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A pleasant solve – my favourites were 21ac, 25ac, and 8dn. Thanks to Vulcan
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | KATYDID |
Grasshopper fouled D-Day kit (7)
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definition: a type of insect related to the grasshopper anagram/"fouled" of (D-Day kit)* |
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| 5 | BIDFAIR |
Look likely to make an honest offer (3,4)
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definition: to bid fair is to seem likely e.g. 'the project bids fair to succeed' to bid fair or to make a fair bid could also mean "to make an honest offer" |
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| 9 | SIEVE |
Riddle of the Jumblies’ craft (5)
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definition: a riddle is a type of sieve reference to Edward Lear's poem The Jumblies which starts "They went to sea in a Sieve, they did" |
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| 10 | ULLSWATER |
Let walrus swim in lake (9)
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anagram/"swim" of (Let walrus)* |
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| 11 | MINIMALLY |
Car may tour a couple of lochs at the very least (9)
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MINI=brand of "Car", plus MAY (from surface) going around ("tour"): two letters L (short for loch) ="a couple of lochs" |
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| 12 | TYROL |
Two novices go to ski here (5)
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definition: a region of the Alps TYRO and L (short for learner) are two words for novice |
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| 13 | RIGID |
Invariable outfit I had (5)
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RIG="outfit" + I'D="I had" |
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| 15 | BILIOUSLY |
Irritably, William accepts deferred payments (9)
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BILLY="William" around IOUS=I-owe-you-s="deferred payments" |
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| 18 | PARAMEDIC |
She may offer sick camper aid (9)
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anagram/"sick" of (camper aid)* |
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| 19 | SOUTH |
Shout out, giving this direction (5)
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anagram/"out" of (Shout)* |
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| 21 | IN ONE |
1-0 for United (2,3)
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I=one="1", plus NONE=zero="0" |
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| 23 | EARBASHED |
Reproached at length and clipped round side of head (9)
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to clip someone round the side of their head could mean to hit or bash their ear |
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| 25 | MANGETOUT |
Husband, unpack the vegetables (9)
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MAN="Husband" + GET OUT="unpack" |
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| 26 | GOUDA |
What may arrive with biscuits some mutt’s about to eat for all to see (5)
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definition: a type of cheese, something that may be served with biscuits A DOG="some mutt" reversed/"about" and around/"to eat": U (Universal rating for films, "for all to see") |
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| 27 | REENTRY |
Leaving space for astronauts (7)
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when astronauts leave space, they re-enter the Earth's atmosphere |
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| 28 | DO-OR-DIE |
Recklessly determined, but fail after entrance (2-2-3)
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DIE="fail" after DOOR="entrance" |
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| DOWN | ||
| 1 | KASHMIR |
Coins and notes only, they say, in disputed region (7)
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sounds like ("they say"): 'cash mere', with 'cash'="Coins and notes" and 'mere'="only" |
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| 2 | TWEENAGER |
Sweetly pretty princess growing up: she’s 11 or 12 perhaps (9)
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TWEE="Sweetly pretty", plus reversal/"up" of REGAN=a "princess" in Shakespeare's King Lear |
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| 3 | DREAM |
Hope engineers can plug reservoir (5)
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RE (Royal Engineers) inside DAM="reservoir" |
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| 4 | DOUBLE BED |
It’s needed for the rest of the partners (6,3)
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cryptic definition: in the surface, "for the rest of the partners" is to be read as 'for partners to sleep', but could be read as 'for the remaining partners' |
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| 5 | BELLY |
Lead off folk and blues singer that shows guts (5)
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remove "Lead" from Lead BELLY, the name of a "folk and blues singer" [wiki] |
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| 6 | DOWN TOOLS |
Some Irish devices stop working (4,5)
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DOWN TOOLS=tools from County Down in Ireland="Some Irish devices" |
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| 7 | ALTAR |
Announced change for place of wedding (5)
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sounds like ("Announced") 'alter'="change" |
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| 8 | RURALLY |
Sport convention in the country (7)
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RU (Rugby Union, "Sport") + RALLY="convention" |
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| 14 | DAMNEDEST |
One’s utmost effort in French is condemned upfront (9)
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EST='is' in French="in French[,] is" with DAMNED="condemned" in front |
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| 16 | LACERATED |
Part of shoe considered torn (9)
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LACE="Part of shoe" + RATED="considered" |
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| 17 | SLUSH FUND |
Undeclared reserves that melt away when the heat is on? (5,4)
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definition: undeclared reserves of money [that might melt away / disappear when there is 'heat' from the authorities] "melt away…" is also suggestive of SLUSH in the sense of snow/ice |
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| 18 | PRIMMER |
More disapproving of Mike opening elementary book (7)
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M (Mike in the NATO alphabet), going into/"opening" PRIMER="elementary [text]book" |
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| 20 | HYDRATE |
Need to do this, suffering dry heat? (7)
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anagram/"suffering" of (dry heat)* |
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| 22 | OUNCE |
Cat’s very light weight (5)
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double definition: an ounce is a snow leopard, a large cat; or an ounce is a measure of weight |
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| 23 | EBONY |
At rear of pasture, thin tree (5)
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end/rear letter of [pastur]-E, plus BONY="thin" |
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| 24 | AGGRO |
Problems a good grocer halved (5)
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for definition e.g. 'to give someone trouble' / 'to give someone aggro' A (from surface) + G (good) + half of GRO-[cer] |
Pleasant indeed. I came to see if there was any explanation of the hyphen in the clue for IN ONE, but it seems not. I suppose that the clue works if we just ignore it. “10 for United” wouldn’t be such a nice clue. Thanks Vulcan for the fun and thanks manehi for the usual neatly put together blog.
GOUDA took a while and MAN for husband was also difficult for me. Good start to Monday. Thanks both.
An enjoyable Monday challenge, neither too easy nor too difficult.
Favourites: EBONY, SIEVE, BELLY.
New for me: BID FAIR = look likely.
I wonder why 27a is not hyphenated. And I thought the heat in 17d might be the police.
A lot of fun, as usual with Vulcan, on a Monday morning. Carelessly went for Earlashed, not a word, instead of Earbashed. So a near miss for us
Thanks to Vulcan and manehi
Nicely done and I had the same favourites as manehi plus TWEENAGER and HYDRATE.
Ta Vulcan & manehi.
Very enjoyable but there’s an alternative answer at 12ac: TIROL. This should have been picked up in the editing. The Times 15×15 had one of these today too.
Liked it a lot. I often think Vulcan isn’t given due credit as a setter – “Mild Mondays” and all that. I enjoyed the accessibility of this puzzle combined with more than enough challenge for me. I really liked 26a GOUDA, 4d DOUBLE BED, 5d BELLY and 14d DAMNEDEST. Unfamiliar with ULLSWATER at 10a but perfectly gettable. Thanks to Vulcan and manehi.
Nice to solve if only for ULLSWATER, which brought happy? memories back of Striding Edge and Helvellyn
Liked TWEENAGER, IN ONE, DOUBLE BED and HYDRATE.
Thanks Vulcan and manehi.
paul @ 1
I think it’s supposed to read as a football score. (One-nil)
Pleasant enough, gentle offering. I liked MANGETOUT!
I thought the heat was melting the slush (melting ice).
Thanks Vulcan and manehi
A fine start to the week – I thought the surfaces for PARAMEDIC and HYDRATE were terrific!
Thanks to Vulcan and manehi
Enjoyable. I needed your help for belly.
Bit puzzled by dam = reservoir. I can see they’re related, but not the same, unless I’m missing something
sofamore @4 hyphens are usually not included in the enumeration given with the clue. This appears to be because often it would give away too much about the solution. I would say that manehi made an uncharacteristic small error in not including a hyphen when giving the solution, but perhaps there is justification that reentry could be correct.
Mike @14
My thoughts entirely!
IN ONE and SIEVE I didn’t parse, but completed the grid and thought this was a good Monday offering.
Tim C @9 I have memories of Striding Edge which I wouldn’t call happy, since I was halfway across it when I realised walking along ridges on very icy days really isn’t for me…
Ravenrider@15: On the contrary, hyphens are frequently part of the enumeration, though some answers work with or without them. In this case Chambers does have the hyphen. However I agree it would have made the solution too easy.
Why the plural vegetables in 25a when the answer is singular?
I see the Print option has now returned. Let’s hope its absence was a bug rather than a feature.
Was unsure, as jackkt@7, of the unchecked Y or I in 12a T(Y/I)ROL and T(Y/I)RO. — 18d PRIMER and PRIMMER can be homophones, especially in the US.
poc @18 I think MANGETOUT works as plural, in the way that, say, I’d use “cauliflower” to describe several stalks (or whatever) of that vegetable.
Mike@14: I was interested to find that in Africa (and maybe in other drier parts of the world ) the “dam” means not just the wall or embankment that creates the reservoir, but the resulting lake.
I intuited the trick for DOUBLE BED but until I got the first crosser I was (somewhat prudishly?) hung up by MARRIAGE, WEDDING and NUPTIAL all having too many letters to fit.
[earworm for 6d: ★ Of The Cointy Doin (1988) {saw them at The National, celebrating Dublin’s millennium}]
Re 21a I get that 1-0 is one-nil
but I don’t see how that equates to IN ONE.
Put TIROL instead of TYROL. I think the former is the German spelling so it’s probably fair even if I am a little sour. Also opted for the wrong answer on the Times ambiguous clue. I am staying well away from the lottery counter today.
Other than an erroneous REENTER stopping me getting EBONY this was a pleasant solve with a few more difficult bits.
Liked MANGETOUT (I good huh? ….oh type of clue) ULLSWATER and EARBASHED (another penny drop clue)
Thanks Manehi and Vulcan
Off spinner @24 1-0 equals one, represented as “I”, and nil: “NONE”
So I plus NONE is INONE which gives the answer. I hope I haven’t further confused you…
Thank you Scraggs @26. Pretty contrived for a Monday!
Favorite was 25A, my LOI and a chuckle when I saw it. Lots of clever surfaces. I liked 10A, 12A, 18A, 4D, 5D, and 20D.
I don’t see how 12a can be ambiguous when “tiro” isn’t a word and, as Manehi explained, “tyro” is.
I take that back! Just looked in Chambers.
Ravenrider@15, poc@18- I get that a (2-5) enumeration would have made RE-ENTRY much easier, but at least it would have been correct? Unless there’s a dictionary that okays reentry, or a crossword convention that excuses ‘re-‘ words from such enumeration? All that aside I enjoyed this a lot; EBONY and EARBASHING also held me up which, as a musician, they probably shouldn’t have. Thanks V and m
I agree with the doubts about 3d. Dam is the blockage that creates the reservoir, not the resultant lake.
I’ve never heard of earbashing, must be British. My spellchecker thinks so too.
Since mrpenney hasn’t joined us yet, I’ll explain that in the US “primer” is pronounced “primmer” when it’s a book but not when it’s paint.
Thanks for a jolly Monday to Vulcan and manehi.
Re 3d….FWIW.we have a dam near us in North Yorkshire (Glasshouses Dam)which is just a reservoir for a now defunct mill, so I have no problem with the clue.
When I solved the first straightforward anagram, KATYDID at 1ac I couldn’t help but be reminded of that series of children’s books by Susan Coolidge. Advertised on the back of other books of this genre that I must have been tucking into in the 1960’s. “What Katy Did” (1872), followed by “What Katy Did At School” (1873), and some years later by “What Katy Did Next”. (1886). Just saying, I don’t suppose any one else remembers – don’t think I actually ever read any of them…
Last one in today was the Dutch cheese at 26a.
..thought I certainly read several of the Richmal Crompton Just William books at the time, however…
Thanks Vulcan and manehi
I struggled in the SW, not helped by entering AIRLOCK at 27a. I thought that was quite good, and RE-ENTRY was LOI – it really should have been given as 2-5.
Leadbelly might well be unknown to solvers younger than me.
Favourite DO-OR-DIE (which did show the hyphens in the enumeration).
Ronald @35 – I had exactly the same thought, and even read at least one of the books, which had a picture of Katy on a swing on the front cover. I seem to remember her having an accident (falling off the swing?) leaving her unable to walk, and bearing it with angelic sweetness of temper. I preferred Anne of Green Gables.
Collins and other dictionaries have “reentry”, so complaining about it seems a bit tedious. We manage without a hyphen in mangetout and earbashing…
Lovely puzzle – I enjoyed that.
Ronald@35, Sarah@38 – I remember reading all of the Katy books and also Anne of Green Gables. I still have the books though I could never interest my daughter in them. Maybe the grandchildren?
I think 21a references the old football saying “1-0 to the Arsenal” (from a time when the team was more defensively orientated and quite likely to win by that score); if the United here is the Manchester version then yesterday saw the two clubs united in a 1-1 draw…
Is IN ONE a common phrase for United? I put “As One” initially, although I couldn’t parse it. The “1-0” parsing is clever, but it’s not a phrase I can recall hearing.
I was also held up in the NE having nho BID FAIR or TYRO meaning novice, but I got there eventually.
Thanks to Vulcan and manehi.
Good puzzle, with solid constructions and smooth surfaces.
I particularly liked the clue-as-definition for PARAMEDIC and HYDRATE; MANGETOUT and IN ONE.
I’m not particularly bothered by the orthography of 27ac. The hyphen has largely been dropped from ‘cooperate’, previously always ‘co-operate’ or even ‘coöperate’, and there seems less ambiguity in REENTRY.
There is a grammatical mismatch, like the one we had last week, which caused some fluttering in the dovecotes, in the clue for ULLSWATER: ‘swim’ works for the surface, but ‘swims’ would be more appropriate for the wordplay. Just saying…
Thanks to Vulcan and manehi
I took the partners in 14d to refer to bridge partners and had a very stretched interpretation for “double bid”. Thanks to manehi for the much more fitting answer.
(I’ve been getting database errors today and seem to have lost my first attempt to post this, I had to enter my details again.)
Gervase @43: I had the same thought about ‘swim’ as a mismatch.
Ronald @35 The 3 Katy books were some of the only books I owned in my rather underprivileged childhood (violins!) so I read them over and over again and loved them, especially their word games in those heady days before TV and smart phones. And I’m still playing word games today as you can see…
Seemed exceptionally difficult for a Monday to me, including many, many references I had not heard of (Regan, Tyro, Lead Belly, Jumblies) not to mention a few definitions that were beyond my understanding (ounce, katydid). I had no chance!
muffin #37 Leadbelly may be more familiar to younger generations than you think. I have seen several references to him recently, but always as Lead Belly as Thom @47 writes it. I don’t know why or when the change came about. His surname was Ledbetter and the reference books use the single word version.
REENTRY seems to be more of an American spelling and it’s in Merriam-Webster. Most of the other dictionaries have RE-ENTRY. I liked the instruction to the husband to unpack the vegetables for MANGETOUT and the Irish DOWN TOOLS.
Thanks Vulcan and manehi.
Muffin @37: my 17 year old is a big Leadbelly fan. I think he is one of those musicians that spans the generations. But you’ve either heard of him or you haven’t, like a lot of GK. That said, it took me forever to solve that on (2nd last in, EBONY being last). A very slow solve but got there in the end so quite pleased.
3d – Rare but exists,
This is from Heaney’s ‘Death of a Naturalist’:
All year the flax-dam festered in the heart/ Of the townland;
Thanks for the blog , good puzzle in the Monday tradition , I would have loved this when I was learning .
Bonjour AlainC @6 , for some reason I thought you would be at number 3 . Au revoir .
Surely united would be “at one” or “as one” – “in one” seems very contrived and in my head I keep hearing it in a Jim Bowen / Bullseye voice. Never thought of twee as sweetly pretty; sickly sweet or chintzy perhaps. “Bid fair” is a new phrase for me, I’ve only heard it as “set fair”, though that doesn’t fit the clue of course.
My favourite today which took forever to parse was the tricky IN ONE. Thank you to manehi and Vulcan for a good start to the week.
gladys @21 and others, dam is pretty common in Australia to refer to the contents behind the wall.
“In one” is fair for united I think in the context of things being put together eg “a radio and alarm clock in one.”
Thank you, manehi!
There were some references I never heard of (Leadbelly, Tyro, IOUS), so I couldn’t parse the clues, though worked out the words from definitions and crosses.
Liked SIEVE for Jumblies, MANGETOUT (LOL), IN ONE (tricky and amazing), HYDRATE (there is a wordplay and the whole clue is a definition – beautiful)!
Thank you, Vulcan!
Got hung up on 1-0 as an answer to the question of What Katy Did ie Katy did nothing (rather like United this year.)
For 21ac did any else think IS ONE was the solution from 1 minus 0 is one? Thanks to vulcan and manehi for the puzzle and the blog.
Ronald@35 the book was my first thought too. I did read them, you didn’t miss much!
DannyH @56 good point, thanks, that does make sense.
I wondered if “Leaving space for astronauts” = REENTRY wouldn’t classify as a specific kind of clue, perhaps a semantic oxymoron, where the surface relationship between the clue and solution is an inversion of meaning.
Thanks both
Surprising number unparsed — SIEVE, TYROL, TWEENAGER, BELLY
Missed EARBASHED, MANGETOUT, and EBONY — should have got the last. Tantalising and annoying to get so close to completion
SOUTH/shout not much of an anagram — just one letter moved