Guardian 25,810 – Pasquale

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It has been a long time since I last blogged The Don who remains faithfully Ximenean and fair in his clues. Today’s offering is just as entertaining and delightful as expected.

This weekend, I shall be making a trip with my siblings to visit the house where our late father was born in Fuchien, PRC in 1910. Due to uncertain wi-fi reach in the village, I will not be able to make my usual Tuesday appearance next week. Phil Ashling has kindly agreed to stand in for me.

Hold cursor over any clue number to read the clue.

Across
1 SHEBANG SHE (the woman) BANG (explode) which reminds me of WILLIAM HUNG, the student who created a sensation when auditioning for American Idol in 2004. Worth viewing when you need a laugh 🙂
5 HABITAT Ins of A BIT (somewhat limited) in HAT (Derby)
9 ADEPT A DEPT (department, small part of organisation)
10 PERISCOPE PERI’S COPE – Peri being a fairy in Persian mythology
11 METACARPUS Cha of MET (came across) A CARP (fish) USE (USE minus E, indicated by less) for the set of bones from wrist to fingers
12 SLUR dd
14 PACKED LUNCH Lacked punch (didn’t include spicy drink) per William Archibald SPOONER (1844–1930) that famous Oxford don whose name is given to this absolutely delightful linguistic phenomenon.
18 IMPENITENCE *(PET NINE MICE)
21 TELL dd allusion to William TELL, the Swiss archer said to have shot an apple placed on top of his son’s head
22 SECRETAIRE *(CAREERIST) + E (last letter of escape) for a cabinet folding out to form a writing desk, an escritoire.
25 EDUCATION *(TO A DUNCE I) Nice &littish surface
26 GRACE dd W. G. Grace, (1848–1915) famous English cricketer
27 SHELTIE SHELTER (sanctuary) minus ER (hesitation) + IE (   id est, that is) for a Shetland pony.
28 PATIENT Ins of I (The Don making a Hitchcock-like appearance) in PATENT (clear) and of course we know the JOB of the Old Testament whose faith & endurance through almost endless suffering and tribulation has made his name as synonymous with patience.
Down
1 SMARMY SM (SMALL minus ALL, everyone) ARMY (host)
2 EJECTA The answer is simple enough, given the crossing letters but the wordplay is best summarised by NeilW, E (last letter of the) + ins of C (maximum speed, speed of light) in JET (plane) + A (first letter of Alps) for matter thrown out, esp by volcanoes.
3 ANTICIPANT *(PANIC STATIONS minus SOS)
4 GAPER ha
5 HERCULEAN Ins of *(CLUE) in HE (the fellow) RAN (managed) for something as difficult as Hercules’s twelve tasks
6 BISH RUBBISH (nonsense) minus RUB
7 TOOTLING Ins of L (left) in TOOTING, a South London district
8 THEARCHY Ins of ARCH (roguish) in THEY (those people) rule or government by a god or gods, theocracy; a body of divine rulers.
13 SLEEP TIGHT Ins of EEP + T (rev of T, time and PEE, water as in urine) in *(LIGHTS) Another surface that gives a fitting imagery
15 CATHERINE CAT *(ACT) + HER (that woman) + IN + E (last letter of castle)
16 MISTRESS Ins of TRES (very in French) in MISS (regret the absence of)
17 APPLAUSE Intertwine of A PL (a PLAY) PAUSE (break) Lovely &lit
19 PILATE Sounds like PILOT (guide) for Pontius Pilate, the Roman official who washed his hands and went along with the crowd’s wish to crucify Jesus Christ
20 DETEST DEN (endless study) TEST (examinsation)
23 RUN-UP RU (Rugby Union, game) NUP (rev of PUN, attempt at humour)
24 PART P (piano) ART (technique) for Pärt Uusberg (born 1986), Estonian composer and conductor or more probably for Arvo Pärt , according to NeilW

Key to abbreviations

dd = double definition
dud = duplicate definition
tichy = tongue-in-cheek type
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(FODDER) = anagram

28 comments on “Guardian 25,810 – Pasquale”

  3. Sorry about that. It seems you can only post a snippet at time…

    Thanks, UY. Unusually easy for the Don but very enjoyable nonetheless.

    A couple of points:

  9. Hi NeilW
    When I logged in this morning I found that eight of your comments had been intercepted as spam. I have no idea why the first one had been treated this way but the subsequent repeats are understandable.

    The site was running very slowly yesterday evening and comments were taking a long time to appear so it may be a case that you repeated a comment before the first one had been fully processed.

    Hopefully we will not have this sort of problem after the move to a new server next Sunday.

  10. Thanks Uncle Yap and Pasquale
    Very enjoyable. Held up for a while as I had made a good case for JETSAM for 2dn (JET + MS “maximum speed” over or “up” around top of Alps!).
    Favourite PATIENT

  11. I meant to add that I had only previously come across “Sheltie” referring to the sheepdog, but the pony is there too in Chambers.
    Also EJECTA is in fact much better than JETSAM! I like the scientifically-aware c (lower-case) for “maximum speed”.

  13. A rare occasion on which I completed a Pasquale – however, I still can’t be enthusiastic about them. Thanks UY.

    At 15d I took “cruel act” to be CAT (of nine tails), but I am sure you are right.

  14. Thanks, UY. Enjoyed this one, and pleased to get it all out, because I often find Pasquale a bit too tricky. I thought EJECTA was a good clue, and also PACKED LUNCH, although I’m not usually a fan of Spoonerism clues.

    But the surface for 5ac? Puhleese! Quixote is off my invitation list for the 2013 Derby S&B event, for sure … (Actually it’s probably got an &litish quality, so we’ll say no more.)

    Good puzzle, thank you to the Don.

  15. Thanks UY

    Straightforward Pasquale – only PILATE held me up a bit.

    Repetition of ‘cope’ in clue and solution for 10a is uncharacteristically clumsy, but I enjoyed the Spoonerism at 14a. COD emphatically 5a (pace K’sD!)

  16. Thanks all
    A puzzle of two halves!
    The top was much too easy for a Guardian daily.
    The bottom had enough meat to geve me something solid to chew over and make the whole exercise just about worthwhile.
    Last in was ‘tell’.
    Favourite was 2d: ‘back of ‘the”,lovely.
    The Spoonerism was, unlike some recent examples, very clear and uncontestable.

  17. Thanks UY and Pasquale

    I enjoyed this puzzle which had a nice wide range of words but was not so hard as to discourage. I also enjoyed the wit in some clues which belied my more general impression of a certain dry efficiency in this expert setter.

    The generally excellent cluing made it feasible to solve more clues directly from the wordplay than is the case with some setters. I was a little surprised, however, to encounter as many as five clues where there were instructions to remove bits of words in order to reach the answer (27a, 1d, 3d, 6d, 20d). I was also a little disappointed with the repetition of ‘cope’ in clue and answer to 10a.

    I ticked 14a, 28a, 13d, 16d, and 20d.

    I too assumed the Estonian was Arvo Part (with an umlaut). Umlauts actually matter a great deal phonemically in languages like Estonian and Finnish where they indicate different though related vowels from their un-umlauted forms which are not only differently pronounced but may also mark off quite distinct words from those otherwise spelt the same.

  18. Apologies for COPE — an unintended oversight. Note to contributors here and on GU: apologising for enjoying some aspect of a Pasquale puzzle is not mandatory!

  19. Thanks Pasquale; as RCW says, the top half was fairly straightforward but the bottom, especially the SW corner gave me some problems. I, too, think that a simple synonym for ‘cope’ would have improved the surface of 10.

    Thanks UY; I think 15 [&lit?] may be a reference to Catherine of Aragon: ‘Catherine went to live at The More castle in the winter of 1531/32; In 1535 she was transferred to Kimbolton Castle.’

    I especially liked PATIENT and also enjoyed HABITAT, SHELTIE, SMARMY and EJECTA.

  22. 13d, very good. Didn’t manage to finish (rarely do with Pasquale), but I wasn’t helped by having JETSAM, and AGAPE along from it (reading the clue properly would have helped).

  23. Thanks, Pasquale – I enjoyed your puzzle x

    Thanks, too to Uncle Yap and hope you enjoy your journey into nostalgia at the weekend. x

    I don’t usually enjoy Spoonerisms but this one made me smile. I also liked image of meeting a carp that was useless!

    Giovanna x

  24. Thanks to UY for the blog. You explained why I was right with HABITAT.

    On 2d I thought of JETSAM but refrained from entering it because I was quite unable to say why. In due course I managed EJECTA which I did write in.

  25. Thanks Pasquale and Uncle Yap.

    Busy day for me today, so I’ve only been able to tackle the Don in fits and starts. Pleasing to finish and I enjoyed the wide variety of clueing – some straightforward and some playful. Last in for me was the ADEPT / EJECTA cross – thought the latter very good indeed.

  27. NB “u/s” means “unserviceable” (Chambers), hence the “useless” in 11a. The other parsing really wouldn’t be like Pasquale!

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