A fun solve, and I was held up in places with an unusual grid and a few less familiar words. Favourites 1ac, 14ac, and 25ac. Thanks to Chifonie for the puzzle.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ORCHARD | It produces fruit or veg (7) |
| OR + CHARD=”veg” | ||
| 5 | LIMPOPO | Go off in posh car for the river (7) |
| POP=”Go off” inside LIMO=”posh car” | ||
| 10 | TAIL | Tory leader has pain in bum (4) |
| T[ory] + AIL=”has pain” | ||
| 11 | SCHIPPERKE | Dog for lively king in Kent? (10) |
| =a small breed of dog CHIPPER=”lively” + K (king); all inside SE=South East=”Kent?” |
||
| 12 | LIFT | Cancel raise (4) |
| =revoke e.g. a ban=”Cancel”; also =elevate, “raise” | ||
| 13 | AMICABLE | In the morning one guy is good-natured (8) |
| AM=”in the morning” + I=”one” + CABLE=”guy” as in a tent’s guy ropes | ||
| 14 | DEATH TRAP | Crumbling path rated a highly dangerous place to be (5,4) |
| (path rated)* | ||
| 16 | STATE | Condition of the country (5) |
| double definition | ||
| 17 | SOFIA | One sinks into seat? That’s capital! (5) |
| =capital of Bulgaria I=”One” inside SOFA=”seat” |
||
| 19 | ADUMBRATE | Predict a stupid charge (9) |
| =foreshadow A + DUMB=”stupid” + RATE=price, “charge” |
||
| 23 | PANORAMA | Prospect for gold in the country (8) |
| =an overview of a landscape OR=heraldic term for “gold”; inside PANAMA=”country” |
||
| 24 | FAST | Closed rapidly (4) |
| double definition | ||
| 25 | CONTRACTOR | Undertaker is caught working farm machinery (10) |
| =as in someone undertaking a task C (caught in cricket) + ON=”working” + TRACTOR=”farm machinery” |
||
| 26 | RAPT | Informer keeps president absorbed (4) |
| RAT=”Informer” around P (president) | ||
| 27 | SLIPWAY | Indiscretion needs a course of action in the shipyard (7) |
| =a pier in a shipyard SLIP=”Indiscretion” + WAY=”course of action” |
||
| 28 | CANTATA | Tory gets an informal farewell in musical form (7) |
| C (Conservative)=”Tory” + AN + TATA=”informal farewell” | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | REALISE | Become aware that lies are untrue (7) |
| (lies are)* | ||
| 3 | HOLST | Landlord accommodates student composer (5) |
| HOST=”Landlord” around L (Learner)=”student” | ||
| 4 | RESPECT | Good opinion of physical training college during recess (7) |
| PE (Physical Education)=”physical training” + C (college); all inside REST=”recess” | ||
| 6 | IMPAIR | Harm one married couple (6) |
| I=”one” + M (married) + PAIR=”couple” | ||
| 7 | POETASTER | Writer gets sample for versifier (9) |
| =a mediocre poet [Edgar Allen] POE=”Writer” + TASTER=”sample” |
||
| 8 | PIKELET | Crumpet found in fish bar (7) |
| =a kind of crumpet or muffin PIKE=”fish” + LET=hinder, prevent=”bar” |
||
| 9 | CHEAP AND NASTY | Dicky hadn’t any space for the second-rate (5,3,5) |
| (hadn’t any space)* | ||
| 15 | THIN ON TOP | Slim and winning but too late to keep one’s hair on (4,2,3) |
| THIN=”Slim” + ON TOP=”winning” | ||
| 18 | ON A ROLL | Continued good luck when riding a cycle (2,1,4) |
| ON A ROLL could also decribe “riding a cycle” | ||
| 20 | MALARIA | Girl touring US city gets disease (7) |
| MARIA=”Girl” around LA (Los Angeles)=”US city” | ||
| 21 | TOSSPOT | Kitty supports shy drunkard (7) |
| POT [of money]=”Kitty”; after TOSS=throw=”shy” | ||
| 22 | CANADA | Jail a lawyer in North America (6) |
| CAN=”Jail” + A + DA (District Attorney)=”lawyer” | ||
| 24 | FIRST | Trees take time to become predominant (5) |
| FIRS=”Trees” + T (time) | ||
Yes, just right. Never heard of the dog though.
Interesting for a Monday – quite a few odd words. I love “adumbrate” which I often cite as one of the words derived from the Latin “umbra” meaning a shadow. We also have “umbra”, “penumbra” and “umbrella” of course. “tosspot” was a surprise – I had not known its meaning, just that it was an insult. A good mediaeval one, which I shall enjoy using more appropriately from now on. “pikelet” was fun too – the wonderful word “let” which is an autoantonym. “Her Britannic Majesty…without let or hindrance” is probably the most well known use in this context.
“ail” for “has pain” threw me as it should be “ails”, but then I thought of “ail” as a verb (as in “what ails you?” meaning “what pains you?”) and decided it worked ok.
Thank you Chifonie – a nice wake up on a very frosty morning, and manehi for blogging it. A gentle start to the week and even Alex Bellos’s puzzles were pretty simple today.
A fairly rapid solve for me today, though I had to cheat on SCHIPPERKE. I couldn’t even see its explanation, so thanks manehi and Chifonie
Yes, agree with all the above. Bit more head scratching than usual for a Monday. LOI was LIFT as I struggled to see Cancel as an alternative meaning.
Does is ever happen for you that the puzzle is just right and so is the blog, so there is no need to say anything? Me neither.
The grid’s a bit unfair, imo. Crossers (?) should comprise at least half the total letters. 14, 19 and 16, 17 ac have 4/9 and 2/5 crosser ratios respectively.
Held up for a bit as I wanted to use RR for the posh car and couldn’t think of any rivers that fitted the bill. As usual needed google for the breed of dog, which of course I’d never heard of. Agree with TheZed@2 that it’s good to see adumbrate get a spot. At least all the parsings were clear. Thanks to Manehi and Chifonie.
Ha ha Dr. WhatsOn! Indeed.
Ditto TheZed re ail and pedro re the dog– a ‘do what it says’. Last few a bit slow…panorama and Sofia easy, the dog and poetaster (remembered from cws) a bit slower. Lift as cancel is unusual, good! All fun, thanks both.
I enjoyed the TILTs – 11a SCHIPPERKE and 19a ADUMBRATE, both aforementioned. Like manehi, I appreciated 25a CONTRACTOR. I also ticked 9d CHEAP AND NASTY.
Thanks very much to Chifonie and manehi.
Thanks Chifonie and manehi
Nice solve, though I too needed a wordsearch for the dog. Lots to like, but LIMPOPO (“great grey green greasy, all set about with fever trees”) was favourite. (I saw fever trees in South Africa – they can be enormous!)
Of course, I didn’t like the “in” in 8d, even though it’s a muffin!
Could I recommened Matilda’s Quiptic – a sheer delight from beginning to end 🙂
Rapid but nonetheless enjoyable solve with some smooth anagrams (CHEAP AND NASTY, DEATH TRAP etc)
Held up at PANORAMA as was hung up on PAN = “prospect for gold”. If this was the intentional misdirect, it was rather clever.
Many thanks, both, nice week, all.
I hadn’t heard of the dog either, though I did know ADUMBRATE and PIKELET.
I remember being very disappointed when I finally saw the Limpopo, because it wasn’t great, nor grey, nor green nor greasy. There were a few trees nearby, but I don’t think they were fever trees. Mind you, I could have been in the wrong stretch of the river….
Thanks to Chifonie for a fun solve, and to Manehi for the blog.
How much is that doggie in the crossword?
December finally arrives. Nearly sailed through. Dogs do have the best names. Had TOSSPOT early but hesitated till the crossers went in and bottom half was all in whilst the pure white of the top half yielded slowly. Failed the dog and ludicrously convinced myself a PENTASTER was some sort of cultural artist. Never tasted one yet that did me any good. So just wanted to say it’s so rare I’m finished anytime before mid evening so all commenting by me superficicial as it’s all been said. And December, yes a year now I’ve come here to read the comments and the help it’s given me is immeasurable…mondegreens indeed (TILTY) plus the fabulous puzzles. I’d returned after a fifty year lay off (such changes) having loved themed puzzles. I’ll pop in from time to time but for now thanks all and Chifonie and Manehi today.
Dr WhatsOn @5 totally with you on that one.
Hard for a Monday? I thought so at first, but after some crossers were in, it fell like a house of cards.
Lots of TILTs (or should that be TsILT?) – the Flemish dog, the derivation of tosspot, for example – for which I am always grateful.
Thanks to Chifonie for taking us a little out of our Monday comfort zone, and of course to manehi for a fine blog.
Just enough of a challenge for a Monday. Like others, I had to go to an alphabetical listing of dog breeds, helped by having the initial crossing ‘s’. I knew the river only from the children’s book and ADUMBRATE only from a previous trip to crosswordland. As usual with Chifonie, all was clear in retrospect, so thanks to him and also to manehi.
Schipperke and Poetaster seem a bit obscure for a Monday, but there were also a couple I should have got and didn’t.
Thanks both,
I needed google to give me the last bit of the dog. In some parts of the country a pikelet is a muffin rather than a crumpet so I expected fierce debate here. I come from Lincolnshire, where pikelets were definitely crumpets and muffins, English or American, virtually unknown.
howard@18 I reckon Monday itself is bit obscure as a concept
Lovely crossword today – thanks to Chifonie and to Manehi for the blog. Incidentally, Chifonie has a very nice cryptic (under his Armonie alias) in today’s FT as well.
Enjoyable puzzle and, like TheZed@2, I think it’s nice to see ADUMBRATE making an appearance. But I don’t think it means ‘predict’ exactly. More ‘sketch out’. But no quibble otherwise, and I keep hoping that my favourite obscure words – congeries and amphictyony – will appear in a clue or as an answer!
Many thanks to Chifonie and manehi.
Wellbeck @13: When I saw the Limpopo (in the dry season) it was just about empty and consisted of extensive sandbanks across which herds of cattle and families of elephants were crossing from South Africa to Zimbabwe and back. But it did have fever trees along the bank.
Thanks for the explanation of SCHIPPERKE, which like everyone else I didn’t know.
I had no idea there was a dog called SCHIPPERKE and it seems I wasn’t alone. I did know ADUMBRATE and TOSSPOT – although the latter seems to have changed its meaning over the years and is used in the same way as “tosser” is. More to get ones teeth in than is usual for a Monday but none the worse for that!
Thanks Chifonie.
Our blogger manehi mentioned already the ‘unusual grid’ and after that only rohanm @6 said a bit more about it.
I am someone who takes grids as they come and do not tend to complain.
Yet, I am somewhat surprised that this one is acceptable for The Guardian.
There are 11 answers (out of 29, so over a third!) that have less than 50% checking.
The four that rohanm mentions but also 6 more seven letter entries and the long one at 9d.
And, on top of that, there are two down clues (4d and 20d) that are not only less than half checked but also have three unchecked letters in a row. Three!!
Yes, manehi, ‘an unusual grid’ indeed.
Enjoyable, as I usually find Chifonie, and thanks to manehi.
I’m with Irishman @22. I think “predict” is stretching it as a definition of ADUMBRATE. A quick scan of the Google entries does give “foreshadow” which isn’t quite the same.
Chambers eThesaurus gives both PREDICT and ADUMBRATE as synonyms for BODE, so there is some support for it.I know it’s the A = B, B = C, ergo A = C thing, but there you go.
25a I think CONTRACTOR is C + ON TRACTOR. If you’re on a tractor you’re working farm machinery.
Never heard of PIKELET, but I found a recipe for them online. Maybe I’ll make some.
Ail for has pain is not okay with me.
It never occurred to me as a child (or since) that fever trees were real, I thought Kipling made them up to make the great greasy etc sound more frightening. What do you know, they’re real and rather likable, it seems.
Pleasant puzzle. thanks Chifonie and manehi.
Sorry about that great yawning gulf. Didn’t know what I was doing with the return key.
I sailed along enjoying it (mostly) until I ran aground in the SE corner. Well, putting in TANTARA @ 28ac would tend throw me trying to put TOSSPOT in.
Greatly disappointed that the dog didn’t turn out to be Schnorbitz. 🙂
Fun puzzle.
sorry – still quite new here – what does TILT stand for?
really enjoy this site, the clever bloggers and all your comments, so thanks!
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