Guardian 26,658 by Chifonie

by

No Rufus on a Monday? Does happen, but quite an easy replacement

One or two technical quibbles but as I’ve got the Indy to do as well I’ll be a little terse today.

completed grid

Across

1 Might Spanish port be linked to ancient city? (6)
VIGOUR

VIGO (port) & UR (old city)

4 Pretend to have influence (6)
AFFECT

Might not be Rufus but we still get the double defs

9 Actresses retain potential — never getting wrinkles (6-9)
CREASE-RESISTANT

[ACTRESSES RETAIN]* potentially. Not convinced these things never get wrinkles.

10 Various birds that go underwater (6)
DIVERS

Another Mondayish double def

11 Recluse entertains fellow capitalist (8)
LONDONER

Didn’t the setter recently do DUBLINER as capitalist? Anyway it’s DON (fellow) in LONER

12 Writer‘s name is chromium plated (8)
CHANDLER

HANDLE (name) in Cr (chromium)

14 A short nap in Susie’s tavern (6)
SIESTA

Hidden answer

15 Admitted a number was in debt (6)
AVOWED

A & V (five, number) & OWED

18 Unhappy with change into recession (8)
DOWNTURN

DOWN & TURN

21 Smack around the ear? Go away! (5,3)
CLEAR OUT

EAR inside CLOUT

22 Forgo sleep when touring island (6)
RESIST

IS (island) in REST (sleep)

24 Mercenary marshal bearing means of transport (7,8)
HACKNEY CARRIAGE

HACK (mercenary, for hire) & (marshall) NEY (a Napoleonic General) & CARRIAGE (bearing)

25 Name complete idiot (6)
NUTTER

N(ame) & UTTER

26 A carriage seen initially in French city (6)
AMIENS

A & MIEN (carriage, wot again??) & S(een)

Down

1 Disappear after kidnapping monarch in Japan, say (7)
VARNISH

A type of varnish, R(ex) (king) in VANISH

2 Breeding good stock (5)
GRACE

G(ood) & RACE (stock)

3 Implement breaking let us in (7)
UTENSIL

[LET US IN]* broken

5 Rex interrupts the Devil’s familiars (7)
FRIENDS

R(ex) (again? didn’t he appear a few seconds ago?) in FIEND’S

6 Hearty pirate wearing old doublet? (9)
EXTROVERT

ROVER (pirate) inside EX (otd) & TT (double T)

7 Function where Hazel gets a man (7)
TANGENT

TAN (hazel colour) & GENT (man)

8 Physician has girl drinking booze (6)
HEALER

ALE in HER

13 Novel place to sell game (9)
NEWMARKET

It’s a card game, NEW (novel) & MARKET

16 Football team elected rogue (7)
VILLAIN

(aston) VILLA & IN. Gosh haven’t seen this old one for weeks.

17 See Oscar tucking into chops with energy (7)
DIOCESE

O(scar) in DICES & E(nergy)

18 Remove cadet wrecking hotel (6)
DETACH

CADET* wrecked & H(otel)

19 Treatment area’s weird? That’ll create unrest! (3,4)
WAR DRUM

WARD & RUM

20 Leaves when singers mess about (7)
RESIGNS

SINGERS* messed about

23 Beat small child (5)
SMITE

S(mall) & MITE

19 comments on “Guardian 26,658 by Chifonie”

  1. I found this a bit harder work than a Rufus, but enjoyable. Couldn’t parse HACKNEY CARRIAGE. Thanks to Rufus and Chifonie.

  2. This puzzle was very difficult for me and I failed to solve 7 of the clues. I also used the check button quite a lot so I really failed more than 7 clues I think. I found myself missing Rufus as my brain was expecting him today! But I enjoyed reading the blog anyway.

    Never heard of Newmarket card game.

    Thanks Chifonie and flashling.

  3. Thanks flashling and Chifonie. Typical Monday style, but requiring a slightly different wavelength. I struggled in the north but made steady progress in the south and then edged back up. Perhaps the echoes of ‘carriage’ and ‘rex’ were helpful autosuggestion by the setter? I couldn’t parse the ‘Hackney’ part of 24a even though I live in the borough next door (though not wishing to invite a debate about the origins of the London cab)…

  4. Thanks Chifonie and flashlng
    I failed on GRACE despite considering it as I couldn’t convince myself it meant “breeding”. I was also not convinced by “tan” = “hazel”, but at least I entered TANGENT. I agree that it was odd to have CARRIAGE in a clue two below one where it was part of the solution.

    I did like LONDONER, CHANDLER and EXTROVERT.

  5. A bit disappointed with flashling. The previous Rex was HIS! Not Chifonie’s

    Also the anagram of 9a was clever. And flashling’s reference to having another crossword to attend to was an unnecessary slight on Chifonie.
    PT

  6. Thanks Chifonie and flashling.

    I had forgotten Marshal Ney, though we did have him fairly recently somewhere, so failed to fully parse HACKNEY CARRIAGE. Got tied up with VILLAIN thinking it was something to do with V11 a side football, and stupidly entered NITWIT at first instead of NUTTER.

    CHANDLER, AMIENS, EXTROVERT and CLEAR OUT among others were good.

  7. Thanks flashling.

    Hmm…think I missed Rufus this morning.

    Loved the double T gag but not much else.

    Entered GRACE and TANGENT despite being unconvinced about either.

    Still as the great M Jagger once said, “You caynt always git wot yer want”.

    Nice week, all.

  11. Indeed Cookie, typing out clues from the paper, trying to solve comment up and write 2 blogs whilst doing my job at the same time does lead to a touch of brevity, No sleights intended, just a very busy morning.

  12. Could not parse 24 & 26 ac and 19 d. Did not know the newmarket game, was a bit stuck there.
    Enjoyable monday puzzle. Favourites: CHANDLER and EXTROVERT.

  13. Thanks both.

    I am a little bothered by 24a, as I thought that HACK in the mercenary sense derived from HACKNEY in the taxi sense.

  15. This was the best Chifonie for quite some time – for once not too many write ins. Took me ages to see SMITE, my last in. Liked EXTROVERT.

    Thanks to Chifonie and flashling

  16. Thanks Chifonie and flashling

    Took a good part of the half hour train trip home to finish what was an enjoyable puzzle. Found it a mix of some quite easy clues with some that took a bit of thinking through. VIGO was a new city for me as was the NEWMARKET card game.

    Think that its a bit harsh about the two Rex’s – surely 1d could just as easily be Regina. The device is still similar, admittedly. I do notice that single letters are a trademark of this setter. Did like the Double T though in what was my last one in – EXTROVERT. GRACE provided a bit of resistance until stopped trying to make it equate to stock and twigged that it was good breeding.

  17. I suppose this was OK but I can’t say I enjoyed it much. It took ages to see WAR DRUM and I can’t say I liked TANGENT or RESIST. I’m another who failed to parse HACKNEY CARRIAGE.
    I did like LONDONER and VARNISH.
    Thanks Chifonie.

  18. Thanks to Chifonie and flashling. I did manage to parse HACKNEY CARRIAGE (NEY is a fixture in US puzzles, the only marshal in town) but missed the “doublet T” in EXTROVERT and took a long time getting SMITE (as with BH@15, my last in). I too paused over “breeding” as GRACE and also “leaves” as RESIGNS, but welcomed “physician” as HEALER as a change of pace from the usual abbreviations.

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