Guardian 26,300 – Brummie

by

I made pretty quick work of this: there are quite a few clues that either had giveaway definitions or made their cryptic structure rather too obvious (a common feature of Brummie’s clues). I have a couple of quibbles, noted below, but generally this was well-constructed, if a bit low on excitement.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. HOLISM Treatment of an entire individual measure of alcohol is medicinal (6)
Hidden in alcoHOL IS Medicinal
4. DECLAIM Mobile medical spout (7)
MEDICAL*
9. CHRYSALIS Rocky lays into Patten, flier of the future? (9)
LAYS* in CHRIS (Patten, Conservative politician and last Governor of Hong Kong)
10. LEITH Secure backing to break left hand somewhere in Scotland (5)
TIE< in LH
11. SEDGE Grass spades advantage (5)
S + EDGE
13. WASHDAY Week remains Doris’s cleaning time? (7)
W + ASH (remains) + [Doris] DAY
15. GAMBIT Game sacrifice of good compass (6)
G + AMBIT
17. CREDIT A sum for recording Believe? (6)
Double definition; the “sum for recording” referring a bookkeeping entry
19. REGENCY Cry off limiting gene modification in a certain style (7)
GENE* in CRY*
22. XENOPHOBE Who dislikes foreign types of plastic phone boxes no end (9)
(PHONE BOXE[s])*
24,23. BROWN PAPER Brunette, possibly with daily application for Jack’s sore top? (5,5)
BROWN (brunette – surely there’s no need for “possibly” here?) + PAPER (daily). In the nursery rhyme “Jack and Jill”, Jack “broke his crown” and was treated with “vinegar and brown paper”
26. TRAMP Crossword setter‘s craft (5)
Double definition; Guardian setter and “Tramp Steamer”. Easy for us crossword anoraks, but is it a bit unfair to expect the “ordinary” solver to know the names of setters?
27,12. SPLICE THE MAINBRACE Unite ocean couple and have a drink (6,3,9)
SPLICE (unite) + MAIN (ocean) + BRACE (couple); this was the naval order to issue the rum ration, and sometimes used facetiously as meaning to have a drink
28. CLEARLY As is evident, its heart is quite a different organ (7)
EAR (an organ different from the heart) is the “heart” of clEARly; the CL..LY part doesn’t seem to be indicated at all
29. OSIRIS Very backward name of female god (6)
SO< + IRIS (name of female). Osiris is the ancient Egyptian god of the underworld
Down
1. HACKSAW Top removed from hut made an observation tool (7)
[s]HACK + SAW (made an observation)
2. LURID Tempted to have iodine for energy — sensational! (5)
LURED with E[nergy] replaced by I[odine]
3,6. SUSPENDED ANIMATION Put off by The Simpsons and the like, which is not much of an existence (9,9)
SUSPENDED (put off) + ANIMATION (e.g. The Simpsons)
4. DASHING Tearing hip (7)
Double definition: moving fast and stylish/fashionable
5. CELEB In France, Le Blanc is a tabloid target (5)
Hidden in franCE LE Blanc
7. MAHLER He scored Harlem Winds (6)
HARLEM* – Gustav Mahler, composer
8. PLUMMY Sounding most upper-class and Victoria-like? (6)
Double definition: plummy-voiced and “like a Victoria plum”
14. SHRINKAGE Reduction of hard bowls area set in green (9)
H + RINK in SAGE
16. MEGABUCKS Upturned stone with top marking young man’s pile of money? (9)
GEM< + A (top) + BUCK'S
18. TROTSKY Run against the blue opponent of Stalinism (7)
TROT (run) + SKY (blue)
19. RUELLE Regulation about Spanish article for space between bed and wall (6)
EL in RULE. RUELLE is a diminutive of French “rue” (street), and can indeed mean the space between a bed and a wall, in case you ever feel a need to describe it
20. YANKEES A team, or those who have been pulled out? (7)
Double definition – the New York Yankees (baseball team), and how one might describe those who have been yanked
21. EXOTIC Outlandish, ultimately futile kiss on the ear (6)
[futil]E + X (kiss) + OTIC (of or “on” the ear)
25. OATER American western type of hat bishop discarded (5)
[b]OATER – American slang for a western film, from their use of horses – another slang name is “horse opera”

20 comments on “Guardian 26,300 – Brummie”

  1. Thank you Andrew and Brummie.
    Easier than parts of Rufus’s teaser yesterday, though I had to check ‘oater’ and ‘ruelle’. Generally well-clued as Andrew notes.

  2. Thanks Brummie and Andrew

    Same two unfamiliar words as tupu @1, though both clearly clued.

    I liked CHRYSALIS, REGENCY and BROWN PAPER.

    I though that some of the surfaces were a bit clunky – 22a and 11a for example (I particularly disliked the latter as, pedantically, sedges aren’t “grasses – see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyperaceae – they are “grass-like”, but a different family altogether).

    I too thought TRAMP was unfair, and was thrown by the apparent lack of indication of CL…CLY in 28a.

  3. Oaters crop up frequently in crosswords (and perhaps nowhere else any more), so I had no trouble with that one. At 4d, however, I toyed with “dashing” early on from the intial D, but I dismissed it as it isn’t at all the same as “hip” — or so I thought.

    Thanks, Brummie and Andrew.

  5. Thanks Brummie & Andrew.

    I couldn’t believe that there is a word for the space between bed and wall, but there it was! I shall be using it daily from now on. My RUELLE is rather dusty. OATER was also unknown.

    Strange clue for CLEARLY, but it sort of works.

  6. Thank you Andrew for explaining “oater”. I’ve never heard of that. Also thank you Brummie for re-uniting me with “ruelle”, which I first met in a Graun crossword many years ago but then forgot.

    I know there’s a word for words used only once but is there one for words used only in crosswords?

  7. @ David Mop at 6 – I would suggest “cruciverbals”. Thanks for the blog, Andrew. Thanks for the grid, Brummie. I took the A in 18D to be “top marking” as in an A grade.

  8. “cruxiverb”? Oater for sure, plus etui and ait. I used to think nene was one (a Hawaiian goose) but apparently in Hawaii it’s a perfectly normal word to use.

  9. Thanks to Andrew for the blog. I had never heard of OATER so you explained why I had the right answer.

    I knew that Jack and Jill went up the hill then Jack fell down and broke his crown but I had totally forgotten the medical treatment he was given. 🙁

  10. Thanks Brummie and Andrew

    Am afraid that I didn’t make pretty quick work of it and had to prise most of the answers out slowly one by one … didn’t seem to get a run on at all. Finished down in the SW corner with the tenuous CLEARLY the last one to go in, just after TRAMP and SHRINKAGE. Wasn’t all of that convinced of CREDIT for a fair while.

    I think that there was another setter, Shed from memory, that was recently clued in a similar manner.

    I had RIPPING early on at 4d which didn’t help the cause. A couple of new terms – RUELLE, SPLICE THE MAINBRACE and OATER.

    Thought 24, 23 was very good.

  11. This seemed a bit tricky at first but gave way quite easily once I saw SPLICE THE MAINBRACE thanks to some helpful crossers and easy clues for the unfamiliar words (I’d never heard of OATER or DUELLE). Last in was MEGABUCKS. Liked SUSPENDED ANIMATION and PLUMMY.

    Thanks to Brummie and Andrew.

  12. I often find Brummie quite tricky but not today, all over between Stratford and Holborn. Quite good fun though, with EXOTIC favourite.

  14. I agree this felt more like an easy Monday (completed during changeovers in Nadal match – that Greek kid’s a bit “useful” but still in second set…..)
    Jeff Cumberbatch – like the suggestion; how about one extra letter – cruciverballs?!
    Thanks to S & B

  15. An enjoyable puzzle, IMHO, although I found it a lot more straightforward than some of Brummie’s previous puzzles. The only unknown for me was RUELLE but it was clear enough from the wordplay once all the checkers were in place. No problem with YANKEES as I like most US sports, and it was an amusing definition, although I’m a little surprised nobody this side of the pond has raised an objection to UK solvers being expected to know a US sports team.

  16. Thanks for explanations. Clearly feeling vindicated about clearly. Is yankee unfair? What about lesser known cultivars of plums? Looks like it is fair if it is in the dictionary. Might be fair if it is a big entry news or encyclopedia. If it does not even have self created wikipedia entry like steamer the cross word setter it would be totally unfair. Google search for “steamer crossword setter” finds this blog complaining about the unfairness as the first hit.

    If victoria plums are fair game, banganapalli mangoes can’t be far behind. I will be waiting.

  19. Spent a lot of time trying to fit variations of POSH into 8dn, since I thought the Victoria might be Beckham – Posh Spice. It would have been a good solution had it worked.

  20. Thanks for the blog Andrew and for explaining BROWN PAPER which defeated me The explanation was there staring me in the face all the time but I just couldn’t see it. Who could not know Jack and Jill?

    I enjoyed this, I didn’t find it dull at all.

    On the is “it fair” debate: I think that pretty much anything is fair game. If one only ever comes across words in the context of crossword puzzles then maybe get out and do more. Or possibly stay in and read more?

Comments are closed.