Guardian Cryptic 27,991 by Brummie

by

Had a slow start, and then it was done very quickly. Still unsure on some parsing. Favourites 25ac and 5dn – thanks to Brummie.

A few solutions are connected to holidays and travel – is there a more specific theme?

Across
1 THE BROADS National park players would tread them, if river were relocated (3,6)
“players” or actors ‘tread THE BOARDS’, with R for “river” relocated
6 CODA Hoax brought to a satisfactory ending (4)
COD=fake=”Hoax” + A
8 EUROSTAR Train someone who’d like to make it big in the US, too? (8)
a EURO STAR might want also to be a US star
9 IRRUPT Italian carrying back sound content to inflict an invasion (6)
=to enter forcibly
IT (Italian) around PURR=”sound content” reversed/”back”
10 CRUISE Tom‘s drive to find a temporary partner? (6)
=Tom CRUISE the actor; and =CRUISE around looking for a sexual partner
11 OVERTURE Against entering rocky route on approach (8)
VER (versus)=”Against” inside (route)*
V (versus) inside (route)* + RE=”on” – Edit thanks to Bingybing
12   See 4
15 TOOLED UP Excessively under guidance, finished carrying a gun (6,2)
TOO=”Excessively” + LED=”under guidance” + UP=”finished”
16 CHANGE UP Go from first to second to suspend energy on entering knockout competition? (6,2)
definition as in changing up from first to second gear
HANG=”suspend” + E (energy); all inside CUP=”knockout competititon”
19 TICKET Token party nominees? (6)
double definition
21 PLANTAIN Factory involved in a type of banana (8)
PLANT=”Factory” + (in a)*
22 GREECE Union member‘s smear reported (6)
=a member of the European Union
sounds like ‘grease’=”smear”
24 ODDISH Rummy party backed by attractive type (6)
DO=”party” reversed/”backed” + DISH=”attractive type”
25 ICE CREAM Treat Crimea wounded outside gutted castle (3,5)
(Crimea)* around C[astl]E
26 DYAD Nymph of the woods evicting river couple (4)
DrYAD=”Nympth of the woods”, evicting the ‘r’ for “river”
27 SUNSTROKE Star needs massage — result of overexposure (9)
SUN=”Star” + STROKE=”massage”
Down
1 TRUER More straight trousers lost — SOS sent out (5)
trOuSerS minus the letters of (SOS)*
2 EMOTION Transport energy proposal (7)
E (energy) + MOTION
3 RETIE Dicky’s a mess? Do this! (5)
Not sure how to parse this, other than as a reference to ‘dicky bow’ ties
4, 12 AIRPORT LOUNGE Regulation pro ground that accommodates would-be high flyers (7,6)
(Regulation pro)*
5 SKI RESORT Aspen, say, forming border round rambling rose? (3,6)
SKIRT=”border” around (rose)*
6 CURETTE Diminutive canine surgical scraping instrument (7)
CUR=”canine” with the diminutive suffix -ETTE
7 DEPARTURE Death shift (9)
double definition
13 ON HOLIDAY ‘Ohio Dylan’ playing ‘Tripping‘? (2,7)
(Ohio Dylan)*
14 EYELASHES Deployed falsely, perhaps, by a woman (9)
again, not sure if there’s more to parse here, or just a reference to false eyelashes
17 NANNIED Orphan Annie denies houses given unnecessary protection (7)
hidden in [Orpha]N ANNIE D[enies]
18 PENSION Pounds added to independent working payment (7)
PENS=animal enclosures=”Pounds”  + I (independent) + ON=”working”
20 CHEERIO Choir managed to hold repeated note for so long (7)
(Choir)* around E E=”repeated note”
22 GUEST In vogue, stalwart chat show participant? (5)
hidden in [vo]GUE ST[alwart]
23 CRAKE Rail about garden implement (5)
=a type of bird
C (circa)=”about” + RAKE=”garden implement”

46 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,991 by Brummie”

  1. also baffled on 3d – got the answer straight away but either the clue is feeble or I am missing something clever?

  3. I enjoyed it at the time but looking back, it seems a bit patchy

    EUROSTAR doesnt work for me. RETIE doesnt seem like a cryptic clue.

    I liked CURETTE though and enjoyed the theme solving by a swimming pool with a few large drops of rain.

  4. I meant to add – I agree with the suggestion that the theme is going on yer ‘olidays – quite like the res to ice-cream, waving cheerio, getting your ticket etc – as well as the others to train, poss destination etc

  9. Crake was a new word for me but I’m not sure boast and rail are synonymous? At least not in Chambers. I’m sure I’m missing something obvious! Thanks to all

  10. Thanks Brummie and manehi

    DNF for me as I revealed RETIE. Brummie doesn’t care much about surfaces, does he? EUROSTAR doesn’t work for me either, and how does DEPARTURE mean “shift”? I can’t see anything else in EYELASHES either.

    I liked IRRUPT and CRAKE, for the misleading cdefinition.

  11. bodycheetah @9

    Crake by itself is not often encountered, but you’ve probably heard of “corncrake”, which is a bird of the rail family.

  12. Thanks Brummie and manehi

    Bodycheetah @ 9

    The RAIL/CRAKE parallel refers to birds: eg the corncrake is a bird of the rail family.

  15. Years since I heard the Orphan Annie expression, from my mum in the 50s I think. Remembered Aspen and rail from previous cws, and was dimly slow to wake up to eyelashes, a sort of ‘nudge’ clue (as was Eurostar), as I didn’t yet have oddish, loi. A bit ho-hum in all, but thanks both.

  17. I think that ‘deployed falsely perhaps’ is a fine cryptic clue for eyelashes especially with the added allusion to ‘fluttering one’s eyelashes’ as a ploy.

    Some nice clues here (and a few that can be criticised – but at least we can criticise Brummie without being dismissed as rubbish at crosswords).

    Thanks to Brummie and manehi.

  18. I’d have thought the slightly whimsical CURETTE should have merited a ‘?’

    Did someone say ‘patchy’?  Just the word.

    Was going to gripe about EMOTION = transport but failed to see the latter in its nounal sense.

    Surprised at any discontent over DEPARTURE and ‘shift’.  I read it as Larry @13 and thought it fine.

    Many thanks, both, nice weekend, all.

  19. I quite enjoyed this solve so thanks to Brummie. My favourite was 27a SUNSTROKE. I had GRAVEYARD (death shift) at 7d for a while which held me up in the NE. Only vaguely picked up on the theme. Appreciated the blog and comments: thanks to manehi and contributors.

  20. Had a good time with this, but a few thoughts.
    The theme was easy to get from just a few answers, but so broad it was difficult to use in other than a confirmatory way.
    8a is very weak – anyone MIGHT want to do anything, who can disagree, but hardly a description/definition, even with the question mark.
    I had Manehi’s original explanation of 11a OVERTURE -I think both explanations work fine.
    3d seems to be itself a mess.
    Finally, with TOOLED UP and CRUISing maybe we have a bizarre glimpse into Brummie’s mind!
    Thanks.

  21. Thank you Brummie and manehi.

    Perhaps Brummie is on holiday (another CHEERIO crossword) so is taking the liberty of trying out  a new relaxed kind of clue at 3d and 14d?

     

  22. I liked the gentle form of theme, different from the often obscure themes devised by Qaos et al.  From the welcome Norfolk beginning, through to the PENSION GUEST in the south-east

  23. I think on the whole I rather enjoyed this, although I am not a fan of compilers who search for the most obscure synonyms – “RAIL” for “CRAKE”, for example, or “DEPARTURE” (from the norm) for “SHIFT”. I know others appreciate that this tactic makes the puzzle “challenging”, but to my mind it just makes it “obscure”.

    Favourite today was 22ac, because I got the “smear” part soon enough but it took a while (followed by a satisfying penny drop) before I got he apprpriate meaning of “union member” – obscure perhaps, but not TOO obscure.

    Same reservations as others about 8ac, 3dn and a couple of others, but I think they work, “feeble” though they may be.

    Not heard “TICKET” as a list of party nominees outside the context of US elections, which makes me wonder if Brummie is from Birmingham, Alabama…. 🙂

    Many thanks to compiler and blogger.

  24. Nobody’s commented on “dyad” for 26ac ? An easy solve admittedly …(Dryad minus the “r”) … but an obscure word worthy of mention I would have thought, or is it just me who’s vocabulary is woefully lacking ???

  25. I enjoyed this with lots of ticks, including one against the much-maligned RETIE – cryptic or not it brought a smile to my face when I eventually resorted to word search to find it. I liked ODDISH, CHEERIO, CRAKE for the definitions (they mislead me), DEPARTURE and CURETTE for the diddy dog. Thanks to Brummie and manehi

  26. argyle@24 I’m not sure if I had heard dyad before but it’s a similar form to triad. I may have seen monad, unless I just invented it.

    My first reaction to retie is that I would have expected re-tie, but maybe either is OK. Reconnect and rework are not often hyphenated. Retie does look odd to me, but it would probably look better in a sentence.

  27. Bit of a panic at first as I only managed PLANTAIN on initial sweep through. Bottom half of puzzle then slipped in quite quickly before I got held up with the NW corner, RETIE the slightly grudgingly written LOI. DYAD and CURETTE new words for my vocab.

  28. I’ve just been on wikipedia to see what other bird species have crake in their name. There are a few but I only recognised the corncrake.

  29. Thanks both,
    I had question marks around an unusually large number of clues today. People have mentioned most of them. I don’t thing shift=departure works for e.g. Policy or procedure – a shift in either means there is a new one a departure is non-compliance. Greece=smear doesn’t work for me either. Sometimes one needs to apply quite a lot of grease. The grammar doesn’t quite work for either noun or verb usage.

  30. I hadn’t come across DYAD, but, being a naturalist, got CRAKE quickly. An alternative name for the Corncrake is the Land Rail, and they’re in the Rail family – Rallidae – along with moorhens and 150 other species.

     

  32. @WhiteKnight

    I assume you’re being ironic in defending a clue you had to cheat to solve, which, er, sort of underlines the problem with it?!

  33. Thanks to Brummie and manehi.  I tussled with 3D on my bike ride this morning.  Here’s a reading.  If a draw is icky (d-icky), a mess (Dicky’s a mess?), then ditto this (do this) – another draw (retie).   Doesn’t quite work but it whiled away the miles.

  35. Am I the only one that got confused with the apparent double instruction in 1d? I mean, taking SOS out of trousers was straightforward, but having both LOST and SENT OUT had me over-thinking it. “Trousers lost SOS” or “trousers SOS sent out” would be fine but surely not both? Or am I missing something?

  36. Mostly liked this but I agree with the description ” patchy”. I did like RETIE even if it took me ages to get. ON HOLIDAY was FOI but I didn’t get the theme until later. I was held up in the SE by stupidly entering GREASE instead of GREECE which made23dn look like SPADE which didn’t really make sense. CRAKE was so much better. I liked EYELASHES.
    Thanks Brummie.

  37. Keyser Soze @35

    Agreed.  In my haste I thought lost = anagrind, sent out = subtraction indicator to remove SOS, not realising that once the trousers had shed their SOS the grist didn’t need grinding!  Having said that I do rather like the surface reading of a distress message being sent out upon discovery that, once again, the straight trouser thief has paid a visit, and that only the useless bendy ones remain.

    I also spent a long time trying to parse EYELASHES. Thought I identified ‘a woman’ = SHE, or possibly A SHE, leaving either EYELAS or EYELS round the ouskirts. Then got hung up on the overlap with the letters of ‘falsely’, supposing ‘deployed’ or (perhaps) ‘perhaps’ to be the anagrind, and looked for some way of justifying removal of FL and addition of another E. Gave up in the end and came here for enlightenment, only to find I was on a hiding to nothing!

  39. Finally solved it – a masterpiece of misdirection, but unlike the Enigmatist a few days ago, I find myself applauding the setter today, plus the bonus of actually being able to solve it, even though it took hours.

  40. Keyser Soze @35

    I think “lost” is an anagrind applying to SOS because the letters are not in that order in “trousers”, and “sent out” is the exclusion indicator, so I believe both are needed – and in this case, the surface is better with them.  Other surfaces here are not so hot. e.g. “Regulation pro ground that accommodates would-be high flyers”

    Anyone know why DYAD comes to be spelled that way, while triad has the “i”?  (yeh, I got it wrong and missed ON HOLIDAY as a result!)

     

  41. I may be wrong here, but I seem to recall being told many years ago that a ‘dicky’ was a false shirt front: the archetypal ‘stuffed shirt, if you like. Presumably, such a garment would have to be tied on in some way. And then retied after the claret had taken its toll.
    PS: A reminder to check posts before posting – autocorrect had made six “improvements” to the paragraph above and in the process had rendered it virtually incomprehensible!

  42. DYAD was something I’d not encountered before (though the solution was perfectly clear) and I, too, had previously only heard of a Corncrake. I have to confess I barely registered the theme, not that it would have helped much. I really enjoyed CHEERIO and ICE CREAM. Thanks to Brummie and Manehi

  43. phitonelly @40

    Interesting – raises the question of whether letters to be subtracted need to be in the right order (or at least ‘freed up’ by an anagrind from their original order) before the ‘exclusion operation’ is applied to them.

    On DYAD, it’s spelt that way because the Greek for two is ??? (with an upsilon – upper case looks like a Y) whereas three in ancient times was ????? (with iota). Those who recall Never on Sunday may remember Melina Mercouri sending ??? ??? ??? ??? ???? ??? ??????? ????? (one, two, three, four kisses…)

  45. I’m a slow solver at the best of times but this took me most of an afternoon, even though I knew the word DYAD. Wasted a lot of time trying to find an anagram of STAR NEEDS at  27a. (RATEDNESS?) Don’t like “stroke” for massage, or several other clues, as discussed, particularly RETIE and EYELASHES. The definition for PLANTAIN is “type of banana” not just “banana”. I thought the clue for TRUER was fine – an anagram of  SOS (SOS sent out) is “lost” from TROUSERS, so both sent out and lost are needed.

  46. essexboy @43

    Thanks for the Greek explanation.  I looked up the ancient Greek numbers and I see what you mean about DUO vs TRIA (upsilon vs iota).  I come from a scientific background where the prefixes mono-, di- tri-, tetra-, etc are ubiquitous, so I was fooled by the preferred spelling in English of the sequence monad, dyad, triad, tetrad.

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