Guardian 27,833 – Nutmeg

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Precise and witty clueing as always from this setter. A couple of slight obscurites, but nothing too serious, so it was a fairly quick, though still enjoyable, solve for me. Thanks to Nutmeg.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. BATH TOWEL Fluid that stops part of intestine becoming drier (4,5)
THAT* in BOWEL
6. BLUFF Liberal taken in by Polish subterfuge (5)
L in BUFF (to polish)
9. CUPPA Copper knocking back a very soft drink (5)
CU (copper) + reverse of (A PP)
10. RESPECTED Esteemed sappers scanned in shed (9)
RE (Royal Engineers, sappers) + INSPECTED (scanned) with the IN “shed”
11. LAP Suitable place for child‘s drink (3)
Double definition
12. ST AUGUSTINE Case of student in East dogging revered Christian leader (2,9)
S[tuden]T IN E containing or “dogging”(to dog = to worry, plague or infest) AUGUST (revered)
14. CONSORT Royal spouse, criminal type (7)
CON (criminal) + SORT
15. EMPATHY Pay them off, knowing how they feel (7)
(PAY THEM)*
16. LIGHT UP Begin to sparkle, as smoker might? (5,2)
Double definition
19. PARADES Cuts back gradually, limiting publicity for shows (7)
AD (publicity) in PARES (cuts back gradually)
22. COMPROMISES Company member initially gives hope of settlements (11)
CO + M[ember] + PROMISES
23. FOR In favour of US president sacking Democrat (3)
[Gerald] FORD less D
24. SCAPA FLOW Sound in the Orkneys? It’s pervaded by beat, loud and deep (5,4)
CAP (to exceed or beat) in SA (sex appeal, “it”) + F (loud) + LOW (deep). Scapa Flow was a naval base in World Wars 1 and 2.
26. INCAN Old American beans preserved thus? (5)
Beans are preserved IN a CAN
27. SPOCK Child expert‘s son has scar (5)
S + POCK (mark – from which we get the old plural form “pox”). Benjamin Spock, aka Dr Spock, is famous for his 1946 book “Baby and Child Care”
28. DOR-BEETLE Scavenging insect disturbed deer and shortly bolted (3-6)
Anagram of DEER + BOLTE[D]. I spent some time trying to justify this as DOR + BEETLE[D], with beetle = to scurry or “bolt”. The Dor – a new word for me – is a kind of dung beetle
Down
1. BUCOLIC See youngster back in charge of the country (7)
Reverse of LO CUB + I.C.
2. TOPSPIN No more leg on display at Wimbledon? (7)
TOPS (no more, as in “this crossword should take twenty minutes, tops”) + PIN (leg)
3. TRANSPORTER Haulier and partner sort bananas (11)
(PARTNER SORT)*
4. WARRANT Women’s absolute authority (7)
W + ARRANT
5. LASAGNE Way hosts give pasta? (7)
SAG (to give) in (hosted by) LANE (way)
6. BEE First of bells echoes buzzer (3)
B[ells] + E= Echo twice
7. UNTWIST Nancy’s a fool, grasping double hook to straighten (7)
UN (French “a”, Nancy being the French city) + S (double hook) in TWIT (fool)
8. FIDGETY Aboard ferry on vacation I’d become restless (7)
I’D GET (become) in F[err]Y
13. SUPPRESSIVE News media first raised matter Nutmeg’s aiming to cover up (11)
Reverse of PUS + PRESS (news media) + I’VE (Nutmeg has)
16. LOCUSTS Ravenous pests, many seen outside clubs regularly (7)
Alternate letters of ClUbS in LOTS
17. GAMBADO A celebration after morning engaged in this country dance (7)
A.M. in G[reat] B[ritain] + A DO (party, celebration). I knew this word from Katisha’s line in The Mikado: “I’ll spoil … your gay gambado” (to rhyme with “Mikado”, though she doesn’t get to say the word)
18. PIMPLED Spotted exploitative manager turning key (7)
PIMP (exploitative manager) + reverse of DEL (computer key)
19. POSTWAR Job with gunners over when the fighting’s ended (7)
POST (job) + W[ith] + reverse of RA (Royal Artillery, gunners)
20. DEFICIT Shortfall bound to restrict Conservative leader, if mounting (7)
C + IF in TIED, all reversed
21. STRANGE Funny line forgotten in gag (7)
STRANGLE less L
25. AUK A British flyer at sea (3)
A + UK

36 comments on “Guardian 27,833 – Nutmeg”

  1. A fairly gentle solve for me today with just a couple of question marks. Like Andrew, DOR BEETLE was new to me. GAMBADO was another, but I couldn’t find any reference to a dance when I went to check the word online, although it was defined as a “leap or bound” which could also refer to dancing. I also needed Andrew’s help for the parsing of the SCAPA part of 24a.

    Thanks to him and Nutmeg.

  2. Thanks both.

    GAMBADO was new to me, but gettable from wordplay and crossers. I hadn’t parsed RESPECTED. I parsed ST AUGUSTINE by starting with StudenT, and taking ‘dogging’ in the sense of ‘following’, so IN E following AUGUST.

  3. New words for me were SCAPA FLOW, GAMBADO + DOR BEETLE, all of which were very fairly clued and they just needed confirmation in dictionary for me to see that the words existed!

    I could not parse the SCAPA bit of 24a, nor the LED bit of 18d.

    My favourites were CUPPA + BATH TOWEL.

    Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew.

  4. Nice one from Nutmeg today. Dor the beetle rang a faint bell, I think we’ve had it before. Not so gambado, a ‘follow the recipe and look up’. Even though arrant for absolute, and sag for give, are regulars, it still takes time for the aging brain to click. But yes, a gentle stroll overall through the witty surfaces. Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew.

  5. My usual praise for Nutmeg. I would rather the editor allowed more time between Arachne’s puzzles and Nutmeg’s as getting too many goodies together means longer to wait for the next one.

  7. With most of the crossers, I wondered whether 13D might be SUPERLATIVE, but couldn’t justify it. Pity, as it would have described the crossword as a whole.

  8. Where does the PUS reversed at the beginning of 13d come from please? Probably obvious but not to me!

  9. Managed to finish OK, but needed Andrew’s help to parse RESPECTED, ST AUGUSTINE, SCAPA FLOW, and FIDGETY. Thanks both.

  11. Confused about how SA became IT, but all clear now. I read BEE as the homophone (“echoes”) of the the letter B.

  12. GAMBADO and DOR-BEETLE were new for me also. Thanks to Andrew for the blog – I needed help with 10a. I enjoyed BATH TOWEL in particular. There also seems to be a mini-theme with locusts, a bee, dor-beetle and a (warr)ant. Thanks to Nutmeg, always a pleasure.

  13. First of all thank you to Andrew for sorting the parsing of Respected, Scapa, Gambado and Untwist all of which I had in with only parts understood. Unlike others I did not find this puzzle so straightforward or so delightful. There were many gems in there, both in surfaces and solution. However I felt “dor-beetle” was tough for a word unknown to most. The anagram obviously gave beetle, but it could equally be “rod” until crossers went in.  “postwar” is hyphenated in my dictionary, so even though the non-hyphenated version exists, why choose a more obscure form with identical spelling? I am reminded of whistling kippers again. “tops” was also weak – I had all the crossers before deciding that this had to be the solution, but even then had to check my parsing with Andrew’s, which suggests it was not convincing. And “S” for double hook in “untwist” – surely a double hook is one you can hang two things on, not an s-shaped hook (called, oddly enough, an “s hook”). I don’t feel bad at not being able to parse that – I still don’t think it works!

    Having said all that I really liked “lap”, “for”, “incan”, “bucolic”, “fidgety”, “strange” and “auk”. Thanks Nutmeg for many delights here.

     

  15. Thank you Nutmeg and Andrew.

    I echo George Clements @5.  We have been given the Spock treatment today by the editor, thoroughly spoilt – I wonder if this brought Truby King to  the mind of ngaiolaurenson @12, only 10 minutes a day of cuddling allowed for baby …

  16. V. good – echo above, that Nutmeg on top of Arachne suggests dearth of fine surfacing immediately ahead.

    COTD has to be 4d – more power them!  Thanks Nutmeg & Andrew for commentry.

  17. Most of this went in quickly for me. I thought I had conquered it until a final check showed that Skara Flow (the only one I couldn’t parse) should have been SCAPA FLOW, which still took me several minutes to parse. Didn’t know either flow pre-Google, or GAMBADO or DOR-BEETLE, but got those two thanks to Nutmeg’s fine cluing. Lots to like, and I especially enjoyed INCAN, which brought to mind yesterday’s tinned potatoes from Arachne. Thanks to Nutmeg and Andrew.

  18. Thank you Nutmeg and Andrew. A treat to have two witty delights in a row.

    One minor pedantic point – the correct reference is either Orkney (singular) or the Orkney Islands. Off there again this summer.

  19. Thanks ti Nutmeg and Andrew. Lovely puzzle which largely unpacked quite readily thanks to immaculate cluing. Got myself hand up a bit on 13d (LOI) by convincing myself it began with super. However read the clue more carefully and all became clear. I am another fan of bath towel and I also liked pimpled and bucolic. Thanks again to Nutmeg and Andrew.

  20. Cookie@15- no I didn’t think of Truby King till you mentioned him, thankfully professional advice re babies these days is much more pragmatic and relaxed.

  21. A gentler solve than yesterday’s where I had the same parsing challenges as several people above – SCAPA and TOPSPIN. GAMBADO was also new for me as was DOR-BEETLE – which seemed perfectly fair to me thezed@13 – had the O been the crosser it would have been down to GK. Thanks to Nutmeg and Andrew.

  22. Slowed down by initially having SUPPRESSION for 13d (“on” weakly parsed as coming from “aiming to”) which made the beetle hard to get.
    I’ve come across my “‘s”=”ive” blind spot before. I must try to add it to my parser.
    Many thanks to Nutmeg and Andrew. Favourites were 24a, 26a and 17d.

  23. Sorry, that should be “<setter>’s”=”ive” (if I’ve got my HTML right, and if that’s how to get the “less than” and “greater than” symbols into my post).

  24. What a nice puzzle. Seems that everybody had trouble with the same clues 2d, 17d, 24a and 28a. My favourites were the three letter clues. Thanks to setter and blogger.

  25. Some very nice clues though I couldn’t get on Nutmeg’s wavelength so several really should have got quicker and several I failed to parse.

    I googled “gambado” and “gambado” dance and came up with nothing, but the wordplay and crossers didn’t leave much doubt. Just tried “gamabado definition” and found this – but still not quite a dance!

    https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/gambado

     

  26. Doing crosswords has improved my vocabulary over the years, if only to do other crosswords. I ran into DOR-BEETLE just a few weeks ago, but of course can’t remember where – I do collections too. A site search revealed nothing, so it must have been in one of those tree-books.

  28. I was chuffed to finish this, whilst parsing the lot. LOI was Respected which I’d guessed much earlier, but struggled with the parsing until I entered it in the grid and had a long hard stare at it. Loved the “tops” in topspin, personally – but then I use it in that sense frequently. Knew Dor-Beetle from a videogame – probably Animal Crossing, or maybe another charming Japanese one where you engage in fishing and bug-hunting and the like. I tried to parse “untwirl” for 7 Down (with the R and the L being 2 hooks). Couldn’t get that to quite fit, but by happy coincidence it gave me the “twi” to realise I needed a twit.

     

  29. I had problems with the same clues as some others but everything was gettable. I must admit to not bothered to parse ST AUGUSTINE which was the only Saint I could think of which fitted.
    A nice,gentle and elegant puzzle.
    Thanks Nutmeg.

  30. Thanks to Nutmeg for a very enjoyable puzzle and to Andrew for the explanations. I got through almost all of it without much trouble, but I didn’t know SCAPA FLOW, so a DNF for me.

    Like others, I also didn’t know DOR-BEETLE or GAMBADO, but in those cases the wordplay + crossers got me to the solutions.

    My only minor quibble was that I took “dogging” as a containment indicator like Andrew, and I don’t think it really works as one. (Even the “infest” meaning that Andrew notes seems like it should work the other way around.)  But beaulieu @2 put that to rest. This parsing is surely the right one.

     

     

  31. I found this at the easier end of Nutmeg’s range. EMPATHY was my favorite. I failed with the parsing of TOPSPIN and POSTWAR (completely overlooked the “with” in the clue). I also read “dogging” as “following”.
    Thanks, Andrew and Spice girl.

    Marienkaefer@18 Does that apply to the Shetland Islands too? i.e. Shetland or the Shetland Islands.

  32. Thanks to Andrew and Nutmeg

    A very nice solve. LOI TOPSPIN: it had to be, but it took me a while to see TOPS = NO MORE – perfectly fair and a nice little oh of course, when it clicked.

    One man’s GK is another’s….. etc, but I thought the scuttling at Scapa Flow was almost as famous as the sinking of the Titanic

  33. Thanks to Nutmeg and Andrew. We are being spoilt.
    I’m just left wondering why a pimp is considered to be more exploitative than, say, a literary agent…

  34. Not sure what to make of this one…enjoyed some of it loads. Got about 2/3 albeit some unparsed (eg respected).

    I’ve heard of Scapa Flow and wrote it in the margin, but ‘it’ = sex appeal (I get that bit) = SA? Does anyone shorten sex appeal to SA? Really?

    Ok I’ve decided, my pet hate must be abbreviations only used in crossword land!

  35. Stuart @ 34
    I wonder which expression is the more dated IT or SA?
    Time was when Nancy’s = “French for” might have thrown me but now it has become commonplace – about once a week recently. It seems to have replaced Nice. Not that Nutmeg would have been aware of this when compiling the puzzle.
    Thanks to her and to Andrew, clear and helpful as usual.

  36. Thanks for the puzzle and blog, Nutmeg and Andrew. Took me a while but enjoyed cracking it. I liked 12a ST AUGUSTINE and 18d PIMPLED. LOI was 24a SCAPA FLOW which I only spotted from the crossers and knew was vaguely to do with Scotland. For this and some other parsings the blog was helpful – and the comments/discussion interesting.

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