Thanks to Vulcan for the puzzle – my favourites were 22ac, 26ac, 3dn, 4dn, and 19dn.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | RESTFUL |
Relaxing, interval nearly complete (7)
|
| REST=”interval” [e.g. a rest is an interval of silence, in music notation]; plus “nearly” all the letters of FUL-[L]=”complete” | ||
| 5 | GLAZIER |
Workman is good but not so hard-working (7)
|
| G (good) + LAZIER=”not so hard-working” | ||
| 9 | BRILL |
Fish kingfisher finally caught in beak (5)
|
| final letter of [kingfishe]-R, inside BILL=”beak” | ||
| 10 | RETREATED |
Shrank, offered another freebie? (9)
|
| to ‘treat’ someone is to offer them something for free, so ‘re-treated’=to have treated someone again=”offered another freebie” | ||
| 11 | SCOREBOARD |
Here’s the state of play: having small heart, pig died (10)
|
| S (small) + CORE=”heart” + BOAR=”pig” + D (died) | ||
| 12 | LEAN |
Incline to be thin (4)
|
| double definition | ||
| 14 | BENEFACTRESS |
Free cabs sent out for patron (12)
|
| anagram/”out” of (Free cabs sent)* | ||
| 18 | BREATHALYSER |
Device held by police, the barrel say trembling (12)
|
| anagram/”trembling” of (the barrel say)* | ||
| 21 | RUCK |
Mass of people in lorry, the first to leave (4)
|
| [t]-RUCK=”lorry” with the first letter leaving | ||
| 22 | PASSED PAWN |
One in line to become queen was accepted, with knight on hand (6,4)
|
| definition: in chess, a passed pawn piece may be on its way to become promoted to a queen piece
PASSED=”was accepted”; plus N (knight, chess notation) after PAW=”hand” |
||
| 25 | EMAIL LIST |
Time is all wrong for this marketing tool (5,4)
|
| anagram/”wrong” of (Time is all)* | ||
| 26 | NOBLE |
For one, count boxing as such an art? (5)
|
| definition: a “count” is an example (“For one” = ‘for example’) of a noble
boxing is sometimes called ‘the noble art’ |
||
| 27 | KITCHEN |
Be keen to fetch range round, for here? (7)
|
| for definition, “here” refers to where one might have a kitchen “range”
ITCH=”Be keen to”; with KEN going “round” one’s ‘ken’ is one’s “range” of knowledge or awareness as in ‘that is beyond my ken’ |
||
| 28 | PIEBALD |
Horse meat baked in pastry, plain (7)
|
| PIE=”meat baked in pastry” + BALD=”plain” | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ROBUST |
Strong or, when knocked over, broken (6)
|
| reversal/”knocked over” of OR (from surface); plus BUST=”broken” | ||
| 2 | SAIGON |
Miss this musical (6)
|
| “Miss” SAIGON is the name of a musical | ||
| 3 | FALSE TEETH |
Irregular force that may be out at night (5,5)
|
| definition refers to taking one’s false teeth out before sleeping
FALSE=”Irregular” + TEETH=”force” (e.g. a law that ‘has no teeth’ is ineffective) |
||
| 4 | LARGO |
Piece of music popular gospeller introduces (5)
|
| definition: a musical movement played at a slow tempo
hidden inside [popu]-LAR GO-[speller] |
||
| 5 | GETS READY |
Greets day for moving and prepares (4,5)
|
| anagram/”moving” of (Greets day)* | ||
| 6 | A FEW |
A sigh of relief heard, not many (1,3)
|
| sounds like (“heard”) ‘a phew’=”A sigh of relief” | ||
| 7 | IN THE RED |
Being so placed is nothing to your credit (2,3,3)
|
| I think this is a cryptic definition: to be in the red is to be in debt, rather than being in credit
I considered wordplay along the lines of ‘in there’ + D, but couldn’t make it work |
||
| 8 | RUDENESS |
Bad manners of English in undress, playing (8)
|
| anagram/”playing” of (E undress)*, with E for “English” | ||
| 13 | ATTENDANCE |
Towards end of evening, jig around gate (10)
|
| definition: “gate” as in people paying to enter an event=ATTENDANCE
AT TEN (o’clock as in 22:00)=”Towards end of evening” + DANCE=”jig” |
||
| 15 | EMANATION |
Effusion from armies regularly upset people (9)
|
| reversal/”upset” of regular letters from A-[r]-M-[i]-E-[s]; plus NATION=”people” | ||
| 16 | UBERGEEK |
Taxi from Greece not realistic initially for computer obsessive (8)
|
| the UBER platform offers services similar to a “Taxi” company; plus G-[R]-EEK (from surface) minus the initial letter of R-[ealistic] | ||
| 17 | PENCHANT |
Liking to write a melody (8)
|
| to PEN a CHANT=”to write a melody” | ||
| 19 | LAMBDA |
Letter from prosecutor supporting one simply innocent (6)
|
| definition: a letter from the Greek alphabet
DA (district attorney, “prosecutor”); under/supporting LAMB=”one simply innocent” |
||
| 20 | INDEED |
Definitely denied being replaced (6)
|
| anagram/”re-placed” of (denied)* | ||
| 23 | SIT-UP |
An exercise for you – don’t go to bed (3-2)
|
| definition: a form of physical exercise
to SIT UP is to not lie down / not go to bed |
||
| 24 | BLAH |
Balderdash, lies and hooey from the start (4)
|
| definition: ‘blah’ to describe nonsense
starting letters of B-[alderdash] L-[ies] A-[nd] H-[ooey] |
I thought this was BRILL and one of the best Vulcan puzzles I’ve seen in a long time. Ticks for SCOREBOARD, BENEFACTRESS, BREATHALYSER, PASSED PAWN, NOBLE, PIEBALD, ATTENDANCE and PENCHANT.
Ta Vulcan & manehi.
I thought my IQ must have somehow doubled overnight as I rattled through the top half. Back down to earth with the bottom, SE in particular.
Most enjoyable. Thanks Vulcan and manehi.
How does he do it? Clever, inventive, enjoyable,…and so often!
Many thanks Mr Monday!
What everyone else said!
Fun start to the week
Thanks to Vulcan and manehi
I struggled mightily with this, getting less than a handful of the across clues in the first pass. The SW held me up for a long time. Apparently I need more coffee.
Lots to like here though, FALSE TEETH being my favorite.
New for me: boxing = the NOBLE art.
LOI was 21ac RUCK as I am always weak on rugby-related stuff.
Thanks, Vulcan and manehi, I thought this was a perfect Monday puzzle, with only 22a needing somewhat specialised knowledge. FALSE TEETH, appropriately, was the last to go in.
Struggled with parsing KITCHEN. KEN=range seemed a real stretch, but Chambers approves so OK.
Stared at 3d for ages. The first part was clearly FALSE, but I couldn’t think of TEETH=force (and again it’s in Chambers, so that’s me told).
Thanks Vulcan and manehi
I found this much harder than usual for Vulcan. Finished slowly in the NW, where there were some oddities – “irregular” for FALSE? SAIGON doesn’t really include a definition.
The Guardian style guide wouldn’t approve BENEFACTRESS!
I found this hard. No complaints though. Finished in the South East where, on reflection, I really shouldn’t have struggled.
Thanks Vulcan and manehi.
For 13 to work, we need to use “jig around” as a verb, rather than just jig as a noun meaning a type of dance.
I didn’t get my FALSE TEETH in until breakfast was long over. LOI, but it made me smile when the penny dropped.
PIEBALD was very neat.
As with poc@8, KEN for range was unknown to me, but I can now see how ken = knowledge stretches to “the range of what you know”.
Thanks both!
Good start to the week with A FEW tricky ones. I liked the BRILL surface, the PASSED PAWN in line to become queen, the PIEBALD horse meat, the good definition for FALSE TEETH, and the ATTENDANCE gate.
Thanks Vulcan and manehi.
Enjoyed it; my favourites were SCOREBOARD, PASSED PAWN and (me being an accountant) IN THE RED, which, I agree, is a cryptic definition. LOI FALSE TEETH – also a nice one. Not thrilled about SAIGON. Thanks Vulcan and manehi!
Bizarrely, with me knocking off the rust from my chess game in the last week, PASSED PAWN was my very last move today. Excellent trademark puzzle today….
Trademark Vulcan puzzle, I meant to say…
Pleasant morning. The top half came in easily, lower half took some check-buttoning.
Thanks Vulcan and manehi.
I always enjoy the Monday offering from Vulcan but often think it’s over too quickly. That was not the case today, just as much fun as usual and hard enough to feel like a proper challenge.
No need to check the calendar, it’s definitely Monday, and none the worse for that. TTS&B
I agree that the puzzle had a definite north to south gradient from easy-peasy to much trickier. For me, ‘irregular’=FALSE was just one little fly in the ointment. Otherwise, I loved this one.
Not knowing chess, I reckoned the pawn could well be RAISED to the status of queen — but no. Balderdash, lies and hooey was a spiffing clue!
Nice gentle solve only really struggling on FALSE TEETH. I may have got too focussed on force being the F. Maybe I am getting to that age and the brain is slowing.
Liked PASSING PAWN and BENEFACTRESS
Thanks Vulcan and Manehi
Good stuff from the consistently excellent Vulcan.
All done only help needed from Manehi’s fine blog was TEETH=”force, I see it now…
UBERGEEK was new but very gettable fromthe wordplay.
Thanks both…
Nice puzzle, neither too easy nor hard, I would say.
Agree with Deegee@11 that you need to combine the “around” with the “jig”.
FALSE TEETH was my LOI. Recently I had a broken tooth replaced; the new one was screwed into the bone, so it definitely doesn’t come out at night. The clue says “may” so all is well.
Very pleasant puzzle with a nice variety of clues with clever surfaces. The good but not so hard-working GLAZIER earned a tick, as did SCOREBOARD (though it was rather sad about the poor pig).
Like others I wondered about “irregular” for FALSE, but perhaps false accounting / irregular accounting might be one context where it works.
Re BENEFACTRESS: I know it’s been said that the Guardian style guide is supposed to apply to the crossword, but it often doesn’t in practice, and we quite often see “actress” for example. Surely this is reasonable — the style guide is really for what language should be employed in the paper’s articles, but for the crossword any word in the dictionary (barring seriously offensive ones) should be fair game.
Many thanks Vulcan and manehi.
Good Monday fare. I also zoomed through the top half and had to engage brain for the bottom half.
I couldn’t parse KITCHEN and am still not entirely happy with the clue. Otherwise a really good puzzle.
I liked PASSED PAWN, PIEBALD and UBERGEEK.
Loi was LAMBDA – don’t really know why I had a mental block about it.
Thanks Vulcan and manehi.
Re 14a: It occurs to me that a female patron should logically be a matron …
As you were.
Yep, good puzzle.
I’m also a little doubtful about the FALSE/irregular confluence. At first I had Matin for LARGO, thinking Mat might be an abbreviation of Matthew. SCOREBOARD put the kibosh on that.
BREATHALYSER, GLAZIER and ROBUST were my picks. I thought the wordplay for the latter was very neat.
Thanks, Vulcan & manehi.
I might be wrong – and it does tend to be (ancient?) Greek letters of the alphabet we are often searching for in cryptic crosswords – but LAMBDA is the only one with six letters. So that was actually my first one in…
I agree that this was a fine puzzle. Several enjoyable and tricky misdirections, like 11a SCOREBOARD (“Here’s the state of play”), 3d FALSE TEETH (“out at night”), 13d ATTENDANCE (“gate”), a good number of decent anagrams, and some great surfaces, like 9a BRILL, 18a BREATHALYSER, 21a RUCK, 1d ROBUST, 20d INDEED
Other favourites, 15d EMANATION (combining alternate letters and reversal), 16d UBERGEEK (cool word)
2d SAIGON is an odd clue, but it works, and is another favourite. I wonder if the definition is just “this”?
22a PASSED PAWN, I enjoyed seeing this (perhaps obscure?) chess term. Took me back to my chess-playing days
Thank you both
Thanks to manehi for the blog. I needed your help with the parsing of KITCHEN and FALSE TEETH.
And thanks to Vulcan for an enjoyable puzzle. The clue for BLAH was very funny. Or “spiffing”, as pserve_p2@20 rightly says.
Thanks for the blog ,very neat set of clues and the space at the bottom in the paper shows how concise they were . Seems just right for a Monday including a very friendly grid .
BENEFACTRESS , I have no problem with this in crosswords , the grid always produces restrictions on what will fit .
The recent Genius puzzle ended the trail for number 30000 , only online so I did not do it but someone brought it to me at work for some help . A theme of genius , 20 examples , ALL MALE , not a single geniusess . You could not make it up .
Considering this was a Monday, it gave me a good kicking. Took me several hours on and off.
Not a chess player nor a computer obsessive, so did not get the clever PASSED PAWN or the absolutely horrible never-heard-and-never-want-to-hear UBERGEEK. Didn’t much care for an unhyphenated E-MAIL LIST either. So an OK from me, but I’ve had more satisfying experiences with Vulcan’s puzzles. Thanks to setter even so, and to our blogger.
There’s many a true word spoken through FALSE TEETH!
Thank you manehi and Vulcan. Rather splendid puzzle, enjoyed it a great deal. Quite a few tricky ones, but at no point did I feel cheated! Needed a couple of friends to make suggestions to finish it off.
Like pserve_p2#20, obscure chess terminology is beyond my KEN, so I entered RAISED PAWN at 22a. It fits the definition and the crossers, so I had no incentive to look for another first word and the correct answer PASSED me by.
BigNorm#33, I used to hyphenate EMAIL, but I have noticed that it is almost universally treated as a single word these days.
Thanks Vulcan for the satisfying Monday puzzle, and manehi for the excellent blog.
muffin@9: And some might ask whether all glaziers are men (5a).
[ Hector@37: Reminds me of the riposte to that old conundrum:
“The Barber of Seville shaves all those men who do not shave themselves: who, then, shaves the Barber of Seville?”
“Maybe she doesn’t shave…” ]
Not being into musicals, there was no way I was going to solve 2d without some crossers, so it was my last one in. An unusually left field clue for this setter – seemed more like a Vlad. The clue for BLAH was also unconventional, though very easy.
Haven’t we seen ‘force’ =TEETH a few times recently, or something similar? It certainly popped up pretty quickly for me.
Thanks to Vulcan and Manehi.
Doofs, 2:
Absolutely, me too!
Good but tough for a Monday imo.
Comment #41
Had a real struggle with the SE corner, attendance was the LOI, at that point I was lost in a world of over think!
Thank you Vulcan and manehi.