Brummie kicks off the week in the Guardian.
A pleasant enough romp for a Monday morning, woth some nice cryptic definitions (“crafty assessor”, “aired by seaman” e.g.). The ROMAN in the fodder for “unROMANtic” was disappointing, and it may be time to retire OUNCE from the crossword dictionary, but all in all, a fine puzzle. On the Guardian website, there is mention of a theme, but as usual, I solved withiut noticing one, and still can’t see it.
Thanks Brummie.
| ACROSS | ||
| 9 | OMITS |
Spread moist leaves out (5)
|
| *(moist) [anag:spread] | ||
| 10 | MATRIARCH |
Top female Republican with manic air enters contest (9)
|
| (R (Republican) with *(air) [anag:manic]) enters MATCH (“contest”) | ||
| 11 | DOVER SOLE |
Department head in charge of exclusive sea food (5,4)
|
| D(epartment) [head] + OVER (“in charge of”) + SOLE (“exclusive”) | ||
| 12 | COVET |
Old Man Time’s desire (5)
|
| COVE (“old” word for “man”) + T (time) | ||
| 13 | BOROUGH |
Administrative division or dividing branch (7)
|
| OR dividing BOUGH (“branch”) | ||
| 15 | EXPOSED |
Divorcee with attitude: dad’s first to be denounced! (7)
|
| EX (“divorcee”) with POSE (“attitude”) + D(ad) [‘s first] | ||
| 17 | ALDER |
Tree having less on top is topped (5)
|
| (b)ALDER (“having less on top”) is topped | ||
| 18, 3 | END USER |
Stop druggie being ultimate beneficiary of software (3,4)
|
| END (“stop”) + USER (“druggie”) | ||
| 20 | PETER |
Pan’s treasure about to be returned? (5)
|
| PET (“treasure”, as in a term of endearment) + <=RE (“about”, to be returned) | ||
| 22 | KASHMIR |
Disputed area’s reported money, pure and simple (7)
|
| Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [reported] of CASH (“money”) + MERE (“pure and simple”) | ||
| 25 | GOSSIPY |
Inclined to prattle? Try second drink (friendly tip) (7)
|
| GO (“try”) + S (second) + SIP (“drink”) + (friendl)Y [tip] | ||
| 26 | BRAIN |
Mastermind introduction of baby shower (5)
|
| [introduction of] B(aby) + RAIN (“shower”) | ||
| 27 | TEST PILOT |
Crafty assessor of tax, one covered by scheme (4,5)
|
| TEST (“tax”) + I (one) covered by PLOT (“scheme”)
A test pilot asseses (air)craft, so could be described as a “crafty assessor” |
||
| 30 | ATTRIBUTE |
Virtue of one-time payment made by conquered country? (9)
|
| A (“one”) + T (time) + TRIBUTE (“payment made by conquered country”) | ||
| 31 | OUNCE |
Cat’s powerless to make sudden leap (5)
|
| [powerless] (i.e. missing P (power)) (p)OUNCE (“make a sudden leap”) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | FORD |
‘Doctor of Retraction’ gets cross (4)
|
| <=(Dr. (doctor) + OF) [retraction] | ||
| 2 | SILVERED |
Given a fancy coat, delivers bananas (8)
|
| *(delivers) [anag:bananas] | ||
| 3 |
See 18 Across
|
|
| 4 | SMOOTHIE |
Drink time – oh, so riotous! (8)
|
| *(time oh so) [anag:riotous] | ||
| 5 | ATHENE |
One subsequently meets earth goddess (6)
|
| A (“one”) + THEN (“subsequently”) meets E (earth) | ||
| 6 | PITCH PIPES |
Try to sell briars as tuning aids? (5,5)
|
| PITCH (“try to sell”) + PIPES (“briars”)
Chambers has pitchpipes (all one word rather than two) |
||
| 7 | GRAVES |
Wine, gallons, at parties (6)
|
| G (gallon) at RAVES (“parties”)
Graves is a (normally) white dry French wine. |
||
| 8 | SHOT |
Attempt to extract everything from onion (4)
|
| ALL (“everything} extracted from SH(all)OT (“onion”) | ||
| 13 | BLACK |
Champion outside left, pretty grim (5)
|
| BACK (“champion”) outside L (left) | ||
| 14 | UNROMANTIC |
Realistic reproduction of Roman tunic (10)
|
| *(roman tunic) [anag:reproduction of] | ||
| 16 | DERBY |
Consider bylaws essentially old hat (5)
|
| The middle letters of [essentially] “consiDER BYlaws” | ||
| 19 | DIGESTED |
Have a hippie liking for drugs Edward’s taken in (8)
|
| DIG (“have a hipppie liking for”) + Es (ecstasy, so “drugs”) + TED (Edward) | ||
| 21 | TRIFLING |
Paltry thieves start plundering (8)
|
| T(hieves) [start] + RIFLING (“plundering”) | ||
| 23 | SHANTY |
Cabin aired by working seaman? (6)
|
| Double definition, the second cryptic, as a (sea) SHANTY is a song (air), so it could be “aired by a seaman” | ||
| 24 | ROTGUT |
Good to break poor tutor’s rough spirit (6)
|
| G (good) to break *(tutor) [anag:poor] | ||
| 26 | BRAD |
Tack produced by supporter at United’s final (4)
|
| BRA (“supporter”) at (unite)D [‘s final] | ||
| 28 | POOL |
Kitty gets wind up (4)
|
| <=LOOP (“wind”, up) | ||
| 29 | TREE |
Plane possibly needs way to ditch wings (4)
|
| (s)TREE(t) (“way”, to ditch wings) |
A good puzzle; it was hard to get a foothold at first but then it turned out easier than I thought. My favourites TREE, SHOT and ALDER. Agree with the blogger’s quibbles and can’t see a theme, either. Thanks Brummie and loonapick!
thanks loonapick and Brummie.
I was slow to solve many of these clues; I don’t know why, on reflection mostly straightforward.
Some very nice ones amongst which TEST PILOT.
I was unsure ATTRIBUTE = virtue
Themes? Blackpool, Dover, Graves End, Bradford
Shot, Rotgut, Smoothie, Shan(d)y
Probably not
New for me: briar pipe (for 6d) as well as PITCH PIPES; GRAVES = wine.
I put in an unparsed BLEAK before I realised that the answer to 13d is BLEAK.
Although I solved and parsed it, I’m still not sure why 20ac peter = pan…
Aldershot, Derby, Braintree, Peterborough
Dave Ellison. Can you save me from googling and put me out of my misery? It’s clearly UKGK that I’m lacking.
Enjoyed the puzzle though, and credit to Brummie for setting in such a way that it didn’t matter if the theme was missed.
Did it help?
Michelle @4
I had Pan as s piper but a) I couldn’t parse it, b) it was crossing another word with pipes in it, so unlikely, and messed up the SE for me. I’m assuming the QM at the end indicated a definition by example. Peter Pan. as by J M Barrie
The dictionary got a good workout, and my lexicon has duly been augmented, albeit no doubt only briefly. Never heard of GRAVES wine, BRAD, ROTGUT, DERBY hat, briar/pipe, nor this meaning of tribute. But they were all quite getable, as the wordplay was succinct. I don’t always manage to complete Brummie’s but I did today and enjoyed it.
Paddymelon @6 – lots of British towns, but not sure of the connection?
Peterborough
Braintree
Aldershot
Derby
Blackpool
Bradford
Gravesend
Dover
Thank you to loonapick and Brummie.
paddymelon@7 – thanks for explaining. I love Peter Pan but it just did not occur to me that that was how to parse 20ac!
Google AI tells me that these were all football clubs that went into liquidation and were replaced by new “Phoenix” clubs. Make of that what you will!
Great stuff from Brummie.
It took some thinking in parts but as with a lot of good puzzles I feel I should have found it easier than I did.
Slightly paused for ROTGUT which I have always called gutrot. Both seem acceptable in Chambers (although the G doesn’t break anything in the incorrect answer).
My favourite today AUTOPILOT.
Thanks Brummie and Loonapick
Agree that OUNCE needs to take a sabbatical and SHOT was similar to a clue last week. I noticed that we were having a tour of very ordinary towns in the UK, usefully listed by Shanne. I also had GUTROT for a while, which held me back until I got another familiar solution, KASHMIR. My favourites were ALDER, PETER, TEST PILOT and SHANTY.
Ta Brummie & loonapick.
It took me a long time to spot the theme even when I knew it was there, and I can’t see any particular connection between the towns (if it is football related, hardly surprising!) It didn’t help that I had ROOD=cross instead of FORD.
It also took a while to find my LOI SHANTY, which is now my favourite.
Yes, nearly enough OUNCEs to make a pound lately – and there was yet another NONET in today’s Quick.
Staticman1 @12: I presume you mean TEST PILOT 😉
Nothing else but OUNCE fits O_N_E, so if the setter has painted themselves into that particular corner, they are stuck with it.
I wondered whether a test plain was a kind of embroidery sampler before I hit on the right scheme. SHANTY was my favourite for the clever second definition.
Not for me, I’m afraid. Better luck next time perhaps!
Seemed harder than a normal Monday, but largely because I overcomplicated it. Failed on the bottom corner, putting in a parsable (P)’LUNGE’ (a kind of horsewhip, so tenuously a cat). That made 28D impossible. Also blithely stuck in ROOD for 1D on the grounds that DOOR must be an obscure abbreviation for doctor. Clearly I am my own worst enemy.
@RobinAdelaide – what I would make of that is that as usual AI is talking utter poppycock!
OUNCE was lurking in the same corner it pounced from last week. BRIAR comes up regularly too.
I found this tricky in places. Maybe I’m going through a bad patch; yesterday’s Quiptic seemed tough and I made 3 mistakes on the Prize which really slowed things down.
This one all looks fair in retrospect as they practically always do.
Thanks Brummie and loonapick
There was nothing obscure or unfamiliar to me today but for some reason it felt like pulling teeth. I got nothing on my first run through but slowly pieced it together. I liked the clue for KASHMIR (is it always the ‘disputed country’ in crosswords?) and DIGESTED (you have to be old to remember ‘dig’ in that sense) but some of the four-letter answers – FORD, POOL, TREE – were hard going. TEST PILOT as ‘crafty assessor’? Didn’t like that much and couldn’t work it out from the clue.
I found this very tough for a Monday, though looking back I can’t see why. I fell into the ROTGUT GUTROT trap, and had BLEAK for BLACK. Needed a fair amount of assistance so must rank as dnf. I agree that it’s time to retire OUNCE (and NONET!).
Favourite TEST PILOT.
There are plenty of words only seen in crosswords that I would retire before ounce, but it seems to have been used several times recently.
paddymelon@7 I also had piper. I think there might be a rhyme or riddle about a pip being the secret treasure at the heart of an apple, but it felt a bit weak.
If there is a link between the 8 thematic towns, I am sure it isn’t their football clubs, some of which are pretty obscure even for a football follower. The list feels if it could be the locations for gigs by a 1970s rock band on their first tour, and I am sure the name of a couple of bands are among the clue solutions…….Unromantic Athene? Smooth Rotgut? Alternatively they are just random English towns.
A bit tough for a Monday I thought but a good solve. I liked the MATRIARCH entering a contest, dad’s EXPOSÉ after divorce, the TEST PILOT crafty assessor, and the hippie liking DIGESTED. I spent far too long before noticing the hidden DERBY and ROTGUT was the last to yield.
Alternative AI view of what the towns have in common: Peterborough, Braintree, Aldershot, Derby, Blackpool, Bradford, Gravesend, and Dover are all locations in the UK that host well-known or historic football clubs, often referred to as hosting “local derbies” or being part of significant regional football rivalries in English football
Thanks Brummie and loonapick.
Gravesend Football Club merged with Northfleet FC in 1946 to form Ebbsfleet FC – nope I didn’t know either, but I checked. I suspect AI’s conclusion.
Looking for other links, they all have railway stations and quite a few have BMX Racing Tracks – Gravesend, Blackpool, Bradford, Braintree, Bradford, Derby, Peterborough all do. Aldershot and Dover don’t.
Dover, Aldershot, Braintree and Peterborough have a Speedway track – Bradford did have, but racing is cancelled this year. Gravesend doesn’t, nor does Blackpool. Derby has a song about it.
Nicely pitched Monday puzzle with some satisfying challenges. NE then SE knottiest, with 28d POOL loi, obvious in hindsight
Faves 20a PETER (tricky definition “Pan”, combined with tricky wordplay “treasure” = PET), 1d FORD (“Doctor of retraction” bizarre and hilarious), 2d SILVERED (“delivers bananas”), 14d UNROMANTIC (I liked the “Roman tunic” anagram, even though only two letters are moved)
Thanks both!
Re the theme, is the connection that they all have racecourses or speedways? Derby would be the race not the place. Bradford apparently hosts stock car racing in Odsal Stadium
Could all those unemarkable towns be BOROUGHs, perhaps? It can’t have anything to do with football, even in AI’s wildest dreams 🙂
Thanks to L & B for the blog and fun crossword and to Shanne for spotting the theme which seems to be lower division football clubs ?
Not sure that they can be described as well-known though, although Ebbsfleet has the distinction of being owned by over 28,000 people in 2008 via a website.
Me@29 I guess Derby, the place, did have a racecourse. Oh, and Braintree may actually be Aintree
I found that tough for a Monday, relieved to read it wasn’t just me. The parsing of 20A eluded me, although in hindsight it is perfectly fair.
I was feeling quite pleased with myself for finally remembering OUNCE as a cat, and now people want to retire it?
A brief visit just to say that I also spotted Exeter (EX from EXPOSED and ETER from PETER). I thought that their juxtaposition in the grid was perhaps intended to trigger the connection.
…and Exeter also has a racecourse!
[Roz, before you say it, the way thing are going, maybe they will be the teams KPR will be playing within four years?]
I found this rather harder than expected, but in retrospect, everything was clear, fair and above board.
If the OUNCE goes locally extinct in crosswordland, I for one will not mourn its passing.
TEST PILOT gets my COTD, with PITCH PIPES a close runner-up.
Having had the river TEST appear recently, I’m seeing a Test Pilot as some bewhiskered and weather-beaten old mariner, guiding the mighty paddle steamers upstream to the best fishing grounds.
Thanks Brummie and loonapick.
I sheepishly withdraw my theory about racecourses and speedways — the hits I got are not as convincing as I first thought
A theme has several times been identified in a Brummie puzzle only for him to say that none was intended, but this one is surely genuine. Not that I spotted it! I think it’s probably just English towns, with no further connection.
Even without seeing the theme I enjoyed this. Lots of nice surfaces, such as the person in 2d being given a fancy outfit in which to deliver bananas. And personally I have nothing against an anagram which only requires a couple of letters moving — I rather liked the way you just had to move the “un” to the front of “Roman tunic” to get the answer, and I certainly didn’t find it “disappointing”.
And please don’t retire OUNCE — it’s a much-loved member of the crossword menagerie, along with the okapi and others.
Many thanks Brummie and loonapick.
OUNCE is a perfectly fine word in itself, it’s the snow leopard definition that feels like Chambers bait to me. A bit back then around the university? Quite the reverse! Eh, needs work.
Anyway quite pleasant, thanks Brummie and loonapick!
Thanks for the blog , good set of clues but I thought it was a bit tricky for a Monday . I liked the use of dig for DIGESTED . Totally missed the theme of course .
[Gravesend football club changed it’s name from Gravesend & Northfleet, as it had been known since 1946, to Ebbsfleet in 2007 after Kuwaiti investment. Though it has sailed close to the wind many times, it has never gone into administration. Another AI hallucination. I can’t tell you how much I distrust AI.
I can’t speak for all the towns on the list, but I cannot argue with vannucci @30 that Gravesend is indeed an unremarkable town. And it does not have a racecourse.]
[ AlanC@36 – have KPR given up scoring goals for Lent ? At least they avoided pineapple on the pizza this weekend . ]
The OUNCE is very elusive in the wild so I like to see it hiding in the grid , there is another one to spot elsewhere today .
I have been overwhelmed by the number of misleading comments about Gravesend on this thread!
Gravesend and Northfleet FC were formed from a merger in 1946. The name change to Ebbsfleet United in 2007 was not a result of Kuwaiti owners, who came much later, but as a tie-in with the newly-built Ebbsfleet International station. Our shirt sponsor, coinciding with this, was Eurostar.
We were bought by MyFC in 2008 but the venture did not end well. The ‘own the club, pick the team’ slogan attracted owners, but the latter promise (thankfully) never materialised. The Kuwaiti purchase saved us from likely financial ruin.
What this all has to do with the theme is anyone’s guess. It’s probably just some random towns…
After further thought I think each town has a Catholic church where Augustus Pugin designed a distinctive font .
Thanks both.
I dunno – where would we be without old chestnuts like OUNCE and ‘nonet’? What would we have to pass on to the coming generations? (‘Runner’, ‘banker’ and ‘flower’ are others that occur to me.)
I was another ‘ROOD’ but on reflection FORD was COTD for me. Not too impressed with the equivalence of ‘cove’ and ‘old man’, but it’s not a word that I have in my bumbag – although it is in my backpack (but with other meanings).
Roz@46: I hope you’re right – that would be the spot of the century.
When people say they haven’t seen a word before, I can’t always resist having a quick search to see if that is really the case.
It is a petty, tragic and pathetic waste of time. Luckily, I’m not quite tedious enough to share my findings.
Despite my misappropriation of the tool, it has to be said that the search capabilities are very useful.
AlanC@36 – I assume KPR were QPR before the present King. Was very much hoping they would do us a favour yesterday, but it was not to be.
Tougher than usual for a Monday, on reflection, I’m not sure why. Some new definitions which are always welcome SHANTY = Cabin, TRIBUTE = Payment to another country.
I’m sure we had OUNCE last week, maybe try the weight definition rather than the cat.
Thanks both.
[Sorry HoofitYouDonkey @49, who do you follow?
Roz, you’ve stumped me with the pineapple and pizza, I’m afraid.]
AlanC – have a butchers at my Avatar
Matt W @ #40 – “Chambers bait” – I like the phrase. Is this a first use? Succinctly hits a nail on its head.
HYD – oh yeah but nobody likes you 🤣
Roz @ 46 . . . . . or possibly towns in which Baskerville created one. . . . .
AlanC @53
…but he don’t care 🙂
A bit late to the party today, but all of Aldershot, Blackpool, Bradford, Braintree, Derby, Dover, Gravesend and Peterborough used to have greyhound tracks/stadia. Which often doubled up as speedway tracks. But then so did many other places in the U.K. I did visit the Peterborough track some time ago and it was a good night out.
And I also in my youth used to watch Kent County Cricket matches at Dover and Gravesend when the county played at many more venues than today. All in the dim and distant past, however…
muffin @55: probably why he hasn’t responded 😊
[ AlanC@50 , the pineapple makes it full hawaiian , like against Southampton which I won’t mention . ]
Buddy@54 , Baskerville churches mainly in the West country only and their fonts are boring .
Agree with those who thought this hard for a Monday (I also thought yesterday’s quiptic looked tricky). Thought SMOOTHIE was very, er, smooth.
[Roz &48: ah yes, you’ve sliced me before with that one, unfortunately life doesn’t begin with Middlesbrough, which thankfully didn’t appear today]
[ Roz#46, thanks for clarifying the theme which I only partially understood. I knew about Pugin’s work on the Trebuchet font at Peterborough, the Palatino font at Aldershot, and the Gabriola font at Gravesend, but I was not aware of the others. ]
AlanC and Muffin – We do care really, but not very much.
“Biggest small club in the World”.
Anyway, “Up the ‘R’s”
Very enjoyable puzzle
Thanks Brummie and Loonapick! About half of this was smooth(ie) sailing for me, and the rest was the usual struggle, although I was pleased with myself for only needing to seek synonym suggestion help from the internet on my two LOI – SHANTY and ATTRIBUTE.
I’m with Ace @33 on finally getting OUNCE = cat in my brain just as the calls to retire it come in, and with Dave @ 2 on finding ATTRIBUTE = virtue a little iffy. Like others, I’m a fan of SHANTY and TEST PILOT, with GOSSIPY and PETER getting a tick from me as well.