Guardian Cryptic 27,245 by Pan

by

I think this is Pan’s first Monday Cryptic, after many Monday Quiptics and a few other Cryptics. Lots to like, including 12ac, 8dn, 22dn and 27dn – and my last in was 21ac which was guessed but very gettable. Thanks, Pan.

Across
9 SHELLFISH Small fellow eaten by diabolical sea creature (9)
S[mall]; plus F[ellow] inside HELLISH=”diabolical”
10 PIECE Heard quiet section (5)
homophone/”Heard” of ‘peace’=”quiet”
11 READY Keen to study trilogy, finally … (5)
READ=”study”, plus [trilog]Y
12 AMPERSAND … and Pan’s Dream, perhaps (9)
(Pan’s Dream)*
13 THEOREM Article on more complicated proposition (7)
THE=definite “Article”; plus (more)*
14 ACTRESS Excited cast to include reserve member of their group? (7)
(cast)* around RES[erve]
17 SPRIG Spray for special dress (5)
SP[ecial] plus RIG=clothe,”dress”
19 FAN Kindle enthusiast (3)
double definition – as in ‘fan the flames’ and ‘football fan’
20 RATEL Rodent with the Spanish honey badger (5)
=see [wiki]
RAT=”Rodent” plus EL=”the [in] Spanish”
21 RAMPTON Slope leading to new secure hospital (7)
=a high security psychiatric hospital [wiki]
RAMP=”Slope” plus TO plus N[ew]
22 CREATED Produced doctrine about Advent’s limits (7)
CREED=”doctrine”, around the limits/outer letters of A[dven]T
24 POTPOURRI Mixed collection up prior to reshuffle (9)
(up prior to)*
26 THROB Heath Robinson’s pulse? (5)
Hidden in [Hea]TH ROB[inson]
28 MELEE Setter taking shelter in noisy conflict (5)
ME=”Setter” of the puzzle; plus LEE=”shelter”
29 ARGENTINA Spy trapping king in a foreign country (9)
AGENT=”Spy” around R[ex]=”king”; plus IN A
Down
1 TSAR Starts to teach students about ruthless ruler (4)
starting letters of T[each] S[tudents] A[bout] R[uthless]
2   See 25
3 PLAYWRIGHT Promise to welcome terribly wary dramatist (10)
PLIGHT=to pledge or promise; around (wary)*
4 DISARM Remove weapon from girl’s reach (6)
DI[ana]’S ARM=”girl’s reach”
5 CHAPLAIN Church gets a flat for clergyman (8)
CH[urch] plus A plus PLAIN=”flat”
6 SPAR Knocks up a pole to support the rigging (4)
RAPS=”Knocks” reversed/”up”
7 DECADENT Ten years with books is self-indulgent (8)
DECADE=”Ten years” plus N[ew] T[estament]=”books”
8 MEAD Drink to self-publicity? (4)
ME-AD[vertisement]=”self-publicity?”
13 TASER Turned up remains containing a shocking weapon (5)
Reversal/”Turned up” of REST=”remains”, around A
15 TURPENTINE Stoned intern put drug in solvent (10)
(intern put)*, plus E[cstasy]=”drug”
16 SOLID Strong oils mixed by daughter (5)
(oils)* plus D[aughter]
18 REMOTELY From afar, about to get accommodation close to Derby (8)
RE=”about”, plus MOTEL=”accommodation”, plus the closing letter to [Derb]Y
19 FUNEREAL Amusing queen brewed ale that’s dark (8)
FUN=”Amusing”, plus E[lizabeth] R[egina]=”Queen”, plus (ale)*
22 CRINGE Cold enclosure for doe’s last fawn (6)
C[old] plus RING=”enclosure” plus [DO]E
23 TURNIP Lift furrow to pinch vegetable (6)
Reversal/”Lift” of RUT=”furrow”, plus NIP=”pinch”
24 POMP Cheap display of afternoon work used up (4)
PM=”afternoon” plus OP[us]=”work”; all reversed/”used up”
25, 2 OPEN SESAME Public seems upset about a magic formula (4,6)
OPEN=”Public”; plus (seems)* around A
27 BLAB Spill secrets of British research facility (4)
B[ritish] LAB[oratory]=”research facility”

43 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,245 by Pan”

  1. Anyone else start by dashing in “Devilfish” at 9ac? Of course TSAR sorted me out (and “small fellow” = F was always dubious). RAMPTON my LOI too, I haven’t heard of it but the wordplay was clear. An amusing solve — I liked 19dn as well as the ones highlighted by Manehi. Thanks to setter and blogger!

  2. No problems with 9ac but 26ac had me wandering up the garden path for a brief foray into the life and times of Heath Robinson. When I went back to the clue, I saw the answer was right there staring me in the face.

    I had most of the crossers in 12ac before it became clear that the answer had nothing to do with the previous clue, and everything to do with the conjunction connecting them. A nice little misdirection.

    Thanks Pan and manehi.

  3. I have been thinking that Pan would make an ideal Rufus substitute – as usual this was very straightforward and should be a very good one to throw at those who normally only dare to tackle Rufus. My last in was SPRAY because the sprig meaning was unfamiliar. I went to school about 20 miles from RAMPTON and there were always stories about it, but I haven’t heard it mentioned for a very long time!

    Thanks to Pan and manehi

  5. Thanks Pan and manehi

    I took a long time to get in to this, but once I had a few letters it went pretty easily, leaving me wondering what the initial problem had been. Lots to like, with THEOREM, THROB, ARGENTINA, DECADENT, REMOTELY, FUNEREAL and BLAB my favourites.

    I didn’t see why POMP is “cheap display” – just “display” would have been more accurate. RAMPTON, though fairly clued, is a bit parochial.

  6. Logophile, it is s (small) then f in hellish. A pleasant change from Rufus and his double definitions.

  8. Pleasant alternative to our regular Monday fare.

    PLAYWRIGHT made me think. The verbal sense of ‘plight’ sent me to Chambers and I came across ‘plight one’s troth’ which sort of means, “promise one’s promise” doesn’t it?

    Also, I don’t think I’ve ever quite drawn the connection between ‘troth’ and ‘betrothal’ before.

    Good fun, crosswords, ain’t they?

    Nice week, all.

  9. Peter @ 4, it’s a fairly common trick used by setters that allows them to use grammatically incomplete clues. The ellipses indicate that the two clues should be read as a single sentence, so in this case the previous clue completes “and Pan’s Dream, perhaps” grammatically. Usually there is no connection between clues beyond sentence structure, though I have seen cases where the answer to one is required to understand the other.

    I enjoyed this little warm up for the week, though had to guess RAMPTON and feel the “for” in 22D was misleading.

  10. 9ac – many shellfish are sea creatures, but there are plenty of fresh-water ones as well (producing fresh-water pearls, for example). So I thought first, like logophile@1, of “devilfish”, but reluctantly gave it up since I had already put in 1d.

    Perhaps a question mark after the definition would have helped?

  11. Thank you Pan and manehi.

    An enjoyable Monday cryptic with lovely smooth surfaces to the clues. I dashed in MOLEY at 28a, but it would not parse. RAMPTON was gettable from the clue, but I had heard of it in the past. The clues for AMPERSAND, MEAD and BLAB were my favourites.

  12. I was another with DEVILFISH at 9a, though as logophile@1 and JohnR @10 have noted, it clearly can’t work with 1d. I wonder if Pan deliberately clued for the ambiguity? Hats off if so.

    A Monday free of cd clues. Feels like Christmas.

  13. Thanks, Orange @6 — I know — I meant that when I dashed in Devilfish I raised an eyebrow at “small fellow” = F (which is what would have been required to make my incorrect answer work). The real answer is impeccable.

  14. Thanks to Pan and manehi.

    As others have said, Rampton was unfamiliar, but I accept the use of British references as par for the course as I choose to do a UK crossword.

    I agree with manehi and others that two of the four letter words, 9d MEAD and 27d BLAB, were enjoyable solves.

    William@8, I must say I do like that other meaning of “plight” meaning “promise” in 3d.

  15. Thanks Pan and manehi.

    Very Rufusian with many nice surfaces. Another vote for the delightful & here.

  16. I’m a bit surprised about how forgiving this thread is of the a) the setter bunging in the name of a mental hospital in a remote location in England just because it’s the only possible fit and b) the editor for going along with it

  17. @16 I think Rampton is well enough known in the UK so it depends on how much effort the editor puts in to make it an international crossword. The wordplay is clear enough, which is usually considered to make an obscure definition acceptable. How many people know that a ratel is a honey badger, for example?

  20. Thanks both,

    I much enjoyed 22ac and 24ac. Ratel was new to me. I wasn’t keen on ‘fan’ = ‘kindle’ as ‘kindle’ means to light a fire but ‘fan’ is what you do to it once it is lit.

  21. Howard @17 – I knew RATEL but probably from previous crosswords – it has appeared a few times because it has useful crossers for a gridfill. RAMPTON is a first appearance as a Guardian solution (as is BLAB!)

  22. Thanks to PAN AND manehi. I knew RATEL from previous puzzles, but I too paused over POMP as “cheap” (e.g., Pomp and Circumstance; King Lear’s “take physic, Pomp”). RAMPTON was new to me, but the cluing was sufficient and, as Julie@14 notes, that’s par for the course for non-UK solvers (my constant puzzlement comes from cricket terms – most recently st=stumping).

  24. baerchen @16, I remembered that BELMARSH came up in the not so distant past (Paul 26,322 August 2 2014) so RAMPTON did not bother me.

  25. I only knew RATEL from crosswords but it is rather a chestnut so I’m surprised it gave some people trouble. I don’t see the problem with RAMPTON especially given how clear the cluing is.
    I rather enjoyed this once I got into it and thought it a nice alternative to Rufus. I liked AMPERSAND and SHELLFISH.
    Thanks Pan.

  28. Cookie @27, thanks, but you have succeeded in bamboozling me (my failing, I’m sure): wouldn’t if follow that the definition should be either ‘&’ or ‘and per se’ (or possibly ‘and per se &’)?

  31. Let me try again, keep having power cuts here due to storm…

    the logogram & is a ligature of the letters et, Latin for “and”.

    AMPERSAND is a corruption of the phrase
    “and per se and” (“and by itself and”, the definition for 12a is and which is by itself) this gives
    “and per se &” which gives
    “and per se” = & which gives
    “and per se = AMPERSAND

  32. This puzzle should have been switched with the Quiptic. I don’t feel so dumb now.

    I had no problem with RAMPTON, not because I’d heard of it, but because I googled “secure hospital” to find out if that was actually a thing or just part of the wordplay and it was the second item that popped up.

  33. I’m surprised that ‘RAMPTON’ is considered obscure by many – I’ve certainly heard of it. Perhaps it’s the people I mix with! 🙂

    My only issue, in what was a fairly easy ride today, is: FAN = KINDLE ?? I don’t see that as a synonym at all. But with a three-letter word, “F-N”, matching the other definition, not many options!

    I liked ACTRESS which was partly an &lit – but maybe the editors of the Grauniad don’t?! The word has been taboo in the Graun for years!

  34. Here is an entry in the COED for kindle, “kindle the embers to a glow”, the only way I can think of doing that is providing them with oxygen, which would mean using the bellows, i.e. fanning them.

  35. Like logophile@1 and others, I toyed with DEVILFISH for a while. Wasn’t sure if there is such a creature, but Wiki says it’s the name for certain species of ray.

    Also thought of ANGELFISH (don’t ask!) but, needless to say, couldn’t parse it.

    I’m still saying, I’m not all that keen on single-letter abbreviations which aren’t in common use. Is ‘S’ for ‘Small’, used stand-alone, OK? Borderline, in my opinion. But so often encountered in cryptics these days, I suppose I’d better get used to it!

  38. FirmlyDirac @35: I’m often critical of setters’ single-letter abbreviations which don’t seem to be standard. But surely you’re familiar with S, M and L for clothes sizes?

  39. regarding s=small, of course we’re all familiar with clothing sizes such as S,M,L,XXL etc. but if I buy a jacket 44S, the “s” stands for “short” and a pair of 38L trousers are “long”.
    Therefore, it is incorrect to use s=small and @FirmlyDirac is in this case correct.
    I might point out that s=small is not listed as an abbreviation in Chambers; I’ve learned from experience not to use it

  40. baerchen: you seem to be saying that an abbreviation that, in your words, “we’re all familiar with” is incorrect because (a) it can stand for something else, and (b) it’s not in Chambers. I would suggest that if a dictionary is not up to date with actual usage, it might be the dictionary that is wrong.

    And S=small is in the New Penguin Dictionary of Abbreviations and in my W H Smith Definitive English Dictionary (which I believe is in fact based on Collins).

  41. baerchen @ 39
    I didn’t have time to try this crossword, but I found the mini-debate on s=small interesting. I used that abbreviation in a recent crossword, but I am now wondering whether I should have. It was also interesting to note the two S/L pairs: short and long; small and large.
    Although s=small is not in Chambers it is in Collins, where, under ‘S’, it says ‘small (size)’. So one needs to know what authority to use, unless one chooses whichever is the more amenable(!). I don’t know what the SOED says about s=small.

  42. baerchen @39
    For women’s clothing in the UK, S/M/L indicate small, medium and large. The indication that clothes are intended for shorter women is “petite”, or the actual length of a jacket or trousers is given.

  43. This is the first Guardian Cryptic I have completed without reference to the internet or a dictionary)apart from checking Ratel) and it only took two days. Must have been an easy one!
    Liked Ampersand and Mead, but not so keen on Kindle = Fan or the use of non-standard single letter abbreviations such as fellow = F. The latter always seem to me to be a cop-out on the part of the setter.

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