Guardian 29,833 / Carpathian

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My second Carpathian blog this month

We’re more used to seeing Carpathian at the beginning of the week and the first entry at 8ac made me wonder if there was a personal reason for this one appearing on this date – one or two other clues could be relevant but I’m perhaps being fanciful. Anyway, it provided a breezy introduction to a typically elegantly clued puzzle from this setter.

We have a nice mixture of anagrams (with straightforward indicators) and simple charades, with smooth surfaces throughout, making for a pleasant solve. I had ticks for 11ac ALIENATE, 12ac AXIOMS, 16ac ALREADY, 19ac ABSEIL, 26ac JEHOVAH’S WITNESS, 5dn HAIRBALL, 14dn BLESS YOU and 17dn DEMOLISH.

Thanks to Carpathian for an enjoyable puzzle.

Definitions are underlined in the clues.

Across

8 Cook left a cut roasting on for well done (15)
CONGRATULATIONS
An anagram (cook) of L (left) + A CUT ROASTING ON

9 Tried to wander next to street (6)
STROVE
ST (street) + ROVE (wander)

10 Herb is strangely arrogant (8)
TARRAGON
An anagram (strangely) of ARROGANT

11 Cut off a story by Nathaniel (8)
ALIENATE
A LIE (a story) + NATE (Nathaniel)

12 Pivotal line about yogic sacred syllable principles (6)
AXIOMS
AXIS (pivotal line) round OM (yogic sacred symbol)

13 Beat young animal with a stone (7)
LAMBAST
LAMB (young animal) + A ST (stone)

16 Both sides of appeal studied by Yankee beforehand (7)
ALREADY
AL (first and last letters of AppeaL) + READ (studied) + Y (Yankee – NATO phonetic alphabet)

19 Sailor leans back in descent with rope (6)
ABSEIL
AB (sailor) + a reversal (back) of LIES (leans)

21 Appeal from cleaner is oddly mean (8)
CHARISMA
CHAR (cleaner) + IS + odd letters of MeAn

24 Campaigner is unusually scared about game (8)
CRUSADER
An anagram (unusually) of SCARED round R[ugby] U[nion – game

25 Annoy weed (6)
NETTLE
Double definition

26 Hates John’s views about person calling round uninvited? (8,7)
JEHOVAH’S WITNESS
An anagram (about) of HATES JOHN’S VIEWS

 

Down

1 Jog up and I will start to arrange food (8)
TORTILLA
A reversal (up, in a down clue) of TROT (jog) + I’LL + A[rrange]

2 Disregard unsettled region (6)
IGNORE
An anagram (unsettled) of REGION

3 Arrived with artist to get photographic equipment (6)
CAMERA
CAME (arrived) + RA (artist)

4 Doctor hurt ref to a greater degree (7)
FURTHER
An anagram (doctor) of HURT REF

5 Hot tune and dance – something coming out of Cats? (8)
HAIRBALL
H (hot) + AIR (tune) + BALL (dance)

6 Conclude Flipper is inhaling a line and another drug (8)
FINALISE
FIN (flipper) + IS round A L (a line) + E (another drug)

7 Pass on knowledge to popular student group (6)
INFORM
IN (popular) + FORM (student group)

14 Remade blouses to include core of rayon as response to sign of cold (5,3)
BLESS YOU
An anagram (remade) of BLOUSES round raYon – said to someone who has just sneezed

15 Upset about LA pub food offering (5,3)
SALAD BAR
SAD (upset) round LA (Los Angeles) + BAR (pub)

17 Ruin his model arrangement (8)
DEMOLISH
An anagram (arrangement) of HIS MODEL

18 One playing with a carbon lock (7)
ACTRESS
A + C (carbon) + TRESSS (lock)

20 Island carried nothing (6)
BORNEO
BORNE (carried) + O (nothing)

22 After middle of day release relative (6)
AUNTIE
[d]A[y] + UNTIE (release)

23 One with new shelter finding purpose (6)
INTENT
I (one) + N (new) + TENT (shelter)

35 comments on “Guardian 29,833 / Carpathian”

  1. Toward the easy end of the spectrum, but very enjoyable wity plenty of good clues. Thank you, Carpathian & Eileen for the blog.

  2. Thanks Carpathian & Eileen

    Lovely puzzle all round 🙂

    Across the top and bottom reads: CONGRATULATIONS OUR SETH

    And perhaps BLESS YOU relates? Congrats!

  7. HAIRBALL was my favourite today. An enjoyable puzzle as usual from Carpathian, whose name I was always pleased to see, when I started doing cryptics.

  9. Good spot Noah @2.

    This was indeed breezy. A nice one for less experienced solvers, as the plentiful anagrams which were, as Eileen noted, clearly indicated, provided a good line of attack. It may not have taken long, but it was fun while it lasted. There was fleeting resistance from JEHOVAHS WITNESSES and FINALISE and a second recent helping of TORTILLA.

    Congratulations Carpathian and thanks to you and Eileen.

  10. Thanks Carpathian and Eileen
    Good as ever from Carpathian, if on the easy side.
    I’m struggling to see why SALAD BAR is a “food offering“. It’s a place where you pick food, isn’t it?

  11. FINALISE was rather aptly my last entry and possibly the only clue that might have been out of place in a Quiptic?

    But beautiful constructions throughout. Would love to see what Carpathian could come up with if the difficulty dial was turned up a notch

    You wait all week for a TORTILLA …

    Cheers E&C

  17. Found myself checking that I wasn’t inadvertently doing the Quiptic, but not complaining. I wasn’t 100% convinced by ‘leans’=LIES but doubtless there is a justification.

  18. It’s always a delight to tackle Carpathian’s crosswords. This one had plenty of her elegant surfaces (my faves being 2D, 7D, 9A) and a couple of her deliciously succinct clues (25A & 20D).
    Thank you Eileen for the blog and Carpathian for the fun.
    I’m now intrigued about the possible hidden message. I suppose we’ll never know whether it’s true….

  19. Very unusually for me, though aided by the long anagrams, most of the across clues were write-ins; the downs were a bit harder, but I enjoyed the job. Thanks to Carpathian, and to Eileen for a typically tidy blog.

  20. muffin @10 & 14
    You’re out of date pal – a salad bar these days is a compact roll of lettuce, radish, spring onions and pickled beetroot covered with chocolate – a food offfering for the sweet-toothed but health conscious person on the go.

  23. poc@16: “Where’s the broom?” “It’s lying/leaning against the wall over there” – does that work enough for a crossword equivalence?

    Showaddydadito @20 – have you tried offering that on Dragon’s Den/Shark Tank? Worth it just to see the looks on their faces as they taste it.

    Thanks Carpathian, especially for avoiding too many double definitions, and Eileen for the blog.

  25. I thought it was Monday! Still enjoyable. Never heard of om for yogic principles but it had to be. Thanks for blog. Eileen enjoy York. I’d love to be there but too expensive (i.e. Travel and accommodation,)

  26. [JWs cultivate rural towns. My ex, breastfeeding our son on our farmhouse veranda when they called, stood up to say Hi, letting the sarong drop .. totally naked. They never returned …]

  27. Yes, a nice straightforward solve this morning. The only one that gave cause for pause was FINALISE, where I was looking at the wrong end of the clue for the definition and thought I might be looking for a drug with an obscure name. A TORTILLA seems popular at the moment, too…

  29. I don’t think I had a particular stand-out favourite today but pretty much all the clues were really good with entertaining surfaces.

    Dr. WhatsOn made a good point yesterday about crossing letters. I spotted JEHOVAH’S WITNESS quite early on and thought, ooh, a J or H or V or W might be helpful — but of course none of those was a crosser! Oh well, we wouldn’t want it to be too easy would we.

    Many thanks Carpathian and Eileen.

  30. Lovely. A wee bit too easy, maybe, but sometimes it’s nice to just solve and be satisfied! Entertaining surfaces and brilliant anagrams. Thanks.

  32. Breezy though it may be, this was my first unaided solve of a main series Guardian cryptic! After a fair while plugging away on and off, definitely feels good to get that first completed grid.

    LOI 26a, took a few go-arounds staring at this one until it clicked!

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