Vulcan makes his regular fortnightly appearance in the Monday slot.
It’s been one of those weekends when my monthly Saturday Prize blog coincided with the Friday / Monday blogging overlap, so it’s been me three days running (with an Imogen / Vulcan combination into the bargain).
Typical Monday fare today, with a medley of charades, anagrams and cryptic definitions, some of which I found rather disappointing – but then they are not always my favourite kind of clue. I had ticks for 10ac PAWN, 12ac SIGHED, 28ac INVERSE, 4dn ECHIDNA and 15dn MET OFFICE.
Thanks to Vulcan for the puzzle.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Society axed expert (7)
SKILLED
S (society) + KILLED (axed)
5 Preserve carton to stuff full (3-4)
JAM-PACK
JAM (preserve) + PACK (carton)
10 Man who will change sex if promoted (4)
PAWN
Cryptic definition: a pawn is a chess piece (man) which can be promoted (usually to a queen) in this move
11 In hole I repot flourishing plant (10)
HELIOTROPE
An anagram (flourishing – in the sense of waving or shaking, I think) of HOLE I REPOT
12 To reporters, team expressed disappointment (6)
SIGHED
Sounds like (to reporters) ‘side’ (team)
13 Sort of saw letter being passed round (8)
CIRCULAR
Double definition
14 Bubbly Pam toying with change (9)
CHAMPAGNE
An anagram (toying with) of PAM and CHANGE
16 Special aquarium betrayed lack of cleaning? (5)
STANK
S (special) + TANK (aquarium)
17 With violence eject unknown dog (5)
SPITZ
SPIT (with violence eject) + Z (unknown)
19 Annoy detectives, if you will (9)
DISPLEASE
DIS (Detective Inspectors) + PLEASE (if you will)
23 Immature feelings for one of the herd? (4,4)
CALF LOVE
Cryptic (?) definition – perhaps better known as puppy love
24 Lifts very warm? Result! (6)
UPSHOT
UPS (as a verb) HOT (very warm)
26 Still deadpan, without leader (10)
MOTIONLESS
[e]MOTIONLESS (deadpan)
27 Enticement is a bit off (4)
BAIT
An anagram (off) of A BIT
28 The opposite – of ‘prosaic’? (7)
INVERSE
IN VERSE (poetic)
29 Don’t travel far enough to suffer? (7)
UNDERGO
Whimsically, ‘don’t travel far enough’
Down
2 Mischievous, like Jack? (7)
KNAVISH
Cryptic definition: knave is another word for the jack in a pack of cards
3 Set off without a meal (5)
LUNCH
L[a]UNCH (set off)
4 This animal can hide in disguise (7)
ECHIDNA
A neat anagram (in disguise) of CAN HIDE
6 Notice about pig on the bus (6)
ABOARD
AD (notice) round BOAR (pig)
7 In turn quickly rue tiptoe manoeuvre (9)
PIROUETTE
An anagram (manoeuvre) of RUE TIPTOE
8 One who has more responsibility in the navy than in the army (7)
CAPTAIN
A barely cryptic definition – see here
9 Rash not well treated (3-10)
ILL-CONSIDERED
ILL (not well) + CONSIDERED (treated)
15 Forecasters got together away from freezing conditions (3,6)
MET OFFICE
MET (got together) + OFF ICE (away from freezing conditions)
18 Army group also opening map (7)
PLATOON
TOO (also) in PLAN (map)
20 Connects up advertisement wrong (5,2)
PLUGS IN
PLUG (advertisement) + SIN (wrong)
21 Small job for gardener, and one for farrier (7)
SHOEING
S (small) + HOEING (job for gardener)
22 Regularly moving parts of railway line (6)
POINTS
Cryptic definition? – see here
25 Little furry animal wild in Basle (5)
SABLE
An anagram (wild) of BASLE – a species of marten
I had “joints” instead of POINTS; thought of it as a double definition with “parts” playing a dual role being also body parts. For POINTS, I’m not really sure what the wordplay is. Other than that, I liked the puzzle, especially PAWN, MET OFFICE and UNDERGO. Thanks Vulcan and Eileen!
Thankyou Eileen. I like cryptic defs but I had a bit of a struggle today. UNDERGO my LOI, but fair, I thought. I like the word ”whimsically”. And, as a railway buff, POINTS was okay for me.
SABLE had me looking for a Swiss German word for ”wild”. It was the wild in Basle that got me, looking for synonyms. But then I thought, we solvers are supposed to know some French and German, but Schweizerdeutsch? (of which I do know a bit).
Naturally I loved the clue for ECHIDNA. MET OFFICE brought a chuckle.
Talking of barely cryptic CDs, I had UNUSUAL at 28a, until the crossers put me straight. And I considered POINTS long before I had the courage to put it in, thinking it merely a straight definition. NHO CALF LOVE, though it wasn’t that hard to figure out. Thanks, Vulcan and Eileen.
I wasn’t sure that POINTS was right as I couldn’t see anything cryptic in the clue. New to me: HELIOTROPE, SPITZ, CALF LOVE.
I was fooled for a while by several clues by interpreting them the wrong way round; for example, SPITZ where I was trying to take an unknown from a word for violence; LUNCH where I was trying to put a word for Set off around A; and CHAMPAGNE, trying to find an anagram of pamtoying.
Very pleasant Xword.
Thanks Vulcan and Eileen, for a very early blog.
Thanks Eileen and Vulcan. I was thrown by SABLE being a small furry animal. I’ve only ever come across the sable antelope, which is anything but small.
Thanks Vulcan and Eileen.
A nice gentle breakfast time solve. I liked 28a.
‘Like rusty points’ is how I sometimes describe neural pathways — slow to make the lateral shift — although there was nothing very sticky among V’s clues today, ta to him and to Eileen.
Thanks Vulcan and Eileen
A DNF for me – I had PUCKISH for 2d (puck/jack in ice hockey?). so that mucked up the NW. I also needed a wordsearch for SPITZ – never heard of the dog.
I wasn’t impressed by POINTS either.
I was sure that 13a would involve “chain” somehow, so that had to wait for the crossers.
POINTS, CALF LOVE and CAPTAIN
Barely cryptic, as others have said.
Liked INVERSE and UNDERGO.
Thanks Vulcan and Eileen.
I came here hoping to find the parsing for POINTS; I see that I’m not alone.
10a PAWN should surely be “may” not “will”?
Lyssian@11
Agree with you on PAWN.
Like muffin @9 I started out with PUCKISH, and had to wait till the crossers put me straight.
I know the term Puppy Love, reasoned it was likely to be lamb, foal or calf and, again, had to wait for crossers….
I agree with you, Eileen, about 8D.
I’m another who wasn’t 100% sure about the parsing of POINTS and I, too, think Lyssian @11 is correct about PAWN.
On the other hand, the surface for 7D was pleasing, as was the succinctness of 3D.
Thanks, Eileen, for the usual cracking blog, and thank you Vulcan for the entertainment.
Is the purpose of “regularly” in POINTS because points regulate the trains??? I liked INVERSE.
Very pleasant offering but I do agree with Eileen’s quibbles, especially POINTS. My favourites were PAWN, (agree with Lysiane @11), HELIOTROPE, INVERSE and UNDERGO. The only SPITZ I’ve heard of is Mark, the Olympic swimming gold medalist.
Ta Vulcan & the busy Eileen.
Sorry Lyssian, spell checked.
I like LUNCH perhaps because I often ‘set off without’ eating. And the disguised ECHIDNA is neat.
A SPITZ is so-called I think because of its POINTed ears.
Thanks to Vulcan and Eileen
Quite tricky in parts and very enjoyable overall.
Favourites: BAIT, UNDERGO, ECHIDNA, PAWN (but agree with Lyssian@11), MET OFFICE, INVERSE.
Dogs are like fish: there are endless varieties!
Me@17 you might also PIROUETTE on your POINTS.
And PLUG IN to an electric POINT?
Couldn’t parse POINTS and SPITZ.Never heard of CALF LOVE before . What new word will come up for infatuation in future?
Good Monday fare, although I made heavy weather of this at the beginning.
I liked the sex-change man in PAWN, the SPITZ ejected dog, the gardener’s small job in SHOEING, and the MET OFFICE forecasters’ get-together. I’ve never heard of CALF LOVE, just puppy love.
Thanks Vulcan and the hard-working Eileen.
I think ‘can’ rather than ‘will’ would have been better in 12a. Pawns can be promoted to any piece, though queen is usual.
According to Chambers, KNAVISH means fraudulent or dishonest, not ‘mischievous’, and that’s how I’ve always understood it.
POINTS
Petert@14
Your suggestion ups the crypticity index of the clue a bit. Thanks.
I’d just written my friend ARON’s name on my to-do list and jumped to the incorrect conclusion that promoting him would yield NORA. Eventually the penny dropped and a lack of specialist knowledge once again proved invaluable in avoiding quibbles 🙂
Liked the freezing forecasters
Cheers E&V
me@17 & 20 – just to correct myself, SPITZ meaning ‘pointed’ in German refers to its muzzle apparently,
and to add that a SPIT is of course a skewer or a narrow POINT of land.
I’m not suggesting a theme, just making a couple points (on tippy toes in a circular fashion).
Lyssian @11
I think “will” is correct. The pawn may not be promoted – in fact probably won’t be – but if it is it will change sex.
Though, as poc says, it won’t necessarily become a queen, so “can” would be better still.
An enjoyable excursion.
A bit late to finish (comparatively – even though you might say that those of us in Australia have all day! But it was a busy one for me, so I only got to it late).
I tried LADDISH and ROGUISH for 2d (and sad that I didn’t think about PUCKISH as previously mentioned – that would have been a lovely tribute to a much-missed setter), but eventually thought about the pack of cards and got KNAVISH. Thankfully that gave me SKILLED for 1a which helped with the troublesome NW.
Due to posting late, my favourites have therefore already been mentioned. [I think it is a sign of my laziness or fatigue, but I must be starting to fall victim to the “quick click/tick/emoji” culture, as I sometimes wish I could just put a little accolade beside each comment with which I agree. But I am sure kenmac and everyone else here will groan yet again at the very notion of a social media type habit afflicting our blogging.]
Thanks to Vulcan and our triathlete Eileen!
muffin @27, I’m not sure why you say a promoted pawn will change sex. Surely not if it becomes a bishop (the new Archbishop of Canterbury notwithstanding!) or a knight?
bodycheetah @25 – yes, I did exactly the same as you! Only when the crossers disallowed it did I realise the error of my ways…
Thanks to Vulcan and, as ever, the indomitable Eileen
MOH @29
You must have seen my post between me putting it up and correcting it!
I wonder if the cryptic nature of the clue for POINTS is just that “regularly”, “moving”, and “parts” are all more commonly used in different clue types – so it’s misdirection, rather than word play?
I must have been doing too many of Paul’s recently as I was trying to parse MOTIONLESS as motion less or unused (dead) toilet (pan).
I struggled with seeing the cryptic part of points too. Maybe Vulcan has been playing with a Brio train set? This involves regularly moving parts of the line, especially if someone disapproves of it taking up the whole of the living room floor.
miserableoldhack@ 29: I had the same thought. Of course, a Queen can move as a bishop moves (and in other ways), but it can’t move as a knight does. I have very occasionally promoted a pawn to a knight in order to achieve checkmate when a Queen couldn’t have done the job.
22D Regularly moving parts of railway line
My best guess was that the 1st, 4th and 5th letters of Moving make an anagram of Points when mixed with the 1st, 4th and 5th letters of Parts.
It’s a stretch for regularly but it’s a regular rhythm.
I chuckled at the surface for PIROUETTE. It conjured up an image of a less than steady (and regretted) twirl on points; a memory of childhood ballet classes. An &lit?
Also loved INVERSE and ECHIDNA.
Thank you for explaining the parsing of PAWN – I don’t play the game – and POINTS.
Thanks to Vulcan and brava to Eileen, doing triple duty.
Nuntius @34
I couldn’t think of any reason to underpromote to anything other than a knight, so I Googled, and found some interesting reasons here. See the section on “Underpromotion”.
Mcourteny @ 35 that gives “PoiMts”?
Excellent Monday puzzle. I’ll second AlanC’s list of favourites @15.
Apart from the widely agreed quibble about PAWN, there is also the question about the word ‘sex’. A queen is still a chessMAN, and is a pawn masculine or neuter? I think a player would refer to one as ‘it’ rather than ‘he’. Perhaps ‘gender’ would have been better 🙂
Thanks to Vulcan and the industrious Eileen.
The strange thing about PAWN is that the queen is still a man, no?
POINTS aren’t called that in the US–here it’s a railroad switch. So, given no wordplay to help, I had to reveal that one. I’m therefore even less impressed by that clue than most of you.
Me@40 crossed with protase@39
Although both queen and pawn are “men,” the pawn is of indeterminate gender – so does it change sex when it becomes a queen? Or is this just sour grapes because I don’t play chess so I didn’t solve that one?
Muffin@37: Interesting. Thanks for the link. I will study the examples in detail when I have more time later. Good old Wiki. I donate occasionally. In this World full of “fake news” ( to coin a phrase) and general idiocies, it’s often a life line. Not perfect; but what is…
Naive_springwater@38. So it does. Good spot.
Well, still stumped then.
INVERSE and UNDERGO my last two in. Almost took me as long to puzzle those out as all of the preceding clues. Excellent Monday fare, I thought…
There are a lot of complaints here about barely cryptic clues (e.g., 8d CAPTAIN and 22d POINTS). Setting a Monday puzzle, like a Quiptic, must be a bit of a challenge for a setter who normally can be quite tricky. When transforming from Imogen to Vulcan, how much simplifying is too much or not enough? I think he gets it right more often than not, and deserves praise for his efforts. “Barely cryptic clues” are useful in a Monday/Quiptic puzzle as they provide entry points for “beginners and people in a hurry”.
Unlike several others, I was familiar with the term CALF LOVE. I wonder if it is more common in rural settings, with puppy love being more urban?
Thanks Vulcan for the puzzle, and Eileen for the triple-E (as in Eileen and weekend) blogs.
Like many other people we couldn’t parse POINTS. Otherwise an enjoyable and straightforward Monday crossword. Especially liked MET OFFICE and UNDERGO. Thanks Vulcan and Eileen.
It took me an awfully long time to get going with this. I’ll put that down to a poor night’s sleep as, having finally finished the puzzle, it contains absolutely nothing out of the ordinary for a Monday Vulcan. I didn’t mind any of the cds, except they are the hardest clues to get when the morning brain fog refuses to lift. I thought INVERSE, UNDERGO and PIROUETTE were nice.
I seem to be in a small minority in never having heard of the dog.
I found this tough. Missed two, although I was on the right track — 23a CALF LOVE (nho), and 22d POINTS (What’s cryptic about it? Not convinced yet by any attempts to explain it)
I also had two wrong, as I expected — they worked, but didn’t seem right — 2d KNAVISH, I had KIDDISH (childish, playful, mischievous), and the crossing 10a PAWN, I had ADIN (boy’s name, which, when reversed, gives NIDA, a girl’s name). So there!
Otherwise, favourites were 14a CHAMPAGNE (nicely hidden anagrind — is it “Bubbly”, “toying”, or “change”?), 27a BAIT (“a bit off”), 29a UNDERGO (“don’t travel far enough”), 6d ABOARD (fun)
Thanks both, especially Eileen, who earns extra POINTS for blogging so “regularly” over the weekend! 🙂
Cellomaniac@47, I don’t think the clue for POINTS is “barely cryptic”. I don’t think it’s cryptic at all.
I *wonder* if the final clue word for POINTS is the double meaning? I’m casting my mind back, and I seem to remember there being a connection to a point being 1 dimensional, and a line being a series of points which makes it 2 dimensional?
My LOI was 18D, it had to be the answer, but I just could not parse it until I came here and slapped my forehead.
Thanks to all!
Oh Zeppalino@53, you called it! A “line” connects two points! So “Regularly moving parts of railway” = POINTS, and “line” = POINTS! Well done!
GDU@47, regularly can be an alternating letters indicator, moving can be an anagrind, and things other than points can be parts of a railway line (e.g., rolling stock moves fairly regularly). I think it meets the barely threshold.
I second Mig’s gratitude to Zeppalino @ 53.
That little part of my brain can stop twitching now.
(I think that a point is zero-dimensional, and a line – an infinite number of points – one-dimensional perhaps, but that takes nothing away from Zeppalino if so.)
I still had PAWN and UNDERGO to do at breakfast time the day after, though to be fair I didn’t start until quite late on Monday. The former required a kick up the backside when I got it, but I had to come here for the latter, which was more cryptic than all the rest of the puzzle.
Thanks to Vulcan, and to Eileen for her long weekend of blogging.
I enjoyed the puzzle, thank you Vulcan. I didn’t mind the easy clues… I’m still a beginner. Thank you Eilees for the explanations, since even after reveal I couldn’t parse some. I loved the whimsy of many answers.
KVa@24 “crypticity index”. Love it. Would make a great name for a band.
For the parsing of points(22d), I was thinking that “regularly” could mean “at certain points“.