Guardian 26,581 by Chifonie

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The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26581.

I found this not difficult, but elegantly clued, as expected from Chifonie, and a welcome puzzle to blog.

Across
1 DISTRICT
Neighbourhood detective’s scrupulous (8)

A charade of DI (‘Detective’ Inspector) plus STRICT (‘scrupulous’).
5 ANTRIM
A man gets haircut in Ireland (6)

A charade od ‘a’ plus N (knight in chess notation, ‘man’) plus TRIM (‘haircut’). I know some do not like the descriptive “definition”.
9 AGNOSTIC
Sceptic acting so badly (8)

An anagram (‘badly’) of ‘acting so’.
10 SOFTEN
Appease old Bob frequently (6)

A charade of S (shilling, ‘old Bob’) plus OFTEN (‘frequently’).
12 LOSER
Tiepolo’s Eros is in part a failure (5)

A hidden answer (‘in part’) in ‘TiepoLO‘S ERos’.
13 CORKSCREW
Irish county’s team can pull out the stops (9)

A charade of CORK’S (‘Irish county’s’) plus CREW (‘team’). Another descriptive definition.
14 HIDDEN AGENDA
Dad had engine modified showing ulterior motive (6,6)

An anagram (‘modified’) of ‘dad had engine’.
18 SWEET AND SOUR
Bears entertaining dwarf with our kind of food (5-3-4)

An envelope (‘entertaining’) of WEE (‘dwarf’) in STANDS (‘bears’) plus ‘our’ (added later. Thanks Cookie).
21 LOSE HEART
Become despondent as the role gets changed (4,5)

An anagram (‘gets changed’) of ‘as the role’.
23 AGENT
Period with conservationists is a factor (5)

A charade of AGE (‘period’) plus NT (National Trust, ‘conservationists’).
24 TRIFLE
Not much time to plunder (6)

A charade of T (‘time’) plus RIFLE (‘plunder’).
25 DECADENT
Publicity’s suitable without being self-indulgent (8)

An envelope (‘without’) of AD (‘publicity’) in DECENT (‘suitable’). The ‘s is to be read as ‘has’.
26 DETEST
Hate journalist backing investigation (6)

A charade of DE, a reversal (‘backing’) of ED (‘journalist’) plus TEST (‘investigation’).
27 ASBESTOS
A call for help, being without optimal fire retardant (8)

An envelope (‘being without’) of BEST (‘optimal’) in ‘a’ plus SOS (‘call for help’). Do not inhale this clue.
Down
1 DEARLY
Duke advanced at great cost (6)

A charade of D (‘duke’) plus EARLY (‘advanced’).
2 SANEST
South American home is most sensible (6)

A charade of SA (‘South American’) plus NEST (‘home’).
3 RESERVIST
Militiaman in fight about English bible (9)

An envelope (‘about’) of E (‘English’) plus RV (Revised Version, ‘bible’) in RESIST (‘fight’).
4 COINCIDENTAL
Unplanned confrontation with American during depression (12)

An envelope (‘during’) of INCIDENT (‘confrontation’) plus A (‘American’) in COL (‘depression’, a mountain pass).
6 NOOKS
Refusal to sanction small corners (5)

NO OKS (‘refusal to sanction’).
7 RETIRING
Giving up work soldier finds arduous (8)

A charade of RE (‘soldiers’) plus TIRING (‘arduous’).
8 MENSWEAR
Staff curse clothing (8)

A charade of MEN (‘staff’) plus SWEAR (‘curse’).
11 TRENDSETTERS
Turkey to destroy dogs? They lead the way! (12)

A charade of TR (‘Turkey’ IVR) plus END (‘destroy’) plus SETTERS (‘dogs’). I came close to parsing this as T plus REND, but T is Thailand.
15 GLUTAMATE
Oversupply a partner’s food additive (9)

A charade of GLUT (‘oversupply’) plus ‘a’ plus MATE (‘partner’). Glutamic acid is an amino acid, and sodium glutamate a salt which imparts the flavor umami to foods.
16 ISOLATED
One very slow daughter is remote (8)

A charade of I (‘one’) plus SO LATE (‘very slow’!) plus D (‘daughter’).
17 TEE SHIRT
Tries the altered garment (3,5)

An anagram (‘altered’) of ‘tries the’.
19 DESERT
Leave course when disheartened (6)

DES[s]ERT (‘course’ of a meal) minus its middle letter (‘disheartened’).
20 STATES
Speaks of panic over soprano (6)

A charade of STATE (‘panic’) plus S (‘soprano’).
22 HALTS
Stops student wearing headgear (5)

An envelope (‘wearing’) of L (‘student’) in HATS (‘headgear’).
completed grid

37 comments on “Guardian 26,581 by Chifonie”

  1. Nice, straightforward puzzle with no need for a plethora of double and cryptic definitions.

    I parsed 6 as NO + OK + S (small), but your explanation works just as well 🙂

  2. Thanks PeterO and Chifone

    I failed to solve 24a and needed help to fully parse 4d and 5a. I wrongly parsed 11a as T+REND.

    I liked 14a, 21a, 16d, 3d, and my favourite was 6d NOOKS.

  3. Thanks Chifonie and PeterO

    For 1d, in what context are early and advanced equivalent? Early stages and advanced stages (of a disease) are opposites.

  4. Nice puzzle because it looked difficult at first but slowly yielded. So thank you Chifonie and PeterO.

    Early v advanced: my take is that, in technology an ‘early’ adopter of e.g. 3d printing is more advanced i.e. ahead of the competitors in that field. So in that sense, synonyms?

  5. I found this the easiest puzzle for a long time (including Rufuses), but had DEFECT instead of DESERT (defect = leave, and ‘def[l]ect’ = ‘leave course’, i.e. ‘leave’ doing double duty). Well, it just about worked for me! Thanks to Chifonie and PeterO.

  6. Thanks Chifonie and PeterO

    Straightforward but enjoyable. The only real problem I had was with parsing COINCIDENTAL, as for some time I had DENT as the depression. Got there in the end, though.

    CORKSCREW was my favourite today – “pull out the stops” indeed!

  7. I liked this, but couldn’t get 11D. Lots of smiles today, but CORKSCREW was also my favourite.

    Kevin@3 – “Can I have an advance on my pay” = “Can I have my pay early”

    Thanks to Chifonie and PeterO

  8. Thanks PeterO and Chifonie
    Easy for the most part but generally very smoothly clued despite a slightly clumsy feel to 4d. I got held up for a bit in the SW where I found 19d, 20d and 25a harder to see.

  9. Thanks Chifonie and PeterO.

    This puzzle was just perfect for me, even easier than Rufus as drofle @5 says. NOOKS and CORKSCREW were great!

    18a, OUR needs to be included.

  11. I parsed NOOKS as NO + OK + S with “corners” as the definition. If it was NO + OKS with “small corners” as the definition then the clue should begin “refusals to sanction”.

  12. Simple enough, but as PeterO says, elegantly clued. Failed on 19d, though – thought it was, by some wrenching of the clue’s meanings, DEF[l]ECT. The correct ne makes much more sense, of course.

    HIDDEN AGENDA reminded me of Tramp’s excellent clue for it some time ago: “Ulterior motive of Häagen-Dazs? (6,6)”

  13. Thanks alli failed to parse reservist, too concerned with bible= NT!
    I liked nooks
    Last in was trend setters.

  14. No real problems apart from a bit of a delay on DECADENT / DESERT in the SE corner – really, I should be accustomed to DES(S)ERT by now!

  16. I thought this was the easiest puzzle I’ve done for ages which is probably just as well given my failure yesterday. I do agree that the cluing was pretty damn good. I liked MENSWEAR. Anyone remember the short-lived Britpop group of that name? But I digress.
    Thanks Chifonie

  17. Kevin @3 – you often see ‘advanced warning of roadworks’ signs, which are early warnings, usually put up before the works actually begin. I’ve always thought that (pedantically) they should read ‘advance warning’, but I may be wrong…

  18. [Maxboyce @17, a matter or perspective maybe? To you it is advance warning, to the person who put the sign up, it is advanced warning]

  19. This would have been quite easy even for the Quiptic slot. Nothing wrong with that, but I can’t think of much more to say.

    Thanks to PeterO and Chifonie

  20. I think this must be the simplest puzzle I’ve solved in a long time: therefore – for me – a bit disappointing, despite some nice concise clues. Am I missing something with 20d? I’m having difficulty equating PANIC with STATE, despite the obvious sense of being in a state of panic…..

  21. Thanks Chifonie and PeterO

    Pretty straightforward as is the norm with this setter, but with the usual elegance in the clueing. Made a bit of a mess in SE corner by hastily writing DEPART at 19d and UTTERS at 20d initially. Eventually got DECADENT to disprove the mistakes and then it was all over.

    Good to get the first two of the week out on the day for a change !!

  22. DP @20, I think that’s it – “he’s in a state” is pretty much synonymous with “he’s in a panic”.

  24. Like others I had some initial missteps (depart for DESERT, utters for STATES)and had trouble parsing TREND SETTERS (I did not know TR = Turkey) and COINCIDENTAL (I concentrated on DENT, not INCIDENT) but still managed to finish quickly. An enjoyable exercise. Thanks to Chifonie and PeterO.

  25. muffin@23 & DP@20 . . . “she’s in a state” implies something rather dire, but it could be a lot of other things besides panic – e.g. she could be angry or very upset. So not a brilliant clue, I think. However, CORKSCREW and MENSWEAR were very good.

  27. To jump into the advance/advanced warning debate, surely any warning is in advance (or advanced). Otherwise it’s hardly a warning. This is little better than that annoying phrase “pre-warn” that we hear so often these days.

  29. As a maths major, trail runner and pedant I was disappointed to see COL in 4dn clued as “depression”. What makes a col interesting and useful is that it is both the bottom of the valley for the person walking the ridge line and the top of the climb for the person traversing the path between two peaks. None more spectacular than in the Andes.

  30. HKColin @29, yes, but the OCED gives col n. 1 a depression in the summit-line of a chain of mountains, generally affording a pass from one slope to another.

  31. At an early hour, at an advanced hour?

    Thanks for the blog, couple I needed help parsing.

  32. An easy puzzle with some loose cluing.

    I was surprised to find this as the daily cryptic in the Guardian.

    Thanks to PeterO and Chifonie

  33. I have to admit when I first glanced at 5, Mullet jumped into my head, and my initial attempts at 13 involved trying to justify Tipperary, Roscommon or Fermanagh. 5 & 13 were my favourites today

  34. Very elegant and straightforward, all except 5a. Even when I could see what the answer must be I couldn’t see any reason why N was ‘man’, and I still don’t, though I don’t doubt PeterO’s explanation is the intended one (thanks!). But N = knight = man is absurdly indirect. Almost any letter could be a man on that basis.

    A = alto = woman
    B = bishop = man
    C = Charlie = man
    D = daughter = woman
    E = earl = man
    F = fellow = man
    etc.

    The clue should have read ‘A knight gets haircut in Ireland’ or ‘Man with no money gets haircut in Ireland’ or ‘Man gets head chopped off before haircut in Ireland’ or ‘A man finally gets haircut in Ireland’ or what have you.

    Nice puzzle apart from that though!

  36. ….oops. I’ve forgotten how to count! Should be, of course –

    “A gentle concoction (7)”

    (Thank goodness it’s a Grauniad!)

  37. Mr A Writinghawk @34, you have missed the point of PeterO’s explanation. N is not man because n=knight is male, but because chess pieces collectively are referred to as chessmen and individually as a “man”, even the queen.

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