Guardian 26,022 – Brummie

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This started off looking quite tricky, but I was lucky to guess the theme involved in the cross-references at 11a early. This let me fill in quite a lot of the grid, after which it wasn’t too hard to complete the rest.

I liked the way Brummie split up the names of the economists into their component parts, even though it made some of the answers write-tins, as I guessed the theme from NARD, and via MILTON KEYNES the rest followed quickly.

 
 
 
 
 
Across
8. IN MOTION IN (cool, fashionable) + [e]MOTION
9. FRIED I in FRED [Astaire]
11. ECONOMISTS E-CON (web fraud?) + S in OMITS; defined by the two examples (strongly contrasting, in their economic ideas) MILTON FRIEDMAN and JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES
12,22. MILTON KEYNES MILT (fish roe) ON (covering) KEY (vital) + reverse of SEN[ator]. I’d always thought that Milton Keynes (famed for its endless roundabouts and its concrete cows) was a city rather than a town, but it seems that despite a few attempts it hasn’t made it to city status so far
14. DEMIGODS [fa]I[r] in DODGEMS*.
16. PTOLEMY T in POLE (old measure of length) + M[ercur]Y. There are (at least) two famous Ptolemys – this one was a ruler of Egypt.
18. SYSTOLE S[ALL]Y (i.e. with “everything out”) + STOLE (loose wear). Systole describes a contraction of the heart, familiar from the Systolic and Diastolic measurements of blood pressure
21. SKI PANTS PANT (breath) in KISS*
23,10. DEPEND UPON UPENDED* + PON[y]
24. HYGROMETER GEOMETRY* in HR
26. NASH N[uclear] ASH – the war artist is (probably) Paul Nash (1889-1946)
27. EMEND Hidden in trEMENDously
28. PICAROON PI (sanctimonious) + A in CROON.A picaroon is a “person who lives by his or her wits; a cheat; a pirate” (and another Guardian crossword setter).
Down
1. UNSPOILT L in (SPIN OUT)*
2. JOHN First name of the poet MILTON, and slang for a prostitute’s client
3. PIGEON GEO (old(?) abbreviation of GEORGE) in PIN (stick)
4. INROADS Cryptic definition – if you make inroads into something then you reduce the amount of work needed
5. AFRO Hidden in leAF-ROof
6. LIVING IT UP LIVING (enough to get by) + I + reverse of PUT
7. EDITED DIET* in ED
13. TELEPORTED PETROL* in TEED (drove off, as in golf)
15. MAY Reverse of YAM
17,25. MAN-MADE MAN MAD (like an oversexed female) + E[lectronic]
19. LONG SHOT Double definition
20. ISOTOPE (PIES TOO)*
23. DIRECT DIRE (awful) + C[a]T (malign woman), definition “Frank”
26. NARD Hidden (the third hidden clue in this puzzle!) in luNAR Descent. A variant of Spikenard, which is a plant and an aromatic oil derived from it. Getting this element of the cross-refs for 11a helped me to guess the theme.

54 comments on “Guardian 26,022 – Brummie”

  1. Thanks Andrew and Brummie
    This didn’t flow at all for me (though I was trying to sort out a computer problem at the same time as doing it). I gave up on INROADS, DEPEND UPON and DIRECT (most blanks left for weeks).
    I did like the “split up” economists.

  2. Thanks, Andrew.

    MAY and NARD were two of my first four entries, so, like you, I was directed straight to the theme. I think I’ve seen a similar linking of these three men’s names before but it’s still very clever.

    The only one I struggled with was INROADS and I still don’t get it. Chambers: ‘make into inroads into – to make progress with, to use up large quantities’. I can’t see anything cryptic.

    I think my favourite today was MAN-MADE. Many thanks, Brummie.

  3. Thanks Andrew – funnily enough Maynard Keynes first name was John as well!
    We think the “old” Geo in 3d is how the name George used to be written in old documents – that abbrieviation is hardly used at all now.

  4. Thanks for the blog, Andrew. And thanks to Brummie for a good workout. My route in was 11ac, once I had a few crossing letters. Then I saw the reason for the inclusion of the relatively obscure NARD.

    I agree with Eileen re 4dn, which was my last one in.

  5. Re my comment 2: the first ‘into’ in the Chambers definition is, of course, redundant – apologies.

  7. Nice puzzle.

    Last in 4d after a long stare. First thought is that it’s a CD but really it’s not – it’s perfectly literal – just unexpected.

    If you go back to G puzzles from the late 50s (before my time – they’re in the yellow Penguin compilation books) you got that sort of thing. Not only unindicated anagrams etc and CDs but out of the blue just a straight def.

    After several attempts to crunch a wordplay out of it there’s still a PDM to be had – but prolly not something to be done too often.

  8. There might be a third John economist hidden in there, John Nash. I don’t know if that was intentional on Brummie’s part, or just a nice coincidence (after all, Nash wasn’t a political economist like Keynes or Friedman, he was basically just a mathematician whose work happened to have massive consequences for economics).

  9. Thanks Andrew. Like you and others, the theme jumped out for me from MAY and NARD; the rest was pretty good; and INROADS was last, worrying, and still is.

  10. Crunched this with my computer’s help. Good setting to fit in all the partial names.

    Thanks Andrew; in 28 is the ‘one’ an ‘a?’ I thought this equivalence was somewhat frowned upon.

    It may just be a coincidence but as well as ECONOMISTS, there seem to be a few poets lurking – JOHN MILTON, Ogden NASH, Andrew MOTION, PTOLEMY [just about,] Thomas MAY.

  11. MAY and NARD were among my first in but with no indication that the two words should be run together I could make nothing of them until I guessed 11a from three crossing letters (two of which were from other guesses waiting to be tested).

    I wonder if Guardian cluing is becoming more clever or if it is just my brain going the other way. The 50s were before my time but certainly in the 80s I could solve whole puzzles from the clues. These days I’m increasingly having to treat the “cryptic” puzzle as a rather slow “quick” one!

  12. … not sure in 4d why in the [cryptic?] definition, ‘make’ was not used instead of ‘made.’ For cryptic purposes I would have thought the answer was begging to be separated into ‘IN ROADS’………..

  13. Hi David Mop @11

    “MAY and NARD were among my first in but with no indication that the two words should be run together I could make nothing of them”

    The indication is in the clue to 11ac:

    Web fraud? Excludes taking in society, as exemplified by 12 9 17 and 2 *15 26 down* 22 (10)

  14. I think “made” is right in 4d rather than “make”. It’s passive not active. [Inroads are] made to reduce one’s workload. This was my last clue too, but I had no complaints once I’d got it.

  15. I do not understand that one 4D very well. Yes, ‘these are’ made to et c, but why is it cryptic??? Rufus would have been caned for it, I am SURE! An interesting work-out today, thanks Brimmie and Andrew.

  16. I’m yet another with INROADS last. A very Rufusy clue; the problem, perhaps, is that it’s unexpected here.

    Couldn’t parse 13d as I thought it was something to do with an anag of PETROLREVVED minus DROVE so I kept trying to stick a V in till I run out of options. Thanks Andrew.

  17. A real struggle to start with, but I also got the theme fairly quickly and then it was plain sailing except for INROADS, which I gave up on. PICAROON and SYSTOLE were particularly good clues.

  18. Eileen @2 – the Milton, Friedman, Keynes link was used about a year ago in 25714 by Picaroon. Different treatment of course.

  19. Eileen @13. Thanks for taking the trouble to explain. However, until I got 11a, I did not know that the cross-references were to two names of two and three words, rather than two phrases of three and four words!

  20. In 4d, I thought the surface reading depended on the use of made to in the sense of get ready to, e.g. made to leave. So it’s a CD really, but the cryptic reading seems to stand out more than the surface one. Quite Rufus-like in that his CDs often have the same quality.

  24. Also, thankyou phitonelly @@ 20. I am still ‘chewing over’ that one, but it is nice to get your input.

    R

  25. Thanks Andrew and Brummie

    I finsihed this this pm after a first stab this morning which left me with the NW mostly unfilled.

    ‘Inroads’ was my penultimate answer with 8a my last. Like others I was puzzled by 4d but it does make simple sense. It is reminiscent of a Rufus-style CD, where one is tempted to read the surface differently as ‘forced to do less work’.

    I found it hard to get into Brummie’s mindset in places though it was a great help to get the clever minitheme. Overall an enjoyable puzzle.

  26. Thanks, rhotician @18.

    Hi David Mop @19

    I hope my comment @13 didn’t appear patronising – far from the intention! What I do with clues like 11ac is to draw myself a series of dashes to correspond with the enumeration and fill in the letters as I get them. As I said, MAY and NARD were among my very few first clues, so the name leapt out at me. [I didn’t have the JOHN at that point – I didn’t know the ‘sex client’ definition!]

    Thanks, tupu @25: “It is reminiscent of a Rufus-style CD, where one is tempted to read the surface differently as ‘forced to do less work’.” That does make [simple] sense.

  27. Phitonelly@20

    I should have acknowledged your comment which is basically the same as my own @25 re Rufus but with a different surface reading – though I prefer ‘made to’ as ‘forced or compelled to’ rather than as ‘ready to’.

    Eileen @26
    Thanks. I am sure some would disagree but I wonder if there is an added point to the surface in the present era of job shortages and ‘zero hours contracts’.

  28. Tough for the class dummy, but got there with the gadgets.

    As I say every time the subject comes up, there isn’t actually any rule that says a cryptic puzzle is banned from containing straight clues. Obviously one doesn’t want too many of them, but as a bluff this one obviously worked on some of you. Clues in a cryptic crossword should mislead, clearly some people were mislead, qed.

    That some people are of the opinion that there should be no straight clues is not the same same as there being an actual requirement.

  29. A good workout. My last three unsolved were 8ac, 3dn and 4dn. IN MOTION was the first to drop, quickly followed by PIGEON, and then I spent a few minutes mentally going through the alphabet for the third letter of 4dn, got to “r”, and finally saw what the clue was telling me. I’m not sure I want to see too many of that kind of clue.

  30. Thanks, Andrew.

    Brummie, for me, seems increasingly to become more of a struggle. Having to do it sporadically on a Friday when we are grandbaby sitting doesn’t help, as I don’t have time to access reference books etc. I toyed with NARD of which I had not heard; if I had been more certain I would have spotted MAYNARD, and the rest would have followed in much less time. Eventually, however, MILTON KEYNES popped out, but I have no idea why – perhaps a subconscious hint of MILT did it.

    Did any one have a MAN-LADY for 17d – variant of Ladyboy, perhaps. That rendered me impotent on 14a, till I realised the error of my ways.

  31. I like figure-of-speech and proverbial clues, so I’m happy with “inroads”.

    I found this quite lumpy, getting stuck a few times.

    About right for Friday, I thought, though.

    Thanks to all.

  32. Like Trailman at 16, I too solved INROADS last and struggled with an anagram of ‘petrol revved’ before TELEPORTED leapt out at me. Got ECONOMISTS but couldn’t see what it had to do with web fraud till I came here. Doh! Thanks, Brummie and Andrew.

  33. I got 8 wrong: ON NOTICE = ‘going’, ‘ON ICE’ = ‘cooling’, wasn’t sure where NOT came from…hence had SECONDS for 4 as they reduce one’s workload in a manner of speaking…

    Ah well

    Simon

  34. This started off looking difficult and like many others I soon had MAY and NARD but little else. However revisiting 11A gave the game away.

    Everything was pretty straightforward until the last clue. The unbelievably awful 4 down!!! I must have spent 15 minutes staring at it. As it was Brummie I really believed it must be a cryptic clue and I was the thickie. Unfortunately it wasn’t and I wasn’t!!!! A terrible end to a decent puzzle.

    Must do better Brummie 😉

    Thanks to Andrew and Brummie

  36. I liked 3d, 24a, 8a, 19d, 12a/22d, 13d and my favourites were MAN-MADE & 28a PICAROON

    New words for me were NARD, HYGROMETER, SYSTOLE.

    Thanks for the blog, Andrew.

  37. Found this quite tough – was surprised (even in a Guardian puzzle) to find what I thought to be the Y*p word at 23d, but relieved coming here to find it was just my tainted mind.

  38. DL @35

    I can clearly see which part of my post YOU don’t understand although it does appear to be quite clear.

    But just to elucidate. Of course there are no rules for cryptics per se, although most setters do tend to follow a basic set. Brummie like most of our setters tends to stick to the rule that all clues are at least vaguely cryptic. On this occasion for some reason he didn’t which was what confused me.

    Now is this misdirection? In my opinion and it would appear in lot of other solvers it is not.

    Is it lazy or just downright cussed? The likes of Rufus, Gordius and sometimes Pasquale seem inclined to go non-cryptic but in my opinion this is an anachronism and something I would prefer not to see.

    So to summarise you don’t mind and I do. As you have quite rightly stated there are no rules so neither of us can take the high ground.

    P.S.

    Don’t patronise people. “It’s not big and it certainly isn’t clever” 😉

  39. @B(NTO)

    “Is it lazy or just downright cussed?”

    Those are the only two options?

    How about it’s a fairly original thing to do at this moment in time – it makes a nice change from conventional constructions (and Brummie does normally stick pretty close to ximparsing) – and it’s redolent of how puzzles used to be before the ximenean terror – which, even though they may deny it, did leak its poison over to the Graun a bit.

    On the G thread I took a bit of a crack at B for running a ximtrollfest on his website. I’m happy to defend him here. I pretty well always like his puzzles. It’s a clue – it leads to the answer – it’s unexpected – it’s valid in every sense – it made me stare but I got it in the end and had a PDM. Full marks on all counts.

    You can put in all the smileys you want but “Must do better Brummie” strongly suggests that you have a rulebook – you assume that B has the same one and you’re ticking him off for not having done his homework properly. That’s not fair.

    Of course OTOH – maybe there’s a wordplay side to it that we’ve all missed – it’s possible – but I doubt it. 😉

  40. That’s one clue I didn’t understand. Help me please, share with me your PDM. An INROAD is an invasion, attack, raid or incursion, encroachment or intrusion says my dictionary, and I’m stuffed.

  41. The usual complaint about a CD is that it is not cryptic, or not cryptic enough. The answer is obvious.
    Lots of us, here and elsewhere, took a long time to get INROADS so, obviously, the clue is cryptic.
    And yet there are no reported “doh” moments, as usually accompany a good CD.

    I think the definition is itself not accurate enough. For one thing some of us make inroads into the crossword
    and a pot or bottle of something, at the same time. So a ‘say’ or ‘for example’ is required.

    And ‘Made to’ suggests “made in order to” which isn’t right. ‘Made by reducing one’s workload, say’ is better I think.

    But is it cryptic enough?

  43. @bootikins

    AFAIKS it’s a double bluff. The trick is that there’s no trick. You look for a wordplay to crunch – can’t find one – you wrack your brain for a cryptic definition – likewise – then ping – it’s just literal – it’s not cryptic at all. OTOH it’s a well-known phrase – “to make inroads into [someting]”.

    INROADS are “Made to reduce one’s workload”

    Ie if you have a workload and you make inroads [into it] then you’ve reduced the workload.

    Simple as that. It used to be a regular part of the game. These days it’s prolly only Rufus who bungs one like that in now and then.

    HTH 🙂

  44. Okay then, done. Can’t help thinking there was probably a bit more that could’ve been done with it, but as you say, maybe Brummie just wanted it that way.

    Thanks for your time.

  46. If I’m honest, there was that to it, but I didn’t really want to be rude. Not openly, but now I’ve gone and done it. Good solve though, me and my oppo are Guardian buffs through and through.

  47. JS @43

    “You wrack your brain…then ping…it’s not cryptic at all.” A contradiction in terms? Then “OTOH…” Make your mind up, man.

    The many meanings of “made” make the clue cryptic. Tractors are made to reduce the farmer’s workload. Someone might be made to do overtime to reduce a workload, sometimes someone else’s. Would the clue be acceptable in the Quick crossword? I think the clue is very cryptic, it’s just not a good definition. The problem lies with the phantom word ‘into’.

    However you look at it there seems to be a consensus that it is not a good clue. “More could have been done with it.”
    Certainly it could have been done better. But not I suspect as a CD.

    But I have ironing to make inroads into, not to mention a bottle of vintage.

  48. @rho #41

    “Lots of us, here and elsewhere, took a long time to get INROADS so, obviously, the clue is cryptic.”

    Sorry – can’t follow the logic there.

    You thought it might be cryptic – after all most clues are.
    You spent a long time pursuing that line of thought.
    It turned out that it wasn’t cryptic.
    Therefore it was cryptic.

    It may well be the case that, if you invited submissions for clues to the word INROADS, you would get many offers which, in isolation were more interesting and entertaining.

    That however is not the issue. In a good crossword the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Brummie did a good job of putting our brains into wordplay-crunching mode. By the end we knew his MO. How to put a twist on one clue, which as it turned was indeed last in for many?

    The ultimate twist. Hide it out in the open.

  49. JS – “Brummie did a good job of putting our brains into wordplay-crunching mode.” Only your brain I think.

    ebbcourt @14 has no complaints and Martin P @31 is happy but their comments suggest that they regard the clue as a satisfactory cryptic definition and arrived, eventually, at the solution without considering wordplay. DL, the soi-disant class dummy, @28 is happy, as you are, with a straight definition reading but does not say what kind or amount of crunching he did before, apparently, resorting to “gadgets”.

    Of the dozen or so dissatisfied solvers no-one complains that the clue lacks wordplay. No-one expects wordplay, or even the suggestion of it, in every clue. I can’t see what in ‘Made to reduce one’s workload’ put you into “wordplay-crunching” mode.

  50. “Only your brain I think.” – oh dear – now you’re being intentionally inflammatory.

    By the amount of comment it was obviously a clue which caught people’s attention, primarily because it appeared at first sight to be of the one-sided CD variety, but viewed in that away commenters found that it was either only slightly cryptic or else not cryptic at all.

    Opinions may vary, as ours obviously do, over whether that is a good, bad, valid or invalid component of a crossword which has been billed as cryptic. End of story surely.

    The detail of your comment, particularly your turning DL’s self-deprecatory joke against him, is really not worth addressing.

  51. Sorry to refire the thread after some dormancy but PDM anyone? I can’t for the life of me work out what that stands for and it’s mentioned three times in the comments.

  54. I liked the way Brummie split up the names of the economists into their component parts, even though it made some of the answers write-tins, as I guessed the theme from NARD, and via MILTON KEYNES the rest followed quickly.

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