Guardian 26,085 by Puck

27 comments on “Guardian 26,085 by Puck”

1. Thanks manehi. I stumbled as well on 23d, and plumped for ‘glover’ as LOI. Needed you to flesh out the NY bit in FTSE and the PT in 15d. In March Chifonie (25,905)had the same German phiosopher as 17a. I did like the misdirected 4 in SEMI-FINAL.

2. Thanks, manehi. Fun Puck. There’s a bit of a food and drink theme to the puzzle. Apart from the obvious references to eating and drinking, ones I noticed were:

   PORT
   TROUT
   Pork pie
   CRUMPET
   COD
   Nimble (bread)
   SPONGES
   PLONK
   Findus FISH CAKES
   ANGEL cakes (not the fish!)
   SALMON

   A couple I read slightly differently: ANTIGEN as (NEATING)* and KISS not as an anagram but SKIS with the S “cycling” to the end.

3. Quite a few fish in their own right too, with GROPER to add to those in NeilW’s list @2.

4. Thanks, manehi.

   I agree this was quite tough.

   I can’t discern the use of ellipses in 9/10 ac.

   I eventually got 23d unaided; GEORGE was clearly my first try, and then some use of GEO. I thought at the time G and M was quite funny, but having seen repeats recently, I can’t see why.

   PELLUCID I got straight away; this I first learned at O level in Conrad’s Youth (I think – it might have been in Typhoon, however). I have never seen or heard it used since! I think it a beautiful sounding word that should be used more.

5. It was Youth:

   “And she crawled on, do or die, in the serene weather. The sky was a miracle of purity, a miracle of azure. The sea was polished, was blue, was pellucid, was sparkling like a precious stone, extending on all sides, all round to the horizon”

6. Thanks manehi and Puck
   I didn’t enjoy this much (and not just because I featured in 8,4!).
   I failed on TROUT POUT. I didn’t think it was quite fair that such an unfamiliar expression had a crucial letter in common.
   “Fit” isn’t quite right as a definition for OPPORTUNE. Chambers has “occurring at a fitting time”, which is close but not exactly the same.
   Some of the clues and solutions must have been pushing the boundaries of the Guardian’s style guide – I’ll say no more on this.
   SEMI-FINAL was my favourite.

7. Thanks, manehi.

   What a lot of fun! Puck on top form.

   As so often, too many favourites to mention, really, but I perhaps have to pick out 14ac, for both its surface and construction. [manehi, CRUMPET can be plural – in fact, I think more often than not!]

   With ANTIGEN, I took the final N as coming from ‘on’, with ‘turn’ as the indicator.

   In 9ac, my initial thought was that UNE should be ‘Parisienne’ – but I suppose it works as it is.

   I agree with Dave Ellison re PELLUCID.

   Many thanks, Puck, for a most enjoyable puzzle.

8. Almost embarrassed to admit that I solved this one correctly. There were several terms that rang only faint bells, including ‘stud muffin’ (why should I know that?) & ‘trout pout’ (ditto),and some that I did not parse fully or correctly (‘tenet’ and ‘gayer’), so I suppose good fortune was on my side.
   Sadly, I have enough miles on the clock, and sufficiently poor taste to be able to remember George Roper first time round. Among several enjoyable clues, 15d appealed to me.

9. After solving some easy clues on the first time through, I also found this very tough in places, both to solve and parse, but I did enjoy the struggle.

   PELLUCID is a term often applied to transparent organisms such as jellyfish.

10. Thanks, manehi and thanks to Puck for a very enjoyable puzzle. I found this easier to solve than parse, with some of the answers springing out at me although I didn’t understand the wordplay fully. 15dn was one of those.

    Lots of good surfaces, I thought!

11. Loved this. Great fun and so cleverly constructed. I think POUT is also a fish and FIN is in there too.
    Not sure about 11,1 seem to recall this was caused by collagen injections not botox, but a real treat today!

12. Quite difficult for me, but nice one!

    Thanks manehi; I didn’t know STUD MUFFIN or TROUT POUT. Hillbilly @11; I do know that lip enhancement does usually involve collagen fillers, but I found this about using botox.

    I did try ‘booze’ (boos) for 26a at first. I was confused by the presumed lack of an anagrind in 13a, but I think Neil W@2 has explained it.

    I especially liked the clue for CRUMPET

13. I was worried that 13ac had no anagram indicator – I think Eileen @7 is right, and “Turn” is the indicator. Otherwise the clue doesn’t work.

    I stumbled on 3d, since as soon I scribbled down the anagram, “GABOR” popped out, and I tried to remember which of the Gabor sisters had a name like (great)*.

14. NeilW @2

    What about A Fish called Wanda?

15. NeilW @2

    You’ve left out MUFFIN.

    I took FISH (trout,cod,salmon) and CAKES (muffin,crumpet,sponges) to be the basic ingredients, well mixed and decorated with ANGEL.

16. Thanks, manehi.

    Very entertaining crossword, pleasantly lubricious. It seemed rather intractable at first, as I only had a couple of answers after the first ten minutes, but it gradually thawed for me and I picked up speed.

    Lots of well constructed clues with good surfaces. I liked the misleading use of numerals in 24a (great clue) and 10a, where the ellipsis is appropriate. I don’t think it was necessary for 9a; a single one would have been fine, although perhaps a bit less deceptive. I couldn’t parse FTSE (thanks) because I had FT as ‘paper’. No trouble with STUD MUFFIN or TROUT POUT (though I agree with Hillbilly @11 that the latter is not a look caused by Botox, but rather by misapplied collage injections).

    I dont think I ever watched ‘George and Mildred’, but it was a big enough cultural phenomenon in its day for me to be able to recall their surname, eventually.

17. For ‘collage’ read ‘collagen’. Injections of collage would give you much worse than a TROUT POUT.

18. Pleased to be unable to get the dreadful, chavvish ‘trout pout’. Living away from the UK for the past 25 years has its benefits.

19. rhotician @15, in fact, MUFFIN was the one that started me thinking about the mini-theme so it’s particularly stupid of me to have left it off the list. 🙁

20. Why is Nimble capitalised. It was a make of bread, I think, but so?

21. Forgot to ?

22. MartinD: I assumed it was for the surface reading: ‘backing Nimble’ sounds like putting money on a horse. The surface doesn’t really make any sense without this interpretation.

23. Another enjoyable Puck puzzle with plenty of smiles along the way, although I confess I didn’t notice the theme while I was solving it.

    STUD MUFFIN rang a distant bell so didn’t hold me up for too long, while TROUT POUT was my LOI after I finally saw the “up to” anagram fodder for the second word. I also remember G&M from the first time around but it still took a while for the G(eorge) ROPER penny to drop.

24. Gervase. Thanks for reply. I am still in the dark, tho ( a not uncommon situation ) what has the idea of betting on a horse got to do with it? In my defence I did finish the puzzle, I just can’t parse it to my satisfaction. Cheers.

25. MartinD @24; as Gervase says, if the clue were written: ’12 about model backing nimble,’ the surface doesn’t really make any sense. The capitalisation might lead to the thought of backing a horse (or dog) called Nimble – if you Google Nimble+racehorse, you will find a number of candidates. Nimble is, of course, the definition.

26. Thanks all
    Enjoyable and not too difficult except Gayer on which I spent as long as all the rest.
    To quote someone “close but not exactly the same”; that’s exacly what a cryptic crossword should contain.

27. As a newcomer to fifteen squared, can somebody explain what LOI means?
    Regards

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