Guardian 26,204 by Orlando

by

I really enjoyed this, as is usual with Orlando. Lots of clever clues and surfaces – 9ac, 23ac, 4dn, 16dn and 21dn were my favourites.

Across

1 Devastating grouse: Orlando is ghastly (8)
GRUESOME
=”ghastly”. (grouse)* plus ME=”Orlando”

5 A second test dismissing one of the stars (6)
ASTRAL
=”of the stars”. A plus S[econd] plus TR[i]AL without the i=”one”

9 Plea to songwriter? Heavens above! (4,3)
OPEN AIR
=”Heavens above”. O, PEN AIR =”Plea to songwriter”, as in ‘please, write a song’

10 Support stockings at first carried by runaway (7)
BOLSTER
=”Support”. S[tockings] inside BOLTER=”runaway”

11 Leave tongue but finish off fruit (5)
GOURD
=”fruit”. GO=”Leave” plus URD[u]=”tongue but finish off”

12 Popular judge restrains European power very well (2,3,4)
IN THE PINK
=”very well”. IN=”Popular” plus THINK=”judge” around E[uropean] P[ower]

13 It’s easily done in Madeira, perhaps (1,5,2,4)
A PIECE OF CAKE
=”It’s easily done”; =”in [a] Madeira [cake], perhaps”

17 Change of heart about bumpy road (12)
THOROUGHFARE
=”road”. (of heart)* around ROUGH=”bumpy”

20 Petty officer stole two shillings taken aboard (9)
BOATSWAIN
=”Petty officer”. BOA=”stole”, a thing to be worn around the shoulders; plus TWAIN=”two” with S[hillings] inside

22 Guy on shed from town in Somerset (5)
TAUNT
=”Guy”. TAUNTon is the Somerset town, shedding the on

23 Arctic shrew’s confession is heard (3-4)
ICE-COLD
=”Arctic”. Sounds like ‘I scold’=”shrew’s confession”

24 Stand back before entrance (7)
ETAGERE
=”Stand”. Reversal (“back”) of ERE=”before” and GATE=”entrance”

25 Picked up by the ears, fancy rodent? (6)
GOPHER
=”rodent”. Sounds like (“Picked up by the ears”) ‘Go for’=”fancy”

26 Flock sees lamb stew (8)
ASSEMBLE
=”Flock”. (sees lamb)*

Down

1 Best flight controller? (6)
GEORGE
=GEORGE “Best” the footballer; =”flight controller”, GEORGE being RAF slang for the autopilot

2 Lead in unleaded fuel’s oddly effective (6)
USEFUL
=”effective”. U[nleaded] plus (fuel’s)*

3 Resist entertainer, turning our heads (5,2,2)
STAND UP TO
=”Resist”. STAND UP=”entertainer”, plus T[urning] O[ur]

4 Manlier gender bender making German work (6,7)
MERRIE ENGLAND
=”German work” – an opera by Edward German [wiki]. (Manlier gender)*

6 Healer hailing from Rome? (5)
SALVE
=”Healer”; =”hailing from Rome”, as SALVE is a Latin greeting i.e. “Hail!”

7 Dramatist with cane holding soldier up (8)
RATTIGAN
=”Dramatist” Terence Rattigan [wiki]. RATTAN=”cane” from a palm plant, around rev(GI)=”soldier up”

8 Kilometre not mile? Sick as a parrot! (8)
LORIKEET
=”a parrot”. (Kilo[m]etre)*, where the removed m is due to “not mile”

10 Goat, perhaps, identifies missing person (13)
BUTTERFINGERS
=”missing person”, someone who misses catches. BUTTER=”Goat, perhaps”, as something that butts, plus FINGERS=”identifies” / incriminates

14 Excellent pastries going up in flames (5-4)
FIRST-RATE
=”Excellent”. rev(TARTS)=”pastries going up”, in FIRE=”flames”

15 Police trap a couple of bishops engaged in crime (8)
STABBING
=”crime”. STING=”Police trap”, with A plus B[ishop] B[ishop] “engaged [with]in”

16 No cassette and vinyl recording, no sound at all (3,1,4)
NOT A PEEP
=”no sound at all”. NO plus TAPE=”cassette” plus EP=”vynil recording”.

18 Exquisite European clothes at university (6)
SUPERB
=”Exquisite”. SERB=”European”, around (“clothes”) UP=in residence “at university”

19 Helping to make Gaia the New Age goddess (6)
ATHENE
=”goddess”. Hidden inside (“Helping to make” up) “Gaia the New Age”

21 One out of three at the table sound asleep? (5)
SNORE
=”sound [made while] asleep”. S, N, OR E = South, North or East = “One out of three at the [bridge] table”.

27 comments on “Guardian 26,204 by Orlando”

  2. Well, managed to finish this but didn’t completely understand why in 20a, 25a, 1d and 2d which now seem so obvious! Thanks to Orlando and Manehi.

  3. Thanks Orlando and manehi
    I needed your parsing of BOATSWAIN, but a really enjoyable crossword. Lots of great clues – special mentions for MERRIE ENGLAND, LORIKEET and BUTTERFINGERS.

  5. Absolutely. Orlando is certainly one of my favourite setters, and I really enjoyed this puzzle. 9a is another groan or smile clue, but it was a smile for me at least.Well and truly led up the garden path by 4d, but then remembered the ‘Yeomen of England’. Given my moniker, it took me a silly amount of time to twig 1d.
    Grateful to Orlando and manehi though, thankfully, I didn’t need any blogger enlightenment today.

  6. Thanks for the blog, Manehi.

    I don’t disagree with your favourites but I would add 20, 23 and 25ac and 1, 2, 6, 8 and 10dn. I wish I could think of a way to describe Orlando’s puzzles without using the words ‘wit’, ‘elegance’ and ‘great story-telling surfaces’ – which are all here again in abundance: a lovely puzzle!

    I would have smiled at 25ac anyway but it made me grin even more widely, as one of my [three] lines in our pantomime, opening [and closing] next week, is in answer to the question, ‘What’s a loofah?’.

    And it’s quite irrelevant but I thought it was rather neat that Belfast City Airport is now known as George Best Airport.

    Many thanks, Orlando, for once again giving such a good start to my day.

  7. Nice and easy, but not too easy. I liked the misleads in 4d, setting off a mental search of the whole of German literature, art and music, and 13a – ditto with fortified wines and their island of origin.

    I’m surprised at the lack of comment on 1d, which I thought would be quite obscure to those who, unlike me, were not brought up “I flew with Braddock” in the Rover.

    One small query for Manehi – why the reference to Wiki for German and Rattigan?

  8. One small query for Manehi – why the reference to Wiki for German and Rattigan?

    Just shows the differences in solvers’ knowledge, I’ve never heard of German but GEORGE was a write-in.

  9. Mac @7 – no hard rule, but I often add wiki links where a clue requires knowledge that likely requires an encyclopedia more than a dictionary. Not sure why I didn’t include GEORGE Best with the other two, though the second sense of GEORGE was in my Chambers.

  10. I thought I remembered George from the magnificent spoof movie Airplane! but on checking found that the automatic pilot in the film is named as Otto. Still brings back a smile though.

    As indeed did the puzzle. Hardly a dud, though I couldn’t parse BOATSWAIN either. I rather like the flood-bound imagery of 22 (though maybe I wouldn’t if I actually lived there).

  11. Thanks to Orlando & manehi. I found this enjoyable and easy – gopher was probably my favourite. I hadn’t heard before of george for autopilot, nor of Edward German, while Rattigan and lorikeet just looked vaguely familiar. All very guessable from the clues and crossers though.

  12. Thanks manehi and Orlando

    A fine puzzle as summed up neatly by Eileen, manehi et al.

    I ticked lots of clues in a not very systematic way – 9a, 17a, 20a, 23a, 25a,4d, 10d, and 16d. A single big tick for the whole puzzle might have been better.

    I got ‘snore’ but failed to parse it. I thought for a time there might be a Shakespearian character called ‘Snore’ but there isn’t.

  13. Thanks Orlando for a really enjoyable puzzle.

    Thanks manehi especially for the parsing of SNORE, which passed me by entirely. I needed the wiki link since I’ve never heard of Edward German.

    I particularly liked OPEN AIR and BUTTERFINGERS.

  14. Found this a bit harder than the rest of you, but certainly the wit was there. BUTTERFINGERS and SALVE were clever. And I couldn’t parse SNORE either, so thank you to the blogger.

    Lovely puzzle, thank you to the setter too.

  15. Thanks to manehi for the blog. You explained several where I had the answer but not the parsing.

    I did (just) remember a composer named Edward German but I was nearly led astray by Orlando’s excellent misleading!

    Flanders and Swan had a song called Have Some Madeira My Dear where Flanders finished by commenting that Swan thought the song referred to cake.

  16. Thanks manehi and Orlando. I enjoyed this. On 4 dn, there is a tale that Edward German (born German Jones and known to his mum and dad as Jim), knew that all the best composers were German so changed his name accordingly!

  17. I don’t agree that this was entirely gentle, as both GEORGE and SNORE took me ages and went in without being parsed – I can see that GEORGE would have been a write-in for those who know the second usage but I didn’t – maybe I just never watched enough war films. Some of the other general knowledge was a bit obscure too – although MERRIE ENGLAND is familiar to me Edward German isn’t. I liked SALVE and ICE COLD.

    Thanks to manehi and Orlando.

  18. Loved this. Took ages to parse BOATSWAIN but a real “YES!” moment when I finally got there. For me this was just the right level of challenge: compelling, witty, clever, fun, accessible and rewarding. More please.

  19. I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle and fully endorse the comments from Eileen. SNORE was my LOI. I knew it had to be the answer but I wanted to parse it before I entered it, and it was the proverbial d’oh moment when I finally saw it.

  20. I messed about with SINORE less its “I” for a while with 21d, looking for some RC religious aspect. My better half Sue suggested compass points and a bridge connection, but we still didn’t quite parse it.

    10d was our COD.

    Well done Orlando, thanks all.

  21. Definitely not easy for me. In fact I think this was the worst Orlando I’ve seen.

    We don’t have an ETAGERE in our house or any other house I know of, which is probably why I’ve never heard of it. LORIKEET ?!!!!

    But the worst clue by far is 25. I couldn’t parse this and now it’s been “explained” to me I still can’t. Just doesn’t work for me??

    Any way I finished this but the last 5% was a real slog.

    I also don’t like one out of three for S,N OR E. Very weak and not at all “elegant”.

    Thanks to manehi and Orlando

  23. Wow! I am just in awe of anyone who can create such beautiful clues. This is so my sort of thing, and Orlando definitely confirms his place in my favourite setters list. As well as the lovely surfaces which others have mentioned, he seems to pick very fresh ‘indicator’ words as well, which gives the whole puzzle life and sparkle.

    So, thank you MC, and manehi for the blog.

  24. Am l the only person who was misled into entering MOUSE in 21d thinking nursery rhymes and Alice? It fitted for a while too!

  25. Julia @ 24.

    I was tempted into Wonderland too, but soon realised it wouldn’t work.

    I agree with the comments above – a very enjoyable and elegant puzzle.

  27. Thanks Orlando and manehi

    A big tick from me too here … although it was not at all easy. The last ones in were ATHENE which took an age to see (well camouflaged) and ETAGERE, which I had not heard of and after trying to find a meaning for esabere and etakere!

    My geography was a bit off and was trying to make TRURO work for a while – until we got our bearings right. On the other hand LORIKEET was an early get. Had the town of SALVE in the south east of Italy as the parsing for 6 … after thinking more of the country than Rome.

    Many other interesting journeys to the answers of other clues as well in what was an entertaining challenge.

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