Guardian Cryptic 28780 Brendan

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

In the completed grid, positions along the perimeter are denoted by the appropriate compass points’ abbreviations. Thus, clockwise from the north-west corner, we have: NNW, NNE, ENE, ESE, SSE, SSW, WSW and NNW.

In addition, part of 4 solutions denote (roughly) where they are within the grid, viz. NE, SW, N, S.

Including the solutions starting or ending in the perimeter, most of the solutions have one or more of the letters N, S, E, W.

Across

7. Hesitant, using gestural and verbal forms of communication (8)

WAVERING : WAVE(a gesture as a form of communication) + RING(to call and then talk on the phone, a verbal form of communication).

9. Name of girl I see misrepresented in contents of blog? Just the opposite (6)

ELOISE : Anagram of(… misrepresented) I SEE containing(in …? Just the opposite/outside) inner letters of(contents of) “blog“.

10. Point, or points, one repeated (4)

NESS : N,E,S(abbrev. for 3 compass points) + S(one compass point repeated).

Defn: … on the coastline/a cape.

11. The money ran out, eliminating a former Middle East country (5,5)

NORTH YEMEN : Anagram of(… out) “The money ran” minus(eliminating) “a“.

12. Used to lack experience, but following advice to young man? Capital! (6)

WARSAW : Reversal of(in an across clue, … following advice to young man, from the phrase “Go west, young man”, about America’s expansion westward) [ WAS(used to be/applicable previously) RAW(to lack experience/green) ].

Defn: … city.

14. Heavy work, including some art, is laborious (8)

TOILSOME : TOME(a heavy/thick book/literary work) containing(including) OILS(oil paintings, a form of/some art).

15. Shown how tense it can be in hearing (6)

TAUGHT : Homophone of(… it can be in hearing) “taut”(tense/not relaxed).

17. Get worked on, using pliers and saw (6)

BEHELD : [BE HELD](describing something that is being manipulated/worked on with a pair of pliers, a tool for gripping/holding.

Defn: …/past tense of “see”/”behold”.

20. Fuel was spread over grate, haphazardly (5,3)

WATER GAS : WAS containing(spread over) anagram of(…, haphazardly) GRATE.

Defn: … gas of mainly carbon monoxide and hydrogen.

22. Exploit source of inspiration when lives lost (6)

MISUSE : MUSE(source of inspiration for a creative artist) = MISUSE minus(when … lost) “is”(lives/exists).

23. Keep quiet about escape before spring, heading for sunshine? (10)

SOUTHBOUND : SH!(exclamation for someone to keep quiet) containing(about) OUT(a way of escaping from, a problem, say, as in “there is an out from your problem”) plus(before) BOUND(to spring/leap).

Defn: Direction taken by one in the northern hemisphere who is seeking sunshine in the tropics.

24. Leaves from Asia — temperature in that part of world has shifted (4)

TEAS : EAST(that part of the world where the Asian continent is) with “t”(abbrev. for “temperature”) moved to the beginning of the word(has shifted).

25. Odd character that is moved around in anagram of word (6)

WEIRDO : Reversal of(… moved around) IE(abbrev. for “id est”/that is) contained in(in) anagram of WORD.

26. Clear area in emergency, initially — very critical (8)

EVACUATE : A(abbrev. for “area”) contained in(in) [ 1st letter of(…, initially) “emergency” + V(abbrev. for “very”) + ACUTE(critical/at a point near a severe or disastrous outcome) ].

Defn: …/to empty.

Down

1. Ambush European soldier heading north, such as Cyrano de Bergerac (4,4)

NAME PART : Reversal of(… heading north, in a down clue) [ TRAP(to ambush/to lie in wait to spring a surprise attack) + E(abbrev. for “European”) + MAN(a soldier/a member of the armed forces) ].

Defn: The character part/role after whom the drama is named, an example being/such as “Cyrano de Bergerac”.

2. Intelligence shown by bidders giving their opponents hiding (4)

NEWS : N,S(one or the partnerships in bridge, the card game involving bids) containing(giving … hiding /covering) E,W(the opposing partners of N,S).

3. Gain nothing in this quarter? Be selective (6)

WINNOW : WIN(to gain/to acquire as a result of a contest) + [ O(letter representing 0/nothing) contained in(in) NW(abbrev. for “northwest”, the top left quarter of the grid in which this answer is) ].

Defn: …/pick out from a group of things, those you desire and rejecting the rest.

4. Mineral‘s in there, mixed with phosphorus (8)

NEPHRITE : Anagram of(…, mixed …) [IN THERE plus(with) P(symbol for the chemical element, phosphorus) ].

Defn: A form of jade.

5. Negative response about flowers in strong winds (10)

NOR’EASTERS : NO(negative response/nay) + RE(with reference to/about) + ASTERS(flowers of the aster, a genus of plants).

Defn: … blowing from the northeast.

6. Enters the exam, exhausted, to get prize (6)

ESTEEM : Middle letters deleted, respectively, from(…exhausted) “Enters the exam“.

Defn: …/to value highly.

8. Three quarters of strategy rearranged in turn (6)

GYRATE : Anagram of(… rearranged) 6 of 8 letters of(Three quarters of) “strategy“.

13. Opposite of 5 hats (10)

SOU’WESTERS : Double defn: 1st: Winds from the opposite direction of nor’easters/answer to 5 down; and 2nd:

16. Intellectual heard greeting bishop on street (8)

HIGHBROW : Homophone of(heard) “Hi!”(a friendly greeting) + B(abbrev. for “bishop” in chess notation) placed above(on, in a down clue) ROW(a street with a continuous line of houses along one or both sides).

18. Dislike neighbourhood being restricted, with east in disarray (8)

DISTASTE : “district”(a neighbourhood in a town or city) minus its last 4 letters(being restricted) plus(with) anagram of(… in disarray) EAST.

19. Appropriate, as birds turning up from the south (6)

ASSUME : AS + reversal of(… turning up from the south, in a down clue) EMUS(flightless birds from Australia).

Defn: …/to seize or take, especially without the owner’s permission.

21. Treasures commercial products of mine (6)

ADORES : AD(abbrev. for “advertisement”/a commercial) + ORES(natural material with valuable components excavated from the ground/products of mines).

22. Crazy artists recalled city in Asia (6)

MADRAS : MAD(crazy/insane) + RAS(plural of RA, abbrev. for “Royal Academician”, an artist who is a member of the Royal Academy of the Arts).

Defn: City in Asia, specifically, India, and now re-named/re-called Chennai.

24. Middle East abandoned by major power? So it is (4)

THUS : “E”, middle letter(Middle East) deleted from(abandoned by) “the US”(the USA, in full, a major power).

83 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28780 Brendan”

  2. Good, enjoyable crossword, in which I, as per usual, completely missed the theme.

    scchua, I think the clue for MADRAS should be read with ‘recalled’ as part of the definition, as it has now been renamed Chennai (there’s no reversal that I can see).

  3. Another masterpiece from Brendan. I started to twig what was going on halfway through and this certainly helped. My favourites were NOR’EASTERS, SOU’WESTERS and BEHELD. I also chuckled at THUS, as NI people are well-known to finish their sentences with that phrase, as Brendan wold be well aware.

    Ta Brendan & scchua

  5. I was looking for Brendan’s theme or unusual construct, but didn’t spot it till quite late on. I was pleased I did, as I had ground to a get the cheats out time, so this enabled me to quickly finish the last ten answers.

    Thanks Brendan and schuaa

  7. Yes, I had to turn upside down to make sense of the definition for SOUTHBOUND. The clue for TOILSOME is unfortunate in that you can nearly get there with Toil (heavy work) + Some (in the clue) except that “art” is then redundant. Also not sure what “recalled” was doing in MADRAS unless it’s to indicate that Chennai has superseded Madras as the name.
    I also thought that there was a subsidiary implication for NAME PART in that Cyrano de Bergerac is only part of his full name.
    Clever incorporation of the points of the compass and my favourite was WINNOW.

  8. Shirl@1 and AlanC@4 . I thought the same about the repetition of DIS in ‘dislike’ and DISTASTE.

  9. Thanks Brendan and scchua
    Sorry, I found this rather 14a. I didn’t see all the theme, of course (amazing that I saw even some of it!)
    I thought some of the clueing was a bit odd – lazy even. 9 could have been much more straightforward. 17 “Get worked out using pliers” is clumsy. 25 “anagram of word”! 8 lazy – which threequarters? I suppose TEAS is OK, but I don’t think it would be used often, even when referring to more than one example.
    I got 5d from 13d rather than from its clue.

  11. For once I spotted a theme early enough for it to be useful with a smattering of endings in the South East quadrant. Cyrano de Bergerac thoroughly misled me – I was trying all sorts of combinations of things to do with him, the play, his nose, his nationality … And yet, in himself, he’s irrelevant and it could have been one of a thousand names or more. And I didn’t spot the correct parsing of TOILSOME. Heck of an achievement by Brendan as per. Favourites include ESTEEM, WARSAW, BEHELD and ASSUME.

    Thanks Brendan and scchua

  13. Solved the NW corner last but failed 1d NAME PART.

    Favourites: HIGHBROW, ADORES, TEAS, BEHELD

    New: WATeR GAS

    I did not parse
    12ac
    14ac
    26ac E V ACUATE – I forgot about the inserted A
    6d
    24d (TH + US = major power)

    Thanks, both.

    I did not see the ninas.

    Thanks, both

  14. ESTEEM ‘Exhausted’ is an interesting ‘discontented’ indicator. Whoddathunkit?
    I also don’t get the RAS ‘recalled’ in MADRAS.

  15. “Recalled” in 22d, as others have mentioned, is there because the city is no longer called Madras.

    btw “Go west, young man” is attributed to Horace Greeley (failed presidential candidate amongst other things), though he may have only popularised it (and he didn’t follow the advice, going instead to New York as a young man).

  18. Thought the same about tire some and dis/like/taste, they had me going Eh, is this Brendan? The rest was pretty smooth though, esp beheld, and the themed winnow. Nephtrite, otoh, made my kidneys wince. But in all, enjoyable, thanks both.

  19. Remarkable bit of grid-filling, can’t have been easy to start with 8 ninas and work inwards.

    Postmark @11, I went through the same list as you re C de B, stumbling on NAME PART only having exhausted all other possibility.

    Loi BEHELD almost defeated me.

    Enjoyable puzzle and a fine blog. Thank you both.

  22. I sussed the Nina scheme about two thirds of the way through, in time for it to be helpful with the NW quadrant which was still blank at the time. The trouble was that once you knew what Brendan was up to, the SOUWESTERS and NOREASTERS pair were write-ins (I already had SOUTHBOUND and NORTH YEMEN by then).

    Never met WATER GAS before and had to look it up.

  23. Well I’m in the ‘very much enjoyed’/’quite a feat’/’heck of an achievement’ camp. I thought the WAVE / RING was great, and the young man going west to WARSAW, and the crazy artists reminiscing about MADRAS, and the all-encompassing theme/nina.

    I didn’t mind the ‘some’ in TOILSOME (thought there might be some misdirection/double-bluffing going on) and I can’t see anything wrong with TEAS = ‘varieties of tea’.

    I also smiled at Alan C’s comment @3 – didn’t twig when solving, but now I have the sound of Irish friends in my head who invariably ended their sentences thus.

    A fine puzzle, so it is. Thanks Brendan and scchua.

  24. William @19: it’s not a phrase I knew to exist and, I must admit, one of those where one wonders if it is necessary to exist? But, if it does, it’s fair game.

  28. Yes, I have an Ulster friend who would say this is a fine piece of setting, so it is. Much more stylish than innit, innit?

  30. Same as Gladys@22 I was nowhere in NW corner until I spotted the compass-Nina.

    Am I the only one that thinks the surface for 2D is dreadful? Great idea, but I can’t see how it makes even weird grammatical sense.

    But that’s a minor quibble. Thank you Brendan and scchua.

  33. Clever construction but a fair degree of clunkiness too. 14a repetition unfortunate. Just couldn’t get excited about this one. Maybe I’m having another bad day.

    Thanks Brendan and scchua

  35. Yes, AlanC@ 27. Yes, dis/like/taste/array in one clue! With all this DISsing is Brendan trying to trying to tell us something? A clue from hell? 🙂 Or is he trying to take the mickey? I can’t believe that’s not deliberate.

  37. Thanks Brendan for a clever grid fill, the conceit of which (encompassing many good points) I BEHELD early on, and it certainly helpeth me. And thanks to scchua for another colourful blog.

  38. And Myrvin@34. The definition for WATER GAS = fuel. I imagine that scchua will appreciate that you’re paying attention.
    (Clearly I wasn’t.)

  42. I got the point(s) more or less straight away, which directed me to some of the solutions. I’m not sure how I feel when I solve by means of the theme – it almost feels like cheating.

  43. Sorry to see all the quibbles. I thought getting all those compass points around the perimeter was pretty amazing.

  45. Even I couldn’t fail to spot the theme today, though found this puzzle a hard nut to crack at first, before the NOREASTER and SOUWESTER blew an inviting hole in it. Couldn’t parse WARSAW exactly or the rather fiddly TEAS nor THUS, these the last two inserted. It’s been a long time since I had a SOUWESTER clamped to my head in wet or stormy weather, as a child.

  46. As I said on Saturday about Brendan’s prize crossword, he often seems to want to challenge himself as much as us. This was very clever and entertaining as usual.

    It certainly was unusual in 25a to have “anagram” as the anagram indicator! But I thought it worked well because (a) it made for a good surface (sorry Roz), and (b) it’s a double bluff because you naturally think it can’t be that simple.

    MattWillD @30: the surface of 2d is referring to the intelligence shown by some bidders who are giving their opponents a hiding. What’s wrong with that?

    Many thanks Brendan and scchua.

  47. That felt challenging, but when enough of the directional answers dropped out made sense. I remembered to look properly for the theme and spotted the Ninas after I’d finished.

    Thank you to Brendan and scchua.

  48. Brendan, the master grid-filler! Amazing to make the NINA without introducing obscurities (I did wonder why ELOISE was there.)

    I realised there were a lot of compass points in answers early on, but when I looked at the perimeter it seemed at the time gobbledegook, doh!

    I did like ELOISE for the surface, NAME PART for the Cyrano misdirection, where ‘nose’ seemed to need to be there, and ESTEEM for another good surface. I did hesitate to put in TOILSOME with the repetition of ‘some’ in clue and answer, but a small imperfection in an otherwise fabulous puzzle.

    Thanks Brendan and scchua.

  50. I thought this compass rose grid was a great effort. Seeing the Nina did help, but unfortunately BEHELD wasn’t in the right geographical position and I missed it. Co-favourites were NOR’EASTERS and SOU’WESTERS.

    Thanks to Brendan – I’m in awe of how you did this – and to scchua

  51. I always enjoy Brendan’s puzzles, and this was no exception, despite the DISes and SOMEs.

    I know there is software that does grid-filling given some starting points, but I/we just don’t know if Brendan avails himself of it, or to what extent. But the idea for the peripheral characters, plus the geographic entries, was surely his, so bravo!

  52. An enjoyable tussle. A few I got but couldn’t parse, and I tried NEWS rather than NESS. BEHELD simply eluded me.

    Thanks Brendan and scchua.

  53. It’s such a shame that after months of improvement, thanks to this site alone, to the extent that I finish or nearly finish most days, that Brendan’s puzzles alone remain utterly impenetrable.
    I did at least get MADRAS, but that was all. On to tomorrow’s prize.
    Thanks both.

  54. Like PostMark@11 we spotted the theme early enough to be of use for once.
    Given a portcullis grid, I always start at 13 (I’m generally a bit set in my ways of which clues are read in what order; perhaps I should become “Set-in-StoneRose…), so 1st and 2nd in were NOREASTERS and SOUWESTERS which gave a bit of a nudge as to the theme; then noticed the compass points nina about halfway through.
    Very pleasing ?
    Many thanks, Brendan – thoroughly enjoyed this, as always – and thanks Scchua for the nicely illustrated blog.

  56. So enjoyed this. Got the theme early, for once, which can only mean I am slowly improving. Cannot add to the praise above, save to say t’was a brilliant job by Brendan and scchua, so it was. Made my day…..

  57. 5d Nor’easters are gales in New England. Are they also gales in the UK?

    Unusually for me, I spotted the theme, though I completely missed the ninas. Even more unusually, it actually helped me, since I had “NOR’EASTER” and some letters at 13d with no idea what to do with them. I wouldn’t have known that the sou’wester was a hat as well as a wind if it weren’t for this song from Newfoundland:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6_1NL1fMNk The sound is pretty soft, so if you want to see the lyrics, they’re here: http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/song-midis/My_Fathers_Old_SouWester.htm. I heard the song from the Canadian singer and folklorist, David Parry.

    WATER GAS was a jorum for me. NAME PART took me a while to remember because in the US it’s called the title role.

    ginf@18 I wondered about NEPHRITE too (another jorum). The letters put that together, it looked like a word, but surely it was part of a kidney and not a mineral? Apparently it was once considered a cure for kidney stones.

    eb@29 Where did you hear “true dat”? I think of it as very US and very local.

    MattWillD@30 2d works if you think that “give them hiding” means “hide them.”

    StoneRose@54 I know what a portcullis is, but what’s a portcullis grid? And what, while we’re on the subject, is with Rollex?

  58. Thanks Brendan, that was excellent. Midway through I was thinking the crossword was merely good but seeing the directional nina improved my rating. Favourites included NESS, TAUGHT, WINNOW, ESTEEM, and ADORES. I did have a tough time with trying to parse WARSAW, SOUTHBOUND, and THUS — thanks scchua for the help.

  59. [HYD @53: Quite surprised to hear you think Brendan is impenetrable — that’s a description I use for Vlad, the Enigmatist, and sometimes Paul. If you can solve most of the G crosswords most of the time there’s no reason why you can’t solve Brendan eventually. He’s definitely worth the effort. If you didn’t attempt or read about his crossword No 28,476 consider it. It’s why I think he’s one of the best.]

  60. Thanks scchua, I had no idea how to parse MISUSE and the start of THUS, and couldn’t remember where the young man’s advice came from (thanks muffin@15). I thought some of the constructions were a little odd but overall a very positive experience and loved the compass points which I spotted just in time to get the NESS/NEWS pairing – I don’t consider myself to have been robbed of any fun in solving that way, quite the opposite in fact, but maybe as it only helped with a couple of stubborn clues. Thanks Brendan.
    PS Valentine@57 I think copmus@6 earlier may have been referring to Rolex watches and the precision of their assembly being an appropriate comparison for Brendan’s gridfill. (Apologies to copmus if this was not the case.)

  61. I was aware that the word “some” was in the clue for 14ac and the suffix “-some” (etymologically distinct) in the answer. I considered that fairly misleading (cryptic, even) for those who like to bung in the answer without feeling a need to justify it (essexboy at 23 got the point).

  62. Tony S@59 thank you so much for the suggestion of trying 28476. I did and I loved it. Brian @61, thanks again for all the brilliant clues.

  64. Thanks for the blog, just to clarify Matt @30, 2 Down is referring to playing bridge. If you bid cleverly then you can give your opponents a severe beating.
    Seven days in a row for some sort of theme …… Best I do not say what I think.

  65. [Valentine @57 – at the risk of losing all credibility – here, among other places. 🙂 It’s a very funny episode, if you’re not familiar with TBBT.]

  66. Valentine @57 – I remember hearing “true dat” when watching The Wire. Many times. (But apparently it’s so commonplace that it doesn’t make it into any lists of “top quotes from The Wire”!) Anyway, it seemed to me that’s where I remembered it from. And so vividly that I entered TRUE in the grid without a second thought. THUS? What dat?

  67. [PaulineinBrum @62: I am glad you enjoyed it. I think any fan of Brendan would. I have a folder where I keep copies of crosswords I feel are exceptional and No28,476 resides there.]

  68. HoofItYouDonkey @53. I have a lot of sympathy, as I’ve been doing (i.e. attempting, not necessarily solving) these crosswords for more decades than I’m prepared to own up to, but I still have days like that. I failed on four today, despite feeling I’d got a good foothold in the grid. If I get nothing at all in the first half dozen at the top, I always switch randomly to somewhere else in the grid – none of this ploughing all the way though the acrosses before trying the downs that some recommend. 🙂

    But there’s no guarantee of a start if your brain is in concrete mode. You need to have some flexibility about you, so sometimes the only thing to do is to throw the crossword aside and pop out to the pub for a pint – or two. (Take your copy of the Guardian with you – it absorbs any beer spilt on your table.) Believe me, you’ll feel better even if you don’t get another clue solved.

  69. Tony Santucci @59 and sheffield hatter @68 – Maybe just ‘one of those days’, but it does seem to happen when Brendan sets the puzzle quite regularly!
    It’s only a crossword.
    Invitation day tomorrow at the golf club so at least I have a ready made excuse for swerving tomorrow’s prize as I probably won’t be able to see come tomorrow night.
    Hangover for Everyman on Sunday.

  70. Didn’t quite get it right, I put LEGEND in 17a – ‘saw’ = ‘proverb’ as a sort of definition – but I couldn’t figure out the wordplay of course (I was wondering about LEG = ON in cricket). Shows how easy it is to go adrift! But I’ll plead this excuse (as a DIY person): I wouldn’t use pliers to hold something I’m working on, I’d use the vice.
    Everything else was fine, though would have been better to leave out “some” in 14a clue. Had to check NEPHRITE though it rings a bell.
    I liked WARSAW for the cryptic invoking of go west young man. I have a vague memory of using a similar device in my first-ever puzzle – but nowhere near so skilfully!
    Thanks Brendan and … scchua.

  72. I am in agreement with many previous posters in thinking that this puzzle was brilliant and I have come on very late in the piece because I wanted to thank Brendan for the enjoyment. I liked the clever “directions theme” which linked NORTH YEMEN, SOUTHBOUND NOR’EASTERS and SOU’WESTERS, but then finding the Ninas as I looked back over my completed grid was icing on the cake. However, I needed to come here to learn from scchua that another device, the use of N, S, E and W in most of the solutions, was yet another bonus. Warm appreciation to Brendan (Brian) and scchua.

  73. [sorry Valentine @71 – should have linked to a highlighted (or grey-lighted) para of wiktionary citations, quoting from The Big Bang Theory, episode 4/13, ‘The Love Car Displacement’. If I could find the relevant bit on YouTube I’d provide a link. That said, wiktionary does have its funny moments 😉 ]

  74. Got nowhere near finishing this one. 🙁

    Which makes a clean sweep of DNFs this week. That’ll learn me after feeling smug about finishing them all last week.

  75. Four of the compass points round the perimeter go clockwise from top left. The other four go anticlockwise from the same square.

  77. I found 8d interesting. After failing to find an anagram of STRATEgy, I came up with *(sTRATEGy) = TARGET (turn to aim) — at the time the only crosser I had was the R.

  78. Clever as usual. I never would have finished without the nina to help. Well, I didn’t finish really as I got one wrong. But many unparsed. The trouble with having so many unparsed is that you end up bunging things in!

    Thanks Brendan and scchua for the much-needed explanations.

  79. So according to Brian Greer@61, the clue for TOILSOME was a deliberate trap to weed out the careless and the lazy and the bungers-in. Since I am all of those, consider me trapped and weeded out.

  83. Tony Santucci@59: Late, I know, but thanks for the earlier Brendan puzzle. I recall doing it at the time though that did not help greatly the second time round. Very enjoyable nevertheless, so thanks for the reference.

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