Guardian Cryptic 29,066 by Pangakupu

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Pangakupu steps up to the Guardian setting plate this morning.

This was certainly no walkover. My first pass yielded only two across answers and a handful of down solutions. I gradually worked through the rest of the grid with the help of the crossing letters I had gleaned, but the north-east corner held out for a while until I saw TAKE CARE OF, which opened up the missing ones. A lot of the clues took longer to parse than solve, and a certain amount of general knowledge was required (eg FRAM, SEGOVIA, BRAMBLING), but I got there in the end.

 

Thanks, Pangakupu.

ACROSS
9 APART
First carriage returned in a different place (5)
<=TRAP A (“first carriage” (as opposed to Trap B, which could be the second carriage), returned)
10 COCKATIEL
Draw in to prepare to shoot a lake bird (9)
TIE (“draw”) in COCK (“to prepare to shoot”) + A + L (lake)
11 LASER DISC
Boy is caught capturing series — on this? (5,4)
LAD (“boy”) + IS + C (caught, in cricket) capturing Ser. (series)
12 EIGHT
Article about government issue recalled quantity (5)
<=(THE (“article”) about GI (government issue), recalled)
13 SEGOVIA
Leave sextet enthralled by the main guitarist (7)
GO (“leave”) + VI (Roman numeral 6, so “sextet”) enthralled by SEA (“the main”)

Andrés Segovia (1893-1987) was a Spanish classical guitarist.
15 PLACATE
Calm, being about to enter horse race (7)
ca. (circa, so “about”) to enter PLATE (“horse race”)
17 ARSON
Each is discounted in a motive for crime (5)
Ea. (each) is discounted from A R(ea)SON (“motive”)
18 EMS
A few backtracked, eliminating zero spaces in printed material (3)
<=S(o)ME (“a few”, backtracked, eliminating O (zero))
20 EAGLE
Silver luminance seen in wings of exquisite bird (5)
Ag (chemical symbol for “silver”) + L (luminance) in [wings of] E(xquisit)E
22 PIGMENT
Invention having soft (not loud) colour (7)
(f)IGMENT (“invention”) having P (piano, so “soft”) not F (forte, so “loud”) becomes (P)IGMENT
25 OFF-RAMP
Exit path from Nansen’s ship, heading for Pole (3-4)
OF (“from”) + FRAM (“Nansen’s ship”) + [heading for] P(ole)

“Fram” was a ship used by several Norwegian polar explorers, including Nansen and Amundsen.
26 TETRA
Four without question recalled in this prefix? (5)
<=(qu)ARTET (“four”, without QU. (question)) [returned] and &lit.

“Tetra-” is a prefix to indicate “four”
27 BRAMBLING
Bird book without much focus? (9)
B (book) + RAMBLING (“without much focus”)

A brambling is a small bird related to the chaffinch.
30 NEURALGIA
Difficulty in conveying sensation aroused by eg a urinal (9)
*(eg a urinal) [anag:aroused by]
31 CHASE
Hunting opening for Holmes in investigation (5)
[opening for] H(olmes) in CASE (“investigation”)
DOWN
1 EARL
Nobleman and king left to the end (4)
(King) LEAR with L (left) [to the end] becomes EAR-L
2 SAUSAGES
America brought in wise folk to identify a string of items (8)
USA (“America”) brought in (to) SAGES (“wise folk”)
3 STAR
Bright item’s endless glare (4)
[endless] STAR(e) (“glare”)
4 ACTIVATE
Current obligation to adopt tax move (8)
AC (alternating “current”) + TIE (“obligation”) to adopt VAT (Value Added “Tax”)
5 ICECAP
Cold current picked up speed, rising to frozen region (6)
<=(C (cold) + I (“current”, in physics), picked up) + <=PACE (“speed”, rising)
6 TAKE CARE OF
Maintain opinion on vehicle opponent rolled (4,4,2)
TAKE (“opinion”) on CAR (“vehicle”) + <=FOE (“opponent”, rolled)
7 VIAGRA
Old way to bring in a government rebellion, initially a boost for a member? (6)
VIA (Roman word for road, so “old way”) to bring in A + G(overnment) R(ebellion) [initially]
8 GLUT
Instinctive to limit large surplus production (4)
GUT (“instinctive”) to limit L (large)
13 STAMP
Touches up, cuddling male character (5)
<=PATS (“touches”, up) cuddling M (male)
14 VENAE CAVAE
Archdeacon attending hospital department getting warning about a couple of veins (5,5)
Ven. (venerable, address for an “archdeacon”) attending A&E (accident and emergency, so “hospital department”) getting CAVE (Latin for “warning”) about A

The “venae cavae” are the two major veins which take blood to the heart.
16 EYEUP
Carefully consider status of the king of the country of the blind? (3,2)
The man with one eye is “king of the country of the blind”, as he is one EYE UP on the others.
19 STOWAWAY
Travelling illegally, drag American through control (8)
TOW (“drag”) + A (American) through SWAY (“control”)
21 GRAVITAS
Most of shop opened by key that’s cut? Serious stuff (8)
[most of] GRAS(s) (“shop”) opened by VITA(l) (“key”) [that’s cut]
23 GET OUT
Instruction to depart for one uppity solicitor (3,3)
[uppity] <=e.g. (“for one”) + TOUT (“solicitor”)
24 TOBAGO
Island extremely welcoming to some game (6)
TOO (“extremely”) welcoming BAG (“some game”)

One of the definitions of “bag” is a quantity of fish or game secured, as kept in a game bag.
26 TONY
Unknown figure in no way up for an award (4)
<=(Y (“unknown”, in mathematics) + NOT (“in no way”), up)
28 BUCK
Resist American car disgorging one (4)
BU(i)CK (“American car”) disgorging I (one)
29 GREY
Dull and slimy when extracted (4)
AS (“when”) extracted from GRE(as)Y

82 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29,066 by Pangakupu”

  4. I continue to find Pangakupu a real challenge compared to his alter ego. This took longer than usual and I got truly stuck at the end with the interlinked COCKATIEL and ACTIVATE. TETRA probably my favourite.

    Thanks both

  5. I got off to a very slow start, only solving a couple of clues after half an hour. But I abandoned ship with one of yesterday’s crosswords, so I thought I’d better not do so again, lest I begin to fear onset of dementia, so I persevered and managed to pick up speed and finish reasonably efficiently.

    I did have quite a long list of “issues” stretching down the side of the page. Swamp/character? I’d forgotten grass/shop (never heard “shop” used this way; have only seen it in crosswords). Ser for series, L for luminance and GI for government issue elicited groans. I’m sure in certain obscure contexts they’re legit, but even so. I thought 31a would have worked better with “hunt” rather than “hunting”, and likewise 19d with “travel” rather than “travelling”. My Latin wasn’t up to scratch twice in the one clue, for 14d. All three of the wordplay elements were beyond me: Ven for an archbishop, A&E (we don’t have that in Australia and I keep forgetting what you have in the UK) and “cave” as a Latin warning. The definition for SAUSAGES was a bit loose. Wikipedia enlightened me about Nansen and his ship. I hadn’t heard of a brambling.

    Favourite clue was probably GET OUT.

    Thanks Pangakupu & Loonapick.

  6. Thanks, Pangakupu and loonapick! Lovely puzzle and a great blog.
    STOWAWAY
    A typo: STAY. SWAY intended for sure.

  8. For me, this took the right amount of time, but, unfortunately, too many unparsed answers. Thanks P and L.

  9. GDU@5
    GRAVITAS
    ‘grass and shop’ in the sense of ‘rat on’.
    My understanding:
    shop=rat on=grass on (as verbs)
    grass=rat (as nouns; one who rats on someone).
    dunno if ‘shop’ as a noun means grass/rat (noun) in the above sense. Looking for some education here.

    GI (government issue) is often clued as ‘soldier’ or ‘serviceman’ (you may recall).

    CHASE
    hunting as a noun works. No?

    STOWAWAY
    As STOWAWAY is either a noun or a verb, but not an adjective, suggested ‘travel illegally’ works better, I feel.

  10. Well spotted, Andrew @ 2

    KVa @ 6 – now corrected, thanks.

    GDU @ 5 – The answer to 13dn was STAMP, not SWAMP as in “the stamp of the man” – does that make more sense? The Chase is another word for “hunting”, so OK in my book – the word, not the practice, unless for personal consumption rather than for the “fun of it”.

  12. KVa @9: STOWAWAY threw me too but it is down in Chambers as an adjective – defined as ‘travelling as a stowaway’ so Pangakupu is on solid ground

  13. Yes, KVa, I understand the grass/shop thing, but occasionally I need reminding. As I said, I’ve only ever encountered “shop” in that sense in crosswords. Perhaps I should get out more.

  15. “Matoru” in the ninth row? According to Google it means “thick”, or is that just what I’m being.
    Thanks to Pangakuou and loonapick

  16. Great puzzle, certainly no walkover.

    Some clever clues here, with nice misdirections (I liked ‘for one uppity’) and rather a lot involving words missing letters: ARSON, EMS, STAR, GRAVITAS, BUCK, GREY – and the superb TETRA.
    I don’t think I’ve seen the plural VENAE CAVAE before, although I knew there was a superior and and inferior one.

    The definition for NEURASTHENIA puzzled me, and ‘quantity’ for EIGHT is as vague as they come!

    Thanks to S&B

  19. I struggled but it was worth it’ Picks EIGHT, VIAGRA and TAKE CARE OF, The first I saw quickly but the other two took flashes of inspiration.
    Thanks for puzzle & blog

  20. Thanks loonapick and P.

    As others, slow to start (just EARL first time through), but yielded slowly and steadily thereafter. I counted 7 “think of a word and drop a letter or two” constructs.

    2 OFF-RAMP I couldn’t quite reconcile “of” with “from”, but thought it came from “Nansen’s ship” – ship of Nansen – but this doesn’t quite work, either.

  22. Lots of very diverse clues today to make this a most tricky but interesting solve. I was looking for a trademark word like you DuncT @15, and found a M?ori dictionary which gives it as a modifier, ‘crowded’ or as a noun ‘crowd’. Well spotted Andrew @2 btw. I liked SAUSAGES, GET OUT, VIAGRA, SEGOVIA, ARSON, EYE UP and GREY. I always enjoy the challenge from this setter.

    Ta Pangakupu & loonapick.

  23. Well spotted Andrew@2.

    The list of those I couldn’t parse is too long to quote, but like Geoff Down Under, I had trouble with the same group of rarely-seen abbreviations: Government Issue, Luminance, Ser(ies). I did remember VEN(erable), but current=I gets me every time, as did current=AC in the preceding clue. Didn’t know that definition for NEURALGIA, which I know as a painful condition that conveys sensation all too well! I expect I am medically inaccurate.

    Pangakupu is not my favourite setter, but I liked the figment/pigment pair, ARSON, SAUSAGES, SEGOVIA.

  24. This seemed totally impenetrable to me at first but slowly unravelled in a most satisfying way, and I found that I did actually have the necessary knowledge to solve it without aids once I had stirred up the aged memory.

  25. DuncT@25 : Pangakupu usually includes a Maori NINA. My TAKE is that rows 3 and 9 are today’s NINA. We have rua tekau m? toru which is our current year ’23’ counted in Maori. There may be others but I haven’t spotted them !

    Thank you Pangakupu and loonapick.

  27. My intended Maori inflections are obviously WordPress controls — ma toru is the back end – digit 3 in the 23.

  28. Andrew @2: I forgot to congratulate you on the great spot. Not firing on all neurones this morning – I don’t know how I managed to complete the puzzle. Or perhaps doing it has just discharged the cerebral batteries 🙂

  29. I am no M?ori scholar, but I see Rua Tekau Ma Toru across the third and ninth rows, and the internet suggests this means 23 in M?ori. So perhaps it is the setter’s 23rd puzzle, or the number means something today, or it’s just the insertion of a M?ori nina which is Pangapu’s trademark? I enjoyed the puzzle anyway.

  30. Well I managed it with help from my better half, plus Bradford and the check button. Could only parse a few, which were actually pretty easy, so a big gap between them and the rest. North east corner last, but I knew Segovia and once I got the disc things started to click.
    So many thanks for the parsing, L and other bloggers, and thanks to P for the workout.

  31. navidier@3 I’d never have spotted RUA TEKAU in the 3rd row until you mentioned it. Ka mau te wehi!
    A few I didn’t solve or parse but enjoyable nonetheless.
    Thanks loonapick and Pangakupu.

  32. Like Gervase @16, I was tickled by “uppity” as a direction indicator. Couldn’t parse 4, 14, and 21 down, though with hindsight I should have.

  35. Purely by chance my first three in were all four letters so I thought I’d try solving in reverse order of clue length and it worked a treat providing lots of crossers for the trickier longer clues. Good to see an appearance for the poor old LASER DISC and with EIGHT (TRACK) coming next I thought we might be getting an obsolete technology theme but sadly not

    Lot’s of ticks in this highly enjoyable romp but VENAE CAVAE feels like the kind of clue that gives cryptics a bad name

    Cheers P&L

  36. Too few anagrams! Weak solvers like me depend on them to get started.

    Could someone explain PLATE = horse race?

  37. Managed a few four and five letter clues, but hardly scratched the surface of this. Found it uninviting and too wordy for me to make any kind of a genuine effort. Sorry, Pangakupu, you’re really not my cup of tea at all. Tomorrow’s another day, though…

  38. …the Newmarket Plate is the name of one of the oldest horse races in this country, 17thC…at least I know that…

  39. Took a few minutes to get started, then suddenly it all fell into place and I enjoyed the solve. Rather liked sausages and brambling.
    Thanks to Pangakupu and loonapick

  40. Tough, for me it was more of a slog than a pleasure.

    I did not parse:
    9ac apart from A = first? + rev of TRAP (carriage) – forgot about the Trap A, Trap B gimmick
    4d apart from VAT = tax
    14d
    16d = cd but did not really understand it

    New for me: VENAE CAVAE; FRAM = Nansen’s ship for 25ac (thanks, google).

    Thanks, both.

  41. KVa@9: GI in relation to soldiers means General Infantryman. I’m unaware of it as meaning Government Issue, but I suppose it must be used that way somewhere.

    I think BRAMBLING has appeared before, but I didn’t remember it. I had the same reservations as others about STOWAWAY, but never mind.

    The grammar for SAUSAGES is dodgy. I don’t think ‘in’ and ‘into’ are equivalent here.

    Nonetheless, this was difficult but interesting.

  42. Well, my M?ori is improving; I did spot RUA TEKAU but not MA TORU, thanks to Flea @25.

    When I saw vein, I thought VENA CAVA, but that doesn’t fit in, doh! It’s always tough to fit in NINAs and not get many obscurities, so well done Pan. except VENAE CAVAE may not have been known to some. I liked the Paulian VIAGRA, STOWAWAY with a good surface, and GRAVITAS for the nicely misleading surface.

    Thanks P&L

  43. poc @41; from Collins: adjective
    Conforming to US Army regulations; of standard government issue     It’s also in Wiktionary.

  44. Poc @ 41 – GI is not just General Infantry

    From Wikipedia

    G.I. are initials used to describe the soldiers of the United States Army and airmen of the United States Air Force and general items of their equipment.[1] The term G.I. has been used as an initialism of “Government Issue”, “General Issue”, “Ground Infantry”, and “Gunnery Instructor” and was used by the logistics services of the United States Armed Forces.[2][3]

  45. I was wondering the”first” was doing in 9a so thanks for that
    Loved Segovia.Nice neat puzzle.

  46. poc @41: On reflection, you’re right about the grammar for SAUSAGES: ‘brought in’ implies SAGES in USA rather than vice versa, although this didn’t stop me from spotting the solution easily and I didn’t notice it at the time (and I think ‘links’ would have been a better definition than ‘a string of items’).

  47. I found this hard, and while not the most enjoyable solve, I thought it was better than this setter’s previous efforts – less of the tortuous wordplay than before.
    I always thought the “GI” marks on equipment that gave US service personnel their UK nickname did indeed stand for government issue, so no quibble there – the other possible meanings of the initials never occurred to me. And no problem with STOWAWAY as an adjective (after a brief pause for thought).
    Favourites include BRAMBLING, VIAGRA, TETRA.
    Less keen on current=AC in ACTIVATE – though I think I’ve seen it a few times before; STAMP=character (somewhat stretched definition) and SAUSAGES (for same reason as poc@41). But these are small complaints.
    Thanks Loonapick and Pangakupu.

  48. I thought this was fun and satisfying to complete, even though I didn’t know FRAM and I failed to parse TOBAGO because I got stuck on thinking of GO being the game. I thought TETRA reversed In QUARTET was a great spot – I don’t recall having seen it before.
    Thanks Pangakupu and loonapick for the great blog.

  49. As a matter of interest, why are several contributors writing M?ori as if the word is unacceptable? (I’m probably just not up to date with political correctness).

  50. I found several clues unsatisfactory today, notably GRAVITAS and STAMP. As usual I disliked BRAMBLING out of my standing objection to less-than-commonplace plants and birds. Some single letter abbreviations were also dubious.

    14D was doubly frustrating with its GK in both the answer and the construction, including VEN for archdeacon. Also “AE” is not “A and E”, although that was about the only part I parsed! I will add uncommon medical terms to my list of plants and birds as objectionable GK.

    Favorite was 11A.

  51. gladys @49: it’s because they can’t type Māori 😉

    bc @35
    Transporters of deoxygenated blood to the heart
    And you’re to blame
    You give veins a bad name

    Tough but good, thanks P & L.

  53. essexboy @51: Doesn’t the superior vena cava carry carbonated wine rather than deoxygenated blood? 🙂

  55. Thanks loonapick, Andrew@2 and various for the full Nina explanation. I had a few quibbles, all mentioned I think, but the challenge was pitched just right to encourage my perseverance. Also blasts from the past remembering Hibbert’s beastly 30A from Journey’s End, and one of my favourite Marx Brothers films thanks to 19d (available in full on Youtube, i now see). So thanks Pangakupu!

  56. KVa@9: I think there has been debate on shop vs grass before and I am aligned with you I think that they are not exact 1:1 substitutes, but I think close enough (maybe I would not feel so charitable if I hadn’t got it). As verbs: I grassed, I grassed on you, I grassed you up. I shopped you. Maybe in the infinitive they are closest? As nouns I don’t think there is an equivalent form for “shop”.
    Ronald@38 thanks for replying to simonc@36 with that specific plate. I am more used to the Plate being a sort of “consolation” competition in eg rugby Sevens tournaments so was a bit puzzled. Still seems quite niche though!

  57. gladys @ 49 I suspect that the user has generated a character on their device that isn’t supported by the blogging software here.

    Thanks Pangakupu & loonapick

  58. News to me that a horse race is a plate. Couldn’t parse that or ARSON, OFF-RAMP (I’d guessed that the ship was the Ram and we were off it)

    New to me BRAMBLING, Ven (I think) for Archdeacon, though I might have remembered A&E

    Odd definition for NEURALGIA. A new treatment of King Lear.

    2d I forgot that the US can also be the USA.

    Thanks Pangakapu and loonapick.

  59. I feel stupid, but cannot see what carriage has to do with trap, be it trap a or trap b, in 9a. Clearly missing something key.
    Really grateful for much of the parsing as I put in several “hit and hope” with no real idea as to why they proved to be correct.
    A strange mixture, as several were both neat and witty.

  60. KateE@59
    From Collins online : A trap is a light carriage with two wheels pulled by horses in which people used to travel.

  61. Thanks Pangakupu. Many of these clues I guessed from the definition and a few crossings; some of the parsing was impossible for me e.g. VENAE CAVAE. I still enjoyed the crossword due to clues like COCKATIEL, EMS, TAKE CARE OF, and VIAGRA. Thanks loonapick for a nicely written and much needed blog.

  63. Thanks for the blog, really enjoyed this and almost lasted the perfect time, great word play throughout.
    BRAMBLINGs are beautiful birds, like a cross between a chaffinch and a bullfinch , we only get them in winter. The Country of the Blind was by HG Wells .

  64. Valentine@58. A horse race isn’t a plate, but a plate is type of horse race. (Technically it’s one where a prize is offered which doesn’t include the entry fees – as opposed to a stakes, where the prize consists largely of the entry fees.)

  65. This was the closest I’ve come to being on this setter’s wavelength, though it was still a struggle. The last 10 solutions required several revisits and SWAMP was a final stumbling block. The news about Trump had obviously led me to the wrong kind of ‘touches’.

    FRAM was easy to anyone whose acquaintance with the Swallows & Amazons books extended as far as Winter Holiday, where it was used as the name of the houseboat that became frozen into the lake.

    Thanks to Pangakupu and loonapick, and congratulations to those who spotted the Nina(s), and Andrew@2 for linking up the four-letter lights

  66. Tricky in places and I failed on parsing GRAVITAS. But a fair challenge and a very enjoyable puzzle.

    VENAE CAVAE was my favourite.

    Thanks Pangakupu and loonapick

  68. [Seeing AC clued as current and thinking of tonight’s Champion’s League match, it struck me that we often see Inter as a team in crosswords but rarely if ever AC and I wondered if it would be fair if we did]

  69. [Petert@68. Interesting idea (see what I did there?). First thoughts are that it would be unfair to use ‘team’ or ‘side’ to clue AC, and just using ‘Milan’ would be too obvious to some and too obscure to others. Difficult already to please all of the people all of the time, and this one seems to be asking for trouble, so I can’t see setters starting to use it.]

    I don’t see why ‘current’ is problematic.

  70. [Petert @68: AC stands for Associazione Calcio (Football Association) and the Milanese team is not the only one with these initials. Definitely unfair, I would say. Incidentally, the team is known as Milan rather than Milano because it was founded by an English expat – though the locals stress it on the first syllable. And Milan is also the name of the city in Lombard dialect, as it happens]

  71. As another Swallows and Amazons reader, Fram did come to mind for OFF RAMP. I liked this puzzle and found it more tractable than usual for this setter.

    Thank you Pangakupu and loonapick

  72. Fairly hard work. Got there in the end but needed your help to fully parse GRAVITAS, OFF RAMP and TETRA.
    We’re having a challenging week, I thought Brendan was tough yesterday, too. Bracing myself for something truly horrendous by Friday…

  73. Am I alone in thinking that there seems to be an unusually large number of instances of the letter G in the answers?

  74. Andrew@73. Yes, I noticed that too. They’re fairly evenly spaced around the grid, with only GLUT not connecting with another word via the G. But I can’t see any significance – and at the end of the day, there are only seven of them!

  75. I solved several clues without parsing them (I see I wasn’t the only one), but on going back over those clues afterwards I was very pleased that I ended up parsing all except one: GRAVITAS. So it was a better puzzle than I thought! Before that, I got stuck with a few clues left to solve, but on returning to 14d, where I had VENAE …, not knowing the other word, I managed finally to work it out from the wordplay, and that enabled me to finish.

    Thanks to Pangakupu and loonapick. Also to those who pointed out the ‘joined up’ four-letter words and the nina.

  76. Thanks for fleshing out the plate, Sheffield hatter, happy about that now. And thanks for the slang Petert, I had previously thought it must derive from the manufacturer of mopeds and underpowered motorbikes!

  77. Sheffield hatter @ 65, it ain’t SWAMP, it’s STAMP, as Loonapick @ 10 kindly pointed out to me.

  78. Geoff@77. I know. That’s why I was stumbling on it! I quickly realised that I couldn’t make SWAMP work and changed it to incorporate the less contentious “pats” instead of “paws”.

  79. Thanks to Pangakupu and loonapick

    bodycheetah@35. I sometimes find the references to long-obsolete tech by the setters quite quaint and amusing. Reminds me a bit of the old sketch with the judge (Rowan Atkinson) saying “what on earth is a digital watch?”

    11A had 3 big problems in my mind- the tech is long obsolete (not mentioned), it is LaserDisc (no space), and no commercial writer was ever available, so the boy would not have been capturing anything. I suppose P could not resist the excellent surface construction though!

  81. Apologies if I’ve missed this in previous posts but Loonapick’s parsing for 7d VIAGRA is incomplete – doesn’t include the last A. So it should read
    VIA (Roman word for road, so “old way”) to bring in A + G(overnment) R(ebellion) [initially], plus the A from a boost for member

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