The crossword may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27287.
This must be my quickest solve ever; the blog would have been out earlier if I had not forgotten that I had volunteered to stand in today!
| Across | ||
| 9 | HINDRANCE | Straying in herd can result in obstruction (9) |
| An anagram (‘straying’) of ‘in herd can’. | ||
| 10 | SHEET | Paper put to bed (5) |
| Definition and allusion. | ||
| 11 | NARRATE | Managed to be back before class to make report (7) |
| A charade of NAR, a reversal (‘to be back’) of RAN (‘managed’) plus CLASS (‘rate’, verb). | ||
| 12 | ELATION | Euphoria makes family member lose her head (7) |
| [r]ELATION (‘family member’) minus the first letter (‘lose her head’ – shades of Arachne!). | ||
| 13 | HOOTS | Expression of disapproval by motorists or Scotsmen (5) |
| Double definition, sharing the first four words. | ||
| 14 | ABDICATES | Gives up office from basic date (9) |
| An anagram (‘from’) of ‘basic date’. | ||
| 16 | INSTRUMENTALIST | One just plays at work (15) |
| Barely cryptic definition. | ||
| 19 | DISCOUNTS | Doesn’t take into consideration special reductions (9) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 21 | COPES | Manages to provide clothing for priests (5) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 22 | POLARIS | Bright star in spiral ring complex (7) |
| An anagram (‘complex’) of ‘spiral’ plus O (‘ring’). | ||
| 23 | ANNUITY | A night in Paris breaks into any kind of regular income! (7) |
| An envelope (‘breaks into’) of NUIT (‘a night in Paris’) in ‘any’. | ||
| 24 | COMIC | Cause of cracks that can bring down the house (5) |
| Cryptic definition. | ||
| 25 | ELEVATION | Part of plans for promotion? (9) |
| Double definition. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SHANGHAIED | Impressed a sailor without his knowing! (10) |
| Cryptic definition. | ||
| 2 | ENORMOUS | Huge portion of chicken or moussaka (8) |
| A hidden answer (‘portionb of’) in ‘chickEN OR MOUSsaka’. | ||
| 3 | BROADS | American girls seen in Norfolk (6) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 4 | ANTE | Hothead raised the stake (4) |
| A reversal (‘raised’ in a down light’) of ETNA (‘hothead’; see Rufus’ cryptic 27263 of July 31). | ||
| 5 | DEFENDANTS | They go to court to protect workers (10) |
| A charade of DEFEND (‘protect’) plus ANTS (‘workers’). | ||
| 6 | ESTANCIA | Ranch where Incas ate, when working (8) |
| An anagram (‘when working’) of ‘Incas ate’. | ||
| 7 | DEMIST | Clear half the street (6) |
| A charade of DEMI (‘half’) plus ST (‘the street’). | ||
| 8 | STUN | Astound without ado (4) |
| ‘[a]st[o]un[d]’ minus the letters of ‘ado’ (the letters of the answer are in the right order, even if those of ‘ado’ are not). I think that ‘without ado’ fits the definition well enough to be an &lit. | ||
| 14 | ADMINISTER | Run and puff — clergyman required (10) |
| A charade of AD (‘puff’) plus MINISTER (‘clergyman’). | ||
| 15 | SATISFYING | Fulfilling the conditions by paying in full (10) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 17 | ROOF RACK | OK for car to be adapted — it’s for carrying more luggage (4,4) |
| An anagram (‘to be adapted’) of ‘OK for car’., with an extended definition. | ||
| 18 | IMPLICIT | Understood I am parking legally (8) |
| A charade of I’M (‘I am’) plus P (‘parking’) plus LICIT (‘legally’). | ||
| 20 | SALOME | Dancer to see in uniform (6) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of LO (‘see’) in SAME (‘uniform’). | ||
| 21 | CANVAS | Is able to get five to like the artist’s work (6) |
| A charade of CAN (‘is able’) plus V (Roman numeral, ‘five’) plus AS (‘like’). | ||
| 22 | PACK | Hounds prepare to travel (4) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 23 | ABEL | Third man sounds competent (4) |
| ‘Sounds’ like ABLE (‘competent’). | ||
Thanks Rufus and PeterO
Entertaining. I particularly liked ANTE, DEMIST and SALOME. ABEL could equally have been ABLE, and 1d simply doesn’t make sense – surely the sailor would know?
I failed to solve BROADS (should have been able to guess this but never heard of that place in Norfolk), and could not parse 13a. Still do not know what HOOTS has to do with Scotsmen!
Thanks Peter and Rufus.
michelle @2
“Hoots, mon, there’a moose loose aboot the hoose!”
1d LOI and like muffin I cant make sense of it either
To shanghai is “to drug or make drunk and send to sea as a sailor”, so he’d be at least temporarily unaware..
Thanks Rufus & PeterO
Re 1D, I think the sailor wouldn’t know, as the term originates from the practice of getting onshore civilians so drunk that they passed out, and when they woke up they were away at sea and hence enforced members of the crew.
Sorry Andrew, I should type faster!
Thanks for explaining that, Andrew and Simon.
Simon & Andrew: OK but in that case they would not be a sailor at the time. Only later, after they had been shanghaied?
Thanks Rufus and PeterO. This was fun. I concur with muffin@1 re his favourites, but would like to add 2d ENORMOUS (pretty obvious – even for me – but still an amusing “hidden”) and 14d ADMINISTER. Somehow I knew about the Norfolk BROADS 3d – perhaps from a novel set there?
PS I also quite liked SHANGHAIED 1d, despite others’ quibbles.
Julie @11
Two of the Arthur Ransome “Swallows and Amazons” books – Coot club and The big six are set in the Norfolk Broads, though neither features the Swallows or the Amazons!
It is perhaps not generally known that most of the Broads are flooded medieval peat cuttings.
Muffin No3
Lord Rockingham’s XI – I think they were a number one hit sometime in the last century…
Thank you Rufus and PeterO.
That was a lovely interlude, and morale booster, while struggling with the Prize. Too many favourites to list all, but the clues for HOOTS, COPES and COMIC made me smile.
HOOTS was a hoot. I too like But I don’t get AD = puff.
paddymelon
AD=advert=”puff”
Thanks muffin … I guessed it was advertisement and what it meant, but have never heard that expression.
Oxford online dictionary gives: British, An advertisement, especially one exaggerating the value of the goods advertised.
paddymelon@15
1892 case of Carlill vs Carbolic Smoke Co, defence claimed unfounded and unreasonable claims for its products were ‘mere puff’. It now means any inflated claim in an ad for a product’s efficacy
Chargehand @13
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/may/31/lord-rockinghams-xi-hoots-mon
Thanks to Rufus and PeterO. I did not know BROADS as a place name and had some difficulty with HOOTS. SHANGHAIED was my LOI (I needed all the crossers). Still, much fun.
Thanks for the blog.
re 1d my 2d worth is that it is a cd cum dd – impressed = shanghaied (pressganged) & ” a sailor without his knowledge” = didn’t know that he was going to be sailing.
Thanks to all those who explained ‘AD’ – a new term for me.
1d and the 10a/7d combo were my last ones in. 10a earned an ‘umm’ from me and 7d became my favourite with 4d close behind.
Thanks to Rufus and to PeterO.
Thanks to Rufus and PeterO. I enjoyed this. But isn’t the ‘to’ in 20 redundant? There isn’t a verb ‘to lo’.
Plotinus @23
Even if there were a verb “to lo”, the ‘to’ in the clue would be just as redundant. Apart from making surface sense, I suppose that the (questionable) justification for ‘to’ in these circumstances is as a link between definition and wordplay.
Like Julie in Australia @1d, I liked SHANGHAIED — in fact it was my FOI. LOI for me was ESTANCIA. The anagram of “Incas ate” to make a word meaning “ranch” was obvious, but I was unfamiliar with the term estancia for ranch and had to make an educated guess as to where to insert the E, T, N and I, once all of the crossers were in. Favorites for me were DEMIST and PACK. Thanks Rufus and PeterO.
John E @19: Thanks for the link to the track by Lord Rockingham’s XI! Enjoying it now.
I thought SHANGHAIED rather good and I liked DEMIST, although it took me a while to see it.Standard Rufus fare but enjoyable nontheless. I’ve spent most of today cutting hedges and was forced to stop because of the sunshine! What’s going on? This is a bank holiday!
Thanks Rufus.
John E at 19
Thanks for the link. Brought back at lot of memories.
All enjoyable enough. Very straightforward though SHANGHAIED held mu up a bit. Incidentally muffin – my memory of the Ransome books set on the Broads is that they did feature the usual cast – the locals Dick and Dorothea were added and feature in some of the later books set elsewhere…
[BH
Sorry to contradict. “Coot Club” has Dick and Dot (who first appeared in “Winter holiday”, and also were in “Pigeon post”, “Picts and martyrs” and “Great Northern?”), Tom Dudgeon, Port and Starboard and the Death or Glories; they reappear in “The Big Six”. Perhaps you are thinking of the Pin Mill ones – “We didn’t mean to go to sea” has the Swallows; “Secret Water” (set in Hamford Water, near Walton-on-the-Naze) has Swallows and Amazons.
My specialist subject on “Mastermind” perhaps?]
Oh well my memory must be faulty but I have not read any of them for over 40 years so that is not surprising…
[I still read the ones I like from time to time – “Winter holiday” every time it snows!]
I am an American, but failed to get BROADS as a term for girls. I’m actually happy about that.
Thanks, PeterO and Rufus.
I thought 23ac was brilliant. 😉
Muffin@30
“The Picts and the Martyrs” to be pedantic in this home of pedantry. I aim to start out again on re-reading all twelve in the new year. Favourites are Coot Club and The Big Six as I spent so many holidays on the Broads between the ages of 9 and 33.
Pino @35
Quite right! Several I read regularly, as I said (not “Peter Duck”, “Missee Lee” or “Great Northern?” though), but I think that “Swallows and Amazons” is the perfect children’s book.
Back to our muttons.
Thanks to Rufus for the usual wit and clear surfaces and to Peter O for the blog.
slipstream @33
Haha – as a fellow American, I get where you are coming from with BROADS! I didn’t fail to get the correct answer for 3d (thanks to my being a fan of old movies – see below), but I agree that to use the term “American girls” as the definition suggests that “broad”, as a term for a woman, is currently in broad use (if you’ll pardon my wording) in the USA, which in my experience is not even remotely accurate. The only instances that I can think of in which I have heard “broad” used to refer to a woman are in movies depicting gangster slang from the 1930s (in which the term seemed to be more or less interchangeable with “dame”, but neither term connoting a great deal of respect for the woman to whom the speaker was referring), or perhaps in a sitcom like “All in the Family” where Archie Bunker was a character who was defined by his being a behind-the-times male chauvinist (among his other illiberal qualities).
[Hmm, now that I think of it, I’m willing to bet that a certain He Who Must Not Be Named, who is sadly temporarily occupying a very high office in our land, has probably also used the term “broad” during his decades of public jackassery.]
Incidentally, “broad” is far from the only term that I have seen in the Guardian Cryptic (among other UK crosswords) referred to as an “American” usage, when in reality nobody in America uses the term, or at least nobody these days. However, at the moment I can’t think of any others. But its all part of the fun and challenge of solving, so I’m not complaining!
“movies depicting gangster slang from the 1930s (in which the term seemed to be more or less interchangeable with “dame””
My memory of its use is by Marlowe as in “From what I hear this blonde broad was just a shill for Geiger”.
The term ‘broad’ appears in books by Linda Fairstein – detective stories set in New York – but always seems to me (as an English person) to be a strange word to be used by a policeman about a lawyer. I’m glad to have this confirmed here.
By the way, in case my references to All in the Family and Archie Bunker above were obscure to anyone not from the USA, my understanding is that that show (which is considered to be among the best American sitcoms ever) was strongly based upon and inspired by a BBC sitcom called Till Death Us Do Part. I’ve never seen the latter, but would like to do so someday.
I’m late enough getting to this that probably nobody is paying attention, but nonetheless …
I thought this was definitely one of the more enjoyable Rufuses (Rufi?), with wit and some misdirection. A couple of quibbles: Polaris is actually a pretty faint star — it’s noteworthy for its special location, not its brightness. And “legally” (adverb) can’t clue “licit” (adjective).
But put me down as pro-“Shanghaied”. “Enormous” is cleverly hidden, and I love the compact construction of the &lit clue for “stun”.