Guardian 27,953 – Philistine

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A very enjoyable puzzle from Philistine today. I found it quite a quick solve, helped by gentle clueing for the four long answers around the outside of the grid. Thanks to Philistine.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1,4. KNIGHT TEMPLAR King has a change of heart initially, having to trample over crusader (6,7)
KING with its heart, i.e. middle letters, reversed, + first letters of Having To, + TRAMPLE*
9. THWARTING Frustrating skin defect in article (9)
WART in THING
10. CUBIC Stand in line to hear writer die as such (5)
Homophone of “queue” plus BIC (pen, writer). A die is usually in the shape of a cube.
11. HINDU Religion is a bit of a growth industry (5)
Hidden in growtH INDUstry. Chambers only defines Hindu as a follower of Hinduism, not the religion itself.
12. PROFUSION Plenty in support of amalgamation (9)
PRO (for, in support of) FUSION
13. NASCENT From the East, an aroma is emerging (7)
Reverse of AN + SCENT
15. TUSCAN In France, you read Italian (6)
TU (French “you”) + SCAN (read)
17. URANUS Tour Iran, plus half the planet (6)
The last halves of toUR irAN plUS
19. BESEECH Request tree-lined square borders (7)
S[quar]E in BEECH – I’m not sure that “tree-lined” can mean “contained in a tree”
22. ATTENUATE They say solver had dinner late to lose strength (9)
Homophone of “at ten you ate”
24. PUFFS Turned up really loud, music essentially is pants (5)
Reverse of UP + FF (fortissimo, very loud) + [mu]S[ic]
26. DIGIT A number are into computers (5)
DIG (like, are into) + IT (Information Technology, computers)
27. DESPERADO Right fuss after outrageous speed: it’s criminal (9)
SPEED* + R + ADO
28,29. NUCLEAR ENERGY Extremely undemocratic to interrupt the development of nearly green power generation (7,6)
U[ndemocrati]C in (NEARLY POWER)*
Down
1,21. KITCHEN GARDEN Keen to welcome both long and terribly grand plot for production (7,6)
ITCH and GRAND* inserted into KEEN in different places
2. IOWAN Here Ryde is an American (5)
IOW (Isle of Wight, where the town of Ryde is) + AN
3. HERCULEAN Strong as Poirot? (9)
Double definition – a very easy clue, as long as know Poirot’s first name is Hercule
4. TUGBOAT Vessel manoeuvre: starting to go about (7)
Anagram of T[o] G[o] ABOUT
5. MACAU Once an island bird losing half its tail? (5)
MACAW (bird) with its final double-U becoming a single U. According to the Wikipedia article on Macau, ‘The peninsula was originally a separate island with hilly terrain, which gradually became a tombolo as a connecting sandbar formed over time’.
6. LUBRICATE Car built to run on the ultimate in engine oil (9)
(CAR BUILT)* + [engin]E
7,20. RECENT HISTORY Isn’t he wrong breaking into minister’s residence not long ago? (6,7)
(ISN’T HE)* in RECTORY
8. LIMPET Sticker permitted troublemaker to enter (6)
IMP in LET
14. STRATEGIC Calculated harm to banning e-cigarettes (9)
Anagram of CIGARETTES less E
16. SISYPHEAN He sips any cocktail that’s hard and fruitless (9)
(HE SIPS ANY)* – from Sisyphus in Greek mythology, who was punished by having to push a huge boulder up a hill every day, only for it to fall down again at the end. I had to check which way round the I and Y came in the word.
18. SLANDER Speak ill of topless Lesbian? (7)
ISLANDER (of which a Lesbian – from the island of Lesbos – is an example), less its first letter
19. BREAST Bristol sounds like a French port (6)
Homophone of the French port Brest. Bristol (usually in the plural) is rhyming slang for breast, from “Bristol City”
23. NITRE Inverting upside-down explosive (5)
Hidden in reverse of vERTINg – I got to this one late on, and was thinking I hadn’t seen any of Philistine’s trademark “lift-and-separate” clues..
25. FLAIR Natural ability to pick up a distress signal (5)
Homophone of “flare”

43 comments on “Guardian 27,953 – Philistine”

  3. Thanks Andrew for  explaining the end of MACAU.

    Got BREAST/BREST but couldn’t parse. Didn’t know the rhyming slang. Also fell short of parsing IOW in IOWAN due to lack of UK GK.

    Otherwise definitely not SISYPHEAN.

  4. Today, it took me until the down clues to get on to Philistine’s wavelength, and my first in was HERCULEAN at 3d. But after that it was pretty much smooth sailing for me. Had to rethink TACKING, a biff at 4d: for me it fitted in well as it is indeed a “vessel manoeuvre” in which a boat is said to be coming about or going about… but it seemed to be almost non-cryptic – and when it didn’t fit the crossers, I saw my folly!
    Overall, I really enjoyed this puzzle as I didn’t have to use any reference sources at all, not even to check things, as I didn’t strike any unfamiliar words. Unlike paddymelon@3, I was lucky today to know with the British placename, Ryde, which provided the fodder for IOW-AN at 2d. I ticked the four doubles along the perimeters, and particularly liked 7d RECENT HISTORY. My other favourite, sticking with my nautical thinking, was 25d FLAIR. I also liked the symmetrical Greek legend references in the afore-mentioned HERCULEAN and SISYPHEAN. And despite occasional concerns that I am losing my sense of humour, I did have to smile at the topless Lesbians and the cockney slang reference for the French port – although goodness knows where I ever heard the latter …
    With thanks to Philistine and Andrew.

  5. Must have been totally on Philistine’s wavelength too today, as I flew through this. Not too many pushings of that boulder up the hill only to watch it roll back again.

  6. Unlike Andrew I stared at this for some time, concentrating on the peripheral clues, and got absolutely nothing! But eventually got going, and really enjoyed it – in particular PUFFS, CUBIC and IOWAN. Many thanks to P & A.

  7. Thanks, Andrew – as you say, very enjoyable.

    The four long answers did make for a gentler solve. [I’ll say yet again how much I admire setters who make composite answers run together in the grid – so much less frustrating than chasing all over the place.]

    My favourites today were CUBIC, ATTENUATE, MACAU and STRATEGIC.

    Reading ‘tree-lined’ as ‘surrounded by trees’ worked for me in 19ac.

    Many thanks to Philistine for a brighter start to yet another gloomy day. Now for Julius in the FT – I feel very spoilt again.

     

  8. This was a particularly enjoyable one, particularly HERCULEAN and SISYPHEAN. The latter reminded me of the joke.. What was Sisyphus’s favourite type of music?
    NITRE was also particularly well constructed. Needed help to parse MACAU..very clever. Also learnt a new word – tombolo – from Andrew.
    Thanks, Philistine and Andrew.

  10. I also enjoyed this, gradually picking up momentum as the crossers triggered the synapses. Only 2 geographic GK gaps held me up in the parsing. I didn’t know where Ryde was so googled Ryde Iowan and as soon as I entered the “w”, the Isle of Wight popped up – nice. And I was too smart for my own good on MACAU. I ran the Macau marathon in 1989 which traversed the 3 islands – Macau, Taipa and Coloane. The latter two are now one, united as part of the landfill project for the offshore airport. So I thought the “once an island” reference was misplaced. A TILT for me.

    Thanks Philistine and Andrew.

  13. Hmm, a tree-lined avenue is between or within, I suppose. Like Ronald@5 I fizzed through this like Berocca B, just the thing for a mild hangover. That said, I gave king a change to get knig, then wondered about the rest, including an indicator for trample*. So though the answer was obvious, by the Dr. Wh. rule, no entry without parse, I am a dnf. Hey ho. A double-u trick using vacuum turned up recently. Is anyone going to fuss about “A number are…” in 26ac? Iowan was inventive, and oil as verb was neat in 6d. Fun, thanks both.

  14. Tree lined as in tree having a lining, perhaps. Lots of clever cluing, Favourite 18 D. Thanks Setter and solver.

  15. Thanks to Andrew for the blog – I did not know where Ryde was and didn’t think of the Isle of Wight despite arriving at IOWAN. I was not troubled by the tree lining. Lots to enjoy today, I particularly liked NITRE which I thought was well-hidden and ATTENUATE, which took me far too long to get. Thanks to Philistine for the fun.

  16. As Andrew said, a very enjoyable puzzle, and one that, like JinA (@4), I was delighted to solve without any references.
    I got none of the four ‘border’ clues at my first attempt and had to enjoy solving several smaller fry in the middle first.
    Very good clues throughout, of which my favourites were STRATEGIC, TUSCAN and SLANDER.
    Thanks to Philistine and Andrew.

  18. Particularly enjoyed Macau and Nitre today. Like Andrew, I had to check which way round the i and y were in Sisyphus. It’s one that gets me every single time. I shall have to try to remember not to be such a SIS[s]Y next time. 🙂

    Cheers Philistine and Andrew.

  19. As others have said, a very enjoyable solve which unpacked quite readily. I was another who was helped by getting the four long ones quite early. Last one for me was Macau which needed quite a bit of working out and a bit of research to check. For me, my favourite clues were mainly the five letter ones, cubic, digit, Iowan, puffs and flair all made me smile. Thanks to both Philistine and Andrew.

  20. A rare opportunity for me to have time to solve a Guardian puzzle that I don’t have to blog.  This was fairly straightforward with only PUFFS and SISYPHEAN holding me up for a second or two.  Getting the perimeter answers, which were not terribly difficult to find, was very helpful.

  21. I got the outside clues pretty quickly, but wasn’t able to parse to my full satisfaction 1,21. It was late at night and I blearily didn’t recognize the significance of the word “both” in the clue.

    Otherwise a pretty good xword, I thought. Giggled when I got the parsing of CUBIC.

  22. Thanks Philistine and Andrew

    I really enjoyed this, and I too found that it went more quickly than I expected from first reading.

    I loved CUBIC, particularly as I spent some time trying to work SIC (“as such”) into the solution!

  24. I enjoyed this too. Took me far too long to parse CUBIC even though it had to be right. HERCULEAN was my FOI,so,snap Julie! The rest went in pretty smoothly. I liked KNIGHT TEMPLAR!
    Thanks Philistine.

  25. Thanks to Philistine and Andrew.

    A very satisfying solve at just the right level for me today, although I needed help to parse IOWAN and TUGBOAT (D’oh).  NITRE was a favourite along with TUSCAN.

  26. I didn’t know the rhyming slang but got BREAST from the wordplay and crossers. In 23d (NITRE), I was convinced that there was a missing indicator, because the lift-and-separate eluded me. I’m not sure what I think of this clue: the lift-and-separate trick seems different to me when one of the components (VERTING in this case) is not a word in its own right. But maybe that’s just me.

    I particularly enjoyed MACAU when the penny dropped, and also the nice subtractive anagram for STRATEGIC.

     

    Thanks to Philistine and Andrew!

     

  27. Ted @26

    “when one of the components (VERTING in this case) is not a word in its own right.”

    Sorry, but according to Chambers, ‘vert’ can be a verb:

    vert²
    noun
    A familiar shortening of convert (esp to Roman Catholicism) or (historical) pervert
    intransitive verb
    To become a vert

  28. Rather easy, but very enjoyable puzzle.  Not being from the UK I was unaware of the Bristol-Breast thingie…

  29. Gaufrid @27 — Thanks! I looked in the version of Chambers that’s available online, but not in the canonical Chambers. I stand corrected.

     

  30. A long, long time ago, as a callow sixth-former in Tottenham, I joined some of the upper sixth who were trying to finish a crossword. It was the LOI. Arucaria, “Begin description of dining room (8)”. I somehow saw it immediately. INITIATE. I was hooked. And today we had 22A, ATTENUATE, which reminded mo of that moment. Thanks Philistine and Andrew!!

  31. Snap JinA and others. Top clue for me was CUBIC and I misspelt SISYPHEAN – but fortunately it didn’t hinder the solve. Thanks for the joke Hedgehog – I hadn’t heard it before – and to Philistine and Andrew.

  33. A neat puzzle all round. Re 22a – having dinner at ten would, for me, be eating a mid-day meal early. 🙂
    Thanks to Philistine and Andrew

  34. DNF 🙁 Thwarted by thwarted, since I had Incan, for Iowan. Not knowing Ryde or the abbreviation IOW, I presumed Ryde was a prison in the UK.

    Nevertheless, many thanks for the fab crossie and blog.

  35. I think I set a land speed record on this today! Now what am I going to do with the rest of the 2 hours it would normally take me?? 🙂

  36. Tombola was new for me too, so I looked it up and found a list of dozens in Wikipedia.  I followed up on the ones in New England and found two each in ME and MA, one each in CT and RI.  Here’s a few odd bits of lore:

    Louds Island ME seceded not only from Bristol, the nearest town, but from the US in the early 1860s, while the Federal Government and the southern states were having a war over the very same question.

    Captain Kidd visited Charles Island CT on his way to Boston, where he was arrested.  He buried treasure on a nearby island in 1699.  Now no one can go there during the summer so nesting birds are left in peace.

    Chappaquiddick MA is a tiny island off the east end of the larger island Martha’s Vineyard.  I remember going there by ferry when visiting a friend who lived in Edgartown, the nearest town — it had a beach and we went to swim.  Residents of Chappaquiddick see themselves as a separate community – going to Edgartown is “going to the mainland,” and going to mainland Massachusetts is “going to America.”  It was also the site where Senator Ted Kennedy drove a car off a bridge in the middle of the night and his passenger drowned, a huge scandal at the time.

     

     

     

     

  37. [Off topic – sorry – but I’m reminded by something above (you will see what) about the Edinburgh police picking up a drunk and incapable American. After he had had a night in the cells, he was interviewed.

    “Why did you drink so much whisky?”

    “I thought I ought to try each one associated with my family.”

    “What’s your family name?”

    “Glen”…..]

  38. 19d was fun. I have a silly hobby: collecting unlikely French-English translations, where ‘unlikely’ means ‘not in my standard translator’s dictionary, the Robert-Collins’. As it turns out, ‘Robert’ could perfectly well be translated as ‘Bristol’.
    I’ll leave you to work out why ‘mercredi’ can just as correctly be translated as ‘sugar’.

  39. Too late to add much that has not already been said, but just wanted to once again congratulate Philistine, who is fast becoming my favourite setter, on a classy crossword.  There were a few parsings which I was not sure of, but Andrew explained all, so many thanks.  Among many great clues I thought PUFFS was perhaps the best! Blaise @ 38; please explain your guilty pleasure!!

  40. Thanks Andrew for the blog and especially TOMBOLO.
    A super puzzle from Philistine, indeed a pleasure not to have to look anything up. A minor quiblet here with ‘tree-lined’ also (see Chambers line:2) but all’s forgiven.

  41. For me, this was easier to solve than to parse. I enjoyed it even though I failed to understand 2d, 1a, 4d, 19d, 5d. I never heard of IOW, Bristol city slang, or Ryde!

    My favourites were STRATEGIC, KITCHEN GARDEN, ATTENTUATE, PROFUSION, TUSCAN, CUBIC.

    Thanks B+S.

  43. Not bad at all. Ticked MACAU and SLANDER.
    [Andrew – the split-word ploy in 23dn is NOT an example of “lift & separate”, an entirely different device; cf. crosswordunclued]

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