A second appearance for Budmo in the Cryptic slot, after a fair number of Quiptics and Quick Cryptics.
This should please those looking for a gentle start to the week: an amiable offering, with sound cluing, straightforward charades, accessible anagrams and smooth, meaningful surfaces throughout.
I had ticks for 1ac HOMETOWN, 13ac PANELLIST, 20ac CUSTER, 24ac POUFFE, 4dn WHIPPET, 8dn SPECTATE, 11dn GNAT and 20dn CORTEGE.
Thanks to Budmo for the puzzle.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 How Monet changed Paris, for him (8)
HOMETOWN
AN ANAGRAM (changed) of HOW MONET
5 Creates small chess pieces (6)
SPAWNS
S (small) + PAWNS (chess pieces)
9 Flowering plant with bacterial infection’s left out (8)
WISTERIA
W (with) + [l]ISTERIA (bacterial infection) minus l (left)
10 Unusual steel boxes very slender (6)
SVELTE
An anagram (unusual) of STEEL round V (very)
12 Antelope from European country (5)
ELAND
E (European) + LAND (country)
13 Criticise member of orchestra ignoring Conservative guest on game show? (9)
PANELLIST
PAN (criticise) + [c]ELLIST (member of orchestra) minus c (Conservative)
14 Send explicit message to gent regularly seen in musical group (6)
SEXTET
SEXT (send explicit message to) alternate letters of gEnT
16 Nevertheless, start to test idea (7)
THOUGHT
THOUGH (nevertheless) + T[est]
18 Bleak agenda covering emission (7)
LEAKAGE
Hidden in bLEAK AGEnda
20 American cavalry commander organised truces (6)
CUSTER
AN anagram (organised) of TRUCES
22 Parrot part of the bible loudly, some non-traditional material (9)
POLYESTER
POLY (sounds like polly – parrot) + ESTER (Esther – book of the Old Testament, part of the bible) – I can never understand why ‘loudly’ indicates a ‘sounds-like’ – ‘non-traditional’ = synthetic, I presume
23 Greatly affect stupendous hosts (5)
UPEND
Hidden in stUPENDous
24 Seat in parliament offered up for favours enacted, primarily (6)
POUFFE
Initial letters of Parliament Offered Up For Favours Enacted
25 Intense dislike of one training the fleas (4-4)
SELF-HATE
An anagram (training) of THE FLEAS
26 Fight is interrupting break (6)
RESIST
IS in REST (break)
27 Evidently live broadcast that is not heartless (8)
SENTIENT
SENT (broadcast) + I E (that is) + N[o]T
Down
1 Stupid mistake from that woman protecting member of parliament (6)
HOWLER
HER (that woman) Round OWL (member of parliament – collective noun for owls: gentle Monday puzzles are a good place to include time-honoured ‘chestnuts’, for the benefit of those who may not have met them before)
2 Places where rubbers are readily available? (7,8)
MASSAGE PARLOURS
Cryptic definition
3 Time to study grooved rubber on a tyre (5)
TREAD
T (time) + READ (to study)
4 Dog, cat, cat? (7)
WHIPPET
WHIP (cat) + PET (cat? – definition by example, hence the question mark)
6 Father with six big cats in exhibition buildings (9)
PAVILIONS
PA (father) + VI (six) + LIONS (big cats)
7 Alleged tweaking shocked US union official (7,8)
WALKING DELEGATE
An anagram (shocked) of ALLEGED TWEAKING – a new expression for me: Collins – “(in the US) an agent appointed by a trade union to visit branches, check whether agreements are observed, and negotiate with employers”
8 Watch Virginia, perhaps, nursing muscle (8)
SPECTATE
STATE (Virginia, perhaps) round PEC (muscle)
11 Biting insect? Bite back (4)
GNAT
A reversal (back) of TANG (bite)
15 Model T Ford safe for compromises (5-4)
TRADE-OFFS
An anagram (model) of T FORD SAFE
17 Cunning tabloid, perhaps, that can catch pests (8)
FLYPAPER
FLY (cunning) + PAPER (tabloid, perhaps)
19 Cycling saddle corrodes (4)
EATS
SEAT (saddle) with the letters ‘cycled’
20 Train my team’s leader, for example, back in office (7)
CORTEGE
COR (my) + T[eam] + EG (for example) + [offic]E
21 Commercial opening in liturgical season (6)
ADVENT
AD (commercial + VENT (opening)
23 Inappropriate single person blocked by female (5)
UNFIT
F (female) in UNIT (single person)
Thanks Budmo and Eileen
Straightforward apart from NHO WALKING DELEGATE, for which I needed all the crossers and the anagram.
Favourite PANELLIST.
It’s a lost cause, but the plant really should be WISTARIA, as it was named in honour of Caspar Wistar.
Eileen, you need to correct 15d.
Thanks Budmo for the puzzle and & Eileen as ever for the helpful blog
In 22a I just assumed that loudly meant aloud, hence the sound like
Hadn’t heard of Walking Delegate either, but clear enough from crossers and anagram
Loved 1a once I caught on
Many thanks, Hovis @2 – done!
15down the anagram should be TFord safe
Never heard of walking delegate, but the crossers gradually revealed it
Enjoyable puzzle, though I found the left side more challenging than the right.
Thanks Budmo and Eileen
Too slow at typing- Hovis was there first
The right-hand side went in much faster than the left for me (snap, Will @5, we crossed). I wasn’t at my sharpest today and felt like I was holding myself up, but the only thing I was really slow to spot was MASSAGE PARLOURS. LEAKAGE was my last one in; it’s always annoying to give a hidden that honour.
I liked PAVILIONS, WHIPPET, SENTIENT and POLYESTER.
Thanks Budmo and Eileen.
WALKING DELEGATE? Who knew? Had to resort to an anagram finder.
Nice crossword for beginners to cut their teeth on.
Thanks, both.
Lovely straightforward start to the week with, as for others, WALKING DELEGATE being new. I liked HOMETOWN, PANNELIST, WHIPPET and POUFFE, which seems such an outdated word now.
[if you visit Roz, I found your very well-disguised note].
Ta Budmo & Eileen.
Good fun.
It took me a while to discover why fly means cunning — about the fiftieth entry in Collins told me it was Scottish slang, yes? I’d never heard of WALKING DELEGATE, and by the look of it neither had anyone else.
Thanks go to muffin @1 for a welcome piece of pedantry. I have always spelt it WISTARIA and shall continue to do so.
Slightly worried about this one when WHIP, SEX and MASSAGE PARLOUR appeared in the first handful of answers but thankfully it turned out not to be a theme.
I can add myself to the list of people who didn’t know WALKING DELEGATE.
Favourite today HOMETOWN
Thanks Budmo and Eileen
I hope I am not the only one who spent time trying to justify ‘apocrypha’ for 22ac.
The parrot = ape + homophone indicator seemed too tempting.
Martin #6
Hidden letter answers are my habitual blindspot.
My habitual blindspots are the cycling-letters clues; fortunately EATS was a very easy example. Like many people my age, my childhood home contained a POUFFE (pronounced pouf-ay in our house) – what are they called now?
Nice straightforward Monday puzzle from Budmo: CORTEGE was the fiddliest, and of course I didn’t know about WALKING DELEGATES, but it was an obvious anagram with plenty of crossers. Favourite HOMETOWN.
Another who’d nho WALKING DELEGATE, which furthermore is not in Chambers.
Couldn’t quite see the point of ‘person’ in 23d when the clue would have worked without it.
Another one here for whom WALKING DELEGATE only emerged when all the crossers were in and I’d got pencil and a scrap of paper out to unpick the anagram. But fair enough, all part of the game.
I was a bit unconvinced by SENTIENT being defined as “evidently live”… are plants sentient? But I guess that as sentient things are a subset of live things, it works – we had possibly not get into what category Tilly Norwood comes into.
CotDs FLYPAPER and HOMETOWN.
I haven’t heard one of those padded footstools called a POUFFE in a very long time!
A nice accompaniment to a late breakfast.
Thanks, Budmo and Eileen.
A gentle start to the week. Like many others, I hadn’t heard of 7 – WALKING DELEGATE – but it was easy enough to work out from the crossers and a bit of help from the ‘Check Word’ function.
I didn’t parse 20d – CORTÈGE – as I invariably miss the ‘my’ = ‘cor’ device so beloved of compilers!
Thanks Budmo & Eileen.
Comment #18
It’s always the antelopes that get me – I can never hope to remember all the different types!
Very enjoyable grid. Probably would have fitted nicely as a Sunday Quiptic. As per everyone 7d was a NHO which I needed an anagram helper and crossers to get. SW was the last sector to come out. Too many likes to mention, thanks Budmo and Eileen.
YES!! After slowly getting up to speed ( probably not the appropriate phrase) and comfortable with weekend Quiptics and Quicks, I’ve finally finished my first Guardian Cryptic!! ( needed the Thesaurus a number of times ).
Spent ages on Walking Delegate then it suddenly hit that it was an anagram and it fell into place with the cross letters.
Quite enjoyable. LOI was 22ac.
Favourites: HOWLER, CORTEGE, SEXTET, POUFFE.
New for me: LISTERIA (for 9ac); WALKING DELEGATE.
Hearty congrats, Rev_Biscuit! I hope this is the first of many triumphs!
Good crossword for a Monday. I particularly liked the surface of the clue for HOMETOWN, the POLYESTER sound-alike, and the MASSAGE PARLOUR, where I was thinking of brass rubbing at the beginning.
Thanks Budmo and Eileen.
Very pleasant puzzle. Nice to see the good old ELAND (though the okapi is my favourite crossword antelope), as well as “member of parliament” for OWL, and “my” for COR, which I don’t think we’ve had for a while.
Nobody seems to have commented on the slightly risqué double meaning in MASSAGE PARLOURS.
Had anyone heard of WALKING DELEGATE?
Thanks to Budmo and Eileen.
Maybe admin will be cross with me for posting this here, but where is June’s Genius?
Mrs H, here
Well done Rev_Biscuit @21
Straightforward. Like others nho WALKING DELEGATE and took too long to get MASSAGE PARLOURS.
Liked FLYPAPER and SEXTET as a change from the dreaded nonet which mercifully we have not seen recently.
Thanks to Budmo and Eileen.
Thank you! I was on the point of thinking I would have to do the ironing…
The Rev takes the Biscuit @21 – Well done!
Until I got WD I was thinking this would be a great introductory cryptic. Oh well. I like to guess (to myself, i.e. not “loudly”) which clue would get the most comments here, and HOWLER was the leader until that one emerged.
Muffin@1. Confusion over the spelling of WISTERIA/WISTARIA is as old as the name itself. The plant was first named by botanist Thomas Nuttall in 1818. Although, as you correctly say, he named it after Caspar Wistar, he spelt the name wisteria. When later asked about this, he said he had changed the name for ‘euphony’. It is a fundamental principal of biological taxonomy that in any dispute about spellings, the original usage should take precedence, so wisteria should be used, and that is the official name of the genus.
My anagram finder had never heard of WALKING DELEGATE either.
I’ve never heard of you-know-who either.
TRADE-OFFS would be a good reverse clue for TREAD.
To massage is not to rub. If you rub something, your hand moves across it surface. If you massage someone, your hand stays in contact with the same place on the skin and you knead the muscles.
WHat is an anagram finder, and how do you use it?
Quibbles aside, thanks to Budmo and as ever Eileen.
Despite having lived in the US for over 30 years, I too had never come across WALKING DELEGATE (which might say something about the poor state of the union movement here). Nonetheless it was straightforward enough once I had enough crossers to see that the first word was probably walking, and the second then naturally fell out of the remaining anagram fodder.
The SE corner held me up for a while, the crossing UPEND and UNFIT providing difficulty that is inexplicable in hindsight!
Valentine@35
https://anagram-solver.net/
Others are available.
Having worked with US manufacturing sites, I had heard of WALKING DELEGATES, but had always heard it as ‘WALK IN’.
Walking Delegate is in The Free Dictionary by Farlex, which is a very useful website, if you only know the beginning or end of a word or phrase.
See Kipling story A Walking Delegate – rather anti-union
Fun Monday puzzle. Solved mostly in order. I enjoyed the anagrams, 1a HOMETOWN (“How Monet changed”), 25a SELF-HATE (“training the fleas”), 7d WALKING DELEGATE (“Alleged tweaking shocked”), 15d TRADE-OFFS (“Model T Ford safe”), as well as 2d MASSAGE PARLOURS, 19d EATS (ouch!)
4d WHIPPET, clever — I think we had a similar clue recently. Now when was that, Roz?
Rev_Biscuit@21 Congratulations! First of many, no doubt 🙂
Martin@6 and Andrew Sceats@13 – I have a love/hate relationship with hidden-word clues – love ’em when I spot ’em; hate ’em (but grudgingly respect ’em) when I don’t.
Rev_Biscuit @21 – Well done!
Mrs H @30 – Tee hee!
Liked HOMETOWN, and the elegant simplicity of the clues for SPAWNS and ELAND.
Eileen, in the parsing for the clue for TREAD, 3down, I think “grooved” is part of the definition.
Thanks to Budmo and Eileen.
Thanks for the blog , perfect for a Monday , in fact we need two of these each week for newer solvers and the evidence is Rev-B@21 . Neat clues , excellent variety and I learnt a new phrase .
Mig@41 – Imogen 18/4 – Whippet (3) . Quite a naughty clue really .
[AlanC@8 hope you understood the note , I was just the courier . Perhaps you need a Vigenere cypher keyword . Maybe – Do not sign Hateley and Zelic – is Special Branch code . ]
I have lived in the US for all but ten of my almost eighty years and WALKING DELEGATE was as new to me as it was to all you foreigners. Needed all the crossers.
Valentine@35 anagram solvers are great when you’re starting out, but I really don’t like to use them now, as they do everything for you – all or nothing.
I have just downloaded an app that KenMac shared news of the other day. It’s called The Anagrind. It’s quite basic, but that’s a plus. It lets you work out anagrams yourself by dragging the letters around the screen. No cheating, but much more practical than pen and paper because you don’t run out of space. I will enjoy using this with a clear conscience.
https://theanagrind.app/
Clyde @42 – of course it is, thank you: one of those casualties of the gap between the solve and the posting of the blog – in this case, snatching another hour or so of sleep! Fixed now.
Martin @46 – same idea as Araucaria’s legendary Scrabble tiles.
Nice crossword, good straightforward start to the week. Never heard of Walking Delegate but knew it was an anagram so easy enough to slot in once I’d got most of the acrosses in it.
Thanks both. I thought similar to Valentine @35, but excused it on the basis of another meaning of rubber (protection) that might be used at certain massage parlours.
I enjoyed the puzzle as much as everyone else but, strangely, the one clue I did not like was 1 across, which a number of people – including Eileen – have praised. I have always spelt “home town” as two words, which is how it is given in Chambers. In another dictionary “hometown” was given as specifically American. Why is it that British English is so keen to ape American usage in both spelling and pronunciation? You don’t have to be a fusty old reactionary to want to preserve traditional English! On the subject of running words together, many people have told me that they find compound words in German off-putting: why are we going down the same route and making our language less easy to read?
SimpleS@49 and Valentine@35 for 2d perhaps you’ve heard people talking about a “back rub”?
Lord Jim@25 I thought “readily available” might make it a triple entendre?
SimpleS @49: yes, as I was suggesting @25, surely the idea of the clue is that the rubbers in a respectable sort of massage parlour are the people providing the massages, but in the less salubrious sort, other sorts of rubbers would be available. (So I imagine.)
Comment #53
An excellent Monday puzzle, hope to see more from Budmo in this slot. Favourite today was THOUGHT.
Thanks Eileen! I found the right-hand side mostly simple, then got thoroughly stuck on the left. Massage parlours! Oh my. Good fun. Did not finish, but will keep trying.
Too hard for me…
Thanks both
Roz@42, that’s it. The clue was very well received in the comments. What’s naughty about it?
[BTW, that was the same day you said you’d seek out a theorbo in the music faculty. Any luck?]
I agree with vicktim@50. HOMETOWN, if not split in two, seems more like an adjective than a noun to me, and surely Paris would be Monet’s ville natale, n’est-ce pas?
I had also never heard of a WALKING DELEGATE, but my father was a trade union official so it was easy to work out from the fodder and three or four crossers.
POLYESTER was my only pause for thought. I quite like ‘loudly’ for a soundalike, as ‘on the radio’ has become rather hackneyed.
Thanks to Budmo and to Eileen as always.
[ Yes Mig@57 and a student to play it for me . She is going to join me and my friend on our annual visit to Widnes Station . ]
[Roz @59
To play Homeward Bound?]