Many thanks to Dice – I especially liked 10ac, 8dn, 16dn, and 21dn.
…there is a message to us in the grid:
| ACROSS | ||
| 9 | AMBLE |
Not the first to risk travel at a leisurely pace (5)
|
| to [G]-AMBLE=”to risk”, without its first letter | ||
| 10 | LANDSLIDE |
Rocks falling and getting into dell is ruinous (9)
|
| AND (from surface) getting into anagram/”ruinous” of (deli is)* | ||
| 11 | ORIGINALS |
Old nip of rum I drink too, without finishing first shots (9)
|
| for the definition, “shots” perhaps in the sense of ‘attempts’
O (Old) + R (nip of R-um) + I (from surface) + GIN=”drink” + ALS-[o]=”too, without finishing” |
||
| 12 | EMPTY |
Space put by, but oddly nothing inside (5)
|
| EM (typographical “space”) + odd letters of P-[u]-T [b]-Y | ||
| 13 | FLIPPED |
Turned and ran away, clutching Zippo but dropping case (7)
|
| FLED=”ran away” around/”clutching” [Z]-IPP-[o] without its outer letters/”case” | ||
| 15 | ORBITAL |
Part in test regarding the way planets travel (7)
|
| BIT=”Part” in ORAL=spoken exam=”test” | ||
| 17 | OUNCE |
Snow leopard jumps without limits (5)
|
| [b]-OUNCE-[s]=”jumps” without its outer letters/”limits” | ||
| 18 | RAW |
Harsh fightback (3)
|
| reversal/”…back” of WAR=”fight…” | ||
| 20 | INNER |
Central pub evacuated earlier (5)
|
| INN=”pub”, plus E-[arlie]-R evacuated of its inner letters | ||
| 22 | DEBATES |
Be taken the wrong way during rendezvous, creating arguments (7)
|
| BE reversed/”taken the wrong way”, inside/”during” DATES=”rendezvous” | ||
| 25 | ORGANIC |
Naturally produced grain ruined through company backtracking (7)
|
| anagram/”ruined” of (grain)*; inside reversal/”backtracking” of CO (company) | ||
| 26 | MINER |
Pitman’s system finally starts to introduce new, easy recording (5)
|
| final letter of [syste]-M, plus starting letters to I-[ntroduce] N-[ew] E-[asy] R-[ecording] | ||
| 27 | RELIGIOUS |
Devout priest, German, in South American city with us (9)
|
| ELI=a “priest” in the Old Testament, plus G (German); both inside RIO=”South American city”; plus US (from surface) | ||
| 30 | FOOD CHAIN |
Commanding Officer had info about who’s hunting whom? (4,5)
|
| anagram/”about” of (CO had info)*, with CO short for “Commanding Officer” | ||
| 31 | BUILT |
Constructed crowns of bronze using intricate latticework techniques (5)
|
| first letters (“crowns” similar to ‘tops’) of B-[ronze] U-[sing] I-[ntricate] L-[atticework] T-[echniques] | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | TACO |
Mexican snack stack – hot, without any wrappers (4)
|
| [s]-TAC-[o] [h]-O-[t] without their outer letters/”wrappers” | ||
| 2 | OBLIVION |
Forgetfulness leads to open bolts – then four being eaten by wild cat (8)
|
| first/leading letters to O-[pen] B-[olts]; plus IV (“four” in Roman numerals) inside LION=”wild cat” | ||
| 3 | YETI |
Still one imagined terrifying creature from the Himalayas (4)
|
| for definition, “imagined” as in ‘fantastical’ or ‘fictitious’
YET=”Still” + I=”one” |
||
| 4 | OLEANDER |
Sister Edna eloped, heading north, carrying flowering plant (8)
|
| hidden/carried inside a reversal (“heading north”) of: [siste]-R EDNA ELO-[ped] | ||
| 5 | UNESCO |
In France a supermarket sacking head to become international organisation (6)
|
| UN=”a” in French; plus [t]-ESCO=”supermarket” without its head letter | ||
| 6 | ASSEMBLING |
Absolute chaos, upset jewellery – piecing it all together? (10)
|
| A (Absolute) + MESS=”chaos” reversed/”upset” + BLING=slang for “jewellery” | ||
| 7 | LIMPET |
Floppy elephant with no stuffing for clingy type (6)
|
| LIMP=”Floppy” + E-[lephan]-T without its inside letters/”stuffing” | ||
| 8 | LEVY |
Tax bill came at last – virtually cleared out (4)
|
| “last” letters of [bil]-L [cam]-E; plus V-[irtuall]-Y “cleared out” of its inner letters | ||
| 13 | FLOOD |
Scourge of old? (5)
|
| anagram/”Scourge” of (of old)*; and whole surface suggests e.g. biblical floods | ||
| 14 | PUERTO RICO |
Our copter’s flying around island territory (6,4)
|
| anagram/”flying” of (Our copter)*; around I (island) | ||
| 16 | LYRIC |
Inadvertently Rickrolled – but only part of the words! (5)
|
| hidden in [Inadvertent]-LY RIC-[krolled]
I think the hidden indicator could be “only part of”; or perhaps it could be the “In…” from “Inadvertently”, with “only part of” being part of the definition Edit, thanks PostMark in comments for the suggestion: definition could be “of the words!”, with “only part” as the hidden indicator |
||
| 19 | WOODLAND |
An odd owl disturbed some trees (8)
|
| anagram/”disturbed” of (An odd owl)* | ||
| 21 | NON-TOXIC |
Safe ‘n’ sound? Two extinct every second! (3-5)
|
| every second letter from N [s]-O-[u]-N-[d] T-[w]-O [e]-X-[t]-I-[n]-C-[t] | ||
| 23 | BANGOR |
Welsh city’s non-governmental organisation gathered by bar (6)
|
| NGO (non-governmental organisation”; inside BAR (from surface) | ||
| 24 | STREAM |
Flow of vapour engulfing opening of railway (6)
|
| STEAM=”vapour” around opening letter of R-[ailway] | ||
| 26 | MUFF |
Greek character with very loud furry garment (4)
|
| MU=letter/”character” from the Greek alphabet; plus FF (fortissimo, “very loud” in music notation) | ||
| 28 | GOBI |
Desert old boy, captured by US soldier (4)
|
| O (old) + B (boy); inside GI (US soldier) | ||
| 29 | SITE |
Place, place and, finally, place (4)
|
| to SIT=to “place” + final letter of [plac]-E |
Nice, straightforward Monday fare with some clever devices. I liked ORIGINALS, FOODCHAIN, the nicely hidden OLEANDER, ASSEMBLING, LEVY and LYRIC. I saw TOY at the top but didn’t look any further so well spotted.
Ta Dice & manehi
I think LYRIC as an adjective can mean ‘of the words’. So the hidden indicator is just ‘but only part’
Easiest crossword I’ve done in a long time. No obscurities, no quibbles. Good fun, but it was over in fifteen minutes. I usually miss ninas but saw today’s.
Comment #4
I did think that the ‘In’ in Inadvertently was the indicator for the hidden word in LYRIC although I also agree with PM @2.
I took a bit of time to get into the setter’s mind. There were a lot of clues that involved manipulating bits of words, but it was straightforward in the end.
I thought BANGOR and YETI were weak clues, a bit obvious.
I struggled with the parsing of ORIGINALS. I thought originals might refer to the days of film cameras and printing from negatives .
Good to see our old friend the ounce making a return.
NON TOXIC was very clever.
And I spotted the nina across the top and bottom rows. Thought there might be a food theme as well, but not really.
All in all an enjoyable start to the week.
Thanks Dice and manehi
I had pounces instead of bounces for OUNCE; little difference really.
Thanks manehi and Dice for a gentle, pleasing crossword.
Entered FLOOD from the biblical angle but failed to see how clever it was till I came here.
As gdu says, a rapid but enjoyable solve.
Many thanks, both.
On a first pass I had F—— for 13D and considered flail, but thought that lacked any “crypticity”, saw the lovely anagram on my second pass.
Thanks Dice for a nice starter to Mionday after I return to reality after a weekend at the Cropredy Festival.
Another with ‘pounces’ for ‘jumps’. Over too soon. Like the clue for FLOODS, biblical or otherwise. They’re everywhere rn. Thanks.
Got to admire Dice’s ability to always seem to hit the right difficulty level for Quiptics/Mondays whilst still managing to engage the braincells.
Liked FLOOD and NON-TOXIC
Thanks Dice and manehi
Quite a lot of letter-by-letter assemblages today, but all fair enough.
I needed to come here for sorting out the parsing of FOOD CHAIN; straightforward enough but for some reason it just hit a blind spot. It also took me a while to spot the reverse hidden word OLEANDER.
Thanks, Dice & manehi!
[My Samsung tablet, on which I normally read the news and do the crossword, has taken to rendering the crossword oddly and inconveniently. Instead of being like a larger version of what I see on my phone, with the grid filling the whole upper half of the screen and the clues underneath (which it was up to the end of last week), the grid is much smaller, in the upper LH corner, with the clues all the way down the RHS; there is a large and useless blank space below the grid. I also get a chirpy and annoying message when I’ve finished, inviting me to share my victory. I don’t know if this is something the Graun has down, or something an Android update has done, but it’s bloody annoying. ]
Thanks Dice and manehi
I found this harder than usual for a Monday, with the NW last to fall. Good puzzle, but the various deletions seemed a bit overused.
Favourite EMPTY.
Felt it was very easy but, like William @8, failed to see the smart construction of FLOOD. Aldo didn’t notice the nina. Both were humbling. Thanks Dice and manehi!
Easy enough, but ORIGINALS=shots is pretty unconvincing to me.
Sadly fell down with ‘sett’ for SITE. Otherwise fairly straightforward as a Monday should be. FLOOD was clever, as was RAW.
Stylistically, it felt like a Quick Cryptic, with lots of fiddly but clearly communicated constructions. That’s not a comment on the difficulty level, although I found it straightforward. There were a couple that took a while to parse.
I liked UNESCO, NON-TOXIC, TACO and SITE.
Thanks Dice and manehi.
The parsing of FLOOD & ORIGINALS excepted this was a gentle but enjoyable stroll. Saw the message along the bottom but completely missed the rest of it on top.
Thanks all.
The parsing of FLOOD & ORIGINALS excepted this was a gentle but enjoyable stroll. Saw the message along the bottom but completely missed the rest of it on top.
Thanks all.
poc@15 the definition is ‘first shots’ not just ‘shots’. I agree with PhilB that there’s a photographic reference. Hope that reconciles you to the clue. Another who liked OLEANDER and missed the wordplay for FLOOD. As well as the Nina (but that almost goes without saying).
Perfect Monday fare.
Like PhilB @6 I took ORIGINALS to refer to the first prints of photographs from the negatives (as opposed to later copies which would be of poorer quality).
Thanks Dice and manehi.
Crossed with Fuddleduddy
Welcome to Dice and thx for the Nina. Enjoyable start to the week.
Favourites: OLEANDER, LEVY, FLOOD, UNESCO and NON-TOXIC
Thx also to manehi for the blog.
Thanks for the blog , good set of clues and seemed right for a Monday .
Nice bit of fission for RAW , the fake capital P cleverly hidden at the front for MINER , FOOD CHAIN very neat and FLOOD nice and concise with a reference to the Epic of Gilgamesh .
Minor quibble for BANGOR , bar is in the clue and answer .
Guess the setter week , 0/1 , of course I missed the message .
I’ll add that the surface of 26A refers to Pitman shorthand
Thanks for the blog manehi. Just right for a Monday and some elegant clues. 26A Pitman’s system had me trying to figure out how to squeeze shorthand into 5 letters before the penny finally dropped.
[DTS@12. If it is any consolation the Grauniad has also messed up the iPhone App by ruining the navigation and now showing just the incorrect letters when using the check button].
OUNCE yet again. Is there a jargon term for words you only ever see in crosswords? Anyway, all good, clean fun. Annoyed with myself for not getting FLOOD until I had all the crossers.
Ta both.
Thanks both. A nice not too taxing start to the week.
[DTS@12 as SimoninBxl says it’s just as bad in the Apple world. I use the app in landscape on the iPad and previously could select a clue and it would appear at the side highlighted and also under the grid. Now because the across and the down clues are in two columns at the side (for what purpose?) when you select a longer clue the last few words disappear. And it doesn’t show underneath either. Therefore once you have selected a clue you are often unable to see all of it. Ridiculous. ]
17A – as many have suggested, while Tigger is a bouncer, an ounce definitely pounces!
[Deadhead@27, SiB@25 – the Android version has lost the check button. Which is probably good for me , but….]
Alastair@26; let’s see…. OUNCE. AVER, ELI, PI(ous) – ummm…. lot’s more, I’m sure, but my mind has gone blank.
This was a fast one, probably because many of the solutions could be guessed without the cryptic part of the clue (e.g. taco, yeti) and the grid was friendly (short answers, lots of crossers). A nice way to start the week, with Dice’s message as a bonus.
DerekTheSheep@29: mostly agree with your list, especially PI which frankly should be retired from crosswords.
But surely I am not the only person left who regularly uses “aver” in casual conversation?
I could see this was going to be pretty straightforward so timed myself and did it in 10 minutes.
This is not a criticism at all: there are plenty of other online challenges to be done and I only finished Paul’s card-game one this morning.
Of course, by rushing through it, I missed the Nina!
Anyway, thanks to both for a pleasant way to pass the time.
An odd mixture of fairly easy and very fiddly. I liked FOOD CHAIN, OLEANDER, FLOOD and the floppy elephant (doesn’t every toddler own one of those?)
Wasted time trying to remember the names of French supermarkets, and make shorthand relevant to MINER (nice misdirection).
I agree with what Sourdough@21 says about “originals” and yes, I reckon the ounce pounces – it’s Tiggers that bounce.
Thanks Dice, and manehi.
Joseph@31:
There was a young man who averred
He had learned how to fly like a bird.
Cheered by thousands of people
He leapt from the steeple…
This tomb states the date it occurred.
(Anon, probably)
Alastair @26: I propose we call such words etuis. (The etui is way more common in American-style crosswords than in British ones, being a vowel-rich short word, but it’s also at least 10,000 times more common in crosswords than in life.)
Derek @29: not ELI, since there are people named Eli. In an American crossword, the name is usually clued with reference to Eli Manning, the former not-quite Hall of Fame quarterback of the New York Giants, now a commentator and frequent advert star with his Hall of Fame brother Peyton.
~~
As for the puzzle itself, I did it last night in a pub. For some reason, I mentioned anagram indicators to my husband, who didn’t get the concept, so I opened the puzzle (which had just dropped an hour ago) on my phone, scrolled down to find the first obvious anagram, and then explained how it worked. He was not following–you can’t explain this game to someone who isn’t interested in learning it–but I shrugged and finished the puzzle. But since beer was involved and that was 12 hours ago, I don’t remember much of it.
Just right for a Monday, I thought, with clear clues. I liked the first shots of ORIGINALS, the well-hidden OLEANDER, ASSEMBLING the jewellery, and chapeau for the NON-TOXIC seconds.
Thanks Dice and manehi.
Alastair@26, ESPADRILLE, ORYX, ESPARTO.
Good Monday puzzle, though I wasn’t convinced by many of the surfaces. Messed up on 13d FLOOD — I entered FROND, thinking maybe palm fronds were used as scourges in the past. Ah, well…
manehi 10a LANDSLIDE, the anagrist is “dell” (not “deli”)
I took the surface of 26a MINER to refer to the Pitman windchest in pipe organs, which made the keyboard action much lighter
[Yes, the recent updates to the web interface really wrecked it this time. You can write to customer service, though, and they’ll actually respond]
Thanks both
I’ve seen ASTI about a thousand times more in crosswords than I have in real life (where I find it quite unpleasant-tasting). Also if we’re talking about retiring “PI”, surely “U” for posh also needs to go?
The crossword itself had big quiptic energy. Thanks to Manehi and Dice.
Dai@27 In the north east of England a “pitman” is also one who works in a coal pit or a MINER.
Thx Dice and Manehi
[Just had a reply from the Guardian – apparently the messed up navigation in the iPhone App is not supposed to be a feature, so hopefully they can fix it].
Thanks Dice – The first time I’ve noticed one of your Crosswords – so Welcome from me. Nice straightforward offering for Monday with smooth clueing.