Guardian 27,013 / Chifonie

by

Here’s the second Chifonie puzzle I have blogged in two weeks – after a rather long absence, Chifonie appears to be back!

A straightforward puzzle, with a characteristic medley of anagrams, charades and insertions and a number of familiar favourites – with satisfyingly smooth surfaces throughout.  I’m expecting the arrival of carpet-fitters soon, so I was quite grateful for a fairly easy ride – thanks, Chifonie!

Across

1 Fancy address outside the capital in Norway (6)
ORNATE
ORATE [address] round N[orway] – this doesn’t quite work for me, as address is a transitive verb and orate is intransitive

4 Spot representative in stately home (6)
PIMPLE
MP [Member of Parliament – representative] in PILE [stately home]

9 Son caught in trap? Retreat! (4)
NEST
S [son] in NET [trap]

10 Control put forward and brought back (10)
REINSTATED
REIN [control] + STATED [put forward]

11 The old man’s wife’s born a Native American (6)
PAWNEE
PA [the old man] + W [wife] + NÉE [born]

12 Fighter to study the alternative (8)
TOREADOR
TO READ [to study] + OR [the alternative]

13 Chastened about jailed worker (9)
REPENTANT
RE [about] + PENT [jailed] + ANT [worker]

15 Beastly home earl finds a 7 (4)
STYE
STY [beastly home] + E [earl] – the answer to 7dn is EYESORE

16 Directed to accept a title tole (4) [this must be a misprint for ‘role’]
LEAD
LED [directed] round A

17 I stay true, prepared for great self-denial (9)
AUSTERITY
Anagram [prepared] of I STAY TRUE

21 Charlie wakes up and makes merry (8)
CAROUSES
C [Charlie – phonetic alphabet] + AROUSES [wakes up]

22 The way tripe’s cooked shows pizzazz (6)
ESPRIT
Anagram [cooked] of TRIPES

24 An uproar during applause for old Roman sportsman (10)
CHARIOTEER
A RIOT [an uproar] in CHEER [applause]

25 Rob finds Oscar in crowd (4)
LOOT
O [Oscar – phonetic alphabet again] in LOT [crowd]

26 Travelled to get free study (6)
RIDDEN
RID [free] + DEN [study]

27 Beautiful cheerleader gets distinction! See! (6)
COMELY
C[heer] + OM [Order of Merit – distinction] + ELY [the familiar crossword see]

 

Down

1 Perform works by Lawrence (7)
OPERATE
OPERA [works] + T E [Lawrence – of Arabia]

2 Impossible idea one’s given up (3,2)
NOT ON
NOT[i]ON [idea] minus [given up] I [one]

3 People in the wrong producing annoyance (7)
TORMENT
MEN [people] in TORT [wrong] – ‘annoyance’ seems a rather mild definition

6 Still retaining Sunday supplement (6)
INSERT
INERT [still] round S [Sunday]

6 Give fake gold to pretentious character (4-5)
PLAY ACTOR
PLAY [give – in the sense of freedom of movement, resilience] + ACT [fake] + OR [gold]

7 English leader agreed foreign money is a blight (7)
EYESORE
E[nglish] + YES [agreed] + ORE [Scandinavian currency – foreign money]

8 Made out to be famous (13)
DISTINGUISHED
Double definition

14 In love with exotic demeanour (9)
ENAMOURED
Anagram [exotic] of DEMEANOUR]

16 King conceals the hide (7)
LEATHER
LEAR [king] round THE

18 Instrument broken? O, bother! (7)
THEORBO
Anagram [broken] of O BOTHER – a theorbo is a large double-necked bass lute

19 Attempt to incorporate one book in a cycle (7)
TRILOGY
TRY [attempt] round I LOG [one book]

20 Initially, amphibians stay on land (6)
ASHORE
A{mphibians] + SHORE [stay – Collins gives ‘prop’ for both]

23 Food item for one’s heart-throb (5)
PULSE
Double definition

27 comments on “Guardian 27,013 / Chifonie”

  1. Thank you, Eileen. I really enjoy Chifonie’s setting style. This was a welcome relief after yesterday’s *torment* by Tramp although I did get held up by DISTINGUISHED and PLAY ACTOR. Lovely PDM when I solved PIMPLE.

  2. Yes, nice surfaces and very straightforward, but satisfying in its own way. I liked PIMPLE and EYESORE. Thanks to Chifonie and Eileen.

  3. I think this is the first time I have ever finished the crossword between arriving at the station platform and the train departing! Failed to see the typo, so I can’t have been reading very carefully.

    Thanks to Chifonie and Eileen

  4. Thanks to Chifonie and Eileen. I enjoyed this and, for once, needed to check only one parsing. Must be improving … Theorbo was new, so Googled – it looks as though long arms are essential!

  5. This was fun – especially as I avoided / gave up on yesterday’s puzzle – I am never on that setter’s wavelength so I decided to pass on it.

    I was baffled by 16 “tole” and now see that it must have been a typo.

    New words for me were PENT, ORE (money) & THEORBO.

    I liked PIMPLE & STYE (LOI).

    I could not parse 2d.

    Thanks Eileen and Chifonie.

  6. On the one hand, some clues seemed easy for a Wednesday, on the other, some clues were very challenging.

    18d THEORBO, for instance, was totally unfamiliar, though gettable from the anagram and crossers.

    My LOI, 20d, ASHORE, did not appeal (in the end, it was a guess); even with the parse, it seemed a bit weak.

    I liked the play on 7d EYESORE at 15a, STYE.

    Many thanks to Chifonie and Eileen.

  7. We convinced ourselves that the parsing of 2d related to the answer reading the same both up and down, till Eileen gave us the much better explanation using “notion”. I also now know the meaning of “tole”, having looked it up in case it wasn’t a misprint, before the crossing letters made clear what the answer to 16a actually was. Thank you to Chifonie and Eileen for a most enjoyable start to the day.

  8. Gillian@4: as a lutenist I can reassure you that we have normal limbs! The extra strings, known as “diapasons” on the second extended neck are not fretted, just plucked harp-like to extend the instrument’s range at the bass end.

  9. Thank you Chifonie and Eileen.

    Most enjoyable after yesterday’s struggle, lovely smooth surfaces. THEORBO was a new word, I thought it might be some instrument like a theodolite.

    A shore and a stay brought old fashioned corsets to my mind – I have just remembered, at boarding school in England for a year, 1950-1951, when I was 8 years old, we wore so-called liberty bodices, I say so-called because some of them had boning.

    My favourite was the clue for INSERT.

    Wonder what DRY TT signifies in the right-hand unches?

  10. Thanks all
    Quite easy although I could not enter play actor since in spite of Elaine’s ingenuity I still cannot see act = fake.
    I thought 20 down was clever.
    Is torment really annoyance?

  11. Thanks all
    Quite easy although I could not enter play actor since in spite of Elaine’s ingenuity I still cannot see act = fake.
    I thought 20 down was clever
    Is torment really annoyance?

  12. RCWhiting @10/11

    I am marooned in the kitchen, separated from my dictionaries, while the whole of my ground floor and stairs are being recarpeted but I’ve found act = fake in Roget’s thesaurus online. How about ‘His illness was all an act / fake’?

    I queried torment = annoyance, too, in the blog.

    Eileen 😉

  13. As Eileen says, this was “a fairly easy ride”, but no less enjoyable for that. Lovely surfaces with plenty of fun on the way – I liked “pimple” & “eyesore” especially.

    [Cookie @9: liberty bodices were standard underwear for girls in the UK until the late 50s. The extra warmth they gave was more than welcome up in the cold NE where I grew up!]

  14. Trivial typo on the explanation of 22a: the anagram fodder is TRIPES (not TRIPE).

    Didn’t know about THEORBO, or ORE as money, and didn’t see the parsing of NOT ON. I knew that SHORE UP could mean STAY. I didn’t know that SHORE alone could, but the dictionaries back it up (as both noun and verb, in fact).

  16. [JuneG @13, yes, I remember that from mentioning liberty bodices in the past, but today the whalebone stays in some of them came to mind, technically not really “liberty” bodices – I don’t think that sort went on being produced for girls into the late fifties.]

  17. “Toreador” is not a Spanish word for bullfighter — Georges Bizet made it up. The Spanish word for bullfighter is “torero.”

    Thanks to Chifonie and Eileen.

  18. Yesterday rather hot, today a bit cool. Can I have a Goldilocks puzzle please?

    Rather amused by AUSTERITY as ‘great self-denial’. I’m pretty sure that Mr Osborne saw it as denial for other people, but not himself.

  19. Thanks Chifonie and Eileen
    Solved before going out for golf, though NOT ON not parsed. I agree about “torment”. Favourites were PIMPLE and TOREADOR (which I didn’t know had been invented by Bizet).

  20. Thanks to Chifonie and Eileen. I look forward to this setter’s contributions and this one was no exception. Yes, they are in the easier category but still very enjoyable. I knew THEORBO (probably from a previous puzzle) but paused over NOT ON and the “play” in PLAY ACTOR. Lots of fun.

  21. Valentine @17, Bizet did not make up the word TOREADOR (this is the French Wiki entry, the English one is not exact). It is old Spanish, now displaced by torero – Mérimée, used the word in his play Le Carrosse du Saint Sacrement in 1829, before Bizet was born, but did not invent it as many people think.

  22. The misprint ‘tole’ was a bit of an EYESORE, but fortunately it was obvious what was meant. And 7d EYESORE was one of my favourite clues.

    The words went in more smoothly today after the greater challenge yesterday, and I liked the pleasant variety of the clues.

    Thanks Chifonie and Eileen.

  23. Thanks Chifonie and Eileen. This was good fun for those of us who are relative beginners. Favourite clues were PIMPLE, PAWNEE, COMELY.

  24. I haven’t yet finished yesterday’s puzzle, so it was nice see Chifonie’s name today, and I enjoyed the relatively gentle mental exercise. Favourites included NOT ON, EYESORE and DISTINGUISHED. Like Trailman @18, I found the definition of AUSTERITY wryly amusing. It seems to me that it is more often imposed by circumstances (or politics) these days rather than being “self-denial”. I know of “tole” painting, have even done a little, but it clearly didn’t fit in that clue. A quick search online didn’t turn up any alternative meaning so it had to be a misprint, and the wordplay soon gave the answer and also “role”.

    Thanks, Chifonie and Eileen.

  25. I enjoyed this and didn’t find it as easy as some of you did. THEORBO was new to me but doesn’t seem to be that uncommon. I liked TOREADOR-I didn’t think it was made up-TORMENT and PAWNEE. The latter two made me laugh.
    Thanks Chifonie.

Comments are closed.