The puzle may be found as a pdf at tinyurl.com/Everyman4159 or (behind a paywall or as a free trial) at https://observer.co.uk/puzzles/everyman/article/everyman-no-4159 in interactive form.
For an Everyman, I made heavy weather of this, and in particular it took me far too long to spot the sound-alike in 17A RAISE. All the usual Everyman trademarks are here, and highlighted in the grid.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | HEADBAND |
Manage group in tennis gear (8)
|
| A charade of HEAD (‘manage’) plus BAND (‘group’) | ||
| 5 | AT WAR |
Fighting a dermal disorder after cycling (2,3)
|
| A charade of ‘a’ plus TWAR, which is WART (‘dermal disorder’) ‘after cycling’. | ||
| 9 | ROGET |
Booked man of many words (5)
|
| A cryptid definition, for Peter Mark Roget, the author of a Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases. | ||
| 10 | CUCUMBERS |
Before seconds, alternately crunch on brown salad components (9)
|
| A charade of CUC (‘alternately CrUnCh’) plus UMBER (‘brown’) plus S (‘seconds’). | ||
| 11 | OVER-EMOTIONAL |
Into amore (‘love’) – badly so? (4-9)
|
| An anagram (‘badly so’) of ‘into amore love’, with an &lit definition. | ||
| 13 | IRONY |
Tough guy finally getting subtle humour (5)
|
| A charade of IRON (‘tough’) plus Y (‘guY finally’). | ||
| 14 | WALKATHON |
What is unusual and concerning about a 50k race no-one runs? (9)
|
| An envelope (‘about’) of ‘a’ plus L (Roman numeral, ’50’) plus ‘k’ in WATH, an anagram (‘is unusual’) of ‘what’ plus ON (‘concerning’). | ||
| 15 | EASY CHAIR |
Laid-back committee head, one comfortably supporting you (4,5)
|
| A charade of EASY (‘laid-back’) plus CHAIR (‘committee head’). | ||
| 17 | RAISE |
Pull up fish escaping from trap (5)
|
| Sounds like (‘escaping from trap’ – trap as in “shut your trap”) RAYS (‘fish’). | ||
| 18 | LIGHT-FINGERED |
Disorder persisted – Spooner’s inclined to steal (5-8)
|
| A Spoonerism of FIGHT LINGERED (‘disorder persisted’). | ||
| 21 | TEMPERING |
Softening but hardening (9)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 22 | MAMBA |
Primarily mouthy African menace biting avians? (5)
|
| First letters (‘primarily’) of ‘Mouthy African Menace Biting Avians’, with an &lit definition. | ||
| 23 | ASSET |
Hound having chased away bishop: that’s useful (5)
|
| A subtraction: [b]ASSET (‘hound’) minus the B (‘having chased away bishop’). | ||
| 24 | STANDS BY |
Supports – without doing anything? (6,2)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | HARMONISED |
Admonisher, after massage, is reconciled (10)
|
| An anagram (‘after massage’) of ‘admonisher’. | ||
| 2 | ANGLEPOISE LAMPS |
We’re known to be bent in the workplace and when we’re not charged, you’re in the dark (10,5)
|
| An elaborate cryptic definition (‘charged’ – supplied with current?). | ||
| 3 | BATTERY |
I’ll give you energy: like a pancake? (7)
|
| Double definition, the second being whimsical, made from a batter. | ||
| 4 | NACHO |
Chip‘s the ultimate in he- men, virile, topless (5)
|
| A charade of N (‘the ultimate in he-meN‘) plus [m]ACHO (‘virile’) minus its first letter (‘topless’). | ||
| 5 | ARMENIA |
Country song about chess pieces (7)
|
| An envelope (‘about’) of MEN (‘ches pieces’) in ARIA (‘song’). | ||
| 6 | WHEELCHAIR RAMPS |
They’re inclined to get you to leave (10,5)
|
| Cryptic definition. | ||
| 7 | RASP |
Looking up, I’ll add: a glimpse of rank and file (4)
|
| A reversal (‘looking up’ in a down light) of PS (‘I’ll add’ to a letter, say) plus ‘a’ plus R (‘glimpse of Rank’) | ||
| 8 | SCHILLER |
Romantic German in school, increasingly unwell (8)
|
| A charade of SCH (‘school’) plus ILLER (‘increasingly unwell’). | ||
| 12 | INCENDIARY |
Nicer day in resort: very hot (10)
|
| An anagram (‘re-sort’) of ‘nuicer day in’. | ||
| 14 | WEAR THIN |
Some raw earth I neglected to grow ragged (4,4)
|
| A hidden answer (‘some’) in ‘raW EARTH I Neglected’. | ||
| 16 | CAGIEST |
In America, GI esteemed as ‘most sly‘ (7)
|
| A hidden answer ‘in’ ‘AmeriCA GI ESTeemed’. | ||
| 17 | REGIMEN |
Most of greens, sadly, Everyman’s eaten for diet (7)
|
| An envelope (‘eaten’) of I’M (‘Everyman’s’) in REGEN, an anagram (‘sadly’) of ‘green[s]’ minus its last letter (‘most of’). | ||
| 19 | INGOT |
Leading characters in Irish netball won gold? (5)
|
| A charade of IN (‘leading characters in Irish Netball’) plus GOT (‘won’). The question mark is for the indication by example – an ingot may be of gold or another metal. | ||
| 20 | ETNA |
Estonian regularly ignored volcano (4)
|
| Alternate letters (‘regularly ignored’) of ‘EsToNiAn’. |
Thanks for the blog , HARMONISED a very neat full anagram and a clever Spoonerism for LIGHT-FINGERED . I also struggled to justify the second part for ANGLEPOISE LAMPS even after checking all the meanings of charged in Chambers93 .
Thank you for the explanations, Peter0.
When I try updating the puzzle above, I get a crossword clue solver! And the other links I have don’t work either. Could someone please let me have the link for today’s puzzle?
Re Crosser @2
https://tinyurl.com/Everyman-4160
I have tried using the OP version, sometimes with success and sometimes not. Putting the hyphen in has always been successful (so far).
Many thanks, Humph, it worked! What’s in a hyphen?!
Thanks Humph. I found the O’s site had yet another bug today, and could otherwise access nothing to do with that puzzle.
Roz, I assume that “charged” is just a very loose way of saying “supplied with electricity” as the blogger suggests, but placing such a lamp on a Van Der Graaf generator wouldn’t light it.
I can’t work out 2D at all! Does anyone have some thoughts?
Where does workplace come in?
Could charged refer to l(amp)s?
Phil@6 I think workplace refers to a desk .
Etu@5 I agree but there is no real dictionary support for even a loose definition to give the setter cover . Electric current supplies energy through a flow of charge , the net charge in the lamp remains zero .
7D defeated me. I don’t do well with Everyman’s four-letter words.
If you registered before November last year, you have to reset your password. It now works again for me (free)
2D makes very little sense to me (though I bunged it in anyway). Anglepoise lamps are not peculiar to offices, and all those I’ve seen are connected to the mains, not to a battery.
Like others, I struggled with the idea of charging an anglepoise. The only definitions I could find refer to receiving and storing electrical energy. Maybe phil@6 is on to something with (l)amp(s) ?
Thanks Everyman and PeterO
Comment #12
Needed a lot of the crossers to get 2D and 6D as both are a bit iffy imho. 2D for the reasons that Roz@1 mentioned and 6D because it is pretty loose definition. Thanks to PeterO for the blog.
Humble Tim 11, et al:
We’re accustomed to hearing luvvies describe themselves as “charged” when they’re – in their own opinions – energised for a performance etc.
So I’m wondering whether this was the usage that the setter meant, i.e. “energised”. I accept that there’s probably no dictionary mention of this, but it’s perhaps not reasonable to expect them to cover every single nuanced usage.
Crosser @2
I have changed the URL for the tinyurl link from one that I thought worked to one that does ( at least for me). I am not sure whether the observer link has a problem with the paywall or if the website is malfunctioning.
I figured out that 2D was some sort of “lamps” pretty quickly, because at that point I had already solved 6D (I thought that was a really fun clue!), and figured 2D was the other half of the rhyming pair.
But I couldn’t figure out the first half of it for the life of me, because I’ve never heard of an “anglepoise lamp”, despite having one in my house. I’ve heard them called poseable lamps or spring-arm lamps, or some other extremely literal description. But never anglepoise, so it took me a lot of googling to figure out what type of lamp we were talking about!
Not mad about it at all. 😆 Happy to have learned a very pleasant-sounding new word for them. Might just be a dialectic thing? A more common term in the UK than in Australia? Or maybe I just missed it my whole life. It was a fun little hunt, at least.
Schiller (8D) was a similar story. Never heard of him. But at least it was educational solving it!
I couldn’t parse 17A either. I figured out the answer just because it fit, but I missed the soundalike clue.
I really loved the spoonerism, though. I always find those ones really satisfying.
Tim@16 , Anglepoise an original trademark design in the UK . In recent years they have become very popular at auctions . Herbert Terry is the key name , and the most desired lamps have a three step ziggurat at the base . Check yours .