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…