Apologies for the delayed blog. This was a quick solve in the end, and at least on the online version, it seems that there are typos in 3dn’s clue and in the solution offered for 12ac.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ESCAPABLE | ’e is adept and can be avoided (9) |
| E’S=” ‘e is” + CAPABLE=”adept” | ||
| 6 | SADHU | Unhappy Hungarian leaders becoming ascetic (5) |
| definition: a Hindu ascetic SAD=”Unhappy” + leading letters of HU[ngarian] |
||
| 9 | OUTRE | Dismissed soldier is bizarre (5) |
| OUT=”Dismissed” e.g. in cricket; RE (Royal Engineer)=”soldier” | ||
| 10 | OUTGOINGS | Expenses for excursions catching game (9) |
| OUTINGS=”excursions” around GO=board game with black and white tiles | ||
| 11 | EXTRAMURAL | Old transport on river beyond the walls (10) |
| EX=”Old” + TRAM=”transport” + URAL river in Russia | ||
| 12 | FREE | Sovereign in charge is unrestricted (4) |
| R [Regina=queen, Rex=king]=”Sovereign”, inside FEE=”charge” | ||
| 14 | RANGERS | Forest guides keep rook within limits (7) |
| R (rook, in chess) inside RANGES=”limits” | ||
| 15 | NAIL SET | Punch hurts during capture (4,3) |
| definition: a tool for ‘punching’ a [metal] nail into a surface AILS=”hurts” inside NET=”capture” |
||
| 17 | SECURES | Ties up and watches over aggressive dog (7) |
| SEES=”watches” around CUR=”aggressive dog” | ||
| 19 | SUPREME | Excellent drink taken with army engineers (7) |
| SUP=”drink” + REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) | ||
| 20 | RASH | Rex remains impulsive (4) |
| R (Rex) + ASH=the “remains” of something burnt | ||
| 22 | CHAMBERTIN | Parliament has money for the wine (10) |
| definition: a type of red Burgundy CHAMBER=”Parliament” + TIN=slang for “money” |
||
| 25 | ENAMELLER | Bank clerk losing head conceals reputation of craftsman (9) |
| [t]ELLER=”Bank clerk losing head”; around NAME=”reputation” | ||
| 26 | SOCKS | Belts and hosiery (5) |
| double definition: the first as in “Belts”=’hits hard’ | ||
| 27 | THING | Poor girl’s obsession? (5) |
| THIN=”Poor” + G (girl) | ||
| 28 | READDRESS | Study clothes to change the point of delivery (9) |
| READ=”Study” at university + DRESS=”clothes” | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ELOPE | European (Pole) coming back to run off with someone else (5) |
| E (European) + POLE; all reversed/”coming back” | ||
| 2 | CATATONIC | Insensible jazz fan needs a shot in the arm (9) |
| CAT=slang for a “jazz fan” + A TONIC=”a shot in the arm” | ||
| 3 | PIED-À-TERRE | A Frenchman consumes fruit in a his second home in town (4-1-5) |
| PIERRE=”Frenchman” around DATE=”fruit” I assume either “a” or “his” was meant to be deleted |
||
| 4 | BROGUES | Boy gets scoundrel’s shoes (7) |
| B (Boy) + ROGUE’S=”scoundrel’s” | ||
| 5 | ENTRAIN | Card players and coach get on board (7) |
| E N (East and North, card players in bridge) + TRAIN=”coach” | ||
| 6 | SHOT | Try to get fired (4) |
| double definition | ||
| 7 | DONOR | Philanthropist has name put in entrance (5) |
| N (name) in DOOR=”entrance” | ||
| 8 | UNSHEATHE | A French woman with a couple of articles to disclose (9) |
| UN=”A” in French + SHE=”woman” + A and THE=”a couple of articles” | ||
| 13 | DISPLEASED | Ladies sped off and caused annoyance (10) |
| (Ladies sped)* | ||
| 14 | RESURGENT | Research critical? It’s on the up and up (9) |
| RES (Research) + URGENT=”critical” | ||
| 16 | SPECTACLE | Doctor accepts the French exhibition (9) |
| (accepts)* with “Doctor” as anagram indicator; plus LE=”the” in French | ||
| 18 | SCHOLAR | Student‘s small choral composition (7) |
| S (small) + (choral)* | ||
| 19 | SAMARIA | Boy has song from old capital of Israel (7) |
| SAM=”Boy” + ARIA=”song” | ||
| 21 | SWAMI | Religious teacher grew dizzy on island (5) |
| Definition: a Hindu religious instructor SWAM=”grew dizzy” + I (island) |
||
| 23 | NESTS | Model wearing cape, retreats (5) |
| definition is “retreats” as a plural noun, as in safe places Model T as in Ford cars; inside NESS=headland=”cape” |
||
| 24 | BERG | Request to entertain royal composer (4) |
| Alban BERG the Austrian composer BEG=”Request” around R (Regina or Rex i.e. “royal”) |
||
Monday? April Fool’s Day??
. . . i.e. unexpectedly quick to solve!
Thanks Chifonie and Manehi.
Agree with your comments. Pleasant enough and quite a quick solve.
The 12a answer in the online version is given as TREE: clearly wrong.
Sadhu and Swami in the same puzzle. Was half expecting Sannyasi to pop up somewhere. A nice gentle solve today…
Yes, I put in FREE and then found that TREE was required (or not, actually.)
The simple construction of some clues fooled me, eg I thought ‘clothes’ was an envelope indicator.
I liked the model wearing cape.
Thanks Chifonie and manehi.
This all went in very quickly and seemed like another of “quiptic” difficulty, except “chambertin” and “samaria” which held me up for as long as the rest of the puzzle. We’ve had the “boy’s name” argument elsewhere but I thought this a poor example (why “boy” not “man”? Because it is a shortened version?) as the wordplay was insufficient without the GK (it could’ve been many things until all the crossers were in). The wine I have only ever come across hyphenated with “Gevrey-” ahead of it but Belloc uses it thus:
“I forgot the name of the place. I forgot the name of the girl. But the wine was Chambertin”
so clearly there is good precedent.
Thanks Chifonie and Manehi, perhaps we get something to chew on tomorrow?
Thanks, Manehi. I agree this was pretty easy for the mid-week slot. 6a, 19d and 21d required the crossers for me at any rate. 15a was my ost one in as I had never heard the term. I was grateful not to be held up too much this morning, as I had to venture to the shops. ( Why has all the bread flour disappeared? ).
I found this a bit dreary. I generally tick clues that I like but this ended up tickless. Off to the archives then …
An easy week (so far). I don’t think it’s a trend: it’s just random.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
I found this an easier Chifonie than usual and it was nice to be on the right wavelength from the start. A smooth and uninterrupted solve. Some nice surfaces though the constructions weren’t particularly challenging. I liked ELOPE, CATATONIC, SADHU, EXTRAMURAL and THING. No particular favourite today.
Looking at 2d, I know this subject has been raised before but I do find it intriguing that crossword puzzles keep alive certain words and phrases that one doesn’t encounter anywhere else. ‘Apse’ is a regular occurrence, but I’ve never encountered one in real life. ‘It’ used for sex/sex appeal has never cropped up in conversation or on the page. Maybe jazz fans do still consider themselves to be ‘cats’ but the same applies. As for whether a certain Biblical priest would have been so well known were his name not to combine three letters in a helpful combination…
Thanks to Chifonie and manehi
Thank you Chifonie and Manehi.
I thought I was on to something when I spotted Ninas LAIR and PAD (tying in with retreats and maybe PIED-A-TERRE) but I couldn’t see any others.
A pleasant solve. About three quarters went very smoothly but I was held up a bit in the lower right by being unfamiliar with the wine at 22a and SAMARIA as a city (rather than a region) at 19d.
I’m sure we’ve discussed this before, but is there any authority for G being a standard abbreviation for girl (27a)? (And I don’t mean as part of a longer abbreviation – on that argument you could have say “air” or “automobile” to indicate A, because of RAF or AA.)
Thanks Chifonie and manehi.
Thanks to Chifonie and X. This might sound like hubris but I also found this fairly easy. I might live to regret that if levels of difficulty increase tomorrow and Friday.
I wasn’t convinced by AILS for “hurts” in NAIL SET at 15. I quite liked 4d BROGUES.
[William: If you are about, I answered your second question on yesterday’s forum in a comment @55.][Mark@10, I really enjoyed reading your second paragraph.]
Thanks to Chifonie and Manehi, but it was pretty quick and easy. The Guardian iPhone App has the same mistakes in 3d and wants Tree as the answer for 12a. Yesterday’s Cryptic is still not accessible via the App, but there is another Crossword, labelled as Cryptic No 15,576, Setter: w, which is accessible in the App – but it is actually a 13×13 Quick Crossword! Pretty odd, even by the Guardian’s standards?
Thanks Chifonie and manehi
I breezed through this up to LOI the baffling (to me) NAIL SET – I hadn’t heard of it, and the wordplay wasn’t very precise.
TheZed @6
Gevrey-Chambertin is the generic wine made in the commune (though even that is eye-wateringly expensive now!) The Grand Cru vineyards are Le Chambertin and Chambertin Clos de Beze (arm and a leg at least).
Thanks, manehi.
Just one question: why “aggressive dog” for cur? The term is usually found alongside such words as cowardly, snivelling, contemptible … to me, anyway, it has no aggressive connotations.
Bit of a doddle but I didn’t mind. Otoh, looking forward to something topically noir-apocalyptic from our highly skilled stable of setters. 27ac had me going ‘why is a poor girl a thing?’ (and then down a Le Petit Chose gender wormhole), double d’oh! Can you disclose a sword or unsheathe a truth? Only vaguely knew chambertin, ditto Samaria, but do what it says. Agree with Robi, model wearing cape is neat. Quite fun, thanks Chif and Man.
PS: Remembered Mrs ginf had been into McEwan, checked shelves, now halfway through Enduring Love; ok-ish so far.
To tomsdad @7 and muffin @15 and anyone else puzzled by “nail set,” it’s a small spike-like thing that you place on top of a finishing nail you’ve just hammered in and tap gently to get the nail head down exactly level with the wood. They come in several sizes for different sizes of nail. I have a set in my tool box.
Thanks Valentine @18. I did find it through Google, though I had to bypass lots of fingernail sets!
[tomsdad @7
Yes, I haven’t see any bread flour in a shop for weeks, except for some wholemeal buckwheat (which made a very dense loaf, somewhat like pumpernickel). I can’t understand it – why are people hoarding flour?]
One indication that it’s been an easy week so far is that I haven’t needed outside sources except to confirm a few answers after entering them. I normally appreciate the gentle offerings that give me a reasonable chance to complete them, but I’m with those who are wishing for more of a challenge with all the extra time on my hands.
I was amused to see the outdated CAT in 2d. Although Collins supports Chifonie’s usage, I don’t recall ever hearing anyone use the term to describe a jazz fan, but rather used by beatniks/hipsters to refer to any man. On the other hand, it’s been a long time and my memory may be slipping.
Thanks to Chifonie and manehi.
Jolly quick solve…now what am I going to do?
Muffin & tomsad re bread flour: Found some at Waitrose this morning. I can only assume that with the routine difficulty of finding and buying fresh bread, a lot of people have dug out their hitherto unused bread makers. (Probably in the back of the airing cupboard with the foot spa and the pasta maker!)
I nearly shot myself in the foot by pencilling in fencers rather than rangers because it fitted the wordplay, so 14d followed by 14a were my last ones in.
Regarding the bread flour, I last saw a bag of white bread flour in the shops two weeks ago right at the back of a bottom shelf, but I did manage to get brown bread flour last weekend. I assume people have been buying it because its longish life and fresh bread *might* run out. Rather annoying when you’ve been making your own bread for years.
[Strangely, there’s no shortage of fresh bread at all in Sainsbury’s this morning – perhaps all the flour is going to the bakeries?]
Another relatively gentle puzzle. Unusual to find Monday’s the hardest of the week so far – what price Vulcan tomorrow and Anto on Friday to complete the set of quiptic setters being given the cryptic slot? I liked EXTRAMURAL for the literal definition and the simple RASH. I’d also never heard of NAIL SET and am happy to learn about it.
We’re also long time bread-makers unable to find strong white flour although our local fair trade shop has a delivery due and is putting some aside for me. Apart from the queuing to get into the supermarkets shopping is a decidedly more civilised experience with limited numbers inside.
Yes, plenty of bread loaves so maybe the flour will return soon.
It’s the lack of standard flour that puzzles me more. Let them eat cake? Or maybe people don’t know they need different flour for bread.
I thought the “a” in 3d was meant to precede “fruit” but even the surface does not really flow.
A very straightforward solve today. No harm in that!
TheZed@6 regarding Belloc and Chambertin, I have a vague and very distant memory of an Araucaria puzzle including a big chunk of this verse in a torturous anagram. Perhaps one of our brilliant archivists could find it?
Suggested clue for the 12ac typo – Irish trinity sees royal in shirt
WhiteKing @24
Carpathian would be in my wish-list.
Muffin @15 Thanks for the elucidation re the wine. That the “nail set” was familiar to me, and the wine familiar to you might be misinterpreted in a way most unfair! My sister-in-law was always a big fan of “geoffrey” and I used to try to pick up bottles on booze cruises, back when they were a thing.
Lord Jim @12 – this very point was raised by the editor in his crossword blog a couple of weeks ago. Most people on there seemed to settle on the idea the “boy” and “girl” would usually (to them) refer to a name, but they could see some sense in “b” and “g” albeit there was no particularly good dictionary example anyone could cite. So, on the dictionary front, I think you are right.
[Tomsdad @7 and ff: Another here who has hand-made all the bread in the house for years disturbed to find a run on the flour by people who have had to dig out the machine they were given fro Christmas in 2008 and have not used since. My problem is finding yeast – even fresh yeast, which is pretty obscure, is all sold out. I have a sourdough starter and delight in using it but my kids are just not “gen Z” enough to eat sourdough yet.]
Morpheus@28, you’re not getting the rock band of the same era Free mixed up with the Irish rock band trio Taste, by any chance. Or am I barking up the wrong tree?
When I later read about the offered solution for 12a (I had no reason in solving to check FREE), I tried to justify via some contorted combination of April Tools and the pair used in logic T/F (True/False). Ultimately I concluded that the Grauniad as a whole has had a reputation for typos, so we shouldn’t be surprised to see them here occasionally.
To TheZed@6 re: boy. It’s a lost cause, but there actually is some justification there, which you spelled out. I’ve given up railing against need and want as connecting words, which I think have no justification – they’re just too well entrenched.
Definitely the easiest solve so far this week. Never heard of NAIL SET and looked up SADHU and SHAMI. Only one other customer in my JS at 9.30 this morning. Bought bread,not flour.
Thanks to Chifonie and manehi.
SAMARIA took too long for me and I could hear the mental cogwheels clunking and churning before CHAMBERTIN and READDRESS emerged. Fav was NESTS (an addition to the nina postulated by Digbydavies@11?).
Perhaps the more impenetrable setters are being given a rest in all the circumstances – it presumably takes less time to produce a light (Monday-style?) crozzie than the alternative and in spite of all the “spare time” we now have there are still domestic situations to be addressed which can mop up the excess. For my own part I am ripping up floorboards in the utility/kitchen/dining “wing” of my abode in search of a leak which has been manifesting itself for, ooh, well ages. I barely have time for our little community now that I’m at it.
Ronald@32: I think Morpheus is using “tree” in the sense of “tirty tree” – you’d already seen that I’m sure, but I had to ponder.
[I hope Eileen and cookie are not taking the self-isolation principle too far – has anyone spotted them this week?]
Thank you to Chifonie and manehi
Yes, this was a gentle solve, but as with all Chifonie puzzles, the clues were elegant and witty.
I have never had the honour of drinking 22ac, but recognized it from the scene in “Brideshead Revisited”, when Rex Mottram entertains Charles Ryder to dinner at Paillard’s Restaurant in Paris, and they drink Chambertin Clos de Beze 1904.
Mark @10 – there are many words that live on only in crossword puzzle land. I have never knowingly encountered an ide for example. However apse is still encountered by churchgoers, or anyone visiting a cathedral.
Thanks both,
This reminded me of the Daily Telegraph puzzles from 50+ years ago that I used to do with my Dad. Level of difficulty, cricket terms, abbreviations for army units and some outdated words. A pleasant trip down memory lane.
[Apologies to manehi. My comment@13 sounded really rude. I typed my thoughts into Word before the blog appeared when I didn’t know you were the blogger, and did a cut and paste without amendment, thus the X instead of acknowledging you.]
Yes short but sweet. I am left with the image of Chiffers sipping Chambertin in his brogues at his pied-a-terre whilst finishing some woodwork with a nail set.
Stay well one and all.
Pretty much a write-in, and no foolin’. Neat surfaces though. NAIL SET and SADHU needed confirmation and the misprint in 3D looked like an either/or where one was not deleted.
Thanks to all who deserve them, and stay well.
Interesting to read about your troubles finding bread flour. The most hoarded commodity over here seems to be toilet paper.
[Alphalpha @35
Eileen posted earlier this week. I don’t think I’ve seen Cookie, though.]
Here I am moaning again. Why is poor ‘thin’ and girl ’g’?
And worst of all, research ‘res’.
Gails Bakery delivers.
Just thought I’d add that the clue for ‘Berg’ works equally well for ‘Bird’.
… if of course it wasn’t actually spelt ‘Byrd’. Doh.
I work as an online shopper in a supermarket, so am familiar with the flour shortage (not just bread flour, but that is the worst hit). We are getting a little in from time to time, but it disappears quickly. As with everything else, I’m sure once supply issues have been sorted things will return to normal in the near future (toilet paper is fine now after a sparse couple of weeks). But right now on any given shopping run it’s almost certain that I’ll get to pick several bags of flour, whereas a month ago it wouldn’t be uncommon to have no orders for it at all.
Happily, I always keep a few bags in my store cupboard, so I just started my machine up to make a loaf of 80% wholemeal.
[Thanks for that info, MarkN.]
Pretty easy although I’ve never heard of NAIL SET.The wordplay made it easy to get but I did have to look it up..Same with Samaria- easy to get but I didn’t realise it was a capital.
Thanks Chifonie.
Hilt @ 43
“That’s a pretty thin/poor excuse”.
G = girl is extrapolated from GF = girlfriend (cf BF).
Marienkaefer, is that the scene where Rex insists that brandy (from a suitably dusty bottle) be served in a ‘balloon’, at which Charles sighs in patient forbearance?
I was totally thrown by the iPhone app insisting on TREE and got held up for ages on SAMARIA NAIL SET, having never encountered either. Thank you Valentine for explaining the latter; the only piece of kit I’ve ever used for inserting a nail into a surface is a hammer – mind you, I generally make a pig’s ear of it and perhaps, when “normality” returns, I may invest in a nail set. Or a manicure…
I enjoyed ESCAPABLE DONOR but mostly this was a bit of a slog. I’m envious of all those who considered it easy.
[Muffin, Tomsdad et al: my partner is a dab hand at sourdough bread and we have no trouble getting it at our local organic food-store. So my guess would be Waitrose or the like….]
Thanks to Manehi and Chifonie!!
Me again, I meant FREE. I’ll get my coat…
Marienkaefer @36 I’m afraid I’ve exposed my lack of regular attendance at church! And my sons both went to a cathedral school as well so I have no excuse. I know apses exist but just don’t encounter the word. I’d love to say we all experience an ide – in the middle of each month – but don’t think I’d get away with it here!
It strikes me another one would be ‘main’ in the seafaring sense: a regular in crossword land but I haven’t heard/seen it used in ages.
Mostly a write-in, but the SW held out for a while, particularly RESURGENT and ENAMELLER. I quite liked THING. Chifonie obviously quite likes the G/girl, B/boy abbreviations, having used both today. I enjoyed learning all about Chambertin wines, so thanks for that.
For 12, perhaps: Peg used to drive around Royal Oak? (5)
Thanks, manehi and Chifonie. Time for an Enigmatist I feel.
or (4)! Note to self: learn to count.
We’ve got spam@56
oops – it’s gone
Does Gaufrid keep a very close eye on every post, or is there an automated system to detect spam?
muffin @58
I keep a close eye of every comment posted (well at least between 7am and 7pm) which is why I have been able to quickly remove the identical spam that appeared in 21 posts during the last half hour. We do have an automatic spam filter (Akismet) which intercepts many hundreds, and most days thousands, of spam comments each day. The spam that appeared today was flagged as spam by Akismet but the originator had found a way of making it appear anyway. I hope this doesn’t become a regular and more widespread occurrence.
Thanks Gaufrid – keep up the good work!
TheZed @31: thanks for the link to the editor’s blog – interesting. And phitonelly @54, thanks for pointing out that the puzzle does indeed have both B for boy and G for girl. I entered BROGUES at 4d without a second thought, and it was only 27a that raised the query in my mind. How strange!
Gaufrid @59: that is amazing dedication to duty!
Ronald @32 your knowledge of Irish bands far exceeds my own. Thanks for the educative post! No, it was simply a poor attempt to develop the oft used crossword technique of dropping of a Cockney h to replacing th by t in Irish pronunciation (no th sound existing in Gaelic).
And ultimately poorly constructed as lacking a dd.
Thank you Chifonie for an enjoyable puzzle and manehi for a helpful blog – I had not heard of the Chambertin cru even though I live not far away, obviously out of my reach financially, see muffin @15.
In the past infant schools would often put ‘b’ after a boy’s name, ‘g’ after a girl’s, so that parents would know when sending out invitations to a birthday party, no fun for a child being the odd one out.
We have not had an internet connection for nearly a week, apparently the old modem / telephone line system we use is often overloaded at the moment, even at night.
I breezed through the top, though SADHU and NAIL SET went in late, and both terms were unfamiliar to me. I’d vaguely heard the word sadhu but couldn’t have defined it. The bottom half was more of a struggle than it should have been, with a few clues holding me up, but I still got there reasonably quickly. Like everyone else using the electronic version today I suppose I technically got 12a wrong. Plane, maybe, is regularly targeted (4)*
Thanks Chifonie and manehi.
* actually, I see you could do something with “regularly penetrate from behind”, but I’ll leave such thoughts to other minds 🙂
Slightly off topic, but I’ve discovered that our local health food shop has loads of flour, potatoes, porridge oats, etc – may be worth a try at your local one! In gratitude, I shall be shopping there much more often once the current emergency has calmed down.
Grantinfreo @ 50
It is.
Waugh wrote that scene with war approaching, thinking that that sort of meal would be gone for ever.
I have cooked the sorrel soup and the blinis (though with roe not caviar), but the wine and brandy are a tad beyond me.
TheZed @31
Actually a very sore point. Years ago we used to go to (very expensive!) wine tastings at the Reform Club in London (we weren’t members). One was a comparitive tasting of Burgundies. There were two tables; the 1920s Chambertin Clos de Beze passed down the other table was acclaimed as the best wine they had ever tasted. The bottle that came down our table was sour!
Tyngewick @ 37
Likewise, and happy memories of the ‘Way of the World’ column by ‘Peter Simple’.
Thanks to Chifonie and Manehi.
Have made at lot of bread with standard flour…
it works fine.
Oh yes crossword was fine as well.
Morpheus@62…I love the way that today’s crossword blog has run and run over this and that. And you’ve in turn provided an education to me in Gaelic pronunciation! I was one of the lucky ones who was at the Isle Of Wight Festival in 1970, and have fed off the memory ever since. I heard Taste play on the Friday evening, the three of them made a huge, exciting sound with Rory Gallagher to the fore. I believe Free played later that memorable weekend….
Cookie @64: sorry, I don’t quite follow you. Where would schools put the “b” and the “g” so that parents could see it?
Lord Jim @72, apologies, the b or g would be after a pupil’s name on the class list.
Thanks Chifonie and Manehi.
A reasonable comfortable solve this morning. FOI SOCKS. LOI SWAMI. Had to look up SADHU and NAIL SET in Chambers and the wine in Wikipedia.
DP@26
Glad I am not the only person who remembers that great Araucaria puzzle. I have searched the internet many times but have never found it.
It would be nice if somebody could dig it up.
It’s awfully late to be commenting, but “punch” is a generic term for a bunch of little metal things you hit with a hammer. A nail set has a small dish in the end so it doesn’t slip off the nail.