Guardian 26,751 / Paul

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A lovely puzzle from Paul, ingenious and witty, with a most congenial, for me,  mini-theme.

It caused a fair bit of head-scratching: several answers were inspired guesses, leading to relieved ‘ahas’ when the parsing actually worked. The characteristically impeccable wordplay in difficult clues, combined with a few double definitions and anagrams to help things along, made this a most satisfying and enjoyable solve.

It was 27ac that gave me the initially impenetrable 8dn, which in turn, with crossers, made 19ac a write-in. I liked the way that the theme was extended in 14 and 16ac – and there may be more.

There are one or two places where I’d be glad of reassurance – or correction.

Many thanks to Paul for considerably brightening up another dull morning.

Across

9 Focus of capital soundly interpreted with this clue, for example (3,6)
RED SQUARE
RED [sounds like read – soundly interpreted] + SQUARE [this clue, for example – 9 is a square number]

10 Orange, say, ending on purplish flower (5)
HOUSE
[purplis]H + OUSE [flower]

11 Sketch garages provided by premier in Lausanne for mountain people carrier (3,4)
SKI LIFT
SKIT [sketch] round [garages] L[ausanne] + IF [provided]

12 Force countered plague in 8 (7)
TEMPEST
TEM – a reversal [countered] of MET [Metropolitan Police Force] + PEST [plague] – Sonata 17

13 Engineer, __ did you say, did you say? (4)
WATT
Sounds like [did you say?] ‘what – indicated by the dash – did you say?] for the Scottish engineer James Watt

14 One’s played God swiping last of Martini in knees-up for seniors? (5,5)
GRAND PIANO
PAN [god] round [swiping] [martin]I in GRAN DO [a knees-up for seniors?]!

16 Chapter One in return of modern reading (7)
RECITAL
CI [Chapter One] in a reversal [return] of LATER [modern]

17 Strong conclusion of Angelou hidden by twisted Spanish poet? (7)
DURABLE
[angelo]U in a reversal [twisted] of EL BARD [‘Spanish poet’]

19 Paper’s opening article covered by old, not new, 8 (10)
PATHÉTIQUE
P[aper] + THE [article] in [covered by] A[n]TIQUE [old, minus n {new}] – Sonata 15

22 More than once, I say so contrarily (4)
EGOS
Quirky definition: EG [say] + a reversal [contrarily] of SO – a reminder of the classic clue for EGO: ‘I say nothing’

24 An individual smothered in relish, most comical (7)
ZANIEST
AN I [an individual] in ZEST [relish]

25 Contemptible information (3-4)
LOW-DOWN
Double definition

26 Free waste, nothing bagged (5)
LOOSE
LOSE [waste] round O [nothing]

27 Hang about, solution is 8 (9)
MOONLIGHT
MOON  [hang about] + LIGHT [crossword solution] – Sonata 14

Down

1 This indignant line-up, with first of dissenters on floor (9,6)
CROSSWORD PUZZLE
CROSS [indignant] + a reversal [up] of ROW [line] + D[issenters] + PUZZLE [floor] – a gem of a clue

2 Detail both a weed and a parasite in sea (8)
ADRIATIC
A DRI[p] [a weed] + A TIC[k] [a parasite] both minus their last letter [‘detailed’]

3 Marine life in Guinea? (5)
SQUID
I’m not sure about this one: a guinea was 21 shillings, so is it S [shilling] + QUID [20 shillings]?

4 Crony welcoming parliamentary pioneer in 8 (8)
PASTORAL
PAL [crony] round ASTOR [parliamentary pioneer Nancy, first female MP to take her seat] – Sonata 15

5 German train setting off, second to leave station (6)
TEUTON
T[rain] + EU[s]TON [station minus s – second]

6 Carried by old-fashioned transport, European politician rides here (5,4)
THEME PARK
MEP [Member of European Parliament] in THE ARK [old-fashioned transport]

7 Triumphant exclamation some mistake, ruefully served up (6)
EUREKA
Hidden reversal [served up] in nistAKE RUEfully

8 Work, an industrious thing that encompasses range, issue and area (9,6)
BEETHOVEN SONATA
BEE [an industrious thing] + THAT round [encompassing] OVEN [range] and SON [issue] + A [area]

15 Circling eastern enclosure, mount rose sharply (9)
STEEPENED
STEED [mount] round E PEN [eastern enclosure]

17 Name outstanding old diver, finding old coin (8)
DOUBLOON
DUB [name] standing outside [outstanding] O [old] + LOON [US and Canadian name for the diver]

18 As were Daniel Deronda and The Road to Wigan Pier — gosh! (2,6)
BY GEORGE!
George Eliot wrote ‘Daniel Deronda’ and George Orwell ‘The Road to Wigan Pier’

20 Second-rate vessels (6)
TINPOT
TIN + POT [vessels]

21 Keeping rhythm, eventually (2,4)
IN TIME
Double definition

23 Super–balloon (5)
SWELL
Another double definition to end with

32 comments on “Guardian 26,751 / Paul”

  1. Thanks Paul and Eileen

    For some reason I tend not to warm towards Paul puzzles, and this was no exception. My first pass just yielded SKI LIFT, LOW DOWN and EUREKA. I then got PASTORAL and made the mistaken assumption that 8d referred to BEETHOVEN Symphonies, but I could only fit SONATA . Googling confirmed that there is also a Pastoral Sonata. The clue for 8 is an example of what I don’t like about Paul’s clues; I parsed it after solving, but there was no way I was going to be able to build it up from its constituent parts. The solution also made the clues that referred to it easy, though they had appeared impenetrable before.

    I couldn’t parse the wordplay in RED SQUARE , the TEM part of TEMPEST or the GRANDO part of GRAND PIANO.

    13 was ambiguous – the solution could just as easily have been WHAT. 16 “more modern” would have been better than just “modern” for “later”. LOSE=WASTE is very loose (sorry!). Similarly WEED=DRIP.

    My favourites were actually my last two in – SQUID and TEUTON. I took “shilling + quid” gives “guinea”. (I won’t mention the “sick squid” joke – oh, I just did.)

  2. Thanks Eileen, including for parsing 14A. I got the 8D theme early: the ‘industrious thing’ had to be BEE. But being dumb on classical music, I still struggled, though did finish sans aids. 1A was hard, and SQUID was last in. All lots of fun.

  3. Re 4 down: the nickname of Beethoven’s piano sonata no 15 is normally given as ‘Pastorale’, this being the French, Italian and Italian form

  4. Paul, like The Rev, often has me scurrying for Google which I enjoy. Smutfree, uncharacteristically. Great stuff to brighten a grey day.

  5. I loved this.I pretty much guessed what 8 down was and the parsing made it all the more fun.Brilliant surface.A really good Paul puzzle.

  8. Thanks Eileen (and Paul) – I enjoyed this, though I found it hard to get started, and had a struggle to finish off in the NW corner, my LOIs being RED SQUARE and SQUID (for which I think your parsing is correct).

    I think none of the nicknames used in this puzzle were given to the sonatas by Beethoven himself (I was sorry – though not surprised – not to see WALDSTEIN, APPASSIONATA or HAMMERKLAVIER). MOONLIGHT is particularly inappropriate for the work as a whole: see here for a humorous take. (Music geeks may enjoy the other cartoons in the series.)

  9. Thanks to Paul for a cracking puzzle, and to Eileen who – sorry to pick nits – seems to have been so dazzled by the gem-like 1d that she forgot to include the ‘d’ from dissenters in the parsing.

  11. I loved this one. I guessed at many of the clues from the definition, but it was fun then trying to work out the word play. Among plenty of excellent clues, my favourites were the ‘GRAN DO’ in 14, RED SQUARE, DURABLE and TINPOT.

    Thank you to Paul and Eileen.

  12. Really enjoyed this even though it took me ages to get started – didn’t get any answers in until I reached 24ac. So many good clues but my favourites were 1 & 18d.

    Needed your help with the parsing of “square” in 9ac, Eileen – a “doh” moment when I read it! Thank you for the blog.

    Many thanks to Paul for yet another excellent puzzle.

  13. Really enjoyed this, though agree that it’s often a process of guess the answer and then parse. Btw Eileen, I think I in grand piano is actually the last letter of Martini, rather than ‘one’ . Thanks to Paul and Eileen.

  15. Thanks Paul; I found this particularly tricky and not as enjoyable as some of his.

    Thanks Eileen; I couldn’t parse RED SQUARE. I also got 8 from MOONLIGHT but that didn’t help much although Google came to my rescue. Pathétique to me means Tchaikovsky and Wiki says: ‘Tchaikovsky himself, having supposedly approved his brother’s Russian word ???????????? (“Patetit?eskaja”) for the work (a better translation of which is “passionate” in English)…’ Ah, so it’s passionate rather than pathetic.

    I liked the GRAN DO.

  16. Oddly, both of the Georges in 18d were pseudo-Georges; George
    Orwell was the pseudonym of Eric Blair, and George Eliot was the pseudonym of Mary Anne Evans.

    Thank you, Paul and Eileen. Lovely blogging as ever.

  17. Thank you Paul for a great puzzle and Eileen for yet another super blog.

    I parsed many of the answers post solve, and needed Eileen’s help with several.

    Andrew @8, the Hammerklavier sonata was composed by Beethoven after he had received a GRAND PIANO as a gift from Broadwood, and the Waldstein was dedicated to the member of the TEUTONic Order Count Waldstein, so those two sonatas sort of got a mention.

    Here is an interesting story about GEORGE Bridgetower, there are also BEETHOVEN violin SONATAS…

    http://www.classicfm.com/composers/beethoven/guides/key-people-beethovens-music-and-life-george-bridge/

  18. Thoroughly enjoyed this, despite kicking off with the wrong version of WHAT at 13a. I spotted the SONATA element of 8d quite quickly and then (having already entered MOONLIGHT, PATHETIQUE and PASTORAL) scratched my head for ages trying to recall a Beethoven sonata that might fit the nine letters of the first word. Honestly!!
    Thanks P and E.

  19. Wonderful puzzle, although like one or two others it took me a long time to get going. SQUID was brilliant; I got ZANIEST early on which helped with CROSSWORD PUZZLE. Wrestled with GRAND PIANO for some time (LOI), but great clue. TEUTON was also good. Many thanks to Paul and Eileen.

  20. Definitely one from Paul’s top drawer, and a bit tricky in places – it didn’t help that I had TEMPEST as my first SONATA and wasn’t familiar with that one. TEUTON was last in, liked that and BY GEORGE.

    Thanks to Paul and Eileen

  21. The tick-rate was high today. There’s just so much invention here, as well as a theme that’s not afraid of a bit of high culture (not that I’m dismissing Paul’s use of Britney Spears et al in previous times). EGOS – great surface-to-solution. SQUID, TINPOT – such clever hidden charades. DURABLE – I was trying to fit in a backwards Lorca, only to find that of course the Spanish poet was El Bard. Yes, maybe that’s not the first Spanish poet that comes to mind, and indeed I needed to get the answer before the parsing, but isn’t that part of the game sometimes?

    By the way, I see 1d as very much a challenge to the talkboards, daring an ‘indignant line-up’ to challenge the setter. Well not today surely. On hang on, it’s only just gone 2 in the afternoon … Who will dissent? Well, muffin @1 a bit … any more think you’re hard enough?

  22. Thanks, Eileen – I solved this puzzle but needed your explanations in four of the clues.

    This was a well-crafted puzzle, as I have come to expect from Paul. I also liked the theme, which today wasn’t hidden, having the prominent label ‘8’ throughout. (I never spot hidden themes, in case any of you wondered.)

    It’s odd that in a discussion of the word ‘devotee’ in yesterday’s blog Beethoven was given as an example of something or somebody that one can be a devotee of. I happen to be a devotee of Beethoven and his works – making today’s puzzle all the more enjoyable.

  23. Thanks to Paul and Eileen. Thanks to the BEE in 8D I caught on to the sonatas early on so that this puzzle went smoothly for me, though I needed Eileen’s help parsing SQUID (I didn’t get the S), RED SQUARE, ADRIATIC (I didn’t catch drip = weed), and THEME PARK (EMP was new to me). Great fun.

  24. I really enjoyed this despite finding it difficult. MOONLIGHT was the key for me from which I woorked both backwards and forwards,if you see what I mean. I liked BY GEORGE and SQUID. LOI was EGOS which I confess I didn’t understand.
    Lovely stuff.
    Thanks Paul.

  25. Eileen has made me feel like a total perv! After getting a few down clues, I easily filled in GRAND PIANO, but for some reason whenever I see “knees-up” – a term I only know from cryptics – my mind always goes to a dirty place (knees much higher up than the expression intends, I suppose), so I parsed the outside of the clue as being the GRAND O! Sorry if that’s TMI.

  26. What a wonderful puzzle. (Especially after yesterday’s dog’s breakfast.)

    Elegantly and accurately clued throughout. Lots of fun.

    By the way Bembo @3 The Pastoral, in my experience, is equally called the Pastoral, Pastorale and Pastorala. (Sometime all three on the same CD. It depends on the language.) However I think we can all agree on the English version.

    Thanks to Eileen and Paul

  29. Thanks Paul and Eileen

    Found this one of the hardest puzzles by this setter that I’ve done recently. The fact that 8d was amongst the last 5-10 answers to go in indicates how far off I was with it today. Still enjoyed it immensely.

    There were three that were left unparsed – the clever SQUID, the MET part for TEMPEST and the everything other than CROSS in 1d.

    Finished in the NE corner with the cleverly constructed THEME PARK, TEMPEST and TEUTON (which took much longer than it should have after the second last, having tried to find if DEU|TON was a German word for something).

    Eileen, at this late stage it is probably being pedantic and largely irrelevant, but there may be a small typo with 19a – according to Wiki, PATHETIQUE was Sonata No 8.

  31. Hi Neil @30

    Chambers – ‘LIGHT: in a crossword, the word [or sometimes an individual letter in the word] on the diagram which is the answer to a clue’.

  32. Thanks Eileen and Paul.

    As ever with this setter, it took a while to get going and even longer to get the theme.

    But none the worse for that as I experienced a long line of ‘ahas’ as I progressed through.

    Lots of ticks for favourite clues including the very clever SQUID.

    Interestingly, I had not come across the term LIGHT for part of a crossword grid before this week – the same is used by WANDERER in FT 15,109.

    Good stuff.

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