Sunday, so walk the dog around Framlingham and Orford castles and then find the pub for beer, dog biscuits, beef scraps from the kitchen and the Everyman
All the usual suspects are here – rhyming pair, place name, primary letter clue & self reference, I’m probably not the greatest to judge how difficult this was but certainly there’s some unusual clues. I don’t think this a bad thing – otherwise it’s all solving by rote and mechanical
We walked round this on the top of the wall of Framlingham castle, not great if you have a fear of heights… There’s an Ed Sheeran song, Castle On The Hill, this is it.
And Orford, just the central keep survives today but you can go to all parts, if you’re fit enough. Anyway on with the blog, thanks Everyman.
No traces of H(usband) or N(ephew) in (h)IBER(n)IA
6 slices of meaning hidden in triPE SET Alongside. Old bread meaning their pre-Euro currency
As a spoonerism it could be A SPICER’S NIGH
RED – scarlet & DWARFS – towers over – I’m 6’3″, I dwarf my 5’0″ wife
TOO – overly & F – loud & A(merican) all reversed
L – student in the city MANILA
They run away – split – to wed, somewhat the opposite of split
Sounds like SOUP’S ON, misspelling 1D didn’t help on this one…
E(arl) & RAT in RUM
A.M. – morning & GOD all reversed
DOC – doctor, quack & MARAUD* wildly
Not a word I often use but there’s several * – asterisks in the clue
A delirious BRIDES*
D(utch) removed from the VEL(d)T all in SE
A construction of [BEGET GRAND URBAN]* Solving 15 across was held up for a while as I’d actually written BERG not BURG in my grid
Hidden in – filled by polystyRENE WALl
An eccentric CARTESIAN*, used to regularly see Everyman one word anagrams
An SPEAR of asparagus with the S dropping to the end
Somewhat unusual clue this, All the E(nergy)s removed from S(ee) OP(e)RA (e)NO
Sounds like THE HOLME’S TRAIT
On the “Last Night of the Proms” it’s a patriotic song fest
Everyman’s initial letter clue
These are examples of exercise
A SOD being a lump of earth & an unpleasant person
BOASTER with the B downgraded to C
RE – about & W(hiskey) in DINE
ME – Everyman & fourth letter of (rou)N(ds) with a bit of A(ngst) inserted
READS* about. Not the most obvious meaning of FACE, facing ones fears is the closest I get
Well, I found it quite tough – a DNF, in fact. I missed AFOOT and ELOPERS. Then there is ASTERISKING – really? I entered that quite reluctantly. I’ll say no more, except thanks to Everyman and flashling.
I thought the clue for the BRANDENBURG GATE was quite neat, as was the clue for AFOOT (playing as it does on that “ugly American” stereotype that I try so hard to be a counterexample for when I’m abroad). On the other hand, I thought ASTERISKING was the oddest word I’d seen in a good long time.
[Flashling, Berg is German for mountain, and Burg is German for (inter alia) castle, which doesn’t always help you pick the right one, but might in this instance.]
[Aside that, having typed it out, I now realize is irrelevant but I’m leaving it here anyway: The state out of which modern Germany evolved was the margravate of Brandenburg (essentially the region around Berlin); they later took the title King of Prussia–far to the east of the true heart of their holdings–because at the time you couldn’t be a king of anything inside the Holy Roman Empire, and Prussia was their only candidate when they wanted to be crowned king of something. For the same reason, the Austrian emperors were archdukes of Austria and kings of Hungary. Even after Willhelm I declared himself Kaiser, they were careful to call him the German Emperor rather than the Emperor of Germany, even though the HRE had been dissolved by Napoleon.]
im new to cryptics, and am not as familiar with all the (obtuse) anagram indictors, i spent so long trying to find an anagram of THREE OF MASH for 22 across… breathed a sigh of relief when i thought of ASTERISKING instead… then immediately after the sigh, felt kind of hmmm about the word… wasnt sure it was defs correct until i had enough overlaps
i liked the clues for ELOPERS and COASTER tho
I found this brutal, and still have most of the lights unoccupied on the right. Hopefully today’s will be more tractable for recent Quiptic graduates.
ASTERISKING made me smile when I finally got it.
Ji222@2: Some solvers have lists of anagrinds, but I think it better to just ask yourself “Could eg trolleyed/jolted/knitted/plain be one?” Obviously plain could not.
I thought this on the tougher end of Everyman, but I liked it.
Thanks both.
ji1222@3. Everyman uses anagram indicators which fit the surface story, and they may not be immediately familiar, but you’ll get used to looking out for them. This one has about, (which is fairly standard in cryptics), and wildly, and eccentric, which I’d pay, but deliriously maybe a step too far, although it does mean “wild”.
BRANDENBURG GATE is a reverse clue, so it’s not indicated with an anagram indicator, but you have to work out in reverse that’s what you would need to do to solve this clue. (Having said that, not all reverse clues are anagrams, they could be a reversal, or something else.)
Deebster@4. I can’t respond as we’re not allowed to comment on live puzzles. Hope to see you here again next week.
Thanks flashling for your blog and your traveller’s tales and pics. Makes me envious. If only I could do the walking involved these days. Did Jenny go with you? The UK seems to be very dog friendly.
EXERCISES was a bit of a stretch. First you have to be familiar with that sense of troubles/exercises (the mind or what have you), and I don’t consider yoga and tai chi as exercises, but more of a spiritual/mental discipline with the physical aspect as one pathway to enlightenment.
AS NICE AS PIE could have been more simply clued as “Spooner tells us one season’s approaching. Delightful!” (It would have also avoided the rhotic spicer’s . )
DEBRIS and ELOPING made me laugh.
13, across – why is a student “L”?
I’m generally finding these a lot harder in recent months. I only managed about 2/3 of this!
Not for beginners. Not very enjoyable – I found some of the surfaces very clunky and hard to read, eg 6d.
I did not parse:
14ac ELOPERS – which I suspected was a cd
5d PEARS = fruit
9d PROM= school leavers’ event. Ah, I get it now – I remember attending a concert similar to the Proms in Singapore about 15 years ago. The last song they played was Rule Britannia which drew gasps, groans and eyerolls from many in the audience. I think it was a bad ending to what had been a great concert.
Thanks for the nics pic, flashling!
patmerkins@8
In the UK and Australia (and maybe some other countries?) learner drivers have to display L plates on the car they are driving.
@patmerkins: Think of a ‘student’ driver with L plates
Found all reasonable this week
I solved this, but for me we’re back to alternating Quiptic-ish* level and Cryptic level. This was the pattern last year for a while. This was cryptic level.
I spent ages working out why THE HOME STRAIGHT worked, not sure if I bothered with AS NICE AS PIE. ASTERISKING bothered me less as we had so many clues based on punctuation marks a while back.
Those castles look amazing. Thank you to Everyman and flashling.
*Quiptic -ish as they vary too.
Pedants’ corner: the trait belonging to Holmes would Holmes’s, not Holmes’ (and certainly not Holme’s, as you have it, flashling!)
Whereas this week, I have completed no. 4075 in under an hour, haha.
Thanks @heracles and @michelle
Not a fan of spoonerisms as they rarely make sense and the one here is no different. ASTERISKING is stretching things a bit. Is the plural of dwarf not ‘dwarves’?
Slightly more challenging than normal I agree but I managed to finish it eventually except for 14a. Good to be stretched a bit and very satisfying to very nearly finish it! Many thanks Everyman and Flashing.
@Peter 8
My Chambers has for dwarf:
noun (pl dwarfs or (rare) dwarves)
Enjoyed this week’s puzzle, nice mixture with some clues which came out quickly and some which made me think for quite a while.
@Adrianw
Chambers is one thing but Tolkien quite another! 🙂
I got suckered into spending far too long finding a word that meant create ASH but the asterisk penny finally dropped. Great clue
I thought SODS was a verb in the wordplay for 15?
Cheers E&F
I found this very tough, and only finished it on Friday after several visits. THE HOME STRAIGHT was my penultimate entry – I always find homophones challenging and it was compounded on this occasion by lack of familiarity with the phrase. I’ve definitely heard it before, but it took a long time to surface. One of those that, in retrospect, seems obvious. Having that in place gave me AFOOT as my loi, and it then took me a while to parse – I spent ages trying yo find a definition for “toof” before the penny dropped.
I needed the blog for the parsing of AS NICE AS PIE – and even with that I find it a bit of a stretch.
On the other hand, I though SOPRANO was a great clue (when I saw it), and ASTERISKING made me laugh – although I did have to check that it really was a word.
Thanks to Everyman and flashling.
A nice work out, on the tough side for an Everyman. I particularly liked ASTERISKING and THE HOME STRAIGHT.
Thanks Everyman and flashling
(ps Shouldn’t it be IBERIA highlighted as the place name, Manila having a different spelling?)
This wasn’t very kind to beginners: many a clue was subject to reverse engineering from the guessed answer and quite tough (BRANDENBURG GATE, PEARS, ELOPERS, EXERCISES, ASTERISKING, THE HOME STRAIGHT…) THE HOME STRAIGHT fell as LOI on Tuesday evening, with a feeling that this should be it, even if it’s not “the Holmes’s trait” (thank you, muffin@12). SOPRANO was great, though.
[I’d rather count IBERIA as place name, since MANILA isn’t in the grid.]
Thank you, Everyman and flashling
Muffin@12 “The Holmes trait” is fine without an apostrophe, as in “the Motown sound” or “the Picasso technique”.
I liked the puzzle and don’t remember any real quibbles. ASTERISKING may be ugly but it seems a perfectly valid English word to me. THE HOME STRAIGHT works fine, taking Holmes as an adjective; it’s common enough to use a person’s name in this way e.g. ‘the Sunak premiership’ – no need for any apostrophe. (Judge@23 – you got there before me!)
Thanks flashling and Everyman.
Judge @23 and beaulieu @24
Good point. Holme’s is definitely wrong, though!
The spoonerism in 8a wasn’t obvious to me ,even after I got the answer from the down letters. I was trying to find a 2 4 2 3 combination. So I need to learn a spoonerism doesn’t have to follow the same combination. I don’t find spoonerisms easy at the best of times. And I really struggled with this Everyman as a relative beginner.
Loved the photos Flashing. We went to Framlingham castle for the first time in October on our way to Dunwich and Minsmere. Loved it. On our way back went to Sutton Hoo and were impressed with the new viewing tower over the mounds – recommended for your next sortie into Suffolk!
Yes I’m aware of the rogue apostrophe etc perhaps I ought to proofread in future…
@Holly 26 we know Dunwich & Sutton Hoo well, Minsmere is trickier with the dog as it’s a bird sanctuary.
I always leave these until the week after to have the help of the check button. I needed several of them with this but got there eventually, enjoyed it a lot, found it a lot more amenable than todays quiptic. Thanks for the blog flashling.
I heard 8ac as A SPICE IS NIGH. Not perhaps as precise a homophone but it fits the construction a little better?
I agree with Judge@23, I heard 7dn as THE HOLMES TRAIT, with the HOLMES as an adjective. However I acknowledge the clue shows it as a possessive.
These days Everyman seems to attract a fair amount of criticism for being too difficult for beginners, and as someone who’s solved many hundreds of his puzzles over the last 7 years or so I’m inclined to agree. However we each have our own store of GK and lateral thinking skills that inevitably mean any given puzzle can be a doddle for some and a stinker for others. I have the impression that Everyman (Alan Connor) doesn’t have a crossword editor to provide some constructive feedback, which is perhaps unfortunate?
Re Peter, @15:
In Snow White etc, “dwarves” perhaps. But in astronomy (as in the red dwarfs here) it’s always “dwarfs” in my experience, never “dwarves”.
Patmerkins@13. Don’t know if you’re new to this forum, but one of the rules is that you don’t comment on Everyman until the following week when the solution is available in the newspaper. Thanks
It’s just ‘the Holmes trait’ isn’t it? That equals ‘Sherlock’s defining characteristic’ well enough for me.
As to declining Everyman, if that is possible, Mr Connor IS the editor, if the Everyman falls under the jurisdiction of The Guardian puzzles editor, which seems logical. I note there have been more negative comments about the Everyman brand since Mr C took over the editorship of Guardian puzzles in general. I imagine there is much to do in that role. Time to pass on the Everyman baton perhaps.
It’s so interesting to see how differently we respond to the crosswords. I actually found this one pretty easy, while I have battled almost fruitlessly with ones that most people find a breeze. I usually assume it’s about the mindset of the different setters, but given that the same person sets all the Everymans I am mystified.
I enjoyed this although the Spoonerism was a bit forced.
Enjoyed the Holmes and Soupçon puns.
Flashling, Orford castle is actually fascinating. It was advanced for its time with clever if rudimentary plumbing and central heating employed in its design. And the nearby pub serves excellent seafood, or at least it used to, together with Adnams Ales.
Belated Happy New Year all.
Got this one out, with *extensive* use of wildcard dictionaries. Everyman has become so tough that I no long considert the use of wildcard dictionaries to be cheating. Was not at all sure of “afoot” — seemed to be the only thing that would fit. Could not parse “pears”, but again …
Happy New Year to you all. I agree with Rolfe. Manilla with two L’s has a totally different meaning which doesn’t seem to be indicated. I didn’t like ASTERISKING. I did get SODS as my last one – thought it was a bit rude. Liked RED DWARFS, ELOPERS and DOCUDRAMA.
A vey good workout.
Elopers was a leap to far for us and soupcon was totally unreachable for a parttime cook like Alan.
Liked the rest.