Guardian 26,003 / Paul

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Lots of fun and games today – not all to do with solving / parsing the puzzle! Technical problems at the Guardian made providing the clues for the blog a little more problematic than my usual cut and paste job, so please excuse any typos.

Anyway, to the puzzle: I found it hugely enjoyable, with some super constructions and wordplay and the almost obligatory bit of  Pauline schoolboy humour. And I’m still rather stunned at the brilliance of 27,18,10 [wrongly numbered in the paper, to add to the confusion]. Many thanks, Paul, for such a great start to the day!

Across

1 Computer puzzling no work for a monkey
MACAQUE
MAC [computer] + [op]AQUE [puzzling] minus op [work]

5 Channels being employed on board
SINUSES
IN USE [being employed] in SS [‘on board’]

9 Scrubber taking a plonker from behind
LOOFA
Reversal [from behind] of A FOOL [a plonker]

11 Conventional way, say, to find 2 of 4, perhaps?
SQUARE ROOT
SQUARE [conventional] + ROOT [sounds like {say} route – way]

14 Blooming quality not as good among delicate seamless fringes
FLOWERINESS
LOWER [not as good] in FINE [delicate] + SS [‘seamless fringes’]

21 One’s blown old plane in half
OBOE
O [old] + BOE[ing] [plane]

22 Choppy sea more confused, we hear, in part of England
EAST ANGLIA
Anagram [choppy] of SEA + T ANGLIA [sounds like {we hear} tanglier – more confused]

25 Establishment of Rome not entirely anti-revolutionary
FORMATION
Anagram [revolutionary] of OF ROM[e] ANTI

26,12 Jay catching birds beginning to warble seasonal song
LET IT SNOW
LENO [Jay] round [catching] TITS [birds] + W[arble]
[I was going to say that this is not a very seasonal song at the moment, then read in Wikipedia that it was written on one of the hottest days on record.]

27,18,10 President taking circuitous line in consultation with me, I’m stretched out, tired and exhausted
LINCOLN CONTINENTAL LIMOUSINE
A clue of which Araucaria might be proud, I think: LINCOLN [president] + anagram [circuitous] of LINE IN CONSULTATION and ME: it took me a minute or two to see the full definition and I laughed out loud when I did – an American car would have ‘tires’ and an exhaust and thus be ‘tired and exhausted’ – me too!

28 Third wife has to be extra watchful, they say
SEYMOUR
Sounds like [they say] ‘see more’ [be extra watchful] for Henry VIII’s third wife, Jane

Down

1 Attack underground workers heading for tunnel
MOLEST
MOLES [underground workers] + T[unnel]

2 Taking credit and responsibility, he brought up his children
CRONUS
CR [credit] + ONUS [responsibility]
This one made me laugh: if you don’t know the story [there are several versions] you can find it here.
Cronus, the Titan who ruled the earth during the Golden Age, was fearful of a prophecy that he would be overthrown by one of his children [he had overthrown his own father, Uranus] and so ate them all, as they were born. Zeus managed to survive, through a trick of his mother, and forced Cronus to regurgitate [bring up!] his siblings. Charming lot, these Greek gods.

3 Four leaflets for it, equal after distribution
QUATREFOIL
Anagram [after distribution] of FOR IT EQUAL

4 Mathematician starts to expand upon Lagrange’s extraordinary results
EULER
First letters [starts to] of Expand Upon lagrange’s Extraordinary Results

5 Dozy trio of neighbouring characters screened by Hampshire channel
SOMNOLENT
MNO [trio of neighbouring characters] in [screened by] SOLENT [Hampshire channel]

6 Sense the superpower’s gone then?
NOUS
NO US [superpower]

7 More slight risk with nine labours
SKINNIER
Anagram [labours] of RISK and NINE

8 Budgerigars, perhaps, rising like owls in flight?
STEPWISE
Reversal [rising] of PETS [budgerigars perhaps] + WISE [like owls]

13 Part below zero literally empty, however
WILLY NILLY
WILLY [part below!] + NIL [zero] + L[iterall]Y

15 Time alternative cases in process
OPERATION
ERA [time] in OPTION [alternative]

16 Small number of hens, you might say, for an ice cream serving?
SCOOPFUL
S [small] COOPFUL [number of hens]

17 Joiner taking gold fled from the country
ANDORRAN
AND [joiner] + OR [gold] + RAN [fled]

19 Drunk left in the end, cut short
BLOTTO
L [left] in BOTTO[m] [end cut short]

20 Beam first on roof then
RAFTER
R [first letter of Roof] + AFTER [then]

23 Beer container is capital
TUNIS
TUN [beer container] + IS

24 Held up by hook, a monster shark
MAKO
Hidden reversal [held up] in hoOK A Monster

30 comments on “Guardian 26,003 / Paul”

  1. Thanks Eileen and Paul
    Easy enough to finish, but parsing was a different matter! In fact two or three I gave up on and came here instead (including the long one – I had missed the significance of “tired and exhausted”).
    Very enjoyable.

  2. I found this puzzle quite difficult but it was an enjoyable challenge all the same. The clues that I particularly liked were 11a, 22a, 19d, 28a, 8d, 6d & 21a (last in).

    New word for me was PLONKER.

    Thanks for the blog, Eileen. I also had missed the significance of “tired and exhausted” in the long clue. It was already impressive as a very long anagram, but I think it is now my favourite clue of the day.

  3. Great crossword from Paul and thanks for the blog. Loved 27,18,10 which includes “stretched out” as well as “tired and exhausted” (although that may be implicit in the blog) – very clever.

    I can almost hear Paul chuckling as he decided instead to go for “birds” in the clue for 26,12.

  5. Thanks Eileen and Paul

    Enjoyable stuff with echoes of young schoolboy titters in the S.E. corner.

    I particularly liked 1a, 5a, 11a, 7d, 13d and 16d. I kept trying to make sense of ‘florescence’ for 14a but got there in the end.

    27 etc was reminiscent of L. Truss’s ‘panda’.

  6. Hi tupu

    “I kept trying to make sense of ‘florescence’ for 14a but got there in the end.” Me too. 😉

  7. Thanks, Eileen. As you say, some brilliant clues in today’s puzzle.

    Good old grauniad: include a misprint on the day the online puzzle’s not working!

  8. Thanks for the blog, Eileen. Great clue for the limo! The one I couldn’t parse today was 13dn — ‘part below’ indeed! 🙂

    Very enjoyable puzzle from Paul.

  9. A hugely enjoyable puzzle, as you have all said, with plenty of Paul’s trademark smuttiness. I did the same as Eileen and was held up slightly at 14ac by trying to parse “florescence” before I concentrated on the wordplay and came up with the correct, and more straightforward, FLOWERINESS. The “stretched out, tired and exhausted” element of the long clue was superb, although I have to admit that I didn’t bother to deconstruct the wordplay beyond LINCOLN=president.

  10. Thanks, Eileen

    Great fun, with a welcome return for the schoolboy humour (some of Paul’s recent crosswords have been positively prissy).

    A lot of good clues here; 27,18,10 (and the mis-numbering did throw me at first) is a classic in every sense! And a lot of smiles, not least for 2d, referring to the myth depicted in characteristically grisly manner by Goya (the kids were all immortals, of course, so there was no permanent harm done; in some versions of the story it is made explicit that CRONUS swallowed them whole).

  11. Thanks Eileen. Some classy stuff from Paul, really good. Got LIMOUSINE long before the rest of the answer, with the parsing – and the chuckle – later still. No aids needed, except to read up on CRONUS – what the setter meant by ‘brought up’ did occur to me on first reading.

  12. Great fun thank you Paul and Eileen. Laugh out loud (not good in a shared office) was, of course, 13d.

  13. Thanks Paul and Eileen.

    Lovely stuff. Just enough bite to keep you on your toes, just enough give to avoid it becoming a slog, and plenty of solutions with an “a-ha!” moment.

    I reckon my 13 year old son probably knows more about the Greek Gods and the Titans than me through the Percy Jackson series (excellent – highly recommended to anyone who struggles to get their progeny off the PlayStation and into a book) but just enough had rubbed of for me to remember Kronos and speculate that there was almost certainly an alternative spelling.

    As for the long ‘un – blatantly, unashamedly and brilliantly Araucarian.

  15. Great puzzle as always from Paul. I got LINCOLN CONTINENTAL LIMOUSINE but started from the wrong end – I thought it must be the car the ‘President’s taking’ (i.e. his official limo), but then couldn’t parse it. Such is life.

    Couldn’t get STEPWISE, and still don’t really see what the definition is.

  16. drofle @15
    I think STEPWISE refers to a “flight” of stairs, but I agree that it doesn’t seem to work perfectly.

  17. This took me most of a long train journey in France, convinced early on, like others, that 10 must be LIMOUSINE but getting no further as there was no def part that meant ‘car’. But then CONTINENTAL fitted and so … then the brilliance of the clue hit me.

    Had to share it with Mrs Trailman of course. We also shared a quiet snigger over 13 part one, reckoning that the argot was lost on our neighbours, but who knows.

  18. The same mistake was in the online puzzle and pdf versions. I suspect that was what caused the technical problems as the clue links wouldn’t be correct. Then they realised what they had done and it suddenly appeared in corrected form at http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords/cryptic/26003

    I did nothing, it just seemed to appear! (Did I hit refresh? Can’t remember, don’t think so.)

    But now I can’t find any link to it on the website, even though the link above still works and the crossword works!

    Confused? Add me to the list!

  19. 19 down BLOTTO is ridiculous. Tedious, pedantic, and annoying. Bottom isn’t end.
    Sheesh!
    Hilton

  24. Thanks Paul and Eileen. Lovely puzzle: I can’t understand some of the negativity above. I needed you to explain ‘exhausted’ and ‘tired’ – brilliant.

    Also nice to get two famous mathematicians into a clue, especially given the existence of the ‘Euler-Lagrange’ equations. Thanks again.

  25. Back to a good old Paul.

    Nice steady progress but held up by my total lack of car knowledge! Never heard of a Lincoln Continental Limousine! (In fact I’ve probably never heard of at least half of the current models on the road in the UK). I saw limousine would fit bit was bizarrely thrown by the fact that the crossing letters meant that “PRESIDENTAL” would fit at 18A!!! Didn’t help that my trawl through remembered presidents missed LINCOLN.

    Anyway got there in the end. Looking forward to the complaints on here regarding the terrible smuttiness of this crossword. Great fun.

    Thanks to Eileen and Paul.

    It amazes me that the Grauniad IT crowd can have technical difficulties on the crossword page when they must know the content at least 1 day in advance and can easily test it!!! But what do I know as I only worked in IT for 30 years.

    Looks to me like the whole shebang is dynamically generated on the hoof. (Very 21st century and very dodgy!)

  26. Superb Paul at his best! But the long clue had me beaten – was trying to justify ‘unknown continental languages’!

  27. Thanks Paul for a brilliant end to a brilliant day and lucky Eileen for getting to do such a fun blog.

    Good to see the humour back, Paul.

    Liked the Paulisms at 9ac and 13d.

    Like others, I struggled to get beyond florescence.

    Giovanna x

  29. Hilton, “bottom” and “end” were clearly and canonically synonymised by MPFC when an arrow at a “bottom” during a charades-like farce resulted in “the end” being the answer, in unison.

    Fantastic puzzle. The Grauniad is on a roll recently. Just one great puzzle after another, at just my “difficulty level”.

    At 28,18,10, the aha! came late – I had noticed that “LIMOUSINE” could fit 10, when suddenly I realized all that stuff about being tired (not tyred!) and emotional was the definition. When I was but a wee lad in Wales I had a Corgi replica of one!

    Great blog, Eileen, and wonderful entertainment, Paul!

    PS, Brendan (nto), yes, the dynamic generation is why they were able to stop charging subscriptions for the puzzle a few years back. I think.

  30. Huw, I have just seen your comment.

    Regarding the dynamic generation, it actually never occurred to me that the removal of the subscription was down to the “new technology”! I used to work abroad and consequently subscribed to both The Times and Guardian crossword sections.

    However it must be feasible to write an application that Hugh or somebody can run earlier than the publication date to check that the crossword to be published is the crossword that was submitted/edited? Unless of course, as I suspect, this is all cobbled together using the wonderful world of Object Oriented! Possibly their Java or whatever mumbo jumbo they are enslaved to doesn’t have a “method” to allow this and nobody has the nerve/skill to impose one 🙂

    I would be happy to have a subscription if this would enable them to update the site and bring all the puzzles to the same standard. (Plus improve the existing model which although good has several annoying niggles!). I do also suspect that a reason for the non subscription was lack of takers so this might not happen.

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