All fine. A nice crossword with nothing very controversial so far as I can see.
Definitions in some sort of red, underlined. Indicators (homophone, hidden, containment, anagram, juxtaposition, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.
There only seems to be one rhyming pair, and because the Observer has changed its computer ways a bit and the software that I use for blogging hasn’t caught up with this I’ve had to do the blog differently. You may notice some changes. Certainly I can’t give you a nice grid with colours as I usually do. The rhyming pair etc will be mentioned in the blog.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ARCS | Cockney listens – and bows (4) |
| ‘harks’ said as a crossword Cockney would, ‘arks | ||
| 3 | PROCEDURES | Reproduces dodgy systems (10) |
| (reproduces)* — Everyman’s trademark whole-word anagram putting in its regular appearance | ||
| 9 | OINK | Sound from pen – why pen no use? (4) |
| The pen in the definition is a pig pen. ‘Oink’ can be seen as ‘0 ink’, or ‘no ink’, which is why the pen is no use | ||
| 10 | CLAMOURING | Clutch, clutching loved one, making racket (10) |
| cl(amour)ing — cling = clutch, amour = loved one | ||
| 12 | RAFAEL NADAL | Playing Lendl: a four-time French tennis ace (6,5) |
| *(Lendl a a a a Fr) — a appears four times, Fr = French | ||
| 15 | PROMPTS | Spurs very quietly storm off … (7) |
| (pp storm)* | ||
| 16 | CASH COW | … decrepit coach, exhausted, wants steady source of income (4,3) |
| *(coach w[ant]s) — ‘exhausted’ applies to ‘wants’, not ‘coach’ as it seems | ||
| 17 | ARMENIA | Beggar me! Niagara’s surrounding country (7) |
| Hidden in beggAR ME NIAgara | ||
| 19 | PROVOKE | In favour of ‘very average’!? Everyman’s beginning to annoy (7) |
| pro v. OK E[veryman] — pro = in favour of, v. = very, average = OK — the self-referential clue | ||
| 20 | WAKE-UP CALLS | Warnings as Spooner relays outcome of birthday-party food fight (4-2,5) |
| “cake up walls” | ||
| 23 | CHARTREUSE | Once again, apply following diagram depicting something intoxicating (10) |
| chart re-use — chart = diagram depicting, re-use = once again apply | ||
| 24 | CODA | End-piece: a physician taken aback (4) |
| (a doc)rev. — doc = physician | ||
| 25 | MURPHY’S LAW | It says you’ll go wrong adding potato to cabbage salad (7,3) |
| murphy slaw — murphy = potato, slaw = cabbage salad | ||
| 26 | SKYE | Island on vacation – Sark – yippee! (4) |
| S[ar]k y[ippe]e — ‘on vacation’ applies to both the words following it | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | APOCRYPHAL | Silly Carol, happy to be uncertain (10) |
| *(Carol happy) | ||
| 2 | CAN OF WORMS | Tricky situation: farm with no cows to flounder (3,2,5) |
| (farm no cows)* | ||
| 4 | RULINGS | Decrees – when you’ve repeatedly drawn a line? (7) |
| When you use a ruler to draw a straight line you are making a ruling — I think the ‘repeatedly’ is there to make ruling into rulings | ||
| 5 | COMEDIC | Some welcome Dickensian characters being amusing (7) |
| Hidden in welCOME DICkensian — the hidden noisily signposted by the word ‘Some’ | ||
| 6 | DOUBLE SCOTCH | Twin to put lid on some whisky (6,6) |
| Double scotch — double = twin, scotch = to put lid on — perhaps the non-appearance of this term in Chambers or Collins can be excused by the need to make it rhyme with the answer to 11dn | ||
| 7 | RAID | Most of logbook picked up in police swoop (4) |
| (diar[y])rev. — diary = logbook — picked up not a homophone indicator, as often, but a reversal one | ||
| 8 | SIGN | Notice function making noise (4) |
| The function is the mathematical/trigonometrical sine; “sine” | ||
| 11 | KEEPING WATCH | What guard’s doing: not selling retirement gift? (7,5) |
| If the retirement gift is a watch, then the guard is not selling it but keeping it — rhymes with 6dn | ||
| 13 | SCHOOLWORK | Assignments making reformed crooks howl (10) |
| *(crooks howl) — not sure all schoolwork is assignments, so perhaps ‘assignments, perhaps’ would have been more accurate | ||
| 14 | SWEEPSTAKE | Chimney-cleaners draw in drawing of lots (10) |
| Sweeps take — sweeps = chimney-cleaners, take = draw in — although I can’t immediately think of a sentence where take can be replaced by draw in — I suppose it’s OK in the sense take = receive | ||
| 18 | ANKLETS | Bling: grotesque slanket (7) |
| *(slanket) — I’ve never heard of the word ‘slanket’; nor have Chambers or Collins — according to Google it’s a blanket with sleeves (2005) | ||
| 19 | PRUSSIA | Initially powerful realm; ultimately subservient state ignobly abolished! (7) |
| The first letters clue that is a feature of the Everyman crossword | ||
| 21 | SCUM | Mucky film showing Special Constable with hesitant expression (4) |
| SC um — SC = Special Constable, um = hesitant expression — not the cinematic sense of film | ||
| 22 | FAIR | Decent trade show (4) |
| 2 defs | ||
A good and clean Everyman; I particularly liked ARCS, OINK and CHARTREUSE. Thanks Everyman, and John for the blog – it’s Ok without the coloured grid
Very enjoyable and for once I was able to parse all my answers – though working out why it was, clearly, Rafael Nadal took a while. I liked the idea of cake up walls. I’ve hosted some chaotic children’s parties but it never got that bad …
Thanks for the blog , the clues seemed pretty good overall . I think slanket is quite modern , very popular with students in their cold rooms .
PROMPTS earned a severe Paddington stare , this clue and the one after may interest Mr Blanchflower .
I wonder if the “improvements” at the Observer are reducing the number of people who do this puzzle .
Thanks to John for the blog. This was good straightforward Everyman puzzle I thought.
Also worth a note of thanks for the Everyman centenary jumbo special last weekend which appeared in the paper only. This was a step up from a standard Everyman offering especially given the unclued element which gave it more of a Spectator feel in terms of style. Seek it out if you still can. 1 across was a particularly fine clue (and an update to one Everyman has used before, back in 2022 in 3,937).
[ Finally, here’s a pdf link for today’s puzzle if it’s useful to anyone … https://tinyurl.com/Everyman4145 … I know changes have resulted in many finding access problematic. ]
I did get 26A but it’s not obvious to me why ‘on vacation’ means take the outer letters? Anyone?
Re 14D SWEEPSTAKE my interpretation was take = draw rather than “draw in”
As in “take a card” or “draw a card”
Thanks John and Everyman.
Peter @5: because vacation could mean emptying something out, in this case a word
I’m now finding it impossible to access via the observer page even though I’ve registered, just get a load of newsletter options. The tinyurl link is working though.
Haha, Roz@3 – I just logged on to post my approval of Spurs being name-checked in 15A, because we fans need all the cheering up we can get in these dark times, and I saw you had mentioned me in the same context. I’m not 100% sure that PROMPTS=Spurs, but I’ll take it.
“Slanket” raised an eyebrow, but if it’s a thing … not much of an anagram for ANKLETS though.
I thought the NADAL clue was ingenious. I am never sure what constitutes an &lit – was this one?
Otherwise, thanks as always to E and J
Tony. I always print mine. I just went to the print option and the PDF file came up
1961Blanchflower@9: the NADAL clue isn’t an &lit. “tennis ace” is the definition and the rest of the clue is wordplay (which, appropriately in this case, is tennis-related). An &lit clue is one in which the definition and the wordplay are one and the same (so that you can read the whole clue either as a straight definition or as wordplay leading to the required answer). An example by Don Manley quoted in Cracking Cryptic Crosswords by the late Colin Dexter: “No fellow for mixing (4,4)”. Answer: LONE WOLF.
Jay @4 Do you have a pdf link for last week’s centenary jumbo crossword by any chance please? Thanks
Tony@12, I don’t I’m afraid. It was only printed in the paper.
I see that the helpful, ink-saving, eye-friendly print option has been removed. We just have the pdf now. Whether this is permanent remains to be seen I suppose.
I rather liked OINK, whatever.
Cheers all.
An enjoyable puzzle – couldn’t parse RAFAEL NADAL, though it’s obvious now. I also really liked OINK. Thanks John & Everyman, and thanks to Jay again for the tinyurl as my sole means of access now!
Many thanks to Jay for the tinyurl. I thought I was going to have to give up the Everyman on Sunday as all other routes seemed blocked. If possible please carry on sharing.
This was another neat enjoyable puzzle, lots of favourites.
Comment #17