Guardian Cryptic 27,760 by Paul

by

A slow solve, with a few of the longer clues holding out for a while but being very gettable in the end [with a little general knowledge]. Favourites were 12ac, 14ac, and 8dn/16ac.

There are mentions of the Conservatives / the Government in a few of the clues, but I can’t spot any further connections.

Across
1 CARBINE Container in mind for rifle (7)
BIN=”Container” in CARE=”mind”
5 FADDISH Put in angle — in briefly? (7)
“in” meaning fashionable
ADD=”Put” inside FISH=”angle”
10 LYRA Star group written about in contemporary literature (4)
LYRA is a constellation of stars
Hidden/”written” and reversed/”about” in contemporARY Literature
11 SNAPDRAGON Sudden pain working for plant (10)
SNAP=”Sudden” as in ‘snap election’ + DRAG=something tiresome=”pain” + ON=”working”
12 LINEAR Some criminal, in earnest, going straight (6)
Hidden/”Some” in criminaL IN EARnest
13 DAINTILY In a particular way, maybe the Guardian’s saved in time (8)
DAILY=”maybe the Guardian” around IN + T (time)
14 READY MEAL Leader May frantic — something cooked up in advance (5,4)
(Leader May)*
16   See 8
17 OVINE Grapes not available then? Fleeced? (5)
OVINE meaning ‘like a sheep’
O VINE=zero vine=”Grapes not available then?”
19 BUS TICKET Minute error initially in damaged travel pass (3,6)
TICK=small amount of time=”Minute” + initial letter of Error; all inside BUST=”damaged”
23 PRATFALL Embarrassing blunder by black­guard, fellow punching bore (8)
RAT=”blackguard” + F (fellow); both inside PALL=become less appealing=”bore”
24, 29 ANDREA LEADSOM  Tory with top story thus appearing in many papers (6,7)
=Conservative politician, current Leader of the House of Commons
AND=”with”, plus all of: LEAD=”top story” + SO=”thus”, both inside REAM=”many papers”
26 GALLIC ACID Article secured by French detectives — for a tanner? (6,4)
Gallic Acid [wiki] is a type of tannin used to make leather
A=”Article” inside: GALLIC=”French” + CID=”detectives”=Criminal Investigation Department
27 TOTE Ferry terminal in Felixstowe has shot ahead (4)
TOTE=transport around=”Ferry”
last letter/”terminal” in FelixstowE, with TOT=”shot [of e.g. whisky]” ahead of it
28 PENALTY Sentence perhaps key, last of many by writer (7)
ALT=”perhaps key [on a computer keyboard]” + last letter of manY; all next to PEN=”writer”
29   See 24
Down
2 ANYTIME No matter when, party in the end consumed by self-loathing? (7)
end of partY inside ANTI-ME=”self-loathing?”
3, 6 BRACE AND BIT Ridiculously bad cabinet minister ultimately a boring tool (5,3,3)
=a tool used to drill or bore holes into wood [wiki]
(bad cabinet r)*, where the r is the last/ultimate letter of minister
4 NOSTRUM Hypothetical solution to sum never extremely diabolical (7)
=a fanciful suggested remedy
(to sum nr)*, where nr is from the extremes of never
6   See 3
7 DIASTOLIC I slid coat off, relaxed after being pumped up? (9)
=referring to the part of the cardiac cycle where the heart is at rest between beats
(I slid coat)*
8, 16 SPOILER ALERT Tories all repent, not half floundering — look away, if you don’t want to know! (7,5)
(tories all rep)*, where rep=”repent not half”
9 SANDRA BULLOCK Player catching a target with smooth stone (6,7)
“Player” meaning actor
A BULL=”a target” caught inside: SAND=”smooth” + ROCK=”stone”
15, 18 DONATELLA VERSACE ‘Dress in a state’, declares expert fashion designer (9,7)
DON=”Dress in” + A + TELL=”state” + AVERS=”declares” + ACE=”expert”
18   See 15
20 TWADDLE Balls move from side to side after Tottenham taking the lead? (7)
=nonsense
WADDLE=”move from side to side” after T for Tottenham
21 ELECTRO Creole tune originally played as synthesised music (7)
(Creole t)*, where t is from tune
22 LANCET Awfully clean on top of table, surgeon’s knife (6)
(clean)* + Table
25 DATED Were a couple old-fashioned? (5)
double definition

58 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,760 by Paul”

  1. Thanks Paul and manehi

    I found this a bit repetitive. My first two in were hiddens, then there were a lot of anagrams, particularly ones with an extra letter from another word. There were also a lot of “guess the answer, then try to parse” ones.

    I didn’t have a good start, entering EARLY MADE for 14a. I wasn’t entirely happy with it, but it nearly works!

    Favourites were OVINE and BUS TICKET ( for the “minute” misdirection).

  2. Thanks for the explanations manehi. I solved this largely by definitions without understanding all the wordplays.
    Makes sense now though.

  3. The clues containing UK place names (27a Felixstowe and 20a Tottenham) put me off a bit, until I realised that local knowledge was not required to solve them. However this was, in the end, a dnf for me, as I didn’t know ANDREA LEADSOM (24 29a). I am not complaining, as I like learning more about the context for the setting and publication of the Guardian puzzles. A bit embarrassing though, given she is a leader in the Commons: I do follow some of your politics via the Guardian feed. I also needed the blog to fully parse DONATELLA VERSACE at 15 18d.

    The rest of the puzzle was a slow but steady solve, although 24 29a GARLIC ACID was a guess and a biff.

    I also liked 8 16d SPOILER ALERT, manehi, as well as 11a SNAPDRAGON, and 19a BUS TICKET for the same reasons as muffin@1.

    With thanks  to Paul and manehi.

  4. A strange mixture – including the three ladies – I wonder how they’d get on if they met outside a crossword!  Not quite as much fun as most Paul crosswords  I did like the BUS TICKET

    Thanks to setter and blogger

     

  6. Thanks manehi – needed your parsing help for a couple here (eg 15,18)

    Favorite was the original and simple OVINE

  7. Brain depressingly wading-thru-tar-like today for some reason, not helped by bunging in ready made at 14; muffin’s biff at least had the right contents. Can both pall and bore be in/transitive? “Paul’s puzzles never bore/pall”? Works I spose. Brace and bit might be hard for post-boomers. Terribly slow to get spoiler alert, ditto dated; ditto the fashionista..too many bits of Lego; not hard, just that sort of day…weather muggy, rain tomorrow. Thanks Paul and Manehi.

  9. Nope, not much joy with this, this morning. I agree with George@5, I’m normally a great admirer of Paul’s puzzles. But this definitely wasn’t one of his better ones…

  10. No I gotta give Paul Ms Versace which I did get, and Ms Bullock which I didn’t. Thankyou manehi.

  13. I had such a different experience. I loved it. Surely it was supposed to be anagram rich. There were even a number that looked like being anagrams but turned out not to be.

  14. I was thinking the same as crypticsue @4 – not much in common, apart from all being women.

    Some nice Paulian touches; I ticked TWADDLE, SPOILER ALERT and ANYTIME.

    Thanks Paul and manehi, especially for unpicking the designer.

     

  17. muffin@1 I too had EARLY MADE at first!

    Not my favourite from Paul-needed a couple more gags to lighten the load. 20 had me thinking of HODDLE for some reason.A friend had a cat he called ODDLE.

    Thanks all.

  18. Yes mufin@1 I had EARLY  MADE to begin with. Did any one else try and make a plant out of “sudden pain”? SNAPDRAGON along with CARBINE PENALTY DATED and SPOLIER ALERT were favourites for me. Many of the others were just too much like hard work. I found yesterday’s Vulcan more enjoyable. Of all the setters Paul seems to have the most variety so will please some people all of the time – thanks to him and manehi for doing the parsing work I couldn’t be bothered to. If I were a blogger I’d quail with anticipation as to which Paul had turned up.

  20. Yeah bit of a trudge this; never quite seemed to flow. A few gems along the way though. Ovine and twaddle – love those words. And snapdragons are welcome any time! Anagram of ANTIRRHINUM anyone…?
    Thanks Paul and Manehi

  22. Some were hard that should not have been (linear was slow to come to me) and others were easy but hard to parse or check off the letters (the names and “spoiler alert” for example. 20dn put me off a bit – “Tottenham taking the lead” to me gives “ottenham” or, perhaps, “purs”. I can see it’s ambiguous but, like climate change and other areas where there are two opinions, they are not necessarily equal in weight and “T” here seems to me to be the much less obvious interpretation.

    “Ovine” was fun once I put the tea tray down and reached for the aspirin, though I have memories of a similar construction recently. Much to like here and a few little niggles. A little too GK for my taste with the mini-theme of tories OK for those of us in the UK. Probably a coincidence but gallic acid is also used in blueprints. If snapdragons were primarily blue I’d say the theme was a little more “developed” but I suspect there’s nothing more to the blueness, sadly.

    Thanks Manehi, and Paul.

  23. Hard going but good fun with the choicest clues already mentioned above

    Was hoping Grayling would appear as the ridiculously bad cabinet minister and being Paul was expecting balls to involve gonads, cobblers or nadgers.

    Thanks as ever to both

  24. Limping in slowing on this one.  Didn’t know any of the proper names, alas. and resorted to google.

    Didn’t like TOTE for ferry.  Guessed GALLIC ACID:

    Quite a few were tricky to parse.  Thank heavens for this site!

    Thanks to Paul and manehi.

  26. Thanks to Paul and manehi. No surprises here, normally I do well with Paul’s puzzle, but this one felt like wading through treacle. A DNF for me because I could not see 5a for the life of me. Hey ho got to fail once in a while otherwise there would be no real challenge. Too many names for me, though I did manage to get them. I was held up by penciling in an unparsed formic acid for 26, but Ms Versace sorted that out. Never heard of pratfall, but easy enough to work out. I am another fan of twaddle, ovine and bus ticket and thanks again to Paul and manehi.

  27. No problems with the GK, but this still took me ages (not unusual for Paul these days). A few entertaining clues, but overall a bit of a struggle.

    Thanks to Paul and manehi

  28. Thanks to Paul and manehi. I’m another who found this one a tough slog. I did not know ANDREA LEADSOM, GALLIC ACID, the phrase READY MEAL, or the first name of Ms VERSACE though I did eventually piece them out.

  29. Paul used to be my favourite setter, reminiscent of the sorely missed Araucaria, but his increasing pedantry of late has relegated him to last place. The guess first and parse later approach is contrary to what I have always felt was the spirit of cryptic crosswords.

  30. A bit too tough for me (and, indeed, two of the three women defeated me, and Sandra took way too long). But still enjoyable! I chipped away all day, in between pieces of work and I managed to answer most clues. Although in many cases the parsing came after the answer, I felt in general it was fairly clued and fun for the most part.

    Thanks to Paul and manehi

  31. Thanks both,

    The relatively few comments by this hour indicate that this was a tough one although there was much to like. A dnf as I gave up on 5 and 11.

    I expected some pedant to raise the question of whether a carbine a rifle. Nobody has, so I suppose the pedant has to be me. OED does not define ‘carbine’ using the word ‘rifle’ and Wikipedia says that carbines have shorter barrels than rifles. The distinction I expected to see was that carbines had smooth bores and rifles were, er, rifled ie had spiral grooves down the barrels, but it appears that carbines may now be rifled.

  32. Tyngewick @31

    The OED might not use the term ‘rifle’ but other recognised references do:

    ODE
    A light automatic rifle.
    historical: A short rifle or musket used by cavalry.

    Collins
    A light automatic or semiautomatic rifle of limited range
    A light short-barrelled shoulder rifle formerly used by cavalry

    Chambers
    A short light rifle

  33. I thought this was a quite typical Paul from the difficulty standpoint.
    I really struggled with FADDISH, not helped by the bizarre surface. I liked the three lady clues.
    If only the first part of 8/16 were true!
    Thanks, M and P

  34. I’m relieved not to be the only one who didn’t know about Andrea Leadsom. I think of myself as tolerably knowledgeable about UK politics, for a non-resident, and she appears to be quite a high-ranking member of the government, so I think that I really should have heard of her.

     

  35. Muffin @ 16. I meant it seemed to have been a conscious decision on Paul’s part, and misdirecting us was part of the fun he was having with us. I enjoyed in those terms anyway.

  36. Am I the only one who doesn’t care for BUST from “damaged”? Tense disagreement here: Should be BUSTED… (or “damage”)

  37. xjpotter @35

    Thanks for getting back. I see what you mean, but there were still too many anagrams for my taste.

  38. We did three quarters and then I resorted to the crosswordhelp.org website and check button. I had to give up and use this site for Andrea Leadsom and faddish. Sandra Bullock was a challenge to work out too. I guess practice might make me improve? Hope so.

  39. Thanks to Paul and manehi.

    Not for this Goldilocks – might have enjoyed it if I’d had more time – but no, I’m only popping in to beef about “player”= SANDRA BULLOCK: it’s a long way from “player” to “actor” (why not a footballer, a violinist, a stock market contortionist, cigarette etc?) and a specific actor via crossers proffered by, to me, rather impenetrable clues.  And “put”=”ADD” – in a sentence anyone? And so forth.  Actually on reflection glad I didn’t have too much time to give this one.  And I’m a Pauline. [That looks strange, but you know what I mean]

    Mustn’t grumble….

  40. glenn @ 36

    “I dropped my teapot, and it’s bust”.

    BUSTED has a whole other connotation for some…

  41. glenn@36

    “This thing is bust” works for me – not sure my father would have bought it, he would have been a “busted” too.

  42. ….I think most people would say “broken”, though “bust” seems more natural than “busted”.

  43. Ted @34 I’d be relieved NOT to know about Leadsom.

    Anyway. I had thought I was on Paul’s wavelength. Off to lick my wounds!

  44. [I wonder how many contributors here think that May and her government are doing a good job? Silly question, really!]

  45. Abandoned this this afternoon and returned to it while cooking dinner and finished it- the pre prandial home brew probably helped – not without difficulty though. I wish I could say that ANDREA LEADSOM wasn’t one of my favourites but, odious women though she is,it was.
    Thanks Paul.

  46. Alphalpha@39

    And “put”=”ADD” – in a sentence anyone? 

    I add/put in a teaspoon of sugar to this mixture.

  47. For the second time in a week I’m disagreeing with everyone. To me this seemed like a return to the old Paul we know and love.  I thought there were several clever clues – my favorite ANYTIME as well as DONATELLA, DIASTOLIC, LINEAR, etc.

    I failed on only three answers: TOTE, FADDISH (what’s wrong with me that I didn’t automatically think angle = fish?) and I’ve never heard of Andrea Leadsom, of course.

  48. Feel a bit out-of-tune today as really enjoyed this – took a bit of solving (three sessions) but got there in the end.  Certainly nothing that defied the laws of crossword-land in my view.  Good fun – particularly enjoyed 17a and 8d/16a.  Helpful that Chris Waddle played for Spurs which further rounded the clue for me.  Thanks Paul and manehi.

  49. alphalpha @39 The word “player” is a Renaissance word specifically for actor. A troupe of actors is often called “The [insert name of sponsor] Players” or some such. My old college drama society was so named, for example. I agree it could mean many things, but it is very strongly linked to acting at least.

  50. Late to this after a long day working, but hoped that someone might have noticed re 20d that Chris Waddle was once a Spurs player (and I’m a Gooner..)

  51. Also arriving here late in the workday.  The holdup for me was parsing TOTE and BUS TICKET (my LOI and POI, respectively).  I didn’t know, or perhaps simply didn’t remember, TOT as a shot of liquor.  I also didn’t know, and needed a Google search to solve, ANDREA LEADSOM.  I thought “0 VINE” and “ANTI-ME” were both pretty amusing.  Other favorites included SPOILER ALERT and BRACE AND BIT, my CotD for its wordplay and amusing surface.

    Many thanks to Paul and manehi and the other commenters.

  52. I agree wholeheartedly with George C @5.

    This was like wading through treacle. Not a lot of fun. Obviously the Ed doesn’t agree. (that’s if he has an opinion at all! 😉 )

  53. phitonelly@46

    Yes, but ADD is replaced by “put in” and that’s my problem

    thezed@49

    No argument, it’s just that there are so many types of “player” that a clue of this profundity needs to indicate the actor parish less obliquely imho.

  55. Hi – Paul from the Guardian cryptic crossword here. Thanks always for your comments. Always nice to be priased, and good to know also when I need to Paul my cryptic socks up! 🙂 I am running a course on How to solve cryptics in London, March 24. While it is for non-solvers, if you can already do cryptics, there is a 2-for-1 offer to bring a non-solving friend with whom you’ve always wanted to share the solving fun you have. Here’s a link. Thanks! start-being-cryptic-5-with-john-halpern-aka-paul-in-the-guardian-tickets-55640456102

  57. In a busy week I put this by and have only just completed it. Frustrating is the word. So many not-quite synonyms- e.g. snap. drag, bull etc. Three proper names defined by “Tory”, “player”, “designer” with no qualification. I was sorry I kept it. Thank goodness for Azed.

  58. We do this in the Guardian Weekly, hence the delay. Really struggled to finish it, but finally got there and could come to fifteensquared to see how others did. Understand the grumpiness but don’t agree with it: some of the clues were very difficult indeed but seem to be perfectly valid. Last ones in were FADDISH, SPOILER ALERT and TOTE. Thanks, Paul and manehi. Keep up the good work!

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