Guardian Cryptic 27,593 by Qaos

by

A relatively straightforward puzzle this morning from Qaos.

completed grid

A theme! Not one that either of us were overly familiar with but we got there in the end! Qaos gives his nod this morning to the ROCK BAND, DEEP PURPLE. Their albums over the course of their long and well respected career include SHADES, in ROCK, FIREBALL, MACHINE HEAD, BURN, COME[t] TASTE the BAND (wasn’t sure about COMET but confirmed by Qaos @27 in comments below), SLAVES and MASTERS, and ABANDON. There is also RAPTURE of the DEEP (as in 10a, 3d) but not sure that one should count…

Many thanks to Qaos for a very enjoyable puzzle.

Across

9 Boy gets diamonds for “wonderful” girl (5)
ALICE
AL (boy) + ICE (diamonds)

10 Seduce EU partner with charm (9)
ENRAPTURE
(EU PARTNER)* (*with charm)

11 Spooner urinated toys in legal documents (4,5)
DEED POLLS
A Spoonerism of: PEED (urinated) + DOLLS (toys)

12 On 51p, I would get fat (5)
LIPID
LI (51, Roman numerals) + P + ID (I would)

13 1 + 1? Without detection, I give up … (7)
ABANDON

A (1) + BAND (1 down) + ON[e] (I (or one) partly hidden/without detection) + [quest + I]ON (“?” without QUEST (detection) and I)

Amended this one thanks to Andrew @1. Possible typo, see comment 16 by Van Winkle.
An unfortunate typo in this clue which resulted in much debate until the setter himself (see @25 below) confirmed that the clue should have read “direction” rather than “detection”. Making the last part of the clue parse as “ON[e]” (I without E[ast]). (As commented by @16 Van Winkle and @23 Alphalpha.)

15 … propose wild guess, got nothing to lose (7)
SUGGEST
(GUESS G[o]T)* (*wild, O (nothing) to lose)

17 Room for fish, but not starter of mackerel (5)
SALON
SAL[m]ON (fish, without M[ackerel] (starter))

18 Wearing dunce’s hat, I’m a little bit slow (3)
DIM
IM wearing D[unce] (hat)

20 Abbot puts on shirt and tie (5)
TRUSS
RUSS (Abbot, comedian, actor and atmospheric singer) on T (shirt)

22 Teachers writing about flower (7)
MASTERS
MS (writing, manuscript) about ASTER (flower)

25 Engine going about 760mph, extremely noticeable (7)
MACHINE
MACH I (760mph) + N[oticabl]E (extremely)

26 Top worn by a barbarian (5)
BEAST
BEST (top) worn by A

27 Substitute every second (9)
ALTERNATE
Double Definition

30 Most cold and damp, like the largest space heard (9)
RHEUMIEST
“roomiest” (like the largest space, heard)

31 Traveller to arrive on time (5)
COMET
COME (arrive) + T (time)

Down

1 Group not allowed on the radio (4)
BAND
“banned” (not allowed, on the radio)

2 Sack British concert artist, the possible end for a falling star (8)
FIREBALL
FIRE (sack) + BALL (British concert artist, presumably Michael)

3 Germany’s European record is extreme (4)
DEEP
D (Germany) + E (European) + EP (record)

4 Ant’s partner fibbed about competition’s close being avoided (8)
DECLINED
DEC (Ant’s partner) + LIED (fibbed) about [comptetitio]N (close)

5 Conservative returning knighthood — is this a serious issue? (6)
CRISIS
C (conservative) + (SIR)< (knighthood, <returning) + IS

6 Unfortunately, I get cold chasing a mint — sorry! (10)
APOLOGETIC
((I GET)* (*unfortunately) + C (cold)) chasing A POLO (a mint)

7 Clean tackles, Premier League headers by blue and red United (6)
PURPLE
PURE (clean) tackles (P[remier] L[eague] (headers))

8 Lead, helium and nitrogen escapes (4)
HEAD
HE (helium) + A[n]D (N (nitrogen) esacapes)

13 Fool rises in the morning for tea (5)
ASSAM
(ASS)< (fool, <rises) in AM (morning)

14 Daughter’s body clock deter­mines when to have food (6,4)
DINNER TIME
D (daughter) + INNER TIME (body clock)

16 Sense of style (5)
TASTE
TASTE (sense) &lit

19 Mineral made from two-item compound? (8)
MIMETITE
(ITEM ITEM)* (*compound)

21 Annoyed that shirt’s missing from counterfeit Man U strip (2,2,4)
UP IN ARMS
(MAN U S[t]RIP)* (*counterfeit, missing T (shirt))

23 Ghost in sunglasses? (6)
SHADES
Double Definition (should really be ghostS?)

24 Rescues about 50 captives (6)
SLAVES
SAVES (rescues) about L (50, Roman numeral)

26 Back massage by Norse causes skin injury (4)
BURN
(RUB)< (massage, <back) + N (Norse)

28 Sweet music (4)
ROCK
Double Definition

29 Puts away chair, front to back (4)
EATS
SEAT (chair) the front moving to the to back

49 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,593 by Qaos”

  1. I was puzzled by 13 too – the best I could come up with was that the ON came from QUESTION (“?”, which is not needed to get BAND from the second 1) less QUEST (detection) and I.

  2. Also, I wasn’t keen on 11a, as the vowel sounds in “dolls” and “polls” are not the same. To be even pickier (what, me?) the correct plural form is actually “deeds poll”, as a deed poll is a type of deed, not a type of poll.

    Apart from all that, I enjoyed this, though it was very much on the easy side. I didn’t work out the theme until I’d finished the puzzle, not that it would have been much help to me if I had.

  3. I still don’t get 13a ABANDON: it was a guess for me. Thanks for your thoughts on that one, Teacow and Andrew@1, I am still unclear. I still don’t understand what DEC is ANT’s partner (DECLINED 4d) though perhaps I am being a bit dim.
    I enjoyed 9a ALICE, 17a SALON and 30a RHEUMIEST.
    Thanks to Qaos and Teacow.

  4. Thanks to Qaos and Teacow. Since I did not know the ROCK BAND in question, I had no chance of spotting the theme but that did not prevent me from finishing. I did know Dec and Ant from previous puzzles but not Russ Abbott or MIMETITE and I struggled with the parsing of ABANDON. A good workout.

  5. PS As a bit of a Deep Purple fan, I am embarrassed to say that I totally missed the theme, and yes I need to write it out 100 times: QAOS ALWAYS HAS A THEME. Particular thanks for the purple highlights, Teacow!!!! Machinehead is one of my favourite albums of all time. I will just retreat now into my own embarrassment and lick my wounds.

  6. And there we were we, congratulating ourselves on a quick solve and spotting the theme of comedy duos!
    Actually we are very DIM.
    Parsing ABANDON was the sticking point and not even Mr H knew MIMETITE ‘though he got it from the clue.
    Thanks, Qaos, for catching us out, and Teacow for the enlightenment.

  8. I’m not getting any brighter, so Qaos must be getting easier. Couldn’t parse ABANDON (thanks to Andrew@1), and missed the theme – but wouldn’t recognise Deep Purple tunes anyway. I particularly liked the clue for SUGGEST. Many thanks to Q & T.

  9. Seemed to be less Qaotic than usual, although I missed the theme – I’m more of a Purple Haze than Deep Purple man.

    Rheumatic and Mimetics might have been preferred, but that would have meant sacrificing the themed SLAVES.

    Is ‘with charm’ really the anagrind in 10? It’s a bit confusing because ENRAPTURE means charm?

    Pleasant crossword, thanks Qaos and Teacow.

  10. Embarrassed like you JinA, tho I only had DP In Rock and In Concert, then moved on. Also still don’t get 13a. Nevertheless it was one cuppa job, until the last couple in the NE; for some reason took ages to get that 10a was an anagram, didn’t know Ant and Dec and was anyway iffy about decline as synonym for avoid. Also took a while to remember mach as speed of sound, but liked the clue when the penny dropped.

    Thanks Qaos and Teacow

  11. Surprisingly straightforward for Qaos apart from the parsing of ABANDON. I said to Mrs W “there will be a theme” and then forgot to look for it as we just put it down after we’d finished in record time! Thanks to Qaos and Teacow.

  12. [Thank you, Andrew, for clarifying re Ant and Dec. feeling only slightly better to learn that others missed the theme too.]

  13. Deep Purple are a little (lot) before my time, but I completed this relatively speedily (for me, anyway) without knowing the theme.

    I like the odd easier puzzle, less-taxing and with straightforward parsing.  This one fit the bill for my general Tuesday lethargy.

  14. Thanks Qaos and Teacow

    I saw 16 as a double definition: TASTE is one of the six senses, and also has the connotation of style.

  15. I share others’ embarrassment (JinA @5 and GinF @10)…

    Thanks to Qaos for producing the Monday stroll in the park, even if it was a day late!

    Also to TC and Andrew for valiant attempts at explaining 13a, though I’m not sure I’m entirely convinced.

    And talking of plurals (Andrew @2) – shouldn’t 23d be “Ghosts in sunglasses?” The vision of shades wearing shades lost some of its humour because of that.

    Nevertheless, I enjoyed it, so thanks again to all involved.

  16. I think 13a should probably read “without direction” – 1 (A) + 1 (BAND) + I (ONE less E(ast))

  17. Van Winkle @16: One of us thinks you’ve hit the nail on the head. Makes so much more sense! The other still prefers Andrew @1’s explanation. So it’s still up for debate then!

  18. I totally missed the intended theme, despite having had some of those records once. At some point in solving, I was looking for a theme of devices you don’t usually see repeated in a single puzzle (L=50, T=shirt), but those were the only two I noticed. Finally, I’ve never seen Ant & Dec but they’ve been mocked so much in comedy panel shows that 4d wasn’t a problem.

  19. Like Simon S, I saw 16dn as a Double Definition

    10ac Seduce/Charm. I took ‘seduce’ as the anagram indicator (as it can be used in the sense of ‘lead astray’ or corrupt).

    23dn Ghost/Shades. I think the clue (with a question mark) is OK: ‘the ghost of …’ and ‘shades of …’ are pretty interchangeable phrases in the sense of a haunting memory.

     

     

     

  20. Thanks to Qaos and Teacow. My experience sounds much like many above. It seemed a relatively straightforward solve for a Qaos puzzle. That said, in spite of specifically looking for a theme, I could not see it. Unsurprisingly because I know next to nothing about Deep Purple. NE was the last to fall with head and purple, which on reflection was my favourite clue. Overall and enjoyable solve and thanks again to Qaos and Teacow.

  21. I completely missed the theme through total lack of knowledge of 3dn 7dn. Also, no-one else has a problem with 27ac? I still hang on to ALTERNATIVE (substitute) being a different work to ALTERNATE.

  22. Some of those themers were too recent for me to spot (my knowledge ends with Perfect Strangers). Entertaining and quite straightforward, though MIMETITE was new to me and needed checking.

    Thanks to Qaos and Teacow

  23. Thanks to Qaos and Teacow.

    A quaffable solve and of course I am never on the alert for a theme unless the cluing is particularly tortuous so I missed this one (but while I used to head-bang and air-guitar along with the best of the rest, I was never much of a Purple fan; preferred TASTE). Really only came on to SUGGEST that (but Van Winkle@16 beat me to it) ABANDON must contain a misprint. Of that there is no manner of doubt…

     

  24. I went to see Deep Purple once many years ago and it’s not an experience I was ever tempted to repeat! I should have got the theme though but I didn’t. Still, this seemed like the Monday crossword we didn’t get yesterday. ABANDON went in without a qualm but I had all the crossers in and I probably didn’t look too closely at the parsing. BEAST was LOI and, while it’s perfectly fair, I can’t say I liked it much.
    Thanks Qaos.

  25. Afternoon all,

    Sorry – v little time to write today (work is v busy), but I saw a question about 13 ac via Twitter. “without detection” should be “without direction” to remove the final E from ONE.

    Hope you’re enjoying the rest of the puzzle.

    Best wishes,

    Qaos.

  27. Where’s my manners! Many thanks to Teacow also for the blog and the excellent highlighting of all the thematic material. Just one extra the COME in “Come Taste the Band” is hidden in COMET.

  28. I missed the theme, which is a little embarrassing as I love a bit of Purple. Overall found most of it pretty straightforward, which at least confirms to me that I’m starting to learn the rules of these things. Good fun.

    Thanks to Qaos and Teacow.

  29. I totally missed the theme, wouldn’t have had a hope of catching it.  I think I knew that DEEP PURPLE was a band, probably confusing it with Purple Haze, but it definitely stops there, if it even got that far.

    I’d also never heard of Russ Abbot or Michael Ball or mimetite or Dec and Ant, but those are fair enough bits of GK that I don’t happen to have.  I put the words together without parsing them anyway.

    I agree with Andrew @2 about the Spoonerism.  I don’t know that the Rev Mr. Spooner ever committed any Spoonerisms in writing, but he would have had to to produce 11a.  Spoonerisms need to work when spoken — it’s the spelling that doesn’t have to be consistent.  (Fork tines can be torque fines, for instance.)

    Is “rheumy” ever used about anything besides eyes?  News to me that it means cold and damp.

    5d — Sir can be a knight, but a knighthood?  Would Sir please explain?

    “Deed poll” in wikipedia was fascinating.  Who knew that “indenture” referred to the toothlike ragged edges of torn paper?   Do google it, you’ll enjoy it.

     

  30. I think I’ve found another reference:
    A combination of a Hammond organ and a Marshall guitar amplifier was
    known to the band as THE BEAST !

  31. Thank you to Teacow and Qaos – another masterpiece !
    I now know more about Deep Purple than I ever imagined I would.
    ( And I should have credited Jon Lord with the creation of the BEAST )

  32. The band toured fairly recently with ALICE Cooper
    and were also an important influence on ALICE in Chains.
    Mere coincidence ? I doubt it; it’s a Qaos puzzle after all!

  33. mike04 @19 re Ghost/Shades – oh well, when you put it like that I guess it works…

    And yet more thanks to Qaos for the clarification.

  34. To my northern upbringing, the spoonerism sounds perfectly ok.

    Looked for a theme all the way through, but I had no hope of spotting this one.

     

    Thanks Qaos and Teacow.

     

  35. Got there in the end. Robi I’m with you on Purple Haze and I was so lucky to see Jimi live years ago in the Liverpool Empire. Fantastic.

  36. Thanks Teacow and Qaos !

    A quite easy puzzle which I finished in just on an hour. Then,knowing it’d was Qaos I spent a good five minutes searching the completed puzzle for the theme before I gave up and came here. D’oh ! Very embarrassing for an old rock fan, especially one who owns copies of Deep Purple In Rock and Made In Japan !

  37. I completed this one quite quickly for me, but as usual I missed the theme entirely.

    I couldn’t parse several clues, but upon coming here, I find that I have good excuses for all of them: one was 13a, which had an error, and the other two involved people (Russ and Ball) of whom I’ve never heard.

    I had to look up whether MIMETITE or MEMITITE was a mineral, and I had the same quibbles as others of 11a and 23d.

    I always appreciate it when setters drop by here. Thanks to Qaos for explaining what happened with 13a.

     

  38. Enjoyable and mildly quick solve, even for an American like me 🙂 Do agree with the quibble about 23D (s/b ghostS, I think…). But very nice.

  39. Ezzie@35. I saw Hendrix at Liverpool Empire too. Must have been the same concert. Pink Floyd, the Move and sundry others were on too.We might have met!

  40. Ezzie@35 and Peter A@39, I didn’t see Jimi but I did see Deep Purple in Liverpool. If memory serves me correctly they were on at the defunct club at the bottom of Mount Pleasant (Mardi Gras??). A bit harsh on the eardrums but I recovered after a couple of hours.

    So all the more annoying that I didn’t spot the theme

  41. As others said, a nice crossword (and a lot easier than yesterday’s Nutmeg (which was totally different, of course)).

    Also nice: to see the return of a number clue. Unfortunately, we do Guardian crosswords not online but from the print version available directly after midnight, and so we ended the day with the unexplained 13ac. Although I saw Deep Purple in the early stages, ABANDON didn’t spring to mind as a theme word. But FIREBALL did, we got it thanks to Ian Gillan & Co.  There are probably a lot of BALLs in the world of music.  Is there any particular reason why Qaos wrote ‘British concert artist’?

    Most pluses and minuses have already been discussed, so I won’t repeat them.  Although, Ted @37 mentions the choice MIMETITE / MEMITITE.  If you don’t know the mineral, both answers are just as likely, the latter sounded even better to us. Therefore I found 19d a rather unfortunate clue. As was actually 13d with ‘ass’ and ‘am’ also part of the answer in a different way.  Nothing wrong with it, though.

    I have a final question about two (or perhaps, three) clues, 18ac and 29d (and perhaps, 20ac) [since nobody mentioned it].

    Is the use of ‘wearing’ for ‘coming in front of’, in this case IM, all right in an Across clue?

    Is saying ‘front to back’ in the last clue of the puzzle not a device that should only be used in a Down clue?

    Still, lots to like and indeed impressive grid fill!

    Many thanks Teacow & Qaos.

  42. Flew in quite quickly for me although actually a dnf as without much thought I went for MEMITITE

    Seeing it was Qaos I stopped a number of times to scan for a theme but couldn’t spot it. Two of my last three in though were DEEP and PURPLE which didn’t help and only at that point did I get it!

    I’m *still* not clear about 13a – doesn’t it need another ‘1’? So 1 + 1 + 1 to get (A) + (BAND) + (ONE)?

    8d was my favourite

    Thanks Qaos and Teacow

  43. Sil,

    18ac: I suggest that as you can wear a sticker or badge its acceptable.

    29d: I wondered that myself and maybe someone is still around to answer that one.

    20a: Passed me by that one and again I would be interested to hear any reply.

  44. Finally getting here near the end of a long day here at work.  All day long it nagged at me that I couldn’t see how ABANDON was parsed.  Somewhat amusing to come here and learn that a typo turned out to be the reason for the difficulty, all along.  (But thanks to the commenters who sized up the problem correctly, and also to Qaos for stopping by to confirm it.)  I always like to store useful things in my “solver’s toolkit” for possible use in a future puzzle, but I think I will want to resist trotting out “there must be a typo in the clue” for any time I’m struggling to spot how the setter intended the clue to be parsed!

    Qaos is one of my favorite Guardian setters, because of his great ghost themes … when I can spot them!  Today, alas, I was out of my element.  While I spotted DEEP PURPLE and ROCK BAND in the completed grid, the only other thing I could make out of the rest of it was DINNERTIME CRISIS! ALICE, APOLOGETIC, EATS BEAST … SLAVES TASTE HEAD … DIM MASTERS, UP IN ARMS, BURN MACHINE.  But that seemed pretty improbable as a theme.

    [I enjoy many styles of music, but Deep Purple is not a band whose works I have explored very deeply (or purply).  In fact, pretty much everything I know about them can be summed up in four words: “Smoke on the Water”.  But I see that they released at least nine albums, by Teacow’s opening comments in the blog alone, so I think I will make it a point to give them more of a listen sometime.]

    Many thanks to Qaos and Teacow and the other commenters.

  47. Really enjoyed this puzzle.

    Part of the challenge is to find the theme. I’m afraid we failed again this time.

    Thank you to Teacow and Qaos.

  48. Finished the crossword, missed the theme as I always do.
    Once met Deep Purple at the Victoria Hall Stoke, where they refused to play as they were unsure of getting paid. Advice from previous week’s artistes I believe.

  49. As someone who knows FA about rock “music” (and is proud of it) I suppose I have to be tolerant about themes based on it. But I still don’t accept “decline” as a satisfactory synonym for “avoid”.  Or “beast” for “barbarian”.

    I read the singular “ghost” in the same way as mike04.

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