What has now become a typically good and sound Everyman crossword with generally nice surfaces. Some of the answers are quite easy to find, so I think he is becoming more user-friendly for those who are not yet all that familiar with things.
Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (homophone, hidden, containment, anagram, juxtaposition, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.
Normally the rhyming pair consists of two long words, but this time all I can find is two words of only medium length. I have also coloured two answers that are related by their second part.
Jay @1 describes the clever way that Everyman has marked this his 400th puzzle.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CUCKOO CLOCKS |
Bats notice small timepieces (6,6)
|
| cuckoo clock s — cuckoo = bats, clock = notice, s = small | ||
| 10 | CLEAN-UP |
Soap-and-water chore: vessel‘s devoid of fat on the inside (5-2)
|
| c(lean)up — cup = vessel, lean = devoid of fat | ||
| 11 | RAN INTO |
Came across, somewhat earlier, an intoxicant (3,4)
|
| Hidden in earlieR AN INTOxicant | ||
| 12 | NATAL |
Relating to birth somewhere in old Africa (5)
|
| 2 defs — the first pronounced nay-t’l and the second with a capital letter, a province of South Africa before independence which, after combining with the Zulu homeland, is now called KwaZulu-Natal | ||
| 13 | IN MY BOOK |
For Everyman startled by kimono (2,2,4)
|
| *(by kimono) — the self-referential clue | ||
| 15 | MANZANILLA |
Bloke, mostly clownish and off-colour, with a light sherry (10)
|
| man zan[y] ill a — man = bloke, zany = clownish, ill = off-colour, a = a | ||
| 16 | STYE |
Inflammation ultimately causes hurt, lumpy eye (4)
|
| [cause]s [hur]t [lump]y [ey]e — last letters & lit. — is this a change for Everyman from the first letters &lit. which was a feature? [no] | ||
| 18 | COCO |
Cognomen of clown, originally – primarily! (4)
|
| The usual first-letters &lit. — no, in answer to the question I just asked, Everyman hasn’t departed from his usual | ||
| 20 | ACROPHOBIA |
Dash or hop a cab, I fear (10)
|
| *(or hop a cab I) — fear of heights | ||
| 22 | YEOMANLY |
Staunch and honest, lay money out (8)
|
| (lay money)* | ||
| 24 | ATTIC |
Garret in part of old Greece (5)
|
| 2 defs, the first referring to the room and the second to ancient Athens or Attica | ||
| 26 | LATERAL |
Subsequently, a liberal, creative type of thinking (7)
|
| later a L — later = subsequently, a = a, L = Liberal = liberal — I’m not sure that liberal = l; certainly Liberal = L | ||
| 27 | HOEDOWN |
Oh no! We’d assembled for a dance (7)
|
| (Oh no! We’d)* | ||
| 28 | ARCTIC CIRCLE |
Bitter cleric involved in imagined ring (6,6)
|
| arctic (cleric)* — arctic = bitter (as in bitter cold) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | UNEATEN |
Upper-class groom not taken in (7)
|
| U neaten — U = upper-class, neaten = groom — if something is not taken in it is not eaten | ||
| 3 | KING LEAR |
Eight characters in groundbreaking, learned play (4,4)
|
| Hidden in groundbreaKING LEARned — eight letters | ||
| 4 | OOPS |
Love, Oscar. PS: I didn’t mean that (4)
|
| 0 O PS — 0 = Love, O = Oscar (NATO alphabet), PS = PS | ||
| 5 | LORD NELSON |
Admiral‘s stinking, send roll-on (4,6)
|
| *(send roll-on) | ||
| 6 | CANDY |
Sweeties from outskirts of Coventry (5)
|
| C and Y — the outskirts of “Coventry” are C and y | ||
| 7 | SING OUT |
Evil inflammation making you shout (4,3)
|
| sin gout — sin = evil, gout = inflammation | ||
| 8 | ECONOMIC CYCLE |
Cheap bike in series of peaks and troughs (8,5)
|
| A cheap bike could be called an economic/al cycle | ||
| 9 | COCKNEY ACCENT |
In which homes will come across as resistance units? (7,6)
|
| CD, where the crossword Cockney pronounces homes as ‘omes, which sounds like ohms, resistance units | ||
| 14 | PICCALILLI |
In conversation, choose a bloomer and sandwich spread (10)
|
| “pick a lily” | ||
| 17 | WHEATEAR |
Songbird with ardour entering fray (8)
|
| w(heat)ear — heat = ardour, wear = fray — as I was solving this I was hoping that Everyman would have with = W, so that I couldn’t grumble about “with” being used as a link-word, but unfortunately not | ||
| 19 | CROATIA |
Split personality’s home? (7)
|
| CD relying on Croatia’s capital being Split [no it isn’t, Christopher @6 points out — Zagreb is] — nice for anyone to whom this is new | ||
| 21 | BATH OIL |
Aromatherapy product seen when crushing biathlon cut short (4,3)
|
| *(biathlo[n]) | ||
| 23 | AURIC |
Section of nouveau riche concerned with gold (5)
|
| Hidden in nouveAU RIChe | ||
| 25 | CHIC |
Sean Connery’s counterpart to hide with it (4)
|
| Sean Connery was well-known for his lisp (not really a lisp as poc@7 says], and would have pronounced “seek” “sheek”, which is how “chic” is pronounced — the counterpart to hide is seek as in hide-and-seek |
This is the current Everyman’s 400th puzzle, a milestone he marks in each of the perimeter solutions with CCCC.
Congrats, Everyman, I shall be looking out for the 500th puzzle in (if I calculate correctly) August 2028.
Thanks to John for the blog.
[It seems today’s Everyman 4173 has gone fully behind a paywall, I am unable to access it as a free registered user, which has been working up to now, it is insisting I subscribe. If as a result this was the last Everyman I get to enjoy then so long and thanks for all the fish…]
Jay #1 a great spot.
Thanks to John for the blog and Everyman for the years of entertainment.
Graham@2 try this link…
tinyurl.com/Everyman4173
Jay#3. Beautiful. Thanks for that.
Graham, try deleting the O’s cookies and refresh the page. They seem to get superseded rather often.
I had a similar issue at first.
Thank you Everyman. Thank you John.
This was an Everyman that I finished but there were a couple of clues I did not parse.
As a geographer, I am furious with myself I did not see Split is in Croatia.
However, Zagreb is the capital of Croatia.
Sean Connery’s dialect pronunciation of ‘s’ as ‘sh’ (also found in parts of Ireland) is not a lisp.
poc@7 … a shibboleth, then.
Now that COCKNEY ACCENT has finally become an answer maybe Everyman can retire that form of tiresome cluing. And please…no more Sean Connery ones either. Or maybe I’m just annoyed as I didn’t get ARCTIC or CROATIA. Otherwise, a very enjoyable solve..
Graham@2, Etu@5, I’ve found incognito mode works too,
[Etu & Dewey: thanks, I’d tried both those yesterday with no luck (I always run with my browser in private / incognito mode, doesn’t everyone?). However this (Monday) morning it’s working again after a complete PC restart. I suspect the switch into daylight saving here in Sydney may have had some impact; we’ll see how I go next week.]
Graham@2, I have the tinyurl link saved as note in the Keep app on my phone. Then I edit it by increasing the number by one, 4172 to 4173 etc and select the link and go to it…
I do hope that makes sense…