I thought this was on the easy side for Everyman, but everything is good and sound (apart from one or two small criticisms). There are some excellent clues with convincing surfaces and the usual Everyman trademarks indicated in colour below.
Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (homophone, hidden, containment, anagram, juxtaposition, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | FAVE |
Pet‘s loud greeting (4)
|
| f ave — f = loud (forte in music), ave = greeting (originally Latin) — not absolutely sure about fave = pet | ||
| 3 | MARGINALLY |
Slightly spoil drink put before friend (10)
|
| mar gin ally — mar = spoil, gin = drink, ally = friend | ||
| 9 | FACT |
Falsehood’s absolute converse; truth, primarily? (4)
|
| The first letters &lit. clue that we always have | ||
| 10 | GOING VIRAL |
Popular online: dubiously ‘original’, vacuous vlogging (5,5)
|
| *(original v[loggin]g) | ||
| 12 | HABERDASHER |
Sewer’s outlet? (11)
|
| CD — Everyman is trying to mislead the solver into thinking this is about sewers in the drains sense, whereas it’s about people who sew (rhyming with “go”) — I think outlet here is a shop | ||
| 15 | HALFWAY |
At midpoint of entrance area, having change of heart (7)
|
| hallway with its heart, the letter l, changing to f — although I always feel short-changed in such clues and think the setter should tell us the new letter | ||
| 16 | TOO MUCH |
Meditator’s sound, in a sense, is more than is tolerable (3,4)
|
| to(Om)uch — touch = sense (one of the five senses), Om = the sound a meditator makes | ||
| 17 | EARTHLY |
Most of the lining primitive material (7)
|
| th[e] in early — early = primitive — “material” in the wordplay is an adjective | ||
| 19 | BUMPKIN |
Protuberance on monarch, largely unsophisticated type (7)
|
| bump kin[g] — bump = protuberance | ||
| 20 | BELL-RINGING |
Activity in church reminding you of something? (4-7)
|
| 2 defs — (does it ring a bell?) | ||
| 23 | OXTAIL SOUP |
Beefy broth and duck, served badly, spoil a tux (6,4)
|
| 0 *(spoil a tux) — 0 = duck | ||
| 24 | ALSO |
Further some characters in Royal Society (4)
|
| Hidden in RoyAL SOciety | ||
| 25 | MACEDONIAN |
Balkan spice introduced to academic Scotsman (10)
|
| mace don Ian — mace = spice, academic = don, Ian = Scotsman | ||
| 26 | IDLE |
Workshy Everyman had leave (on vacation) (4)
|
| I’d l[eav]e — I’d = Everyman had — the self-referential clue | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | FIFTH WHEEL |
The whiffler mostly daft, useless individual (5,5)
|
| (The whiffle[r])* — had never heard of this and had to look it up | ||
| 2 | VOCABULARY |
That’s all you have to say? (10)
|
| CD relying on the fact that this is a common expression, and a person’s vocabulary can be regarded as all they have to say | ||
| 4 | ANOMALY |
Converted layman suppresses expression of wonder, showing inconsistency (7)
|
| “O” in *(layman) — but is “O” an expression of wonder? Surely “Oh” is the expression of wonder and O is the old-fashioned vocative (when Winston Churchill was at school and beginning Latin and declining “Mensa”, he said how silly it was to say “O table”, and that one would never want to address a table. Quite right.) | ||
| 5 | GUNSHOT |
Weapon’s warm: has this been discharged? (7))
|
| gun’s hot — gun = weapon, hot = warm | ||
| 6 | NEVER YOU MIND |
I’ve not saying I’ve done my run after workout (5,3,4)
|
| (I’ve done my run)* — I suspect a misprint here and that the definition should be “I’m not saying” — I’ve only just noticed this and perhaps have it all wrong | ||
| 7 | LORD |
God, that’s almost flipping funny (4)
|
| (drol[l])rev. — droll = funny | ||
| 8 | YULE |
We’re told the solver’s going to festival (4)
|
| “you’ll” — “We’re told” the homophone indicator | ||
| 11 | DRAW THE BLIND |
Part of bedtime routine: depict nursery-rhyme mice? (4,3,5)
|
| (draw) (the blind) — draw = depict, the blind is the three blind mice of the nursery rhyme — although the expression, which isn’t in Chambers or Collins, is surely “draw the blinds”; I suppose if it isn’t in the dictionaries anyway, it could be either. But it rhymes with 6dn | ||
| 13 | DUCK-BILLED |
Avoid having charged description of Drake? (4- 6)
|
| duck billed — duck = avoid, billed = charged — Drake is really drake, a male duck (to have false capitals, as here, is considered to be acceptable; not the other way round — if you really want to clue the surname Smith, you can’t have “smith” in the clue) | ||
| 14 | CHINA GOOSE |
Flighty type giving crockery to nitwit (5,5)
|
| china goose — china = crockery, goose = nitwit — a China goose is a bird, so is a “flighty type” | ||
| 18 | YELTSIN |
Former president in style, fashionable (7)
|
| (in style)* — Boris Yeltsin of Russia | ||
| 19 | BERMUDA |
Bare mud wrestling in Atlantic tourist destination (7)
|
| (Bare mud)* | ||
| 21 | NORM |
As a rule, what’s found in an extremity of neoliberalism (4)
|
| n or m — an extremity of “neoliberalism” is either n or m — one of the rare clues where the definition isn’t at the beginning or the end | ||
| 22 | OTIC |
Describing ears somewhat idiotically (4)
|
| Hidden in idiOTICally |
I think 4dn suppresses, or reduces the expression of wonder – OH to O and is fair. I could not parse the SEWER of 12ac so thanks for that J. And thanks to E, as well, for a good crossword.
Chambers
O or oh /ō/
interjection
Used in … expressing wonder
I often address furniture when I catch myself on a corner for instance, and surely WC would have been an ideal candidate for MENSA 😉
I found this quite knotty here and there, but a good mix.
Thanks each.
‘O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree’ – a bit of wonder going on there? Or are we addressing the tree?
14D was the only missing one for me. Never heard of a CHINA GOOSE and couldn’t parse it from the clue. Nitwit meaning goose is a new one on me.
FAVE
As adjectives fave and pet seem synonymous enough!
NORM
“as a” seems redundant in the cryptic reading.
Liked VOCABULARY.
I thought this was a lot harder than normal.
Thanks John. 6d looked like a misprint to me too, I couldn’t make sense of the definition otherwise. Fairly plain sailing as I recall – last one in and favourite was HABERDASHER.
Thanks Everyman
Comment #9
Thanks John.
14d (and consequently 16a and 19a, last 3 in, solved almost simultaneously) gave me a lot of trouble. I took “crockery” to refer to the Brent China Company’s wares, and entered “Brent Goose” — a perfectly valid answer — with a smugly satisfied smile (which sometime later evolved into a cry of woe).
As ever though, it was otherwise a very enjoyable crossword. Thanks Everyman.
21D – isn’t “As a rule” what we normally mean by “(the) norm”?