I haven’t blogged a Pangakupu puzzle before – in fact, this is only his / her third appearance in the cryptic slot.
There’s nothing controversial here, I think – as manehi said last time, ‘a nice mix of friendlier and trickier clues’, with some neat anagrams and smooth surfaces. My favourites were 1, 11 and 18ac and 2 and 12dn.
Thanks to Pangakupu for the puzzle.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
4 Leave talk, missing one truthful statement (6)
GOSPEL
GO (leave) + SP[i]EL (talk, minus i – one)
6 Nasty leader deposed, as should be the case (8)
RIGHTFUL
[f]RIGHTFUL (nasty) minus the initial letter (leader)
9 Religious service affecting godliness? Not the first third of it (6)
RITUAL
[spi]RITUAL (affecting godliness) minus the first three letters
10 Urine not analysed for tiny particle (8)
NEUTRINO
An anagram (analysed) of URINE NOT
11 I find I am almost nuts, crazy for ever (2,9)
AD INFINITUM
An anagram (crazy) of I FIND I AM NUT[s]
15 Figure in geometry, German expert brought over in care of academic (7)
DECAGON
A reversal (brought over) of G (German) ACE (expert) in DON (academic)
17 Succeed in taking out middle of red target and shout (7)
EXCLAIM
EXC[e]L (succeed?) minus e (middle letter of red) + AIM (target)
18 Insulting the powerful? Not exactly seemly to include a joke (4,7)
LESE MAJESTY
An anagram (not exactly) of SEEMLY round A JEST (a joke)
22 Carbon and carbonised material? Support monetary incentive (8)
CASHBACK
C (carbon) + ASH (carbonised material) + BACK (support)
23 Slender volume bound in steel, unexpectedly (6)
SVELTE
V (volume) in an anagram (unexpectedly) of STEEL
24 Very fierce about women using bad language (8)
SWEARING
SEARING (very fierce) round W (women)
25 English navigator recalled wonderful feature of fish (6)
BAFFIN
A reversal (recalled) of FAB (wonderful) + FIN (feature of fish) – here‘s the navigator
Down
1 Fellows scored after upsetting drink (6)
DECAFF
A reversal (after upsetting) of F F (fellows) + ACED (scored)
2 Transmit over the internet stories about five players — that’s about right (4-6)
LIVE-STREAM
LIES (stories) round V (five) + TEAM (players) round R (right)
3 Rich fools about to accept dodgy myth on a regular basis (8)
RHYTHMIC
An anagram (fools about) of RICH round an anagram (dodgy) of MYTH
4 Lots of flowers are found in Greek territories (8)
GARLANDS
A (are – a metric unit of land – 100 square metres) in GR (Greek) LANDS (territories)
5 Group taking a bit to produce special item (3,5)
SET PIECE
SET (group) + PIECE (bit)
7 Airmen soaring, circling Italy, having good weather (4)
FAIR
A reversal (soaring, in a down clue) of RAF (Royal Air Force – airmen) round I (Italy)
8 Money running short when raised for factory machine (4)
LOOM
A reversal (when raised, in a down clue) of MOOL[a] (slang for money)
12 New promotion about part of plane cut down in next to no time (10)
NANOSECOND
N (new) AD (promotion) round NOSECON[e] (part of plane, cut down)
13 Fool in book almost split symbol with stave (4,4)
BASS CLEF
ASS (fool) in B (book) CLEF[t] (almost split)
14 Call up about fire in the sky (8)
EMPYREAN
A reversal (up, in a down clue) of NAME (call) round PYRE (fire)
16 Blogger exercised about date and name of variations (8)
GOLDBERG
An anagram (exercised) of BLOGGER round D (date) – Lang Lang plays the Bach Variations here
19 Cheerful judge I found in cricket venue (6)
JOVIAL
J (judge) + I in OVAL (cricket venue)
20 With a couple of swaps, group of performers performs (4)
ACTS
CAST (group of performers) with a couple of letters swapped
21 Small area of land is left reduced by 50% (4)
ISLE
IS + LE[ft] – I wondered whether an isle is necessarily a small area but couldn’t really think of a large one: Collins has ‘an island, esp a small one ‘ and Chambers ‘an island’ (with ‘islet: a small isle’)!
Slow, tricky solve but well worth the effort. Lots of ticks including RITUAL, LÉSÉ MAJESTY, CASHBACK, SVELTE, LOOM and EMPYREAN. NHO of BAFFIN but gettable. The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) is sitting on top of the grid with the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) at the bottom but can’t see any link.
Ta Pangakupu & Eileen
Eileen summed it up nicely for me. Nothing to add. Thanks P and E.
Enjoyed this but couldn’t find LÈSE MAJESTÉ spelt with a Y but clearly had to be.
Hovis, it’s spelt that way in both Collins and Chambers.
I found this harder than yesterday although the Guardian stream suggests many found it easier. I am sure we have seen DECAFF and NANOSECOND very recently which helped me. Quite a few guess and parse later, not many ‘aha’ moments (apart from those mentioned). Did not know DECAGON or LESE with MAJESTY.
But overall a good workout, thanks Pangakupu and Eileen.
Thanks Eileen. Should have looked harder.
Good to see some LESE MAJESTY in the Guardian at last. I was sure 9 across was going to be an anagram of -liness. Selins seemed plausible. I liked CASHBACK.
I’ve found this setter’s hard in the past, but must have been on the right wavelength today, as it fell into place quite smoothly. I couldn’t account for an ‘A’ in GARLANDS — I’d forgotten about that sneaky are. And I had LOOT for 8d and wasn’t sure why. Also, I’m more used to DECAF with a single ‘F’.
Very enjoyable, thank you.
Some very nice clues here with great surfaces. Favourite was BAFFIN. (And Baffin Island, slightly larger than Spain according to Wikipedia, might be relevant to the question of whether an ISLE is necessarily small. Though as you say Eileen, maybe an ISLE is subtly different to an island.)
I seem to recall that in New York a NANOSECOND is defined as the period of time between the lights turning green and the guy in the car behind you leaning on his horn.
Many thanks Pangakupu and Eileen.
Thanks Eileen for helping to parse a couple, notably EXCLAIM. I didn’t know the unit “are”, so I had the parsing of GARLANDS wrong.
We only spell decaf with one “f” around here, probably because it is such vile stuff, nobody could possibly want it fortissimo.
Thanks Eileen. Re 4 down, an are = 100 square metres, not 100 of what you refer to as ‘square acres’.
Thanks, Epeolater – Doh! 😉
Amended now – I was so chuffed at remembering A = are!
Enjoyed this – NHO EMPYREAN, and pulled BAFFIN (island) from somewhere or other.
Just me who biffed in LOOT (money/a reversal of TOOL) at 8d?
Thanks Pangakupu and Eileen.
Another who couldn’t parse GARLANDS, not realising that “are” was being used to represent “a” for area. As this was my first one in, it almost put me off from the start. However, persevered, and found this quite a challenge, but an ultimately satisfying one. Couldn’t quite see how ACTS worked out, last one in EMPYREAN…
I’m ashamed to say we knew nothing about Baffin but what a guy!
In the early 17th century he travelled to the North West passage several times, and then went to India.
And he drew the most amazingly accurate maps with rudimentary instruments.
He should be better known IMHO.
Very pleasant crossword with nothing too taxing.
Thanks Eileen and Pangakupu
Eileen, re ‘are’, I now see that it’s a Frenchification of Latin ‘area’ = a apace or a court
I knew EMPYREAN from these headphones a bargain at just £3,599 🙂 Don’t all rush at once – only 1 in stock
E@13 I had exactly the same frisson of delight at remembering the “are” thing
Overall I though this was okay while leaning towards forgettable side of memorable
Ta E&P
And, of course, an are is one tenth of a hectare.
Thank you Eileen, especially for GOLDBERG. I didn’t look it up and thought it might have something to do with stock/share market variations.
Alan C@1. You may be on to something. I looked at lines 1 and 15 but they didn’t mean anything to me. Previous Pangakupu bloggers here gave some pretty strong evidence that Pangakupu is also Phi in the Indy, and one of the indicators was a nina. He’s also set for the Church Times and BBC Music Magazine. There a few clues today that seem to have his stamp.
Didn’t know EMPYREAN, lovely word.
I’ve always spelt DECAFF with one F, but then as I don’t drink it , I wouldn’t know.
I was familiar with the LESE MAJESTE (with or without acute) spelling, in the more legal sense, but am now better informed about the lesser offences of joking insults. My favourite clue given that extra information.
Also liked RHYTHMIC with the anagrinds ‘fools’ and ‘dodgy’, and an anagram embedding another anagram.
If isle can ever be island, then Oz is the largest one (when it’s not being the smallest continent!). Had the same ? re magestY as Hovis@6, and like GDU@8, forgot A = are. And guessed Mr Baffin, fab being more wonderful than e.g. top. Liked empyrian, among others, and nice to hear a bit of JSB at 16. In all, quite fun, ta PnE.
I like the way Pangakupu has used lovely words such as SVELTE, EMPYREAN and RHYTHMIC.
Thanks to her/him & Eileen
… Hovis@3, that should be …
Eileen @19, no it’s one hundredth of a hectare (= 10,000 squ m). Tiny error 🙂
Thanks, grant. Not again! I blame COVID brain. I should have just kept quiet.
Crosswords so good for showing the development of language – 30 years ago, would we have heard of 2 or 22, or even 1?
A solid and fair puzzle.
[…for it is he – fully recovered from his hissy fit, for which deep apologies to whomsoever he may have thereby offended :(. I just couldn’t keep away]
Most enjoyable puzzle, with some nice words and a good range of references, from Bach to 17th C explorers.
Like Jim @14 I first put in LOOT for 8d, without much confidence (incidentally I thought the usual spelling was MOOLah, but it doesn’t alter the parsing). And I threw in LESE MAJESTE before checking the anagrist, never having come across that weird Franglais version.
One tiny quibble: to ‘carbonise’ is to reduce to carbon – as in the conversion of wood to charcoal by the action of heat in the absence of oxygen. ASH is DEcarbonised material 🙂
Thanks to S&B and warm regards to all
Enjoyable puzzle, fairly clued; the three which I couldn’t fully parse the ever-reliable Eileen duly explained.
Mild issue with spiritual = affecting godliness; if someone is spiritual, they are genuinely godly.
Excellently topical surface in 3d!
Thanks to Pangakapu and Eileen.
Gervase -@27
I knew it – welcome back!
[An Oz wit, name forgotten, wrote a book sending up our pre-sophisticates, who liked their steak well done, i.e. completely carbonised then removed from grill with tyre iron]
Not my favourite. 5d SET PIECE sums it up – nebulous and tautological.
gratinfreo@30: Was he/she the same one as suggested tyyhat in the eyes of an Australian man, a sausage wasn’t barbequed until you could write on the wall with it.
Failed on DECAFF, I had the E and AFF, knew it was a drink and could not think of a reversed SCORED. Pretty pathetic really.
Thanks Pangakapu & Eileen, my favourite blogger on this site.
Did Pangakapu take his name from the Maori? I just looked it up and never a panga kapu passed my lips.
Or HER name
A good crossword in a somewhat horrible grid, but at least there were less clues to write.
I liked LESE MAJESTY for the jokey surface and GARLANDS, where I was also chuffed to remember are = A.
Thanks Pangakupu and Eileen, BTW ‘succeed’ is the second word listed for excel in the Chambers Thesaurus.
Happy to see you back Gervase.
nicbach @33
Apparently, yes – it has appeared on previous blogs: it’s Maori for ‘crossword’.
Robi @35 – thanks for noting my ?. Hmm, I think rather of ‘surpass’ for ‘excel’.
grantinfreo @21: I suspect Pangakupu in particular might bridle at the suggestion that Oz is a continent.
Well, Deezzaa@38, apols in advance to Pangakapu in case that is the case; and yes, Kiwis love to call us their West Island (and the All Blacks always beat us 🙁 )
And yeah, nicbach@32 … sounds like it could well be that bloke …
Eileen @37, surpass is a good synonym but in the sense of ‘he excelled at maths’ maybe succeeded could be used?
Eileen@37 I think of “surpass” as a synonym for “exceed” rather than “excel.” “Excel” just means “do very well,” without reference to whether you’re better at whatever it is than somebody else.
Pleasant puzzle from a new(ish) setter, welcome Pangakapu. And thanks Eileen for your usual pleasant accompaniment, you brighten my breakfast.
I found this a steady solve and about the same difficulty as yesterday, but I found this more entertaining. I solved LÉSÉ MAJESTY by solving JOVIAL and BASS CLEF, spotting where A JEST fitted and scrambling SEEMLY around it, so it didn’t occur to me that majesté was an option, as I’ve more often seen it spelt with the y.
EMPYREAN was new but with the crossers I could work it out. I also thought the money was spelt moolah (it’s what my phone spellchecker is giving me too).
Fun crossword, thanks to Eileen and Pangakupu.
Valentine @41
I’m sorry, I really don’t want to labour this but all three of my dictionaries concur in their first definition of ‘excel’:
Collins: ‘to be superior to, surpass’
Chambers: ‘to be superior to or better than; to surpass; to exceed’
SOED: ‘to be superior or pre-eminent’
cf ‘Hosanna in excelsis’ – Hosanna in the highest heaven
(I once had a teaching colleague who believed we should never write ‘Excellent’ in a school report, unless it was literally true!)
Well that was very enjoyable, all the more so for the new word EMPYREAN my LOI. I scratched my head a bit about excel/ succeed, but I see that topic has already been well covered. Many thanks Eileen and Pangakupu.
Gosh. Before I went out this morning there were no comments (perhaps Eileen had just posted) but now over 40 – though I recall, during the pandemic, we often had several thousand comments each with a lengthy essay on something not altogether related to the puzzle. So I’m not complaining.
I quite enjoyed this (finding it more straightforward than yesterday’s Imogen, which I also enjoyed) but thought I’d pop by today to see how many folk had missed the are=a, a unit of area. I confess it paused me for a second or two but seem to think it was used quite recently?
Just as Eileen I had reservations with ‘excel’ which, in my mind, tacitly suggests that others exist whom are surpassed (unless we live in a world of universal excellence!). That needn’t be so with “exceed”.
That apart, all is good. Long live the King!
Many thanks, both and all
[@45 – PS I am exaggerating a tad about the voluminous pandemic commentaries. But it was enough, with my other commitments, to mostly keep me from posting for a year or two, not that anyone missed me!]
Beautifully smooth surfaces esp 4d and 25a, but many others too. A steady solve and on the easier half of the spectrum.
Glad to see some LESE MAJESTY at last.
Thanks Pangakupu and Eileen
Enjoyable once I broke in via NEUTRINO. LESE MAJESTY gave me trouble because I have always thought that it meant what ‘noblesse oblige’ means (these are not terms which bespangle my everyday conversation) and it’s irritating to find that I’ve been carrying a malapropism around with me for ever. Whew – now I can relax when discussing the kindness of the aristocracy.
Big fleas have little fleas
Upon their backs to bite ’em.
And little fleas have smaller fleas
And so AD INFINITUM
(just in case anybody has never heard it).
NeilH@28: May I offer that certain practices may be spiritual and therefore ‘affecting godliness’?
William F P@46: Know what you mean. Welcome back.
Gervase@27: I missed your diatribe: my curiosity is piqued.
Thanks to Pangakupu and to the excellent Eileen.
Thanks Pangakupu, that was enjoyable. I liked the surface for NEUTRINO; I liked “on a regular basis” as the definition and not an instruction for RHYTHMIC; LESE MAJESTY (though I had to check the spelling in Collins); and BAFFIN (I was familiar with him through Baffin Bay in Canada. I needed a look-up for EMPYREAN but all else fell into place. Thanks Eileen for the blog.
[I meant Baffin Island in Canada; Baffin Bay is in Texas.]
Thanks Pangakupu, this was a slow and steady but enjoyable solve – all fell into place nicely in the end. And thanks Eileen for the blog.
I spotted the “are” trick pretty quickly but 4d was still one of my last in. Struggled to get the Greek territories – annoyingly, Peloponnese wouldn’t fit…
EMPYREAN would be well-known to any Milton aficionados, as here from Paradise Lost, Book III:
Now had the Almighty Father from above,
From the pure empyrean where he sits
High thron’d above all highth, bent down his eye
His own works and their works at once to view …
But also to any jazz aficionados (or ‘cats’ as they are still quaintly called in Crosswordland) due to Herbie Hancock’s excellent 1964 album , ‘Empyrean Isles’. An honorable chapeau to Herbie, who was still performing ‘Cantaloupe Island’, the best-known number from that album, this year at Glastonbury at the age of 82. It is on YouTube.
Found SET PIECE odd as not cryptic at all. This is first time I remember seeing “are” reduced to the letter “a” and I don’t like it.
Thanks both
Thanks Eileen, needed your explanation for 9a and share your delight at spotting the are! In 20d it is a couple of PAIRS of letters (first and last pair) getting swapped but that’s minor. I liked that clue among others, and hope this puzzle satisfied those looking for precise and occasionally intricate wordplay over lateral/cryptic thinking. Thanks Pangakupu. PS thanks Spooner’s catflap, knew I knew it from somewhere and overdue a re-listen.
ttt @ 53 As mentioned in the blog, a = are is a standard abbreviation for the unit of 100 sq m, possibly more commonly seen as Hectare abbreviated to Ha.
Eileen re 21 ISLE. I think the residents of both Man and Wight would dispute that their homes are in/on a small area
Nice puzzle, not too hard this time; I have one quibble, already pointed out by others. I think LÈSE MAJESTÉ should always be spelt thus, not that awful Franco-English hybrid – it is after all a French phrase presumably first coined in the days of the Louis’s etc.
But Chambers says MAJESTY is OK so it’ll have to pass.
A phrase oft-quoted over the past week or two (no prizes for guessing why!). I suppose I ought not to spout politics on this forum, but I must admit to being dismayed at the heavy-handed policing of dissenters to you-know-what. I just hope LÈSE MAJESTÉ isn’t criminalised like it is in Thailand for example.
Thanks to Pangakupu and Eileen.
mchardy @56: …and “this sceptr’d isle” refers to GB in Richard II 🙂
Gervase @58 Actually, it does not refer to GB in Richard II; it refers to ‘this England’ in John of Gaunt’s speech in Act II, scene 1, conveniently omittong th fact that England in 1399 was bordered by Scotland to the north and Wales to the west.
Great Britain is of course (the largest) one of the British Isles.
In the US, it is decaf although in retrospect, decaff makes more sense.
Alphalpha @48 – You may indeed point out that certain practices may be spiritual and therefore ‘affecting godliness’; you would be correct in pointing that out, and my original quibble (and it was no more than that) was accordingly mistaken. Thank you.
Tom S@50 if you’re still here — There may be a Baffin Bay in Texas, but the original one, named for the navigator linked in the blog, is between Baffin Island and the west coast of Greenland. When I hear the name, I hear in my mind “In Baffin Bay, where the whale-fishes blow, The fate of Franklin no man may know. The fate of Franklin no tongue can tell, Lord Franklin alone with his sailors do dwell,” the old song about Lord Franklin, who sailed north to find the Northwest Passage and with his crew was never seen again. His wife, Lady Franklin, offered a reward of ten thousand pounds for news of her husband, but news never came. Here’s a performance by the long-ago group Pentangle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSsZT_dpPHU
Eileen@43 I defer to Collins, Chambers, the Shorter Oxford and you. Apparently the word has more meanings than I use with it.
NeilH@: Thanks back
manoj@61 I was also taken aback by “decaff” (pardon the pun) . I didn’t realize our spelling was an Americanism.
Thanks Eileen and thanks Pangakupu for a great puzzle – a fun mix of clues including some inventive set ups!