Mostly straightforward, as we expect from this setter, though there were a couple of clues that held me up a little. Thanks to Vulcan.
A slightly unusual feature of the puzzle is that there are no hyphenated or multi-word answers.
| Across | ||||||||
| 5 | WARMTH | Heat of conflict, a short month (6) WAR (conflict) + MTH |
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| 6 | VIOLIN | One highly strung in horrid pub, we may hear (6) Homophone of “vile inn”. The violin is the highest of the standard stringed (or “strung”) instruments |
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| 9 | POISON | Working on self-confidence finally failing, a sickener (6) POIS[e] + ON (working) – interesting that we have “on” in the clue that isn’t the one in the answer |
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| 10 | OUTDOORS | Exits, to this great place? (8) Exits are OUT DOORS; the definition is a reference to “the great outdoors” |
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| 11 | BEAR | Produce baby animal (4) Double definition |
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| 12 | ADMIRATION | Fantastic maid gets share of appreciation (10) MAID* + RATION (share) |
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| 13 | PERTINACITY | Keeping going forward in London, for example (11) PERT (forward) IN A CITY |
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| 18 | PRONOUNCED | Said the word ‘Marked‘ (10) Double definition |
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| 21 | OVEN | Kitchen appliance from Coventry (4) Hidden in cOVENtry |
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| 22 | SOMEWHAT | Rather messy mat – whose? (8) (MAT WHOSE)* |
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| 23 | SMOOTH | An old truth about Mike’s flat (6) M[ike] in SOOTH |
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| 24 | SILENT | Shaken tinsel thus inaudible (6) TINSEL* |
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| 25 | BADGER | One pinning name tag on animal? (6) Double definition |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | PRESERVE | A jam, when tennis player keeps bouncing the ball (8) The tennis player might bounce the ball before serving, or PRE-SERVE |
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| 2 | STANZA | Laurel’s recited a few lines of verse (6) STANZ (homophone of “Stan’s”) + A |
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| 3 | HISTORIC | From long ago, famous ostrich I slaughtered (8) (OSTRICH I)* |
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| 4 | ALMOST | Everything extremely audible? Not quite (6) Homophone of “all most” |
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| 5 | WOODEN | Stupid and awkward, like Pinocchio (6) Double definition |
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| 7 | NARROW | One can be intolerant, if one is so minded! (6) An intolerant person is NARROW-minded |
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| 8 | COMMUNICATE | Give information about one pet in cooperative (11) I CAT (pet) in COMMUNE (a cooperative) |
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| 14 | TOUCHING | Getting in contact may be concerning (8) Double definition |
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| 15 | THOROUGH | Comprehensive, even if approximate (8) THO’ ROUGH |
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| 16 | TROOPS | Soldiers need time picking up the scent (6) T + reverse of SPOOR |
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| 17 | BETTER | Punter sticking to soft drinks, with alcohol all about (6) TT (teetotal, “sticking to soft drinks”) in BEER |
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| 19 | NEEDLE | It may point to hostile rivalry (6) Double definition |
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| 20 | DISMAY | Create apprehension, having to remove blossom (6) DIS-MAY(May blossom) |
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Thanks Andrew: I agree about the mostly gentle verdict. I did wonder if the clue for DISMAY (20d) needed a question mark as I don’t think anyone would literally ‘dis-may’ such a plant, but thought 10 (OUTDOORS) was a neat clue – nice one for a Monday, Vulcan.
Once I had accepted Pert as meaning Forward, the L3I were PERTINACITY, DISMAY and BADGER. Lots to like along the way…
Some very neat short clues. A few stretches as mentioned in excellent blog and comments above.
Great Monday morning fare as far as I am concerned
Thanks Vulcan and Andrew
Haven’t heard of May blossom, so DISMAY was my only “Huh?”. Good fun, thanks Vulcan & Andrew.
I really enjoyed BADGER and PRESERVE among others. Had to look up PERTINACITY but no problem with the clue. I didn’t notice the brevity of the solutions.
Thanks Vulcan and Andrew.
Bloody went in for NARROW until the crossers appeared. Doncha hate it when that happens.
Enjoyed this. Just enough of a challenge to keep the interest whilst remaining Mondayish.
Thought ALMOST very neat.
Many thanks, both.
May blossom is another name for hawthorn flowers, and is supposed to be unlucky to have in the house.
Regular service from Vulcan has resumed. Thank you to Vulcan and Andrew.
Thanks Vulcan and Andrew
I found this very difficult, and had no idea of the parsing of POISON.
[Shanne @8
The scent of may blossom is largely a compound called triethylamine, which is also produced by rotting corpses, hence the “unlucky” superstition.]
Good Monday fare but I put in VENT rather than OVEN initially for 21a. My kitchen certainly has one! Thanks to V & A.
I found this smooth sailing until the SE corner, ironically finding SMOOTH one of the hardest to get.
Favourites: BADGER, VIOLIN.
Thanks, both.
Pretty much the perfect Monday puzzle in my book. A fast start, then slowing down, and a hard stare needed for my LOI BADGER. I liked that one, as well as POISON, OUTDOORS, STANZA and several others. Should there have been some sort of indicator for ‘tho’ standing in for ‘though’? Many thanks Vulcan and Andrew.
Most of this was fine, but I really disliked some of it I’m afraid. DIS-MAY? Really? And the dreadful VIOLIN “homophone” (VIOLIN has three syllables, not two), plus the barely cryptic NARROW (I would say it’s not cryptic at all). Sorry but there it is.
Like muffin, this was no walk in the park for me, but I got there in the end – and then wondered why I found it rather tricky.
I liked BADGER, DISMAY and particularly PERTINACITY (beautiful word, and one of the clues that gave me some trouble).
Spoor is trail or track, rather than ‘scent’, which held me up a bit, but probably near enough.
Thanks to Vulcan and Andrew
GDU: May as a flower has come up in these puzzles before, so it’s a good one to remember. I hadn’t heard of it either, but it was pointed out to me that the Mayflower (the ship on which the first colonists of Massachusetts crossed; see also the Mayflower Compact, signed aboard) had to have been named after something, right?
I, for one, quite liked the vile inn. (I do pronounce the word vile as sort of a syllable and a half–the long I in English is phonetically a diphthong, which facilitates that–so the homophone works for me.) But I agree that the clue for NARROW was not cryptic at all.
I smiled at seeing Vulcan’s name, for I enjoy his Monday offerings – and, indeed, VIOLIN, BETTER, OUTDOORS, THOROUGH and PRESERVE were good fun.
But this was a curate’s egg of a crossword, and much of it had me agreeing with Muffin @ 9. I thought there had to be more going on with NARROW, I’m afraid I still don’t get ALMOST, and it’s a bit of a stretch to call DISMAY a synonym of apprehension. (I know somebody will rush to point out that it’s somewhere on a lengthy list in whichever dictionary the hardcore cruciverbalists consider Holy Writ – but I don’t care. It’s still a stretch.)
My heart sank when I was reduced, twice, to what I consider the last resort: ploughing through a word-search.
This must have been Vulcan in more of an Imogen mode than usual. Perhaps this is what the new Guardian crossword editor wants – certainly things have become markedly trickier of late. I appreciate that there are many who yearn for all crosswords to be hard, with tortuous parsing and/or multi-word solutions strung around the grid like traitors’ heads, but if things remain this difficult then intermediate solvers like me will lose heart, and beginners won’t even want to give it a try.
Thanks Vulcan & Andrew for a smooth start to the week,
lots to like and 1d & 17d made me smile.
poc@14, agree that violin has 3 syllables. But so does vile inn for me, and presumably michelle@12. I’m trying to imagine how it would sound with just 2 syllables. So not at all “dreadful” for me, in fact it was one of my favourites.
Bit mixed from the barely cryptic to the too obscure. Didn’t complete which is annoying for a Monday but I assume that is the new normal.
I’ve never heard anyone pronounce “violin” with three syllables. Just as I’ve never heard “parliament” with four. Diphthongs don’t count as two.
Somewhat of a relief to read through the comments above. I found this really quite tricky and decidedly neither Mondayish nor Vulcanesque. I found some of the definitions hard to get my head around, and some of the constructions already mentioned gave me difficulty – DISMAY, NARROW, VIOLIN, THOROUGH. I think part of my challenge was in the link words – I’m not a huge fan of ‘to’ though I see it fairly often, ‘need’ in TROOPS and ‘of’ in ADMIRATION all meant I was either not correctly identifying the def or not spotting the WP. I did get to the end but was fairly bruised by the time I got there.
Thanks Vulcan and Andrew
GDU @4: the Hawthorn footy club used to be known as the Mayblooms, until (no doubt) someone decided that this was a little too twee and not fierce enough – they are now the Hawks. ‘Mostly’ straightforward sounds right to me – with the implication that some of it wasn’t at all. Thanks, Vulcan and Andrew.
Re ‘May’, there is an old proverb advising against dressing lightly too early in the year: ‘Ne’er cast a clout till MAY is out’. There is some debate about whether this refers to the end of the month or the flowering of the hawthorn (Crataegus sp)
What an enjoyable start to the week, thanks to Vulcan (all those double definitions) and to Andrew for the blog.
I found this quite difficult, having to use word searches quite frequently.
I liked the wordplay of PERTINACITY and the PRE-SERVE.
Thanks Vulcan and Andrew.
Gervase @24; this suggests that the ‘May’ is a month.
I thought I was going to finish this in record time until I got to the SE where I slowed down markedly. Still, I got there in the end. I especially liked POISON, SMOOTH and BADGER. With thanks to Vulcan and Andrew.
Nice one. I liked pre serve.
I thought this was very good, with some clever and inventive clues. VIOLIN and “vile inn” sound exactly the same to me. HISTORIC reminded me of the discussion of the outbreak of the First World War in Blackadder:
Private Baldrick : I heard that it started when a bloke called Archie Duke shot an ostrich ’cause he was hungry.
Captain Blackadder : I think you mean it started when the Archduke of Austro-Hungary got shot.
Private Baldrick : Nah, there was definitely an ostrich involved, sir.
Many thanks Vulcan and Andrew.
Enjoyable Monday fare. Thank you Andrew for the parsing of 13A and Vulcan for the puzzle.
A return to the standard Monday, which I realise many may welcome.
I enjoyed the puzzle but many of the clues were write-ins (OVEN, SILENT, NEEDLE etc).
I agree that 20d needed a question mark.
Fun, but all too brief.
Thanks Vulcan and Andrew
I knew PERTINACITY was a valid word, but didn’t find it (despite getting the -ACITY ending) because I didn’t know it meant that: I thought it was something like perspicacity…
I liked the vile inn.
[Shanne@8: my mum maintained that the true reason for children being told that some flowers were “unlucky” to bring indoors was that they were flowers that shed lots of petals and made a mess for the housewife to clear up.]
I tried DISBUD for that one, but of course it didn’t work.
…and of course the oft quoted line from Shakespeare’s sonnet 18 – “Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May” which I had always thought referred to hawthorn buds, but perhaps with the capital M, the month is in fact indicated…
Bouncing the ball in 1d got me thinking of when I used to play a little tennis many decades ago. Being of a recusant nature even then, I decided that bouncing the ball before serving was completely unnecessary, so I didn’t. It didn’t make me any better of course. I am convinced that anyone who plays their first game will bounce the ball simply because everyone else does. Once it has become habit, that’s it, the muscle memory has been set.
Thanks to V&A.
Hadn’t heard of “needle” meaning hostile rivalry, but other than that felt like a good start to the week…
Please explain DISMAY
Got it but didn’t get it
GDU@21: Chambers has “Ví-ə-lin” (approximately) and doesn’t assign 4 syllables to ‘parliament’.
‘Robbery with violins’ was a Steeleye Span track, so the homophone has venerable history.
Nice puzzle to start us back from a Filey holiday break (where one does only the Yorkshire Post cryptic, of course). Thanks V&A.
Was listening to Donald Macleod this morning, and “violin” was definitely three syllables for him. That’s Radio 3 for you – two suffice for enough people that I’m happy with 6A.
Thanks to Vulcan and Andrew for this morning’s entertainment. I agree with the general feeling that this was Monday+.
Yogdaws @38: Dis-may could be interpreted as removing the flowers (may blossom) from the hawthorn.
Robi @27: Thanks for the link. In fact, hawthorn typically flowers between May and early June and the usage of ‘may’ for the blossom comes from the name of the month – so both interpretations work, in English, if not in other languages 🙂
Missed BADGER, which annoyed me. And realised for the first time that SILENT and ‘listen’ are anagrams …
Sparks’ Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins(1994) – a 20th (China) anniversary – I bought it on the title alone.
[Sorry – I can’t count – a 30th (Pearl) anniversary]
Irishman@40: “violence” and “violins” both have 3 syllables. “Vile inns” does not.
Listening to Leonard Cohen a lot lately: ‘
Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin — (13 syllables, of which 3 are VIE OH LIN)
Dance me through the panic ’til I’m gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove…’
Dance Me to the End of Love(1984) – a 40th (Ruby) anniversary.
Also: ‘
And I thank you for those items that you sent me — (he laughs)
The monkey and the plywood violin
I practised every night, now I’m ready
First We Take Manhattan(1988)
Then we take Berlin’
Also found this slower going than usual for this setter. I liked PRESERVE and PRONOUNCED, and I thought PERTINACITY well clued. I’m firmly in the liberal wing of the Homophone Party, but VIOLINS is not fully convincing. I think it just about works if you allow that some people pronounce “vile” with two syllables (“the weather is absolutely vi-ull”)?
One more example of the trisyllabic violin in song. It takes a while to get there but you may enjoy the journey.
It’s been a while since the homophone complaints have come forward. Please, folks, 6a VIOLIN is an excellent example of aural wordplay. Nowhere does Vulcan claim it is a homophone. Homophones and puns are two different forms of aural wordplay. If setters are not allowed to use puns, we lose a lot of humour in our crosswords.
A lot of comments suggested that this one was too difficult for a Monday. At least it was not easier than the Quiptic, so we were spared those gripes.
This is twice in one week that 15>2 has visited the museum. Thanks VandA for the Monday merriment. (And yes, 6a VIOLIN was my clue of the day.)
…and thank you FrankieG@47 and 48 for the Leonard Cohen prompt. What a marvellous poet he was.
Tim C @ 6: I went for CLOSED until I got some crossers.
Someone was playing a violin in the vile Inn.
Someone was playing a vile Inn in the violin.
If I spoke either sentence, it would sound much the same. I hope you would assume it was the former, as I generally prefer not to be considered a speaker of nonsense.
Cellomaniac@51: I share your enthusiasm for ‘aural wordplay’ but you’re going to have to convince the bloggers: so long as they continue to quote ‘homophone’ as the device in play so long will rancour rage.
monkeypuzzler@36: I thought PRESERVE was the pick of the bunch but I can understand your approach to the ball-bouncing. Couldn’t help cross-referring to the elaborate pre-shot routines invoked by golfers.
Re violin/vile inn: I would pronounce the former with three and the latter with two syllables, but I thought that the phrase “we may hear” was an indicator from Vulcan that it was only a quasi-homophone. I am surprised that no-one has noted this as yet.
I don’t get ALMOST either. If AL- is a homphone for “all,” where is the wordplay for -MOST?
I got less than half of this last night, and almost all the rest at 3am when a noisy truck woke me up. Having been reminded that I hadn’t put the recycling bin out, I did that and solved almost all of the rest except for my LOI, BADGER, which I twigged this morning at 7.
How does18dn NEEDLE = “hostile rivalry”?
drofle@19 Your kitchen may well have a vent (mine doesn’t), but you could hardly call it an appliance.
GDU@21 I pronounce both “violin” and “parliament” with three syllables.
Late thanks to Vulcan and Andrew.
Thanks Victoria and Albert for a nice start to the week. I had no issues today with either the Quiptic or the cryptic.
Favourites were PRESERVE, PERTINACITY and BADGER. LOI was POISON. My confidence is temporarily high!
Valentine@57, I took it that it was a homophone of ALL for everything and MOST for extremely (as in, “I was most upset”) and to NEEDLE someone can be to provoke.
Valentine @57 a “needle match” is a hostile match between close rivals – link to Collins that also says British informal.
For 4a Everything extremely audible? Not quite (6)
Everything (audibly) = AL(l)
Extremely = MOST
PRESERVE was awesome. I didn’t get SMOOTH, but it was awesome too.
DISMAY might be the worst Guardian cryptic clue I’ve yet encountered.
Wow, very mixed bag of comments. I enjoyed this, didn’t think of “pert” for forward but the rest was straightforward for me. Chuckled at VIOLIN, worked for me.