Guardian Cryptic 29,477 by Maskarade

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The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29477.

Maskarade trues tries his hand at the Mondy Monday slot. Mostly harmless, but I feel that 27A SETTLEMENT falls short, even though, unusually perhaps, the ellipsis is germane.

ACROSS
1 STAG NIGHTS
Pre-nuptial celebrations touring Hastings, good time (4,6)
An anagram (‘touring’?) of ‘Hastings’ plus G (‘good’) plus T (‘time’).
6 SCAM
Some miss Cameron (Con) (4)
A hidden answer (‘some’) in ‘misS CAMeron’.
9 SIGHTSEERS
But do such tourists just look at eyesores? (10)
A cryptic definition, depending on the use of SIGHT as an ‘eyesore’ (“he looked a sight in his thrift-shop clothes”).
10 QUID
Who, in France, has penny for pound? (4)
A charade of QUI (‘who, in France’) plus D (Denarius, old ‘penny’).
12 COINCIDENTAL
Firm of less importance gets chance (12)
A charade of CO (company, ‘firm’) plus INCIDENTAL (‘of less importance’).
15 AEGEAN SEA
Ease an age problem which touches Crete (6,3)
An anagram (‘problem’) of ‘ease an age’.
17 LISLE
Cotton thread one’s placed in heart of galleon (5)
An envelope (‘placed in’) of I’s (‘one’s’) in LLE (‘heart of gaLLEon’; some object that the extent of the ‘heart’ is unspecified, but it is fairly obvious what is needed here).
18 MAORI
Roam around with leading indigenous Polynesian (5)
A charade of MAOR, an anagram (‘around’) of ‘roam’ plus I (‘leading Indigenous’). And yes, New Zealand is included in Polynesia.
19 ICE SHEETS
They melt and oddly increase with these drifting (3,6)
A charade of ICES (‘oddly InCrEaSe’) plus HEETS, an anagram (‘drifting’) of ‘these’.
20 GHOST STORIES
Spooky tales – Nordic drama for Conservatives (5,7)
A charade of GHOSTS (‘Nordic drama’, a play by Ibsen – who was Norwegian, but the play was written in Danish; either way, ‘Nordic’ applies) plus TORIES (‘Conservatives’).
24 EPIC
Tops of Egyptian pyramids in colour film (4)
First letters (‘tops’) of ‘Egyptian Pyramids In Colour’.
25 AUTOSTRADA
Out most of Saturday getting to a toll-road in Europe (10)
A charade of AUTOSTRAD, an envelope (‘getting’) of ‘to’ in AUSTRAD, an anagram (‘out’) of ‘Saturda[y]’ minus its last letter (‘most of’); plus ‘a’
26 SETT
Test debacle at home … (4)
An anagram (‘debacle’) of ‘test’. ‘Home’ for a badger.
27 SETTLEMENT
… which starts camp clearing (10)
Indeed the answer starts with SETT, which is the answer to 26A, as indicated by the ellipsis; we are left to guess the LEMENT to fit the definition..

Several commenters have made the case for an unusual construction: a double definition ‘camp’  and ‘clearing’ (the latter in a legal/monetary sense), with the SETT connection thrown in as an added pointer.
DOWN
1 SASH
Frame airline before start of hijack (4)
A charade of SAS (Scandanavian Airlines System, ‘airline’) plus H (‘start of Hijack’). ‘Frame’ is not the first word which come to my mind for SASH, but various dictionaries define the latter as a window frame (and onelook.com even picks up from somewhere SASH as a frame for a saw in sawmilling).
2 ARGO
Mythical boat with freight first removed (4)
A subtraction: [c]ARGO (‘freight’) minus the first letter (‘first removed’).
3 NATIONALISTS
Their country’s champions – like Red Rum and Mon Mome (12)
Red Rum and Mon Mome were horses who won the Grand National, the former three times.
4 GREEN
Go and putt it there! (5)
Double definition, the first referring to a traffic light, say.
5 TERMINATE
Stop rats barring opening in gallery (9)
An envelope (‘in’) of [v]ERMIN (‘rats’, indication by example or metonymy) minus its first letter (‘barring opening’) in TATE (‘gallery’).

Thanks to Wombattle for pointing out the omission.
7 COUNTESSES
Noble women tot up letters (10)
A charade of COUNT (‘tot up’) plus ESSES (‘letters’, the letter being S).
8 MIDDLE EAST
Centre Point in Levant etc (6,4)
A charade of MIDDLE (‘centre’) plus EAST (‘point’ of the compass). Centre Point is a London building of some notoriety.
11 HEALTH CENTRE
Al cryptically at local surgery (6,6)
Despite the current hot button, in ‘Al’ the second letter is a lower case L, not an upper case i; hence, we have a wordplay-in-the answer, where the CENTRE of HEALTH is AL.
13 BAR MAGNETS
Attractive objects drawn to drink? (3,7)
Definition and literal interpretation.
14 AGRONOMIST
Expert in many fields? (10)
Cryptic definition.
16 SAINT JUDE
Raving Jesuit and patron of lost causes (5,4)
An anagram (‘raving’) of ‘Jesuit and’.
21 ROOST
Marsupial’s time for bed (5)
A charade of ROO’S (kanga, ‘marsupial’s’) plus T (‘time’).
22, 23 TAKE PART
Join in and act (4,4)
Double definition, but very close to one another.
23
See 22

67 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29,477 by Maskarade”

  1. Thanks PeterO.
    I quite liked the little tricks of using letters in the clues for LISLE, HEALTH CENTRE, COUNTESSES, and SETTLEMENT, familar tricks and not difficult to solve, but there were a few of them today. I don’t know if this is a Maskarade trademark or if this is his Monday menu.

    Loved AUTOSTRADA starting off with OUT MOST OF SATURDAY, as a contemporary phrase giving us the anagrind, and anagrist with letter deletion, and then GETTING TO A, another contemporary phrase instructing us to insert ‘to’ and ‘a’. It really tickled me. Don’t think I’ve seen OUT in first word position before.

  2. SETTLEMENT
    Is it ok to parse it like this (with no reference to the previous solution)
    Def 1: Which starts camp (the process of starting a camp)
    Def 2: Clearing (as in clearing of dues)?

  3. Maskarade tried their hand at a couple of the Quick Cryptic puzzles earlier on with this sort of setting, with mixed results, but I thought, as I solved this, this would have fitted the Quiptic spot yesterday better than the crossword that appeared there.

    I needed all the crossers for SETTLEMENT and to see SETT, plus the starting N for NATIONALISTS, not helped by Red Rum being used as a reversal on Saturday.

    Thank you to Maskarade and PeterO.

  4. Thanks Maskarade for a very pleasant and suitable Monday crossword. I certainly couldn’t parse everything but getting the ‘right answers’ was easy enough. My favourites were HEALTH CENTRE, SAINT JUDE, and STAG NIGHTS. Thanks PeterO for the blog.

  5. So it would appear that the LEMENT part of SETTLEMENT is clueless? Hmmm …

    Your explanation, KVa, seems correct.

    I scratched my head over SIGHTSEER, so thanks for the enlightenment, PeterO.

    There are a heck of a lot of plays and films called GHOSTS, as I discovered when I googled to find the Nordic one.

    An enjoyable puzzle with no sticky obscurities, thanks Maskarade.

  6. I found this very straightforward, apart from SETTLEMENT and COINCIDENTAL, which almost took as long as the rest of the clues.

    I am still not convinced by the various explanations for SETTLEMENT, but I would favour PeterO’s. CLEMENT was almost in there, but I couldn’t figure an explanation for that.

    Thanks PeterO [A couple of small typos: “trues” and “Mondy”] and Maskarade.

  7. I was thinking a little like KVa@2, but not entirely. We can get the beginning (“which starts”), SETT, from the previous clue, then a double definition: camp = SETTLEMENT; and clearing (as in clearing a property from a real estate agent’s books) happens at SETTLEMENT. AGRONOMIST was a neat cryptic definition that had me foxed for a while. Thanks PeterO and Maskarade.

  8. KVa@2. I parsed SETTLEMENT similarly.
    You could say that settlement means both a camp, and a settlement of a bill, sale of a house, divorce proceedings etc.
    I was nicely misdirected by the whole clue which starts camp clearing , ie beginning to establish a campsite by clearing trees, or a camp clearing (noun) which is an area relatively devoid of trees where you can camp.

  9. Me@8 cont, sorry timed out. Often forget to save again when I’ve edited, and in the meantime TassieTim has commented@7 about needing SETT to clue which starts

  10. SETTLEMENT I see as a cryptic double definition, as others have remarked. The fact that we’re also given that it starts with SETT is a bonus.

  11. Is “act”=”take part” as in “accept a role” (in film/play)? It doesn’t seem too convincing to me. The acceptance and the performance are different things. Until the crossers ruled it out, I had figured the answer must be “play part”, with “act” being a part of a play.
    In any case, I generally find charades unrewarding if entire word/s in the answer is/are clued as those words… such as the “Ghosts” in “Ghost Stories” here. For me a ‘proper’ charade clue for that would use the break-up “G + HOSTS + TORIES”. (That gripe makes Vulcan puzzles often disappointing for me!)

  12. 27a SETTLEMENT is a DD, and just to make it easy, there’s the helpful hint that it starts with the previous clue. (So click “Reveal this” and save on typing.)

  14. [16d: Dublin 1955 – My aunt, the eldest of four, was childless, while her kid sisters had already had two each.
    She prayed to SAINT JUDE, “patron of lost causes”, and, when her prayers were answered, gave her firstborn that middle name. (Hey Jude 1968)]

  15. Thanks to PeterO and Maskerade. I’d like to ask, is it okay to use “They’re” in place of “Their” in 3d (NATIONALISTS)?

  16. Just to further complicate SETTLEMENT, whilst I believe KVa has parsed it correctly, the word could also potentially apply to the settling or clearing of sediment in, say, a demijohn of wine! But that would be a bit of a stretch.

  17. Enjoyable puzzle with some quirky clues.

    I wondered about 27ac which seemed a bit loose but was obvious due to starting with SETT. I like the way that KVa@2 has parsed it. I also like the comment made by FrankieG@12 which explains the ellipsis + DD.

    Favourites: SCAM, BAR MAGNETS.

    New for me: GHOSTS play by Ibsen.

    3d – I was unaware of the horse Mon Mome but today I watched the last few minutes of this horse winning the Grand National by 12 lengths in 2009.

    Thanks, both.

  18. I understood SETTLEMENT in the way PostMark @16 does, and take ‘camp’ and ‘clearing’ to be two separate definitions. Does camp = settlement, though? Maybe, as in ‘base camp’. It’s a slight weakness in a generally fun and straightforward puzzle. Thanks Maskarade and PeterO.

  19. Thanks Maskarade and PeterO
    I too was puzzled by LEMENT in 27. If it’s just a double definition, the “helpful” SETT actually makes it harder!
    PostMark – I don’t know if your “their” comment was tongue-in-cheek, but it’s fine – they are champions of their country.

  22. I disliked this less than the bank holiday “specials” but ended up with no ticks which lends it a certain novelty value

    I thought the saint was a bit obscure 🙂

    Cheers P&M

  23. A gentle Monday stroll. Also parsed SETTLEMENT as KVa, and I like it the more I think about it. I did have a look for a sneaky MAORI Nina in tribute to Pangakupu to spice this up a bit, but without success.

    Ta Maskarade & PeterO.

  24. I’m another one who took a long time to be convinced by SETTLEMENT. In the end I settled on the DD explanation with:
    CAMP (Chambers): “a settlement that has grown up rapidly, eg a mining town”
    CLEARING of debts = settlement of debts

  25. Are horses that win (or enter) the Grand National known as nationalists? Not a term that I’ve heard but I’m not an aficionado of the sport of kings.

  28. Thanks Maskarade and PeterO,
    In 27a I also like …+dd.
    Hovis@26 – that is clever and makes sense.
    Favourites are HEALTH CENTRE and SCAM

  29. 27ac feels like it ought to include a bit of clue for LEMENT. It seems a bit unsatisfactory to have the SETT bit clearly clued, and the rest of the word needing to be ‘guessed’ from the (construed) definition(s). The obvious would be something to do with (E)LEMENT. Or am I obtuse?

  31. Very suitable and just right for Monday, despite LEMENT, as I managed to solve it all. Do keep Mondays (or should that be Monday’s?) at this level please.

  33. Hello Muffin@19: I’m sorry that my comments came off as ironic. I appreciate your response, and I’ll try to avoid using such a tone next time.

  35. I felt that this Maskarade Monday offering deserves huge plaudits for some very satisfying, smoothly constructed clues. Too many to mention. If over far too quickly, I really enjoyed the journey…

  36. wordlyfeline @33
    Sorry if I sounded sharp. I wondered if your comment was a follow-up to your/you’re controversy last week 🙂

  37. Enjoyed this. Finished with SETTLEMENT which I thought was weak until I read that clearing was part of the def.
    Thanks both.

  38. Good Monday puzzle.

    I was another somewhat perplexed by ‘LEMENT’, but I see now the dd intention. I liked the wordplays for TERMINATE and HEALTH CENTRE.

    Thanks Maskarade and PeterO.

  39. @25Frankie The Cat thanks for asking that, which was my question, and @26 Hovis thanks for answering. I remember Red Rum and figured that Nationalists for such horses just had to be term I hadn’t heard.

  40. Decent straightforward puzzle, apart from the clunky SETTLEMENT – though it went straight in when I read the clue, as I already had SETT.
    NATIONALISTS could validly but less concisely be clued “They’re their country’s champions …”, and it would be correct grammatically (though poor as a clue) to have “There they’re their country’s champions …”.
    Thanks both.

  42. 11D is the kind of “reverse cryptic” that almost always escapes me, despite finding the answer from the crossers. One of these days I will internalize it as part of the armory available to setters.

    For 3D I simply took it as a playful definition of participants in the Grand National, but the parsing as National 1sts is very clever.

  43. Erik @34. I also had AGROLOGIST. I use a printout, so I’m assuming from the lack of comments on this that the app gives AGRONOMIST.

  45. I hadn’t heard “agrologist”, but Google tells me that an AGRONOMIST is an agrologist who specialises in soil and crops. Both therefore seem to be valid answers.

  46. A rather benign Maskarade (I thought) given that I’ve finally solved the intricate (but ultimately most enjoyable) Bank Holiday Prize Puzzle. Thanks to Maskarade, PeterO and contributors for a fun puzzle, a helpful blog (as always) and the interesting solvers’ review.

  49. Alec@29 tried to get LEMENT from (e)LEMENT at 27a SETTLEMENT. I tried the same thing with (C)LEMENT, thinking of weather “clearing” and becoming clement, but I couldn’t figure out how to get rid of the C from camp. A good clue nonetheless, with a meaningful use of the ellipsis.

    I didn’t parse 25a AUTOSTRADA correctly, thinking that “out” was part of the anagrist, so thanks PeterO for setting me straight, and thanks Maskarade for the very suitable Monday puzzle.

  51. Some novel clues, for sure. I, too, made short work of it. TonyS@4 sums it up for me.

    Thanks Muskarade and PeterO

  52. A great Monday offering although I didn’t get round to it until now. Many thanks to Maskerade for the great clues and to PeterO for the comprehensive explanations. My favourite was HEALTH CENTRE -really clever, and I had ticks for too many more to list. Thank you to KVa@2 and Hovis@26 for the explanations of SETTLEMENT and NATIONAL1STS.
    [FrankieG@14, I loved the story which resonated with me. St Jude was a great favourite in our Irish Catholic family. I’m sure I featured in many prayers to him in my youth… The earworm had to be done too 😎]

  55. I did get TERMINATE at 5d but was puzzled that there seemed to be no indication of the missing V- am I missing something?

    Like others, I especially enjoyed AUTOSTRADA and HEALTH CENTRE (I hadn’t seen this sort of “backwards” clue before), and I liked the surface image of COUNTESSES.

  57. Wombattle @ 55
    Looking back at my blog, i see that I left out part of the explanation, but it is there in the clue: ‘barring opening’ is a cryptic way of saying “drop the first letter”. Even at this late stage, I will correct it.

  59. Ah thank you PeterO@57 and Pino@58! I had read “barring opening in” as an unusual insertion indicator (“spanning a gap made in…”) but this makes more sense.

  60. Steffen @53 – incidently isn’t a word it’s INCIDENTAL or incidentally, so the word play doesn’t work. I had the crossers when I solved that clue.

  64. At this point I was going to say that they’re all adverbs, and can’t mean “chance”, which can only be a noun, verb, or, as is required in this case, an adjective.
    But oed.com would disagree: chance ‘ADVERB 1595– By chance, perchance, haply.’
    Admitting it’s archaic.’ and with the get-out clause: ‘In some of the examples chance may be a verb.’, it cites (among others) the immortal bard:
    ‘… 1600 It may chaunce cost some of vs our liues. W. Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 2 ii. i. 12′

  65. There are online references (Collins, and Cambridge Dictionary) to COINCIDENTLY but as an adverb it doesn’t seem to be substitutable for ‘chance’ whereas the correct answer is. I was another who had AGROLOGIST, and it seems that they are so close to each other that either should be acceptable, given that it’s a cryptic definition anyway.

    I don’t want these minor details to detract from an enjoyable solve, with many simple but witty and intelligent clues complemented by some chewy stuff. Prime amongst the latter was what SETT was doing in its contribution to the final across clue, which was otherwise a simple double definition. As some have mentioned, it seems to be there to make it harder to solve. But isn’t that unfair?

    Sorry, one day behind. Thanks anyway to Maskarade and PeterO.

  67. I enjoyed this puzzle. Knowing Maskarade from the bank holiday prize puzzles, I entered into this one with some trepidation, but in the end it seemed fairly gentle to me, although I got hung up on SETTLEMENT at the very end for a while.

    I didn’t get Bodycheetah@22’s joke until FrankieG prompted me to look again. [I took the comment literally and disagreed with it — if you hang around Catholics who talk about patron saints at all, St. Jude’s name comes up quite a bit.]

    I was dissatisfied with SETTLEMENT, but the observation that it can be a double definition plus a partial extra indication changed my mind.

    I couldn’t parse GHOST STORIES despite having read the Ibsen play at university many years ago.

    I like the parsing of 3dn as NATIONAL 1STS.

    I generally agree with Ben@11’s comment, “I generally find charades unrewarding if entire word/s in the answer is/are clued as those words.” Such clues are not wrong, but they generally strike me as uninspired. But I assume setting is hard (never having done it), and not every clue needs to be a gem.

    Another thing that slightly irritates me is words that do double duty in clues, such as “object” in 13dn. But only slightly.

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