Guardian 27,103 /Chifonie

43 comments on “Guardian 27,103 /Chifonie”

1. I really enjoyed this puzzle from Chifonie, a step up from his recent form. Agree with Eileen’s verdict, except perhaps that I didn’t know ISOLDE and IDOLATOR were chestnuts(and they were well-c
   lued).
   Anyway, excellent work from Chifonie and Eileen.

2. At first glance (clues for NW corner) I thought this was going to be really tricky, but it didn’t take me too long. I also scratched my head at DEFENDS / DEFENDER; and couldn’t parse PENDANT (had PENDING instead – thanks Eileen!). Favourites were MIEN, STANDSTILL, and DISC-LIKE. Hadn’t realised how many anagrams there are of Ulster (result, lustre, rustle . . ). Many thanks to Chifonie and Eileen.

3. Thanks Chifonie and Eileen.

   Fairly straightforward and enjoyable, although the ‘chestnut’ of IDOLATER was actually my LOI. I must be younger than I thought!

   I liked DISC-LIKE although I’m not a fan of using ‘have’ as a container.

4. Thank you to Chifonie and Eileen.

   This went quite well except for the SE, where entering SET OUT instead of SET OFF for 22d held me up for a time.

   I had not heard of the word “judoka” in 17a, so PENDANT was unparsed.

   I liked 12a AT WILL for its simplicity, 1d DIDACTIC with its inclusion of the anagram of addict (quite clever, I thought), and 4d DIESEL.

5. Without judoka, it could have been pendEnt, Apart from two clues having almost the same answer I thought this a step up for Chifonie

6. Thank you Chifonie and Eileen.

   I enjoyed this puzzle, although Chifonie could have had fun clueing 26a or 19d differently, several possibilities, defanged, beheads, legends… Somebody complained the other day about the use of “leaders”, as at 22a, “Scottish clan” would have avoided the problem.

   I was muddled by “divers” in 5d, I thought it was French, but apparently it is archaic. The clue for DISC-LIKE was good, it held me up for quite a while.

   typo, 23a, anagram of SENT RATING (not important, just to show I read the blog…).

7. An enjoyable and very fair puzzle, though like Julie in Australia @4 my progress was delayed by inserting OUT instead of OFF in 22D. Indeed I’m not sure that display is an entirely accurate definition of SET OFF. But perhaps I’m being a little pedantic here… Thanks to Chifonie and Eileen

8. A little trickier than I expect from Chifonie but still pretty straightforward. Didn’t help myself by writing SET OUT which meant that DEFENDER was last in.
   Thanks to Chifonie and Eileen

9. lancsolver @7, “Those sapphires set off/display the colour of her eyes”, not a very good example, someone else could come up with something better…

10. cookie @9 A decent try but I’m still not convinced….

11. lancsolver @10, “The white walls of the art gallery set off/display the daguerreotypes beautifully”…

12. 10a obvious now but I convinced myself it was lad with n in as in fish n chips. Occam’s razor never there when you need it. What’s the connection between 11a and 12a ?

13. Anybody else think of WIFE for 24d? Fortunately I already had the M of MANY…

    …speaking of which, why are the dots there between 11 and 12?

    A harder Chifonie than usual and all the better for it. I haven’t seen either of the alleged chestnuts before, so I obviously haven’t been doing this for long enough!

14. perhaps a STANDSTILL could be a stoppage AT WILL, as in a factory – to strike ?

15. A mixed bag, I thought. The crossing of DEFENDS and DEFENDER is fair and valid, but it was inelegant – and unnecessary, as Cookie pointed out (@6). And I agree with Cookie that ‘Scottish clan leaders’ would have avoided the problem (if you see it as that) of ‘Scottish leaders’.

    I didn’t know DISC-LIKE was a word or phrase. It was readily solvable, but it is no more valid than, say, ‘claw-like’ or ‘cake-like’ (just to pick two random words from a scan of the clues).

    Like Julie @4, I liked 12a AT WILL and 4d DIESEL, and I had a similar difficulty with 22 SET OFF, where I wrote in just SET, thinking SET OUT is the better answer, but finding eventually that it had to be SET OFF.

    In spite of my little niggles I enjoyed this puzzle and thought it was a ‘step up’ for Chifonie as copmus said (@5).

    Thanks Chifonie and Eileen.

16. Nice try, Cookie @14 (STANDSTILL … AT WILL meaning a stoppage as one chooses). I just thought, though, that the setter didn’t want to leave the phrase ‘as one chooses a fabric’ just hanging, and for the sake of the surface asked us to visualise stopping and paying for fabric.

17. Alas, “Scottish clan leaders” would not sit well in a grid which has CLANNISH as an entry (19/26 notwithstanding)

18. baerchen @17
    Good point, although I don’t think ‘clan’ and CLANNISH in the same grid is quite so blatant as having almost the same answer-words crossing each other.

19. Thanks both,
    An enjoyable solve, although I too had pending for pendant.

20. baerchen @17, that had occurred to me, how about Scottish Church leaders, there is a Scottish Churches Parliamentary Office…

21. Thanks Chifonie and Eileen

    It seemed to be that Chifonie has set the bottom half and then been called away, leaving the top to be completed by one of his colleagues – Enigmatist, perhaps.

    I don’t see “one” = “any” in 24d. “You can have any of those” isn’t necessarily “one”, though “you can have any one of those” is.

    AVERS was my favourite.

22. Not only did we have DEFENDS and DEFENDER today, the previous Chifonie puzzle (27089) included DEFENCE

23. muffin @21, the COED gives for ANY “one, no matter which, of several (cannot find any answer)”.

24. Thanks to Chifonie and Eileen. I was surprised by the crossing of DEFENDS and DEFENDERS (and the comparable use of END – could this be correct?) and did not know the rugby “lock” for BLOCKAGE, but otherwise moved quickly with this puzzle and much enjoyed it.

25. Incredible to have left those two similar entries.

26. Straightforward stroll in the park for us. Disc-like has us thinking for a moment but otherwise no problem. Thanks to everyone.

27. Well, most of this went in readily enough but I can’t say I liked the puzzle much. SET OFF is ok, I suppose,but SET OUT would have been better. The juxtaposition of DEFENDS and DEFENDER was rather sloppy- and ensured that the latter was LOI. I couldn’t parse PENDANT and I’m not sure I understand it now!
    Thanks Chifonie.

28. Peter @ 27, judo “players” (judokas) are graded regarding their progress and status in the sport first by colour of belt, black being the highest grade, then through various levels within the black belt qualification, termed “dans”, first dan, second dan and so on. Hence “judoka” gives “dan” in 17a.

29. I enjoyed this, got most last night, last 12 in this morning.

    I got stuck at 11a for a while trying to think of a piece of a piece of lab App equipment that had a long name beginning with S.

    I know even less about rugby than I do about cricket, so LOCK eluded me.

    I looked up judoka (not having heard of it) and it’s a practitioner of judo, a person, while a dan is a rank — the better black belt you are, the higher your dan, up to ten. So a judoka isn’t a dan.

    Thanks, Chifonie and Eileen.

30. Agreed, dan is a ranking, but a judoka might well say “I’m a blue belt”, “I’m a second dan” etc., so I think equating dan to judoka is acceptable.

31. Thanks Eileen and Chifonie.

    Enjoyed this, with Chifonie rising in my charts of favourite setters and swooped clockwise from SE until I came to 11ac (LOI). I didn’t think it a fair clue on reflection and, with it providing crossers for another five clues, was left feeling mildly peeved. A STILL may indeed be a piece of lab equipment but it would normally be a condenser in that context, whereas it would still be a STILL in other contexts; likewise to STAND means “pay for” only in the particular context of a round of drinks surely? Thanks be for MELANIN which cracked NE open and enabled a tardy finish.

    But I did enjoy it; favourites were AT WILL and DIESEL.

32. Alphalpha @31
    When I started teaching chemistry, the prep rooms all had “stills” to make distilled water in large quantities. These weren’t the conventional “flask, condenser, receiver” that sprinsg to mind with distillation, though all the same functions were there of course. For most purposes they were supplanted by de-ionisers.

33. P.S. Excise officers visited from time to time to sniff them, to check that they weren’t being used illicitly!

34. Cookie @23
    That’s odd. As I said, “any” isn’t necessarily singular.

35. muffin@32

    I was a disaster in the chemistry lab, always blowing things up, gassing myself and what not, but I took careful note of how condensers worked for future reference. That’s hilarious about the Excise visiting.

36. muffin @34, just checked in my little Collins Compact Dictionary, 1984, and it gives for ANY “a./pron 1. one indefinitely.”, not sure what that means – perhaps Eileen can enlighten us with her more recent and larger Collins Dictionary!

37. New for me was LOCK = rugby player.

    My favourites were ISOLDE, IDOLATER, DISC-LIKE (loi).

    The only quibble I had was with DEFENDS/DEFENDER.

    Thanks Eileen and Chifonie

38. Just name one crossword that hasn’t had some kind of a niggle in the last year or so.

    Just name any crossword that hasn’t had some kind of a niggle in the last year or so.

39. BNTO @38, yes, that was clear from the COED entry I posted @23, the clue 24d is fine – muffin and I were just interested in the more subtle meaning of “any”.

40. Cookie @39 Actually that wasn’t at all clear from your brief post @23!!

    People had asked for an example to make it clear.

41. BNTO @40, the COED entry @23 is perfectly clear, here it is spelled out for you, cannot find one/any answer.

42. muffin @34, too late for you to see this now I guess, but it has just occurred to me as regards the Collins entry at @36, perhaps not a good example, “You can go anywhere” implies an indefinite sequence, you can only be in one place at any one time.

43. I had 24d as MINT (lots) and int for integer= one

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