Guardian Cryptic 27,714 by Nutmeg

by

Fun with lots of tricksy clues and clever definitions – favourites were 12ac, 13ac, and 26ac. Thanks to Nutmeg

Seems to be a theme, with a few solutions linked to 16ac JACK: NATTERJACK; EVERY MAN JACK; JACKBOOT; LUMBERJACK; JACK SPRAT; JUMPING JACK; STEEPLEJACK; JACK RABBIT are the ones I’ve spotted

Across
1 VISAGE Face rival, having to give in (6)
  VIE=”rival”, with SAG=”give” inside
4 SLEAZE Signs of corruption due to misplaced zeal in home counties (6)
  (zeal)* in SE=South East=”home counties”
9 FOUR Orator’s backing cardinal (4)
  =a “cardinal” rather than ordinal number
“Orator’s”=>homophone of ‘for’=”backing” e.g. a proposal
10 SWORD DANCE Musical measure for feet and arms? (5,5)
  cryptic definition with “arms” in the sense of weapons rather than limbs
11 NATTER 20, smarter one’s skedaddled (6)
  =”Rabbit”, prattle
NATTIER=”smarter”, with I=”one” leaving/skedaddling
12 EVERYMAN Joe Bloggs‘s name very peculiar (8)
  (name very)*
13 PERSECUTE Harry‘s inherently appealing (9)
  PER SE=”inherently” + CUTE=”appealing”
15 BOOT Wellington also bowled over (4)
  TOO=”also” + B=”bowled” in cricket; all reversed/”over”
16 JACK Standard sailor suit has one (4)
  triple definition: =a flag; =a sailor; =a playing card rank with one in each suit
17 CON ARTIST Constable possibly tailing Tory fraudster? (3,6)
  ARTIST=”Constable [the painter] possibly”, after/”tailing” CON=Conservative=”Tory”
21 AMPERAGE Current strength for each time period, starting with a month (8)
  PER=”for each” + AGE=”time period”, with A + M for Month at the start
22 LUMBER Refuse burden (6)
  double definition =waste products; =burden someone with something unwanted
24 WILDEBEEST Insect ingested by supremely reckless antelope (10)
  BEE=”Insect” inside WILDEST=”supremely reckless”
25 NOPE Withdrawal of record possible? No way (4)
  Reversal/”Withdrawal” of: EP=music “record” + ON=”possible”
26 GROATS Extremely granular cereal used for bread at one time (6)
  “bread” in the definition in the slang meaning of money
extreme letters from GranulaR + OATS=”cereal”
27 GRIEVE Bemoan king imprisoned by soldier and never discovered? (6)
  R=Rex=”king” inside GI=”soldier” + EVE=letters from never “discovered” i.e. with the ‘cover’ or outer letters removed
Down
1 VIOLATE Six others primarily behind abuse (7)
  VI=”Six” in Roman numerals + O=”others primarily” + LATE=”behind”
2 SPRAT Fish from river in dispute (5)
  R for river, in SPAT=”dispute”
3 GASTRIC Stomach-related wind illusory, so they say (7)
  sounds like ‘gas trick’=”wind illusory”
5 LADDER Youngster looking flushed mounted steps (6)
  LAD=”Youngster” + RED=”looking flushed” reversed/”mounted”
6 AT ANY COST Can’t stay alive without oxygen, whatever the damage (2,3,4)
  (Can’t stay)* around O for oxygen
7 ENCHANT Delight in French refrain (7)
  EN=”in” in French + CHANT=”refrain”
8 POTENTIOMETER Sound control evident as forceful goddess ran into HM (13)
  =a form of variable resistor that are used in sound controls
POTENT=”forceful” + IO=Greek “goddess” + MET=”ran into” + ER=Her Majesty
14 SUCCEED TO Strange case of eccentric Scot due to inherit (7,2)
  anagram/”Strange” of: (EC Scot due)*; where the EC comes from the “case” or outer letters of “eccentric“
16 JUMPING Avoiding military police in breaking jail (7)
  MP=”military police” + IN; both inside JUG=”jail”
18 ALL STAR Utter scoundrels in the ascendant, second-raters excepted (3-4)
  ALL=”Utter” + RATS=”scoundrels” reversed/”in the ascendant”
19 STEEPLE Last couple of people supporting expensive addition to church? (7)
  Last couple of letters of peopLE, supporting STEEP=”expensive”
20 RABBIT Rule out elevated part for poor player (6)
  BAR=”Rule out” reversed/”elevated” + BIT=”part”
23 MINCE Maidens during church trip putting on airs (5)
  M=”Maidens” in cricket + IN=”during” + CE=Church of England

55 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,714 by Nutmeg”

  1. Thanks Nutmeg and manehi.
    I had LITTER for 22a, which prevented me seeing MINCE until the Check button showed up my error.
    The definition of POTENTIOMETER seems vague, bordering on unfair – the device can control pretty much anything that is voltage-related, and most everyday ‘sound control’ these days is done using solid-state components.
    I did like CON ARTIST, PERSECUTE and also WILDEBEEST (which I think appeared a few days ago under its other name).

  2. Thanks Nutmeg and manehi

    I enjoyed this, though it was a DNF, as I had a perfectly reasonable LITTER (which can a carried seat, so a burden) instead of LUMBER, so couldn’t get MINCE. I didn’t see the homophone for FOUR, and I didn’t see a theme (of course!)

    Favourites were GROATS (I’ve seen something similar somewhere recently. but this was better) and GRIEVE.

  3. Thanks both. 20d reminds me of the cricketing joke “he is a ferret – he is so bad at batting that he goes in after the rabbits”

  4. We crossed, beaulieu, or I would have acknowledged your “litter”!

    . I raised an eyebrow at the definition for POTENTIOMETER too. It’s one of those – most volume controls are (or were) potentiometers, but many potentiometers aren’t volume controls.

  5. Well I didn’t know rabbit so couldn’t get natter. And didn’t know GROATS as bread/money. FOUR pence google told me. Was that the theme? Nope! Tempting to say something about Jack, but this is a genteel site. Got the triple def though. Good’un.

    FOUR, WILDEBEEST, SWORD DANCE, PERSECUTE very clever, and lots of fun ticks  for others. Favourite was EVERYMAN for its discovery and simplicity. Good fun.

  7. Another member of the ‘litter-ati’ here. Jack ladder is another themed entry (nautical), and I suppose, at a (long) stretch, Jack Wild(ebeest)!

    Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi.

  9. Thanks, manehi, for the blog and Nutmeg for another beautifully crafted and polished puzzle.

    My favourites, as often, coincide with manehi’s, with the addition of FOUR, GRIEVE and [of course] WILDEBEEST.

    I had no problem with POTENTIOMETER, since I’d never heard of it but it was so skilfully clued that it slipped smoothly in from the wordplay. I trust Nutmeg, so didn’t bother to look it up. 😉

  10. Doesn’t vie need ‘with’ to = rival? Wrote ‘four’ for cardinal without getting the homophone (not sure about Balfour’s back, jake). How is burden ‘waste products’ (not in my elderly SOED)? Overburden, as in mining? And mince,too, was a hmmm? Trip as in the light fantastic? Took ages to snag potent Io, with no idea of the technicalities. Per se cute was cute, as were grieve and jumping, though easy. Nutmeg is always enjoyable, and thanks Manehi.

  11. Agree with beaulieu and muffin re POTENTIOMETER which is basically a variable resistor.

    I’m afraid I cannot agree with Eileen’s justification as in my opinion, POTENT is a bit of a stretch for forceful and there are so many goddesses.

     

  12. Meant to say I did enjoy the puzzle and for once the theme did help me [having got RABBIT and NATTER gave me LUMBER]

  13. I failed to solve 9a & 11a and could not parse 6d – I failed to see it was an anagram!

    My favourites were JACK + GRIEVE.

    Thank you b+s

  16. I didn’t think this was as sharply clued as Nutmeg’s puzzles normally are, in particular Sword Dance. Though when I took part in this competition for schools at the Devizes Country Dance Festival in the late 1950’s, I was all arms and legs, most uncoordinated…

  17. I love a good Nutmeg and this (clearly) was one, but in the end I was defeated by it.

    Is there a word for this kind of grid, where there are really four separate quadrants so it is kind of like four mini-puzzles, thus reducing the help from crossers? (Mindful of yesterday’s blog and the discussion regarding the essential interplay of across and down clues, which, for many of us, makes it a “CROSSword”, rather than any other kind of word puzzle.) I have to say I don’t like this grid construction; maybe it is sour grapes as I was a DNF in the NW (i.e. I totally screwed it up by having VITRIOL unparsed for 1d, with the domino effect being an unsolved 9a, 11a and 13a). So the upshot of this sad tale was that I could not see the unfamiliar word at 8d, POTENTIMETER, as I lacked the T, and it also remained unsolved. With hindsight, I can see it might have been gettable from the wordplay, as it was for Eileen@9. The other unfilled word I had was 20d RABBIT – as for some others, unfamiliar to me as a “poor player”.

    Sorry to sound grumpy. I liked the rest of it, especially (as previously mentioned in despatches by others) 12a EVERYMAN, 17a CON ARTIST, 27a GRIEVE and 6d AT ANY COST.

    I still love Nutmeg but disappointed myself on this occasion. Too caught up in the frustrating detail to see anything to do with a theme. Not idea what many of these jacks are about anyway, eg NATTERJACK.

    But thanks nevertheless to Nutmeg, and to manehi and the other posters for the blog.

  20. In awe of Eileen for getting potentiometer from the word play alone. But then I seldom solve anything from the word play. Undecided whether the definition is fair, but probably sour grapes as I had to reveal.

  21. Thanks Nutmeg and manehi.  My favourite was 6d AT ANY COST which I thought was very clever with the use of “alive” as the anagram indicator.

    I couldn’t parse 9a, so thanks manehi for your explanation, which I think must be the correct one.  Interesting idea, jake @6, but it seems a bit of a stretch to take the last four letters of his name as the “backing” of Balfour, and in any case I don’t think he is mainly remembered today as a particularly notable orator.  Demosthenes, Cicero, Churchill, Martin Luther King: yes.  Balfour, I don’t think so.

  22. Thank you Nutmeg and manehi.

    Great fun now that the theme has been pointed out – there is also a BOOT JACK.

     

  23. Getting SLEAZE and JACK early on, I was looking for a pangram, but Q and X never materialised – I wonder how frequent pangrams are, other then the occasional alphabetiical jigsaw (and Codeword, of course). Maybe someone has the figures worked out.

    Like others I had written in LITTER, again early, and this seemed soon to be confirmed by the L and the R crossers – but an initial M seemed indicated for 23d, and this led to a rethink. LUMBER seems equally fine to me, despite grantinfreo@10, one of a cornucopia of scrupulously good clues.  (Brief digressive cricket comment to Western Australia: the selectors seem to be floundering about in the way the England selectors used to do till recently.)

  24. [Yes quenbarrow, exactly; we have been cobbling elevens together since the greats retired, then almost stabilised, then scratched the ball…not men, boys!]

  25. I didn’t know the ‘refuse’ sense of LUMBER which went in from the other half of the double def and had no idea about FOUR which I now think is a ‘for’ homophone, as our blogger suggests. Good to have a theme which I only saw at the end.

    I’ll excuse the inadvertent error (this time anyway) but our setter has made a common mistake in the spelling of WILDEBEEST. It should be ‘bewilderbeast’ (as in ‘stun a stoat’), as any fule kno.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi.

  26. Wasn’t too keen on LUMBER as refuse.  I have always thought of lumber as being potentially useful stuff you DON’T want to throw away.

    POTENTIOMETER – my problem with this clue is that the surface is utterly meaningless.

    Apart from that, there was lots to like.  The use of ‘alive’ as an anagram indicator  in 6 dn, for example.  Also 1, 13, 27 ac and 19 dn were all nice clues.

    I’m not too keen on the 10ac tpe of clue, but got the answer as I once saw the (Foula?) Sword Dance performed in Lerwick

    Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi.

  27. Definitely one of Nutmeg’s trickier ones, particularly SWORD DANCE which was last in. Enjoyed the challenge.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi

  28. Phenomenal theme detection, manehi!  A ghost of a ghost …

    Nice puzzle.  I think my favorite was GRIEVE.

    Did anyone else try to wedge DEMETER into the forceful goddess’s run?  Needless to say, I didn’t get away with it.

    How does CHANT = refrain?  A refrain is something you sing, but …

    pex – how did NATTER and RABBIT give you lumber, which they don’t cross?

  29. Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi. Generally found this tricky going and nearly gave up a few times. However persevered and got there in the end with potentiometer, lumbar, mince and four (a complete guess) being the last. Missed the theme as I often do, but I am another fan of persecute and wildebeest. Thanks again to Nutmeg for the challenge and manehi for explaining the parsing of four.

  31. I loved the POTENTIOMETER – Happy memories.
    Thank you Nutmeg and Manehi.
    My father made me a cigar-box radio when Iwas about four.
    I tried to repeat the trick in the early 2000s with little Hugo,
    but the component that fascinated me so much when I was four
    was not available without vandalising a vintage radio.
    An object rather like an egg-slicer but a variable capacitor,
    rather than a variable resistor/voltage regulator. After a little
    research, I cobbled up something with cardboard, paper
    glue, kitchen foil and a document wallet. To the astonishment
    of all, especially me, it and the radio worked.

  32. Don Geraldos @30

    It can be used to mean an affected way of walking – “He minced into the ballroom” for example.

  33. Completely agree with beaulieu and others. I had LITTER which also works, and didn’t like the def of POTENTIOMETER – also it’s a measure of strength or potential, so the clue is also tautological.

  34. Valentine:

    A church/cathedral psalm chant is a repeated refrain to

    which the psalms are sung during evensong.

  35. Thanks for an excellent puzzle, Nutmeg, and a thorough blog, Manehi. I just want to point out that for many of us, four and for are absolutely nowhere near the same sound.

    Also, would a singular maiden not have been a slightly more accurate clueing for 23d? I spent ages trying to get double M in there somewhere….

     

  36. Valentine @ 28: When I had RABBIT and NATTER in, I mused that JACK could go with either (but thought it coincidental). Subsequently in looking at ‘burden’ LUMBER came to mind. It was only then that I got 16a.

    Jin A: If its any consolation I had never heard of RABBIT as poor player – only got it from the word play.

     

  38. Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi. Lots of fun as usual from this setter. I too started with litter but switched to LUMBER. I got FOUR as a cardinal number but did not parse it and struggled with POTENTIOMETER even with all the crossers.

  39. It’s all been said – I had LITTER but wasn’t convinced so used the check button and spent ages staring at L___ER before LUMBER came to me. Like Anna I’ve always seen it as something to hoard – much to MrsW’s dismay. Like many I didn’t parse FOUR and I had lots of ticks with cotd going to GROATS for its splendid surface.
    Many thanks to Nutmeg and manehi.

  40. Thanks Nutmeg; I was another LITTER at first.

    Good blog manehi; I guess Nutmeg got the POTENTIOMETER definition from Collins: a device with three terminals, two of which are connected to a resistance wire and the third to a brush moving along the wire, so that a variable potential can be tapped off: used in electronic circuits, esp as a volume control.’ I was more familiar with it as a measuring device.

    I missed the theme although JACK BOOT is very prominent in the middle.

  41. Beautiful puzzle.  I actually saw the theme for once, but sadly, it failed to help me avoid the LITTER trap, so a DNF, as MINCE and LITTER were checked/cheated.

    The surfaces of GRIEVE, AT ANY COST and MINCE were brilliant.  I agree with Anna that the surface of POTENTIOMETER is a little less so, but I liked it despite this.  One question though – wasn’t Io a mortal rather than a goddess (according to Wiki)?.

    Some all-round terrific clues.  Thanks, Nutmeg and manehi.

     

     

  42. I’d worked out that 8d was a something-or-other-OMETER, but having never heard of the gizmo that was as far as I got (and was IO a goddess or just one of Zeus’s many girlfriends?) Thanks for parsing VISAGE and FOUR for me. Lots to enjoy here, especially Harry and Joe Bloggs and the reckless antelope, and all the Jacks. Pity there wasn’t a FLASH to go with JUMPING JACK…

  43. Hi phitonelly @41

    You’re right, of course – I missed that in my enthusiasm for the construction of the clue: Io was a mortal  – one of several pursued by Zeus, who turned her into a white heifer to hide her from his long-suffering wife, Hera. She eventually turned up in Egypt, where – in Nutmeg’s defence – she was identified with the Egyptian goddess Isis – see here

     

  45. This was on the tricky end for me, and most have said all of the comments I might have made.  I started with LITTER, like so many others; I have the added disadvantage that over here, of course, LUMBER as a noun is typically wood (after the sawmill gets to it but before the carpenter does), and isn’t used as “refuse.”  The check button showed the error of my ways.  I also raised an eyebrow at Io as a goddess, but otherwise quite enjoyed this.

     

  48. This was tricky, although some of it- probably about two thirds – was quite approachable. It took more than one sitting to complete it with FOUR being LOI – and I certainly don’t buy any of that Balfour stuff. I didn’t get the theme, possibly because I didn’t get JACK until quite late in the proceedings. I had to look up POTENTIOMETER after getting the crossers and guessing.
    Thanks Nutmeg.

  49. grant @ 10. “How is burden ‘waste products’?”

    It’s not. Although I do also question the “refuse” def, LUMBER does mean to “burden” with something, so it’s meant as a dd.

  50. My interest in electronics began in 1959, and mechanical volume controls have been referred to as potentiometers in the UK for all that time. Inside knowledge I know. But my wife, without that knowledge, got the answer from the good cluing. We agree the surface is inelegant. Thanks to Nutmeg and Manehi.

  52. Lord Jim @21 gave a special mention to the use of ‘alive’ as an anagram indicator in 6d.

    As did Anna @26 – ‘very clever’.

    I won’t complain either but I must say that I’ve never seen this indicator being used before. It is not in any of the many indicator lists I possess either (e.g. Chambers Crossword Dictionary).

    If so, someone has to be the first … And She Was [as Talking Heads once said].

    Good crossword but, we thought, not one of Nutmeg’s very best.

    Many thanks to manehi & Nutmeg.

     

  53. I wasn’t one of the many litterers, but instead stumbled on ‘mince’. I still don’t like the idea that the definition is (to) ‘trip putting on airs’ as this seems to only barely make sense as an English phrase (does trip mean ‘dance’ in this context? Is this what ‘mincing’ is, to dance while putting on airs? – I thought it was a way of walking). Anyhow, this is almost certainly mainly sour grapes on my part. I really enjoyed the puzzle and so thanks to Nutmeg and manehi.

  54. Left this three quarters done yesterday.

    Galling that lack of an editor made me waste so much time.

    POTENTIOMETER is just downright wrong. Lots of other clues were nearly as bad.

    A pretty awful puzzle in my opinion.

    In the current environment setters need to self-regulate which unfortunately is just not happening.

  55. I’m inclined to side with the verdict of Alex @54. I feel this puzzle is not up to Nutmeg’s usual high standard.

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