Guardian 26,344 – Nutmeg

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I found this a lot easier than some of Nutmeg’s recent offerings in the Cryptic spot; in fact some of the clues seem more in the style of the Quiptic. There seem to be a lot of reversals going on, especially in the downs. All nicely done, though, so an enjoyable, if brief, solve. Thanks to Nutmeg

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. BLUE PETER Jack’s final intimation of leaving TV show? (4,5)
Double definition – the Blue Peter is a flag shown by ships (crewed by Jack Tars) that are about to leave port, and the long-running children’s TV programme
6. USER Employer rejected CV, giving me the sack (4)
Reverse of RESUME minus ME
10. HATER He can’t stand either parent losing capital on horse (5)
H (horse = heroin) + [M]ATER or [P]ATER
11. UNPLANNED Nan led astray by dreadful pun (not intended) (9)
PUN* + (NAN LED)*
12. MARTINI Drink, or where you might buy trendy one (7)
MART (where you might buy) + IN (trendy) + I
13. INDICTS Registers failing to show separate A&E charges (7)
INDICATES less A and E (from different parts of the word, hence “separate”)
14. A BIT ON THE SIDE Relationship that might make you somewhat on edge? (1,3,2,3,4)
Cryptic definition
17. CLIMATE CHANGE Technical game transformed global problem (7,6)
(TECHNICAL GAME)*
21. PREQUEL Prince joins queen in dance — it appears out of order (7)
P + QU in REEL
22. PROJECT Launch scheme (7)
Double definition (which a different syllable stressed in each meaning)
24. OVERLADEN Maiden possibly left port with too much luggage (9)
OVER (e.g. a maiden over in cricket) + L + ADEN
25. ROAST Dress down for Sunday lunch? (5)
Double definition
26. BETA Speaker’s trounced a second-rater (4)
Homophone of “beat a”
27. DISSENTER Rebel is transported East in doctor’s care (9)
IS SENT E in DR
Down
1. BOHEMIAN Abandoning convention, throw him a bone (8)
(HIM A BONE)*
2. UTTER Unopened club’s complete (5)
PUTTER (golf club) minus its first letter
3. PARSIMONIOUSLY Engaged in crime, I’m going in devoutly, giving little away (14)
I’M in ARSON, all in PIOUSLY
4. TOURIST Visitor to ancient city isn’t short of money, essentially (7)
TO + UR (of the Chaldees, birthplace of Abraham and the crossworder’s favourite ancient city) + ISN’T less the middle (“essential”) letter of moNey
5. REPTILE Traveller, not quite the best, turning turtle perhaps (7)
REP (commercial traveller) + reverse of ELIT[E]
7. SUNSCREEN Star considered claiming credit for skin lotion (9)
SUN (star) + CR in SEEN
8. RADISH Ingredient of salads I’d served up in quick succession (6)
Reverse of I’D in RASH (a quick succession of events)
9. SANDWICH COURSE How workers may study an example of sporting links? (8,6)
Double definition – the town of Sandwich, Kent has a number of famous golf courses
15. INCLEMENT Harsh little measure supported by pope at one time (9)
IN[ch] + CLEMENT (any of a number of popes)
16. TESTATOR Willing person put up timetable after trial (8)
TEST + reverse of ROTA
18. ALLUDED Boring article in review by editor provided a reference (7)
Reverse of DULL A + ED
19. EXPENDS First wife is in the offing, getting forks out (7)
EX + PENDS (i.e. is pending)
20. APLOMB Second record secured by graduate raised self-assurance (6)
Reverse of MO (moment, second) + LP in BA
23. ENACT “Bring back corporal punishment” — tyrant’s first decree (5)
Reverse of CANE + T[yrant]

46 comments on “Guardian 26,344 – Nutmeg”

  1. Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew
    Nice puzzle, but I wonder if Hugh accidentally took it off Nutmeg’s “Quiptic” pile – seemed easier than some of her Quiptics, in fact, and a lot easier than her previous Cryptics.
    I’m not sure if BLUE PETER counts as a”double definition”,as the programme was named after the flag.

  2. I enjoyed this puzzle. I spent about an hour on it and I definitely found it more difficult than a Quiptic. I incorrectly entered INDICES at 13a even though I could not parse it. New word for me was BLUE PETER – in both definitions.

    My favourites were 14a, 27a, 6a, 3d.

    Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew.

  4. Andrew – you haven’t quite finished the explanation of 4d (ISN’T less N from moNey, essentially)

    Tim

  5. Perfect crossword for me, in terms of difficulty and time to solve.

    But one man’s meat and all that…cue the complaints!

    If the notion of quiptic hadn’t been invented by which to compare, how would these conversations go?

  6. 4d TOURIST for the IST ..isn’t short of money.. could n signify money..the necessary.. I am new to the Cryptic and find the parsing difficult.
    Many thanks to Nutmeg and Andrew

  7. Thanks Andrew. I rejoice to see the Nutmeg name on a puzzle. As you note, this wasn’t gruelling, but it was good. I was pleased to get the 9D links clue readily, being far away and no golfer. Loved PREQUEL when the light globe lit up (having toyed for a while with ‘unequal’).

  9. Thanks, Andrew.

    I found this quite tough going at first, but on reflection, I don’t know why. I came back after an hour’s rest to dash off the last ten remaining clues.

    I had an doubtful INDUCTS (possible INDUCES) at 13a, Michelle, so I didn’t finish, either.

    Will 26a BETA be a stumbling block for US solvers, I wonder?

  11. Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew

    As ever I enjoyed this Nutmeg, which I thought was certainly on her easier side – occasionally it’s good not to emerge from a puzzle feeling bruied…

    I wondered if the clue for 1A had been re-edited, as I would have said that displaying the Blue Peter goes some way further than intimation, but the obvious substitute INDICATION might have pointed too much to 13, I guess.

  12. Thanks, Andrew.

    Good puzzle – not difficult, but well-constructed. There are quite a few reversals, but that’s the way the clues run sometimes. It’s more noticeable because they are concentrated towards the end of the down clues, and excusable because they give some excellent surface readings. We have often had crosswords with a dozen single-letter additions or removals.

    I particularly liked 6a, 24a, 4d, 15d and 23d for their surfaces, and the anagram at 17a.

  13. BETA was a bit of a stumbling block for me, Dave @9, and I’m definitely not American. It was one of those pesky little homophones where I had to run through all the available combinations to work out the answer, only a choosing a final A when anything else that might have worked was rejected.

    Like many others, past Nutmegs – the last especially – have been toughies, so when half the puzzle went in with write-ins I wasn’t sure what was going on. Some delay in the SW; APLOMB (good clue that) helped resolve things, but it fell to REPTILE to be last in.

  14. Thanks Nutmeg, after a brisk start I got somewhat bogged down, so I think this is more difficult than an average Quiptic.

    Thanks Andrew; I somehow couldn’t parse HATER, although it is obvious in retrospect (too many thoughts of pa, da, ma etc.)

    I liked the SANDWICH COURSE and the PREQUEL.

  15. Enjoyable puzzle. Spent some time trying to work out how INDICES worked at 13a, on the assumption that “registers” was the definition, even if it might have stretched it a bit. Got there in the end, though.

    BETA perhaps would be an imperfect homophone for US solvers, but if I as an Englishman was doing a US crossword, I’d expect homophones therein to conform only to a US accent and not a British one. For me, as long as a homophone works in a “standard” English accent, it’s fine.

    Cookie @6, the “n” comes from “money, essentially” – i.e., the middle letter of “money”.

  16. 1d is a wonderful little anagram, and I’m very surprised that – according to a very quick Google – no setter has used it before (at least not in the decade or so that people have blogged about crosswords, anyway).

    Thanks for the parsings of SANDWICH COURSE and BLUE PETER (I assumed that it was “jack” as in flag, not “Jack” as in sailor, which left “final intimation of leaving” apparently redundant).

  17. Thanks Andrew and Nutmeg

    Less taxing than some earlier offerings but a satisfying solve.

    In addition to reversals, quite a lot of front and back clippings.

    I ticked 13a, 21a, 9d and 19d as I went along. 19d seemed exceptionally clever.

  20. Seemed a fairly tight crossword to me, perhaps I would ask for clarification on the definition part for SANDWICH COURSE, but most of it looks all right. I just couldn’t get enthused. Did this lack bells and whistles for anyone else?

  21. hedgehoggy @ 20
    A sandwich course is a University course that includes time (generally a year) working in industry.

  22. Yes. I realise that. It was the tense that stopped me!

    ‘How workers may study’ equates to ‘sandwich course’?

  23. I thought while I was solving, but forgot to say in the blog, that a sandwich course is perhaps more “how students may work” than “how workers may study”.

  24. ‘Means by which’ rather than ‘how’ I would have preferred, I think. And yes, I think you are correct Andrew: that’s much better.

  26. Well, it seems to carry the definition of ‘an educational course that includes a period of work experience’, so one would be a student throughout, to be absolutely precise.

  27. Agree that this was easier than the last few Nutmegs, but was still enjoyable. Last in was REPTILE after INDICTS. Liked CLIMATE CHANGE and BOHEMIAN. John A @15 – you wren’t the only one who spent too long trying to make INDICES parse.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and Andrew

  29. Thanks Andrew. I had no real trouble with this one but would not say Quiptic level. I didn’t know either definition of 1A even though I somehow knew of the expression. But another one late in that amuses me now is 9D, SANDWICH COURSE. I had no idea before Googling that there are golf courses in Sandwich, but I was confident I had the definition down because I assumed that a Sandwich Course was one held at lunchtime to which workers brought a brown bag lunch. “How workers may study”, Bingo! Ignorance is bliss!

  30. Thanks all
    I have been failing to finish the previous Nutmegs so I presume this was easier since I did complete it.
    Last in was 14ac.
    I liked the anagram at 17 ac.

  32. Cookie @31, no problem. You’ll soon find that you’re parsing actual English phrases in crossword speak (My dad once told me he’d seen a film called Pandorum, which he thought had a strange ending. My inner cruciverbalist could only agree).

    I did a sandwich course in university, working for one year and studying the other three. I’d have only considered myself a “worker” for the one year in industry – and for that year I wasn’t actually studying. The definition isn’t perfect, but it was my third answer in, so it doesn’t appear too inaccessible (though that might depend on knowing about golf courses in Kent).

  33. Royal St. George’s Golf Club, Sandwich, has been the venue for the (British) Open Championship on 14 occasions – Darren Clarke won there in 2011.

  34. May I join the INDICES club. I’d almost decided to leave it in until the word CHARGES made me think twice. A number of others seemed too easy: UTTER for example. Given the level of this weeks puzzles, I presume we’re in for a shorter tomorrow!
    I wasn’t aware of the quiptic; perhaps I’ll give it a go.

  35. I have a first wife and she isn’t an ex as far as I know.
    My neighbour is on his third so his first and second are both exes.
    A flaky definition I think.

  36. Umm? Why do people on here have to over complicate h=horse? Are we trying to show off how we may be old but are still in touch with street slang? It is absolutely not necessary to give the indirect definition h=heroin=horse. h has been, and still is, horse for centuries (as opposed to c=colt, m=mare, f=filly). See any of the umpty volumes of any equine breed’s stud book, the catalogues of any horse auctions, the racecards of any race meeting, any horse race form guide, any race horse ratings publication. By “any” I am obviously not including those in a foreign language. Presume that any list of abbreviations in any dictionary that doesn’t give h=horse merely proves the assertion that the compilers are incompetent.

    So can we keep things “simples” in future? When the word horse, or a word meaning horse is used, for the letter h, then the explanation is h=horse, got it?

  37. I found this a little trickier than Nutmeg’s Quiptics, I got the impression the easier clues were there just to get people started, and I thought this was another very good puzzle. A BIT ON THE SIDE took a while because of the unhelpful checkers, and I finished with BETA after INCLEMENT.

    jeceris@35 – I can’t imagine anybody on their first marriage introducing their better half as “my first wife”. If you do then maybe that’s why your slippers are in the fridge every night …..

  38. Andy B @ 37

    These differences in solving sequence fascinate me: I got 14 purely from the enumeration, and 17 was a write-in that ‘felt’ right so I didn’t bother to check the anagram.

    Reading here and on the graun’s own site about solvers’ firsts, lasts, and favourites shows just how varied we all are, and to me that’s one of the things that makes this hobby so much fun.

  39. Thank you, Andrew.

    Got roughed up by Nutmeg’s last one, so was pleased to be able to tackle an easier one from her today. Liked A BIT ON THE SIDE particularly.

  40. One or two flaky clues for me which have been pointed out.

    I didn’t particularly enjoy this one either. I guess some setters just don’t agree with some solvers.

    Thanks to Andrew and Nutmeg

  41. Thanks all. Having finally caught up with the explanations, I am still not happy with 23d. Decree is the order or law whereas enact is the putting of that law into operation. A sloppy clue?

  42. Mystogre @41: ‘Decree’ in the cryptic reading of the clue has to be interpreted as a verb, rather than a noun. To decree something is to order that it be done.

  44. enact (?n?ækt)
    vb (tr)
    1. to make into an act or statute

    2. (Law) to establish by law; ordain or decree

    – Collins

  46. Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew

    This was certainly easier than the last couple by her, but still presented a reasonable challenge to me. A BIT ON THE SIDE, APLOMB and BETA were the last in – and they took a while to finally fall.

    Didn’t notice all of the reversals this time, but there were a lot!

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