Guardian 27,436 by Orlando

by

Apologies for the delay in getting the blog to you. The puzzle can be solved online here.

A neat, straightforward and entertaining start to the week, with a puzzle full of clean surfaces.  I liked the long anagrams, but my favourite clue was 11dn (“measure up” for “height” – very good).

Thanks, Orlando, for a gentle start to the week.

Across
1 BREAK IN Make submissive burglars do this (5,2)
Double definition
5 SPARED Treated mercifully, padre’s converted (6)
*(padres)
9 ODDMENTS Eccentrics with empty tins for scraps (8)
ODD MEN (“eccentrics”) with T(in)S
10 MISSUS Fail to catch American wife (6)
MISS (“fail to catch”) + U.S. (“American”)
12 SLEDGEHAMMER Tool for hard labour damaged hedge in prison (12)
*(hedge) in SLAMMER
15 OUT OF RANGE Too far away from the mountains? (3,2,5)
Double definition, the second mildly cryptic.
17 LIE Whopper claimed when odds are ignored (3)
(c)L(a)I(m)E(d)
19 TUG Yank backing good German (3)
<=GUT (“good” in German, backed)
20 SUSTENANCE Unseen cats desperate for nourishment (10)
*(unseen cats)
22 GREENFINCHES Seeing French dicky birds (12)
*(seeing french)
26 PAINTS Artist’s materials are not commonly found in the outskirts of Paris (6)
AIN’T (“are not, commonly”) found in P(ari)S
27 VICTORIA One coming out on top — one with a carriage (8)
VICTOR (“one coming out on top”) + I (one) with A
28 EGGNOG Extremely entertaining gentleman offering drink (6)
Extremes of E(ntertainin)G G(entlema)N O(fferin)G
29 DOWAGER Advice ignored by the risk-averse woman of property? (7)
DO WAGER (“advice ignored by the risk-averse”)
Down
1 BLOW Drug left in London area (4)
L(eft) in BOW (“London area”)
2 ENDS Tips? Tips from eastern diners (4)
Tips from E(aster)N D(iner)S
3 KEEP LEFT Don’t part with remaining traffic sign (4,4)
KEEP (“don’t part with”) + LEFT (“remaining”)
4 NOTED Famous saw (5)
Double definition
6 PRIMAL First mate crossing border (6)
PAL (“mate”) crossing RIM (“border”)
7 RESEMBLING Like men, gerbils stray (10)
*(men gerbils)
8 DISORDERED Confused police officer’s given command (10)
D.I.’s (Detective Inspector’s, so “police officer’s”) + ORDERED (“given command”)
11 HEIGHT Hornblower’s first crew measure up? (6)
H(ornblower) + EIGHT (rowing “crew”)
13 COTTAGE PIE Dish providing home with constant energy (7,3)
COTTAGE (“home”) with PI (“constant”) + E(nergy)
14 STAGGERING Incredible male with ginger snap (10)
STAG (“male”) + *(ginger)
16 ANUBIS Nubia’s false god (6)
*(nubias)
18 UNDERTOW Movement of water round wet rocks (8)
*(round wet)
21 ONE-TWO Couple of punches beginning to count (3-3)
Double definition
23 CHILD Minor country almost heading for disaster (5)
CHIL(e) (“country”, almost) + heading for (i.e. first letter of) D(isaster)
24 BRIG Sailor’s last in large ship (4)
(sailo)R in BIG (“large”)
25 HAIR Musical chairs without wings (4)
(c)HAIR(s)

*anagram

46 comments on “Guardian 27,436 by Orlando”

  2. Thanks Orlando and loonapick

    Suitably easy for a Monday, but a real delight. So many good clues, but I’ll just mention GREENFINCHES, PAINTS, RESEMBLING and HEIGHT.

    Can I claim any credit for not knowing BLOW as a drug?

  3. Comfy start to the week. Pretty much filled at the first pass though the southeast corner took a bit longer – 18 down just stumped me for a bit. Liked the clueing of 7 down – straying gerbils. Who knew?!

    Thanks to Orlando and Loonapick.

  4. Can’t pass up the chance to get a comment in early. Nice easy start to the week. BLOW for cocaine was the only one I had to google. Thanks Orlando and loonapick.

  5. As muffin@1 says, a real delight and just right for a Monday. My favourites were GREENFINCHES, PAINTS, RESEMBLING and HEIGHT. Many thanks to O & l.

  6. I was another who did not know BLOW could mean drug, but with the crossers and the cluing it couldn’t have been anything else. Initially I wrote in only the middle U for 19A, seeing it as one of the notorious either-way solutions, TUG or GUT, given the clue’s wording. But, on reflection, GUT would surely have had to be clued with a fuller definition than a German adjective, so probably fair enough, and again the crossers quickly confirmed. Many thanks to Orlando for an ideal start-the-week puzzle – and to loonapick.

  7. Thanks to Orlanda and loonapick. Like others I thought this was a nice gentle beginning to the week, but nonetheless entertaining with it. Like Dutchman got held up a little in the SE withe undertow and child last ones in. I liked blow, missus, paints and one two, but as loonapick says lots of clean surfaces. Thanks again to Orlando and loonapick.

  8. Thanks, Orlando, this was right up my street! Like Dutchman I took a little longer to complete the SE corner but this was only my second time of finishing with no check button.
    Smooth surfaces and elegant cluing and for me, today, not too difficult. A puzzle like this gives me confidence that I have actually been learning something for the last few months! I must have been excited as I forgot to fully parse 9 and 15 across, so thanks for the help, Loonapick.
    Lots to admire in the clues, I will just point out ginger snap: now that really takes the biscuit!
    BTW, I don’t know if LOSE credit for knowing blow as a drug but I need all the help I can get as all I know next to nothing of cricket and bridge!

  9. Nice and friendly Monday morning fare.

    I’m not sure whether to admit that I did know the drug connection – probably from reading it somewhere and definitely not from personal experience

    Thanks to Orlando and loonapick

  11. I had the split of definitions in 15a slightly differently –  Too far / away from the mountains? – but I suppose it works either way.

    I did know BLOW – cocaine does seem to be the main meaning, but I think it can also refer to cannabis or (in prison slang) tobacco.

     

  12. Personal best of 13:51 despite a minor ponder over the SW corner in common with others.  Spurred into action by Mrs Paddington Bear texting me to say she’d finished before I’d even made my morning cup of tea.  This will leave me plenty of time to pore at length over Saturday’s Enigmatist which is going in fits and spurts and may end up a personal worst.

  14. I’m with Andrew about 15a, for what it’s worth.

    Also pleased to finish a grid again, especially after last Monday.  Maybe I’ll keep going after all.  Thanks for the morale boost Orlando.

  15. I found this a very pleasant Monday solve, so thanks to Orlando. On this occasion, it was great to be able to live up to my personal challenge, completing a grid using no references or aids. I felt I had let myself down when I had to resort to Anagram Solver and Crossword Solver when I was tackling Saturday’s Prize, the fiendish Enigmatist, and a couple of last week’s offerings.
    Favourites were 9a ODDMENTS, 15a OUT OF RANGE, 17a TUG and 3d KEEP LEFT.
    Thanks to loonapick for the blog.

     

  16. After a week of trying to do the Guardian crossword every day, I decided the weekend puzzles were probably a bit much for now, so I did some archived Arachnes and Pauls. Maybe that crash course has helped me get the hang of it, because I found today’s vaguely nautically puzzle much closer to plain sailing than normal! Favourites were PAINTS, TUG and ONE-TWO, lovely surface at 18d as well.

    Thanks to Orlando and Loonapick

  18. It is always a pleasure to see Orlando. This was very straightforward, but ideal for the Monday spot.

    Thanks to Orlando and loonapick

  19. BLOW was supplied by a drug expert on an Ali G show where Ali G said-“now this Class A-is that like a guarantee?”

    Is there a theme here? I’ve failed to spot it but I bet there is.

  22. Definitely a Gentle Monday this time – just as well after the torment of Saturday’s Enigmatist!

    My only gripe, maybe, is, I wish there weren’t so much ‘recreational drug’ (I call it ‘drug abuse’) slang embedded in these cryptics!  Right out of my orbit, and I’d certainly never heard of BLOW in this sense (though it was easy enough to guess).

    DOWAGER was particularly good, in my view.

    In SLEDGEHAMMER I noted that EDGE appears both in fodder and in solution.  Perhaps too much of a giveaway?

    ONE-TWO reminds me of a funny story I read about once.  It seems that the phrase appears in one of the Harry Potter books.  Well, someone in Spain apparently got hold of an advance copy and attempted to produce a pirated verson in Spanish.  When they got to “Gave him the old one-two” the hapless and inept translator put down in Spanish: “sorry, I have no idea what that means….”

    I’m sure any Spanish-speakers on this blog would have done better!

    Thanks to Orlando and LP.

  23. copland@21: It’s a tradition.  One might equally argue, why do Thursdays and Fridays have to be hard?  One man’s meat…..etc etc.

  24. I was rather proud to have finished before fifteensquared was up, Frankietbecat@12. But you must have got the lion’s share of the analytic brains in the family as it took me 48 mins. It takes me more than 13 mins to read the clues!! Thank you to Orlando and loonapick. Some gorgeous anagrams. I even have to take my socks off to do the sums to post on this site!

  25. I rather like the idea that Monday’s cryptic puzzle is not quite as taxing as the other days. It may well lighten the mood on the way to work at the start of another week on the treadmill

  26. Thanks to Orlando and loonapick. Nothing to add, other than I too found this a very enjoyable Monday puzzle and hope for more of the same from this setter.

  27. Ah, the Orlando of old: right at the easy end of the Guardian spectrum, with his trademark fair and elegant clues. The Monday job done well – thanks for that.

    Thanks also to loonapick, though I didn’t need you today, mate!

  28. Should have more Orlando Mondays I think, to help ease in notareallawyer @14 and, indeed, myself once upon a time.

  29. Easy enough and pretty well clued but somehow this didn’t do it for me. Not sure why but there it is!
    Thanks Orlando.

  31. Nice puzzle, I did it all last night with no electronic access.  I loved the straying gerbils!

    Hammer @30 — is that just a literal translation or do they actually say that in Spanish?

     

  32. Valentine@31

    It is said but (I think) not quite the same idiom as in English – more a sense of doing something rapidly.

    Of course the complete phrase in English should be – “give him the old one-two, one in the chops and one in the breadbasket” – as my grandad used to say.

  33. A great start to the week.  I thought there were many nice surfaces and a good smattering of smile-inducing PDMs to be had.  Like Newby-Lurker @8, I enjoyed the wordplay of “ginger snaps” in 14d (and BTW, Newby-Lurker, when you change your name, please let us know!  Ha-ha!).  I thought “constant energy” to clue PIE in 13d was equally fine.  Like Laccaria @22, I thought DOWAGER was a stand-out.  Other favorites for me included EGGNOG, GREENFINCHES and RESEMBLING.  I also enjoyed KEEP LEFT, more for its real world/cultural significance than for its clueing: Other than in the occasional oddly configured parking area (such as one might find at a scenic viewpoint or a hiking trailhead) or a construction zone, “Keep Left” is not a traffic sign one sees very often here in the U.S.!

    Many thanks to Orlando, loonapick and the other commenters.

  34. Laccaria @22 noted that EDGE in both fodder and solution could have been a giveaway in 12a SLEDGEHAMMER, but what about HAIR in 25d HAIR?  I had to think ‘can this be right?’ before I filled it in, but it couldn’t be anything else.  Also, I had either TUG or GUT for 19a, confirmed first by a ‘G’ in STAGGERING.

    I also thought 8d DISORDERED was questionable at first, being clued as DIS+ORDERED, but there is quite a big difference between these two meanings of ‘ordered’ (one stated, one implied): ‘arranged’ and ‘given command’, so I thought this clue was good.  My favourites were PAINTS, PRIMAL, HEIGHT and ODDMENTS.

    Thanks to Orlando and loonapick.

  35. Thanks for that request, DaveMc, yes, of course I will! I think the current appellation will remain appropriate a while longer, though. Much checking and slow musing means I don’t have much to add come my usual midnight visit to 225!

  36. Well that must have pleased the “Easy Monday” crew!

    I was late to this but as it was Orlando I thought I’d give it a go. 10 minutes later I wondered why I bothered.

    Sorry but “smooth surfaces” etc don’t make up for the disappointment of an almost total “write-in”! Surely there must be some middle ground if we are continue with this bizarre “Easy Monday” fiasco.

    Just what is the Quiptic for anyway?

     

     

  38. In general, I do agree with what you’re saying, muffin.

    I am also a big fan of Orlando’s crosswords (which, for some reason, we don’t see that often).

    Yet, I had the same feeling as lurkio (and Alan B): this was just too easy, even easier than today’s excellent Quiptic (by Carpathian).

    Perhaps, it was at the editor’s request that Orlando wrote a puzzle like this – and that’s fine then.  Perhaps, it was a puzzle still lying on the Quiptic shelf [every now and then Orlando does one of those].

    Or is it that we all still trying to cope with a Rufusless Monday?  🙂  [or  🙁 ]

  39. I’m with muffin on this – very much so. I enjoyed Enigmatist on Saturday, in a tortured sort of way, needing aids to resolve it. This was much more straightforward but none the worse for that. Lots of wit and variety. Thanks to S and B.

  41. Enjoyable puzzle although I failed to solve 15a and 11d.

    I did know about BLOW. There was a very good movie of the same name starring Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz, about a US drug smuggler named George Jung and the Medellín Cocaine Cartel.

    Thanks Orlando and loonapick

     

  43. Very proud day for me yesterday – my first finished grid!

    I’m sure it was a pretty easy one for the advanced solvers, but as a novice with not a great deal of time on his hands it was a great feeling to get one in the bag.

    Favourite clues were 27a, 29a and the one that seemed to have quite a few people stumped – 1d. The last of the three came to me very early on, but that’s probably more of a cause for me to blush than for anyone who wasn’t aware of the term.

    Thanks to Orlando and Loonapick

  44. 7 down is on my list as one of the best surfaces ever.  Like a sad vet’s padre using it as a text for a sermon.

    Easy or not, with clues like this, Orlando is a never failing delight.

  46. Last to the party.

    I managed it reasonably well but just have limited time so an hour in bits and pieces yesterday and a half hour to finish today. Which is why I like the easy Mondays – they’re something I can dip in and out of and eventually get done.

    Height was my LOI but Cottage Pie was my favourite, particularly the constant energy bit. Thanks to Orlando and loonapick.

    And yeah, blow… often paired with hookers to the extent that ‘hookers and blow’ is very much an internet meme as an answer to otherwise innocent questions about what one might do with large sums of money, on holiday, at Disneyland etc. Sorry for lowering the tone but it may come in useful one day.

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