Is it still Monday?
This was pretty much a write in – nothing wrong with it per se (apart from bishop being used to indicate B twice in the space of half a dozen clues), but just a bit bland. This would have made an ideal Monday puzzle, or one for outright beginners, but come this time of the week, I am looking for a bigger challenge in the morning.
Thanks Chifonie.
| Across | ||
| 8 | BLUEBELL | Downcast beauty mislaid oriental flower (8) |
| BLUE (“downcast”) + BELL(e) (“beauty” with E(ast) (“oriental”) mislaid) | ||
| 9 | ROUGE | Cosmetic for girl entertained by libertine (5) |
| G(irl) entertained by ROUE (“libertine”) | ||
| 10 | PUTT | Commit time to play a stroke (4) |
| PUT (“commit”) + T(ime) | ||
| 11 | SCARCITIES | Shortages damage urban areas (10) |
| SCAR (“damage”) + CITIES (“urban areas”) | ||
| 12 | BITCHY | Bishop’s restless and vindictive (6) |
| B(ishop) + ITCHY (“restless”) | ||
| 14 | SEAFRONT | Excited about hairstyle seen at the coast (8) |
| SENT (“excited”) about AFRO (“hairstyle”) | ||
| 15 | THEATRE | Assembled at three for drama (7) |
| *(at three) | ||
| 17 | IMAGINE | Dream of silver in island excavation (7) |
| AG (“silver) in I(sland) + MINE (“excavation”) | ||
| 20 | DOLDRUMS | Instruments curbing long-term depression (8) |
| DRUMS (“instruments”) curbing OLD (“long-term”) | ||
| 22 | ENTOMB | Opponents for Jones, Bishop of Bury (6) |
| EN (“opponents” in bridge) + TOM (Jones) + B(ishop) | ||
| 23 | ADULTERATE | Corrupt grown-up English count (10) |
| ADULT (“grown-up”) + E(nglish) + RATE (“count”) | ||
| 24 | AIDE | A swimmer’s assistant (4) |
| A + IDE (a fish, so “swimmer”) | ||
| 25 | ALERT | A warrant keeps Romeo on his toes (5) |
| A + LET (“warrant”) keeps R(omeo) | ||
| 26 | EMISSION | European operation creates discharge (8) |
| E(uropean) + MISSION (“operation”) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | FLOURISH | Display angry look when tucking into seafood (8) |
| LOUR (“angry look”) tucking into FISH (“seafood”) | ||
| 2 | BENT | An inclination to be dishonest (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 3 | FEISTY | Fit? Yes! Possibly spirited (6) |
| *(fit yes) | ||
| 4 | CLEANSE | Prefers to be in church to give absolution (7) |
| LEANS (“prefers”) to be in C.E. (“church”) | ||
| 5 | PROCLAIM | Herald supporting petition (8) |
| PRO (“supporting”) + CLAIM (“petition”) | ||
| 6 | QUITE RIGHT | Left crew protecting queen? Exactly! (5,5) |
| QUIT (“left”) + EIGHT (“crew”) protecting R(egina) (“queen”) | ||
| 7 | HEREIN | Man takes control at this point (6) |
| HE (“man”) takes REIN (“control”) | ||
| 13 | CHANDELIER | Cleaner hid broken ornament (10) |
| *(cleaner hid) | ||
| 16 | ROULETTE | Obstruction to appear in road? You can bet on it! (8) |
| LET (“obstruction”) to appear in ROUTE (“road”) | ||
| 18 | NAME-DROP | Trying to impress improperly? Pardon me! (4-4) |
| *(pardon me) | ||
| 19 | ASHAMED | Cinders made trouble and is sorry (7) |
| ASH (“cinders”) + *(made) | ||
| 21 | ORDEAL | Nothing legitimate about duke’s trial (6) |
| O (“nothing”) + REAL (“legitimate”) about D(uke) | ||
| 22 | EMETIC | Quote me in retrospect — it’ll make you sick! (6) |
| <= (CITE (“quote”) + ME) | ||
| 24 | ALSO | Further inside the Royal Society (4) |
| Hidden in (inside) “RoyAL SOciety” | ||
*anagram
Thanks to Chifonie and loonapick.
I enjoyed this. Favourite was ENTOMB, for which it took a while for the penny to drop.
A couple of quibbles. 18d seems to be the wrong part of speech – shouldn’t it be “Try to impress…”? And re 9a, we’ve had this discussion before, but G is not a standard abbreviation for girl.
Loi was 10 ac, as I didn’t quite see “commit” as “put”.
Yes, not really much of a challenge, even for me. But still satisfying to finish. I agree with Lord Jim@1 about 18. Thanks Chjfonie and loonapick.
Thanks Chifonie and loonapick.
I liked 20a DOLDRUMS.
I agree with Lord Jim@1 regarding the questionable grammatical match in 18d.
I know they had different fodder, but I did notice that LET was used in both 25a ALERT and 16d ROULETTE, and this jarred for me.
Maybe I am getting better at solving (famous last words!), as I did not find this as challenging as I might have liked. But I still enjoy any and all of the Guardian Cryptics, a hobby which continues to be enhanced by sharing others’ impressions on this forum.
I just love Chifonie’s clean and somewhat droll surfaces. It was indeed rather easy, but some great clues such as BLUEBELL, SEAFRONT and ENTOMB. Many thanks to C & l.
I agree with Loonapick’s prologue.
This is the second time recently I’ve marked a crossword to query G for girl.
Thanks to setter and blogger
I thought before I came here “I bet everyone finds this easy” – but I didn’t. It must be the way I think – trying to make things too complicated. I often had the same trouble with Rufus’ puzzles. I had the same quibble as JinA over the use of LET, especially as the solutions cross. I had several ticks against clues that took me much longer to get than they should have with hindsight – BLUEBELL SCARCITIES CLEANSE QUITE RIGHT and NAME DROP so thanks to Chifonie for stretching me and loonapick for saying what most solvers will think!
Warm ’50s nostalgia re ‘send’ for ‘excite’, as in ‘Elvis really sends me’, every bit as cool as ‘cool, far out, freak out and groovy’, etc., from the ’60s. Yes, a Monday-ish puzzle but quite fun. I wondered about let=warrant in 25a (similar to ‘allow’?), couldn’t substitute prefers and leans in 4d (‘leans to[wards]’ would work), and strangely couldn’t find ‘feisty’ in either of my elderly dictionaries although its origins (wiki) are way earlier. And I agree, Lord Jim, that the ‘ing’ in 18d is a grammatical error.
Thanks to Chifonie and Loonapick
… and JinA too re 18a; we crossed.
Thanks to Chifonie and loonapick. Easy but fun – and I liked NAME-DROP.
Re G(irls)…
https://girlsfriendlysociety.org.uk/
Established 1875!
Thanks Chifonie and loonapick.
I agree with WhiteKing @7. I didn’t find this all that easy but got there in the end. I don’t think I’m quite on Chifonie’s wavelength somehow. Probably try to over-complicate.
Am I the only one who finds the use of bridge partners/opponents for some combination of NSEW a bit unsatisfactory?
Other than that I can’t really complain.
Thank you Chifonie for stretching me and loonapick for the blog.
Thanks to Chifonie and loonapick. I agree largely with the above. Mostly a relatively straightforward solve, but a few held me up because I could not get my head around the wording. I had a mental block on 6d, which I could not see for ages in spite of working out the last bit was r in eight. However nonetheless enjoyable and I did like seafront, entomb and scarcities. Thanks again to Chifonie and loonapick.
cholecyst @11: I’m not sure it’s sufficient that there’s an acronym as part of which G stands for girl(s). For example, would it be fair for a setter to use “automobile”, or “air”, or “absent”, to clue the letter A, because of AA, RAF and AWOL?
Surely it’s a question of whether a letter is in its own right a recognised abbreviation for a word.
Thanks both.
Short but sweet. Perhaps it was easy because the surfaces (pace 18) were so smooth.
I suppose this was straightforward enough but I didn’t find it as easy as some of you did. It took me longer than Chifonie usually does. I agree that 18 dn is ungrammatical but I think G for girl is ok. We’ve certainly had it a number of times before.
Thanks Chifonie
Less of a write-in than Chifonie usually is, but still pretty straightforward. Took me a while to think of QUITE…
Thanks to Chifonie and loonapick
Was baffled by SENT = EXCITED until I read grantinfreo’s comment. I’m late 30s and have never heard that usage. This happens pretty regularly to be honest.
It does seem to me that the slang used in crosswords is frozen from about 50 years ago and this makes them very inaccessible for younger people. I’d prefer it if there was some turnover of conventions when the original usage has dropped entirely out of current vocabulary.
This is about my level I think (unlike the Boomtown Rats, I do like Mondays!). I completed it reasonably quickly and very much enjoyed it. I too noted the use of LET and B for bishop twice but it didn’t rankle.
Like Simon @ 18, SENT is before my time (just before, in my case!) but I know (and love) the song ‘You Send Me’ by Sam Cooke, so I was aware of that usage.
Thanks to Chifonie and loonapick
By coincidence Simon @18 I have just had a text from Miss Crossbar, also in her 30s, and whiling away a train journey with Chifonie, wanting to know why “sent” = “excited”.
Thanks to Chifone and Loonapick. Simon @18 – I think many crossword compilers, not just their vocabulary, are frozen in an era 50 years or more ago. It’s something I’ve often remarked on here. However one of the reasons I like the Guardian cryptics is because they’re not all like that, in fact we often get much more modern expressions and references thrown at us by the likes of Tramp and Paul among others.
Thanks Loonapick and Chifonie. I found this neither very easy nor very hard. My only real query with it was 10a – like Ronald, I also think commit is pretty loose for PUT. Some nice touches elsewhere.
Many thanks to Chifonie and loonapick. I am with Whiteking et al who did not find this at all easy. Am I the only one who is slowed down when the grid gives few starting letters; I seem to remember that as a trait of Rufus, or am I wrong? But there were some very good things here such as NAME DROP, SCARCITIES, DOLDRUMS and my favourite BITCHY.
Thanks to Chifonie and Loonapick.
A savoury morsel for me, not over as quickly as for others it seems. I particularly liked NAME-DROP, whatever about the surface grammar – a lovely and surprising anagram (now to work it into a conversation…).
Interesting, as alluded to by JinA@4, to see “let” used in two way with opposite meanings, obstruction and warrant/license – I think there was some discussion about such (can I say?) bivalent words a while back and someone kindly provided a link to a list of examples. I can’t remember any of them now….
Just to add, I agree entirely with JohnB @21. There are a whole range of references these days from computer science to mathematics and modern music in the Guardian crossword, and Arachne keeps us all honest with her ditching of the stereotypical male assumptions. I would claim there is something for all in the G Cryptics.
Thanks for the replies. I agree that the Guardian is more inventive / up-to-date than most, some of the setters in particular. I occasionally look at the Times, but there I get much more regularly stymied by references or definitions that I don’t know. That is fine apart from when you look it up and feel that there was no reasonable way that you *could* have known it. Although there are probably many clues I consider fine, at which a 21 year old would throw their hands up.
Forgot to say thanks to Chifonie and Loonapick earlier – generally I did like today’s puzzle a lot, NAME-DROP was my favourite.
I didn’t find this as easy as most people, but looking back over it after finishing I couldn’t see why I struggled. I guess I’m just having an off day.
I didn’t think to question G for “girl”, but I can’t think of a context in which it would be used, and I can’t find dictionary support for it. I would like to second Lord Jim @14’s comment: the existence of a longer abbreviation such as GFS containing G for “girl” can’t be used to justify the single-letter abbreviation. That way madness lies.
Writing from the US, I will say I always appreciate an easier solve, no matter what day it is! 🙂
I agree with grantinfreo @ 8 about leans = prefers @ 4d. It doesn’t happen often but I don’t like it when a clue is lacking a preposition without which it doesn’t work.
Similarly @ 25a my Chambers doesn’t include let as a noun meaning a permit though to let can mean to give permission or, I suppose, a warrant.
Thanks to Chifonie and Loonapick.
My experience of this was very similar to WhiteKing’s. This was nothing like a write-in for me, and I too ‘often had the same trouble’ with Rufus’s puzzles. I think it’s just that DDs and CDs are not my favourite dish – I prefer something I can get my teeth into!
I can usually complete this sort of puzzle, though, and I had no real problems with this one, except what seems to be a minor error in NAME-DROP (‘Trying’ instead of ‘Try’). I liked SCARCITIES, SEAFRONT and QUITE RIGHT very much.
Thanks to Chifonie and loonapick.