The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27150.
The last Arachne, which I was also lucky enough to have blogged, I thought was in a Quiptic style; but this one is distinctly more formidable, with a couple of ingenious unusual constructions. Bravo Arachnne! (or should that be Brava – though that seems to be used mainly for female impersonators).
| Across | ||
| 1 | SHELLAC | Varnish explosive account (7) |
| A charade of SHELL (‘explosive’) plus AC (‘account’). This became easier when I read the definition as ‘varnish’ not ‘vanish’. | ||
| 5 | ST KITTS | Three times donning winter gear in part of Caribbean (2,5) |
| An envelope (‘donning’) of T T T (‘three times’; the first impression is that the three should be consecutive, but the clue does not require – or want – that) in SKIS (‘winter gear’). | ||
| 9 | POULTERER | Leo and Rupert nobbled dealer in game (9) |
| An anagram (‘nobbled’) of ‘Leo’ plus ‘Rupert’. | ||
| 10 | ENROL | Corrupt US corporation contracts left in register (5) |
| A charade of ENRO[n] (‘corrupt US corporation‘) minus its last letter (‘contracts’) plus L (‘left’). | ||
| 11 | DATE | See fruit become outmoded (4) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 12 | PUPPYHOODS | Hound minorities? (10) |
| Cryptic definition. | ||
| 14 | AREOLA | Dares holy man to shed clothes and nipple ring (6) |
| ‘[d]ARE[s] [h]OL[y[] [m]A[n]’ minus the outer letters (‘shed clothes’). The ‘ring’ is the natural one. | ||
| 15 | EQUALLY | Just as stormy after wind has backed (7) |
| An unusual construction: SQUALLY (‘stormy’) with S moving to E (‘wind has backed’ – moved anticlockwise). | ||
| 16 | TINTYPE | Preserve key old photo (7) |
| A charade of TIN (‘preserve’) plus TYPE (‘key’). | ||
| 18 | FLESHY | Ruffle Shylock, collecting this sort of payment? (6) |
| A hidden answer (‘collecting’) in ‘rufFLE SHYlock’, with an extended definition. | ||
| 20 | GRAND OPERA | Brahms and Liszt arranged opus as entirely sung piece (5,5) |
| An anagram (‘Brahms and Liszt’, rhyming slang for pissed , drunk) of ‘arranged’ plus OP (‘opus’). | ||
| 21 | CRAW | Crop of unrefined cocaine going west (4) |
| A charade of C (‘cocaine’) plus RAW (‘unrefined’), with ‘going west’ indicating the order of the particles (i.e. C is going to the west). | ||
| 24 | LEARN | Find out Heath harboured this royal knight (5) |
| A charade of LEAR (‘heath harboured this royal’) plus N (‘knight’). | ||
| 25 | PLACEMENT | Job of textile workers, in part (9) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of LACE MEN (‘textile workers’) in PT (‘part’). | ||
| 26 | GRAMMAR | Butter spread round school (7) |
| Another unusual construction: RAM MARG (‘butter spread’) with the G cycled to the front (’round’). | ||
| 27 | HEARTEN | Listen to number and cheer up (7) |
| A charade of HEAR (‘listen to’) plus TEN (‘number’). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SAPID | Previously mentioned eating pea, reportedly tasty (5) |
| An envelope (‘eating’) of P (‘pea, reportedly’) in SAID (‘previously mentioned’). | ||
| 2 | EQUATOR | Poles are nowhere near this European cod quota, right? (7) |
| A charade of E (‘European’) plus QUATO, an anagram (‘cod’) of ‘quota’ plus R (‘right’). | ||
| 3 | LOTH | Reluctant bunch beginning to hesitate (4) |
| A charade of LOT (‘bunch’) plus H (‘beginning to Hesitate’). | ||
| 4 | CORRUGATED PAPER | Wrapping up a carp order, get dizzy (10,5) |
| An anagram (‘dizzy’) of ‘up a carp order get’. | ||
| 5 | STRAPPED FOR CASH | Short dominatrix may have done this (8,3,4) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 6 | KEELHAULED | Reprimanded Kelvin and editor over fish catch (10) |
| An envelope (‘over’) of EEL (‘fish’) plus HAUL (‘catch’) in K (‘Kelvin’) plus ED (‘editor’). | ||
| 7 | TURMOIL | Chaos in Timor university upset student (7) |
| A charade of TURMOI, an anagram (‘upset’) of ‘Timor’ plus U (‘university’); plus L (‘student’). | ||
| 8 | SPLASHY | Outre punishment accepted by Bond? (7) |
| An envelope (‘accepted by’) of LASH (‘punishment’) in SPY (‘Bond’). | ||
| 13 | MOLYBDENUM | Hit dumbly on me and Mo (10) |
| An anagram (‘hit’) of ‘dumbly on me’. The definition is the chemical symbol for the element. | ||
| 16 | TAGALOG | Name a record in Filipino language! (7) |
| A charade of TAG (‘name’) plus ‘a’ plus LOG (‘record’). | ||
| 17 | NIAGARA | Falls once more, back on uppers in real adversity (7) |
| A charade of NIAGA, a reversal (‘back’) of AGAIN (‘once more’) plus RA (‘uppers in Real Adversity’). Excellent surface. | ||
| 19 | HARVEST | The rich claiming right to endless produce (7) |
| An envelope (‘claiming’) of R (‘right’) in HAVES (‘the rich’) plus T[o] (‘to endless’). | ||
| 22 | WOTAN | Ring supremo of security group with backing (5) |
| A reversal (‘backing’) of NATO (‘security group’) plus W (‘with’). The definition references Wagner’s Ring cycle. | ||
| 23 | FETA | Absolutely nothing about French and Greek cheese (4) |
| An envelope (‘about’) of ET (‘French and’) in FA (sweet, ‘absolutely nothing’). | ||
26a I think is simpler than the parsing given. It’s just ram Marg backwards.
I enjoyed this one. Failed to parse 6 and simply failed 13. Spent some time wondering what a short dominatrix might have done (something low down) before I saw it. Lovely clue. Thanks Arachne and thanks PeterO.
11 is actually a triple definition. “See” in the sense of seeing or dating someone.
Thanks Arachne and PeterO!
Oh dear, this puzzle was very difficult for me. I had to guess and check a lot, and in the end I gave up on solving 10a and could not parse 23d, 15a, 26a.
New words were KEELHAULED, MOLYBDENUM, SAPID, AREOLA, CRAW.
I liked STRAPPED FOR CASH.
Thanks PeterO and Arachne
Loved FETA — definition was obvious but when I finally worked out the wordplay I was pleasantly surprised.
Excellent! Couldn’t parse LEARN though worked out 26a as Gillian @1. Very fairly clued but didn’t know SAPID. Thought using B&L for the anagrind in 20a was inspired.
Thanks to Arachne and petero
Thanks Arachne and PeterO
I had a lot more question marks than usual for an Arachne, but on reading the blog I find that they were nearly all my mistakes (for instance I took Kelvin in 6d to be KEL, so thought there was an E missing). I’m still not sure in what context “outre” = SPLASHY, though.
Lots of favourites, so I’ll just give the numbers – 20a, 21a, 2d, 5d, 13d, 19d, 22d, and, LOI, 14a.
I started with write-ins at 5a, 9a, 11a and 12a; unfortunately the write-in for the latter, UNDERDOGS, ran out of letters before the lights were filled!
I meant to mention that I wondered whether 1a was a sneaky reference to the revelations about sexism in British cycling from Jess Varnish.
A nice Tuesday treat, thank you Arachne and PeterO
As PeterO says, the last Arachne was almost Quiptic level but this was quite a workout. Some lovely clues as always from her: my favourites were GRAND OPERA, CRAW, MOLYBDENUM (brilliant!) and EQUATOR. Many thanks to A and P.
Another cracker! I liked the triple def.I liked it all.Thanks everyone.
PeterO (preamble): Your ‘brava’, with the stress on the 1st syllable, would be entirely appropriate!
Enjoyed this as I usually do with Arachne.
Still cant get my head round 15a though
Just couldn’t for the life of me get 12 Across, with everything else already filled in…
Bit of a stretch to call keelhauling a reprimand! I think I’d rather have a written warning. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keelhauling
Thank you Arachne and PeterO.
A super puzzle. I can’t remember seeing TINTYPE or KEELHAULED before, but both are clearly clued. PUPPYHOODS was the last in, I needed the help of the crossers. I first parsed LEARN as LEA (given as a not very convincing synonym for ‘heath’) + R + N, then the penny dropped…
The clues for GRAND OPERA and MOLYBDENUM were my favourites, but all the others were excellent too.
I parsed LEARN as Cookie @16 did, and I don’t think LEA = Heath is so bad, although “harboured” then isn’t quite right as the connecting word. Many wonderful clues as usual for Arachne, very enjoyable. Thanks to setter and blogger.
Much as I love Arachne’s puzzles, I’m a bit surprised at the love for the clue for MOLYBDENUM. I don’t find the surface much to write home about and if one doesn’t know the word (guilty), then it’s really a question of whether one cheats with a word wizard or whether one cheats by pressing “cheat”
muffin @7, perhaps Arachne meant ‘Outre’ in the sense of ‘exaggerated’ (French outré), both ‘outre’ and SPLASHY can then mean ‘ostentatious’
A very enjoyable puzzle, with two interesting new (for me) words: “tintype”, “molybdenum”, and lots of wit, e.g. 5 down 12 across; but “splashy” means ostentatious, while “outre” means outlandish or eccentric. doesn’t it?
Baerchen @18, for me it was because the clue brought the tennis player ‘Little Mo’ to my mind an confused me.
Lots of new words and meanings for me today ie SAPID, WOTAN, TINTYPE, MOLYBDENUM, TAGALOG and CRAW (for crop). Consequently I’m happy to confess that I needed electronic assistance to complete this puzzle – and even then, like Ronald @14, I failed to solve PUPPYHOODS. All in all a good work-out with some delightful cluing such as HARVEST, EQUATOR and FETA (which produced a smile)
Thanks Arachne and PeterO.
Another great puzzle; I loved the dominatrix and GRAMMAR.
I’m surprised that anyone can have avoided MOLYBDENUM – it’s a trace element that you need to survive! However, I don’t know the Lear stuff that many others will know.
I started briskly in the NW corner but the SW quadrant was the last to fall and took some time. I had to look up TAGALOG, which I might have seen before but couldn’t remember. A nice device for squally/EQUALLY. The clue for AREOLA made me chuckle.
Epeolater @12: regarding BRAVO, when the word is used as an interjection it doesn’t necessarily agree with its referent. I lived in Venezuela for over 30 years and don’t recall BRAVA (feminine) ever being said except as a direct adjective (often meaning “angry”, though it has several other meanings). However usage may be different in other countries.
My first posting to this marvellous website, hello everybody. Agree with all the (positive) comments. Only thing to add is 13d brought to mind The Three Stooges.
If anyone is interested, this is Arachne’s 100th daily Guardian Cryptic – and what a great way to reach a century! I’m afraid I don’t keep track of the number of Arachne Quiptics, Anarches and Rosa Klebbs there have been, and goodness knows how many times she’s been in The Times, but I’d still call this a significant milestone.
Ronald @14, lancsolver @22, you are not alone. I had to turn on the laptop to (a) check that all my down clues were correct – they were, then (b) enter likely letters for the check button. Starts with OUT? No. RUMP? No. An -IONS word? No. -SHOOTS? No, but I got a free O, and the Rufusian horror of what was going on revealed itself. I don’t think I can count this as a solve.
Defeated by several of these – didn’t know SAPID and didn’t get PUPPYHOODS (which I thought must be something-dogs but couldn’t think what) and KEELHAULED. Couldn’t parse LEARN either (I went for the LEA=Heath solution.) But I thoroughly enjoyed what I did manage, especially MOLYBDENUM and EQUALLY and…lots of others.
Puppyhoods beat me but in a good way.Excellent puzzle. Best for a while.
A little tougher than Arachne has been recently but maybe not quite full strength. As always there was plenty to enjoy. CRAW was last in.
Thanks to Arachne and PeterO
Thanks to Arachne and PeterO. I needed help parsing EQUALLY and FETA (I had forgot FA from previous puzzles) and took forever to get PUPPYHOODS, even with all the crossers. Great fun.
Congratulations Arachne for your 100th daily Guardian Cryptic Crossword Puzzle ! (thanks Mitz @26)
Digbydavies @25, yes, everyone who liked the MOLYBDENUM clue seems to have had different reasons, baerchen @18 is only in his cubbyhood so cannnot be expected to know these things.
Finished this with a new one on us – puppyhoods! I ask you! Lovely clues all round. A real pleasure.
Thanks to PeterO and congrats to Arachne.
I am also among those with a bloodied nose, but I did enjoy many of the surfaces as usual: AREOLA, HARVEST, NIAGARA, GRAND OPERA. I don’t buy PUPPYHOODS however; what next? – lambhood?, ducklinghood? puphood even? My spell-check buys it though, so who am I to disagree and a lovely surface in fairness.
New word SAPID; have now to figure out how to introduce it into conversation – perhaps in a restaurant: “Waiter, this coffee is very sapid” “Well, it was fresh ground this morning….”
Hmmm.
Thanks PeterO and the Spider Lady
Nice puzzle with some tough clues. SAPID, TINTYPE and TAGALOG were new to me. Liked MOLYBDENUM and EQUATOR.
Struggled for ages with PUPPYHOODS until I spotted that Arachne appeared to be in a “playful” mood with AREOLA, FLESHY, STRAPPED FOR CASH, KEELHAULED and SP(LASH)Y as an S&M mini theme. So I think this https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/343610646541516509/ is what she meant by PUPPYHOODS.
I’ll get me ropes.
A little too tricky to be really enjoyable but there were some good clues-STRAPPED FOR CASH,for one. I didn’t like SPLASHY though, and 13 dn was clever but–.
Thanks Arachne.
Thanks all
Easier than usual for this compiler.
I especially liked 9,14,15 ,across and 3 down.
I could do 12 across only thanks to word wizard.
A great puzzle which we enjoyed teasing out on the train to and from the excellent Robot exhibition at the science museum – lots of ethical quandaries to cogitate.
We did make it harder for ourselves by banging in PIECEWORK early on for 25a and then working around a tentative KNEECAPPED for 6d – I’d probably marginally prefer Arachne’s reprimand to the one we came up with. SAPID is today’s new word – I think I’ll tell Mrs W her meal this evening was most sapid and see whether I get any brownie points.
I needed the blog for parsing LEARN and GRAMMAR – thank you PeterO and Arachne.
This was lovely, even though I ran out of time and had to finish on the check button…fortunately I saw NIAGARA just in time and saved myself embarrassment. No 3-letter clues, which is helpful. One or two came straight into the brain, which is always exciting, including SAPID – but that is familiar as there’s a mail order wine merchant who is very fond of it when he runs out of more technical adjectives!
I enjoyed this very much, thank you Arachne and also PeterO for much needed help. However, I completely agree with Muffin that splashy is not a definition for OUTRE, even as Cookie suggests @19. Which brings me to a constant gripe of mine. If this had been a crossword by a less favoured setter, splashy = outre would have been pilloried but since the spider-woman can do no wrong, not much is said.
Isn’t “round” in 26a simply RAM MARG backwards?
Sancho @ 41 I couldn’t agree more – there are indeed a few setters who “can do no wrong” and I also find it irritating.
S Panza @41 & jeceris @43: I followed this site for some time before plucking up the courage to start posting here and, during that learning period, I formed the same general impression as you: some preferred setters seem able to get away with murder … but woe betide those who are unpreferred if they dare to employ the same dodgy clue-writing strategies.
That said, I’ve never had a problem with Arachne: on the contrary, I’m a great fan of her puzzles and thought this was another first-class example of elegant grid-filling and impeccable clue construction.
Thanks to both Arachne and PeterO.
Me@39 – indeed it was a most SAPID chicken,bacon and leek pie and the complement went down well :-). And on the favoured setter debate I wonder how much of it is us picking out the pieces of evidence that support our beliefs and what a neutral analysis might show? And even if it is the case that some are favoured it is because they have built their following by producing consistently good puzzles and so we are more tolerant of their occasional lapses. All imho of course.
jaceris @43, gofirstmate @44 Thank you for your support on this and WhiteKing @45. for your wise words. I totally agree that Arachne, Picaroon, and others have earned the right to be revered, but I would prefer to see less nitpicking in general, and more acknowledgement of a job well done. Those of us who enjoy our daily dose of crossword pleasure/torture owe all the setters a big vote of thanks IMHO.
I thought this was excellent and the clue of the day for me was STRAPPED FOR CASH – I’ll never be able to use that expression again with a straight face!
I’m not convinced by 15 across – if the wind backed it would change from S to N wouldn’t it? AFAIK I’ve done all of Arachne’s puzzles and I don’t ever remember her using such an oblique device. Can’t help wondering if we’re seeing the delicate sledgehammer touch of the editor here.
Is it Arachne’s fate to be forever more compared to the Quiptic? I hope not.
The top left went in very quickly, so I thought this might again be relatively easy for an Arachne. A while later, with the whole left half filled but the right half almost empty, I changed my mind. My penultimate answer was CRAW, for which I spent a long time trying to think of plausible street terms for unrefined cocaine (about which I know very little), before the real wordplay suddenly became obvious. LOI was the very nice PUPPYHOODS. I enjoyed too many of the clues to pick favourites.
I too parsed LEARN as a rather unsatisfactory LEA + R + N, but nothing was being “harboured”. I meant to come back to it later but forgot until I read the answer above.
Many thanks to Arachne and PeterO, and also congratulations to Arachne.
In meteorological terms, a clockwise change in wind direction is veering and anticlockwise is backing. Thought you might like to know that.
cruciverbophile @47
Oxford Dictionaries online gives “(of the wind) change direction anticlockwise around the points of the compass”, so a southerly backs to an easterly. “Veer” is to change in a clockwise direction.
H F-S @49
Thanks for the meteorological comment which was helpful and made me veer away, or back off, from saying “and the same to you” when I saw your name.
The book “A Certain Je Ne Sais Quoi : Words We Pinched From Other Languages” by Chloe Rhodes, Michael Omara Books, says this
Outré, exagerated, eccentric (French)
Used in English since around 1720, this French word is derived from ‘outre’, meaning ‘beyond’, and originally described any behaviour, design or action that broke the boundaries of eighteenth- century convention. It is now regularly used in reference to extravagant fashions , where it might be taken as a compliment, or to outlandish decoration, where it would be taken as an insult.
Thanks to Arachne and PeterO for enjoyable puzzle and blog.
Lots of clever clues and Arachne’s typical smooth surfaces.
25a Textile workers = LACEMEN ? Only in a crossword.
cruciverbophile @47
Technically, backing of a wind does not mean reversing in direction, but, as I pointed out in the blog, changing direction in an anticlockwise direction (veering is clockwise). Thus a wind could back from S to N, provided that it went through E.
Outré/splashy? I would probably distinguish the two as other commenters here, but I think they are close enough not to be a problem.
I certainly made things difficult for myself with 26A GRAMMAR, but I do not see that my parsing is wrong.
Thanks to those who put me right about backing winds. I stand corrected. You can tell I’m something of a landlubber!
Curious that so many had not heard of ‘tintype’.Try listening to the Soliloquy from Carousel
I agree with beery hiker’s verdict (as I so often do). This was more akin to what I hope for in an Arachne; her more recent outings have been less creatively ‘tricksy’ than this lovely puzzle – far closer to A at her best.
One could say this was a Fabergé egg – good all over and coruscating in parts. I particularly enjoyed EQUALLY, STRIPPED FOR CASH (both double-ticked – first time this year!) and PUPPYHOODS (one tick – still rareish) though many others also entertaining.
I’m grateful to Cookie – I like her views on outré/SPLASHY as this had been my only (slight) eyebrow raiser.
[WhiteKing – would love to know what complemented the chicken, bacon and leek pie; a sapid jus perhaps? And did you get round to complimenting the chef, I wonder?! ;-))
Heartfelt thanks to Arachne (and to Peter O for his continued, and appreciated, efforts for fifteensquared).
Unlike others, I actually spotted the heath link to King Lear. So I got the answer…. and thanks to 13D, I had the last letter. I presumed that was it, and looked forward to someone explaining/parsing…. You see, (please forgive my ignorance) I don’t understand how N = knight.
Presumably a convention I hadn’t come across? Can someone explain. Please!
Many Thanks to Arachne and PeterO, for the puzzle and blog respectively.
If it’s not too late to ask, I’d welcome some help in parsing: “Hound minorities?” = Puppyhoods.
(No negative critique of the clue intended)
mikewglospur
Modern chess notation uses N for “knight” – less cumbersome than the old “Kt”.
Altdel
Minority as in “below the age of consent” (as used in humans)
@ muffin, thank you. I wasn’t familiar with that use of minority.
Thanks, Muffin. Or should I say OK (Oh – K).
And “cumbersome” is surely a strange value to put on one letter, I’d say!!!
Not when you might need to write it dozens of times in one game! Also it can get confused with K for King if the writing is careless.