Guardian Cryptic 27,808 by Paul

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The puzzle may be found athttps://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27808.

Yesterday’s Arachne is a difficult act to follow. Paul produces a puzzle typical for him, even if it pales by comparison. There is a slew of well-varied envelopes.

Across
1 THAT’S THAT Nothing further to say, it is what it is? (5,4)
Definition and literal interpretation.
6 BANK Pool side (4)
Cryptic definition: the cushion of a pool table.
8 PARABOLA Curved path soldier left, snake around it (8)
A charade of PARA (‘soldier’) plus BOLA, an envelope (‘around it’) of L (‘left’) in BOA (‘snake’).
9 LOTION Bird scoffing odd bits of this cream (6)
An envelope (‘scoffing’) of TI (‘odd bits of ThIs’) in LOON (‘bird’).
10 LEGACY Fine to pocket, say, the amount left (6)
An envelope (‘to pocket’) of EG (‘say’) in LACY (‘fine’).
11 TURN-OFFS Fancy chaps gripping pot sideways? (4-4)
An envelope (‘gripping’) of URN (‘pot’) in TOFFS (‘fancy chaps’). The definition must be read as ‘side ways’ – off the main road.
12 FLATUS Not bubbling, American gas (6)
A charade of FLAT (‘not bubbling’) plus US (‘American’).
15 DEBASING Humbling, as big end shatters (8)
An anagram (‘shatters’) of ‘as big end’.
16 WRETCHED Sorry we had to bury gag (8)
An envelope (‘to bury’) of RETCH (‘gag’) in WE’D (‘we had’).
19 ECCLES Shortly book place serving cakes? (6)
Double definition, both of which might require a little explanation: an abbreviation of the Bible book of Ecclesiates, and a town in the Greater Manchester area which gives its name to the raisin-filled Eccles cake.
21 CHINOOKS Blowing trousers apart, fine currents of warm wind (8)
An envelope (‘blowing … apart’) of OK (‘fine’) in CHINOS (‘trousers’).
22   See 26
24 STAYER Distinguished performer carrying you once, an enduring ride (6)
An envelope (‘carrying’) of YE (‘you once’) in STAR (‘distinguished performer’). The definition probably refers to a racehorse.
25 ANTIGUAN Islander protesting at endless filth? (8)
A charade of ANTI (‘protesting at’) plus GUAN[0] (‘filth’) minus its last letter (‘mostly’).
26, 22 LONE WOLVES Football club after credit by the sound of it — no team players! (4,6)
A charade of LONE, a homophone (‘by the sound of it’) of LOAN (‘credit’) plus WOLVES (Wolverhampton Wanderers, ‘football team’).
27 NORTH-WEST Point went with short screws (5-4)
An anagram (‘screws’) of ‘went’ plus ‘short’.
Down
1 TRACE Draw suspicion (5)
Double definition.
2 ADAMANT A collection of facts and figures not entirely inspiring chap to be resolute (7)
An envelope (‘inspiring’) of MAN (‘chap’) in ‘a’ plus DAT[a] (‘collection of facts and figures’) minus its last letter (‘not entirely’).
3, 4 STONY-HEARTED  Uncaring leader in short, Labour PM should pay attention to a Conservative one (5-7)
A charade of S (‘leader in Short’) plus TONY (Blair, ‘Labour PM’) plus HEAR (‘pay attention’) plus TED (Heath, ‘Conservative one’).
4   See 3
5 TOLERABLE In list, over fifty parts adequate (9)
A double envelope (‘in’ and ‘parts’) of L (‘Roman numeral, ‘fifty’) in O’ER (‘over’) in TABLE (‘list’).
6 BUTTONS Pageboy has container of stuff picked up (7)
The definition is the character in Cinderella pantomimes, but I am having difficulty pinning down the wordplay. My best guess is a reversal (‘picked up’) of SNOT TUB, but ‘stuff’ for SNOT seems rather loose.
7 NO OFFENCE Sound barrier on the Ark? That shouldn’t prove insulting (2,7)
Sounds like (‘sound’) NOAH FENCE (‘barrier on the Ark’), presumably to keep the lamb from the lion.
13 LARGHETTO Line to gather unravels quite slowly (9)
An anagram (‘unravels’) of L (‘line’) plus ‘to gather’.
14 SCHOOL RUN Fish course driving headache in the morning? (6,3)
A charade of SCHOOL (‘fish’, collectively) plus RUN (‘course’).
17 TINTYPE Preserve style for old photo (7)
A charade of TIN (‘preserve’) plus TYPE (‘style’).
18 DESPAIR Old man in need mostly, give up (7)
An envelope (‘in’) of PA (‘old man’) in DESIR[e] (‘need’) minus its last letter (‘mostly’).
20 COLOGNE Somewhere in Germany, solid wood splits (7)
An envelope (‘splits’) of LOG (‘wood’) in CONE (‘solid’; if I remember my mathematics, a cone is regarded as a surface, but commonly the word is used for a solid standing on a circular or elliptical base).
22 WITCH Wicked woman caught using traps (5)
An envelope (‘traps’) of C (‘caught’) in WITH (‘using’).
23 EXALT Old key for lift (5)
A charade of EX (‘old’) plus ALT (‘key’, on either side of the space bar on my keyboard).
completed grid

34 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,808 by Paul”

  1. I think that for 6d SNOT = “stuff picked”, as in to pick one’s nose?

    I was unable to parse the ER in 5d (never thought of o’er) and 16a.

    New for me were CHINOOKS, and BUTTONS = pageboy.

    I totally failed to solve ECCLES and LONE WOLVES probably because I have never heard of the cake or the Wolverhampton Wanderers.

    Thanks Peter and Paul.

  2. Thanks peter and Paul,

     

    I had 6A BANK as a DD pool as in kitty/bank + side as in riverbank. The CD works too.

  3. muffyword@2

    that is also how I parsed 6A. I realise now that I only read the blg for the ones I could not solve/parse.

  4. Unlike michelle@1 I knew the couple of British-based clues she mentioned – I think I learned about both ECCLES cakes 19a and the Wolverhampton team the LONE WOLVES 16,22a from previous cryptics. Well done to michelle for that parse of 6d BUTTONS which I missed. I agree with muffyword@2 and michelle as that is how I parsed 6s BANK, but I am glad I learned a new term today about pool tables which might come in handy. Filling in stonE hearted instead of STONY HEARTED 3,4d, held me up for a while until I saw LEGACY at 10a and realised my blunder. I don’t know now why I wrote in TONE when TONY was the obvious Labour PM. The old “key” in 23d tricked me again for a while, making EXALT my LOI. How often have we had enter, escape and alt, yet I still fall for it every time, trying out the musical keys instead.

    Favourites today were the aforementioned LEGACY, 12a FLATUS, 19a ECCLES and 14d SCHOOL RUN. A very good puzzle from Paul I thought: thanks to him, and to PeterO for the blog.

  5. There was a aul Prize on Sat. a Punk yesterday both of which were pretty good but this seemed like the dregs of the barrel part from the very fine

    STONY HEARTED.

  6. Haven’t had an Eccles cake for ages – I think I’ll have to call in at the baker’s on the way home.

    Thanks to Paul for a nice brain work out and to PeterO for the blog

  7. Hmmm. I wonder if there’s been a mix-up. Arachne on Monday and what is more like a Prize puzzle today.

    Ok, so mostly defeated by this offering.

  8. The ‘snot’ interpretation passed me by completely for 6D – I was reading BUTT + sounds-like ‘UNS, which did strike me as a bit of a stretch even for Paul. Agreed with @2 and @3 about DD for BANK.

    I enjoyed this one – yes, easier than some Pauls but no worse for that IMO.

     

  9. Failed on my last one in, 6d, entering a guessed ‘bottoms’; given the constituents of the correct parsing, I’m rather glad I did!  I also parsed my second last in, BANK, as a double def. Another of those troublesome two word (usually double def) clues, four letter answers, which often give me problems.

    Not as hard as yesterday’s Punk in the Indy, but still a challenge to fill the grid. I liked CHINOOKS (there have been a few helicopter related clues lately), LONE WOLVES and my favourite, the ‘driving headache in the morning?’ def for SCHOOL RUN.

    Thanks to our ever busy setter and to PeterO

  10. Not my cup of tea this morning.  Not Paul at his best IMHO.

    “Point went with short screws”  What could this possibly mean?

    I, too, went with BANK = pool as in kitty although it’s a bit loose.

    Failed to parse BUTTONS & ECCLES but now think both are rather good.  Although a snot tub is a pretty repellent thought.

    New to me were CHINOOKS and TINTYPE but enjoyed looking them up.  Had to find the latter via ferrotype.

    Many thanks PeterO, nice week, all.

  12. CHINOOKS as “currents of warm wind” reminds me o the nine months I spent in Calgary.  There, where the prairie winters are fierce, the warm wind comes down in the winter from the mountains to the west.  The snow melts and people go around in tee shirts.  It lasts a day or two and then back to winter.

    You would know a Chinook was coming tomorrow if you looked westward and saw the “Chinook arch” in the clouds over the mountains: https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/cloudy-with-a-chance-of-chinook-arches.

     

  13. On some days they could be written in another language: Usually I’m right onto Paul, but today needed Ms_ChinOz and checks to progress a bit beyond 12a and 18a, whence normal-ish service resumed. With all Goons gone doubt we’ll ever get to see the Book of Eccles unless it’s lying somewhere deep in the bowels of Auntie. This clue and 25a seen similarly in recent past so not to hard to get. 27a very well constructed. And 1a for tonight.

  15. As PeterO says yesterday’s is a difficult act to follow, although in my view Paul’s Saturday prize was every bit as good. I tried to figure out what the difference is as both Paul and Arachne are top class setters. In yesterday’s puzzle I found myself drawn into the clues as I read them for the first time whereas with today’s I was skipping on to the next one very quickly so it must be about the surface reading for me. I wasn’t helped by confidently entering a perfectly plausible FINAL WORD for 1a – and being disappointed when I had to let it go. I parsed BANK as kitty/river and BUTTONS as BUT(t) and TONS – lots of stuff, but without much conviction. I liked WRETCHED with its echoes of a recent clue, SCHOOL RUN for its definition, and NO OFFENCE for another inventive Paul homonym. Journeying into pedant’s corner traditional Eccles cakes are filled with currants rather than raisins – and they’re one of my favourites along with Goosnargh cakes :-). Many thanks to Paul and PeterO.

  16. Thanks to Paul and PeterO.

    I’m just not in form this morning after what seems to have been a whirlwind fortnight with little time for crozzies so a big fail for me and a series of reveals for the most part. Still a lot of pleasure to be had from e.g. FLATUS and NO OFFENCE.

    THAT’S THAT, with its quoting of “it is what it is”, gives me the opportunity to roll weary eyes at the fatuity of the expression which, like its cousin “going forward”, adds nothing to the matter in hand while giving the utterer the appearance of having something to say. (When I think of it, the two combined give “que sera sera” – how’s that for deep analysis.) Any offers as to where this now commonplace “it is what it is” came from?

  17. Thanks to Paul and PeterO. I found this tough going, particularly in the bottom half, but got there in the end. Looking back now I cannot understand why I found it so tough, maybe because of the misdirection. I spent an absolute age trying to parse salmon run for 14d, but of course I could not get it to work. Last ones were wretched, school run, despair and Antiguan. Favourites were no offence (particularly after yesterday’s ham producer), that’s that and the aforementioned school run. Thanks again to Paul and PeterO.

  18. Thanks Paul and Peter.

    I too went for bank = side and pool = kitty. I think a bank in pool is a shot using the cushion, we might call it a double, and what me might call a cushion our transatlantic cousins would call a rail. But then perhaps I don’t speak American as well as some.

  19. Failed on ECCLES (never heard of the cakes) and PARABOLA (and I’m a mathematician, so no excuse for that). Otherwise not too difficult, and unusually for me, I was able to parse everything before coming here, so the cluing was clear. Many clunky surfaces, however, the brilliant 3-4d being an exception, so probably not Paul’s best. Thanks to him anyway for the challenge and to PeterO for the blog.

  20. PetHay – I’m glad I wasn’t alone on the salmon run.

    I was another with the dd for 6a, the butt with tons in it for 6d.

    Thanks to Paul and PeterO.

  23. Well if Paul intended the triple meaning of BANK in 6a then it’s a brilliant clue, isn’t it – else just so-so.

    I agree with PeterO regarding CONE (20d). Following Plato we’ve come to talk about 3-dimensional shapes as solids, but they aren’t necessarily. Think of the nose-cone of a rocket.

    Thanks P&P.

  24. I did this last night, admittedly on gradually waning alertness. But I cheated at the end on BUTTONS, not being familiar with the pageboy. ECCLES I knew from somewhere, so that went in towards the end.

    But this was rough–I was DESPAIRing entirely for a while.

    Add another vote for having tried salmon run.

  25. Much as I enjoyed this, with its usual Paul rudenesses, I wish 9 acorr had been “American Bird scoffing odd bits of this cream (6)”, because we call them divers here.

     

  26. Thanks both,

    A DNF for me. For some reason the check button seemed to tell me that ‘bonk’ was that answer for 6ac. Probably my fault.) So I thought, ‘How like Paul. I wonder how on earth that parses’.

    I also wondered whether there was a topical snooker/pool theme going on, but it seemed to be confined to the clues.

     

  27. I found that an odd mix of brilliant (“school run” – especially with the s and o in place I kept wanting it to be “salmon”) and dreadful (“buttons” which I read as homophone of “butt” and “tons” but really was not convinced – I think snot and tub is more like it, a number of pretty loose synonyms and weak surfaces. There was a lot of misdirection but mostly I felt it was hard because the clues did not really fit together clearly or cleanly and I never felt I got a rhythm going.

    A cone can be solid or not as you please. As the American cartoonist Johnny Hart wrote:
    “Consider the cone, and function thereof.
    It stands on its orifice and points straight above.

    Inverted and filled it tumbles at once.
    Small wonder the cone symbolises the dunce”

    In what is possibly the smallest theme ever we do also have “parabola” in the puzzle, which is a conic section.

  28. Thanks Paul and PeterO

    I saw “Pool side” as a double defintion too, but I started with BATH – swimming pool and rugby side!

    I loved STONY-HEARTED. You wait for ages for a Noah-related clue, then you get two in two days.

    We have visited a friend in Cologne. She, of course, calls it Köln.

  29. Thanks to Paul and PeterO

    A tricky puzzle today with many solutions suggested from half of the wordplay.

    At 6a I immediately thought of a douible definition too.

    The side of a pool table is called the cushion, while bank refers to a shot that is bounced off the cushion

  30. Not as good as Paul’s Saturday puzzle but I thought it better than some of you did. It did take me a while to get going though.
    Favourites included STONY HEARTED,FLATUS,SCOOL RUN and PARABOLA. The latter was easy for me because I’m off to the Cheltenham jazz festival and I stay in an hotel in Parabola Rd and several of the concerts I’m attended are at the Parabola Arts Centre.
    CHINOOKS was LOI.
    Thanks Paul.

  32. Thanks Paul and PeterO

    Following Blaise @ 31, and at the risk of being indecorous, I thought ‘stuff picked’ was ‘bogies’, whereas ‘snot’ is something you blow into a reversed Garton’s.

  33. a first for me – finishing a Paul in one day. I thought this was a good puzzle, with fewer clunky surfaces than usual for this setter. Like PetHay I got hung up with salmon run until WRETCHED made me reconsider, at which point SCHOOL RUN became one of my favourites, along with STONY HEARTED, ECCLES and LARGHETTO.

    Thanks to Valentine for the Chinook arch link – a wonderful TILT.

    And thanks Paul and PeterO for the excellent entertainment.

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