Guardian 24,371 (Araucaria)

by
Across
1 COPPER: double definition
4 CLEMATIS: M in CLEAT IS. Clematis Vitalba is a wild flower, also known as Old Man’s Beard
9 NORMA: hidden in londoN OR MAnchester. It’s a 19th Century opera by Bellini
10 WOMANKIND: WOMAN + KIND As Eileen points out this is an anagram of MAID KNOWN (kicking myself!)
11,15 TENNESSEE WILLIAMS: US State + Archbishop of Canterbury (Rowan Williams)
12,6 GLASS MENAGERIE: G LASS (good girl) + MEN + AG + ERIE. A play by Tennessee Williams
13 PEARL FISHERS: PERISHERS (the lost) containing A (adult) and LF (low frequency). An opera by Bizet.
17 GOOD BREEDING: &Lit
18 ADULT: AD (poster) + ULT (last month)
21 ANDROCLES: AND + anagram of CLOSER. This was the chap who fixed up a wounded lion and domesticated the wild beast
23 STORM CONE: (MC (compere) + ON (performing)) in STORE
25 MANDRAKE: MAN + DRAKE
Down
1 CENOTAPH: anagram of NOT CHEAP
2 PARENTAL: AREN’T (don’t exist) in PAL
3 ERASE: ERAS + E (entirely to start with)
5 LAMBETH BRIDGE: an actual bridge but also a reference to the Archbishop of Canterbury who living in Lambeth Palace is seen as a bridge to the various member churches of the Anglican Communion
7 TAIWAN: anagram of AIT + WAN
8 SADIST: hidden in iS A DISTinguishing
10 WEST INDIA DOCK: WE + STINK around (AID (reversed) + DOC)
14 LION TAMER: &Lit, although I may have missed something here.
16 EGGSHELL:an EGG’S HELL but also a very thin form of pottery china
18 RANSOM: ROM (read only memory) around ANS
19 SUBORN: attributes, according to the nursery rhyme, of the child born on a Sunday
22 OCHRE: CHORE rewritten so that it is led by the heart! An interesting break with the rules, but I like it.

17 comments on “Guardian 24,371 (Araucaria)”

  3. I did get 19d SUBORN but thought I might see a query about it. Is SU a usual abbreviation for Sunday or is there something I’m missing?

  4. I wrote it in thinking it was BORN in SUN, and was muttering to myself “it’s ‘born on’, not ‘born in’!”, but obviously that’s wrong. I think Su, Mo, Tu, etc are sometimes used in calendars (and computer systems) where space is tight, but I haven’t got a dictionary to hand to check whether they’re recognised abbreviations.

  5. Thanks, Andrew. my thought processes were similar to yours. It isn’t in any of my dictionaries [although I haven’t a Chambers – tut!]and Google didn’t produce anything, either! I don’t know which is more annoying – to be unable to get an answer or to be unable to explain it when I have [the latter, I suspect, which is why recently stumbling upon this great site has been such a joy. Pure Serendipity!]

  6. Can anyone explain what the reference to 10ac is in 25 ac? I got the answer from vaguely associating a poisonous plant with a duck but it wasn’t satisfactory.

  9. 26ac, “Craft holder (Roman numerals to be included)”, caused problems.

    At first I thought craft holder might be “easel” and the answer “?easel”. Eventually guessed at “vessel” which turned out to be correct, but I still don’t see where the latter part of theclue fits in.

  10. 26 ac: the roman numerals are V and L, and the Roman/Latin word meaning “to be”, esse, is included.

  11. Hi Paul,

    Re 26ac – I THINK ‘esse’ = ‘to be’, with V and L being the roman numerals around the outside. Thus the definition is ‘craft holder’, rather than ‘craft’.
    Can anyone clarify this?

  14. Still niggling rather re 19dn. I think Andrew’s suggestion makes sense but has anyone found Su as being a recognised abbreviation? [My calendar has ‘s’!] It could be helpful in the future!

  15. Eileen, as someone who works weekends it is usual to differentiate Saturday and Sunday with the abbreviations Sa and Su. Of course, I can’t possible say whether this is universal but I didn’t think about this one twice. (I only wish I had thought twice to spot the anagram that was so obvious to yourself!)

  16. Many thanks, Diagacht. I can now sleep easier. As mentioned, I am only a recent visitor [ now an
    addict!] to this site: I see you work on Sundays [as well!] and therefore would know the abbreviations – and I envy you your dinner with my favourite setter! I now conclude that 19dn was yet another brilliant clue. Re the anagram: I just saw ‘about’ and thought no further – but yours made equally good sense, didn’t it? I liked 24 ac too.

Comments are closed.