Vulcan at his best.
Monday puzzles are often easier in the Guardian and this one falls into that category. It is a difficult feat to make a straightforward puzzle enjoyable, but Vulcan is the master of this. On this occasion, he has even managed to weave a military theme into the answers, which I didn’t spot right away. No maean feat, especially as there were no really obscure words or difficult tricks, although new solvers may have found the clue for ARMY less straightforward than most of the others, and RUMMER may be a new word to a few people too.
Thanks, Vulcan.
| ACROSS | ||
| 9 | RANGE |
Mountains an anxiety for some drivers (5)
|
| Double definition, the second referring to “range anxiety”, which is experienced by drivers who are worried they don’t have enough fuel to get to the next petrol station, or nowadays, that they don’t have enough charge in the car’s battery to get to a charging station. | ||
| 10 | PER CAPITA |
A head pirate staggering, eating his hat? (3,6)
|
| *(pirate) [anag:staggering] eating CAP (“his hat?”) | ||
| 11 | SMALL ARMS |
Acts ingratiatingly, securing everyone personal weapons (5,4)
|
| SMARMS (“acts ingratiatingly”) securing ALL (“everyone”) | ||
| 12 | KITTY |
Little pet in the pool (5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 13 | WET SUIT |
Warmer, immersed in feeble court case (3,4)
|
| WET (“feeble”) + SUIT (“court case”) | ||
| 15 | SINGLET |
The only sort of shirt and vest (7)
|
| SINGLE (“the only”) + T (“sort of shirt”) | ||
| 17 | ROYAL |
Unprofessional men backing top family member (5)
|
| <=(LAY (“unprofessional”) + OR (other ranks, so “men”), backing) | ||
| 18 | AIR |
Once before broadcast, ready to go on this? (3)
|
| Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [broadcast] of ERE (an older word for “before”, hence “once before”) | ||
| 20 | FORCE |
Police car’s first in front (5)
|
| C(ar) [‘s first] in FORE (“front”) | ||
| 22 | DRUMMER |
Band member departs to collect large glass (7)
|
| D (departs, on a timetable) to collect RUMMER (“large glass”) | ||
| 25 | MUDLARK |
For scavenger, damaging allegations just a bit of fun (7)
|
| MUD (“damaging allegations”) + LARK (“just a bit ot fun”) | ||
| 26 | ARGON |
An element of specialised legalese judge avoided? (5)
|
| (j)ARGON (“specialised legalese” with the J (judge) avoided) | ||
| 27 | MODERATOR |
Chat supervisor rated room out of order (9)
|
| *(rated room) [anag:out of order] | ||
| 30 | MANOEUVRE |
Making move rue an erroneous tactic (9)
|
| *(move rue an) [anag:making erroneous] | ||
| 31 | PROMO |
Advertising video for medic (5)
|
| PRO (“for”) + MO (medical officer, so “medic”) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ORBS |
Poet’s eyes opening on really beautiful scene (4)
|
| [opening] O(n) R(eally) B(eautiful) S(cene) | ||
| 2 | INFANTRY |
Men on foot, youngster on railway (8)
|
| INFANT (“youngster”) on Ry. (railway) | ||
| 3 | SEAL |
Mammal is permanently close (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 4 | OPERETTA |
G&S work gets a treetop rocking (8)
|
| *(a treetop) [anag:rocking] | ||
| 5 | WRESTS |
Forcibly grabs whiskey and relaxes (6)
|
| W (whiskey, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) + RESTS (“relaxes”) | ||
| 6 | JACKKNIFED |
Sailor, stabbed, doubled over (10)
|
| JACK (“sailor”) + KNIFED (“stabbed”) | ||
| 7 | PISTOL |
Failed plot: is one to be shot? (6)
|
| *(plot is) [anag:failed] | ||
| 8 | NAVY |
Old labourer, losing heart, is blue (4)
|
| NA(v)VY (“labourer”, losing heart (i.e. its middle letter) | ||
| 13 | WORLD |
To catch girl at last, promise the earth (5)
|
| WORD (“promise”) to catch (gir)L [at last] | ||
| 14 | UNLAMENTED |
Badly made tunnel not missed (10)
|
| *(made tunnel) [anag:badly] | ||
| 16 | TWEAK |
Say, fine tune, initially tender and soft (5)
|
| [initially] T(ender) and WEAK (“soft”) | ||
| 19 | REMEDIED |
A corps ceased to operate? Fixed! (8)
|
| REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, so a “corps”) + DIED (“ceased to operate”) | ||
| 21 | REACTION |
Certain to go wild receiving nothing in response (8)
|
| *(certain) [anag:to go wild] receiving O (nothing) | ||
| 23 | URGENT |
Not to be put off, I say you are a good bloke (6)
|
| Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [I say] of YOU ARE + GENT (“a good bloke”) | ||
| 24 | REMOVE |
Take off and go wandering, holding me up (6)
|
| ROVE (“go wandering”) holding <=(ME, up) | ||
| 26 | ARMY |
Host always closes empty room (4)
|
| AY (“always”) closes [empty] R(oo)M | ||
| 28 | ROPE |
European clutching some pearls (4)
|
| Hidden in [clutching] “euROPEan” | ||
| 29 | RIOT |
Public disturbance that is extremely funny (4)
|
| Double definition |
I didn’t know some pearls were a rope. Other surprises were army/host, rummer, REME & navvy.
As usual I completely missed the theme.
Is 17a a much deserved and very topical dig at one of the King’s brothers?
Maybe it’s because I broke dry January yesterday but I found this quite a bit above Vulcan’s par difficulty.
Enjoyed the theme. Liked MUDLARK, WORLD, INFANTRY and JACKKNIFED
Thanks Loonapick and Vulcan
loonapick, thank you for your blog. Unless I’m missing something, did you mean the clue for ARMY, rather than awry , in your preamble?
GDU – you do make me smile. I am aware of several occasions when you have encountered REME for the first time. The novelty that keeps on giving …
Nice puzzle and, yes, possibly a little trickier than Vulcan’s usual Monday fare. But no complaints here. Other than that I spent too long trying to think of a word for punishment that would fit in 16d.
Thanks both
PostMark@5, no, never REME, unless dementia is setting in. But I’m proud that I remembered OR/men.
Looking up REME I think it’s Royal and Electrical Mechanical Engineers. I was happy to get that from the rest of the parsing. It’s one thing I don’t enjoy about these crosswords, having to know or guess or look up some obscure (to me) military unit.
Other words that fit the theme include RANGE, ROPE, SINGLET and arguably KNIFE(D) and REME – brilliantly done and yes very enjoyable.
Looks like I was in a bit of a rush this morning.
paddymelon@4 and 7 – yes, you’re right on both counts. Will edit.
Redrodney, I missed those, thanks.
Nice puzzle. Neat blog.
Thanks Vulcan and loonapick.
TWEAK
Why ‘say’? Chambers has ‘to fine-tune’ as one of the meanings of TWEAK.
KVa #10. I couldn’t account for ‘say’ in TWEAK either, except that, on looking it up, tweek and tweak are variants.
KVa – because fine-tune as in tweak is one word, and splitting the words gives a different meaning. I got that one when I stopped trying to build something from F + air and read the two words as one thing.
I’m another who didn’t find this at Vulcan’s easier end.
Thank you to Vulcan and loonapick.
No pushover here either, but a satisfying start to the week.
I do admire this setter for the reasons given in the blog.
No theme, of course.
Personally found this chewier than normal for a Vulcan Monday. Couldn’t parse RANGE, AIR, FORCE or DRUMMER, as some of their components or definitions were not at all clear to me. Was also struggling to justify ROPE, for goodness sake, before I realised it was hiding in plain sight. And it goes without saying with me – but I just have there – I was blind to the theme throughout. Many thanks V and L…
I found this quite tough but maybe I am particularly slow today. I didn’t notice or even look for a theme. In any case, I’m exhausted by all the news of various wars (and war-mongering) around the world now so I don’t want to see it in my daily puzzle as well.
I did not parse 22ac (never head the word rummer before).
New for me: REME=Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (for 19d).
Favourite: SINGLET.
I also had JACK (sailor) and KNIFE, RANGE, Military REACTION FORCE, who served in NI, SINGLET and RIOT as part of the theme as well. Very enjoyable solve last night.
Ta Vulcan & loonapick.
Never heard of range anxiety, so couldn’t figure out what to be anxious about, having convinced my self the second definition must be a golf driving range, so thanks for clearing that up for me loonapick, along either the rest of the blog of course
Clever of Vulcan to have lined-up the answers to 17a, 18a and 20a in a single row. (Despite which I too missed the theme!) Thanks to Vulcan and loonapick.
Thanks, Vulcan and loonapick. I never remember to look for a theme, and of course I missed this one. Very obvious, really, once it’s pointed out, and brilliantly implemented. I don’t think I’ve come across range anxiety before, and assumed it was something to do with golf!
Like DropBear @17 I assumed it was a golf driving range. Enjoyable solve. Thanks Vulcan and loonapick.
MANOEUVRE took a couple of goes! Nice start to the week. Thanks both.
Too difficult for this solver.
Shanne@12 – Thank you for parsing Tweak as I was wondering what Say was adding to the clue. I thought this was at the tougher end of the Vulcan scale.
Thanks to L for the fine blog.
I thought this a typically entertaining and fair Vulcan puzzle. Apart from the stray ‘say’ in 16d, the wordplay was precise. And the surfaces were euphonious, the GK eclectic but not bizarre, and the theme didn’t force the clues into horrible contortions. Lovely!
I don’t recall Vulcan having a theme before. A lot of ticks today, INFANTRY, REMEDIED, REMOVE, MUDLARK.
Thanks Vukcan and loonapick
I too found this harder than usual for Vulcan, and didn’t fully parse RANGE or AIR.
[I’ve recently read a book in which mudlarking plays a major plot part. It is called “From London with love”, by Katie Fforde.]
My Dad (RIP) was in REME, his trade being sheet metal worker. I think Range is a theme word – rifle range, in range. And I completely missed the theme.
New to me were REME, which is usually just RE in my experience; MUDLARK (as always, my knowledge of flora and fauna is minimal); and RUMMER. However, the wordplay and crossers made them all eminently gettable.
Thank you Vulcan and loonapick
Ace @28
A MUDLARK (or mudlarker) is a person!
Also Ace @28
RE = Royal Engineers
REME = Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers
– as pointed out above. I only know because my Dad was in REME.
I, like some others, found this a bit tricky for a Monday but enjoyable to finish.
I liked ‘a head pirate’ in the clue for PER CAPITA. the ‘warmer immersed’ for WET SUIT, the surface for PISTOL, and the ‘say, fine tune’ for TWEAK.
Thanks Vulcan and loonapick.
Another who thought this a little tougher than the usual Vulcan. And when I saw ROYAL AIR FORCE highlighted by loonapick in the grid, I wondered how I could possibly miss that! And the whole theme with it. Still, good fun. Thanks, Vulcan and loonapick.
First puzzle with this difficulty level (for me) in a long time — perfect for a Monday (and surprised to see comments that this was on the tougher side). Very pleasant. A lot of great clues with plenty of humour. Didn’t catch the theme. Is this the first time Vulcan has had one? And yes, I’d never heard of RUMMER @22a, but the clue was certainly gettable
Favourites include 9a RANGE (“anxiety for some drivers”, a very up-to-date reference, mainly applies to electric vehicles), 10a PER CAPITA (“A head pirate”), 12a KITTY, 2d INFANTRY (is this a classic?), 4d OPERETTA (“a treetop rocking”), 13d WORLD (great surface), 14d UNLAMENTED (“Badly made tunnel”)
Missed 8d — I had unparsed RACY (“blue”). I did get NAVY after a check told me I was wrong
6d Didn’t realize JACKKNIFED has two K’s. Makes sense!
As Petert remarks @25, Vulcan seldom if ever has had a theme, and I’m afraid that I greeted this one with a shrug. I confess a complete lack of interest in matters military, but maybe some fellow-solvers were as uninspired by Brockwell’s crabs, as blogged on Saturday, although I think that was sustained more inventively..
[That said, as an aside, I noticed a considerable increase during January in the number of TV commercials trying to persuade young people to join all branches of the armed forces. I am used to seeing this at the time when GCSE results come out, but I wonder why January?]
If a SEAL was a permanent closure there’d be no point in having a Post Office.
In my view 16 dn works better without the “Say”.
Is a WET SUIT meant to keep you warm or dry?
‘Straightforward’, but beyond me.
Vulcan is up there with Paul and Vlad in terms of difficulty for me.
Just cant get my head around the clues.
Thanks both.
I loved loved loved it … because, yey, I spotted the theme!!!! A rare occasion.
Entertaining. My favourite was PER CAPITA for the misleading “A head pirate”.
muffin @29: Chambers has for MUDLARK: “1. A name for various birds that frequent mud; 2. A person who searches the banks of tidal rivers for scrap metal, ropes, etc, to sell.” Presumably both are scavengers.
Many thanks Vulcan and loonapick.
[jeceris@35: a wet suit is insulation but allows water to reach the body, albeit slowly so the somewhat-trapped water warms up and the neoprene keeps the cold out. You get different thicknesses from a mm or two, just to protect you from rubbing to a cm or so for hardy souls who go diving in the British waters. There is a thing called a “dry suit” which seals at neck and wrists (it has integral booties) and a waterproof zip. You can literally wear a dinner suit under it but you do need some insulation as well – typically some sort of padded body suit.]
Tricky, so a good exercise!
Thanks both
I think that ARMY, reme and rummer put this outside the parameters of an easy Monday, but there is no strict rule that says all Mondays need to cater to newbies. Missed the theme as always, but they are usually more for the entertainment given to the setter than to the solvers. A bit of a slog, but glad to get to the end. Thanks Vulcan and loonapick.
I reckon this was average for Vulcan, but it depends on your level of GK and your state of mind. No problem with the former, though some needed a little bit of dredging, but for me the latter was affected by an interrupted night’s sleep. I was only held up by the correct spelling of MANOEUVRE, which is “no O and -er” in US but “O and -re” in English.
I am usually theme-blind unless the setter puts an arm around my shoulder and points, so I missed this one.
I enjoyed the clue for ARMY, though I share Michelle@15’s wish that violence and warfare didn’t intrude in so many ways, including our crossword.
Thanks to Vulcan and Loonapick.
Re mudlark: when I moved to Portsmouth in the early fifties there were still kids who would scrabble around in the mud below the bridge to the harbour railway station for coins tossed down by passengers as they walked across. Even then it felt degrading. I guess in London mudlarks would comb the tideway at low tide.
Duplicate comment: it would help if the comment disappeared once sent, like a text.
The MOD got a mention, too! 27a.
[Xerxes @43
Yes, the tidal mudflats of the Thames. The book I linked to earlier is set in the late 60s. The author points out that now a licence is needed to mudlark.]
I always feel that Vulcan is having to hold himself back on a Monday, and one or two ‘prize’ offerings slipped through today! A constantly excellent setter. Thank you.
I think that when my Dad was still in the army in the late 1950’s we always pronounced the familiar to us REME as “Ree-Mee.” And there’s another excellent book I read a while ago Muffin@26 about a self-professed MUDLARK entitled “Mudlarking” by Lara Maiklem. Pub. 2019, I’d recommend it as a fascinating read, based on her experiences finding historic objects in the bed of the River Thames
jeceris #35, I would comment, but my lips are sealed.
I may have missed an earlier comment (in which case I apologize for the duplication) but no one seems to have noticed the symmetry of ARMY in the bottom left, NAVY in the top right, and ROYAL AIR FORCE in pride of place in the centre. Hardly accidental, I should think. Nicely done, Vulcan.
Re the theme: With the rise of Russian belligerence, American insanity, and hot spots throughout the world, it is sad and depressing that Canada and Europe have to ramp up military spending (yes, we do) at a the expense of keeping the planet habitable for humans. But the theme is as quintessentially human as one about the arts or science or popular music or sex or food (to say nothing about cricket or rugby), so it is fair ball for a cryptic crossword setter.
Thanks (or should that be Tanks?) V&L for the very lively puzzle and blog.
The irony of missing Drummer is not lost on me. Another frustrating so-called easy Monday. For future info, 26d why is AY used for always? I tried the closing letters YS and enclosing AS but got lost. Thanks for the comments and to Vulcan.
Drums @51: “ay” for “always” is archaic, but is absolutely in the dictionary, at least if you’re consulting an unabridged one. And it turns up far more frequently in cryptic crosswords than it does in ancient texts, so store it away in your toolbox.
MrP @52
Stored with the rusty key for a long forgotten lock somewhere. Appreciate your, ahem, thoughts.
Late to the party today as life (“don’t talk to me about life“) intervened between doing the first 85% or so at breakfast and finding time to come back this evening. How could I not spot the theme? It might have helped with my LOI FORCE as ROYAL AIR was staring me straight in the face, had I defocussed a bit (I had also mis-typed in JACKKNIFED with just one “K” so that an “E” was apparently the leading letter).
I remember MUDLARKs being in some of Joan Aiken’s lovely “Wolves of Willoughby Chase” books. Also, of course, for real in the fascinating “London Labour and the London Poor” by Henry Mayhew. I was about to say that reading Mayhew makes one feel that at least some progress has been made since those days, until I recall that maybe we’ve just got new and different miserable ways of making a living as well as most of the old ones.
Hey ho.
Thanks Vulcan & loonapick
Two big sessions (morning and evening) needed to get through this. Didn’t really spot the theme until completion. This continues my run of finishing the Guardian Monday cryptic since starting on them at the beginning of this year so all the QC and Quiptic practice does look to be paying off despite a degree of guesswork and then spotting the wordplay being needed. Thanks loonapick and to Vulcan.
KVA#10 Spot on
In addition to the military theme, no one seems to have observed that the Avro Vulcan was the UK’s longest serving A-bomber.
Even later to the party, so at the risk of sounding drunk and tedious in the corner when everyone’s gone home … “G&S work” grates as a definition for OPERETTA. Gilbert, Sullivan and D’Oyly Carte all resented the term, referring to them rather as Comic Operas or just the Savoy Operas. G&S=operetta is also so crossword-standard now as to be hackneyed. There are so many real operettas to choose from it would be wonderful for a setter to one day use one in the clue – Merry Widow, Orpheus in the Underworld, Die Fledermaus..
We did this yesterday (our time) and have since finished Tuesday’s. Enjoyed this (theme flew over our heads as usual) but agree with the unease about “say” in 16d (Shanne @12 having adjacent words interpreted differently depending on punctuation etc is absolutely standard crossword practice). We nho RUMMER and had to google it to confirm, but the parsing was clear. Thanks Vulcan and loonapick.
I liked this but wasn’t entirely convinced by 1d. Surely it should be openings, plural, but of course that would ruin the surface.
poc, 60
I don’t think so. My take is ORBS = spheres = eyeballs (for a poet).
Cheers.
Another late entry but no-one else has mentioned this. Surely “Unprofessional” for LAY is wrong? It should be “Non-professional”. The two terms are not interchangeable.
A bit late to the party. The Mudlark was also a military 4×4 vehicle prototype made by Wolseley in the late 1940s. It was the forerunner to the better known Austin Champ.
I worked on this on and off through the week and was glad to complete it with only a couple of reveals. No one is looking at this anymore but I hope that someone can explain why ALWAYS becomes AY in ARMY?
Mikey,#64 You’re not alone! I also work on these over the week and actually found this harder than usual so didn’t complete it. ‘Ay’ is an archaic/poetic word for ‘always’.
Regarding 18A, I understand the homophone element, but why does “…ready to go on this?” give air?
Another one here who spends the week tackling Monday’s crossword. I too didn’t come close to completing this one.
Another slow solver here! To Riviera Kid #66, the reference is to go on the air, meaning a live broadcast, normally radio I believe.
(And thanks to Vulcan and loonapick, now I’ve emerged from my Lurkers’ Corner!)