The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26036.
I cannot recall having blogged a Logodaedalus before (he has not had one published for nearly two years), and it is a bit of a shock. He does not seem to hold much stock with surfaces, nor with concision of clue, sometimes adding detail that seems irrelevant ( eg. ‘just one street’ in 26A), and surprisingly often a particle in the clue is passed straight into the answer. There are some quibbles, and one clue, 18A, I do not understand; but on the whole it was a good exercise in how to make an offbeat puzzle.
| Across | |||
| 1. | I might be suffering and gripped by pain (8) | ||
| STANDING | An envelope (‘gripped by’) of ‘and’ in STING (‘pain’). | ||
| 5. | Boy-trap holds 14 lines from poet’s brain (6) | ||
| SONNET | A charade of SON (‘boy’) plus NET (‘trap’). | ||
| 9. | I don’t eat mince — might be a cure for you! (8) | ||
| ANTIDOTE | An anagram (‘mince’) of ‘I dont eat’. | ||
| 10. | Hunter, a bishop who breaks plates in two (6) | ||
| FERRET | An envelope (‘who breaks’) of RR (Right Reverend, ‘bishop’) in FEET (‘plates’ of meat, rhyming slang). | ||
| 11. | Half envy couple, spoiled in luxury (8) | ||
| OPULENCE | An anagram of en[vy] (‘half envy’) plus ‘couple’. | ||
| 12. | A place for teaching whales, collectively (6) | ||
| SCHOOL | Double definition. | ||
| 14. | Soliciting to make the painting squeal! (10) | ||
| CANVASSING | A charade of CANVAS (‘painting’) plus SING (‘squeal’). | ||
| 18. | Longfellow’s poem this girl won’t conceal (10) | ||
| EVANGELINE | This one beats me; the definition is ‘Longfellow’s poem’ surely, but beyond that I am lost. I am not familiar with the poem, but in a quick trawl I cannot find anything to justify a straightforward definition. Evangeline’s betrothed is Gabriel (ANGEL?), but I cannot see how that would play out. | ||
| 22. | The army young — half dead with cats about (6) | ||
| CADETS | An envelope (‘about’) of ‘de[ad]'(half dead’) in ‘cats’. | ||
| 23. | Cogs ain’t moving? I’m inclined to doubt (8) | ||
| AGNOSTIC | An anagram (‘moving’) of ‘cogs aint’. | ||
| 24. | It’s natural in pub and swallowed, side by side (6) | ||
| INNATE | A charade of INN (‘pub’) plus ATE (‘swallowed’). | ||
| 25. | Pitt, Irish playwright, wrote Portillo’s guide (8) | ||
| BRADSHAW | A charade of BRAD (‘Pitt’) plus SHAW (George Bernard, ‘Irish playwright’). Michael Portillo was the presenter of the television series Great British Railway Journeys, which followed an 1840 edition of Bradshaw’s Guide, which were railway timetables and travel guides. | ||
| 26. | Disturbed desire to live in just one street (6) | ||
| RESIDE | An anagram (‘disturbed’) of ‘desire’. | ||
| 27. | In Western Isles the newly-weds he’ll meet (8) | ||
| HEBRIDES | A charade of ‘he’ plus BRIDES (‘newly-weds’). | ||
| … Down |
|||
| 1. | A girl‘s required; no rash could make her right (6) | ||
| SHARON | An anagram (‘could make her right’) of ‘no rash’. | ||
| 2. | A fabled king with skill to hurt — not quite (6) | ||
| ARTHUR | A charade of ART (‘skill’) plus ‘hur[t]’ (‘hurt – not quite’). | ||
| 3. | A kind of car to shun on motorway (6) | ||
| DODGEM | A charade of DODGE (‘shun’) plus M (‘motorway’). | ||
| 4. | Not able to keep ice clear as the day (10) | ||
| NOTICEABLE | An envelope (‘to keep’) of ‘ice’ in ‘not able’. | ||
| 6. | Past player’s view: “Such skies may threaten rain” (8) | ||
| OVERCAST | A charade of OVER (‘past’) plus CAST (‘player’? – it would seem to require the plural, and ‘view’ does not seem to give much help). | ||
| 7. | Ran up to bed with chopped ice — that fights pain (8) | ||
| NARCOTIC | A charade of NAR, a reversal (‘up’) of ‘ran’ plus COT (‘bed’) plus ‘ic[e]’ cut short (‘chopped’). | ||
| 8. | Spread teat with glue — we call it education (8) | ||
| TUTELAGE | An anagram (‘spread’) of ‘teat’ plus ‘glue’. | ||
| 13. | New girl gets stuck with “dragnet restoration” (5,5) | ||
| AVANT GARDE | A charade of AVA (‘girl’) plus NTGARDE, an anagram (‘restoration’) of ‘dragnet’. | ||
| 15. | Row about score — “more grouchy“, if you wish (8) | ||
| TETCHIER | An envelope (‘about’) of ETCH (‘score’) in TIER (‘row’). | ||
| 16. | A children’s game that calls for this tinned fish (8) | ||
| SARDINES | Double definition. | ||
| 17. | A dig up round the Tate that’s in a state (8) | ||
| AGITATED | An envelope (’round’) of ‘Tate’ in ‘a’ plus GID, a reversal (‘up’) of ‘dig’. | ||
| 19. | Fetch up some wine at once and mediate (6) | ||
| WONDER | A reversal (‘fetch up’) of RED (‘some wine’) plus NOW (‘at once’). | ||
| 20. | Married when losing head and so did yearn (6) | ||
| ITCHED | A subtraction, [h]ITCHED (‘married’) without its first letter (‘losing head’). | ||
| 21. | Cow left in steamship dirty looks will earn (6) | ||
| SCOWLS | An envelope (‘in’) of ‘cow’ plus L (‘left’) in SS (‘steamship’). | ||
Thanks, PeterO. The “verbiage” is to make the clues into rhyming couplets – a la Araucaria’s Araubeticals sometimes. The timing with the weekend’s prize alphabetical puzzle is presumably intended as an extended tribute.
18, I think, is just a DD and you are being misled by the verbiage.
The def in 19 is unfortunately a typo for “meditate” I guess.
I particularly liked 19d, 3d, 1a, 5a, 14a and my favourites were 13d AVANT GARDE, 20d ITCHED, 10a FERRET & 27a HEBRIDES (last in).
New for me was the game SARDINES, and Michael Portillo of BRADSHAW’S guide, and I couldn’t fully parse 25a or 18a (“this girl won’t conceal”).
Luckily for me, although there is a typo in the online version for the 19d clue, I mis-read it as “meditate” anyway.
Thanks Logodaedalus and PeterO.
A delightful return to a respected compiler of many years standing as opposed to the standard Monday morning fodder. The couplets were a double bonus!
Thanks PeterO and Logodaedalus
I too was wondering about the lack of concision and hadn’t spotted the rhyming couiplets.
I had PONDER instead of WONDER -(but I couldn’t explain the PON part, of course).
Interesting style of clue – had an old-time feel to it I thought – then spotted (late on) the rhyming couplets – he’s done that before. Wouldn’t want it every day bit nice for a change.
Lucky guess at 18a – didn’t really known it. A wordplay build-up of some sort would have been fairer there – esp on a Monday.
The comment at #3 is a disgraceful and unwarranted attack on Rufus, who perfectly well qualifies as “respected compiler of many years standing”; so the “as opposed to” is illogical nonsense.
Rufus is if course the most prolific compiler of all time; his style might not be everybody’s cup of tea (particularly hardcore solvers) but he has a huge following – and he doesn’t deserve that sort of treatment.
Plus – thanks for the blog PO
18a Like NeilW @ #1 I think EVANGELINE is just a DD. Arising from its use in the poem “an Evangeline” is someone, particularly a girl or woman, particularly a beautiful one, who wears their heart on their sleeve, particularly in respect of their devotion to their beau.
Either that or its similarity to evangelist etc.
Best I can do – couldn’t see a wordplay.
Thanks, Peter, for blogging.
The last time I remember seeing this setter was in the Quiptic (where he set under Don Putnam) and to begin with I thought it was along similar lines. But it did get tricky to complete.
Completely missed the rhyming couplets, but well done to the setter for that. As Swagman says, you wouldn’t want one of these everyday, but a bit of something different for the Bank Holiday.
Thanks PeterO and Logodaedalus
Saw but did not much like the couplets which seemed to lead to imprecise cluing in places. However it was a pretty quick solve despite some tricky bits, and I still have the meatier Saturday double to complete.
I liked 14a, 13d, and 15d and had to check that Evangeline was the right answer as opposed to Evangelina. I plumped for the former because of its better rhyming potential
Thanks, PeterO.
I spotted the rhyming couplets almost immediately, which explained the uneven nature of the clues: some have a lot of extraneous verbiage, some are extremely straightforward – and some are both, which did confuse me momentarily. But an interesting puzzle, nevertheless.
The clue for 19d, in the paper version at least, finishes with the word ‘mediate’. Shouldn’t this be ‘meditate’, which works better as a rhyme and as a synonym of WONDER? (Like muffin @4 I first posited PONDER before seeing the ‘now’).
EVANGELINE made no sense to me either, other than the Longfellow reference.
My thanks to JollySwagman et al who advised me on how to print out Saturday’s double grid Prize in landscape format. I finished it yesterday and actually sent it off – I’m hoping to win a prize, of course! (I was ecstatic that I could actually complete it.)
Thanks to PeterO for the blog.
On 6d I think the apostrophe is in the wrong place “players'” would fit much better.
I must be particularly stupid today: I did not see any rhymes in the clues. On seeing the comments here about rhyming couplets I went back and looked again for rhymes – found none!
Can somebody please give me an example of one of these rhyming couplets.
I had missed the rhyming couplets too. The cluing makes so much more sense now, I like it!
I can’t understand EVANGELINE either. I like JollySwagman’s suggestion @6. Does anyone have any references to “Evangeline” being used to mean a girl who cannot hide her feelings (outside the poem itself)?
chas@11 – the clues rhyme in pairs
Hi chas
Cf clues ending in Pain/brain, you/two, squeal/conceal etc. Admiitedly luxury/colllectively is slightly pushing it.
The online version of the puzzle has this note: “19 down – a typo in ‘meditate’ has been corrected.”
For 18 across, if you google Evangeline you will find that it means “(bearer of) good news”. Such a person would not conceal it.
Hi Peedee
I did not bother about this before but the name is one of several connoting ‘bearer of good news’ as Jollyswagman suggests in his second suggestion. So she tells rather than conceals good things, I suppose.
FWIW I have not come across more general usage of the name but Evangelista occurs as a surname, (male) forename, and noun for evangelist in Italian.
Hi Chas
No, not stupid, but the rhyming will become obvious if you read the clues out loud one by one. I’m not sure quite that the rhyming really adds anything to the actual crossword – particularly when the part that rhymes is extraneous as in 26ac, and there’s no ‘narrative flow’ or continuity through the clues, but it’s gently playful and perhaps NeilW is right about the tribute aspect.
Oh, and good luck Michelle – I still haven’t finished the Prize…..
Ah, crossed with many…sorry
Thanks to those who pointed out the rhymes.
I had been looking for rhymes within each clue without result 🙁
Many thanks PeterO & Logo … Hey they rhyme!
I feel sorry for our overseas solvers who have probably been confused by BRADSHAW and PORTILLO.
I’d never heard of SARDINES as a children’s game and EVANGELIST was just a wild guess.
Anyway, I enjoyed it: Perfect for a Bank Holiday!
Re rhyming in 11 and 12 across, as the clues are (with a few variations) iambic pentameters, the final stress in both clues will fall on the “y” – more or less acceptable?
I’d come across SARDINES in a mystery story (forget who by). As it’s a variant of ‘Hide and Seek’ in which a successful seeker has to squeeze into the same hiding-place, it was definitely an adult game!
chas @11
Welcome. As is all too obvious, I also belong to the august club of people who failed to see the rhymed couplets. I discover that Logodaedalus has done this before, in Guardian Cryptic 25,367; mhl blogged that one, and he too earns membership, so we are in good company.
michelle @2
Another club – like you I blithely read ‘meditate’ before it had been corrected. I think it is called precognition.
K’s D @7
Your memory is much better than mine – I find that I blogged Don Putnam’s Quiptic 625 (of 7 November 2011; he also set the Cryptic 25,518 of 29 December 2011).
Evangeline
Perhaps JS @6 is the best we can do (although I cannot quite get ANGEL IN EVE out of my mind); most sources seem to agree that Longfellow invented the name for the poem, and it is reasonable that, from the poem, it might be used as suggested (the poem was once much better known than it is now). However, I have not found any instance of it being used in this way, apart from JS @6.
Thank’s PeterO.
I also had a partially inexplicable PONDER; and TOUCHIER at 15d, which stumped me for 18a.
I had finished 2/3 of the crossword in about eighth minutes, but then the clues seemed suddenly to become harder, a le Rufus.
In 2003, when I collected such data for a whole year, Logodaedulus set seven Xwords and he was my fourth easiest setter, after Rufus, Brummie and Janus. I was surprised to see Brummie in second place – I find him much, much more difficult these days. I’ll try and confirm that be redoing one of his.
Sorry, eight and by
Thanks, PeterO.
For 18A, I simply assumed that Evangeline could not conceal Longfellow’s poem because her name was its title.
EVANGELINE is a straight double definition, the first being the poem’s name, the second a girl’s name (see jvh), and um … that’s it, as in I don’t buy any of the extraneous stuff above. Obviously Logodaedalus needed a rhyme here, and got one as best he could.
I think we need to accept that compilers are entitled to have some fun in setting their crosswords, and I am sure that Logodaedelus – like the revered Araucaria – relishes the challenge of producing a set of clues to a theme, or rhyming scheme. So, I think that generous latitude should be allowed in the wording of the clues to facilitate the scheme. I enjoyed the puzzle, and, as I managed to complete it fairly quickly, the clues were not impenetrable, even if they were padded.
I agree with PeterO’s assessment of the puzzle, even if the rhyming couplet idea, which wasn’t obvious online because I only look at one clue at a time, must have contributed greatly to some of the strange surfaces.
EVANGELINE was my LOI after I finally saw TETCHIER. I didn’t know the Longfellow poem and only knew the name from the song by The Band, and the song’s reference to “Mississippi Queen” seemed like a good enough USA connection to Longfellow. Funny how the mind works.
The trouble is that we read only one clue at a time so that we completely missed the rhyming couplets. All is now revealed thanks to 225 and PeterO!
We now have more respect for the setter – thanks Logodaedalus.
I had sardines for tea, and am in a pub full of tetchy Yorkshiremen- is there any other kind?
A nice puzzle: didn’t notice the rhymes so questioned the verbiage.
Thanks all.
Of course I didn’t notice the rhyming couplets as I do the puzzle online so never see clues one at a time and never together.
Now I look I see that I didn’t miss much as it’s just badly rhymed gibberish. IMHO of course 😉 Adds nothing to the puzzle and in fact makes the clues a bit naff!
Very easy and a little disappointing for a bank holiday Monday.
JS @5
If Berny @3 is “a disgraceful and unwarranted attack on Rufus” I’d hate to see how you would react to a real attack on Rufus! So here goes ……
I wouldn’t dare. Gaufrid wouldn’t be happy at all.
I’m actually not even sure if it is even a slur on Rufus rather than a (surpsing) expression of joy at the return of Logodaedalus.
Thanks to Petero and L
Now it’s back to the Prize where steady progress is now being made after a weekend with a plethora of unwelcome distractions. Michelle , I’ll let you win it this time as I wont enter. Not least because the “Prize” is a joke! £5 would be preferable. At least that would be useful! 🙂
It would have been jolly if the setter had picked the everyday rhymes we hear in commercials, and slogans, which do not work: e.g. “Harp. Stay sharp. To the bottom of the glarp, sorry, glass”; “The Co-op. Gud. With Fud”; “Once driven forever smiven, apologies, smitten” etc.
There are more I know…
No one has mentioned how the clues have the shape of a Sonnet (5a) or there are 14 across and down.