Guardian 25,302 – Chifonie

by

My spooky synchronicity with Chifonie continues as I get another of his puzzles to blog. As usual it’s a pleasant enough solve (though with two examples of defining a place by “in X”, and a couple of other niggles), but not very challenging. There’s the usual high proportion of charades and easy anagrams.

 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. STRIPPER S + TRIPPER
5. SLAP-UP S + LAP UP
9. TOLERATE (RELATE TO)*
10. MARMOT MAR + reverse of TOM. The Marmots are a genus of the squirrel family that includes the groundhog.
12. RANGE ANGER*
13. RENASCENT (ANN ERECTS)*
14. GEORGE ORWELL E in GORGE + OR + WELL
18. EXPRESS TRAIN EXPRESS (indicate) + TRAIN (tutor, as a verb)
21. NO STRINGS (TORN SIGNS)*
23. FINIS Hidden in bafFIN ISland
24. TOLEDO LED in TOO
25. SEARCHER ARCH in SEER
26. RESENT [P]RESENT – with perhaps a nod to 1ac with the “topless show”
27. STREAMER R in STEAMER
 
Down
1. SATIRE SAT + IRE. I’m not sure how SAT = “met” or “met with”
2. RELENT RE (Royal Engineer) + LENT (advanced, as “lent money to”)
3. PERSEVERE PE + R + SEVERE. Second occurrence of Rex=R in this puzzle
4. ENTERPRISING ENTER (record) + P[easant’s] + RISING
6. LOADS LO (see!) + ADS (hoardings)
7. PAMPERED M[ark] in PAPERED
8. POT STILL POT (kitty) + STILL (as before)
11. IN RETROSPECT RETRO in INSPECT
15. REINFORCE REIN + FORCE
16. LEINSTER (SIREN LET)*
17. APOSTLES POST in ALES
19. ANTHEM AN + THE (articles) + M[entioned]
20. USURER U + SURER. A rather dodgy definition, I think: it would have to be “one having taken much interest”.
22. RADON DO (discharge, as in “do/discharge one’s duty”) in RAN

26 comments on “Guardian 25,302 – Chifonie”

  1. Thanks for the blog, Andrew.

    In 1dn, I think SAT = ‘met’ works with respect to, say, Parliament.

  2. Many thanks Andrew

    What a contrast to yesterday’s puzzle!

    Today’s must rank as one of the easiest ever.

    Rufus – please watch out I suspect that someone may be making a play for your Monday slot.

  3. Thank you Andrew. Jackdaws doing what they will in springtime caused this morning’s early start.

    This was pleasant romp after the Paul/Boatman struggles of late.

    I only had two gripes; and thank you Eileen for your ‘sat = met’ suggestion in 1d. The other was ‘discharge = do’ in 22d. Bit of a stretch, I thought.

    Slightly surprised at your queeziness over USURER. The whole clue points you to a person so I thought no need for the additional ‘one’ that you suggest.

    Any suggestions as to why mark = M? I’m aware it is crossword lore but have never really known why.

    Thanks again.

  4. Thanks Andrew and Chifonie

    A pleasant stroll, though I got held up for a minute or two in NE.

    I saw ‘sat’ as Eileen did. It would just about do with a ‘court’ or any committee.

    It took a minute for ‘do’ = discharge to become clear as in the example you give. A change from ‘party’.

    Rex = R twice a bit disappointing.

    Some pleasing clues esp. 9a – lovely surface. Also 14a, 7d, 8d. Usurer seemed reasonably OK to me without the ‘one’.

  7. Thanks Andrew. Good morning all.

    What a contrast to the previous two! Nonetheless, I much enjoyed solving this so that I can get out and enjoy the fine weather ‘here’ on the Lyme Bay Riviera.

    Both 24ac and 16dn would read better with the insertion of the word here. 10ac a bit loose I thought re Hurt/Mar.

    Liked the clues for 9ac for 14ac. Very good Chifonie.

  8. ‘M’ for Mark may be a theologians’ abbreviation. I have seen MML&J as shorthand for the canonical gospels.

  11. Thanks Andrew and Chifonie, this was enjoyable.

    From the department of foolish-solver-gets-the-right-answer-for-the-wrong-reason: When I solved “Scampered around discharge of gas” I already had R_D_N, so I thought “Aha, this looks like an anagram of around, indicated by Scampered.” Slightly unusual indicator, perhaps, but it seemed to work. Except of course Around has one letter too many. But never mind, the next word of the clue is “discharge” – clearly an instruction, as I thought, to discharge, or get rid of, a letter from around. I couldn’t see why it was instructing me to get rid of the U (obviously enough), but I did so anyhow, leaving me with Arond, which I then “scampered,” giving me RADON. Idiotic, I know, but it seemed to work, and indeed produced the right answer.

    Question to more experienced visitors here: do you ever have the experience of coming up with the right answer for completely the wrong reason? Thank you!

  12. Easy but generally enjoyable. I have solved harder Quiptics than this one, but newer solvers will have welcomed the chance to complete a daily cryptic, I’m sure.

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

  13. Thanks Andrew and Chifonie.

    This is the first puzzle I’ve had chance to tackle for a while; thankfully it was a relatively straightforward solve to ease my rusty brain back into crossword-land.

    No major complaints from me, although I agree that using Rex twice in the same puzzle was a bit disappointing—it’s not as though either clue was particularly enhanced by that rather poor (in my opinion) “R” indicator.

    I’m not quite sure why people are objecting to the two “in X” clues. I thought the wordplay in both made them pretty easy—perhaps that’s it: is the objection that they’re too easy?

    My favourites were 14a and 8d. I also quite liked 25a because I was previously unaware of the “shrewd” definition of “arch” and, as I’ve said before, I’m always pleased to learn something new.

  14. Thanks to andrew for the blog.

    I’m with Wanderer @11: 22d looked like an anagram of around with (somehow) the U removed.

    Another niggle: 14 has “dropping key” but actually the key was added.

    However when all is said I found it a fairly easy job.

    I wonder what is coming on Saturday?

  15. Thanks Chifonie and Andrew. Re chas @14: I believe we are dropping the key in the ravine. NE took longest for me also because SLAP-UP and POT STILL were unknown to me. But I do appreciate being educated.

    Cheers…

  17. chas @ 14. An Araucaria, I would imagine. Didn’t the Easter puzzles used to come out on Good Fridays?

  18. After yesterday’s brainbusting offering this was extremely easy with very few clues worthy of mention. All in all, a bit of a disdappointment.

  20. After a few months of solving I have managed a Telegraph, Times and FT without aids but never an Indie or Grauniad. In fact while I’ve got close with a Grauniad, I’ve never even got close with an Indie. Despite the comments at 2,16 & 18, I regret that I got no more than half out -not helped by failing with the anagrams at 9 & 13a. One day, one day.

  22. I always come late to the ball! No choice, sadly.

    Anyway….to chas at 14 – I read 14a as ‘dropping key in’ which would mean adding it to the ravine (gorge) and therefore quite acceptable. I do find the use of ‘key’ as an indicator to any letter from A – G a bit irritating though. Don’t quite know why.

    All in all a very easy one – looking forward to the weekend and a bit more of a challenge, I hope

  23. As K’s Dad pointed out, this was enjoyed by relative newcomers such as myself. Despite sensing that it was pretty straightforward, it was good to actually finish it – second one! Having had no luck at all with the last few crosswords in the G this was a welcome break from feeling totally lost 🙂

  24. An enjoyable enough solve, but one with some question marks:

    S=succeed (?)
    Well=shaft (?)
    Tutor`s=tutor (?)
    Finis (English ?)
    Sat=met (?)

    Not quite the sublime offering from Chifonie, but by no means ridiculous.

  25. Wanderer@11: I’m glad I’m not the only one who read it like that initially! I too saw it as an anagram of around losing u to give radon but didn’t understand why.

    It was nice to have a not so tough one today as the heat made it difficult to concentrate for me.

    9ac was easy but still liked the clue, as with 4d though needed crossing letters for it. Only real gripe was succeeded = s which I can’t rationalise.

  26. Hi Andvari. I believe ‘s’ is the abbreviation for ‘succeeded’ in the sense of succeeding to a title, position or property … probably used in family histories and legal/other documents. Has been found lurking in Crosswordland on a number of occasions !

Comments are closed.