Guardian Cryptic 27,625 by Philistine

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Found it tricky to get started, only really getting into it once I got a couple of the longer ones. A lot of nice clues – favourites 10/15, 12ac, 14ac, and 3dn. Thanks to Philistine.

Across
1 FACIALS Beauty treatment of French origin (Calais, possibly) (7)
French + (Calais)*
5 ALLOWED Let everyone outstanding be audibly spoken (7)
ALL=”everyone” + OWED=”outstanding”;
also homophone/”audibly” of: ‘aloud’=”spoken”
9 SINBAD THE SAILOR Virtue good … then to relish a version of the Arabian Nights (6,3,6)
“Virtue good” implies SIN BAD, plus (to relish a)*
10, 15 PRIMA FACIE A pair of mice cavorting? Not love at first sight! (5,5)
(A pair of mice)*, minus an O=”love”
11 ANDROMEDA One rescued by flying horseman surrounded by African dromedaries (9)
=Greek mythological figure, rescued by Perseus who rode the flying horse Pegasus.
hidden in AfricAN DROMEDAries
12 TRENCHANT Cutting the roast at first with charm (9)
The Roast first letters + ENCHANT=”charm”
14 AZURE Ezra Pound’s heart battered and blue (5)
(Ezra u)*, where u is the “heart” of Pound
15   See 10
16 LAST OF ALL City’s to be conquered in the end (4,2,3)
LA’S TO FALL=Los Angeles is to fall=”City’s to be conquered”
18 YET TO COME In the pipeline, the tons of crude oil initially imported by Arab country being curtailed (3,2,4)
The Tons Of Crude Oil inside YEMEn=”Arab country” curtailed
21 RUDDY Red ground edgy but even (5)
even letters of gRoUnD eDgY
22 WHISTLE STOP TOUR Choose the Guardian’s first game in case of brief visits (7-4,4)
OPT=”Choose” + OUR=”Guardian’s”, with WHIST=”game” and LEST=”in case” going first
23 TAKINGS Gratefully received royalty payments (7)
TA=thank you=”Gratefully received” + KINGS=”royalty”
24 LEARNED Educated and beautiful, finally made some money (7)
beautifuL + EARNED=”made some money”
Down
1 FUSSPOT Pedant from start to finish on position by compilers (7)
Finish; plus SPOT=”position” after US=”compilers”
2 CONFIDENCE TRICK Eccentric kind of rough hustle (10,5)
(Eccentric kind of)*
3 AVALANCHE Fall for an item of linen hotel included (9)
A VALANCE=decorative fabric draped the base of a bed=”item of linen”; around Hotel
4 SUTRA Australian half-rewritten scripture (5)
anagram of the first half of (Austr)*-alian
5 ANECDOTES An EU precursor lavishes love stories (9)
AN + European Community=”EU precursor” + DOTES=”lavishes love”
6 LLANO Somewhat emotionally upset, it’s plain (5)
Hidden/”Somewhat” and reversed/”upset” in emotiONALLy
7 WALKED UP AND DOWN Paced like men of York? (6,2,3,4)
double definition – the second refers to the nursery rhyme The Grand Old Duke of York [wiki]
8 DARK AGE Upsetting oath about vessel in unenlightened time (4,3)
EGAD=”oath”, reversed/”Upsetting”; around ARK=”vessel”
13 ALL COMERS More calls from the world and his wife (9)
(More calls)*
14 APOCRYPHA Fresh approach covering the ultimate in cookery books (9)
(Approach)* around cookerY
15 FLYSWAT What you might need, when at first you spot wasp in apartment (7)
first letters of You Spot Wasp in FLAT=”apartment”
17 LAYERED Gone ahead, accepting a terrible year with one thing on top of another (7)
LED=”Gone ahead”, around (year)*
19 OFTEN In a way that’s recurring decimal? (5)
OF TEN=”decimal”
20 EXTOL Sexy amateur role essentially gets praise (5)
centres of sEXy amaTeur rOLe

52 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,625 by Philistine”

  1. Yes, a nice puzzle. I liked the long clues, also PRIMA FACIE, LAST OF ALL, and LAYERED although some might say there’s a surplus ‘a’ in the clue. Many thanks to P & m.

  2. Thanks Philistine and manehi

    Mixed. I liked PRIMA FACIE and APOCRYPHA very much.

    “Beauty treatment” seems singular to me. It wouldn’t have harmed the clue to have “treatments”.

    7d doesn’t work, as the second definition should have “marched”. I had ????ED UP AND DOWN for some time until I had the crossers.

  4. Pretty much a one-cup job, well, with a refill. Azure FOI, then the rest of the SE, then etc. Sinbad took a bit of remembering but not the whistle-stop. Dnk Llano the plain, and egad the curse brought a smile, like something Bertie Wooster might say (can’t remember if he did). Liked apocryphal, avalanche and anecdotes.

    Have one or two miniquibbles, but Mrs ginf is pulling me outdoors for the afternoon constitutional.

    Thanks Philistine and Manehi.

  7. Liked it. New word for me with Llano but always good to learn. I do these online and never quite know whether using the check button is ok or not – had to use it once or twice today. Thanks Philistine and Manehi.

  9. Thanks for the blog, manehi. Once again, I agree with all your favourites – the cavorting mice were sheer delight and the Ezra Pound clue was very clever – but I must add  ANDROMEDA and her lurking dromedaries.

    I managed to remember LLANO from previous crosswords, so it was pretty straightforward but, for all that, as enjoyable as ever from Philistine. Many thanks to him. It’s been a great week so far. 😉

  11. Many thanks Philistine and manehi.  I really enjoyed this after a week or so away from crosswords.  I thought ANDROMEDA was great and also liked LA’S TO FALL in 16a.

    manehi, I see you have written ALL COMERS, ie two words, for 13d, which I would have thought was correct, but the clue indicates a 9 letter word.  Can it just be one word?

  13. Thanks to Philistine and manehi. Great fun. LLANO was new to me, and I took a while getting SUTRA and PRIMA FACIE, my LOI. Like Lord Jim @11, I was surprised to see ALL COMERS as one word as well as FLYSWAT (flyswatter in the US).

  15. F the Cat:
    I don’t think an indicator is necessary, as MORE CALLS (can come) from ALLCOMERS.
    A very polished offering from Philistine, I thought.
    Thank you and Manehi.

  16. Really enjoyed this – good solid wordplay (allowing for a bit of licence in some) and none of the tired crossword shorthand we often see.

    Llano was new to me and when I looked it up I questioned it’s ‘legality’ (foreign word) but it’s in my 1982 Collins concise so I guess it’s been a thing here for a while.

    Many thanks to Philistine and manehi.

  17. Drofle’s surplus A:
    “Shall we have a coffee?”
    When it arrives I drink it without the milk the sugar or the articles
    (definite or indefinite).

  18. I was hung up for too long on 13d before deciding the enumeration was a Grauniad typo.  I am dismayed, however, to see ALLCOMER in some online dictionaries (though it could just as well have been enumerated 3, 6 without offence).  No doubt the Twittosphere will soon decide it’s ‘alright’ to spell it ‘alcomer.’  Trails off muttering something about Hell and handbaskets …

  19. Another great crossword, the third that I have tackled within the last few (waking) hours having completed the Nutmeg and the Arachne.
    As Eileen said, it’s a great week so far.

  20. Articles (dispensable or otherwise):
    “In London I saw the Tate, the National Gallery and the Buckingham Palace.”
    “No!”
    “Why not Mr.Sean ?”

    Long have I pondered on the “holy grail” of what guidance to offer. I thought I’d
    got a vital clue, when in The Eagle, Cambridge, I overheard two Australian
    backpackers mention “….THE Windsor Castle…….”.
    Very excited, I quizzed them further.
    “No mate, we’re going to meet up at the Windsor Castle PUB!”
    And with that my dreams of the Holy Grail went to hell in a bucket.

    For those interested in such things, and by posting here we’re likely to be,
    I’d recommend a little gem of a book.
    A Teacher’s Grammar, R.A. Close (LTP 1992)

  23. Thanks to Philistine and manehi. As others have said a nice solve, not too easy but also not too difficult. Last one llano (new to me) and liked last to fall and avalanche. Thanks again to Philistine and manehi.

  24. Alan B @38 in the Nutmeg puzzle.
    Thanks for the tip on spacing.  I went back to the last blog and found it, as you can see from this post .

  25. I thought there might be a mini-theme here concerning scriptures (“Ezra” in 14a, 4d SUTRA and 14d APOCRYPHA). But that didn’t eventuate. I too liked 10/15a PRIMA FACIE, as earmarked by others, as well as 22a WHISTLE-STOP TOUR, 2d CONFIDENCE TRICK and 19d OFTEN. LOI was ALLCOMERS at 13d, with the notation “all one word?”. As for others, my TILT was the hidden reverse in 6d, LLANO.
    Thanks to Philistine, manehi, and all contributors.

  26. I’m sorry, this may be bad etiquette to comment on yesterday’s crossword today but I’ve only just caught up on Muffin’s request for an apology after Arachne’s lovely work. Muffin, I’m truly sorry I was tetchy. I did feel patronized by being told what the – very obvious – meaning of “latte” was but that’s no excuse for my sniping. Still don’t understand about the coffee police thing was – should we use “caffe latte”, “caffe macchiato” etc?
    Anyway, today’s board is for today’s crossword. I enjoyed it very much. Again, sorry.

  28. il principe dell’oscurità@17: I wasn’t entering the latte discussion, I was referring to the clue for LAYERED: “Gone ahead, accepting a terrible year with one thing on top of another.” I reckon it should be “terrible year” rather than “a terrible year”. But . . . I suppose it’s OK as it is.

  29. Great puzzle Philistine, but unlike most I found this tougher than yesterday’s Arachne. Missed Sinbad the Sailor til very late on. Given the Indian summer that’s upon us 15dn was particularly handy! Thanks to all ?

  32. A bit of a slow start for me. I got most of the East side but then got bogged down again. SINBAD THE SAILOR came to the rescue,if you see what I mean,followed by PRIMA FACIE and the rest duly followed. I assume FLYSWAT is from across the pond -I’ve got a FLYSWATTER- and ALLCOMERS is distinctly iffy. Did like LAST TO FALL.
    Thanks Philistine.

  33. Thanks Philistine and Manehi for a great puzzle – finished this far too early before a meeting and now have to pretend to work for the rest of the afternoon without a puzzle to hide behind, sigh.

  34. I found this tough but fair, and I thought it included some really well-constructed clues – 10/15a, 14a, 22a, 14d and especially 2d.

    I don’t have a problem with 7d. Walking is a different pace from marching, methinks.

    LOI was LLANO which I didn’t know but could get from the wordplay. I’d be interested to know if it was also the LOI when the grid was being constructed…

  35. I am moved to write my first comment on this blog (although I have been lurking in the background reading and learning for a long time) by the fact that nobody has objected to the expression ‘the world and his wife’ in the clue for 13 down. I don’t know the origin of this expression but even if it is a quotation from some worthy source, it is objectionable. Does the world consist of men with women or wives as otherworldly appendages?

  36. Thanks Philistine and Manehi. FACIALS was FOI (no, don’t go there!) closely followed by FUSSPOT and FLYSWAT. I must be fond of words beginning with F….. But then, despite having three key words in the grid, it took an age before the rest began to fall. Thankfully I finished in the end. I wasn’t overly fond of the clue for EXTOL, but it was fair enough !

  37. Sandy @ 26 re coffee: technically / grammatically, yes! Caffe solo, caffe latte. If you ordered a latte in \Italy, you might just get milk. Not sure whether it would be hot or cold, though.

  38. Welcome Scalliwag. Well, yes, common expression is littered with unreconstructed sayings, like “every man and his dog”, similar meaning. What to do? Personally I don’t mind them, part of language his(or hers)tory.

  40. It is a fine puzzle, and thanks to setter and blogger. But, on 11 across, as I remember, while Perseus certainly rescued Andromeda, he used winged sandals, and not a winged horse. it was Bellerophon who rode Pegasus (and killed the Chimera). The clue is elegant, but not quite accurate.

  41. A DNF for me because of 13 down, but I feel I’m on solid ground in blaming the enumeration. I’m pretty sure I would have gotten it if it  were (3,6), although I don’t remember hearing the expression “the world and his wife” before.

    It’s too bad, because I was doing quite well until I came up short at the end.

  42. “The world and his wife” is a very well known expression. My grandmother used it – she was a mother with three children and still ineligible to vote so it clearly existed before such phrases were questioned. My grandmama was furiously feminist and she clearly didn’t find it objectionable!
    With no clear anagrind in 13dn, I concluded ALLCOMERS must be a rather nice &lit.
    I thought this the best puzzle of the week so far. And that says a lot! Admittedly easy, but still hugely enjoyable. Philestine has always been something special; I believe he’s now becoming something very special. I love his creativity. Some definitions are brilliant, smoothly interlinking with wordplay and still presented with superb surfaces. Just study 10,15 (perhaps with an imagined setter’s hat on) for a few minutes…. Pretty special eh? Or 15dn. It can be easy to miss some of the elegance with a speedy solve, but not with this compiler. Clever without being self-indulgent, creative while remaining fair and invariably a joy to solve.

  43. ….and, of course, many thanks to manehi for his continued kind, and accomplished, work. It’s easy enough for folk like me to pop in with our arrogant (speaking of myself only, of course) opinions. But it is the generous efforts of our amazing team of bloggers – and paramountly Sir Gaufrid – that actually keep our site working. Thanks, people.

  44. Like manehi it took me a while to get into this and then it went in steadily. There were lots of great clues which have been mentioned (or waxed lyrical about) to which I’d add my loi OFTEN – which I spent some time puzzling over before resorting to going through the alphabet before arriving at F then it was blindingly obvious – simple and clever at the same time. Thanks for a fine puzzle Philistine and for the matching blog manehi

  45. Getting here late in the day, but what a pleasurable solve it was.  I also enjoyed (as always) the blog and comments.  I had only one substantial gripe (if you want to call it that) with the puzzle, and as I read down through the comments I was surprised that neither manehi nor any of the other commenters mentioned it, until Sagittarius @40 above.  Like Sagittarius, I recall from Greek mythology (at least the sources that I read – I realize that there are variations in many of the stories) that the only mortal who ever rode Pegasus was Bellerophon.  What connected the storylines of Perseus and Pegasus, was that in the latter sprang from the neck of Medusa after the former chopped off her head.  But as I recall, Pegasus flew on up to Olympus right after that and landed the job as Zeus’s lightning bolt carrier, Perseus ran out of the cave with Medusa’s head in a sack (and the other Gorgon sisters in hot pursuit), and Perseus then went airborne himself using the winged sandals that had been lent to him by Hermes (which is how he reached the cave of the Gorgons in the first place).  On his sandal-flight home, he again used the other things he had borrowed from the gods to complete the Medusa mission — the helmet of invisibility, and magical sword — to kill the sea monster and rescue Andromeda.

    But enough about that.  Back to the puzzle:  I loved the four long answers, especially 22ac and 7dn, as well as YET TO COME, PRIMA FACIE, APOCRYPHA, SUTRA, and LAST OF ALL.  I also liked ALLOWED for having one straight definition and two alternative (rather than just one) word-play indications of the solution.  My LOI was a struggle: ALLCOMERS, because it was clued as a single 9-letter word rather than a two word phrase (the construction I am used to seeing), and because “the world and his wife” is not a familiar saying to me.

    Many thanks to Philistine and manehi and the other commenters.

  47. Grantinfreo238, I think you’re missing Scalliwag’s point @35.  “Every man and his dog” combines two sets of beings.  “All the world and his wife” makes it sound as if wives aren’t included in “all the world,” which apparently consists only of men, or perhaps only of husbands.

     

  48. grantinfreo @38, I think you’ve missed scalliwag’s point @35.  “Every man and his dog” merely omits women.  “The world and his wife” actively excludes them, as if “the world” was made up only of men, some of whom may or may not possess wives (or dogs).  Imagine “Every woman and her dog was there” and compare that with “The world and her husband.”  Arachne would not have written the clue that way.

  49. I’m trying to post a comment about “the world and his wife” and the gremlins keep telling me that I’ve already posted it!  I haven’t, really I haven’t!

  50. I enjoyed this. I usually do the crossword long before 225 is out and by the time it appears I’ve forgotten all about it. I do, however, visit 225 on my tour of the Guardian archive. So far I’ve worked my way back to January 2015, so I’m commenting about 3 1/2 years after the event. I got to this one late, and needed it for 9 (I didn’t understand why sin and bad, the opposite of virtue and good could be synonyms in the wordplay), 1d (I didn’t spot the ‘spot’), didn’t see the hidden answer in 6d and in 20d I think it’s a stretch for ‘T’ to be the ‘essence’ of amateur. I also took longer than I should have on 16 because of the lack of a bold line between ‘of’ and ‘all’ in the online grid.

    Any-road-up, I thoroughly enjoyed it and was able to finish it with the occasional delve into the Interweb. 

    Thanks Philistine and manehi

  51. Sagittarius @40, DaveMc @45

    Thanks for that lesson in Greek mythology.   My scant knowledge of it meant that I could not possibly have picked up that point about ANDROMEDA.

    On the subject of ALLCOMERS, which has been commented on at length, I was surprised to find this morning that it is listed as one word in my Chambers.  Naturally, I expected (3,6) as the enumeration, so I was lucky not to have been put off by (9).

  52. I’m not one to flog a dead horse, or even a dead pair of sandals, but I’d just like add a bit to my comment above concerning ALLCOMERS [not ANDROMEDA].

    My Collins doesn’t list ‘allcomers’ at all, implying that you just use the two separate words if you want to write it.  However, under ‘comer’ it gives ‘all-comers’ as an example of its use!  I always thought it was two words, and when saying it I would put the stress equally on ‘all’ and the first syllable of ‘comers’, unlike ‘newcomers’, where the stress is on the first syllable.

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