Guardian Cryptic 27,774 by Paul

by

A slow, difficult, and satisfying solve. Favourites were 17ac, 1dn, 3dn, 7dn, and 22dn. Thanks to Paul.

Across
8 CAVALIER Casual unpacking of last of clothes from case in vehicle (8)
last letter of clothes removed from VALISE=”case”; inside CAR=”vehicle”
9 OZONE Area on the backside of egg layer? (5)
ZONE=”Area”, after O=egg-shaped letter=”egg”
10   See 24 down
11 SIDE ORDERS Vicious destruction of red rose for extra table? (4,6)
SID Vicious the punk rock star [wiki] + (red rose)*
12 GERBIL Desert rat free, according to the Spanish generals, initially taken aback (6)
LIBRE=”free” in Spanish + G=”generals, initially”; all reversed/”taken aback”
14, 24 WHO DARES WINS Hip bandaged, he was given sword wound — it’s worth taking the risk (3,5,4)
IN=trendy=”Hip”, inside/”bandaged” with: (he was sword)*
“wound” is the anagram indicator, as the past tense of the verb ‘wind’
15 STRAFED Attacked from the air, farmhouse completely gutted, missiles sent over to claim it (7)
FarmhousE “gutted” with its insides removed; inside DARTS=”missiles” reversed/”sent over”
17 CYANIDE Killer dog biting equerry’s rear with energy (7)
CANID=”dog” around equerrY‘s rear letter, + E (energy)
20 HITHERTO Before success, star admitting close to bankrupt (8)
HIT=”success” + HERO=”star” around the closing letter of bankrupT
22 SHREWD Clever bit: wife’s seen through it (6)
SHRED=small part=”bit”, with W (wife) inside
23 MICROSCOPE Observing instrument, romantic composer embracing one with first of concerti (10)
(composer)* around: I=”one” + first letter of Concerti
“romantic” as the anagram indicator, roughly like ‘fanciful’
24   See 14
25 TANGA Underwear a nipper rejected (5)
TANGA=a type of briefs, often as bikini bottoms
A GNAT=”a nipper” reversed/”rejected”
26 TAMARISK River is close to oak tree (8)
=a tree also known as the salt cedar
TAMAR=”River” between Devon and Cornwall + IS + closing letter of oaK
Down
1 TASHKENT Capital growth faced by a postpubescent Superman (8)
=Capital of Uzbekistan
TASH=moustache=facial hair or “growth faced by a postpubescent”; plus Clark KENT=”Superman”
2 RAMP Plane that’s inclined to get hit, given minimum of protection (4)
RAM=”hit” + “minimum” or ‘only one letter’ of Protection
3 TINSEL Decoration stocked by department in Selfridges (6)
hidden in departmenT IN SELfridges
4 PRE-DAWN Shade reserved by man, while still dark (3-4)
RED=”Shade”, inside PAWN=chess piece=”man”
5 TOPOLOGY Form studied in this equestrian sport good, in play (8)
=mathematical study involving the properties of spaces and shapes
POLO=”equestrian sport” + G (good); all inside TOY=”play”
6 CORDWAINER Old shoemaker in business with change in drawer (10)
CO (company)=”business” + (in drawer)*
7 GEORGE Stuff written about Edward’s crown in the king’s name? (6)
GORGE=eat too much=”Stuff”; around the crown or top/first letter of Edward
13 BLATHERING Turner entertained by escort’s prattle (10)
LATHE=a rotating tool=”Turner”, inside BRING=”escort”
16 EUROSTAR Transport service on track, tours are derailed (8)
(tours are)*
18 DEWINESS Selection of homemade wines showing a sparkling quality on the surface? (8)
=the quality of being dewy
Hidden in homemaDE WINES Showing
19 GO FORTH Advance payments finally withdrawn from Newcastle area (2,5)
final letter of payments removed from GOsFORTH=”Newcastle area”
21 IDIOTS Halfwits find bit of test oddly lacking (6)
odd letters removed from fInD bIt Of TeSt
22 STEAMY Second cuppa, well hot! (6)
S (second) + TEA=”cuppa” + MY=surprised interjection=”well”
24, 10 WORKSHOP Group studying hotel in Nottinghamshire town (8)
H (hotel) in WORKSOP=”Nottinghamshire town”

52 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,774 by Paul”

  1. Thanks Paul and manehi

    Difficult. Too many “guess the answer (or use a word search!) then try to parse” (and fail to in the cases of 11, 23 and 21).

    I don’t see the definition in 11 either – why is SIDE ORDERS ” extra table”?

    I was particularly irritated by OZONE. It’s a gas, not a “layer”. The “ozone layer” is a layer.

    I did like CYANIDE and DEWINESS.

    CORDWAINER reminded me of one of my favourite SF authors.

  2. An enjoyable battle was had – and the boss is very chuffed because he managed to solve a clue on his own while looking over my shoulder!!

    Thanks to Paul and manehi

  3. muffin@1 I see you are using the LATTE argument against OZONE.Except LATTE is in Chambers as a coffee(shame on them!). And OZONE is not listed as a layer (or hole)….YET

    So-I cant argue with you there!

    I liked CORDWAINER and CAVALIER

    Thanks Paul and manahi

  5. 23a, is “romantic” acting as the anagram indicator? I don’t think I’ve seen that before.

  6. @muffin, agreed on the def for 11

    @Geoff Cleasby – I was just editing a note on that into the blog. “romantic” is roughly close to ‘fanciful’, or even ‘passionate’/’thrilling’/’exciting’

  7. Thanks both.

    As always with this setter., I found it enjoyable. Favourites were HITHERTO and WHO DARES WINS, among others.  I had no problem with OZONE, because the question mark seemed to indicate a loose definition.

    However, unusually for a Paul, there were some I didn’t like much. I share others’ doubts about SIDE ORDERS; in TANGA, to me a gnat bites rather than nips; and ‘romantic’ as an anagram indicator in MICROSCOPE was poor even by the low standards often seen these days.

     

     

  9. The tricky little north-east corner had me struggling for a while. Clever misdirection for ozone and George..

  10. Slow and steady for us – and worth the effort for a satisfying solve. DEWINESS was a gem – both me and MrsW said “what’s DE-WINESS?” before the penny dropped. Lots more to like, especially the postpubescent Superman :-). CORDWAINER is an evocative word and a serendipitous connection to the recent Crispin references. OZONE not being a layer strictly speaking didn’t occur to me and I needed wordsearch for loi HITHERTO. Overall Paul on top form in my book – thanks to him and manehi.

  11. How strange – after my comment last week about finding Paul increasingly more difficult, I thought this was much easier, unlike most solvers so far, it seems.

    Thanks manehi  and Paul

     

  12. Great stuff – I loved the tussle.  Who wants an easy solve?  I agree a liberty has been taken with 11ac – extras for the table is clearly what is meant but does not read well.  Who cares?  Why not just forgive it? It was clever and relatively easily gettable.  I particularly liked 1 down – especially as “tash” is a diminutive – just a mini version – so just what you get on a pre-pubescent.  Paul, your work is life-enhancing.  Thanks so much.  Thanks also Manehi for a masterful explication.

  13. copmus @3

    Yes. It would be rather like using “cucumber” to define SEA, as “sea cucumber” is a valid expression 🙂

  15. I was unable to parse 19d – I am not familiar with that “area”.

    New for me were STRAFED, Worksop for 24/10 (thank you, google), STASH = moustache, TANGA.

    My favourite was CAVALIER.

    Thank you Paul and manehi.

  17. Brain glue continued from yesterday, failed in the NW, cheating to get Tashkent (cute clue), and taking ages to bring myself to enter pre dawn, which needs a hyphen I reckon. Slow also to get shrewd for some reason, failing to parse vali[s]e in car, and going ‘Worksop a town, shurely not’, but there it was. And ditto ignorance of Gosforth, hence had go north. Oh well, not a great effort but sort of enjoyed the chew nonetheless. Ta Paul and Manehi.

  18. Thanks for a great blog, manehi and Paul for an enjoyable tussle.

    I liked all manehi’s favourites and also CAVALIER and BLATHERING: it seems ages since we had turner = lathe – it used to crop up all the time. I smiled at the Vicious destruction and what for me was a double-bluff in ‘desert rat’ as the definition in 12ac. I was sure it must be a lift and separate.

    Like WhiteKing, I wasn’t at all put out by OZONE – nor SIDE ORDERS: ‘table’ is a general term for food [‘she keeps a good table’] and SIDE ORDERS are additional to the main menu.

     

     

     

  19. RH @16

    I think it works:

    Let me escort/bring you to the dinner party.

    or

    He escorted/brought her to the ball.

    * I have to admit that I liked SIDE ORDERS but now I do not exactly see how it works, unless extra table = side orders (of dishes).

     

  21. Thanks manehi.

    All a bit loose for my taste.  Similar quibbles to those of muffin @1.

    By the time I reached the ones I did like, (GEORGE, DEWINESS, GO FORTH etc) I was feeling too liverish to afford them ticks, which is a shame.

    Nice week, all.

  22. A struggle for sure, but mostly a worthwhile one. Like others, I didn’t really like “side orders” but was less bothered by layer as it’s “layer?” The (usually easy) run-ons were well disguised I thought, but bit by bit crossers helped uncover each part of the crossword as I wound round NW, SW, SE, NE. The grid construction really helped!

    A few comments – why is the farmhouse “completely gutted” and not just “gutted”? I was trying to get “cy” in there for a while as that is “completely gutted”. I liked the hidden definition in “hitherto” – these clever short definitions which appear to be part of the clue always appeal to my sense of humour. Tanga and tamarisk were new to me but both gettable once some crossers were in. 6dn also reminded me of Cordwainer Smith, like muffin @1. The construction in 13dn is one that annoys me – escort is used as a verb (bring) so “escort’s” cannot be a possessive. When this comes up the reply is usually “read it as ‘escort is'” but that still requires a noun. Here we could take the entire phrase “turner entertained by escort” is prattle but can one legitimately put an apostrophe after the last word in a noun phrase like that? It seems like it works on the surface but it just doesn’t quite add up for me. Maybe it’s because I was trying to squeeze “ike” or “tina” into the answer for too long and got frustrated 🙂

    Gosforth and Worksop were a bit harsh I thought – even as a native of the UK I could not have told you what county those towns were in so foreign solvers would be really struggling I fear. However, I (along with many others I suspect) was pleased to see that “second cuppa” did not equate to “u”…light the blue touch paper and stand well back!

  23. Nice puzzle, though I was a bit slow getting started.

    Like others, not very happy with definition of SIDE ORDERS.

    Nice to see a bit of Spanish.  And I only knew from French.

    Had to use the maps of Mr Google for the Gosforth and Worksop clues.

    Thanks Paul and manehi.

  25. [Rugby followers of a certain age might remember that Gosforth Rugby Club gave rise to Newcastle Falcons, in a split that leaves the Gosforth club still in existence.]

  26. Always pleasing to see a Paul xword. Amazing what lies around in the brain, so that cordwainer can leap out from goodness knows where when it is required.Dewiness very neat. Tanga not known in the antipodes, so held back progress, and ozone a quibble – not easy to get from layer to a gas. Re English geography, Winsop easier to spot in Notts in an atlas, but what chance against the sea of place names around Newcastle?

  27. Ditto chinoz re cordwainer, just jumped out of the clue bits from goddess knows where, no memory of its last occurrence, nada.

  29. I dunno about anyone else, but I often find parsing Paul’s clues is more difficult than solving anyone else’s!

  30. Interesting discussion about layer. If one takes layer as a category name, then any type of layer such as OZONE might be included, although they are obviously not synonyms. Likewise, dog could mean sausage, although again not synonyms (you couldn’t say “I see a sausage walking along the street.”) I see OZONE is given in Bradford’s under layer … It all depends on whether it is considered fair game to include varied members of a category that are not synonyms. Bradford’s also gives sea-slug under cucumber.

    I found this hard but enjoyable and as a Brit I had to check Worksop and Gosforth for their situations.

    I liked the postpubescent growth, BLATHERING and DEWINESS.

     

  31. Maybe it’s because I’m attuned to Paul’s wavelength, but I didn’t find this one slow. However, I agree with doubts about “extra table” – a side order is surely an extra plate on the same table. I suppose biting gnats do “nip” before sucking blood, but I was looking for crabs and the like. I still enjoyed it though. Thanks to Paul & manehi. And happy Supermoon to everyone.

     

  32. Thanks to Paul and Manehi. I failed to get TOPOLOGY (extremely loose definition to this mathematician’s eye), CORDWAINER (had forgotten about that word), and GEORGE (no excuse for that one). For a change, however, I was able to parse everything before coming to 15^2. I was able to get GO FORTH and WORKSHOP from crossers and wordplay, although I did go to Google to confirm the existence of both places. Overall enjoyable, if not successful.

  33. re 6d

    I had coin for ‘change’ and drawer, overlooking ‘co’ for business, still worked but for wrong reasons.

    Thanks to Paul and Manehi

  34. Thanks to Paul and manehi. I am in the tough but enjoyable camp on this. Typical solve of a Paul puzzle for me, little on first couple of passes, but unfolded with time. I did find the bottom half easier than the top half. At half way I had virtually all the bottom and virtually nothing in the top. Last ones for me Tashkent, ozone, and topology. Favourite clues were same as manehi plus Eileen’s, though I also liked who dares wins. Thanks again to Paul and manehi.

  35. Thanks to Manehi and Paul

    Some good fun to be had here but I can see why some of the “looseness” doesn’t agree with everyone.

    I notice that three of the four puzzles blogged today are his, so perhaps he is a little stretched himself.

    Thanks setter but rest up shortly, I would.

  37. For me this was was third in an unusually tough consecutive trio, Boatman-Tramp-Paul, after a correspondingly rapid Vulcan on Monday – they more often come in ones or twos. Who and what will Friday bring? My only quibble today was with Side Orders, as articulated by several others above; excellent puzzle overall, like Tramp’s. Thanks to Paul, as well as belatedly to him. And to manehi for a hard-working blog.

  38. Difficult for me and completed using the same process as muffin @1. But as it’s the first Paul I’ve ever completed (most abandoned with very few solved) I’m feeling pretty good. And I really liked most of the clues. Pleased to get (and parse upfront!) TASHKENT. Liked CAVALIER due to link to car (for non-UK readers, it was a model of Vauxhall saloon – a GM brand in UK).

    Thanks to Paul and manehi.

  39. Wish I’d had more time, for yes this was Paul at his most fiendish. Had to admit defeat at lunchtime with only half of the clues solved. Usually get there in the end. But not this time.
    Thanks Paul and Manehi

  40. Yes, quite tough. DNF for me too, with GEORGE just not emerging from the mists. I don’t think I’ve ever seen CORDWAINER. I looked up COWDRAINER in Collins instead. Unfortunately, CORDWAINER was the first word in the “Did you mean… list”!
    Liked CYANIDE, TAMARISK and TASHKENT.
    Good puzzle. Thanks, Paul and manehi

  42. I started quite well with this CORDWAINER,TASHKENT and SIDE ORDERS. Unlike others,I didn’t see a problem with the latter. Then I got into difficulties which were not much alleviated by suddenly seeing TAMARISK and WORKSHOP.TOPOLOGY was a guess and I couldn’t get RAMP.
    I didn’t do justice to this at all.
    Sorry Paul.

  43. As a Kenyan, had no problem getting WORKSHOP as l’ve come across WORKSOP in several cryptics in the past. As for GO FORTH, got it from ‘advanced’ as l ‘ve never heard of the place. LOI PRE-DAWN.

  44. I can kind of see the gripe with ozone, but it’s not like it’s chucked around that often without “layer” attached. One of my bête noire is people using adjectives without the nouns  (“balsamic” for the vinegar, “cling” for the film – I watch too many cookery programs, basically), but at least with “ozone” there’s a massive likelihood that the next word is “layer”. If it’s not used on it’s own, I can’t think of anything else that would follow it.

  45. Thought this was very enjoyable and must have been on Paul’s wavelength today (not always the case) as not too much of a struggle.  Made much heavier work of Tramp yesterday.  Thought TASHKENT was excellent – one of the joys of this pastime is that certain words/names will never be seen in the same way again!  MarkN@44 – the word following “ozone”, if not layer, could be depletion!  Many thanks to Paul and manehi.

  46. Yes, this one took me an inordinately long time. Thanks for the challenge, Paul, and the learning along the way (25a TANGA, 6d CORDWAINER, GOsFORTH in 19d, WORKSOP as fodder for WORKSHOP 24d10a). (As several others said, UK place names like the latter two can be a bit tricky – I’m not complaining, just learning/expanding my horizons, as I said.) I really needed and appreciated the blog to parse half a dozen biffs, manehi. Mightily embarrassed that I didn’t see SID Vicious in 11a, even though I wrote out the rest of the anagram of “red rose” in the margin, and circled the “SID” part with a question mark. D’oh! Thanks also to other posters for adding to my understanding of several clues.

  47. I found this as challenging as yesterday’s Tramp and just as enjoyable. I liked TASHKENT most of all. The only thing that jarred a bit was ‘romantic’ as an anagrind in MICROSCOPE.

    Thanks to Paul and manehi.

  48. Reading Julie’s comment @46 has reminded me that I meant to highlight SIDE ORDERS as another favourite. (I’m only sorry that she was unlucky enough to miss the SID connection!)

  49. Ozone for layer is not the same as sausage for dog or sea for cucumber. The ozone layer is a layer of ozone, so ozone is an adequate description of one particular type of layer.

  50. Why wasn’t this filed as a Prize entry? For me, it’s a 2-day solve – except that I had to check and reveal by midnight, so I could go on to today’s offering.  Even though I’m a Midlandser now living in Newcastle, there were few gimmes in the first run-through.  Paul never fails to challenge and delight in equal measure – and thanks to manehi for a super blog.

  51. late to the party but I cavalierly typed in GO SOUTH for 19a (apropos withdrawing from Newcastle).  thanks for the clarification!

  52. I appreciate that we all solve differently – one man’s meat and all that. But really – yet again, 225 peppered with negligible (or worse, baseless) quibbles. No names mentioned, but one of our regular early commenters seems to be fixated on his pet hobby of nitpicking – even when there are no nits about! I used to enjoy visiting fifteensquared so much more – it seemed to be generally more erudite – but now it seems that early commenters set a tone that others follow.
    Anyway, in case Paul should look in (little other point in my posting this late!) here’s my take:
    This was not Paul at his most difficult whatever others may feel. Not particularly tough, in my opinion, but VERY enjoyable. I’ve said it before but I never cease to be amazed by the relentless creativity of this genius of a setter. We are so lucky to have him. As for the ‘looseness’ cited by one or two here – well, I didn’t feel it.

    All in all, a typically delightful Paul.

    Many thanks, Paul (also to
    manehi for his generous work).

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