Guardian Cryptic 28,009 by Paul

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28009.

This took me a little longer than many of Paul’s puzzles. There was no doubt about the intent of the signature 20,12, but the ingenuity elsewhere took a little thought. Most enjoyable.

ACROSS
1 GRAND SLAM Fifty hosted by wonderful boy, full house on the cards? (5,4)
An envlope (‘hosted by’) of L (‘fifty’, Roman numeral) in Grand (‘wonderful’) plus SAM (‘boy’). The definition borrows a term from poker, and applies it to the bridge deal in which the declarer takes all the tricks.
6 TEACH Pirate school (5)
Double definition. For the first, Edward Teach is better known as Blackbeard.
9 GUANO Waste killer having stolen a ring (5)
-A charade of GUAN, an envelope (‘having stolen’ – not an ideal envelope indicator, I think) of ‘a’ in GUN (‘killer’); plus O (‘ring’).
10 GENERATOR Back of mining engineer nearer to dynamo (9)
A charade of G (‘back of mininG‘) plus ENERATOR, an anagram (‘engineer’) of ‘nearer to’.
11 TEA SERVICE What might clamp puzzle in China? (3,7)
A charade of TEASER (‘puzzle’) plus VICE (‘what might clamp’).
12 See 20
14 FLAKIER A king boarding plane that’s less reliable (7)
An envelope (‘boarding’) of ‘a’ plus K (‘king’) in FLIER (‘plane’).
15 TWELFTH Ordinal left with less information originally, after amendment (7)
An anagram (‘after amendment’) of ‘left w[i]th’ minus I (‘with less Information initially’).
17 SHEBANG As was the queen of biblical kingdom — good for an affair (7)
A charade of SHEBAN (‘as was the queen of biblical kingdom’ – of Sheba) plus G (‘good’).
19 CYANIDE Dine out on candy? A potential killer! (7)
A charade of CYA (‘C and Y A‘) plus NIDE, an anagram (‘out’) of ‘dine’.
20, 12 BACKACHE Niap? (8)
‘Niap’ is pain (ACHE) in reverse (BACK).
22 STREET LAMP Letters sent abroad by a politician, way lighter (6,4)
A charade of STREETL, an anagram (‘sent abroad’) of ‘letters’ plus A MP (‘a politician’).
25 LAMPOONED Figure going into school after strike taken off (9)
A charade of LAM (‘strike’) plus POONED, an envelope (‘going into’) of ONE (‘figure’) in POD (‘school’ of whales, say).
26, 24 PISCO SOUR Is island in rush for cocktail? (5,4)
An envelope (‘in’) of ‘is’ plus COS (Greek ‘island’) in POUR (‘rush’). Never having come across the brandy pisco, it it just as well for me that the wordplay is manageable.
27 SITAR Iodine in lead instrument (5)
An envelope (‘in’) of I (‘iodine’, chemical symbol) in STAR (‘lead’ as in lead player).
28 STROLLERS Small tots, primarily on wheels — in these? (9)
A charade of ST (‘Small Tots primarily’) plus ROLLERS (‘wheels’). Has the American term for a pushchair crossed the pond?
DOWN
1 GIGOT Some sheep had been procured by Joe? (5)
A charade of GI (‘Joe’) plus GOT (‘procured’). The definition uses ‘some’ in the sense of “part of”; from the French, it is a leg of lamb.
2 ALAN-A-DALE Outlaw putting car in reverse to access a part of motorway (4-1-4)
An envelope (‘putting … to access’) of ADAL, a reversal (‘in reverse’) of LADA (‘car’, loosely speaking) in A LANE (‘a part of motorway’), for one of Robin Hood’s merry men.
3 DUODECIMAL As a system of counting, doctor aided locum (10)
An anagram (‘doctor’) of ‘aided locum’.
4 See 18
5 MANX CAT Island prowler, Mo? (4,3)
‘Mo’ is MO[g] (‘cat’) without the tail (‘Manx’).
6 TYRE Covering for wheels, wheels in delivery truck (4)
A hidden reversed (‘wheels in’) answer in ‘delivERY Truck’.
7 ATTIC A topmost chamber starts to describe it, looking up? (5)
An envelope (‘to describe’) of TI, a reversal (‘looking up’ in a down light) of ‘it’ in ATC (‘A Topmost Chamber starts’), with an extended definition.
8 HORSESHOE House here’s so dilapidated — is that lucky? (9)
A charade of HO (‘house’) plus RSESHOE, an anagram (‘dilapidated’) of ‘here’s so’.
13 SEVASTOPOL Refrain from cutting half-baked loaves somewhere in Eastern Europe (10)
An envelope (‘cutting’) of STOP (‘refrain from’) in SEVAOL, an anagram (‘half-baked’) of ‘loaves’.
14 FISHBALLS Angle bottle round food (9)
A charade if FISH (‘angle’) plus BALLS (‘courage’).
16 FRICASSEE Suspicion initially in patient poking not entirely cooked dish (9)
A double envelope (‘in’ and ‘poking’) of S (‘Suspicion initially’) in CASE (‘patient’) in FRIE[d] (‘cooked’) minus its last letter (‘not entirely’).
18, 4 GET ONES LEG OVER Produce the toys for building minister up, mate! (3,4,3,4)
A charade of GET ONES LEGO (‘produce the toys for building’) plus VER, a reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of REV (‘minister’). Herewith the inevitable link.
19 CHEDDAR Short swirl in cleaner dairy produce (7)
An envelope (‘in’) of EDD[y] (‘swirl’) minus the last letter (‘short’) in CHAR (‘cleaner’).
21 COMET Flasher and streaker, bottom covered in wake? (5)
A subtraction: COME T[o] (‘wake’) minus its last letter (‘bottom covered’). I find the definition rather ropy.
23 PIOUS Constant love: our lot devoted to God (5)
A charade of PI (mathematical ‘constant’) plus O (‘love’) plus US (‘our lot’).
24 See 26

 

image of grid

28 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,009 by Paul”

  1. I found this quite difficult – but easier to solve than parse.

    My favourites were CYANIDE, and the long one 18/4D.

    New for me were PISCO SOUR, GIGOT.

    I could not parse 9a, 5d, 21d.

    Thanks Paul and Peter.

  3. Another in a great run of recent challenging cryptics. First-one-in was 8D. This will be easy, I thought, wrongly.  Very satisfying when last-one-in (14D) finally dawned, accompanied by some mirth.  Took longer than usual, but I did it while the other eye was watching Vera solving a rather more serious challenge, as she always does.

  5. Thanks Paul and PeterO

    I found this a bit frustrating, as several I mostly but not completely parsed.

    Some I didn’t like. “Boy” for SAM in 1a is very loose; why does “produce” give GET in 18,4?;I agree that the definition for COMET (LOI) is very “ropy”!

    I needed a wordsearch for PISCO SOUR. I’ve never heard of it, and I don’t agree that “the wordplay is manageable” – why is “rush” POUR?

    Favourite by a long way was TEA SERVICE.

  6. [PeterO

    I thought your link might have been to the classic Jasper Carrott sketch “Think before you drink before you get your leg over”. I couldn’t find it either!]

  7. muffin@5 I am not too happy with RUSH/POUR-have to admit googling cocktail list.

    I put SEBASTOPOL as i was too lazy to parse-isnt it the same place?

    I was also too lazy to google TEACH/PIRATE as I parsed TYRE.

    Otherwise quite fun.

  8. I must admit I guessed the answer to 18, 4 but kept trying to parse it based on the minister being a member of our esteemed cabinet, as in “get one’s leG OVEr”

  9. Thanks Paul and PeterO.

    I agree with the doubts about COMET, and about GET = produce. TYRE (singular) as “covering for wheels” (plural) is also not great, though it makes the surface better.

    POUR = rush seems fine to me – as in an invading horde pouring/rushing across the border.

    But I would forgive many imperfections for the brilliant TEA SERVICE.

  10. Thanks both.

    Michelle’s comment – ‘easier to solve than to parse’ was spot on for me.

    Paul has 2 annoying tics: the first is nonsensical surfaces such as “What might clamp puzzle in China”.  Wot?  And the second is strained definitions such as “flasher and streaker” for COMET.

    Having said that there are some good clues here such as CYANIDE and STREET LAMP.

    I presume ordinal here is adjectival in the TWELFTH clue?

    Agree with beaulieu @9 re rush/pour although it’s still a little strained.

    Last day of work today.  Let’s hope retirement affords more time for this wonderful distraction.

    Happy Christmas, all.

  13. Got there in the end, rather irritated that it was BACK ACHE rather than BACK PAIN, too obvious, I suppose. So held up in the NE corner for a while. Getting the cocktail made the rest of the puzzle taste a little sweeter, but that’s of course a bit of a contradiction in terms…

  14. I think 13d is cleverer than the blog suggests. Rather than an anagram of LOAVES it is a reversal. I think the idea is that it is (still) rising, as half-baked loaves would be.

  15. I agree that 21dn doesn’t really work as a comet doesn’t flash or streak – was Paul thinking of a meteor?  Also getting from ‘rush’ to ‘pour’ is unobvious – I needed the list in Bradford to discover the rare cocktail at 26ac.

  16. Lots of cleverness from Paul today. My favourites were MANX CAT, CYANIDE, STREET LAMP, and TEA SERVICE, although the wordplay for the last seems to suggest that vice should come before teaser. I also had a quibble about ‘toys’ (plural) to indicate LEGO (singular), but that didn’t hold me up.

    Copmus @7, I also put Sebastopol instead of SEVASTOPOL, but Wikipedia informs me that the latter is indeed in Eastern Europe while the former is in California.

  17. I’m frequently frustrated by the lack of any clarity as to whether it should be “ones” or “your” when either would work for the clue

  19. Hovis @ 14 I’ll bow to your obviously better knowledge of bread but doesn’t the rising take place before the baking?

    I initially thought ‘Niap’ was clever until I realised the answer wasn’t either back pain or a medical term for it, using ‘back pain’ to clue ‘back ache’ seemed less admirable.

    Thanks to Paul andPeterO.

  21. That’s brilliant, Hovis @14! I noticed that it was a reversal rather than an anagram but didn’t take the thought further. You made me clap my hands!

  23. I’ll second that Realthog; how apt that Hovis should spot that half-baked bread is still rising in the tin.

    I’d defend get for produce as in ‘I got/produced my cuisenaire rods (lego with no bumps) to illustrate the point.’

    I’d also defend comet‘s clue; they can streak and flash, it depends on how close you are.

    A drop of the vintage stuff today, I thought.

    Thanks to Peter, Paul (where’s Mary?)

  24. I’ve been trawling the archives from before my time as a Guardian solver, and immediately after today’s puzzle, found myself at Dec 29th 2007, Paul’s Prize No. 24271. If you liked today’s clue 20,12 ‘Niap?’, then take a look at these oldies:

    Across: kcul? (8,2,7); ylper? (6,4); ytud? (3,7)

    Down: eert? (6,2); tew? (6,4).

    I love coincidences.

    Merry Christmas all.

  25. So late to this that I wasn’t going to contribute but I did like GET ONES LEG OVER. Didn’t know PISCO SOUR.
    Belated thanks to Muffin and Julie for their birthday greetings of yesterday. Much appreciated.
    Thanks Paul.

  26. Comet? As an amateur astronomer, I can say unequivocally that they do NOT flash. They do often look like a static streak across the sky, but that’s like saying a zebra is a streaker, because it has streaks… hmmm. That clue is about as far removed and wispy as comets are.

    Thank you Peter and Paul.

  27. A tough solve with PISCO SOUR the last one in, since I’d never heard of it, but worth the effort in the end. I didn’t get the parsing of CANDY = CY although it’s obvious now PeterO has explained it. NIAP? is a horrible clue. I nearly put BACK PAIn but of course that’s two words not one. Wasn’t Thomas Chatterton described as the “wonderful boy”? I can’t find any reference to it though so may be mistaken..

  28. I wonder what “had been” is doing in 1d other than getting in the solver’s way? Wouldn’t just ‘Some sheep procured by Joe’ have been better?

    5d didn’t actually have a definition, did it? Just two pieces of wordplay. Maybe Mogg instead of Mo would have been easier? (You can tell I didn’t get it, can’t you?)

    I think “Niap?” would be a better clue if it was an actual word. Maybe it would be too hard then without a def?

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