Guardian 27,976 – Brummie

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This was one of those puzzles where I was staring at a nearly empty grid for a long time, and then everything, or almost everything, fell into place quite quickly. Getting the long answer at 9,12,21,26 was a big help, though unless I’m missing something I think it’s a rather feeble clue.

As well as a couple of obscure words, there seem to be a few answers that are variants or compounds of more familiar words: for example ANNUNCIATE (cf enunciate, annunciation), OCTONARY (cf prefix oct-), LAUREATED, DELINEATOR. I’m not sure whether there’s enough to qualify as a theme, or if there’s more to it that I’ve missed. Anyway, thanks to Brummie.

 
 
Across
1. POCHARD Leafstalk trailing river duck (7)
PO (Italian river) + CHARD (vegetable with edible stalks)
5. POMPOUS Self-important holy one’s going after fair return (7)
Reverse of MOP (dialect word for a hiring fair) + PIOUS less I
9,12,​21,26. GET ON ONE’S HIGH HORSE Talk arrogantly to others from an illusory mount? (3,2,4,4,5)
Just a rather long-winded cryptic definition, I think
10. LAUREATED Motion was altered drastically to cover gold (9)
AU in ALTERED* – reference to Andrew Motion, former Poet Laureate
11. DELINEATOR Marker makes toenail red (10)
(TOENAIL RED)*
14. INTERSPERSE Pepper restricted by winter’s perseverance (11)
Hidden in wINTER’S PERSEverance
18. INAUTHENTIC One form of ancient hut not in tune with Sartre’s philosophy? (11)
I + (ANCIENT HUT)* – authenticity is the “primary virtue” of Existentialism, associated with Jean-Paul Sartre
22. UNSWAYABLE Refusing to change opinion of university, Wayne Slob, a mess, drops round (10)
Anagram of U + WAYNE SLOB, less “O”. For those not familiar with the name, Wayne Slob is a character portrayed by Harry Enfield
25. SERENADER One supplying air when tennis player gets colour back (9)
SERENA (Williams) + reverse of RED, with the “air” being a song
27. EVOCATE Call up the day before about ball and whip (7)
O (ball) + CAT (whip) in EVE
28. HOLDALL Case of senior overcome by auditorium (7)
OLD in HALL
Down
1. PAGODA A party opening up a temple (6)
Reverse of A DO GAP
2. CUTTLE Swimmer dislodges top from sink (6)
[S]CUTTLE – the creature (a mollusc) more commonly known as the cuttlefish, the source of both cuttlebone and the pigment sepia
3. ANNUNCIATE Declare sadly a tunic’s been appropriated by old queen (10)
(A TUNIC)* in [Queen] ANNE
4. DOLMA Party line taken with state dish (5)
DO + L + MA (Massachusetts). Dolma is a family of stuffed dishes, often seen (as Dolmades) in Greek cuisine as stuffed vine leaves
5. PLUTOCRAT God starts to create really awful, terrifyingly rich man (9)
PLUTO (god) + first letters of Create Really Awful Terrifyingly
6. MIEN Look out, Emin! (4)
EMIN*
7. OCTONARY Whipped a tycoon boxing king of 8 (8)
R in (A TYCOON)* – itn means relating to the number eight, not a cross-reference to 8d
8. SIDESTEP Dodge‘s wings and favoured elevation (8)
SIDES (wings) + reverse of PET (favoured)
13. APOCRYPHAL Happy with coral being destroyed without proper backing (10)
(HAPPY CORAL)*
15. TIE-AND-DYE Draw with articulated flatline textile process (3-3-3)
TIE (draw, in sports) + AND (with) + homophone of “die” (to flatline)
16. SIGHTSEE Be a tourist with sense to understand (8)
SIGHT (sense) + SEE (understand)
17. KANGAROO Go out with Anorak Joey? (8)
(GO ANORAK)* – a joey is a young kangaroo
19. IBERIA Peninsula of African country with no western boundary (6)
LIBERIA less its first or “western” letter. Some might complain that it’s the northern boundary in a down clue
23. WERSH Tasteless Taming of Shrew (5)
SHREW – Scots word for tasteless or insipid: probably unfamiliar to many, but “it couldb’t be anything else”
24,20. ANNA SEWELL Classic book author‘s 12-month record about the rise of a Sussex town (4,6)
Reverse of LEWES (Sussex town) in ANNAL. Naturally I spent some time looking for a book rather than its author (the book referred to is of course Black Beauty )

38 comments on “Guardian 27,976 – Brummie”

  1. Thanks Andrew, particularly for explaining the parsing of POMPOUS, LAUREATED and INAUTHENTIC which I surmised raher than properly solved. I thought 9,12 etc was rather feeble DD rather than CD. Brummie doesn’t are much for surface readings, inelegant IMO.

  2. Thanks Brummie and Andrew

    Yes, some unfamiliar words, but these were fairly clued. I didn’t know MOP for fair, or that authenticity was an important part of existentialism!

    I was handicapped by knowing that a leafstalk is a PETIOLE, so spent some time trying to parse that for 1a.

    Favourites were LAUREATED for the disguised poet, and the lovely hidden INTERSPERSED.

    I was going to make the point about IBERIA, but you have done so.

  3. A mix of moments of brilliance (“Motion was” for “laureated” and the tennis player for example) and some very ho-hum moments. I didn’t know the “mop” meaning, but pompous it had to be. Not a fan of a clue like “dolma” where “do” and “l” were obvious (and “do” appears in 1dn too, also clued as “party”) but the state could have been “ca”, “ga”, “va”, “la” etc, all fitting the crossers. Is “dolma” a well-known word?

    “I would go further with “iberia” and say the clue is plain wrong. It’s like the one we had last week with something “to the east” when it was below and a down clue. There’s no excusing it, especially when the error is easily corrected without affecting the surface.

    Anyhow, thank you Brummie for some very neat clues, and Andrew for the added explanation on existentialism and mop.

  4. Too much GK for my liking, and simply bunging in dialect words even if they turn out to be correct is unsatisfying. ‘Motion was’ is excellent though. Thanks.

  5. Regarding IBERIA, I disagree that it is plain wrong or even wrong. The CLUE itself is read from left to right so to take the left (west) letter off is fine regardless of whether the answer is down or across.

     

  6. I would say that the long clue was a little better than a cryptic definition. The first part, “Talk arrogantly to others” (which along with POMPOUS seems to be the theme) is a regular definition. “from an illusory mount” is a pun on high horse.

    I’m of mixed feelings about the north/west or horizontal/vertical issue. I’m often very nit-picky here, but I can see an argument that words have a “horizontal existence/nature”, which is how we normally see them, before they get entered in the grid, and it is this form that the clue sometimes refers to.

  8. I enjoyed this as much for what wasn’t there as what was; no credulity stretching synonyms, no arcane abbreviations, no Latin etc.
    Also WERSH reminded me of the old Sean Connery joke about tennish

    Thanks to all – esp for clearing up MOP

  9. Pedro @5

    But “LIBERIA” doesn’t feature in the clue. It only appears when it is written in the grid downwards, with its TOP letter missing.

  11. A PLUTOCRAT is not necessarily rich. Dictionary definition: whose power derives from wealth. Could be fake wealth, eg, Trump.

    OCTONARY … did anyone else try to fit in ALI.. boxing king of 8 (sidestep)?

  13. There’s the missing ‘a’ in the anagram of 22A.

    I didn’t know OCTONARY, wersh (missing asterisk) and mop as a fair.

    Like others, I enjoyed ‘Motion was…’ Like andysmith @1, I thought the long one was a DD with a whimsical second definition, but I thought it was OK. INTERSPERSE was nicely hidden.

    Thanks Brummie and Andrew.

  14. Ditto Robi@13, re Mop and Octonary, and I don’t think that Wersh will appear in my conversation with others any time soon, either.

  15. Dr. WhatsOn @10 Even if a word is always written horizontally (which is isn’t – especially in crosswords, but also on book spines, equipment labels etc) what makes the top of the page north? Conventionally in crosswordland we refer to the *grid* as having NSEW but a page does not have the same convention. We talk about the left hand and right hand page (or even verso and recto), or “the bottom of the page”. I’ve never heard anyone say “read from the north to the south”. And, as Muffin says, in this instance, the word is explicitly entered downwards. Why not “northern boundary”? or “with no leader”?.

  16. A fair few parts of this puzzle contained words or allusions that were unfamiliar to me, which made it a bit of a slog for me. I have to add 1a POCHARD to others already mentioned. I concur with The Zed – I too circled the repetition of “party” for DO as it is certainly getting a little hackneyed. My only tick was 14a INTERSPERSE, so I agree with muffin and Robi on that one.

    Thanks to Brummie and Andrew.

  17. As a former programmer I’m familiar with Octal, but Octonary I’ve never heard of.  WERSH – interesting word. Will anyone admit to knowing it?

  18. The four parter seems rather unfair when it’s just a double def (or whatever) and it could just as well be “your” as “ones”. Unfortunately it seemed so obvious that I failed to consider it might be wrong, meaning I failed in the NE.

    I’ve come across dolmades before, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen dolma. I agree with TheZed @3 that there are just too many possible states.

     

  19. TheZed@15 you’re not wrong, of course, if you want to be precise, and I normally find myself in that role myself: it’s just that today I felt there was a way to give the setter some latitude – or should that be longitude?

    As for states – come on, there are only a few that are ever used. SERENADER needed a colour, and there are plenty more of those, even if you restrict to those that make an occasional appearance.

  20. Thanks both,
    A bit of a slog this one. Will I remember ‘octonary’ and ‘wersh’. Probably a good thing if I don’t for the sake of my poor interlocutors.

  21. A mix of straightforward, head-scratching and so on.   I was pleased to see the return of the duck at 1a which was a regular in Telegraph cryptics in the 70s but seems to have fallen out of favour these days.   I also liked 2d.

    As for the discussion about 19d, I was just relieved to see a change from a reference to Siberia!

    Thanks to Brummie and Andrew

  22. Evocate (22) and annunciate (3d) are back-formations from evocation and annunciation, and therefore mean exactly the same thing as the original evoke and announce.  So they are unnecessary as English words (regardless of what dictionaries may say) and clumsy as clues.

  23. Bit of a curate’s egg I felt. Like TheZed @3 I was disappointed to have PARTY = DO twice (and so close). And like muffin @2, I tip my hat to the rather lovely INTERSPERSED.

  24. I’d love to know, as I think Andrew is suggesting, whether it was intended as a theme to have so many obscure or rarely used words. Mostly fairly clued I’d say but did make for a bit of a slog for me. I had been hoping for a real penny drop moment with a few but with more obscure words this is less likely to happen.

    A few clever gems in there as mentioned above. I liked Motion (which WAS a penny drop) and Serena as well as the cleverly hidden INTERSPERSED.

    Thanks to Brummie and Andrew for the puzzle and the blogging.

  26. I can see both points of view regarding the northern/western issue with 19d. The placement of letters in a down light is normally clued in ways that recognize the order as top to bottom, so ‘northern’ would have been better. As the intent was clear, however, I’m inclined to forgive Brummie. Not much else to add to what’s already been said. A few favourites as noted above, and lots of unfamiliar words.

    Thanks to Brummie and Andrew.

  27. As Robi has said, the ‘a’ after the comma is part of the anagram in 22 – I liked that clue particularly, and the puzzle was educational. I have no complaint against ‘unnecessary’ words :-/
    Thanks Brummie and Andrew.

  28. Had initially written PINTAIL at 1a but changed it after getting DOLMA.Thanks to wordplay otherwise I would never solve these unknown words(plus WERSH)

  29. Hi. Can anyone help with a query please? I’m suddenly unable to view and fill in today’s cryptic puzzle on my phone. Been accessing fine for months, years, via the Guardian website and suddenly today I can get the main crossword page, I can select the print or PDF versions, but the interactive version is just a blank space? Anyone else experienced this or able to offer any suggestions please? It’s bizarre.
    Thanks

  30. I confess that I don’t understand 9a. What does “illusory” have to do with “high”?

    I’m OK with “western” in 19d, although I agree that avoiding the issue by replacing it with “northern” would have been better. I was momentarily confused by the thought that the setter had mistakenly placed Siberia in Africa.

     

  33. Re 5A: I didn’t know ‘mop’ as a hiring fair, but rationalised it as ‘Barnet fair’ = ‘hair’ = ‘mop’.

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