The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29864.
Tramp in top form, with well varied devices and excellent surfaces.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DIRECTOR’S CHAIR |
Reform or Richard Tice’s getting a seat (9,5)
|
| An anagram (‘reform’) of ‘or Richard Tice’s’. Richard Tice is a politician of the Reform UK party. | ||
| 9 | SEIZURE |
Fit soldiers with uniform after altering size (7)
|
| A charade of SEIZ, an anagram (‘altering’) of ‘size’; plus U (‘uniform’) plus RE (Royal Engineers, ‘soldiers’). | ||
| 10 | COPPOLA |
Film-maker to capture clip about American (7)
|
| A charade of COP (‘capture’) plus POL, a reversal (‘about’) of LOP ( |
||
| 11 | RESET |
Clear trees for building (5)
|
| An anagram (‘for building’) of ‘trees’; ‘clear’ in the sense of set to zero. | ||
| 12 | STARTLING |
Remarkable bird popping back to nest (9)
|
| An envelope (‘popping’) of T (‘back to nesT‘) in STARLING (‘bird’). | ||
| 13 | MAN-EATERS |
They seduce with long hair: sweet things ditching fellow (3-6)
|
| A charade of MANE (‘long hair’) plus A[f]TERS (‘sweet things’) minus the F (‘ditching fellow’); with an extended definition. | ||
| 14 | ACARI |
Perhaps ticks answer close to right one (5)
|
| A charade of A (‘answer’) plus CA (circa, ‘close to’) plus R (‘right’) plus I (‘one’). Acari was an old taxonomic subclass including mites and ticks, but recent genetic studies have shown that they fall into two orders not as closely related as had been thought, so the term acari has been dropped.. | ||
| 15 | NAMED |
Appointed journalist to follow war (5)
|
| A charade of NAM (Vietnam, ‘war’) plus ED (editor, ‘journalist’). | ||
| 17 | SUPREMEST |
Best to drink with me during break (9)
|
| A charade of SUP (‘drink’) plus REMEST, an envelope (‘during’) of ‘me’ in REST (‘break’). | ||
| 20 | THUMBNAIL |
Handy feature to capture image (9)
|
| A charade of THUMB (‘handy feature’) plus NAIL (‘capture’). Of course, a thumbnail is also a handy feature. | ||
| 22 | ICTUS |
Stroke from American on Number 1 court (5)
|
| A charade of I (‘number one’ – oneself) plus CT (‘court’) plus US (‘American’). | ||
| 23 | RUN-DOWN |
Weak résumé (3-4)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 24 | CHIANTI |
Conservative success curtailed against a red (7)
|
| A charade of C (‘Conservative’) plus HI[t] (‘success’) minus its last letter (‘curtailed’) plus ANTI (‘against’). A red wine, that is. | ||
| 25 | BREATHING SPACE |
Time to relax in living room (9,5)
|
| A charade of BREATHING (‘living’) plus SPACE (‘room’). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DISCRIMINATORY |
Detectives mostly bent, politician is loaded (14)
|
| A charade of DIS (‘detectives’) plus CRIMINA[l] (‘bent’) minus its last letter (‘mostly’) plus TORY (‘politician’). | ||
| 2 | REINS IN |
Checks on son moving into stylish home (5,2)
|
| A charade of RE (‘on’) plus INSIN, an envelope (‘moving into’) of S (‘son’) in IN IN – that is, IN (‘stylish’) plus IN (‘home’). | ||
| 3 | COURT CARD |
Jack perhaps to go out with caution during match? (5,4)
|
| A charade of COURT (‘go out with’) plus CARD (‘caution during match’ – yellow, soccer, for example) | ||
| 4 | OVERSEE |
Look after extra on picture (7)
|
| A charade of OVER (‘extra’) plus SEE (‘picture’). | ||
| 5 | SOCIALS |
Primarily, sugar-free Cola is drunk in parties (7)
|
| An anagram (‘drunk’) of S (‘primarily Sugar-free’) plus ‘cola is’. | ||
| 6 | HOP IT |
Get out of house – mine? (3,2)
|
| A charade of HO (‘house’) plus PIT (‘mine’). | ||
| 7 | IWO JIMA |
Battle of WWII: a major shot having lost war (3,4)
|
| An anagram (‘shot’) of ‘WWII a major’ minus the letters of ‘war’ (‘having lost war’); with an extended definition. If ‘major’ is not taken as a specific rank, the clue might refer to General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, commander of the Japanese garrison at the time of the battle, who is beleived to have been killed during it. | ||
| 8 | LARGE INTESTINE |
Resetting a line for anagram: it includes colon (5,9)
|
| An anagram (‘for anagram’) of ‘resetting a line’. | ||
| 14 | AMENITIES |
Provision of services is welcoming couple after conclusion of prayers (9)
|
| A charade of AMEN (‘conclusion of prayers’) plus ITIES, an envelope (‘welcoming’) of TIE (‘couple’, verb) in ‘is’ | ||
| 16 | MOURNER |
One at funeral more upset around holder of ashes (7)
|
| An envelope (‘around’) of URN (‘holder of ashes’) in MOER, an anagram (‘upset’) of ‘more’. | ||
| 17 | STAUNCH |
Loyal group of teachers standing to receive top grade in school (7)
|
| A double envelope (‘to receive’ and ‘in’) of A (‘top grade’) in TUN, a reversal (‘standing’ in a down light) of NUT (National Union of Teachers, former ‘group of teachers’) in SCH (‘school’). | ||
| 18 | PELICAN |
Bird with inside of bill turned up to crack nut (7)
|
| An envelope (‘to crack’) of LI, a reversal (‘turned up’ in a down light) of IL (‘inside of bILl’) in PECAN (‘nut’). | ||
| 19 | ESTONIA |
State of Señorita going out having dumped Romeo (7)
|
| An anagram (‘going out’) of ‘seno[r]ita’ minus the R (‘having dumped Romeo’). | ||
| 21 | BIOTA |
British scrap with local animals in this? (5)
|
| A charade of B (‘British’) plus IOTA (‘scrap’). |
Thanks Tramp and Peter.
I usually get a few chewy ones in Tramp’s offerings but this all went in quite quickly, with a few in the SE needing a pause for the little man in the memory department to blow the dust off ictus and the acarids.
Hmm I’m sure I saw Ictus and the Acarids at Limpley Stoke social club in the 70s
Thanks Tramp for a top-notch crossword. When I solved DIRECTORS CHAIR & COPPOLA I thought I was seeing a theme develop but I got no further than that. No matter, the clues were good on their own. In addition to the aforementioned ones, I ticked SEIZURE, STARTLING, REINS IN, OVERSEE, & IWO JIMA as favourites. My only stumble was ACARI. Thanks PeterO for the blog.
I found this a little gentler than Tramp’s average offering, but by no means easy. The long ones helped a lot.
We had face card the other day and COURT CARD today. These things happen. I was also sure we’d had ICTUS very recently but that was in my loo book.
I assumed SUPREMEST was in Chambers (turns out it’s not, when I checked later, at least in the online version) so I checked Google NGrams. The word supreme is about 15,000 times more frequently used than the “word” supremest. The people have spoken!
Liked it a lot, especially all the long ones plus IWO JIMA, NAMED and THUMBNAIL. Had to construct ACARI (which I vaguely remembered) and ICTUS. Thanks Tramp and PeterO (especially for the early blog)!
PS finished six out of the last seven (starting with Prize Paul but excluding the Wednesday Paul), for the first time…
Dr What’sOn @#3
My niggle appears to be yours also. To the best of my knowledge If something is supreme, it is the best therefore nothing can be supremer or supremest.
My real pet hate is the misuse of unique by supposedly educated people and news readers who regularly tell us of things which are unique but which are merely outstanding.
I really enjoyed the puzzle today while extending my vocab and learning news tricks from Tramp who has often left me quite baffled.
Mmm Dr Wh, supremest is like bestest, already already. Always enjoyed a Tramp, tho today’s was more of a stroll. That said, I did have to alphacheck for the c before clicking that ‘close to’ gave the ca for those pesky once-were-ticks. All good fun, ta both.
thanks P and T! Literally listening to The Supremes[t] on my youtube playlist as we speak…
@5
I really meant “most unique” in my diatribe.
Favourites: REINS IN, DISCRIMINATORY, THUMBNAIL
New for me: ICTUS; ACARI; BIOTA.
SUPREMEST = I didn’t realise this can be a word but after looking in my online dictionary, it does make the phrase the Supreme Being = a name for God rather interesting. I guess the Supremest Being is the god that is more supreme than all the other various gods?
jabirinoz@5 – I also dislike the overuse of the word unique (and most unique as you mention @8), ditto the overuse of the words unprecedented and iconic.
This seemed a tough one made doable by the more generous longer answers. Had to construct ACARI and BIOTA from the wordplay.
Liked RUN-DOWN, THUMBNAIL, MAN-EATERS and STAUNCH
Thanks Tramp and PeterO
I hereby copy and paste my comment from The Grauniad: The 4 long ones went in straight away, which surprised and pleased me, and then the rest followed along pretty easily, even though one or two were new words for me. 17a is a pretty horrible word (if it is a word at all).
It appears I am not the alonest when it comes to 17a.
Thanks for the blog and comments.
I apologise for the linkword “with” in 21d: with doesn’t work for me and I don’t know why I did it.
Bestest wishes
Neil
Thought this was the epitome of what a hard crossword should be.
Lots of difficult parsing and words that you should know but don’t… yet a grid that helped progress.
Every little breakthrough led to another step forward.
Very well constructed.
Spent ages trying to see how ‘over’ was an ‘extra’. Could someone really bowl 6 wides often enough to count? Finally twigged it was just one left over/extra. Think the Ashes are haunting me.
I go along with the chorus of praise. With such fun I could turn a blind eye to 17a. Many thanks to Tramp.
@12 🙂
Tough going in places, with several unparsed, but I liked the Richard Tice clue, the hand-y feature, the caution during match and the LARGE INTESTINE. With C_P____A in place, I got hung up on the idea that the film maker was Frank Capra, which didn’t produce anything feasible, but having already encountered ICTUS and ACARI, I spent some time looking for a non-existent jorum. SUPREMEST is the sort of word you might or might not get away with on Countdown: ugly, isn’t it.
I’m another queuing up to add to the chorus of praise. I gave up ticking clues because it was getting ridiculous.
But I must highlight the superb 1ac: brilliant anagram and surface – too ephemeral (I hope) for my little book of classics, or it would be up there among the topmost.
Lovely surfaces all round, as usual – I especially admired the poignant 16dn MOURNED.
Many thanks to Tramp, especially for popping in, plus the smile and to PeterO.
Tramp@12: good to see you popping in and you have picked up on my only quibble. I neither knew nor got ACARI but it’s a decent clue and SUPREMEST does appear in some online sources which I guess makes it a valid term to set. Neither worried me particularly but that ‘with’ did rankle, given the def.
Remarkable anagrams for both DIRECTOR’S CHAIR and LARGE INTESTINE – chapeau. SEIZURE, MOURNER and STAUNCH also earn ticks. I recall watching the Sands of IWO JIMA as a youngster – it was an old movie then. One of the very few times John Wayne died on screen. NAMED also made me smile: I irritate the heck out of my elder son who works in Cheltenham and who is achingly cool by referring to it as ‘Nam.
Thanks both
Thanks Tramp and PeterO
Very nice. 1a was a gem, and I also liked PELICAN
I agree that SUPREMEST seems an unnecessary word.
Minor niggle with BIOTA – it includes the plants, fungi, etc. as well as the animals.
Enjoyed this. Was there a mini theme?
Coppola; (Viet)nam; Director’s Chair?
Another enjoyable crossword from Tramp, excellent start to Friday morning, thanks 🙏
I echo both Eileen’s praise of DIRECTOR’S CHAIR and her hope it may be ephemeral.
DIRECTORS CHAIR, my foi, is the SUPREMEST 1ac I have ever seen. A very disarming politician, who is teed up to be a future PM…be very afraid. Fantastic puzzle Neil and thanks for dropping in, every clue a beaut.
Ta Tramp & PeterO.
Peter, you’ve written cut, rather than clip, in your parsing of COPPOLA.
Goodness, that was tough.
I didn’t manage a single one on my first pass; eventually teased out all of them bar ACARI which I didn’t know (but I acknowledge that with this and ICTUS and BIOTA the wordplay is very clear making the unfamiliar word reasonably fair on the solver).
The clue for DIRECTOR’S CHAIR is magnificent even though I share the concerns others have expressed about the subject of the wordplay. IWO JIMA and MAN-EATERS were very fine, too.
I am very glad that this one didn’t follow the recent Grauniad trend of using unfriendly grids with no initial letters and lots of unchecked ones!
Thanks to Tramp and Peter)
shed53 #20. Apocalypse Now occurred to me. too.
Very entertaining. Are you Pasquale in disguise? (ACARI, ICTUS, BIOTA.)
I certainly wouldn’t have complained about the “with” in 21d. I think it can be justified because you get the elements B and IOTA with BIOTA.
I was sure that muffin was going to object that IWO JIMA is an island not a battle 🙂
Many thanks Tramp and PeterO.
Some very good anagrams and the rest surprisingly doable for Tramp, though I echo the feelings of others regarding SUPREMEST. Had to look up ACARI, and frowned (again) at the equating of ñ with n in ESTONIA, though less annoying than Paul’s recent use of it in the answer rather than the clue.
I don’t understand ‘popping’ in 12a. How does this indicate an envelope?
muffin @19: so the animals are in the biota, as the clue says, along with other organisms. It doesn’t say that the animals are the biota. I don’t have a problem with that.
poc#28. I think ”popping in” would have worked better for an envelope/inclusion indicator in STARTLING.
Forced to cheat due to ignorance of BIOTA and ACARI, but clueing was fair so slap on the head for me. Great stuff. Thanks both.
Very satisfying indeed. As with various others here, DIRECTORS CHAIR is my CotD, if not CotM, for its brilliant surface. One in the Eye for Cyclops? LOI was ACARI, not known to me but the clueing was clear. As the tablet on which I usually do the crosswords get carried around with me during my my somewhat lengthy morning routine, the timing of my working out LARGE INTESTINE could hardly have been more appropriate (if that’s TMI, don’t read this sentence).
Too much other good stuff to detail.
Many thanks Tramp and PeterO (not least for sorting out parsing of REINS IN, which eluded me).
Very enjoyable crossword. I, too, liked DIRECTORS CHAIR, although I wince a bit when I see that name, COPPOLA, MANEATERS, REINS IN, HOP IT, IWO JIMA, and STAUNCH. Regarding SUPREMEST, it listed as a word in the full Chambers electronic version, although it’s not in the BRB as far as I can see and, likewise, it’s in the Collins e-version. It’s also in the OED, viz:
I.
Highest in authority, importance, or quality.
I.1.a.
Of authority, command, or rank: highest in degree.
Thanks Tramp and PeterO.
Quirister @29
Yes, animals are part of the BIOTA, but it seems perverse to define BIOTA just in terms of the animals when it means all the living things in the environment.
Re michele@9: The word I hate most is ‘identity’, especially when it is used as a thing, as in ‘This book tells us important things about love, time and identity’. No it doesn’t, you pompous oaf.
I have never seen the word supremest used in 76 years. It is not included in any dictionary I have.
After 1A went in immediately I thought that Tramp was being generous today. A first pass through the clues disabused me of that notion. Overall it was satisfactorily chewy.
ICTUS and ACARI were new to me, and the parsing of 2D REINS IN defeated me.
While I don’t like the word, I don’t have a problem with the apparent anti-logic of SUPREMEST. For example, various somebodies or somethings could be supreme in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas and the top one of the lot would be supremest worldwide.
Loved the crossword though.
I agree with the consensus that SUPREMEST seems a little over-superlative. I, too, expected gripes about reducing IWO JIMA to a battle and NAM to a war. However, there were none, so there’s your BREATHING SPACE.
This seemed very hard to start off with, but after dedicating some time at lunch, its majesty was revealed. I liked DISCRIMINATORY and MAN EATERS, but loads were good.
My last ones in were ACARI and AMENITIES.
(It’s always better when bloggers like Peter include the grid.)
Thanks, Tramp, for the puzzle and for popping in; and PeterO for the blog.
Beautiful puzzle with all my favourites already noted. I wish some other setters would take as much care over their surfaces as they do over their constructions.
SUPREMEST is a bit odd, but not completely irrational: a ‘supreme example’ isn’t necessarily uniquely representative. It isn’t surprising that many posters can’t find it listed – most dictionaries don’t give comparative and superlative forms of adjectives unless they are irregular (eg good, better, best). But wiktionary does give it.
Thanks to Tramp and PeterO
Poc@28 As in popping pills, though I can’t think of any other examples.
Very enjoyable. Like others, I raised an eyebrow at SUPREMEST. My usual bugbear popped up for the last two clues in ACARI and BIOTA but I eventually gave in to looking for single letters signified by a word and the parsing appeared. I agree with Eileen that there are too many ticks (pun intended) to list! Thanks Tramp and PeterO.
Didn’t get ACARI although I used all the components in other guesses.
Spent a while seeing if BOOZA could be a reverse-engineered solution to 21d (B, ZOO<, A).
I thought it was witty to have a : colon in the clue for LARGE INTESTINE
Paddymelon@30: I suppose ‘popping in’ would work, but without the ‘in’ it makes no sense.
PeterT@41: Sorry, I don’t see what you’re getting at.
“Iwo Jima is an island, not a battle.” Would anybody say, “Waterloo is a town, not a battle.”?
Thanks to Tramp for an enjoyable puzzle and PeterO for the elucidations.
No problem with SUPREMEST – it just adds extra emphasis like you can do in Spanish – supremísimo.
What’s wrong with “with” as a linking word? It’s a little clumsy but it makes more logical sense than “of”, to my mind.
Stumped by the last two that were new ones for me, ICARI and BIOTA. But Tramp usually generously invites us in with those long anagrams, often on the perimeter of the grid. Today no exception. Enjoyed the ride as long as it lasted…
I suppose John Robert’s might be the supremest – though, hearing about some of his decisions, I’m skeptical.
Thanks, great crossword. Tough but fair. Reasonable constructs for the odd unusual word. Tend to agree with the objectors to SUPREMEST. Generous of Tramp to apologise for “with” in 21d clue, – less tortuous use than many other setters. In defence of this clue against the biology purists, “in” implies animals are “part of” not “all of” BIOTA
poc@44 Sorry. To pop a pill is to swallow it. Chambers definition 5 of pop as a transitive verb. For those unfamiliar with the work of Lil Wayne, he describes himself as a “pill-poppin’ animal”, for example.
Echoing the praise–and especially IWO JIMA, a brilliant surface and anagram. The jorum for me was ACARI which I had to use a word-finder for, falling into the traps of not knowing which A was “answer” and taking “close to right” as T. Wondered for a moment whether there’s a bird out there called an ALICORN but I guess it’s just the winged unicorn, or horned pegasus, depending on how you count. ICTUS I knew from the Carla Bley composition, often played by her sometime husband Paul Bley (here with the Jimmy Giuffre 3).
I also tried SUPREMENT, which is much more not a word than SUPREMEST.
[Hmm: Improperly regrades, riles nevertheless, improperly? (13)]
Martin@39: Reducing Vietnam to a war rather than a country seems a bit problematic, but I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anyone refer to it as ‘NAM outside the context of the war.
Thanks Tramp and PeterO!
[ By way of introduction, having been lurking on this site for some years, but having taken the plunge into posting only in the last couple of weeks… I’ve been attempting the crosswords in the Guardian roughly since my retirement 8 years ago (academic, materials science), and in Private Eye over the last couple of years. I also do the New Statesman puzzle when it’s not one of their wretched unclued anagram offerings. Following this site, and aided by my wife, whose parents were also avid solvers, I’ve moved from being an interested but frequently baffled newbie to being, well, not quite that, I hope. In a good week, with a following wind, I can now get a straight run from Sunday to Friday; trebles all round. It is not always a “good week”. I do like a nice alphabetical puzzle.
I hope my comments and occasional meanderings can find a place here amongst those from you kind, helpful, and erudite lot.
Why “DTS”? We used to get The Beano for our children (well, us as well). Derek the Sheep by Gary Northfield became one of our favourite strips, with its daft, sarcastic and put-upon titular character. (There are several books of the strips if you feel like an early self – Christmas present.)]
Dr WhatsOn @3I am not surprised that “supremest” is not in Chambers.
Butter fingers, trying again.
Dr WhatsOn @3. I am not surprised that SUPREMEST is not in Chambers. SUPREME is a superlative. So, saying SUPREMEST is like saying BESTEST.
This was a good crossword, although I am not too keen on clues like the one for STAUNCH which required knowledge of a British union initialism: not kind to foreign solvers.
SUPREMEST is known to Morewords (https://www.morewords.com/search?q=s-p-e-e-t ); it’s the only word in that site’s very comprehensive hoard that fits the crossers.
Tramp @12, PostMark @18: While I personally dislike ‘with’ as a link word, one can argue that it can mean ‘and’ which is commonly accepted as a link word. Therefore it didn’t bother me so much in this crossword.
Petert@41
Thanks for popping by with that. I think you must be right. I had the answer but it was really bugging me that I couldn’t see how to parse it.
Thanks also to Tramp of course, lovely crossword
What a fabulous crossword today from Tramp. Loved the long anagrams, and THUMBNAIL made us smile. Thanks to Tramp and PeterO.
A second Friday DNF in a row for me, though a less comprehensive defeat than last week’s Soup. ACARI eluded me this time. I thought this was a terrific puzzle with a perfect level of difficulty for the back end of the week. Favourite was the lovely STARTLING.
I could be mistaken but I think Neil/Tramp posted on here recently that he was thinking of winding down his setting due to not getting the same buzz out of it. This puzzle was a great example of why he should reconsider, because he’s brilliant.
Completely lost my cryptic mojo, could only solvev4 clues.
Ta for hints.
Thoroughly enjoyed tramping through this biota, and then logging the blogging. As for “supremest”, it makes perfect sense to us here Down Under up in the Northern Territory, where the Supreme Court is the unsupremest superior court, the Court of Appeal and the Court of Criminal Appeal are supremer superior courts, and the supremest superior court is the High Court, which reigns supreme on high, down in Canberra.
I very much enjoyed solving this one, and was humming along nicely until the last two –14a A-A-I and 21d B-O-A?? Never did figure them out, so dnf
A lot of very elegant, concise surfaces, including 11a RESET, 12a STARTLING, 15a NAMED,17a SUPREMEST, 25a BREATHING SPACE, 5d SOCIALS
I suppose SUPREMEST is a superlativest!
Thank you to Tramp for the “Bestest wishes” @12, and PeterO for a great blog
I don’t think 7d refers to a major being shot. Shot is simply the anagram indicator.
PeterT@50: I see. Thanks.
Charming puzzle full of cleverness!