Guardian 27,249 – Maskarade

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It was a surprise to see Maskarade’s name today, as he has previously only mostly appeared as a setter of bank holiday specials…

… but the reason soon became clear, as the letters around the boundary read MASKARADE REACHES AGE OF SEVENTY, so I presume today is his birthday. He featured in meet the setter a few years ago, so you can read about him and his other pseudonyms (some of which appear in this puzzle) there. (Contrary to the misleading URL, Otterden is not one of them.)

I found the puzzle mostly quite easy, with some very obvious clues, but almost came unstuck in the SE corner, where things get a bit obscure. Fortunately the Nina was some help here. There’s a mistake in 5d. Thanks to Maskarade (et al) for the puzzle, and many happy returns.

 
 
Across
7. YOU SAID IT I entirely agree Daisy is wrong accepting French alternative gin’s partner (3,4,2)
OU (French “or”) in DAISY* + IT (as in “gin and it”)
8. INDIA Juliet’s predecessor: one needing first aid, on reflection (5)
I + N[eeding] + reverse of AID. India precedes Juliet in the NATO phonetic alphabet, though I see that technically Juliet is spelt Juliett there, apparently to help French speakers
9. TRANSPORT Delight on large troopship? (9)
Double definition
10. DRYAD Wood nymph‘s uninspiring notice (5)
DRY + AD
12. NERINE Endear fiancee regularly for a Guernsey lily, for example (6)
Alternate letters of eNdEaR fIaNcE. The Guernsey lily is Nerine sarniensis
13. STOCKADE Defensive barrier, square, for rebel holding king (8)
S[quare] + TO (for) + K in CADE, the famous rebel, who I don’t think we’ve seen for a while
16. ELANETS Leanest flying kites (7)
LEANEST* – a genus of kites
19. COMRADE Doc embraces member backing eastern chum (7)
ARM in DOC, reversed, + E. Doc is one of Maskarade’s other pseudonyms
22. ET CETERA Greek character touring Crete, swimming and so forth (2,6)
CRETE* in ETA
25. RAGUSA Initially, Alan the entrepreneur returns to Mediterranean island city (6)
Reverse of A[lan] SUGAR. Ragusa is a city on Sicily
27. STAFF Teachers‘ pole (5)
Double definition
28. OPODELDOC Veteran officer in charge keeps unusual dope for local medication (9)
DOPE* in OLD O[fficer] C[ommanding] – it’s a kind of liniment
29. FORTH River abroad (5)
Double definition
30. SUPERRICH Price rush organised for millionaires’ class (9)
(PRICE RUSH)* – Chambers does give this as a single word, though only as an adjective. Looking online for the noun, as needed here, I found a mixture of “the super rich”, “the super-rich” and “the superrich”
Down
1. MONROE Actress, who is no more, sadly (6)
(NO MORE)*, and the whole clue is also a definition: Marilyn Monroe died almost 55 years ago, on 5 August 1962. I was too young at the time to know who she was, but I remember my mother being very upset at her suicide
2. ASUNCION Celts, leaving consultancies, organised capital (8)
Anagram of CONSULTANCIES less CELTS – it’s the capital of Paraguay
3. SIMPLE Help mistress, partly upset and guileless (6)
Hidden in reverse of hELP MIStress
4. KINROSS Sink or swim, for a start, maybe here in Scotland (7)
Anagram of SINK OR S[wim]
5. ANORAK Some Atlantean or Kässbohrer would certainly interest him! (6)
This is clearly mean to be a hidden answer, but it doesn’t work – changing the clue to read “AtlanteAN OR A Kässbohrer” would fix it. Atlanteans and Kässbohrers are both types of bus, which a bus-spotting anorak might be keen on. Anorak is another of the setter’s pseudonyms, as is Busman.
6. RIBALD Coarse Italian patriot, somewhat (6)
Part of gaRIBALDi
11. GOZO Green cross on Mediterranean island (4)
GO (green, as in traffic lights) + ZO, the crossword setter’s favourite crossbreed, with lots of alternative spellings. Yet another pseudonym – today’s FT crossword is set by Gozo: I haven’t solved it yet so don’t know if it has a birthday-related theme
14. A-HA Group topped ditch (1-2)
HA-HA (ditch) minus its first letter
15. ERE Old prior, as hermit losing a wee amount (3)
ERE[mite] – prior = before
16. EVE Dusky maiden? (3)
Double/cryptic definition – eve[ning]s may be dusky
17. ARC Electrical discharge caused by car crash (3)
Hidden in (“caused by”) cAR Crash
18. TEEN Young Treherne appearing regularly (4)
Alternate letters of TrEhErNe
20. REGULARS Customers who have taken vows? (8)
Double definition – a regular can be a customer of a pub, or (new to me) “a member of a religious order who has taken the three ordinary vows”
21. EARPLUG Means to close entrance to labyrinth? (7)
Cryptic definition: the labyrinth being part of the inner ear
23. TATTOO Display and make lace as well (6)
TAT (make lace) + TOO
24. EFFETE Decadent English/French social function (6)
E + F + FETE
25. RED SEA Its partition was booked (3,3)
Cryptic definition, referring to the parting of the Red Sea in (the book of) Exodus
26. SCONCE Shelter for fine candlestick (6)
Three definitions: a shelter or earth work; at Oxford University, a “fine” paid by drinking a large amount of ale; and a candlestick, usually mounted on a wall

51 comments on “Guardian 27,249 – Maskarade”

  1. Happy Birthday Tom.

    Maskarade has three previous appearances other than the bank holiday specials, most recently 26914 in June 2016. Unfortunately I saw the early comments on the Guardian page before tackling this one, which made it much easier, firstly to realise that there would be a Nina and secondly to guess what it would be. This made the solve considerably easier than it would have been. There were a few unfamiliar words – ELANETS, NERINE, OPODELDOC and RAGUSA, but these were all fairly clued. I suspect the missing A in ANORAK was a typo, but it should have been spotted. All very enjoyable.

    Thanks to Maskarade and Andrew

  2. Thanks Maskarade (congratulations) and Andrew

    Odd one for me. I had it almost half done in no time, then ground to a halt. I wouldn’t have completed if I had seen the partial Nina and guessed what letters would finish it (I wonder what BNTO would think of that?); even then some word searches were needed.

    I had LATEENS first for 16a. They’re triangular sails, so might have been referred toas “kites”!

    Pity about the (editorial?) slip at 5d.

  3. “hadn’t seen”, not “had seen”. That mistake happens so often for me that I’m starting to wonder if my computer is filtering out “n’t”s!

  4. Thanks, Andrew, and Bonne Anniversaire to Maskarade. Please, someone, tell me what ‘Nino’ and ‘BNTO’ mean.

  6. Thanks for another great blog, Andrew.

    Congratulations, Maskarade and welcome to the seventies! [I’m chuffed to find I share a birthday with you – have a lovely one! 😉 And thanks for the interesting puzzle.]

    As has been said, the Nina certainly helped with some unknown words, although, as BH says, they were all fairly clued, anyway. It’s a real shame about 5dn: as Michael Curl tells us on his ‘Best for Puzzles’ website, “Tom is also interested in public transport and is the author of ‘Malta Bus Handbook: Buses of Malta and Gozo'”.

  10. I’m sure I’ve seen 27a a few times recently! Funny how the same clues come in bunches like that… I must say I personally found this an uphill struggle – several words or definitions were new to me and a few pennies simply refused to drop.

    Thanks Maskarade for a tough workout (and happy birthday!) and Andrew for throwing some much-needed light on Elanets and Oxford drinking penalties, among other things…

  14. Happy Birthday to Eileen and Maskerade – the second crossword today where spotting the Nina helped no end.

    Thanks to Andrew too

  15. Thanks to Maskarade and Andrew, very enjoyable (with one exception) and a few new words learnt.

    I agree with Hovis @11 that crash as an anagrind in 17 works better.

    Even without the apparent typo I think 5d would have been a very weak clue, having painted himself into a corner Maskarade appears to have just made a mad dash for the door rather than pick his way out thoughtfully.

  16. The setter’s pseudonym Doc also appears in 28a. And the Anorak crossword in this week’s New Statesman has a similar nina with “… Anorak reaches seventy”

  17. Wonderful nina – many happy returns to Maskarade. I’m not fond of alphabetical jigsaw puzzles, so my heart sinks a bit when I see his name, but this was good fun. Spotted the nina when had done the top half, so it was rather useful. OPODELDOC was, needless to say, last one in.

  18. Thanks to Maskarade and Andrew (and happy birthdays to all). I could not parse YOU SAID IT and had trouble with more than the usual number of items new to me: NERINE; ELANETS; RAGUSA; OPODELDOC; KINROSS; GOZO. A challenge.

  19. Happy Birthday Maskarade, Eileen and the French – who will be hoping for some success in the Tour de France today.

    I forgot to look for a NINA, so wondered why it was such a difficult grid with a Pasqualian vocabulary, doh!

    I failed to find ANORKA in the dictionaries before the PDM!

  20. Happy birthday to Eileen & Maskarade.
    If you could just let me have your mother’s maiden name and the name of your first pet to enable me to update my records? 🙂

  23. @poc
    A-ha is a Norwegian band from the early 80s, famous for their slightly oddly titled debut hit “Take on Me” and a Bond movie theme song.
    I imagine Tom has the T shirt

  24. Happy birthday Maskarade and Eileen.

    I did not notice the Nina until after I had solved the puzzle, though I had wondered why Maskarade appeared today, a public holiday here in France but not in the UK – had I done so, it certainly would have helped.

    I loved the clue for EARPLUG!

    Thank you Andrew for a helpful blog.

  25. I share the happy birthday wishes for our clever setter Maskarade and our intelligent solver Eileen.

    Sadly I missed the nina, and must admit I was a bit stuck trying to get several of the aforementioned difficult or unfamiliar words.

    I agree with Cookie about 21d – EARPLUG was my favourite.

    My LOI was FORTH 29a – possibly one if the simpler clues but there are so many rivers in the world, at home and abroad!

    Appreciated Andrew’s blog for helping me to parse some dodgy guesses only achieved through the use of crossers.

  27. Unable to complete the last few without help. However, all fairly clued I felt except 13A. Using S as an abbreviation for ‘square’ and ‘for’ as a synonym for ‘to’, especially in the same clue is a step too far for me.

  28. Great puzzle, and a notable one from Maskarade. Met him at the Boatman event in Brighton, where he explained a little of his setting techniques, especially on the big specials. A lovely chap.

  29. exbrit @16 Thanks for saving us the bother of having to do the New Statesman crossword by revealing the nina. Sure I can find something else therein to justify my £4.50.

  30. Happy birthday Eileen and Masquerade. Someone is going to have to explain oz to us as we can’t find a relevant definition on good old Google. Thanks to everyone.

  32. Happy Birthday to Maskarade and Eileen.

    I really liked EVE and EARPLUG, but found a good number of the things I don’t really like, in terms of style & grammar etc, dotted around the puzzle. There were also the (for me) 6 obscure words that maybe belong in a more ‘serious’ puzzle.

    Thanks all.

  33. Tenerife Miller @30/31
    From Chambers:
    zho (also zo, dso, dzho or dzo) a kind of hybrid domestic cattle found in parts of the Himalayas, said to be a cross between the male yak and the common horned cow

  34. @Van Winkle 29
    The New Statesman is not blogged on this site and the nina isn’t solved. Let me know if you succeed.

  35. exbrit @34 – many apologies – your original post did read like you were giving away a key part of the solution to the crossword (which I don’t usually look at until the weekend)

  36. A sconce is not a candlestick. Their shapes are quite different. 25dn is absurdly under-defined. Too many other poor clues to list.

  37. Too hard for me today, or at least the SE corner was – the NW, in contrast, was dashed off early on. Even stuff I got, like GOZO, passed me by in parsing. And it’s all very well to triple define SCONCE but if you know none of them it’s no help! Had I got the nina, then in retrospect the remainder might have got biffed in.

    Just one thought: millionaires are SUPERRICH? Billionaires, surely, given property inflation.

  38. Crossbencher @ 36

    From Chambers

    1. A candlestick or lantern with a handle
    2, A bracket candlestick

    Seems fair to me.

  39. I didn’t spot the Nina- when do I ever and I came a cropper by putting BLOCKADE for 13 ac which rather screwed KINROSS which became my LOI. I puzzled over the excellent EARPLUG for quite a while too! Most of the rest I thought rather good give or take an OPODELDOC or two. I did like TATTOO.
    Happy birthday, Maskarade.

  40. Thank you Andrew and Maskerade.

    Happy birthday Tom from two fellow Brummies who also started crosswords with the Birmingham Mail.

    And happy birthday Eileen.

  42. Had to have the Nina pointed out to me, but enjoyed this – thought the clues for “earplug” & “Red Sea” especially good. I don’t usually complain about words being obscure (thinking rather that it’s just my fault for not knowing them!) but I think the term can be fairly used for “opodeldoc”. Having said that, it is in Chambers but my knowledge of medical terminology is more than slightly lacking when it comes to Paracelsius!

    Thank you to Maskarade & Andrew; happy birthday wishes to both the setter & Eileen.

  43. As Eileen says the FT puzzle (which is a doddle compared to this) remembers Bastille Day.

    I have just returned from Nice and the length of the Promenade now has regular one foot bollards cemented in. As well as protection they will be a tragic reminder for future generations of last year’s stupid atrocity.

  44. Agreed Crimper! Not a fun penny-dropping kind of puzzle. And 5d added insult to injury for me. Hmmmm

  45. re 11d, I knew the word ZO having used it many times in the past, in Scrabble (until we came to an agreement to ban it, along with JO). A very useful way of getting rid of the Z! So GOZO went in after a lot of misdirection (I was wracking my grey matter for an island containing an X!).

    I cannot see SUPERRICH as one word. I put it in but reluctantly.

    After a lot of pondering I guessed that there was an error in 5d. Usually the Graun posts a correction on the web page, but they don’t seem to have done so at time of writing this (9pm).

    Too many words I’d never heard of. I mean – I’m familiar with at least two species of kite (the Red Kite (Milvus milvus) the only British species, and the Black Kite (M. migrans), common on the Continent. But ELANETS was totally beyond my ken – as were many other words in today’s puzzle….

    Oh well…..

  46. I don’t know what is worse.

    Is it the poor quaity of this puzzle with it’s contrived nina and awful cluing or is it the fact that this proves beyond doubt that our illustrious ed is AWOL!

    As with all puzzles from this setter this was no fun whatsoever.

    OPODELDOC !!!! (Come on BH, tell us how many times has his appeared in the Guardian? 😉 ) However it i3s at least a real word apparently unlike one of the other answers.

    A total fiasco.

    P.S. I didn’t like this 🙂

  47. Brendan @ 46

    The worst is your punctuation and grammar. Suggest you use the preview button.

    PS Why not give some slack to a setter celebrating his 70th birthday?

  48. Birthday or not, I agree with BNTO @46. Way too many obscure definitions and references. I gave up after writing in “Anorak” and trying for ages to figure out how the K and A were reversed in the clue. Had no idea it was another of the author’s pseudonyms.

  49. Simon S @47
    I share your sentiments. (I’m saddened by the lack of joviality in one or two posters’ words today.)
    There’s much to celebrate, not least, a cracking nina.
    Many happy returns, Eileen and TJ – and many thanks to you both.

  50. Simon S @47

    Your comments on my grammar and punctuation are most erudite! But stupid. A place for everything etc.

    P.S. A guess you still understood what I said.

    P.P.S. I though this board was for comments on a puzzle and not to celebrate some stranger’s birthday? I stand corrected yet again 😉

  51. Very clever I’m sure but I’m pleased to see that someone else has dared to criticise both the obscurity of too many clues/answers in the puzzle and the continued congratulations.

    I have no objection to the nina though, which I only spotted while pointing out to my partner what an awkward grid it was (having got the 1st 3 down clues) – the first nina I’ve ever spotted so I was chuffed. It also help us move beyond half way in this puzzle to abandoning it with 3 unsolved.

    I take my hat off to Andrew for getting to the bottom of this toughie.

    BTW I reckon its car* rather than an embedding

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