Enjoyable and well-clued as ever from Chifonie – I particularly liked 23ac, as well as the misdirection in 2, 19 and 22dn.
| Across | ||
| 7 | CATAPULT | Sect conceals a blow from weapon (8) |
| =”weapon”. CULT=”Sect” around A TAP=”a blow” | ||
| 9 | CRISIS | Cold river has Oxford crew in deep water (6) |
| =”deep water”. C[old] plus R[iver] plus ISIS=”Oxford [reserve rowing] crew” | ||
| 10 | WEEP | Keen little page (4) |
| =”Keen”. WEE=”little”, plus P[age] | ||
| 11 | SUPPLEMENT | Agile people initially take additive (10) |
| =”additive”. SUPPLE MEN=”Agile people”, plus T[ake] | ||
| 12 | BIDDER | Theologian in last stand — one wanting a lot (6) |
| =”one wanting a lot” at auction. D[octor] of D[ivinity]=”Theologian”, in BIER=”last stand” for a coffin | ||
| 14 | FLIMSIES | Doctor misfiles delicate papers (8) |
| =”delicate papers”. (misfiles)* | ||
| 15 | LATEST | The French trial is news (6) |
| =”news”. LA=”The [in] French”, plus TEST=”trial” | ||
| 17 | UNDIES | A Parisian longs for lingerie (6) |
| =”lingerie”. UN=”A [in] Parisian [French]”, plus DIES=”longs” (as in ‘dying for a coffee’) | ||
| 20 | HEIRLOOM | Hire broken machine that’s regularly passed on (8) |
| =”that’s regularly passed on”. (Hire)* plus LOOM=”machine” | ||
| 22 | SEESAW | Notices a cow’s tail swing (6) |
| =”swing”. SEES A=”Notices a”, plus [co]W | ||
| 23 | PALINDROME | Random pile scattered by rotavator, for example (10) |
| =”rotavator, for example”. (Random pile)* | ||
| 24 | CODE | Fish to European rules (4) |
| =”rules”. COD=”Fish” plus E[uropean] | ||
| 25 | SEVERN | River perpetually split partners (6) |
| =”River”. EVER=”perpetually”, inside S[outh] and N[orth], bridge “partners” | ||
| 26 | HARLOTRY | Man collected fortune from the oldest profession (8) |
| =”the oldest profession”. HARRY=”Man”, around LOT=”fortune” | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MATERIAL | Let Maria make up stuff (8) |
| =”stuff”. (Let Maria)* | ||
| 2 | CAMP | Financial restriction accepted — many affected (4) |
| =”affected”. CAP=”financial restriction” around M=”many”=thousand in Roman numerals / short for ‘millions’ | ||
| 3 | PURSER | Prize royal officer on board (6) |
| a naval paymaster =”officer on board”. PURSE=”Prize” plus R[ex]/R[egina]=king/queen=”royal” | ||
| 4 | SCALLION | Vegetable child of the family eats whole (8) |
| =”Vegetable”. SCION=”child of the family”, around ALL=”whole” | ||
| 5 | DISMISSIVE | Is girl in place of ill repute, sneering? (10) |
| =”sneering”. IS MISS=”Is girl”, in DIVE=”place of ill repute” | ||
| 6 | FIANCE | Intended female to meet Scot at church (6) |
| =”Intended”. F[emale] plus IAN=”Scot” plus C[hurch] of E[ngland] | ||
| 8 | TIP-OFF | Inside information that gratuity’s unsatisfactory (3-3) |
| =”Inside information”; TIP=”gratuity” plus OFF=”unsatisfactory” | ||
| 13 | DETERMINED | Intimidate colliery director, being resolute (10) |
| =”resolute”. DETER=”Intimidate” plus MINE=”colliery” plus D[irector] | ||
| 16 | SCOLDING | Spill the beans about frosty lecture (8) |
| =”lecture”. SING=”Spill the beans”, around COLD=”frosty” | ||
| 18 | STANDARD | Fruit tree or evergreen (8) |
| =a “Fruit tree” grown erect and to full height; =”evergreen”=something that endures | ||
| 19 | SMOOTH | Keep quiet about controversial plane (6) |
| =”plane” (of a surface). SH=”Keep quiet” around MOOT=”controversial” | ||
| 21 | ERASED | Got rid of Red Sea problem (6) |
| =”Got rid of”. (Red Sea)* | ||
| 22 | SHERRY | Make a mistake in retiring for a drink (6) |
| =”a drink”. ERR=”Make a mistake”, around SHY=”retiring” | ||
| 24 | CLOG | College has account for jam (4) |
| =”jam”. C[ollege] plus LOG=”account” | ||
I would call this a very easy puzzle. I had trouble in parsing 18d, but having consulted Chambers I now understand that “standard” can mean an upright fruit tree. I would, however, suggest that the “evergreen” part of the definition refers specifically to a piece of music retaining its freshness and popularity, which works well with “standard”.
Thanks Chifonie and manehi.
STANDARD = ‘fruit tree’ was new to me.
My favourites were 23a, 26a, 5d (LOI).
As a jazz musician, during longer gigs or functions where we are as much background as anything else, we often resort to ‘standards’ – likely to be known by the audience (and by the band) as they have been around for a long time and are familiar.
Pretty standard fare from Chifonie, but none the worse for that.
Having used the word ‘standard’, I would say that the clue for that was the one I liked the least: while I acknowledge that a fruit tree may be a standard, so may, for instance, a rose. Otherwise, I agree with manehi about the clues selected for approval.
Thanks manehi and Chifonie
Lots of clues to enjoy, though I failed on STANDARD and SEESAW (which I wouldn’t describe as a “swing”).
Favourites BIDDER, FLIMSIES, PALINDROME and CAMP.
We all know what a jazz standard is, but I’ve never heard “evergreen” used in that context. I’m still not very convinced by 18d.
Hello muffin @5.
Chifonie is using ‘seesaw’ in its verb guise, in the sense of swinging one way and then the other. I’m sure that you have heard sports commentators use the expression about matches where ascendancy moves from one contestant or side to the other and back again.
George @7
Thanks – the verb use never occurred to me.
Thanks, manehi, for the blog and Chifonie for the puzzle.
Favourite clue: PALINDROME.
Ian SW3 @6ac
I’ve certainly heard that use of ‘evergreen’. Chambers: ‘a person, piece of music, etc. which retains freshness, popularity, etc.’ [as Bob Clary says @1]. My objection to that clue is to the first part: as George says @4, you can have standard roses [and fuchsias, etc.] so ‘fruit tree’ is not a true definition.
Doing this puzzle first helped with the FT [Chifonie in Armonie guise] – 25ac: ‘Arrange promotion during last stand of officer (9)’ and 19dn: ‘felon finds positive religious teaching in sect (7). [An observation, not a complaint – all good clues!.]
Eileen @9
I had only heard of the “standard” plants that you mention, but apparently “standard fruit tree” is OK – see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit_tree_forms
Did this at midnight last night and found it not difficult even for a tired brain. I too pondered ‘standard’ for evergreen but then saw the relevance to something that endures. I think ‘fruit tree’ is perfectly acceptable and led me to the answer in the first place.
All good clues IMHO.
Thanks to Chifonie and manehi.
Thanks, muffin: I meant that ‘fruit tree’ is only an example of a ‘standard’ [or ‘standard’ of a fruit tree!]. 😉
Eileen @12
I misunderstood – you are saying that “standard” doesn’t apply exclusively to fruit tress? I agree in not liking this type of definition, but it’s not uncommon, I think.
Nice half-hour solve. Liked HARLOTRY but don’t go a bundle on STANDARD for the reason mentioned.
Hi again muffin @13
Yes, you’re right – we often have definitions by example, so ‘fruit tree, perhaps, or evergreen’ would have been fine by me. [Sorry, all – I should have said ‘reservation’ rather than ‘objection’ @9. I was really only meaning to say that I had no objection to the second part of the clue!]
Eileen @15
I prefer your clue! It meets our reservations fairly, I think.
I forgot to ask – what’s the “regularly” doing in the clue for 20a?
Hi yet again muffin
Not what it’s usually doing in clues! It’s part of the definition – an heirloom is passed on from one generation to another
Thanks, manehi
Easier than yesterday’s Rufus. Agree with most of the comments above.
muffin @17: An HEIRLOOM is something valuable which has been handed down from generation to generation, i.e. “regularly passed on”.
Thanks CHIFfONie; I noticed your mini-theme of FLIMSIES and UNDIES made of SMOOTH MATERIAL. 😉
Thanks manehi; is a PALINDROME the start of Michael’s travels? 😉 My STANDARD vocabulary doesn’t include fruit trees.
Rotavator is one of the longer palindromes but, according to Wiki, the longest palindromic word in the Oxford English Dictionary is the onomatopoeic tattarrattat, coined by James Joyce in Ulysses (1922) for a knock on the door.
As well as PALINDROME, I particularly liked BIDDER, although that is probably an old chestnut.
Thanks Eileen and Gervase
Another of today’s straightforward but enjoyable cryptics. Eileen has covered most of what I was going to say, but what’s new there!
Thanks to Chifonie and Manehi.
Thanks to manehi for the blog. You explained a couple where I had the answer but not the parsing.
On 25 I quickly spotted that the partners are bridge players so EW or NS. I also considered WE but for some reason took an age to think of SN. Sigh. 🙁
Thanks all
Mostly lovely but 23 across was brilliant.
All fairly straightforward as one would expect from Chifonie – my last in was STANDARD – I wasn’t familiar with the fruit tree definition but got there from the equivalence of musical standards and evergreens so that didn’t cause a problem.
Thanks to manehi and Chifonie
Thanks Manehi. I took ‘evergreen’ to refer to the song made famous by Barbra Streisand which I had in a piano music collection of standards, but then I’m not much of a stickler for the rules…
I’d echo most peoples views on 18d (LOI). My suggested clue is to snip “, or” out of Eileen’s offering @15 giving: Fruit tree, perhaps evergreen.
As for 22a, seesaw (see-saw?) in my mind is up-down motion, not side-to-side. Not that this cannot be described as a swing in position though, so fair enough.
Finished this much quicker than yesterday’s Rufus, probably due to many fewer DD & CDs.
Thanks to Chifonie and Manehi.
Only tangentially related to the crossword, but I note that in 19D Chifonie uses ‘controversial’ to define MOOT. Nothing controversial about that, but there is a near-opposite meaning of MOOT as not, or no longer, worth arguing in court. I was surprised that this meaning is not mentioned in Chambers, nor in the OED (unless I have overlooked something in yards of minuscule print). There is an article in Wikipedia on Mootness – there’s a new word for you – which, also surprising to me, places this meaning as American in origin, perhaps deriving from MOOT as a law school exercise whose outcome is of academic interest only.
Like Monkeypuzzler @27, Chifonie is usually a quicker solve than Rufus, and for the same reason. It was so again today. Didn’t really pause all the way through, not that I’m complaining.
Didn’t blink at STANDARD, but FLIMSIES had me head-scratching – never heard the usage in this context.
PeterO @ 28
I’m glad you said that – that was what I understood by “moot”, and I thought that I had been mistaken all along when I didn’t find that meaning in Chambers.
Thanks Chifonie and manehi
Found this for the most part to be the typical straightforward neatly clued Chifonie. However it took me an age to see the M in CAP at 2d after seeing that the answer was CAMP.
The last three in the SE corner – CLOG, HARLOTRY and STANDARD took another age. Initially writing in CRAM certainly didn’t help the cause. I didn’t have as many issues as some others here did, with STANDARD after I eventually got it. The definition I found was – “a plant, especially a fruit tree, that is trained … “. After seeing the dd with ‘evergreen’ – there were no doubts for me.
So, a much harder workout fore than usual from this setter !
As others have said this was a typical Chifonie puzzle, and like a few of you STANDARD was my LOI.
Like others, I hadn’t heard of “standard” for fruit trees; the other half of that one is fine for me.
CRISIS is today’s “guess you’ve gotta be British” clue, since “Isis” for Oxford’s crew is not part of my cultural equipment. (I’ve seen it, having read enough British novels, but it’s not something that immediately pops to mind.)
“Moot” in “smooth” is one of those fun words that can mean almost its own opposite. When an American lawyer, anyway, says that an issue is “moot,” it’s the opposite of controversial–it’s completely academic, as its decision would be irrelevant to the issue at hand.
–M.
PeterO: Just noticed you beat me to it.
Here’s the standard American dictionary, Webster’s, on “moot.” Scroll down–adjective definitions are towards the bottom.
Moot in Webster’s
The Goons:
“It’s a moot point”
“Stop pointing that moot at me, Moriarty”
I went to the Cambridgeshire High School for Boys. Our ‘houses’ were Cam, Granta, Isis and Cherwell (pronounced ‘Chumley’, of course).
Signed, Jelly-Roll Pank Stutely.
Let’s see what that brings.,,
Only held up by 24D. Since when is C a recognized abbreviation for college?
Nothing “brilliant” or “entertaining” in this for me I’m afraid. 🙁
Thanks to manehi and Chifonie
This seems to be my level. Glad I wasn’t the only one who had trouble with standard