Guardian 27,488 – Brummie

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I found this puzzle rather a strange mixture of easy and difficult clues, with quite a few nitpicks, noted below. In particular there are a couple of oddities where something seems to be missing from the clue. Thanks to Brummie.

As is almost always the case with this setter, there is a “ghost theme”: there are a number of TV comedies among the answers. I can see MIRANDA, OUTNUMBERED, PORRIDGE, RISING DAMP, BREAD and BOTTOM: any more?

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. MIRANDA Space station with a name (7)
MIR (Soviet/Russian space station) AND (with) A. Sorry to get off to a critical start, but “name” seems a rather weak (if accurate) definition
5. PULLING Getting a partner rowing? (7)
Double definition – a slang meaning of “pull” that some may be unfamiliar with is “to succeed in forming a (sexual) relationship with”; and it’s rowing in the boating sense
9. URSUS Guardian nursing river country (5)
R in US (Guardian) + U[nited] S[tates]. Either there is no definition here, or it’s an &lit that I don’t understand. There’s a minor character called Ursus who is a bodyguard (=“nurse”?) in the novel Quo Vadis, but that seems an unlikely explanation, to say the least
10. PORTFOLIO Case of drink (oil of rum) (9)
PORT + (OIL OF)*
11. SENSUALITY Pleasurable indulgence — sexed up element of Jane Austen work? (10)
Sensuality might be a “sexed-up” version of [Sense and] Sensibility
14. TAPE MEASURE Linear DIY assistance that might be quickly withdrawn (4,7)
Cryptic definition, referring to those builders’ metal tape measures that are pulled out of a case and can be retracted quickly
18. OUTNUMBERED Published song by editor on the smaller side (11)
OUT (published) + NUMBER (song) + ED
21. RILL Sides removed from metal framework channel (4)
[g]RILL[e]
22. BIG BAD WOLF Aged female impersonator reverses tide to pat tomcat (3,3,4)
Reverse of FLOW (tide) DAB (to pat) GIB (tomcat). The definition is a reference to the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood and his impersonation of the grandmother, an “aged female”
25. DITROCHEE Hero cited fanciful four-syllable foot (9)
(HERO CITED)*. A trochee is a two-syllable metric foot, and this is two of them. Chambers gives the splendidly unhelpful definition of “a trochaic dipody”
26. ESTOP “Drugs kill” bar (5)
ES (plural of E[cstasy]) + TOP (kill)
27. ENCODER One who concludes holding company is device to make text unreadable? (7)
CO in ENDER
28. DELIMIT Model imitation houses set boundaries (7)
Hidden in (housed by) moDEL IMITation
Down
1. MOUSSE Sweet timid sort welcomes sex (6)
S in MOUSE
2,12. RISING DAMP Discovering it sends homeowner up the wall (6,4)
A rather vague cryptic definition
3. NASTURTIUM Colourful climber throws tantrums crossing icy Ural peaks (10)
I[cy] U[rals] in TANTRUMS*
4. APPAL Acting penfriend has no measure of dismay (5)
A (acting) + PEN-PAL less EN (printer’s measure)
5. PART-TIMER Casual piece — watch? (4-5)
PART (piece) TIMER (watch). I think the definition is a bit inaccurate – a part-timer is not necessarily a casual [worker]
6. LIFE Provided the central of this sentence (4)
There seems to be a word missing from this clue – central part? – and as far as I can see the wordplay is just telling us that IF (provided) is the middle of the answer; the outside LE doesn’t seem to be indicated
7. IN LEAGUE United’s a member of football division (2,6)
Double definition
8. GROUPIES First two of irritating Pogues’ wayward followers (8)
Anagram of IR[ritating] + POGUES
13. PADDED CELL Walked like a confined prisoner in stockinged feet, which prevents self-harm (6,4)
Double definition – the prisoner might have padded [his] cell
15. PUBLISHER Penguin‘s blueish ruffles breaking up pair? (9)
BLUEISH* in PR. Nitpicking again, Penguin is a definition-by-example so really needs a “maybe” or something. And the surface reading is pretty meaningless
16. PORRIDGE Dish of pork topping and gold hog’s back (8)
P[ork] + OR + RIDGE (Hog’s Back is a name given to some ridges, e.g. this one
17. ATHLETIC Fit a line to break the involuntary response (8)
A + L in THE + TIC
19. BOTTOM Times cutting report base (6)
TT in BOOM
20. OFF PAT Remembered exactly Dicky having stroke (3,3)
OFF (dicky) + PAT (to stroke) – bit of a pity that we’ve already seen “pat” in the clue to 22a
23. BREAD Book scan reveals money (5)
B + READ
24. GOOD Worthy attempt to use too much (4)
GO (atttempt) + OD (overdose)

57 comments on “Guardian 27,488 – Brummie”

  2. Thanks Andrew and Brummie.

    Very similar experience for me – found the same literary reference to try and justify 9, but as you say it seems unlikely.

    In addition to the shows you cite for the theme there is PULLING and the GOOD LIFE.  I diverse group covering a multitude of styles and eras, but apart from loosely being described as sitcoms they are all British.

  4. Thanks Brummie and Andrew.

    I liked 22a (especially the definition). Agree with doubts about 6d. I suspect 9a does refer to Quo Vadis, but agree it’s a bt obscure.

    Andrew, a small typo at 26a – ‘kill’ is TOP not STOP.

  6. Thanks Brummie and Andrew

    Quite the worst puzzle I’ve done in ages. Brummie obviously has no interest in making sensible surfaces, and I have specific quibbles with 10 clues. You’ve mentioned several, Andrew; others include “sex” for S in 1d (not in my Chambers), the ridiculous definition for SENSUALITY, and “stroke” for PAT in 20d (my cat certainly knows the difference). Why didn’t he try to work in Uranus’s moon MIRANDA to go with the “space station”?

    Favourite was DELIMIT, as I spent a long time trying to work S(e)T in.

  8. “Space station with a moon” would have worked so much better. 6 and 9 a bit lacking. A curate’s egg, but it hasn’t spoilt my morning! Never heard “gib” for a cat before.

  10. Re 9ac: the wonderful world of Wiki reveals a Russian film called “Guardians” in which one of the said guardians is named Ursus.  I concluded that the Guardian in the clue is doing double duty  it is both definition and part of the wordplay (i.e., “us”).  Thanks for revealing the theme, Andrew – I am kicking myself for missing that; and thanks for the great crossword, Brummie.

  11. 9ac. clue is missing ‘bear’ at the end.  6dn is missing ‘element’ after ‘central’.

    Sorry about this – both clues were correct in the original proof version.

  12. I share all the doubts expressed above. This is the first time for ages that I’ve been able to relax with a puzzle over breakfast so I’m rather disappointed, particularly as this is a setter whose work I normally enjoy.

    That said, there were some clues which I found to be good, notably 22ac (although I had to look up that definition of “gib”); also enjoyed 8 & 13d among others. So, thanks to Brummie after all. Special thanks to Andrew for the blog.

  13. TerriBlislow @ 10: Re 9; there is also a reference to ‘Ursus as Guardian’ as a chapter heading in Victor Hugo’s ‘The Man Who Laughs’, which again, if ‘Guardian’ does double duty as ‘us’ and definition, makes a kind of sense. It seems very obscure and might be merely coincidental, but just saying…

  15. Thanks, Andrew – I didn’t envy you today. 😉

    I share all the quibbles – and I won’t say anything about the editing. Thanks for the explanation, Brummie and for the puzzle.

    To add one more little quibble: it was the wolf in the story of The Three Little Pigs, not Red Riding Hood, who was the ‘big, bad wolf’.

  16. Like Terri@10 I thought Guardian was doing double duty. I agree with others re 6d – something missing there. Didn’t see the theme. (Never do.) I had same misgivings as others re loose clues such as name = Miranda and some clumsy surfaces. So not much fun today. Thanks for the blog, Andrew.

  17. Brummie has just posted on the Guardian ‘site that there was an omission in 9ac – the word ‘bear’, situated at the end of the clue, had been mislaid from the original proof.
    Thanks to Andrew and Brummie.

  20. As I posted elsewhere I thought the bottom half was OK but still thing the top is flawed even after corrections (what happens after submitting puzzles??)

    AND you get a bit spoilt after something like Tyrus yesterday!!

    Bravely blogged,Andrew-I’m not quite as critical as Muffin here (well not today at least)

  21. Yes, a bit of a mixed bag. I liked MIRANDA, BIG BAD WOLF and GROUPIES. I eventually got DITROCHEE when trochee jumped out at me; URSUS was a hopeless cause. Where oh where is our editor / proofreader?

  22. I feel that the quibbles Andrew and others have noted are all perfectly reasonable but, notwithstanding those, I still enjoyed the puzzle; so many thanks to Brummie.

    The errors were a shame. It must be very frustrating for Brummie to have these creep in after he’d checked the proofs; I see that the online version now has the corrections incorporated.

    I’m normally not a great fan of cryptic definitions but I liked RISING DAMP. I did struggle a bit on some of the parsing and so Andrew’s (as always) excellent blog was very much appreciated.

  24. Er – calm down dears. It’s just a crossword! A good one too. I learnt two new words this morning, so thanks Brummie and Andrew.

  25. I echo everything Rick said @22.  I would only temper his view of the crossword as a whole by saying that there were a few clues that I did not enjoy, mainly because of their vague or doubtful definitions (as reported in detail already), but ‘bear’ (as corrected!) for URSUS works perfectly, and I thought BIG BAD WOLF was a very good clue.  DITROCHEE was new to me – what a remarkably precise and unhelpful definition it has in Chambers!

    Thanks to Brummie and Andrew.

  26. There’s got to be one advantage to doing the online (rather than paper) version – the editorial errors had been edited out by the time I got to it!  Yes there are some gripes but others have dealt with them.

    Quite enjoyable with one or two unknowns but fairly clued.  Favourite, perhaps, BIG BAD WOLF, despite the fact that I didn’t know “gib”, it was a guess.  I was fishing about seeing if I could fit DANNY LA RUE in somehow….

    Having noted PORRIDGE and RISING DAMP, I was looking for a sitcom theme but alas! I didn’t get any of the others.  Perhaps it’s my fault for being something of an old-timer: now, if we’d had STEPTOE AND SON (some hope!), DAD’S ARMY, FAWLTY TOWERS or HANCOCK, I’d have been there in a twinkling!

    Thanks to Brummie (no problems!) and Andrew

  27. Thanks Brummie and Andrew.

    I recognised OUTNUMBERED as a TV show but didn’t connect with the others somehow. I can’t find any support for S = sex in dictionaries; I hope this is not another text reference without an indication. Anyone else know of the derivation?

    Luckily, by the time I got round to this, the online version had been corrected and I didn’t look at my hardcopy Guardian version. So, I enjoyed this and feel sympathetic towards Brummie for the errors.

    I did learn DITROCHEE but I doubt I will remember or ever use it. For a while I thought the ‘linear’ in 14 was some reference to Linear A/B.

  28. Same little quibbles as most of those in previous comments. Shame about the errors, and thanks for the corrections Brummie.

    However, never mind all that. BIG BAD WOLF makes up for everything, not only as a clue, but because it brought Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes to mind. For anyone who hasn’t met this delight before, Little Red Riding Hood ends like this:

    [Then Little Red Riding Hood said, “But Grandma,
    what a lovely great big furry coat you have on.”

    “That’s wrong!” cried Wolf. “Have you forgot
    To tell me what BIG TEETH I’ve got?
    Ah well, no matter what you say,
    I’m going to eat you anyway.”
    The small girl smiles. One eyelid flickers.
    She whips a pistol from her knickers.
    She aims it at the creature’s head
    And bang bang bang, she shoots him dead.
    A few weeks later, in the wood,
    I came across Miss Riding Hood.
    But what a change! No cloak of red,
    No silly hood upon her head.
    She said, “Hello, and do please note
    My lovely furry wolfskin coat.”]

    Pure joy.

    Thanks to Brummie and Andrew, and Roald Dahl.

  29. Andrew

    A point of detail in 15d PUBLISHER: I think the ‘?’ at the end of the clue does duty as the definition-by-example indicator.

    In a similar vein I thought at first a ‘?’ was needed at the end of the clue for 16d PORRIDGE.  But, whereas The Hog’s Back (the one I know being between Guildford and Farnham in Surrey) is a specific example of a ridge, the clue as given does not use capitals for that phrase, and I suppose a ridge in this sense (as used in physical geography) can be defined as a hog’s back, needing no ‘?’.

  30. Thanks to Brummie and Andrew. Generally found this tough going. I eventually ground it out with ursus last one in, and a guess from the cluing (not much else would fit). I also got held up in the SE for ages even though I had spotted the theme. That said although tough going, pleased I got there in the end after nearly giving up with only two thirds solved. Thanks again to Brummie and Andrew.

  31. Confused by 9ac and 6dn (although solved) – thanks Brummie for clarification. Can anyone help with why ‘report’ is BOOM in 19dn please?! Nothing in my Chambers etc that explains it…?

  33. Thanks Brummie and Andrew

    LillSho @ 31: BOOM and REPORT are both sudden loud sounds, eg the report of a rifleshot or a sonic boom. eChambers has REPORT = ‘explosive noise’ as noun definition 10.

    hth

  34. I am glad that URSUS has been tidied up, as that was mystifying on first reading. Apart from that I enjoyed this one, and even spotted all of the themers, which is a rarity. Favourite definition was BIG BAD WOLF, which was last in. DITROCHEE was unfamiliar but I guessed it from its components, and looked it up before I had any of its crossers.

    Thanks to Brummie and Andrew

  35. I’m sure I’m missing something blindingly obvious; could someone please more fully explain 13. What are the “stockinged feet” doing there?

  37. Gasmanjack @35

    Collins: ‘pad – to walk with a soft or muffled tread’ – in stockinged feet, perhaps?

  38. Thanks to Brummie and Andrew. I recognized none of the UK TV shows linked to the theme, and PULLING in the sexual sense and OFF PAT were new to me. However, allowing for URSUS and LIFE (which I got without parsing) I did muddle through.

  40. Childhood memories (if I may)?!

    I remember being introduced at a very tender age, to Peter and the Wolf.  For a long time I’d assumed that this work by Prokofiev was based on a Russian folk-tale analogous to Red Riding Hood, but in fact it was an original story written by Prokofiev himself as a background to his children’s symphony/orchestra introduction.  In this version the wolf comes off a bit better – he is not killed but merely captured and transported to a zoo!  I have to say, I prefer this outcome to the rather regrettable ending of Red Riding Hood!  Each character is represented by a different instrument of the orchestra: Peter by the strings, the Wolf by the French horns, Peter’s grandfather by bassoons, etc. etc.

    I looked up, and apparently the wolf is not referred to as BIG BAD WOLF but BIG GREY WOLF.  A nicer touch!

  42. [Laccaria @40

    A recurrent theme I noticed when reading nursery stories to my daughter (some time ago!) was that the wolf always loses, but the fox generally wins]

  44. Laccaria @40 I agree it’s not a good ending for the wolf, not in the old fairy story nor in Dahl’ s version. Wolves often get a bad press. However it is Dahl’s feisty Miss Riding Hood that is so appealing. And his rhyming.

  45. Should not there be a reference to the French “the” or the backward Spanish (LE)  in 6D?

  46. URSUS was all I could think of but I couldn’t relate it to the clue and LIFE was a guess. I also failed in the SW by having RECODER instead of ENCODER which meant PORRIDGE-which had a perfectly good clue-went for a Burton. Oh well,I’ve been getting on well with Brummie’s puzzles lately and most of this was very good but–. Doesn’t anyone proofread these things?
    Thanks Brummie- clearly not your fault!

  48. jc @ 45: no foreign reference is needed. It’s simply that IF (provided, as in ‘Provided you do this, I’ll do that’) is the CENTRAL ELEMENT of LIFE, which is a prison SENTENCE.

  49. Tyngewick @43: Me too. Like all of us I was baffled by 9A but I completed the crozzie so I’m feeling good.

  50. As Dutch@24 said it’s just a crossword – not out of the top drawer with some odd surfaces and not helped by the errors but still some nice clues and I did spot the theme which helped with BREAD once the vulpine ne’erdowell went in. Weaving DITROCHEE into a conversation is going to be a challenge.
    Thanks and commiserations Brummie and well done Andrew.

  51. British sitcoms, or television generally, is like cricket, a subject that defeats me — although now that I google it, I realize I actually did see some episodes of THE GOOD LIFE back in whatever decade it was.

    Sensuality is far-fetched.  I finally went for it when SENSIBILITY was too long and PREJUDICE was too short.

    @14  It’s not just builders who use those retractable tape measures.  I have two — a little one I use when I can and a big one I use when I have to.

    DITROCHEE was a new one on me, though I knew about trochees.  “Hero cited” looks like two two-syllable feet to me, not a four-syllable one.  I tried to come up with an actual four-syllable foot, and though of the gossips’ chorus from The Music Man, followed by some actual trochees.

    “Pick-a-little, talk-a-little, pick-a-little, talk-a-little,

    Cheep cheep cheep, talk-a-lot, pick-a-little more.”

    Seems to me that “walked like a confined prisoner in stockinged feet” would put the word PADDED somewhere inside CELL.   (“Padded,” it occurred to me at some point, is solely British usage, like saying “through” when talking about someone going from one room to another.)

    GIB the cat is a new one too, though I’m open to anything about cats.

  53. An awful crossword for all the reasons mentioned above and possibly a few others. Thankfully this could be borne as the puzzle was also “awfully” easy and was over in a few minutes. (I did have the advantages of the “Special Instructions” correcting the omissions though due to my usual late start)

    Can someone please remind me what it is the editor does again?

     

  54. I did far better on this than I expected when I saw Brummie’s name.  I didn’t manage to solve either of them but OUTNUMBERED and BIG BAD WOLF may go down as all-time favorites.

    I share the reservations regarding 1Am although I was fine with PUBLISHER because of the questions mark. I was a bit hampered by not being familiar with the slang PULLING or OFF PAT and for never being able to remember that APPAL drops the second “l” outside of N. America.  I also haven’t heard of any of the shows except Miranda which my friends in Atlanta have seen but which I still haven’t found in the Los Angeles market to my great displeasure.

  55. Feeling chuffed to have got through this despite the oddities already mentioned.

    Brummie deserves an apology as it’s clearly no fault of his.

    Thanks for the otherwise good puzzle and for dropping in worth the corrections.

    Nice weekend, all.

  56. 11a I think that if we are to turn sensibility into sensuality we solvers deserve a more specific indication of how we might be expected to do it than sexing it up. As others have said, not happy with definition either.
    3d I wasn’t happy with climber in the definition for nasturtium. On looking it up I see that some varieties are climbers but others, including the ones with which I am familiar are not.
    Thanks to Brummie and Andrew

  57. I keep thinking there must be more to 11a and 6d, whose secondary indications seem wholly inadequate, but I guess I’m wrong.

     

    There’s a recent BBC animated version of “Revolting Rhymes”, which I found quite entertaining, mostly because of Dahl’s wonderful verse. I have a great fondness for Dahl’s writing, but somehow I’d missed this one.

     

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