Guardian Cryptic 27,510 by Puck

by

A tour de force from a master setter…

I don;t know how long this took to create, but it took ages to solve and as long to blog.  Unfortunately, there are two solutions I have been unable to parse, and one (8ac) that I’m not 100% sure of.  Any help greatly appreciated!  (Thanks to commenters below for filling in gaps!)

If you don’t get the 19,26 solution (clever use of 1926, by the way, Puck), you’ll probably struggle because 19 and 26 are used in some of the clues as definitions.

This was a masterpiece, a joy to solve, and difficult to blog, so I hope that I have done the puzzle justice in my explanations of those clues I was able to parse.

Thanks Puck

Across
7 CREATURES Animals running wild in 3 era (9)
*(Custer era)
8 PUNCH One to mount a 26 (5)
Double definition

I’m not 100% certain of the first definition – a punch can be used to create a mounting, or there’s punch =  a draught horse, but draught horses don’t tend to get mounted?
9 MACARTHUR Son of Scottish king, 19 (9)
MAC (“son of” in Scottish names) + (King) ARTHUR

Refers to General Douglas MacArthur, an American general prominent in the Pacific arena of the Second World War.
10 CLOUT Regularly call on us to 26 (5)
Regular letters from “CaLl On Us To”
12 NEYMAR Footballer in 1926, right halfback (6)
(General) NEY (indicated by 19) + <=RAM (indicated by 26).  The right halfback part of the clue tells us to reverse the right half of the solution.

Marshall Ney was a French soldier suring the Napoleonic Wars, and the Brazilian Neymar is one of the most prolific strikers in world football.
13 AGRICOLA A king has one coal supply in 19 (8)
A G.R. (“King” George) + I (“one”) + *(coal)
16 CLOSE BY Intimate times at hand (5,2)
CLOSE (“intimate”) + BY (“times”, as in “2 by 2” = “2 times 2”)
19, 26 GENERALSTRIKE A Green Line outing’s a hit, leading to more than one day out for many? (7,6)
*(a green l) where the L is L(ine)+ STRIKE (“hit”)
22 LOTHARIO Harlot cycling around with X, a seductive character (8)
*(harlot) + 10 (“X”)  Encota points out in the comments that this is actually more subtle – LOTHAR can be gained by “cycling” the letters of HARLOT
25 ARTIST Creative person, twice briefly in 19 practice (6)
 R.A. (“artist”) appears twice in “general pRActice”  (thanks, Graham Ashton @ comment 3)
27 BOOTH Kick hard for a 19 (5)
BOOT (“kick”) + H(ard)

Refers to William Booth, founder and first General of the Salvation Army.
28 CUSTOMARY 19 3 in conversation with the virgin (9)
Homophone of CUSTER (3 in conversation) with (“the virgin”) MARY
29 GRANT Good to mouth off, in 19 (5)
G(ood) + RANT (“to mouth off”)

General Grant, American Civil War general and 18th President of the US
30 WAPENTAKE Adult locked up in Wakefield, missing green area once part of Yorkshire? (9)
A(dult) + PENT (“locked up”) in WAKE(field)

A wapentake was a subdivision of certain English counties in the early pasrt of the second millennium.
Down
1 CREASE Stop outside right line for one on 26 (6)
CEASE (“stop”) outside R(ight).

For the definition, think cricket – the one on strike (ie the batsman) has to stay in the crease (line marked on the pitch)
2 MAHATMAS Old woman with bad asthma revered wise men (8)
MA (“old woman”) +*(asthma)
3 CUSTER George Armstrong, 19, more astute when tackling Spurs winger (6)
CUTER (“more astute”) tackling S(purs)
4 REGULAR Soldier in uniform, in 19 (7)
Double definition (sorry, a triple definition, as pointed out by beaulieu))
5 PUBLIC No end of bile Puck produced in 19 (6)
*(bil puc) (BILE & PUCK with no ends)
6 ACTUAL Trade union in a state, for real (6)
T(rade) U(nion) in A Cal.(ifornia) (“state”)
11   See 18
14   See 16
15, 17 ALL OUT  Utter rallying cry from 1926? (3-3)
In 1926, the “General Strike” (19,26) took place, and “All Out” is what a shop steward would typically shout at the beginning of a strike.  Also, as pointed out by minty in the comments, UTTER and ALL OUT are synonyms, so this is actually a double definition.
16, 14 COLOUR Oddly, only the Guardian’s after first instalment of Camberwick Green? (6)
O(n)L(y) + OUR (“the Guardian’s”) + C(amberwick)
17   See 15
18, 11 BORN FREE  Film bride wiping bottom? (4,4)
 BORN ((the B of BRIDE) + FREE (the RID of BRIDE))  (Thanks NNI @ comment 2)
20 ESTIMATE Guess Puck’s into a car with extra storage space (8)
I’M (“Puck’s”) into ESTATE (“a car with extra storage space”)
21 POPULAR 19 in old Ford (7)
Double definition.

The Ford Popular was built between 1953 and 1962.
23 ODOURS Smells good, our scent bottle (6)
Hidden in “goOD OUR Scent”
24 HATING Far from enjoying a night out (6)
*(a night)
25 ATTLEE Former PM and Attorney 19 (6)
ATT(orney) + (General ) LEE

General Robert E Lee led the Confederate Army in the American Civil War.
26   See 19

*anagram

60 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,510 by Puck”

  3. 25a ‘RA’ (artist briefly) appears in geneRAl (i.e. the answer to 19) and pRActice

  4. I found this difficult even after getting 19, 26. I can’t help you with the missing parsings, but isn’t 15, 17 a double definition – ‘utter’ = ‘all out’?

  5. A stinker but well worth the effort – and well blogged – many thanks to both parties.

    My brain having turned to putty I am now required to deduce what needs to be added to 2 to give 4. Just when you think …

     

  6. Agree with NNI and Graham Ashton on those two parsings.  8a I come to exactly the same conclusion as you, Loonapick, and I’m currently typing from the home of the Suffolk Punch.

    If you are after minor mods, I think 13ac is A GR I (for one) COAL* and HARLOT becomes LOTHAR (in LOTHARIO) by ‘cycling’ letters from the back to the front (or v.v.) rather than just an anagram, + IO.

    Enjoyable puzzle and review – thanks both.

  7. I parsed 25a as Graham Ashton ( RA x 2). Thanks NNI, very clever for 18,11: B + RID (E).

    Thanks also to Loonapick and of course to Puck for another masterpiece. 12a is my Gold Medallist

  8. I agree this was hard, and also couldn’t parse ARTIST and BORN FREE, so thanks NNI and Graham Ashton, as well as Puck and loonapick.

    Like minty@4, I think ALL OUT is a dd.

    Also, I took REGULAR as a triple definition: ‘soldier’, ‘uniform’, ‘general’.

  9. I cant believe I didnt see 1926 stuck together in 12-that and the word count should have led to the gateway immediately. I think the footballer got in the way so it was the long way round for me.

    I knew the first3 letters were general and the next three were RAM reversed but I had a huge blank-was there a player called Leemar? Ridiculous really as this player was so much in the news with his transfer fee. OK, less so with the achievements. I got 18/11 without parsing. maybe just as well.

    Overall I thought this was a great puzzle-maybe for a Prize it may have been better to have the gateway with different numbered clues.

    Thanks Puck, loonapick and NNI.

  10. Thanks loonapick. I agree with gsol – the date in 12A steered me early on to the theme, but it was the only clue to stump me, I didn’t split the date into its components. Fine work, Puck.

  11. I was amazed and pleased that I managed to solve all but NEYMAR – never heard of the footballer and the clue stumped me.

    I could not parse 8a PUNCH, 18/11 BORN FREE and 25a ARTIST.

    New word for me was WAPENTAKE.

    Thanks loonapick and Puck.

  12. Thanks for a great blog, loonapick – I was stuck on the same two as you, so thanks to NNI and Graham Ashton, too. [At least you got 12ac – I’d never heard of him!]

    I sneaked into this one through the back door: 10ac was my first one in, which led me, a few minutes later to STRIKE, at about the same time  as I solved AGRICOLA, by following the instructions on the tin, giving GENERAL – a whopping pdm for 1926!

    Superb stuff from Puck – brilliant to get so many cross references in, all beautifully clued, to keep me totally absorbed to the very end. Many thanks to him, as ever.

     

  13. It was a tour de force by the setter but I thought not very enjoyable to solve with so many clues without definitions unless you got the gateway. I got into it via CLOUT.

    I nearly gave up at the beginning when I saw all the cross-references.

    Thanks Puck and loonapick.

     

  14. With first crosser in place for 21d, I was happy to discover that there was a General Cortina in 19th century Mexico. Oh well . . .

  15. Far too good for me with three I didn’t have any idea about and as many again unparsed, including the ones our blogger had trouble with. Still, really good puzzle and the 19,26 bit was brilliant.

    I would parse both 4d and 21d as triple defs.

    Favourite new word is WAPENTAKE. Sounds like it should be a New Zealand wombat.

    Thanks to Puck and loonapick

  16. When the first pass only yields WAPENTAKE, you know you’re in for a hard time!

    After getting the key, about half the grid filled easily. My first DNF in several years: NEYMAR was simply impossible, never having heard of him or of General Ney.

    Surely it shouldn’t take the combined brains of the blogger and visitors to 225 to arrive at plausible passings.

    Thanks to loonapick and others for enlightenment. Qualified thanks to Puck!

  18. Excellent all round. Having got it out in the right month perhaps a pity it didn’t appear on 3rd May, anniversary of the day the strike began – 13th when it ended was a Sunday this year.

  19. This reminds me of Araucaria in the 80’s, with his intricate cross-references in a complicated web.

    Having put together BOOTH and GRANT I got GENERAL, but STRIKE eluded me for a good long time, and the juxtaposition of 19 and 26 as part of the clue completely until I got to the blog.

    Thanks, Puck, and well done, loonapick!

  20. Guessed Neymar as I have only ever heard Ney referred to as Marshal rather than General, but I suppose that’s fair enough. I thought that ‘Born Free’ must be the answer to 18d/11d but could not parse it. In the end I opted for ‘Bird Free’, which I hoped might be a film of which I had not heard, but, at least parsed. A very clever puzzle, but some of the parsings were too intricate for my taste, and the number of cross-references tested my patience.

  21. Thanks to Puck and loonapick. Really struggled on this with only two in after ten minutes or so. Eventually got going but generally had to grind it out. Eventually gave up on Neymar therefore a DNF for me. However pleased to have got that far. Eventually got the theme, but generals not my strong point. I dredged up Agricola for somewhere, probably for a previous Guardian puzzle, and wapentake was guess from the clue and dictionary check. Another who could not parse artist and I took 8a as a reference to the Suffolk punch horse. A tough challenge from a very cleverly constructed puzzle and thanks again to Puck and loonapick.

  22. Thank you to Puck and Loonapick for a most enjoyable puzzle.

    My first was 15,17 which led swiftly to 19,26 and the key to unlocking (but frequently not parsing) many of the rest.

  25. I share the doubts about PUNCH – if it’s a horse, it isn’t one you would mount. Never heard of NEYMAR and couldn’t parse BORN FREE. I liked the way that all the 1926 clues pointed to GENERAL STRIKE (though I got it from the link to Attorney). A bit too clever for me.

  26. A lovely puzzle full of wit and invention. Initially tricky but once the key clues were in place the rest were gettable, though I couldn’t parse ARTIST and BORN FREE so thanks to those of you who did.

    Thanks to Puck and loonapick

  27. I think 8a refers to a Suffolk Punch breed of horse,which could of course be mounted.

  28. I got Cortina for 21. There was a general Cortina (I found a reference in Google). Having got that 28 and 30 were impossible. DNF for me. Never heard of Neymar nor Ney either.

  29. Thanks Puck and loonapick.

    What a treat.  In among all the dusty generals we find the delicious Born Free, surface of the year for those with a puckish sense of humour.  Needed a lot of help with the parsing.  Don’t know that Ney was strictly a general, but that would be to quibble.  Bit more than a quibble with wapentake, which was news to me (and to my spell-check) – now to work it into a conversation…..

  30. Mostly quite straightforward although once GENERAL STRIKE (via ALL OUT) went in, I was away. Mind you, CREASE and PUNCH took quite a long time. And then there was NEYMAR which I couldn’t get. I’ve never heard of him and I couldn’t work it out from the clue. Apart from that an enjoyable puzzle unlike yesterday’s which I failed on. Indeed I’ve still only done about half of it!
    Thanks Puck.

  31. Didn’t quite finish this, being ignorant of footballers and stumped by the film in 11,18. I think I was distracted by the word bottom, and finding the second part of the answer to be _R_E. Oh dear.
    I did know WAPENTAKE though, being an amateur historian living on the Wirral, where such a thing existed until the mid-19th century.
    A challenging and brilliant puzzle. Thanks to Puck and loonapick.

  32. [Those of a certain age and location may recall a(n in)famous bar called the Wapentake in the centre of Sheffield.]

  34. Thanks Puck and loonapick

    I got a fortunate entry as “Attorney 19” in 25d immediately suggested GENERAL to me, though it turned out to be irrelevant for this clue!

    I struggled parsing the ones mentioned, and I took ages to get COLOUR as I hadn’t noticed that it was (6), not (3,3).

    A DNF for me too – never heard of NEYMAR.

  35. Fantastic puzzle.  Pleased to have finished, although I misparsed ARTIST (thought TIS might mean twice, inserted into ART = general practice).

    I agree with WordPlodder @15 that both 4 and 21 are both triples.

    I also assumed Punch horse was the “one to mount” in 8.  I don’t see why they shouldn’t be mounted.  Puts me in mind of Old Uncle Tom Cobley and friends riding the grey mare to Widecombe Fair.  They presumably would have needed a heavy horse for that trip 😉 .

    Great fun.  Thanks, Puck and loonapick.  Congrats to those that parsed the lot!

  36. Like others this was a real struggle with the same unparsed solutions as most. There is some very innovative clueing but I didn’t find it particularly enjoyable. Whilst it is very clever of the setter to work a solution like NEYMAR into the theme I think the combination of the GK (or specialist K) with extreme wordplay renders it insoluble for many. I only got there by guessing the footballer with the crossers in and checking the answer and hadn’t a clue on the parsing.
    Certainly a tour de force of setting which was beyond my reach in places, and an equally impressive piece of blogging. Thanks to Puck, loonapick and others who cracked the parsing.

  37. Thanks to Loonapick and Puck ! Now that really was a crossword, with some truly masterly misdirection – CUSTER being my favourite among many. In my case GENERAL STRIKE was FOI which gave me a bit of a head start. Even then I totally missed the significance of it being clues 19 and 26 ! I also had CORTINA instead of POPULAR, thus rendering 28 & 30 unsolvable and leading to a DNF. I also missed NEYMAR, not thinking a Guardian crossword would contain something as mainstream as the name of an actual footballer. D’oh !

  38. Also a DNF for me. Even though 19,26 was one of my early ones in, I was more or less stumped by the NW. Loved BORN FREE, once I finally parsed it.

    Thanks to Puck and Loonapick, and other parsers.

  39. Thanks to Puck and loonapick. Too tough for me.I did eventually fill the grid but only with a lot of entries unparsed (all of them already mentioned (e.g., PUNCH, BORN FREE)  and WAPENTAKE was new to me. However, I was surprised to find that so many did not know NEYMAR who has been all over the sports news, even in the US.

  40. Pucking superb. I may give up crosswords now, as I think they have peaked with this one! What year was the GENERAL STRIKE – 1926?

    As for George Armstrong (CUSTER), the Arsenal winger ‘tackling Spurs winger’, one for fans of North London teams of a certain age!

    WAPENTAKE was new to me, but I am tempted to pay a visit after this.

    Also appreciated the symmetry of all those double down clues: delightful.

    Thanks to both, but to Puck especially.

  41. An excellent crossword, and a real challenge.  As others found, though, NEYMAR was impossible to get, and I was left wishing a different word went there to make this a perfect crossword!

    I particularly liked MACARTHUR, CLOSE BY, LOTHARIO, CREASE, COLOUR and ATTLEE.

    3d CUSTER was a strange clue.  It would work without ‘George Armstrong’ and would have been more in keeping, perhaps, with other themed clues if that additional information wasn’t given.  With the clue as written, one could at least be 100% sure of the answer!

    Many thanks to Puck and Loonapick.

  42. Can someone explain the definition of CREASE in 1d? I think it must be a sporting term from one of the many sports I know nothing about.

    What a difficult puzzle! I confess to admiring it more than actually enjoying it.

  43. I usually delight in Puck’s puzzles but like Ted thought this was one to admire rather than enjoy and eventually gave up on it. I only got 19 26 with a lot of prompting from Mrs Job (PVB), and I must admit to relishing the clever insertion of the date. This was not just a dnf for me, more of a hgs (hardly got started). The best bit was reading the blog and comments. Thanks Loonapick.

  44. Thanks to Puck and Ioonapick.

    A tricky solve today but managed to get GENERAL STRIKE early on which helped with the generals and synonyms for strike. WAPENTAKE was a new word and I’ve never heard of NEYMAR.

    Favourites were GENERAL STRIKE for the clueing and for placing it at 19, 26, ATTLEE and MACARTHUR.

  45. Brilliant, brilliant.

    Even though there a couple of clues that had superfluous words (in particular 20d that didn’t need the last four words).

    Last one in was POPULAR (21d) – we were slighty uncertain, having not heard of that Ford model.

    Quite a lot of solvers found NEYMAR impossible, including my solving partner.  Well, it’s all about what you know and how often you fully read the newspapers [it truly is a bit like FEDERER is impossible].  Neymar is the most expensive footballer in the world, formerly playing for Barcelona.  But when PSG (Paris St Germain) really needed him this year, he wasn’t available. Comment #37 tells us “not thinking a Guardian crossword would contain something as mainstream as the name of an actual footballer“.  If that’s sort of tongue in cheek, fine. If not, it feels like the UK wants Jacob Rees-Mogg as its PM. [Don’t get me started]

    Thank, Loonapick & Puck (!, exclamation mark).

     

     

  46. I missed 1d that I should have got and 12a about which I feel no guilt. 8a I agree with loonapick – if a horse is not usually mounted it seems wrong to clue it this way.
    Having solved 28a while attempting the acrosses first as I usually do I thought that 3d couldn’t be right as it meant using the same general twice but having got the U and the T I couldn’t think of anything else and 7a confirmed it.
    18,11 and 12a is there such a thing as being too clever?

  47. Thank you Puck and loonapick, and other parsers.

    A fantastic puzzle.  I rarely comment now since I solve late in the morning and there are so many new commenters  with interesting observations, but I did remember WAPENTAKE from Nutmeg’s puzzle in 2015, 26,682.

  48. This was an excellent puzzle, and great fun.  I had another very hectic day at work, so I am just getting here to 15^2 in the very late evening (actually  now in the wee hours of Thursday) here.

    CUSTER was my FOI (thanks entirely to the extra information that Puck gave in this clue for some reason, as noted by Alan B @41), and that in turn opened the door for solving all of the 19, 26, 1926 and 3 clues.  I loved BORN FREE and NEYMAR.

    I bifd ARTIST and stared at it for ages without an inkling of its parsing, which I had to come here to get.  Thanks Graham Ashton @3.

    WAPENTAKE was new to me, but gettable from the clueing and the crossers (although I did Google it afterward to confirm).

    I also Google-confirmed the Ford POPULAR, and in so doing pulled up a mention of the Monty Python sketch “Mr. and Mrs. Brian Norris’ Ford Popular”, which I then had to immediately find and watch here (for the first 5:55).  Or re-watch, to be more accurate, although it has probably been 40 or so years since I saw it the first time.

    Many thanks to Puck and loonpick and the other commenters.  Nice seeing a post from Cookie @47.

  49. Sil @45

    You make an interesting point about the ‘superfluous’ words at the end of the clue for 20d ESTIMATE.  When solving that clue it struck me that the setter had used good judgement in putting those words in, as ‘car’ would have been more vague – or too vague.  Either way the clue is sound, but consideration of fairness in the context of that corner might have swayed the setter to add those words.  (I think I might have written ‘with extra space’ without the word ‘storage’, but perhaps that is a superfluous point to make!)

    If the clue to NEYMAR had begun ‘Very expensive footballer …’ I might have had a chance!  At least then a solver who doesn’t mind having to look things up could do just that.  ‘Footballer’ was vague.

  50. Ted @42
    I don’t think your question about CREASE has been answered yet. It is a cricketing term and is defined in both CHAMBERS and COLLINS. (It is a line drawn on a cricket pitch – one of three types. The ‘popping crease’ is significant for the batsman – the player ‘on strike’.)

  52. Ted@42.

    I didn’t respond, because I thought my explanation in the blog was sufficient, but thanks to Alan B for expanding.

  53. Sorry, Loonapick @52.  I did read the whole blog once but didn’t re-read it before answering Ted.  All I effectively achieved with my late post was to cite the two dictionaries.  [And to think that I have been critical recently, among friends, of people not reading what’s there before they comment!]

  54. I have just finished this! I am on holiday and on a campsite where my Wi-Fi dongle only seems to work one minute in every thirty but that’s no excuse! (One only needs to load the puzzle once and no more internet is required). It was just more difficult than average.

    I really enjoyed this. I finally only failed to parse 25A.

    Auriga @16&17

    “Surely it shouldn’t take the combined brains of the blogger and visitors to 225 to arrive at plausible passings.”

    Well, as lots of people seemed to have really enjoyed this and the blogger describes it as “A tour de force from a master setter…” , perhaps the answer is “It should”.

    All these people that cry out on here for “Easy Monday” should take heed. If we must have “Easy Monday” perhaps we’re allowed the odd “Very Hard Wednesday”? How about one a week? 😉

  55. P.S. A comment on CREASE. (Excuse my pedantry)

    The CREASE  (technically the popping crease) is the line 4ft in front of the wickets. The bowling crease is the line parallel to this on which the wickets are placed. The area behind the popping crease (i.e. in the direction of the wickets is known as the batsman’s ground) and extends to infinity.

    So the popping crease actually represents the front extent of this “batsman’s ground”

    However the batsman has no obligation to stand or have any part of his person or equipment within his ground. In fact in my long batting career I always took a position 1 yard in front of the popping crease when facing the bowling. (The only exception to this being when the wicketkeeper was “stood up” to the wickets.)

    The only times when a batsman’s being in his ground is important is when a decision has to be made as to whether he has been run out or stumped.

  56. Bravo Puck and Loonapick !
    A proper workout.
    Re PUNCH, I seem to remember Newmarket racecourse putting professional flat jockeys on draught horses and racing them as a charity stunt; a comical sight.
    So, it is feasible, if not terribly practical.

  57. Il principe@56
    It may be possible to ride a punch horse but it is unusual so, as I said @46, I don’t think that justifies clueing it as a mount.

  58. Thanks, Alan B @50 and loonapick @52. I think that my eye must have slid right over that line in the blog without seeing it. That explanation is certainly sufficient. Sorry for my oversight.

     

  59. I assumed 8 was a double definition. Punch of Punch & Judy fame would be happy to mount (throw) a punch and did so rather often.

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