Guardian Cryptic 27,880 by Nutmeg

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Some tricky cluing today leading to a slow start, but once I got going the grid was very helpful. Favourites were 9ac, 27ac, 6dn, 8dn, and 23dn. Thanks to Nutmeg for the fun puzzle.

Across
1 PRIMARY COLOURS Standard applied to first US election, of which there are three (7,7)
“Standard” as a in a flag = COLOURS; added after PRIMARY=”first [round of a] US election”
9 BREAK FREE Escape in one piece? (5,4)
‘break-free’=free from having any breaks=”in one piece?”
10 BATCH Particular delivery, necessity for cricket, voided catch (5)
BAT=”necessity for cricket” + CatcH “voided” i.e. with its insides removed
11 ISTLE Fibre for carpet tiles recycled (5)
=a Mexican plant fibre
(tiles)*
12 OVERTHROW Best or worst contribution to innings? (9)
=”Best” as a verb meaning to get the better of, overcome
also =a bad contribution to a cricket innings, where the fielding team gives away extra runs due to a poor throw
13 SLYBOOTS Fox repelled by digging into waste matter (8)
=a cunning or tricky person
BY inside STOOLS=”waste matter”; all reversed/”repelled”
14 GETS ON Manages boards (4,2)
double definition
17 E-BOOKS Recurrent award shows approval of eco-friendly publishing (1-5)
OBE=Order of the British Empire=”award” reversed/”recurrent”; plus OKS=gives the OK=”shows approval”
19 JUMBO JET Flyer rejected assignment in space during project (5,3)
JOB=”assignment” in EM=a unit of “space” in printing; all reversed/”rejected” and inside JUT=”project”
22 KEEP STILL Order to freeze work on fortifications (4,5)
TILL the soil=”work” after KEEPS=”fortifications”
24 LATTE Hot drink, second of two almost finished (5)
LATTEr=”second of two” without its finishing letter
25 NAIRN Port on the Moray Firth making appearance in news (5)
AIR=a person’s manner or “appearance” in two “new-s” N and N
26 KNOW-IT-ALL Wise guy currently packing gear for both sides (4-2-3)
NOW=”currently” inside KIT=”gear” + ALL as in ‘the football score is one all’=”for both sides”
27 BEWARE OF THE DOG Barking ‘woof’, eg, breathed apt warning (6,2,3,3)
(woof eg breathed)*
Down
1 PUBLIC SPEAKING Ordinary folk are reaching the top, something MPs must get used to? (6,8)
PUBLIC’S PEAKING=”Ordinary folk are reaching the top”
2 INERTLY Cross try line, giving no reaction (7)
(try line)*
3 ANKLE SOCK Lose knack winding short bit of hose (5,4)
(Lose knack)*
4 YARMOUTH Lad collaring member for IOW town (8)
=a town on the Isle of Wight
YOUTH=”Lad” around ARM=”member”
5 OPENER Utensil for cook with less guile? (6)
OPEN-ER as in ‘more open’=”with less guile?”
6 ORBIT Brief biography covering the start of Russian Revolution (5)
OBITuary=”biography”, shortened/”Brief” and around the starting letter of Russian
7 RETORTS Answers used by chemists? (7)
double definition, the second referring to vessels used for the heating and distillation of chemicals
8 SHOWING THE FLAG What Blue Peter presenter is presumably doing patriotically? (7,3,4)
the “Blue Peter” is a flag, someone presenting it would be SHOWING THE FLAG
15 EMBELLISH Deck me up rather like a Brontë sister? (9)
ME reversed/”up” + BELL-ISH=”rather like a Brontë sister”, who wrote under male pseudonyms with the surname Bell
16 BULLY OFF Tough side on field for start of match (5,3)
=a way of starting play in hockey
BULLY=”Tough” + OFF=the bat-hand side for a cricket field
18 ONE-TIME Former England 5 comes in promptly (3-4)
E=”England OPENER” using the solution to 5dn; inside ON TIME=”promptly”
20 JUTLAND Son’s left recently to settle WWI conflict (7)
=a naval battle in WWI
s (Son) leaving JUsT=”recently” + LAND=”settle”
21 TICKLE It’s said parasitic insect will irritate the skin (6)
Sounds like/”It’s said”: tick’ll=tick will=”parasitic insect will”
[though a tick isn’t an insect…]
23 SENNA Lady’s laid up? This should get her going (5)
=a plant used for its laxative effects
ANNE’S=”Lady’s” reversed/”laid up”

47 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,880 by Nutmeg”

  1. I thought this quite tricky for a Nutmeg but I did enjoy the solve n- my favourite was 27a

    Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi

  2. Thanks both. Enjoyed this – no theme that I could spot, so the setter was able to give us words that didn’t require electronic help to find.

  3. Some enjoyable clues and neat surfaces as ever but I thought the CDs/DDs were a stretch. Why “showing the flag” and not “raising the flag”? Why “keep still” and not “hold still”? Both work just as well and need crossers to sort them out, which is not a great sign. Some of the charades felt like a real stretch, and “beware of the dog” another where the surface was made to fit the anagram. Not Nutmeg’s best to my mind, though did “overthrows” get written before or after the cricket world cup final?

  4. Thanks for the blog, manehi – I’ll add EMBELLISH and the lovely ANKLE SOCK to your favourites.

    Very enjoyable – and I appreciated the reminder of NAIRN, which I visited once, a long time ago.

    Many thanks, Nutmeg.

  5. No stroll in the park. I’d never heard of BULLY OFF and the unknown SLYBOOTS went in as a half-parsed half guess. I was also held up by initially ‘flying the flag’ for 8d

    Another who liked the &littish BEWARE OF THE DOG.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi

  6. As always, a very enjoyable solve from Nutmeg. ‘Slyboots’ reminded me of Wilfred Shadbolt’s description of Phoebe inYeomen of the Guard.

  7. I was slow to get started on this, but I found it enjoyable in the end. My favourites were BEWARE OF THE DOG, SENNA, OVERTHROW, SLYBOOTS.

    New for me, but very fairly clued, were ISTLE, SLYBOOTS, NAIRN, SENNA.

    Thanks manehi and Nutmeg

    [ on a different subject, BoJo as UK PM later today? As Bette Davis/Margo Channing said in ‘All About Eve’: “Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night!”]

  9. Having worked at various times with two ladies (and a man) called Amene I had a different answer in 23 until the crossers ruled it out!

    Didn’t like bully for tough (they’re generally not), wondered if 1a should have been ‘standards’ and thought that clunkiness of 27 and error in 21 was very unlike Nutmeg. Otherwise some very fine clues with ankle sock probably the favourite.

    Thanks Nutmeg and mane hi

  10. BobW @8

    Under ‘recurrent’ the ODE has (Chambers and Collins have similar):”Anatomy (of a nerve or blood vessel) turning back so as to reverse direction”.

  11. Not easy, needed help with the geographical clues, WW1, hockey and the Mexican carpet. COD for me was SENNA. Thanks setter and bloggers.

  12. Took me a long time to get going on this too, with 1 Across and 1 Down not obvious at first glance. Not heard of Slyboots, made me think of the Brer Rabbit stories, with a smile…

  14. Thank you Nutmeg and manehi.

    I found this challenging, but fun.  BULLY OFF brought to mind hockey games played in the street as a child,  “Hockey one, shinty two, curly three and away” being chanted, if I remember rightly, as the sticks were struck together.

  15. Thanks to Nutmeg and Manehi. I really enjoyed this and found it easier than it first looked. Re TheZed’s comment about 8 down, I would just like to suggest that the word ‘presenter’ in the clue suggests ‘showing’ more than ‘raising’ as being part of the answer.

  16. I enjoyed this. Was held up a bit with pitch instead of batch, although it didn’t quite fit re parsing the clue, but once I thought of obit realised my mistake. Did like 27a as did many others, enjoying the surface very much. Also senna (never to be thought of in quite the same way) and embellish.

    Thanks to Nutmeg for the fun and Manehi for the blog

  17. For some reason I found this fairly easy, with the exceptoon of SLYBOOTS, a word I hadn’t seen before (though it is a good clue).
    The only niggle was the second definition of OVERTHROW. I’m not sure the fielding side can really contribute to an innings; their job is to prevent the batting side from doing so, and from the batters’ point of view, overthrows are a good thing. Also, from the fielders’ point of view, they are unlikely to be the worst “contribution”. But maybe the ? at the end makes the clue valid.

  18. Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi. I am another who found this tough to get into. However, given some perseverance it all began to unpack. However, then got stuck in the SE with jumbo jet (one of my favourites) embellish and gets on last ones. Very enjoyable and agree with all the favourites proposed, and thanks again to Nutmeg and manehi.

  19. Aging brain could NOT remember the term for the first stage of US presidential elections, a bit of a worry, and haven’t heard bully the hockey term for aeons, which is how long I seemed to stare at both of these. So, yes, a bit different from yesterday, and some lovely Nutmeg succinct surfaces. Took ages to parse slyboots, d’oh, and to remember Bell the pseudonym. And bunged in Agnes upside down at 23, so a dnf. Had to rush out, should have left it til now and had another think. Hey ho, fun tho, thanks N and M.

  20. There are more than three primary colours, though only three in any given set: CMY, RGB, BYR to my knowledge.

  21. Thanks Nutmeg and manehi

    Unusually for a Nutmeg puzzle, I wrote in a few very tentativley, as I wasn’t sure they were righ (mainly because of loose definitions) – BATCH, OVERTHROW and GETS ON. I also wondered about “tough” for BULLY, and the arachnid @21d. Not Nutmeg at her very best.

    On the other hand, I loved BREAK FREE and EMBELLISH.

  22. I think 12a ‘overthrow’ is a triple definition. ‘Best’ and ‘worst’ can both mean ‘to get the better of’, leaving the third definition as simply ‘contribution to innings’.

  24. Very little went in on the first pass today, with most clues requiring at least a few minutes thought before yielding. I had never heard of BULLY OFF, as the hockey ritual is commonly called a face-off over here, but with a few crossers it became clear. Having never counted the legs on a tick, I wasn’t bothered by 21d and had a smile at it. Also smiled at the obit described as a brief biography (although brief is serving a different purpose in the clue).

    Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi.

  25. Thanks for the blog and for parsing ’embellish’ which passed me by – although entered correctly, had to be with the crossers.

    Howard@8 – the human eye retina has cells tuned independently to RGB wavelengths – of course, with computers or other devices, one can express the perceptible  RGB colour palette as alternative linear combinations of RGB.

  27. A bully off to start a hockey match was replaced by a pish back years ago – strange nobody has pointed it out yet! Bully now a rarity, used only to re-start after a stoppage, say for an injury.

  30. I’ve recently taken up cryptics again due to my discovery of the online resources – hooray! – and retirement giving me more time on my hands, and I’m very much enjoying this site for general enlightenment. So, I parsed 16d a little differently from mahehi: I didn’t spot the cricketing reference (don’t know why not as the clues are stuffed with them!) and decided that the second word came from the letters on the left side of On Field For. Did anyone else think this? Is it legitimate?

  31. andysmith @25 Human colour perception is rather more complicated than that. The three different cone receptors most of us have are quite broad in their sensitivity. One is most sensitive in the blue and the other two in the green, one being closer to the red of that band. When we perceive red it is because that sensor is triggered much more strongly than the other. We see green when both are triggered more or less equally. It is very different from producing (the effect of) colours by addition of narrow bands of RGB e.g. from LEDs or from LCDs and filters (as was often the case in monitors and projectors). If our receptors were as narrow band as the emitters used in LED screens then there’d be plenty of colours that we’d not see at all, as they fell between the sensor ranges. An amazing amount of processing happens in the eye and optic nerve before even getting to the rest of the brain and it is fascinating stuff, especially when you consider how poor we are at emulating the eye by engineering.

    I’d get out more but I forget what colour my door is.

  32. There is a bit of a cricket theme – 10 and 12 ac, 16 and 18 dn, plus another at 5dn if we accept Charlie Bird’s excellent suggestion @29. I’m a bit surprised that our transatlantic contributors have not pointed this out, in their invariably courteous way.

    I found this easier than most Nutmegs, but unfortunately put in TURBO JET rather than JUMBO JET. It sort of worked at the time.

  34. AllyGally@30 – good to hear that you are back to cryptics, a good way to keep the brain active. Don’t think your parsing works though, it would have had to be “sides” instead.

  35. Re: tough = bully. I read it in the old slang sense of a tough (or alternatively a tough nut) being a rough or violent fellow. And hence, from that, a bully. Think 50s/60s comics: Alf Tupper, the Tough of the Track (although he was too noble to be a real tough; Dennis the Menace better fits the bill).

  36. 19a Did anyone else try STICK OUT for “project”?

    I loved 15d EMBELLISH — couldn’t think how to insert EMILY or ANNE (who was already in SENNA and so probably not eligible anyway) and CHARLOTTE was too long, and then …

    beaulieu @17 and manehi — I think “best and worst” is the definition, since oddly enough both words can mean “defeat.”

    howard@30 The primary colors in common discourse are red, blue and yellow, with purple, green and orange coming in as secondary.  I’m sure there are reasons in the science of optics to have different ones, but those are the ones we learn as children.

    Keyser @35 — Dennis the Menace was a small child who mainly asked awkward questions and sometimes ignorantly damaged things and was much too little to be a tough.

  38. Thanks to Manehi and to Nutmeg Today seems to be one of those rarities where I find a puzzle easier than tbe majority of contributors here. It’s been a while !

    I had to think about 1ac and 1d for a few minutes, but once I convinced myself I had this two everything else skied in quite easily. I will though admit to having to google Bell/Bronte and also SLYBOOTS which was a new word for me. What a lovely grid though !!

  40. Is waste= stools correct? I thought it should be stool. Found this of average difficulty just like her prize one of last week but one. LOI SENNA, COD 21d.

  41. According to Collins online, some ticks are insects, so I think Nutmeg is OK.
    I agree with greensward about OVERTHROW as a triple.
    Quite tough. BEWARE OF THE DOG was also my favourite.
    Thanks, manehi and Nutmeg

  42. Making an effort not to miss themes from now on, I wondered if (or possibly imagined that) there was a cricketing one going on: 10 across has ‘delivery’, ‘cricket’ and ‘catch’; 12 across has ‘innings’ and OVERTHROW; 5 down is OPENER and “cook”, a very successful batsman as pointed out by Charlie Bird @ 29 above; 16 down references the ‘off’ side, while 18 down features an England OPENER. Batsmen have been known to score runs or be caught as a result of a TICKLE, or subtle touch with the bat.  Cricket is topical at the moment.

    There was also a bit of rugby, some hockey and even SENNA of motor-racing fame who may have played cricket too (though I agree it is unlikely).

    Good stuff anyway. EMBELLISH and BREAK FREE were my favourites.  For EBO-OKS I just had to accept there was a usage of recurrent that I didn’t know. Last one in was SLYBOOTS, mainly because I was trying to justify INERTIA instead of INERTLY, having failed to spot a perfectly decent anagram.

    Thanks Nutmeg and manehi. I am heading back to the kitchen as I can’t stand this heat.

     

  43. I couldn’t settle to this largely because it’s too hot for my taste – but I thought this quite a good puzzle. The SW held out longest. I was looking for an actual cricketer for 18 dn,and I’d forgotten NAIRN. I did enjoy this. The political news wasn’t enjoyable though as we’ve decided to try and out-Trump Trump by “electing” our own priapic Mr Blobby!
    Thanks Nutmeg.

  44. Like most of the contributors here, I found this tough going but ultimately great fun with some lovely surfaces. I liked the fact that the theme was more subtle than they often are: I won’t mention recent themes as I was guilty of spoiling others’ enjoyment recently.

    Thanks Nutmeg for this offering today and to manehi for the insightful blog.

    I initially agreed with TheZed on 8d but Sheen has put me right.

    I really liked 1d once some of the crossers went in.

  46. Gaufrid @10 … not convinced.  “Turning back so as to reverse direction” in that sense requires some going forward before reversing, so a “recurrent award” would OBEBO or OBEEBO

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