A gentle start to he week from Vulcan.
This would be an ideal puzzle for beginners. with no great general knowledge or difficult vocabulary required, and a good range of devices used.
Thanks, Vulcan.
| Across | ||
| 1 | BUCKRAM | Stiff material to resist something battering (7) |
| BUCK (“to resist”) + RAM (“something battering”) | ||
| 5 | HABITAT | In Panama, say, a little place where I live (7) |
| in HAT (“panama, perhaps”) A BIT (“a little”) | ||
| 9 | MOP UP | Dispose of bushy hair — revolting! (3,2) |
| MOP (“budhy hair”) + UP (“revolting”) | ||
| 10 | NEW YORKER | Queens’ man‘s worry — knee being wrenched (3,6) |
| *(worry knee) [anag:being wretched] | ||
| 11 | STORE DETECTIVE | A stock Guardian figure? (5,9) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 13 | EELS | Feel sick, having eaten fish (4) |
| Hidden in [having eaten] “fEEL Sick” | ||
| 14 | WELL-TO-DO | Rich supply of water awaiting attention (4-2-2) |
| WELL (“supply of water”) + TO-DO (“awaiting attention”) | ||
| 17 | CRACKERS | Solvers are excellent people (8) |
| Double definition | ||
| 18 | ETON | Mark returns to school (4) |
| <=NOTE (“mark” returns) | ||
| 21 | PINS AND NEEDLES | Sensational items for dressmaker (4,3,7) |
| PINS AND NEEDLES, as well as being dressmakers’ items, is also a sensation. | ||
| 23 | EXTROVERT | Old dog in races is not inhibited (9) |
| EX (“old”) + ROVER (“dog”) in T.T. (Tourist Trophy “races”) | ||
| 24 | OTHER | Unmarried parent is not the same (5) |
| (m)OTHER (“parent”) without the M (married), so unmarried | ||
| 25 | SEXTANT | It beat time, a guide when one’s at sea (7) |
| SEX (“it”) + TAN (“beat”) + T (time) | ||
| 26 | ABSENCE | Can bees suffer want? (7) |
| *(can bees) [anag:suffer] | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BUMF | Paper initially backing up main files (4) |
| [initially] B(acking) U(p) M(ain) F(iles) | ||
| 2 | CAPITAL GAINS TAX | London, for example, wins one away from Uber — it reduces profits (7,5,3) |
| CAPITAL (“London, for example”) + GAINS (“wins”) + I (one) [away from] TAX(i) (“Uber”) | ||
| 3 | RUPERT | Man is rugby forward (6) |
| RU (“rugby” union) + PERT (“forward”) | ||
| 4 | MONODY | Sullen, introducing new poem of lament (6) |
| MOODY (“sullen”) introducing N (new) | ||
| 5 | HOWITZER | Say in what way it’s a gun (8) |
| Homophone [say] of HOW IT’S A (“in what way it’s a”) | ||
| 6 | BROCCOLI | Cabbage badger doesn’t finish; firm, large one (8) |
| BROC(k) (“badger” doesn’t finish) + Co. (company, so “firm”) + L (large) + I (one) | ||
| 7 | TAKE IT ON THE CHIN | Be brave, like an unfortunate boxer? (4,2,2,3,4) |
| An unfortunate boxer may “take it on the chin” | ||
| 8 | TORPEDOING | Got roped in to play, explosively ruining it? (10) |
| *(get roped in) [anag:to play] | ||
| 12 | BENCH PRESS | Magistrates and newspapers in strenuous exercise (5,5) |
| BENCH (“magistrates”) + PRESS (“newspapers”) | ||
| 15 | OKLAHOMA | In brief, fine state of musical theatre (8) |
| In brief, the state of “Oklahoma” is Ok (“fine”) and Oklahoma! is the name of a musical. | ||
| 16 | GRADIENT | Carelessly treading slope (8) |
| *(treading) [anag:carelessly] | ||
| 19 | BERTHA | Somewhere to sleep with a girl (6) |
| BERTH (“somewhere to sleep”) with A | ||
| 20 | ADD-ONS | Notice academics make extra charges (3-3) |
| AD (“notice”) + DONS (“academics”) | ||
| 22 | FREE | Liberal toff re-elected, with many abstentions (4) |
| Hidden in “tofF RE-Elected” [with many abstentions] | ||
*anagram
I just couldn’t get BERTHA so thought I had better get on with the rest of my life! But a good Monday puzzle from Vulcan. Many thanks to him and loonapick.
Thank you, loonapick. It’s a pleasure to see this setter finding his style, now. This puzzle feels somewhat Rufusian and I mean that as a compliment.
Trivial point but you have a typo in 9a. On which subject, I was not particularly enamoured with UP = “revolting” but the answer yields readily enough so only a minor quiblet.
Is OKLAHOMA the only musical with an exclamation mark? Hmm.
Many thanks, Vulcan, more please.
I failed to parse a few (oklahoma, bumf), but a few nice surfaces e.g. Rupert. At least Vulcan doesn’t seem to overuse cryptic definitions like Rufus tended to.
Straightforward and over a little too quickly as one expects from Vulcan on a Monday but I agree with William @2 that there were a number of neat clues in here and, yes, Vulcan is cementing his place as Rufus’s regular replacement. (BTW, ‘up’ is OK for ‘revolting’ as in ‘up in arms’. I’ve seen it used in this way on a number of past occasions). A couple of newish words: I feel I have come across MONODY before but can’t pretend I know it and same applies to BUCKRAM though each were solvable from the wordplay.
I liked PINS AND NEEDLES, GRADIENT and NEW YORKER with the simple misdirect. TORPEDOING is an ugly word but a nice anagram, HOWITZER is clever and, for once, I rather liked ‘It’ appearing in SEXTANT. BUMF deserves a mention: sometimes the initial letters device leads to contrived wordplay but this 9short) one worked well. COTD for me is EXTROVERT with a lovely surface.
Thanks Vulcan and for loonapick for the blog
William: Oliver! also has an exclamation mark. Lionel Bart later wrote an unsuccessful show about Robin Hood called Twang!!, with two.
William @2. Not quite. There’s also HONK! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honk!
Thanks Vulcan and loonapick
Someone has to be the first to say it – easier than the Quiptic! I too liked RUPERT.
And, come to think of it, OLIVER!
And Lionel Bart’s failure, TWANG!!, has two.
Andrew & Rog @5 & 6: Oliver! Twang!! & Honk!. My goodness! Thanks, chaps.
A little more research reveals that there have been dozens. See here.
I enjoyed this and Vulcan seemed a bit more playful than usual? Sassy cluing for PINS & NEEDLES and OTHER. I didn’t know MONODY but it sounded so plausible I went with it. EELS was my COD for reminding me of this madness from the Mighty Boosh. Don’t have nightmares!
A very pleasant solve. A nice start, with 1a reminding me of Falstaff’s rogues in BUCKRAM. “It” meaning sex at 25a was made easier by this being discussed in the Everyman blog yesterday. And I agree that 3d RUPERT was very good. 10a NEW YORKER could perhaps have done with an indication that it’s a definition by example (*Maybe Queens’ man…”) but that is a very minor quibble.
Many thanks Vulcan and loonapick.
William et al: but is Westward Ho! the only UK place name with an exclamation mark?.
Agree with those who thought this was Rufusian- and all the better for that.
Thanks V and l.
Oftren wondered where the word came from, and after all these years I have suddenly realised (confirmed by Chambers) that bumf was abbreviated from bum fodder!
I thought this an excellent example of its kind. Gentle, yes, but not without wit or precision. I thought “store detective” a super cryptic definition as I saw right away what sort of thing it might be but was mislead into thinking about stock = cattle and guard dogs, cowboys etc. “monody” was another great clue – a word unknown to many but clearly clued so I (for one) could “guess and test” with confidence.
Many thanks Vulcan, and Loonapick for the blog. I wish it had taken longer as I have to get back to the sanding and painting!
Sorry, Andrew @5 – for some reason yours wasn’t visible when I posted 8 and 9, which now look a bit odd in context. For some reason I remembered Honk! before the more obvious Oliver! and the more notorious Twang!!
A pleasingly gentle start to the week – all the more so for being the only “normal” aspect to Mondays at the moment. I enjoyed EXTROVERT and HOWITZER – and drofle, if it helps, it took me an age to see BERTHA.
As for exclamation marks: I was just about to mention Westward Ho! – but cholecyst beat me to it! I suspect it is indeed the only place with one in its name…and, lacking anything better to do today, I’m now off to look for other locations with punctuation (apostrophes not included). Big thanks to Vulcan and loonapick
Elegant but didn’t take long.
Monody, like threnody, is in that dusty store of words I vaguely know but have never felt the need to use.
Thanks V&L.
Mondays might mean my mind may meander minus my (aide) memoires (i.e. without looking anything up) – and so it was today… (Though I am not sure if Chambers could be described exactly as an aide memoire – although it certainly aids my memory, which I am worried is starting to fade.)
Thanks to Vulcan and loonapick.
I liked 10a NEW YORKER, 11a STORE DETECTIVE, 14a WELL-TO-DO, 17a CRACKERS (which I think I am sometimes!), 21a PINS AND NEEDLES, and 12d BENCH PRESS – they all raised a little smile as I solved them. (Some afore-mentioned by others.) I also ticked 4d MONODY, which I knew from my studies in funeral celebrancy.
Why did I think, prior to this, that it was BUMPF?
In the end I quite liked RUPERT at 3d and BERTHA at 19d, even though I usually dislike the use of names in puzzles. I also have enjoyed reading the exclamation mark discussion on the blog so far!!!
I thought this was a fine puzzle and a step forward from Vulcan. NEW YORKER and HOWITZER were great fun.
Even for me, a mediocre solver, this was over quickly but it was fun and beautifully crafted.
Favourites were, STORE DETECTIVE, a very Rufus-like clue, PINS AND NEEDLES ditto, and HOWITZER. Many thanks Vulcan and loonapick, for confirming the parsing of RUPERT which held me up for a bit!
blaise@14
I bow to Chambers’ better knowledge, but I have always understood that ‘bumf’ was an abbreviation of ‘bum for the use of’, signifying the only sensible function for excessive paperwork.
Wellbeck @17 Would you include Colon in Panama?
I’ll join in the praise for this – Vulcan on top form. I got to 18a before entering anything! TheZed@a few above summed it up very well – and I also went down the animal stock route to begin with. Unusually for a Monday I had many ticks all of which have been mentioned, with my cod going to HOWITZER with SEXTANT a close second. If this was easier than the quiptic as muffin says then I’ll have to save it for lunchtime. Many thanks to Vulcan and loonapick.
A nice MONODY puzzle. If you knew the word, it would have been a write-in (but I didn’t, so some GK needed after all.)
I liked MOP UP – a bit Paulian I thought, and of course the fact that SOLVERS are excellent people.
Thanks Vulcan and loonapick
With 3 left to go (12d, 17a, 25a) I tried to be too clever and with 2 X-es and a Z in the grid I started looking for ways to fit a Q and a J in to complete the pangram. But once BENCH PRESS fit I realised I was barking up the wrong tree.
Very fond of the clues (and misdirection in the definitions) for OKLAHOMA and NEW YORKER.
I think 21a could do with a question mark or a “perhaps/maybe” – obviously such a long multi-word answer becomes pretty clear, pretty quickly, but the clue gives no indication that it’s neither a straightforward cryptic definition nor a definition+wordplay which I think deserves a little nod from the setter.
Another occasion to mention that there is a US meaning of an answer word that might be unknown to UK residents. CRACKERS can be a derogatory word for poor white people in some Southern states – quite the opposite of the intent in the clue!
Well spotted DrW @27 and CRACKERS also means nuts/bonkers in the UK which is probably true of most of us at this point in time
[Mark at 23: that’s brilliant! And tbh, rather better than the two I’ve found so far. Well, make that one-and-a-half.
The half is Hamilton! Ohio: an exclamation mark was added in the 80s to as a publicity-generator, but it obviously didn’t work very well as most people seem to have forgotten about it.
However, to make up for that, there’s a place in Quebec which rejoices in two exclamation marks: Saint-Louis-du-Ha!-Ha!. Hooray for them…]
(For anyone wanting more puzzlement today, I would recommend the Quiptic if you haven’t already done it. As muffin says @7 it’s harder than than this one. It seems to have divided opinion a bit but I thought it was great.)
Wellbeck @29 don’t do yourself down. I agree the publicity stunt is a no-no but the Canadian example is a beaut and will go into my store of odd facts that may be useful in a quiz. Sadly, given failing memory that probably means it’ll displace something else that I’ll really need…
[For others as dumb as me –
thinking this Friday’s VE Bank Holiday to be an ‘add-on’ rather than an ‘instead of’ and so hoping for a special puzzle today – may I suggest a worthwhile diversion. Araucaria’s 25,724 (August Bank Holiday 2012) is a joy – in just the right ‘goldilocks’ zone. Not one of his easiest, so no disappointment for our more seasoned solvers. Equally, not one of his toughest- and it doesn’t rely on rarefied theological or classical knowledge; the small amount of research is enjoyable. But it’s studded with some typically masterful clueing and I’m sure many of the 15² regulars will find it a joyful way to pass an hour.]
To add to the exclamation mark discussion, is the Volkswagen Up! the only vehicle thus suffixed?
Thanks to Vulcan and loonapick. I have nothing to add to the !!! discussion but it brought to mind an anecdote I heard long ago about a would-be actor from Eastern Europe who came to New York to improve his craft and also his English. He thought he was doing well until he saw the headline in Variety: “OKLAHOMA Spells Success.” He went home.
Could there be a Boris Johnson theme here? He is a NEW YORKER, he has a MOP UP top (no comment on if he is revolting), he went to ETON, is WELL-TO-DO, is an uninhibited EXTROVERT, his OTHER half has just become an unmarried parent. I hesitate to mention CRACKERS in this connection – maybe I am. Any views?
And did anyone find TAKE IT ON THE CHIN too literal. It is exactly what the metaphor means – nothing cryptic about it.
Dr WhatsOn @ 27: CRACKERS can also be used in UK slang as an abbreviation of “undercrackers”, meaning “underpants”, as used in a relatively recent Guy Martin TV programme.
Thanks, Vulcan. This was easy until it wasn’t — I got mired in the NW corner and had to use a word finder to get both BUCKRAM and MONODY, both new words for me; I never did get RUPERT. HABITAT and NEW YORKER were my favorites. Thanks Loonapick for parsing, esp. OKLAHOMA!
I didn’t think this was all easy going. I wrote in 7d and then 21a and a few of their crossers and then stuck. I never did get RUPERT having written in an unparsed REPORT. Hadn’t heard of MONODY or BENCH PRESS but worked them out.
sjshart @35 Agree with you about Take It On The Chin. One of those where the word count and the appearance of ‘boxer’ lead to an immediately obvious conclusion.
I agree that Vulcan is getting better although I took a while to get started on the puzzle. Delayed by BENCH PRESS- which reminds me I’m missing my visits to the gym- and BERTHA- which was LOI.
It took some. time to see that PINS AND NEEDLES was “sensational” I’m ashamed to say.
But I must away:it’s about the time when a cabinet minister comes to the podium to lie to us!
Thanks Vulcan
“Cases of buckram” from Henry IV (1) is one of those phrases that stick from school. Monody, otoh, is a prior cw acquaintance, not as deeply etched, so needed all crossers. Some fun surfaces from Vulcan today: 21a, 25a and 5d. Thanks both. 15 squared was down most of today.
Worked my way through it eventually. Very satisfying – though didn’t get Ruoert – couldn’t get prop (rugby forward) out of my mind. Had to look up Monody – new to me.
Enjoyed sextant, extrovert and especially New Yorker once I had realised the significance of the apostrophe in Queens’ . Than you Vulcan – look forward to the next one.
Nice, gentle puzzle (except for BUMF, which was a new word to me – is it common British usage?). The entire right half was a rapid write-in for me, but the left side took a little longer. And strangely enough Oklahoma was my LOI (of course, not counting bumf, which I didn’t get at all).
As an aside – and maybe it’s only me – I really don’t like clues that lead to answers that are random substitutes for he/she, man/woman, boy/girl etc. (like Rupert and Bertha).
J in A @19 and Jay in P @43
BUMF is a word I associate above all with my English teacher from 40 years ago. We even had a Bumf Folder to stick all the sheets he used to hand out.
Since then I’ve heard others use it, but not that commonly.
J in A: It’s actually extremely difficult to say BUMF without pronouncing it BUMPF. In fact I can’t recall anyone doing it, but if you really want to, you have to consciously linger over the ‘mmm’ while you get your upper teeth ready to rest on your lower lip, so that the moment you open your mouth the teeth can slide into the position vacated by the upper lip – in one seamless manoeuvre. If you open your lips a moment too soon the plosive P comes out.
I suspect a similar spelling issue would arise with OOMPH – were it not for the fact that the F sound is indicated by PH, and OOMPPH would look a bit odd!
Incidentally, something similar may explain how Hampton, as in Southampton, then Hampshire came to be (the original was Hamtun).
Thanks to V & L – I’ll join in the praise for STORE DETECTIVE – lovely clue.
It’s a bit demoralizing to see everyone saying how easy this was, when I didn’t find it so. I guess I was just having a bad day.
I’m sure I’ve seen the word BUMF before, but I couldn’t call it to mind, so a DNF for me, although of course I should have got the answer from the wordplay. I was also stuck in the SW for a while, although looking back over the clues that gave me trouble I can’t really see why.
Getting back to the theatre, there’s Oh! Calcutta! with a double.
ACD@34. Then there was the other foreign student who thought he was slowly getting the hang of English as she is spoke until he saw a newpaper placard reading “HAMLET PRONOUNCED SUCCESS”. He shot himself.
I see no one else has complained about CRACKERS so it’s just me. But I couldn’t believe it was the solution until I had all the crossing letters. To me, it doesn’t mean ‘excellent people’. Chambers says ‘something exceptionally good or fine of its type’ – someTHING, not someONE. Ah well, language evolves and all that. Enjoyable solve nonetheless.
I disagree that “This would be an ideal puzzle for beginners. with no great general knowledge or difficult vocabulary required.” I am not a beginner, but I failed to solve BUMF (never heard if it), and 11a – the STORE bit of the solution. I could not parse OKLAHOMA.
Thanks B+S
Shame that extravert was misspelt.
Jeremy Marchant – it isn’t – both are acceptable, and “extrovert” is more common, I believe.
More plays of note!
Hello Dolly!
Finished it without knowing the word ‘monody’. I’ve always (but not often) spelt ‘bumf’ with a ph, i.e. ‘phumf’. Joking aside, the ‘bumf’ spelling had more google hits – so a more common alternative spelling. I wouldn’t say that ‘extravert’ (see 51) is an alternative spelling. It looks wrong and I’ll never use it! On that bombshell…