Guardian Cryptic 28,950 by Qaos

by

A lot of clever clueing and not too tricky to solve. I liked 15ac, 5dn, 7dn, 23dn, and especially 22ac. Thanks to Qaos for the puzzle

…there is a theme with card games BLACK/JACK, PONTOON, CHEAT, PATIENCE, BRIDGE, SNAP, POKER, CRIB (cribbage) edit: and BRAG – thanks Andrew, and SOLO – thanks Eileen and PostMark, and perhaps to RED and BLACK playing cards

ACROSS
9 ORATE
Lecture 50% of voters (5)
50% of [elect]-ORATE=”voters”
10 ADRENALIN
Leading astronaut Aldrin excited to tour space, producing this? (9)
definition: alternative spelling of adrenaline

leading letter of A-stronaut, plus anagram/”excited” of (Aldrin)*, around EN=a “space” in typography
11 OUT OF MIND
Food in tum digested and forgotten (3,2,4)
anagram/”digested” of (Food in tum)*
12 THUMP
Hit hard in stomach with power (5)
H (hard) in TUM=”stomach”, plus P (power)
13 PONTOON
5p bagel also in news (7)
the definition is “5” (5 down, BRIDGE) as a pontoon is type of floating bridge

P (taken from “5p”, without the definition “5”) + O (a “bagel” is a score of 0 games in a tennis set) + TOO=”also” in NN (N=”new”, NN=”news”)
15 ELEMENT
He symbolically turns over box to pack soldiers (7)
definition: He is the chemical symbol for the ELEMENT helium

reversal/”turns over” of TELE (television, “box”), around MEN=”soldiers”
17 KYRIE
Australian pop star has change of heart in prayer (5)
KY-L-IE Minogue is the “Australian pop star”, change the central letter/”heart” from L to R
18 ERA
Muse wasting time with old age (3)
ERATO is one of the Muses in Greek mythology, minus T (time) and O (old)
20 STROP
Knock over drinks in fit of temper (5)
reversal/”Knocks over” PORTS (as in port wine)=”drinks”
22 RED DEER
Does having two wines back-to-back take energy? (3,4)
definition: plural of doe (a female deer)

RED plus RED reversed (“two wines back to back”), around E (energy)
25 TIDDLER
Row about 500 + 500 + 50 being small? (7)
definition: a small being

TIER=”Row” around D + D + L=”500 + 500 + 50″ in Roman numerals
26 CHEAT
Man eaten by pet shark (5)
definition: a “shark” as in a swindler

HE=”Man” inside CAT=”pet”
27 JACK BLACK
Comic actor‘s raise? Want over a billion (4,5)
JACK=”raise” (e.g. using a jack to raise a car), plus LACK=”want”, after/around B (billion)
30 INCENTIVE
Criminal in Venice stealing Tesla for reward (9)
anagram/”Criminal” of (in Venice)*, around T (Tesla the SI unit of magnetic flux density)
31 ALLOW
Make it possible to roll about in mud, topless (5)
w-ALLOW=”roll around in mud”, minus the top letter
DOWN
1 SOLO
Mostly loose, set out alone (4)
anagram/”set out” of (loos)*, most of the letters from “loose”
2 FASTENER
Sporting organisation enters review of catch? (8)
FA (Football Association, “Sporting organisation”), plus anagram/”review” of (enters)*
3 SELF
Number one in lifting 80% excess weight (4)
reversal/”lifting” of 80% (four out of five letters) from FLES-h=”excess weight”
4 PATIENCE
Tolerance of light opera (8)
double definition: second definition refers to a comic opera Patience by Gilbert and Sullivan
5 BRIDGE
Diarist Jones spilling tea, sounding cross (6)
definition: cross=bridge as verbs, e.g. to span a stretch of water

BRIDGE-t Jones of the film (and novel) Bridget Jones’s Diary, minus T (sounds like “tea”)
6 UNSTRESSED
One in Paris serving up puddings without a care (10)
UN=”One” in French/”in Paris”, plus reversal/”serving up” of DESSERTS=”puddings”
7 ALLURE
Draw ace quartet, ignoring the odds: about 50:50 (6)
A (Ace), plus q-U-a-R-t-E-t ignoring the odd letters, all around/”about” L L (50 and 50 in Roman numerals)
8 SNAP
Party welcoming a break (4)
definition: as in ‘snap/break in half’

SNP (Scottish National Party), around A
13 POKER
Rod‘s extremely responsible travelling north after parking fine (5)
definition: a poker as in a rod used to stir a fire

the extreme letters of R-esponsibl-E, reversed upwards/”travelling north”, and after P (parking) + OK=”fine”
14 OVEREATING
Getting excessively annoyed when husband leaves stuffing (10)
OVER-HEATING=”Getting excessively annoyed” with H (husband) leaving
16 TAPER
Sailor tackles exercise to get lighter (5)
definition: “taper” as in a waxed wick used to light a flame

TAR=”Sailor” around PE (Physical Education, “exercise”)
19 ARTICLES
Penny’s dropping off bits and pieces (8)
P (Penny) taken off p-ARTICLES=”bits”
21 RELIABLE
Honest priest found in cocktail bar by Luddite extremists (8)
ELI (Biblical “priest”) inside RAB, plus extreme letters from L-uddit-E

I think RAB as an anagram of “bar”, with “cocktail” as a hint at ‘mixing’

RAB could also be a reversal of “bar” – if “cock” can be read as in turn or lift, with tail referring to the bottom end of the word
23 DRENCH
Actress fording river gets thoroughly wet (6)
definition: to wet thoroughly

Actress Judi DENCH, around R (river)
24 REJOIN
Return to check little girl’s tucked in (6)
REIN=”check”, with JO=”little girl” inside

“little” as Jo is a short form of e.g. Joanna or Josephine, and I was also reminded of Jo March from Little Women
26 CRIB
Steal the King’s first born (4)
definition: crib can mean steal as in plagiarise, or can mean other types of theft

CR (Charles Rex, “the King”) + I (1, first) + B (born)
28 BRAG
Show off clothes in reflection (4)
reversal/”in reflection” of GARB=”clothes”
29 KIWI
Fruit and some milk? I wish! (4)
hidden in/”some” of: mil-K I WI-sh

44 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,950 by Qaos”

  4. Tough but enjoyable. Failed 26ac & 26d.

    Liked RED DEER, UNSTRESSED, ALLURE, PONTOON, ELEMENT.

    I did not parse 2d or 13d apart from the RE and P bits.

    New: light opera PATIENCE (thanks, google).

    Thanks, both.

  5. Found this quite tricky in places, particularly the last two in, SELF and ELEMENT. Does appearing again to wrongfoot us in 22ac, but a nice clue for all that. Struggled to parse PONTOON, but nothing else fitted with all the crossers in place. So what was your comment going to be, SimonC?!

  6. Didn’t know the tennis meaning of bagel – I just assumed it was O from the round shape.

    Good fun, especially PONTOON..

  7. I looked for – and missed – the theme. Quite obvious now, I was thinking something to do with emotions/emotional reactions/emotion provoking things – PATIENCE, SNAP, THUMP, STROP, BRAG, UNSTRESSED etc. Not to be. FASTENER was 2ndLOI, mainly because I read 17a to require the heart of the prayer to be changed to give Our Kylie. LOI CRIB (= steal/cheat) strikes me as English Public School speak and resisted rising to consciousness for ages. Thanks, Qaos and manehi

  8. Ideal Boxing Day fare – light and witty and not too taxing.

    I don’t always get Qaos’ themes but this one soon became evident. (SOLO is another card game).

    I agree with manehi’s favourites, with the addition of 13ac PONTOON (clever construction), 20ac STROP (because I love the word) and 30ac INCENTIVE (for the surface).

    Thanks to Qaos and manehi.

  9. SOLO is also a version of whist and another themer (I did confuse myself for a while with SOLE as my first solution).

    PONTOON, ELEMENT, JACK BLACK, POKER, OVEREATING and CRIB were favourites. I took ‘cocktail’ as anagrind rather than reversal but wondered if Qaos could have chosen another reversal indicator – eg upcoming

    Thanks Qaos and manehi

  11. Failed to finish this one. Didn’t spot the theme, of course. Never heard of bagel in that sense (sport definitely not my bag-el) or of Jack Black. And misled myself at 23 by trying DOUSED – Diana Dors fording that old standby OUSE! How could I have missed Judi, my favourite actress?

  12. thanks for the blog, actually got the theme when I got to CRIB, I liked ELEMENT and JACK BLACK .
    MrPostMark@9 despite being called SOLO WHIST sometimes, they are not related , I play this with our Dutch students , typically three against one. Probably comes from the Spanish game Ombre , unusual being typically 3 players , two against one.

  14. Nice one, with some good Qaotic alphanumerics. No theme for me, as I was too busy chopping down the trees to see the wood, and forgot to look for it at the end 🙁

    I especially liked ADRENALINE, PONTOON and INCENTIVE. LOI was FASTENER – I was deceived by ‘enters’ being the anagrist rather than a container indicator. Good old Eli – he used to appear regularly but I haven’t seen him for a long while.

    PATIENCE has a particular crossword relevance. The subsidiary title of the G&S operetta is ‘Bunthorne’s Bride’ – from which the late and much beloved Guardian setter took his moniker.

    Thanks to S&B

  15. I saw the theme early for once, what with PATIENCE and BRIDGE hanging out there together. It didn’t help much, though, because this is yet another area where the ocean between us makes a difference. Except for a handful of international favorites (POKER, BRIDGE, BLACKJACK here), card games have always been fiercely regional. Oh, and we play CRIB but call it cribbage, and play PATIENCE but call it solitaire. There may be others like that. Anyway, I wanted to come to the blog to see which of these words were also British card games! I knew of SNAP, and had figured CHEAT and BRAG were probably games too, but hey. I could imagine someone calling a game THUMP–maybe someone could invent one?

  17. Enjoyed the theme, one I had some chance with, and very apt for this time of year. Fond memories of playing 500 with my parents on Boxing Day, in between the cricket.

    KIWI has occurred in several crossies lately. Wondered why. Is it a grid fill thing, like etui? With the crossers there are a lot of possibilities, but most of them unpronounceable, and, without a lot of research, meaningless to me.

    I did like 5p. PONTOON (Sent me looking for British slang, until I woke up.)
    Do they do serve up ‘puddings’ in Paris?
    Fav OUT OF MIND.

  18. Evident how much crossword clueing is a matter of taste – 3 of blogger’s favourites were ones I noted as highly questionable! I know there are no official rules but I had a hard time with what I saw as unindicated definitions by example (“helium” = ELEMENT, possible “does” = RED DEER although I think that’s debatable) and grammatical elasticity (“cocktail” as anagrind and “being small” = “small being”). Glad to see many others enjoyed this one though, thanks Qaos and manehi.

  19. Straightforward Boxing Day fare – I noted the reference to excess weight and OVEREATING, but will wait until January to mend my ways.

    Faves were ELEMENT and PONTOON.

    Thanks Qaos and manehi

  20. Completely missed the theme – I’m not sure I was playing with a full deck this morning. Loved PONTOON, ELEMENT and RED DEER but could have done without the red wine reminder 🙂

    Cheers Q&M

  21. Thanks for your Maskarade list Bodycheeteah, I really like having the clues in order.
    I hope you got a Dukla Prague away kit as a reward.

  22. Thanks Qaos and manehi
    I agree with Tassie Tim that 17a clearly clues KYLIE rather than KYRIE – “change of heart in prayer” is unambiguous that the prayer needs its middle letter changing.
    No theme, of course. I did question some of the definitions too – for instance, CRIB for me means “copy” rather than steal.
    RED DEER was favourite.

  23. Thanks, Qaos & manehi. Eileen @8 sums up my own feelings perfectly. I’ve solved enough Qaos puzzles by now to be accustomed to looking for a theme, so had no trouble spotting this one.

    Gladys @6 – I was the same on bagel, though I have heard of the tennis meaning – and since that comes from the fact that a zero is the same shape as a bagel, it makes no difference anyway.

  24. Thanks Qaos for the chewy Monday treat with many favourites including ADRENALIN, ELEMENT (loved the misleading definition), RED DEER (loved the misleading definition), CHEAT, ARTICLES, and RELIABLE (loved the surface). I failed with SELF. I spotted the theme but didn’t know many of the card games. Thanks manehi for the blog.

  25. I have a feeling that adrenalin(e) are not alternative spellings: one of them I think is a trademark, to be capitalised.

  26. Aphid @25
    I think the adrenalin spelling derives from the US habit, increasingly followed by us, of leaving out unnecessary letters. After all, we don’t pronounce the last syllable of “adrenaline” as “line”.

  27. [me @26
    On a related note, a German friend who used to teach EFL has never got to grips with our pronunciation of “granite”!]

  28. Really enjoyed this quick fare, but was stuck for ages on ‘5p’ – pontoon was all that could fit but had been thinking pent-smthg- didn’t twig to think of 5d. Thanks for the parsing!

  29. 17a, put KYLIE instead of the prayer, the way I read the clue, the prayer was the homophone and the singer the definition, oh well.
    Thanks both

  31. I was going to get cross about using T for Tesla, but after coming here I see that there is a legitimate explanation of which I was unaware. Also, I assumed that the definition for TAPER was “get lighter”, hardly the same as “get narrower”, but again I was barking up the wrong tree. “Stroppy” is common, but I’ve never heard of the noun form. Didn’t get PONTOON … rather a devious wordplay methinks. Also failed to get OVEREATING (weird) and CRIB (must get used to CR for King, now that ER has left us). Certain Britishisms were unknown to me, such as Football Association and Scottish National Party. Hadn’t heard of Jack Black, and only vaguely remembered encountering Bridget Jones in another puzzle some weeks ago.

  33. Spotted the theme early for once which helped a bit.
    I also had to wait for the crosser to decide about KYRIE.
    I parsed CRIB slightly differently as CRI (King – Charles I) and B (first born). My thinking was that first would give IST not I. Then again, first isn’t needed for b from born as it’s a valid abbreviation anyway. It probably works either way.
    Favourites were RED DEER for the nicely hidden definition (along with the one at ELEMENT) and ARTICLES for the “bits and pieces”.
    Is the penultimate column telling us that Qaos is not going to write a novel anytime soon?

  34. PONTOON & PATIENCE would have gone in far quicker if I’d pegged the theme in running. Fairly gentle & perfect for a Monday.
    Thanks both.

  35. Tried hard to fit ‘perch’ for 13 down. Rod ,pole or perch remembered from school days, ‘per’ clearly there, but nothing else.

  36. JCWood @32 My reaction precisely. My Oxford Dictionary app is silent on it, but it’s in Collins as British (which I’m not). FWIW I see the Kylie/Kyrie clue as ambiguous. I’m not too fussed about that frequent phenomenon, but I do think that in principle clues should be gettable without crossers. It’s interesting when you get people trenchantly on opposing sides of the possible interpretations. Reminiscent of that blue/gold dress.

    Thanks to Qaos and manehi.

  37. At times it felt like Qaos was going easy with us due to the holiday period, but there were still a few stubborn clues that held out for a while. I liked it all but I cannot believe I didn’t spot that bleedingly obvious theme. I couldn’t parse 13a PONTOON as I couldn’t spot the definition, and only got it using the TOO for “also” and the crossers. Now I think if I had parsed it I would have said “Ah, as in the card game”, and surely then the penny would have dropped. But even 4d PATIENCE and 8d SNAP didn’t tip me off. Another case of synapses not making the connections. Must have been just too tired and all Christmassed out. Many thanks to Qaos and manehi.

  38. Enjoyed the puzzle, totally missed the theme. I’d never heard of some of the card games, but I knew others, so that’s a poor excuse. Thanks, Qaos and manehi.

  39. Every time I start a Qaos I think “theme”, but by the time I am into the crossword my brain has already forgotten to look for one. I’m going to start writing it above the puzzle!

  40. I parsed 17a the other way, giving KYLIE, and didn’t notice that either end of the clue might be the definition. Then I couldn’t get 2d so DNF. A shame because 17a does have a nice surface.

  41. I agree with those who said that 17a could equally be KYLIE or KYRIE, but I don’t see why that is a flaw. The crosser gives the correct choice, and after all it is a crossword, is it not? When I solved it I simply wrote KYL/RIE and worked with 2d ending in L or R until that clue fell. Does that make it too difficult?

    Thanks Qaos and manehi for the fun.

  43. Re 17ac, I think the word “has” rules out KYLIE as the answer. ” has ” is less plausible than ” in “. Though we waited for the crosser just in case.

  44. That should read “[definition] has [wordplay]” and “[wordplay] in [definition]”. Seems the comment mechanism doesn’t like angled brackets.

Comments are closed.