Guardian Cryptic 27,928 by Tramp

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27928.

A very satisfying offering from Tramp, with a palpable &lit at 10D, and another (within a whisker, and I take it true) at 4D.

Across
1 RED LIGHT Warning sign of Tory describing far-right group (3,5)
An envelope (‘describing’) of EDL (English Defence League, ‘far-right group’) in RIGHT (‘Tory’; some may feel that the double right detracts from the clue).
5 SPACES Stretches out with small steps (6)
A chasrade of S (‘small’) plus PACES (‘steps’).
9 ENTANGLED Caught up in nasty net, fish died (9)
A charade of ENT, an anagram (‘nasty’) of ‘net’ plus ANGLE (‘fish’, verb) plus D (‘died’).
11 RANGE Variety of fruit that’s peeled (5)
[o]RANGE[s] (‘fruit’) minus its outer letters (‘peeled’).
12 PROMISED LAND Spiderman spinning with old 6 (8,4)
An anagram (spinning’) of ‘spiderman’ plus (‘with’) ‘old’. The answer to 6D is PARADISE.
15 LIED Song told a tale (4)
Double definition.
16 BROOMSTICK Hear which method of transport British 5 select (10)
A charade of B (‘British’) plus ROOMS (‘5’; the answer to 5A is SPACES) plus TICK (‘select’). I have underlined the middle of the clue as definition, since ‘hear which’ is a wordplay for WITCH.
18 UNSPORTING Not decent, wearing one at the front (10)
A charade of UN (‘one’, dialect) plus SPORTING (‘wearing’), with ‘at the front’ indicating the order of the particles.
19 PUTT Place tee for golf shot (4)
A charade of PUT (‘place’) plus T (‘tee’).
21 DIVISION SIGN Slash department, then recruit (8,4)
A charade of DIVISION (‘department’) plus SIGN (‘recruit’).
24 RURAL Start to register web address blocked by one country (5)
An envelope (blocked by’) of A (‘one’) in R (‘start to Register’) plus URL (Uniform Resource Locator, ‘web address’).
25 STONEWALL Nearly finish novel, then complete block (9)
A charade of STO[p] (‘finish’) minus its last letter (‘nearly’) plus NEW (‘novel’ – for once, not an anagrind) plus ALL (‘complete’).
26 DESIST Stop in dodgy side street (6)
A charade of DESI, an anagram (‘dodgy’) of ‘side’ plus ST (‘street’).
27 DEAD HEAT When there’s nothing between leading couple, no more passion (4,4)
Definition and literal interpretation.
Down
1 REEF Bank charge right to go up (4)
A reversal (‘to go up’ in a down light) of FEE (‘charge’) plus R (‘right’).
2 DATE See daughter’s worried (4)
A charade of D (‘daughter’) plus ATE (‘worried’).
3 IGNORE I travel across north on bypass (6)
A charade of IGNO, an envelope (‘across’) of N (‘north’) in I GO (‘I travel’); plus RE (‘on’).
4 HALF-MARATHONS Mo Farah hasn’t primarily lost races like these (4-9)
An anagram (?’lost’ doing double duty, or ‘races’ likewise – but ‘like these’ might just about be adequate as the definition – especially if the definition is regarded as extended) of ‘Mo Farah hasn’t L’, where the L is ‘primarily Lost’.
6 PARADISE Delight as extremes of arachnophobia treated with spider (8)
An anagram (‘treated’) of AA (‘extremes of ArachnophobiA‘) plus (‘with’) ‘spider’.
7 CONTAGIOUS Catching two rings separately in act using juggling (10)
An anagram (‘juggling’) of ‘act using’ plus OO (‘two rings’ – OK the clue presents them as envelope contents, but the effect is the same).
8 SPEED SKATE Nuts about prince: princess gets tear on the frosty circuit? (5,5)
A charade of SPEEDS, an envelope (‘about’) of P (‘prince’) in SEEDS (‘nuts’; strictly speaking, an indication by example); plus KATE (‘princess’ – moving on from ANNE and DI).
10 DISCOUNT STORE Round opening of this: is Tesco worried? (8,5)
A anagram (‘worried’) of ’round’ plus T (‘opening of This’) plus ‘is Tesco’, with an &lit definition.
13 FLOUNDERED Struggled and sank when crossing lake (10)
An envelope ‘when crossing’) of L (‘lake’) in FOUNDERED (‘sank’).
14 PERSEVERES Soldiers on a hard section (10)
A charade of PER (‘a’) plus SEVERE (‘hard’) plus S (‘section’).
17 CONSOLES Comforts one son after do (8)
A charade of CON (swindle, ‘do’) plus SOLE (‘one’) plus S (‘son’).
20 AGREED Quite old clothes on (6)
An envelope (‘clothes’) of RE (‘on’) in AGED (‘old’).
22 FACE Nothing on sides of coffee mug (4)
A charade of FA (‘nothing’) plus CE (‘sides of CoffeE‘).
23 PLOT Story in bed (4)
Double definition.
completed grid

44 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,928 by Tramp”

  1. A nice meaty offering from Tramp, I thought.

    Not a complaint, but a bit puzzled by the role of “Hear which” in 16a. Without it, the clue would be a traditional Definition+Indication type. I see its role is to make the definition more specific, but now that has a cryptic component, so it’s technically a Double Indication. So it’s either irregular or it’s a new style evolving – we had something similar quite recently, but I’m damned if I can remember exactly when.

    Curiously, 23d almost can be answered by another LIED (well, if you fudge a bit).

    Thanks.

  2. Took me a while to get going but it ended up being an enjoyable puzzle to solve. I was unable to parse CONSOLES and after reading the blog, I realise that I had not parsed RED LIGHT (never heard of EDL).

    My favourites were BROOMSTICK, DIVISION SIGN, DEAD HEAT, STONEWALL, DISCOUNT STORE.

    Thanks Peter and Tramp.

     

  4. I reckon you’re right Trovatore, that no more=dead, though I didn’t notice it. At the Tuesdayish end of Tramp I thought, with a few tricks like sole s for one son, and the old per for a in perseveres, my loi (slow!). Don’t know un as dialect for one, vaguely thinking maybe Western Front as well as front of the word; no, d’oh, just remembered un as in eg she’s a good’un. Division sign was a good’un too. Fun puzzle, thanks T and P.

  5. I parsed HALF-MARATHONS as the def. being ‘like these’, with ‘races’ as the anagram indicator, but I see what you mean about the def. then being a bit vague. I couldn’t understand the ‘Hear which’ bit of 16a and can’t remember having seen this device before, as discussed by Dr. WhatsOn @1. I also agree with Trovatore @3 about the parsing of 27a.

    Favourites were DIVISION SIGN and the &lit DISCOUNT STORE.

    Thanks to PeterO and Tramp

  7. Thanks Tramp and PeterO.
    Re 16a, I figured ‘hear which’ (being ‘witch’ homophone) is also part of definition.

    I also thought, like Trovatore@3, ‘no more passion’ = DEAD HEAT, making it a double definition .

  8. Thanks Tramp and PeterO

    Lots of fun clues. I missed the “which” homophone in 16 – it’s now a favourite. Lots of other likes, including AGREED and RURAL.

    I don’t think 4d quite works. If it’s “definition + wordplay” then either “lost” or “races” is doing double duty, as you say, Peter; however the “primarily” doesn’t make sense in an &lit.

    Of course, I didn’t like “in” in 23d.

  10. >making it a double definition

    ilippu @ 7: if as parsed … it’s not a double def., but a single def. + wordplay.

  11. I’ll be impressed if we see a better clue than the one for DISCOUNT STORE this week in any of the puzzles: fabulous!

    Many thanks Tramp (and PeterO)!

  12. An enjoyable challenge. HALF MARATHON and BROOMSTICK were both very clever. Re the latter, there’s no law that says you can’t have wordplay in the definition.

    I’m probably being slow, but I don’t quite see what ROUND is doing in the surface of 10d.

    Thanks Tramp and PeterO.

  16. Round meaning about, or at the time of? .. ie is Tesco worried about the opening of a discount store? That’s how I glossed it anyway.

  17. I thought the clues for HALF-MARATHON and DISCOUNT STORE were superb, and I also liked BROOMSTICK and STONEWALL.

    Pity about the ‘right’ in the clue for 1A though.

    Thanks Tramp and PeterO.

  19. Lovely puzzle. I hadn’t thought of UN in UNSPORTING as dialect, just a French word creeping in. But now I see. Lots of great clues: I particularly liked CONSOLED, BROOMSTICK and DEAD HEAT. Many thanks to T & P.

     

  20. Good fun – another well-judged puzzle which slowly unravelled as clues went from “what the heck?” to “could it be?” to “aha” over the course of the morning. Spot on, good &littish ideas and I enjoyed the “hear which” as a slightly naughty variant but one which made perfect sense. I think that, as long as once you see it the answer is unambiguous (as this was) then it is fair game.

    A bit of a pity about “right” appearing in clue and answer in 1ac, and “un” is now justified by our own Prime Minister, who proved his Franglais was as good as Bettel’s English with his “Donnez-moi un break”…

  21. [On “un” as dialect, I’m always amused that, in cricket, a googly is called a “wrong’un” by most English speakers, except for Indian commentators, who can’t bring themselves to use slang and always say “wrong one”!]

  22. No disagreement here about the puzzle, meaty but fair. I got a bit bogged down in the SW with division sign, perseveres and unsporting last ones. Another fan of broomstick and discount store, and thanks to Tramp and PeterO.

  23. If “no more passion” isn’t a double definition, it’s a figurative definition, not a literal one.

    I think of Tesco as a supermrket.  Is it a particularly cheap one?

  25. I didn’t get BROOMSTICK and couldn’t parse it even after revealing it, but the structure of the clue is quite creative and among my favorites. My others have all been mentioned above. Thanks to Tramp and PeterO.

  26. Thanks both,
    Valentine@23: Tesco is struggling to maintain its market share in the face of competition from Aldi and Lidl which are chains of discount stores (loosely).

  27. No, Valentine, Tesco isn’t the discount store, but the major supermarkets are worried about competition from Aldi and Lidl, which are. Great clue, and thanks all for further explanations. I finished but didn’t know why in several cases.

  28. We too found the SW a bit slow, but got there eventually. Liked DIVISION SIGN and BROOMSTICKS. Also HALFMARATHON. Good puzzle.

  30. Thanks to Tramp ad PeterO.

    A bit wan after celebrating a golfing victory yesterday, I found this somewhat impenetrable and still can’t get a firm bite on a couple of them even with the parsing: DISCOUNT STORE, HALF-MARATHONS, BROOMSTICK – they seem to me to require mental back-flips with pirouette and pike and I just can’t do it today (my fault). CONTAGIOUS and DIVISION SIGN were more to my palate.  Perhaps I’d have enjoyed more if I hadn’t slotted that slippery birdie PUTT on the 17th.

    (I should DESIST – AGREED).

  31. Trovatore@10
    dead heat
    /?ded ?h?t/
    noun
    a situation in or result of a race in which two or more competitors are exactly even…= “When there’s nothing between leading couple”

    That is one definition with DEAD HEAT as answer. Nothing further is required in the clue.

    No more passion (= DEAD HEAT) is the second definition.

  32. I was baffled by what the “hear which” was doing in the BROOMSTICK clue, so thanks for the explanation. Overall this was a good time, as I’ve learned to expect from Tramp.  Lots of cleverness; nothing too contrived; and the trickiest clues all turned out to be the most satisfying.

    In one of my amateur attempts at cryptics, I clued STONEWALL thusly:  Refuse to talk about gay bar in Jackson (9)  …but that clue is rather American, isn’t it.

  34. Very nice puzzle.  BROOMSTICK was a wonderful one as was DISCOUNT STORE (which I got but couldn’t parse).
    My only quibble is with the us of “un” for “one” with no further qualifiers (in 18ac).

  35. Jay in P @ 34

    ‘un’ for ‘one’ doesn’t need a qualifier. It’s a standard speech-sourced UK English abbreviation, as in the expression “That’s a good ‘un”.

    hth

  38. We thought, A Tramp puzzle doesn’t come easier than this.

    But, crikey, what a lot of silky smooth clues in which the surface and its cryptic element were working together so nicely:

    21ac, 27ac, 7d, 10d, 14d, 22d, 23d, to name just more than a handful!

    We’ve already forgotten about the mediocre 1ac, 18ac and chestnutty 11d.  🙂

    We thought another of these splendid clues (4d’s HALF-MARATHONS) could have done without ‘primarily’ to make it even better.

    L can be an abbreviation for ‘lost’.  Tramp must have thought about that and perhaps wanted to avoid what some might have seen as an indirect anagram.

    Really really enjoyable.

    Many thanks to PeterO & Tramp.

     

  39. Fairly good pace through most of this, but slowed down in the SW.  I liked BROOMSTICK, HALF MARATHONS, DISCOUNT STORE and STONEWALL (like the clue, mrpenney, but I had to look up the middle bit to understand).

    Is there a mini fish theme: FLOUNDER, SKATE, SOLE (STONE??) all appearing in the grid?  Any others?

    Thanks, Tramp and PeterO

  42. Too tired to finish this last night (Australian time), but came back with a clearer head and really enjoyed it. Thanks to Tramp and PeterO. Others have mentioned ones I particularly liked – 27a DEAD HEAT and 7d CONTAGIOUS, but I also ticked the economical 22d FACE. Couldn’t parse 1a RED LIGHT or 18a UNSPORTING.

  44. Muffin @37: Thanks.  I’m from India originally (although in the US for 40 years now…) so I actually did get the one about the Googly – you’re correct!

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