A very enjoyable solve – I particularly liked 11ac, 5dn, 15dn, 23/21, and 24dn. Thanks to Brummie
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BLINDER |
Less able to observe an outstanding performance (7)
|
|
double definition: more blind, "Less able to observe"; and 'to play a blinder' is to have an "outstanding performance" |
||
| 5 | SLAMMER |
Criticize the drink in French, causing stir (7)
|
|
definition: "stir" and 'slammer' are slang for 'prison' SLAM="Criticize" + MER='sea' or "the drink" in French |
||
| 9 | FATES |
A threesome that would control your life? (5)
|
|
cryptic definition, reference to the three fates in Greek myth [wiki] |
||
| 10 | SOFT-PEDAL |
Moderate version of Delft soap (4-5)
|
|
definition: "Moderate" as a verb meaning 'tone down', diminish' anagram/"version" of (Delft soap)* |
||
| 11 | INSULARITY |
Isolation ruins Italy’s cooking (10)
|
|
anagram/"cooking" of (ruins Italy)* |
||
| 12 | WIMP |
Western power accepts one’s a weak type (4)
|
|
W (Western) + P (power); both around/accepting I'M='I am'='one is'="one's" |
||
| 14 | DISCONSOLATE |
Deacon’s lot is somehow sad (12)
|
|
anagram/"somehow" of (Deacon's lot is)* |
||
| 18 | SCARE TACTICS |
Intimidation of Chief of Staff by Prudence on manoeuvres (5,7)
|
|
the "Chief" or first letter of S-[taff] + CARE="Prudence" + TACTICS="manoeuvres" |
||
| 21 |
See 23 Down
|
|
| 22 | OFF-BALANCE |
Unstable, so disillusioned with Equity (3,7)
|
|
to be OFF BALANCE could mean to feel 'off' or "disillusioned" about balance/"Equity" |
||
| 25 | BATHSHEBA |
Biblical wife breaking the Sabbath? Not at first (9)
|
|
definition: wife of King David in the Bible [wiki] anagram/"breaking" of ([t]-he Sabbath)*, without the "first" of the letters for the anagram fodder |
||
| 26 | GET ON |
Mature mount (3,2)
|
|
double definition: "Mature" as a verb meaning to grow older; or "mount" as a verb meaning to climb up onto something |
||
| 27 | LIMITED |
Narrow arachnid squeezes into cap (7)
|
|
MITE="arachnid" inside LID="cap" |
||
| 28 | KITCHEN |
Where there might be a range of gear, hence endless changes (7)
|
|
definition refers to a "range" as in a kitchen cooker/oven KIT="gear" plus anagram/"changes" of (henc-[e])* without its end letter |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BOFFIN |
Research expert Dicky gets stuck into container (6)
|
|
OFF=not in good condition="Dicky" inside BIN="container" |
||
| 2 | IQ TEST |
One question on tax that shows how smart you are? (2,4)
|
|
I="One" + Q (question) + TEST="tax" as a verb |
||
| 3 | DISCLAIMER |
Denial of miracle is revised after departure (10)
|
|
anagram/"revised" of (miracle is)*, after D (departure) |
||
| 4 | RISER |
One emerging from the sack found on the stair (5)
|
|
double definition: someone getting out of bed/"emerging from the sack"; or a vertical section of a staircase |
||
| 5 | SAFETY NET |
Splayed feet – nasty, but a tightrope walker’s requirement? (6,3)
|
|
anagram/"Splayed" of (feet nasty)* |
||
| 6 | ALPS |
Peaks since holding record (4)
|
|
AS="since" around LP=music "record" |
||
| 7 | MADRIGAL |
Song from Ratty, Kit and half a countertenor (8)
|
|
MAD=annoyed, cross="Ratty" + RIG=equipment="Kit" + AL=half of 'alto'="half a countertenor" |
||
| 8 | RELAPSED |
Slipped back (rush to guzzle drinks) (8)
|
|
REED="rush" (as in a grass-like plant); around LAPS="drinks" as a verb |
||
| 13 | TORCHLIGHT |
Handy illumination if right cloth is spread (10)
|
|
for the definition, "Handy" meaning 'held in the hand' anagram/"spread" of (right cloth)* |
||
| 15 | COALFIELD |
Michael Caine’s part in raw fuel source (9)
|
|
ALFIE="Michael Caine's part" in the 1966 film Alfie [wiki] inside COLD="raw" |
||
| 16 | ISTANBUL |
‘City Lives’ by Brown & Bigness (not King) (8)
|
|
IS="Lives" + TAN="Brown" + BUL-[k]="Bigness" minus the 'k' for "King" |
||
| 17 | FACTOTUM |
Information? Ring corporation’s multitasking employee (8)
|
|
FACT="Information" + O=circle="Ring" + TUM=belly="corporation" |
||
| 19 | SNATCH |
Kidnap head of state? Certainly (6)
|
|
head letter of S-[tate] + NATCH=informal way to say 'naturally'="Certainly" |
||
| 20 | LENNON |
News during Christmas about former famous group member (6)
|
|
definition: John Lennon of the Beatles N (new) + N (new) are "New-s", inside NOEL="Christmas" reversed/"about" |
||
| 23, 21 | BLACK ARTS |
Bad spelling etc creates shortage in London hospital (5,4)
|
|
for definition, "spelling" as in magic spells LACK="shortage" in BARTS=St Bartholomew's Hospital in London |
||
| 24 | PSST |
A word in your ear: not all chaps stink! (4)
|
|
hidden in (a part of, "not all" of): [cha]-PS ST-[ink] |
I couldn’t parse 18a, being fixated on TACT being “prudence”. Doh!
I thought that was one of the setter’s easiest and I solved it quite quickly last night. I liked BLINDER, IQ TEST, MADRIGAL, SCARE TACTICS, BATHSHEBA, BLACK ARTS and TORCHLIGHT. Can’t see a theme yet.
Ta Brummie & manehi.
Zut alors! Plus de Francais! Pourquoi?
Friendly little number from the Brum today. Ta to him and manehi Ps: didn’t.think alto = countertenor but wdik.
Lots of nice ideas, some fun anagrams and great surfaces. I wasn’t wholly convinced by “off” = “disillusioned” but on balance (!) I like that Brummie tried to put together short clues which use imaginative equivalences rather than long and convoluted parsings. I wondered if “fates” could also be “norns” (or, for lovers of Old English, “wyrds” as in “weird sisters”…Shakespeare or Pratchett, take your pick) but cryptic definitions are often a little uncertain until a crosser or two goes in. the fun is in seeing them in two different ways at once, like a linguistic Necker cube.
Many thanks Brummie and manehi. A quick solve but a fun one.
After yesterday’s bust this was a relief and helped restore my confidence. Enjoyed it. MADRIGAL was the only one I couldn’t get but makes total sense now. Hadn’t a clue how to parse COALFIELD – I’ve never heard of the movie. Thanks to brummie for giving us beginners a chance and to manehi for the blog.
Thanks Brummie and Manehi
Tonnes of long well advertised anagrams made for a quick start and snagless solve. I wasn’t even bothered by the few gripes mentioned above.
Another enjoyable puzzle from Brummie – agreed perhaps more gentle than usual. I couldn’t see a theme, either but Brummie’s puzzles don’t always have one.
I’d add 25ac BATHSHEBA and 20dn LENNON to manehi’s favourites.
Crispy @3 – Pourquoi non? It’s clearly indicated.
Matthew Newell @7 – what ‘few gripes’?
Thanks to Brummie and manehi.
Eileen. Because it’s an English crossword. IMHO, setters should be able to stick to the English language.
[I can feel the disgust coming from certain quarters already]
Likes for BLACK ARTS and KITCHEN. Two offs, one dicky, one disillusioned and very gentle after yesterday. Don’t mind a bit of French, or Latin, or … Thanks manehi and Brummie.
A tad decaffeinated after yesterday’s triple espresso? I though this was somewhere between a Quick and a Quiptic
Ticks for BLACK ARTS, COALFIELD, and SCARE TACTICS – the three clues that took longer to solve than to read
Cheers B&M
Good fun with lots of clever and amusing surfaces, the standout perhaps being the tightrope walker’s splayed feet in 5d. BATHSHEBA came readily to mind, partly I think because just the other day I came across an ancient classic Torquemada clue, “Victim of Bride in the Bath case” for URIAH.
BLACK ARTS or dark arts seems to be used a lot in a football context these days to refer to time wasting and so on.
Many thanks Brummie and manehi.
Similar to Muddy thinking @6, yesterday’s defeated me and felt better this morning when they all dropped in nice and smoothly. Favourites for me were BLACK ARTS (after a brief Google search for London hospitals when Guy’s wouldn’t fit) and SLAMMER, both for the gentle misdirection in definitions. Thanks Brummie and manehi.
Enjoyed it but certainly less challenging than many Brummie offerings. Too many obvious anagrams would be my only criticism.
manehi: in 15d, ‘raw’ belongs in the subsidiary indication, not the definition.
Crispy @8, what is the raison d’être for your opinion? The English dictionary I use mostly, gave up after finding 1000 words marked French just after finding raison d’être.
I’m with Lord Jim on SAFETY NET and others on BLACK ARTS, COALFIELD and LENNON. And I’d agree this was one of this setter’s more accessible puzzles.
It’s interesting that the comment is regularly made that ‘Brummie often incorporates a theme’ – normally followed by ‘ … but I haven’t seen one yet’. I don’t keep records but it strikes me that a Brummie themer is somewhat of a rarity. At least these days (recent prize excepted)
Thanks Brummie and manehi
PostMark @17: you beat me to it re themes. Only 3 in the last 12 offerings since October, if you include the antonym prize offering.
PostMark and AlanC: are you including the fonts themes? 🙂
I did wonder about a theme because it’s Brummie, particularly when SCARE TACTICS and BLACK ARTS appeared, plus BOFFIN, SOFT-PEDAL and a few others that felt like something from Yes Minister or House of Cards, but I couldn’t make it work. Did anyone else see anything?
Fun puzzle, definitely more accessible than yesterday, but I wouldn’t say between the Quiptic and Quick Cryptic, that feels rather dismissive, particularly because I blogged Brummie s Quick Cryptic. and that he commented that he found it difficult to set.
Thank you to manehi and Brummie.
Re themes: in my latest blog of a Brummie puzzle, I observed, as I had done a number of times before:
“I always enjoy Brummie’s puzzle – but there’s an extra hazard here for the blogger: I can’t decide whether it’s more daunting to know that a setter always has a theme (as Qaos, whose aren’t always easy to find), or, as Brummie, sometimes, but not always, does.”
{earworm: Bacharach made Cilla do 31 takes for COAlfieLD – “Not many people know that”. I’m off to Barts, now.}
Tough puzzle, felt like quite a slog.
Favourite: BLACK ARTS.
I could not parse 18ac.
7d I could not parse the AL = half a countertenor bit which is funny as I used to sing alto in the madrigal group at my girls-only secondary school (maybe that’s why they did not call us countertenor in those days).
IQ as a two-letter word????????
I wouldn’t go as far as to say this was Quiptic-level, but it’s certainly the full-fat Brummie that I’ve completed the fastest, in large part due to the generous helping of anagrams. Faves were LENNON and BLACK ARTS. I shared the quibbles (alto, disillusioned, IQ) mentioned by others, but they didn’t detract from the fun.
Thanks both!
Thankful for this after yesterday’s battering/DNF, and this was good fun in its own right. Missed a couple of elements of parsing, but that was all.
At first I thought this must have wandered in from the Quiptic slot. FATES is barely cryptic. A few others are slightly harder but mainly because of parsing the solution rather than seeing it.
In other news: did anyone else have to resort to printing the PDF version? The Print button seems to have gone AWOL on my desktop browser (Firefox), but not on my tablet. I hope this is just an error and will be fixed soon. The PDF is a lot more cramped and less convenient.
I enjoyed this – definitely on Brummie’s wavelength today after completely missing Vlad’s yesterday. Bit heavy on the anagrams, and also mildly surprised to see KIT appear in wordplay (7D) and answer (28A), but very minor quibbles in a fun puzzle.
Thanks Brummie and Manehi
Anyone else have WISP for the weak type in 12a?
glads@29 it was my first thought, but that happened to mmediately spark WIMP, which I decided was a better fit.
Yes, WIMP is the better fit (and the right answer, of course) but the other is at least plausible, and no crossers to correct you.
Yesterday’s was as much fun as root canal surgery – today’s was like a chocolate eclair.
My only quibble being that, although altos and countertenors often get lumped together, they’re really not the same – and they also sound completely different.
Be that as it may, Brummie’s creations are always enjoyable: there was a satisfying succinctness to ALPS and FATES, COALFIELD made me grin – and I now know where the name BATHSHEBA comes from (I’m no biblical scholar and only knew of the Thomas Hardy heroine).
Nice one, Brummie! Thanks also to manehi for the blog.
Wellbeck @32 – the story of Bathsheba is a tale of (King) David abusing power – he saw her bathing, decided he wanted her, so sent her husband, Uriah, off to fight at the front to get him killed so he could get what he wanted.
[I used to run our local toddler church and would read around the Biblical stories before presenting them – too many “lovely” Old Testament tales – David and Goliath, Joshua and the walls of Jericho, Gideon’s fleece, etc – are followed by genocide. It limited what I was prepared to use.]
simonc@24 the Guardian house style treats initialisms / acronyms as single words hence it’s 2 not 1,1
shanne@20 I found this much easier than this week’s Quiptic but harder than the Quick. I’m not sure why that’s “dismissive” or what it has to do with Brummie’s experience of setting the Quick?
On the train to London and expecting the crossword to last a decent chunk of the journey, so a little surprised to complete shortly after Derby. I say complete, but I had WISP at 12a like Gladys@31, and it still looks OK to me.
I’m glad I never look for themes. Or perhaps I should spend the rest of the journey looking for one. 😃
Thanks to Brummie and manehi.
The nature of purely cryptic clues like FATES (poc@27) is that they try to mislead us into thinking there is a definition and wordplay in there somewhere. Once solved, it suddenly looks more like it’s “barely cryptic”. It was my last one in, and I had to resort to trying which vowel to put between F and T before the penny dropped.
I’d have enumerated IQ TEST as 1,1,4. Acronyms like NASA can be treated as words, but I believe initialisms should be separately enumerated.
Apart from the London hospital, enjoyable, and a bit easier than I usually find Brummie’s.
[Shanne @33: thank you for the further info. From the little I know about the Old Testament, there does seem to be rather a lot of smiting and sex. I’m not sure if that group of parents in Utah who got the Bible banned from junior schools for its excessive violence and vulgarity, were being deadly serious or satirically highlighting the logical conclusions of “banning” books…]
poc @ 27 I suspect it may be down to your print settings.
I solve on the pdf which I open with Foxit Reader, and in the print settings have it scaled to fit the page.
I’ve always found the Print version to be more cramped.
I wholly agree with manehi that this was an enjoyable solve. I wondered if Brown & Bigness had a real world meaning, but it appears not. Only the parsing of MADRIGAL prevented a clean sweep; thanks for that manehi and thanks Brummie for some relatively light relief after the hard (but equally enjoyable in its own way) puzzle yesterday.
Congratulations to the Editor on this Vlad/Brummie sequence (Wellbeck@32’s root canal/eclair..), today’s smoothness was richly deserved. Before mrpenney does it let me post this 17d earworm
Definitely Brummie soft-pedalling today. But haven’t approached yesterday’s Vlad yet… Thanks both.
paul @40 I also wasn’t sure how to parse MADRIGAL. The last time I saw a countertenor perform, he sang much higher than the soprano! So I didn’t immediately think of alto.
Oh so gentle! Brief enjoyment. Perhaps the editor thought we needed relief after yesterday?
Thanks Brummie and manehi
That was a relief after yesterday’s exertions. The London hospital held me up for a while even after deciding that the first word must be BLACK, but was a favorite once the penny dropped.
The surface of 16D seemed a bit rough to me, but the only bump in an otherwise smoothly set puzzle.
Gladys@29: I too was a WISP – not something I am often accused of being! Otherwise, a very good puzzle. Thanks Brummie and manehi.
7 clues solved for me.
Joyful.
Very nice puzzle and it went down smooth. I share the quibble about countertenor/alto but “Off” for “disillusioned with” seems fine–“I’m off this band after three disappointing albums in a row.” Maybe?
Did anyone else start with 15d by trying to work in ALFRED (Pennyworth) before realizing which role it was?
Thanks Brummie and manehi!
Fun puzzle, over too soon. I think, for me at least, having seen both FACTOTUM and LENNON here earlier this month brought them to mind just that little bit quicker.
nho BLINDER in that sense, Others were familiar.
The French required in Guardian puzzles is pretty basic, but even so beyond the knowledge of Spanish, German or Italian, for which you don’t have to know much beyond the word for “the.” Do setters assume all English solvers had some French in school, even if they’ve forgotten most of it, but no other language?
Thanks to Brummie and manehi.
Simon S@39: thanks, however that’s rather beside the point. Hitherto I was able to print directly from the page but now I can’t. Further investigation shows that the same limitation is present in Chrome, but not in Chromium or Microsoft Edge, so it looks to me like a bug rather than a feature.
Valentine@50: If one assumes a typical solver is based in the UK and is 50+ then their schooling would’ve likely included a couple of years of French before options for other languages, of which German would’ve been the most common. Most schools would’ve encouraged people to take at least one language to O level (16 years old), although there was no compulsory minimum curriculum until a little later.
On my return to school (as a teacher) some 12 years after leaving I was amazed to find that German had long since been overtaken by Spanish as the second modern foreign language. Also, increasingly, people were taking no language at all, or something like Spanish in place of French from the start.
So yes, you are spot on in terms of the assumption being made, but its accuracy is questionable outside of a certain age group. A secondary consideration may well be the most common vacation destinations for UK-based solvers, with trips to mainland Europe being cheap and easy (for now…) which leads some to pick up a smattering of various European languages. In that respect, it’s a bit like assuming everyone has some basic knowledge of bible stories, Shakespeare etc – “cultural osmosis”. Perhaps solvers in their teens and 20s would be happy to see Japanese words by the same argument, from reading manga and watching anime about kaiju and robotto.
Certainly the level of Bible knowledge regarded as “general” has changed over the years: few now would get URIAH from the Torquemada clue quoted by Lord Jim@12. Knowledge of “schoolboy French” may also be a dying thing, with all arts subjects now increasingly sidelined as useless stuff that won’t get you a job like STEM will.
gladys@29 I had WISP as well.
As well as agreeing that altos and countertenors are different, I don’t think that rushes and reeds are the same either.
I was grateful for the anagrams and the double definitions but I found this harder than yesterday’s – had to reveal quite a few for crossers to help with other clues. Clues such as 7d and 16d just seem horribly obscure to me. I have to see that Ratty = mad, Kit = rig, and then throw in half an alto! I got the answer from crossers and the definition only.
I find it interesting that some posters parade their lack of knowledge in certain areas (including simple words in foreign languages) as evidence that the setter is being unfairly obscure.
Whilst I am not immune from grumbling over an answer I’ve never heard of, I certainly wouldn’t advertise my ignorance.
Lots of fun, to my mind a little easier than Monday’s Philistine and considerably less taxing than yesterday’s Vlad. We seem to be seeing a lot of Brummie lately (no bad thing) and he’s well practiced in the art of dialling the difficulty up and down without compromising on quality. Favourites today were INSULARITY and SAFETY NET.
Another routine lunchtime solve here all in Connecticut. I’m ok with some French, German, Italian and Spanish – but no Irish or Hungarian, please! I agree an alto is not a countertenor, although you may be forced to use an alto if no countertenors are available.
Concerning foreign words (and French in particular). If they appear in common place names or artistic works then I think they should get cut a bit more slack. Debussy’s La Mer suffices for me.
I was fortunate to hear the King’s Singers (here in MD) recently and noticed the use of the term countertenor. Apparently a male singing in the alto range (or even up into the soprano) is a countertenor while a female is an alto (or contralto). [Not going to get into a discussion of the validity of gender designations here.]
Lovely challenge Brummie. I really enjoyed it. So much to like but I’ll nominate INSULARITY, ISTANBUL, BATHSHEBA and FACTOTUM as being great examples of ingenious cluing. Thanks to Manehi for the blog.
[Great earworms from Hadrian @41 and FrankieG @22 – hope the hospital went well.
Steffen @47, really pleased you had some success today. I do admire your perseverance.]
[Pauline in Brum@60 – It went well. Thanks for your concern.]
This argument about an alto not being the same as a countertenor is very similar to a recent discussion about “stuff with reversed charge” not being accurate enough for ANTIMATTER. No doubt there will always be experts to denigrate what the solver has written, but while internet search engines produce results that suggest there’s still some debate about it, and when the letters indicated are just A and L, can we not just accept it and move on?
I, too, was surprised to see “alto” for “countertenor” in the (unparsed for me) MADRIGAL. But then I recalled that, as a child, we had a quartet come to perform at school, consisting of three men and a woman, one of the men introduced as singing alto. I recall that our male teacher was a bit unsettled when we came back to the classroom, explaining that he’d never heard of a man singing alto before. (This was the ’60s, for what it’s worth.) Oh, and I was another WISP-er.
sheffield hatter@62 The point is that, for me at least, the two voices are so different that the letters A and L never came to mind. I was thinking of half of the word tenor written backwards for a while. When I realised what the answer was I couldn’t parse it.
Mr Beaver@56 But others advertise their knowledge and/or cleverness at every opportunity, so it all balances out.
Set a bit of a hare running @4, but if you’ve ever heard the Brahms Alto Rhapsody (Ferrier’s is heartrending) it doesn’t sound like Alfred Deller!
I stand with Crispy @9. Enuff is enuff! ENGLISH CROSSWORDS for ENGLISH PEEPLE!
Pace SH @62 🙂
Fine crossword, not hard but enjoyable. I did my bit at breakfast and since it was going too well, left the rest hoping Spouse would have left some for when I got back later but alas not to be.
But what is all this “had to reveal” stuff I often read here?! Each to his own but nobody HAS to reveal anything! And crosswords are surely so much more fun if you don’t? Not that we can, it’s old-fashioned newspaper……
grantinfreo@66 One of my favourite pieces. You’ve proved the point as far as I’m concerned.
“Derived from the Renaissance contratenor altus, abbreviated to contratenor (countertenor) or altus (alto), the term countertenor was originally applied to an alto part as well as to the voice or the instrument taking this part (see also tenor).”
That’s from Britannica, not Wikipedia.
Caroline@69 I’m very much a beginner at this and often find I can only answer a couple of clues in the regular cryptics without help. I could leave it there and wait for an easier crossword but I find I learn a lot more – and have more fun – if I make strategic use of the reveal button to give me a start. I can complete the Quick Cryptic every week, and sometimes the Quiptic, but it’s quite a leap to the full cryptics. I do what helps me and gives me more confidence. But no, nobody ‘has to’ reveal!
Nice’n’easy thankfully after my travails yesterday. I think basic words from other languages are perfectly acceptable fodder; no harm in broadening horizons.
Crispy is not going to like today’s Pangakupu.
London Hospitals – surely only Guys & Barts are contenders for part of a (5,4) answer. Guys was quickly eliminated.
I never knew the difference between – alto, contalto, counter tenor & mezzo soprano – except that I think a counter tenor must be male & an alto can be. I am even more confused despite the superb attempts, above, to help me in my ignorance
Enjoyed Brummie’s fine crossword, Bravo! Quite a few anagrams. Alas, I was defeated by ‘factotum’. I know the word, I know what it means, I have befriended many, several great people who have been loyal, devoted and greatly underpaid.
Thanks Brummie and Manehi.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, davon sollte man Faktoten loben.
Perhaps this might help, if it is not too late.
A contralto is a female singer whose range is lower than a soprano. A countertenor is a male singer whose range can be that of a contralto or a soprano (and sometimes both). A countertenor whose range is the same as a contralto is also called a male alto.
For what it’s worth re the 7 d clue, “al” is half of both “male” and “alto”.
Completed, except I also had WISP. It’s a valid answer, though, so it counts!
Countertenors sing the Alto part in choral music