Guardian 26,449 by Nutmeg

by

Well wasn’t expecting that. Wot no Rufus? No, it’s Nutmeg. There’s always a hope it’s a quiptic from old…

No chance, bit of a struggle in places but I think it’s all there.

No obvious Nina or theme, there’s Mother and Father in the long across answers but don’t see anything else.

 

Oh and happy birthday to PaulB aka Tees/Neo.

Merry Christmas folks and hope to see many of you at our spring bash.

completed grid

Across

1 Constant appeal stops musical going west (6)
STATIC
IT (sex appeal) stops  i.e. inserted into the musical CATS, all reversed – going west in an across clue
5 Exercise catching Peter out, not Sandy? (6)
PEBBLY
Like some beaches, PLY exercise catching EBB (to peter out)
8 On retiring, hitch traps to snare seabirds (7)
GANNETS
NET (trap) snared by SNAG (hitch) reversed
9 Peculiar sort taking peculiar stand (7)
ROSTRUM

SORT* peculiarly & RUM peculiar

11 Men try overshoes design­ed for all males (5,7,3)
EVERY MOTHERS SON
[MEN TRY OVERSHOES]* is designed
12 Where to take off garment king’s rejected (4)
SKIT
As in parody; SKI(r)T with Rex removed rejected
13 Gumshoe admits wanting a kiss — it’s common in the bedroom (10)
PILLOWSLIP
P(rivate) I(nvestigator) & (a)LLOWS without wanting A & LIP kiss
17 Leading modern artist detained by groom finally left (3-7)
PRE-EMINENT
(tracy) EMIN detained by PREEN (groom) & (lef)T finally
18 Work over area in Scottish island, interminably (4)
MAUL
A(rea) in MUL(l) a Scottish island
20 Sacked most half-hearted City banker (3,6,6)
OLD FATHER THAMES
[MOST HALF HEARTED]* is sacked.
23 Become bloated drinking a little lemon squash (7)
FLATTEN
FATTEN (become bloated) with L(emon) inserted
24 Elaborate currency no longer in use? (7)
EXPOUND
An EX POUND, it’s still viable (just about) hence the “?”
25 Projection on singular form of winter transport (6)
SLEDGE
S(ingular) & LEDGE
26 First 24 hours reviewed in Haiti’s capital city (6)
RIYADH
Struggling a little but I think it’s R(epublic of) H(aiti) with DAY 1 (the first 24 hours) reversed reviewed, inserted

Down

2 Offer one extremely simple batter in kitchen (9)
TENDERISE
TENDER offer & 1 & extremely S(impl)E
3 Energy consumed by smart Eastern coloured fabric (3-3)
TIE-DYE
E(nergy) consumed by TIDY & E(astern)
4 Caretaker‘s arranging a discount (9)
CUSTODIAN
[A DISCOUNT]* is arranged
5 Give a bit of a roasting to chief under pressure (5)
PARCH
P(ressure) & ARCH chief
6 Distributes 75% of top-class trousers north of the border (8)
BESTREWS
75% of BES(t) & TREWS (Scottish for trousers)
7 Primate, one standing in for duke in upper chamber (5)
LORIS
Seen here 1 replaces D(uke) in LORDS
8 Demonstration in support of rock ’n’ roll show that’s keeping the fat off (11)
GREASEPROOF
GREASE (rock n roll show) & PROOF (demonstation in support)
10 Suave husband sent packing after Dr No took control (11)
MONOPOLISED
H(usband) sent packing from POLIS(h)ED after Medical Officer & NO
14 Wife leaves without prudence, kept in by king for 354 days (5,4)
LUNAR YEAR
W(ife) removed from UN(w)ARY (without prudence) inserted into (king) LEAR
15 Sheet with pattern that adds richness to the bed? (4,5)
LEAF MOULD
Flower beds perhaps, LEAF sheet & MOULD pattern
16 Setter’s contribution editor passed on (8)
IMPARTED
I’M PART (setter’s contribution) & ED(itor)
19 Takeaway worker offering a variety of joints? (6)
CHIPPY
Double def, chippy for carpenter & chip shop
21 Extend one’s speech to attract student (5)
DRAWL
DRAW attract & L(earner)
22 Church for women only in the future? (5)
HENCE
HEN (women only party) C.E.
*anagram

33 comments on “Guardian 26,449 by Nutmeg”

  1. Thanks Nutmeg and flashling
    I found this a lot more difficult than a typical Rufus, but on finishing I wondered why, as all the clues were (more or less) fair. EXPOUND was my favourite.
    Two tiny questions – not even quibbles, really – is LIP = KISS in 13a, and does the word order give HEN CE in 22d?

  5. Thanks, flashling – especially for 26ac, where I’m sure you’re right: I had no idea where the R came from.

    Hi muffin @1

    I was puzzled by LIP = kiss, too – but it’s in Chambers.

    “…and does the word order give HEN CE in 22d?” – yes: cf hen party = party for women only.

    An enjoyable puzzle – thanks, Nutmeg.

  8. This was a Monday treat for my first Christmas day off – I must admit that I was expecting a Rufus, but this was a fairly tricky challenge with plenty of cunning misdirection. Last in were MAUL and SKIT, liked HENCE, CUSTODIAN and EXPOUND.

    Thanks and Happy Christmas to Nutmeg and flashling

  9. This was harder going for me than the usual Monday fare. I needed help with parsing.
    Loved PEBBLY, OLD FATHER THAMES, BESTREWS, CHIPPY and the LUNAR YEAR.

    Thanks and Season’s Greetings to Nutmeg and Flashling

    11a, [MEN TRY OVERSHOES]*

  11. Nice and tough for me, but almost completed – many thanks to Nutmeg and flashling. Some very good clueing – I particularly liked MONOPOLISED and FLATTEN. Couldn’t parse PILLOWSLIP or RIYADH – the latter looked as though it had an anagram of ‘diary’ in there.

  12. Good morning everyone and thank you, flashling.

    Wracked as I am with cold and being near to death’s door must have induced some cruciverbalist’s dream state as I fairly romped this. Then reading your excellent blog I realised that I had written in correct answers without knowing why!

    All’s well that ends well, I suppose, and a fine puzzle from Nutmeg.

    Not sure about the “where” in the SKIT clue but I see that that is how one often says it.

    Nice week, all.

  13. Thanks Nutmeg and flashling. Tricky one for me today. I was held up by 12a having worked out the wordplay, but the definition didn’t seem to fit until I thought a little bit outside the box. One could argue that the “Where to” isn’t necessary, but I don’t suppose it matters a great deal.

  14. Thanks Nutmeg & flashling, and happy holidays.

    Started quickly, ended slowly, especially at the NW. I see ‘it’ has morphed from sex appeal to just ‘appeal,’ a bit cheeky. 😉

    I particularly liked PILLOWSLIP.

  15. Thanks all
    Very easy for nutmeg except I found the SE difficult because I wrote in ( without parsing) pillowcase!
    Also did not get maul. Lots of good stuff.

  16. SKIT was my last in – as with others, I don’t think ‘where’ is the right preposition; a skit is not a place. But maybe “In which to take off …” would have worked? A shame, because I’d enjoyed the crossword, and for me not having a Monday Rufus is a bit of a Christmas treat!

  17. Is not the” RIH” around DAY reviewed [=YAD] in RIYADH @26AC from the first letters of Reviewed In Haiti’s…although reviewed would be doing double duty? Thanks for the grid and the blog and season’s greetings to all.

  18. Would just like to mention to all those of you who, like us download our daily crossword from the website and then print it – the website’s been changed since 9 a.m. today. It is now no longer possible to scroll down the right hand side until you get to Crosswords and then click. It is now much more complicated. Go to Lifestyle at the top of the home page, then scroll through recipes and other items until you reach puzzles.
    Hope this helps – presumably the Guardian thought it would be good to do this now when we’ve all hopefully got a bit more time to fiddle around.

  22. Now I’m all disoriented and have to keep reminding myself it really is Monday. 🙂

    Quite a fun crossword, although I always feel slightly shortchanged with clues where the synonyms are so obscure (eg Excercise = PLY) that you can only get the answer from the definition part of the clue (= doing a ‘Quick Crossword’), and then ‘get’ the cryptic part in retrospect. There seemed to be a few instances of that today, but I suppose they were all amusingly obscure synonyms – so all is forgiven!

    I spent way too much time in PRE-EMINENT trying to make the “modern artist” EMINEM!

    Many thanks to flash and Nutmeg

  25. Thanks to all for your suggestions about how I can access the crossword from now on. I have bookmarked the links you gave me.
    Merry Christmas to all

  26. This was quite difficult for a Monday but everything went in steadily until SKIT which I eventually got but I thought the clue was poor. I wasn’t entirely happy with MAUL either but these are largely quibbles. There was quite a lot to enjoy in this too.
    Is a clue bad if it enables me to get the answer the setter intended? Discuss.
    Thanks Nutmeg.

  31. 1.IT (sex appeal) stops i.e. inserted into the musical CATS, all reversed – going west in an across clue

    Sorry. In what sense is IT = sex appeal. Going west is a ridiculous way to reverse a clue. Stick to the usual methods.

    5. Exercise = PLY. How obtuse can you make it? Guess the answer and MAKE IT FIT. This is not conducive with a good crossword.

    12 Where to take off garment king’s rejected (4)
    “Where” is totally superfluous. There is no “where”/position/place about the whole clue.

    13. “a lip” is not a kiss. For goodness sake.

    26 First 24 hours reviewed in Haiti’s capital city (6)
    Let’s just not even go here.

    22 Church for women only in the future? (5)
    HENCE
    Give the solver a chance. Either put the parts in the right order or say that one part precedes anothers by some method (leads, follows, after).

  33. Thanks Nutmeg and flashling

    One from a bunch of puzzles that I had no printing access to over the Christmas period. It’s a public holiday this weekend here – so a chance to catch up. And with this one, I’m glad I did – a sheer delight. Found it pretty tough going, but fair !

    Finished in the SE corner with MAUL, CHIPPY and RIYADH my last few in – all of them quite hard clues. I had parsed CHIPPY a little differently C (variety – tenuously linked to circa) and HIPPY (of joints) – but think your version is better. Struggled justifying the R in 26a but liked DAY 1 = ‘first 24 hours’.

    There were a number of other clues that only parsed long after finishing the grid – PEBBLY, PILLOWSLIP and FLATTEN.

    Not sure how this one qualified for the ‘easy Monday slot’ but it was a joy.

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