Vulcan doing what Vulcan does, with the usual elegant clueing, and helpful anagrams for some of the longer answers. Thanks to him for the puzzle.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | HESPERUS | Man’s mostly read the Evening Star (8) HE’S (man’s) + PERUSE[d] |
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| 5 | ASLANT | Has lantern, keeping at an angle (6) Hidden in hAS LANTern |
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| 9 | RELIABLE | Soldiers, responsible and trustworthy (8) RE (Royal Engineers) + LIABLE (responsible) |
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| 10 | MALIGN | To get straight after money is evil (6) M[oney] + ALIGN |
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| 12 | ELASTIC BAND | It may bind a sheaf, but it’s balanced awkwardly (7,4) (IT’S BALANCED)* |
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| 15,19 | ROUND ROBIN | Plump bird that is widely distributed (5,5) ROUND (plump) + ROBIN (bird) |
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| 17 | SHOP FLOOR | Workers, one under purchaser’s feet (4,5) Customers walk on the floor of a shop, so it’s under their feet |
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| 18 | DEMEANOUR | Belittle Guardian’s conduct (9) DEMEAN + OUR |
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| 20 | ACE OF SPADES | Criminal oaf’s escaped, one in a dark suit (3,2,6) (OAF’S ESCAPED)* |
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| 24 | UTOPIA | Ideal place, you said, with lots of trimmed bushes (6) U (“you”) + TOPIA[ry] |
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| 25 | DOMINICA | After party, skirt can almost land in the Caribbean (8) DO (party) + MINI (skirt) + CA[n] |
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| 26 | KEEPER | Goalie for manager (6) Double definition |
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| 27 | MESSAGED | Texted in confusion, no longer young (8) MESS (confusion) + AGED |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | HORSE TRADE | Store heard to be failing, so bargain shrewdly (5-5) (STORE HEARD)* |
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| 2 | SOLD A DUMMY | Deceived, as aspiring ventriloquist may be? (4,1,5) Double definition |
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| 3 | EXALT | Highly praise former singer that’s not old (5) EX-ALT[o] |
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| 4 | UGLY CUSTOMER | Dangerous opponent, no beauty at the checkout (4,8) Double definition |
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| 6 | STANDS FOR | Represents frosts and winds (6,3) (FROSTS ANDS)*, with “winds” in the sense of “twists” |
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| 7 | AXIS | A team’s pivot (4) A XI (team,, e.g. cricket) ‘S |
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| 8 | TUNA | Obsessive hauled up a big fish (4) Reverse of NUT (obsessive fan) + A |
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| 11 | LABOUR OF LOVE | Hard work all for nothing? (6,2,4) Cryptic definition, using love = nothing as in tennis |
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| 13 | FORBIDDING | Why are there boxes on the bridge table? Ominous (10) The boxes are FOR BIDDING in the game of Bridge |
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| 14 | GRANDSTAND | Splendid get-up to show off (10) GRAND + STAND (get up) |
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| 16 | DRAMATISE | Make a play of remarkably smart idea (9) (SMART IDEA)* |
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| 21 | PLIES | Steadily works gripping tool with no resistance (5) PLIERS (a gripping tool) less R |
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| 22 | BUNK | Hurried departure from bed? Nonsense (4) Three definitions |
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| 23 | MOLE | Spy from Smolensk? (4) Hidden in sMOLEnsk |
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Small typo in 1a, Andrew. Read in the present tense so it;s HE’S PERUS(e). Agree that Vulcan is demonstrating his range admirably in today’s puzzle. Liked ROUND ROBIN and ACE OF SPADES amongst others. Thanks to Andrew and Vulcan.
Didn’t know about boxes on bridge table but the crossing letters and rest of blue made it quite gettable.
Lovely Monday crossword. Some fairly simple clues to get one going. Liked Ace of Spades
Thanks Vulcan and Andrew
Well, perus is the greater part of either tense of read, so, technically…. ?
Needed all the crossers for the UGLY CUSTOMER- not an expression I’ve ever heard. ACE OF SPADES got me thinking that Motörhead would be a cute way to clue M
Cheers V&A
Good Monday challenge. Neither too easy nor too difficult.
I’m with Matthew@2 in that I too ‘Didn’t know about boxes on bridge table but the crossing letters and rest of blue made it quite gettable.’
I always think I am going to fail with Vulcan’s cryptic definitions. Fortunately, the crossers were helpful today.
Funnily enough my comment on the G thread last night ‘What Vulcan does’ was similar to Andrew’s opening. I also had to look up boxes to make sense of FORBIDDING, which then became my favourite. I also liked HESPERUS (agree with Tomsdad @1), ELASTIC BAND, DEMEANOUR, SHOP FLOOR, ACE OF SPADES, SOLD A DUMMY and LABOUR OF LOVE. Lovely stuff all round.
Ta Vulcan & Andrew.
Thanks Vulcan and Andrew
I’m probably in a minority in knowing what bidding boxes are. They are used in duplicate bridge events where you don’t want people at other tables to hear what you are bidding.
Favourites LABOUR OF LOVE and ACE OF SPADES.
Depending whether Venus was spotted in the morning or the evening, it was known as Phosphorous or HESPERUS. Considering my areas of knowledge, I was surprised to learn this today.
Good puzzle as usual from Vulcan. My favourite was SOLD A DUMMY.
Thanks Andrew.
Only knowing ROUND ROBIN in the sporting context, found it interesting to learn that it applies also to a document or letter of grievance whereby the signatories names are arranged in a ring, to avoid any being singled out for punishment as ring-leaders.
This setter never disappoints.
Spent a long time trying to find a homophone for “store” in 1d, doh! Realised it was an anagram once I’d fitted horse trade to the crossers!
Nice accessible puzzle for me, thanks
I’m another who’s never heard of the bridge boxes, but it’s been decades since I played. Seems pretty GK to me.
I thought the convention was that shortening a word should only remove the last letter, other than for accepted abbreviations. If so, TOPIA[ry] doesn’t conform, but maybe I’m just making that up.
Took a long time to see HESPERUS as I was trying to fit VENUS in at the end, but got there eventually.
bodycheetah @4
Rock music from Motörhead et al (5)
Perhaps?
Thanks Vulcan and Andrew.
Delightful as always from Vulcan, though I thought HESPERUS was a rather intimidating 1ac for a Monday morning! Favourite, like many others, ACE OF SPADES.
Enjoyable Monday. I was on wavelength for the more cryptic definitions which helped a lot.
Some fun anagrams particularly enjoying DRAMATISE.
Thanks Vulcan and Andrew
Regarding 1a, my grandmother (a classic East End matriarch with a colourful turn of phrase) always referred to a scruffy person as “looking like the wreck of the Hesperus”. I learned later she was referencing a Longfellow poem about a shipwreck, but never knew it referred to the evening star. Everyday’s a school day.
I will join the Greek chorus of those who learned about bidding boxes and Hesperus, and whose favorite was the ACE OF SPADES.
Thank you Vulcan and Andrew
I liked the anagrams for ELASTIC BAND, ACE OF SPADES, HORSE-TRADE, and STANDS FOR. I also enjoyed the boxes FOR BIDDING. poc @12, I think the ‘lots of’ with trimmed allows the truncation.
Thanks Vulcan and Andrew.
Another well formed puzzle from the reliable Vulcan. I particularly liked all the anagram clues. My last entries were BUNK, where I was deceived by the triple def, and HORSE TRADE, where ‘heard’ had me searching for a soundalike.
William @10: Have you never received a ROUND ROBIN letter with a Christmas card, in all its vainglorious banality? The tradition lives on in Christmas emails, sadly.
Thanks to Vulcan and Andrew
Took quite a while before I wrote in UGLY CUSTOMER as my first solved clue. Thereafter a steady, enjoyable journey with loi MALIGN. Many thanks for the challenge today Vulcan, and to Andrew…
I got a smile out of 1 across as I am teaching some classic philosophy of language articles this term, which are all about how “Hesperus” and “Phosphorus” can have different senses while both referring to the planet Venus! Also nice clue, and nice puzzle overall–thanks Vulcan and Andrew!
Another member of the chorus re Hesperus and bidding boxes, otherwise a nicely pitched crossword for a grey start to the week.
Poc@12: Yes, me too re Venus, though the penny finally dropped. FORBIDDING wasn’t such a problem as I’ve been learning bridge during the last year. I think it was Warren Buffett who said he’d happily be locked in a prison cell for a number of years providing he could share it with three other good bridge players. Not sure I’d go that far, but it is certainly addictive.