Guardian Cryptic 29,517 by Pangakupu

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A nice puzzle with some tricky parsings. My favourites were 9ac, 20ac, and 14dn. Thanks to Pangakupu

Pangakupu’s puzzles typically have a Maori Nina – the letters in the second row (just below 1ac) give RUA TEKAU, which means ‘twenty’ in Maori

ACROSS
1 FROM STEM TO STERN
Comprehensive traversal of a few dictionary pages? (4,4,2,5)
going through a dictionary, you might find a few pages of words alphabetically between STEM and STERN
9 ABSINTH
Violent offence involving crime that initially comes from drink (7)
ABH (Actual Bodily Harm, “Violent offence”), around both of: SIN=”crime” + T-[hat] initially
10 TRIGRAM
Fewer characters than 5 taking equipment aboard public transport (7)
definition: a TRIGRAM has 3 characters, one fewer than a TETRAGRAM (solution to 5dn)

RIG=”equipment” entering aboard TRAM=”public transport”
11 GHI
Golf hotel, India – part of the cuisine it serves? (3)
definition: a type of butter made in India, also written as ‘ghee’

letters G H I in the NATO alphabet are “Golf”, “hotel”, and “India”
12 THROATINESS
This primarily isn’t hoarse? That must be wrong (11)
definition: THROATINESS would be hoarse

anagram/”wrong” of (T isn’t hoarse)*, with the first T coming from T-[his] primarily
13 ANGIOSPERM
Crude porn images showing bloomers? Just the one (10)
definition: an ANGIOSPERM is a bloomer, a type of flowering plant

anagram/”Crude” of (porn images)*
15 ATOM
It’s not much, having only half the characters available (4)
A TO M (letter ‘a‘ to letter ‘m‘) is half of the alphabet
18 SUPS
Dodgy behaviour, guzzling soft drinks (4)
SUS (slang for ‘suspicious behaviour’)=”Dodgy behaviour”, around P (piano, musical instruction for “soft”)
20 PRIMORDIAL
Original demure face drawing men in (10)
PRIM=”demure” + DIAL (of e.g. a clock)=”face”; around OR (other ranks in the military, “men”)
23 PUERTO RICAN
Power in Eurocrat disturbed resident of island (6,5)
P (power), plus anagram/”disturbed” of (in Eurocrat)*
25 SKI
Largely avoid speed downhill? (3)
most of the letters from SKI-[p]=”avoid”
26 NASTILY
Changed in last year, with an unpleasant impact (7)
anagram/”Changed” of (in last)*, plus Y (year)
27 STRIGIL
One scrapes most of whisky container with doctor intervening (7)
definition: a tool for scraping off dirt

STIL-[L]=”most of whisky container”; with RIG=”doctor” (as a verb meaning ‘tamper’) inside
28 CAPITAL GAINS TAX
Possibly London fuel test will involve much-used Government levy (7,5,3)
CAPITAL [city]=”Possibly London” + GAS=”fuel” + TAX as a verb=”test”; around IN=popular=”much-used”
DOWN
1 FRANGLAIS
Fellow contacted the French over island’s conflicted language (9)
F (Fellow) + RANG=”contacted” + LA=”the [in] French” + I’S=”island’s” (with I short for island)
2 OUSTING
Getting rid of last of tourists during trip (7)
last letter of [tourist]-S, inside OUTING=”trip”
3 SANCTION
Allow small military operation to capture North (8)
S (small) + ACTION=”military operation” around N (North)
4 ETHER
Number not given for lower number (5)
definition: a numb-er, something that makes you numb

N for “Number” removed from [N]-ETHER=”lower”
5 TETRAGRAM
Thatcher, perhaps, upset about source of threat provided by four characters (9)
definition: a word or other combination of four letters/characters

MARGARET (“Thatcher, perhaps”), reversed/”upset” around first letter/”source” of T-[hreat]
6 SKIP IT
Place about to go off? Let’s not go there (4,2)
SIT as a verb=”Place” around KIP=to go to sleep=”to go off”
7 EARNEST
Lug home payment to secure contract (7)
definition: EARNEST, or ‘earnest money’, is payment given to confirm a contract

EAR=”Lug” + NEST=”home”
8 NUMBS
Biblical text without hesitation is deadening (5)
NUMB-[er]-S is a book of the Bible, minus ‘er’=sound made in “hesitation”

some overlap in definitions with 4dn
14 PORTRAYAL
Some light coming through doorway in stage performance (9)
RAY=”Some light” in PORTAL=”doorway”
16 MULTIPLEX
Consider accommodating dump on former location of cinema (9)
MULL=”Consider” around TIP=”dump” plus EX=”former”
17 PRINT RUN
Romeo brought in beer round – how many provided? (5,3)
R (Romeo, NATO alphabet), inside PINT=”beer” + RUN=”round” (e.g. a delivery run/round)
19 PRESS-UP
Jerk, say, having papers in a frenzy (5-2)
definition: “Jerk” as a term for a movement in physical exercise

PRESS=[news] “papers” + UP=”in a frenzy”
21 INSIGHT
Enlightenment almost here? (7)
IN SIGHT=close enough to see=”almost here”
22 STRICT
Regular twinkling mostly seen in stone (6)
most of TRIC-[e]=a moment, a “twinkling”, in ST (stone, unit of mass)
23 PANIC
Shock article presented in movie (5)
AN=indefinite “article” inside PIC (picture, “movie”)
24 COSTA
Damage observed on a Spanish holiday area (5)
COST=”Damage” + A (directly from surface)

82 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29,517 by Pangakupu”

  1. Thanks manehi, needed your help as several unparsed today: STRIGIL, TETRAGRAM, MULTIPLEX, STRICT.

    Thanks P, too

  2. An enjoyable solve and managed to spot the nina (assuming there’s only one!). I wondered if perhaps this is Pangakupu’s 20th puzzle?

  3. Nice puzzle.
    And I actually knew the nina too.
    Just love the way native speakers pronounce ‘au’ and ‘ou’. Koutou (you P) is my favourite word so far.

  4. I found the construction of the clues straightforward – with many I knew what to do – but the synonyms I had to find often slightly harder to dig up. Perhaps that’s what people mean by not being on the setter’s wavelength?

    Nevertheless, a very good puzzle in that the apparently impossible gradually became clearer.

    For “press up” I though the “jerk” was a reference to the weight-lifting move, a “clean and jerk” where the “clean” is lifting the bar to the shoulders in one move and the “jerk” is pressing the bar up above the head. I thought that fitted better.

    Thank you Pangakupu and Manehi

  5. Thank you manehi. I enjoyed Pangakupu’s fun with words today, especially words deriving from other languages.
    Just a couple of remaining queries, I’m still not clear about the definition for PRINT RUN and I wouldn’t have considered a PRESS-UP as a jerk. Seems to be a different sort of movement.

    My favourite, which I didn’t get, because I was misdirected about the whisky container and the doctor was STRIGIL (which I didn’t know.) . Looks a lot like a shoehorn, only for different parts of the body and different purposes. Very interesting hygiene practices of the ancients. And now I know the name for the scrapers on bees. wasps and ants and other bugs too. Gonna add that one to my lexicon.

  6. Lyssian@2. Same thought. Pangakupu said here in August: Frequently the inspiration for the Nina is the number of the puzzle in my submissions. At that time he was up to his 33rd, so hopefully that means we can look forward to many more of his submissions.

  7. I checked 1A in my (13th edition) Chambers and STEM is on page 1525 and STERN on page 1526. But who’s to complain about a little inexactitude in such a lovely clue?

  8. Physical jerks are defined as simply ‘movements in physical exercises’ in Chambers so it’s a broad term. I guess I’ve always assumed there would be a jerkiness to them so squat thrusts, star jumps, pull ups etc come to mind rather than press ups but the def covers them all. Like pdm, I was thrown by whisky container, thinking of a more permanent vessel rather than the distillation vat but I guess it qualifies. As always, I found this setter’s Friday Indy offering considerably easier to navigate; he ramps it up for the Guardian and I generally struggle to find the wavelength here.

    Thanks Pangakupu and manehi

  9. In NUMBS, I assumed the hesitation was “um”, and “without” meant outside, so then couldn’t figure out why NBS was a biblical text. D’oh! I also hesitated a bit before remembering the expression for 1a, being more familiar with “From stern to bow”. On reflection that’s from Bob Dylan’s My Back Pages (“I was so much older then…”). I did know STRIGIL, having recently been reading some Mary Renault books in which characters are constantly scraping each other down with those things.

    Thanks Pangakupu and manehi.

  10. Not usually a fan of panga, but i liked this one. I had ghi as general health index..never seen ghee butter spelt this way. A to m was my fav. Aroha to pangakupu and manehi for putting in the mahi.

  11. Lots of fun with numbers and a really good challenge – much appreciated. Couldn’t parse ABSINTH, but thought it was a terrific puzzle. Many thanks to P & m.

  12. [Anna@3. Impressed by your knowledge of Maori for knowing the nina. And is Koutou the word for greeting that includes everyone present? ]

  13. Double Pangakupu/Phi day! Great puzzle that I thought would be over too quickly only to hit buffers and struggle over last few.

    Thanks Pangakupu and Manehi

  14. Blaise @7: in my SOED “stem” is on page 2120 and “stern” on page 2123. I think three counts as “a few”. In the full OED it’s obviously going to be rather more!

  16. I didn’t expect to finish and was pleasantly surprised when I did. A lot of solve then parse for me and I couldn’t parse ETHER, STRIGIL or STRICT, so many thanks manehi. Favourites included PORTRAYAL and ATOM (I’ve seen it before but it’s clever). The reversal in TETRAGRAM was a surprise. I was trying to make an anagram out of THATCHER and T when TETRA came to mind… Good fun, thank you Pangakupu.

  18. Lots left unparsed at the end, so many thanks manehi for all the hard work. Enjoyed it though. I also thought of weightlifting to find an equivalence between press up and jerk. Nice surfaces. Thank you Pangakupu.

  19. paddymelon @ 12

    I had to retrieve my Maori notes!

    Koutou includes everyone addressed, but not the speaker of course.
    The singular is koe and the dual is korua (macron on the o).

    I’ve forgotten how to do the macrons. Ggggrrrrr.

  20. Unfortunately I limped a bit through this and needed the blog to understand the parsing for several solutions – similar questions over the ones already mentioned by others. So thank you to manehi for the explanations.
    Some enjoyable clues here, so thank you to Pangakupu. It was a revelation that my second name, Margaret, can provide the majority of the fodder for TETRAGRAM (5d).
    [Loved the Bob Dylan reference, Lord Jim@9: an earworm now!]

  21. I thought this was brilliant, with so many ticks. CGT was a write-in from the enumeration but what a nice clue. A couple of SKIPS and NUMBERS but it didn’t spoil the fun. TETRAGRAM was a great spot and I liked working out the word play for STRIGIL. I didn’t realise ABSINTH could be spelt without an E. The nina, which I was spotting earlyish helped me guess the U for loi, NUMBS. Great end to the week.

    Ta Pangakupu & manehi.

  22. I also thought hesitation was UM in NUMBS, so was struggling to work out how NBS was biblical text. New Bible Scriptures perhaps, so thanks manehi for putting me right.

  23. Like you Matthew Newell@15, I wondered about the TETRAGRAMs and TRIGRAMs, but when I counted we only have 2 of each.

  24. Lord Jim @14. I did guess that other dictionaries, especially the ones with lots of “first occurrence citations,” would fit the wordplay better. Thanks for confirming.

  25. I’m with JinA @20, definitely more of a limp than a sail. And like Alanc, forgot about Numbers the book and shrugged about NBS around um, d’oh indeed. Thanks to Panga and manehi.

  26. I was a man drawn in by the trickery of PRIMORDIAL, thinking that the answer would be an anagram of “demure face.” Clever. Thanks blogger and setter.

  27. 17a PRINT RUN – “how many provided?”, and – more to the point – of what? 😐
    [“It’s Φday… It’s Φve to Φve… And it’s Crackerjack! (1955-1984)”]
    [In lower case stem and stern look remarkably similar. I was confused by Lord Jim@9’s Dylan quote, reading it as “stem to bow”]

  28. I enjoyed most of this, but had question marks against PRESS-UP for reasons already mentioned. The definition for PRINT-RUN could refer to almost anything, and I’ve never seen ghee spelled that way, though it’s in Chambers. STRIGIL popped out from reading a lot about the Romans of late. They didn’t have soap as we know it, so used olive oil and a strigil for personal hygiene. Sounds quite unpleasant.

  29. Thanks Pangakupu and Manehi. Tough one.

    COTD: FROM STEM TO STERN (one question: Doesn’t it mean comprehensively?)
    Other faves: THROATINESS, C G TAX, MULTIPLEX and INSIGHT.

    PRINT RUN: Could someone help me understand the def? Does ‘provide’ mean ‘produce’ in this
    context (How many copies provided/produced?—>the number of copies produced)?

  30. A bit too difficult for me to enjoy fully, but some very good clues, such as for CAPITAL GAINS TAX and ANGIOSPERM. I surprised myself by spotting FRANGLAIS quickly. I’m not so keen on the parsing of STRICT and NETHER, where you have to guess a synonym for the definition, and then another plus a subtraction to understand the wordplay (or the other way round).

  31. Kia ora, Anna @19: ā on my Android phone is a long press on a and when a little menu pops up, slide your finger over the ā and release it. On my laptop, nothing so clever, I usually cut and paste.
    Ngā mihi.

  33. Kia ora Yes Me @ 31
    On my computer, Number Lock depressed, ALT + 257 usually does an a with a macron, but it doesn’t seem to work on this blog.
    Yes, it’s easier on the phone.
    Nga_ mihi ki koe

  34. 5d TETRAGRAM: According to Wiktionary, Margaret reverses without any extra wordplay to give teragraM:
    ‘(metrology) An SI unit of mass equal to 10¹² grams. Symbol: Tg’ …

  36. I had to rely on the check button a few times to compete this, but thoroughly enjoyable. I didn’t know you could spell GHI like that, but one of the easier ones. Sorry to be picky, but with regard to ATOM isn’t half of the alphabet A to L? With thanks to both.

  38. Thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding. I found Pangakupu difficult to start with, but have become accustomed to his style, and he has now joined Paul and Picaroon in my ‘eagerly anticipated’ list.

    Particular favourites today include STRIGIL (new to me) and the almost-Pauline ANGIOSPERM.

    Thanks to manehi and Pangakupu

  39. I think I’m getting worse at these crosswords but I solved this with the aid of my trusty computer. I didn’t know STRIGIL or that EARNEST definition, and I was another with UM inside NBS.

    I liked THROATINESS, PRIMORDIAL, ETHER and MULTIPLEX. I think the A to M must have been done before.

    Thanks Pan and manehi.

  40. Not very up on my TETRAGRAM’s and TRIGRAM’s, so the upper half was a struggle. Until I suddenly twigged the excellent FROM STEM TO STERN. Several parsings lost on me too. Knew STRIGIL from a recent programme I watched about The Romans. Last one in was the diminutive ATOM, but quite a battle throughout this morning for this particular solver…

  42. … (continued from@35 … It’s 10⁹ kg (ten billion kilograms), and scrolling down to 10⁶ to 10¹¹ kg, you’ll see that
    the Sun converts 4.3 Margarets of matter into energy each second.
    And that the Great Pyramid of Giza equates to six Margarets.

  43. I thought I was getting better at Pangakupu, but found this difficult and only just finished – or rather, not finished, having given up and revealed PRINT RUN. GHI was obvious, but I needed to check the unusual spelling (maybe it’s the usual one in NZ?). Took ages to remember trice=twinkling and that meaning of EARNEST: synonyms in general didn’t come easily today.

    Thanks manehi for explaining the GAINS bit of CGT, and ETHER where I took the wrong “number” to be the def and then couldn’t sort out the parsing.

    I guessed it was FROM XXXX TO XXXXX very quickly, but the right nouns took a while to emerge: lovely clue.

  45. Thanks for the blog, good puzzle with some interesting words and clever wordplay .

    KVa@29 you have the right sense – The Guardian provided 100000 copies for newsagents this morning.

  46. Another one here who doesn’t know where PRINT RUN comes from. Also I’m dubious about PRESS-UP; I’m pretty sure weightlifting was intended but AFAIK the clean and jerk and the clean and press are two slightly different things.

    Still, quibbles aside, the puzzle was good fun. Nho EARNEST in that sense, and I needed the blog for the parsing of STRICT since I failed to interpret TRIC.

    Thanks both

  48. FrankieG@34, 35, and 42. You lost me at 10 to the power of 12 grams.
    I liked Julie in Australia’s middle name check, Margaret, in TETRAGRAM.

  49. Good puzzle, with some unusual spellings (GHI, ABSINTH) but nothing too distracting.

    I’m not convinced by ‘whisky container’ = STILL – the still contains ‘wash’ and whisky is what is distilled from it – but all is forgiven with a beautiful word like STRIGIL.

    TETRAGRAM is a good find (FrankieG @35: teragram may be kosher SI but this quantity is more familiar as a megaton(ne)).

    Favourite: ANGIOSPERM (all plants with flowers are angiosperms, so this isn’t just a ‘type of flowering plant’).

    Thanks to S&B

  50. Did not expect to do so well with Paul’s puzzle yesterday and Pangakupu’s today. Must be something in the air. New to me: tip = dump, lug = ear, and ABH, but those clues were still solvable (or soluable). Thanks both.

  51. Roz@45. I’m very familiar with the meaning of PRINT RUN in that sense, the first that came to mind. I just can’t get my head around How many provided as a definition. Run has to be doing double duty.

  52. Like Pauline @16, I was surprised and pleased at being able to finish this – but, as always with this setter, there were a few things which felt a little odd.
    I’ve never seen ghee spelled that way, but then it’s not an English word so other spellings must be viable. I’ve never seen Absinthe without the final E before, either, which is more puzzling.
    Like JOFT @4, some of the synonyms seemed a bit loose: is PANIC really the same as shock? Prim and Demure? (Or is it irrelevant that the former is pejorative and the latter isn’t?)
    However, ATOM was neat (I don’t doubt it’s been done before – but there’ll always be those, like me, for whom it’s new) and FRANGLAIS made me grin.
    Best of all: having gleaned all sorts of things from crosswords – most of which, frankly, will only ever be of use in future crosswords – I finally learned a useful fact. That second row had enough vowels to be a word and, knowing Pangakupu’s fondness for ninas, I bunged it in Duck Duck Go.
    So I now know a word in Maori.
    I do hope a get a chance to use it…

    Thank you manehi for the blog, and Pangakupu for the fun and education

  53. Absolutely battered. Great puzzle but I simply couldn’t lay a glove on Pangakupu today. Thanks both!

  54. Thanks Pangakupu and manehi.

    I found this a little tricky in places, exposing gaps in my GK and parsing skills, but I very much enjoyed the challenge.
    I liked ‘some light coming through doorway’ and the numbers.

    Being without any understanding of Maori, I’m extremely wary of ‘google translate’. However, for what it’s worth, further potential Ninas translate from Maori to words that might be an apology, a greeting and an expression of affection. But the algorithm could be, like Māui, the ultimate trickster.

  55. That was very tough for me, as usual with Pangakupu, with the NE proving especially tricky. In hindsight I’m embarrassed I took so long to get 8d. 4d defeated me and was just a bung.

    12d is very good and 5d is an excellent spot. I dredged up 27a from Latin classes several decades ago. I feel like we’ve seen 15a before, and not too long ago?

    Thank you manehi and Pangakupu

  56. Tough parsing indeed! But a very fair challenge.

    The reversal of Margaret was a great spot!

    I’m afraid I’m not at all convinced by the clue for PRINT RUN. Apart from that, all good.

    Thanks Pangakupu and manehi

  57. PDM@51 books also have a PRINT RUN , for a new novel a few thousand say , unless someone very famous .
    So the PRINT RUN is 3000 . How many provided ? . 3000 .
    I reall do not see any issue with this clue.

  59. [ AlanC@21 , is it true that N.Ireland actually won a football match ? Or are my students trying to test my gullibility ? ]

  60. Roz @59 – They beat Bulgaria 5-0 last Tuesday.
    You should know better than to doubt your students!!

  64. Ohhh I get the PRINT RUN thing now; I didn’t read the blog carefully enough! The “round” being referred to by “how many provided?” should be interpreted as a newspaper delivery round, not a round of drinks. D’oh

  65. [ I am sorry AlanC@63, I should have more faith , I will wear my green Alice band tonight at dancing as penance. I am sure that KPR will not let you down tomorrow, it is Sailors V Pirates . ]

  66. Found this tough today, but kept chipping away and got there in the end.

    I have never knowingly come across FROM STEM TO STERN, and even with FROM S_E_ TO S_E_N and knowing that the two words were alphabetically close, and what the definition is, you’ve still either heard the phrase or you haven’t…

    ATOM, TRIGRAM, TETRAGRAM and INSIGHT were my favourites today. Needed 225 to parse ETHER (I didn’t have either part!) and to explain the def for EARNEST. STRIGIL is a jorum.

    Thanks for the challenge Pangakupu and for the blog manehi. Happy weekend to all! ☼

    (Edit: I also had “jerk” as the second part of the Olympic lift, not the very old-fashioned “physical jerks”, so I’m with Jack@4 on this one)

  67. Roz@65…Something clued around the Pirates and Pen(z)ance might make it into a future Guardian Cryptic, methinks…

  68. Just FYI, in the world of NLP (Natural Language Processing), or Computational Linguistics, bigrams and TRIGRAMs usually refer to numbers of words, because that’s the most common unit of interest. However, I’ve never seen TETRAGRAM used for 4 words – after 3 they’re 4-grams, or more often, n-grams. Kind of like primitive counting: one, two, three, many!

  70. Ronald @67 I am actually surprised that we get very few G&S themes in puzzles . Bunthorne used to have them , usually a very long quotation across the grid .

  71. What a great crossword-nothing on first pass until CAPITAL GAINS TAX and then solved from the bottom up, effectively. Fittingly FROM STEM TO STERN was the last one in. FRANGLAIS raised a smile. Always enjoy Pangakupu so thanks for an excellent offering and Manehi for the blog

  73. Tough today. I couldn’t get STRIGIL. Also not convinced by Still as container.
    Wish Panga had gone with Court rather than Thatcher in 5d.
    Thanks to him and manehi.

  75. phitonelly @73: the virulently homophobic Margaret Court instead of the Iron Lady? Not an improvement, sorry. Great tennis player, I’m sure–her career was before my time–but not a great person at all. Admittedly, Court would have made for a smoother surface.

  76. Getting to this belatedly. Yes, the twentieth puzzle, got overlooked in the editorial handover, so also belated.

    To me, GHEE is the (slightly) rarer spelling – I first encountered GHI in a Zander clue to GANDHI (in his Teach Yourself Crosswords, I think) so I reckon it has Guardian provenance!

    Margaret Court not unknown to me but tennis career just enough before my time not to ring any bells as a useful source (and why would I want to invoke her post-tennis reputation?) – I was thinking of the machinations around Thatcher’s downfall.

  77. Having got 1d and 2d, I thoughtlessly bunged in FROM HERE TO THERE at 1a, which slowed me down. The Ss in 3D and 6d later pushed me towards the less-convincing SHIP TO SHORE. Eventually ETHER and NUMBS (a nice pair of clues I should have spotted earlier) set me straight. 1d & 2d also tempted me to 9d being ASSAULT . Couldn’t get any drink reference, but never seen ABSINTH without the final E. All I know is that it makes the heart grow fonder.

  78. A game of two halves for me: the lower half of the grid went in yesterday morning relatively quickly and I felt I was on the setter’s wavelength. I’ve limped through the rest when I’ve returned to it though, last night and this morning. New to me is FROM STEM etc, the definition of EARNEST, and STRIGIL.

    GHI seemed too obvious from the clueing so that didn’t get filled in until later in the proceedings.

    I was caught out for a while by ‘number’ as the indicator for ETHER, despite successfully negotiating a similar clue in recent weeks.

    No complaints, but I struggled after a solid, enjoyable outing in the first half.

  79. I’m sure I’m shouting into the void this late on, had to sleep on 1ac even with all the crossers…. and for too long had DSS (Dead Sea scrolls) around UM to make DUMBS instead of NUMBS. But really enjoyed this, a lovely composition, bravo Pangakupu and thank you manehi

  82. Oops, wasn’t aware of Court’s post-career reputation. Apologies mrpenney. Was thinking mainly of the surface.

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