Guardian Cryptic No. 26,282 by Brummie

by

The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26282.

Perhaps I am on Brummie’s wavelength, because virtually every answer came readily on reading the clue. His tour of the outer reaches of the orchestra is novel.

Across
1,4. New lease negotiated to include game, which is instrumental in a funny way (6,7)
SWANEE WHISTLE An envelope (‘to include’) of WHIST (‘game’) in SWANEELE, an anagram (‘negociated’) of ‘new lease’.
4. See 1
– See 1
9. Sally cosies up to blokes in alien gear (9)
EQUIPMENT An envelope (‘in’) of QUIP (‘sally’) plus MEN (‘blokes’) in ET (‘alien’).
10. Instrument makes woman calcium-deficient (5)
REBEC A subtraction: REBEC[ca] (‘woman’) without CA (‘calcium deficient’).
11. State place with enclosures, which has vocalist buzzing (5)
KAZOO A charade of KA (‘state’? I suspect Brummie has Kansas in mind, but the standard abbreviation is KS) plus ZOO (‘place with enclosures’).
12. Most rocks, overcoming resistance, cross over house’s extra weather protection (5,4)
STORM DOOR An envelope (‘overcoming’) of R (‘resistance’) in STOM, an anagram (‘rocks’) of ‘most’ plus DOOR, a reversal (‘over’) of ROOD (‘cross’).
13. Unmoved, one has to pursue academic success? (7)
PASSIVE A charade of PASS (‘academic success’) plus I’VE (‘one has’).
15. Tinker‘s days standing in line (6)
FIDDLE An envelope (‘standing in’) of D D (‘days’) in FILE (‘line’).
17. Tolls made by regions weather-wise hot, rather than large (6)
CHIMES CLIMES (‘regions weather-wise’) with the L (‘large’) replaced by H (‘hot’).
19. Explicit, grand form of pop with inebriated sound? (7)
GRAPHIC A charade of G (‘grand’) plus RAP (‘form of pop’) plus HIC (‘inebriated sound’).
22. Wool-producer’s call to introduce alkali-treated article with few strings (9)
BALALAIKA An envelope (‘to introduce’) of LALAIK, an anagram (‘treated’) of ‘alkali’ in BAA (‘wool-producer’s call’).
24. Teacher not quite making a buck? (5)
RABBI RABBI[t] (‘buck’) ‘not quite’.
26. Personal protection for cutting article (5)
APRON An envelope (‘cutting’) of PRO (‘for’) in AN (‘article’).
27. Underground mythical treasure guard lacks good ticker (9)
METRONOME A charade of METRO (Paris ‘underground’) plus [g]NOME (‘mythical treasure guard’) without the G (‘lacks good’).
28. It’s involved with horm­­ones and it’s involved with hydro treatment (7)
THYROID An anagram (‘involved’ and ‘treatment’) of ‘it’ plus ‘hydro’.
29. Crow rig (tension displaced by carbon) (6)
CACKLE TACKLE (‘rig’) with the T (‘tension’) ‘displaced by’ C (‘carbon’).

Down
1. I can’t hear you drink outside Crown (5,2)
SPEAK UP An envelope (‘outside’) of PEAK (‘crown’) in SUP (‘drink’).
2. Ace spaceman humming with excitement? (5)
ABUZZ A charade of A (‘ace’) plus BUZZ (Lightyear, of Toy Story, ‘spaceman’).
3. You mock spoken speech hesitancy as a music-maker (9)
EUPHONIUM A charade of EUPHONI, which sounds like (‘spoken’) ‘you’ plus PHONEY (‘mock’); plus UM (‘speech hesitancy’).
4. Chicory‘s the thing, with length covered in bark (7)
WITLOOF An envelope (‘covered in’) of IT (‘the thing’) plus L (‘lenght’) in WOOF (‘bark’).
5. Hair woven on masculine religious garment (5)
IHRAM A charade of IHRA, an anagram (‘woven’) of ‘hair’ plus M (‘masculine’).
6. Bananas, both with a blue Mediterranean salad dish (9)
TABBOULEH An anagram (‘bananas’) of ‘both’ plus ‘a blue’.
7. Model on road: wow, in tailored set! (6)
ESCORT An envelope (‘in’) of COR (‘wow’) in EST, an anagram (‘tailored’) of ‘set’. The definition is the Ford Escort car.
8. Appendage of quality that is a monstrous thing (6)
NESSIE A charade of -NESS (‘appendage of quality’, a suffix eg boldness as the quality of being bold) plus I.E. (‘that is’), for the familiar name of the Loch Ness Monster.
14. Knowing about choral arrangement as an acad­emic (9)
SCHOLARLY An envelope (‘about’) of CHOLAR, an anagram (‘arrangeent’) of ‘choral’ in SLY (‘knowing’).
16. Motions not welcomed from her radio broadcast at one (9)
DIARRHOEA A charade of DIARRHOE, an anagram (‘broadcast’) of ‘her radio’ plus A (‘one’).
18. Read superficially, Kipling tale is set in southern sea (7)
SKIMMED An envelope (‘is set in’) of KIM (‘Kipling tale’) in S (‘southern’) plus MED (‘sea’).
19. President’s awards? (6)
GRANTS Double definition, referencing Ulyses S Grant, the 18th Pressident of the USA.
20,25. Receiver of beating in eastern temple: bones click, he crumbles (7,5)
CHINESE BLOCK An anagram (‘crumbles’) of ‘bones click he’.
21. Bard’s exclamation and dash for region of Russia (6)
OBLAST A charade of O (‘bard’s exclamation’, referring, I think, to the general poetic invocation, not specifically to Shakespeare) plus BLAST (‘dash’, as a mild expletive).
23. Love to lift and move tongue (5)
LINGO A charade of LIN, a reversal (‘to lift’ in a down light) of NIL (‘love’) plus GO (‘move’).
25. See 20
– See 20

32 comments on “Guardian Cryptic No. 26,282 by Brummie”

  1. Thanks Peter. Found this a bit annoying, with 90% going straight in and then bewilderment on 1,4 and WITLOOF; had to Google, too easy.

  2. I got swannee whistle and kazoo very quickly and thought it was going to be ISIHAC as a theme, I suppose someone’s used them in an orchestral piece. A pleasant diversion.

  3. Finished but not without help from google to verify 1ac, 4d, 5d and 21d – all new words to me.

    Love the idea of WITLOOF as a word! Thank you for bringing it into my vocabulary!

  4. The “buzz” in 2d could also have been referring to astronaut Buzz Aldrin. At least, that’s what I went with.

  5. Thanks Brummie and PeterO
    OBLAST and WITLOOF were new words for me (I liked “bark” = “woof”!). I needed your parsing of LINGO, as I got stuck into thinking that “love” was the O.

  6. sidey @2
    As well as the ISIHAC themed crossword a few weeks ago, the theme turned up on “Only connect” last night. The first clue in the “What’s the connection” round was “Cheddar Gorge”.

  9. Good crossword with nice variety of instruments.

    Thanks PeterO – KA is a variant abbreviation for the more usual KS.

    Lots of new words for me. Like almw3 @3, I liked WITLOOF. I liked the ‘Sally cosies up to blokes in alien gear.’ The first American spacewoman was Sally Ride.

  10. Thank, PeterO

    Great fun, with a lot of unusual words – IHRAM was the only one new to me, whereas WITLOOF and TABBOULEH were virtually write-ins (being a foodie helps occasionally).

    Held up a while by 9a (because I thought the def was ‘Sally’) and 19a (because I had the H and assumed ‘with inebriated sound’ meant SH instead of S). LOI were 1,4 and 7d.

    Good variety of clues; I particularly liked 19a, 24a, 18d. ‘Appendage of quality’ for -NESS is ingenious.

  11. My first two in were “EQUIPMENT” and “KAZOO”, which left me convinced that this would be a pangram. Sadly, no X or J.

    I thought some of the surfaces were rather weak, especially for Brummie (what 17a or 21d are meant to mean is beyond me), but the theme was very nice indeed, and I agree with Gervase that 8d was very clever.

  12. Thanks all
    Looking at witloof, tabbouleh,oblast made me think I was in Azed territory and then amazingly ‘cackle’ turned up as my last in.

  14. Thanks to PeterO for the blog. You explained a couple where I had the answer but not the parsing.

    Thanks to Robi@9 for the variants of US state short names. I was trying to squeeze KS in there with no joy 🙁

  15. CHINESE BLOCK came late; it would have helped if RABBI had come before, as it should have. Waited till I got home to check whether 1,4 was SEALED WHISTLE – a joke whistle into which one blows but no sound comes out, negotiated = led, I thought? Check button saying no, SWANEE came immediately, and with it that ‘new’ was not the anagrind that I had expected all along.

  16. Found this pretty tough but got there in the end. Several unfamiliar words – IHRAM, WITLOOF and TABBOULEH, and the wordiness of the clues made even the simpler ones less than obvious – I only got one answer on first reading. Eventually (and especially once I had SWANEE WHISTLE) it started to get easier, and OBLAST (which I was familiar with but don’t know why) was last in. Favourite clue was probably EUPHONIUM.

    Thanks to Brummie and PeterO

  17. beery hiker @16
    I can recommend tabbouleh – often available in supermarkets. Tasty salad with (?)bulgar wheat (cous cous?).

  18. I enjoyed this puzzle a lot. WITLOOF and IHRAM were either previously unknown or forgotten and went in from the wordplay, but they were gettable so no complaints from me about obscurities. The “motions not welcomed” definition for 16dn made me grin. SWANEE WHISTLE was my LOI. I’m definitely in the Buzz Aldrin camp.

    Until I had the checkers from CACKLE I was convinced that the anagram fodder for 20dn/25dn was going to lead to “chicken” something.

  19. Thanks to Brummie for the workout and PeterO for explaining a few that I couldn’t parse.
    Thanks also to Robi for supplying the list of abbreviations as I couldn’t understand the
    KA part of KAZOO. This must come in handy when the United States Coast Guard is patrolling
    the waters off the Kansas coasts.

    Cheers…

  20. grandpuzzler @ 19
    ?

    Seriously, you would know. What IS the accepted two letter abbreviation for Kansas? (I would have gone for KA, as in FL, but there are lots of counter-examples.)

  23. muffin @20
    The official USPS (Postal Service) abbreviation is KS. Take a look at the link that Robi @9 gives.

  25. I enjoyed this. A very slow start but made steady progress.

    I managed to parse everything eventually.

    No new words for me. However although I easily got 4D I didn’t realise that WITLOOF was an English word as I only knew it as a Flemish/Dutch word. The Belgians buy it by the carrier bag full and usually eat it baked in a rich cheesy sauce. (I worked there for a couple of years)

    Thanks to PeterO and Brummie

  26. Almost everyone (99.99% of us Americans) use the USPS abbreviations exclusively. Those in journalistic trades prefer the more old-fashioned but slightly more intuitive and attractive AP abbreviations (in which Kansas is Kan., Massachusetts is Mass., and the short names (Maine, Utah, etc.) go unabbreviated.

    I have never, ever, ever, in my four decades as an American, even once, seen KA for Kansas until now.

    The Coast Guard does patrol rivers an lakes, too–hence the “coast of Kansas” issue.

    I’m in the “Buzz Lightyear” camp, though my thought after solving the clue was “Buzz Lightyear in a British crossword? Really?”

  27. This was fun – although my biggest laugh was at myself, for carelessly entering the not-quite-anagram CHINESE BLOKE at 20,25, assuming the clue was some sort of literary reference to someone who got into a fight in a temple (doesn’t it just barely seem like it could be the topic of a limerick?). Even worse, when I Googled the phrase, two of the top results were references to the actor Ken Jeong. The rest I won’t mention.

    Count me as one who thought “Aldrin” and not “Lightyear,” and also as another American who has never seen KA for “Kansas” – and I have a decade on mrpenney.

  28. Thanks Brummie and PeterO

    Whilst not as hard as some of his puzzles, I found this one to be good steady work. Liked the theme of the unusual instruments and the unusual foodstuff in the NE.

    No real stand out clues, but all of them cleverly crafted and without any ambiguity (well until the query on Ka).

  29. Regarding the coasts of Kansas: I was being whimsical. Haven’t seen the KA abbreviation outside
    of British cryptics in seven decades. Maybe someday…

    Cheers…

  30. In further consideration of the American/British dichotomy (touched on here), I wonder if Peter Toner @ 8 is from over the pond? We Brits would prefer “they named Buzz Lightyear AFTER Buzz Aldrin” to “….FOR Buzz Aldrin”, wouldn’t we? To me the sound of the former akin to the effect of biting into a bitter lemon (something to be avoided near any reaches of an orchestra!)
    Many thanks PeterO for excellent blog. And to Brummie for an interesting puzzle.

  31. William FP @30

    Yes, the “FOR” was a giveaway. In fact I believe that on this side of the “pond” the phrase could be taken to mean that Buzz Lightyear was named at Buzz Aldrin’s request.

    “Divided by a common language” 😉

  32. KA is the state of Karnataka in India so Brummie, who like me no doubt found this on Google, has not erred.

Comments are closed.