Very enjoyable – I particularly liked 9ac, 20ac, 24ac, 2/18/13/22, and 6dn. Thanks to Brummie
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SKATER |
Who might describe figures as ‘bad streak’ (6)
|
| definition: a skater might “describe [make the shape of] figures” in figure skating
anagram/”bad” of (streak)* |
||
| 5 | PILCHARD |
Finish off beer with beet and fish (8)
|
| PIL-[s]=”beer” with the end letter or “Finish” taken “off”; plus CHARD=”beet” | ||
| 9 | REDEEMER |
One who delivers wine and drugs by continental sea (8)
|
| definition: to deliver in the sense of to save, to redeem
RED= type of “wine”; plus E E (“drugs”, as E=ecstasy=’drug’); plus MER=”sea” in French (“continental”) |
||
| 10 | ACROSS |
How you should enter this top grade bridge (6)
|
| definition: this solution is entered ACROSS in the crossword grid
A=”top grade” (as in higher than a B or C grade); plus to CROSS=”bridge” |
||
| 11 | UNDIMINISHED |
Day in Oxford, say, by car – and Slough – showing no sign of wear (12)
|
| D (Day) in UNI (University, “Oxford, say”); by MINI=make of “car”; plus to SHED=to “Slough” (as in a snake shedding its outer layer of skin) | ||
| 13 | KEEP YOUR TRAP SHUT |
See 2 Down
|
| 14 | TENACITY |
Firmness shown by figure, one connected to Kyiv, say (8)
|
| TEN=”figure” in the sense of ‘a number’; plus A=”one”; plus CITY=”Kyiv, say” | ||
| 17 | ASSEMBLE |
Marshal, atishoo’s just under way – bless me, silly! (8)
|
| A-[tishoo] (“just under way” as in ‘just beginning’); plus anagram/”silly” of (bless me)* | ||
| 18 | KEEP YOUR TRAP SHUT |
See 2 Down
|
| 20 | CREDIT RATING |
Trust a sailor to provide a basis for making advances to you! (6,6)
|
| definition: a credit rating is used when making loans/advances to prospective borrowers
CREDIT=”Trust” + RATING=old term for a “sailor” |
||
| 23 | RAFFIA |
Fibre fair loosened a fellow inside (6)
|
| anagram/”loosened” of (fair)*, with A (from surface) and F (fellow) inside | ||
| 24 | IOLANTHE |
‘Twelfth Night character heading off North with article’ – making of an opera? (8)
|
| definition: IOLANTHE is a comic opera by Gilbert and Sullivan
[V]-IOLA=character in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, with the first letter/”heading” taken “off”; plus N (North) + THE (definite article) |
||
| 25 | ASBESTOS |
It can stand the heat like old footballer of Spurs initially (8)
|
| AS=”like” + [George] BEST=”old footballer” + initials from O-[f] S-[purs] | ||
| 26 | RECITE |
Say aloud ‘move somewhere else’ to the audience (6)
|
| sounds like (to the audience): ‘re-site’=”move somewhere else” | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2, 18, 13, 22 | KEEP YOUR TRAP SHUT |
Don’t open one’s gin – and not a word! (4,4,4,4)
|
| a “gin” is a type of TRAP to catch animals; so to not open one’s gin is to KEEP YOUR TRAP SHUT | ||
| 3 | THE PURPLE |
Time up: helper needs to change emperor’s habit (3,6)
|
| definition: a way to describe the clothing of an emperor in royal/imperial purple
T (Time) + anagram/”needs to change” of (up helper)* |
||
| 4 | REMEDY |
Rye: mad to introduce the drink cure! (6)
|
| anagram/”mad” of (Rye)*; with MED (the Mediterranean Sea, with “drink” as slang for the sea) introduced inside | ||
| 5 | PURE MATHEMATICS |
Amateurish PC met with destruction – it has no application, practically (4,11)
|
| definition describes pure as opposed to applied mathematics
anagram/”destruction” of (Amateurish PC met)* |
||
| 6 | LEARNING |
Being a student, inclined to cover only one essential school subject? (8)
|
| LEANING=”inclined”, to go around/”cover” only one R (the “three R’s” would be the essential school subjects of reading, writing and arithmetic) | ||
| 7 | HORUS |
Singers lacking top C – God! (5)
|
| definition: a god of ancient Egypt
[C]-HORUS=”Singers”, lacking the first letter/top C |
||
| 8 | RESPECTFUL |
Civil trade refutes plc (10)
|
| “trade” (as in ‘swap’, ‘exchange’) to indicate anagram of: (refutes plc)* | ||
| 12 | CROSSROADS |
Where travellers have a choice of old British soap? (10)
|
| double definition: a place where travellers can choose between roads; and the name of a former soap opera in the UK | ||
| 15 | CRYOGENIC |
CERN icy – go mad: “It’s concerning what extreme cold can do!”’ (9)
|
| anagram/”mad” of (CERN icy go)* | ||
| 16 | ABSTRACT |
Purloin a work of art (8)
|
| double definition: to abstract can mean to take away, to remove, to purloin; or a piece of abstract art | ||
| 19 | MILLER |
Arthur dramatically married (no better afterwards) (6)
|
| definition: Arthur MILLER was a writer of plays
M (married), with ILLER=”no better” going afterwards |
||
| 21 | DEFOE |
Entry of ‘female’ in dictionary rejected by eastern writer (5)
|
| definition: Daniel Defoe the writer
F (female) entered into OED (Oxford English Dictionary) reversed/”rejected”; next to/”by” E (Eastern) |
||
| 22 | KEEP YOUR TRAP SHUT |
See 2
|
Thanks Brummie and manehi
Very nice. My only quibblet is that you don’t know what the second word in the long one will be without crossers (I went with “one’s” first).
“Born in/to the purple” also refers to the birthing room in the palace of Constantinople, where the heirs were always born. It was lined with pirple porphyry. See here.
I liked CREDIT RATING and REDEEMER. I half expected a Winter Olympics theme after 1ac.
I must have been in tune with Brummie today, as HORUS went straight in, as did most of the upper half. It was generous to give us KEEP YOUR TRAP SHUT spread over the grid to give lots of toe holds.
LOI and CotD was MILLER – slightly devious!
Thanks both!
I do like Brummie’s Monday puzzles. They seem to have a lightness of touch that his regular crosswords sometimes lack.
Wasn’t familiar with THE PURPLE and Google’s AI confidently asserted that it must be a reference to a Whitesnake album 🙂
Cheers M&B
From experience, I knew that ones/your is a potential issue with 2/18/13/22 so left the second word until I could work it out.
I feel I should add that Pure Mathematics often has applications. For example, Number Theory is essential for Cryptography. The point is that applications aren’t the main raison d’être.
I was slow getting going with this; it didn’t feel very Mondayish. But I enjoyed it in the end and particularly liked CROSSROADS (a terrible soap which I remember watching avidly when I should have been studying) and IOLANTHE. A few literary clues today for those of us who know little about science or sport.
Fun crossword, thanks setter and blogger – enjoyed finding out more about “born in the purple” as this was new to me. Had been thinking along the emperors new clothes and trying to lose outer letters!! Did not know that “gin” was a trap either!
Not too keen on trying to unravel a clue that reads: “Marshal, atishoo’s just under way – bless me, silly! But I suppose it is just a crossword clue. CREDIT RATING loi today. Always interesting to compare alternate Monday offerings from Vulcan to the approach of other setters trying to make the first day of the week a little more straightforward…
Great stuff from Brummie which I found hard to get going but sped up once a few were in.
My favourites already mentioned but did like the nostalgia trip of CROSSROADS.
As a maths graduate I share the quibble about the definition of PURE MATHEMATICS that’s already been discussed but not enough to ruin the crossword.
THE PURPLE was new to me.
Thanks Brummie and Manehi
As ever, I agree with manehi. This was very enjoyable. A bit more chewy than a usual Monday. Came to see the parsing for ACROSS – doh! I like it! And REDEEMER, KEEP ONES TRAP SHUT and LEARNER among others were very good. Thanks Brummie and manehi.
Comment #11
Fun puzzle with some nice constructions but some bizarre surfaces. CREDIT RATING was my COTD.
The clue for KEEP YOUR TRAP SHUT was worded clearly as an order rather than just a pointer to a phrase, so ONE’S never occurred to me.
Thanks to B and m
Hovis@5: You beat me to it. G H Hardy is said to have raised a glass “To Pure Mathematics, may it never be of any use”, but of course it is.
I wasn’t keen on MED being ‘the drink’. Losing the definite article would have improved it I think.
[poc@13, Staticman1@9, Hovis@5: I can’t resist here telling a tale from when, back in the day, it fell to my lot to take quite a few Trinity College (Cambridge) mathematicians on introductory caving trips.
One such, who later became very eminent indeed in group theory and related topics, came on a trip with me, where the way in to the cave involved a 20m vertical drop, which I rigged with a flexible ladder and a lifeline.
I lifelined everyone down, and abseiled down the rope to join them and lead the trip into the various passages down below. We came back to the ladder. As first one up, I fitted an “ascender” to my harness, and clipped it to the rope dangling from above.
The mathematician raised a quizzical eyebrow. I explained that the device would slide up the rope, but not down, and so if I fell off the ladder, or needed a rest, it would hold my weight.
A look of slight bafflement and concern.
I explained again, demonstrating the action of the safety device.
“Ah, I see. Am I to understand then, that the rope is attached to something at the top?”]
I was, I confess, quite glad to leave maths behind; but I recall we talked of “pure and applied…” so I didn’t have a problem (see what I did there?) with PURE MATHEMATICS being defined as having no application, i.e. not being “applied”. Thanks to Derek @14 for the mathematician story. For some reason this puts me in mind of the Chancery lawyer stuck at the bottom of an escalator, unable to proceed. There was a sign reading DOGS MUST BE CARRIED. And he didn’t have a dog.
The four-worder could indeed be KEEP YOUR… or KEEP ONE’S… but I was about 95% certain which it would be because it would be surprising to have “one’s” in the clue and in the answer.
Like poc @13 I was a bit uncomfortable about “the drink” = MED, but is that helped by losing the definite article? “The drink” means “the sea”, and the sea isn’t necessarily the Mediterranean; but do we use “drink” without the article to mean “sea”? However, that’s a minor quibble.
Overall, a nice Monday morning puzzle and a helpful blog. Thanks, both.
As Protase #12 I read the 2D etc. clue as an imperative and entered your without thinking of an alternative. However I did read the clue from under the online crossword rather than scrolling down to the main clue section, which only showed 2 rather than 2,18,13,22. I entered the words in numerical order and only saw my error when I hit a crosser.
Overall great fun with some amusing definitions such as 10A and 19A.
Great story, DTS @14 🙂 and I share the voices in defense of PURE MATHEMATICS but believe there’s zero problem with the clue, no doubt conceived in a playful manner. I had the most difficulty with ASSEMBLE, plus a few unknowns (VIOLA, SHED as Slough, RATING as sailor), which didn’t allow some of the parsing. I especially liked ACROSS and MILLER. Thanks Brummie and manehi!
Thanks to Brummie and manehi. I was on the correct wavelength for this and it all went in quite easily. Doubtful about UNDIMINISHED meaning showing no sign of wear. Otherwise the only hiccup was putting in the words for KEEP YOUR TRAP SHUT top to bottom rather than as specified in the clue. Favourites IOLANTHE and CREDIT RATING.
My Mechanics teacher at A Level used to have a toast: “Here’s to PURE MATHEMATICS, may it never be of any use to anyone!”
As another Mathematics graduate, I must voice my sternest disagreement with “no practical application”… but as an applied Mathematics graduate, I’ll allow myself a quiet chuckle first. [I hope off topic links are not terrible form here!]
I was so chuffed to remember that gin=trap that I didn’t even notice I put the parts of 2d&co in the wrong order. Once that fell in place, the rest did too.
Thank you Brummie and manehi for the Monday fun!
Hovis #5
Re 2/18/13/22. One’s is in the clue, so would be unlikely to be in the answer
Really enjoyed this, although very slow to get started. A bit dispirited when I couldn’t get the first five clues, then saw KEEP YOUR TRAP SHUT, and kept going steadily. LOI and favourite was CREDIT SCORE. Thanks manehi and Brummie
Ed @21
I think the “one’s” in the clue makes it more likely that it’s wanted in the answer!