Guardian Cryptic 27,157 by Boatman

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27157.

A very inventive crossword from Boatman; nearly every clue has a medical reference, but used in a myriad different ways.

Across
7 DROUGHT Medic is compelled into humanitarian crisis (7)
A charade of DR (‘doctor’) plus OUGHT (‘is compelled’).
8 SURGEON Compulsion at the heart of junior doctor (7)
An envelope (‘at the heart of’) of URGE (‘compulsion’) in SON (‘junior’).
9 CEPS Medical instrument for removal of fungus (4)
A subtraction: [for]CEPS (‘medical instrument’) minus FOR (‘for removal’).

Ceps, Boletus edulis
10 LOATHSOME MOs to heal sick and sickening (9)
An anagram (‘sick’) of ‘MOs to heal’.
12 ACUTE Severe laceration seen in hospital department (5)
An envelope (‘seen in’) of CUT (‘laceration’) in AE (Accident and Emergency, ‘hospital department).
13 RESIDENT American version of Doctor in the House? (8)
This kind of clue has been described as a sesquidef – hovering between a cryptic definition and a double definition.
15 ITCH Pointless change causes irritation (4)
A subtraction: [sw]ITCH (‘change’) minus SW (compass ‘pointless’).
16 PLACE Put pressure on doctor (5)
A charade of P (‘pressure’) plua LACE (‘doctor’ eg. a drink laced with cyanide).
17, 23 MORTALLY Report of added numbers leading to deaths (8)
Sounds like (‘report of’) MORE (‘added’) TALLY (‘numbers’ – as a noun to justify the plural).
18 DRAWBACK Clue for part of hospital with a problem (8)
DRAW BACK is WARD (‘part of hospital’).
20 CALVE Drop medical vehicle’s display (5)
A hidden answer (‘display’) in ‘mediCAL VEhicle’
21 DECORATOR Cosmetic specialist and doctor are in trouble (9)
An anagram (‘in trouble’) of ‘doctor are’.
22 SWAB It’s used to clean edges of surgeon’s instrument — Boatman closes it (4)
A charade of S[a]W (‘surgeon’s instrument’) minus the interior letter (‘edges of’) plus AB (able-bodied ‘Boatman’).
24 BLEEPER One might call doctor for blood type before injecting drug into sick person (7)
A charade of B (‘blood type’) plus LEEPER,  an envelope (‘injecting into’) of E (‘drug’) in LEPER (‘sick person’).
25 ORDERLY Hospital worker is disciplined (7)
Double definition.
Down
1   See 6
2 DUE SOUTH Charges published on hospital’s downward course (3,5)
A charade of DUES (‘charges’) plus OUT (‘published’) plus H (‘hospital’).
3 SHELVE Drop reform of vehicles? Losing intensive care just the start (6)
An anagram (‘reform of’) of ‘veh[ic]les’ minus IC (‘losing Intensive Care just the start’).
4 DUCHESSE Way to cook potatoes required game inside (8)
An envelope (‘inside’) of CHESS (‘game’) in DUE (‘required’). Duchesse potatoes is a classic recipe in which mashed potatoes are mixed with egg yolk, butter and seasonings, piped into mounds, and baked in the oven.

Duchesse potatoes
Duchesse potatoes
5 AGE-OLD Having done time, gaoled anew (3-3)
An anagram (‘anew’) of ‘gaoled’,
6, 1 COME TRUE  Take place of doctor to cure me (4,4)
An anagram (‘doctor’) of ‘to cure me’.
11 AIR JACKET Mae West broadcast? Boatman is on time in New York (3,6)
A charade of AIR (‘broadcast’) plus JACK (Tar, ‘Boatman’) plus ET (Eastern Time – more usually EST, Standard or EDT, Daylight in summer – ‘time in New York’).

Mae West and Mae West
Mae West and Mae West
12 ALTER Doctor to find cure later (5)
An anagram (‘cure’) of ‘later’, with ‘to find’ as linkage.
14 NURSE Plastic surgeon needs letters to go out with hospital worker? (5)
An anagram (‘plastic’) of ‘sur[g]e[o]n’ minus G and O (‘letters to GO out’).
16 PEA-GREEN Poetical colour of beautiful boat in seascape, agree narrators (3-5)
A hidden answer in ‘seacsaPE AGREE Narrators’. The definition refers to Lear’s The Owl and the Pussycat, with an extended definition.

Lear's illustration
Lear’s illustration for his poem.
17 MOLASSES Doctor gets the girls — that’s sweet (8)
A charade of MO (‘doctor’) plus LASSES (‘the girls’).
19 WICKED Evil or sick? It’s all the same, if you’re young (6)
Double definition.
20 CURARE Treatment: to swallow radium (it’s poisonous) (6)
An envelope (‘to swallow’) of RA (chemical symbol, ‘radium’) in CURE (‘treatment’).
21 DULL Definitely uninteresting, lacking lustre on top (4)
First letters (‘on top’) of ‘Definitely Uninteresting Lacking Lustre’.
23   See 17 across
completed grid

51 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,157 by Boatman”

  1. This was a fun puzzle and I really enjoyed it.
    My favourites were AIR JACKET, BLEEPER, CEPS, DRAWBACK & DUCHESSE (LOI).
    I was unable to parse 22a.

    Thanks Boatman and PeterO

  2. Thanks PeterO and Boatman.
    Great blog PeterO…with pictures!

    Couldn’t parse 9a though got the fungus ref. Got 4d from crossers and putting the game in first.

    Nice use of theme.

  3. Re. 19D: I was confused by wicked = sick but have just learned (by googling) that “wicked” in New England, where I live, has very different connotations from “wicked” in the UK. Here it is primarily a modifier meaning “very”, and “wicked sick” means “very cool”. I vaguely recall “well wicked” from decades ago in the UK — surprised to find that the usage hasn’t changed, usually if an old person can understand slang it’s time for the language to evolve. Nice puzzle and very prompt blog, thank you Boatman and PeterO!

  4. Thanks Boatman and PeterO

    Very clever, but I don’t like this sort of puzzle. A weakness is demonstrated in that one solution – SURGEON – actually appears in two other clues (and a SAW isn’t a “surgeon’s instrument; it’s, originally at least, a carpenter’s instrument used by a surgeon – “surgical saw” would be needed to make it a surgeon’s instrument).

    CEPS is plural, so requires FUNGI.

    I did like some of my finishing ones – DRAWBACK, CALVE and DECORATOR; also AGE-OLD.

  5. btw later on yesterday we were discussing “split solutions”. drofle said “I quite like split clues because the split itself is a bit of a clue (and in this case Phi is indeed a Greek letter). I don’t think that setters will ever split into non-words (heaven forfend).”

    Is MORT a word, other than as an unusual man’s name? (Short for Mortimer?)

  6. Thanks Boatman, Peter
    All went in pretty smoothly for a Boatman, thanks to precise (and some generous) cluing. Maybe lacking a bit of the customary whimsy, but a fun challenge.
    When the clues are themed like this, I’m always struck by the ones which aren’t themed. The fewer there are, the more they stick out. How does the setter feel about them – presumably there was a failed attempt to write a themed clue?

  7. I share Muffin’s concerns. Even if SAW is a surgeon’s instrument, I think it’s a bit of a stretch to require the outer letters of a word that isn’t in the clue, and therefore could be almost anything (I was mentally trying out SEW, SINEW, SCREW, even STRAW…). And I agree that 9A doesn’t seem to work.

  8. Thanks Boatman and PeterO

    I enjoyed this one, and found it definitely on Boatman’s easier side.

    Re 9, I think you can quite validly say “Toadstools are a fungus, as are ceps”. Works for me.

  9. I tripped up on SWAB. I interpreted “edges of surgeon’s instrument” as edges of “SCALPEL”, leading me to SLAB (where you might clean fish, etc). Hey ho…

    Other than that, a very enjoyable puzzle.

    Thanks Boatman and PeterO.

  11. Thank you to Boatman and PeterO.

    I also entered SLAB instead of SWAB … and did anyone else go for RUN SOUTH at 2 down? My theory being that RUNS = CHARGES, e.g. “Messi charges down the pitch”

  15. muffin @4 & Jason @7

    I’d say for sure that a TREE surgeon uses a saw!

    Generally an enjoyable puzzle, and the setter did extremely well to incorporate so many medical references into the clues and the solutions.

    Thanks to Boatman and PeterO for an excellent blog

  16. Went quite quickly until the NE corner slowed me down, though in retrospect the key clue SURGEON should have come much faster. Clever stuff from Boatman, but lacked yesterday’s wow factor I felt.

  17. Muffin @14 – I like the salmon, too! I don’t suppose I’ll ever get a chance to use it in everyday conversation, but if I do then I’ll feel very smug. I’m in the camp that likes split solutions, especially where they allow two potentially trivial clues to be combined into something more interesting, and I like they way that they can open a route from one part of the grid into another. Part of the fun for me is to find wordplay that depends on a different split than the one in the grid – MOR+TALLY in this case rather than MORT+ALLY – in which case discovering the grid split should be a pleasant surprise for the solver – and, as you mentioned drofle saying earlier, a sort of extra layer of assistance.

    James @6 – Glad you had fun! I never set out consciously to make every clue a theme clue (unless I’m using a letters-ignored gimmick or some such) so it’s always a surprise to me when there’s only a handful of non-theme clues left. In this case, I had 14 clues that I wanted to use when I started looking for a grid, and I found a way of fitting in 13 of them (yes, it did take more than one attempt) then another 10 appeared while I was filling in the blanks. I might just about have been able to find a way of mentioning something medical in the ones that were left, but you’d have seen through the contrivance, and I’d have felt as though I was devaluing the rest of the theme as a result. I wonder how many theme clues there have to be before the non-theme exceptions begin to stand out …

  18. Didn’t like this at all, I’m afraid. Even leaving aside my bias against puzzles where (almost) all the clues are thematic, there are numerous other issues here.

    For instance, in 7a “is compelled” does not mean “ought” and, even if it did, “into” has no place in the cryptic reading. In 8a it’s logically impossible to place an item “at the heart of” a three-letter word. In 9a the “of” is a typically lazy link that, again, doesn’t stand up to cryptic analysis.

    I won’t continue with my list because it really isn’t my intention to wind up the libertarians here – who no doubt will tell me none of this really matters anyway so long as the clue is solvable. I just happen to believe that good grammar does matter – even in crossword clues.

    Thanks to PeterO for the blog – and for teaching me a new analytical term in the comment to 13a.

  19. Oh dear, mutiny by the first mate…

    I thought this was gong to be hard, but everything fell into place, very enjoyable. I like Chris in France’s @9 and judygs’ @11 SLAB for 22a, very appropriate.

    Thank you Boatman for the puzzle and PeterO for the illustrated blog.

  20. @boatman
    Thanks for the reply. ‘Failed attempt’ no doubt the wrong expression, as I’m sure you could have written the clues how you liked. Pea-green in particular looks a sucker for a medical clue, what with pulses, and looking sick. I think once you get significantly more than half the clues being themed, it becomes noticeable, and you have over 75%. Looking at it the other way, how few unthemed clues would you have to have left before you thought it worthwhile, or even necessary, to contrive something thematic?
    It doesn’t seem to happen when the theme is in the solution; I suppose the difficulties of filling the grid prevent more than half being topical. Occasionally we get a puzzle when, for example, all the across solutions are themed; I’m thinking of Picaroon’s poets, or the All Saints Day puzzle last year. If there was an odd one out in those circumstances, I think it would be a shame.

  21. Thanks Boatman and PeterO.

    Great fun; it seemed to be easy at the beginning but then I got trapped by Mae West! I also put in OLD-AGE at the beginning for 5.

    I guess SLAB is a valid alternative for 22. In terms of the ‘saw’ debate, surgeons of course used to be called sawbones because of their use of saws.

    I liked BLEEPER, even though I did consider the unparseable bleeder.

  22. judygs@11 I had RUNS SOUTH too, but the check button wouldn’t let me.

    logophile @3 I’m a New Englander — too? (I don’t know whether you consider yourself a New Englander or a person who lives in New England. That’s how I felt when I lived in California — I never felt like a Californian.) Anyway, my impression is that “wicked” as in “wicked good” originated in Maine and has been trickling south and west ever since. Though not due south – that would land it in the ocean.

  23. Thanks PeterO and Boatman

    Didn’t mind the pervasive theme.

    I’m with Muffin @4 re FUNGI. To Simon S @8 A toadstool is a fungus, toadstools are fungi as are mushrooms.

    I’ll get me hyphae.

  24. I also tried RUN SOUTH.

    Valentine @22: Regarding “wicked,” I”m a Midwesterner in early middle age who heard the word “wicked” in the “cool, rad, awesome, etc.” sense as a kid; it feels sort of 80s-90s to me. When I was at Hahvahd, I encountered the “very” sense for the first time. It doesn’t work without a New England accent, such as heard in this movie clip here, and my actually-from-New-England friends made fun of me when I tried anyway.

  25. Aaargh! I put in OLD-AGE instead of AGE-OLD, which really messed me up. Also couldn’t get the AIR on AIR JACKET – silly me – so the NE corner was best forgotten. But I liked the puzzle: favourites were SWAB, PEA-GREEN (very nice), CEPS and PLACE. Many thanks to Boatman and PeterO.

  26. As regards CEPS, this word is an alternative form of the singular ‘cep’, it is from the latin cippus meaning ‘stake’. The ‘Arboretum et fruticetum Brittannicum’ states, page 1836, “The eatable boletus, or cepe, or ceps, comprises three species…” and goes on to say “The ceps resembles a mushroom in appearance…”.

  27. Tough but do-able. Not one of his best and we didn’t like air jacket either. But we finished it and we enjoyed it. That’s what matters.

  28. Thanks to Boatman and PeterO. I’m another who had trouble with the “due” in DUE SOUTH though not with WICKED. I did not know DUCHESSE (though I could parse it) and as one currently on Eastern Daylight Time was surprised by the ET in AIRJACKET.

  30. Could have done without this theme as I’m due in hospital tomorrow morning and I would prefer to think about non medical things. However, this was quite a nice puzzle and I rather enjoyed it. I couldn’t parse PLACE- although it seems obvious now! SWAB was LOI.
    Thanks Boatman.

  31. Why, thank you, Alan! I’ll look forward to rediscovering your thumbs-up when I’m looking back for possible pull-quotes in a couple of years’ time … Now you’ve mentioned it, PLACE was one of my favourites, too, though not one of the first to be written. DROUGHT and BLEEPER were my starting points – they’d been in my notebook for years – followed by a number of options for using “doctor” as either anagram indicator or fodder, which led to COME TRUE and DECORATOR.

  32. Thanks Boatman for a lovely challenge and PeterO for an enlightening blog. Favourite was DRAWBACK.

    Muffin@5 re split clues (late in the day now): another example here using words (MORT and ALLY) which (as with PHI and LIP yesterday received no reference in the fodder whatsoever. Wouldn’t it be reasonable to expect that if a word is to be split then its components should be individually accessible from the clue? Perhaps too much to ask for within the confines of preserving cryptic-osity. I’m in a Dr Fell situation with these splitters.

  33. Alphalpha
    see Boatman @17, first paragraph. It seems that is was deliberate that the two words couldn’t be solved independently.

  34. Excellent puzzle, worth it for PEA-GREEN alone. A compelling theme for someone who worked for the NHS many moons ago. Thanks to Boatman and to PeterO !

  35. Belated thanks to all who responded to my plea for help yesterday in knowing how to highlight comments. I’ve often wondered what the XHTML etc…. bit meant.
    Just to prove I’ve understood:
    Thanks again

  36. Well done jeceris!

    btw I forgot to mention two things yesterday.
    1 don’t try to combine two tags inside ther same brackets – it doesn’t work!
    2 a href=web address some text /a makes the text a link to the web address
    (Check above to see where the brackets go)

  37. Hammer @ 23

    Toadstools are a (sort of) fungus, as are ceps. Toadstools & ceps are different sorts of fungus, or are different fungi.

    IRMC

  38. Simon S
    I find myself disagreeing with you again, unusually
    A toadstool is a fungus; toadstools are fungi.
    Toadstools are fungus? Your “a sort of” fudges the issue, I think.

  39. [btw off topic – I’m listening to a history of Fairport Convention on Radio2 at this very moment. I encourage others to do the same! We’ve seen them at Burnley nearly every year for the last 30 (they didn’t come last year, this year we were in Cosat Rica.)

  40. 19d I’m familiar with “wicked” = “good” rather like “cool” by which I seem to remember it being superseded. It was used in this sense so long ago that the original users are no longer young! I haven’t come across it in the sense of “sick” but I don’t claim to be an authority.
    Thanks to Boatman and PeterO

  41. muffin @38, the singular CEPS is still in current usage

    “One of my guests on Sunday’s Fabulous Fungi Walk spotted this huge penny bun. Also known as ceps or porcini Boletus edulis this monster mushroom weighed about 850 grams.”

  46. C’mon Cookie, do you really think Boatman went so deep down inside?
    All ordinary dictionaries mention only cep as the fungus, although none mentions a plural form either (to justify ceps).
    I tend to be on muffin’s side (enhanced by his love for Fairport Convention 🙂 ).

    A typical Boatman puzzle, perhaps even more ‘themed’ than usual.
    There is a risk of doubling, like having ‘cure’ and ‘surgeon’ being used in clue and solution, true.
    Still, a very enjoyable puzzle.
    Like others, we were initially fooled by AGE-OLD.
    And we considered SLAB instead of SWAB (but decided to go for the one that was right).
    Alan Connor (and Boatman) singling out PLACE (16ac) I do understand.
    Simplicity and a great surface but I am not sure whether ‘doctor’=’lace’ makes up for the ultimate accolade.

    All in all, Boatman in a friendly mood towards his enemies (I mean, the ones that loathe his Libertarianism).
    Fun, we thought.
    With a capital F (but that’s because it’s at the start of the sentence …. 🙂 ).

    Thanks, PeterO for the blog.

  47. Thanks to Boatman for an ingenious puzzle and PeterO for the much-needed blog

    Did not SARS bring to our attention the difference between severe – degree of indisposition, and acute – quick onset?

    Might be another potential hair to split, but PT, MT, CT, ET and AT (not to mention NT) are abbreviations used on TV news channel crawlers all the time, regardless of seasonal shift.

  48. Belated as we tend to do the previous day’s crossword.

    Well done Boatman for managing so many themed clues. Particularly loved this as all clues were ‘gettable’ without use of aids.

    Jason @ 7 explains my only gripe but I’m surprised no-one has queried CALVE for DROP

    Favourite clues were 8 and 14.

    Thank you Boatman and Peter O for the wonderful pics.

  49. Freddy @47
    I was sufficiently disturbed by “acute”=”severe” to look in up in Chambers. It’s there, with no comment about it not being the medical meaning.

  51. I thought it must be that Muffin, but too obtuse I thought since you could drop anything really. It would be fair to give CALVE as a clue DROP but not vice versa.
    I realise it must be acceptable though as no-one else has raised it.

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