Guardian 27,757 – Maskarade

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I was confidently expecting a Paul puzzle this morning, so it was a surprise to see Maskarade, who appears only rarely outside the bank holiday specials. In general I found this one pretty easy, though with a couple of obscurities, and I also have a few niggles on technical points, noted against individual clues. Thanks to Maskarade.

I thought there must be a theme here, relating to the fact that today is St David’s day, but apart from 5d I can’t see any Welsh connections. There seem to be a few words spanning the acrosses: ZINC in the fifth row, CRATER in the eleventh and AGNES in the fifteenth, but if there’s any significance in these it currently escapes me.

 
 
 
Across
1. SCRATCH Withdraw from competition, having a slight injury (7)
Double definition
5. LEE SIDE Sheltered area where diesel is spilt at end of lane (3,4)
DIESEL* + [LAN]E
9. BACK BACON Could be rasher returning no cab, it seems (4,5)
NO CAB is reversed or BACK BACON
10. EXCEL Former church leader’s beginning to be superior (5)
EX + CE + L[eader]
11. LUTZ Clumsy American baulks at first jump (4)
KLUTZ (American slang for a clumsy person) less its first letter. The Lutz is a type of jump in figure-skating
12. INCOHERENT Rambling around Corinth, seen topless (10)
Anagram of CORINTH + [S]EEN
14. GALLEY Mariner finally leaves golf spectators’ boat (6)
GALLERY (spectators at a game of golf) less [marine]R
15. MOPOKES Medical officer bags Aussie owls (7)
MO + POKES (bags, as in “a pig n a poke”). The Mopoke has a number of onomatopoeic names, representing its cuckoo-like call
16. ROSETTA Egyptian city’s stone home in highway that’s not deserted (7)
SETT (badger’s home) in ROAD less D – reference to the Rosetta Stone, whose discovery led to an understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs
18. FRUGAL Flying Gulf Air, one missed out having to use economy (6)
Anagram of GULF AIR less I (one)
20. CONSECRATE Rewrote scene or act? Bless! (10)
(SCENE OR ACT)*
21. RIOT Some conservatoire backing debauchery (4)
Hidden in reverse of conservaTOIRe
24. ATE UP Man the pumps regularly, having finished the lot (3,2)
Alternate letters of mAn ThE pUmPs
25. AMERICANO Oceanarium, not posh, spilt coffee (9)
Anagram of OCEANARIUM less U (posh, as in U and non-U)
26. LASAGNE Pasta course — dip into it! (7)
SAG (dip) in LANE (course)
27. SINGLET Vest — and what finishes it off (7)
The word vest ends in a SINGLE T. An example of a clue where it would be impossible to get the answer from the wordplay alone On second thoughts, I take back the last sentence – I was confused by the fact that SINGLET also ends in a single T.
Down
1. SIBYL Oracle is upset near the top side of lake (5)
Reverse of IS + BY (near) + L[ake]. For some reason the girl’s name Sybil is usually spelt with the vowels interchanged
2. RICOTTA Cheese for girl in bed? On the contrary (7)
COT in RITA (i.e. bed in girl)
3. TOBY Man and dog associated with jug (4)
A man’s name, a traditional name for a dog (especially the dog I Punch and Judy) and a type of jug; technically three definitions, but very closely related
4. HACKNEY CARRIAGE London Taxi: sorry horse (grey): in a race, nobbled (7,8)
HACK (a poor or “sorry” horse) + (GREY IN A RACE)* – rather a giveaway definition
5. LAND OF MY FATHERS Anthem offering trade-offs with hymnal, possibly (4,2,2,7)
Anagram of TRADE-OFFS + HYMNAL – the unofficial national anthem of Wales
6. ELEVEN-PLUS Exam — this one makes twelve (6-4)
“this one” is ELEVEN PLUS ONE, which makes twelve
7. IN CHECK King under threat turns chicken … (2,5)
CHICKEN* – the definition should really be “Like a king under threat” or some such; as it is it leads to the wrong part of speech
8. EOLITHS … early stone implements working the soil (7)
(THE SOIL)* – the ellipsis between this clue and the previous one seems to make no sense
13. CLOTHES PEG Sheet anchor? (7,3)
Cryptic definition – a clothes peg might be said to anchor a sheet to the washing line
16. ROCKALL Shipping area, which is proverbially steady on everything (7)
ROCK (“steady as a rock”) + ALL
17. SONNETS Boy at practice session getting lines! (7)
SON + NETS (cricket practice) – the exclamation mark seems pretty redundant here
19. ABIGAIL Old lady’s maid is a sizeable American, one needing leading liposuctionist (7)
A BIG A[merican) + A +L[iposuctionist]. (I don’t like “leading [X]” as “first letter of [X]”) Traditional name for a lady’s maid, perhaps originally from King David’s wife Abigail in 1 Sam. 25:25, who describes herself as his handmaid when she first meets him; also the name of a character in the Jacobean comedy The Scornful Lady
22. TROUT Tutor rearranged piano quintet (5)
TUTOR* – the fourth movement of Schubert’s “Trout” quintet is a set of variations on the tune of his song of the same name
23. LION Regularly taking out cloisonné cat (4)
Alternate letters of cLoIsOnNé

61 comments on “Guardian 27,757 – Maskarade”

  1. Thanks Maskarade and Andrew

    Maskarade auditioning for the Quiptic slot? This was almost a complete write-in. I checked MOPOKES as I didn’t see “poke” as a bag; I paused on RIOT as the definition didn’t seem right; and I had to give some thought to LOI LUTZ.

    I had highlighted IN CHECK as favourite, but I take your point, Andrew.

    btw the consensus now is that EOLITHS aren’t early stone tools, just stones shaped by natural processes to resemble possible tools.

  2. A much more straightforward solve than I was expecting from a crossword with the name Maskarade at the top of the page.

    I’d never heard of the Aussie owls – I wonder if I should retain them in case they turn up again?  As for Andrew’s comment on 27a, this is the sort of clue that turns up regularly where if you see vest and the solution has seven letters,  you know exactly what word to write that will end in the ‘finish’ of vesT

    Thanks to setter and blogger

  3. Took a lot less time than those long-winded but addictive A-Zs we get on holidays. Fairly straightforward though as the 15 letter clues were wasy enough, but I had to check Lutz and Mopokes which I couldn’t even guess at. Some local GK for our Aussie friends for once!
    Is riot debauchery?

  4. Re 5d: today is St David’s Day (Dydd G?yl Dewi) — the patron saint of Wales, making this particularly appropriate. I thought it might be going to be a theme, but it wasn’t.

  5. Rewolf @3

    I was more familiar with the “morepork” name for these owls (see Andrew’s link). Does that ring any bells?

  6. Like others, I thought the word Maskarade in the title promised a challenging solve but it turned out to be much easier than expected.

    Some new words, such as MOPOKES and EOLITHS but all easily work-outable.

    My LOI was LUTZ.  I had to google (K)lutz to get it.

    Didn’t like ‘that’s not deserted’ to mean ‘drop the D’ in 16 ac.

    Nice to see the anthem at 5 dn for Dydd Dewi.  Like Andrew, I also scanned the grid for hidden ninas (Pleidiol wyf i’m gwlad … ) but couldn’t find any.

    Thanks to Maskarade and to Andrew.

  7. to John Wells @4

    Yep.  Dydd g?yl Dewi.  Or even Ddewi if you’re fussy about the mutations.

    I wonder if I will have any more luck than you getting the ? to show.

    Fingers crossed …..

  9. I really hope Paul is taking a week off rather than getting two prizes in a row – we can have too much of a good thing! This was very easy for a Friday, one or two obscure words but they were so clearly signposted they didn’t need much thought.

    Thanks to Maskarade and Andrew

  10. Re 16a, I can’t see how “highway that’s not deserted” leads to ROAD less D. Please help the penny to drop.

  11. It feels as though there is an editorial hand at play this week. Apart from Chifonie’s perfectly acceptable start and yesterday’s brilliant Picaroon the other three have been much more straightforward (and in my view less enjoyable) than I’d expect from Shed, Brummie and Maskarade and I wonder if setters have been asked to submit more accessible puzzles?
    I only had two ticks – LASAGNE and IN CHECK – which has flaws that I didn’t see before coming here. Thanks to the setter who I hope was following orders and to Andrew for the blog.

  12. Muffin@1 – sorry, I meant to reference our common experience with IN CHECK, and LUTZ was also my loi and gave the most pause for thought.

  13. Didn’t know klutz, but wrote in lutz anyway. Nice to see “pokes” in 15ac, good memories of hop-picking in Kent in the 1960’s, where the number of pokes filled each day with those hop petals was crucial…

  14. Thanks Maskarade and Andrew

    Very straightforward, given the setter’s name. Like crypticsue @ 2, I thought 27 was a gimme that went in on first pass through the Across clues.

    Stanyel @ 10: D is a military abbreviation for ‘deserted’ [as away of leaving service, cf KIA, MIA etc], so ‘highway’ = ROAD, then drop the D.

    hth

  15. Another who trembled at the setter’s name, here.  Progressed warily, inching forward expecting a horrible curve ball at any moment, and then…it was finished!

    I put a tick against IN CHECK as I liked the clever construction but missed Andrew’s point re part of speech.

    Also liked VEST and CLOTHES PEG (clothes pin in the US) but thought LION weak.

    Many thanks, both, nice week all.

  16. Yes, surprisingly straightforward for a Maskarade. Kicking myself for not getting the wordplay for 16a and 27a.

    I suppose 7d should really be “…turned chicken” but the clue as written doesn’t mislead.

    Some neat anagrams, notably 5d. LOI was LUTZ but a perfectly decent clue.

  17. Well that was a disappointment. Far too many write-ins using pretty obvious and well-signed wordplay. As someone said, more like a quiptic at times. And then I was held up at the end by “mopokes” (uncommon name for an uncommon owl, better known as a morepork or boobook) with “poke” for “bag” hardly enough wordplay to invent the word from scratch. Also “lutz” with a rather clumsy beheading instruction for an uncommon word. “eoliths” was better clued and also has some etymological sense, given “lith” for stone” and “eo” appearing in e.g. “eohippus”, the dawn horse, an early horse ancestor so much more readily guessable. Peculiar words are all very well but they have to be well clued and I really felt these were not (“eohippus” aside).

    “Eleven Plus” may appear a bit too much like local knowledge for those without grammar schools. “not deserted” to drop “d” I suppose comes from maps where deserts might be abbreviated “d”?

    And a themeless week I think? Wasn’t last week heavily themed so perhaps this is to make up for it…all things must be kept in balance and all that.

  18. Thanks both,

    Mainly straightforward but needing access to the dimmer parts of my memory. As I’m a Terry Pratchett fan, I’m more familiar with the owl as a ‘morpork’. My field guide to the birds of Australia doesn’t list it in the index under the name but rather as the boobook owl and I only tracked it down from the Latin name. I’d say this was pretty obscure.

  19. Yep a stroll for Friday, no sign of M’s torture. Only vaguely remembered the skater’s jump, and poke (pocket, poche) for bag. Thanks Simon for D as legit for deserted; Rosetta was a lazy biff. Americano is becoming a chestnut, at least a couple recently. Course for lane (shipping?) feels a bit hmmm, ditto riot for debauchery, as per Rewolf@3. Rockall, from what I can gather (albeit v brief search), is a rock sticking out of the sea somewhere. Hey ho, quite fun and no real pain. Thanks M and A.

  20. grantinfreo @19

    ROCKALL also gives its name to the surrounding sea area, used in the UK shipping forecasts.

    I vaguely remember a prize puzzle from some years ago where all the shipping areas were included, and placed in approximately the right positions with respect to each other! Can anyone direct us to it?

  23. Dydd gwyl Dewi happus to one and all, but it appears I’m not alone in thinking this was a bit (dare I say it) Mondayish: even this absolute tyro had a 65% write in, only really stumped by ABIGAIL as it’s not a term I’ve heard before.

    MOPOKES sound like something Captain Scarlet should be fighting.

  24. I kept checking the name of the setter as I seemed to be progressing very well, and I have had so many tussles and epic fails with Maskarade puzzles in the past.

    Dare I say that I found a couple of the surfaces a bit clunky e.g. the clue at 9a for BACK BACON and at 19d the clue for ABIGAIL? (Not that I can compile crosswords myself, so I feel a bit bad saying that.)

    I did learn some things – I knew KLUTZ as it is Americanism in Australia, but didn’t know that LUTZ is a word (11a), and that spectators at a golf game are called the GALLE(R)Y (14a). I felt I was lucky to know ROCKALL (16d) from a podcast I heard recently about the BBC Shipping News being used as an aural aid to assist insomniacs. I must also have read of the ELEVEN PLUS exam in some English novel (6d).

    Re 15a, I had to learn to recite this verse by C.J. Dennis at primary school: “Hist… hark, The night is very dark, And we’ve to go a mile or so, Across the possum park. Step …light, Keeping to the right, If we delay and lose our way, We’ll be out half the night …….MO…POKE, Who was that who spoke? This is not a fitting spot To make a silly joke.” (Sorry can’t write it in its line format or I keep creating huge spaces.)

    Thanks to Maskarade and Andrew.

     

     

  25. LUTZ was also my LOI. Once I had the crossers MOPOKES couldn’t be anything else (though I did search to check). Wasn’t sure about “pokes” for “bags” until I though of “pig in a …”.

  26. muffin @20 – Boatman’s 26041 had a sea area theme, but FASTNET at the top and UTSIRE at the bottom are geographically miles out. I have checked the 5 puzzles that contain either ROCKALL or FASTNET. Maybe the one you are thinking of was before the start of the archive.

  28. John Wells @27

    I can remember having long discussions about this as to whether you should do a mutation of Dewi after the feminine gw^yl.  Actually both are acceptable and a quick google brings up lots of examples of both.

  29. Nothing to add to the general flavour of the comments here regarding the ease of completing as against the usual tussle with this setter. Made for a pleasant solving time this morning though. On 27A I took the definition as being vest and the wordplay to indicate the single t being the end of the word it.

    Thanks to Maskarade and Andrew.

  31. Agree with all the above. Thought the rasher led to BACON and stone/Egyptian to ROSETTA too easily. Also not keen on having more than one alternate letter clue – is ‘regularly ‘ the only indicator of these? There are so many different anagrind indicators that they never seem so obvious.
    Didn’t know EOLITH but it was gettable; less success with MOPOKES – although, having come here, I can now see POKE as a bag (of Scottish chips?).
    However, did enjoy LAND OF MY FATHERS.
    Thanks, Maskarade and Andrew.

  33. What many others have said about a gentler than expected puzzle from this setter. I knew the name of the ‘Aussie owls’ but couldn’t figure out how ‘bags’ fitted in and missed the parsing of SINGLET.

    I was a big fan of LUTZ. The second winter sports manoeuvre in a Fifteensquared puzzle today. A first?

    Thanks to Maskarade and Andrew

  34. Thanks, Andrew and Maskarade.

    Like Duncmeister @29, I have nothing to add to the comments re the puzzle [and I wondered about the single  t from ‘it’, too] but wouldn’t the bookies be celebrating if we’d all put our shirts on the ‘dead cert’ of a Paul puzzle today!

    I do remember the puzzle that muffin mentions and I’ve had a good look for it but unsuccessfully, I’m afraid. I’m practically certain that it was an Araucaria. This Indy one by Radian [aka Crucible] – too long ago for the clues to be included, unfortunately, contains an impressive number of sea areas and, coincidentally, CLOISONNÉ as an answer.

    JinA @24, I’m one of the insomniacs who can recite the litany of the shipping areas – and the inshore waters as well [Cape Wrath to Rattray Head, including Orkney, Rattray Head to Berwick on Tweed …] – these are easier to picture as we travel round the coastline. 😉

     

  35. Hedgehog @32

    “Gallery” is a theatrical term. As far as I know, golf is the only sport in which the spectators are referred to as the “gallery” (except at the Masters at Augusta, where they are the “patrons”)

    I think that a gallery is part of a real tennis court, though!

  36. Eileen and JinA, my sleeping draught is the BBC world service, on air here after midnight; although, given the state of the planet, it’s often far less soporific than shipping news!

  37. I can’t help but think that SIBYL, TOBY and ABIGAIL (and maybe ROSE) must have some sort of significance, although I have failed to make any meaningful connection.

    Entertaining solve; I liked IN CHECK, despite Andrew’s correct reservations.

    Thanks Maskarade and Andrew.

  38. Eileen @34 – I suspect Araucaria too, possibly a bank holiday special – his history goes far further back than the Guardian’s online archive. Your Radian, like the Boatman I found, cannot have the sea areas in the appropriate part of the map, because SOLE and FASTNET must be near the top.

  39. grantinfreo – here, the shipping forecast immediately precedes the World Service, which starts at 1.00am and continues through the night, so I have that, too.

  40. Thanks to Maskarade and Andrew. Not much to add here. A quite gentle solve for this setter, though nonetheless enjoyable, and I learned a couple of new words. Lutz was last one in for me and clothes peg made me smile. Interestingly enough we had a different shipping area in today’s quick crossword. Thanks again to Maskarade and Andrew.

  41. Hi beery hiker @38 –  No, I knew that wasn’t the one:  they’re not all there, for a start. I picked that one out because of the coincidence of CLOISONNÉ.

  42. Thanks to Maskarade and Andrew.  I’m another who almost gave up at seeing the name of the setter but to my surprise did finish. I knew klutz-LUTZ but not ROCKALL, MOPOTES, and ELEVEN PLUS.

  43. Klutz is not ‘American’ but Yiddish. It may have particular currency in the USA but, then, so does bon appetit (with its acute accent) have currency in the UK but it is still French.

  44. Maskarade’s non holiday puzzles are usually pretty easy and this was no exception. I did have to look up MOPOKES and LUTZ, and GALLEY was largely a guess – I know nothing of golf! Otherwise a breeze!
    Thanks Maskarade.

  47. The boy I love is up in the gallery
    The boy I love is looking down at me
    There he is, can’t you see
    Waving his handkerchief
    As merry as a robin
    That hangs on a tree.

  48. Very pleased to see Maskarade making a rare appearance, especially when I’ve been as sick as as dog all week and barely able to solve a thing. A nice gentle write-in to get my brain working again ! Thanks to Andrew and to Maskarade.

  49. I disagree with everyone! I had difficulty with quite a few clues, probably due to being a non-UK solver.  MOPOKES, ROCKALL, ELEVEN-PLUS, ABIGAIL, TROUT – all new to me, not to mention “nets”.  I wasn’t familiar with the anthem either although it didn’t take much to decipher it.

    The most frustrating was ROSETTA which seemed to be the obvious answer but I was thrown by the “not deserted” part of the clue. According to the online Chambers, “d” is not an abbreviation either for deserted or desert. And I didn’t have the R from Rockall to help me.

  50. muffin@35: yes, there are galleries in real tennis, which I took up a couple of years ago. Also a tambour, dedans (showing the game’s French origin as ‘jeu de paume’), penthouse and grille. If you’re interested, the US Open is on at the moment!

  51. @BlueDot

    I can confirm that d=deserted is in Chambers (by which I mean the paper dictionary). It’s one of 25 potential candidates for abbreviations for the letter d.

  52. I note that the part of speech problem in 7D could be avoided simply by omitting ‘king’ (with maybe a comma after ‘threat’), and leaving it to the solver to suss out the chess connection. Could Maskarade have intended to make the clue a little easier by giving an extra nudge in that direction?

  53. Thanks both.

    Insofar as having something to say goes, I have to mimic Hedgehog@31.  Only popped in to say that, JinA@24, I don’t feel that I have to be able to cook a particular dish in order to find fault with it: I am the consumer and it’s my opinion that matters ultimately (at the end of the day even)(especially if it’s my dinner).  Similarly I don’t feel obliged to submit a portfolio of self-penned crosswords before offering a negative review – if I don’t think it’s good enough, that’s good enough for me.  For me to criticise it that is……

    Check pl!…

    But I did enjoy this offering. Happy daffy taffies.

  54. I didn’t find this quite as easy as others, but I agree that it’s easier than expected given the setter.

    The answer to 9a (BACK BACON) was easily spotted, but I still can’t make sense of the clue. The wordplay “returning no cab” leads to BACON, not to BACK BACON. If it didn’t have the word “returning”, it could be one of those reverse clues, where the answer itself is the wordplay — that is, “back bacon” is an indicator for NO CAB. And “it seems” seems unnecessary in any case.

    Speaking of unnecessary, why isn’t 1d simply “Oracle is upset near lake”? Since L is a standard abbreviation for lake, the “top side of” is unnecessary, and the surface is much better without it.

    I couldn’t begin to parse ROSETTA. I’ve seen SETT before, but without a mention of badgers I would never think of it. I couldn’t make sense of “that’s not deserted” either, but I guess it’s OK. We have to take the “‘s” to be “has”, not “is”, right? That way, it means “that does not have D”.

     

     

  55. The puzzle that muffn is remembering was a Christmas puzzle of at least 25 years ago, possibly 30. I can see myself doing it sitting surrounded by Christmas debris . Almost certainly didn’t finish it but I can remember the satisfaction I felt when I suddenly twigged.

  57. I remember doing the puzzle with the shipping areas, but can’t remember when. If it was 25 to 30 years ago, then I would guess it was either a Guardian Bank Holiday or an Azed.

  58. 11a I started at LATA but gave up long before I reached LUTZ – just as well as I wouldn’t have known that it was right if I had persevered.
    16a had to be right though I think “home” for sett is too general and I didn’t know “deserted” could be abbreviated as “d”.
    21a I didn’t like the definition but I was wrong. Chambers defines “riot” as “wild revelry, debauchery”.
    7d Andrew is right but I’ve seen a lot worse get by without comment.
    I enjoyed this. Thanks to Maskarade and Andrew.

  59. I too recall the crossword referred to by muffin et al but I cannot believe 25 years have passed since.

    Until now, I never realised that the answers in the grid were in their respective positions though.

  60. Sorry for all those who found it a bit too easy. Spare a thought for those numpties like me, who are only too pleased to finish one occasionally. Funnily enough Abigail was a write-in for me as, apart from having a grand daughter so named,I remembered a literary reference in a book by Robert Neill (of Mist Over Pendle). In his Moon in Scorpio there is a passage, ” ‘I still don’t know her name…I’d guess it to be Abigail’ …for Abigail was generic for ladies’ maids…for those of the less reputable sort…” As for the comments about ‘setts’, I’d missed the badger connection and seen the granite setts that were used to cobble the roads.

  61. Did this crossword on the train to Norwich (from where I just returned [hence my late comment; didn’t want to annoy others with my Internet needs]) and found it, like most of you, quite easy (apart from LUTZ and MOPOKES which didn’t ring any bells).

    I think, people should realise that the Bank Holiday creators of Tom Johnson are very different personas compared to his 15×15 equivalents in the FT and here.

    Everything has been said so far (with Ted @54 addressing two of my (minor) issues).

    However, nobody – unless I did not read the comments well enough – mentioned the double use of ‘spilt’ as an anagram indicator (5d, 25d).

    Many thanks to Andrew for the blog & Maskarade for making Greater Anglia’s recurring delays (when going east) more bearable.

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