Guardian Cryptic 27,648 by Pasquale

by

A slow solve with some tough parsing – still not sure about 8dn. Favourites were 25ac, 2/24, 4dn, and 18dn. Thanks to Pasquale.

Across
7 MORALIST Philosopher recalled memory of top people (8)
Reversal/”recalled” of ROM=read-only “memory”; A-LIST=”of top people”, e.g. with the biggest celebrities
9 ELATED Story about journalist on top of the world (6)
TALE=”Story”, reversed/”about”; plus ED=editor=”journalist”
10   See 24
11 UBIQUITOUS Hesitating to oust leader, admitting even Boris ultimately not seen as popular? (10)
[D]UBIOUS=”Hesitating” without its leading letter; around QUIT[S]=”even” as in ‘call it quits’, minus the ultimate letter of Boris
12 INKPOT Bad person, no saint, that may offer something for the writer (6)
[ST]INKPOT=”Bad person” minus ST=short for “saint”
14 DELEGATE Agent wants Alli to attract crowd at match (8)
DELE Alli is an English footballer; plus GATE=attendance=”crowd at match”
15 RIP-OFF Gone after final wish for something that’s far too expensive (3-3)
OFF=”Gone” after RIP=Rest In Peace=”final wish”
17 BESTOW Give sign of respect, having received shocking treatment (6)
BOW=”sign of respect” around EST=Electro Shock Therapy=”shocking treatment”
20 TERRARIA Go wrong in atria, wrong environments for plants (8)
ERR=”Go wrong” in (atria)*
22 CORTEZ Aztec leader being deposed sadly with soldiers entering — led by me? (6)
=anglicised surname of Hernán Cortés, Spanish Conquistador [wiki]
(Aztec)* without its leading A, and around OR=other ranks=”soldiers”
23 SPOONERISM No promises to be broken? It sounds the wrong way round (10)
(No promises)*
24, 10 PULLOVER Respond to demand of traffic cop in jumper (8)
PULL OVER=”Respond to demand of traffic cop”
25 WISE UP Something a bit hairy about community we’re leaving? Get better informed! (4,2)
WISP=”Something a bit hairy” – like a hair, not covered in hair; around EU=”community [the UK is] leaving”
26 GRIMACED Looked disgusted, given ghastly publicity about church (8)
GRIM=”ghastly” AD=”publicity”, around CE=”church” of England
Down
1 SOUVENIR Trophy item that could be unobtrusive, but possibly not needed (8)
(unobtrusive)* minus the letters of “but”
2, 24 FAIR PLAY Being fanciful about mountain climbing’s code of ethics? (4,4)
FAIRY=a fanciful being; around ALP=”mountain” reversed/”climbing”
3 KIDULT Lord half-cut in tartan? Maybe he can’t grow up (6)
=an adult with childish interests
DU[ke]=”Lord half-cut”, in KILT=”tartan”
4 MEDULLAE Pasquale boring? Aged brainy bits! (8)
ME=”Pasquale”, DULL=”boring”, AE=Latin aetatis meaning ‘at the age of’=”Aged”
5 CASTIGATOR Severe critic to have fresh go at racist (10)
(go at racist)*
6 JESUIT One American going up in plane, a man of habit (6)
“habit” in the sense of a religious garment
I=”One” plus US=”American”, both reversed/”going up” in JET=”plane”
8 THIRDS Fractions? That’ll finish classes off! (6)
Edit thanks to @gsolphotog – the THIRD S is the finish to claSSeS

not too sure about this – maybe referring to ‘third class’ as the lowest degree honours or the cheapest travel category?
13 PAPER MONEY Style one noticed in remuner­ation? Cash now only in £50 notes (5,5)
most UK banknotes are now made of a plastic polymer
PERM=hair “Style” plus “ONE“, both inside PAY=”renumeration”
16 FOR KEEPS Supporting medieval buildings permanently (3,5)
FOR=”Supporting”, KEEPS=”medieval buildings”
18 WEEKLIES Little stories about Beckham’s innermost character in magazines (8)
WEE LIES=”Little stories” about [Bec]K[ham]’s central letter
19 WAXING Songbird not weak at heart growing bigger (6)
WAX[w]ING=”Songbird” minus w[eak]
21 ESPRIT Life of religious minister English Society’s elevated (6)
PRIEST=”religious minister”, with ES=”English Society” moved up/”elevated”
22 COMMIT Pledge from left-winger falling short over time (6)
COMMI[e]=”left-winger” falling short of a letter, plus T=”time”
24   See 2

43 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,648 by Pasquale”

  3. Thanks to Pasquale and Manehi. Still not sure about the parsing of 8d and will be interested to see what other contributors have to add. I also failed to parse “Medullae” fully, not knowing the Latin “AE”, and was trying (and failing) to find a way that the AE could have come from the odd letters of “aged”.

  6. ME DULL fine by me but those last letters are a bit much.

    Can someone explain the use of £50 notes-I know 50 quid is a pony but it doesnt enter the parsing.

    I was also put out by EST which for me is Eastern Standard Time-Imean it was obviously BESTOW rather than BECTOW but….

    11a was a monstrous surface with a strange definition.

    Otherwise I really liked it.

  8. Thank you Pasquale for a very enjoyable puzzle and manehi for a helpful blog.

    I failed in the parsing exam for 8d, thanks gsolphotog @2…

    … managed the rest except for 14a, the footballer DELE Alli being unknown to me.

     

     

     

  9. Blimey first day back in Blighty ease back into crossword mode and confronted by a full-on Don! Retired hurt as just couldn’t work out Cortez the killer or parse thirds – great work gsolphotog.

    Thanks for the workout P and the blog M.

  11. Thanks to Pasquale, manehi, and gsolphotog. I needed lots of help with parsing, especially THIRDS but also DELEGATE (I did not know Dele Alli), ESPRIT, and the AE in MEDULLAE. I did parse KIDULT but did not know the term. Still, very enjoyable.

  14. PS (@13), Pasquale, 27,253 July 2017, (Gaufrid standing in for Eileen),

    18d An aged garment that doesn’t need exposure to air (8)

    ANAEROBE – AN AE (aged) ROBE (garment)

  15. Thanks Pasquale for a very tough crossword. Congratulations to anyone solving this without aids; I needed lots of help. This seems to be a pangram.

    Thanks manehi and gs @2 – THIRD S indeed. This was one of my hate grids that can be used (not here) for NINAs.

    I liked SOUVENIR and PULLOVER.

  16. Minor quibble re 13d – £20 notes are still paper money until 2020.

    Whole crossword far too difficult for me so thanks for the blog & comments

  17. Lots of invention from the Don today. Was picking my way happily through, starting with the easy ones (elated, moralist, pull over, etc), enjoying wise up, spoonerism, terraria, bestow, only to finish up staring dumbly for ages at the the last three in the NE. In the end cheated by putting me…..e in a finder to get medullae (of which I couldn’t parse the ‘ae’, once again for the nth time regretting Latin-less education), after which the last two had to be ubiquitous and delegate, albeit unparsed. Still not sure about ‘popular?’ for the former, and dnk the footballer for the latter (thought Alli might mean ‘G’, but he’s Ali with one ‘l’).

    Two other dnps were thirds and esprit; knew they had to be right, stared at them for ages, no pdm.

    I reckon Pasquale is one of the top setters of the current era; not obscure, just brilliantly inventive. I’m probably not yet qualified to make such a claim, but what the heck!

    Many thanks to him, and to Manehi (and @gsolphotog) for the explanations, of which I needed quite a few!

  19. Thanks to Pasquale and manehi. I found this very tough all round. Little on first few passes and nearly gave up a few times. However, glad (I think) I stuck with it, but it was generally very slow going, with quite a bit of guess and then parse. After getting esprit, I was left with a few in the NE, which were the last ones. Unsurprisingly they were the aforementioned thirds, ubiquitous and medullae. I was a bit annoyed it took me so long to get the latter, because we had medulla quite recently, along with other brain structures, in a prize (Paul I think). Favourites were inkpot, weeklies and rip off. Thanks again to Paul and manehi.

  20. Many thanks to Manehi and to Pasquale for a fun solve – and to @gsolphotog for brilliant parsing of 8d.

    My LOI was ‘ubiquitous’, only solved thanks to crossers, and I too am dubious about the definition ‘popular’ – the ubiquitous chewing gum on London pavements is not popular. And ‘ubiquitous’ often has dismissive/negative connotations … but I suppose obvious synonyms would have upset the surface reading 😉 .

     

  21. Yes I now vaguely remember that brain-themed puzzle PetHay (hippocampus?, amygdala?) but would never have recalled it off the top; sign of age I guess.

  22. Doesn’t 22ac have to be some sort of partial &lit, otherwise what does ‘me’ refer to? (Was originally thinking ‘Don’ Cortez, then went hmm and biffed).

  23. By Pasquale standards, nothing too obscure in the gridfill today, but the less than helpful grid and a few intricate parsings held me up, and I needed all of the crossers to see MEDULLAE.

    Thanks to Pasquale and manehi

  24. Thanks both,

     

    Strike me pink that was tough going. I needed checks and an OED wildcard search to finish. But informative along the way. Can we have a ban on footballers, please? Yes, even Eden Hazard.

  26. Thanks Pasquale and manehi

    Too many partly or wholly unparsed for me to be satisfied with “completing” this difficult puzzle.

    In particular I agree with Tyngewick – Dele Alli – who he (Ed.)?

  29. Very tough with all the ones already mentioned unparsed (apart from
    PRIEST which was my loi) – thanks to manehi and gsetc. Having been enlightened I now think 1d is a gem and 11a ridiculous for everything – surface, definition and parsing. BESTOW is a nice word which seems to be falling out of use and I liked RIP OFF, SPOONERISM and WEEKLIES – and of course THIRDS once the parsing was uncovered. Thanks to Pasquale as well.

  31. More footballers and less Latin please. 😛

    Far too tough for me. But a fun lesson in cryptics at their most fiendish. Agree with Copmus@6 and WhiteKing@29 – 11a is one ugly puppy.

    Thanks to Pasquale and manehi.

  32. Only bloody mindedness and the odd electronic aid got me through this which was another two sittings job. Mind you, the first sitting was while watching PMQS so I kept losing the thread owing to shouting at the TV! There weren’t many easy ones here-CASTIGATOR,JESUIT and ELATED. Oh,and SPOONERISM. Then it was slog all the way. THE even PULLOVER and RIP OFF took some time. The ones I liked were INK POT and KIDULT and that was LOI.
    Thanks Pasquale.

  33. A difficult puzzle but an enjoyable one.

    Does it have all the letters of the alphabet?

    Thanks to Pasquale and to manehi.

  34. Yes, it’s a pangram. Which helped (as someone said on the Guardian site) to work out what Boris must be. I would just like to defend UBIQUITOUS. Firstly: you try clueing it (as Azed said in his notes when he set UBIQUARIAN); secondly, never mind twelve words, even a chapter of a novel which cryptically generates one word is just as much a clue: we don’t have to be economical and smooth all the time; thirdly, it does make sense and describe the Conservative party, probably up to a few weeks ago; fourthly, as a definition it may be slightly stretched, but its meaning is at the extreme level of ‘popular’. The one I would rather criticise is JESUIT: the SJ is not a monastic order, but has more in common (originally) with a force of special agents: they wear not a habit, but a soutane. (In one sense we all wear our habit – it just means what we wear)

  35. My third DNF in three days – I’m trying for a record this week.  The only clue I coudn’t get was 3d, which turned out to be KIDULT.  It is typical of Pasquale to spurn the chance of putting, say, MINUET in that space and give us (well, me at any rate) a bit of education instead, and i am genuinely not complaining about that.  The other unknown was TERRARIA, but that was fine too.

    There were many excellent clues, but one that jarred was UBIQUITOUS, although I got it easily enough from the rather convoluted (but precise) wordplay.  I have never heard that word to mean popular before, and in my experience as many ubiquitous things are unpopular as popular.  Other commenters have made a similar point.

    My Latin was good enough, fortunately, get the AE in MEDULLAE, a word I have not often seen.  And I enjoyed that clue.

    Thanks to Pasquale and Manehi.

  37. muffin @36

    Quite!  This one went quite steadily throughout for me, and I didn’t dwell on KIDULT, being certain I would not get it.  (My knowledge of nobility and the peerage in my home country is so appalling that I didn’t know a Duke was a Lord.)

  38. DNF for me too, this needed far more time and attention than I gave it sand even then I would have struggled to finish without outright cheating. Of the solutions I managed I think DELEGATE was my favourite – it was also my FOI as I live in the next road to the one Dele Alli grew up on.

  39. Dele Alli’s name is so crossword-friendly that I’m sure he’ll be turning up again! (Another footballer I’d not heard of hitherto was Messi, who I now remember to look out for in puzzles.)

  40. Surely electric shock treatment is ‘ect’ (electro convulsive therapy’) not ‘est’ Chambers bears me out. I put ‘est’ in because it was the only option but wasn’t at all convinced

  41. Phyllida @40

    That’s what I thought at first, but my Chambers gives EST as either Eastern Standard Time or electric shock treatment.

  43. A bit too much insider knowledge required for me. I’ve never heard of a waxwing (and the parsing was a bit too much ‘guess which one of many synonyms for ‘growing’ or which one of many kind of songbird is meant here’) or Dele Alli, for two.

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