Guardian Cryptic N° 26,273 by Arachne

by

[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here

The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26273.

Arachne at her most devious. It took me longer than usual for a Guardian Cryptic to solve, but by no means do I begrudge her the time. Thank you, Arachne

 

Across
1. Am I, Shapps, not a vacuous, pompous minor calamity? (6)
MISHAP A subtraction: [a]M I SHAP[ps], without (‘not’) ‘a’ and PS (‘vacuous PompouS‘).
4. Alternative to opera (6)
OPUSES Cryptic definition; the English plural, rather than the Italian.
9. Reserve Chelsea captain overshadowing the other men, I fear (11,4)
TERRITORIAL ARMY An envelope (‘overshadowing’) of IT (a bit of ‘the other’ – i.e. sex) plus OR (‘men’) plus ‘I’ plus ALARM (‘fear’) in TERRY (John, soccer player, ‘Chelsea captain’).
10. Sisters bathing naked (6)
WIMMIN A subtraction: [s]WIMMIN[g] (‘bathing’) without its outer letters (‘naked’).
11. Means to spy on people he betrayed (8)
PEEPHOLE An anagram (‘betrayed’) of ‘people he’.
12. Three-minute warning before breakfast? (8)
EGGTIMER Cryptic definition.
14. Stupid wombats periodically take stuff (6)
OBTUSE A charade of OBT (‘wOmBaTs periodically’) plus USE (‘take stuff’).
15. Saggy neck of mate we had briefly found revolting (6)
DEWLAP A reversal (‘revolting’) of PAL (‘mate’) plus WE’D (‘we had briefly’).
18. Takes knickers off (and asks questions afterwards) (8)
DEBRIEFS Definition and literal interpretation. Knickers are named for Knickerbocker, a character in some stories by Washington Irving, author of Rip van Winkle, who wrote about the Dutch settlers in the Hudson Valley of New York. The word originally meant the traditional Dutch britches, a meaning retained in the US, although the English meaning of underwear – BRIEFS – has found its way back across the Atlantic.
21. Working men graft and become shattered (8)
FRAGMENT An anagram (‘working’) of ‘men graft’.
22. Luxury vehicle obstructing A6 (6)
CAVIAR An envelope (‘obstructing’) of AVI (‘A6’) in CAR (‘vehicle’).
24. Emulating Thatcher in breaking Anglo-Indian ties (15)
DENATIONALISING An anagram (‘breaking’) of ‘Anglo-Indian ties’.
25. Singular, painful emotion bruited round (6)
SPHERE A charade of S (‘singular’) plus PHERE, a homophone (‘bruited’) pf FEAR (‘paiinful emotion’).
26. Illegible writing, first sign of sunstroke (6)
SCRAWL A charade of S (‘first sign of Sun’) plus CRAWL (swimming ‘stroke’).

Down
1. Encountering men, I get excited (7)
MEETING An anagram (‘excited’) of ‘men I get’.
2. S. Coe’s rival beat it (5)
SCRAM S. CRAM – Stephen Cram – was a middle-distance runner and rival to Sebastian Coe.
3. Time to interrupt unnamed person opposite (7)
ANTONYM An envelope (‘to interrupt’) of T (‘time’) in ANONYM (‘unnamed person’).
5. Cable screwed Post Office over, which may humour some deluded people (7)
PLACEBO An envelope (‘over’) of LACEB, an anagram (‘screwed’) of ‘cable’ in PO (‘Post Office’), with a somewhat jaundiced view of the placebo effect.
6. Scoff uproariously at the pigs (9)
SPAGHETTI An anagram (‘uproariously’) of ‘at the pigs’. ‘Scoff’ as a noun, something to eat.
7. Tries upsetting Anglo-Saxon politician with support of the French (7)
SAMPLES A charade of SA, a reversal (‘upsetting’) of AS (‘Anglo-Saxon’) plus MP (‘politician’) plus LES (‘the French’).
8. Right to become rich, ignoring society (6)
PROPER A subtraction: PRO[s]PER (‘become rich’) without the S (‘ignoring society’).
13. Wiretap her (Special Branch involved) (9)
TELEGRAPH An envelope (‘involved’) of LEG (‘branch’) in TERAPH, an anagram (‘special’) of ‘tap her’.
16. Unable to hear a female peer? (7)
EARLESS EARL-ESS  (‘a female peer?’).
17. Nick Bottom to make first appearance as prime minister (7)
PREMIER A subtraction: PREMIER[e] (‘make first appearance’) from which you have to remove its last letter (‘nick bottom’).
18. Catch detective arresting 10 (6)
DETENT An envelope (‘arresting’) of TEN (’10’) in DET (‘detective’).
19. Country starts to brave uncommonly violent wind (7)
BUCOLIC A charade of BU (‘starts to Brave Uncommonly’) plus COLIC (‘violent wind’).
20. Facecloth and soft soap (7)
FLANNEL Double definition.
23. Panorama which appeared before 7? (5)
VISTA VI is 6, but I cannot see beyond that.

44 comments on “Guardian Cryptic N° 26,273 by Arachne”

  1. 23. STA = scheduled time of arrival.

    Don’t quite fall in with your overall sentiments however.

  2. Great puzzle. Easier than most Arachnes I thought, or maybe it’s a wavelength thing. Knockout surfaces were its strength I thought.

    23d VISTA was the name of Microsoft’s Windows (occasionally) Operating System which preceded Windows 7.

    Me too – that VI for 6 led me astray for a good while.

    Many thanks S&B

  3. Thanks, PeterO – Like endwether, I too thought this was very gentle for Arachne, especially the top half. That’s not a complaint though as the surfaces are hilarious!

  4. Thanks Peter. I was looking forward to this but ended up disappointed. Too much was easy – 1A,1D and FLANNEL for example, and both long ones went more or less straight in. But then I failed on 4A, and got but couldn’t parse 25A, 17D and 23D. Only the WIMMIN and the other nice surface in 18A cheered me up.

  5. Favourites were 4a and 16d. Couldn’t parse 13d, so thanks for that. Thought 24ac was a great clue and anagram. Also never heard of 18d as ‘catch’ so had to look it up, as I thought it had to do with camping!

  6. Seemingly devious but then surprisingly accessible! I loved many of the clues (too many to highlight here!).

    Thanks due to:
    – Arachne for a great puzzle,
    – PeterO for the blog, and
    – JollySwagman @2 for clearing up the parsing of VISTA – till that became clear, I was feeling slightly disappointed at (what I thought was) 6 becoming VI in two clues (CAVIAR, of course, is the other one).

  7. Thanks for the blog, PeterO.

    Living on your side, you can’t be expected to appreciate the sheer brilliance of 5dn – see here:

    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/01/royal-mail-privatisation-taxpayer-loser

    [which also provides a very nice reference to 24ac [excellent anagram].

    And Grant Shapps at 1ac is the present Tory party chairman – see a picture of him here:

    http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/may/23/tories-no-ukip-pact

    Wonderful stuff all round – huge thanks to Arachne, as ever, for a super start to the day.

  8. Thanks for VISTA – should have seen that as I’m working on Windows Vista right now…

    Is DET a commonly accepted abbreviation for Detective? Combined with DETENT being a fairly unusual word, that makes a difficult solve.

    But I don’t want to sound churlish – this was a lot of fun.

  10. Echo Eileen ‘s comments but also added stars against 9a and 6d I am still smiling at the thought if 5d. Thanks for the vista explanation I too got stuck on the VI and couldn’t t explain STA Silly of me as I still use vista on my PC

  11. Thanks, NeilW – I can’t be expected to keep up with anything to do with football!

    I did mean to say how tickled I was at the thought of Nick Bottom as PM – and now I’m off to Stratford. 😉

  12. Another joy from Arachne. Like others, I found it a little easier than her previous puzzles, but the real pleasure came in sorting out the parsing. I confess to entering ‘sphere’ at a hazard as I either never knew or had forgotten the meaning of ‘bruited’, but I suppose it was a pretty fair bet, given the checking letters.

    Eileen, I presume that you are off to Stratford for one of your RSC performances. If so, I hope that you enjoy it as much as the previous understudy one you recently mentioned. I have had very good reports of the video streamed showings at the Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle upon Tyne, and hope to investigate soon as that would be more practical/much realistic financially for me than going to Stratford or London.
    We’re off to the Sage, Gateshead for a concert tonight: the Sage is certainly one of the cultural hotspots in our part of the country.

  13. Thanks to PeterO for the blog. You explained several where I had the answer but not the parsing.
    Thanks to JollySwagman @2: I jumped from XP to 7 so I never used VISTA.

    As for 16d GROAN 😀

    3d: I’ve met ANON as an unknown person but ANONYM is new.

  14. Not sure about being on the easy side: certainly some easy ones to get you going, but there were several at the end where it was wing and a prayer time and then come here to see what it was all about. So thank you to Peter for blogging and explaining.

    A bit of politics will always find its way into an Arachne puzzle, so like Eileen, I did appreciate PLACEBO. And DEBRIEFS was funny (thank you to Peter for the derivation of knickers).

    The only faulty clue was 12ac for EGGTIMER. As any fule no, three minutes for a dippy egg will give you a yolk insufficiently set and the white with the consistency of snot. Three minutes forty-five seconds, and no longer, when plunged into already boiling water is optimum. Don’t forget to thinly smear Marmite on the toasted brown bread before cutting carefully into 1cm wide little soldiers. And yes, my OCD is slowly getting better, thanks for asking.

    Another fine spidery puzzle; thank you to the setter.

  15. Too many anagrams for this to be one of my favourite Arachnes, and over rather quickly too. Still never mind, not with PLACEBO and WIMMIN to enjoy. Oh yes and the groan-worthy OPUSES, last in.

  16. I enjoyed today’s crossword. 1ac and 5d, as mentioned, are particularly amusing. Thanks for the blog PeterO.

    I agree on the three minutes/egg snot timing issue Kathryn’s Dad, but find the suggested application of Marmite to soldiers perverse!

  17. JollySwagman @2

    Thanks for explaining VISTA. No thanks to Arachne for the uncharacteristically nerdy clue.

    Also I agree entirely with the observations you made in the Guardian chat room at 3.18 am. I’d have transported your post here but I haven’t really got the hang of these computer thingies.

  19. I read 11a as a homophone (“people he betrayed” = “people as one might say it”). The anagram reading is definitely better, though.

    If I wanted to be pedantic (and I always do), I’d say that the grammar of 22a is backwards – “Vehicle obstructing A6” surely means “Insert CAR into AVI”, not the other way around, right? Still, smashing surfaces all round, as if anything less is to be expected.

  20. Thanks to Arachne for the crossword, Peter O for the blog and Eileen @ 7 for the exposition of 1ac and 5d which had gone over my head even though I live on this side.

    In my ignorance, I thought 1ac was overclued – after all it is just a hidden word – but I now appreciate the reliance on “vacuous pompous”!

  21. Abhay @6 has said most of it for me. I enjoyed this one much more than yesterdy’s – I hope because of the clever cluing, and not just becase I was able to finish!

  22. Can someone please explain 4a in words of 2 syllables? The rest was very quick for me but I still can’t see the connection here. If its opuses, why no plurals in the clue?

  24. Wendybea @ 22

    OPERA is the Latin plural of OPUS – OPUSES is how an English plural of OPUS would work

    hth

  25. Kathryn’s Dad @ 14

    I have CDO. It’s the same as OCD, but the letters are in the right order *which is as it should be*

    🙂

  26. Kathryn’s Dad

    I thought at first that your complaint about EGGTIMER was going to be that the timer warns, and is not itself the warning.

    I like my soldiers sparingly applied with Gentleman’s Relish.

  28. chas@ 13. I thought ANONYM rang bells, that we had come across it in the last couple of weeks. However, it is a bit longer ago – Paul had it as an answer on Jan 11 this year.

    Thanks, PeterO.

    I was in the easier than usual camp today.

  29. I felt this was one of Arachne’s gentler offerings, but I failed to parse SPHERE. Last in was OPUSES. Liked MISHAP, MEETING, PLACEBO and VISTA.

    Thanks to Arachne and PeterO

  30. .. and before anybody complains, gentler by Arachne standards does not mean easy, just that they are often much more difficult!

  32. Who says it is a boiled egg? A poached egg should be three minutes, no more. Whisk the water so it is swirling and that will help keep yolk and white together – the fresher the better. And then place it (or preferably both of them) on toast with marmite.

    The usual joy from Arachne – always something a bit political (1a and 5dn are gems), food (caviar and spaghetti, not to mention the egg), and something a little rude, like 18a and, dare I say it, 1dn.

  33. That is a good call, Marienkaefer, but you’ve forgotten to add vinegar to the boiling, swirling water. I like your devotion to Marmite, however.

  34. Kathryn’s Dad – I am not a vinegar man (or salt for that matter). The swirling works a treat – seems counterintuitive I know.

  35. [Hi George @12

    Yes, the one-off understudies’ performance of ‘Arden of Faversham’: we’d been so impressed by the production of H IV Part 1, then saw the ‘real’ cast in Part 2.

    I hope you enjoy[ed] your concert.]

  36. Easy or difficult, Arachne puzzles sparkle with life!

    Thanks JS for the VISTA explanation – that’s lovely.

  38. For some reason I didn’t find this as enjoyable as many of Arachne’s previous puzzles, but I can see that I’m very much in the minority so maybe I’m just having a bad day. OPUSES was my LOI.

  40. To quote Eileen verbatim
    Wonderful stuff all round – huge thanks to Arachne, as ever, for a super start to the day.

    Many thanks Arachne and Peter

  41. Enjoyable puzzle from Arachne as ever but definitely one of her easiest.

    I didn’t manage to parse VISTA but it was obviously the answer. (Now I find that the VI wasn’t a six after all so perhaps my confidence was misplaced 😉 )

    Thanks to PeterO and Arachne

  42. Great crossword and blog – thanks everybody.

    I thought Nick Bottom was brilliant, not having appreciated the difference between Premier and Premiere.

    Kathryn’s Dad @ 14: You are a witty bloke – I haven’t forgotten Sunday’s Everyman blog and your virtuoso explanation of French aspirations. Today I merely thought that Arachne must like her eggs soft-boiled but your little riff was hilarious.
    !

  43. Thanks Arachne and PeterO

    Sentiments as per AndyB@38 with OPUSES also last in and taking too long to work out why. VISTA went through unparsed.

  44. Oh gosh! Arachne and Phi on same day – do we deserve such pleasure?! As ever, I completely agree with Eileen. I echo Limeni’s view – “sparkle” is a perfect choice of word. So many adorable surfaces alone. Not only was 1ac clearly rhetorical; also so very accurate. All lovely, lovely, lovely.

    Many, many thanks to Arachne. And huge thanks to PeterO – your blogs always spot on.

Comments are closed.