The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26940.
This started off easily enough, but got progressively harder; as a result, I was pressed for time, and could not untangle the wordplay which I think must be involved in 17A/23D. There are several things that, depending on your point of view, may be regarded as libertarian, or invalid.
| Across | ||
| 1 | BODICE | Only a couple of bookies gamble — may this have restricted the figure? (6) |
| A charade of BO (‘only a couple of BOokies’; I know that some do not like this device) plus DICE (‘gamble’). | ||
| 4 | GLOWER | Dirty look from cow at end of milking? (6) |
| A charade of G (‘end of milkinG‘) plus LOWER (‘cow’). | ||
| 9, 15 | PLAY TIME | Relaxing interval, but not for the cast? (8) |
| Definition and allusion to the theatre. | ||
| 10 | SCAR TISSUE | Operational legacy: a connection problem (4,6) |
| I thought at first that this was just a cryptic definition, but it now looks like a charade of SC (semicolon, ‘:’) plus ‘a’ plus RT (radio telephony, ‘connection’) plus ISSUE (‘problem’), which gives us an extended definition. | ||
| 11 | WAFFLE | Pancake with cordial shunned by sailor (6) |
| A charade of W (‘with’) plus AFF[ab]LE (‘cordial’) minus AB (‘shunned by sailor’). | ||
| 12 | KNITWEAR | A winter resort, first centre for ski jumpers? (8) |
| A charade of K (‘centre for sKi’) plus NITWEAR, an anagram (‘re-sort’) of ‘a winter’. An indication by example, justified by the question mark. | ||
| 13 | See 2 | |
| 15 | See 9 | |
| 16, 25 | PACKAGED | Kept together, getting on after rugby players (8) |
| A charade of PACK (‘rugby players’, forwards in particular) plus AGED (‘getting on’). | ||
| 17, 23 | COMMITTEE STAGE | Board/boards that Bill needs for passage (9,5) |
| Like 10A, I have the feeling that this is more than a cryptic definition, but here I cannot make it out. A last minute suggestion (having spent too long wondering if Bill is Gates): COMMITTEE (‘board’) plus STAGE (‘boards’). | ||
| 21 | HARSHENS | Makes stricter rule — is poultry farmer coming round? (8) |
| An envelope (‘coming round’) of R (‘rule’) in HAS HENS (‘is poultry farmer’). | ||
| 22 | LASSIE | Girl‘s stay cut by a couple of seconds (6) |
| An envelope (‘cut by’) of ‘a’ plus SS (‘couple of seconds’) in LIE (‘stay’). | ||
| 24 | INVALIDATE | Void in which valiant die horribly (10) |
| An anagram (‘horribly’) of ‘valiant die’. | ||
| 25 | See 16 | |
| 26 | RATTLE | Upset wild plant (6) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 27 | EXTENT | Sweep interior of next outdoor shelter (6) |
| A charade of EX (‘interior of nEXt’) plus TENT (‘outdoor shelter’). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BALLADE | Verse form everyone’s instructed about (7) |
| An envelope (‘about’) of ALL (‘everyone’) in BADE (‘instructed’). | ||
| 2, 13 | DAY OF RECKONING | Agony for Dickens, almost broke when ultimate account’s due (3,2,9) |
| An anagram (‘broke’) of ‘agony for Dicken[s]’ minus the last letter (‘almost’). | ||
| 3 | CISTERN | Whence water’s drawn back, south of Sark etc (7) |
| A charade of CI (Channel Islands, ‘Sark etc’) plus STERN (‘back’). ‘south of’ indicated the order of the particles in the down light. | ||
| 5 | LATVIA | Elevated trail taken regularly through country (6) |
| A charade of LAT, a reversal (‘elevated’, in a down light) of TAL (‘TrAiL taken regularly’) plus VIA (‘through’). | ||
| 6 | WASP WAIST | Privileged American talking rubbish in exaggerated style (4,5) |
| A charade of WASP (white Anglo-Saxon protestant, ‘privileged American’) plus WAIST, a homophone (‘talking’) of WASTE (‘rubbish’), with a rather loose definition. | ||
| 7 | ROULADE | Posh youngster tucking into eggs and roll (7) |
| An envelope (‘tucking into’) of U (‘posh’) plus LAD (‘youngster’) into ROE (‘eggs’; only a hard roe is fish eggs, so this is an indication by example). | ||
| 8 | PARKINSON’S LAW | Devious work plans, as in this person’s observations (10,3) |
| An anagram (‘devious’) of ‘work plans as in’, with a very ingenious extended definition. | ||
| 14 | KICK-START | Comes off acid to achieve renewal (4-5) |
| A charade of KICKS (‘comes off’, as a drug habit) plus TART (‘acid’). | ||
| 16 | PLANNER | Designer transport blocked by new resistance (7) |
| A charade of PLANNE, an envelope (‘blocked by’) of N (‘new’) in PLANE (‘transport’); plus R (‘resistance’). | ||
| 18 | MILIEUX | Place cross beside first motorway locations (7) |
| A charade of MI (M1, ‘first motorway’) plus LIEU (‘place’) plus X (‘cross’), for the less familiar plural of milieu. | ||
| 19 | EVIDENT | Plain setter’s got up to make an impression (7) |
| A charade of EVI, a reversal (‘got up’ in a down light) of I’VE (‘setter’s’, with the apostrophe s for has) plus DENT (‘make an impression’). | ||
| 20 | GENIAL | Easy-going daughter abandons prohibition for good (6) |
| A replacement: DENIAL (‘prohibition’) with the D replaced by G (‘daughter abandons … for good’). | ||
| 23 | See 17 | |
10ac Can be read as ‘Scart Issue’ – SCART being a connector for audio/visual equipment.
I agree with PGreen @1 in the parsing of 10. I’m sure you all need to know this, but SCART is an acronym of Syndicat des Constructeurs d’Appareils Radiorécepteurs et Téléviseurs according to Wikipedia. I parsed 17,23 as you did, with ‘Bill’ referring to the passage of a parliamentary bill. In the end, only missed out the ‘poultry farmer’ one and didn’t know WASP WAIST.
Enjoyable with some more challenging clues as last-ins.
Thanks to PeterO and Nutmeg
Thanks Nutmeg and PeterO
I usually really enjoy Nutmeg puzzles, and this was no exception. SCAR TISSUE (parsed as in @1 and @2) and KNITWEAR were outstanding.
I didn’t parse WAFFLE.
The COMMITTEE STAGE is part of the process in the British Parliament for a bill to become a law.
…oh, and the “boards” as you suggest.
I did this without seeing the setter’s name, and thought it might be a tougher Chifonie or possibly an Orlando. I was surprised to see Nutmeg; I thought it was less pert than usual.
WAFFLE completely baffled me, so thanks Peter (and Nutmeg).
I found this quite hard myself. It took ages and a bit of coming and going.
6d WASP WAIST was familiar to me from Scarlett O’Hara’s 19 inch waist measurement! Do you think BODICE 1a was just coincidental in terms of “restricting the figure”?
Couldn’t parse quite a few so thanks for the blog, PeterO. Uncertainties included 11a WAFFLE as aforementioned, and the CI part of 3d CISTERN.
I enjoyed the cow’s face in 4a GLOWER, and 10a SCAR TISSUE, although I missed the very clever insights of PGreen and WordPlodder re SCART. Gosh there are some clever people in this online community. I learn new information often.
Can I also say some of the anagrams were very pleasing; I was glad to get INVALIDATE 24a and after trying KLOSTERS (nice distraction, Nutmeg), I saw the AWINTER +K anagram for 12a KNITWEAR.
Thanks Nutmeg.
Another link 9a PLAY and “boards” for STAGE in 23d? Maybe I am a bit hung up on looking for themes/patterns?
Thank you Nutmeg and PeterO.
I also found this quite hard, I did manage to parse WAFFLE, but failed on SCAR TISSUE. With BODICE, WASP WAIST and “Girl’s stay” I looked for a theme as Julie @6&7 did…
The clues for PARKINSON’S LAW, DAY OF RECKONING and COMMITTEE STAGE (see muffin @3) were fun.
Thanks to Nutmeg and PeterO. I too had lots of trouble parsing here. I got PACKAGED but did not know rugby-pack, CISTERN without seeing Channel Islands, and HARSHENS without spotting R = rule (I kept trying to force in “law”) and needed help with SCAR TISSUE and COMMITTEE STAGE (though in both cases I did see the solution). Last in were LATVIA (I took a while before reversing the TAL) and WASP WAIST (a term I should have picked up more quickly given the portraits of Queen Elizabeth I). Definitely a challenge for me.
Thanks Nutmeg & PeterO.
I thought this was quite tricky. HARSHENS was my LOI, which I failed to parse properly. I also tried KLOSTERS, although of course I couldn’t parse it. I did parse SCAR TISSUE having many times connected up my old videos etc with these leads; nice clue.
I also liked COMMITTEE STAGE.
Thanks both,
I was held up trying to be too clever half by looking for a solution of the form something – stroke – somethings to 17ac 23d. I thought the cluing was all fine and 18d annoyingly devious.
I quite enjoyed this. I had no trouble with COMMITTEE STAGE, which I thought was rather clever, but WASP WAIST needed some wifely prodding, after using Mrs Trailman as a check button. HARSHENS was last: I could see the HAS HENS device, but R = rule needed a process of elimination.
I always enjoy Nutmeg, and this was another high class crossword, albeit one I found pretty tough to finish, not least because I’d written NETTLE instead of RATTLE. MILIEUX was last in – took be a surprising amount of time to see that. Liked GLOWER and PACKAGED.
Thanks to Nutmeg adn PeterO
I’m not great at crosswords so maybe that’s why I don’t like too many clues where a word is represented in the answer by its first letter. It seems to create too many possibilities. Also, rattle? I thought that nettle would have been a better answer. Suppose it must be a crossword staple but it only seems to exist as ‘yellow rattle’ in the world.. Huh.
@13 and 14
Yes, NETTLE does seem a perfectly fair answer. The point that “rattle” is always “yellow rattle” doesn’t help though, as there isn’t a plant just called “nettle” – “stinging nettle”, “red dead nettle”, white dead nettle” etc., but, strictly, no “nettle”.
Enjoyed this, as usual for this setter; good surfaces with some clever misdirection. Favourites were “day of reckoning” & “wasp waist”. [The latter reminded me of the “waspie”, an undergarment used to make your waist smaller; still worn today under wedding dresses etc. but all the rage in the 1950s & 60s. I never needed such assistance then – those were the days!]
Thank you Nutmeg & PeterO.
Loved the wordplay of 12ac. Should have got 22a before 18d but one obviously helps the other. Nice to be challenged over lunch. Thanks to Nutmeg and Petero
PGreen @1
Thanks for SCART. It seemed so improbable that I did not even try to look it up (it is in Chambers). The remarkable thing is that I managed to come up with an alternate parsing (of sorts).
Should there be a prize for the first setter making similar use of HDMI?
A very fine puzzle, with some great misdirection and smooth-as-silk surfaces. Favourites KNITWEAR, LATVIA, WASP WAIST, BODICE, EXTENT. From reading the comments, I may have been lucky to have come across the SCART connection in real life (a while back I think). I think the indication for BO in BODICE is fine as we’re clearly told to take (the first) two letters. Many thanks, Nutmeg and PeterO for the blog.
No problem with SCART. Finished all correct but could not justify HARSHENS until I came to the forum and discovered I had overlooked “Rule=R”.
Julie @ 6
My memory was that S O’Hara had a 16 inch waist, so I looked it up:
“The dress set off to perfection the seventeen-inch waist, the smallest in three counties, and the tightly fitting basque showed breasts well matured for her sixteen years.”
Well, it is nearly 60 years since I started reading the book – I was almost there! Did she put on weight later?
I liked the Board/boards clue. I thought the M6 by Preston was the first motorway?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but a waffle isn’t a pancake, is it?
Re more truth at #23, Collins dict says it is
Waffles and sweet pancakes are made from very similar batters. They are significantly different shapes, though……
Thanks Dave Ellison @ 21. Well you were closer than me and I think your mistake can be justified as there was a sixteen involved. Memory is a tricky thing and I should have looked it up.
Yes – sigh – many years have passed for me too since I read “Gone With The Wind”. Not sure about Scarlett but my waist has expanded in the interim!
I was interested in the additional reference to Queen Elizabeth 1’s wasp waist by ACD and JuneG’s description of the “waspie” (sorry I am on my phone so posts are not numbered and I got muddled counting). Number accuracy is clearly not my strength.
Batter notwithstanding, a pancake is made in a pan–ergo, pancake. A waffle is not and can not be made in a pan–ergo, not a pancake. Here, where I live, you would not say “I had a pancake for breakfast” if you’d had a waffle, nor would you say ” I had a waffle for breakfast” if you’d had a pancake. Perhaps the usage is different in Britain.
Quick definitions from WordNet (pancake)
? noun: a flat cake of thin batter fried on both sides on a griddle
In the UK there are Scotch Pancakes which are definitely not made in a pan (it would be a very wee one 🙂
A pleasingly hard puzzle, I missed the SCART IN 10ac, seeing only the connection problem as the sides of the wound not knitting properly. A PDM with WAFFLE after a long time looking up WAF,FAW,FLE etc.
Thanks Nutmeg and Peter O.
Here is a waffle pan.
I enjoyed this even though I found it tougher than most of Nutmeg’s, with many clues taking me a long time to solve. I got SCART quite quickly, though.
Thanks, Nutmeg and PeterO.
Not my favourite setter; tries to be too clever. In particular I thought the parsing of Wasp Waist and Bodice bad devices. Give me Arachne any time!
I know it’s pedantic but the M1 was not the first motorway; that accolade goes to the Preston bypass section of the M6.
Thanks PeterO and Nutmeg.
TrickyTrev beat me to it on the first Motorway. Once spent 5 hours stationary on that bit of the M6 and had to wee into my tea mug! Oh what happy memories!
Like you Peter, I started off well but ground to a halt towards the end with WASP WAIST, KNITWEAR and PARKINSONS LAW the last to succumb to my wiles.
Muffin has it for COMMITTEE STAGE. That’s how I parsed it with nothing to do with Mr Gates.
Overall enjoyable and I didn’t find it as contrived as some commenters – but it’s a personal thing.
Super puzzle (unfairly panned – by some) though cookie proves that WAFFLE wasn’t!
Thanks all.
Thanks Nutmeg and PeterO
Quite a challenge with this one that took a number of sessions to get out with a good variety of clues throughout.
WASP WAIST was new to me and I needed help to finish the parsing of HARSHENS. Did remember the SCART connection and was pleased to eventually work out the word play of CISTERN.
Finished with RATTLE (which I had to do some digging to confirm it as a plant), HARSHENS (which went in only partially parsed) and WASP WAIST (that had to be revisited after having initially written a totally unjustified WEST POINT initially).