Guardian 26046 by Paul

by

Good fun from Paul today, though not too difficult as once I figured out the theme there were quite a few write-ins.

Theme: L is the first letter of Labour, or the “Labour leader” in crosswordese. Similarly, C is the “Conservative leader”.

Across
9 RHINO One so thick-skinned audibly mocking foreign drama (5)
=”One so thick-skinned”. RHI sounds like `wry’, hence “audibly mocking”, plus NO the traditional style of Japanese theatre = “foreign drama” .
10 HOT-HEADED Rash above the neck inflamed, then? (3-6)
=”Rash”. A literal interpretation of HOT-HEADED suggests “above the neck inflamed”.
11 ARISTOTLE Child in Israel misconstrued polymath (9)
=”polymath”. TOT=”child”, inside (Israel)*.
12 TIGON No unpleasant type rejected an unusual cat (5)
=”unusual cat”, the hybrid of a tiger and a lioness. Reversal (“rejected”) of NO GIT=”no unpleasant type”.
13 SLAVISH Submissive prodigal son comes first (7)
=”Submissive”. LAVISH=”prodigal”, with S[on] coming first.
15 KINNOCK L batting during innings (7)
Neil, the Labour Party leader. IN=”batting”, inside KNOCK=”innings”.
17 MIDST Centre with C central to empty speaking? (5)
=”Centre”. IDS is Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader, inside the letters MT which if read aloud sound like “empty”.
18 RUT Pity endless sex at a stag party? (3)
=”sex at a stag party”, referring to the sexual excitement of male deer. RUT[h]=”Pity endless”.
20 IDLER Every so often, find old queen for drone (5)
=”drone”. “Every so often” implies taking each other letter from “fInD oLd”, plus ER=”queen”.
22 CAMERON C, half-cut Bush, for example, gatecrashing his party? (7)
David, the current Conservative leader. AMER[ican]=”half-cut Bush, for example”, inside CON[servative]=”his party”.
25 BALDWIN After a very close shave, gain for C (7)
Stanley, the Conservative leader. BALD=”a very close shave”, plus WIN=”gain”
26 BLAIR L — some dictatorial bastard from the right? (5)
Tony, the Labour eader. Hidden reversed in “dictatoRIAL Bastard”
27 CHURCHILL Sect suffering for C (9)
Winston, the Conservative leader. CHURCH=”Sect”, plus ILL=”suffering”.
30 CRIME WAVE Much offending staff about Paul’s prayer to follow (5,4)
“Much offending”. CREW=”staff”, around I’M=”Paul’s”, plus AVE=”prayer”.
31 ELEMI Substance ultimately found in tree, one type of resin (5)
a pale yellow resin. [Substanc]E inside ELM=”tree”, plus I=”one”
Down
1 ARIA Uplifting tune after a song (4)
=”song”. Reversal of {AIR=”tune” plus A}
2 MILIBAND L — obsolete party and I’m flipping leading it! (8)
The current Labour leader. LIB[eral]=”obsolete party”, plus AND, with a reversal of I’M at the beginning.
3 FOOT L to pay (4)
Michael, the Labour leader. Also means “to pay” as in “foot the bill”.
4 THATCHER C — parliament’s ultimate mother hen? (8)
Margaret, the Conservative leader. [parliamen]T, plus HATCHER=”mother hen”.
5 STREAK Totally exposed, run end of spear into cut (6)
=”Totally exposed run”. [spea]R inside STEAK=”cut”.
6 CENTENNIAL Ancient celebration, beautiful game ends anagrammatically for this year’s crossword anniversary? (10)
Crosswords become 100 years old on the 21st December this year. (Ancient [celebratio]n [beautifu]l [gam]e)*.
7 ADAGIO Among extremists in archipelago I wander northwards slowly (6)
=”slowly”. A[rchipelag]O, around a reversal of I GAD=”I wander”.
8 EDEN C’s Project? (4)
Anthony, the Conservative leader. Also the Eden Project, the artificial geodesic domes in Cornwall.
13 SUMAC Author up tree (5)
=”tree”. Reversal of [Albert] CAMUS the French author.
14 INTERBREED Render bite when barking, as cross (10)
=”cross”. (Render bite)*
16 KORAN Passage from paperback or another good book (5)
=”good book”. Hidden in “paperbacK OR ANother”
19 TABOURET Rotate bum not entirely designed for stool (8)
=”stool”. (Rotate bu[m)*
21 LAWGIVER Pierce organ, as would Spooner for Moses (8)
=”Moses”. Spoonerism of `gore liver’ or “Pierce organ”.
23 MEANIE Malicious type given bad name, that is (6)
=”Malicious type”. (name)* IE=”that is”
24 NECTAR Auditor’s drunk a golden drink (6)
=”golden drink”. Sounds like (“Auditor’s”) `necked a’=”drunk a”
26 BUCK Dollar leap (4)
Double definition.
28 CHEF Cook red beef, not an insect (4)
=”Cook”. CHE=”red” [bee]F, where the removed bee=”insect”
29 LAIN Put down “plus room” for C? (4)
=”Put down”. “plus room” would give ChamberLAIN, the Conservative leader.

45 comments on “Guardian 26046 by Paul”

  1. Whilst agreeing about the ‘write-ins’ there are some particularly fine Paulish clues throughout. I do love a crossword where you start the day with a smile and a giggle. Thank you to Paul for a brilliant start to Friday morning and to manehi for the explanations.

  2. As so often, I totally concur with crypticsue’s comment. Some wonderfully &littish surfaces [no names, no pack-drill, as my dad used to say!] and plenty of smiles. Many thanks to both.

  3. My way in to the “L” & “C” theme was through 4d THATCHER, followed by 2d MILIBAND and I then got worried as I do not know the names of many British politicians. Luckily they were all well-clued, but I needed help from Wikipedia to confirm the existence of KINNOCK. Other new words for me were TIGON, TABOURET, ELEMI.

    I liked 12a, 16d, 13a, 11a, 21d, 28d and my favourites were 27a CHURCHILL & 25a BALDWIN.

    I couldn’t parse 9a, 17a, 29d, 24d (last in).

    Thanks Paul and manehi.

  4. Thanks manehi. Needed your help to understand the parsing of MIDST. Otherwise as you say it was straightforward fun.

  5. Thanks Paul and manehi.

    Absolutely breezed through this until I came to a juddering halt in the SE. I had never heard of ELEMI and had two majorly dense moments over CHEF and LAIN. Got there in the end but those three took as long as all the rest put together!

    Didn’t spot what was going on with the Ls and Cs until I got to BLAIR, at which point my fellow commuters must have been wondering what was making me smirk in a rather undignified manner. There have been many, many crosswords featuring our former leader, but this is the best clue for him I’ve seen to date.

  7. Thanks, manehi.

    Entertaining, as Paul’s puzzles usually are, with some cleverly allusive &littishness in the clues for a few of the leaders.

    ELEMI is a word found very occasionally in crosswords when setters have painted themselves into a corner and need a word to fit E_E_I.

    Two little niggles: was NECTAR ever described as ‘golden’ by the ancients? (help please, Eileen!), and LAIN is the past tense of ‘lie’, not ‘lay’ – ‘put down’ should be LAID.

  11. Hi Gervase @7

    I think I’ve always thought of nectar as being golden, because of its associations with honey, but I think I may have been misled by my husband’s descriptions of his beloved malt whisky – and this
    http://www.glenmorangie.com/our-whiskies/nectar-dor
    may be what Paul had in mind!

    You’ve led me to do some research [hence the delay!] and I find that in translations of Iliad V it’s described variously as ‘red’ or ‘ruddy’ – I haven’t got a copy of the original and haven’t any more time to go looking. It seems always to have been drunk from golden goblets, so perhaps the epithet was transferred.

    [I’m kicking myself for not spotting the LAIN howler – a particular bugbear of mine!]

  12. Thanks manehi and Paul

    Very enjoyable puzzle with a quick start and insight coming to a temporary halt with some trickier clues.

    I ticked several – 9a (the answer was clear at once but the parsing held me up), 17a, 18a (I wondered first about ru(e) + m(ale) and 28d.

    Gervase @7 re ‘lain’
    Curiously enough I heard this on the radio this am. Collins hints slightly at the possibility of dialect variation rather than simply error – it is a long time since I lived in the NW but I have vague memories of it there along with ‘lie it down’ (tr). The forms in other Germanic languages are also complex as you know well, and I wonder if there is any confusion among their speakers.

  16. Thanks to Paul for a wonderful puzzle. At a first pass I thought I wouldn’t find a way in. But gradually the pieces fell into place most satisfyingly. I too struggled at the last in the SE corner. And thanks manehi for the blog. Just one question: why is ‘knock’ ‘innings’? I expect I am being dense.

  18. xjp @16 – in cricket an innings is colloquially a knock.
    My turn to be “dense”. I don’t get the reference at 6. Could lilibet please enlighten me?

  19. Thanks all
    a delightful puzzle, plenty to think about.I entered at Blair.
    I failed ‘midst’perhaps (feeble excuse coming up) because IDS was not a Tory PM. Also I had ‘militant’ as a weak fall back position for 2d.

  20. tupu @12: Chambers gives no transitive meanings for ‘lie’, unlike the position with ‘lay’, whose intransitive use is described as “archaic, nautical or illiterate” (cf Bob Dylan’s ‘Lay Lady Lay’, which is certainly not nautical..).

    It is not surprising that the two verbs are often conflated, as the past tense of ‘lie’ is very confusingly ‘lay’! And you’re right that the two verbs are very similar in other Germanic languages: Swedish has ligger, låg, legat (lie, lay, lain) v lägga, lade, lagt (lay, laid, laid) – but I have no idea whether native speakers mix them up.

  21. Jeffers @ 18 – I think you mean 13d; the reference is to suPERmac, AKA Harold Macmillan, under who we never had it so good.

    Worth the admission price for the Blair clue on its own. Why does it say about he Lib Dems that they can’t even get a mention? A purely rhetorical question, of course.

  22. Thanks Paul and manehi.

    I echo crypticsue @1’s comments. I particularly liked the descriptions of BLAIR and MILIBAND. IDS could be accused of ’empty speaking’ – lovely clue that I failed to parse.

  26. Thanks Mitz and jeceris. I haven’t come across that cricketing term before. I’ll try and remember it. Of course it’s also possible I had come across it before and subsequently forgot.

  27. @xjp Don’t consign knock = innings purely to the cricketing ghetto. Like most cricket terms it has crept out from the game and is in general usage elsewhere. For instance, when someone pegs out at 100+ the phrase “He had a decent knock” is as meaningful as “He had a good innings”.

  28. Knock is well known in English cricket but tends not to be used in cricketing down under. I knew a guy who used to visit Leeds to buy cloth for a local making-up company, renowned especially for their gents’ trousers – top quality stuff too – a lifetime’s investment – I have some.

    He was always amused, when checking into a hotel there, to be asked whether he wanted “knocking up in the morning”.

  29. @beermagnet #27 – we also speak of someone eg “knocking on 90” but that’s prolly more related to knocking on a door – ie almost in but not quite.

  30. Swagman @28
    Wen I were a lad and people didn’t have such flash devices as alarm clocks, you used to pay a man to come round with a long version of a spring rake, which he’d rattle on your bedroom window to get you up for work. He was known as the knockerupper. Who knocked the knockerupper up we never found out. Ee, it were tuff in them days lad.

  31. Mebbe it was one of Monty Python’s Yorkshiremen who had to get up in the morning at ten o’clock at night, half an hour before he went to bed who was the knockerupper…

  32. Late start for me but pretty rapid finish. Will confess though to entering LAID not LAIN at 29d until resort to check function showed me error of my ways. Couldn’t parse 28d.

    26a will for me always be a perfect example of the compiler’s art. Now to tell the family.

  33. Tupu @12 et al., surely “dialect variation” is usually just a euphemism for grammatical error. If such a variation were intended, the clue should have said “some say.” Thanks notwithstanding to Paul and to manehi.

  35. Found myself trying to work out the mapping from 15a, 22a, 25a, 26a, 27a, 2d, 3d, 4d, 8d to 10a, 13a, 18a, 20a, 30a, 21d.

  36. Hi Ian @33

    The general idea that ‘dialect variation’ is ‘usually’ just a euphemism for ‘grammatical error’ seems pretty odd to me.

    However, I agree with you that some indication would be helpful if a dialect or other special variation had been intended here. I note though that Paul puts a ? at the end of the clue. Since Chamberlain was leader of the Conservatives, I suppose this could be such an indication.

    Hi Gervaise @20

    Unlike Chambers the OED says of ‘lie’

    15. trans. Used causatively or by mistake for lay v.1 Now rare.

    It gives several examples from 1387 to 1880 including:

    1708 J. C. Compl. Collier 5 in T. Nourse Mistery of Husbandry Discover’d (ed. 3) , Would they but lye their groundless pretences by.

    1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones IV. xii. xii. 282 The whole Furniture of the infernal Regions hath long been appropriated by the Managers of Playhouses, who seem lately to have lain them by as Rubbish.

    1802 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 8 507, I dressed the wound, lying down as much of the scalp as [etc.].

    1880 F. G. Lee Church under Q. Elizabeth II. 245 As God had lain this peer’s honour in the dust.

  37. jeceris@18 – the first crossword puzzle was produced in 1913.

    I found this to be one of the easiest, if not the easiest, Paul puzzle I have ever done. It was a top-to-bottom solve and I was only held up slightly at the end before deciding that the previously unknown, or known but forgotten, TABOURET was the most likely arrangement of the anagram fodder.

    Having said that, I really enjoyed it.

  38. We thought this may be a breeze but it wasn’t!

    We thought that a few were a bit contrived but forgive Paul for everything given 26ac!

    Thamks Paul and manehi.

  39. tupu @36: I suspect most of the later examples quoted by the OED would fall into the ‘by mistake’ category. These two verbs are easily confused, so it is not surprising that examples can be found in reputable sources of what has become generally regarded as erroneous usage.

    ‘Dialectal’ usages in crosswords are certainly contentious (I have put ‘dialectal’ in quotation marks because of course, in a strictly descriptive rather than prescriptive sense, standard British English is just another dialect, albeit one of particularly high prestige). I think my rule of thumb would be that dialectal vocabulary is acceptable, though the words might be labelled ‘obscure’, but dialectal grammar is doubtful. In SE Lancs where I (and you used to) live, many people say ‘it were great’ rather than ‘it was great’ (in an indicative rather than subjunctive clause, that is). Descriptively, this is ‘correct’ usage in the local dialect, but that isn’t how most English speakers would regard it, and it would be unacceptable to use it in a cryptic crossword clue without heavily flagging where it came from.

  40. Well, dress me up in a bonnet, tie my hair up in pigtails and call me Susan. As Stephen Fry might have said. Just watched the first in the new series of QI, and the knockerupper’s knockerupper was explained. Apparently, there was a rota system including those whose turn it was to simply not go to bed until almost dawn. Their final act before turning in for a well earned rest would be to rouse the knockerupper, who would then go forth on his (or indeed her) rounds.

  41. According to wikipedia:

    “… sometimes police constables supplemented their pay by performing the task during early morning patrols.”

    That would have been for the folk working at News Ltd presumably.

    The preferred term seems to be knocker-up – no need for the extra “-er”.

    Presumably the plural (like governors-general) is knockers-up.

  43. Terrific value for money this place.

    I was at first inclined to quibble with Eileen’s “the LAIN howler”.(Howlers ought to be amusing.) But the exchanges between
    Gervase, tupu and Ian SW3 were very entertaining. (Almost scholarly even.)

    I think though that Dylan must be allowed poetic licence. His injunction to his Lady suggests that she can anticipate being laid.
    Possibly knocked up even? Is he knock, knock, knockin’ at heaven’s door? But I digress.

    Consider it from Paul’s point of view. He takes the trouble to set LAIN, rather than LAID, to add to his theme and clues it accordingly.
    Only to be told that ‘put down’ is an incorrect definition. Yet no-one offers a better one. ‘pap of lie’? I think not.

    Oh, I agree with #1 & #2.

  44. Past participle of LIE it is, however.

    On BD I prefer Tangled Up In Blue, whose mesmeric repetition always reminds of Song for Sharon, by The Great Priestess of Yellow Taxis. Both Desert Island Discs pour moi.

  45. For my 50th birthday my children compiled a CD, Dad’s Desert Island Discs. Delightful. To represent Dylan they chose Desolation Row.

    But this sort of exchange belongs in the other place. So I’ll say no more.

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