Guardian 26,600 by Qaos

by

Fun, but solved in spurts, with the NW and SE last to fall. Favourite was 19dn.

16dn was unfamiliar in this context, and I don’t think I’ve ever come across 17dn except as “The Star-Spangled Banner”.

Across
7 SAUCERS
Cars use wheels with discs (7)

(Cars use)*
8 VILLAIN
Side batting like Blofeld? (7)

[Aston] VILLA=footballing “Side”, plus IN=”batting” in cricket
9 LYRE
The sound of Ananias’s instrument? (4)

Ananias lied in the New Testament [wiki], and LYRE sounds like ‘liar’
10 IMITATIVE
Fake vitamin: Norway aside, it’s manufactured by Europe (9)

(vitami[n] it)*, plus E[urope] – the removed n is for N[orway]
12 JACKS
Game of cards (5)

A “Game” of knucklebones [wiki]; or a rank in playing “cards”
13 DRAUGHTS
Watch over hearts, this unwelcomed game? (8)

GUARD=”Watch”, reversed (“over”); plus H[earts]; plus T[hi]S, where the removed hi implies “unwelcomed” i.e. without a hi/greeting
15 PLUS
Rich husband sacrificed bonus (4)

PLUS[h]=”Rich”, minus h[usband]
16 FENCE
Criminal making for the border? (5)

A “Criminal” who trades in stolen items; or a barrier that forms a border
17 SHIP
Vessel‘s drink, hot inside (4)

SIP=”drink”, with H[ot] inside
18 EYESORES
No good monsters follow Erebus’s lead, of course, they’re ugly things (8)

O[g]RES=”monsters” with no g[ood], following all of: E[rebus]; plus YES=”of course”
20 BLACK
Dark and criminal lord? (5)

=”Dark”; and Conrad BLACK is the “criminal lord” [wiki]
21 CELEBRANT
One rejoicing in a Mel Gibson tirade, perhaps (9)

a Mel Gibson tirade might be a CELEB RANT
22 GUMS
“Sticks and stones” — ultimate cliche for you to recite (4)

=”Sticks” as in ‘applies a sticky substance”. G[e]MS=”stones”, with [clich]e exchanged for U, which sounds like “you”
24 READILY
Money? About a pound without delay (7)

‘READY money’ means cash; around all of: I=one=”a”, plus L[ibra]=”pound”
25 ELDERLY
Old TV doesn’t start, colour’s inverted inside (7)

[t]ELLY=”TV”, around RED=”colour” reversed/inverted
Down
1 BABY
Love child (4)

=”Love”, a term of endearment; also =”child”
2 SCIENCES
Disciplines making sense of CSI scene? (8)

(CSI scene)*
3 FRUITS
Benefits cause regular fury — UKIP test (6)

regular letters of F[u]R[y] U[K]I[P] T[e]S[t]
4 VICARAGE
Liberal Viagra cafe displacing a fine church building (8)

(Viagra c[af]e)*, with a f[ine] displaced
5 FLYING
Very brief affair takes a year (6)

a FLYING visit is very brief. FLING=”affair”, around Y[ear]
6 WINE
Drink you and I consume at home (4)

WE=’you and I”, consuming IN=”at home”
11 INDONESIA
Asian country invaded by 1’s country (9)

INDIA=”Asian country”, invaded by ONE’S
12 JELLY
After aircraft loses time, friend throws a wobbler (5)

JE[t]=”aircraft” losing t[ime], plus [a]LLY=”friend” throwing away a
14 THINK
Believe the queen is fat? Just the opposite (5)

THIN K[ing] is the opposite of a fat queen
16 FIREBALL
Loud anger over party album by Deep Purple (8)

apparently their fifth album: [wiki]. F[orte]=”Loud”, plus IRE=”anger”, plus BALL=”party”
17 SPANGLES
Special angels, crackers and decorations (8)

=small glittering things. SP[ecial], plus (angels)*
19 SALADS
Vegetarian meals for Springboks? (6)

S[outh] A[frican] LADS=”Springboks”
20 BOTTLE
To be original, enlist officer promoted for bravery (6)

(To be)*, around reverse(LT)=lieutenant reversed=”officer promoted”
21 CHEW
Man and wife carry 100 quid? (4)

a quid of tobacco is chewed. HE=”Man” plus W[ife], after C=”100″ in Roman numerals
23 MILK
Drink to make the most of (4)

double definition

55 comments on “Guardian 26,600 by Qaos”

  1. As always we have a theme. SPANGLES, WINE GUMS, MILK BOTTLE, FLYING SAUCERS, JELLY BABY, BLACK JACKS, Also have FRUITS SALAD? CHEW? Anyone see any others?

    Neat stuff from Qaos and highly enjoyable to pick apart.

  2. Thanks to Qaos and manehi for the parsing. I did not catch the SA lads for SALADS or the T[hi]S to complete DRAUGHTS (though the solutions were fairly clear) but did eventually remember Conrad BLACK and Aston VILLA. This may be the first Qaos puzzle I’ve succeeded with, so this blog has made a difference for me.

  3. Thanks Qaos and Manehi – needed you for 22 – too hung up on “Stone’s ultimate” being the ‘S’

    Very neat and clever as usual from Qaos.

    (I think the inclusion of a lesser known Deep Purple album is because it shares its name with some sort of hot tasting ‘gobstopper’?)

  4. Thank you Qaos and manehi

    I really enjoyed this puzzle, especially 11d, 12d, 14d, 25a, 18a, 19d and my favourite was 21 a.

    I needed help to parse 22a.

    I did not spot the theme – maybe we can add FRUITs GUMS?

  5. Didn’t pick up on the theme, well spotted Lemma – what fun.

    Hadn’t fully parsed DRAUGHTS (ugh).

    Enjoyed the puzzle, many thanks Qaos

  6. Thanks Qaos and manehi.

    I found this hard, especially the full parsing of some answers – had to google Blofeld, Black and Deep Purple.

    I did like the vegetarian meals for South African lads!

    Perhaps SHIP DRAUGHTS (the depth of water necessary to float), or VICARAGE DRAUGHTS (they are notorious for being large and draughty), and at a stretch to THINK and CHEW things over.

  8. I’m not convinced by 22A. “Ultimate cliche for you to recite” means “E” for “U”, but in fact what solvers need to do is put “U” for “E”.

  9. Thanks, manehi, for the blog, and Qaos for the nostalgic enjoyment. In my day, we had penny CHEWS!

    It was SPANGLES that gave me the theme, early on, and it was great fun tracking down the rest.

    Apart from the theme, I particularly liked LYRE, EYESORES and CELEBRANT,

  10. Eileen @9, so the theme is just sweets ? What a laugh, I thought it was also word pairs, but checking on the web see there are milk bottle and flying saucer sweets !

    Oh well, to continue my theme, FENCE and VILLAIN in the colloquial sense go together, there are Indonesian LYREfish and how about ELDERLY EYESORES, I qualify.

  11. Thanks both, tough but great fun.

    My knowledge of Harry Potter being sketchy at best, I assumed Sirius BLACK to be the Dark Lord in question. Thanks for the correction to the proper scoundrel therefore.

    Liked CELEBRANT but was surprised at the choice of Mr Gibson for the ‘celeb’. I always assign the ‘celeb’ tag a slightly derogative association, such as beautiful people with no other merit-worthy achievements to their name – not appropriate to Mr Gibson at all.

    Missed the theme of course (almost invariably do). Must be something to do with the way my brain works (vertically rather than horizontally) or at least I think that’s what my wife means when she says I don’t pay attention.

    Failed to parse DRAUGHTS & GUMS, clever to unravel those manehi.

    Villain was nicely shrouded and took ages to spot.

    All in all, an excellent puzzle – many thanks, Qaos.

    Nice week, all.

  12. An enjoyable puzzle with lots of good clues and some clever misdirection. I missed the theme (as usual), but I like it now I know it. I had to google Deep Purple albums, and I couldn’t fully parse DRAUGHTS or GUMS. I’m still not happy with DRAUGHTS – the construction for TS is too contrived for my taste. Is “king” the opposite of “queen”? I suppose being the opposite gender is enough, but a king and queen are really more alike than either of them and a “commoner”.

    Favourites: VILLIAN, EYESORES, VICARAGE, WINE and SALADS.

    Thanks, Qaos and manehi.

  14. Thanks Qaos and manehi

    Excellent puzzle, much fun was had.

    William @ 11: I guess Mel Gibson was chosen because he does have form for mouthing off inappropriately.

  16. Not a difficult solve today but there were a couple I couldn’t properly parse. At 24 I could only think of ‘readies’! Didn’t know the Floyd album, and since I was reversing LAB (‘over’) for ‘party’, overall I made READILY / FIREBALL much harder than they should have been.

    Oh and I came to the blog wondering if anyone remembered the sweets called SPANGLES. Just goes to show.

  17. Enjoyed this thoroughly.
    The clues for 12d, 16d, 19d, 16a and 20a made me chuckle even before I’d tried to work them out.
    Thought at first I might agree with Jason@8, but if you read the ‘-‘ as ‘dash’, you have to dash the E for a U – changing GEMS to GUMS. Am I straining a bit? Perhaps, but I’m prepared to cut Qaos loads of slack for giving us such a fine crossword.
    Thanks to manehi for the blog.

  18. hi Trailman @16

    As I said above, it was SPANGLES that gave me the theme – among my top favourites as a child: such a satisfying shape to suck – and so deliciously fruity. I wonder why they stopped making them? [In the early eighties, according to Wiki.]

  19. I’m with Jason@8 regarding the clue for GUMS despite SeanDimly@17’s imaginative theory. If Qaos is really using “-” that way I don’t like it. I enjoyed the rest of the puzzle even if it was a little chewy.

  22. Good in parts, but a little frustrating. I shared Jason @8’s reservations on 22, and the Ananias and Deep Purple references were more quiz than crossword fodder (knew the Purple album but my Biblical knowledge leaves a lot to be desired). I did like CELEBRANT, ELDERLY and SALADS. Last in was CHEW – I couldn’t see why the definition worked so thanks for that.

    Thanks to Qaos and manehi

  23. Thanks Qaos and manehi
    I finished, but got nowhere near parsing DRAUGHTS. Favourite was INDONESIA, for the misleading “1’s”.

    I was doubly surprised that the solution to 16d was a Deep Purple album (my first thought that the answer would be a colour), and that it’s an album I actually possess, though I haven’t listened to it in years.

  24. Thanks and manehi

    Another Qaos …. another very fun-filled crossword solve … and for once, with the help of WINE GUMS (which I had actually bought a bag of yesterday), I twigged to the theme before coming here !!!

    A late post to the Brummie puzzle tonight, and the long discussion of ‘ready’ alerted me to the incorrect HANDILY that I had originally written in at 24a. The problem was that CHAW – C plus H A W (husband and wife) almost worked at 21d.

    GUMS was last in – and it took a long time to work out whether U replaced E – or vice versa. Logically I made it work the way that was intended … and the theme certainly confirmed that GUMS was needed !

    Many other fine clues throughout the grid …

  25. As usual, the theme went right over my head but even if I’d spotted it I probably would still have entered “gems” at 22ac. Midget Gems were my daughters’ favourites!

    I can see clearly now where I went wrong there, thanks to manehi. I’m grateful too for the help with the parsing of “draughts”.

    All in all an enjoyable challenge; thank you very much, Qaos.

  26. Muffin@22:Don’t listen again. The album is still dreadful!
    I quite liked this even though I didn’t get the theme. Mind you I’ve never heard of some of the sweets- flying saucers, fireball? Obviously my childhood was deprived.
    I struggled to parse VILLAIN. I couldn’t reconcile VILLA with SIDE annoyingly enough, and even I’ve heard of ASTON VILLA.
    Good fun though
    Thanks Qaos

  29. Not too bad, still a little untidy for me:

    7a ‘with’?; 8a VILLAIN not an adjective as far as I know; 10a not sure on def here; 13a like ‘unwelcomed’; 15a like; 16a like; 20a this is a GK clue really; 22a crazily complex, the grammar (for the E) doesn’t work, and see Jason above; 4d liberal? hm; 5d why ‘a’?; 6d needs to be ‘consumes’ as WE is not a plural cryptically; 14d why not use ‘fat queen’ this is the non-PC Guardian after all; 16d good to see one of my fave bands Deep Purple (I like blues a lot); 19d you have to know rugger for this answer; 20d ‘original’ I don’t THINK that works, but others might.

    HH

  31. Well done, Eileen. It was the Paul one I was thinking of (I remembered FLYING SAUCER in a crossword). Surprised that it was over two years ago, though!

  33. I was going to reply to muffin that, for me nowadays, things are invariably longer ago than I think they are but then I find that the chocolate bar one was much more recent than I thought. Many thanks, Gaufrid – I’d actually searched for SNICKERS but didn’t remember it as being an FT puzzle and, as I said, it seemed longer ago, so I didn’t follow it up.

  35. Afternoon all!

    Many thanks for the comments. I don’t have time to reply to all the points, but the one about 22a are interesting. For me, the “X for Y” wordplay is just instruction to “swap X and Y”. It’s true that functionally, this is directionless and potentially ambiguous. But I was careful to make sure “stones” wasn’t at the other end of the clue to avoid confusion.

    I’m amazed to see the other “sweet” puzzles. I did have PENGUIN and LION on my list too (as good ghost theme words), but so much for me thinking this was an original idea! Just be grateful you’d unlikely to get another QED puzzle anytime soon :-).

    Best wishes,

    Qaos.

  37. As ever with Qaos, so many Treets – a Bountiful Galaxy of Refreshing ideas in which to Revel. I’d be Lion if I didn’t admit there were a couple of ‘tesers I had to Fudge, but a Delight to come here and find some Smartie had done the parsing for me. For which thanks.

    Enough already ..and apologies   :(

    Actually it’s Opal Mints I miss most!

    They became Pacers for a while, but then seemed to lose the will to live.

    Thanks both.

    …now do I dare post this tosh?

  38. @34 Derek Lazenby – as you aren’t a fan of “that sort of junk” (Bond), I’m assuming you aren’t related to George Lazenby!

    I’m not a huge fan of Bond myself, but I should have thought Blofeld was reasonably well known to most. Likewise, although I do follow rugby, I would have thought most solvers would have heard of the springboks (probably more common knowledge than blooming Deep Purple albums!). It just shows your Guardian solver needs a broad span of knowledge and interest. Mind you, as an atheist I reject all biblical references and therefore I would be a liar to deny that I struggled with 9 across.

    Excellent puzzle today, with a sweet theme that as usual passed me by completely!

  39. Limeni @ 37

    Thanks for posting (really!). That was stupendously groanworthy! Bet it took a Marathon amount of time to think up. 🙂

  41. Here in the U.S. of A., we do not have any of these brands of sweets, though I spotted the theme nevertheless. I wonder, if I made an equivalent crossword here, how many of the names would be unfamiliar to you. Probably many, if not most.

    I did not parse DRAUGHTS, which is a bit too tortured for my abilities. Cheated on ELDERLY.

  42. Thanks all
    Very strange puzzle; I many times solved a clue then complimented myself at spotting a very obscure definition, except it wasn’t so obscure??

  43. @38, my father was George, but sadly for my Bank Manager, not that one.

    I just love the way that time and again I give good reason why I don’t pay attention to a given subject, and yet people think that somehow “you must of heard of…”! Which bit of total ignorance of a subject do people here not understand?

    ALL my friends know Fireball. Most of them possess a copy. On that basis should I presume to refuse to accept that others have never heard of it? I think not.

    All very amusing.

  44. There were times that I was at this place virtually every day to share my opinion with the rest of the world and, not unimportantly, to ask questions and/or tickle other readers’ brain cells.
    Nowadays, I only feel the need to say something when a crossword is really delightful or when a puzzle has some ‘technical issues’ that I do not understand (yet).

    Meanwhile, I still (try to) solve a lot of crosswords during the week.
    Everyone has his/her favourites and for me it’s not different.

    Many setters are good but relatively unexciting – which is fine, I enjoy solving all types of crosswords.
    Some setters have that little extra.
    Qaos is one of them.
    Reading the surfaces of his puzzles (in which today’s world comes along) immediately wants me to have a go at them.
    It’s not just the ghost theme (which I missed but I don’t like sweets anyway), it’s also because of one of these things that hedgehoggy didn’t like: “this unwelcomed” (in 13ac). For me, this is imaginative clueing.
    That “consume” in 6d isn’t cryptically right (I agree with hh here), I just take for granted as a crossword is about the whole picture. More or less Qaos’ own words, by the way.
    If Qaos would have said “Believe the fat queen?” in 14d like hh suggested, then the effect of a witty surface would be completely gone. Qaos must have thought about that.

    Anyway, this was one of these puzzles that was a joy to solve.
    Some entries went in without the right parsing (VILLAIN (Blofeld? Who?), SALADS, BLACK), one or two others with half a look (1d, and FIREBALL after having only the F).

    Personally, I am still not convinced by 22d but I accept Qaos’ view.
    “X for Y” is for me: X replaces Y.
    Or it means: X leaves in favour of Y.
    But then the leaving of X should be indicated, I think (but I’m not a linguist or such).
    Someone above pointed at the dash – what if you see it as a minus sign?
    Anyway, that’s beyond Qaos’ intentions.

    Many thanks from a happy solver to manehi and Qaos.

  46. Thanks to Qaos for his thought process for the GUMS clue. Although the majority of clues have the definition at either the beginning or the end of the clue, I don’t believe there is a rule that prevents the definition being in the middle of the clue, and I remember seeing one or two instances of such cluing over the years. With that in mind it was extremely tempting to follow the replacement instruction in the clue as it was worded.

  47. @starburst says:

    “Round our way we used to eat Elderly Readilies all the time”

    We used to eat Opal Fruits until… hang about – was that your doing?

    Really enjoyed this, but failed on lack of knowledge of Ananais and Deep Purple. (I know Ananais as a character from a David Gemmel novel…)

  48. Sil, hint: you need to re-read the erinaceous post, if you can stand it.

    I really liked the ‘unwelcomed’ too: very nice indeed.

    Thanks Qaos and manehi.

  49. You’re right, Paul.
    Apologies to hh [had to look up ‘erinaceous’ to understand what this was about].
    I was clearly wrongfooted by the frequent use of ‘like’ after he started off with ‘still a little untidy’) ….

  50. As a follow-up to DL@34:

    I appreciated the misdirection in 8ac towards Dear Old Thing and cricket commentary.

  51. @Derek #43 “my Bank Manager”

    Impressive!

    You still have one? I have a minute share of a call centre in India.

  52. Derek Lazenby @34etc (if you’re still about) – I’m surprised no-one else mentioned it but I understand Ian Fleming named Blofeld after Henry’s father, with whom he was at school (Eton?); small world?!
    Principally, quite amusing – outstanding surfaces (4) to whom thanks, and to manehi.
    [notable how often I agree with Sil; have mentioned it before and, no doubt, will find good reason to do so again!]

  53. Came to this very very late.

    Just for the record I’d never heard of Blofeld (except in the cricketting context. Surely nobody over the age of 11 watches this trash?).

    The only Deep Purple album I knew was “in Rock” although I was a very big “underground/rock” fan from 1968 until I saw sense! Deep Purple were so predictabel a la Status Quo that one never even bothered to regfister their albums!

    Also never heard of Ananias althought it is nearly “pineapple” in German (it should reall be banana I always thought.)

    I parsed DRAUGHTS as something which is unwelcomed although I knew this certainly wouldn’t be the parsing Qaos would have had in mind.

    Besides the “strange” references this was OK.

    Of course I didn’t see the theme. (Probably because I don’t look!)

    Finally, I didn’t parse GUMS but I had GEMS as an alternative. I only chose GUMS because the “definition” was at one end of the clue. Now I see the parsing I definitely agree with those who think the “instruction” is the wrong way round!

    Thanks to manehi and Qaos

  55. Brendan(nto)@53
    I imagine it concerns you little but I’ve neither read a James Bond novel nor suffered more than a few minutes of such a film, though I wouldn’t rail against the millions who enjoy such things. I did, however, think the relationship with Henry Blofeld would be of interest given the various comments above.
    Indeed, that was the only reason I took the trouble to contribute.

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