My first Everyman blog, alas the normal blogging software is not available to post this so it’s a bit old school today.
Not overly difficult, recent ones have been more so I gather.
Definitions in BOLD and RED, * indicates an anagram, hidden answers in italics and green
| Across | ||
| 1 Front man whole number precede (10) | FIGUREHEAD | FIGURE (whole number) & HEAD (precede) |
| 6 Ornamental case used in piqué tuition (4) | ETUI | Hidden answer, ETUI is a very common crossword answer for a rare word as not much else fits in the grid |
| 10 Get rid of member bringing gun (7) | FIREARM | FIRE (sack get rid of) & ARM (member, part of body) |
| 11 Punishment – type man dished out (7) | PAYMENT | Not really a synonym to me but it’s an anagram of [TYPEMAN]* |
| 12 Fruit, choice by London station (8,4) | VICTORIA PLUM | VICTORIA station & PLUM (choice) |
| 15 Endless disease in horses makes one reel (7) | STAGGER | Horse disease STAGGER(s) less final letter. |
| 16 A salary and gratuity aboard ship (7) | STIPEND | TIP (gratuity) inside SEND (to ship) |
| 17 Hold-up, unfortunately, behind start of race for reindeer (7) | RUDOLPH | R(ace) & anagram of HOLD-UP |
| 19 Complete one’s training in shop as souter (4,3) | PASS OUT | SOUTER? Ugh, surely a better word could be found, still it’s hidden in shoP AS SOUTer, with IN used as the hidden indicator. |
| 20 Children’s author‘s wife brought in fresh éclairs and burger bun (5,7) | LEWIS CARROLL | W(ife) in an anagram of ECLAIRS* & ROLL (bun) |
| 23 Item of clothing found in untidy manger by second of stalls (7) | GARMENT | MANGER* & second letter of sTalls |
| 24 Beginning, briefly, to frame American and Japanese art (7) | ORIGAMI | AM (American) in ORIGI(n) (beginning briefly) |
| 25 Reckless prang, not chauffeur’s first (4) | RASH | C (Chauffeurs’ first letter) removed from (c)RASH |
| 26 Put in jeopardy as grenade exploded next to border (10) | ENDANGERED | END (border) & an anagram of GRENADE (exploded) |
| Down | ||
| 1 Female provided with English flute (4) | FIFE | F(emale) & IF (provided) & E(nglish) |
| 2 Origin of Danger Mouse (4) | GERM | Hidden in danGER Mouse |
| 3 Berkshire university – good girls may wear these during tutorials (7,7) | READING GLASSES | An extended defintion here, but READING is a university in Berks & G(ood) & LASSES |
| 4 Rodent in middle of the stream, swimming (7) | HAMSTER | It’s an anagram (swimming) of [{middle of tHe} H STREAM]* |
| 5 Has an ambitious plan when shown round tower (7) | ASPIRES | SPIRE in AS (when) |
| 7 Artist’s subject, unhappy little chappie (3,4,3) | THE BLUE BOY | THE appears to be doing double duty, THE (subject) & BLUE (unhappy) & BOY (little chappie) |
| 8 Secret involving one dead cow (10) | INTIMIDATE | 1 D(ead) in INTIMATE(secret) |
| 9 Dodgy business practice that began in ancient Egypt? (7,7) | PYRAMID SELLING | Cryptic def, but quite a good one. |
| 13 Expert on houses? (10) | ASTROLOGER | Another CD ref Zodiac houses, not as keen but it works. |
| 14 Crooked undertakings causing one to argue (5,5) | BANDY WORDS | Took a while to see this, BANDY (crooked as in legs) & WORDS (oaths) |
| 18 Number, following try, cheer (7) | HEARTEN | TEN (number) following HEAR (try as in court) |
| 19 This’ll support climbers galore, scrambling under pressure (7) | PERGOLA | Not mountaineers but climbing plants, P(ressure) & GALORE* “scrambling” |
| 21 Pretty fine tune (4) | FAIR | F(ine) & AIR (tune) |
| 22 Impulsive dramatist? Sounds like it (4) | WILD | Took me rather longer than it should, sounds like (oscar) WILDE |
A week is a long time in crossword solving, but can’t remember having any trouble with this one. All was pretty straightforward and succinct. Favourite was 14d.
Thx
Thanks Everyman and flashling
New words for me were ETUI and SOUTER.
My favourite was 20a.
This comment more for the sake of it than anything else but…
No problem with PAYMENT = PUNISHMENT. if you are paying for your crime you are being punished.
Thanks Everyman for the usual smooth clues and welcome to flashling here.
I did like the cds: PYRAMID SELLING and ASTROLOGER, although the latter took a while to figure out.
It took me a little longer than usual to get on Everyman’s wavelength this morning, although I’ve got no idea why in retrospect. I agree with Tim@3’s thoughts on PAYMENT. The GERM/FIGUREHEAD crossers were my last ones in.
I enjoy Sunday’s Everyman as a break from my usually unsuccessful attempts to finish the Guardian crossword during the week, so I was very disappointed to fail on BANDY WORDS – what an idiot!
As usual, there were some brilliant clues (12ac, 20ac and 9dn) and, as usual, one that I struggled with – ASTROLOGER. I wasn’t aware that signs of the zodiac are also known as houses (but self-improvement is a spin-off from doing crosswords…)
Thanks flashling,
Lots of great surfaces in this puzzle especially regarding GERM and INTIMIDATE.
BANDY WORDS was also very good and I think, one of my last in.
Thanks Everyman.
Thank you flashling.
Like Robi, I was a fan of the cds – Everyman doesn’t do a whole lot of them.
I don’t think THE is doing double duty in THE BLUE BOY. Definition is, as you say, ‘artist’s subject’, and THE BLUE BOY could be considered to be an ‘unhappy little chappie’. The painting is by Thomas Gainsborough.
15ac leaves me, the USA guy, stumped. I guessed STAGGER for reel, but still can not match it to clue. If endless disease is GER(M), then how are the surrounding letters STAG S = horses?
@BillinAustin the horse disease is called “STAGGERS” so it’s just that minus the last letter.
Had to resort to Google a fair bit today, hadn’t come across Etui, Staggers, Souter (having to look it up meant I missed the hidden word for ages), Fife, the painting, and when I did get some of the answers it took ages to figure them out, esp 1, 16, 24 (am for American is a new one on me) across and 4 (never saw the H), 8 (was sure the def was secret and not cow), 13 (never heard of houses for star signs), and 14 down (completely missed Words as in I give you my word, my word is my bond etc. as it’s never used in the plural). So I actually found this a bloody struggle and have only finished comparatively early as I couldn’t sleep. 9 down was nice. I’m actually tucked up in bed with man flu so I’ll blame that for a fuzzy brain.
I’ve got to say I struggled this morning. Like Andy B above I wasn’t on the right wavelength today. I knew about the stars being in houses from that old song” when the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars” etc. Hope you improve as the day goes by Barrie, I know how bad the man flu can get!
Believe me Barrie that flu has knocked a few women too recently.
Struggled for a bit with this one, then got all except 22d and 9d which I can’t believe I didn’t think of when I saw the answer. I did know the horse disease ‘staggers’ though. Liked 20ac and 8d. I didn’t know about stars being houses either and Reading took a while to think of.
P.S. Barrie there used to be a fife and drum band in Ponsonby years ago, and long before my time, but I remember the late Professor Blaiklock saying that he used to play in it. I’ve seen pictures of it.
Thanks Audrey, yes I know a number of women have been knocked around by this bug.
My wife gave it to me.
I’m in full agreement with Jovis above in treating crosswords as learning curves. It clearly takes “all sorts–” I got germ, etui (this has occurred in some local syllabic crosswords) straightaway and pass out very quickly since the pointers were in the clue. This week I was determined to justify every solution but failed with the houses=astrology but google soon resolved that conundrum which I should have recognised as one of the themes from the luminaries!
Hi Audrey, In case you were unaware-Reading is the County Town of Berkshire and it has a University-lovely clue I thought.
Yes Ian. I have heard of Reading, but it took a while to think of it as I’m a 4th generation Kiwi. I agree, it was a good clue.
Enjoy the comments fm fellow kiwis .By the time I pick up the comments everyone has long finished. Still getting quicker all the time and sometimes even finish on Sat. I actually like having the challenge to mull over for the weekend.
Thought there could have been a much better clue for pass out. No comparison to some of the really clever other clues.
Would never use cow to mean intimidate tho, learnt that this weekend.
Yes Vanessa. I too would probably use cower rather than cow. But you have to be a lateral thinker to answer these clues, and you sound as if you are enjoying the crosswords.
Interesting that Google says that Victoria plum is the most common plum in UK. We’ve never heard of it (but could identify 3 or 4 other varieties). I thought our varieties would be generally common with UK.
But we got it all out anyway – finally.
Audrey I think cow and cower are actually opposites. Cow means to bully or boss around. Cower means to shrink down or hide. If you cow someone they might cower (then again they might punch you on the nose).
So cow means bull-y. Ahem.
And Eudoxus cryptic in today’s SST is worth a look. I didn’t get it all out, two short.
Yes I think you’re right Barrie. To cow means to frighten, but to cower means to be frightenened. So they are opposites, but they must have the same root. Anyway, the verb ‘cow’ is not a word I’ve heard anyone use in everyday use.
BTW I’ve bought a copy of the SST to have a look at the crossword when I get time.