Guardian 28,023 / Qaos

by

Hurrah on two counts from me today: a puzzle from one of my favourite setters and I managed to see the theme – although it would have been quite hard to miss.

I wondered whether there was a significant anniversary but couldn’t find one. As well as direct references to Nelson and his exploits, there is a nautical ‘feel’ throughout the puzzle. I have highlighted the obvious references but didn’t have time to peruse the extensive Wikipedia entry. I did find that, early on, Nelson was Commander of the 5dn, so I wouldn’t be surprised if there were several more. I’ll leave you to add your own finds.

Witty clues and lovely surfaces, as usual – many thanks, Qaos – I really enjoyed it.

Definitions are underlined in the clues.

Across

7 Member of the force working on a lead? (6,3)
POLICE DOG
Cryptic definition – play on ‘lead’

8 Writer finds way into literary festival (5)
HARDY
RD [road – way] in HAY [literary festival: I’m ashamed to say that I’ve never been there – it’s still on my bucket list] – here’s the link to the theme

9 Briefest break since son climbs into bed (9)
CONCISEST
An anagram [break] of SINCE + S [son] in COT [bed]

10 Cooker at home once more (5)
AGAIN
AGA [cooker] + IN [at home]

12 Newspaper feature generates support (6)
COLUMN
Double definition

13 In revolutionary China, run by Mao, mostly as leader (8)
CHAIRMAN
An anagram [revolutionary] of CHINA + R + MA[o], mostly – with an extended definition

14 Little Boy Blue’s triumph (7)
VICTORY
VIC [little boy: I know some don’t like this device as an abbreviation – and, on the whole, I agree but it does suit the surface here ] + TORY [blue]

17 Most elevated dizzy heights (7)
HIGHEST
An anagram [dizzy] of HEIGHTS

20 Helmsman to steer south-west, carried by third person (8)
COXSWAIN
OX [steer] + SW [south west] in CAIN [elder son of Adam and Eve, so third person]

22 Small and large specimen (6)
SAMPLE
S [small] + AMPLE [large]

24 Judge an American god (5)
JANUS
J [judge] + AN + US – I liked this inclusion in my first blog of the new year, Janus being the god of openings and closings, usually depicted as having two faces, looking to the future and the past and giving his name to January – and JANUS was one of Nelson’s ships – thanks to commenters @5 and 7 – highlighted now

25, 21 Battle 4, perhaps, to stop in London (9,6)
TRAFALGAR SQUARE
TRAFALGAR [3 dn’s most famous battle] + 4 [square number]

26 The Guardian and Independent read inside out? Strange (5)
WEIRD
WE [the Guardian] + I [Independent] + R[ea]D ‘inside out’

27 Warship‘s funny story, invading two rivers (9)
DESTROYER
An anagram [funny] of STORY] in DEE + R [two rivers]

Down

1 Main chant as cyclist retires — hard to puncture two tyres (2-2-2)
YO-HO-HO
A reversal [retires] of HOY [cyclist ] + H [hard] in OO [two tyres – presumably wheels?]

2 Noble is 1, 2, 3, 4, say, after 5? (8)
VISCOUNT
IS + COUNT [1,2,3,4, say] after V [five] – another of Qaos’ ‘mathematical’ clues

3 Finally, when telephone call is on hold (6)
NELSON
Last letters [finally] of wheN telephonE calL iS  + ON, for a hold in wrestling

4 Fabulous bird raised, literally, on an island (7)
CORSICA
A reversal [raised] of ROC [fabulous bird] + SIC [literally] on A [an]

5 Pester animal (6)
BADGER
Double definition

6 Mixed salad around space station leads to butterflies (8)
ADMIRALS
An anagram [mixed] of SALADS around MIR [space station]

11 Duty on first vehicle (4)
TAXI
TAX [duty] + I [first, as in regnal numbers] – ‘duty’ perhaps a nod to Nelson’s famous ‘England expects…’?

15 Setter eats old stew alone (8)
ISOLATED
I [setter] + an anagram [stew] of EATS OLD}

16 Collect new paper, missing one page (4)
REAP
An anagram [new] of PA[p]ER, minus p [one page]

18 Poet finishes regularly ahead of racing driver (8)
HAMILTON
For a while, I couldn’t see how the wordplay worked but I think it’s [John] MILTON [poet] after [finishing] [a]H[e]A[d] for the racing driver LEWIS [and Nelson’s ‘Lady’]

19 Defenceless woman’s right by the sea (7)
UNARMED
UNA [woman] + R [right] + MED[iterranean] [sea] – a whimsical reference to the theme? It made me smile, anyway

22 Protection, for example, hiding iron shirt (6)
SAFETY
SAY [for example] round [hiding] FE [iron] T [shirt]

23 One idly passing time arranging flora around the end of June (6)
LOAFER
An anagram [arranging] of FLORA around [jun]E

53 comments on “Guardian 28,023 / Qaos”

  1. When first one in was Hardy, thought perhaps this would have a literary theme. Proved wrong by an enjoyable puzzle this morning…

  2. Thanks Qaos and Eileen

    After I finished I remembered that Qaos nearly always has a theme, so I had another look, and this time I saw it. You could add YO HO HO and DESTROYER to the extended nautical theme, I think.

    I didn’t see how “4” worked in 25,21 – I was obsessed by the clue @4.

    Favourites were COXSWAIN (which took some time to parse) and VISCOUNT.

  5. Very enjoyable.  For once I managed to see the theme quite early on and it certainly helped.  The JANUS was also one of Nelson’s ships.

    Many thanks Qaos and Eileen.

  6. Thanks Eileen and Qaos.

     

    A very swift solve for a Qaos, but enjoyable. I spotted the theme, which confirmed several answers, though I missed BADGER

  7. an enjoyable solve with a theme even I can spot. Fav was LOI COXSWAIN.
    JANUS is another theme clue- Nelson commanded HMS Janus.
    thanks Eileen for the blog and Qaos for the fun.

  9. Looks like I’m going to be in the minority in finding this a perfectly ok puzzle but disappointing for a Qaos. I didn’t tick anything as they all seemed too straightforward to me, although the parsing of SQUARE only came to me when I woke this morning. I even saw the theme. Thanks to Qaos and to Eileen for finding more to be positive about.

  14. Thanks both,

    Some fine clues and quite a quick solve for me. Parsing of 3d is last letters of ‘when telephone call is’ + ‘on’. Eve I spotted the theme.

  15. Was anyone else wondering if it was Boatman’s birthday today? Great cluing as ever from Qaos, with 2d being my favourite. Thanks to Eileen for the blog as well.

  18. Thank you, Anna @13 – you’re quite right.  I’ve amended it now. [And I did already have CORSICA highlighted. 😉 ]

  19. I enjoyed this and think it was because I didn’t get 25a 21d TRAFALGAR SQUARE until about three-quarters of the way through, so I solved on the clues rather than from the theme.

    I liked several down clues particularly 1,2,3,4 (!) YO-HO-HO, VISCOUNT, NELSON and CORSICA, thought not in that order, so I didn’t really spot the nautical link between them until later.

    It was great to see many more theme-related words emerge once I came here to the blog. I also needed to read this to get the full parse on a couple – for instance, I didn’t know HAY (the literary festival) in HARDY so that was a guess, and I was thinking more about the Tess of the D’Urbervilles Hardy at the time than anybody to do with Nelson. I also didn’t fully understand 20a COXSWAIN or 22d SAFETY until I read Eileen’s explanations.

    Just a tip – don’t try to click and go to a link in the blog while posting – or you have to go right back to the beginning – all of my previous comment was lost – sigh!

    Thanks to Qaos and Eileen.

  20. Extra Rum Rations for Qaos and Eileen :
    HMS JANUS (also, much later, a class of  destroyer) was a kind of frigate* that Nelson was recalled to command when he was in the middle of attempting something insane in South America. HMS BADGER (a Brig, I believe) was his first command; there’s a little model of it in the super little pub in his native village. In the early 1790s he took CORSICA (the local rebels made Good King George their King for a while), losing the sight in one eye (the UNARMED-ness came much later, looting, ineffectively, in Tenerife).
    *Two decks of guns, so not really a frigate; or a WEIRD frigate (?).
    Is the sun over the yardarm yet, or under it still? Where’s the port !

  21. Though most commenters here seem to have enjoyed this one and admired the setter’s skill, I was somewhat irritated by the sloppiness in the the surfaces. In 18d, the ‘of’ is a redundant cheat to make the ‘ahead of racing driver’ phrasing in the surface. In 19d, the possessive “woman’s” introduces a superfluous ‘s’ (the wordplay generates ‘jos’, ‘dis’ or ‘her’ or something which contains an ‘s’ or a possessive. But the setter just airily waves the hand. In 20a, the wordplay requires only ‘steer’=ox: ‘to steer’ is not equivalent to ox, but again the setter cheats a bit to get the surface to work. Trying too hard, I think.

  22. Muffin @ 2:  I think your “think” is right. I’d bet a lot of money that the Admiralty chose JANUS for the name of the class of DESTROYER because of the NELSON command, so even if Nelson never saw a destroyer, there is a direct link.

    There is a company called Admiral that make deck shoes which are LOAFERs, I suppose, but it’s a bit tenuous.

  23. pserve_p2 19d is justified as ‘woman has’ and I guess that ‘to’ in 20A is meant to be read as ‘becomes’, I did think that 18d was particularly poor (‘finishes’ isn’t great and I agree that ‘of’ is superfluous).

    Unarmed for defenceless and clueing highest using heights both jarred a little but some nice clues elsewhere.

    On the whole this continued a fairly lacklustre start to the year from the Guardian setters but thanks to Qaos and Eileen.

  24. A very timely theme – I’ve just started on the Patrick O’Brian novels and am coming to grips with both the era and the terminology. Some enjoyable cluing here but I agree with pserve_p2 @21 that there was an uncharacteristic looseness in some of the clues and many had a Quiptic feel to them. I thought “victory” was a fabulous example of justifying the use of a slightly dodgy mechanism, however. Thanks Eileen for parsing “coxswain” and Qaos for the battle.

  25. il principe dell’oscurità @ 22 I’d take that bet! If the Admiralty wanted to honour Nelson they could have picked a lot of much better names, probably just a simple case of the name having become available again.

  26. I thought this was quite straightforward until I got a bit bogged down in the bottom half, but then accelerated once I got TRAFALGAR SQUARE, after spotting the theme for once.

    Probably a coincidence but there was a DESTROYER, USS Nelson, active in WWII. I liked the POLICE DOG and VISCOUNT.

    Thanks Qaos and Eileen.

  27. Nelson didn’t command the JANUS for long but the “insane” thing he was attempting at that time was setting up an equivalent of the Panama Canal across Nicaragua with only one small ship and 500 troops; it’s a great story.

    For those with a passing interest I’d recommend C S Forester’s biography; 200 pages in large print and reads like a Hornblower novel.

  28. P.S. I meant to say how much I liked “UNARMED”, whether the Nelson connection was intentional or not.

    For me, the overall feel of this puzzle was positive, though I have been in trouble before for over-appreciating the gradual revelation of the intention of the setter in the bigger picture, while not being so punctilious with the detailed breakdown of the component parts. I always read the analysis of what others deem “loose clueing” with interest, and take those comments on board, but on a personal level, I am very much more inclined to sum up my response according to the totality of the experience I have with a particular puzzle.

  29. An enjoyable puzzle indeed; I prefer Qaos’s clues when they are not too Boatmanish.

    I wonder whether anyone can help me with a niggling problem ? I solve the Guardian puzzle on an iPad, and when I began this morning, the clues were displayed alongside the grid in the ‘old style’ with the down clues beneath the acrosses, which I much prefer. The format then changed to the more recent one with the down and across clues side by side, which is a real pain in the nether regions on an iPad. Did I accidentally cause the format to change, or was it down to the Guardian’s website ? If anyone can tell me how to get the interactive puzzle in the original format, I should be very grateful.

  31. I totally failed to notice the theme (possibly because I raced through all but the last 4), which was a shame considering my LOI and hardest to solve was Nelson.

  32. Since when was Trafalgar Square a “stop in London”? Not since 1979 (unless you count bus stops, which I think is just inadequate for a crossword). The clue doesn’t work using “stop” as a verb, either. Other than that, a reasonable puzzle, with the theme being more readily accessible than usual for Qaos. As has been observed, lots of solutions on the fringe of the theme, as well. On the whole, a job well done.

  33. I only saw the theme post-solve, but after seeing J, Q and X in the southwest corner early on, I was looking for a pangram that never materialized. I agree with at least some of the criticisms above (HIGHEST was indeed weak, but I’ve seen weaker), but I enjoyed the experience as I usually do with Qaos. Thanks to him and to Eileen for her usual informative blog.

  35. Sandman @ 32 It was (as you write) a tube station and is a stop in the context of sightseeing, alternatively if you read ‘to stop’ (to close or end) as an indication of square coming after Trafalgar with the definition as ‘in London’ then it parses ok.

  36. George @29. I too solve on the iPad sometimes. The side by side formulation has some advantages. If you click (ie touch the screen) on a light in the grid it highlights the clue and automatically scrolls to it and you can scroll the clues without scrolling the puzzle. It repeats the highligted clue at the top and the bottom of the puzzle. I’ve only recently discovered that if you click on a letter in the grid and it highlights the wrong light, if you then click on the letter again, it changes from the across clue to the down clue, or vv. HTH

  37. Too many write-in clues but i was reminded of a certain 70’s? paster for Captain Morgan Rum.

    Best commentary on battle-Thackeray-Vanity Fair

    Worst Hugo-Les Mis (“because God willed it”)

  38. Tyngewick @36

    Thanks for your suggestions. I’ll try different possibilities, but I still prefer the older format.

    In the landscape orientation, the grid and typesize is too small cor me to use comfortably.

  40. I’m sorry to use the term “straightforward” as so many others have but that’s what this was. I even got the theme although it was so obvious that it hit you in the eye (sorry). Anyway,it was just the right level for me as I had a tooth extracted earlier today and was feeling rather sorry for myself.
    Thanks Qaos.

  42. Nautical but nice. My favourite was POLICE DOG: just a pun but it hit the spot for me today (been ill since Christmas; needed a lift). Smart work with the theme.

    Is ‘an’ really equivalent to A in 4D?

    Thanks for puzzle, blog and comments.

  43. Like DaveinNC, early answers yielded a Q, V, J, W, and a couple of Xs, so I had my hopes up for a pangram. Then I got NELSON, shortly after solving COLUMN and YO HO HO, HAMILTON and HARDY. Suddenly, I was having way too much fun to bother keeping track of the alphabet and I poured myself a tot of rum. I couldn’t completely parse COXSWAIN and CONCISEST – so thank you Eileen for the explanations, thanks also to il principe for the wealth of extra nautical info, to stanXYZ for reminding me of Rufus’ brilliance, and a resounding twenty-one gun salute to Qaos!

  44. 1961Blanchflower @ 42

    You say either “this puzzle has a historical theme” or “this puzzle has an historical theme”.

  45. I missed the theme and couldn’t finish – I seemed to be very short of crossers all the way through this puzzle.
    I liked CHAIRMAN, COXSWAIN and TRAFALGAR SQUARE.
    Thanks Qaos and Eileen.

  46. Thanks to Qaos and the evergreen Eileen (for HAMILTON in particular).

    Bit of YO-HO-HO but also some ho-hum with TRAFALGAR SQUARE getting a good canine sniff – for some reason the lack of distance between the clue (battle=Trafalgar) and the answer (stop in London=TRAFALGAR SQUARE) caused a wrinkling of the nose.  And HIGHEST, yes, not awfully good – but overall it was enjoyable.

    I suspect that Qoas set off to set a pangram but could squeeze in neither a K nor a Z.

  47. Thanks Simon S: that works for me! Given the choice, I think I would say “a historical theme” 7 times out of 10.

    I used to visit Norwich for work, often staying in an hotel (a hotel?) called The Nelson, which had a lot of memorabilia related to the great man – he had Norfolk connections. I briefly hoped CORSICA would turn out to be Norwich, but inconvenient crossers ruled that out.

  49. I’m hopeless at spotting themes so, while I finished pretty quickly, I completely missed what was going on. Don’t ever accuse me of being observant. Good puzzle nevertheless.

  50. Like howard @31 I struggled on NELSON, which was my LOI, and still didn’t see the theme.

    I have no problem with the stop at Trafalgar Square – it’s not just any old bus stop, but the one at which many of the London Night Bus routes have for many years started and terminated, so very well known to Londoners. (Also the 29 bus on which I used to go to school).

    Thanks to Qaos and Eileen for immaculate setting and blogging, as ever.

  51. For once, I saw the theme and it helped. I then looked for an unsolved 6-letter light and missed it. LOI was NELSON.

  52. Re 22 Small and large specimen (6)

    Is the surface ok? Should it have been ‘specimens’ (or specimena) which of course won’t yield SAMPLE.  Can there be a ‘small and large’ specimen ?

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