Guardian Cryptic 26,943 by Imogen

by

A tough and enjoyable solve with several unfamiliar words. Favourites 11ac, 14ac and 17dn – thanks, Imogen.

Across
1 METAMORPHIC Found a cartoon character in charge of some rocks (11)
MET=”Found” plus A plus MORPH=”cartoon character” [wiki] plus I[n] C[harge]
9 EARPLUG It protects two protub­erances around front of pate (7)
=an ear protector. EAR and LUG=”two protuberances”, around the front letter of P[ate]
10 TORPEDO Finish off drink at party, imbibing water in the end (7)
TOPE=to “drink” hard regularly, plus DO=”party”, around [wate]R
11 MOHS SCALE It’s 10 of diamonds here: schoolmates not to play (4,5)
a hardness scale, where 10=diamonds. (schoolmates)* minus the letters of “to”
12 SATAN Briefly smelt, holding a foul spirit (5)
STAN[k]=”Briefly smelt”, around A
13 POST Put in box after end of race (4)
triple definition
14 DE BEAUVOIR Feminist, classy woman, to see about simple drink in Paris (2,8)
Simone de Beauvoir [wiki]. DEB[utante]=”classy woman” and VOIR=”to see” around EAU=water=”simple drink” in French
16 RHINESTONE Flower, 14 pounds, made of paste? (10)
=an imitation diamond made of paste. RHINE=river=”Flower”, plus STONE=”14 pounds” as a measure of weight
19 AS IS A relative not subject to improvement (2,2)
A SIS[ter]=”A relative”
20 DREAD Horror of locks? (5)
“of locks?” refers to dreadlocks the hairstyle.
21 GYMNASIUM My turn in amusing characters in European school (9)
=a name for some European secondary schools. Reversal/”turning” of MY, inside (amusing)*
23 TRAVAIL Closing brief rant, back Labour (7)
RAV[e]=”brief rant”, enclosed by TAIL=”back”
24 SCORNER One spurns singular difficulty (7)
S[ingular] plus CORNER=”difficulty” as in ‘they’re in a tight corner now’
25 DOGS DISEASE Minor ailment troubles pass away, if drinking lots of water (4,7)
=Australian term for any minor ailment. DOGS=worries or “troubles”, plus DIE=”pass away”, around SEAS=”lots of water”
Down
1 MARTHA’S VINEYARD In island resort god maintains that endless source of wine (7,8)
MARS=”god”, around THA[t], plus VINEYARD=”source of wine”
2 TELOS End of mate, lost (5)
=aim or purpose. Hidden in [ma]TE LOS[t]
3 MIGRATE My! Tremendous sound as birds gather to do this (7)
sounds like ‘My! Great’, where Great=”Tremendous”
4 RUTHENE European work about the East (7)
a member of a branch of the Ukrainian people. RUN=”work” around THE, plus E[ast]
5 HIRES OUT Rents rise, tho’ university is in trouble (5,3)
(rise tho U[niversity])*
6 CREATION SCIENCE Increase conceit, working out intelligent design (8,7)
(Increase conceit)*
7 HERMAPHRODITE Female and male goddess joins together as this? (13)
HER=”Female” plus M[ale] plus APHRODITE=”goddess”
8 MOUNT RUSHMORE Leader heads here having horse speed right up (5,8)
MOUNT=”horse”, plus RUSH MORE=”speed right up”
15 HEADBANG React to loud music with report to leader (8)
BANG=”report” after HEAD=”leader”
17 TOGGLED Was flipping struggling to get gold (7)
(get gold)*
18 NEMESIS Raising what men produce is leading to retribution (7)
SEMEN=”what men produce”, reversed/”Raising”, plus IS
22 AGORA Back troops into public space (5)
a public space in ancient Greece. AGO=”Back”, plus R[oyal] A[rtillery]=”troops”

28 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 26,943 by Imogen”

  1. Thanks Imogen and manehi.

    Pipped at the post by two unfamiliar ones: 11a MOHS SCALE and 4d RUTHENE, so thanks for the blog, manehi.

    Really liked MOUNT RUSHMORE 8d and NEMESIS 18d.

  2. Thanks manehi. Got 6d first and 1d third – but the unheard-ofs MOHS SCALE and TELOS prevented a quick solve. Never heard here in Oz of 25a despite your claim. But there were many good things, especially MOUNT RUSHMORE (I kept being bothered by a ‘Rosemary’ fit for the second word).’

  3. Thanks Imogen and manehi

    Sorry to disagree, but I found this tedious and clumsy – particularly the clues for SATAN and HIRES OUT (tho’ in the clue just screams “anagram”).

    I knew most of the more unfamiliar words, including MOHS SCALE and RUTHENE, but I had to cheat on DOGS DISEASE (the second word was obviously DISEASE, but nothing occurred to me for the first word).

    I did like MOUNT RUSHMORE.

  5. Thanks Imogen & manehi.

    A bit of a slog as I didn’t know MOHS SCALE, TELOS, RUTHENE and DOG’S DISEASE. A bit naughty using the latter without an Oz indicator.

  6. Thank you Imogen and manehi.

    Some answers were write-ins for me, e.g. RHINESTONE, EARPLUG, MIGRATE, others I had not heard of, MOHS SCALE, DOGS DISEASE, RUTHENE (though I do know the element ruthenium).

    I was another who liked MOUNT RUSHMORE, and I also liked MARTHA’S VINEYARD, DE BEAUVOIR, TORPEDO and HIRES OUT.

  7. I’m not 100% sure about the grammar of DE BEAUVOIR – I can’t see a way to parse it so it’s clear “see” should be in French, but “classy lady” shouldn’t be – but I managed to solve it easily enough so no real complaints.

  8. That was tough, and not always in a rewarding way. Just the simple HIRES OUT on first pass, until MOUNT RUSHMORE led to a flurry on the right hand side and MOHS SCALE (familiar from schoolboy handbooks) something similar on the left. Alas, the occasional leap of faith (DOGS DISEASE, TRAVAIL) was still needed before brute force saw a finish with SCORNER, AGORA.

    MORPH a cartoon character? I only remember him as stop-motion, not quite the same.

    Still, a finish is a finish.

  9. Thanks manehi and Imogen.

    I thought this started out easier than the usual Imogen. I knew them all except TELOS, DOGS DISEASE and RUTHENE.

    Toyed with ARENA for AGORA at first, but of course couldn’t explain ANA.

    Yes, rosemary bothered me, too, molonglo @2.

  10. Yes, tough and enjoyable sums it up pretty well – it’s been an excellent week. DOGS DISEASE and TELOS were unfamiliar but fairly clued, one or two others only seemed straightforward in retrospect.

    Thanks to Imogen and manehi

  11. Almost nothing on the first parse except ‘shock’ at 20ac and ‘spanner’ at 24ac both of which seemed to do the job. But gradually others came and shock turned to dread. I guessed agora early on but loi because of spanner in the works.

  13. That was hard, especially in this heat. Never heard of Mohs scale or telos and how are we expected to know obscure Ukrainian subgroups? Didn’t enjoy this one. Sorry

  14. Thanks to Imogen and manehi. I had the same difficulties as those already mentioned. RUTHENE defeated me as did the first part of DOGS DISEASE, I struggled but got MOHS SCALE (new to me), and for some reason took a long time seeing SCORNER, but I enjoyed MOUNT RUSHMORE and HERMAPHRODITE.

  15. Hard for me but satisfying even if I ultimately failed on AGORA, which I think we may have had somewhere before. A few unparsed, eg 14, and some good new words including TELOS. I really liked TORPEDO, RUTHENE and HEADBANG.

    Thanks Imogen and manehi.

  16. Well, I knew RUTHENE and TELOS- the latter was surely one of the easy ones?- but I’ve never heard of
    but I’ve never heard of DOGS DISEASE or MOHS SCALE.
    Liked METAMORPHIC,HERMAPHRODITE and MOUNT RUSHMORE but I felt rather unsatisfied on completing this.
    Still, thanks Imogen.

  17. Sorry for the doubling up-the pesky cookies notification is still obscuring
    the space for the post.

  18. With a curious array of obscurities amongst the solutions, I wondered if I needed to be looking for a theme. Something to do with rocks, stones, mountains? A mixed pleasure for me today. Which means I enjoyed a lot of it, of course! Couldn’t parse TRAVAIL, though perfectly parseable, I can now see. Thanks to setter&blogger.

  19. Tough but satisfying for me. Unusually, I managed to parse all the answers before coming here.

    I had exactly the same thought as Schroduck @7 about 14: it’s (“classy woman” + “to see”) about “simple drink”. The “in Paris” wants to modify both “to see” and “simple drink” but not “classy woman”, but I don’t think it can. But the intention was clear, so I guess this is a quibble.

    Thanks to Imogen and manehi!

  20. I knew there was a place somewhere in Europe called Ruthenia, but had no idea where. The wiki definition doesn’t even tell you where — took some searching to find out. I figured telos from teleological. Mohs scaled and dog’s disease were new to me too. I resisted “Martha’s Vineyard” for a long time because I had a hard time thinking Brits had heard of it. I spent many happy summers there as a child — not the resort end but the funky homey end, where a group of people including my grandparents were co-owners of an old farm with some cabins added which were called “coops” because the first one actually had been. It never occurred to me until years later that they actually were cabins.

  21. Thanks Imogen and Manehi
    Enjoyed this – struggled a bit (I blame the beer!) but got there in the end…
    FOI well I entered …morphic in 1ac without the start..
    LOI AGORA I filled in from top left to bottom right and was thinking it started AR___
    Solved but had to look up TELOS, MOHS SCALE, DOGS DISEASE and RUTHENE (tbh I was lookimg up RUTHEEN but hey 🙂
    I didn’t parse TRAVAIL…
    I liked the variety of references in this crossword – and it put the Deb in De Beauvoir 😉

  22. Really disappointing crossword, deliberately obscure and clumsily contrived, only good clue for me was Mount Rushmore

  23. molonglo@2, I think Dad used to use the term DOG’S DISEASE but did not know it was a particularly Auusie term.

  24. Well I enjoyed this, but mainly because I found it tricky (it took a while to get started). DE BEAUVOIR a favourite and MOH’S SCALE was fun. Nothing obscure for me, apart from DOG’S DISEASE which was obvious given the clue and crossers. So no complaints; nice to solve a puzzle that outlasts my late night beverage! Many thanks, Imogen.

  25. I agree with Muffin @ 3 and Redkev @ 22. Far too many obscurities and contrivances to be enjoyable.

    Thanks to manehi for managing this one.

  26. Thanks manehi and Imogen.

    I’m in awe of you manehi for fully parsing this.

    I couldn’t work out 12, convinced I was looking for a cut of word for smelt as in making metal from ore;
    Couldn’t explain the “end of race” at 13ac;
    23 had to be TRAVAIL but I couldn’t explain why; and
    None f my searches resulted in the right outcome for DOGS DISEASE – is rhere such a thing as a strine dictionary?

    So must try harder!

    By the way, I only remember Morph as an animated plasticine character created by Johnny Hart – was it featured in Vision On?

  27. Ah – followed the link. It’s Tony Hart of course.

    Surely animated is not the same as cartoon!

  28. Thanks Imogen and manehi

    Found this tough but eventually gettable and not made any easier by confidently writing in SHOCK early on at 20a. Compounded later on in the puzzle by writing PINOTAGE (after ‘cleverly’ finding that South African wine variety) as the second word of 1d.

    Found that I had to really prise each clue out one by a very slow one after the first 4-5 went in. There was a lot of electronic help required to find / confirm answers.

    On coming here, found that a number of parsings were wrong – at 7d I had merged HERMES with APHRODITE to arrive at the answer, got fixated with OR, instead of RA, as the soldiers in AGORA and then had lots of trouble justifying the AGA bit and missed the third of the triple definitions of POST (the ‘after’ one). Am staying with my sister and elder brother-in-law who had heard of the DOG’S DISEASE term for an unspecified minor illness – I hadn’t !

    Eventually finished by correcting DREAD and MARTHA’S VINEYARD and tracking down those pesky RUTHENE folk !!

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