Guardian Cryptic 27,001 by Arachne

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A challenging puzzle from Arachne this morning.

Don’tt know if I am just tired, or whether six weeks of redundancy have blunted my intelligence, but I took a while to finish this.  The bottom half went in fairly quickly, but the top half took a while, and even after I’d finished it, I just couldn’t see the parsing of 8dn, although  I got there eventually.

My favourite clue was 13dn.

Thanks, Arachne.

Across
1 IN DEBT Unable to settle at home, put back bedtime (2,4)
IN + <+BED + T(ime)
4 SAWBONES Retired bachelor used to be my doctor (8)
<+B WAS + ONE’S (“my”)
9 TOP-UPS Perhaps more tea and toast made by dog breeders? (3-3)
TO PUPS! may be  a “toast made by dog breeders”
10 EPIDURAL Feeling duller at end of term? (8)
After an epidural, a mother-to-be would feel duller.
11 DEFIBRILLATORS They shock and bestir frail old rebels (14)
*(bestir frail old)
13 THERMOSTAT Mother most attentive, keeping temperature steadier (10)
Hidden in “moTHER MOST ATtentive”
14 OSLO Ducks surround small lake in city (4)
OO (“ducks”) “surround” S(mall) L(ake)
16 ALAS Railways regularly neglected, I’m sorry to say (4)
rAiLwAyS
18 CAPITALIST Supporter of an economic system that is disastrous (italics apt)(10)
*(italics apt)
21 ENTERTAININGLY Sent certain kingly leaders away, causing amusement (14)
(s)ENT (c)ERTAIN (k)INGLY
23 ORGASTIC Men talk, twitching, of sexual pleasure (8)
O.R. (“men”) + GAS (“talk”) + TIC (“twitching”)
24 PLIGHT Predicament is easy to bear after heading to pub (6)
LIGHT after P(ub)
25 DRAFTING Writing first version of paper, not out wearing women’s clothes (8)
F.T. (“paper”) +IN (“not out”) “wearing” DRAG
26 PALLOR Whiteness of china egg held in both hands (6)
PAL (“china”) + O (“egg”) in L and R (“both hands”)
Down
1 IOTA Ten cheers for tiny thing! (4)
10 + TA (“cheers”)
2 DEPLETE Key rings quietly diminish in number (7)
DELETE (“key”) “rings” P
3 BAPTISMS Font functions beautifully at first with suitable individual text (8)
B(eautifully) + APT + 1+ S.M.S. (“text” message)
5 APPELLATION Name state of North American mountain region (11)
Homophone of APPALACHIAN
6 BEDPAN Patient dropping in here unrobed, panicking nurse (6)
Hidden in “unroBED PANicking”, indicated by “nurse”
7 NERVOUS Shy queen with very piercing intelligence (7)
(E.R. + V) “piercing” NOUS
8 SPLASH OUT Where you might ski round and round and spend a lot (6,3)
<+ALPS (“where you might ski”) + SHOUT (“round”, as in “my shout”)
12 RASTAFARIAN Ravel fantasia, arr. Bob Marley? (11)
*(fantasia arr)
13 TRAPEZOID Hiding bottom in swingers’ bar, Arachne cuts odd, discontented figure (9)
TRAPEZ(e) + I (“Arachne”) “cuts” O(d)D
15 MAGNOLIA During very fine morning yearn to climb tree (8)
<= A1 (LONG) A.M.
17 ANTIGUA Father Christmas shedding clothes over one summer month upset part of the WI (7)
(s)ANT(a) + 1 <=AUG.

WI is West Indies here, not Womens’ Institute.
19 ILLEGAL Wrongly say Capone is breaking law (7)
ILL + e.g. + AL (Capone)
20 PROSIT Sex carries advantages for your health (6)
IT (“sex”) “carries” PROS

I wonder whether “to your health” may have been slightly better, as a defenition?
22 STIR Excite gentleman, grabbing top of thigh (4)
SIR “grabbing” T(high)

*anagram

47 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,001 by Arachne”

  1. Lovely puzzle and thanks for the blog. The anagram in 11a should include ‘bestir’ not ‘rebels’ (which is the anagrind).

  2. A great puzzle as always from Arachne. Loads of wonderful clues, including TRAPEZOID (my favourite), SPLASH OUT, EPIDURAL, TOP-UPS and DEFIBRILLATORS. Many thanks to A and l.

  3. Thanks very much, loonapick. I have no excuse except that my brain is on Spring school holidays- unlike you I didn’t even finish the solve, with three unfilled words left in the grid after spending far too long staring at them and trying everything.

    I missed 4a SAWBONES, 7d BEDPAN (pity as I would have found it a real penny “dropping” moment had I got it), and the toast I had never heard of, 20d, PROSIT. (Two toasts in one crossword: I did get the one at 9a “to pups” – TOP-UPS – clever!).

    Favourites before my epic “failure to finish” were 11a DEFIBRILLATORS, 23a ORGASMIC and 3D BAPTISMS.

    Thanks to Arachne for the fun – I still consider an almost complete grid a “win”, as I can still recall the days when to get even three clues out was mildly satisfying.

  4. Drofle@2, we crossed. Pleased to see some similarities in our “likes”!

    Is there a mild health theme here? I had to get several top-ups of the EPIDURAL during labour (sorry too much information), we have a toast to or for health, there’s DEFIBRILLATORS, a patient, a nurse, a doctor (SAWBONES), and a BEDPAN.

  5. This was a good puzzle though I got a bit stuck on the top left corner.

    I thought 10a was a very good cryptic definition. I’m not sure if this is what you meant, loonapick, but the way I understood it is that an EPIDURAL is a “feeling-duller” (something that dulls feelings) at the end of a term of pregnancy.

  6. Thanks for the blog, loonapick.

    Another stunning puzzle from Arachne, with lots of giggles along the way. It would be far easier to pick out dud clues [except that there aren’t any] than to name favourites. Lovely misdirecting surfaces, as ever [17dn is hilarious] giving us lots of fun.

    I was initially bamboozled by the clever anagram in 11ac, too. I took ‘of’ as being part of the definition in 25ac while in 20dn I think ‘for’ is simply a linking word, with the definition ‘your health’.

    Huge thanks to Arachne, as always, for a relly fun puzzle.

  10. re 5d: Why is the word ‘state’ in the clue? ‘Appalachian’ and ‘appellation’ are not really homophones any more than ‘chop’ and ‘shop’ are.

  11. Epeolater @ 10 – They seem to be close enough (indeed, very close as far as my pronunciation is concerned). I didn’t have any problem with the clue.

  13. epeolator@10 state is the homophone indicator (and I pronounce the mountain range with a “sh”, though I don’t doubt there are other pronunciations)

    What a brilliant puzzle! Many thanks Arachne.

    Special ticks against ENTERTAININGLY, ORGASTIC (just noticed i filled in ORGASMIC – oh well, same thing), DRAFTING, BEDPAN, ANTIGUA, PROSIT

    I did think the lift and separate in 1a was somewhat gratuitous, but never mind.

    Most enjoyable

    Thank you loonapick ( and belated congrats on your tv appearance, looking forward to the next one)

  14. Thanks Dutch@13 for your post (and drofle@9 for your correction); clearly drofle and I were in too much of a hurry to complete “orgasmic” for 23a, rather than to see the “tic” and complete the answer as “ORGASTIC”. Still a fun clue.

  15. Thank you Arachne and loonapick.

    Fantastic puzzle, I loved the clues for TRAPEZOID, ENTERTAININGLY, BAPTISMS, SPLASH OUT, ANTIGUA, CAPITALIST, APPELLATION, TOP UPS, PROSIT and I could go on.

  17. As already said, this was really good, with much fun along the way. Favourite was 6d. [It was also my last one in – don’t know why, because I must have emptied hundreds throughout my career!]

    Thank you Arachne & loonapick.

  21. Another great puzzle, thanks Arachne and loonapick for the good blog.

    Of course, for DRAFTING I took the definition as ‘Writing first version of paper,’ and thought FT IN (foot in) was some cryptic way of saying ‘not out’ in cricket, doh!

    Lots of great clues, I particularly liked the one for EPIDURAL.

  22. Thanks to Arachne and loonapick. I had trouble parsing SAWBONES, and SPLASH UP was new to me, but this puzzle (as usual with this setter) was great fun.

  24. Great puzzle today – an ‘almost there’ for me, which is quite something on any day bar Monday! Like the misdirection (e.g. the ‘arr.’ in the Bob Marley one being part of the answer rather than the anagram indicator; and the sly play on ‘italics’ in 18a).

    Minus points (to me) of not having heard of apellation and thus just putting the mountain range in, which held up the (groan-inducing) 13a somewhat. And my first thought on 20d was ‘prost’ and i didn’t get any further having not heard of the version with the added i!

  25. Lovely puzzle as always from Arachne. SAWBONES and BEDPAN caused me most trouble. Too many favourites to list.

    Thanks to Arachne and loonapick

  27. I too had to solve this bottom to top, but this was a great puzzle from first (ENTERTAININGLY) to last (IN DEBT). The clues were excellent, 10a EPIDURAL being a revelation. (I saw EPIDURAL the same way you did, Jim S @4.)

    You were nearly there, Julie @3. Better luck next time.

    I didn’t parse 8a SPLASH OUT when I filled it in and forgot to go back to it, but all is clear now. I was impressed with the variety and fairness of the clues, not to mention the injection of a bit of fun.

    I’m looking forward to Arachne’s next, whenever that might be.

    Thanks Arachne and loonapick.

  28. People who live in the Appalachians, at least in the southern part, pronounce the word with a short A sound in the middle, so it’s even further from a homophone of appellation than one might think. But the long A pronunciation is common elsewhere and is listed first in the dictionaries I consulted, so I guess we needn’t worry about what the locals say. Personally, I’m in favor of looseness in homophones, but I know that others differ.

    Once again, I’m amazed at how tricky hidden answers can be. THERMOSTAT fooled me for a long time, and I never got BEDPAN. (I’m not crazy about the indicator in the latter.)

    Very clever anagrind in 12D (RASTAFARIAN).

    I didn’t know the expression SPLASH OUT, nor the usage that justifies SPLASH = ROUND, so I didn’t have much of a hope on that one, but at least I learned a couple of things.

  31. Thanks Arachne and loonapick

    Delightful as ever from Arachne. I liked so many, but if forced to name favourites I would go for BAPTISMS (“font functions”!) and BEDPAN. I started this without a dictionary (online or otherwise), so I was quite pleased to resist ORGASMIC and go for ORGASTIC (a word I didn’t know) instead.

    Completely baffled by the parsing of SPLASH OUT.

    The only one not to my taste really was TRAPEZOID, and that’s because I prefer clues that could realistically be solved top down or bottom up; I doubt if anyone managed this one bottom up, although of course it parses well. (A good contrast is ANTIGUA, which I put together from its parts before realising what the “WI” referred to.)

  32. Great puzzle as usual from Arachne. Too many good clues to pick out just one. Actually finished lunch before we finished the puzzle. Thanks to everyone.

  34. Thanks Cookie
    I meant after I had completed the puzzle – I did understand loonapick’s parsing! Sorry for not making that clear 🙂

  35. PS, hmm, not so generous in the UK, sample given by the OCED is “it’s your shout I think”, the other is NZ usage, often heard my Dad use it…

  37. “It’s my shout” is common enough in the UK, though generally on special occasions – birthdays, christenings, pools wins etc.

  38. Lovely puzzle even though I was an ORGASMIC rather than ORGASTIC. Laziness on my part! I also had some difficulty with both BEDPAN and SAWBONES. But there were some excellent clues here. I liked TOP UPS and many more.
    Thanks Arachne.

  39. Thanks to loonapick for the blog.

    Arachne is my favourite setter – for surfaces, invention, chuckles, everything.
    And if those little sentences weren’t placed in a list beside an empty grid, and weren’t followed by a number in brackets, few of them could be immediately identified as crossword clues. She’s quite brilliant.

    To choose just one example: I’m sure PLIGHT at 24ac could be clued in a hundred different ways, but I don’t think anyone else could have done it so elegantly, wittily and (deceptively) simply.

  40. Thanks Loonapick and Arachne. This was my most enjoyable crossword for a very long time. Several moments of delicious enlightenment as the definitions stepped forward from the shadows.

    I would propose one small improvement to an excellent blog. In 25ac I don’t think “wearing” is the containment indicator, I suggest that “wearing women’s clothes” = “in drag” just as FTIN is. Both work but I think mine is more Arachnoid.

  43. Robi@23

    Interesting question, I think the grammar depends on whether you see the fodder (unrobed panicking) as a single entity or as two words. The latter would give you “nurse”, and the former ( my preference) would give you “nurses”

  44. Arachne is probably my favourite setter too. Each clue makes sense as a sentence. Good surfaces i guess. Compare to Picaroon yesterday. It was solvable (except for Palsgrave for me) but a number of clues were clumsy , if not downright gibberish. 16,23A, 3,8, 15 D for example

  45. As usual, an excellent puzzle from Arachne. I found it easier than some of hers until I came to a halt in the top right corner. 4a, 10a and 6d took me more time than the rest put together. Favourites included EPIDURAL, ALAS, ENTERTAININGLY and BEDPAN.

    Thanks, Arachne and loonapick.

  46. Belated thanks to both Arachne and Loonapick. One of the marks of a great setter for me is the redness of my forehead after I have finished slapping it with a combination of frustration, amusement and admiration for the perfect pitch of the setter. To whit, my last clues solved were 6 and 10.

  47. I completed an Arachne! (With help from a solver app, and with one or two partial parses.)
    Yay me! Thanks to all for comments and to the blogger and fiendish setter.

    21A was astounding to me once I saw it.
    And as a hopeless dog lover, I echo “TO PUPS!”

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