Guardian Cryptic 27,751 by Philistine

by

A pretty quick solve, especially with the longer answers going in early. Parsing was a bit more tricky, and I’m still stuck on 16dn. Favourites were 9ac, 20/13, 26/27, and 17dn. Thanks to Philistine.

…there is a theme of boat-related idioms: [down in] THE DOLDRUMS; BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES; PUSH THE BOAT OUT; SWINGING THE LEAD; THREE SHEETS TO THE WIND

Across
1   See 4
9 BLUSHER Boots’ foremost more luxurious make-up (7)
Boots + LUSHER=”more luxurious”
10 EXCITED Charlie left outside in a tizzy (7)
C (Charlie) with EXITED=”left” outside it
11 RYA Midsummer Day ends with a group of sailors (3)
=Royal Yachting Association
the ends of MidsummeR DaY, with A
12 THE DOLDRUMS Quiet period for percussion, around 50 cents? (3,8)
THE DRUMS=”percussion” around DOLlar=half dollar=”50 cents?”
13   See 20
15   See 18
18, 15 SEMIOTIC  Symbolic house of the listener? (8)
SEMI[-detached]=type of “house” + OTIC=relating to the ear=”of the listener”
20, 13 BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES Regularly abreast, saving time for the news? Drink up and get ready for the worst (6,4,3,7)
regular letters from aBrEaSt, around/saving all of: AT TEN=”time for the news” + DOWN THE HATCH=”Drink up”
23 PANCAKE RACE Flipping competition car reverses, breaking a knee­cap in bits (7,4)
CAR reversed inside (a kneecap)*
25 SEA Environment suitable for tailless mammal (3)
SEAL=”tailless mammal”
26, 27 PUSH THE BOAT OUT  Be lavish and encourage the snake promoter (4,3,4,3)
PUSH THE BOA TOUT=”encourage the snake promoter”
27   See 26
28 SWINGING THE LEAD He dealt poorly with non-monogamous behaviour, being lazy (8,3,4)
=nautical slang referring to lead-weighted ropes used to gauge the depth of water.
Brewer’s gives: “an allusion to the lazy leadsman idly swinging the line and protracting the job of taking soundings”(he dealt)* after SWINGING=”non-monogamous behaviour”
Down
1 SYBARITES Why said boozer is among places for those who like to indulge (9)
Y=pronounced like ‘why’=”Why said” + BAR=”boozer”; inside SITES=”places”
2 EMULATE Copy letter in delight (7)
MU=Greek “letter” in ELATE=”delight”
3 TAHITIAN Polynesian artist grabbing a paintbrush at last (8)
TITIAN=”artist” around A paintbrusH
4, 1 across THREE SHEETS TO THE WIND There may be two edits then, corrected after the girl gets drunk (5,6,2,3,4)
(There)* with “may be” as anagrind + (two edits then)* with “corrected” as anagrind, after SHE=”the girl”
5 THE SOLENT In days gone by, receiving only television’s first channel (3,6)
THEN=”In days gone by” around SOLE=”only” + Television
6 ESCUDO Old money does badly, if copper is involved (6)
=former Portuguese currency
(does)* around CU=chemical symbol for “copper”
7 IN TRUST Possible property holding in quaint, rustic setting (2,5)
letters hidden in quaINT RUSTic
8 DUDES Guys overwhelmed by debts start to default (5)
DUES=”debts” around Default
14 CHAMELEON A Philistine in church? Christmas must be coming up for one so fickle (9)
A + ME=”Phillistine”, all inside CH (church) + NOEL reversed=”Christmas must be coming up”
16 CONTACTED Got hold of shank? (9)
not sure – anyone?
Edit thanks to beery hiker and Shirl: “shank” is ‘shrank’ losing an ‘r’; CONTACTED is CONTRACTED losing an ‘r’
17 UNDERAGE Like minor German and European furore (8)
UND=”German [for] and” + E (European) + RAGE+”furore”
19 MONOSKI Kimonos may be useful on the slopes of Mount Fuji (7)
=a single ski attached to both boots
(Kimonos)*
21 ONSHORE Terrestrial radiophones not paid off (7)
(radiophones)* minus letters from “paid”
22 RAGTAG Scruffy label on scruffy item of clothing (6)
TAG=”label” after RAG=”scruffy item of clothing”
23 PEPYS Naval administrator in picture frame turned spy (5)
=Samuel Pepys
the “frame” or outer letters of PicturE + (spy)*
24 AMBIT Manoeuvre fails to start in range (5)
GAMBIT=”Manoeuvre” minus its starting letter

58 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,751 by Philistine”

  4. Baffled also by 16d; can only think a shank connects the business end of a tool but I know that is feeble.  Maybe a shank is some kind of mechanical/electronic contact in some device or other?  Thanks for parsing of 20/13 (that one took me ages and I still did not quite get there) and for blog – and many thanks and admiration to Philistine,

  5. Enjoyed this one and found it a fairly straightforward gridfill, with a couple of parsings that needed more thought. RYA was last in (unusual for a three letter solution with no crossers), but abbreviations are often hard to spot and RIA is perhaps seen too often.

    Thanks to Philistine and manehi

  7. I’m not sure about CONTACTED either, and it took me ages to see the realative simple DUDES.

    As you say, quite a quick solve.  I have always thought that long answers are easier to solve than short ones, and there were several long answers in this grid.

    The question of RYA or R.Y.A. has been discussed many times before.

    I’m not too happy with the ‘in’ bit of IN TRUST.  If ‘possible property holding’ is the definition, then the answer should just be TRUST.  Or have I got that wrong?

    THanks to Philistine and to manehi.

  10. Just to add: I knew RYA but not because I have a yacht.  I went on a RYA course once to learn how to steer/drive a narrowboat!  (I’m still pretty rubbish at that though.)

  12. Also found this solved very quickly for a Friday. The very long clues are a bit of a pain to my mind as it makes the puzzle a bit “all or nothing”. I solved them all backwards, getting the phrase to fit the crossers and spacing, and then parsing afterwards. Some fun clues but I thought “sea” a bit weak with so many possibilities, though I guessed right first time.

    I am lost on why shank is contacted too.

  13. Amazing – 11 comments appeared while I was typing mine! Sh(r)ank? = cont(r)acted is a bizarre form of wordplay to my mind – open to way too many possibilities, especially without any indication that this is what is going on (it looks like a double def). Did anyone solve it before having the crossers?

  15. thezed @13 – No – I needed all of the crossers before it occurred to me. It is the kind of Guardianism strict Ximeneans hate, but it is a trick that Philistine uses quite a lot!

  16. Thanks Philistine and manehi

    The phrases jumped out at me from the definitions and letter counts, so I was on track for my fastest ever Philistine solve. However I failed at the last with RYA, and eventually revealed it. I saw how it worked in retrospect, but I had never heard of it.

    Favourite was SEMIOTIC.

  17. Thanks for the blog. manehi and Philistine for another super puzzle.

    Clues like 16dn have become a Philistine trademark – but they’re still not always easy to spot. I liked this one!

    MONOSKI appeared in a Morph puzzle in the Indy last week: ‘Runner soon knackered during one kilometre uphill (7)’ and several of us looked for an East European athlete! Clever anagram here, though.

    A couple more nautical references in ONSHORE and PEPYS.

    The flipping competition made me smile and I liked the Polynesian artist, too.

  18. My first opportunity to solve a whole puzzle in a busy week, and I was so glad I did! Thanks to Philistine for a sailing-themed puzzle, published so soon after my road trip to the Wooden Boat Festival in Tasmania! Unlike some others, I really liked the long answers, particularly THREE SHEETS TO THE WIND. Grateful to manehi, beery@1 and Shirl@2 for help with various parsings. It was fun!

  19. I could only parse DRUMS in 12a, and could not parse 17d and 16d.

    I failed to solve 5d – never heard of the Solent!

    Thanks manehi and Philistine

  20. Yep, agreed re the long clues; felt a bit guilty filling them in without bothering to parse. But almost by way of revenge, 16 dn is a fiendish little broadside that had me scuppered. Pushed the boat out too soon. Thanks shipmates.

  21. I agree with Eileen about the other nautical references – I took “sea” to be the link word for all the others.

    Thanks manehi and Philistine

  24. Ditto Yaffle re 16d, stared at it idly between cricket overs then came here, so a dnf. Otherwise quite fun for Friday. Thanks both, and everyone.

  26. I thought this was a Fantastic Friday finish to a great week of puzzles.  This one was my PotW.  I had tick marks all over the place, especially for the longer entries (although not so much for BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES, because I didn’t think its surface was as good as some of the others).  The nautical theme was great.  I solved CHAMELEON as described by Rgpman @25 — I’m sure that is the correct parsing.  [Speaking of CHAMELEON, this is my EOTD (earworm of the day) — edging out Sir Elton’s identically named track and Culture Club’s Karma variant of the same reptile.]  Great to see Julie in Australia @18 back here at 15^2!

    Many thanks to Philistine and manehi and the other commenters.  Wishing all a good weekend.

  28. Thanks both,
    I like puzzles with long phrases once in a while. ‘Semiotic’ was very good. The thought crossed my mind and that ‘the’ was turning up surprisingly frequently.

  29. Thanks to Philistine and manehi. It looks like I did not find this as easy as some others. Generally found it slow going, particularly in seeing the long clues (in spite of spending some time in the navy in my early years). Last one in for me was Pepys when I dragged up bits from memory about him being something to do with the navy. I am with Julie@18 in actually liking the long clues even though I had trouble seeing them. I also liked The Solent and onshore, and thanks again to Philistine and manehi.

  30. Shiver me timbers and splice the mainbrace – I don’t usually cotton on to the themes, but this one was fairly obvious from the start. Enjoyable solve, LOI was Semiotic….

  32. Loved the snake promoter: defeated by sh(r)ank, did what it said on the tin for 11a, looked up the result and found it worked. I don’t think I ever knew what SEMIOTIC meant until now, though I knew it was a word.

  33. 16d defeated me too. I think it might behoove the community to put a name to this kind of device, if there isn’t one already. It will make talking about it easier and hopefully easier to spot in the future, if it is a “thing”. To my mind what’s going on is there is a hidden operator (remove the R) applied both to a word in the clue and a proto-answer. Now, we do see this quite a bit, for example “ouse” could be straightforwardly clued as “Cockney home”, or more cryptically as “‘ome”, and most people will still get it. What makes this instance more insidious/beautiful is that the operator is the same as the operand: contacted = contracted contracted, shank = shrank shrank (and hidden). What on earth do you call this?

  34. Thanks to both – I am firmly among the 16d non-parsers.  Dr. Whatson@33 – interesting question.  One phrase that comes to mind is ‘missing consonance’  :-).

  37. Quite a few bunged in without parsing- RYA,UNDERAGE and,surprise,CONTACTED. But I got the obvious theme and enjoyed the rest. Particularly BLUSHER and SYBARITES.
    Had to abandon yesterday’s TRAMP but I intend to return to it.
    Thanks Philistine.

  38. Thanks to philistine and manehi.
    My loi was SEMIOTIC, so I got CONTACTED without all the crossers as others must have (to answer thezed) – and a nice pdm it was too. As to naming the device (cf Dr Whatson) perhaps “contaction” or “shinkage”?
    Perhaps not…
    An enjoyable solve with many favs so v grateful to s&b.
    [Off topic, also glad to see signs of life from jina]

  39. Lots of fun from Philistine as usual, and thanks to manehi for the blog. I really liked 2, 9 and especially 14!

    In answer to Dr Whatson@33 and others, does “analagous spelling” work as a name for the device in 16? Or “shared spelling pattern”, something like that? Or, if homophones are sound-alikes, “spell-alike”?! I’m a bit stumped…

  40. This wasn’t a quick solve for me, and I had enormous fun with it.  I really like multiple long answers, one of which, SWINGING THE LEAD, was new to me, as were RYA and MONOSKI.

    I’m no sailor, but the nautical theme was very clear.  I didn’t hesitate with CONTACTED (= ‘got hold of’), but I left the other bit for others to work out!  (It certainly needed the question mark.)

    Thanks to Philistine for an excellent crossword and to manehi for the blog.

  41. Thanks to manehi and Philistine

    I enjoy the seafaring idioms that have naturally entered our language, some not obviously related – “fight to the bitter end”, “the devil of a job” and many others, so that added to the enjoyment, (and solvability?), of this crossword.

    But 16d I didn’t enjoy. It seems from comments that Philistine has employed this device before but I don’t recall it. I applaud the attempt to create a new device but I urge him to try again.

    Dr. Whatson  @33 wonders what we might call this new device. I suggest TOAST – Think Of A Synonym and Twiddle.

    As thezed points out@13, there are way too many possibilities. I think Philistine is aware of this which is why he choose such a precise, “Quick crossword” definition – GOT HOLD OF.

    Are we to see BOOK clued as “Reserve steam”, or COP as “Nick Tim”, I hope not!

    On the plus side I love the dual interpretations of 14d – both entirely valid.

  42. Nice timing, I registered our club,s RYA Push the boat out event this week. Lots of them all round the country in May. Is this subtle advertising from Philistine?

  43. I got about half way through before I had to go out for the day and came back to find MrsW had finished it. To be fair I’d ground to a halt without the long ones in and it was nice to come back and be able to enjoy the solutions. It was a great puzzle so thanks to Philistine, manehi and MrsW.

  44. Dansar @41

    I would describe the device Philistine used as devious, and we do sometimes encounter such clues in The Guardian – not all of the same type as this. You are right, of course, that there are too many possibilities, and the setter is obliged, almost forced, to use a precise and clear definition – as he is obliged also to put a ‘?’ at the end, which I regard as a shorthand way of asking the question “Does this work?” or “Will this do?”

    As an occasional amateur setter, I haven’t dared to use a device like this. However, I don’t mind seeing something of this nature at the rate of one per crossword at most, and as an editor (if I was one) I would use that as a guide. Although I didn’t ‘get’ it this time (but I did solve it), I was happy with the clue, discovering afterwards what it was all about. Incidentally, I liked your own made-up examples, and I would enjoy those as well (at the rate of one per crossword!) if they ever come up.  But I can of course see why such clues could be classified as unsound.

  46. Re 16dn:

    I’m not wanting to enter the nomenclature debate but I’ve been scouring the archive for examples and, irritatingly, can’t find my first encounter with this device, [on my own blog] which was something to do with S-PORT / S-HAVEN but I can’t remember / find the clue.

    The most recent example I can find – and I know there are others in between – is 27,609 [again my own blog]:  Remove growth that could be sown (5)

  47. Eileen@46

    I’ve just looked at that clue and, correct me if I’m wrong , but it reads to me as a simple charade of SHAVE= charade of S/OWN 🙂

  48. Eileen: I don’t blame you! But wouldn’t the search have been easier and more fruitful if we had such a name?

  49. SHAVE for SOWN is what we normally call a lift-and-separate, is it not? I considered such for SHANK, which would give e.g. STRESS

  50. Somehow I seem to remember that when we had a S&B here in Cambridge, four years ago, Philistine couldn’t attend because that weekend he took part in a sailing event on The Solent.

    Which probably explains that this theme wasn’t purely random.

    Nice puzzle – with a lot of THEs – in which we gave up on the parsing of 16d (although we knew that it had to be ‘that kind of thing’).

    Thanks manehi (and Philistine for the fun).

  52. I did not find this as easy as many, because a fair number of answers were words or phrases I’d never heard: RYA, PANCAKE RACE, PUSH THE BOAT OUT, SWINGING THE LEAD, THE SOLENT. I suspect that this is due to the fact that I’m not from the UK.

    Just to be clear, I’m not blaming anyone else for this. If I choose to spend my time solving puzzles from the UK, I have to expect this sort of thing. It just happened that there were a lot in this puzzle. But I got there in the end, with the exception of RYA.

    I completely failed to parse 20a, 14d, and 16d. The only one of these I’m embarrassed about is 14d. By the time I figured out the answer, I’d managed to completely forget who the setter was, so I couldn’t figure out what “Philistine” was doing in the clue. Again, no one to blame but myself.

     

  53. Rgpman@25, Gonzo and others in between – in my opinion, you are wrong re 14 dn. Andrew’s parsing is spot on (“a me” = “a Philistine”) whereas your interpretation would make the “A” in clue redundant. Did you guys actually read Andrew’s blog?

    I particularly enjoyed BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES. (Parsing of CONTACTED beat me – first defeat in months if not years; in defence, I’m under the weather….and I did complete the puzzle so some might argue it wasn’t a dnf?!).

    Many thanks to Philistine for yet another superb crossword. And to Andrew for his excellent blog which I, for one, did bother to read…..

  54. Gonzo@49 – No. See crosswordunclued.com for correct definition (and further explanation, history) of “Lift and Separate” clues.

  55. William F P @53 –

    I don’t know if you’ll circle back to see this (although I see you posted your comment earlier today, so perhaps …), but thanks for causing me to go back and look more closely at the clue for CHAMELEON, and for manehi’s (ahem, ha ha) blog explaining the parsing of same.  I now see was wrong @26 when I said I was “sure” that the parsing of A HAM in CE was correct.  I should have known better than to say that!!  After further reflection, I think that you (and manehi) may be correct, that CH + A ME is likely the parsing that Philistine intended.  Having said that, I think a very good case can also be made for A HAM in CE, especially because of the question mark appearing at the end of “A Philistine in church?” (which is why I was so “sure” on Friday).  Every so often, a clue comes along whose solution can have two different parsings, each of which is  solid and defensible — i.e., does not require a “stretch” to be considered plausible.  I think this is one of those instances.

    BTW, I meant to mention this on Friday, but did anyone else notice the weird (and presumably unintended) Nina in the fourth row down, A LIE SURE?  Not that there’s anyone else on this thread right now, except I think I may hear some crickets.

  56. Late to the party, sorry. Just cleared my cryptic backlog today. 14 must be HAM (a named Philestine, one of many, so the ‘a’ is not redundant) in CE. ‘A Philestine’ AME would not be inside CH, just appended to it, so that’s not going to be correct. I believe that’s what the setter intended, anyway. Superb puzzle, BTW, Philestine.

  57. DaveMc – late, I know, but just in case you see this, thank you for taking the trouble to give your considered response.

    John B – thank you for your, lucidly explained, view.

    Nevertheless I remain convinced that Philistine constructed the clue exactly as manehi parsed it.
    Best.

  58. manehi – only now realised I called you Andrew earlier. A rose by any other name…..
    ‘Twas Dave’s response above which put me right though I first thought his ‘manehi’s (ahem, ha ha)’ was some form of anagrammatic joke that I failed to get!

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