The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27007.
A very fitting companionpiece to yesterday’s Imogen; I would give the latter the win by a short neck, but of course I did not have to blog it, so it was easier for me to savour. Certainly there are some excellent clues here, with 14A THE INDEFINITE ARTICLE and 24A SOAP OPERA as my immediate favourites, but I do not see a dud among ’em.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SUPPLIANT | Ultimately deficient stock gets one worker begging (9) |
| A charade of SUPPL[y] (‘stock’) minus its last letter (‘ultimately deficient’) plus I (‘one’) plus ANT (‘worker’). | ||
| 6 | EPIC | Huge online artwork? (4) |
| A charade of E (‘online’) plus PIC (‘artwork’). | ||
| 10 | COXES | Lightweight directors from company set it back (5) |
| A charade of CO (‘company’) plus XES, a reversal (‘back’) of SEX (‘it’), with a cryptic definition. | ||
| 11 | TOUCHLINE | Move family’s boundary marker (9) |
| A charade of TOUCH (‘move’) plus LINE (‘family’), for the sideline in a playing field, particularly for soccer. | ||
| 12 | ILLOGIC | Bad soldier stops officer in charge retiring — it doesn’t make sense (7) |
| A charade of ILL (‘bad’) plus OGIC, an envelope (‘stops’) of GI (‘soldier’) in OC, a reversal (‘retiring’) of CO (Commanding Officer, ‘officer in charge’). | ||
| 13 | ABOLISH | Axe short tree trunk, one overshadowed by tree (7) |
| An envelope (‘overshadowed by’) of BOL[e] (‘tree trunk’) minus its last letter (‘short’) plus I (‘one’) in ASH (‘tree’). | ||
| 14, 4 | THE INDEFINITE ARTICLE | Commonly a chain letter — I define it differently (3,10,7) |
| An anagram (‘differently’) of ‘chain letter I define it’. I like it. | ||
| 17 | CARPETBAGGERS | Opportunists, possibly, those grasping Persians (13) |
| Definition and literal interpretation, with ‘Persians’ indicating carpets. | ||
| 21 | EQUATED | Matched question put in to worry journalist (7) |
| An envelope (‘put in’) of QU (‘question’) in EAT (‘worry’) plus ED (‘journqalist’). | ||
| 22 | ADAMANT | Immovable barrier straddled by a six-footer (7) |
| An envelope (‘streaddled by’) of DAM (‘barrier’) in ‘a’ plus ANT (insect, ‘six-footer’). | ||
| 24 | SOAP OPERA | Broadcast appears over and over again (4,5) |
| An anagram (‘broadcast’) of ‘appears’ plus O O (‘over and over again’). A very neat &lit. | ||
| 25 | KNAVE | Villain in white van keeps coming round (5) |
| A hidden (‘in’) reversed (‘coming round’) answer in ‘whitE VAN Keeps’. | ||
| 26 | LEEK | Welsh representation in Midlands town (4) |
| Double definition. The town is in Staffordshire. | ||
| 27 | SOLITAIRE | A gem of a game? (9) |
| A cryptic cum double definition; a SOLITAIRE is a gem, particularly a diamond, set by itself. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SACRISTY | Hearts lost to Jesus in, for example, part of church (8) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of C[h]RIST (‘Jesus’) minus the H (‘hearts lost’) in SAY (‘for example’). | ||
| 2 | PIXEL | “Climbing record broken by English team” — small picture feature (5) |
| An envelope (‘broken by’) of E (‘English’) plus XI (eleven, ‘team’) in LP (‘record’), all reversed (‘climbing’ in a down light). | ||
| 3 | LOST GENERATION | Victims of WW1 the result of power station closure? (4,10) |
| Definition and literal interpretation. | ||
| 4 | See 14 | |
| 5 | TSUNAMI | Destructive force moving mountains? No, no! (7) |
| An anagram (‘moving’) of ‘m[o]u[n]tains’ minus NO (‘No no’). | ||
| 7 | PRIVILEGE | Holy Joe restricting foul crone’s base benefit (9) |
| A charade of PRIVILEG, an envelope (‘restricting’) of VILE (‘foul’) in PRIG (‘Holy Joe’, a military chaplain, or, here, a sanctimonious or self-righteous person) plus E (‘cronE‘s base’). | ||
| 8 | CZECHS | Declared source of funding for EU members (6) |
| Sounds like (‘declared’) CHEQUES (‘source of funding’). | ||
| 9 | SHOOTING JACKET | Recording to cover item put on by gents after game (8,6) |
| A charade of SHOOTING (‘recording’ of a film) plus JACKET (‘cover’); ‘after game’ refers to the animals being shot. | ||
| 15 | ENCOURAGE | Support train loses time taking 100 aboard (9) |
| An envelope (‘taking … aboard’) of C (‘100’) in EN[t]OURAGE (‘train’) minus the T (‘loses time’). The C is a direct replacement for the T, but the clue does not tell you that. | ||
| 16 | AS IT WERE | Weariest jockeys, in a way (2,2,4) |
| An anagram (‘jockeys’) of ‘weariest’. | ||
| 18 | ENDLESS | Constant truncated, presumably (7) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 19 | BRADAWL | This may bore lawman caught up in affray (7) |
| An envelope (‘caught up in’) of DA (District Attorney, American ‘lawman’) in BRAWL (‘affray’). Or you might take ‘up’ as indicating a reversal, in which case the first A, rather than the second, is the one belonging with the D. Same difference. | ||
| 20 | WEASEL | Such words are equivocal, as wife takes stand (6) |
| A charade of W (‘wife’) plus EASEL (‘stand’). | ||
| 23 | AMATI | Wartime show mounted to conceal a fiddle (5) |
| An envelope (‘to conceal’) of ‘a’ in ITMA (even I can say that it is a bit before my time; ITMA – It’s That Man Again – was a popular radio comedy programme featuring Tommy Handley which was broadcast during and a little after the Second World War), all reversed (‘mounted’ in a down light), for the family of violin makers (or, as the clue indicates, one of their products), most famously Nicolo. I suspect that some people have learned a lot from a five-lettered answer! | ||
Thanks PeterO and Nutmeg.
I found this much more joyous than yesterday’s offering.
Last three in were CZECH, TOUCHLINE, and PRIVILEGED. I had to resort to letter checking for each of these – Z was the last one, of course, and I had road boundary marker in mind for TOUCH—-, so that took ages.
SOAPOPERA the favourite, too.
And so to bed, again
Masterful – thanks Nutmeg! 5 and 24 are fabulous (with 14/4 coming only closely behind). And the misdirection in the definitions at 9 & 17 are delightful. Thanks PeterO for the blogging.
Difficult and entertaining in equal measures. Favourites were CARPET BAGGERS and THE INDEFINITE ARTICLE. I did, however, fail on four clues as I did not know:
1. What a holy joe is
2. There is a town called Leek
3. Either ITMA or ATAMI
4. That bole is a tree trunk
In hindsight the clueing and crossers should have elucidated at least 3 of these, but I was happy to have got as far as I did.
Great fun – and a pangram! Thank you Nutmeg and PeterO.
Re 14 across: the reason for including ‘commonly’ in the clue is obscure. The word ‘a’ is always the indefinite article.
Logomachist: Re 14 across, I read it as saying that the indefinite article is commonly “a” (it could be “an”). Looking at it that way I think that “commonly” makes sense.
Thanks Nutmeg and PeterO
Delightful as ever from Nutmeg. Not a dud clue,as you say, Peter, but favourites were SOAP OPERA and AMATI.
I had to give second thoughts to CARPETBAGGERS, as my first one was “Persian” = “cat” (pet), leaving an unexplained “car” – are Persian cats always transported thus? Didn’t take long for the penny to drop, though.
Thanks, PeterO – I agree with your choice of favourites.
I thought perhaps 17ac should have a question mark, to indicate definition by example but, apart from that, no quibbles at all.
Many thanks to Nutmeg for another elegant and enjoyable puzzle.
I too stumbled over Persian but not over a cat as I tried for ages to weave Iranian into it. So, clever. I also found that ‘commonly’ (14) troubling but maybe ‘a/an’ just about explains it.
Imogen set an extremely high bar yesterday but Nutmeg did admirably-so did Peter O-thanks
Yes, a very nice puzzle! Plenty to admire including TOUCHLINE, SACRISTY and PRIVILEGE. Many thanks to Nutmeg and PeterO.
Thank you Nutmeg and PeterO.
Lovely puzzle, lots of fun.
With CARPETBAGGERS I “parsed” BAGGERS as “those grasping”, children at school in England used to shout “I bag it”, or “Bags I”, when something was spotted or offered – is this so obvious that it did not need mentioning? I see in the COED that it is a colloquial usage, “bagged the best seats” is given as an example.
AMATI I got from the word “fiddle”, I did not know about the radio show.
SOAP OPERA and THE INDEFINITE ARTICLE were also my favourites, along with TSUNAMI, SHOOTING JACKET and ENCOURAGE.
Trivia note. The Carpetbaggers was a bestselling American trashy 60s novel made into a trashy 1964 movie. ITMA was also made into a not very good British movie (1943). Don’t think this makes a theme!
[I think that the original Carpetbaggers were northerners exploiting the defeated southern States of the USA immediately after the Civil War. A lot came from Kansas, I think. They carried large bags made from carpet.]
[I seem to remember CARPETBAGGERS were mentioned in the book “Gone with the Wind”.]
This gave me a similar experience to yesterday’s Imogen puzzle – quite hard work in places but mostly fun, taking me a bit less time than yesterday’s.
Some very good clues as noted already by others: 14a/4d THE INDEFINITE ARTICLE, 23a AMATI, 24a SOAP OPERA, 1d SACRISTY and 5d TSUNAMI.
Like Eileen @8, I thought that 17a CARPETBAGGERS should have a ‘?’ to indicate a DBE. The word ‘possibly’, though, was perhaps meant to indicate that Persian is an example of carpet, but it’s out of place. This clue, and 6a EPIC and 8d CZECHS, were not my favourites, but I appreciate the pangram (which as usual had to be pointed out to me).
Thanks to Nutmeg and and PeterO.
Thanks to Nutmeg and PeterO. I puzzled over the ITMA in AMATI and the Os in SOAP OPERA, but agree that this puzzle, like yesterday’s, was a real treat.
All very clever as we have come to expect from Nutmeg, who is a very high class setter. PRIVILEGE was last in. AMATI is one of those words setters love because it has unusual helpful crossers – Nutmeg has clued it before herself (26270). So definitely a word to remember if you think it is unfamiliar.
Thanks to Nutmeg and PeterO
Expert solvers we are not, but we can often complete the crossword in the Guardian. We can admit that after a 30 minute struggle, we were able to find not a single solution in today’s crossword before coming here. Are we the only ones?
Good fun and one that took a little longer than lunchtime to complete. We were in Florence last month and saw some Amati violins in the Galileo museum. So that one was easy. Thanks to everyone.
Glad most of you enjoyed this. I, for one, managed only four unaided solutions in an hour, although I often finish the Guardian crossword. Elegant and ingenious it may be but in my opinion it is too hard for most solvers.
Knodge @21
Did you try the Imogen puzzle yesterday? I thought that was much harder (and considerably less enjoyable, though I’m in a minority in that, it seems!)
AlexCrewe @19 and Knodge @21, don’t be discouraged. I rank myself as a fairly strong, rather than expert, solver. In my opinion this was a tough puzzle. It took me two sessions to solve about two thirds of the clues before I resorted to computer software to get a few more, after which the rest dawned on me.
A couple each week at this level of difficulty is fine by me.
Very satisfying. “Lightweight directors” was brilliant.
I would only question QU for “question” in 21 ac.
Also in the blog I think the definition should be extended to include “item”, i.e. “item put on by gents after game”
I am old enough to remember ITMA and I remember being quite upset as a child when Tommy Handley died. I didn’t know there was a town called LEEK either or,at least,not until I looked it up! I thought this was rather good although it took me a while to get started. Mind you I was delayed by having to shout at Theresa May on the telly.
Anyway, lots of goodies here- CARPETBAGGERS,SOLITAIRE,SUPPLIANT and WEASEL-especially the last.
Thanks Nutmeg.
I’m also ancient enough for ITMA. Funnily enough, I also know Amati from wartime radio. A.J.Alan, a radio storyteller, once did a story (“The hair”) about an Amati and for some reason it stuck in my mind for ever.
AlexCrewe @19:
You were not the only one. I was completely flummoxed !
jeceris @24
It was my intention to include ‘item’ in the definition, but somehow it did not happen. Until now. Thanks.
AlexCrewe @19
I wonder if you allowed yourselves to be intimidated by what was certainly a difficult crossword. If you go through the blog, I suspect you will find some clues in your range, even if, like Knodge, only a few. Indeed, the structure of the clues here is notably uncomplicated, and it is a tribute to Nutmeg’s skill that she manages to make such a challenge out of largely standard material. In any case, I hope that the blog will give you some idea of her methods, and you do not draw such a blank on her next puzzle. I think it well worth while.
I enjoyed this but 14/4 brought up something that I’ve never been too sure about. The answer contains 20 letters but only uses 19 cells in the crossword. Nutmeg gives a 20 letter anagrind but I would have expected 19. Am I wrong? This held me up until I got a lot of crossing letters.
Engineerb@29:
Solutions are always independent of the grid unless Special Instructions are given 😉
A masterful crossword. Having the H and E of 11ac, I got obsessed with ‘family’ being ‘house’, so much so that I had PRURIENCE (‘base benefit’) for 7d at one point. Getting the indefinite article put a stop to that.
Thanks Nutmeg and PeterO!
Phew! Thought it was just me. After all these years, 40 minutes of staring and not able to get one single answer. Take heart Alex – it happens occasionally.
I managed to solve 7 clues before giving up, after spending far too long trying. I got a lot of the parsing but couldn’t translate that into solutions. However, as always Fifteensquared came to the rescue, and I feel I have learnt a lot today. Thanks indeed to PeterO and Nutmeg. Onwards and upwards!
After a quick start with Weasel I slowed to a crawl and eventually resorted to the buttons, as did others. There is an underrated joy in solving the clue from the answer, especially when found through crossers. Here PIXEL gave COXES and lit up the wonderful LIGHTWEIGHT DIRECTORS. Later, ARTICLE came out of a fog of crossers and settled that one.
I finished this too late last night to post about it here. I’ve not a lot to say about it now other than that it was both challenging and enjoyable. There are too many good clues to list, but my favourite was THE INDEFINITE ARTICLE. Of the two of them, “a” is certainly the most common, so I had no quibble with that aspect of the clue. I missed the pangram, of course.
Thanks, Nutmeg and PeterO.
Sorry folks – but this was NOT a difficult puzzle – thanks to this setter’s impeccable clueing.
(A) Nut(meg) cracker – sweet!
(and another slam dunk from Peter who, with his generous further explanations for lost learners in the comments must be responsible for pushing this wonderful addiction to newer addicts!)
Unlike you, who seems determined to drive us away by belittling us with your high-handed remark.
After a hugely frustrating (failed) attempt to complete this it is helpful to read how it should have been done and occasionally take some solace in the knowledge that others also struggled. Thankfully the vast majority of the bloggers and posters here seem able demonstrate their prowess in a more constructive manner perhaps their posts could teach you something about social interaction and humility instead.