Guardian Cryptic 29230 Pangakupu

by

Thank you to Pangakupu. Definitions are underlined in the clues.

Across

1. Times indicates unusual influences (6)

SPELLS : Triple defn: 1st: Short periods of time; 2nd: …/points to, as in “the latest development spells trouble”; and 3: … exercised as if by magical power, as in “he had her under his spell soon after that”.

4. Hurried back, saving time, chasing American experts (6)

ADEPTS : [ Reversal of(… back) SPED(hurried/moved fast) containing(saving) T(abbrev. for “time”) ] placed after(chasing) A(abbrev. for “American”).

9. Supplier of distilleries certainly backing installing power (4)

SPEY : Reversal of(… backing) YES(certainly/for sure) containing(installing) P(symbol for “power” in physics).

Defn: River in the northeast of Scotland whose catchment area supplies water to whisky distilleries in that area, the Speyside.

10. Marine area – you could get tan for once (10)

OCEANFRONT : Anagram of(you could get) TAN FOR ONCE.

11. Start of powerful big film about Troy, not gut-wrenching (6)

PEPTIC : 1st letter of(Start of) “powerful” + EPIC(a big film featuring heroic deeds or a long time period) containing(about) T(abbrev. for “troy”, a system of weights for precious metals and gems).

Defn: …, refering to pepsin, the main enzyme promoting digestion.

12. Studies collecting each source of currants for fruit buns (8)

TEACAKES : TAKES(studies/have lessons in a particular subject) containing(collecting) [EA(abbrev. for “each”) + 1st letter of(source of) “currants” ].

13. Dish not for vegans? Criticise and grumble (5,4)

ROAST BEEF : ROAST(to criticise/find fault with) plus(and) BEEF(to grumble/to complain).

15. Limited volume restricting one old instrument (4)

VIOL : VOL(abbrev. for /Limited “volume”) containing(restricting) I(Roman numeral for “one”).

16. Recalled best place (4)

SPOT : Reversal of(Recalled) TOPS(the best).

17. Atom lab also repeatedly involved with source of molecules (3,6)

LOS ALAMOS : Anagram of(… involved …) [ ALSO plus(repeatedly) ALSO plus(with) 1st letter of(source of) “molecules” ].

Defn: Site of the Manhattan Project, the programme of research and development of the first nuclear weapons, in particular the A-bomb.

21. Conclusion of printer in printing dispute? It offers a good view (5,3)

FRONT ROW : Last letter of(Conclusion of) “printer” contained in(in) [FONT ROW](possibly/? a cryptic description of a printing dispute/a row about text fonts).

22. Not the obvious way you progress initially into historic city (6)

BYPATH : 1st letters, respectively, of(… initially) “you progress” contained in(into) BATH(a historic city in England).

Defn: An indirect/….

24. Viral treatment recalled irritation with hesitation – privy to containing that (10)

INTERFERON : [ Reversal of(recalled) FRET(irritation/a state of anxiety) plus(with) ER(an expression of hesitation/uncertainty) ] contained in(… containing that) [IN ON](privy to/having knowledge of).

Defn: Any of a group of proteins produced in animals in response to viral infection, with the property of inhibiting virus replication.

25. Playwright‘s aphorism enthralling hearts (4)

SHAW : SAW(an aphorism/a saying containing a general truth) containing(enthralling) H(abbrev. for “hearts”, the suit in a deck of playing cards).

Answer: George Bernard, Irish playwright and Nobel Laureate in Literature.

26. Married cheat dashing first daughter’s heart (6)

MIDDLE : M(abbrev. for “married”) + “diddle”(to cheat/swindle) minus(dashing) its 1st(first) “d”(abbrev. for “daughter”).

27. Hollow cheers reflected warning (6)

CAVEAT : CAVE(a hollow/underground chamber in a hillside or cliff) + reversal of(… reflected) TA!(cheers!/thanks!).

Defn: …/a caution about certain conditions.

Down

1. Confident doctor will take care of Prince or other leader (7)

SUPREMO : SURE(confident/certain about something) + MO(abbrev. for “medical officer”, a doctor in charge of health services) containing(will take care of) P(abbrev. for “Prince”).

2. Country, say, may stop it, finally (5)

EGYPT : EG(abbrev. for “exempli gratia”/for example/say) + last letters, respectively, of(…, finally) “may stop it“.

3. Liberal, keeping working with copper, shows a bit of pride (4,3)

LION CUB : LIB(abbrev. for a member of the Liberal Party) containing(keeping) [ ON(working/in operation) plus(with) CU(symbol for the chemical element, copper) ].

Defn: …, of lions, that is.

5. Try to get money from murderer, having seen off one classic murder victim (6)

DUNCAN : DUN(try to get money from/make persistent demands for payment of a debt) + “Cain”(the murderer of Abel in the Bible) minus(having seen off) “I”(Roman numeral for “one”).

Defn: King who was murdered by Macbeth in Shakespeare’s classic play of the latter name.

6. Lively caper with bread for each person (3,6)

PER CAPITA : Anagram of(Lively) CAPER plus(with) PITA(a round hollow flat bread of the Middle East).

7. Long fish – what makes you see length? (4,3)

SAND EEL : [“S” AND “EE”]( what makes you/what you make of/how you might spell “see”) + L(abbrev. for “length” in physical dimensions).

I’m not sure what to make of “you” in the indicator.

8. Small recompense in America that’s secured for striker (6,7)

CENTRE FORWARD : [CENT REWARD](reimbursement of a small amount of money in American currency) containing(that’s secured) FOR.

Defn: … in a football or hockey team.

14. Indulge prank about Northern river rising (5-4)

SPOON-FEED : SPOOF(a prank/a trick played on someone as a joke) containing(about) N(abbrev. for “Northern”) + reversal of(… rising, in a down clue) DEE(river largely located in Wales).

16. Former Dutch colony almost certainly in America (7)

SURINAM : “sure”(certainly/undoubtedly) minus its last letter(almost …) + IN + AM(abbrev. for “America”).

18. Former Communist state embargo, inter alia (7)

ALBANIA : BAN(an embargo/an official prohibition on commerce) contained in(inter) ALIA.

19. Inaccurate throw? One’s excluded from team, perhaps (7)

OUTCAST : OUT(inaccurate/incorrect) + CAST(act of throwing/tossing forcefully).

Defn: One excluded from a group – maybe/perhaps a team/cast of actors.

20. Cockney fell – ‘ow much was ‘e carrying? (6)

ARMFUL : “harmful”(fell/destructive, as in “she was his fell enemy”) minus(Cockney …) “h”.

23. Ski-track confusion after stone buried (5)

PISTE : PIE(confusion/a jumbled mass of printers’ type/metal pieces used in printing) containing(after … buried) ST(abbrev. for “stone”, a measure of weight in the old Imperial system of units).

Defn: … of compacted snow.

49 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29230 Pangakupu”

  1. Places, medicine, playwrights and play references, food … ; this one’s style was many and varied and most enjoyable.

    Love it when tiny words are in the clue when they cause misdirection and are really there to provide a ‘partial’ in the solution – so showed a great liking for the ‘FOR’ inside ‘Cent rewards’ in 8d.

    The Maori nina today is in column 13 and is ‘tokomaha’ — .. numerous, many people .. the recipients of Pangakupu’s lovely puzzle.

    Thank you Pangakupu and scchua.

  2. For whatever reason this morning I was totally on this setter’s wavelength. It helped that both countries at 18 and 19d were in my head – a splendid stay in SURINAM in the late Sixties, and a family member has an excellent ALBANIAn PA/Carer at the moment. Getting DUNCAN early on made me wonder for a while whether The Scottish Play might feature. But no…most enjoyable however throughout…

  4. Well, from the final crosser, the LONG FISH was obviously EEL, but my list doesn’t stretch past moray, conger and electric so I was stumped. Whether I’d have got it without the extraneous ‘you’ is questionable, but I’ll give myself the benefit of the doubt. DUNCAN beautifully clued too, though I realise I always think that on the rare occasions when I tease something out purely from the cryptic elements.
    18 very elegant, along with INTENSE yesterday it’s one I’ll take away from the week with a smile of appreciation.

  5. Thanks to scchua. I particularly liked the VIOL music link you embedded.
    Thanks to Pangakupu for an enjoyable puzzle _ there were some unfamiliar references for me here – for instance, ADEPTS as a noun for “experts” at 4a, the River SPEY and its links to distilleries at 9a, and LOS ALAMOS (the Manhattan Project reference) at 17a. On the other hand, I liked 5d DUNCAN, 14d SPOON-FEED and 18d ALBANIA a great deal.
    Thanks also for the Maori nina explanation, Flea@1 – always a bonus to have these explained and to learn what they mean – a pleasing trademark of Pangakupu’s setting.

  6. [Crossed against comments @2, 3 and 4, or I would have referenced some of what was said by those folk in my comment.]

  7. Too difficult for me – failed 17ac and 19d.

    New for me: SPEY river; PIE = confusion, INTERFERON.

    I could not parse 24ac, 5d, 7d, 8d.

    Thanks, both.

  8. Took me ages to get a toehold on this but once I did I managed to work my way around the quarters. Excellent puzzle. Thanks Pangakupu and scchua.

  9. Thank you. There are several River DEEs in the British Isles, and I suspect the famous one in Aberdeenshire (Scotland) is the one intended here.

  10. Great fun for my birthday! Dun (5d) was just to far back in the disused filing cabinets of the brain, but it could only be Duncan & I figured out the Cain minus the i motif.

    I was so hoping that column 3 contained today’s nina, ‘cos pepa poti is obviously Maori for pepper pot!

    Thanks to Pangapuku & scchua

  13. A steady solve with few obscurities. I thought 7D a pretty ropy clue, to be honest. S and EE makes you see? Really?
    Thanks to Pangakupu and scchua.

  14. A slow solve for a setter whose wavelength I never seem to be on. Didn’t know pie=confusion or INTERFERON, took a long time to remember LOS ALAMOS, SPEY and DUNCAN (no, not Abel). I liked the clever ALBANIA. SURINAM is spelled with a final E these days, but probably wasn’t when it was a Dutch colony.

    Re. SAND EEL: S AND EE makes you SEE. I know this little fish as an important food for many UK seabirds: puffins are often pictured with a beak full of sand eels.

  16. Excellent puzzle with lots of interesting wordplay, which helped me get DUNCAN, LOS ALAMOS and INTERFERON. I thought there might be another nina of UOARLU, something to do with Ayers Rock but no. I really liked OCEANFRONT SAND EEL (nho) and FRONT ROW. Didn’t know pie = confusion either.

    Ta Pangakupu & scchua.

  17. I’m not sure that the maori is much help to most solvers but it keeps the setter amused. This seems to be my second Friday of the week (see yesterday’s blog).

    I liked LOS ALAMOS, BYPATH, MIDDLE, LION CUB, CENTRE FORWARD, SPOON-FED and ALBANIA. I would have thought with all the publicity about COVID and ‘FLU that INTERFERON would have entered many people’s vocabulary.

    Thanks Pan and scchua.

  20. On a first read through I thought this was going to be very tough. It certainly wasn’t a walk in the park, but I got there in the end: though there were a few parsings that escaped me. I especially liked DUNCAN and LOS ALAMOS. I recently read Richard Rhodes’ celebrated Pulitzer winning book: The Making of the Atomic Bomb; so very much on my mind. With thanks to Pangakupa and scchua.

  21. Tricky as expected from this setter, but lots to enjoy. The SW corner held me up for some time, but I eventually remembered the right meaning of ‘fell’, and guessed rather than knew that sense of ‘fret’.

    I rather liked SAND EEL – the ‘you’ isn’t superfluous in my book, as ‘makes you [the solver]’ is a perfectly valid link.

    Thanks Pangakupu and scchua

  22. Two sittings and a sense of relief rather than satisfaction when it was all over.

    Having assumed cheat was fiddle I spent an age trying to see what the daughter was doing 🙂

    Faves LOS ALAMOS, ARMFUL & SAND EEL

    Cheers S&P

  23. 27A defeated me, although clear enough in hindsight. The usage of fell in 20A was new to me, but solved it anyway.

    Incidentally, Los Alamos remains an important research site to this day, one of America’s National Laboratories.

  24. TEACAKES made me think “How very British!” but apparently there are also confections in our South with the same name, though they are neither yeast-raised nor fruitful.

    Nho the kind of pie in .PISTE.

    Thanks, Pangakapu and scchua.

  25. Thanks Pangakupu for an entertaining solve and scchua for the beautifully presented blog, with Greensleeves to boot! I liked the positioning of 8d, with a MIDDLE & two FRONTs, and the thought of peptic teacakes!

    Could the Maori columns 3 & 13 also translate as “many posters” (to 225)?

  26. When I see Pangakupu’s name I know now there is a nice little exercise in hunting the Nina(s). This is not so hard for a non-Maori speaker to do because there are only 15 plus-or-minus 1 letters in the alphabet (depending on how/what you count) and the consonants and vowels tend to alternate, plus there is Google Translate. But I always come away a little disappointed that the discovered words don’t seem to relate to anything else in the puzzle, or an event of the day, or something like that, so that working backwards is possible. Or am I/are we missing something deeper? Or maybe the whole point is that there is no point, so to speak!

  27. A three-sitting puzzler, and, to me at least, seemed less wordy than previous Pangakupu contributions, which I appreciated. LOS ALAMOS was my favourite, CAVEAT my last one in from the crossers and thanks scchua for explaining it to me, as well as for the rest of the blog. Hope, but will probably fail, to remember that ‘pie’ is a mess and ‘fell’ is harmful. Thanks Pangakupu for a real Friday workout.

  28. Thanks, Pangakupu. Excellent puzzle, and for the first time I found the Maori Ninas (although I usually forget to search).

  29. @5 Julie – if you liked the viol playing, that’s Patrick Dexter outside his cottage near Newport in Co. Mayo, Ireland. See patrickdexter.com for more lovely music.

  30. TOKO MAHA seems to be a Maori Nina.
    I got stuck for ages having pencilled ODDBALL and BIPEDE. Fixed once I twigged CAVEAT.
    Hard but fair puzzle. Cheers both!

  32. For once, I finished a Pangakupu without too much strain. I must be getting used to the style. I saw the Maori this time, but came here to learn what it meant.

    I was in the part of New Mexico where Los Alamos is when I was on a geological field study back in college; but there was no time for tourism, and at the time I don’t think they had much of a museum there in any case. So I can’t say I’ve actually been there. It’s beautiful country, though.

    I for one thought the SAND EEL construction was clever–and it does lead unambiguously to the right eel.

  33. Very enjoyable. I liked some of the story-telling surfaces (“Married cheat dashing first daughter’s heart”, “Try to get money from murderer, having seen off one classic murder victim”).

    I’m not sure if Pangakupu realised how controversial he was being in 12a! If my better half asked me to buy some TEACAKES and I came back with fruit buns she would not be happy – for her they are plain bread rolls.

    [A late thought on yesterday’s Imogen. Isn’t it funny how often we come across an unfamiliar word in a crossword and then almost immediately encounter it in another context? Like several other commenters I was unaware that “taboo” could be a verb, and I hadn’t knowingly heard TABOOED. Just today, reading Barchester Towers, I came to the bit where Miss Thorne is arranging the games to be played at Ullathorne, and she doesn’t want anything that wasn’t played in Elizabethan times – “Everything of more modern growth was to be tabooed, if possible”.]

  34. Thanks Pangakupu. I relied too much on guesswork for this to be deeply satisfying but it was good enough for me to persist until I had all the solutions, albeit some unparsed. My favourites were the triple definition SPELLS, OCEANFRONT, and LOS ALAMOS. I was happy to see SPEY since I’ve signed up for an inn-to-inn trek & whisky adventure in Speyside this September. Thanks scchua for parsing.

  36. A very enjoyable puzzle, thanks Pangakupu. And thanks scchua for the colourful blog, especially the green(sleeves) at 15a VIOL.

    Thanks also to Phil@29 for identifying the viol player in that excellent clip.

    Two clues stood out for me – 9a SPEY for reminding me that I am hosting my whisky club tonight (enjoy the tour, TonyS@34), and 5d DUNCAN for the great surface. There was as much Scotland as New Zealand in this crossword, not that I’m complaining.

  39. Typo: ‘middle for diddle’. Used before the start of a game. Each player throws one dart at bullseye – closest starts the match. Hence ‘mfd’.

  40. This caught me by surprise as I’d been told it was appearing next Friday. The te reo Nina is twofold: ballot paper in column three, majority in thirteen. This was the eighteenth Pangakupu puzzle so something electoral seemed called for.

  41. Thanks for the blog, very good puzzle, MIDDLE is very precise with first daughter, SAND EEL is neat , a coommon Azed trick. They are really suffering with global heating and puffins may die out totally. CENTRE FORWARD has very clever use of “for” .

    The Leonids provide a free show tonight . Not too numerous but often very bright and even colourful.

  42. [ AlanC@16 your number 1 yesterday is noted. I managed number 1 in General Discussion, very rare and a 25 point bonus. It is now 62 v -17 ]

  43. Lovely puzzle, thank you Pangakupu. I’m enjoying your puzzles more and more and more. And thank you for the explanation of today’s Ninas. Google was (for once) unhealthy. I liked best the sideways definitions, exemplified by the unusual influences in 1ac. First clue read, far from the first answer entered. Very chewy and very enjoyable.
    BBC Children in Need tonight. If anyone wants to combine support for the Appeal with their love of Cryptics, buy the 3D Calendar now available, with beautiful pictures and some great puzzles. Paul’s response to receiving his was an email headed simply ‘Wow’. 50% of proceeds to BBC C in N, 50% to the RNIB. It makes a great present to entertain and inspire a new generation of solvers, designers and setters. Buy it at 3dcalendarpuzzles.co.uk/shop before they run out, and I’ll put it in the envelope for you!

  44. For 7D: I played with “what makes you” being DNA inside SEE, but I could not find the reversal indicator.

  45. Totally lacking inspiration today and plodded through this with grim determination. Finally and thankfully confirmed PISTE by fitting in BYPATH and CAVEAT, only to find I had written ARTFUL at 20d, so a one-letter dnf for me.

    Can’t say I enjoyed this much, but no doubt this was due to my non-firing synapses rather than anything inherent to the clues. Except “recalled irritation with hesitation – privy to containing that”, which was truly dreadful.

    Thanks to Pangakupu and scchua.

  46. PIE as confusion new to me though it had to be PISTE; “diddle” means something much ruder over here so I did not get MIDDLE

    SAND EEL and BYPATH from the clueing only; NHO

    Everything else quite delightful. All of those Speyside whiskies finally paid off and I even remembered to spell CENTRE the un-American way.

  47. Seeing as it’s a Pangakupu, I must give myself a pat on the back for rooting out both ninas: “pepa poti” and “toko maha” – not that I had the foggiest what either of them means, of course: it’s hard enough for me keeping up with my scant French and Spanish. Thanks to those above who’ve provided translations.

    Ninas aside, this was fairly tough but enjoyable, with no gripes except that I agree with scchua about that clumsy ‘you’ getting into the wordplay for SAND EEL – I accept that it’s needed for the surface.

    BYPATH was new to me, but obvious enough – perhaps we’re back with Mr Prosser with a lisp:
    “What do you mean, why’th it got to be built? It’th a bypath. You’ve got to build bypatheth.”

    Although the surface isn’t great, I really liked INTERFERON (hope I never have to take it!) for the elaborate use of ‘privy to’. Also ticks – fairly random – for PER CAPITA, SPOON-FEED, LION-CUB, CAVEAT … but that’s not to say the rest aren’t just as good!

    Thanks to Panga and scchua.

  48. Congratulations on reaching your majority Pangakupu @40 , and thanks for sharing your 18th birthday gift with us.

  49. Is it not still the case that a non-proper noun needs to appear in Chambers to be considered valid for a “Guardian” crossword? OCEANFRONT isn’t in my 2016 copy. It’s another example of the Americanisms which are increasingly showing up in our puzzles – in English it’s SEAFRONT. The anagram was easy enough to solve but initially I was reluctant to enter the word in the grid due to its absence from Chambers.

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