Guardian Cryptic 27,077 by Qaos

by

On the second day of Christmas…

… a themed offering from Qaos, with many of the responses referring to the gifts given in the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas”.

This was generally enjoyable, with the theme taking a little while to unfold, but once you see it, the answers drop in easily.

I did have one minor niggle with 26 across.

Thanks, Qaos.

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and that 2017 will be a good year, both in Crosswordland and the “real world”, whatever that is!

PS I was so relieved not to see a Rufus puzzle today!!

Across
9 IRRADIATE Short of time, Rita tried a broken shed light (9)
*(ria tried a)
10 GOOSE 1 retiring, say, getting very old (5)
<=e.g. “getting” OOS (see comment 2 for the explanation of OOS)
11 DANCE Play English actor (5)
Double definition

Second def. relates to Charles Dance.
12 ICELANDER European brewing cider over spirit (9)
*(cider) “over” ELAN (“spirit”)
13 ACHATES Bill really doesn’t like Aeneas’s companion (7)
a/c + HATES
14 PIE-SHOP Spooner’s timid father finds food store (3-4)
Spoonerism of SHY POP
17 DOVER Duke finished port (5)
D(uke) + OVER
19 HEN 1 perhaps Rambo misses mother (3)
HE (MA)N
20 AMPUP A quiet, posh prime minister backing increase in intensity … (3,2)
A + <=P U MP
21 ENTHRAL … then wildly runs by a large entrance (7)
*(then) + R + A L(arge)
22 DRUMMER REM comeback follows band’s finale with strange musician (7)
ban(D) + RUM + <=REM
24 PARTRIDGE 1 fictional TV and radio presenter? Aha! (9)
Refers to Alan Partridge, one of Steve Coogan’s alter egos, whose catch phrase was Knowing Me, Knowing You, aha!
26 TRIPS Jollies undress from top to bottom (5)
STRIP with the S moved to the end.

This wordplay is more appropriate for a DOWN clue, though.
28 TREEN Wooden old actor takes final curtain … (5)
Refers to Sir Herbert Beerbohm TREE + curtai(N)
29 ANDROMEDA … with artist hugging endless comedy stars (9)
AND (“with”) R.A. (“artist”) “hugging” (c)OMED(y)
Down
1 BIRD 1 under par that’s ignored girlfriend … (4)
BIRDIE (“1 under par”) ignoring i.e. (“that’s”)
2 FRENCH … following her rejection, to embrace nice odd European (6)
F(ollowing) + <=HER “to embrace” NiCe
3 ADVENTURER With victory secured, Hector returned a hero (10)
*(retuned a) around V
4 LADIES Wine regularly drunk by young men and women (6)
wInE “drunk by” LADS
5 PETER PAN Novel writer encapsulates dreadful pirate sacking island (5,3)
PEN (“writer”) “ecapsulates” *(prate)
6 AGHA Turkish commander has a good laugh (4)
A + G(ood) + HA (“laugh”)
7 LORDSHIP Ground in supreme authority (8)
LORDS(cricket “ground”) + HIP (“in”, as in trendy)
8 PEAR Fruit are squished when put under pressure (4)
P + *(are)
13 ADDLE Dad dancing — extremely liable to confuse! (5)
*(dad) + L(iabl)E
15 EVACUATION Leaving Earth on holiday? Take in Uranus at the beginning (10)
E + VACATION “taking in” U(ranus)
16 PIPER 1p + 1p? Er … (5)
P + 1P + ER
18 VOTARIES Disciples are against books by stars (8)
V (“short for “versus”, so “against”) + O.T. (“books”) + ARIES (constellation, hence “stars”)
19 HALFDEAD Exhausted, like “la” or “te”? (4-4)
LA and TE are halves of LATE, a synonym of “dead”
22 DREADS Inside, doctors are cooking quails (6)
DRS with *(are) inside
23 MAIDEN Might she wear tights having no runs? (6)
A MAIDEN may wear tights and a MAIDEN over has no runs in it
24 PATH Party to develop a “Third Way” (4)
Hidden in “develoP A THird”
25 RING 22 across’s endless call (4)
RING(O) as in Ringo Starr
27 SWAN 1 small and pale (4)
S + WAN

*anagram

36 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,077 by Qaos”

  1. Ta for the explanation of 3d and 19a. You might want to fix some typos:
    Secomd in DANCE
    OORDS in Lordship
    AMIDEN in Maiden

  3. This was a delight, and a superb achievement: all twelve “gifts” in the song appear in the grid, sometimes as part of an answer (e.g. DOVEr, LORDShip), and with three entries for the PARTRIDGE in a PEAR TREE[n].

    I wasn’t sure that it was correct to call PETER PAN a novel, but it seems that J M Barrie did adapt his play into one.

  4. Thanks Qaos and loonapick

    Qaos is one of my favourite compilers, but I had too many question marks in this one for me to regard it as a classic. DANCE = “play”? What’s the Aha! doing in 24a? I agree that TRIPS should have been a down clue. ADVENTURER = “hero”? Peter Pan was originally a play; the novel derived from it is called “Peter and Wendy”. I don’t know of a bird called a “piper” – “sandpiper”, yes. “Dreads” = “quails” turns up, controversially, for the second time within a week. “Might she wear tights” is just silly as a definition for MAIDEN. “Party” as an inclusion indicator? Is this a misprint for “Partly”?

  5. Thanks loonapick and Qaos.

    I thought the theme was 1d, so completely missed the bigger picture.

    I needed several explanations, and still don’t see why a maiden may wear tights – rather weak I thought.

  7. muffin, to answer one of your questions, “aha” is Alan Partridge’s catchphrase (from the Abba song “Knowing Me, Knowing You”).

    I thought “party” was used as in the expression “party to”, which I think I can accept as an indicator of a hidden answer.

  10. Thanks to loonapick. I remain in the dark as to how/why ‘1’ appearing in six clues is to be interpreted as an indicator for the definition – ‘gift’ or ‘present’ presumably.

  12. Thanks Qaos and loonapick

    A very nice start to the week.

    Sam @ 8 & Epeolater @ 9

    ‘1’ refers to 1D BIRD, and the answers are all birds.

    hth

  17. I liked it, but much it was unexpectedly harder than the Rufus I was expecting (still struggling with the Prize from Christmas Eve, so I was hoping for a reprieve here).

    I’m with Dave Ellison@3; I totally missed the overarching Twelve Days theme – also thought it was birds. Very clever, Qaos.

    I think I get so caught up in the detail, I miss the bigger picture (wood, trees etc).

    I actually liked the old “MAIDEN over” at 23d.

    Did not know 11a DANCE or 28a TREE(N) as actors, and have never heard of TREEN as a term for wooden, so they were just biffed in from the crossers.

    LOIS were 19d HALF-DEAD and 19a HEN.

    Thanks to Qaos for some Boxing Day fun and to loonapick for the explanations.

    Hope everyone associated with the forum had an enjoyable Christmas.

  19. Thank you Qaos and loonapick.

    Great fun. At first I was led a dance looking for “mother” after solving the clues for PETER PAN and GOOSE, thinking that there was a Christmas pantomime theme…

    24a, I took the indicator as “party to”, “an accessory” in law terms, here meaning “a small item of”.

    Interesting that TREE came up, someone was mentioning just the other day that Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree used to be a favourite with crossword setters.

  20. Thanks, loonapick.

    I agree with Andrew as to this being a delight and a superb achievement and with him again @7 re the parsing of ‘party’.

    As for PIPER, I took this as analogous to swimmer = fish or flower = river which are commonplace in crosswords: as well as the definition that Gaufrid found, Chambers has ‘pipe – to peep or sing, as a bird does’ [it comes from the Latin ‘pipare’ – to chirp.

    I wonder if you know John Julius Norwich’s take on ‘The twelve days of Christmas’? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBBzP0R4D-w

    Many thanks to Qaos for a delightful solve

  21. As I’ve still got large bits of Saturday’s Prize to complete, I didn’t want anything too strenuous this morning and my heart jolted a little when I saw Qaos’ name. But it wasn’t too bad, helped by the ‘bird’ theme which I got about half way in … then I came here … but never mind.

    I’m sure ACHATES has been here recently or it might not have been written in so quickly.

  24. Very surprised to see a reference to Beerbohm Tree in here, as I thought the graun’s crossword editor had ruled that he was too antedeluvian to continue taking curtain calls. And there were a few weak clues, I thought. Dance? Really? Also not a fan of the use of Hector in 3d, but maybe that’s just me.

  25. Thanks, Blaise – I did the blog on my phone, so “fat finger syndrome” is my only excuse for the typos. I’ll amend later when my wife has bored of the Boxing Day sales, and I can get to a computer.

    Also thanks to NNI for the explanation @ comment 2.

  26. I think the exhumation of Sir Beerbohm at 28 was pardonable, to go with 24’s 8dn.
    I was surprised 28 was unknown as it’s a regular on antique shows.

  27. Thanks to Qaos and loonapick. Like others I concentrated on birds and missed the larger theme. I feel proud of myself when I get a cricket term (here MAIDEN) but Alan PARTRIDGE was new to me as was the word TREEN along with the connection between jollies and TRIPS. Lots of fun.

  28. Like Trailman @21, I quailed slightly on seeing Qaos’s name when expecting an easier Monday puzzle, but I didn’t find this too taxing and I enjoyed it very much. I actually got 1d from the theme rather than the other way around, having already seen LADIES, LORDSHIP, DRUMMER and PARTRIDGE, but from then on both the theme and 1d definitely helped.

    I originally had 16d as PAPER: the initial “1” = I,as so often in cryptics = “The I”, which is a newspaper; then “p” = P; “1p” = A P; and “Er” = ER. It was only when a final “Check All” before coming to this blog took the I away that I realised that it was another themed answer.

    My only quibble was with the clue for TRIPS. Even in a down clue, “from top to bottom” sounds more like a reversal than to take something from the top to the bottom. In an across clue, it makes no sense at all to me. Apart from that, I thought it was an ingenious puzzle with many clever clues, and a lovely Boxing Day surprise.

    Thanks, Qaos and loonapick.

  29. Many thanks qaos, after three 12 days Xwords I still don’t know all the lyrics.

    Finished this in the pub, thank you ioonapick for a few parsings e.g. HALF DEAD.

    Cheers all, enjoy

  30. I didn’t think as highly of this as some of you did but, as I didn’t spot
    the theme, this may be sour grapes. PARTRIDGE was one of the first in so
    I suppose I should have twigged it. I can’t say I had a problem with TRIPS
    but I didn’t like PIPER very much and I wasn’t entirely sure about PETER
    PAN.
    Anyway,we’ve had such a run of excellent puzzles lately -including the prize
    jigsaw- and this seemed a bit ordinary.
    Anyway,thanks Qaos.

  31. Thanks Loonapick, Qaos is one of my favourite setters so it was brilliant to see his name appear on “recovery day” after the mayhem of Christmas Day.

    I couldn’t parse either HEN or HALF DEAD – “He Man” didn’t spring to mind as I was thinking of movies and soldiers.

    My failure above aside, lots of great clueing here with more than the usual quota of reversals, removals and containers.

  32. PS I was so relieved not to see a Rufus puzzle today!!

    What is the relevance of this comment in a puzzle that has nothing to do with Rufus? Or is this a stock insult to be used on all the days when he is not the setter?

  33. 1 refers to one of each of the themed gifts, not to the first down clue. The definition for piper is 1 – themed gift – the remainder as above. Enjoyed this. Jeannie

  34. We are a bit late here, but we both really enjoyed the puzzle, it was a great achievement. Thank you Qaos and loonapick. Thanks also go to Eileen for the pointer to the John Julius Norwich tale.

    Bhavan @32, our sentiments exactly.

  35. I agree with Andrew @3 that incorporating such an interesting theme so completely, cleverly and unobtrusively was a superb achievement, and if I had a hat I would doff it to the setter.

    I have to agree also, however, with the tenor of muffin’s post @4 and some of his specific comments. As well as some very neat and ingenious clues (I really liked 16d PIPER) there were also some weak clues that rather took the shine off.

    I didn’t know 28a TREEN, but it was fair enough having a famous old actor in the clue. I also couldn’t see how 24 PATH came out (even though it was easy to find in ‘develop a Third’), but now I’ve seen the explanation I think it’s a brilliant clue.

    Thanks Qaos and loonapick.

  36. Catching up after completing the Prize Jigsaw.
    I missed the real theme, but enjoyed this all the same.
    New to me were TREEN and ACHATES, but both very gettable.
    ‘play’ = ‘dance’ in the sense ‘the light played/danced on the water’.

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