Guardian 24533 by Taupi
Posted by Gaufrid on October 30th, 2008
We seem to be without a Guardian blog today so here is a breakdown of the wordplay. I’ll leave it to regular Guardian solvers to provide comments on the clues.
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Across
1 URETHRA UR *(HEART)
5 BREATHE *(HEART) in BE
9 TRUMP T[hat] RUMP
10 DEATH RATE *(HEART) in DATE
11 WATERWORKS WA[l]TER WORKS
12, 24 LIVE WIRE dd
14 EXTRAVAGANT RAVAG[e] in EXTANT
18 HEARTBROKEN BR in HEAR TOKEN
21 EARN [l]EARN
22 PINA COLADA PIN A CO LAD A
25 TESTIMONY I MON in TESTY
26 EARTH *(HEART)
27 NUNNERY NURSERY with RS changed to NN
28 MATADOR hidden in ‘forM AT A DO Requiring’
Down
1 UPTOWN UPTO W[ashingto]N
2 EQUATE homophone of ‘eek wait’
3 HYPERTEXTS H *(SEX PRETTY)
4 AUDIO initial letters of ‘as used daily in our’
5 BLACKJACK dd
6 ECHO EC HO
7 TRAGICAL CIGAR reversed in TAL[e]
8 ELEVENTH cd
13 RAINFOREST *(TERRAINS OF)
15 TERITORY IT O in TERRY
16 THREATEN *(HEART) TEN
17 GARRISON NO SIR RAG reversed
19 HATRED *(HEART) D
20 RATHER R *(HEART)
23 ABYSM BY S in AM
October 30th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
I agree with all the solutions, Gaufrid, but a few I don’t quite get.
In 12,24 ac, is “feeder” a recognised expression for a live wire?
In 25 ac, is there not an unnecessary “on”?
Can anyone explain 23 dn?
October 30th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
John
12, 24 One of Chambers’ definitions for ‘feeder’ is ‘something which supplies (water, electricity, ore, paper etc)’
25a agreed
23d BY (next to) S (small) in AM (morning)
Chambers: ABYSM = ABYSS = ‘bottomless gulf’ or ‘anything very deep’ = ‘pit’
October 30th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
I thought this was quite difficult today, but enjoyable, too. I nearly gave up with only about three or four clues solved, as I couldn’t get the key 18ac. Luckily, I eventually saw the 10 of 1810 as ten in 16d, solved 16d and then immediately solved 18 ac, using the letters I had already put in (H—T—–N).
3d should really have been hyperlinks, I think.
Why so few commments so far?
October 30th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
I couldn’t (can’t) understand why ‘sap’ was BLACKJACK. I didn’t get 8dn.
October 30th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Dave
“Why so few comments so far?”
Because the scheduled blogger didn’t turn up and I didn’t post my basic analysis until about 7:15pm.
October 30th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
Will
A ‘sap’ is ‘any object used as a bludgeon’ and a ‘blackjack’ is ‘a short leather-covered club with a weighted head’ (Chambers).
8d – 25 is the eleventh across clue.
October 30th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
Apologies, everyone – I’ve had internet trouble all day. Thanks to Gaufrid for posting.
October 30th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
It was going well until I put two wrong answers in. I put chasm for 23dn, which was so close to making sense I couldn’t believe it wasn’t the answer (cha + s + m). I also thought 12/24 across must be “wind pipe” because of beans and wind. The definition is pretty vague and could almost have been anything – “life line” was another thing I thought it might have been.
October 30th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
I really enjoyed this crossword.
Blackjack – “a short leather-covered club with weighted head” Chambers 2003 (but I could not see this in the CD version).
5a held me up (not having worked out 5d at that stage). I first decided upon “heartie” ignoring the fact that it isn’t a word and did not fit with “echo” that I already had. After that came “theatre”, which at least fitted in with the other answers.
October 30th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Gaufrid: Thanks for 23 dn. I didn’t see “drinks” as an inclusion indicator. Not too sure I like it much.
October 30th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Manehi
No problem. We come to rely on modern technology and then are stuck when it fails. I preferred the days before email, fax or even telex but then we wouldn’t have sites such as this.
October 30th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Thanks to Taupi for an enjoyable and elegant puzzle, and to Gaufrid (who he?) for the blog.
I got into this puzzle from 1ac (URETHRA) & 11ac (WATERWORKS). The old city had to be either UR or THEBES, so where did ‘ETHRA’ come from?. That gave me 18ac HEARTBROKEN.
October 30th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Thanks for the blog, Gaufrid. I thought this was quite hard but enjoyable.
I did quite like ‘drinks’ as an inclusion indicator.
But – 17dn: ‘sir’ = ‘official’?
October 30th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
Eileen – 17dn: “Negative response to official” is NO SIR! Like you, I interpreted “Negative response” as NO and it took me a long time to see that the charade was cluing a longer phrase!
I always find Taupi’s puzzles the most difficult that the Guardian put out, but great fun. Like Dave Ellison, I almost panicked after getting stuck with only a few clues solved, but patience was eventually rewarded. Taupi is the master of the complex charade clue: 22 ac PINA COLADA is a typical example – and one that I was pleased to get early on.
October 30th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Muck
“….. and to Gaufrid (who he?) …..”
An FT and EV blogger.
October 30th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
Like a lot of the others I almost gave up on this after a few clues. Didn’t get 18ac until I had almost all of the related clues, some hard staring finally gave me heart. Crosswords can make you feel so smart and stupid at the same time, one of their joys.
October 30th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
Many thanks, Geoff. Of course, I see it now.
I found this the most difficult puzzle for ages but can’t really understand why!
December 7th, 2008 at 2:15 am
Can someone explain 6dn please? Can’t see why “this city” is “EC”.
December 7th, 2008 at 9:39 am
RustyC
The postcode for the ‘City’ in London is EC.