Guardian Cryptic 26,894 by Brummie

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26894.

A very entertaining outing from Brummie, with a kind of theme of towns and cities, but more to the point some splendid misdirection. If I were Pierre, there are two chances for a bird link.

Across
1 TUNING PEG Reeling, right off, Margaret’s violin piece? (6,3)
A charade of TU[r]NING (‘reeling’) minus the R (‘right off’) plus PEG (‘Margaret’). A piece of a violin, not for it.
6 BROWN Toast US abolitionist (5)
Double definition, the second being John Brown, whose body lies a-mouldering in the grave.
9 ARCHIMEDES SCREW Water brought up by this old mathematician’s team (10,5)
A charade of ARCHIMEDESES’S (‘old mathematician’s’) plus CREW (‘team’).
10 GREY Potty Earl? (4)
Cryptic definition, the ‘pot’ being a teapot.
11 STOTINKA Way to back popular king with a currency (8)
A charade of ST (street, ‘way’) plus OT (‘to back’) plus IN (‘popular’) plus K (‘king’) plus ‘a’. A STOTINKA is a hundredth of a Bulgarian lev.
14 LISTERIAN One who tips off Nai concerning a famous surgeon (9)
A charade of LISTER (‘one who tips’ – that is, someone who is not standing upright) plus IAN, an anagram (‘off’) of ‘Nai’.
15 TROUT Grumpy old person is tense before chaotic flight (5)
A charade of T (‘tense’) plus ROUT (‘chaotic fight’).
16 VOCAL Loud eruption of Oval, when century’s bagged (5)
An envelope (‘bagged’) of C (‘century’) in VOAL, an anagram (‘eruption’) of ‘Oval’.
18 MELBOURNE Brooks sustained said city? (9)
A charade of MEL (‘Brooks’) plus BOURNE, a homophone (‘said’) of BORNE (‘sustained’).
20 RANKNESS Row a loch, which is most unpleasant (8)
A charade of RANK (‘row’) plus NESS (‘a loch’).
21 EDEN South West abandons country garden (4)
A subtraction: [sw]EDEN (‘country’) minus the SW (‘South West abandons’).
25 OVEN THERMOMETER Kitchen aid‘s helium-filled retro movement adjusted (4,11)
An envelope (‘filled’) of HE (chemical symbol, ‘helium’) in OVENTMOMETER, an anagram (‘adjusted’) of ‘retro movement’.
26 LADEN City haunt of vice is taxed (5)
A charade of LA (Los Angeles, ‘city’) plus DEN (‘haunt of vice’).
27 TRUE WORTH Electronic bank withdrawal — in reality, it might not be fully reflected in the cost (4,5)
An envelope (‘in’) of E (‘electronic’) plus WOR, a reversal (‘withdrawl’) of ROW (‘bank’) , in TRUTH (‘reality’).
Down
1 TWANG Wife gets in smack — result of knicker elastic being tweaked? (5)
An envelope (‘gets in’) of W (‘wife’) in  TANG (‘smack’, in the sense of taste).
2 NUCLEUS Star’s upset over cryptic clue’s focus (7)
An envelope (‘over’) of CLEU, an anagram (‘cryptic’) of ‘clue’, in NUS, a reversal (‘upset’) of SUN (‘star’).
3 NAIL Brad Pitt’s second part secured by network backing (4)
 Added later: An envelope (‘secured by’) of I ( “PItt’s second’) in NAL, a reversal (‘backing’) of LAN (local area ‘network’).
4 PEEL No 1 left island town (4)
A charade of PEE (‘no 1’) plus L (‘left’). PEEL probably refers to the Ilse of Man town.
5 GREAT UNCLE Relative origin of universe bounded by morphing rectangle (5-5)
An envelope (‘bounded by’) of U (‘origin of Universe’) in GREATNCLE, an anagram (‘morphing’) of ‘rectangle’.
6 BUS STATION Terminal break just about engages with satellite’s charged particle (3,7)
I think this is BUST (‘break’) plus SAT (‘satellite’) plus ION (‘charged particle’), with ‘just about engages’ indicating that the first two words overlap.
7 OTRANTO Italian town that’s too upset to contain diatribe (7)
An envelope (‘to contain’) of RANT (‘diatribe’) in OOT, a reversal (‘upset’ in a down light) of ‘too’.
8 NEWCASTLE City, inexperienced, play defensively (9)
A charade of NEW (‘inexperienced’) plus CASTLE (‘play defensively’ in chess – although the repositioning of the rook may sometimes be offensive).
12 WELLINGTON Rising to the surface and new: stifling to boot (10)
An envelope (‘stifling’) of ‘to’ in WELLING (‘rising to the surface’) plus N (‘new’).
13 LITMUS TEST A sure indication drunk has to set out (6,4)
A charade of LIT (‘drunk’) plus MUST (‘has to’) plus EST, an anagram (‘out’) of ‘set’.
14 LIVERPOOL Organ and wind backing that’s associated with the Beatles (9)
A charade of LIVER (‘organ’) plus POOL, a reversal (‘backing’) of LOOP (‘wind’).
17 CONTEND Challenge something said against nurse (7)
A charade of CON (‘against’) plus TEND (‘nurse’)
19 RED STAR Tailless warbler is ideological symbol (3,4)
A subtraction: RED STAR[t] (‘warbler’) minus its last letter (‘tailless’).
22 NORTH Russian Orthodox housing shown at the top of a map? (5)
A hidden answer (‘housing’) in ‘RussiaN ORTHodox’.
23 OMBU Round, bum-shaped tree of the South American pampas (4)
A charade of O (’round’) plus MBU, an anagram (‘shaped’) of ‘bum’.
24 SMEW Gull’s call follows second diver (4)
A charade of S (‘second’) plus MEW (‘gull’s cal’).
completed grid

57 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 26,894 by Brummie”

  1. The ‘towns and cities’ are also British Prime Ministers – I counted 9 PMs in all.

    Thanks to Brummie for a very enjoyable crossword and to PeterO for a very well explained blog.

  2. Thanks Peter. Got quickly to the last hurdle then failed on the currency, despite it’s having featured here a couple of times in the past year. Only just managed the No 1, not knowing the Manx town. Agree that getting a rook into the centre of the board via castling can be quite offensive.

  3. Thanks Peter and Brummie.

    I found this rather easy for this setter. 9ac first in, 11a last one.

    I spotted the theme(s) which helped with 4d and 10ac. I decided the main theme must be Prime Ministers, but many of them are also towns, and possibly dukes. The latter would include OTRANTO too.

  4. Thanks setter, blogger and commentators.

    Missed the British PMs/Dukes theme but saw some cities and towns (including EDEN 27a which is a town in New South Wales). Liked having MELBOURNE 18a up there with the cities too…

    Admit to using online dictionaries to check that Brad is a NAIL 3d, that OMBU 23d is a tree, and SMEW 24d is a gull-like bird.

    Favourites were 10a GREY – the adjective “potty” made me smile – and 14d LIVERPOOL.

    By the by, what does the warning, “Pinging is currently not allowed” mean?

    Appreciate the enjoyment gleaned, Brummie, the explanations where I was guessing, PeterO, and the online community for interesting additions.

  5. I failed to solve 4d PEEL and needed help to parse 9a and 26a.

    New words for me were TROUT = grumpy old person; John BROWN = US abolitionist; BRAD = nail; OMBU, SMEW.

    My favourites were WELLINGTON & LITMUS TEST.

    Thanks PeterO and Brummie.

  6. Nice one, with some clever misdirection. Was sure that the theme was Prime Ministers at first, which meant that my birthplace (8d) was one of my last in, I’m ashamed to say!

    Thank you Brummie & PeterO.

  7. Very enjoyable. Thought the theme was prime ministers (Pgreen@1) too. There is a small excess of ES in the Archimedes explanation, I think. Thanks to both.

  8. Sorry to be either a lazybones, or maybe I have actually now missed the theme in its entirety, but if anyone can be bothered, could you make a list of the themed clues? All grist for the mill for me for future historical references…

  9. Thanks, PeterO – I hope your recovery is continuing well.

    I really enjoyed this, especially after the theme of towns morphed into one of Prime Ministers, although I initially failed to remember NEWCASTLE as one. According to Wikipedia, ‘Many modern historians have depicted him as the epitome of unredeemed mediocrity and as a veritable buffoon in office’.

    I made it nine, too, not counting Pitt in the clue for 3dn. I couldn’t parse that one – and PeterO has left it out – help, please!

    Many thanks to Brummie for the fun.

  12. Many thanks, Bracoman @10. Blow mw, I learned LAN in a puzzle I blogged just a week or so ago!

    Julie @8; the Prime Ministers are BROWN, GREY, MELBOURNE, EDEN, PEEL, NEWCASTLE, WELLINGTON<, LIVERPOOL, NORTH.

  13. Well, heavens be praised, I’ve got a theme. Prime ministers for me, which is why a diffident GREY became a confident one.

    Witty in parts, which is good. PEEL and TWANG are the sort of clues one might expect from his Cyclops manifestation. The ‘off Nai’ element of 14a was a bit weak but I’ll not grumble today.

  15. Very fair cluing, and gettable for words I didn’t know, like smew and ombu an stotinka, with the help of google.
    I do think the possessive in 9 is not fair though for those of us who were taught that the possessive after s is ‘. The dropping of the apostrophe and SCREW could have been clued differently, maybe with a bit of humour.
    Thanks Peter O for the blog … only there are too many archimedes in the elaboration.

  16. Thanks PeterO and Brummie. Missed the themes(s) but it didn’t hold me up. Good fun with some witty clues.

    paddymelon @15 Er…what about St James’s Palace, Park etc in London?

    Usage trumps rules every time.

  17. We took ages to get going . But once we got Archimedes Screw it came rapidly, though we missed the PM theme, whilst noting the towns and cities.Last in was Ombu . We looked up umbo and tried for a while to justify it, until google said Do you mean ombu? Great fun. Thanks Brummie and Peter O

  18. Good to have the PM theme, most, but not all of whom I could spot. Nicely clued and even unfamiliar words such as SMEW were possible from the wordplay. I liked ‘Potty Earl’ and TWANG but my favourite would have to be MELBOURNE, even if it was inexcusably one of my last in.

    Thanks Brummie for such an enjoyable puzzle and to PeterO for the blog.

  19. Not forgetting Laden Trueworth, the third PM of New Zealand, and Great Uncle Ombu, the first PM of Bulgaria, who underwent a nostalgic and patriotic change of name following exile to South West London.

  20. Thanks Brummie and Peter0. Quite gentle for Brummie, but fun. Favourite clue for 12dn is “City located north of Copenhagen”.

  21. Thanks Brummie & PeterO.

    I missed the theme of course but spotted NEWCASTLE BROWN, LIVERPOOL TWANG and, maybe, MELBOURNE TROUT as incidentals.

    Good clues where the unusual words were clearly clued.

  22. Thank you Brummie and PeterO.

    After the to-do about FUSSPOT the other day I was expecting an outcry over the sexism and ageism of the TROUT clue – COED gives trout 2 Brit. slang derog. a woman, esp. an old or ill-tempered one (usu. old trout) – perhaps Van Winkle and Mother’s son have fainted?.

    I really enjoyed this puzzle, especially WELLINGTON, my birthplace, and LADEN TRUEWORTH – George GREY was also a New Zealand Prime Minister.

  23. 1d “twang” would explain some Australians’ confusion of parsing 18a .Both the PM and the village are pronounced mel-“born” as opposed to “burn”.

  24. The rules for possessive after ‘s’ as given in style guides are generally more complex than people tend to be taught (or remember being taught), but a good guide is just to write it how you’d say it. A common prescription, though, is to leave off the second ‘s’ in classical and biblical names ending in ‘s’, of which Archimedes is surely one. Having said that, you could simply regard the ‘s’ of “old mathematician’s” as having been lifted out separately.

  25. Lots of words that were new to me here, but that’s part of the fun. Failed to spot the theme too…
    Margaret of course was a prime minister too, as was Pitt (though not Brad). Talking of which, 3d is not parsed up above, can anyone help?

  26. There was a Punch cartoon many many years ago, two ducks on a pond, one is saying “I’m a smew, you’ll only find me in crosswords”.

  28. Eileen @8

    I am not sure how the explanation of 3D NAIL went missing. I certainly typed it in as I solved the puzzle, and I did not notice its absence when I reviewed the blog. Anyway, it is now in place.

    ARCHIMEDESES’S started life as a simple typo of S for D; when I saw that D was missing, I added the -ED- to compound the error. Now corrected, despite having half a mind to leave it, and pretend that it was a deliberate jocular misspelling of the possessive.

    copmus @ 23

    I take it that your point is that ‘city’ refers to MELBOURNE, Australia, which is often pronounced closer to “burn”, whereas the “born” required by the wordplay applies to the PM and the place in Derbyshire.

  29. All very pleasant – quite a gentle workout in the end, with only OMBU unfamiliar and that was easy enough to guess and look up. The SW corner held out longest with LADEN last in after CONTEND. For once I did see the theme and it definitely helped with PEEL and GREY. STOTINKA was familiar if only from previous crosswords.

    Thanks to Brummie and PeterO

  30. RCWhiting @ 27

    How about:

    bank(3) a tier or rank eg of oars, keys on a typewriter etc (Chambers).

  31. The Guardian style guide 2007 states:

    “The possessive in words and names ending in S normally takes an
    apostrophe followed by a second S (Jones’s, James’s), but be guided by
    pronunciation and use the plural apostrophe where it helps:
    Mephistopheles’, Waters’, Hedges’ rather than Mephistopheles’s, Waters’s,
    Hedges’s.”

  32. Thanks to Brummie and PeterO. I did know SMEW but had to confirm OMBU, STOTINKA, and PEEL on Google. Lots of fun.

  33. Cookie @22 – there is a need for outcry only if one is an opponent of fishism. Calling someone “a trout” is not a particularly pleasant thing to do, but it would only be an -ism to the extent that it is presumed that trout are inherently bad, in which case the offence would be against the fish that are not bad. At the risk of over-generalisation, most fish are not easily offended, so there is no crime in 15a.

  34. More often than not I tackle these puzzles while I’m out and without crossword aids, so the unfamiliar words and a handful of weak clues made this less enjoyable than usual. Not having heard of TUNING PEG or BROWN (the abolitionist) added to my difficulties. Full credit to Brummie, though, for the fair clues at 23D (OMBU)and 24D (SMEW) that allowed me to write them in with confidence.

    Apart from these minor setbacks I enjoyed solving this puzzle and seeing the theme words go in. The theme was so blindingly obvious that even I saw it.

    Thanks to Brummie and PeterO.

  35. Sorry – that was me @33. Forget to change name back after making flippant comment @19.

  36. An Historian @33, agreed, but the term is “Old TROUT” and it is applied to a woman – it does not bother me, but see the complaints about “old woman” and FUSSPOT on 26,888 Nutmeg…

  38. STOTINKA’s last appearance was only a month ago, in Paul 26858, if you did that one there are no excuses! There were 8 solutions making their Guardian debuts today:
    ARCHIMEDES SCREW, GREAT-UNCLE*, LISTERIAN, OMBU, OVEN THERMOMETER, RANKNESS, RED STAR and TRUE WORTH

    * unless you count this: Paul 22829: Commoner alleging bureaucrat’s confused (5,5,8)

  39. Most enjoyable- of course there was no football which is a plus in itself! I didn’t spot the theme until I’d finished which added to the pleasure. Learning about LADEN TRUEWORTH was another plus. Like BH I found the Sw corner the most tricky with CONTEND and LADEN being the last to yield. Although LIVERPOOL was my FOI needless to say.
    Best of the week so far ?.
    Thanks Brummie.

  40. I’m with Peter @39: “Learning about LADEN TRUEWORTH was another plus.” So thanks to Van Historian!

  41. Thanks Brummie and PeterO
    Easy for a Brummie puzzle, but enjoyable. Favourite was NAIL. I didn’t know OMBU, but it was an easy guess.

    Now the “buts”: I don’t see how RANKNESS can equal “most unpleasant” as either a superlative or a comment (“That was most unpleasant” = “That was rankness”?). I got LISTERIAN from the surgeon part, but a clue that has to include a made-up word (“nai”) is surely a bit feeble?

    Ultra-pedantic – ornithologists wouldn’t accept a REDSTART as a “warbler” (yes, I know it might “warble”) – they are more closely related to thrushes.

  42. Cookie @36 – sexism is about more than just being rude to women. As set out at unfortunate length on 26,888, the problem in pejoratively calling a fusspot who is not old or a woman “an old woman” is the presumption that it requires to be made about people who are old and women, ie, that there is something essentially bad about them. The ageism/sexism is in this presumption, as it is clearly not true. It is more complicated than the plain rudeness of calling someone a trout.
    That’s enough from me on this page.

  43. Thanks PeterO and Brummie.

    Good fun.

    7d seems to be a simple anagram of ‘rant’ and ‘too’. Though ‘rant’ is enclosed, if you “up set” too, you get oot, but we have oto, so no reversal here; upset is simply the angaramind?

  44. And wasn’t Nail Redstar one time Prime Minister of Russia, An Historian @19?

    I found this quite a test. I was held up at 1a by the bad assumption that Margaret was Meg. Just how many diminutives does one name need, I wonder? I was also hoping to find out who or what Nai was here. Does seem a bit arbitrary. I did like GREY and LITMUS TEST. I needed help with the parsing of BUS STATION.

    Thanks, PeterO and Brummie.

  45. Pierre@31

    I wonder if it’s more than coincidence that the possessives which take the extra ‘s’, according to the style guide, are single-syllable, while all those examples with more than one syllable take just the apostrophe?

    I tend always to avoid using possessives of words ending in ‘s’ for just this reason – it’s too controversial!

  46. I struggled a bit with this. I missed the PMs theme, OMBU was unfamiliar though gettable, STOTINKA I only vaguely remembered from previous puzzles, and I couldn’t parse BUS STATION other than the final -ION.

    Castling – although moving the rook can be offensive, surely choosing to castle instead of just moving the rook to the same position without castling is usually an attempt to get the king to a more defendable location?

    Thanks, Brummie and PeterO.

  47. jennyk

    On the subject of castling in chess: it’s true that more often than not the reason for castling is to make the king safer and improve the position of the rook, but ‘play defensively’ is not a good indication for ‘castle’. The move is made because the player believes it is the best move to make in the given position and (as has been pointed out) can have offensive as well as defensive intentions.

    When I had just the ‘W’ of NEWCASTLE I kept hesitating, and inked it in only when I had the crossing ‘T’ of TROUT to confirm it.

  48. Peter O @28. Agree that your original Archimedeses was funny. Hesitated to say anything for fear of spoiling the joke, intentional or otherwise. Will go along with the possibility that Brummie also intended a little controversy and humour for this particular audience.

  50. I’m with Muffin, as usual, about NAI. Feeble is the word. Not too keen on “one who tips” for LISTER either or, for that matter “reeling” for “turning”.

  51. My simple observation of the 20a RANKNESS issue is that the indication from the clue is to an adjective, which ‘rankness’ isn’t.
    Not complaining though!These small errors do slip through from time to time.

  53. Cookie @49 – I think that that would be misogyny. The term would be used when one wants to say something nasty to a particular woman. It is not being derogatory to women in general.

  54. But it already says that in the clue as it stands.
    I’m sure there are several ways to amend the definitional part of the clue.
    I suggest, as one option, “which is” could be replaced with the word “something” thus producing the noun phrase “..something most unpleasant..”

  55. Barry @54, I was only pointing out that the definition “most unpleasant” is an adjectival phrase, while the definition “which is most unpleasant” is a noun phrase. Your option is clearer of course.

  56. Thanks Brummie and PeterO

    Only got to this one today – finished up a contract on Friday and the end of the week turned out pretty busy as you would expect. It was a pretty solid workout that took the elapsed morning in between other things to get finished.

    A lot of clever stuff going on in the clues – particularly liked BUS STATION and TRUE WORTH. A couple of new words in the South American OMBU (clearly clued and only needed to be checked) and the Italian town of OTRANTO. Through crosswords have learnt a few of the places on Isle of Man, including PEEL.

    Totally missed the Prime Minister theme and didn’t help myself by confidently writing in PEER initially at 10a – I guess it would really be a PEE-ER who would be using the potty – but I chuckled as I wrote it in !!!

    Finished in the NW corner with TWANG that showed that my PEER was wrong and then saw GREY.

  57. Thanks PeterO and Brummie.

    Thanks particularly for the parsing of BUS STATION. I racked my semblance of a brain for ages but I think you’ve 3dn’ed it!

    I felt a couple of things were over contrived – particularly LISTERIAN. Maybe that means I can coin a new word – HAMISHIAN meaning hastily thumbed out blogs with uncorrected auto-complete errors and improperly thought-through comments.

    When I completed I wrote “surely this level of contrivance deserves a Nina” – and I completely missed the theme.

    So I rest my case on the new word!

    Enjoyable, so thanks again!

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