Guardian 24192/Paul – glittering

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(Hope PaulB isn’t reading this since I’m late again). Another fine Paul opus – some surprising and refreshing wordplay (e.g. 7D, 1A) and sly definitions (e.g. 25A). I did this early morning but have only found time now to write it up. I will write an apologue at some point justifying myself.

Across
1 [p]REGNANCY – “expecting state” is a wonderful way to define PREGNANCY.
5 OLD HAT – two meanings
9 S,WINGERS – WINGERS kick footballs and SWINGERS are certainly liberal in the social sense at least.
12 I,N[o]TE,R(J)ECTOR – J is our “judge” and RECTOR is our “clergyman”.
15 SH,RUG – 4D is CARPETBAGGER, thus RUG (his “booty”) and if he’s being too “noisy”, a SH would be in order.
17 B,ALLER,IN,A – “then” is part of the cryptic grammar indicating concatenation and “French, go” is ALLER with some more cryptic concatenation: “with”
18 OUT,[el]F,OUGHT – Not sure I like “bottom of elf” producing F in an across clue. Thoughts?
19 MELBA – it’s a sweet (as in Peach MELBA) not sure about the singer??
20 GUESSTIMATE – (get it, assume)* – great apposite fodder.
25 POND LIFE – my last clue unsurprisingly since POND LIFE for “stupid people” is rather insulting – a term I would never dare use for instance – and very vague for “frogs” (which the “perhaps” does indicate).
27 STRAIGHT – two meanings (ref. Poker).
Down
2 G(LITTER)AT,I – a fine clue! I think GLITTERATI is a Britishism for the A-list (stars) and a fine term it is.
3 AN(GER-MAN)AGEMENT – our old foe is the GERMAN — haven’t sorted out the rest of the wordplay: “Soldier binding old foe, time troops practiced selfrestraint”.
4 CAR,PET,BA(GGE=rev(egg))R
6 L(A,SER B,E)AM – LAM is “hit” and our European’s a SERB.
7 HER(E G)OES – “essential to” is the insertion indicator!
11 ATHLETES FO,OT – (Tales of the)* and OT’s our “book”.
16 GOOD GRIEF – two meanings: the first cryptic.

4 comments on “Guardian 24192/Paul – glittering”

  1. Interesting take on 9A. I took “swingers” to mean those who get their kicks. The “s” from “(s)nog” and “wingers” (shortspeak for “left-wingers”) made up the cryptic part. It seems to work either way.

  3. 9A There is a small difference in the clue as in the paper and online.
    Paper: Beginning to snog birds, liberal-minded types (8)
    Where the WINGERS are “birds”, which I think is a fair bit easier than …
    Online: They would get their kicks after beginning to snog liberal-minded types (8)
    Where the WINGERS are footballers.

    19A “Spicy singer” is Mel B – one of the Spice girls as well as Melba for “sweet” and “singer” again

    3/14D The soldier is ANT around GERMAN AGE MEN “old foe” “time” “troops”

    I’m glad you explained 8/22, 4D and 15A (HERE GOES, CARPETBAGGER and SHRUG) which I couldn’t deconstruct despite guessing the answers from the definition and crossing letters.

    I had trouble with 12A INTERJECTOR where for a long time I thought the clergyman was RR.

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