Guardian Cryptic 29,222 by Anto

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29222.

Nothing to frighten the horses, but a pleasant outing. My vote is for 17D PIFFLING.

ACROSS
9 OFF SWITCH
Cancelled change, it stops things working (3,6)
A charade of OFF (‘cancelled’) plus SWITCH (‘change’).
10 OZONE
Gas from lightweight individual (5)
A charade of OZ (ounce, ‘lightweight’) plus ONE (‘individual’).
11 NOTABLE
Outstanding restaurant’s curt rejection of booking enquiry (7)
NO TABLE (‘restaurant’s curt rejection of booking enquiry’)
12 WEST HAM
Team removing wobbly set for pop duo (4,3)
A clue which works in the opposite way to what you probably thought first: if you remove EST (‘wobbly set’) from the answer, you get WHAM (‘pop duo’).
13 IMPI
Firm’s paid regularly to supply fighters (4)
Alternate letters (‘regularly’) of ‘fIrMs PaId’, for a group of Zulu (or other Bantu) ‘warriors’.
14 SCOREBOARD
Secure management group that shows results (10)
A charade of SCORE (‘secure’, verb, to be successful in getting) plus BOARD (‘management group’).
15 HACKNEY
Old coach reportedly cut away joint (7)
A charade of HACK (‘cur away’) plus NEY, sounding like (‘reportedly’) KNEE (‘joint’).
17 PREFECT
Government official is bang on shifting river to the west (7)
PERFECT (‘bang on’) with the R moved one place to the right (‘shifting river to the west’).
19 HEATHCLIFF
Geographic features linked with antihero (10)
A charade: HEATH and CLIFF are both ‘geographical features’, and he is the ‘antihero’ of Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.
22 GOBI
Half of gold bike, it’s covered in sand (4)
‘Half of GOld BIke’, for the Desert.
23 KNEEPAD
Arrange and keep protection for one praying? (7)
An anagram (‘arrange’) of ‘and keep’. I would call it a kneeler.
24 LIE DOWN
Rest needed by stand-up? Just the opposite (3,4)
‘Just the opposite’ of LIE (‘stand’) plus DOWN (‘up’). SIT DOWN would fit the clue as well, but not the crossers.
26 DREAR
It’s dismal in poetry putting attention on darker edges (5)
A charade of DR (‘DarkeR edges’) plus EAR (‘attention’).
27 AU NATUREL
Awfully late run chasing gold with little preparation (2,7)
A charade of AU (chemical symbol, ‘gold’) plus NATUREL, an anagram (‘awfully’) of ‘late run’.
DOWN
1 DOWN WITH THE KIDS
Connected with youths, but complaining about them? (4,4,3,4)
Double definition, more or less.
2 OFF-TOPIC
Heading for photograph not giving the right message (3-5)
OFF TO PIC (‘heading for photograph’).
3 SWAB
Surgeon wipes around bowel openings to take a sample (4)
First letters (‘openings’) of ‘Surgeon Wipes Around Bowel’, with an extended example rather than definition.
4 STRETCHY
Time to be served unknown but flexible (8)
A charade of STRETCH (prison ‘time to be served’) plus Y (mathematical ‘unknown’).
5 THE WAR
Cut sailor receives in major international conflict (3,3)
An envelope (‘receives’) of HEW (‘cut’) in TAR (‘sailor’).
6 POSSIBLE
Information qualified lawyer supplied to gang? It could happen (8)
An envelope (‘supplied to’) of I (‘information’) plus BL (Bachelor of Law, ‘qualified lawyer’) in POSSE (‘gang’).
7 JOSHUA
Banter over posh amateur producing book (6)
A charade of JOSH (‘banter’) plus (‘over’ in a down light) U (‘posh’) plus A (‘amateur’), for the book of the Bible.
8 BERMUDA TRIANGLE
Builder rang team deployed in dangerous location (7,8)
An anagram (‘deployed’) of ‘builder rang team’, for the purported ‘dangerous location’.
16 NO-HOPERS
Spooner wanders around hospital identifying those likely to fail (2-6)
No, not a spoonerism. An envelope (‘around’) of H (‘hospital’) in NOOPERS, an anagram (‘wanders’) of ‘Spooner’.
17 PIFFLING
Having constant F pitch is not that important (8)
A charade of PI (mathematical ‘constant’) plus ‘F” plus FLING (‘pitch’).
18 ECO-TOURS
French city supports English company, they attract green travellers (3-5)
A charade of E (‘English’) plus CO (‘company’) plus TOURS (‘French city’).
20 APE-MEN
Distant relatives having last word about exercising (3-3)
An envelope (‘about’) of PE (‘exercising’) in AMEN (‘last word’).
21 LAD MAG
Partially unclad, Maggie might be seen in one? (3,3)
A hidden answer (partially’) in ‘uncLAD MAGgie’, with an extended definition.
25 EATS
Worries when early rounds have not begun (4)
A subtraction: [h]EATS (‘early rounds’) minus the first letter (‘have not begun’). The plural ‘have’ does not sit well with the cryptic reading (and it could have been omitted).

picture of the completed grid

69 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29,222 by Anto”

  1. Lots to like here. I particularly liked the non-Spoonerism appearance of Spooner, and the evocative surface reading in SWAB. But I’m totally not a fan of the “reverse clue” device for WEST HAM. As written, it’s absolutely a clue for WHAM, and I’m afraid you won’t be able to convince me otherwise.

  2. I thought that the early rounds in 25d were beats, and wondered why they were early. Didn’t think of heats.

    That was my only head scractcher. Rare for me to finish a crossword with out a “Huh?” list. And my NHO (never heard of) list was only two: IMPI & DOWN WITH THE KIDS.

    Most enjotable, thanks Anto, and thanks PeterO for the blog.

  3. Yes, a pleasant outing describes it well. Not sure what having was doing in PIFFLING (apart from the surface), but otherwise no quibbles.

    Thanks A&P

  4. A very likeable puzzle, with ticks for 29a HEATHCLIFF (mostly because I am a Brontëphile), 3d SWAB, 7d JOSHUA, 8d BERMUDA TRIANGLE and 21d LAD MAG. My LOI was OZONE at 10a and I was going to complain about Australia (Oz) being clued as “lightweight” – until I realised Anto was talking about ounces not us! (I’m red-faced to admit that.) Thanks to AntO and PeterO.

  5. [P.S. The only one I couldn’t parse was the non-Spoonerism at 16d NO-HOPERS, and I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that too!]

  6. My only struggle was with the long anagram for MERMUDA TRIANGLE.
    Nice to have Spooner as anagram fodder so NO-HOPERS was my favourite with a tick for PIFFLING as well.

  8. 6d: On the topic of abbreviations, I can’t find the a justification in Chambers for i=information. Is there another dictionary that the Guardian uses?

  9. FYI Ilan Caron (for your information)
    IT, Information Technology
    CIO, Corporate Information Officer

    Etcetera

  10. Another fan of NO-HOPERS use of Spooner. For DOWN WITH THE KIDS I wondered about yoof not kids so left it until I had more crossers.

    Thank you to PeterO and Anto.

  11. The easiest of the week so far, but jam packed with some lovely charades and puns. Favourites were NO-HOPERS for a fun misdirection and nice surface and SWAB for being both clever and gross at the same time.

  13. This was great fun. I thought WEST HAM was very good – nice to get your expectations challenged occasionally. With the first two acrosses my first two in, I thought it might be a doddle, but there was enough to get the brain cells working, without becoming too frustrating. A pity two OFFs crossed. I’m a NO HOPER fan too. Thanks, PeterO and Anto.

  14. This was more my level.
    OK, I had Sit for Lie at 24a, had no hope of parsing No Hoper and 17d was gettable but more of a guess. But that’s just piffling whinges from someone who isn’t very good at crosswords..
    Thought this was very good today. And the blog explained clearly what I hadn’t worked out.

  15. William@12: I have heard “Where have you been?”. ” I’ve been DOWN WITH THE KIDS”. And the phrase ‘DOWN WITH…’ is common enough to express disapproval.

  17. This must be fairly straightforward if I finished before 8.30. The LHS was finished before the RHS was even begun but then a quick spot of the anagram at 8dn opened up that side. Loved the non-Spoonerism Spooner and didn’t have a problem at all with West Ham. (Sorry to contradict you Tassie Tim@15 but DWTK is not an expression of physical location but means sharing interests/views with them. Using the expression is generally seen as demonstrating that you are anything but down with the kids!)
    Thanks to PeterO and Anto.

  20. Enjoyed although didn’t get many of the top half answers on first pass. Did better on the downs and then the crossers helped.

    Found that I got quite a few from the description.

    NO-HOPERS was my FOI. Not heard of IMPI but managed to work it out which is rare for me to work out an unknown word from the wordplay.

    Liked: AU NATUREL, NOTABLE, OZONE, APE-MEN

    Thanks Anto and PeterO

  21. Another fan of the non-spooner here – I’ve been hoping someone would do it for a while

    Anto’s a big fan of the “reverse subtraction” in WEST HAM so best just to grin and bear it

    Spent far too long trying to think of a three letter war before the penny dropped 🙂

    I’ll spare you the BERMUDA TRIANGLE earworm

    Cheers

    Cheers P&A

  22. I enjoyed this. The two long down ones went in fairly readily which was a good start. For those not familiar with the phrase, DOWN WITH THE KIDS is usually used sarcastically to refer to an older person trying a little too hard to be with it.

    I for information is one of those controversial crossword abbreviations because it’s not in most of the dictionaries but we’re all familiar with it from signs for information points. Personally I think it’s fine.

    Many thanks Anto and PeterO.

  23. Thanks Anto and PeterO
    Not hard, but very pleasant. I had SIT DOWN too, and didn’t know BL.
    Favourites the non-Spooner and APE MEN.

  24. 11a reminded me of the old chestnut ” The NOTABLE restaurant was NOT ABLE to accommodate the enquiry because it had NO TABLE.
    I had “?” ( alpha character in a circle ) as the universal ( browsing ) abbreviation for INFORMATION.
    PIFFLING was also my COTD.
    As per yesterday, I thought of two possible earworms to represent today’s X-word – Kate Bush – Wuthering Heights to feature HEATHCLIFF versus this one which I decided upon because BM’s final touring visit to the UK is first half of 2024.
    https://youtu.be/USTEYpJzugI?si=MsbxyRmcKrILtx77
    Thank you Anto and PeterO.

  26. I normally struggle with Anto, but not today. Though DOWN WITH THE KIDS didn’t quite chime with me, however. And struggled to parse PIFFLING, POSSIBLE, LIE DOWN and DREAR. I wonder whether we’re going to get a run on books of the Bible after JOSHUA and **** the other day (No spoiler, me). EATS (away) at equates more to Worries, perhaps. Plaudits for lovely long anagram for 8d…

  28. I echo Julie in Australia here, though much later (it’s 9.30 here) equally red-faced for similar reasons apart from the Oz bit as clearly I’m in Cambridge England. Thanks Anto and PeterO

  29. Thanks Setter and Blogger.

    A quick write in but some tricky parsings. Beautiful surfaces.

    Missed parsing ” possible ” as I can’t help but think of a law degree as LLB in the Latin – even in English it is usually Bachelor of Laws plural

  30. Started with DOWN WITH THE BOYS, then tried DOWN WITH THE LADS, and only got to DOWN WITH THE KIDS when KNEEPAD seemed the only answer for the crosser.

  31. Mostly harmless and a pleasant pastime. I liked the anagrams for BERMUDA TRIANGLE and KNEEPAD (PeterO might call it a kneeler, I would call it a hassock 🙂 ), and LAD MAG, SWAB and NOTABLE are nicely done.

    Spooner as anagrist is a good trick – but haven’t we already seen it quite recently? (That’s not a criticism of Anto – setters don’t know what each other is up to, and puzzles are often submitted months before they are published).

    I favour Lord Jim’s rationale for I = information – lower case i as a sign for a tourist information point is very familiar and widespread. Pace Crypto @9, I’m not so keen on using single letter abbreviations which are not used alone, however frequently.

    I’m with mrpenney @1 re WEST HAM. Clues are sometimes ambiguous but this seems to me to be unequivocally the wrong way round.

    Thanks to S&B

  32. An enjoyable puzzle; nothing so difficult you couldn’t work it out. Liked Heathcliff, West Ham – although took me a while – and of course, no-hopers which made me smile.

  33. In a different timeline I might have had a moan about reliance on pop-culture GK, but not this time, the name WHAM! (isn’t the exclamation mark obligatory?) was familiar enough – even if their songs are a closed book! Indeed I’ll mark WEST HAM as one of my favourites here…

    ….along with plenty others like NOTABLE, HACKNEY, HEATHCLIFF (is he really the antihero? What about Laurence Olivier’s portrayal?), OFF TOPIC, NO-HOPERS (how often have we seen “Spooner” in a clue which isn’t a Spoonerism?), BERMUDA TRIANGLE – and lots more.

    Anto may have produced the odd shaky clue in the past, but not here! Many thanks to him for an enjoyable if quick solve – and to Peter.

  34. I should have added, I disagree with those who say the WEST HAM clue is ‘the wrong way round’. We can’t all speak with one voice! To me the grammar is quite precise: definition at the front, and then the wordplay sets out exactly what you have to do.

    Of course this sort of clue is more characteristic of the Grauniad than of Other Places. Maybe it falls foul of strict Ximenean rules.

  35. I thought the clue for WEST HAM was fine; maybe the ‘for’ is a bit off-putting but I still think it makes sense.

    I liked the NO TABLE, HACK KNEE, OFF TO PIC, the good anagram for BERMUDA TRIANGLE and the non-Spoonerism. I’m still not really sure about the equivalence of score and secure, perhaps someone can give me a relevant sentence?

    Thanks Anto and PeterO.

  36. Robi@35: how about ‘He went into town and scored some dope’?

    Three finishes on the trot, very encouraging.

    It would have been nice to see PREFECT clued as ‘Ford was bang-on when river moved west’ for someone like me who enjoys spotting fifties cars in old films (The Ladykillers is particularly good).

    Thank you setter and blogger.

  37. DOWN WITH THE… Yoof? Boys? Lads? I left it until I had enough crossers to be sure.

    Good fun, this. I have seen the un-Spooner trick done before, but can’t remember where. Nice to see another one, and it certainly had me fooled for a while. I had trouble with POSSIBLE because I was trying to find IBL as a legal abbreviation: I know the qualification as LLB. Needed all the crossers for BERMUDA TRIANGLE.

    Robi@35: I managed to score/secure a good ticket for the concert.

  38. Started out very slow then sprinted to the finish line, with the two long down clues a big help.

    Another vote for the misdirection in 16D.

  39. William@12 My context would be hearing a certain poet from the north of England claiming on his Radio 3 programme that hip-hop and rap music is “urban poetry” because he wants to be “in” with the kids.

  40. I can only agree with others that this was very pleasant. The only one that I had a real blind spot with is PIFFLING. Very clever. Thanks to Anto and PeterO.

  41. Very enjoyable, my favourites being the misdirections for WEST HAM and NO HOPERS. (I’m not alone I see from comments above.) Not sure why PeterO is unhappy with ‘the heats have not begun’ – grateful for elucidation from those with better grammar knowledge than mine. Many thanks Anto and PeterO for the crystal clear explanations, especially for PIFFLING which I failed to parse.

  42. Like others I at first wasn’t quite sure what should come after DOWN WITH THE …. Perhaps the only dubious point in this puzzle: it’s generally understood that multi-word solutions should be well-established phrases or quotes. I wasn’t convinced that “… KIDS” quite cuts it.

    Familiar phrases I could think of were DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER and DOWN WITH SKOOL (as penned by one N. Molesworth). That was all.

    But I tried googling “Down With The Kids” and there is indeed a song with that title, performed by the delightful Fascinating Aïda – perhaps best known for her ‘Cheap Flights’ number.

    And moreover, it’s listed in Urban Dictionary under its alternate meaning.

    So it seems I was wrong…

  43. I can’t remember ever seeing BL before looking it up in Chambers just now – it’s always LLB as far as I can recall.

    Anto has used the device in WEST HAM often enough now that we should be used to it, though I admit it leaves a little feeling of dissatisfaction on solving, like drinking a cup of coffee that has become not quite as hot as one would like.

    Thanks to Anto and PeterO.

  44. Hadn’t heard of the band Wham or BL = Bachelor of Law.

    Hadn’t thought of “score” as a verb in 14ac.

    Did anybody else try to fit in EXE as the river in 17ac (PREFECT)?

    I think we recently had a Spoonerism-less reference to the Rev. Very clever.

    What’s a LAD MAG?

    Thanks to Anto and PeterO.

    In the US, DOWN WITH means “accepting,” as in “I’m down with that idea.”

  46. Valentine @44
    A LAD MAG is a magazine which incudes pictures of ladies in various states of undress. Your Playboy is a fairly upmarket example.

  49. I thought this was probably Anto’s smoothest offering to date. I smiled at IMPI coming after WEST HAM, which is reasonably close to HACKNEY. Most likely unintentional, but my homophonic colleague at QPR Academy, Andy Impey, used to play for WEST HAM.

    Ta Anto & PeterO.

  50. Thanks Anto (and PeterO for the blog (are they related?)) a very enjoyable puzzle. For once not many old/unusual references and only a couple of obscure words, which were therefore more obviously clued. As others have said, I struggle to read 12 in the manner intended, but got it nonetheless. Unlike others I thought 1d was a pretty common expression and put it in, in total, very early.
    It would be churlish to say a good antidote to yesterday’s Paul, but I will say it!

  51. p.s. Unlike Valentine @44 I thought quickly of score as a verb… albeit I’ve only ever thought of it in one context…misspent youth etc …

  54. Thanks Anto, that was excellent. It’s refreshing to read a blog about an Anto crossword that’s not boiling over with negativity. I had many favourites including NOTABLE, SCOREBOARD, HACKNEY, PREFECT, OFF TOPIC, and NO-HOPERS. I couldn’t parse the clever WEST HAM. [I first saw the letter “i” for information in 1988 on my 1st trip to Britain; the information kiosks around the country were a welcome sight in the days of paper maps and pay phones. Thanks PeterO for the blog.

  57. Thanks for the blog, always good to see Anto and like Tony@54 I was pleased to see this get a good reception for once.

  59. Valentine @44: Wham was George Michael’s entree into the pop scene; he was far more successful, this side of the Atlantic, as a solo artist than with Wham. I tried to think of some Wham songs you might know but could only think of solo George Michael.

    [Oddly, he was marketed here, for the first five years or so, as a heartthrob for the ladies, even though he unambiguously batted for Team Dorothy LONG before he officially came out. The gay community here was amused/bemused, I understand (I was still a teen at the time, so not yet hooked in to the family).]

    And yeah, I’d never seen BL either, and also surprised the degree alone makes you a qualified lawyer. Here, of course, you need either a JD (as I have) or an LLM (for lawyers from abroad who need a crash course in American law), and you still have to pass the bar.

  61. Also: “Last Christmas, you gave me your heart, and the very next day, you stole it away…” November is too early for inane Christmas music, but yeah–I’m unfortunately reminded that that one’s Wham too.

  63. Chuckling at all the old folk who haven’t heard the term “down with the kids” (and I’m not exactly young) 🙂 Got through this one fairly quickly and with a few laughs. Sorry but I loved WEST HAM!

  65. mrpenney@59
    I think you’re right about a law degree not being enough to make a qualified lawyer. I have a BA in law but have never practised or called myself a lawyer. I would have needed to pass further exams and undergo on the job training to call myself a solicitor or barrister.

  67. The image of a half-naked Maggie Thatcher in a.LAD MAG seared itself so firmly into my brain that my enjoyment of this puzzle was completely ruined.

  68. @mrpenney and pino . You don’t even need a law degree to practise in UK – just the professional qualifications and work experience. I am LLB and LLM and I think (checked out of curiosity) that those two law degrees would excuse me from one or two small units if I studied for Bar Exam or Articles. Historically a huge number of entrants to the Bar read Greats – which in and of itself demonstrates one of the problems with the English legal system

Comments are closed.