The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27314.
Thank you, Shed, for a sound puzzle which I found not too difficult to solve and blog on a night when choir practice severely limited the time I had available.
| Across | ||
| 4 | AMPERE | A French parent adopting Portugal’s current unit (6) |
| An envelope (‘adopting’) of P (‘Portugal’, IVR) in ‘a’ plus MÈRE (‘French parent’). | ||
| 6 | OFFSHOOT | Branch frequently receiving loud order to go away (8) |
| An envelope (‘receiving’) of F (forte, ‘loud’) plus SHOO (‘order to go away’) in OFT (‘frequently’). | ||
| 9 | PISTON | Reported drunk on machine part (6) |
| A charade of PIST, sounding like (‘reported’) PISSED (‘drunk’) plus ‘on’ | ||
| 10 | BOAT RACE | Snake given hint of annual contest (4,4) |
| A charade of BOA (‘snake’) plus TRACE (‘hint’). | ||
| 11 | STOURBRIDGE | Town in the Midlands turned around opening of televised game (11) |
| A charade of STOUR, an envelope (‘around’) of T (‘opening of Televised’) in SOUR (‘turned’, of milk, say) plus BRIDGE (‘game’). | ||
| 15 | TEARFUL | T-telling-off for being lachrymose (7) |
| A charade of ‘T-‘ plus EARFUL (‘-telling off’). | ||
| 17 | BUMMOCK | Tramp’s parody of Orcadian brew (7) |
| A charade of BUM (‘tramp’) plus MOCK (‘parody’, verb). New to me, but Shed was kind enough to make the wordplay obvious. | ||
| 18 | MOTHER’S RUIN | Gin or meths? (7,4) |
| A wordplay-in-the-answer: an anagram (RUIN) of MOTHER’S is ‘or meths’, for the apposite rhyming slang. | ||
| 22 | CASANOVA | Ladies’ man‘s old hospital round interrupts drink (8) |
| An envelope (‘interrupts’) of SAN (‘old hospital’) plus O (’round’) in CAVA (Spanish bubbly, ‘drink’). | ||
| 23 | SIMILE | Look pleased about one figure of speech (6) |
| An envelope (‘about’) of I (‘one’) in SMILE (‘look pleased’). | ||
| 24 | RESONATE | Strike a chord with judge holding bouquet the wrong way round (8) |
| An envelope (‘holding’) of ESON, a reversal (‘the wrong way round’) of NOSE (‘bouquet’, of wine in particular) in RATE (‘judge’). | ||
| 25 | TALMUD | Law curtailed lecture on dirt (6) |
| A charade of TAL[k] (‘lecture’) minus its last letter (‘curtailed’) plus MUD (‘dirt’). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ARDOUR | Passion‘s audibly more macho in the East End (6) |
| Sound like (‘audibly’) [h]ARDER (‘more macho’) with the H dropped (‘in the East End’). | ||
| 2 | AFFORDABLE | Cheap gold and diamonds in friendly environment (10) |
| An envelope (‘in … environment’) of OR (‘gold’, heraldic) plus D (‘diamonds’, suit in bridge, for example) in AFFABLE (‘friendly’). | ||
| 3 | ISOTHERM | Head of Meteorology differs, first drawing line on her map (8) |
| A charade of IS OTHER (‘differ’) plus M (‘head of Meteorology’), with ‘first’ indicating the order of the particles. Note the Arachnoid use of the feminine gender. | ||
| 4 | APPOSITE | A quiet river on location – just the job! (8) |
| A charade of ‘a’ plus P (piano, ‘quiet’) plus PO (‘river’) plus SITE (‘location’). | ||
| 5 | PASTORAL | Prince of the Stars embracing love of country (8) |
| An envelope (’embracing’) of O (‘love’) in P (‘prince’) plus ASTRAL (‘of the stars’). | ||
| 7 | OMAN | State beheaded Italian (4) |
| [r]OMAN (‘Italian’) minus its first letter (‘beheaded’). | ||
| 8 | THEW | Article on women’s muscle (4) |
| A charade of THE (definite ‘article’) plus W (‘women’). | ||
| 12 | RELATIVITY | Scientific theory of shared confidential knowledge not beginning to involve backstory (10) |
| An envelope (‘to involve’) of ELAT, a reversal (‘back-‘) of ‘-story’ in [p]RIVITY (new to me, but of obvious derivation, ‘shared confidential knowledge’) minus its first letter (‘not beginning’). | ||
| 13 | BOTULISM | Poisoning slut, I melted into rising crowd (8) |
| An envelope (‘into’) of TULIS, an anagram (‘melted’) of ‘slut I’ in BOM, a reversal (‘rising’ in a down light) of MOB (‘crowd’). | ||
| 14 | SKINHEAD | Expose skull of aggressive youth? (8) |
| A charade (want to make something of it?) of SKIN (‘expose’) plus HEAD (‘skull’). | ||
| 16 | FEMININE | Girly artist with sunny exterior (8) |
| An envelope (‘with … exterior’) of EMIN (Tracey, ‘artist’ beloved of setters) in FINE (‘sunny’). | ||
| 19 | SPINAL | Drinks up, carrying home type of tap? (6) |
| An envelope (‘carrying’) of IN (‘home’) in SPAL, a reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of LAPS (‘drinks’). | ||
| 20 | ACER | Plant playing card right (4) |
| A charade of ACE (‘playing card’) plus R (‘right’), for the maple genus. | ||
| 21 | ISIS | Deity lives twice (4) |
| A charade of IS (‘lives’) plus the same (‘twice’). | ||
I enjoyed that puzzle, gin or meths at 18A my favourite, also a favourite Kirsty Maccoll song.
Although you’ve given the right reason for 1D, PeterO, you’ve got the wrong answer showing – it’s ARDOUR not amour
I’d never heard of bummock either, but the Bishop of Orkney was always offered it, so that’s good enough for me
Thanks PeterO and Shed
Nice pleasant puzzle to solve before the rigours of the day kick in.
18a is probably the perfect clue – a masterpiece of brevity. Never heard of TALMUD, but 9ac called to mind the old joke about the drunk coming across a motorist who had broken down. Piston broke? Me too.
Thanks Shed and PeterO
Hi PeterO. I had trouble equating to “her” in the clue for 3d as it parses without it. I thought it was just a red HERring and now you tell me its Arachnoid.Get back to your choir practice immediately!
Lovely clues, very enjoyable. I seem to remember Crucible being a little tougher in the days of “WE JOHNS” aka Biggles.
Thanks Shed and PeterO
Always happy to add to my vocabulary, so welcome, “privity” and BUMMOCK.
Other than that, a pretty comfortable solve with MOTHERS RUIN the highlight.
Thanks, Shed and PeterO.
Thanks Shed and PeterO
Mmm – I don’t remember Shed being as easy as this. BUMMOCK the only unfamiliar word and, as you say, Peter, easily constructed from the clue. (PRIVITY I guessed as being related to “privy”.)
MOTHER’S RUIN my favourite too. I also liked BOAT RACE and ISOTHERM.
A pity that Shed couldn’t make SPINAL 11 across or down!
Wondering about the “rhyming slang” explanation for 18a – what does MOTHER’S RUIN rhyme with? Though Partridge in 1937 says: “Some claims have been made that this should be noted as a piece of rhyming slang; the rhyme is certainly slurred enough for gin to be an influence”, but I think he was being tongue-in-cheek…
I needed some help with the parsing. At 22a, I’d got “O” for old and “SAN” for hospital and assumed “round indicated that the order is reversed. I thought this was not very elegant, so thanks PeterO for showing me the more parsimonious route.
I had to check the definition of “privity”, but could only find it defined in a legal sense – the principle that a contract should not impose obligations on those who are not parties to the contract. Not the same as “shared confidential knowledge”.
And thanks to Shed of course for an enjoyable puzzle, which for once with this setter I could finish.
Thanks Shed, PeterO
18a stood out, otherwise a bit humdrum. Eg, ‘plant’ on the beginning of ‘playing card right’ seems mechanical
Trismegistus @6
“I had to check the definition of “privity”, but could only find it defined in a legal sense …”
Under privity:
Chambers – 5. Knowledge, shared with another, of something private or confidential
Collins – 2. Secret knowledge that is shared
Many thanks, Shed and PeterO.
Nothing to add, really, except more praise for the brilliant MOTHER’S RUIN.
Thanks, Gaufrid @8. I had no doubt that there IS a non-legal meaning to PRIVITY, just that my half-hearted and lazy search online didn’t find it. And it’s not in my OED, so time to buy a proper dictionary I guess.
Thanks to Shed and PeterO. Like others, loved 18a. Not too difficult for a Thursday.
iguana2go @1
I did get 1D ARDOUR right first time, but there was a glitch in the access to PeeDee’s utility that I use, and the answer was not saved; I bunged in the wrong answer on review, managing to bypass the utility’s built-in checking. Corrected now, along with a couple of other things that I overlooked in the rush to publish.
brilliant puzzle today, I am only sorry I could not parse RELATIVITY.
Thanks Shed and Peter0 for a relatively gentle (for Shed) solve on the train to Edinburgh.
The lovely 18ac reminded me of one of my favourite clues: “Flask of mother’s ruin (7)”
Thanks both,
Loi were 11, which I could not parse, and 17, which I had never heard of. Otherwise, a straightforward puzzle that gave a good start to the day, but I shall be forced to resort to conversation, again, at lunchtime.
I also found this puzzle enjoyable but not next-level great; did not know BUMMOCK but felt no other answer could work based on the wordplay; and thought MOTHER’S RUIN was clearly the COD. Being originally from Massachusetts, where many of the towns are named after towns in England, I knew “Sturbridge”,which was an aid (again along with wordplay that led directly to the correct answer) to getting STOURBRIDGE, which was unfamiliar to me. I did not see what would make a BOAT RACE an “annual” contest (although I enjoyed the boa trace wordplay), and I was wondering why “drawing” was in the clue for 3d, but these are minor quibbles. Many thanks to Shed and PeterO.
DaveMc @ 16. The annual Varsity Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge is just one of those things every Brit knows about, but which has no currency abroad.
Thanks both. I share with Trismegistus@6 a doubt about MOTHER’S RUIN being rhyming slang. I think it refers to the popularity of gin with poor women, as shown by Hogarth’s Gin Lane
Thanks to Shed and PeterO. I needed Google to confirm STOURBRIDGE and BUMMOCK and ISOTHERM was my LOI. Enjoyable.
This puzzle
May be gentle for Shed but it still stretched me to finish it. Like everyone else I saw 18a as the stand out clue – and one of the best for ages – but only after I’d come here to get the parsing. Until then it had a ? rather than a 🙂 by it. Other favourites which I did parse were OFFSHOOT and BOAT RACE.
I’m surprised no one has challenged FEMININE as a synonym for girly – my cursory search didn’t come up with it. And whilst 17a is gettable is the clue really tight? What part does the ‘s play in the solution? I can see it’s needed for the surface, but as Tramp is not the definition shouldn’t it be accounted for in the solution? I look forward to being enlightened.
Thanks Shed and PeterO.
A very neat and pleasant solve as always from shed. BUMMOCK was new to me, and SPINAL was last in.
Thanks to Shed and PeterO
@18 Shirl – A bottle of gin followed by a hot bath was also recommended for inducing an abortion, and there is a theory that “Mother’s ruin” is derived from this practice. But I think Hogarth illustrated a more plausible and straightforward explanation.
WhiteKing @20
‘girly’ raised an eyebrow for me also, but it is more a matter of idiom than meaning, and Chambers does give for girly (as a second meaning, after the photo bit) the more neutral – and closer – “of, relating to or stereotypically characteristic of girls”.
As for the apostrophe s in 17A, I think it must be read as short for “has”, just indicating the juxtaposition of the particles; not my favourite device, but one that setters find too useful to ignore.
Auriga @17
Thanks for your explanation of “the”, not “a” Boat Race. I always learn new things when I come here!
DaveMc & Auriga @16, 17
Whatever its merits, it’s not quite true that it has no currency abroad. See, for example, this: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2008/dec/09/rowing-boat-race-oxford-cambridge for international viewing figures (200 million). Although, I suppose use of the bare descriptor ‘the’ might be limited to the UK.
@20 WhiteKing,
I was happy with girly for feminine but it raised a chuckle for me as I doubt Tracey Emin would consider herself a ‘girly’ artist (I know that isn’t how it’s intended).
I agree that the ‘s is redundant in 17 but I was glad it was there if only for the journey, the parsing of the unfamiliar bummock was fairly straightforward but a quick search on the phone didn’t elicit the intended definition so I went off looking for a suitable tramp, ended up back where I started having learnt a few things – who knew that icebergs consist of hummocks and bummocks (and can they add it to my spell checker please)! Possibly my favourite clue of the year!
I agree with the misgivings about ‘mothers ruin’ as rhyming slang, partly because it doesn’t really rhyme but also because I’d seen it attributed to the gin house / diy abortion sources as noted above.
@3 Copmus
Ellie Highwood is president of the Royal Meteorological Society so maybe it’s a nod to her (or Liz Howell, at the BBC)?
Great stuff. I echo the praise for MOTHER’S RUIN. And there were some really nice amusing surfaces, e.g. 1d and 13d.
Sorry to be a bit off the point but wondering if anyone can help resolve the new problems viewing the crossword using android phone? Is impossible to see the bottom part of the grid when keyboard active. Already have problems putting letters in (have to tap letter then space then next letter and so on). If you know how to overcome these problems or where I might turn for help… Thanks
@16 DaveMc
I think ‘drawing’ is mainly there to make the surface read better but it’s well chosen and works if interpreted as either equalling as part of the definition (a line joining points that draw in temperature terms) or pulling as part of the wordplay (the sense of drawing out one part of the clue from the other).
A good solve, though like some others I had no idea what was going on in RELATIVITY. By contrast MOTHER’S RUIN comes from an ace clue, of a type I like.
Thanks all
Slightly easier than the usual Shed, I thought.
Like every everyone else I loved 18 but did not agree with the rhyming slang.
Is there a recognised name for this type of clue, I always admire them?
We seem to be getting rather an easy ride this week- this will come back to haunt me I don’t doubt- and this was no exception. Highly enjoyable and well crafted as is usual with this setter. I didn’t know the PRIVITY of 12dn but it sounded OK. I liked BOAT RACE and MOTHERS RUIN. I spent some time trying to find some sort of “trap” for the latter to no avail.
Enjoyable, as I said!
Thanks Shed.
Like an idiot, I came here to find out why M is an abbreviation for Portugal! 🙁
I found this quite hard to finish off, getting bogged down in the NE. Cracking AFFORDABLE broke the logjam.
In 17, I read it as the phrase “Tramp’s parody” being synonymous with a BUM MOCK, rather than as noun + verb.
I’m another who’s unfamiliar with BUMMOCK, but I enjoyed tracking down the meaning in an old Scottish dictionary via Google.
Pleasant, but not overly taxing, puzzle.
Thanks, Shed and PeterO.
Thanks PeterO – I hadn’t thought of the ‘s as “has” – only as “is” or “his/her”. And also to phitontelly for your interpretation.
Thanks Shed, excellent fun.
I had to look up BUMMOCK, TALMUD & THEW, all great words.
MOTHER’S RUIN made my day. Never thought of it as cockney.
Im sensitive to sexism, but girly taken literally I think is absolutely fine for feminine, as would be womanly. One of those cases where the solver adds connotations that aren’t necessarily there – such is the delicate art of misdirecting surface readings.
Many thanks PeterO for an excellent blog
Dutch – I completely agree that it is the solver’s connotation. As with everything I It’s the story we tell ourselves that makes the meaning for us – the words themselves are just words. My reaction was “really – is girly an appropriate synonym for feminine?” rather than “technically, is it a synonym?” I was interested to know if anyone else had this reaction – and it seems not, or if they did they’ve better things to do than post here. Thanks for engaging in a conversation.
WhiteKing @37 and elsewhere
I think the lack of comment on your worries about the use of “girly” were that people didn’t understand them.
Certainly in the North the use of “girly” in the sense of feminine is very common.
For instance if a chap turns up in the pub sporting a nice pair of lilac trousers he might get a comment along the lines of “…..very striking but a bit girly….”
SOED has
girlie ?g?:li ? Also girly. m19.
…
B adjective.
1 Girlish; characteristic of or appropriate for a girl. l19.
Someone just told me that #TearfulBummock is now trending on Twitter.
@BTNO it may be common but it’s still sexist.
As is ‘slut’ at 13d. Crosswordland is still in the dark ages unfortunately.
MF
MF @ 40
You really do sound a bit blokey.
Opps, sorry, that’s sexist.
A most interesting and enjoyable puzzle. Like others, I don’t recall coming across either BUMMOCK or PRIVITY before, and I particularly enjoyed 18ac (MOTHER’S RUIN). Thanks, Shed.
Hi Simon.
Happy to discuss sexism with you. It’s rather nuanced, and you don’t seem to have quite grasped it.
My point is that, with a handful of exceptions, male crossword setters ought to be a bit more modern with their words choices. That’s all.
MF
I do not comment very often on a Shed puzzle.
And, initially, I thought I’m not gonna do it tonight either.
No, I am not going to join the ‘sexism’ discussion (because I am quite sure Shed isn’t one – see also 3d (which is, we thought, a bit of a messy clue)).
After solving, I just thought This crossword is so easy, why will this puzzle probably be treated as a more challenging one than yesterday’s Chifonie.
Some words Shed uses are often quite unusual (it’s not just Pasquale!) like today Bummock etc.
But let’s face it, while surfaces are surely less simplistic than Chifonie’s, most constructions are very straightforward, a lot of charades and obvious definitions (like in 4ac or 15ac).
It is not criticism, just a thought.
18a was, also for us, an absolute gem.
But I had a think about it at the time of solving.
It is clearly (OR METHS)* but when you see the solution (Mother’s Ruin), (MOTHER)* might have done the trick even better.
But then we wouldn’t have had this wonderful clue.
Again, not criticism, just a thought.
Funny that nobody made a reference to the ultimate rock spoof This is Spinal Tap.
It was Tramp who once built a whole puzzle around it.
Anyway, a good crossword (like the vast majority of Guardian crosswords, in my opinion) in a so-so week.
Many thanks to PeterO and Shed.
Sil @44
That was what me comment about not placing SPINAL at 11 referred to!
muffin @5 made a nuanced reference to Spinal Tap.
As far as the sexism goes, “girly = feminine” would only be non-sexist if you would accept in your crossword grammar (eg) that “elephant-like = mammalian”, as girls are only a subset of human females. Otherwise you would be saying that being a “girl” is an essential part of being female.
As this site’s customary guardian of Guardian morals, there does recently appear to have been less of the tiresome casual sexism that is almost characteristic of the crossword setter, along with an obsession with trollops/sluts/dishes/etc and drug-taking. In which respect Shed missed an opportunity in not knocking the “s” off “meths” in 18a.
MF @40
Sorry but you’re talking crap!
If “girly” is sexist then so is “feminine” as they have the same meaning.
“Girly” really does mean like or suitable for a girl. No innuendo and it is not derogatory.
A word can obviously have several meanings. The fact that one of them has been condemned as sexist or offensive by the obsessive half-witted PC crowd doesn’t mean that everybody is forbidden to use the word in any situation.
Hi PeterO,
If I’m not too late…
Please tell me what you mean by ‘Note the Arachnoid use of the feminine gender’ Thanks.
Nick @48
PeterO was referring to the fact that Arachne (one of the top-notch setters for The Guardian Cryptic) is well known for, among other things, using feminine gender pronouns in clues for which the answer is not gender-specific. A “she” or a “her” might appear in a clue for which the answer is, say, a word like “editor” or “plumber” or “professor” or “captain” (but not a gender-specific term like “policeman”, although perhaps Arachne would never set a puzzle having “policeman” as one of the answers!).
I expect others could post better, and more specific (as in actual) examples than I have done — if only they were still looking at this blog!
Anyway, the point is that Arachne regularly challenges — and she is correct to do so — the societal (dare I use the word “sexist” again, which has made many appearances in the blog posts above) convention or assumption that a masculine gender pronoun is appropriate to use as a default term, when referring to a person whose gender is either unknown or irrelevant. I hope that answers your question. I hope you are still reading this!