Guardian 27,048 – Pasquale

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We expect a couple of unfamiliar words in a Pasquale puzzle, but he’s excelled himself in this one (at least as far as I’m concerned) in the SE corner. (I wonder what one of our regular commenters has to say about 17a…) A tough challenge – thnanks to Pasquale

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. LIB-DEM Party member left in the same place, one dumped (3-3)
L + IBIDEM (Latin for “in the same place”, usually abbreviated to “ibid.”) minus the second I
4,9. CALDER HALL Appeal to protect tree by hospital power supply years ago (6,4)
ALDER + H in CALL – part of what is now Sellafield
10. PRETENSION In advance, give a sort of force to claim (10)
PRE + TENSION
11. IN LIEU Substitute powdering her nose, by the sound of it? (2,4)
Homophone of “in loo” – “powdering my nose” is a euphemism for going to the toilet
12. TEA PARTY Right-wing bunch that was organised by one proverbially mad? (3,5)
Double definition – reference to the Mad Hatter’s tea party in Alice in Wonderland
13. CROCODILE Cold part in which fish is taken by one reptile (9)
COD I in C ROLE
15. SLIP Small piece of paper in sink (4)
Just a double definition, I think, despite the misleading S
16. YALE Education’s No 1 place to the West? (4)
E[ducation] + LAY, reversed, &lit
17. ASPINWALL Colon now having a turn with obstruction (9)
A SPIN (turn) + WALL – obstruction. A former name for the city of Colón in Panama (as I did not know)
21. PACIFIST Condition is put into agreement for one seeking to avoid conflict (8)
IF IS in PACT
22. UNDIES Nude is forced to get minimal attire (6)
(NUDE IS)*
24. SET IN STONE Group meeting this month, one absolutely fixed (3,2,5)
SET (group) + INST (this month) + ONE
25. RAHU Imprisoned in Exeter, a human demon (4)
Hidden in exeteR A HUman : a demon in Hindu mythology
26. DOTERS Lovers being brusque almost after social function (6)
DO (party, social function) + TERS[E]
27. MORASS Confused situation created by men in service (6)
OR (other ranks) in MASS (religious service)
Down
1. LEARNER American lyricist said to be someone still developing technique? (7)
Homophone of [Alan Jay] Lerner, lyricist of My Fair Lady etc
2. BALTI Hot dish served up in Italian party (5)
Reverse of IT + LAB[our]
3. EXPOUND Interpret old poet (7)
EX [Ezra] Pound
5. APEMAN A writer enthralling mum, being transformative? (6)
MA in A PEN – a “transformative being” or intermediate species
6. DISHALLOW Profane girl lacking seriousness (9)
DI + SHALLOW – strange-looking word until you read it as dis-hallow, = to profane
7. ROOFTOP Female in something underground before work that is well above ground level (7)
F in ROOT + OP[us]
8. FERTILISATION I start life that’s formed with tiny particle? (13)
(I START LIFE)* + ION, and a nice &lit
14. CALVINIST Stardust is evident in court — one believes everything has been planned (9)
ALVIN (Stardust, rock singer) + IS in CT
16. YEAR END Long day in which one has little energy when books are balanced? (4,3)
E in YEARN D
18. IN UTERO Routine changes where life develops (2,5)
ROUTINE*
19. LEECHES Sediment outside back of the church drains (7)
[th]E + CH in LEES
20. KISSER Mug takes stupid risks injecting drug (6)
E in RISKS* – mug and kisser are both slang for the face
23. DURRA Françoise who played tennis, ace on grass (5)
Françoise DÜRR (a famous and highly successful tennis player I had never heard of) + A, to give another name (also new to me) for Sorghum

55 comments on “Guardian 27,048 – Pasquale”

  1. Thanks Pasquale and Andrew

    I really enjoyed this – not always the case with Pasquale. I had read through a few without success when I got to the lovely IN LIEU, and though “let’s carry on, then!”. Other favourites included LIB DEM, TEA PARTY, APEMAN (“being transformative”, indeed!) and IN UTERO (mini-theme there).

    I think my first answer for 15a – PLUG – is better than SLIP. I was very surprised when, held up by it, I “chekced” to find it incorrect.

    Very much a crossword for the older generation, though – CALDER HALL, Alvin STARDUST, Francoise DURR!

    I didn’t know RAHU, but that was just a case of seeing which 4 hidden letters gave a demon. ASPINWALL was unusual – I often complain about clues that are only solvable backwards from the definition; this one I had never heard of the place, but was easy to do (with crossers, admittedly) “bottom up”.

  2. This irregular commenter says 17a is going too far on obscurity.

    Thank you Andrew for your usual clear explanations

  4. Loved Stardust- ASPINWALL was certainly obscure but very fairly clued. Hadnt heard of Francoise Durr so that was my last in only after a bit of searching.Also liked IN LIEU.
    Thumbs up really.

  5. This was very good. FERTILISATION was excellent.

    For a while I wondered if there was some sort of political theme, with LIB DEM, CALDER HALL, PACIFIST, TEA PARTY (and LAB backwards in 2d).

    A couple of minor gripes. DOTERS is one of those words that you think, ok it must logically exist, to mean people who dote, but is it ever actually used? And I think maybe Pasquale painted himself into a corner in the SE, having to use DURRA and RAHU.

    But overall very enjoyable.

  6. Thank you Pasquale and Andrew.

    Wow, that was quite something. Living in France, I got stuck on the clue for IN LIEU, the English pronunciation being forgotten, and Alvin Stardust was unknown to me.

    I know Colon only too well having been stuck in the Panama Canal for several weeks on a ship with a broken piston, but never knew its former name – incidentally, Peter usually spells his name Asplnwall, but sometimes ASPINWALL, I never know which is correct but guess both names are from the same source.

  7. This was certainly a challenge in places, but no less enjoyable for that. “Aspinwall” came quite easily from the wordplay but I was amazed to see that I was right when I looked it up. After considering “colon” in Spanish for a while, was convinced that the definition had to have something to do with the large bowel! There were too many nice clues to list, but 14d has to be my favourite.

    Many thanks to Pascale & Andrew.

  8. I realise variety is the spice etc., but a puzzle with so many obscure references just sucks all the fun out of it for me. No doubt the experts who can complete Mephisto-type challenges welcome a Pasquale, but though I meet the challenge most days this was beyond me.

    There’s something frustrating about staring at the gaps for an hour, then finding that I could never have finished if I’d stayed all day. I much prefer the ‘doh’ to the ‘grr’ moment

  9. Strewth, that was a struggle, and would not have got there without aids. Sorry, that might be offensive…without outside help, I should say.

    Held up looking for an adjective not a verb in the profane clue. Never knew it could be used as a verb.

    Would not have derived ASPINWALL from the clue alone in a month of Sundays.

    Loved IN LIEU & KISSER.

    Many thanks to The Don, tricky stuff.

    Nice week, all.

  10. Thanks to Pasquale and Andrew. But as another irregular commenter, I felt the combination of 17A + DURRA + RAHU (crossing) + CALDER HALL were an obscure bridge too far, only solved by googling/checking One Look Dictionary …

  11. Apart from a few obscure answers that I decided to look up on this page rather than go to the trouble of searching and checking online, I had a great time solving this puzzle – it really made me think. Fortunately I knew ASPINWALL, which was essential to get started on the tricky NE corner (DISHALLOW, which I guessed was a word, being next).

    I loved 16a YALE and 14d CALVINIST. Other favourites were 1a LIB-DEM, 24a SET IN STONE, 7d ROOFTOP and 8d FERTILISATION.

    I guessed 15a SLIP, not quite getting ‘slip’ = ‘sink’. I didn’t know 4a CALDER HALL, but I liked the clue as it allowed me to work it out. I didn’t appreciate the clues to 12a TEA PARTY and 23d DURRA very much. (What is the ‘on’ doing in 23d? Does ‘ace on’ mean you tack A on to DURR?)

    I can understand why JimS @5 said “I think maybe Pasquale painted himself into a corner in the SE, having to use DURRA and RAHU.” I too wondered why he put those words there. I don’t think one can say he was stuck, because even without changing any other words he could have had, say, DRAMA and ACHE. In the last Pasquale I solved, I remember something similar: the ‘obscure’ word SHAP (it was obscure to several solvers, I believe) was chosen to fill the space S–A– where many other words were possible. On neither that occasion nor this was I put off – I have come to expect having to enjoy a learning experience when I pick up a Pasquale puzzle.

    Many thanks to both Pasquale and Andrew.

  12. As usual with Pasquale there were a few pretty obscure solutions. DURRA was doubly obscure to those of us slightly too young to remember the tennis player, though RAHU was easy enough to guess and check. Still needed a few to many lookups for my taste, but quite an entertaining challenge.

    Thanks to Pasquale and Andrew

  14. @Rompiballe 13
    I thought exactly the same thing, but leech= to drain is in Chambers.
    Anyone who has never seen Frankie Dürr play Betty Stöve at Wimbledon has missed out on one of life’s richest experiences.
    Thanks to Pasquale&Andrew

  16. Thanks both,
    I enjoyed the bits I could do, then didn’t enjoy getting stuck, then cheated with google and wild card searches and enjoyed it again. My process of solution of 17ac was 1) guess ‘wall’ might be the obstruction – check, confirmed 2) guess ‘ass’ might be ‘colon’ and add ‘in’, check, second s knocked out 3) light dawns, google to confirm.

  17. Thanks to Pasquale and Andrew. I did not know ASPINWALL (though I did know Colon), CALDER HALL (though I did know Sellafield), Durr/DURRA, or Alvin Stardust. Last in were APEMAN (I needed all the crossers) and DISHALLOW (I took forever before getting the H). Tough going for me.

  18. Perhaps ther second use of “plug” for 15a is more local than I thought. When I was at school, the little chewed-up pellets of paper we blew out of empty Bics we called “plugs”, though I suppose “pellets” is more common. You can see why I thought it was a perfect match for the clue, though!

  19. Dictionary.com gives leech verb (used with object) to cling to and feed upon or drain, as a leech: His relatives leeched him until his entire fortune was exhausted.

  20. Well,what a turn up! I didn’t believe 17ac when I thought of it and
    then it parsed. I’d never heard of the place though. I knew of an ASPINWALL in this country but that’s all.
    As to the rest, I found this rather tricky: DISHALLOW,PRETENSION,CALDER,DURRA and RAHU all gave trouble although the last was easy to guess. I had PLUG instead of SLIP and I see I wasn’t alone.
    I loved CALVINIST and LEARNER.
    Thanks Pasquale.

  21. Enjoying lots of good things from Paul, Vlad, Bogus (?) and today the Don.

    Didn’t do as well as I might have with this, failing to get 8d and 16a and d – perhaps ff I’d got one I’d have got the other!

    14d took too long, given my upbringing, but I wasted time trying to think of a 5 letter word for “stardust”, and another intimation of senility, I had completely forgotten Frankie Durr.

    Thanks to Andrew for the blog – a small point on 1d – surely it is “someone still developing their technique” which is the definition.

  23. You learn something every day and today is no different. Dishallow, durra and Aspinwall this time. We didn’t like doters (neither does autocorrect!) and designated it as a MUW! Thanks to everyone.

  24. I’m still quite new at this but had a good time with today’s puzzle.

    Couple of questions to more seasoned solvers, about how clues are written:
    Is it usual to have some Latin as part of an answer without there being any indication of that in the clue?
    Would Colon normally have been written with its accent? Or should I learn to expect that words in clues might have hidden accents?

    Thank you to every contributor here, there is so much I would never have understood without you all. Cheers

  25. Crumplehorn @24

    Good questions. I think ibidem unindicated is OK, as it (or at least, its abbreviation ibid.) is frequently used in English – compare omnibus for example.

    Ignore acents!

  27. Thank you, Andrew and Pasquale.

    I was pleased to see I wasn’t the only one to struggle with general knowledge! Apart from having to reveal 3 clues (owing to aforementioned lack of gk) I enjoyed the challenge today.

    Can anyone tell me why INST means ‘this month’? I can only find reference to an abbreviation for ‘instant’ or ‘institute’.

  28. Rimpiballe is absolutely right. LEECHES (bloodsuckers) for LEACHES (drains) is an appalling howler. APEMAN is in no sense a transformative being or being transformative – if it ever existed it was an intermediate stage and had no agency as suggested by the -ive ending. SLIP=SINK? – nonsense. Tiresome.

  31. Matrixmania@27

    Indeed. When I was young it was fairly common in the subject lines of letters, so one might start a reply:

    Re: Your letter of the 22nd inst

    …though it slipped out of fashion at about the same time as the typewriter, I’d say.

  34. Crossbencher @ 28

    As has been pointed out by baerchen @ 14, Chambers gives LEECH transitive verb (3) to drain and has a slightly different meaning for drain as LEACH.

    And if APEMAN was an intermediate stage, then it was transformative between what went previously and afterwards (again supported by Chambers).

    Seems pretty straightforward really.

  36. OK, I got it. But anyone not growing up in the 60s or 70s would be adrift. I believe the phrase is “biological leakage” as fewer people try crosswords.

  38. The usual lazy setting from this setter combined with the invisibility of the editor’s contribution.

    A fiasco.

    P.S. I didn’t enjoy this much 😉

  39. A familiar well-balanced contribution form BNTO 🙂

    I thought that this was a pretty good puzzle – and much better than many Pasquales (a lot of which I haven’t liked either!)

  40. Solved it with a lot of electronic help getting more and more angry. A tennis player from the 60’s; a power station from the 50’s a singer from the 80’s and much more obscurity. Do you want this to be accessible to anyone under 70? Catch a grip!

  41. BNTO @38

    It’s clear enough that you didn’t enjoy this, but to say that the setter is guilty of ‘lazy setting’ needs some justification if I may say so.

    Some particular points have been queried, by myself and others, but I suggest there is nothing here to indicate any lack of effort or care on the part of the setter.

  43. Rather to my surprise I solved this one more qickly than yesterday’s Rufus. I had to check ASPINWALL, DURRA, RAHU to confirm that they were right though I think that RAHU may have appeared before. It was enjoyable on the whole to me as a chronologically enriched person but, as others have said, must have been hard for the younger solvers. I too didn’t like DOTERS. OR = MEN is cropping up rather too frequently though this can’t be the fault of the individual setter.
    Thanks to Pasquale and Andrew

  44. I’d never heard of the ones others hadn’t. Google gave me a suburb of Pittsburgh for ASPINWALL until I added COLON. I did piece it together as A + SPIN + WALL but had no idea why. And I’ve even been to Colon, with accent, on a sailboat going through the Panama Canal three times in a week. (Explanation provided on request.) I don’t follow sports and I’d never heard of Calder Hall. I think ULT came up in a recent puzzle, which reminded me of the ult, inst, prox trio I’ve never met in real life but have in English detective stories.

    Thanks Pasquale and Andrew.

  45. This being Pasquale, I just accepted that ASPINWALL must be some kind of synonym for colon in some alternative reality – I had considered the punctuation mark and the intestine, but the South American city hadn’t occurred to me. My heart usually sinks when I see the Don’s name, because his puzzles are always like this – the deliberate use of obscurities is an essential part of his setting philosophy, and there’s no doing anything about it. It is what it is.

    P S I was another who had PLUG for SLIP.

  46. gladys @45
    You make a very good point about the setter’s ‘deliberate use of obscurities’. I don’t mind an answer being obscure or a piece of the wordplay being obscure – but not both. I also don’t mind learning! But with 23d DURRA I think the setter went too far in deciding to use the word DURRA as the answer and DURR as part of the clue. To compound that there is RAHU at 25a, which crosses DURRA.

    What is or is not obscure is of course subjective, and ‘unfamiliar’ might be as good a word for my argument, but I feel confident enough about the words (and the wordplay) in the SE corner to say what I have just said, particularly bearing in mind the general level and quality of Guardian cryptic crosswords.

    It is a matter for both the setter and the crossword editor. The editor must trust his setters to a great extent, simply because it’s not possible to pick up on every possible typo or subtle technical error, but obscure answer-words, obscure words crossing each other and clues that are doubly obscure are impossible to miss, I would say, and I think BNTO has a point this time about the invisible editor.

  47. Found this almost impossible but as a newbie, no surprise…Q – is it possible 15A is a triple definition as in small = slip (as in ‘she was a slip of a girl’) piece of paper = slip etc…

  48. I finished this too late last night to want to post, but I just want to second Alan B @46. I found this very much a mix of good and bad. There are some very nice clues, but against that there are too many obscure/unfamiliar words and dated references (though I’m old enough that I got most of the latter).

    Thanks for the blog, Andrew.

  50. Stuart @47
    I don’t think this quite works as a triple definition. You can’t actually interchange ‘small’ and ‘slip’ in your example. My take on the clue was that ‘small piece of paper’ has to stand as one of the two definitions, as Andrew indicated in his blog.

  51. I twiggedd that Colon referred to the city but no Google search would
    give me the name. Where did you find it or did you just know?!

  52. Phyllida @51
    It is in the Wikipedia article on Colón, under History, though I got it from the wordplay and crossers first.

  53. Phylida @ 51: I only found it by entering colon AND Aspinwall in the search box together.

    But you would have to have the suspected answer to do this of course and i only had that from the crossers (not thinking of turn = spin).

    In retrospect I suppose it is fairly clued as some have said

  54. Hi, I’m also a tail-end baby boomer but, despite some frustration, I still enjoyed the challenge, was familiar with some of the older references, and was grateful to learn the other more obscure references. People – lighten up!!

  55. I really enjoyed this. ASPINWALL last in, on a wing and a prayer. I spent ages trying to remember whether it was Lehrner or Lerhner, before I realized I’d got a homophone clue back to front as usual and had invented a lyricist to boot.

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