Guardian Cryptic 29,248 by Paul

by

Thanks Paul for today’s puzzle…

…with a theme around THE NETHERLANDS. My favourites today were 1ac, 11/12, 20ac, 23ac, and 8dn.

ACROSS
1 SITUATION COMEDY
Humorous, it comes to screen – the full-length version? (9,6)
‘sitcom‘, the not-full-length version, can be found in [Humourou]-S IT COM-[es]

“screen” meaning to conceal or hide, indicating hidden words
9 ERASMUS
Calculations appear to be switched for theologian and scholar (7)
Erasmus the Dutch theologian [wiki]

SUMS ARE=”Calculations appear”, reversed/”to be switched”
10 ROAD TAX
Payment to central government fund went on courses for the auditor? (4,3)
I think this is…

sounds like (‘for the auditor’) ‘rode’=”went on” and ‘tacks’=”courses”

‘tack’=direction of movement=”course”

or possibly ‘rowed tacks’ for “went on courses”
11, 12 THE NETHERLANDS
What connects 9, 13, 15, 20 and 28, after which number comes down (3,11)
THEN=”after which” + ETHER=anaesthetic to numb=”number” + LANDS=”comes down”
12
See 11
13 ABEL TASMAN
Isle found east of a geographical region, as explorer (4,6)
Abel Tasman the Dutch explorer [wiki]

MAN (Isle of Man); to the right/east of A BELT AS=”a geographical region, as”
15 HALS
Artist applauds: I will be thrown out (4)
Frans Hals the Dutch painter [wiki]

HA-[i]-LS=”applauds”, with the letter “I” thrown out
18 KOOK
Eccentric, however you look at it (4)
“however you look at it” (i.e. whether you read it backwards or forwards) indicates a palindrome
20 RUUD GULLIT
Reportedly offensive winger, Italian footballer (4,6)
Ruud Gullit the Dutch footballer and football manager [wiki]

RUUD sounds like ‘rude’=”Reportedly offensive”; GULL=”winger” (a bird with wings) + IT (Italian)
23 I’M A DUTCHMAN
What 9, 13, 15, 20 or 28 might say that’s highly unlikely! (2,1,8)
definition: an expression of disbelief e.g. “if that story’s true, I’m a Dutchman”

reference to the Dutchmen in the solutions to clues 9, 13, 15, 20, 28
25 BBQ
King and Queen feast outside? (3)
the singer B.B. King [wiki]; plus Q (Queen, chess notation)
26 LOOK-SEE
First of errors by steeplejack’s ending in inaccurate inspection (4-3)
first letter of E-[rrors], next to: LOOSE=”inaccurate” around the ending of [steeplejac]-K
27 TITANIA
Blockbuster film cut a magical character (7)
definition: Titania is a name for the Queen of the Fairies

TITANI-[c]=”Blockbuster film” cut short + A (from the surface)
28 WILLIAM OF ORANGE
Nation’s father is bound to go far with one aim for reform (7,2,6)
William the Silent [wiki] led the Dutch revolt against the Spanish Habsburgs
(…not the William of Orange who was William III of England)

WILL=”is bound to” + anagram/”reform” of (go far one aim)*
DOWN
1 SWEET TALK
Little time in hunt for blandishments (5,4)
WEE=”Little” + T (time); all in STALK=”hunt”
2 TRAPEZE
Flier‘s rôle, swinging up with lack of effort, say? (7)
PART=”role”, reversed/”swinging up”; plus EZE sounds like ‘ease’=”lack of effort, say”
3 AMMONITE
Fossil, a little one with day inscribed (8)
A MITE=”a little one”; with MON (Monday) inside
4 INSET
Page within a page, it’s entangled? (5)
“it’s entangled” to be read as ‘it’s en… …tangled’, so anagram/”tangled” of (it’s en)*
5 NURSEMAID
Danseur: I’m remarkably tender (9)
definition: one who tends

anagram/”remarkably” of (Danseur I’m)*
6 ORACLE
Sage or coriander originally in brew (6)
OR (from surface), plus C-[oriander] inside ALE=”brew”
7 ESTONIA
Land, not sea, I gathered (7)
anagram/”gathered” of (not sea I)*
8 Y-AXIS
Line going up, boundary always vertical (1-4)
SIX=”boundary” (scoring six runs in cricket with a shot over the boundary of the field) + AY=”always”; all reversed/”vertical”
14 SOUR CREAM
Short root, large amount that’s often served with nachos (4,5)
SOURC-[e]=”root”, cut “Short”; plus REAM=”large amount”
16 SET SQUARE
Triangular item assigned shape (3,6)
SET=”assigned” + SQUARE=”shape”
17 MUENSTER
Cheese turns me off, tiniest piece of Edam eaten … (8)
anagram/”off” of (turns me)*; around/eating a piece of E-[dam]
19 ON A ROLL
… where cheese may be cooking (2,1,4)
I think the definition is “cooking” as in ‘progressing’, ‘happening’ (e.g. ‘what’s cooking?’)

cheese may be ON A [bread] ROLL
21 LEBANON
Force blockading British country (7)
LEAN ON=put pressure on [someone]=”Force”; around B (British)
22 MUESLI
Greek character lies about item on breakfast menu? (6)
MU=letter of Greek alphabet=”Greek character” + anagram/”about” of (lies)*
23 IN-LAW
Relative where one finds Hollywood wife (2-3)
one finds Hollywood IN LA (in Los Angeles); plus W (wife)
24 MOTIF
Legal requirement with 10 providing theme (5)
MOT, plus IF=”providing”

like a ROAD TAX (10ac), the MOT is a legal requirement for car users

72 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29,248 by Paul”

  1. I always find Paul difficult, and usually need to come here afterwards. For 10a, I prefer ‘rode’ for ‘went on’.

  5. ON A ROLL
    cook (Collins)
    to perform, work, or do in just the right way and with energy and enthusiasm
    That new drummer is really cooking tonight

    Does this sense not fit in better?

  6. Luckily, my FOI was RUUD GULLIT, so got the theme pretty much straightaway after HALS. Amongst many, I liked the clever SITUATION COMEDY, THE NETHERLANDS, BBQ, the ‘cheesy’ clues, LEBANON, MOTIF and King Billy, hero/ villain whose image astride his horse adorns many gable walls in NI. I guessed ABEL TASMAN from the excellent wordplay. Easier than usual, I enjoyed it immensely.

    Ta Paul & manehi.

  7. Fortunately, there are very few Ruuds famous enough for Google to have heard of them, or else he’d have defeated me, as retired soccer players are mostly unfamiliar to me. And the ins and outs of British tax law–needed twice here!–are not really in my wheelhouse either, though both answers were reasonably obvious. Otherwise, good clean fun by Pauline standards.

    I think in ON A ROLL, you have to take “cooking” in its slangy sense of “progressing speedily and successfully.” As in, now you’re cooking!

  8. I did wonder whether it was an intentional Paul red herring in 15ac, with the letters of PAUL included in a possible Applauds takeaway. But once the Dutch theme became obvious and Spad was a non starter up against HALS, this puzzle quickly yielded. A pleasure to solve as usual for me with this setter…

  9. The SITCOM was so well-hidden that I missed it – good clue. I liked the non-Italian footballer, BBQ for the unusual king, and the wordplay for SWEET TALK.

    Good fun.

    Thanks Paul and manehi

  10. This was one of the times when I must have been on Paul’s wavelength – for although I couldn’t completely parse quite a few, my crossed-fingers entries (CFE) nevertheless turned out to be correct.
    I actually got 23A before all the other Dutch fellows, which made things a tad easier, though I did have to look up “footballers called Ruud” for 20A!
    I also spent rather longer than I should have done hunting for some monarch from another time or place with a 3-letter name ending in Q, before the delightful real answer hit me like a brick.
    Btw, is Muenster a dutch cheese?
    With Y-AXIS, SET SQUARE and TRAPEZE I also figured a pangram was in the offing – after all, J is a common enough letter in Dutch – but twas not to be.
    In all, therefore, an enormously entertaining session. Thank you manehi for the explanations, and Paul for the fun diversion from a cold & rainy morning…

  11. …I’ve just googled Spad, and it’s actually a person who gives political advice to government ministers, so there. But not a famous Dutchman, though we may yet hear that one or two Spads maybe played an infamous part in the present Covid inquiry fiasco

  14. Thanks Paul and manehi
    For some time I just had IN LAW, but after getting ON A ROLL I guessed 28 from the W?L and enumeration, and it all then became obvious and rapid. A couple unparsed, though.

  15. I agree with Wellbeck’s ‘enormously entertaining’, ‘fun diversion’.

    I had ticks for SITUATION COMEDY, THE NETHERLANDS, RUUD GULLIT, I’M A DUTCHMAN, and WILLIAM OF ORANGE.
    I share the admiration of the cleverness of the clue for BBQ but my loathing of the abbreviation prevents me from listing it as a favourite!

    I agree with KVa’s parsing of ON A ROLL – but I’m more familiar with the expression ‘cooking with gas’.

    Many thanks to Paul for the entertainment and to manehi for a fine blog.

  18. As often happens I struggled with getting on Paul’s wavelength, but I got there in the end, albeit with a few not entirely parsed. However, nothing unfair here in hindsight.

    NHO of Abel Tasman, but nobody else has mentioned him yet so perhaps just a hole in my GK. And I suspect the non-football fans among us, of which we have several, will say the same of Ruud Gullit.

  21. The usual spelling of the Scots word for ALWAYS is AYE surely. Doesn’t AY mean YES? RUUD was my gate-opener and there aren’t many countries starting THE. Delighted to get a Friday and Paul in under the hour .

  23. I’m not as particular as Eileen and will happily list BBQ as my COTD. Not the first time I have been deceived by ‘King’ = BB but I was still able to take delight in being unable to make sense of it without both crossers.

    This was my favourite set of Paul surfaces for a while. And the theme was neatly done. For those who also do the Indy, there is an intriguing coincidence today. Which I don’t think should be a spoiler.

    Thanks Paul and manehi

  24. Fun stuff from Paul. Quite a rapid solve as ERASMUS was one of my first in, and that immediately unlocked the excellently-clued THE NETHERLANDS, after which I was pretty much ON A ROLL…

    Thanks to Paul and Manehi.

  26. Deffo as per KVa@5 re cooking. Good puzzle from Paul. Otoh, bit of a worry that I had all the Dutchmen, including the nho footballer, and still stared dumbly at the 11/12 crossers, talk about d’oh! Hey ho, all fun, ta both.

  27. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ay#Etymology_2
    Adverb – ay (not comparable) – (archaic, poetic or Northern England) Always; ever; continually; for an indefinite time.
    1670, John Barbour, The Acts and Life of the most victorious Conquerour Robert Bruce King of Scotland, as cited in 1860, Thomas Corser, Collectanea Anglo-poetica, page 160
    O he that hath ay lived free,

  28. That was, as ever, great fun.
    KOOK also a Dutch surname?
    Thanks Paul and manehi

    Wellbeck@10 – Muenster cheese is from US but originally from Munster, Alsace
    davidn@12 – I guess it should be ‘aye’

  29. Alec@21. Speaking as one with a Scots mother and now a Scottish resident, I’d say you have that the wrong way round. I think AYE is more often seen as yes, and AY as always.

  31. As I often find with Paul, the answers flew in, but I needed to come here to find several of the parsings. BBQ was my favourite of those I parsed; INSET among those I failed to understand. Thanks Paul and Manehi for a fun end to the week.

  32. Really enjoyed this, thank you Paul. A couple of the parsings eluded me, so thanks to manehi too. I should have remembered “number = anaesthetic” as we’ve had it somewhere else recently. I thought 2down might also reference the old Music Hall song about “that daring young man on the flying trapeze who soars through the air with the greatest of ease”?

  33. Ironically, though I’m not a fan of any sport, the first theme answer I got was 20a, the same way a lot of others here did.

  34. Got everything but the unknown footballer, where not having quite realised that he was unlikely to be both Dutch and Italian I eventually desperately plumped for RUUD MULLET. Oh well. Not sure I’d have conjured him up correctly even if I had clocked that, anyway.

  36. I don’t normally enjoy Paul’s as having too convoluted clues but have to admit I enjoyed this one. Thanks both.

  38. Thanks manehi as I missed the hidden sitcom – very nice – and couldn’t quite get my head around the courses for the auditor, happy with your take. There was a hint of themo collapso but offset by my last one in being HALS and I did consider DAPS or PADS having gone down the same route as Ronald@8. Thanks for the cheese fact wynsum@28 as I was going to complain that Munster doesn’t have an umlaut. Liked plenty with Y AXIS up there – didn’t Morse used to end his love letters with “Yours ay”? Thanks Paul.

  39. Started off with no acrosses (skipping the theme clues, because why bother), but ended up finishing in near record time for a Paul. Usual number of amusing clues, but I’m with Eileen@15 re: BBQ.

  40. Perhaps ON A ROLL for cooking might also refer to cooking something on a rolling boil , as referenced by Susan, the vicar’s wife, in Alan Bennett’s “Bed Among The Lentils.”

  41. Thanks Paul and manehi
    18A KOOK is not just a palindrome; in block letters as entered into the grid, it is invariant under inversion.

  42. Alas, the football clue actually was about football for once. But for once I recognised the resulting name. Nho MUENSTER cheese, with or without umlaut.

  43. What a treat for Friday. Thanks Paul and manehi for such fun.
    AY familiar to me from hymns I think. Laughed out loud at I’m a Dutchman, not having heard that in years.

  44. For me, the theme was a little too helpful, though I should be careful what I wish for. I think you can like a clue without liking the word, so BBQ was my favourite.

  45. Typical. I finish a Paul before 8am and no blog to boast on. A lovely puzzle, as usual from Paul. I thought I was really going to struggle with the them but after getting 20ac, 23ac quickly followed and I was off. 1ac is very clever and it took me ages to get it. Thanks Paul and manehi for the excellent explanations.

  46. Nice to see Paul focusing on the Netherlands, rather than the nether regions 🙂

    Ticks for INSET, ON A ROLL, & MUESLI

    cheers P&M

  47. SIX defeated me, as most cricket terms do.

    I thought the MOT was the Ministry of Transport, but it seems to be a tax as well?

    I’d never heard of RUUD GULLIT, but had heard the name Ruud, and with that plus wordplay and crossers I could put him together. (But had to google in case there was some other bird than a gull.)

    muffin@14 I also guessed 28 early on from W?L and the enumeration, but was still stuck for a while, not getting the other theme clues. Not so clever last night.

    Alec@21 There aren’t as many countries starting with THE as there used to be — no more The Gambia, The Ukraine or The Lebanon.

    Gazzh@38 The convention is that ue = u(umlaut), so MUENSTER has the equivalent of one.

  49. Oops, I hit SEND too soon.

    I get some cricket references, but SIX was beyond me.

    Thanks, Paul and manehi.

  50. [Driving back from Italy we stopped in Münster and tried the cheese, which I really liked. The other passengers vetoed me bringing some back to England in the hot car, though!

  51. No-one in UK has paid ROAD TAX since 1937 iirc, but the phrase just won’t stop popping into people’s heads.

  52. Valentine@47: we haven’t got a Ministry of Transport any more (it’s a Department now), but when it existed it brought in the MoT Test: an annual roadworthiness test for all cars over 3 years old, and the name has stuck. So to be on the road in the UK, it’s a legal requirement to have paid your ROAD TAX and passed your MOT(if).

  53. Fun theme and puzzle.
    I wondered about the circumflex for role in 2d: I don’t think Paul usually bothers with it, for role at least, so perhaps it’s evidence of an editor? Everyman does use them, though not quite consistently.
    For Y-AXIS, I thought applying vertical to the definition and going up to the wordplay would have been more appropriate.

  54. Friendly grid, on the Paul wavelength, and detected the theme easily (for once) so this ended up going in quite quickly. Before 7:30! For a Paul!

    Couldn’t quite see what was going on with SITUATION COMEDY so thanks manehi for explaining that it’s excellent. Also liked INSET and ABEL TASMAN.

    Hope everyone has a lovely weekend.

  55. This looked daunting at first, as Paul puzzles often do, but after solving a few non theme entries, including the clever SITCOM, I spotted ERASMUS, which gave NL and the rest of the theme words were write-ins. Great fun.

    Y-AXIS my definite favourite here.

    I’M A DUTCHMAN is one of several expressions insulting to Netherlanders, dating from the Anglo-Dutch wars of the 17th century. Others include: Dutch courage (alcohol), Dutch comfort (“it could be worse”), Double Dutch (nonsense), Dutch treat (now usually ‘going Dutch’).

    Thanks to Paul and manehi

  56. Hurrah! At last I can put my homophone police hat on and complain that RUUD (r-ü-t) sounds nothing like rude.
    Wynsum@28: I’ve never heard of anyone called KOOK. It does mean “cook” though, so there’s a (unintended, I assume) link to 19d.

  58. This was great stuff. Paul on top form, with a fun theme.

    That said, I do feel compelled to be the boring one and point out that there’s no such thing as ROAD TAX. It’s vehicle excise duty and it’s used for multiple things (not just the maintenance is roads), just as the maintenance of roads has multiple funding sources. (Deliberate) misuse of the term “road tax” has been a political tactic by motorist groups to marginalize other road users and their needs.

    Sorry, sorry, I know. I’ll see myself out.

  60. Discussion of Dutch-related expressions led us to wonder how the term “Dutchman” in set construction came about. (Covering a seam of two flats with muslin.) The term is also used in woodworking, too, apparently. Was this also supposed to be an insult from the Anglo-Dutch hostilities?

  62. Valentine@47 my vague point was that the Munster cheese that I know, from Alsace which is just up the road from me, doesn’t have an umlaut so wouldn’t be spelt with an E, but I wasn’t aware of the American cheese with spelling as in the grid entry here, so my intended invective against Paul was nipped in the bud by wynsum’s contribution.
    [Interesting reading on the historical insults, thank you various people above. To balance the books a little I’ve just spent an interesting few minutes reading about Dutch Ovens on wikipedia. I think their existence made Musical Youth’s explanation of their song title “Pass the Dutchie” on Blue Peter much more plausible than it might otherwise have been. Of course I was just a child then so the real meaning sailed over my head anyway.]

  63. Had a big chuckle at the very last clue MOTIF Legal requirement with 10 providing theme . The theme that wasn’t.

  64. Another one who solved this early and had to wait for the blog to comment, but got side-tracked into other things in the meantime, and I found this easier than Paul can be. (I haven’t got to the Mudd in the FT today, yet.)

    I actually got RUUD GULLIT in early, and my football knowledge could be written on a small stamp, so he’s pretty well-known. All in and parsed barring ROAD TAX, but it had to be that, and I could see it had to be TASMAN, but wasn’t sure of his first name, so looked ABEL up, which then made sense of the parsing.

    Thank you to Paul and manehi

  65. Mr and Mrs S in fire today, whizzed through in just over half an hour. And even got the theme early on. I think it’s the first time we’ve ever been so much on the setters wavelength.
    And coming here for the chat is the icing on the cake.
    Favourite clue The Netherlands. Although technically ether isn’t a number. If you operate on someone under an anaesthetic, you will usually co-administer something like fentanyl as a “number”. If you don’t, the patient may show signs of distress even while asleep – wriggling, Bp goes up etc.
    But we knew what he meant and chortled delightfully at the wordplay.

  66. There’s an argument that our use of the word Dutch as perjorative goes back to merchant sea trading rivalry – and cf ‘Dutch talent’ which I’d not heard of before: Rivalry in trade and colonisation has led to the English attaching a pejorative label to the word “Dutch” since around the dawn of the 17th century. … “Dutch talent”, a nautical term used since the 1860s, to mean any piece of work not done in shipshape style. This reflected a time when tensions between the English and the Dutch were high and strong.

  67. Bear of little brain@56 you are right, but often (always?) pronounced thus in the UK. Tom@58 too true. Numerous examples on X.

  69. Maybe I’m getting better at crosswords or maybe it was good coffee, but I got this completed in a reasonable time without much difficulty. I thought SITUATION COMEDY was clued particularly cleverly.

  70. Ade@68. There being “no such thing” doesn’t preclude a word from being clued in a crossword. People speak and write of ROAD TAX, and – crucially – it’s in Chambers!

  71. I finished it with some help from Google (footballers, artists) but couldn’t parse some of the clues so thanks for the blog.

  72. I had (Dexter) Daps instead of Hals. Dancehall artist and applauds minus p-a-u-l. So fitted … except I’d not noticed that 15 needed a Dutch link.

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