Guardian Cryptic No 29,788 by Brendan

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A fun solve, with favourites 8ac, 22ac, 24ac, and 4dn. Thanks to Brendan for the puzzle.

…there is a theme around games (for two players) in the across solutions.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
8 MONOPOLY
Ploy contrived by Dr. No that eliminates the competition (8)
definition refers to a business that operates as a monopoly

for the theme, Monopoly is a board game for 2+ players

anagram/”contrived” of (Ploy)*; after MO (Medical Officer, “Dr.”) + NO (from surface)
9 EUCHRE
Muffed her cue that involves up to three other players (6)
a card game often played with four players (for the definition) but can be played with 2 players (for the theme link to 11,23)

anagram/”Muffed” of (her cue)*
10 SNAP
Shoot and fracture (4)
for the theme, Snap is a card game for 2+ players

double definition: to take/shoot a photo; or to break or fracture
11, 23 TWO CAN PLAY AT THAT GAME
Retaliatory principle that applies to surrounding solutions (3,3,4,2,4,4)
wordplay refers to the surrounding across solutions, with names of games that can be played with two players, or locations where these games might be played
12 BOGGLE
Be astounded finding trunk filled with goods? (6)
for the theme, Boggle is a word game using dice with letters, that can be played with 2 players

BOLE=”trunk” of a tree, filled with G (good) and G (good) i.e. “goods”
14 DRAUGHTS
Swallows in air currents (8)
for the theme, draughts is a board game for 2 players

double definition: a draught can be an act of drinking or swallowing; or an air current
15 ON BOARD
Place for mate, in more ways than one (2,5)
ON BOARD can be a place for check mate in chess, a board game for 2 players; or a place for a “mate” as in an officer on board a ship
17 AT TABLE
Location for people holding hands and eating (2,5)
people can hold hands of cards when playing games at a table; or people can be at a dining table to eat
20 SCRABBLE
Caught in small mob, use claws (8)
for the theme, Scrabble is a board game for 2+ players

C (Caught, cricket abbreviation); inside S (small) + RABBLE=”mob”
22 CASINO
A coin’s tossed in gambling scene (6)
for the theme, a casino is a place where games of chance are played

anagram/”tossed” of (A coin’s)*
23 TWO CAN PLAY AT THAT GAME
See 11
24 GOLF
What follows foxtrot on radio brings beat back (4)
definition: Golf for G follows Foxtrot for F in the NATO alphabet used for radio communication

for the theme, two can play a game of golf

FLOG=”beat” reversed/”back”
25 TENNIS
Activity in court that makes offence clear? Just the opposite (6)
definition refers to a tennis court

for the theme, two can play a game of tennis

reversal/”opposite” of SIN=”offence” + NET=”clear” (as in ‘clear profit’ / ‘net profit’)
26 CRIBBAGE
Copy book ahead of time as popular local activity (8)
definition/theme: Cribbage is a card game for two players that is associated with pubs (a “local” = a pub)

CRIB=”Copy” + B (book) + AGE=”time”
DOWN
1 DOWNTOWN
Rent, perhaps, around quarter in centre of city (8)
DON’T OWN=”Rent, perhaps” (if you don’t own a property, you might rent a place); around W (west, a “quarter”)
2 POOP
Part of ship that’s unaffected by overturning (4)
definition: the part of a ship towards the stern

POOP is a palindrome, it remains the same if reversed/overturned
3 SORTIE
Sally’s kind, in other words (6)
definition: a sally can be a charge, a sortie

SORT=type=”kind”, plus IE (id est = “in other words”)
4 BYROADS
Minor ways in which Fourth of July is captured by women in US (7)
Y is the fourth letter of [Jul]-Y, inside BROADS=US term for “women”
5 MEGAWATT
Plenty of power in short book, securing upturn of payment (8)
MATT=”short book” (Matt. is short for Matthew, a book of the Bible); around reversal/upturn of WAGE=”payment”
6 SCAPEGOATS
Small points about attack – it’s unfair to blame them (10)
S (Small), plus CAPES=promontories, headlands=”points” around GO AT=”attack”
7 ARRANT
Utter a diatribe, repeating its beginning (6)
definition: “Utter” as an adjective meaning ‘complete’, ‘absolute’

A (from surface) + RANT=”diatribe” with a repeated beginning R
13 GEOCACHING
Firm, for instance, set up painful new version of hide-and-seek? (10)
definition: a game where items are hidden to be found with the use of GPS

CO (Company, “Firm”) + EG (e.g. = “for instance”), both reversed/”set up”; plus ACHING=”painful”
16 ROBOTISE
Replace workers in advance, putting boot dreadfully in (8)
RISE=”advance”, with anagram/”dreadfully” of (boot)* inside
18 LONG-LEGS
Flies part of journey in pants (4-4)
definition: crane flies are called daddy long-legs

LEG=”part of journey” in LONGS=trousers=”pants”
19 REMATCH
Gag about mother’s chance to get even (7)
RETCH=”Gag” around MA=”mother”
21 CUTTER
Boat in sea – in sound, say (6)
the letter C is pronounced (“in sound”) as “sea”; plus UTTER=”say”
22 CLERIC
Service provider moved around in circle (6)
definition refers to providing religious services

anagram/”moved around” of (circle)*
24 GIBE
Nasty remark greatly upset European (4)
BIG as adverb=”greatly”, reversed/”upset”; plus E (European)

67 comments on “Guardian Cryptic No 29,788 by Brendan”

  1. A nice combination – anything involving Brendan, a gentle theme and a Monday. All made for a bit of a romp. I did not know of, specifically, LONG-LEGS for flies but am familiar with their Daddies and GEOCACHING was LOI when I suddenly realised what the ‘for instance’ was doing. Otherwise very enjoyable plain sailing and fun theme. MONOPOLY, BOGGLE, AT TABLE, SCRABBLE, SORTIE, ARRANT and CUTTER were my faves.

    Thanks Brendan and manehi

  2. I’ve normally spelled GIBE with a j, but the wordplay meant that didn’t really hold me up. Didn’t find this quite as straightforward as others seem to have done, particularly on my initial pass through the across clues. ON BOARD was my FOI. I remained oblivious to the theme until I’d finished. BOGGLE was a favourite game of my children when they visited their grandma. I had to check EUCHRE though it did ring a faint bell. Liked MEGAWATT and ROBOTISE Thanks to Brendan and manehi.

  3. Super puzzle, expertly blogged (I failed to see the “don’t own” trick in 1dn) – many thanks to Brendan and manehi

  4. Thanks Brendan and manehi
    I saw a theme! It actually helped too.
    I don’t think LONG LEGS means “flies” without the “daddy”.
    btw a controversial quiz question that comes up from time to time is “How many legs does a daddy-long-legs have?”
    Six, obviously, if it’s a cranefly, but harvestmen are also known as daddy-long-legs, and they are arachnids, so have eight legs.

  5. Tough but the theme was helpful.

    I could not parse 1d.

    New for me: GEOCACHING; LONGS = full-length trousers. Also today I learnt something else – I only knew of daddy-long-legs spiders not flies.

  6. Great fun, solved reasonably rapidly for me. Only hold up was a FLOG instead of GOLF which was corrected once GIBE came. Loved the theme. A couple of tricky clues to add a bit of flavour as well.

    Clue of the day to GEOCACHING. Finally my two main hobbies have combined. God knows how many miles I have added to the car finding all that tupperware.

    Thanks Brendan and manehi

  7. Found that very hard before I got the theme. Suddenly, it flowed smoothly, once I twigged.
    ‘On Board’ and ‘Golf’ led to the main phrase and then it was plain sailing – ish.

    Still not sure I understand why the reversal/”opposite” of SIN=”office”.
    Am trying to get better at these but this one eludes me.
    At least it was a finish, this Monday.

  8. Got the two can play clue very early and promptly forgot about the theme which may explain why this felt a bit forced in places. Some of the clueing felt uncharacteristically loose for Brendan. West feels more like a half than a quarter ?

    Chambers has PANT=yearn / wish for if you’re unconvinced by trousers

    Cheers B&M

  9. MCourtney @7
    It’s a misprint in the blog. It should be “offence”.
    Bodycheetah @8
    West is a quarter on a compass.

  10. muffin @9
    Doh! Should have read it all more clearly.
    Shows how much I just bung in and hope. Would have been lost without the theme.

  11. Great fun and games, although I too failed to see ‘don’t own’ for rent.
    I especially liked the surfaces for CASINO & LONG-LEGS, and the alliterative clue for CUTTER.
    Thanks to Brendan and manehi.

  14. Great fun and the early theme definitely helped with SCRABBLE and CRIBBAGE, which I could see from the crossers. TABLE TENNIS could be included and there also seems to be a nautical ‘sub’ theme with ON BOARD, FLOG, POOP and CUTTER. GEOCACHE was of course a nho.

    Ta Brendan & manehi.

  17. A feast of fun from Brendan to get the week off to a cracking start.

    Favourites were MONOPOLY, GOLF, TENNIS, BYROADS, REMATCH, GEOCACHING and ARRANT (has anyone come across this word applied to anything but ‘nonsense’?).

    Many thanks to setter and blogger – superb job all round.

  19. This was fun, and I was extremely slow getting GEOCACHING as someone who does. That was a real pdm.

    AlanC @14 and Michelle @5, shows how often you read my comments, I do comment about Geocaching fairly regularly, because I learn things from some of the puzzle caches. AlanC, London is covered in caches. Staticman1 @6 I have set a fairly evil cache which has a crossword to solve to find it.

    Thank you to manehi and Brendan

  20. Back on track with this one. I love a theme.

    Our cribbage league is always played as games for four players (two pairs).

    Thanks Brendan and manehi.

  22. Dermot Trellis @21

    Caught out on a ‘Hamlet’ quotation, of all things – and one of the most well-known:
    ‘What should such fellows as I do crawling
    between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves,
    all; believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery.’

    (I knew I was giving a hostage to Fortune. 😉

  23. I was intrigued that UTTER was the definition for 7down and part of the wordplay for the symmetrically placed 21down. Wasted time looking for similar examples…
    Simon S @16. There’s also a card game called GOLF. Never played it though…

  24. Shanne @19: yes indeed, I now remember you referred to one at Marc Bolan’s shrine. Won’t be a nho any longer 😉

  25. It took me several trips to the anagram-o-matic to remember EUCHRE (which I have never played), and I missed the “don’t own” trick, but this was fun. I can never remember which of JIBE, GYBE or GIBE means what, but managed to pick the right one this time.

    I’ve always heard the flies called daddy LONGLEGS. Harmless, but annoying as they blunder stupidly around the room on warm autumn evenings.

  26. DT @21 and Eileen 22 – there seem to have been arrant whores as well. Quoting the Fool in King Lear: “Fortune, that arrant whore / Ne’er turns the key to th’ poor.”

  27. Cleverly themed crossword.
    I don’t have a problem with any of the cluing – I wasn’t familiar with a crane fly being a long-legs as opposed to a daddy-long-legs, but I see Chambers gives that usage. Some neat surfaces, such as 24a and 25a.
    Mild cavil is that the grid’s a bit unfriendly for a Monday, giving virtually no initial letters and four lights with a majority of unchecked letters.
    Thanks, both.

  28. Very nice. I couldn’t parse DOWNTOWN but the symmetry of 15a and 16a is an amusing bonus. The theme was a big help with SCRABBLE.

  29. Eileen@18. Bizarrely, arrant is a word I learned as a very small child reading Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘My Shadow’ in which he describes his shadow as ‘an arrant sleepyhead’. It fascinated me then – but I can’t think when I have ever had occasion to use it!

  30. Thanks, Balfour and Bayleaf -I think that’s enough for now. (I’ll try to stop these idle musings: I should know better by now.)

  31. There was some imaginative stuff here, quite tricky for a Monday, I thought:

    I don’t see how “moved around in circle” indicated an anagram of “circle”; X moved around in Y surely points to Y being the def and X being the fodder. Hence I failed on that one, and also on the rather difficult MEGAWATT (most checkers were vowels, and whether a specific amount of power is a lot or not is rather subjective!)

    I never did untangle the parsing of the clever DOWNTOWN, and I’m not quite convinced by the cryptic grammar for TENNIS though I did at least spot it.

    I enjoyed the theme and it did help with almost half of the across clues, although the presence of two sports rather than games seemed a little strange. I decided that both GOLF and TENNIS were probably also card games.

    Faves were BOGGLE and BYROADS.

    Thanks both!

  32. Hard for a Monday but the theme helped. EUCHRE was tough, finding a word you’ve never seen from an anagram. Obscure words always jar.

    Thanks both.

  33. Yes, fun and games on a Monday. Nho EUCHRE and, like some others, failed to parse DOWNTOWN. I liked GEOCACHING and CUTTER.

    Thanks Brendan and manehi.

  34. Like several others I failed to parse DOWNTOWN. I did try thinking of either of the Ws as “quarter”, but that only seemed to leave either DON TOWN or DOWNTON for “rent”. D’oh! (By the way, I think we’ve possibly discussed before why the centre of a city is called DOWNTOWN. I’ve always vaguely assumed it’s because the historic original part would often be by the river, so from there you would usually go uphill to the outer areas. But no doubt there are other theories.)

    This was as usual a brilliantly clever creation by Brendan. Many thanks to him and manehi.

  35. It’s always a pleasure to be visited by Brendan; even on a Monday, when at his gentlest, his crosswords coruscate…

    It’s bound to be a good week!

    Many thanks to the deserving

  36. When I saw Brendan’s name I knew we’re in for a treat. It was good fun; unfortunately I couldn’t figure out the principle until the very end but the games theme was clear. Didn’t know some of the games; also new for me: GEOCACHING, ARRANT, LONG-LEGS. Particularly liked DRAUGHTS for a great surface. DOWNTOWN is also great but, like some others, I couldn’t parse it. Thanks Brendan and manehi!

  37. Really delightful puzzle, with an unmissable theme. Lots of favourites — 8a MONOPOLY (for great wordplay, though not difficult)), 12a BOGGLE, 17a AT TABLE (for “people holding hands”), 2d POOP, 6d SCAPEGOATS (for “go at” for attack), 16d ROBOTISE (for a really cool word)

    5d MEGAWATT took ages to fall and was my loi (“Short book” for MATT seemed a bit of a stretch)

    I also liked the way 16a ON BOARD and 17a AT TABLE went across the middle

    Didn’t parse 25a TENNIS (missing “just the opposite” as a reversal indicator), or 1d DOWNTOWN

    13d Fortunately my nephew is involved in GEOCACHING, so I had heard of this one

  39. Michelle@5: “longs” for the alternative to “shorts” turned up a few days ago, IIRC. It’s a useful crosswordland thing to keep in your back pocket, but I have never heard it outside of crosswords.

  40. All but geocaching. Now you’ve parsed it I think I should have got it. Slightly harder than recent Mondays. Thanks.

  41. Did anyone else have CHIP rather than SNAP for 10a? It seems an equally valid answer to me, though obviously it doesn’t work with DOWNTOWN.

  43. Apologies if its been said, but CASINO is an alternate spelling for the card game Cassino which can be played by 2, 3 or 4 people.

  44. Fun puzzle.

    For the longest time, tried to convince myself that Rent was a TOWN in a region called DON (one of the Scottish isles, maybe?)

  45. Thanks Brendan for the fun & games. Great clues, smooth surfaces, & an enjoyable theme — what’s not to like? Thanks manehi for the blog.

  46. Always good to see Brendan’s name at the top of a crossword. Failed to parse DOWNTOWN. I thought quarter might be West but only considered DOWNTON, not the other possibility – doh! I had to rely on Google’s forgiving ways with misspelling to get EUCHRE.

  47. I’ve played EUCHRE. Where I was brought up (North Devon) it was the card game played in pubs, rather than cribbage, and there was an active Euchre League.

  48. Just chiming in with my thanks to Brendan and Eileen! Like so many others, I didn’t parse DOWNTOWN (but it’s very clever), got a lot of help from the theme, and had a great time. Cheers!

  50. I am another who felt that “longs” was “pants” i.e. desires, but I guess the clue works both ways.
    A really good crossword – never spot a theme, because I grew up on The Times, which never had them, but I will always enjoy a good crossword nonetheless. All beautifully clued anyway, Brendan, so no knowledge of the theme is a requirement (although I am familiar with all the games listed). Thanks also to Manehi for providing any needed clarity.

  51. I seem to remember Euchre (9ac) was the card game of choice in Of Mice And Men, and pronounced as ‘yoker’ ( to rhyme with poker) it turns up in the song ‘In The Jailhouse Now’ from the soundtrack of ‘Oh Brother Where Art Thou?’
    Great fun today: thanks to all.

  54. Anyone else slightly irritated by clues like 24ac where the answer could legitimately be one of two words? Typically I entered FLOG, early on, thinking that was the thrust of the clue, therefore missing the theme for a while.

  55. MartinD @54
    Yes, that does irritate me, but I don’t think this one is ambiguous. “brings beat back” tells you which possibility to reverse, unless I’m missing another interpretation.

  56. I excelled myself today by not consciously noticing the theme, even while it was assaulting my eyes in a cannonade of conspicuousness. No problems though. Thanks all.

  57. I’m in a EUCHRE club. It’s a four-person game (quite popular here in the midwestern US). We have two- and three-handed versions we use for nights when we have a part-table. The two-handed version we use is so luck-dependent that it’s more like flipping a coin with vaguely euchre-like rules. If anyone knows a set of two-person euchre rules that doesn’t suck, please put me wise to them.

  58. mrpenney@57: interesting that you ask; I’ve never even heard of EUCHRE let alone played it (tho it had to be that given its clue today 😉), but I have a similar feeling about canasta, another oldie which I struggle to find takers for but which I think is right up there amongst the very best card games as a pairs game. It loses all of its gloss as a two-player game, however.

    Bridge? Sit out and pour yourself a wine to drink alone while doing the washing up. Canasta? Pour everyone a wine and get stuck in and have a good laugh 😉

  59. […and that’s despite the fact that I love whist-based games in general, albeit principally in their forecast/prediction/nomination variety.]

  60. [The key features of euchre, for anyone still following here, are that the jack of the trump suit is elevated to the highest card, and the jack of the same color as the trump suit is made part of the trump suit as the second-highest card. The game is played with only ace through nine (so a 24-card deck). As a result, a jack might be a good card or a bad one, depending on what trump turns out to be.]

  61. [MrP @60
    As I recall (it was nearly 60 years ago I last played!), the jacks were referred to as “right benny” and “left benny” – though that might have just been Devon slang; Wiki tells me they were “bowers”.]

  62. AP @31. But you play a “game” of tennis or golf with anothsr player.

    muffin@61 and mrpenney@60. EUCHRE is/was very popular down here in workplaces and homes, similarly Five Hundred, another game with right and left bowers which I learnt on my mother’s knee. But I think we might be a dying breed.(She’s 94 today.)

    Only card games that I’ve heard of in pubs is poker.

  65. I miss playing EUCHRE, but it seems to be dying along with the pubs where I used to play 😢 in SW England, where an extra card (the benny, an unbeatable trump) is used.

  66. I completely missed the theme, carrying on my nearly unbroken record.

    Never heard of those daddy flies, so was mystified by “long legs” equalling “fly.”

    I have never heard a woman referred to as a broad. That usage dates from the days of Damon Runyan and his buddies.

    Eileen, I know you’ve called a halt on varied arrantry, but I can’t resist adding one more. Winston Churchill, possibly on being corrected for ending a sentence with a preposition, replied, “This is the type of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put.”

    Thanks Brendan and manehi.

  67. I didn’t know that a crane fly was called a daddy long-legs. In my experience (mostly in North America) that term always refers to a type of spider.

    Valentine @66 is quite right that this usage of “broad” is extremely old-fashioned. One example from South Pacific (set during World War II, written shortly thereafter):

    “Where she’s narrow, she’s narrow as an arrow,
    And she’s broad where a broad should be broad.”

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