A puzzle that might have fitted well in the Quiptic slot, though with a couple of quirky “subtractive” clues. (However, I see that some commenters one the Guardian site found it challenging.. ah well.) Thanks to Anto.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | GROWN-UP | Cultivate witticism about being adult (5-2) GROW (cultivate) + reverse of PUN |
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| 5 | BITCOIN | Currency is part I contributed to swindle (7) BIT (part) + I in CON (swindle) |
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| 9 | PETIT | Small piece of advice about way to reassure your dog? (5) To reassure your dog you might PET IT. The feminine form petite is used in English, but I think this version should have an indication that it’s French |
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| 10 | NAUSEATES | USA Senate carve-up turns one’s stomach (9) (USA SENATE)* |
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| 11 | E-PASSPORT | Earl, unable to answer question, left to get some identification (1-8) E[arl] + PASS [(I’m) unable to answer] + PORT (left) |
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| 12 | FEWER | Less often confused with it when counting (5) Cryptic definition, referring the distinction between “less” and “fewer” that some people get very agitated about |
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| 13 | RUINS | Heads of redbrick universities institute new standards for dilapidated buildings (5) First letters of Redbrick Universities Institute New Standards |
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| 15 | ARCH RIVAL | Chief competitor, if losing run, would be matter of record (4,5) If we lose the R[un] from this then we’d end up with ARCHIVAL, relating to record |
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| 18 | FEEL GREAT | Left eager to get transformed and be happy (4,5) (LEFT EAGER)* |
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| 19 | SPROG | Issue dealt with in Pilgrim’s Progress (5) Hidden in pilgrim’S PROGress |
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| 21 | NIGHT | Close temperature when sun goes down (5) NIGH (close) + T |
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| 23 | SANGFROID | RAF’s doing badly, showing coolness under pressure (4,5) (RAF’S DOING)* |
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| 25 | GESTATION | Post on half of wage when things are developing (9) [wa]GE + STATION (a post) |
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| 26 | CRIME | Giving lip in church is a sin (5) RIM (lip) in CE |
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| 27 | EGOISTS | Selfish people say Oscar is extremely tedious (7) E.G. (say) + O[scar] + IS + T[ediou]S |
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| 28 | SPLAYED | Moved quickly to protect place when stretched (7) LAY (to place) in SPED |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | GAP YEAR | Constantly talk equipment with Spooner in period before university (3,4) Spoonerism of “yap gear” |
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| 2 | OSTRACISE | CIA stores criminal blacklist (9) (CIA STORES)* |
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| 3 | NOTES | Records found when breaking up sofa? (5) Breaking up “sofa” gives “so fa”, two notes (after do re mi) |
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| 4 | PANTO DAME | Criticise book about father being camp mother at Christmas (5,4) PAN (criticise) + DA (father, in dialect) in TOME |
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| 5 | BLUNT | Plain type of sandwich has a French filling (5) UN (French “a”) in BLT (Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwich) |
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| 6 | TREE FERNS | Sea birds circling coastal feature to find plants (4-5) REEF (coastal feature) in TERNS |
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| 7 | ON TOW | Regular cognition women get being dragged around (2,3) Alternate letters of cOgNiTiOn + W[omen] |
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| 8 | NOSTRIL | Central parts of genome system purify cells forming air passage (7) Middle letters of geNOme sySTem puRIfy ceLls |
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| 14 | SIGHT GAGS | In one sense, mufflers funny things to look at (5,4) SIGHT (one of the senses) + GAGS (mufflers) |
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| 16 | CO-TENANTS | Business has ten workers who share accommodation (2-7) CO (company, business) + TEN ANTS |
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| 17 | VERBOSITY | Talking too much, manager almost overwhelmed by truth (9) BOS[s] (manager) in VERITY |
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| 18 | FINAGLE | Trick old horse to get into line (7) NAG (old horse) in FILE (line) |
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| 20 | GODSEND | Without AI, diagnosed ruptures – it’s an unexpected benefit (7) Anagram of DIAGNOSED less AI |
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| 22 | GUSTO | Some plot suggestions raised, showing enthusiasm (5) Hidden in reverse of plOT SUGgestions |
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| 23 | SKIPS | Dirty place in ship where dumped material stored (5) KIP (a dirty place, sometimes a brothel, in Irish slang, from kip as a cheap place to sleep) in SS (ship). More information about “kip” here. |
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| 24 | FOCAL | Critical secondary characters in office come across major flaws (5) Second letters of oFfice cOme aCross mAjor fLaws |
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Dnf for me. SIGHT GAGS did for me and I couldn’t parse SOFA. Tx Andrew. I shall look at ANTO differently now. This was all fair but chewy for me.
What Fuddleduddy said.
Did anyone else notice the nina across the middle row. Think of a famous Nina …
Thanks Anto and Andrew
Some lovely clues – NAUSEATES for its surface must be a contender for clue of the year! ARCH RIVAL very good too.
Held up on SPLAYED as I thought PL was the place to start with.
A DNF though – never heard KIP in that sense.
I’m one who found it a bit challenging. Many very easy clues but some that I couldn’t work out all. Nho kip as a dirty place (thanks Andrew for the link), didn’t remember SIGHT GAG as a phrase (but the only possibility from the crossers), didn’t know E-PASSPORT, and couldn’t fathom the for me deeply obscure FEWER. There were enough crossers in place to make the solution doable for me.
Favourites ARCH RIVAL, FINAGLE (lovely word), and SPROG (clever misdirection)
Thanks Anto and Andrew
Thank you Balfour@3 for pointing out the nina. Missed it as always.
Hardly the trivial solve that Andrew implies it to be. Despite being a musician, I failed to parse 3d, and had NHO ‘kip’ in this context. Also, as usual I completely failed to spot the Nina nina.
+1 for nho kip and unable to parse notes. Those bits were quite chewy for a Monday I’d say. The rest went in fairly smoothly and overall an enjoyable puzzle.
Agree with Andrew re PETIT. Also dnf, KIP just means sleep to me. Overall very enjoyable, although the difficulty of clues seemed to vary a lot. But maybe that’s just me.
Never heard of a SIGHT GAG nor PANTO DAME (a uniquely British thing?). I saw the nina but was puzzled to think of a reason for it. OK, Nina Simone — is that all?
Couldn’t fathom SKIPS, as I’ve never heard of this meaning for kip. The wordplay for NOTES eluded me too.
So a fair number of speed bumps, but otherwise it went smoothly and was enjoyed.
It seems I’m far from alone in not having heard of KIP in the sense of “dirty place”. Perhaps a pointer towards Dublin slang might have been given?
PETIT would have worked better with “poodle” instead of “dog”.
Good Monday run out.
I’m still unsure about FEWER explanation, is there a bone of contention between the difference (or not) between LESS and FEWER.
Apart from that, no issues.
Good spot Balfour @3.
Thanks both.
Re Andrew’s comment on FEWER, a colleague of mine many years ago refused to shop at his local supermarket as they wouldn’t change the ‘8 items or less’ sign. Personally, I think it is a ridiculous bit of grammar, especially since ‘more’ doesn’t suffer the same distinction.
Yes, I didn’t know ‘kip’ either and had to think a while to parse NOTES.
HIYD @13
If you can count it, FEWER is more correct – less flour, fewer eggs, for instance.
Geoff Down Under @!0. I think that is it. No obvious anniversaries of Nina Simone’s death or birth. And ‘feel great” at 18a surely too loose a connection with her classic Feeling Good. Still she was a “godsend” and I will happily welcome several earworms of her greatest songs for the rest of the day.
Also, had not heard of KIP = dirty place either, but 23d could only be SKIPS.
Muffin @15 – Thanks, I see what you mean, odd though, I would say ” I have LESS than £10′, I suppose that gramatically it should be ‘I have FEWER than £20’.
Did not know kip, or the camp mother, and couldn’t figure the whole reason for fewer, so appreciate the blog. Otherwise this was an enjoyable and rapid solve, so thanks Anto.
HoofItDonkey @13 – in UK supermarkets, before all the self-service tills, there used to be express lanes for “5 items or less”, which regularly had the pedants saying it should be “5 items or fewer”. The pedantic grammatical rule is if you can count the items fewer should be used, for an uncountable quantity, less indicates a reduced amount.
(Too slow to type on my phone, crossed by the world.)
Another who didn’t parse the sofa and had never heard the Irish use of “kip”.
Thank you Anto and Andrew.
Had SPLAYED but thought PL was the place.
Haven’t headr of KIP used in that way.
Missed the clever Nina.
Enjoyable start to the day.
Thanks both.
Nina classic repeated by 35 month-old children? (1,4,1,4,3,2,5,4,2,2,4)
Ok I’ll get my coat….
I was thinking Anto is a lot better off than me, as I only find coins when I break up the sofa. The Nina is a nice touch. Well spotted Balfour.
All a bit ‘meh’ for my taste, except a solitary tick for NOTES once I saw the gag.
Not happy with PETIT for the reasons Andrew gave.
Enjoyable puzzle. Quite tricky, took me a while to get going on this amid the many pleasant distractions of being on a canalboat for a few days.
I could not parse 3d and 28ac – I was fixated on PL = place so the parsing eluded me.
New for me: SIGHT-SAWS; KIP = dirty place (for 23d).
I did not see the Nina – haha, that is a good one!
For 23d I had SPITS. PIT as dirty place and a spit as where dumped pebbles and sand accumulate on a coastline. Not as obvious as SKIPS though perhaps.