Guardian 26,098 – Qaos

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Rather a strange mixture from Qaos today – some very obvious clues (e.g. 1a), but also some more complex constructions (e.g. 18a). There are a couple of places where I think the cryptic grammar doesn’t quite work, and a rather surprising spelling mistake, but on the other hand one very nice &lit clue, and another near-miss. So overall perhaps not his best puzzle ever, but an enjoyable diversion – thanks to Qaos.

 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. SPIRITS Stir and sip mixed drinks (7)
(STIR SIP)*
5. PHANTOM Penny’s husband breaks a ton on motorway with Rolls-Royce (7)
P + H + (A TON)* + M
9. ANGEL Perhaps Michael Vaughan’s foot follows a leg break (5)
(A LEG) + [vaugha]N – the definition refers to the Archangel Michael
10. ORANG-UTAN Before a nut develops, lots of fruit, which may hang from trees (5-4)
ORANG[e] + (A NUT)*
11. OVERTAKING Passing old, green, family silver around (10)
O VERT + KIN in AG
12. DEAF Oblivious to four notes? (4)
D, E, A and F are musical notes. The answer is fairly obvious, but there are lots of ways of making words out of four of the letters A-G (not to mention do re mi etc)
14. RADIOMETERS Blowing air: most reed instruments (11)
(AIR MOST REED)*
18. FIRECRACKER Banger car, with wrecked interior, crashed into tree (11)
(CAR [w]RECKE[d])* in FIR – a day late for Guy Fawkes, though that doesn’t stop some people
21. EASY In France a syllable is unforced (4)
Hidden in francE A SYllable
22. UNILATERAL Perhaps Berkeley’s after a Liberal from one side (10)
UNI (University, Berkeley being an example) + LATER (after) + A L
25. SENSORIUM Solving uses minor part of the brain (9)
(USES MINOR)* – the first definition of this in Chambers is “the area of the brain that is the seat of sensation”
26. PITCH Level playing field (5)
Double definition
27. SPECTRE Flemming’s criminal organisation has secret design to seize power (7)
P in SECRET*. SPECTRE – the SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion – is the criminal organisation led by Ernst Stavro Blofeld that features in several of the James Bond novels, and rather more of the films. The author is of course Ian Fleming, with one M, not two as in the clue.
28. ROSTRUM Storm brews over ball game’s lofty stage (7)
RU (Rugby Union) in STORM*
Down
1. SHADOW Dog had been bitten by pig (6)
HAD in SOW. “Been” rather spoils the grammar of the cryptic reading
2. INGLES Fires one head over heels (6)
SINGLE (one) with the S moved to the end: does that count as “head over heels”?
3. ILLITERACY Inability to grasp a pound? Conservative cuts tragic reality (10)
I L (a pound) + C in REALITY*
4. SPOOK Leader of Kremlin admits mistake turning secret agent (5)
K OOPS, reversed
5. PLAINWORK Palin’s touring production, which involves no embroidery (9)
PALIN* + WORK – “plain needlework, as distinguished from embrodiery”
6. ARGO Retailer loses small ship (4)
ARGO[s] (UK retailer) – the Argo being the ship of Jason and the Argonauts
7. TETHERED Edward wraps square present, tied with strong string? (8)
T (square) HERE (present) in TED
8. MANIFEST Soldier is holding iron bar out in the open (8)
MAN + FE in IS + T[-bar]
13. FERROTYPES Old photographs and toys prefer recycling (10)
(TOYS PREFER)* – a ferrotype, or tintype was a type of photograph printed onto metal
15. DRAINPIPE One dapper in fancy style of trouser? (9)
(A DAPPER IN)* – drainpipe trousers have come in and out of fashion over the years
16. OFFENSES US crimes: very loud, seen abroad, wearing XXXL? (8)
(FF SEEN*) in OS (outsize – very large). “US crimes” because it’s the American spelling
17. PRESENCE Company submits reports (8)
Homophone of “presents” (submits)
19. WRITER Author becomes cleaner with HR trade (6)
WHITER with the H “traded” into an R
20. OLDHAM Town where the meat’s off? (6)
The meat that’s old could be OLD HAM
23. LEMUR Luminously eyed Madagascan, usually ringed at the extremities (5)
First letters &lit – a nice description of ring-tailed lemurs, which live in Madagascar
24. BOAT It’s buoyant, oddly (4)
Odd letters of BuOyAnT, and almost &lit., though not quite, as “oddly” isn’t part of the definition

41 comments on “Guardian 26,098 – Qaos”

  1. A setter new to me as far as I recall. I have to agree with Andrew that the clues seemed a little patchy in quality, but I thought that the one for ‘lemur’ was good enough to outweigh any deficiencies – very straightforward I accept, but witty, concise and accurate, conjuring up an image of the small creatures.

  2. Thanks Andrew and Q. As you say, a mixed bag – and too many crossing endings in S for my taste. Talking of which(i.e. taste), wasn’t too happy with meat’s off = old ham(20dn). Not if it’s prosciutto or jamon iberico or pata negra!

  3. Thanks Andrew. I would add to your misgivings the very dodgy homophone.

    Spirits, phantom, angel, spectre, shadow, spook, presence, writer and lemur amount to a ghostly theme.
    Thanks Qaos.

  5. Thanks, Andrew.

    The word “lemur” derives from the word lemures (ghosts or spirits) from Roman mythology (this from Wiki, not my general knowledge, although it rang a bit of a bell.) Bit of a “things that go bump in the night” (or don’t) mini-theme going on, I thought.

  8. Morning all!

    I don’t normally post until later, but today an early apology is needed. The submitted version of 27ac did have “Fleming”, BUT it’s also up to me to check the proof, so I should have spotted an extra letter had crept in. As someone on the Guardian’s website has pointed out, you can blame ‘M’.

    It was a pleasure to have met several of you at Enigmatist’s 50th celebration in Sheffield a few weeks ago and just shows what a fine sociable lot crossword solvers and setters are. I’ll do my best to make the next Sloggers and Betters and encourage those that haven’t been before to come along.

    Also, no slight intended for 25ac. I swear these clues write themselves sometimes :-).

    BCNU

    Qaos.

  9. Muffyword – I’m very severe. I don’t give half marks. And 9 is still one more than yesterday’s. Or one less mini?

  10. Thanks, Andrew

    I liked this, though it’s not Qaos at his best. The grammar of 5a, 1d, and 2d doesn’t quite work for me, and the homophone at 17d doesn’t work at all: not only are the consonants different, but ‘presents’ as a verb (= ‘submits’) is stressed on the second syllable whereas PRESENCE is stressed on the first.

    However there are some really good clues: I particularly enjoyed RADIOMETERS, FIRECRACKER. TETHERED and LEMUR.

    Unlike yesterday’s Brummie, I missed the theme today, but this time I didn’t need it to finish solving the puzzle. Add FIRECRACKER to the ghosties and there is a roughly topical combined Hallowe’en/Guy Fawkes theme.

  12. Thanks Andrew and Qaos

    Some amusing clues – I particularly liked 10a.

    Like Andrew and no doubt others I was puzzled by 27a – thanks to Qaos for explanation.

    As yesterday, I missed the theme and solved the clues from the wordplay, which in some ways I prefer in any case.

    I failed on 5d which I ought to have guessed.

  13. Thanks Qaos and Andrew.

    Lots to enjoy here. Gervase @ 10 clearly has a good point about presence/presents, but I have become very laid back about homophones, so didn’t mind too much. The reason for this libertarianism is that I took a long time to train myself to remain cheerful in the face of so-called homophones that only work if you don’t roll your Rs (non-rhoticians???). It seems best to cut the compiler quite a lot of slack.

  14. Thanks Qaos and Andrew.

    Presents as a noun would have given a better homophone (‘Company reports donations’?)

    I particularly liked LEMUR – a great clue in my opinion.

  15. I don’t think a puzzle should end up having OFFENSES in it really, it should be remade to ‘lose’ thing like that. It is ‘this is the best we could do ‘ and not good. It was a quite bad Guardian one with some mistakes, not picked up, and some weak clues. I did not like the LEMUR one bnecause ‘extremiteis’ does not mean ‘first letters”. The boat one is not right because boats are not ‘oddly ‘ buoyamt: they really do floay!!!

  16. Rowland’s being a bit fussy I fear. There were some good clues here; I would add WRITER and SPOOKS to those mentioned, the latter being last in and needing Mrs Trailman’s advice.

  18. Thanks Qaos and Andrew
    Late to this today, so most has been said. I would like to add my appreciation of ANGEL and, in particular, the misdirection in EASY – how many of us tried to start the word EN (French for “in”)?

  20. Thank you Qaos for an enjoyable puzzle.
    I agree word for word with Saran @17.
    I failed on 5 across and 5 down, so thank you to Andrew for explaining them. They were so obvious when I read the answers. However, I put my failure down to an age thing, as I keep thinking that penny should be ‘d’ not ‘p’.

  21. As others have said, a mixed bag. PRESENCE was my LOI and I think the homophone doesn’t work because of the different syllables the stress is placed on when the meaning of “presents” is “submits”. The clue for 2dn is a nice idea but I don’t think the wordplay works. On the plus side the &lit for LEMUR was excellent, and the definition for ORANG-UTAN made me smile. I don’t have a problem with the clue for BOAT because it isn’t an &lit, and I also don’t have a problem with OFFENSES as an answer. Oh, and I managed to miss the theme!

  22. Thanks all
    I enjoyed ‘lemur’,clever. Couldn’t parse ‘ingles’. Last in was ‘presence'(reluctantly).

  23. But for the odd write-in I found this a fairly solid exercise, and pleasurable too.

    I too stared at INGLES for ages before spotting the top-to-bottom.

    Thanks Qaos, blogger and posters.

  24. PS I was sorry to miss folk at Sheffield. It’s not far from me and the Tap’s one of the best too. We’ll meet up some time I trust.

  25. Is it horribly pedantic of me to point out that Berkeley is not a “uni”? For one, it’s American, and we don’t use the abbreviation “uni” here. But more seriously, the name of the school is the University of California at Berkeley. Berkeley is the town, not the school. (Yes, colloquially, people do say “Berkeley” to mean UC Berkeley, but many if not most grads from the place will be quick to point out your imprecision. (It’s “Cal” to them, by the way.))

  26. Hi Mrpenney:

    Thanks for the info. I think it’s acceptable setting to use what a local would informally call the establishment.

    I see your point, but setters have anything possible on their side.

    Cheers.

  27. Bit of a not-quite today, couldn’t properly dig it.

    When someone has good ideas but doesn’t follow them right through, I guess it’s bound to look that way, or that someone’s trying TOO hard. Some of the grammar stuff made me feel nervous too. Nothing really leapt out at me, not even the primates, but this would be a Guardian talent to nurture and support.

  28. Here I was thinking that for the first time I had successfully gotten all the answers AND parsed all the clues. All good until the last one . . . missed the starting letters in the clue for LEMUR. And entirely missed the theme.

    Okay, I will try again tomorrow. Keep up the good work!

  29. Well I enjoyed it.

    I didn’t notice the mispelling of Flemming. (Why does it matter as it doesn’t affect the clue?). I think the homophone is fine. It is “sounds like” and not “sounds exactly the same as”!

    And yes mrpenney @25, you are being horribly pedantic as are several others on here today. Berkeley is known in the UK as an American University.An acceptable abbreviation in the UK for university is uni. Where is the problem.

    Enjoyable crossword. Thanks to Qaos and Andrew.

  30. Good crossword by Qaos, though one I would classify as Qaos Lite.
    Thoughtful clueing all around (with some really nice touches like in 5ac, 18ac, 23d, 16d (XXXL!) or 10ac) but nonetheless a bit lightweight.

    I am completely with Gervase about 17d.
    ‘Presents’ (as a verb) doesn’t sound like ‘Presence’ at all.
    Actually I/we saw this as a perhaps unintended mistake.

    I also found 19d ambiguous.
    It could just as easily lead to ‘whiter’. Perhaps, Qaos should have said “would become”.

    We couldn’t be bothered by Flemming (and were certainly not puzzled by it) but we asked ourselves who is Michael Vaughan?
    Apparently a cricketer, silly us. Knowing that, the surface of the clue made a lot more sense, that’s for sure.

    Enjoyable crossword, as others said perhaps not Qaos’ best but what the heck.

    Thanks dear fellow citizen for the blog.

  32. Hi Sil.

    I’m glad you are not as picky as some rest regarding this perfectly good puzzle.

    However you have supported the “dodgy homophone” camp.

    My defense, (could this sound like defends? 😉 ) is this. In clues that use indicators like report, heard, on radio etc it’s perfectly acceptable to have near homophones. Or are you all saying that it’s absolutely impossible for someone to mishear “presents” as “presence”. That certainly wouldn’t stand up in a court of law.

  33. Flemming did bother me. As it’s not the most common spelling, I assumed it must be deliberate. So SPECTRE was very late in.

    Astonished to learn that ‘uni’ is not an imported Americanism. Why do I find it such a peculiarly aggravating usage, eg when used by BBC presenters trying to get down with the kids?

    As usual, I missed the theme.

  34. Paxman presents Newsnight with presence. No doubt he also presents Christmas presents. Dodgy homophones can provide good jokes, and bad jokes. 17d is no joke.

  37. rhotician

    Not so!! It is most unfortunate that this impression has been given and I am very disappointed, too.

    [I sent you an email last night, as soon as I saw comment 35, but it was returned to me as having a non-existent address.]

  38. Ha ha haa! S/he doesn’t exist. I knew it. You were speaking with a spectre in Sheffield.

    Rhotician/ non-Betty: I should have said, but didn’t deliberately, that Eileen refused to say who you are, as she had been ‘sworn to secrecy’. Well, at least you came out to play. See you down south sometime?

    Yours
    Cedric Bongo.

  39. I was not a spectre, more a spook. And I may well lurk again.

    This e-mail business is intriguing. What’s in front of me now is correct. Assuming this is what Gaufrid has I would be happy for him to publish for Eileen’s eyes only.

    Yours in secret.

  40. Paul B: or see you up north sometime?

    Actually, I asked Rhotician about (the use of) Betty in Sheffield.
    Thereafter I concluded that there’s nothing to worry about.

    But what about Jeremy Paxman who presents Newsnight with real presence?
    Don’t tell me it’s a homophone.

  41. I’m mystified by some of the esoteric dialogue above. Or are we in Paul Simon country here?

    If you’ll be my bodyguard
    I can be your long lost pal
    I can call you Betty
    And Betty when you call me
    You can call me Al……

    “You Can Call Me Al” is a song by Paul Simon, the first single released from his album Graceland. The names in the song came from an incident at a party that Simon went to with his then-wife Peggy Harper. French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez, who was attending the same party, mistakenly referred to Paul as “Al” and to Peggy as “Betty”, inspiring Simon to write a song.

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