A very pleasant and gentle start to the year – favourites were 1dn and 8dn. Thanks to Chifonie, and Happy New Year to all.
| Across | ||
| 5 | CLEVER | Charlie’s bar is bright! (6) |
| C[harlie] plus LEVER=”bar” | ||
| 6 | GREASE | Lubricant gives King George comfort (6) |
| G[eorge] R[ex]=”King George” plus EASE=”comfort” | ||
| 9 | HALTER | Horse gets change of riding gear (6) |
| H=heroin=”Horse” plus ALTER=”change” | ||
| 10 | ANNOUNCE | Declare girl’s a lightweight? (8) |
| ANN=”girl” plus OUNCE=”light / weight” | ||
| 11 | RENT | Let rip (4) |
| double definition: =”Let” to a tenant; also =”rip” or tear | ||
| 12 | RAIN FOREST | Dope found in most uncommon jungle (4,6) |
| INFO=”Dope”; in RAREST=”most uncommon” | ||
| 13 | DRAWING ROOM | Inspire union member in place of reception (7,4) |
| DRAW IN=”Inspire”; plus GROOM=”union member” | ||
| 18 | CITRONELLA | Insect repellent sprayed into cellar (10) |
| =an oil made from lemongrass, also used in perfumery (into cellar)* |
||
| 21 | GLEE | German general’s delight (4) |
| G[erman] plus “general” Robert E LEE [wiki] | ||
| 22 | NEAR MISS | Narrow escape for mean young lady (4,4) |
| NEAR=stingy=”mean” plus MISS=”young lady” | ||
| 23 | TENANT | Shelter without an occupant (6) |
| TENT=”Shelter”, around/”without” AN | ||
| 24 | NONAGE | Nobody detains a girl below the age of consent (6) |
| NONE=”Nobody” around A G[irl] | ||
| 25 | GRASPS | Gets hold of Greek snakes (6) |
| GR[eek] plus ASPS=”snakes” | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | TESTATOR | One willing to try a rocky peak (8) |
| =someone who leaves a will TEST=”try” plus A TOR=”a rocky peak” |
||
| 2 | BEARER | Inert gas in ale or porter (6) |
| AR[gon]=”Inert gas” in BEER=”ale” | ||
| 3 | TRANSFER | Ref rants about changeover (8) |
| (Ref rants)* | ||
| 4 | VAGUER | Queen Victoria contracted a fever? That’s less clear! (6) |
| V[ictoria] R[egina]=”Queen Victoria” around AGUE=”fever” | ||
| 5 | CHALET | Penny left ornamental wreath in a holiday cabin (6) |
| CHA[p]LET=”ornamental wreath”, minus P[enny] | ||
| 7 | EXCUSE | Forgive old copper’s error, initially (6) |
| EX=”old” plus CU’S=chemical symbol for “copper’s“, plus E[rror] | ||
| 8 | RATIONALIST | Reasoned thinker‘s Desert Island record (11) |
| RAT=change sides=”Desert” plus IONA=”Island” in Scotland plus LIST=”record” | ||
| 14 | WINNINGS | Factions claiming local gains (8) |
| WINGS=”Factions” around INN=”local” or pub | ||
| 15 | ORGANIST | Musician gets an awful roasting (8) |
| (roasting)* | ||
| 16 | GIVE IN | I have been caught in trap and accept defeat (4,2) |
| I’VE=”I have” in GIN=a snare or “trap” | ||
| 17 | KEYNES | Leading currency upset economist (6) |
| =John Maynard Keynes [wiki] KEY=”Leading”; plus SEN=cent in several Asian countries, reversed/”upset” |
||
| 19 | RARING | Enthusiastic gunman gets call (6) |
| R[oyal] A[rtillery]=”gunman” plus RING=”call” on a phone | ||
| 20 | ARTERY | The way to one’s heart? Quite the opposite! (6) |
| cryptic definition – it takes blood away from the heart, rather than to it | ||
Yes, a very gentle start, just right for the morning after. Thank you Chifonie.
I wasn’t happy about the RAT in 8d but can see it the way manehi puts it.
Thanks Chifonie and manehi
Easy, but entertaining – perfect for New Year’s Day. Lots of favourites, with EXCUSE top of my list.
Minor quibble with 19d: I know that we have established in the past that RA could refer to an individual “gunman”, but the clue would still read better as “gunmen get”.
Oooh, I think there will be some gripes about this being too easy for a bank holiday!
Great fun today and always, thanks to all you setters and solvers.
HAPPY NEW YEAR, everyone.
Spot on, manehi. This is not my favourite setter but I ticked GREASE & WINNINGS for their nice surfaces and Let rip was a corker.
Perhaps NONAGE was the runt of the litter with age appearing in both clue and solution.
Looking forward to another year of crosswording larks.
Nice week, all.
Thanks to manehi and Chifonie.
Fellow bloggers, do we think Chif might take over the Monday slot after the retirement of the venerable Rufus??
I really enjoyed CLEVER at 5a, despite being fairly ready these days for clues from the NATO phonetic alphabet, which as sailors we call the “maritime alphabet”.
[Sometimes when I have a brain that is buzzing too hard at night, I recite the alphabet from Alfa/Alpha to Zulu – in my mind, not aloud, of course. I then spell out the name of our boat, so I can be ready if we are ever on the water and I need to give our call sign – Tango Romeo Alfa November Sierra Indigo Tango Indigo Oscar November. However if I still have insomnia, I do have to resist trying to spell out every word I am thinking in that way. BTW – does anyone else ever find their sleepy brain typing the spelling of their thoughts??? Or trying to solve that infernally elusive cryptic clue at 3.00 a.m.??]
LOI was 2d BEARER. Cannot believe how I was distracted by porter being a beer and also the definition. Doh!
Thank you Chifonie – welcome to Mondays – and Manehi for your customary clear explanations. Enjoyed RAIN FOREST and DRAWING ROOM.
I thought the crossword editor had banned the dated general Lee a coup!e of years ago along with the actor Tree who also reappeared recently.
Happy New Year solvers.
Nice gentle start to 2018. Thanks Chifonie and Manehi and a happy new year to all
I already had the final T in when I read the clue for 11a and was nearly misled by the surface. Nice one.
NONAGE was new to me.
Job @6, I don’t mind old General Lee being let out now and then. At least I’d heard of him outside of crosswords, unlike the Tree fellow.
I had trouble with 20d. It’s a cd. The ghost of Rufus lives on …
Thank you Chifonie and manehi.
Just right for a Monday morning, especially one following New Years Eve.
All the best to everyone for 2018.
Thanks Chifonie and manehi
NONAGE appeared in both Picaroon and Puck last spring, as well as in the FT at least a couple of times last year.
I thought ARTERY was also a reference to a main or “arterial” road, another type of “way”.
In the spirit of Rufus I had canter for 9a. Anyone else fall for that?
Thanks Chifonie; the grid with only 26 clues to write.
Thanks manehi; good blog; I had to check CHAPLET.
I too liked TESTATOR.
Thanks to Chifonie and manehi, I agree with everything said an enjoyable and not too taxing start to the year. That said I spent far too long wrestling with artery. Happy New Year all.
JiA at 5: regarding your nocturnal alphatecism (made-up word); something that has always helped me with spelling is that words happen to flow like visual ticker tape across my mind as I speak or think them.
BillB@13 I also fell for CANTER! This was ok and I suppose it was easy enough for a Monday but I didn’t really enjoy it much. I think I tried to overthink some clues and then was disappointed with the answers. Nothing wrong with the puzzle so perhaps I’m a bit jaded today. I wonder if this is the new Rufus?
Thanks Chifonie.
Thanks to Chifonie and manehi. Nothing to add, though I wonder if Orlando and/or Pan may also be appearing regularly on Mondays.
Happy New Year all – a gentle offering to start things off, perhaps in consideration for those starting the year feeling a little delicate! All good stuff apart from NONAGE which I sort of guessed (and, like William @4 above, I was unimpressed to see the same word in clue and solution). I don’t have a problem with General LEE in the crossword sense, and he has been back in the news lately with the Confederate statue controversies in the US. ORGANIST seemed familiar. TESTATOR and RATIONALIST were both nicely constructed. Thanks to Chifonie, and to manehi and all the brilliant bloggers hereabouts.
Thanks all
I failed on Keynes although MK is only 60 km from me.
Happy yule to all.
Thanks everyone. Keynes I did manage to get, but then I live in MK so no excuse !
Well, it seems that the Rufusian tradition of ‘Gentle Monday’ has been upheld – for today at least!
All very welcome – albeit took up less of the day than usual. My only quibble, perhaps is HALTER. This is something you put on a horse to lead it by, not to ride it. Ok: pedantic! And I missed the association H = heroin = “horse” (slang). I was thinking that H was simply an unindicated first-letter – and was about to fume about that – until I saw the blog!
A propos – does anyone else think there are too many instances of drug-related slang in the cryptics? So often we get E = “ecstasy”, it gets a bit of ‘same old, same old’ …?
Apart from that, excellent. Thanks to Chifonie for a worthy pick-up of the Rufus-slot – and manehi
RCWhiting@20 and JohnB@21 – I got Keynes and it so happens that I live fairly close to a different Keynes – Horsted Keynes in Sussex, south of East Grinstead. People who’ve travelled on the Bluebell Railway will be familiar with the name – although in this case the name of the village pre-dates the economist.
I don’t know MK but I’m guessing that HK is perhaps a prettier place than MK! (*ducks, waits for flak*)
Incidentally – it’s pronounced “Canes” – and I think that’s how John Maynard pronounced his name too. MK, as I understand it, is pronounced “Keens”.
Thanks, Chiffers. I completed that in good order despite my Hewlett Packard printer giving up the ghost.
Yes I had canter too. Walk, trot, canter, gallop. A horse’s 3rd gear, cryptically speaking. It almost fits, but once entered, I didn’t reconsider the better and correct answer.
Do like Chiffers as a Rufus substitute. Nice, clean, terse cluing.
I’ve asked it many times before – and I do it again.
Why is G ‘girl’?
Sil van den Hoek @27
I think Chiffonie just felt that including an indication that it was an initial letter of a word in the clue, such as initially or starting, spoilt the reading of the clue so left it unsaid. Often that gets an objection from someone here.
Sil @27 and MrPB @28 – you’ve certainly raised a point which I’ve long been doubtful about!
It may be informative to read through what ‘Alberich’ (aka ‘Klingsor’ – of the FT/Indy) has to say on his blog. To quote, in particular, this bit:
<quote>“The sheer usefulness of this device has a downside. It is terribly overused by some setters, where really it should be a last resort when all else fails. Worse still, some setters, both amateur and professional, often tend to be sloppy or unfair when indicating initial or final letters even if they are scrupulously fair with other clues.”</quote>
Puts it far better than I could! However, I don’t think I’d go as far as that in my criticisms – after all I’m no more than a poor amateur! (Incidentally, I’ll be changing my ID on 225 from “FirmlyDirac” to “Laccaria”, shortly – already using that on BD).
Mr PB @28, is what you’re saying “let’s not use an indicator because it might spoil the surface”? Cannot disagree more, cryptic precision always comes first.
Firmly Dirac / Laccaria @29: what Alberich says is that some setters are overusing one-letter devices (which is true), something that should ideally be avoided. When he speaks about ‘sloppy or unfair’, he (a true Ximenean) surely means things like ‘first love’ for L. I’m afraid that both comments 28 & 29 haven’t much to do with my query. G is not a recognised abbreviation for ‘girl’ (no support in any of the dictionaries) and therefore shouldn’t be used, in my opinion.
Sil @30
I think you’re right about G for ‘girl’. I know neither Chambers nor Collins offers any authority for G = girl, and I take it you know it’s not in the SOED either. I’m with you in saying if there’s no authority for it you shouldn’t use it (although someone might yet come here to tell us to allow a setter some ‘artistic licence’ or some such).
Alan B – I can’t believe you’re referring to my repeated assertion that without poetic licence there would be no poetry. Firstly, because I can’t believe you’d be so discourteous. Secondly, because you use “artistic” rather than “poetic”. Thirdly, since you’ll have observed I make that point when defending great setting from the groundless quibbles (ie the ones shown to be wrong by later commentators) sometimes made here by those who lose sight of the fun peculiar to Guardian crosswords. Without such licence we would be deprived of much joy – much of Araucaria’s output would be traduced as just one example.
As far as ‘g’ for girl is concerned I too am unhappy when such (lexicographically unsupported) abbreviations appear. But I tend to make comments in support of setters rather than attack them.
I tend not to visit for Monday puzzles as I rarely tackle them.
It’s fortuitous (though not fortunate) that I have today to correct the unfounded (and, in my opinion, rude) assumption of your final sentence.
Sorry – how impolite of me not to mention manehi’s exemplary blog. I rarely bother with Monday’s puzzle but thought I’d take a peak – to see how many might suggest that x, y or z would be the new Rufus (several!). I thought this perfect for a Monday – exactly the sort I’d have loved to cut my teeth on fifty or sixty years ago. Ideal for learners – just as it should be.
William @32
It was perceptive of you to link my comment with one of yours on a different thread, and I admit you were correct in making that assumption.
But you are going to far in associating me either with ‘groundless quibbles’ or with making comments setting out to ‘attack’ setters. I must tell you that I set huge store by the artistic and creative qualities of Guardian cryptic crosswords – not just the precise clueing or the skilled pitching of the puzzles to their audience. If I have made, or make in the future, any criticism that is not positive or constructive in nature, I hope I get to know about it, because I shouldn’t be doing it.
I think the idea that I have lost sight of the fun peculiar to Guardian crosswords, or have anything against artistic licence, is just ludicrous. But I accept you did not go as far as to accuse me of that directly.
I don’t want to start 2018 on the wrong foot. In making a comment on a matter of precision (lexical authority, actually), I was moved to try and deflect any imminent criticism of my remark as being too petty or detailed. I’m sorry that I caused you offence.
I try and keep up to date with all Guardian blogs on this forum, even those (like this day’s) referring to crosswords that I had no time to tackle myself, although I am inevitably slow, like now, to notice comments posted on previous days’ threads – hence this delayed reply.
All the best for 2018.
[Me @34, for the record: in 2nd para, ‘going to far’ should read ‘going too far’.]