Vulcan in Monday mode.
This was a largely straightforward puzzle, but still a fun solve. I’m not sure how to categorise clues such as those for REVOLUTIONARY and CAT’S EYE as they’re not quite cryptic definitions and not quite double definitions. I really liked the alliterative short story in the clue for FIELDFARE.
Thanks, Vulcan.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PROCURE |
Manage to obtain expert remedy (7)
|
| PRO (“expert”) + CURE (“remedy”) | ||
| 5 | WARLOCK |
Fight to secure wizard (7)
|
| WAR (“fight”) + LOCK (“to secure”) | ||
| 10 | CARMEN |
The opera for petrolheads? (6)
|
| Male “petrolheads” could be described as CAR MEN. | ||
| 11 | ENTIRETY |
Eternity may be represented as wholeness (8)
|
| *(eternity) [anag:may be respresented] | ||
| 12 | GUV |
Gaffer seen in good sort of light (3)
|
| G (good) + UV (ultraviloet, a “sort of light”) | ||
| 13 | THRONE |
Disconcerted in hearing having elevated seat (6)
|
| Homophone [in hearing] of THROWN (“disconcerted”) | ||
| 14 | ONRUSHES |
Charges and unhorses criminal (8)
|
| *(unhorses) [anag:criminal] | ||
| 15 | BRIEF |
A lawyer, but not for long? (5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 16 | QUALIFIED |
Given a certificate with some reservations (9)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 19 | AYE AYE SIR |
Two words of compliance in song, or three such at sea (3,3,3)
|
| YEA + YES (“two words of compliance”) in AIR (“song”) | ||
| 21 | LEARN |
Major Shakespeare role, new, to memorise (5)
|
| (King) LEAR (“major Shakespearean role”) + N (new) | ||
| 24 | MUNCHKIN |
Small child to eat with family (8)
|
| MUNCH (“to eat”) with KIN (“family”) | ||
| 26 | ENDIVE |
Salad plant: I have the last bit first (6)
|
| I’VE (I have) with END (“the last bit”) first | ||
| 27 | AIM |
I am moving round train (3)
|
| AM [moving round] I | ||
| 28 | SUPERIOR |
No ordinary lake? (8)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 29 | PLAINT |
Obvious time for old lament (6)
|
| PLAIN (“obvious”) + T (time) | ||
| 30 | DENTIST |
She leads a hand-to-mouth existence (7)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 31 | CREEPER |
Ivy for one in a soft shoe (7)
|
| Double definition | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | REACHER |
Child hero involved in treachery (7)
|
| Hidden in [involved in] “tREACHERy”)
Jack Reacher is the hero of a series of thriller novels by Lee Child. |
||
| 3 | COMMON ERA |
More usual answer for these days (6,3)
|
| COMMONER (“more usual”) + A (answer) | ||
| 4 | RANGER |
Park-keeper’s great annoyance following run (6)
|
| ANGER (“great annoyance”) following R (run) | ||
| 6 | AFTER ALL |
Coming in last in spite of everything? (5,3)
|
| If you “come in last” you are AFTER ALL other competitors. | ||
| 7 | LORIS |
Primate leads off responses in services from the front (5)
|
| L(eads) O(ff) R(esponses) I(n) S(ervices) [from the front] | ||
| 8 | CAT’S EYE |
How Tom sees road safety feature (4,3)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 9 | REVOLUTIONARY |
Lenin for one turning in his grave? (13)
|
| REVOLUTIONARY (“turning”) | ||
| 17 | FIELDFARE |
Bird fled a fire, flying off (9)
|
| *(fled a fire) [anag:flying off] | ||
| 18 | WEEKLIES |
Feeble-sounding stories in magazines (8)
|
| Homophone [sounding] of WEAK (“feeble”) + LIES (“stories”) | ||
| 20 | YOUTUBE |
Solvers on underground platform (7)
|
| YOU (“solvers”) on TUBE (“underground”) | ||
| 22 | REVENUE |
Receipts are concerning meeting place (7)
|
| RE (“concerning”) + VENUE (“meeting place”) | ||
| 23 | TEMPER |
Moderate rage (6)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 25 | CHEAT |
Luckily avoid both cold and high temperature (5)
|
| C (cold) + HEAT (“high temperature”) |
REACHER took me a moment: “Child hero” a nice bit of misdirection.
You have a little typo at 19a – it should be YEA + YES in AIR.
Me too, Mich @1.
Also, I’m ashamed to say the she threw me for DENTIST. There must be thousands of lady dentists but not in my era.
AYE AYE SIR was neat.
Many thanks, both.
Nothing held me up except AYE AYE SIR. Took a while to get away from ACE, AGE ARE or AXE for the A_E in the middle. Pleasant and straightforward. Thanks to Vulcan and loonapick.
AYE AYE SIR was my last one in. I checked PLAINT but with confidence; English has a surprising numbers of words for dirges. I think REACHER and YOUTUBE were the sneakiest, but there were no real hold ups.
Thanks Vulcan and loonapick
William @2 – SHE threw me too.
Apart from that I found this at the easier end of Vulcan’s repertoire.
Ticks for REACHER and CARMEN.
Thanks both.
Admired Vulcan’s ability to produce a Monday-level puzzle that still provided satisfaction to the solver. I think the ‘Child hero’ clue has featured previously, but I still had to get a couple of crossers before remembering. Enjoyed CARMEN and DENTIST. FIELDFARE reminded me that I haven’t seen any for some time. I hope they’re not under threat. I didn’t know that CREEPER was a name for a soft shoe, so I just thought it was a cryptic definition. Thanks to Vulcan and loonapick.
Tomsdad @6 – There used to be things called BROTHEL CREEPERS, a sort of leather/suede shoe.
Thanks loonapick – I’ll echo the thoughts of those who admire Vulcan’s ability to devise a straightforward puzzle, whilst preserving some wit and ingenuity: a Monday, but without making you feel you’ve gone back to nursery school.
HYD@7- ah yes, thanks. I remember that description of those shoes, but never heard them referred to without the ‘brothel’ tag.
@loonapick – there’s a minor error in the solution for 19ac – “yea and yes” not “yes and yes”. Thanks for the parsing, I guessed the answer fairly soon but I couldn’t see the parsing, and it’s one of those where even with a couple of crossers you can’t be certain without parsing it. A very neat clue.
I thought briefly there might be a primate’s theme with aye aye and loris, but two does not make a theme.
Thanks Vulcan and loonapick
Nice puzzle, some of which I found a bit harder than a typical Vulcan.
Tomsdad @6 – fieldfares (and redwings) are winter visitors in the UK, so will have gone by now (though I have seen them in midsummer in Cologne!)
At least the female dentist did not throw me as I have a check up with mine tomorrow. There things tend to concentrate the mind
Never heard of the bird, but being an anagram a fair guess
Thanks Vulcan & loonapick
My faves: AYE AYE SIR, DENTIST, COMMON ERA and AFTER ALL.
REVENUE
The ‘are’ doesn’t seem to sit well in the cryptic reading. No?
Thanks Vulcan & loonapick
My excellent dentist is female, and I’m seeing her next week for a routine check-up), but I’m ashamed to say that I was nevertheless thrown by 30, the crossers making me look first for an ‘ess’. I need to be better.
Lovely crossword though, with excellent surfaces. AYE AYE SIR my favourite for its ingenuity.
The Carmen clue reminds me of going to see Matthew Bourne’s re-working of the opera, set in a Mid-West car repair garage.
Defeated by dentist but I think it was a lack of thinking skills rather than unconscious bias. Not sure I would have got it with He or any other pronoun at the start.
Enjoyed REACHER, YOUTUBE and CARMEN
Thanks Vulcan and Loonapick
I was held up a bit by putting INFINITY for 11A, but 6D was pretty clear and I removed it. As others have said it’s a lovely crossword, clever clues and yet appropriate level for my Monday brain.
Surprised at how solvers here and on the G site were ”thrown” by the ”she” in DENTIST. There have been several setters who have clued similarly, and not only Arachne or other female setters, sorely missed. DENTIST was my favourite clue, because of the ”hand-to-mouth existence”.
I really enjoyed this. The only one I had to pause over was FIELDFARE, (UnKnown GK). Filling in the gaps between the crossers was a bit hit and miss. Then I visited the 15sq home page for something else and saw FIELDFARE is a Spectator setter.
All of my dentists for the past 10 years have been female, and excellent.
Why ‘in his grave’ in 9d?
poc @ 19. Because Lenin is a dead revolutionary. 🙂
William@2 No female dentist in your era? What was your era? My dentist from 1965-1988 (she retired – & for years I’d been fitting in appointments when visiting my former home) was female, 6 different dentists since, 2 female (& in 1965 I was surprised to meet a male doctor, our previous family doctor was female).
I’m still lucky to have a close lady friend as my DENTIST for 45 years, having met at QUB, so that one made me smile the most. I also liked CATS EYE, AYE AYE SIR YOUTUBE and one of my wife’s pet names for my 28 yr-old son, MUNCHKIN.
Slight typo in your explanation of the REACHER novels.
Ta Vulcan & loonapick.
Liked it. Straightforward (mostly) and fun. Filled in REACHER but couldn’t parse it. I’ve never read a Jack Reacher book so it didn’t click.
Favourite the ingenious AYE AYE SIR.
Thanks Vulcan and loonapick.
ravenrider@10 and AlanC@22 – both typos now fixed – thanks. Wrote this blog at 5:30am, so my mind had obviously not fully awoken.
Brothel creepers were the shoes with thick foam soles which Teddy Boys wore in the 50s. I googled them to put a photo on here and apparently you can still buy them, and some people still wear them!
It wasn’t the SHE that threw me. Dentists have shoved all sorts in my cake hole, but never a hand. Wouldn’t have seen that in a month of ..
Why is 30a DENTIST?
Ed @27 because it’s someone whose life’s work involves working – with their hands – in people’s mouths.
Loved the Dentist. (Mine’s a lady, and still extremely attractive even 30 years after I first consulted her. I once passed her a DVD with the WC Fields The Dentist movie. Wasn’t too sure about doing so, as it includes some implicit sexism, like the reactions to the clue. And doubly appropriate, as I couldn’t tear myself away from watching the and of the Masters at Augusta last night. But it’s only 22 minutes, so I’m re-watching it now: recommended) .
Nice and straightforward. Thanks Vulcan and loonapick.
I found this tough for a Monday but maybe I’m having a slow one as I seem to be in the minority. CREEPERs were also popular with punks for a while – I had several pairs back in the day
Ticks for AYE AYE SIR and REACHER
Cheers L&V
bodycheetah@31: You’re not alone, I had barely anything after the first pass through the Across clues.
I still don’t get 25d: how is “cheat” defined as “luckily avoid”? The closest I can think of is the expression “cheat death”, but I don’t think that is necessarily lucky. Just me?
NHO Reacher, so I wrote it in and shrugged. Similarly the bird, flora and fauna being a closed book to me.
Mr T and I smiled at CARMEN – we’re going to see it tonight!
Liked AYEAYESIR and REACHER.
I agree with Ace @32 about CHEAT, I don’t think “luckily avoid” is a great definition.
Thanks Vulcan and loonapick.
Couldn’t for the life of me quite get how COMMON ERA deserved its place in the grid. So many thanks Loonapick for dispersing my brain fog.
By the by, there is a rock band who perform punkishly daubed in fake blood called CREEPER. From Southampton, and whose first album in 2017 was Eternity, In Your Arms. But the rather neat and clever 11 across and 31 across in no way had me wondering about a possible music theme.
Had no idea either that the heavily muscled up superhuman REACHER character at 2 down, whom I’ve seen in several of those Netflix violent all action films, originated from a series of children’s books.
Ace @ 32 and Tamarix @33. What occurred to me during the solve was the expression to CHEAT death.
I just looked now for a dictionary definition and Collins gives:
to escape or avoid (something unpleasant) by luck or cunning
Ah yes, I get it now, but I couldn’t parse AYE AYE SIR or see where the E and A were in the clue to CHEAT for my life. The latter in particular I’ll put down to tiredness or the fact that my mind is never far from pondering over today being my mum’s birthday, albeit my first without her, having lost her in Jan (and my dad last month also). So concentration levels are not at a premium which is why I probably appreciated a particularly gentle crossword even by a Vulcan Monday standard…and dear old Rufus before him.
Failed to parse AYE AYE SIR, but now I cannot understand what my problem was. It’s clear enough.
Also failed to parse REVOLUTIONARY. I kept trying to work out what “grave” was doing in the clue, but I suppose it’s just to complete it.
Otherwise, I’m echoing what a pleasurable puzzle this was. Fun surfaces, which read well. Nothing unfair (even I can get operas that well known!). Loved MUNCHKIN, partly because it’s a great word.
A very enjoyable puzzle. Just a little gripe:
3 Down: clue should be “Most usual…” rather than “More usual…”
Frogman @38
I don’t understand your gripe. COMMONER is a comparitive, not a superlative, so surely “more” is correct?
An enjoyable Monday romp. Favourite is REACHER.
Surely the mention of grave in the Lenin clue is because he might be spinning/revolving in it ? Although I suppose he would more correctly be described as revolving in his museum vault, in full view of the public…
A lot of enjoyment in this puzzle. My favourite was 19a AYE AYE SIR (clever and funny). I also enjoyed 1a PROCURE (“expert remedy”), 14a ONRUSHES (“unhorses criminal”), 24a MUNCHKIN (“eat with family”), 27a AIM (surface), 28a SUPERIOR (extraordinary Canadian lake!), 30a DENTIST (“hand-to-mouth”, and normalizing the feminine), 20d YOUTUBE (“underground platform”)
10a CARMEN and 6d AFTER ALL are classics
NHO 17d FIEDLFARE — I flipped a coin and guessed FIELDRAFE as a placeholder, and then forgot to look it up 🙁
*FIELDFARE
I see that there’s a setter called FIELDFARE in the post immediately before this one.
Cheers one and all.
Etu@44 Fieldfare in Spectator guise is Vulcan/Imogen.
I might be in a minority but I groan when I see Vulcan is the setter. I started looking at this yesterday but apart from a couple I was finding this impenetrable. Picked it up again this morning (Tuesday) and suddenly spotted some of the double and cryptic defs and the anagrams and then the charades. In hindsight not sure why I struggled but struggle I did but got there in the end. Too many double and cryptic defs for me, they’re not my favourite clue type and Vulcan seems to employ them a lot. Thanks V and loonapick.
Thanks Jay.
(So many facts, so little time…)
My problem with 30a – my last one in – is not sexism but cryptic definitions in general. The solver has to be precisely on the setter’s wavelength. In the end I went through the alphabet and luckily DENTIST is quite near the beginning.
AYE AYE SIR was very good, as was Lenin spinning in his display cabinet.
Thanks to Vulcan and Loonapick.
My first full fat cryptic in a while — I usually stick to the quiptic. Happy to have solved with only four reveals for an 88% (although there was some abuse of the check clue button). 8d was my favourite, getting the honour of being screenshot and sent to my (less-crosswordy) partner. Thank you Vulcan, and an extra thankyou for causing me to google loris, leading to a brief diversion for the adorable pictures 🙂
Very grateful for this blog (thank you loonapick) as without it I’d still be scratching my head about REACHER, THRONE and AYE AYE SIR, even though I solved the latter 2 through crossers.
New to me: CARMEN as an opera, BRIEF as a lawyer, ENDIVE, FIELDFARE and PLAINT.
Muffin @39. Oops you are right. I was fixating on “common.”
Ed@27,
DENTIST is indicated by “hand-to-mouth” because dentists put their hands near a patients mouth to do their job. Simple as that. No wordplay as such which is why it is called a cryptic definition.
I think we can be forgiven for assuming 30a is something that is normally female. Usually when we see ‘he’ or ‘she’ in clues they are actually gender specific rather than gender neutral.
Consider this simple made up example:
Clue “A male spy”; answer AGENT. In this case ‘male’ is part of wordplay meaning GENT which is gender specific even though the answer is not (an agent can just s easily be female).
Nothing wrong with 30a, just have to be weary that ‘she’ can be used instead of ‘he’ when the answer could be either male or female.
If Vulcan wanted it to be more obviously neutral 30a could have been:
“One who leads hand-to-mouth existence.”
But then it wouldn’t as been as much fun.
So thanks Vulcan and Loonapick.
Too hard for me but I really enjoyed the clues on reveal.
Exactly my level. Not too hard but enjoyable. Witty but straightforward. Thanks Vulcan. I’d love a book of your puzzles for travelling, does one exist?