A gentle offering from Pasquale this morning.
Despite a couple of less common words as solutions (KASHA and MARCATO), this was pretty much a write-in. I believe the Don recently published his 400th cryptic, so congratulations to him on that milestone. As we say up here in Scotland, “lang may your lum reek”, Don.
Thanks, Pasquale.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PARAMEDICAL |
Like Florence’s work, organising aid and care with lamp (11)
|
| *(aid care lamp) [anag:organising] | ||
| 9 | CHEAPER |
More vulgar applause drowning a prince (7)
|
| CHEER (“applause”) drowning A + P (prince) | ||
| 10 | TWEENIE |
Sort of child’s little bit of nonsense in game (7)
|
| WEE (“little”) + [bit of] N(onsene) in TIE (“game”, as in cup tie) | ||
| 11 | DESPERADO |
A fuss started by some Parisian criminal (9)
|
| PER (“a”) + ADO (“fuss”) started by DES (“some” in French, so “some Paris”) | ||
| 12 | KASHA |
Cereal drowned in milk – a shame! (5)
|
| Hidden in [drowned in] “milK A SHAme”
Kasha is a porridge made from crushed buckwheat. |
||
| 13 | CAFE |
A fellow in church as provider of hot drinks (4)
|
| A + F (fellow) in CE (“Church” of England) | ||
| 14 | MONTENEGRO |
Men get on or collapse in the country (10)
|
| *(men get on or) [anag:collapse] | ||
| 16 | COHABITANT |
Flatmate maybe in old dress – sanctimonious talk about that (10)
|
| CANT (“sanctimonious talk) about O (old) + HABIT (“dress”) | ||
| 19 | STOP |
Rolling over, vessels go no further (4)
|
| [rolling over] <=POTS (“vessels”) | ||
| 21 | ARRAS |
Cockney’s trouble reported in French town (5)
|
| Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [reported] of ‘ARASS (harass (“trouble”), which a Cockney might pronounce ‘arass) | ||
| 22 | UNHEARD OF |
Naughty fun – oh dear! – shocking? (7-2)
|
| *(fun oh dear) [anag:naughty] | ||
| 24 | SLAVISH |
Humble son John, one that’s quiet (7)
|
| S (son) + LAV (lavatory, so “john”) + I (one) + SH (“quiet”) | ||
| 25 | PURCELL |
Composer has piano at front of old city room (7)
|
| P (piano, in music notation) at front of UR (“old city” of Mesopotamia) + CELL (“room”)
Henry Purcell was a 17th century English composer. |
||
| 26 | MAGISTRATES |
Wise men facing star set out – anticipators of trials ahead? (11)
|
| MAGI (“wise men”) facing *(star set) [anag:out] | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PEERS OF THE REALM |
Senior types in Parliament lose heart with PM free to go wrong? (5,2,3,5)
|
| *(lose heart pm free) [anag:to go wrong] | ||
| 2 | RUPEE |
Money to establish gym in French street (5)
|
| PE (physical education) in RUE (“French street”) | ||
| 3 | MARCATO |
Emphatically spoil pet maybe with love (7)
|
| MAR (“spoil”) + CAT (“pet maybe”) with O (love)
Marcato is a term in music for “emphatic” or “performed with emphasis”
|
||
| 4 | DETROIT |
City investigator, one probing nonsense (7)
|
| Det. (detective, so “investigator”) + I probing ROT (“nonsense”) | ||
| 5 | CREAKING |
Worry with a falling monarch sounding unhealthy? (8)
|
| CARE (“worry”) with A falling becomes CRE(A) + KING (“monarch”) | ||
| 6 | LONG-SIGHTEDNESS |
Drunk led the singsongs – glasses to be provided for such? (4-11)
|
| *(led the singsongs) [anag:drunk] | ||
| 7 | ACIDIC |
Sour account involving Amin? (6)
|
| Acc. (account) involving IDI (Amin) | ||
| 8 | GELATO |
Some angel at opera offering ice cream (6)
|
| Hidden in [some] “anGEL AT Opera” | ||
| 15 | ABASHING |
A bit of a leg clothed in a sack that’s embarrassing (8)
|
| SHIN (“a bit of leg”) clothed in A BAG (“a sack”) | ||
| 16 | COARSE |
Rough journey being broadcast (6)
|
| Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [being broadcast] of COURSE (“journey”) | ||
| 17 | TOUCHES |
Suggestions upset group stifling cry of pain (7)
|
| [upset] <=SET stifling OUCH (“cry of pain”) | ||
| 18 | NO-HOPER |
Number given hard work having hesitation – one is bound to fail (2-5)
|
| No. (number) given H (hard) + Op. (opus, so “work”) having ER (sound uttered whil ehesitatting, so “hesitation”) | ||
| 20 | PIFFLE |
Rubbish heap delved into by two females (6)
|
| PILE (“heap”) delved into by FF (two females) | ||
| 23 | AFRIT |
A loud ceremony to cast out eastern demon (5)
|
| A + F (forte, so “loud”) + RIT(e) (“ceremony” to cast out E (east))
An afrit is an evil demon in Arabic mythology (as well as being the pseudonym of Alistair Ritchie, one of the pioneers of the British cryptic crossword). |
A very enjoyable puzzle today. I was stuck with ac for account, so stupidly didn’t get the Idi. The s is in fact pronounced in Arras, unlike Paris.
Many thanks loonapick and Pasquale.
Liz@1 – whoops, my bad! Will edit.
Very nice, elegant, gentle puzzle with only the nho MARCATO requiring a second visit. PARAMEDICAL is a brilliant anagram and surface. And MAGISTRATES is not that far behind.
Thanks Pasquale and loonapick
Very enjoyable. Satisfying to get the four longest clues first. It’s also very rare that I’ll complete in one sitting: not meant as a boast, more of a relief as I’ve found a lot of puzzles to be beyond my abilities in the last couple of weeks.
Thanks Loonapick.
My favourite was 5d for the surface and wordplay. The image I got was of the “worry” about the health of the current king. However, a falling monarch in armour could also be creaking. Reminded me of a Peter and Gordon song from the 60’s.
It struck me that 23 d AFRIT must have been a tribute from Pasquale to the master setter, as loonapick mentions in the blog. He died in 1954 but is still often mentioned in cryptic blogs.
Thanks to loonapick for the helpful comments and blog. I needed to come here to see the (now obvious) parse for 5d CREAKING. Congratulations to Pasquale on a setting milestone, and thanks as well for this puzzle. I liked 4d DETROIT and learned a new word once I solved 3d MARCATO using the crossers and wordplay.
Having learnt the vernacular yesterday, I can claim three jorums: MARCATO, KASHA and AFRIT.
One morning on a work trip to France, I was in a taxi to Arras, which I had pronounced correctly and also spelled out just in case. Nevertheless, it transpired after a while that my driver was headed à Reims, a 174km error. It was not a great moment. On reflection, my French might have been better than his.
I enjoyed this crossword. It had some lovely anagrams and clear clues. Thanks Pasquale and loonapick.
‘Nice, elegant, gentle’ indeed, PM @3. Very neat anagrams in PARAMEDICAL, PEERS OF THE REALM and LONG-SIGHTEDNESS. I also liked COHABITANT, PURCELL, MAGISTRATES and CREAKING.
I found an interesting article on AFRIT on Shuchi’s site here:
https://www.crosswordunclued.com/2010/05/afrits-armchair-crosswords.html#:~:text=Afrit%20is%20the%20pseudonym%20of%20crossword%20compiler%20Alistair,correct%20entries%22%29%20and%20easier%20ones%20for%20The%20Sketch.
Thanks to Pasquale and loonapick.
Yes paddymelon @5, I also wondered after getting AFRIT whether there was going to be a setters’ theme on. I’ve just this last week received a prize of “Armchair Crosswords” by Afrit as a prize from the Crossword Centre. How serendipitous that A.F.Ritchie’s name lent itself as a pseudonym meaning an Arabic evil demon. 127 Listener Crosswords is no mean feat.
[Thanks for the link, Eileen @8]
400th cryptic from Don Manley? Are you sure you don’t mean 4,000th, loonapick? Or 40,000th?
[21a makes me think of Brian Glover. Before turning to acting, he was a professional wrestler. He found himself in France where he took the place of a wrestler called Leon from Arras who had failed to turn up. Thereafter he adopted his wrestler name of Leon Arras. He was one of the bad guys we loved to hate]
Congratulations, Tim C @10!
Congratulations on the landmark 400. A bit of a write-in to be honest apart the gettable UNHEARD OFs, mentioned previously. Agree with PM @3 about PARAMEDICAL, followed by the excellent PEERS OF THE REALM. I also liked DESPERADO for the ‘criminal’ misdirection. Unfortunately my loi was MAGISTRATES, which was so obvious from the crossers, that it was a simple solve, although that is not to detract from the lovely clue itself.
[Admin @12: Brian Glover will be ever in my heart for his marvellous performance in Kes.]
Ta Pasquale & loonapick.
I parsed 7D as ac for account plus “Idic”, a possible adjective from Idi; hence the question mark.
I confidently entered PARLOUR at 25a. P and UR as Pasquale intended, ARLO (Guthrie) as the composer, definition “room”. It works… until LONG-SIGHTEDNESS messed it up. There’s an earworm for DESPERADO. Thanks, Pasquale and loonapick.
Loonapick, as an aside, if you’re editing French clues later, DESPERADO is ‘some Parisian’ rather than ‘Paris’.
Me too, TassieTim @16.
When Google said kasha was a porridge of buckwheat I went Oh of course I’ve had that [visiting mrs ginf’s maternal forebears in Tirano, near the Swiss border — they call it kashul, it’s solid going!]. Marcato I vaguely remembered from music. As for afrit, my great Auntie Leah asked 19yo ginf “Ar ta frit?” Frit of her, she meant. She were a bit of a demon, but from Lancs 🙂 All good fun, thanks loona, and congrats Don.
[ginf @19… I’ve a vague memory of frit meaning afraid from my early day”oop North” so “ar ta frit” rings a bell although “arta reet” (are you all right) is more familiar]
My top faves: PARAMEDICAL, MAGISTRATES, PEERS OF THE REALM and CREAKING.
Thanks Pasquale and loonapick.
Well I found this difficult, against the general tide of opinion on here so far. Couldn’t get the last two, SLAVISH and TOUCHES, as the respective definitions of Humble and Suggestions just didn’t chime with me at all. Thought I was initially doing quite well, but ground to a halt for quite a while in the bottom half. AFRIT and MARCATO new words for me. But did like the long anagrams at 1 and 6 down, though…
Elegant crossword, but then I’d expect nothing else from The Don.
Like AlanC, I’m surprised at the number 400, given how long he’s been at it, and given how many publications he sets for.
He is also the author of Crossword English, a delightful short essay in the preamble to Chambers’ Crossword Dictionary, which I highly recommend, especially to beginners.
Thank you, Mr Manley, I,too, hope your lum reeks lang!
Re 400, see Pasquale’s own comment @23 in his recent prize here
Very enjoyable only ruined by my own laziness in putting in COHABITING rather than the correct answer. A proper parse would have stopped that.
MARCATO and KASHA new to me but the wordplay was kind.
Many good clues in this seems a shame to pick one out but thought all the anagrams were top class today.
Thanks Pasquale and Loonapick.
Pierre @11 and others: is it possible that Mr Manley has done 400 puzzles as Pasquale for the Guardian (having done many more under his other names in different publications)? Someone on here must know.
I agree that the standout today was PARAMEDICAL for the brilliant surface and anagram. Many thanks both.
Lovely to see so many people acknowledging such a significant milestone. Pasquale is only the 13th setter to reach 400 daily puzzles for the Guardian. He’s the first to get there since Shed back on 18th August 2015 – a measure of how rare an achievement this is.
The full tale of the tape:
Pasquale’s Guardian debut was on 5th April 1989. He has provided 9 Monday puzzles, 115 Tuesdays, 86 Wednesdays, 81 Thursdays, 72 Fridays and (perhaps surprisingly) just 37 Saturday Prizes. 293 of his daily puzzles came since June 1999 so are in the archive.
In addition, he has provided 45 Quiptics and 10 Genius puzzles. His debut Quick Cryptic was published last Saturday; as I noted yesterday he and Picaroon are the only setters to date to have provided puzzles for all days of the week and all three online-only series. Most people will know that under various other “Don” pseudonyms (Bradman, Quixote, Duck, etc) he has provided literally thousands of puzzles elsewhere.
He has taken his time in getting to 400 (36 years and 31 days) – in fact he is the second slowest of the 13, with only Orlando taking longer to get there (37 years and 138 days).
Congratulations, Don – please keep ’em coming! Perhaps you’ll be only the 10th to make it to 500 sometime in early 2033…?
Brilliant info Mitz @27. Thank you
I said someone on here would know 🙂 . Many thanks Mitz.
Oh goodness me. Apologies: debut was 25th March 1989, not 5th April. This was definitely Pasquale’s 400th daily for the G though!
Well-spotted Jay @24
@SueB and @Jay
I don’t doubt that the Prize back in March was Don’s 400th that he provided to the Guardian (I know he keeps a careful file) but it was the 398th to be published.
Thx to Pasquale for an enjoyable Tuesday romp. I like anagrams so was very pleased to clue PARAMEDICAL; PEERS OF THE REALM; LONG-SIGHTEDNESS. Two new words added to my knowledge bank. KASHS and MARCATO.
Word of the day AFRIT.
Thx also to loonapick for the blog.
Some lovely surfaces here, and 1D is one of the best long anagrams I have seen in a long while.
A mixed difficulty puzzle for me with some, such as CAFE, STOP, RUPEE and GELATO being fairly straightforward, and others with a bit more venom. I didn’t know KASHA, MARCATO and AFRIT (apart from the setter’s name). I liked the surfaces for PARAMEDICAL and PURCELL, the wordplay for COHABITANT, the good anagram for PEERS OF THE REALM, and the rubbish heap that was PIFFLE. Yet again I have to confess at not spotting the A for PER, doh! One day I won’t get caught by that!
Thanks Pasquale and loonapick.
Afrit is the pseudonym of Alistair Ferguson Ritchie..,..hence AFRIT
Thanks Pasquale for an impeccably clued crossword. While most of this was gentle for me I still failed with TWEENIE & ARRAS and I couldn’t parse CREAKING, now very obvious. In addition to the splendid anagrams my favourites were DESPERADO, SLAVISH, DETROIT, GELATO, and TOUCHES. Thanks loonapick for the blog.
TimC@20 In 1983 Thatcher accused Denis Healey of being FRIT at PMQs. It caused quite a stir. Dennis Skinner did the same to Theresa May.
Thatcher was from Grantham which is scarcely “oop” North where people pronounce “up” as “up” and neither as the parodic “oop” nor as “ap” as it can be pronounced “darn Sarf”.
Thanks Loonapick!
I knew AFRIT, MARCATO, and KASHA. But I couldn’t parse TWEENIE and COHABITANT, just filled them from the crosses, so thank you for the explanation.
And thanks Pasquale for this enjoyable puzzle! So many nice surfaces and interesting clues, I can’t choose a favourite, I like them all. Maybe the brilliant anagram for PARAMEDICAL.
Learnt the word Marcato today, appropriately enough during the break from teaching scientific English to students at the music University in Graz. Disclaimer, I am a natural scientist, so I am not required to know any musicological words ;-). Knew Kasha as our children eat it for breakfast sometimes.
All very nicely done and not unduly difficult. No one of working age needs a hard puzzle on the Tuesday after a holiday Monday. AFRIT, MARCATO and KASHA were all new to me but gettable from the customary fair clueing. Favourites were the lovely long anagram spots.
A very nice puzzle that surprisingly I could finish and completed quite rapidly.
On Saturday Don was present at the celebrations for Azed’s 2750 crossword at Wolfson college Oxford. A lovely occasion in bright sunshine. Two great friends and two great setters. Privileged to be there and witness history being made. Long may they continue challenging and entertaining us.
Much too difficult for me.
Shame.
DM@39 I didn’t say or imply that Thatcher was a Northerner.
I can’t imagine a finer marcato than Flórez in this recitative from Don Pasquale itself – c 3 mins in. Thank you Pasquale and loonapick!
Late comment, but to call this a “write in”, I do know what a write in is, and this wasn’t such, it wasn’t unsolvable, mostly fairly straightforward, but definitely NOT EASY!! I found some of the cluing very dubious. Is there no word in English now that can’t be defined in a crossword puzzle as an abbreviation using its first letter? For instance here, the N in nonsense. Come on. and a word I’ve never heard of. No-hoper was a compendium of more commonly accepted abbreviations admittedly. The Arras clue was pretty dubious too, harass for trouble? Long stretch of the bow here. Too many answers depended on getting the crossers in my way of thinking.
Didn’t get tweenie, I’ve never come across it in that sense, having always thought of one as a sort of housemaid.
Hadrian@47
Thanks for the link. What a voice!
Add my congrats to the Don on reaching 400.
Coincidentally, I’ve been slowly going through the whole of the Pasquale back archive on the Guardian site and I’m up to about May 2018.
Favourite so far has to be 21ac in this one.
I always thought OP = work was short for “operation”, as in “she’s had a bit of work done”. Works either way I guess
ARRAS, AFRIT & KASHA were unknown.
Lots of fun. Not a write in, it’s not helpful to have it described as such, could be diisenheartening.
I put ‘PARLOUR’ for 25AC: P + ARLO + UR — Arlo isn’t as well known as Purcell, but he is a composer.
Technically a DNF as I wouldn’t put SLAVISH in. Someone who is humble, is so by temperament. One is forced to be slavish.
Steady on John Monro @48. The write-in thing is annoying, but indeed there is no word in English that cannot be represented by it’s first letter if it has “little bit of” before it, and “harass” works well for “trouble” as a verb.
Arris is rhyming slang. Aristotle – bottle.
epop@58 [Aristotle – bottle- bottle and glass-arse. He fell on his Aris.]
Came at this quite late as it was part of a slush pile. Agree with Ronald@22 that I didn’t find this in the least bit gentle, and as well as the two he mentions with very deceptive definitions I found “senior types in Parliament” way off beam. “Placemen” or “timeservers” might have helped me solve this clue a little sooner.
Also agree with QuietEars@54 that describing a crossword as a write in is not helpful
Really enjoyed wrestling this one into submission. Finished with COHABITANT (after finally realizing that INHABITANT was wrong), which then gave me COARSE