The Gaurdian presents us with an elegant crossword from Orlando to strat the week.
This was an excellent way to start the week – just challenging enough to get the brain cells charged after the weekend but not hard enough to cause any frustration.
There were many clues worthy of mention, but I gave ticks to 11ac, 5dn, 8dn and 17dn.
Thanks, Orlando.
| Across | ||
| 1 | OFFICER | One in force using force, if forced? (7) |
| *(force if) | ||
| 5 | CERTAIN | Guaranteed supply in crate (7) |
| *(in crate) | ||
| 9 | OSIER | Tree lost heart? That’s right! (5) |
| (l)OS(t) [heart] + I.E. (“that is”) + R (right) | ||
| 10 | TRANSIENT | Passing flower round, as in assembly (9) |
| TRENT (river, so “flower”) round *(as in) | ||
| 11 | SCALE MODEL | Confusing me with so-called proportional representation (5,5) |
| *(me so called) | ||
| 12 | RAMP | One’s inclined to strike with Popular Front (4) |
| RAM (“to strike”) with P(opular) [front] | ||
| 14 | SINGLE-HANDED | Danish legend translated without assistance (6-6) |
| *(danish legend) | ||
| 18 | SMOKE SIGNALS | Messages from donkey striking in centre of Brussels (5,7) |
| MOKE (“donkey”) + SIGNAL (“striking”) in [centre of] (bru)SS(els) | ||
| 21 | EARN | Bring in organ before Beethoven’s Ninth (4) |
| EAR (“organ”) before (beethove)N [‘s ninth] | ||
| 22 | ATTRACTION | Keeping dry in new raincoat? That’s something to go for (10) |
| TT (teetotal, so “dry”) in *(raincoat) | ||
| 25 | DEFERMENT | Stay in midst of students’ agitation (9) |
| [midst of] (stu)DE(nts) + FERMENT (“agitation”) | ||
| 26 | OZONE | Gas ring section (5) |
| O (“ring”) + ZONE (“section”) | ||
| 27 | ROLLERS | Seated in a proper car, Her Majesty waves (7) |
| [seated in] ROLLS (“a proper car”) ER (“Her Majesty”) | ||
| 28 | LAST OUT | Hang on for US city’s rogue trader (4,3) |
| LA’s (US city’s) TOUT (“rogue trader”) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | OBOIST | French wood grasped by old-time player (6) |
| BOIS (French for “wood”) grasped by O (old) + T (time) | ||
| 2 | FAISAL | King in part of Central Asia fears rising (6) |
| Hidden backwards in [part of] “centraL ASIA Fear” [rising]
Faisal was King of Saudi Arabia from 1964 until hi asssassination in 1975. |
||
| 3 | CARMELITES | Focus, say, on manuscript about best friars (10) |
| CAR (Ford “Focus, say”) on MS (manuscript) about ELITE (“best”) | ||
| 4 | RETRO | Men with a half of bitter, looking up or looking back (5) |
| <=(OR (other ranks, so “men”)+ [half of] (bit)TER) [looking up] | ||
| 5 | CHAMELEON | Fruit packed with energy taken by tea blender (9) |
| MELON (“fruit”) packed with E (energy) taken by CHA (“tea”) | ||
| 6 | REST | Supporter requires tuna sandwiches (4) |
| Hidden in “requiRES Tuna” | ||
| 7 | ADELAIDE | A key adviser somewhere in Oz (8) |
| A + DEL (“key” (“delete” on a keyboard)) + AIDE (“adviser”) | ||
| 8 | NOTEPADS | Stationery for writers, engineers and poets (8) |
| *(and poets) | ||
| 13 | FALLACIOUS | False note? Ring up with promises to pay (10) |
| FA (“note”) + <=CALL (“ring”) [up] with IOUs (“promises to pay”) | ||
| 15 | GUILTLESS | Innocent chicken — one left inside (9) |
| GUTLESS (“chicken”) with 1 L (left) inside | ||
| 16 | ASCENDER | Upper part of letter or card seen when sorted (8) |
| *(card seen) | ||
| 17 | MOURNFUL | Lugubrious doctor with contents of vase? (8) |
| MO (medical officer, so “doctor”) with URNFUL (“contents of vase”) | ||
| 19 | KIMONO | The King and I (without stereo sound) that’s put on in Japan (6) |
| K (king) + I + MONO (“without stereo sound”) | ||
| 20 | INTENT | Plan location for circus performance? (6) |
| A circus performance would take place IN (a) TENT | ||
| 23 | RATEL | Judge accompanied by large mammal (5) |
| RATE (“judge”) accompanied by L (large) | ||
| 24 | BRAE | Scottish bank daring to withdraw capital from Venezuela (4) |
| BRA(v)E (“daring”) with [capital from] V(enezuala) withdrawn | ||
*anagram
Thanks loonapick. Yep, couldn’t agree more. This felt like a Sunday morning with the old Everyman, a joy to solve. Thanks Orlando, great stuff.
Yep again, nice Monday stroll, thanks Orlando and Loonapick. Not a write-in, due to only remembering moke the donkey and Focus the Ford after entering them, not knowing the typographical meaning of ascender and only vaguely remembering ratel. Proportional representation was very neat. Ta again both.
Thanks Orlando and loonapick
Lovely – we see Orlando too infrequently. Lots to like – many the same as you, loonapick, Favourites SCALE MODEL, ADELAIDE, NOTEPADS and MOURNFUL.
I don’t think “proper” was needed in 22a, unless I’m missing something. Rolls-Royce cars are often referred to as “rollers” – is this relevant?
Loved this, clever wordplay and a pleasing blend of clues.
Muffin @ 3 Proper to accentuate the relative quality or the suitability for Her Majesty perhaps but, yes, it wasn’t necessary.
Nothing wrong with the clue (5a) but supply as an anagrind sounded odd to my ears (wondered if ‘supplies’ or having the fodder precede it would have been more acceptable to them)?
Particularly liked notepads and scale model.
Thanks to Orlando and Loonapick.
Thanks Orlando and loonapick
Robert @ 4: ‘supply’ as an anagrind is a chestnut. It reads in the sense of ‘provide’ but i meant as the adverbial form of ‘supple’, ie flexible.
Whizzed through this, but took me ages to get 6 down. Very enjoyable solve throughout…
Me @ 5
…is meant…
New bluetooth keyboard isn’t as sensitive as the old one!
Simon S @ 7 Yes but my ears want to hear ‘supple in crate’ or ‘in crate supply’ (and as they’ve been at it a while they’re kind of fixed in their ways).
Good fun – teasing and twisting in a way Mondays have not been recently. I particularly enjoyed the cryptic definitions (“proportional representation” and “blender”, and the anagram for “officer”. Bravo, and thank you Orlando, and loonapick for the unpicking.
Anyone else get “okies” for 9a? (Oak – heartless – plus i.e.’s; defn: “right”) or have I been around teenagers for too long?
Thanks for the blog, loonapick. I agree with every word of your preamble, with the addition [there could have been more] of SINGLE-HANDED, ROLLERS, CARMELITES and the little gem, BRAE to your favourites – beautiful surfaces, all of them.
Many thanks, Orlando – I loved it.
Oh yes, ta Eileen for the reminder about brae, it had me thinking how many decades it is since I heard Ye Banks and Braes; I think about age 6 I played it on the fiddle, which has been in a cupboard almost as long.
great puzzle as per from Orlando. Loonapick I’m lovin’ your thematic intro!
Exactly what Eileen said – with many thanks to Orlando and Loonapick
Just finished Vlad 27881. Tired but happy.
like you, grantinfreo it’s many a year since I’ve heard Ye Banks and Braes. In those days I’d have got the tawse from the dominie if I’d defined brae as bank.
What all the above say. A Monday delight.
Entertaining Monday solve.
I particularly liked TRANSIENT, DEFERMENT, CHAMELEON, NOTEPADS and MOURNFUL.
Thanks Orlando and loonapick.
An very enjoyable stretch for me.
Thanks Simon S @ 5 – for I too wondered about supply…
Thanks Orlando and loonapick.
Monday fun: quite a quick solve with hardly any holdups, but some really enjoyable clues and neat misdirections. As loonapick says, plenty could have earned a tick, but SCALE MODEL for the definition, SINGLE HANDED for the anagram, CARMELITES for ‘Focus”, CHAMELEON for ‘blender’ and NOTEPADS for the plausibly placed anagram all earned a nod of appreciation. Nice one Orlando and thanks loonapick.
Agree with the prevailing sentiment here and wish we could see more of Orlando on Mondays. Thanks to Orlando and Loonapick.
I love nifty anagrams, and “Danish legend,” “card seen” “me + so-called” and “and “and poets” all made me grin. “Danish legend” was the star.
Lovely to see Orlando reminding us what a fine setter he has always been. A little tricky for a Monday perhaps but all very neat.
Thanks to Orlando and loonapick
This was a really fun and smart puzzle, with just the right level of difficulty imo.
I do have a small quibble with 25a, but I’m probably in a minority of one here. You just don’t say the midst of something to mean the central part of. Yes, both mean “middle” but that doesn’t mean they mean each other, the old “synonymy transitivity” trap.
Thanks both.
In spite of doing cryptics for over thirty years, could not parse 8d though I got the answer. Bravo Orlando.It was also my COD.
Thanks both,I
I somewhat agree with Dr WhatsOn @24. On reflection, that’s why it took me so long to get that clue. Not being a natural speller, I keep forgetting ‘chameleon’ begins with ‘CH’.
Nice one Orlando! 5 down my favourite. Carmelites was new to me, otherwise plain-sailing. Thanks Loonapick.
Thanks Orlando and Loonapick. A long time since I’ve seen an Orlando, so a pleasant surprise. Just about the right level of difficulty for a Monday too. All reasonably straightforward, RATEL the only word I don’t think I’ve seen before
Dr. WhatsOn @24 I baulked at that too – forgot to mention it with so many fine clues around but it did strike me as wrong at the time.
Dr. WhatsOn @24
This is the definition of ‘midst’ from Oxford:
NOUN
The middle part or point.
‘he left his flat in the midst of a rainstorm’
Doesn’t that work?
Robi @ 30
It’s supported by Chambers too: ‘noun: middle’, ’adverb: in the middle’. I think it would be right to query if ‘amidst’ had been used, but it wasn’t.
What a treat for a Monday. SCALE MODEL was my favourite too.
Thanks Orlando and loonapick.
A clarification to Robi and Simon S. The subtle point is that “middle” is used in practice in two ways, one meaning something like “somewhere within the boundaries of” and the other “bang slap in the centre of”. Midst aligns with the former. So if you had a police lineup of a bunch of individuals and were asked to pinpoint the perpetrator, and he was the central person, saying he was in the midst of the lineup would not convey that. (Maybe that’s why they’re all given numbers.)
We loved this one, a very fair and enjoyable puzzle.
But (testing the pedantic waters here) might we add that banks and braes are presumably different things judging by the traditional Scots ditty referencing ‘Ye banks and braes o’ bonny Doone . . .’ Many thanks to both setter and blogger.
Dr WhatsOn @ 33
As a linguist and former student of linguistics I suspect ‘midst’ is a contraction of ’middlemost’. Seems logical.
Just adding my appreciation to the long list! Thanks Orlando for a lovely set of clueing – most have already been mentioned, but my personal fave was GUILTLESS. I’d never heard of a ratel, and didn’t know a donkey could also be called a moke. So, educational, as well as fun. Thanks also to Loonapick for the blog.
Simon S @35 yes, that seems very reasonable, only OED says it’s not so: it comes from a phase meaning in the middle, which brings us full circle. So which meaning of in the middle does it give? It actually gives both, but says that the middle-point sense is obsolete, which leaves us with the meaning of interior, surrounded by.
Brilliant, I thought the surfaces and precision were worthy of Arachne! Got held up in the north east, especially with OSIER and CARMELITES – didn’t know the words but followed the instructions successfully.
Too many favourites to mention – many thanks Orlando
I enjoyed this puzzle. Not too easy and not too difficult.
I failed to solve 18a SMOKE SIGNALS, and could not parse 25ac DEFERMENT.
My favourites were KIMONO, CHAMELEON, MOURNFUL.
New for me, but fairly clued, were ASCENDER, OSIER.
Thanks Orlando and blogger.
I enjoyed that. My only niggle was that in 3d Carmelites are not friars, but monks. (An important distinction to a church historian!)
In 10a I like the fact that Trent is an essamly as well as a river, although I see that assembly is the anagrind.
Many thanks!
Ditto all the above – a joy of a puzzle. More Orlando please.
A lovely crossword, but only half completed. I found it tough for a Monday