Guardian 23,964/Araucaria – Monkeys and ponies?

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Araucaria, love him or loathe him, rarely fails to produce an enjoyable puzzle to solve and you always learn something new to boot.

This is typical fare – there aren’t many examples that I could see which were “unfair” (possibly 19dn), and the more diffcult words were guessable via the wordplay.  But I think 1dn is simply wrong.

You do need to know a bit about English geography and history, as some of the clues are linked to 21ac and 27dn.

ACROSS

8 – EDWIN – ED(W)IN – Edin referring to Edinburgh; alhough I haven’t ever seen Edin on it’s own, I think the clue is probably fair.

11 – LINGUAL – (a gull in)*; a nounal anagram indicator, which some solvers don’t like.  Personally, I think it’s acceptable.

12 – WEDMORE – scene of a treaty in 878 between Alfred the Great and Guthrum, where Guthrum became Alfred’s adopted son.

13 – NASIK – hidden in “religioN AS I Know”; Nasik, aka Nashik, is a city in India.

17 – PETER PAUL – (perpetual)*; great clue which threw me at first, because I quickly put in STILL LIFE.

25 – ACTIVATE – ACT IV + (tea)*; not sure what “Shakespearean” brings to the party.

26 – DENEB – DENE(=valley) + B(born); the brightest star in the Cygnus constellation.

27 – ALFRED THE GREAT – (Father Ted regal)* the culinary reference relates to the story that he burnt a batch of cakes while hiding out on a peasant’s home.

DOWN

1 – SHETLAND PONY – SHE-T-L-AND-PONY where T=”model”.  I think the setter has got a bit mixed up with his slang terms for money.  As far as I know there are 20 ponies in a monkey, not the other way round, as the clue would indicate (pony = £25, monkey = £500).

2 – ROWAN – RO(W)AN; see 19dn

3 – TENDULKAR – TEND-U(L)K-A-R; refers to Indian batsman, Sachin Tendulkar.

16,10 – LET THE DOG SEE THE RABBIT – LET(T)HE-DO-G(SEETHE)RAB-BIT

14 – SATIRICAL – SAT 1-RI-CAL where RI=Rhode Island and CAL=California

19 – LAMBETH – I can see the links to walk, Rowan and Canterbury, since Lambeth Palace is the official residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, currently Rowan Williams, and The Lambeth Walk is a song, but there’s no wordplay, just a series of links (am I being too pedantic?)

22 – OSIER – ‘osier indicating “hosier”.  When you see ‘e in a clue, that often indicates that you need a word from which you can drop the letter “h”.

8 comments on “Guardian 23,964/Araucaria – Monkeys and ponies?”

  1. I see what you mean about 25a, but I think Shakespearean was supposed to indicate the use of roman numerals for the act numbers (and who else still has four act plays regularly performed?!?).

  2. I think the Shakespearean ref in 25A refers to the fact that his plays always had 5 acts (probably so did the other Elizabetheans) otherwise ACT or for that matter ACT I might have been indicated… so ACT IV is v. much a Shak. thing.

  4. Yes, I’m afraid the great Araucaria got his animals mixed up for 1d unless there’s something I’ve missed. Wonder if he watches ‘Only Fools And Horses’ – I never knew what a ‘pony’ was until I heard the title song…

  5. Can anyone explain 23 across (Obsession about house plant, (7))? I’ve got m_h_t_a from the crossing clues. The only thing that looks like it will fit is Mahatma. But that makes no sense to me… Am I missing something, or have I just gone wrong somewhere? It’s driving me to distraction…

  6. MA(HO)NIA (so you should take a look at 24D again). It’s a shrub — which I didn’t know but the wordplay was pretty straighforward.

  7. Victoria: If stuck on one last clue, it can be worth trying it with each checking letter ignored in turn – in this case, ??H?T?A, M???T?A, M?H???A and M?H?T??. If one checking letter is wrong this may get you to the right answer, in this case from M?H???A. If in a “mahatma situation” (the only thing that seems to fit makes no sense), you have to choose between trying to find something else that fits or identifying a mistake somewhere else in the puzzle. There are of course times when the reason for “mahatma” being the right answer is some bit of knowledge that you don’t have (e.g. a literary ref.), but you can usually recognise that kind of clue.

    If you see “plant” as a possible def., the -IA ending is worth considering, like -ITE for rocks.

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