Guardian 24,843 – Chifonie

by
Across
1 PENANCE PENCE around AN
5 LAMPREY LAM+PREY
10 SPRY SPY i.e. “mole” around R[esistance]
11 APOTHEOSIS (Sophie ‘as to)*
12 PRESTO PO around REST – a spider is one of the rests used in snooker.
13 TORTUOUS TORTU[r]OUS, with the r[ight] taken away
14 TRADESMAN (smart dean)*
16 RIDER double def
17 EARTH double def
19 SEASONING IN i.e. “cool” inside SEA SONG. Really liked this.
23 PARAQUAT [wiki] PART around AQUA
24 MASCOT M[onday] + ASCOT
26 MATTERHORN MATTER + HORN
27 DRIP DIP=pickpocket around R for king/queen
28 ITERATE [L]ITERATE
29 DRAUGHT referring to draughtsmen, I assume.
Down
2 EMPEROR E[nglish] + MP + ER[r]OR
3 ABYSS hidden in “BarnABY’S Strength”
4 CHAMOIS [wiki] CO=officer + IS, all around HAM
6 ADHERE AD + HERE
7 PROFUSION PRO + FUSION
8 EPICURE EPIC + “banker” i.e. river URE
9 CONTRAVENTION rev(ART) in CONVENTION
15 DETRACTOR DE “of French” + TRACTOR
18 ADAMANT ADAM + A + NT i.e. the National Trust
20 SEMINAR (remains)*
21 NEOLITH (in hotel)*
22 TURRET (utter)* around R for king
25 SADHU [wiki] SAD + HU[ngarian]

11 comments on “Guardian 24,843 – Chifonie”

  2. I thought this was an excellent puzzle, with a very good selection of misleading words in the clues (chagen, spider, cool, banker, relish). One of those crosswords that looks much harder on first reading, but the lovely logical cluing allows the solutions to flow out nicely.

    For 29a, I also thought “man” could be read as “draughts piece”, a bit like “man” for be a chess piece.

    Nice to see “point” not being N,E,W or S for once :-).

  3. Just one small detail a skilled worker is a craftsman or an artisan or some such. There is no implication of skill with the word tradesman, although it obviously helps to have some! One example should suffice, Trotters Independent Traders. LOL!

  4. I enjoyed this too.

    29a: I agree with the above. Chambers gives “man” as “a piece used in playing chess, draughts, etc”, and “draught” as “a thick disc used in the game of draughts”.

    And I was also thrown by “point” in 26a, initially convinced that the word had to start with N, S, E or W. 🙂

  5. Many thanks, manehi.

    A wonderful crossword which was enjoyably challenging without any obscure or foreign words.

    Although I entered EPICURE at 8d, I couldn’t figure out how it worked until I saw your explanation. This and 5a LAMPREY were the last two that I entered.

    More of the same, please, Chifonie. You are for real and certainly no fonie.

  6. Derek, to be fair, Chambers gives “trade” as “an occupation, especially skilled but not learned”, and “tradesman” as “a shopkeeper; a skilled worker; a mechanic”.

  7. And you haven’t come across shopkeepers who are skill free zones? Lucky man! It’s just an amusing little point. The phrase skilful worker should have implied a greater likelyhood of the worker actually being skillful. I just thought it amusing.

  9. Thanks, manehi. I got into this one quite easily, then soon saw why Chifonie is rated as ‘hard’. The righthand side of the puzzle took me quite a time and a fair few hits of the check button. But, as others have pointed out, this was very enjoyable, with no obscure words and lots of clever, devious surfaces.

    14ac reminded me of the ‘Thames Tradesmen’, a rowing eight who used to compete at the Henley Regatta and who we used to support rather noisily!

    19ac was my favourite too and 8dn made me laugh when I eventually got it.

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