Guardian Cryptic 26,991 by Paul

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26991.

This cannot have been too difficult, because I finished it in good time dspite feeling distinctly pedestrian this evening. I think it is an excellent example of a crossword which is entertaining without being too knotty. At least, it fell squarely in my Goldilocks zone, as so often the case with Paul.

Across
1 QUARRY Kill a source of minerals (6)
Double definition.
4 THWART Pie cases hot, bearing foil (6)
An envelope (‘cases’) of H (‘hot’) plus W (west, ‘bearing’) in TART (‘pie’).
9   See 16
10 POPULATION Number of people misspelling me in a concoction of spelling? (10)
An envelope (‘in’) of PULA, an anagram (‘misspelling’) of PAUL (‘me’, the author of this puzzle) in POTION (‘a concoction of spelling’ – referring to witches).
11 LEGATO A trowel initially breaking bricks smoothly (6)
An envelope (‘breaking’) of ‘a’ plus T (‘Trowel initially’) in LEGO (‘bricks’), for the musical term.
12 CLEAVAGE Valley where short holiday taken in prison (8)
An envelope (‘taken in’) of LEAV[e] (‘holiday’) minus its last letter (‘short’) in CAGE (‘prison’).
13 FORSYTHIA One after something yellow primarily in flower, a shrub (9)
An envelope (‘in’) of SY (‘Something Yellow primarily’) in FORTH (Scottish river, ‘flower’) plus I (‘one’, with ‘after’ indicating its position in the answer) plus ‘a’ (with its position in the clue indicating its position in the answer), with an extended definition.
15   See 26
16, 9 COALMINE Ocean ¾ mile out — this could be deep (8)
An anagram (‘out’) of ‘ocean’ plus ‘mil[e]’ (‘¾ mile’).
17 EVANESCED English assimilated by Welshman a month back, disappeared (9)
An envelope (‘assimilated by’) of E (‘English’) in EVANS (common surname for a ‘Welshman’) plus CED, a reversal (‘back’) of DEC (ember, ‘a month’).
21 COLOURED Tainted bonnet removed from VW in copper and crimson (8)
An envelope (‘in’) of [p]OLO (‘VW’) minus its first letter (‘bonnet removed’) in CU (chemical symbol, ‘copper’) plus RED (‘crimson’).
22 NETHER Lower in tone, the remarks (6)
A hidden answer ‘in’ ‘toNE THE Remarks’.
24 BUBBLE WRAP Wasted in pub bar, beaten boxer’s packed it in? (6,4)
An envelope (‘in’) of BLEW (‘wasted’ as in “I blew my whole paycheck playing poker”) in BUBRAP, an anagram (‘beaten’) of ‘pub bar’.
25 XMAS Grand pocketed by jazz band member, returning for the holiday season (4)
An envelope (‘pocketed by’) of M (Roman numeral 1000, ‘grand’) in XAS, a reversal (‘returning’) of SAX (‘jazz band member’).
26, 15 TURKEY TROT Dance with comrade beyond a disaster? (6,4)
A charade of TURKEY (‘a disaster’ of a film, say) plus TROT (Trotskyite, ‘comrade’).
27 UNUSED New energy has died after artist leaves the planet (6)
A charade of U[ra]NUS (‘the planet’) minus RA (‘artist leaving’) plus E (‘energy’) plus D (‘died’).
Down
1 QUITE SO Spanish cheese contains it — exactly! (5,2)
An envelope (‘contains’) of ‘it’ in QUESO (‘Spanish cheese’).
2 ARENA Scene of conflict encapsulated by Hurricane rapidly taking off (5)
A hidden (‘encapsulated by’) reversed (‘taking off’ – unusual, but in a down light suggesting going up in the air) in ‘HurricANE RApidly’.
3 RAPPORT Understanding the blame, one side in the main (7)
A charade of RAP (‘blame’ as in “taking the rap”) plus PORT (left nautically,  ‘one side in the main’).
5   See 23
6 ANTIVIRUS Strain IV struggles to contain universal tablet software (9)
An envelope (‘to contain’) of U (‘universal’) in ANTIVIRS, an anagram (‘struggles’) of ‘strain IV’.
7 THOUGHT Consideration still important, ultimately (7)
A charade of THOUGH (‘still’) plus T (‘importanT ultimately’).
8 SPACE INVADERS Alien advances ripe, start to shoot — in this? (5,8)
An anagram (‘alien’) of ‘advances ripe’ plus S (‘start to Shoot’), with an extended definition.
14 SEA ROBBER Pirate, attention-grabbing moaner! (3,6)
An envelope (‘grabbing’) of EAR (‘attention’) in SOBBER (‘moaner’).
16 CROQUET Little taste of cheddar cheese, not for game (7)
A charade of C (‘little taste of Cheddar’) plus ROQUE[for]T (French blue ‘cheese’) minus FOR (‘not for’).
18 NINEPIN 28.2743 approximately, number that’s to be knocked down (7)
Not quite 10e, nor a lunar month, this is NINE PI (pi=3.1415926535…) plus N (‘number’).
19 EMERALD Stone building remade with last of steel (7)
An anagram (‘building’) of ‘remade’ plus L(‘last of steeL‘).
20 BREEZE Piece of cake in a block? (6)
Double definition, the second being an allusion to breeze blocks, named not because they have holes, but because the are made from breeze, furnace residue.
23, 5 TEXAS HOLD ‘EM Some lad with the cunning to bank unspecified amount in poker (5,4,2)
An envelope (‘to bank’) of X (‘unspecified amount’) in TEASHOLDEM, an anagram (‘cunning’) of ‘some lad’ plus ‘the’, for a variety of the card game poker in which each player has two cards, forming the best five card hand with any three of five cards common to all the players.
completed grid

46 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 26,991 by Paul”

  1. Thanks Paul and PeterO

    I enjoyed this more than typically for a Paul, with particular favourites being POPULATION, NETHER and SPACE INVADERS. I thought that it might be tricky when FOI was UNUSED and SOI EMERALD, but in fact it proceeded steadily thereafter.

    I didn’t parse the BLEW in BUBBLE WRAP, and, try as I might, I can’t see the inclusion in SEA ROBBER being the right way round.

    Dislikes: “3/4 mile” and “bonnet removed from VW” – the latter being particularly unfair, almost a “ghost”.

  2. oh Peter O Thanks… Evans = Welshman .. is that usual? Thanks for parsing Turkey trot.. Turkey means disaster?? Forsythia is way too complex .. Forth is a river heh.. hmm .. quite a bit of GK needed on this one…

  3. Thanks Paul and PeterO,
    A tough one for me – I needed to reveal 5 answers. Muffin, I enjoyed COLOURED – a wonderful penny drop moment. But I thought it was a bit harsh to give us maths on a Friday (NINEPIN)! My favourite was XMAS for the smooth and lengthy surface.

  4. I thought this was going to be a complete TURKEY (26a) for me.

    After the first pass I had no THOUGHT (7d) at all.

    Then I thought, Julie, this is a Paul, think beyond the square. So I went back to the beginning, to 1a. I thought, “kill” is usually a verb, what if it was not a verb, but a noun? Thus I solved QUARRY. That gave me four solves in the NW straight away. So then because I had the initial letter “P” for 10a, POPULATION fell into place, and after that much of the NE.

    The bottom half was harder. I thought 16a 9a was something to do with “rhumb line”, a navigational term. Then I thought, maybe I have missed the theme, maybe it is about excavations, as I already had QUARRY, so I got COAL MINE. Any thought of a theme was quickly dashed, but hey, word association can work!

    I had never heard of 26a 15a TURKEY TROT, but figured it could be something like a foxtrot?

    Took me forever to see 24a BUBBLE WRAP. Tried “double drop”, thinking it might be a boxing term, but it jarred so much, I kept trying ’til I saw it. And in turn, that gave me 14d, SEA ROBBER for pirate.

    LOI was 18d NINEPINS, only bunged in due to the crossers. No idea why. (Maths phobia is part of my story; having been hit with a wooden blackboard ruler for not knowing my tables by a cruel nun in Year 3, I find that numbers still terrify me). Appreciated the parse here (I think I understand it!).

    I did like the Lego bricks in 11a, LEGATO, but my favourite ultimately has to be 12a, CLEAVAGE, where such an interesting synonym for “valley” was revealed!

    Many thanks to my favourite setter Paul, and to PeterO for such a good solve.

    Finally, PeterO, I really appreciate you teaching me that breeze blocks aren’t about the holes in what we call “Besser blocks”.

  5. Thank you PeterO, needed you for Forth in FORSYTHIA, otherwise a BREEZE ha-ha.

    Mr Halpern continues to refine his art, doesn’t he? CROQUET is a gem with a beautiful surface and BUBBLE WRAP was clever, too, although for some reason I have always thought that the expression was “to blue ones money”. Anyone else?

    Not wild about SEA ROBBER, though. Never heard the expression so would never have got there from sobber = moaner. It went in easily enough though, so perhaps that’s enough.

    LOI and one I stared at for ages was XMAS. Got stuck on G or K for grand.

    Had to look up the Spanish for cheese and then realised I knew it anyway!

    Julie in Oz @4 horrified by your nun story…that’s enough to knock the numeracy out of the best of us!

    Lovely puzzle, many thanks, Paul.

    Nice weekend, all.

  7. This seems to be a failed pangram. It has every letter but J. Did Paul attempt a pangram and then give up? But it would have been easy enough to disconnect the two clues at 9/16 across and make 9 across JIVE – which could have been linked to the jazz band and turkey trot references.

  8. Very enjoyable puzzle. Thank you Paul and PeterO.

    We both smiled at CLEAVAGE and spent some time parsing NINEPIN (eventually successfully) before coming over here.

    William @5 Charles also questioned blue and blow for waste, but wasted would have to be blued.

    LOI was XMAS having tried G and K for grand. Charles and William on the same wavelength this morning.

  9. Thanks Paul & PeterO.

    I agree with muffin @1 that the clue for SEA ROBBER seems to be the wrong way round. Surely, it’s moaner grabbing attention?

    Does Strain IV mean anything?

    Overall, still a satisfying solve. I liked the SPACE INVADERS.

  10. Robi@9. Is not a moaner grabbing attention the same as an attention-grabbing moaner? I think you are possibly ignoring the hyphen.
    Thanks to S & B.

  12. Thanks to Paul and PeterO. I could not parse NINEPIN or POPULATION, and BREEZE blocks (as opposed to concrete blocks) were new to me. Yesterday I thought that LEFTOVERS was one word, but today I thought COALMINE was two. Still, I did get through and enjoyed the process.

  13. Thank you Paul and PeterO.

    I enjoyed this puzzle even though the poker game was beyond me.

    EVANESCED reminded me of the limited extent of Welsh surnames – Anthony Powell wrote that an officer who served in The Welch Regiment in WWI told him that his unit was required to send a draft of 200 men for another unit of The Welch in France, some regimental vendetta existed, so, to cause the maximum of administrative trouble, the men sent were all named Williams.

  14. Phew! Hard work but got there in the end. Loved SPACE INVADERS, CLEAVAGE, BUBBLE WRAP and CROQUET. Many thanks to Paul and PeterO.

  15. Lovely puzzle; thank you Paul as ever for the fun!! Thanks also to PeterO for help with many I could not parse including NINEPIN. I get it now but in your blog you state “Not quite 10e, nor a lunar month, this is NINE PI (pi=3.1415926535…) plus N (‘number’).” I’m sure I am being really thick but to what does 10e refer? Favourites CLEAVAGE, CROQUET and XMAS

  17. Thank you muffin, I was being thick as I did mathematics (back when Jesus walked on water) at University, and know perfectly well what e is, but just did not associate 10e in this context………… maybe it IS time to get that test before I fail the captcha!!

  18. I enjoyed this but I would as Paul is one of my favourite setters. Srividiya I think Evans is perfectly acceptable for a Welsh man as it is a very common surname in Wales. It can also be spelt as Ifans.

  19. Thanks

    Just to add that I interpreted “antivirus” as a three-part clue. i.e “tablet software” being two separate definitions, (plus the anagram bit).

  20. Paul’s puzzles are consistently among the best.

    I wondered about the word “tablet” in 6d. Antivirus software isn’t especcially for tablets, so the clue makes at least as much sense without it (and the surface is equally meaningless either way!). I wondered whether the word was meant as an extra definition, referring to (medical) antivirus tablets as well as to antivirus software.

    I don’t quite see how TAINTED = COLOURED. The word “taint” does come from the same root as “tint”, but they don’t seem equivalent to me in modern English.

    Never heard the expression “sea robber”, but according to the dictionaries it exists. Anyway, the construction was clear and the meaning

    Grim and Dim @7: I wondered about the pangram manque as well (for the second day in a row). But there’s a Z missing as well as the J, isn’t there?

  22. Oops huge apologies to Paul and Peter O thank you for an enjoyable puzzle and blog get carried away by anything Welsh.

  25. Thank you Paul and PeterO. 8d prompted some happy reminiscing about hours frittered away at university long ago for Mr Bayleaf and me.

  26. Our favourite setter and he didn’t let us down. Not his most difficult but great fun and we laughed out loud at breeze and bubble wrap. Thanks P&P

  28. This was good fun for a Friday. The only thing I have to add is this: My last in was FORSYTHIA, because I spent way the heck too long trying to shoehorn in the missing J! Serves me right for noticing a Pangram in Progress for once…and of course being wrong. Anyway, when I got the answer, it made me a little sad.

    Loved SPACE INVADERS, which dates from my childhood. Funny: I had the _P_C_ first, and saw the long answer without even looking at the clue, and I thought, “Space Invaders! No, couldn’t be.” And then I looked at the clue, and sure enough it was.

    Wonder if folks fifty years hence will treat ancient video games with the same reverence we now give to Golden Age Hollywood movies.

    I did not know BREEZE as a block. Somewhat baffled by the people who said that XMAS was their last in: once you’ve got TEXAS HOLD ‘EM, how many four-letter words are there that start with X anyway? That and X-RAY and…you’re done, right?

  29. Thanks Paul and PeterO

    I think you BLUE your cash but BLOW (eg) an opportunity, so BLEW as past tense works fine for me.

  31. I found this rather tricky. It took me ages to get going but,looking back at the puzzle, I’m not sure why because it’s up to Paul’s usual standard give or take a TEXAS HOLD EM. Liked XMAS and TURKEY TROT.
    Thanks Paul.

  34. Simon S @29

    An interesting idea, but I have not found support for it. Both Chambers and the OED give blow and blue as synonymous in this sense. Chambers suggests that blue might be derived from blow, but the OED gives an older usage for blue.

  35. Thank you Paul (as always) – or, rather, ‘Pula’ today !

    Welsh names. I always tackle a clue of some length around the middle when I begin solving a crossword. Don’t know why. So today, with no crossers yet, I considered ‘DYELANCED’ for 17ac (‘English assimilated by Welshman…’): I was brought up reading ‘Under Milk Wood’. It seemed unlikely, but there were so many colours floating about in this excellent puzzle that I thought it might have something to do with stain-removal. ‘Emerald’ (19d) fell into place perfectly, but of course ‘a month back’ covered that. Anyway, it quickly became clear what the correct solution was.

    Incidentally, chums, after last weekend’s minor fiasco (NOT the setters’ fault !), what are we to look forward to on Monday: a Cryptic from Rufus, or a Quiptic from Woofus ?

  36. Nicely pitched puzzle. How are others interpreting “boxer’s packed in it” as a definition in 24ac?
    I suspect ‘tainted’ is a misprint for ‘tinted’ in 21ac – both surface and solution would make more sense.
    Thanks to setter and blogger.

  37. Gonzo @36
    I thought “His opinion is coloured” was quite close to “His opinion is tainted”, but I think your misprint suggestion is an improvement.

  38. I really enjoyed this and had to be at my sharpest to complete it. I’m glad you persevered with it, Julie (@4): as you said, “this is a Paul, think beyond the square”, whereas I said something more like “this is a Paul, you can depend on his clues”, but for both of us it was rewarding in the end.

    I thought the clues for 14d SEA ROBBER and 21a COLOURED were a bit weak, but aside from that I thought this was a super puzzle with a great variety of tricky clues and some more accessible ones.

    12a CLEAVAGE and 24a BUBBLE WRAP were my favourites.

    Many thanks to Paul, and to PeterO for the blog.

  40. To be picky,a tart ain’t a pie but enjoyed this one. Re Cookie’s names I worked with the RN pay computer for a while…the schedulers, when bored, took delight in sending all Smiths to one vessel and to another they sent Sparrow, Wren, Crow…..

  41. Another waste of time for the pangram crew” 🙂

    I have expressed my thoughts on pangrams, their hunters and their probability at length previously. However I still love it when a pangram doesn’t come together! (not that I’d ever notice this myself 😉 )

    Great puzzle by the way.

  43. Isn’t a boxer someone who packs things into a box – using bubble wrap perhaps.

    Interestingly, I considered 10e and a lunar month in that order for 18d before finding 9 pi retrospectively

  44. Thanks all
    It is Sunday lunch and I have just completed this
    I whisked through the supposedly difficult prize yesterday but fortunately still had a good chunk of Friday’s to entertain me this morning.
    Who assesses these things?
    All the several difficulties have been dealt with above especially forsythia!

  45. R C Whiting @ 44. I have to confess that you beat me by several hours. Don’t know why, for example, it took so long to get TURKEY TROT as I knew both elements and the complete phrase as in, from memory, “Everybody’s doing it doing it, doing it.Everybody’s doing it. Doing what? The Turkey trot. See that ragtime couple over there -it’s a bear, it’s a bear, it’s a bear,it’s a bear”. No, I don’t know what it means either.
    17a Many, many years ago when Jesus College, Oxford, was full of Welshmen, an Englishmen went in to look for his friend called “Evans”. Not knowing his room he stood in the middle of the quad and shouted “EVANS”, upon which half the windows went up so he tried again, “EVANS WITH A TOOTHBRUSH” and found his friend.

  46. Thanks Paul and PeterO

    Always find JH in his role of Paul at the Guardian a much more fun and interesting experience than his one as Mudd in the FT. This was no exception a mix of really clever constructions, interesting and original definitions (‘Valley’, ‘boxer’s packed it in’, etc.) and his typical overall fun factor. Just wish that I had that extra hour or two each day to be able to do the puzzles of both papers.

    Still there were a couple here that I needed the blog to completely explain – the BLEW part in 24a and the S part of EVANS (had gone just with the first name EVAN. BREEZE Blocks were new to me as well.

    EMERALD was the first one in and COALMINE was one that I found really tricky to get and was the last.

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