It’s Brummie setting the challenge today, with an interesting and enjoyable puzzle.
Brummie’s puzzles often, but not always, have a theme. It was only as I began to write up the blog that the juxtaposed 5 and 6dn hit me with a thud and I realised that 26dn was the key. Then followed a fun review of the answers, adding POLAR, WITNESS, TEDDY, ARMS, GREAT and GARDEN – and there may be more.
My ticks today were for 15 and 31ac and 5 and 29dn.
Thanks to Brummie for the fun.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
9 Cheapo larch houses extremely cold (5)
POLAR
Hidden in cheaPO LARch
10 English old gold coin one has for giving a lesson (9)
EDUCATIVE
E (English) + DUCAT (old gold coin) + I’VE (one has)
11 Block A, location of Paul’s dramatic transformation (9)
DAMASCENE
DAM (block) + A (from the clue) + SCENE (location)
12 Limits of expansion in dull material (5)
DENIM
E[xpansio]N in DIM (dull)
13 Observe drinks holding temperature with sun (7)
WITNESS
WINES (drinks) round T (temperature) + S (sun)
15 Head of the hospital department, Margaret, is a help in securing temporary accommodation (4,3)
TENT PEG
T[he] + ENT (Ear, nose and throat – hospital department) + PEG (Margaret)
17 One sat out after taking top from pot noodle? (5)
PASTA
P[ot] + an anagram (out) of A (one) SAT
18, 28 What cows do with Mark is not nice (3,4)
LOW NOTE
LOW (what cows do) + NOTE (mark) – I couldn’t find this phrase in Collins or Chambers and online only in the American Merriam-Webster
20 Drug to be taken after meals — bother! (5)
TEASE
TEAS (meals) + E (drug)
22 Holding back name for male leads to cursing (7)
DAMNING
DAM[m]ING (holding back) with one m (male) replaced by N (name) – a pity we’ve already had DAM at 11ac
25 Rave organised by North American port stuck in routine (3,4)
RUN RIOT
An anagram (organised) of N (North) + RIO (American port) in RUT (routine)
26 Lawyers next to God, here in Scotland! (5)
BARRA
BAR (lawyers) + RA (Egyptian god) for the Hebridean island
27 Get touchy again, bringing rook into centre play (9)
RECONNECT
CON (rook – both slang for swindlle) in an anagram (play) of CENTRE
30 Skill in wangling ten spades? (9)
ADEPTNESS
An anagram (wangling) of TEN SPADES
31 Time to cuddle up to current bedtime companion (5)
TEDDY
T (time) + EDDY (current)
Down
1 Small sweet tuber (4)
SPUD
S (small) + PUD (sweet)
2 Climber‘s cleat is abandoned around mountain top (8)
CLEMATIS
CLEAT IS round M[ountain]
3 Mars is missing hydrogen supplies (4)
ARMS
[h]ARMS (mars) minus h (hydrogen)
4 Poetry virtually set in concrete — a change for the worse (8)
REVERSAL
VERS[e] (poetry virtually) in REAL (concrete)
5 Brooke, rugby union forward? (6)
RUPERT
RU (Rugby Union) + PERT (forward) for the WWI poet
6 Hot air added to temperature above station (10)
PADDINGTON
PADDING (hot air) + T (temperature) + ON (above)
7 Snatch some sleep after Josh (6)
KIDNAP
NAP (some sleep) after KID (josh)
8 In short, ‘ermine’ is an expression (4)
TERM
Hidden in shorT ERMine
13 Did sponge with fancy pie and date? (5)
WIPED
W (with) + an anagram (fancy) of PIE and D (date)
14 Man in Texas making testers (10)
EXAMINANTS
An anagram (making) of MAN IN TEXAS
16 Really important to get on someone’s nerves on air (5)
GREAT
Sounds like (on air) ‘grate’ (get on someone’s nerves)
19 About to break two arms badly, making a heap of soil (4,4)
WORM CAST
C (circa – about) in (to break) an anagram (badly) of TWO ARMS
21 They produce flavouring aids, seen in a different light (8)
ANISEEDS
An anagram (in a different light) of AIDS SEEN
23, 24 Formation of timeless dark matter, eg on new area of productive land (6,6)
MARKET GARDEN
An anagram (formation) of DARK MA[t]TER (minus only one t (time), so not exactly ‘timeless’) and EG + N (new)
26 Support end of pipe in watering-hole (4)
BEAR
[pip]E in BAR (watering hole)
29 Tolstoy’s lost, wilfully abandoned plays (4)
TOYS
T[olst)OY’S minus (abandoned) an anagram (wilfully) of LOST
RUPERT and PADDINGTON are bears
and BEAR MARKET
Shirl @1 – I mentioned them in the preamble.
A very easy solve, but despite looking for a theme, I still missed it
Sorry Eileen, didn’t read your intro properly!
Completely missed the theme until afterwards. I fear for Roz’s blood pressure today 🙂
Missed the theme because… having a vague recollection of Robert Burns’ “ye banks and braes o’ bonnie Doon” and imagining that a river might have a watering hole beside it, and not really knowing what a BRAE was (in fact, a sloping bank beside a river) I had the B and A crossers and a perfect fit for the wordplay: BRA=support + end of pipE. D’oh and double d’oh!
I didn’t think aniseed had a plural! Examinants was new to me, though I see it is in the dictionary.
Good fun, and nothing too taxing. My favourite was DAMNING. I didn’t like “mark” for “note” in 28d, and I hadn’t heard of Rupert Brooke, but the latter was easily found with a bit of googling.
I never think to look for a theme — I’m too busy enjoying the satisfaction of getting it all out!
Fairly straightforward, and even I couldn’t help but spot the theme with PADDINGTON and TEDDY in early. Thought the clue for TENT PEG was a bit of a mouthful, but I did like the clue for TEDDY, gave me an extremely warm and cuddly feeling as the clue intended. Went to BARRA once, wasn’t that where Compton Mackenzie set his hilarious Whiskey Galore story?
Just did this on a flight to Amsterdam. Nice puzzle but totally missed the theme.
Ta Brummie & Eileen
Too many iffy clues for me to enjoy here today, I’m afraid.
Nho LOW NOTE and if one’s going to clue something this obscure, something clearer than mark for NOTE would be helpful.
Probably me being dim but I thought Rio was in Brazil?
Supplies = ARMS is way too loose in my book.
Did sponge seems a very clunky way to define WIPED.
Perhaps it’s the heat getting to me…
Is bear garden a low note here? Anyway, it sounds like a thing, sort of a la low blow. Examinant, otoh, was a nho. As for the dear old bears, didn’t notice ’em, nwst having had them both chez the young ginf, not to mention Paddington’s recent royal chat. All good fun as you say, Eileen, ta, and ta Brum.
William, look again at the clue, and you’ll see it’s not actually saying it’s in North America!
William @12 I assume the AMERICA refers to the South one where Rio is? I thought it was a nice bit of misdirection
Chambers has NOTE for MARK
Only just finished, as I had Low Rate instead of LOW NOTE, so took me ages to get RECONNECT. I’m not unhappy about LOW NOTE though – hitting one may mean getting to a Low Point.
WIlliam@12 – Rio is in Brazil, which is in the (landmass) America. The North part accounts for the N – N RIO in RUT.
Theme, what theme? I see it now, now I’m told. Solving PADDINGTON, where I’ve seen the statue both in the original and present positions should have hit me between the eyes (There’s a geocache gave me reason for hunting it down the second time).
I suspect I was still dwelling, with irritation, on The Soldier, which comes to mind whenever I see RUPERT Brooke mentioned (… “That there’s some corner of a foreign field That is for ever England” … annoys me intensely for lots of reasons. I taught the poem as part of a WW1 package. That jingoism was the preferred memory of WW1, until the 50th anniversary, which coincided with Vietnam, when Wilfred Owen was finally widely read.)
Astrophysicists will no love dark matter being an agricultural product 😉
Ooops, sorry William – that must feel like a pile-on. I was typing and posted before I saw GDU & bc had got there first.
.. no doubt love… grr
I liked the theme which I only spotted after completing the puzzle. The sort of related EDUCATIVE and EXAMINANTS (according to Chambers, can be either an examiner or someone being examined) were unusual words but both weren’t too hard with wordplay and crossers.
Highlight was the appropriate surface for TEDDY.
Thanks to Brummie and Eileen
LOW NOTE was new to me as well, but with the crossers it was obvious, so I have no problems with it. Didn’t twig the theme until I’d finished, of course. It would have confirmed GREAT for 16d which I was a bit uneasy about. Overall an enjoyable puzzle. I liked 11a and 23,24. Thanks to Brummie and to Eileen for the blog.
Nice puzzle. Just my speed tbh. I did spend some time trying to fit ‘ares’ into 3d. Couldn’t find a suitable parsing obviously, but still not sure if I would have liked or disliked the definition if it had been right!
Thanks WordPlodder @21 – that means an examinant can BEAR examination. As bodycheetah says, we also have a BEAR MARKET. The term ‘BEAR GARDEN’ only rang a faint bell – to begin with I thought Brummie was having some faux-homophonic fun with BEER GARDEN. Thanks to him and Eileen.
2d. Anagram indicator is redundant.
I particularly liked (BEAR)MARKET (BEAR)GARDEN
Maybe we can have a BULL theme next.
Thanks Eileen and Brum
Enjoyable, and pretty straightforward for a Thursday.
A couple of DNKs (EXAMINANTS, WORM CAST) but still gettable.
Couldn’t parse RECONNECT as didn’t know rook = con
Surprised LOW NOTE isn’t in Collins/Chambers – “the evening ended on a low note…”
Didn’t spot the theme at all – doh!
Thanks Brummie & Eileen
Fun crossword. I’m unclear why REVERSAL is a change for the worse. Just a change would have done the trick. Thanks Eileen & Brummie.
JG @25 – I agree. It is just an insertion of M. I had no problems with LOW NOTE – I have certainly heard the phrase. After a slow start, this fell into place for me quite nicely, though I neither looked for, nor saw, the theme. Some of the surfaces were less than smooth (RUN RIOT, WORM CAST for example). Thanks, Brummie and Eileen.
JC @25 – you’re right: it isn’t an anagram. I’ll amend the blog. Thank you.
… but then why ‘abandoned’, I wonder?
Some nice and enjoyable clues here. I’m doubtful, however, that the clue for LOW NOTE works satisfactorily. As Eileen says, “low note” features in the online Merriam and Webster Dictionary, but the only appearance of it there that I could is as an integral part of the idiomatic expression “on a low note”, and the words “not nice” cannot simply be substituted for “low note” in it. Something along the lines of “To finish on this would be unpleasant ….” could work as a definition, but would make for a long clue. Perhaps it would have been better to have clued 18A and 28D separately?
Theme-wise, I spotted the actual BEARs – POLAR, TEDDY, PADDINGTON and so on, but missed the phrases (BEAR WITNESS etc).
I agree that LOW NOTE was a bit odd. Not so much for the phrase, but for the definition (“not nice”? “is not nice”?) which doesn’t seem grammatically quite right to me.
Brewer’s says about BEAR GARDEN:
“This place is a perfect bear garden – that is, full of confusion, noise, tumult, and quarrels. In Elizabethan and Stuart times the gardens where bears were kept and baited for public amusement were famous for all sorts of riotous disorder.”
Thanks Brummie and Eileen.
Eileen @31 it looks like maybe it was intended to be an anagram but didn’t actually need to be? Unlike ARMS which was an anagram of MARS but that wasn’t the wordplay 🙂
Agree with Jonathan Glovecake (what a lovely name) @25. I had ‘abandoned’ underlined and wondered why it was there.
I took ages trying to fit Low Rate into Recurrent until I realised it was LOW NOTE and RECONNECT and couldn’t work out why ‘hydrogen supplies’ were ARMS unless it was the H-bomb.
I also though that wilfully was a bit redundant on TOYS. A lot of other clues which are subtraction anagrams don’t bother to suggest that an anagram of the letters have to be removed before solving.
I did like RUN RIOT for the misdirection of ‘North American port’ and favourite was DAMASCENE which had me wondering whether Damascuss was spelled with two final esses until I saw the ‘of’.
Theme didn’t register so a 6 down stare on behalf of Roz. 😉
Is the Paulinesque NINA in row 9 a homophone of the theme word?
In 3d to complicate things ARES which fits was the Greek equivalent of MARS but couldn’ t parse. Don’t much like the real answer.
On the theme, one can also BEAR ARMS
Lots of fairly gentle fun. And the theme helped as well.
Has anybody spotted the misdirection at 5d, where followers of rugby would have thought of Zinzan Brooke the former All Black forward and captain? Didn’t take long to figure out it wasn’t him!
Thanks Brummie and Eileen
I did not notice the theme.
New: WORM CAST.
Thanks, both.
Tom @38 – please see my preamble. 😉
What we need is an additional crossword then we could have a themed and an un-themed (I’m tempted to say proper 😉 ) one every day.
However I like to be reminded of Paddington Bear, so thanks for that Brummie, and Eileen for the blog.
As soon as I got PADDINGTON and RUPERT I went looking for BEAR. The theme also helped me get GREAT which I really liked. I always like homophones when I get them as so often I don’t.
Also liked TEDDY – eddy seems to feature quite frequently in crossword land and is also important when I am out paddling.
Thanks Brummie and Eileen
Enjoyed the BEAR Hunt.
I also wondered why the CLEAT IS needed to be abandoned, because it didn’t.
Oops. This, of course, is the BEAR hunt!
FOP @36, dyu mean that an e-moona = one who “bares” his or her, ahem, online?
Great puzzle, no quibbles, thank you Brummie and also Eileen for the theme which of course I did not get!
Thanks Brummie and Eileen (I thought of you immediately I saw BARRA).
Over dinner with friends last night the subject of DENIM arose and it was noted that a particular family hardly wore anything else. My suggestion that it was in their jeans led to me being handed my metaphorical coat.
Should have looked for the theme before I’d finished the puzzle so it could do me some good, but oh well.
Before getting TEDDY because it fits with the crossers, I had HOURI, which I think also fits perfectly, remarkably enough. Hear me out. “hour” is the time, “i” stands for current, and the definition is one of the supposed beautiful virgins that certain believers supposedly get in paradise, hence bedtime companions. Well, it worked for me.
Tom @38 et al: or, if you have read Jasper Fforde’s The Fourth Bear, it could be the right to ‘ARM BEARS’ (great read btw).
Eileen’s juxtaposition of 5 and 6 down was lost on me, since I’ve never heard of Rupert Bear (though I have heard of Rupert Brooke, mostly as the opposite of Wilfred Owen), so that can be my excuse for once again totally missing the theme. I missed GREAT BEAR too, because over here we call it the Big Dipper.
khayyam@23 I had ARES too.
Whisky Galore was set on a fictional island, Todday (I just looked it up), but since it’s hard to film on one they filmed it on Barra. The Wikipedia article reminded me that Gordon Jackson, who plays a nice young man in it, later became famous as Hudson, the butler in Upstairs Downstairs.
Delightful puzzle, even more so when Eileen let me in on the theme. I’m feeling sorry for myself in this 90-plus heat, but know that you in the UK have it worse.
Got slightly held up by deciding that there is such a thing as a CROW MAST for 19d. My complete failure to find any reference online did nothing to shake my conviction to leave it in, for some reason.
Valentine@51…but didn’t Compton Mackenzie live on Barra for quite some time, too.
Relatively breezy, though the SW corner took me longer than the rest. I tend to give setters the benefit of the doubt (especially since starting to try setting myself, it’s HARD) but today I think there were a few examples of oddly-worded clues, where it seems fairly obvious how they could have been improved (unnecessary ‘abandoned’ in 2d; LOW NOTE does not really equate to ‘not nice’ and could have easily been split into two separate clues; use of DAM as clue component twice).
For the sake of balance, there was also much to like, including but not limited to: DAMASCENE, TENT PEGS, TEASE and CLEMATIS.
Alphalpha @48 you can never have too much DENIM
Sorry to hear about your comedic fail – hopefully you were able to selvedge the situation
bodycheetah@55: Snurkle. (I had to look it up – 15^2 just keeps on giving.)
grantinfreo @46. Yes. A bit cheeky by Brummie.
Thanks Brummie for the fun. I enjoyed the bear hunt and I came across BARRA Bear and Carly Cat in my search — I can’t say I ever heard of that duo. I had many ticks including DENIM, DAMNING, RECONNECT, CLEMATIS (I saw abandoned indicating an anagram and never thought beyond that), TOYS, and ANISEEDS, the latter for its surface. Thanks Eileen for the blog.
Missed the theme as always, even after finishiing the puzzle and remembering to look for one. Thanks Eileen and Brummie for an enjoyable time with the crossword and the blog and especially for the parsing of DAMNING which eluded me. I liked RECONNECT and ‘rook’ for ‘con’ was new – kept thinking of chess and the castling move which brings the rook to the centre of the board. But once I had seen what ‘centre’ was really for there could only be one sensible answer.
It’s better than yesterday’s but still quite a few jarring moments for me. Surely crossword writing is easier than this.
[Eileen: If you have the time and energy check out Serpent’s crossword in the Indy today. You’ll like it.]
Thanks for the tip, Tony.
I rarely look for a theme and forget to look after half way so missed that. Pity. No problem with the LOW NOTE which seems fairly often used. Do have a problem with abbreviations nho otoh? Doh I can live with.
Otqfm.
Thanks Brummie and Eileen.
Thanks Brummie and Eileen
I did most of this over breakfast, though that did include an unparsed ARES – when I got to the computer I checked and corrected it. Great misdirection!
Better than most of Brummie’s, though I didn’t see the theme, of course (I’ve explained before that once I’ve written and answer in, I forget it!) The only quibble I had was with the “timeless” in 23,24 – as Eileen says, one “time” is still there.
Did no one else get misled by thinking Brooke was B Shields of Pretty Baby fame, leading naturally to hooker, a RU forward? Clever, or me being stupid?
… and thanks to Brummie for the great puzzle and to Eileen for the comprehensive blog!
the last plantagenet @ 60: If you think it’s that easy, show us how it’s done. You don’t get to say it’s easy without proving it to be so.
For 2d, you would need something to replace “abandoned” for the surface to make sense — maybe “found”.
Loved the TEDDY clue!
Just chiming in…in support of Rev Bob @8: I have never used the plural for ANISEED either…and in solidarity with Khayyam @ 23 and Oleg @37 and Valentine @51 and Muffin @64 for being misled by the Greek God…plus I agree with Eileen @31 and Body Cheetah @34 and Gladys @44 that the “abandoned” seems erroneous.
I would have loved to have seen a Kennedyesque “any burden” and a “dancing” bear instead of a DAMNING one. [BTW I am off to see The Winter’s Tale this evening, where I expect to enjoy seeing an exit pursued by one]
…plus Cal Gal @68 re “abandoned”, which just crossed mine…
Paul@28 – usually when referred to as being for the worse it’s “suffering a reversal” so it can be in the strictly negative.
Eileen@30 – 25 is not an anagram either.
BodsnVimto@71 – you’re right , of course! How did I get away with that for so long?
In haste to get the blog out, one sees ‘abandoned’, as before, and ‘organised’ and immediately thinks ‘anagram’.
I suspect TOYS goes with parts of the theme as well.
Thanks for the blog Eileen and Brummie for the fun.
My experience was identical to that of blaise @7. It’s comforting to know I’m not the only one! Thanks, Brummie and Eileen.
Ronald@53 He may have lived on Barra, and perhaps the fictional Todday is Barra in disguise.
I liked KIDNAP for the misdirection. My first stab at ”snatch some sleep” was catnap, but who was Josh?
Mystogre@73. I wondered why it took so long for someone to raise your point about TOYS. Maybe people who have/have had Ruperts, or Paddingtons, or Teddies don’t think of them as toys.
Oh no – I can’t BEAR it; I missed the theme! I must develop a new mantra: “Brummie sometimes has a theme”. Perhaps it was because BEAR at 26d was my LOI, and then I didn’t think to look back over the completed puzzle. Even without spotting the theme, it was a lot of fun. Like TimC@35, DAMASCENE at 11a was my favourite. Thanks to Brummie for a very likeable puzzle and to Eileen for her fidelity to writing such interesting and detailed blogs (and for reading our comments!).