Guardian 26,393 by Crucible

by

[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here

The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26393.

I made a quick start in the NW corner, but soon became bogged down by some remarkably devious clues – with the difficulty both in solving and parsing. The repeated letters in the outer columns were a help, and, with 9D NORTH AND SOUTH (and the adjacent NN and SS), box the compass. However, with some oddities in the clues that I pointed out in passing, it looks as if there is more going on here than I can fathom. Just solving the puzzle has taken me considerably longer than average, and as I am about to turn into a pumpkin, I do not think any further study will be productive. Doubtless I will be shown what I am missing in short order.

completed grid
Across
1 WOOLLEN
Wife rings notorious mistress over in Jersey (7)
A charade of W (‘wife’) plus OO (‘rings’) plus LLEN, a reversal (‘over’) of NELL (Gwyn, ‘notorious mistress’ of Charles II).
5 NURTURE
Penniless, break out and dash back to mother (7)
A reversal (‘back’) of ERU[p]T (‘break out”) minus the P (‘pennyless’) plus RUN (‘dash’).
10 WADI
Arab channel now received in smart part of London (4)
An envelope (in’) of AD (anno domini, ‘now’) in WI (or, rather, W1, Mayfair ‘smart part of London’), with a cryptic definition (how do you fit al Jazeera into four letters?).
11 ATOMIC PILE
During a catnap I start to conceive hot rods here (6,4)
An envelope (‘during’) of ‘I’ plus C (‘start to Conceive’) in ‘a’ plus TOM (‘cat’) plus PILE (‘nap’).
12 WIDGET
A little invention creates first of goals in extra time (6)
An envelope (‘in’) of G (‘first of Goals’) in WIDE (‘extra’, cricket) plus T (‘time’).
13 TRUNCATE
Tense old character keeps pet trim (8)
An envelope (‘keeps’) of CAT (‘pet’) in T (‘tense’) plus RUNE (‘old character’).
14 WAISTCOAT
Watch kept here as quoted scrap firm ends in defeat (9)
 A charade of WAIST, a homophone (‘as quoted’) of WASTE (‘scrap’) plus CO (‘firm’) plus AT (‘ends in defeAT‘).
16 ASIDE
Out-of-the-way holiday destination top couple left (5)
A subtraction: [se]ASIDE (‘holiday destination’) minus its first two letters (‘top couple left’).
17 WOTAN
God knows, bank margins have dropped (5)
 A charade of WOT (‘knows’; the ‘God’ is a broad hint, as the archaic word is best known – if at all – from the first line of the poem My Garden by Thomas Edward Brown:
A garden in a lovesome thing, God wot!)
plus ‘[b]AN[k]’ minus its outer letters (‘margins have dropped’).
No, there does not seem to be a God Nowan.
19 ADDRESSEE
He’s written to Dad, nervous about Sunday’s match (9)
A charade od ADD, an anagram (‘nervous’) of ‘Dad’ plus RE (‘about’) plus S (‘Sunday’) plus SEE (‘match’, poker).
23 WELL-TO-DO
Our lot will be enough to put in flush (4-2-2)
 An envelope (‘put in’) of ‘to’ in WE’LL DO (‘our lot will be enough’).
24 BERATE
Carpet free? Large one’s dumped (6)
A subtraction: [li]BERATE minus LI (‘large one dumped’).
26 WINE WAITER
In season, I wonder about binman in restaurant (4,6)
An envelope (‘in’, the first word of the clue) of EWAI, a reversal (‘about’) of ‘I’ plus AWE (‘wonder’) in WINTER (‘season’).
27 SIRE
Big horse kicks another breed (4)
 A subtraction S[h]IRE (‘big horse’) without the H (‘kicks another’ i.e. H for another horse).
28 WEIRDOS
Dams eat the same nuts (7)
An envelope (‘eat’) of DO (ditto, ‘the same’) in WEIRS (‘dams’)
29 SHINGLE
Stones‘ hit originally breaks record (7)
An envelope (‘breaks’) of H (‘Hit originally’) in SINGLE (‘record’). The apostrophe is to be ignored.
Down
2 OCARINA
Clapped-out Cortina, one missing temperature instrument (7)
An anagram (‘clapped-out’) of ‘Cor[t]ina’ minus the T (‘missing temperature’) plus A (‘one’).
3 LYING
Left Scotch for one German telling stories (5)
A charade of L (‘left’) plus YIN (‘Scotch for one’; surely ‘Scots’ would fit the surface at least as well, and ruffle fewer feathers) plus G (‘German’).
4 ELASTIC
Like some bands? Go on with one in the City (7)
An envelope (‘in’) of LAST (‘go on’) plus I (‘one’) in EC (‘the City’).
6 UNIQUE
College, which in Paris has no peers (6)
 A charade of UNI (university, ‘college’) plus QUE (‘which in Paris’). Why the mismatched part of speech when ‘is peerless’ would serve?
7 TYPECASTS
Puts in parts that naturally fit old printer’s output? (9)
Double definition.
8 RELATED
Romanov leader thrilled to be from same family (7)
A charade of R (‘Romanov leader’) plus ELATED (‘thrilled’).
9 NORTH AND SOUTH
Old PM tackled issues in novel (5,3,5)
 An envelope (‘tackles’) of HANDS OUT (‘issues’) in NORTH (‘old PM’, Frederick North). There are two novels of this title,by Elizabeth Gaskell and John Jakes.
15 SMALL BEER
After strike’s lifted, rebel works for buttons (5,4)
A charade of SMAL, a reversal (‘lifted’) of LAM’S (‘strike’s’) plus LBEER, an anagram (‘works’) of ‘rebel’.
18 ONE-TIME
Former writer’s pursuing goal in Old English (3-4)
An envelope (‘in’) of NET (‘goal’, soccer) plus I’M (‘writer’s’ i.e. the writer is) in OE (‘Old English’).
20 REBIRTH
Woman’s upset about old DG’s reincarnation (7)
 An envelope (‘about’) of BIRT (‘old DG’; John Birt was Director General of the BBC 1992-2000) in REH, a reversal (‘upset’) of HER (‘woman’s’).
21 ENTHRAL
Doctor learnt to bypass hospital entrance (7)
An envelope (‘to bypass’) of H (‘hospital’) in ENTRAL, an anagram (‘doctor’) of ‘learnt’.
22 MONACO
Second refusal to admit current state in Med (6)
An envelope (‘to admit’) of AC (‘current’) in MO (‘second’) plus NO (‘refusal’). In?
25 RESIN
Contrarily, some womanisers pine for it, maybe (5)
Hidden (‘some’) reversed (‘contrarily’) in ‘womaNISERs’.

35 comments on “Guardian 26,393 by Crucible”

  1. Thanks Peter: now I know (though it fell into place at a reasonable rate). Mysteries were yin and birt and buttons (you don’t explain that one), plus the middle bit of 9D and the 16A holiday destination. Good blog, testing puzzle.

  2. Thanks Crucible and PeterO
    Very difficult – I was defeated by WOTAN (though I probably wouldn’t have been if I had spotted the Ws and Es – doh!)
    I loved ATOMIC PILE, especially for “catnap” = TOM PILE.
    I tried CLIQUE for 6d for a while – it nearly works.

  4. Thanks, PeterO.

    Strewth, that was a struggle. I would never have parsed WOTAN or LYING and didn’t really understand NORTH AND SOUTH.

    Completely missed the compass points – there’s something wrong with my psyche that leads me to miss these glaring themes. Must be my untidy writing. (I prefer that explanation to the more disturbing possibilities).

    ATOMIC PILE was nice and I enjoyed TRUNCATE.

    Up near the limit of this poor solver’s meagre powers but nonetheless enjoyable.

    Nice weekend, all.

  5. Thanks, PeterO, for a great blog.

    A bit of a challenge today [and another stiff one from Crucible’s alter ego in the FT http://im.ft-static.com/content/images/4f5b6d68-4d65-11e4-8f75-00144feab7de.pdf%5D but I’m certainly not complaining about either.]

    Lots of cunning clues, super surfaces and masterly misdirection. Favourite of all is ATOMIC PILE, I think.

    Many thanks, as ever, to Crucible, for all the fun and the pdms.

    [Hi molonglo @1 – I think PeterO may be in bed now, so I’ll take the liberty: ‘small beer’ and ‘buttons’ are both used of something insignificant.]

  6. 3d SCOTCH did not offend me, took the meaning to be that he had left his whisky to go and listen to a German telling stories at another table (but guess being a Scot he would have taken his drink with him).

    Liked WAISTCOAT, could not parse REBIRTH or WELL-TO-DO

  8. Thanks for explanations – I was completely defeated by WOTAN, as I failed to notice the compass-point theme, so was looking for
    .).O.A.(. to give ‘bank without margins’. Several others went in without parsing from definition and checkers only.

  9. molonglo: “Working for buttons” means working for little reward. “Small beer” means a trifling thing, so I suppose “buttons” is equivalent to “small beer”.

    “Working for Buttons”, might pay better, depending on the resources available to the pantomime character.

    We have a family expression: “S/He thinks no small beer of her/himself”, which I was surprised to find referenced in the COD.

  10. Thanks, PeterO.

    Clever puzzle from Crucible. I completed the NW quadrant fairly quickly, which gave me a false sense of security because I then slowed right down. Unusually for me, I did spot the possible repetition of compass points at each side, once I had a few more scattered answers, which helped me to finish the crossword.

    A lot of ingenious clues and cleverly misleading definitions here (though not all of the surfaces are quite as brilliant as the constructions, but never mind). I couldn’t fully parse 19a, as I didn’t understand the allusion for SEE.

    I particularly liked 9d, 21d and the construction of 11a (pity about the surface!)

  11. Yes Eileen, I did get to bed eventually. Given a little more time, I should have added some clarification for SMALL BEER, and WADI (a borrowing from Arabic, similar to the Spanish arroyo, for a stream-bed dry except after a torrent). Likewise, Cookie @7, I should have done a better review of the blog; the definition in 17A is ‘God’, now indicated.
    PeterM @8: I also at one stage tried your parsing, and even tried out Qat for a list of words ..O.A.. where .O.A. is also a word.

    As no-one (so far) has come up with a deeper theme, perhaps I was chasing moonbeams. Or is the theme that deeply buried?

  13. Perhaps “working for buttons” implies the person is “small beer”, because he/she is working for the page boy (named after the rows of buttons on his jacket), and has no title.

  15. A nicely crafted puzzle which reminded me of Brendan, who we haven’t seen since early July. I thought I’d seen all of the hidden stuff, but I didn’t notice the Ns and Ss in the middle of the top and bottom row. The Ws and Es, which I saw immediately after getting NORTH AND SOUTH were very helpful. Last in was ATOMIC PILE, which I haven’t seen for a long time. I think my favourite was WEIRDOS, liked ENTHRAL too.

    Thanks to PeterO and Crucible

  16. Nice to see UNIQUE used correctly too – these days it seems to be used interchangeably with unusual – one of my pet hates is the increasingly ubiquitous but meaningless “fairly unique”…

  17. beery hiker @16: Can something be ‘increasingly ubiquitous’? Either it’s found everywhere, or it isn’t :).

  18. Gervase @17 – you’re quite right – I was asking for that, wasn’t I? I should have left it as “increasingly common”!

  19. Bit of a shame this appeared on a weekday, I could have spent the time it deserved over a weekend.

    Know = wot in 17 without indicating it’s archaic is a bit iffy.

  20. Well, if parallel universes exist, would they not also be increasing in number so ‘increasingly ubiquitous’ would be true?

    Thanks PeterO and Crucible. A struggle for me too, today, and N and S being the last in didn’t help with the Ws and Es

  21. Phew…got there in the end, and understood everything except SEE and HANDS OUT (thanks Peter O), but it was a struggle. Of course spotting the W’s and E’s would have made it a lot easier – if I can’t notice a theme as obvious as this, will I ever?!

    Loved SIRE and ENTHRAL and of course ‘catnap’ (lift & separate looks like being this decade’s contribution to the art…and I love it). I have to say I’m less keen on having to find synonyms which have already been disfigured in some way (e.g E[R]UPT or [LI]BERATE), because my mind doesn’t really work that way…but then we all have our pet likes and dislikes, so some people probably love that sort of thing.

    So thanks for the headache Crucible 🙂 , and thanks for taking that on Peter O – an alarming one to have to blog!

  22. Working through the clues in order, it took me till 21d before I could make a start. The SE didn’t take too long, but from then on it was a case of grinding them out, not helped by entirely failing to spot the compass points (and me just back from wet and misty days on the Pennines).

    Smashing surfaces. Most of them actually make some sort of sense in English, not something that can always be said. ‘Binman in restaurant’ (great image) my personal favourite with the ‘hot rods’ close by. Like Gasman jack @12, I assumed Reith was there in 20d, but who would not prefer to remember Reith to Birt? Only one of them could spot a public service at 20 paces …

  25. Haha btw re ‘ubiquitous’.

    A friend of mine once said that his girlfriend was ‘universally appreciated by everyone’. Including me, as it happened.

  26. I’m glad others found this difficult- it took me an age to get started and to get on the appropriate wavelength- but it gradually fell into place and then ground to a halt at the SW corner. This only ceased when my other half gave me BERATE annoyingly quickly. I liked WOTAN and SHINGLE both of which made me laugh,and LYING was good too.
    Thanks Crucible

  29. I didn’t spot the compass points (eejit) and WOTAN was my LOI from definition alone because I don’t think I’ve ever come across the archaic WOT=knows. I also didn’t parse REBIRTH because, like Gasman jack@12, I had been thinking Reith, and because the answer so clearly fitted the checkers and definition I didn’t give it any more thought. Still, a very good puzzle IMHO.

  30. At the last minute I remembered to check for ninas. Would have made the solution much easier if I had checked earlier . . .

  31. I found this a grind TBH though did finish.

    If you ask for a pie in a Dundee fish and chip shop you will be asked “Aplenyinoranyinyinyin?” (“A plain one or an onion one?”).

    Many thanks all.

  32. Of course I didn’t see the nina. (Possibly because I never look for them!)

    I still managed to finish this in reasonable time but failed to parse the WOT in WOTAN. I also didn’t notice the appalling error in 6D. 😉

    One of Crucible’s best puzzles to date for me.

    Thanks to PeterO and Crucible

  33. I must admit I/we didn’t notice the mistake in 6d, positioned in the corner of the grid where we ended today’s struggle.
    Struggle? Yes but, wow, what a Saturday Puzzle this would have been.

    Many thanks to Crucible, also for the – as ever – sparkling FT offering (as Redshank).

    Best puzzle of the week, in both newspapers (although, Aardvark’s came pretty close).

  34. I’m a frequent visitor to this site but haven’t dared to comment before. I parsed 20d as Reith about rib: Adam’ rib = woman, upset. There are flaws, but it made sense at the time.

  35. A tremendous puzzle all ways round (North, South, East and West!)
    Surprised no-one spotted Crucible’s deliberate mistake – shouldn’t 16ac have been “…leading couple left” rather than “…top couple left” as an across clue? Perhaps C originally meant it to be a down clue….?
    Surprised our prickly pedant didn’t spot it – I thought he never missed anything he could pick at?! (including the proudly self-confessed defilement of his supposed “friend’s” girlfriend)
    Lovely puzzle. Many thanks – and also to PeterO

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