A fairly rare appearance by Chandler in the Cryptic slot
Chandler is a prolific provider of Quiptic and Quick cryptic crosswords, which makes this one appropriate for a Tuesday, I think. We have a wide variety of clue types, all neatly constructed, with smooth, meaningful surfaces, plus a broad range of subject matter.
My favourites were 1ac DOWNLOAD, 11ac LEAD ASTRAY, 12ac BITING, 1dn JOAN MIRO, 19dn GRUESOME, 23dn RELENT and 25dn MODI.
The clues at 16ac and 5dn raised a smile and suggested that Chandler might have been comparing notes with Paul behind the bike shed.
Thanks to Chandler for an enjoyable puzzle.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
8 Miserable young guy pocketing nothing for transfer of documents (8)
DOWNLOAD
DOWN (miserable) + LAD (young guy) round O (nothing)
9 Pick up chaps for appearance (5)
GUISE
Sounds like (pick up) ‘guys’ (chaps)
10 Hit hard (after reversal) in tie (4)
KNOT
A reversal of TONK (hit hard)
11 Trick, say, with art deal that’s corrupt (4,6)
LEAD ASTRAY
An anagram (that’s corrupt) of SAY + ART DEAL
12 Sharp techies are experts at this in Google’s rival (6)
BITING
IT (techies are experts at this) in BING (Google’s rival)
14 Explanatory words in top case shortly for analysis (8)
CAPTIONS
An anagram (for analysis) of IN TOP CAS[e]
16 Contend with favourite in climax? (7)
COMPETE
PET (favourite) in COME (climax)
18 Son with mettle ignoring a cause of trouble? (7)
SCOURGE
S (son) + COUR[a]GE (mettle, minus a)
21 This person’s friend touring old city is lacking sophistication (8)
IMMATURE
I’m (this person’s) + MATE (friend) round UR (old city)
23 Amount of money (not half) to break rule possibly makes one melancholy (6)
RUEFUL
FU[nd] (amount of money – not half) in an anagram (possibly) of RULE
24 A nationalist to acclaim somehow having ousted Conservative with regard to a body? (10)
ANATOMICAL
A N (nationalist) + an anagram (somehow) of TO AC[c]LAIM minus one c (conservative)
26 Way of working drained sensuous supermodel (4)
MOSS
MO (modus operandi – way of working) + S[ensuou]S, ‘drained’)
27 Absurd situation with fellow leaving daughter describing a rainbow? (5)
ARCED
[f]ARCE (absurd situation, minus f, fellow) + D (daughter)
28 I mention having to move very quickly (2,2,4)
IN NO TIME
An anagram (having to move) of I MENTION
Down
1 Artist in major unconventional ring (4,4)
JOAN MIRO
An anagram (unconventional – an aptly chosen and allusive anagram indicator) of IN MAJOR + O (ring)
2 Fly among adjoining nations (4)
GNAT
Contained in adjoininG NATions
3 Setter, maybe, taken with cricket side in turn on way? (6)
DOGLEG
DOG (setter, maybe) + LEG (cricket side)
4 Lend poster on politician from Ohio (7)
ADVANCE
AD (poster) + (JD) VANCE (US vice president, politician from Ohio)
5 Source of inflation six ignored in site for mausoleum (4)
AGRA
[vi]AGRA (source of inflation, minus vi – six)
6 Deal out second testimonial in support of inspector (10)
DISTRIBUTE
S (second) + TRIBUTE (testimonial) after (in support of, in a down clue) DI (Detective Inspector)
7 Stop or get off network right away (6)
DETAIN
DET[r]AIN (get off rail network, minus r, right)
13 Where one might find a GP, effectively? (2,8)
IN PRACTICE
A GP is a General Practitioner
15 Designate in hearing thing to be screened (3)
PIC
Sounds like (in hearing) ‘pick’ (designate)
17 Teacup regularly taken for Greek character (3)
TAU
Alternate letters of TeAcUp
19 Horrific rogue’s disturbed writer (8)
GRUESOME
An anagram (disturbed) of ROGUE’S + ME (writer)
20 Group curtailed prominent feature in informal discussion (5-2)
TEACH-IN
TEA[m] (group curtailed) + CHIN (prominent feature)
22 Cuckoo over area patrolled by host is one exhibiting wild behaviour (6)
MANIAC
ANI (cuckoo) + (over, in a down clue) A (area) in MC (host) – I had a bit of a problem locating the cuckoo
23 Moderate Republican beginning to excoriate period of austerity (6)
RELENT
R (Republican) + E[xcoriate] + LENT (period of austerity)
25 First person in Paris to welcome Dutch premier (4)
MODI
MOI (first person in French) round D (Dutch) for the Indian premier
26 Potentially destructive type kept in asylum, otherwise (4)
MOTH
Contained in asyluM OTHerwise
Eileen, at 4d surely JD Vance is the current, not former, USVP? Freudian slip?
Pretty much what Eileen said in the blog.
The use of N for nationalist is my least favourite crossword tool but I’m sure it’s in The Book if I could be bothered to look.
I wonder if we’ll have the correctness police on us regarding 16a & 5d?
Russthree @1
Freudian slip? Senior moment? My apologies – corrected now.
Eileen – I think for ANATOMICAL the fodder for the anagram is TO AC(c)CLAIM, otherwise you’re missing the T and the O? Otherwise, thanks for a very clear and precise blog.
What is incorrect about 16a and 5d William @2?
A slow but steady solve, LOI – DOGLEG (didn’t know the word; first tried to find something with GEL reversed). Thanks Chandler and Eileen
Thanks, crispy @4 – corrected now.
My faves: LEAD ASTRAY, CAPTIONS, COMPETE, ARCED, AGRA and DETAIN.
Thanks Chandler and Eileen.
Enjoyable puzzle with some welcome humour @ 16ac, 21ac and 5d among others. I prefer Chandler’s more adult humour which makes me smile rather than Paul’s schoolboy humour which makes me groan.
New for me: ANI – cuckoo (for 22d); TEACH-IN; TONK = hit hard; JD Vance being from Ohio (for 4d).
5d and 16a are not incorrect, just slightly more explicit than usual – Chandler probably wouldn’t have got away with them in the Guardian ten years ago. Sexy, yes, but not sexist.
Thanks C and E! excellent notes. I agree with Michelle #9 about comparative senses of humour. I slowly came to the conclusion that that 16a was correct.
Thanks Chandler and Eileen
I didn’t parse RUEFUL, didn’t know VANCE was from OHIO, and always thought the artist was JEAN MIRO! Other than that, a pleasant solve. Favourite AGRA.
Thank you Eileen for your blog and for your help with ANI in MANIAC. So many misdirections in that clue.
TEACH-IN also. informal discussion as definition? I’m a former teacher and student, but that would never have occurred to me, and how many others outside that experience?. Potentially destructive type, on the other hand as definition for MOTH, was a bit out there but the wordplay was clear.
I don’t think I was on Chandler’s wavelength. I got there but have some quibbles. “for analysis” as an anagram indicator in CAPTIONS.
I did like the simple DOGLEG. It’s a word I know and often use, and fortunately I did know the cricket reference in leg.
I was pleased with myself for getting DOG for Setter straightaway, not even thinking of I or ME.
CAPTIONS
paddymelon@13
Agree with you.
Loved the innuendo on a similar theme in both 5d and 16ac. Finally defeated by the intersecting BITING and DOGLEG. More familiar with the latter on a golf course. Challenging, but fair. Enjoyed the journey…
I played around with Madcap first for 22d then had to concede it would not work. Opted for MANIAC but, not knowing the member of the cuckoo family, ANI, grumbled (silently) that there seemed to be two indicators for “wild behaviour.” Knew I had something wrong so thanks, Eileen, for putting me right and helping me learn a new word. Struggled with RELENT as synonym for “moderate” but then realised that to relent on your previously hard position, say, would be to relent and maybe soften the approach. Thanks for a nicely thought-provoking crossword, Chandler.
When I solved TEACH-IN, I thought “now there’s a phrase that I haven’t heard since I don’t know when” – it was common in the late 60s-early 70s when I was involved in the Moratorium (anti-Vietnam War) movement. They were about learning more about whatever it was we were protesting about. There were a couple of clues for which I needed help with the parsing – the cuckoo for one, fund for another. I had all the West side filled in before I got much in the East, but got there. Thanks, Chandler and Eileen.
Enjoyable solve last night with a little chuckle at COMPETE and AGRA. Generally the same likes as Eileen and agree with her reference to unconventional in JOAN MIRO. I’m off to Barcelona in January, where the artist seems to permeate the city. Hope to see Chandler in this slot soon.
Eileen, the GE in your parsing of SCOURGE needs capitalised.
Ta Chandler & Eileen.
Thanks, AlanC @19 – another careless error. 🙁
Thanks Eileen for explaining the cuckoo and for parsing BITING, which went over my head by some distance. Thanks Chandler for an enjoyable puzzle. Though I agree with William@2 and frequently raise the issue when the trick has been overused, just one example of it in a crossword ought to be acceptable I think.
TassieTim#18. 🙂 TEACH-IN. They were about learning more about whatever it was we were protesting about. .
(I was there, but they say that if you were there in the 60s and 70s you may not remember, but I do remember the ”Day of Rage” in Canberra being chased down by police when we were just having a peaceful demonstration.)
Worth the entrance fee, the queue to get in and the full body-search just for AGRA alone!
I also enjoyed the surfaces for DOWNLOAD, MOTH and GNAT.
Like Eileen, I spent awhile hunting for that pesky cuckoo, and also got bogged down for ages with 27A because I started out thinking “fellow” would be don, without the d (“leaving daughter”).
Terrific fun – many thanks Chandler and Eileen.
Took a while to get onto Chandler’s wavelength but got there in the end. Eileen, in 19d you missed the S for the anagram.
Thanks to E & C.
I had MANIAC as A(rea) in MANIC and then couldn’t account for the patrolling host – the birdie is a new one for me. Likewise misled by taking the nationalist as A NAT in ANATOMICAL, leaving me all at sea on the rest of the parsing. Half my mind is mentally wrapping presents at the moment so I’m not concentrating hard enough.
Muffin@12: JOAN is the Catalan equivalent of French Jean, Spanish Juan, irish Sean etc. etc.
TimC @5: (apologies for the delay)… for me there’s nothing incorrect about either clue, but I’m often surprised how often contributors get exercised by sexual references and I was bracing for impact!
5D cf
City’s sexual stimulant knocking six out (4) [VI]AGRA Pasquale 29334
Having got only the last crosser, I entered DOLEUR for 23a (valid spelling, apparently) as half of DO-LE plus RULE*. I’ve often resorted to entering an answer that goes 80% of the way, but that one seems perfectly OK in the circs (the circs obviously not including the other crossers, as slowly became clear).
It’s odd that one can be in working in the same key as the setter in one session – 3/4 of the puzzle went in very smoothly last night – and then in utter disharmony the next time (this morning). Each clue for the NE corner took ages to sort out: nothing wrong with them, all fair and above board, but for some reason each one took quite a while..
LOI was AGRA; as Eileen said, Chandler & Paul must have been having a bit of a giggle behind the bike sheds, maybe sharing an illicit ciggie with Cyclops. It was clear from the start that Halicarnassus wasn’t going to fit, nor could I remember if there was a special word for the platform that, say, the Cenotaph stands on. In the end, though hard, it went in, and raised a delighted grin… I’ll give it CotD.
It took me a while to remember B(it)ING, even though Microsoft is trying to shove it down my throat anytime I go searching online.
LEAD ASTRAY, I thought, was a neat anagram with a nice surface.
Thanks to Eileen for chasing up ANI in mANIac, which I hadn’t come across before (an answer I bunged in largely unparsed), and the rest of the blog; and to Chandler for the puzzle.
[I’m lucky enough to have seen anis – in Costa Rica. If anyone fancies a birding holiday, I can’t imagine there are many better places to go!]
Regarding 5d.
Viagra doesn’t use air.
Ed @32 : INFLATED (Merriam Webster)
1 : distended with air or gas
2: expanded to an abnormal or unjustifiable volume or level
3: elaborated or heightened by artificial or empty means
4: : being hollow and enlarged or distended
So I think it’s fair enough: any fluid will do, whether gaseous (e.g. flatus, if you are up for that old party game with a balloon) or liquid (e.g. blood, if you are up for that old party game…) .
(ps it was me who deleted my own #33 – an error while editing a version of this.)
I don’t see why bathroom or bedroom words that we all hear and use all the time need commenting on. Whoops!
Ed @32
“ Viagra doesn’t use air”.
Yes, it does. It’s a mixture of very good alkalis to start with and air.
NHO of AGRA nor ANI, so mu GK let me down, and failed to come up with JOAN MIRO, embarrassingly. I found this tough going, although nothing is unfair here.
TY Eileen and Chandler
All done and all parsed as well for a change. Dogleg is a good answer for golfers. Thanks.
George @37
AGRA is the site of the Taj Mahal (the mausoleum referred to). It’s also the name of many curry houses in Britain!
LEAD ASTRAY, I had trick for the anagram indicator and corrupt for the definition – which kind of works 🙂
Enjoyable challenge from Chandler. A couple of nho’s — 10a TONK (hit hard), 22d ANI (cuckoo), both gettable. LOI 23a RUEFUL took a while due to a careless misspelling of the crossing 19d GRUESOME, eventually corrected
A lot of really fine constructions and surfaces. Lots of favourites, including 8a DOWNLOAD (good surface), 11a LEAD ASTRAY (“say” misdirection), 28a IN NO TIME (good anagram), 25d MODI (“Dutch premier” misdirection). The two spicy clues were fun!
Thanks both
Once Eileen pointed it out, I dimly remembered ANI, probably from another crossword. I had just put in MANIAC because it fit most of the clue, as I so often do.; Nho TONK.
I didn’t think of Bing either. I’ve encountered it, but I get out of it as fast as I can. As search engines go, it’s an inferior product,
Now off to the blog for yesterday’s puzzle, which I’d given up looking for yesterday.
Thanks, Chandler and Eileen.
Is there any way to make the print on the comments darker? With my elderly eyes (I’m sure I”m not the only one) I have to lean close to the screen and squint. Do they have to be so faint?
Thank you, SimoninBxl @24, if you’re still there: I’ve been out for coffee /lunch. Fixed now.
[Valentine @43
I don’t know about darker, but you can easily make them bigger by using the zoom function in you browser.]
[Dr. WhatsOn@35 and others: the discussion about mildly risqué clues put me in mind of the Flanders & Swann classic (well, all their stuff is classic) “Pee Po Belly Bum Drawers”. Here it is, for your discerning entertainment. All in the best possible taste. ]
Agree with paddymelon@13. Not on the wavelength and a few quibbles.
I find excessively wordy clues difficult, and there were plenty of those. No favourites today.
Thanks Chandler and Eileen
Solvers of standard American crosswords (e.g. the NYT) might be more likely to recognize ANI since, given its commonly occurring letters, it is a frequent filler. Cluing as a type of cuckoo is high-brow while referring to buying a vowel on Wheel of Fortune is the low-brow approach.
I actually liked the “for analysis” anagrind, since the Greek literally meant “to take apart, dissolve, or loosen.”
I agree with Derek @30 that the NE seemed to using a different wavelength than the rest of the puzzle (which I had managed to solve quite quickly). Also agree with big @49 regarding the use of “Analysis” to indicate an anagram was at hand. Thought it was perfectly apt and worked well.
MarkOnCan@50, big@49: Ah, but after analysis must come synthesis!
Nice crossword, a cryptic in quiptic clothing. I puzzled over the ‘one’ in 23ac (RUEFUL): “Amount of money (not half) to break rule possibly makes one melancholy”, but I suppose ‘one’ is the solver (or the setter), so the wordplay makes RUEFUL ‘for us’. Thanks Chandler and Eileen.
Thanks to Chandler and Eileen.
I got a few done but I just couldn’t get into this.
I’m not complaining – more a frame of mind thing than the puzzle itself.
Valentine 43,
[I administer a WordPress site. I was asked the same question by a commenter.
Yes, in my case there’s a choice of fonts and their appearances for the whole site. I simply selected a bolder, somewhat darker one. I’d assume that the same is available for this site?]
Lovely crossword, excellent blog. Thank you Chandler and Eileen!
I note that this CHANDLER crossword makes use of the word BING (in 12a). A tribute to our departed Friend, Matthew Perry?
Girabra @55: Rarely is a comment as superbly evocative and cryptic as yours!