The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27479.
The top half was definitely Screw in an unbuttoned mood – both easier than his previous offerings, and impishly humorous to boot. Then came the bottom half: much of the same, but a few that seem to me so unsatisfactory that I must suspect that I am missing the point (which may well be the case). Anyway, if so, it is over to you to put me right.
| Across | ||
| 1 | DIVIDE | Split up, assuming sex is performed with energy (6) |
| An envelope (‘assuming … is’) of VI (Roman numeral 6, in Latin ‘sex’) in DID (‘performed’) plus E (‘energy’). | ||
| 4 | TABARD | What could be thanks to Shakespeare’s tunic (6) |
| TA, BARD (‘what could be thanks to Shakespeare’). | ||
| 9 | YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE | Solvers aren’t supposed to cheat — that’s too much! (3,8,4) |
| A play on HAVE (con, ‘cheat’). | ||
| 10 | DEMAND | Made man disobey restraining order (6) |
| A hidden (‘restraining’) answer in ‘maDE MAN Disobey’. | ||
| 11 | TEAR INTO | Have a go at it near to engineers (4,4) |
| An anagram (‘engineers’) of ‘it near to’. | ||
| 12 | SET PIECE | Firm slice finds corner, say (3,5) |
| A charade of SET (‘firm’) plus PIECE (‘slice’). The surface says tennis, and the definition football. | ||
| 14 | SITTER | One who’s drawn Dolly? (6) |
| Double definition: the second, in cricket, an easy catch, or ‘sitter’. | ||
| 15 | ICARUS | High-flyer‘s saucier gyrating, removing last of lingerie (6) |
| An anagram (‘gyrating’) of ‘sauci[e]r’ minuls the E (‘removing last of lingeriE‘). For the unfortunate ‘high-flyer’, see my blog of March 14 last. | ||
| 18 | SAGACITY | Understanding where population’s 50+? (8) |
| My first thought on reading the clue was that the answer was SAGACITY, with a play on SAG; I promptly dismissed this and hoped to find something better. It turns out that I had the right answer for the wrong reason: from somewhere I dragged up Saga Travel (not any reflection on their prominence, just on the time I have been out of the UK). Although their website makes minimal reference to age, Wikipedia does give Saga plc as a British company focused on serving the needs of those aged 50 and over. | ||
| 21 | TELEPORT | Box left to transport in the future (8) |
| A charade of TELE (vision. ‘box’) plus PORT. A companion piece to Qaos’s RAY GUNS of last Friday, and open to the same objection – indeed the more so, as there is no ‘maybe’ this time. | ||
| 22 | ASLOPE | Inclined to see pole dancing as opening (6) |
| A charade of ‘as’ plus LOPE, an anagram (‘dancing’) of ‘pole’. | ||
| 24 | VITAL STATISTICS | Georgia’s proportional representation? (5,10) |
| I can only see a cryptic definition, depending on Georgia as a woman’s name. Neither the country nor the state uses proportional representation in the usual sense. | ||
| 25 | HONEST | Frank army holding Western Europe finally (6) |
| An envelope (‘holding’) of N E (‘WesterN EuropE finally’) in HOST (‘army’). [“If you’re Glad, I’ll be Frank”, a radio play by Tom Stoppard, principal characters Gladys and Frank]. | ||
| 26 | PROPEL | Push for reduced charge (6) |
| A charade of PRO (‘for’) plus PEL[f] (‘charge’?) minus its last letter (‘reduced’). I cannot come up with anything more satisfactory; PEL[t], as I see it, is as far off the mark, and PROPEL[lant] even more so. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | DIOCESE | See Green Papers rejected by Home Counties (7) |
| A charade of DIOCE, a reversal (‘rejected’) of ECO (‘Green’) plus I.D. (‘papers’), plus SE (south-east of England, ‘Home Counties’). | ||
| 2 | VISTA | Scene described by Chekhov is tantalising (5)aa |
| A hidden (‘described by’) answwer in ‘ChekoV IS TAntalising’. | ||
| 3 | DO-OR-DIE | In Berlin, the following entrance is risky (2-2-3) |
| A charade of DOOR (‘entrance’) plus DIE (‘in Berlin, the’; in German, the feminine singular or any plural definite article, nominative or accusative). | ||
| 5 | ANNUALS | A news organisation of USA covering Liberal issues (7) |
| A charade of ‘a’ plus NN (if N is new, the joke is that NN is ‘news’) plus UALS, an envelope (‘covering’) of L (‘Liberal’) in UAS, an anagram (‘organisation’) of ‘USA’. | ||
| 6 | ATHEISTIC | Not believing it’s the CIA complex (9) |
| An anagram (‘complex’) of ‘it’s the CIA’. | ||
| 7 | DEVOTEE | One following course finds election boring (7) |
| An envelope (‘boring’) of VOTE (‘election’) in DEE (River, ‘course’ – a change from flower). | ||
| 8 | CLOTHE | Emptied cocktail over the dress (6) |
| A charade of CL (’emptied CocktaiL‘) plus O (‘over’, cricket summaries) plus ‘the’. | ||
| 13 | PORCELAIN | Barking, or place in China (9) |
| An anagram (‘barking’) of ‘or place in’. | ||
| 16 | CHERISH | A bit like singer’s prize (7) |
| CHER-ISH (‘a bit like singer’). | ||
| 17 | SPOUSES | European skipping champions (more than one Dutch) (7) |
| A subtraction: [e]SPOUSES (‘champions’) minus the E (‘European skipping’). | ||
| 18 | SATNAV | Camper director? (6) |
| Cryptic definition. | ||
| 19 | GLAZIER | Windows installer close to updating, not working as hard (7) |
| A charade of G (‘close to updatinG‘) plus LAZIER (‘not working as hard’). | ||
| 20 | TOPICAL | Current account, in retirement, hidden by trained pilot (7) |
| An envelope (‘hidden by’) of CA, a reversal (‘in retirement’) of A/C (‘account’) in TOPIL, an anagram (‘trained’) of ‘pilot’. | ||
| 23 | LET UP | Stop firsts from LSE, exposing those using phones (3,2) |
| Initial letters (‘firsts’) from ‘LSE Exposing Those Using Phones’. | ||
I enjoyed this despite being unable to parse entirely a couple of clues (I’m looking at you, 18ac), and a couple of weakish CDs.
I thought that the charge in 26ac was PELt, as in “run very fast”, although maybe that’s an antipodean usage.
Thanks to Screw and PeterO
Same as PeterO. Some I didn’t parse but, on reflection, should have done.
I thought SAGACITY was clever, and for 26a I had PELT ss the charge. But can someone explain the ‘camper’ reference to SATNAV?
Thanjs
At 26ac, PEL{t} seems fine and not strictly antipodean.
ODO has: “run somewhere very quickly”.
Whereas PELF isn’t strictly a charge, according to the same source:
From “pilfer”: “money, especially when gained in a dishonest or dishonourable way”.
I also like ODO’s example for the latter:
“damnation dog thee and thy wretched pelf!”.
Equally perplexed by our esteemed setter and Marco @1 about SAGA in 18ac.
But then it’s been a couple of decades since I’ve been in the allegedly United Kingdom.
Minty @3:
Equally perplexed by “camper” at 18dn.
I guessed that a camper (among many others) might get directions from a satnav.
First thought was ALT-MAN !!
Camper as in camper van.
I think there is a Georgia(US) bureau of statistics. Apart from that and maybe SAGACITY(still deciding),
I thought it was a great puzzle .Two in a row for the Graun.
Thanks Blaise @6 – that makes total sense
Thanks Screw and PeterO
Lots to like. SAGACITY, PORCELAIN and DO OR DIE favourites. VI for “sex” caught me again, and I didn’t parse SPOUSES. SATNAV was LOI, when I eventually twigged “camper van”.
Not keen on “course” for DEE, and I thought 24 was also rather loose.
For those who don’t know it, Breughel’s Fall of Icarus makes less of its central “character” than most paintings!
Oh, and I went for an incomplete PROPELLANT for 26 – the “charge” in a gun.
I was bemused by DIVIDE and PROPEL; loved SAGACITY, SET PIECE, SITTER and TOPICAL. Thanks to Screw and PeterO.
Thought the same as muffin (10) and now not convinced by any of the suggestions.
The other unsatisfactory one for me is why a camper or campervan would use a SatNav any more than any other vehicle. I would have thought taxis would be the main users.
Otherwise enjoyed this and loved SAGACITY
Re 24ac It seems that “Vital Records Office” is a familiar USA term across most States and Georgia is only being used here for the joke (after all we only drool over women’s vital statistics don’t we?) and as an example. Thanks PeterO for your good work.
Thanks, PeterO and Screw – great to see you back! 😉
SAGACITY made me chuckle and I also liked DIVIDE and PORCELAIN.
I’m with those who went for charge = pelt and I see nothing amiss with 18dn – ‘camper’ is there for the surface and the question mark implies that it’s an example of a satnav user.
Thanks again to Screw for the fun – come back soon!
Wouldn’t Virginia work better for 24ac? It’s a more obvious girls name and would also reference the Virginia Plan
I liked 15a ICARUS, 16d CHERISH and 19d GLAZIER.
I couldn’t parse several clues, many of which have already been mentioned.
Lots of seven letter words (not my favourite) in that same unfriendly grid that always gives me grief, because it is basically four puzzles, one in each quarter, giving fewer crossers to assist. So this puzzle seemed to take an awfully long time and involve lots of looking up, including checking quite a few clues I filled in uncertainly as I hadn’t spotted various wordplays.
Thanks to Screw and PeterO, and other participants for comments.
I can’t remember how I got with Screw’s previous offerings but I found this tough. Like muffin I didn’t twig VI=sex for a long time and then was trying to be too clever by thinking “Shakespeare’s tunic” was the s and the e from Shakespeare and not even considering the usual bard until late on. I also went for a truncated propellant.
Loi was SPOUSES which I didn’t parse and not far in front was DEMAND – MrsW came up with it and then I spotted the hidden word. Doh!
Despite it being likely to attract debate I also had TELEPORT ticked along with CHERISH. ANNUALS parsing has me foxed but as to where the second N came from but it’s a clever clue now.
9a was a real struggle and I resorted to the check button for vowels between the L and the N and only when none of them fitted did I get to SHOULDNT. Comments have been made before about how the letter count should be indicated in clues like this but as setters are going to continue with this option I’ll just have to remember to consider it.
Many thanks to Screw for a great workout and to PeterO for making everything clear.
pex @12. I’m guessing that, if you have a camper van, you’d be likely to be searching for a nice place to park for the night, away from the hurly-burly, and relying on a satnav to get you down the little-travelled lanes. I remember, years ago, going for a drive in the Lake District, probably somewhere involving the Hardknott Pass, and passing a junction with a sign that said words to the effect of “Trucks, buses, and camper vans… do NOT trust your satnav. You will NOT make it this way!” In hindsight, I wish I’d taken a picture, as I couldn’t find it when I retraced the route on Google street view.
Tedious diary entry alert!! That’s a nice story Blaise@18. We spent a lot of time in the Lakes in an old Standard 10 van back in the 60s and my dad often said “Ulpha Fell over a Hardknott and got Wrynose” – it amused us as children once it was explained to us.
Blaise, I take your point, thanks. I have actually used a borrowed one in my camper – and got lost ha.
Bit of a slog, but once a few were in, they all seemed to slot in. You really need to get on his wavelength here, anticipating what the misdirections may be, and there was lots. I did like CHERISH and SAGACITY.
Thanks to Screw and PeterO
SATNAV indeed! Maps for ever: and you can take them in the bath.
Thanks both.
A DNF strictly for me as a few got bifd and went in unparsed.
Not wild about SATNAV as a clue but it’s probably fair enough with the added question mark.
VITAL STATISTICS went in quickly enough but, again, thought it a little dodgy.
Like others, chuckled at SAGA-CITY and liked CHERISH (but I know others won’t).
All in all, a sound crossword but a little on the unsatisfying side for me.
Nice week, all.
Blaise @18: There’s a little lane near a favourite campsite of ours that bears the sign, “Satnav users abandon hope all ye who enter here. You can’t turn round from this point and my 2CV won’t pull you out!”
I have found Screw a major problem in the past, but today was a breeze; not, however, that I felt it was entirely satisfactory, largely because of the poor cds VITAL STATISTICS and SATNAV (come back Rufus, all is forgiven!). Not everything was parsed, partly because I keep forgetting the old SEX= VI trick. Strange how that’s the only Latin number we seem to need. I liked SAGACITY, of course in this household it’s Mrs T who reads the Saga magazine and not me.
Thank you Screw and PeterO.
Quite hard going but fun. I parsed 9a as if Screw were berating us, YOU (Solvers) SHOULDN’T (aren’t supposed to) HAVE (cheat, con), but perhaps this is what PeterO means? I am well over 50…
Very enjoyable though I had a number of the same quibbles (most of them deleted after coming here). Thanks Screw and PeterO. Knew box as telly but have never seen tele. Knew had as cheat but can’t think of a context for have (but that’s almost certainly just me).
For 18D, I think “satnav” is supposed to be “van” reversed (‘sat’).
I grew up in Georgia though, and I don’t get 24A at all.
Thanks to Screw and PeterO. My experience similar to PeterO. Top half with the exception of annuals went in quite easily, but bottom half took much longer. I was also bemused by the two cryptic definitions already mentioned, but decided they were both correct, though not with any confidence. Last two in annuals and satnav (after lots of considering if I was missing something). I also like teleport and sagacity (SAGA bombard me regularly with offers of various forms of insurance). Thanks again to Screw and PeterO.
A DNF for me after I accidentally cheated SATNAV. Not sure I’d have got it, either. I had no chance at parsing SAGACITY. I thought 24 was a bit odd too and wonder if it would be better without any name, I.e just “ proportional representation?”. I also went with PRO + PEL(t).
Faves were PORCELAIN (love that anagrind), DIOCESE, TEAR INTO and DO OR DIE.
Thanks, Screw and PeterO.
@18 take it from me, caravanners have to proceed with caution when using satnav. There are caravan versions available but they cost about 4 times the standard ones.
Excellent from Screw, I thought, with a few reservations. I wasn’t able to parse VITAL STATISTICS any better than Peter did – and I see I’m not alone! Perhaps that’s a clue that doesn’t quite work?
TELEPORT as ‘transport in the future’? Wishful thinking I’m afraid. I think some scientifically-inclined trekkies, somewhere, did the maths on the whole “Beam us up Scotty” thingy. They calculated that the whole process of disassembling a human (or Vulcan) being, teleporting his individual atoms up to the Enterprise, and then re-assembling him still alive, would be so complex and long-winded, that it’d be quicker if they just lowered a ladder….
When I got to ‘camper’ and the misdirection it might have inspired, I couldn’t help but think of the immortal Tommy Cooper:
“I went to Millets and said ‘I want to buy a tent.’ He said ‘To camp?’, I said (butchly) ‘Sorry, I want to buy a tent.’ Later, I said ‘I also want to buy a caravan.’ He said ‘Camper?’ I said (campily) ‘Make your mind up.’ ”
Thanks to Screw and Peter.
It looks as if I have not missed anything of import here (or, if, I have, so have a bunch of other people), which leaves an amusing crossword, not too difficult, but with a couple of unsatisfactory clues. When writing up the blog for 26A PROPEL, I went back and forth several times between PEL[f] and PEL[t]; neither seems to me to be right, but I had difficulty deciding which was less wrong.
Grasping at straws for the unsatisfactory 18D SATNAV, I did wonder if Screw had another layer in mind, albeit a rather specialised one. When GPS was made available to the public, but before it was coupled with the huge data base – and the memory to hold it – necessary to make it useful for street navigation, units were marketed primarily as an aid to wilderness hikers. The latter are surely campers, even if they would find the term suggesting something too regimented. Such units are still available, probably with various added bells and whistles.
Cookie @26
That is what I intended for 9A YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE. I wanted to give a nudge towards the answer without explaining the joke away altogether.
Must admit to using the check button a few times here and I am not sure I parsed everything, but as always from Screw this was an entertaining challenge.
Thanks to Screw and PeterO
PeterO @ 34, Oh dear, I shouldn’t have, lucky I did not post earlier …
Thanks to Screw and PeterO. I had the same parsing problems as those already noted, particularly with SAGACITY where SAGA was new to me, but for once I did spot a cricket term (SITTER). LOI was SATNAV. A good workout.
bill @28: I like your van suggestion but don’t know why ‘sat’ is = reversed.
HOWEVER, you’ve given me the idea that a passenger in a camper(van) is SAT in the back of a VAN.
I agree with almost everything that has been contributed today. As usual many thanks to setter and blogger and my apologies for being a bit late today – you’ve guessed it, I forgot to switch on my satnav.
Little to add to what’s already been said except that CHERISH put me in mind of the Uxbridge English dictionary with which devotees of I’m Sorry I Haven’t a clue will be familiar. Another example is lavish – a bit like a lav.
Enjoyable puzzle, thank you Screw. And thanks for the namecheck. I remembered sex, and filled in SAGACITY without understanding SAGA, so many thanks PeterO.
I thought DEMAND was particularly smooth.
FtC @39
Me too – I meant to say that, but forgot!
Thank you Screw and Peter O ….
………..and to Blaise and Laccaria (et al) for happy memories of Lake District camping and Tommy Cooper. I remember being joined half way through a spell in Glenridding by an ancient VW camper. It was a great place to make tea in a storm, but getting anywhere in it was another story. Blaise, you’ve made me think that every approach to the lakes should have a sign saying to camper drivers: “Have you really thought this through !”
Being a dyed-in-the-wool OS map, compass and Wainwright sort of cove, it occured to me, Peter O, that Satnav for walkers should come with the possible life-savers of A BELL and A WHISTLE.
Just a final word on the SATNAV/camper debate…I’ve now come down on the ‘a bit unfair’ side. I always check my own clues with Mrs W who is harsh on occasion but has, nevertheless, to be obeyed. She simply questioned what % of road users under SATNAV direction at this moment are campers? No one know the answer for sure but given the millions of foreign and domestic truckers, sales reps, caravaners, and other general drivers, I’d hazard it’s a pretty low proportion. Odd, then, that Screw should use this poorly representative group for his clue.
I thought this a bit of a slog. I was unimpressed by YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE and VITAL STATISTICS and,while I was amused by SAT NAV, I thought it a bit cheeky. I did like SAGACITY,DEVOTEE,ICARUS and TABARD.
I do have a streaming cold today and I’m even less sharp than usual, so perhaps the puzzle is better than I’m giving it credit for.
Anyway, thanks Screw.
I’m feeling much less generous than most others here. While there were some things I liked (DEVOTE, DO-OR-DIE), they were outweighed by the unsatisfactory clues already discussed here – plus the use of “sex” without any indication that we’ve switched languages.
I also grew up in Georgia (US) and I’m convinced the clue has nothing to do with the state. My theory is that it refers to a woman’s physical measurements although those statistics are hardly vital unless one adopts a completely sexist point of view.
BlueDot @45 I agree with you re “sex”. It should have some language indicator. It is not commonly or even uncommonly used to mean 6, unlike VI which is a common usage (regnal numbers etc). Sexi, sexa maybe as a prefix, but “sex” on its own – no.
There were a few items like that dotted around, including the strangely inadequate CD, but in general I liked it. Certainly way more good than bad/ questionable!
Occurs to me, I never properly parsed SITTER. I was thinking of “Dolly” as the thing professional movie cameras are mounted on, when filming a moving subject (does the camera operator ‘sit’ on it too – so could it be called a ‘sitter’?).
A pity, because if only the cricket allusion had clicked, I’d have been at once reminded of an amusing headline from somewhere, years back: “Dolly drops a dolly”. This must have referred to the celebrated and outstanding England all-rounder Basil D’Oliveira. Rest assured, he didn’t drop catches very often!
I assumed Georgia must be a well known (if not to me) glamour model – but despite extensive research nothing plausible has come up.
A tricky, witty and well-constructed crossword that I enjoyed solving with my wife and sister while sipping a Staropramen in a street of the city in which it is brewed. I liked all the clues except that for SATNAV.
Like Blaise and WhiteKing, I remember holidaying in the Lake District as a child, and as well as Hardknott Pass there was a place called Wrynose Bottom, which to my childish mind was most amusing.
Thanks to Screw and PeterO.
@45 and @46. The indication is there. VI is Roman Numerals.
Well, it’s ‘performed with energy is assuming sex’ actually, though I would support the use of ‘sex’ = VI. That is directly synonymous for me, as in Latin six is sex.
Yes, above. But there is no indication of Romans in the clue. I’m perfectly happy that for them “sex” was VI, and I solved the clue. Isn’t it normal though to indicate a foreign usage in the clue?
After much googling I finally learned that dutch is cockney slang for wife, but I can find no explanation for it. Where does it come from – is it rhyming slang?
A DNF, SPOUSES and SATNAV defeating me, but I loved DO-OR-DIE and the wonderful surface of GLAZIER.
Thanks Screw and PeterO.
Didn’t like SATNAV. Thought VITAL STATISTICS was lame. Didn’t much like TELEPORT as it had ….port in the clue. Agree that there ought to have been some language indicator in 1ac.
But, in my retirement, prepared to forgive a great deal for SAGA CITY, which made me laugh out loud.
FtC @ 39 & UED: what about Norfolk?
cellomaniac @54 My concise Chambers says Dutch is cockney slang (not rhyming) probably from duchess. I don’t have the large Chambers to hand.
[crossbar – I think (like most here I imagine) that it refers to “the Duchess of Fife” which rhymes with “wife”.]
[I’m so pleased I read all the comments here. Otherwise I might have missed the extraordinarily witty “Dolly drops a dolly” which one of our most astute colleagues generously took the trouble to share with us. If I’d missed that I might have concluded I’d been wasting my time!]