Everyman 3,596

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A quick solve and a quick blog.

Apologies for terseness of post and analysis below – no domestic internet following a house-move, and hammering this out in my work lunchtime. One clue at 22ac I didn’t have time to parse properly.

completed grid
Across
1 SOLIDITY
Substance? Cover it in sauce (8)

LID (cover) IT in SOY (sauce).
5 STITCH
Pain shown by saint with restless desire (6)

ST ITCH
10 ROMAN
Back in prison, amoral type (5)

Hidden reversed, in prisoNAMORal, for the typeface
11 ANNOUNCED
Demolition of cannon due to be reported (9)

Anag (demolition) of CANNONDUE
12 TENNESSEE
State view, following notes, right away (9)

SEE (view), following  TENNErS (notes, right away)
13 CLEAN
Completely cold and thin (5)

C LEAN
14 HARD SHOULDER
Demanding push to create space for emergency stops (4,8)

Charade
18 UNIMAGINABLE
In a maul, being knocked about beyond belief (12)

anag (knocked about) of INAMAULBEING.

Just one of several nice surfaces in this puzzle
21 LEASH
Lead attack filled with energy (5)

E (energy) in LASH (attack)
22 TENACIOUS
Determined airman, one in number over America (9)

In a rush – couldn’t parse
24 ALBATROSS
Wretched rat caught by a large superior bird (9)

anagram (wretched) of RAT in A L (large) BOSS (superior)
25 IDEAL
Perfect island, compact (5)

I (island) DEAL (compact)
26 SOLACE
Comfort thus given by fabric (6)

SO (thus) LACE (fabric)
27 SAVAGERY
Very bad rage, beset by utter brutality (8)

V (very) anag (bad) of RAGE in SAY (utter)
Down
1 STRETCHY
Elastic cut during second attempt (8)

ETCH (cut) in S (second) TRY (attempt)
2 LUMINARY
Worthy arrangement of family run without force (8)

Anag (arrangement) of fAMILYRUN (without force)
3 DUNCE
Fool about, getting covered by mound of sand (5)

C (about) in DUNE
4 TRANSFORMATION
Change technique, climbing with son for miles in country (14)

TRA (= art (technique) climbing) S (son) FOR M (miles) in NATION
6 TRUNCHEON
New companion admitted to proper working club (9)

N (new) CH (companion) in TRUE (proper) ON (working)
7 TICKER
Heart in aromatic kernel (6)

hidden answer
8 HIDING
Keeping quiet about severe defeat (6)

Double definition. Not sure what the ‘about’ is doing there.
9 INTELLIGENTSIA
Complicated lines gain title for eggheads (14)

anag (complicated) of LINESGAINTITLE
15 SYNTHETIC
Fake jewellery’s ending in battered tin chest (9)

Y (jewellery’s ending) in anag (battered) of TINCHEST
16 OBSOLETE
Old one, team’s leader, held in honour (8)

SOLE (one) T (team’s leader) in OBE
17 WEASELLY
Treacherous? Yes, we all converted (8)

Anag (converted) of YESWEALL
19 ALWAYS
Article on boat going north and south continually (6)

A (article) YAWL (boat) backwards (going north) S (south)
20 GAMBOL
Caper, risky venture by the sound of it (6)

Sounds like ‘gamble’
23 CHINA
Land identified by mate (5)

Double def
*anagram

13 comments on “Everyman 3,596”

  1. Thanks for the parsing on 1a, obvious now but couldn’t see it for looking at the time.

    22a is

    AC (airman) + I (one) all inside TEN + O (over) + US (America) > TEN(AC+I)O+US

    Thanks for the blog and to Everyman

  3. I thought this was perfect for what it is meant to be. Lots of well-found anagrams to make it suitable for ‘everyman’, and clear, easy-to-follow charades.

    And enjoyable to solve.

    Matt – in HIDING, the ‘about’ can be part of the first definition… so, “Keeping quiet about” rather than just “Keeping quiet”.

    Thanks both.

  5. Thanks for blogging, Matt.

    I too struggled to parse TENACIOUS and thought DEAL for ‘compact’ was a bit remote (it is in thesauruses though). Otherwise it all fell out nicely, which is what it should do.

    Thanks to Everyman.

  6. Thanks Everyman and Matt – hope you are now comfortably settled into your new home.

    The right side was soon filled but the left was a problem with SOLIDITY being the last in and not correctly parsed.

    INTELLIGENTSIA, ALWAYS, GAMBOL and ROMAN among others were fun

  7. I enjoyed this too, especially since the All Blacks put up a slightly better showing at the same time this morning.

    Roman I struggled with, heard of Times New Roman but didn’t make the connection.

    Liked ‘notes right away’ for Tenners, but that might be a bit too English for some down under.

    Leash and Always were satisfying solves too.

    On to next weekend. Ireland or France? In some ways it might be nice to get France out of the way.

    Thanks Everyman and Matt.

  9. Yes, a fun puzzle with just enough in it to give the Grey cells a workout. Away in the lucky country last week, but read the blogs about irritants. Agree with them all.

  10. Wow I managed to finish it all this week though couldn’t parse them all e.g.ideal. Liked 14 ac and 21 ac among others.
    Hope you are settled in now Matt. It will be me moving soon too. Have Open Homes this weekend, which is why I’m doing this at night.,
    Thanks everyone for your comments. I agree with most of you. And thanks Matt for your explanations.
    Now the Rugby World Cup is going to get more interesting. Go the All Blacks.

  11. I regret that I must disagree with other correspondents. This is a dreadful crossword. The clues do not generally suggest the answers and the answers do not match the clues, and the explanations are far fetched. The crossword is based on pseudo clever playing with the alphabet. There is no humour and nothing of genuine interest in it. I will be very sad if the setter settles into the dull, boring, pseudo intellectual rut that these crosswords are in. It really is time for a change. Where is the humour? Where are the classical references? Why are we reduced to algebraic calculations?

  13. Well, I have to agree with Joe, in many ways. I didn’t get far with this one either. Although I was staying at Ronald McDonald house and didn’t get a lot of time to puzzle over it, the clues were rather twisted for my liking. Go Joe and ignore comment and its implications of the Pakuranga pair.

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