I found this a bit harder than usual for a Vulcan, perhaps because of the large number double and cryptic definitions – some of the latter rather vague, I thought. Thanks to Vulcan.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | HOLIDAY | Time off is sacred — I had a break (7) I’D A “breaking in” to HOLY |
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| 5 | WHISKER | One beats by a very short distance (7) Double definition – a whisk-er could be one who beats [cream, eggs etc] |
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| 10 | BIRD | Perhaps hawk‘s attempt to catch rook (4) R in BID |
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| 11 | REAL TENNIS | Gamely implying lawn is inferior? (4,6) Cryptic-ish definition. The “real” in the name of this game is sometimes assumed to mean “royal”, but in fact it means “genuine”, to distinguish it from the newer Lawn Tennis |
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| 12 | PALACE | Site around area in Kensington, for one (6) A in PLACE |
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| 13 | AVERAGES | Do only mediocre cricketers have these? (8) Cryptic definition – cricketers have batting and bowling averages, and “average” can also mean “mediocre” |
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| 14 | FIVE-A-SIDE | Odd cardinal has funny ideas for a game (4-1-4) FIVE (an odd cardinal number) + IDEAS* |
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| 16 | POTTY | Stupid to put toddlers on this? (5) Double definition |
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| 17 | ELVES | Fairies showing personalities? Not at first (5) [S]ELVES |
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| 19 | REFERENCE | Character that directs one elsewhere (9) Double definition – “character” as in a reference given for a job etc |
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| 23 | SCARIEST | Most worrying tooth decay, in a way (8) CARIES (tooth decay) in ST (street, way) |
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| 24 | FASTER | One should not eat more quickly (6) Double definition |
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| 26 | AUCTIONEER | He sells at a knock-down price (10) Cryptic definition |
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| 27 | AXIS | A throw of the dice rejected in centre of revolution (4) A + reverse of SIX (possible throw of dice) |
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| 28 | VERDANT | Vegan at first madly ardent to be green (7) V[egan] + ARDENT |
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| 29 | PEANUTS | Trifling sum for strip (7) Double definition |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 2 | ORIGAMI | Paperwork finished without tears (7) Cryptic definition – origami involves folding paper, but tearing is frowned upon |
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| 3 | INDIA | Help province up country (5) Reverse of AID + NI (Northern Ireland) |
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| 4 | AIRLESS | Stuffy serials need rewriting (7) SERIALS* |
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| 6 | HIT MEN | Assassins who spare women? (3,3) Double/cryptic definition |
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| 7 | SINGAPORE | Give voice with opera cast in Asian city (9) SING + OPERA* |
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| 8 | EXIGENT | Demanding to take dope during leave (7) GEN (information, dope) in EXIT |
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| 9 | TAR AND FEATHER | After rant, head arranged to punish humiliatingly (3,3,7) (AFTER RANT HEAD)* |
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| 15 | EXECRATED | Hated former editor keeping old car (9) CRATE (old car) in EX ED |
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| 18 | LECTURE | In talk, entice to accept shocking treatment (7) ECT (electro-convulsive therapy) in LURE (entice) |
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| 20 | ENFORCE | Compel men to go through broken fence (7) OR (Other Ranks, men) in FENCE* |
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| 21 | CHEMIST | Revolutionary spray dispenser (7) CHE [Guevara] + MIST |
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| 22 | BEMOAN | Lament hit on head, calling in doctor (6) MO (Medical Officer) in BEAN (to hit on the head) |
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| 25 | SPAIN | Take a turn round a kingdom (5) A in SPIN |
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Thanks Vulcan for a suitable Monday crossword and Andrew for the very timely blog. I failed on REFERENCE so DNF. But enjoyed the journey.
Fun challenge. Solved the NE corner last.
Favourites: ORIGAMI, AXIS, HIT MEN (haha); SINGAPORE.
New for me today: FIVE-A-SIDE (soccer game).
Thanks, Vulcan and Andrew.
I wonder how many of us will have either struggled with REFERENCE or entered it without confidence. Given the vagueness of the definitions – and, whilst there is certainly such a thing as a ‘character reference’, I don’t think it means the words are synonyms – it seems to me that both REVERENCE and DEFERENCE could have been arguable cryptic solutions. I’m also not convinced of fairies = ELVES unless one is firmly at the twee end of fantasy. ORIGAMI was solvable with the crossers; I doubt I’d have had such confidence in entering it without them.
Otherwise, a straightforward Monday. A neat anagram for TAR AND FEATHER and the two similar clues leading to WHISKER and FASTER were nice.
Thanks Vulcan and Andrew
Well I thought there some really nice chuckles here, perfect for a Monday morning: REAL TENNIS, the dispenser and others. The PEANUTS making another appearance as a ‘strip’, I notice. Yes, for me a nice start to the week.
Started off well then slowed down but got there (almost) in the end.
I generally like double definitions. They usually make me smile once I get them and WHISKER and PEANUTS certainly did. Also liked FASTER, HITMEN but didn’t get POTTY (duh!)
SINGAPORE, CHEMIST and SCARIEST were other favourites.
Thanks to Vulcan and Andrew
Andrew – you need an * for the VERDANT explanation.
Postmark @3, I’m sure writing someone ‘a character’ is recognised usage; can’t think of examples offhand, but…
Vulcan is becoming a favourite of mine for the Monday challenge and I thought this was quite tricky in places. Like CanberraGirl @1, I DNF cos of REFERENCE and I agree with PostMark’s comments about the vagueness of the clue. Same favourites as Fiona Anne @5 plus AUCTIONEER.
Ta Vulcan & Andrew
PostMark @3 I have come across the word ‘character’ to mean a testimonial as to good character (i.e. a character reference) in 18th and 19th-century novels or plays, in which higher-class figures provide, or decline to provide, a ‘character’ for a departing servant. The only one that springs to mind at the moment occurs in Oscar Wilde’s ‘Lady Windermere’s Fan’:
DUCHESS OF BERWICK. … before the honeymoon was over, I caught him winking at my maid, a most pretty, respectable girl. I dismissed her at once without a character.—
gif @7: I’ve spent thirty years working in and around the recruitment space so references have been a part of my life. I’ve never encountered ‘writing someone a character’ but, if it’s out there, this community normally manages to turn it up. Generally it’s the ‘character’ element that’s dropped in my experience.
SE corner last… shouldn’t have taken a long stare for peanuts, given the recent ‘flyer stripped’ for woodstock. Good old Che plus mist was pretty neat, mo in bean ditto, but I think of Spain as a democracy, nwst its remnant royals. All good Monday fare, ta V and A.
Spooner’s catflap @9: well there you go. Maybe I didn’t expect it to turn up quite so quickly. That said, I never even got close to interviewing the Duchess of Berwick’s maid so I was obviously in the wrong area of recruitment.
PM @10, hmm yeah, it’s probably a literary echo I’m hearing…Dickens? …Trollope? … someone might know…
Re: REFERENCE just as grant@7. I took character to mean an asterisk or superscript, and hence a weak cryptic definition.
Oh, well done Spooner’s catflap @9… knew someone would chip in with an e.g. …
I liked REAL TENNIS and CHEMIST. But AUCTIONEER is a bit a of an old chestnut.
[I was going to watch the World ORIGAMI Championships on TV, until I saw that it was on paper view.]
Thanks Vulcan and Andrew
[Penfold @16: time for some nominative determinism. I think you should fold now!]
[PostMark @17 My stingy parents once gave me a pile of scrap paper for Christmas and told me it was an origami set. There were no instructions. I didn’t know what to make of it.]
[Penfold @16: Not much happens on that show; it’s all pretty stationery…]
Slightly tougher than usual for a Monday (how many times are you allowed to say that to exonerate your own ignorance, I wonder…) and the same semi-gripes as others – REFERENCE was pretty unsolvable when presented with a sea of Es. Not haivng the slightest knowledge of or interest in cricket, stumbled over 13a but got there.
Just within my one-cup-of-coffee benchmark for a Monday so thank you to Vulcan and Andrew!
[Penfold @18, PostMark @19; We need better puns – I’d say at least a ten-fold improvement…]
I’ve enjoyed the ORIGAMI puns above – thanks, folks. Like others, REFERENCE was LOI for me. I’m really missing my games of REAL TENNIS, which until lockdown involved a weekly round trip of about 130 miles to my nearest court. As it happens I just won a limerick contest about real tennis, but it won’t mean much unless you play the game:
Conversation at the net
The first chase was Better than Four
The second one – was it The Door?
The score’s fifteen-love
But – heavens above –
To you, or to me? I’m not sure!
Other clues ticked were WHISKER, ORIGAMI and CHEMIST. Many thanks to Vulcan and Andrew.
A very pleasant puzzle. I really liked 21d CHEMIST with its clever misleading surface. Like Tim @4 I was helped by Paul’s recent Woodstock clue in getting PEANUTS at 29a.
grantinfreo @11: yes, interesting that we don’t immediately tend to think of modern-day Spain as a kingdom, though it’s perfectly correct of course. (Also interesting how a kingdom is still a kingdom even when, like the UK, it has a queen rather than a king.)
Many thanks Vulcan and Andrew.
Similar gripes as PostMark (@3). Also with AXIS: you throw a six (not six) in my experience so it doesn’t work if only the 6 is reversed.
Puns amusing but not exactly putting me in creases
Thanks to Vulcan and Andrew.
My experience was the same as others: a bit trickier than usual for Monday and I missed the REFERENCE.
Only 6 of the 52 crossing letters score more than 1 at Scrabble – all those vowels, with a few R’s, S’s and T’s, always make a puzzle a wee bit trickier.
2d So I’m looking for a synonym for “over” that envelopes (“without”) a synonym for “tears” – hmmm nothing springs to mind – oh hang on, it’s Vulcan – that’ll be ORIGAMI then
But as it’s Vulcan I decided to kling on to the bitter end
I did like AXIS after all the recent AXLE brouhaha
For 19a, I couldn’t decide between DEFERENCE and REFERENCE. Deference can be a character(istic).
Really enjoyed this – the CHEMIST/PEANUTS corner was a brilliant bit of cluing. Yes, I can probably take or leave the cds and dds, but they were always a mainstay of Monday puzzles in the capable hands of Rufus.
Re WHISKER, I didn’t much care for the kitchen implement def – preferring the simpler “whisk”, so wondered if this particular “beater” referred to the Cat’s Whisker in early wireless sets?
Thanks Vulcan and Andrew
Yes, harder than usual. Mostly good, but a couple of weaknesses. HOLIDAY derives from “holy day”, so it’s the same thing twice; “In” gets in the way in 18d.
CHEMIST my favourite, of course.
Thanks Vulcan and Andrew
William @ 28 The WHISKER is the person wielding the whisk.
Thought there were some very smooth surfaces here, POTTY took a while then raised a smile. Leaving EXIGENT and WHISKER as the last two interlocking clues inked in…
Simon S @30: S’pose. Still rather like the wireless thing.
Re 3d, from the Guardian/Observer style guide:
Northern Ireland
Can be referred to as a country or region, but avoid referring to it as a province or as Ulster
But setters won’t be told …
William @30 – maybe I misinterpret, but the wireless “cat’s whisker” did not “beat” (or indeed have anything to do with cats) – it was a thin filament bridging a gap between a metal surface attached to the receiver and a semiconducting crystal, providing a primitive rectifying diode.
Yes, took longer than normal for a Monday puzzle due to the cds, dds and less than 50% checked letters in many solutions.
I didn’t understand the tears in ORIGAMI, but it makes sense. I quite liked HOLIDAY, and my favourites, as some others, was CHEMIST – nice surface.
Thanks Vulcan and Andrew.
grantinfreo @15 Thank you. The fogs of early morning having finally cleared, I recollected another example of ‘character’ in the sense deployed by the Duchess of Berwick, if anyone out there is still interested. This comes from chapter 5 of Mary Wollstonecraft’s unfinished novel, ‘Maria; or the Wrongs of Woman’ (1798) and is contained in the interpolated narrative by a working-class woman, Jemima: who has been summarily dismissed in the Berwick manner by a previous employer:
‘The want of a character prevented my getting a place; for, irksome as servitude would have been to me, I should have made another trial, had it been feasible.’
I found a bit too much looseness in a number of clues. ELVES = fairies? (Indeed, selves = personalities?). The “in” at 18d (a la muffin @29). POTTY – stupid? (more like ecentric or slightly crazy). The AVERAGES – mediocre connection doesn’t quite work for me: mediocre cricketers are ‘average’, not averages. On the other hand, the double allusion of ‘beat’ in WHISKER was very nice (because you usually beat someone by a whisker). CHEMIST and HIT MEN were also nice. Thanks Vulcan and Andrew.
[Spooner’s catflap @36 Thanks. I know who to come to, if ever I need a character reference :)]
With regards to 19 across, I thought of a reference as in (for example) an academic paper where, for a citation in the text, there is a character the directs you to a specified item in the bibliography at the end (apologies if this is what some others were suggesting as well – I wasn’t too sure about that). If so, then the whole thing would be a cryptic definition.
Thanks to Vulcan and Andrew.
This crunched along nicely with the daily tick going to ORIGAMI which, with all the crossers, still required a double take (or two). But I had an interesting and not unprecedented experience with PEANUTS: my loi and I stared and stared (like grantinfreo@11), an alpha-trawl sparked nothing so a reluctant reveal and dnf (with much self-recrimination). This has happened before when at the final hurdle the poor brain insists that the clue must be impenetrable and just refuses to engage at any level. Is it just me or do others suffer from loi-paralysis?
Not just you Alphalpha @40. I stared at 12a until I sat down for a healthy lunch with Mrs T. PALACE, she said, instantaneously. She’s trawled round it, twice, so thank heaven there’s a monarchist in the family.
Not room for much more but a sense of Deja Vu
The sense of beaming after completing a double jigsaw from Bunthorne or Araucaria only to be snagged by a dodgy tyre on the last lap of the Rufus puzzle
Well pitched, Sir!
Robi @35: The clue for CHEMIST is very well crafted but it reminded me of the sinking feeling I used to have when I told someone I was a chemist and they assumed that meant I sold aspirins….
drofle @21
[The original real tennis court is in the grounds of Falkland Palace in Fife. And there is also a willow sculpture of Mary Queen of Scots. Well worth a visit if you haven’t been before.]
[Gervase @43: my mother was an artist but was occasionally described as a painter. And, yes, some people assumed that meant walls!]
Fiona Anne @44 – I live in Devon and have only every played at the court in Dorset. A visit to Falkland Palace sounds a bit of a long trip!
drofle @46
[Fair enough but if you are ever in the area …..]
I was a member of an origami club once but it folded.
I enjoyed this Monday morning stroll through crosswordland. But I jibbed at ENFORCE=’coerce’. It is the duty of the police to enforce the law; but they don’t enforce the law. They may coerce me to obey the law; but they don’t enforce me to obey the law.
Aaaaargh! I mean they *do* enforce the law — but they don’t coerce the law. Doh! Well, you know what I meant.
pserve_p2@50: It’s “compel” in the online version – but your point still stands.
Ah, thank you, Alphalpha. Dearie me, I’m getting myself all tied up in knots, But, yes, that’s what I mean… I can compel you to do something, but I cannot enforce you to do something.
I didn’t get on with this at all – but reading the blog and comments above that’s down to me and not the puzzle. There were too many loose things for me, all of which have been mentioned, that meant I failed to appreciate the clever clues. I’ll have to change my mindset for tomorrow. Thanks to Vulcan and Andrew.
muffin@29: The “in” in 18d is surely the same as that in 7d “Give voice with opera cast in Asian city”; it is the usual setters’ device to link the def to the wordplay components of the clue. No?
Re compel = ENFORCE: Wiktionary quotes L. Frank Baum, chapter 14, in Sky Island (1912):
The Queen has nothing but the power to execute the laws, to adjust grievances and to compel order.
Thanks setter and blogger (another nice trip to the museum!)
pserve_p2 @54
By convention (not an absolute rule) the definition comes at the beginning or end of the clue. The definition for this one is “talk”, not “in talk”.
@Spooner’s catflap various numbers. I think the term character was always used a long time ago in exactly the sense that we use reference now., I wonder when it changed. I am sure that Joseph Conrad uses it and it is in The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. Another term is marketing which is widely used in older novels to mean shopping.
Agree with Andrew’s assessment and with commenters who felt that some of the definitions were a bit loose but it was still fun for the most part — I liked HOLIDAY, FASTER ( nice surface for a DD), and AXIS. Thanks to both.
I enjoyed this and I for one think it was harder than the Quiptic this week, though not all that hard. Thanks Vulcan and Andrew.
MB @15 I also have minimal grasp of cricket, but in baseball there are batting averages (are there pitching averages?), so the analogy was easy to make.
alphalpha@40 I had a similar problem with 29a giving _E_N_T_ I thought “petty” might be “mean,” + something I’ll think of later, so checked MEAN in the first four squares. Check gave me back _EAN_T_ and then the sky cleared. I try to avoid “reveal” by checking individual letters, sometimes many one after another. It’s half as cheaty as “reveal,” by my reckoning.
[Gervase @43: try telling someone in this country you’re an Engineer and they’ll ask if you can fix their washing machine… ]
Easy enough, but I’m afraid I did NOT enjoy this. There were WAY too many unsatisfying double and cryptic definitions for my liking…
Roz @57 Gosh, Roz, that was a good spot from ‘Philanthropists’: here it is indeed –
“Nimrod … sniffed the air to try if he could detect the odour of tobacco, and if he had not been suffering a cold in the head there is no doubt that he would have perceived it. However, as it was he could smell nothing but all the same he was not quite satisfied, although he remembered that Crass always gave Philpot a good character.”
If you can recollect what Conrad novel it is in, I would be interested to know; my Conrad has become a bit rusty through lack of use, except for a handful of novellas that my wife sometimes teaches.
I don’t know when the usage changed, and there probably was not an identifiable moment when this occurred, but I suspect I know in part why. A ‘character’ in this older sense says, in effect, ‘does not steal, does not slug from the sherry decanter on the sly, does not shag house guests or indeed immediate family members’, while a ‘reference’ in the contemporary sense recommends the subject on the basis of work or academic performance, not just on the basis of moral ‘character’.
Spooner’s catflap @62: bringing this full circle, since it was I who first queried the assertion that a ‘character’, alone, might be a reference, l think I can see why the usage changed. If some of the captains of industry I encountered out there in my headhunting days needed a reference to the effect that he/she “does not steal, does not slug from the sherry decanter on the sly, does not shag house guests or indeed immediate family members”, I fear they might fall short. For a few, those qualities would be their defining characteristics!
Perhaps it was more in use when a lot of people were in service at big house , also used by sailing crews. I do not know which Conrad it is in but sure I have read it recently. Perhaps Youth or End of the Tether but I am only guessing, In Philanthropists I know they use the term Marketing instead of shopping and it was early 20th century.
Is FIVE-A-SIDE a commonly known game? From the wordplay and crosses there’s no way to tell whether the odd cardinal is FIVE or NINE. That didn’t sit right with me, but maybe it’s just sour grapes at not knowing the game…
Iroquois @65
I wondered about FIVE-A-SIDE too, but five a side football (soccer) is a commonly played format, especially in sports halls.
Roz @64: are you thinking of this? At the beginning of section IX of The End of the Tether we’re told that Sterne left “one of the larger shipping concerns” largely because of the way he was treated by Captain Provost. “It was no use appealing to the office. Captain Provost had too much influence in the employ. All the same, they had to give him a good character.”
Exactly Lord Jim, just found it, I did have an idea it was Sterne . In this sense it means they gave him a good reference.
A very enjoyable Monday puzzle. Almost got there on my second, after lunch go but stumped by exigent – a new one on me.
Lots of “of course” moments as the penny dropped. (Thought there must have been a penny in 29a despite being a “Charlie Brown” fan!)
I can see why REFERENCE was so tough for some, but it was dead easy for me, because of Lewis Carroll: “She gave me a good character, But said I could not swim.” It comes from the trial scene in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and I know it because I played the part of the White Rabbit in a theatrical version at school when I was 11 years old. The lines have been stuck in my head now for 55 years.
LordJim@67 If anyone knows their Conrad, it should be you. I’m with those who thing the “in” doesn’t work in 18d, even though it might do at the end of the clue, but can’t explain why. I wasn’t sure about the grammar of “Gamely implying” either.
Iroquois @65: FIVE-A-SIDE, where you cannot hide!! I still play at 61 and it’s one helluva workout.
Good for you AlanC. It is very popular with students with leagues and everything, Not at the moment of course.
Fingal@48 I was trying to watch the world origami championships at the weekend but it was only on paper view
Very enjoyable, failed in the SW corner due to ignorance of the hit on the head, the shock treatment and the tooth decay. Need to remember them.
Thanks Vulcan for the puzzle and Andrew for the hints.
I failed on REFERENCE as well, too vague a definition.
Stuart@74: klaxon for repetition. See @16 (you have to be a pearly to squeeze a pun into this forum) (up early sorry)
[Alphalpha @77: I guess that makes PeterO the Pearly King of bloggers?]
I started at @1 saying I’d missed on REFERENCE but I want to be clear I think it was a great clue and on seeing the answer it was a subtle DD. Character as a reference crops up in Agatha Christie with miss marple so a little archaic but totally fair. Living memory for some – when servants in homes was a thing. I really kicked myself for missing it which is the mark of a fair but tricky clue. I was successfully misdirected. I was even at RE-E-eNCE and still couldn’t see it. Maddening. Good one Vulcan!
[Thanks for the Alice link sh @70. I’d forgotten how poignant the ending is.]
As MaidenBartok@19 stated: “REFERENCE was pretty unsolvable when presented with a sea of Es”. No help either from the unfair (imo) grid which provided only 4 ‘crossers’ for the 9-letter word.
I took an asterisk to be a character representing a REFERENCE to a footnote or other part of a document. See Chambers for example.
Mind you I don’t really like the clue!