Hello all. The every-reliable Pipsqueak has provided another entertaining Monday puzzle, in which my favourite clues are 12a for its boozy surface plus 4d and 5d for their well-disguised definitions. Thanks Pipsqueak!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, I generally italicise indicators unless it seems clearer not to. Where the removed part is specified, [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. I sometimes omit link words and juxtaposition indicators if it doesn’t feel necessary to explain them. If you have any questions, please ask in the comments section.
| Across | |
| 7a | Religious figure I married in the morning (4) |
| IMAM — I + M (married) + AM (in the morning) | |
| 8a | Reportedly supervises abroad (8) |
| OVERSEAS — Sounds like (reportedly) OVERSEES (supervises) | |
| 9a | Place limit on a certain US gangster (6) |
| CAPONE — Put CAP (limit) by ONE (a certain) | |
| 10a | Nearly all underwear kept here? (6) |
| DRAWER — All but the last letter of (nearly all) DRAWERs (underwear) | |
| 11a | Only fair (4) |
| JUST — A double definition | |
| 12a | People drunkenly top up ale (8) |
| POPULATE — An anagram of (drunkenly) TOP UP ALE | |
| 15a | Extremely reliable chap carrying bags for correspondent (8) |
| REPORTER — Outer letters of (extremely) ReliablE + PORTER (chap carrying bags) | |
| 17a | Venomous snake killing British mum (4) |
| MAMA — MAM[b]A (venomous snake) eliminating (killing) B (British) | |
| 18a | Priest’s power provider having no answer (6) |
| RECTOR — RE[a]CTOR (power provider) without A (having no answer) | |
| 21a | Comedian’s cry of terror (6) |
| SCREAM — Two definitions | |
| 22a | Asia trip calamitous for beekeeper (8) |
| APIARIST — An anagram of (… calamitous) ASIA TRIP | |
| 23a | Enjoy involving king in deception (4) |
| LIKE — We are inserting (involving) K (king) in LIE (deception) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Irate mum unusually inexperienced (8) |
| IMMATURE — IRATE MUM anagrammed (unusually) | |
| 2d | Bring in one MP or two initially (6) |
| IMPORT — I (one) + MP + OR + Two initially | |
| 3d | Attractive place in which Winnie-the-Pooh gets stuck? (8) |
| HONEYPOT — Two definitions | |
| 4d | Very old man taking ecstasy (4) |
| DEAD — DAD (old man) taking E (ecstasy) | |
| 5d | Go for a boat trip round south (6) |
| ASSAIL — A SAIL (a boat trip) round S (south) | |
| 6d | Somebody in Latin America (4) |
| NAME — Hidden in LatiN AMErica | |
| 13d | Scrounger in Paris ate badly (8) |
| PARASITE — PARIS ATE anagrammed (badly) | |
| 14d | Film star cheers, receiving Order of Merit (3,5) |
| TOM HANKS — THANKS (cheers) taking in (receiving) OM (Order of Merit) | |
| 16d | Expose LA wife as criminal (6) |
| OUTLAW — OUT (expose) + LA + W (wife) | |
| 17d | Degree of confidence in principled European (6) |
| MORALE — MORAL (principled) + E (European) | |
| 19d | Catch sight of English agent (4) |
| ESPY — E (English) + SPY (agent) | |
| 20d | Raced round island in wet weather (4) |
| RAIN — RAN (raced) round I (island) | |
11:44. Nice and quick until I hit the southeast corner where I struggled with TOM HANKS, MAMA and LOI MORALE. I liked REPORTER.
Thanks to Pipsqueak for a nice Monday puzzle and thank you Kitty for the blog
10.02, also held up by TOM HANKS and finishing with the MAMA/MORALE crossing. Thanks Kitty and Pipsqueak.
DNF, as I did not see MORALE as a synonym for degree of confidence (and still don’t, for that matter). Misparsed DEAD too, as I thought the definition was “very old”, which doesn’t work as well as “very”. Until those two it was a fast enough solve, and I was pleased to get MAMA (thus proving there are other snakes than adders and asps in Crosswordland) but no prize today.
Many thanks Kitty for the blog.
Collins: morale – the degree of mental or moral confidence of a person or group; spirit of optimism
Wow, I also thought DEAD was “very old” and DAD was “man”, both of which seemed a stretch. Grateful for this blog every day!
A very nice puzzle.
Started with IMAM and finished with DEAD in 5.46.
Thanks to Kitty and Pipsqueak.
18:35 Mama Morale and Dead Drawer did it for me.
Ta KAP
7:28. A QC from Pipsqueak which was definitely better than ‘Only fair’. Most answers went in without much delay, with MORALE for ‘degree of confidence’ (I see I’m in good company with Cedric) the only one to slow the flow – no, hardly a torrent. I felt sorry for poor old mum / MAMA at 1d, IMMATURE or not, and liked our two bee-related clues.
Thanks to Kitty and Pipsqueak
You deserve a cigar from a small village after that comment.
Bifd RECTOR as I missed the Answer. Thanks Kitty. Took an extra 5 mins to get MORALE. COD HONEYPOT. 25mins. Ta Pipsqueak.
Whizzbang fun on a Monday loosener. COD RECTOR. All green in 04:29 for a Triffic Day.
Many thanks Pip and Kitster.
21 failing on rector, mama and morale.
Revealing the M lead to mama and the R to rector but I couldn’t parse morale even with the three crossers.
Thanks P and K
Thanks to Pipsqueak for a very good QC to start the week. 14.40 (all parsed but slower than my most recent Pipsqueaks) with RECTOR my LOI.
My COD was TOM HANKS.
Also thanks to Kitty.
Lovely Monday morning puzzle (h/t Pipsqueak) – whizzed through until I hit RECTOR, which for some reason eluded me (even though I had the definition, wordplay, and all the checking letters by that point). Ground to a halt and ended up Googling words for priest.
SCREAM seemed a stretch for Comedian – I would never have got that without checking letters.
Thanks Kitty.
It certainly wasn’t the first word that came to mind, but as soon as I got there from the other side, “That guy’s a scream!” popped into my head and I was freed to move on.
I had exactly the same experience!
10 minutes. I wasn’t happy with ‘very / DEAD’ when solving and lost a bit of time in writing it in, but I’ve absolutely no idea now what was going through my mind.
14 minutes – a strong start, then bogged down in the SE corner. I hesitated over POPULATE at first but couldn’t make anything else fit, reasoning that ‘people’ could work as a verb, which I later confirmed.
Couldn’t parse RECTOR or SCREAM (comedian?), but easily biffed, and otherwise steadily solved, leading to a decent time of 17:36.
Gentle start for the week – all green in 6:11 – one or two not fully parsed so thanks Kitty.
LOI for me was ASSAIL.
Flew round the grid until … I didn’t. DEAD was lovely if naughty (and difficult), but the last three stumped me totally. Power provider didn’t mean anything to me, couldn’t equate lie and deception, and put off by “degree” of confidence. But no complaints, all my fault really. Thanks, Kitty.
I dont understand how SCREAM = comedian?
Still though, it didnt slow me down much, all green in 6:24
TYTBAS
Very dated slang. “You should hear my uncle Reginald, he’s a real scream”. Same era as Tight=drunk, rum=odd, sex=IT etc.
10:52
Only query was REPORTER which I overthought, with “man carrying bags” as a containment indicator.
Also considered CORA for the Mum.
4:41
Blasted through this until the final two – MORALE, which had to be shoehorned into place, and RECTOR which might have been easier if the unchecked letters had been the checked letters.
Thanks Kitty and Pipsqueak
11:32
A very fast start, then hit then breezeblocked by RECTOR.
Thanks Kitty and Pipsqueak
Thanks for this great start to the week.
For Latin America lurker I saw TINA which I prefer
So did I, but of course it didn’t fit!
Mostly a smooth solve but struggled with 4dn and in the SE corner. I was looking at the wrong end of 23ac for the definition which didn’t help. All done and parsed in 24 minutes.
FOI – 7ac IMAM
LOI – 17dn MORALE
COD – 12ac POPULATE
Thanks to Pipsqeak and Kitty
I was hopeless at it. Nothing wrong in retrospect. Saw dead immediately by didn’t put it in as I just couldnt parse it. Didnt get several others, but again nothing wrong with them. Had Ruse in 23a for ages, R=king, use = enjoy, deception = ruse, how could it possibly be wrong? Anyone who can’t see morale = confidence is obviously not a team sportsperson, where the two are not only more-or-less synonymous, but vitally important for success. Thanks to Pipsqueak, my failure was nothing to do with the quality of the offering, and Kitty for the blog.
From IMAM to APIARIST in 6:21. A biffed popuLACE held up TOM HANKS and MAMA, and MORALE needed some thought. Thanks Pipsqueak and Kitty.
Did not struggle too much with this one and ended up with a good time (for me). Attempted this after getting home from having a blood test. Perhaps I need to should have a blood test before every QC. 🤣
Embarrassingly the clue that held me up the most was 20d. I had – – I – and I just kept thinking hail. Then I just went blank. When RAIN hit my lightning fast mind I hung my head in shame.
I too was a little confused with MORALE meaning confidence. However, Chambers dictionary has it defined as such so it must be right.
SCREAM also had me scratching my head for comedian, but I remembered the old saying “he was a scream”, so in it went.
A good start to the week.
First Lap: 11
Answered (no help): 24
Time: 22:33
Your blood test strategy is an interesting idea, let us know how you get on. As for missing RAIN, if I got embarrassed every time I flubbed an easy one I’d never have time for anything else!
10:10
Though I might be on for a PB but the last 5 clues, RECTOR and the SE, put paid to that.
All parsed bar, as Cedric, DEAD which I took as ‘very old’ and put in with fingers crossed.
SCREAM and then MAMA was followed by my COD and then LOI.
A very rare 10 minute solve – lovely!
FOI: IMAM
COD: TOM HANKS
LOI: MORALE
Thanks to Kitty and Pipsqueak
A nice straightforward puzzle to start the week which I finished in 8.18. I somehow feel I should have been quicker, but I spent a little time trying to justify DEAD until the penny finally dropped.
A friendly enough Monday QC from Pipsqueak nearly produced a sub-15, but the Dead Drawer and Morale Mama (no relative of Asp nor Cobra) pairs held out long enough to push this into comfortable sub-20 territory.
The wonderful Tom Hanks suddenly emerged from an unpromising Ta/Cheers beginning, and CoD Assailed was ably assisted by last week’s Boated vs Sailed discussion, but otherwise this was a fairly straightforward start to the week. Invariant
Only RECTOR and my LOI were left after the first pass. A very gentle puzzle, but none the worse for that. Thanks Pipsqueak and Kitty.
FOI IMAM
LOI DEAD
COD POPULATE
TIME 3:05
Second time recently I’ve been stumped by just one – in this case RECTOR – I think I got fooled by the apostrophe into trying to imagine what sort of power provider a priest might use. On reflection, I’m not 100% convinced the clue is fair, as the answer is singular and ignoring the punctuation ( as usual) makes the non- cryptic part of the clue plural. End of whinge. Thanks to both.
It parses as “Priest is power provider having no answer”.
Aargh – I’m going to have to go and revise apostrophes ( again) – I took it to be possessive rather than a contraction. English was never my strongpoint. No wonder I couldn’t fathom the clue – it’s ( sic) close to gibberish the way I read it !
A very poor start to the week. The LHS went in at regulation pace, but I found most of the clues on the RHS extremely difficult or impossible. Seven clues remained as the doors of the SCC opened, but 20+ minutes later only three of them had been solved. So, a 40+ minutes DNF with four clues unsolved (and serious question marks attached to four that I did get: DEAD, NAME, DRAWER and SCREAM).
I didn’t get 14d (T__ _A___), 17a (____), 17d (__R___) and 23a (____).
Can’t think why.
Many thanks to Kitty and Pipsqueak.
Very slow to see POI MORALE/LOI MAMA. COD DEAD – brilliant! Many thanks both.
All but four clues solved in 20 mins. Better than last week. I sometimes take things too literally. For example 23 Ac ‘involving king (R) in deception’ (FIB) was obviously FRIB but that doesn’t mean enjoy! – its getting rid of the non-answers that takes the time!
Yay! Progress. Well done!
Taking clues literally is something we all do and you’ll get quicker at sorting the nonsense. This clue for me started out as R in CON but CORN was obviously wrong too.
6:20 for the solve. Taken past five mins by the NE where I wasted 30+ secs struggling to parse DRAWER (LOI) with ASSAIL and DEAD putting up resistance. Nice QC to start the week off
Today’s Cryptic Quintagram has a fun theme for those who like it!
Thanks to Kitty and Pipsqueak
Lovely puzzle, much enjoyed but a DNF because I could not get 4d DEAD. Of course, a dead cert is very certain so it works, but I failed to see it! Otherwise enjoyed CAPONE and his UK criminal associate Winnie the Pooh and Tom Hanks made me smile – as he often has! 10m of good fun, thank you setter and blogger.
It was dead good as Adrian Mole and other 80s characters used to say
Got a PB of 14:08 today. Got held up a bit on TA for ‘cheers’, with only the K in the surname to help; once SCREAM went in it all clicked.
LOI RECTOR
Quibble with Kitty’s parsing: I believe ‘certain’ has to go in the definition for CAPONE; without a question mark you need some other indicator of specificity, as Al Capone doesn’t generically define American gangsters, and ONE being clued by just ‘a’ makes a lot more sense to me than ‘a certain’.
Ta! =)
Congrats 👏
A surprisingly speedy 10:36 for me today. Slightly held up by MORALE and OUTLAW, but the rest slotted in fairly easily.
Pi ❤️
Dnf…
17 mins – but made an error on 17ac “Mama” which is blatantly obvious now, however I was looking at it the wrong way round. Even more annoying is that I knew the snake was a Mamba (forever etched in my mind by an odd Oliver Reed horror/thriller called Venom).
As an aside, I have ditched my print subscription, so am now doing these online only which is taking a little getting used to on a daily basis.
FOI – 10ac “Drawer”
LOI – 17ac “Mamm” (incorrect)
COD – 3dn “Honeypot”
Thanks as usual!
I always print off the Saturday ones, and would only ever consider an online solve if I’m somewhere with no easy access to a printer. Flicking between clue and grid is just too much faff.
I’ve started doing the puzzles on Saturday via the Crossword Club so I can see my times compared to others, so I can’t really print it off. However, I do have a pen and paper to my side so I can do my workings – there’s no way I could do all the parsing in my head – especially on certain anagrams.
I remember the original Venom, not this superhero nonsense of today. Laughably stupid when it comes out of the medicine cabinet via a hole in the wall, and nightmares after it goes up the trousers leg of the bloke lying in the cellar. Probably watched it late night on a Saturday as a teenager before the 1am closedown.
I did actually look it up on Youtube a couple of years back and find the trailer
Here you go .. https://youtu.be/SvFsvtz8j3c?si=Gl_PBIGA5UcqRxT8
Fast but not superfast. I paused to justify DEAD, ASSAIL and MORALE from the parsing and I was also slow to see HONEY POT and my LOI SCREAM. 6:12 Thanks Kitty
DNF. Failed to think of either Rector or reactor despite 5 mins t
trying to dredge words for either a priest or power provider. 10 mins for the rest of a gentle puzzle.
FOI immature
LOI DNF
COD Assail
Thanks Pipsqueak and Kitty
I found this quite easy. My method was biffing and then parsing, and it worked for everything except drawer, where I couldn’t see the cryptic. However, the answer was highly likely, so in it went.
Time: 6:49
Happy to finish, fully parsed, in 9:45. A lovely calm start to the week.
Thank you both.
6.35. A gentle Monday confidence builder.
8:53, held up towards the end by MORALE and RECTOR. Couldn’t parse DRAWER but spotted that “underwear” contains all of the necessary letters and assumed that I must be missing something. And of course I was, just nothing to do with that.
Thank you for the blog!
5.49 Mostly very quick but a bit slow on MAMBA, SCREAM, MORALE and DEAD at the end. Thanks Kitty and Pipsqueak.
Pretty straightforward, though I just couldn’t see DEAD. I thought the definition was most probably ‘very old’ and, being female, never referred to my father as ‘the old man’, which I think is mostly male usage. But I should have got it, nevertheless.
Thanks Pipsqueak and Kitty
Very enjoyable. Tipped a few seconds over ten minutes with loi CAPONE – I tried very hard to get ‘AL’ in the answer only to realise it was the surname which was required!
A little sad for the poor very old man who’s DEAD, and for the Dad who’s very old, I’m not well I suppose I might be, but I’m Dead sure I got it right in the end! And I used to work at Wylfa and got RECTOR but didn’t see Reactor, the memory fades of course! Found this not so hard as a Pipsqueak, shall I re-classify He/She/It. Thank you.
Never heard of scream for comedian, seems like obsolete language that shouldn’t be brought up. Rest was fairly straight-forward.
It’s much-used in our family for someone funny, so not really that obsolete!
And in ours.
I downloaded this puzzle for an early plane journey this morning but finished it before we had left the runway, although that was due to more to French air traffic control delays than my solving skills.
Thanks Kitty for explaining the definition of dead. Things were always dead good when I was growing up.
Thanks also to Pipsqueak.
Well done #5 .. you got in there with the comment about French air traffic control before I could crack a joke about it still taking an hour because…