A generous supply of helpful anagrams made this easy to get into. Thanks to Vulcan.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | PAMPAS | Plain starter of meal daddy’s eating (6) M[eal] in PAPA’S |
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| 5 | AUTOCRAT | At court, a new sovereign (8) (AT COURT A)* |
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| 9 | SUBPOENA | Having cooked bean soup, one requires attendance (8) (BEAN SOUP)* |
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| 10 | REPOSE | Take another attitude to rest (6) RE-POSE |
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| 11 | QUEEN’S SPEECH | Once Standard English no longer heard at opening of Parliament (6,6) Double/cryptic definiton: the Queen’s English is the standard, and since her death she has not given the speech to open Parliament |
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| 13 | MULE | Slippery equine? (4) A mule is a kind of slipper, so it’s SLIPPER-Y |
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| 14 | TEETOTAL | 18 on a course that is dry (8) 18 is the TOTAL number of TEEs on a golf course |
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| 17 | BLOKEISH | Typically male slob struggling with hike (8) (SLOB HIKE)* |
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| 18 | SHED | Drop tools here (4) Double definiton |
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| 20 | MONTENEGRINS | Tense morning working for Europeans (12) (TENSE MORNING)* |
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| 23 | LIBIDO | Try to stop celebrity endlessly showing sexual urge (6) BID (to try) in LIO[n] (a celebrity) |
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| 24 | ARCHIVES | Old records from accomplished country singer (8) ARCH (accomplished) + (Burl) IVES (country singer) |
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| 25 | HEIGHTEN | Raise the hinge that’s wonky (8) (THE HINGE)* |
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| 26 | MANGLE | Make a mess of motorway gradient (6) M[otorway] + ANGLE |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 2 | AGUE | No place for pandemic, just fever (4) PLAGUE (pandemic) less PL[ace] |
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| 3 | PIPSQUEAK | Whippersnapper very quietly suppressing single sound from mouse (9) I (single) in PP (very quietly, in music) + SQUEAK (sound from a mouse) |
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| 4 | SEEMED | Appeared to do this from Nice beach? (6) From the city of Nice you might SEE the MEDiterranean |
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| 5 | AGAINST THE GRAIN | Contrary to inclination, objecting to Scotch? (7,3,5) Double/cryptic definiton: if you object to Scotch Whisky you are AGAINST THE GRAIN (as opposed to the Grape) |
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| 6 | THRUSHES | Birds in most of the riverside plants (8) TH[e] + RUSHES |
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| 7 | COPSE | Manage to get round small group of trees (5) S[mall] in COPE (manage) |
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| 8 | ASSOCIATED | Move cat aside, keeping very connected (10) SO (very) in (CAT ASIDE)* |
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| 12 | GUILLOTINE | Killer’s destiny in being caught by subterfuge (10) LOT (destiny) + IN in GUILE |
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| 15 | OBSESSION | Alumni’s pub evening is a thing! (9) OBS’ (Old Boys’, alumni’s) + SESSION (an evening in the pub) |
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| 16 | SIGNPOST | Initial contribution to thread that gives clear directions (8) SIGN (to initial) + POST (contribution to a thread on a blog etc) |
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| 19 | SITCOM | Relax on firm topper on mattress for programme (6) SIT (relax) + CO (company, form) + M (“topper” of Mattress) |
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| 21 | TYING | Securing hearing without resistance (5) TRYING (hearing, in court) less R[esistance] |
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| 22 | ZEAL | Enthusiasm in the heart of Commonwealth country (4) The middle of new ZEALand |
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Thanks Vulcan and Andrew
Pleasant puzzle. I liked the Uxbridge English Dictionary definition for MULE.
I was a bit surprised that it was MONTENEGRINS rather than MontenegrAns, but it seems to be correct.
Quite tricky for a Monday. As Andrew says, easy to get into but then I stalled. Looking back I was obviously on the wrong wavelength as it was all straightforward really. After two goes at it I got to the end.
I had no idea how to spell MONTENEGRINS thinking it would be ans on the end, so that required a look-up. Burl Ives was a bit of a blast from the past and took some dredging up.
Liked the two long ones 10a and 5d, and SEEMED was very clever (couldn’t get plage to work!).
There’s a spare s in the blog for 15d.
Thanks to Vulcan and Andrew
An enjoyable straightforward solve – though I failed to parse 14A (teetotal), because of its slippery misdirection to 18A.
Comment #4
Thanks Andrew. I think OBSESSION is OB + SESSION, otherwise you have OBSSESSION.
Thanks Vulcan and Andrew. A gentle and enjoyable start to the week, though I needed help with the parsing of GUILLOTINE.
I didn’t know a mule waa a slipper. Nor that whisky is grain — despite the obvious connection. All else hunky dory.
Had trouble with ARCHIVES, both with arch=accomplished and with remembering Burl Ives, who was quite a while ago now. But I did enjoy the TEE TOTAL.
Liked MULE. The only four-letter equine I could think of and Google made ‘slippery’ make sense. Typically Vulcanian. Thanks.
Vulcan at his best, with witty wordplay galore (QUEEN’S SPEECH, TEETOTAL, AGAINST THE GRAIN, SIGNPOST, SEEMED, OBSESSION), some lovely anagrams (MONTENEGRINS, AUTOCRAT, SUBPOENA) and some just nice clues (PAMPAS, AGUE, GUILLOTINE, SITCOM, TYING). Brilliant, thanks Vulcan and Andrew!
Favourites: SEEMED, MULE.
New for me: country singer Burl IVES (for 24ac) – was he well-known in the UK? I never heard of him in Australia but we were not fans of country music.
I was a bit confused by TEETOTAL as one usually uses the same tee for driving and another for shorter holes but I suppose it works. Quite a challenge today, my favourites were AGUE, GUILLOTINE, OBSESSION and SEEMED.
Ta Vulcan & Andrew.
AlanC – I’m not a golfer, but I think the tee is not only the little support for the ball, but also the place from where you start each hole, hence 18 tees on a course.
Thanks to the Burl Ives reference, I have just joyfully listened to The Ugly Bug Ball 🙂
Yes Crispy @13, you’re absolutely right. Thx.
Great Monday stuff from Vulcan. I don’t think this Ives fellow has ever come across my brain and MULE took a bit of thinking but otherwise a pleasant and not too difficult solve to start off the week.
Liked GUILLOTINE, SIGNPOST and SITCOM.
Thanks Andrew and Vulcan
TEETOTAL is also clever in that it alludes to there being no “nineteenth hole”.
Thanks, Crispy @13 for sorting out the tees thing. I had a ? against it.
This setter never disappointed.
Many thanks, both.
I found this tougher than usual – Vulcogen maybe?
Top ticks for MULE, TEETOTAL & THRUSHES
Cheers V&A
Had to come here to find the setter’s moniker, not shown in the app version, whose new interface is worse than what it replaced.
I didn’t particularly think of Burl Ives as a country singer. Folk perhaps – but what I mostly remember him for is being the singer of endless children’s songs on the 1950s radio: the Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly (which I disliked as a child) seemed to be played on every children’s request programme.
Great crossword for a Monday. 4D SEEMED was my LOI ironically as I am actually looking at the Med.
[Crossbencher@20 – the new iPhone App is terrible – especially when navigating between clues. Have emailed Mr Evans and they are supposed to be taking another look at that]
TEETOTAL
I liked it, but after AlanC raised a query, I googled to see what Gemini has to say
on the matter (I don’t know anything about golf. Experts may correct Gemini!!!):
A standard 18-hole golf course has 18 primary teeing locations (one for each hole). However, because almost every hole features multiple sets of tee markers (such as forward, middle, and back tees) to accommodate different skill levels, a typical course actually contains 54 to 90 individual physical tee boxes across the entire property.
Also liked AGAINST THE GRAIN and SIGNPOST.
Thanks Vulcan and Andrew.
OB rather than OBS in 15d. I think the clue is at fault here, as ‘Alumni … ‘ would have worked just as well, or indeed better.
Not entirely convinced that SIGN=’initial’. Solicitors will say ‘sign here, and initial here and here’, so not really the same.
THRUSHES was very good.
15d works for me as a whole phrase – the “Old Boy session” being an event organised for alumni.
(Please do not hold me responsible for the gender bias.)
Thanks to Vulcan and Andrew
Started briskly, then slowed to an almost standstill. I liked the slippery MULE that needed some left-field thinking, the THRUSHES in most of the riverside plants, and the GUILLOTINE, killer’s destiny.
Thanks Vulcan and Andrew.
Came here for parsing of LIBIDO which was my LOI (though guessed much earlier). Solution was clear from the checking letters but is it just me or is LION for celebrity a bit weird? Also thought IVES was a bit obscure certainly NHO but searching online shows he was quite a big deal.
Thanks Vulcan – a gentle Monday write-in and Andrew for parsing TEETOTAL. Very embarrassed as a golfer (occasional) not to see it. Confused to work out what SHED (18ac) had to do with anything!
KVa @ 23 – Imagine the hoo-hah on here if the clue had read
“54 to 90 on a course that is dry”
C3h58 @27 I needed the parsing for LIBIDO too — I got stuck on the celebrity being “ido(l)” and couldn’t figure how “lib” meant try. Otherwise a straightforward puzzle, though like others I associate Ives with children’s songs and animated Christmas TV specials (Rudolph the Red Nose-Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman) rather than country music. I think folk singer might have been nearer the mark.
I agree with others that there is an S problem in OBSESSION. poc@24 has a good fix.
Per DuncT #25 – There is no problem with OBSESSION – OB session – OB adjectival – a session for/of/by OBs. Alumni’s pub evening – genitive – a pub evening for/of alumni.
I wouldn’t call Burl Ives a country singer either, though google tells me now that he did some of that. He was a folk singer, and sang and recorded lots of traditional songs, mostly American. His recordings were a big part of my childhood.
It’s news to me that there are places on the golf course for tees other than at the teeing-off places. I thought once you’d driven from there you had to play it as it lays, wherever on the ground it may be. (Unless it’s at the bottom of a pond, I don’t know what you do then.)
Thanks, Vulcan and Andrew
If you don’t know Burl Ives as a singer, you may remember him playing Rufus Hannassey in The Big Country.
Crossbencher#20 I totally agree about the updated app, but if you go into settings on the cryptic it does show the setter. That, and the “check crossword” button (available before completion) are possibly the only improvements.
I’ve reverted back to the old version ( turn off “enable new crosswords'” in puzzle archive settings. See also Ronan Flood #40 in previous General Discussion).
Valentine @33: tees are only permitted on the tee box and nowhere else on the course. KVa’s point at 23, is that there are different coloured tee boxes at each hole depending on what’s being played. For championship competitions, the furthest tee back will be used, while forward tees are usually used for society days, friendlies etc. There are also ladies’ tees which are the furthest forward and are coloured red, although I think this is changing on various courses.
I would argue that there are only 18 TEES on a golf course with different positions for each different “course” – championship, men’s, ladies’, but, by another measure, there are clearly more than 18, including the ones in golf bags and players pockets!
Tricky in spots. Some strange clues that were hard to parse or unparsable (thank you Andrew for clarifying everything). All completed correctly, though
I was lucky that two nights ago I watched the movie Montenegro, which made 20a MONTENEGRINS almost a write-in (except for the unexpected spelling). Probably would have struggled with it otherwise. The movie’s excellent, by the way — very funny
Lots of enjoyable clues, including 5a AUTOCRAT (surface), 4d SEEMED (funny, expected French), 7d COPSE (good surface), and others
22d ZEAL, another repetition, with a similar clue and solution last Tuesday (also blogged by Eileen, as was the last “coincidental” repetition — hmmm…)
Duh! I thought of MULE, but dismissed it as not slippery. So I didn’t finish. Annoyed with myself because I love that type of quirky clue, with the “slipper-y” bit.
Also loved TEETOTAL (not a golfer so no quibble from me).
People aren’t making the distinction between tee pegs and teeing grounds. Yes, both are usually referred to as “tees”, but that’s where some of the confusion is arising.
I cannot see Why lion means celebrity.
Perfect timing , thanks to everyone for being patient and waiting for the right coloured square to occupy 42 .
Alumni is the plural of alumnus, so the clue does imply that the first part of the solution should be OBS, which is not right. ´´Alumnus´s pub evening´´ would have been better.
Thanks for the blog ,good set of clues but a bit of a Spock puzzle for a Monday .
[ AlanC@12 , I hope you have not been arrested for child cruelty , I am sure your intentions were good . ]
cancalais@41: if you lionise someone you treat them as a celebrity I think
Crispy @29
😃😃😃
David@43
Please see DuncT@25
Read “alumni’s pub evening” as one unit to indicate “OB SESSION”
I’m not seeing the problem with the alumni’s evening. Doesn’t the apostrophe in the surface suggest the pub evening of one alumni rather than multiples of the old boys? It seems to me a mere typo on the part of Andrew and surely we can forgive that after such sterling other work.
As others have mentioned, Burl Ives brings back many memories of Ed “Stewpot” Stuart’s radio show as well as Two Way Family Favourites, a staple Sunday lunchtime listen in our house. Must admit though, I could never stand the songs especially the old woman and the fly as recalled by Gladys #21. I think by then I’d had my head turned by the Scouse mop tops and other hairy layabouts as my father unfailingly referred to my musical heroes.
I enjoyed this puzzle and thanks to Andrew and Vulcan for the entertainment.
Teetotal was my favourite and last one in.
I didn’t know about Mr Ives but now I do.
I really enjoyed this.
I do like how this messageboard takes apart each clue forensically – I learn so much!
Thanks both.
Another who was surprised by the spelling of MONTENEGRINS. Couldn’t parse LIBIDO as I don’t get why LION = CELEBRITY
layman@45: I think of “lionise” as meaning to hold somebody in high regard, even though it could be someone who is not at all well known. Several of the dictionaries also have “to treat somebody as if they were famous”. For example, “he lionized his old Latin teacher”. Conversely, somebody can be a celebrity without being held in high regard (I will allow the reader to supply their own examples…).
However, I’m not sure that the dictionaries agree with me.
I found this unusually hard for a Monday. Apparently my brain is a bit slow to get started today. TEETOTAL was the only thing I could fit with the crossers, and the parsing eluded me entirely. I also missed the other meaning of mule (which I think can be a shoe as well as a slipper?).
Have we had SEE MED before?
QUEEN’S SPEECH definitely my favorite.
Lion for celebrity is quite old – the example that comes to mind is the aspiring society hostess Mrs. Leo Hunter in the Pickwick Papers, always looking for “lions” to invite to her pretentious garden parties. She reminds me rather of a Dickensian Hyacinth Bucket.
Dm@43 OB is often used to abbreviate Old Boys – especially by rugby clubs
Teetotal was my favourite, which I got as when there is no ninteenth hole you are “dry”…. This was noted in comment #17 but then mostly bypassed by some discussion about actual golf. Shocking! This site is 15 squared, not 18 round. Whatever next.
Bexleyred@47 You can no more have one alumni than you can have one cacti. If there’s only one, he’s an alumnus (possibly with a cactus). If he has a girlfriend, she’s an alumna.
Valentine@55
You’ve got me wondering if a person who identifies as “non-binary” would use “alumnum” (declines like bellum), with multiple such people using “alumna” (different from your “alumna” of course).
Gotta keep the old dead language alive.
Gladys @ 21 – ‘Ugly Bug Ball’ too.
Actually, Valentine, my alma mater – all male in my day – now uses “alums” for its former students. And once that (convenient if a tad inelegant) neologism has worked its way into everyday language – what a boon for setters, no?
Good old Vulcan! Zingy, challenging and fun (Teetotal!) yet again. Many thanks, and to Andrew too.
I do like a Monday straightforward Vulcan. And I’ve learned how to spell Montenegrins…
Thanks both for an enjoyable exercise. I too failed to parse TEETOTAL and LIBIDO. Favorite was MULE when I eventually got there.
[Crossbar #35 I’m sorry to be so dim but could you point me toward these “puzzle archive settings” please. ]
Bexleyred@47 You can’t have one alumni any more than you can have one cacti. If there’s only one, he’s an alumnus (possibly with a cactus). If he has a girlfriend, she’s an alumna.
I seem to have posted myself twice. Sorry, friends.
deadhead#60 Not dim at all.
In the Guardian app,
in puzzles (button second from right at the bottom), scroll to Archive at the bottom.
In Archive the three dots top right gives you Settings.
In Settings you can toggle “Enable new crosswords” on and off.
You’ll need to refresh puzzles to activate your new setting, and also be careful not to tap “Delete all crosswords” in the three dots by mistake.
Very enjoyable.
MONTENGRINS was interesting, but the anagram works.
TEETOTAL good misdirection.
Not heard of LION as a celebrity although appreciated the direction to “lionise”
Liked the comment by Hovis #17 about no 19th Tee / Hole since it is dry.
A grand entertainment so thanks both. All has been said that I could have said (in fact much more: there are 18 holes on a golf course; you start to play each one out of a teeing ground or ‘tee’. It’s not that complicated.)
I abseil in only to reminisce (prompted by Andrew’s blog of AGAINST THE GRAIN) about a nearby cafe called the ‘Grape and Grain’. The calligraphy/chosen font/signwriter’s whim, whatever, rendered the ‘a’s in such a way as to suggest ‘o’s. Much juvenile snurfling…
Crossbar@63 Thank you, thank you, thank you!
[Crossbar#63. In Archive I haven’t got three dots, just three horizontal lines getting shorter top to bottom which allow me to select the type of crossword I want – Cryptic, Quiptic, and so on. Can’t see settings. I’m running iPadOS 27 beta if that changes anything.]
Didn’t know MULE was a slipper, also I thought equine could only relate to a horse.
Thanks both.
[Ah, sorry Deadhead#67 I run Android.
Perhaps someone else can help you with IPad.]
[muffin@34: … or playing Paul Newman’s Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. gladys@21 is spot-on: “folk” is the clear choice if one had to name a single genre.]