Guardian Cryptic 26350 Pasquale

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(Please click here for this same blog but with a picture quiz added. Please do NOT post hereinbelow any comment relating to the picture quiz. Thank you.)   A devilishly difficult one, thanks to Pasquale.  Had to use electronic aids, including the cheat button for one.  Definitions are underlined in the clues.

Across

1    Pageant held for knight (7)

GALAHAD : GALA(a pageant;a festive occasion) + HAD(held;possessed).

Defn: One of King Arthur’s.

5    Church ointment is carried in plate, briefly (7)

CHRISOM : IS contained in(carried in) “chrome”(to plate with chromium, usually by electroplating) minus its last letter(…, briefly).

9    Time wasted by appalled one hiding under cover (9)

DISGUISED : “t”(abbrev. for “time”) deleted from(wasted by) “disgusted”(appalled;sickened) containing(… hiding) I(Roman numeral for “one”).

10    Regenerated fellows listened to guiding spirit (5)

NUMEN : Homophone of(… listened to) “new men”(regenerated fellows).

Defn: A guiding principle, force, or spirit.

11    Spinner of web in wood approaches a forgotten shelter (3,7-3)

TIM BERNERS-LEE : TIMBER(wood) + “nears”(approaches) minus(… forgotten) “a” + LEE(shelter).

Defn: Cryptic, the inventor of the World Wide Web.

13    What gets to stick when one’s terribly hot in it? (8)

CLOTHING : CLING(to stick to) containing(… in it) anagram of(terribly) HOT. A WIWD (wordplay intertwined with definition) clue.

You could be hot in it and it clings to you … or vice versa:

 

15    Centre Right is showing excess of ambition, maybe (6)

HUBRIS : HUB(the centre of a network) + R(abbrev. for “right”) + IS.

Defn: A literary term for, in Greek tragedy, an excess of ambition, pride, etc. leading to the transgressor’s ruin.

17    Sweet, sweet stuff unwrapped? Not eating that! (6)

NOUGAT : “sugar”(sweet stuff) minus its 1st and last letters(unwrapped) contained in(… eating that) NOT.

19    Wife with repeated hesitation, an unsettled type (8)

WANDERER : W(abbrev. for “wife”) + AND(with;plus) + 2 x(repeated) ER(an expression of hesitation).

22    Procedure for making arch is evident in these pieces of furniture? (7,6)

ROCKING CHAIRS : A reverse clue: Anagram of(ROCKING) CHAIRS = Procedure for making “arch is”.

25    Arab finishing with camels gets car (5)

SAUDI : The last letter of(finishing with) “camels ” plus(gets) AUDI(the German car marque).

26    Fresh fruit deli provided for festival (3,2-4)

EID UL-FITR : Anagram of(Fresh) FRUIT DELI.

Defn: … that ends the fast of Ramadan. As with other Romanised non-English words, there are a variety of spellings.

27    Stupid types fail ultimately – as shown in school records (7)

SCHLEPS : The last letter of(… ultimately) “fail ” contained in(as shown in) [ SCH(abbrev. for “sch”) + EPS(the former 45 rpm extended play music records) ].

28    Gentleman of healthy appearance said to get too much (7)

SURFEIT : Homophone of(… said) [ “Sir”(form of polite address for a gentleman) + “fit”(of a healthy appearance) ].

Down

1    Top place needs stuff bought – nothing to be missing (4)

GODS : “goods”(stuff that’s been bought) minus(… to be missing) “o”(the letter representing 0;nothing).

Defn: Cryptic. The upper gallery seating area in a theatre, nearest the ceiling and furthest from the stage.

2    The French emperor for three months in the country (7)

LESOTHO : LES(French for “the”) + OTHO(Roman Emperor who ruled for three months).

3    Transport a thousand bits and pieces left after harvesting (5)

HAULM : HAUL(to transport) + M(Roman numeral for a thousand).

Defn: Collectively, the stems and stalks of grass, grain, etc.

4    Sees records being broken by English sailors (8)

DISCERNS : DISCS(circular plates containing audio-visual recorded material) containing(being broken by) [ E(abbrev. for “English”) + RN(abbrev. for the Royal Navy) ].

5    Rhythmic jazz fan outside sleazy club (6)

CADENT : CAT(slang for a jazz music fan) containing(outside) DEN(a club where one might get sleazy entertainment).

Defn: Having cadence or rhythm.

6    Manage a delivery trip in a car (9)

RUNAROUND : RUN(to manage, say, an organisation) + A + ROUND(a regular delivery trip of papers, milk, etc.).

Defn: Aka a runabout.

7    Sister’s eaten enough – picky type wanting a bit of everything? (7)

SAMPLER : SR(abbrev. for a sister in a religious order) containing(eaten) AMPLE(enough,or more than enough) .

Defn: One who takes a sample of this, that, and the other, and another and …

8    Mentor is so unconventional as educator (10)

MONTESSORI : Anagram of(… unconventional) MENTOR IS SO.

Answer: Maria, Italian educator who evolved a method, named after her, of teaching children.

12    Professionals in film industry, who could make actress sin (10)

SCENARISTS : Anagram of(could make) ACTRESS SIN.

Defn: … who write screen plays, or storylines.

14    Festival founder in area of land once getting communications expert (9)

HEAVISIDE :  This is the answer using the cheat button, but I am lost as to what it is or how to explain it.  I can only come up with Oliver Heaviside, physicist who was an expert in the field of electromagnetic propagation (communications?).

16    They get charged, put in cells (8)

CATHODES : Cryptic defn: The electrically charged terminal in a primary cell or battery, or an electrolytic cell.

18    A local Conservative youngster with no yen to be like an oik (7)

UNCOUTH : ‘UN(“a”;one, in local patois or dialect) + C(abbrev. for “Conservative” in politics) + “youth”(a youngster) minus(with no) “y”(abbrev. for the Japanese currency, yen).

20    Hurt again? Get time out (7)

RESPITE : RE-(the prefix indicating again;one more time) + SPITE(to hurt;to offend).

21    Monster to advance ignoring initial publicity (6)

OGRESS : “progress”(to advance) minus its 1st two letters(ignoring initial) “pr”(abbrev. for “public relations”;publicity).

23    I would look to expend minimal energy (5)

IDLER : I’D(contraction of “I would”) + “leer”(to look sneeringly, suggestively, or obliquely) minus the 1st letter of(minimal) “energy “. Another WIWD clue.

24    Incompetent person‘s endless chatter (4)

PRAT : “prate”(to chatter, idly and, well, endlessly) minus its last letter(… chatter) .

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51 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 26350 Pasquale”

  2. 14D – Founder of Glastonbury is Michael EAVIS, an old area of land is a HIDE. I think the reference is to the Physicist.

  3. Thanks scchua and Pasquale
    Heaviside gives his name to the reflective “layer” in the atmosphere that bounces radio waves, allowing communication “over the horizon”.

    I didn’t enjoy this – the surfaces seemed all a bit “wordy” to be elegant. I also failed to finish, having entered the perfectly reasonable “resting” for 20d. I don’t think I would have got PRAT anyway – my first thought when cheating the answer was “endless PRATTLE”, and I was going to question “endless” meaning ” remove last three letters” (not having come across “prate” before).

  5. A most engaging puzzle. I did not get “Heaviside”, being diverted to think of a Muslim festival a la Eid-ul-Fitr. New word “haulm”. Favourite was 11A.

  6. I’m not happy about 22A. I entered Folding rather than Rocking at first sight, knowing I minght need to change the first word. With so many anagrinds in use this shares the same fundamental unsoundness as cryptic definitions: they give a meaning, but no indication of which of several possible answers is required.

  7. Same problem as Meic – was it CARVING CHAIRS? At least two plausible alternatives to the actual answer.

  8. I found this puzzle to be a bit of a hard slog. New words for me were HAULM, CHRISOM, NUMEN and HEAVISIDE. I solved but could not parse 2d, 9a (and still don’t get it), 23d, 17a, 22a, 14d.

    I liked 11a and 15a.

    Thanks Pasquale and scchua.

  10. Thanks Andrew and Saesneg for 14 down. Might have got there in the end, if I weren’t blogging, and had more time.

  11. Not really my cup of tea this morning, but refused to be beaten. I agree with the comments above but I did like 15ac.

  12. Thanks, scchua for what must have been hard work. I was another cheater for HEAVISIDE. I’m afraid I found it a bit unfair, clueing an obscure (to most, I would imagine) physicist with two other relatively obscure words.

    No problems with TB-L, although I think you’ve omitted the shelter in your parsing.

    I can’t find an alternative spelling of chism (the ointment) as CHISOM. On the other hand, chism is apparently an alternative spelling of CHISOM (the christening robe).

  16. Regarding CHRISOM, I found it in Chambers dictionary online when I was trying to solve that clue:

    chrism or chrisom noun, relig 1 holy oil used for anointing in the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches. 2 confirmation. chrismal adj. ?ETYMOLOGY: 13c: from Greek chrisma anointing.

  17. Hard work and didn’t finish it but very enjoyable nonetheless. I learnt some new words: HAULM, CHRISOM,CADENT and the EID one. Thanks to Pasquale and sschua.

  18. Did anyone else have trouble actually finding this puzzle? When I went to the Guardian website, it told me the recent Cryptic was an Araucaria from 2006…

  19. Yes, Schroduck, something’s screwed up their crosswords home page sometime today. You should be able to get today’s cryptic by using the archive search facility on the same page.

  21. The Graun is busy with a new Beta of the whole site and are mucking things up gloriously. Worth looking at how bad the Beta is and sending them feedback.

  22. sidey @ 21
    I found it on the beta site this morning, as I looked for it on the computer attached to a printer, and that bookmark(for some reason, I can’t remember why) goes to that version. (Though I’ve just looked again and there aren’t any obvious crosswords there at all now – the feature is a link to an obit for Araucaria.)

    However the laptop bookmark goes to the older version, and it’s now missing there.

    (I do agree about the beta version though – much less user-friendly.)

  23. Found this fairly difficult, and I don’t think I’d have finished it without either Google or a dictionary – a lot of fairly obscure general knowledge needed, and a few less than familiar words. Having said which my last in was CATHODES, which I should have seen much earlier but I was looking for something more cryptic.
    Needed to look up EID-UL-FITR – the Eid part was obvious but I couldn’t get the rest to look plausible. HAULM was new to me, I only remembered OTHO after guessing LESOTHO, and NUMEN and MONTESSORI were only vaguely familiar (probably from previous crosswords), and despite seeing the EAVIS part fairly on I needed the crossing H before I remebered HEAVISIDE.
    Favourite was TIM BERNERS-LEE, which was a nice aha moment.

    Thanks to scchua and Pasquale.

  24. Thanks, scchua.

    This must be retribution for my comment on the last Pasquale that his latest crosswords had become easier!

    A very slow start, and I had to cheat on ROCKING. After that I managed to complete most of it, albeit without enthusiasm.

    EAVIS, it turns out, I had surmised correctly early on, but the problem was where in the nine letters to put it. ROCKING helped with that, and I did know the Heaviside layer; I didn’t think these too obscure. However, CHRISOM, NUMEN, EID, SCHLEPS, SCENARISTS, CADENT were a different matter.

  25. I got 10 from a couple of crossers when I (thought I) remembered that NUMINOUS had appeared as a solution not so long ago (? in a prize). But the site search doesn’t bear this out.

    Does anyone else have a similar recollection, or have I just invented an imaginary past?

    Thanks to Pasquale and scchua.

  26. At 21d, I took ‘initial publicity’ to mean ‘publicity in it’s initialised form’, i.e. P[ublic] R[elations].

  27. One of the hardest crosswords I’ve ever finished. Had to check with dictionary that HAULM really was a word and with son for festival founder but otherwise aid-free, which I reckon was pretty good.

    First pass yielded absolutely nothing at all, which hasn’t happened for years. Eventually WANDERER was my way in. Knowing it was Pasquale actually helped – I was on the lookout for obscure words from early on. Round where I live, EID UL-FIT’R is a school holiday, so that helped!

    I’d defend Pasquale on the alternative chairs. I thought of FOLDING too, but 12d had to be an anagram, and it has no F.

    ‘A local’ = UN well outside my knowledge, but I guess ‘A French Conservative’ would just have been a little too damn straightforward.

  28. Not a great puzzle. Too many words that belong in a Listener puzzle, so I’m surprised the editor let this through. Add to that the dreadful grid, and one’s disgruntlement is complete!

  29. I’m a little surprised that no-one has picked up on my comment on 20d. I thought RESTING (RE-STING) was a perfectly good answer!

  30. Thanks all
    Much too difficult for me. The NE corner remained very empty since chrisom,numen,cadent were all unknown words to me. Although it did’t hold me up I could find only eid AL-fitr.
    I liked ‘rocking chairs’ (rocking clearly = anagram)

  31. A couple of Aha clues, but too many Oh Reallys? for my taste. Not so much a challenging puzzle, more an obscure one. There isn’t a theme that explains the obscurity, is there?

  32. Not my favourite ever Don puzzle because of all the obscurities, although the only one I needed aids to get was HEAVISIDE. I didn’t know the physicist, I’m not sure “communications expert” as a definition would have led me to think of one, and although I may have read about EAVIS once or twice in Glastonbury-related articles he certainly hadn’t stuck in my memory. Oh, and I couldn’t remember HIDE either, so all in all it was a pretty impenetrable clue for me.

    On the other hand, I saw ROCKING CHAIRS right away and didn’t consider the alternative “folding chairs” because “rocking” is a far clearer anagrind. As far as gladys@7’s comment is concerned, what on earth is a “carving chair”?

  33. Andy B @32
    We have a set of 6 dining room chairs. 2 of them have arms – they are called “carvers”, possibly from “carving chairs”? (Though Google suggests not – I only found “carver”.)

  34. Yeah, seriously tough. Several new words for me and some that were lurking in the back of the memory but which I couldn’t quite remember what they meant so hoped I was guessng right.

    One thing troubles me about the above comments. We have a world almost totally dependent on radio, and part of how it works is the Heaviside layer. So yeah, he may not be famous otherwise, but surely the atmospheric layer should be known? Mind you, that said, I should do a better job of remembering TB-L!

    I’m also not sure how denizens of this country can be unaware of Mr Glastonbury Festival, given the number of times he’s been interviewed on the TV news over the years. And I can only assume Hide as a land measure is only obscure to those too young to have been taught “proper” measurements, or have never seen an extract from Domesday, a book somewhat fundamental for any country whose population descends from here.

  35. Thanks for all the feedback. I was rather pleased with the cultural diversity, though I say it myself. The TIMBER idea came out of the blue and I liked the notion of linking a Glastonbury farmer and a seriously important physicist in the same clue. The Muslim festival received groans in another place — but I will continue to celebrate the amazingly varied world we live in rather than go for cheap laughs!

  36. When I were a lad, I used to build crystal radio sets – yes, it was that long ago – and I couldn’t understand why they worked so much better at night. “Ah, it’s the Heaviside Layer”, explained a friend of my father, “it comes down when it’s dark”. I was none the wiser but the name has always stuck.

    I should have maybe got this clue instead of entering “Hayfields” but I was losing interest by this stage, having surprisingly managed to finish the other three quadrants.

    Surely I can’t have been the only person to enter “twit” for 24dn? it was only when I worked out the anagram for “fruit deli’ that I changed it to PRAT – I always thought a prat was somebody annoying rather than an ” incompetent person”.

  38. Well I got there in the end but had to use aids for the LOI which was HEAVISIDE. (Never heard of him!)

    All very fairly clued which enabled me to get there except for HEAVISDE! (I agree with NeilW @12 on this)

    Not one of the Don’s most elegant offerings!

    Thanks to scchua and Pasquale

  39. Crossbencher @37 – Both Chambers and Collins give chrisom as a variant spelling of chrism, as well as a garment.

  40. Yes, this was very difficult.
    But hey, many of these so-called obscure words were clear from their construction.
    So I just filled them in, must be proper English words.
    And they were!

    Actually, seeing ‘Festival founder’ I immediately thought of Michael Eavis, after having an I in that clue.
    But then, I am interested in that kind of thing (Glastonbury).

    Many thanks to Pasquale to serve the ones that find Rufus too simplistic with a crossword at certainly the other side of the spectrum.

    When I think about it now, this puzzle would perhaps have suited the Independent a lot better where the level is often like this – I am not thinking of Quixote, though. 🙂

    Thanks scchua.

  41. Hi muffin @ 29, just wanted to add that I too had “resting” for quite a while, and only realized it was wrong when the penny dropped at 28ac. I’m guessing that “respite” is preferable grammatically because it is unequivocally a noun, and therefore more clearly parallel to “time out” (as opposed to, say, “taking time out”)?

  42. Oh dear me look at the time still not done . Sorry many words I’ve never heard before. Funnily enough I got Tim Berners Lee very quickly but failed miserably on 3rd 5a 5a 14 10a and 27th . I liked 15a but only because quite good at Latin. I’d love a cheat button but do crossword in the actual newspaper luddite that I am. Extreme respect Scchua and even you had to do the cheat button.Pasquale thank you you took me back to the Bunthorne days never finished the great Bob Smithies puzzles either.

  43. Thanks for all further feedback. Just one additional comment. CHRISOM is given as an alternative spelling of CHRISM in Collins and (importantly) in OED — though had I thought about it I may have used the more common definition.

  44. Very pleased to have done this w/o cheats. Knew Heaviside (Physics) and put in chrisom (thanks to reading Ronald Blythe) although I protested inwardly at the spelling. So smug as I often find even Rufus a bit difficult!

  45. 27ac: I have never heard schlel in that sense. According to Jewish friends and my dictionary and what I’ve heard said, it means drag something arojnd, Pasquale, where did find your usage?

    I too found twit before prat and resting before respite.

  49. You’re probably right. This is probably frustration at how long this took me and then to get one wrong. I took TIME OUT as an anagram.
    Oh well it’s only a game!

  50. Thanks Pasquale and scchua

    This stayed on the back burner until today … and like others found this very hard. Needed electronic help to find a few and to check a lot !!!

    What I like about the Don is that you always learn something new – OTHO (a Roman emperor that I’d never heard of – in the year of four emperors), EID UL-FITR (although had probably celebrated it a couple of times in Malaysia), CHRISOM (in any of it’s guises!). Had heard of both Messrs HEAVISIDE and BERNERS-LEE – but had to check on both of them. Hadn’t heard of Mr EAVIS though.

    At least it’s out of the ‘in-box’ now :).

  51. Very belatedly, in case anyone ever reviews this, regarding the controversy over which type of chairs in the solution to 22 across: the reference to “arch” pointed me towards rocking chairs as opposed to any of the others proposed above, as I immediately visualised an arch (upside down); the clever double use of “arch” (used in the anagram as well) is justified by ending the clue with a question mark.

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