The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27539.
Yesterday’s Pan was likened to a Pasquale, and here follows the real thing, with the expected wide range of words and references, and some amusement to be had along the way. And a pangram to boot, if that is what floats your boat.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SOPHOCLES | Dramatist‘s second work — this classical reading son ignored (9) |
| A charade of S (‘second’) plus OP (‘work’) plus HOC (‘this classical’ – Latin neuter nominative for this) plus LES[son] (‘reading’) minus the SON (‘son ignored’ – for once, son is not abbreviated). | ||
| 6 | BUDGE | Shift gear initially, entering seaside resort (5) |
| AN envelope (‘entering’) of G (‘Gear initially’) in BUDE (‘seaside resort’ in Cornwall). | ||
| 9 | ESCALATOR CLAUSE | Recalculate so as to change part of business contract (9,6) |
| An anagram (‘to change’) of ‘recalculate so as’, with an extended definition. | ||
| 10 | KIRK | Man of Enterprise in Scottish place of worship (4) |
| Double definition, the first referring to Starship Enterprise (the Don was good enough to give us a capital E) of Star Trek. | ||
| 11 | JEWELLER | In Paris I may meet Sam who sells valuable items? (8) |
| A charade of JE (‘in Paris I’) plus WELLER (‘Sam’, character in The Pickwick Papers by Charled Dickens). | ||
| 14 | WATERFALL | Raft we all abandoned — unnavigable part of river? (9) |
| An angram (‘abandoned’) of ‘raft we all’. | ||
| 15 | DONUT | Party food — for Americans (5) |
| A charade of DO (‘party’) plus NUT (‘food’). Again, the Don is kind enough to indicate the American spelling. | ||
| 16 | ROUGH | Raucous sound of bird (5) |
| Sounds like (‘sound of’) RUFF (‘bird’). | ||
| 18 | MESQUITES | Something unsightly hiding pretty trees (9) |
| An envelope (‘hiding’) of QUITE (‘pretty’ as in “I’m pretty tired today”) in MESS (‘something unsightly’). | ||
| 20 | ANDESITE | Classical composer, while avoiding extremes, has place for rock (8) |
| [h]ANDE[l] (‘classical composer’ – classical loosely, Baroque more specifically) minus the outer letters (‘while avoiding extremes’) plus SITE (‘place’). | ||
| 21 | HIND | Back religious believer almost to the end (4) |
| HIND[u] (‘religious believer’) minus the last letter(‘almost to the end’). | ||
| 25 | CONTROVERSIALLY | Italian footballer and friend entertaining Tranmere team in a contentious manner (15) |
| An envelope (‘entertaining’) of ROVERS (‘Tranmere team‘) in Conti (‘Italian footballer’ – there seem to be a whole bunch of peopel to fit that description) plus ALLY (‘friend’). | ||
| 26 | SISAL | Ropy stuff in clues is allowed, putting a lot off (5) |
| A hidden answer (‘in … putting a lot off’) in ‘clueS IS ALlowed’. How about that for a surface? | ||
| 27 | HESITATED | The fellow designated to engage one showed indecision (9) |
| An envelope (‘to engage’) of I (‘one’) in HE STATED (‘the fellow designated’). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SNECK | Catch son having kiss and cuddle (5) |
| A charade of S (‘son’) plus NECK (‘kiss and cuddle’). | ||
| 2 | PACK RAT | American hoarder of Sinatra, F and chums, so to speak? (4,3) |
| Frank Sinatra and chums formed the RAT PACK, so that ‘Sinatra F’ suggests the reversal of the particles, for various related American rodents which are known for their acquisitive nature. | ||
| 3 | ORLY | Airport in a bad way — work abandoned after upset (4) |
| A subtraction: [po]ORLY (‘in a bad way’) minus the PO (‘work abandoned after upset’ – i.e. OP reversed), for the Paris airport. | ||
| 4 | LOTI | Naval officer and author having destiny on island (4) |
| A charade of LOT (‘destiny’) plus I (‘island’). Fortunately a simple wordplay for the defined French naval officer and author Louis Marie-Julien Viaud, who wrote under the pseudonym Pierre Loti. I hadn’t heard of him either (with apologies to those who have read him). | ||
| 5 | SURREALIST | Avant garde type from south-east county, mostly associated with top people (10) |
| A charade of SURRE[y] (‘south-east county’) minus its last letter (‘mostly’) plus A-LIST (‘top people’), for the avant garde of a while back. | ||
| 6 | BILLET DOUX | Audible encouragement to William in communication of love? (6,4) |
| Sounds like (‘audible’) BILLY, DO (‘encouragement to William’). The pronunciation is closer to that I associate with the military, for whom the ‘communication of love’, the original meaning of the phrase, is ironic. | ||
| 7 | DRUMLIN | Mound of food’s ending with drink? Nothing turned up (7) |
| A charade of D (‘fooD‘s ending’) plus RUM (‘drink’) plus LIN, a reversal (‘turned up’ in a down light) of NIL (‘nothing’), for a glacial hill. | ||
| 8 | EXECRATES | Curses river’s decrepit transport (9) |
| A charade of EXE (‘river’) plus CRATES (‘decrepid transport’). | ||
| 12 | ORCHESTRAL | Like some music that gives backing to R Charles, possibly (10) |
| An anagram (‘possibly’) of ‘to R Charles’. I suppose ‘that gives backing’ could be included in the definition, at a pinch. | ||
| 13 | BAR MITZVAH | University zone, one sealed off very briefly (gosh!) after pub room ceremony (3,7) |
| A charade of BAR (‘pub room’) plus MIT (‘university’) plus ‘z[one]’ minus the ONE (‘one selaed off’) plus V (‘very’) plus AH! (‘gosh!’). | ||
| 14 | WAR DANCES | Charge forefathers try out in hostile moves (3,6) |
| A charade of WARD (‘charge’) plus ANCES[try] (‘forefathers’) minus the TRY (‘try out’). | ||
| 17 | UNDINES | Nymphs, any number in bras and panties? (7) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of N (‘any number’) in UNDIES (‘bras and panties’). Down, boy. | ||
| 19 | TRIPLET | One of a number of children sequentially evident in Alcott tale (7) |
| A sort of hidden answer – ‘AlcoTT Tale’ contains a TRIPLE T. | ||
| 22 | DRYAD | Female in woods is crazy, showing no feelings for male (5) |
| MAD (‘crazy’) with the M replaced by DRY (‘showing no feeling for male’). | ||
| 23 | URNS | Navy limited by unserviceable vessels (4) |
| An envelope (‘limited by’) of RN (Royal ‘Navy’) in U/S (‘unserviceable’). | ||
| 24 | HINT | Suggestion inadequate, first to last (4) |
| THIN (‘inadequate’), with the ‘first to last’. | ||
Yes, this was the real Pasquale. My online dictionary really worked overtime today! New words for me were ESCALATOR CLAUSE, ANDESITE, Pierre LOTI, BUDE, DRUMLIN, MESQUITES, PACK RAT, SNECK, RUFF (bird). Also WELLER (Sam) which I found via google as a Dickens character and hoped he was the right one.
Knowing next to nothing about Italian (or any) football and Tranmere (never heard of it), I gave up on trying to fully parse 25a although I could see ROVER and ALLY in there. Also could not parse 19d.
Thanks Pasquale and Peter.
Quite difficult, I would say, with several things I DNK: ‘drumlin’, ‘Bude’ as a resort (as opposed to a French series of Latin and Greek texts), the Italian footballer, ‘Loti’. I didn’t get the Alcott clue either. Well, at least I had heard of ‘Undines’ and ‘Dryad’, and understood the cryptics for those.
A fine puzzle from the Don!
I should add that ‘packrat’ is also American slang for a person who never throws anything out – I’m not sure if it’s used in the UK.
Well (despite michelle @1), I was well pleased to see Tranmere’s appearance.
I grew up (inter alia) in Prenton, a few streets from Prenton Park, home ground of the Super White Army.
So thanks Don.
… OK, there were a few odd words such as SNECK and ANDESITE.
But the master left little doubt in the cluing/wordplay; and flagged the literals quite clearly.
As for the seaside resort … I only know it from the substitutional limerick:
There once was a lady from Bude
Who went for a swim in the lake (etc.)
Just wondered: what is “may” contributing to 11 across?
Thanks PeterO and Pasquale.
Most of it yielded fairly steadily until the last three or four: LOTI (LOI), MESQUITES, SNECK and ORLY). There were of course many alternative words that would fit L.T.
I had always assumed “SNECK” was a Lancashire dialect word, but apparently not; reminds me of my Dad saying “Put wood inthole”.
Struggled for a long time with an anagram of R DECREPIT for EXECRATES, until I realised a crosser wouldn’t allow it.
Trovatore @ 4 Is it intended to go with “Sam”, as in the usual approach of “Sam, perhaps”?
Yesterday’s setter would do well to look at this as an example of how to do it properly.
Thanks Don and Peter.
Despite a few unknown words such as SNECK and UNDINES this was gentler than yesterday’s puzzle for which I was thankful. Missed the parsing for TRIPLET which was very clever.
Thanks for the link to LOTI. I remember we learnt a bit about him in Year 9 French, particularly the novel ‘Ramuntcho’ set in the Basque region which includes the game of pelota as part of the story.
I liked DRUMLIN, another word I’ve only ever encountered in cryptics.
Thank you to PeterO and Pasquale.
Couldn’t get SNECK but I enjoyed this a lot, especially WAR DANCES, DRYAD and JEWELLER. Many thanks to P & P.
Pretty tough but pretty fair. I had almost the same list of dnks as michelle@1 except I had met ruff and mesquite and had forgotten dryad though it’s a crossword staple.
I wondered about the ‘?’ in 7d, took ages over the clever 14d, and chuckled over ‘Billy do!’ [reminded me of the old song featuring Sir Jasper, a favourite at school camps].
Thanks PeterO and Pasquale.
This was a relief after yesterday’s challenge with the four letter ones going in last, although I liked hint. Not heard of the rock but loved the unpicking of the longer clues – Sophocles, controversial and Barmitzvah. It could only be triplet in the end but failed to spot the three Ts, having looked for Jo et al. I too thought sneck was one of my granny’s Lancashire words..leave the door on the sneck, after of course puttin wood in th’ole. Thanks, Dave@5 for the memory.
Thanks,, P and P; we really enjoyed this one.
Oh, the irony! LOI was HIND. I wouldn’t mind, only it’s my surname!
Thanks Pasquale and PeterO
I thought that this was very general knowledge heavy (as is often the case with this setter). Fortunately I knew most of the required references, only having to guess ESCALATOR from the anagram, LOTI the author and CONTI the footballer. (I live in a drumlin swarm, and Snecklifter is a favourite beer round here.) Favourites were ORCHESTRAL and WAR DANCES.
I don’t see what “putting a lot off” contributes to the clue for SISAL.
Like Trovatore @4 I was pleased to see Tranmere crop up as they are my local team who have just been promoted to the football league.
Auriga @12: ha ha! Great.
As for the puzzle, a struggle for me and a DNF
Thanks PeterO I had a number unparsed until your blog.
The Don at his best today although technically a DNF for me as I failed on SNECK.
BILLET DOUX reminded me how fascinating phrases from old French persist. The other day I was visiting a customer in Paris and on leaving he asked me for my levée d’écrou as he needed to sign it to confirm I had left site. It literally means ‘removal of the nut’ which goes back to when prisoners’ manacles were fastened with a nut and bolt. Today it means ‘release from prison’.
Yesterday I mentioned how very rare words should be scrupulously clued…The Don achieves this in spades, IMHO.
Nice week, all.
Auriga @12: Ha-ha! Brutal.
dryad was the funniest. Sneck was new to me. Great work
Thanks both,
I found this quicker than yesterdays but with a lot of obscure words. 21a held me up. I thought of hind but it took me a long time to see the parsing. Sneck was familiar as I was brought up in a village (Welton in Lincolnshire) where there was a brass plate on the church door saying ‘Please shut and sneck the door’.
Thanks to Pasquale and PeterO. I thought at first this was going to be more straightforward than usual for this setter, but was of course wrong. Top half went in quite readily, but bottom half took me ages and at one point nearly gave up. However got there in the end with andesite and war dances last ones. That said needed to come here for the parsing of 19 and 22d and of course missed the pangram. I liked billet doux and jeweller and thanks again to Pasquale and PeterO.
After all that controversy over ILLA recently, is no-one going to object to HOC in 1a?
DNF for me, because clues about obscure minerals make me automatically hit the “reveal” button. but I enjoyed most of it so thanks to the Don and to PeterO for the blog
I enjoyed this throughout. I guessed SNECK but didn’t fill in my other guess, LOTI, because it just looked wrong, but of course I should have relied on this setter’s well-deserved reputation for fairness in the face of obscurity (so to speak).
I should have stopped to work out TRIPLET and WAR DANCES (but I felt a bit brain-dead after having a go at Sunday’s Inquisitor yesterday). As for BILLET-DOUX, I didn’t see or hear ‘Billy’, only ‘Bill’, so I slipped up there too – and in retrospect I think the sound-alike is fair.
In answer to Trovatore @4, I think the ‘may’ was inserted to make both the cryptic grammar and the surface reading work properly. You can’t say ‘I meets’, but you can say ‘I may meet’.
I had the same question as muffin @13 about the extra text ‘putting a lot off’ in 26a SISAL. I think it was put there partly to entertain us, adding as it does to the sense conveyed by the surface, but also as a further indicator to take a lot away from ‘clues is allowed’.
Before I got the first letter of SURREALIST I thought (as a Kent dweller) of a word starting with ‘garden’ (‘gardenless’, for example), but I was getting nowhere with that and got the answer soon enough – it was my favourite clue in the end, edging out several others.
Many thanks to Pasquale and PeterO. [And if Eileen is reading this I would like to thank her for yesterday’s blog, which I found both enjoyable and instructive. I omitted to post that courtesy with my brief comment.]
I was very tempted to put mosquitos in at 18ac even though the clue made no sense. A classic case of once you have seen a word you cant unsee it.
Trismegistus @20
I sympathise. But I think it’s fair enough when the setter flags a foreign word like ‘this classical’ for HOC in 1a or ‘in Paris I’ for JE in 11a. It’s an established device (‘the Spanish’, ‘a French’ being common examples), but in SOPHOCLES I would just say that the device is somewhat disguised by the word ‘classical’. (I found the wordplay for LES in SOPHOCLES more devious than the classical bit.)
After yesterday, Pasquale’s precise clueing came as something of a relief, so this one was much easier to complete – all of the more obscure solutions are clearly signposted.
Thanks to Pasquale and PeterO
Thanks to PASQUALE and PeterO). Lots of items new to me, all of them cited above, but I agree that as usual the clues from this setter were fair and gettable. E.g., I did not know the ROVERS as a team but was certain that it fit the parsing, and the same was true for Bude-BUDGE, SNECK, LOTI, DRUMLIN, and ANDESITE. I missed the 3 Ts in TRIPLETS and “us” for unserviceable was new to me.
For once I did catch the pangram. In fact, with some of the less common letters doubled, I wondered if there was a double pangram, though I did not check out the possibility.
Alan B @23 – I was one of those in favour of ILLA, and didn’t think it was unfair to include Latin words, as some did. And it was also clearly clued as “That Latin…”
http://www.fifteensquared.net/2018/05/30/guardian-27522-boatman/
So I’m surprised at the lack of any raised eyebrows today…
Trismegistus @27
Oops – I misread the tone of your earlier post somewhat. I remembered ILLA but not who said what.
Dave Ellison @5
I’m interested you know SNECK from Lancashire. It’s a word I hadn’t come across since my own childhood, in Aberdeen, decades ago, so I’d always assumed it was a Scotticism. Presumably it’s one of those words that’s shared both sides of the border but is little if at all used in the southern part of the country.
Really took me back down memory lane when I realized SNECK was indeed the answer. It was my FOI, in fact, and I just sat in a nostalgic glow for a few moments before carrying on with the rest of the xword.
Like several above I found this fairer (better clued) than yesterday despite more unknown words – although as a Lancashire lad I joined Dave, Hedgehog, Muffin and Tyngewick as a Lincolnshire outlier in recalling SNECK with nostalgia. [Hedgehog, surely you’d be asked to “leave t’ door ont’ sneck” – with apologies to Van W and others for the digression.]
My favourite today was MESQUITES for its misdirection with PRETTY – I spent ages trying to work CUTE, NICE or somesuch in and for the first time ever I spotted the pangram and it helped as the Q had to go here and that led to the answer.
I needed PeterO’s help with SOPHOCLES and TRIPLET – very clever. Many thanks to P&P.
Quite difficult but the cluing was pretty fair so not too hard. I agree that this was quite a contrast to yesterday’s puzzle. As usual there were obscenities – at least to me- ANDESITE,DRUMLIN, UNDINES and has anyone ever read LOTI?
Good fun.
Thanks Pasquale.
Really enjoyable puzzle, temporarily halted for me in the SW quadrant by entering RAVEN in place of ROUGH. (It takes a bit of imagination to call “raven” a homophone for “raving”, but as a French-speaker no more than was needed for “Billy, do”!) The Googling required to parse JEWELLER also led me down a very pleasant Wikipedia hole as I read up on Wellerisms – surely a rich seam for setters!
Thanks Pasquale and PeterO.
Enjoyed this, particularly DRYAD, UNDINES and MESQUITES. Lots of learnings today, but fairly clued. BAR MITZVAH was a bit tortuous.
Trismegistus @27. I’d guess HOC is more acceptable because of the familiar AD HOC, whereas ILLA doesn’t crop up in English (at least in my general vocab!).
Peter Aspinwall @31. Hope you meant “obscurities” not “obscenities” 😉 . Hard to think of rocks as obscene!
Thanks, Liz and PO.
I thought I remembered ANDESITE from a previous puzzle and it was in 26831 also by Pasquale and blogged by PeterO! That time the clue was “A night informally includes some Parisian rock (8)”
the Jeweller clue is just the sort that puts me off – no indication of where we should be hunting for the Sam, and not one that is a common short-hand as far as I’m aware (unless I’m missing something) – instead one specific Sam is thrown in randomly (and to me, served only to misdirect me by thinking of a conflation of two Casablanca quotes!)
A tough one for me; DNF but did OK. DRUMLIN got me started – funny how ‘O’ level geography from a lifetime ago still comes readily to mind, yet I can’t recall what I did yesterday! Like Hack@32, I too disappeared into the Wellerism worm-hole. Good fun. I couldn’t parse triplet but the mechanism is brilliant (in my view). All in all I feel like I’ve gone 3 rounds with Anthony Joshua…
Many thanks Pasquale and PeterO.
Just noticed. I meant obscurities. Apologies to the setter!
Please feel free to digress as much as you like today. I am too busy trying to keep up with the cricket to moan about anybody straying off topic.
What a great, fun puzzle! A lot of clever wordplay and misdirection, making for many satisfying PDMs. A pangram, to boot — which actually sped me on my way to solve JEWELLER, as by that time I had rounded up the usual suspects (apologies to raindog @35 for throwing another Casablanca quote!) except for J, and the thought of a possible pangram, together with the crossers I had for 11ac at the time, made that one a write-in.
Hooray for the latest appearance of one of The Three Most Important Rivers in Crosswordland, in 8d. Solving WAR DANCES gave me an XTC earworm (not a bad thing at all, in my book) for the remainder of the puzzle. SNECK was my LOI, not a familiar word to me (although I have a vague recollection of having seen it in a prior Guardian cryptic – ?), but fairly clued like all of the others. CotD for me was TRIPLET.
Peter Aspinwall @31 and 37 – “obscenities” – ha ha!
Many thanks to Pasquale and PeterO and the other commenters.
Completely stumped by Loti, L o (t) i, therefore…
Thanks, PeterO and Pasquale.
Rather late today, since I was pushed for time this morning and, although I always solve the Guardian puzzle, since it’s my paper, the lure of a Radian [Crucible] in the Indy first thing was irresistible [and what a gem it was!*].
So, nothing really to add to the comments here but I would like to acknowledge AlanB’s courteous comment @21, which somewhat restored my confidence, since I seem to have rather misjudged things yesterday. 😉
Of course, I loved SOPHOCLES – my top favourite tragedian, after the Bard*. [I blogged ILLA and thought HOC should be more widely known, as phitonelly, says, through ad HOC and post HOC – and it was indicated as being classical.]
Re DaveMc’s comment on The Three Most Important Rivers in Crosswordland [I think I can guess which they are]: it just occurred to me the other day that the Norfolk river ANT, which flows near the village where I spent my teenage years, could be used as a neat alternative for the tired old soldier and social worker, which have both cropped up in the last few days.
Eileen @41
You may have inadvertently supplied an answer to a question raised by DaveMc the other day: is there an instance of A being an example of B and B of A? What about worker and ant?
(I loved your ‘tired old soldier and social worker’ – these two indications are rather hackneyed.)
Eileen@41
Thank you for reminding me of many enjoyable holidays on the Norfolk Broads, particularly trying to tack a 28ft yacht up a 30ft wide river, which is what the Ant seemed in parts – no place for a sluggard!
Indeed the REAL Pasquale! OMG that was a bit of a trawl through the dictionaries. Not sure I’m totally convinced that I should be educated via the daily crossword, but that seems to be what I get with Pasquale.
Echo the comment at 21 re yesterday’s blog btw.
Thanks both.
Too many classical/literary refs to enjoy. For the classically educated only, rather than intelligent/logical thinkers.
Picked this up at go club this evening and did most of it waiting for the delayed train replacing the cancelled one.
Quite a few words I didn’t know or was only vaguely familiar with but got from the clear wordplay: ESCALATOR CLAUSE, MESQUITES, SNECK, PACK RAT, LOTI, DRUMLIN, UNDINES.
Couldn’t think of HANDEL, though, even though I parsed ANDESITE (another new word) correctly. Kept thinking of HAYDYN. Eventually got it from word search at home and so was able to crack the tricky parsing for WAR DANCES, LOI.
“the Don was good enough to give us a capital E”
I believe the Don would face live Klingon fire before he would decapitalise a proper name! (Because, of course,when ropy stuff is allowed in clues, a lot are put off).
In 15a, adding “for Americans” spoils the &lit, because a nut is not just food for Americans. Anyway DONUT is not “for” all Americans (see here), and is equally “for” many Brits these days, I would guess.
Didn’t understand the wordplay for DRYADS or TRIPLET (thanks, PeterO), just biffed ’em. I was considering DRY = “showing no feelings for male”, but let’s not go there.
Very educational!
Please can someone explain the pangram? Is it just that all the letters of the alphabet occur in the solutions? thanks
Ishull @4
Yes, that is just what it is. A suspected pangram might give a nudge towards a last answer (say, if you see all the letters but a Q, then the missing answer might contain a Q). I seldom think of a pangram until the puzzle is complete, if then.
Agnesite (from Wagner) fit 20a perfectly, illustrating the danger of lots of rocks with composers. Setters should beware!
Poppadom @ 49
What a remarkable spot! The only entry for agnesite I could find online was in Oxford, which lists it as a disused name for bismutite – and then has no entry for the latter! The hardcover OED gives agnesite, with just a single 19th century quote.
Good spot,Poppadom! Plenty of hits on Google, like https://www.mindat.org/min-4793.html . It even has its own Twitter account, apparently. Of course, AYDYSITE (from Haydyn) even fits with the crossers (but isn’t a rock, unfortunately for me).
Tony @51
… and the composers are Franz Joseph and Michael Haydn. Apart from that …
There were two of them? You’d think I could have spelt at least one of their names right! Thanks Peter
I put `fund’ (short for fundie or fundamentalist) at 21ac, and never got 19dn as a result.