Guardian 25,995 by Shed

by

Quite a straightforward puzzle with few twists and turns. Entertaining, as usual

Across

1 Turn universal desire into artistic medium (7) GOUACHE Cha of GO (turn) U (universal) ACHE (desire) for watercolour painting with opaque colours, mixed with water, honey and gum, presenting a matt surface

5 Vessel’s unusually dark brown, previously (7) TANKARD TAN (brown) + *(DARK)

10 Take it easy, having recounted sexual conquests (4) LAZE Sounds like LAYS

11 Pack clerical garment into total nerd’s collection? (5,5) STAMP ALBUM Ins of TAMP (pack) + ALB (priest’s long white sleeved vestment) in SUM (total)

12 Beam about impediment to love (6) LINTEL Rev of LET (impediment as in a game of squash) NIL (love as in the same game) for timber or stone over a doorway or window.

13 Relative — nephew, cousin, husband? — starts to loosen up (8) UNCLENCH UNCLE (relative) + first letters of Nephew Cousin & Husband

14 Boatman’s song — something sung in nude? (9) BARCAROLE Ins of CAROL (something sung) in BARE (nude) for a gondolier’s song

16 Like backing Norse god or Greek one (5) SATYR SA (rev of AS, like) + TYR (old Norse war god)

17 Cellar-bound (5) VAULT dd

19 Crawler to yield, adopting opponents’ advice (9) CENTIPEDE Ins of EN (East & North, opponents at bridge) + TIP (advice) in CEDE (yield)

23 Clue to foster-child’s disadvantage? (8) DRAWBACK A reversed clue where the answer can be a reversal clue for WARD (foster-child)

24 Tenor’s heart gets put into temperamental solo (6) MONODY Ins of N (middle letter of tenor) in MOODY (temperamental) for (in Greek tragedy) a mournful ode or poem performed by a single mourner

26 One undertaking to fiddle with agricultural equipment (10) CONTRACTOR Cha of CON (fiddle) TRACTOR (agricultural equipment)

27 Repair oath (4) DARN dd

28 Jump across 51 illumin­ated after dusk (7) STARLIT Ins of LI (51 in Roman numeral) in START (jump)

29 The French king filling Paris, perhaps, with brightness (7) CLARITY Ins of LA (French definite article) + R (Rex, king) in CITY (Paris, perhaps)

Down

2 Reconstructed source of Aztec or Inca instrument (7) OCARINA *(Aztec OR INCA)

3 Obviate, or declare, time (5) AVERT AVER (declare) + T (time)

4 Solicitor breaking the rules, lacking energy (7) HUSTLER *(THE RULES minus E, energy)

6 Face muscle, in a way (6) ASPECT Ins of PEC (pectoral muscle) in A ST (street, way)

7 Wicked program in which 9 character absorbs sick end of tape (6,3) KILLER APP Ins of ILL (sick) + E (end of tape) in KRAPP,  eponymous hero of Krapp’s Last Tape, a play by Samuel Beckett (answer to 9) A “killer app” is jargon in the computer industry for an application program that intentionally or unintentionally gets you to make the decision to buy the system the application runs on.

8 Erotic fish consuming meal topless (7) RAUNCHY Ins of LUNCH (meal topless) in RAY (fish)

9 Writer badly mauled (but not dead) getting signal to enter burrow (6,7) SAMUEL BECKETT Ins of AMUEL *(MAULED minus D) + BECK (signal) in SETT (a badger’s burrow)

15 Supply food, entertaining elderly women with adverse criticism (4,5) COLD WATER Ins of OLD (elderly) W (women) in CATER (supply food)

18 Irish river featuring in pictures of transport hub (7) AIRPORT Ins of IR (Irish) + PO (river) in ART (pictures)

20 Medic disturbing weary trainee with bit of percussion (7) TIMBREL Ins of MB (Bachelor of Medicine, doctor) in TIRE (weary) + L (learner, trainee) for an Oriental tabor or tambourine (percussion instrument)

21 Cheated and ran over thinker (7) DIDEROT DID (cheated) + rev of TORE (ran) for Denis Diderot (1713 – 1784) a French philosopher, art critic, and writer.

22 Some sausages à la Milanese? (6) SALAMI ha

25 Free an upturned bottom (5) NADIR Rev of RID (free) + AN

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
yfyap88 at gmail.com = in case anyone wants to contact me in private
about some typo

18 comments on “Guardian 25,995 by Shed”

  1. Thanks, UY. I didn’t find this all that easy but probably par for the Shed course. I particularly liked KILLER APP and STAMP ALBUM.

    I believe this is the second time Shed has not been preceded by Audreus. I hope she’s keeping well.

  2. Thanks Uncle Yap. A quickie, this, with some nice bits: I only vaguely knew 7d but the light doubly dawned with Krapp.

  3. It took me a while to get into the mood with this puzzle, and I needed to do some research on the internet to solve & parse 7d, but it turned out to be a fairly enjoyable solve in the end.

    I liked 22d, 9d, 7d, 23a, 14a & 10a and my favourite was 29a CLARITY (last in)

    New words for me today were Tyr, TIMBREL, MONODY.

    Thanks for the blog, Uncle Yap. I needed help to parse 11a.

  4. Thanks Shed and Uncle Yap
    Quite a quick solve, but entertaining. I liked LAZE in particular. I had to look up the god TYR, and I wondered whether satyrs were actually Greek gods, but it appears that their chief, Silenus, was regarded as a minor deity. TIMBREL also required looking up.
    Curiously I had tried (unsuccessfully) to fit “vault” into 28ac before solving 18ac.
    The “tape” in the clue for 7dn nudged me towards Krapp.

  5. I did wonder briefly if we were going to need to discuss whether Godot is actually a “character” in a Beckett work!

  6. Thanks, UY.

    Entertaining puzzle from Shed. Bizarrely, my first entry was BARCAROLE, just because my eyes lit on 14a when I turned the page. The rest was not so straightforward, but yielded steadily. I saw SAMUEL immediately, but it was KRAPP that finished off 9d for me – nicely linked clues, as muffin says.

    Favourites were the reverse clue at 23a and the &lit at 22d. 10a raised a smile; I was reminded of ribald jokes about Macaulay’s poetry cycle, ‘Lays of Ancient Rome’.

  7. Thanks UY and Shed

    An enjoyable puzzle. I had to guess ‘killer app’ (a clever clue)and did not know Tyr but the answer was clear. 13a and 23a particularly took my fancy at the time of seeing them. ‘Ocarina’ was also nice.

  8. Thanks to UY for the blog. You explained a couple where I had the right answer without understanding why.

    I liked DRAWBACK. (It reminded me of a favourite clue “Nommag(10)”).

    I am like muffin@4: I wondered if a SATYR is really a god. My misty memories of Greek legends say the satyrs were woodland creatures looking like a mixture of man and goat – but with no special powers such as a god would have.

  10. Lecherous woodlamd god, i have, so no problem with it. Re GODOT yes! That woulds have been fun!

    Greast stuff,
    Cheers
    Rowly (back indoors now).

  12. Performing a swift body-swerve, is there any news of Araucaria? I haven’t heard any, but the last crossword I can find seems to have been June 15, and a couple of weeks before that was the one that included the “I’m in hospital” clue, plus solutions including “Bear with me” and “Semicoma”. I am concerned!

    Thanks for the space

    Simon ô¿ô

  13. As I have probably said before, Shed is one of my favourite setters, and although there have certainly been more difficult puzzles of his, it was still a very good example of why I like him so much. When the answer is a word that isn’t exactly in everyday use, such as TIMBREL and MONODY, I find that his clues are very fair and I have learned to be very trustful of his wordplay. LINTEL was my LOI, and I thought 10ac was very Paulian.

  15. I know BACKGAMMON and I can spot SCRAMBLED EGGS but Chrise has me beaten. Please tell me the answer.

  16. Another good puzzle from Shed although the easiest I’ve seen from him.

    First pass gave most of the top half acrosses. Then working across the downs led very easily to KILLER APPS so 9d was a write in without even reading the clue.

    Only hold up after that was LINTEL

    Great clear cluing as usual.

    Thanks to UY and Shed

  18. chas @15

    It’s not a reverse anagram.
    Nor is it a reverse reversal.
    It’s a reverse homophone.
    And a reverse &lit.

    It’s UTTER BALLS.

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