Guardian Cryptic N° 26,252 by Pasquale

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The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26252.

I found this a roller-coaster: the first pass produced very little, then once I had found an entry point at 25A, things proceeded smoothly until a roadblock of the last few entries, also in the bottom half. The puzzle requires an unusual amount of general knowledge (witness the number of Wikipedia links), most of which were, fortunately, familiar to me.

 

Across
1. Spy desires to get into bus leaving university (7)
BURGESS An envelope (‘to get into’) of URGES (‘desires’) in ‘b[u]s’ without the U (‘leaving university’). Guy Francis de Moncy Burgess was a member of the Cambridge Five, a spy ring which passed secrets to the Soviets.
5. Maiden ensnared by a more desperate stalker? (7)
ADMIRER An envelope (‘ensnared by’) of M (‘maiden’, cricket statistics) in ‘a’ plus DIRER (‘more desperate’).
9. Do without starter — entering, order ungarnished beef (9)
COMPLAINT An envelope (‘entering’, with the comma following to suggest which part goes inside) of OM (‘order’ of merit) plus PLAIN (‘ungarnished’) in [a]CT (‘do’) minus its first letter (‘without starter’).
10. Resin from underground deposit, soft inside (5)
COPAL An envelope (‘inside’) of P (piano, ‘soft’) in COAL (‘underground deposit’).
11. A tiny bit goody-goody, one of the cricket sides (4)
PION A charade of PI (‘goody-goody’) plus ON (‘one of the cricket sides’), for the meson, an elementary particle.
12,21. Run-time OU medic originally smashed, breaking record (4-6,4)
FOUR-MINUTE MILE An envelope (‘breaking’)  of OURMINUTEM, an anagram (‘smashed’) of ‘run-time OU’ plus M (‘Medic originally’) in FILE (‘record’). The extended definition is an accurate description of Roger Bannister‘s achievement.
14. The woman’s small creature, mostly a retiring type (6)
HERMIT A charade of HER (‘the woman’s’) plus MIT[e] (‘small creature’) cut short (‘mostly’).
15. Material cased in lead, old stuff used in medical experiment (7)
PLACEBO An envelope (‘cased in’) of LACE (‘material’) in PB (‘lead’, chemical symbol) plus O (‘old’).
16. Cold tops in container for ice or snow (7)
COCAINE An envelope (‘in’) of C (‘cold’) plus AI (i.e. A-one, ‘tops’) in CONE (‘container for ice’ cream).
18. Loutish son joins campaign (6)
SLOBBY A charade of S (‘son’) plus LOBBY (‘campaign’).
20. Fruit worker gangster forced into car (10)
CANTALOUPE An envelope (‘forced into’) of ANT (‘worker’) plus AL (Capone, ‘gangster’) in COUPE (‘car’).
21. See 12
– See 12
24. Road runs into nightclub, maybe (5)
DRIVE An envelope (‘into’) of R (‘runs’) in DIVE (‘nightclub, maybe’).
25. Good Scottish job with minimal English involvement? That points the way (9)
GUIDEPOST A charade of GUID (‘good Scottish’) plus E (‘minimal Enllish’; ‘involvement’ indicates the order of the particles) plus POST (‘job’).
26. Little person Sally sounding drunk (7)
SHORTIE A slurred (‘sounding drunk’) pronunciation of SORTIE (‘sally’).
27. Vehicle with rubbish, vehicle falling over (7)
TRACTOR A reversal (‘falling over’) of ROT (‘rubbish’) plus CART (‘vehicle’).

Down
1. Graduate given prize in northern town (5)
BACUP A charade of BA (‘graduate’) plus CUP (‘prize’). Bacup is in Lancashire.
2. Odd European barrister (7)
RUMPOLE A charade of RUM (‘odd’) plus POLE (‘European’), for Rumpole of the Bailey, a much-loved British television series written by John Mortimer.
3. It’s slippery, see — that’s what we hear (4)
EELY A homophone (‘that’s what we hear’) of ELY (‘see’).
4. Feelings to hot up, sadly, on account of mistake in conversation (4,2,3,6)
SLIP OF THE TONGUE An anagram (‘sadly’) of ‘feelings to hot up’.
5. Hip pastor’s hot on unconventional philosopher claiming spiritual insights (15)
ANTHROPOSOPHIST An anagram (‘unconventional’) of ‘hip pastors hot on’, for Rudolph Steiner and his school.
6. Plotter in country besieged by dull soldiers (10)
MACHINATOR An envelope (‘besieged by’) of CHINA (‘country’) in MAT (‘dull’; matt and matte are alternate spellings) plus OR (‘soldiers’).
7. Artist and his creation, not one about to create delight (7)
RAPTURE A charade of RA (‘artist’) plus P[ic]TURE (‘his creation’), less (‘not’) I (‘one’) plus C (‘about’).
8. Work of art upsetting maiden? There’s something deceptive in it (7)
RELIEVO An envelope (‘in it’) of LIE (‘something deceptive’) in REVO, a reversal (‘upsetting’ in a down light’) of OVER (‘maiden’, with the question mark denoting indication by example).
13. Going round to protect John, upset and uncertain (10)
AMBIVALENT An envelope (‘to protect’) of VAL, a reversal (‘upset’ in a down light) of LAV (‘John’) in AMBIENT (‘going round’).
16. Unwell girl’s said we sound chirpy (7)
CICADAS A homophone (‘said’) of SICK ADA’S (‘unwell girl’s). The first A may be pronounced “ah” or “ay” for the insect; the latter gives a better homophone.
17. Financial unit not entirely innocent, I moan (7)
CENTIMO A hidden answer (‘not entirely’) in ‘innoCENT I MOan’.
19. Trouble with fight breaking out? Rescue operation needed (7)
BAILOUT An envelope (‘breaking out’) of AIL (‘trouble’) in BOUT (‘fight’).
22. What gets devoured when the foremost lady comes round? (5)
EATER I am not certain of the wordplay here – my best guess is an envelope (‘comes round’) of ATE (‘devoured’) in ER (‘the foremost lady’), with ‘devoured’ doing double duty as part of the definition.
23. Good spirit to get old Irish leader half cut (4)
DEVA Half of DEVA[lera] (Éamon de Valera, ‘old Irish leader’).

31 comments on “Guardian Cryptic N° 26,252 by Pasquale”

  1. Thanks PeterO and Pasquale. I found this hard and couldn’t parse COCAINE. Favorite clue wwas FOUR-MINUTE MILE. I also took EATER to be ate inside E.R.

  4. Thanks Pasquale and PeterO
    I found this quite a lot easier than Pasquale usually, though I did need electronic help for 5d and 8d.
    I took “eater” to refer to, for example, an apple (as opposed to a “cooker”).
    I didn’t like removing I and C from “picture” to form RAPTURE, but this was more than compensated for by the brilliant 12,21. 13d was pretty good too!

  5. I did not know 5d and had to work it out from the anagrist, which was not difficult with the checkers in place. Otherwise all o.k. with the required general knowledge, for once, in my databank.

  6. @PeterO: Re. EATER, the wordplay is clear enough – I can’t make sense of the definition.

    @Paul@: Could you please clarify your comment @3? Searching online for eater and apple only throws up references to some computer game called Apple Eater – is that the reference here? That would be quite a stretch – or maybe just for me!

    Thanks to Pasquale and PeterO!

  7. Muffin@4: Glad to see someone else needed to look up RELIEVO too! 🙂 I learnt two new words in this puzzle, the other one being COPAL.

  10. Thanks PeterO and Pasquale.

    The excellent 12,21 was a write-in, as I’d just heard Sir Roger Bannister on the ‘Today’ programme, celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of the FOUR MINUTE MILE.

  14. Muffin@9: It was top of mind because my wife has recently completed a Steiner workshop! 🙂 Also knew about it thanks to my interest in the philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti.

  15. Re 22d
    I liked the &lit. reading – Eve being the foremost lady, and known to be fatefully partial to an eater… (Wordplay as above – Eater ‘gets’ ATE with ER (the queen) coming around.)

  16. Herb @15

    Yes indeed. I had the right wordplay for 22D, but, despite being surprised that ‘foremost lady’ did not give EVE in the wordplay, I missed the extended reference to Genesis until it hit me out of nowhere at an improbable hour this morning. We had eater for apple in Paul’s prize puzzle last week.

  17. Thanks PeterO and good morning everyone.

    I didn’t feel that this was up there with The Don’s finer offerings – all felt a bit like pulling teeth at times.

    Not keen on EELY and SLOBBY I have to say; and all the reversed inclusions felt a little clunky imho.

    I think EATER is quite a clever partial &lit however.

    Many thanks, to The Don.

  18. Thanks Pasquale & PeterO.

    I thought this was going to be quite straightforward when I got FOUR MINUTE MILE and SLIP OF THE TONGUE early on [but not ANTHROPOSOPHIST!] I failed to parse COCAINE properly.

    I liked the beef and RAPTURE.

  20. Has anyone replied to Abhay@6? An eating apple is an “eater” and a cooking apple is a “cooker”

  22. Thanks, PeterO.

    I found this mostly straightforward; fortunately I knew both RELIEVO and COPAL (probably from crosswords!), and 5d was obviously an anagram which most likely ended in -SOPHIST, so a few crossers were enough to sort it out.

    I’m another one who couldn’t see the parsing for COCAINE, so thanks for that.

    LOI was 23d, which I had to check. I had surmised that the ‘old Irish leader’ was probably Éamon, but this left either DEVA or LERA as possible solutions!

  23. Thanks to PeterO for the blog.

    I found this one hard work.

    I caused myself some delay on 6d because I thought of Julius Caesar and looked at the play’s list of characters. Some of them are described as conspirators but none has a length of 10 letters. 🙁

  24. Thanks PeterO and Pasquale

    I too found this quite hard especially in the SE quarter. Like David Mop @21 I first entered guideline for 25a, but thought of the correct answer after making no sense of the crossing clues.

    Like Eileen I heard the Today programme this a.m. which made 12,21 a lot easier.

    I was not very happy with ‘admirer’ for ‘stalker?’ and I am still a bit unsure about 22d since I worry about double-duty words in clues. But Pasquale should know if anyone does so ok…

    My favourite answer was ‘eely’ which I think I may have seen before not too long ago.

  25. Thanks to Pasquale and PeterO. It has been 60 years! The race against Landy in Vancouver was
    shown on local television in Seattle and that is the one I really remember. Thanks for explaining 22d which I’m still not sure I understand. 5d was new to me. Admirer = stalker?

    Cheers…

  26. tupu @24

    I’m sorry if I muddied the waters at 22D by tbringing up double duty – it is, of course, but an &lit is a respectable form of double duty.

    Also grandpuzzler @25

    I agree about 5A – a stalker can be a very particular kind of admirer, but may have other motives.

  27. Another enjoyable and educational challenge, with several unfamiliar words, all fairly clued. Last in was COCAINE, and I also struggled with the SE corner until I saw that GUIDEPOST worked better than GUIDELINE (so David Mop @21 – yes).

    Thanks to PeterO and Pasquale

  28. I found this on the tricky side but got there in the end. I agree that EELY and SLOBBY aren’t up to the Don’s usual standard, and the latter was my LOI. ANTHROPOSOPHIST took some teasing out from the anagram fodder, and it took me much too long to see FOUR-MINUTE MILE. As has already been pointed out by Gervase@22 both DEVA and LERA fit the wordplay for 23dn and I plumped for the former on the basis that it was vaguely familiar in that context, but I wasn’t 100% certain.

  29. I too found this hard for a Pasquale.

    Although I got 5d early on I didn’t like it on several levels. Firstly it’s a ridiculously high vocabulary word (why does Pasqaule insist on using them?) which was fairly easily gettable as it obviously ended in SOPHIST. However this leads to my second objection. Surely if “philosopher” is part of the definition it’s terribly bad form to have a word ending in -SOPHIST as the solution?

    Couldn’t parse COCAINE.

    On the whole the number of very good clues outweighed the ones mentioned by other posters which were dodgy. (Only just though) A very good puzzle spoiled in my opinion.

    Thanks to PeterO and Pasquale.

    Apparently 6-2 doesn’t equal 4 in CAPTCHA land?

  30. Thanks Pasquale and PeterO

    Tough for me too – did not parse either COCAINE or COMPLAINT.

    The two short ones – DEVA and EELY were the last ones in.

    Did try to get variations of Machiavelli into 6d for a time.

  31. Thanks for the explanations. First round got little. Couple of breakthroughs, lots of guesses based on patterns.

    Knew Deva but not the old irish leader. But they are good beings only for the Hindus. In Iranian mythology ahura are the good ones and the deva are the bad ones. (Old persian uses h where sanskrit uses s. sindhu = hindu, asura=ahura). Not sure if English devil comes from proto-indo-european deva.

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