Guardian Cryptic 28062 Qaos

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Thanks Qaos for the enjoyable workout. Definitions are underlined in the clues. (Apologies for the late blog, but I had to fetch my car from the workshop.)

… and there is a theme of cars.

Across

9 Sailor, soldier and university lecturer start to attack spider (9)

TARANTULA : TAR(informal term for “sailor”) + ANT(a social insect, one which might belong to the caste of soldiers) plus(and) U(abbrev. for “university”) + L(abbrev. for “lecturer”) + 1st letter of(start to) “attack“.

10 Sound of distorted dialogue, eg line’s split (5)

AUDIO : Anagram of(distorted) “dialogue” minus(…’s split) [“eg” + “l”(abbrev. for “line”)].

Themewise:  An “o” too many.

11 Lily Savage’s debut follows large breakout (5)

LOTUS : 1st letter of(…’s debut) “Savage” placed after(follows) [L(abbrev. for “large”) + anagram of(break…) OUT].

12 On this, exercise is routine drudgery (9)

TREADMILL : Double defn: 1st: Equipment to do physical exercise on; and 2nd: Metaphor for …

13 10 + 10 divided by small number? That’s a strain (7)

TENSION : [TEN(10) + I(Roman numeral for “1”) O(letter representing 0)] containing(divided by) S(abbrev. for “small”) + N(abbrev. for “number”).

14 Beatniks somewhat high starting to puff on pipes (7)

HIPPIES : 1st 2 letters of(somewhat) “high” +1st letter of(starting to) “puff” plus(on) “pipes” minus its middle letter(empty …).

17 Upright film detective (5)

SHAFT : Double defn: 1st: A column.

A car part, too.

19 Hit action man? No sweat (3)

RAM : “Rambo”(action man in the movies played by Sly Stallone, the Italian Stallion) minus(No) BO(abbrev. for “body odour” that may emanate from sweat).

20 Drummer from Dorking playing without drum kit, initially (5)

RINGO : Anagram of(… playing) “Dorking” minus(without) 1st letters, respectively, of(…, initially) “drum kit“.

Defn: …, aka Sir Richard Starkey, MBE.

21 Suggested being fooled from Germany to Albania? (7)

ALLUDED : “deluded”(being fooled/under a, well, delusion) with “de”(the internet domain name for Germany) changed to(from … to) “al”(ditto for Albania).

22 Take a trick over 1 heart to win (7)

TRIUMPH : TRUMP(to take a trick, in a card game like bridge) containing(over) I(Roman numeral for 1) + H(abbrev. for “hearts”, the suit in a pack of playing cards or a card of that suit).

24 Morning’s start with brewed coffee — it’s to do with the weather (3,6)

MET OFFICE : 1st letter of(…’s start) “Morning” plus(with) anagram of(brewed) COFFEE — IT.

26 Peering in closer, I found a little line in print (5)

SERIF : Hidden in(Peering in) “closer, I found“.

28 Dog starting to retrieve cricket balls (5)

ROVER : 1st letter of(starting to) “retrieve” + OVER(in cricket, a series of balls bowled to the batsman).

Defn: A name for dogs in general.

29 Alan is not revising subjects (9)

NATIONALS : Anagram of(… revising) ALAN IS NOT.

Defn: …/citizens of a nation.

Down

1 A modern language? (4)

HTML :  Cryptic Defn:  Acronym for “Hypertext Markup Language”, a programming language that creates pages that can displayed on a web browser, hence a modern language.

And shouldn’t it be (1,1,1,1)?

2 In a flash, neutron moves lower in part of an atom (6)

PROTON : “pronto”(quickly/in a flash) with its “n”(abbrev. for “neutron”) moving down(moves lower, in a down clue).

3 Woman’s relative mostly supported by daughter alone (10)

UNASSISTED : UNA(a woman’s name)‘S + “sister”(an immediate relative) minus its last letter(mostly) placed above(supported by, in a down clue) D(abbrev. for “daughter”).

4 Gold and special metal found in Texas (6)

AUSTIN : AU(symbol for the chemical element, gold) plus(and) S(abbrev. for “special”) + TIN(a metal element).

Defn: …, ie. its state capital.

5 Surrey town to provide meat (8)

CATERHAM : CATER(to provide/to supply what is needed, including food and drink maybe) + HAM(smoked or salted meat from a pig’s leg).

6 American actor wants gold for country (4)

LAND : “Landau”(Martin, American actor) minus(wants) “au”(symbol for the chemical element, gold).

7 Extra hearing transposes the limits of ultrasound (8)

ADDITION : “audition”(the sense or act of hearing) with 1st letter of(one of the limits of) “ultrasound” exchanged for(transposes) last letter of(second of the limits of) “ultrasound“.

8 Flatten headless, evil-tempered dwarf (4)

ROLL : “troll”(an evil-tempered dwarf) minus its 1st letter(headless, …).

Themewise:  A missing “s”.

13 Least wobbly magnetic unit (5)

TESLA : Anagram of(… wobbly) LEAST.

15 For each goal, obtain authorisation (10)

PERMISSION : PER(for each, as in “rate per hour”) + MISSION(a goal/an objective/an ambition).

16 Animal over 50 shot to pieces (5)

SLOTH : Anagram of(… to pieces) SHOT containing(over) L(Roman numeral for “50”).

18 President covers up extremely important case (8)

ABLATIVE : ABE(nickname for Abraham Lincoln, former US President) containing(covers) reversal of(up, in a down clue) VITAL(extremely important/crucial).

Defn: …/in particular, one of the forms of a noun or pronoun in grammar.

19 Old star trained anew, winning first of Grammies (3,5)

RED GIANT : Anagram of(… anew) TRAINED containing(winning) 1st letter of(first of) “Grammies“.

Defn: … in outer space, not screen.

22 Non-drinkers receive insignificant comments online (6)

TWEETS : TTS(plural of “tt”/abrev. for “teetotaller”/a non-drinker) containing(receive) WEE(insignificant/tiny).

23 Former tabloid editor‘s male body part (6)

MORGAN : M(abbrev. for “male”) + ORGAN(a body part … not just belonging to a male).

Defn: Former editor of the tabloid “News of the World”.

Answer: …, Piers.

24 About band from the ’90s making comeback: one only works for money (4)

MERC : Reversal of(… making comeback) [C(abbrev. for “circa”/”about” in reference to a specific date or period in time) + R.E.M.(American rock band from the ’90s)].

Defn: Short for …

25 President once was able to buy off a Fed (4)

FORD : “afford”(was able/had the means to buy) minus(off) [“a” + “f”(abbrev. for “Federation”/Fed)].

Answer: …, Gerald.

27 Eat no food in banquet that lacks energy (4)

FAST : “feast”(a banquet/a large meal) minus(that lacks) “e”(symbol for “energy” in physics).

75 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28062 Qaos”

  2. Thanks qaos and scchua

    I saw 13 as TEN + 10 divided by Small, then Number. Seems closer to qaos’ mathematical style of clue.

  3. Thanks Qaos and scchua

    I saw the theme! (But it would have been difficult not to…)

    Quite quick, though I didn’t parse ABLATIVE. I don’t like HTML given as (4), but that’s what the Guardian does. I raised an eyebrow at “beatnik” = HIPPIE, as I would have put them at least ten years apart, but Wikipedia tells me that “hippie” derives from the beatnik term “hipster”, and the two cultures overlapped by a year or so in the mid 60s.

    Favourites were LOTUS and TRIUMPH, though to be pedantic with the latter,  trumping doesn’t necessarily win the trick; the next player might overtrump.

  4. keith Morgan and Simon S,

    I think we’re saying the same things:

    24 down:  The ellipses stand for “one only works for money”.

    13 across:  The parentheses and brackets mean that “N” is at the end.

  6. HTML took me as long as the rest of the puzzle. In IT terms, something that has been around since the 90s no longer feels that modern, though it is still widely used.

    Thanks to Qaos and manehi

  8. Stared at the possibility of LADD for 6d for some time as LOI, but without obvious reason. So officially a DNF, as couldn’t see the wood for the trees, (sorry if I’m rather mixing my metaphors) the car theme staring me in the face, which should have connected me up with the two essential parts of LANDROVER.

  10. I quite like car themes but we had a Triumph one recently and this was not Qaos at his best for me. It was still fun but lacked the polish of his better puzzles. The “Beats”(ie Kerouac, Ginsberg etc seem a lot more cool than the hippies a decade later

    And REM lit up the 80’s for me. They were kind of mainstream by the 90s-so a couple of iffy time/space moments.

    Does AUDI(O) count as a themer-likewise LAND(AU)?

    I preferred HTML being a 4 letter word-much neater like that and its not exactly new.

    Is 8d a themer if you add an S?

    All good fun but not the sparkle of Q’s best Thanks scchua and Q

  12. Thank you Qaos fro a fun crossword and scchua for a super blog.

    9a was my first in, and brought cars to my mind – a friend in Trinidad was seeing to his car engine one evening when he spotted on the garage wall his shadow with a large TARANTULA standing on his back.

    The S for ROLLS is below it…

  14. Muffin, thank you for your assertion that the theme was difficult to miss. It allows me to claim that at least I succeeded in doing something difficult with this puzzle! I didn’t succeed in completing it, thanks to HTML, which I’m sure I would have gotten if it were enumerated as 1,1,1,1, but we’ve had that discussion before.

    I don’t think “empty” works as an instruction to remove the middle letter of a five-letter word, as in 14a, but the intent was clear, and it led to a surface with a humorous image, so I’ll forgive it.

    Thanks to Qaos and scchua.

  15. Thanks for all the cars, scchua, you may have overlooked the Dodge RAM.

    I hope we can avoid another long discourse on enumeration.  HTML could be either and all’s fair in love, war, and crosswords.

    Excellent crossword to complete another good week in the Graun – many thanks to all the sloggers and betters.

    Grantinfreo:  Many thanks for your “Twenty-one” reference for sit and stay yesterday.  I left after posting and didn’t have the chance to acknowledge it..

    Nice weekend, all.

  16. things fairly motored along with this one, although I did not parse ALLUDED or LAND (did not recall landau). Some marques new to me also. A bunch of carnations to Qaos and thanks to Scchua for the colourful blog.

  17. I felt much as copmus@10 – I thought it was a lacklustre puzzle for Qaos and enjoyed the illustrated blog as much as the puzzle. I got the theme thanks to the broad hint in the puzzle placeholder entry. My favourite was RAM which MrsW got as soon as she looked at it – then it was obvious and a nice tea tray moment. Thanks to Qaos and scchua.

  18. Minor point re the blog: in 25d the wordplay has “was able to buy” which leads to (af)FORD(ed), so the Fed doesn’t have to lose his legs.

  19. Thanks, scchua.

    I forgot even to look for a theme. The parsing of ALLUDED eluded me, so thanks for that. I like Qaos’s puzzles, which are inventive and often witty. The price to be paid is the odd tut at rather loose definitions such as sweat for BO.

    I particularly enjoyed 23d, though the body part that comes to mind when I think of P—s M—n is not specific to males or females.

  20. Good setting to get all the motors in.

    Without doing this to death, nobody would write HTML as H.T.M.L., and these days it’s often used adjectivally without capitalisation, so I can’t see there is any justification for 1,1,1,1.

    Slight quibble as noted in the blog that h is usually heartS.

    I liked ABLATIVE.

    Thanks Qaos and scchua for a good, pictorial blog – yes ROLLS is also there.

  21. Mostly good but I thought three of them let it down

    17a A shaft is usually horizontal (a mineshaft is vertical but you wouldn’t call it an upright),  and the film series is rather obscure. No chance of anybody under 60 remembering the original 3 and the 2010 and 2019 ones weren’t exactly major hits.

    1d HTML is not a language and no wordplay

    6d The definition is too vague if you’ve never heard of the actor in question, though it’s obvious enough with the crossers

     

  23. Enjoyed that one. I had a quick scan after I’d filled in around a third of the clues but couldn’t immediately spot it (I don’t know my cars, but I may have been unlucky with which ones I’d filled in at that point).

    Struggled way more that I should have done with MERC. I guess I still don’t think of REM as a 90s band (despite their whole period of global success, or “this fame thing”), as my first purchase of theirs was Life’s Rich Pageant, and I associate them most strongly with my 80s student years. But the clue was fair, I was just a bit rubbish..

    Nice work scchua, and thanks as always to Qaos.

  24. I do tend to think of HTML as a (4) these days. You don’t even see it too often in upper case, and it feels more like a (very awkward) word than an acronym to me. But I appreciate it could be controversial.

  27. I enjoyed this until I got to sweat=bo, html, and beatniks=hippies, all of which have already been mentioned and I think are extremely dodgey.

    Regarding beatniks and hippies, they were predominantly in different decades, listened to different music, dressed differently, hung out in different places, used different substances and only one was a political movement – otherwise, sure, they were identical!

  28. Thoroughly enjoyed this.

    Guessed there must be a LANDAU or LANDOR I’d never heard of.

    Missed the AUDI

    I think you have surpassed yourself on this one scchua with the number of marvellous pics.

    Thank you both

  30. I assume you mean the gender-neutral nether region, Miche.

    Yes a medium-ish Qaos, fun but with a few ?s. Beatnicks were pre-hippie and pies is not empty pipes; alluded needs ‘to’ to equate to suggested, and whose subjects are a republic’s nationals? Just musing, no big deal. Enjoyed it, ta Qaos and scchua, hope your car’s running well. Oh yes, saw all the makes (tho not sure I’ve actually ever seen a Lotus).

  34. howard @21; Chambers gives for shaft: ‘The part of a column between the base and the capital.’ It’s Thesaurus gives shaft = upright.

  36. I’ve reconsidered my point about HTML. It is a language, but not a programming language. Still a poor clue though.

     

  37. I’ve heard MERC for mercenary in the context of footballers prioritising big money contracts over success on the pitch. You hear of a player having always been “a bit of a merc”. I don’t know how widespread this usage is, but I’d say I’ve heard it reasonably often in the last 5 years.

  38. Martin Landau was a fine actor. Best remembered as the sidekick of James Mason in Hitchcock’s North by Northwest.

  39. Nice puzzle, didn’t get the theme as I hate cars (but knew I’d missed it as it’s Qaos.) Couldn’t parse ALLUDED but it’s fair. I don’t like the clue for HTML – it’s not specific enough to work as a cryptic definition for me. (OTTOMH, “Modern language used on site” or something would do.)

  40. I am inclined to think that 1D modern “MORDERN”is meant to resemble modem i.e, “MODEM”  which is used to transmit HTML. The two in lowercase are virtually indistinguishable in the font and kerning used.

  42. Is 1d possibly ITAL? As in the car Morris Ital.
    Not sure how to parse the language connection with Italian though. Just a thought.
    Thanks to Sschua & Qaos

  44. Enjoyed this puzzle, got most of it done last night   Thanks, Qaos and scchua, especially for the lots of pictures.

    muffin@3  It may have been difficult not to see the theme, but I managed it, even though I’ve finally learned to look for one when it’s Qaos.  Some of these car names are fairly obscure.  Mostly British, I think, except Ford.

    TREADMILL isn’t a great clue — one meaning is a metaphor for the other.

    Isn’t the picture after ROVER a Rolls Royce?

  47. A DNF for me because I really could not think of a language of 4 letters that fitted with -T-L.  So have I joined the ranks of the pedantic or do I have a genuine complaint?  Otherwise I enjoyed this.  Sorry muffin but I missed the theme as I always do and I also have little interest in cars but still it was a pretty bad miss.  Favourite by far TESLA…………..yer muffin I know!!!!

    Thanks Qaos and scchua!

  48. Thanks both,
    Enjoyed this. Valentine@44. According to the car tax database, the car is a Rover first registered in 1940.

  49. Proud to say that I totally missed the theme and my LOI was HTML despite having used it daily for almost two decades! I thought this was great fun albeit with a few wonky clues but nothing that derailed the solve. Thanks to all

  50. @Pentman – yes, I thought the same re MODERN / MODEM. I even found myself zooming in on the word in my browser to check I’d not misread it.

  52. Thanks Scutter – if it’s restricted to a footballing context, that would explain why I’ve never heard of it.

  53. Afternoon all,

    Many thanks for the comments and to scchua for the wonderful blog. The car pictures are a lovely inclusion.

    HTML: The enumeration of such words in Guardian puzzles has been in place for many years: https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/crossword-blog/2012/may/07/roman-numbers-other-problems. I find writing a good cryptic definition to be one of the hardest parts of setting. Rufus made writing them look a lot easier than they really are!

    Hippies and Beatniks: My bad – waaaay before my time. I was going by their entries in Chambers, which has them both defined as “rebels”. But A ~ C and B ~ C doesn’t necessarily mean A ~ B.

    REM: For bands that span decades, this is always a tricky one. Deep Purple formed at the end of the 60s, but it’s surely fairest to reference their most popular decade. Of course, that’s even trickier when they have many (e.g. Rolling Stones).

    Best wishes,

    Qaos.

     

  54. Thanks to Qaos (and for dropping by) and sschua for the usual exhaustive blog.

    I enjoyed it, even spotting the theme. A dnf thanks to HTML but my bad.  I’ve no interest in cars so CATERHAM was my tilt.

  55. Thanks Qaos and sschua.  I haven’t waded through the other responses to see if I’m the only one who had Maxwell SMART instead of SHAFT for the movie detective (yes, Get Smart was a TV show, but they made a movie version much later. “Upright” for “smart” just about works–think of what’s meant when someone shouts “look smart!”  I agree SHAFT fits far better, though (and is a better movie too).

  56. I’m not sure the definition of REM is ‘band from the 90s’. Their 1st album came out in 1983 and their final one in 2011.

  57. Didn’t like this much despite getting the theme. I thought LAND was a poor clue as was HTML- and I don’t see how you parse it. Never heard of CATERHAM so that was a guess. However RAM turned out to be a much better clue than I thought it was- and,yes, that was a guess too! Perhaps I’m having a bad day?
    Thanks Qaos.

  58. howard @21 it is a cryptic definition so give it a break. modern implies that it may not be a regular language but you are splitting hairs. Shaft is one of the best known blacksploitation movies. yes 6d is a bit obscure but this is a Friday and it is eminently gettable (we didn’t)

  60. I always enjoy Qaos. I’m still fairly new to the cryptic game and can’t fill in the puzzle, but I find Qaos always uses very straightforward cluing where others rely on obscure knowledge and slang. Nice to have some things millennials will have heard of.

     

    howard @21 – HTML is a language. That’s what the L is for. It’s not a *programming* language, but that is a common mistake for people not in the biz and can be forgiven. scchua may have learned a new thing today 🙂

     

    Thanks to setter and blogger alike!

  64. Thanks Qaos for a fun puzzle as usual, and for dropping in; thanks to scchua for customary blogging excellence, and some well chosen pics. I think everything I wanted to say has been covered above, except I thought there might be a secondary theme of computer-related terms: RAM, HTML, LOTUS, TWEETS and SERIF (which is pushing it a bit, but crops up sometimes when you select a font). Thanks all.

  65. I love the photos and particularly using a Lotus XI for 11 across. I had one once and I think it could well be the world’s most impractical road car.

  66. Another word in support of Martin Landau – he was one of the early stars of Mission:Impossible alongside his (then( wife Barbara Bain. They went on to star in Gerry Anderson’s live-action Space 1999. Things went a bit quiet after that but Landau came back big-time in the late 80s and 90s with three Best Supporting Actor nominations. It was third time lucky when he won for playing Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood. His first decent screen role was indeed North by Northwest, but there was a lot of good work after that. A product of the Actors’ Studio, by the way.

  67. Thanks to penzephyr for the proper parsing of FORD, but ‘afforded’ does not mean ‘was able to buy’. Afford means ‘yield’, or ‘bear the expense of’. ‘I afforded the watch’ is incorrect. Whilst appreciating Qaos’s efforts usually, there were too many loose clues for a satisfying solve. Thanks scchua for the blog.

  68. Despite owning a book called “How to do everything with HTML” I didn’t solve 1d. I don’t see anything cryptic about the definition, and since HTML is, by definition, a language, the question mark can only allude its modernity, as mentioned in the comments.

  69. As usual, I failed to spot the theme. I also failed to solve SHAFT & HTML.

    I could not parse 21a, 7d, 19a.

    My favourite was FORD.

    Thanks B+S

     

  70. Almost finished this apart from 1d – though Itel is another computer language that fits as well, and put that in rather than HTML. Car photos lovely. Not too tricky – despite the late post – we just had a few other things to do! But I’d join the blogger who said “trump” doesn’t necessarily mean win – I’ve played a low trump often to get it over-ruffed (trumped) and then be told not to send a boy to do a man’s job….

  71. Gonzo @67, 25d could work by a two step process, ‘President once bought (was able to buy) off a Fed.’ – ‘Tom could have bought a larger house’, ‘Tom could have afforded a larger house’.

  73. Very late in the game but the first car reference came in the first clue 9A, the Fiat Spider. And in North America Merc was often used as a short form for the now deceased Mercury automobile brand.

  75. Late comment but maybe someone will read someday?
    Re trump not meaning win, (muffin +), trump etymologically is a contraction of triumph and in other uses apart from whist etc, does generally mean to win.
    Note to administrators: is there a way of being notified when comments are added. I will risk my email address in case someone can help timlynch22@sky.com
    Thanks

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