The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28802.
I found this relatively straightforward for a Brummie, but enjoyable. He often includes a theme, but I do not see one here.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | STRAPLESS |
Sort of dress said to restrain a disciplinarian? (9)
|
| ‘Said’ does not indicate a homophone, but means that issuing the command STRAP LESS might do the job. | ||
| 6, 26 | PUTS AWAY |
Is a consumer jailed without society? (4,4)
|
| An envelope (‘without’) of S (‘society’) in PUT AWAY (‘jailed’). | ||
| 8 | VISIGOTH |
Old German‘s attempt to interrupt call by hospital (8)
|
| An envelope (‘to interrupt’) of GO (‘attempt’) in VISIT (‘call’) plus H (‘hospital’). | ||
| 9 | DANUBE |
Beaune, not the ultimate in wine, drunk with date and flowing water (6)
|
| An anagram (‘drunk’) of ‘Beaun[e]’ minus the E (‘not the ultimate in winE‘) plus D (‘date’). | ||
| 10 | CLUTCH |
Brood that might be disengaged (6)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 11 | SUBTITLE |
Employ information technology in low-key, on-screen assistance (8)
|
| An envelope (’employ … in’) of IT (‘information technology’) in SUBTLE (‘low-key’). | ||
| 12 | SCURVY |
Disease makes son shapely (6)
|
| A charade of S (‘son’) plus CURVY (‘shapely’). | ||
| 15 | SPARSITY |
Shortage of boxes? Shame, but no pressure (8)
|
| A charade of SPARS (‘boxes’) plus [p]ITY (‘shame’) minus the P (‘no pressure’). | ||
| 16 | PRESSURE |
Bullying has journalists convinced to drop leader (8)
|
| A charade off PRESS (‘journalists’) plus [s]URE (‘convinced’) minus the first letter (‘to drop leader’). | ||
| 19 | DESCRY |
To some extent includes cryptic spot (6)
|
| A hidden answer (‘to some extent’) in ‘incluDES CRYptic’. | ||
| 21 | AS LONG AS |
Provided glass on a mobile (2,4,2)
|
| An anagram (‘mobile’) of ‘glass on a’. | ||
| 22 | VERIFY |
Bear out of honey finally, after changing fiver (6)
|
| A charade of VERIF, an anagram (‘changing’) of ‘fiver’; plus Y (‘honeY finally’). | ||
| 24 | URGENT |
Drive time around noon — can’t wait! (6)
|
| A charade of N (‘noon’) in URGE (‘drive’) plus T (‘time’). | ||
| 25 | INSECURE |
Fast current at the start makes you anxious (8)
|
| A charade of IN (‘current’) plus SECURE (‘fast’). | ||
| 26 |
See 6
|
|
| 27 | RIGMAROLE |
A girl more suited for performance (9)
|
| An anagram (‘suited’?) of ‘a girl more’. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SPIEL |
Pitch spread in piles (5)
|
| An anagram (‘spread’) of ‘piles’. My first reaction was that ‘in’ did not sit well in the wordplay, but the clue might be seen as an abbreviated version of something like: “A word meaning pitch, which may be seen spread in piles”. | ||
| 2 | ROISTER |
List includes Independent Party (7)
|
| An envelope (‘includes’) of I (‘independent’) in ROSTER (‘list’). | ||
| 3 | POOCH |
Pound back on hot dog (5)
|
| A charade of POOC, a reversal (‘back’) of COOP (‘pound’ in the sense of enclosure, yer another excuse for the link to the Two Ronnies); plus H (‘hot’). | ||
| 4 | EPHESUS |
Losing hair, Uriah Heep’s playing southern city of old (7)
|
| A charade of EPHESU, an anagram (‘playing’) of ‘u[riah] heeps’ minus (‘losing’) the letters of ‘hair’; plus S (‘southern’). | ||
| 5 | SIDEBOARD |
Bank management furniture (9)
|
| A charade of BANK (‘side’) plus BOARD (‘management’) | ||
| 6 | PANTIES |
Underwear that is contributing to heavy breathing (7)
|
| An envelope (‘contributing to’) of I.E. (‘that is’) in PANTS (‘heavy breathing’) | ||
| 7 | TABULATOR |
Maybe spreadsheet user thanks innovative Labour technology head (9)
|
| A charade of TA (‘thanks’) plus BULATOR, an anagram (‘innovative’) of ‘labour’ plus T (‘Technology head’). | ||
| 13 | CORKSCREW |
Irish town’s company provides assistance to wine drinker? (9)
|
| CORK’S CREW (‘Irish town’s company’). | ||
| 14 | YOUNGSTER |
Wagging tongues in your heartless youth (9)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of OUNGSTE, an anagram (‘wagging’) of ‘tongues’ in YR (‘YouR heartless’). | ||
| 17 | SHOWERY |
Wet person in debt included in cast (7)
|
| An envelope (‘included in’) of OWER (‘person in debt’) in SHY (‘cast’). | ||
| 18 | EASTING |
Course initially falls short in banqueting (7)
|
| A subtraction: [f]EASTING (‘banqueting’) minus the F, with your choice of the mechanism – either F as the first letter or ‘initially Falls’ | ||
| 20 | SIROCCO |
Wind is getting up — fabulous flyer needs company (7)
|
| A charade of SI, a reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of ‘is’ plus ROC (‘fabulous flyer’) plus CO (‘company’). | ||
| 22 | VISTA |
Senior Tory leaders getting in by means of Panorama (5)
|
| An envelope (‘getting in’) of ST (‘Senior Tory leaders’) in VIA (‘by means of’). | ||
| 23 | FORGE |
Rival holding back Greek fashion (5)
|
| An envelope (‘holding’) of RG, a reversal (‘back’) of GR (‘Greek’) in FOE (‘rival’). |
Very enjoyable with no sticky clues, and nothing too obscure. Thank you.
Peter, Ephesus needs southern for the final s. But yes, pretty straightforward, though I did stare dumbly for a time at the crossers for my last two in, showery and urgent. Is easting a bit weird? Never seen it before, though there is Westering home with a song in the air, and eastering would be confusing. Whatevs, all good, ta Brum and Peter.
No real problems except it took me ages to get CORKSCREW for some reason. I was trying to think of a 9 letter Irish town starting with C and ending with W.
13d is a bit out of date. I’m a wine drinker, but haven’t used one of those for at least 10 years. Wine closures are all Stelvin, i.e. screwcaps, these days. 1a was my LOI, the parsing being a bit obscure for me.
maarvarq, I still get the occasional wine with cork stopper. It’s not as outdated as many of the things we encounter in cryptic crosswords. My favourite is “record” to be parsed as EP or LP.
Nice puzzle, and thanks for the blog. I think I would have struggled with ‘easting’ if not for the fact that it came up recently in something I was reading.
Very enjoyable, thanks Brummie! I did not know either brood or clutch in the chicken sense
Thanks PeterO. I did hope you would maintain the fine blogging tradition of reaching straight for the Two Ronnies link as soon as you encountered POOCH. I wondered whether Eileen might have been on duty as she has the link on whatever the IT version of speed-dial might be, so it’s good to see all our bloggers are on the ball.
I had the same query on SPIEL as our blogger and rationalised it in the same way. SCURVY possibly my favourite clue today. Short, sweet and simple.
Thanks Brummie and PeterO
The top half went in quickly but the bottom half (especially the SW) took a while as, like Tim C @ 3, spent ages trying to think of an Irish Town for 13d.
Lots of good clues including: VISIGOTH, CLUTCH, POOCH, TABULATOR, SHOWERY, FORGE
Thanks Brummie and PeterO
ginf @2, EASTING is a bit weird. It took me back to school geography, eastings and northings on Ordnance Survey maps. But the easting is the distance east of a given meridian, not a path to be followed or direction of movement, so not really a course. Is that too picky?
But since I’m being picky, VISIGOTH = ‘old German’ is dodgy too, as it confuses German with Germanic. Gothic was a Germanic language, but so are English, Afrikaans and Icelandic, and we don’t call speakers of those languages ‘Germans’. And the Romans never referred to the Goths (either ostro- or visi-) as Germani, but rather grouped them together with speakers of non-Germanic languages such as the Huns.
Beef over. I really enjoyed this, thanks Brummie and PeterO.
essexboy @10 and ginf @2 – I use Northings and Eastings all the time for the bearings on GPS (geocaching), so didn’t find that a problem – any bearing on a map, I guess. (I don’t tend to say Westings, but I’m more often using the Eastings.)
Lovely puzzle. Chuckled at the Paulesque PANTIES.
Thanks essexboy, excellent explanation of EASTING. I was lucky here, having only recently read Longitude, which is a cracking little book about John Harrison who solved the deadly maritime problem.
Many thanks both.
I loved the surface for EPHESUS. Uriah Heep (the band) certainly were a hairy bunch, wherever they played.
Despite 2 potential hidden clue indicators, to some extent, and includes, DESCRY was last in after trying a couple of things with an anagram (cryptic) of spot.
I found that more straightforward than usual for a Brummie. A few things I didn’t parse properly, but I think it’s more I had mentally noted I needed to read through and check the parsing when I finished, but when I read the blog, I realised I’d only checked the top half of the puzzle, decided I’d parsed everything and came here.
Thank you to Brummie and PeterO
Re VISIGOTH, and I’m on shaky ground here, could the setter have meant the language old German?
Essexboy @10 I agree Easting=course is not quite right, and I can’t see how on-screen assistance=subtitle either. Also, to me suited doesn’t really work as an anagrind. At least they are kind of in the right area and the rest of the clues left no doubt so not really a problem.
Other than those quibbles, I enjoyed this one.
Much more straightforward than yesterday, and very welcome for it!. Isn’t Cork a city, rather than a town? That’s the name of the football club anyway. Favourites were CLUTCH and SIROCCO. Thanks Peter O for the blog and in particular the parsing of DANUBE. Thanks Brummie.
Add my thanks to William’s, eb @10, good to learn easting’s meaning (even if it isn’t course … )
[William @15 – if I had a whiteboard I would draw a diagram showing the relationships between Germanic languages 🙂 However in current circumstances I’ll have to make do with a wikipedia link. Also a nice map here.
‘Old German’ isn’t a term used by linguists, but, loosely speaking, it could refer to Old High German, Old Saxon, and Frankish (Old Franconian), all spoken roughly in the period 500 – 1000 AD. But all those languages, plus Old English (Anglo-Saxon), belong to the West Germanic branch of the Germanic languages.
Gothic, the language of the Visigoths, belonged to the East Germanic branch, i.e. it broke away (in 2nd or 1st century BC) before anything that could recognisably be called ‘German’ arose out of Proto-West Germanic.]
This old boy certainly needs the assistance of on-screen subtitles, including for English-language shows, ravenrider @16, especially when the dialogue is local and argot-ish.
Chambers 2014 has Easting as both… “n the course taken to the eastward; the distance eastward from a given meridian”
IMO the def for EASTING is “course initially” – you give Eastings, then Northings to specify a direction.
I thought SPIEL for pitch – was fine, as in “what’s his spiel?”
Liked the puzzle. Ta for the blog, needed help parsing a couple.
[Wow, eb@19, such erudition, I’m in awe! And what a wonderful detailed resource are those colour-coded maps! Many thanks, again! (They reminded me of our old Fowler’s dictionary with 2-page diagram showing languages flowing westward from proto-Indo-Eu (sadly thrown out by the late and much-loved Mrs ginf 🙂 )]
eb @19: many thanks for the link and map. We’re clearly on your turf, here. Gotta love crosswords, doncha?
ravenrixer @16, if you’re watching a foreign film with subtitles, isn’t that on-screen assistance?
Liked EPHESUS, PANTIES, VISIGOTH, SHOWERY.
New: EASTING.
Thanks, both.
Difficult at first run through, then I got a couple of anagrams and I was away. Managed to parse everything, but did not like my last two answers – 16a PRESSURE which does not mean bullying IMO – and 17d SHOWERY which is also a bit of a stretch.
But it was a quick solve so thanks Brummie, and I always enjoy PeterO’s explanations so thanks to you too.
A really enjoyable puzzle with lots of clever and witty clues. I had ticks in particular for SCURVY and SHOWERY. I also liked VISIGOTH (and “old German” seemed fine to me to refer to a member of one of the ancient Germanic peoples, no matter what the Romans called them).
Many thanks Brummie and PeterO.
An enjoyable romp to ease me back into crosswords after four days off.
I particularly liked DESCRY, VERIFY, for the initially misleading ‘out of honey finally’), EPHESEUS, for the surface and construction, TABULATOR, (ditto), YOUNGSTER and SHOWERY.
I also had a wry grin at SUBTITLE – I’m with grant @20 there.
Thanks for the fun, Brummie and PeterO for the blog: like PostMark @8, Id have been disappointed not to see the Two Ronnies again – I do practically have it bookmarked!
Did anyone else try to work SIRI into the clue for on-screen assistance SUBTITLE?
ravenrider @16: I’m learning Italian and, watching films in that language, I most certainly need the on-screen assistance of the SUBTITLES. (Sottotitoli)
Cork is a city, not a town
I tend to think of the Visigoths in what is now Spain, rather than what is now Germany, though they must have come from the East at first. I suppose history and politics determine what people call or called German as much as linguistics. I liked EPHESUS and SUBTITLE.
An alternative scenario for the assistance provided by subtitles would be for the benefit of the hard of hearing which was the application that came first to mind.
Re EASTING, I now see Merriam-Webster has “easterly progress” as its first definition – not a usage I had come across. It’s not quite the same as ‘course’, but closer. I wonder if anyone can find a real-life example of easting meaning ‘course taken to the eastward’, as quoted by Tim C @21 from Chambers?
Pleasant crossword from Brummie.
I’m not sure why there is a discussion about VISIGOTH – Wiki just quotes them as ‘early Germanic people’.
I liked the surface for YOUNGSTER. It was a bit unfortunate that the last word in 15A was PRESSURE, the solution for 16A.
Thanks Brummie and PeterO.
[Robi @36 – the problem is that ‘German’ isn’t the same as ‘Germanic’ – the latter includes English (and Gothic), but the former doesn’t.
Maybe it’s my equivalent of the mass/weight thing 😉 ]
I always thought Cork was a city, and a fine one at that, but I suppose that is neither here nor there. SPARSITY looked odd when I put it in, somehow expecting it ought to have a C in it, like Scarcity. Last two in the tricky SHOWERY, and then URGENT. Lots of fun and games, thanks Brummie and PeterO…
Wrt maarvark’s comment 4 above. Here in France the wine bottles almost always come with corks in still so we need to keep our openers handy. However, being retired all we can afford for everyday drinking is bag-in-box, as the French call them.
I’m firmly with essexboy on this one. ‘German’ is most definitely not the same as ‘Germanic’ – it is a subset of the latter which excludes Gothic.
Nevertheless I enjoyed this puzzle, which I found a little trickier in a few parts than most of our colleagues. Favourite was SUBTITLE, LOI the cunningly hidden DESCRY.
Thanks to S&B
eb @37, Gervase @40; I still don’t really understand this – Chambers has for Germanic: ‘2.Of, relating to, or characteristic of Germany, the German language, or any people that speaks a Germanic language‘. I would have thought that would cover an ‘old German’?
So, would “Candid old German” be an acceptable clue for Frank?
Deadhead @39… or goon bags as the Australian slang goes.
Petert – yes! 🙂
Robi @41 – that’s the definition for Germanic, not for German. ‘Germanic’ can cover ‘old German’, and it could also cover ‘Visigoth’, but ‘German’ can’t be equivalent to ‘Visigoth’. The distinction is clearer in German itself:
German = Deutsch
Germanic = Germanisch
the Germans = die Deutschen
the Germanic (-speaking) peoples = die Germanen
Equating ‘German’ with ‘Goth’ really is the equivalent of defining ‘Italian’ as ‘Romanian’, on the basis of a shared linguistic ancestor.
The Visigoths (a) didn’t come from Germany; (b) did not speak a language that could remotely be called German; (c) were never called Germans, either by their contemporaries or by anyone since – until today! ]
essexboy, I’m not sure about “were never called Germans… by anyone since”. According to Wikipedia, “In modern scholarship the Goths are sometimes referred to as being Germani“. 🙂
[Thanks Lord Jim – I knew I’d be hoist by my own petard. The scholars in question are clearly too modern for me. 😉 But even if we allow their usage, the translation of their Germani into English would be ‘Germanic peoples’, not Germans.]
Deadhead@33 Yes, the French despise wine in screwtop bottles. We too buy our wine in a bag-in-box, aka Bib, although goon- box is a good name for it as one turns into a goon by too much easy supping from a bib.
[The Vandals were another East Germanic people who first settled in Iberia, from which they sacked Rome – hence the modern usage of the word. They were ousted by the Visigoths and decamped to form kingdoms in North Africa, Sicily and Sardinia. It is equally erroneous to call a Vandal a German – or vice versa:) ]
Eb@37 chambers first entry for GERMANIC is “of Germany” so, as is often the case in these kind of quibbles, the word has two separate meanings and the specialised one is not inherently more correct than the general?
Personal fave was RIGMAROLE – a word much used by my mother
I have to leave and don’t have time now to read all the comments, but here’s one:
“Run your easting down” is a nautical term referring to measuring one’s eastward progress, sometimes in reference to particular passages, such as from the Cape of Good Hope to Australia. It occurs in the song “Bay of Fundy,” by the wonderful Maine singer Gordon Bok, here sung by the Unthanks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IWio9shzOM
OK – this is my first contribution, but am I alone in seeing a nautical theme? Apart from Easting there is SPARsity, RIGmarole, SCURVY, corksCREW, sideBOARD – maybe others?
Probably not enough for a theme but the Visigoths at one point retreated down the Danube, sacked Ephesus and invested Beaune.
Also, there is a song by Clutch, Careful with that Mic … which includes this nice stanza;
Like back when I was waging peace against the visigoths,
I was tutored in the ancient mysteries by a wizened philosoph
Learned the polyrhythm of celestial time
And wait for the one to come and get it done to finish the rhyme, ahaha
Thanks for the blog , a lot of good clues today . I too liked RIGMAROLE which is a nice old-fashioned word.
VERIFY was nicely misleading. VISIGOTH was put together well and fortunately did not need a definition.
I do agree with Mutley@51, I have nothing to offer but it did have a nautical feel whilst solving. For a while I thought it was Boatman .
Bodycheetah @46: That doesn’t work either, because the Goths didn’t come from Germany. They were originally Scandinavian, then migrated via modern Poland and Ukraine to the Black Sea area (Crimean Gothic was the last spoken variant of the language) before the Hunnic invasions from the east forced most of the Germanic peoples westward. In the case of the Visigoths, to modern Spain and Portugal.
it is quite absolutely clear to me that “easting”
is an internet scam
(ducks on-coming shower of bottles eggs etc)
Fun puzzle by a setter I often struggle with. If London can be called London Town, then I don’t care about the Cork issue. As to Easting, it reminded me of Westing (By Musket And Sextant) an album by one of my very favourite bands, Pavement.
Should’ve been a link in there. Hopefully this works.
<a href="“>Summer Babe
Thanks Brummie for an enjoyable crossword. My top choices were SUBTITLE, SPARSITY, AS LONG AS, CORKSCREW, and RIGMAROLE. I concur with Bodycheetah @49 and Roz @53 in liking the word RIGMAROLE; even though it’s not heard much anymore it really should make a comeback because it describes so accurately so much in present day life. Thanks PeterO for the blog.
A very enjoyable Brummie puzzle.
maarvarc@4 – I must disagree, having opened a good number (too many, actually!) of bottles using a corkscrew in France, Spain and here in the U.K. in the last twelve months.
Thanks both.
… and speaking of language evolution, is goon box a derivative of its predecessor, the flagon? [Sorry, been a long night, had to pick up a ginf Jr, plus vast amounts of gear (don’t ask), from airport]…
I was on course for one of my quickest ever solves, but had to go out this morning with three still remaining. Like some others I was looking for an Irish town beginning with C and ending in W, such as CARLOW but with a few more letters; I had thought of – but not written in – ARDENT for 24a (it almost works); and I’d have written in DESCRY if I’d spotted the parsing (I had CR for cryptic, and didn’t spot the inclusion until a lot later) before dashing for my train.
Regular readers of these comments will know how much I enjoy a discussion/argument/ding-dong with essexboy, but while – of course – bowing to his superior knowledge, experience and erudition, I’m afraid I have to say that this is a crossword, not an exam. 🙂 (Ducks shower of bottles – sans corks – eggs etc. Assuming any left over from the attack on groniac7 @55.)
Thanks to Brummie for the entertainment and PeterO for the explication.
Can’t see why a city is not also a town. Either I’m wrong or we have three Zoilists amongst us!
Lovely crossword
Many thanks, both and all