Guardian Cryptic 26805 Tramp

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In spite of seeing the theme, apparent in the wording of the clues, this wasn’t easy for me. Thanks to Tramp (whose hallmark is themed crosswords). Definitions are underlined in the clues.

Across

1 Working class under this perhaps even better? (4,3)

FLAT CAP : FLAT(even;without an undulation) + CAP(to better;to surpass;to outdo).

Defn: Headgear associated with the working class.

5 Bad egg, Albert partially retired and scrounged (7)

BLAGGED : Hidden in(… partially) reversal of(… retired) “Bad egg, Albert “.

9 I’m going to pass on gold frames (5)

ADIEU : DIE(to pass on from this world) contained in(… frames) AU(symbol for the chemical element, gold).

Defn: What I might say as I’m going;farewell!

10 One takes off with paper — good things for sale (4,5)

TEST PILOT : TEST(a paper;an examination on a particular subject) + PI(religious;good, from “pious”) + LOT(a set of things for sale as one).

11 Harry H Corbett: a cross windbag (10)

CHATTERBOX : Anagram of(Harry;to disturb) [H CORBETT: A + X(letter representing a cross) ].

12 Rag and Bone (3)

RIB : Double defn: 1st: To tease.

14 Moving girl, Steptoe and Son: they might move furniture? (12)

POLTERGEISTS : Anagram of(Moving) GIRL, STEPTOE plus(and) S(abbrev. for “son”).

Defn: They of the paranormal kind creating mischief by moving furniture, throwing objects, etc. – only if you believe in them.

18 Maybe watch here — dodgy back? Steptoe runs inside (6,6)

BREAST POCKET : Anagram of(dodgy) BACK? STEPTOE containing(… inside) R(abbrev. for “runs”, in cricket scores).

Defn: Where you might have an old-fashioned timepiece on you.

21 Lug stuff that’s no good (3)

EAR : “gear”(personal articles;one’s stuff) minus(that’s no) “g”(abbrev. for “good”).

Defn: … from Scottish and Northern English dialect.

22 Wearing sweatshirt that’s most black (10)

SWARTHIEST : Anagram of(Wearing;eroding) SWEATSHIRT.

25 Hercules struggling to carry old Steptoe: like his attitude? (9)

LECHEROUS : Anagram of(… struggling) HERCULES contained in(to carry) O(abbrev. for “old”).

Hercules was the name of the horse in the theme.

26 Row over current smell (5)

NOISE : I(symbol for electrical current in physics) contained in(over …) NOSE(the characteristic smell of a wine or liqueur).

I was led astray for a while by the positioning of the containment indicator.

27 Arrange rubbish at front of carriage (7)

DISPOSE : DIS(slang for “to treat with contempt;to regard as nonsense”;to rubbish) placed before(at front of) POSE(a physical attitude;carriage;posture).

Answer: …, as in “man proposes, God disposes”.

28 Economical yard after the short argument (7)

THRIFTY : Y(abbrev. for “yard”, unit of length) placed after(after) [ “the” minus its last letter(… short) + RIFT(an argument causing a break in friendly relations) ].

Down

1 Endlessly lie when taking care of failure (6)

FIASCO : “fib”(a lie) minus its last letter(Endlessly …) + AS(when, as in “when you walk through that door”) plus(taking) CO(abbrev. for “care of”).

2 Part of hoof upset horse? (6)

ANIMAL : Reversal of(… upset) LAMINA(a thin layer of sensitive tissue in the hoof, say, of a horse)

Defn: … is an example;?).

3 See, audience judges work here? (10)

COURTHOUSE : COURT(to woo;to date;to see with intentions romantic) + HOUSE(the audience in a theatre or cinema).

4 Head, essentially dirty old man (5)

PATER : PATE(the human head) + the central letter of(essentially) “dirty “.

The theme’s catch-phrase was “You dirty old man”.

5 See man, mostly well off (9)

BISHOPRIC : BISHOP(a piece;a man in a chess game) + “rich”(well off) minus its last letter(mostly …).

6 While touring album peaks (4)

ALPS : AS(while, as in “as I am walking, I’m aware of things around me”) containing(touring) LP(abbrev. for “long-playing music album”).

7 Lots of prospects after this good antique career? (4,4)

GOLD RUSH : G(abbrev. for “good”) + OLD(antique) + RUSH(to career;to move in an uncontrolled way).

8 Files a bit around foot (8)

DATABASE : DATA(a piece of which is stored as a bit;a binary digit) + BASE(the area around the foot of a standing structure, say, a column).

Defn: … of recorded data.

13 One calling out “help” on programme after turning over film (10)

TELEPHONER : [ Anagram of(out) HELP + ON + ER(US television programme about a hospital emergency room) ] placed below(after, in a down clue) reversal of(turning over) ET(the Steven Spielberg sci-fi film).

15 “Sort rubbish? We must go outside” — put down characters without script? (9)

TYPEWROTE : TYPE(sort;kind) + ROT(rubbish) contained in(… must go outside) WE.

Defn: … ie. without handwriting.

16 Rests back in a bed and let oneself down (8)

ABSEILED : Reversal of(… back) LIES(rests on a surface) contained in(in) A BED.

Defn: … a steep slope with the use of rope secured from above.

17 Balconies tense? Royal Ascot meeting? (8)

TERRACES : T(abbrev. for “tense” in grammar) + ER(abbrev. for “Elizabeth Regina”, the chief Royal) + RACES(collectively, an Ascot racetrack meeting, say).

19 Concerning story, fellow gets help (6)

RELIEF : RE(with reference to;concerning) + LIE(a story that’s untrue) + F(abbrev. for “fellow”).

20 Determined, picking up bargain at end of day (6)

STEELY : Homophone of(picking up, aurally) “steal”(a bargain;something obtained cheaply) plus(at) the last letter of(end of) “day “.

23 Place again on TV (5)

RESET : RE(with reference to;on the subject of) + SET(the appliance that receives television programmes, also called “the TV”).

24 Woman’s over leading actor (4)

HERO : HER(the feminine third-person possessive pronoun;that woman’s, as in “her body”) + O(abbrev. for “over”, each set of balls bowled, in cricket scores).

36 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 26805 Tramp”

  1. I parsed 8 as A TAD (“a bit”) reversed (“about”).

    Being from across the pond, I wasn’t too familiar with the theme. Fortunately, I didn’t need to know too much about it, and we have a version called “Sanford And Son” anyway.

    Thanks scchua and Tramp!

  4. Thanks, scchua.

    Great puzzle, with brilliant exploitation of the theme! – especially in 5, 11, 12, 14, 18, 21, 25ac and 4dn.

    Favourite non-themed clue: TERRACES.

    Same here re 8dn.

    Huge thanks, Tramp – I loved it!

  6. Thanks Tramp and scchua

    Very clever, and a very satisfying solve. Quite often I thought “it must be that”, then several seconds later “of course, because….”.

    For some time I just had CHATTERBOX (I suspect that this clue gave Tramp the idea for the theme), and ALPS, then POLTERGEISTS (my favourite) went in and steady progress ensued. Other favourites were EAR for the definition, and STEELY for the misdirection of “picking up”; lots of other delights too, of course.

  7. Thanks both. Great puzzle, only TYPEWROTE seemed ugly, but I see it is in the dictionary. I suppose it has been superceded by “typed”

  8. This was fun even though I stuck on BLAGGED, finally guessed it must be a reversal and checked in the dictionary – I have never heard the word before.

    So many good clues, especially POLTERGEISTS, TERRACES, CHATTERBOX, RIB, EAR, LECHEROUS and BISHOPRIC.

    Thanks Tramp and scchua.

  9. What a wonderful puzzle! For me, CHATTERBOX is definitely clue of the year so far. Favourites included FIASCO, POLTERGEISTS and LECHEROUS. It was hard work but definitely worth the effort. Many thanks to Tramp and scchua.

  10. I really enjoyed myself and didn’t find it quite as tricky as some Tramp puzzles.

    It must be a long time since anyone TYPEWROTE, even way back when I learned to touch type we just ‘typed’.

    Thanks to Tramp and scchua

  11. As so often with Tramp, an entertaining and challenging puzzle with a theme on which no knowledge is required. STEELY was last in. Liked CHATTERBOX, SWARTHIEST and LECHEROUS

    Thanks to Tramp and scchua

  14. Really enjoyed this puzzle which brought back so many happy memories of a very funny pair. [Does anyone else remember their game of Scrabble? Priceless!]. Some excellent clues, too many to list

    Thank you so much; Tramp. Thanks too to scchua for the blog.

  15. Tough, but fair and entertaining. Pleased I managed it all except ANIMAL without the computer (Doh!). Thanks, Tramp and scchua.

  16. Just spent a few minutes agonising over whether to take a gamble on NOISE / STEELY until the penny finally dropped; like our blogger I might have been led astray by the containment indicator in 26a.

    Another good puzzle to end another good week. Bravo Guardian! If I had a quibble it’s that the sadly departed Harry H had good reason to be cross, having sacrificed a straight acting career for a typecast character, but was surely never a windbag.

  17. Thanks to Tramp and scchua. Tough going for a while, but I did not need to know Steptoe etc. to make progress eventually. I paused over several answers. E.g., I had forgotten that (in previous puzzles) tense = T so was not sure of TERRACES and was not certain that both NOISE and ANIMAL were correct. Last in were RIB and DISPOSE where I needed the crossers. A good end-of-the-week challenge.

  18. Lovely puzzle thanx Tramp and scchua. Fav probably 15d. could easily have dispensed with “We must go outside” portion of clue as Type = sort and Wrote = rubbish (Urban Slang).

  19. Great crossword. Thanks to Tramp, especially for devising clues for RIB and EAR that so cleverly and perfectly fitted your theme. And thanks to scchua for the blog, especially for parsing DISPOSE, and for reminding me of Hercules.

  20. I wasn’t as keen on this as some of you. Tramp isn’t one of my favourite setters and I often find his puzzles difficult to parse-NOISE and TYPEWROTE for example.
    Still, managed it with more than usual so that’s something of a plus.
    Thanks Tramp.

  22. Thanks scchua and Tramp.
    Superb puzzle! Got the theme but didn’t bother with identifying all the related clues.
    Fav: 18a, 1d, 16d and 17d

  23. thanks to Tramp for a great puzzle; CHATTERBOX just brilliant. I needed scchua to unpick DISPOSE though, for which grateful thanks

  26. I found this easier than some of Tramp’s themed puzzles, but I couldn’t fully parse the wordplay for FLAT CAP or TERRACES. LOI was POLTERGEISTS. I spent ages playing with the anagram, though it seemed so obvious once I saw it. I cringed at TYPEWROTE, even though it is in the dictionaries. Like others here, my favourite was CHATTERBOX.

    Thanks, Tramp and scchua.

  27. A great puzzle with lots of great clues. As I have said before the sign of a good setter is that the clues look impenetrable but with patient study suddenly become “easy, why didn’t I see that”s!

    Lots of fun and aha moments.

    My only comment, which isn’t a criticism, is that yet again Tramp has a “theme” which does not really require the solver to know anything about it. Also barring one or two answers the theme is absent from the answers and even then the solver doesn’t need the theme?

    I have previously said that this possibly makes the setting more interesting but does very little for me as a solver. However Eileen for one obviously appreciates this so I guess there are others who feel the same.

    Anyway thanks to Tramp for a great puzzle and scchua for the blog.

  28. I know what you mean Brendan but to put the theme in the solutions alienates people who know nothing about the theme. Anyone can fill a grid around a few theme words and then clue them. You’re right, putting the theme in the clues makes it interesting for me: but harder. Recently, I have questioned whether the extra effort is worth it. Also, I find it a struggle coming up with themes.

    Neil

  29. Like others, we found this a delightful puzzle – from the FOI (ALPS) to the LOI (DISPOSE).

    As a non-Brit I am not familiar with the ins and outs of Steptoe and Son.
    However, I know what it’s all about as we had a Dutch version on TV in the 60s (called Stiefbeen en Zoon).
    Beth, my PinC, made clear that a clue like 4d, containing ‘dirty old man’, was wholly appropriate as were others.

    This kind of themed puzzles I find a lot more appealing than the ones in which we have to discover that all of the across clues are birds.
    [meanwhile I also like ‘ghost themes’, a genre in which Qaos excels]

    Surely coincidental but yesterday we had Paul saying ‘I’m going’ for GOODBYE, today we had Tramp using the same definition in 9ac.

    Just like Eileen, my PinC had a soft spot for TERRACES (17d).

    Only clue I kind of disliked was 2d as the reversal indicator is in the middle of the two fodders.
    It could work either way, although the actual solution is likely the one to prefer.

    Thanks scchua (as some said, you should tweak 8d) and Tramp for a not too difficult crossword that raised lots of smiles.

  30. Tramp: this was sheer nostalgic delight. Your themed cluing added another delightful dimension to a very satisfying puzzle. Many thanks, and please keep ’em coming!

  31. Good tough solve, but one of my major grouches is the inclusion of “crossword only” words like telephoner and typewrote. I know one can justify their existence lexicographically (and there’s another one) but they’re not words anyone would ever use. Worse than archaic or obscure technical terms because they’ve probably never been said. Just saying . . .

  32. Interesting point from John McCartney above, but notwithstanding that I thought this was a very fine puzzle. Testimony to this is the fact that there are so many favourite clues. Mine, for the record, are FLAT CAP – nice definition, FIASCO – living in Hong Kong where we have so many of them I just like the word – and DISPOSE – my last in and another word that one doesn’t see often in Crosswordland.

  33. Thanks Tramp and scchua

    Only got to this on the weekend … and a thoroughly enjoyable solve. I do like Tramp’s ability to capture a theme almost totally within the surface reading of the clues. I may not be bothered to track them all down, a bit like scchua’s picture puzzle with the blog, but appreciate the effort that has been put in.

    Found it a medium difficulty puzzle for this setter. BLAGGED was my first one in even though I had never heard of the term – it was an obvious reverse hidden clue to me … and just needed a dictionary confirmation. I didn’t parse CHATTERBOX and so missed the cleverness of it until coming here.

    Finished in the NE corner with COURTHOUSE (which I made harder work of than I should have), the unparsed CHATTERBOX and the tricky ANIMAL as the last one in.

  35. Thanks scchua and Tramp.

    Good level of difficulty but got there in the end.

    Liked the theme and appreciated that it would also work for non-aficionados.

    Really enjoyed CHATTERBOX. Not sure I agree with the containment indicator in 26 but I solved it so it must be OK.

  36. I didn’t like telephoner at 13d but the rest was great. I don’t mind themed crosswords as long as you don’t have to be familiar with the theme!

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