Guardian Cryptic 27,889 by Pasquale

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27889.

The Don descends (none too happily, and I do not think it was a good idea in the first place) into Rufus territory, while retaining some of his trademark vocabulary jaunts. Some fun, but a mixed bag.

Across
1 COBBLES Maybe patches up Oxford‘s medieval road surface? (7)
Double definition – ‘Oxford’ being the shoe.
5 DISTAFF Women’s work in underground river in Wales (7)
A charade of DIS (‘underground’; the underworld in Roman mythology) plus TAFF (‘river in Wales’).
9 PILOT Holy group? Such may be looking to the skies (5)
A charade of PI (‘holy’ without the common pejorative slant) plus LOT (‘group’). Even a ship’s pilot may be interested in the sky.
10 BLUE PETER Unhappy lord outside Parliament finally gives indication of imminent departure (4,5)
An envelope (‘outside’) of T (‘ParliamenT finally’) in BLUE (‘unhappy’) plus PEER (‘lord’), for the flag that indicates that a ship is about to sail..
11 WATCH THE BIRDIE One’s snapped after being asked to do this (5,3,6)
Cryptic definition.
13 EXIT English team facing shoot-out ultimately making this? (4)
A charade of E (‘exit’) plus XI (eleven, ‘team’) plus T (‘shoot-ouT ultimately’) with (O ye of little faith) an extended definition.
14 LINGUIST One skilled in words banishing guilt and sin (8)
An angram (‘banishing’?) of ‘guilt’ plus ‘sin’.
17 TRIBADES Attempts to restrict naughty lesbians (8)
An envelope (‘to restrict’) of BAD (‘naughty’) in TRIES (‘attempts’).
18 USER Not all of you serve an exploitative type (4)
A hidden (‘not all of’) answer in ‘yoU SERve’.
21 MULTIFACTORIAL Dependent on a number of elements!!! … (14)
Definition and literalm interpretation: the shriek (‘!’) is the standard mathematical symbol for the factorial function.
23 TANTIVIES Time’s against jockeys making gallops (9)
A charade of T (‘time’) plus ANTI (‘against’) plus VIES (‘jockeys’, verb).
24 WILES Tricks of one who proved Fermat’s last theorem (5)
Double definition: Andrew Wiles is the renowned mathematician.
25 RESTYLE Fashion again using nasty polyester, not half poor (7)
An anagram (‘poor’) of ‘[nasty po]lyester’ minus the first seven of its fourteen letters (‘not half’).
26 SCRATCH Mark gets caught, snitch in school (7)
An envelope (‘gets … in’) of C (‘caught’) plus RAT (‘snitch’) in SCH (‘school’).
Down
1 CAPS Headgear for big characters (4)
Double definition.
2 BALEARIC ISLANDS Holiday region may be conjured up in … in a seabird’s call (8,7)
An anagram (‘conjured up’) of ‘in a seabird’s call’.
3 LO-TECH Unsophisticated, seeing unex­pected creature turning up in lake (2-4)
An envelope (‘in’) of TE, a reversal (‘turning up’ in a down light) of ET (‘unexpected creature’ – a change from alien) in LOCH (‘lake’).
4 SABOTS Special unit hides computer program in footwear! (6)
An envelope (‘hides’) of BOT (‘computer program’) in SAS (‘special unit’ of the British Army or others).
5 DIURETIC Answer to waterworks problem? I’d cure it, possibly (8)
An anagram (‘possibly’) of ‘I’d cure it’.
6 SAPLINGS Little boxes? (8)
Cryptic definition, box being a shrub.
7 A STUDY IN SCARLET Ruddy good place for writer to produce a detective story? (1,5,2,7)
Definition and literal interpretation.
8 FORFEITURE Penalty on account of bad ref I oft rue (10)
An anagram (‘bad’) of ‘ref I oft rue’.
12 HEPTAMETER Freakish mare, the pet that has seven feet (10)
An anagram (‘freakish’) 0f  ‘mare the pet’.
15 FACILITY Ease of provision (8)
Double definition.
16 GET A LIFE Buy a biography? Do something more interesting! (3,1,4)
Definition and literal interpretation.
19 STASIS ‘Hang around, girl!’, we say, in period of inactivity (6)
Sounds like (‘we say’) STAY SIS (‘hang around, girl’).
20 GROWER Gardener‘s feature in September to April months in Welsh location (6)
An envelope (‘in’, the second one) of R (‘feature in September to April months’ – remember the one about eating oysters when there’s an R in the month?) in GOWER (Peninsula, ‘Welsh location’).
22 ESTH Queen, but not our Queen, is someone of original Finnish stock (4)
A subtraction: ESTH[er] (‘Queen’, in the book of the Bible) minus ER (‘but not our Queen’), for a Estonian.
completed grid

54 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,889 by Pasquale”

  1. There were definitely some unusual words here, but they were all gettable from wordplay and crossers, so ’nuff said about that.

    Twice I thought I saw a incipient theme (Wales and maths), but they were not to be. Talking of maths, I was very surprised (and pleased) to see that the one who proved Fermat’s last theorem was precisely that, and not some contrivance involving the last letter of Fermat etc.

    I agree with PeterO’s questioning of banishing to indicate an anagram in 14a.

    Thanks, both.

  2. Thanks, PeterO. I had two alternative parsings:

    RESTYLE: Anagram “nasty” of (po)LYESTER – minus the first half of “poor”.

    SABOTS: BOT inside Special AS – Roman unit of weight.

  3. ‘Descends into Rufus territory’ comes across as an unwarranted insult, not just to me (I am used to this sort of nonsense), but to my very much valued ex-colleague Rufus. who deserves more respect.

  4. Rufusian? Well my brain must be having an off day because I struggled, unlike yesterday’s leisurely stroll. Not helped by misspelling Balearic, which made pilot a dnf. So, lots of ‘slow’ margin notes, plus a few dnks, viz tantivies, the said islands (faint bell only), Esth the Finn and Gower in Wales. And couldn’t parse saplings, forgetting that box trees were planted for shade in just about every primary school yard, d’oh. Thanks to the Don for the workout and to PeterO for the blog.

  6. Towards the more penetrable end of The Don’s spectrum but very enjoyable nonetheless.

    Not quite sure why “work” is needed in the DISTAFF clue,

    I tend to agree with the setter’s comment @3.  Descend is an unfortunate choice of words but I doubt if the blogger meant it as an insult.

    NeilW @2:  Agree with your first but not your second.  Don’t see how AS could work in this clue.

    Had to resort to other aids for ESTH.  It’s in Chambers but only under the Estonian listing.

    Many thanks Pasquale, most enjoyable.

  7. Couldn’t agree more, Pasquale. A totally unnecessary comment by the blogger.

    Thanks for the puzzle, most enjoyable.

  8. We liked the fact that so many of the unusual definitions could be worked out from the elements Eg ESTH, TRIBADES.
    Luckily one of us was enough of a mathematician to know the ! Symbol and WILES.
    Agree with grantinfreo @5 re RESTYLE.
    Thanks Pasquale for an enjoyable finish to an excellent week and to PeterO for the early blog.
    Now looking forward to the cricket.

  9. I didn’t find this Rufusian either, but also not as difficult except for the one obscurity for me, ESTH.
    I parsed as per grantinfreo. Once he twigged to the box trees connection, I thought he might have expressed surprise at PeterO’s reference to “a shrub”. There may be box shrubs in England but those grey boxes grow to 30 metres, that is some shrub.

    I hesitate to raise 17ac because a variant of the answer raised a heated response from NeilW when it appeared in Guardian 25182 by Shed in 2010, which I supported at the time. The issue then, and now, is that if someone doesn’t know the word and looks it up, the first reference is to a Wikipedia article which leads with images that are most definitely NSFW. Part of NeilW’s criticism then was that Shed set out deliberately to offend as he could well have clued TRIBALISM. Pasquale had no easy option this time so is off that hook. In my case, I have no issue with the word per se (I find the incessant references to drugs more disturbing) but the Google-Wikipedia destination is unfortunate.

    So, thanks to Pasquale and PeterO.

  10. An enjoyable challenge, with the trademark obscurer words being mostly gettable from the wordplay.

    PeterO, I agree with William @6 that “descends” was a rather unfortunate choice of word.  And it would have been helpful if you had said which clues you were thinking of.  There were a couple of cryptic definitions, but not that many.  If you meant something like 16d GET A LIFE, I thought that was a great clue.

    But I do agree with you in struggling to see how “banishing” works as an anagram indicator in 14a.

    SABOTS always makes me think of those nineteenth century French workers throwing their clogs into machinery, hence “sabotage”.

  11. Like grantinfreo, I misspelled ‘Balearic’, so ended with a DNF. Of course, if we had worked through the anagram the spelling would have been apparent, but I’m afraid I just couldn’t be bothered. Regrettably, with this compiler’s puzzles I find my level of interest often wanes.
    I would be very surprised if PeterO intended any disrespect to either Pasquale or the late lamented Rufus in his preamble.

  12. I guess it’s a matter of taste, but I don’t like 11ac – either you know the expression, in which case the definition is hardly cryptic at all, or you don’t, in which case you haven’t a hope.

    I wondered at first whether the second part of 10ac was Dorothy Sayers’ hero, Lord Peter Wimsey being (to the puzzlement of many) a lord, but outside Parliament (at least until Jill Paton Walsh in The Attenbury Emeralds has him succeed to the Dukedom).

    It took me a while to realise just how clever 21ac was, though what on earth is the “…” doing there…

    …or in 2dn for that matter, which, like 14ac (I, too, don’t think much of “banishing” as an anagram indicator), is nearly brilliant. And 8dn could have been made less contrived and more interesting by using OFTEN and having some sort of reference to Newcastle or Sunderland supporters bemoaning their fate to get rid of the NE.

    But a pleasant start to the day. Thanks to setter and blogger.

     

  13. As Pasquale himself implies at 3, a comparison to Rufus should be seen as a high compliment to a crossword setter, and a clue like 7 dn is in the best tradition – succinct, puzzling and a satisfying jolt as one sees the solution. On 17 ac, looking it up in a dictionary (Chambers) produces nothing more exciting or offensive than a straightforward definition. It seems hard for a setter to be asked to take reponsibility for Google or Wikkipedia links.

  14. With respect to the eminent Don whom I usually struggle with, my thoughts as I worked through was that is was more suited to earlier in the week.

    I actually enjoyed finishing without use of aids and parsing help so, whilst happy myself, I guessed that some would complain that is was too easy.

    I suspect that is what was meant by reference to another esteemed complier, and in no way derogatory to either.

     

  15. This was definitely easier than most of Pasquale’s puzzles, but most enjoyable. Many thanks to P & P.

     

  16. Well I found this a mix of easy and one’s to make you think/trust the wordplay for the words you didn’t know

    Thanks to Pasquale and PeterO

  17. I didn’t do maths A level – spent my time reading Conan Doyle – so could only finish by googling ‘factorial!’. Bit harsh on us non-mathematicians.

    On the subject of sensibilities: shouldn’t the setter assume we’re all adults?

  18. Definitely not as tough as some of Pasquale’s previous puzzles – but most enjoyable and don’t agree with the descent comment by Peter. Es-tu and Tribades were new words but clearly clued.

  19. Definitely easier than some of the Don’s previous efforts. Maybe that is what PeterO meant?

    I liked TRIBADES and DIURETIC.

    I thought some of the cds, particularly WATCH THE BIRDIE, were a little weak.

     

     

  22. The first few went in very quickly, and all of the more unusual solutions are fairly clued, so overall this was a fairly straightforward solve, and quite an enjoyable one.

    Thanks to Pasquale and PeterO

  23. Oofyprosser @17 — If it makes you feel any better, I’ve always loved math, and it took me the longest time to see the FACTORIAL part of MULTIFACTORIAL. I felt a mixture of triumph and shame when I finally got it. I do, however, get some consolation from getting 24 instantly 😉

  24. Don – I take no issue with your comment above but are you able to justify ‘banishing’ as an anagrind because I can’t be the only one who is baffled by it

  25. I had a measure of anagrammatic violence in mind whe I chose the word, I guess — but agree that it is borderline at best!

  27. I satisfied myself that ‘banishing’ could be interpreted as ‘chucking out’ – maybe?  So I chucked the letters out.

    I enjoyed this, even if it wasn’t quite as testing as usual with this setter.  Rufus delighted in double/cryptic definitions and there are several here.  Simple, if you get them.  Impenetrable if you don’t.  Today’s blogger is not someone I associate with disrespect so I’m inclined to cut some slack.

    Solving 6dn was a definite tea tray moment.  Lovely clue.

    TRIBADES, TANTIVITIES & ESTH were all new words to me.  Two of them solved from wordplay and crossers.  The last defeated me.

    Thanks to Pasquale and PeterO

  28. Came a cropper on ESTH at the very end, but did manage to parse the unknown TRIBADES, TANTIVIES and WILES thanks to helpful wordplay.

    I liked the surface of 5d, although to be pedantic, DIURETIC(s) are not really the ‘Answer to waterworks problem’, especially if the ‘problem’ is going too often already!

    Favourite was definitely the Pete Seeger clue at 6d.

    Thanks to Pasquale (including in your capacity as a commenter @3 above) and to PeterO

  29. I got ESTH from Esther, but had no idea what it meant.  Still don’t.  Google didn’t help.  I’m guessing it’s a reference to Est(h)onian, which is a language related to Finnish.

    Pete Seeger performed “Little Boxes,” but Malvina Reynolds wrote it.

  31. I thoroughly enjoyed 21ac. My wife asked me what I was grinning at as I completed it. It seems to me that school level mathematics is perfectly fair. For some of us solving crosswords extends our knowledge of Greek mythology and cricket.

  32. Fascinating, as Mr Spock might say. Some absolute crackers here and I thought “little boxes” was brilliant. It took me ages to see followed by the largest tea tray dent in history. As I go out and trim our box hedge (which is all of 2 feet high so definitely a shrub) I shall think of this. Likewise “multifactorial” (minus the ellipsis perhaps). But I agree with some others that the CD “watch the birdie” was not up to the standard of the rest. Indeed, having written it in I was not sure it could be right as it seemed so non-cryptic. “A study in scarlet” was more obviously correct when in, so I felt a better (if simple) clue.

    “Wiles” was an admirable attempt to put in something tricky from a different culture, but an unfortunate write-in without thought if you happen to know the GK, so a little too clearly clued in the second definition. Ideally a DD should be ambiguous in both halves.

    Lots of other ticks here – “cobbles” (though the Oxford shoe jumped out after discussion of Balmorals the other day), “tribades” (TILT), “diuretic” and the islands (I’m a sucker for a good anagram and these were great), “stasis” and “grower” (I was thinking of Percy Thrower for a while and wondering how to play with that…)

    Many thanks Pasquale, and peterO for sorting out some really tricky ones!

  33. I think the blogger’s Rufusian comment merely referred to the sheer number of cryptic and double definitions.  I am sure I am not alone in finding these my least favourite types of clue, but in this case they seemed to me sufficiently clever to be suitably cryptic.  An enjoyable and unobjectionable solve.  Not at all like Rufus.

  34. pasquale @3

    Undoubtedly, my feeling for this particular puzzle was coloured by one of the first clues that I encountered, namely 11A. Although ‘snapped’ can have various meanings, I would find it difficult in the context of the clue to give it any other than the one which leads directly to the answer. This struck me as a fault reminiscent of Rufus, who, for all the excellent clues that he produced, relied far too often, in my opinion, on such weak cryptic definitions. The Rufus connection was only reinforced by another – better – cryptic definition at 6D, and double definitions (and relations) at 1A, 24A, 1D, 7D, 15D and 16D. However, that being said, I apologise if you feel that I have placed too much emphasis on one clue that I thought weak.

    Valentine @29

    Chambers (under Estonian): Esth – an Estonian of the original Finnish stock.

    KLColin @9

    There are several plants called ‘box’, many of which are definitely trees. The first thing the word brings to my mind is a knot garden (or parterre), for which “shrub” would be more appropriate.

  35. Quite a nice puzzle with some interesting new words for me.

    But it seems that ESCH proved the finnishing touch for quite a few 🙂

    Thanks P and P.

  36. I find myself disagreeing with PeterO @34 about 11ac…. The multiple meanings of “snapped” misdirected me down many a blind alley (something to do with elastic bands, perhaps?) so there was a pennydrop moment when the answer finally came.

    And that goes for many of the other clues. The Malvina Reynolds reference brought a wry smile – we have boxes growing in our front garden and they are definitely of the shrub variety rather than the tree. Unfortunately, they have been decimated by the current box moth blight, as have many of my neighbours’ hedges, so any gardeners reading this, please watch out and kill as many caterpillars as you can…

  37. 7d was elementary (I’ll get my coat), a write-in for me, so I smugly thought I was in for an easy time. I was very wrong. Ultimately a DNF but a really enjoyable struggle. Several new words learned and also educated on some of the subtleties of the cryptic writers’ art. Top stuff.

    As for the questions raised about clueing in general: I have no issue with the picture in wiki but accept that for some it will be unexpected and perhaps unwelcome. I also don’t object to the constant drug references on any moral grounds, but find them a little boring now (even though I’m still relatively new to cryptic puzzles). Surely there have to be more creative ways to suggest the letter E other than continually popping ecstasy?

    Thanks to Pasquale and to PeterO – it’s good sometimes to have a little edge in the blog! Have a good weekend everyone.

  38. Tristram @36

    Re 11A: I did say “in the context of the clue”, and clues are expected to provide answers. ‘One’s snapped’ in isolation might well give an answer such as the elastic band which you tentatively suggest; but what then are you to make of the rest of the clue, in particular the ‘this’ at the end? That ‘this’ suggests an answer related to some activity, not a concrete object like an elastic band. It may well be my lack of imagination, but the photographic sense of ‘snapped’ seems the only one that bridges the two ends of the clue in a way that could possibly give an answer. If you were “misdirected … down many a blind alley” it seems to me that you were looking for an answer in places where there is little or no chance of finding one.

  39. This was an odd puzzle. The top half went in extremely quickly -esp WATCH THE BIRDIE- but the lower half was much more difficult and I was unable to get ESTH despite having the crossers. Didn’t know TRIBADES although it was easy to get once I’d failed to find an anagram of LESBIANS. I liked WILES and SCRATCH and I smiled at GROWER. I haven’t been to the Gower for forty odd years and I rather hope it’s as pleasant now as it was then!
    Thanks Pasquale.

  40. A DNF for me (did not get four). As for 11a, once I twigged ‘snapped’, had to Google synonyms of ‘say cheese’ to arrive at the answer.

  41. Peter Aspinwall @39

    It must be fifty years since I visited the Gower, but like you I have pleasant memories.

  42. Having some serious mathematical content (21 and 24ac) was a great advance for us mathematicians who get uniform blank looks whenever the subject is mentioned.  Well done Pasquale!  By the way, Niel H @12, the ellipses in 21ac mean “carry on the same” so ?hey turn triple-factorial into multi-factorial.  Also by the way, the theorem referred to in 24ac should now be called Wiles’ Theorem NOT Fermat’s last theorem.  Fermat did not prove it and it’s now clear that the mathematics available at the time was far too weak for him to have a proof.  But calling it Wiles’ Theorem would ruin the clue!

     

     

  44. When we were last in Tallinn, we understood the courteous nationals called themselves ‘Esti’, so DNF. A good puzzle otherwise though, with interesting novelties (to us). TANTIVIES & TRIBADES – googling the latter takes you to all sorts of places!

  45. PeterO – I’m of quite a different mindset. I was thrilled to be able to finish a Pasquale puzzle, I think for the first time ever! Much better than my usual descent into tears and gnashing of teeth!

    And I love having a new word to use to refer to my lesbi-friends. I wonder if I can coin the term tribadacious.

  46. Thanks, Pasquale, for an enjoyable crossword. I found the blog very helpful but didn’t like the patronising and unwarranted reference to Rufus.

  48. Just a quick word on “tribades” – fascinating term, etymologically linked to “tribology”, the scientific study of friction. NSFW reasons why. Loved learning this so thank you Pasquale.

  49. I’m with Jovis and Paul above (on phone, and I’m not going to count up all the comments!). I always enjoyed Rufus’s puzzles: never too hard or pretentious but often witty and well composed.
    Thanks Pasquale for an interesting mixture of the straightforward, the fun and fair, and the gettable clues for solutions I had never heard of (Estonians, maths and gallops mainly). For a very helpful if slightly controversial blog, thanks to PeterO.

  50. Also, I actually wasn’t aware of that point about the spelling of different months before, so that’s another thing learned today. Thanks!

  51. 2 TILTS were ESTH and NSFW, the latter of which I may even come across again, if only here. For those as ignorant as I was it stands for Not Safe For Work – you might get fired if it’s found on your office computer. Confused at first by 19d as I would use a short “a” which ruins the homophone. Both versions are in Chambers.
    Thanks to Pasquale and PeterO

  52. Thank you Pasquale and PeterO,

    Like Trismegistus @36, “snapped” at 11a led me down many a blind alley and the answer to the clue was one of my last in …

  53. If I ever managed to write a cryptic crossword and someone compared it to Rufus, I’d be boasting about it for weeks!

    I guess that the comparison was made to suggest that this was easy. It wasn’t as hard as some Pasquale puzzles but still no pushover. And very good, as Pasquale puzzles always are.

  54. PeterO @38

    Yes, the clue suggests an action. My dead ends included actions that might “snap” an elastic band and actions that might “snap” one mentally.

    Perhaps I would benefit from your lack of imagination, but in this case I don’t think it would have helped. I tend to dislike clues which rely on vague synonyms, and “snapped” as a synonym for “photographed” would normally have been too loose for me. But in this case there was a satisfying “Aha!” when it went in

    Obviously we all think differently. If the only synonym in the world  I could think of for “snapped” were “photographed”, that “Aha!” would be very unlikely to have occurred.

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