A lot of clever anagrams in this one, and the typically good surfaces that we expect from Everyman. One or two tricky ones, though, where I for one needed some crossing letters before I could fathom what was going on. Good job those of us in the UK had an extra hour in bed.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) missing
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Good mimic could make one stare open-mouthed
GAPE
A straightforward charade to get us going: G plus APE for ‘mimic’.
3 Typesetter in awfully poor sitcom
COMPOSITOR
(POOR SITCOM)*
10 Big city pub and clubs with no ale, surprisingly
BARCELONA
A charade of BAR, C and (NO ALE)*
11 Mostly elegant town
URBAN
URBAN[E]
12 Maiden on mountain in Crete’s pointing to legendary king
MIDAS
It had to be this, but I needed a flirt on the internet to make sure that Mount IDA was in Crete. M plus IDA’S, with the requirement to then ignore the apostrophe.
13 Head of precinct extremely upset about Irish detective
POIROT
A six-letter detective with those crossing letters is never going to be anything other than Hercule, but it took me a while to see what Everyman was getting at. It’s P and an insertion of I for ‘Irish’ in a reversal (‘upset’) of TOO for ‘extremely’.
Edit: thanks to Cookie, who points out that it’s in fact IR as the insertion fodder, not just I.
16 Never-ending contest à la Tom and Jerry?
CAT-AND-MOUSE GAME
Bit of weak cd cum dd.
17 Ambassador in West Germany in novel – author?
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
Great surface and clever misdirection. An insertion of HE for His Excellency or ‘ambassador’ in (WEST GERMANY IN)*
20 We, entertained by young socialites? They’re socially inept!
DWEEBS
An insertion of WE in DEBS. It’s American rather than British English and crops up in crosswords more often than it ought to; perhaps not much else fits this pattern. What we on this side of the pond would call NERDS.
21 Row across river in German city
TRIER
Another delightful and succinct surface. An insertion of R in TIER.
24 Buddy (American) and I correspond
AMIGO
A charade of AM, I and GO. ‘That top really goes with your skirt.’
25 Native of Lincoln checking ancestry?
ABORIGINE
Another excellent piece of misdirection. It’s an insertion of ORIGIN in ABE Lincoln, 16th President of the USA.
26 Appropriate to grieve over, say, a large sea creature
RIGHT WHALE
I got the WHALE bit before I got RIGHT, and then had to check. Three species of large baleen whales of the genus Eubalaena: the North Atlantic, the North Pacific and the Southern. So it’s right for ‘appropriate’ and WHALE, which is a homophone of WAIL for ‘to grieve over’.
27 Fail to hear young woman
MISS
A dd.
Down
1 Leave bishop, slapped, utterly astonished
GOBSMACKED
If you’ve ever felt the urge to slap a bishop, then this will have appealed. A charade of GO, B and SMACKED.
2 Dior happy to wear favourite semiprecious stone
PERIDOT
The anagrind is ‘happy’ in its ‘drunk’ sense. So it’s (DIOR)* in PET for ‘favourite’. Think ‘teacher’s pet’. ‘Wear’ tells you to wrap the anagram fodder in PET.
4 One blew on euphonium initially, then this?
OBOE
First letters of One Blew On Euphonium.
5 Mourn a VIP, a remarkable Finnish runner
PAAVO NURMI
In defence of this clue, it’s an obvious anagram (‘remarkable’) of (MOURN A VIP A)*. However, even with all the crossing letters, it’s not a write-in because it’s a foreign name. He was known as ‘The Flying Finn’, but died in 1973, so unless you’re into athletics, you might have struggled.
6 Potter’s creation, and urn squire with kiln forged, with hint of turquoise inside
SQUIRREL NUTKIN
Everyman is leading us up the garden path a bit with this puzzle. The ‘Potter’ is neither the clay-moulding type, nor Harry, but Beatrix. Best known perhaps for the Peter Rabbit tales, she published The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin in 1903. (URN SQUIRE KILN)* with an insertion of T for the first letter of ‘turquoise’.
7 Girl from different habitat
TABITHA
(HABITAT)*
8 Telephone engineer circling number
RING
An insertion of N in RIG. ‘The result was rigged/engineered.’
9 Pastoral events turned sour, resulting in uprising
PEASANTS’ REVOLT
(PASTORAL EVENTS)* Wat Tyler and his compatriots.
14 Obama broadcast includes bit of history, every single D-Day code name
OMAHA BEACH
An insertion of H in (OBAMA)* followed by EACH.
15 Wonky knees worry people from Manhattan?
NEW YORKERS
(WONKY KNEES)*
Edit: Thanks to Gladys. It’s in fact (KNEES WORRY)*
18 Indicating yes, theologian at home is brought in alcoholic drink
NODDING
An insertion of DD (Doctor of Divinity) and IN in NOG
19 With first-rate singing partner of Elton in Honolulu beach resort
WAIKIKI
A charade of W, AI for A1 or ‘first-rate’, and KIKI Dee, who apparently performed with Elton John on ‘Don’t Go Breaking my Heart’.
22 Favourite aspect of carnival
FAIR
A dd, I presume, although I’m struggling to see FAIR for ‘favourite’. ‘Favourable’, maybe.
23 Black bird of prey in a hollow
BOWL
A charade of B and OWL.
Many thanks as always to Everyman for this morning’s puzzle.
Yes, FAIR is strange. It is, as you say, clearly not synonymous with ‘favourite’.
If ‘F’ were an abbreviation for ‘Favourite’ then AIR could be a synonym for ‘aspect of’. Making it a charade, rather than DD.
But I don’t think ‘F’ is an abbreviation for ‘Favourite’….is it?
Mystery. :~/
Yes it is.
F = favourite (as in horse racing results).
{I actually used it myself in last week’s York puzzle]
Thanks for explaining that one for us, Sil.
Thanks Everyman and Pierre
Really enjoyed this, the first crossword I have finished without help, other than Googling the Finnish runner. Could not parse POIROT or WAIKIKI.
Liked ABORIGINE, it had me fooled for a while.
13a POIROT an insertion of IR for ‘Irish’
I was left with 6d and p?a?o ?u?m? and a i n r v. With the Finnish language, I think any letter could have gone anywhere so no way of getting that unless you knew it or googled it.
Right for a guess for 26a -never heard of it.
Lot of long anagrams
I enjoyed this more than most Everyman puzzles because I thought there were some excellent surfaces. I knew of PAAVO NURMI and SQUIRREL NUTKIN so they didn’t hold me up. I parsed FAIR the same way as Sil@2, and POIROT the same way as Cookie@4. ABORIGINE was my LOI.
The anagram for 15a is (KNEES WORRY)* not WONKY KNEES – i know because I spent ages trying to make NEW YORKERS out of the wrong fodder myself.
Thanks, Cookie and gladys for pointing out my carelessness. Blog updated.
Entertaining Everyman, as ever.
Thanks Pierre; some great anagrams here – I loved ERNEST HEMINGWAY. I knew of the flying Finn but couldn’t remember his name.
TABITHA Twitchit is another Beatrix Potter creation, and “The Story of Miss Moppet” a CAT-AND-MOUSE-GAME between Miss Moppet, a cat, and a tiny mischievous mouse. Maybe there are some other Potter references.
Thanks Pierre,
I had never heard of the Flying Finn so maybe that was a little obscure and not derivable from the clue.
I had to Google it and was surprised by the double A. I would have guessed Parvo Nuami if I had to but
there’s no point really. My last one in was ABORIGINE where I had A_O_I_I_E and without any consonants,
I just couldn’t see it. I should of course have seen Abe but didn’t see ‘checking’ as an inclusion indicator.
I used ‘Find and Fit’ to get the answer and then worked backwards to match it to the clue.
All in all, an entertaining Everyman so thanks for that.
Thanks to Everyman, Pierre and the above contributors.
My favourite clues are anagrams which I can usually confidently solve-this crossword had some beauties! My loi was 9d! I was familiar with 5d but had to check the spelling and am more familiar with Beatrix than Harry. I parsed 25a from its letters until eventually the penny dropped with Abe Lincoln at the back of my mind!
With sports fans the world over I’m sure we are all saddened by the death of Phil Hughes-RIP.
Good Morning from NZ. I thought I might have been the first Kiwi to post but Ian beat me. I got 5D from a book I picked up in a library sale. ‘Crossword Puzzle Name Finder’. It’s come in handy at times. Failed on ‘dweebs’. Never heard of it and doubt whether I’ll ever use it. Nerd more to my liking. I wrote in aborigine because it fitted. Couldn’t see how until now though.
Hi from Tauranga. Not too bad except for the wrong clue in “New Yorkers”.
Hi Margie @12 Remember back to your frustration at some comments on 3547? I am curious as to whether you Googled Ximenean and found the information helpful?
Similar thoughts to everyone else really, had to check the fast Finn, the whale and the mountain, and I seem alone in not having heard of that gemstone although guessed it correctly. I work in a bank so no shortage of Dweebs, Margie. I enjoyed 6d, used to have the complete Peter Rabbit Bookshelf when I was a nipper living in Wimbledon.
Coincidentally there’s a question on it in today’s Herald Canvas Quiz for us Kiwis..
Didn’t start till after bowls. Anyone else sick of this windy wet weather? Tricky clues this week and had to google the Finn who I hadn’t heard of. Got them all eventually except for Aborigine. Have heard of Dweebs though of course they’re not called that in NZ? My favourites were 6d and 9d.
Yes, I too was flummoxed by our neighbouring natives. A good mental workout with the anagrams, always thought that Ernest had 2 m’s!.
I laughed with the comment about being the first kiwi to comment as I must always be the last
i thought this was really a great puzzle, I was very proud of myself for getting squirrel nutkin, it always helps to think of the second or third most obvious when given a clue like ‘potter’.
Didnt think new yorkers was an odd clue… isn’t it whether you decide to use wonky or worry as the indicator?
i thought that clue was dead easy. saying something from me the slowest solver in NZ
It usually takes me a while to get through Everyman crossies but last week I finished one in 1 hour. That was a record for me until this weekend. In a couple of casual 15 min sessions I had the whole crossie done. I’m hoping for a harder one next week.
Thanks, NZ people, for your comments – always interesting and welcome. Apologies again for not explaining NEW YORKERS properly.
Rats, I can’t answer your question about ‘next week’s’ because I’m still confused about when these puzzles appear for you. Not suggesting that folk from New Zealand are behind the times or anything like that, of course …
Hi Pierre, next Saturday’s crossword will be Everyman 3552. Of course I could just go to the Everyman site, print it out and do it now but what would be the fun in doing that? 😉
Not sure about behind the Times Pierre, but we are about a month behind the Guardian…
Everymans appear in Saturday’s New Zealand Herald some four weeks after you get them in the Grauniad and Observer. As Rats says we can go online but doing that does mess with the weekend. Plus there’s something about ticking off the numbers with a pen…