My first challenge was to find the puzzle, which wasn’t available on the Guardian website. Luckily I managed to track down the PDF version. I made a slow start initially, but getting the long phrase at 22,12,14 helped to move things along. Thanks to Philistine for the entertainment.
Edit (9:30): the online version is now available.
| Across | ||||||||
| 8 | SHOOT-OUT | Order solicitor to go and fight (5-3) To order a solicitor to go might be to SHOO TOUT |
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| 9 | REACH | Get to give a sermon, not quietly (5) PREACH (give a sermon) less P (piano, quietly) |
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| 10 | ISLE | Fair, say, I shall be heard (4) Homophone of “I’ll”, and a reference to Fair Isle |
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| 11 | GOLDEN HIND | Old craft may be long hidden (6,4) (LONG HIDDEN)* – the Golden Hind was the ship in which Drake circumnavigated the world |
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| 16 | PENALTY | Plan yet to be devised for England, not a happy one before 8 (7) (PLAN YET)* – the England football team is notoriously unsuccessful in penalty shoot-outs |
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| 18 | EXCRETE | Evacuate old island in the Mediterranean (7) EX (old) + CRETE |
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| 21 | STUDENTS | They learn to start dangerous exercises in tricky performances (8) D[angerous] E[xercises] in STUNTS |
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| 23 | CAFTAN | Preserved a paper dress (6) A FT (newspaper) “in CAN” (i.e. preserved) |
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| 24 | VIOLIN CASE | Instrument carried in this larger one as a precaution (6,4) VIOL (instrument larger than a violin – the Italian violino actually means “small viol”) + IN CASE (as a precaution) |
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| 26 | APEX | Top archbishop, extremely sexy when defrocked (4) The “extreme” letters of ArchbishoP + “defrocked” sEXy |
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| 27 | TWEAK | Adjustment for Heathrow’s terminal during take-off (5) Last letter of heathroW in TAKE* |
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| 28 | EASY TASK | Yeats composed ‘Plead for a Piece of Cake’ (4,4) YEATS* + ASK |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | CHESHIRE | What’s coming up on the first of September in nouveau riche county? (8) Reverse of EH (what?) + S[eptember] in RICHE* |
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| 2,5 | COME TRUE | Get real lament chasing traveller in space (4,4) COMET + RUE (lament) |
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| 3 | CORGIS | Dogs for my soldiers (6) COR (my!) + GIS |
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| 4 | STILTON | Pole working to make dairy product (7) STILT + ON (working) |
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| 6,26 | BACHELOR OF ARTS | Graduate musician with role reversal, so upset about wind (8.2,4) BACH (musician) + reverse of ROLE + FART (wind) on reverse of SO |
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| 7 | WHINGE | Missing golf, whine and moan (6) This must be G[olf] in WHINE, but the wordplay seems to be the wrong way round, and it’s strange to have most of the answer in plain sight |
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| 13 | CHANDELIER | Light rice pudding inspires composer (10) HANDEL in RICE* |
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| 15,17 | SEXTON | Church officer making love to woman, finally (6) SEX (love) TO [woma]N |
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| 19 | TRAVERSE | Cross party set up as extremists ignored lines (8) Reverse of pARTy less its “extremists” + VERSE (lines) |
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| 20 | ASHAMED | Humiliated by a bogus journalist (7) A SHAM ED |
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| 22,12,14 | THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER | Price of evil shyster? It may be (6,6,2,6) Anagram of PRICE OF EVIL SHYSTER IT, &lit. The phrase is associated with Judas Iscariot, whom I wouldn’t exactly describe as a “shyster”, but more generally to the price of other betrayals and dodgy dealings |
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| 23 | CHEESE | 1 or 4 said to produce a smile (6) Cheshire and Stilton are types of cheese, and photographers ask their subjects to “say cheese” to raise a smile |
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| 25 | NIKE | Heading north in seeking victory? (4) Hidden in reverse of seEKINg. Nike is the Greek goddess and personification of victory, who gave her name to the sports brand |
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As with the last two days, this was a slow starter that needed some effort to get to the finish line. Like Andrew, getting 22/12/14 made all the difference. I also agree that 7dn was strangely obvious. So much so that I only pencilled it in until I could no longer see an alternative. Another minor quibble was 23ac where can and preserved are different tenses surely?
However there were lots of juicy clues and some clever misdirection. Thanks Philistine and Andrew.
Same challenge as Andrew in finding the puzzle – some of the comments from posters on the G site (latest ones on yesterday’s page) are quite amusing. So the novel experience of solving on paper – often commended on this forum by those who have always solved thus, so I’m not complaining.
I was throughly misdirected by the definition for PENALTY. So much so that I dismissed the obvious anagram of ‘plan yet’ – Doh! Everything else fell into place, with a shrug at WHINGE which does feel the wrong way round (but, then, in a puzzle yesterday ‘possessed by’ apparently meant ‘entered into’ and resulted in an insertion so I am losing my faith in my ability to interpret instructions. Someone will probably pop in later to explain how 7d works after all).
Ticks for ISLE, VIOLIN CASE, APEX, CHESHIRE, the graduate and CHANDELIER and a big tick for the cleverness of the &lit. I’m not going to argue about the appropriateness of shyster, given the overall achievement of the clue.
Thanks Philistine and Andrew.
Another easy run through after getting the Judas solution as my first entry. I wasn’t impressed by 28a, but otherwise good fun.
I interpreted 7d as ‘If it’s missing G, then it becomes WHINE’. But it did take me a while to persuade myself it was right.
And in 15,17 I thought SEX was Making Love, not just Love.
Another lovely crossword with some smiles (and a snigger)
Thanks Philistine and thanks Andrew, especially for giving the link to the pdf
Mostly straightforward, but I had a couple of delays. I had FATE at 10a (it nearly works), and embarassingly my Biblical knowledge isn’t what it should be and for some time I had twenty at 22d!
Favourite was CHANDELIER.
Forgot to mention that as a Cheshire resident living close to but not in the Golden Triangle adored by footballers, I loved the suggestion of our nouveau riche county.
[I should have got ISLE sooner, as last week on Bute I had a long chat with a fellow birdwatcher who was wearing a Fair Isle Bird Observatory sweatshirt!]
Thought this another lovely tour de force from Philistine. A gentle solve and especially liked REACH, GOLDEN HIND (had a drink in the beer garden of this local pub the other day, so quickly came to mind), APEX, EASY TASK and CORGIS. Last one in had to be NIKE with the crosses in place – couldn’t possibly be Nuke, I thought – but needed Andrew to explain the parsing. Enjoyed this greatly this morning…
This all fell into place pretty quickly and enjoyably. I was only puzzled by 19dn TRAVERSE, as I got fixated on RAVE being the party, and some kind of play with SET which didn’t work at all. So thanks for the explanation Andrew.
Favourite was CHANDELIER, for the thought of a composer being inspired by rice pudding. And why not?
Thanks to Philistine and Andrew.
…crossers, not crosses, blimmen predictive text!
Just turn it off Ronald @10
[I think the Graun has work experience trainees on the crosswords this week. Yesterday’s Paul still won’t open on the app on Android, and today there were problems online with the Philistine, though it’s ok now on the app. I’m sticking to the paper version. 😀 ]
Well I do the crossword in the newspaper which is delivered daily before 7.30 so I only go to the website if I am really stuck, in order to use the check button. I did start quite slowly but soon got going and finished it in record time so I’m feeling quite smug. I thought it was a lovely puzzle, despite the quibbles mentioned above by others. Thank you Philistine and Andrew!
Thanks Philistine and Andrew
JerryG @ 1: “can and preserved are different tenses surely?“
As per the blog, ‘preserved’ = ‘in can’.
Thanks Simon S@14. I get that now.
I kept checking all day to see if this had appeared and only read the comments on the Grauniad to find the link to it an hour ago. It’s there properly on the site now. I suspect that it gets put up automatically at 12 midnight and if something goes wrong it waits until someone comes in to work in the morning to fix it. It happens a fair bit with Azed on Sunday, but this is the first time I’ve seen it Mon to Sat.
I originally had (G)Rumble for WHINGE, but having got it I didn’t have a problem with it. I read it as “missing golf, whine” as in “answer when you miss golf = whine”, but it’s not the best clue. The other weak clue I thought was EASY TASK.
I liked VIOLIN CASE but my favourite was CAFTAN. JerryG @1, if you think of the wordplay as AFT in a CAN then “in a can”=preserved and the worry about tenses goes away.
I seem to be in agreement with SinCam @13 on all counts!
I’ll just add that my ticks were for VIOLIN CASE, TWEAK (great surface), CHESHIRE (I liked JerryG’s comment @6), CHANDELIER (I agree with Crossbar @9) and THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER.
(I have to go out very soon, so the double treat of Knut/Julius will have to wait.)
Many thanks to both Philistine and Andrew.
WHINGE seemed a bit weird – just too obvious and uncryptic. But otherwise a great puzzle as always from Philistine. I liked CHESHIRE and CORGIS in particular. Many thanks to P & A.
I agree with moth @4 that it is saying “it’s WHINE if you take out the G”
Surprised no one has commented on the word soup that is “for England, not a happy one before [shoot-out]”
I think it is saying that “England does not find a penalty to be a happy occurrence when it’s a penalty shoot-out” but I’ve had to work really hard to get to that and it still doesn’t feel right. Interested if anyone has a better decoding.
Enjoyed this though. Thank you Philistine and Andrew
MattWillD@19
Hasn’t Andrew said the same thing in his blog about ‘penalty shoot-outs’?
Agree on WHINGE.
The online interactive version is now available.
Thanks, P and A!
I would plump for “preserve”: but its nitpicking
More difficult finding the puzzle than solving it-but it was enjoyable
Thanks all.
Lovely crossword and I agree with all the favourites mentioned above especially PENALY and SHOOT-OUT. Nice observation JerryG @6 and I liked the juxtaposition of ASHAMED and THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER.
Ta Philistine & Andrew
The Cheshire Cat smiled too, and so did I, esp at shoo tout, and at Handel liking his pud, thanks to Crossbar @9. Yep this was a pleasant potter. I should reread Trollope again, Icn never remember the dozens in the C of E hierarchy and needed crossers to get sexton. Much enjoyed, ta both.
Took a while to get going. Got there in the end but needed help parsing a couple
Favourites included: CAFTAN, APEX, COME TRUE, CHANDELIER
Thanks Philistine and Andrew
All good fun and a nice end to the week. So much to praise but especially liked:
COME TRUE, CHANDELIER, CAFTAN and CORGIS
Thanks Philistine and Andrew
[JerryG @6… the “Golden Triangle” would be Manchester, Liverpool and Preston North End wouldn’t it? 🙂 Those three towns were known in the past as “The Cotton Triangle”. I can remember when I first came to Australia being amused by the sign in the department store which said “Manchester”. It means bedding (cotton) here because that’s where it came from.]
This was quite a zingy puzzle, I thought. Yes, Philistine did seem to be bouncing off the walls of the crossword setting conventions: the quirky WHIN(g)E clue, the whacky definition for PENALTY, the tricksy ‘in CAN’=’preserved’ device, the flatulence. But I enjoyed it and agree with the many approving comments above regarding the setter’s skill and wit.
Many of the same faves as others and also TWEAK for the deft misdirection + lift and separate anagrind
But top prize clearly goes to the SEXTON’s wife from HMHB’s classic “Outbreak of Vitus Gerulaitis”
Ta all
A record time for me today, completed in the time of one cup of coffee unlike yesterday where I admitted defeat. I’m another who enjoyed the “nouveau riche” county.
The fun-nest puzzle in a long time! Thanks Andrew for the victorious NIKE . That swooshed straight over my head. (Have to confess I’m not much up with mythology, or branding.)
Too many good clues to mention. Joy from start to finish. No whinge about WHINGE, a kind of clue that’s just as cryptic as the other way around.
CAFTAN was a favourite, for the wordplay, and ‘cos it reminded me of my youth. The cheesecloth ones really were paper thin. 🙂
For cleverness THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER can’t be beaten. CORGIS was cute.
I made rather heavy weather of this, only getting the long ‘un once I had a decent few crossers. However, an enjoyable solve with a number of good clues.
I particularly liked VIOLIN CASE, CHESHIRE, BACHELOR OF ARTS, CHANDELIER, TRAVERSE and NIKE (nicely hidden).
Thanks Philistine and Andrew.
Thanks Andrew for putting the pdf link early in your intro so that I could access it from the home page without risking spoilers by heading to the blog itself – very considerate, especially as it would have been a shame to spoil such a fine puzzle.
My only remaining query is the equivalence of “Get Real” and COME TRUE as I am struggling to use them interchangeably, but probably as I only encounter the former as an sardonic exhortation and can’t get past the dreams sense for the latter (but I like the fact that the split of words in the wordplay differs from the answer, and when spread across two lights made it trickier too).
Lots of ticks today as with those above, thanks Philistine.
[Tim C@36, in Germanic CH and probably DE too, Manchester = Corduroy which still tickles me!]
Gazzh @33: I don’t think “get real” and COME TRUE are really interchangeable in normal speech, but that doesn’t matter because “get” = “become” and “real” = actual or true, so the definition itself is a bit cryptic. It worked for me.
An enjoyable puzzle. Many thanks Philistine and Andrew.
gazzh@33, LordJim@34
Merrim-Webster
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/come%20true
Come true
to become real : to happen in the way that one wished or dreamed
Become = get
Very enjoyable today after the struggles earlier this week, thanks to Philistine and Andrew
Tim C@26 The Golden Triangle is the part of Cheshire within the triangle formed by Wilmslow, Prestbury and Alderley Edge where many footballers from the Premier League clubs in Manchester live in their nouveau riche mansions. The rest of Cheshire is much more ordinary, although very pleasant, and I do miss the cheese.
Chardonneret@36 got there before me to answer Tim C@26. It’s quite possible that the term Golden Triangle harks back to the Cotton Triangle. I would have said that Hale formed one corner of the triangle with Wilmslow and AE being a single corner. I have fond memories of being on AE high street when a roaring noise could often be heard a full 5 mins before David Beckham’s Ferrari whizzed past.
That was fun, loved some of the clues, including the CHESHIRE nouveau riche and the amazing anagram for THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER.
I’m late to the party as I waited until the crossword appeared electronically on the Guardian app (not the puzzle app, but the paper app), so I could complete it without spoilers, and went out for a walk while waiting, trying to catch the dry weather. Paul’s crossword from yesterday still hasn’t appeared, but the app seems to have something about Paul crosswords.
(Thanks to bodycheetah @28 for another HMHB reference. Was chuckling only this morning over Tess of the Dormobiles from the new CD.)
[There’s a Rhubarb Triangle near Pontefract, famous for growing…..liquorice! (OK, rhubarb as well.)]
[Thanks for the Fair Isle link, Andrew, I learned a lot. It also led me on to the Sea Areas and wistful memories of living on a ketch off the UK and then in France and regularly hearing the Shipping Forecast. It now occurs to me I can hear it online.
Cromarty, Forth, Tyne and Dogger have always sounded to me like a law firm. Rockall brings to mind T.H. White’s The Master, which I only know about because I found it in sale bin. It’s quite a read!]
I couldn’t parse VIOLIN CASE or TRAVERSE, so thanks for that, Andrew.
[Crossbar@9 What is the matter with Mary Jane? She’s crying with all her might and main, And she won’t eat her dinner — rice pudding again. What is the matter with Mary Jane? (A. A. Milne)]
When the puzzle still hadn’t appeared by midnight I gave up and went to bed, not having thought of going to the blog and finding a pdf link. But this morning I enjoyed it, writing in only three answers on the first go and being surprised at how it gradually worked out. Thanks Philistine and Andrew.
[Valentine @41
You’ve reminded me of this.]
The Shipping Forecast is still on Radio 4 long wave at 17.55 every day, I never miss it and know the order off by heart.
Araucaria once did a Bank Holiday special with the areas in their rough position in the grid.
When the Grauniad finally got its act together, this was well worth waiting for.
Yes, the clash of tenses between preserved and can in 23a should have been avoided, especially as “Preserve a…” is an equally good clue. Yes, 7d is one of the weakest bits of cluing for some time.
But there were some stand-out wonderful clues in here; SHOO TOUT (which I suppose appealed to me as a former solicitor of the other kind), CORGIS, BACHELOR OF ARTS (not only dear Paul manages to be mildly rude!) and above all the stupendous &lit THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER.
Thanks to Philistine and Andrew.
[Valentine @41 Thanks for that. I hadn’t heard it before. I’d happily have Mary Jane’s pudding. 😉
And muffin @42 – Flanders and Swann – very much missed. I’m always reminded of their song “Let’s Talk Rude” when doing Paul’s puzzles.]
Thanks, Philistine. Excellent puzzle with several brilliant clues. But I agree that WHINGE seemed a little bit off.
Gosh, hard work today, but all the more enjoyable for that. Congrats to those above who found it smooth sailing. Thanks Philistine for the work-out; lots to like without a particular favourite. Thanks Andrew for explaining Shoot Out and Traverse.
NeilH @ 44
As pointed out in the blog and by myself, ‘preserved’ = ‘in can’. If ‘preserve’ had been used an inclusion indicator would have been necessary, lengthening a superbly concise clue.
KVa @20
I don’t think Andrew unpicked the sentence. He stated that it’s clearly referring to England’s pitiful record with penalty shoot-outs, no issue with that.
I was interested in working out how to actually read the definition as it seemed phrased really oddly to me.
But thanks for the agreement re: WHINGE.
Thanks Lord Jim and Cliveinfrance, that does help.
Is Philistine perhaps being a bit sniffy about Arts degrees?
Not too much to add – I was as befuddled at some of the parsings as others, and I had to think a long time about 7d before feeling confidant enough to put it in ( on the same grounds as Mark@4}
I could just say that – re ginf@23 – my knowledge of CE hierarchies comes from “All Gas and Gaiters”, a rather more downmarket source I suppose!
DT @52 … deans, provosts, canons and prebendaries, inter alia …
[I think a sexton is a rather menial church official. I remember “they went and told the sexton, and the sexton tolled the bell”. I must search for where that came from!]
Got it – it’s not quality!
https://www.bartleby.com/360/9/74.html
I have a nagging problem with 22D-12A-14A: because Shyster is a Yiddish word, a lawyer who is accused of being a shyster is often stereotyped as being a Jewish one; furthermore, one of the most ancient of anti-Jewish obsessions is that the entire tribe is tarred with the treachery of Judas Iscariot. Thus a couple of anti-Semitic insinuations are linked in a single clue. I am not casting aspersions against Philistine himself: I don’t believe that any implied slur here is his revenge against the assassination of his champion Goliath by David the Shepherd Boy. Perhaps my nagging feeling derives from nothing more complicated than the fact that Shylock and Shyster sound so similar.
Thanks Philistine, that was satisfying despite missing COME TRUE and PENALTY. Favourites included VIOLIN CASE, EASY TASK, STILTON, CHANDELIER, and SEXTON. Thanks Andrew for the blog.
Unlike others I had no issue on the Android app yesterday for Paul’s puzzle, but this one still isn’t up. Rather a shame given it’s nearly subscription renewal time for me…
Anyway, by the time I went to the website it was up there, at least. This started quickly, then went very slowly, before things opened up again and I made steady progress to the end. And very fun it was too. Just the right mix of invention with solid cluing. CAFTAN was beautifully devious, and I rather liked WHINGE. Eyebrow raised Ancelotti-style at COME TRUE, but hey ho.
Thanks to Philistine and Andrew.
crossbar@45 That was just the first verse. There’s four or five, and “Lovely rice pudding for dinner again!” is always in my ears. Here’s the link for the whole poem: https://allpoetry.com/Rice-Pudding.
[Thanks Valentine. Now I have an earworm 😀 ]
Didn’t have time to finish this one, solved about half. Luckily I knew the GK required (Judas clue, Golden Hind) which made it more accessible.
Of the ones I solved, I liked CORGIS.
Thanks, both.
Came here on Eileen’s recommendation and I wasn’t disappointed.
The perhaps too accessible WHINGE was among my earliest entries and got the ball rolling nicely.
Favourites included the cheesy and footy ones.
Will certainly return for more from Philistine.
Thanks to him and our blogger for parsing a tricky handful.
After several attempts, I was able to finally finish! (8A was LOI)
I was surprised on 11a, as I had seen the spelling as Golden Hinde — the name of the rebuilt ship in London.
Anyone else have PONGOS for 3 down? I didn’t think so – it did seem a bit rubbish, but I was too idle to go back and check.
This was the only weekday puzzle I had time for this week, and I have just completed it. It was a good mental exercise, and very enjoyable with it – there were several clues to appreciate, and I liked the long ones.
WHINGE was indeed a bit strange. I suspected the setter intended to put a word other than ‘whine’ in that place in the clue.