The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26034.
A gentle end to the crossword week.
| Across | |||
| 1. | Maddened by exploding grenade (7) | ||
| ANGERED | An anagram (‘exploding’) of ‘grenade’. | ||
| 5. | Opportunist finds heroin in house (7) | ||
| CHANCER | An envelope (‘finds … in’) of H (‘heroin’) in CANCER (‘house’ of the zodiac). | ||
| 9. | Curtains some made at home (5) | ||
| DEATH | A hidden answer (‘some’) in ‘maDE AT Home’. | ||
| 10. | Restaurant for staff officers by a lake (9) | ||
| BRASSERIE | A charade of BRASS (‘staff officers’) plus ERIE (great ‘lake’) | ||
| 11. | Haulier returned and settled back with sweetheart (could be withdrawn) (10) | ||
| RETRACTILE | A charade of RETRAC, a reversal (‘returned’) of CARTER (‘haulier’) plus TIL, a reversal (‘back’) of LIT (‘settled’) plus E (‘swEet heart’). | ||
| 12. | Old Bob illuminated the opening (4) | ||
| SLIT | A charade of S (shilling, ‘old bob’) plus LIT (‘illuminated’). | ||
| 14. | Cheat suddenly to reform (5-6) | ||
| SHORT-CHANGE | A charade of SHORT (‘suddenly’ as in to stop short) plus CHANGE (‘reform’). | ||
| 18. | Detachment resident? It’s off! (11) | ||
| DISINTEREST | An anagram (‘off’) of ‘resident its’. | ||
| 21. | Fellow leaves one instrument for another (4) | ||
| LUTE | A subtraction, [f]LUTE (‘one instrument’) without the F (‘fellow leaves’). | ||
| 22. | Famous craft worker in the old country (5,5) | ||
| SANTA MARIA | An envelope (‘in’) of ANT (‘worker’) in SAMARIA (‘the old country’), for the largest of the ships used by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage to the New World. | ||
| 25. | Worker met Sandra dancing (9) | ||
| TRADESMAN | An anagram (‘dancing’) of ‘met Sandra’. | ||
| 26. | Creature of the English countryside (5) | ||
| ELAND | A charade of E (‘English’) plus LAND (‘countryside’). | ||
| 27. | Ring for stout when touring eastern Sweden (7) | ||
| RESOUND | An envelope (‘when touring’) of E (‘eastern’) plus S (‘Sweden’ IVR) in ROUND (‘stout’).. | ||
| 28. | Strange dialect in fortress (7) | ||
| CITADEL | An anagram (‘strange’) of ‘dialect’. | ||
| … Down |
|||
| 1. | Snakes and their associates decapitated (6) | ||
| ADDERS | A subtraction, [l]ADDERS (‘their associates’, i.e. of ‘snakes’ in the board game) without its first letter (‘decapitated’). | ||
| 2. | Girl has craft and works hard (6) | ||
| GRAFTS | A charade of G (‘girl’; not a common abbreviation) plus RAFTS (‘craft’, plural). | ||
| 3. | Egghead pays attention in group when running through (10) | ||
| REHEARSING | An envelope (‘in’) of E (‘Egg head’) plus HEARS (‘pays attention’) in RING (‘group’). | ||
| 4. | Charge journalist raised contribution (5) | ||
| DEBIT | A charade of DE, a reversal (‘raised’) of ED (‘journalist’) plus BIT (‘contribution’). | ||
| 5. | Woman caught strumpet with note (9) | ||
| CHARLOTTE | A charade of C (‘caught’) plus HARLOT (‘strumpet’) plus TE (‘note’). | ||
| 6. | Drop in standards scratching head in church (4) | ||
| APSE | A subtraction, [l]APSE (‘drop in standard’) without the first letter (‘scratching head’). | ||
| 7. | Girl in a state (8) | ||
| CAROLINA | A charade of CAROL (‘girl’) plus ‘in a’. | ||
| 8. | Tenor collated information for physicist (8) | ||
| ROENTGEN | A charade of ROENT, an anagram (‘collated’) of ‘tenor’ plus GEN (‘information’), for Wilhelm Röntgen, the physicist who won the first Nobel Prize in physics for his discovery of X-rays. | ||
| 13. | Male stand-in in audition for play (3,7) | ||
| THE TEMPEST | An envelope (‘in’) of HE (‘male’) plus TEMP (‘stand-in’) in TEST (‘audition’). | ||
| 15. | Welcoming lovebird’s wild dream (4-5) | ||
| OPEN-ARMED | A charade of O (‘love’) plus PEN (‘bird’, a female swan) plus ARMED, an anagram (‘wild’) of ‘dream’. | ||
| 16. | Grown-up is without artifice, initially, or is a sycophant (8) | ||
| ADULATOR | An envelope (‘is without’) of A (‘Aritfice initially’) in ADULT (‘grown-up’) plus ‘or’. | ||
| 17. | One wanders round hospital for waste containers (8) | ||
| ASHTRAYS | An envelope (’round’) of H (‘hospital’) in A (‘one’) plus STRAYS (‘wanders’). | ||
| 19. | Make a mistake with commission (6) | ||
| ERRAND | A charade of ERR (‘make a mistake’) plus AND (‘with’). | ||
| 20. | Help the Spanish composer (6) | ||
| HANDEL | A charade of HAND (‘help’) plus EL (‘the Spanish’). | ||
| 23. | Official wear for Unionists touring Ulster (5) | ||
| TUNIC | An envelope (‘touring’) of NI (‘Ulster’, with the usual reservation) in TUC (‘Unionists’). | ||
| 24. | Lover said to be a violin player (4) | ||
| BEAU | A homophone (‘said to be’) of BOW (‘a violin player’). | ||
This was one of my fastest solves ever, and very enjoyable too. I particularly liked 1d, 5d, 21a, 13d and my favourites were 22a SANTA MARIA & 24d BEAU (last in).
Thanks Chifonie and PeterO.
Gentle indeed, Peter, which suits me this morning because I’ve got a busy day. Thanks for a fine blog.
One or two old chestnuts, but I did like CHANCER and THE TEMPEST.
Thank you to Chifonie.
Hadn’t heard of SANTA MARIA, but otherwise quick & easy – unlike yesterday’s Puck extravaganza. Thanks PeterO and Chifonie.
Thanks PeterO and Chifonie
Very easy, especially when compared with yesterday’s (I gave that one up), but I did need your parsing of RETRACTILE.
A lot to enjoy; SANTA MARIA was my favourite.
Pedants’ corner: CAROLINA isn’t “a” state – it’s two (North and South).
many thanks. yes, nice to have an easier stroll after the longer struggles of the previous two days. however I did get off to a bad start by putting ENRAGED for 1a!
jkb_ing@5 – yes, that’s a tough one. ENRAGED seems a perfectly good solution. Lucky I didnt do the same and get completely misled.
My first thoughts for 1a and 7d were ‘enraged’ and ‘Virginia’. I always get a bit annoyed when clues yield more than one plausible solution. Having to to solve other clues in order to decide which solution is correct should be left in the realms of Quick Crossword land, in my opinion.
Thanks PeterO and Chifonie
A very pleasant relief after yesterday’s struggles. I too got stuck at first with Virginia, and also puzzled at first over (astrological) house in 5a. I also tried at first to make sense of apse as ‘s’ in ‘ape’ – oh dear!
Very nicely clued throughout.
🙂 I also got stuck for a minute or two over 24d which I thought must be menu (Menuhin minus hin as a rare word for lover)!
Enjoyably straightforward thank you Chifonie and PeterO.
Yesterday’s was a mish-mash, today’s very simple by comparsion.
Ox @7, but this was a Quick Crossword! 🙂
Thanks, PeterO.
Pedant’s corner addendum: Al Jolson – “Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina in the morning”, so there is a precedent from the country concerned, so we shouldn’t mind too much, it not being our country.
Thanks to PeterO for the blog.
I am another annoyed about 7d. I started with Virginia. Then I needed L in order to make SLIT work, so I moved on to MARYLAND. Eventually I had to give that up. I agree with Ox@7: a well-written clue yields just one answer and you do not have to solve several crossing clues in order to select one answer from several!
Yes those two are weak.
Fairly straightforward solve.
Thanks PeterO; I unthinkingly considered that 16 might have been idolator, but it didn’t parse. I liked SANTA MARIA.
What is wrong with having to solve a crossing clue before having an answer confirmed? It;s sort of the point of crosswords.
Re Ox@7 and Chas@14. My first thoughts were ‘angered’ and ‘Virginia’ respectively. I’ve been aware for years that ‘enraged’ was another possible anagram (my father was a army man who did the Telegraph cryptic and introduced me very early in life to the joys of wordplay – being a soldier, someone messing with a grenade would leave him angered, no, enraged!). So I was wary of my first guess at that one, and when I saw the second ambiguity, I took it as a deliberate tactic by Chifonie. I may, of course, be reading too much into things, but I will always pick the explanation that tickles me rather than upsets me.
… Perhaps, of course, I’ve allowed Chifonie to derange me. I’ll get my coat.
Thanks to Chifonie and PeterO. Didn’t know the word CHANCER. I entered MARYLAND at 7d and had CHARMER for 5ac. Didn’t the House of Carmer follow the Bourbons? Liked ASHTRAYS.
Cheers…
As a few of you have said, a very gentle end to the week. I put ENRAGED in at 1ac but saw my error as soon as I couldn’t make 1dn, 2dn and 3dn work. I don’t have a problem with more than one possible answer to a clue when there are still checkers to be entered.
As far as 7dn is concerned, the definition has to be GIRL and not STATE. CAROLINA on its own is not a state, but the girl’s name appears in both North Carolina and South Carolina.
This had the feel of an Everyman puzzle with the exception of RETRACTILE.
I agree with Sidey @16. Otherwise we should just have a list of clues and no grid! 🙂 The ‘cross’ seems to be a clue to this.
Some mishtake, shurely? Is it Monday?
Oh dear. I wish I’d left the Puck for today rather than attempting my 3 crossword catchup yesterday!
15 minutes of not so much “Fun” rather than “Oh not not that one again!”
Rather disappointing for a Friday.
Thanks to Chifonie and PeterO
P.S. I was a bit upset not to see another prolonged debate on here about the NI/Ulster question. Always fun 🙂
AndyB @21
I can’t agree with you on Carolina – a) it’s not a girl’s name b) the parsing is CAROL (girl’s name) IN A.
Not important though, as Derek Lazenby says – I can think of other sonds that refer generically to “Carolina” (e.g. James Taylor “Carolina in my mind”)
Andy B @21
P.S. If you mean that the girl’s name is included IN the state (and that what was the setter meant), the criticisms of the clue mentioned above become even more valid, I think.
I don’t see why LIT means settled in 11a
Neil@26
As in “alighted”?
Definitely CAROL/ IN/ A, so the def is just ‘state’. Carolina is also a girl’s name AFAIK, and Wiki, but shurely Andy B is stretching things a bit too far, as muffin opines.
What’s the fuss about CAROLINA.
I read it as a CD.
Carolina is listed as a girl’s name on several of the “Baby Name” sites. Plus there are several people on the web called Carolina. Actress Carolina Bang being one!
Carolina is in North and South Carolina.
Brendan @29
It really isn’t an important point, but my original quibble is that “Carolina” is not a “state” (the definition given).
CD? How? I could stretch to DD I suppose, but the parsing’s blindingly obvious anyway. Why do people insist on having silly debates about this sort of stuff? It’s so annoying.
Paul B @31
Sorry to annoy you! Your ability to read setters’s minds must be a great benefit. The fact that parsing can almost never be “blindingly obvious” is probably what makes cryptics such a challenge.
What is obvious is that this particular clue is possibly erroneous and the “debate” is just a few people trying to find one of the many possible parsings which could make it acceptable.
It’s just a bit of fun.
So, of course, it’s blindingly obvious it could be a CD. Definition is not “state” but “Girl in a state”. If this were a Rufus clue there would be thousands on here saying what a brilliant CD! 😉
“So, of course, it’s blindingly obvious it could be a CD. Definition is not “state” but “Girl in a state”.
Come on, dear Brendan, that’s not an obvious (nor good) CD.
And certainly not one Rufus would be proud of.
A Double Definition, yep, and perhaps Paul B might be right with his explanation at 28.
Moreover and not unimportantly so, Chifonie (nor Armonie [who I have to blog frequently]) doesn’t use CDs.
I fear you make life too complicated here – especially in a very uncomplicated puzzle.
CAROLINA
I find Andy B’s reading @ #21 perfectly valid and therefore (by Afrit) since other readings have been found to be unsatisfactory, that must be the one. But it might not be – there may be yet more that we all failed to spot.
Obviously in a puzzle which one would expect to get done reasonably quickly one expects to go fast – my first guess there was GEORGIA, which would have worked on a similar basis – but didn’t fit.
In general there is never any “definitely” about a reading.
I remember a happy time when one would just write in the answer to a clue like that and be happy – allusion alone was sufficient occasionally. Then the mindset of the pettifogging Classics master was brought in – then a theology built on a set of ludicrous axioms. Now hunt-the-error becomes a sport on this site and elsewhere – on one of the elsewheres a self-appointed clique refine further that half-baked theology with a view to imposing it wall-to-wall on the rest of us.
Given that most setters pre-test their puzzles on one or more guinea pigs; further, there is an editing process at the paper; further still, for any setter their Guardian spot is their moment of glory – the likelihood of accidental error (bar the odd typo) is quite small.
We were better off in the old days.
Sil @33
Please read my post again and see it again for what it is. An answer to a rude post!
I think the word “could” is quite important in this respect.
Well I’m with the keep-it-simpletons, seeing CAROL, IN, A with one of the Guardian’s famously less accurate definitions. That for sure needed someone to check it!
OK, Brendan, taken you point.
[but, rude posts again? not that rude, I thought]
An easy puzzle indeed. I bounced around a bit then noticed that 1d was simple (thanks to my childhood in the UK, in the US they don’t like to scare the children and call it “chutes and ladders”). And that 1a was. But then I noticed the lovely smooth surfaces.
I’m not much of a surface chaser – I don’t “read”the clues so much as look for the machinery in them. But this puzzle was a tower of impeccable surfaces.
Like I said, not a thing I usually concern myself with, but most if not all of these clues read splendidly.
Thanks Chifonie for the effort, and to PeterO and the rest of you scurvy lot for the blog. Now back to Puck fiendish mess from “yesterday” and oh my. A late summer prize with hard to read clues in the printed pdf.
Perhaps sometimes we should thank the Grauniad for bringing us this particular balance of puzzles, since we all seem to generally like them? I used to do the Herald but it was too easy; like the PE, but have to make my own print version and keep forgetting how long a fortnight is. Landed very happily here just as the G. went to the “free” option.
On another, sadder note (and I guess only PeterO will see this), we haven’t been blessed with an Araucaria for several weeks. Any news on that front?
All the best to my friends in crossieland,
Huw
BELL (famous violin player) also worked for 24d. This put me off a bit.
Nothing pedantic (see muffin @4) about noting that “Carolina” is not a state. My primary criticism is that the word is ambiguous. (Were Al Jolson and James Taylor referring to North or South?) If you ask someone in the U.S., “What is your home state?”, “Carolina” is not among the possible answers. In contrast, I’d be willing to extend grace to a setter who calls “Jersey” a state, for 2 reasons: (1) It’s unambiguous, and (2) it’s used colloquially to refer to New Jersey (unlike, say “York” for New York).
I don’t claim to know what the setter was thinking, but I thought Andy @21 provided a reasonably acceptable “out” (vs. the alternative, i.e., that the setter simply made a mistake). A similar construction might be: Actress Fanning in a state (6) = DAKOTA. (FYI, in FT 14,350, Hamilton clued CAROLINA as “State capital I leave, turning blue.” (CA[I]RO plus ANIL reversed) Alas, no alternative parsing can bail him out.)
Just a humble perspective of someone from “my country” (see Derek L @13, who seems unaware that this site is frequented by some individuals who do not reside in or come from the UK).
“Just a humble perspective of someone from “my country” (see Derek L @13, who seems unaware that this site is frequented by some individuals who do not reside in or come from the UK).”
Well, gee thanks for your spurious and gratuitous misinterpretation. I know you don’t live here because you can’t understand English.
“we shouldn’t mind too much, it not being our country.”
Kindly enlighten me as to the proper interpretation of the pronouns “we” and “our”, since I clearly misunderstood them to be collective pronouns.