Guardian Cryptic 26,857 by Tramp

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26857

Maybe not quite as easy as yesterday’s Brummie, but not that much harder. – at least I finished it in good time after the initial frantic hunt for an entry point (it turned out to be 16D PILLAGE).

Across
1 BRIDGE Game couple (6)
Double definition, the second being the verb in the sense of join.
4 MOSAIC Mysterious name from masonic tiles? (6)
An anagram (‘mysterious’) of ‘maso[n]ic’ minus the N (‘name from’).
9 URSA Stars rule in America (4)
An envelope (‘in’) of R (‘rule’) in USA (‘America’). Ursa Major and Minor, the Great and Little Bear.
10 MAURITANIA Land it — airman flying with United Airlines, primarily (10)
An anagram (‘flying’) of ‘it airman’ plus UA (‘United Airlines primarily’).
11 CAREER Worry? I’m thinking: “Job” (6)
A charade of CARE (‘worry’) plus ER (hesitation, ‘I’m thinking’).
12 EXERCISE Work out problem in textbook? (8)
Double definition.
13 SET-TOP BOX What’s on telly? Prepared to fight over page (3-3,3)
An envelope (‘over’) of P (‘page’) in SET (‘prepared’) plus ‘to’ plus BOX (‘fight’).
15 BRAN Health food book was published (4)
A charade of B (‘book’) plus RAN (‘was published’).
16 PERM A male hairdo (4)
A charade of PER (‘a’) plus M (‘male’).
17 AGONY AUNT Writer of article about guy: an awful time without love? (5,4)
An envelope (‘without’) of O (‘love’) in AGNYAUNT, a charade of AGNYAUN, another envelope (‘about’) of GNYAU, an anagram (‘awful’) of ‘guy an’ in AN (‘article’) plus T (‘time’). More awkward to describe than to parse.
21 SLOWDOWN Check section with news (8)
A charade of S (‘section’) plus LOWDOWN (‘news’).
22 MERITS Earns millions: small tax returns (6)
A charade of M (‘millions’) plus ERITS, a reversal (‘returns’) of S (‘small’) plus TIRE (‘tax’).
24 HALF NELSON Hold drink — professional driver getting round numbers bottles (4,6)
A charade of HALF (‘drink’) plus NELSON, an envelope (‘bottles’) of ELS (Ernie, crossword’s favourite golfer, ‘driver’) plus (‘getting’) O (’round’) in N N (‘numbers’).
25 NOUS Intellect? No! Crossword setters? (4)
A charade of ‘no’ plus US (‘crossword setters’). Delightfully self-deprecating.
26 EXTRAS Old star in a scrum bit players (6)
A charade of EX (‘old’) plus TRAS, an anagram (‘in a scrum’) of ‘star’.
27 BLOW UP Inflatable bed at front down completely (4-2)
A charade of B (‘Bed at front’) plus LOW (‘down’) plus UP (‘completely’).
Down
1 BARRAGE Violence following pub attack (7)
A charade of BAR (‘pub’) plus RAGE (‘violence’).
2 IMAGE Picture that is cover for Playboy? (5)
An envelope (‘cover for’) of MAG (‘Playboy?’) in IE (‘that is’).
3 GUMDROP Lift up features, miss out to see sweet thing (7)
A charade of GUM, a reversal (‘lift up’ in a down light) of MUG (‘features’) plus DROP (‘miss out’).
5 OLIVER Men taking in last show (6)
An envelope (‘taking in’) of LIVE (‘last’) in OR (‘men’), for the Lionel Bart musical.
6 ARAUCARIA He wrote for us a song about you in a vehicle (9)
An envelope (‘about’) of AUCAR, another envelope (‘in’) of U (‘you’) in A CAR (‘a vehicle’) in ARIA (‘song’).
7 CRIMSON Red lips: blue outside (7)
An envelope (‘outside’) of RIMS (‘lips’) in CON (Conservative, ‘blue’).
8 SUPERORGANISM Piers Morgan: “US run a highly organised community” (13)
An anagram (‘run’) of ‘Piers Morgan US’.
14 THROW A FIT Become angry? What for? It’s mad (5,1,3)
An anagram (‘mad’) of ‘what for it’.
16 PILLAGE Rob has two unfinished beers (7)
A charade of PIL[s] plus LAGE[r] (‘two unfinished beer’).
18 NOMINAL Small number — at least one left (7)
A charade of NO (‘number’) plus MIN (minimum, ‘at least’) plus A (‘one’) plus L (‘left’).
19 NO-TRUMP 1 across call a vote for the negative Republican candidate? (2-5)
A charade of NO (‘a vote for the negative’) plus TRUMP (‘Republican candidate’).
20 BODEGA Wine specialist reviewing mature old barrel (6)
A reversal (‘reviewing’) of AGED (‘mature’) plus O (‘old’) plus B (‘barrel’). ‘specialist’ here is a business, not a person.
23 RENEW Frenchman and wife to start again (5)
A charade of RÉNÉ (‘Frenchman’) plus W (‘wife’).
completed grid

53 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 26,857 by Tramp”

  1. I was unable to parse the UP = completely in 27a and I still do not fully understand it. I also solved but could not parse 24a.

    Thanks PeterO and Tramp.

  2. Thanks PeterO and Tramp. Great puzzle!

    I parsed 17a as: (perhaps wrongly)

    A writer (usually regarding love troubles to accommodate “without love” on the surface):

    article = A
    about = ON plus GUY AN plus T (awful)

    Liked too many to list, but NO TRUMP was the best!

  4. Apologies, PeterO. Your parsing for 17a is way better with everything accounted for. Please ignore my comment on it at 2 above.

  5. Really enjoyed this – much more than I usually do this setter’s themed puzzles. Nothing wrong with them – just thought this particularly good.

    Won’t identify ticked clues – too many. Most wordplays took the unexpected rather than the predictable path – so apt that Aruacaria should get a mention.

    @Michelle #1 – re UP

    see Collins online: http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/up

    #4 and #28. I agree it’s not entirely obvious – but “up” meaning “finshed” takes you close.

    Many thanks to setter and blogger.

  6. A very nice puzzle. I started quite quickly, but had to work at the last half. Favourites were HALF NELSON (when parsing it, did anyone else think the ‘professional driver’ must be Nelson Piquet?), SLOWDOWN (shouldn’t this be two words?), ARAUCARIA and PILLAGE. Many thanks to Tramp and PeterO.

  7. I would normally do the crossword on paper but because I had some time to kill this morning, I did this one online. I find this makes it (i) more difficult to be sure of the parsings and (ii) too tempting to guess and check, so it is not an approach I would like to take too often. This was one of those puzzles where the latter came into play, so the grid was finished pretty quickly but I’m not sure I parsed everything. Finished in the SW corner with BODEGA. Favourite was SUPERORGANISM. All very enjoyable, if at the easier end of Tramp’s spectrum. Re the ever popular ELS, I wonder how soon we’ll see Mr Willett in a crossword…

    Thanks to Tramp and PeterO

  8. Thanks for the puzzle and the blog – was glad of elucidation of several answers I could not parse.

    An alternative solution for 20 down is SOLERA, which certainly has to do with barrels. I am more convinced by Peter O’s parsing, but do not really like ‘specialist’ as ‘business’, and had rejected BODEGA on that basis, although I had not spotted the reversal of AGED.

    I did enjoy NO TRUMP. Please.

  9. Very enjoyable and not quite as tricky as I sometimes find a Tramp crossword.

    Thanks to him and PeterO too.

  11. Thanks Tramp and PeterO.

    An enjoyable solve, especially NO-TRUMP, not just a BRIDGE call! SET-TOP BOX was new to me, a decoder perhaps in France?

  12. One of those puzzles that looks impenetrable at first but slowly yields. I worked back to BRIDGE from the 1a reference in NO-TRUMP, and this helped a lot – an earlier start to the NW than might otherwise have been the case.

    I’d forgotten about ELS so parsing HALF NELSON needed PeterO’s help – and then realised that I’d taken the parsing of AGONY AUNT very much on trust.

  13. Hi drofle@6. I put in Half Nelson as drink plus Nelson Piquet, and wondered what all the other gubbins was about! Ernie might be a good driver, but you would hardly rate his putting anymore!
    Enjoyed this very much. Thanks to both.

  14. Thanks Tramp and PeterO

    Enjoyed this despite a couple of convoluted clues. Couldn’t parse 24a, so thanks especially for that.

    Incidentally, EXTRAS are now called Supporting Artists.

  15. Thanks Tramp & PeterO.

    Very enjoyable crossword although I struggled a bit with some of the abbreviations. I usually rely on Collins for these but in this case some were not there although they are in the BRB.

    I wondered why ARAUCARIA popped up but I can’t see anything relevant with the date. I particularly liked HALF-NELSON & NO-TRUMP (I hope not!)

  17. Like Parky@16, I got NELSON my LOI, from a vague recollection of the name of a GP driver, having guessed HALF from the crossers. I never thought of big Ernie, despite his recent misfortunes.

    In my youth, when I played bridge, we referred to it as NO TRUMPS, but in the current circumstances, I am happy to use the singular version, in the hope that there are no more like him!

  18. P.P.S. FYI: ‘Despite having a different acronym, an LED TV is just a different type of LCD TV. The proper name would actually be “LED-backlit LCD TV,” but that’s too much of a mouthful for everyday conversation, so people generally just refer to them as LED TV’s, which can cause confusion.’

  20. Thanks to Tramp and PeterO (and I was anticipating some Tramp-No Trump commentary). SET-TOP BOX and SUPERORGANISM were new to me (though I had no trouble with the parsing) but I needed help parsing AGONY AUNT and should by now know Ernie Els as the crossword golfer-driver. Last in was BODEGA where I was looking for a person (oeno…). Very enjoyable.

  21. Rather enjoyable and very much better than yesterday’s puzzle. I did this while watching Prime Minister’s Questions-or Prime Minister’s Evasions as it should be called- and I must say I liked the puzzle better! LOI OLIVER, which took me an age to parse for some reason, and I had trouble with HALF NELSON even though the answer was obvious.
    Very pleasant. Thanks Tramp.

  23. I enjoyed this. A few smiles along the way, which is what it’s about, I always think. I especially liked IMAGE and PERM. And I think Tramp must have been entering this puzzle for the Cryptic Clueing Concision Competition today …

    I will demur on ARAUCARIA. It’s one of my pet hates, as regulars will know. The few dozen regular commenters (for which read ‘obsessives’, including myself) on the Grauniad thread on 225 will have thought ‘nice nod to a famous setter’. The thousands of other solvers who’ve never heard of 225 and who pay no attention to who the compiler is will have thought ‘What?’, particularly since the clueing was a bit convoluted and the definition rather vague.

    End of chunter. A good puzzle. Thank you to Tramp and Peter.

  24. Thanks Tramp and PeterO

    I enjoyed most of this, with particular favourites HALF NELSON, (a late one in), NO TRUMP and SUPERORGANISM.

    I didn’t see how NOMINAL worked, and I’m not clear in what sense “live” = “last” in OLIVER.

    I didn’t like “stars” for URSA. Yes, there’s URSA MAJOR and URSA MINOR, but they don’t form one “superconstellation” called URSA.

  25. I enjoyed this a lot. I remember from the last two Tramp puzzles that I completed how this setter gives me plenty to think about, and this is in the same league.

    25A (NOUS) was my favourite, 16A (PILLAGE) a close second. Others raised a laugh or two.

    A couple of abbreviations were new to me, unless I’ve just forgotten them from previous puzzles: R = rule in 9A and B = barrel in 20D. Also, I didn’t know ‘lowdown’ meant ‘news’ in 21A (SLOWDOWN), but their meanings are not far apart.

    I found just a couple of clues clunky: 17A (AGONY AUNT) and 24A (HALF NELSON).

    In 8D, ‘organis’ is in both the clue and the answer. This is perhaps a bit of a blemish for a setter who takes such trouble over his clues.

    Many thanks to Tramp and PeterO.

  26. Thanks for the info. I managed to solve but no idea about tire or ELS or why OR means men so this site is really helpful.

  27. Enjoyed this – too many good clues to list, but the answer to 19d gave me much amusement! Last one in was 4ac and I could have kicked myself when I finally got it – so obvious!

    Thank you Tramp & PeterO.

  30. I don’t find UP = ‘completely’ very persuading. How would you replace the one with the other in any sentence?

  31. Thinc and jeceris

    Re single-letter abbreviations.

    It’s probably not quite fair to say that the abbreviations we have highlighted are ‘dodgy’ – unfamiliar, certainly, but supported by at least one dictionary. (I checked them in Chambers.)

    I too would add ‘s’ = section to the two I mentioned earlier (‘r’ = rule and ‘b’ = barrel), describing them all as unfamiliar. In fact, ‘r’ is given in Chambers as ‘rule (law)’, so its use is specialised and could therefore be considered less fair than the other two.

    I don’t think we can object too strongly to these. For me, they are just additions to what have to be learned to keep up with the setters.

  33. The river dried up in summer

    Up = completely in Chambers.

    I admit not everyone is familiar with Araucaria and I will avoid doing that in future.

    Thanks for the comments and thanks for the blog

    Neil

  34. Thanks again Tramp,

    Let alone Chambers, up = completely in the COED, and I guess many other dictionaries – I cannot understand why people questioned this – burn up, eat up, tear up, use up…

  36. I couldn’t follow any part of the explanation of 17A. Can someone explain it without using the words envelope or charade?

    Thanks,
    Alastair

  37. @Alistair

    if you ignore the “about” and “without” containment/placement indicators, it’s an anagram of AN “article” + GUY AN + T (time) + 0 (love)

  39. Perhaps, one of the easiest Tramps ever.
    No theme? No problem.

    Apart from a couple of clues that we found somewhat clunky (24ac, 19d – sorry Neil), this was fine stuff.
    If you try to write crosswords yourself, like I do, abbreviations like R = rule and B = barrel are familiar and always at hand.
    So, no complaints from me here.

    Yes, ‘organ’ being in the clue and the solution of 8d was a bit of a pity.
    However, who can resist Piers Morgan being part of an anagram?

    No apologies needed for the use of ARAUCARIA (6d) which should indeed be written in capital letters.
    But I see why some do object.

    All in all, very enjoyable.

  40. Thanks, baerchen – that makes more sense now.

    And I long since gave up worrying how people spell Alastair – there are too many variations, and life is too short.

  41. Enjoyed lots of clues. Happy to have solved all and parsed most, except for some of the abbreviations.

    I’m not sure I understand Peter O’s parsing for ARAUCARIA. I’ve come up with a couple of alternatives but they all need a reversal indicator.

    Is ‘about’ doing double duty? What am I not seeing in the monkey puzzle tree?

    BTW I don’t mind Tramp setting the setter. We don’t all get all of the answers all of the time and it was just a lovely moment to get ‘He wrote for us’.
    I only came to ‘know him’ from sites such as this one, so a big thankyou.

  42. Well there’s no being ‘taken close’ for ‘up’ = ‘completely’. If something is used up, it’s used completely.

    Regarding the Araucaria clue,

    He wrote for us a song about you in a vehicle (9)

    it is a typical Guardian clue in need of an editor who understands clues! ‘a song’ gives AARIA, which is wrong, and the YOU doesn’t amount to U without some kind of indication. But it’s supposed to be AR(A(U)CAR)IA. Rather clumsy as well as fawning. These things are easily ironed out I’d say.

  43. paddymelon @41 – Are you perhaps missing that Auraucaria was a well-loved Guardian compiler? He was before my time as well, but I have seen a few mentions of him on this site.
    JoJo @26 – I still have no idea why why OR means men. Could someone please explain? Per/A could possibly also do with an explicit explanation for the less experienced here.
    I was another who thought Piquet/gubbins… Els is perhaps a bit convoluted – it’s a name I have heard, but probably one I wouldn’t think of, even given a more explicit golf reference.
    Thanks to Tramp for a challenging but mostly solvable puzzle, and PeterO for a couple of clarifications.

  46. bill_taylor @42

    I think I can answer your points about the clue for ARAUCARIA.

    ‘a song’ is a definition/indication for ARIA because ‘aria’ is a type of song.

    Text abbreviations are not always indicated now, and I’m afraid this is a case of like it or lump it. ‘u’ for ‘you’ is one of the commonest – less common ones should be indicated, in my view. The Guardian does allow some licence on cryptic clueing – other publications might be stricter and insist on an indication (‘in short’, for example, in the case of a text abbreviation).

    Whether ARAUCARIA should be admissible in a crossword is a moot point. I would refer you to the setter’s own comment on this @33.

  47. Oh, thanks bill_taylor@42 for your AR(A(U)CAR)IA. Really helped to see it that way.

    I had been parsing it as A RAUC ARIA , hence missing a reversal (in down clue) indicator for CAUR.

    No, got the def Gary @43, as you might see from the last part of my post.

    Did see Tramp’s comment @33. But as I was trying to say , and others have said, I don’t expect to know every plant, scientist, cricketer or footballer. But I do see the point that unless you’ve heard of him you’d never understand the def, and with the difficult wordplay it would be ungettable, hence unfair.
    But I loved the def, and I don’t see why the afficionados can’t have a little smile. Just one clue, in one crossword, one time. Like discovering a nina.

  48. I don’t suppose anyone is still reading this but here goes. I used to frown upon textspeak in crosswords. However, whilst shopping, I noticed a sign “Keys Cut While U Wait” and I changed my stance for U = “you”; I think it’s pretty ubiquitous. I wouldn’t use “c” = “see” without adding “on Twitter, say” or something.

    Neil

  49. Tramp @48

    Thanks. I see it at least, because I get an email for every comment on my blogs. I would add that the abbreviation of U for you (particularly in the phrase you mention, “While U wait”) has been around a lot longer than smartphones.

  50. @46 I said “Whether ARAUCARIA should be admissible in a crossword is a moot point.”

    What I meant (obviousy) was ARAUCARIA as the late crossword compiler, or as Tramp clued it “He wrote for us …” It goes without saying that ‘araucaria’ as the monkey puzzle (an evergreen conifer of the southern hemisphere) is admissible all day long.

  51. U as you said, Tramp, as did Peter O, has been around a long time and is ubiquitous. No quibble with U. Much prefer it to the other U, along with OR, which leave some of us in the former colonies outclassed and outranked. Tramp/Neil gotta say, feel the lurve, great clue.

  52. Thanks PeterO and Tramp.

    A bit of a mixed bag for me.

    1ac seemed so simple that I couldn’t bring myself to enter it – thinking that there was more to it – until I had the down crossers and 19dn.

    Then there were some very tricky parsings such as AGONY AUNT, HALF NELSON, and NOMINAL. And I’m not convinced that SLOWDOWN in defined sense of 21ac shouldn’t be hyphenated.

    Using Piers Morgan in the anagram fodder for SUPERORGANISM did raise a wry smile!

  53. Thanks Tramp and PeterO

    Slightly easier and thoroughly enjoyable crossword from Tramp which I was able to get straight into with IMAGE and URSA (which I thought was a little loose referring to the Big Bear and Small Bear just as Bear, even though it didn’t hinder the writing in of the answer – so all good I expect).

    I thought that ARAUCARIA was fair cop – after all he was one of the Guardian greats. I’ve never done a Bunthorne puzzle, but would expect to be able unravel him if he was similarly clued. Didn’t parse AGONY AUNT in anywhere close to its proper way – instead lazily letter counting ‘about guy an’, subtracting the O and considering it as an anagram without noticing the B !!!

    Finished in the NE corner with CRIMSON (now wondering why that was hard to see earlier), MOSAIC (which was cleverly and concisely put together) and OLIVER (similarly so) as the last few in.

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