Guardian 26,964 – Screw

by

Mostly quite gentle by this setter’s standards, with some very easy clues to get us started, but also some trickier ones, as well as one of the most impressive hiddens I’ve seen for a while, and lots of fun throughout. Thanks to Screw.
Across
9. AGAMEMNON I am man gone to struggle (9)
(AM MAN GONE)* – an &lit, as Agamemnon went off to the Trojan war
10. STEER One driven off to break senior pilot (5)
TEE (which is “driven off”) in SR
11,18. LEVEL CROSSING In style, velcro’s singular reason for delay (5,8)
Hidden in styLE, VELCRO’S SINGular – it took me a while to spot this, even after guessing the answer and trying various anagrams
12. ITINERARY Fiddle with air in tyre, of course (9)
(AIR IN TYRE)*
13. TEAR GAS Charge to have a good time — it makes you cry! (4,3)
TEAR (to charge) + GAS (good time, as in “it’s a gas”)
14. OTHELLO Tragedy turning to good day (7)
Reverse of TO + HELLO
17. PECAN Cape Town’s last bendy tree (5)
Anagram of CAPE [two]N
19. SAY For one second and forever (3)
S + AY
20. NACHO From delicatessen, a chocolate chip (5)
Hidden in delicatesseN, A CHOcolate
21,27. CLOSE TO HOME “E” is embarrassingly accurate (5,2,4)
The letter E is the ending of, or “close to”, “home”
22. FRANKED Put stamp on US officer’s restraining order (7)
RANK in FED[eral agent]
24. INSIDE LEG Measurement akin to leaking? (6,3)
In the word “leaking”, “akin” is INSIDE LEG
26. TOOTH Canine possibly loves being in dry hotel (5)
OO in TT (teetoal) H
28. FUNGI With joy, pig returns unopened truffles, perhaps (5)
FUN + reverse of [P]IG
29. CARPE DIEM Seize the day pass camper’s out to snaffle (5,4)
DIE (to “pass”) in CAMPER. I guessed this (it’s from an ode by Horace) from the definition, and found it a bit hard to work out the surface reading
Down
1,8. EARL GREY Queen in cast eagerly leaves (4,4)
R in EAGERLY*
2. SALVIA Sage regrettably raised to limit sex (6)
VI (6 = sex in Latin) in reverse of ALAS
3. NEGLIGENCE Failure of something in the bedroom carries no charge (10)
NC in NEGLIGEE
4. GNEISS Rock can be kind on the ear (6)
Homophone of “nice”
5. ANTIMONY Abandoning East, not a fan of the rich element (8)
ANTI-MONEY less E
6. ASHE Major Victor‘s a lady (4)
A SHE – Arthus Ashe, tennis champion
7. METALLIC Mark (and others) on shortened beat of copper? (8)
M + ET AL + LIC[K]
13. TOPIC Hitherto, picture frames matter (5)
Hidden in hitherTO PICture
15. HEN PARTIES Woman’s knickers (swapping never ends!) and where they’re thrown? (3,7)
HEN (woman) + PANTIES with N replaced by R (the “ends” of NeveR) Thanks to Eileen for pointing out that it’s actually HER PANTIES with the N and R swapped)
16. OVOID Like an egg from duck, empty (5)
O + VOID
19. SHOELACE One’s tied up in Oxford (8)
Cryptic definition – Oxford is a style of man’s laced shoe
22. FIGURE Maybe it’s a square number (6)
Double definition
23. KAOLIN Nothing in a kiln after throwing clay (6)
O in (A KILN)*
24. IFFY Dodgy mo, with shaved head (4)
[J]IFFY
25. DRIP Dead — their message is to weep (4)
D + RIP (a “message to the dead”)

35 comments on “Guardian 26,964 – Screw”

  1. Thanks Screw and Andrew

    Very nice, though I struggled to finish in the SW corner. Favourites were FRANKED and STEER. I didn’t parse INSIDE LEG and thought that “sex” was a misprint for “six” in 2d (which would have been better – where is the Latin indication?)

    Only quibble – Arthur Ashe won Wimbledon in 1975 – quite a long time ago!

  3. Yes, Flavia – but that doesn’t seem to prevent setters clueing VI as “six” in general!

    btw Andrew/Gaufrid – this blog is currently “Uncategorised”.

  4. 2d was a latin answer so the latin for six makes extra sense. I think we’ve been there before.
    Lovely puzzle and blog.Ta!

  5. Thanks muffin, categorisation fixed.

    My understanding of VI = sex was as Flavia says, though I agree VI = six is also commonly used.

    I don’t understand your quibble about Arthur Ashe – there’s nothing in the clue (or my explanation) saying he’s a current champion..

  6. Hi Andrew

    My point was that ASHE would have been baffling to younger solvers (are there any?) “Major Victor” to define a champion from over 40 years ago seems a little unfair.

    We have had a variety of “PM” clues recently, ranging backwards from HEATH to PEEL, so I suppose it’s OK to reference the distant past without drawing attention to it.

  7. Thanks, Andrew – I agree with your preamble, especially re the brilliant hidden answer, where I was struggling with possible anagrams, too.

    This is probably what you meant but I read 15dn as ‘heR [woman’s] paNties’, with the N and R swapped – great clue!

    I loved the &lit AGAMEMNON, among a number of other fine clues.

    muffin, Arthur Ashe is a legend.

    Many thanks to Screw for a lot of fun.

  9. Thank you Screw and Andrew.

    I so enjoyed this puzzle, it was great. I missed the parsing of INSIDE LEG, now it’s my favourite, but got LEVEL CROSSING being extra vigilant after Andrew’s comment – perhaps better not to be too explicit…

    Could 22d be an &lit, I thought the clue referred to a square dance figure?

  10. muffin @6, I certainly didn’t know who ASHE was, but I probably can’t claim to be too young to, as I remember Bjorn Borg from the same era. No matter though, I was able to parse it and look it up to confirm, as with KAOLIN, GNEISS and AGAMEMNON.

    My favourites were HEN PARTIES for the clever cluing and INSIDE LEG, which made me laugh. Stumped by SAY though, as I didn’t know the archaic meaning of ‘ay’.

    Thanks Screw and Andrew.

  11. Cookie – it didn’t occur to me that my remark about the hidden might be a spoiler, but I’ve now fixed the blog so it doesn’t show up in the preview.

    I also meant to say: whether or not we have any younger solvers, we definitely have a younger setter in Screw, who I feel safe in saying wasn’t born when Ashe was a victor.

  13. I didn’t notice akin in leaking but I have a friend who told me about the problem of leaking down one’s inside leg which is what I thought this was about.

  15. Thanks to Screw and Andrew. I had my usual difficulties with this setter but did at last fight through. I parsed ASHE but did not make the connection to “major victor” (though I well remember the player). I did parse CLOSE TO HOME but not SALVIA and INSIDE LEG. Last in were DRIP and EARL GREY (I should have seen RIP and “leaves” earlier). Definitely a challenge for me.

  16. I found this puzzle difficult! I gave up on the SW corner, and failed to solve 4d, 24a, 28a, 22d.

    I was unable to parse 2d, 6d, 19a.

    I parsed 15d as Andrew did but I can see that Eileen’s suggestion is better.

    I have heard of Arthur Ashe but did not think of him today – I was too busy googling Major Victor Ashe!

    Thanks Screw and Andrew.

  17. Thanks Screw and Andrew – all good fun and very witty: loved the implication in 25ac, and as the father of daughters in their twenties, am told that the clue for 15dn is the least of what happens in them.

    Carpe diem was memorably quoted by Robin Williams in “Dead Poets Society”, so you don’t need to go all the way back to Horace.

  18. About two thirds of this was pretty straightforward by Screw’s standards but the rest more than made up for it, with GNEISS last in. All very entertaining.

    Thanks to Screw and Andrew

  19. Enjoyed this very much, but got 24A from L-G, didn’t bother with the parsing, and – in sympathy with ilancaron @13 – smiled at what I took as somewhat & littish.

  20. Screw beat me today. I had BAY / BOOTLACE as the two 19s, in some desperation it has to be said.

    Elsewhere this puzzle was a mixture of the amusing and elusive. I was wondering what it was about sex that I didn’t know which could lead to VI. That sort of thing could give a man nightmares. A bit below the belt, using unattributed Latin.

    I had TEAR PIT for a while as well. For all I know it feeds the tear duct, and it parses: pi = good, t for time. Thankfully GNEISS came to my rescue.

  21. Did this very early this morning & enjoyed it, despite my initial trepidation on seeing who the setter was. Some great surfaces, notably 24ac & 15D. The latter has to be my clue of the day!

    Thank you very much Screw & Andrew.

  22. I’m afraid AGAMEMNON doesn’t make it as an &lit for me. For one thing, the clue defines anyone who has been involved in some kind of struggle, it isn’t very accurate for the king himself, and of course it has the extraneous ‘i’. 22d of course is just the double definition advised by Andrew.

    I liked the puzzle, very nice.

  23. Curate’s egg for me. I have heard of Arthur Ashe and guessed that this was
    the answer but I thought the clue a bit vague. SAY was a guess too but I don’t
    think the clue is at fault here. I liked HEN PARTIES and NEGLIGENCE though, and a number of others. I’m bound to say that I found this less difficult than I usually do with this setter.
    Thanks Screw.

  24. Diff’rent strokes, as they say. I enjoyed this without any reservations. No obscure words, no stretched or inaccurate definitions. A crossword that could be solved without recourse to reference books or the Internet. As for the quibbles over Arthur Ashe, he was rather more than a run of the mill tennis champion, and he does, after all, have the main US open venue named after him, so the name shouldn’t be too unfamiliar.

  25. Thanks Andrew. Needed your help with the parsing of INSIDE LEG. Also had ASHE, but couldn’t connect it to Major Victor. Doh!

    Good one Screw.

  26. I did get ASHE, but only after both crossers were in, and even then I too went searching for a Major Victor Ashe (turns out there’s an interesting mayor of that name). A misdirection too far I feel, what with the radio alphabet possibility.
    INSIDE LEG elicited a groan – thanks Andrew and Screw.

  27. It’s already nearly four years ago since today’s setter first appeared (as Donk, in the Indy) – time flies.
    He quickly established himself as one of the harder ones in the business.
    But just like Araucaria had his milder days, this was clearly a Screw Lite.

    11,18ac was ‘my’ first one in [because my mind links ‘velcro’ directly to ‘level crossing’ – Crucible used the combination too, a while ago].
    Most of this crossword was surprisingly easy.
    Many solutions went straight in after reading their clues only once or twice [or after reading the clue not at all, e.g. in 15d having H?N ???T?E?].
    Actually, this crossword didn’t take much more time than yesterday’s Rufus.

    So, a disappointing puzzle?
    Not really – we did enjoy it.
    Simple clues like 19ac and 22d were actually quite smooth, almost like the aforementioned Rufus.
    Last in was GNEISS (4d) which wasn’t obvious but, again, a basically simple (homophone) clue.

    As to &lits, 9ac is not.
    ‘I’ is not part of the construction so there you are.
    We thought the definition in 6d (ASHE) was a bit odd but no problem to get the solution.
    Just like Trailman we toyed with TEAR PIT for 13ac. I think it is just as good an answer to the clue as TEAR GAS (even if 3 and 4d tell us otherwise).

    Good crossword but somewhat atypical for Screw/Donk.
    Keep them coming though.

  28. I found this quite enjoyable, challenging without resorting to overly obscure words or convoluted parsings. I especially liked OTHELLO, CLOSE TO HOME and HEN PARTIES. Thanks to Screw and to Andrew.

    Regarding 2D, according to urbandictionary.com, “VI” is apparently now a fairly common slang term for sex (i.e. Vaginal Intercourse). Not sure if this is what Screw had in mind, but it does provide an alternate parsing for those who are unhappy with the lack of an explicit Latin indicator in the clue (or for those who, like me, simply missed the fairly obvious VI = six = sex parsing).

  29. Great puzzle, took me a while to get going as I’m not used to Screw’s style yet. Re 2D, “sex” for VI seems to be a fairly recent fad, but it’s common now so I was looking for a sage (i.e. philosopher) with VI in his name for a while until I remembered the herb.

    I can just about remember seeing Arthur Ashe win Wimbledon, but he’s been immortalised for his friendly letters by crossword setters ever since, so expect him to crop up for the next 40 years too! HEN PARTIES was brilliant, as was the hidden LEVEL CROSSING (which I also thought was going to be an anagram).

  30. My heart sank a little when I saw that Screw was today’s setter as I usually struggle to complete his puzzles and I got to this late and somewhat distracted. However, I found it easier than most of his puzzles and enjoyed it very much.

    Like many other commenters, I got ASHE from the parsing but looked for “Major Victor Ashe”. I too am very familiar with Arthur Ashe, but didn’t connect him with this clue. I think it is because I think of golf as having “majors” but tennis as having “grand slam tournaments”. Even when I googled for “tennis major championships” just now, all but one of the returned links have “Grans Slam” in their titles, and none have “major” there. I’m not suggesting the clue was unfair, just successful misdirection in my case at least.

    I parsed HEN PARTIES in the same way as Andrew, but I like the clue even more after seeing Eileen’s parsing. I’m not going to list favourites, though, as there are so many delightful clues.

    Thanks, Screw and Andrew.

  31. Great fun to solve – on the light/lite side for a Screw but none the worse for that. If I know Ashe surely everyone must.

    My impression is that this setter’s work gains more lightness of touch as it goes on – without any loss of other qualities.

    @Sil – I refuse to be drawn into any more &lit wars – however if you read Ximenes & the Art … pp 75-76 you will find that the author (who coined the term) would have described 9a as an &lit – just as Andrew has done.

    Others may qualify that with semi-, partial- etc – that’s up to them – but the convention amongst the sticklocracy is to always prefer the original over what it may have drifted into through erroneous usage.

    In fact running across the page turn are the words “… to which I apply, for convenience, the same term.”

    Thanks to S&B both – great fun.

  32. Defeated by NW despite having LEVEL in 11a, NEGLIGENCE in 3d and ANTIMONY 5d. Did not connect leaves with tea (EARL GRAY 1d 8d). Missed AGAMEMNON 9a, SALVIA 2d and GNEISS 4d. Kicking myself now for not persevering just that little longer.

    Yes a clever puzzle, and thanks to Screw I had some enjoyable moments in solving what I did.

    Grateful to Andrew for his informative explanations and to online contributors for an interesting forum.

  33. Thanks Andrew and Screw.

    A good level of difficulty for a Tuesday and enjoyable too.

    The hidden 11/18 was a gem.

    Arthur Ashe surely does qualify as a legend given that the US Open stadium is named after him.

    I agree with Muffin that 2 really should have a foreign language indicator – but got it so suppose all’s fair.

  35. Thanks Screw and Andrew

    Enjoyable puzzle that, whilst not as hard to fill the grid as normal, certainly had some grist in the parsing aspects – the VI in 2d and the Eileen version of 15d (I’d gone down the Andrew path) were too good for me. Did get the rest of them, though !

    Arthur ASHE was a legend to me and it was very sad when he was taken so young by cancer after his career finished – he presented no problems here.

    My last few in were SALVIA, NEGLIGENCE and PECAN (so still up in that NW corner with slightly different words that held me up).

Comments are closed.