Guardian 26,455 by Chifonie

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A benign offering from Chifonie this morning.

Personally I was slightly relieved, my last three here have been stinkers from Enigmatist, Imogen and Nutmeg.

There really isn’t too much to say about this, it was easier by far than Orlando yesterday in the Quiptic.

Still, thanks Chifonie and happy New Year to all who visit here.

completed grid

Across

1 Redhead enters a make-believe retreat (6)
ASHRAM
R(ed)’s head inside A & SHAM (make believe, fake)
5 Frank develops with time (6)
HONEST
HONES develops & T(ime)
8 Commando in Burma introduces Indian language to court (7)
CHINDIT
Allied fighters rather than Burmese – HINDI in C(our)T
9 Stars, intrinsically American (7)
PERSEUS
PER SE (intrinsically) & the U.S.
11 Request reliable cooker or vessel (8,7)
PLEASURE STEAMER
PLEA request & SURE reliable & STEAMER cooker
12 Peaceful flat (4)
EVEN
Double def.
13 Boy has pineapple with family? Potential upset! (6,4)
BANANA SKIN
B(oy) & ANANAS pineapple like fruit & KIN family
17 Die when embracing Georgia in corridor (10)
PASSAGEWAY
GE (the country Georgia rather than the State) in PASS AWAY (die)
18 Border plant needs no introduction (4)
EDGE
(s)EDGE without introduction. Don’t believe I’ve seen this clue before (this week at any rate)
20 Finished article with location in disarray (3,4,3,5)
ALL OVER THE PLACE
ALL OVER finished & THE (definite article) & PLACE location
23 Promised to be busy (7)
ENGAGED
Another DD
24 Performers’ bad posture (7)
TROUPES
POSTURE* is bad
25 Nick priest who’s working (6)
PRISON
PR(iest) & IS ON working
26 Revolutionary queen’s toast (6)
CHEERS
CHE (the setter’s favourite revoltionary) & E.R.’S

Down

2 Old Bob sleeps in? Terribly weak! (9)
SPINELESS
S(hilling) old “bob” & [SLEEPS IN]* terribly
3 Plant has detective covered in spots (6)
RADISH
D(etective) I(nspector) covered by RASH spots
4 Trace room used for sports event (5,4)
MOTOR RACE
[TRACE ROOM]* is used.
5 Grubs around plants initially and keeps fingers crossed (5)
HOPES
HOES (grub – to dig) around P(lant) initially
6 Scandinavian orchestra leader admitted to bad manners (8)
NORSEMAN
Leading letter of O(rchestra) in bad MANNERS*. Bad Manners used to be a group with a rather overweight lead singer Buster Bloodvessel. Very silly.
7 Son comes upon gang in mist (5)
STEAM
S(on)  & TEAM gang
8 Small change to portion of handwriting (11)
COPPERPLATE
COPPER small change & PLATE portion
10 Emphasise taking in article with information about oddity (11)
STRANGENESS
AN (article) & GEN* (information) about all inside STRESS emphasise
14 Chap ate it, involved or not involved (9)
APATHETIC
[CHAP ATE IT]* is involved
15 Joiner upset when tucking into processed fish? That’s criminal! (9)
KIDNAPPER
AND (a joining letter) reversed upset in KIPPER (a processed fish). I guess “processed” was put in to make you look for an anagram. It didn’t work.
16 Girl embraces star here in the US (3,5)
LAS VEGAS
VEGA (a star) in LASS
19 Take on work with model (6)
OPPOSE
OPus work & POSE model
21 Drink left to mature? Right (5)
LAGER
L(eft) & AGE & R(ight)
22 Artist put on gas (5)
RADON
R.A. (artist) & DON put on.
*anagram

30 comments on “Guardian 26,455 by Chifonie”

  1. Thanks Chifonie and flashling
    Odd one for me. After reading the across clues I just had 3 1/2 entered (I didn’t see where “Pleasure” came from”), but the downs were virtually all write-ins, so it was all done rather too quickly.
    I remember having see GEORGIA = “GE” as the country instead of the state not too long ago.
    I thought that the clue for EVEN was a bit feeble, bit I did like KIDNAPPER.

  2. P.S. I initially read 8a as “commander” rather than “commando”, so toyed with “Wingate” – didn’t work, of course.

  3. Felt completely let down by this one. I fully understand and accept that Monday brings an easy Rufus. However I do expect to be a tad stretched while solving a Tuesday puzzle. This one certainly did not qualify.

  4. This was quickly solved. However, at 11a I first put pressure, then realised PLEASURE parsed better,
    and at 18a I had hEDGE, a border ‘plant’.

    Thanks Chifonie for the puzzles this year, and flashling for all the helpful blogs.

  5. More like a Monday Rufus I feel, but enjoyable nevertheless. No excuse for not sorting out that blocked drain now though!
    Thanks to both and Happy New Year to all.

  6. Thanks, Flashling. Like you, I rather expected the ‘mean beastliness’ to be re-established this morning.

    A benign but enjoyable solve – thank you Chifonie.

    Happy New Year all.

  7. Yes, benign is probably the word, though this wasn’t quite at Chifonie’s easiest level, and my last in PERSEUS required a bit of thought.

    Thanks to flashling and Chifonie

  8. Yes, pretty easy but enjoyable nonetheless. I was also surprised by GE for Georgia. Liked BANANA SKIN and PERSEUS. Thanks to Chifonie and flashling.

  10. Well I did NOT think this was like a Rufus at all. It was much better than that, with pretty much wholesome contructions throughout. ‘Redhead’ = R will run and run I guess, and I will always hate that sort of thing, and I am not sure about the grammar in 25 across. But main crit is as others have it: too easy.

  11. Thanks to Chifonie and flashling.

    Mostly straightforward – but I did have to think about a few, and CHINDIT was beyond me.

    For15d, could it be ‘processed fish’ for kipper, possibly to make the clue easier to solve. There are after all many kinds of fish and many types of criminal.

  12. Quite a quick solve although I had to check that PERSEUS, my LOI,was a constellation. I liked CHINDIT and,hedgehoggy notwithstanding, ASHRAM. It was straightforward but whether it was “too easy”is another matter.
    Thanks Chifonie

  13. Overall, quite easy, fairly clued and enjoyable. I did need a bit of help, though: I just couldn’t get ASYLUM (= retreat) out of my head at 1, even though it was obviously wrong. This stymied me at 3 as well. Thanks, Chifonie and flashling.

  15. Well, my Tax Return has been submitted (a strange word – as if one did it on bended knee) and finished the puzzle, which was much easier and more enjoyable than the TR, where the questions seem to be far more cryptic!

  19. It’s funny that we have now had three Quiptics so far…in the very week when they finally published a Quiptic that was genuinely simple!

    But as ever for Chifonie, the clues here raised an appreciative smile for their elegance as each answer slipped (slightly too) easily into the grid.

    All good fun though.

    flash – tiniest detail at 20ac…you missed out   “article” = ‘THE’  in your parsing of   ALL OVER   THE   PLACE

    [Edit – thanks fixed, Phil]

  20. Limeni @19
    I thought the Quiptic was by far the most difficult of the three, and many Quiptics have been easier!

  21. Very strange. I’m obviously living a parallel crossword life with Muffin today as I had the 3 and a half across clues after the first pass (My half was obviously the same as M’s)

    Down clues were almost a complete write in which led to a write in for the rest of the puzzle.

    15 mins max. Very disappointing and for me not much fun!

    I assume we’re in for a real challenge tomorrow as the first 2 days of the week haven’t put up much resistance.

    Or is our editor still on his holliers?

    Thanks to flashling and Chifonie

  22. Well thanks for that comment Cookie! I found this to be too hard for me but enjoyed reading the solutions. Many thanks to all.

  23. Too many clever dicks with too many negative responses to this crossword which i found to be most enjoyable. These crosswords aren’t just for those who believe themselves to be of a higher intelligence than the rest of us. Thankyou chifonie and blogger.

  24. I don’t see that as I read down the comments, shaar. The consensus is that this was easy but good, I feel.

  27. Where is Georgia abbreviated GE? is it the former Soviet Socialist Republic? The US one is written GA. A pleasant solve. Thanks to all.

  28. An entertaining and moderately straightforward puzzle (well, for most of us, anyway!). Please can we ignore the carpers, nit-pickers and clever-dicks and just enjoy the crosswords (and the constructive blog entries?)

  29. Thanks Chifonie and flashling

    Well a year and a half on – and it was just what I was looking for before dinner !

    Always like this setter for his straightforward elegant clues. No real holdups and finished with COPPERPLATE and EVEN.

  30. I really enjoyed this and agree that it was easy – there were even a couple I guessed before seeing the clues, and that doesn’t often happen with the Guardian. It’s rare for me to be able to finish a Guardian puzzle without resorting to Crossword Solver – but I didn’t need it for today’s or yesterday’s puzzles (I say ‘today’s’, but it was actually 4 years ago, as I am working my way through the archive). I had to check that Chindit was a word and ananas for the parsing of banana skin, but if I hadn’t checked them I’d have reasonably confidently left those answers in – ergo a completely clean solve as far as my conscience is concerned. PS Bad Manners are still going strong and I saw them here in New Zealand recently.

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