Guardian Cryptic 27,790 by Brummie

by

A quick and enjoyable solve, with plenty of smiles including 12ac, 26ac, 27ac, 15dn, and 17dn. Thanks to Brummie.

An environmental theme connects some of the solutions: CLIMATE + CHANGE; GLOBAL + WARMING; GREENHOUSE + EFFECT; ACID RAIN, BIODIVERSITY, and SSSI.

Across
1 GREYISH Somewhat nondescript old PM and his bats (7)
Charles GREY=”old PM” [wiki] + (his)*
5 CLIMATE Almost cut China’s temperature etc (7)
CLIp=”Almost cut” + MATE=”China” plate in rhyming slang
9 ORFES No help for foresaid coarse fish (5)
an ORFE is a fish
(foresaid)*, minus the letters of ‘aid‘=”help”
10 NON-VOTING Unable to say yea or nay, when one’s left out of ‘no VAT on gin’ scheme (3-6)
(no VAT on gin)*, with I=”one” removed/”left out”
11 ASCENDIBLE Carbon tip in abseil device, suitable for climbers (10)
C (Carbon) + END=”tip”; both inside (abseil)*
12 CROW Boast of seating quite near the stage? (4)
C-ROW might come after A-Row and B-Row as “seating quite near the stage”
14 BIODIVERSITY Nature’s rich mixture: ‘obi’ clued cryptically? (12)
‘obi’ could be clued cryptically as BIODIVERSITY, giving an anagram (bio)*
18 IMMUNE SYSTEM Company-free community seems to break down the corporate defence (6,6)
(community seems)* minus co for “Company”
21 HOLE Large insertion in tool shaft (4)
L (Large) inside HOE=”tool”
22 CROSS-HATCH Transverse cover provides shading (5-5)
CROSS=”Transverse” + HATCH=”cover”
25 RECESSION Rest of MPs no one backs, leading to decline (9)
RECESS=vacation period for Parliament=”Rest of MPs”; plus NO + I=”one” all reversed/”backs”
26 UNION What might call on you to strike a match (5)
double definition: =a worker’s union that might call a strike; or =a paired couple
27 WARMING Wife preparing for a fight: ‘Like a bowl of hot soup?‘ (7)
W (Wife) + ARMING=”preparing for a fight”
28 PLEDGEE One given an assurance: ‘Step into the extremes of pleasure’ (7)
LEDGE=”Step” in the extreme letters of PleasurE
Down
1 GLOBAL Reconfigure a long lab? Not an earthly (6)
(a long lab)*, minus “an“
2 EFFECT Swear euphemistically etc to redistribute produce (6)
EFF=abbreviated F-word=”Swear euphemistically”; plus (etc)*
3 INSENTIENT Dead popular thought, disposing of male! (10)
IN=”popular” + SENTImENT=”thought” minus m for “male”
4 HANOI Afghan oilfield yielding capital (5)
=capital of Vietnam
hidden in AfgHAN OIlfield
5 CONCLAVES Assemblies left in depressed circumstances ultimately (9)
L (left) in CONCAVE=curved inwards or downwards=”depressed” + the ultimate letter of circumstanceS
6 IRON ‘Advanced’ changed to ‘Old’ by country club (4)
=a type of golf club
IRAN=”country”, changing A for ‘Advanced’ to O for ‘Old’
7 ACID RAIN Cops break into a shower, which makes for a bad atmosphere (4,4)
CID=Central Investigation Department=”Cops”, inside A RAIN=”a shower”
8 EDGEWAYS ‘Advantage’ means ‘lateral‘ (8)
EDGE=”Advantage” + WAYS=”means”
13 GREENHOUSE Unqualified legislative body that covers up bloomers (10)
GREEN=inexperienced=”Unqualified” + HOUSE=”legislative body”
15 DESERVING Worthy undoing a waiter’s work? (9)
DE-SERVING=possibly the reverse of serving=”undoing a waiter’s work?”
16 WITHDRAW Accompanying date naked? Absent yourself! (8)
WITH=”Accompanying” + D (date) + RAW=”naked”
17 SMALL CAR Somehow crams everyone inside this? (5,3)
(crams)*, with ALL=”everyone” inside it
19 STRING Useful for securing Rex in police operation (6)
R (Rex) inside STING=”police operation”
20 CHANGE Some coins are different (6)
double definition
23 SUNUP Dawn‘s body found in drink (5)
UN=United Nations=international organisation/”body”; inside SUP=”drink”
24 SSSI Elevated contribution to Miss Saigon that’s naturally important (4)
=Site of Special Scientific Interest, a type of protected conservation area in the UK [wiki]
hidden reversed inside MISS Saigon

52 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,790 by Brummie”

  1. Enjoyable and a theme even I could spot.

    However, I bet I wasn’t the only person to start off with AXLE in 21a only to find it didn’t work with 16d

    Thanks to Brummie and manehi

  2. Thanks Brummie and manehi

    There’s generally something in a Brummie puzzle to irritate, and there were a few points here. Foremost was 21a, where I had the much better AXLE until I couldn’t find anything to fit 16d. CHANGE doesn’t mean “are different”. CROSS HATCH isn’t “shading” or “provides shading”; it’s “provide shading”.

    I know it’s Guardian policy, but giving SSSI as (4) is silly – it can’t even be pronounced as a word. Nicely defined, though.

    Favourites were DESERVING and SMALL CAR.

  3. Thanks manehi and Brummie.

     

    I spotted the theme towards the end, but derived no help from it. I did wonder if (ozone) HOLE should be included, too

     

    The fodder for NON-VOTING fooled me too; I saw it the way you did, but then realised you had to subtract “a” and not “i”.

     

    Also fooled by 21a at first – I had AXLE which satisfies the clue perfectly.

  4. Thanks both. Quite straightforward, and I saw the theme (admittedly with 2 clues to go!)
    SUNUP as one word seems dodgy – it is in the dictionary, but as a US version of sunrise

  5. We crossed, crypticsue @1.

    To clarify my point on 22a, “shading” or “provides shading” would be “cross-hatching”.

  6. Couldn’t get Orfes or Sssi. Otherwise straightforward enough. The ish in 1ac was a giveaway. Why bats? It made it too obvious. Brummie could have used confusion or somesuch.
    I think ‘are different ‘ for change is ok. Times change.

  7. Had to happen sometime – a theme on global change. News is depressing enough, and disappointing to confront it again in recreational x-wording.

    SSSI not known in the antipodes, and is it even a word? Clue for 10ac non-voting is dropping the ‘a’ for one, the ‘i’ is required. A drear set of clues, but 13d and 15d enjoyed :).

  8. Enjoyed this but also had AXLE. Didn’t know the fish and ASCENDIBLE took ages – thinking was it a mountain, a piece of climbing equipment?

  9. muffin @2:  Re CROSS-HATCH, you may be restricting yourself to the verb, whereas in draughting circles it’s routinely used in the nounal sense.  E.g.  “Your cross-hatch is too dense”.  It may not be correct but it’s certainly in use.

    On the other hand, your AXLE is a much better answer than HOLE and I, too, put a cross next to CHANGE.

    WARMING is my least favourite kind of clue where ‘preparing to fight like a bowl of hot soup’ is simply nonsense.  At the other end of the surface spectrum was CROW which earned a tick.

    Many thanks, both, nice week, all.

  11. Makes a change to see a Tuesday crossword that can be completed so quickly, perhaps because the theme was so obvious that some of the solutions had to be there somewhere. I must admit that I didn’t realise that SUNUP as one word had entered the language, but once the crossers were in place both that and the themed SSSI had to be right.

    Thanks to Brummie and manehi

  12. Thanks Brummie and Manehi. In 7dn CID is “criminal investigation dept” not “central” btw (probably thinking of CIA…)

    Like others, I found the curate’s been in the hen house again. Quite a few write-ins but I really hesitated over SSSI and sunup because they aren’t English words or clued as non-English. I only wrote them in once nothing else would go and the crossers were in place, which is no way to be confident about a crossword. Likewise “change” which I put in dubiously as others have noted. Luckily I guessed hole before axle so was OK there. I also thought 10ac unfair, removing “a” for “one” when there was an “i” present – even though the answer was clear, as a clue it seemed like it needed finishing off better. “crow” was a late one in for me. Has anyone ever said “I’m in C row” rather than “I’m in row C”? Not me for sure.

    Some good anagrams with take-aways, especially “immune system” and “global” and I also liked “union” and “recession” for pretty-much perfect misleading surfaces. “conclaves” took longer than it should’ve and worked well I thought, and “small car” wa sa good &lit.

    A second mini-theme with “withdraw”, “union” and “recession” perhaps?

  13. Seems some people are OK with familiar acronyms (and easily solved clues) but not OK with unfamiliar ones.  UN is a chestnut, for e.g., and drew no adverse comments (such as “silly”) for that reason in 23d.  Presumably the grumbles and irritation derive from not knowing the answer.  How petty.  Are we not overjoyed at being challenged?  Is that not the point of crosswords? I’m amused to note the trends regarding the setters that regular commentators love to love and those they love to hate.  I admire all the Guardian setters.  If only I could do it – set, that is.  My only real reservation in today’s wonderful offering was orfes at 9ac.  I got the fish straight away but thought I must be wrong as one does not normally say “cods” or “plaices” etc.  Haven’t bothered checking as I’m sure it’ll be safe.  Thanks as ever to blogger and setter.

  14. William @9 is surely unfair to 27a, the clue for WARMING, which does make sense. The quotation marks evoke, for me, quite a vivid scenario of an angry wife threatening to use hot soup as an offensive weapon. But quotation marks are arguably overdone here, used for as many as eight phrases or words. 10a, NON-VOTING, also clued via quotation marks, could be added to the mini-theme convincingly noted by thezed @12, since we may or not get another chance to say yea or nay to WITHDRAWAL. Thanks to Brummie for a clever construction and to manehi for doing justice to it.

  15. Agree with chinoz@7 regarding SSSI at 24d. I didn’t get it, so failed at the last hurdle. Yes crypticsue@1 et al, I started with AXLE at 21a. And did anyone else have COLLAR for 19d? (“Useful for securing Rex in police operation”: As I saw it, a collar is useful for securing a dog, Rex is a common dog’s name, and also a possible reference to “Inspector Rex”, the police procedural. Add to this what I have learned from UK police shows, that a “collar’ is an arrest, or a police operation, and I had a great double definition.) So, AXLE and COLLAR were confident solves – but because they were wrong, they really stuffed up the lower half of this puzzle for me.

    Thanks for the timely theme, Brummie, and for my favourite clue C-ROW at 12a. I appreciated the blog, manehi, and the previous comments.

  17. I have to say (as a postscript) that I said “Hear hear!” to TerriBlistow@13 when I read this comment

    I admire all the Guardian setters. If only I could do it – set, that is.

    We get spoiled because our setters keep on creating the most enjoyable challenges for us. I loved last Saturday’s Prize, for instance – it just sparkled for me – and I am sorry if that breaches site policy regarding a “live” puzzle.

    I enjoy each day I can tackle a Guardian puzzle as a new experience and a new opportunity to exercise my less worthy abilities against our very clever setters.

     

  18. Terri @13 I beg to disagree with your analysis here. You say that people have no problem with acronyms such as UN when they are familiar but SSSI was problematic for me for two reasons:

    1) It is not an acronym (and neither is UN for that matter) as it is not pronounced as a word as NATO, NASA or ASCII (or even computer languages like BASIC, COBOL etc) are. So (and I can’t speak for others, but for me) acronyms are fair game as they are effectively words, and often listed as such in dictionaries, as opposed to abbreviations. As it happens, SSSI was perfectly familiar to me but I did not like it as a solution because (as I said) it is not a word.

    2) Our acceptance of UN (and many other abbreviations such as NUS, L for learner, AA etc) is as part of a solution, not as the solution itself. If SSSI had somehow been part of the clue for, I don’t know, “less silly”, then that would be within the bounds of all the normal mechanisms.

    Yes our setters do an amazing job teasing and misleading us and I think very few people here have a problem with things they learned today (or TILTs as they get called, so common they even have a special acronym) unless the GK is thought to be ridiculously obscure or parochial. I know I do – but again I’ll let others speak for themselves.

  19. I’m not really sure that SSSI really adds to the theme of CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, in which case asci or asti could have been used and might not have attracted the negative comments.

    Good entertaining crossword with a few slightly weak clues. I did like the clue for UNION though.

    Thanks to Brummie and manehi.

  20. Just a general point – if an acronym is clued (like SSSI) shouldn’t it be indicated in some way, like 1,1,1,1 ? I realise this may be a giveaway – are there other ways of doing it, like for 24dn adding the words “and shortened” or something along those lines ?

  21. Think I had with withdraw already, so no axle. Got a chuckle from C row, and a couple of groans at diverse obi and de serving. Didn’t get the fish. I’m with Rewolf, didn’t mind change for ‘are different’. Small car vaguely theme-related; apols if someone’s already said. Thanks BnM.

  22. …..apologies before someone leaps in to correct me ! Yes, I know that strictly speaking SSSI is not an acronym, but you know what I mean. The point still holds, should abbreviations be indicated ? I guess I’m being mardy about this because it’s the one clue I didn’t solve this morning !

    Rather liked 18ac and have never heard of 11ac …

  24. My favourite was STRING.

    I failed to parse 18a (although it seemed like it should be something like that!), and failed to solve SSSI which is not an acronym but an abbreviation. I had a feeling it was a backwards hidden word in MISS SAIGON but it did not occur to me to google SSSI – so this clue was okay for Brits, but not very good for non-Brits.

    I am also one who had AXLE @ 21a before switching to HOLE.

    Thanks Brummie and manehi

  25. Yes Manehi – my thoughts exactly. Fun and breezy, unlike the leaden weather. Nice, neat theme too.
    Thanks Brummie. Right up my Tuesday street!

  26. Seems I’m (again) in the minority in that Axle didn’t even occur to me. Maybe it was the vision conjured up by the surface that led me straight to HOLE.

    Like David E @ 3, I thought of Ozone to go with the HOLE and wondered if Brummie had toyed trying to fit OZONE in (perhaps at 9a)

     

  27. Thanks to Brummie and manehi. I thought this was a very enjoyable challenge, though the last few took longer than the rest put together. I was another who had axle first until I got withdraw, and ascendible and sssi last ones in (latter needed a google check). I only saw the theme late on and therefore it was of little help and my favourites were crow, immune system and biodiversity. Thanks again to Brummie and manehi.

  28. Thanks, manehi and Brummie.

    I had to go out before the blog was posted, so it’s pretty much all been said.

    I didn’t even think of AXLE but had the crossers for HOLE and, like David and pex, went looking for OZONE LAYER.

    I’ve looked through the comments carefully and can’t see that anyone has mentioned HANOI [see here] re the theme – forgive me if I’m wrong.

    I’m something of a campaigner for this cause, so thanks to Brummie for highlighting it.

    I was rather amused, having said just yesterday, commenting on the Quiptic, that  I rather liked subtractive anagrams, to find a surfeit [four] of them in today’s puzzle.

    Re 27ac, I’m with Quenbarrow’s interpretation @14  I liked it!

  29. I entirely agree with thezed at 18, but would also add that I don’t see how greyish=nondescript.

    I guessed “hilt” for 21 without parsing it. I don’t agree though that “axle” is better than “hole”: both parse perfectly and shaft is a clever indirection following tool.

  31. I know that people will jump on me for being a non-Brit and making a comment about UK-centric abbreviations, but . . . . surely there is an abbreviation for thousands of organisations in UK and overseas? In my opinion, that is not part of the “joy” of solving a cryptic crossword, is it? for example, to work out a clue that leads to a solution of JDHGR (typed randomly, no idea if this exists or not).

  32. Howard @29

    I agree that AXLE and HOLE are equally good.  I think the setter was unlucky that ‘shaft’ defines both words equally well, bearing in mind one is solid and the other is a space inside a solid mass!  (It is at least a convention, and probably a rule, that cryptic wordplay should not require the solver to use crossing letters to decide which of multiple answers is correct.)

  33. Thanks to Brummie and manehi. I’m part of the group that started with HOLE (so no problems there) but needed the assistance of Google and much rereading of the clue to get SSSI.

  34. More like a Monday puzzle, so I really enjoyed it. I too tripped over the AXLE but agree with Howard March @ 29 that the misdirection makes HOLE a better answer. I took too EFFing long to get EFFECT. Didn’t even stop to look for a theme. I should have, as it was so obvious.

    Thanks to Brummie and manehi.

  38. Thanks to Manehi and Brummie. A theme likely to meet with the approval of George Monbiot, but nobody’s perfect. Several lovely clues in this one (EDGEWAYS, HOLE, REXESSION) but my favourite has to be BIODIVERSITY. There are compilers out there who would have clued that simply as ‘Obi’ – that might have been fun !

    I agree with others that SSSI was frankly contrived. There are other words that would fit happily into that light.

  39. If 1,1,1,1 will be a dead giveaway for a clue like 24d, then that abbr. should not be put in the grid. If an acronym can be pronounced as a word, e.g., NATO or Nato, the enum. can be 4. But 4 for the abbr. SSSI  jars.

  40. Why does everyone accept axle as an alternative to hole? Axe is not synonymous with shaft. An axe is composed of two parts – a shaft and a head. I started with ho(l)d which I think is just as valid as axle.

  41. Jeceris @ 40. AXE and HOE are tools. With L from Large inserted to give a synonym for shaft. Both HOLE & AXLE are suitable synonyms.

  42. I never thought of AXLE -or HOD for that matter- so HOLE went straight in as did the SW corner. Can’t say the rest did though and SSSI took ages although,in retrospect the answer was obvious.I liked both CROW and WARMING but I groaned at SUNUP. Didn’t get the,now blindingly obvious,theme.
    Thanks Brummie

  43. Thanks both,
    Re 24d. The only words that OED gives to fit the crossers are ‘oshi’, ‘Ossi’, and ‘usui’. I’d only heard of Ossi, and that might be regarded as an ethnic slur.

  44. The nondescript old pm with his bats in the surface of 1ac is surely John Major – who signed the UN Climate Convention.

    thanks to Brummie and Menahi

  45. Good point DuncT @44 – he was called “the grey man” and Spitting Image used a very grey puppet for him.

  47. For me there are two things that make a good crossword. It should be ”gettable” and it should be enjoyable. To be gettable, clues don’t need 100% precision, they only need to convey enough of the meaning to be solvable. If I don’t finish a crossword I come here to learn from those who have. To be enjoyable I like the clues that bring a smile to my face. All the Guardian setters have a sense of humour; unfortunately some of the solvers seem to have lost theirs.
    My FOI was axle (being more of a woodsman than a gardener) and I certainly smiled when I worked out where I’d gone wrong. LOI was 6d. This also made me smile as yesterday I did a crossword with club in the clue and iron was the first thing I thought of. I hadn’t heard of SSSI but was able to get it from the clue. Many thanks to Brummie for an enjoyable crossword and to manehi and other contributors for the blog.

  48. Our overseas cousins should accept Brit usage of words. After all they are attempting a crossword in a prestigious British newspaper. Get used to it!

  49. Fell down a shaft with 21a but otherwise much enjoyed. I rather liked CROSS-HATCH. Reminder of Geometrical and Engineering Drawing 50 years ago. Though 50 years hence more important!

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