Dynamo puts in a welcome fourth appearance, after seven months’ absence.
Dynamo is, fittingly, an anagram of Monday and his/her puzzles are pitched perfectly for this slot: friendly and inviting for beginners, with enough wit and ingenuity to satisfy more experienced solvers, with silky-smooth surfaces throughout. I thoroughly enjoyed this solve and was sorry to realise that I had finished it.
I could have ticked every clue but have whittled down my list to 1ac LA-DI-DA, 11ac THE WINTER’S TALE, 16ac IDES, 18ac CHIEF RABBI, 21ac COCK-A-DOODLE-DO, 24ac RETINA, 2dn DRACHMA and 12dn NORTH KOREAN.
Many thanks to Dynamo.
Definitions are underline in the clues.
Across
1 Hoity-toity boy Indian ignored now and again (2-2-2)
LA-DI-DA
LAD (boy) + InDiAn
4 E.g. Gen Z or Millennials in Peru, agog when travelling (3,5)
AGE GROUP
An anagram (when travelling) of PERU AGOG
9 Stylish girl wearing coat for ceremony (6)
CLASSY
LASS (girl) in C[eremon]Y
10 Requirement to enter castle tower, submerged to a certain extent (4-4)
KNEE-DEEP
NEED (requirement) in KEEP (castle tower)
11 Hint Stewart Lee adapted Shakespeare play (3,7,4)
THE WINTER’S TALE
An anagram (adapted) of HINT STEWART LEE
I went to Stratford just a week ago to see this – the one with the stage direction ‘Exit, pursued by a bear’
13 Voyager, say, to stride sporting special dress (5,5)
SPACE PROBE
PACE (stride) in SP (special) ROBE (dress)
14 American doctor’s rounds (4)
AMMO
AM (American + MO (doctor)
16 Caesar’s fateful day that is in Latin, mostly (4)
IDES
ID ES[t] – that is, in Latin
18 Perhaps Hazel in Watership Down has no time for religious Bigwig (5,5)
CHIEF RABBI
CHIEF RABBI[t] (Hazel in ‘Watership Down’) minus t (time) – Bigwig is another character in the book
21 Crow casually drew in parrot after temperature drops (4-1-6-3)
COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO
DOODLED (casually drew) in COCKA[t]OO (parrot) minus t (temperature)
23 Supposed Dynamo crazy, ingesting alcohol and drug (8)
IMAGINED
I (Dynamo) MAD (crazy) round GIN (alcohol) and E (drug)
24 A bit of a looker dressed in beret in Arles (6)
RETINA
Hidden in beRET IN Arles – I loved the surface, with its suggestion of artists
25 Ruby perhaps gets on with me badly (8)
GEMSTONE
An anagram (badly) of GETS ON ME
26 Dark time, we hear, for man on board (6)
KNIGHT
Sounds like ‘night’ (dark time
Down
1 Some public exposure for bloodsuckers (4)
LICE
Hidden in pubLIC Exposure
2 Old Athenian’s money starts to cause havoc in play (7)
DRACHMA
Initial letters of Cause Havoc in DRAMA (play)
3 Rejected terrible downside (8)
DISOWNED
An anagram (terrible) of DOWNSIDE
5 Spice Girl given money and sweet food (11)
GINGERBREAD
GINGER (Spice Girl) + BREAD (money)
6 John Travolta was in this part of Europe, it’s said (6)
GREASE
Sounds like Greece, part of Europe
7 Way of bowling six balls, ready for combat (7)
OVERARM
OVER (six balls) + ARM (ready, as a verb, for combat)
8 After vegetable, I refuse to put up with starter of Italian sausage (9)
PEPPERONI
PEPPER (vegetable) + a reversal (put up, in a down clue) of NO (I refuse) + I[talian]
12 Maybe Kim, Karen and Ron, hot when dancing (5,6)
NORTH KOREAN
An anagram (when dancing) of KAREN RON HOT
13 English pop singer admits longing for some needlework
STITCHING
STING (English pop singer) round ITCH (longing)
15 Empty tin filled with cigarette containing cannabis plant from a wood (4,4)
TREE FERN
REEFER (cigarette containing cannabis) in T[i]N
My apologies for the earlier absence of this clue
19 What anti-monarchist might do, making reservation (7)
BOOKING
BOO KING, as an anti-monarchist might do
20 Cruel person is miserable first (6)
SADIST
SAD (miserable) + IST (first)
22 Silly bit of publicity around newspaper (4)
DAFT
A reversal (around) of AD (bit of publicity) + FT (Financial Times – newspaper)
Very enjoyable. NORTH KOREAN and THE WINTERS TALE were my favourites. Conversely, I went to see the very funny Stewart Lee last year.
Ta Dynamo & Eileen.
What Eileen says.
Thanks to Dynamo for a pleasant start to the day and to Eileen for taking the words out of my mouth.
Thanks Dynamo and Eileen
Yes, very pleasant. KNEE DEEP favourite.
Totally agree. Delightful, approachable puzzle.
Thanks Dynamo and Eileen
Very enjoyable.
My favourite: BOOKING.
My only hold up was SPACE CRAFT (S for special is a valid abbreviation, and a long bow craft=dress) instead of SPACE PROBE. Otherwise a very pleasing solve with loads of ticks.
Yes. A nice, enjoyable puzzle.
Excellent blog.
Thanks Dynamo and Eileen.
Another vote for KNEE-DEEP. Perhaps this and the Enigmatist are signs of an attempt to vary the level of difficulty more?
A welcome and very enjoyable start to the week, especially hot on the heels of yesterday’s equally well-pitched quiptic.
Such a pleasant solve after one of last week’s horrors.
Chuckled at the CHIEF RABBI(T).
I’d have spelled it LA-DE-DA but I suspect both are possible.
Many thanks Eileen and Dynamo.
As Eileen said, I was also disappointed to realise I had finished this crossword as it was so much fun. Because I have had a few health concerns of late, I was starting to think I was losing my solving ability as well as being physically unwell which would have been a terrible thing, as crosswords are such a good distraction for me when health is a concern. Recently I’ve only been achieving about a quarter solve for most of the daily puzzles and not getting far with the Prize puzzles either. But today restored my confidence, so huge thanks to Dynamo. There were some wry and appealing story-telling type surfaces in the clues for 18a CHIEF RABBI, 12d NORTH KOREAN, 17d EXCLAIM, 19d BOOKING and 20d SADIST. But then I nodded a lot at several others in Eileen’s list of ticks and those mentioned in the comments so far.
My gratitude to Eileen for a super blog and Dynamo for an energising puzzle!
“Inch thick, KNEE DEEP” is from THE WINTERS TALE. Coincidence? Also my first ever Shakespeare citation 🙂
Jake Thackray might beg to differ about the spelling of LA-Di-DA
Cheers E&D
Julie in Australia @11 – it’s good to hear from you. We’ve been missing your frequent and valued contributions to our community. Very best wishes for your recuperation. x
I enjoyed that, thank you Dynamo and Eileen.
19D, BOOKING, made me chuckle.
I had a wrestle with 26A, KNIGHT, specifically with the “on board”. Yes, we hear knight and night the same way, and yes, a knight is a man; but why on board? On a boat? Board of directors, blackboard, leader board? It was only when I came back to it that I thought of chess board.
Kestell @14
It’s worth storing that away – “on board” usually does refer to a chess piece in crosswords.
[Best wishes for a rapid recovery JinA.]
It’s rare that I finish a puzzle without any quibbles. This was most enjoyable and a Goldilocks level of difficulty.
Very smooth solve but some witty clues and great surfaces. Goes to show you can really enjoy a puzzle without having to fry the brain cells. I imagine the perfect tonic for Eileen after Friday’s blog.
Liked KNEE-DEEP and CHIEF-RABBI.
Thanks Eileen and Dynamo.
J in A @11: so sorry to hear about your health issues. I, too, had doubts about my miserable solving performance last week. Get well soon, and do keep posting.
Nice to hear from you again JinA.
I’ll just add my voice to the general encomia. Smooth sailing all the way and no quibbles at all other than that it was over too soon.
muffin@15 Thank you for the tip!
Absolute delight! Thanks Dynamo and Eileen.
This one was certainly at the shallow end for anyone dipping their toe into cryptics. No matter how accessible the puzzle, I’m never that quick to finish. I was through this quickly enough, with a large proportion of (parsed) write-ins, but I still found time to be a bit dim in places, notably on COCK A DOODLE DOO. I liked CHIEF RABBI and NORTH KOREAN.
Thanks Dynamo and Eileen.
Classy Monday puzzle with no duds. BOOKING made me smile.
Ditto everything that’s been said. Great puzzle, lovely surfaces, not too intractable – though I did get myself bogged down for a while in parsing 21ac. I was convinced that ‘drew in’ gave us LED, then I was trying to make something out of OO (as in zero degrees) repeated (parroted)… well, then DOODLED jumped out at me and I saw the error of my ways. Thanks to Dynamo and to Eileen for the excellent blog, and get well soon JinA!
That was great fun, a beautiful crossword. I struggled with 22d for a long time somehow trying every possible wordplay to except the right one.
Thank you Eileen and Chapeau Dynamo!
LA-DI-DA was an excellent opener, and the standard didn’t let up the whole way through. Very smooth; I found it just right for a day like today.
Lovely crossword for a beginner/improver like me. I couldn’t quite parse COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO or DRACHMA (though the latter was straightforward enough) but otherwise very satisfying. I’ve never read Watership Down and don’t want to but I know it’s about rabbits!
Hear hear, I am fairly new to cryptic and have been getting discouraged by the complexity of clues lately, particularly charades. I really enjoyed being able to complete this crossword. A good start to the week, thanks Dynamo
So pleasing to read all these appreciative comments for this Dynamo offering in the Monday slot. Hear, hear and all that.
Refreshing not to have to read about “write ins” and “one coffee wonders”…
Sorry to have spoilt that Ronald @30. I’m never complaining though, merely sharing.
Agree with all the compliments. Thanks Dynamo, and Eileen for the explanations! Favourites IDES and BOOKING.
What about 15d though? I got it wrong (by one letter, but I don’t understand the parsing). It seems to be missing from the blog…
‘Hear hear ‘ to all that’s gone before.
Dictionary not needed to look up any words in the puzzle today, although encomia needed the book. Thanks poc@20 for todays addition to my vocabulary
Thank you, Dynamo, for restoring my confidence after last Friday’s shocker. And Eileen, I love your blogs , you are so clever yet sometimes you admit that you can’t parse a tricky clue, that helps my confidence too. Love to all .
Good start to the week with many polished surfaces. I liked the good anagram for THE WINTERS TALE, the wordplays for COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO and NORTH KOREAN, the well-hidden RETINA, and the surfaces for PEPPERONI and EXCLAIM.
Thanks Dynamo/Monday for the fun and Eileen for the usual, excellent blog.
Layman @32 Empty TIN = TN, with cannabis cigarette REEFER inside: TREE FERN – a plant from a wood.
Martin @36: thanks!
I’m so sorry, all, especially Layman – I don’t know how on earth 15dn dropped out! I’ll restore it now.
In the meantime, many thanks, Martin @36.
Long live more approachable Monday crosswords. This was my first completed cryptic without revealing or checking – lovely!!
Nice Quiptic. 😛
No seriously, very nice. Easy yet elegant. Count me among the people staggering after last week who appreciated this. Heck, I still have some Everyman and Quiptic clues I’m struggling with. This does feel perfectly suited to the Sunday slot, but then I guess the name wouldn’t fit. So, huge thanks to Dynamo, and thanks to Eileen for her blog.
Delightful puzzle, which I did this morning, rather than last night, when I fell asleep over the quiptic.
COCK-A-DOODLE-DO was obvious from the enumeration, but I never saw “doodled.” One of several I had no hope of parsing. I didn’t know “special” could be SP, thought it was just S, so where did the P come from, thought I. And where did the T come from in SADIST? I’d parsed it as SAD + IS. Never thought of IST = first. Or “id est” in ides, f’revvinsake. Brain glue this motning.
Best wishes to Julie for a happy recovery.
And thanks to Dynamo and lucky Eileen.
[A relation bought a new suit. It was labelled SP. He thought it meant “special”, and was rather put out when he was informed that it was “short and portly”.]
Nothing there to frighten the horses, but it’s Monday, after all, so nice to have a gentle start to the week. I confess I looked at IMAGINED for ages trying to parse it and missed completely the capitalisation of Dynamo and the fact that that is the setter’s name. I guess that’s partly because I usually start off with the crossword in The Times, where setters are not identified at all. But I do look at The Guardian more days than not, so I ought to recognise this device more often really. Thanks to Eileen and Dynamo.
Thanks Eileen for the usual, excellent blog. A bit of catharsis after last Friday no doubt.
Beautifully clued and all parsed, thanks Dynamo.
Lovely to see a reference to my favourite comedian, Stewart Lee (a regular contributor to the Observer comment pages until the recent buy-out), who re-wrote a scene in another Shakespeare play a couple of years ago:
https://www.rsc.org.uk/news/comedian-stewart-lee-rewrites-macbeth-porter-scene
Balladeer @ 40 sort of apologised for calling this a quiptic but it is a quiptic and a very good one at that. Given the supposed Monday tradition, there is nothing wrong at all with a quiptic as enjoyable as this being posted. There is a sliding scale and it’s all subjective anyway so there is plenty of potential for overlap between the Sunday and Monday puzzles and, yes, it is hugely rewarding for newer solvers to find something genuinely accessible in a back page Guardian. LA-DI-DA made me smile and was a perfect opener for what followed.
Thanks Dynamo and Eileen – for whom this must go some way towards balancing out Friday 😉
Very nice puzzle, blog and comments today, and a speedy recovery to JinA.
A lovely sorbet to cleanse the palate after Friday’s beast! (the Prize on Saturday was very good in between, I should add).
Many thanks to MONDAY* and Eileen.
Echoing others – such a joy. Lovely surfaces and nice variety of crossword wit and tricks. Bonus: I could finish and parse it 😊. I loved AGE GROUP for the surface.
Perfect Monday crossword. Thanks Dynamo and Eileen. Now to tackle Friday’s Enigmatist
I just loved this ! As a newcomer and dipping my toes in the cryptics I’ve been dismayed to struggle the last couple of Mondays. But this from Dynamo was not only accessible but great fun too. I think chief rabbi was my favourite but thoroughly enjoyed them all – thank you Dynamo. And Eileen’s blog was clear and supportive, so thank you too.
Hurrah. So now I have crosswords on Saturday Sunday and Monday to enjoy.
Beautiful references in the clues. Enjoyed this
Thanks both
A lovely monday puzzle. I no longer have the quiptic to warm up as I save that for my partner [who I am infecting with the crossword bug >:)] This could have been a quiptic honestly.
I am constantly misremembering the Shakespeare play as *A* winter’s tale, but thankfully that didn’t cause too much difficulty.
Surfaces all lovely as well – some quite long but none of them awkward or of questionable meaning.
Good to see that others agree last week was a slog – I was genuinely starting to wonder if my brain fog was getting worse.
An excellent puzzle, no less impressive for its accessibility. Bravo.
Thanks Dynamo & Eileen
Very best wishes to JinA – I always look forward to your contributions
Echoing @54 PJ… ‘brevity being the soul of wit’, this had me chortling when I got home late from a day in Aarhus. Thank you Monday* for the smiles and Eileen for another fine blog.
I too look forward to seeing Julie’s always generous and insightful comments. Hope you get better soon ,Juliie and yes, the daily crossword can be an ideal tonic. This one certainly was. Thanks to Dynamo and Eileen
Completed this without too much trouble. Agree with Eileen that this was a nicely constructed puzzle that was a pleasure to solve