Guardian Cryptic 27,972 by Nutmeg

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27972.

I was happy not to have to blog yesterday’s Vlad, but I found this one not an easy puzzle. It is notable for the number of unexpected definitions, which I found (mostly) justifiable. None was more obscure to me than the euro in 12A, which held up the blog for a long time.

ACROSS
1 ASSURED Confident, like retiring American left-winger (7)
A charade of AS (‘like’) plus SU, a reversal (‘retiring’) of US (‘American’) plus RED (‘left-winger’).
5 DOVECOT Perform check, covering county where Homer settled? (7)
An envelope (‘covering’) of CO (‘county’) in DO (‘perform’) plus VET (‘check’). ‘Homer’ (misleading capital) being a pigeon.
9 CHELA Shell uncovered beside cape — a crab’s disabled without it (5)
A charade of C (‘cape’) plus HEL (‘sHELl uncovered’) plus ‘a’. A claw.
10 INFLICTED Visited area excluded from redraft of final edict (9)
An anagram (‘redraft’) of ‘fin[a]l edict’ minus the A (‘area excluded’).
11 PIED-A-TERRE Girlfriend installed in French­man’s love nest, maybe (4-1-5)
An envelope (‘installed in’) of DATE (‘girlfriend’) in PIERRE (not our blogger, but generally a ‘Frenchman’).
12 ROO Expressed regret for euro, say (3)
Sounds like (‘expressed’) RUE (‘regret’). Not the currency, a euro is a kind of wallaroo, much like a kangaroo.
14 SELF-RELIANCE Priest in country after a spell oddly lost independence (4-8)
An envelope (‘in’) of ELI (‘priest’) in SEL (‘a SpElL oddly lost’) plus FRANCE (‘country’).
18 PRESERVATION Keeping quiet, with some little doubt (12)
A charade of P (piano, musically ‘quiet’) plus RESERVATION (‘some little doubt’).
21 TAT Rubbish article in Times (3)
An envelope (‘in’) of A (indefinite ‘article’) in T T (‘times’).
22 SUFFICIENT Adequate turnover for Guardian, working well without capital (10)
A charade of SU, a reversal (‘turnover’) of US (‘Guardian’) plus [e]FFICIENT (‘working well’) minus its first letter (‘without capital’).
25 CHURCHILL Body of Christians threatening war leader (9)
A charade of CHURCH (‘body of Christians’) plus ILL (‘threatening’ “It’s an ill wind …” seems somewhere close)..
26 NIMBI Review of global IT firm in Sky features (5)
A reversal (‘review’) of IBM (‘global IT firm’) plus ‘in’. The plural of nimbus, a type of cloud.
27 SET FREE Release bargain offer for telly addicts? (3,4)
Definition and literal interpretation.
28 CONTROL Hold back company books and most of inventory (7)
A charade of CO (‘company’) plus NT (New Testament ‘books’) plus ROL[l] (‘inventory’) minus the last letter (‘most of’).
DOWN
1 ACCEPT Agree to clubs participating in expert training (6)
An envelope (‘participating in’) of C (‘clubs’) in ACE (‘expert’) plus PT (physical ‘training’).
2 SEEKER One’s endeavouring to spot king and queen (6)
A charade of SEE (‘spot’) plus K (‘king’) plus ER (‘Queen’).
3 REAWAKENED Revived a festival introduced by Magritte and Dali, originally (10)
An envelope (‘introduced by’ – I am not convinced by the ‘by’) of ‘a’ plus WAKE (‘festival’) in RENÉ (first name, ‘Magritte’) plus D (‘Dali, originally’).
4 DRIVE Press campaign (5)
Double definition.
5 DEFERMENT Furore following elevated journalist’s stay (9)
A charade of DE, a reversal (‘elevated’ in a down light) of ED (‘journalist’) plus FERMENT (‘furore’).
6 VOID Worthless classical poet promoting his verse (4)
OVID (‘classical poet’) with the V (‘his verse’ – I do not see a justification for ‘his’) moved to the front (‘promoting’).
7 CATERING Processed grain etc, providing food (8)
An anagram (‘processed”) of ‘grain etc’.
8 TIDE OVER See through end of telescope in port after it’s set up (4,4)
An envelope (‘in’) of E (‘end of telescopE‘) in TI, a reversal (‘set up’ in a down light) of ‘it’ plus DOVER (‘port’).
13 MINOR CANON Insular Spaniard working as cathedral junior (5,5)
A charade of MINORCAN (‘insular Spaniard’) plus ON (‘working’).
15 FAVOURITE Preferred winding route via south of France (9)
A charade of F (‘France’) plus AVOURITE, an anagram (‘winding’) of ‘route via’. ‘South of’, in a down light, places the F first.
16 UP STICKS Remove clogs, seeing good time ahead (2,6)
A charade of UP (‘seeing good time’) plus STICKS (‘clogs’). ‘Remove’ intransitive in the sense of move elsewhere.
17 DESTRUCT Put an end to trusted criminal carrying drug (8)
An envelope (‘carrying’) C (cocaine, ‘drug’) in DESTRUT, an anagram (‘criminal’) of ‘trusted’.
19 BEAMER Curmudgeon in receipt of Nutmeg’s misdirected delivery? (6)
An envelope (‘in receipt of’) ME (‘Nutmeg’) in BEAR (‘curmudgeon’).
20 ATRIAL Where you’d expect a barrister from superior chambers? (6)
A TRIAL (‘where you’d expect a barrister’). The atria are the upper chambers of the heart.
23 FOLIC Upset roughly one litre of pharmaceutical acid (5)
A reversal (‘upset’ in a down light) of C (circa, ‘roughly’) plus I (‘one’) plus L (‘litre’) plus ‘of’. Folic acid is a precursor of folate, vitamin B2
24 SCAR Damage statuette, knocking head off (4)
[o]SCAR (‘statuette’ awarded in film industry) minus its first letter (‘knocking head off’).

 

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29 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,972 by Nutmeg”

  2. I found this one a little less perfect than the usual Nutmeg.

    For example in 22a, the initial letter of a word is not by default a capital – it is only when the word is capitalized, or all-caps.

    In 11a, a pied-a-terre could of course be used as a love nest, but it could also be used for a zillion other things. I don’t think the addition of a “maybe” here quite does the trick.

    I wonder if anyone else first got HARM for 24d – a lot of charms are statuettes.

  3. Thanks Nutmeg and PeterO

    gladys @ 1: Chambers has WAKE noun 2 A festival

    Dr Watson @ 2: Chambers also has CAPITAL, admittedly as an adjective, “Placed at the head” which I think is close enough.

  4. Thanks Nutmeg and PeterO

    I agree that this wasn’t one of Nutmeg’s best, though she sets a high standard. I thought “a spell oddly lost” was bordering on unfair; “spell oddly lost” would be PL, which I worked with for some time.

    MINOR CANON was favourite, for the “insular Spaniard”.

  5. ODO has:

    (wakes) [treated as singular] an annual festival and holiday held in some parts of northern England, originally one held in a rural parish on the feast day of the patron saint of the church: his workers absented themselves for the local wakes | [as modifier] : wakes weeks. [probably from Old Norse vaka.]

     

  7. Thanks for the blog, PeterO.

    As usual, some lovely surfaces: my 15dns were 22ac and 15dn and, especially,  13dn, for memories of lovely walking holidays and 11ac – where I had no problem with the definition: ‘maybe’ did it for me – which made me laugh out loud when I thought of the literal translation and the old Hollywood ban [number 5 here].

    It was quite nice to see ELI back after what seems quite a long time away.

    Many thanks to Nutmeg for an entertaining and enjoyable crossword – and the reminder of the village wakes which were a highlight of my childhood.

  8. Some lovely surfaces and devices but marred for me by the same issues PeterO raised. “his verse” and “introduced by” are both too loose, and below this setter’s otherwise excellent standards. “Worthless Metamorphoses of its author (4)”?

    Many thanks Nutmeg – apart from the two criticisms this was another puzzle which unfurled slowly and steadily, with parts needing revisiting and rethinking and others defying me completely until sufficient crosses were in. Just the right difficulty for a nice workout. Thank you PeterO for parsing it all.

  9. Dr WhatsOn @ 2 I think that capital meaning head is so well established that Nutmeg is on safe ground using it to allude to the first letter of a word.

    Loved ‘see through’, ‘from upper chambers’ and ‘insular spaniard’ and was held up at 5A by pigeon being the third Homer I thought of (they might settle in a dovecot but live in lofts or coops).

    Praise indeed from those who describe this standard of crossword as ‘not her best’, obscure words deftly clued and smoothly surfaced (but ‘journalist’ for ‘ed’ Nutmeg? I know it’s the Guardian but you’re better than that ).

    Thanks to Nutmeg and PeterO.

  10. Have I spotted a theme first? Most unlike me and after the evenat as per. We have a lot of ‘SELF’ in addition to 14a there are PRESERVATION, CONTROL, DESTRUCT and many more.

    Couldn’t parse ROO until coming here. Feeling chuffed

    Thanks to S&B

  12. Fiddled around for ages with 9 across early on, trying to make something out of taking “it” away from hermit (crab). Way off there, and although 12 across had to be Roo, with the downers(?) in place, simply hadn’t come across that definition before…

  13. Failed on BEAMER (yet another cricket term to store away), but otherwise completed with nothing unparsed, which I take as a sign of good cluing. I appreciated in particular the clear clue for the unfamiliar CHELA. I did raise an eyebrow at both of the minor flaws noted in the blog, but they didn’t detract from my enjoyment. Perhaps I’m just grateful for a gentler challenge after being mauled by Vlad yesterday.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and to PeterO for the definition of ROO.

  15. DESTRUCT is a verb?  What happened to “destroy”?  Destructive yes, self-destructive yes, but my guess is this unword entered the language with Mission Impossible’s “this tape will self-destruct in 30 (or however many it was) seconds.”

    The July Wakes, according to a traditional song I know, were a time when the mills were shut down for an annual week of maintenance.  The workers got an unpaid holiday, “weaving fifty-one weeks of bread/ And just one of life.”

     

     

     

  17. I would never have guessed the other meaning of euro – in this case Euro would have been wrong*. Having looked it up, I have now learned something about Australian macropods. Curious that in the UK you often see kangaroos or wallabies in zoos and wildlife parks but never wallaroos. Not that most people could tell the difference.

    * but if Homer is acceptable in 12, then euro=currency is also acceptable.

     

  18. Thank you Nutmeg for a challenging puzzle and PeterO for a very helpful blog.

    Well spotted Doofs @10, I can count 10 self references, including SELF-DESTRUCT which is in the COED (given as orig. N. Amer.).

  23. I can’t see what the objection is for ‘introduced by.’ Surely, if A introduces B, B is introduced by A?? Or maybe I am misunderstanding the quibble.

    Good, crisp cluing and an enjoyable solve.

    Thanks Nutmeg and English Pierre.

  25. Good, if not the very best, puzzle with an unexpected – and entertaining – theme from our favourite spicy setter. Thanks for the blog PeterO and well-spotted doofs@10.

    A Goldilocks crossword again from Nutmeg in my opinion.

  26. Entirely agree with all positive comments, excellent puzzle and one which Inspired such confidence in the setter that you were always quite confident that a little more thought on tricky clues would yield the answer, which it duly did.
    Brilliant theme and brilliantly spotted, Doofs, who should indeed be chuffed. I was chuffed just because I correctly identified the unlikely Euro kangaroo purely on account of my sustained efforts with Maskarade’s last Bank Holiday special. Many thanks all!

  27. Robi @23: It should be ‘introduced into’. A introduced by BC implies BAC.
    I was happy with ‘his verse’ though.
    Struggled with the SE corner, the unfamiliar BEAMER and trying to get ‘At something’ or attic into 20. Also was looking at only ‘features’ for 26.
    Thanks Nutmeg and Peter O

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