The interactive version of this puzzle may be found at https://observer.co.uk/puzzles/everyman/article/everyman-no-4115 and the pdf at https://cdn.observer.co.uk/media/documents/obs.everyman.20250831.pdf.
Like last week’s Everyman, I thought this was slightly unusual, and also a notch harder.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DAMASCUS |
Camus lost in sad – on reflection – Arabian metropolis (8)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of MASCU, an anagram (‘lost’) of ‘Camus’ in DAS, a reversal (‘on reflection’) of ‘sad’. | ||
| 5 | CAMPUS |
Where students learn waters of Oxbridge matter (6)
|
| A charade of CAM (‘waters of Oxbridge’ – I do not know how the ‘Ox’ got in there; it is the river of Cambridge – perhaps Everyman thought that using Cambridge in the clue would be too broad a hint) plus PUS (‘matter’). | ||
| 9 | COMPLAIN |
Committee intend to sustain Everyman’s gripe (8)
|
| An envelope (to sustain’) of I (‘Everyman’) in COM (‘committee’) plus PLAN (‘intend’). The apostrophe s would be ‘is’, linking wordplay to definition. | ||
| 10 | NASSAU |
Saunas in resort in Bahamian port (6)
|
| An anagram (‘in re-sort’) of ‘saunas’, for the Islamds’ capital. | ||
| 12 | TAKES THE LEAD |
Goes ahead, acts like church-roof thief (5,3,4)
|
| Definition and literal interpretation, with ‘lead’ as the heavy metal which was often used as a waterproofing sheet in church roofs. | ||
| 15 | HOOK AND EYE |
As means of connection, how we hear Pan refer to self, nemesis (4,3,3)
|
| Definition and soundalike: (Captain) HOOK AND I (‘how we hear Pan refer to self, nemesis’ – Peter Pan). | ||
| 17 | POOL |
Circle back finding somewhere to swim (4)
|
| A reversal (‘back’) of LOOP (‘circle’). | ||
| 19 | ERGO |
So, um: scram! (4)
|
| A charade of ER (‘um’) plus GO (‘scram’). | ||
| 20 | T-BONE STEAK |
Unexpectedly not – not finishing – skate and beef, hearty meal (1-4,5)
|
| An anagram (‘unexpectedly’) of ‘not’ plus ‘skat[e]’ plus ‘bee[f], with the second and third words minus their last letters (‘not finishing’). | ||
| 21 | PRESSING NEED |
Urgent prerequisite characteristic of crumpled trousers (8,4)
|
| Definition and literal interpretation. | ||
| 26 | EEYORE |
Primarily existentialist equine youngsters often read excitedly? (6)
|
| First letters (‘primarily’) of the other words of the clue, with &lit reference to the A A Milne character. | ||
| 27 | ACHILLES |
I have one flaw: portions of spinach I’ll eschew (8)
|
| A hidden answer (‘portions of’) in ‘spinACH I‘LL ESchew’. ACHILLES’ flaw was his heel. | ||
| 28 | ENDING |
Conclusion: effing and blinding always ____ (6)
|
| ‘effinG‘ and ‘blindinG‘ both END IN G. | ||
| 29 | PEEK-A-BOO |
I see you go with curtailed sound of explosion (4-1-3)
|
| A charade of PEE (‘go’) plus KABOO[m] (‘sound of explosion’) minus its last letter (‘curtailed’). ‘go with’ also meshes with the definition. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DOCK |
What clipper may do in marina (4)
|
| A sort of double definition run together: “clipper’ as a sailing ship may DOCK in a marina, and ‘clipper’ as shears, say, may DOCK in the sense of cutting short an animal’s tail. | ||
| 2 | MUMM |
You’d like to perform this? Say no more (4)
|
| Cryptic definition; to act as a mummer in a dumb show. | ||
| 3 | SULTANAS |
Dried fruit and mixed nuts, alas (8)
|
| An anagram (‘mixed’) of ‘nuts alas’. | ||
| 4 | UNITE |
Connect some scattergun items (5)
|
| A hidden answer (‘some’) in ‘scattergUN ITEms’. | ||
| 6 | ABASE |
Humiliate American MAGA enthusiasts? (5)
|
| A charade of A (‘American’) plus BASE (‘MAGA enthisiasts’). | ||
| 7 | PASSED OVER |
Ignored brown bread (6,4)
|
| Double definition, the second being rhyming slang for dead. | ||
| 8 | SOUNDALIKE |
They’re there, each being this (10)
|
| Cryptic definition, noting that ‘they’re’ and ‘there’ are generally pronounced somewhat similarly. | ||
| 11 | STAY ON |
Tarry, lad, clutching Scottish flower (4,2)
|
| An envelope (‘clutching’) of TAY (‘Scottish flower’: ‘flower’ as something that flows, a river) in SON (‘lad’). | ||
| 13 | THREE-PIECE |
Like a suit(e)? (5-5)
|
| THREE-PIECE ‘suit’ – jacket, trousers and waistcoat; THREE-PIECE suite – sofa and two armchairs. | ||
| 14 | GOGGLE-EYED |
Seemingly deranged, rambling elegy regularly rebuffed good egg (6-4)
|
| An anagram (‘rambling’) of ‘elegy’ plus OD (‘regularly rebuffed gOoD‘ – ‘rebuffed’ is superfluous, but doed no harm) plus ‘egg’. I think GOGGLE-EYED indicates astonishment, which could be ‘deranged’ in the sense of confused – or mentally challenged if there were no real cause for the astonishment. | ||
| 16 | DEBUNK |
Cut down to size – and kick out of bed? (6)
|
| Double definition, neither being very precise: to DEBUNK usually means to expose as false, but it can also be used in the sense of to ridicule an exaggerated claim, which is close enough for the first definition; and the second is a coinage DE-BUNK. | ||
| 18 | ASTERISK |
Member of B*Witched? (8)
|
| Call it a cryptic definition, the only excuse being that B*Witched is an Irish girl group. | ||
| 22 | SIREN |
Produce number but don’t listen to her song (5)
|
| A charade of SIRE (‘produce’ offspring) plus N (‘number’). | ||
| 23 | NICHE |
S Connery’s female relative declared ‘obscure’ (5)
|
| I suppose this is intended as S Connery’s (why the initial S?) pronunciation of NIECE (‘female relative’). | ||
| 24 | SLOB |
Lout throws up, repelling wife (4)
|
| A reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of BO[w]LS (‘throws’ – not cricket!) minus the W (‘repelling wife’). | ||
| 25 | ESSO |
Oil company saving skin in masterclass? (4)
|
| [l]ESSO[n] (‘masterclass’) minus its outer letters (‘saving skin’). |
I had MIME for 2 d
Liked TAKES THE LEAD
I agree that this was a bit more difficult than expected for Everyman
Thanks Everyman and PeterO
Thanks PeterO. I needed your help with MUMM, and the info about the band B(e)witched. I thought it was referring to the old American television series.
Also neither of the senses of THREE-PIECE suit and suite came to mind. Maybe more common in a UK setting.
I don’t get base for MAGA enthusiasts. I note the question mark. Is that referring to Trump’s supporters, or Everyman’s dig at what he thinks of them?
HOOK-AND-EYE and EEYORE both needed literary GK, especially of children’s lit, but I was a child of that era, and fortunately still remember. I’m not convinced that EEYORE is adequately defined though.
Another with MIME for 2D. I think both answers are valid so it would be interesting to find out which was intended.
Also another who thought this was both harder than usual and less precise than I have come to expect from Everyman.
@PeterO I think you can also colour code 1A as a geographical definition?
Thanks to Everyman & PeterO
And the other Everyman regulars are the geographical DAMASCUS, (as GIS said@3) and the character clue ASTERISK.
Was a wake-up.to the S Connery clue from previous cryptics. Looked it up then and there are various theories as to how that came about. My take on why the S Connery is that it’s a pointer to how Sean Connery pronounces his esses.
Is there a thing going on with THREE PIECE? We have HOOK AND EYE, PEEK-A-BOO and T-BONE STEAK (and TAKE THE LEAD and a few others with 3 syllables, but could be just coincidence).
My picks today were ENDING and PASSED OVER.
Agree with paddymelon@4 on the S in the NICHE clue.
THREE-PIECE
Couldn’t see any other layer than what the blog says.
MUMM/MIME
I had MIME like others here.
Liked DOCK and TAKES THE LEAD
Thanks to Everyman & PeterO
And to spell out a little more S Connery. The pronunciation of Sean begins with sh.
I had MIME too. Where can you find the published answers?
PDM @ 6: that’s a beautiful explanation for the ‘S’ in the Connery clue – I’m sure you’re right! On the MAGA base: Trump’s core supporters are often referred to in this way, and I suppose the question mark is an acknowledgment that other sorts of base exist.
I also had mime, but in the clue it says “you’d like” and people often make the sound mumm when they like something.
Was Paul asked to do this Everyman? Got half way through and gave up. Much harder than the usual Sunday fare. Had MIME for 2D also.
I agree, Peter, 10.
We got there, but this was surprisingly hard for an Everyman, I thought.
Mrs E and I also dropped for MIME.
Cheers all.
I’m another who had MIME for 2D – and found this took me much longer than normal.
Thank you to PeterO and Everyman.
It is MIME – I have the paper with last week’s answers
And I felt smug about getting MUMM 🙂
Cheers P&E
And another vote for MIME!
Not sure I quite follow the various comments about the clue for NICHE. I guess putting ‘Sean’ in the clue, as paddymelon @6 points out, would perhaps have given away the trick, but why not just ‘Connery’ in that case?
Thanks to Everyman and PeterO.
[Ah, and thank you Bodycheetah for settling the matter!]
Thanks Bodycheetah
“I like it” is usually written “Mmmm”, I think.
My daughter is dipping her toes into cryptic crosswords. I showed her the clue for NICHE. She said “That’s awful . . . .but quite funny!”
@ 10
I used to be able to sometimes finish Paul’s puzzles, but no longer – different setter??
Still miss Araucaria.
Checking the printed version of the paper gives the official answer for 2 down as MIME which from the comments seems to be the majority opinion here. It’s a shame it’s so difficult to access the solution especially outside the UK
Strangely the Guardian Edition app still gives online access to the printed version
I also had MIME for 2d – since it fits the clue I didn’t go looking for possible alternative answers, although I can see now that mumm arguably also fits the definition. But the printed paper has MIME.
Another MIME here, which I think is the obvious answer.
In my copy of the puzzle (printed from the online version) the enumeration of 20a is given as (1,4,5), which is clearly wrong.
Had MIME, too; we’re all vindicated 🙂
I generally find recent Everymen on a more difficult side than before; maybe it’s just a coincidence. Liked THREE-PIECE and DEBUNK; didn’t get the smart wordplay in ENDING or the reference to Peter in HOOK AND EYE 🙁 Thanks Everyman & PeterO!
Another MIME artist here. I found this rather tricky, and even some I was confident of, I was struggling with the parsing – especially the very wordy clues like GOGGLE EYED.
Nice to see further evidence that the female relative is always NIECE, even when it’s not!
Another MIME here.
Regarding ABASE, I thought “MAGA enthusiasts” was just a reference to Trump’s political base, with the question mark indicating that other bases are available?
Thanks to Everyman and PeterO
For 5a, is Oxbridge just a way of not including the letters CAM in the clue, to add an extra challenge?
Couldn’t parse either of my last two in, 22 and 28. Whilst I’m annoyed at myself for not seeing the wordplay of the former, I’m not going to self-flagellate over the latter, though I do rather like it. (The clue, that is, not the punishment.)
Holypeanut@25: I’d say so (and our blogger says as much). There doesn’t appear to be any other reason for it. Pretty poor clue because of this I thought.
In 5a, I don’t see how PUS = MATTER.
Also apparently OXBRIDGE refers to OXFORD-CAMBRIDGE? Not sure how that helps.
C.Henry @28
Pus and matter can both refer to the pale gummy stuff, made up mostly of dead white blood cells, that can ooze out of wounds, blackheads, etc.
Like others I wasn’t happy with 5dn referencing Oxbridge. I also had MIME for 2dn which I feel is a more satisfactory solution.
Overall another good puzzle.
I feel much better seeing all the other MIMEs out there. Obviously we all went for the table wine entry and not the champagne one.
I too feel the difficulty level of these puzzles has ramped up in the last few weeks. I find I often need a brain reset in the middle now. Still, I enjoy the exercise.
Has anyone figured out a way to reformat the Observer based PDF’s to make them more like th old style?
I really enjoyed the large grid at the top with the clues along the bottom, on the current PDF’s there is a lot of whitespace around the top, bottom and sides and the grid comes out a bit too small.
Even a manual way to edit or reformat them would be great
Never mind, i was looking at old PDF’s. The latest one looks a lot better
I thought this was a bit less tough than some recent ones; I more or less finished it (in the sense of getting all the answers and knowing in _almost_ all cases why that was the answer).
There are sometimes a few blanks which I can only fill in when I buy the following Sunday’s paper. (And a few explanations I only discover from this blog!)
Thanks PeterO
I too had MIIME and debated with myself whether the Oxbridge reference IS/IS-not appropriate to CAM
I found it much harder than last weeks Quiptic which was a surprise as it is usually the other way around for me so it was nice to see I wasn’t the only one who had problems with the Everyman. The cluing has just seemed a bit trickier over the last couple of weeks but I had put that down to me having an off week or two. Anyway I did manage to complete it with one wrong answer – see below – but really didn’t enjoy it very much and I suspect that if there had been a Reveal All button that would have been employed at some point during proceedings.
Re: 2D – I had MUMS just to be different to everyone else – think I might have been working along the lines of MUMMERS\MUMMERY from memory but it was a long weekend so who knows. Seeing the answer now it is obviously MIME with the say no more bit making it quite obvious.
Another MIME
Thanks for explaining 28a ENDING. I got it from the crossers and definition, without parsing. It’s very clever!
2d “mime” is the answer given by the setter.
2d “mime” is the answer given by the setter.
5a “Oxbridge” includes Oxford and Cambridge
Too difficult by far, and some rather sloppy cluing as well.
Like many others I put (correctly it appears) “mime” for 2 down.
I had a good run on the initial solve, but made hard work of the rest of it.
Enjoyable, thanks Peter O and Everymans brother!
I had MIME for 2d. Clue for 5a was sneaky as there is no connection with oxford. PUS for matter is a looong stretch. I liked PEEK A BOO but I think it’s one word. I likedTAKES THE LEAD & T BONE STEAK
Mime for me. Uxbridge was a con.
Some way too hard like 5a doesn’t make sense to me at all . No good on rhyming slang either
But loved hook and eye and three piece
Also had mime like almost everyone else and thought it a great answer !
Mime here too
I thought Oxbridge was a con.
Pakuranga Singleton @42
In 5A CAMPUS, PUS for ‘matter’ is no stretch; for a start, it is one of the definitions of ‘matter’ in Chambers, Collins and the OED. I think that 29A PEEK-A-BOO is perhaps more common as one word (particularly when referring to a garment) but the hyphenated version is given by Collins and the OED – but not Chambers.
When checked word in 2d in ASSIST drop down menu, confirmed as ‘MIME’