Guardian 27,791 / Nutmeg

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This is my third Nutmeg blog in a row and I’m not complaining.

I can’t see a theme this time – just the characteristic blend of well-constructed clues with silky-smooth surfaces and a few quirks to add amusement.

Many thanks, Nutmeg – I really enjoyed it.

Definitions are underlined in the clues.

Across

1 Footwear on black market? (7)
BOOTLEG
BOOT [footwear] + LEG [on – in cricket]

5 Becomes tearful, as long-haul driver often does (5,2)
FILLS UP
Double definition

9 Artistes will have performed here a long time back (5)
ARENA
A reversal [back] of AN ERA [a long time]

10 Hugo’s character originally set in stone, with a touch of arrogance (9)
ESMERALDA
S[et] in EMERALD [stone] + A[rrogance] – the character in Victor Hugo’s ‘The Hunchback of Notre-Dame’

11, 12 Flighty carrot-top pests that’ll draw the crowds (9,5)
SPECTATOR SPORT
An anagram [flighty] of CARROT-TOP PESTS

13 Put a name to American river, longest in country (5)
TAGUS
TAG [put a name to] + US [American] – the longest river in the Iberian peninsula

15 Picky journalist keen to appear in film (9)
PEDAGOGIC
ED [journalist] AGOG [keen] in PIC [film]

18 Meteor crashes on line — it’ll take the pressure (9)
BAROMETER
BAR [line – in heraldry, for instance] + an anagram [crashes] of METEOR

19 Flyers grounded during downpour, he assumed (5)
RHEAS
Hidden in downpouR HE ASsumed – I loved the definition

21, 23 Picture barrister in Parisian bar (5,9)
BRIEF ENCOUNTER
BRIEF [barrister] + EN [French for ‘in’ – Parisian] + COUNTER [bar] – for the David Lean / Noel Coward classic

25 Priest in training ultimately ignored church law (9)
ORDINANCE
ORDINAN[d] [priest in training, minus its last letter – ultimately ignored] + CE [Church of England]

26 Large quantity of water taken by female shaving (5)
FLAKE
F [female] + LAKE [large quantity of water]

27 Brightly coloured small mini-vehicle? (7)
SCARLET
S [small] + CARLET [whimsical mini-vehicle]

28 Present judge and jury finally go off (7)
PUTREFY
PUT [present – a proposition, for instance] + REF [judge] + [jur]Y

Down

1 Escaper does it to strike pose (5,2)
BEATS IT
BEAT [strike] + SIT [pose]

2 Bygone period about which monarch appears too keen (9)
OVEREAGER
OVER [bygone] + ER [monarch] round AGE [period]

3 Smallest article breaks in case (5)
LEAST
A [article] in LEST [in case]

4 What snooker player does when past his best? (4,2,3)
GOES TO POT
Cryptic definition

5 Tips of feather spanning bird’s bone (5)
FEMUR
F[eather]R round EMU [bird]

6 Business magnate upset rural gods (4,5)
LORD SUGAR
An anagram [upset] of RURAL GODS – an amusing picture

7 Co-ordinated discharge of colossal volume (5)
SALVO
Hidden in colosSAL VOlume

8, 20 Remedial treatment from clergy, as purist goes off the rails … (7,7)
PLASTIC SURGERY
An anagram [goes off the rails] of CLERGY AS PURIST

14 … when involved in ground-breaking match (4-5)
SEMI-FINAL
IF [when{ever?}] in SEMINAL [ground-breaking]

16 Costing the earth? Far from it (4,5)
DIRT CHEAP
Cryptic definition

17 Hamlet‘s best friend? (5,4)
GREAT DANE
Double definition – referring to a dog being ‘man’s best friend’ [in my youth, I was a great fan of this Great Dane of Comedy, or Clown Prince of Denmark, as he was known: quite irrelevant – but it’s my blog]

18 Primates show disapproval of entering bars (7)
BABOONS
BOO [show disapproval of] in BANS [bars]

22 Democracy one’s not found in island nation (5)
INDIA
IND[ones]IA [island nation minus one’s]

23 German, who drew back when cycling (5)
ERNST
STERN [back] ‘cycling’ – another neat surface

24 Inadequate squad with invading force (5)
UNFIT
F [force[ in UNIT [squad]

57 comments on “Guardian 27,791 / Nutmeg”

  1. Yep, totally agree with what Eileen says.  Nice neat puzzle and good surfaces.

    Perhaps a little heavy on anagrams?

    Wasn’t too sure how INDIA parsed.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and Eileen.

  2. A joy from start to finish. I wasn’t familiar with that meaning of pedagogic but it had to be so from the crossers. Too many favourites to name so I’ll sit back and simply say THANK YOU nutmeg and Eileen.

  3. Very enjoyable puzzle. My favourites were ERNST, SPECTATOR SPORT, SCARLET  (loi).

    New for me today was TAGUS River.

    Thanks Nutmeg and Eileen

  4. A lot of very nice clues here, with one hiccup – maybe. I have mixed feelings over calling a flightless bird a “flyer grounded”, since it can’t be/never was a flyer at all. Kind of like calling a lion a straying vegetarian.
    Thanks Nutmeg and Eileen.

  6. Once again Nutmeg illustrates how puzzles don’t have to be hard to be well crafted and a delight to solve. Many thanks to her and Eileen – I’m with you on the RHEAS definition and I also thought FLAKE was neat.

  7. I enjoyed this, but I was surprised at the ‘picky’ definition for ‘pedagogic’. I have always associated this word with teaching and education, but maybe I’m just being pedantic…

    Thanks Nutmeg and Eileen.

  8. Many thanks to Nutmeg and to Eileen for the blog – I couldn’t parse INDIA for the life of me.

    But at 15 across: picky ? pedagogic, which simply means ‘relating to teaching’ – suspect confusion with ‘pedantic’.

  9. Fave was 27a scarlet – mini-vehicle neat. Thought rheas for a while, but uncomfortable with ‘flyers’, until saw the word there and realised the meaning of ‘grounded’.

    Questioned 1ac, looking for the -leg, until saw Eileen’s parsing. Also some discomfort with judge for ref in 28a.

    But otherwise enjoyable, thanks Nutmeg.

  10. All fine, good puzzle. Except Ernst is a bit naughty . You’re not allowed to have an anagram of a synonym.

  11. In a rush this morning, bunged in great mate at 17d; what a dill! Now, rush over, should have proof read before coming here. Otherwise yes, as above, lovely surfaces and not too hard, nice for Wednesday. Tagus was a do what it says and look up, and ditto Lord Sugar. Haven’t heard fill up for get tearful, but idiom is endlessly fluid and varied. Thanks Nutmeg and Eileen.

  12. I’m also amongst the solvers who couldn’t parse INDIA, but having seen the blog it’s now my COD. Thanks to Nutmeg and Eileen.

  14. Rewolf @ 10. I don’t think it is intended as an anagram: rather you cycle the letters of STERN: TERNS, then ERNST. I agree “cycle” could be an anagrind. This cycling of a letter or two (in this case) is quite common and seems acceptable by most solvers; why an anagram of a synonym is a step too far and cycling is not I don’t know.

    Incidentally, I couldn’t parse ERSNT  and had to come here to find the answer.

    Thanks Eileen [loved the link; I was reduced to tears by VB at an open air performance in Toronto in 1970s] and nutmeg

     

  15. Thanks to Nutmeg and Eileen. Generally a very steady solve for me, but got bogged down in the SW. Eventually worked our what the answers must be from the crossers, but needed to come here to clarify some parsing (22, 23 & 25). That said very enjoyable and favourites were scarlet, Great Dane and brief encounter. Thanks again to Nutmeg and Eileen.

  16. Thanks Nutmeg and Eileen

    Re PEDAGOGIC, current Chambers has definition 2 of pedagogue as “A pedant”, while my >40yo SOED has “2. A schoolmaster, teacher, preceptor. (Now usu hostile, with implication of pedantry, dogmatism, or severity.)”

    So I think Nutmeg’s home fre.

  17. Lovely puzzle. Thanks to Nutmeg and Eileen. Lots of ticks from me, with triples for 8/20d PLASTIC SURGERY and 17d GREAT DANE.

  18. Thanks, Simon S @16 – you just beat me to it: I had to go out immediately after posting the blog so couldn’t respond to judygs @8. As a retired teacher, I was a bit miffed at the definition but did exactly the same dictionary research as you did.

    David Ellison @14 – so glad to find another fan. 😉

  19. Thank you, Simon S @16 and Eileen @18 – as another former teacher (applied linguistics), I’d never come across the pejorative definition of ‘pedagogic’. I’m rather shocked …

     

  20. Very fun puzzle.  I love cryptic definition clues and this one was full of them.  ‘GOES TO POT’ and ‘DIRT CHEAP’ were my favourites.  I think this may only be the second Nutmeg I’ve ever fully completed, so overall I’m pretty chuffed 🙂

  21. Thanks Nutmeg and Eileen

    A couple of points for me. I see what she was doing with “flyers grounded”, but it doesn’t work for me as “grounded” implies a capablity of flight (similar to what Dr. WhatsOn said). The other was 4d, where I couldn’t enter the first word without the crosser, as GOES TO POT is what a snooker player does, but I would say “gone to pot” for “past his best”.

    I couldn’t parse SEMI-FINAL.

    Favoruite was PLASTIC SURGERY.

  23. Overall quite enjoyable. I had the same doubts as others did about the definition of PEDAGOGIC. I also thought the definition of ARENA was a little unnecessarily verbose. On the other hand, I thought the definition of RHEA was amusing.

    I vaguely remembered learning about the TAGUS somewhere. Incidentally, the longest river in the US (referred to in the surface of the clue) is the Missouri–or, since it’s a tributary, technically the Missouri-Mississippi. (Yes, when they decided which was the main channel of the Mississippi, they picked the wrong one!) I doubt you’ll see the Missouri in a crossword any time soon, though.

  24. Lovely crossword to solve on a Brazilian beach, my thanks to Nutmeg and to Eileen for parsing of 14 dn.
    Only problem is that I keep getting ‘I am not a robot’ thing with the pictures to solve to get onto the website – not easy to do on an iPhone in bright sunshine !!
    Something to do with being in Brazil as does not happen elsewhere?

  25. Liked this a lot. Hard to pick faves but SCARLET was perhaps the most amusing. Held up by BRIEF ENCOUNTER because I convinced myself that the clue referred to a painting rather than a film but crossers made the answer obvious. Great fun.
    Thanks Nutmeg.

  26. Simon@24.
    Just happened to me as well. I’m currently in Sweden. Doesn’t happen when I’m in the UK.

  27. Thanks Nutmeg for a most enjoyable puzzle.
    And thanks Eileen for the blog, particularly for the parsing of INDIA and ORDINANCE.
    With ORDINANCE, ‘church ‘ seems to be doing double duty with the ce for church and the definition which I took to be church law.
    Favourites were BRIEF ENCOUNTER, ERNST and GREAT DANE.

  28. ProbAbly being a bit of a pedant but I resented the definition of PEDAGOGIC too. I thought PUT was a bit iffy for present, but overall a good fun puzzle. Couldn’t parse INDIA until I saw Eileen ‘s explanation then a gold star. Also enjoyed SCARLET and DIRT CHEAP. Thanks Nutmeg, and a lovely blog as always Eileen.

  29. Thanks to Nutmeg and Eileen. Great fun. I did parse INDIA but did not know LORD SUGAR and for some reason had a lot of trouble with PUTREFY, my LOI.

  30. Hi pvb @27  I’ve always tended to think of ORDINANCE as being church law – because of its association with ordination, I suppose – but it isn’t: Collins gives it [solely] as ‘an authoritative regulation, decree, law or practice’ and Chambers ‘that which is ordained by authority, fate, etc; regulation; a bye-law [US]; artistic arrangement; planning; a decree’ and then ‘a religious practice enjoined by authority, esp a sacrament’.

  32. muffin @ 21: I understand your point, but I took the clue as heading into extended definition territory. If you saw rheas for the first time in a rainstorm, you could assume that they were capable of flight but prevented by the weather. Conjures up an amusing image for me.

  33. Re David Ellison above. I really think it’s against the rules to have an anagram , or cycle, of a synonym. No? Otherwise you could have any number of clues like ‘smashes in rocky planet’ (4) it’s illegal!

  34. A fairly easy Nutmeg which l did in under forty minutes here in Western Kenya. FOI GOES TO POT. COD 26a for its amusing surface, he he. As another retired teacher, thought ‘picky’ for pedagogic suspect.

  35. I often don’t understand the series of full stops at the end of one clue and the begginning of the next. I assume they’re supposed to indicate a connection of some sort ? If so, what’s the connection betweeen 8,20dn and 14dn ?

    Failed to get 28, couldn’t get the word “pottery” out of my head.

    And for what doed COD stand in the comment above, please ?

  37. Jinja – you’ll find quite a bit of discussion re ellipses [clues 8,20 – 14] in the comments on Monday’s blog here

  38. jinga @ 35 – COD (or COTD) = clue of the day. As for the ellipses, just this week we were advised to just ignore them. See Monday or Tuesday’s blog for details.

    As for me – a lack of sleep and a severe lack of time meant the puzzle defeated me (nutmeged me perhaps) but, as ever, a really neatly constructed piece of work. I came here to read the blog, in an ongoing effort to learn and improve.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and Eileen.

  40. Oh how I love it when all the pedagogic cruciverbalists on this site get touchy when their innate characteristics are pointed out by a clever clue.
    If you weren’t picky you probably were not a good teacher.
    Lovely puzzle. First one I finished this week. I of course put my previous 2 failures to poor clueing rather any personal deficiencies.

  41. Excellent puzzle from Nutmeg, thanks Eileen for the blog.
    There are no ‘rules’, only what the editor thinks you can get away with.
    You pays your money and you takes your choice.
    ‘Cycling’ a synonym is as well established as dropping the last letter from one.

  42. Thanks Eileen and Nutmeg. I think the answer to the questions about ERNST is that it’s not really an anagram as such ? Take letters from the beginning of the word and move them to the beginning…. I’ve seen a lot of these in recent years although this is the first one for a while.

  43. I made heavy weather of this, but it was a good crossword nevertheless. The clues I enjoyed the most were BOOTLEG, BEATS IT, BRIEF ENCOUNTER and INDONESIA; but I was another who was taken aback by ‘picky’ meaning PEDAGOGIC (or am I being picky too?).
    Thanks to Nutmeg and Eileen.

  45. I finished this in the sort of time I would normally take over a Quiptic but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy it. Though I didn’t get many on my first trawl through the across clues I felt confident given the neatness of the clues that I would get there in the end – which is a nice way to feel.
    I didn’t parse INDIA, looking in vain for a way to make democracy part of the wordplay with nation as the definition.
    Thanks to Nutmeg and Eileen.

  46. Re Ernst. I’d like to hear from Nutmeg on what was meant by the clueing . A VAR referral! Verbal ambiguity review

  47. Eileen @30.
    Thanks for putting me straight on ordinance. I will have to do my dictionary work more thoroughly in future.

  49. Thank you all for your comments, and Eileen for her blog.

    Re ERNST: ‘cycling’ is keeping the letters of a word in order, but starting partway through, so from ERNST you could get TERNS or STERN but no other legitimate words. I see from searching 225 that several of my colleague used the device last year, among them Picaroon, Tramp and Puck, some of them several times.

    Indirect anagrams ae absolutely taboo, and I would never use one (I hope!)

  51. Funnily enough, I only knew pedagogue as meaning someone who was pedantic and had never heard of it relating to a teacher !

  53. Thanks to Eileen and Nutmeg

    Very good, but I don’t agree with the Nutmeg’s justification of the device used in 23d. I don’t object to the device, but surely the perceived problem with indirect anagrams is not how you manipulate the synonym once you have happened upon the correct one, but identifying that “correct one” in the first place.

  55. Thanks to Nutmeg and Eileen. I finished the puzzle but had to come to understand INDIA, BOOTLEG (the LEG bit) and ERNST. Was also doubtful about PEDAGOGIC until reading the comments. RHEAS only works, I suppose, if you include their flying ancestors, or alternatively regard ‘flyers’ as a synonym for ‘birds’, even flightless ones. My favourite was LEAST – just so smooth, elegant and simple.

  57. [I do agree, Eileen, Victor Borge was always one of my favourite treats …… a simply magical performer.]

    I’m always impressed by Nutmeg’s elegance, nicely exemplified here by her ability to have two-word clues ‘lined up’ as with SPECTATOR SPORT, PLASTIC SURGERY and BRIEF ENCOUNTER.

    I ticked FLAKE, enjoying the “female shaving” lift and separate.

    Many thanks, both and all.

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