Guardian Cryptic crossword No 29,800 by Carpathian

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Carpathian kicks off the solving week.

A gentle Monday puzzle from Carpathian with no difficult parsing or unusual words. A shame that the setter used "flipping" twice to indicate reversal of words (in the clues for ABILITIES and ASSUME), but that apart an excellent puzzle, especially for beginners or those of us who are short of time in the morning.

Thanks, Carpathian.

ACROSS
1 TOASTER
One saluting domestic appliance (7)

Double definition
5 UPROOTS
Displaces excited radicals (7)

UP ("excited") + ROOTS ("radicals")
9 IBSEN
Playwright messed up bins having taken drug (5)

*(bins) [anag:messed up] having taken E (ecstasy, so "drug")
10 LITIGATOR
Rig total I revised for one arguing in court (9)

*(rig total i) [anag:revised]
11 HOME AND DRY
Safe house Andrew keeps doctor in (4,3,3)

HOME ("house") + ANDY (Andrew) keeps Dr. (doctor) in
12 RUM
Unusual drink (3)

Double definition
14 HOT CHOCOLATE
Colonel overcome by awful toothache gets soothing drink (3,9)

Col. (colonel) overcome by *(toothache) [anag:awful]
18 TRAINSPOTTER
Teaches ceramicist and nerd perhaps (12)

TRAINS ("teaches") + POTTER ("ceramicist")
21 GET
Receive guests regularly (3)

G(u)E(s)T(s) [regularly]
22 SCANDALOUS
Offensive cold saunas destroyed (10)

*(cold saunas) [anag:destroyed]
25 ABILITIES
Strengths of a flipping politician one secures (9)

A + [flipping] Lib. (Liberal, so "politician") + I (one) + TIES ("secures")
26 INNER
Children nicked revolving piece for target (5)

Hidden backwards in [revolving piece] "childREN NIcked"
27 TIGRESS
Sister upset about German cat (7)

*(sister) [anag:upset] about G (German)
28 DYNASTY
Empty dairy next to foul house (7)

[empty] D(air)Y next to NASTY ("foul")
DOWN
1 TAI CHI
Heads of trade and industry caught hiding illegal practice from China (3,3)

[heads of] T(rade) A(nd) I(ndustry) C(aught) H(iding) I(llegal)
2 ASSUME
Adopt donkey and flipping bird (6)

ASS and [flipping] <=EMU ("bird")
3 TANTAMOUNT
Equivalent sum found by worker after time (10)

AMOUNT ("sum") found by ANT ("worker") over T (time)
4 RILED
Food store upset after second bit of produce is put out (5)

<=DELI ("food store", upset) after [second bit of] (p)R(oduce)
5 UTTERMOST
Extreme engineering tutors met (9)

*(tutors met) [anag:engineering]
6 RIGS
Calls heartless doctors (4)

[heartless] RI(n)GS ("calls")
7 OUTBREAK
Reveal holiday rash (8)

OUT ("reveal") + BREAK ("holiday")
8 STRIMMER
Son has neater grass cutter (8)

S (son) has TRIMMER ("neater")
13 MODERATION
Way budget shows self-restraint (10)

MODE ("way") + RATION ("budget")
15 CAPUCHINS
Such panic upset monkeys (9)

*(such panic) [anag:upset]
16 STAGNANT
Deer encountering initially noisy insect is motionless (8)

STAG ("deer") encountering [initially] N(oisy) + ANT ("insect")
17 FARTHING
Distant object is old coin (8)

FAR ("distant") + THING ("object")
19 POINTS
Issues NEWS … (6)

NEWS stands for North, East, West and South, so POINTS of the compass.
20 ASTRAY
Missing smoker’s accessory Henry dropped (6)

H (Henry) dropped from AS(h)TRAY ("smoker's accessory")
23 NOSED
Edged in this way entering study backwards (5)

<=(SO ("in this way") entering DEN ("study"), backwards)
24 CITE
Summon spectacle for auditors (4)

Homophone [for auditors] of SIGHT ("spectacle")

48 comments on “Guardian Cryptic crossword No 29,800 by Carpathian”

  1. So that’s what you Brits call our whippersnipper? I had to resort to the internet to discover STRIMMER.

    Held up somewhat by my hasty entering of OUTERMOST for 5d.

    Good fun, thanks Carpathian & Loonapick.

  2. Wasn’t sure about roots = radicals but other than that, pretty plain sailing.

    GDU @1 I prefer your whippersnipper, no more STRIMMER for me.

    Many thanks both.

  3. Actually Geoff Down Under @1 I think we call those devices EDGETRIMMERS in Aus. I think whippersnippers are those one with nylon threads that snap off as they’re used – typically for mowing bits that are difficult for a lawnmower to tackle. 🙂

  4. Nice gentle start to the week. Thanks both. 19D a triple definition as … are also points. Roots for radicals works for this ex-botanist.

  5. Thanks Carpathian and loonapick
    Favourite TRAINSPOTTER.
    William @2
    ROOTS are radicals in a botanical sense.

    Crossed with Donnut

  7. Roots are also radicals in a mathematical sense. Same etymology as the botanists I imagine? Nice spot on the triple donnut@4, I overlooked that.

  9. JohnPlantWA @3 Geoffdownunder @1 is right – we Brits call those gardening gadgets with nylon strings STRIMMERs too. We also have heavier versions, but domestic gardens tend to use the lighter ones.

    Nice puzzle. Thank you to loonapick and Carpathian

  10. A well-nigh perfect puzzle to kick off the week – clear, elegant cluing, with a generous sprinkling of wit.

    I particularly liked 11ac HOME AND DRY, 14ac HOT CHOCOLATE, 18ac TRAINSPOTTER, 1dn TAI CHI and 15dn CAPUCHINS.

    I was interested in GDU’s whippersnipper – I only know ‘whippersnapper’ – a lovely word, for something completely different:
    https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/whipper-snapper.html

    Root = radical in Maths, too.

    Thanks to Carpathian and loonapick.

  11. JohnPlantWA@3, edgetrimmers is a much more civilised word, I grant you, but I think you’re thinking of a different animal. Wikipedia equates strimmer and whippersnipper. I’d provide a link but whenever I try to do so on this site my post goes to spam.

  14. My fastest solve of the year, I think. It’s good to start the week with a straightforward one and it was all very clean. I made the same slip on 5d as Geoff @1 but it was very soon rectified.

    Thanks Carpathian and loonapick

  15. I used to use my whippersnipper on my young whippersnappers to keep them in order. (only kidding). Maybe WA has a different term for them (JohnPlantWA @3) than the other states in Aus?
    Where would we be without Old Man Emu to clue words ending in UME?

  17. POINTS was my COTD and would have been even sneakier in lower case 🙂

    Managed to add some difficulty by messing up the gridfill on three separate occasions

    Cheers L&C

  21. This was a nice, gentle start to the week, as everyone has said, but I scuppered myself by entering OUTERMOST at 5d (like GDU@1) and then compounding the error by convincing myself that ‘radicals’ must be ‘ions’ so dnf. D’oh!
    Thanks Carpathian and loonapick.

  22. Good and clear Monday puzzle. I thought of outermost but luckily spotted it didn’t work. I liked the safe house HOME AND DRY, the good anagram spot for HOT CHOCOLATE and ABILITIES, where secures was not a containment indicator.

    Thanks Carpathian and loonapick

  23. So I was not alone with “outermost”! The correct answer is not a word I’d use. Isn’t “utmost” more common?

  24. loonapick, in 3dn TANTAMOUNT, the worker (ANT) is after time (T), not over time.

    In the US I think we call the garden thingy a WEED WACKER. I like the other terms better.

    Pleasant puzzle, finished last night. Thanks, Carpathian and loonapick.

  26. Not a fast solve, but a steady one. The clues seemed a bit daunting on the first couple of passes but this was a very pleasant puzzle.

  27. Enjoyable puzzle from Carpathian. Nice round number today — happy 29,800th everyone!

    Favourites 1a TOASTER (interesting image!), 14a HOT CHOCOLATE (smooth surface), 21a GET (not hard, but nice surface), 7d OUTBREAK (for conciseness)

    I was also held up by carelessly entering 5d OUTERMOST, even after “checking” the anagram. GDU@23, I associate UTTERMOST with the Psalms, eg 2: “…and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession” (KJV). Probably archaic today

  29. Nice puzzle, but two ‘flipping’s and three ‘upset’s was a bit odd. Setters generally avoid such obvious repetition of indicators.

    Thanks both.

  35. Anne & muffin I think that in fact the bull is divided into the INNER & the OUTER rings, with the inner being the actual centre spot.

  37. Thanks Carpathian for an approachable, cleanly clued crossword. A few of my favourites were HOT CHOCOLATE, DYNASTY, RILED, RIGS, and STAGNANT. I’m not a fan of the ‘weed wacker’ (STRIMMER) because untrained landscape workers in Washington, DC have ruined many newly planted trees with their careless use. Thanks loonapick for the blog.

  38. I am really chuffed to have successfully finished this puzzle as my better half and puzzle buddy, Ginger Tom, is walking the Camino this week and leaving me to solve alone.
    Thank you Carpathian for the smile that will not leave my face all week

  40. Simon@35
    Yes thank you, Simon, when I went to investigate muffin’s archery, I saw a nice diagram of a dartboard showing just what you describe.

  42. Geoff Down Under @11
    Yes, you’re right. Thanks. It’s come back to me that I have encountered STRIMMER in a slightly different form: STRING TRIMMER as a name for whippersnippers.
    🙂

  43. Thanks loonapic.

    LOI POINTS and INNER but I had to reveal the middle ‘N’ to get them so a clear DNF. Annoyed with self as both easy solves.

  44. Ratushebarl@41

    In law, if you cite summon, you summon them to appear in court. Both the first and second entries for “cite” in Chambers mention the word “summon”.

  45. I was with Ratushebarl@41 for a very long time. My wife got the homophone of sight bit, so with both crossers it had to be site or cite. Neither of us could see any connection to summon for either, though we did know of summon in a legal sense, but found it as about the fifth meaning of cite on-line.

  48. Like ratushebari @41, I wondered about “cite” and “summon”, but the dictionaries do indeed support this meaning as Loonapick says. I am across the Atlantic from most of you and have had blessedly little contact with the legal system; I assume that one or both of these explains why I never needed to know this. I did know that the nouns “citation” and “summons” both mean “an order to appear in court,” so I should have guessed that the verbs were similar.

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