Guardian Cryptic N° 26,080 by Paul

by

The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26080.

A fine puzzle from Paul, with only a hint of bawdry,  and at least one clue (22A) which made me laugh out loud. It took me a while to get into it – the first pass came up with just one answer – but came to a satisfying conclusion.

Across
9. Saw around soft fold in limb (9)
APPENDAGE An envelope (‘around’) of P (piano, ‘soft’) plus PEN (‘fold’, as in sheep fold)  in ADAGE (‘saw’).
10. Come to an open stretch of water (5)
REACH Double definition.
11. Corked claret accompanying last of wine that’s sweet (7)
TREACLE A charade of TREACL, an anagram (‘corked’) of ‘claret’ plus E (‘last of winE‘).
12. Wind force then a problem – in this? (7)
TEMPEST A charade of TEM, a reversal (‘wind’) of MET (police ‘force’)plus PEST (‘a problem’), with an extended definition.
13. Team‘s flank (4)
SIDE Double definition.
14. Awful motor designed for second-class racing (7,3)
FORMULA TWO An anagram of ‘awful motor’, for the car racing classification that has been used off and on as a less expensive alternative to the premier Formula One.
16. Dance preceding tango in newspaper? (7)
FOXTROT I think the definition is clear: foxtrot is F in the NATO phonetic alphabet, which precedess (by quite a bit) T for ‘tango’, and the newspaper is the enveloping FT (Financial Times).
17. Agent apprehending prisoner, reflected in looking glass (7)
MONOCLE An envelope (‘apprehending’) of NOC, a reversal (‘reflected’) of CON (‘prisoner’) in MOLE (‘agent’), with a somewhat cryptic definition.
19. Superior to beat sovereign (10)
OUTRANKING A charade of OUTRAN (‘beat’ verb, past tense) plus KING (‘sovereign’).
22. Composer not working by royal pronouncement? (4)
ORFF A homophone, as HM might render it (‘by royal pronouncement’), of OFF (‘not working’), for the composer Carl Orff, best known for Carmina Burana.
24. Neighbouring houses cheery in wartime Britain (7)
BLIGHTY An envelope (‘houses’) of LIGHT (‘cheery’) in BY (‘neighbouring’), for a word that comes to my mind when, as now, I haven’t paid a visit to England for a few years.
25. Arc of the horizon, a spot overshadowing much, not half hot (7)
AZIMUTH An envelope (‘overshadowing’) of MU (‘not half MUch’) in ‘a’ plus ZIT (‘spot’) plus H (‘hot’).
26. Trademark and name required to access network (3,2)
LOG ON A charade of LOGO (‘trademark’) plus N (‘name’).
27. Drug users as cover for chief of police? (9)
ACIDHEADS An envelope (‘cover for’) CID HEAD (‘chief of police’) in ‘as’.
…
Down
1. Supporter totally fab, so made for game of team selection (7,8)
FANTASY FOOTBALL A charade of FAN (‘supporter’) plus TASYFOOTBALL, an anagram (‘made’) of ‘totally fab so’.
2. See 6
– See 6
3. Slam–bang? (5)
KNOCK Double definition.
4. A sports official wearing shoe – or not? (8)
BAREFOOT An envelope (‘wearing’) of ‘a’ plus REF (‘sports official’) in BOOT (‘shoe’), with an extended definition.
5. Upright but not opening – I’m unsure it’s part of the gut (6)
RECTUM A charade of [e]RECT (‘upright, but not opening’) plus UM (‘I’m unsure’).
6,2. Mild complaint, as part of book appearing whiny? (9,8)
GRUMBLING APPENDIX Definition and literal interpretation.
7. Perfectly round number, that’s clear (6)
PATENT An envelope  (’round’) of TEN (‘number’) in PAT (‘perfectly’).
8,20. Yonder item identified? Never mind! (5,3,2,5,6)
THATS ONE OF THOSE THINGS Definition and literal interpretation.
15. See 18
– See 18
17. Segmented language? (8)
MANDARIN Definition and cryptic allusion to the citrus fruit.
18,15. Letter quick to reveal didgeridoo player’s technique (8,9)
CIRCULAR BREATHING A charade of CIRCULAR (‘letter’) plus BREATHING (‘quick’ as in the quick and the dead).
20. See 8
– See 8
21. Important flat part of a calculator (6)
KEYPAD A charade of KEY (‘important’) plus PAD (apartment, ‘flat’).
23. Suspect confined by himself is hysterical (5)
FISHY A hidden answer (‘confined by’) in ‘himselF IS HYsterical’.

29 comments on “Guardian Cryptic N° 26,080 by Paul”

  1. Thanks Peter. Am with you on this, including 24a. Knowing and loving Paul’s style, I did breeze through it, even getting ORFF at once though I could tell you zero abouth the bloke.

  4. Thanks PeterO and Paul.

    Isn’t that odd: I found this very easy for a Paul (~31′), and filling in a PB of six across clues on first time through. The last four AZIMUTH, ACIDHEADS, CIRCULAR and MANDARIN took almost as long as the rest of the clues.

  5. For 16A Foxtrot. It’s not particularly because Foxtrot precedes Tango in alphabetical order in the NATO alphabet. The newspaper is FT, Foxtrot Tango, so [answer is] preceding tango in [that] newspaper.

    I found this a speedy start but slow to finish – last in FISHY – those hiddens sometimes hide too well from me.

  6. Thanks PeterO and Paul
    I too had a slow start but speeded up as letters went in. ORFF raised a chuckle here too (does anyone except the Queen speak like that?); BAREFOOT and MANDARIN also appealed.
    I agree with beermagnet @ 5 FT (Financial Times) would be “Foxtrot Tango”.
    Thanks for the explanation for TEMPEST – I didn’t see that. ACIDHEADS was an unfamiliar word (I know a number of other “heads”, but no this one), but obvious enough from the clue.

  7. Nothing too challenging here this morning. I’m pleased that others have picked up 16a, as I think that it’s a very elegant clue, and I was also trying to work on an envelope of F and T until the penny dropped.

  10. My late maternal grandfather (b. 1896) used to get a bit of ribbing from his descendents for his pronunciation of “off” as “orf”, so I think it’s a class/generational thing rather than specifically a Royal trait. He also pronounced “often” as “orphan”, echoing that tediously drawn out joke in The Pirates of Penzance, which must be incomprehensible to many modern listeners.

    Thanks to PeterO for the blog, and Paul for another entertaining puzzle. I particularly liked 16a when the penny dropped, interpreting it as did Beermagnet et al.

  11. Thanks, PeterO

    Entertaining puzzle from Paul. I didn’t find it quite as easy as others seem to have done (not helped by my putting in ORFE at first, and why am I always blind to ‘force’ = Met?) but it yielded steadily and I managed it without artificial aid.

    Some great clues, as usual: 14a is a clever anagram, 23d is a well ‘hidden’ answer, 24a and 4d have a good surface/construction combination.

    I agree with beermagnet about the parsing of FOXTROT. Nice idea – pity about the surface…

  12. Thanks, Peter.

    Another one who took a long time to get into it, but I was glad I persevered because it was an entertaining puzzle. GRUMBLING APPENDIX and CIRCULAR BREATHING were my favourites this morning.

    ORFF was indeed funny. Who pronounces it that way nowadays? The elderly royal family and a few other gentrified families who’ve been here since the Norman conquest, I fancy. Rumour has it that Brenda’s accent has changed over the years, but her daughter has always been ENN, and of course the coalman making deliveries to Buckingham Palace to keep the royal fires burning always brings the black stuff in SEX.

    Good puzzle – thank you to Paul.

  13. I was initially convinced 3d was BLAST (using “slam” in its figurative sense, and “bang” in its literal). Still not convinced that anything other than the crossers is going to differentiate between BLAST and KNOCK.

  14. I, too, took a while to get into this one, but worth the effort. Thanks Paul & PeterO.

    molonglo @2; your link doesn’t seem to work. I assume it is this one. Yes, FOXTROT was one of my favourites, parsed as beermagnet @5. Interesting that FOXTROT, itself, contains ‘FT.’

    Did anyone else try ‘awake’ for 10? I thought not!

    KD’s @12; I was going to ask you about Brenda but Google reveals it is the Queen’s nickname in Private Eye. What a sheltered life I lead. 🙁

  15. Re 22: “Mr.Brown goes orff to town on the eight twenty-one”… Isn’t it “classical cockney”? “Gerrorff me barra”…

  16. Robi @14: AWAKE was also my first thought for 10a but, fortunately, I was not sufficiently confident to put it in.

  18. ulaca @ 17

    On reflection, I think the clue for FOXTROT might just be a little unfair. The “FT” for “newspaper” is only implied (though FT is of course the “newspaper” that first occurs to one when encountered in a crossword).

    I must confess that I was a little lucky in solving this one – I too was looking for an envelope of FT around something else when “foxtrot” occurred to me. It took me a little longer to realise that “oxtro” wasn’t relevant!

  19. Muffin, I think I’d let Paul off the hook having seen Beermagnet’s explanation. It’s almost a double definition, as Foxtrot ‘stands for’ FT, no? Anyway, why I do these things…

  20. Fair point, ulaca. (I did say “a LITTLE unfair”).

    It just had a hint of the reviled (in some circles) indirect or “ghost” anagram.

    The ubiquity of newspaper = FT saves it, however.

  22. Re 16a, I’ve been caught out so often by the NATO alphabet that as soon as I saw ‘tango’ I thought ‘aha!’, precedes = SIERRA, and tried to persuade myself that there was a dance called FSIERRAT…then saw ‘newspaper’, at which point the fog lifted.

    I was also tempted by awake or awash at 10 (‘wash’ as a broad coastal confluence of river mouths having cropped up in Round Britain Quiz on Monday), but fortunately couldn’t make either work 🙂

  23. Another good Paul puzzle.

    My first thought for 10ac was “awake” but I decided to wait for some checkers before I committed to it, and the same went for a possible “blast” at 3dn. The anagram fodder for 14ac was excellent and I can’t believe I haven’t seen it used before. ACIDHEADS was my LOI.

  24. Like many others a slow start but then a very rapid conclusion after getting 1 down almost instantly. (easy clue)

    Only slightly held up by KNOCK, PATENT and ACIDHEADS.

    I too failed to parse TEMPEST and FOXTROT correctly!

    Entertaining but disappointingly easy for Paul.

    We must be due for a “stinker” tomorrow. Let’s hope so!

    Thanks to PeterO and Paul

  25. Thanks to Paul and PeterO. Unfortunately, I committed to AWAKE without waiting for checkers.
    It just had to be right. For me KEYPAD was COD. Thanks for the FOXTROT explanation.

    Cheers…

  26. It’s odd – I suppose it’s from reading “Swallows and Amazons”, but I wrote REACH straight in. I added TREACLE and LOG ON on the first pass – it was then quite a long time before any others went in!

  27. muffin @26

    It is far longer ago than I care to recall that I read Swallows and Amazons, but REACH was the one that went in on my first pass.

  28. Thanks for that, PeterO

    I still make a point of reading at least one of the series every year (usually “Winter Holiday” when it first snows).

  29. I enjoyed this. On first reading FOXTROT I assumed that Paul was playing politics – T in FOX ROT (ie Murdoch’s newspapers)

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