Guardian 26,397 – Chifonie

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As usual with Chifonie, very straightforward clueing, with lots of charades; a good puzzle for beginners that would fit well (and better than some) in the Quiptic spot. Thanks to the setter.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
8. CAFÉ NOIR Set out for a nice drink (4,4)
(FOR A NICE)*
9. HORSE Stockings getting runs in clothes drier (5)
R in HOSE
10. NICK Devil can steal
(4)
Three definitions – Old Nick is the Devil, can and nick are slang for prison, and nick = steal
11. POSSESSION Soprano rejected term of ownership (10)
SOP< + SESSION
12. LUCENT University College during religious festival is brilliant (6)
UC in LENT (though it’s hardly a religious festival)
14. MODERATE Restrained friend when crossing river (8)
ODER in MATE
15. UNSTICK Peacekeepers stay or come away (7)
UN + STICK – a very weak clue, I think, with STICK having the same meaning in answer and wordplay Typo UNSTUCK corrected
17. EROTICA Old jerk in time for peep show? (7)
O TIC in ERA
20. HABANERA Goddess keeps a bar in dance (8)
A BAN in HERA
22. LADIES Boys eat — that is a convenience (6)
I.E. in LADS
23. UNROMANTIC Cranium not broken? Hard-headed! (10)
(CRANIUM NOT)*
24. LETT Sanction tenor, one from eastern Europe (4)
LET (sanction, allow) + T
25. CHEWS Charlie cuts and bites (5)
C + HEWS
26. REST CURE Others smoke when having treatment (4,4)
REST (others) + CURE (smoke). The two elements here are also used in 7d and 19d
Down
1. TACITURN Cut train in error — it’s withdrawn (8)
(CUT TRAIN)*
2. LEEK Shelter heaps of veg (4)
LEE (shelter) + K (1000, a lrage number)
3. POPPET Dad’s favourite little child (6)
POP + PET
4. PRESUME Take for granted president has to start again (7)
P + RESUME
5. SHREDDER Security device makes mum more embarrassed (8)
SH (mum, quiet) + REDDER
6. FRUSTRATED Disheartened when fighter aircraft with corrosion gets admired (10)
F (US fighter plane, as in F-15, F-16. F-111, says Chambers) + RUST + RATED
7. RESORT Others keep an alternative rendezvous (6)
OR in REST (others, as in 26a)
13. EXTRA COVER More protection for fielder (5,5)
Double definition (extra cover is a fielding position in cricket)
16. CREVASSE Clergyman having fool in church is in a deep hole (8)
REV + ASS in CE
18. CREATURE Person shows cute rear when dancing (8)
(CUTE REAR)* (managing not to use CURE again!)
19. CAPTURE Apprehension is likely during treatment (7)
APT in CURE (treatment – cf 26a)
21. ARNICA American in car damaged plant (6)
A + (IN CAR)*
22. LOCUST Appetite overwhelms commander that will eat everything (6)
OC in LUST
24. LUCK German composer short of good fortune (4)
GLUCK (German composer, perhaps best known today for the aria “Che farò senza Euridice?“) less G

47 comments on “Guardian 26,397 – Chifonie”

  1. Thanks Andrew! I agree that it was all fairly straightforward but no problem (as far as I’m concerned) with that. Thanks to Chifonie for another entertaining puzzle.

    I find it interesting that the “cheat” facility on the Guardian webpage gives “week” as the solution to 2 down. I thought (as you do) that the answer must be “leek” but I was somewhat puzzled when I checked it. I was racking my brains to see how “week” could possibly fit the clue! )-:

  3. Thanks Andrew and Chifonie. It may be a coincidence, but a CAFÉ NOIR could be a Nice drink(8ac). And by the way, it’s just about to start stotting it down here in Northumberland.

  4. Thanks Chifonie and Andrew

    I entered UNSTICK for 15: UN plus STICK as in stay/stick (eg at a task), which I think makes the clue just a little better.

    The online solution WEEK for 2 is, I think, unparseable.

  5. Thanks Andrew – I had the same thought as you (‘would make a nice little Quiptic’) until the SW corner was fractionally more demanding. Anyway, was a pleasant relief after yesterday’s Scorpion torture in the Independent!

    I liked the way “nice” was both fodder and the place you might drink your CAFE NOIR.

  7. Thanks, Andrew.

    I agree with your comments, especially re the repetition of REST and CURE, which I thought was very weak.

    I had UNSTICK for 15ac and, prompted by comments 1 and 2, I used the cheat button when I read the blog and that’s what’s given. I thought that was weak, too, since UNSTICK is transitive [Collins: to free or loosen something stuck] while ‘come away is intransitive. So not very satisfactory whichever is ‘right’.

    Thank you for the music, anyway – I honestly think that’s the first time I’ve heard it sung by anyone other than Kathleen Ferrier. 😉

  10. Agree that this was underwhelming, with the same reservations as above. The definitions were not too precise in some cases, eg do you have to be unromantic if you are hard-headed, or does apt = likely? I’m not sure.

    Thanks both.

  11. Thanks to blogger and setter. Mostly straightforward, but I was hung up on LUCENT for a long time as Lent was possibly the last thing I would have identified with “festival” — the association seems bizarre in the extreme.

  12. Eileen @ 7

    In WW2 slang RAF pilots used to say they were unsticking when the wheels left the ground. Biggles probably did too 😉

  14. Thanks Chifonie and Andrew

    I enjoyed this being relatively new to cryptic crosswords. Like others I got stuck for a while at 15a. There being no word fastival I suppose Lent is hard to clue (see now contrary meanings for fast food).

  15. Enjoyed this, with the same reservations as other commenters (particularly about Lent).

    Following from Simon’s comment, the French for ‘take off’ in the aeroplane sense is ‘décoller’, which means ‘unstick’. So ‘décollage’ means ‘unsticking’ or ‘take-off’. And of course a collage in English is something that you ‘stick’ on the wall.

    That’s enough French. Thanks to S&B.

  16. It could be that the clue at 15a is referring to the festival week of boat races at Cambridge, at the end of February or start of March, the Lent bumps, Lent races, or Lents

  18. Thanks both. Couldn’t work out the parsing for 8 as I’d assumed the definition was, as others have remarked, “nice drink”, alluding to a French beverage. Odd that sometimes a solver’s experience can be a detriment.

    ARNICA, LUCENT and HABANERA new to be, but well clued. Only really problem was the rest/sure repetitions.

  21. Thanks Eileen, yes, but just thought as there seem to be quite a few called Lent Festival, or Lentfest, it might qualify! One would expect them to be called something else, Spring Festivals…

  23. Yes, there seem to be various “festivals” coinciding with Lent (what an inappropriate notion) and appropriating the name, but I’m afraid the only religious association with the word Lent is about as far away from “festive” as one could get. I think the clue was dodgy.

  25. I don’t like to be negative, but this did feel a little bit slapdash (particularly the repetitions already mentioned) and the only difficulties were caused by the looseness of some of the synonyms, for example CHEW=BITE, though I suppose both could loosely mean the food rather than the action. Last in (and best) was CAPTURE. I have a feeling ARNICA was vaguely familiar because Arnica compresses were mentioned somewhere in Marquez.

    Thanks to Andrew and Chifonie.

    Now for nine x 8, which is as near as we’ll get to a challenging captcha

  26. I’m in the LEEK / UNSTICK camp. CAFE NOIR a very nice / Nice clue, so best of the bunch, but I did like CAPTURE too.

  27. I wasn’t too taken with this, for similar reasons to others, but it was okay(ish).
    A quibble, or display of my ignorance: the clue for 9a (certainly in the online version) is “Stockings getting runs in clothes drier”, which I thought should imply “less wet”, drier being an adjective. A device that makes clothes drier is a “dryer”. Two possibilities: I’m wrong, and “drier” is acceptable, or I’m a pedant.

  28. @cumbrian

    dr??er or dry?er noun
    Someone who or something that dries
    A machine for extracting moisture from cloth, grain, etc
    A drying agent for oils, paint, etc

    Chambers on line

  29. Well, the University of Glasgow’s Lent Festival is cited in the Scottish Catholic Observer as being “the biggest religious based arts festival in Scotland.” It is organised by the Archdiocese of Glasgow. Perhaps one can interpret it as a feast for the soul?

  30. dr??er or dry?er noun
    Someone who or something that dries
    A machine for extracting moisture from cloth, grain, etc
    A drying agent for oils, paint, etc

    Don’t know what happened above

  32. I can’t say I had any problems with any of these. I assumed LENT was a festival,CAFE NOIR an anagram, and HORSE a drier.I don’t think there were any obscurities here and this was a straightforward and enjoyable puzzle.

  33. Cookie @29,

    Hmmn … well, the “Glasgow Lent Festival” or “Lentfest” may indeed be a religious arts festival, but it is not simply called “Lent” which is what the clue calls for. I think Lent could have been better clued in a number of ways rather than “religious festival.”

  34. Peter @32,

    Lent is a period of fasting, and a festival is a period of feasting. There is cryptic fodder of another sort in there by itself, but the clue as written just doesn’t work (except by the lax standard that we all got there in the end).

  35. Thanks Andrew and Chifonie
    I don’t think that anyone has questioned “creature” = “person”. I have heard someone described as a “miserable creature”, but “person” doesn’t seem to have the same derogatory character!
    My other quibbles have already been covered (others, cure, Lent etc.).
    I did like LADIES, SHREDDER and LUCK.

  36. muffin @35 – I agree, though creature isn’t as derogatory when applied to non-humans (all creatures great and small). I did briefly consider CURATEER as a person that shows, but fortunately wasn’t convinced enough to write it down…

  37. Ian SW3 @23, 33 & 34. Yes, of course you’re right. Even though the Archbishop of Glasgow organises it, and the Pope sends a message each year, it still does not work.

  39. Thanks Chifonie & Andrew.

    Not much more to add. I’m not sure why ‘set’ is in 8. ‘Out for a nice drink’ would seem to work just as well. The nice/Nice coincidence is quite good, although for the place it should be capitalised even from a libertarian standpoint.

  40. almw3 @28 Many thanks! I shall now use Chambers Online for all references. My previous search simply reinforced my thoughts that “Drier” shouldn’t be used in the sense of something that dries, hence my pedantry. But I’m all right now (or am I in fact alright?)

  43. Ever noticed how your Irish friends – if they have been to university in Dublin – will refer to their alma mater as TCD or UCD? For one hilarious moment I thought 12 ac was going to be EUCLID. Well, he was brilliant, wasn’t he?

    Lent, a religious festival? I think not.

  44. Simon @12 – Commercial pilots still refer to Vmu – the minimum unstick speed. That is, the minimum speed at which an aircraft is capable of flight in a certain configuration.

    Robi @41 – Thanks, I wondered the same thing, though I’m still not sure that I’d think of ‘resort’ if I saw rendezvous. Not sure what context it would work in, but who am I to argue with Chambers?

  46. Alastair @ 44

    Thanks

    It’s a constant source of wonder how what seems to be the most arcane slang just keeps on going.

  47. Besides being “slapdash” and “loose” I also found this to be a little dull!

    The only saving grace was CAFE NOIR

    Thanks to Andrew and Chifonie

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