The usual Monday mixture from Vulcan: some nice clues, but also a couple that at distinctly on the weak side. Thanks to Vulcan. I wonder if tomorrow’s puzzle number 30,000 will bring something special? Oops, apologies for my faulty arithmetic. There is 22d my face.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1. | HANSOM | German order for cab (6) HANS (German name) + O.M. (Order of Merit) |
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| 5. | DETEST | Hate to sack someone from the English cricket team? (6) To sack someone from the English cricket team might be to DE-TEST them |
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| 8. | BEDROLL | Sleeping bag for curling up? (7) Cryptic definition |
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| 9. | BUCOLIC | Rural infection almost a severe pain (7) BU[G] (infection) + COLIC |
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| 11. | BECAUSE IT’S THERE | Why climb Everest? Ice sheet’s a brute to struggle with (7,3,5) (ICE SHEET’S A BRUTE)* – the reply given by George Mallory when asked why he wanted to climb Everest |
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| 12. | BLIP | Radar image showing temporary deviation (4) Double definition |
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| 13. | IN THE RIGHT | Their thing turned out to be justified (2,3,5) (THEIR THING)* |
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| 17. | ABNORMALLY | Unusually, mob ran off — mate followed (10) (MOB RAN)* + ALLY |
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| 18. | EMMA | Some item: man and woman (4) Hidden in itEM MAn |
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| 20. | KEEP ONE’S COUNSEL | Retain barrister, but refuse to speak (4,4,7) Double definition |
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| 23. | TOUTING | Try to sell time travel (7) T[ime] + OUTING (travel) – surely the definition should be “Trying to sell” |
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| 24. | OUTWORN | A couple in our navy are obsolete (7) TWO in OUR N[avy] |
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| 25. | STAY ON | Remain a while, having nothing nasty to deal with (4,2) Anagram of O (nothing) + NASTY |
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| 26. | NUDIST | One unsuited as a colonist (6) Cryptic definition – someone in a nudist colony would be lacking a suit |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 2. | ADDICTION | An inability to kick? (9) Cryptic definition – inability to kick a habit |
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| 3. | SHOT UP | Having injected a drug, grew fast (4,2) Double definition |
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| 4. | MILLENNIA | Young adult going short for a very long time (9) MILLENNIA[L] – millennials are the generation that came of age around the turn of the century, so it’s perhaps a stretch to call them “young adults” now; also a very weak clue as both elements are from exactly the same source |
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| 5. | DEBIT | Amount owed: one less makes no difference (5) DEBIT and DEBT both mean an amount owed – in fact they are basically the same word |
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| 6. | TACITURN | Picking up pet, I become reticent (8) Reverse of CAT + I TURN (become) |
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| 7. | SOLVE | Crack very visible in bottom of shoe (5) V[ery] in SOLE |
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| 8. | BABY BLANKET | First-day cover? (4,7) Cryptic definition |
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| 10. | CRESTFALLEN | Dejected as ridge collapsed (11) CREST + FALLEN |
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| 14. | HALF-CROWN | Fail to complete coronation ceremony, needing old piece of silver (4-5) Cryptic definition + definition; for any millennials reading this, the half-crown was a coin in British pre-decimal currency |
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| 15. | GAME SHOWS | Lame displays of light entertainment (4,5) GAME (lame – pronounced “gammy” as in “game leg”) + SHOWS (displays) |
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| 16. | PRIORITY | Importance of sex in monastery (8) IT (sex) in PRIORY |
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| 19. | BUSTED | Raided by the police and broken (6) Double definition |
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| 21. | ERUPT | How teeth are said to appear to explode (5) Double definition |
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| 22. | EGG ON | This on top of face is embarrassing? Offer encouragement! (3,2) To have EGG ON your face is to be embarrassed |
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Thanks Andrew and Vulcan.
I agree with Andrew about this one.
4dn: isn’t the def “a very long time”?
Strange, then, that “millennia” is plural!
Isn’t 27999 + 1 = 28000? Or am I missing something?
[Such and such a species] haven’t been around for millennia/a very long time… but yes Trovatore the def is a vey long time.
If you try to sell something you could be said to be touting it?
… and yes Andrew, my margin note has ‘ing’ inserted after ‘try’ in 23ac. And ditto Shirl re the cw number.
Cryptic definitions on a Monday probably outnumber those for the rest of the week put together.
Thanks Andrew, I agree re trying (though I take Cheetah’s point).
Small typo in 15d. Presumably you mean ‘game’.
Do teeth erupt?
Hmm…one of those dishes that would have benefited from a little pepper, this morning.
Bodycheetah @6: Yes, I tried to justify it this way but still failed to make a sentence where the two could be interposed.
Trovatore @3: We have been seeing light from that galaxy for a very long time/millennia.
Many thanks for the blog, Andrew, nice week, all.
grantinfreo @5: So sorry, didn’t spot your post before I blundered in re MILLENNIA.
Oleg @10: Apparently they do. Had to ask the Memsahib and it seems it’s common parlance with babies.
That’s the term dentists use, Oleg @ 10.
Thanks Vulcan and Andrew
Yes, a mixed bag. I thought 11a was terrific, as the surface makes total sense. I also liked NUDIST and HALF CROWN.
On the other hand:
“English” is superfluous in 5a (other nations play test cricket); BEDROLL is barely cryptic; “ing” in 23, as others have said; why “first day” in 8d? – I’d hope a blanket would last longer than that!; “broken” is “bust”, not “busted”.
I didn’t parse MILLENNIA, and now also think it’s weak. I was also held up by entering “hold” rather than KEEP in 20a.
Absy no prob William@12
Muffin @ 15 – I have to differ re 5a. Without “English” (or some other Test playing nation) the clue wouldn’t suggest a Test team, just a cricket team
Hmm, interesting re bust/ed muffin; I’d always use the latter, a matching participle form, and never the latter though of course one does here it; might be regional…
Shirl @17
I take your point, but how about “national”?
GinF @18
You’ve said “latter” twice? “It’s broken” = “it’s bust”, not “it’s busted”, surely?
oops, needed a comma after busted 🙂
oops again, hear, not here.. and I’ve just now poured my first shiraz, truly!
Agree with most of the above, a bit patchy, but for quite a while I couldn’t make out CRESTFALLEN, even though I had all the crossers in apart from the C. These compound words I often find harder to spot. And am I using the correct term for such words made up of two distinct smaller or shorter words, as in this case CREST and FALLEN, or HEARTBROKEN as another example…?
Re bust/busted – it’s interesting. Chambers gives the past tense and the past participle as either.
Personally, I would say, “The trailer is bust”, but. “Who busted it?”
Oleg@10 – I think teeth irrupt, which is why the clue says “are said to”.
Ronald @22: Yes, compound is the right word, but there are 3 possible formats. See here for the full story.
A bustling busy day has clearly done my head in, muffin. I meant I’d always use the latter, never the former; brokEN = bustED, while bust is a present tense verb, or a noun in drug-cum-crim slang (disapproved of by some as cw fodder, but that’s another issue!).
This was quite a fun 7d in several places. I did like the two long across clues 11a BECAUSE IT’S THERE and 20a KEEP ONE’s COUNSEL.(However I do wish that we could have apostrophes in the word counts, as we have previously discussed.) 26a NUDIST also raised a silly smile.
I really disliked 5d DE-TEST, and this time it was not because my cricket knowledge is a bit parlous.
I thought 21d was scarily prescient given the fact that there was a New Zealand volcano which erupted/exploded today.
Thanks to Vulcan and Andrew.
William@25, thanks very much for that very interesting and enlightening Compound Word tutorial on that link you provided!
Thanks, William @25 for the slice of erudition, and Ronald @22 for raising the question.
Note that when two nouns form a compound word, the rule in English is that the first element is always singular. Hence we say “matchbox” and not “matchesbox”, even though it holds more than one match. And we say “trouserpress” even though “trousers” is more often met in its plural.
A personal gripe of mine is with people who insist that “data” is plural in Latin and therefore plural in English, yet continue to say “database” instead of “datumbase”. Or “datapoint” instead of the more succinct “datum”. And when did such people ever ask if the agenda for the next meeting WERE sent out?
Sorry, rant over (thought I hope you can see how much fun you can have “correcting” people who know a little bit of Latin, but no English…)
Fun solve, for which thanks to Vulcan, and a thought-provoking blog – thanks to Andrew.
Thanks Andrew and Vulcan.
I think you can have a busted flush.
Thanks Andrew and Vulcan. I agree with most of the sentiments already expressed, and I’m another who partcularly liked BECAUSE IT’S THERE. There were none I really objected to, though I agree that 23a needs -ing.
Rullytully@24 – I don’t think you’re tight. To irrupt is to break into something or somewhere; to erupt is to break out, and is therefore more logical (and as has been said, is the term used by dentists).
Sorry Rullytully – i definitely don’t think you’re tight, but you’re not right either!
Thank you Vulcan and Andrew.
11a is a great clue, one of the best.
As Bodycheetah @6 suggests (and perhaps this might satisfy William @11) “Bet you see him try to sell that fake oil painting in the future”, “Bet you see him TOUTING that fake oil painting in the future” ?
J-in-A @27, and the setter was Vulcan…
Oh Cookie – I didn’t make that link with Vulcan’s name…
Feeling for NZ …
I suppose that the example given by Cookie @33 justifies the wording of 23a, but I still think it would have benefited from an ‘ing.’ After getting SHOT UP and ADDICTION early, I thought we might be in for a rather depressing theme, which fortunately failed to materialize. I thought the latter was a good cryptic definition and, unlike some others, I liked DETEST.
Thanks to Vulcan and Andrew.
trismegistus @29 But there are those people who say “teeth cleaning” or “mice traps.” It’s always annoyed me, but I never had a rule to quote before.
Loved the anagram in 11a!
[J-ln-A, this Maori song about the ocean features White Island]
Thanks Andrew and Vulcan. I agree – the Everest clue was the star of the puzzle. Otherwise. some too easy, some tautological, particularly MILLENNIA[L].
I didn’t think 22d was quite right – too many ONs. Substitute the answer for “This” and you get “Egg on on top of face … “. Surprised this hasn’t been mentioned already, but it might be like the case of “the the” that is known to time to time elude proofreaders.
Not too hard to start the week. Vulcan’s cryptic def game is getting better. I couldn’t parse BUCOLIC, or GAME SHOWS, because I had no idea a gammy leg was spelt game.
Dr WhatsOn @39: if you put “egg on” on top of “face”, you get “egg on face”. I thought it worked fine.
I really liked 7d SOLVE – very neat. And I loved “Fail to complete coronation ceremony” for HALF CROWN in 14d.
Despite Cookie’s best efforts @33 I agree with Andrew and others that it needed to be “Trying” in 23a. I don’t think “Bet you see him try to sell…” and “Bet you see him trying to sell…” are quite the same thing.
Many thanks Vulcan and Andrew.
Thanks both,
A pedant point about 5d. OED marks the debt sense of ‘debit’ as obsolete. I’m an accountant and for me a debit is is an account that has a debit balance, which represents an asset, possibly an amount owed to me by somebody else. The reason a debit balance on your bank statement statement means you owe them money is because the bank statement is a copy of the account in their books.
OED also gives the words slightly different origins. ‘Debit’ comes directly from Latin, but ‘debt’ comes via OE ‘det’ and Old French.
Very enjoyable. Completed it on my lunch break, which is pretty much the only time I have to do these at the moment. Perfect difficulty level for a beginner like me. 11a, 13a, 18a, and 8d were particularly nice.
Thanks Vulcan and Andrew!
muffin @ 19
I wondered about that, but it doesn’t work. Not all cricket-playing countries play Test Matches, though they do play Internationals. Scotland and Holland are two that immediately spring to mind.
Trismegistus @25 reminds me of my favourite plural of a term that has come to us directly from Latin. I like to think (but not say in public) that the plural of “magnum opus” should be “magna opera”.
Well,easy enough but not very good. As for ERUPT, it had to be right but I still don’t understand it. I did like DETEST.
Thanks Vulcan.
On the subject of numerical milestones of the Guardian Crossword, I remember exactly where I was when I did the 20,000th puzzle – I was in the departure lounge (such as it was) waiting for a ferry from Holyhead to Dun Laoghaire for work. I wish there was a way to work out exactly what day that was – if Hugh or Alan are reading this – a little help please? We can roughly work it out if tomorrow is 28,000 then 8000 days have passed. This accounts for in effect (7/6)*8000 since we don’t count Sunday, so that makes 9,333 days, which makes 21st May 1994 for the 20,000th puzzle. This may be wrong though.
Confused with Hans? It’s not just a german name it’s also a swedish and Finnish name? And surely the clue should say german name?
I quite liked this, but a DNF as I put an unparsed TOURING (travel) in 23. So, yes, I really didn’t like it. However, perhaps it just possibly works as nounal synonyms (a try… = a touting).
Another spanner in the works: surely 26 is still suited… in his birthday suit 🙂 . Loved BECAUSE ITS THERE.
Thanks, V&A.
Thanks everyone for this discussion which provides a good round up of an enjoyable puzzle today. Not sure about the praise for 13a though: a very good clue if you were ignorant of the original quote. The first few words and the letter count gave it away very readily.
i agree also with the comment about indicating apostrophes in word counts. I easily fall into the trap of inserting ‘your’ rather than ‘one’s’.
if tomorrow is special then a poor weather forecast and some new coffee beans will add to the enjoyment.
thanks both.
Re the discussion on 19d
“Busted flat in Baton Rouge, waitin’ for a train…”
8d ‘first day cover is a reference to a kind of stamp issued on the first day – so it’s a cryptic pun.
Thought 11a was a brilliant clue – to manage a lengthy relevant anagram of a well known quote like that is genius. There were some weak spots in the rest of the grid as others said (in particular I was a bit annoyed once I twigged to 5 across that “English” was completely irrelevant to the clue! I got Millenia straight away but more as an obvious definitional thing than because it’s a good cryptic clue) but have a pass for the day just for 11a.
George @48: ‘German’ as in German person. A stereotypically German name, just as Ian or Neil are stereotypically, but not exclusively, Scottish. Otto would be another.
Those trying to defend TOUTING are on a hiding to nothing. Bust and busted are interchangeable around these parts. I think ‘first day cover’ is fine as ‘first day onwards’,
Thanks to S&B.