Guardian Cryptic 28690 Pasquale

by

Thank you to Pasquale.  Definitions are underlined in the clues.

Across

8. What Jacob was? Leader of House — stuffy with it (8)

HAIRLESS : 1st letter of(Leader of) “House” plus(… with it) AIRLESS(stuffy/with no air circulation).

Defn: … in the Bible, in contrast to his hairy brother Esau.

9, 25. Sadly, I’m doubter about one court making a passing comment (6,6)

OBITER DICTUM : Anagram of(Sadly) I’M DOUBTER containing(about) [ I(Roman numeral for “one”) + CT(abbrev. for “court”) ].

10, 24 down. Don’t visit state flooded by river— awash with wood destroyed (4,4)

STAY AWAY : SAY(to state verbally) containing(flooded by) [ TAY(longest river in Scotland) + “awash” minus(with … destroyed) “ash”(the hard wood of the ash tree).

11. Reading material with digital access (5,5)

THUMB INDEX : Cryptic defn: Set of notches cut into the pages of books to allow easy access to specific sections of the book, digitally/using your digits.

12. See 22 down

14. Attempts to cross French sea, being back in boats (8)

TRIREMES : TRIES(attempts) containing(to cross) reversal of(…, being back) MER(French for “sea”).

Defn:  … with 3 banks of oars.

15. End of road — politician in criminal case bunks off (7)

DECAMPS : Last letter of(End of) “road” + [ MP(abbrev. for a Member of Parliament, a politician) contained in(in) anagram of(criminal) CASE ].

Defn: …/leaves hurriedly.

17. We turned up to be enthralled by dog showing charm (7)

BEWITCH : Reversal of(… turned up) WE contained in(to be enthralled by) BITCH(a female dog).

20. All mice out to eat a shrub (8)

CAMELLIA : Anagram of(… out) ALL MICE containing(to eat) A.

22. Some pang in animals? Certainly in humans! (6)

ANGINA : Hidden in(Some) “pang in animals“.

Defn: A sharp pain/pang in the chests of humans.

23. Troublemaker on broadcast intended being heartless, creating harm (10)

IMPAIRMENT : IMP(a trouble/mischief maker) plus(on) AIR(to broadcast, as with radio or TV programmes) + “meant”(intended/planned to) minus its middle letter(being heartless).

24. See 2

25. See 9

26. Crack from cleric, idiot in church (8)

CREVASSE : [REV(abbrev. for “Reverend”, form of address to a cleric) + ASS(an idiot/a foolish person) ] contained in(in) CE(abbrev. for the Church of England).

Down

1. Part of Manhattan is sedate surprisingly (4,4)

EAST SIDE : Anagram of(… surprisingly) IS SEDATE.

2, 24 across. Difficult situation in Stoke Poges churchyard, reportedly? (4,4)

GREY AREA : Homophone of(…, reportedly) “Gray area”(what you might call the churchyard of the Stoke Poges church that poet Thomas Gray attended at the time of his writing Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard).

3. Not a sort of dreamy movement set up in Oxford college (6)

MERTON : Reversal of(… set up, in a down clue) [ NOT + REM(abbrev. for “rapid eye movement”, a phase/sort of sleep characterised by rapid eye movements, during which you might have intense dreams,) ].

Defn: …, part of Oxford University.

4. PM to resign? Has to go about it tortuously (7)

ASQUITH : QUIT(to resign from a post) contained in(… to go about it) anagram of(… tortuously) HAS.

Defn: …, H.H., former UK Prime Minister.

5. Rest in sweet place with ruined houses? (4,4)

BOMB SITE : SIT(to take your weight off your feet/to rest) contained in(in) BOMBE(a sweet/a dome shaped frozen dessert).

6. Looking to keep home that houses nothing innovative (10)

PIONEERING : PEERING(looking intently) containing(to keep) [ IN(home/not out, as in “I’m home tonight”) containing(that houses) O(letter representing 0/nothing) ].

7. Worship has some here very uplifted (6)

REVERE : Hidden in(some) reversal of(… uplifted, in a down clue) “here very“.

13. Repairs past being done when one is lacking ___ ? (5,5)

SPARE PARTS : Anagram of(… done) “Repairs past” minus(when … is lacking) “I”(Roman numeral for “one”).

Defn: If one lacks spare parts, then repair of the whole is not possible/past being done.

16. Travellers gloomy, drinking beer? Quite the opposite (8)

PILGRIMS : GRIM(gloomy/depressing) contained in(drinking …? Quite the opposite) PILS(a type of lager beer similar to Pilsner).

18. Upper-class lady against benefit being raised (8)

CONTESSA : CON(against/supporting the opposite side in an argument) + reversal of(… being raised, in a down clue) ASSET(a benefit/an advantage that one has).

19. Criminal receiver getting hold of excellent ceramic wear (7)

FAIENCE : FENCE(the criminal who receives stolen goods to sell) containing(getting hold of) AI(A1/first class/excellent, with the Roman numeral substitution) .

Defn: Glazed and decorated …

21. Depression associated with member facing endless shame (6)

ARMPIT : ARM(a member/a limb) plus(facing) “pity”(shame/cause for disappointment, as in “It’s a pity that he didn’t get it”) minus
its last letter(endless …)

22, 12. A hostile bang smashed by champion tennis player (6,6)

ALTHEA GIBSON : Anagram of(… smashed) A HOSTILE BANG.

24. See 10

58 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28690 Pasquale”

  1. I knew I was going to enjoy this with FOI, HAIRLESS making me laugh. Lots of ticks inc GREY AREA, ASQUITH, BOMB SITE, CREVASSE, ALTHEA GIBSON and BEWITCH. Nice reversal of REM and MER in MERTON and TRIREMES respectively. Not as difficult as I usually find the don, but a super finish to the week.

    Ta Pasquale & scchua

  2. I loved GREY AREA but this mute inglorious solver misremembered ALTHEA as ANTHEA. Would “we turned reound” have been better than “we turned up” in an across clue like 17?

  3. Surely ARMPIT should be MRAPIT? 😉

    Glad to make the acquaintance of ALTHEA GIBSON. I think the clue was fair even to those (like me) unfamiliar with her – having got the crossers, the G and B from the anagram fodder couldn’t really fit anywhere else, and then there was only one sensible way of putting L H and A in A_T_E_. (And I remembered the name Althea from this.) Still not quite sure what ‘a hostile bang’ might be, though.

    I enjoyed PILGRIMS and CREVASSE among many others. Thanks Pasquale and scchua.

  4. Only the second one to comment at 9.16? SOmething weong shurely?
    North East held me up for a while – thinking 11a could be DAILY PAPER or something similar, then THUMB PRINT …
    Thanks to Pasquale and Scchua

  5. Typically well constructed crossword from the Don, with excellent surface readings. Nice &lit for SPARE PARTS. Several topical political references: the egregious Jacob Rees-Mogg, Leader of the House, at 8ac and the forlorn hope at 4dn.

    FAIENCE takes its name from the Italian town of Faenza, still pottering and with possibly the world’s largest museum of ceramics.

    Thanks to S&B

  6. I thought this was a reasonably gentle end to the week. I’d never heard of Althea Gibson but was glad to read about her. Loved the joke in 8ac but please don’t get my hopes up with 4dn!! Thanks to the Don and scchua.

  7. A lovely insight into Don’s precision today. I’m pretty sure that Philistine or Paul would have happily clued 16d as ‘Beer drinking gloomy travellers’.

    But not Pasquale, because ‘beer drinking’ would have to be hyphenated to make proper grammatical sense.

  8. My very first dictionary, a 60-odd year old pocket Oxford that I still have, has a thumb notch for each letter of the alphabet, but have never come across their name, so 11a still took me ages. Otoh, Mrs ginf was fond of faience, so that was easy. But yes, overall a good ‘in from the Don, ta to him and lovely pics ta scchua.

  9. Great crossword – I love the way the Don must have changed the “is” to “was” in 8A when Rees-Mogg was demoted by Boris last week.
    Anyone any idea why it’s “wear” instead of “ware” in 19D? Just the Grauniad perhaps?

  10. Shirley @9: Typo well spotted. I hadn’t noticed it, perhaps because the words are homophones. There’s a classic puzzle where one is asked to count the number of f’s in a passage of text. Most people miss out the f in ‘of’, because it is pronounced as v.

  11. Hadn’t heard of FAIENCE or ALTHEA but they were gettable. Liked HAIRLESS (the Deceiver who was born second by a minute or so and used animal skins to impersonate the first born hairy Esau to his blind father, Isaac, to get the inheritance) and CREVASSE.

  13. Enjoyable puzzle, but did not finish it. Failed to solve 17ac, 6d, 13d.
    Liked IMPAIRMENT.
    NEW: tennis player Althea Gibson.
    Did not parse 2/24.

    Thanks, both.

  14. Thanks Pasquale and scchua
    Some rather dated and obscure references, but fortunately nothing I didn’t know. I laughed at GREY AREA!

  15. Sirley@9, that did bother me at the time, but I forgot about it in the excitement of finding fence outside ai being a ceramic. I didn’t bother checking whether someone had made some clothing out of the stuff.

  16. Didn’t know THUMB INDEX but bunged it in from the crossers late on. Jacob was certainly HAIRLESS according to Genesis, but I had forgotten that and his comparison with brother Esau so had dallied with Heirless, which he most certainly wasn’t. Our potted CAMELLIA outside our kitchen window has three glorious red blooms on it now – not as many as Scchua’s example, but there are dozens of buds still – a sight for sore eyes in these rather dark days.
    I’m always slightly irritated by clues split into two locations on the grid, but an enjoyable challenge this morning nonetheless…

  17. Special thanks to Pasquale for linking top left to bottom right. Four letter clues can be tricky and when they intersect like this you sometimes need one before you can get the other. It looks like Pasquale has deliberately avoided this.

  18. Splitting hairs, maybe, but some might say that either GRAY or Grey are legitimate ways to spell that shade of colour. And that therefore if you put in GRAY AREA as an answer, as I did, then it’s not strictly a homophone clue…

  19. I can only find one more politician, Vere, so not really enough for a theme, except a loose political one as Gervase suggests @5.

    The clue for GREY AREA was super!

    Thank you Pasquale for the fun puzzle, and thank you scchua for the illustrated blog.

  20. Defeated by the tennis player who, to my shame, was a dnk and stared at THUMB INDEX for an eternity before concluding the time had come to move on to other things. If ever I needed one of scchua’s illustrations, this was the occasion.

    Other than those two glitches, I really enjoyed this wonderfully precise – others have already praised that aspect – puzzle from the Don (whose book I am reading so it’s great to see him put his money where his mouth is, as it were). Lovely smooth and witty surfaces and great economy of phrasing. The two most overtly political clues share my top spot today – JACOB and ASQUITH. Otherwise, I’m pretty much with AlanC@1 (there again!) in my other ticks.

    Thanks Pasquale and scchua

  21. Agree with PostMark@20. Very clearly clued, excellent surfaces, thoroughly enjoyable. I parsed most but thanks to scchua for 6d and 9a which I only got from the crossers, didn’t see the anagram d’uh. And the lovely pictures.

  22. As others have said, largely precise cluing. However, I was surprised that the Don used ‘turned up’ in 17 Across as a reverser. Surely, one would usually use ‘up’ only in a Down clue? And, as Shirley @9 pointed out presumably wear is a typo for ware in 19D.

    I thought the surface for HAIRLESS was priceless, although I had to check the biblical reference. I tried THUMB NAILS for 11 at the beginning, which sort of worked. I particularly enjoyed CREVASSE, ASQUITH, SPARE PARTS and ARMPIT. ALTHEA GIBSON certainly deserves a mention as the first black female to win a Grand Slam title.

    Thanks Pasquale and scchua.

  23. Ronald @18, I hesitated between grAyand grEy. My reasoning went “If it’s a homophone (certainly sounds like one!) then the answer must be grEy, as otherwise there’d be no need for the homophone indicator.

  25. West Side should be two words in the blog, this former New Yorker remarks. The East and West Sides of Manhattan sort of correspond to the right and left banks of Paris, as it happens. The West Side has Columbia University and New York University, the East Side has Fifth Avenue and the upper-upper middle classes. Of course both sides, like both banks, have any number of other neighborhoods with a great variety of demographics and personalities.

    Thanks for parsing MERTON, scchua. I never thought of REM.

    Ronald@16 I think split solutions can be helpful, often opening up a quadrant that had been resisting.

    Robi@22 Althea Gibson was the first black person, not just female, to win a grand slam title. Arthur Ashe was years later.East and West Sides X

    Thanks for parsing MERTON, scchua. I never thought of REM.

    Ronald@16 I think split solutions can be helpful, often opening up a quadrant that had been resisting.

    Robi@22 Althea Gibson was the first black person, not just female, to win a grand slam title. Arthur Ashe was years later.

  27. Nice one from Pasquale, apart from what I think must be a typo (though having WARE would make FAIENCE much more obvious). I liked HAIRLESS, ANGINA, TRIREMES, CREVASSE, ASQUITH, SPARE PARTS.

    I know hardly any tennis players, let alone one from so long ago, so I had to check ALTHEA GIBSON. I know the THUMB INDEX as a thing (quite a few Bibles have them, so you can look up HAIRLESS Jacob and his brother Esau), but not the name for it. Failed to parse STAY AWAY because I was looking for a US State abbreviation that wasn’t there.

  28. An excellent puzzle. It was however very unusual to see Ximenean Mr Manley misuse the reversal indicator at 17 across, as spotted by Petert @ #2. Perhaps the world is literally turning upside-down.

  29. Relatively easy going for Pasquale, but enough challenge and smiles to make this hugely enjoyable.

    HAIRLESS was fun, ALTHEA GIBSON and STAY AWAY my other favourites.

    I agree that in 17 it must be “round” rather than “up”. Odd.

    Thanks to Pasquale and scchua

  30. Thanks, Pasquale – very nice indeed. Like others, I particularly enjoyed 8a. Also like others, I deduced ALTHEA GIBSON from the crossing letters and fodder though I wasn’t familiar with her – but having looked her up, I can see she deserves to be better known. And thanks of course to scchua for the blog.

    essexboy @3 – Ha! Have to confess it took me a while to work out what you were on about there. Nice callback. Funny that thing about words sometimes having multiple and contradictory meanings… Also, thanks for the ear worm. Classic tune.

  31. Thanks to Pasquale for puzzle and to scchua for blog and great image of one of my heroines ALTHEA GIBSON. [Her autobiography ‘I always wanted to be somebody’ is an insightful and inspiring testament of her life.]

  32. There were one or two unDonnish bits in this one. Odd indeed.

    I’m still looking at 21a

    Depression associated with member facing endless shame

    as featuring a double-duty element, which must shurely be anathema to the Donster. I mean, ‘depression’ on its tod as the def couldn’t possibly be enough for him, whereas ‘depression associated with member’ would be much better, and also misleading (which it is anyway I suppose). So I’ve been scrabbling around trying to find a def for ARM synonymous with ‘facing’ but with no luck, so it has to be a double-duty job.

    Doesn’t it?

  34. Thanks both.

    An enjoyable romp(ish), with my experience similar to many it seems. Very pleased to pull FAIENCE from the ether (it’s ware in the online offering). I also sniffed gingerly at ARMPIT but wasn’t too worried by it.

    [I found myself reading some of Gray’s Elegy a while back and found it very beautiful – a timely reminder to go back and see what happens in the end. (Funny how that happens – you encounter something new (well to me…) and then it pops up again quite soon.)]

    Essexboy@3: thanks for the link – one of my favourites of all time.

  35. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at how little-known ALTHEA GIBSON is in this group–she is American, and she retired while my parents were still children. But she’s still reasonably well-known in America. February is Black History Month here, so good to see her in a timely fashion.

    I’m with Ronald @16 in finding split clues to be a little annoying for several reasons, some of them idiosyncratic. For one, I solve on my phone, and the way it displays makes it difficult to see the entire grid at one time, so a clue with parts of the answer in an opposite corner of the grid almost necessarily means that part of the answer is hidden. Also, unlike Ravinder @17, I actually find the short words to be the easiest, so it kind of bugs me when my beloved four-letter entrees into the grid turn out to be eight letters instead. And then–the most idiosyncratic of all–I have this weird superstition about trying to have every word I enter (after the first) cross at least one word that’s already in the grid, and every split clue reduces the chances I can manage that.

  36. 8 across, referencing what Gervase @5 aptly describes as the egregious Jacob Rees-Mogg, made me suspect I was going to enjoy this, and I wasn’t disappointed.
    Favourite among many STAY AWAY. Good to be reminded of Althea Gibson, with the wordplay ensuring that her given name got spelt correctly.
    4d as well as being a forlorn hope (yes, Gervase), is a poignant historical reference, because, of course, “Squiffy” Asquith got forced out in the middle of WW1 allowing Lloyd George to take over at the nominal head of a coalition. End result the destruction of the Liberals in 1918 and the stage being set for the hegemony of Jacob’s party that has seen us so well governed for the ensuing century…

  38. One of the more out of the way features of a Cambridge City (tourist)trail is an iron bracket below a top floor window at our oldest college, Peterhouse. Thomas Gray when living in the room behind it as a student had a great fear about fire breaking out and becoming trapped, so had a temporary fire escape fashioned that he could attach to it in that eventuality. There’s an apocryphal story that some mischievous students hollered “Fire!” one night and positioned a butt full of water at ground level into which TG plunged on the end of whatever had aided him to escape…hope this tale is not too off topic.

  40. PILGRIMS was my last in as I foolishly assumed the beer was ale. The penny took an embarrassingly long time to drop.

  41. Huntsman @40 – there have to be advantages in having lived for 40 years in Bedford, home of John Bunyan and the Pilgrim’s Progress…

  42. [Valentine @25: as a resident of the Lower East Side, I don’t think that you should leave the impression that the *entire* East Side is upper middle-class. The so-called Upper East Side is generally considered to start at 59th Street. My part of the East Side contained Manhattan’s worst slums back in the day. It’s nowadays referred to as LES by the hipsters…and as Loisaida by Puerto Ricans and Dominicans. It’s loosely 14th Street and below, not counting the East Village]

  43. only accessible with a lot of electronic help. A puzzle for the internet age
    Who knew that Jacob was hairless OK I’m not a great bible fan
    Obiter dictum wtf and I did do Latin at school 50+ years ago
    Thumb index again wtf
    Merton I know there will be some out there who can recite the colleges of Oxford
    Faience again wtf and surely it should be ware not wear
    Althea Gibson only with electronic help. Never heard of her and I was a keen tennis player
    I see there are some out there who liked it but for me far too devious esoteric and inaccessible

  44. Fingal @43 – Latin esoterica/‘a puzzle for the internet age’ – too ancient and too modern? 😉

    (Come to think of it, ‘Mysteries Ancient & Modern’ sounds like just the right title for a book of Pasquale puzzles.)

  45. On-line version now says “Special instructions: 25/2/2022 19 across clue has been corrected”.
    Gruniad penchant for errors strikes again

  46. Fingal @43, I do tend to agree, not just me then!
    It did tick most of the certain-type-of-setter boxes: Latin, Bible, Shrub, Poet, Oxbridge, Ancient Sportsperson & Politician.
    It just needed an Antipodean Bird and an Obscure Fish.
    However, it was excellently constructed and I did finish, so mustn’t grumble about the estimable Don too much.
    Cheers to all

  47. Just wanted to point out that THUMB and INDEX are also two names for fingers/digits.
    Also, the online puzzle now has the 19 across [sic] clue corrected.

  48. Fingal @43
    I don’t know how widespread this was, but an often repeated mantra when I was a teenager in North Devon was:
    “Esau was an hairy man, but (insert name) he is a smoothie”

  49. [sirtony/Calgal: 😀 Just be grateful it’s the right year. Last time there was a correction it was dated 20021.]

  50. I am confused by 11ac. Shouldn’t it be ‘digital access to reading material’, as it is the access not the material?

  52. Forgot Stoke Poges link and didn’t know the DICTUM or tennis but guessable. Recently saw FAIENCE elsewhere but thanks for the etymology Gervase @5.

    Thanks to Pasquale and scchua

  53. Oh, well done, Offspinner – I had that in my head all day yesterday and could not for the life of me find it.

  57. Elizabeth@56 – same for me. It happens occasionally. I don’t know why. I had to do it in the other Guardian Android app, called Guardian Editions.

Comments are closed.