Guardian 26,374 – Chifonie

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A typically straightforward puzzle from Chifone, with the usual preponderance of charades. Perhaps a couple of slightly obscure answers, but nothing to delay regular solvers for long.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. LATENT Concealed behind books (6)
LATE (behind) + NT (New Testament)
4. FLEAPIT Increase in position of shabby cinema (7)
LEAP in FIT (position?)
9. CARPENTER Fish arrive for artisan (9)
CARP + ENTER
10. ACTOR Player fell after a collision, initially (5)
A C[ollision] + TOR (a hill or fell)
11. OVERS Finished Sunday deliveries 5)
OVER + S – the overs/deliveries are in cricket
12. GLAMOROUS Stunning girl — heartless and lustful (9)
G[ir]L + AMOROUS
13. EVACUEE Girl’s prompt meeting eastern fugitive (7)
EVA + CUE + E
15. DABBLE Play with boy born in valley (6)
B B in DALE
17. BOÖTES Footwear worn by English stars (6)
E in BOOTS. Boötes is a constellation
19. MEANDER Repairer retains bit of abdominal wind (7)
A[bdominal] in MENDER – “wind” rhymes with “mind” for the definition
22. EVERGREEN Standard is incessantly naive (9)
EVER + GREEN. The definition refers to an evergreen as a standard in the sense of a well-known song.
24. NINJA Nationalist in Jamaica is an assassin (5)
N + IN + JA
26. ARENA Knight enters sector of the battlefield (5)
N in AREA
27. TANTALISE I let Satan corrupt and torment (9)
(I LET SATAN)*
28. KITCHEN Livingstone retained longing for the cookhouse (7)
ITCH in KEN (Livingstone, politician and former Mayor of London)
29. THREAT Mad Hatter in danger (6)
HATTER*
Down
1. LACTOSE Fail to detain one caught giving sweetener (7)
A CT in LOSE
2. THREE Article about soldier’s figure (5)
RE in THE
3. NEEDS MUST Muse tends to be confused? It can’t be helped! (5,4)
(MUSE TENDS)*
4. FORWARD Precocious footballer (7)
Double definition
5. ERATO Patron of the arts in That Riviera Touch (5)
Hidden in [that] riviERA TOuch. Erato is the Muse of lyric poetry. (That Riviera Touch was one of a couple of (not very good) films starring Morecambe and Wise)
6. PATROLLED Closely guarded pet tumbled over and over (9)
PAT (to touch lightly or to pet) + ROLLED
7. THRASH Squirm in Thursday’s eruption (6)
TH + RASH
8. STOGIE Egoist twirled cigar (6)
EGOIST*
14. ATONEMENT A manner people initially take for making amends (9)
A TONE+ MEN + T[ake]
16. BRAINWASH Make one believe clothing’s to be laundered (9)
The BRA is IN the WASH. This reminds me of a famous winning &lit clue for the same word in the Azed competition: “Bust down reason”
18. SWEETEN Pacify ten ewes in distress (7)
(TEN EWES)*
19. MINING Small car’s no good in heavy industry (6)
MINI + N.G.
20. REAGENT Ruler ingests a compound that’s active (7)
A in REGENT
21. REMARK Comment on evangelist (6)
RE (on) MARK
23. GRAPH German to criticise hard diagram (5)
G + RAP + H
25. NAIVE Unworldly domestic’s short of time (5)
NATIVE less T

43 comments on “Guardian 26,374 – Chifonie”

  1. This regular solver wasn’t detained for long, probably because so many of the solutions were ‘old friends’.

    Thanks to Chifonie and Andrew.

  2. Simple but elegant and entertaining puzzle from Chifonie. Learnt a new word – BOOTES – but the wordplay was so clear that it was simply a matter of looking up the dictionary to ensure the meaning matched the definition.

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

  5. Thanks Chifonie and Andrew

    Pretty standard fare from Chifonie that complemented a brief lunch perfectly.

    BOOTES was a new constellation for me. Also forgot about EVERGREEN as the old favourite or ‘standard’ song.

  6. A bit disappointing for a Thursday. Settled down for a nice brain stretcher and suddenly it was over – especially when “needs must” lent itself to using the alternate meanings of “must”? Don’t think patrol is closely guarded either. Having said, thanks to setter and blogger for the brief enjoyment.

  7. Thanks to Chifonie & Andrew.

    Fairly straightforward, although BOOTES was new to me. I liked the repairer with abdominal wind.

  8. My lateral thinking @ 3 has probably has gone far too wide here, although the words Graf, graph and diagram all have their roots in the Greek and Latin for writing.

  11. Parky @6: PATROLLED for “closely guarded” seems fine in the more literal sense of “close” – if an area is patrolled, the guards are literally close to it (as opposed to simply watching it from a lookout point or over CCTV).

  12. Pretty straightforward, nothing took too long. Vaguely remembered BOOTES and STOGIE, a bit of delay in the SE until I worked out that N = nationalist.

  13. Nice relaxing puzzle. I hadn’t heard of BOOTES either but as someone said it was easy to get from the wordplay plus a dictionary. For some reason I puzzled over ATONEMENT which was the last one in.
    Thanks Chifonie.

  14. Vanilla is the description that springs to mind for this effort. Or mind-bendingly dreary. Having said that, apart from a few annoying things, like ‘boy’ = B, or ‘retained’ in the past tense for a container-ind, it was largely error-free.

  15. I have an antique print of the constellation Bootes on my wall (an energetic-looking gentleman in a pink kilt, carrying a club) so the answer to 17ac was literally staring me in the face!

  17. All fairly straightforward apart from BOOTES, which I had to check and was last in. This wouldn’t have been out of place in the Monday slot. I’m not convinced that TOR and FELL could ever be used to describe the same hill – for me fells are larger hills (or moors) and tors are rocky outcrops.

    Thanks to Andrew and Chifonie

  19. Unusually straightforward for a Thurs offering.

    The construction of 17 does not work for me. The way it’s phrased, the footwear is contained rather than the container. I thought it had to be “bootes’ but could not see why. Perhaps I’m missing something.

  20. Thanks Chifonie and Andrew
    I liked GLAMOROUS and BRAINWASH.

    Is N for Nationalist standard? I don’t think I’ve seen it before.

    Are squirm and thrash equivalent? Even in the “thrash about” sense, “thrash” seems rather more extreme than “squirm”.

  21. BillyK @19
    “worn by X” means “X has it on the outside” doesn’t it? Hence the footwear is outside the English.

  29. I think this might be my record time for a Thursday Guardian; it took longer to read the blog than to solve the puzzle. I wasn’t using a stopwatch, but it was definitely under 20 minutes.

    Last in was FLEAPIT, as it’s not a word I use or hear often here. Moreover, as the blogger notes, “position” for FIT is a bit dodgy.

    Beery hiker @18: ERATO is a common choice for muses because it’s a short word with a useful vowel-consonant pattern; thus, it can fit into grids easily. CLIO same thing, so you’ll sometimes see her too. But go ahead and try to squeeze Melpomene or Polyhymnia into your typical 15×15 grid–I dare you.

  35. Chifonie maybe not sparkling quite as brightly as usual, but some lovely trademark elegant moments all the same.

    beery h @17 – What about the TOR EE FELL in Paris?

    {gets coat}

  37. Was I the only one to get ‘eight’ for 2 down? ‘The’ turned about around GI? Still seems reasonable to me.

  38. Rosemary@37
    Since “about” sandwiches “article” and “soldier”, it could not refer to both words – so not at all reasonable I’m afraid!

  40. As usual for Chifonie, beautifully and precisely constructed – and would make a super Monday puzzle. But I look forward to more of a challenge on a Thursday. So this was a big disappointment – I doubt it took even five minutes. Such an anticlimax…. 🙁
    Nevertheless, since the timing of publication sits with editor – I presume – it’s still a big thank you to Chifonie, and to Andrew for blog.

  41. Can anyone explain why it is universally assumed that we all live identical life styles ie have lots of spare time for crosswords on the same day?

  42. Well said, RCW.
    I think William F P’s words have more to do with expectations than with the actual quality of a crossword.
    If that is part of his crosswording life, then that’s fine by me.
    However, for me there is no difference between, say, Monday and Thursday.
    I can handle any level any day.

    [but I must admit it was over a bit too quickly today – but if that’s not enough to some there’s always e.g. the Indy to help out (as it did today, for me)]

  43. Well I didn’t have a stopwatch and don’t see the point in trumpeting my speed in completing this puzzle. I found it thoroughly enjoyable – thankyou chifonie and blogger.

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