Apologies for the late blog – I wrote this over an hour ago, but for some reason it only posted as a draft, and I didn’t realise until now.
I think this may be the first time I have blogged a Carpathian puzzle.
Carpathian has set quite a few Quiptics as well as some Monday puzzles, but this is, to the best of my knowledge, the first time I have had the pleasure of blogging a Carpathian.
It was a pleasure and proof that an easier Monday puzzle doesn’t need to be full of cryptic definitions and simple anagrams to be straightforward. The long anagrams were clever, and although a couple of the shorter answers were not entirely original, overall this was a fun solve, and a pangram to boot.
Thanks, Carpathian, for the gentle but enjoyable start to the working week.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | REFOCUSSED |
Match official swore to hold ball, having changed viewpoint (10)
|
| REF (“match official”) + CUSSED (“swore”) to hold O (ball) | ||
| 6 | SCAR |
Second vehicle for Mark (4)
|
| S (second) + CAR (“vehicle”) | ||
| 9 | PROVIDENCE |
Foresight of French occupying region (10)
|
| DE (“of” in “French”) occupying PROViNCE (“region”) | ||
| 10 | BLOG |
Initially looked in toilet for online journal (4)
|
| [initially] L(ooked) in BOG (“toilet”) | ||
| 12 | AGGRAVATIONS |
Aviator’s gang suffering more than one provocation (12)
|
| *(aviators gang) [anag:suffering] | ||
| 15 | BRATWURST |
Sausage exploded over traitor and wife (9)
|
| BURST (“exploded”) over RAT (“traitor”) and W (wife) | ||
| 17 | AZURE |
Colour is variable in a river (5)
|
| Z (“variable” in mathematics) in A + (River) URE | ||
| 18 | ELDER |
More mature tree (5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 19 | DESIGNATE |
Plan had name (9)
|
| DESIGN (“plan”) + ATE (“had”) | ||
| 20 | SWASHBUCKLER |
Daredevil son to clean fastener with tip of rag (12)
|
| S (son) + WASH (“to clean”) + BUCKLE (“fastener”) with [tip of] R(ag) | ||
| 24 | OATH |
Reluctant to drop opening promise (4)
|
| (l)OATH (“reluctant”, dropping opening) | ||
| 25 | FLUID OUNCE |
Measure of clue I found revolting (5,5)
|
| *(clue I found) [anag:revolting] | ||
| 26 | SLEW |
Murdered a large number (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 27 | ATTENDANTS |
Stewards with a time to look after workers? (10)
|
| A + T (time) + TEND (“to look after”) + ANTS (“workers?”) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | RIPE |
Rent note ready (4)
|
| RIP (“rent”) + E (note) | ||
| 2 | FLOG |
Hit game returns (4)
|
| <=GOLF (“game” returns) | ||
| 3 | CRINGEWORTHY |
About to call European dignitary embarrassing (12)
|
| C (circa, so “about”) + RING (“to call”) + E (European) + WORTHY (“dignitary”) | ||
| 4 | SHEAR |
Clip quiet organ (5)
|
| SH (“quiet”) + EAR (“organ”) | ||
| 5 | EXCAVATES |
Digs up old wine with note on top of stopper (9)
|
| EX (“old”) + CAVA (“wine”) with TE (musical “note”) on [top of] S(topper) | ||
| 7 | COLLOQUIAL |
Left over quail prepared by colonel without formality (10)
|
| L (left) + O (over, in cricket) + *(quail) [anag:prepared] by Col. (colonel) | ||
| 8 | REGISTERED |
Noted, say, first queen in scarlet (10)
|
| e.g. (“say”) + IST (1st, so “first”) + ER (Elizabeth Regina, so “queen”) in RED (“scarlet”) | ||
| 11 | STRANGLEHOLD |
Gold enthrals terribly giving complete power over someone (12)
|
| *(gold enthrals) [anag:terribly] | ||
| 13 | OBSESSIONS |
Bugs former pupil attending meetings (10)
|
| OB (old boy, so “former pupil”) attending SESSIONS (“meetings”) | ||
| 14 | SANDCASTLE |
Smooth man that may be found on beach (10)
|
| SAND (“smooth”) + CASTLE (“man” on a chess board) | ||
| 16 | RED MULLET |
Swimmer embarrassed by hairstyle (3,6)
|
| RED (“embarrassed”) by MULLET (“hairstyle”) | ||
| 21 | KNIFE |
Cut knuckle near index finger exasperates initially (5)
|
| K(nuckle) N(ear) I(ndex) F(inger) E(xasperates) [initially] | ||
| 22 | ANON |
Men on adventure rising up, hiding immediately (4)
|
| Hidden backwards in [rising up, hiding] “meN ON Adventure” | ||
| 23 | JETS |
Black rock hits small flies (4)
|
| JET (“black rock”) hits S (small) |
Thanks, loonapick, all over to quickly, sadly.
Pleasant solve with a favourite at DESIGNATE.
Somehow never thought of COLLOQUIAL as without formality but it’s perfectly correct.
Many thanks, both.
Too…grrr.
Thanks loonapick and Carpathian for a very undemanding start to the week. ‘Swashbuckler’ is a strange word, methinks, given the way similar terms are created, eg ‘sightseer’, ‘bounty hunter’. It denotes someone given to swashing his or her buckler, rather than one buckling some ‘swash’. So perhaps the term should have been ‘bucklerswasher’. Just a thought.
An enjoyable puzzle and good to start the week with one I could complete. Does ‘anon’ really mean ‘immediately’ though? (Or ‘providence’ ‘foresight’?)
Phew – I am back in the zone. After a solidly unsuccessful week for me last week, I have now completed 2 (Saturday’s prize & this).
Took me a while to get OBSESSIONS, but otherwise it all went in quite quickly for me. I think this might be one I would recommend to a beginner, as I found it very approachable without being too obvious.
Good start to the week with an enjoyable but not too taxing puzzle. The bit that gave me most trouble was the ‘hits’ in 23d but it looks like it’s not specifically part of the wordplay. The answer didn’t seems as though it could be anything but JETS and the J being needed for the pangram also helped.
Hawa @4, Chambers has ‘immediately’ (as well as “soon” and “at another time”) as one sense of ANON. It surprised me too.
Thanks to Carpathian and loonapick
Many a long year since seeing fl oz on a bottle, so long that the anagram took a bit of staring at. But yes, generally a nice Monday stroll, thanks both.
Good start to the week with as you said a good mixture of clues.
SWASHBUCKLER made me laugh. Also liked CRINGEWORTHY, BRATWURST, OATH, RED MULLET
Thanks Carpathian and loonapick
[PS wotsappend to the quiptic??]
As you say, a very pleasant solve, loonapick. Thanks to you and Carpathian. I liked 15a BRATWURST, 2d FLOG, 3d CRINGEWORTHY, 11d STRANGLEHOLD, 16d RED MULLET and 22d ANON (which I recall from studying/teaching Shakespeare). For the same reason as grantinfreo@7, it took me ages to see FLUID OUNCE at 25a. I couldn’t parse AZURE at 17a fully, but of course I should have seen that “much-mentioned in Crosswordland river”, the URE! Despite the Z in that one which should have tipped me off, I also missed the pangram – clever Carpathian to include one!
We crossed, Fiona Anne@8 – some similar favourties between us!
This was great fun and entertainingly soluble. I suspect that when the Quiptic appears I will have done this one faster. Nice accessible clues with some interesting constructions and words – I grinned a quite a few, all already mentioned.
Thanks to Carpathian and loonapick
FAVOURITES – grrr!!!
Nice to see the old RED MULLET. It’s a lot better to come across than the Brown-Eyed Mullet.
A pleasant start to the week.
It’s already been said and done. Might have to watch TV waiting for the cryptic.
Ta loonapick & Carpathian.
Yes, as loonapick said, some of the shorter clues are familiar. SCAR, OATH, FLOG, SHEAR and SLEW, but a good introduction for newer solvers and to store in the memory bank.
Thanks for JETS. Thought it might have been a triple. And couldn’t find any flies called jets. 🙁
I didn’t notice the pangram while solving, so it didn’t help me to solve AZURE. The river was a bit elusive as well, although it’s also a cryptic fav. ( Reminder to self.)
Some nice surfaces. Liked CRINGEWORTHY and FLUID OUNCE.
Agree with loonapick’s assessment. Very nice.
Ta both
Good stuff, thanks loonapick and Carpathian. AZURE briefly held me up – although I had the answer from the definition & realising it was surely a pangram, the wordplay took a few moments to drop.
Nice puzzle to start the week. Unusually for me, I did it early in the day.
Was held up a while by writing in SANDMARTIN. Brain not quite in gear for the week yet.
Thanks to Carpathian and to loonapick.
Lots of juicy anagrams and clever word building today. Enjoyed the ride. DESIGNATE last one in…
Favourites BRATWURST, DESIGNATE, PROVIDENCE, REFOCUSSED (loi).
Thanks, both.
[WordPlodder @6: the definitions of ANON reminded me of my father’s use of the word PRESENTLY (when asked by his grandchildren to take them to the park, etc) which meant, basically, “some time in the future … perhaps.. if you’re lucky …”]
I agree with Hawa @4: good to start the week with one I could complete! Looking forward to the cryptic…
Thanks to Carpathian & loonapick
Not a bad start to the week. CASTLE for ‘man’ is a new one on me but it fit so it went in anyway. SLEW took me nearly as long as the rest of the grid put together.
I had déjà vu with EXCAVATES and realised that Qaos used a very similar construction for EXCAVATE a mere four days ago:
(Qaos 9th June) Dig out old wine — terrible! It lacks body (8)
(Carpathian today) Digs up old wine with note on top of stopper (9)
Pretty much perfect for a Cryptic newbie like me – not so hard that I fell apart or felt stupid, but not so simple that I felt punches were being pulled. It’s rare that I find the time and patience to fully complete a puzzle, so I’m glad I got around to doing this one today.
Thanks a ton Carpathian and loonapick!
I googled “Aure river” for 17a and found myself in France. Only when I came here did I discover the river was Ure. Equally obscure to me so it didn’t really matter. Thank you for an enjoyable diversion this wintry afternoon.
I enjoyed this, though I strongly suspect it was originally intended to be the Quiptic, as the Quiptic hasn’t been published today.
Hawa@4 – Providence can certainly mean foresight, though it is slightly archaic and most commonly now used in the negative; think of foolish and improvident souls who do not take their umbrellas on sunny English days and get soaked. And originally, Divine Providence was the foresight of God, which provided for the diverse needs of human beings- eg ensuring that the dock leaf tended to grow where stinging nettles grew, so that it could be rubbed on the afflicted skin and alleviate the pain.
But “anon” is a curious word; since it can mean immediately, fairly soon, or at some indefinite point in the future and conceivably never, it seems, in the literal sense, a meaningless word. Or at least a word which would be beloved of Humpty Dumpty; it really can mean whatever you want it to mean.
Thanks Carpathian and Loonapick. Carpathian is one of my favourites, so I’m always pleased to see her getting a wider audience outside her more customary Quiptic slot. And this was a typically lovely puzzle – just right for a Monday morning, I reckon.
For those missing their Quiptic fix, Gila in the Indy today should fill that hole nicely. Yesterday’s Hoskins perhaps even more so.
My English teacher at school used to complain about AGGRAVATION being used to mean provocation/annoyance, rather than its ‘proper’ sense of making worse, but apparently he was wrong – or at least, the usage which so aggravated him has a much older pedigree than he imagined. Whether that would have satisfactioned him is another matter.
grantinfreoo @7 – a bit of extra OO today I see 😉 – my measuring cup still marked in fl.oz. – cups were born to runneth over, be it fluid ounces or millilitres.
Thanks for the fun Carpathian, and loonapick for initially looking in the toilet.
Didn’t hit the mark for me. Felt like a mid-way offering between a Quick and Cryptic offering. Didn’t like the definitions for Providence or Anon.
It’s Monday, so I’ll keep quiet.
Thanks Carpathian and loonapick
Carpathians customary precise cluing, and very enjoyable.
My LOI was JETS, helped by remembering that Carpathian/Vigo quite likes pangrams. LOL for BLOG – probably not a good place to look for an online journal, though.
Thanks Carpathian for the fun and loonapick for the good blog.
This has Monday written all over it and as I like a gentle start to the week it was ideal for me. Sagittarius@27 is right about the meanings of Anon but ‘immediately’ is the one I would least expect in common usage. That made it LOI for me. Thanks Carpathian and loonapick.
Like Sam@24, this was perfect for me. The only one I didn’t get was JETS. For me, BEES fitted even though it didn’t really parse properly.
Happy bunny here.
Pleasant start to the week but had sandmartin at 14 down (which seemed perfectly reasonable, if wrong!) but then couldn’t find anything for 26 across. It’s good to see some new compilers joining the cryptic puzzles.
Rob T @23 – Castle as a chess piece (man) is a fairly common usage in cryptics
Straightforward and well-constructed, as a Monday puzzle should be.
FLUID OUNCE reminded me, queasily, of the Great Deceiver’s proposal to re-introduce Imperial measures…
Thanks to S&B
Martin @36 – thanks, I’ll attempt to add that to my memory banks 🙂
I certainly don’t want to be an apologist for J***son, but I rather miss imperial measures and old money. They have a long tradition and history and are far more characterful than metric. Foolscap paper, rods, poles and perches! I got FLUID OUNCE ANON!
Btw, why do people get so worked up about pangrams?
Nice Monday crossword.
Sets the day up nicely for the Quiptic which I guess will takeover.
Many thanks both.
AuntRuth @39. Yes, that’s always been puzzling to me, too.
I remember hearing ANON for the first time when my grandparents took me and my brothers to see Henry IV Part 1 at Stratford upon Avon in 1964. Most of this scene was well over my (very young) head, but ANON somehow stuck. And it was quite clear that the meaning was “at once!”
Thanks to Carpathian for a solve that lasted through one cup of coffee, and to loonapick, too.
Thanks loonapick, this needed a fresh look post-lunch to winkle out the NW and LOI JETS. I was unsure about bugs=obsessions in the plural, but I suppose if you have the crossword bug AND the sudoku bug then you have two bugs although I don’t think I have ever heard the word used in that sense. Nice to see the URE again after I struggled to spot it recently (and lucky I can’t think of any other potential variable, which can be almost any letter as far as I am concerned, that would make a colour from A_URE), and I liked a lot of these constructions, thanks Carpathian.
A pleasant entertainment for as long as it lasted. I come to praise DESIGNATE for its terseness.
AuntRuth@39/sh@41: I suppose that a pangram is just an admirable flourish that has to be acknowledged. I once thought there was evidence to suggest that setters embarked on their task with the intention of producing a pangram – there was certainly at one point a density of near pangrams. There have been reports of double (or even triple?) pangrams in the past – but I think that at least one setter (Nutmeg? Picaroon?) is on record as saying that they are not really that difficult to produce.
AuntRuth @39: The first problem facing the setter is simply to fill the grid with suitable words. They may have a handful of individual clues that they want to include but that doesn’t get them very far. Themes and pangrams may sometimes just be one way to assist the task.
Thanks for the blog, neat clues , precise and mainly concise. It reminded me of the old Everyman which I loved when I was learning to do cryptics.
Nobody has mentioned the theme so I will keep quiet.
Oh go on Roz
Epeolater@3 If a sightseer sees sights and a bounty hunter hunts (for) bounty, surely an analogous swashbuckler would buckle swash, not swash some buckle. We don’t say that a bounty hunter bounties hunt, so we?
GrannyJ@22 Your story about “presently” reminds me of the local definition of “directly,” which I heard in Cornwall: “It’s like ‘mañana’ but without the sense of urgency.” (I hope the tilde survives being posted.)
sh@8 Your video is unavailable to people in my country for copyright reasons, the black square tells me.
Gazzh@42 Although any letter can be a variable, the conventional ones are X, Y and Z.
If there’s a theme I missed it completely. Roz?
Pleasant Monday puzzle. Thanks to Carpathian and loonapick.
AlanC@46 you are my theme guru , I am a mere novice.
Lifted from Wikipedia: The term “swashbuckler” originates from boisterous fighters who carried a sword and buckler (a buckler being a small shield).[4] “Swashbuckler” was a putdown, used to indicate a poor swordsman who covered his lack of skill with noise, bragging, and clamour. Novels, and then Hollywood, altered the word’s connotation to make swashbuckler mean a loudmouthed but good braggart, and the hero of the plotline.
Roz @45 – I can see connections between a few words but it’d be a stretch to call it a “theme”, which probably means that I haven’t got it at all.
(which leads me onto a wider question: how many thematic answers would there need to be for a grid to be generally considered to be “themed”?)
William@2 Scanning the comments I saw you wrote “Too grr” I was about to suggest that it maybe wasn’t quite grr enough, until I noticed the context.
Regarding a theme, we have ANTS in 27a, bugs and flies in a couple of clues, GNAT in 19a and of course ‘MIDGE’ URE in 13a, but surely that isn’t it?
If you take the prime numbered answers ( 1 is not a prime ) apply a Vigenere cipher to each to give a jumble of letters, solve this anagram to get a word or words that reference a recent Guardian crossword theme.
I had literally just finished a game on chess.com and couldn’t parse SANDCASTLE. Doh! Thanks loonapick and Carpathian for a pretty much perfect Monday puzzle and blog.
I got easily stuck on this one last night. But quickly finished.
Lots of the comments above lost on me.
Thanks both
I’m just an occassional solver these days and don’t usually refer to the blog as the excellence of the bloggers has meant that I don’t really don’t need them anymore (obviously I can always cheat to get the answers – I come here for the eplanations)! Anyway, I’m so glad that I came today as I found this incredible theme (I never find themes). Here’s how it works:
Take the prime numbered answers (1 is not a prime), and apply a Vigenere cipher to them. Now find an anagram of this ciphertext, and voilà there’s your answer!
Mamy thanks to Carpathian and Loonapick for the blog.
Oh I almost forgot: the key to the Vigenere cipher is ‘rozlovesthemes’.
Let the record reflect that I considered this weekend’s prize puzzle a work of absolute genius.
Does anyone else use the alternate spelling LOTH, which made 24A harder work than it was designed to be?
Tim C @14, my cousin Ian on his surfboard collected the other sort at Bondi, and eventually got the sewage outfall cleaned up.
Andrew T @58: yes, and yes. We’re in the minority though.
After failing miserably with Tees bear in Saturday’s Indy and struggling to complete Buccaneer’s (Picaroon) well-crafted crossword in Saturday’s FT this came as a refreshing reboot. Top clues for me were BRATWURST, DESIGNATE, and RED MULLET. Thanks to both.
[SanDiegoBrit @57: It seems every crossword by Picaroon/Buccaneer/ Rodriguez is a work of genius. There will be a blog to discuss the Saturday prize in a couple of weeks. In the meantime check out the Buccaneer crossword in Saturday’s FT — you will enjoy the challenge.]
Andrew Tyndall@58 I’ve always been confused about the two spellings and never sure which one to use. I gather now that “loath” is more common. Good.
Concerning 1D: isn’t RIP a synonym of “rend” not “rent”, which stands for “ripped” instead?
Essexboy@60, only slightly related …
I’m one of an ever diminishing number of people who rhymes “sloth” with “both”, rather than with “moth”.
Hmm, I didn’t find this super-easy (only getting a few on the first pass, including RED-something when the hair style wouldn’t come to mind). The easy part is that I could parse the answers once I figured them out.
Struggled in the SW for a long time, as I didn’t know the “ELDER” tree, but did know ALDER.
Also did the Quiptic before returning to finish this.
My only quibble was “TE” for a note, which I learned as “TI” to rhyme with “tea”. But it is in Chambers …
Sagittarius@27 thanks for the explanation of providence being foresight. Having always heard ‘anon’ in the sense of ‘see you anon’ I had no idea it could mean ‘immediately’ as well!
AT @64 – we need to think of both ‘rent’ and ‘rip’ as nouns; I agree it doesn’t work with the verbs.
Geoff @65 – you and me both. Wiktionary has ‘sloth’ rhyming with ‘both’ in the UK (it says RP, but I think it’s more general than that), and with ‘moth’ in the US, Canada and NZ. Strangely it doesn’t say anything about Australia.
Geof@49 and others
Sorry to be late to the party.
Regards swashbuckler
Bernard Bolan , an English/Australian Folk Singer songwriter (and corporate lawyer) included the lyrics “with knuckles and chuckles we’ll swash their buckles if they bugger up Circular Quay” in the later version of his song ” Rose Bay Ferry”, Rather than inclusde a link I suggest you search for Bernard Bolan Rose Bay Ferry in Youtube.
Just to be awkward ( for once in my life ) I say “sloth” like “both” for the animal and like “moth” for the deadly sin.