Guardian 27586 – Chifonie

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You’ll be getting a double dose of me this week, as I’m standing in for the holidaying Loonapick this morning. This was a typically quick solve from this setter, with mostly straightforward constructions and perhaps just one piece of general knowledge that might be unfamiliar to some. Thanks to Chifonie.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. ANSWER Response to a monarch seizing territory down under (6)
N[ew] S[outh] W[ales] in A ER (monarch)
4. PUSHER Copper to escort dealer (6)
P (penny, copper) + USHER
9. FETA Wife tastes portion of cheese (4)
Hidden in wiFE TAstes
10. THEOLOGIAN Doctor heating loo? That’s divine! (10)
(HEATING LOO)*
11. WITHER Humour woman or perish (6)
WIT + HER
12. LAUNCHED Set off and had a meal entertaining American (8)
A in LUNCHED
13. CREDULOUS User could turn out to be naive (9)
(USER COULD)*
15. SAND Gritty French writer … (4)
Definition + hint, referring to the writer George Sand, the pseudonym of Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin (1804-1876). I can’t say I’ve ever read anything by her, but she’s well-known to me as Chopin’s lover
16. GOLD … or German veteran (4)
G + OLD, with a cunningly inconspicuous definition
17. SPORTSCAR Skinhead left Cliff’s vehicle (6,3)
S[kin] + PORT (left) + SCAR (cliff)
21. DAUGHTER Girl sees Changing of the Guard (8)
(THE GUARD)*
22. STROPS Ceases to be interrupted by Romeo’s fits of temper (6)
R in STOPS
24. DISTILLERY Drink supplier is more calm when absorbed by housework (10)
STILLER in DIY (“housework”)
25. NEAT Overall to keep one trim (4)
A (one) in NET (overall)
26. RIDING Mounted detective appears in circus (6)
D[etective] I[nspector] in RING (circus)
27. DELETE Remove obstruction in river (6)
LET (obstruction, as in “let or hindrance”) in DEE
Down
1. ATELIER Had a snack with one reclining in the studio (7)
ATE + LIER (one lying or reclining)
2. SLASH Second stroke is lower (5)
S + LASH – lower as in to slash/lower prices, for example
3. ENTHRAL Hypnotise student after Tehran explosion (7)
TEHRAN + L (Learner driver, student)
5. UMLAUT Accent producing mutual confusion (6)
MUTUAL*
6. HIGH-CLASS Superior found drunk with college girl (4-5)
HIGH (drunk) + C[ollege] + LASS
7. REAR-END Bring up death in crash (4-3)
REAR (bring up) + END (death)
8. WELL‑SUPPORTED Fit to consume wine, Teddy gets lots of encouragement (4-9)
WELL (fit) + SUP PORT (consume wine) + ED; the definition seems grammatically inaccurate – adding the “get” doesn’t help
14. DELIGHTED Luminary in performance is euphoric (9)
LIGHT in DEED
16. GLAZIER Worker is less industrious after final warning (7)
[warnin]G + LAZIER
18. RESTYLE Stop and see flipping makeover (7)
REST (stop) + reverse of ELY (diocese, see)
19. APPEASE Placate primate hoarding vegetables (7)
PEAS in APE (primate)
20. STOLEN Ill-gotten wrap’s new (6)
STOLE (a wrap) + N
23. RANGE Raving about new collection (5)
N (again!) in RAGE (raving, as a noun)

44 comments on “Guardian 27586 – Chifonie”

  1. Just right for a Monday morning, one with storms forecast at least in the East (of England). Good to see 1ac as a nod to our increasingly upfront Australian friends; I’m not sure if any of you comes from the State in question (though question is hardly the right word). Comforting also to have the reliable river Dee and see of Ely actually crossing with another. Many thanks to Chifonie and to Andrew.

  2. Yes, a good Chifonie to start the week. All went in easily apart from RESTYLE, which needed a bit of thought. Thanks to C & A.

  3. Thanks Andrew – this was straightforward without being insulting or boring. I liked the little misdirections like ‘P’ for copper at 4 when the U suggested it might be ‘CU’, but docked a point for one of my very least favourite lazy setters’ chestnuts (ie ER – for monarch etc – at 1 across). Thank you Chifonie for an enjoyable start to the week.

  4. Agree it was a good start to the new week. We read the gets in 8d as part of the definition. Let in 27a led to an interesting exploration of ‘without let or hindrance’ and why it is a let in tennis.
    Thanks, Chifonie and Andrew – particularly for doing two this week.

  5. Also interesting exploration of divine as a noun meaning theologian which initially caused some doubt.

  6. Yes, somewhat gentler than last week’s prize (a dnf, defeated by 1 and 2d)!! Even so I biffed gold and missed the ‘or’ def, neat! Haven’t heard strop as noun, only stroppy as adjective, and agree with Andrew re 8d; it doesn’t quite work.

    Thanks to Andrew and to Chifonie for a pleasant Monday stroll.

  10. Sorry to sound a bit grumpy, but this all felt vaguely unsatisfying.

    As NSW is a State in Australia, calling it a territory in the clue for 1a is confusing, as we also have two territories, the Australian Capital Territory (Molonglo’s neck of the woods) and the Northern Territory.

    I couldn’t see that THEOLOGIAN is the correct part of speech to equate with “divine” in 10a. Maybe I am missing something that you eventually saw, Hedgehog@5?

    The use of ER/monarch in 1a ANSWER (as Bullhassocks @3 mentioned), “Copper” for the P in 4a PUSHER, the River DEE in 27a DELETE, “or” for GOLD in 16a and ELY for “see” in 18dRESTYLE all felt a bit well-worn to me rather than “comforting”, but thank you for being more gentle and positive, quenbarrow@1. “Worker” felt a bit loose for 16d GLAZIER – surely a glazier is more of a tradie? Also couldn’t quite make 8d WELL-SUPPORTED fit with the wordplay, as Teddy for ED in that one jarred.

    Never mind, as we say, it is always good to have a gentler start to the week. Thank you to Andrew for standing in for loonapick and to Chifonie.

  11. I agree with everything Julie@10 says but was nevertheless relieved to finish this without ado. Many thanks Chifonie and double-duty Andrew. A good week for all.

  12. JinA

    “Divine” can be used as a noun as well as an adjective. I confirmed this on Google, but it didn’t give me a URL I could copy and paste – just put “divine” into Google.

  14. The number of times the little old city of ELY gets used in crosswords for the word “see”. Population of about ten thousand when I first started working there in the early Seventies, now three times as big…

  16. I thought this was an excellent puzzle.  I didn’t find it as easy as some people clearly did, and struggled with a few before finishing.  My favourites were THEOLOGIAN, GOLD and DAUGHTER.  The anagram for the last was very cleverly indicated (“Changing of the Guard”) but I’m guessing this must have been done before?  If not it was brilliant.

  17. Thanks to Chifonie and Andrew. I agree – a good start to the week. I paused over the STROPS link to fits of temper and took a while spotting the Ely element in RESTYLE. “Let” as obstruction-hindrance in DELETE is very familiar to me, for I have spent decades explaining to students Hamlet’s line (1.4) “I’ll make a ghost of him that lets me” where the more obvious reading is “permits” – and directors often change the verb to “stop.”

  18. Definitely done before, Lord Jim, tho I don’t have the skills to find examples. As for the state/territory thing, JinA, I didn’t even notice! Tolerant? Probably just vaguely ho hum.

  19. I didn’t see a problem with 8d.     Somebody who is ‘well supported’ typically ‘gets lots of encouragement’.

    Enjoyable solve but have to admit to getting stumped on 1d and guessed 15 having never heard of George Sand.

    Also naively missed the ‘inconspicuous definition’ in  16.

  20. But pandy, the problem is about where your quote marks are: ‘gets lots of encouragement’ = ‘is well supported’, but without the ‘is’ in the solution it doesn’t work.

  21. [Thank you to muffin@12 and 13 for directing me to that previously unknown use of “divine” as the noun for a person who studies “the Divine”. I studied theology in the early 90s and I understood the Greek “theo” meant God and the “logos” part indicated study, thus the study of God.]

    [pandy@19, my problem was more with the placement of the “Teddy” bit in the clue giving the “ED” part. But as I said I had my grumpy pants on.]

  22. [We crossed grantinfreo@20; overall, I think we are agreeing (along with Andrew) that the solution was not “well-supported” by the fodder. BTE gif (re your comment@18), I think I was being picky about the “territory” bit, as a small “s” state is of course a small “t” territory, but in the context of Australia it was confusing – or maybe just misleading – which I guess in a cryptic is fair enough.]

  23. ACD @17: yes, “let” is an interesting genuine example of a word that can have two opposite meanings – I think we were discussing such “auto-antonyms” on here a few weeks/months ago.  Some lists of purported such words contain examples that seem rather dubious to me, for example “draw”, supposedly on the basis that “draw the curtains” can mean “open the curtains” or “close the curtains”.  Well, “draw” just means “pull”.  You might as well say that “push” has two opposite meanings because “push the door” can mean “push the door open” or “push the door closed”.

  24. Thank you Chifonie and Andrew.

    I enjoyed this puzzle, and since it is partly aimed to help beginners I don’t think well-worn clues matter too much.

    “He gets WELL-SUPPORTED when he plays on his home ground”, “He gets lots of encouragement when he plays on his home ground” – might this work?

  27. Cookie @24 – it doesn’t work unfortunately. Although “gets well supported” and “gets lots of encouragement” might mean the same thing, well supported is an adjective and lots of encouragement is a noun, so interchangeability doesn’t do the trick. But I had no problem with the clue as written – loose-ish but straightforwardly solvable.

  28. I didn’t find this at all easy- especially given that this is a Monday and it’s Chifonie. I,finally, completed it but not without some head scratching. Looking at it now I’m not sure what the problem was although SLASH still looks dodgy. Perhaps I’m losing my crossword mojo!
    Thanks Chifonie.

  29. Again we see Rufus’s natural successor. An enjoyable puzzle.

    I’m afraid the ‘the Guard’ thing has been rather popular elsewhere, seen even as far afield as The Boston Globe in 2011. It’s been in The Guardian too, in a slightly different form: Rufus 25880!

  30. It’s testament to Chifonie’s neatness that people are reduced to debating whether ‘well supported’ could be used to mean ‘gets lots of encouragement’, of course it could and it’s not hard to come up with a sentence that fits the ‘interchangeability rule’ if that’s the only criteria (which I doubt).

    Thanks to Chifonie and Andrew.

  31. cookie@24 “he gets well-supported” – really? I can’t imagine myself saying that. I think i’d say “he is well-supported when he plays on his home ground”. as van winkle @27 says, it’s probably because you “get” a noun, you don’t “get” an adjective.

    I enjoyed the puzzle though – took me a while.

     

    Thanks chifonie and thank you andrew

  32. oh did someone explain the definition in reply to copmus@7? OR is a word meaning gold, i think it is used in heraldic colours – it’s in the dictionaries, anyway.

  34. I enjoyed this puzzle, and did not find it as easy to complete as many others seem to have done.  I ticked DAUGHTER as CotD, even though I suspected (as confirmed by others above) that it must have appeared in past puzzles.  Nonetheless, I admired its concise surface — I am always delighted when a well-known phrase (in this case, Changing of the Guard) turns out to serve also as the “instruction” for wordplay to arrive at the solution.  I also enjoyed CREDULOUS, DISTILLERY (although it reminds me of a few DIY projects I have yet to complete), and DELETE, for providing the latest sighting of one of the Three Most Important Rivers.  I’m not sure if there are any fans of The Tubes on this board, but RESTYLE naturally prompted me to jump over to YouTube and get this playing before I could continue solving (that’s Re Styles providing the female lead vocal, with Fee Waybill doing the male lead).

    Many thanks to Chifonie and Andrew and the other commenters.

  35. Van Winkle @27 and dutch @31, what about “he gets cold when the weather is rainy”, is not ‘cold’ and adjective here? My English is very rusty …

  37. In 8d, a simple change from ‘GETS . . .’ to ‘GETTING lots of encouragement’ would perhaps suffice?

  38. featherstonehaugh @29: thanks, I’ve now had a look at Rufus 25,880, and the clue there was “Guard the unruly girl”.  What I was wondering (@16) was whether the specific phrase “Changing of the guard” had been used for DAUGHTER before.  As DaveMc says, this makes for a particularly satisfying clue.

  40. Here are just a few for you, Lord Jim:

    It’s the changing of the guard, child The Telegraph – Cryptic – Mar 28 2004

    Girl sees Changing of the Guard The Guardian – Cryptic crossword No 27,586 – Aug 12 2018

    Issue with changing of the guard The Guardian – Quiptic crossword No 948 – Jan 15 2018

    Part of issue produced by changing of the guard The Telegraph – Cryptic – Jan 28 2018

  41. Many thanks featherstonehaugh – that must have taken you a bit of research.  I did suspect it couldn’t be new.

  42. No problem Jim.

    Experienced solvers see the same clues appearing over and over again I would imagine. Not a reflection on setters either, as while there are many ways to skin a cat, the options are not necessarily infinite.

    I suppose the sport is, with something like sAMPLE, to see which compiler, in your opinion, did the ‘no starter’ bit best!

  43. A bit late in the day to join in (especially as this is my first ever comment despite being a long time reader of the blog – on a conversation that’s 2 days old!) but isn’t the “gets” in 8D just an indicator along the lines of “leads you to”, “makes” or similar?

    i.e. answering the numerous descriptor clues to letters or subparts “gets” (you) the word that fits the concise definition.

    Only a thought …

  44. Saddler – A warm welcome – nice to have you on board. You are right, of course, that “gets” could be viewed simply as a ‘connector’ word. However, what I feel folk here are getting at is that “well supported” isn’t quite the same as “lots of encouragement” but that by adding “gets” to the definition, we may have a better fit. I’m not so sure though cookie has made a reasonable case, I thought, though others not convinced. I didn’t give it much thought at time of solving – the clue offered a clear, and fair, route to the solution which is good enough for me.
    hth (and do post again).

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