Guardian Cryptic 26,994 by Qaos

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Themed offering from Qaos

Apologies for the delay in getting this blog up today, but had to go to the doctor’s first thing due to a niggling heel injury.

Qaos has provided us with a puzzle where almost half of the solutions are linked to Robin Hood.  I’m not aware of any significance in the date (the only reference to Robin Hood and September 20 I could find after a quick Google search is that a film version was released on DVD in the UK on that date in 2010).

I have no quibbles with the clues (perhaps a minor one with 6d).  There was a good mix of ingenuity (14dn, for example) and standard fare, and the puzzle was certainly enjoyable.  Some solvers may be uncomfortable with the amount fo general knowledge required, but I don;t think any of it was too difficlut to work out.

Thanks, Qaos.

Across
7 RICHARD Cliff diver: “I’ve taken off backwards on wobbly chair” (7)
*(chair) + <=ReviD
8 CAMELOT ’70s prog rock band books castle (7)
CAMEL + O.T. (“books”)

Had to look up Camel, who are indeed a prog rock band, formed in the early 70s, but in a Tigger’s broom sort of way, are still in existence.
9 ALAN Sugar, part of a balanced diet? (4)
Hidden in “bALANced diet”

Refers to Alan Sugar.
10 HUNGARIAN European husband, one in Paris again, swims across river (9)
H(usband) + UN (“one in Paris”) + R in *(again)
12 FRIAR Day cleaning out inter­ior of antechamber gets one in order (5)
FRI(day) + A(ntechambe)R
13 SHERWOOD Former football manager of Villa and Forest? (8)
Refers to Tim Sherwood, former manager of Aston Villa, and Sherwood Forest.
15, 23 CAPS LOCK To restrict opening of safe, secure with key (4,4)
CAP (“restrict”) + S(afe) + LOCK (“secure”)
16 ROBIN Boy: “Wonder about nickel, boron and gold?” (5)
<+NI B OR

Batman’s sidekick, Robin was of course, also known as the Boy Wonder.
17 HOOD Gas inhaled by heavy-duty criminal (4)
OO or O2 is oxygen (“gas”) and H.D. is an abbreviation of “heavy duty”
18 BARBECUE Dolls waiting in line to be delivered a meal? (8)
Homophone of BARBIE QUEUE, indicated by “to be delivered”
20   See 20 down
21 TAX CREDIT Over 90? Badly attired? Get state support! (3,6)
*(attired) “over” XC (“90”)
22 DALE Might he have starred in Carry On Up The Valley? (4)
Refers to Carry On regular Jim Dale
24 SCARLET Southern refined claret is a brilliant red (7)
S + *(claret)
25 FLOUNCE Exaggerated walk after 1/20th of a pint? (7)
FL. OUNCE (“fluid ounce” = “1/20th of a pint”)
Down
1 WILL Last document by Shakespeare (abridged) (4)
WILL(iam) (Shakespear)
2 SHANTIES Solo time that’s involved in Sunday school songs (8)
HAN (Solo, from Star Wars) + T(ime) + i.e. “involved in” SS (“Sunday school”)
3 ARCHER Sportsman asks Russian cheats: “Help expose ringleaders” (6)
First letters of (“leaders”) Asks Russian Cheats Help Expose Ring
4 FAVA BEAN Gardener’s head bears fine American plant (4,4)
AVA (“Gardner’s”) BEAN (“head”) “bears” F(ine)
5 REVIEW About 6, we retire to study (6)
RE + VI + <=WE
6 JOHN Boy heads? (4)
Double definition – boy’s name and toilet (although “heads” needn’t be plural)
11 NOSEBLEED Complaint? Fans want Spoonerism (9)
Spponerism of BLOWS NEED (“fans want”)
12 FLAVA Special style of loud hot rock (5)
F + LAVA, a derivative of FLAVOUR
14 OZONE Some atmosphere at wizard’s postcode? (5)
The Wizard of Oz’s postcode would probably be OZ 1
16 RECORDER One takes notes, one plays notes (8)
Double definition
17 HIRED GUN Professional hitter from Edinburgh dismissed — bowled out (5,3)
*(edinurgh) (“Edinburgh” with no B (“bowled out”))
19 BOXERS Fighting dogs? (6)
Cryptic definition
20, 20 across LITTLE LARGE  ’80s double act taken to extremes? (6 and 5)
Sid Little & Eddie Large, a comedy double act
21 TUCK No starter with fast food (4)
(s)TUCK (“fast” with no starter)
23   See 15

*anagram

57 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 26,994 by Qaos”

  1. Thanks Qaos and loonapick

    Very clever, and I enjoyed it, but I’m more disturbed by the amount of general knowledge required; I made it six clues where the solution wasn’t derivable simply from the clue (13a, 22a, 4d, 20/20, and, to a lesser extent, 1a). DALE in particular would be meaningless to transatlantic solvers.

    Particular favourites were ROBIN, BARBECUE, and HIRED GUN.

  5. I really enjoyed this; what was remarkable was the variety of material used in the clues, I thought.
    I was a bit surprised that JOHN wasn’t clued “Head boy?” although my exposure to US slang terms for the lavatory is really down to Kubrick, Stone and Scorsese so I’m not an expert.
    Thanks to Qaos and loonapick

  6. Thanks Qaos and loonapick.

    Delightful puzzle; I knew most of the references but not for CAMEL. Good setting to get so many themed references in.

    I particularly liked CAPS LOCK and BARBECUE. I didn’t think much of the Spoonerism as Spooner’s version was fairly meaningless.

  7. Nice puzzle. I also had to look up CAMEL. Didn’t get CAPS LOCK (good clue) or JOHN. Missed all the references to Robin Hood, of course. Favourites were RICHARD, TAX CREDIT and BARBECUE. Many thanks to Qaos and loonapick.

  8. Ah yes Frampton’s Camel! Thought barbecue was a cracker-Camelot almost fits in to the theme but only ny a stretch of imagination. Really fun puzzle.

  9. copmus @ 8: Barbecue does fit – how do you think they had hot food? Maybe they didn’t call it that…

    I hoped Alan-a-Dale might have played the recorder, but a Google Images search shows he was more of an axeman.

  11. Lots of embarrassment as I post (quite 24a-faced, actually):

    1. Despite getting several clues WILL, SCARLET, FRIAR, TUCK, ROBIN and HOOD, though of course not in that order, I missed the theme completely. And that was even though I also entered two guesses, 9a ALAN (no idea why; have not heard of ALAN Sugar), and 13a SHERWOOD (of course have not heard of the retired football manager).

    2. An incomplete grid. Have not heard of 20d/20a LITTLE and LARGE. Missed the Edinburgh anagram minus b in 17d HIRED GUN. Missed the Cliff RICHARD reference in 7a completely, as well as HAN Solo in 3d so missed SHANTIES. Got the LOCK part of 15a 23d but not the CAPS bit.

    3. Several unparsed “bung-ins”. Have never seen the word FLAVA 12d before. I got 8a CAMELOT but thought the band was ELO, so could not parse it properly. I guessed DALE for 22a as I know it as a synonym for Valley, but had no idea why/if it was correct. Have not heard of Jim DALE. FAVA BEAN 4d was also an unparsed guess even though I saw AVA Gardener in there.

    So all in all, not one of my better days. No reflection on Qaos; just got (S)TUCK 21d.

    Thanks to PeterO and contributors for clarifications.

  12. PS Even though we own a sailing boat, we use the term “head” not “heads” for the toilet (6d). I think they use “heads” more in the US? So missed JOHN too. There are just too many words that are constructed
    -O-N. I really agree that the clue would have been better as “Head boy?”, as suggested by baerchen@5.

  13. I know it’s pedantic, but if Ava Gardner is the reference, the clue as printed is inaccurate. The common noun ‘gardener’ spelled thus, does not indicate the letters ‘ava’. Sorry, loonapick and Qaos.
    BTW, loved the puzzle!

  14. Thanks, loonapick.

    I wonder if someone could explain the “6 and 5” in 20/22? I presumed that 6 was a themed reference to LITTLE JOHN but 5? I thought perhaps because he was actually supposed to be very large but that doesn’t seem to link solidly to REVIEW…

  15. @NeilW

    The (6 and 5) as opposed to, say, (6,5) is the letter-count for 20,22……..giving (Syd) Little AND (Eddie) Large
    HTH

  16. Thanks, baerchen (red-facedly.) I’ve never seen enumeration like that, as far as I can remember – normally just (6,5). I was overthinking because I was led to the solution by the theme – it was my last one in, since I wasn’t really a fan of the duo. 🙁

  17. Thanks both. I enjoyed this, and for once spotted the theme early on.
    (Julie @12, my father was in the Royal Navy in the war, and referred to the toilet as “the heads” (plural), so it seems it has a British usage)

  18. Maysie@13. Good pick-up on the erroneous reference to Ava GARDNER. I felt there was something not quite right there.

  20. (Thanks, Shirl@17 for sharing the British useage adopted by your Dad in the RN. Now not sure why some refer to it as the head and others the heads. All I know is if I call it the toilet I sound like a landlubber!)

  21. PAGEBOY would have fitted at 8a, instead of Camelot – in many early versions where she is mentioned, Maid Marian first meets Robin Hood while she is disguised as a pageboy…

  23. I’m with Muffin @1, rather too much general knowledge and vacuous general knowledge at that (i.e. Jim Dale, Tim Sherwood, Alan Sugar, Camel etc. etc.._). But I did enjoy it overall, so thanks to Qaos for a fun time, and thanks to you also for your gracious mea culpa, although I would never have noticed the misspelling of the actor’s name!! Also many thanks to Loonapick for putting me right in several places!!

  24. Thanks to Qaos for a nice puzzle, and for ‘fessing up about the Gardner error! Spotting the theme early helped, as did being old and British….

  25. Thanks Qaos and loonapick.

    I enjoyed the solve, but having left England over 50 years ago I had a few problems with the clues muffin @1 mentions. The gardener/Gardner mix up made me smile, Lady Gardner of Parkes told me she received a lot of mail addressed to Lady gardener of parks…

  26. Thanks to Qaos and loonapick. I did know Jim Dale, but not Alan Sugar, Camel the band, Sherwood the manager, the term FLAVA, and LITTLE AND LARGE (and HD as heavy duty was new to me) so I sympathize with Julie in Australia, but the clues were enough to get me through. Lots of fun.

  28. Thanks both,

    ‘Tax credit’ was by far my favourite. ‘Heads’ comes from ‘cats’ heads’ the ends of a beam going across the front of a ship which was used by sailors as a suitable spot for voiding their bowels. As there were two cats’ heads I guess the plural is preferable. It was generally advisable to choose the leeward one.

  29. I really enjoyed this. The only reference I didn’t know was CAMEL but it was at least guessable. Having a theme was the icing on the cake and brought back happy memories of the Richard Greene B&W TV series. “Robin Hood, Robin Hood, Riding through the glen, Robin Hood, Robin Hood, With his band of men, Feared by the bad, loved by the good,…” Can’t get the tune out of my head.

    Anyway, apart from the themed clues my favourites were CAPS LOCK and SHANTIES, my last in.

    A big thanks to Qaos and loonapick.

  30. Afternoon all! Many thanks for the comments and to loonapick for the detailed blog. Hope you found plenty of merriment in today’s puzzle (bar the typo in 4d). Sorry I was unable to squeeze m’lady into the grid – it wasn’t for lack of trying.

    If today wasn’t your cup of mead, you’ve a really good one to look forward to tomorrow.

    Best wishes,

    Qaos.

  31. I too had never heard of those various entities that acd@20 mentions. And in particular, what in the world is flava? I pieced it together from the cryptic bits but have never heard of it.

    Will in 1d is William abridged. How does abridging Shakespear(e)come into it?

    Thanks to Shirl @17 and her father for heads. It isn’t an American usage that I know of, we say “head,” and also as far as I know of only when messing about on boats. I doubt most Americans would recognize head as meaning John.

    Thanks to loonapick for parsing ozone and the Wizard of Oz. I was stuck at Hogwarts.

  32. This was a struggle. Never heard the slang version of ‘heads’, so JOHN was just a stab in the dark. I did recall Jim DALE but that didn’t quite convince me, until the crossers came in.

    It’s good that Qaos has apologised for the typo in 4d, but it’s not entirely his fault – that’s what editors are for. For me the clue was ruined, as I needed Wikipaedia to find a bean that fitted, SOYA having earlier been discarded. Wikipaedia also needed for the CAMEL bit of 8a, though since I was looking for a castle ending in -OT or -NT I really should have done better.

    But last in BARBECUE made me smile, rather like CATAMARANS yesterday, and I though TAX CREDIT was really good. And yes I did twig the theme, which helped with FRIAR and TUCK.

  33. I finally remembered why LOCK was nagging at me — Robin Hood’s original name was Robert of Locksley. Don’t know if that counts, since there isn’t any SLEY in the puzzle.

  34. Thank you loonapick, needed you to parse the CAMEL reference and FLAVA.

    Thanks to Qaos for a fine puzle and for dropping in with the mea culpa. (Well spotted Maysie @13).

    A total blank after the first read-through, then ROBIN inserted the first little pry-bar.

    Failed on CAPS LOCK, when will I ever spot the ‘key’ gag?

    For once, I spotted the theme in time. Was just about to give up with 30% unsolved when SHERWOOD jumped out.

    I’m somewhat with others who mention the amount of general knowledge needed, but I forgive it in this case as it’s offset by so many fine clues. I ticked RICHARD, WILL, OZONE, TAX CREDIT, FLOUNCE, HIRED GUN and the super Spoonerism at NOSEBLEED.

    Fine craft, Qaos…more please.

    Nice week, all

  35. Another baffled trans-Atlantic solver, who had to cheat on ALAN; bung in DALE, RICHARD, SHERWOOD, and LITTLE and LARGE; and reverse-engineer CAMELOT, thanks to the extra dose of old B-list British celebrities this morning. (It’s not so much general knowledge as it is Brit-specific general knowledge. None of these people crossed the Atlantic, ever, in their entire lives, I think.)

    This American has never heard “the heads.” The lavatory on a boat is “the head” here too.

    In good news, the Barbie queue made me snort with laughter.

    A fava bean isn’t an American plant, of course; it turns out to just be the American name for an old-world plant. Which I didn’t know until I looked it up.

  36. …by the way, does anyone remember that wonderful line of Kevin Costner’s to Morgan Freeman on landing on England’s south coast? “…tonight I will dine with my family at Nottingham”.

    200 miles on horseback…not bad in one day, eh?

  37. Enjoyed this, despite my not spotting the theme until I was nearly finished the puzzle. Once I did spot it that helped me with 13 ac, my last one in, football managers not being a strong point of mine!

    Too many good clues to list, but I did like “barbecue” and “John”. (Thank you for filling us in on the latter, Tyngewick @28. Perhaps a little too much information, but very interesting!). Hade no problem with 22ac – quite fancied Jim Dale back in the day!

    Thank you for an entertaining challenge, Qaos (didn’t notice the spelling mistake, by the way!). Thanks too to loonapick for the blog

  38. I’m so glad the ‘Gardener’ typo got cleared up – my answer still went in because I realised, like Maysie @13 and others did, what was meant.

    I managed to complete nearly all of this crossword in spite of my poor knowledge of trivia. In the end, I didn’t bother with the last two (CAPS and JOHN) because it was time to stop drinking coffee and make my way home. My loss! CAPS LOCK was a good one which I should have thought of while away from the grid, but this ‘key’ slipped my mind. JOHN was impossible, though, because I don’t know the slang word ‘head’ or ‘heads’. (And I didn’t realise at the time how far the theme went!)

    I particularly liked FLAVA, which I hadn’t heard of but was pleased to solve and subsequently look up. Other favourites were BARBECUE, TAX CREDIT and FLOUNCE. Also, I thought the ‘(6 and 5)’ was an original and neat way to indicate that you fill in just LITTLE and LARGE.

    In 25a FLOUNCE I assumed ‘after’ was there to smooth the (resulting excellent) surface. It’s rather a strong ‘filler’ word, but I for one have no complaints in this case.

    I sympathise with those who were left a bit high and dry by British trivia.

    I was more than pleased to see my two forenames ALAN and RICHARD gracing this crossword!! It would have been embarrassing to struggle on either of these.

    Many thanks to Qaos and loonapick.

  41. I didn’t see the theme but looking at my completed grid, I can’t see how I missed it especially given the positioning of ROBIN and HOOD! That said, I thought this was pretty good. Some lovely clues. I liked FLOUNCE,SHANTIES,NOSEBLEED and a number of others. I finally saw CAMELOT- I must have heard Camel but I can’t remember what they sounded like- and FAVA BEANS was a guess,or rather, a process of elimination.
    Good fun.
    Thanks Qaos.

  43. Thanks very much Qaos and Loonapick. Most enjoyable.

    A propos of nothing, my mother (Barbara) told me years ago that, on Portuguese ships, the ladies’ loo (or ‘head’) is called ‘Santa Barbara’. St Barbara is patron saint of, among other things, artillery and explosives.

  45. slipstream @44
    I usually miss themes too, but ROBIN and HOOD next to each other was too obvious even for me to ignore – it helped me get JOHN, my LOI.

  46. Enjoyed this one a lot. Obviously with Qaos you pretty much know there will be a ghost theme and this one was apparent very early, but there were still plenty of tricky parsings and inventive constructions.

    Thanks to Qaos and loonapick

  48. muffin @40, actually it is Marion, as in many of the early Robin Hood versions, and hardly “maid” with four sons. Thanks again Qaos, all good fun!

  50. This was the day when the recycling was collected and The Guardian somehow got into it unread. Glad I don’t have to do the crossword my tablet very often but definitely worth the effort.
    Cookie@25. Having heard the lady speak at a charity do once I would bet that she chose the name with that eventuality in mind.

  52. I really liked the construction of 18 but don’t agree with the homophone. For me the middle syllable is the unstressed schwa. Not barbie queue but barber queue.

  53. For once I got the theme, which I think was well handled. I agree with the comments about too much GK needed, though. The football manager was new to me. So was FLAVA, which I guessed from the wordplay as I only had the initial F at the time. BARBECUE was next to last. For me (like paddymelon @52), it isn’t a homophone so I didn’t recognise the dolls until I already had the answer from the definition and crossers. CAPS LOCK was my LOI.

    Thanks, Qaos and loonapick.

  54. Like other Americans, I was baffled by the British trivia. I was also flummoxed by 25 until I looked up “pint” and learned that there are 20 ounces in a pint over there–here there are only 16!

  55. Just for the sake of balance, I confirm that I had all the general knowledge required for this puzzle, not particularly deeply buried. But I had never heard of “heads” and I say “barber queue”.

  57. Thanks Qaos and loonapick

    Not surprisingly, with the amount of British-based general knowledge required, I found this quite tough and it took an elapsed few days to complete some 12-13 months on !!! Thoroughly enjoyed it though and twigged to the theme when ROBIN HOOD presented in the centre line quite early on.

    Lots of innovative clueing used throughout and because I was so late to it – the Special instructions had corrected the ‘Gardener’ problem.

    Finished with CAMELOT (having never heard of the band, which I had playing whilst typing this up), FLAVA (a completely new word for me) and that tricksy CAPS LOCK key the last one in.

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