Guardian Cryptic 27,919 by Paul

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27919.

Paul continues to impress with his combination of inventiveness and sheer output. This was a pleasure to blog.

Across
1 TITIAN Old master seeing specialist after op, by the sound of it? (6)
Cunning: OPTICIAN (‘seeing specialist’) sounds like (‘by the sound of it’) ‘op’ plus the answer.
4 SNAP UP Bag drink, rest bottled (4,2)
An envelope (‘bottled’) of NAP (‘rest’) in SUP (‘drink’).
9 BOMB One’s charged a lot of money (4)
Double definition.
10 COR ANGLAIS Instrument sounded note, one essential to function (3,7)
An envelope (‘essential to’) of RANG (‘sounded’) plus LA (‘note’ of the solfa) plus I (‘one’) in COS (cosine, mathematical ‘function’).
11 COHERE Business in this place, form a close association (6)
A charade of CO (company, ‘business’) plus HERE (‘in this place’).
12 ENTREATY Request breakfast, record sandwiches (8)
An envelope (‘sandwiches’) of EAT (‘break fast’) in ENTRY (‘record’).
13 SECRETION Discharge engineers rescued by division (9)
An envelope (‘rescued by’?) of RE (‘engineers’) in SECTION (‘division’).
15, 23 STAR APPLE Knock splitting standard tropical fruit (4,5)
An envelope (‘splitting’) of RAP (‘knock’) in STAPLE (‘standard’).
16 PAGE Information may be written on this server (4)
Double definition.
17 STOP PRESS Late news, crush on street (4,5)
A charade of ST (‘street’) plus OPPRESS (‘crush’).
21 DERRIERE Seat rider adjusted before (8)
A charade of DERRI, an anagram (‘adjusted’) of ‘rider’; plus ERE (‘before’).
22, 26 SEARCH ENGINE Source of information generating anger with Chinese? (6,6)
An anagram (‘generating’) of ‘anger’ plus ‘Chinese’.
24 DELIBERATE Conscious: put in prison, might you say? (10)
DE-LIBERATE.
25, 2 POOL TABLE  Might one be in pub for drinking round o’ lager, primarily? (4,5)
An envelope (’round’) of ‘o’ ‘ plus L (‘Lager primarily’) in POTABLE (‘for drinking’).
26   See 22
27   See 3
Down
1 TWOSOME Climbing plant collected by book group that’s very small (7)
An envelope (‘collected by’) of WOS, a reversal (‘climbing’ in a down light) of SOW (‘plant’) in TOME (‘book’).
2   See 25
3, 27 ANCIENT GREECE  From here may come classic evidence cooker has never been cleaned, reportedly? (7,6)
GREECE sounds like (‘reportedly’) GREASE.
5 NINETY Number unknown, figure in stands (6)
A reversal (‘stands’ in a down light) of Y (‘unknown’) plus TEN (‘figure’) plus ‘in’.
6 POLYESTER Two girls discussed something found in pants, for example (9)
Sounds like (‘discussed’) POLLY ESTHER (‘two girls’), with a rather loose “definition”.
7 POINTER Dog lead (7)
Double definition.
8 ORDER OF THE DAY General directive had yet to be created from this? (5,2,3,3)
Wordplay in the answer: an anagram (ORDER OF) of THE DAY is ‘had yet’.
14 REGARDING Concerned with check holding trial up, heading for gaol (9)
A charade of REGARDIN, an envelope (‘holding’) of GARD, a reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of DRAG (‘trial’ in the sense of a nuisance) in REIN (‘check’); plus G (‘heading for Gaol’).
16 PRECEDE Go before powers, primarily, fade away (7)
A charade of P (‘Powers primarily’) plus RECEDE (‘fade away’).
18 PASTEUR Fix case of ulcer, as chemist (7)
A charade of PASTE (‘fix’) plus UR (‘case of UlceR‘)
19 SUCROSE Endlessly extract wine that’s sweet (7)
A charade of SUC[k] (‘extract’) minus its last letter (‘endlessly’) plus ROSÉ (‘wine’)
20 SEVERN River runs into all the seas? (6)
An envelope (‘into’) of R (‘runs’) in SEVEN (‘all the seas’).
23   See 15
completed grid

44 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,919 by Paul”

  2. Quite punny today, I thought. I was a bit fearful at first for what 6d would reveal, but in the end fine, looseness indicated.

    Thanks both.

  3. I found this difficult and enjoyable at the sane time. I was unable to solve ORDER OF THE DAY, although I had seen that THE DAY was an anagram of ‘had yet’, and I was unable to parse 24a.

    My favourites were COR ANGLAIS, ANCIENT GREECE, TWOSOME, TITAN (loi).

    Thanks Peter and Paul.

  4. Very pleasant stroll from Paul today, with just the merest eyebrow flicker at 9a: is a bomb charged or primed, or, can one be charged a bomb for what costs a bomb? Meanwhile, some clever ones. eg rang+la+i inside cos, sow upside down in tome. and order of the day. Nice one Paul and thanks Peter.

  6. I liked it a lot. My favourites have already been mentioned. Both 3,27d ANCIENT GREECE and 6d POLYESTER elicited groans but I still laughed! Thanks very much to playful Paul for the fun and to PeterO for the positive praise in parsing the puzzle.

  7. Thanks Paul and PeterO

    I didn’t parse TITIAN (very clever) or COR ANGLAIS (very complicated!).

    Is “conscious” right for DELIBERATE? “Conscientious” seems closer.

    I liked DERRIERE.

  8. Not as hard as I thought it was going to be. Thanks, Paul. And thanks, PeterO, especially for parsing of 10a and 8d.

  10. DNF. Unparsed star anise left me with an impossible ‘iron table’. Grrr. A whole day wallowing in my own stupidity, now! Do like Paul’s stuff though.

  11. Thanks for the blog, needed you for 10 – which I correctly guessed given the crossers, but hung up on “core” as a homophone for “cor”, couldn’t parse it. Look outside the box! Also didn’t parse TITIAN, so ta for that too.

  13. That unwound rather slowly for me, but not without pleasure. Top marks for “Titian” which was a real tea-tray moment when the parsing came to me. Not sure about polyester pants for all sorts of reasons, but “stop press” and “dog lead” were beautifully crafted. Ditto “page” and “bomb”. I am fine with “charging” a bomb – when getting the sodastream canister recharged we call it a bomb, only half in jest.

    Many thanks Paul – not as hard as it first seemed, which to me is a sign of a great puzzle. And thank you PeterO for unpicking “cor anglais” which I had put in from word length and definition alone.

  14. I forgot about soda bombs TheZed. They used to essential items but I haven’t seen one for years, so ta for the reminder.

  16. RE for Royal Engineers is a bit of a crossword cliche, but I’m always happy to see it, as my late Dad, of whom I’m very proud, was a (working-class) captain in the RE in Germany in the years after WWII.

  17. Thanks both,

    I thought this was going to be very hard but it gave bit by bit. 1, 9 and 13 held me up. Like PeterO I was a little doubtful about ‘rescued’ as an envelope indicator. It would be better as an anagram indicator  – ‘rescued’ = ‘re-skewed’.

  18. I suppose DRAG for “trial” is ok, and provides a better surface, but I thought it was a grauniad for “trail” at first, which I still think is a better synonym.

  19. PeterO, thanks for the parsing of COR ANGLAIS.

    And a five-letter river!  Maybe there’s hope yet for “Susquehanna”.

    Thanks to Paul too.

  20. This was a typical Paul solve for me, very little at first, but then after more careful reading it all began to unpack. Last two were Titian and twosome, favourites for me were polyester, deliberate and pool table. Thanks to Paul for the challenge and PeterO for the blog (only partially parsed cor anglais).

  22. Loved TITIAN and TWOSOME which were in the last corner for me. Some solid wit and some which definitely looked to our expert blogger today.

    Agree with TheZed comment earlier that it is a sign of a good crossword when it is ultimately not as difficult as it first appeared.

    Thanks to Peter and Paul

  23. Our first xword for over a week [younger daughter marrying in Vegas], and what a delight to come back to – just the right level of testingness. Like many of the above we entered COR ANGLAIS entirely unparsed, and were doubtful about ORDER OF THE DAY and BOMB, so many thanks to PeterO for his explanations. We thought the TITIAN clue was particularly clever, and also liked the very Paul-y clue for POLYESTER. TheZed@13’s recollection of the charging of soda-water siphon bombs agrees mine, but I suspect that they were before Paul’s time!

  24. Great from Paul as we have come to expect, but not too difficult I thought.  ORDER the first word in 8d took me as long to get as the rest of the puzzle put together.  I love Star Apples, which I first came across in Grenada, the Island my wife is from, in the late 60s.  Don’t see many of them these days, most of the trees seem to have been cut down: sad!

    Favourites ANCIENT GREECE, yep my cooker on occasions, and TWOSOME

    Very Many thanks to Paul

    There were a few like TITIAN and COR ANGLAIS, which I confidently entered but could not parse, so many thanks to PererO

  26. I’ve had a terrible crossword week but did slightly better today. Had PILE at 9 and STAR ANISE at 15,23 so that threw out my NW and SE but otherwise succeeded.

  27. Thanks to blogger and setter.  Needed the blog for the parsing of COR ANGLAIS.  I thought that “cor” was a homophone (sounded) of “essential,” but I couldn’t shoehorn any sensible pronunciation of “anglais” into sounding like the rest of it!

    [Incidentally–in school we learned to call that instrument an English horn; it was only in college that I first heard the French name.  Which name is used in Britain? (Y’all have a stronger taste for Frenchifying things than we do.) Also, do the French call a French horn a “cor Francais?”]

  28. One of the few times I managed to complete a Paul puzzle.  Thanks for the parsing on 8 dn – very clever. I got the answer but couldn’t parse it until I saw this!

  30. mrpenney @29

    Nice clue. Is “Hanna” a US spelling? Over here she would always be “Hannah”, I think.

    I have heard of Hanna-Barbara though – two girls for the price of one!

  31. Not the easiest Paul. Still,it did unravel eventually. I didn’t parse everything- TITIAN was a guess and I’m kicking myself that I didn’t see the workings. Blindingly obvious now I know! I had PILE for 9ac initially but TWOSOME put a stop to that. And ORDER OF THE DAY took far too long to see.
    Thanks Paul.

    Ps Nice to see Boris getting a bit of a kicking!

  32. Muffin @30:  It’s an uncommon alternative spelling; as it’s transliterated from Hebrew, you get a little license.  Based on the list of famous people with the name, it looks like Hanna without the h is the Germanic / Scandinavian spelling.

  33. Rather late in the day, but I can only see a single definition for bomb. – If one is charged a bomb ones charged lots of money.

  34. Goodness I must have been in the Paul zone today – everything fell into place quite nicely despite a few beers prior to starting – I failed to parse 10A but had answer “written in faintly” as my Mum would have said early on – I recognised that 8D was going to be one of those clues – some very nice stuff like 1A and I liked 3D when it eventuallly clicked – my FOI was a load of partial and half guessed solutions – my LOI was 24A – quite tricky I thought and all those crossing vowels made the heart sink…

  35. Thanks mrpenney @32

    Howard March @33

    The “charge” is a term for the explosive in a bomb, so a bomb is “charged”.

  36. Valentine @19 (and maybe mrpenney @29)

    … and then there is the Oswegatchie (in the Adirondacks of upstate NY; I have canoed a stretch of it).

  38. paddymelon @37

    I, however, do think so – and so does Stephen Sondheim:

    At the palace of the Duke of Ferrara
    I acquired some position plus a tiny Titian.

    Liaisons, A little night music.

    and I do not think we are alone. How do you pronounce the English version of the painter’s name?

  39. PeterO@38

    In fairness to the argument, there is a “c” in “optician” and a “t” in “position” and Titian.  It’s reminiscent of Wodehouse’s character (Psmith?) who could tell if people were pronouncing the silent “p” – I know that I pronounce the “c” and “t” differently but I also know that their pronunciations would be indistinguishable to the listener. Which doesn’t help the argument at all….

    Sorry I started now.

  41. Petero@38

    It wasn’t the consonant for me but the vowel which I pronounce/d as a long ee in Titian rather than the short I in optician or position.

    But I’ve learnt something, thankyou.  Looked up both UK and US. /?t???n/  Must be my poor Italish.

  43. mrpenney@29 Hot damn!  you solved what I’d proposed as the unsolvable.  I’ve envied the British stock of three-letter rivers; I don’t think we have any, unless you count the New River in Virginia, but I don’t suppose people say “I’ve been sailing on the New.”  I’m tempted to come up with some more polysyllabic Amerindian river names — we have plenty — but you’d probably knock those out of the park too.  Oops — PeterO’s got one.

    muffn@30 and mrpenney32 Hanna-Barbera isn’t quite a polyester, since Barbera isn’t pronounced like Barbara.  “Hannah” is the more usual spelling over here too, but there’s probably a Hanna somewhere.  Hanna is more often a last name — Scottish, I think.  As well as the cartoon producer, John G. Hanna was a famous disigner of sailing boats, particularly the Tahiti ketch.  I crossed the Atlantic with a friend in one of those, there and back again.

    PeterO@36   In a large timepiece, for instance, that’s something to paddle.  Well, it doesn’t make any sense, but the bits are all there.

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