The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3995.
From what I remember of last week’s Everyman, it was harder than usual – and this one is on the other side. The grid highlights the usual Everyman trademarks – the rhyming pair, the self reference, the ‘primarily’ clue and the one word anagram (I did not get round to highlighting the second such, at 1D).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | GRASPS |
Clutches Greek serpents (6)
|
| A charade of GR (‘Greek’) plus ASPS (‘serpents’). | ||
| 4 | LODESTAR |
Sailor’s assistant we’re told brings on cargo of bitumen (8)
|
| Sounds like (‘we’re told’) LOADS (‘brings on cargo’) plus TAR (‘bitumen’), for a star, particularly Polaris, used by sailors as a navigational aid. | ||
| 9 | REIGNS |
Holds sway: good to assume means of control (6)
|
| An envelope (‘to assume’) of G (‘good’) in REINS (‘means of control’). | ||
| 10 | IMPURELY |
Everyman’s entirely in vulgar fashion (8)
|
| A charade of I’M (‘Everyman’s’) plus PURELY (‘entirely’). | ||
| 12 | HANDFULS |
Nuisances in small numbers (8)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 13 | TASSEL |
Some señoritas selected dangling ornamentation (6)
|
| A hidden answer (‘some’) in ‘señoriTAS SELected’). | ||
| 15 | IMPERSONATED |
Predominates, bizarrely, having taken off (12)
|
| An anagram (‘bizarrely’) of ‘predominates’. I had to check letter by letter to ensure it is an anagram. | ||
| 18 | ADRENAL GLAND |
Arrangement of Elgar – and ‘Land…’ is what’ll get your heart racing (7,5)
|
| … of hope and glory. An anagram (‘arrangement’) of ‘Elgar and Land’. | ||
| 21 | IBEXES |
One finding bees surrounding 10 goats (6)
|
| An envelope (‘surrounding’) of X (Roman numeral, ’10’) in I (Roman numeral again, or pronoun, ‘one’) plus ‘bees’. | ||
| 22 | SIDESTEP |
Avoid sun, despite being prepared (8)
|
| An anagram (‘being prepared’) of S (‘sun’) plus ‘despite’. | ||
| 24 | HEADSHOT |
Those easily angered exchanging words in a posed photograph (8)
|
| HOTHEADS (‘those easily angered’) ‘exchanging words’. | ||
| 25 | ISTHMI |
Incredibly slender terrains helping mainlands interconnect, primarily? (6)
|
| The ‘primarily clue: first letters (‘primarily’) of ‘Incredibly Slender Terrains Helping Mainlands Interconnect’, &lit. | ||
| 26 | PAKISTAN |
Baked spanakopita OAP strangely rejected in Commonwealth country (8)
|
| An anagram (‘baked’) of ‘spanak[op]it[a]’ minus OPA, an anagram (‘strangely’) of ‘OAP’ – which stands for old age pensioner, by the way. | ||
| 27 | ASKS IN |
Welcomes a fleece to clothe son (4,2)
|
| An envelope (‘to clothe’) of S (‘son’) in ‘a’ plus SKIN (‘fleece’). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | GERSHWIN |
Whingers roasted composer (8)
|
| An anagram (‘roasted’) of ‘whingers’. | ||
| 2 | AYIA NAPA |
After a year, one has a rest: a Cypriot resort (4,4)
|
| A charade of ‘a’ plus Y (‘year’) plus I (‘one’) plus NAP (‘rest’) plus ‘a’. Five particles for eight letters! | ||
| 3 | PINAFORE DRESSES |
Fear depression’s bad habits (8,7)
|
| An anagram (‘bad’) of ‘fear depressions’. | ||
| 5 | OHMS |
Cockney detective’s measured resistance (4)
|
| Sounds like a Cockney pronunciation of (Sherlock) HOLMES. | ||
| 6 | EDUCATED GUESSES |
Train with Dutch boarders losing time before El Salvador? They’re not certain (8,7)
|
| A charade of |
||
| 7 | THEIST |
Tense hold-up, I believe (6)
|
| A charade of T (‘tense’) plus HEIST (‘hold-up’). | ||
| 8 | ROYALS |
Monarch and kin greatly amuse soldiers (when sent up) (6)
|
| A reversal (‘when sent up’ in a down light) of SLAY (‘greatly amuse’) plus OR (other ranks, ‘soldiers’). | ||
| 11 | BLOOMER |
Crusty loaf? That’s a mistake (7)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 14 | BAVARIA |
Bass and violin initially introducing song in a state (7)
|
| A charade of B A V (‘Bass And Violin initially’) plus ARIA (‘song’). | ||
| 16 | CAPTCHAS |
Captain Charles twice briefly showing security measures (8)
|
| Abbreviations of both words (‘twice’) CAPT (‘captain’) and CHAS (‘Charles’). For the definition, see Wikipedia. | ||
| 17 | ADOPTION |
Support commercial possibility (8)
|
| A charade of AD (‘commercial’) plus OPTION (‘possibility’). | ||
| 19 | BISHOP |
Part of nightclub is hoppin’, man! (6)
|
| A hidden answer (‘part of’) in ‘nightcluB IS HOPpin’, for the chess piece. | ||
| 20 | REMARK |
Once again evaluate a comment (6)
|
| Double definition, the first as RE-MARK. | ||
| 23 | NOVA |
Shakespeare’s river’s rising: a stellar sight (4)
|
| A reversal (‘rising’ in a down light) of AVON (‘Shakespeare’s river’ – the Bard of Avon). |
NHO the Cypriot resort but managed to piece it together (many pieces, as PeterO says) with the help of crossers. My memory is that this did go in pretty smoothly. Thanks, Everyman and PeterO.
Agree PeterO and TassieTim@1 re AYIA NAPA. I wondered if it was more difficult for non-European residents (like me), who didn’t know the place and couldn’t see the word pattern from crossers. I usually find 2 word answers, especially short ones, not too difficult. Perhaps that was in Everyman’s mind and he amped up the challenge accordingly.
HEADSHOT was clever. I really liked the wordplay indicator ”exchanging words” to swap the 2 components, and so apt for the surface. Enjoyed the surface and definition in ADRENAL GLAND. ADOPTION was economical, the whole clue almost reading like the definition.
Im afraid I had to Google Cypriot resorts. Couldnt parse 6D but makes perfect sense now. (although I think a spelling mistake in the blog). On the whole I thought this was challenging but fair and I enjoyed it. My only quibble is the definition of “bishop” as man. Female bishops are a thing, and I dont get the chess reference.
RayT@3 it’s just that chess pieces, which include two bishops per player, are (still) referred to as men. A fun solve. Like PM@2 I was chuffed by the “exchanging words” Thanks PeterO & Everyman.
No idea that Bloomer has either of those meanings. Are they particularly UK meanings?
Eldaddio@5 Yes, well that’s the only place I’ve heard them. The loaf is still a current term, the mistake is a little archaic now, but around in my lifetime.
I enjoyed this, I thought it on a par with the previous week, a little harder than the usual Monday puzzles. I found this weeks a little easier, finishing with a harder but magnificient clue at 26a.
Thanks for the blog, well I thought this was a bit trickier than usual and not sure I would have liked it when I was learning cryptics.
I agree with PDM@2 and Paul@4 for HEADSHOT , very impressive clue.
Anagrams for Jay with IMPERSONATED and GERSHWIN .
LODESTAR followed Polaris in the Saturday puzzle , it must come from lodestone which the Vikings used. Polaris is pretty close to true North for now but will lose this position to Deneb eventually, it is quite far from magnetic North.
Everyman has excelled this week with a 12 letter single word anagram PREDOMINATES/IMPERSONATED. It is the longest on my list of such things. Dare we hope for 13?
“Señoritas” (13a) previously appeared in a clue as the anagram for NOTARISES.
Thanks to Everyman and PeterO
I found this (and last week’s) puzzle more difficult than previous puzzles and the last handful of answers took ages – and I incorrectly bunged in an unparsed “royale” for 8d.
Liked IBEXES, EDUCATED GUESSES, AYIA NAPA (which I did remember to my surprise) BAVARIA
Thanks Everyman and PeterO
Forgot to say CAPTCHAS is not in my Chambers93 and I have never heard the term but the clue was fair.
CAPTCHAS were only invented in the 21st century as a mechanism that a bot – = computer robot – or AI has not impersonated a human. The most common is the top one in
https://www.iihglobal.com/blog/mostly-used-captcha-examples/
Other examples are there. Thank you Everyman and PeterO.
I’m with PeterO finding this puzzle a quicker solve than the previous crossword.
Any follow ons? I can see a possible for this week.
Found this quite tough, got stuck about halfway through then managed to complete it.
I was unsure how to parse 4ac which I now see I wrongly entered as POLESTAR def = sailor’s assistant / POLES = were told brings on cargo? + TAR = bitumen.
New for me: AYIA NAPA, tourist resort in Cypris (thanks, google).
Thanks, both.
On a side note, I’m disappointed that the anagram helper seems to have disappeared from Guardian crosswords. I found that a really nice feature
Must have been a glitch, it has returned!
[Rebecca@14, has that just happened? I hadn’t noticed until I read your note and checked, but I always luse them so I’m sure I would have noticed when doing today’s Everyman earlier. Without a pen and paper handy, I rely on it for those long anagrams.]
Definitely harder than usual for me. Not happy about 26a. Why do the removed letters also
have to be an anagram?
Paul @16 – it had disappeared completely (from all crosswords) when I first looked this morning around 8, but magically reappeared by about 0830! I too rely on it in place of a pen and paper!
GrahamP@17: the convention, I’m pretty sure, is that when you subtract letters from a longer word and then form an angram of what you have left, the letters subtracted (which will be indicated by something like OAP), if not in the longer word in the order O-A-P, must themselves be anagrammed to make the clue sound. Everyman is only obeying Ximenes and others.
Roz @7, thanks for resolving my magnetic North query from yesterday. I noticed the Polaris/LODESTAR connection with Everyman; curiously, we also had another NOVA recently – albeit a SUPERNOVA – in Thursday’s Imogen. Both clues feature a reversal of AVON, but in Imogen’s case it was the cosmetics salesperson, not the river.
[For those interested in linguistic curiosities, AYIA NAPA should really be romanised as AGIA NAPA – there’s a gamma in the Greek. Almost everyone uses AYIA, and it’s a better indication of how to say it, but the AGIA spelling tells you there’s a connection with HAGIA Sophia in Istanbul (and other places).
The ayia/agia/hagia bit means ‘holy’ or ‘saint’, and is the basis for hagiography and hagiolatry. The NAPA is thought to derive from Ancient Greek νάπη meaning wooded valley. Nothing to do with the Napa Valley in California, as far as I know, or indeed with napa in Finnish, which takes us back to the North Pole (I think?? – Anna will know.)]
Shanne @12, re follow-ons, I saw pinafore DRESSes after reDRESS, but as Roz hinted at last week it’s a bit iffy.
MrEssexboy@22 someone said a download was a copy so my iffy one was IMPERSONATED , more on this next week . The magnetic pole is very erratic, varying in strength and wandering around, occasionally it flips over . At the moment we actually have a South magnetic pole in the North.
Wil@19 good explanation and I agree with your points but I would say most setters do not do this properly, I think they should.
Failed on CAPTCHAS, but can’t quibble with the clueing. I found this one tougher, but as previously mentioned I’ve been on a bit of a slump recently. HEADSHOT and SIDESTEP were my favourites.
Roz @23 but then we’ve had that since before humans evolved in any modern sense so surely the nomenclature all follows from mapping and calling one direction north, then the discovery of lodestones and calling the “north” end of them the one which points north i.e. it is “north-seeking”. Obviously it only points north because it is attracted to the opposite magnetic pole, meaning that (as you say) there is a south magnetic pole under the arctic (approximately – it’s been moving rather rapidly recently) but the knowledge of the Earth’s magnetic field (in the West at least) was not really systematised until the 16th century.
In other words, it’s all a very understandable mistake that was millennia in the making.
I thought this was a bit more straightforward than last week’s one.
I liked the bad habits to give PINAFORE DRESSES and the ROYALS being sent up.
Thanks Everyman and PeterO.
I’d never heard of AYIA NAPA, but I did remember from past trips to Greece that AYIA means “saint” (or more generally “holy”, as essexboy @11 points out), which helped. I knew about BLOOMER as a mistake but not as a loaf. It took me an embarrassingly long time to get LODESTAR — I got stuck on “coal” rather than “tar” for “bitumen” — but before that things went along reasonably smoothly.
I agree with Roz@7. Trickier than usual, and15a IMPERSONATED was an excellent one-word anagram.
24a HEADSHOT was the best of a number of good clues; “exchanging words” was clever and apposite, in a great surface which triggered a memory. My parents were directing a G&S production (one was the music director the other the stage director) and were engaged in a bitter argument over the blocking when they were asked to pose for a publicity photo – the daggers were visible, and the battle resumed as soon as the camera clicked. The production, incidentally, was a great success and they basked together in the glory.
Thanks, Everyman for the fun (and the memory), and PeterO for the excellent blog.
I’m also in the camp of finding this trickier than normal.
Didn’t get IMPURELY or THEIST and I’m not a big fan of either clue (particularly IMPURELY) now that I’ve seen the solutions.
Always enjoyable though!
Wasn’t easy for those below the equator.
Bloomer – get out of here, that’s a silly expression for underwear.
Who goes to Cyprus for holidays.
Maybe Jonny Bairstow as he seems to like going walkabout.
Alan and Cath @31
“Auntie’s showing her bloomers”
Translation: The BBC makes another mistake.