Guardian 26,678 by Chifonie

by

The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26678.

A stroll in the park compared to yesterday’s Vlad, but like the park a pleasant diversion.

Across
1 DESECRATE
Profane seer acted badly (9)

An anagram (‘badly’) of ‘seer acted’.
6 INCUR
Meet with much-liked villain (5)

A charade of IN (‘much-liked’) plus CUR (‘villain’).
9 CLEFT
First of climbers got out of fissure (5)

A charade of C (‘first of Climbers’) plus LEFT (‘got out of’).
10 PLAINTIFF
Comprehensible argument from litigant (9)

A charade of PLAIN (‘comprehensible’) plus TIFF (‘argument’).
11 DAMP COURSE
Check Penny’s lessons in home protection (4,6)

A charade of DAM (‘check’) plus P (‘Penny’) plus COURSE (‘lessons’).
12 MOLE
Spy in a spot (4)

Double definition.
14 ARRANGE
Settle on retired painter’s collection (7)

A charade of AR, a reversal (‘retired’) of RA (‘painter’) plus RANGE (‘collection’).
15 DAMPISH
A politician tucks into food that’s moist (7)

An envelope (‘tucks into’) of ‘a’ plus MP (‘politician’) in DISH (‘food’).
17 SUPREME
Presume wrongly to be the greatest (7)

An anagram (‘wrongly’) of ‘presume’.
19 PLAY-ACT
Make believe there’s agreement about poem (4-3)

An envelope (‘about’) of LAY (‘poem’) in PACT (‘agreement’).
20 RASH
Queen remains headstrong (4)

A charade of R (Regina, ‘Queen’) plus ASH (‘remains’).
22 PROSPEROUS
Rich American follows Shakespearean (10)

A charade of PROSPERO (‘Shakespearean’ character in The Tempest) plus US (‘American’).
25 ESOTERICA
Trio cease inducing dark secrets (9)

An anagram (‘inducing’) of ‘trio cease’.
26 EMAIL
Communication shows oriental married trouble (5)

A charade of E (‘oriental’) plus M (‘married’) plus AIL (‘trouble’).
27 TWEAK
Pinch women in wood (5)

An envelope (‘in’) of W (‘women’) in TEAK (‘wood’).
28 GREATCOAT
Get actor a bizarre item of clothing (9)

An anagram (‘bizarre’) of ‘get actor a’.
Down
1 DICED
Risked being cut to bits (5)

Double definition.
2 STEAM TRAP
Support round side of pipe fitting (5,4)

An envelope (’round’) of TEAM (‘side’) in STRAP (‘support’).
3 CAT SCANNER
Diagnostic tool is Tom’s preserver (3,7)

A charade of CATS (‘Tom’s’)  plus CANNER (‘preserver’).
4 AMPOULE
Ought uranium be kept in large sealed container? (7)

An envelope (‘be kept in’) of O (zero, ‘ought; we have had this as a variant of noutght before) plus U (chemical symbol, ‘uranium’) in AMPLE (‘large’).
5 ELAPSED
Journalist hides mistake that slipped by (7)

An envelope (‘hides’) of LAPSE (‘mistake’) in ED (‘journalist’).
6 IONA
Christian centre kept by the Salvation Army (4)

A hidden answer (‘kept by’) in ‘SalvatION Army’
7 CAIRO
Officer takes in the atmosphere of foreign capital (5)

An envelope (‘takes in’) of AIR (‘the atmosphere’) in CO (commanding ‘officer’).
8 RIFLE-SHOT
Sweltering under sacks? That’s life-threatening! (5,4)

A charade of RIFLES (‘sacks’) plus HOT (‘sweltering’).
13 IMPALEMENT
American trapped in device for capital punishment (10)

An envelope (‘trapped in’) of A (‘American’) in IMPLEMENT (‘device’).
14 ABSORBENT
Missing catching ball that’s like a sponge (9)

An envelope (‘catching’) of ORB (‘ball’) in ABSENT (‘missing’).
16 INAMORATO
Lover off to Romania (9)

An anagram (‘off’) of ‘to Romania’, for the male of the species.
18 EARRING
Wrong about a piece of jewellery (7)

An envelope (‘about’) of ‘a’  in ERRING (‘wrong’).
19 PASSAGE
A girl wears old hat in the street (7)

An envelope (‘wears’) of ‘a’ plus G (‘girl’) in PASSÉ (‘old hat’).
21 SPODE
Case in southeast China (5)

An envelope (‘in’) of POD (‘case’) in SE (‘southeast’). Like my teapot.
23 SPLIT
Go separate ways in Croatia (5)

Double definition.
24 PERK
Tip for each man (4)

A charade of PER (‘for each’) plus K (king, chess ‘man’)
completed grid

33 comments on “Guardian 26,678 by Chifonie”

  1. Yes, pretty gentle although I couldn’t work out the parsing for 4 and 27 – I don’t remember having come across K for ‘man’ or O for ‘ought’ before. I also wasn’t aware that ‘profane’ was a transitive verb, so the crossword satisfies the essential criterion of having been a “valuable learning experience” for me.

    Thanks to S&B

  2. I failed to solve 21d SPODE and new words for me were STEAM TRAP and DAMP COURSE.

    My favourites were CAT SCANNER, INCUR & AMPOULE, and I enjoyed all of the anagrams.

    Thanks Chifonie and PeterO

  3. Thought this would be a gentle warm-up before going back to yesterday’s Vlad, but found this a bit tricky for a Chifonie. Maybe the mountain air is affecting my solving skills. Last in was PASSAGE

    Thanks to Chifonie and PeterO

  4. Thanks Chifonie and PeterO
    A bit workmanlike, though I did like CAT SCANNER. I had a lazy unparsed PEAK for PERK. TWEAK isn’t the same as PINCH for me.

    Is G really an abbreviation for Girl?

  6. We have G(irl) and W(oman) and A(merican) – but all setters do this annoying trick. I thought that we also had O(ught) U(ranium) unindicated, and wasn’t happy about it, but I see that I missed a trick there. What’s a steam trap when it’s at home?

  7. Flavia@5 and Gladys@6 – as W was cued for ‘women’ I thought it was okay. The example that I thought of was public lavatories or rest rooms which are often marked as M for men and W for women

  8. Thanks Chifonie and Peter0.

    Lovely relaxation after the IMPALEMENT we had from Vlad yesterday. I especially liked CAT SCANNER !

    muffin @4, the COED gives tweak v.tr. 1 pinch and twist sharply; pull with a sharp jerk; twitch.
    I guess that is near enough, seem to remember some nasty pinches like that as a kid.

    By the way, where is hedgehoggy? I hope he does not still think his comment was removed the other day.
    Hoggy, if you see this, check Gaufrid @30 on the Philistine blog of September 10.

  10. Thanks to Chifonie and PeterO. I had trouble getting DAMP COURSE and STEAM TRAP (terms not familiar to me) and also with the K in PERK (until I got TWEAK – I did not catch the K = man in chess) but otherwise got through quickly compared to yesterday’s uphill climb.

  11. Well enjoyed this though Ampoule defeated me. Damp Course was easy enough for me, but with a house in a Dampish area, its something I need to know about. Liked PROSPEROUS but probably because the Tempest is one of my favourites of the boy William.

  12. Quite a contrast to yesterday’s brain mangled. Rather enjoyable nonetheless. I had trouble with the NE corner and IONA and INCUR took me longer than the rest of the puzzle. I’ve no idea why- especially the former- perhaps my brain is still reeling from yesterday!
    I also hadn’t heard of STEAM TRAP but it was easy to get.
    Thanks Chifonie.

  13. Oh that sort of ought. Thanks PeterO, otherwise I would have assumed it was a dodgy piece of initialisation. Otherwise nothing particularly concerning; liked CAT SCANNER.

    Another three-hour train journey with the crossword soon out of the way, just like Monday with Rufus. Sounds like I should have been journeying yesterday, with Vladimir.

  14. Couldn’t find much wrong with this.

    Easy it may be, but it is far more carefully and fairly written than yesterday’s Vlad. I don’t think that compileritis is the ONLY thing that makes Guardian puzzles hard however, some of the writers are tough but fair.

    HH

  15. Thanks PeterO and Chifonie. I enjoyed this as a relatively gentle solve after not getting anywhere with Vlad yesterday (though I did start late).

    I particularly liked 16 down and 22 across: the latter partly because it is similar to a clue I wrote “Do well but end up with nothing for Shakespearian” (8) for a crossword I do twice a year for our church summer and winter fairs (though it is so obvious I am sure it has been done before).

  17. Valentine @16

    You have touched on a contentious point: whether a compound abbreviation (such as WI) justifies a stand-alone (such as W. Some say yes, some no. In this particular case, the loo W avoids the issue. I do note that T for time, which appears in many crosswords, is common i combinations (GMT< ETA etc.) but I would be hard put to come up with a use as a stand-alone abbreviation.
    I also spotted the G for girl in 19D; it did raise an eyebrow, but I did not chase it down when writing the blog. It is not in Chambers.

  18. Now there’s an oddity: When I replied to Valentine’s comment, it was at number 16, but my reply slotted in as No. 15, shuffling Marienkaefer and Valentinr up one. It seems that this is the result of wordpress assigning spurious times to these two comments, in which case this comment may also be misplaced.

  19. Thanks Chifonie and Peter O

    A welcome relief after my first DNF in nearly two years yesterday.

    PeterO @ 16 (or maybe another number). Good point about the timestamps: as of now (17:50 BST) there’s one from Marienkaefer timed at 10:38pm, and Valentine’s is 11:23pm.

    As for T as a standalone for time, what immediately springs to mind is US rocket launches “T minus xx” where T is the scheduled launch time. I’m sure I’ve seen other instances, but memory is letting me down.

  20. PeterO @18
    Thanks for drawing my attention to this. I have replied more fully in the Site Feedback post. I am just commenting here, for the benefit of Simon S @19, to say that I have edited the timestamps so the comments now appear in the correct order.

  23. I enjoy Chifonie’s clueing. I didn’t find this too gentle – I didn’t know Spode and STEAM TRAP, and I didn’t parse o=ought.

    I also liked CAT SCANNER and haven’t seen the macabre IMPALEMENT as a capital punishment before, it surprised me.

    Many thanks PeterO and Chiffonier

  28. 11A Damp course means the exact opposite of damp proof course but is, sadly, a common mistake.

    4D Ought meaning zero is also a mistake. It’s the opposite of nought (cf. owt or nowt). Collins says it comes from a mistaken division of “a nought” as “an ought”.

    24D K = man??

    I feel I am being punished for being logical:(

  29. To PeterO @17 and andyk000 @26, one-letter abbreviations are common as variables in science. T is time, p is power, v is velocity, f is force, and many of those appear in crosswords. No problem with many of those one-letter substitutions — but I still don’t like g for girl.

    To PeterO @18 — I keep forgetting that my first name is androgynous, even though I occasionally get junk mail addressed to “Mr.” But I’m a she, not a he.

  30. Valentine @ 29

    My apologies; the comment has been corrected (at least in that respect – Gaufrid’s correction of the timestamps has rendered the whole comment redundant. Never mind.). I note that my old Chambers (1961) lists Valentine as male, but newer editions admit its androgyny.

  31. Thanks Chifonie and PeterO

    Did this one on the day, but only got to check it off today. Found it one of the toughest challenges from this setter for some reason, and I hadn’t had time to be brain-addled by Vlad as yet – so no excuses.

    Seemed to struggle a bit in the SW corner where I had written in BESS initially but couldn’t parse the BES bit as remains – then was able to see RASH. Also had STONE as a loose definition of china – and after not convincing myself that TON had any connection to case, went back to the drawing board to find SPODE.

    Notice that this setter is a noted user of single letters in his charades – think that one has to get used to it from him and be on the lookout for them.

  32. To PeterO@29 Thank you for your gracious comment. Valentine as a woman’s name goes back farther than 1961, though. Valentine Chantry is a character in an Agatha Christie story from 1937 — a vain beauty as I recall. And the beloved of Christopher Tietjens, the hero of Ford Madox Ford’s Parade’s End, is named Valentine. Chambers is behind the times.

  33. Thanks PeterO for the blog and to Chifonie for what – to me – was a fairly straightforward solve.

    I’m generally OK with the single letter abbreviations so long as the clue passes the Hamish test – there should only be one possible answer to the clue in isolation.

    Which brings me to my only quibble on 21dn. I put this in as SEPAL on my first pass in the basis of SE + PAL (china/mate) – the sepals for the case of a bud. But I quickly had to change tack when I saw the obvious ESOTERICA.

    But I always like Chifonie puzzles and am forgiving – anyway, what is to say that setters have to abide by my rules?

    Thanks again.

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