Guardian Cryptic 27674 Crucible

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This was perhaps a little easier that the Crucibles I’ve encountered before. Thanks to Crucible. Definitions are underlined in the clues.

There seems to be a geological theme, in line with the setter’s pseudonym.

Across

1 Book was wrong about current state of some trees (7)

BERRIED : B(abbrev. for “book”) + ERRED(was wrong/committed an error) containing(about) I(symbol for electric current in physics).

5 Information is inspiring French art creation (7)

GENESIS : [ GEN(information) + IS] containing(inspiring) ES(French for “are”/art, archaic form of the second person singular form of “to be”, as in “Thou art …”).

10 It’s black and pink, lacking resistance (4)

COAL : “coral”(a shade of pink that’s the colour of red coral) minus(lacking) “r”(symbol for electrical resistance in physics).

11 Dash back before crossing forbidden Silk Road for one (5,5)

TRADE ROUTE : Reversal of(… back) DART(to dash/move suddenly and quickly) + ERE(literary form of “before”, in relation to time) containing(crossing) OUT(forbidden/not allowed).

12 Zinc or rocky mineral in crystal form (6)

ZIRCON : Anagram of(.. rocky) ZINC OR.

 

13 British-American sign said: “Coach Line” (3,5)

BUS-QUEUE : B(abbrev. for “British”) + US(abbrev. for things American) + homophone of(… said) “cue”(a sign/signal for action).

Defn: A line of people waiting for a bus/coach.

14 Building material makes smoother sound (9)

SANDSTONE : SANDS(makes a surface smoother with, well, a sander) + TONE(a musical note or sound used as a signal as in “After the tone, please your name and phone number”).

16 Quarryman‘s key picked up (5)

MINER : Homophone of(… picked up) “minor”(key based on a type of musical scale, tending to produce a sad or serious effect).

17 Practicable round safety device (2,3)

OF USE : O(letter representing a circle/a round shape) + FUSE(a safety device for electrical circuits, say).

19 A paper nobody backs maintains run for some time (9)

AFTERNOON : A +FT(the Financial Times newspaper) + reversal of(… backs) [ NO ONE ](nobody/not a single person) containing(maintains) R(abbrev. for “run” in cricket scores).

Defn: … during/a part of a day.

23 Bismuth has to turn red, perhaps piebald (8)

BICOLOUR : BI(symbol for the chemical element, bismuth) plus(has) COLOUR(to turn red, said of a person or person’s skin blushing with embarrassment or shame).

Defn: An example/perhaps is “piebald”, descriptive of an animal, especially a horse, with a patchy coat of 2 colours.  It is also descriptive of some minerals.

24 Tell bishop, not priest (6)

RELATE : “prelate”(a bishop, or other high clerical dignitary) minus(not) “p”(abbrev. for “priest”).

26 Don’t read enough to be a locum? (10)

UNDERSTUDY : UNDER-(prefix signifying something is not done enough/sufficiently/don’t … enough) + STUDY(to read/study at a university, say)

Answer: In a similar construction to “underestimate”.

27 Unknown mineral long ago (4)

YORE : Y(symbol for an unknown quantity in mathematics) + ORE(a solid material from which a metal or mineral may be extracted).

28 Send for treatment here, after he falls off bike (7)

RECYCLE : “here” minus(after … falls off) “he” + CYCLE(bike).

29 Contestant receives surgery for disorder (7)

ENTROPY : ENTRY(a contestant/an entrant) containing(receives) OP(short for an “operation”, a surgery, say).

Defn: A lack of order or predictability/a randomness.

Down

2 Bizarre objects, each full of toxic compound (7)

EXOTICA : EA(abbrev. for “each”) containing(full of) anagram of(… compound) TOXIC.

3 Corporal remains Roman Catholic priest at heart (5)

RELIC : RC(abbrev. for “Roman Catholic”) containing(… at heart) ELI(a Biblical priest).

Defn: The remains of the body of a holy person long dead.

4 Former Tory leader in court is dead and gone (7)

EXTINCT : EX-(prefix representing former/once) + 1st letter of(… leader) “Tory” + IN + CT(abbrev. for “court”).

6 Stevenson’s written about still (4,2)

EVEN SO : Hidden in(…’s written about) “Stevenson“.

7 In Brussels, book into sprawling development (9)

EVOLUTION : EU(abbrev. for the European Union, refered to by its de-facto capital, Brussels) + VOL(abbrev. for “volume”/a book) + anagram of(… sprawling) INTO.

8 Gatecrash lewd independent theatre first (7)

INTRUDE : RUDE(lewd/obscene) placed below(… first, in a down clue) [ I(abbrev. for “Independent”/an election candidate belonging to no particular political party) + NT(abbrev. for the National Theatre in the UK) ].

9 Period yielding 10 addled brain? Of course! (13)

CARBONIFEROUS : Anagram of(addled) BRAIN? OF COURSE.

Defn: The geologic period millions of years ago, marked by the formation of coal (answer to 10 across) beds.

15 Find nightclub dead (9)

DISCOVERY : DISCO(a nightclub at which people dance to, well, disco music) + VERY(without qualification/absolutely, “as in I’m dead/very tired”.

18 Dodgy dealer rings excellent pottery (7)

FAIENCE : FENCE(a dealer/receiver of dodgy/stolen goods) containing(rings) AI(A1, denoting excellent/first-class, with the Roman numeral for 1).

20 Peer that follows just after the start (5,2)

EARLY ON : EARL(a rank in the peerage/a nobleman) placed above(… follows, in a down clue) YON(yonder/that/over there, as in “by yon bonnie banks”).

21 Rock formation exposed by harvest (7)

OUTCROP : OUT(exposed/in the open) plus(by) CROP(the harvest/the amount of produce reaped at one time, as in “a bumper crop”).

22 Ancient 3 fellow East German left (6)

FOSSIL : F(abbrev. for “Fellow”, a member of a learned society) + OSSI(a citizen of the former East Germany) + L(abbrev. for “left”).

Defn: Ancient relic (answer to 3 down)/petrified remains of a prehistoric plant or animal.

25 Liberal philosopher’s bed (5)

LAYER : L(abbrev. for a member of the Liberal Party) + AYER(Alfred Jules/J.A., English philosopher).

Defn: …/stratum of rock, say.

53 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27674 Crucible”

  1. Totally agree that it was a bit easier than the usual Crucible.  It must have been as even I managed to finish it quickly!!

    Loved the tu es in 5 ac.

    Was looking for ‘livre’ or ‘boek’ in 7 dn.  Should have guessed it was a ‘vol’.

    Good puzzle.  Thanks to Crucible and to scchua.

  2. It must have been easier than normal: not only did I complete but I spotted the theme for once.  Admittedly, hard not to on this occasion.  And maybe that’s why, for me at least, there are fewer contenders for COTD.  EVOLUTION, DISCOVERY and AFTERNOON are all nice.  SANDSTONE has a lovely (smooth?) surface.  But I’m going for GENESIS for the French art which is very clever.

    Thanks to Crucible and scchua.

  3. Re 5 across, maybe I got the “es” by accident…I was thinking of French Bachelor of Arts = licencié ès lettres.
    Really enjoyed that, thanks Crucible. And I learnt a new term, Ossi, for a former East German.

  4. Thanks scchua and Crucible.

     

    Re-reading the clue for BUS-QUEUE, I was wondering if this was also a kind of &lit in the clue itself, as it combines British and American words in “coach line”?

     

    I did not know FAIENCE – could hardly believe it was a word, but it certainly fit the word play.

  5. A lot easier, I’d say Scchua, a quick canter for a Friday. That said, I missed sands tone, thinking ‘maybe like “holystone” that sailors scrubbed decks with’…total rubbish of course. Hey ho. Ditto sign/cue for queue; cantered without looking, clearly. Had a note ‘ossi for east?’ before googling to find ‘nickname for East German’, and got ‘dead’ for ‘very’ from mentally hearing Lancs rellies saying, of something enjoyed, ‘Aye, that were dead good!’.

    Remembered A J Ayer, tho Logical Positivism not my fave branch of philosophy (bit too Behaviourist).

    Good fun, and always something to learn, thanks Crucible and Scchua.

  7. Another good puzzle to end a good week. Well clued throughout, nice surfaces and some well disguised definitions. To go with the geological theme, I wonder if the crossing of GENESIS and EVOLUTION, coupled with RELIC and FOSSIL was a mini religio-scientific debate in itself?

    Many thanks to scchua and Crucible.

  10. Thanks for the blog, scchua.

    Four of my favourite setters in a row this week! And more proof today that a puzzle needn’t be difficult to be enjoyable, so long as the cluing is as good as this.

    Favourites today were GENESIS – not the first time we’ve seen ‘French art’ but it still elicits a ‘doh’ – RECYCLE, CARBONIFEROUS and RELIC [good to see ELI back].

    Interesting observation from Greensward @7.

    Many thanks to Crucible for a satisfying end to the week.

  11. Thanks Crucible and scchua

    Nothing at all on first pass, then I remembered the “French art” trick and got GENESIS. It went steadily from there.

    All very nice but no particular standout clues for me.

    1a was a bit odd. It’s obvious what it means, and so not wrong, but I’ve never heard a tree described as ” berried” specifically (“has lots of berries on” of course). In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen or heard “berried” as a word.

  12. Thanks Crucible and scchua

    My take on 23 was slightly different: the definition simply ‘PIEBALD’ as it is strictly just black and white, with COLOUR defined as ‘to turn red perhaps’, as transitively you can colour anything any shade, so a dbe possibly.

    Any takers?

  14. muffin @ 11:

    Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘We have loved of yore’ starts

    “Berried brake and reedy island,
    Heaven below, and only heaven above,”

  16. That’s a really obscure theme! I only know the Songs of Travel from the VW settings, and that one wasn’t included.

  17. Thank you Crucible and scchua.

    Yet another intriguing puzzle this week, well spotted SimonS @14 and Eileen @15, and Greensward @11 provides more food for thought…

  19. Not too bad for a Friday – lots of lovely surfaces, trickier tricks such as “es” (I guess it should be 2nd person singular of “estre” being the archaic form of etre…). I also thought, as did David Ellison @4, that queue and line were joined as a British-American pair which clued me in to solving this one. In the last two days we’ve been expected to know about Spinoza and the logical positivists of Oxford. Still, that’s a whole heap easier than any modern popular music ensemble post 1970 for most of the regulars I suspect!

    I have a slight grumble about the synecdoche “Brussels” for “EU” – though perhaps because I was trying to justify “sprouting” in spite of the crossers! The bismuth clue took me back to my PhD which involved the element, but the use of “colour” as a verb put me in mind of Macbeth’s wonderful lines
    “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
    Clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather
    The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
    Making the green one red.”

    Incarnadine is a noun (meaning pink really – from “carne”, flesh) but Shakespeare re-invents it as a verb because he can and because it works and sends shivers down the spine.

  21. Yes, reasonably easy for a Friday, I thought, not that the puzzles seem to follow the old pattern of increasing difficulty as the week progresses any more, as far as I can see. The geological references were there but didn’t INTRUDE so much that they dominated and so it didn’t feel forced. I too was a bit taken with your suggestion of the religio-scientific debate mini-theme, Greensward@7. I think you were more on track than perhaps I was with my thoughts about a second mini-theme of words referring to the past, RELIC, EXTINCT, EVOLUTION, FOSSIL, EARLY ON and YORE, with CARBONIFEROUS down the centre linking both.

    I smiled at 26a UNDERSTUDY as well as ticking many of the themed words.

    Thanks to Crucible and scchua. I always appreciate the images you add to the blog, scchua. Now I too have to go back to yesterday’s unfinished Picaroon, Tyngewick@9. Sigh!

  22. Yep, lots of rocks and affiliations, nicely underscored with other ‘antiquities’ like yore and art. Not so much a theme as a whole atmosphere of genesis and evolution. Even ‘Early on’ melted into the mix. Nice one Crucible. Thanks Scchua

  23. Julei @21 … “INTRUDE” – I see what you did there. Gneiss one. I might tell my gran it.

    I do prefer either ghost themes (where there’s pleasure in spotting it much like the pleasure of spotting a new trick in a clue), or themes like this where both warp and weft are involved, so the theme is clear but not directly helpful.

  24. Spinoza, I suppose, still holds good but I wonder how long setters will be able to use Freddie Ayer.  I remember him as a child from the Brains Trust but have his books survived the test of time sufficiently?

  25. Yes, nice puzzle. The LHS fairly whizzed in, but RHS took longer, especially the SE corner. Like others I thought GENESIS very clever. Many thanks to C & s.

  26. My FOI was IRONSTONE and 14, fitting the clue at least as well as sandstone, which is rather too soft for most building use. That held me up rather.

     

    GMcD @ 24 – I remember devouring Language, Truth & Logic in a single session, surely the most entrallingly readable work of philosophy ever. Replace the truth-values of logic by probabilities and I reckon his arguments still hold up

  27. 5a reminded me of a clue from an old collection I have used in my talks: “Supremely elated once called about French art” (7). Indication requires some knowledge but nothing beyond O-level English and French.

  28. Thanks to Crucible and scchua. Not much new to add here, a very steady solve for a Friday. That said still a very enjoyable solve with some lovely clues. I liked berried, bus queue and layer. Unlike grantinfreo@5 I do not mind a bit of behaviourism having once been to a very inspiring talk by the late, great B.F. Skinner. Thanks again to Crucible and scchua.

  29. This seemed much easier than the last two — I filled in a good deal of it right off, while the other two were nearly blank after the first attempt.

    Could somebody explain which part of the clue for EARLY ON produces YON?  And what “that follows” tells me to do, since EARL doesn’t follow, it leads?

    OSSI was new to me, but clear enough.

    to muffin@11 Are there berries that grow on trees?  I’ve heard coffee beans called coffee berries, though they don’t seem very berry-like to me.  Even if BERRIED is a word, I don’t think any trees are.

    DEAD for “very” reminds me of a line from Educating Rita. Rita, new to academe, is infatuated with a trendy woman she’s met, and says about her, “Everything about here is dead unpretentious.”  I love it.

  30. It seems like I’m at least the third person who has yesterday’s Picaroon to finish – which we’ve just done having been ridiculously slow to see 7d. As for today my experience was exactly opposite to drofle -RHS went in with nothing on the left! I’m definitely not in Van W’s camp of solving (yesterday’s discussion) – if I had been GENESIS would not have gone in as I’d forgotten about the art trick and I didn’t know of AYER – I’ll look him up now.
    Definitely at the easier end of Crucible’s range and very enjoyable – thanks to him and scchua.

  31. @Valentine @ 29, “YON” is for “just after”, geographically speaking Yon house is not hither though it might be thither, but it is certainly yon!

  32. Valentine “yon” is that in Lancashire as in “yon lad will land hisself in lumber if he carries on” so it is EARL and YON – peer and that.
    Hawthorn, rowan and many other trees have berries.

  33. Valentine @29

    “That” gives “yon” – “see yon scurvy knave” = “see that unpleasant person”

    I’ll research berries on trees! I was thinking of something like hawthorn – not sure if haws are berries.

  35. OK. Wiki tells me that the botanical and everyday usages of “berry” overlap but don’t entirely match. However elderberries apparently fit both, and do grow on trees.

  38. Some more tree berries

    Mulberry

    Holly berry

    Acai berry

    Juniper berry

    Soapberry

    Serviceberry

    Elderberry is usually a bush but can be a tree.  I’d call Cornelian cherry a berry.

     

  39. This is all very well, but what needs to be known is whether The Stanchion got his lunch (see yesterday’s blog).

  41. Okay, I’m suitably edified about yon fruit.  And come to think of it I used to climb a mulberry tree at a friend’s house; it produced nearly tasteless berries which usually became splats on the driveway.  So here we go round the … which?

  42. Actually, botanically, mulberries are in the “called berries but not berries” category. The botanical definition is quite restrictive, but also surprisingly inclusive – did anyone know that a banana is a berry?

    For once I’m happy to go with the non-scientific usage.

  43. Like Goujeers @26 I had IRONSTONE at 14ac, which is at least as good as the correct answer. A pity this wasn’t picked up before publication.

    But a very enjoyable puzzle, for which I uncharacteristically spotted the geological theme halfway through.

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

  44. This gave me a similar experience to yesterday’s excellent Picaroon, with clues giving me plenty to think about.  It’s interesting to note how our experiences can be so different, and I noted particularly how the Crucible was relatively easy for Tyngewick, JinA and WhiteKing, while yesterday’s crossword is still hanging over them (!).  Today’s Crucible took only a little less time than yesterday’s Picaroon, and they stand together as my joint picks of the week.

    I knew FAIENCE but not ‘Ossi’ in FOSSIL.  I’ve seen ‘French art’ = ‘es’ three or four times now, and I still enjoy seeing it even though the surprise element has (possibly) gone.  (Or perhaps not.  I was caught out by ‘my’ = COR in one of last week’s puzzles – another little trick that is, of course, completely sound.)  I liked ‘dead’ = ‘very’ in DISCOVERY, one of my favourite clues along with GENESIS, BUS QUEUE, CARBONIFEROUS and LAYER.

    Thanks to Crucible and scchua.

  45. Goujeers @26, g larsen @43

    I also thought first of IRONSTONE at 14a.  It’s just as good a fit for the clue, but when 2d EXOTICA yielded its answer readily enough it confirmed my second choice SANDSTONE.

  46. Didn’t get the theme you’ll be astonished to learn but enjoyed the puzzle. Quite easy for Crucible or perhaps I was just lucky today. I was delayed by 16ac by trying to see a Beatles connection which of course there wasn’t- and MINER was about as easy as it gets. More philosophy with L-Ayer. I did read some of his stuff back in the day but I don’t think I can remember anything about it.
    Thanks Crucible.

  47. FOI RELATE, LOI BUS QUEUE. The ‘French art’ device is actually a chestnut, it was quite common in the early 80’s. COD 15d.

  48. Chadwick Ongara @47 – ‘The ‘French art’ device is actually a chestnut, it was quite common in the early 80’s’. Exactly, as I suggested in my comment @10 – but many newer solvers may well not have come across this device, which delights me every time I see it.

  50. Thanks to Crucible and sschua.

    Very late to the party this evening but couldn’t resist reporting a Goldilocks glow. Held up only by trying to fit a J or an H into the last two unsolveds. But no trot, entirely delectable and enjoyable with ENTROPY the fav.  Great after what I thought was really quite a gristly week, Arachne notwithstanding.

    jeff@49

    We’ll have to be on the alert for it now that you’ve  mentioned it.  Fwiw Irish art would be “tátú”

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