The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28668.
There is plenty here to amuse.The pairings of 10,24 and 2,24, intersecting across and down in both halves, make for a notch up in difficulty for a Monday crossword.
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | SERENADE |
Bill joins in peaceful song (8)
|
| AN envelope (‘joins in’) of AD (‘bill’) in SERENE (‘peaceful’). | ||
| 9 | RENAL |
Learn dances to an organ (5)
|
| An anagram (‘dances’) of ‘learn’; ‘to’ is a little odd to indicate the adjectival form. | ||
| 10, 24 | COVERAGE |
The number of people reached conceal how old they are (8)
|
| A charade of COVER (‘conceal’) plus AGE (‘how old they are’).. | ||
| 11 | CHEW THE FAT |
Jack Sprat wouldn’t gossip (4,3,3)
|
| Double definition; if you are not familiar with the rhyme, see here. | ||
| 12 | DEAR ME |
My fees are high; that’s unfortunate (4,2)
|
| Definition and literal interpretation. | ||
| 14 | VERTICAL |
Standing up, let vicar out (8)
|
| An anagram (‘out’) of ‘let vicar’. | ||
| 15 | MERCURY |
Heavenly body that rises with the sun? (7)
|
| Cryptic definition, with MERCURY as a thermometer – also very nearly as a planet, since it is so near the sun that its rising is never far in time from the sun’s (except perhaps at times near the poles, where one might just rise when the other does not). | ||
| 17 | NAIVETY |
Lack of experience of top-class doctor in New York (7)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of A I (A 1, ‘top class’) plus VET (‘doctor’) in NY (‘New York’). An alternative to naiveté. | ||
| 20 | STAGNATE |
Occupying platform, nationalist is to make no progress (8)
|
| An envelope (‘occupying’) of NAT (‘nationalist’) in STAGE (‘platform’). | ||
| 22 | DARWIN |
Almost be bold enough to succeed famous scientist (6)
|
| A charade of DAR[e] (‘be bold enough’) minus the last letter (‘almost’) plus WIN (‘succeed’). | ||
| 23 | FIBRE OPTIC |
Cop it badly, after lie about fast connection (5,5)
|
| A charade of FIB (‘lie’) plus RE (‘about’) plus OPTIC, an anagram (‘badly’) of ‘cop it’. I have not come across the answer as the noun that the clue seems to require, and as a adjective it is generally hyphenated; however, Wikipedia does redirect “Fibre Optic” to “Optical Fibre”. | ||
| 24 |
See 10
|
|
| 25 | KNELL |
It signifies death of Dickens’s little girl on the radio (5)
|
| Sounds like (‘on the radio’) NELL (‘Dickens’s little girl’, Nell Trent, in The Old Curiosity Shop). | ||
| 26 | MEDITATE |
Contemplate change in friend (8)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of EDIT (‘change’, verb) in MATE (‘friend’). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | KEROSENE |
Madly keen to receive love, a source of energy (8)
|
| An envelope (‘to receive’) of EROS (‘love’) on KENE, an anagram (‘madly’) of ‘keen’. | ||
| 2, 24 | GENERATE |
Produce army officer’s short note (8)
|
| A charade of GENERA[l] (‘army officer’) minus the last letter (‘short’) plus TE (or TI, ‘note’ of the sol-fa). | ||
| 3 | GAUCHE |
Awkward to be left on the other side of the Channel (6)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 4 | RESERVE |
Join the army again? One is not in the front line (7)
|
| Double definition, the first as RE-SERVE. | ||
| 5 | PRETORIA |
Capital‘s name finally included in new airport (8)
|
| An envelope (‘included in’) of E (‘namE finally’) in PRTORIA, an anagram (‘new’) of ‘airport’. | ||
| 6 | UNBELIEVER |
Live as Liberal in college, always a sceptic (10)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of BE (‘live’) plus L (‘Liberal’) in UNI (university, ‘college’) plus EVER (‘always’). | ||
| 7 | ALPACA |
Animal found in mountain area, roughly (6)
|
| A charade of ALP (‘mountain’) plus A (‘area’) plus CA (circa, ‘roughly’). | ||
| 13 | ROCK GARDEN |
Music and weed, which you may have in the back yard (4,6)
|
| A charade of ROCK (‘music’) plus GARDEN (‘weed’, verb). | ||
| 16 | READ-ONLY |
Readjust such files? (4-4)
|
| A charade of ‘read’ plus ONLY (‘just’). Of course, you do not have permission to to do this, even if it is possible. | ||
| 18 | TAILGATE |
Closely follow the scandal of the Three Blind Mice? (8)
|
| A whimsical reference to the tailless mice, and the ‘scandal’ous suffix -GATE. | ||
| 19 | TEATIME |
Source of milk I’m beginning to exploit between lunch and dinner (7)
|
| A charade of TEAT (‘source of milk’) plus ‘I’m’ plus E (‘beginning to Exploit’). | ||
| 21 | TRICKY |
Could bridge be called this complicated? (6)
|
| Definition and whimsical reference. | ||
| 22 | DECIDE |
Resolve of detectives to enter river (6)
|
| An envelope (‘to enter’) of CID (‘detectives’) in DEE (‘river’). | ||
| 24 |
See 2
|
|
Boy, do I feel like a dope. I was trying to parse KEROSENE as ROSE in KENE, and could only think of my love as being like the red, red rose.
Thank you, Vulcan and PeterO.
Enjoyed this, specially TAILGATE
Thanks both.
TAILGATE and READ-ONLY raised the smiles. A pleasing crossword although I struggled to parse STAGNATE for a while.
Thanks both.
I thought this was just fine. Not too hard, not too easy.
I saw MERCURY a little differently than PeterO did. You can split the clue into two pieces, a definition, heavenly body, and a cryptic definition, rises with the sun (= mercury in thermometer).
I enjoyed this but did get held up by 2,24 and 10,24. Finally while driving to get groceries I decided there must be a word ‘voterage’ and this enabled me to get GENERATE. On checking my dictionary there was no hint of voterage but then COVERAGE sprang to mind. My parsing of MERCURY matched DrWon @4.
I like this level for a Monday. Gentle to get started but some that stick around. I was slow to see TAILGATE as I was thinking TAIL was closely follow. I must remember the all-purpose gate-suffix when I see mention of a scandal. Thanks Vulcan and PeterO
Needed a bit of inspiration along the way to get this out. Those two intersecting split 8-letter answers gave me the most trouble and I was thankful to emerge without having had to do an A-Z run through at the end.
I liked the ‘lift and separate’ element of READ-ONLY and the surface for DEAR ME.
Thanks to Vulcan and PeterO
Some likes: TAILGATE like everyone else together with CHEW THE FAT, ROCK GARDEN and MERCURY, which I parsed like Dr W. A half like: READ ONLY – nice idea though the ‘read’ in both clue and solution seemed a tiny bit awkward. A dislike: I have never enjoyed the splitting of longer words across two solutions in the way it’s done here: COVE RAGE and GENE RATE though I appreciate it’s accepted practice.
Thanks Vulcan and PeterO
Thanks Vulcan. I loved the wit of TAILGATE and CHEW THE FAT though I was less convinced of TRICKY.
Thanks PeterO for the blog.
Enjoyable all round. My favourite was MERCURY which I saw the same way as Dr. WhatSon @4. I don’t think it’s necessary to know about its celestial movements. SERENADE gave a moment’s trouble. I always struggle to see Bill as AD. I wonder how many people are still familiar with Jack Sprat and his wife and their dislikes?
Thanks Vulcan and PeterO.
npetrikov @1 – me too. Also wasted time trying to think of a homophone for Dorrit, the only “little Dickens girl” I could think of.
Somebody is going to mention this sooner or later. Might as well be me. Oscar Wilde’s quote about 25a
“One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing.”
I’ve never managed to finish “The Old Curiosity Shop”.
Shirl @10 – ditto and ditto.
I thought PM might not like COVE RAGE or GENE RATE.
Newspaper reports fracas in coastal waters? (8)
Produce how many be-bops a lula? (8)
Another thumbs-up for TAILGATE; thanks V & P.
A fairly quick solve. Chambers has Fibre Optics (no hyphen) as a singular noun and FIBRE-OPTIC (or -optics) (hyphened) as an adjective.
I too thought that the “to” in RENAL was strange. It would have read better as “Learn dances of an organ”.
Favourites were TAILGATE and MERCURY. I also took the planet and thermometer line as others, and I thought PeterO did also given that he blogged “Cryptic definition, with MERCURY as a thermometer”. I’m pretty sure that Mercury can be seen away from the poles when it’s dark (early night and before dawn) depending on the relative positions of Earth, Mercury and Sol.
Good fun with similar favourites plus the neat NAIVETY and STAGNATE.
Ta Vulcan & PeterO
The “to” in RENAL might be unusual, but I don’t think it’s wrong. The renal artery takes blood to the kidneys.
Thanks to Vulcan and PeterO.
npetrikov @1/Shirl @10/essexboy @12 – me also, on both counts.
TAILGATE is a lovely clue.
Thanks PeterO and Vulcan
MERCURY is my favourite clue in a long while. I agree with Dr. WhatSon @4 that it is 2 parts, but I also think the whole thing is a reference to Mercury (when visible) never being far from the sun in the sky – so it rises (or sometimes sets) with the sun too as Tim C @14 says.
You don’t need to know that to get the clue but it’s an added plus.
Really enjoyed this. Thank you Vulcan and PeterO
What a lovely crossword. Just right for a Monday morning. Especial praise for the neat simplicity of 9ac.
A very entertaining puzzle with lots of great clues. I always like a good -GATE clue and TAILGATE was excellent.
I initially wondered if the “as” in 6d UNBELIEVER was just there for the surface, but decided that “live as” = BE, as in “live as a hermit” / “be a hermit”. And I agree with DuncT @15 that RENAL can mean “to the kidneys”.
SERENADE reminded me of Qaos’s lovely clue “Song composed to win lady’s heart (8)” (27,949).
Many thanks Vulcan and PeterO.
It was more enjoyable than the average Vulcan, I thought.
I had to solve this largely from the bottom up, as, like many others, I got stuck on the two linked solutions. TAILGATE was probably my favourite, although I did like the surface for MERCURY as Matt@17 said.
Thanks Vulcan and PeterO.
Crossbar @9. Having read Jasper Fforde’s hilarious Nursery Crimes books recently, I was very familiar with Jack Spratt (Fforde’s detective). The NE and SW went in fastest, with the paied answers holding me up, as for others. I had OPTIC FIBRE before a combination of some awkward looking crossers and a closer look at the clue’s instructions made me rethink. Some lovely PDMs – READ ONLY, MERCURY, TAILGATE (I had TAIL for quite a while before the dreadful fashion for adding ‘gate’ occured to me), GAUCHE. Thanks, Vulcan and PeterO.
Another one who dislikes having an 8 letter word split into two irrelevant and unclued halves, however legitimate it may be. I was still muttering about those when I finally got TAILGATE, which cheered me up.
MERCURY made me think of this
Nice to see Freddy in the mix
gladys @22: it warms my heart to think of you muttering. At least that makes two of us. 😀
I thought there was quite a mischievous sense of humour running through Vulcan’s puzzle today, too. Favourite clue FIBRE OPTIC, last one in SERENADE…
Yes, only 9ac raised the eyebrow (to an organ) in an easy and good puzzle. Pleasant stroll really.
A very quick solve in numerical order (well almost). But TAILGATE and READ ONLY were witty and clever.
Thanks Vulcan and PeterO
Yes, yesyes.
Thx to Vulcan for a fun puzzle. Agree with PeterO about the pairings. I needed help with parsing of 1dn. TAILGATE made me smile. [Looking forward to the first use of Partygate :)].
Tim C @13
Thank you for pointing out that my explanation of 17A MERCURY does indeed acknowledge the temperature connection. However, I think you miss the intent of the extended ramble about the rising of the planet. Of course, Mercury can be seen by an observer away from the poles, but since it is so near the sun, there is generally little time difference between the rising of the two (although if the sun rises first, the rising of Mercury will be lost in the glare). The only time when the risings of the two bodies might be separated is near the poles: in the right season, the sun, say, may stay just below the horizon, and never rise at all, while Mercury, if in the right part of its orbit, does rise. Two points: 1) As MattWillD @17 says, this is not essential to the clue (and is only approximately true anyway) and 2) I agree that the description of the clue as given by Dr WhatsOn @4 and others, as a double definition with the second being cryptic (particularly in the light of the first), is preferable.
Thanks to Vulcan for the entertainment and to PeterO for a comprehensive blog (as always).
TEATIME gave me the most fun today: I was blank but managed to construct it from the wordplay and then see it flash into focus. Not a difficult clue but the solving process was enjoyable. Then along came MERCURY and TAILGATE which produced similar tickles – there seems to be no end to the three blind mice as a source of setting bravura….
Crossbar@9: I’d like to think that Jack Sprat, the blind mice et al are still on the children’s syllabus but in these woke times who can say?
Wasted a lot of time going through 283 slang words for cannabis, for 13down.
[Alphalpha @32 I don’t know what’s on syllabuses, but when I pop into my local library to collect the books for my reading group there’s a toddlers group singing all the old favourites like “the wheels on the bus”, “the 3 (or 5, or more – this is age appropriate) little ducks swimming”, “row row row your boat”, and even somewhat surprisingly “the grand old Duke of York”. Not exactly the most traditional ones, but close. ? ]
Bother. I forgot about having to do emojis long hand. ? should be 🙂
Thanks for the blog, nice clues on the whole apart from TRICKY, I will add to the praise for TAILGATE and READ ONLY.
MERCURY is indeed visible sometimes, I saw it twice last year , apparently Kepler never saw Mercury.
The conditions have to be just right, Mercury needs to be to the extreme left or right of its orbit as viewed from the Earth. Also the orbit is tilted relative to the plane of the solar system and it needs maximum tilt at maximum position which does not happen often. Easier to explain with a diagram. Mercury will then rise or set before or after the sun, you have about 40 minutes to spot it.
[Distracted by the beauty of the Lake Dustrict, I did not spend much time on this puzzle today]
Failed 10/24, 20ac (I never heard of NAT = nationalist), 25ac, 2d, 21d.
I did not parse 1d.
Thanks, both.
Crossbar @34, clearly the kids you’re talking about are not worried about what’s on the syllabus, but who’s on the silly bus.
I’m on the team that isn’t a big fan of words split in the fashion of COVE RAGE and GENE RATE. It’s fine if the answer is naturally a compound word or phrase that’s split that way. It’s also fine, in my opinion, if it’s clued that way. (Say, “Develop DNA percentage (8)” for GENERATE.) But if you’re arbitrarily splitting it into two words that have nothing to do with either the clue or the answer, you’re adding a slightly-unfair wrinkle. For example, today I spent too long trying to think of phrases of two four-letter words that answered, before I noticed that that wasn’t how it was enumerated.
I can see the opposite point of view, though: splitting it that way is a sort of bonus bit of wordplay to make us smile and maybe think a bit.
[mrpenny @38 😀 ]
I thought Gauche was just perfect.
Just want to chip in (rather late in the day) that I also find the split word solutions (when the word does not naturally fall into two compounded elements, and is clued so) somewhat irksome.
Hurrah! We are decidedly strong enough now to consider ourselves a faction, a wing, a caucus even! The world held out against split infinitives for long enough; it’s time we held out against split solu tions.
PM @42, you’re probably aware of the fact that split words are only ‘allowed’ if each part represents a kosher word, so you’re solu tions is definitely not allowed. 🙂
Perhaps the first policy should be to ban people if their name provides a split solution ?
[Roz @44: I wonder who you have in mind? 😉
PM and Robi @42/43: we could split SOLUTIONS into SOL UT IONS (if the grid allowed 2-letter words)
Wave frequencies and charged particles hold the key (8) ]
Cancalais @40, I also thought GAUCHE just perfect, but was so ashamed not to get it, even though I live in France, that I have not commented until now…
[me @45 – should be (9) of course. Note to self: when attempting a sciency clue try not to let everyone know you can’t count.]
I know I’m swimming against the tide, but is it OK if I say I really don’t mind the split solutions? In fact, I’m slightly surprised it’s a matter anyone considers worth having strong feelings about (but I suppose we need to find something to grumble about in the absence of dodgy homophones). As far as I can see, no one so far has really said why they don’t like it (closest to an explanation is mrpenney @38, who has admitted to not reading the clues properly so only has himself to blame).
My only problem with these clues today was down to the way the Guardian Puzzles app presents them (ie without clue numbers), so I was left slightly perplexed that the clue was enumerated as (8) to fill a 4-letter light, until I noticed that the second half was also highlighted in the grid. And then I had no trouble at all with them.
widdersbel @ 48 You’re not alone. I actually rather like these split solutions. They add another dimension to the clue, and can also help with the solving as you know both parts are valid words in their own right.
widdersbel @ 48: Me neither. So far….
I don’t mind the split solutions too much. I slowed myself down with POOR ME rather than DEAR ME, but got there in the end.
A nice cryptic, thanks Vulcan and PeterO.
Michelle@37 I live in the Lakes – explains my slow start this morning? But cracked on this evening. 1d last one in. Couldn’t parse so thanks Peter O and to Vulcan for a great start to the week. After last week’s utter failing badly needed boost!
It affects one’s genera lability.
TAILGATE my favourite clue solved today of 5 puzzles tackled.
Thought this excellent other than the 2 word split clues.
Thanks Vulcan
I enjoy the split solutions myself, I think they’re clever and I enjoy the surprise.
I enjoyed the rest of the puzzle too. Thank you, Pasquale and PeterO.
How can anyone gripe at split solutions any more or less than any other? It’s a crossword, a pastime, a bit of fun, a cranial challenge yadder yadder. The correctly-completed grid is the goal – and the only purpose, ultimately. Work it out and get over yourselves !!!
[Tyro @52 – it is my first time to the Lake District. It is even more beautiful than I imagined. Picture postcard perfect.]
This was just the right difficulty for me to finish in one sitting. I enjoyed it. I had MANCHE in mind for ages for 3d, since it fit the crossing letters, and just twigged GAUCHE right at the end.
Oh and I like the split solutions. The fact that each half must be a word in itself is a further clue… although I’m not so keen when one shares crossers with the other!
I forgot to come here after solving yesterday, possibly because I didn’t think I had much to say. Having now belatedly read Mark @7, gladys @22 and mrpenny @22 on their dislike of words split across two lights, I felt that I had to make a riposte. But mrpenny has done it for me: “I can see the opposite point of view, though: splitting it that way is a sort of bonus bit of wordplay to make us smile and maybe think a bit.”
I really enjoyed COVE RAGE (my first one in, written with a big grin), and was looking forward to solving GENE RATE, which took me a lot longer. Both raised smiles for the ingenuity and the way the clues work: especially COVERAGE, where the word play is for the natural break COVER AGE but the entry in the grid is the two four letter words that are not acknowledged in the clue. Brilliant!
[Apologies to widdersbel @48 and others (at 49, 50, 51, 55, 56 & 59!) whose contributions I hadn’t read when writing my praise of this clue style. Glad I’m not alone!]
A tough one for me. couldn’t finish it on Monday so back on Friday afternoon and didn’t bother to parse 17 so got it wrong. Hard or easy, Vulcan is always a fun solve. Thanks.