Guardian 27,362 – Paul

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A superb puzzle from Paul that revealed its secrets satisfyingly and not too quickly.

I was rather surprised to find, after getting a few answers in, that there seemed to be a theme of collective nouns (or more specifically terms of venery), only two days after Phliistine’s puzzle with a similar theme on Tuesday. Here things were the other way round, so to speak, with the collective nouns appearing in the clues, and the animals they refer to appearing as answers or parts thereof. Spotting the theme early on was a help, even though some of the terms are a bit obscure (at least to me). Thanks to Paul for a very enjoyable and challenging puzzle.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. COVER GIRL As do commissioner, Senegalese and classic beauty? (5,4)
GIRLs of various kinds are ‘COVERed’ by comMISSioner, seneGALese and cLASSic
6. BUCK Resist male (4)
Double definition (the first as in ‘buck the trend’)
8. TIMOROUS Cowardly old Italian PM wearing outfit the wrong way round (8)
[Aldo] MORO (Prime Minister of Italy in the 60s and 70s, kidnapped and murdered by the Red Brigades) in reverse of SUIT. Thanks to Greensward and mynollo for correcting my original incorrect parsing
9. NO-GOOD Worthless slime’s parting bow (2-4)
GOO (slime) ‘parting’ NOD (bow)
10. RAVENS Unkindness in party needing sympathetic leaders (6)
RAVE + N[eeding] S[ympathetic] – unkindness is one of several names for a group of ravens
11. ADMONISH Scold male, splitting up hunk and husband (8)
M in ADONIS + H[usband]
12. SEPTIC Bad quotes recalled, including one from Plato (6)
P[lato] in reverse of CITES
15. TARRAGON Egypt’s last king inspired by old queen’s home cooking ingredient (8)
[Egyp]T + R (king) in ARAGON (home of Henry VIII’s first wife)
16. ORIENTAL No regret for Piaf in smearing of alto from 1 down, say? (8)
RIEN (from the song Non, je ne regrette rien, as famously sung by Edith Piaf) in ALTO*
19. SPLASH Cut around page, newspaper’s lead story (6)
P in SLASH
21. CHEETAHS Coalition charlatans, by the sound of it? (8)
Homophone of ‘cheaters’. Coalition is a collective term for cheetahs
22. FINISH Close school during breaks (6)
FISH (school – another collective) ‘broken’ by IN (during)
24. BOWELS Interior alone ultimately in British parliament (6)
[alon]E in B + OWLS (parliament of …)
25. GRAPHITE Lead in pencil I gather erroneous — this the stuff? (8)
P (leading letter of pencil) in (I GATHER)* – the so-called lead in pencils is actually graphite
26. KNIT Combine equipment, including pole (4)
N in KIT
27. SPEED TRAP Device used by police ending in convictions — not entirely shallow then, on reflection? (5,4)
[conviction]S + reverse of PART DEEP (‘not entirely shallow’)
Down
1. CHINA Punch a delicate thing (5)
CHIN (to punch) + A
2. VIOLENT Wild flower containing nectar, primarily (7)
N[ectar] in VIOLET
3. ROOKS Building — criminals removing roof (5)
[C]ROOKS – like their cousins the ravens (and crows – see 7d), rooks have several collective nouns, including ‘building’
4. INSTANT Second wind isn’t always necessary then, initially (7)
Anagram (‘wind’ to rhyme with ‘bind’) of ISNT , + first letters of Always Necessary Then
5. LANDMARKS Recognisable features, with a thousand in exaltation (9)
AND (with) M (1000) in LARKS (exaltation of..)
6. BEGONIA Plant, a big one that’s monstrous (7)
(A BIG ONE)*
7. CROSSBOWS Spooner’s chief murder weapons (9)
Spoonerism of BOSS CROWS (murder of..)
13. EARTHBORN Abhorrent jerks created like humans, say? (9)
ABHORRENT*
14. CATHARSIS Emotional relief, as Tom is obliged to admit stress-related injury (9)
CAT + RSI (repetitive strain injury) in HAS (is obliged)
17. ELEMENT Part water, perhaps? (7)
Double definition, with water as one of the four classical elements
18. LASAGNE Food on Italian table, dip in way (7)
SAG in LANE
20. LUNCHER One starting to miss a diner (7)
LAUNCHER less A
22. FRAUD Union member translated duck’s opening quack (5)
FRAU (German for ‘wife’, a ‘union member’) + D[uck]
23. SIT-UP Lifting positions inspiring one exercise (3-2)
I in reverse of PUTS (positions)

46 comments on “Guardian 27,362 – Paul”

  1. Thanks Paul and Andrew

    Very enjoyable, though at times it felt like drawing teeth (especially in the NW, last to fall). For once I saw the theme; I had guessed CHEETAHS from the definition, then Googled to find “coalition”. Next in was BOWELS – I knew “parliament of owls), so I immediately highlighted all the other clues that included a collective noun I knew – I didn’t recognise “building of rooks” though.

    Favourites were COVER GIRL, EARTHBORN (I love an unexpected anagram) and the brilliant &lit GRAPHITE.

    The only thing I didn’t like was “including one from Plato” for P in SEPTIC>

  3. Thanks, Andrew. I totally agree with the first sentence of your preamble – superb stuff!

    After Tuesday, a real pdm when the theme emerged early on. Favourite non-theme clues: 11 and 15ac.

    Many thanks to Paul for the fun – most enjoyable.

  7. baerchen@2 a Guardianship of……
    Someone on the Graun site wondered what a collective name for groundhogs would be.

    Enough of that -great puzzle and blog-and very entertaining cricket.

  8. Greensward and mynollo, you are both quite right. I was so sure that the PM was MORI that I didn’t notice I was wrong when I looked him up to check the dates, or indeed that my parsing was wrong. I’ll correct the blog.

  10. Lovely puzzle. For once I noticed the theme, and knew most of the collective nouns. Coalition of cheetahs was a new one, though.

  11. Thanks Paul and Andrew.

    I also got a bit stuck in the NW corner; I couldn’t see where the S for Senegalese fitted in, doh! Great clue, which I failed to parse.

    I’m surprised that Paul didn’t put a number one in the clue for SPEED TRAP.

  13. Tough and enjoyable but I do wish Paul (still my favourite compiler) wasn’t quite so fond of a certain device: seen here in 10ac, 24ac, 2d, 4d and 22d.

  15. Thanks both. Found this tough but great fun. Ticks everywhere.

    Minor gripe at FRAUD, though. Not quite fair to use a German wife with no hint of language, European etc.

    I was going to suggest that Andrew’s Terms of Venery might be a bit off since (as far as I know) one doesn’t hunt cheetahs – at least not nowadays, but perhaps this was just coincidence.

    Super stuff from Paul today, and nothing for the prudish to have a vertical mouth about.

    Nice week, all.

  16. Enjoyable and challenging – just the job for a wild winter’s day here in Lancashire. Thanks to Paul and Andrew (especially for his parsing of COVER GIRL)

  17. Lots of ticks and like muffin I thought the abhorrent anagram was superb – we spent ages working on it as the definition. And 25 was another great example of the many ways in which the English language can be used to mislead (ha ha). It was also very misleading to find 2d was a flower ? not a flower! And the school to be fish not sch. All in all a great workout from Paul with a matching blog from Andrew – thanks to both.

  18. Brilliant! Loved the Spoonerism at 7d, the first of my themed answers. Baerchen@2 if I was to make up a term, I’ll go with a coincidence of cryptics.

  20. Does anyone (Gaufrid?) have a direct line to Hugh S? I’d be interested to know whether the appearance of two puzzles with similar themes in the same week is by design or chance? Having failed miserably on Tuesday the theme leapt out at me today. Thank you.

  22. The building of rooks and coalition of cheetahs were both new to me. Otherwise, this was quite a treat.

    A building of rooks would be a rookery, wouldn’t it? Incidentally, one of the classic buildings in downtown Chicago is called the Rookery; it incorporates a lot of rooks into various design details in tribute to its name.

    Happy Thanksgiving to those Americans among you.

  23. The collective nouns were good fun and I learnt a few along the way. Not part of the theme, but I thought COVER GIRL was v. original and as others have said EARTHBORN was a sneaky anagram.

    William@15, the ‘hint of language’ you mention for FRAUD is given by ‘translated’ – that’s how I parsed it anyway.

    A big thanks to Paul and Andrew

  24. WordPlodder @23: Of course, thank you. I’d spent a long time convincing myself that translated meant ‘read it backwards’ and that ‘union’ was yet another collective noun. (A union of hyenas?!)

  26. Found this one at the tougher end of Paul’s range but once I got LANDMARKS after CROSSBOWS I realised what was going on, and this made the rest quite a bit friendlier. Shame it was published so soon after Philistine. I did like COVER GIRL.

    Thanks to Paul and Andrew

  27. Baerchen @2 How about an accident or an oversight or even a mistake.
    Great crossie and blog. Thanks Paul and Andrew!

  28. Thanks to Paul and Andrew. Very enjoyable. I did not parse COVER GIRL, did not know RSI = repetitive strain injury for CATHARSIS, and had not come across CHIN(A) as “punch.

  29. Another super Paul. I wasted too much time on 7d convinced the chief murder(er) referred somehow to main Cain. Must learn to reread the clue when in doubt.

    Thanks Paul, Andrew and all contributors.

    Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate.

  30. Thank you Paul and Andrew.

    More animal fun. I got a surprise on first looking at the blog, since I only knew the word venery in the other sense, and wondered what collective nouns relating to VD might be hidden in the clues, has Paul ever clued these?

    The clue for COVER GIRL was great!

    Happy Thanksgiving to the Americans who celebrate.

  31. To Cookie @30. You are quite correct to cover my gaffe. I should have said to all who celebrate today. I am a Brit expat who does celebrate today and am very much aware that elsewhere it is on a different day. No offence meant to anyone.

    Time to start cooking…

  35. This was excellent even if it was a bit of a struggle – especially down the SW. SEPTIC,BOWELS and CHEETAHS were all lovely but were my last ones in. I didn’t know “coalition and “building” we’re collective nouns but Philistine’s puzzle earlier in the week made me alive to the possibility.
    Great fun!
    Thanks Paul.

  36. Well, after Philistine, this has to be a coincidence, right? But one couldn’t get very far without being aware of the theme, this time. Yes, I smelt a rat (or should that be, a <colony of rats? 🙂 ) fairly early on in this puzzle! And I guessed that the occurrence of both “Parliament” and “Murder” wouldn’t be anything to do with Guy Fawkes….

    And at least, I knew the other senses of SCHOOL, PARLIAMENT and MURDER – and vaguely recalled BUILDING – although for rooks I thought PARLIAMENT was again the more usual collective. UNKINDNESS rang a bell somewhere (was it one of Edgar Allan Poe’s bells perhaps?) But COALITION was entirely new to me. Surely (donning a David Attenborough hat) cheetahs are, like most cats, solitary animals, so you don’t get to see several of them in a group, ever?

    I missed COVER GIRL but probably just as well I did, considering the inherent sexism in the clue. (Was thinking of COVER BILL as what the [Met Police] Commissioner does – but couldn’t make sense of the rest of it.)

    So apart from 1a, excellent work from Paul as usual. Thanks to him and Andrew.

  37. Another great puzzle from Paul – looked extremely difficult at first (GRAPHITE being my FOI) but yielded gradually to determination. Once I had finally spotted the theme I started to search the clues for other possible collective nouns, and it went a little quicker from there. You would think that “exaltation” and “parliament” appearin in the same set of clues might have alerted me earier, but meh. Hard to pick a favourite, but 1ac stands out for inventive and unusual clueing.

  38. Yes – I too have just realised that “exaltation” is in the theme as well. I misread it as “exultation” being a vague synonym for “larks” – as in Joe Gargery’s oft-repeated phrase “What larks, Pip, what larks!” But now I’ve looked up “exaltation” I see it!

  39. AND another coincidence, to add to the Paul/Philistine one: in The Times today the clue for 21d was ‘Member of parliament, apparently sleeping, now dismissed (6)’ – the member being one of the OWLS of Paul’s 24a. Paul does evidently set sometimes for The Times, though maybe not today. I came late to the Guardian tonight and endorse all the praise.

  40. Thanks to Paul and Andrew.

    baerchen@2 Going by the temper of Tuesday’s blog perhaps a “Division” of etc.?

    All in favour?

    Oh….

  41. A very enjoyable puzzle and I was helped by the references to collective nouns this time!

    I failed to solve 10a and could not fully parse 1d and 27a.

    My favourites were COVER GIRL, CATHARSIS, NO-GOOD, CROSSBOWS, FRAUD, ORIENTAL.

    Thanks Paul and blogger

  42. By now it’s probably just me and the crickets in here, but I just wanted to add my praise of this puzzle (and my now-belated Thanksgiving good wishes, for those who celebrate this holiday). I loved, and was not at all perturbed by, the collective nouns theme, which to me was a complement to Tuesday’s puzzle. I was pleased to see in 2d that sometimes a flower is just a flower. Many favorites, but topping the list for me were CROSSBOW and COVER GIRL. Many thanks to Paul and Andrew and other commenters.

  43. Thank you so much, Andrew, for the explanation and Paul for the puzzle. With a little help from testing vowels in the Southern half I managed the crossword but could not parse some of it, given the number of those collectives I did not know. The one that too longest was to grap why Frau/wife is a union member, but as I type the question I have understood: union = marriage. Penny drops!

  45. this puzzle was in the weekly just before Christmas so I came to it today. my second in was wrong… 26ac ring (n in rig) meaning a combine such as a criminal ring.

  46. Peter @45 — I starte with ring too.  Thought of kit but not of knit, an kist didn’t work.

    A cryptic collective for grounhogs would be a GOSH.  Too bad nobody will see this.

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