Guardian Cryptic 26,834 by Arachne

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26834.

I was happy to miss blogging yesterday’s Boatman, and Arachne is a welcome sight. I would not say that this is one of her best – there are some surprisingly simple clues, and the odd quibble – but there are some lovely clues to compensate

Across
8 INTEGRAL Whole of oblique triangle (8)
An anagram (‘oblique’) of ‘triangle’
9 NAVELS Objects of contemp­lation left in parts of church (6)
An envelope (‘in’) of L (‘left’) in NAVES (‘parts of church’).
10 CONE 101, or 99? (4)
A charade of C (hundred) plus ONE (together giving ‘101’), for the ice cream cone with a Cadbury’s Flake.
11 ADMIRINGLY My darling and I intertwine with desire (10)
An anagram (‘intertwine’) of ‘my darling’ plus ‘I’. Obviously the surface accounts for the rather loose definition.
12 TROUGH Hollow in part of Yorkshire golf course? (6)
T’ ROUGH (‘part of golf course’ as a Yorkshire person might render it).
14 EXIGUITY Poorness of English team, half-heartedly shamefaced (8)
A charade of E (‘English’) plus XI (eleven, ‘team’) plus GUI[l]TY (‘shamefaced’) minus an inner letter (‘half-heartedly’).
15 IN SHAPE Pain he’s suffering to get fit (2,5)
An anagram (‘suffering’) of ‘pain hes’.
17 VERBOSE Wordy poetry about personal problem (7)
An envelope (‘about’) of BO (body odour, ‘personal problem’) in VERSE (‘poetry’).
20 SVALBARD Flipping dreary bogs in Arctic outpost (8)
A reversal (‘flipping’) of DRAB (‘dreary’) plus LAVS (‘bogs’, both colloquial for lavatories). I knew the Norwegian Arctic archipelago by its old name of Spitsburgen.
22 ABROAD Banks leaving Barbados to move overseas (6)
An anagram (‘to move’) of ‘[b]arbado[s] without its outer letters (‘banks leaving’).
23 INNOVATION New product in pub getting enthusiastic reception (10)
A charade of INN (‘pub’) plus OVATION (‘enthusiastic reception’).
24 POOL Betting money VW finally goes west (4)
POLO (a model of ‘VW’ car) with the last two letters reversed (‘finally goes west’).
25 LAXEST Rodin’s The Kiss is French — and most permissive (6)
A charade of LA (‘the’, French) plus X (‘kiss’, not particularly French) plus EST (‘is’, and we are back across the Channel).
26 EPITOMES Typical examples of sanctimonious writings on MDMA (8)
A charade of E (the drug ‘MDMA’) plus PI TOMES (‘sanctimonious writings’).
Down
1 ANDORRAN Accompanied by men, fled from mountain principality (8)
A charade of AND OR (‘accompanied by men’ – OR being Other Ranks, military ‘men’)  plus RAN (‘fled’).
2 MERE 24 across and nothing more (4)
Double definition.
3 BREATH Inhalation on entering water (6)
An envelope (‘entering’) of RE (‘on’) in BATH (‘water’).
4 SLUMPED Fallen plumes arranged end to end (7)
A charade of SLUMPE, an anagram (‘arranged’) of ‘plumes’ plus D (‘end to enD‘).
5 ENERGISE Add life to Greene’s novel about Haiti’s nadir (8)
An envelope (‘about’) of I (‘HaitI‘s nadir’) in ENERGSE, an anagram (‘novel’) of ‘Greenes’. Any reference to The Comedians remains strictly in the clue’s surface.
6 EVEN NUMBER 2 perhaps, yet more unfeeling (4,6)
Definition and literal interpretation.
7 ILLLIT 49 to 51, time to be gloomy (6)
A charade of IL (’49’) plus L (50) plus LI (’51’) plus T (‘time’). A couple of quibbles: 49 in standard Roman numerals is XLIX, and I would have hyphenated the answer – the triple L looks bizarre to me.
13 UNHALLOWED Sinful single nurses call for attention (10)
An envelope (‘nurses’) of HALLO (‘call for attention’) in UNWED (‘single’).
16 PEASANTY Rustic vegetables infested by insects? (8)
A charade of PEAS (‘vegetables’) plus ANTY (‘infested by insects?’).
18 SEASONED Rise as one, delighted to welcome veteran (8)
A (very well) hidden answer (‘to welcome’) in ‘riSE AS ONE Delighted’.
19 L-DRIVER She displays plates of meat to be probed by doctor (1-6)
An envelope (‘to be probed by’) of DR (‘doctor’) in LIVER (‘meat’).
21 VANDAL Damager of London museum going on trial at last (6)
A charade of V AND A (Victoria and Albert, ‘London museum’) plus L (‘triaL at last’).
22 AUNTIE First of attempts to free the BBC (6)
A charade of A (‘first of Attempts’) plus UNTIE (‘free’), for the fond soubriquet of the BBC.
24 PLOD Heavy tread of diplodocus (4)
A hidden answer (‘of’) in ‘diPLODocus’.
completed grid

65 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 26,834 by Arachne”

  1. Thanks PeterO and Arachne.

    Quick solve for me online, as .pdf (my usual method) gets loaded much later and we are already in Day Light Saving time, that gives us (in the US) even less time to solve….before bed.

    ANDORRAN was my last one in, and wordplay gave CONE and Google confirmed the ice cream ref. All’s well.

  2. Thanks Peter and brava Arachne: when the setter clearly is having fun, we must. Got the EVEN NUMBER readily but I too struggled with odds. For a while I imagined ‘once’ for 10A, not knowing about the flake, and though 7D is delightfully liquid it’s not in Colllins (o/l) with or without hyphen. I suppose in some places (Yorkshire?) 12A rhymes with rough.

  3. Thank you to Arachne and PeterO. Enjoyed this and at least could solve most of it after yesterday’s disastrous effort. I must admit I did not know what the “99” meant in 10a CONE; I only got it from the Roman numeral plus one. Nothing to do with Agent 99 and the “cone of silence” in “Get Smart”? I tried EXIGENCE at first for 14A and when it didn’t work with crossers had to find the variation “EXIGUITY” in the dictionary. I did not understand the “man” reference at all in 1d ANDORRAN so thanks PeterO, as this “OR” abbreviation was new to me. I agree that 7d “ILL-LIT” should have indicated a hyphenated (3-3) word. For 16D I filled in “PEASANTS” which jarred a bit, so again good now to know why, although can’t imagine in what context the word “PEASANTY” might be used and sound as technically correct as a word like “rustic”. Quite delighted that I knew about the “V and A” for 21d (as sadly I have never been there and only knew it from books), and also to guess “AUNTIE” for 22d as we also use that nickname for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation – “Auntie ABC”.

  4. Oh just to add my favourite was definitely 9a NAVELS. Do you think we have to be “navel-gazers” to ponder some of these clues as long as we do? Sometimes I go back to the crossword several times a day trying to nut out some answers.
    By the way, thanks to regular blogger Alan Browne who in Tuesday’s blog mentioned that “The Times” crossword is published here in “The Australian”. Alan, I did that one for many years but swapped to “The Guardian” as I found I was enjoying it more and did not enjoy the political slant of the articles in the Murdoch press. Prompted by you though, I may go back to attempting “The Times” crossword and try to source that online community as well. Warm regards.

  5. Thank you Spider Lady for an entertaining solve. Challenging but never boring. Thanks to PeterO for explaining CONE … I had a question mark until I came here.

  6. Been a while since I was on this site but wanted to applaud this after yesterday’s car crash. CONE is cute. But a few niggles. I too thInk 7d should be hyphenated and also question 16d as a real word. But overall, good stuff.

  7. Thank you PeterO and Arachne

    I failed to solve 10a and 24a. I have never heard of that ice cream before.

    I needed some help to fully parse 13d, 12a, 2d (as i failed to solve 10a i did not get the dd), 7d.

    My favourites were 17a, 6d, 7d, 22a, 25a, 20a, 21d.

  8. re 14 across EXIGUITY: ‘half-hearted[ly]’ in word play is usually taken to mean ‘remove one of a pair of the same letter which forms the centre of a word’, eg FUSSED would become FUSED. This is not how ‘GUITY’ is produced from GUILTY.

  9. Lying in bed this morning I was thinking that what I’d like this morning is an Arachne puzzle, and hey presto! As others have said there were a couple of quibbles, but I loved TROUGH, SVALBARD, POOL, SEASONED and UNHALLOWED. Many thanks to Arachne and PeterO.

  10. Julie@4- I used to do The Times but gradually became aware of what a monster the owner was.I stopped buying The Australian a long long time ago but occasionally i will grab one in a pub for a change.
    Just dont contribute a cent of your money.

    I think 7d would have been too easy with a different word count. The mistake in solving 16 was an easy one to make(yep guilty)- the word could almost be a compliment in some circs.

    Thanks Arachne and peter.

  11. the brilliant sing-song of the surface of 11 reminds me a bit of Arachne’s recent clue for “pre-Raphaelites”, but I think 19d is my pick of today’s puzzle; I’ve been chuckling on and off about it for the last hour (well, that and drolfe’s sharing of bedroom fantasies!)
    Thanks to Arachne and PeterO

  12. An enjoyable solve. I needed help with CONE and reluctantly (and wrongly) inserted PEASANTS. I laughed out loud at NAVELS. A good start to the day. Thanks, Arachne and PeterO.

    molonglo @2, TROUGH should be read as T’ROUGH – allegedly the Yorkshire pronunciation of ‘the rough’.

  13. What a treat – thanks Arachne for a lovely start to Thursday morning – I agree with Baerchen that 19d is the top favourite but there are many other clues on the runners-up list.

    Thanks to Peter) too.

  14. In 12ac, T’ is the conventional spelling of the North-of-England dialectal form of the definite article, phonetically often just a glottal stop. So yes, T’ROUGH = the rough.

  17. Thanks for the blog, PeterO.

    Good humour restored by the wonderful Arachne. I agree with baerchen and crypticsue [no surprise there] – thanks, baechen, for the reminder of the brilliant anagram:
    ‘They painted flowing hair and apple trees’.

    I thought CONE was a lovely little gem – it prompted me to wonder, again, why the 99 was so called but apparently even Cadbury’s can’t remember:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99_Flake

    Many thanks, as ever, to Arachne.

  18. Thanks Arachne and PeterO.

    Most enjoyable. The parsing of 1d had me confused for a while since I wanted ANDRO-, male prefix, to fit in, and I had never heard of the 99 CONE! SVALBARD and L-DRIVER were fun and SEASONED really well hidden.

  19. molonglo @15 – someone with a strong Yorkshire accent would probably pronounce T’ROUGH as truff and TROUGH as troff, so for that person the two wouldn’t be homophones. To me, Arachne’s neat clue seems to depends more on spelling (ignoring punctuation) than sound.

  20. molonglo @2 etc

    I think the fault in 12A TROUGH lies in my description. I should have written something to the effect that it is the conventional way of writing a Yorkshire person’s rendering of the phrase. I did consider amending the blog, but it was awkward to make it read clearly, and, like ilippu @1, I was short of time.

  21. Thanks both. Enjoyed this more than yesterday’s!

    {the PEASANTY discussion reminds me of my mother’s advice when serving up dodgy food – “if it looks a mess, call it rustic, and if it’s burnt, say that it’s caramelised!”}

  22. Thanks Arachne & PeterO.

    Good stuff, as ever, from the spider lady with lots of good clues, including those for NAVELS, SVALBARD, LAXEST, UNHALLOWED & VANDAL.

    Like others, I fell ILL-LIT should definitely be hyphenated and the clue for PLOD was rather weak.

  23. The print version of 14A has ‘half-heartedly contrite’ . Shamefaced is certainly better. ‘Contrite’ doesn’t convey ‘guilty’ to me, so I did struggle a bit. My favourite was NAVELS, and I too thought ILLLIT needed a hyphen. Otherwise a lot easier than yesterday’s and has restored my faith (a little) in my solving skills.
    Thanks to Arachne and PeterO.

  24. Julie in Australia @4 and Steve @6

    In writing the blog, I took 16D PEASANTY as a standard formation, but it seems to be a recent usage – the OED supplement gives the first reference in 1933. If I used the word, it would probably be in the sense of faux rustic.

  25. PEASANTY seems to be used quite frequently in the fashion world and in cookery articles (the spell checker will not accept the word – it is in my 1995 COED, but not my 1964 edition).

  26. Thanks to all. I knew of the 99 from a previous puzzle (I think it showed up in a Paul a year or two back), and I thought that clue was quite clever. Also highlights for me were NAVELS, IN SHAPE (lovely surface), SVALBARD, VERBOSE, EVEN NUMBER, and PEASANTY.

    L-DRIVER was a mystery, since of course we have a different driver-education system here. POOL too, since the VW Polo isn’t a model sold here.

    [And for the folks @4 and 10 commenting about Rupert Murdoch–couldn’t agree more. I firmly believe that he bears much of the blame for the horror that is current American politics…but one of the rules of polite discourse is never to discuss politics or religion with strangers, so I’ll leave it at that.]

  27. Thanks to Arachne and PeterO. I have little to add to what’s already been said. I needed help understanding the T in TROUGH and was hesitant about the three Ls in ILLLIT (and had to look up SVALBARD and EXIQUITY) but still finished quickly. Very enjoyable.

  28. Oh dear! Is it just me but I found this somewhat bathetic. To see Arachne’s name is always a joy – and on a Thursday to boot. I naturally expected a joyful tussle but ten minutes and the game was over. I feel a little like a small boy who, on discovering a Christmas stocking at the end of his bed, finds it contains but one small satsuma and a few walnuts. I’m not saying this puzzle didn’t contain good fruit (and wonderfully composed as ever) – just not what I have come to expect, either from this great setter or from a Thursday.
    A big thank you to Arachne and Peter – and apologies for being a grouchy ingrate.

    [For what it’s worth, I thought yesterday’s Boatman was excellent in parts and I found the Screw delightful (in spite of others’ quibbles)]

  29. Thanks Arachne and PeterO

    Arachne is my favourite compiler, and when I started with the wonderful NAVELS I though I was in for a treat. Sadly I found too many quibbles for that to be the case, though T’ROUGH made me laugh.

    I’me afraid ILLLIT is doubly wrong – it only makes sense hyphenated, and, as PeterO pointed out, IL is wrong for 49 – the rule being that the subtracting numeral placed in front must be at least 1/10 the value of the numeral it precedes.

  31. At one point I was one of the tedious pedants who objected to things like IL instead of XLIX. Now I’m less tedious, or at least less pedantic. If you read “IL” not as a mistake but as two numbers, “one before fifty,” 49 is an OK, if a bit cheeky, way of saying it.

  33. Much expostulation in our household about ILLLIT – what is a hyphen for if not to make readable monstrosities like that?

    Wasn’t very keen on PEASANTY,either.

    Other than that, some nice cluing, as we have come to expect from arachne.

    Thanks to her & PeterO

  34. muffin @29

    Although I mentioned both points you make about 7D ILLLIT, I think you may be overstating the case. As the Wikipedia article points out:
    The “standard” forms … reflect typical modern usage rather than a universally accepted convention. Usage in ancient Rome varied greatly and remained inconsistent in medieval and modern times.
    Neither this article nor the reference quoted there specifically mentions the combination IL, both give instances of similar “infractions”.
    A for the hyphen, there is evidence for its absence.
    With three hyperlinks in one comment, I hay have to moderate it myself!

  35. Hi PeterO
    “With three hyperlinks in one comment, I hay have to moderate it myself!”

    Too late, I’ve already done so!

  37. I found this easier than most of Arachne’s puzzles, which for me was no bad thing. I couldn’t parse ANDORRAN or POOL (even though many years ago we had a VW Polo). I was perplexed by the middle L in ILLLIT, seeing the “to” just as signifying the conjunction of the two numbers, but it makes perfect sense now. I too would have hyphenated it, though. Favourites were CONE, VERBOSE, EVEN NUMBER and L-DRIVER.

    Thanks, Arachne and PeterO.

  38. Thanks all
    Rather enjoyable. Favourite was cone
    I failed to spot the hidden in 18d, a brilliant clue with a fiendish indicator!

  39. There are lots of compounds starting “ill”, and none that I can think of aren’t hyphenated – ill-natured, ill-omened, ill-tempered etc. etc. Why would Arachne choose not to hyphenate ill-lit?

  40. Late start but not so late as to finish at a reasonable hour. EXIGUITY was a new word, and last in UNHALLOWED. Alas I am one who dashed in PEASANTS, thinking it didn’t parse properly, but since ILL-LIT was wrongly enumerated, perhaps I’d just missed something.

  41. Started late and found this rather a slow solve for a puzzle by this setter although I do have a streaming cold so perhaps it’s me. Anyway, a great relief after yesterday’s disaster and a great deal to like- AUNTIE,L DRIVER and NAVELS. I had PEASANTS for 16dn which seemed OK to me.
    Anyway,thanks Arachne.

  42. My reading of 25ac is Rodin’s “the” (LA) kiss (X) is French (EST), not Rodin’s “the kiss” (LAX).
    I also agree with everyone who thinks illlit is illicit.

  43. Like most of you I really enjoyed the puzzle today.
    I liked 20A (SVALBARD) because I managed to solve it from the wordplay and only had to confirm it.
    12A (TROUGH) raised a smile.
    I stopped while still puzzling over 10A (CONE), 2D (MERE) and 24A (POOL) because I couldn’t immediately see what tricks the setter was using, but having come here I think they are fair enough.
    I carelessly put in PEASANTS instead of PEASANTY, but that was simply my error (but I have never heard of ‘peasanty’!).
    There were many neat clues, and my only gripe is about 7D (ILL-LIT), which should have been hyphened. (Also, there is no basis for IL being 49, but this record has been played many times on this site and is well understood now.)

    Big thanks to Arachne and PeterO.

  44. jeceris @ 42: I agree. I think the clue for LAXEST is absolutely OK – no problem with the X at all, as otherwise Rodin wouldn’t get a look-in!

  45. Julie @4

    [I have been visiting Australia since 2006, and at that time The Australian published Guardian crosswords! I don’t know when they changed. I hate having to buy that paper, but the Times puzzles are good quality (albeit with no themes). Hope you find the Aussie blog – I know I found it easily enough. My warm regards also.]

  47. I’ve never heard of the 99 cone on this side the pond, so had to cheat on that one.

    I can just about buy “peasanty” as “peasant-like,” and I gather some people actually do use it that way, but I draw the line at “anty” for “infested by ants.” Has anybody ever seen that?

    But I loved “plates of meat” in the l-driver clue, which then uses plates as part of the definition and meat as a cryptic component this division of a familiar phrase always delights me. Did anyone else try to work in “feet”?

  48. Aaaah! A complete joy from a favourite compiler. Humour in abundance, teasing but smooth constructions, no tedious googling for arcane themes, no fiddly irritating parsing. Thank you PeterO and Arachne. More!

  49. Thank you Arachne and thank you PeterO for a very helpful blog!! I enjoyed this very much, but I also enjoyed Boatman’s from yesterday. Those who are upset by ILLLIT should realise that it IS given in some dictionaries that way, so, why should Arachne not use it! If she had written the clue with (3-3) it would have been a give away!! My favourite was EVEN NUMBER, but it was closely followed by several others!! Wonder what the editor has up his sleeve for tomorrow!!

  50. A very enjoyable breakfast solve before another Munro walk in perfect weather. Favourites were SVALBARD and CONE

    Thanks to Arachne and PeterO

  52. I too put in PEASANTS at 16d because I have come across vegetables as a synonym for bumpkins though this would have involved the same word being used in the clue and the answer. Anty was new to me. When I finally got UNHALLOWED at 13d as the last of the crossers for 12a I first tried to parse BROUGH (a place in the East Riding) though, as a loiner myself, I should have spotted T’ROUGH earlier.
    Thanks to Arachne and PeterO

  53. Panza@49 I though that too, earlier, since when I googled ILLLIT there were two mentions of it, one in Wiktionary and another in YourDictionary. However, on following up the links the second is based on the former, which cites James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: “He walked on and on through illlit streets…”. Are these the dictionaries you mean?

  54. Our LOI was SEASONED (18d).
    We could not recall any occasion on which a ‘hidden’ was our last one in.
    We stared and stared until, finally, there was that penny dropping moment.
    So well done, dear Arachne.

    As PeterO said, very well hidden.
    Also a clue fantastically wrongfooting solvers [read: us] – ‘welcoming’ is usually a different kind of indicator.

    Not sure whether IL = 49 [Monk seems to be an expert in this area] but we liked the clue as such very much – hyphenated or not.

    Good crossword but also one with a lot of really easy clues (8ac, 10ac, 15ac, 17ac, 22ac, 21d, 24d).
    To see it in a positive way: Arachne is never showing off, always giving the average solver enough ways to get in.
    That is something she has in common with Paul.
    That said, Arachne writes surfaces that are much better.

  55. Dave Ellison@53 Yes I think so!! Are you going to say JJ is not reliable when it comes to spelling – stream of consciousness and all that? You would probably be correct but one might also argue that if it is good enough for the author of Ulysses, it ought to be good enough for fifteensquared!!

  56. S Panxa @55

    So you are suggesting that the author of Finnegans Wake (sic) should be accepted as an authority on spelling? 😉

  57. Sil @54

    SEASONED was my last in too. I can’t remember seeing a better ‘hidden’ type of clue – certainly not of 8 letters.

  58. Came a slight cropper by having a senior moment and thinking punto was a VW not a Fiat, so put in punt. This messed up 18d, 2d and also 10a. Only got peasanty because it appears in my electronic solver. Oops! Was I not supposed to mention that?

  59. Meg @ 58: Yes, I wondered about a Punto for some time, thinking the editor might have let through a mistake (heaven forfend)!

  61. Thanks Arachne and PeterO

    A really enjoyable crossword as has become expected from this setter – but am afraid that I fell victim to the spider curse again with PEASANTS !

    Especially liked all of the clues with numerals involved … and have to agree that L-DRIVER was a screamer.

    Finished in the NW corner with MERE, ANDORRAN and the tricky (especially for non-Brits) CONE.

  64. Thanks PeterO and Arachne.

    I printed my version on 21st so had the correction of the letter count for 7dn which saved me that conundrum.

    I also made the same mistake as Brucew at 16dn – left thinking that was a poor clue. Now I see and take back what I thought.

    Otherwise, no problems although it took till this morning to get my last 2 – UNHALLOWED and TROUGH.

    Now back to the commute and thinking solemnly about my fellows in Brussels. Carry on! Nil Carborundum Illigitimi!

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