Guardian 26,375 by Paul

by

Got into this quickly…

…with the key to the theme, 23dn, clearly signposted and not too tricky. Lots of fun throughout – favourites were 13ac, 16ac and 14dn.

Across
1 CUP TIE Game to stick pea, we hear, in honey (3,3)
=”Game”. P=”pea, we hear”, in CUTIE=”honey”
4 MUMBAI Somewhere in 23, something that might tempt a parent endlessly? (6)
a city in INDIA. MUM BAI[t]=”something that might tempt a parent endlessly”
9 MENU List first of names between us. say (4)
=”List”. N[ames]=”first of names”, between ME & U=’me and you’=”us, say”. I wonder if this has been done before as ME ‘N’ U, which was my original attempt at parsing.
10 FOREFINGER Number discussed then better, it’s good to admit, as an indicator (10)
=”indicator”. FORE sounds like ‘four’=”Number discussed”, plus FINER=”better” around G[ood]
11 UNREAD Obscure Auden repertoire initially remaining on the bookshelf? (6)
=”remaining on the bookshelf”. (Auden r[epertoire])*
12 SRINAGAR Somewhere in 23, arraigns criminal (8)
another city in INDIA. (arraigns)*
13 DING-A-LING Female into eating fool (4-1-4)
=”fool”. GAL=”Female” inside DINING=”eating”
15 POST Supporter after job (4)
=”Supporter”; =”after”; =”job”
16 AGRA Six abandoning support for members somewhere in 23 (4)
another city in INDIA. [vi]AGRA=”support for members”, where vi=”Six” in Roman numerals
17 EFFLUENCE Flower border carrying disease beyond back of house (9)
=”Flower”, an outflow. FENCE=”border” around FLU=”disease”, all after [hous]E
21 NUCLEOLI In cell, our not entirely round cell bodies (8)
=”cell bodies”. (In cell ou[r])*
22 CLIQUE Coterie — measure of intelligence restricted by one of these? (6)
=”Coterie”. IQ=”measure of intelligence”, inside CLUE=”one of these?”
24 CURMUDGEON Crab has gone to scuttle past mongrel on soft earth (10)
=”Crab”. (gone)*, after CUR=”mongrel and MUD=”soft earth”
25 DELI Shop somewhere in 23, say? (4)
=”Shop”. Sounds like ‘Delhi”, another Indian city.
26 LAYING Chicken’s job always to punch fish (6)
=”Chicken’s job. AY=for ever=”always”, inside LING=a “fish” of the cod family
27 SWEATY Embroidered, yet was covered in beads? (6)
=”covered in beads” of sweat. (yet was)*
Down
1 CHENNAI Shade found in middle of precinct somewhere in 23 (7)
another Indian city. HENNA=”Shade” i.e. the colour of the dye, inside [pre]CI[nct]
2 PRUNE Fruit somewhere in 23, about right (5)
=”Fruit”. PUNE is an Indian city, about R[ight]
3 INFIDEL Where Cubans were asked to place their trust, I don’t believe (7)
=”I don’t believe”. Cubans were asked to trust IN FIDEL [Castro]
5 UNFAIR Dirty place for entertainment, roof blowing off (6)
=”Dirty”. [f]UNFAIR
6 BANGALORE Report on a body of knowledge somewhere in 23 (9)
another Indian city. BANG=”Report” as in the sound of a gunshot, plus A plus LORE=”body of knowledge”
7 ITERANT I complain at length about tennis elbow for starters, being repetitive (7)
=”repetitive”. I RANT=”I complain at length”, around T[ennis] E[lbow]
8 PRISON OFFICER Screw is attached, then not — one assessing the cost to secure it? (6,7)
=”Screw”. IS ON & OFF=”is attached, then not”, inside PRICER=”one assessing the cost”
14 GORBLIMEY I’m surprised to see old Russian premier casually embracing green (9)
=”I’m surprised”. GORBY=nickname for Gorbachev=”old Russian premier[,] casually”, around LIME=”green”
16 AS USUAL Write about American city, American America just like you’d expect (2,5)
=”just like you’d expect”. Reversal [“Write about”] of L[os] A[ngeles]=”American city” plus US=”America” plus USA=”America”
18 LUCKNOW But adversity comes later, perhaps, for somewhere in 23? (7)
another Indian city”. LUCK NOW, adversity later
19 CRUELTY Old Irishman describing rugby with the ultimate in ugly savagery (7)
=”savagery”. CELT=”Old Irishman”, around R[ugby] U[nion], plus [ugl]Y
20 WOODEN Court office unable to act? (6)
=”unable to act”. WOO=”Court” plus DEN=”office”
23 INDIA Land essential to find, I assume (5)
=”Land”. Hidden in [f]IND I A[ssume]

29 comments on “Guardian 26,375 by Paul”

  1. Thanks, manehi. This was fun wasn’t it?

    I’m embarrassed to admit that I actually looked up the game “Cut pie” before the penny dropped!

  2. Thanks Manehi. Needed help with parsing of 8d. Fun from the knowledgeable Paul using the new names of three of four Indian cities in 1d 2d and 4ac. Bengaluru in 6d would have completed that list. Fav 18d. Thanks Paul.

  3. Thanks manehi. This was high speed, because the theme clue was a cinch. Galloping, though, I blew it on 7D, having a nearly valid ‘iterate’ which gave an invalid ‘pole’ (or ‘dole’) for 15a.

  5. Thanks Paul and manehi
    Clever, but not particularly enjoyable for me, though I’m pleased that I didn’t need to resort to an atlas. The East went in quickly, the NW slowly, and the SW after putting it down for a while.
    Favourite AGRA, of course!

  6. Thank you Paul and manehi

    Great fun and a lot of laughs. Liked INFIDEL and GORBLIMEY

    Misread 16a, and found AGRA in 6d (B)A(N)GA(LO)R(E)*, might just as well have tried 12a (SRIN)AGAR*

  8. Much more fun. When there’s a key clue like 23d, I generally find it’s a toughie that has to be wrinkled out by inference. Not so today, and if that diminishes the level of difficulty, the invention in the clueing more than makes up for it.

    For a while I thought the cities might be linked by Test status but not quite. Pune only holds ODIs plus Twenty20 and Agra just domestic.

  11. Thanks Paul & manehi.

    I got PRUNE early on which led straight to the gateway clue. I liked the PRISON OFFICER with his DING-A-LING. 😉

  12. After Paul’s prize crossword last Saturday I groaned when I saw that this was another themed one. But this time I found the themed clues intelligible, so I was able to finish without google and with pleasure. Thank you Paul and manehi.

  13. Thanks Paul and manehi

    Nice puzzle for a Friday. INDIA was my first clue in, so the theme was unlocked from the get go. It didn’t give the whole game away as PRUNE with its Pune was my penultimate clue done and UNREAD my last.

    SRINAGER (which I’ve always spelt Srinigar) brought back some great memories from when I stayed there in 1984, before it has been basically closed off from westerners. Talk about Paradise Lost!!

    AGRA was a scream in Paul’s typical ribald way. UNREAD was very good too.

  15. Agree with most, but surprisingly not all, of those above. This was lots of fun from my favourite setter. I knew all the cities but that only helped a little, no shortage of other options. The clues for those were just as inventive and playful as the others. It wasn’t a fast solve for me but remained engaging until the end and finished with a rush without aids which I find often happens with Paul unlike others where I complete all but 3 in 15 minutes and then grind to a halt.

    I am not sure why BruceW@13 thinks the spelling of Srinagar has changed. Am I missing something?

    Thanks Manehi and Paul of course.

  16. Enjoyed this a lot – not one of Paul’s easiest. Last in was POST because I had carelessly written ITERATE instead of ITERANT. Liked SRINAGAR, AGRA, SWEATY and INFIDEL. I think all of the Indian cities would be familiar to followers of England’s cricket tours. DING-A-LING = fool was new to me, and NUCLEOLI were only vaguely familiar.

    Thanks to Paul and manehi

  17. I had ITERATE as well which gave a rather dodgy ROLE instead of POST. That’ll teach me to.say P is getting too easy. My first in was INDIA which gave the theme- although CHENNAI took some time. Favourites were,inevitably,AGRA and GORBLIMEY.
    Thanks Paul

  18. Okay, looks like I’m the first commenter who had to comb a map of India. Had never heard of Srinagar, and had forgotten about Pune.

    “India” was my first in; that made it, as others said, easier–but by no means TOO easy! In point of fact, my least favorite types of puzzles are the ones where there’s a keystone clue that all others depend on, and that keystone is clued obscurely. Such results in the solver being forced to reverse-engineer the puzzle, which isn’t always possible (and usually makes me throw in the towel early).

    The Agra, infidel, and Lucknow clues made me giggle.

  20. Thanks to Paul and manehi. Like NeilW@1 I also looked up CUT PIE. Last in was PRUNE – sounds like I’m the only one who hadn’t heard of PUNE. Have heard of CHENNAI however – I have a 12
    year old granddaughter adopted from there. Enjoyed this puzzle very much.

    Cheers…

  21. I found this enjoyable. NUCLEOLI took a while to tease out, it took me longer than it should have done to see PRISON OFFICER, and EFFLUENCE was my LOI.

    I held myself up slightly by entering “Sinragar” at 12ac before I had all the checkers, and it was only when I realised 5dn had to be UNFAIR that I revisited it. I very much liked the clue for GORBLIMEY.

  22. Enjoyed this. But help me out
    – is gorblimey all one word?
    – was the dot after ‘us’ in 9 across a printing error?

  23. Thanks all
    Nicely done although I didn’t really sort out my ting-a-ling from my ding-a-ling!
    I liked 14 down;last in ‘forefinger’.

  25. Checked out the entry for the song ‘My Ding-a-Ling’ on Wickipedia and confirmed the innuendo link. Thanks Paul.

  26. I had such fun with this . Can’t believe India was first in so it made it easier . Didn’t get Sringara but I don’t use atlases dictionaries et al. This is not criticising anyone it’s just me and I buy the paper daily because it suits me. Thank you Paul you are now my favourite and also Manehi good blog . I used to love Bunthorne but he was so tricky and a reporter for Granada news. Sorry rabbiting on but I am in awe of you bloggers at tome

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