Guardian Cryptic 27,922 by Pasquale

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Pasquale provides a head-scratcher for us this morning.

This was a difficult, but very enjoyable puzzle.  There were some obscure words, but all of them were gettable from wordplay and crossing letters.  The only new word(s) for me was WHEATSTONE BRIDGE, but ATABEG, SALCHOW, DEIMOS and SONSIE may be new to many solvers, and some non-football fans may not have heard of Alan SHEARER, but I imagine he is well enough known to be fair game to a setter.

Thanks, Pasquale.

Across
1 SHAMMY This writer’s put on fake leather (6)
  MY (“this writer’s”) put on SHAM (“fake”)
4 DEIMOS Misshaped model is shedding pounds to get a heavenly body (6)
  *(mode is) where MODE = MODE(l) [shedding pounds]

Deimos is the smaller of the two satellites of Mars.
9 FLAK Criticism not entirely crazy (4)
  [not entirley] FLAK(y) (“crazy”)
10 POLITICKED Endless voting one expressed approval of — and tried to secure votes? (10)
  [endless] POL(l) + I (“one”) + TICKED (“expressed approval of”)
11   See 24
 
12 CINERARY Like some urns, terribly rare, nicked from the east (8)
  Hidden backwards in [from the east] “terriblY RARE NICked”
13 MANEATERS Femmes fatales near mates, misbehaving (9)
  *(near mates)
15 ONER Solitary person would be left with this single thing (4)
  (l)ONER (“solitary person”)
16 SIPS Small drinks in vessels lacking height (4)
  S(h)IPS (“vessels” lacking H (height))
17 SCORECARD Twenty joining club maybe — a record at a sports ground (9)
  SCORE (“twenty”) joining CARD (“club maybe”)
21 FLESH OUT Elaborate situation created by streaker? (5,3)
  A streaker would indeed have his/her FLESH OUT (on display)
22 MADAME She’s married numberless men, including an old gardener (6)
  [numberless] ME(n) including ADAM (“an old gardener” as in Adam and Eve)
24, 11 WHEATSTONE BRIDGE  One assesses resistance to watershed being abused (10,6)
  *(to watershed being)

According to Wikipedia, a Wheatstone bridge is an electrical circuit used to measure an unknown electrical resistance by balancing two legs of a bridge circuit, one leg of which includes the unknown component.
25 MAID Female artificial in speech (4)
  Homophone of [in speech] MADE (“artificial”)
26 WITTER Go on social network, head buried (6)
  (t)WITTER (“social network”, with its head buried)
27 ATABEG A bill, say, for a high-ranking Turkish official (6)
  A TAB (“bill”) + E.G. (“say”)
Down
1 SOLARIA Thus short rope is needed in beauty parlours (7)
  SO (“thus”) + [short] LARIA(t) (“rope”)
2 ALKYD Lady troubled about first bit of knitwear that’s polyester (5)
  *(lady) about [first bit of] K(nitwear)
3 MOPIEST The majority needing food to eat, being least contented (7)
  MOST (“the majority”) eating PIE (“food”)
5 EXTEND No longer having time, stop — or run on? (6)
  EX (no longer”) having T (time) + END (“stop”)
6 MACARONIC A comic ran about like ‘Michelle, ma belle ... ’ (9)
  *(a comic ran)

Definition of “macaronic” – denoting language, especially burlesque verse, containing words or inflections from one language introduced into the context of another.
7 SHEARER Football broadcaster beginning to stultify listener (7)
  [beginning to] S(tultify) + HEARER (“listener”)

Refers to Alan Shearer, the ex-England footballer, who is now a TV pundit, and who has been in the news this week following the publicaiton of Michael Owen’s autobiography.
8 ELECTROCUTION Copper interrupting nonsense in voting procedure that’s shocking (13)
  Cu (copper) interrupting ROT (“nonsense”) in ELECTION (“voting”), so ELECT(RO(Cu)T)ION
14 EN PASSANT Unled soldiers overtake worker by the way (2,7)
  [unled] (m)EN + PASS (“overtake”) + ANT (“worker”)
16 SALCHOW Girl and dog jump (7)
  SAL (“girl”) + CHOW (“dog”)
18 RUMMEST Most peculiar 22 briefly wearing reddish-brown (7)
  MME (“22 briefly”) wearing RUST (“reddish-brown”)
19 RAMPING Sheep’s high-pitched noise, behaving violently (7)
  RAM (“sheep”) + PING (“high-pitched noise”)
20 SONSIE More than one boy that is attractive and healthy in Scotland (6)
  SONS (“more than one boy”) + I.E. (“that is”)

Anyone who has been to a Burns supper should be able to recall the line “Fair fa yir honest sonsie face” from Burns’ “To a Haggis”
23 DEMOB Protest over bishop — something happening at end of service (5)
  DEMO (“protest”) over B (bishop)

*anagram

48 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,922 by Pasquale”

  1. With its many obscure words, this felt more like a Sunday Azed (at the less demanding end of his scale) than a weekday puzzle: but (as normal with Azed) ‘impeccably clued’ and thus, as loonapick says, gettable: thanks to both.

  2. Yes a bit of a gk macaroni from the Don today, from astronomy to figure skating via electronics, Turkish bigwig, obscure polyester, street slang and Scots, plus a bit of football and French and/or chess. Knew the resistance measurer (physics class) and en passant, but all the other gk ones were ‘work out from crossers and wordplay’ then look up. Pasquale’s customary quality cluing meant that all were gettable, so a great learning experience with no tooth grinding at all! Well done Don and thanks Loonapick.

  3. Duly ploughed through this one but really didn’t enjoy it much. Quenbarrow @1 may be right; I decided some time ago that life was too short for Azed’s particular brand of clever.

    Yes, you could get 20dn and 27ac from the wordplay.

    Is the general knowledge required for 24, 11 reasonable? I actually found myself being glad I’d studied physics at school.

    3dn and 15ac felt like fairly desperate contrivances to complete a grid.

     

  4. Five new words for me. Not being familiar with the works of the great Robbie Burns, I’m afraid I didn’t know SONSIE, for which I guessed ‘tomsie’, but the rest were possible with luck, crossers and wordplay. MACARONIC is an excellent word and hopefully I’ll be able to press it into service soon.

    Might seem a bit humdrum, but I liked MADAME, especially the ‘old gardener’ wordplay.

    Thanks to Pasquale and loonapick

  5. I enjoyed this, and even more with Loonapick’s parsings. However, I do dispute whether SHEARER is fair game for a solver who has not lived in Britain for fifty years, and I think 6d needs more than that little “like” in the clue to be truly MACARONIC.

  6. Felt a bit like watching a highly competitive Scrabble player who’s learned the International Scrabble Dictionary by heart. Not much fun.

  7. I think there is a nod to Paul McCartney in 6d……very clever. An enjoyable puzzle, with just the right difficulty for me.

    Thanks to s & b.

  8. Echoing others above, I had to rely a lot on unravelling the wordplays (meticulously following the directions and joining the dots) followed by looking things up to check my solutions. This was due to more “unfamiliars” than I like in any one puzzle (I label these as U/F on my margins). Here, my U/Fs (most previously mentioned) were 4a DEIMOS, 12a CINERARY, 24/11a WHEATSONE BRIDGE, 27a ATABEG, 2d ALKYD, 6d MACARONIC, 16d SYLPHID and 20d SONSIE. So I concluded it was more of a brain workout for me than an enjoyable exercise. Valuable learning nevertheless, as gif@2 says. Thanks to Pasquale and loonapick.

  9. [Crossed with other posters. Of course as Roger@5 says, I had no idea who Shearer is, so needed google to confirm.]

  10. Thanks Pasquale and loonapick

    Irritating start as FOI was a perfectly valid LONE (L ONE) for 15a, which delayed MACARONIC (as well as a nod to Macca, is it also from Yankee Doodle?). Another delay was a partly parsed FUNERARY at 12a.

    I don’t think SHEARER is fair GK-wise – also he would probably be horrified to be remembered as a commentator rather than player!

    I knew WHEATSTONE BRIDGE and DEIMOS, and managed the other obscure words from the clues, though I did check SONSIE.

    Favourite was EN PASSANT.

  11. Roger@5 – I think most football fans around the world would know who Alan Shearer is – he scored over 250 goals in the English Premiership and played 63 times for England, scoring 30 goals.  You don’t need to be Argentinian to recognise the name Lionel Messi, or Portuguese to recognise Cristiano Ronaldo, so it is more likely a lack of football knowledge would be the issue, rather than being an expat.  Of course, The Times would not have allowed him as he’s still alive, but it is the general knowledge that makes some Guardian puzzles more interesting than the average Times offering.

  12. I solved about 7 or 8 clues then gave up because I had a lot of distractions today – and news to catch up on – so I could not focus on this puzzle. After reading the blog, I doubt that I would have been able to finish it anyway.

  14. Yes, pretty hard, but I enjoyed this and am finding Pasquale’s offerings easier as time goes on. Favourites were MADAME, WITTER and SOLARIA (LOI). Many thanks to P & l.

  15. Thanks, loonapick and Pasquale.

    I was surprised to find I had enjoyed this more than I thought as I was solving, if that makes sense. The only one I couldn’t get entirely from the wordplay was WHEATLAND BRIDGE. I reckon if I know of Alan Shearer he can’t be too obscure and the wordplay was very easy. Also helpful were SCORECARD, WITTER, EXTEND and EN PASSANT. I didn’t know that’s how SALCHOW was spelt, having only heard it in commentaries but, again, the wordplay was clear. Once again, having had a Scottish husband was an advantage.

    Roger @5 – if you look at the whole verse of  ‘Michelle’* the definition is clearer: MACARONIC was my favourite clue.

    *’Michelle, ma belle
    These are words that go together well
    My Michelle
    Michelle, ma belle
    Sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble
    Tres bien ensemble …’

  16. For all its obscurities that was surprisingly solvable. “Macaronic” was a lovely example of a clue where a couple of crossers and the clear structure told me what to do. That it was a word was never in doubt, but its meaning was new to me and easily checked. I would say that was a perfect way to clue an odd word. “Sonsie” less so because, even with crossers and “sie” in place it was clear it was something like “boysie”, “tomsie”, “sonsie”, “bobsie” or one of a hundred other plausible variants.

    I love the way a term like “wheatstone bridge” causes such consternation and cries of “foul”. It was O level physics back in my day. I’m sure its inventor, Samuel Christie, would be turning in his grave if he knew how it became known though. Anyway, I remain unconvinced that basic science terms are unfair but a knowledge of all 37 Shakespeare plays and their casts is de rigeur. So amny thanks pasquale for a beautifully judged puzzle, and loonapick for so swiftly unravelling it all.

  17. I don’t think I’ve ever got so many clues from the word-play alone, then having to look up the answer! A tour de force from Pasquale, thank you. And thanks to Loonapick for the blog.

  18. Pasquale makes a welcome change from the norm Follow the instructions and google what turns out if unfamiliar and it usually hits the nail on the head,

    Thanks all.And dont forget the other Ronaldo.

  20. I enjoyed this and have no complaints but they are definitely not all ‘gettable’ from the wordplay – even with all the letters the placing of the last 2 vowels in 4 has to be known and 20 has many obvious alternatives that fit the parsing (donsie, tomsie, jonsie, bobsie, lousie, moesie, jobsie, ronsie, todsie…..).

    I didn’t know that 16 had a w on the end (guess I’ve only ever heard it spoken) and 27 was knew to me but gettablel/guessable.

    Thanks to Pasquale and loonapick

  21. p.s. TheZed @ 16 I was going to say ‘sorry we crossed’ but as Muffin has had time to reply I’m wondering if it’s another case of the page not refreshing on my phone – on my iPhone the comment numbers and times aren’t shown and I often find that the ‘responses count’ jumps after I post!

  22. Thank you to Pasquale and Loonapick.

    Tough but fun. Solving 8dn half way through u locked some of the trickier clues.

    Those of us who sing in church choirs will know 6dn from the carol “In Dulce Jubilo”.

  24. I’m a little surprised at some of the reactions. This went reasonably quickly for me, given the difficulty level, and I’ve seen the Don be much more difficult. DEIMOS and SALCHOW were familiar enough to me that they didn’t even raise an eyebrow. (But then AXEL has long been declared fair game in American-style crosswords, like all short words that have as many or more vowels as consonants, so why not SALCHOW? On the other hand, the figure skating is appointment viewing here, as we’ve had until recently a steady stream of medalists.) Except for SONSIE, the other odd words were completely fair, observing the “obscure words clued plainly” rule. I actually didn’t even feel the need to look any of them up. And there was plenty of cleverness along the way. Thanks to both blogger and setter.

  25. Well, like others I struggled a bit with this.  Interesting that the complaints about GK differ with different posters.  So I had no trouble at all with WHEATSTONE BRIDGE or SHEARER but had never heard of SONSIE or DEIMOS, so we can’t really blame the setter.  However, I think muffin is quite correct, that SONSIE is a bit unfair because there are so many variations that might be correct.  I generally struggle with the DON because I suspect my ability to decipher the word-play is generally poorer than my ability to think of an answer to the definition, while others clearly work better the other way round.

    Anyway many thanks to the Don and Loonapick, and to all the posters who make this site so interesting.

  27. Well got there in the end, but not much to add to the above, tough going with at least half a dozen new words (all been mentioned above) and a bit of dictionary checking. Thanks to Pasquale for the gk lesson and loonapick for the blog.

  28. “GK” = General Knowledge Jimbo @26 ie things you just have to know, rather than word meanings and word play conventions. In this case, that Deimos is a moon of Mars, Alan Shearer a footballer pundit, a salchow a leap in ice skating, an atabeg is a Turkish high official and the Wheatstone Bridge as an electrical device. More instances here than in a typical puzzle.

  29. That’s the most I’ve learnt in a crossword for a long time, although some of them did ring very faint bells (DEIMOS ATABEG and CINERARY) and 24 11 came back from O-level physics. MACARONIC is definitely one to (try to) retain and use – and a lovely clue with its Macca reference. The clue for POLITICKED amused me although it’s a clumsy word.
    I’m with Eileen in enjoying it more than I thought I was at the time, so thanks to Pasquale for the education and Loonapick for making everything clear.

  31. I quite enjoyed this until I got to the SW corner, which I happily left, not having heard of either SALCHOW or SONSIE. (Of course, the setter could have used different words for entries like SONSIE and ALKYD, but I don’t deny him the choice of putting several rather than just a few unfamiliar words in the grid.)
    I’m kicking myself now for not getting WITTER, even though I had only one crossing letter.
    I’m another who knows that Shearer’s reputation was made as a striker, not a commentator, but at least ‘commentator’ is an accurate description of his present occupation, and quite well known in the UK, I would say.
    Thanks to Pasquale and Loonapick.

  32. The setter is not supposed to know what you know, so I don’t think any of these clues was unfair. Granted, SONSIE wasn’t uniquely determined by its crossers, so it just required a bit more work in confirming/disconfirming candidates. I suppose every clue comes down to a mix of what you know and what you have to work out.

    Which brings me to the observation that it seems like in every puzzle there are one or more facts that I draw on that I’ve learned in school, but haven’t used since. Physics has been mentioned several times, but there was also Latin for CINERARY (ashes) and chemistry for alkyd. Who would have though that this was the reason it was important to pay attention!

  33. Even by Pasquale’s standards this one was educational. Nothing too difficult to guess and check.

    SONSIE has been in a crossword by Pasquale once before (23672) in which he clued the first two lines of Burns’ address using an anagram:

    Tonight eat a fine, fancy, farinaceous suet-rich food – praised here incomprehensibly! (4,2,4,6,6,4,5,9,1,3,6-4)

    I liked the SHEARER clue, and remembered MACARONIC from Cortazar’s Hopscotch.

    Thanks to Pasquale and loonapick

  34. Thanks to Pasquale and loonapick

    Don’t really feel that I’m in a position to be objective about this one as am not in top form after a late night  and gave up early, yet I feel that I’d be on the grumble end of the praise spectrum (I always feel affronted by unfamiliar words and have to learn to get over it). In any event Pasquale generally beats me up so nothing strange really. Now to manoeuvre the conversation towards the health of high ranking Turkish officials (“Yon’s a sonsie atabeg ye ken…”). (Perhaps not.)

  36. I know this may sound lame, considering I’ve been doing Guardian cryptics for years now, but can someone give some *basic* instructions on how the Anagram Helper works? I’ve never used it, and wanted to use it today for 6A, and I tried several approaches, but nothing did anything…

    I put in the 6 letters I wanted to try, and clicked on shuffle, but nothing happened. Just curious what the obvious and simple step I’m overlooking is (!)

  37. My antipathy to football is well known but I got SHEARER so it’s clearly not that obscure. However, I had trouble with CINERARY and SALCHOW and I failed on SONSIE. I did know DEIMOS from a youthful fascination with SF.
    I don’t really get on with this setter and, while the majority of this went in OK, the rest was a bit like pulling teeth.
    Thanks Picaroon.

  38. Late to the party because of a very long walk over the cats back with two pub stops. All been said but a shout out for the surface of SHEARER – great player but the master of inanity as a pundit! Ta to both.

  39. This seemed at the tougher end of Pasquale’s range to me.  I enjoyed working out WHEATSTONE BRIDGE, whose name I remember well from physics but whose function escaped me long ago.  I thought SHAMMY was still spelled with a C and also have never seen SALCHOW written down either.

    Same eyebrow raise at SONSIE as many others.  I wondered how BONN could possibly mean boys!  Doesn’t CINERARY need an inclusion indicator, such as “Like many urns, some terribly rare, nicked from the east (8)”?

    Thanks, Don and loonapick

  41. Yes, shammy has its own entry in Chambers. All fairly clued I thought, though I too think a lapse has occurred with CINERARY. SONSIE’s clue did give me pause, but I should have known that the Don would not leave us to go through boys’ names. Found it in the online Dictionary of the Scots Language by searching for ‘attractive’.
    Thanks to Pasquale and loonapick.

  42. Thanks to loonapick and Pasquale

    I couldn’t see an inclusion thingy at 12a either. I’m another who has never seen SALCHOW written down, but then who has?  I remember it as being pronounced SALCOW by commentators, but Collins online gives it as SAULCO.

    Nice puzzle @alberich Gonzo @41.

  43. Dr. WhatsOn@32 is right as to GK: what we know, or vaguely recall, is obviously just and reasonable; while what we’ve never heard of can seem monstrously unfair.

    And remarkable/pleasing though it is to find how world-wide is the (Manchester) Guardian solving community at 15squared, the setters must surely be allowed to be a bit UK-centric.

    So to SONSIE. The haggis poem came back to me – very belatedly – after Yorkshire Lass and I had spent a long time trying increasingly ludicrous possibles. On reflection I think every UK child should be required to read Burns in school – ‘Holy Wullie’s Prayer’ in particular. (USA readers think Elmer Gantry).

    Notable that the respected and estimable muffin@40 tolerates SHAMMY. We bridled momentarily, but he is right: usage always wins so CHAMOIS in a lost cause, sadly. Pedants 0: World 4.

    We too started with FUNERARY for 12a which slowed us down. Liked MADAME, SOLARIA & MACARONIC – last with that lovely and apposite Beatles ref.

    Overall we thought it was a really enjoyable, albeit fairly testing, puzzle with which we had no real issues. (Solving as a joint effort greatly reduces particular irritations and niggles: respectfully recommended to the craggy soloists who post here).

    Many thanks to the Don and loonapic.

  44. After a tougher than normal Monday I was hoping for a Tuesday I could get into … crikey … not sure I’ll try Pasquale again until I get a lot better … funnily enough I thought Shearer was one of the easiest of the clues… beats the normal GK references from long ago !

  46. Irishman @43

    You do me great credit!

    We saw one once. We were staying in a hotel in the Italian Alps. We went for a walk up the mountains, and the hotel dog insisted on coming with us. He was called Salti, which we translated as “Bouncer”. His main job was to keep the multitudinous cats out of the restaurant, but he had a agreement with one to let it in and share whatever the cat could push off the table!

    Anyway, a long way up the mountain he suddenly ran off and chased a chamois, so we got a good view.

    We were told afterwards that they are “camosci” in Italian. I’m not sure what the singular would be, as the “c” would be hard in “camosco”.

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