A Monday puzzle from Vulcan.
Apart from those in the SW corner, the solutions came to mind pretty quickly and the top half of the grid was over in a flash, but a couple of obscurities in the bottom left of the grid held me up. I’ve never come across TIn as a type of loaf (I assume it’s the equivalent of a “pan lof” up here in Scotland) nor the word TILLER as a shoot.
Thanks Vulcan.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | FRIAR TUCK |
A merry man, one said to be cooking food (5,4)
|
| Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [said] of FRIER (“one cooking”) + TUCK (“food”) | ||
| 9 | ACCENT |
Stress I had to avoid mishap (6)
|
| I’D (I had) avoided in ACC(id)ENT (“mishap”) | ||
| 10 | BATTLE CRY |
Rousing slogan, but be in tears after fight (6,3)
|
| CRY (“be in tears”) after BATTLE (“fight”) | ||
| 11 | SPOT ON |
Offspring holding beer mug? Exactly (4,2)
|
| SON (“offspring”) holding POT (“beer mug”) | ||
| 12 | FANTASTIC |
Great to adhere mostly to soft drink (9)
|
| STIC(k) (“to adhere”, mostly) to FANTA (“soft drink”) | ||
| 13 | IGNORE |
Fail to deal with troubled region (6)
|
| *(region) [anag:troubled] | ||
| 17 | AHA |
I’m surprised breakdown organisation covers horse (3)
|
| AA (Automobile Association, so “breakdown organisation”) covers H (horse) | ||
| 19, 20 | EVENING CLASSES |
Ironing lessons outside school hours? (7,7)
|
| Cryptic definition, with “evening” meaning removing creases from, as in “ironing” | ||
| 20 |
See 19
|
|
| 21 | ORE |
Half a US state is a source of metals (3)
|
| [half of] ORE(gon) (“US state”) | ||
| 23 | REBOOT |
Get computer going again with another kick? (6)
|
| BOOT = “kick”, so “another kick” could be a REBOOT | ||
| 27 | OVERDID IT |
Exhausted oneself, but a few deliveries brought success (7,2)
|
| OVER (“a few deliveries”) + DID IT (“brought success”) | ||
| 28 | BORNEO |
Carried over island (6)
|
| BORNE (“carried”) + O (over, in cricket) | ||
| 29 | BETE NOIRE |
Nice black sheep perhaps one I particularly detest (4,5)
|
| In Nice in France, BÊTE NOIRE means black animal, so “black sheep perhaps”) | ||
| 30 | TILLER |
Shoot a ploughman (6)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 31 | YACHTSMAN |
Sailor’s shanty remixed with Mac (9)
|
| *(shanty mac) [anag:remixed] | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | REAGAN |
Part of the army once more deposing one president (6)
|
| RE (Royal Engineers, “part of the army”) + AGA(i)N (“once more”, deposing I (one)) | ||
| 3 | ASTUTE |
Shrewd as Pharaoh, the leader of Egypt (6)
|
| AS + TUT(ankhamen) (“pharaoh”) + [leader of] E(gypt) | ||
| 4 | THEIST |
The first religious believer (6)
|
| THE + 1st (“first”) | ||
| 5, 22 | CORNISH RIVIERA |
Excited choirs arrive in the St Austell area (7,7)
|
| *(choirs arrive in) [anag:exciting] | ||
| 6 | SCAPEGOAT |
One unfairly blamed as the first to smear cloak with butter (9)
|
| [first to] S(mear) + CAPE (“cloak”) with GOAT (“butter”, i.e something that butts) | ||
| 7 | PENTHOUSE |
This luxury accommodation is the tops (9)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 8 | STAND EASY |
Act of resistance no problem for army command (5,4)
|
| STAND (“act of resistance”) + EASY (“no problem”) | ||
| 14 | REPROBATE |
Miscreant concerned with affirmation of will (9)
|
| RE (“concerned with”) + PROBATE (“affirmation of will”) | ||
| 15 | KERB DRILL |
Safety procedure needed when digging up pavement? (4,5)
|
| A DRILL used to dig up the KERB | ||
| 16 | TIN OPENER |
Loaf, starter that may be needed for a simple meal (3,6)
|
| TIN (a rectangular “loaf”) + OPENER (“starter”) | ||
| 17 | AGO |
Past making an attempt (3)
|
| A + GO (“an attempt”) | ||
| 18 | ACE |
One may win over a king (3)
|
| Cryptic definition, referring to playing cards. | ||
| 22 |
See 5
|
|
| 24 | BREECH |
Tree covering river bottom (6)
|
| BEECH (“tree”) covering R (river) | ||
| 25 | BISONS |
Not straight, lads becoming wild animals (6)
|
| BI(sexual) (“not straight”) + SONS (“lads”) | ||
| 26 | SIERRA |
Some easier rambles in the mountains (6)
|
| Hidden in [some] “eaSIER RAbles” |
I agree, loonapick, that it was the SW that took the longest. I also hesitated a long while before accepting that a TILLER must also be some kind of shoot. And I got fixated on the obviously wrong BRUNEI at 28a for a ridiculously long time before seeing the blatantly obvious staring me in the face. My faults – the crossie was perfectly fine. Thanks, Vulcan and loonapick.
The SW corner last to yield. Took a while to see REPROBATE, and then BORNEO and loi TILLER, which I didn’t know as a meaning for Shoot. Lots to like however in a Monday Vulcan…
Thanks Vulcan and loonapick
An aesthetically pleasing grid, with the “run-on” solutions actually doing so. A drawback was that I had entered 17and 18 down before reading the clues – and 18 was a good one!
I too found the SW most tricky, and still can’t see why TILLER = shoot.
Favourites the construction for ACCENT and the surface for SIERRA.
I associate St. Austell with china clay more than with riviera!
Muffin @3 “A tiller is a shoot that arises from the base of a grass plant. The term refers to all shoots that grow after the initial parent shoot grows from a seed.” I didn’t know this usage either, but it came up pretty quickly searching for the two words together. I also had difficulty with the SW corner, this one being my LOI.
Do you know the difference between a buffalo and a BISON? One roams the prairies and I wash my hands in the other …
Thanks MAC089. Never heard that. My wife, a botanist, did know it, though.
Yes, a TILLER is indeed a sort of shoot; I should have remembered that one form of loaf that the baker sells is a (usually “split”) TIN; sometimes, it appears, the plural of bison isn’t bison.
And yes, as ronald @2 remarks, there’s a lot to enjoy in this puzzle.
But.
While I agree with muffin @ 3 that it’s attractive to have CORNISH RIVIERA and EVENING CLASSES running straight on, this is bought at a high price.
Firstly the puzzle actually becomes four small puzzles, with the only link taking place in the centre. And secondly, there are no fewer than twelve lights where the unchecked letters outnumber the crossers. I don’t share the view that Ximenes’ pronouncements remain the last word on crosswords; but one thing on which I think Ximenes was spot on was his condemnation of such a grid.
“…what I want to make the first principle of crossword diagram composition, that at least half the letters of every word should be checked. I consider that a five-letter word with only its second and fourth letters checked is unfair to the solver…”
This is supposed to be a Monday puzzle, after all.
But thanks anyway, Vulcan and loonapick.
I don’t know whether I completed this or not. When I read the blog, I realise I hadn’t solved 17ac, but all the letters were filled in by the crossers.
Thans loonapick and Vulcan
Pleasant workout.
Ta Vulcan & loonapick.
Enjoyable puzzle.
New for me – BREECH = bottom, TILLER = shoot, STAND EASY.
A particularly enjoyable plain-sailing Vulcan today. Absolutely right in terms of clue difficulty for a Monday and would compete well with the other options offered for the newer solver – with the fair caveat raised by NeilH that the grid itself is not particularly friendly. Had the cluing been harder, it would have been a very different beast. Lovely elegant clues, pretty much from top to tail. TILLER, a new one on me too.
Thanks both
FRIAR TUCK, OVERDID IT, STAND EASY and ACE were my faves.
Thanks loonapick and Vulcan.
Re 16D Alternatively, loaf = bread = money = tin.
I simply assumed a TILLER was some kind of shoot. I failed on TIN OPENER. Never heard that usage of TIN though I see it’s in Chambers.
V enjoyable Monday puzzle, with the SW being a bit more tricky, as others have noted.
I’m looking forward to the day Paul clues FRIAR TUCK as a Spoonerism.
Thanks to Vulcan and loonapick.
This looked like being 10 minutes’ worth, but there’s always something isn’t there? My LOI was actually BISONS but only because of the order I was running in. I didn’t know those meanings for TILLER, BREECH or TIN and hadn’t heard of KERB DRILL either. I guess people will moan about AHA like they did last time it was clued as a surprise. On a day with many write-ins, REBOOT has to stand out as the write-in of write-ins. I’m surprised the app didn’t pre-enter it.
All good though, I enjoyed it. Thanks Vulcan and loonapick.
I’m with NeilH @7 on the awful unconnected grid and the unches.
The Cornish Riviera always reminds me of Farty Towels. 🙂
I’ve been to St Austell. Riviera is not the first association that sprung to mind.
I agree that this is a dreadful grid, over-unched (apart from the four central lights which have none at all) and falling into four quarters. I put the long phrases in to act as a link, so you weren’t quite faced with four mini-puzzles, and tried to make the cluing a bit easier because of the shortage of cross-checking. I have not used this grid before (Imogen used it once, a long time ago, and my fellow compilers senisbly seem to avoid it too) and I probably won’t use it again.
NeilH@7, Muffin@3 etc, enjoying the grid discussion, thank you for bringing Ximenes to the table! Surely in the hands of master setters (and Vulcan is certainly one) the grid difficulty is just one factor that they balance with others to create a fair overall difficulty, those others including clue difficulties (obvs), run-on answers (like CORNISH RIVIERA), multi-word answers in general (generally easier than single word answers), themes, pangrams, ninas etc. I would shudder to see this grid with Enigmatist at the helm, but today’s seemed very fair and enjoyable. Thank you V&L. (Crossed with Vulcan, 🙏)
By the way anyone know how come South Devon (location of Fawlty Towers) got to be the English Riviera, Cornwall merely the Cornish one?
Good Monday puzzle; this grid was used by Puck for the famous ARMADILLO in the centre, I think. I liked the wordplays for ACCENT, REAGAN and SCAPEGOAT (smearing butter was particularly good), the good anagram for CORNISH RIVIERA, and the surface for SIERRA.
Thanks Vulcan and loonapick.
Yep, like most others, only the tin loaf and the tiller shoot caused head-scratching, everything else rattled in. The unspoken Spooner and the buttery cloak and got grins, ta Vulcan and loonapick.
We used to buy a long split tin which made excellent toast when beginning to get stale.
But I hadn’t heard of tiller shoot either.
Otherwise great fun, thanks both
On checking out possible meanings for “tiller”, I found it’s also a term used in archery, so yet another association with shoot(ing), though pretty loose.
I think substituting “bread” for “loaf” in 16d would have averted much of the criticism while still preserving the surface.
Re 16D: a High Tin loaf is pretty standard fare in Australia, but perhaps not elsewhere.
18d reminded me of this quote:
He played the king as if afraid someone else would play the ace.
John Mason Brown
Defeated by the crossing TILLER and KERB DRILL, not having heard of the latter (it was the Green Cross Code when I was growing up) nor the “shoot” form of the former.
Enjoyed the challenge though.
Ta Vulcan and loonapick.
Really enjoyed this Monday puzzle … just the right level for a Monday. Same as everyone else, new to us was TILLER = shoot and TIN = loaf. Loved FRIAR TUCK. Thanks Vulcan and Ioonapick.
My local (brilliant) artisan bakery in London calls its rectangular loaf a tin loaf. The other loaves are bloomers.
Good solid Monday fun. I was unbothered by the grid, but then I’m a relatively new solver and have not read Ximenes (nor even heard of them until they came up in a recent puzzle) so perhaps less sensitive to any “breaches of convention” that long-time solvers might find troubling.
I don’t actually know whether I have heard of kerb drill or not – it sort of vaguely tickles my memory, which seems to happen a lot at my age.
The names of loaves are a minefield: I remember discovering on a long-ago holiday that our familiar London “split tin” loaves were called something else in Devon and the local baker had never heard of them.
Apart from the nasty grid (yes, I remember the armadillo), I found this easy even for a Vulcan, though I missed the ACC(id)ENT and had to dredge up TILLER=shoot from the darkest depths of my memory (is it a noun or a verb, or both?) Liked the nice black sheep and the ironing lessons. I suspect KERB DRILL may be unfamiliar to younger solvers and non-Brits, and our US solvers will want to spell it as CURB.
Thanks Vulcan for making a nasty grid a bit easier, and loonapick for the parsing.
My Chambers has TILLER as “a shoot from the stool of a tree” – so that’s what those new shoots from the stump of the Sycamore Gap tree are.
Hadrian @21 – I think the nickname “the English Riviera” came from the generally temperate climate of the Cornish coast and South Devon. “The Cornish Riviera” as such I suspect owes a lot to some astute marketing by the Great Western Railway in the years before WW1. The “Cornish Riviera Express” and the “Cambrian Coast Express” were two services which, during the holiday season, would almost always be crammed full.
Very good point that Vulcan himself makes @ 19, that the two long phrases join the four mini-puzzles in a helpful fashion. But not even a setter as skilled as Vulcan can get round the pile of unchecked letters.
Vulcan@19
I like the grid
Use it again
I guessed TILLER, took a deep breath, entered it, looked up its meanings, saw shoot and exhaled.
I don’t remember seeing Vulcan pop in here before – thanks V.
No one has mentioned the thing that grated for me: BISONS. The plural of bison is bison! Maybe there’s some dictionary somewhere that has support for BISONS, but I checked two (Merriam-Webster and Collins) and found none.
[Fun fact: because the word buffalo is both a plural noun and a verb with various meanings (we’ll go with “flummox”), and because the relative pronoun “that” is technically optional, it’s possible to make technically grammatically correct (but inane) sentences of arbitrary length containing only the word buffalo. For example, “Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo” might parse as “Bison flummox the bison that bison flummox”. The difficulty in parsing this is a great argument for why “that” is not actually optional most of the time!]
[mrp@37 Your buffalo remind me of the Story of Esau Wood]
Thanks for the blog , very good set of clues and seems just right for Monday , nice to have the paired clues across the middle , did not like the grid but it did not spoil things . Agree with SimCam@24 and Fiona@30 for tin loaf , they also seem much easier to slice consistently .
Once again I am grateful that FRIAR TUCK was not clued using a Spoonerism .
As a former agricultural botanist, tiller came easily. As a child, I remember being sent to the baker for a ‘twisted tin’ loaf. That would seem to have future anagram potential. Thanks both
In my kitchen, I have a loaf tin. Its purpose is to be used to bake tin loaves.
Are bisons in the same league as sheeps and deers?
Perhaps “split tin” is more familiar. The Split Tin in Bristol is a fabulous, and long established, bakery.
Does anyone know why we say yachtsman and not yachtman? cf boatman, ferryman etc.
@Roz39 – Time for a ‘Carry On’ response perhaps? Along the lines of ‘Ooo er Matron (Bishop Copper etc….)’. Take your pick as it were… Have to be careful though, the Danish sound-alike for pick is nearer the mark than my Mum and Grandma would ever allow in polite conversation. Have a good evening.
[ Thank you Chargehand , good to see you in the comments . I am surprised there was never a Carry On Robin Hood , a lot of scope for their humour . Fortunately I do not know any Danish . ]
[Roz @45
Mel Brooks’s Robin Hood, Men in tights filled the vacancy.]
Ayeaye, 43,
Perhaps for the same reason that we say draughtsman and tradesman?
Cheers all.
I’m with mrpenney @37 — As far as I know, the plural of “bison” is “bison”.
I’m still uncertain about “loaf” to clue TIN. It’s clear from a web search that there is such a thing as a “tin loaf”, and such a thing as a “loaf tin”, but I don’t think that either or both of those facts gets us there. Are there circumstances in which a tin is a loaf, or vice versa?
I’m quite confident that nobody will read this – but for my own peace of mind, I need to comment. We often get to the crossword late and come here to enjoy the discussion after solving, and so it was this time. The debate over tin loaves moves me to contribute my own experience as a former Saturday girl in a bakery, where we sold dozens (if not hundreds) of large, small and split tin loaves – baked in loaf tins, hence the rectangular structure, good for neat slicing and toasting. They are a traditional English loaf and without any doubt whatsoever, definitely A Thing!
(Many years later, I also regularly make my own bread, so I own a number of loaf pans for this very purpose)
Completed fairly readily, even though I don’t like this grid. It’s like four separate puzzles. Interested to hear Vulcan @19 explain their approach to the grid, and pleased to hear they probably won’t use it again
SE held out the longest for me
Fougasse @49, yes I read your comment. No one will read this one!
mrpenney @37, I think it can go as far as Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo