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.
| 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 — 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, 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.