Vulcan is back in his fortnightly spot for the Monday crossword this morning – the crossword is found here
I am covering for Eileen this morning, who is away, hopefully having fun.
I don’t ever find Vulcan particularly easy as I don’t always spot double definitions and cryptic clues cold solving; this puzzle is full of double definitions, starting with the first two across clues, which gets met with brainfreeze. Reading through clues in order, it took me to ESURIENT to start entering letters in the grid, and that’s a word you either know or don’t. I know that’s the way my brain works and others find this type of cluing easier. (I didn’t find Rufus easy either).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | RAGGED |
Teased, wearing tatty clothes (6)
|
| double definition – the first a verb, the second an adjective | ||
| 4 | STUMPS |
End of play is baffling (6)
|
| double definition – the first referring to cricket and the second a verb that describes solvers when confronted by an impossible clue | ||
| 9 | OMIT |
Love university, but fail (4)
|
| charade of O (for love) + MIT (university) The university here is Massachusetts Institute of Technology – one of the setter’s favourite universities because it’s found in Cambridge, Massachusetts. | ||
| 10 | CREEPINESS |
Virginia’s eerie quality? (10)
|
| cryptic definition – referring to the Virginia creeper | ||
| 11 | BONSAI |
A pretentious type rejected one little-grown tree (6)
|
| reversal of A SNOB (A pretentious type) < (rejected) + I (one) – it’s a little-grown tree because bonsai is a technique of growing miniature trees. | ||
| 12 | ESURIENT |
Bubbling tureen is making us very hungry (8)
|
| anagram (bubbling) of (TUREEN IS)* – esurient means very hungry or starving | ||
| 13 | SEGREGATE |
Isolate small wader scratching back at barrier (9)
|
| charade of S (small) + EGRE[t] (wader, scratching back) + GATE (barrier) | ||
| 15 | KNEE |
One submissively bent is taken to offer respect (4)
|
| double definition | ||
| 16 | SOUK |
Very British marketplace (4)
|
| charade of SO (very) + UK (British) – and I know the United Kingdom is not the same as Britain/British, but they get used interchangeably | ||
| 17 | SHOW TRIAL |
Rehearsal for musical that has prearranged result? (4,5)
|
| double definition – sort of, hence the question mark. A SHOW TRIAL has a prearranged result, and a rehearsal for a musical could be a trial of a show, so a SHOW TRIAL, but that’s a more quirky definition. | ||
| 21 | PASHMINA |
Note a mishap, tumbling shawl (8)
|
| anagram (tumbling) of (N A MISHAP)* where N is note.
These shawls were very fashionable in the 1990s and early 2000s, after a previous heydey in the 1800s. They are still for sale, but no longer the height of fashion. According to Wikipedia, the name refers to the particular cashmere fabric as well as the shawls made from it. |
||
| 22 | REDACT |
Edit colourful performance (6)
|
| charade of RED (colourful) + ACT (performance) | ||
| 24 | ATTACHMENT |
Fondness for use of paperclip (10)
|
| double definition – the first referring to the feelings, and the second to the symbols used in emails which refers to the literal use of paperclips. | ||
| 25 | WHET |
Stimulate husband, outwardly feeble (4)
|
| insertion – H (husband) inserted into (outwardly) WET (feeble) | ||
| 26 | NOTARY |
Charitable society has new head, a public official (6)
|
| swap a letter – [R]OTARY (charitable society) with N (new) replacing the first letter (head) | ||
| 27 | IDLEST |
Most useless papers in case (6)
|
| charade of ID (papers) + LEST (in case) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | RAM HOME |
Emphasise lost sheep is found? (3,4)
|
| somewhat whimsical charade – a lost sheep found could be a RAM (male sheep) which when it has returned HOME is found – with a question mark to show it’s a quirky use of words | ||
| 2 | GATES |
Bill for garden features (5)
|
| double definition – the first referring to Bill Gates of Microsoft fame | ||
| 3 | ETCHING |
Eating out as an artistic activity (7)
|
| double definition – etching plates for printing is a way of eating out grooves for the ink to be held for printing, an artistic activity as there are some well-known artists are known for their etchings (Lucien Freud, Durer, Goya). | ||
| 5 | TAP OUT |
A penny accepted by ticket seller to leave the Tube (3,3)
|
| insertion (accepted by) – A P (a penny) inserted into (accepted by) TOUT (ticket seller).
For those who don’t use the Tube (London Underground) regularly, entry and exit requires tapping in and out on yellow discs using an Oyster (dedicated TfL card) or bank card (or phone). |
||
| 6 | MONSIGNOR |
Some Mormons ignore Catholic dignitary (9)
|
| hidden word (some) of morMONS IGNORe | ||
| 7 | SUSANNE |
Girl from South America banned, leaving the borders (7)
|
| charade of S (southern) US (America) + bANNEd (banned leaving the borders) | ||
| 8 | SEVENTH HEAVEN |
To keep smooth, shave, then change: utter bliss (7,6)
|
| insertion: an anagram (change) of (SHAVE THEN)* around (to keep) EVEN (smooth) | ||
| 14 | ROUGHCAST |
Feeling unwell, throw off outdoor coat (9)
|
| charade of ROUGH (feeling unwell) + CAST (throw off) – ROUGHCAST is a form of external wall protection | ||
| 16 | SPARTAN |
Simple skill in bridge (7)
|
| insertion of ART (skill) in SPAN (bridge) – and SPARTAN comes from the traditions of Sparta | ||
| 18 | WORSTED |
Fabric of lowest quality last to be used (7)
|
| charade of WORST (of lowest quality) + the last letters of bE and useD – WORSTED is a way of making a wool fabric, with the name deriving from a village in Norfolk and nothing to do with the quality of the fabric. | ||
| 19 | ANCIENT |
Very old person’s nice tan misguided (7)
|
| charade (misguided) of (NICE TAN)* | ||
| 20 | ZITHER |
Spot that woman’s musical instrument (6)
|
| charade of ZIT (spot) + HER (woman’s) for this group of instruments | ||
| 23 | DOWSE |
A quantity of drug wife’s swallowed: look for water (5)
|
| insertion of W (wife’s swallowed) into DOSE (a quantity of drug).
Apparently people can either dowse or not, and if you can it’s really odd, because whatever you’re holding to indicate the placement of water moves involuntarily in your hands as you walk over the water. As a teenager, a father of one of my schoolfriends owned a farm, and had had dowsers in to find out where the water pipes ran under his farmyard. So when he next had a group of his daughter’s friends around, he gave us the dowsing rods and got us to walk across the farmyard to see if anything happened. Apparently I was useful, as the dowsing rods moved at exactly the right place. |
Perhaps a few more dips into Vulcan’s bumper book of riddles than usual?
Stumped myself with a typo in TAP OUT that delayed the close of play
Cheers S&V
Fans of the Monty Python Cheese-shop sketch will be familiar with ESURIENT. At the start of the sketch, John Cleese walks into the said establishment and announces that he was feeling ESURIENT and thought to himself that a little fermented curd would do the trick, so had infiltrated that place of purveyance to negotiate the vending of some cheesy comestibles.
Tricky in parts and enjoyable.
New for me: ROUGHCAST = plaster of lime, cement, and gravel, used on outside walls.
I didn’t know what was going on with CREEPINESS despite pencilling it in from the outset and, like Michelle, the last 4 of ROUGHCAST held me up for a while, but otherwise everything was fine.
Good Monday workout. Thanks Vulcan and Shanne.
Thanks Vulcan and Shanne
I thought TAP OUT had a very odd definition, not being familiar with Oyster cards.
Why does OMIT mean “fail”? “Leave out”, surely?
There will be complaints about SOUK!
ETCHING was the only one that I couldn’t parse — pretty specialist knowledge required? All else was tickety boo and enjoyed.
Muffin@5:
The useful Oxford that comes with Mac computers, for “omit”, gives this example:
“He modestly omits to mention that he was a pole-vault champion.”
Hence, I guess, “fail”.
muffin @5 – oh dear, I’ve omitted / failed to send the minutes out, mea culpa? (I have just sent the minutes out for last Thursday’s meeting, which is why this is in mind, but there is a list, of which various items I’ve so far omitted/failed to do.)
Thanks both. Not convinced – your examples have slightly different meanings with omit/fail.
Spent longer in SE corner than the rest of the crossword. Was convinced 27a was an inclusion – nice misdirect.
Favourite was SOUK for it’s smooth economy.
Many thanks, both.
SOUK
The clue is perfectly OK, as British is the adjective from United Kingdom.
(There being no such adjective as UnitedKingdomish).
Like William@10, I spent time trying to force ID as an inclusion in something unidentifiable before the IDLEST light dawned: nice misdirection. TAP OUT is a bit London-centric, and it took a while to find the owner of the “outdoor coat” – a house, not a human. And I should have known that of course STUMPS would be cricket, again.