A very quick and easy one from Rufus today, with plenty of cryptic definitions (of varying degrees of crypticity) for those that like them, and the usual smooth surface readings. Only 3dn had me struggling slightly to find a suitable word to fit.
| Across | ||||||||
| 5. | COPPER | Double definition – metal and policeman | ||||||
| 6. | HUMANE | MAN in HUE, as in “hue and cry” | ||||||
| 9. | HAMLET | Double definition | ||||||
| 10,17. | IDENTITY PARADE | Cryptic definition – in a police indentity parade the suspect is mixed up with (presumably) innocent people | ||||||
| 11. | SKIN | Cryptic definition, referring to the saying “beauty is skin deep” | ||||||
| 12. | STAGECOACH | STAGE (“the boards”) + COACH (train) | ||||||
| 13. | TEA INTERVAL | ALTERNATIVES* | ||||||
| 18. | TEAM SPIRIT | MEAT* + SPIRIT (drink) | ||||||
| 21. | MOAT | Cryptic definition – a moat contains enough water to go raound a castle | ||||||
| 22. | CLAPTRAP | CLAP + reverse of PART | ||||||
| 23. | FLORAL | (FOR ALL)* | ||||||
| 24. | SATNAV | SAT (took a seat) + reverse of VAN | ||||||
| 25. | BIREME | Cryptic definition, The bireme was a warship with two decks of oarsmen – other variants being the trireme and quinquereme (of Nineveh?) | ||||||
| Down | ||||||||
| 1. | OPULENCE | P in (CLUE ONE)* | ||||||
| 2. | DEPTHS | PT (port) in reverse of SHED | ||||||
| 3. | MULETEER | Cryptic definition – a muleteer drives mules, which are a cross-breed | ||||||
| 4. | TATTOO | Double definition | ||||||
| 5. | CRACKS | Double definition | ||||||
| 7. | ENTICE | NET* + ICE | ||||||
| 8. | MISANTHROPE | (METAPHORS IN)*, though the play is actually The Misanthrope (originally Le Misanthrope ou l’Atrabilaire amoureux) | ||||||
| 14. | IMPERIAL | A in IMPERIL | ||||||
| 15. | ARMHOLES | Cryptic definition | ||||||
| 16. | REALMS | RE (about) + ALMS (handouts) | ||||||
| 19. | MAPUTO | MAP + OUT* for the capital of Mozambique, also known as Lourenço Marques after a Portuguese navigator. | ||||||
| 20. | TIFFIN | TIFF + IN. Chambers gives tiff = a pet or huff, not just a disagreement or argument as I thought. | ||||||
Thanks, Andrew, for the blog, an easy puzzle for my first day back from meetings on the East Coast.
I had to look up whether the capital in 19d was Maputo or Mapotu since the crossing letters didn’t help. And it took a while for me to get the sense of pet = TIFF; until I got the initial T I was trying ICATIN or IDOGIN as unlikely words for meal. My last in was 10a/17d since I was unfamiliar with the British equivalent of ‘police lineup’, but the crossing letters made it solvable.
Thanks to Rufus for a gentle start to the week.
Thank you, Andrew, as you say, quite a quick one today.
Not sure what ‘regularly’ is doing in STAGECOACH clue at 12ac; and I need a bit more than dd to understand how CRACKS works at 5d.
Last in was DEPTHS. Failed to spot PT = port, I suppose.
Jolly smooth anagram ALTERNATIVE = TEA INTERVAL.
Thank you, Rufus, for a gentle entry to the week.
n.b. perhaps by now famously, there were no quinquiremes in Nineveh.
Thanks to Andrew for the blog. I had failed to spot that mules are cross-breeds in 3d so I was thinking it should be MULETEER but why?
I can see that detectives are policemen (except for private detectives) but it does not follow that all policemen are detectives. I think Rufus should have put more thought into 5a. I was also, like William @2, unhappy with CRACKS as stop in 5d.
I did like ‘free-for-all’ in 23a đŸ™‚
Thanks Andrew and Rufus
An enjoyable mixed bag from the Monday magician.
Some very easy clues like 11a and others much harder to get e.g.13a and 3d.
Some excellent surfaces as Andrew says.
RE ‘cracks’ (5d) I took it as cracks = jokes and cracks = gaps that need stopping.
Good Monday Rufus, although I took a long time to get MOAT (I tried main at the beginning.)
In 5d, I think the sense is: ‘stop (fill or plug) these’ CRACKS. I didn’t know TIFF as pet, rather than argument. Although I was familiar with trireme and quinquireme, I didn’t know BIREME before. I thought MULETEER was a particularly good one.
Thank you Rufus and Andrew.
This was a nice start to the week with some good reminders of childhood poetry readings. Paul B @ 3 has shattered my illusions of the famous quinquiremes of Nineveh!!They sounded just right in Masefield’s poem!
My first though on 25a was tier as the outer element till I read the clue accurately!!
Giovanna
For 3d (MULETEER), I took ‘crossed lines’ to refer to the cross on its back until I saw this blog. It is of course a donkey which has the cross.
Bray!
Thanks all
In every Raj film or novel produced someone has ‘tiffin’.
“Light meal for Indian”,what else,you don’t need to even read the rest.Sadly, there were several others. I do find this a shame because Rufus can produce some very clever cryptic parts which are wasted.
Take 23ac, ‘free-for-all’ is very clever but ‘Cornish dance’? How many do we know? Why include ‘Cornish’, just dance would have been quite sufficient allusion.
Hi All,
Well I don’t mind admitting defeat to Rufus (realms and bireme, if you were wondering) and even after many years I still get a thrill out of completing a Gruaniad of any flavour (except Quiptic) – on average about two (unaided) successes per week.
What I don’t understand is why people keep “doing a Marvin”* over and over – doesn’t the lack of challenge become boring? And why can’t those blessed with towering intellects see the ultimate futility of it?
Un saludo, Stan
* “Here I am, brain the size of a planet, and they expect me to keep doing these ridiculously simple puzzles…”
Thanks Andrew and Rufus.
To William@2, stagecoaches had regular routes, just as inter-city coaches do nowadays.
It’s probably inevitable, but I do find modern-day abbreviations such as SATNAV and CELEBS the other day unnecessary and annoying, which makes it almost imposibble for me to get them, as I’m not in daily contact with the lingo.
I understood 5d as tupu and robi did.
Stan @10:
Brilliant! Marvin the paranoid android, solving Rufus. What an image!
How I loved THGTTG….
Thanks, Andrew, and sorrily not so much Rufus… a bit of weird Monday puzzle. Lots of easy fun stuff for sure, but… some total blanks. I missed TEA INTERVAL, one of the 6 or 8 DD/CD clues, which I do not find to be fun. What the heck is SATNAV? I guess it must be in Chambers, or next week’s version at least. The three I missed I don’t feel bad about, since they, to me, seemed to be awful clues.
PS, I count at least 9 DDs and “CD”s And the CDs weren’t that bright. Marks off, sorry Rufus.
Robi, pet is a slang word for an argument or tiff
I’m surprised no Cornish pedants have complained about 23: the Helston event is properly called the Furry Dance or the Flora Dance.