The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27224.
On my first pass, I became increasingly desperate for an easy entry, and even in retrospect there hardly is one. I think this is the work of a master setter, and the nearest I can come to a quibble is the repeat of the WC trick in 2D and 7D. Bravo Puck.
| Across | ||
| 8 | BROUHAHA | Happy hour in pub right away leads to hugs and excitement (8) |
| A charade of BROUHA, an envelope (‘in’) of ROUH, an anagram (‘happy’) of ‘hour’ in BA[r] (‘pub’) minus the R (‘right away’); plus HA (‘leads to Hugs And’). An intricate wordplay hidden under a splendid surface. | ||
| 9 | SIXTHS | Intervals in boundary, closed with no U-turns (6) |
| A charade of SIX (‘boundary’ in cricket) plus THS, a reversal (‘turns’) of SH[u]T (‘closed’) minus the U (‘with no U’). | ||
| 10 | KNIGHT | Sort of thinking lacking in man going overboard (6) |
| An anagram (‘sort of’) ‘th[in]king’ minus the IN (‘lacking in’). The cryptic definition refers to the chess piece (think ‘over board’). A superb piece of misdirection, and fittingly my last one in. | ||
| 11 | SODA LIME | Drying agent painter used in second East End abode (4,4) |
| An envelope (‘used in’) of DALI (‘painter’) in S (‘seond’) plus ‘OME (‘East End abode’). | ||
| 12 | STAT | Small spud, but no King Edward in fact (4) |
| A charade of S (‘small’) plus TAT[er] (‘spud’) minus ER (‘but no King Edward’). The answer is an abbreviation for statistic, ‘fact’. | ||
| 13 | BIOPHYSICS | Cissy with phobia, mostly about science (10) |
| An anagram (‘about’) of ‘cissy’ plus ‘phobi[a]’ minus its last letter (‘mostly’). | ||
| 15 | MOUNTIE | Second cousin’s mum’s not a cop (7) |
| A charade of MO (‘second’) plus [a]UNTIE (‘cousin’s mum’) minus the A (‘not a’). The second apostrophe s would be for “has”. | ||
| 16 | SNIVELS | Whines as Saint Bernard’s sent back? (7) |
| A reversal (‘sent back’) of S (‘saint’ – yes, St. is the more comon abbreviation, but S is valid, and the plural SS less uncommon) plus LEVIN (‘Bernard‘) plus the apostrophe ‘s’. | ||
| 18 | DOMAIN NAME | Moan made in wrong part of www.theguardian.com (6,4) |
| An anagram (‘wrong’) of ‘moan made in’. | ||
| 19 | DAYS | Times “Diary” is not even read here (4) |
| Odd letters (‘is not even read here’) of ‘DiArY iS‘. | ||
| 20 | BUMBLING | Like Inspector Clouseau‘s awful jewellery? (8) |
| A charade of BUM (‘awful’) plus BLING (‘jewellery’). | ||
| 22 | LAVABO | Washbasin in toilet? A bowl wife left out (6) |
| A charade of LAV (‘toilet’) plus ‘a bo[wl]’ minus (‘out’) W (‘wife’) and L (‘left’). | ||
| 23 | ON EDGE | Highly-strung Edward, absorbed in self-reflection (2,4) |
| An envelope (‘absorbed in’) of NED (‘Edward’) in OGE, a reversal (‘reflection’) of EGO (‘self’). | ||
| 24 | PINOCHLE | Disgraced ex-president loses temper at first, having lost in card game (8) |
| An envelope (‘having … in’) of L (‘lost’; the abbreviation is not given in Chambers, but I would have thought it common enough) in PINOCHE[t] (‘disgraced ex-president’) minus the T (‘loses Temper at first’). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | TRINITROTOLUENE | Trump’s nightly tweeting starts to get explosive (15) |
| TNT (‘Trump’s Nightly Tweeting starts’) rendered in full. | ||
| 2 | TUNGSTEN CARBIDE | Disturbance gent brought about in WC (8,7) |
| An anagram (‘brought about’) of ‘disturbance gent’. WC is the chemical symbol (W from the old name wolfram for tungsten; essentially the same misdirection is used in 7D, which seems a blemish) | ||
| 3 | CANTABRIAN | Isn’t it possible a Python antihero’s someone from Santander? (10) |
| A charade of CAN’T (‘isn’t it possible’) plus ‘a’ plus BRIAN (‘Python antihero’ – a reference to the film ‘Life of Brian’). Santander is the capital of the region of Cantabria in Spain. | ||
| 4 | PASSION | Stepson embraces current love (7) |
| An envelope (’embraces’) of I (physical symbol, electric ‘current’) in PAS (‘step’) plus ‘son’ | ||
| 5 | USED | Novel Dune’s not new? Indeed! (4) |
| An anagram (‘novel’) of ‘du[n]e’s’ minus the N (‘not new’). That leaves ‘indeed’ as the definition, referring back to ‘not new’, of course. | ||
| 6 | EXPLOSIVE DEVICE | One might go off playing sex video with pelvic exercises at start (9,6) |
| An anagram (‘playing’) of ‘sex video’ plus ‘pelvic’ plus E (‘Exercises at start’). | ||
| 7 | CHEMICAL SYMBOLS | As WC, perhaps, when in use periodically? (8,7) |
| Cryptic definition: the periodic table of elements includes those identified by the chemical symbols As (arsenic), W (tungsten) and C (carbon). | ||
| 14 | HINTERLAND | Detective series given tip by Queen and Country (10) |
| A charade of HINT (‘tip’) plus ER (‘Queen’) plus LAND (‘country’). I picked up the BBC series on Netflix. | ||
| 17 | HANG-UPS | Kill courier, showing mental problems … (4-3) |
| A charade of HANG (‘kill’) plus UPS (United Parcel Service, ‘courier’) | ||
| 21 | IDES | … 80% of that is due to 19 13 or 15 (4) |
| i.e. id es[t] (‘that is’) using the first four of the five letters (‘80%’). In the definition 19 refers to the clue 19A DAYS, but the 13 and 15 do not: in the Roman calendar the ides (strictly a plural, agreeing with 19A) were either the 13th or 15th day of the month. The Ides of March (or May, July, October) would be the 15th. | ||
I had a similar experience to PeterO: this seemed impenetrable at first. After the first pass I only had one clue, 5d USED.
However, I thought 2d might be an anagram, and was thrilled after I had a fiddle with the letters of “Disturbance gent” and solved TUNGSTEN CARBIDE. Getting this long clue early proved the key.
I really liked 8a BROUHAHA, 20a BUMBLING and 3d CANTABRIAN, though I must admit I only saw the latter when I looked up Santander in an atlas (great word play, I thought!). I also appreciated the mental image of Trump’s nightly tweets blowing up in his face, evoked by 1d.
I thought that the two WCs were going to form a mini-theme, especially when I saw “Washbasin”, “toilet” and “bowl” in 22a, leading to “LAV” as part of the answer, but in the end I could not find any more “toilet humour”.
LOI was 21d, IDES, which I got from 13 and 15 being the dates for the Roman Ides, though I didn’t get the 80% bit.
Hadn’t heard of Bernard Levin but SNIVELS was the only word that seemed to make sense as a synonym for “Whines” in 16a.
Thanks to PeterO for a great blog and to Puck for a fiendish puzzle that gave me such a good mental workout!
I enjoyed this enormously. The grid-fill is quite brilliant, with the four 15-letter downs (somewhat) linked, thematically.
Rarely, I don’t agree with PeterO about the repetition of the W=Wolfram=tungsten device; if anything, I thought this added to the puzzle, which I think is of the highest quality.
I agree with baerchen @2: very testing, but in a positive and balanced way, asking us to dig up bits of knowledge of science and Latin calendar and popular culture. Not sure about Bernard Levin, since unlike Python and Clouseau he left little legacy and would hardly be known to youngish solvers (or is this to underestimate him?)
Another favourite besides those picked out already wAs MOUNTIE
Fantastic stuff. KNIGHT was also my LOI. Got stuck with a lot of the left half blank and resorted to a word fit for 1d – followed by a head slap. The rest then followed but with some head-scratching. Thanks to all.
Somehow this fell out easily. 20 and 23A gave crossing letters which promptly revealed 1D (which i couldn’t parse) and the 2D anagram. The other two long ones revealed themselves although again I couldn’t parse SIXTHS, and didn’t know either 11A nor the Santander. A googlecheck and it was all over. Thanks Peter for the elucidations and Puck for the delightful puzzle.
I failed to parse several clues. It never would have occurred to me that SIX is a boundary in cricket. Thanks for your help, PeterO.
The clue for 17 is an highly regrettable coincidence (and nobody’s fault). Wednesday in San Francisco a gunman went into a UPS facility and murdered three workers, then killed himself.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/san-francisco-shooting-least-two-killed-ups-facility-law-enforcement-n772376
It is a crazy world in which we live.
Thanks Puck, PeterO
Brilliant puzzle. I got quite a few of the acrosses straight away, probably from a surge of confidence having written BROUHAHA straight in, but still struggled with the long ones and some others (IDES, KNIGHT).
I also can’t see that WC x 2 is a ‘blemish’. It’s obviously considered. The clue for 7d could have used any number of symbols for the definition, but anything else would have been rather random, and possibly unfair.
I raised an eyebrow at the def for HINTERLAND, since it’s fairly new, not very mainstream, and word has an actual meaning.
LAVABO is nostalgic: a French teacher at school, having a boy called Adrian Blavo in the class, rearranged his name to make Drain Lavabo, from which point he was affectionately known as Drain Washbasin
Excellent – 21d beat me even though I suspected the sort of trick that might be involved.
Rather pleased with myself for having got all the rest – although it did take a while.
This is how Guardian puzzles should be.
Thanks to Puck for the fun – and to PO for the blog.
A superb puzzle that led me up several garden paths before I eventually managed to complete it. My biggest holdup was struggling for ages with 10a, where I couldn’t see the wood for the trees. In hope, I entered ‘diving’, referring to going overboard, based on ‘divining’ as a loose sort of thinking with ‘in’ removed. Eventually corrected and completed, though some of the nuances of the parsing were revealed by the excellent blog, so thankyou Peter.
I found this very awkward and ‘bitty’, as in the words are pretty often smashed to bits, many single-letter elements, which isn’t normally the mark of a ‘master setter’ — wholesomeness is the mark of competence I feel. Some of it is unfair too, so lots of answers hard to get just for difficulty’s sake.
It’s a style that’s become prevalent in the Guardian unfortunately, though there are still some crafty practitioners left I’m glad to say.
I did like STAT…
Thank you PUCK and PeterO.
Great fun. Having decided that 1a probably ended in HA, BROUHAHA went straight in and was parsed afterwards, then KNIGHT followed, but at first I thought it was a reversal, THINKing, and I tried to insert a G. SIXTHS was my last in, not parsed, extra thanks to blogger.
Thanks both. Enjoyable puzzle. Re 24a, L=lost in sport stats (like W=won etc).
Re slipstream @6 – I thought that 6d was a bit of a hostage to fortune – could have seemed quite offensive after a terrorist attack
Another great puzzle – this is proving to be an excellent week. I have to confess to needing PeterO’s input to fully parse a number of clues but that is attributable solely to my lack of competence rather than the clues being too difficult or obtuse. So my thanks are due to both setter and blogger – good work!
Thanks Puck and PeterO
I thought this was an excellent and tough puzzle.
I think there’s another, clever nuance in using OVERBOARD rather than the more usual ON when indicating a chess piece, as the knight is the only man which can be lifted and moved over other pieces when it’s played.
Echoing (most) others’ comments, I thought this was a really great puzzle. Never quite got round to parsing IDES, but managed the rest. Favourites were BROUHAHA, SIXTHS, MOUNTIE, TNT, SNIVELS . . . . Many thanks to Puck and PeterO.
I thought this was a beauty.So many great clues. i did wonder how many people might be familiar with Bernard Levin but any Brit of a certain age would never forget.
I loved the construction of SODA LIME but somehow managed to write in the alternative spelling for 24 making it impossible to parse!
Well LEVIN is unindicated dbe, which is the sort of thing I’m going on about. And all this ‘never quite got around to parsing…’ well I’m not surprised.
I’m off to have a go at The Indy now. No aids, see how I do.
Thanks Puck and PeterO.
Yes, a very entertaining puzzle – nice to see a bit of science for a change.
At the beginning, I thought the WC might have been Fields or, of course, the obvious toilets.
I liked Trump’s nightly tweeting and the IDES, which was my LOI.
Splendid puzzle. There’s an extra layer to the surface of 10 – “knight’s move thinking” is psychiatric argot.
Couldn’t finish this but still full of wonder at Puck’s ingenuity. I hope to be able to comment earlier in future having now accessed the daily cryptic today for the first time online.
Many thanks for the excellent blog, Peter.
Martin W
Thanks to Puck and PeterO. Very tough going for me. I did see the id es(t) for IDES (though did not understand the numbers that followed) and have watched HINTERLAND on Netflix, but I did not know Bernard Levin and could not parse SIXTHS (“six” is another cricket term new to me). I spotted the Trump TNT clue but took a long time before getting the other three long answers (I missed As as a chemical symbol along with W and C). KNIGHT was my LOI. A struggle.
Another top class puzzle – took me a while to get more than a couple of easier starters but TUNGSTEN CARBIDE and TRINITROTOLUENE opened it up and the rest was very enjoyable, though not without a few parsing challenges.
Thanks to Puck and PeterO
Ides was last one in for us. We didn’t see the significance of the three numbers being in the wrong order numerically speaking. Great puzzle in what so far has been a great week. Thanks to everyone.
Brilliant puzzle with lots to chew on.
I had a different parsing for 4: stepson = PA’S SON (as opposed to Ma’s) around I. I think PeterO’s version is probably better though.
I really liked the chemical bits. Even though I am a chemist, I still took an age to see TNT and, like ACD, I also missed Arsenic in 7.
Couple of minor points. I’d still prefer onboard in 10 (despite Simon S’s tempting rationalisation) and “suspend” for HANG in 17 would give a slightly smoother surface, IMHO.
Great stuff! Thanks, Puck and PeterO.
I parsed PASSION as Phitonelly @ 24 and it was my LOI but I certainly didn’t parse everything else. SNIVELS for one- and I had heard of Bernard Levin. Indeed I seem to remember him being punched by an irate member of the audience on “That was the week that was” back in the day. However I was pleased with myself for completing this. My knowledge of science is woefully inadequate but I puzzled out TUNGSTEN CARBIDE and 7dn and these opened the puzzle up. I liked PINOCHLE and the wonderful BUMBLING.
Nice puzzle.
Thanks Puck
Tackled at 35000 feet, on a flight to the UK. My favourite was BUMBLING, as it came to me without any checking letters.
Thanks, Puck and PeterO.
Excellent, faultless puzzle. Let’s have more like this one.
Many thanks Puck
I missed MOUNTIE and CANTABRIAN, and didn’t parse IDES, so many thanks for the explanations PeterO.
I hadn’t heard of Bernard levin but guessed the answer. I liked BUMBLING, PINOCHLE, DOMAIN NAME, and the long clues.
Thanks sgain
Excellent puzzle, challenging without being so stupidly difficult as to make me throw the newspaper at the cat and find something useful to do ! BROUHAHA and CANTABRIAN were first in, steady progress on the rest. Loved the chemical symbols and I’m old enough to remember Bernard Levin (and his eternal quest to write the world’s longest sentence.) I spent an age trying to parse 1d before the d’oh ! moment finally arrived……
I’ll happily join in the chorus of praise sung by most commenters here. I thought this was a top quality offering, on a par with or even better than the last Puck I solved, which was on the theme of Teletubbies (and their antennas).
I was fortunate to get 1d TRINITROTOLUENE and 6d EXPLOSIVE DEVICE early on, and 2d TUNGSTEN CARBIDE soon followed. I suppose having a leaning toward the sciences I would be expected to recognise TNT and WC and know what they stand for.
I was held up for a bit by 21d IDES but cracked it when I ignored the apparent connection between that clue and the one before.
For 12a STAT I first tried STUB, which you get from S + TUBER (instead of TATER) minus ER. It was when it got in the way of TUNGSTEN in 2d that I realised it had to be something different.
I thought the use of WC twice in the same way was an artisitic blemish at worst but not a fault. Having now set a few crosswords myself I will say that I do try to avoid this sort of thing.
I too am old enough to remember the journalist and columnist Bernard Levin – and his long sentences (JohnB! @29).
Thanks to Puck for the treat today and to PeterO for the blog.
Thanks PeterO and Puck.
I found this enjoyable. I managed the rhs without too much trouble; the left took longer. I missed the TNT which would have quickened up solving there. I didn’t mind the WC double, as I, like robi, was bearing a water closet and Fields in mind.
I thought “Whines” was appropriate in 16a, as I thought B Levin always seemed to be given to whining.
Superb. Completed in decent time (with no aids), all parsed satisfactorily, but still a real challenge. A master setter without question. Many thanks Puck and PeterO.
Just a comment in praise of the Guardian, every time I check the UK news from here in France, as regards this terrible tragedy of the Grenfell Tower, it is always the Guardian that comes up first on the UK Google news – please, everybody, do all you can to support the Guardian.
Splendid puzzle.
Last in was IDES (21d), unfortunately not the best of the set.
Like baerchen @2 I didn’t mind the repetition of W,C (in the wonderful 2d and in 7d).
Having ‘explosive’ in both the clue for 1d and the sanwer to 6d was more something of a pity.
But what the heck.
Clearly so much thought has gone into this puzzle – one can almost feel Puck’s brains working.
And, yes, for a change some science.
Kathryn’s Dad must be happy today (despite the lack of any birds).
Did I find it hard?
Not really but that’s perhaps I solve 20+ crosswords a week (which has made a real difference in recent years).
My (very experienced) solving partner had more problems today.
So, on average …
Great crossword!
NHS @17
One of us has a wrong understanding of DBEs – in my book this isn’t one. LEVIN, for example would be a DBE for BERNARD, but not the other way round.
Can anyone else clarify?
Did nobody else make my mistake on 7d? FLUSHING MEADOWS? Flushing (as WC), meadows (WC Fields) and used periodically for tennis. I was rather miffed when the crossers proved me wrong!
After filling in 2d, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the following – especially what with the Python reference in 3d! Enjoy!
https://youtu.be/fgXvU1TyN90?t=28
Louise @35
I hope I can help. I think I know the ‘rule’, and as an occasional setter I try to follow it.
Here (in 16a SNIVELS) ‘Bernard’, in the clue, is an example of a LEVIN. So this is a definition by example (DBE), which is correctly indicated by the ‘?’ at the end of the clue.
Another example might clarify this further. If ‘pet’ is in a clue, CAT can appear in the answer. This is not a DBE – it is a straight definition. However, if ‘cat’ is in the clue as an example of a pet, PET can only be in the answer (by the rule) if a suitable indication of the DBE is given. That indication could be a ‘?’ or a phrase like ‘cat, possibly’ or ‘cat, perhaps’.
I have noticed a couple of unindicated DBEs in recent crosswords, and I put each of them down to being an inadvertent error by the setter. I think one of them was picked up by the blogger, but I can’t remember which crossword that was.
Can’t thank you enough, FirmlyDirac@37, for reminding me of that hilarious Monty Python skit about tungsten carbide drills versus culture!
I can only the echo the praise, and point out that IDES is also formed from 80% of ‘is due’ – though I think your parsing is the right one. Well done Puck, and thanks PeterO for the Arsenic.
Re 2 down: W may be the chemical symbol for tungsten but C is the chemical symbol for carbon not carbide. And carbide is not an element.
Logomachist @41
… and WC is the chemical formula (not symbol) for tungsten carbide, using the terminology I learned at school.
Not everyone agrees that DBE indications are universally necessary – they are frequently either too much of a giveaway – other times no help at all; and since when have setters been expected to fall over themselves to help solvers – as long as they give us a fair indication we can’t complain.
Of course those who slavishly adhere to every utterance of their hero Ximenes (who didn’t set puzzles for UK dailies at all) are stuck with it.
Even some who mainly abide by the supposed rule make an exception for famous names – eg Frank for Sinatra or vice versa.
For the name Frank there might be many possible surnames, of which Sinatra is just one – equally for the name Sinatra there might be many forenames, of which Frank is just one. A bit of a quandary even if (as is probably assumed) you take the domain to be famous people.
In neither case could the one be said to be a *definition* of the other – it’s just an association – but then we don’t use the term *definition* (it’s Ximenes’s rather loose terminology) in its normal sense in discussing crossword clues – likewise “synonym”.
A cat *may be* a pet – but that’s not a definition in the normal sense of the word.
Bernard Levin’s newspaper rantings are no doubt long forgotten. He is now best remembered as being the first person to use the F-word on TV (on TW3) – which he disingenuosly claimed would not shock anyone – but of course it did – rather his obvious intention, all publicity being good publicity.
Didn’t someone give him a (richly deserved) thump too on the same series – considered cutting edge at the time – so probably scripted.
[….and I’d always thought it was Kenneth Tynan who first used the word on television. It just goes to show how wrong you can be!]
@WFP – oops – you’re right – same show – wrong geezer. Tynan was just the punch-up merchant – receiving end only natch. I only remember once but apparently it happened twice.
You see as you get older three things start to happen.
First of all – your memory goes a bit wonky.
Er … – it’s no good – I’ve forgotten the other two.
JollySwagman @43
A couple of points on what you said about DBEs and definitions.
“A cat *may be* a pet – but that’s not a definition in the normal sense of the word.” Of course not. That was my hypothetical example of ‘cat’ in a clue being a DBE of a pet.
My other point is that nobody demands a ‘definition’ as such in a clue. What is required is an indication of the answer-word, and that can be take any form. It is true, though, that a definition or synonym of the answer-word is still the most common form of indication that setters give us.