Guardian Cryptic 26,959 by Picaroon

by

Tough and very nicely clued – many favourites, including 11ac, 12dn and all of the four-letter ones: 13ac, 18ac, 2dn and 22dn. Thanks, Picaroon

Across
1 COWLED Frightened about ending in jail, like brothers in the hood (6)
COWED=”Frightened”, about the ending in [jai]L
5 INDIRECT Rambling about getting put in charge (8)
RE=”about”, getting put in INDICT=”charge”
9 TEUTONIC Time Brussels gets boost from Germany (8)
T[ime] plus E[uropean] U[nion]=”Brussels” plus TONIC=”boost”
10 FINIAL Nail destroyed post providing backing for spire’s ornament (6)
=an ornament on top of e.g. a building. (Nail)*, after/”post” a reversal/”backing” of IF=”providing”
11 GRANDPARENTS Massive yearly payments for old people (12)
GRAND=”Massive”, plus P[er] A[nnum]=”yearly” plus RENTS=”payments”
13 BOMB Doctor pursues hygiene issue, maybe mine (4)
=e.g. a land mine. MB=Bachelor of Medicine=”Doctor”, after B[ody] O[dour]=”hygiene issue”
14 NOAH’S ARK Interpretation of Koran has religious craft (5,3)
(Koran has)*
17 DEMERARA Ebb of a strange sea is something sweet (8)
=a sugar. Reversal/”Ebb” of A RARE MED[iterranean]=”a strange sea”
18 ACNE One divided by unknown number’s a problem for schoolkids (4)
ACE=”One”, with its letters divided by N=”unknown number” oops – edit thanks to Malcolm, muffin and Lorry in the comments C=constant=”unknown number”
20 HARVEST MITES Smart thieves bamboozled suckers (7,5)
(Smart thieves)*
23 SPIRIT Drive close to Ferrari in journeys westward (6)
=passion. [Ferrar]I in TRIPS=”journeys” reversed/”westward”
24 SUSPENSE South American writer’s beginning to evoke tension (8)
S[outh] plus US=”American” plus PEN=”writer” plus the beginning to E[voke]
25 METEORIC Very fast time Coe runs gets beaten (8)
(time Coe r)*, where r[uns] is a cricket abbreviation
26 SOLDER Join son further over the hill (6)
S[on] plus OLDER=”further over the hill”, as “over the hill”=’old’
Down
2 OWED Outstanding poetic entreaty to marry (4)
‘O, WED!’ would be the “poetic entreaty to marry”
3 LITIGABLE It’s possibly a suit likely to dress fool up (9)
=it could lead to a lawsuit. LIABLE=”likely” around/”to dress” GIT=”fool” reversed/”up”
4 DENIAL Refusal of agreement to keep Irish province (6)
DEAL=”agreement” around N[orthern] I[reland]
5 INCIDENTAL MUSIC At home playing Celtic, Man U side almost score (10,5)
=a musical score. IN=”At home”, plus (Celtic Man U sid[e])*
6 DEFRAYAL Skirmish in wood for payment (8)
=payment of costs or expenses. FRAY=”Skirmish” in DEAL=a plank of “wood”
7 RANGE Hastened, say, to climb Alps? (5)
RAN=”Hastened”, plus E.G.=for example=”say” reversed/”to climb”
8, 21 CHAPTER AND VERSE What makes CV an authoritative source (7,3,5)
C[hapter] and V[erse] would make CV
12 FOR EXAMPLE Like warning Liberal about vote (3,7)
FORE=”warning” in golf, AMPLE=”Liberal, both about X=the mark made for a “vote”
15 STAR SHELL There’s explosive material in this celebrity’s ordeal (4,5)
=an ammunition shell used to illuminate the battlefield. STAR’S HELL=”celebrity’s ordeal”
16 MASSETER Muscle spasm’s back? Then help American casualty (8)
=a muscle used in mastication [wiki]. the back of [spas]M, plus ASSET=”help”, plus E[mergency] R[oom]=”American [name for the] casualty” department of a hospital
19 STASIS It’s still shrouded in mist, as I said (6)
Hidden in [mi]ST AS I S[aid]
21   See 8
22 ISLE Mass in water dissolves evenly (4)
even letters of [d]I[s]S[o]L[v]E[s]

46 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 26,959 by Picaroon”

  1. Acne = Ace divided by C? Surely Ane divided by C but then the clue should have read scottish one. Or possibly Ace divided by N for unknown number. I really don’t like either interpretation.

  2. I spent ages trying to parse 16 but I was going about it the wrong way.”Back” made me work backwards with AM for American so many thanks manehi.
    He is a great setter.

  3. Thanks Picaroon and manehi

    Just a misprint, I think, Malcolm – it’s ACE divided by N (any number).

    Picaroon is one of my top three favourite setters, but I didn’t enjoy this as much as usual. A couple of definitions were rather loose – DEMERARA isn’t “something sweet”; it’s a place (that Demerara sugar originally came from); GRANDPARENTS for “old people” is also very loose.

    I couldn’t parse MASSETER.

  4. Thanks Picaroon and Manehi – especially with 16 d which was a new word for me and the wordplay outwitted me.

    In 18 the ACE is around ‘n’ for unknown number (not ‘C’ as stated in the blog.

  5. An OK Picaroon, by his very high standards, rather than a great one. When I say I enjoyed this about as much as yesterday you’ll get the point.

    I even had a similar last-in problem with MASSETER, a word you won’t know unless you’re an ENT surgeon or just like combing anatomy textbooks. In retrospect there’s nothing unreasonable about M + ASSET + ER but it was a letter-by-letter plod for me.

    Mustn’t moan too much, I liked FINIAL, SOLDER, COWLED and many others.

  6. Enjoyable but stumbled at the last on 16d MASSETER – did not know the word and was actually looking for a word meaning “casualty” to fit. Frustrated right at the finish. Sympathetic comments on the blog from copmus@2 and muffin@3 helped to ease the pain.

    Still some good clues and “aha” moments. Favourite was 1a COWLED for the mental image of tough guys in the (neighbour)hood – clever misdirection I thought.

    Thanks to Picaroon and manehi.

  8. Thank you, manehi, I enjoyed this, as I invariably do with this setter.

    However, I had to wait for the blog to parse MASSETER. Not sure this is reasonable with such an obscure word. Asset = help? Hmm? It was the only thing that fitted so perhaps that’s enough.

    I thought GRANDPARENTS was spoiled slightly by the choice of payments in the wordplay. It leads so easily to the answer. (Our kids still refer to us as “The Rents”).

    Loved the poetic OWED in particular and also CHAPTER & VERSE.

    Fine setter, many thanks to the pirate.

    Nice week, all.

  9. Thanks to Picaroon and manehi.

    Am still not getting CHAPTER AND VERSE from the clue although took a punt on it during the solve from crossers. Help?

  11. crypticsue@10: Yes, got that much and thanks, but how to get from CV to the answer is the question. Perhaps e.g. C3 V10 is a usage for Biblical references? If so new one on me… Even if so, seems a bit of a stretch. Hey ho.

  13. Whizzed through this then got stuck on M(asset)er which I eventually worked out from the cryptic part of the clue.

  14. As usual from Picaroon, much to like – too many good clues to list. It wasn’t a write-in by any means, but I do enjoy a challenge! Last one in was “Demerara”, but had no problem with its being described as something sweet – that’s what I call the sugar of that name when I’m shopping for it. Knew “masseter”, but I took a long time to unearth it from my aged brain!

    Thank you Picaroon & manehi.

  16. An excellent challenge which was v. satisfying to complete. I thought MASSETER was OK, but had to think hard for many others including DEMERARA, my last in. Especially liked OWED – yet another of those deceptively simple looking four letter clues – and GRANDPARENTS.

    Thanks Picaroon and manehi.

  18. Another fine puzzle from Picaroon. Must admit to have needed the Check button for MASSETER – would never have thought of asset for help, and the muscle was unfamiliar to me. Liked COWLED and INCIDENTAL MUSIC.

    Thanks to Picaroon and manehi

  19. Last in masseter. Never heard of it but I suppose when one masticates, one uses ones masseter. Fair enough! Thanks to Picaroon and everyone.

  20. Thanks to Picaroon and manehi. Like others I had trouble with MASSETER, and PA for per annum in GRANDPARENTS was new to me as was HARVEST MITES. Still, very enjoyable.

  21. Snap re MASSETER and I wasn’t too happy with DEMERARA either but I rather
    enjoyed the rest of it. I must say,though,that I thought this not one of
    Picaroon’s best.
    Still,thanks to setter and blogger.

  22. JuneG @14
    You must have bad a rather disturbing mental picture whenever you sang “Down in Demerara” then! 🙂

  23. I finished but got myself in a real bugger’s muddle trying to parse 16D. I looked to see what word(s) might be reversed (‘back’) in the solution and saw what I mistakenly thought was ‘TERES’ (it should have been ‘RETES’). ‘Teres’ is a muscle, so I thought, OK that’s ‘Muscle….back’ sorted which leaves ‘MAS’ or ‘SAM’. I could see that SAM might relate to American, and it’s also the odd letters of ‘spasm’…………. I gave up trying to parse it.

    Thanks both

  24. Yes, a fine puzzle. Deployment of good grammar, just the standard English one, immediately pushes a Guardian puzzle up the rankings for me. Very nice.

  25. Thanks all
    Like Julie Ifailed at masseter,looked for a casualty synonym¡andtried all the errors noted above!
    I did like cowled for its misdirection although it did not last long.I thought 8,21 was clever

  26. The use of “unknown number” to clue N makes me wonder about the limits of this device. I assume that it’s a reference to the mathematical usage of N to stand for an unspecified number, which makes it similar to the frequent use of “unknown” to clue X or Y. But where does it end? In algebra, pretty much every letter (except O) can be used to stand for an unknown quantity. Surely you couldn’t use this device to clue all these letters.

    I’m mostly just wondering how others think of this device; I’m not really complaining. (I did manage to get the answer.)

    I found this puzzle quite enjoyable. I found GRANDPARENTS particularly enjoyable. I also find it particularly satisfying when I deduce the existence of a word I didn’t know from the wordplay, and then find out that the word actually exists. I got to do that three times on this puzzle (MASSETER, HARVEST MITES, STAR SHELL).

  27. Ted @26
    n is used mathematically as an indeterminate number, but rarely in algebraic expressions. E.g. “the nth term in a series”, “for n= 1 to 10” etc. I’m sure there are better examples, but none are springing to mind at the moment!

    n almost always (the “almost” to cover myself) represents an integer, whereas an algebraic unknown is not necessarily an integer.

  28. Slow rather plodding solve. I’m with Ted@26 about “unknown number”, although it is the “unknown” bit that irritates me. To Muffin@27 – a number does not need to be an integer. Think pi or e.

  29. Steve @28
    You’ve misunderstood – I said that “n” always stands for an integer (as far as I can think of).

    pi and e are not only not integers; they are irrational numbers (infinite number of digits with no repeating pattern).

    One of the weirdest equations in maths is

    e^(i pi) = -1

    Where i is square root -1 (i.e. an imaginary number). Explain that!

  30. Muffin@29. Lordy – never thought I’d get into a maths spat on this site! My point remains, and yes, I am familiar with each the Euler Identidy.

  33. Muffin @22: have just read your comment & it made me laugh. Back in the days when I sang the song I didn’t know much about different types of sugar, so had no disturbed mental image – I have now!

  34. Muffin@32 – a fun exchange. We must agree to differ. Another time on the playing fields of maths maybe!

  35. Late again with my solve and my post!

    I agre with muffin’s comments (@3) about DEMERARA, GRANDPARENTS and MASSETER, but apart from these misgivings (actually a failure to parse in the case of MASSETER) I thought this was a super puzzle – I enjoyed it very much.

    I also enjoyed the mathematical items in the blog, and I go along with muffin @27 regarding the typical, conventional use of n as a variable (integer) counter rather than a variable (real) unknown. I do think, however, that ‘unknown number’ was a fair indicator in the clue.

    Many thanks to manehi and Picaroon.

  36. 4d. I was taught that Ulster is an Irish province of 9 counties of which 6 constitute Northern Ireland and that referring to NI as “the Province” was common but wrong.

  37. re @4d Ulster was always nine counties, however at the time of partition if it stayed as such there would have been a majority of Catholic/Nationalists so soverignty of Donegal, Monaghan and Cavan was ceded to the Free State, all following problems start here

  38. That was a real workout, but was my best effort so far on a non-Monday crossword … only five reveals needed. FINIAL was my favourite – I didn’t know the word but worked it out from crossers and wordplay before googling to check what it meant.

  39. For 2d I parsed OWED as a homophone (entreaty) of ode (poetic). Looking again, “O Wed” is definitely correct – but at least I got there, even if by going “the wrong way”

  40. Don’t understand the connection between COWLED and brothers in the hood. Could someone explain? Thanks.

  42. In the national tests sat by all 11 year olds, n is used for the algebraic questions so perhaps the setter has children!

  44. A very easy puzzle though I thought MASSITER unfair. I very much enjoyed NOAH’S ARK, CHAPTER AND VERSE and ISLE. Many thanks to Philistine.
    muffin – I have always understood that if one can’t prove “Euler’s identity” in at least three distinct ways then one has no right to describe oneself as a mathematician.

  46. Thanks Picaroon and manehi

    Haven’t been regularly doing Guardian puzzles for a while now (focusing on the FT ones – having no time for both). Ones like this make me really miss them though, with lots of clever clues producing the ‘aha’ moment or a head slap as the penny dropped !!!

    Finished the crossword inside the hour in a couple of sittings and eventually got all of the parsings except for INDIRECT where I lazily just had IN DIRECT (charge). Had the same stumbling block as others with MASSETER, a new word for me.

    Finished in the NE corner with TEUTONIC, COWLED and OWED as the last few in.

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