Carpathian sets today's Guardian puzzle.
A gentle, but elegant puzzle that would make an ideal introduction to cryptic crosswords for a new solver. Nothing obscure, overly difficult or contrived and perfectl clued with a good range of devices used.
Thanks, Carpathian.
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | INFERIOR |
Deduce gold found across island is substandard (8)
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INFER ("deduce") + OR ("gold", in heraldry) across I (island) |
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| 9 | OUTLET |
Market unpopular permit (6)
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OUT ("unpopular") + LET ("permit") |
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| 10 | TIRELESS |
Let’s rise up with unlimited energy (8)
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*(lets rise) [anag:up] |
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| 11 | PIRATE |
Brigand put rodent in dish (6)
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RAT ("rodent") in PIE ("dish") |
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| 12 | STOCKING FILLERS |
Cellists forking out for small gifts (8,7)
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*(cellists forking) [anag:out] |
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| 15 | SPASM |
Jerk succeeded in plans to return (5)
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S (succeeded) in <=MAPS ("plans", to return) |
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| 16 | SEAMY |
Main setter’s disreputable (5)
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SEA ("main") + MY ("setter's") |
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| 20 | DISCONCERTINGLY |
Ignored cyclist cycling around back of van alarmingly (15)
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*(ignored cyclist) [anag:cycling] around [back of] (va)N |
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| 21 | APOLLO |
God of love following a vote (6)
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O (love, in tennis) following A + POLL ("vote") |
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| 23 | HIDEAWAY |
Hotel with concept and means to provide refuge (8)
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H (hotel) with IDEA ("concept") and WAY ("means") |
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| 25 | INTUIT |
Sense one unit changed with time (6)
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I (one) + *(unit) [anag:changed] with T (time) |
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| 26 | RESOLVED |
Sorted out and replaced bottoms of shoes worn by Victor (8)
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RESOLED ("replaced bottoms of shoes") worn by V (Victor, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) |
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| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ANXIETY |
After eleven alien enters some concern (7)
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XI ("eleven" in Roman numerals) + ET (extra-terrestrial, so "alien") enters ANY ("some") |
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| 2 | TELESCOPIC |
Rearrange Colt pieces to be capable of retraction and protrusion (10)
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*(colt pieces) [anag:rearrange] |
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| 3 | DIRE |
Awful funeral song – not good (4)
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DIR(g)E ("funeral song", not G (good)) |
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| 4 | PRESAGE |
Quiet about wise man making forecast (7)
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P (piano, in music, so "quiet") + RE ("about") + SAGE ("wise man") |
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| 5 | COMPLIMENT |
Remark about pelvis regularly getting flatter (10)
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COMMENT ("remark") about P(e)L(v)I(s) [regularly] |
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| 6 | STIR |
Prison unrest I resolved partly (4)
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Hidden in [partly] "unreST I Resolved" |
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| 7 | PERTURB |
Saucy uniform heads of resources brought to upset (7)
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PERT ("saucy") + U (Uniform, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) + [heads of] R(esources) B(rought) |
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| 13 | INS AND OUTS |
Tons unsaid about details (3,3,4)
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*(tons unsaid) [anag:about] |
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| 14 | LAMENTABLE |
Inadequate Los Angeles blokes on board (10)
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LA (Los Angeles) + MEN ("blokes") on TABLE ("board") |
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| 17 | TIMPANI |
I am trapped in unsuitable inverted drum (7)
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I'M (I am) trapped in <=INAPT ("unsuitable", inverted) |
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| 18 | SENHORA |
Hear son running to Portuguese woman (7)
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*(hear son) [anag:running] |
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| 19 | CLEANER |
Caught less productive maid perhaps (7)
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C (caught) + LEANER ("less productive") |
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| 22 | LOUT |
Oaf left unconscious (4)
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L (left) + OUT ("unconscious") |
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| 24 | DISC |
Short dance record (4)
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[short] DISC(o) ("dance") |
Considerably more Mondayish than yesterday’s surprisingly tricky Vulcan. Lots to like including both the long anagrams. Enjoyed the surface of SPASM and the misleading “flatter” in COMPLIMENT. Favourite of a set of very neat clues was TIMPANI.
Disaster struck about half way through. I was just looking at 20a, reached for my cup of tea and my phone slipped, so my finger hit the reveal button.
Disconcertingly this gave me so many crossers that I feel like I cheated. I go about in guilt and shame.
I liked TIRELESS.
I don’t like 14d – something might be lamentably inadequate, but lamentable does not mean inadequate.
£0.02
Most enjoyable, nothing too taxing. If I had to have one grumble, it’s that I don’t think “up” should serve as an anagrind (10a).
What you expect from Carpathian. Very neatly clued with nothing too difficult in there but also not a write-in. A few answers required a bit of thinking.
Like the misdirection in COMPLIMENT and the neat anagrams.
Thanks Loonapick and Carpathian
There are times when I enjoy feeling stretched/tested by a puzzle, and there are others when it’s nice to feel able/competent when solving. This fell into the latter category, and was no less enjoyable for that.
Thanks Carpathian and loonapick
Very nice – HIDEAWAY special, and I liked RESOLVED as well.
Two quibbles: TIMPANI is plural (of timpano), so it should be “drums”. A disco is so-called because discs are played there, so wordplay and definition for DISC are essentially the same.
Crisp cluing with lots to enjoy. Misled myself for a bit by putting in unparsed LAME instead of DIRE for 3d, which almost fitted the bill. Thanks to C and l.
Pleasantly untaxing puzzle.
Just one query, isn’t TIMPANI plural? Sounds like it, with the singular timpanum.
William @8
See mine @6. Chambers gives the singular as timpano – Italian rather than Latin, I suppose.
So sorry, muffin, re TIMPANI. Started typing and broke off to make tea!
[No problem, William]
Another instalment of the Graun’s campaign to inflict all its unfriendly grids on us; hardly any initial letters given by crossers and eight lights (including the two long ones) with a majority of unchecked letters.
But when the setter is the wonderful Carpathian, it doesn’t really matter.
Fairly gentle, immaculately fair, with some superb surfaces and some extremely neat and unforced anagrams (the two long ones are a delight).
Yes, strictly TIMPANI should be clued as “…drums” but one incidental advantage of it being the Graun is that, having spotted that point, you mentally continue “Oh, presumably the omission of the S is a Grauniad typo”.
Geoff @ 3 – I know what you mean, but the Clue Clinic site offers “up” as an acceptable anagrind.
As others have observed, this really ought to have appeared on a Monday; but I’m very happy to have a Carpathian one day late.
Grateful thanks to Carpathian and loonapick
Strangely, I have never ever heard anyone refer to a timpano. I suppose orchestras always have at least two.
I liked this one and thought it did enough to distinguish itself from a Quiptic which hasn’t always been the case with Carpathian so credit where credit’s due
Once again my lack of specialist knowledge stood me in good stead allowing TIMPANI to go in without missing a beat
Cheers L&C
Show @2, love your tuppenceworth!
I echo scraggs@5’s comment. Also Showaddydadito@2’s quiblet about LAMENTABLE but I certainly won’t lose any sleep over it.
I suspect TIMPANO shares much with PANINO… it’s a ship that’s already sailed. And plenty of older English words got mangled in a similar way. Let’s just nod to the language’s flexibility.
[It recently occurred to me that lasagne is plural and that the dish is spelt that way in British English – but not in Spanish where it’s spelt lasaña (the dish, but more interestingly the packet of dried sheets you might buy) rather than the expected lasañas. So that’s one that British English got “right”. But then we tend to treat the varieties of pasta as mass nouns and ignore their native singulars: a stick of spahetti or a sheet of lasagne, rather than a spaghetto or a lasagna. Ultimately, imported words will arrive any which way, and IMO should all then just be pluralized using standard English grammar. Enough of “formulae” and its ilk!]
Thanks both
STOCKING FILLERS is a delight. Thanks, both.
The quiptic I’d missed this week. I mean no disrespect; on the contrary – a very elegant, well-clued and approachable puzzle. Thanks a lot Carpathian and loonapick!
A lovely STOCKING FILLER presaging Christmas, with nothing to perturb or cause anxiety.
Many thanks to Carpathian and loonapick
The two long anagrams made this worthwhile.
Ta Carpathian & loonapick.
A very satisfying and smooth puzzle with great surfaces — “Tons unsaid about details” just one example.
Showaddydadito @2: Chambers includes for LAMENTABLE, “pitifully bad, worthless (informal)”.
Many thanks Carpathian and loonapick.
Great puzzle, I was a bit thrown by 19d as I think of LEANER as more productive rather than less…
Deceptively smooth – some great storytelling surfaces hiding the beautifully dovetailed wordplay underneath. I liked the poll for the God of Love, the cellists’ Christmas shopping, the remark about the flatter pelvis and the poor person trapped in a drum, among many. DISCONCERTINGLY reminded me of a Fougasse cartoon: after basic illustrations of a cyclist signalling his intention to turn left, right etc. there is a completely blank frame entitled “I am about to appear out of nowhere and give you a nasty shock”.
Thanks Carpathian and loonapick.
Straightforward though none the worse for that, with some smooth surfaces. TIMPANI is definitely a plural, so 17d should have had ‘drums’, as others have said, but then the surface wouldn’t quite work, so the whole clue needs to change.
Just the job, this, as everyone above has said. As well as the universally approved long anagrams, could I add a vote for HIDEAWAY?
Smooth surfaces throughout, goes down easily and when you’ve finished, you think “hmmm – another one like that would be very nice “. Very much like the glass of Jura’s finest that accompanied my enjoyment of this puzzle before bedtime last night. (It had been a long day: I checked to see if Tuesday’s puzzle was there at about 5 past midnight and…)
Thank you Carpathian and loonapick.
[DTS @26: my crossword didn’t pop up until 0020, which was a tad frustrating. Thankfully it was a bit of a write-in, so got a decent night’s sleep. I was accompanied by a cheeky Jack Daniels.]
simonc@13, any orchestra member who was required only to play one kettledrum [I use this to avoid having to decide on a singular form of ‘timpani’] should surely be on a reduced rate of pay. 🙂
They’re almost always found in pairs, often tuned to the tonic and dominant.
Is there a theme? There are plenty of words with a negative or unsettling connotation: INFERIOR, SPASM, SEAMY, DISCONCERTINGLY, ANXIETY, DIRE, STIR, PERTURB, LAMENTABLE.
Don’t worry, there was no foul indiscretion at #30, I merely deleted my own comment.
This was a pleasant affair today.
Muffin @6 although the word disco has that derivation, I think if taken as a genre, like house, techno or drum’n’bass, that would all fall under the generic “dance” banner, then we’re far enough removed for this to be a different thing that still works as a clue.
11a made me think of Richard Scarry’s magnum opus Pie Rats Ahoy
I was happy to solve this in a reasonable time, having spent far too long over Vulcan/Imogen’s offering yesterday. I’ll echo the praise for the neat anagrams and the smile-raising surfaces, and deprecate the chuntering about how many drums make up a rhythm section.
LAMENTABLE is a school report staple, is it not? (Not my school reports, obv; Nigel Molesworth, perhaps.) It has drifted from lamentably bad/lazy/incompetent/inadequate to eventually encompass those adjectives in its own extended meaning. Works for me, anyway.
Thanks to Gladys@24 for the disconcerting cyclist. 😂
And thanks to Carpathian and Loonapick, of course.
Delightful–smooth and fair as everyone said, and I particularly liked ANXIETY, INTUIT, and TIMPANI (I’m with AP@16 on this, as the wikipedia article says “timpano” is only used by practitioners). Confounded myself on the right side by first bunging in STOCKING STUFFERS which didn’t fit the anagram or the grid, and then misspelling SENHORA, but I got there in the end! Thanks Carpathian and loonapick!
Not only ideal for a new solver … equally ideal for a seasoned but unskilled solver 😉. A touch too quickly over, but ooooh soooo satisfying to finish a puzzle. And what lovely surfaces: I am another admirer of that cyclist who deliver STOCKING FILLERS.
This kind of puzzle would be enjoyed internationally especially where English is not a major language.The clues are relatively easy to understand and do not contain too much colloquialism.
Very nice, if over too quickly. Some great surfaces. Fave was HIDEAWAY, unfave LAMENTABLE as commented by others.
Timpani are drums. That sentence works
Timpani is a drum. oesn’t work.
And the Timpanum mentioned earlier is the eardrum.
I agree with loonapick’s preamble. A delightful puzzle. All went in relatively smoothly, except 1d ANXIETY, which I needed to sleep on before the penny dropped
“Up” as an anagrind in 10a TIRELESS is fine — we’ve seen that plenty of times. I’m surprised, though, that no one’s questioned “cycling” as an anagrind in 20a DISCONCERTINGLY, which caused a delay for me in solving this one. It usually has a specific meaning of cycling the letters from front to back, but maintaining the same order
12a I’d say STOCKING STUFFERS, but fortunately I remembered STOCKING FILLERS from a previous puzzle
What a lovely puzzle. Like some others, we found it more straightforward than yesterday’s Vulcan. Our favourites included 5D and 12A. Thanks to Carpathian and loonapick
AP@16 Are you advocating “spaghettos” as a plural in English? Macaronos, rigatonos, vermicellos?
I know … a dark … secluded place
A place … where no … one knows your face
A glass .. of wine … a fast embrace
It’s called … Hernando’s Hideaway.
(from the musical Pajama Game, I now know.)
Thanks, Carpathian and loonapick. This was fun.
Oh dear, three deletions so far. Things getting a little tasty on here today, perhaps.
As others have said this was a very satisfying solve, even if it might have been my quickest ever solve. (I’ll probably get deleted for saying that)
Loved the two long anagrams at 12 and 20 ac…
Valentine@42, no, quite the opposite! I think it’s perfectly fine to import a word and then anglicise it and apply English’s own rules. There’s no need to insist upon spaghetto just as there’s no need to insist upon panino! (OK, panino should have been imported like that, with the plural paninos, since there’s no mass noun aspect to it whatsoever. But it wasn’t, and we should embrace what we’re stuck with. Paninis is fine.]
…and as for STOCKING FILLER, I have an enduring memory from my youth of one year spending Christmas in Paris with two very nice young American women. Where normally you might expect a tangerine or orange in the very last space at the bottom of the stocking they had together conspired to conceal a rather nice bottle of Burgundy wine in mine…
Thanks Carpathian for the enjoyable treat with my top picks being SPASM, HIDEAWAY, COMPLIMENT, LAMENTABLE, & LOUT. Thanks loonapick for the blog.
[Various@various on plurals… Timpani/timpano are/is very small beer indeed behind “media”, now mostly taken to be singular! (Still fingernails-on-blackboard to me, though.)
Graffiti / graffito seems just about to be hanging on, though many people avoid the issue of the singular by saying “a piece of graffiti” : not really an option with timpani.
“Timpani” has probably now effectively been naturalised enough in usage to be one of the many words that are invariant in singular/plural usage?
One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish…]
AWood63@23
“LEANER as more productive rather than less…”
This made me think of the Boeing slogan “Less is more.” This did not age well.
This was a very well clued, enjoyable puzzle. Not too difficult with no obscure words but not trivial. I completed it quite rapidly by my own standards. Sometimes you need puzzles that boost your self esteem.
Fairly straightforward but enjoyable. I particularly liked the long anagrams and Victor’s shoes in RESOLVED.
Thanks Carpathian and loonapick.
Another elegant and straightforward offering from Carpathian. I didn’t make time to attempt yesterday’s Vulcan, so a nice gentle introduction to the week’s puzzles for me. Thanks to Carpathian and to loonspick.
I agree wholeheartedly with NeilH@12 about the Guardian’s long run of dire grids over the last fortnight or so, although I suspect these abominations are easier for setters to fill and therefore welcomed by them. Doubtless when we next get a nice one (when the crossword editor awakens) it will be from one of the most challenging setters !
Very enjoyable straightforward crossword as many have said . Thanks
Frogman@49, AWood63@23: LEANER – I would normally take the term to be about efficiency, i.e. amount of production per amount of input, rather than absolute levels of production; a leaner process being more efficient. In a related way it can be about the fuel/air mix in an IC engine, with a leaner mix being a lower fuel:air ratio.
[The opposite being “Rich Mixture”, also the title of a 1970-ish book by Phil Irving about a life in and various aspects of motorcycles; he worked for the famous Vincent company, and co-designed their V-twin engines, so he knew his stuff!]
‘A gentle, but elegant puzzle that would make an ideal introduction to cryptic crosswords for a new solver.’
Not really. The grid is horrible and too many of these clues offer nowhere in for the novice. I got about 3/4 done – held up in NW corner and 16A. I’m not a new solver but I’m far from describing this as ‘gentle’.
Funnily enough I found this a bit harder than yesterday – which I found easier than many other comments suggested.
A couple of things that don’t quite fit for me, but maybe down to (lack of) experience. 1d – does ‘any’ mean ‘some’? And 7d does ‘pert’ mean ‘saucy’?
Not That Paul @55
“Can I have any?” – “Can I have some?”. I think that works.
Yes, one of the meanings of “pert” is “saucy”, as, perhaps, applied to girls who are too full of themselves?
DerekTheSheep@53
Frogman@49, AWood63@23:
LEANER – think of “lean years” when income is low, harvest is poor etc.
Just defeated by PERTURB.
I hadn’t equated PERT = SAUCY, I had it more like TRIM, live and learn.
This was considerably easier than yesterday.
Thanks both.
Well I know many of you found this easy but this was my first ever completed grown-up cryptic after a year of quick cryptics, which have been excellent training, so from my perspective, definitely “an ideal introduction for a new solver”, or maybe I was just on the right wavelength. I hope I don’t have to wait another year before completing a second! My LOI was ANXIETY which was also my favourite because I was afraid I might have to come here to solve it.
Showaddydadito@57: hmm, yes. Good point. I hadn’t really appreciated before quite how ambiguous LEAN can be, and how oppositional some of its uses.
Well done, Sam@59. Yes, being on the setter’s wavelength can be important. Also concentration and relaxation. I’m sure you’ll have many more successes pretty soon.
RE 19d: I’m a lifelong atheist, but I remember bits of stories from the Bible from my primary school days. Wasn’t there something about a dream that forecast a period of “seven lean years”, when harvests would be worse than usual?
Sam@59: Good one!
wynsum@19 🙂
JohnB @ 51 – Interesting thought about the horrible grids being easier to fill. I suppose they may be, in that you have fewer crossers at a number of places, but I suspect most compilers nowadays will be using something like Crossword Compiler which can usually manage to fill any grid.
The only context in which today’s grid would be particularly attractive would be if you were trying to use the 24 cells around the perimeter to spell out a “Nina” or message. I confess that when I’m setting, I have a bit of a weakness for Ninas, but Carpathian is made of sterner stuff.
DTS@48: Although panini, media, grafitti etc. may appear in the singular due to familiar usage, I don’t agree that this can be applied across the board, nor that it applies to timpani.
It’s an irregular plural: one kettledrum, two timpani (or tympani)