedly harder or easier though every setter has their own style. Monday seems the only exception to start the week with an easier cryptic and also a Quiptic (which for me is often slower than the cryptic). The setters names are given so you’ll quickly find your favourites.

  52. Great crossword. Ashamed as a Kiwi to think of owl rather than moa for 20d and solved it as “howled” so couldn’t get 24a. Thanks Everyman and Pierre.

  53. Spread out our effort over severall days as earning a living too priority.
    Really good puzzle. Liked the variety with binary and Sierra. Lots of other highlights and only small quibble was Continue which was, in our humble, the only contrived clue.

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