A delightful start to the week from Philistine.
Several characteristic tricks on display today, raising several chortles: a couple of innocuous soundalikes, some ingenious constructions, witty surfaces and just one piece of UK GK at 25ac, easily gettable with a bit of delving.
My favourites – and there could have been more – were 1,5 CAPITAL OFFENCE, 11ac ALL BUT A FEW, 22ac AMPERSANDS, 25ac UNDERWEAR, 28ac YES MA’AM, 1,16 COMBAT FATIGUES, 3dn THROUGHOUT and 23dn EARLY.
Many thanks to Philistine.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1, 5 Serious crime – using criminal’s money? (7,7)
CAPITAL OFFENCE
CAPITAL OF FENCE (criminal’s money)
9 Note musical entertainment role to begin with silent performer (5)
MIMER
MI (note) + initial letters of Musical Entertainment Role
10 Purging most of the Arctic a muddle (9)
CATHARTIC
An anagram (muddle) of TH[e] ARCTIC A
11 Overwhelming majority expressed relief after everyone played tuba (3,3,1,3)
ALL BUT A FEW
ALL (everyone) + an anagram (played) of TUBA + FEW (sounds like ‘phew’ – ‘expressed relief’)
12 Your fault every now and then, to get mouthy? (4)
ORAL
Alternate letters of yOuR fAuLt
14 Straight coverage of outrageous rents in a difficult situation (7,4)
HORNET’S NEST
HONEST (straight) round an anagram (outrageous) of RENTS
18 Point in time when Juliet left after a prize for needlework (11)
ACUPUNCTURE
[j]UNCTURE (point in time, minus j – juliet – or, strictly, juliett, NATO alphabet) after A CUP (a prize)
21 Desire to get some kitchenware (4)
ITCH
Hidden in kITCHenware
22 They’re held by Bonnie & Clyde and Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid before noon, each case for sheriffs (10)
AMPERSANDS
AM (before noon) + PER (each) + S AND S (‘case’ for sheriffs)
25 Like Bishop Auckland’s pants? (9)
UNDERWEAR
This time, not an anagram (pants) of AUCKLAND’S but a description of the town in County Durham on the banks of the River Wear
26 Surmise long after love (5)
OPINE
O (love) + PINE (long)
27 Put off deciding what to do with a chair (3,2,2)
SIT ON IT
Double definition
28 Same problem in root whatever you say (3,4)
YES MA’AM
An anagram (problem) of SAME in YAM (root)
Down
1, 16 Arrives clutching a gift, but a fancy soldier’s attire (6,8)
COMBAT FATIGUES
COMES (arrives) round an anagram (fancy) of A GIFT BUT A
2 After start of play, suggest getting spots (6)
PIMPLY
P[lay] + IMPLY (suggest)
3 Dismissed report from start to finish (10)
THROUGHOUT
Sounds like (report) ‘threw out’ (dismissed)
4 Some terribly cramped cycling gear (5)
LYCRA
Hidden in terribLY CRAmped
5 Their responsibility to send one back to France is being served (2,3,4)
ON THE MENU
ON THEM (their responsibility) + a reversal (to send back) of UNE (French for one)
6 Overweight and eating lettuce? At last, an achievement! (4)
FEAT
FAT (overweight) round [lettuc]E
7 Legal workers ignoring those born in March or April (8)
NOTARIES
NOT ARIES (ignoring those born under the sign of ARIES)
8 Raise special case after hours (8)
ESCALATE
An anagram (special) of CASE + LATE (after hours)
13 Like people around one, they can be cast (10)
ASPERSIONS
AS (like) PERSONS (people) round I (one)
15 Lying about wobbly bum is modern (9)
RECUMBENT
RECENT (modern) round an anagram (wobbly) of BUM
17 Total reversal on trainee making wine (8)
MUSCADET
A reversal of SUM (total) + CADET (trainee)
19 Articles about booze causing pain (6)
ANGINA
AN A (articles) round GIN (booze) – the customary reference to Philistine’s day job as a heart surgeon; several years ago, I recommended his book, ‘The Angina Monologues’, reviewed here – he talks about it here
20 Value committee finally meets up (6)
ESTEEM
[committe]E + a reversal (up, in a down clue) of MEETS
23 Sandwich-like ahead of time? (5)
EARLY
A whimsical reference to the legendary inventor of the sandwich
24 Press club (4)
IRON
A classic double definition to end with.
Always a welcome sight to see a Philistine on a Monday and this didn’t disappoint. Laughed at the surface for LYCRA and had so many ticks including CAPITAL OFFENCE, ALL BUT A FEW, HORNETS NEST, ACUPUNCTURE, AMPERSANDS, UNDERWEAR, COMBAT FATIGUES, ESCALATE, ASPERSIONS and RECUMBENT. I have seen NOTARIES before, for instance, last year Ludwig clued it as ‘Legal workers born outside the period 21 March to 19 April?’ What a real treat today.
Ta Philistine & Eileen.
Favourites: PIMPLY, FEAT, CAPITAL OFFENCE, NOTARIES.
22ac I wasn’t sure where the AND came from. Thanks, Eileen.
25ac new for me that there is a small town (population 25,000) called Bishop Auckland “under” / south of the River Wear. That would be called a village in most parts of Asia 😉 Anyway, thanks to a google search I worked it out.
What a pleasure. It took me ages to see that Bishop Auckland wasn’t separated.
Like Petert@3 I thought Bishop and Auckland couldn’t possibly go together, so was searching for an anagram of AUCKLANDS (Auckland’s pants).
What a treat for a Monday morning! Lots of smiles and a proper LoL, as my son would say, at EARLY. Many thanks, P & E
Even though I live only a few miles from Bishop Auckland, and can see the said river from my bedroom window, I also spent ages trying to make an anagram out of Auckland’s. It was only after getting the crossing letter R that I realised it couldn’t be that.
Lovely stuff as ever from Philistine. Slowly and steadily solved this and the last one in, appropriately enough, was ALL BUT A FEW, with a Phew! Those last three letters of the clue escaping me until the very end…
Great fun even without Philistine’s bawdy clues and political messages. Slightly gentler than he usually is as well.
Blogger mentioned my favourites but would also add HORNETS NEST.
Thanks Philistine and Eileen
Nice to have a rather harder Monday.
“Special” was an unexpected anagrind, but that’s a very minor quibble for an enjoyable puzzle. The one that made me smile was the almost-&lit for the cramped LYCRA cycling outfit, with ALL BUT A PHEW and the CAPITAL OF FENCE a close runner up (once I had stopped trying to make it be a “criminal” anagram). MUSCADET brought back memories of my time as an English assistante in France in the Loire valley, where most of my pupils’ families seemed to be involved in making the stuff.
Thanks Philistine and Eileen.
Liked CAPITAL OFFENCE, ALL BUT A FEW, &S, UNDERWEAR, ON THE MENU and EARLY.
Thanks Philistine and Eileen.
What a delight. Thanks Philistine and Eileen. 😊
Enjoyed this one and managed to complete in one sitting. Unusual for me.
22a AMPERSAND. I realised after a while what the answer was for AM (before noon) and PER (each) and I could see that ‘case for sheriffs’ was a reference to SS but could not see where AND came from (other than ampersand is the symbol for ‘and’). Eileen’s parse didn’t help either, until I realised that S AND S was meant to be read as S and S … duh!
So thanks very much Eileen and of course Philistine.
The neatest of crosswords!
And what a joyful (quite literally) surprise
Huge thanks to Philistine
Good fun. AMPERSANDS one of those clues that is absolutely impenetrable until it suddenly isn’t. Some kind of homophone indicator in 18a would have fixed the Juliet/Juliett thing.
A first rate Monday puzzle, with some chuckles along the way – CAPITAL OFFENCE, ACUPUNCTURE, YES MA’AM, LYCRA, FEAT, RECUMBENT…
But why (sorry to be so thick) is Bishop Auckland under the Wear?
Thanks to the ever-reliable Philistine and Eileen, anyhow.
BTW thanks Eileen for the link to the Sandwich story. Quite interesting. I had to guess at the answer to 23d EARLY but couldn’t see where sandwich came into it.
The river Wear seems to go through Bishop Auckland rather than above it, at least as far as Google Maps is concerned. I did get it though, after some crossers. EARLY took a while to parse.
That was fun, ta PnE. Bishop Auckland (who could guess?) another in UK’s long list of quirky place names.
Thanks Philistine and Eileen
Very nice. MIMER is a bit odd, though – I’ve only seen silent performers referred to as “mimes”.
Comment #20
Agree, muffin, and I started off wondering about someone like a Grock or Marceau.
“Criminal’s money” has 14 letters, right? And we can “use” them as anagrist to get the answer, correct? So 7 of them make the word LARCENY, which must be the second word needed, surely? At least, that’s how my reasoning went, until (a) I couldn’t make anything of the remaining letters and (b) the crossers wouldn’t co-operate. Then I also fell into the anagram of Auckland trap, until the crossers refused to play the game again (I do think this clue rather parochial). Still, I managed to find my way to the right answers, as with all the other clues, so can’t complain. Thanks, Philistine and Eileen.
Thanks Eileen and Philistine.
I have had his excellent book for some time but have never seen that video before.
Thanks for sharing it.
It took me ages to see UNDERWEAR too as someone else who used to live on the River Wear (in Sunderland), it’s not quite a homophone, but it made me laugh. The Wear floods and Bishops Auckland does get inundated often enough that it’s a not unfair description.
I really enjoyed this.
Thank you to Eileen and Philistine
@ Shanne I never thought of UNDERWEAR as being even slightly prejudiced in the least. 😉
Comment #26
Comment #27
Shanne@24 😊. Took me a long time to get it too and I studied in Durham. Lovely crossword for a Monday and thanks to P&E.
Shanne@24 The River Wear flows past Bishop Auckland in a deep gorge so it is more a case that the town is over the river. Only a few houses are alongside the river and in danger of flooding. I think clue should be read more as the town is to the south of the river, and therefore ‘under’ it on a conventional map with north at the top.
Fun puzzle. Faves ACUPUNCTURE and YES MA’AM.
Shanne @24 – I should imagine that there are a few sore heads in Sunderland this morning!!
Lovely Monday crossword, only hold up was YES MAAM, but clearly clued. The Butch Cassidy clue used to regularly catch me out, but made considerably more obvious by being plural.
Many thanks Eileen and Philistine
Lots to like here. I was a bit worried after my first pass through the Across clues, but after that it all fell into place. Lots of favorites, but AMPERSANDS in particular made me smile.
I normally loiter in the background without commenting but enjoyed this so much that I felt I should say thank you to Philistine, and to Eileen of course
A fun Monday solve with some very good clues. I liked the CAPITAL OF FENCE, ALL BUT A FEW playing the tuba, AMPERSANDS, where at first I wondered why the clue was so wordy, COMBAT FATIGUE of fancy soldiers, and the wobbly bum of an INCUMBENT.
Thanks Philistine and Eileen (especially for the EARL-Y, which I failed to parse).
A Philistine can be mild, – or maybe I was on the right wavelength. Didn’t know the “UNDERWEAR” town and got the answer from the definition and crossers, and neglected to parse AMPERSANDS, but everything else was peachy. Thanks Philistine and Eileen!
What a gem.
My personal favourite was ACUPUNCTURE. I couldn’t solve it until I had all the letters, when I guessed the word. Then at first, couldn’t see anything relevant to the non-definition part. Just love that moment when you suddenly get it!
Good difficulty level for a Monday…except the long ones intersecting in the middle area gave me a lot of trouble. They eventually fell one by one, but it took a lot of doing. 14a HORNET’S NEST loi (spent too long trying to find a __R’S TENT for “Straight coverage”). Couldn’t parse 25a UNDERWEAR, so thank you Eileen for elucidating
Lots of great clues. 1/5 CAPTIAL OFFENCE, 11a ALL BUT A FEW (not sure that everyone playing tuba would bring relief!), 3d THROUGHOUT (for an innocuous soundalike, as Eileen says), 4d LYCRA (great descriptive surface of tight-fitting cycling gear), 23d EARL-Y (“Sandwich-like”, with the disguised capital letter at the start)
Yes, 24d IRON is a classic that deserves airing from time to time!
Thanks both
In my online version there’s a 16 down, whose clue says ‘see 1’. I cheated the answer – ‘fatigues’ – but am thoroughly confused as I came on here to see whether there was an explanation but no luck. Anyone else have this version?
Alison @38
“See 1” means “see 1 down”. If you look at 1d, you’ll see that it says. “1 and 16”.
Of course! Bit of brain fog today. Sorry 🤦♀️
Alison @38
1,16 is a two-part clue, for which the answer is COMBAT FATIGUES. The wordplay is as given at 1,16 in the blog. My apologies if this wasn’t clear.
Thanks for the blog , very good set of neat clues , AMPERSANDS stood out even though I am not usually keen on four-line clues . Good to see the split clues in order and continuous in the grid . I was waiting for a fission clue , must be a shortage of neutrons .
The sun is in Aries from 19th April to 14th May but don’t tell the atrologers .
Just like Eileen said- really nice fun puzzle Philistine! Alison &38 – sorry, can‘t see the problem, unless you perhaps thought the reference was to 1 across? It‘s always the same (across or down) unless explicitly stated
Many thanks P and E.
Comment #44
Comment #45
Thanks for those links under ANGINA, Eileen, and for the parsings.
Philistine was wonderful in the video. I’ve put his book on my list.
1, 5 made me smile.
Comment #47
Comment #48
Comment #49
I was another who tried to separate Bishop and Auckland, and even when I’d got the answer I was thinking of Auckland in New Zealand, which would be “pants down under”? I suppose NZ is no more “under” than a town on the south bank of the river Wear, but some are saying that the river flows through the town, and substantially lower. Not saying I object to the clue, but does it really work?
I went down the same unsignposted diversion as Tassie Tim@22, as LARCENY seemed obvious. People were often killed for trivial crimes back in the day, so ‘serious’ and CAPITAL are only synonymous if looking at the consequences rather than the effect of the crime.
Some good laughs along the way, with “terribly cramped” cycling gear a favourite, along with “needlework” (which wasn’t obvious until I had two of the crossing Us).
I always enjoy Philistine’s puzzles and this was no exception. Thanks also to Eileen for the blog. It’s good to have you back.
Thanks Eileen and Philistine! A satisfying way to start the week, a rare one for me with no googling or checking, although I had to lean on crossers and the definition to get UNDERWEAR, nho the town, so thanks to Eileen for parsing that one. I think I had more or less the same favorites as everyone else, though I’m not sure I’ve seen ORAL singled out—the definition as mouthy got an appreciative groan from me.
Lovely puzzle thank you E&P.
A question please. I haven’t been able to resolve the grammar in ON THE MENU.
“send one back to France”
I just can’t read that as the groove I’m stuck in: send one in France back. (although that would spoil the story).
Can’t see how one. and France can be separated by back and to