The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29656.
I thought Anto hit the Monday Cryptic slot squarely – entertaining and not too difficult without being trivial. I note plenty of link words (‘created’ in 1A, ‘revealing’ in 12A etc etc).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PROBITY |
Justice created hold-up in charity (7)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of ROB (‘hold-up’; to me, the hyphenated version suggests a noun, whereas ROB would be a verb) in PITY (‘charity’). | ||
| 5 | SIDECAR |
Cider’s a novel form of cocktail (7)
|
| An anagram (‘novel’ – plus ‘form’ if you wish, or the latter may be a part of the definition as indicated) of ‘cider’s a’. Basically brandy, orange liqueur and lemon juice. | ||
| 9 | SHEAF |
Bundle ambassador into almost secure housing (5)
|
| An envelope (‘into … housing’) of HE (His/Her Excellency, ‘ambassador’) in SAF[e] (‘secure’) minus its last letter (‘almost’). | ||
| 10 | UNHEARD OF |
Found her a way out that’s without precedent (7,2)
|
| An anagram (‘way out’) of ‘found her a’. | ||
| 11 | BEFOREHAND |
Live with stroke that’s happened earlier? (10)
|
| A charade of BE (‘live’) plus FOREHAND (‘stroke’ eg in tennis). | ||
| 12 | NÉE |
Reportedly vote against revealing wife’s former title (3)
|
| Sounds like (‘reportedly’) NAY (‘vote against’ – noun), although linguists might detect a difference in the vowel sound. | ||
| 14 | TAKE IT FROM ME |
I assure you, I don’t want it (4,2,4,2)
|
| Definition and literal interpretation (although the latter is near to a second definition). | ||
| 18 | TELL THE TRUTH |
Demand placed on trial witness would shame devil (4,3,5)
|
| A reference to the maxim “tell the truth and shame the devil”. | ||
| 21 | EAT |
Worry penalty is oddly deficient (3)
|
| ‘pEnAlTy’ minus the odd numbered letters (‘oddly deficient’). | ||
| 22 | BATES MOTEL |
Psycho’s hospitality business Seattle mob destroyed (5,5)
|
| An anagram (‘destroyed’) of ‘Seattle mob’, for the setting of Robert Bloch’s novel Psycho and Alfred Hitchcock’s film adaptation of the same name (and various other spin-offs). | ||
| 25 | CANOODLES |
Are so many able to provide pets? (9)
|
| CAN OODLES (‘are so many able to’). | ||
| 26 | TAP-IN |
Cutting short recording is an easy goal (3-2)
|
| TAPIN[g] (‘recording’) minus the last letter (‘cutting short’). | ||
| 27 | YACHTED |
Sailed from the centre to get royal’s lunchtime schedule (7)
|
| Middle letters (of varying lengths, of three words, ‘from the centre’) of ‘roYAls lunCHTime schEDule’. | ||
| 28 | MACBETH |
Computer hacker initially takes on risk for play (7)
|
| A charade of MAC (‘computer’) plus BET (‘risk’) plus H (‘Hacker initially’), for the play by some geezer called Shakespeare. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PASS BY |
Qualify on times but keep going (4,2)
|
| A charade of PASS (‘qualify’) plus BY (‘times’). | ||
| 2 | ONE OFF |
Individual not working? It won’t happen again (3,3)
|
| A charade of ONE (‘individual’) plus OFF (‘not working’). | ||
| 3 | INFORMANTS |
Workers performing well as tellers (10)
|
| A charade of IN FORM (‘performing well’) plus ANTS (‘workers’), with neither INFORMANTS nor ‘tellers’ in their most commonly used meanings, but nevertheless they are good synonyms. | ||
| 4 | YOUTH |
Minor solver that is 50% out (5)
|
| A charde of YOU (‘solver’) plus TH (‘THat is 50% out’). | ||
| 5 | SPHINCTER |
Unusual Cretan ship lacks a muscular sealing system (9)
|
| An anagram (‘unusual’) of ‘cret[a]n ship’ minus the A (‘lacks a’). | ||
| 6 | DEAD |
Disorder erupts as dance starts late (4)
|
| First letters (‘starts’) of ‘Disorder Erupts As Dance’. | ||
| 7 | CODENAME |
Arrived holding old study that reveals spy’s secret identity (8)
|
| An envelope (‘holding’) of O (‘old’) plus DEN (‘study’) in CAME (‘arrived’). | ||
| 8 | REFLEXES |
Instinctive responses touching cables (8)
|
| A charade of RE (‘touching’) plus FLEXES (‘cables’). | ||
| 13 | ARITHMETIC |
Subject I’m chattier about (10)
|
| An anagram (‘about’) of ‘I’m chattier’. | ||
| 15 | EYEBALLED |
I screeched aloud when examined (9)
|
| Sounds like (‘aloud’) I BAWLED (‘I screeched’; I would think of a screech as an octave higher than a bawl). | ||
| 16 | STRETCHY |
Nearly throw up visiting farm building that’s plastic (8)
|
| An envelope (‘visiting’) of RETCH (‘nearly throw up’) in STY (‘farm building’). | ||
| 17 | PLATONIC |
Ideal stimulant to support mountain climbing (8)
|
| A charade of PLA, a reversal (‘climbing’ in a down light) of ALP (‘mountain’) plus TONIC (‘stimulant’). | ||
| 19 | STAPLE |
It’s essential to keep documents together (6)
|
| A sesquidef (one-and-a-half definitions) or two, if you like; a staple as an essential item or ingredient, and as the wire joiner. | ||
| 20 | CLINCH |
Simple job to acquire large land (6)
|
| An envelope (‘to acquire’) of L (‘large’) in CINCH (‘simple job’); CLINCH as in “clinch a deal”. | ||
| 23 | EPSOM |
Derby location covered in sheep sometimes (5)
|
| A hidden answer (‘covered in’) in ‘sheEP SOMetimes’, for the horse race. | ||
| 24 | COAT |
Fur old pet swallowed (4)
|
| An envelope (‘swallowed’) of O (‘old’) in CAT (‘pet’). |
Liked CANOODLES and INFORMANTS.
PROBITY
To resolve the part of speech mismatch, we may have to remove the hyphen in the ‘hold-up’ (only for the WP, as the surface works good
as it is).
UNHEARD OF
Do we need to have ‘way-out’ in the cryptic reading or does the ‘way out’ work fine as an anagrind?
STAPLE
The second part: Does it not work if we consider ‘STAPLE’ as a verb?
Thanks Anto and PeterO.
CANOODLES: what an old fashioned word! Indeed, it was already out of date when I was at the (Aussie equivalent of) Sixth Form College and our Head warned the student body against ‘canoodling’ at an upcoming school dance. We all looked at each other and said “what’s that, then?”.
I was held up a bit by having a lazily entered with loose parsing PELT at 24d. Thanks, Anto and PeterO.
Same favourites as KVa, CANOODLES and INFORMANTS.
Not only is Canoodles an old fashioned word Tassie Tim, but “pets” in that sense takes me back to my youth in the UK with signs at swimming pools saying “No Running, No Bombing, No Petting….”. Do they still have those signs? I initially tried to work Cavoodles in there.
I didn’t pause for long over CANOODLES appearing in a crossword but I did wonder how you could shame a devil, and I still think he can’t be much of a devil is he could be shamed by the truth especially these days in our post-truth world. And, he’s a fiction himself. Thanks for the (early) blog Peter O. Always appreciated down here in ‘the coolest capital in the world’. And thanks Anto for another entertaining and accessible puzzle.
Don’t think I’ve ever seen YACHT as a verb, but I’m sure the dictionary will support it. Coincidentally had lunch on Saturday looking out on a marina and wondering what distinguished a yacht from a dinghy (and why the near ocean liners in Barcelona, Monaco and the like qualified as ‘yachts’). PeterO summed up the crossword nicely for me, Monday level without being a boring write-in. Liked PROBITY (the hyphen passed me by) and SPHINCTER. Thanks to Anto and PeterO.
My favourites were INFORMANTS, STAPLE, TAKE IT FROM ME, AND UNHEARD OF.
KVa @1, ‘way out’ worked for me as an anagrind and I read staple as a verb in the second definition.
TimC @3, ‘no petting’ signs are a thing of the past here.
Thanks to Anto for a great start to the week and to PeterO for the blog.
I’ve always pronouned NEE the same as “knee” and was unaware of the little flydot over its second letter. And I knew not the maxim including TELL THE TRUTH. Never heard of BATES HOTEL nor SPHINCTER, but easily derived from the wordplay.
My first guess for 19d was FOLDER, which didn’t get me far.
Most enjoyable, thanks Anto.
Tough but quite enjoyable.
I could not parse 18ac, 3d apart from ants = workers.
Thanks, both.
Thanks Anto and PeterO
Another good one from Anto. Favourites INFORMANTS and PLATONIC.
There did seem to be quite a lot of anagrams as I was solving it, but I didn’t count them.
Thanks PeterO, and to Anto for a smooth-ish ride with enough twists to make it interesting. (Now that ER for queen is mercifully appearing less often, since the passing of Her Maj, maybe ANT = worker could be the next chestnut to be given extended leave.)
Only saw one of Hitch’s movies, the one about the birds, and found it boring. Horror not my genre. So Bates Motel was a bung and shrug. Otherwise staple Monday fare. Liked the Cret[a]n ship anag. Thanks A and P.
Some super surfaces. Top marks for INFORMANTS which I initially parsed as a rather weak CD so enjoyed the PDM
I think it was only “heavy petting” that was proscribed at our local pool
Next time I’m kayaking with my beloved I’ll suggest some canoodling 🙂
Cheers P&A
Thanks Anto: an enjoyable Monday. I’ve certainly seen the in-form ants before, but it bears repeating. (Workers might also be bees or hands, but both of those are nearly as hackneyed as ants, so what could be used instead?) PROBITY doesn’t quite work unless you ignore the hyphen.
Nice surfaces for DEAD and SHEAF, EPSOM and COAT (which sounds like a recipe for a hairball). I also liked TAKE IT FROM ME, CANOODLES, SPHINCTER and BEFOREHAND.
Just right for Monday morning. Last one in was CANOODLES, a lovely word. [Bodycheetah @12: I can’t help but feel there’s another cryptic clue lurking there in your kayak/canoe/canoodle wordplay…]. My favourite is the happy, dancing, IN FORM Ants.
Enjoyable start to the week, with Anto again producing quality surfaces. I was misdirected at first with EPSOM, as I was thinking of Derby in the East Midlands = EM but couldn’t account for the PSO. Favourites were TAKE IT FROM ME, CANOODLES, MACBETH, SPHINCTER and BATES MOTEL. Bernard Herrman’s film score for Psycho was/is brilliant but way too early for the shower scene ear worm.
Ta Anto & PeterO.
Anto back already – after only three days this time.
I enjoyed all the anagrams plus the INFORMANTS, PLATONIC and the Scottish play. (Peter O’s geezer at 28ac also used 14ac:
Hotspur ( Henry IV Part One):
“O, while you live, tell truth and shame the devil”) – although it was apparently a common phrase before that.
Thanks to Anto and PeterO.
YACHTED seemed uncomfortable with ‘get’ between ‘centre to’ and the words whose centres we were being directed to.
I also had staple as a verb.
LOI was 6d, I’d fixated on the definition being disorder and the wordplay being a 5 letter dance with first letter removed, I spent far too long missing the obvious.
Enjoyable start to Monday, thanks Anto and PeterO.
As amazing as I find it that people are not familiar with the film “Psycho”, maybe they’d come across Landscape’s 1981 hit song “Norman Bates” that also mentions the motel?
gif@11: The Birds is far from top Hitch. Psycho is on another level entirely, especially when seen in a cinema, and is an exceptional thriller rather than horror (of which I am not a fan).
An enjoyable puzzle. Favourites were PLATONIC and the IN FORM ANTS (maybe it’s been done before but it’s good). And CANOODLES is a lovely word.
Many thanks Anto and PeterO (as I suggested on the Brummie puzzle on Friday, there’s nothing wrong with link words as long as they work properly 🙂 ).
I enjoyed that. I think Monday is the perfect spot for Anto.
Spent as long on CANOODLES as the rest of the grid. I haven’t heard that word in a while.
I liked INFORMANT with our 6 legged friends putting a few wins together.
Thanks Anto and Peter.
Excellent Monday fare from Anto, I thought. I’ve often wondered how comfortably the regular midweek setters manage to pull their punches for the Monday slot…
That ought to have been a good start to the week, but for some reason I didn’t enjoy it. The surfaces are good. The wordplay is fun. It fell into place once I started thinking. For some reason though I didn’t like it. Tell me why? I don’t like Mondays is my best guess.
I wasn’t sure that ‘probity’ is ‘justice’. It seems like a quality that a just person needs, but not the same thing as justice itself. I also thought that ‘plastic’ must be a misprint for ‘elastic’. No one else seems to mind, so probably ‘plastic’ in the sense of ‘malleable’ is acceptable. I did chuckle at INFORMANTS when it finally went in. PLATONIC was also very nice. Thanks Anto and Peter
After a very brisk start, I took a while in the southwest corner, but everything made sense and all the general knowledge was straightforward. Thanks, Anto and Peter.
STAPLE surely refers to an essential food. For example, for me, chilli is a staple, not a condiment. The clue is a straighforward DD, one noun, one verb.
I liked it. I’ve also enjoyed reading this blog to see how others went. I enjoyed 14a TAKE IT FROM ME. Many thanks to Anto and PeterO.
I hadn’t heard the saying ‘TELL THE TRUTH and shame the devil’. Thanks PeterO for explaining that clue and Eileen@16 for the source of the quote.
Enjoyable puzzle, lovely surfaces. My favourites were INFORMANTS and CANOODLES.
Thanks to Anto and PeterO
TimC @3. Those “No petting” signs can indeed easily lead to confusion… Born and bred in France, our kids still had pretty good English as their second language. One day, on a trip to see their grandparents in Sheffield, we took them to the swimming pool for the afternoon. The younger one came up to me and said, worriedly, “Dad. I’m sorry, but sometimes I can’t help farting.” [Péter: to fart].
In my youth there was petting, heavy petting and canoodling! No pill just Johnnies from the barbershop. Fear of an unwanted pregnancy was very real. As for Bates Motel. Hitch’s second best film after North by Northwest. It’s great when a grauni crossword brings back memories from way back. Thanks setter and blogger
I have trouble with PROBITY too. It isn’t defined as “justice,” though, but as “charity.” I don’t think it’s either. It’s more like “honesty.” or as a dictionary site defines it, as “the quality of having strong moral principles; honesty and decency.”
Thanks, Anto and PeterO.
I had a different thought about the PROBITY clue. Collins says charity is a synonym of pity, so for some it clearly is, but I would have said pity is the feeling and charity the consequent action (so not quite the same).
[Roberto@24: In materials science both elastic and plastic materials can be stretched. The difference is that plastic ones stay stretched (“deformed” as they say) whereas elastic materials return to their original shape. More specifically, materials can have elastic and plastic regimes, depending on how much they are stretched (e.g. metals). Strictly pretty much anything can be stretched, but stiff, brittle materials do not stretch much before just snapping so you may not observe stretchiness.]
[JoFT @33 Well explained.]
[Thank you very much Jack of Few Trades @33. I see now because, as Muffin says, your explanation is very clear. I have learnt something.
On a separate note, the connection between justice and probity seems to be topical, at least if you are in France.]
[R@35 maybe she should change her name to Marine de Pen 🙂 ]
BTW Chambers has “integrity” as a synonym for both justice and probity
Thanks for the blog and your summary says it all for me , seemed just right for Monday . CANOODLES still current usage in our home .
We went with “PELT” as we felt it parsed with 24D very well. The word was “swallowed” in “old pet”. So this caused a little confusion when we solved on. Could this have been a legitimate answer?
Also “PLATONIC”. We’ve never heard it as a synonym for “ideal” before. But then learning is what these are all about.
We enjoyed this one!
Dumb & Dumber @38
“ideal” for PLATONIC is actually a very accurate definition.
Thank you Anto for providing a cryptic that could be enjoyed by “Monday level solvers” (like me.) And thank you PeterO for the detailed solution.
INFORMANTS an utter delight of a clue.
SueM48@28: I’m another in the group that’s never heard the phrase “tell the truth and shame the devil” . Every day’s a school day!
Ian Dury cocked a snook at authority:
Cruising down carnality canal in my canoe can I canoodle?
Having been improving gradually for the last couple of years, with several completed over the course of a few days… this was my first cryptic to be completed within 24 hours. Thanks to all the bloggers and commentators on here, this website is invaluable!
Very decent from Anto, and I think much more playable than many of his quiptics which should nominally be easier.
Happy with PLATONIC when the penny dropped. Completely got the wrong gist of canoodles looking for it meaning pets: I thought ‘it’s a poodle crossed with what?’
Tachi@44 apparently you were right. A Cane Corso crossed with a poodle does produce a rather large curly haired dog. Heavy petting indeed!
Agree with PeterO’s preamble. Excellent Monday puzzle. All completed and parsed