Guardian Cryptic 27,151 by Nutmeg

by

An easier than normal Nutmeg

Our setter has gone easy on us this morning, with only a couple of her clues representing any significant challenge (6dn, because of the unusual word), and 4dn, because it toook me longer than it should have to parse the ME as “the author”, because I got hung up it being an undicated E.M. as in E.M. Forster).

Thanks, Nutmeg.

Across
1, 5 ENGLISH CHANNEL All in Schengen angry about Hungary’s barrier to migrants? (7,7)
  *(all in schengen) “about” H(ungary)
5   See 1
 
9 POLYP Pressure put on old college showing little growth (5)
  P(ressure) “put on” POLY(technic college)
10 MISINFORM Wrongly tell teacher losing tail-ender’s playing well (9)
  MIS(s) IN FORM
11 RIGHT AWAY Tories out — now! (5,4)
  RIGHT (Tories) + AWAY (out)
12 INSET Article finally put in this month? (5)
  (articl)E “put in” INST. (this month)
13 RAILS Track birds (5)
  Double definition
15 REHEARSED Ran through tall grass catching catches (9)
  REED (tall grass) “catching” HEARS (catches)
18 PRESEASON Continue drinking tea, heading off before serious play starts (9)
  PRESS ON (continue) “drinking” (t)EA
19 TUNIC Jersey enthusiast possibly rejected jacket (5)
  <= C.I. NUT, where C.I. = Channel Islands, of which Jersey is one
21 NOMAD Itinerant lecturer returning to collect degree (5)
  <= DON (lecturer, “returning”) “to collect” M.A. (degree)
23 FIRE ALARM Audible warning, if switching authentic weapon (4,5)
  <=IF + REAL ARM
25 UNDERHAND Deceitful kind of bowling? (9)
  Double definition
26 OUIJA Franco-German agreement needed to contact the other side? (5)
  OUI + JA (“yes” in French and German)
27, 28 NATURAL HISTORY Unaffected sequence of events in Darwin’s study (7,7)
  NATURAL (unaffected) + HISTORY (sequence of events)
28   See 27
 
Down
1, 18 EMPEROR PENGUIN  Expert swimmer, male, adapted proper, genuine clothing (7,7)
  *(propere genuine) “clothing” M(ale)
2 GELIGNITE Turn on light and get cracking with this? (9)
  <=LEG (on (side), in crcket, = leg (side)) + IGNITE (light)
3 INPUT Trendy place to feed (5)
  IN (trendy) + PUT (place)
4 HOMEWARDS Forster’s End keeping the author away from work? (9)
  HOWARDS (End) (a book by E.M. Forster) “keeping” ME (the author)
5 CUSHY Soft copper cast (5)
  Cu (copper) + SHY (cast)
6 ANNUITANT An Alsatian night worker, who’s paid after work? (9)
  AN + NUIT (Alsatian night) + ANT

“Nuit” is the French for night, and Alsace is part of France, hence “Alsatian night”
7 NOOKS Sanction stops child turning corners (5)
  O.K. (sanction) “stops” <=SON (child, “turning”)
8, 20 LIMITED COMPANY  Business such as typecast actors might create? (7,7)
  Cryptic definition
14 SLENDERER Thinner line in poster engineers put up? (9)
  L(ine) “in” SENDER (“poster”) + <= R.E. ((Royal) Engineers, “put up”)
16 HUNDREDTH Red-hot Hindu nuts, withdrawing 10% (9)
  *(red ht hndu), being RED HOT HINDU without the I and the O (which represent the 1 and the 0 of “ten”)
17 SAN MARINO Romans in a newly settled land (3,6)
  *(romans in a)
18   See 1
 
20   See 8
 
22 MIDST Poet’s surrounded by daughters in film (5)
  D(aughters) “in” MIST (film)
23 FRAIL Infirm female to complain loud and long (5)
  F(emale) + RAIL (complain loud and long)
24 AVOWS Declares river’s showing change of direction (5)
  AVON’S with the N (north) replaced by a W (west), so showing a “change of direction”

*anagram

73 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,151 by Nutmeg”

  1. I found this a bit hard to get into, but then things progressed quite easily. INSET was an interesting construction (definition neither at beginning or end). Favourites were CUSHY, HUNDREDTH (Thanks for parsing, loonapick – I thought there must be an error in the clue) and ANNUITANT (LOI). Thanks to N and l.

  4. All at the easier end of Nutmeg’s range – not often I finish a Wednesday puzzle before reaching the office. Did like ENGLISH CHANNEL and HUNDREDTH, but OUIJA is a very old chestnut (11 previous appearances of which 8 use the same device). NOOKS and INSET were last in.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and loonapick

  5. Thanks Nutmeg and loonapick

    Yes, quite easy, though I did have to use a word-search for ANNUITANT. Favourite was HUNDREDTH, mainly for the time I took to see how it worked.

    It’s rare for me to have any quibbles with Nutmeg, but I have some small ones here. I think INSET is an attempted &lit, but it doesn’t work for me; nor loonapick’s or drofle’s takes on it either. The “kind of bowling” (cricket or bowls) is “underarm”, not UNDERHAND. And finally (very minor indeed), I think describing SAN MARINO as a “land” is iffy; changing “land” to “country” would have been much better without spoiling the clue.

  6. Nice puzzle.

    I had a different parsing for GEL in 2 down. As a verb ‘gel’ can mean ‘to set’; I’ve heard decorators use the phrase ‘to turn’ in the context of plaster setting… (Dunno, maybe the cricketing explanation makes more sense after all…)

    I’ve seen the Franco-German agreement for OUIJA before in the Guardian, but it’s such a neat construction I think it’s worth a repeat

  8. BH @7

    Have you ever heard it called that?

    Chambers seems to be mixed up on this – it does give “underhand” as “(the) underhand ball” (which seems a bit self-referential); however it doesn’t say anything about bowling under “underarm” – surely a mistake!

  9. The only way I could parse INSET is by getting “article” to do double duty.
    Lovely puzzle thanks Nutmeg and loonapick

  10. Many thanks, loonapick.

    Elegant crossword with ticks at ANNUITANT, REHEARSED, MIDST, & GELIGNITE.

    Failed top parse HUNDREDTH.

    Are we no longer bothered about items doing double duty? (I’m thinking of INSET). I have to say I never was, uduly, but I notice a few creeping in and wonder if that rule has been dumped.

    Many thanks, Nutmeg, I care not for your gender but admire your setting.

    Nice week, all.

  11. Not just Chambers – pleanty of other dictionaries agree. Just because a word is a little archaic and lesser known than another one does not make it invalid for crossword purposes. We don’t have to be talking about cricket either…

  14. drofle @3 – Copmus is not biting but I will. Yes, we have Arachne and Nutmeg, but female setters still account for a tiny proportion of the Guardian’s puzzles, and the other papers are not much better. This is probably at least partly just because there are fewer women willing to try, but if there are others out there half as good as Arachne and Nutmeg, we should encourage them.

  16. English Channel, for its remarkable aptness, and Emperor Penguin, for the lovely Emperor/genuine clothing link, I thought were the best clues. Annuitant LOI, most of the rest fairly gentle.
    Thanks Nutmeg, Loonapick

  17. Thanks Nutmeg and loonapick

    I started off very slowly and I am really pleased that I could finish this one.

    I needed help to parse 19a, 7d, 16d and the GEL part of 2d.

    As a side note, I was at the MCG in Feb 1981 for the infamous underarm bowling of Trevor Chappell. It was shocking.

  18. With a day of incessant rain forecast for this part of the world, I was hoping for a sterner challenge from Nutmeg. However it was a pleasant enough puzzle and as an ex-cricketer(strictly amateur!) myself I’m happy enough to accept UNDERHAND in this context, even if underarm is a lot more common. I did like OUIJA (it’s the first time I’ve come across it), MISINFORM and especially ENGLISH CHANNEL. I didn’t fully parse HUNDREDTH and GELIGNITE but the crossers enabled me to come up with the solutions. Thanks to Nutmeg and loonapick.

  21. Sorry! Wrote the “o” over the number and misread the 6 for a zero. 26 across…must get my eyes tested…

  23. poc@22
    Yes, but don’t most people receive annuities after they’ve finished work? It’s supposed to be cryptic.

  25. Thanks Nutmeg and loonapick.

    Good, entertaining crossword with some nice clues. LOI was ANNUITANT – the ‘nuit’ bit didn’t come immediately. Grim and Dim @19; I take your point, although I gather that the ‘official’ language of Alsace is French and Wiki says: ‘the Alsatian dialect of German has gone from being the prevalent language of the region to one in decline.’

    Like loonapick, I thought of E.M. in HOMEWARDS and wondered why there wasn’t a reversal indicator, doh! I also took some time to see the C.I.NUT.

    I loved the surface for ENGLISH CHANNEL and for RIGHT AWAY.

  26. Thank you Nutmeg and loonapick.

    This was fun, especially working out the parsing of HUNDREDTH!

    With HOMEWARDS I wanted to insert Forster’s initials, E.M., and cannot see how ‘the author’ gives ME, I thought the definition might just be “from work” – “When he was going from work…”, “When he was going HOMEWARDS…” – but I cannot find ‘away’ given anywhere as a reversal indicator.

    I did not get the LEG reversal for GELIGNITE – I like the idea for GEL that pedrox @6 gives, when milk turns it can gel sometimes, rather than curdle, as it does when yogurt is made.

  27. The time of my posting gives away the fact that I found this relatively straightforward, but it was very enjoyable nonetheless. I liked the construction with all the edge clues being paired into phrases, although it did make it easier to solve – for example I got COMPANY and HISTORY first which gave me the other half of the clue. Another new word (6d), although I don’t think I’ll be working it into conversation any time soon.
    I didn’t parse 16d and found it really difficult to come up with a word that ended R_D_H other than things like “verandah”, which were obviously triggered by the clever misdirection by including Hindu in the clue. The 10% bit made it even cleverer – a lovely clue Nutmeg.
    On the subject of new words there was one a few months ago beginning with B (I think) and meaning something about “walking like a cow”, and I’d like to add it to the list of new words I’m going to keep. Please can anyone help – Beery Hiker?
    Thank you Nutmeg – keep them coming – and loonapick.

  28. I posted this late last night (or very early this morning) on the Maize puzzle for the Indy yesterday and am pasting it here as I appreciate the work the bloggers do.
    “And another thing. I did this crossword because of John’s introduction. I sometimes read them before tackling a crossword and went for the Indy as the intro to the FT said “very straightforward from Dante”. I really appreciate the bloggers starting with a comment which doesn’t give the game away but does give some sense of what sort of experience is in store. Thank you John.” And also to Grant Baynham for his Dante comment yesterday, and to loonapick for his intro today.

  29. WhiteKing @27 – sorry – can’t help with that one. Searching the clues database for “like a cow” only finds two matches neither of which were obscure words, so either it was paraphrased differently or it wasn’t in a Guardian cryptic (I don’t keep the Quiptic and Genius clues in my list either)…

  30. Cookie @26; ‘me’ is used for the setter (or the author of the crossword) whereas ‘you’ (ye etc) is used for the solvers.

  31. WhiteKing @ 28,

    I’m wondering if the word you were trying to remember was Boustrophedon (usually defined as walking in the way of ploughing oxen, first turning alternately from left to right (or I suppose up and then down). Couldn’t see too many examples in recent puzzles or blogs, but it did occur about three times (but only once as the answer to a clue – Paul in 2009!)

  33. Thank you Beery Hiker@29 and Alan@31 – yes it was boustrophedon and it definitely wasn’t back in 2009 so maybe it was when the Times weekend prize crosswords were accessible without subscribing to the paper. Thanks again to you both for responding – now I’ve got the challenge of using the word in a non-crossword context!

  34. Thanks to Nutmeg and loonapick. I too struggled with HUNDREDTH and also with the “limited” in LIMITED COMPANY. Very enjoyable.

  35. This was rather easy but pleasant for all that. I know nothing of cricket but UNDERHAND was FOI- and, while it sounded rather odd, it had to be right. ANNUITANT was new to me but was very well clued,as was POLYP, which was literally below the belt because I’m having a colonoscopy next week!
    Thanks Nutmeg.

  38. I wonder if we’re missing something on 12a? No-one on the Grauniad site seems to have even mentioned it, while questions have been raised about one or two others (incorrectly!)

  39. muffin @38, I thought INSET might stand for a folded sheet of paper put into a magazine after printing, for example, before delivery, my granddaughter gets a horse magazine and each month there is a large photo of a horse you can stick on the wall. Might this make the clue an &lit.?

  40. Cookie @39
    I was thinking of something like that when I mentioned the possibility of a failed &lit earlier, but I think a loose inclusion would be called an “inseRt” rather than “inset”; the latter is a term in printing, though.

  41. muffin @40
    Not necessarily. Under ‘inset’ Chambers has “Something set in, an insertion or insert, esp a loose sheet inserted between the pages of a magazine, book, etc”. Note the esp.

  42. PS
    For Cookie’s benefit (I know she doesn’t like/trust Chambers) the online Oxford has “An insert in a magazine or other publication”.

  44. Thanks to Nutmeg and loonapick.

    The red-hot Hindu nuts was a cracking clue and caused an audible click when it cracked for me, even if the surface was a little clunky. I had similar doubts to others about INSET but as FOI it was welcome – a slow starter for me today.

    I had more concern about MIDST which confused me what with only one poet and many daughters leading to poets in general and just one daughter; but that’s the game I suppose. Will look forward to another Nutmeg offering whenever…

  45. Thanks all
    I hesitated over 12 but not for long
    Last in were preseason and gelignite.I liked the perimeter doubles.

  47. Enjoyed this thanks Nutmeg and Loonapick. I took 12a to be installed meaning this month and the e from the end of article.

  49. ezzie @47/48
    Yes, that’s the wordplay, but where’s the definition? If it’s “Article” the dreaded “double duty” rears its head; similarly “put in” is needed for the insertion of the E.

  50. Thanks Nutmeg and Loonapick. Liked this crossword a lot. But still don’t get INSET. We thought maybe the def was ‘put in’, which is inset in the clue? Don’t see it being &lit or ‘article’ petsonally.

  51. I really enjoyed this one, with ANNUITANT (almost a write-in with such clear directions) and HUNDREDTH as favorites.

    ‘Alsatian’ was the perfect department, beginning with a vowel for ‘AN’ and in regular usage with another meaning for possible misdiretion.

    Perhaps the definition in 12a is ‘put in’ with INSET as a verb, and ‘put in’ doing double duty.

    And thanks to loonapik

  52. Why the debate about 12a? There’s a question mark at the end of the clue which hasn’t got any other purpose than to indicate that the setter thinks the clue might technically be a bit dodgy but is capable of being appreciated for its other qualities. I doubt that even the setter would make a claim that it “works”.

  54. I would have it as others have – an inset being a small article set within a larger one in a magazine, the whole clue being the cryptic construction, and the question mark being a plea to excuse the double duty for “article”. I think that the clue is weak but that the setter was hoping it would be redeemed by its surface. So, I am not criticising other people’s dislike of the clue, just that there was never any point trying to make it work.

  55. beery @ 14 (belatedly) Yes, I agree that Arachne and Nutmeg are both very good. I suspect that there is a fair percentage of female solvers – a lot higher than the percentage of female setters.

  56. Martin @ 13

    I’m not sure if you have found this blog helpful. You are probably aware of the uses of ult., inst., and prox. to indicate last, this and next month. I learnt these at school many years ago but have never had occasion to use them. So”article finally” gives an ‘E’ into inst.

    This is probably a grandmother and egg-sucking comment because if you are asking how ARTICLE = INSET I am as bemused as you and would welcome help from the commentariat.

    Furthermore I do not understand MIDST. I get the MIST+D but what has this got to do with “poet surrounded by”?

    Help please!

  58. Jovis @56:

    poet’s “surrounded by” refers to a word that a poet might use in place of “surrounded by,” such as ‘midst,’ where a shorter word might help with scanning the meter of a poem.

  59. Jovis @ 56

    It’s “poet’s surrounded by”, = ” ‘surrounded by’ ‘of a poet’ ” ie the expression a poet uses for “surrounded by” = amidst > ‘midst

    QED & hth

  62. @Simon S

    Indeed – I checked (nothing there) before I pressed Submit – must have been literally milliseconds!

  63. Thanks Freddy and Simon S – valiant attempts to get through to a crossword thickie!

    It all seems horribly tortuous. I would never have parsed this unaided and am not optimistic that I will succeed with a similar clue in future.

  64. We liked this crossword very much (and I think I liked it even more than Arachne’s).
    22d (AMIDST) is quite a clever clue, isn’t it?
    However, I would like to raise a question in relation to that clue.

    In the past, I’ve only seen Neo/Tees using D for ‘daughters’ (plural!).
    None of the familiar dictionaries seem to support that.
    It is indeed a bit odd that S can be ‘son’ or ‘sons’ but that D’s only singular.
    In the autumn of 2013, there was some e-mail traffic between Neo/Tees and me.
    On that occasion he wrote “Re daughters, it’s just on the Times list. So is over = O, which can’t be found either. But you go with the flow I guess”
    [by the way, re O = over, he wasn’t right as it is in Chambers but not in Collins]
    I am still intrigued by how the Times justifies D for ‘daughters’.
    Perhaps, someone here can tell me?

    Many thanks to Nutmeg and Loonapick.

  65. I didn’t find this “easier than normal Nutmeg”, though I did eventually finish it without aids and I did enjoy it. I was not sure that my parsings of INSET and NOOKS were correct, and I’m still not entirely convinced that INSET works as an &lit, even with that question mark.

    As long as the scarcity of female setters is not due to editorial prejudice, the gender of the setter doesn’t matter to me, just whether I enjoy their puzzles.

    Thanks, Nutmeg and loonapick.

  69. I enjoyed most of it, but got completely stymied by MIDST, and by ANNUITANT, not a word in my vocab until now.

    Beginner’s aside – where does SHY = CAST come from?

  72. poc says:
    March 22nd, 2017 at 10:34 am
    Chambers defines ANNUITANT as one who receives an annuity, not as one paid after work.

    James says:
    March 22nd, 2017 at 10:45 am
    poc@22
    Yes, but don’t most people receive annuities after they’ve finished work? It’s supposed to be cryptic.

    —
    “Annuitant” is used to refer to workers who are retired with pensions, but who are allowed to work for pay and keep their pensions. Thus, “paid after work.”

  73. Most of these came quite quickly, but I got stuck in the top right corner – mostly looking for anagrams of “Alsatian”+n. “CI” for “Channel Islands” is new to me, I thought “noose” for “sanction” (meaning punishment), and I couldn’t parse 22d even though MIDST is an obvious enough answer to M_D_T. On reflection, 22d is a beautifully constructed clue, precisely because “Poet’s surrounded” is so misleading.

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