The Guardian No 25,463 / Chifonie

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Sorry for the late blog, I’ve just got back from seeing my husband off for his first session of radiotherapy. I’ll do the puzzle as quickly as I can and write up a quick one.

 

Across
1 GAME PLAN A good start – I’d never heard of GAMELAN. Insert P for the answer
5 GRAPPA RAP in GP + A
9 THIN ON TOP THIN + ON TOP
11 COROT CO + ROT
12 DIRECT ACTION DIRECT + ACTION
15 ARID Hidden in KalahARI Desert
16 LAWN TENNIS *LENIN WASN’T
18 SALMONELLA ELLA after SALMON
19 SAKE Double definition
21 FRANK SINATRA FRANK + *ARTISAN
24 VOILA OIL in V&A
25 EXHIBITED EXITED round HI + B
26 RAGGED G in RAGED
27 GREATEST *RAGE + TEST
Down
1 GUTS *TUGS?
2 MAID I in MAD
3 PROFIT PRO+ FIT
4 AT THE SAME TIME *MEAT EMITS HEAT
6 RECYCLED RED around CYCLE
7 PERSIAN CAT SIÂN + C in pert
8 ASTONISHED *A DISHONEST
10 PATENT LEATHER *THE TEA PLANTER
13 LASSA FEVER S + SAFE in LAVER
14 MISLEADING MI’S + LEADING
17 BOOKCASE BOOK + CASE + cd.
20 ARABIA AB in ARIA
22 STYE STY + E
23 EDIT <TIDE 🙂

*anagram

Hold mouse over clue number to see clue, click a solution to see its definition.

31 comments on “The Guardian No 25,463 / Chifonie”

  1. Sorry to hear that, Stella. My best wishes to your husband. Don’t worry about the blog – it shouldn’t take you very long as the puzzle’s pretty straightforward.

  5. Gosh, that was quick, Stella! Reflecting the level of difficulty, I guess. Chifonie must have known you’d be pressed for time. A lot of this, I’m afraid was “Quick Quiptic” stuff but I did like 24!

  6. Thanks all for your best wishes. He was summoned at short notice, as a place suddenly opened up – but he has to travel 200 km. daily!

    I didn’t want to waste time writing in comments, but I did quite enjoy this, as much as lack of time would allow, and I’m grateful to Chifonie for making the clue structures quite straightforward, even though there were a couple of words that were new to me – the one I’ve already mentioned, and LAVER.

    With more time, I’d have included a couple of links, for example to COROT, as I’m very fond of Impressionist paintings.

  7. Fairly gentle puzzle, but entertaining.

    Thanks, Stella for the blog, and best wishes to your husband.

    I think 1d is a dd and you have missed the ‘A’ in the CA of PERSIAN CAT.

    GAMELAN is a nice word; I must remember it for Scrabble.

  8. I believe 1d is a straightforward dd – OED online (for instance) gives “disembowel” as a particular case of draw: “take or obtain from a receptacle”. As in “Hanged, drawn and quartered”

  9. Thanks, Stella – and best wishes to all.

    Very straightforward but beautifully clued puzzle, which I enjoyed a lot (while it lasted!). Good range of vocabulary, but nothing too recondite – I have never tasted the (in)famous LAVER but I have enjoyed GAMELAN concerts.

    Last in was 19a – four letter words, eh? Nice non-homophonic dd, though.

  10. Thanks Stella and best wishes to you and your husband. It can’t be easy to have to travel so far on top of everything.

    This was all very straightforward, I thought — failed to parse 7dn, but otherwise no problems. Quite a few nice surfaces.

    Thanks to my husband’s wide-ranging musical tastes, I had heard of Gamelan.

  13. Thanks all (especially in light of unfortunate circumstances).
    To quote:
    “pretty straightforward”, “not take long”, “quick….not take long”, “quick,reflection of levelof difficulty”, “Quick Quiptic”, “very straightforward”.
    Need I add more.

  15. I think 14 down should be parsed “M is leading”, where M is the security agency chief of James Bond fame.

  16. Best wishes to your husband Stella.

    Thanks for the blog as you explained a couple of cases where I did not manage to parse them.

  17. Thanks Stella. May I also add my best wishes to you and your family at this time.

    I remember GAMELAN from the children’s early days when one was brought to their school and all the kids were allowed to ‘have a go’. There’s also a fine example at the sbc.

  18. David, in Stella’s understandable absence: “chief” is LEADING – I understand your idea about M but your version would need “deceptive” to supply LEADING and the whole clue to be an &lit.

  20. Thanks Stella

    An enjoyable puzzle although I did take a while over the bottom left corner. Kicked myself when I eventually saw FRANK SINATRA.

  21. Thanks all for your good wishes. He’s on his way home now. More tomorrow.

    Thanks also for explaining 1d. – though my version could (barely) have worked 🙂

    Quite right, robi@7, on this occasion “about” is ‘ca.’, not just ‘c.’

  23. gasmanjack, it’s “check” = EDIT and “overflow” is, as Stella says, a reversal of TIDE, “flow.” You might also take it as an &lit as an editor will reduce verbosity. (As should probably be done to this post!) 🙂

  26. Simple and well-clued puzzle, which I enjoyed, but also a reminder that there are more important things in life than crosswords. My best wishes too.

  29. Thanks Stella – just right for you in the circumstances. Hope all goes well for you all.

    Like NeilW @5, I enjoyed 24a. Voila made me smile and reminded me that I hope the olives will yield some good oil in the next few weeks.

    Giovanna

  31. Morning Ian.

    It’s ‘plain’ in the sense of ‘direct’, like in ‘plain speaking’; and the legal sense of ‘suit’, as in to bring an action against someone in court (more commonly heard in ‘lawsuit’, I guess).

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