It always takes me a long time to blog a Tees puzzle, not because it’s exceptionally difficult, but because there are always some interesting words or references in them, so I end up fossicking around in dictionaries and online looking stuff up.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
9 Aunt crosses a river, lake and plain
AU NATUREL
An insertion of A un AUNT followed by URE for the Yorkshire river and L. The insertion indicator is ‘crosses’.
10 Make pompous speech no-one admires?
ORATE
A round about way of saying that if no-one admires a speech then zero (O) people would RATE it.
11 No vintage wine in Welsh city
NEWPORT
A charade of NEW – in other words, not old or ‘vintage’ – and PORT.
12 Groom and lovely female going to marry
COMBINE
A charade of COMB and [F]INE.
13 City covered in Virginia creepers
ACRE
The Israeli port is hidden in VirginiA CREepers
14 Game hack defending saucy newspaper strip
RUPERT BEAR
An insertion of PERT in RU for Rugby Union or ‘game’ and BEAR. ‘Rupert’s parents can’t hack/bear it when he spends his Friday evenings snorting coke with Bill Badger down the rough end of Nutwood.’ Except of course the young, yellow-trousered bear would never dream of such a thing. He’s quaint, reassuringly middle-class and has been in the Daily Express for over a century, so don’t knock him.
16 Mary Wilson perhaps unsurpassed
SUPREME
Say Mary Wilson to me and, being a boomer, I’m going straight to Harold’s wife (and an established poet), but for the dd Tees is offering here she was also one of the founding members of The Supremes.
17 Baltic citizen taking son out of posh school?
ETONIAN
E[S]TONIAN
19 Cemetery corpse in edgeless hole reanimates
NECROPOLIS
(CORPSE IN [H]OL[E])*
22 Bolt to run smoothly making comeback
WOLF
A reversal (‘making comeback’) of FLOW. To bolt/wolf in an eating too quickly sense.
24 Very bottom drops back in lowest lake
DEAD SEA
A charade of DEAD and SEA[T] and a dead good clue from our setter. The DEAD SEA is technically a ‘lake’ and is the lowest in the world at 430m below sea level.
25 Fundamentalist spoke about clubs
RADICAL
An insertion of C in RADIAL.
26 Snarl from Left after good argument
GROWL
A charade of G, ROW and L.
27 Recipe author dodging every second problem
HOT POTATO
A charade of HOTPOT and ATO for the odd letters of AuThOr.
Down
1 Chuck down at least sixteen feet of water?
RAIN CATS AND DOGS
A kind of cd, I guess, if you insist on categorising all answers. It’s whimsical but logical: the minimum number of CATS you need to make the plural is two; the same goes for DOGS; and two CATS and two DOGS together would have 4×4 or ‘sixteen feet’.
2 Plant as present found in small delivery
SNOWDROP
An insertion of NOW in S and DROP.
3 King brought inside to finish tantrum
STROP
An insertion of R in STOP, with ‘brought inside’ as the insertion indicator. A delightful word, for preference preceded by ‘in a right’. Seems like it’s a back formation from STROPPY, which itself is an abbreviated form of OBSTREPEROUS.
4 Bulge in pants Mrs Grundy conceals
PROTRUDE
An insertion of ROT for ‘pants’ in PRUDE. Mrs Grundy is the archetypal PRUDE in Thomas Morton’s play Speed the Plough.
5 Old saw having lost its edge?
CLICHÉ
A cd, with ‘saw’ in its ‘adage’ sense.
6 Facts not in Genesis
FORMATION
[IN]FORMATION
7 Le Pen for instance found in sea
MARINE
A dd. The first element refers to Marine Le Pen, the right-wing French politician.
8 Jerks on rifle-range shot blue bird
PEREGRINE FALCON
A charade of PE for Physical Education, more randomly ‘jerks’, (RIFLE RANGE)* and CON for ‘blue’. The anagrind is ‘shot’. Tees doesn’t often give me a bird, so I’m very humbled, and for the obligatory Pierre bird link, I offer you a live performance from a cathedral not far from where I live. Be patient (and you won’t see anything when it’s dark, obviously).
15 Menu item needs no Moselle in cooking
LEMON SOLE
(NO MOSELLE)*
17 Russian fighter, traitor in central Greece, to settle abroad
EMIGRATE
An insertion of MIG and RAT in two Es, the central letters of ‘Greece’.
18 Boy underneath smooth Conservative in ship
IRONCLAD
An IRONCLAD is a steam-propelled warship, so it’s a charade of IRON, C and LAD. Far too many Conservatives in this puzzle.
20 Writer for children allows light into study
CRAYON
An insertion of RAY in CON. The insertion indicator is ‘allows into’. CON for ‘study’ is archaic, and often had the sense of ‘learning by rote’. Shakespeare used it: below is quote from Quince, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, addressing the rude mechanicals before their performance:
But, masters, here are your parts, and I am to intreat you, request you, desire you, to con them by too morrow night
It’s ultimately cognate with the dialect verb to ken, or to know; and with the German and Dutch kennen.
21 This could replace spinach or pine
ORACHE
A charade of OR and ACHE.
orache n an edible plant belonging to the genus Atriplex, of the goosefoot family, sometimes used as spinach is (Chambers)
In an effort to exceed reader expectations, I will tell you that it rhymes with Norwich.
23 Also have wine, as discussed, when needed
AD HOC
A homophone of ADD HOCK.
Many thanks to Tees for the Monday morning entertainment.
I’m delighted to encounter someone else who uses that lovely and expressive word “fossicking”. Thanks to Pierre.
And now to look at the crossword itself…
I found the NE quadrant very tricky indeed. Had to google ‘Le Pen’ to get MARINE and the rest came with great effort. Particularly pleased when I got RUPERT BEAR.
Slightly different parsing for DEAD SEA. I took the definition as “lake” with “back in lowest” referring to the T to be dropped.
That parsing for DEAD SEA is more likely, Hovis – thank you.
Unlike Hovis, RUPERT BEAR did not come to mind so a dnf but no less enjoyable for that. And I think both parsings of DEAD SEA work – though I have a slight preference for Pierre’s insofar as it emphasises the lake’s particular status. Nice to discover ORACHE is a word and delighted to spot PEREGRINE FALCON though I needed our blogger’s help to explain the jerks (are those the same birds in the video, Pierre, that featured in Springwatch a while ago (pre-Covid)? I can’t recall where they were basing the series that time.) MARINE (very clever – I couldn’t get past her father for a while) and the beautiful FORMATION really appealed to me. I also jumped straight to the Baroness Wilson but the penny did drop. RAIN CATS AND DOGS is a very cute dd though it was (helpfully) FOI so the solution did jump rapidly to mind. I guess it depends on whether you got it or not. Stand out clue, for construction and humorous surface, is PROTRUDE.
Thanks Tees and Pierre
I’m glad that Pierre’s blog inspired me to negotiate the Indy’s horrible website and do this puzzle, because it’s a delight.
I really liked 25a with the natural surface but “spoke” changing its meaning between clue and solution, and the delightful PROTRUDE. But the stand out was PEREGRINE FALCON not least because it is actually a blue(-ish) bird.
Orache was a word I didn’t know and ideally I’d have liked stronger wordplay, but once I had the crossers it was easy enough.
Thanks to Tees and once again to Pierre
Another great crossword from Tees – lots to enjoy throughout. Thanks to him.
Thanks also to Pierre for the blog and for reminding us of ‘fossicking’ in dictionaries, an activity I much prefer to investigoogling when preparing a crossword blog
Super puzzle and blog.
Like PostMark, I failed to finish, because I didn’t get RUPERT BEAR, though I loved him as a child – I remember he invariably ran ‘pell-mell’, my first encounter with that expression and I don’t remember seeing it much since.
I was another who immediately thought of the poet at 16ac, then remembered the SUPREME who died very recently – until then, Diana Ross was the only one I knew by name.
I share Neil’s admiration for RADICAL, PROTRUDE and PEREGRINE FALCON and also liked NECROPOLIS, CLICHÉ and STROP, one of my favourite words.
Re the lovely ‘fossicking’: I’d always associated it with the Latin ‘fodere’, to dig (cf fossil) but Collins and Chambers tell me it’s Australian – slang / dialect.
Many thanks to Tees and Pierre.
Right, that one’s going in.
We’ll have to be ready for it then, Tees! Cracker of a crossword and an excellent blog. Loved the cats and dogs – just so funny. Thanks to both.
definite speeding up at the end.. top R was last to go.. got the falcon through the crossers and thank the Lord for that.. not sure how CLICHE works except that it is an ‘old saw’? simple enough with the crossers …faves by a long way were STROP, PROTRUDE, CRAYON (lol), and the simplicity of FORMATION!!
… oh and of course CATS AND DOGS when the penny finally dropped
thanks Tees n Pierre
I needed a couple of sessions to do this, finding the NE corner difficult too, being held up initially by COMBINE, which turned out to be not so difficult, once solved of course. I was just able to remember the ‘Mrs Grundy’ reference and RUPERT BEAR and then eventually finished things off with CLICHE. Favourite, and seems I’m not alone, was RAIN CATS AND DOGS.
A stiff work-out for me to start the solving week.
Thanks to Tees and to Pierre
[Thanks for the bird link – I’ve just been having a look. The live online feed of our local PEREGRINE FALCON(s) on a building in the CBD unfortunately went off line at the end of last year, but as far as I know they’re still alive. Here’s the link to a Guardian article from November last year if you’re interested].
That’s an interesting link to the Melbourne falcons, WordPlodder – thank you. Not sure if the Derby Cathedral ones were featured on Countryfile, PostMark, but they have had lots of local coverage in the last month or so since the young ones hatched.
Thanks both. Parsing the sixteen feet part of 1dn was beyond my Monday brain – I should have allowed a longer ‘paws’ before coming here for the revelation! I am with undrell@10 in not understanding CLICHE fully
A very enjoyable solve and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Grateful thanks to Tees and Pierre.
Followed Pierre and others down the route of Harold’s wife in 16a and then got into a tangle with the parsing of 8d due to accepting ‘blue’ as being the main colour of the male falcon then using ‘on rifle range’ as the anagram fodder and wondering where the ‘C’ was hiding!
All sorted eventually and my top two were AU NATUREL & RAIN CATS AND DOGS.
Thanks to Tees for another excellent puzzle and to Pierre for a likewise excellent review.
To explain CLICHÉ a little more: one of the senses of ‘saw’ is ‘adage’, ‘proverb’ or ‘saying’, so the clue is just directing you to think of a cliché as a saying that has ‘lost its edge’ through overuse. Which is pretty much the definition of a cliché, at the end of the day.
Pierre@17… that was my thinking also .. thanks for clarifying.. more of a double definition… not that I’m really into that way of thinking.. cheers
I seem to pronounce both orache and Norwich wrongly as I rhyme the city with borage and use a short a rather than a schwa in orache.
Thanks Tees for the challenge. My lack of GK led to a DNF — RUPERT BEAR, Mrs Grundy, and NEWPORT are just out of my orbit. I liked the simple WOLF and RADICAL as well. Thanks Pierre for parsing.
Nah sorry Tees the Mrs Grundy for a literature philistine like me is something I loathe in a cryptic. If i wanted that I’d do the times or torygraph. Bah. Thanks both and to Pierre for explaining.
They don’t like it much in the two you mentioned either, to be fair. Especially the speed-solvers on TFTT.
For me it would be a shame to lose the erudition entirely (though I can see the other side of this as well, especially where the cryptic parts are affected). Perhaps I’m being naive, but I can’t believe that people are totally ignorant of the Arts, or indeed the Sciences, even in 2021. And there are always (okay, if you’re lucky) crossing letters.
Well said, Tees.
I thought it was a bit of Flash-banter like Hoskins the other day but, perhaps, he really means it.
There are many people on Fifteensquared who think The Times crosswords are boring and/or stuffy.
Ever since I do them every single day (!), I discovered that they’re actually pretty good.
With every now and then constructions or sort of whimsical things that border on Guardianisms.
Always very precise, though.
But I do not have to tell Tees this because he’s part of it.
In fact, a Tees crossword is not very different from the average Times crossword.
I could say the same about Nutmeg but that belongs in another place.
Excellent puzzle this, failed to understand 1dn, though.
And wasn’t convinced enough to enter CLICHE (with an accent that I can’t produce – but Pierre can) at 5dn.
Agree with him that there were too many C[on]s in this puzzle, including Marine le Pen.
As some in the past used to say ‘Thanks all’.
Sil @23. If you are posting using a touchscreen keypad, try pressing and holding on the letter E and you should see various options, such as É, that you can slide to before release.
Or if you have numeric keys on the rhs of your laptop, press and hold ALT and then type 0233. Or cut and paste it from the blog or a previous comment …
Thanks, both.
It (all) works.
Pierre, is there a list where I can find codes like ALT 0223?
There certainly is, Sil. I will send it to you privately.
Ok try again don’t know what happened to my reply. Yes Sil you’re right. Still my dislike of to me obscure literature grates