Guardian Cryptic 27,873 by Arachne

by

Spicier than the usual Monday, and it’s always nice to see Arachne on any day of the week. Lovely surfaces and wordplay, with plenty of smiles and some outright laughs – favourites were 14ac, 25ac, 26ac, 1dn, 21dn, and 22dn. Thanks to Arachne.

Across
7 GREY WATER Vagrant grew teary, consequence of having bath? (4,5)
=household waste water from baths, sinks etc
(grew teary)*
8 PITHY Terse husband gripped by shame (5)
H (husband) inside PITY=”shame”
9 LASSITUDE Lads use it, suffering lethargy (9)
(Lads use it)*
10 FINNS Northerners and fellow boozers (5)
F (Fellow) + INNS=”boozers”, places to drink
12 THRUST Without any energy, three use tee for drive (6)
THRee USe Tee, minus every e for “energy”
13 AIRTIGHT Look mean, having no weaknesses (8)
AIR=someone’s bearing or outward appearance=”Look” + TIGHT=”mean” with money
14 FIEFDOM Lord’s holding first of enquiries into unruly mid-off (7)
first letter of Enquiries going into (mid-off)*
17 WEEPING Leader shunning wholesale evidence of misery (7)
SWEEPING=”wholesale” as in ‘sweeping/wholesale changes’, minus the leading letter S
20 ALFRESCO Duke excluded from king’s company outside (8)
D (Duke) removed from ALFRED‘S=”king’s” + CO (Company)
22 SHAGGY Unkempt chap exhausted after long nap (6)
GUY=”chap”, “exhausted”/emptied out; after SHAG=coarse fabric, with “long nap” meaning fuzzy texture
24 KNOWS Is aware Primark now sells sandwiches (5)
hidden in PrimarK NOW Sells
25 LIQUIDITY Arachne ultimately got by on £51 in cash (9)
I=the setter=”Arachne”, plus ultimate letters of goT bY; all after LI=”51″ in roman numerals + QUID (£)
26 DEALT Delivered letter: ending taken to heart (5)
DELTA=Greek “letter”, with the ending A moved to the centre/”heart” of the word
27 SEVENTEEN Prime case of extortion following incident in Home Counties (9)
=a prime number
the “case” or outer letters of ExtortioN, after EVENT=”incident” in SE=South East, “Home Counties”
Down
1 BREACH Parting buttocks audibly (6)
homophone of ‘breech’=”buttocks”
2 DYESTUFF Right time to put on pants and woad? (8)
YES=’acknowledged’=”Right” + T (time); inside DUFF=poor quality=”pants”
3 PAST IT Decrepit old man’s boob (4,2)
PA’S=”old man’s” + TIT=”boob”
4 DEADPAN Expressionless bloody monster (7)
I think this is: DEAD=intensifying adjective=”bloody” + PAN=Greek god with some of the features of a goat=”monster”
5 BIKINI Two-part coverage of British couple stopped by relatives (6)
B (British) + II=two in Roman numerals=”couple” around KIN=”relatives”
6 CHIN CHIN Good health of two mates, each with a shed (4-4)
‘china plate’ is rhyming slang, so CHINA CHINA=”two mates”; each with A shed/discarded
11 URGE Strongly recommend 50% reduction in your wage (4)
50% of the letters removed from yoUR waGE
15 ISLANDER Manxwoman one defames? (8)
I SLANDER=”one defames”
16 OR SO Loves to pinch scientists roughly (2,2)
O=zero=’Love’ in tennis, so OO=”Loves”, around RS (Royal Society)=”scientists”
18 PLAUDITS Praise extremely powerful reviews (8)
extreme letters of PowerfuL + AUDITS=”reviews”
19 MONIKER Name of man embracing love goddess (7)
MR=”man” around O=”love” [again!] + NIKE=Greek “goddess”
21 REWILD Most weirdly, bats return to natural habitat (6)
(weirdly)* – but only “Most” of the letters, not the final y
22 SOUSED Then finally you kiss me, blind drunk (6)
SO=”Then”, plus final letters from yoU kisS mE blinD
23 GUTTER Threaten to go out to speak after close of meeting (6)
definition in the sense of a flame flickering out
UTTER=”speak” after the closing letter to meetinG

48 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,873 by Arachne”

  1. A lovely Monday morning surprise – a treat from Arachne – too many favourites to list them all

    Thanks to her and to manehi

  2. I suspect another one to accidentally slip into the Monday slot.

    As always, some great clues from Arachne but a few such as DYESTUFF and LIQUIDITY too contrived in both definition and clueing IMHO.

  4. Woo hoo – great start to week with Arachne.

    24a and 26a liked most, but they’re all good. Not sure as to why pants=duff (not Chambers (but 1990 vintage)), but answer clear.

    10a recalls wild party with a party of said peoples in younger days in London – we woz young then. Thanks Arachne & Manehi

    Chin chin !

  5. Fantastic treat and a lovely surprise.  My parsing of 4d was same as yours manehi but I was/am not entirely happy with it.  Many thanks.

  6. Thanks both. I think that the PAN in 4d is “review harshly” which is also “monster” in modern parlance

  7. Some delightful and witty clues. Counts as a dnf I suppose as although DEADPAN had crossed my mind, I couldn’t justify its presence. Still not entirely convinced.

    Another grid that was nearly four mini crosswords, not as bad as some that only have the one link but close.

    Thanks to both setter and blogger

  8. As above – a slightly frustrating grid which broke rapidly into independent puzzles and some imaginative, inventive wordplay. Those looking for a gentle Monday should go back to Nutmeg’s prize on Saturday! Anyone whose nerves are frazzled by [Wimbledon|World Cup Cricket] should take a long nap.

    Thanks Manehi for explaining “Chin-Chin”, the only one apart from “Deadpan” I was unsure of. I suppose if someone had killed Pan he might be bloody? Still a reach. And thank you Arachne – as ever, the surfaces were poetry (without the rhyme or meter).

  10. Wonderful stuff from Arachne, as ever. I completed the grid successfully, but did not parse ‘deadpan’ correctly or ‘dyestuff’ at all. Thanks to manehi and Shirl for the explanations.

  11. This was difficult for a Monday puzzle. Usually I manage to solve Arachne’s puzzles, but I failed DELTA, REWILD, DEADPAN and I could not parse 6d, 22d.

    My favourites were THRUST, MONIKER, DYESTUFF.

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

  12. Great fun in places, with some good challenging clues, though took me a while to decide on breach as loi…perhaps I should have shaken off the “this is a Monday puzzle, therefore it’s going to be fairly straightforward” mentality a little sooner.

  13. More difficult than we normally expect on a Monday, but some very good clues.  I really liked 10a and 24a which both raised a smile.

    I see there are some differences of opinion about the significance of PAN in 4d.  I thought it might have something to do with the prefix, as in Pan-African, Pan-American, indicating huge or all over the place.

    Many thanks Arachne and manehi.

  14. Thanks Arachne and manehi

    thezed @ 8: as per manehi’s blog, ‘dead’ is being used as an intensifying adjective, as in “That was dead / bloody good”.

  15. Been away from here for a while, but I had to add my smiles today. Light, bright, witty fun from Arachne. Just the right level of toughness for me. 16 down brought the biggest grin. Thanks Arachne and Manehi.

  20. Like others, I was delighted to find that today’s puzzle was an Arachne. I enjoyed the solve although DYESTUFF 2d took me ages to see, and I also had a question mark against PAN as a monster in DEADPAN. Thanks to those who revealed the latter to be a verb rather than a proper noun – a much more satisfying explanation, and I thought the use of “bloody” in that clue was very clever. “Vagrant” in 7a and “suffering” in 9a were interesting anagrinds. Many of my favourites have already been cited, but I would like to add 5d BIKINI, 15d ISLANDER and 23d GUTTER. I wonder what Anna will think of the FINNS clue at 10a.

    Many thanks to Arachne, manehi and forum commenters.

     

  21. Thanks Arachne and manehi

    Some lovely clues – FIEFDOM and SEVENTEEN were my favourites, but I found a lot of it difficult to solve and harder to parse. The bottom half took ages.

    I failed to parse SHAGGY (I didn’t think of the fabric), DEALT, BREACH (I didn’t connect “breech” with “buttocks” – Google tells me it’s “archaic”), DYESTUFF, DEADPAN or SOUSE; hence I didn’t enjoy it as much as most Arachne puzzles.

  22. With the other possible parsings revealed here, 4d goes from least to most favourite clue. Took me ages to get that one and I never did get the parsing for myself. Tried to fit in red at either end and then raw at end before penny dropped. Wonderful start to the week. Thanks Arachne and manehi.

  25. Thank you Arachne and manehi – thanks also to Shirl @6.

    A lovely surprise for Monday.  Too many favourites to list, but I failed to parse DYESTUFF.

  26. News, Alan Turing is the new face on the Bank of England’s £50 note, perhaps part of Arachne’s cash in 25a?

  27. Thanks to Arachne and manehi. I thought this was going to be a breeze at first with lots going in an first few passes. However, quickly ground to a halt with the right hand side (particularly the SE) holding me up. In the end a DNF for me because I could not for the life of me get liquidity and consequently moniker. I also had deadpan with a query, but overall still an enjoyable challenge, and thanks again to Arachne and manehi.

  29. I’m afraid to say I was quite put off by the many clues that required knowledge of British slang, but persevered anyway. REWILD wasn’t a word I knew, DUFF = PANTS (two in one clue?). A bit of a stretch to get PITY for shame. DNK breech for buttocks, archaic indeed. However all of them were solvable from the wordplay and crossers. My COD was ALFRESCO.

    Thanks to setter and bloggers.

  32. Thanks both,
    A nice Monday surprise.
    I am another defeated by 19d and 25a. When will I remember ‘see u think q’.

  33. Who says Monday’s has to be easy? – and it wasn’t, but plenty of the trademark wit and webiness.

    I was another failing to parse DEADPAN. I particularly liked FIEFDOM, ALFRESCO, SHAGGY, PAST IT and SOUSED.

    Thanks Arachne and manehi.

  34. I’m always excited to see Arachne’s name, even if it portends a harder than usual Monday. A quick start today, followed by a number of chewier clues, especially in the southeast corner. ALFRESCO was a favorite, and BREACH was smutty humor worthy of Paul.

    Thanks to Arachne and manehi.

  35. Roberto @29 “Rewild” is the in thing in the eco world these days. There is much talk of rewilding wolves in the UK and a lot fo studying of their impact in the USA, for example in Yellowstone. It’s a fascinating example of the complexity and interconnectedness of ecosystems, that one cannot simply “put things back” (though there is a plan to change the ecology of the Cairngorm area back by a couple of hundred years if I recall correctly).

  37. thezed@35, we learn something new every day from these puzzles! Very interesting, and something to spend some research time on.

  39. I dragged up that meaning of “guttered” (23) from a schoolboy memory of the second line of John Masefield’s “The Rider at the gate”!

  40. I had LIQUIDATE, which works nearly as well:  the E is “Arachne ultimately,” with “ultimately” doing double duty to also signify it’s at the end of the sequence, getting AT (“by”) on (after) the 51 quid.   With “cash” defining a verb rather than a noun.

  41. I had liquidate too. I only just noticed that it’s not the intended answer. Works for me. I parsed exactly as mrpenny.

  42. Got to this late and thought I’ll knock this speedily but,er, I didn’t. Definitely not an easy Monday fix and not the best Arachne I’ve done. Still, there were some goodies- MONIKER (LOI and fabulous) LIQUIDITY,ALFRESCO,PITHY and CHIN CHIN. Didn’t care much for SHAGGY and I had to guess WEEPING. Oh,I liked GUTTER too.
    Thanks Arachne.

  43. Lovely surprise for a Monday, although it was a DNGIAR for us (did not get it all right) as just did not see weeping and put in despond for some reason.
    One caveat: Exhausted chap for gy? I really hate it when compilers mess about with words not in the clue, especially short ones. Just about ANYTHING goes these days short of the verboten anagram. But this was even worse than Paul’s recent cluing of hi as ‘brief swipe’ whatever and I am despondently awaiting the first compiler to clue L as ‘pithy city’, at which point I will definitely be weeping. This sort of thing makes clues impossible to do from the construction and cryptic crosswords a slog rather than a joy.
    However, this was a joy on the whole. Many thanks, Arachne!

  44. Just like mrpenney (@40) and Xjpotter (@41) we entered LIQUIDATE too.
    And although we couldn’t be put right by any of the crossers, I always felt uncomfortable.

    For some it may work (as explained by mrpenney) but, for me, the use of ‘got’ made it dubious.
    I am OK with ‘by’ = ‘at’, even if I do not like replacing one preposition by another.
    ‘E got by’ ideally leads to E+AT and not AT+E.
    My main gripe is, however, the use of the past tense (‘got’ instead of ‘gets’).
    Setters who care about ‘cryptic grammar’ would avoid it and I am pretty sure Arachne is one of those.
    So, I was actually relieved that a fellow solver pointed at what we’d done wrong.

    Arachne on the occasional Monday is often Arachne in Quiptic mode but not today.
    Satisfying crossword, thoughout.

    Many thanks to manehi & Arachne.

  45. Well I came on here primarily to check it was as tricky as I found it so I’m glad it wasn’t just me being thick!

    In answer to Robi’s rhetorical question, ‘me’ – I will be that person who says Monday has to be easy…or at least easier! If the guardian wants to attract new players to its cryptics it seems fair enough? We don’t all like doing puzzles on our phones, maybe we could stick the Quiptic in the Monday paper and a toughie as an ‘online only’ cryptic for the experts? 😉

    Right, I only have a handful of yesterday’s Everyman to get, maybe I can finish that one…

  46. Very late in the day but just to say ta to Arachne and manehi and that I particularly liked SEVENTEEN. (Dare I offer that life would be a thad easier if contributors would trouble to spell out their favourites etc – it may be that you found 34a to be a thigh-slapper but I have to go check out the crossword or the blog to see what you’re talking about.) (Grumpy Alphalpha!! Bold Alphalpha!!) (Well it is Monday….)

  47. Like Yaffle somewhere above we’ve been away for a while – and what a treat to come back to an Arachne. It’s all been said – top stuff. Thanks to Arachne and manehi.

  48. As commented on the Guardian site, very much enjoyed this puzzle. Some new terms meant I didn’t fully finish: ‘Nike’ being a goddess not just a shoe; ‘Gutter’ in that sense. The layout was quite spiky too – very few first/last crossers to get a grip of, and not much in the way of connections between the quadrants. Luckily Arachne’s deft clueing completely redeemed it and made for a rewarding Monday – even more so given my second ever completion of a Quiptic that same day

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