Apologies for the late appearance of the blog – I managed to delete it on the point of posting.
The first Monday of the year and it’s reassuringly Rufus to ease many people into work after what I hope has been an enjoyable festive period.
There are fewer double and cryptic defntions today, which will please some people, I think, and some nice clues, such as 10, 12, 14, and 25ac and 5 and 15 dn, with just one or two that I’m not so happy with.
Thanks, as ever, to Rufus – and a Happy New Year!
Across
1 Nick’s favourite dog (7)
WHIPPET
WHIP [nick – steal] + PET [favourite]
5 Knew what was expected (7)
FORESAW
I can’t make this one out: isn’t it just a straightforward definition?
9 Gather in and iron, right? (5)
INFER
IN + FE [iron] + R [right]
10 A channel swimmer accepts kiss from the great man (9)
ALEXANDER
A LEANDER [a channel swimmer – Leander used to swim across the Hellespont every night to be with his sweetheart, Hero] round X [kiss] to give Alexander the Great
11 Heroes camp out but return to base with difficulty (6,4)
SCRAPE HOME
An anagram [out] of HEROES CAMP
12 Being awkward, mean to get the last word (4)
AMEN
An anagram [being awkward] of MEAN
14 Snacks for new students in rest break (12)
REFRESHMENTS
FRESHMEN [new students] in an anagram [break] of REST
18 Rent vehicle plant that was dormant for a long period (3,3,6)
RIP VAN WINKLE
RIP [rent] + VAN [vehicle] + WINKLE [plant] to give Washington Irving’s hero, who slept for twenty years – and I found that there’s also a narcissus called Rip Van Winkle
21 Island needing second rescue vessel (4)
SARK
S [second] + ARK [rescue vessel]
22 Tactful negotiator in charge (10)
DIPLOMATIC
DIPLOMAT [negotiator] + IC [in charge] – this is what Uncle Yap used to call ‘water from the same well’
25 It normally has its contents back to front (9)
BOOKSHELF
Cryptic definition
26 This prize brings back the good in French language (5)
NOBEL
A reversal [brings back] of LE BON [the good in French]
27 Lives in des res I converted (7)
RESIDES
An anagram [converted] of DES RES I – a neat surface and construction but RES is short for residence, which weakens it, I think
28 More than one slice of the right allotment of shares (7)
RASHERS
R [right] + an anagram [allotment] of SHARES
Down
1 My wish for something fancy (6)
WHIMSY
An anagram of MY WISH – indicated by for[?] or perhaps ‘fancy’ is working overtime
2 Needing support in business (6)
INFIRM
IN FIRM [in business]
3 Repair with help involving minor (10)
PERIPHERAL
An anahgram [involving] of REPAIR and HELP
4 Refuse to start treating skin problem (5)
TRASH
T[reat] + RASH [skin problem]
5 Unusual forenames for a lodger? (9)
FREEMASON
An anagram [unusual] of FORENAMES, to give a person who belongs to a lodge
6 First rider on a new horse (4)
ROAN
First letters of Rider On A New
7 Small sum of money sent round as deposit (8)
SEDIMENT
SENT round DIME [small sum of money]
8 After no peace I head for caution (8)
WARINESS
WAR [no peace] + I + NESS [head]
13 Makes effective tools (10)
IMPLEMENTS
The first of only two double definitions
15 Wild winds rose, bringing violent disturbance (9)
ROWDINESS
An anagram [wild] of WINDS ROSE
16 Helps to define the goal of angry lawyers (8)
CROSSBAR
CROSS [angry] + BAR [lawyers]
17 False encouragement given on debts (8)
SPURIOUS
SPUR [encouragement] + IOUS [debts]
19 Good man, competent and reliable (6)
STABLE
ST [good man] + ABLE [competent]
20 Trophies of victory for the brave (6)
SCALPS
Cryptic definition
23 Criminal file that’s wrong, then put right (5)
LIFER
An anagram [wrong] of FILE + R [right]
24 To be taken advantage of isn’t new (4)
USED
The second double definition
Thanks Rufus and Eileen, and a happy new year to all.
I had 6D as R (First rider) plus (on a)* with new as the anagrind: I think both are equally plausible.
Thanks Eileen and Rufus
FORESAW was my FOI, but I did “check” it. I liked the unlikely anagram for FREEMASON, and the CROSS BAR.
Winkle is wrong for plant, though. Chambers gives periwinkle (1) plant of the Vinca genus etc. and periwinkle (2) edible sea snail; it then specifically gives “winkle” as short for the latter, not the former.
I enjoyed this puzzle. I especially liked 7d, 10a, 4d, 16d (LOI) and my favourite was 18a.
New word for me was SARK Island, and I needed help to parse whip = nick in 1a.
Thanks Rufus and Eileen.
Simon S @ 1
I parsed 6d in the same way that you did
Thank you, Eileen, and a very Happy New Year to you, too.
I enjoyed BOOKSHELF and the clever FREEMASON anagram. Those chaps were itinerant stonemasons so would they also have been ‘lodgers’ in the more conventional sense?
Whichever parsing of ROAN, I’m not a great fan of “First rider” = R. I recall The Don considering this a rather poor mechanism. (R is the first OF rider, etc).
Like muffin, I checked WINKLE with the same finding.
HNY all and thank you Rufus for your incredible output over the years.
Hi muffin and William
I was too hasty in my perusal of Chambers: I just saw ‘periwinkle’ and didn’t follow up the ²! I did wonder why Rufus hadn’t gone for a dormant shellfish, though – it would have been more interesting, I think. [And we can only guess at what Paul would have done with that bit of the clue. π ]
Eileen @6
I agree – it would have been interesting to see the snail in the clue!
Ha-ha! Stop it!
Thanks Rufus and Eileen. Happy New Year!
This eased me into Monday, but not for work.
I liked the RASHERS and the CROSSBAR as well as the others mentioned.
Thanks all
I agree with Simon and Michelle re 6 down.
Last in was scalps since I was looking for a CRYPTIC clue!
Not a lot to merit a comment.
Thanks Rufus and Eileen, and a happy new year to all.
No real issue apart from those already mentioned, which are minor, really. In any case, a pleasant enough crossword for the first early morning of the year.
Thanks for the blog. One pedantic niggle is in 1A where the ‘S is redundant and should lead to the answer WHIPSPET.
I enjoyed this Rufus as always, particularly FREEMASON, SCRAPE HOME and WHIMSY. Thanks to him and to Eileen (who is unfailingly good-humoured), and a HNY to all.
[It’s a good job you were not within earshot when I deleted the blog, drofle. π ]
HNY from across the pond. I was puzzled by bookshelf, is it referring to the fact that the books are arranged so that the back of one book touches the front of the next? Not always true in my bookshelves, but perhaps that’s why “normally”.
FWIW, Wikipedia supports winkle as an abbreviation for periwinkle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winkle).
Aoxomoxoa @ 12 – The ‘s is just HAS
I confess to secretly quite liking Rufus. I am intrigued by the odd combination of masterly clues and bizarrely clumsy ones (e.g. RESIDES being an anagram of RES I DES!).
But as Eileen herself once pointed out, he has been asked to do a specific job on Mondays, and I felt this was just about right today.
Thanks Rufus & Eileen (I very much feel your pain – there’s nothing worse than having to completely redo creative work that a computer has munched. Happened to me last night with an email…grrr!).
(Aha…a good Monday Captcha too –
Hi logophile
I took ‘back’ as the spine of the book, which is facing you on a bookshelf.
Your Wikipedia page, like Chambers, as muffin points out @2, has winkle as an abbreviation only for the shellfish periwinkle, not the plant.
Hi Limeni
Thanks for the sympathy but I really can’t blame the computer – this time!
As for “But as Eileen herself once pointed out…”, Once?? – I’ve done it so many times that I’ve totally given up now!
hi Eileen,
Aha! re. bookshelf.
Re. the Wikipedia page, gosh, you’re right — I totally misread it. Up all night with a miserable cold and not thinking very straight…
This took me a bit longer than Rufus often does – maybe I’m just a bit rusty. Last in was SEDIMENT after ALEXANDER, which I liked, along with FREEMASON
Thanks to Eileen and Rufus
RE 1a, we deliberately mispronounce the word as “whip it”, as, after nearly 30 years of the little so-and-sos, one can only say, that is exactly what they do. Dictionaries would not be wrong to list them as a definition of “sneak thief”.
Thanks Eileen and Rufus
Very enjoyable for the most part.
I suppose ‘what was expected’ has a double sense of what will happen and how one ought to behave which gives a slightly cryptic touch to the clue.
I liked 10a and 14a a lot, but 27a is too simple even for a Monday despite its excellent surface.
I liked RIP VAN WINKLE and can’t say I thought much about the WINKLE part-if you see what I mean- and I thought the rest of the puzzle was fine with the odd exception. INFIRM I thought was rather weak,given that it was crossed with INFER but there were some nice anagrams and, as a whole, the puzzle was quite enjoyable.
Thanks Rufus
Shouldn’t “rent” be “rend” to be grammatically equivalent to RIP?
jaceris @23
It depends whether you read it, as you have done, as a verb, or as a noun – “a rip” = “a rent” (though a little awkwardly – I don’t think I would say ” a rent”).
Hi jeceris
Rent and rip can both be nouns – in fact, Chambers’ definition of ‘rip’ is ‘a rent, tear’.
I was too busy today with a guest to do the crossword, but driving back home after dropping her at the airport this evening I was thinking of poor Eileen accidentally deleting her blog, and there pulling in front of me was a car with one of her smiley faces on the back window.
We crossed, muffin – I was too slow, because I got the captcha wrong. [The shame…]
I’ve just found that Chambers also says that ‘rent’ is an obsolete or dialect form of the verb ‘rend’.
[Thanks for that, Cookie. π ]
Hi Eileen
“Captcha” listened to my moan of a couple of weeks ago, it seems – I’ve had almost exclusively easy ones recently; for instance, this one is three – [ ] =0!
{muffin, I think you need a rest.]
My come-uppance, in my haste, was 6 x 9. [It hasn’t been my day.]
Ah, a gentle Monday, especially with the frigid weather here in Chicago, a nice way to stay in and start early. Many thanks to Rufus and Eileen.
Question about SCRAPE HOME. I got the meaning, but is it a common saying? I’m not familiar with it.
Thanks again.
Barring the non-cryptic clue and the apparent error which have already been pointed out this was a one of Rufus’s more enjoyable offerings.
Perhaps Rufus was staring the year mischievously and ignoring the alleged “easy Monday” diktat?
Some nice clues in this.
However John Appleton’s comment @11 amused me.
No real issue apart from those already mentioned, which are minor, really.
Only non-cryptic clues and errors in definition? I can’t believe other setters would receive such mild censure for these crimes π
Thanks to Eileen and Rufus
Thanks Rufus and Eileen
Happy New Year …
Nice and gentle start to work here … and all over quickly at lunch time.
With 25a, I just had it as the back of one book would be next to the front of the next book on the shelf – a nice clue. It was the second last to go in, with CROSSBAR the last.
Good to get back to a current puzzle after working through a backlog of them while on hols.
An enjoyable start to Mondays in 2015.
An absolute treat of a crossword i enjoyed tremendously. I really look forward to mondays puzzle as its invariably reliably rufus. Thankyou blogger. And rufus – you rock.