Guardian 26,361 by Pasquale

by

Struggled with parts of this, especially in the NW. Plenty of the Don’s usual wit and elegance – favourites were 9ac, 5dn and 6/24

Across
1 MILLAIS Man who painted factor­ies across main road (7)
John Everett Millais [wiki] was an English painter. MILLS=”factories”, spread across AI=A1=”main road”
5 BATCHES Revolutionary infiltrating mad groups (7)
=”groups”. CHE=”Revolutionary” infiltrating BATS=”mad”
9 PONGO Soldier quietly qualifying for £200 in board game? (5)
military slang for “Soldier”. P[iano] plus ON GO=”qualifying for 200 in” Monopoly
10 PERIMETER Man in serial denial crosses mud going over boundary (9)
=”boundary”. PETER=”Man in serial denial” of his association with Jesus, around rev(MIRE)=”mud going over”
11 KEIR HARDIE Spooner gets to listen to woolly type — his radical contemporary (4,6)
James Keir Hardie [wiki] was the first leader of the Labour Party in the UK, and a contemporary of Spooner. Spoonerism of ‘hear cardie’=”listen to woolly type”
12 SMUT Some solvers may love it; some others mutter (4)
=”Some solvers may love it”? Hidden in “otherS MUTter”
14 CHURCHILLIAN Bad man attending place of worship, posing as an impressive leader? (12)
=”as an impressive leader”. ILL=”Bad” plus IAN=”man”, after (“attending”) CHURCH=”place of worship”
18 CHANGING ROOM Sports club facility — it’s about danglin’ dress? (8,4)
=”Sports club facility”. C[irca]=”about” plus HANGIN’=danglin’ plus GROOM=”dress”
21 IBIS One bird’s losing the way, one bird (4)
=”one bird”. I=”One” plus BI[rd]’S, where rd=road=”the way”
22 HILDEBRAND Legendary German greeting bald nerd, nastily (10)
=”Legendary German” [wiki]. HI=”greeting” plus (bald nerd)*
25 LONDON IVY Smoke close to Yorkshire river captured by histor­ian (6,3)
=”Smoke”. ON DON=”close to Yorkshire river”, inside LIVY=”historian”
26 AUDEN Poet has classy port brought round (5)
=”Poet”. U=”classy”, with ADEN=Yemeni “port” around it
27 STAND-IN Relief when fools get sent back and put inside (5-2)
=”Relief”. rev(NITS)=”fools get sent back”, with AND put inside
28 PADDLES Doesn’t get deeply involved with canoes? (7)
=”Doesn’t get deeply involved” in water; =”canoes”
Down
1 MOPOKE Bird and donkey seen across river (6)
=”Bird”. MOKE=”donkey” around PO=”river”
2 LENTIL The Italian goes after fast food (6)
=”food”. IL=”The Italian”, after LENT=Christian “fast”
3 APOPHTHEGM Saw dad in strange hat, trim having bit of gold in it (10)
=”Saw”, a pithy saying. POP=”dad” in (hat)*, plus HEM=”trim” with G[old] in it
4 SUPER Great meal one page brought out (5)
=”Great”. SUP[p]ER=”meal”, minus p[age]
5 BURNISHER Smart on top, is that woman in rubber? (9)
=”rubber”. BURN=”Smart”, on top of IS and HER=”that woman”
6,24 TIME LORD Who perhaps shows merit, old whizz (4,4)
=Doctor “Who, perhaps”. (merit old)*
7 HATE MAIL Abusive stuff coming in torrent — troublemaker getting maiden trapped (4,4)
=”Abusive stuff”. HAIL=”torrent”, around ATE=Greek goddess of mischief=”troublemaker” and M[aiden]
8 SCRUTINY Endless struggle concl­uded by small examination (8)
=”examination”. SCRU[m]=”Endless struggle” plus TINY=”small”
13 FLOORBOARD Something potential creaky to baffle the bosses? (10)
=”Something potential[ly] creaky”. FLOOR BOARD=”baffle the bosses”
15 RENDITION Right form of book to enthral any number in translation (9)
=”translation”. R[ight] plus EDITION=”form of book” around N[umber]
16 W C FIELDS Comedian in area besieged by ladies and gentlemen? (1,1,6)
=”Comedian”. FIELD=”area”, besieged by WC’s=”ladies and gentlemen”
17 HACIENDA Alien had a nice estate (8)
=”estate”. (had a nice)*
19 HANDEL Composer to deal with sounds (6)
=”Composer”. Sounds like ‘handle’=”deal with”
20 ADONIS A university lecturer is a lord (6)
=a current Labour “lord”. A DON IS=”A university lecturer is”
23 DRY UP Doctor sure to run out of words (3,2)
=”run out of words”. DR, plus YUP=”sure”
24 TIME LORD See 6

28 comments on “Guardian 26,361 by Pasquale”

  3. @rho #1 – the three politicians, Adonis, Churchill and Hardie, all changed party at one time or another – but I can’t really build a theme out of that or link it to the others.

  4. Thanks manehi. Completed this readily, but wondered about 25A. You don’t explain it; I googled, but not until page 7 did the meaning get revealed.

  5. @M #4 It applies mainly to smoke as deposited on buildings – hence ivy. Dickens uses the term in Bleak House. I’ve never heard it anywhere else since I was a youngster in the SE. I think London was one of the first cities to go smokeless but it was years before they started to clean the buildings up.

    I have distant early memories of London smogs – hardly able to see your own hands – bus conductors guiding their bus-drivers on foot – and amazingly, shipping still moving on the water.

  6. Thanks, manehi.

    Nice one from Pasquale, with his usual sprinkling of unusual words. It took me a while to finalise APOPHTHEGM – the word was familiar but I couldn’t remember the spelling.

    LOI for me was FLOORBOARD. My paper has the clue as ‘Something potential creaky…’. ‘Something potentially creaky’ would be better grammatically. Is this a misprint? I haven’t looked at the online version.

    I liked the Spoonerism (not a favourite genre of mine) and 18a, for the misdirection which made it look like an anagram clue, but best was the &lit at 12a which references many discussions on this site.

  7. Thanks Pasquale & manehi.

    A not very enjoyable slog for me. Slang words, MOKE & PONGO in the NW. Google only seems to know LONDON IVY as the restaurant. I remember the London smog but I don’t remember anyone referring to it as LONDON IVY – but then again I wasn’t alive in Dickens’ time 😉 [to give the Don his due, it is however in Chambers.] I don’t think the Spoonerism will pass Eileen’s test as a real phrase.

    Anyway, looks like some enjoyed it, and my computer and I did eventually crack it. There were some enjoyable clues like that for CHANGING ROOM.

  8. Gervase @6; my paper version also has ‘potential’ for 13, although it says ‘potentially’ online, which made it a write-in.

  9. Dickens Bleak House

    …On that occasion Cook’s Court was in a manner revolutionized by the new inscription in fresh paint, PEFFER and SNAGSBY, displacing the time honoured and not easily decipherable legend PEFFER only. For smoke, which is the London ivy, had so wreathed itself round Peffer’s name and clung to the dwelling place that the affectionate parasite quite overpowered the parent tree.

    Thanks for the blog manehi, and Pasquale for a challenging puzzle.

  10. BTW I was brought up in St Albans where reputedly Bleak House was sited: [Wiki}’Dickens locates the fictional Bleak House in St Albans, Hertfordshire, where he wrote some of the book. An 18th century house in Folly Lane, St Albans has been identified as the location of the story since the time of the book’s publication and was known as Bleak House for many years.’

  11. I think we’ve been let off relatively lightly here, with just APOPHTHEGM, MOPOKE, PONGO & LONDON IVY. God knows what the Times mob would have made of it, so sensitive are they to anything that isn’t monosyllabic and out of a child’s storybook.

    Don’s Dictionary Corner was a bit laboured though at 3 down, and having LIVY as a component part of LONDON IVY didn’t really help. At least the grid was sort of vaguely all right.

    In summation, a bit dull.

  12. Thanks to manehi for the blog. There were several cases where I had the answer but not the parsing so I needed you there.

    I have heard of London referred to as ‘The Smoke’ (e.g. Margery Allingham The Tiger in The Smoke) but LONDON IVY is new to me.

  13. Jolly Swagman @3 – I wonder if you’re onto something; Auden changed from UK to US citizenship, Handel from German to British, Hildebrand left his own kingdom to fight against it. I could be reading too much into it, of course – nothing obvious links Fields or Millais to changing sides.

  14. Schroduck @ 13

    Millais spent most of his early childhood in Jersey and Brittany. Thackery once asked Millais when England conquered Jersey. Millais replied “Never! Jersey conquered England”.

  16. Thanks Pasquale and manehi

    Found this a bit of a slog too today … probably just feeling too tired to take on the Don more than anything else.

    A number of new learnings with APOPHTHEGM, LONDON IVY (and really difficult to trace down), PONGO, TIME LORD (only watched Dr Who sporadically), ADONIS (as the Labour polly) and KEIR HARDIE (my last one in … and almost gave up on it!).

  18. Thanks Pasquale and manehi, and also all those who have pointed out themed answers.

    My 0.02? The TIME LORD regularly regenerates, which is another form of changing

  19. Thanks for the blog – the NW corner defeated me. I feed a little mollified that MILLAIS, PONGO, KEIR HARDIE and MOPOKE were new to me; plus I was sure that 3d was APOTHEGM but it was obviously too short…

  20. I enjoyed this, although it took quite a time. I also couldn’t find LONDON IVY on Google. Favourites were CHURCHILLIAN and APOPHTHEGM.

  21. Well I almost never detect themes but l’m pretty sure there isn’t one today. I rather liked this one and even the more obscure answers seem fair enough to me. I’d never heard of LONDON IVY,APOPHTHEGM or MOPOKE but they were quite easy to work out.
    Thanks Don.p

  24. I enjoyed the puzzle, although I found the NW tricky and needed the wordplay for PONGO, MOPOKE and APOPHTHEGM, my last ones in. Even though it wasn’t the most difficult of clues I did enjoy SMUT.

    I thought hedgehoggy@11’s comment about Times solvers was a little moronic.

  25. Thought this was good fun. Spent a while scratching my head unsuccessfully trying to find what might link the famous names, so thanks for the knowledgeable suggestions above. It does seem vague, though. Would be nice if Don dropped in to enlighten us. Does he ever drop in here?

  26. Thanks all
    This seemed somewhat easier from Pasquale than usual.Although ‘pongo’ and London Ivy were new to me.
    I liked the hear cardy at 11.

  27. I was worried when I saw the Don’s name and he didn’t disappoint with his almost compulsive use of obscure words. (It really isn’t necessary and a little lazy IMHO)

    However I did solve this in fairly reasonable time and found it quite enjoyable.

    For some bizarre reason my last two in were HANDEL and AUDEN! Possibly the easiest two in the puzzle!

    Thanks to manehi and Pasquale.

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