Guardian 26,194 – Brummie

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Looking at previous blogs of Brummie’s puzzles, by myself and others, I find that a common introduction is something like “As is often the case with Brummie, this turned out easier than it appeared at first sight” – and so it was with this one, where after a rather poor showing on my first pass everything started to fall nicely into place. Thanks to Brummie.

I wondered if there was any more to Hockney mini-theme in 5a and 9d, but I can’t see anything obvious. (I suppose you might make A BIGGER SPLASH if you go IN AT THE DEEP END – a missed opportunity to link the clues there?)

 
 
Across
1. PANNIER Musical stored inside piano roll’s top container? (7)
ANNIE (Musical) in P[iano] + R[oll]
5. HOCKNEY Name taken by game master (7)
N in HOCKEY
11. EMBROIDERY Art of sewer decoration? (10)
Two (very closely related) definitions
12. UPSHOT It happened in the end lift crack (6)
UP (lift, as a verb) + SHOT (crack, as in “have a crack/shot at this”). Rather a strange surface reading, but it just about makes sense
13. GORMLESS Leave empty room smaller than before, not having a clue (8)
GO (leave) + R[oom] + LESS (smaller than before)
14. DISBURDEN Bids under, breaking free (9)
(BIDS UNDER)*
16. AVIAN About those taking flight 161 (5)
The 161 is split up as 1 + 6 + 1, or A + VI + AN
17. SCALD Burn peeled off in layers with no end of heartache (5)
SCALED (peeled off in layers) less [heartach]E
19. USHERSHIP Escort’s state? Unserviceable — the woman’s cool (9)
U/S + HERS + HIP
23. PLAYBILL List of the actors etc to take the role of Sykes? (8)
To take the role of Sykes is to PLAY BILL, though the character in Oliver Twist is actually Bill Sikes
24. HUSSAR In irritation, say, 4 x 4 almost knocked over horseman (6)
SU[V] in RASH, all reversed, with a surface reading that well describes some of the drivers of these monsters
26. ITALICISED Idealistic rocks given a stressed look (10)
IDEALISTIC* – nice misleading defintion, though again the surface reading is a bit strange
27. BYTE Standby terraced housing bits combined (4)
Hidden in standBY TErrace – a byte (usually) consists of 8 bits
29. CANTEEN Jail youth’s liquid holder (7)
CAN (jail) + TEEN
Down
2. ADELPHI Article on site associated with Apollo Theatre (7)
A + DELPHI. I don’t know how closely the names “Delphi” and “Adelphi” are related – can anyone (Eileen?) elucidate?
3. NATCH Certainly no opening for kidnap (5)
[S]NATCH
4,10. EJECTOR SEAT Et ceteras Jo removed could have her off the aircraft pdq (7,4)
(ET CETERAS JO)*
6. ODOURS They might hum, unsmiling, in Old Style setting (6)
DOUR in OS
7. KID GLOVES Jokes about grand passion for soft treatment aids (3,6)
G LOVE in KIDS
8. EURASIA Rocky area is uranium-enriched vast tract (7)
U in (AREA IS)*
9. A BIGGER SPLASH Famous 5 article getting more column inches? (1,6,6)
Definition + cryptic definition for this well-known painting by David Hockney. I think the clue could fairly have been written as “Famous Five article..” to give a more obvious allusion to the Enid Blyton books
15. BELLY FLOP Corporation founder’s shambolic board manoeuvre? (5-4)
BELLY (corporation) + FLOP (to founder)
18. COLETTE Writer‘s block — in bed before start of evening (7)
LET (block, as in “let or hindrance”) in COT + E[vening]
20. ECHIDNA Creature‘s energy, life force and cycles (7)
E + CHI (life force in Traditional Chinese Medicine) + AND<
21,28. IN AT THE DEEP END Pushed to do something unprepared and so likely to go under? (2,2,3,4,3)
Metaphorical and literal definition of the phrase
22. ZIRCON Unknown metal containing cold mineral (6)
Z (unknown, in algebra etc) + C in IRON
25. SABOT Clog junk boats (5)
BOATS* Sabot is the French word for a clog, sometimes used in English, and the origin of the word “sabotage”

37 comments on “Guardian 26,194 – Brummie”

  2. Thanks Andrew & Brummie. I had trouble parsing HUSSAR and I would never have guessed that sabotage came from a word meaning clog! Wikipedia gives a few possible explanations for how it came to do so.

    The adelphi theatre is named after the Adelphi buildings by the Adam brothers, adelphi meaning brothers. It is derived from delphos (womb), as are Delphi and dolphin.

  3. Thanks, Andrew. All quite straightforward today from Brummie. Only complaint might be that it seemed a bit humourless for him.

    You’ve a typo in your parsing of GORMLESS – should be R[oo]M.

  4. Enjoyable and quite challenging stuff. EURASIA I thought was especially good. I baulked at Hockney being described as a master (but that I suppose is a matter of taste) and appropriately enough had never heard of the painting. I had ‘playlist’ originally at 23, wondering what on earth ‘list’ could have to do with Oliver Twist. Or Hattie Jacques’s ex sparring partner, for that matter.

  5. Thanks Andrew. What is big and splashy about the famous five? BELLY FLOP should be adde to your mini theme. I couldn’t see much cryptic with 11a. Agree with your other comments..

  6. Thanks, Brummie, for the puzzle, and Andrew, for the blog.

    As you say, some weird surfaces and, as NeilW says, not much to laugh at today.

    To expand on Alan R’s comment @2 [I’ve been out!]:

    Delphi [formerly called Pytho] is so called because in some versions of the story Apollo came there on / in the guise of a dolphin and took over the oracle there. [It’s the most awesome place I’ve ever been to.]

    Adelphi, as Alan says, means ‘brothers’ [The Roman playwright Terence wrote a play with that name] – cf Philadelphia, the ‘City of Brotherly Love’.

  7. Re 9d, Andrew’s suggestion of making the reference to Enid Blyton even more misleading seems hardly necessary in the light of Molonglo’s comment, echoed by several bloggers in the other place!

  8. Thanks for the blog, Andrew. My experience solving this was similar to yours — not much on the first pass, then it all yielded quite steadily. 11ac was one of those barely cryptics. Last one in was USHERSHIP.

    I thought 25dn was quite neat.

  9. I needed help from my technology today. A bit of a slog, made ‘sloggier’ by entering NEEDLEWORK for 11.

    Thanks, Andrew (and Brummie).

  10. I had a large photocopying job to do this morning so this Brummie offering was the perfect accompaniment. just the right amount of headscratching/pennydropping so thank you to him and Andrew.

  12. Liz, 11 ac is indeed cryptic. Long-time solvers often forget that normal people see “sewer” and think sludge rather than seamstresses. Just as in crosswordland, you quickly learn that flowers are more likely to be brooks than begonias.

    My LOI–and comfortably my least favorite–was ushership–a weak-ass clue for a weak-ass word.

  13. I’m in the “this was quite difficult” camp – a lot of rather obscure general knowledge needed to finish this. Missed CANTEEN – I had GARTREE as a jail but obviously couldn’t parse it, and annoyingly although I wrote belly flop in I didn’t see the BELLY=CORPORATION. Must admit to Googling “A BIGGER” to get the Hockney too. Last in was USHERSHIP, which I’m not sure I’ve seen before. SABOT was unfamiliar but had to be right. So not one of my better days. Liked the misdirection in ITALICISED.

    Thanks to Brummie and Andrew.

  14. Oh, one other thing–I disagree with the parsing of 9d. It’s simply a famous Hockney–“article” is the wordplay for the “A.” I could be wrong, of course.

  16. beery hiker: “Last in was USHERSHIP, which I’m not sure I’ve seen before.” One of the best things about this website is the search feature, which yields only today’s crossword as a user of the word – so none of us have seen it before, well at least not recently in a crossword! 😉 Nice of Brummie to make the clue an easy one.

  17. Thanks Brummie and Andrew
    I didn’t complete, as I had pencilled in PALETTE for 18d and then forgot that it was only provisional; hence I didn’t get SCALD.
    Very mixed for me. I liked PLAYBILL (having missed the misspelling of Sikes), GORMLESS and EMBROIDERY. I wouldn’t have had a clue about HOCKNEY if A BIGGER SPLASH hadn’t been a write-in for me – not a very fair clue (for 5) I thought.
    What sort of word is USHERSHIP? Has anyone here come across it previously?

  19. Thanks to Brummie and Andrew. Also thanks to NeilW@16 for the confirmation. I didn’t think I’d
    seen that strange word before but I was prepared to be corrected. PANNIER was new to me also.
    Agree with Andrew about 12’s surface reading.

    Cheers…

  21. grandpuzzler @ 19
    PANNIER was very familiar to me, as the town where I was brought up had a Pannier Market, for farmers to sell their produce.

    This has become very fashionable recently, as “Farmers’ Markets”, whereas my old Pannier Market now sells nick-nacks, “antiques”, second-hand books, CDs etc. – rarely any produce to be seen!

  22. I’m really trying very hard to think of a context in which I’m ever going to use the word USHERSHIP other than in a crossword. Not the point I know but it really is pretty contrived for a noun. Probably just moaning because it was last in.

    Pleased to see median’s post otherwise I might have thought that no-one else started with NEEDLEWORK at 11. Distrusted it though, and just as well.

    Quite liked A BIGGER SPLASH literally diving down the middle of the grid.

  23. Pretty tough. I finished most of it in a 1 hr session this morning and was left with the SE quarter for late this afternoon.

    Ushership was last in and worked out from the instructions. The OED gives the following

    1. The office or functions of an usher.

    1580 W. Fulke T. Stapleton & Martiall Confuted iv. 165 Ye Priestes are appointed to vse those signes, which if Martials Vshership will not admit, [etc.].

    1631 T. Powell Tom of All Trades 44 To leape into instantly, and imediately out of a Ladies vshership.

    1740 Ld. Harrington in 10th Rep. Royal Comm. Hist. MSS (1885) App. i. 275 The Ushership of the Exchequer.

    1788 W. Cowper Let. 30 Nov. (1982) III. 233, I was under his ushership at Westminster.

    1825 T. Hook Sayings & Doings 2nd Ser. III. 130 To assume the ushership of the black rod at Montgomery Place.

    1881 Daily News 1 Aug. 5/3 In Algeria..his years of ushership had been the most wretched of his life.

    2. A post or position as a (school-) usher.

    1788 W. Cowper Let. 30 Nov. (1982) III. 233, I was under his ushership at Westminster.

    1825 W. Hone Every-day Bk. (1826) I. 79 The son..being put to school, obtained successive usherships.

    1880 R. K. Dent Old & New Birmingham 79 Johnson having found the drudgery of an ushership..too irksome for him.

    I thought it was a good clue and also ticked 26a, 3d, and 15d.

  24. I was proud to have completed this before the blog was published but 11 hours later I still don’t understand…

    Why is ‘Famous 5 article’ the answer to ‘A BIGGER SPLASH’? I know it’s a painting.

  25. Tim Phillips @ 24
    Replace the answer to clue 5 for “5” and you get “Famous Hockney article” – it’s probably his most well-known painting (though I like his landscapes much more)

  26. Hi Tim @24

    I read it as ‘Famous 5’ for the definition e.g. as in ‘famous Rembrandt’ to refer to the artist’s painting e.g. portrait of his mum. Then the article becomes part of the answer as the first ‘a’ and this is followed by ‘bigger’ (more) and ‘splash’ (column inches).

  27. Oh for goodness’ sake, how bleedin’ obvious.

    I suppose the problem is that I twigged 9d before 5a so the connection was the wrong way round.

    Thanks, muffers!

  29. Ooh, I feel such an amateur after some of my acid posts a couple of weeks or so ago!

    Strange how you can be staring at something so cruciverbally obvious while trying to find something more…er, cruciverbal. I suppose it’s a bit like always assuming sewer is someone who sews rather than drains…

  31. I always enjoy Brummie’s puzzles and this was no exception. Count me as another who started slowly but then finished it fairly quickly once a few answers had gone in. ITALICISED was my FOI and PANNIER my LOI. I didn’t know the Hockney painting but it was gettable enough from the wordplay once a few checkers were in place. Despite having read all of Dickens I didn’t notice the “Sykes” error.

  32. A nice crossword from Brummie which I didn’t find as easy as some seem to have.

    Got there before the footie starts but still over the hour!

    I still don’t see why HOCKNEY = MASTER. I was hoping for some enlightenment on the parsing here! He’s certainly not a Old Master yet so is he just a master painter. Or am I missing something obvious. (Again)

    Thanks to Andrew and Brummie

  33. tupu @26

    Rembrandt’s mum? Nice thought. It makes me wonder how the famous Whistler – Arrangement in Gray and Black No.1 – could be clued.

  36. Ushership must be one of those words that the desperate setter sticks in gratefully when found. OED seems to indicate no usage since about 1880. Statute of limitation?

  37. Thanks Brummie and Andrew

    A good workout with this one … and only had ZIRCON sitting solo for a little while. Didn’t know the Hockney painting but was confirmed with a google from the wordplay.

    Thought that SCALD and BELLY FLOP were the best of a good lot. USHERSHIP was also my last one in.

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