Everyman 3,566

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Sunday and time to do the Everyman.

 

I found this considerable harder than most Everyman crosswords and it took a little while to spot some of these, can’t blame the hangover as I haven’t got one.

completed grid

Across

1 Film a vessel on a river (6)
AVATAR
A & VAT (vessel) & A & R(iver). Never seen it, but I’m told it was fairly popular. 🙂
4 English writer, Eliot, is wandering around lake (8)
SILLITOE
[ELIOT IS]* wandering around L(ake)
10 In lodgings, one battering burgers (7-8)
QUARTER POUNDERS
POUNDER (one battering) in QUARTERS (lodgings)
11 Exhausted, among a group marooned (9)
ABANDONED
DONE (exhausted) in A BAND (group)
12 Enough taste without pinch of salt (5)
AMPLE
S(alt) removed from (s)AMPLE (taste)
13 Striking number heading chart (7)
NOTABLE
NO (number) & TABLE (chart)
15 Stop working in retreat (6)
RETIRE
Double def
17 Husband leaving nurse in leafy glade (6)
ARBOUR
H(usband) leaves (h)ARBOUR (nurse)
19 Miser, for example, returned, after wages, we hear (7)
SCROOGE
E.G. reversed after hom of SCREW (wages)
21 Independent broadsheet in New York, particularly good (5)
NIFTY
I(ndependent) & F(inancial) T(imes) in N(ew) Y(ork)
22 Almost read fire-raiser’s game (4,5)
STUD POKER
STUD(y) (read) & POKER (fire tool)
24 Plain glass in wagon (7,8)
PRAIRIE SCHOONER
PRAIRIE (grass plain) & SCHOONER (glass)
25 Sling a monitor inside school (8)
CATAPULT
A TAP (monitor as in wire-tap for telephones) in CULT (school)
26 Scandalmonger, first to get very large drink (6)
GOSSIP
G(et) & O(ver) S(ize) & SIP

Down

1 Inform aircraftman, strikingly old-fashioned (8)
ACQUAINT
A/C (aircraftman in Chambers) & QUAINT
2 Raging at fame, or fat cats, in reality (2,1,6,2,4)
AS A MATTER OF FACT
[AT FAME OR FAT CATS]* raging
3 Appeared in play – lengthy? Not half! (5)
ACTED
Only half of (protr)ACTED - lengthy. Not entirely obvious.
5 Home Rule appropriate? (2,5)
IN ORDER
IN home & ORDER rule
6 House in county town (9)
LANCASTER
Double def
7 Right, soft-spoken eccentric, racing (3,5,2,5)
THE SPORT OF KINGS
[RIGHT SOFT SPOKEN]* is eccentric
8 Trees cut across area used for festival (6)
EASTER
A(rea) in TREES* cut. CUT as an anagram indicator seems odd
9 Bang bell cast in iron (6)
FRINGE
As in hair. RING in FE (iron)
14 Blunder by individual turning up hidden bomb, perhaps (5,4)
BOOBY TRAP
BOOB (blunder) & PARTY reversed. Individual & party being unusual synonyms to my mind at first glance
16 Sweet pendant (4,4)
PEAR DROP
Double def
18 Brief plan to promote actress (Rosalind or Jane) (7)
RUSSELL
RUS(e) briefly & SELL (promote)
19 Reportedly dressing well (6)
SOURCE
Sounds like SAUCE
20 Manipulated SP, once, as a gamble (2,4)
ON SPEC
[SP ONCE]* is manipulated
23 Snap in suntrap – hot, obviously (5)
PHOTO
Hidden answer
*anagram

25 comments on “Everyman 3,566”

  2. I couldn’t get 15a, 17a or 18d.
    I don’t think that s being clued as a pinch of salt is very good nor do I like clues that refer to actresses. There must be hundreds of actresses called Rosalind or Jane.
    Screw for wages is very obscure and ditto bang for fringe. I think the prairie schooner exists only in crossword land.

  3. Thanks, flashling.
    In 14d, took “individual” and “party” to be terms used by a policeman giving evidence.

  4. Thanks Everyman & flashling.

    I thought I must be losing my touch for the last two weeks as the Everyman seemed to be difficult. Glad I wasn’t the only one!

    I got the SCHOONER in 24, but it took a long time to add PRAIRIE. I’d never heard the term before. Surely Jane RUSSELL is not very obscure, although I hadn’t heard of Rosalind.

    I liked SCROOGE & CATAPULT.

  5. Bamberger@2 – “hundreds of actresses” that share a surname called Rosalind and Jane. Really? I suppose Everyman could have made it even easier by including Theresa in the clue.

    I thought this was going to be trickier than it turned out to be because my FOI was NIFTY, but once I got one the rest just seemed to flow.

  6. Thanks Everyman and Flashling.

    I took ages getting started and nearly gave up. Took me a long time to complete.

    1a, I parsed it as VAT on the river AAR (also Aare, branch of the Rhine, longest river in Switzerland).

    I did like FRINGE, CATAPULT, BOOBY TRAP and PRAIRIE SCHOONER.

  7. Andy B @5 while I could google them , I can honestly say that I have never heard of Jane Russell , Rosalind Russell or Teresa Russell and don’t know whether they appear on the stage, in films or TV or all. I’d call this a general knowledge type of clue.

  8. B@7 – yes, it is a GK clue with no way to get the answer other than checkers and guesswork if you don’t know the actresses in question, and clues like that can be unfair, but that wasn’t the point I was making. I think the number of actresses called ROSALIND and JANE who share a seven-letter surname is probably closer to one than hundreds.

  10. 14D reminds me of Graucho Marx and “The party of the first part” in A Night at the Opera if memory serves me right.

  11. Worked steadily through the across clues and only a couple of possibles until 26a pointed to today’s puzzle being more challenging than those of previous weeks fortunately more of the down clues slotted into place and eventually success! I particularly liked 22a, 24a, 19d, 1d and I got 7d before I recognised the anagram! 10a would be my favourite and 1a was loi. Personally I enjoy the GK aspect contained in a portion of the general spectrum of the clues in a crossword intended to be all-round test.

    Thanks as per usual to Everyman and flashling-I wasn’t suffering from an hangover either-more from a nail-biting evening in front of the TV watching cricket and rugby (alternately!)

  12. Must admit I gave up on a few, 4a 24a (first word) and 18d. If I want GK I’ll go find a quiz, this morning I honestly couldn’t be bothered looking up writers and actresses I haven’t heard of. Ok so I may have heard of Jane Russell, but not the other one and certainly never heard of Sillitoe even though the wordplay was straightforward.

    Got 9d but don’t understand the def. never heard of a bang fringe. Or a prairie schooner.

    Everything else fine, and unlike some I rather enjoyed 19a. Shows we’re all different.

    Thanks all again. And I hope the English cricketers don’t get too mauled at Heathrow.

  13. The thesaurus was put to good use today. This was definitely harder than recent weeks and I couldn’t get 18d or 19d. I do remember Jane Russell in films a long time ago and think I have vaguely heard of Rosalind though I don’t think either were particularly memorable. I agree with Flashling’s comments about 3d.
    Good puzzle though and keeps the brain working. Thanks everyone.

  14. Forgot to say that the word “bangs” for fringe is an American term and whenever I have heard it, it has had an ‘s’ on the end. Little girls in NZ never used the word.
    Barrie, Alan Sillitoe is quite a well-known English writer, and I’m sure you will have heard of some of his books e.g Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner.

  15. Phew, I’m really glad this blog exists as I thought I must have taken some dumb pills as I really struggled this morning and doubted if I’d get the job done. I did not as it happened.
    I’ve seen cowboys circling their covered wagons when under attack from the injuns but never knew thew were called prairie schooners!
    GK clues are good if you can work out the answer with the info in the clue but I guess they’re not GK clues then are they?
    Go the Black Caps and don’t loose the faith with Johnny and the Blues, they’ll come right

  16. This was one was harder for me too and gave up with a few to complete. Other things to do e.g. take grand-daughters for a walk on the beach before the storm. A beautiful day here and the surf at Papamoa is pounding in. I’m so annoyed I didn’t get 10a. It’s so obvious now. However, it was the top left corner I struggled with. I’ve always thought a ‘bang’ was a style of hair that was on the side of the face not on the forehead. Now I know. Nice clue, now that it’s been explained. Got 24a thanks to a new dictionary I was given. Chambers Crossword Dictionary. Handy for a 3rd generation kiwi like me with limited knowledge of British counties etc, etc.
    My favourites were mostly the ones I didn’t get!

  17. I am sorry but I only solved 2 clues, acted and retired. Then I gave up and looked for Fifteen Squared which I believe is 225. I thought a Lancaster was a bomber but apparently it is a house – the house of Lancaster. There was a booby trap. All good, thank you.

  18. Hi Audrey, yes I have heard of those two but never read either. Perhaps for that reason the name of the author never stuck. And I did English Lit A Level at school in the UK so did my fair share of reading!

  19. Hi Barrie I knew you would have heard of them, and probably the film of the first one starring Albert Finney as Arthur.

  20. feel relieved even our english friends found this harder than usual tho i missed only two in the end. I though 17a was really obscure and cannot really see a simile in harbour and nurse.oh well, the setter obviously did.
    Still took me always to sunday to finally admit defeat!

  21. That was a toughie. Had 5 left and gave up.

    Couldn’t get STILLTOE. Had half of PRAIRIE SCHOONER. Didn’t get ACQUAINT, ARBOUR, RUSSEL and despite having eaten about a billion of these, didn’t get QUARTER POUNDER.

    Nonetheless an enjoyable crossie. Thanks Everyman and Flashling.

  22. Don’t apologise, Joe. Keep at it. They get easier the more you persevere. I taught my Dad to do the cryptic crossword in the Listener years ago. Then he got really good at them. He’d love this one. He always said you had to be bitter and twisted to be able to do them. LOL.

  23. Well even with electronic aids we were beaten by this one = 4a (Sillitoe) proving our Achilles heal. Never heard of the gent and Mr Google didn’t oblige with a proposal with “English writer Sil” (or “English author Sil”) in the search box.
    We have actually spent most of the weekend celebrating the arrival of the Bombay in New Zealand from England 150 years ago. She brought a shipload of young emigrants including my great grandparents.

  24. Hi Vanessa @ 20 I took harbour as to “harbour a grudge(or an idea)”=”nurse a grudge(or an idea)” and once you remove the “h” you have an arbour=leafy glade. Hope this helps.

  25. Pondering 4a I had a Keyser Soze moment when my eyes fell upon the Pan paperback copy of ‘Saturday Night, Sunday Morning’ on the shelf behind me..

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