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Fun to solve and parse – I especially enjoyed 1ac, 9ac, 1dn, and 24dn, alongside other favourites including 25ac, 28ac, and 6dn. Thanks to Paul for the puzzle
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | MATISSE |
Nice draughtsman forgetting university in paper, postgraduate? (7)
|
| definition: the artist Henri Matisse [wiki] who lived in the city of Nice in France
U (university) removed/forgotten from: TISSUE=”paper”, after (“post”) MA (Master of Arts, “graduate”) |
||
| 5 | JUNE BUG |
Beetle in middle of wine butt collected by pitcher … (4,3)
|
| middle letters of [wi]-NE BU-[tt], inside JUG=”pitcher” | ||
| 9 | MAYBE |
… reportedly an earlier insect, perhaps? (5)
|
| sounds like (“reportedly”): ‘May bee’, which would be an insect earlier in the year than JUNE BUG (linking back to the previous clue/solution) | ||
| 10 | SAXOPHONE |
Instrument in embarrassing condition while, on reflection, needing polish (9)
|
| POX=”embarrassing condition” + AS=”while”, both reversed/”on reflection”; plus HONE=”polish” as a verb | ||
| 11 | ORNAMENTAL |
Fancy fancy man later on (10)
|
| anagram/”fancy” of (man later on)* | ||
| 12, 19 | NEW LABOUR |
Party once in row, unable to adapt (3,6)
|
| definition: UK Labour Party was branded as ‘New Labour’ for a period in the 90s/00s
anagram/”to adapt” of (row unable)* |
||
| 14 | DRYSTONE WALL |
Wearisome delay, resulting in traditional building work (8,4)
|
| DRY as in boring, tedious=”Wearisome” + STONEWALL=”delay” | ||
| 18 | ROLL IN THE HAY |
Grass-covered bread for congress? (4,2,3,3)
|
| definition as in sexual congress
ROLL (bread) IN THE HAY (Grass-covered) |
||
| 21 | CHI |
A little eccentric, hippy aura (3)
|
| hidden in (“A little [bit of]”): eccentri-[C HI]-ppy | ||
| 22 | MONEY PLANT |
Green growth? (5,5)
|
| definition: a type of plant [wiki]
“Green” is slang for MONEY, plus PLANT=”growth” |
||
| 25 | ABOLISHED |
A sack filled with sand, unopened, done away with (9)
|
| A + BED=”sack” (as in ‘hit the sack’); around [p]-OLISH=”sand, unopened” | ||
| 26 | ELOPE |
Escape with girl, having dumped writer (5)
|
| PEN-ELOPE is a girl’s name, minus PEN=”writer” | ||
| 27 | MAESTRO |
Great player, tears when beaten mopped up by doctor (7)
|
| anagram/”beaten” of (tears)*, inside MO (medical officer, “doctor”) | ||
| 28 | RETIRED |
Career complete, ultimately knackered, went to bed (7)
|
| last letters (ultimately) of [Caree]-R [complet]-E, plus TIRED=”knackered” | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | MAMMON |
Lovely gravy that tastes divine inspires a cricket side (6)
|
| definition: Mammon means money (“gravy” is slang for ‘money’) as an object of devotion or love (“Lovely”)
MMM=noise made when enjoying food=”that tastes divine”, around/”inspires” A (taken from the surface); plus ON=the leg side of a cricket field |
||
| 2 | TRYING |
Burdensome legal procedure? (6)
|
| double definition: second definition as in putting to trial | ||
| 3 | STEAM TRAIN |
Rocket, say, attached to this, pressure crushing crew (5,5)
|
| definition refers to Stephenson’s Rocket, a steam engine to be attached to a train [wiki]
STRAIN=”pressure” around TEAM=”crew” |
||
| 4 | ESSEN |
European city with rearing monster from which I fled (5)
|
| reversal/”rearing” of NESSIE=the Loch Ness Monster, minus I | ||
| 5 | JUXTAPOSE |
Compare ten in project with a model (9)
|
| X=Roman numeral for “ten”, in JUT=”[to] project [outwards]” + A (from the surface) + POSE=”model” | ||
| 6 | NOPE |
Some ‘yep’, only on the contrary? (4)
|
| hidden/”Some” reversed/”on the contrary”, in [y]-EP ON-[ly] | ||
| 7 | BROWN RAT |
Mammal observed peak over lake, looking up (5,3)
|
| BROW=top of e.g. a hill=”peak”, over TARN=”lake” reversed/”looking up” | ||
| 8 | GREY WOLF |
Predator found game circling one river and another from the south (4,4)
|
| GOLF=”game”, around/”circling: ” WYE=”one river” + R ([another] river), both reversed/”from the south” | ||
| 13 | DECAMPMENT |
Politician and political staff held up in hole, leaving (10)
|
| MP (Member of Parliament, “Politician”) + MACE=”political staff”; both reversed/”held up”, in DENT=”hole”
MACE as in the ceremonial maces (“staff” as in a rod / a blunt weapon) used in the Houses of Parliament [wiki] |
||
| 15 | SUTTON HOO |
Archaeological site where sheep uncovered: clear off around it (6,3)
|
| definition: a site of Anglo-Saxon cemeteries in Suffolk [wiki]
[m]-UTTON=”sheep” without the top letter/”uncovered”, with SHOO=”clear off” around it |
||
| 16 | PROCLAIM |
A line company promoted in proper state (8)
|
| A (from the surface) + L (line) + CO (company), all reversed upward/”promoted”; inside PRIM=”proper” | ||
| 17 | ELSINORE |
Shakespearean setting I observed in something dull from Cervantes? (8)
|
| definition: a setting for Shakespeare’s Hamlet
I (from the surface), inside EL SNORE a SNORE=”something dull”, and EL is the Spanish (as used by Cervantes) definite article |
||
| 19 |
See 12
|
|
| 20 | ATTEND |
Serve, late in the evening, first of diners (6)
|
| AT TEN (at 10pm)=”late in the evening”, plus first letter of D-[iners] | ||
| 23 | EIDER |
Shade that is up, from which to get down? (5)
|
| definition referring to the down feathers of the EIDER duck
RED=”Shade” + IE=i.e.=”that is”, all reversed/”up” |
||
| 24 | MINT |
Immaculate 22 (4)
|
| mint as in ‘in mint condition’=”Immaculate”
a mint is also a place where money/coins can be produced i.e. a MONEY PLANT (solution to 22ac) |
Liked this especially MAMMON as MMM rarely used. Never had chance to use in scrabble after discovering it in Chambers.
Thanks Paul and manehi
Thanks manehi and Paul.
Good puzzle with clever clues.
Thought 1a was ARTISTE, only to be disappointed by the reveal. Liked the MAYBE and much more, especially now your explanations came along, manehi. Many thanks and to Paul, too.
And so to bed, again
thanks for 1d, Manehi: my LOI. I knew what it had to be, but couldn’t parse it.
Not a fan of “MMM” myself though, and my brain pretty much shuts down when it sees the word “cricket” in a CCW. 🙂
Lots of fun today with Paul. That NW corner held out for a while though. I too tried ARTISTE at 1a, Dave E@3, but couldn’t see any words fitting at 1d, so then I twigged that I had only been able to study for my Masters (MA) as a postgraduate, so changed it to MATISSE. A bit tough as I only knew of him as a painter, but I guess the two often go together. I couldn’t parse MAMMON properly even though I kind of saw the “gravy” bit, as in “on the gravy train”. The MMM was well spotted, manehi and tim the toffee@1. I too ticked the already mentioned 9a MAYBE and 24d MINT. Other goodies (I thought) were 15a ROLLING IN THE HAY, 22a MONEY PLANT, 4d ESSEN, 15d SUTTON HOO and 17d ELSINORE, so there was certainly a lot for me to like today. Thanks to our esteemed setter and most helpful blogger.
[Sorry ozofriendly@4, I took too long to type and we crossed, or I would have acknowledged that MAMMON was LOI for both of us.]
Tres versatile, our M Matisse, draughtsman, print maker and sculptor as well as painter. Wouldn’t be surprised if he did a bit of drystone walling as well. Enjoyable puzzle, ta Paul and manehi.
.. meant to say, I thought the Rocket was the steam train ..
Lots to like – the two monthly insects, the draughtsman, the predator, MMM, the perfect mint and the yep/nope combo being my favourites. I wonder if ‘observed’ is part of the def for BROWN RAT as that is the species that gives us the lab rat? That said, I am not a fan of ‘dull work by Cervantes’ = EL SNORE: a weak joke making for a nigh impossible parse; I will be hugely impressed by anyone that did not get it from either/or definition and crossers.
Thanks Paul and manehi
I parsed 28 across as “career complete”=“retire” + d as end of “knackered”, which kind of works. Hadn’t any idea how to parse Mammon, so thanks for that!
Grantinfreo@8. The Rocket, Flying Scotsman, Mallard, etc are locos. The train is what they pull. I’ll now remove my anorak.
Thanks to Paul and Manehi
El snore was almost bad enough to be good.
[A propos nothing at all, the up/down bits of 23d reminded me of the latest from CERN: antimatter does not fall upward 🙂 ]
25: sanding something is the direct opposite of polishing it!
I think this was the most enjoyable Paul for some time, with a lot of inventive and amusing stuff.
I agree with grantinfreo @12 that EL SNORE was “almost bad enough to be good” – it raised a good groan, but only after someone as clever as manehi worked it out for me.
I parsed RETIRED the same way as DonRogers @10 and was thinking “That’s a bit weak” – thank you manehi for a more convincing answer.
Glad I wasn’t the only one to struggle for a while with the top left corner and to have the excellent MAMMON as the LOI.
Thanks to Paul and manehi.
PM@9
BROWN RAT
Agree with your def.
ELSINORE
Agree with your comment.
My top faves: MAYBE, RETIRED and MAMMON.
Thanks, Paul and manehi!
Thoroughly enjoyed this, especially (pace PostMark@9) the delicious ELSINORE, which I thought was a hoot.
Thanks to Paul for a toughest but fun solve, and to manehi for the blog.
Charles@16 means toughish, not toughest. I may disable my autocorrect.
Thanks manehi and PostMark for note on the rat, though I liked El Snore but as you surmise was only ever going to spot it post-solve. Also thanks Justigator@23 for making me think a little more about what sanding actually involves – though i got there (eventually) and can’t think of an alternative without spoiling the surface. NW hardest for me too though DRYSTONE WALL took a while and I am probably kidding myself if I blame the enumeration (i always say it as three words, equally stressed, and Collins online has a hyphen). But appreciated the definition of STEAM TRAIN, loved MMM and the riddle-like EIDER, thanks Paul.
I thought POWER PLANT was a rather good fit at 22ac in these days of looking for new sources of green energy. Didn’t work with the cross-reference though.
Entertaining puzzle from Paul. NW quadrant was the last to yield for me as well – and yes, I also tried ‘astiste’.
I liked the MMM – which I did spot before solving the clue, though I first tried to assemble the word with just MM – and the cheeky ‘el snore’ (yes, PM @9, only post-solve, but it still raised a LOL). The linked insects were fun. I know JUNE BUG from staying with my brother in California – it is a North American species, not found in Europe. It’s related to the European cockchafer (how would you clue that, Paul? 🙂 ).
Thanks to S&B
Tough puzzle – I am rarely on this setter’s wavelength lately and for that reason I don’t really enjoy his puzzles.
Failed 1d MAMMON and I could not parse 8d.
Favourites: ROLL IN THE HAY, JUNE BUG.
New for me: rocket STEAM TRAIN.
Thanks, both.
Plenty of smiles, difficulty too. Thankyou both.
Didn’t make a very auspicious start with this, thinking that the “state” in 16d might yield Colorado, that 25ac might be Abandoned rather than ABOLISHED. Liked the various creatures in the NE corner and the J of JUNE BUG helping with JUXTAPOSE and then the X with SAXOPHONE. Took me a while to accept POWER PLANT as the answer to 22ac. Was amazed at how rebuilt ESSEN was after the devastating bombing of WW2 when I visited in the Seventies. Clue of the day for me was ORNAMENTAL once I saw it, and this opened up the last to yield NW corner. Enjoyable.
Lots to enjoy here, and not too taxing after last night’s ill advised second bottle. I thought MATISSE and ELOPE were delightful.
Just popped in to wonder if anyone else spent a while wondering if CORN ON THE COB could mean “congress”
[3d – Rocket, nb not The Rocket, was the locomotive. A STEAM TRAIN requires loco plus rolling stock, so the clue is spot on.]
He does it again; lovely, and great fun to solve; though I thought MONEY PLANT a bit airy, still crowded with wonderful clues. A quick solve, as not Paul at his trickiest, but most enjoyable
Many thanks, both and all
…oh, and 18ac rather reminds me that when the Beatles song Help came out I used to imagine/I misheard that the lyrics spoke of a vanishing “innocence in the hay”, rather than one’s “independence in the haze”. Time to grab my hat…
…and of course, paying attention at the back of the class properly now, that it wasn’t Power Plant, but MONEY PLANT…
Lots to complain about here, and a real drag to solve. It’s like Paul has just gone off on into his own wonderland of vague allusions leaving us to biff our way wearily through the grid: bung in from the crossers (if one has a few to grasp at) using just one end of the clue as a definition and then either come here for the explanation or spend an hour trying to work out what could possibly have been going on in the setter’s head. ‘Dent’ isn’t a ‘hole’, the Rocket isn’t a train; what the hell has the honesty plant (MONEY PLANT) got to do with MINT (yeah yeah, I know to mint is to make coins); ‘el snore’?? oh, for goodness’ sake; the appalling Sutton that has the ‘s’ removed and then immediately replaced; to ‘sand’ is to abrade, to ‘polish’ is to make smooth; the MMM device is awful and perhaps is intended to allude to the old Bisto gravy adverts; and ‘dry’ certainly means dully factual (thank you, Oxford) but Paul pushes that sense beyond its limits to ‘wearisome’. Well, that’s what I think anyway.
I found this pretty tough going but ELSINORE was a LOL and probably my favourite clue. Not many ticks – it all felt a bit strained – maybe to much reliance on stretch synonyms to inject a bit of difficulty?
Held myself up for ages by assuming DRYSTONE was two words
With hindsight it all looks a lot simpler
Cheers P&M
pserve_p2@30: I pretty much agree with all of that (though to be fair the Rocket clue does say ‘attached to’). EL-SNORE is genuinely terrible. On the plus side, I was amused by NEW LABOUR and MAYBE, and for once there are no objectionable ‘homophones’.
poc@32: Oh yes! Sorry — you’re right and I glossed over that point, that Paul acknowledges the distinction between a train and a steam engine with the ‘attached to this’ bit. OK, that’s fair.
pserve_p2@30
ABOLISHED
When you sand something, the surface of the latter becomes smooth (Well. That’s the goal).
Yes. Sandpaper is abrasive but it aims to make surfaces smooth. I am fine with ‘to sand=to polish’.
SUTTON HOO
m goes away and s comes in. No issues, I think.
Mixed bag for me but I will defend Matisse(not just the clue)-he was a draughtsman and lived in Nice for much of his life, dying there..
And he did a few other interesting things-we have a print of two women and a stringed instrument with every limb and detail out of proportion and the overall effect is staggering. Form is form is art.
Dry Stone wall ??(Good Band name)
I read ELSINORE as sounding like El Senor but thats just me.
hadnt heard of Money Tree-dont know if i want one if it doesnt do what it says on the tin.
Liked JUNE BUG followed by MAYBE
Not bonkers about MAMMON although the parsing is fine.
Good elevenses material (could you put a splash of grappa in my espresso, Jeeves?)
Well said p2’@30
Good grief, there’s some miserable beggars on here today.
I’ve heard of a Greenback = dollar so maybe GREEN is US slang but does anyone else use it? p-serve@30, MINT as a noun is precisely a money plant. Great puzzle as always from Paul.
GREEN is UK slang too – see The Jam’s Pretty Green
Assuming he’s not referring to attractive veggies
Are there others who dont agree with fancy as an anagrind?
Lots to enjoy apart from being held up in the NW for yonks. Can’t understand the negative remarks above but each to their own. I enjoyed ELSINORE, ROLL IN THE HAY, the insects and MATISSE with a Nina of ARTS, JUXTAPOSE(D) below.
Ta Paul & manehi
Paul up to (some of) his tricks again, making a tricky puzzle.
I couldn’t parse MAMMON, but now I see it is quite a good clue. I’m sure that the blog parsing of RETIRED is correct but I just saw it as a triple definition, ‘career complete’, ultimately knackered (from a race), went to bed. The rather silly EL SNORE was an interesting idea. I liked the MAY BE(e), the project/jut in JUXTAPOSE, and the political staff/MACE in DECAMPMENT. The hyphen seems to have gone missing from DRY-STONE WALL.
Josh @40; fancy is in the Chambers list of anagrinds and in the sense of fantastic (Chambers 5)/elaborate seems OK to me.
Thanks Paul and manehi.
Josh@40: No.
I always enjoy a good Paul and this was a great one. Only a few clues came easily and the NW was a struggle. But, as ever, lots of varied clues and possibly some new tricks. Thanks Paul and manehi.
I’m a fan of Matisse and he went in quickly. It then took me a while to really get going with this. The SW corner was especially challenging, though I note others found the NW more so. Clever stuff, as ever with Paul. I think my favourite was ELSINORE, though that was one of the easier ones. WIth thanks to Paul and manehi.
I’ve always thought it was Dry Stone not Drystone
I look forward to Paul’s puzzles, but find my self partially agreeing with pserve_p2 @ 30. Hard work. And has Paul moved to the US – green is money ther, but not here, and we have over 20,ooo insect species in the UK but we get the American June bug.
but I was glad to see his return to form with ROLL IN THE HAY and the resultant POX.
Got confused over how many Ms there were in mm(m)…
Liked the MayBee.
How could I have missed this earworm!? Crash Test Dummies mmm mmm mmm mmm
Another lovely Paul though I needed a few checks to finish. Stuck on MONEY PLANT for ages partly because I’d forgotten there was a cross referencing clue. Thought Elsinore was absolutely hysterical. It truly did make me LOL.
KVa@34: Oh, yes… I didn’t see that right: m-UTTON and S-HOO going round it. That’s fine, too. But I still found the style of the puzzle to be tendentious. Harrrumph.
…and copland@47 is right, yes, ‘green’=money?? In the US? Really?
p2@30 – Totally agree; I don’t associate Paul with this level of clumsiness!
A super ellipse between JUNEBUG and MAYBE and Paul is clumsy? Oh well.
Copmus@35 my money tree plant is over 30 years old, around three feet tall ( after an unfortunate accident that saw its top lopped off) and has produced numerous offspring. But I’m still as poor as a church mouse!
I think I was trying to be too precise in my interpretation of ELSINORE. If “something dull” is “a snore” then how does the “a” get transformed to “the”? I suppose the answer is that it is a joke so anything goes, but that’s not terribly satisfying.
Elsinore was beyond me. But NEW LABOUR being unable to adapt was hilarious.
Thanks to paul and manehi.
Thanks for the blog, I found this a bit dry but I am hard to please on a Friday afternoon.
Flatfrog@25 I cannot really tall you what corn on the cob means in current student slang.
Michelle@15,
Sometimes our ability to tune in to a particular wavelength varies at different times. I spent an hour on this puzzle last night, and having got just 5 clues, grumbled p-servishly (@30) about the puzzle. Then today I reluctantly gave it another shot; after first getting the delightful paired clues at 5&9a JUNE BUG and MAYBE, I went on to finish it with much pleasure.
Thanks Paul and manehi for the fun and parsing help.
[AlanC’41 a bonus point for blue, he liked yellow but they were playing Brazil , it is now 33-9 .
Perhaps the taxi you saw was modified to carry six passengers, maybe it was on the way to Blackpool. ]
LOL of the day – ARTS under MATISSE. Intentional? Who’s to say.
CHN @62: me @41 😉
[Roz @61: as wearisome as ever 🙂 ]
I was held up by putting in MONEY MAKER (a variety of tomato) which went very well with with MINT but eventually had to be uprooted. Laughed at MAYBE after JUNE BUG. And discovering that ELSINORE contains EL SNORE is another example of why I like Paul crosswords so much.
Lovely gravy @ 1d reminded me of “Ashby-de-la-Zouch, lovely gravy” , a pop song from 1946 (I checked), and I rather wish it hadn’t.
21a. I only know of CHI as a letter of the Greek alphabet. My 1993 Chambers doesn’t have it as “aura”.
22a. Back in the day a pound note was known to me and my friends as a “green and crinkly” and if someone was running short of greens he was having difficulty buying his round but we never used “green” in the singular to mean money.
Thanks to Paul and manehi.
Couldn’t parse 8, but that was because I refused to let go of the idea that ‘another from the south’ was FLOW -> WOLF. Was rather hoping that some game or other had a dialect name of ‘gey’, but alas no.
I too took RETIRED to be “career complete” = retire, plus the last letter of “knackered”. I bunged in POWER PLANT, as I couldn’t think of anything else that would fit, never having heard of MONEY PLANT. Still, thanks Paul for the enjoyment.
Pino #66 – my recall of the song was a parent’s shower version and I thought it was “”Ashby de la Zouch Battle Abbey.” Googling I find the singing was by Americans, which may explain the extraordinary refrain after AdlZouch “by the sea!”
1d was hopeless, but I got the rest eventually. Some delightful clues there; MINT was especially tasty. Tickled that I remembered SUTTON HOO; thanks to my mother for being fond of money plants.
Sutton Hoo was my first one in just because it fitted and I could see ‘shoo’ and then worked out the rest. I revealed a few along the way but could at least parse most of them and then solved the remainder. I especially liked Drystone Wall, Juxtapose and Roll in the Hay. Thanks Paul – one day I hope to be able to complete one of your puzzles!
Gervase@20
Cockchafer: Ants in the pants?
Surely the point with ELSINORE is that, even with only two check letters in place, the only ‘Shakespearean setting’ that fitted was Elsinore. I am not quite sure why solvers seem to think it not quite cricket to get the answer without getting/parsing all parts of the clue. I feel that seeing the answer without laboriously unpacking all the baggage just shows that, in this case at least, I am smarter than the setter. I wonder why Picaroon didn’t make the definition less overt.
Oops I mean Paul, not Picaroon. Not so smart after all.
I remain shocked that so many can speak so disparagingly about such a delightful example of creative mastery. For me, Paul, even when not at his best, always entertains…… one of the very best (in my unbelievably humble opinion!)
(….oh! and a tiny hill of beans is as a mountain when set alongside the negligible level of quibbledom – in spite of all the baseless babble in some comments)
Alec @73 “not sure why” (etc) – totally agree with you. As far as I’m concerned, finding a plausible answer for a clue you don’t completely understand is one of the essential crossword skills.
I know this is not the right place to ask this, but I’m not sure where is! Are there missing theme instructions from today’s Boatman prize crossword?
Well, to answer my own question, maybe already extremely cleverly indicated!
Caroline – the exclamation mark in 15a?
Yes!
2dn Strictly speaking, Great Britain is an island.
RETROCEDE was new to me.
I liked the Danube as both flower and border. (We have one of those here in New England; the Connecticut river is the border between Vermont and New Hampshire. The Mississippi is a state border along its whole length. So is the Ohio.)
muffin@49 I’ve tried that method, but I can’t find the link button. Where is it?
Does anyone else get irked by the “line” = “L” trope (e.g. 16ac) when using the ap? Since it uses only capitals, an L is two lines at right angles. In the sans-serif font used by the ap “line” would more correctly be the clue for “I”.