Not for the first time recently, the scheduled blogger has gone AWOL so here is an analysis of the clues, with no further commentary in order to prevent any further delay to the appearance of this post.
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Across
1 Affliction may be bland (6)
BLIGHT – B LIGHT (b land)
4 Arrogant, / if true (8)
ASSUMING – double def.
9 Jailer to break up our act? Not us! (6)
CAPTOR – an anagram (to break) of [u]P O[u]R ACT – ‘Not us’ indicating the removal of the two U’s from the anagram fodder
10 Most glad with you finally getting some kind of sleep in this medical condition (8)
GLAUCOMA – GLA[d] (most glad) [yo]U (you finally) COMA (some kind of sleep)
11 Beethoven’s third, fifth, sixth and ninth: my copy is ear-shattering (6,8)
EROICA SYMPHONY – an anagram (shattering) of [beet]HO[ve]N MY COPY IS EAR
13 Fractured ankle is bad, in pieces (10)
BALKANISED – An anagram (fractured) of ANKLE IS BAD
14,16 Note: get up and learn (8)
MEMORISE – MEMO (note) RISE (get up)
18 Dawn French in romantic sitcom that starts not too demanding (5,5)
FIRST LIGHT – F[rench] I[n] R[omantic] S[itcom] T[hat] (French in romantic sitcom that starts) LIGHT (not too demanding)
21 Spilling fine ale a reason for such a biting rebuke (1,4,2,4,3)
A FLEA IN ONES EAR – an anagram (spilling) of FINE ALE A REASON
23 Praise for current company getting a new deal (8)
ACCOLADE – AC (current) CO (company) plus an anagram (new) of DEAL
24 This picks up light wine, if essentially deficient (6)
RETINA – RET[s]INA (wine, if essentially deficient)
25 Undue interference shown ultimately by grandmother is my problem (8)
NANNYISM – NAN (grandmother) [show]N (shown ultimately) followed by an anagram (problem) of IS MY
26 Heavy breather ignored, extremely cross (6)
HYBRID – H[eav]Y B[reathe]R I[gnore]D (heavy breather ignored, extremely)
Down
1,22 Primitive draw? (8)
BACKWARD – BACK (ie reverse) WARD gives ‘draw’
2 Like some units taking a risk (7)
IMPERIL – IMPERI[a]L (like some units taking a)
3 Delinquent hangout in which one toilet is turned upside down (8)
HOOLIGAN – an anagram (out) of HANG around (in which) I (one) LOO (toilet) reversed (is turned upside down)
5 Under shelf is another essay on a time when there’s little to report (5,6)
SILLY SEASON – SILL (shelf) plus an anagram (another) of ESSAY followed by ON
6 Seizes unfinished extortion note (6)
USURPS – USUR[y] (unfinished extortion) PS (note)
7 Philistine drinks too much of this element (7)
ISOTOPE – I SO TOPE (Philistine drinks too much)
8 Table container would make easy money, if switched to rail (5,4)
GRAVY BOAT – def. & cryptic indicator – if the mode of transport is changed to ‘rail’ you get ‘gravy train’ (easy money)
12 Fans of a heartless romance, drink up (11)
AFICIONADOS – A FIC[t]ION (heartless romance) SODA (drink) reversed (up)
13 Once more committed a boring and endless reformation (4-5)
BORN-AGAIN – an anagram (reformation) of A BORING AN[d]
15 Hiding poor result by blowing (8)
BLUSTERY – BY around (hiding) an anagram (poor) of RESULT
17,20 Google site reporting enhanced cleavage? (7,6)
SILICON VALLEY – sounds like (reporting) ‘silicone valley’ (enhanced cleavage)
19 Fag end found by less energetic tradesman (7)
GLAZIER – [fa]G (fag end) LAZIER (less energetic)
This took me quite a bit of time, but was worth it. Favourites were BLIGHT, GLAUCOMA, FIRST LIGHT and GRAVY BOAT. Thanks to Philistine, and to Gaufrid for stepping in.
This was a highly satisfying puzzle, presenting a bit of a challenge throughout – especially in the SE corner.
I liked EROICA SYMPHONY, FIRST LIGHT, SILICON VALLEY, ISOTOPE and GRAVY BOAT especially. I think I read recently that the trick in 1a BLIGHT (‘b-land’ becoming ‘b-light’) is typical of this setter. It is something I look out for these days irrespective of whose name is on the puzzle! ‘Hangout’ in 3d HOOLIGAN is a similar trick, ‘hang-out’ becoming ‘hgan’. NANNYISM is a new word for me, although its formation made the meaning obvious.
Many thanks to Philistine and to Gaufrid for stepping in.
Thanks to Gaufrid for stepping in and thanks to Philistine for a really good crossword.
SILICON VALLEY was excellent. Most enjoyable crossword for some time I think.
Love late blog posts – I find I’m further up the list!
Loved the inventiveness of the cluing here with ticks at USURPS, GRAVY BOAT, AFICIONADOS, BORN AGAIN & FIRST LIGHT.
Agree with AlanB above re the B-LIGHT gag but it still catches me.
Many thanks for an excellent puzzle, Philistine, and to Gaufrid for stepping in.
For 13a, I took the def to be “fractured” and “in pieces” as the anagrind. Works either way though!
Thanks Philistine and Gaufrid
For the first time in ages, a blank on first pass – some ideas, but no entries. I got in with A FLEA IN ONES EAR and did eventually complete, though with too many “guess and then check” to be pleased with myself.
Favourites were HYBRID, HOOLIGAN and GLAZIER.
Several I didn’t parse. I won’t bother listing them.
The definition for ISOTOPE is wrong – an isotope is one of the atomic forms of an element, not an element itself.
I didn’t like NANNYISM as the whole meaning is the behaviour of the first part (the grandmother), so it is self-referential. Not a crime, but not to my taste.
SILICON VALLEY is downright wrong!
The words SILICON and SILICONE differ in spelling, pronunciation and meaning.
Silicon is a hard semi-metallic element. Silicones (polysiloxanes) are organic compounds with silicon-oxygen rather than carbon chains; they are soft (some are oils). These are not trivial differences!
A silicon implant might connect you to the internet, but it would not enhance your cleavage!
Good point, Auriga – I missed that one.
To expand on my ISOTOPE objection, calling an isotope an element would be like calling England Great Britain – I know some people don’t make a distinction 🙂
muffin, I do, in both instances.
Thanks Gaufrid & Philistine.
Really enjoyed this one. Just the right level of tricksiness for me! Neat tricks with b-land and ‘us’ etc. Silicon Valley was kinda obvious, but very funny and perfectly formed.. Homophone works well for me. No complaints at all.
Cheers
Ross
How does the word order in 15 down give anything inside BY? It would have worked grammatically if “by” had been placed at the front, but logic has been sacrificed for surface.
What is the word “a” doing in the clue for 23 across? It’s not needed for the surface reading and doesn’t appear in the answer.
Which of the standard dictionaries contains the word NANNYISM (25 across)?
There are several others that concern me, but I have said enough. I did not enjoy it at all.
I thought the same as muffin re ISOTOPE
Regarding Silicon, I thought it was OK as the clue says ‘reported’
Richard, I don’t really get your objections, I am probably missing something. Nannyism is in several online dictionaries including Oxford. “A” new deal is one lot of the deal anagram. Not two. And “hiding x, y…” can mean that y hides x. So “by” hides the anagram.
Richard: 15d gave me a headache trying work out how it worked. In the end I decided it was hiding an anagram of RESULT, [is] BY. Which just about works.
Thanks to Philistine and Gaufrid. Enjoyed this a lot, though found it a tough challenge. First few passes yielded very little, but eventually things started to unpack. However, came to a grinding halt in the SE and NW, and at one point was near to giving up. However, made another cup of tea and it came to me with blight and backward last ones. Liked aficionados and hybrid and thanks again to Philistine and Gaufrid.
Thanks both,
This was quite tricky for me and I had to do a couple of checks and word searches. I was OK with silicone and isotope. The two silicon(e)s are the same in my pronunciation and an isotope is a form of an element. You can’t have an isotope of a compound. Beethoven’s third was the clue of the day for me.
Thanks Philistine and Gaufrid
muffin @ 6:
I saw the definition in 7 as ‘of this element’, not ‘element’ on its own. I think that works, it certainly does for me.
Also, I saw ‘nannyism’ as referring to the behaviour of the nanny state rather than of a blood relative, which again works for me.
Richard @11 OED has ‘nannyism’ with earliest citation in 1959.
I do hope the scheduled blogger is ok, and thanks Gaufrid for subbing.
Was too dim to subtract ‘a’ from imperial, so cheated by putting the crossers into a solver, and there it was, d’oh. And then of course the remaining couple fell in.
Knew 11a was the Eroica immediately, but took a bit to unpick the anagram (I’m a bit allergic to the Lego work, and tend to wait for the crossers to make it easy), but well worth it in this case for the fun surface. Ditto the flea in the ear, and the aficionados.
Sharp reaction, as per muffin, at isotope, NOT an element; not special knowledge, just high school chemistry.
Liked 18a, nothing flash, I just like her (V o D, etc. And the miniseries about the virile aliens…quirky!) Have ‘slow!’ next to 26a, in that ‘cross’ is a chestnut (mule, hybrid).
All good fun, thanks Philistine.
Thanks to those who’ve responded to my observations at 11 above.
NANNYISM – my concern is that this word does not appear in any of the three standard dictionaries that are used by crossword editors (Collins, Oxford Dictionary of English. and Chambers). I don’t think it is reasonable to expect solvers to have to resort to the OED or the Urban Dictionary, for example, to find justifications for answers to clues in Guardian cryptic or prize puzzles unless some instruction to that effect is given in a preamble to the puzzle in question.
23 across. My concern is that the word “a” is superfluous. It is not necessary for the clue to be solved, so does not need to feature in the wordplay, and it does not form part of the answer. It is surely a prerequisite of good clue setting that superfluous words should be avoided unless they form a (minimal) link between the wordplay and definitional elements of the clue.
15down. I am not saying that this cannot be contrived to work, but that it needs to be contrived in order to work because the word order is artificial. It should have been possible to devise a surface reading that does not require a verbal somersault for the clue to be solved.
Ross @10 and pex @12. “Silicon” and “silicone” are no more homophones than “con” and “cone”. This is not a matter of accent or dialect. If you think “silicon implants” are used for breast augmentation, you are using the wrong word.
Simon S @17
Yes, but where does the comparison in the term “nanny state” come from?
To me, SILICON rhymes with “on,” and SILICONE rhymes with “bone.” But the differences in meaning are okay by me. A “silicone valley” could be a “valley” that owes its existence to silicone, as cleavage would, especially if you didn’t have any beforehand.
I enjoyed this. I had two or three in each quadrant unsolved when I went to sleep, but the check button and a refreshed brain finished it off in the morning.
Thanks, Philistine for the puzzle and Gaufrid for the rescue.
Enjoyable puzzle. Specially like the little trickes in b+light / b+land. Also had ticks for 1 dn and 9 ac.
Not so fond of ISOTOPE, it’s already been discussed. As far as I am concerned, isotope is to element what allophone is to phoneme.
LOI was HYBRID. Completely failed to spot that one for ages. …
Thanks to Philistine and to Gaufrid.
Sorry all for missing the blog – it just completely slipped my mind last night/this morning, and remembered as soon as I stepped out of work…
Thank you Gaufrid for stepping in.
I thought this was excellent. I came to it late and,after a slowish start- EROICA SYMPHONY was FOI- I bounded through this in. fine style. I see there have been some complaints- SILICON and ISOTOPE- both seemed fine at the time to me and the answers came readily enough. I thought SILICONE VALLEY rather witty. COD for me, though, was CAPTOR. Lots of others to like as well.
Thanks Philistine.
Ps Thanks to Gaufrid for stepping in to the breach!
ISOTOPE was fun, I’m sure that clue has been used before. Kicking myself over BALKANISED, I just couldn’t see it. I think I did a bit more than half today.
Re ISOTOPE.
A bun is a form of bread, but it’s still bread.
Thanks Gaufrid and Philistine; as always a treat.
We might need B. Russell and his barber to sort this one out !
Richard @20
15d is a tricky one to parse. I think Philistine is using a device that I have seen other setters use. You have to treat “Hiding poor result” as a clause, at the end of which you put (or imagine) a comma. So you write BY, but that is hiding ‘poor result’, so you then put LUSTER inside it for the answer. I don’t call it convoluted, just tricky but valid cryptic grammar. (A setter is allowed to mislead us using either the presence or absence of punctuation in the clue’s surface.)
As for 23a, that’s a bit of a strange one. There was no need for ‘a’, and removing it would make the surface more consistent by making it read like a headline with no articles (a, the, …) in it. However, ‘a new’ can be justified, I think, by making it mean ‘a new rendering of’.
Good point about NANNYISM – but I don’t have an answer for that!
il principe @30
As long as you allow him to shave himself (to justify isoptope = element) 🙂
Could I not pick up either a diamond or the broken end of my pencil and say,
“Here we have a piece of carbon; an element.” ?
I agree with most that there were several dubious clues/answers today. Most of the points have already been made.
BUT>>> I really enjoyed CAPTOR! I got the answer based on “jailer” and 3 letters in, then insisted to myself that I parse it. When I (finally) got the “not us” trick, I laughed out loud! 🙂
I think you are confusing “isotope” and “allotrope”, il p dell’o @33.
Auriga @35:
Good point! I’ve been slapped and I’ll stay slapped.
Thanks to Philistine and Gaufrid. I had no trouble with NANNYISM (and it’s in several on-line dictionaries) and was glad to hear that others more knowledgeable were uncomfortable with ISOTOPE.
Thanks to Philistine and Gaufrid. Somehow, I am disappointed. I had hoped that Philistine’s drinking too much related Isotope to ‘I – sought – to – pee’ – but even as a Canadian however, I could not be that blithely oblivious to pronunciation. Living in Texas, I had no trouble getting Born Again from boring and endless without correct parsing.
Well done and thanks, Gaufrid. Shame you had to blog as this was one to enjoy. Some great stuff. Superb fun – ticks all over the place. Personally, none of the quibbles above concerned me (and only one holds any water in a Guardian puzzle anyway – in my view).
Some sizzlers – the EROICA and SILICON VALLEY (perfectly clued I thought) were amusing and I enjoyed the construction in CAPTOR. Nice to see Paulus’ comment @38 since I thought that 13dn could be read as a delightfully mordant partial &lit!!
Many thanks to Philestine.
[precision blogging btw – not too little not too much and no mistakes. perfick!]
Auriga,the only thing that matters as far as 17,20d is concerned, is the pronunciation of silicon.
I think you’ll find that the the word report doesn’t have any suggestion of homophone. However a cryptic clue ending with a question mark and containing report or a derivative is common cryptic shorthand for “could be heard as”.
Of course silicon could be heard as silicone and vice versa.
Be very careful on that horse. It’s a long way down. 😉
If I were lazy, then I’d pronounce both silicon and silicone with a final neutral vowel to rhyme with “often”, say.
And I am lazy.
LOI was 9a. When I worked out the wordplay I thought it was great but I didn’t like the definition. As I read Chambers a jailer keeps locked up a prisoner that a captor has captured.
Otherwise plenty to enjoy, especially after a slow start like Muffin’s @ 6. Having failed on all the across clues my FOI was 13d. I’m sure that I would share the scientists’s objections if I had the knowledge – a case of ignorance is bliss.
Thanks to Philistine and Gaufrid.
Martin@42. Surely not a lazy linguist when you use the subjunctive ‘were’ 🙂 Silicon +/- e is the same in my pronunciation as well. The schwa in the unstressed syllable is a rule, well-observed!
I nice challenge. I failed to get RETINA (and kicked myself when I came here.) I’m with Muffin @ 6.
A mask over his eyes and hiding his face, a scarf (15d).
I think it was me that AlanB recalls mentioning what I call “the Philistine Device”, as used in 1a, referring to a recent Guardian blogpost which highlighted it. I still didn’t twig for ages.
Of course Philistine has many unusual devices, which is why it’s taken me till tonight to finish it.