A nice difficulty for a Monday, and several clues that raised a smile – I particularly liked 1ac, 9ac, 22ac, 6dn, and 20dn. Thanks to Chifonie
| Across | ||
| 1 | PICKLED | Drunk chose to drink litres (7) |
| PICKED=”chose” around L (litres) | ||
| 5 | GLASSES | Help in making out with good girls (7) |
| Definition: Glasses help you “make out”=’see’ things G (Good) + LASSES=”girls” |
||
| 9 | AGAINST | A Tory leader pockets profits? That’s touching! (7) |
| A + leading letter of T[ory]; all around GAINS=”profits” | ||
| 10 | TROLLEY | Dolly left the French in Ilium (7) |
| L (left) + LE=”the [in] French”; all inside TROY=”Ilium” | ||
| 11 | ASCERTAIN | Check when definite (9) |
| AS=”when” + CERTAIN=”definite” | ||
| 12 | GENIE | Spiritual benefactor that is after information (5) |
| I.E. (id est, that is), after GEN=knowledge,”information” | ||
| 13 | TORCH | Light from church beyond hill (5) |
| CH (church) after TOR=”hill” | ||
| 15 | TARDINESS | Lateness of sailors holding banquets (9) |
| TARS=”sailors” around DINES=”banquets” as a verb | ||
| 17 | TOURNEDOS | Steak done differently in French city (9) |
| Definition: a cut of steak (done)* in TOURS=”French city” |
||
| 19 | ENDUE | Invest in experience without resistance (5) |
| ENDU[r]E=”experience” minus ‘r’ for “resistance” | ||
| 22 | PACES | Having second thoughts about one making strides (5) |
| PS (postscript)=”Having second thoughts”; around ACE=”one” e.g. in cards | ||
| 23 | CROWS FOOT | Winger’s distance from the line (5,4) |
| CROW’S=”Winger’s” + FOOT=a unit of “distance” | ||
| 25 | CHICAGO | A city fashionable in the past (7) |
| CHIC=”fashionable” + AGO=”in the past” | ||
| 26 | DEAD SET | Determined effort from exhausted group (4,3) |
| Definition: a prolonged onslaught or effort DEAD=”exhausted” + SET=”group” |
||
| 27 | LENIENT | Nine crashed into obstacle that’s forgiving (7) |
| (Nine)* inside LET=an “obstacle” or obstruction | ||
| 28 | ROMANCE | Novel Italian church (7) |
| ROMAN=”Italian” + CE (Church of England) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PLAY-ACT | Make believe there’s agreement about poem (4-3) |
| PACT=”agreement” around LAY=”poem” | ||
| 2 | CHANCER | Opportunist finds sign about heroin (7) |
| CANCER=star “sign” around H (heroin) | ||
| 3 | LINER | Queue getting onto river boat (5) |
| LINE=”Queue” + R (river) | ||
| 4 | DETRACTED | Diminished worth of pamphlet during performance (9) |
| TRACT=”pamphlet” inside DEED=”performance” | ||
| 5 | GET ON | Hit it off board (3,2) |
| double definition: hit it off with someone; or board e.g. a bus | ||
| 6 | ALONGSIDE | Bordering a hypotenuse? (9) |
| A LONG SIDE=”a hypotenuse?” | ||
| 7 | SILENCE | License prepared to help mum (7) |
| (License)* | ||
| 8 | SHYNESS | Toss cape through timidity (7) |
| SHY=”Toss” + NESS=headland, “cape” | ||
| 14 | HANDSHAKE | Seamen fish for friendly greeting (9) |
| HANDS=”Seamen” + HAKE=”fish” | ||
| 16 | RESPONDER | One replying to research on study (9) |
| RES (research) + PONDER=”study” | ||
| 17 | TYPICAL | Classic clay pit disaster (7) |
| (clay pit)* | ||
| 18 | UNCTION | Religious rite gets agreement out of court (7) |
| UNION=”agreement” around CT (court) | ||
| 20 | DROPS IN | Calls to give up immorality (5,2) |
| DROP SIN=”give up immorality” | ||
| 21 | ENTITLE | Allow conservationists in elite organisation (7) |
| NT (National Trust, conservationists), inside (elite)* | ||
| 23 | CLOUT | Influence of Tory boor (5) |
| C (Conservative, Tory) + LOUT=”boor” | ||
| 24 | SWARM | Warrant officer admits fighting in a crowd (5) |
| SM (Sergeant-Major, a senior warrant officer); around WAR=”fighting” | ||
Yes, just about perfect for a Monday.
A straightforward and pleasant solve .. manehi has already listed the clues that raised a smile.
A nice puzzle as always from Chifonie. Thanks to him and manehi.
Good fun. I was led astray by TOURNEDOS and spent too long trying to anagram STEAK DONE. Nice misdirection ?
A brief wander down the same blind alley as Bodycheetah, but otherwise the usal gentle but enjoyable start to the week. Thanks to Chifonie, and to manehi
Lovely gentle solve. I also spent too long trying to turn ‘steak done’ into a french city even though k is very rare in French
Ditto Bodycheetah re steak done, but yes nice Monday level with a bit of chew and a bit of groan/grin like a long side. Wondered about ‘to help’ in 7d (License prepared for mum….better?), and somewhat ditto ‘through’ in 8d. Let for obstacle, though a regular, still took a minute or two to resurface. In all, enjoyable, thanks Chif and Man.
Bodycheetah @4: Me too. Was so sure it was (STEAK DONE)* that I began looking at an atlas!
Lovely smooth clueing – with nice surfaces everywhere.
Bravo, John, for a perfect puzzle for a Monday.
Nice week, all.
PS Had to look up ENDUE – not a word I’m familiar with.
I was also held up by the steak – my particular blind alley being ‘in French’ suggesting en so entrecote. Straightforward once past this and enjoyed ALONGSIDE GLASSES and DROPS IN. Thanks to setter and blogger.
Standing back from the finished article, I wonder if anyone else has noticed the aliterative juxtaposition of TARDINESS & TOURNEDOS?
Thanks Chifonie and manehi
Once again the Cryptic and the Quiptic are the wrong way round – this was far easier. Nothing to complain about. My favourites were GLASSES and DROPS IN.
Fun puzzle. I also liked 5a GLASSES, muffin. SILENCE/license at 7d was a pleasing anagram. No 14d HANDSHAKEs allowed here due to social distancing! Thanks to Chifonie and manehi.
[Thanks for pointing out the alliteration. William@11. Lovely – and I had not noticed it as I solved them at different times and didn’t pull back to look at the bigger picture.]
The fact that I haven’t used CROWS FOOT in the singular for those tell tale aging wrinkles before meant that DROPS IN dropped in as LOI. Enjoyable solve, similar holdup to others with the nonexistent French city anagram at 17ac too…
A splendid puzzle for any day of the week – not difficult but delightful clueing throughout. ALONGSIDE and SILENCE were my favourites and I had several more ticks and no quibbles. Many thanks to Chifonie and manehi – Matilda here I come.
Mostly smooth going, with just a couple of roughish points regarding parts of speech, but ymmv.
In 26a, I had to check several dictionaries before finding any with the noun meaning of DEAD SET (effort). They mostly just listed its adjectival/adverbial use as in “he was dead set on/against something”, which is all I’d ever heard.
In 7d, the only way I can make this work is if “mum” is an imperative. That makes “to help” a bit clumsy.
GinF@7: I read it as verbs: to help mum=to silence.
Lovely puzzle, Thank you Chifonie and Manehi.
Steady solve; I realised after a while that it was the steak not the French city. I also looked for a ‘give’ going upwards in 20.
Tried CROWS FEET, but it didn’t work.
Thanks Chifonie and manehi.
William @11
21 and 27 are almost anagrams, one has two T’s and one N, the other one T and two N’s.
il principe@18, hmmm, I kind of like the idea of mum as verb (Oh do mum that crying child!), but I’ve never seen it.
Are there any French cities with a K? Kronenburg- nah -steak it is then
I am never sure why it has been decided that Monday should be easier, since I would be happy to chew on something a little tougher after having had a break on Sunday! Never mind this was perfectly acceptable for today and several clues were real crackers such as ALONGSIDE, GLASSES and HANDSHAKE. So very many thanks Chifonie and manehi. I also spent far too long looking for a french town with a K in. Doh!
Copmus @ 22 -Dunkerque
SPanza@23. The NYT crossword has a stated policy of increasing difficulty through the week. Maybe that has had some influence.
The suggestion of Il principe @18 regarding 7d seems to be the only way to arrive at SILENCE rather than silent as the answer, but Collins online gives “mum” as a verb only in the sense of acting in a mummer’s play, so I’m with ginf @7 in questioning it. I also share his question mark about “through” in 8d, but both went in easily enough, so no harm. The k in steak steered me away from the anagram route at 17d, which I thought was a very good clue, along with GLASSES and ALONGSIDE (haven’t we seen that one recently?).
Thanks to Chifonie and manehi.
Nice puzzle, but easier than the Quiptic.
Lovely puzzle – many clues raised a smile.
Thanks to manehi and Chifonie.
I was foxed by 17ac too, and delayed by CROWS FOOT. RESPONDER looked wrong to me but I couldn’t think of anything else. Liked GLASSES once I saw it- groan- and TROLLEY.
Thanks Chifonie.
SPanza@23 – re Mondays etc, have a go at the Azed on Sundays, which is a lot easier than it looks once you get into it.
Thanks to Chifonie and manehi.
Thumbs up pretty well all round and for ALONGSIDE and CHICAGO in particular. Hands clasped behind back, eyes downcast and knees swaying a bit about UNCTION – I’m not happy that the word expresses a religious rite in its own, erm, right: extreme unction I am familiar with but unction on its own is, for me, just general anointment with perhaps a religious overtone; there is also the problem of getting “out of court” to generate the insertion of “CT” into UNION although I can see that the surface offers irresistible temptation.
Thanks drofle, trouble is I can’t do it online and there are no Guardians to buy here in southern Spain!!
SPanza @32
I’ve never tried, but it looks like you could print it from the Guardian Crossword site. Clicking on Azed, then on “access print version” brings up a page that looks printable.
SPanza @ 32 & muffin @ 33
Or, depending on the device you’re using, you could always take a sceenshot and print tat.
Thanks muffin and Simon S, I will give it a go. Only drawback is that apparently, printer ink is second only to thoroughbred horse semen as the world’s most expensive fluids!!
Me @ 34
…print that
My bluetooth keyboard isn’t the most responsive [fortunately I’ve been checking this time, and spotted/corrected the missing letters].
Thanks to both. An enjoyable ramble.
but, I suspect the definition for 22a is just “strides”, otherwise you would get PACING or PACER. The latter is by extending the definition to “one making strides”.
I enoyed this. Yes, a bit harder than usual for a Monday. Just to note that it is licence, and not license (the latter being a verb, unless you are in the US). Thanks to all.
Well, that was fun. I especially liked ALONGSIDE. Last one in was the one that was not a French town with a K in it; a nice bit of misdirection there. But when (eventually) UNCTION went in, the penny dropped. Vegetarians like me were possibly at a slight disadvantage on that one.
Thanks Chifonie for a pleasant puzzle. Did not get ENDUE because I had stOPS IN instead of DROPS IN. They both satisfy the clue but the correct way does it better. Funny that PICKLED was in the crossword and “blotto” was in today’s FT.
SPanza, muffin, Simon S (@32-36), I get the Azed in a slightly different way.
After opening the Print version from the Guardian website, I download the PDF (in my case to the Downloads folder in Windows 10).
I open it from there which, in my case, will be done by Adobe Reader.
One can now adjust the percentage (at the top of the screen) in order to get the puzzle to fit the screen. Yesterday, 170% did the trick but it may vary.
Then I printed the puzzle off in Adobe using: Print, More Options, Current View.
What you’ll get is actually quite nice and clear.
A bit of a hassle perhaps (but not really) and it works!
SPanza@35, you could always *draw* the grid (coarse graph paper helps) – no need for the numbers of course.
Apart from the dodgy link words, a pleasant solve – thanks to setter and blogger.
Did anyone else have PACER for 22a? It is ‘one making strides’ and is ‘having second thoughts about’ ie RECAP backwards. Difficult to fit in with 14d though.
Re 43 – yes, I did the same. Also struggled with crows foot – got obsessed with ‘as the crow flies’ and looking for a straight line between A and B
Despite being ‘easy’ I was flummoxed by quite a few. The rest has taken me ’til now – but I’m slowly getting there. Love 6dn
@37 I think you can equate PACES and ‘making strides’ . . . just about. But your way is prob better
I’m catching up on a backlog of crosswords, so I’m late getting here. I found this puzzle mostly easy and enjoyable, but I was temporarily waylaid by confidently writing in TIPPLED for 1ac. I just about convinced myself that “chose” could be TIPPED, as in “He tipped / chose his son-in-law to be his successor in running the company.”