Guardian 26,661 / Orlando

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Hurrah! – Orlando returns to the cryptic slot after an absence of almost seven months and I’m lucky enough to be the blogger.

Much of this was pretty straightforward, but with Orlando’s characteristic elegant cluing and lightness of touch – but there are some real gems, notably the stunning 8dn, tucked away, too.

In several instances, Orlando has generously given us more than one piece of wordplay and / or definition, resulting in some unusual clues, 15ac being the most remarkable.

As always, we have silky-smooth, witty, story-telling surfaces throughout.

A delight of a puzzle, which I enjoyed from beginning to end. Many thanks, Orlando – and please come back soon!

 
Across

 
1 Asian state means to split (2,4)
GO AWAY
GOA [Asian state] + WAY [means]

4 Lavish chums back at university (4-2)
SLAP-UP
Reversal [back] of PALS [chums] + UP [at university]

9 Old creature with pride, ultimately wanting stew (4)
OLIO
O [old] + LIO[n] [creature with pride minus its last letter – ultimately]

10 2 22 in bucket with pictures one rejected (4-6)
SELF-ESTEEM
TEEM [bucket – as a verb, as rain does] after SELF[i]ES [pictures minus {rejected} i {one}]

11 Saint learning about alcohol (6)
STEROL
ST [saint] + a reversal [about] of LORE [learning]

12 Swedes possibly have whip applied to bottom (4,4)
ROOT CROP
ROOT [bottom] + CROP [whip]

13 Coy guys in gym writing on this? (9)
PARCHMENT
ARCH [coy] + MEN [chaps] in PT [gym]

15 Whip brought round in car — good Swede possibly missing a game (4)
GOLF
Three separate ways in for a four-letter word: a reversal of FLOG [whip]; car [definition 1]; G [good] + OL[a]F Swede possibly missing ‘a’; game [definition 2]
A couple of weeks ago, Goliath in the FT puzzle did something rather similar in his clue for MAYO: ‘Right away, leader of municipality and county clinic is allowed to love 9 (4)’: [the solution to 9 was DRESSING]

16 Only half of county, not all, like this Orlando (4)
SOME
Similarly, SOME[rset] [only half of county] then the definition – unusually, in the middle – then, if you haven’t got there yet, a bonus bit of wordplay: SO [like this] + ME [Orlando]

17 Stand for outsiders in race here (9)
REPRESENT
R[ac]E outside letters + PRESENT [here]

21 Liqueur produced by Scotsman in Galloway? No way! (8)
GALLIANO
IAN, the familiar crossword Scotsman, in GALLO[way] – lovely surface: not a Scotsman in Galloway but an Italian, one  Arturo Vaccari, in Livorno, Tuscany, according to wiki

24 Home Guard’s rear is positioned poorly (10)
INDISPOSED
IN [home] + [guar]D + IS POSED [is positioned]

25 List with little substance for film director (4)
LEAN

Triple definition

26 Balloon filler‘s bunk (3,3)
HOT AIR
Double definition

27 Imagine missing one cracking puzzle (6)
ENIGMA
Anagram [cracking] of IMAG[i]NE [missing one] – I’m very glad I didn’t miss this one!
Down
1 Statuesque woman having festive meal — part suiting a late actress (7)
GALATEA
GALA TEA  [festive meal] and also hidden in suitinG ALATE Actress – a statue of a maiden, brought to life by Aphrodite in response to the prayers of the sculptor Pygmalion, who had fallen in love with his creation

2,22 Millions requiring our support are without pride (5,6)
AMOUR PROPRE
M [millions] + OUR PROP [support] with ARE outside [without]

3 Son of David, a born dancer but lacking energy (7)
ABSALOM
A + B [born] + SALOM[e] dancer lacking energy – son of the biblical King David, killed in battle after rebelling against his father and the inspiration for many literary allusions, including two of my favourite books in my youth: Howard Spring’s ‘My son, my son’ and Alan Paton’s ‘Cry, the beloved country’; the exotic biblical dancer Salome has inspired a few works of art, too

5 Hide inflatable mattress in the auditorium (3,3)
LIE LOW
Sounds like [in the auditorium] lilo [inflatable mattress]

6 Ballot instruction clearly communicated (3,6)
PUT ACROSS
PUT A CROSS [ballot instruction]

7 Noted hunter, 24, is to leave the group (4,3)
PEEL OFF
[John] PEEL [noted – in a song – hunter] + OFF [indisposed – answer to 24]

8 On cue, Charles managed to get Elizabeth’s capital residence (8,5)
CLARENCE HOUSE
Anagram [managed] of ON CUE CHARLES + E[lizabeth]: I’m not risking calling this &lit but it’s a brilliantly allusive cue: on the death of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Prince Charles moved into Clarence House, her capital residence

14 Illness caused by beef (9)
COMPLAINT
Double definition

16 Stout stem (7)
STAUNCH
And another

18 Unwillingly involved with picture frame — framed by sculptor (5,2)
ROPED IN
P[ictur]E [frame] in [framed by] RODIN [sculptor]

19 Final goal of Buddhist group (7)
NIRVANA
Double definition

20 Capital Asian wages, reportedly (6)
TAIPEI
Sounds like [reportedly] THAI [ASian] PAY [wages]

23 Second in command meets ensign in prison camp (5)
OFLAG
O [second letter of cOmmand] + FLAG [ensign

38 comments on “Guardian 26,661 / Orlando”

  1. Thanks Eileen! I struggled with the couple of ‘triple-clues’ (e.g. 25A, 16A, 15A) because of reading them as standard wordplay + definition clues. Very cleverly done, Orlando.

    A minor correction: PARCHMENT is ARCH MEN in PT, not PE.

  2. Thanks Orlando and Eileen
    I was very much on Orlando’s wavelength, so this was a rapid finish – that didn’t detract from the enjoyment, though. Too many fine clues to mention, though I did appreciate the “triples” and more.

    I only knew OLIO as Italian for “oil”, so I had to look that up after the solve.

    Product placement in 5d, or has that become generic, in the same way as “biro”?

  4. Lovely to see Orlando again as you say, Eileen. It was endearing that he often had so many ideas for wordplay that he couldn’t resist just throwing them all in anyway!

    I agree that CLARENCE HOUSE was a classic; I also loved INDISPOSED – but so many were good.

    Thanks both.

  5. Thanks Eileen – seeing this puzzle was a spooky experience for me, as I’d had a dream last night in which I was trying to persuade Orlando to set more puzzles.. (His alter ego Cincinnus was in the FT on 15 August – also after a long absence.)

    CLARENCE HOUSE was a gem, and I liked the multi-faceted clues, but I thought the double definitions in COMPLAINT and NIRVANA were a bit weak.

    ABSALOM mainly reminds me of the heart-wrenching anthem by Thomas Tomkins.

  6. Hi Andrew

    Well, I’ve heard of solvers claiming to be on the setter’s wavelength but that’s something else! [I enjoyed the Cincinnus, too.]

    Many thanks for the link – I wasn’t familiar with that beautiful piece but I shall be recommending it to my choir!

  7. Agreed that this was elegantly done and there were some entertaining clues, but there were so many write-ins, such as 4ac, 26ac, 5dn and 6dn, that the overall experience was somewhat underwhelming.

  8. Thank you, Eileen, needed your blog to parse SELF ESTEEM.

    Second your comments wholeheartedly – welcome back Orlando.

    I had 4 defs in 15a, The whip, the car, G + Ol (a) f, and lastly the game. Unusual to have a 4-def and 2, 3-def clues (16a/25a)

    CLARENCE HOUSE was damned clever and I also liked REPRESENT.

    I took some time to bring myself to put in NIRVANA and still don’t really see a double def – seems all one to me.

    Nice job, Orlando, and welcome back.

  12. Eileen @9 Of course, need to brush up my crossword syntax!

    Muffin @10 Yes, I think I have, but only now that you mention it. From your link, “Nirvana has come to be regarded as one of the most influential and important rock bands of the modern era”. How embarrassing!

    Many thanks, both.

  13. Thanks Orlando, a bit weird having double wordplay but, having said that, I wouldn’t have got GALATEA without seeing it hidden.

    Thanks Eileen, yes, CLARENCE HOUSE was a belter. Fairly straightforward, although I did put PEED OFF at first. 😉

  14. Thanks Orlando and Eileen.

    What an enjoyable puzzle. I, too, had to look up OLIO post-solve. GOLF, SOME, SELF-ESTEEM, HOT-AIR, LIE-LOW and GALATEA, among others were fun, and CLARENCE HOUSE really elegant.

    11a, a reversal [about] of LORE?

  16. William and Cookie

    Re 11ac – that’s weird: I had it as a reversal in my draft and then when I came to post the blog it somehow didn’t look right! I’ll recorrect it.

  17. Quite enjoyable but I don’t think I’d rate this as highly as some of you have done. Doubles and triples seem a little self indulgent to me. Still, they didn’t get in the way and this was rather a quick solve. For some reason GOLF- my LOI- held me up the most.
    Thanks Orlando.

  18. How many lovely definitions
    thanks orlando, needed help thought to finish it off
    favourites Galatea, Roped in and put across. I appreciate
    now more Clarence House after the historic backround provided 🙂

  19. Olio appears with fricasee as enfeebling foreign dishes when compared with noble haggis in Robert Burns’ tribute to the finest of all foods

  20. Enjoyed this one a lot, all very polished. SELF ESTEEM was last in after AMOUR PROPRE was struggling with the NW corner until seeing GALATEA. STEROL was new to me.

    Thanks to Orlando and Eileen

  22. Eileen – Interesting that you mentioned Cry the beloved country – I thought of that too – it was a set book in my English Literature O Level. “There is a lovely road…”. Will have to investigate Howard Spring – that is a new name to me.

  23. Great puzzle – like others I particularly loved CLARENCE HOUSE. I had no idea STEROL was a form of alcohol, and apparently “They occur naturally in plants, animals, and fungi, with the most familiar type of animal sterol being cholesterol.”
    He could made yet another clue with a triple meaning by way of GALLIANO (John the designer).
    Many thanks to Orlando and Eileen.

  24. Thanks everyone.

    I had never heard of a crop called Swedes. Turns out it’s just rutabaga. I’m also not up on my royal residences–but Clarence House fit in, and I then googled it to read the backstory that gave the clue its extra oomph.

    For me, the literary reference called to mind by Absalom is Faulkner’s masterpiece Absalom, Absalom! But I hear that they don’t teach American literature in Britain any more, so I guess I’m not surprised that no one brought that one up.

    Those triple and quadruple clues did throw me off, until I realized what was going on. My favorite of those was the one for LEAN.

  25. Tom Hutton @19 – thanks for reminding me:

    “Is there that owre his French ragout,
    Or olio that wad staw a sow,
    Or fricassee wad mak her spew
    Wi perfect scunner,
    Looks down wi sneering, scornfu view
    On sic a dinner?”

    (And there’s sustenance for our spellcheckers.)

    Thanks Orlando and Eileen and Mr R Burns.

  26. many thanks Eileen, I also needed your blog for the parsing of SELF-ESTEEM.

    Very nice – the multiple clues always disorient me, and it felt like there were loads, but there were only 3 – I was half expecting the 4th four-letter word (OLIO) to have multiple cluing as well.

    took me a while to see AMOUR-PROPRE.

    CLARENCE HOUSE was spectacular – brilliant, I hope it gets cited a lot. I hadn’t come across OFLAG before. I really liked ROOT CROP (surface), REPRESENT, INDISPOSED, ENIGMA, AMOUR-PROPRE, and ROPED IN – but all were excellent, though mildly deflated by HOT AIR.

    many thanks Orlando for a top class entertaining puzzle

  27. drofle @23
    The “ol” ending in an organic chemical name always (or should I say “should always”?) indicates an alcohol, a compound containing at least one -OH group.

  28. Thanks to Orlando and Eileen. I did not catch all the facets of the multiple clues (so Eileen’s parsing added to the fun). I took a while seeing “teem” as “bucket” (though SELF-ESTEEM was clear as the solution); “lilo” as an inflatable mattress was new to me; and OFLAG was last in (I was fixated on “ensign” as a naval rank) so that I needed help from Google (obviously “stalag” did not work).

  29. A bit late, but I must say how pleased I was when I saw Orlando’s name when I did the puzzle early this morning. As usual he didn’t disappoint & there are too many cracking clues to list. I especially liked the triple definitions – very clever.

    Enjoyed the blog too – full of snippete of interesting information. Thank you so much, Eileen

  30. SELF-ESTEEM was my LOI too. A very enjoyable puzzle, with too many very good clues to list favourites.

    Thanks to Orlando and Eileen.

  31. Thanks Orlando and Eileen

    Very enjoyable, and I’m glad to be able to post by piggy-backing on a neighbour’s network as those wonderful folk at BT are going to supply broadband nearly three weeks later than they first committed to.

    OFLAG appeared in Puck’s prize on July 4 this year.

  33. Thanks Eileen, thanks Orlando. Not knowing French amour-propre held me up for a while, even though I got ‘self-esteem’ early on :-(.

    I remember Mayo by Gloiath, too. ‘Roped in’ second time this week?

  37. Thanks Orlando and Eileen

    Enjoyed the crossword a lot … and a blog befitting it !

    Started this one on Thursday and only got to finish it off this morning (Saturday). Agree with most that there were many fine clues, especially the ones with multiple word plays / definitions.

    Went unsuccessively looking for a son of David called BASTAIR for a while …

    Finished in the NW with GO AWAY, OLIO and AMOUR PROPRE (which was new for me) the last few in.

  38. Indeed this is an elegantly constructed crossword and CLARENCE HOUSE earned a tick; I’m pleased that others concurred. Personally, the crossword editor has disappointed me – I saved this for the Bank Holiday as I have grown to believe Thursday puzzles can supply the weekly challenges. Accomplished setting as this is admirable but it was virtually a ‘write-in’ so hardly Thursday fare?! (On a happier note, today’s “spoilers” were not contemporaneous unlike a recent post concerning use of “office” for lavatory which referenced another puzzle of the very same day which I was about to tackle next. I’m sure this isn’t intentional but it does distress me to still be having my pleasure diluted by others’ thoughtlessness.)
    Many thanks to setter and blogger.

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