Guardian 26,710 – Qaos

by

Qaos rounds off an excellent week of Guardian puzzles.

I always look for a ghost theme with Qaos: I thought it was going to be food, with POULTRY, BREAD, PUDDING and GARLIC, but I also see lots of London streets etc: POUTRY again (in the City), LEICESTER [Square], BAKER [Street], ANGEL, NELSON[‘s column], LIVERPOOL [Street], PUDDING [Lane, where the Great Fire started], STRAND, WARREN [Street], SLOANE [Square], KINGS [Cross] and maybe others.

Thanks to Qaos, and I look forward to meeting old and new friends in York this weekend.
Across
1. COBALT To overcome Labour, Conservative turned blue (6)
LAB in TO + C, all reversed
4. POULTRY Reportedly mean birds (7)
Homophone (-ish) of “paltry” (mean)
9. ENERVATED Weak tea? Never brew Darjeeling to begin with! (9)
(TEA NEVER)* + D[arjeeling]
10. BROOM Opportunity follows the debut of Basil Brush (5)
B[asil] + ROOM (opportunity)
11. TUDOR 500 join in tour round royal house (5)
D in TOUR*
12. ANIMATION America’s main problem? Moving into action (9)
A MAIN* + INTO*
13. RESPOND Ponders complicated answer (7)
PONDERS*
15. GARLIC Cigar ignited over top of light bulb (6)
L[ight] in CIGAR*
17. SMILED Beamed Scotty initially a long way down (6)
S[cotty] + MILE + D[own]
19. WHINGES Old Liberals accept national (and English) complaints (7)
N and E separately in WHIGS
22. LEICESTER Man stole diamonds in the East Midlands (9)
ICE (diamonds, in gangster slang) in LESTER. I still don’t like “in X” for “a place in X”.
24. BAKER Cook delivers off-break (5)
BREAK*
26. ANGEL A dash of orange liqueur or spirit? (5)
Hidden in orANGE Liqueur
27. CLEARANCE Gap: “Everything Must Go!” (9)
Double definition – “Everything Must Go!” is the traditional slogan of a CLEARANCE sale
28. EMPIRES Bit of evidence Piers M. shredded for large organisations (7)
E[vidence] + (PIERS M)*
29. NELSON Admiral‘s sole upset is in the news (6)
SOLE* in N, N
Down
1. CHESTER City street to shout about (7)
ST in CHEER
2. BREAD 3 sitcom produced by 24 (5)
Double definition – Bread was a 1980s sitcom set in Liverpool
3. LIVERPOOL Royal fund backs rise of corrupt City (9)
Reverse of EVIL (corrupt) + R + POOL
4. PUDDING Sweet prince is promising bachelor no more (7)
P[rince] + BUDDING less B
5. UMBRA Yummy barman regularly seen in shadow (5)
Alternate letters of yUmMy BaRmAn
6. TWO-TIMING Is using more than one stopwatch cheating? (3-6)
Double definition
7. YEMENI Arabian soldiers first pursue the old (6)
YE (supposed old spelling of “the”) MEN I
8. STRAND Two ways to describe article or piece (6)
AN in ST + RD
14. SUMMING-UP Review of doing 1 + 2 + 3? (7-2)
Double definition
16. REIMBURSE Give back pound from mouldy mulberries (9)
MULBERRIES* less L (pound)
18. DETECTS Bear up and manage etc, before society notices (7)
Reverse of TED (teddy bear) + ETC* + S
19. WARREN Struggle about new maze (6)
WAR + RE + N
20. SURGEON Scottish minister no longer has temperature, doctor (7)
STURGEON (Nicola S, First Minister of Scotland) less T
21. SLOANE Chelsea fan also rioting on Tyneside (6)
ALSO* + NE – reference to Sloanes or Sloane Rangers who live in Chelsea. “Tyneside” as a definition for NE is a bit of a stretch.
23. EULER Mathematician keeps things working smoothly, they say (5)
Homophone of “oiler”. Leonhard Euler was one of the greatest mathematicians of all time, though probably not a household name, alas.
25. KINGS Rulers engagements attract not a single word of disapproval (5)
BOOKINGS less BOO; “single” seems redundant here

55 comments on “Guardian 26,710 – Qaos”

  1. Very nice, although I remember Qaos as being normally rather more tricky than this. Favourite clues include PUDDING, GARLIC, ENERVATED and SLOANE. Thanks to Q and A.

  2. Thanks Qaos and Andrew
    Rather an odd one for Qaos, I thought – to start with, much easier than usual.

    15a “ignited” is unusual for an anagram indicator, and “top of light” for L doesn’t work for me.
    28a Why is “bit of evidence” E? It seems very loose.
    16d Not a complaint, but it was unfortunate that the abbreviation for pound weight is in muLBerries!
    23d This was poor, I thought. It requires both knowing the name Euler, and his strange pronunciation – no other way of solving it. (I did know both, in fact.)

    Favourite was the lovely DETECTS.

  3. Thanks, Andrew – as you say, a really good week and a lovely puzzle to end on. As drofle says, rather gentler than usual for Qaos but beautifully clued throughout.

    I had fun in following the same sort of trail as you did in looking for a theme – I think the clue to 1dn gives the answer.

    I’m not keen on “in X” for “a place in X”, either but that’s one I’ve given up on, I think. [I didn’t mind it today, anyway, since the answer was my home town. 😉 ]

    I liked the use of Basil Brush, Beamed Scotty and Piers M, among other witty clues.

    Many thanks to Qaos – I really enjoyed it.

    [Like Andrew, looking forward to meeting up in York tomorrow.]

  4. Oh, and strand = piece was odd too. I know that they can both refer to parts of a whole, but in rather different ways. I can’t think of a sentence where one would sensibly replace the other.

  5. Nice blog Andrew- I think you nailed most of the tube stops.I think Poultry may figure in it- and is it Chester Square?
    Nelson’s Column,and maybe Tudor and Empires fit in somewhere.An easier Qaos lifted by a nice theme.

  6. A pretty gentle crossword for a Friday, all quite enjoyable. Liked ENERVATED. Last in was BROOM (mostly because I was reading the clue the wrong way round). Saw part of the theme but my first thought was Monopoly…

    Thanks to Qaos and Andrew [I’m looking forward to York too]

  9. @muffin 2
    Euler was born in Basel, which is a German speaking canton, so there can be no way of pronouncing his surname other than to sound like “Oiler”

    @copmus
    I think this puzzle is more Ralph McTell than
    The Jam!

    Thanks to Q and A, have a blast in York you lucky,lucky people

  13. baerchen @ 9
    I’m not questioning how his name is pronounced – I’m questioning how many English solvers would know that! Doubly general knowledgy.

  14. Thanks, Andrew.

    I have always liked the definition of Sloane Ranger in my (1993) edition of Chambers:

    “A young person, typically upper- or upper-middle-class and female, favouring expensively casual clothing suggestive of rural pursuits, speaking in distinctively clipped tones, evincing certain predictable enthusiasms and prejudices and resident (during the week) in the Sloane Square area of London or a comparable part.”

  15. muffin @13 – anybody who did German at school – the pronunciation was much easier to remember than the grammar!

  16. BH @15
    OK, but I’m well-educated, and I’ve never done any German. I did study A level Maths, where I came across Euler, and even how he was pronounced.

    My point is that I think it is unfair to expect an average solver (a) to know of Euler (famous in Mathematics circles, but outside these?) and (b) to know how his name should be pronounced. There isn’t anything else in the clue to give the answer if you fail on either of these.

  17. Liked this when I did it early this morning; like it even more now the theme has been pointed out to me! Thank you Qaos & Andrew.

    [Look forward to meeting folks in York tomorrow.]

  18. Many errors are found here. There are 11 anags, which is too many.

    1a overcome?; 4a not a homonym; 9a ‘brewed’ would surely be better; 11a ‘join in’ is a grammar error, and ’round’ as anag-ind?; 12a ‘problem’ I don’t like; 15a ‘top’ in an across clue? Def is too wide also; 17a d for down?; 19a insertion isn’t done properly; 22a why stole past tense? Def is wrong too; 27a not about 2nd def; 29 is and is don’t work in the grammar; 2d 2nd def is faulty; 3d ‘backs’ It is ‘under’!; 4d completely the wrong order; 7d first = 1? ‘Pursue’ in down? I wouldn’t like it much in across anyway; 8d ‘describe’ is a bit loose for inclusion; 14d don’t get it; 21d agree re NE; 23d the ‘oiler’ def is not correct; 25d very clumsy.

    A quite poor puzzle for me. Is there really a theme?

  20. So are they London locations or Tube stations? I don’t think Poultry has a Tube stop, nor do Bread Street or Pudding Lane, so it must just be London.

    Couldn’t parse LEICESTER at all and can’t say I like it much now I know the answer.

  21. gladys @20
    Pudding Lane does have a tube stop, in fact, but it’s called “Monument” (after the monument to the fire).

  22. EULER was one of the greatest mathematicians who ever lived. I think it’s not too much to expect the well-read solver to at least have heard of him. (See also Gauss, Newton, Leibnitz, Fermat, Archimedes and Euclid, all of whom I seem to remember seeing at various times in puzzles.)

    On the other hand, I had never heard of the 30-year old sitcom (I looked it up).

    Really didn’t like the POULTRY “homophone”. Just doesn’t work for me at all, so that corner of the puzzle went unfinished.

  23. [baerchen @9, the official language of the canton of Basel is the Swiss variety of Standard German, but the people speak Schwitzer Dütch, in the country they often have trouble understanding people from neighbouring villages.]

  24. Has to be just London locations, rather than tube stops. Nothing wrong with that.

    Useful limbering up for tonight’s proceedings in York after a few days away from my regular Grauniad fix, but I reckon Enigmatist et al may have more devilish delights in store. POULTRY / YEMENI held me up at the end, the former on grounds of it not being a homonym in my language. Oh and YEMENI was nearly YEMENS but that would have been self-inflicted ignorance.

  25. It is surely London streets (including a couple of squares) rather than tube stops or just locations. See Eileen @3.

    And Muffin, the Monument is rather intentionally 202 feet from Pudding Lane.

  26. [Ian @25
    Yes, my post @ 21 was pretty pointless.

    I wonder if the puzzle is celebrating the game of “Mornington Crescent”?]

  29. Thanks Qaos and Andrew.

    This brought back pleasant memories of London, at one time I lived near Basil Street (10a) leading off Sloane Street.
    My favourite clue was DETECTS, as was muffin’s I see.

    Have fun everyone who is going to York.

  30. “In X” is wrong? OK in some contexts, but it is correct in others such as “Where is Leeds?” “In Yorkshire.” as the questioner clearly knows that Leeds is a place and doesn’t need to told what (s)he clearly already knows. So I guess it is inevitable that “common usage” will adopt the shorter phrase in other contexts. Basically then, what is really being objected to is common usage being inaccurate. Yet if it is a technical word that common usage is abusing then common usage is defended by people here. One can’t have it both ways, defending common usage when it suits, but critising it when it doesn’t.

  31. Afternoon all! Glad you enjoyed today’s tour round the capital. That so many were food related was an added misdirection bonus.

    I hope those going to York for tomorrow’s crossword gathering have a great time. I can’t make this one, but will look out for future events.

    Best wishes,

    Qaos.

  32. Thanks to Qaos and Andrew. I took a while parsing P[B]UDDING and [BOO]KINGS and needed Google to be certain of BREAD, but I did know EULER from previous puzzles. This was the first Qaos puzzle I got through fairly quickly. Much fun.

  33. PS. It’s interesting the comments on the homophone in 4a. Chambers has:

    poultry /pol? or p?l?tri/
    paltry /pol? or pöl?tri/

    so I went by the first pronounciation for each. The trouble with homophones in general, is that someone somewhere is bound to say “Well, we don’t pronounce it like that round out way!”. But as ever, my main criteria for clues are a) can you solve them fairly, and b) did you have fun whilst solving.

    Have a good weekend!

  34. I didn’t like EULER but I didn’t know the GERMAN pronunciation so I’ve learned something. POULTRY on the other hand really doesn’t work and rather spoilt an otherwise entertaining puzzle. I only spotted the theme when I’d nearly finished- SLOANE was my LOI- and I don’t think I got them all.
    I thought this rather easier than is usual for this setter. Still,enjoyable enough.
    Thanks Qaos.

  36. I enjoyed this a lot and am not sure that other folks’ niggles are warranted (and I’ve skipped through hedgehoggy’s comment without even reading it). Don’t know how to pronounce EULER? If you’ve heard of him, then you should do. ‘In East Midlands’ for LEICESTER? Given up on that as well and have got over myself. NE for ‘Tyneside’? Works for me. We need an apostrophe after Rulers in 25dn, though, to make sense of the surface.

    Did I spot the ghost theme? Don’t be silly.

    COOK in 24ac is cleverer than perhaps it’s been given credit for. England’s captain ALASTAIR COOK does in fact have one Test wicket (Ishant Sharma of India at Trent Bridge, since you ask). Although he doesn’t bowl off-breaks. And he bats left-handed and bowls right-handed, which I’ve never quite got my head around.

    Looking forward to seeing friends old and new in Jórvík tomorrow. Thanks to Qaos for the puzzle and to Andrew for the blog.

  37. Thanks Qaos and Andrew

    Was able to do this over lunch … and enjoyed it a lot. Looked for a theme at the end and although I recognised a couple of street names, certainly not enough to link them to a theme. That’s the beauty with Qaos – his themes are the cream on the pudding and custard – it may add that extra bit of flavour, but one can enjoy it nearly as much without it ! 🙂

    Finished in the SE corner with (Ms) STURGEON (whom I’m now familiar with due to these puzzles – funny that I couldn’t name half of the other state Premiers over here!), WHINGES (groaned when WHIGS finally dropped) and WARREN the last one in.

    EULER went straight in with only the L entered – yep, I’m a Maths grad – but am sure that I’ve had to find Greek mythological characters, composers or literary figures from either a homophone or foreign word composites before. I typically have found them – it may have taken longer and may have meant using references, but it always added to my knowledge which I have always appreciated from this pastime.

    HH, there seem to be a couple of setters in the Guardian stable that particularly cause you pain. Mate, they are clearly bannered, there are at least two other free London daily crosswords available – why don’t you save yourself the angst and just do those ones when the ‘bad boys’ appear here ? Most other folk here obviously like ’em !

  38. It’s fair, I think, to point out examples of loose clueing, and a few have been pointed it by others today. (I didn’t notice any that have not been flagged up already.) However, none of them detracted from the enjoyment of the puzzle, which most of us, including HH, I guess, seem to have had little trouble solving.

    I’m chuffed that I have at last spotted a hidden theme by myself, before reading about it here. It’s something I’m not very good at: indeed, I said not long ago that the day I did spot a hidden theme or nina I might at the same time see some point or purpose in Steve Bell’s or Garry Trudeau’s output: sadly, one has happened but not the other.

    I must compliment Qaos for managing to include so many themed names in the puzzle, and it’s always good when the setter, as here, pops in to talk to us. Thanks to Andrew too.

  39. I enjoyed this. I was intrigued to see a TED for teddy bear so soon after seeing the same device in yesterday’s FT. I sometimes wonder if setters confer and go for a “clue of the week”.

  41. Thanks all
    Quite enjoyable, not too testing for Q.
    Last in was pudding.
    Nice to see the delightful Nicola getting her ultimate accolade of celebrity!
    Favourite was kings.

  42. I thought this was very poor.

    Too many loose clues (already pointed out)

    Far far too few minutes to solve it.

    Very disappointing for a Friday.

    Although “paltry” and “poultry” are in fact homonyms 4A doesn’t actually suggest that they are. It basically suggests that someone could say “poultry” and someone could hear “paltry”. Very few crossword clues actually do suggest homonyms. (It’s just that several posters on here seem to be obsessed with them!)

    Thanks to PeterO and Qaos (what’s happened to your once great puzzles?)

  43. Brendan (not that one) @42, I do not think POULTRY and ‘paltry’ are homonyms for everyone, they are not in the COED and they are not for me, but just imagine hearing the words over the radio, easy to confuse them.

  45. Herb @44
    The etymology of “homonym” is just “same name” in Greek. There are two distinct usages these days, the stricter one being that the words are both spelt and pronounced the same way and the looser one being that they only need meet either one of those conditions. In the second case “homonym” covers both homophones and homographs. It is usually used in the looser sense in discussions on this site.

  46. [Alan Browne @38

    Oh dear, well keep at it. SB has always had immediate appeal for me while GT is a more recent addiction.

    Great week for Guardian crosswords!]

  47. @45
    Actually no. On this site, which I have been reading for more than 5 years, we usually use “homophone” for soundalikes. Given the frequent arguments about them, there are obvious advantages to keeping the terms distinct. It would be a bad idea to muddy the waters now, regardless of Wikipedia.

  49. As for homophones on the radio, the other evening I tuned into France Musique, just caught the word “Fauré” and the piece began, thought “that doesn’t sound right”, then clicked, the announcer had been saying “forêt”. The piece was actually Der Freischütz by Carl Maria von Weber, needless to say it takes place in a forest.

  50. Today HH has not been merely dismissive. He has listed out his complaints.
    I have carefully reread the clues and his comments one by one by scrolling up and down.
    I think most of his criticisms seem to have a point and he should be entitled to them.

  52. Herb @47
    I didn’t write that it is the usual term used on this site, nor that it is desirable. What I wrote was that there is a looser usage [which happens to be fairly common] and that when the word is used on this site, that is usually how people are using it. Both statements are true, whether you approve of them or not.

  53. A question from someone who is fairly new to cryptics – if I’m not too late in getting to this puzzle.

    I interpreted NE as being one side of the word “Tyne” with TY being the other. Is that sort of cluing not considered kosher?

    Thanks

  54. Thanks Qaos and Andrew.

    Reasonably accessible puzzle this one and I particularly liked PUDDING (who doesn’t) and DETECTS.

    Whilst a homophone for a generally unheard of mathematician is a bit unfair, it’s forgivable where there are no other possible words that will fit – so fair enough.

    BlueDot – Tyneside is in the NE of England so that’s the normal crossword-speak. But your parsing would have been equally valid. Just shows what a fresh pair of eyes can see.

  55. We finished this in less that 48 hours – and yes, we are 6 months behind on crosswords hence posting this so late. We are also intrigued to see what happens if we post a comment now (April 2016)…..
    Qaos – thank you for providing a puzzle that us novices managed to complete and understand – we need these from time to time!

Comments are closed.