Everyman 3,633

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The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3633.

I do not have much to add to the usual comments about Everyman – some fine surfaces, a good variety of clues with a few more complex wordplays, and an altogether satisfying solve. If you do not know the film, it is worth watching.

Across
1 PARAPET Soldier favoured fortification (7)
A charade of PARA (‘soldier’) plus PET (‘favoured’).
5 ENMITY Yankee after discharge receiving new antagonism (6)
An envelope (‘receiving’) of N (‘new’) in EMIT (‘discharge’) plus Y (‘yankee’, Nato phonetic alphabet).
8 THIS IS SPINAL TAP Film that’s funny has apt slips in it (4,2,6,3)
An anagram (‘funny’) of ‘has apt slips in it’, with an extended definition.
10 REINSTATED Control said to be restored (10)
A charade of REIN (‘control’) plus STATED (‘said’).
11 EMIR Part of problem irritating ruler (4)
A hidden answer (‘part of’) in ‘problEM IRritating’.
13 ARGOT Progress in skill with jargon (5)
An enevlope (‘in’) of GO (‘progress’) in ART (‘skill’).
14 BOTANICAL Bad action in laboratory brought about, relating to plant study (9)
An envelope (‘in’) of OTANIC, an anagram (‘bad’) of ‘action’ in BAL, a reversal (‘brought about’) of LAB (‘laboratory’).
15 IMAGINARY Unreal yarn I concocted, taking wise men in (9)
An envelope (‘taking … in’) of MAGI (‘wise men’) in INARY, an anagram (‘concocted’) of ‘yarn I’.
17 INANE Foolish sign painter leaving odd bits out (5)
‘[s]I[g]N [p]A[i]N[t]E[r]’ ‘leaving odd bits out’.
19 TAME Boring master (4)
Double definition.
20 AFICIONADO Lover in trouble after a heartless lie (10)
A charade of ‘a’ plus FIC[t]ION (‘lie’) minus its middle letter (‘heartless’) plus ADO (‘trouble’).
23 CORPORATE RAIDER Terribly poor, in hole? Help, with hesitation, aggressive investor (9,6)
An envelope (‘in’) of ORPO, an anagram (‘terribly’) of ‘poor’ in CRATER (‘hole’) plus AID (‘help’) plus ER (‘hesitation’).
24 FLIGHT Departure following match (6)
A charade of F (‘following) plus LIGHT (‘match’).
25 STERNUM Bone from bird among quantity (7)
An envelope (‘among’) of TERN (‘bird’) in SUM (‘quantity’).
Down
1 PATERNALISTIC Saint alert to change in image, benevolent but intrusive (13)
An envelope (‘in’) of ATERNALIST, an anagram (‘to change’) of ‘saint alert’ in PIC (‘image’).
2 RAILING Fence poorly, overcome by resistance (7)
A charade of R(‘resistance’) plus AILING (‘poorly’).
3 POINSETTIA Shrub planted in location one approved initially (10)
An envelope (‘in’) of SET (‘planted’) in POINT (‘location’) plus I (‘one’) plus A (‘Approved initially’).
4 TOSCA Act so unnaturally in opera (5)
An anagram (‘unnaturally’) of ‘act so’. Do I detect a hint of an extended definition?
5 EVIDENTLY Depression during bad year without question (9)
An envelope (‘during’) of DENT (‘depression’) in EVIL (‘bad’) plus Y (‘year’).
6 MEAN Squalid plan (4)
Double definition.
7 TOTEMIC Symbolic drink label, collector’s first (7)
A charade of TOT (‘drink’) plus EMI (recording ‘label’) plus C (‘Collector’s first’).
9 PARALLELOGRAM All income, finally put on record with force, below average figure (13)
A charade of PAR (‘average’, with ‘below’ in a down light indicating that this comes first) plus ‘all’ plus E (‘incomE finally’) plus LOG (‘record’) plus RAM (‘force’).
12 INVIGORATE Refresh ratio given wrongly (10)
An anagram (‘wrongly’) of ‘ratio given’.
14 BEANFEAST English fan transformed into animal in celebratory event (9)
An envelope (‘into’) of E (‘English’) plus ANF, an anagram (‘transformed’) of ‘fan’ in BEAST (‘animal’).
16 ADMIRAL Mad liar struggling to become officer (7)
An anagram (‘struggling’) of ‘mad liar’.
18 ABANDON Leave teacher to support a veto (7)
A charade of ‘a’ plus BAN (‘veto’) plus DON (‘teacher’).
21 CHESS County in short leading second game (5)
A charade of CHES (Cheshire, ‘county in short’) plus S (‘second’).
22 SONG Member of family joined by good number (4)
A charade of SON (‘member of family’) plus G (‘good’).
completed grid

16 comments on “Everyman 3,633”

  1. I found this trickier than the previous week. It took me a long time to see THIS IS SPINAL TAP, which then became one of my favourites. Other favourites included IMAGINARY, INANE (clever clue for a simple word), FLIGHT, PATERNALISTIC and ADMIRAL (nice surface).

    Thanks, Everyman and PeterO.

  2. Thank you Everyman and PeterO.

    We found this trickier than usual. Our last two in were 6d and 19a both of which we felt could have been better clued to make them unambiguous.

  3. Thank you Everyman and PeterO;

    I also found this trickier than the past few weeks. THIS IS SPINAL TAP floored me, seem to remember I cheated by using the anagram solver – never heard of the film, it sounds rather fun!

  7. Some of the longer answers, plus the film I’ve seen numerous times but took an age to get, meant this was a slighter harder solve than usual. Thoroughly enjoyable as expected, though.

  8. New word for me was BEANFEST.

    My favourites were IMAGINARY, CORPORATE RAIDER, PATERNALISTIC & PARALLELOGRAM.

    Thank you Everyman and PeterO.

  9. No golf today (cats and dogs) so got on to this earlier in the weekend than normal. Never heard of the movie and struggled to parse 5d by falling into the trap of assuming ‘bad year’ must be an anagram. Memo to self: if a thought doesn’t seem to work, find another thought. Perhaps David Cameron should have done that too.

    Otherwise I agree with previous comments, this was a bit harder in places.

    Thanks Everyman and PeterO

  10. Had some fun with this puzzle. I did not know how to spell parallelogram, and I did not know that an aficionado is a lover, although ‘ardent supporter’ possibly means ‘lover’, I guess.
    I put ‘lover’ into an on line puzzle solver which came up with lots of synonyms but not ‘aficionado’.

  11. Tricky came up a bit and totally agree – I did use some resources more than usual but no fun without resources.
    Thought 20 ac the hardest couldn’t get amorato out of my head even thought I knew it was wrong.Lots of answers I likely would not have found without trusty thesaurus.

  12. I thought this was a perfect crossword; challenging all the way, but do-able. Nothing so ridiculously hard as to be impossible, but almost every clue required subtantial thought.

  13. This was quite a work-out but eventually I managed to eke out all but one… failed on BEANFEAST which was new to me.

  14. Have been away so was late starting this.
    I found this harder than usual and had to look up the film after I guessed the first two words.
    Wasn’t sure if mean was right for 6 d and was surprised to find it was. How is that ‘plan?’

  16. Just like last week struggled with this – beginning to think that the style has changed in the last couple of weeks. Argot was a new word to me as was evidentry ( at least that’s what I inserted for 5d – fixated with the fact that somehow it had to at least have yr in the answer. Hmmm! Thanks to all.

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