Back to typical straightforward Monday fare today – thanks, Vulcan.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
7 Game one would want to exclude? (8)
DRAUGHTS
Cryptic definition, alluding to draught excluder
9 A gun for everyone? (6)
APIECE
A PIECE [a gun]
10, 24 In Lancaster, for instance, minor road follows bend (8)
WARPLANE
LANE [minor road] following WARP [bend]
11 Agin sex law being amended: it used to be applied to the letter (7,3)
SEALING WAX
An anagram [being amended] of AGIN SEX LAW
12 Be still to sit for another portrait (6)
REPOSE
RE-POSE [sit for another portrait]
14 South America captured by less refined warrior (8)
CRUSADER
SA [South America] in CRUDER [less refined]
15 Is there no end to such a hint? (3-3)
TIP-OFF
Cryptic definition
17 Tablet halved: centre is deadly (6)
LETHAL
The central letters of tabLET HALved
20 Every possible anagram for ‘sweets‘? (8)
ALLSORTS
ALL SORTS = every possible anagram
22 Airmen at sea, or soldier at sea (6)
MARINE
An anagram [at sea] of AIRMEN
23 Revert to original up-and-down course (10)
SWITCHBACK
SWITCH BACK [revert to original]
25 Nothing in boat navy finds corrupt (6)
SUBORN
O [nothing] in SUB RN [boat navy]
26 Sullen state, being nursed so badly (8)
DOURNESS
An anagram [badly] of NURSED SO
Down
1 Most advisable to cross highway at its widest (8)
BROADEST
BEST [most advisable] round ROAD [highway]
2,24 Drop fish in doughy dish (8)
DUMPLING
DUMP [drop] + LING [fish]
3 Pursued, we hear, but not wanting to be caught? (6)
CHASTE
Sounds like [we hear] chased [pursued]
4 In which 90º is really cold (8)
LATITUDE
LATITUDE 90º North is the North Pole and LATITUDE 90º South is the South Pole – so really cold
5 One may be paid for taking your life (10)
BIOGRAPHER
Cryptic definition
6 Write off vehicle in the end? Only a minor accident (6)
SCRAPE
SCRAP [write off] + [vehicl]E
8 Rare sign of damage on church (6)
SCARCE
SCAR [sign of injury] + CE [Church of England]
13 Confrontation in workplace? (10)
OPPOSITION
OP [work] + POSITION [place]
16 Worker‘s feminine limb — part of it (8)
FARMHAND
F [feminine] + ARM [limb] + HAND [part of arm]
18 Revolutionary line isn’t unusual (8)
LENINIST
An anagram [unusual] of LINE ISN’T
19 Man, for example, lives on solid earth (6)
ISLAND
IS [lives] + LAND [solid earth]
21 Underline ‘very bad, but within the rules’ (6)
LAWFUL
AWFUL [very bad] under L [line]
22 Invent face paint? (4,2)
MAKE-UP
Double definition
A gentle Monday workout with some cute clues. As usual got stuck for a short while on those annoying four-letter words in the NW and SE, but when they dawned I felt I had been something of a 2,24D.
Enjoyed that though I got to SCRAPE via an anagram of CAR (for vehicle) and then had to rethink my reading of the clue completely! Many thanks to Vulcan and Eileen.
At @1: oh yes: I spent some time looking for a WARP LANE in Lancaster. Duh!
APIECE took an unnecessary amount of head scratching. “In” at the beginning of 10,24 ac is not part of the wordplay or definition.
That’s why I didn’t underline ‘in’, Frankie the cat @4. 😉
Frankie the cat @ 4 Maybe not (although I would say that ‘in’ is part of the wordplay) but links between definition and wordplay are common and valid.
Suborn was new to me and Latitude took a while, thanks to Vulcan and Eileen.
I had my doubts about the IN in 10,24 and felt it was only there for misdirection. I liked underline. For some reason this took me longer than Paul’s prize. Possibly being woken at 4am by festive teenagers
Bodycheetah @ 7 It’s interesting that ‘in’ stands out in 10,24 but not in 2,24, I wonder if “minor road follows bend in Lancaster, for instance” would have been more to the general taste?
I really enjoyed this – but then I generally have a fun time with Vulcan’s puzzles. DUMPLING and WARPLANE had me hugging myself with glee (although for a short while I wondered whether a streetmap of Lancaster could be found online) and I also grinned at ALLSORTS. One tiny quibblet: is “: centre” really necessary in 17A? I’d say the clue works just as well without it….
Many thanks to Eileen for the blog, and to Vulcan for a pleasant start to the week.
A fairly gentle start to the week.
I liked APIECE, TIP-OFF, LAWFUL. Got stuck briefly thinking that ‘less refined’ would be coarser and fiddled round with corsaire … Got it in the end from crosser with LATITUDE.
The ‘in’ in 10,24 and 2,24 surely just means ‘in the word that means …’ So in my opinion it introduces the definition, without actually being part of it.
Does anyone know when we get the blog on Maskerade’s puzzle? I can’t find any reference to dates online. of course, I may be looking in the wrong place.
Thanks Vulcan and Eileen.
@1 & @3 I also had trouble connecting the two parts: dump ling was easier as split in half but I bombed on the Lancaster.
Anna @10
The closing date for entries for the Maskarade is Thursday 2nd Jan and the blog will be published early on Friday.
Thanks Eileen. 10,24 particularly raised a smile for me, as a village road I used to pass every day, is called Old Warp Lane, and the crosswording part of my brain often used to try to construct a solution related to a Lancaster, or other old warplane. Good that a Vulcan is one too, so thanks to its namesake!
Anna @ 10. Monday 6th Jan.
Sorry, that’s the date for the Guardian’s solution.
Thank you Vulcan and Eileen.
The isle of Man really is an independent island, but this came to my mind
MEDITATION XVII
Devotions upon Emergent Occasions
John Donne
No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man’s death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Thank you Gaufrid @12.
Anna@10 and Gaufrid@12 – interestingly the solution for Maskarade’s Prize appears today, at the bottom of the PDF version of this (Vulcan’s) crossword. Strange that the solutions should be printed, by the Guardian themselves, before the closing date.
Larry@18
Surely a mistake. And I think it’s been removed now.
All interesting but I don’t really need it.
Where’s 15sq for the pre-Christmas Guardian Prize? I’ve given up on 62a and 65a.
Anna@19 – no, still there. Look above today’s Vulcan’s crossword on the Guardian site – click on the PDF link (not the print version), and it is in the bottom right hand corner. However, I am still keen to see the blog as a couple of parsings passed me by. I don’t envy who had that task!
Not too hard for a Monday, although I did miss ALLSORTS, the candy being unknown to me. I agree that the suggested wording of Robert @8 for WARPLANE would have been better, putting the linking word in a position to be an actual link, but it was a good clue nonetheless. I also liked SWITCHBACK and LAWFUL. Thanks to Vulcan and Eileen.
Larry @21
Ah yes, got it. But, like yourself, I want to see the blog. I think I’m happy with most of the answers but there’s one I’m a little unsure of. Enough said for now!!
Not “in the zone” today. I did wonder how we were supposed to know that there is a street in Lancaster called “Warp Lane” (answer: perhaps there isn’t). Got the LING of 2,24 easily enough, but teh DUMP took a while – perhaps Paul might have clued it differently, and more in line with my messed-up brain today?
Thanks to Vulcan – it looks like a fine puzzle in retrospect, but also to Eileen for nudging my brain into semblance of wakefulness…
Oh, and DaveinNCarolina @22 – I’m not a big fan of using trade names, though some setters are more guilty than others.
Anna and Larry
Perhaps the person responsible for the PDF also has a job at the Cabinet Office?
Thank you Vulcan and Eileen.
Given that I spent a good part of the Christmas hiatus working on a trigonometric problem involving LATITUDE, I’m ashamed to say it was the last to go in. Kelvin, Fahrenheit ……… an excellent clue.
Guardian solutions published before closing dates and honour recipients’ addresses published; I think I might start using something as radical as a….
LETTER !
Talking of LATITUDE, does anyone (other than Vulcan) talk about being in, rather than at, a given latitude?
Dr. W @28, I read the clue as “(a context) in which …”.
Dr WhatsOn @ 28 Depends on whether you’re talking “in terms of latitude” or “at a given latitude” – the same as saying “in centigrade 100° is boiling” or “boiling occurs at 100° centigrade”.
Dr. Whatson,
Sailors tend to think in bands of latitude; the tables used in celestial navigation come in bands of 15 degrees.
In The Roaring Forties.
@Comment no 3 – I thought maybe it was just me that thought there was a “Warp Lane”` in Lancaster!! thanks Beobachterin
Oh this was alright I supposex but I can’t say I enjoyed it much.Not sure why- possibly post Yule blues.
Anyway,thanks Vulcan.
Re 19D, I was caught between ‘No man is an island’ (John Donne) and I am a rock, I am an island’ (Paul Simon) . . . but got there eventually.
Happy New Year to all