Guardian Cryptic 27,678 by Chifonie

by

All very smooth with some lovely surfaces – favourite clues were 1ac, 24ac, 26ac, 2dn, 7dn, 15dn, and 22dn. Thanks to Chifonie

Across
1 ABSORBS Holds sailor’s balls (7)
  AB‘S (able-bodied seaman’s)=”sailor’s” + ORBS=”balls”
5 VERANDA Girl embraces joiner in porch (7)
  VERA=”Girl” around AND=”joiner” of words/clauses in a sentence
10 HERA Husband has time for divinity (4)
  =Greek goddess
H (husband) + ERA=”time”
11 ICE-BREAKER Relaxing preparation frees communications, 19 (3-7)
  an ICE-BREAKER ship keeps open (i.e. “frees”) channels for navigation (“communications”) in the sea/IN THE MAIN (=19ac)
12 DIRECT Honest conduct (6)
  =to the point, straightforward, “Honest”; also as a verb=command, steer, “conduct”
13 NOTECASE See patient’s wallet (8)
  NOTE=”See” + CASE=a “patient”
14 ASHMOLEAN Remains an outside agent for museum (9)
  =a museum in Oxford
ASH=”Remains” of something burned + AN; both around MOLE=spy, “agent”
16 FIORD Wade across outlying island’s inlet (5)
  FORD=”Wade across” around I (island)
17 SCORE Angry about Tory result (5)
  SORE=”Angry” around C (Conservative)=”Tory”
19 IN THE MAIN Primarily at sea? (2,3,4)
  double definition
23 MORALIST Fret about exam for puritan (8)
  “Fret”=a sea fog=MIST around ORAL=”exam”
24 BATONS Airline has lots of clubs (6)
  BA (British Airways)=”Airline” + TONS=”lots”
26 SPOILSPORT Killjoy has loot left (10)
  SPOILS=”loot” + PORT=”left”
27 SARK Small boat found in the Channel (4)
  =one of the Channel Islands
S (small) + ARK=”boat”
28 FRIENDS Familiars have demons kid­napping redhead (7)
  FIENDS=”demons” around the R=the head letter of red
29 ATTENDS A model cares for chaperones (7)
  A + Ford model T + TENDS=”cares for”
Down
2 BLEWITS Fungus moved by wind? It is! (7)
  Blewit is a type of mushroom
BLEW=”moved by wind” + IT’S=”It is”
3 ORATE Love to rebuke and pontificate (5)
  O=”Love” + RATE=scold, “rebuke”
4 BRISTOL City with old railway company first linked to Circle line (7)
  BR (British Rail)=”old railway company” + IST=1st=”first” + O=”Circle” + L (line)
6 EGRETS Birds go initially into rustling trees (6)
  G=”go initially” inside (trees)*
7 ANARCHISM A rich man’s moved by anti-government argument (9)
  (A rich man’s)*
8 DRESSER Lady’s maid found showing off in the kitchen (7)
  =a servant helping with clothes; =a display unit in the kitchen
9 REINCARNATION Sacred belief in control over motor race (13)
  REIN=”control” + CAR=”motor” + NATION=”race”
15 MARGARINE Soldier eats fish spread (9)
  MARINE=”Soldier” around GAR=”fish”
18 CHOPPER Policeman seizes Hungarian leader’s weapon (7)
  COPPER=”Policeman” around H=”Hungarian’s leader”
20 HABITAT Environment Tabitha created (7)
  (Tabitha)*
21 IGNORED Passed by ruin on ridge (7)
  (on ridge)*
22 BIASED Partisan located outside Indian capital (6)
  BASED=”located” around I=”Indian capital” letter
25 TASTE Anita Stewart shows discrimination (5)
  hidden in AniTA STEwart

51 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,678 by Chifonie”

  1. Thanks Chifonie and manehi

    I found it hard to get in to, but once I had a few it all went smoothly. Favourites were MORALIST and REINCARNATION.

    I was very tempted by NELSONS (wrestling holds) for 1a, but “balls” would have been wrong. A score of 111 in cricket is known as “Nelson”. When Denis Compton was commentating, if a side reached Nelson, the following exchange would usually ensue:

    “Why is it called Nelson, Denis?”

    “Because Nelson had one eye, one arm and one..”

    “Thank you, Denis”

  2. Nice memory, muffin, thank you.

    Not a huge fan, with double defs being my least favourite type of clue, but at least it was over quickly.

    Always spelled fjord with a J but see either is allowed, and never had the need to use NOTECASE to date.

    One day I’ll remember the misty definition of FRET.

    Wasn’t quite sure of the word ‘preparation’ in ICE BREAKER clue.  No doubt someone will explain.

    Many thanks both, nice week, all.

  4. I think ice-breaker refers to relaxing chat at the start of a party. Good crossword i thought, got held up in NW and didn’t know or guess blewits

  5. Unlike muffin@1,  I found the opening and middle games were straightforward, but the end took me some effort, mostly double definitions, but which were quite obvious once found.

     

    Thanks manehi and Chifonie

  6. I had to google mushrooms and fungi to get the answer to fit the crossers at 2d for the unfamiliar BLEWITS. 14a ASHMOLEAN came from the wordplay and crossers, then I had to confirm that it was indeed a museum. MORALIST at 15d went in on the definition only – like William@2, I always miss that meaning of “fret”.
    I liked 8d DRESSER, and gave 26a SPOILSPORT a tick too.
    An enjoyable puzzle, so thank you to Chifonie and manehi.

  8. Like Rewolf, didn’t know blewits, got lazy and looked it up, so a dnf in an otherwise clockwise trot from the NE round the grid. A couple other dimly recalled, Sark the island and yes fret the mist.

    Heard lots of Compton over the decades, muffin, but never the joke, so no 111s I guess. No column in the town square for that more recent historical figure who, according to the song, was similarly afflicted. Justly so.

    Nice Wednesday puzzle thanks Chifonie, and to Manehi for the blog.m

  9. I was worried for a while I’d get nowhere with this but Ashmolean kicked me off and I gradually spiralled around the puzzle. In the end everything was clearly clued, eminently reasonable and perfectly getable – if “fiord” is an odd spelling.

    William @2 an ice-breaker is something one does preparatory to getting to know someone, ie something that helps relax people or a situation in preparation for something else, such as a dinner party, training course or live performance.

    Lots of nice clues here – absorbs, Sark, friends, blewits, Bristol (a bit &lit – a city with historical railway connections). Thanks Chifonie and manehi for the blog.

  10. This would have made a fine Monday puzzle, but we have not been challenged much so far this week. Admittedly the mushroom was unfamiliar and needed checking, so that was last in.

    Thanks to Chifonie and manehi

  11. Ditto Beery – maybe we were spoiled last week by the run of tough but fun puzzles. This was pretty routine chockful of DDs and barely raised a smile. Did like SPOILSPORT and ICEBREAKER as the best DD.

  12. Yes, a relatively gentle week so far, but enjoyable all the same. My experience was much more like DaveE@5 – I thought it was going to be a doddle and then slowed up on the left hand side. MARGARINE was a favourite and took a long time because I was looking for a fish R-A rather than -AR! I also liked ABSORBS and MORALIST, and my loi was FRIENDS – despite it having been a recent solution.
    Thanks Chifonie and manehi

  13. [il principe, thanks for your response yesterday; will pass on to Ted, who thinks the world, poised on a knlfe-edge, needs just such a wrecking ball as DT to wake it up]

  14. Thanks both,

    A gentle and amusing solve for the most part. I was held up for a while on the NW corner as I was convinced 2d was ‘boletus’ (with a rather indelicate parsing) but when ‘hera’ went in the answer sprang to mind. In my more adventurous days, I used to harvest wood blewits from the New Forest for soup, but I haven’t seen many recently, and the chance of misidentification is quite high.

  15. Thank you Chifonie and manehi.

    An enjoyable puzzle. Like Tyngewick @14 I first thought of ‘boletus’ for 2d (wonder what his indelicate parsing was…).  Luckily I appreciate double definitions, favourite clues being those for DRESSER and ICE-BREAKER.

  16. Had tutorials in the Ashomean so that was my FOI and the rest followed fairly easily.

    Vaguely remembered fret as a sea-mist but when I checked, it wasn’t in my Chambers, which suggests ripples on the sea.

    Not quite sure of the function of the word ‘outlying’ in 16 ac.

    Don’t like the double-definition clues either!

    Did like several clues, though, including 24 and 28 ac.

    Thanks to Chifonie and manehi.

  17. I was wondering who customarily spells “fjord” with an “i” nowadays, so I looked it up. Apparently New Zealand. Who knew?

  18. Dr. Whatson @17, I knew, we have plenty of them.

    Anna @16, we had fret for sea-mist last year, Bonxie 27,099, but I cannot find it in the COED.

  19. Flew through the southern half, grounded in the north-west. I too had to google mushrooms and failed to see absorbs. All good clean fun though. Thanks Chifonie and Manehi. 26 ac and 14 ac best.

  20. shirl@3 & thezed @9:  Seems to be some disagreement on the explanation of ‘preparation’ in the ICE BREAKER clue.  I have to say that from the surface, I’m favouring the cocktail.  Not convinced one needs to prepare an ice-breaker.  It just is one.

    Thanks both.

  22. This was fun, with many really nice surfaces throughout.  Of those (the surfaces, I mean), I thought the one for ABSORBS was funniest and the one for EGRETS stood out for the pleasant mental image it created.  MORALIST was my CotD, one of several clues I was able to solve today only because sea fret is something I remembered from prior GC puzzles and 15^2 blogs — others in that category included ASHMOLEAN, SARK, and DRESSER meaning a kitchen hutch, which I knew only because of Vulcan’s Monday puzzle.  But I needed to resort to Google to get BLEWITS, which was a TILT (but who knows, maybe if i see it in a future puzzle …).

    Many thanks to Chifonie and manehi and the other commenters.

  23. Cookie @15: let’s just say that my parsing of boletus was somewhat tortuous and involved the idea of flatus rather than peristalsis as a mode of propulsion.

    No, no 6d, we will have no 6d.

  24. Thanks to Chifonie and manehi. Nothing much more to add here. As others have said a relatively gentle solve apart from blewits (never heard of them) which needed looking up. That said, still an enjoyable solve and another fan of absorbs and ashmolean. Thanks again to Chifonie and manehi.

  26. BLEWIT was easy to get from the wordplay but I still looked it up! I really enjoyed this and thought it an excellent puzzle. They don’t have to be hard! I lived in Oxford for a time so the ASHMOLEON was one of the first in but all of the clues went in smoothly. REINCARNATION was LOI.
    Thanks Chifonie.

  27. Thanks to Chifone and manehi. Enjoyable. I’m another who parsed but then had to look up BLEWITS – though I did remember fret=mist from previous puzzles and, during a brief visit to Oxford, did visit the ASHMOLEAN.

  28. Cookie, any explanation for the preference for the “i” in NZ? I assume it’s not an accent thing, or is it?

  32. In reply to Muffin and the cricket score 111. It was also known as Nelsons Course for the same reasons when navigating between the Cape St Vincent  in Portugal to the Straits of Gibraltar

  33. Fairly new to this, but could 28a be considered partially &lit, in that friends can be demons attending a witch? Please feel free to say if I am barking up the wrong kettle of fish. Thanks for puzzle and blog, I enjoyed it.

  36. Good fun. BLEWITS were new. Living in Brighton, I am familiar with driving cautiously through sea fret. As a training consultant I am familiar with the use of an ICE BREAKER at the start of a workshop, to relax, prepare and free communication, IN THE MAIN.

  37. Going back to Nelson, are we sure that the commentator was Denis Compton? It sounds more like Brian Johnston, who liked to draw attention to a superstitious umpire who would stand on one leg when a Nelson came up on the score board.

  38. Harhop @37

    It predated David Shepherd by quite some time.

    I actually knew “Shep” very slightly – my father taught with him for a time in Ilfracombe, and he visited a few times. This was before he played county cricket for Gloucestershire, let alone became an umpire, so he didn’t explain the superstition!

  39. Thanks to Chifonie and manehi.

    Inclined to clear the throat and reach for the stern spectacles for this one.  Found ICE-BREAKER to be impenetrable. DIRECT=honest? (Removes specs).

    So not a lot in the negative. Fav was the mirth-inducing ABSORBS.

    I also spiralled my way through – my methodology is to pursue each letter as it appears and jump to the clue that it crosses.  Does that produce spirals? Are solvers divided among those that spiral and those that do not?  Which is more efficient?

  40. Alphalpha @39

    My only methodology is to try any ones that give me first letters first, otherwise I work through in order.

    On this one I seemed to grow out from the SE, though!

  41. muffin@40

    I started with the NW and tailed out in the SW Then had to go back to taking them in order. Ah well, different strokes…

  42. Cookie @31 — It’s interesting that Collins labels “fiord” as a US English. In my experience, it’s not common in the US today. According to the Google NGram Viewer, which gives the ability to search various large corpora of books, the I spelling is actually slightly more common in the UK than the US in the recent past (30% vs 25%). The I spelling was far more common in both countries in the early 20th century, although in this data set I can’t see any evidence that it was ever more common in the US than in the UK.

    I quite enjoyed this puzzle. I ran into a few difficulties near the end (NOTECASE, REINCARNATION, and the above-mentioned FIORD), but all were satisfying when they eventually yielded. I admit to a juvenile enjoyment of clues with off-color surfaces, so 1a raised a smile for me.

    Where I’m from (the US), a DRESSER is never found in the kitchen — it’s the same thing as a chest of drawers, found in a bedroom — so I learned a new meaning today. BLEWITS was also new to me, and I barely managed to dredge up FRET = MIST from memory (of past crosswords — not of having seen the word in the wild).

    I wondered if anyone would be bothered by a singular-plural discord in equating FUNGUS with BLEWITS. Not that I would ever quibble over such a thing.

  44. “blewit” doesn’t appear in that OED, Chambers or Collins, only “blewits”. In fact Collins has the comment “Functioning as the singular” in its “blewits” entry. So the previous comments regarding plural/singular mismatch would appear to be misguided.

  45. Alex @44

    Look here

    Curiously, neither “blewit” nor “Clit0cybe” is in my Collins guide – however I had heard of “blewits”.

  49. Ted @42,

    Your comment on researching the UK vs US usage of i-containing FIORD reminded me of something else I saw in today’s’ puzzle with respect to CHOPPER.  Being unfamiliar with any meaning of that word that would work for the clue “weapon”, I looked it up on my favorite online dictionary, The Free Dictionary, which, for most words searched, provides the definitions published in three different dictionaries: first a US dictionary (American Heritage), then a UK dictionary (Collins), and finally another US dictionary (Random House/Webster’s College).  In the case of CHOPPER, neither of the US dictionaries gave a definition that would work well for “weapon”, but the UK dictionary did include one such definition: an obsolete slang term for a sub-machine gun — which it described as “chiefly US” (!).  [Also, in reading all three dictionary definitions straight through — see them here — there is an amusingly diverse array of meanings for this silly-sounding word.]

  50. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a puzzle with such brief clues and they all made sense to the extent that, in the right context, they could be used in conversation without causing comment or the need for explanation. Is this what is meant by ” smooth surfaces”? If so I’ve never seen smoother.
    Thanks to Chifonie and manehi.

  51. Like my compatriots Ted@ 42 and probably DaveMc@22, I think of a dresser as a chest of drawers usually found in a bedroom and containing clothes.  But I learned from a recent crossword that a “Welsh dresser” is what I might call a hutch and would contain (and exhibit) dishes.

    Cookie@31 I spell it fjord like the rest of y’all.

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