Guardian 26,587 / Pasquale

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

As usual, Pasquale gives us a handful of less familiar words to keep us on our toes – but, as ever, these were scrupulously clued, so nothing to complain about there.

I’m not sure that he usually goes in for ninas but, after entering 4dn, even I couldn’t fail to see the peripheral one here, telling us that it is a special day for him. At risk of sounding churlish,  I hope he has more fun today than I did in solving this. I’m afraid it didn’t raise any smiles, apart from a wry one at 10ac – but, anyway, Happy Birthday, Pasquale – and thanks for the puzzle!

Across

7 Carney’s predecessor on bank, looking back and gossiping? (7)
YACKING
I think this is KING [Carney’s predecessor] after a reversal [looking back] of CAY [bank – ‘a low island or reef’ {a variant of ‘key}: Chambers]

8 Struggle to keep hold of superior fighting force in disorder (7)
TURMOIL
TOIL [struggle] round U [superior] RM [Royal Marines – fighting force]

9 Dictator‘s final word, one ousting English (4)
AMIN
AM[e]N [final word with I {one} replacing e {English}]

10 Tree of gold in curve by a narrow inlet (9)
ARAUCARIA
AU [gold] in ARC [curve] + A RIA [ a narrow inlet] – not the first definition to spring to the mind of a Guardian solver

12 Suspicious female, one reluctant to come forward (5)
FISHY
F [female] + I [one – again] + SHY [reluctant to come forward]

13 Like something that can be ground down or cut with rope around? (8)
CHEWABLE
CABLE [rope] round HEW [cut]

15 Title for lady — a generous gesture, not half (4)
DONA
DONA[tion] [generous gesture]

16 This writer’s work gives hint (5)
IMPLY
I’M [this writer’s] + PLY [work]

17 The solver not completely private is one would appreciate asceticism (4)
YOGI
YO[u] [the solver not completely] + GI [American private] – there seems to be a ‘who’ missing from the definition

18 Fellows involved in grot­esque art with no beautification (8)
ORNAMENT
MEN [fellows] in an anagram [grotesque] of ART and NO

20 Something published by American priest in the past (5)
MAGUS
MAG [something published] + US [American]

21 Mad fellow in playground rolling around, one who is 7 (9)
CHATTERER
HATTER [mad fellow in ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’] in a reversal [rolling around] of REC [playground]

22 Concessions? There’s urgent request to keep quiet (4)
SOPS
SOS [urgent request] round P [quiet]

24 Continue mocking county town (7)
TAUNTON
TAUNT ON – continue mocking, for the county town of Somerset

25 A mark is identifying type of worm (7)
ASCARIS
A SCAR [a mark] IS

Down

1 China has millions — can one looking at it make predictions? (4)
PALM
PAL [China] + M [millions]

2 Problem with movement? Relations settle finally within continent (8)
AKINESIA
KIN [relations] + [settl]E in ASIA [continent]

3 Like the tempter around Eden originally? (6)
SNEAKY
SNAKY [like the tempter] round E[den] – &lit

4 Wreck not the first to be flogged in seaside location? Shady practice (8)
QUACKERY
Anagram [flogged] of [w]RECK in QUAY [seaside location]

5 Mountainous region abroad? You’ll find England’s hilly area less cold (6)
UMBRIA
[c]UMBRIA [England’s hilly area minus c {cold}]

6 Help a female doomed to die (4)
AIDA
AID [help] + A

11 Hawk shows caprice flying — the thing must be caught (9)
ACCIPITER
Anagram [flying] of CAPRICE round IT [the thing]

12 Meal left for two couples maybe to consume (5)
FLOUR
FOUR [two couples] round L [left]

14 Seaman faced with delay in foreign port (5)
LAGOS
LAG [delay] + OS [Ordinary Seaman]

16 For mental power I would dine at home with zero interruption (8)
IDEATION
I’D [I would] + EAT [dine] + O [zero] in IN [at home]

17 A guy loves to exude energy — active old European (8)
YUGOSLAV
Anagram [active] of A GUY LOVES minus [to exude] e [energy]

19 Word of rejection from a very little lady in the family (6)
AVAUNT
A V [very – little] + AUNT [lady in the family]

20 Second woman in a bad mood (6)
MOROSE
MO [second] + ROSE [woman]

21 Earth‘s best fighter once (4)
CLAY
Double definition

23 Balletic action requires power — rest afterwards (4)
PLIÉ
P [power] + LIE [rest]

51 comments on “Guardian 26,587 / Pasquale”

  1. Thanks Pasquale and Eileen

    Happy birthday, Pasquale. I didn’t see the nina, of course.

    With only ARAUCARIA and ACCIPITER (I’m a bird-watcher) on first pass, I thought that this would be a struggle, but I made steady progress and was satisfied to finish (though I did resort to a word-finder for IDEATION).

    I was lucky that ASCARIS was also familiar – the Biology lab I was taught in had a large bottle of preserved ones, looking rather like spaghetti.

    SNEAKY amused me, but I have a vague feeling that there is something wrong with the clue – is the tempter “snaky” or “sneaky”? Eileen gives it as &lit, but it’s an odd one if this is the case.

  2. Thanks Eileen and happy Birthday, Don. I enjoyed solving this, especially because I like learning new words – and there were several unfamiliar to me here. IDEATION was obvious from the word play but I rejected it at first because it was obviously not a word!

  3. I don’t see anything odd there. The tempter is snaky. When he goes around Eden originally tempting its residents to bite the apple or whatever, he, in his myriad invidious ways, is sneaky.

  4. Happy 70th Birthday Pasquale.

    This is the first time I have managed to complete a Pasquale puzzle (but I did use the check button). I had to look up DONA in the dictionary and IDEATION (not recognized by the spellcheck).

    Thanks for the blog Eileen.

  5. I guess it’s no coincidence that we have Pasquale in the Guardian today, Bradman in the FT, and Quixote in the Independent. Happy birthday to all three!

  6. Tom_I@5 – Giovanni is the Telegraph Toughie setter and the Times is by Mr M too – so it is Happy Birthday to all five.

  10. Happy birthday to the Don and thanks for all the entertainment. I saw what the nina was going to be and it helped make it a slightly faster solve than it might otherwise have been. The unlikely-looking ACCIPITER was my LOI after IMPLY, and ASCARIS went in from the wordplay.

    However, for the second day running I’m going to argue that there is an alternative acceptable answer, this time “yakking” for YACKING. “Kay” is an alternative spelling of “quay” so it works for “bank” IMHO.

  11. Thanks and Happy Birthday Pasquale and thanks to Eileen, as ever.

    I saw the nina for once, which has set me up for the day – plus a mention of ARAUCARIA, of blessed memory.

    AVAUNT sent me into my Shakespeare for a delightful interlude. Now for the decorating.

    Giovanna xx

  15. Happy Birthday Pasquale. Found this a bit of a struggle and had to finish with a bit of biff and Check after I ran out of the time I’d allowed myself to finish on paper – missed the nina which would definitiely have helped. In retrospect it is quite fair. AKINESIS, ACCIPITER and ASCARIS were all new to me but fairly clued.

    Thanks to Pasquale and Eileen

  16. Happy Birthday to the Don and thanks to Eileen for the blog. New word today for me was ASCARIS.
    Stumbled on 7ac by entering YAKKING and I did wonder what Don King had to do with Art Carney.

    Cheers…

  17. I needed Google to confirm ACCIPITER, AKINESIA, and ASCARIS (and OS for “ordinary seaman” was new to me), but despite my usual difficulty with UK place names, I got TAUNTON and [C]UMBRIA. Thanks to Pasquale and Eileen.

  18. I have found this website most helpful in my attempts (occasionally successful) to solve the Guardian crossword but could someone please tell me what &lit means?

  19. I was right on the Don’s wavelength today and the answers kept coming in. I’m on the lookout for obscurities with him so the likes of ASCARIS and ACCIPITER held no terrors, just a quick ‘in case’ Google.

    Perhaps his birthday gift to us was linking 7 and 21 – it certainly helped me solve the latter. But it’s ages since I looked for a nina so alas this was missed till I came here.

  20. I too often miss Ninas, but saw it today — helped with Dona and Yacking (King Carney was new to me). Happy birthday Pasquale!

  22. Most enjoyable, and a very happy birthday to the Don! I particularly liked ARAUCARIA, FISHY, MAGUS and YOGI. Thanks to him and to Eileen.

  23. I’ve always had a problem with ‘m’ for million especially as it is also used for thousand. I used to work for financial institutions where ‘mio’ and ‘bio’ was always used for million and billion.

  24. Happy birthday Pasquale and thank you Eileen. I got there in the end but found it a mirthless slog.

    We have discussed this before and I know you are sensitive to it, we solvers abroad appreciate explanations of local references that might be obvious to the majority of Guardian solvers. Today for example, I was surprised that Pasquale was a fan of Baz Luhrmann to include a reference to King Carney, Bryan Brown’s character in the film ‘Australia’. I checked the blog for confirmation but you merely repeated the clue. I then fished around and found that there may be a Bank connection. Where I am, a Google search on ‘King Carney’ brings up pages of references to Baz, Bryan, Nicole etc. and I am not even in Australia. But who knows, maybe Pasquale really is a fan of Australian cinema.

  26. HKColin @24 – The bank connection is the obvious one for UK solvers, to spell it out, Mervyn King was Mark Carney’s predecessor as Governor of the Bank of England.

  27. Seventy is special! Many Happy returns, Don. I learnt to solve cryptics by reading your ‘Crossword English’ in the Chambers Crossword Dictionary. So, you are my guru. Thanks for the many days of fun.

    Thanks to Eileen for the blog. I spotted the nina and that helped with a few clues towards the end.

  28. Hi HKColin @24

    I’ll confess now that I’d never heard of King Carney – or the film. I googled it and found the same references as you did and presumed everyone else must be familiar with him / it.

    And now beery hiker [thanks bh!] has well and truly put me right – egg all over my face. I’m very glad now that I didn’t mention the film. 🙁

  29. Thank you Pasquale and Eileen

    I failed to solve 8a, 1d and 5d – ironically, having lived in Tuscany I know Umbria quite well, but I don’t have any idea what parts of England are hilly.

    New words for me were ASCARIS, AKINESIA, IDEATION, QUACKERY, ACCIPITER, CHATTERER.

    I liked 10a (and miss his puzzles).

  30. Eileen @28 – this must have been a tough one to blog, and you don’t miss much, so don’t worry 🙂

  32. Thanks for all nice feedback (and even for the grudging feedback!). For the record, I was thinking of Mark Carney who succeeded Mervyn King as Governor of the Bank of England — ah well! To the party!!

  33. Tricky puzzle from Pasquale; happy birthday to him and all his alter egos. And thanks to Eileen for the blog. I didn’t parse MAGUS.

    It’s Melvyn King who was Carney’s predecessor at the BoE; not sure where Don King comes into it.

    Back to the test match

  35. Hi Eileen, I had no idea that you weren’t in on the BoE transition. No egg on your face in my book, just huge admiration for your honesty and integrity. I am probably not the only regular (reader recently) here who looks forward to a favourite setter and blogger. You have the latter nailed.

  36. First time ever i have been able to use a nina to help me complete the puzzle.

    many happy returns!

  37. Happy Birthday, found this tricky with a couple of new words (accipiter and ascaris) but both were solvable through the word play. After a fairly easy run last week, including a painless Paul on Saturday, I enjoyed the challenge. Many thanks

  38. It seems churlish to say it but I hated this. I managed to complete it only with the help of the check button which is never very satisfying. I didn’t spot the Nina but I doubt it would have helped me much and while I loved TAUNTON,ARAUCARIA and YACKING, most of the rest was a slog.
    But Happy Birthday Pasquale.

  43. I enjoyed this much more than the last Pasquale.

    Of course I didn’t see the nina as I never look for them. I still don’t see the need for high vocabulary words in the grid but Don seems to wear them as a badge of honour??? (They’re still unfair in my opinion but at least with Pasquale I’ve come to expect them which is a help!)

    For the record I’d never heard of ASCARIS, ACCIPITER and CAY. Although I did get them all eventually from the wordplay or solution in the case of CAY.

    Despite all this I thought Pasquale was back on form with his excellent cluing so there was much to appreciate.

    Thanls to Eileen and Pasquale. (and happy birthday)

  44. carneddi @23 —

    M is the standard prefix for million (“mega-“) in the SI system of units (i.e., the standard units used in the sciences). It’s a sibling of the far more common kilo-, milli-, etc.

  45. For once I not only spotted the nina, it helped me. I didn’t think I could parse 7 (rightly so) but I had worked out 21A, so I put TALKING down as the answer. But when I sussed out the nina I realized it had to be a Y!

    I missed 12D, a fairly straightforward clue, because I unthinkingly entered DIVA for 15A. Reminder to self, pay attention to clues!

    Enjoyable. Thanks to the birthday boy and Eileen.

  46. Hmmm. I suppose Carney could have been worse, there are only 33 famous ones in Wikipedia to check for predecessors. Sometimes it has been a lot worse. I’m still not fond of unqualified surnames in clues though. Unless what one regards as the most obvious individual coincides with what the setter so regards, you are either stuffed or in for a lot of mindless tedium trying to rectify the matter. Neither of those outcomes is enjoyable.

  47. Derek @46

    Don’t you think that by putting the words “on bank” in the clue Pasquale did in fact “qualify” Carney?

    Also the facts that the answer very possibly ended in “ing” and that Mervyn King is within recent memory and still widely known were reasons enough not to research the other 32 “famous” Carney’s?

  48. No time to read blog or comments until later I’m afraid but had to pop in to say

    Many, many happy returns to the Don for yesterday!

    [….and it’s mine today!]

  50. According to the nina Pasquale would be d-eventy if instead of ascaris one did put in ‘ascarid’ with id for ‘is identifying’ . A case where the nina settles the ambiguity of a solution..,

  51. Thanks Pasquale and Eileen

    I celebrated the Don’s birthday in the FT on the day and only got to this one on the (long) weekend – as we celebrate the ‘Queen’s Birthday’ (a number of months later – apparently we had enough holidays in March / April with Labour Day, Easter and Anzac Day, so we invented an alternative birth date – when there were fewer other celebratory days 🙂 ).

    Spotted the nina as did Eileen on getting QUACKERY about half way through and it helped a lot with the LHS. It didn’t help much with 13a which was my last one in … and that had lived under the guise of CREVASSE for a long time until my second last in, LAGOS, forced the issue.

    I don’t find the Don’s crosswords a slog – look forward to discovering his ‘new words’ and was happy to work out the Bank of England King and Carney (which I did think was a tough call in a weekday puzzle, even for local folk to know the current and former governors of the BoE – I don’t think that I could tell you who was the current or former head of the Reserve Bank in Australia without looking it up !)

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