The puzzle can be solved online here
A slightly tougher than normal Monday solve, but not too difficult.
I really enjoyed this puzzle, which had some very clever misdirections and smooth, humorous (and even topical) surfaces. A little general knowledge also required, but I like that in a crossword, so this was right up my street.
Thanks, Orlando
| Across | ||
| 1 | SURFEIT | Explore online and draw back from excess (7) |
| SURF (“explore online”) + <=TIE (“draw” back) | ||
| 5 | CREMONA | Cameron is recollected in Italian city (7) |
| *(cameron) | ||
| 9 | MAINE | Major heard where Augusta is (5) |
| Homophone of [heard] MAIN (“major”) | ||
| 10 | CONJURORS | Trick panel for magicians (9) |
| CON (“trick”) + JURORS (“panel”) | ||
| 11 | SHORT STORY | Leisurewear right for author’s work (5,5) |
| SHORTS (“leisurewear”) + TORY (“right”) | ||
| 12 | BEVY | A lot of birds drink, so it’s said (4) |
| Homophone [so it’s said] of BEVVY (“drink”)
Bevy is the collective noun for larks and quails. |
||
| 14 | RABELAISIAN | Broadly humorous Blair, afflicted with amnesia, miles away (11) |
| *(blair anesia) where anesia is A(M)NESIA with M (miles) away.
Francois Rabelais (d 1553), was a humorous French writer whose most famous creations were Gargantua and Pantagruel. |
||
| 18 | UP ON THE ROOF | Thatcher may be seen here presenting song by the Drifters (2,2,3,4) |
| Double definition, the second referring to a song that reached No 5 in the US charts in 1963. | ||
| 21 | CUTS | Unable to proceed in recession, king offloaded shares (4) |
| <=STUC(k) (“uanble to proceed” in recession, with K (king ) offloaded) | ||
| 22 | ADULTERATE | Fully-fledged monarch took in food for doctor (10) |
| ADULT (“fully-fledged”) + E.R. (the Queen, so “monarch”) + ATE (“took in food”) | ||
| 25 | MERCURIAL | Capricious magician dropping in to entertain court (9) |
| MERL(in) (“magician” dropping IN) to entertain CURIA (papal “court”) | ||
| 26 | DUNES | Brown made castles, finally, with lots of sand (5) |
| DUN (“brown”) + (mad)E (castle)S [finally] | ||
| 27 | REPLETE | Well-fed traveller allowed back in cafe (7) |
| REP (“traveller”) + LET (“allowed”) + [back in] (caf)E | ||
| 28 | CARTAGE | Conveyance with horse taken from ancient city (7) |
| CART(h)AGE (H (horse) taken from CARTHAGE (“ancient city”)) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SAMOSA | Greek island associated with a savoury snack (6) |
| SAMOS (“Greek island”) associated with A | ||
| 2 | RHINOS | Horn is ordered for Leeds players (6) |
| *(horn is)
Leeds Rhinos is an English rugby league team. |
||
| 3 | ELECTORATE | Attlee gets involved with core group of voters (10) |
| *(attlee core) | ||
| 4 | TACIT | In Minnesota citizenship is implied (5) |
| Hidden in “minnesoTA CITizenship” | ||
| 5 | CONTRALTO | Noted female officer in funny cartoon (9) |
| LT. (lieutenant, so “officer”) in *(cartoon) | ||
| 6 | EMUS | Measure American or Australian runners (4) |
| EM (“measure” in printing) + US (“American”) | ||
| 7 | O SOLE MIO | Single note in old, old song (1,4,3) |
| SOLE (“single”) + MI (“note”) in O (“old”) O (“old”) | ||
| 8 | ASSAYING | Testing a small saw (8) |
| A + S (small) + SAYING (“saw”) | ||
| 13 | MIDFIELDER | Bush supports ascendant though unintelligent player (10) |
| ELDER (“bush”) supports <=IF DIM (ascendant “though unintelligent”) | ||
| 15 | BREADLINE | Diner able to rejoin food queue (9) |
| *(diner able) | ||
| 16 | DULCIMER | Girl entertaining millions with right instrument (8) |
| DULCIE (“girl”) entertaining M (millions) with R (right) | ||
| 17 | ROOT CROP | Swedes, say, providing ferret with haircut (4,4) |
| ROOT (“ferret”) with CROP (“haircut”) | ||
| 19 | NARNIA | New song about knight in realm of fantasy (6) |
| N (new) + ARIA (“song”) about N (knight, in chess notation) | ||
| 20 | LESSEE | Tenant with a smaller amount midweek (6) |
| LESS (“a smaller amount”) + [mid] (w)EE(k) | ||
| 23 | LILAC | Tree providing shade (5) |
| Double definition, the second referring to the colour. | ||
| 24 | JUNE | In Strasbourg I must accept one follower of May (4) |
| JE (“I” in French, or in Strasbourg) must accept UN (“one” in Strasbourg) | ||
*anagram
I also really enjoyed this, particularly MERCURIAL, SURFEIT and SHORT STORY. Many thanks to O & l.
Thanks Orlando (ages since I’ve seen one of yours – in the Quiptic, as I remember) and loonapick
Yes, very enjoyable, though I might have looked at it differently if I hadn’t had the required GK. Favourite was the neat anagram for ELECTORATE.
I was going to comment on Augusta, Maine, as most would think of Georgia. However Wiki informs me that Augusta is actually the state capital of Maine, so I suppose that’s fair enough.
I agree with loonapick and drofle@1. This was fun. I really liked the misdirection that Orlando included by using so many British PM proper names (and one – or perhaps I should say two – US Presidents). My ticks were for18a UP ON THE ROOF, 5d CONTRALTO and 6d EMUS (sorry to be parochial). I found MAINE at 9a took me a while and I needed a couple of crossers – was thinking Augusta, Georgia.
We crossed of course, muffin@2! How funny that we had the same experience with MAINE, despite the fact you and I live a long distance apart, although you are a bit closer to the US!
A belated thank you (apologies) to Orlando and loonapick.
Golf, JinA! – Augusta, Georgia is where the Masters is held every year.
[BTW, dear muffin (no criticism intended). Why are we still saying that GK is a problem? I reckon anyone who approaches cryptic crosswords needs a good general knowledge as a starting point All the rest is a learning experience, IMHO.
The only issue is that one person’s general knowledge might be another’s obscure reference. For instance, I was a teacher of Ancient History, so 29a CART(H)AGE might have been a write-in for me, but not necessarily for others.
However that is why it is fabulous to see the variety of opinions on 15², and to engage in the occasional debate about “unfamiliars” versus “accepted GK”.]
[Case in point – or should I say “hole in one”, muffin@5? – I am also a golf ignoramus, but somehow that AUGUSTUS, Ga, was in my frontal lobe, if indeed that is where retrievable facts reside.]
[I meant I am a golf ignoramus, not that you are one, muffin.]
[I take your point, JinA. I think the poorest clues are ones that rely entirely on GK, with no alternative way of getting to the answer (not the case in the examples here). On the other hand, the most satisfying clues are ones where you can build up an answer from the wordplay, look it up, and find that it fits the definition!]
Thanks loonapick and Orlando; I, too, enjoyed this, and only the explanation for MIDFIELDER eluded me.
In 2003, Orlando used to set about 11 puzzles per year (along with Taupi, Crispa, Janus and Pasquale), but in the last three years has been down to two per year.
Thanks for the blog, loonapick.
What a delight, after almost a year’s absence, to see Orlando’s name on the puzzle, when I opened my paper! Perfect Monday fare, which should please most people: meticulously fair cluing for less experienced solvers and lots of wit and ingenious construction, with lovely surfaces, to prove once again that a puzzle needn’t be difficult to be entertaining.
Many thanks, Orlando – please come back soon!
Agree with loonapick et al. My only gripe is that DULCIE is hardly a girls name that would come to mind so the clue is one where you would have to get the answer before parsing.
Like Looapick and everyone so far I thought this was an excellent puzzle and it is good to see Orlando again after a long absence. The bottom half was much tougher for me than the top – not helped by having LEMON for LILAC for some time. MERCURIAL was also one of myticks along with CONJURORS ADULTERATE MIDFIELDERS and ROOT CROP. A great start to the week – thanks to Orlando and Loonapick. (Good to see you engaging in conversation again JinA.)
My eye was caught by MERCURIAL in WhiteKing’s comment and I was amused to see Orlando’s name, M[ichael] [er]CUR[ia]L spelt out regularly inside it. 😉
Was I the only one thinking of Augusta, Ontario?
Liked the misdirection – although it was frustrating to find the definition at the opposite end of the clue to the one I was expecting, that did provide a few “Aha!” moments.
Thanks Orlando and Loonapick
Dnk the rugby team or the Drifters song, but always happy with new gk, local, parochial, scholarly, sci-tech, whatever. Fun Monday puzzle, with June and replete taking a head-scratch. Some quirky surfaces… ferret’s haircut, wot! Thanks Orlando and Loonapick.
Google was helpful today for the GK questions. I failed to parse REP=traveller in 27a.
My favourites were SHORT STORY, ROOT CROP, MERCURIAL.
Thanks Orlando and Loonapick
Very pleasantly challenging for a Monday puzzle, I thought. Needed quite a bit of general knowledge..
@12 I happen to be acquainted with three women named Dulcie! First (given) names strikingly vary in frequency both geographically and chronologically. On the other hand, I didn’t know the Drifters’ song. Nice puzzle.
Very good spotting with MERCURIAL, Eileen@14. I had forgotten that Orlando is aka Michael Curl.
Definitely a tougher Monday than many – no objections there. I don’t think I’d ever have found Maine without the crossers, there being so many Augustas (including the classical ones), and I am not sure it being a state capital helps much when it’s not a major one (in fact, in this clue it is explicitly not the Major Augusta as it were). Gettable though, so fair enough. Ditto “up on the roof” which was a total guess from the Thatcher reference, never having heard of it. Leeds Rhinos came back to me from somewhere and I’m impressed Orlando avoided an &lit attempt which must have been tempting once “horn” dropped out of “rhino”.
Lots of good charades and misdirections sent me back to clues multiple times – well done setter! Not totally sold on “from” as the link word in 1ac, or 23dn where the origin of the shade is that it is the colour of (some of) the flowers of the self-same tree, so only really a single definition. And in 16dn “girl” meaning “pick one of a thousand plus girl’s names” is getting a bit annoying, especially with such an obscure name as “Dulcie”. Again an overlap of the etymology (“sweet” for the name and “sweet melody” for the instrument) is the reason the clue works.
Re “Cathage” as GK – even the scientists amongst us probably consider that one easy pickings, even if we know no more Cato than “Delenda est…” – I think it is a bit like expecting non-footballers to know Man Utd.
Thank you Loonapick for the blog and Orlando for a diverting start to the week.
Sometimes these things just leap out, don’t they, Julie? – that’s what doing crosswords does for you!
I take JinA’s point. I knew both the rugby team and the Drifters song but felt that both were obscure pieces of knowledge. I,thus, felt able to enter “floc” @ 12.
Started late today but quite an easy puzzle.
Enjoyed it though.
Absolutely no quibbles with anything, so it must be good!
Thanks Orlando and loonapick.
Pleasant solve, although I agree with pex @12 (despite John @19) that Dulcie is not a particularly well-known name for a girl, and thus 16 was my LOI. I thought therefore that this was a poor clue.
I just put in MAINE from the homophone without thinking too much. Searching for just ‘Augusta’ on the web, Augusta, Kentucky (or of course Augusta, Georgia) seems to come up higher than Augusta, Maine!
I ticked MERCURIAL without noticing M. CURL, CONTRALTO and MIDFIELDER.
The only two Dulcies I’ve known demonstrate John Wells’s point: one (b. 1918) was the sister of my dad’s army mate, the other was a young PhD student from New Guinea, b. 1990.
Yep, good fun. Over all too soon. Liked the more old-fashioned definitions, like assaying, cartage, replete and Rabelaisian. No problem with Dulcie. But I do go back a bit! Dulcie Gray anyone?
Thanks Orlando and Loonapick
V droll, Ulyanova (once I’d looked it up); any perusing setters will be sure to file that away.
I think that REP for “traveller” or “salesperson” should be given a long rest
On a recording session (it were only a demo) I hired a huge timpani which would not fit through the door
THAT is cartage..
Moral…use a bloody sample on a demo.(it’ll probably end up on the finished product) but what would I know-that was in the Clinton era.90’s were good.
Thanks to Orlando and loonapick. I think I agree with most of what has been said, a bit more difficult than the typical Monday fare, but very enjoyable. Interesting to note the comments on 2d. As big RL fan the answer for me was immediate, therefore horses for courses I guess. My favourites were also mercurial, conjurors and midfielder, and thanks again to Orlando and loonapick.
Even as an American, I kept thinking of Augusta, Georgia until I started sorting through synonyms of “major,” and RHINOS was a pure guess, confirmed by Google. Otherwise enjoyable, as most her have said.
Thanks to Orlando and Loonapick.
I only know dulcie from ‘bad housekeeping’ by Sue LImb – which I seem to recall was serialised in the guardian at one point
Thanks to Orlando and loonapick. Lots of fun. I did not know the song UP IN THE AIR or RHINOS as a team but both were gettable from the clues, but I did know Augusta as the capital of MAINE. A GK trade-off? As far back as I can remember Orlando has been one of my favorite setters. Twice when I was invited to talk about cryptic crosswords in an etymology class I worked with one of his puzzles – always clear, witty, and explicable.
Mr Paddington Bear has just reminded me that O sole mio music was used for the advert, Just One Cornetto- a bit low brow for Guardian Readers, but could imagine some creative alternative cluing.
A good Monday puzzle for the Paddington Bears.
A pleasant surprise to see Orlando back, and a very nice Monday puzzle.
Thanks to Orlando and loonapick
Dave@32 As a New Englander my mind went to Augusta Maine pretty fast, but I do wonder if US state capitals is a bit GK-ish for non-Americans. We just had Salem, Oregon, also defined as a state capital.
As for GK, it’s not clear to me what’s “GK” and what just is information. It seems to me that GK is used here for information that actually isn’t quite general — you wouldn’t use it, for instance, for knowing that Paris is in France or that California is a state. (You might, though, for knowing about Paris, Texas or Athens, Georgia.) How general is GK?
My own GK didn’t go so far as the RHINOS, but given the wordplay and the crossers it seemed a reasonable sort of name for a sports team. Had no clue about the Drifters, but I know what thatchers do. Speaking of whom, all the prime ministers in this puzzle except Attlee are 1990 or later, so I actually remember them from the news.
pex@12 — Once I had a few crossers I wrote out 16d without M or R, leaving _U_C_E (I assumed that the instrument, whatever it was, would end with ER), and that was enough to come up with “Dulcie”.
I tried TULIP for 23d, hoping that tulip was a shade. LILAC is certainly a shade, but I don’t think it’s a tree. It’s a bush.
Replete usually takes a “with.” You may be replete with pudding or roast beef, but I haven’t heard of anybody being just replete. At least the food connotation is still there — all too often it’s things like “a floor replete with sawdust.”
And I agree with the mob — delightful puzzle, and thanks to both Orlando and loonapick.
I really enjoyed this. It took a little while to get on the same wavelength but then it flowed well. I liked the neat ‘midweek’ to give ‘ee’ – I assume that has been used before? I’ve not seen it in my short time doing these darned things. I too got Maine from the homophone but then dithered, due to major and Augusta being there together (the Augusta [GA] Masters is one of golf’s majors of course). In fact, the misdirections (e.g. Swedes) was a strong and enjoyable feature of the puzzle.
Thanks to Orlando for a neat puzzle and to loonapick for a clear and helpful blog.
David @10 – Orlando last set more than 2 puzzles in a year in 2015 (when he contributed 5). His peak year was 2011 with 18, he also set 16 each in 2010 and 2012…
The top half went in extremely easily. Well,actually down to UP ON THE ROOF which was FOI. The rest were somewhat harder especially CUTS which took me ages to see. With the possible exception of the Drifters song, I wouldn’t have said there was much GK needed. MAINE was quite easy to get despite my not knowing that Augusta was it’s capital.
I liked CONJURORS.
Thanks ORLANDO.
Everyone seems happy and so am I; nicely chewy and yielding after a bit of work. No particular favourites (perhaps CONTRALTO for the noted female) but also no bellyaches (perhaps CARTAGE for its obscurity – how to use in a sentence?) so much thanks to Orlando and loonapick (I needed you for MERCURIAL, loi and just tiring perhaps).
For most Americans, I think Augusta, Maine, is the one you think of first. At least for those of us over the age of 30, they drill the state capitals into your head at a very young age. Education has changed a lot in the years since I left the system; perhaps that’s a good thing, for the existence of (say) Montpelier, Vermont, is not a piece of knowledge I’ve ever needed. Anyway, since most people learn state capitals before they start following golf, there you go.
I think, personally, that even over on the other side of the Atlantic that one should be fair game. At the very least, it’s payback for all those clues about obscure little towns in Shropshire or whatever that we’ve had to endure.
Today I learned that you lot call rutabagas Swedes. That one was my last in.
I always enjoy Orlando because his clues are so smooth and accurate. Today was no exception. Seems to me this made for a perfect Monday puzzle.
Loved the concise ASSAYING and the ferret haircut. CURIA in 25 was my TILT. The wording of 9 is surely done to suggest the golf tournament and thus misdirect to the wrong state. I agree LILAC was a bit cheesy, since the shade is named after the tree. The only minor blemish in a fine puzzle.
Thanks to JinA for pointing out all the PMs present. I somehow overlooked that.
Thanks also to loonapick and Mr Curl. Interesting sort of Nina, if intentional, Eileen.
Re myself @42: We had SPRINGFIELD (Illinois) last week, and Augusta MAINE today, so I guess Montpelier is no longer beyond the pale. [And for future reference, the capital of Alaska is Juneau. You’ll thank me later when it comes up.]
Mostly been said, I’ll just confess that I always think the song is O SOLO mio, so 12ac was my last in.
Interestingly, there is a bird called a tody, though the O is long.
Thanks Orlando and loonapick.
mrpenney @ 42: I’m prejudiced, being from Atlanta, but do you really think most Americans would think of Augusta, Maine first? Given our notorious ignorance of geography, I would be shocked if even a third of Americans could name a single city in Maine, much less Augusta. At least with Augusta, Georgia, they hear about it once a year when the Masters Tournament blows through. Plus Augusta, Maine is so tiny. One major difference though is that I would love to visit Augusta, ME – the Georgia one, not so much. Either way though, I thought the clue was a bit challenging for non-US solvers.
Anyway, I am with pex @ 12 in that my only quibble was with Dulcie. It didn’t stop me from getting the answer but I have a long-standing distaste for clues or answers involving rando names, and Dulcie is as obscure and rando as they get. Other than that, great puzzle with SURFEIT deserving a Hall of Fame nomination for such a great surface.
Delightful way to start the week. I never really understand what the GK question is … if the cluing is good, then all is fair! I’ve always thought that what is known to one person, can be a complete unknown to the next – which is also true for vocabulary. Thanks to Orlando and loonapick.
Thanks to loonapick and Orlando
Nice change for a Monday, astonished some don’t recognise the Drifters number.
A challenging enough puzzle for a Monday, thanks to Orlando. But, ptrecisely who calls a drink a bevvy? Thanks, too, loonapick!
jc @ 49
It was a standard phrase in NW England when Iived there a couple of decades or so ago. No reason for it to have changed.
Cf “go out on a Friday and get bevvied up”.
Mrs PB @35 and it’s also Elvis’s “It’s now or never” but you probably knew that.
Valentine@37 I’ve frequently heard “replete” without the “with” though “brussn’ (bursting) wi’ it” was more common where I come from but I don’t like back in cafe for back of cafe, though it’s been used before.
mrpenney@44 I think we may have already had Juneau. I seem to remember it reminding me of “D’you know the capital of Alaska” which I first came across about 70 years ago.
Thanks to Orlando and loonapick.
So good to have Orlando back on the score sheet.
At some point my solving partner mentioned the lightness of touch, which was indeed always one of this setter’s trademarks.
And GK?
Well, I was 100% sure UP ON THE ROOF would be put in that category. But hey, it was written by one of the greatest living singer-songwriters, Carole King (with her late then husband Gerry Goffin). But some years ago, I think it was, Everyman had Tapestry as an answer, referring to her 1970s milestone album – and loads of people were ‘complaining’. I could do the same thing when Shakespeare characters appear, – of even ‘worse’ – parts of their speeches, but I don’t. I take it as it comes and I know what I know and I don’t know what I don’t know.
Today, we had RHINOS for a Leeds team. Let’s face it, it was clear that it had to be anagram of ‘horn is’ and what can you make of that? Not much else than ‘rhinos’. I thought it might be the nickname of Leeds United, knowing that today’s setter was from that area, but it wasn’t. This is the kind of clue of which I always say ‘it has to be it, so why bother’?
The same with MAINE. Yes, we needed a few crossers but then, again, why bother? It’s just it.
And talking about GK, O SOLE MIO was actually my first one in. It was one of my late father’s favourite Italian songs (forget about Elvis).
So good to have Orlando back on the score sheet.
[many thanks. loonapick, for the blog]
Well, that was enjoyable, even if I am only managing to post here at a very late hour. Like Dansar @48, I was surprised to see that UP ON THE ROOF was unfamiliar to so many commenters above. [But then I read this on Wikipedia: “In the UK [circa 1962-63] the Drifters’ version of “Up on the Roof” failed to reach the Top 50, being trumped by two local cover versions, sung by, respectively, Julie Grant and Kenny Lynch.” *But then again*, also on Wikipedia, I read this: “‘Up on the Roof’ had its most successful UK incarnation via a 1995 remake by Robson & Jerome released as a double A-side coupled with their remake of ‘I Believe.’ … The single reached number 1 on the UK Singles Chart[,] … number 3 in Ireland and number 45 in the Netherlands.”]
Being a native New Englander, like Valentine @37, I thought of the Maine Augusta first and immediately, so 9ac was, for me, a write-in. I enjoyed the Prime Minister theme in the surfaces. The two magician clues were among my favorites.
Unintentional (?) Nina: In the sixth column, top to bottom, I saw ISA HART which, to me, sounded like a name. So I Googled it, and found out that that is the name of an author with multiple books for sale on Amazon (all at the price of $2.99, it seems). But it’s not my style of fiction, ha ha. Different strokes for different folks.
Many thanks to Orlando and lonapick and the other commenters.
Me @53 – I meant to thank “loonapick”, of course.
A very enjoyable crossword. Everything’s been said. I’ll just recall muffin’s comment about the satisfaction of solving a clue from the wordplay and confirming the answer from the definition, which happened with several of the answers in this puzzle, including the much-talked-about MAINE (being sure it would be a State), also UP ON THE ROOF and MIDFIELDER.
Many thanks to Orlando and Loonapick.
Enjoyed this one, thanks Orlando.
Bevy was a new one for me.
I wonder if someone can help me, please? 8D I am having trouble equation “Saw” and “Saying”. On the basis that saw in this context seems to “I saw Fred” and saying is “Fred was saying”. I am confused. Any guidance much appreciated.
Many thanks for the blog
If I understand you correctly, the word “saw” in the clue is used as a noun to mean “a proverb or maxim” (or SAYING) and not the past tense of the verb “see.” Thus, “a small saw” produces the answer “A-S-SAYING.” Hope this helps.