The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29746.
I thought this was more like Imogen than the Monday Vulcan to whom we have been accustomed, with some very well constructed, but none too easy, clues (and even a touch of Pasquale at 13D PANEGYRIST – 14A BOOTLESS and 22D HOYDEN are uncommon as well).
| ACROSS | ||
| 7 | BOARDING |
Staying at school and getting on (8)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 9 | NICKER |
Sound from horse in pound (6)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 10 |
See 2 Down
|
|
| 11 | TONIC WATER |
I’m drunk, ruining winter coat (5,5)
|
| An anagram (‘ruining’) of ‘winter coat’. | ||
| 12 | COUPLE |
Item left in car (6)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of L (‘left’) in COUPE (‘car’). | ||
| 14 | BOOTLESS |
Vain, going round in socks? (8)
|
| Definition (‘vain’ in the sense of pointless) and literal interpretation. | ||
| 15 | CYANIDE |
Lethal agent ruins nice day (7)
|
| An anagram (‘ruins’) of ‘nice day’. | ||
| 17 | STAND BY |
Offer support, but fail to intervene (5,2)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 20 | LINGERIE |
Hang on – that is what my wife wears (8)
|
| A charade of LINGER (‘hang on’) plus I.E. (Latin ‘that is’). | ||
| 22 | HERESY |
This is why I say your views are unacceptable (6)
|
| A charade of HERE’S (‘this is’) plus Y (‘why I say’ – sound alike) with an extended definition. | ||
| 23 | CHARDONNAY |
Vegetable cooking, no wine (10)
|
| A charade of CHARD (‘vegetable’) plus ON (‘cooking’) plus NAY (‘no’). That came fairly readily, as I have just had a glass of chardonnay with my dinner. | ||
| 24, 24 | MAINMAST |
Lifting this aboard requires muscle from the start and amazing stamina (8)
|
| A charade of M (‘Muscle at the start’) plus AINMAST, an anagram (‘amazing’) of ‘stamina’, with an extended definition. | ||
| 25 | KANSAS |
US state 75% the size of another (6)
|
| ‘Another’ state is [ar]KANSAS. | ||
| 26 | THESSALY |
These people welcome girl back in region of Greece (8)
|
| An envelope (‘welcome’) of SSAL, a reversal (‘back’) of LASS (‘girl’) in THEY (‘these people’). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | MONOPOLY |
Game is my sole possession (8)
|
| Double definition, requring the second to be read as “solely my posession”. Of course, the game was named after that definition. | ||
| 2, 10 | FREE VOTE |
Veto suggested for one avoiding whipping (4,4)
|
| Wordplay on the answer: an anagram (FREE) of VOTE is ‘veto’. The ‘whip’ in the definition is a political party directive to vote in a particular way; without a whip (‘avoiding whipping’), party members may exercise a FREE VOTE. | ||
| 3 | BIG TOE |
Smallest digit? I beg to differ (3,3)
|
| An anagram (‘differ’) of ‘I beg to’ – which is, of course, also required to make sense of the definition. | ||
| 4 | KNOCKOUT |
Quickly produce stunning victory in cup match (8)
|
| Double definition (note the play on ‘stunning’). | ||
| 5 | OCEAN LINER |
Deceptive reliance on the second Queen Mary, say (5,5)
|
| An anagram (‘deceptive’) of ‘reliance on’. | ||
| 6 | SEVENS |
Society regularises rugby code (6)
|
| A charade of S (‘society’) plus EVENS (‘regularises’); SEVENS is a variant (‘code’) of ‘rugby’ union played seven-a-side with seven minute halves. | ||
| 8 | GONEBY |
Accepted as authority and passed (4,2)
|
| Double definition; the first is more common in the present tense e.g. “going by what Chambers says, that is a reasonable definition”. | ||
| 13 | PANEGYRIST |
One extravagantly praising various grain types (10)
|
| An anagram (‘various’) of ‘grain types’. | ||
| 16 | DORMOUSE |
Clean room no benefit for one out all winter (8)
|
| A charade of DORM (‘clean room’ – perhaps ‘clean’ is there because a dorm is used by many people, which makes for pressure to keep it tidy) plus O (zero, ‘no’) plus USE (‘benefit’). | ||
| 18 | BASTILLE |
Receptacle for cash in low-class prison (8)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of TILL (‘receptacle for cash’) in BASE (‘low-class’). | ||
| 19 | MEAN IT |
Vulcan a fool? Be serious! (4,2)
|
| A charade of ME A NIT (‘Vulcan a fool?’). | ||
| 21 | IN HEAT |
Receptive when it’s scorching (2,4)
|
| Definition and literal interpretation. | ||
| 22 | HOYDEN |
Boisterous youngster’s Orkney retreat? (6)
|
| A charade of HOY (an ‘Orkney’ island and hamlet) plus DEN (‘retreat’), better read as a pair HOY DEN. | ||
| 24 |
See 24 Across
|
|
Is it just a coincidence that the BASTILLE got a name-check on the 14th of July? Meanwhile, I am not convinced by DORM = clean room in 16d. My limited experience of dorms is that they are generally far from clean, so I would be interested in any other suggestions.
[Apologies for being #1 two days in a row.]
Thanks, Vulcan and PeterO.
Today is, of course, Bastille Day, but I can’t see it as a theme.
My top faves: HERESY, BIG TOE and MAINMAST.
DORMOUSE
clean=DO
room=RM
FREE VOTE
I feel ‘one’ should be part of the def
(here one being the voting process itself, not the member voting)
Thanks Vulcan and PeterO.
Aha, that”s better for DORM, KVa @3. Thank you,
Wonderful as always from Vulcan, but I think that this got misfiled in the Monday drawer. Defeated by HOYDEN in the end. New to me, along with BOOTLESS meaning (in) vain. FREE VOTE was my favourite among many fine clues. Thanks Vulcan and PeterO.
A dnf on Monday! Had no idea about 2, 10 and needed an alphacheck to get the f before waking up … dim! … it’s an old trick after all! And i agree with KVa @3 about the def. So yes perhaps a notch or two up from Vulcan-par. Thx to him and PeterO.
DO,RM,OUSE – i guess do=clean (cheat?) and rm=room
Ilan caron@7: a cleaner used to do for you
ITMA joke/ catchphrase.
Not very Monday or Vulcan, but we don’t there un the end.
Thanks both.
I usually finish and enjoy Vulcan’s but didn’t have the staying power today. It seemed harder than normal. So I trotted over to Slormgorm’s in the FT.
Crikey. Someone on the G’s own page called this a Vulcogen and I’m inclined to agree. I looked up BOOTLESS during the solve to see if that might mean ‘in vain’ and Chambers defines it simply as ‘without boots’ – but the synonyms are all connected with fruitlessness. How odd. And, yes, HOYDEN a nho for me. I’m another who had DO RM as per KVa. TONIC WATER, CHARDONNAY and BIG TOE my faves.
Thanks Vulcan and PeterO
On BOOTLESS meaning in vain: the lovely line from Julius Caesar, Act 3 Scene 1: Doth not Brutus bootless kneel.
When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries…
So yes, BOOTLESS for ‘vain’ is good.
Thanks to Vulcan for a trickier than usual Monday, and to PeterO
[Ah, crossed with Czech Rod who gives another Shakespearean ref!]
PostMark @10, if you look at the 2nd headword for boot, that gives bootless=unprofitable, useless. A new one on me. I also found this tough and have found Vulcan tougher than he used to be for a few months now.
@11 Czech Rod – and Sir Richard Ratcliffe in Richard III – ‘Come, come. Tis bootless to exclaim!’…
moh @12 & chargehand @14 – yes, it is very common in Shakespeare, but I shan’t trouble this forum with further examples.
Thanks Vulcan and PeterO
Despite people on the Guardian site saying this was easy, I found it difficult. NHO BOOTLESS in the sense of vain. Didn’t see the first meaning of GONE BY. Didn’t parse DORMOUSE. Had ON HEAT (surely the usual expression?) until checking.
Although the penny did drop, I didn’t think 2,10 was entirely fair, as the last letter in common meant you were short of two crossers.
I think 4D might be a triple definition. Mass-produced goods are sometimes said to be ‘knocked-out quickly’; a stunning victory (eg in boxing) is a knockout and cup-ties (eg in the FA Cup) are often referred-to as knockout matches because the losing team is knocked out of the competition.
Thanks to Vulcan and Peter O
I too found this tricky, far more so than Monday’s tend to be. I still finished (albeit with two reveals) in half the time it took for the Quiptic yesterday, and today was a far more enjoyable experience than yesterday’s miscategorisation.
IN HEAT
Both ‘on heat’ and ‘in heat’ are listed in dictionaries with the same meaning.
Of course, the second definition in the clue is a whimsical/literal interpretation
as the blog says.
I am another who found this tough. I arrived at PANEGYRIST by a circular route, thinking of grist as a grain. I also had ON HEAT for a while and MATURING for BOARDING.
I don’t know how an apostrophe ended up in ‘Mondays’ in my comment above. Can’t let that pass without apologising.
Yes, Grizzlebeard@17 (great name by the way) 4D is definitely a triple definition. Terrific Vulcan crossword today; clueing that is succinct, clever and diverting (in two senses). I also saw DORMOUSE as being “do” for clean (“Can I do you now, Sir?”) and RM as abbreviation for room, etc. Thanks all round.
Although I got mainmast, the extended definition didn’t work for me. A mainmast would be lifted aboard (a rare operation) using pulleys so not much strength or stamina needed really.
I too found this unexpectedly tricky, and was panicking a bit on the first run through! Not only plenty of NHOs or meanings that I didn’t know, but a couple things that felt a bit stretchy.
I had to reveal two pairs of intersecting solutions. Firstly HOYDEN (nho) and HERESY (I didn’t see it as a semi-&lit and can’t really see it that way now; upon reveal, I enjoyed the wordplay and took the def to be “your views are unacceptable”, interpreted as an exclamation; but I grumbled about the lack of exclamation mark which actually might have got me to the answer. Maybe I’m barking up wrong tree though.)
Secondly NICKER (nho in either sense) and KNOCKOUT which was a great one and indeed a triple def as per Grizzlebeard@17; I was annoyed at not getting that one.
I had WENT BY for GONE BY for ages, which seems equally valid to me, and it held me up although I was never happy with that W checker.
I needed the blog to fully interpret MONOPOLY, and KVa@2 for DORMouse. And muffin@16, IN HEAT is the phrase we always used when we worked with dogs but I guess there are variants. I found “scorching” slightly over the top though, which also held me up there.
Thanks both. I hope Tuesday is more Mondayish to compensate!
Grizzlebeard@17
KNOCKOUT
Triple def or one WP+2 defs. Certainly, there are three parts. Thank you.
Chambers has
KNOCK OUT =Produce esp quickly or roughly(informal)
Some split personality in this one. Some Vulcanesque and some more like Imogen. It was the smooth solve I was expecting from the name. And not a cryptic definition amongst them although a few read as such. I wonder if that was done deliberately.
Liked FREE VOTE and KNOCKOUT
Thanks Vulcan and PeterO
I failed to solve 2/10 so like grantinfreo, this was a DNF for me. I agree with PeterO that it seemed more like Imogen than Vulcan.
Thanks to KVa@3 for alternate parsing of DO RM.
New for me: HOY in Orkney; BOOTLESS = vain; SEVENS = rugby code.
[There’s a famous sea stack called the Old Man of Hoy. I remember an early BBC outside broadcast of climbers climbing it.The link mentions it.]
TerriBlislow@22 Thanks. I’m glad you like the name. I’d love to be able to claim it as my own invention but it’s taken from one of my favourite books: ‘The Four Men – a farrago’ by Hilaire Belloc.
The Sun opposed the common European currency with the headline: “Hands off our nickers”.
[Grim and Dim @30
That reminds me of Alan Bennett’s “Norwich” telegram.]
Like many others, BOOTLESS was new to me. I might vaguely recall NICKER from my youth, it is more of a brain itch than a clear memory, though.
I do have to complain about 22D. Like several others, I had never heard of HOYDEN nor the Orkney location of Hoy, so we have an obscurity composed with an obscurity. For me this was beyond reasonable GK – especially for a Monday.
Not very Mondayish with two archaic words, BOOTLESS and HOYDEN, and PANEGYRIST, which I vaguely remember seeing somewhere but I didn’t know the meaning. I also failed to parse DORMOUSE and forgot about The Old Man of Hoy.
I liked the FREE VOTE reverse clue, the good charades for LINGERIE and CHARDONNAY, and the CAD or semi-&lit. BIG TOE.
Thanks Vulcan and PeterO
Almost floored at the very end by KNOCKOUT. And, yes, I too found a few of these trickier or more obscure than Vulcan normally is on a Monday. Thought PANEGYRIST excellent. TONIC WATER very smooth, too. By the by, the indie band BASTILLE is apparently so named as the lead singer’s birthday is on 14th July. Near friends and neighbours of ours also have a street party with a French theme each year on a weekend closest to Quatorze Juillet…
I wish 22d had been an anagram. There are quite a few noisy NOYKERs around here.
ronald@34 I also know someone who has a French party on the Saturday near Bastille day. It includes a French conversation group, so a lot of the conversation is usually in French.
Non-US solvers may not know that while KANSAS is pronounced as you’d expect, Arkansas is pronounced “ar-can-saw.”
Thanks,, Vulcan and PeterO.
Vulcogen seems right on the mark.
I had to look up BOOTLESS to check. There are some words I think I only know because of crosswords – Vulcan used HOYDENISH in May 2021.
Why is a DORMOUSE “out all winter”? I thought they hibernated?
Barry R @38
How about ‘out’ as unresponsive?
Barry @ 38: if you are asleep you are ‘out’.
I thought MAINMAST was brilliant! Enjoyable on the whole.
Thanks Vulcan and PeterO
Mr. P’s first idea for the “sole possession” was FOOTBALL, as the ball of one’s foot is part of the sole. Our immersion in old literature (not just Shakespeare) meant bootless and hoyden posed no problem. (Except, of course, for the air of criticism usually accompanies calling a girl hoydenish.)
I can’t resist another example of bootless from Shakespeare (HIV Part I), as he makes the same joke as Vulcan:
GLENDOWER
Three times hath Henry Bolingbroke made head
Against my power; thrice from the banks of Wye
And sandy-bottom’d Severn have I sent him
Bootless home and weather-beaten back.
HOTSPUR
Home without boots, and in foul weather too!
How ‘scapes he agues, in the devil’s name?
“Dorm” may be considered a clean room in the Guardian as it has lost one conservative 🙂
Bit of a struggle wasn’t it? Not the majority, but enough crossing clues to make me think I wouldn’t finish. The archaic words and surprising definitions were almost all new to me. I think HOYDEN was LOI.
No complaints from me. Thanks all.
20a TROUSERS was my first thought.
Anyone else left wondering how “one left out all winter” defines dormouse? Surely the same could be said for any living thing apart from those in houses or zoos?
DORMOUSE: “Out all winter” may refer to its long hibernation period. It is “out” i.e. unconscious “all winter.” The etymology of dormouse is from Latin “dormire” and French “dormir” meaning “to sleep” with English “mouse.” Cf Alice in Wonderland and the dormouse wanting to sleep!
Hope that helps – it was a great puzzle.
Hazel @47 – the clue is “out all winter” (not left out) with ‘out’ as in unconscious, sleeping or hibernating.
balfour @1
my working theory is that, as setter themselves have indicated, puzzles are set and submitted for review (ahem… editing) long in advance of publication.
let’s say that alan thought it’d be really cool to run a puzzle with the word “bastille” in it on bastille day, and lo and behold he digs out one such puzzle from richard’s many submissions.
alas! it’s an imogen, and the regulars won’t stand for that on a monday! we’ll just say it’s a vulcan shall we? they’ll never know. mwah ha ha etc.
carry on…
I can see what the clue for HERESY intends, but it doesn’t work for me.
Otherwise I thought this a fine puzzle, if a bit too tough for a regular Monday slot.
Thanks all.
I was left with the last two HOYDEN and HERESY. For a while I wondered if CHARDONNAY was wrong as YONKER is an anagram of ORKNEY and could be described as a “boisterous youngster”. The word search on ..Y.E. turned up HOYDEN as a NHO.
I’m another who started with ON HEAT, but quickly disabused by the need of the I as a crosser.
Thanks PeterO and Vulcan
Please mr graun crossword editor can we keep Monday easy, for the many people out there who only attempt the cryptic on Mondays. I’m getting texts from such people…
Ah so that’s how it works, dormice are hibernators. Thank you Paul @49, I did wonder.
.. and thanks BethRoss @48 for the etymology, makes it very clear.
Yes, it was a struggle to complete but enjoyable. Following ‘Bootless’ and ‘Nicker’, last one in was 6D (Sevens) because I couldn’t get past the thought that there were only two ‘codes’ (Union and League). Both of them have a ‘Sevens’ variant but I have never heard it referred to as a ‘code’. Memo to ‘TassieTim’: I used to play for Hobart Harlequins – do they still exist?
My streak of six completions in a row came to a crashing halt with a Monday Vulcan of all things. I barely got halfway with this one. At least I was consoled that the blogger and commenters also found it more challenging than usual. Vulcan’s difficulty level seems to be random. Ozof’s theory @50 sounds plausible!
Some unknowns were gettable from the wordplay: THESSALY, PANEGYRIST. Others were not: NICKER, BOOTLESS, SEVENS, HOYDEN. For a Monday, that’s quite a collection
I did like 1a BOARDING, 12a COUPLE, 15a CYANIDE
Yes, 4d must have three parts. A KNOCKOUT in boxing doesn’t necessarily happen quickly