Filbert provides our mental workout this morning: not the easiest puzzle for a Monday, but a fun challenge.
For some reason we have “pop diva” twice, both referring to the same lady; I’m not aware of a reason why she deserves special mention today, but I may be totally out of touch with celebrity culture. Or perhaps she just has a name that’s helpful to crossword compilers.
There are a few slightly strained definitions here, which caused a bit of a struggle, but I managed to work out everything except the almost incomprehensible 7d with its rather clumsy surface and tricky parsing. Plenty to enjoy though: I liked the undeniably logical surface of 15a, and laughed at 17d and 22d when I finally got them, but my favourite was the nicely-misleading 26a (with its echo in 2d). Thanks to Filbert for our daily entertainment.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | JACK-IN-THE-BOX | Stop watching TV that shocks the kids (4-2-3-3) |
| JACK IN (slang for “get rid of”) + THE BOX (slang for TV). Jack-in-the-box = a toy that surprises children. |
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| 9 | NAMED | Like Bill, Ben, Tom, Dick, Harry and me? (5) |
| Anagram (harry = to harass or destroy) of AND ME. | ||
| 10 | OVERSLEEP | Lee proves getting sacked is a bad way to avoid the early commute (9) |
| Anagram (getting sacked, in the sense of ransacked) of LEE PROVES. | ||
| 11 | POOLSIDE | Camp on bank next to the water (8) |
| SIDE (camp = a “side” in a disagreement) added to POOL (bank = a collection of resources). Both are somewhat tricky definitions but I think they work. | ||
| 12 | BEYOND | More than 500 following pop diva out of church (6) |
| D (Roman numeral for 500) following BEYON[ce] (pop diva) with the CE (Church of England) missing. | ||
| 13 | REFORMED | Grass skirts either sex modelled differently (8) |
| REED (a type of grass), around (skirting) F OR M (either female or male). | ||
| 15 | ABIDES | A book that is unfinished doesn’t come to an end (6) |
| A + B (book)+ ID ES[t] (i.e. = that is) with the last letter removed (unfinished). | ||
| 17 | CRAMPS | Periodic problem, stuff I forgot to mention (6) |
| CRAM (stuff, as a verb) + PS (postscript = I forgot to mention). I assume Filbert is referring to stomach cramps as a common menstrual problem. Not a subject usually covered in crosswords, but I don’t see why we shouldn’t treat it as a normal part of life. |
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| 18 | WOODWORK | Craft is likely to run on air (8) |
| Homophone (on air = on the radio) of WOULD WORK (is likely to run). | ||
| 20 | BETIDE | Happen to be coming in or going out? (6) |
| BE + TIDE (which comes in or goes out). Betide = happen to, as in “Woe betide anyone who . . . .” |
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| 21 | DOGMATIC | Highly principled old lady ambushed by cur and jerk (8) |
| MA (old lady = slang for mother) contained in (ambushed by) DOG (cur) + TIC (an involuntary twitch or jerk). | ||
| 24 | EMOTIONAL | Painful method usually employed to break off toenail (9) |
| MO (modus operandi = usual method of working), contained in (breaking) an anagram (off) of TOENAIL. | ||
| 25 | DRAMA | Play first shot? (5) |
| DRAM = shot = measure of drink. If the first one is DRAM A, the second would be DRAM B, and so on. | ||
| 26 | NEVERTHELESS | Still sorting out three sevens divided by fifty? (12) |
| Anagram (sorting out) of THREE SEVENS, with L (Roman numeral for fifty) dividing it. Easy enough if you can ignore the surface. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | JUNIPER | Evergreen youth takes exercise for nothing (7) |
| JUNI[o]R (youth), with the O (zero = nothing) replaced by PE (physical exercise). Evergreen tree, the source of berries from which gin is made. |
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| 2 | COMMON FRACTION | Maybe 21/50 cheap suit trousers fray, but not always (6,8) |
| COMMON (cheap = vulgar) + ACTION (suit, in a law court), containing (trousers, as a verb = pockets) FR[ay] (removing “ay” = old word for always). Common fraction = a number that can be expressed as one integer (whole number) divided by another. Filbert perhaps chose 21/50 because of the similarity to 26a (which suggests 3 x 7 / 50). |
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| 3 | INDUS | Try quitting business that’s banked in Asia (5) |
| INDUS[try], with TRY removed (quitting). The Indus River in Asia. A river has banks, so you could say it’s banked. That makes slightly more sense than calling it a “banker”, which seems to be common in crosswords. |
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| 4 | TWO-EDGED | Ironically cutting successive balls through the slips? (3-5) |
| In cricket, a ball is “edged” when it hits the edge of the bat, and often goes towards the slip fielders (or through the gap between them, if the batsman is lucky). Doing this on two successive balls could be described as TWO EDGED. A two-edged remark is one that can be interpreted in two different ways: apparently a compliment, but possibly intended as a cutting insult. My favourite example is “You would be lucky to get this employee working for you”, which suggests either an ideal employee or one who rarely does any work for anyone. |
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| 5 | EXES | Get upset about unknown people no longer with us (4) |
| SEE (get = understand), reversed (upset = upwards in a down clue), containing X (mathematical symbol for an unknown value). Exes as in ex-husbands, ex-girlfriends, or similar. |
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| 6 | OYSTER BED | A cold wet nursery deters boy playing (6,3) |
| Anagram (playing) of DETERS BOY. Nursery in the sense of “where baby oysters grow up”. |
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| 7 | SECOND MORTGAGE | To transfer extra, initially this restriction must be accepted (6,8) |
| I needed help with the parsing here: allegedly it’s SECOND (verb, with the stress on the second syllable = transfer, as in “on secondment”) + MORE (extra), containing (. . . must be accepted) the initial letter of T[his] + GAG (restriction, for example to stop journalists publishing a story). I’d never have got that. Clue-as-definition, though it seems a rather vague one in a clumsy sentence. |
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| 8 | SPADES | A black suit is useful kit for a burial (6) |
| Double definition: one of the two black suits (clubs and spades) in a deck of cards, or tools for digging. | ||
| 14 | RAPID FIRE | Barrage of questions Sally let go, keeping quiet (5,4) |
| RAID (sally = a sudden attack by troops) + FIRE (dismiss from employment = euphemistically “let go”), containing P (p = piano = musical term for quiet). | ||
| 16 | MONOGLOT | Old German in my French group only good at Spanish? (8) |
| O (old) + G (Chambers says this is an abbreviation for German, though there’s usually some grumbling here when it appears in a crossword), in MON (“my” in French) + LOT (group, as in a collection of items sold at auction). Monoglot = able to speak only one language. |
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| 17 | COBBER | Go out back visiting my mate in the outback (6) |
| EBB (go out), reversed (back), contained in (visiting) COR (cor! = my! = expressions of surprise). Cobber = Australian for “friend” = “mate in the (Australian) outback”. |
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| 19 | KICK-ASS | Like wearing boots? That’s great (4-3) |
| AS (like), inserted into (wearing) KICKS ( Kick-ass = great = slang terms of approval. |
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| 22 | MIDGE | Trouble in Scotland for one idiot heading north (5) |
| EG (for one = for example) + DIM (idiot, as an adjective = stupid), all reversed (heading north = upwards in a down clue). Small biting insect, common and annoying in Scotland (and in many other places). |
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| 23 | ONCE | Uniquely large rear end of pop diva (4) |
| Last part (rear end) of [bey]ONCE, the same pop diva that we saw in 12a. I’m not sure what “large” is doing there, except perhaps to indicate that we need more than half of the original word; but it works for the surface because Beyoncé is known for her curvy figure. Uniquely in the sense of “only once”. |
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I took the “large” in 23d as you did. In 19d, I took kicks/boots in the verbal sense.
7d also caused me problems. The “must be accepted” initially suggested “beyond question” but didn’t think Filbert would have crossing “beyond”s and it wouldn’t parse. I then latched onto “second” for transfer and “more” for extra and it then fell out.
Couldn’t parse 4d due to lack of cricket knowledge. Also used a word fit to get WOODWORK. Never thought of “on air” for the the homophone indicator but probably should have.
Fantastic crossword. Thanks to Filbert and Quirister.
Hovis @1 – thanks, of course you’re right about boots in 19d: I’m not sure why I couldn’t see that. I’ve corrected the blog.
Not being a member of the “nice, gentle start to the week” club I enjoyed this hugely – not as hard as Filbert can be I thought, but still a good test. There must be a reason for the encore for Ms Knowles, as there must be a reason for 21/50 appearing twice too.
many thanks to S&B
Not quite what we expect as the gentle start to the week, but I enjoyed the challenge. I had no idea at all about the parsing for SECOND MORTGAGE and POOLSIDE and semi-parsed a few more. I missed out on 22d, not seeing ‘idiot’ as an adjective, so entered “mudge”, which I see now fits the def at least. liked COBBER and DRAM A for ‘first shot’.
Thanks to Filbert and to Quirister for sorting out this toughie.
This was nowhere near as “gentle” as Vulcan in the Graun-and it was not in the least bit boring.I liked JUNIPER I didnt like “highly principled””for DOGMATIC but the wordplay was clear. wasnt bonkers about MIDGE or DRAMA but overall very welcome on a Monday.
Thanks Filbert and Quirister for an excellent blog
Goodness, I struggled with this. I had to give up in the end with half a dozen solutions not entered. Bad hair day? Maybe.
There surely must be a theme or nina which has meant that the puzzle has appeared today.
Thanks to setter and blogger (especially Quirister for sorting it all out for us).
Hello, thanks to Quirister for the blog and everyone who has commented.
There’s nothing going on today, promise, the puzzle’s been hanging around for a couple of years. The common fraction 21/50 is only there because NEVERTHELESS was one of the first grid entries and its clue rather cried out for a counterpart. The BEYOND/ONCE combo was just a coincidence, but I think she deserves any encores.
7d, oh dear, I was quite pleased with it. Clunk, the sound of a lead balloon.
As always Filbert has made one think. And how well they have done so. Some quite brilliant clues here, but there always seem to be. I was repeatedly cheating and saying I’d never have got that, that wasn’t much good, and then saying well OK perhaps and then saying how clever.
But does two-edged mean ironically cutting, and does it really mean that a batsman has had two edges?
Thanks to Quirister and Filbert
My first thought at 9a was, dwarf? surely not! – it would have to be dwarfs.
20a I took the ? as a recognition that the wordplay strictly gives “betidal”
7d I liked this, made easier by “transfer” = “second” in a Serpent the other day
14d the only def I wasn’t too keen on – “questions” seems superfluous
Very good
John @8: well, it depends on how you understand “ironic”, a word that’s used to mean many different things. But one of its original meanings is implying the opposite of what’s actually said, so this works for a two-edged remark (which sounds like a compliment but is actually a cutting insult). “Two-edged” doesn’t work in the cricket sense, but “two edged” without the hyphen could be short for “two balls edged”; the punctuation isn’t relevant in the wordplay, only in the definition.
Not as bad as Saturday, but I still only managed less than half. My brain hurts.
Fabulous puzzle.