Guardian 26,642 by Chifonie

by

After last week’s impaling by Vlad this came as a blessed light relief.

Really seemed at the most quiptic like end of the Guardian crossword world, really, nothing contentious or tricky to parse today.

completed grid

Across

8 Diminutive royal, formerly said to be drunk (4-4)
KNEE-HIGH

K(ing) a royal & NÉE (formerly known as) & HIGH (drunk)

9 Opposition leader to point out alternative (6)
OPTION

Leader of O(pposition) & POINT* out

10 Sister hides ring that’s substantive (4)
NOUN

E.g. proper nouns. O(ring) in NUN (sister)

11 Measure resonance in aerobatic stunt (6,4)
BARREL ROLL

BARREL (a measure of liquid) & ROLL (resonance)

12 House opportunist losing spouse (6)
CANCER

H(usband) missing from C(h)ANCER

14 One giving away drink-containing receptacle (8)
BETRAYER

TRAY in BEER

15 Again perform a recent representation (2-5)
RE-ENACT

[A RECENT]* re-presented

17 Son does simple hairdressing and saves money (7)
SCRIMPS

S(on) & CRIMPS

20 Prince receives revolutionary plant (8)
HAREBELL

Aka the bluebell – REBEL in (prince) HAL

22 Chinese food gained distinction (3,3)
WON TON

WON (gained) & TON (style)

23 Dog in Chile grows wild (5,5)
WELSH CORGI

[CHILE GROWS]* wildly

24 Card in American blackjack (4)
CLUB

Double def the second being used to hit people

25 Anxiety in the family (6)
STRAIN

Another double def

26 Call ship after capitalist? (8)
DUBLINER

One from the capital city – DUB (call) & LINER (ship)

Down

1 Find new ways to Vienna, when rambling (8)
INNOVATE

[TO VIENNA]* rambling

2 Clergyman protects one in retreat (4)
DEAN

A in DEN

3 Log doctor entering bank (6)
TIMBER

MB (doctor) in TIER (bank)

4 Angelic beings providing revolutionary massages (7)
CHERUBS

CHÉ & RUBS

5 Benedictine cites unruly servant (8)
DOMESTIC

DOM (benedictine) & CITES* unruly

6 Hunger for a bible in the depot (10)
STARVATION

A & R(evised) V(ersion) in STATION

7 Dog officer over prevarication (6)
COLLIE

COL(onel) & LIE

13 Caught Oscar and partner getting lustful with agreement (10)
CONSENSUAL

C(aught) & O(scar) & N(orth a partner in bridge) & SENSUAL

16 Half-heartedly remedy smell in street (8)
CRESCENT

Only half of the centre of C(u)RE & SCENT (smell)

18 Solicitor for doctor (8)
PROCURER

PRO (for) & CURER (doctor)

19 Ruddy amateur in a state (7)
FLORIDA

FLORID & A(mateur)

21 A convenience for intermediaries (6)
AGENTS

A & GENTS (toilets)

22 A spot near to a place in Yorkshire (6)
WHITBY

WHIT (spot, small amount) & BY (near)

24 Voucher for college buffet (4)
CHIT

C(ollege) & HIT (to buffet)

29 comments on “Guardian 26,642 by Chifonie”

  2. Thanks Chifonie and flashling

    Rather a mixed bag. Several I liked, but also some irritations. Likes include OPTION, HAREBELL (“prince” always seems to be “Hal”, but this example was amusing), WELSH CORGI, DUBLINER and AGENTS.

    However – TON = distinction? (even in flashling’s sense of style); in 13d “partner” for N is meaningless unless S is specified; “solicitors” and “procurers” have a crucial distinction – who gets to have the sex; in 19d the “in a” seems to put the A in the wrong place.

  3. Thanks Chifonie and flashling

    muffin @ 2: I saw distinction = TON as scoring a ton in cricket, which is certainly a distinction for a batsman. What do you think?

  4. Hi Simon
    Not quite agreeing with you for once. The distinction would be scoring the ton, not the ton itself?

  5. Hi muffin

    Well, if you score a ton at Lord’s your name is painted on the honours board, so in my “world view” that’s enough to make the ton the distinction. Other world views are available 😉

  6. My position is not all that different, but I would say that the distinction is getting your name painted on the honours board (as a result of your ton, of course). A nice distinction (!)

  7. from my online dictionary:
    ton
    (t??)
    n
    1. style, fashion, or distinction

    [C18: from French, from Latin tonustone]

    Like the cricket theme though, perhaps some English distinctions soon by the top 6 or 7 would be welcome. 🙂

  8. muffin: I think flashling’s parsing of FLORIDA is correct: it’s florid + amateur; ‘in a state’ is the definition.

    Enjoyed this, but not really my favourite kind of clue – I prefer the complexities of Vlad etc. Favourites were DUBLINER, CHERUBS and TIMBER. Thanks to Chifonie and flashling.

  9. Thanks flashing and Chifonie. I liked the idea of an inhabitant of a capital city being a capitalist – I seem to remember seeing that once or twice before. Also liked the construction ‘half-heartedly’ in 16d – seems obvious once it’s pointed out to you! Managed to miss née as formerly in 8a, and N as partner in 13d. That’s two days running I’ve remembered to look for a Nina …

  12. Thanks flashling and Chifonie. I found this quite tricky in places but there was much to admire e.g. CRESCENT, DUBLINER.

    BTW does anyone know why the breed of dog is called WELSH corgi when CORGI is already the welsh for small dog? Are there any other sorts?

  14. cholecyst
    There are two variants – Pembroke and Cardigan – but (bafflingly) both are still referred to as “Welsh corgis”.

  15. Muffin @11, I parsed the definition as “a state” and the “in” just links (as it often does) the two parts of the clue.

  16. Thanks flashling and Chifonie. I found this much tougher than C’s usual.

    I put ONCE HIGH (One is high) at 8a, but it didn’t seem to be a phrase I know for “formerly diminutive”, nor quite fit the clue.

  18. Thanks to Chifonie and flashling. I proceeded through most of this puzzle quickly but needed help from Google to get WHITBY (as usual, my knowledge of UK towns and cities is weak) and for a while could only see “lumber” (obviously wrong) in lieu of TIMBER. Last in were CHANCER (even with all the crossers I was fixated on the wrong sense of “house”) and PROCURER (“curer” for “doctor” eluded me for some time). Still, an enjoyable exercise.

  19. This was one of Chifonie’s better ones, with more than usual that weren’t write ins. Last in was COLLIE. Liked HAREBELL and CONSENSUAL. I’d forgotten that meaning of DOM but that was obviously guessable.

    Thanks to flashling and Chifonie

  20. Not sure about this one. The top half went in really quickly but I got a little bogged down especially in the SW corner. It took me ages to see DUBLINER and I had doubts about PROCURES as well. Both of which seem to be my looking for difficulties where there weren’t any! WHITBY was LOI. I did like AGENTS and HAREBELL-and CANCER come to think of it.
    Thanks Chifonie.

  21. muffin @2

    You obviously haven’t read much Georgette Heyer – lots of mention of ‘ton’. (It’s a very Regency term.)

  22. Thanks all
    Enjoyable.
    Quite easy, although the SW tookma while. Last in was consensual, I took ‘N’ as the partner of ‘O’ in the alphabet!

  23. I didn’t find this as easy as flashling did, though it was certainly a doddle compared to Vlad’s, but I did enjoy it. I struggled with a lot of the clues, particularly the SE with CHIT and CLUB being my last ones solved. I also missed the N for “partner” in 13d, even once I had the answer, though it is such common clueing that I should have seen it. For 8a, I did think of “high” quite early, but like Dave Ellison @16 I also had “once” as a possibility for the first part and that distracted me for a long time.

    Favourites are HAREBELL, WELSH CORGI, DUBLINER and CHERUBS.

    Thanks, Chifonie and flashling.

  24. Like jennyk, I didn’t find this that easy. But that’s mainly the grid – I always struggle with this Grauniad grid, where you don’t have any starting letters around the perimeter. Just the way what passes for my brain works, I think.

    Liked DUBLINER, and was hoping someone else thought that there was a Yorkshire town called AZITBY. There isn’t, but I will fess up to having a Google to see if there was.

    Thanks to S&B.

  26. Quiptic end of the spectrum? I found it hard-going from the off – about two reasonably clear and the rest just a slog.

  27. Thanks Chifonie and flashling

    Found this a bit harder than normal for this setter – seemed to take an age to get a run started with the first few in scattered around the grid. Once started though, the answers started to flow quite steadily. Finished in the SW corner with WELSH CORGI (not helped by looking for a 10-letter dog instead of a 5-5 one), HAREBELL (a clever charade) and FLORIDA (and I don’t know why).

    Smiled at kd’s new township …

  28. 11ac – please explain why ‘roll’ means ‘resonance’. I got barrel roll but couldn’t work out why

  29. Thanks Chifonie and flashling

    I really enjoyed this puzzle. Many favourites including PROCURE, CHERUBS, KNEE-HIGH, AGENTS, DUBLINER, CHIP, CONSENSUAL & STRAIN (LOI). I also liked CANCER, BETRAYER, CRESCENT & WELSH CORGI.

    I needed help to parse 24a – never heard of American blackjack.

Comments are closed.