A tricky solve in parts, especially for a Monday. Lots to like, with top favourite 14ac. Thanks to Picaroon.
Araucaria is the solution to 5dn, and 1dn reminds me of Rufus’s “A pound of sultanas” clue – not sure if there’s a theme, or more references to find…
| ACROSS | ||
| 1/20 | HOUSING ESTATE |
Struggling in lead for England, Southgate’s developed complex (7,6)
|
| anagram/”Struggling” of (in E Southgate’s)*, with the E=”lead [letter] for England” | ||
| 5 | ATTEMPT |
A worker stops eschewing alcohol, making effort (7)
|
| A (from surface), plus: TEMP=temporary “worker”, stopping/inside TT (teetotal, “eschewing alcohol”) | ||
| 9 | RECAP |
Go over boundary of reasonable limit (5)
|
| outer letters/”boundary” of R-[easonabl]-E, plus CAP=”limit” | ||
| 10 | MEANDERED |
Rotter ultimately caught in base action didn’t go straight (9)
|
| ultimate letter of [Rotte]-R, inside MEAN=lowly=”base” + DEED=”action” | ||
| 11 | MAGISTRACY |
Old lady, a bit naughty, eating meat in judicial office (10)
|
| MA=mother=”Old lady” + RACY=”a bit naughty”; both around GIST=substance=”meat” | ||
| 12 | STUN |
Stagger with small and large quantity of wine? (4)
|
| S (small) + TUN=a large cask of wine | ||
| 14 | NOSTRADAMUS |
Darn SMS auto-corrected writer of predictive text (11)
|
| definition: the French astrologer [wiki]
anagram/”corrected” of (Darn SMS auto)* |
||
| 18 | DECOLLETAGE |
Revealing feature of French artwork that includes sci-fi picture (11)
|
| definition: a low-cut neckline of a dress
DE=”of [in] French”, plus COLLAGE=”artwork” around ET=the Spielberg film=”sci-fi picture” |
||
| 21 | RANK |
Row generating a stink (4)
|
| double definition: as a noun and as an adjective | ||
| 22 | INFANTRIES |
Home supporter hears groups of people fighting (10)
|
| IN=[at] “Home” + FAN=”supporter” + TRIES=”hears” [in court] | ||
| 25 | SUPERHERO |
That lady’s hugged by prancing poseur, a comic figure? (9)
|
| HER=”That lady’s”, inside anagram/”prancing” of (poseur)* | ||
| 26 | SHEBA |
Adventure story, a gripping book in Biblical setting (5)
|
| definition: an ancient kingdom mentioned in the Bible
SHE=”Adventure story” + A (from surface), both around B (book) SHE: A History of Adventure [wiki] is a novel by H. Rider Haggard |
||
| 27 | YASHMAK |
What might cover features talk about for instance – His Majesty? (7)
|
| definition: a type of veil, covering much of the face
YAK=”talk”, around both of: AS=”for instance” + HM (His Majesty) |
||
| 28 | FOR FREE |
Complimentary Cockney’s report of high-scoring football result (3,4)
|
| sounds like ‘Four – Three’=”high-scoring football result” in a Cockney accent | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | HAREMS |
Fast runners saving a thousand pounds for sultanas (6)
|
| definition: ‘sultana’ as in a sultan’s consort, and a ‘pound’ as in an enclosure, a place where the sultanas might be kept
HARES=”Fast runners” around M=”a thousand” in Roman numerals |
||
| 2 | UNCAGE |
In Paris, a period to drink drop of Cognac 28 from bars (6)
|
| clue uses the solution to 28ac…
In Paris, a period to drink drop of Cognac for free from bars definition is the underlined “free from bars“, with the ‘for‘ from 28ac used as a link between the wordplay and the definition parts of the clue UN=”a” in French/”In Paris” + AGE=”period”; both around/drinking C, a drop (last letter? first letter?) of Cognac |
||
| 3 | IMPOSINGLY |
Suggest dressing Oscar and Carol in regal fashion (10)
|
| IMPLY=”Suggest” around/”dressing” both of: O (Oscar, NATO alphabet) + SING=”Carol” | ||
| 4 | GAMER |
One playing grand French song, forgetting opening line (5)
|
| G (grand) + [L]A MER=”French song” [wiki] by Charles Trenet, missing the opening L (line) | ||
| 5 | ARAUCARIA |
Hearing you in a Carmen opera song puzzles maestro (9)
|
| definition: ARAUCARIA, the Guardian crossword setter [wiki]
U=letter pronounced as ‘you’=”Hearing you”, in A (from surface) + RAC (Royal Automobile Club, car men, “Carmen”) + ARIA=”opera song” |
||
| 6 | TODD |
He abandons the funny, cut- throat tradesman (4)
|
| definition: Sweeney Todd, a fictional murderous barber [wiki]
T-[He] ODD=”the funny”, minus “He” from the surface |
||
| 7 | MARITIME |
Concerned with sea horse eating starter from Italy? Rice, maybe (8)
|
| MARE=”horse” around both: starting letter from I-[taly] + TIM=”Rice, maybe” (Tim Rice, the English lyricist [wiki]) | ||
| 8 | TIDINESS |
Model turning up bags has meal order (8)
|
| SIT=”Model” reversed/”turning up”, around DINES=”has meal” | ||
| 13 | ADVERTISER |
Person hired to plug in TV with rear side damaged (10)
|
| definition: “plug” can mean to promote, to advertise
anagram/”damaged” of (TV rear side)* |
||
| 15 | STEINBECK |
Literary figure in Beckett’s timeless novel (9)
|
| definition: the writer John Steinbeck [wiki]
anagram/”novel” of (in Beckett‘s)* – minus one t for “time”, so “time-less” |
||
| 16 | I DARE SAY |
It’s likely belligerent Olympian features in papers always (1,4,3)
|
| ARES=Greek god of war=”belligerent Olympian”, inside ID=identification “papers” + AY=”always”
“Olympian” as in a resident of Mount Olympus, home of the gods in Greek mythology |
||
| 17 | SCHNAPPS |
School programs inspiring new, strong spirit (8)
|
| SCH (School) + APPS=applications on e.g. a smartphone=”programs”; around N (new) | ||
| 19 | LINEAR |
Kind of equation involving 50 + 1? Not far off (6)
|
| L=50 in Roman numerals + I=”one” + NEAR=”Not far off” | ||
| 20 |
See 1 Across
|
|
| 23 | ALOOF |
Remote area Charlie goes around (5)
|
| A (area) + “Charlie” is a British term for a FOOL, reversed/”goes around” | ||
| 24 | DRAM |
Wee tot’s play reduced by 20% (4)
|
| definition: a small amount of alcoholic spirit
DRAM-[a]=”play” reduced by one of five letters i.e. “20%” |
Pleasantly surprised to see who the setter was, after yesterday’s lovely Quiptic, but the smile disappeared quickly, as this was a tough slog. However there were lots of gems such as the painfully topical HOUSING ESTATE, NOSTRADAMUS, DÉCOLLETAGE, SUPERHERO, SHEBA, FOR FREE, STEINBECK and SCHNAPPS. Nice shout out to the maestro as well. I imagine there will be some complaints about it being too difficult for a Monday, although it is not surprising anymore.
Ta Picaroon & manehi.
Had FOR Nowt for a while instead of FOR FREE. C’est la vie alas.
Thanks Picaroon and manehi
I rarely have quibbles with Picaroon’s clues (along with Arachne, one of my two favourite setters), but I didn’t like the clue for STEINBECK; the anagram isn’t “timeless” as it still had one T. “Time-reduced” or something similar would have been better.
The NE was particularly tricky.
I loved the “belligerent Olympian” in 16d.
I also thought that timeless would mean removing both ts from Beckett but I suppose it works OK. Oh I see you have the same quibble muffin.
I found this a difficult one today and needed a few checks to solve. Everything was neatly and fairly clued, so again it shows up the deficiencies in my solving. NOSTRADAMUS, STEINBECK and SUPERHERO were favourites, but there were many others too.
Thanks Picaroon & manehi
His Quiptic was like a very good ordinary bitter.
This was a very good best bitter.
I enjoyed this. Plenty to get the grey matter working after a fairly easy start to the week with The Times this morning. DÉCOLLETAGE and STEINBECK were nice, as was MEANDERED. Thanks to setter and blogger.
I think I remember Araucaria using Carmen = RAC somewhen. And Wikipedia says of Araucaria “Writing his first puzzle for The Guardian in July 1958,… ” so I guess it’s an anniversary of sorts.
Very tough.
I did not parse 5d apart from ARIA and U – I missed out on parsing RAC=Carmen.
New for me: YASHMAK.
Favourite: STEINBECK (loi).
Thanks, both.
Too hard for me for a Monday. Hope further crosswords this week are easier
Absolutely loved this, though held up for some time at the very end with the Wee Tot at 24d and loi SHEBA. 28 ac reminded me of that famous Eric Morecambe skit when he read out imaginary football scores, as in East Fife Four, Forfar Five. Which remarkably came to pass some years later, albeit in a game decided on penalties…very nice to see Araucaria making a reappearance too…
I began looking for a Euros theme, but it turned out to be Tim Rice rather than Declan. I like the “best bitter” analogy.
I’m another who really enjoyed this. I found it went in slowly but steadily, except the NW which held out the longest. I just couldn’t see IMPOSINGLY. My favourite was HAREMS. I had the same thought re t and Beckett, but a minor quibble. With thanks to both.
A slow solve, but good fun.
Sympathy for those who put in FOR NOWT rather than the defiantly ungrammatical FOR FREE. The existence of more than one justifiable answer is more for concise crosswords, where the solution to Lawful(5) could be LEGAL or LICIT.
My favourite was FOR FREE and I failed to parse Carmen, but I got there somehow
Thanks both and keep up the good work.
My housemate is away, but being a fashionista she’d know what features a yashmak covers. I don’t, but I’d heard the word. Good Monday Pickers puzzle, with a few fun obliquities like gist for meat. And playful playtexes like Car men for RAC which I bwbed (biffed without bothering). All good fun i fought, ta bofe.
Trickier than I expected for a Monday but I did enjoy the brain mangling, working from corner to corner SW NE NW SE
Thanks to Picaroon and manehi
“Nowt” is a northern word, so I would say the reference to Cockney should have been enough to rule it out.
Much harder than usual for a Monday but some excellent clues once I managed to sort a few out. Loved Nostradamus and Aurucaria, and especially Steinbeck, no problem with removing just one T as time is not necessarily plural and it provided the correct number of letters for the anagram.
Thanks Picaroon and manehi for parsing a couple that I’d just bunged in.
Picaroon’s crossword is good for a re-read once you’ve a) solved it, b)celebrated and c) recovered. His surfaces are masterpieces of grammatical and semantic sleight of hand, so smooth you hardly notice. Ticks for ones already mentioned, and also for ADVERTISER.
I did think that GAMER and SHEBA were both a bit of a stretch. Player and French song? Adventure story and Biblical setting? “La Mer” was somewhere in the deep recesses. “She” was nowhere to be seen. But fortunately they were only 5 letters and somehow managed to surface.
A mixture of laborious and satisfying. Several clues were a hard slog – UNCAGE (because I overlooked the link to 28), MAGISTRACY, DECOLLETAGE, amongst others – for me, but others were a delight. Accessible enough, on balance, to persevere. In the end though, my brain packed in and I revealed 17 and 21.
I also found this pretty tricky. My absolute standout was NOSTRADAMUS by a country mile – well spotted anagram fodder used superbly in the surface. Thanks, Picaroon and manehi.
This did take a bit more thought than many previous Monday puzzles, but none the worse for that.
I’m afraid I fail to agree with your objection gtrimpov, for a couple of reasons. Firstly ‘four nowt’ would not normally represent a football score – it would be four nil. Secondly neither part suggest to me a cockney reference, whereas ‘free’ for ‘three’ does.
The range of answers sent me looking for a literature theme, or one linked to Araucaria, but I couldnt make anything work.
Thanks Picaroon and manehi.
Tricky for me, but satisfying to solve. So many great clues.
I was unable to parse ARAUCARIA and came here to find out. Carmen = RAC, brilliant! UK GK needed and above my pay grade.
My favourites were NOSTRADAMUS, STEINBECK, DÉCOLLETAGE and I DARE SAY.
Thanks Picaroon and manehi
I agree with Muffin@3 on the STEINBECK clue.
NOSTRADAMUS was wonderful. Great surface and well-hidden anagram.
Isn’t this Guardian Cryptic No 29429 or are you lot just making it even more difficult for me to find the answers?
Took a while to even get started on this, surely this should have been last Friday’s and Friday’s should have been today’s.
Agree with Paddymelon totally.
Chardonneret – my fault with the number, I had some technical issues this morning which led to a few bits of copying and pasting from past templates including the title from my last post from Friday. Have now edited the title of the post (29,429 instead of 29,427).
Slow solve but lots to like.
The HOUSING ESTATE was a very topical reference to the England football team’s manager and the criticism of him for the playing style in the Euro football competition. I also liked GAMER, ARAUCARIA, MARITIME and I DARE SAY.
Thanks Picaroon and manehi.
14A is brilliant, and 1D is a nice misdirection. 19D was also very clever.
However… I think it’s past time that SHE for “adventure story” was retired, both for its age, and for content that has not aged well. Auracaria completely escaped me, and probably many other casual solvers unfamiliar with the setter? Yashmak was new to me, I don’t know whether it is well known in Britain.
Also, it’s about time for a blanket ban on cluing ET as a film, sci-fi or otherwise.
Took me a good deal of check button this morning. But all fun.
Never heard of Tim Rice and forgot the car men from earlier puzzles.
Thanks Picaroon and manehi.
FOR FREE alone was worth the entry ticket – LOL. Lots else to enjoy. Many thanks to P & m.
Thanks for the blog, it is a shame that the Monday tradition has now gone, newer solvers need an entry level puzzle to build confidence . STEINBECK was very imprecise.
Another entertaining puzzle from Picaroon, with a blog from manehi to match.
I’m with SinCam@20 on STEINBECK. Jacobz@30, you might enjoy JK Stephen on Haggard and Kipling, quoted in this Wikipedia article along with his view of Wordsworth. The last ride together, from her point of view, mentioned here but not quoted, is also worth finding (it’s here).
I think we can agree that since the new (and excellent) Quick Cryptic on Saturdays and the Quiptic being moved to Sundays, the Monday Cryptic is no longer the ‘almost gimme’ it used to be. It took quite some time to unravel this and frequent use of the check button to confirm my ‘almost’ answers were precisely that. Didn’t know the She book. About time I bought an etui I think as that along with the wonderful Carmen will catch me repeatedly unless saved for reference. That said, I did enjoy this and the Sunday quiptic too…muchly.
Thanks Picaroon and also to manehi for an excellent blog.
[Charles Trenet’s La Mer (1946), with bilingual subtitles, as featured in Mr. Bean’s Holiday (2007).]
[And Bobby Darin’s English version, Beyond The Sea (1959, a 65th (Blue Sapphire) anniversary)]
Re: GAMER, I was going to be grumpy about Debussy’s La Mer being called a song (used interchangeably with ‘piece of music’ in some quarters) but of course there is an actual song by that title (which I had never heard of).
Those who hadn’t heard of the novel She might be more familiar with her full title “She, who must be obeyed” (later applied to Rumpole of the Bailey’s wife).
I don’t see how people can argue that the anagram to make STEINBECK is “timeless” when it has a T in it.
Refreshingly challenging for a Monday!
NOSTRADAMUS was brilliant in every way.
Thanks Picaroon and manehi
Top fave(s): The FOR FREE -UNCAGE combo.
Other faves: ARAUCARIA, NOSTRADAMUS and SHEBA.
Thanks Picaroon and manehi!
STEINBECK
Agree with others who have a problem with this clue.
Re difficulty – it’s a very steep jump from yesterday’s quiptic to today’s cryptic – I’ve been practising a lot and am improving slowly but I do feel something in between the two would be helpful to start the week. I resorted to revealing and then working out the parsing so I was still learning but it’s nice to get at least a few on your own. Not whinging though and I see others enjoyed it, just an observation.
Greyhound @42 it usually tended – as an informal convention – to be the case that Monday’s puzzle was the gentlest of the week, with the occasional exception. In recent months that’s changed to some degree, they’re more likely to be more challenging these days.
We get so many puzzles around this level, do we really need one on a Monday ?
It would be nice for newer solvers to have something more friendly and nice for me to actually have to scratch my head later in the week. The Guardian puzzle has become so monotonous .
It’s strange how the mind can be fettered by preconceived notions. Because it is Monday I was expecting a relatively easy puzzle. Because it wasn’t, I struggled with it far more than I would have if it had appeared later in the week. And of course, being a Picaroon, in hindsight it was a very good puzzle.
[ MACO89@38, I had the same grumpy thought about Debussy’s La Mer. I have a musician friend who plays bass and keyboards in a rock band, accordion in a klezmer band and is an accomplished classical pianist and organist. When we read through a movement of a Beethoven cello sonata together, she commented that she really liked that song. Ouch. ]
Thanks Picaroon for the challenging puzzle and manehi for the much needed blog. And thanks TimSee@34 for the J K Stephen link (Re 26a SHEBA) – the Kipling/Haggard poem is a hoot.
thanks Picaroon and Maneni. A better wording for STEINBECK could be ‘one time’ instead of ‘timeless’
I’m pleased to see I’m not alone in the “it isn’t timeless when there’s still a T in it” camp. I’m sure the issue has come up in the past though I have no idea when.
That quibble aside though, this was a nice Picaroon puzzle, a little more challenging than Mondays’ crosswords often are (no offence to Vulcan and co, who generally offer exemplary if straightforward puzzles to start the week).
5D ARAUCARIA was my favourite: “puzzles maestro” is a fitting definition for the great man, reminiscent of Paul’s “puzzling friend” from a while back, and “Carmen” is a clever way to get to RAC.
14A NOSTRADAMUS combined a neat anagram, a well disguised definition and a surface that made sense while diverting away from the answer: very Picaroony.
Thanks Picaroon and manehi.
FrankieG @37 The Bobby Darin version also featured in (and gave its title to) the memorable Series 1 episode of The X Files in which Scully’s father dies and Brad Dourif chews up the scenery and spits it out. Also, a cover sung by Robbie Williams played over the closing titles of Finding Nemo.
Also used in Goodfellas .
Like many others, I found this puzzle at the ‘old’ mid-week level of challenge. I wonder if the Guardian crossword editor reads this blog: given the number of comments about Monday and the rest of the week and that fact that nothing has changed, I’m guessing not.
As for the puzzle, I loved Nostradamus ; She as an adventure story new to me; lots of ticks for the rest. I found a very, very loose theme (i.e only three clues) leading to lyricists: Stephen Sondheim wrote Sweeney Todd; Tim Rice probably best known for his early work with Lloyd-Webber who wrote Starlight Express with Richard Stilgoe who wrote a comic song based on Le Mer.
As I said, very, very loose and at least stops me from being grumpy about carol and sing not being synonymous although my Chambers disagrees which only adds to the grump…
Thank you Picaroon and Manehi
Surely “to carol” can only mean “to sing”?
Muffin@51 indeed it can. My pathetic defence is that the clue said “carol” making me think noun not verb. Fact is I got caught out fair and square…
[Pianoman @52 🙂 ]
Never having heard of YASHMAK so didn’t get that one. Otherwise another fine crossword.
Thanks Manehi.
This was way tougher than traditional Mondays, therefore I have to believe there has been a change in policy rather than a misjudgement in difficulty.
Therefore a heartfelt plea to the Guardian crossword editor – can we have our easy Mondays back please?
I managed to solve 14a with an anagram solver.
A chastening experience otherwise for me.
Timeless – lift and separate.
Time doesn’t indicate TT; I’m happy removing the one T from that anagrist.
Took me a while to get going with this, and Carmen eluded me. But I’m pleased to have a proper puzzle today!
Thanks, Picaroon and manehi.
I had difficulty starting until I cheated and put DARN SMS AUTO into the anagram search in the Chambers app. Then it was a steady slog.
To give an idea of how this mid – level solver went on a Monday puzzle: I couldn’t get any of them!
I didn’t finish till today, but admired some of the clues I couldn’t solve yesterday. In addition to Araucaria, I noticed that there was a Qaos-like clue, and idly wondered whether Picaroon had included clues in the style of other setters, but to be honest most setters are not all that distinctive at the single clue level, more at the complete puzzle level.
Did this because today‘s Monday offering far too easy even for us and this was in our stock of unattempted puzzles. On the off chance that anyone ever reads this, we cantered through it and loved it, particularly liking ARAUCARIA (had never come across the Carmen stunt before but did go for AA to start with) and NOSTRADAMUS, and many more as well. There are so many times on this site where we have struggled and others romped through, so this made a nice change for us.
Many congratulations, Picaroon – who must surely be our top setter now – and our blogger Manehi!
We did this because today‘s Monday offering far too easy even for us and this was in our stock of unattempted puzzles. On the off chance that anyone ever reads this, we cantered through it and loved it, particularly liking ARAUCARIA (had never come across the Carmen stunt before but did go for AA to start with) and NOSTRADAMUS, and many more as well. There are so many times on this site where we have struggled and others romped through, so this made a nice change for us.
Many congratulations, Picaroon – who must surely be our top setter now – and our blogger Manehi!
Sorry, TUESDAY‘s puzzle! Monday was a sitter as well, but then we love Maskarade…