The puzzle may be found at https://observer.co.uk/puzzles/everyman/article/everyman-no-4119 (interactive version) and https://cdn.slowdownwiseup.co.uk/media/documents/obs.everyman.20250928.pdf (pdf).
Instead of a rhyming pair, we have contrasting MORE THAN/LESS THAN in 2D and 7D. 1A IMPAIR is the self reference , and 23A HEARTY the ‘primarily clue. This time there is no geographical reference, unless we go astronomical with 4D RED GIANTS, or meteoroligical with 23A ON CLOUD NINE wherever that might be.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | IMPAIR |
Brace, after Everyman’s blunt (6)
|
| A charade of I’M (”Everyman’s’ – i.e. Everyman is) plus BRACE (‘pair’). | ||
| 5 | CAROLE |
King of music’s festive tune ending in carnage (6)
|
| A charade of CAROL (‘festive tune’) plus E (‘ending in carnagE‘), for the American singer-songwriter and musician Carole King. | ||
| 8 | READDRESSES |
Chooses new recipient for frocks following study (11)
|
| A charade of READ (‘study’) plus DRESSES (‘frocks’). | ||
| 11 | PUT ON AIRS |
Act superior in broadcasts behind stage (3,2,4)
|
| A charade of PUT ON (‘stage’ as in “Let’s put on a show!”) plus AIRS (‘broadcasts’). | ||
| 12 | ROTOR |
Turbine component you may see going round again (5)
|
| A palindrome. | ||
| 13 | CLAPTON |
Applaud heavyweight, he plays guitar (7)
|
| A charade of CLAP (‘applaud’) plus TON (‘heavy weight’), for Eric Clapton, who seems to pop up regularly in crosswords, most recently in the Guardian Prize 29805 of September 20 by Enignatist. | ||
| 14 | RAMPART |
Incline, cunning defence (7)
|
| A charade of RAMP (‘incline’) plus ART (‘cunning’). | ||
| 15 | DAWKINS |
Biologist was kind to rock (7)
|
| An anagram (‘to rock’) of ‘was kind’, for the biologist Richard Dawkins (or equally well his ex-wife Marian). | ||
| 17 | SANDPIT |
Components of dribble where children play (7)
|
| S AND PIT make up SPIT (‘component of dribble’). | ||
| 20 | WILCO |
Is Olympic honcho going to read out agreeable message? (5)
|
| Sounds like (‘ |
||
| 21 | IRONWORKS |
Plant contraptions for the evening, involving job (9)
|
| An envelope (‘involving’) of WORK (‘job’) in IRONS (‘contraptions for the evening’ – ‘evenng’ as making even). | ||
| 22 | ON CLOUD NINE |
Could you get this merry in inn? One could! (2,5,4)
|
| An anagram (‘could you get this merry’) of ‘inn one could’. I have chosen to interpret this as an &lit, which is a slight stretch, but otherwise ‘merry’ might be regarded as the primary (but with extention) definition. | ||
| 23 | HEARTY |
Primarily ‘hardy’; elsewhere ‘ample’ / ‘rich’ / ‘typically yeomanly’? (6)
|
| The ‘primarily’ clue: first letters of Hardy Elsewhere Ample Rich Typically Yeomanly’. | ||
| 24 | RARITY |
Bloody quality that’s seldom seen (6)
|
| Double definition, the first referring to a steak, for example. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | MORE THAN WELCOME |
The memo can lower hiccups – much appreciated! (4,4,7)
|
| An anagram (‘hiccups’) of ‘the memo can lower’. I would tend to think of MORE THAN WELCOME as a response to ‘much appreciated’. | ||
| 3 | AGAINST |
Opposing but touching (7)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 4 | RED GIANTS |
Gradients grappled with; they’re highly intense (3,6)
|
| An anagram (‘grappled with’) of ‘gradients’. RED GIANTS are more noted for extense than intense. | ||
| 5 | CHESS |
Duchesses somewhat game (5)
|
| A hidden answer (‘somewhat’) in ‘duCHESSes’ | ||
| 6 | ROSTRUM |
Stage showing, among others, Navarro’s trumpet (7)
|
| Another hissen answer (‘showing among others’) in ‘NavarROS TRUMpet’. Fats Navarro was an American jazz trumpeter. | ||
| 7 | LESS THAN PERFECT |
Hardly ideal, what this suggests: < kind of tense (4,4,7)
|
| A charade of LESS THAN (‘<‘, mathematical notation) plus PERFECT (‘kind of tense’, grammatical). | ||
| 9 | EPIC |
Portray, without limits, vast tale (4)
|
| A subtraction: [d]EPIC[t] (‘ortray’) minus its outer letters (‘without limits’). | ||
| 10 | TROT |
Rejected legal wrong in red (4)
|
| A reversal (‘rejected’) of TORT (‘legal wrong’), for TROT as a Trotskyite (‘red’, Communist) | ||
| 14 | RESPONDER |
One might be first to consider backing resolution (9)
|
| Double definition, sort of; the second perhaps requires the preceeding ‘one might be’. | ||
| 15 | DOWN |
Blue clue, like this? (4)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 16 | I CONCUR |
Venerated figure and scoundrel agreed (1,6)
|
| A charade of ICON (‘venerated figure’) plus CUR (‘scoundrel’). | ||
| 18 | NEWSIER |
Most of red wine’s drunk, increasingly full of tidings (7)
|
| An anagram (‘drunk’) of RE (‘most of REd’) plus ‘wine’s’. | ||
| 19 | TASH |
The northern tree’s hairy growth (4)
|
| A charade of T (‘the northern’ – the word ‘the’ is often reduced to a stop, repersented by T, in Northern English dialects) plus ASH (‘tree’); TASH is short for moustache. | ||
| 21 | IRONY |
Twist 21 products like this? (5)
|
| A reference to 21A, IRONWORKS, the products of which are IRON-Y. |
The description of Fats Navarro as ‘a jazz trumpeter’ does him a great disservice. He was one of the very best, as I suspect Everyman knows.
I found this less of Everyman and more of a regular cryptic. Not a complaint. Enjoyed the chewier clues.
Thanks E and PeterO
I found this on the tough end of Everyman. I agree with PeterO on the definition for 4d; RED GIANTS are not “highly intense” they are in fact the opposite – extremely diffuse.
Thanks Everyman and PeterO.
I parsed 14D as
consider = PONDER following resolution=RES
I liked this, even though I fell short of RESPONDER and the intersecting ON CLÖUD NINE.
I also didn’t get the definition in the primarily clue HEARTY, but I note the QM, looked up yeoman and can see the allusion.
I find Everyman/Alan Connor erudite, masculine, of a certain age, and Brit-centric in his cluing. Perhaps even more so now he’s ‘gone back’ to the Observer. But that’s okay. An extra challenge for me as an observer from the Antipodes.
What RT @4 said on RESPONDER. Liked it; needed help with a couple of words incl. WILCO, which I NHO. Favourites the long pair and IRONY. Thanks Everyman and PeterO!
Thanks Everyman and PeterO!
Liked SANDPIT, ON CLOUD NINE and RESPONDER.
Agree with RT@4 on RESPONDER. Also agree with the observation in the
blog on RED GIANTS.
Well, Zoot @1, I searched jazz trumpeters and of the 51 hits (Fats, a nho for this non-buff, was in the middle), I’d heard of nine, but actually listened to only three or four. So I might check out Fats on youtube.
Meanwhile, a pleasant puzzle, ta E and P.
Tough puzzle.
I guessed 14d RESPONDER and could not parse it.
As noted by PeterO and GrahaminSydney@3, red giants are red rather than blue or white precisely because they are more diffuse and hence cooler than other stars. The clue is wrong.
I was undone by WILCO as I spelled it “wilko” which is the downfall of including unchecked soundalikes but apparently it is short for will comply. At solving time, I wasn’t happy with Seb being described as Olympic honcho because he’s currently the head of World Athletics and failed in his bid to become leader of the IOC. But accept he spearheaded the 2012 organisation. I recall Everyman giving us David Seaman and Alan Shearer as footballing answers last year – the better part of twenty years after they retired which stretches it for me.
Apologies for asking this now, but can anyone give me a link to the old Everyman puzzles (I mean when they were in the Guardian)? I was working my way happily backwards but then did a major reset on my laptop and the link no longer works. Many thanks.
RTC@12: on the Guardian crosswords page, you just click “Search the archive” and there choose the type “everyman” – I don’t know if there’s a better link
Layman@13 thank you! That works perfectly.
A bit chewier than some Everyman puzzles but enjoyable nevertheless.
There is a geographical reference – Clapton is an area of London, part of Hackney.
grantinfreo@8 Thanks for responding. Lists are notoriously subjective. One I found included someone who died before recording was invented. I’d certainly put Fats in the top ten. He died aged 26 before the LP era so is not so well known. Try ‘ The Things We Did Last Summer ‘ if you can find it.
Agree with RT that responder is a charade of RESolution + ponder.
Tom T
20 across https://www.procyclingstats.com/rider/wilco-kelderman
Isn’t it a reference to Wilco Kelderman?
When I Googled Wilco + Olympics it came up with a Ducth Olympic cyclist known as WILCO. I didn’t even consider Seb Coe!
On another topic, I’m sure I read in here a few weeks ago that someone new had taken over from Alan Connor, and there was even a link to an interview with the newbie. However I now cannot find any trace of who it was! Can anyone enlighten me?
Tom Treasure @18
As far as I can tell from the link you gave, and his Wki entry, Wilco Kelderman has never even competed in the Olympics, yet alone being an ‘Olympic honcho’. I did find another Dutch cyclist, Wilco Zuijderwijk, who competed in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. I’m sure neither of them has anything to do with the clue.
Being directed to the blog for 20A, I note that I wrote “Sounds like (‘to read out) …”. The word “to” should not be there (and “read” should be pronounced red).
Bit easier this week, out in one sitting and even got the Northern T off the bat so have learnt something recently. Didn’t parse everything but hey ho, no complaints.
Could not get 19 down; “t” for “northern tree” is a bit too obscure. “Tash” for moustache is far too obscure.
Thought irony = twist was a bit off.
Rolf in Birkenhead @22
No, it’s T for ‘the northern’. Both that and tash are probably better known in the UK than in NZ.
Our first DNF in a while- 14dn defeated us grrr. Overall a v solid crossword, thanks all!
I found this one of the hardest for a while. Had playpen for a long while.
There is a pond at Clapton where I went fishing with my Grandfather.
Liked PUT ON AIRS, ON CLOUD NINE.
FYI WILCO is essentially a military response to an instruction being a contraction of WILl COmply. It is the opposite of CANTCO meaning ‘I can’t’…
I had bother in the S E corner.
Penciled in responder, sandpit and rarity, but couldn’t work out why!
I should have the courage of my convictions!
Thanks all
Generally enjoyed this one. A couple of errors.
10D escaped me. I actually had TROT as a potential answer, parsed correctly as reversed tort but couldn’t understand the red bit. Ended up with WRIT as potentially being written using red ink. I’ve seen Trot as red before so should have got it!
5A is interesting. I had CAROLS, parsed as king Carlos (of Spain) with the end of Carlos being mixed up (in carnage).
Neither of these affected other answers so happy enough 🙂