The Observer crossword from July 5, 2020
A nice crossword, perhaps a bit chewier than usual for an Everyman?
Of course, we had another Primarily clue (one that was quite amusing).
Plus a well-judged variety of devices.
As we come to expect the two longest (Down) clues were related: one UP, one DOWN.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PERSUASION | Novel that’s winning (10) |
| Double definition This is, of course, about Jane Austen’s novel. Although ‘winning’ can be a noun, I think we should see it here as a gerund (more precisely: winning over). |
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| 6 | THUS | So shut up (4) |
| Anagram [up] of: SHUT This was my first one in because for years and years it was in my alter ego’s Scrapbook of Crossword Ideas. Can indeed be scrapped now! |
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| 9 | DISSATISFY | Put out novel, Daisy’s Fist (10) |
| Anagram [novel] of: DAISY’S FIST In these kind of clues I always find it a pity that the fodder is not a ‘real thing’ (in this case a novel). |
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| 10 | ORAL | Spoken of the country? Not once (4) |
| PASTORAL (of the country) minus PAST (once) | ||
| 12 | DEUTERONOMY | Book where one more duty laid out? (11) |
| Anagram [laid out] of: ONE MORE DUTY Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Old Testament and also of the Jewish Torah. |
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| 15 | SUCCUBI | Primarily, some uncanny carnal creatures undertaking bedroom incursions? (7) |
| Indicated (as ever) by Primarily, the first letters of: Some Uncanny Carnal Creatures Undertaking Bedroom Incursions ‘Succubi’ is the plural of ‘succubus’, the meaning of which you can find in any dictionary. Naughty, naughty. |
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| 16 | KON-TIKI | Twice king and I eat, on time for expedition (3-4) |
| K (king) + I, twice (and so we have KIKI), going around [eating] ON T (time) This 1947 expedition of Thor Heyerdahl and his friends. Without hyphen, also the title of 1961 UK Number One hit by The Shadows. |
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| 17 | ERRANDS | Commissions whereby queen’s collecting money in S Africa (7) |
| ER’S (queens’s) going around [collecting] RAND (money in S Africa) | ||
| 19 | LONG-AGO | Old desire with eagerness cut short (4-3) |
| LONG (desire) + AGO[g] (with eagerness, minus its last letter) [Thanks, to those below who pointed this out!] | ||
| 20 | URBAN LEGEND | Pope with explanatory note for piece of Apocrypha…? (5,6) |
| URBAN (Pope) + LEGEND (explanatory note, as on maps) Pick your favourite pope: Urban II, Urban VI or Urban VIII. The definition is a bit cryptic (hence the dots and the question mark). An urban legend is, as Chambers tells us, ‘a story or anecdote of modern life, often untrue or apocryphal’. With the word ‘apocryphal’ meaning ‘of doubtful authority’. The Apocrypha consists of 14 OT books not accepted by many Christians (and Jews) and there’s also the Apocrypha of the New Testament. |
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| 23 | UTAH | Headgear, uniform back-to-front in western state (4) |
| Reversal [back-to-front] of: HAT (headgear) + U (uniform) | ||
| 24 | AT THE READY | Set apart, gutted, they bypass study (2,3,5) |
| The outer letters of APART (what’s left after it’s gutted), followed by THEY going around [bypassing] READ (study) | ||
| 25 | LADY | Some dilly-dallying reactionary peer (4) |
| Hidden solution, indicated by Some: dillY–DALlying, then reversed [reactionary] | ||
| 26 | READ MY LIPS | Listen up: Everyman’s in peril, sad, quivering (4,2,4) |
| MY (Everyman’s) inside an anagram [quivering] of PERIL SAD Both definition and solution are mainly North American speak, according to the dictionaries. |
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| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PADS | Puts cushions in frogs‘ homes (4) |
| Triple definition I think a pad is more a toad than a frog but I may be wrong. I am only saying this because ‘pad’ is the Dutch word for ‘toad’. This second definition is in the SOED (marked as ‘obsolete’), not in Chambers, not in Collins. Perhaps, Everyman meant what my solving partner suggested: a frog sitting on a floating leaf of a water lily? |
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| 2 | ROSE | Groomsmen regularly downed wine (4) |
| Only the even letters of: gRoOmSmEn, after that word is regularly downed | ||
| 3 | UP AND RUNNING | Going to disturb nun during nap (2,3,7) |
| Anagram [to disturb] of: NUN DURING NAP Nice surface. |
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| 4 | STIMULI | Ferociously, ambitiously, a boy strangely wanting encouragement (7) |
| Anagram [ferociously] of AMBITIOUSLY, with the letters of i.e. an anagram [strangely] of A BOY removed It’s not wrong but strictly speaking ‘a boy’ doesn’t need an anagram indicator of its own. The letters are removed from ‘ambitiously’ in the original order. |
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| 5 | OFF-PEAK | Ill – almost ill – it’s when there’s less activity (3-4) |
| OFF (ill) + PEAK[y] (ill, minus its last letter) | ||
| 7 | HARMONICAS | Drunk chairman’s admitted love for noises in Dylan records (10) |
| Anagram [drunk] of CHAIRMAN’S, going around [admitting] O (love) Fans of Bob Dylan will probably take offence here – ‘noises’? Personally, I do not like the past tense of the containment indicator but that’s just me, one of my pet hates. |
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| 8 | SILLY MID-ON | Loins dimly aroused by position (5,3-2) |
| Anagram [aroused] of: LOINS DIMLY A dyslexic person might have seen lions that were aroused …… The solution is a ‘position’ in cricket. |
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| 11 | DOWN-AND-DIRTY | Unprincipled, odd, tiny and drawn out (4-3-5) |
| Anagram [out] of: ODD TINY DRAWN | ||
| 13 | AS PER USUAL | Since university, gets into reading? Typical (2,3,5) |
| AS (since), followed by U (university) inserted in PERUSAL (reading) | ||
| 14 | SCOREBOARD | 20 to go on here? (10) |
Zim in Massachusetts @5 is right, I think: SCORE (20) + BOARD (to go on) |
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| 18 | SHEATHE | Cover that woman to keep warmth in (7) |
| SHE (that woman) going around [keeping] HEAT (warmth) | ||
| 19 | LEECHED | Drained and percolated audibly (7) |
| Homophone, indicated by audibly, of: LEACHED (percolated) This seems to me an unfortunate clue. Because ‘leach’ can be a variant spelling of ‘leech’. |
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| 21 | SARI | Bit of tsarina’s dress (4) |
| Hidden solution, indicated by bit of: tSARIna | ||
| 22 | DYES | Reportedly ‘breaks down stains‘ (4) |
| Homophone, indicated by reportedly, of: DIES (breaks down) | ||
I did not parse 10a ORAL
thanks B+S
I had OFF WEEK for 5d. ‘Weak’ as a homophone for ‘weak’ (or almost ‘weak’). So is that a DNF, or is it a reasonable alternative answer? I’ll go for the latter. I liked URBAN LEGEND, and the ‘primarily’ for its surface. Thanks to Everyman and Sil.
Whoops – homophone for ‘week’.
Very pleasant. Parsing 18d held me up — sheathe seemed to be the answer but I took she to be the first, second and last letters leaving “eath.” Only realized on second reading that there are plenty of places for the letters of she.
5d suggested off-term until Kon-Tiki ruled it out.
The up and down pair of anagrams were very nice.
I enjoyed this for the most part. Missed 5d, putting in OFF WEEK (though the lack of a homophone indicator and the hyphen should have tipped me off).
The clue for 19a seems incorrect gramatically. I’ve only heard of “agog” being used as an adjective, but the surface calls for a noun (“eagerness”).
I also had a couple of slightly different parsings. I took 1d as a double definition, “Puts cushions in” and “frogs’ homes” (i.e., lily pads). And for 14d I had SCORE (“20”) + BOARD (“to go on”, as a train), with “here” being the definition. In any case, the clue seemed a bit weak to me.
Thanks to Everyman and Sil.
Sil: In 19a I parsed AGO as “with eagerness cut short “ – eagerness on its own is the wrong part of speech for “agog “.
TassieTim: I too entered OFFWEEK at 5d, for the same reason. Unlike you, I think OFFPEAK is much better, so I gave myself a DNF.
The signature primarily clues are write-ins, but they always provide a laugh to start the puzzle, so I love them.
Thanks Everyman and Sil for the Sunday comfort.
Zim@5: Thanks to my slow typing, we crossed, making a couple of the same points.
Ref Zim at 5, I think it’s ‘with eagerness’ = agog
Sil’s addendum to 12 reminds of the old joke with denoument “Good luck, Mr Gorski” …
I thought this was pretty mediocre Everyman fare compared to the previous week where the clues had some good surface readings and smart wordplay. At times this felt closer to Victor Meldrew’ infamous nonsense cryptic.
Generally entertaining; like Sil I thought a bit more difficult than usual, especially the bottom half.
One or two quibbles; I think once means ‘in the past.’ I queried agog, but I think cellomaniac @6 is correct in that it is ‘with eagerness.’ Sil’s frog is in the OED as rare, English regional (Northern). I personally dislike ‘up’ as an anagrind, but it is used by others. I ticked OFF-PEAK, which seemed to have given trouble to some.
Thanks Everyman and Sil.
I wonder why, as a compiler, you would want to provide your solvers with a gimme every week as Everyman does with his/her “Primarily” clue.
Franki @ 12
I find it strange, too
Franki @ 12 and michelle @ 13
People have various motivations for doing crosswords, but enjoyment is surely a common one. The “primarily” clues, while very straightforward, use a completely kosher cryptic convention, and clearly bring much enjoyment to many people (including me, but see above for further anecdotal evidence) — this week’s surface was delightful.
Plus, while straightforward to you, every week there will be people who are doing the Everyman for the first time who will be very pleased with themselves for figuring this stuff out. Having a modicum of success, even if they don’t get any other clues, will greatly increase the chance that they’ll come back for another taste.
NE corner took a while and I had of question marks with some oe the parsings which Sil has helpfully answered. Otherwise to me this one seemed a bit easier than recent. Thanks Sil & Everyman.
Put me down as a dnf with Off Week and a couple of other blanks. Not one of his best.
Good puzzle. I.e. I finished it without any help from wildcard dictionaries. 🙂 I could not parse 10 across (“oral”) — kept thinking of “rural” for “of the country” and could not dredge up “pastoral”. Also couldn’t parse 14 down (“scoreboard”) — but apparently even Sil was a bit flummoxed by this.
Thanks to Everyman and to Sil.
I could not understand the explanation for 4d
How were we supposed to know all that removal of letters from ambitiously
Far too obscure takes a mind reader to understand thIs setter.
some are fine but the wildly obscure clues ruin it for me
Only got the paper today. 10a stumped us – went ural. That one was difficult with having to find pastoral and past pre subtraction. Note that there are incubus as well as succumbus so good to see Everyman being PC by using clues with gender alternatives. I predict incubi next week.