Thanks to Anto for today’s puzzle.
(I’m off on the long drive to the Highlands shortly so won’t be able to respond to comments or corrections till this evening.)
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | RECLAIM | Salvage extremely rare celestial object (7) The “extreme” letters of RarE CelestiaL + AIM (object) |
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| 5 | BABY SIT | Look after the issue for others (4,3) Cryptic definition. Chambers and I agree that this should be hyphenated |
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| 9 | DARTS | Diving attacker received trivial sum, initially for throwing game (5) Initial letters of Diving Attacker Received Trivial Sum |
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| 10 | TREACHERY | Endeavour to capture contact linked to English betrayal (9) REACH (to contact) + E in TRY (endeavour) |
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| 11 | EASY PEASY | Pee twice, say, when going off — it’s that simple (4,5) Anagram of PEE SAY SAY. Again I think a hyphen is needed in the answer |
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| 12 | PILOT | Plan to gather information for show trial (5) I[nformation] in PLOT. A pilot could be a trial of a TV show |
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| 13 | TEMPT | Lure agency worker to join top table (5) TEMP (agency worker) + T (“top table”.. hmm) |
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| 15 | OMBUDSMAN | Investigator locates married American friends in Arab country (9) M[arried] BUDS in OMAN |
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| 18 | PAST EVENT | Spread discharge — it’s all over now (4,5) PASTE (spread) + VENT (discharge) |
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| 19 | LATCH | Key type added on to register (5) To LATCH ON is to register – Anto often tends to use clues like this that seem to work the wrong way round |
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| 21 | TILDE | Piece in cited literature about accent (5) Hidden in reverse of citED LITerature |
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| 23 | PROFUSION | Plenty in favour of merger (9) PRO + FUSION |
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| 25 | DINOSAURS | Air sounds freaked out such old fogeys (9) (AIR SOUNDS)* |
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| 26 | MAINS | Current source of master’s trendy interior (5) IN (trendy) in MA’S |
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| 27 | MAN-MADE | Artificial servant picked up after staff (3-4) MAN (to staff) + homophone of “maid” |
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| 28 | PATIENT | Case has one placed in clear folder? (7) I in PATENT (obvious, clear) |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | RED CENT | Split over irregular decree that’s basically worthless (3,4) Alternate letters (irregular?) of DeCrEe in RENT |
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| 2 | CHRISTMAS | Church is smart shifting this festival (9) CH + (IS SMART)* |
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| 3 | AESOP | Sit up after a tale from him, perhaps (5) A + reverse of POSE |
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| 4 | METHADONE | Desperate men head to addiction treatment (9) (MEN HEAD TO)* |
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| 5 | BEEFY | Two insects left out? That’s powerful (5) BEE + FLY less L |
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| 6 | BACK PEDAL | Reconsider second exercise over youngster getting upset (4,5) BACK (to second) + PE (exercise) + reverse of LAD. Yet another answer that should have a hyphen |
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| 7 | STEAL | Take time to get in close (5) T in SEAL (to close) |
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| 8 | TRY IT ON | Attempt to give fitting advice when clothes shopping (3,2,2) Double definition |
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| 14 | THE RED SEA | Arrange dates here in the Middle East (3,3,3) (DATES HERE)* |
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| 16 | BOTTOMS UP | Cheers when getting to the end of the drink (7,2) BOTTOM (end) + SUP (drink) |
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| 17 | MATRICIDE | Bedding edge will do for mother, they say (9) Homophone of “mattress side”, with the homophone at the wrong end of the clue |
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| 18 | POTSDAM | Pools found on embankment at historic conference site (7) POTS (pools, e.g. of money in betting) + DAM (embankment) |
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| 20 | HANDSET | Communication equipment created by worker group (7) HAND (worker) + SET |
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| 22 | LINEN | Material name added to charge (5) I’m not sure if this is N in LIEN (a legal charge?) or LINE (charge as in “line one’s pockets”?) |
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| 23 | PAUSE | Hesitate when seeing father sitting on facility (5) PA + USE |
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| 24 | UNMET | Core of county police force not satisfied (5) CoUNty + MET (Metropolitan Police) |
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At the easy end, but enjoyable. I particularly liked LATCH (having wondrered about LOGON) and EASY PEASY. Agree that BABY SIT should be one word. Thanks to A & A.
For some reason I think of Anto as an ‘easier’ setter, but my stats for his cryptics don’t support that at all. My average for him (or her?) is only just below the overall average. His crosswords tend to fall into two time zones though, and this one was in the quicker set. Thanks to Anto and Andrew.
Some clever stuff in there, but I’m still not a big fan. The homophone attempt doesn’t work for me.
Thanks Anto and Andrew
Pools/pots was the only head scratcher. An entertaining puzzle yielding plenty of smiles. Thanks Anto & Andrew.
I wasn’t familiar with RED CENT but it was pretty clearly clued. There’s a lot of earnest discussion online about the derivation of the expression which on another day I’d probably find fascinating.
Not sure that the folder in 28ac is doing very much apart from trying to get the surface to make sense, but never mind. What would have been a pleasant enough start to the day if I hadn’t done it at 3 a.m. being unable to get back to sleep…
Thanks to Anto and Andrew.
I thought about the parsing of LINEN also, but not enough to consider LIEN. I settled with a line item on an invoice. Thanks Andrew and Anto.
I enjoyed this as I usually do with Anto, though there were one or two things that I thought would cause controversy (particularly “top table” for T!).
I really liked DARTS with the surface about the cheating footballer and the clever double meaning of “throwing game”. And I laughed out loud at “mattress side” / MATRICIDE, though on reflection the definition (“do for mother”) seems to be a verb phrase which maybe doesn’t quite fit the answer which is a noun?
But all good fun. Many thanks Anto and Andrew.
As usual some quibbles. I often find the blog as entertaining as the puzzle with Anto. That said I thought this was a relatively well behaved one. Oops – missed the hyphen!
Tx Anto and Andrew.
What will crossword setters do when, in the course of establishing a decent police force for London, TPTB are driven to abolishing the MET?
And shall we have a sweepstake on how long it will be before someone complains that MATTRESS SIDE/MATRICIDE isn’t a “sounds like” but only a “sounds amusingly similar”?
Neil H – see my comment @3
Thanks for parsing LATCH, Andrew. I had persuaded myself that Anto was referring to ‘latch key kids’ who would have been added to a school register. I liked both DARTS and THE RED SEA – but I cannot forgive ‘top table’ = T. And ‘irregular’, even for Anto, seems a somewhat stretchy synonym for ‘regular’ or ‘regularly’ in the alternation instruction.
Thanks Anto and Andrew
Lord Jim@7
MATRICIDE
Agree with you on the part of speech aspect.
LINEN
LIEN worked for me all right.
Thanks Anto and Andrew
Some very nice misleading definitions – I particularly liked “throwing game” and “show trial”.
Inevitably some quibbles: TRY IT ON doesn;t simply mean “attempt” by itself – it’s more “attempt to pull a fast one”. I wouldn’t equate key with LATCH. I considered both ways of parsing LINEN and decided that neither quite worked – N in LIEN is better, but “added to” suggests put at the end rather than inserted.
Struggled to finish the SE – MATRICIDE (!) LOI.
EASY-PEASY just about sums it up. Some nice clues like MATRICIDE and OMBUDSMAN (Oman, the go to Arab country). I also agree with the missing hyphens. Good fun.
Ta Anto & Andrew.
NeailH@5 I enjoyed 28 as a sort of @lit with the patient being the actual person and the case being he or she reduced to clinical notes (in a clear folder).
Crispy @10 – Touché. Shouldn’t try and be funny after not enough sleep.
Muffin @13 – Isn’t the idea of 19a that LATCHKEY (as in latchkey kid), obtained by “adding on” latch to key, is a thing?
NeilH @16. I’m always wary of whinging about homophones. As is only too apparent on these blogs, there are too many accents in this world for there to be one pronunciation of a lot of words. I frequently look at the comments and think “Well I don’t have a problem with it”. It seems like I may be the odd one out today. Perhaps I just talk funny!
NeilH @17
That would be fine if the definition were “register”, but it’s “key type”. For me, a key is something you carry around with you, whereas a latch is fixed in place.
Lord Jim@7 make that a triple for DARTS as I read a spear-fisher disposing of their catch.
1d I think ‘irregular’ is fine for 1, 3, 5, 7, etc as they are odd so are not ‘regular’? ‘regular’ would suggest the even numbers of 2, 4, 6, etc? Well, they do to me, at least? Apart from that? I’ve never heard of ‘Tilde’ before.
Priscilla @21
You’ve almost certailny seen a tilde, though. It’s the squiggly line written over an N in spanish words such as “senor” (I haven’t attempted to insert one as they seem not to work on this site).
It seems I was solving this at the same sort of time as NeilH, which does affect one’s attitude – but I did enjoy it more than the last Anto puzzle, mainly because I didn’t have to blog it!
I winced when I saw ‘top table’ and dearly hope that it will not lead to the amount of discussion that ‘First Lady’ (erroneously!) evinced last weekend.
I expected some comment from Andrew about the definition in 14dn, once a bête noire of his : perhaps he’s decided that horse is well and truly dead.
Lord Jim @7 – I think if you take ‘will’ as part of the definition. it will do! like you, I liked the clue.
Other ticks were for 5ac BABY SIT (sic), 5ac DARTS, 15ac OMBUDSMAN and 25ac DINOSAURS.
muffin @22 – try here https://slcr.wsu.edu/help-pages/microsoft-keyboards-standard-english-us-101/ for a tilde.
Thanks to Anto for the puzzle and Andrew for the blog – have a great holiday!
Quite tough but this was an enjoyable puzzle to solve. NE corner was hardest for me.
Favourite: BEEFY, STEAL, PILOT.
I could not parse 19ac LATCH.
I had the same thoughts as Andrew re 22d but why does LINE = charge? or is it N in LIEN?
Thanks, both.
Definitely on the easier end of Anto’s output, and with fewer quibbles here, all of which have been covered already.
Thanks both!
Muffin @13 I might have some whiskey “added to” my coffee?
Lots of fun with ticks for BEEFY (Botham), BACK PEDAL & RECLAIM
Cheers 2A
Eileen @23
Thanks, but I don’t have a numeric keypad.
I’ll try copying and pasting from Word:
señor
Tick!
Priscilla @21. Perhaps the est known tilde is over the 2nd N in El Nino.
…best
Eileen@23
MATRICIDE
Will do for mother = Will kill (one’s) mother. Right?
How does it equate to ‘matricide’ rather than to ‘commit matricide’?
NeilH@17
LATCH (when) ‘Added on/added on to’ (is) ‘register’. I think the def has to be key type (referring to ‘latchkey) as underlined in the blog.
Given the syntax of the clue, I agree that one can’t be quite certain.
KVa @31 – I’m not sure now: it (MATRICIDE will do for mother) seemed to work for me when I said it to myself!
Matricide as noun? As in a matricide will do for mother?
I was familiar with the term RED CENT – I am from Australia so it may be used more often here? I thought LIEN for Linen. Worked for me. MATRICIDE I liked. Maybe could have been “done for mother” to be a bit clearer, but I found it funny when it landed. A nice puzzle.
If ‘American’ is deemed necessary in the clue for 15 across, why not in the clue for the far more obscure Americanism answer to 1down?
I just thought of ‘ .. hideous grin, ous grin’ …
Panthes @34 – yes, that will do. 😉
Well no quibbles from me this morning – apart from perhaps raising one eyebrow over MATRICIDE. Enjoyed this from start to finish, ta very much Anto and Andrew. Though I’m glad I’m not testing myself against the clock every time I start a Guardian Cryptic solve, Birdfossil@2. Don’t you feel a bit like a chess player with one of those competition clocks that you and your opponent click as soon as one or other has made a move…?
A TILDE is used in Vietnamese too, introduced by French monks, to indicate the rising broken tone, e.g. n?ã meaning again. The tilde should be over the ? but as it is the whole word that is tonal and not just the letter, that is moot.
I found this mostly 11A, though the SE took me a little longer. Perhaps too many anagrams…(?) I liked OMBUDSMAN (is ombudsperson a real word?) and MATRICIDE. With thanks to Anto and Andrew.
I wonder if Anto is someone who says irregardless.
I should f entioned that I enjoyed this, easy for an Anto, but nne the worse for that. And thankyou for the blog Andrew, I did not LATCH ON to all the parsing in 19
I continue to dislike some of Anto’s devices, including the LATCH(on), which I failed to get. I also didn’t like ‘irregular’ as used in 1d.
‘Tilde’ is an interesting word. In English, it means the squiggly line, but that is not an accent but a diacritical (which is fine in a crossword). Curiously, the Spanish term for it is ‘vergulilla’, whereas ’tilde’ in Spanish actually does mean ‘accent’ (from ’tildar’ meaning to tick) and would never apply to the squiggle. Go figure.
When I was a student in the early 80s lecturers used a tilda in scientific notation to mean “equivalent to”. I’m unsure if this was universal and if it is still in use as I’ve had no reason to come by it since.
As has been said, easy-peasy. Liked MATRICIDE despite the “they say” being in the wrong place.
Thanks Anto and Andrew
Total fail – not one clue.
21a – how do you know to look for a reverse clue?
TILDE
‘about is the reversal indicator Steffen@47!
‘about’
poc @44: thanks for that, interesting. I wonder if your vergulilla shares a root with the French virgule which seems to be used for all manner of punctuation marks?
Entertaining crossword from Anto.
I liked the double extremely for RECLAIM, the twice say (not twice pee!) in EASY PEASY, the LATCH on, the clear folder in PATIENT, the good anagram for METHADONE, the surface of STEAL, and the mattress side definition. I didn’t appreciate the table top for T, although I suppose it is the same as the top of the table.
Thanks Anto and Andrew.
Thanks for the blog, a nice puzzle with lots of neat clues. Anto seems to miss out hyphens but it is more usual to then have it as one word, most hyphens die out and apparently the rate is going up.
For RED CENT I had DeCreE , 1 3 6 which is irregular.
AlanC just gets a mention right at the end.
Muffin @19 I agree. In my understanding, a latch is a type of lock or fastening for a door. Hence a latch key is not a specific type of key, but a key for a specific type of lock.
1d – I hope this isn’t a daft question – where does RENT come from in the clue?
Where there’s a will there’s a way… to justify putting the homophone indicator at the wrong end. {Bedding edge} will {do for mother} they say.
Steffen @54: split
Steffen @54, rent is a synonym for split
Well, that was, for me, easier than yesterdays Cryptic.
Despite the quibbles, liked matricide and latch. Methadone, reclaim, patient and easy peasy also nice IMO.
Highlight for me was “show trial”. Lowlights were all the quibbles, previously mentioned.
I think NeilH@9 hit the nail on the head with interpreting homophones as “sounds amusingly similar”. If that became the standard practice around here, just think: no more “It doesn’t work for me”, never again a mention of rhotism, imagine all the virtual ink saved! We’d be doing ourselves a great big favour.
DrW @59 We can dream 🙂
Also, presumably most people wouldn’t object to 12th September meaning the twelfth day of September so what’s the problem with using a similar abbreviation for TOP (of) TABLE etc.? Anyway it’s probably too useful for creating smooth surfaces so I dare say it’s here to say
I thought that 19a was weak, but OTOH the Goons back in the 50s did a joke about sewing someone into a mattress being matricide, so there is precedent for that near homophone.
Also OTOH, the alternate letters from ‘decree’ being irregular was OK for me, because they were the odd ones. Odd, irregular?
I don’t normally comment on here but felt I had to today. I hate homophones at the best of times and matricide was just about the worst I’ve ever seen in over 40 years of solving cryptics. Homophones to me are a lazy clueing device almost as bad as a Spoonerism!!
Andrew, thanks for parsing RECLAIM, EASY PEASY,
Shouldn’t RED CENT be marked as American?
A tilde also occurs in Portuguese in such words as não to indicate that the vowel is nasal. My recollection of it in mathematics is that it means “similar to” of polygons, to refer to figures that were the same shape but different sizes.
Thanks, Anto and Andrew.
Enjoyable test with no quibbles here. Is a hyphen really necessary?
Tilde works for me …señor.
Thanks Andrew and Anto
In Spanish the n with and without the tilde are two different letters and pronounced differently.Anos with and without the tilde are best not interchanged.
Thanks Anto for the fun. Most of this went in easily but I resorted to the guess-then-check system to get MATRICIDE. My favourites included DINOSAURS, RED CENT, METHADONE, (nice anagram and surface), BEEFY, and STEAL. Thanks Andrew for the blog.
I thought lien was best/only parsing of 22
I’m happy with top table given some of the other tricks used here.
Absolutely no idea why 1d means worthless – it doesn’t mean anything in English other than a US coin painted red.
I was fine with charge=LINE , both mean to fill or stuff, pockets is a good example in the blog.
I have seen – Not worth a RED CENT – in novels and heard it in old films. Usually a promise from someone.
Peter@68: The penny is the least valuable piece of American currency. It contains some copper which gives it a reddish tint. “Not worth a red cent” dates back to the 1800’s in the U.S. Perhaps adding “in America” to the clue might have made it more precise.
Finky @66
I wish you hadn’t said that. I’ll never remember which is the right way round, now…
Thanks both and I got an entertaining stretch from it, quibbles notwithstanding.
But when I say MATRICIDE I immediately thought of this. If it’s good enough for Porter it’s good enough for me – enjoy.
Geoff Down Under@4: If you’re playing cards the pool and the pot can be the same thing.
Dr. WhatsOn@59: ‘Virtual ink’! Haha what a concept!
William @50: I think poc made a slight spelling error. The term I know is virgulilla and it does appear to be related to French virgule as well as English virgule (slash or stroke). Vergulilla is very close to being a diminutive of verga which has a very different meaning indeed.
Having said all that, I don’t accept TILDE as being equivalent to “accent” but I got the gist.
I agree with bodycheetah. Not sure why everyone’s getting their u.w in a bunch re top table. Clearly everyone got it which means it did its job. I am more concerned with the loose definition of ombudsman.
An enjoyable solve, so thanks, Anto. Thanks too to Andrew for a couple of clarifications that I needed.
BlueDot@73: indeed, and apologies for the typo. Such a pity one can’t edit a comment once made.
The English ‘virgule’ is almost certainly related, as has been pointed out. Chambers has it as ‘a slanting line, an old form of comma, a solidus’ (or as we would now say, a slash ‘/’)
southofnonorth@71: It’s easy to remember when you realise that the ~ was originally a shorthand way of adding another ‘n’, (thus the old Spanish ‘donna’ becomes ‘doña’). Both ‘año’ and ‘ano’ come from Latin, with the obvious meanings.
Alphalpha@72 – finally got round to following your link – 8 days late – an Ella song I hadn’t heard before. “mattress side” 🙂