Guardian 26,733 – Chifonie

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A fairly typical Chifonie puzzle, with lots of charades and other straightforward constructions, but none the worse for that. A couple of answers may be unfamiliar to some. but they’re clearly clued. Thanks to Chifonie.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. BASKET Hamper request to be in punt (6)
ASK in BET
4. ABACUS American coach keeps bill for calculator (6)
AC in A BUS
9. ROOM Fell back into space (4)
Reverse of MOOR (a fell)
10. CARABINEER Soldier calling about a container (10)
A BIN in CAREER – I know this word best (or only?) in its Italian plural form of Carabinieri
11. AT ONCE Immediately make amends without a bit of conceit (2,4)
C in ATONE
12. COINCIDE Agree to strike detectives with energy (8)
COIN (strike) + CID + E
13. PROPHETIC Top cipher breaker is prescient (9)
(TOP CIPHER)*
15. BOAR Animal runs after snake (4)
BOA + R
16. BATS Crazy cricketers (4)
Double definition
17. INTERSECT Meet at its centre as arranged (9)
(ITS CENTRE)*
21. PANORAMA Gold found in country’s comprehensive survey (8)
OR in PANAMA
22. AGE-OLD Ancient American lodge in ruins (3-3)
A + LODGE*
24. DALLIANCES Affairs of everyone one found in social events (10)
ALL I in DANCES
25. SUIT What the smart admirer presses (4)
A sort of double/cryptic definition – the smart admirer may press his suit both literally and metaphorically
26. LARKED Had fun when being escorted round old vessel (6)
ARK in LED
27. ADVENT Bill has duct coming (6)
AD (bill) + VENT
Down
1. BLOATER Gondolier eats large processed fish (7)
L in BOATER
2. SIMON Minos reformed apostle (5)
MINOS*
3. EXCRETE Evacuate from island (7)
EX (from) + CRETE
5. BOBBIN Jumpin’ up and down in a reel (6)
BOBBIN[g]
6. CONSCIOUS Deceives with many promises? That’s deliberate! (9)
CONS (deceives) + C (100) + IOUS
7. SPENDER Poet, one who is recklessly wasteful (7)
Double definition, though surely a spender isn’t necessarily wasteful, let alone recklessly so
8. FRICTION MATCH Lucifer creates hostility over marriage (8,5)
FRICTION (hostility) + MATCH – friction matches (of which Lucifer was a brand) replaced the earlier, dangerous, chemical versions
14. PATROLLER Guard Irishman’s posh car (9)
PAT + ROLLER (Rolls Royce)
16. BRADAWL Instrument used these days in melee (7)
A.D. in BRAWL
18. ELAPSED Pleased criminal passed by (7)
PLEASED*
19. CELLIST Peter’s the first one on the fiddle? (7)
CELL (Peter is slang for a prison cell) + 1ST
20. PALATE Old man slow to develop taste (6)
PA + LATE
23. ENSUE Nebraska upset over appeal result (5)
NE< + SUE

38 comments on “Guardian 26,733 – Chifonie”

  2. Thanks Chifonie and Andrew

    Entertaining, though the top half was a write-in – the bottom took longer. I too hadn’t heard of PETER = CELL, and wondered about the SPENDER definition. I would also call a BRADAWL a “tool” rather than an “instrument”.

    I particularly liked CARABINEER, COINCIDE, the nice anagram of PROPHETIC, and AGE-OLD for concealing its construction from me for some time!

  3. Wow, a write-in! I can’t remember the last time. It’s reassuring to get a really easy one occasionally.

    Thanks to Chifonie and Andrew.

  4. Either I’m particularly smart today or this was unusually easy. Not complaining – as median says it’s reassuring as long as it’s only occasional.

    ‘Cell’ for Peter was a new one on me too: I was looking for associations with safebreaking until the answer became obvious through the crossing lights. I agree with muffin on bradawl, and with everybody who commented on spender, but as I got them right I can’t say the clues were particularly confusing.

    Thanks to C and A.

  5. Yet another for whom peter = cell was new, and who raised eyebrows slightly at BRADAWL and SPENDER, but an enjoyable, relatively easy solve. Thanks to Chifonie and Andrew.

  6. Thanks Chifonie and Andrew

    I also didn’t know peter as cell, so assumed, as I don’t know orchestral music very well, that Peter in Peter & The Wolf must be represented by a cello. Looking it up, it turns out he is represented by strings including the cello, so I wonder if there’s another connection there? Or maybe I’m over-imagining! Perhaps one of the more knowledgeable contributors could enlighten me.

  7. I can’t find any reference to peter = cell on ths first three pages of a Google search. The first hit looked promising, as it referred to Cockney Rhyming slang, but it just explained “peter” as “safe” or “vault” (in the strongroom sense).

  8. Should have tried Chambers instead (it’s further away than the computer!)

    peter 3 – a safe; a prison cell; a till; the witness box

  9. Simon S – I think it’s just that the cello (full name ‘violoncello’) is a member of the fiddle/violin family of instruments.

  10. Yes appears Peter is prison slang. A Black Peter was a punishment cell. Enjoyed this a lot if rather briefly. Thank you all for sharing and to Chifonie- the latest setter to keep me from all the jobs I now have no excuse not to get on with.

  11. Thanks Chifonie and Andrew.

    Enjoyable for me since I am a slow/poor solver. I did like BOBBIN and FRICTION MATCH.

    The OCED gives peter² 1 n. slang a prison cell. New to me also.

  14. Simon S @13, than you – I have just checked and found that bradawls are used in surgery, for instance a rib bradawl is used in thoracotomy operations.

  15. Easy because well-written, generally. There were a few too many link parts here and there and some duplication of bits and pieces, but it is generally very good. I far prefer this to the fiddly over-wrought stuff we are sometimes given.

    HH

  16. Thanks Chifonie and Andrew

    Nice to get some relief from a couple of hard ones – both here and in the FT. Generally enjoy this setter when he bobs up – they mightn’t take long, but they always leave a good aftertaste when they’re done !!!

    CELLIST was my last one in. Don’t know whether it took me longer to equate a ‘cello to a fiddle or recall that ‘peter’ was another name for a prison cell.

    Now back to a couple of the hardies (VLAD & MONK) that have banked up.

  18. Thanks Chifone & Andrew. I am another who hadn’t heard of Peter = Cell and found this mostly a write-in. Pleasant but left me with only much lunch to concentrate on.

    I know we all spend money, but if someone is described as “a spender” the word means the reckless sort.

    And I am surprised someone hasn’t lifted and separated bradawl. An awl is a pointed, piercing tool. The brad awl is designed to make holes for brads. When I first heard and used the word, I assumed it was two words. I wonder how long ago they were conjoined?

  19. Thanks to Chifonie and Andrew. I have little to add to the comments above other than BOBBIN was my last in and I particularly enjoyed the admirer pressing a SUIT. Quick solve but great fun.

  20. Much easier than the last two, but sadly much less interesting – did most of this without really engaging the grey matter, Peter=cell was new to me too, BLOATER last in but only because I didn’t notice the gap until everything else was done.

    Thanks to Andrew and Chifonie

    [and somehow 2 x two seems an appropriate Captcha]

  21. I reverse-commute from my home in Chicago to a job in the Indiiana suburbs. Today I finished this puzzle before the train had left Illinois (so, less than half an hour, probably much less, since I didn’t start in right away when the train pulled out). Like someone else said–who cares if it’s easy as long as it’s elegant and clever?

  22. I too found this relatively easy, but none the worse for that. I thought of “Peter” as “safe” first, but once I saw CELLIST I did remember coming across the “cell” meaning in the past. I originally put OLD-AGE before I got ELAPSED and had to rethink that. AGE-OLD fits the definition much better, of course.

    Favourites are DALLIANCES, SUIT and CONSCIOUS.

    Thanks to Chifonie and Andrew.

  24. I like Chifonie; generally just the right level for me and sweet surfaces: never over-wrought as hedgehoggy says, even at the expense of favouring accessibility. I prefer an elegant surface to the somewhat impenetrable offerings of “hardies” – for me it’s the main skill of a good setter.

    That being said, I’m squirming a bit at ADVENT=COMING. Almost but not quite? The advent of a new soccer season, say, is not quite the same as the coming of etc. Or is it.

  25. Alphalpha @ 24

    e-Chambers gives ‘A coming’ as the first definition of advent, and its attendant thesaurus gives it as the first synonym.

    hth

  28. Make that “the first”, not just “first”, but actually, I like your parsing better, Dybbuk, now I’ve thought about it a bit more.

  31. I did know that Peter= cell. I thought SPENDER was pretty good- it certainly made me smile. I wasn’t sure about BRADAWL- my LOI- but I can’t see why it can’t be called an instrument.
    I suppose the one problem with this is that I kept querying answers that seemed too straightforward but that’s my fault.
    Thanks Chifonie.

  32. With a late start today, I was pleased to see Chifonie’s name on the puzzle. But it was over in a flash so I’ve got time to look for something else to do with my afternoon.

  34. OK, but very very dull! Surely fodder for our alleged “Easy Monday”!

    I suppose I’ll have to go all Ximenean and resort to The Times now to get my fix 🙂

    Thanks to Andrew and Chifonie

  36. beery – Hear! Hear!

    [Paul B – very true; though less easy to discern ahead whether you’ll have a five minute write-in or something more diverting. And I enjoy the licence that (a) certain gridhog(s) eschew!]

  37. Very easy, even for a Chifonie.
    But that’s not what I wanted to say.
    Unlike some others, I have no objections against nounal anagram indicators as such.
    However, the one used in 13ac (‘breaker’) is unacceptable in my Book of Crosswords.
    I had thought Andrew would have said something about it.
    But no, actually no one seems to be bothered.
    That said, it is only one niggle in an otherwise sound puzzle.

  38. Thanks Andrew and Chifonie.

    Good clean fun.

    I’m another one that didn’t know the PETER = CELL definition till I looked it up.

    I thought using American for A twice in the same puzzle was a little weak (4 and 22) but that’s being really picky.

    Favourites were BASKET, EXCRETE and BRADAWL.

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