Guardian Cryptic 26,790 by Puck

by

The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26790.

Puck certainly lives up to his name. There are all kinds of mischief to sort out here, and, although I made steady progress, it took longer than most Guardians to solve and blog. There is an ingeneous double theme with BARRY JOHN, the great Welsh Rugby player, and JOHN BARRY, the film composer.

Across
1 OUTSTRIPS Takes off faster, so leaves behind … (9)
If one ‘takes off’ – clothes – ‘faster’, it might be said that one OUTSTRIPS others.
6 DR NO … one of 26 22 down’s daughters, starting to head out of Czech city (2,2)
A charade of D (‘Daughters starting’) plus [b]RNO (‘Czech city’) minus its first letter (‘head out of’). John Barry was the (uncredited in this film) arranger of the James Bond theme, but not its composer.
8 STUBBIES Second fattest short bottles of beer (8)
A charade of S (‘second’) plus TUBBIES[t] (‘fattest’) minus its last letter (‘short’).
9   See 1 down
10 AFTERS Pudding in place for tea, we hear (6)
AFTER S (T in the alphabet, ‘place for tea, we hear’). Pudding as a general term for dessert.
11 REEDIEST Start off with most voracious appetite, being extremely tall and thin? (8)
[g]REEDIEST (‘with most voracious appetite’) minus its first letter (‘start off’).
12 SCRUMP Get the fruit of another’s labour? That’s a feature of 22 down 26’s game plan, initially (6)
A charade of SCRUM (‘a feature of 22 down 26’s game’ – 22D,26 being the Rugby player BARRY JOHN) plus P (‘Plan initially’). To scrump originally meant to pick up windfall apples (scrumpy is coarse cider – for US followers, read hard cider) but is often used for behaving like Autolycus, “a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles”.
15 DROP GOAL 22 down 26’s trademark wild dog and polar bears (4,4)
An anagram (‘wild’) of ‘dog’ plus ‘polar’. ‘Bears’ seems to be just along for the ride.
16 SPACINGS Good-for-nothing actor providing new content for Sun’s gaps in layout? (8)
‘S[un]’s’ whith the UN replaced by PACING (‘providing new content’), where PACING is PACINO (‘actor’) with the O replaced by G (‘good-for-nothing’. Sorry, Al).
19 MARTYR Just in, without a break, for one-month try-out (6)
A charade of MAR (ch, ‘one-month’) plus TYR, an anagram (‘out’) of ‘try’. Justin (‘without a break’) Martyr was a second century Saint.
21 DISABLED Put out of action by baddies running round lake (8)
An envelope (’round’) of L (‘lake’) in DISABED, an anagram (‘running’) of ‘baddies’.
22 BOTHER Trouble as one taking orders runs away (6)
B[r]OTHER (‘one taking orders’ – hasn’t a brother already taken holy orders?) without the R (‘runs away’).
24 OCELLI Recalled sickly green eyespots on peacock (6)
A reversal (‘recalled’) of ILL (‘sickly’) plus ECO (‘green’).
25 BORN FREE Robben half-heartedly upset with ref giving score by 26 22 down (4,4)
An anagram (‘upset’) of ‘Rob[b]en’ minus one of the two middle Bs (‘half-heartedly’) plus ‘ref’. Arjen Robben is a Dutch soccer player (there is also another less prominent German footballer, Jens Robben). John Barry write the music for the film.
26   See 22 down
27 SPRAY TANS Soft form of sunlight featuring in Laurel’s beauty treatments (5,4)
An envelope (‘featured in’) of P (piano, ‘soft’ musically) plus RAY (‘form of sunlight’) in STAN’S (‘Laurel’s’).
Down
1, 9 OUT OF AFRICA Foot slipped going round bend? If a car crashed, it’s one of 26 22 down’s (3,2,6)
A charade of OUTOF, an envelope (‘going round’) of U (‘bend’) in OTOF, an anagram (‘slipped’) of ‘foot’; plus AFRICA, an anagram (‘crashed’) of ‘if a car’. John Barry wrote the music for the film.
2 TABLEAU Frozen scene able to be negotiated by Greek character (7)
An envelope (‘to be negociated’) of ‘able’ in TAU (‘Greek character’).
3 TRIES 22 down 26 scores, when starting regularly in games (5)
An envelope (‘in’) of R (‘starting Regularly’) in TIES (‘games’).
4 INSURED Having cover pulled up from under us, nightly (7)
A hidden (‘from’) reversed (‘pulled up’) answer in ‘unDER US NIghtly’.
5 STATEROOM Sat around near small cafe, lacking a place for formal occasions (9)
A charade of STA, an anagram (‘around’) of ‘sat’ plus TE[a] ROOM (‘small café’) minus the A (‘lacking a’).
6 DARLING Flower girl and criminal (7)
An anagram (‘criminal’) of ‘girl and’. The River Darling is in Australia.
7 NECESSARY Essential scenes shot before virgin blows top (9)j
A charade of NECESS, an anagram (‘shot’) of ‘scenes’ plus [m]ARY (‘virgin’ – deceptively uncapitalsed this time) minus the first letter (‘blows top’).
13 CAPRICCIO (300+10)/¼ = score from free play? (9)
An envelope (‘/’ – divided by) of APR I (All Fools’ Day, ‘1/4’ in the British notation) in CCC (‘300′) plus IO (’10’). A capriccio is a free-form musical composition.
14 PENALTIES 22 down 26 scores one steel pan arrangement (9)
An anagram (‘arrangement’) of I (‘one’) plus ‘steel pan’.
17 CHAPLIN Place in Bond film — one of 26 22 down’s (7)
An envelope (‘in’) of PL (‘place’) in CHAIN (‘Bond’ – with a deceptive capital). John Barry wrote the music for Richard Attenborough’s film (the cimematographer was Sven Nykvist, no less).
18 SIDEBAR Windows feature in mirror (a bed isn’t in reflection) (7)
A hidden (‘in’, the first one) reversed (‘in reflection’) answer in ‘mirroR A BED ISn’t’. The Windows Sidebar was so called only in Windows Vista.
20 RATAFIA Liqueur drunk at a fair (7)
A anagram (‘drunk’) of ‘at a fair’.
22, 26 BARRY JOHN One who scored piece of music found in front of unsigned library book (5,4)
All sorts of deviousness here. A charade of BAR (‘piece of music’ but not a complete one) plus RY (‘[libra]ry’ without LIBRA {‘sign’ of the zodiac}) plus JOHN (‘book’ of the New Testament). For once the ‘one who scored’ is not a composer, but the Welsh Rugby player – although swapping the two names gives JOHN BARRY, who was a composer, and appears as such in 6A, 25A, 17D and 1,9D.
23 EVENS Fair chance of taking time out from equestrian competitions? (5)
A subtraction: EVEN[t]S (‘equestrian competitions’) minus the T (‘taking time out’).
completed grid

63 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 26,790 by Puck”

  1. Hard going. Took me ages to get the ‘reversible’ gateway clue which I still couldn’t really parse (JOHN for ‘book’ – obvious now) and plenty of other hard ones, including a few new words (OCELLI and RATAFIA). Some excellent clues though, especially SCRUMP, SPACINGS (liked the ‘good-for-nothing actor’), SPRAY TANS (I kept trying to fit ‘bays’ in) and CAPRICCIO which I parsed as you did. Thanks for explaining AFTERS which I guessed correctly but couldn’t get the wordplay – very clever. I didn’t know that STUBBIES was a term used outside Australia, or at least would be familiar to those in the UK.

    Thanks to Puck and PeterO

  3. Phew, that was hard! Missed the name swap at first so thought it was going to be all about rugby, about which I know very little, relieved when I saw that it wasn’t. That said, I was impressed by the many clever clues – thank you Puck.

    Many thanks too to PeterO for the blog. Really appreciated your help with the parsing of afters & capriccio.

  4. Thanks, PeterO for a super blog of a super puzzle.

    This was such a lot of fun! My first one in was the easy anagram BORN FREE, which immediately gave 26,22 -and I knew I as in for a treat. Such a clever [and interesting] double theme, which was so deftly exploited. – a delight from beginning to end.

    Top favourite clues [out of many great ones] were SPACINGS [good-for-nothing], CAPRICCIO [1/4], CHAPLIN [Bond film] and BARRY JOHN [library book] – brilliant!

    Many thanks, as ever, to Puck, for putting a big smile on my face at the beginning of what might be a miserably wet and windy day.

  5. Thanks Puck and PeterO

    Very clever. I got into it from the ROBENREF anagram, thus John Barry, thus Barry John. Favourites were (LOI) DARLING for the misdirection, and SCRUMP.

    Two quibbles: how can “extremely tall and thin” have an “est” ending? That’s a superlative, requiring comparison. Also I did know “stubbies”, but only from Australian films; I don’t think the term is used in Britain.

  6. Forgot to say that I didn’t parse CAPRICCIO (I tend to blank clues with “maths” in them) or SPACINGS, having spent some time trying to work out how to get from (Kevin) SPACEY to the answer.

  7. Thanks to Puck & PeterO.
    Didn’t know the Australian river…thought of “flower” as a term of endearment.
    Minor quibble. I was not keen on “able” appearing in the clue and answer for 2d.

  8. Hi muffin @5

    Re extreme[ly]:

    Collins: of the highest degree or intensity: the highest or furthest degree…
    SOED: outermost; endmost, situated at either of the ends; utmost, uttermost…
    Chambers: last; highest in degree; greatest…

    Is that enough superlatives? 😉

  10. Superp blog, wonderful puzzle. I have to single out 13d for inventiveness (Puck’s) and ingenuity(Peter’s). But that was just one of many delights. Thanks to both, from a relative newcomer.

  11. thanks to Puck for a marvellous puzzle. I had to throw in the towel on 13d, so thanks PeterO for the help there.
    I really love the “get the fruit of another’s labour” idea for scrumping. Brilliant

  12. Thanks to Puck & PeterO.

    I enjoyed this – what an ingenious theme! I quickly got the rugby answers but struggled with the films.

    Coincidentally, there was another John/Bond/007 link in the Grauniad’s letter page today. John Dee, the Elizabethan spy, was supposed to have used the cryptic signature 007 (after, supposedly, a visit to Manchester)

  13. @6dn, Darling as a river in Australia having temporarily escaped me for some reason, I took ‘flower’ to be ‘DARLING’ because they are both terms of endearment. I think that works, just about, but obviously ‘flower’ as river is better.
    It took me a while for BARRY JOHN, as opposed to JOHN BARRY, to appear, because I had assumed that 22,26 was a Guardian misprint for 26,22. Realising that they haven’t made a mistake sometimes adds to the piquancy!
    Thanks to Puck for a great puzzle, and to PeterO, especially for the enlightenment re 6 dn.

  14. It took me a long time to get BARRY JOHN (it suddenly came to me while I was shaving), but I thought it was a great puzzle. OCELLI was new to me; CAPRICCIO very clever; and I liked MARTYR, AFTERS (now I understand the parsing) and SPACINGS (brilliant). Many thanks to Puck and PeterO.

  15. Inventive, but having never heard of either BARRY JOHN or JOHN BARRY I found this slow going. Quite surprised to finish it at all, in fact.

  17. Thanks Puck and PeterO.

    Fantastic clues and a super blog. I at first thought I would get nowhere trying to solve this, but it fell into place (I did google John Barry). I needed help in parsing SPACINGS and TRIES (did not get there with sTaRtIng regularly!).

    Too many good clues to list, but I particularly liked MARTYR and CAPRICCIO.

    I thought SCRUMP was praedial larceny, it still carries the death penalty in Jamaica if it is from a pastor’s orchard/land (and many people want that extended to cover all cases!).

  18. Wagonman @16. Up to you, of course, but isn’t that rather a dogmatic approach? There are posters above who struggled because they weren’t familiar with either or both of JB and BJ, but nevertheless managed to complete, and to a greater or lesser extent enjoy, the crossword. Somewhat to my shame, as a musician, I was unaware (or had forgotten) that JB had composed the non-Bond Barry scores referenced here (Born Free, Chaplain, Out of Africa) but they were all gettable from the cryptic parts and crossers (Chaplain being the trickiest because of the added misdirection in the capitalised Bond – clever but non-Ximenean, I would hazard).

    I’d say that this was an echt , and excellent, cryptic, not a ‘quasi cryptic’, and that by binning it you’ve missed out on an enjoyable solve. After all, most cryptics contain elements of general knowledge (names of plants, rivers, chemical symbols to name but three). I know very little about Rugby Union, but knew enough to recognise Barry John (though at first I found myself thinking of Barry Sheen), and to get the pretty basic elements of the sport referenced here, with more ease than I sometimes encounter when trying to think of the names of plants. Here the general knowledge was themed, indeed double-themed, but I’d say it was none the worse for that.

  20. Thanks both. I thought this an excellent puzzle, my only quibble being STUBBIES which isn’t a UK expression for a beer bottle.

  21. Thanks Puck and PeterO

    I loved this, with Puck’s typically inventive clueing.

    Shirl @ 20: my wife often drinks those little bottles of Stella, and we do refer to them as stubbies.

    Wagonman @ 16: as per site policy posts are supposed to be valid, constructive, and relevant to the puzzle in question. If you haven’t done it I don’t see how a post can meet any of those criteria. Ho hum.

  22. Re STUBBIES: I’m constantly amazed at what can be dredged up from ‘the back of the mind’, as Bamber Gascoigne used to say.

    This rang a bell and our brilliant archive led me to a puzzle [24,760] from 2009[!!] from [appropriately] Auster, which included several antipodean expressions. The clue for STUBBIES was ‘Filthy stalls containing poor bub’s little bottles’. [I see that I commented on the blog that I didn’t know either ‘bub’ or ‘stubbies’. I confess I had totally forgotten ‘bub’.]

  25. Simon S @ 21 – I suppose that “stubbies” is one of the invasive words and expressions that we have accept have made a home here – most have come from the US. I reserve the right to be grumpy about them though! {have any other grumps noticed how people ordering in restaurants now say “can I get…” rather than “can I have…”?}

  27. A delightful solve. Failed to parse CAPRICCIO adequately (thanks PeterO) but otherwise enjoyed Puck’s witty games. Unsigned, indeed…..! Being a musician AND a rugby fan helped – but not as much as you might think.

  28. Re Wagonman et al.
    When I was a lot younger,midweek xwords would be ‘armchair’ with no need of esoteric ref books. Nowadays the arm of the chair has a smartphone on it and unless you are a hair-shirt solver, that is fair game.
    Slow solve but worth the effort.

  29. Enjoyed this one a lot – entertaining but with a couple of educational solutions (OCELLI, RATAFIA and CAPRICCIO) and a few decidedly tricky parsings and a nicely worked double theme. SPACINGS was last in.

    Thanks to Puck and PeterO

  30. An immensely entertaining crossword. Thanks PeterO for help with the 1/4 and the unsigned library book. Very clever.

    I too got a bit too obsessed with Kevin Spacey in 16 and wrote in DRESS at 23 (DRESSAGES for equestrian competitions without AGES for time) which I admit was seriously sloppy on my part. That got me into all sorts of trouble with BOTHER where I had written in BETIDE which just added to my woe.

  31. Parsing SPACINGS was well beyond me – when I finally got it, like Bob Clary @30 I presumed it was something to do with Kevin Spacey. That’s the trouble with ‘actor’, there’s a lot to choose from. Czech cities, on the other hand, not so many. Shouldn’t grumble though, I both know what a CAPRICCIO is and how it parsed. Each to their own, essentially.

    Loved the double play on BARRY / JOHN – I came to the film version via OUT OF AFRICA but was confused for a while by the apparent error in some of the clues. SPRAY TANS my favourite among many.

  32. Thanks for help with parsing – especially 13, where I couldn’t see where APRI came from. I’d never heard of B.J., but soon deduced that he played Rugby, in which I have zero interest. Also J.B. was obvious from the African films, I needed Google to find he’d also scored Chaplin.

  33. A chacun son gout. I found this a quicker solve than usual, though still delightfully devious. I tackled the themed names first off. Without noticing that they were in a different order, and without having heard of either, it was soon pretty obvious they were a film composer and a rugby player. It would have been no fun if I’d known in advance what films the relevant Barry had scored, but I didn’t and greatly enjoyed the guessing game.

    Thanks, Puck and PeterO.

  34. Thanks to Puck and PeterO. I got BORN FREE early on and, thanks to Google, found John Barry, OUT OF AFRICA, and CHAPLIN, but took quite a while before seeing Barry John and the RU dimension (TRIES, DROP GOAL). I got SPRAY FANS and RATAFIA but did not know STUBBIES (one of my last in) and needed PeterO’s help parsing AFTERS, MARTYR (I missed the “just in”), and CAPRICCIO (though I did get the 3 Cs/300). For a US solver, more than the usual problems here, but I enjoyed the challenge and many of the clues.

  35. An excellent solve. I managed to work out the parsing for BARRY but the JOHN bit took a while longer. I think STUBBIES is fine – check the beer listings on most UK supermarket websites.

  36. I was expecting to dislike this once the rugby connection appeared- I’ve never heard of Barry John- but it proved to be a most enjoyable puzzle. It certainly cheered me up on this miserable afternoon!
    Once the JB connection appeared I was away-although I’d forgotten CHAPLIN- and the rest gradually yielded with virtually no knowledge of rugby required. I can’t say I got all the parsing- SPACING, CAPRICCIO- but I managed the rest. Too many favourites to list.
    Thanks Puck.

  39. Got a bit distracted by thinking 12 across might be gazump. Got there in the end though apart from Chaplin which I had to look up on this site.

  40. I’m a bit of an amateur at cryptics so I come on here afterwards to fill in the gaps! I must admit I always feel nervous when there is a heavily referenced clue and so it was today. Couldn’t figure that one out so 30% of the puzzle was blind to me. One for more experienced solvers maybe…

  41. Thanks to Puck for some fantastic misdirection and accurate clueing – loved it! Favourite was the pseudo-arithmetic; LOI was AFTERS and needed PeterO’s help (thank you) to parse this one (doh!).

    -Encota-

  42. I finished and parsed all of this although I found it a slog.

    Some nice clues but the subject matter was tedious. (Music of the John Barry oeuvre, James Bond and rugby must all be well up in my top 50 of “Most Disliked Things”. )

    Of course I had to check that Mr Barry was to blame for the music in all the films after I got them. I was aware of Mr John, possibly because of his reversible name and the rules of rugby are known to me.

    Thanks to PeterO and Puck

  43. Stuart Drysdale @40

    Welcome. I am happy to be of service. Perhaps Puck was being over-ambitious in making the key 22D/26A such an elaborate clue. Of course, the references to 26/22 were an extra hint – once you realized they were not Grauniad typos!

  44. Well, you lot have said pretty much all I was going to say. I thoroughly enjoyed this and would like to echo what Rog @18 said in response to Wagonman @16. I too groaned when I saw the double theme, which luckily enough I got very early on. I’m not interested in Bond films and know very little about rugby.

    However, experience got me through, plus knowledge of the two Australian terms (STUBBIES and DARLING) from time spent in the country. Considering what the themes were I was chuffed to finish the puzzle.

    Puck was ingenious today but also devious. This is not a gripe at all but an indication that he caught me out a few times – great fun.

    A few little things to add:

    I too remain puzzled about ‘bears’ in 15A.

    It’s Arjen, not Arlen, Robben (the footballer) – ref. 25A.

    It’s great to see ‘a chacun son gout’ used in this way for a change – Ian SW @33. With accents it is à chacun son goût. The alternative chacun a son goût should not have an accent over the ‘a’. Dictionaries get this wrong, although Brewer’s is an exception.

    I must thank PeterO for the excellent blog, which helped me out with the parsing of 3 or 4 of the clues after the event.

    And thanks to Puck for the excellent crossword.

  45. Alan Browne @44

    25A corrected – well spotted. I’m sure it was Arjen when I typed it. I must have a word with my iPad.

  46. I’ll unlurk for a moment, to post that this had Sue and me smiling. Barry John is almost part of the furniture, at two of our locals in Pontcanna, Cardiff.

    I should think that by the next time that he draws up a chair, someone else will have mentioned this crossword’s shared theme to him however.

    Still, just for once we perhaps had a head start over the doctors, lawyers and classics graduates.

    Many thanks one and all.

  47. I got into this entertaining puzzle via DISABLED and then BORN FREE helped me with the theme. I’d heard of BARRY JOHN even though I know very little about rugby, and I knew JOHN BARRY through his film music. Even so, completing the puzzle was hard work. I couldn’t parse AFTERS, though it seems so obvious now, and it took me quite a while to parse CAPRICCIO after I entered it.

    Thanks, Puck and PeterO.

  48. [Martin P @46
    I was slightly gobsmacked at the number of contributors who hadn’t heard of Barry John. I do have a closer connection than most – at one stage the Uncle and Aunt that we visited (who moved around a lot) were living next door to him.]

  49. Nothing to add.
    So why posting a comment?

    To echo the praise for this wonderful puzzle with a theme that was a really nice find.

    I particularly liked the novel definition of 19ac (‘Just in, without a break’).
    I saw the idea rightaway and thought if it isn’t as I think it is, then I will ‘steal’ the idea.

    Thanks PeterO for the blog and Puck for an inspiring brainteaser.

  50. I’ve never heard of Barry John, but I barely know how to spell “rubgy”. Fortunately, Google steered me right when I searched for John Barry’s Tweedledum.

    Thanks, PeterO, for the mythological reference! Autolycan was only just yesterday my WotD at Wordsmith.org, and it was completely new to me. And thanks to Puck for a really fun puzzle. Loved CAPRICCIO!

  51. I got the “good for nothing” substitution right away, but then got stuck, so “spacings” was one of my last ones in.

    I’d never heard of either BJ or JB. I don’t think I’d heard of stubbies either, but it put itself together reasonably.

  52. Well, it can only be that ‘wild dog and polar’ bears as in ‘carries’ the answer. Padding, but that’s all I can see, but Puck doesn’t seem to have exactly an economical style! Example would be, if ‘daughters’ is D, as it is in many papers, then the rest of it, ‘starting to head out of Czech city’ is to account for the RNO, which is a very long way round! I don’t know if I’m right there of course.

  53. bill_taylor @52
    As PeterO put in the blog, “starting” goes with “daughter”, indicating to take just the “D”, but it could also be taken as indicating that the answer starts with the “D”. Then “head out of Czech city” tells you to remove the first letter from Brno. Although it could have been clued differently using fewer words, I don’t think it is particularly ‘uneconomical’.

  57. Simon S @56. Agreed, but if you wanted a train you went always to a RAILWAY station, at least when I was growing up.

  58. Don’t know if you’ll see this Alan, but I’ll send it anyway.

    I was certainly brought up on ‘railway station’, but train station is very common usage in the northwest, where I spent most of my formative years.

    With tongue firmly in cheek I would suggest that bus station and train station make better partners, as surely the logical equivalent to a railway station would be a roadway station? Wouldn’t it?

  59. Thanks Puck and PeterO

    Wonderful puzzle that I had a quick look at yesterday, but only really got stuck into today. Felt a little spolt getting gifted with a couple in STUBBIES (my first in) and DARLING – but as noted it was Australia Day !!!

    Got OUT OF AFRICA quite early on from the wordplay, but even then did not twig to 26, 22 (and got waylaid with the ‘Grauniad errors’ when seeing 22, 26), until I realised that I’d been Pucked !! 🙂

    Lots of interesting devices used throughout and was pleased to eventually see through all of them. The puzzle took most of the day on and off, which to me is the most enjoyable type !

  60. Simon S: still here, but expect you have gone by now! I bow to your knowledge of where the people of Irlams o’ the Height go to catch a train, but my copy of the OED gives train station as US usage only. Reminded, though, of my father, a grammar school English teacher, who always corrected any pupil who wrote TIRE instead of TYRE until he discovered that in 15/16th century both were perfectly acceptable in England and the latter spelling only became generally adopted there with the invention of the inflatable version.

  61. I now have to agree with Wagonman @16, having had to give up with 5 to go. I don’t like having to use Google and Wikipedia to do a crossword.

    Less like this please.

  62. Stared at this for ages till I twigged. But then…….,

    Brilliant in both concept and execution.

    Thanks Puck and PeterO.

  63. Joining in late as ever! That’s the trouble with living abroad and only getting the weekly. We also were unaware of the river Darling, but I have a brother-in-law from Burnley who frequently addresses me as “flower”, just as certain west-country shop-keepers address all their customers as “my lover”! Like Bill @ 52, we interpreted “bears” as “carries”. Ocelli and Capriccio new to me though hubby knew of the Richard Strauss opera by that name

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