Guardian Cryptic 27,868 by Pasquale

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The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27868.

Normally, when the first clue is a write-in, I think I am in for an easy time, but not here: there is enough misdirection to keep most of us on our toes, and the bottom half remained nearly empty for far too long. I think I was in the room twice when Strictly Come Dancing was on, so I have spent more time on researching 16,17 than the rest of the puzzle – I hope I am missing something obvious to followers of the programme, because it seems wildly obscure to me.

Across
1 STAND-UP Comic friend of Ollie attending party in Belfast (5-2)
A charade of STAN (Laurel, ‘friend of Ollie” Hardy) plus DUP (the Democratic Unionist ‘Party in Belfast’, which has been getting some mileage in crosswords recently).
5 ATISHOO In dispute, heard report of expulsion (7)
Sounds like (‘heard’) AT ISSUE (‘in dispute’).
10 OMSK City‘s form is OK, every now and then (4)
Alternate letters (‘every now and then’) of ‘fOrM iS OK‘.
11 BEATITUDES One union in debates spouting pious words (10)
An envelope (‘in’) of I (‘one’) plus TU (Trade ‘Union’) in BEATDES, an anagram (‘spouting’) of ‘debates’.
12 TUNDRA Container for ale, mostly dull and plain (6)
A charade of TUN (‘container for ale’) plus DRA[b] (‘dull’) minus its final letter (‘mostly’).
13 BEDEWING Sprinkling part of garden on eastern side (8)
A charade of BED (‘part of garden’) plus E (‘eastern’) plus WING (‘side’).
14 FARSEEING Like a prophet travelling once around Rome, say (9)
An envelope (‘around’) of SEE (‘Rome, say’ – a change from Ely) in FARING (‘travelling once’ – and still is, I would say, at least in the combination seafaring).
16, 17 BEACH BALLS Second-rate ‘Strictly’ particip­ant entertaining one and all — such may offer fun at Blackpool? (5,5)
The wordplay puzzles me: the best I can make of it is an envelope (‘entertaining’) of EACH (‘one and all’) in B (‘second-rate’) plus BALLS (Ed, ex-MP, and ‘ ‘Strictly’ participant’ – he was one of the 15 celebrities in the 14th. season). Johnny Ball and his daughter Zoë are far more prominently associated with the show – Strictly Come Dancing, to give it its full title (and Johnny, with last place in the 10th. season, might be the best fit for ‘second-rate’)- but that would leave the final S hanging, and I can find no justification for it as an abbreviation for ‘such’.
17   See 16
19 VERBOSITY Is brevity so different? Yes! (9)
An anagram (‘different’) of ‘brevity so’, with an apposite extended definition.
23 GIGAWATT Performance by a Kentish rebel not half showing a lot of power (8)
A charade of GIG (‘performance’) plus ‘a’ plus WAT T[yler] (‘Kentish rebel’, leader of the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381) minus the latter four letters (‘not half’).
24 REGARD See paper suffering setback — get angry about it (6)
An envelope (‘about it’) of GAR, a reversal (‘suffering setback’) of RAG (‘paper’) in RED (‘angry’).
26 INSOUCIANT Casual home worker, collecting very little money, starts to complain intensely (10)
An envelope (‘collecting’) of SOU (‘very little money’) plus C I (‘starts to Complain Intensely’) in IN (‘home’) plus ANT (‘worker’).
27 VIAL Bottle of essential medicament finally disposed of (4)
A subtraction: VI[t]AL (‘essential’) minus the T (‘medicamenT finally disposed of’).
28 ENVYING Wanting to be like opponents at table competing (7)
A charade of EN (East and North, bridge ‘opponents at table’)plus VYING (‘competing’).
29 REPLAYS Recordings of songs introduced by agent (7)
A charade of REP (‘agent’) plus LAYS (‘songs’).
Down
2 TEMPURA Food and drink for entertaining politician leading old city (7)
An envelope (‘for entertaining’; I think that ‘for’ does not sit too happily here) of MP (‘politician’) plus (‘leading’) UR (‘old city’ – about as old as they come) in TEA (‘drink’).
3 NAKED End troubled about a king in the altogether (5)
An envelope (‘about’) of ‘a’ plus K (‘king’) in NED, an anagram (‘troubled’) of ‘end’.
4 UMBRAGE Offence caused by display of buttocks, bishop coming down with anger (7)
A charade of UMB, which is BUM (‘buttocks’) with the B moved to the end (‘bishop coming down’ in a down light) plus RAGE (‘anger’).
6 TRIODE Short journey with poem in the Tube (6)
A charade of TRI[p] (‘journey’) minus its last letter (‘short’) plus ODE (‘poem’).
7 SQUAWKERS Friends gathering around wife — after end of troubles they cry (9)
A charade of S (‘end of troubleS‘) plus QUAWKERS, an envelope (‘gathering around’) of W (‘wife’) in QUAKERS (‘Friends’ -‘gathering’ might be transferred here).
8 OCEANIC Abuse of cocaine widespread? (7)
An anagram (‘abuse of’) of ‘cocaine’.
9 CARBON NEUTRAL Vehicle on notable run aiming to be eco-friendly (6,7)
A charade of CAR (‘vehicle’) plus BONNEUTRAL, an anagram (‘aiming’) of ‘notable run’.
15 SALTATORY Strong man turning up, politician dancing and jumping (9)
A charade of SALTA, a reversal (‘turning up’ in a down light) of ATLAS (‘strong man’) plus TORY (‘politician’).
18 AVIGNON Tricky navigation — a time one must leave city with a bridge (7)
An anagram (‘tricky’) of ‘navig[ati]on’, minus (‘must leave’) ATI (‘a time one’), for the Pont d’Avignon, where on y danse without worrying about traffic, as it ends in the middle of the Rhône.
20 BAROTSE African people go off into depot (7)
An envelope (‘into’) of ROT (‘go off’) in BASE (‘depot’). Happily a simple wordplay; apparently they live mainly in Zambia.
21 TARTARY Volunteers having to hang around a large area once (7)
An envelope (‘having’) of TA (the one in the middle; ‘Volunteers’ who live on at least in crosswordland) in TARRY (‘hang around’; I was torn between making ‘around’ part of the envelope indicator or here).
22 GASCON Boaster‘s idle talk, something to fool you? (6)
A charade of GAS (‘idle talk’) plus CON (‘something to fool you’).
25 GAVEL Paid pounds for something at auction (5)
A charade of GAVE (‘paid’) plus L (‘pounds’). But it was not for sale!
completed grid

41 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,868 by Pasquale”

  1. I will take my cue from the excellent 19a (the clue, not the answer) and be brief.

    I hope this puzzle puts the final nail in the coffin of the outdated notion that puzzles increase gradually in difficulty through the week.

    Thanks for the toughie, Pasquale, and the blog, PeterO .

  2. Yes there were some hard ones in this offering from Pasquale. Good to be kept on my toes though. I couldn’t fully parse 14a FARSEEING or 16/17a BEACH BALLS. I guessed 22d GASCON from the wordplay, then checked online to be sure as it was unfamiliar. Similar experience with 20d BAROTSE. My favourites were 5a ATISHOO, 11a BEATITUDES and 13a BEDEWING (what a beautiful word!), though first prize went to 19a VERBOSITY, as already acclaimed by Dr. Whatson@1.

    Heaps of gratitude to Pasquale, and to PeterO for a great blog.

  3. Thanks Pasquale and PeterO

    Yes some tricky ones. A couple of off-the-wall anagram indicators (“spouting” and “aiming”). I had no idea of the parsing of 16,17 either – you have more experience of the programme than I do, PeterO! – or TARTARY. I needed a wordsearch for BAROTSE.

    I thought that the surface of 2d didn’t make sense and could surely have been improved. “End trouble about a king exposed” perhaps?

    Favourite was ATISHOO.

    I still remember being disappointed when, aged about 12, I visited Avignon with my parents and discovered the bridge doesn’t even go all the way across!

  4. Man, this was tough. Especially 16, 17 where I didn’t know, had no way of knowing, that “strictly” was referring to a British TV show. But surely since this Mr. Balls was on it that’s good enough? BAROTSE was a journey, as I suspect it was for most. But I found enough to enjoy to persevere. But I hope Dr. WhatsOn @1 is correct.

    Thanks Pasquale and PeterO.

  5. This was hard-going.

    New for me were BAROTSE, TRIODE.

    I could not parse 27a VIAL, or BEACH BALLS (still do not really get it – it seems very niche GK to me). The word ‘strictly’ made me think of the movie Strictly Ballroom rather than the TV show but I could not parse the BALLS part.

    Thanks P+P.

  6. I forgot to add that I failed to solve 5a, 14a, 23a. I spent way too much time on this puzzle today!

  7. Not one to do on a train with no internet connection.

    I too once accidentally walked into a room with ‘Strictly’ on and it was all shouting and screaming. Got out as soon as I could!

     

  9. Re 16/17ac – the ref is possibly v Brito-centric but it is certainly a ref to the politician Ed Balls.  He was a big hit on Strictly (the TV show) in an odd kind of way – in that we Brits were appalled, fascinated but hugely amused by his awful/awfully funny performances.  He achieved a kind of national treasure status because he completely abandoned all claims to dignity and gave it his all.  Thanks PeterO, I always enjoy your blogs, and thanks to Pasquale aka Lizard (or so the Forum seems to suggest) for a very clever and witty piece of work.

  10. miuffin@8 who can forget that Tom Lehrer-an re Avignon, the time Io was there , Hiele restaurant had me saying “what bridge?”

    Great puzzle and blog. Thanks all.

  11. Too tough for me, I’m afraid. I even convinced myself that the totally obscure Besprent might do for 13 ac. A DNF therefore this morning

  12. I don’t see the problem with 16,17. B is second class, Balls was in Strictly (I didn’t watch it, but couldn’t fail to know it), each means one and all, and beach balls are such as may offer fun at the seaside.

  14. I was beaten this time. I’m especially annoyed about not spotting the Quakers reference, since I am one!

  15. Far too much obscure knowledge. A triode IS thermionic valve. Common knowledge to a 70’s physics graduate. Then know in US they are called tubes. That one wao easy for me. Some others were wtf. Not fair play imho

  16. This was typical of my experience with this setter: lots of great clues, of which several defeated me completely, and a few new words added to my vocabulary. In particular, we Yanks don’t write ATISHOO to represent a sneeze (not a complaint – after all, it is an English puzzle). I thought SQUAWKERS was brilliant after I finally revealed it. Thanks to Pasquale and PeterO.

  17. All of the obscure solutions are fairly clued, but there are a lot of them, even by Pasquale’s standards!

    Thanks to Pasquale and PeterO

  18. A real challenge at the end with a few slow to yield including the unknowns BAROTSE and GASCON. I did like SQUAWKERS and the quaint sounding BEDEWING. I had no idea what was going on in 16,17a – thanks for the explanation.

    Like muffin @8, OMSK reminded me of Tom Lehrer. I am never forget the day…

    Thanks to Pasquale and PeterO.

  19. TARTARY & SALTATORY (isn’t that what you do with slugs?) ultimately defeated me but the clues were there, if only I had eyes to see. ATISHOO & VERBOSITY were fun. BAROTSE and GASCON required Google, to check they were correct. Tough in parts but enjoyable throughout.

    Thank you to Pasquale and PeterO.

  20. Re3d, in the altogether ‘ is a common expression meaning naked. Really tough but great puzzle.

  21. Veronica @20

    Yes, it is. I wasn’t questioning the definition. It’s just that it doesn’t make sense with the rest of the clue; at the very least there’s no misdirection as “in the altogether” can’t mean anything else but “naked”*. (I think my go @3 is better, but I would, wouldn’t I?)

    Myrvin @12

    Perhaps you couldn’t fail to know that Ed Balls was in Strictly, but I certainly could!

    *e.g. in a Quick crossword “in the altogether” would be used by itself to clue NAKED.

  22. Thank you to Pasquale and Peter0.

    Tough, after the write in at 1ac.

    Muffin and Veronica – I wonder if 2dn is a nod to to Danny Kaye in the film “Hans Christian Anderson”:

    The King is in the altogether, but altogether, the altogether He’s altogether as naked as the day that he was born The King is in the altogether, but altogether, the altogether It’s altogether the very least the King has ever worn”. 

  23. Marienkaefer @22

    Yes, I’m sure that’s where the expression comes from.

    btw I looked up your “handle”. What a lovely name!

  24. muffin @23 – it is now pounding round my head.

    Yes Marienkaefer is one of many lovely German words.  I am neither German, nor, as is commonly supposed female! To cut a long story short, some young German children I babysat for loved the word “Ladybird” and gave the name to the red and black family car.  So I returned the compliment.

  25. Indeed a tricky puzzle, with a few DNKs such as SALTATORY, BAROTSE and the other meaning of GASCON, but they were solvable from the clues and crossers. Once you figured 16a to be BEACH then what could 17a be apart from Party or Balls? FOI was NAKED, remembering the Danny Kay song as earlier said. COD GIGAWATT, great clue!

    Thanks for an enjoyable morning, Pasquale. Thanks also for the blog PeterO and all.

  27. “In the altogether” for “naked” long predates the HCA song (written by Frank Loesser, by the way) – the OED has quotes from George du Maurier’s Trilby (1894) and The Grand Duke (W S Gilbert, 1896).

     

  28. Andrew @27

    Thanks for that – it makes it even less cryptic, doesn’t it? Rather a poor clue for Pasquale.

  29. Thanks to PeterO and to Pasquale. Sorry, not for me and a decided DNF. It seemed to have been compiled as an exercise in the use of as many abstruse words as possible – the sort of thing I associate more with The Times of yesteryear, or Leonard Sach’s speeches.

  30. Late to the party again – my excuse was brush cutting an massively overgrown patch of weeds all day. I read the comments with a bit of confusion, and not until JohnB @ 29 did I see a dissenting voice so let me add mine.

    Neither “spouting” nor “aiming” is an anagram indicator of any merit. In fact, “run” in 9d is a better one, which had me looking to anagram “notable” on its own. “Atishoo” I thought dreadful. I have always heard the word as “a-tishoo” not “at issue” so it is not a homophone at all. Also I felt “widespread” as a definition for “oceanic” pretty weak. In a few clues the surface seemed to triumph over the grammar – the “for” in 2dn was noted by PeterO, the absence of an envelope indicator in “tartary” which I could not parse being two examples. Finally “tube” is really an Americanism – they are valves here, so that ought to be indicated.

    Lots of good clues too, especially “gigawatt” and “verbosity” but just too difficult for the wrong reasons IMHO.

  31. thezed @30

    I mentioned “spouting” and “aiming” @3. I also agree about the weakness of “widespread” for OCEANIC. However I can’t see how you can make any significant distinction between ATISHOO and “at issue” – and I am well known for taking issue “homophones” 🙂

  33. Thanks, PeterO and Pasquale.

    I’m also later than usual – out until mid-afternoon and once I was home the tennis was all-absorbing.

    Nothing to add to comments about the rest of the clues but I’m surprised not to see a mention – unless I’ve missed it – for 1ac, which I thought was a little gem, for its construction and surface. I don’t usually expect a lot of smiles from Pasquale puzzles* but this clue set me off in a good mood – and I liked the Strictly one, too [many thanks for the link, bagel @13].

    [*but Pasquale’s brilliant ‘Pasquale, inside working, using long obscure words  😉 (14)’  [25,968]  is in my little book of classics.]

  34. muffin @31 (and 32) Apologies if I did not explain correctly. It’s about where the pause and stress lie. I say (and have always heard a’ (pause) tishoo so it would be a homonym with what you might sneeze into. This homonym requires the pronunciation at’ (pause) issue which is not what I hear. Not a rhotic/otherwise thing I suspect.

    Eileen @33 One of my favourite words. I’m sure I’ve seen foot-and-a-half hot dogs in the USA but somehow no-one ever referred to them by that word 🙂

  36. We thought this was quite hard. As newbies, we’re not really yet into the aesthetics of surfaces – getting an answer and parsing and completing is great – so the comments here are educational. Also love the occasional outbursts of pedantry: that regarding angstroms yesterday a fine example. And today over the pronunciation of ATISHOO! Particular thanks to muffin for the Tom Lehrer link. What a talent he was. And to setter and blogger, of course.

  37. Thanks to both as for me this was a trial. First quick read through had me enter DANCE HALLS and INCIDENTAL for 16a and 26a. When you look at the real answers you can see I had quite a bit of trouble for a long time. Eventually things got sorted but it was not a before lunch effort. The bits I thought dodgy others have mentioned so I will blame it on my badly sprained ankle which was a result of aquaplaning in a tropical downpour in Singapore. It is nice to be home again.

  38. As well as the routine posted by bagel@13, Ed Balls survived on Strictly for enough weeks to dominate the songs as well as the dance routines – one of his later appearances featured the chorus “Goodness Gracious, Ed Balls of Fire”. I think John Sargent (BBC political journalist) is his only serious rival as an obviously hopeless dancer who caught the the public fancy – for weeks the viewers refused to vote him off the show, and it was said the BBC were seriously worried he might win the whole thing and make the contest look ridiculous……..It was an early example of concerns that a public vote might produce an embarrassing result, (followed by Boaty McBoatface, and a referendum, and then who knows what?). Better stick to the safer complexities of the crossword- for which thanks to setter and blogger.

  39. Having little better to do, I just looked up onlne the lyrics of Ring, a Ring o’ Roses. Strangely perhaps, the last line is written thus: “A tissue, a tissue, We all fall down.”
    If that’s the issue at issue, then it seems homophonic enough to me.
    (PS: NOT homophobic, btw, which my phone was trying to insist I say!(

  41. @3 muffin I interpreted the anagrind as ‘aiming to be’, rather than just ‘aiming’.  It’s still not brilliant but I thought made a certain sense.

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