The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27344.
A very pleasant offering from Nutmeg; not too difficult (happily, as the mismatch of Daylight Savings Time means that I received this an hour later than usual), with good surfaces, and at times seeming an exercise in envelopes.
| Across | ||
| 1 | HOTEL DE VILLE | Sexy French female with naughty child entering town hall (5,2,5) |
| An envelope (‘with … entering’) of DEVIL (‘naughty child’) in HOT (‘sexy’) plus ELLE (‘French female’). | ||
| 8 | OARSMEN | Warning to pull in behind docked boat crew? (7) |
| An envelope (‘to pull in’) of ARS[e] (‘behind’) minus its last letter (‘docked’) in OMEN (‘warning’). | ||
| 9 | HOGARTH | Where Harry learnt to lose weight – hard for society artist (7) |
| HOGWARTS (‘where Harry learnt’ – Harry Potter, that is) minus the W (‘to lose weight’) and with the final S replaced by H (‘hard for society’).
|
||
| 11 | TOENAIL | Small bit of anatomy, such as Spooner’s Manx cat has? (7) |
| A Spoonerism of NO TAIL (‘Manx cat has’). | ||
| 12 | SPOILER | One line in translated prose, a giveaway of what’s to come (7) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of I (‘one’) plus L (‘line’) in SPOER, an anagram (‘translated”) of ‘prose’. | ||
| 13 | CUTIS | Get rid of one’s skin (5) |
| A charade of CUT (‘get rid of’) plus I (‘one’) plus ‘s’. | ||
| 14 | EGLANTINE | For instance, worker in business producing plant (9) |
| A charade of EG (‘for instance’) plus LANTINE, an envelope (‘in’) of ANT (‘worker’) in LINE (‘business’). A rose, the sweet briar.
|
||
| 16 | LOGARITHM | We’re told to record a metre as aid to calculation (9) |
| Sounds like (‘we’re told’) LOG A RHYTHM (‘record a metre’). | ||
| 19 | HABIT | Belt keeping sailor’s clothing in order (5) |
| Wordplay and two definitions. An envelope (‘keeping’) of AB (able-bodied ‘sailor’) in HIT (‘belt’). | ||
| 21 | UXORIAL | Wife’s exposed buxom rival with no heart (7) |
| A charade of UXO, ‘[b]uxo[m]’ minus its outer letters (‘exposed’) plus RIAL, ‘ri[v]al’ minus it middle letter (‘with no heart’). Note that the apostrophe s is part of the definition. | ||
| 23 | LIMPOPO | River 51 miles west of two others (7) |
| A charade of LI (Roman numeral,’51’) plus M (‘miles’) plus PO PO (‘two others’ i.e. rivers). | ||
| 24 | EAST END | Leaving hospital, crook hastened to city area (4,3) |
| An anagram (‘crook’) of ‘[h]astened’ minus the H (‘leaving hospital’). | ||
| 25 | GERBILS | Backer of women’s lib regretted trapping rodents (7) |
| A hidden (‘trapping’) reversed (‘backer’) answer in ‘womenS LIB REGretted’. | ||
| 26 | PRESENT TENSE | Commentators use it to take exception to score, at least in gym (7,5) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of RESENT (‘take exception to’) plus TENS (‘score, at least’ – a score being 20) in PE (‘gym’). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | HARDEST | Doctor rising in haste dressed with extreme energy (7) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of RD, a reversal (‘rising’ in a down light) of DR (‘doctor’) in HAEST, an anagram (‘dressed’) of ‘haste’. | ||
| 2 | TOMCATS | Pets – little ones catching mice, oddly advanced (7) |
| An envelope (‘catching’) of MC (‘MiCe, oddly’) plus A (‘advanced’). In TOTS (‘little ones’). | ||
| 3 | LONELIEST | Most needing company switched tellies on (9) |
| An anagram (‘switched’) of ‘tellies on’. | ||
| 4 | ETHOS | “The last shall be first” in the aforementioned spirit of the age (5) |
| THOSE (‘the aforementioned’) with its last letter moved to the front (‘the last shall br fiirst’). | ||
| 5 | INGROWN | Native close to joining argument in pub (7) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of G (‘close to joininG‘) plus ROW (‘argument’) in INN (‘pub’). | ||
| 6 | LORELEI | German siren from tradition that is left over (7) |
| A charade of LORE (‘tradition’) plus LEI, a reversal (‘over’) of I.E. (‘that is’) plus L (‘left’).
|
||
| 7 | HORTICULTURE | Pronounced lordly customs, such as those at Kew engage in? (12) |
| Sounds like (‘pronounced’) HAUGHTY CULTURE (‘lordly customs’). Kew Gardens in the outskirts of London is a botanical garden and plant collection. | ||
| 10 | HARVEST MOUSE | Ploughing thus removes a small mammal (7,5) |
| An anagram (‘ploughing’) of ‘thus removes a’. | ||
| 15 | LAMPLIGHT | In it one should see see batter and jam (9) |
| A charade of LAM (‘batter’) plus PLIGHT (‘jam’). | ||
| 17 | GROSSER | Cruder nurseryman preferring small son to wife (7) |
| GROWER (‘nurseryman’) with the W replaced by SS (‘preferring small son to wife’). | ||
| 18 | RAIDERS | They’ll try to seize article within bikers’ grasp (7) |
| An envelope (‘within … grasp’) of A (indefinite ‘article’) in RIDERS (‘bikers’). | ||
| 19 | HOME RUN | Sportingly, Ruth often got this housekeeper’s job done? (4,3) |
| Double definition: Babe Ruth, widely regarded as baseball’s greatest player, scored many of these.
|
||
| 20 | BROMINE | Toxic element turning up in seawater is molybdenum (7) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of OM, a reversal (‘turning up’ in a down light) of MO (chemical symbol, ‘molybdenum’) in BRINE (‘seawater’). | ||
| 22 | LED ON | Somewhat appalled, one’s tempted to stray (3,2) |
| A hidden answer (‘somewhat’) in (‘appalLED ONe’). | ||
*
Sleepless in hotel in Richmond (N.Yorks). Scampered through this one, which is nice. Just a query – is “Hotel de Ville” really current in English for “Town Hall”? I did French at school – taught by men who were exactly one page ahead of me in the text book 🙂 – but my daughters, thirty-odd years later, all did German. I doubt they could get this from the clue. Collins online gives the definition as: French: town hall. So not English then?
For 19a I took the definition of HABIT to be ‘clothing in order’ i.e. something a nun or monk wears.
Isn’t the synonym for rhythm “meter”, with “metre” being a unit of length measurement. Or is that just how we spell the words here in NZ?
Enjoyable but not too hard, as PeterO says. Favourites were OARSMEN, EAST END, LONELIEST and LAMPLIGHT. Many thanks to N and P.
Thanks for the illuminated blog PeterO that enhanced what was, for me, a lacklustre puzzle. The clues were all fair but I only ended up with one smiley – the 7d homophone – which will no doubt attract the usual debate about pronunciation. I hadn’t parsed HOGARTH (must remember HP now lives in crosswordland as well as Privet Drive) and CUTIS was new to me. ETHOS also deserves a mention, as does Mrs W who explained the parsing to me. All in all there is probably more to appreciate than I first gave credit for – thanks Nutmeg.
Thanks PeterO and Nutmeg.
A question please: 15down – is there another meaning to the noun “see” (other than the usual “diocese”) that would give significance to the second “see” in the clue?
Thank you Nutmeg for an enjoyable puzzle, apart from the INGROWN TOENAIL, and PeterO for the illustrated blog.
Thanks Nutmeg for an enjoyable crossword.
Thanks to PeterO for a good pictorial blog; I just remembered Babe Ruth in time. HOTEL DE VILLE is in the OED and Chambers, so no issue there. What a lovely Spoonerism; I wonder if it’s been used before?
I did particularly enjoy UXORIAL.
P.S. scchua @6; I assumed this was another ‘Paris in the the Spring.’
Thanks Nutmeg and PeterO
OldFakir@1
It is interesting that you say your daughters did German. My memory is that the German for Town Hall is Rathaus pronounced Rat House. How appropriate!
scchua@6
I think the second see is part of the wordplay not the definition. The second “see” being an indicator to form a charade. I could be wrong. I welcome further comments.
PS for sacchua what has happened tothe picture puzzles. I was only just getting into them when they stopped
I remember “lorelei” being a solution many years ago in a guardian crossword. I can’t remember which one , perhaps someone can remind me. After seeing the answer I researched it.When I went to Germany in 2013 I made sure I saw the lorelei from the train, from the river and up close.
Who said crosswords were a waste of time?
Following on from 10
I meant to shout it out, “WHO SAID CROSSWORDS WERE A WASTE OF TIME?”.
As with Julius the cluing was spot-on so little googling etc required.I actually thought that the “sportingly” in 19d made it very easy-I thought it was gettable without-but…great surface so my argument doesnt really hold up.
Thanks PeterO and Nutmeg.
A nicely-set puzzle, and if not at the outer reaches of difficulty, that’s no bad thing from time to time.
I still have my book of LOGARITHM tables, for I was told by my maths master “Keep this carefully, you will need it throughout life.”
Trailman @13, I still have mine – Godfrey and Siddons 1958, decorated by a toddler…
Thanks Nutmeg and PeterO.
Some enjoyable wordplay here; I agree with WhiteKing@5 that 7d HORTICULTURE was a fun clue. I also appreciated the homophone in 16a LOGARITHM.
Had not heard of the HARVEST MOUSE (10d) or CUTIS (13a), though the latter must be linked to “cuticle”.
I liked your definition of 19a HABIT, passerby@2.
I thought the second “see” in 15d was simply a typo but I may be missing something.
Trailman@13
I would love to agree with your old maths teacher. However, not many years ago, I supervised a project on Benfords Law for an undergraduate student in in her final year of a BSc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benford%27s_law When she gave her oral presentation, I wassurprised by how many of her colleagues (maths majors at university) were not familar with log tables.
J in A @15 you may be right about the second see in 15d. That thought crossed my mind as well.
Let’s hear it for the Australians on this site. And let’s not forget the Kiwis.
Thanks nutmeg and PeterO
A pleasant solve. I too thought the second ‘see’ was a typo. I also tried to make sense of 4d via ‘the’ and ‘so’. I thought there might be the beginnings of a theme with ‘ingrown toenail’ or small mammals but did not see one.
All good fun on the medium-difficult side today, I think. I don’t much care for the PRESENT TENSE parsing, I think TENS as “score at least” is stretching it a bit! And the homonym for “haughty” shows just how sloppy English pronunciation has become (for some at least). But the rest was fine.
I also read HABIT as “clothing in order” i.e. monks’ clothing.
On the whole, a great puzzle, but not in the least grey-green, greasy! Thanks to Nutmeg and Peter.
Correction: just noticed that I’d written-in LIMELIGHT (unparsed) instead of LAMPLIGHT. So I missed one. I hadn’t even noticed the duplication of “see” which others have suggested is a typo.
scchua @6 etc.
When writing the blog, I managed not to notice the double ‘see’ in 15D – even when underlining the definition, which I do separately, while proofreading! Surely it must be the Grauniad striking again.
kevin @17
The Kiwis do indeed contribute regularly to 225, but you might be forgiven for not noticing it. The Everyman crossword is evidently syndicated in an NZ publication, some 2-3 weeks after its original appearance, and there is always a flurry of posts from that region which you would not see unless you looked back at the Everyman archives (as a blogger, I get email notice of these posts, which remind me that it is time for my next Everyman blog).
A top class puzzle from one of my favourite setters. Not too difficult but with plenty of neat misdirection and a pleasing variety of devices. Liked HORTICULTURE. OARSMEN was last in.
Thanks to Nutmeg and PeterO
Thanks to Nutmeg and PeterO. I too started with Limelight, not LAMPLIGHT, and like Julie paused over CUTIS and HARVEST MOUSE, but the cluing was sound and the puzzle very enjoyable.
Thanks for blog: I’d finished with a few unparsed, so am glad of explanations.
7dn reminds me that ‘you can lead a horticulture but you can’t make her think!’.
Thanks for the illustrated blog, PeterO, enjoyed it rather more than the crossword.
Don’t see why HOTEL DE VILLE is town hall. Shouldn’t there be some reference to that country somewhere in the def? ‘French female’ is there but it relates to another bit of the word play, doesn’t it?
Some nice clues in OARSMEN, SPOILER & HOGARTH, and a fine anagram for HARVEST MOUSE.
Many thanks, Nutmeg, nice week, all.
PS kevin@10 Sad to say, but my creative juices were running dry, so I decided to give it a rest. I hope you enjoyed it while it lasted. Cheers!
I thought this was very nice, but I normally enjoy this setter. I like the definitions, and constructions like switched tellies on.
UXORIAL is a new word for me. Lovely.
I especially liked OARSMEN, HABIT, HARVEST MOUSE, BROMINE.
many thanks Nutmeg and PeterO
FirmlyDirac@19
The minimum tens could be is a score, so I don’t see the problem.
Thanks to all who answered my “see” query. So it boils down to nothing more than a typo!
We got casts for 11 down which held us up at the end. Nice one Nutmeg. Thanks to everyone.
Thanks both,
On the subject of pronunciation in 7d, there is a story that Dorothy Parker was challenged to use the answer in a sentence and came up with, ‘You can lead a horticulture, but you can’t make her think’.
Lovely puzzle; thanks Nutmeg and PeterO.
@Kevin 10
Das Rathaus= town hall (where things get ratified) is pronounced “Raathouse” so the vermin homophone doesn’t really work, sadly.
Die Lorelei; 3rd year German lessons still remembered…after three everyone:
Ich weiß nicht was soll es bedeuten
Daß ich so traurig bin…..
ps@copmus
thanks for the Julius plug!
I think the meter/ metre thing is a mistake. By matrixmania!
I checked it in Chambers, and metre is the English spelling.
Nice puzzle.
kevin@10:
Sorry to be a bore but having lived in Germany for 44 years I can report that the first bit of Rathaus is not pronounced like rat, but with a long “a” (similar to the a in can’t in southern British English or Received Pronunciation). Also, Rat has nothing whatsoever to do with rats but with council or counsel. The Bundesrat is the upper German parliamentary body.
Thanks for a fun puzzle, Nutmeg and the blog, PeterO.
baerchen@32:
Sorry, only saw yours after I posted mine!
Quite liked this. HOTEL DE VILLE stumped me for quite a long time. DE VILLE was a guess and then I had to look it up. TOMCATS was LOI because I simply couldn’t see it. I liked UXORIAL .Good fun!.
Thanks Nutmeg
Thanks Nutmeg and PeterO
Late to this, so fortunately it wasn’t too difficult. I don’t generally like Spoonerisms, but I did like “no tail”!
I enjoyed this, but I have been banging my head all day, during breaks from work, trying to figure out what parsing/wordplay could justify “limelight” in 15d. I went so far as to wonder if the phrase “batter and jam” might possibly be Cockney rhyming slang for “ham”, e.g., one who wants to be in the limelight! (Hahaha!) I tried Googling the phrase in pursuit of that theory, and there in the listed search results I saw the link to this blog with the correct answer (which of course is not “limelight” at all – D’oh!) plainly visible without even having to come here to get it. So I got my LOI today, not the way I would have preferred to do it. My (losing) struggles with that clue aside, I thought the puzzle had many nice surfaces, and wordplay that produced several enjoyable PDMs. My favorites included UXORIAL, EAST END, HOME RUN, BROMINE, and HABIT (which I read the same way as passerby @2 and others). I saw that the third member of The Most Important Rivers in Crosswordland, in light of the appearances of the other two (Exe and Dee) within the past week, not to be outdone, made a *double* appearance in the same clue, in 23ac! Many thanks to Nutmeg and PeterO and other commenters.
I really don’t get HARDEST, though nobody else seems to have the problem!
I am obviously too well brought up to be able to parse 8a but it reminded me that, where I come from, we used the word “dock” instead of “a*s*”.
Just reread this blog – what a hoot – from Old Fakir@1 being “Sleepless in Seattle” – oops sorry “Sleepless in Richmond” – at the outset, to jellyroll@40 being too polite for “arse” at the “end”, it had a lovely levity. I really enjoyed the “grey-green, greasy” Limpopo link posted by FirmlyDirac@19, the D. Parker “horticulture” quote mentioned by both peterM@24 and Tyngewick@31, and DaveMc’s ongoing tally (@39) of “The Most Important Rivers in Crosswordland”. As occurs often, this forum takes my lone solving experience and makes it lots more fun.
We are a bit late here, but the paper didn’t arrive yet again.
Lucy B @39 we are with you on that. Surprised nobody else commented.
@39 and @42 I’m still struggling to match HARDEST to “with extreme energy”.
Lucy B @29 etc.
Chambers gives for hard: … adv. with urgency, vigour etc. …
“I tried my hardest to win the race”
Energy = capacity to perform work. (Energy and work measured in the same units in Physics.) So hardest work requires most energy.
Seems a bit tenuous, and it involves a bit of actual science, so I’m probably missing something.
Can someone explain why haughty and horti don’t sound the same? I live in London & speak RP more or less & it works for me!
Schiele @46
I have a couple of friends who were in the “Horti(culture) club”, and both said that “haughty” would have been more appropriate!
Two days late doing this but Schiele @46: Absolutely agree. Its a perfect homonym for anyone in this country (which is where the Guardian originates).
It is good that people all over the world read it but they should not complain if something does not suit their dialect.
BTW, I loved this not least because it was possible to make words that I hadn’t heard of from the clue. SO the only Googling was to confirm a word was right and what it meant.
Two days late solving this as prize crossword has not yet appeared this morning. Enjoyed all the blog contributions but surprised that no-one else mentioned ‘where Harry learned (Eton) to lose weight (ton) giving me an initial e that held me up for ages.
Many many days late.
Job @49 – I went down a similar rabbit hole at first with Harry: I had ETON (where Harry learnt) minus TO (to lose), giving EN.
I too, at first, didn’t like “with extreme energy” = HARDEST, but PeterO @44 has argued a convincing case.
As others have commented HOTEL DE VILLE was a bit, well, French.
Also:
26A PRESENT TENSE – the definition (commentators use it) was far too oblique for my liking.
2D TOMCATS – once again, the def (pets) was so weak.