Guardian Cryptic 27,061 by Chifonie

A pleasant, if not too difficult, offering from Chifonie, this drab Wednesday morning.

Most of the clues were straightforward (nice anagrams and simple charades), but a few clues stood out, my favourites being 16dn and 17dn.

Across
1 DIPSTICK Wally, the pickpocket’s son, gets credit (8)
  DIP (“pickpocket”) + S(on) + TICK (“credit”)
5 BRUTUS Dry American conspirator (6)
  BRUT (“dry”) + U.S.
9 CASTAWAY Abandon players on holiday (8)
  CAST (“players”) + AWAY (“on holiday”)

Neither of the dictionaries I have to hand has “castaway” (the 8-letter word) equal to abandon, so I wonder if the enumeration should have been (4,4)

10 ENLIST Measure third of volunteers first to get signed up (6)
  EN (printer’s “measure”) + (vo)L(unteers) + 1st
12 DRIFT Implication makes many quarrel (5)
  D (Roman 500, so “many”) + RIFT (“quarrel”)
13 GRAPPELLI Apple girl cooked for jazz musician (9)
  *(apple girl)

Refers to Stephane Grappelli (1908-1997), the French violinist.

14 GAINSBOROUGH Artist gets Bob endlessly agitated (12)
  GAINS (“gets”) + BO(b) + ROUGH

Refers to Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788)

18 HANDKERCHIEF Long to dress daughter with outstanding accessory (12)
  HANKER (“long”) “to dress” D(aughter), followed by CHIEF (“outstanding”)
21 SWEARWORD Curse deterioration in a weapon (9)
  WEAR (“deterioration”) in SWORD
23 MOOSE Doctor gets large elephant head? That’s some beast (5)
  M.O. (Medical Officer, so “doctor”) + OS (outsize, so “large”) + E(lephant)
24 LINNET Singer allowed to keep a pub (6)
  LET (“allowed”) “to keep” INN
25 BASTILLE Work the land in infamous prison (8)
  TILL (“work the land”) in BASE (“infamous”)
26 RATHER Betray woman more readily (6)
  RAT (“betray”) + HER (“woman”)

Chambers says RAT = “betray”, but normally it would be RAT ON?

27 TEA CHEST Drills type of junction box (3,5)
  TEACHES (“drills”) + T (“type of junction”)
Down
1 DECIDE Judge finds detectives taken in by banker (6)
  C.I.D. (“detectives”) “taken in by” DEE (river, so “banker”)
2 PASTIS Finished one small drink (6)
  PAST + 1 + S(mall)
3 TOAST RACK To rail about a small breakfast utensil (5,4)
  TO TRACK (“rail”) “about A S(mall)
4 CHANGING ROOM Caught droppin’ curry in the sports pavilion (8,4)
  C(aught) + HANGIN’ (“droppin'”) + GROOM (“curry”)
6 RUN UP Approach made quickly (3,2)
  Double definition
7 TRIAL RUN Manage after suffering in rehearsal (5,3)
  RUN (“manage”) “after” TRIAL (“suffering”)
8 SIT TIGHT Keep one’s place — international race in view (3,5)
  I(nternational) + T.T. (“race”) in SIGHT
11 CARBOHYDRATE Botched array disrupted energy source (12)
  *(botched array)
15 RHEUMATIC Irate chum upset? He’s quite ill (9)
  *(irate chum)
16 WHISTLER Artist sees women slither about (8)
  W(omen) + *(slither)

James Whistler (1834-1903), who famously painted his mother.

17 INTERNET Web of global proportions to detain space traveller (8)
  INTERN (“detain”) + E.T. (“space traveller”)
19 GOALIE Player‘s remarkably agile around circuit (6)
  *(agile) “around” O (“circuit”)
20 DECENT Church set in a hollow is respectable (6)
  C.E. (“church) in DENT (“hollow”)
22 REEVE Old magistrate with a bill (5)
  A reeve was a magistrate and is also a bird, so has “a bill”

*anagram

57 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,061 by Chifonie”

  1. I take your points about CASTAWAY and RATHER, but generally this was not too tricky and a good puzzle to complement a very pleasant morning here. I didn’t know about REEVE as a bird – another one to add to the vocab. My favourite was DIPSTICK and I also liked the surface for GAINSBOROUGH.

    Thanks to Chifonie and loonapick

  2. Thanks Chifonie and loonapick

    Quick but fun. Write-ins along the top and LHS gave me a flying start; only the SE delayed me much. INTERNET was my favourite.

    I’m not clear in what context “dropping” = “hanging”, though the clue was easy enough to solve. I didn’t like “circuit” to give the O in GOALIE.

  3. This was very pleasant and not too difficult. I liked LINNET and INTERNET.

    In 26a I think “rat” is ok without “on”, as in the Churchill quote: “Anyone can rat, but it takes a certain amount of ingenuity to re-rat.”

    In 1d, I know “banker” for river is an old crossword convention, but why? “Flower” is ok for river, as a river flows. But a river doesn’t bank, it has banks.

  4. Plenty to like in this morning’s offering: I’m with others in liking INTERNET and I also gave ticks to GAINSBOROUGH, HANDKERCHIEF and SWEARWORD, all of which were cleverly constructed.

    I’m also uncomfortable about ‘droppin’ = ‘hangin’ and ‘castaway’ as one word.

    Had myself away on the wrong track with 13a. I had the initial G and the wordplay suggested an obvious anagram. Then I realised Gillespie was the right length and there was ‘Gill’ the girl and ‘pie’ which might have been linked to ‘apple’…. Then sanity took hold and I got down to solving the obvious anagram and to the correct answer.

    COTD shared between two superb examples – the glorious TOAST RACK and TEA CHEST which is just splendid.

  5. Unlike muffin, SE went in first for me. Did like 1A even though I didn’t know dip for pickpocket and got it from the credit part. Favourite was GAINSBOROUGH.
    As loonapick said, I’d also put a question mark against CAST AWAY, and RATHER. Have a quibble for ‘woman’ without a marker for the case. Not even happy with the def.
    Hangin is okay for me for droppin. I’m sure someone will have the sources but I’m thinking of hanging someone with a rope, hanging/dropping curtains and the like.

  6. I suspect that if this crossword had been by one of this site’s more favoured setters 26a would be receiving eulogies for its creativity rather than criticisms … “betray woman” = “rat on her” = “RAT on HER” = “RATHER”.

  7. Not too challenging but I got a bit stuck in the middle until CARBOHYDRATE jumped out at me. Favourites were WHISTLER, DIPSTICK and HANDKERCHIEF. Thanks to Chifonie and loonapick.

  8. Oh Van Winkle @8. You’re right!! RATHER is very clever. As always, when the solver doesn’t get it, it’s usually because we (I) just didn’t get it. Kudos to Chifonie and Van Winkle, who wasn’t sleeping.

  9. Thank you, loonapick.

    I’m going to risk Van Winkle’s ire by owning up to generally not being a fan of this setter, but I RATHER liked this.

    TEA CHEST was neatly concealed and I admired BASTILLE.

    I originally ticked DIPSTICK, too, but now I’m not so happy with it. Aren’t there one too many s’s? If it’s the pickpocket‘s son then doesn’t that make DIPSSTICK?

    Only a minor niggle in an otherwise good crossword.

    Thank you, Chifonie, nice week, all.

    PS John McCartney @2 (not @1) bad luck, but congratulations on your debut completion!

  10. Van Winkle @8: well maybe that’s what was intended, but I still think it works perfectly well as betray (RAT), woman (HER).

  11. Chifonie is usually pretty straightforward, and if anything this was a little more taxing than usual, which is welcome.

    Thanks to Chifonie and loonapick

  12. Ha, just when I was starting to think I’d found my way into the cryptics! It took me ages to get started on this one. I finally got most of it but then had to come here to finish (only to find others saying how easy it was!).

    Two solutions were unknown to me – PASTIS and REEVE (the bird) but mainly I had difficulty with the synonyms in the charades, which didn’t come easily. Bad day perhaps? Or just lack of experience in the variety of setting styles?

    As ever, very grateful for this site. I would have given up yonks ago without it.

  13. Thanks Chifonie and loonapick.

    Surely pickpocket’s son can be read as son belonging to pickpocket i.e. DIP/S? Pickpockets’ son would obviously be DIPS/S.

    Got a little stuck at the NW quadrant, not helped by CAST AWAY.

    I liked GAINSBOROUGH and HANDKERCHIEF.

  14. Crumplehorn @19 Glad you didn’t quit and congratulations on getting so far with this one.

    This setter makes regular use of that old compiler’s wheeze of encouraging you to look for one part of speech whilst disguising another. Examples in this grid include 12a DRIFT where quarrel looks like a verb but one is actually after a noun (rift); and also 3d TOAST RACK where again to rail leads you to look for a verb whereas the noun track is sought.

    The other difficulty which you mention, that of slightly strained synonyms, (of which there are a few here) is the area which often causes most comment on this site. The trick is to spend most of your time looking at the clue and identifying its “gag” or “trick”. That will often lead a solver to a more limited number of options that he can try to “reverse fit” into the clue. Trying to find synonyms cold, the other way round, is quite time consuming and can be frustrating.

    Lastly, if you don’t already do this, always take 5 minutes to review the grid and test why you found any particular clue difficult or insoluble, and remember that whenever you think you’ve smoked all the whiles and wheezes, compilers will invariably come up with a new one!

    Happy solving.

  15. Robi @20 Yes, and that is undoubtedly the way the compiler meant it to be read. I just thought it would be neater to say Wally the pickpocket’s getting credit. Only a small point.

  16. Thank you William @21. The suggestion to take more time to identify the gag or trick in the clue seems very good advice, especially when verbs and nouns run around masquerading as each other and synonyms stretch the seams. A good bit of attention to start with could save me oodles of frustrated attempts, particularly on the ‘easier’ crosswords which I often find more difficult than the ‘harder’ ones.

    Cheers

  17. A little bogged down with 1D and 16D and discovered I had parsed 24A without having heard of it – was thinking literally of singers and discounted it couldn’t think of a Mr or Mrs Linnet…

    13A – wonder if more could have been made of existence of such a variety as a jazz apple.

  18. Forgive me for not knowing either pickpocket = dip or Wally = DIPSTICK. PASTIS was also new to me, and you really don’t see TOAST RACKS this side of the Atlantic. (I really should have gotten the latter, but I guess my brain wasn’t working.) Accordingly, I was doing just fine until all I had left was the northwest corner.

  19. Nice and easy and certainly not as difficult as we were expecting when Chifonie came up on the printer. We both liked tea chest thinking the t at the front of the clue referred to the junction rather than at the back. Nice one. Thanks to everyone.

  20. mrpenney @26 Re TOAST-RACKS, not unreasonable on your part. We had them at school but now I think this little bit of English middle class pretension is consigned strictly to the more froo-froo sort of Bed & Breakfast establishment or possibly the posher hotel which I don’t frequent. (No doubt there’ll be a backlash here, with dozens of outraged closet toast-rack users ‘coming out’.

  21. Thanks to Chifonie and loonapick. Like mrpenney I did not know the wally-DIPSTICK connection and GRAPPELLI was also new to me (as opposed to the recent Menuhin), but as usual I much enjoyed the offering from this setter.

  22. Very nice! A gentle stroll through this set the tone for rather a
    pleasant day here in North Devon. Lots of favourites- DIPSTICK, TEA CHEST,
    RATHER and BASTILLE, and many more.
    Thanks Chifonie.

  23. I was interested to read William’s comment @21 and also Crumplehorn’s response @23.

    I too often find ‘easier’ crosswords more difficult than ‘harder’ ones, and this one was no exception. Although most clues were ‘simple’ in construction, with only a few tricks to entertain you or hold you up, the puzzle as a whole was, for me, more troublesome to solve than any other I have tackled over the last week and a half.

    Mainly for that reason, I didn’t enjoy this much, but it was fair, and I can easily see why others found it so enjoyable. (I am sometimes on muffin’s wavelength, but not today – how can he say this was ‘quick but fun’!)

    Thanks to Chifonie and loonapick.

  24. Alan B @31
    As I said, I got lucky with lots of first letters.

    No-one seems to have gone further on REEVE (the bird). To be precise, it is what a female RUFF (a wading bird) is know as.

    [The clue reminds me of the old joke
    “Mummy Mummy, there’s a man at the door with a bill.”
    “Don’t be silly dear, it must be a duck with a hat on.”]

  25. Thank you Chifonie and loonapick.

    I enjoyed this, but though I was a bit confused by the parsing for CASTAWAY and did not know the other meaning of DIPSTICK (I see it is given in the COED). I like Van Winkle’s @8 parsing of RATHER!

  26. A quick and – to me – rather vanilla solve, though pleasant enough. Am I the only one not familiar with the curry=groom equivalence? Perhaps I haven’t spent enough time with horses…..

  27. Thanks, loonapick.

    I am with beer hiker @15 (and others) in that this took me longer than the usual chifonie; I had about four goes at it before it yielded. The ones who found it easy clearly finish earlier and therefore comment earlier.

    I also agree with william @11 about 1a having too many ss (esses?), and I also thought Mark @15 suggestion was good.

    However, I enjoyed the Xword on the whole, so thanks chifonie

  28. I wasn’t able to crack the NW corner. In addition to the problems noted with castaway and hangin=droppin, it seems to me that a changing room is quite a minor part of a sports pavilion, and since I don’t like cold toast, the concept of a toast rack is a bit baffling. Still, it was a fun solve. I quite liked HANDKERCHIEF.

  29. DP @34 Loved your “vanilla solve”.

    I only got the curry/groom thing by having heard of a curry comb which I seem to remember is a rubbery brush-type thing which I think horses rather like been groomed with.

    Any hippophiles out there to confirm or otherwise?

  30. BlueDot @36
    Most of the sports pavilions that I visited in my rugby playing and coaching career were several changing rooms and a bar (except that the school ones didn’t have the bar!)

  31. William @37
    The expression “curry favour” comes from the grooming meaning of “curry”. Apparently the “favour” bit is a corruption of Fauvel, a horse in a medieval satirical French poem.

  32. muffin @32

    Your modesty does you credit (luck indeed!) – you still have to get the first letters of words in order to benefit from them.

    There’s nothing to beat the NE corner of most puzzles to get first letters, and of course that happened to be the sector that gave me a bit of trouble today. I could say it was bad luck, but it was really my general ignorance that let me down (not having come across DIP with that meaning before, and only vaguely recognising PASTIS). ‘Simple’ clues become difficult when you have so little to go on.

    Anyway, I shall look forward to trying another Chifonie, whenever that may be.

  33. Alan @44
    I think you mean NW – but it was luck of a sort; pickpocket immediately suggested “dip” to me (I’m not sure if this is to my credit!)

  34. muffin @46
    Yes, I do mean the NW corner – I’m in such good form today! (Now I’ll see if I can get the Captcha right.)

  35. I’m late to the picnic once again. I did find this reasonably easy, but I just happened to be able to get most of the references – no footballers to foil me, for instance. CASTAWAY did bother me (and still does), but not any of the other issues raised here. I wonder whether the clue for CASTAWAY originally led to the noun form and was later changed to indicate the verb without the enumeration being similarly altered.

    Favourites included CARBOHYDRATE, WHISTLER and INTERNET.

    Thanks, Chifonie and loonapick.

  36. I did all but the NW corner last night, having not solved DIPSTICK for first letters. But I love that one, it paints such a portrait! I agree with those who think there is one s too few in it, though.

    I also liked the portrait of the Autocrat of the Breakfast Table in TOAST RACK, but could somebody explain the parsing? And could somebody explain why anyone would want a device that cooled toast? It’s a British custom that has long baffled me.

    I know TT is a race, but would someone explain it?

  37. Valentine@51 – I thought I had parsed TOAST RACK, but for clarity, it is A S (standing for “small”) in TO and TRACK (“rail”) as in a rail track.

    TT stands for Tourist Trophy, a motorcycle race, or more accurately, a series of races dangerous to both participants and spectators, that takes place annually on the Isle of Man.

  38. Valentine @51
    The idea of a toast rack is not to cool it but to stop it going soggy. I think they were invented in the big houses (like Downton Abbey) where the servants made the toast in the kitchens then carried them a considerable distance to the dining room. Add to that that some people came down to breakfast at different times. If the toast was stacked in a pile, it would be not just cold but soggy too – disgusting! With a toast rack, it would be cold but at least it would stay relatively crisp. As William said @28, I think that these days they are mostly confined to institutions like residential schools, hotels and boarding houses in which breakfasts are cooked on a large scale.

  39. Come to think of it, I had a toast rack once acquired from some thrift shop, I suppose. It was quite useful for sorting mail.

    Nowadays, probably even Downton Abbey has a toaster in the breakfast room where you can make toast as guests drift downstairs. Perhaps guests even make their own toast!

  40. Why is the rheumatic irate chum in 15 down male? The care that has gone into refining the clue seems undone by some casual sexism. I spent time trying to work “he’s” into the anagram.

Comments are closed.