Guardian Cryptic 27,014 by Paul

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27014.

I was well into the crossword before I got the gateway clue 5D – indeed the whole NE corner remained blank until the very end. Of course, 5D being self-referential made it that more difficult. Prior to that penny dropping, I was floundering to connect Judy Dench and Myra Hess (both Dames) with the likes of Ernie Els. It turns out that 5D is PLAYER, which is used in 5D and other clues by itself to indicate actors, or as ‘5 of G’, players of golf, and ‘5 of the P’, players of the piano (note that the single letters are both adequate representations of the words for which they stand, the former in the radio phonetic alphabet, and the latter for the musical direction from which the instrument takes its name). This use of the gateway clue made, for me, a harder puzzle than the average Paul, but fortunately not too hard, as I was out for two hours at the time I am generally composing the blog.

Across
7 CLARION Port in Scottish house inspiring caller (7)
An envelope (‘in’) of RIO (‘port’) in CLAN (‘Scottish house’).
8 GIELGUD 5 bored with stage on reflection, one gathered (7)
An envelope (‘gathered’) of I (‘one’) in GELGUD, a reversal (‘on reflection’) of DUG (‘bored’) plus LEG (‘stage’), for John Gielgud, actor.
9   See 23
10 GAINSAYER One in opposition, for example, seen in anger, I suspect (9)
An envelope (‘seen in’) of SAY (‘for example’) in GAINER, an anagram (‘suspect’) of ‘anger I’.
12 FAIRY Decent play’s ending for Puck (5)
A charade of FAIR (‘decent’) plus Y (‘plaY‘s ending’).
13 SPARROWS Fish-eating pigs — they fly! (8)
An envelope (‘-eating’) of PARR (‘fish’) in SOWS (‘pigs’).
15 FLAG Jack‘s weary (4)
Double definition.
16   See 20 down
17 LOOP Game counters in ring (4)
A reversal (‘counters’) of POOL (‘game’).
18 GOLD MINE Source of great wealth, or a potential danger (4,4)
A charade of GOLD (‘or’) plus MINE (‘a potential danger’).
20 VENUS Yet a non-starter, American Beauty (5)
A charade of [e]VEN (‘yet’) minus its first letter (‘non-starter’) plus US (‘American’).
21 INELASTIC A client is fantastically uncompromising (9)
A anagram (‘fantastically’) of ‘a client is’.
22 LIMA Some capital, I’m assuming (4)
A hidden answer (‘some’) in ‘capitaL I‘M Assuming’, with an extended definition.
24 BAR CODE Fish in plain lines at the supermarket? (3,4)
An envelope (‘in’) of COD (‘fish’) in BARE (‘plain’). The question mark is to cover the fact that bar codes are not only found at a supermarket.
25 CONNERY Parting call, figure having bagged point as 5 (7)
A double envelope (‘parting’ and inner ‘having bagged’) of N (north, ‘point’) in ONE (‘figure’) in CRY (‘call’), for Sean Connery, actor.
Down
1 ELSE Otherwise 5 of G last to drive (4)
A charade of ELS (crossword’s favourite golf champion, ‘5 of G’) plus E (‘last to drivE‘).
2 BRISLING Fish, skin in batter, is fish (8)
A charade of BR (‘skin in BatteR‘) plus ‘is’ plus LING (‘fish’).
3 GOOGLY A bit like people who search for a ball (6)
Double definition: a whimsical formation to describe people who Google, and a cricket delivery.
4 MISSTATE Incorrectly describe the winning beauty of art? (8)
A whimsical contest winner MISS TATE!
5 PLAYER 5 of G in peaked cap and coat (6)
A charade of P (‘Peaked cap’) and LAYER (‘coat’), for Gary Player, a player of golf.
6 BURR Hooker, one sounding rough? (4)
Double definition: a hooked seed-case of a plant such as cleavers or burdock, and a rough throaty r sound (I think that the question mark might cover the doubtful ‘one’, referring to the sound, or to the word ‘hooker’, which could be pronounced with a burr if you are so inclined).
11 INSURGENT Rebel ruins revolutionary chap (9)
A charade of INSUR, an anagram (‘revolutionary’) of ‘ruins’ plus GENT (‘chap’).
12 FALDO 5 of G has short drop to execute (5)
A charade of FAL[l] (‘drop’) minus its last letter (‘short’) plus DO (‘execute’), for Nick Faldo, Sir Nicholas Alexander Faldo to you, a champion golfer not so well known to crossword solvers.
14 WOODS 5 of G — his tools? (5)
Double definition: Tiger Woods, golf player par excellence, and some of his clubs, still called woods even though now generally made of metal.
16 BRIGANDS Outlaws fit into gangs (8)
An envelope (‘into’) of RIG (‘fit’, verb) in BANDS (‘gangs’).
17 LANG LANG Heartless African in outskirts of Leipzig, 5 of the P (4,4)
An envelope (‘in’) of ANG[o]LAN (‘African’) minus its middle letter (‘heartless’) in LG (‘outskirts of LeipziG‘), for the Chinese piano player.
19 DRENCH 5 about right for swamp (6)
An envelope (‘about’) of R (‘right’) in DENCH (Judy, actor).
20, 16 across VICTOR BORGE Result of 1980 Wimbledon Men’s final, fifth of titles for 5 of the P (6,5)
VICTOR: BORG (‘result of 1980 Wimbledon Men’s final’; Björn Borg beat John McEnroe) plus E (‘fifth of titlEs’), for the comedic piano player.
21 IVAN Terrible leader, I lead (4)
A charade of ‘I’ plus VAN (‘lead’).
23, 9 MYRA HESS Maybe she’s Mary, 5 of the P (4,4)
An anagram (‘maybe’) of ‘she’s Mary’, for the piano player, best remembered for her piano arrangement of Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, and the organization of a series of lunchtime concerts throughout the Second World War – starting in the Blitz.
completed grid

53 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,014 by Paul”

  1. Thanks Paul and PeterO

    I suspected a golfing theme when I got 12d and a couple of others but the top half remained mostly blank while the bottom half got closer to full. When the penny dropped I got the G but the P took a bit longer.

    14d reminded me of a limerick which did the rounds after the incident which put him in the news for all the wrong reasons. That limerick and others can be found at:

    limericks about Tiger Woods

  2. It took me a while to work out what the 5 of P and Gs were, and I would not have been able to complete this puzzle without the help of internet/google because I did not know of Victor Borge, Ernie Els, Nick Faldo, Myra Hess.

    My favourite was MISSTATE.

    New for me was BRISLING and I could not fully parse 7a, 17a, 6d.

    Thanks PeterO and Paul.

  3. Thanks PeterO and Paul for an enjoyable Xword.

    I found this easier than the usual, probably because I got PLAYER as my third answer. First in was LIMA, and the LG of 17d meant that was my second in, and a bit of reflection gave 5d next. MYRA and VICTOR then popped out. Less popable were CONNERY and GIELGUD, my LOIs.

    GOOGLY my favourite

  5. Lovely to see Victor Borge-and so interestingly clued.1d had to have ELS +E so that gave me the G but didnt really suss the P until the MYRA HESS anag-then seeing DENCH(no pianist or golfer of that name) then 5d-it all clicked into place. very cunning and very good fun.
    Great blog too.

  6. I was far, far off Paul’s wavelength today and gave up with less than half the clues solved and only one of the thematic ones (ELSE). Such a shame because now that I see how the theme works I realise how clever the puzzle was. Hopefully tomorrow will go better for me. Thanks to PeterO and Paul.

  8. Thanks Paul and PeterO

    I enjoyed this more than I expected when my first pass yielded only LIMA; I then got lucky as I spotted LANG LANG (though I did toy with LANA LANG and a possible “Superman” theme!) and hence PLAYER.

    BURR was last in, and I still don’t really see it. I did Google to see if T J Hooker was played by Raymond Burr on TV, but no, it was William Shatner.

    I don’t see how “flag” is exactly equivalent to “weary” – “I’m weary” = “I’m flagging”, but not “I’m flag”?

  9. Thanks, Peter, for the explanation of 17D. I was taking heartless African to be A[frica]N, inside L[eipzi]G but couldn’t see any instructions for doubling up.
    Incidentally, I think 5D is the first self-referential clue I’ve ever seen (anybody?). Is it a coincidence that Douglas Hofstadter’s book examining self-referential systems is called “I am a Strange 17A”.

  11. This took a lot of effort, but it was worth the struggle. Very clever mixing of themes with some fiendish misdirection. “G” for golf, along with “player” came quite quickly and my heart sank as I don’t follow the game. Fortunately, they were all people I’d heard of as were the other players. Liked 17d specially.

    Thank you Paul & PeterO.

  12. Blaise @9. “anybody?”

    I am fairly sure I have seen it before, in an Araucaria, but I couldn’t even give you chapter, let alone verse. I can’t think how one would find it other than an exhaustive search.

  13. Thanks, PeterO, for a great blog.

    I thought this was the best Paul puzzle for ages and I thoroughly enjoyed solving it – it kept me absorbed right to the very end.

    I was lucky in solving ELSE on the first run through and that led immediately to PLAYER and MYRA HESS followed quite quickly, so I got the interesting theme early on – and then the fun started. I was impressed to see, as PeterO pointed out, that P and G are ‘adequate representations of the words for which they stand’ [and, interestingly, we have LIMA and VICTOR, too].

    My favourite clues were GOOGLY and – double ticks – VICTOR BORGE, one of my favourite artists. I had all his records when I was a student, played them over and over again and laughed out loud every time. I urge you to find him on You Tube if you’re not familiar with him.

    Many thanks, Paul, for a brilliant start to the day.

    muffin @8 – ‘weary’ can mean ‘to [make or] become weary’ = flag.

  14. Thanks Papa Echo Tango Echo Romeo OscarI find it useful when for explanations of GIELGUD, LOOP and CONNERY, which floored me. You refer in your intro to ‘golf’ representing the letter G in a ‘radio phonetic alphabet’. The alphabet in question, one of the names of which is International Call Sign Alphabet, has nothing to do with phonetics. It’s an alphabet which clarifies spellings. I find it useful when I’m phoning a bank and am asked to ‘confirm’ my postcode.

  16. Managed to get G and P early on, but that still didn’t stop me floundering (tribute to amusing fishy theme)in places. LO NOT IN was GIELGUD, most embarrassing as he was a very familiar player indeed. Many thanks to Paul and Peter O.

  17. Absolutely flummoxed. Had to give up with only half a dozen solves.

    Congratulations to PeterO and other clever solvers.

    Clearly not on Paul’s wavelength at all today.

  18. Thanks to PeterO, I needed your help for CLARION, and Paul. Not much to add on the puzzle but I can share a relevant tidbit that I find amusing. The “combover’ hairstyle sported by balding/bald men in denial is referred to in Japan as “barcode”.

  19. Thanks Paul and PeterO.

    Clever idea; I twigged on the G early on but got a bit stuck on the P.

    What a great clue for VICTOR BORGE. LOI was GIELGUD, one of those with greater than 50% unches, which always makes for a more difficult solve.

  20. Thanks to Paul and PeterO. I got off to a slow start, but I got LANG LANG and some other pianists and then saw the G as well. BRISLING was new to me and BURR slowed me down. Last in were GIELGUD and CONNERY where I needed all the crossers. Lots of fun.

  22. Thanks PeterO and Paul
    An excellent puzzle.
    Like Eileen, I have always admired Victor Borge. I went to London to see him in the 1950s and was laughing all the way through the show. His piano playing was remarkable, as was his voiced pronunciation and more generally, like all great comedians, his inimitable timing.

  24. Lovely puzzle- bringing back memories of Dame Myra Hess and Victor Borge-two great pianists of a different type. Googly- a brilliant clue.As always Paul- a joy.

  26. Quite a struggle , though mostly enjoyabe. Like others we failed on Geilgud, Connery and Burr. We gussed 8d was hoar (whore) which mucked up 8a. Like others Els was a useful start. Googly was a favourite. Thanks Paul and Peter O.

  27. I enjoyed this very much, but I must admit this was partly because the only pianist or golfer I hadn’t heard of was Lang Lang, and this was readily solvable from the clue (and a couple of crossers). In particular, if I didn’t know Victor Borge or Myra Hess (two very different artists, both of whom I admired) I wouldn’t have bothered continuing with this puzzle, despite having discovered the two themes.

    Not the best Paul (I thought 3, 4 and 6 down were rather weak), but I thought some clues were really good, and 5d PLAYER, referring to itself, was truly remarkable. My second favourite was 20d/16a VICTOR BORGE with its tennis theme and the clever ‘fifth of titles’.

    Many thanks to Paul and PeterO.

  28. A very enjoyable puzzle and quite a challenge. Couldn’t see BRISLING, not surprising since I don’t think I’d heard of it. MYRA HESS was the key, unfortunately I had heard the name and looked it up to check, which gave away the P and led to PLAYER. Still took me a while to think of golf…

    Thanks to Paul and PeterO

  29. Thanks, Paul and PeterO. Turns out I’d heard of all the 5s, though didn’t catch on that “player” was the theme word, so the actors puzzled me until PeterO explained it.

    The acting Dame’s first name is spelled Judi.

    How does even = yet?

  30. I know nothing of, nor care about, golf or golfers, or for that matter, pianists or actors. Terrible waste of space

  31. Me @27

    I referred to the ‘two’ themes, but of course there were three, and while correcting my own comment I thought it worth highlighting the fair way in which the setter referred to the themes as ‘5’, ‘5 of G’ and ‘5 of the P’.

  32. Valentine @29

    Yet as in “Victor Borge was an excellent pianist, but a yet more gifted comedian”. Or is it the other way round?

    Alan B @27

    I would not defend the somewhat woolly 6D BURR, but I thought 3D GOOGLY and 4D MISSTATE show a playfulness of language which I think lies at the heart of crosswording – and it seems from the comments that a fair number of others feel similarly. But, of course, each to his or her own taste.

  33. Tough but thoroughly enjoyed it. Gielgud last in. A memory stab which we parsed afterwards. Thanks everyone.

  34. Thanks Paul and PeterO

    I thought this was an excellent but tough puzzle, and well worth the effort.

    Ed @ 30: there’s no need to talk about yourself like that 😉

  35. PeterO @32

    You make a very good point. I solved ‘googly’ because I know what it is, but I don’t think I would have got it otherwise – hence my comment. On reflection, though, everyone has heard of Google, and on another day an appreciation of the payback one gets in the form of wit (in this case) may have made me think differently. That was therefore the flimsiest of my three examples.

    I still don’t rate 4d MISSTATE much, and 6d BURR least of all. I may be in the minority, but it’s not the first time!

  36. Rog @21, I went to a concert given by Dame Myra Hess at The Winter Garden in Eastbourne when I was a schoolgirl in the 1950s – I also had the luck to sit at the same table as Dame Judi Dench one evening in The Gay Hussar.

  37. Quite a tough puzzle to complete, but rewarding to do so. I hadn’t heard of MYRA HESS or LANG LANG but I enjoyed working them out from the wordplay and looking them up afterwards.
    Of all the mini-themes, I found the straight 5s to be the hardest to get. I had to sleep on GIELGUD before finally hitting on DUG for bored. I was very unsure of BURR too, so that was last in, despite having entered it earlier and then erased it. As Cookie pointed out, it would have been helpful (to this solver at least) if Paul had indicated him as another 5.
    I enjoyed the multiple themes floating about. I count five: the explicit 5s (actors, golfers, pianists) and two more ghostly micro ones (phonetic alphabet letters and fish).

    Lots of fun. Thanks, Paul and PeterO.

    P.S. Peter, a minor point from the blog: in 11, I’m sure you meant to say INSUR, an anagram (‘revolutionary’) of ‘ruins’…

  38. This took quite a while but I thought it pretty good. I did need some electronic help though and I needed to play a couple of hunches. GIELGUD and BURR were the last in and it would be a stretch to say that I solved the former. I didn’t get PLAYER until quite late in the day and I had sussed the golf connection having got ELSE- my knowledge of golf comes entirely from crosswords-and I got MYRA HESS early on so I assumed the P referred to pianists. My favourite was VICTOR BORGE-a quite brilliant clue
    (I only ever saw Borges on TV but I thought him extremely funny)
    Thanks Paul.

  41. Thanks both,

    Like others I took a while to get on the wavelength of this one even after I’d sussed the themes. I started on paper, got stuck, and with five clues to go, filled in the grid on line, when four of them became clear. It’s funny how often that happens. A minor quibble was using a capital P for ‘piano’. In the musical notation I’m used to, it is always a small p.

  42. Eileen @13
    I don’t think it works as a verb either. You could say “this wearies me”, but not “this flags me”.

  43. muffin @42 — Eileen @13 said “‘weary’ can mean ‘to [make or] become weary’ = flag.” She put the transitive sense in brackets because [I presume] it’s the intransitive sense, “become” not “make” that operates here: “the runners began to flag/weary by the end of the race”. It works for me.

  44. Valentine @43
    Yes, that’s a bit clearer. “The runners weary” still feels odd, though. “get weary”, “become weary” etc. yes, but just “weary”? I don’t think I’ve heard it used thus.

  45. Thanks to Paul for the challenge and to PererO for some very helpful parsing. I managed to work out 5 P and G reasonably early but still struggled on a few others. Cheated on Gielgud. Didn’t like burr.
    Got Lang Lang but not as I should have, just got Lang and doubled it!

    I agree with others that flag works for weary, as an intransitive verb.

  46. Tyngewick @41

    I’m sure everyone is happy with P = ‘piano’, but for the record I’m sure that for the instrument (piano / pianoforte) the only abbreviation is ‘pf’, and for the instruction to play softly it is always a small italic p.

    So the ‘P’ in the clues is a cryptic reference, but if Paul isn’t allowed this liberty I’d be most unhappy.

  47. Agree with Eileen @ 13 – a real cracker from Paul.
    Some rather negative comments on the Grauniad page, but I really enjoyed it, especially the circular self-referent 5. LOI Gielgud because of its unusual letter combinations.

    “Burr” is also the rough, sharp edge on a cut or drilling in a piece of metal.

    Thanks Paul and Peter O.

  48. Valentine @43 – thanks for correctly interpreting my use of brackets in quoting the Collins entry.

    muffin, I think Valentine’s example ‘began to weary’ sounds perfectly natural and I’ve certainly heard it used thus.

  49. I totally agree with Eileen @13 that this was the best Paul for ages.

    P and G were quickly unmasked.
    P through LANG LANG (12d) and G through ELS/E (1d).
    The other pianists and golfers followed relatively quickly, even if I thought there might be an IRONS (14d).

    The meaning of ‘5’ took somewhat longer, certainly after Judi Dench turned out to be one.
    I was completely focused on ‘5’ = master.
    Of course, that doesn’t make sense in 5d but the self-reference was confusing enough in itself.
    I linked ‘master’ through M to ‘Dench’.
    After Beth came up with PLAYER, things went very fast towards the end.
    The end?
    We couldn’t see BURR (6d), thought of a homophone!
    So, in fact, quite a clever misdirection.

    We had some queries (FLAG = ‘weary’ and EVEN = ‘yet’) but they were answered above by Eileen and PeterO [thx for another fine blog].

    Wonderful puzzle.

  50. I found this very tough, though satisfying to solve. I got PLAYER quite early, after solving DRENCH, but the remainder of the NE stayed empty until the rest of the puzzle was finished. I couldn’t see “or” for the GOLD in GOLD MINE until the blog enlightened me.

    Thanks, Paul and PeterO.

  51. Just finished this puzzle which was highly entertaining and and a good challenge.

    In spite of the fact that I took a while to find PLAYER I quickly had FALDO and WOODS which led me to believe 5D might be MASTER. (Referring to the jacket and cap??)

    DRENCH soon disabused me of this idea.

    I was extremely tired yesterday after extensive cruising so had to finish this morning.

    One thing I thought clever about 5D was that both the clue and its answer were self referential (or recursive as I would term it). This probably makes the clue even fairer in a bizarre way.

    Great puzzle Paul.

  52. Brilliant crossword. Had to cheat to get player, so could reconcile Dench with Faldo. Favourite clue Victor Borge. Had struggled with seeing only Boris Becker(wrong way round) and knowing champion was Borg! Brilliant! Thank you Paul

  53. I commented earlier on the fair and consistent way in which the ‘5’ (PLAYER) theme was implemented. This puzzle reminded me of one by the same setter in which ‘I’ stood for ‘island’ wherever it appeared [in fact it was even more specific than that – the themewords were Scottish islands], and that was one of my favourite puzzles of the year.

    I know of another setter who would be tempted to spread the theme wider and make ‘5’ [=PLAYER] stand for the likes of BEST and BEDSER, for example, as well as DENCH and GIELGUD. In Paul’s puzzle I hoped that having got the ‘5’ theme from DENCH I would find companion answers in the other places, and I wasn’t disappointed.

    I’m not trying to make an absolute rule about this, but at the challenging level of crosswords like this I would have lost interest if the setter had used ‘5’ in the loose way I have described. It all depends on the quality and above all the accesibility of the crossword as a whole.

    The way the themes were incorporated into this puzzle was its best feature. Brilliant.

Comments are closed.