Thanks to Vulcan for the puzzle – I particularly liked 18ac and and 15dn. Apologies for a delayed and somewhat rushed blog today.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | POPCORN |
Dad with banal idea that’s got from the cinema (7)
|
| POP=”Dad” + CORN=something trite/corny=”banal idea” | ||
| 5 | BARISTA |
Obstruction is at flipping server (7)
|
| BAR=”Obstruction” + IS (from surface) + reversal/”flipping” of AT | ||
| 9 | CAIRN |
Stone memorial perhaps for terrier (5)
|
| double definition: a pile of stones, perhaps as a memorial; or Cairn Terrier the breed of dog | ||
| 10 | NO OFFENCE |
Excuse me asking, but why wasn’t that a penalty? (2,7)
|
| [that it was] NO OFFENCE could be a reason [i.e. “why”] a penalty was not awarded e.g. in a football game | ||
| 11 | FLOURISHED |
Meal I dropped, having borne fruit (10)
|
| FLOUR=”Meal” + I (from surface) + SHED (as in e.g. to shed skin)=”dropped” | ||
| 12 | SKUA |
One seabird; others returning (4)
|
| a SKUA is a seabird; or reversal/”returning” of AUKS=other seabirds=”others” | ||
| 14 | RAW MATERIAL |
Basic supplies for Cook? (3,8)
|
| “Cook” suggests the idea of RAW as in ‘to be cooked’ | ||
| 18 | PLEISTOCENE |
Recent period of foul pestilence? Nothing in it (11)
|
| definition: the geological epoch before the current Holocene
anagram/”foul” of (pestilence)*; with O=”Nothing” inside it |
||
| 21 | EROS |
Love something from Stone Roses (4)
|
| hidden inside (“something from”): [Ston]-E ROS-[es] | ||
| 22 | NEIGHBOURS |
For scrubbing, bring house soap (10)
|
| definition: Neighbours is the name of a soap opera series
anagram/”scrubbing” of (bring house)* |
||
| 25 | SPIT IT OUT |
Hurry up and tell me what to do with what tastes rotten (4,2,3)
|
| SPIT IT OUT would also be what one does if something tastes rotten | ||
| 26 | ULTRA |
This marine is deeply blue (5)
|
| reference to ‘ultramarine’, a deep blue colour
surface may cryptically mislead by suggesting a member of the marines who feels deeply sad/blue |
||
| 27 | DAYTIME |
Light period of work, generally (7)
|
| definition as in e.g. ‘make use of the light’ / ‘make use of the daytime’
DAYTIME is also a “period of work” for many people |
||
| 28 | ARSENAL |
Gunners succeeded breaking into scene of conflict, then left (7)
|
| definition: the Gunners as a nickname for Arsenal Football Club
S (short for succeeded in genealogy) inside ARENA=”scene of conflict”, plus L (left) |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PACIFY |
Calm, quick to accept condition (6)
|
| definition: to Calm, as a verb
PACY=”quick” around IF=”condition” |
||
| 2 | PRISON |
Sent down here it’s cooler (6)
|
| to be ‘sent down’ is to be sent to prison | ||
| 3 | OWNER’S RISK |
Car may often be parked at this (6,4)
|
| reference to signs saying e.g. ‘Park at your own risk’, ‘Vehicles parked at owner’s risk’, etc
surface may cryptically mislead if the reader assumes the “at” suggests a location where a car might be parked |
||
| 4 | NINES |
In an emergency, call three of these (5)
|
| reference to calling 999 during an emergency | ||
| 5 | BROKERAGE |
Commission bankrupt, be very angry (9)
|
| BROKE=”bankrupt” + RAGE=”be very angry” | ||
| 6 | RAFT |
Right to the back in simple boat (4)
|
| R (Right) + AFT=”back” | ||
| 7 | SANSKRIT |
Breaking skis, rant in old language (8)
|
| anagram/”Breaking” of (skis rant)* | ||
| 8 | AMENABLE |
After end of prayer, fit and cooperative (8)
|
| AMEN=”end of prayer”, with ABLE=”fit” coming after | ||
| 13 | HEREABOUTS |
Be told by word of mouth a fight is somewhere close (10)
|
| HERE sounds like (“by word of mouth”): ‘hear’=”Be told”
plus A BOUT’S = a bout is=”a fight is” |
||
| 15 | WHOLESOME |
Not broken but not all healthy (9)
|
| WHOLE=”Not broken” + SOME=”not all” | ||
| 16 | APPEASED |
Calmed down as program got less awkward (8)
|
| APP (application, computer “program”), plus EASED=”got less awkward” | ||
| 17 | FEROCITY |
Viciousness of erotic manoeuvring in family on vacation (8)
|
| anagram/”manoeuvring” of (erotic)*, in F-[amil]-Y vacated of its inner letters | ||
| 19 | MUTTON |
Mongrel regularly found meat (6)
|
| MUTT=”Mongrel” plus regular letters from [f]-O-[u]-N-[d] | ||
| 20 | ASSAIL |
In attack spades smashed into a part of windmill (6)
|
| S (“spades” in playing cards), inside: A (from surface) + SAIL=”part of windmill” | ||
| 23 | GOTTA |
Informally must leave dry area (5)
|
| for definition, e.g. ‘I gotta try’ = ‘I must try’
GO=”leave” + TT (teetotal, “dry”) + A (short for “area”) |
||
| 24 | KIWI |
One can’t fly; vital to go to be picked up (4)
|
| definition: a flightless bird
sounds like (“to be picked up”): ‘key wee’, with ‘key’=”vital” and ‘wee’=”to go” |
Trickier than usual, but one of the best Vulcan puzzles in a long time. Liked NO OFFENCE, NEIGHBOURS, SKUA, PLEISTOCENE, ARSENAL, OWNERS RISK, WHOLESOME and KIWI.
I did chuckle last night at the first entry on the G site about the use of LOI, it seems to have caused a mixed reaction.
EROS was nicely clued, reminded me of Love Spreads, a favourite ear worm https://youtu.be/ct-qa6SjRZo?si=v-GDbRHJC43Vacj-
Ta Vulcan & manehi.
Thanks Vulcan and manehi
I thought some of the clues were rather odd – NO OFFENCE, “scrubbing” as an anagram indicator, DAYTIME, PRISON (barely cryptic), and OWNERS RISK. 4d won’t work in most places in the world (911 is more frequently used).
I liked BARISTA and FEROCITY.
I agree with AlanC@1 that this was trickier than Vulcan’s usual Monday offerings.
New for me: 999 = emergency call number; cooler = PRISON; CAIRN terrier.
I also thought this was quite tricky. I liked the NEIGHBOURS’ house soap and the parked cars at OWNER’S RISK.
Thanks Vulcan and manehi.
Glad some of the earlier comments said this was more difficult than usual. I was worried I was losing my touch! But it can be like that with Vulcan if you are not on wavelength with the cryptic definitions and today was one of those days. OWNERS RISK took all the checking letters and a lot of time to see.
Liked NEIGHBOURS, BARISTA and NO OFFENCE
Thanks Vulcan and manehi
I found this fairly straightforward, but then Vulcan’s style suits me. I agree with Alan @1’s views on the quality and choice of good clues which also chime with manehi’s.
[I thought the outburst in the Guardian site’s comments was bizarre. There is so much angst about what gets posted there as to make it a non-starter for me. I only look when the blog here is late – not a complaint! – but this one really took the biscuit. I feel like it was more about people humbly posting their reactions within minutes of the puzzle going live. Along with the likes of Alan and Balfour, I admit to being a midnight solver sometimes, but I trust nobody here thinks we’re trying to prove anything. I guess many of the alleged offenders are in different timezones.]
Thanks Vulcan and manehi.
A wholesome challenge to start the week.
I liked the soap scrubbing, the parked car and the wild, unsettling surface for FEROCITY.
Thanks to Vulcan and manehi
Took a while to get going, but eventually a satisfying solve. Though I wasn’t particularly impressed by the sharpness of RAW MATERIAL. (My only slight whinge). Whenever I come across that lovely word PLEISTOCENE I’m thinking I ought to pronounce it as in Plasticine. Last one in was APPEASED. Many thanks for the entertainment this Monday morning, Vulcan (especially with KIWI) and to Manehi…
An enjoyable puzzle. I got PACIFY straight away because it reminded me of the classic “Quick to suppress harm here” (or similar) for PHARMACY. My favourite was perhaps HEREABOUTS which was clever.
I also thought NO OFFENCE was good, though I can see the possible objection that the phrase is perhaps more likely to precede a statement than a question — “No offense, but I think you are mistaken”.
Thanks to Vulcan and manehi.
Agreed that this was trickier than the average Vulcan – I was putting my lack of progress down to general thickheadedness caused by cold germs, so it was nice to see I wasn’t alone. Faced with _E___B_U_S for 13d I actually had NEIGHBOURS for that for a while, until the real NEIGHBOURS came along.(Scrubbing? Well, I suppose so.). It took all the crossers to find PLEISTOCENE, but I liked it, along with SKUA, FEROCITY, AMENABLE and OWNERS RISK.
Some really lovely clues – KIWI was my favourite, such a delightful homophone of ‘key wee’. HEREABOUTS also v clever.
I did struggle in the SE corner – until succeeded (S) in ARENA opened it up for me, followed by TT for dry.
I feel like I’ve seen FY for ‘family on vacation’ before, but it still took me a while to remember it!
Overall, a very fair and enjoyable puzzle, thanks Vulcan and blogger.
I didn’t spot a theme…. not sure if Vulcan usually has one?
I don’t think I have ever seen a theme in any of Vulcan’s crosswords: he certainly isn’t known for them.
I wonder if the folks packing the popcorn at the movie theater call themselves “popcorn baristas”. I liked the way many of the answers in today’s puzzle (daytime arsenal, the raw material of the Pleistocene) went well together, even if there was no theme. Thanks Vulcan and manehi.
I read DAYTIME as a charade of light (DAY) and period (TIME) plus @lit for the whole definition, but I guess it could be read either way. Some nice misleading clues here. I particularly liked the idea of the polite penalty enquiry in NO OFFENCE.
Relieved to see that I was not the only one finding this more tricky than the usual Monday. Not a complaint, mind you. I got hung up in the SE for an inordinately long time, with that entire corner being my LOIs. Or should that be LOsI, Last Ones In?
22A was particularly tricky: I realized on first sight it had to be an anagram, but it did not fall until I had all the crossers.
LOI (pace the G. comments section) was 26A, which in hindsight was thoroughly straightforward.
Redrodney@14: I read DAYTIME the same way.
I struggled with this, and had to reveal PRISON/CAIRN (not knowing the dog, and not seeing the CD obvious to many). It felt there were some ridiculously easy CDs like NINES with many quite impenetrable ones.
But maybe my brain is just not in gear! Thanks Vulcan and Manehi.
Good fun. Not a fan of the clue for DAYTIME. I thought perhaps I’d missed something. And couldn’t work out what a cairn has to do with a terrier.
[When a local shop put a sign in their carpark saying Parking at owner’s risk, I assumed they were referring to the owner of the shop. 😉 ]
Nice puzzle. Liked ARSENAL and NO OFFENCE (and you can take that comment as self-referential).
[I thought the target of the G. site rant a bit mystifying. I had been waiting for someone to point out that the earliest posters often post such insipid, information-free comments, the only thing they are saying is “Look at how quickly I finished!”. But I would never bring that up myself 😀]
Decent puzzle except for RAW MATERIAL. I wonder if ‘Cook’ in “Basic supplies for Cook?” is perhaps a reference to Captain James Cook, known for pioneering taking citrus fruit etc on long sea voyages to prevent scurvy. But it’s a bit tenuous.
I truly enjoyed this – had to reveal one or two, but that’s par. I was amazed and delighted by the smooth and completely unforced artistry of many of the clues!
Thanks Vulcan for a beautiful one, and manehi for your useful blog.
Tricky in places and SE corner was the last to fall. Thanks to AlanC@1 – I had a look at the comments on G site and 😳.
Isn’t it weird what wavelength and mindset can do. For me this was one of the most straightforward cryptics in a long time. Somehow my mind seemed to do the same things as Vulcan’s did. I used to find the same with Picaroon, and now sometimes with Pasquale and Carpathian. Whereas Brummie!!!!
Not the best day to use the phrase ‘ARSENAL succeeded.’ 🙁
Sorry, that should be ‘ Gunners succeeded.’ Too upset to check properly.
Agree this was harder end of Vulcan. WHOLESOME is a great clue.
I must say that I found SE to be the longest unfilled sector for me as well, so share a spirit of (relieved) commiseration that I wasn’t alone. LOI was NEIGHBOURS, perhaps as I am not familiar with that variety of soap, despite the facepalm obviousness it should have been given the crossers…
Loved PLEISTOCENE and FLOURISHED (once I realized this wasn’t a “meal” one normally eats at certain times of day). Thanks to manehi and Vulcan!
Thanks for the blog , pretty good overall .
I thought that ARSENAL was the store of weapons etc not the actual soldiers .
AlanC@1 , your famous birthmark gets mentioned again for 4 Down .
KIWI threw me, but it couldn’t be anything else. Good fun.
A very enjoyable puzzle from Vulcan, with some clever constructions.
NO OFFENCE reminded me of an Eric Idle sketch on Monty Python, but I think that was more, “If it’s not a personal question…”
Last one in was the simple RAFT, where the last three letters really do mean ‘to the back’, not just ‘the back’ – I mention this not to correct our blogger, but to confirm how accurate the setter has been here.
Thanks to Vulcan and Manehi.
Roz @27
Yes, an “arsenal” is a weapons store, but (as I’m sure AlanC will tell you), the football team Arsenal (originally from Woolwich!) are nicknamed “The Gunners”.
Thanks to Vulcan and manehi.
Did anyone else think ULTRA 26a could also be a reference to the ultras – extreme football fans for a club with a blue strip? Deeply blue?
Why did I get 30117 by Matilda when I downloaded it just after 11 am my time? It was a good Monday puzzle but bears no relation to the one you all solved.
I had ARSENAL but couldn’t figure out where the S came from. Thanks for the explanation, that’s a new one for me.
me @30
As manehi said in the blog….
I thought this was generally straightforward, but I needed to come here for explanation of the S in ARSENAL. Thanks manehi! I still don’t really get RAW MATERIAL though.
26a Alone in going for “royal” blue.
Roz @27: 😊
I agree with Bruce #19 about Cook. Any other explanation for capitalisation of Cook?
BobV 39,
I’ve come to assume that punctuation, spacing – or lack of – and capitalisations can be ignored in crossword clues, and may be deliberately “wrong” to mislead, so in this case it would be no more than that.
Needed two days for this Monday puzzle. A breakthrough last night led to completion this morning, snapping a losing streak
Favourite 10a NO OFFENCE (for the surface)
4d NINES, two nights ago I watched the Beatles’ movie HELP, which included a scene involving dialling 999, reminding me that that’s the emergency number in the UK
As always, thanks to Roz for encouraging patience
[Honoured to snag the coveted 42, though everyone’s probably gone by now]