The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27351.
I found this quite a bit tougher than usual for Brummie, with some unusual clue forms, and definitions that I needed to check. When the first two clues that I solved were 6D SPAM and 10A PUNCH, I wondered if we were in for a theme of comedy and satire, but it did not play out; instead, we have a bunch of horses.
| Across | ||
| 9 | RIGHT TURN | Vehicle manoeuvre – real comedy act? (5,4) |
| A charade of RIGHT (‘real’) plus TURN (‘comedy act’). | ||
| 10 | PUNCH | Seaside entertainer‘s sock (5) |
| … and Judy. Double definition. | ||
| 11 | BINGE | Indulge yourself: say “pointed part” backwards (5) |
| A reversal (‘backwards’) of E.G. (‘say’) plus NIB (‘pointed part’). | ||
| 12 | TELEMETRY | Measuring out letter “Y” takes one (9) |
| An envelope (‘takes’) of ME (‘one’ impersonal first person pronoun, accusative) in TELETRY, an anagram (‘out’) of ‘letter Y’. | ||
| 13 | SPATTER | Use sprinkler on second pitch? (7) |
| A charade of S (‘second’) plus PATTER (sales ‘pitch’). | ||
| 14 | SUFFOLK | It’s rotten over in Mood County (7) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of FFO, a reversal (‘over’) of OFF (‘rotten’) in SULK (‘mood’). The county in which I live (but not that one). | ||
| 17 | INCUR | Meet with elected scoundrel (5) |
| A charade of IN (‘elected’) plus CUR (‘scoundrel’). | ||
| 19 | BAY | Tree bark of sorts (3) |
| Double definition – I am trying to grow a bay tree from cuttings at the moment; and ‘bark’ as in “baying at the moon”. | ||
| 20 | LASSU | Glass utility houses slow section (5) |
| A hidden answer (‘houses’) in ‘gLASS Utility’. The slow section of a csárdás. | ||
| 21 | EMENDED | Refined spy boss spelled out “expired” (7) |
| A charade of EM, indicating (‘spelled out’) the letter M (‘spy boss’ of James Bond) plus ENDED (‘expired’). | ||
| 22 | TROTTER | Foot, whose bait drifts downstream (7) |
| Double definition, the second being new to me: a trot or trotline is an angling line stretched across a waterway, from which several baited lines ‘drift downstream’. | ||
| 24 | HIT OR MISS | Unplanned number one, Love Right Girl (3,2,4) |
| A charade of HIT (‘number one’) plus O (‘love’) plus R (‘right’) plus MISS (‘girl’). | ||
| 26 | HOBBY | Predatory bird‘s form of relaxation (5) |
| Double definition. The bird is a falcon. | ||
| 28 | CLUMP | Part of crossword unfinished and afternoon’s over? Clot! (5) |
| A charade of CLU[e] (‘part of crossword’) minus its last letter (‘unfinished’) plus MP, a reversal (‘over’) of PM (‘afternoon’). | ||
| 29 | EQUIPMENT | Sally goes to pieces in film outfit (9) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of QUIP (‘sally’) plus MEN (‘pieces’ on a chess board) on ET (the ‘film’ so useful to setters). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ARAB | Rail, one ascending mount (4) |
| A reversal (‘ascending’ in a down light) of BAR (‘rail’) plus A (‘one’); the ‘mount’ being a horse. | ||
| 2 | AGENDA | The business connecting one with low-down US lawyer (6) |
| A charade of A (‘one’) plus GEN (‘low-down’) plus DA (district attorney, ‘US lawyer’). | ||
| 3 | STREET CRED | Setter’s cryptic clue opening rose to show acceptability with the young (6,4) |
| A charade of STREET, an anagram (‘cryptic’, with the apostrophe s being ‘is’) of ‘setter’ plus C (‘Clue opening’) plus ROSE (‘red’). | ||
| 4 | HUNTER | Watch Diana? (6) |
| Double definition. I would prefer to call Diana a huntress. | ||
| 5 | ANGLESEY | Fish return I agree for island (8) |
| A charade of ANGLE (‘fish’, verb) plus SEY, a reversal (‘return’) of YES (‘I agree’). | ||
| 6 | SPAM | Is a cartographer up for contents of tin? (4) |
| A reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of MAPS (‘is a cartographer’). | ||
| 7 | UNCTUOUS | Oily uranium counts varied round university (8) |
| An envelope (’round’) of U (‘university’) in UNCTOUS, a charade of U (chemical symbol, ‘uranium’) plus NCTOUS, an anagram (‘varied’) of ‘counts’. You can play about with the Us if you wish. | ||
| 8 | AHOY | Crafty greeting applies Henry of York sources (4) |
| First letters (‘sources’) of ‘Applied Henry Of York’. AHOY was used as a clandestine greeting by the Czechoslovak resistance in the Second World War, and has passed into general use in Czech, as both a greeting and a farewell. | ||
| 13 | SHIRE | County person having a fling, noisily (5) |
| A homophone (‘noisily’) of SHYER or SHIER, one who shies (‘person having a fling’). | ||
| 15 | FULL OF HOPE | So optimistic there’s no room for the other two virtues? (4,2,4) |
| A cryptic reference to St. Paul on the three principal Christian virtues: “So faith, hope, and love abide, these three” (! Corinthians 13:13). | ||
| 16 | KNURR | Two kings about to tear around a wood ball (5) |
| An envelope (‘about’) of NUR, a reversal (‘around’) of RUN (‘to tear’) in K plus R (‘two kings’). | ||
| 18 | CHESTNUT | Box fan is brown (8) |
| A charade of CHEST (‘box’) plus NUT (‘fan’). | ||
| 19 | BEDLINEN | Plot mark on new sheets etc (8) |
| A charade of BED (‘plot’) plus LINE (‘mark’) plus N (‘new’). | ||
| 22 | TISSUE | For use when sneeze almost audible? (6) |
| Another clue which resists compartmentalisation: a reference to ATISHOO, the conventional representation of the sound of a ‘sneeze’; ‘almost’ might suggest that the sound (‘audible’) is cut short, but here it is the initial A that is lost when taking the homophone; the clue has a sort of extended definition. There we are: a lot of words trying to explain the obvious. | ||
| 23 | TABLET | Violin’s soundboard temperature, which responds to touch (6) |
| A charade of TABLE (‘violin’s soundboard’) plus T (‘temperature’); the definition is allusive, referring to an iPad or the like, with a touchscreen. | ||
| 24 | HACK | Modest structure has no opening for writer (4) |
| [s]HACK (‘modest structure’) minus its first letter (‘has no opening’). | ||
| 25 | ROPE | Hitch film (4) |
| An interesting clue: both a double definition, and a reference to Alfred Hitchcock, the director of the film “Rope”. | ||
| 27 | YETI | Hairy creature still to secure independence (4) |
| A charade of YET (‘still’) plus I (‘independence’). | ||
An enjoyable solve but quite tough for me. I’ve never heard of KNURR and rail = bar eluded me, so many thanks to PeterO for the help on these and other clues. TISSUE was my favourite and produced a satisfying groan. Thanks Brummie for the fun! If Nila Palin is correct – see yesterday’s blog – tough but enjoyable workouts such as this might soon be a thing of the past. Let us remain optimistic but enjoy these crosswords while we can.
Re 8: AHOY is also a naval greeting, which is what I take the ‘crafty’ as referring to. As a Czech greeting ‘ahoj’ predates the Resistance.
I took as long as a wet week with this one, (or a wet “wig” as I heard in a delightful malapropism recently – and thought yes that actually makes sense). However, I found the challenge fun, so thanks to Brummie.
Like S. Panza@1, I did not know KNURR 16d, but after thinking of RUN for “to tear around”, I stuck it in using the crossers and then came here to confirm, that one being my second last one in. And again like S. Panza, BAR in 1d did not occur to me for ages, and I only filled in that last one because I have seen ARAB used as the word for a horse in previous cryptics. And sorry to sound like a real copy cat, but like Flavia@2, I took “crafty” as a nautical reference in 8d AHOY and loved the misdirection.
Another new word for me was 20a LASSU but that was all the hidden word could be. The HOBBY bird was also unfamiliar. Thanks for these and other parses/explanations, PeterO.
Favourite was 24a, HIT OR MISS.
I’d always thought of BEDLINEN as two words.
Thanks Brummie & PeterO
Thanks Brummie and PeterO.
Very pleasant early morning solve. As they say, every day is a learning day, and three things I’ve found out today are that a KNURR is a wooden ball, a HOBBY is a bird of prey, and LASSU is a slow dance movement.
Onwards and upwards!
Hello from 14 across!
Thanks PeterO for the blog – and of course to Brummie for the puzzle! The ball of wood expanded my understanding of KNURR and, like Baerchen, BEDLINEN as one word was new to me.
And I can spot 11 horses but I suspect there’ll be at least a couple more I have missed.
S. Panza @1.
Fear not, I’m sure Nila Palin was kidding. The reference to The Gambols, a long-running cartoon strip in the tabloids The Daily Express, and (latterly) The Mail on Sunday, is a bit of a giveaway.
Thanks Brummie for another good workout, and PeterO for blogging.
Thanks Brummie and PeterO
When the first pass of the across clues yielded only two, I thought I was in for a challenge. Fortunately the downs were more accessible, and it all went quite smoothly, though I had to check LASSU, and I had an unparsed TROCHEE for 22a for a while (fair enough, as TROTTER was also unparsed!)
KNURR is most commonly found as “knurr and spell”, an old game.
The HOBBY is Falco subbuteo. The inventor of the table football game was allowed to register the name “Hobby”, so he went for “Subbuteo” instead.
For once I spotted the theme very early, with ARAB AND PUNCH, right up my street ( or track). The two possible problem words fell within other interests of mine, which greatly aided the solve.
My favourite was CLUMP, although I nearly went for ‘chump’, the more obvious meaning for ‘clot’, which I would have biffed in. Great clueing from Brummie and fine blog from PeterO. Thanks both.
How many times does an “n’t” get missed out of my posts? I think my keyboard must edit it out! “wasn’t allowed” was intended.
[re the Chambers edition discussion in the Rufus thread on Monday – Chambers Word Wizard online only gives the “incorrect” spelling!]
Brummie seemed to be blowing in from many an odd angle, and i was surprised to be able to tack about and manage. Hardly plain sailing then but got over the line. Nor sure about rose for red, in either sense. I liked rope, and presume that lassu is another spelling for lasso?
In France, when someone sneezes, the conventional remark is “à tes souhaits” (“here’s to your wishes”)
Pretty tough for me. LASSU, HOBBY as a sort of falcon and the angling line were all unknown, though guessable, if not easily gettable from wordplay or def. Enjoyed TABLET, my last in. Missed the not so inobvious equine theme, which given a certain event last Tuesday in this part of the world I should have spotted easily.
A good introduction to the likely rigours of the upcoming weekend.
Thanks to Brummie and PeterO
Thank you, PeterO.
I’m going to be in the minority here but I don’t seem to warm to this setter. It’s not really a question of hard or easy, finished in a normal sort of time, more for me a lack of elegance in the clueing. There are many examples but among the more clunky are Crafty greeting applies Henry of York sources. What on earth does that mean? Or Oily uranium counts varied round university. Wot?
Having got that off my chest, I did tick TISSUE and KNURR.
Nice weekend, all.
Blaise @13. And if they sneeze again, “a tes amours”; don’t know what to say for the next one!
Alan Swale @16. A tes choux peut-être?
Thanks Brummie; nice setting to get in all the themed words.
Thanks PeterO; I gave up on this one as I couldn’t get on the right wavelength. I wondered also about some of the constructions. ‘To secure’ in 27 usually means to me a container. In 12, I would have thought that ‘takes in’ would have given a good surface and been clearer. Interesting after the Arachne discussion of house/houses that Brummie treats ‘glass utility’ as one entity. Perhaps Arachne would have used glass utilities house?
I tend to agree with William @15 that some of the surfaces could have been better.
Pretty straightforward for Brummie with faultless parsing. However, thought many clues had strained surfaces. E.g. 12a, 14a, 20a, 22a, 24a, 3d, 6d, 8d and 18d. I realise this is somewhat subjective and I will probably be put in my place.
Mostly straightforward, though KNURR and LASSU were unfamiliar and a couple of them were tricky to parse. All quite enjoyable, and I did see the theme for once.
Thanks to Brummie and PeterO
William, I quite liked the 7dn. “Oily uranium counts varied around university,” as it pointed me to “unctuous”, a little used word I`d almost forgotten. Good for reinforcing language. (Have yet to complete by the way)
I seem to be the only person who has never heard of CLUMP being used as a synonym for CLOT. Otherwise this was an enjoyable challenge, though as with others LASSU and KNURR were new to me. Thanks to Brummie and PeterO
Flavia @2
Thank you for expanding on 8D AHOY. I should try to remember that what seems to me as too obvious to be worth mentioning may not appear so to others.
lancsolver @22
Think of the original meaning of clot, as in blood clot.
Thanks to Brummie and PeterO. Lots of words already mentioned new to me and I needed help parsing TROTTER, TISSUE, and TABLET. A challenge for me but worth the effort.
Like some others I found this hard work but got there in the end, after looking up LASSU (and I didn’t know the other meaning of TROTTER). Favourites were CLUMP, STREET CRED and HIT OR MISS. Many thanks to Brummie and PeterO.
Thanks both,
A bit of a workout where I needed some help from the check button. When will I learn: 1) See ‘U’ think ‘Q’ and 2) any reference to ‘men’, ‘piece’ or ‘board’ might be about chess?
I’m with you William @15. ” Fish return I agree for island.” Pardon?? There must be a more elegant surface possible for the eminently clueable “Anglesey”, surely?
I would concur to an extent regarding the clunkiness on show today, and themes are as usual getting it in the neck from solvers!
I wonder if it is really worth bothering with overt themes, and ghost themes such as this one do sometimes seem to lead to clueing difficulties. What do others think? Should daily puzzles always be ‘straight’?
I didn’t get the theme but as soon as the blog mentioned horses, it leapt out at me. Foiled again!
I did like this though and I got both KNURR and LASSU even though I didn’t know what either of them meant. SHIRE was my LOI
Enlivened an otherwise dull afternoon.
Thanks Brummie.
I enjoyed this puzzle, clunky surfaces aside. LASSU was new to me also, but that was the only possible answer from the wordplay and crossers. I foind the SE corner the most difficult to complete. TROTTER was my LOI, because I could not understand the “bait drifts downstream” portion, until I googled trotter and fishing and learned about a “Trotter float”, which is what I decided the clue was referencing. I was surprised there was no “Del Boy” approach to the wordplay … said the American whose (very limited) knowledge of Only Fools and Horses derives almost entirely from multiple appearances in past Guardian Cryptics and discussions on the 15^2 blogs of same.
Speaking of horses, I forgot to look for a theme and therefore missed it completely. In retrospect, ARAB, BAY, CHESTNUT and TROTTER should have made it obvious. Now that I have been tipped off about the theme, I also spot HOBBY. Encota @6, you say there are at least 11 horses in this puzzle? Can you (or any other commenter) list them please? I have not heard of a Street Cred Horse, or a Spam Horse or an Unctuous Horse or a Yeti Horse (and is a Right Turn Horse one that can race only on a clockwise track?), so I would enjoy learning the themed answers I missed.
crimper @28, I for one really enjoy both the overt themes and the ghost themes in the daily Cryptics, even if I don’t learn about the latter until I come here.
Many thanks to Brummie and PeterO and other commenters. Have a nice weekend all!
Me @30
I also foind the word “found” to be difficult to spell, apparently, in my last post.
DaveMc @30
I can add SUFFOLK PUNCH, SHIRE, HACK and HUNTER to your list
muffin @32
Thank you! I think that brings the count up to 9 or 10 (depending on whether SUFFOLK PUNCH counts as one or two on the list — it (as I now have learned) is one type of horse but comprises two definitions from Brummie’s puzzle).
Google found references to “spatter horse”, but it seems to be a specific horse called “Spatter”.
“Tablet horse” had lots of hits, but all for “horse chestnut” it seems!
Anybody throw any light on 27346 by Paul? I’m still struggling, and a new Saturday cryptic arrives tomorrow. Can’t find a link here . . . ?
Ah, I see the deadline was this morning, so prize puzzles are dealt with “late”. Inexperience . . . sorry !
Ian Button @35
The blogs of Guardian prize puzzles are published in the very early hours of the following Saturday so only just over six hours to wait for 27346.
Pretty tough – I needed a bit of wiki help, this one needs plenty of GK I think, and not just to spot the theme! Stumped by TROTTER in its fishy sense, and HUNTER (watch), and KNURR, and TABLE in its violin-y sense (though that last I should have remembered from school music lessons).
I did suss out LASSU (which probably foxed a lot of folks) before resorting to wiki. I know a few words of Hungarian, this helped me a bit.
I was about to ask, “what are the other two virtues?”, but I see Peter has explained them. I now recall, wasn’t the third “charity”? No matter.
24a evokes fond memories of Juke Box Jury. The pinger and the buzzer. Who else remembers?
All in all, a decent but challenging work-out, thanks to Brum and Peter.
I always looked forward, and still do, to themed puzzles, in The Guardian and elsewhere. But not everyone does…
A toughie that, I only accepted TROTTER when I saw it is a type of fishing float – thanks PeterO for the parsing. That and the name for a violin soundboard were Internet jobs. Cheers Brummie for the education.
Greensward@7: Perhaps Nila Palin is trying to have it both ways.
muffin @34
I believe that ROPE may be added as the tenth (or eleventh, Me @33) answer fitting the theme. I see that the online Oxford Dictionary contains a definition for the phrase “rope horse”, meaning (in the US) “A horse trained to be ridden by a person lassoing an animal.” [Or LASSU-ing? As noted by Rewolf @12]
FirmlyDirac @38
It depends on the translation: “faith, hope and charity” is still the more familiar, but newer translations prefer “love”; the version I used gives the latter, so “love” it was.
A hugely enjoyable puzzle (at Brummie’s easier end, I thought).
I’ve no problem with themes; when, and if, I spot them it usually adds something (so long as it doesn’t lead to obvious write-ins) and I’m not so concerned about surfaces as some though, like Eileen and others, I enjoy a good “story-telling” surface – particularly when it’s witty, bawdy, topical or political. But I prefer tricksy/puzzling clues over easy, if meaningful, ones and when both come together – well, that’s art innit?!
Thanks to a singularly super setter and a bloody brilliant blogger…
Why is “I” a valid replacement for “independence” ? I haven’t seen that before.
James @44
It is given in Chambers, although I have only come across it in combination – UDI for Unilateral Declaration of Independence.