A typical, and pleasing, Monday puzzle from Quixote. Enough anagrams to get the improving solver going, and then a generous grid which meant that once you’d got going, you’d get finished. Only a few where the wordplay was a little convoluted, but that’s what crossing letters are for.
Unless PASTRY and CHIPS count as a mini-theme I think this is – as usual with the Don in this avatar – a theme-free crossword.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) missing
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Former chaps in the ranks brought together by padre?
PASTOR
A charade of PAST and OR for ‘chaps in the ranks’ or ‘other ranks’.
5 Somehow extract two months of the year
DECOCT
No, I hadn’t either; but with the crossing letters it couldn’t be anything else. A charade of DEC and OCT for ‘two months of the year’.
9 Craftily the FBI conceals senior law officer
CHIEF CONSTABLE
(THE FBI CONCEALS)* with ‘craftily’ as the anagrind.
10 Cold joints constituting fatty food?
CHIPS
A charade of C and HIPS. They’re made of potatoes, but sadly don’t count as one of your five-a-day.
11 Policeman within the law grabbing male guiltily involved?
COMPLICIT
An insertion of M in COP LICIT.
12 To provide evidence is an ordeal, we hear
ATTEST
A homophone clue: it sounds like (‘we hear’) ‘a test’.
14 Potential biological research material may have a strange smell etc
STEM CELL
(SMELL ETC)* The anagrind is ‘may have a strange’. Customary (and welcome) science-based clue from Quixote.
16 Writing in paper, old piece, something coming after Jan
OBITUARY
A charade of O, BIT and UARY, which could indeed come after ‘Jan’.
18 Pithy sayings conveying no message when unwrapped
GNOMES
Hidden in conveyinG NO MESsage. Nothing to do with Zurich. New definition to me, but my SOED has ‘a short, pithy statement expressing a general truth’. So we can’t demur.
21 Sort of accommodation in which an insect keeps maiden quiet!
ALMSHOUSE
Tricky, but a clever clue: it’s an insertion of M for ‘maiden’ and SH for ‘quiet!’ in A LOUSE. There are several beautifully preserved, and still lived-in, examples near where I live.
22 Fellow with gold in imposing residence
MANOR
A charade of MAN and OR for ‘gold’.
23 Fellow brave when consuming port and Eastern fruit
MANDARIN ORANGE
Plenty of fellows this morning. Quixote’s inviting you to start with MAN (again) for ‘fellow’, then to insert ORAN for the Algerian ‘port’ in DARING for ‘brave’; and then end it all off with an E. This definitely would count as one of your five-a-day.
24 Glower maybe as loveless type full of energy
HEATER
It works, but not my favourite ever Quixote clue. A ‘glower maybe’ is a HEATER. Then it’s E inserted in HATER, with the misdirection being in taking ‘glower’ as a verb and not a noun. The surface is a bit naff.
25 The old man’s attempt to get food from the bakery
PASTRY
A charade of PA’S TRY.
Down
2 Non-believer‘s article squashed by wonderful man of God?
ATHEIST
Not sure if the crossword editor of The Church Times is having a dig here, but it’s an insertion of THE for ‘article’ in A1 and ST for ‘wonderful’ and ‘man of God’.
3 Hairy stuff not entirely distressing
TRESS
Hidden in disTRESSing.
4 One mythical bird and another decapitated, old style
ROCOCO
Nicely clued: it’s ROC for ‘one mythical bird’, OC for the same without its first letter (‘decapitated’), and O for ‘old’. An ornamental style of furniture or architecture.
5 Explosive made tiny to go off
DYNAMITE
(MADE TINY)*
6 Drovers maybe pitching tent with camel
CATTLEMEN
(TENT CAMEL)* with ‘pitching’ as the anagrind.
7 Copper on bike getting Young Conservative taken off into cell
CUBICLE
CU is the chemical symbol for ‘copper’; then it’s BIC[YC]LE. The removal indicator is ‘taken off’.
8 Ground sterile and firm mostly – use this for better crops
FERTILISER
An anagram (‘ground’) of STERILE and FIR[M].
10 Family identification as a comfort when things go wrong
COAT OF ARMS
(AS A COMFORT)*
13 These will miss the direction indicated
SOUTH-EAST
Muppetry on my part not to see this for so long. Take THE out of THESE and suddenly (or not so suddenly, in my case) you’ve got SE, which is ‘direction indicated’.
15 One yelling outside publishing house is dealer taking people’s money
CROUPIER
An insertion of OUP for Oxford University Press in CRIER.
17 Trim men seem to conceal what’s very big
IMMENSE
Hidden in trIM MEN SEem. I don’t want to dwell too long on this surface; or perhaps it’s just my dirty mind.
19 The boss? You may see a scolding type in this person, right?
MANAGER
Well, the definition is clear enough, but the parsing took me a while. You need to put A NAG for ‘a scolding type’ in ME for ‘this person’, then follow it with R for ‘right’. More flipping football in the Indy. Do the setters and the editor never listen to customer feedback?
20 Make good fighting force, company having risen?
RECOUP
I think this is RE for Royal Engineers or ‘fighting force’, CO and UP for ‘risen’; but I am happy to be corrected if someone has a better idea.
22 A little while needed to get the answer? That can bring grumbles
MOANS
A charade of MO for ‘a little while’ and ANS. A situation that solvers frequently find themselves in.
Many thanks to Quixote for this morning’s puzzle.
There seemed to be an unusually high number of hidden answers, but my only little niggle is that a COAT OF ARMS identifies a person, not a family. I suupose the fact that it is heritable lets it just squeak by.
Thanks, Quixote and Pierre.
The usual enjoyable Monday puzzle from the Don. Count me as another muppet who took ages to see SOUTH-EAST, and it was only once I had it that I got my LOI, HEATER, which I agree wasn’t the greatest of clues.
Every dictionary I have looked at defines COAT OF ARMS as “the heraldic bearings of a person, family, or corporation”, or a slight variation of it, and that is how I have always understood it so I don’t have a problem with 10dn.
Well, the infallible Wikipedia says “In the heraldic traditions of England and Scotland an individual, rather than a family, had a coat of arms. In those traditions coats of arms are legal property transmitted from father to son; wives and daughters could also bear arms modified to indicate their relation to the current holder of the arms. Undifferenced arms are used only by one person at any given time.”
Common usage is no doubt loose enough to justify what I see as an imprecision in the clue, but I never hesitate to make a pedantic point if it is interesting (and what could be more interesting than pedantry?).
Thanks Pierre and Quixote. Enjoyable. So, Ian SW3, your heraldic emblem is the “red pen rampant”, is it? I’m sure “rouge” and “poursuivant” ought to figure somewhere . . .
Somebody took a comment of mine last week and came up with the phrase “a Goldilocks puzzle”, and this was another one: not a doddle, but I finished it more or less without help. I knew 4dn, but for some reason didn’t think it was spelled that way. Sure it must extra ‘c’s in it, but Chambers says otherwise.
That said, there were several where the answer was obvious but I couldn’t parse it for the life of me, so thanks for the illumination. (4dn was one of these.)
18ac, I knew the word “gnomic” meaning pithy, and guessed the answer from the wordplay.
Gentle start to the week; thanks to blogger and setter. Can’t see any thing football-specific about MANAGER; I would have thought it could apply to any number of situations (bank, restaurant, shop, hospital, etc etc) so the criticism seems a bit harsh to me.
Thanks to setter and blogger. I could’t get 24a, a word I dislike, because I find it almost impossible to write on account of my name (Heather)!
Tongue-in-cheek sometimes doesn’t come across too well in cyberspace, PJ …
Thanks Pierre, I won’t mention football, 24 nearly beat me and in 20 i was somewhat undone by the Indy’s other setters by looking for the co bit rising inside a different answer.
As usual we are late to the party!
Everything seems to have been said already but there did seem to be more anagrams than we usually like. However, an enjoyable Monday solve so thanks to Quixote and Pierre.
Re: 19Dn
I don’t see any football here. [I’m new here, so my apologies if I’ve missed a site ‘in-joke’.]
Most companies employ managers at various levels, in order to pass the company’s desired ‘directive instructions’ on to less-senior employees. Line Managers are also often regarded as nags by their underlings, so I like the clue.
I sought out this site today, because I absolutely could *not* get 13Ac, but it’s bloomin’ obvious once one has read the explanation. So, I guess that I can claim the prize for the biggest muppet 😉
My thanks to Quixote, and to Pierre for the explanations.
Also, had I taken the time (literally *seconds*!) out of my ‘busy schedule’ to read the comments, I would see that my comment about 19Dn had already been addressed.
So, I hereby claim an extra, Special prize for my extra-special display of Muppetry. D’oh!
Nice to hear from you, Cass. Are these your first comments? If so, welcome.
I’m afraid it was a bit of an in-joke (I try to avoid these but couldn’t resist the temptation with this one). The Indy setters (including the editor) have a bit of a reputation for sneaking football-related clues into their puzzles, which pleases some and annoys others.
And the answer is always obvious when you’ve got it or when someone has explained it.
I commend you for your effort to get the Muppetry prize, but I’m keeping it for myself on this occasion.
Keep commenting!
Agreed lurkers please comment makes us bloggers well me think it’s worth doing it. Certainly I value the feedback.