Apart from a couple of very easy clues, this started off looking rather impenetrable, but it yielded gradually and satisfyingly. There are a few rather tricky parsings (including one that is so obscure that I’m not sure I’ve got it right), and a couple of recently-coined expressions that may be unfamiliar to some. Thanks to Imogen.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1. | HANDSOME | Generous applause? A bit (8) HAND (applause) + SOME |
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| 5. | CONCUR | Agree with right-wing scoundrel (6) CON[servative] + CUR |
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| 9. | LIKE A SHOT | Show appreciation of the hard stuff without hesitation (4,1,4) Double definition |
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| 11. | DELOS | Island of the Greeks, or of the Spanish (5) DE LOS is Spanish for “of the” |
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| 12. | MAN‑SPREADING | Orienteering involves partners in selfish behaviour (3-9) N S (partners in Bridge) in MAP READING – “a neologism used to describe a man sitting in public transport with legs wide apart, thereby covering more than one seat”: a familiar sight, even if you don’t know the expression |
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| 15. | AHOY | Hello, sailor! (4) Cryptic definition |
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| 16. | PAPERCHASE | Altering a single letter, strong grip secretary’s taken on bureaucratic nightmare (10) PA (secretary) + PURCHASE (strong grip) with the U changed to E |
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| 18. | CRAWLED OUT | Water could flow and came thus from woodwork? (7,3) (WATER COULD)* – referring to the expression “crawled out of the woodwork” |
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| 19. | WAIL | Lament singular country expressed? (4) Homophone of “Wale”, a fanciful “singular” of “Wales” |
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| 21. | CONCERN TROLL | Run into tax on business producing hypocritical poster (7,5) R in CONCERN (business) + TOLL (tax) – “Someone who posts to an internet forum or newsgroup, claiming to share its goals while deliberately working against those goals, typically, by claiming “concern” about group plans to engage in productive activity, urging members instead to attempt some activity that would damage the group’s credibility, or alternatively to give up on group projects entirely.” |
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| 24. | AVAIL | A disguise said to be useful (5) Homophone of “a veil” |
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| 25. | INEBRIATE | Drunk, be taken over by hopeless inertia (9) BE in INERTIA* |
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| 26. | NEED BE | It’s unavoidable when born a dame (4-2) NEE (born) + DBE (standing for the full title ”Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire”, female equivalent of the KBE) |
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| 27. | ASUNCION | A descendant tours one foreign capital (8) UN (French “one”) in A SCION. Asunción is the capital of Paraguay |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1. | HILT | Success, covering top of lift shaft (4) L[ift] in HIT |
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| 2. | NUKE | Viciously attack note on instrument (4) N + UKE (ukulele) |
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| 3. | STALAG | Soviet leader chucked in a German camp (6) STALIN with IN “chucked” + A G |
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| 4. | MY HUSBAND AND I | Leading pair in heretic group of mine almost converted Diana (2,7,3,1) This is the obscure one: Jan Hus was a Czech priest burned for heresy in 1415, so a “heretic group of mine” could be MY HUS BAND, followed by AND I, which is an anagram of DIAN[A]. It’s a phrase associated with the Queen (hence “leading pair”), but in fact not used much, if at all, by her for many years; I suspect she may have been advised against it because it was widely lampooned |
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| 6. | ORDNANCE | Soldiers move gleefully, clutching new weaponry (8) N in OR (other ranks – soldiers) DANCE |
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| 7. | CALL IT A DAY | Appeal Lily put out to Doris: stop work (4,2,1,3) IT (appeal) in CALLA (a type of lily) + [Doris] DAY (actress) – I had trouble parsing this as I was trying to make appeal = CALL |
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| 8. | RESIGNEDLY | Bank stores finished letter with agreement but no will (10) SIGNED (“finished letter”) in RELY |
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| 10. | THREE QUARTERS | Backs small numbers to receive mercy (5-8) QUARTER (mercy) in THREES |
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| 13. | WATCH CHAIN | Drinking tea, endlessly observing Albert (5,5) CHA in WATCHIN[G] – a Prince Albert is a type of watch chain |
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| 14. | DOMAIN NAME | theguardian.com is one no man made work (6,4) Anagram of I (one) + NO MAN MADE |
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| 17. | GLEE CLUB | Delight to beat American singing group (4,4) GLEE + CLUB |
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| 20. | FLORIN | Not good to throw around gold coin (6) OR in FLING less G |
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| 22. | WADI | Using loose pad, I dry bed (4) WAD (loose pad) + I |
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| 23. | KEEN | Agog to see Wounded Knee (4) KNEE* – a very easy one to finish with |
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Thanks Imogen and Andrew
Well I finished it, but I can’t say I enjoyed it. I’d never heard of the neologisms, and couldn’t parse 4d or the first part of 7d. The NE was very reluctant to fall. Favourite was ASUNCION.
AHOY was a bit silly, but it does remind of the story of the French trawler skipper who wanted to set sail, but his deckhand hadn’t turned up. The skipper tracked him down to a dockside bar, where he shouted to the missing hand “A l’eau – c’est l’heure!”
[I watched a TV programme about the history of the Ordance Survey a few weeks ago in which the voiceover consistently pronouneced it “ordInance” – very irritating!]
muffin@1 – I like your joke!
I also finished it, having got a bit stuck on PAPERCHASE and HILT. I like Imogen’s puzzles, and highlighted CRAWLED OUT and THREE-QUARTERS. Never heard of CONCERN TROLL. Thanks to Imogen and Andrew
Thanks Andrew for CALLA and HUS-the unparsed bits of this very fine puzzle.
Enjoyed this; found it difficult at first, but there was much to like. I’d never heard of 21ac, but it was easy to work out from the wordplay; 12ac made me laugh (I’m often the victim of it!).
Thank you Imogen & Andrew. Loved the joke Muffin!
I found this tough and not all that enjoyable. I guessed a couple without parsing and cheated on a couple more when I ran out of time and ideas. Never heard of 12a – though familiar with the behaviour – or 21a. Thanks to Andrew and Imogen
An enjoyable puzzle, mostly on the easier end of Imogen’s scale, but I must admit that I didn’t parse MY HUSBAND AND I, so thanks for that. CONCERN TROLL was new to me, favourite MAN-SPREADING.
Thanks to Imogen and Andrew
Thank you Imogen and Andrew, and muffin for the joke!
I also struggled to parse CALL IT A DAY, but failed to parse MY HUSBAND AND I. CONCERN TROLL was new to me.
I was confused by the clue for GLEE CLUB, I thought they were English, at least originally, which I find was so on searching – apparently the first named Glee Club was founded in Harrow School in 1787, and such clubs were very popular in the UK until the mid-1850s, but by the mid-20th century were no longer common (the time I left England, so no complaint).
Thanks to Imogen and Andrew. Very difficult for me. More than the usual number of items I could not parse along with terms new to me (e.g.,, CONCERN TROLL, MY HUSBAND AND I, PAPERCHASE, DBE = Dame) though I did know Prince Albert = WATCH CHAIN from previous puzzles.
Not many comments.
I think most people gave up – like me.
Too hard !
By yhe time our lunchtime solve is done, the thread has usually got too long to think it’s orth adding much, but not today so i thought I’d pitch in! I didn’t enjoy this as much as usual for Imogen who is high on the leaderborad for setters as far as I’m concerned. It got finished but we couldn’t parse 4d or 7d. We’ve heard of Jan Hus after a trip to the Czech Republic a while back but he doesn’t exactly spring to mind!
In general, though, we’re wondering if the Guardian has responded to the cri de coeur a month or so ago and asked setters to go a bit easier: we’ve now completed 17 in a row, with almost no aids, and I can’t remember a run like that before.
Thanks to Imogen and Andrew
Thanks Imogen and Andrew.
Lots to enjoy, particularly DELOS, CALL IT A DAY and THREEQUARTERS.
MAN-SPREADING (sounds rude to me) and CONCERN TROLL were new to me. Up here the bag on the seat is the usual selfish space protector on the buses.
Is muffin planning a re-write of ‘allo ‘allo?
Only finished this with the aid of my tablet. Couldn’t parse 11, 16, 4 and 7 nor had I heard of the 2 neologisms so not very satisfying. However, found an immediate use for one of them: my husband was woman-spreaded at the theatre yesterday.
Enjoyed #1 muffin’s explanation of Hello sailor.
I can’t quite get 25 to work, as the BE part needs a reversal somehow. Either “drunk” is also an anagrind as well as the definition or “taken over” is doing double-duty. That’s my only niggle with an otherwise satisfying puzzle. Some quite fearsome constructions and a few answers that needed research (Jan Hus, glee club, concern troll) but I managed to complete it and enjoyed the journey.
Thanks, Imogen and Andrew.
Couldn’t finish this without help. Never heard of the two neologisms so had to rely on you,Andrew. Everything else succumbed to our mental gymnasticstate, eventually. Thanks to everyone.
phtonelly @13 — I think 25 works. “taken” indicates inclusion and “over” indicates reversal.
I actually had heard of man-spreading and concern trolls. “My husband and I” is not a phrase that means anything in particular to me. Combining an obscure phrase with obscurity in the wordplay seems a bit unfair to me.
Ted@15
Oh yes, that works. Thanks!
My lack of knowledge let me down a bit with this puzzle, which I would have preferred to complete without so many guesses. In the end, I decided to come here to understand it all.
I haven’t heard of Delos, man-spreading, concern troll, need-be, Glee Club, hus or calla. That is basically what spoilt my enjoyment of this puzzle.
I have no complaints, though – it just needed the knowledge. Also, there were some really good clues, which I did enjoy very much: 18a CRAWLED OUT, 27a ASUNCION, 3d STALAG, 6d ORDNANCE, 8d RESIGNEDLY and 14d DOMAIN NAME and 20d FLORIN. I was surprised, though, to see the definition-by-example (‘Albert’) in 13d WATCH CHAIN not indicated.
Thanks to Imogen and Andrew.
Thanks both.
I found this tough going for a while but it all gave eventually except for 21 on which I admitted defeat. In 15 I wondered whether the demon cyclist had turned up again in his nautical form. ‘A hoy’ = ‘sailing boat’ = ‘sailor’, perhaps. I admit there are the problems of the superfluous ‘a’ and the spelling of ‘sailor’, but it seems like an opportunity missed.
When I got MAN-SPREADING I decided it couldn’t possibly be right and changed it to map-spreading though unparsed, which I thought might be some selfish orienteering behaviour. Filled the grid but didn’t come close to parsing MY HUSBAND AND I.
Many thanks Imogen and Andrew
I enjoyed the neologisms and although some of the constructions were complicated they were all the more rewarding once solved. For some unknown reason KEEN was my last in! Thank you, Andrew and Imogen.
I found this hard but I thought the puzzle excellent. It certainly led me a merry dance. I got MY HUSBAND AND I straight away- it just leapt off the page- and I didn’t bother to parse it. I finally got MAN SPREADING, which I had heard of, but had to look up CONCERN TROLL, which I hadn’t.WADI was LOI.
I found the workout really enjoyable.
Thanks Imogen.
I notice that there hasn’t been a comment yet on the unusual device used by the setter in 16a PAPERCHASE, in which ‘altering a single letter’ (disregarding its surface meaning) indicates that you change the U of ‘purchase’ to E.
We are not told which letter is to be changed or what it is to be changed to, and by the usual standards of cryptic devices, whereby the letters and part-words that make up the answer are precisely (but cryptically) indicated, this clue would be inadequate. I for one, though, feel that it was fair. It says you must change one letter, and you decide which letter and what the new one is. To my mind this clue was readily solvable with that information. Good for a Guardian cryptic, possibly not for other publications.
Okay, I got there in the end, with the exception of PAPERCHASE. How is “PA” = secretary? Must be a British thing.
The manspreading thing is something that a lot of my internet friends were kvetching about over the past year or so. But it was also pointed out that some women on the subway/el/bus/etc are even worse: Body on one seat, shopping on the seat to the left, oversized purse on the seat to the right, and if you make vague motions like you want them to let you sit, they look at you like you’ve infringed some holy privilege. (Did you pay for two seats? No? Then put the effin’ purse in your effin’ lap.) At least the manspreaders generally scoot over if you ask. Okay–rant over.
Funny thing is, I got MY HUSBAND AND I without actually knowing it was a reference to the queen. Jan Hus was known to me, which helped.
mrpenney @23
“Personal assistant”
I absolutely loved the inherent subversive quality of MY HUSBAND AND I! Got there there via ALMOST DIANA leading to AND I, which almost immediately brought the Royals and MY HUSBAND to mind. I must admit that being of a certain age and a sometime European History nerd probably put me in fairly good stead. Other clues took me much longer to identify and some took even longer to parse satisfactorily.
Most enjoyable, though parsing of CALL IT A DAY had me (first Guardian ‘miss’ this year I think; stuck on the ‘call’ = ‘appeal’; silly me, clever Imogen!).
I thought MY HUSBAND AND I was quite delightful.
Many thanks to Imogen – and Andrew for knowing ‘calla’.