The Grauniad strikes again. There’s a couple of problems today.
There’s an error in 14ac and the enumeration is missing in 25d which has caused the blogging software to fail, and despite the instructions on how to fix it I just can’t get it to load, so sorry no clues today.
Across
| 1 | EAR LOBE | EARL & OBE |
| 5 | AGONISE | [A IS GONE]* |
| 10 | DARWIN | Womens Institute in DARN |
| 11 | OLD TIMER | Double/Cryptic def |
| 12 | TOR | High Willhays is a TOR in Dartmoor and TOR(t) |
| 13 | STYMIE | Y unkown in TIMES* |
| 14 | KNEE HIGH | Yep it should be 7 not 6, so K & EH in NEIGH (7) |
| 15 | DRAWN | R(ising) in DAWN |
| 16 | INANIMATE | [IN A TIE MAN]* |
| 19 | OVERSTATE | Putin is head of State |
| 21 | ALBUM | AL(l) & BUM |
| 24 | ELEVATOR | LEAVE* & TOR (12) |
| 26 | EXHUME | EX & HUME |
| 27 | URN | Hidden in poUR Noggins |
| 28 | HANDRAIL | [HARD NAIL]* |
| 29 | TRUANT | TRU(e) & ANT |
| 30 | ANTONYM | TONY (blair) in MAN* |
| 31 | APTERYX | Latin name for the Kiwi, APTER & YX unknowns. Again unknown for Y,,, |
| Down | ||
| 2 | ADAPTOR | A & Dunlop Athletic Plimsolls & TOR (12) |
| 3 | LAWN MOWER | LAW & WOMEN* & R |
| 4 | BANTER | ANTE in British Rail |
| 6 | GUDGEONS | [SOUND EGG]* |
| 7 | NEIGH | East in NIGH |
| 8 | SLEIGHT | Sounds like SLIGHT |
| 9 | WORKING TO RULE | Cryptic def |
| 17 | MALTHOUSE | O in (Thomas Robert) MALTHUS & E |
| 18 | STATUARY | U in TAR all in STAY |
| 20 | VILLAIN | VILLA & IN |
| 22 | UNMANLY | U.N. & L(50) in MANY |
| 23 | PENT UP | PEN & PUT rev |
| 25 | VIDEO | DEVOI(d)* |
Thanks flashling & Gordius. All fairly straightforward today despite the glitches. (PS 24a is ELEVATOR not EVEVATOR).
[Edit fixed thanks]
Tha you flashling for explaining 2d, where I had not come across Dunlop Athletic Plimsolls for DAP. The puzzle took me longer than it should have, not because of difficulty but my dimness and because the largely completed grid disappeared from my iPad and I had to start again. I love the iPad, but, sometimes, accidental touches of the screen have repercussions that make you want to scream.
Many thanks, Flashling. Loved the origin of DAP.
Other than that, not much here to cheer or jeer.
Nice day, everyone.
Thanks, flashling. Clever of Gordius to anticipate the typo and put “eh?” in the clue. π
Thanks Flashling and Gordius
Thought I was getting nowhere at first but was OK once I got the lawnmower going. I liked that clue and also 1a and 14a (despite the error).
Thanks Gordius and Flashling. I think that 5ac isn’t strictly an anagram – it is A (article) + GONE outside (without) IS.
Quite enjoyable puzzle; thanks to Flashling for the blog.
According to Wiki: ‘There is a widespread belief that “daps” is taken from a factory sign – “Dunlop Athletic Plimsolls” which was called “the DAP factory”. However, this seems unlikely as the first citation in the Oxford English Dictionary of “dap” for a rubber soled shoe is a March 1924 use in the Western Daily Press newspaper; Dunlop did not acquire the Liverpool Rubber Company (as part of the merger with the Macintosh group of companies) until 1925.’
I particularly enjoyed TRUANT and KNEE-HIGH despite the typo.
Thanks to flashling for the blog. I had ADAPTOR without ever hearing of DAP as a plimsoll.
I felt pleased with myself for realising that ‘fish’ is one of those words that has both a singular and plural meanings π
I spent ages 4-11 in Bristol where ‘dap’ was the normal word for plimsoll, which word I had never heard of until I moved to Middlesex.
Growing up in North Devon in 50s and 60s plimsolls were always daps. Never heard of pumps till moving to Midlands and NW England in 80s and 90s. There, of course, they’d not heard of daps. Fun crossword but not one of the trickiest Gordian knots.
I grew up in Australia in the (late). 50s and 60s and had never heard of either one. So easy for me to assume that unknown A was unknown B since the answer was clear. Enjoyed much of this, as is often the case with Gordius.
Thanks Gordius and flashling
Very easy, despite the glitches (one of which meant that I didn’t parse KNEE HIGH).
I don’t think a MALTHOUSE is a distillery – it’s a place where barley is part-germinated and converted into malt (which may then be taken to a distillery for use).
Hilbilly @ 10
I was also brought up in North Devon in the 50s and 60s, and thus knew “daps” – I wonder if we knew each other?
Can’t have been too hard as I had ten solved just reading the acrosses first time through. A bit of a record for me.
The number was corrected later online, but not the enumeration. If the blogging software is reading the HTML then maybe there is a way of making it scan a local copy of the code (getting a local copy is easy, the first bit may not be) after editting the local copy to contain the missing enumeration.
Growing up in Somerset the only word for those gymshoes was daps – “I be wearing daps today”. Later we moved to near Liverpool and nobody knew the word.
Funnily I’d not come across daps and just lazily quoted the first search on the internet for them. @derek I tried that using the blogging tool but it just hung ie8 on my work machine and didn’t have the time to faff around π
Count me as another who had never heard of “dap” as slang for plimsoll, but the answer was obvious enough from the definition. Seeing some of the comments about Dunlop brought back memories of looking forward to getting a new pair of Green Flash every year when I was in my early teens. One of my mother’s best friends worked for Dunlop and she used to get them at a discounted rate. Back to the puzzle, I thought it was straightforward, and NEIGH was my LOI after I’d entered KNEE HIGH from the definition.
Well the only very brief interest in this puzzle was that I had also never heard of DAP!
I can only imagine that somehow lines have been crossed and that a group of children are scratching their heads looking at their online comic’s crossword and wondering why they can’t understand it.
Sorry kids, your crossword is in the Guardian!
π
Thanks to Flashling and Gordius!
I even got their CAPTCHA which is ? + 1 = 2
A pleasant puzzle, rather easy in parts but the NE tested me oddly.
When I started to travel I thought there must be as many words for plimsoll as bread roll. People seemed to be making them up.
Thanks all.
Nice puzzle – thanks both.
Didn’t know DAP but guessed it must be that – it’s the kind of things that has a few regional variants. In my game it’s a fertilizer – Di-ammonium-phosphate – like MAP it’s very good for young plants.
I’d like to add to the “I grew up in …” but I didn’t – and have no intention of doing so at this late date.
Thanks all
Like many of you the greatest interest was raised by dap whichI used exclusively in Wiltshire in the 50s.I then met plimsoll (of course) but also sandshoe in the NE.
I don’t know the origin of the term (certainly not Dunlop….)but I do remember that we used dap as a verb to indicate the act of bouncing a ball with a flat hand onto the ground….could there be a connection.
not forgetting gutties which was the term in south London. enjoyed this puzzle greatly
perhaps one day there will be a xword full of shoe names to challenge us