Guardian 24377/Chifonie

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* = anagram
< = reversal
dd = double definition

Across
9 RODIN (e)RODIN(g) good to see ‘endlessly’ refer to both ends creating a nice surface.
10 WARMONGER RM+ON in WAGER another very good surface.
11 SANDERLING SANDER+LING rubber = SANDER, LING is a crossword cliché but here ‘plant’ rather than Heather, say, nicely fits with the deceptive ‘rubber’. A SANDERLING is a small wading bird often found on beaches.
22 CHAMBERTIN CHAMBER+T+IN my first thought was yet another anagram of ‘orchestra’ with T added. Instead it is a straightforward charade leading to a wine from Burgundy.
25 EPISCOPAL (SPOIL CAPE)*
26 AWING A+WING this one threw me as I tried to find a fly fitting -I-G. It didn’t help that the verb ‘awe’ didn’t spring to mind.
27 LATENCY TEN+C in LAY
28 ABETTER A+BETTER
Down
3 WINDERMERE WINDER+M+ERE nice allusion but is ‘in Lakeland’ a reasonable definition for WINDERMERE?
4 NEWEL fiNE WELl-designed the online version doesn’t have a hyphen in ‘well-designed’.
5 SERENGETI (GREEN SITE)* nice surface that following 3 suggests a park in the UK rather than Tanzania.
6 MOOR dd ‘fell’ is a northern English word for a hill or upland tract of land, including moorland.
7 TOGETHER TO+GET+HER I’m sure the device has been used before but ‘in concert’ helps create a nice surface.
13 OPEN SESAME O+PENS+E+SAME excellent word play.
15 SLAP HAPPY PALS< + HAPPY HAPPY is one of the Seven Dwarfs, now name the other 6 without using wikipedia.
16 CROMWELL ROM+WELL after C C= contralto, ROM = Romans (bible).
17 PSALMIST S in PALMIST I guess David wrote some Psalms.
19 STRICT (di)STRICT DI = detective inspector, a UK police rank.

15 comments on “Guardian 24377/Chifonie”

  1. I agree that “in Lakeland” is not a good definition of WINDERMERE. Likewise “found by the shore” for SANDERLING.

    Nice to see a change from CON or DEN for “study” in 21ac.

    The Psalms are often referred to as the Psalms of David, as they are traditionally (though probably incorrectly) ascribed to him.

  2. I made exactly the same connection between 3dn and 11ac. but didn’t get my comment in quickly enough! I think ‘found’ makes 11 slightly more acceptable.

    I’m not sure about ‘play’ for THROW-IN in 1ac.

    It was also nice to see a change from ‘memory’ for ROM. A friend commented yesterday that it’s getting difficult to complete crosswords without a knowledge of computers.

  5. Thank you, Colin. I should have known I would regret querying a football term! I read it the same way but didn’t know that ‘play’ could be used in that sense.

  6. 11ac: SANDERLING. Thanks for this. With all the crossing letters, I was trying to get ‘Sunderland’ to fit! It is by the shore.

  7. 3D. Lakeland is a term often used for the Lake District. Windermere is in the Lake District. I see no problem withe ‘ in Lakeland’ for the definition

  8. 3d The gripe isn’t that Lakeland is used rather than Lake District but that ‘in Lakeland’ does not define a place. An acceptable definition for Windermere would be, say, ‘spot in Lakeland’, or, ‘Lakeland location’.

  9. If you’ve ever watched sanderlings, on the beach, running up and down in front of the waves you would have thought that by the shore was a fine definition

  10. I think the argument is that the correct part of speech should be used to define the answer.

    Adjectives, adverbs etc don’t equate to nouns except in The Guardian, where the practice – more’s the pity – is common. From that POV, of course, Chifonie is not out of order.

  11. (Sorry this is a few days late – I live abroad so I’m doing it through the Weekly)

    2d I’m pretty sure the answer’s RIDING (right?), and I see where the circus comes in (RING) but I don’t get the “Little Girl” part of the clue – maybe DI as a child’s name for “Diana”?

  12. Curses – just realised 24,377 was first published on May 1st, not June 1st. Seems the Weekly gets the crosswords later than I thought. Probably also means no one will ever reply to this. Such is life.

  13. Hi Ach,

    Yes DI is short for Diana and often shortened names are clued using ‘little girl’ or ‘little boy’. DI is also often clued by ‘princess’ for obvious reasons.

    As the original blogger I get emails telling me someone has commented, so even the latest of comments should noticed by the blogger.

  14. Hi Colin,

    Thanks a lot – what a good system.

    As you can probably tell I’m just getting into cryptics, so thanks for the help. I started out on a compendium of the New Yorker puzzles, but they seemed a lot more straightforward than the Guardian ones, even though I’m from the UK. Just my imagination?

    Thanks again.

  15. If, within the fifteensquared stable, you want to keep more current than the Guardian Weekly allows you could either subscribe to the Guardian online service or use the free online puzzle at the Independent. Both of these would allow you to solve and read blogs on pretty much the same day.

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