The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3549.
Starting the puzzle at the top, as I generally do, produced exactly nothing immediately, and I had to work from the bottom up (which is not a bad strategy). On the way I encountered some constructions which I thought were unusually complicated for Everyman. Altogether, I got a decent workout.
| Across | ||
| 1 | GAINSAY |
Deny increase, for example (7)
A charade of GAIN (‘increase’) plus SAY (‘for example’).
|
| 5 | ALCOPOP |
Drink cola, possibly, with shot added (7)
A charade of ALCO, an anagram (‘possibly’) of ‘cola’ plus POP (‘shot’).
|
| 9 | NYALA |
Name a song about an antelope (5)
“I’m a gnu”. A charade of N (‘name’) plus YALA, a reversal (‘about’) of ‘a’ plus LAY (‘song’).
|
| 10 | UNION JACK |
Association to raise flag (5,4)
A charadde of UNION (‘association’) plus JACK (‘raise’).
|
| 11 | ONE AFTER ANOTHER |
Many, in a series, in single file (3,5,7)
Definition and literal interpretation.
|
| 12 | TORPEDO |
Ray opted out, or in? (7)
An envelope (‘in’) of ‘or’ in TPEDO, an anagram (‘out’) of ‘opted’. The torpedo, an electric ray, is the fish after which the naval weapon is named.
|
| 14 | MARQUEE |
Damage what sounds like guide’s tent (7)
A charade of MAR (‘damage’) plus QUEE, a homophone (‘what sounds like’) of KEY (‘guide’).
|
| 16 | NOSTRUM |
Patent medicine, in no way unusual (7)
A charade of ‘no’ plus ST (street, ‘way’) plus RUM (‘unusual’).
|
| 18 | GIMLETS |
Soldier, getting married, allowed small cocktails (7)
A charade of GI (‘soldier’) plus M (‘married’) plus LET (‘allowed’) plus S (‘small’). Four cryptic elements in seven letters.
|
| 20 | BACK TO THE FUTURE |
Boat, ketch, sabotaged – tense film (4,2,3,6)
A charade of BACK TO THE, an anagram (‘sabotaged’) of ‘boat, ketch’) plus FUTURE (‘tense’ which generally indicates T, but not here).
|
| 22 | SERENGETI |
National park – greenest foreign one (9)
An anagram (‘foreign’) of ‘greenest’ plus I (‘one’).
|
| 23 | LUCID |
Top copper back inside? That’s easy to understand (5)
An envelope (‘inside’) of UC, a reversal (‘back’) of CU (chemical symbol, ‘copper’) in LID (‘top’).
|
| 24 | AUSTERE |
Severe, the south wind close to shore (7)
A charade of AUSTER (‘the south wind”) plus E (‘close to shorE‘).
|
| 25 | MONITOR |
Keep an eye on screen (7)
Double definition
|
| Down | ||
| 1 | GUNCOTTON |
Explosive piece on top of bed with 100 underneath (9)
A charade of GUN (‘piece’) plus COT (‘bed’) plus TON (‘100’, principally in the sense of speed).
|
| 2 | INANE |
How movie ends is silly (5)
‘moviE‘ ends IN AN E. Everyman pulled essentially the same trick in #3,537 in July.
|
| 3 | SNAFFLE |
Illicitly take a bit (7)
Double definition.
|
| 4 | YOU’VE GOT ME THERE |
Comment to chauffeur on reaching destination? I don’t know what to say (5,3,2,5)
Definition and literal interpretation. Following general practice, but to the annoyance of some, the apostrophe is ignored in the numeration.
|
| 5 | ANIMAL MAGNETISM |
Physical attractiveness of a polar bear? (6,9)
A whimsical reference to the poles of a magnet.
|
| 6 | CANDOUR |
Honesty, too, in block of flats? Not quite (7)
An envelope (‘in’) of AND (‘too’) in COUR[t] (‘block of flats’) cut short (‘not quite’). I find this questionable on two counts: firstly, even thought Chambers gives “also” as a definition for both AND and ‘too’, they are different parts of speech; and secondly, even though many blocks of flats are given the name “such-and such Court”, does that count as a definition?
|
| 7 | PLAYHOUSE |
What little girls often do in a theatre? (9)
PLAY HOUSE
|
| 8 | POKER |
Game – fine cuts for each (5)
An envelope (‘cuts’) of OK (‘fine’) in PER (‘for each’).
|
| 13 | REST-CURES |
What convalescent home offers the others – parish priests (4-5)
A charade of REST (‘the others’) plus CURÉS (‘parish priests’).
|
| 15 | EASTENDER |
Londoner in stormy sea on boat (4,5)
A charade of EAS, an anagram (‘stormy’) of ‘sea’) plus TENDER (‘boat’).
|
| 17 | RETINUE |
Train always holding one up (7)
An envelope (‘holding’) of UNIT (‘one’) in E’ER (‘always’), all reversed (‘up’, in a down light).
|
| 19 | MAUDLIN |
Mawkish girl left home (7)
A charade of MAUD (‘girl’) plus L (‘left’) plus IN (‘home’).
|
| 20 | BASRA |
Arabs rebuilt Iraqi port (5)
An anagram (‘rebuilt’) of ‘Arabs’.
|
| 21 | UNCUT |
A French record, not shortened (5)
A charade of UN (‘a French’) plus CUT (‘record’).
|
I solved nothing in my pass of the acrosses and my first in was 20d followed by 22a,10a,8d,6a,11a,7d & 20a.
At the end I couldn’t get 1d -simply never come across it , 9a ditto ,16a ditto and 17d which was too clever for me.
I hope that no beginner had been recommended to try Everyman for the first time on this one which was hard.
Yes, I generally do AZED, and then do Everyman afterwards. Found this one tough. NYALA is more like an AZED clue. Tough puzzle for the beginner I think.
Many thanks, PeterO – nice one.
I am not a brilliant solver of cryptics but found this OK. I share the problem in parsing CANDOUR. Everyman is always enjoyable but there is often one clue that is a little iffy. Remember last week’s problem with “duc” versus “duce”?
One of the likeable things about his puzzles, apart from their accessibility, is the way he makes demands on one’s store of general knowledge. AUSTERE had me stumped for a while. I knew “austral'” had something to do with the south, as in austral winds and Australia (the southern continent) but hadn’t come across “Auster” before.
(We have lost our names for individual winds. I have a friend who likes sailing around Turkey and has picked up a smattering of Turkish, enough to understand weather forecasts. There is an area of Turkey, however, where each wind is given its individual name which makes life difficult for non-Turkish sailors)
I seem to remember there is a sea breeze called the Meltemmi- not sure how it is spelt.
Thanks Everyman and PeterO
This was a puzzle I really enjoyed since I was not held up too much, and the blog was a great help where I failed to parse. Liked TORPEDO and NOSTRUM.
6d the COED gives Court, the name of a large house, block of flats, street, etc.
An enjoyable puzzle that was probably towards the harder end of Everyman’s spectrum, as others have already noted. GUNCOTTON was my LOI. Although I had come across it before I needed the wordplay before I saw it. I had no problem with either part of the wordplay for CANDOUR, and I thought the clue for ANIMAL MAGNETISM was good.
Thanks to Everyman for another excellent challenge and to PeterO for his solutions.
As commented by @3 I really enjoy the stretching of one’s range of general knowledge and how once a key clue is resolved one is confident to pursue avenues in related clues. The NE corner had me struggling.I had C (or possibly ton for a hundred) in mind for 1d. Eventually 16a, 12a and the rest followed. Mixed emotions tomorrow morning having played several serious games on Murrayfield! Here’s hoping for a non-controversial game!
Cheers all
Took me a while to get this one out, but really enjoyed it. Had to look up guncotton which I hadn’t heard of before, and also needed to do some research on antelope species. Liked 2d.
Should be a good game tomorrow at Murrayfield. Ian were you an All Black?
Agree this was an enjoyable toughie which I was very pleased to get out, albeit took damn near two hours and mr Google had to verify the odd antelope, wind and patent remedy. Hadn’t heard of a rest cure either. 2d did look familiar but I do like that trick. Also liked the anag in 20d, although surely it isn’t original? If so, well done Mr. Everyman – in fact well done overall, NE corner alone took up three quarters of an hour so like others this was a good workout. Now back to the trenches for the last two performances of Journey’s End. Tally ho!
What a workout this morning. All I can do is reiterate all the above comments, they all related to me! I doubt if many a b’s present or past tackle (pun intended) the Saturday morning crossword! Could be wrong, be interested to hear.
Hi Audrey and Rod, I’m from the other side of the fence-although we’ve now lived in Africa and NZ for much longer than UK! I have fond memories(for me) of playing for the Rest of Scotland and defeating the Scottish team 19-6 at Murrayfield! Unfortunately I was never capped-in those days it was more difficult for Anglos and there was no bench. As an aside for fellow front-rowers the IQ of all three of the Irish front row at that time was reputedly at MENSA level! Wilson Whineray (prop) (and brother Scott) was intellectully very able I’d back them to be able to crunch the crossword. Now back to the divided loyalties bench or should that be fence?
Tried to do this at the cricket but the weather was so cold. Brain ceased to work!
So I had an interval until I returned home and started again. Solved it except for nyala.
Also my fav was the polar bear
The comments about the current AB’s doing the cryptic crossword are probably close to the mark, but yes, I agree, Wilson Whineray was highly intelligent, and there have been a few others e.g. Chris Laidlaw, and David Kirk.
I laughed when someone mentioned it took them two hours to complete – it takes me two days! On and off of course amongst other things but I do quite enjoy leaving the tough ones til sunday when sometimes the light comes on. I like that there is always a new word to learn …. gainsay was new to me and guncotton.which may never again be used…but might be useful at quiz night one day in the future..
A nice puzzle but had a handful I couldn’t finish. I learnt some new words e.g. MAUDLIN, GIMLETS and GAINSAY.
The RETINUE clue was hard. E’ER for ALWAYS. Really?!
Till next week!
Re clever ABs. Add Grant Fox and Taine Randell to that list.
Horrible ……. I love Everyman but this was the most unpleasant one I have ever attempted. ( maybe I’m having a bad day but I thought that several clues were very unfair )