Guardian 27,348 – Imogen

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I found this slightly easier than Imogen can sometimes be, but nevertheless challenging in parts. Very elegant clueing throughout – thanks to Imogen.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
9. ADORE A child-killer commonly rejected love (5)
A + reverse of [h]EROD – child-killer in the Massacre of the Innocents, as described in Matthew 2:16
10. ELABORATE Worry about work in America and Spain being complicated (9)
LABOR (US spelling) in EAT (worry) + E (Spain)
11. LEFT BRAIN Did without underclothing at home — that’s supposedly logical (4,5)
LEFT BRA IN. The left hemisphere of the brain is supposedly the “logical” side
12. EDICT Order the Chambers app? (5)
The app would be an E-DICT[ionary]
13. MODISTE Dressmaker Tom dies in agony (7)
(TOM DIES)* – fancy dress shops sometimes have “Modes” as part of their name
15. ROSELLA Flyer‘s overalls not very messy (7)
OVERALLS* less V – the Rosella is a kind of parrot
17. MARSH Area that’s wet and hot on planet (5)
MARS (*planet) + H
18. ALL Impudence, sacking good-for-nothing? On the contrary (3)
GALL (cheek, impudence) with the G removed or “sacked”. Almost a “lift-and-separate”, in that the hyphens need to be removed
20. DOLLY Hello — a toy (5)
A kind of double definition, if you regard the dash as a blank to be filled in, giving the name of the famous musical
22. AMBROSE A doctor grew up to be saint (7)
A + MB + ROSE – St Ambrose was a 4th century bishop of Milan
25. UPSILON Erected missile site north in Europe, you say (7)
UP (erected) + SILO + B, Upsilon is the Greek letter corresponding to U (“you”)
26. VISOR Consultant drops notice in a flap (5)
ADVISOR less AD (notice)
27. BEHOLDING To open self up, keep observing (9)
HOLD (keep) in BEING (self)
30. PRONOUNCE I, say, come for vacation, say (9)
PRONOUN (of which “I” is an example) + C[om]E “vacated”
31. CROFT Smallholding in credit regularly (5)
CR + OFT
Down
1. HALL Intelligent computer left in dining room (4)
HAL (computer from the film 2001, A Space Odyssey) + L
2. CONFIDER One passing on secret award I’d received (8)
ID in CONFER (to award)
3. VERB Reverberate, for example, but not much (4)
Hidden in reVERBerate, and “reverberate” is itself an example of a verb
4. DE VALERA Out of uniform, mark down artist for head of state (2,6)
DEVALUE less U + RA – Éamon de Valera was both Taoiseach and President of Ireland at various times
5. GARNER Gather foreign station is accepting new recruits from the front (6)
N in GARE (French for station) + R[ecruits]
6. SOBERSIDES Sedate type is troubled with bedsores (10)
(IS BEDSORES)*
7. DANIEL Book up a little table in a diner (6)
Hidden in reverse of tabLE IN A Diner
8. BEST Defeat good enemy? (4)
Double definition, from the saying “the best [or sometimes the perfect] is the enemy of the good”
13. MOMMA Parent‘s second novel not opened (5)
MO (moment, second) + [E]MMA (Jane Austen novel)
14. SCHOOLROOM North African ladies, hard up, follow such regulars into place of learning (10)
Alternate letters of SuCh, + reverse of MOOR (African) LOO (toilet, e.g. Ladies)
16. ARYAN A line authentic Nazis put first (5)
A RY (railway, line) + A[uthentic] N[azis], &it
19. LAUGHTER Howl perhaps that’s horrible subsequently suppressed (8)
UGH (“that’s horrible!”) in (suppressed by) LATER
21. LOLLIPOP Bounce clumsily along holding a coin for sweet (8)
1P in LOLLOP
23. BISHOP Man‘s encore: to go on one leg (6)
BIS (what the French say when we would say “encore”) + HOP. A Bishop is a chessman
24. EBBING The tide may be heading away from part of duck’s foot (6)
[W]EBBING
26. VAPE Very intelligent creature to avoid cigarettes? (4)
V + APE
28. LICK Use tongue for a short musical phrase (4)
Double definition
29. GO-TO So useful a person wasn’t paid anything? (2-2)
Someone who wasn’t paid anything GOT 0

46 comments on “Guardian 27,348 – Imogen”

  2. Thanks Imogen and Andrew
    I always start an Imogen puzzle hoping that I’ll enjoy it more than the last one, but that rarely happens, and certainly not today.

    You’ve missed 31, Andrew CR(edit) OFT, which (if that’s right) I was going to complain about – we had this a couple of weeks ago; “regularly” isn’t the same as “often”.

    FOI was HALL, and I didn’t like that one either – the sort of “halls” that I’ve dined in weren’t ordinary rooms.

    I didn’t like LAUGHTER either, but that was my fault, as I’d parsed it as L (“hell”??) followed by a homophone of “after”.

  3. Struggled to completion, but completely missed the theme. Some legends here, and I hope that the Aussies don’t prove to have such quality in the forthcoming series.

  4. Thanks to baerchen for pointing out the (existence of the) theme, which I totally missed; also to muffin for noting the missing 31a – now restored.

    I should have mentioned that “hall” is used at Oxford and Cambridge colleges, and probably elsewhere, to mean the dining hall, so I think “dining room” is fair. And “regularly” is regularly (!) used to mean “often”, so I don’t have a problem with that equivalence.

  5. Andrew @4
    Exactly my point – the dining hall at my Cambridge college could seat several hundred diners, so was only a “room” in the sense that it had walls and a ceiling!
    I won’t repeat the argument about often=regularly.

  6. Thanks both.

    Small typo at 25a – “B” should be “N”. Personally I thought Europe was too vague as an indicator for Greece in this clue.

  7. Do MARSH and ROSE(lla) qualify for the theme, or are they just coincidences? The others have a more specific connection (Tino must be pleased to be associated with the greater names, though!)

  8. Struggled a bit with this, but just about got there in the end, though I came here for some of the parsing. Just couldn’t see the child killer in 9a (*sighs*) – and consequently dithered between ADORE and AMORE for that.

    The theme is cricketers, yes? Didn’t notice that at all. Even when pointed out it took a while for the penny to drop.

    Despite all that, I found this very enjoyable. 12a made be smile.

    Thanks Imogen and Andrew.

  10. I found this tough and needed all your help Andrew. For once I spotted the theme – surely Windies fast bowlers so no Marsh or Rose – but it did not help much, and yes muffin, Tino finds himself in exalted company. Pity ‘whispering death’ Holding couldn’t have been found a place. Many thanks Imogen for reminding us of some horrible thrashings!

  12. Thanks Andrew for parsing the child killer.
    I forgot that Imogen sometimes does themes so thanks @baerchen for reminding me.Mostly bowlers and all-rounders but I didnt know George ever played Cricket (I know Botham played football)And where does Daniel fit in?
    I enjoyed this anyhow.

  16. Thanks Imogen; tough as always but fair.

    Thanks Andrew; I was going to object to Hello as a definition of Dolly but the dash (what’s that called?) saves it. As has been pointed out, there is a typo in 25, and isn’t the definition: ‘in Europe, you say.’ I took a long time to spot the reverse hidden DANIEL – very nice.

    Didn’t have a chance with the theme until S. Panza @10 clarified it.

  20. Baerchen @15 I didn’t spot the theme while solving, but aren’t the first three letters of Devalera thematic? Dollydevalera seems a bit of a stretch!

    PS you’re missed on the other side

  23. I am a cricket nut and I failed to spot the theme until I reached Cross bar’s entry. The theme is tidiest if you ignore Marsh and Dolly and stick with West Indian quicks. Meanwhile there was plenty more to struggle with and we had a very late breakfast. Several new words for me didn’t make life any easier. Not to much to raise a smile but I did like VERB. Thanks for the blog, and the contributors who have come to my rescue.

  24. @Malcom
    the theme is a list of surnames of some fast bowlers who played cricket for West Indies
    Gary SOBERS(ides)
    Malcolm MARSH ALL
    Wayne DANIEL
    Colin CROFT
    Michael (be)HOLDING
    Sir Curtly AMBROSE
    Wesley HALL
    Joel GARNER
    Ian BISHOP
    possibly Carlisle BEST

  26. Found this too difficult but got most of it after a long struggle. A great setter who invariably beats me on several clues, which I need now and then to get me to improve. I had parsed LAUGHTER as (s)LAUGHTER with S for subsequently removed/suppressed, missing your much more obvious parsing.

  28. Nicely-handled theme. It’s usually safer, as far as I can reckon, to have a ghosted rather than an overt one, and this works well for me.

    Thanks both.

  29. baerchen @ 24: I think the most likely BEST is fast bowler Tino, who (when batting and failing to slog the ball) received Flintoff’s sledge “Mind the windows, Tino!” and (I think) was stumped next ball trying to repeat the shot

  31. Thanks to Imogen and Andrew. Like Hovis @26 I opted for (s)LAUGHTER. As a cricket novice I had no access to the theme and needed help parsing DOLLY and BEST. Still, lots of fun.

  32. All very clever, but a pretty tough solve, particularly this early in the week. I saw the theme pretty early – it helped a little but not much!

    Thanks to Andrew and Imogen

  33. Re the cricket theme. The definition in 31a for (Colin) Croft is (Gladstone) Small (Michael) Holding. Although Small played for England, he was of WI origin.
    A tricky puzzle for me.
    Many thanks Imogen and Andrew.

  34. Missed a few and did not spot theme, well I don’t know any quicks. Quite a tough puzzle, I enjoyed things like VAPE, EDICT, LEFT BRAIN, ADORE, PRONOUNCE and more.

    Many thanks Imogen, thanks Andrew, and thanks Baerchen etc for enlightening comments

  35. I did about 50% of this in a medical waiting room. ‘Fraid I wasn’t interested enough to pick it back up later. Clever stuff, though.

  36. Stared blank-faced at this for some time then one penny dropped followed by one or two others then steady progress to completion. Didn’t see the theme at all so didn’t need it. Thanks to everyone

  37. Difficult. Many I couldn’t parse, just write-ins from the defs. – which is less than satisfying. But I liked LOLLIPOP (good bit of misdirection, trying to anagramise ‘bounce’). Also SOBERSIDES (ditto – ‘sedate type’* ?? Was looking out medical terms for ‘bedsore’ but nothing would fit…)

    I never thought I’d finish this one, but just about managed. Was toying between BEST and BEAT but eventually plumped for the correct one!

    LOI? Believe it or not, the 3-letter one, ALL! Usually I try to get those first. Excellent wordplay!

    So: these cricketers. Are we meant to be with WI only, or do other countries qualify? I remember DOLLY well – the one whose attempted inclusion cause all the kerfuffle with SA – now thankfully part of history.

    Thanks Imogen (albeit rather frustrated) and (*scrolls up*) Andrew.

  38. Actually, I just realised, the themer at 17a is not MARSH (Rod M, Aus wicketkeeper), but, combining with 18a: MARSHALL (Malcolm M, WI fast bowler). So it fits the WI theme perfectly. Nice work!

  39. Too difficult for me but I really liked BISHOP and EDICT.

    Can someone explain why the ‘h’ was dropped from Herod? Is that a social class thing slamming “common” speech?

  41. BlueDot: I’m not so sure about the class thing, but the dropping of aitches is certainly common, in the sense of “general”, in the speech of the locals here in Leeds and indeed many other places, including the East End of London.

    I did this early this morning and I’m a bit late to comment, but I remember finding this more difficult than Nutmeg’s usual offerings. As usual, missed the theme – cricketers, whether fast or slow, are in no way a specialist subject of mine! Thank you Nutmeg & Andrew.

  42. I think you can add 20 & 21 tangentially to the theme, as they are sorts of deliveries, as referred to by one G Boycott, that the WI quicks didn’t produce very often.

  43. Another busy day at work, and another late-ish post by me. I found this puzzle to be a real challenge, but very satisfying whenever I could get the penny to drop — even when I parsed a clue incorrectly (I parsed SLAUGHTER like Hovis @26 and ACD @31). My favorites included LICK, LOLLIPOP, and DOLLY. SOBERSIDES and ROSELLA were both new to me, and I only guessed them from the wordplay and the crossers. The theme completely eluded me, as what very little knowledge I have of cricket comes almost exclusively from these puzzles, which I find usually incorporate the glossary of the sport (such as “OFF”) rather than the names of individual players. Many thanks to Imogen and Andrew and commenters (and — why not — I’ll go ahead and join JuneG @41 in thanking Nutmeg as well).

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