Guardian 27,073 / Puck

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A typically puckish Puck puzzle to brighten up a dull morning, with lots of wit and misdirection, as usual.

Some very straightforward clues [9ac and 17dn, for example] mingled with some [like 7dn] that needed a bit more teasing out  – and one I can’t parse, so it’s over to you. [Thanks, Manu @1 😉 ]

My favourites today are 12ac and 28dn.

Many thanks to Puck for a most enjoyable challenge.

Across

1 Footballer’s not let play inside congested areas (11)
BOTTLENECKS
Anagram [play] of NOT LET in BECKS [footballer]

9 Those in training as home birds (7)
INTERNS
IN [home] + TERNS [birds]

10 Silk trousers taken off right away (7)
TUSSORE
Anagram [taken off] of TROUSE{r}S minus r [right away] or I suppose it could be anagram [away] of TROUSE{r}S [taken off right]

11 Time to sow a tree, working in tandem? (3-6)
TWO-SEATER
Anagram [working] of T [time] + SOW A TREE [definition by example, hence the question mark]

12 Head of church’s non-variable system for transferring money (5)
PAPAL
PA[y]PAL [system for transferring money] minus y [variable]

13 Classic horny predicament after princess lost out (4)
EMMA
[dil]EMMA [horny predicament] minus Di [princess] and l [lost – in football tables] – ‘horny’ is not strictly necessary for the wordplay but it makes a neat surface, referring to the expression ‘on the horns of a dilemma’
[A classic crossword clue, too!]

14 Learn space traveller’s fine at present (4,2,4)
COME TO KNOW
COMET [space traveller] + OK [fine] + NOW [at present]

16 Wild boar or elephant less confined, we hear, in city some 50 miles from Birmingham (10)
TUSCALOOSA
Sounds like [we hear] tusker [wild boar or elephant] looser [less confined]

19 One that painted pair leaving fair (4)
ETTY
[pr]ETTY [fair] minus pr [pair]

21 Scare one female off a footballer (5)
TERRY
TERR[if]Y [scare] minus i f [one female]

22 Liquid used in cooking a sort of pilau — not with rice, ultimately (6,3)
PEANUT OIL
Anagram [a sort of] of PILAU NOT + [ric]E

24 Animal amongst camel’s ancestors, for example (7)
LIONESS
Hidden in camELS Ancestors – hidden too well for me: I stared at it for ages and just couldn’t see it [thanks to Manu @1]

25 Leave after greeting rebellious young chap, a Spanish gent (7)
HIDALGO
GO [leave] after HI [greeting] + a reversal [rebellious] of LAD [young chap]

26 Drinks do make Blair sound Conservative? (6,5)
SHERRY PARTY
Sounds like Cherie [Blair] + PARTY [Conservative? – definition by example, hence the question mark]

Down

1 Rear leg grows big fungal growths (6,9)
BUTTON MUSHROOMS
BUTT [rear] + ON [leg – in cricket] + MUSHROOMS [grows big]

2 Horse in box? No (5)
THREE
H [heroin – horse] in TREE [box? another definition by example indicated by a question mark] – sneaky to miss out the full stop!

3 The French love another hot country (7)
LESOTHO
LES [the French] + O [love] + an anagram [another] of HOT

4 Hazel perhaps needs potty briefly, with dance not quite finished (3,4)
NUT TREE
NUTT[y] [potty, briefly] + REE[l] [dance not quite finished]

5 After vacation, cruise ship ring up refuse collector (8)
CESSPOOL
C[ruis]E [after vacation] + SS [ship] + a reversal [up] of LOOP [ring]

6 So mad, possibly, after second evil-tempered ugly giant upset the old Big Applecart? (8,7)
SHOPPING TROLLEY
HOPPING [so mad, possibly] after S [second] + TROLL [evil-tempered ugly giant] + a freversal [upset] of YE [the old – at least in Crosswordland] [‘So mad had me thinking of ‘off one’s trolley’]

7,16 Gossip in front of both petite and neat topless model (6-6)
TITTLE-TATTLE
T [model] in front of both [l]ITTLE [petite] and [c]ATTLE [neat] – both ‘topless’]

8,20 A single sweet to go with chicken (6,6)
MELLOW YELLOW
MELLOW [sweet] + YELLOW [chicken] – I now have an earworm of Donovan’s single for the rest of the day, so I’ll pass it on

15 Gay men out on date, not content to see the moon (8)
GANYMEDE
Anagram [out] of GAY MEN and D[at]E [not content]

17 One against giving work to model? (7)
OPPOSER
OP [work] + POSER [model]

18 Accident as food served with sausage falls in drink (5-2)
SMASH-UP
MASH [food served with sausages] in SUP [drink]

23 Where to get milkshake after tip-off (5)
UDDER
[j]UDDER [shake]

60 comments on “Guardian 27,073 / Puck”

  3. As always from Puck there was plenty of entertainment and invention from Puck here. I struggled a bit with some of the more obscure stuff – TUSCALOOSA and TUSSORE were new to me (though Puck used a very similar clue for the latter in 2010: Puck 25193: “Indian silk trousers to be altered right away (7)”). I resorted to looking at a map of Alabama, which is probably cheating…

    Thanks to Puck and Eileen

  6. I didn’t quite need to look at a map, Beery @3, but I did need to check whether TUSCALOOSA had a C or a K. That’s the trouble with homophones, they’re not always unambiguous.

    Any particular reason for the Big Apple in 6d, other than to misdirect? SHOPPING TROLLEY isn’t solely US usage, is it? Or was Puck getting at their use to hold big apples as one shops? Am I just being dim? Enough questions.

    And many combinations of T*R*E were mentally discarded before settling on THREE with an ‘aha!’

  7. I found this quite tricky today. Some stubborn resisters and I needed electronic assistance for four: ETTY and TUSSORE were completely new . I’ve heard of TUSCALOOSA and had even correctly guessed at the ‘looser’ element but, as an English Midlander, Alabama simply never entered my head. I got HIDALGO from the wordplay but had to check it.

    I’d guessed – rightly – at the construction of 1a but started off with ‘back’ and Ball’ as my footballers, before arriving at the ubiquitous ‘Becks’. I also spent ages thinking of desserts beginning with ‘yellow’ for 8d before realising the significance of ‘single’.

    PAPAL, CESSPOOL and the absolutely brilliant THREE are my favourites today. Thanks, Puck, for exercising the mind and Eileen for the review.

  9. Like Trailman @6 I can’t see what Big Apple adds to 6d.

    And Eileen, let me offer a rapid cure for your Donovan earworm… the words of verse 2 are:

    I’m just mad about fourteen
    Fourteen’s mad about me
    I’m-a just mad about a-fourteen
    A-she’s just mad about me.

    Probably seemed cool in 1967.

  10. I parsed 6dn as (definition) Big Apple (= New York City i.e US ) cart = shopping trolley in UK.

    Thanks Eileen and Puck

  11. Thank you Puck, Eileen and Manu @1!

    Very Puckish – I was pretty certain something was hidden in 24a, but still did not spot ELSA, took an age to parse THREE and TATTLE, and had never heard of MELLOW YELLOW.

    I took the definition for 6d to be CART with Big Apple pointing to US usage…

  16. Thanks, cholecyst and Cookie, for the Big Applecart explanation – I did wonder about it and hoped someone would query / explain it. I would never have got it, as I didn’t know that US usage. I know the French call them chariots!

    Malcolm @12 – ELSA is the lioness in ‘Born free’.

  17. A delightful puzzle from the reliable Puck…I’m happy to admit that I couldn’t have solved it completely without electronic assistance on two or three occasions. Lots of puckish brainteasers, my personal favourites being BOTTLENECKS, MELLOW YELLOW and SHERRY PARTY. Thanks to Puck and to Eileen for parsing a couple of clues which I solved but only because of a lack of possible alternatives.

  18. Thanks to Eileen & Puck, and a special thanks to @manu for the LIONESS parse- d’oh!
    @bagel 9
    For almost 50 years, I’ve assumed that Mr. Leitch had been mad about FONTEYN, whom I imagined to be an elfin inamorata named after Margot of that (made-up) ilk so thanks for the enlightenment there!

  19. Would somebody please explain THREE? I get the wordplay (yet another definition by example), but how is “three” the definition for anything?

    Did anybody else get stuck on “Ports” for the drinks across the bottom?

    Connecticut Yankee though I am, like Mark @7 I couldn’t get my head out of the Midlands until I thought of “tusker” for the critters, and then TUSCALOOSA popped up.

    TUSSORE — it’s amazing how words you’d never use swim to the surface with a bit of nudging. I had no idea I knew this word.

    “The” has never been spelled “ye,” no matter how far back you go. Well, maybe it has if you count “Ye olde tea shoppe.” But “the” was spelled with a letter called “thorn” that we no longer use, though the Icelanders do. It looks like a y but is pronounced like “th.”

  21. Embarrassing moment of the day: I actually looked up “Becks” and found a fairly obscure German player before I finally twigged that it was Posh’s other half that Puck was referring to!
    SHOPPING TROLLEY reminded me of an old American boss I had while working in the UK years ago. It made him laugh, as “trolley” to him meant a trolleybus/streetcar. The other expression he used to like was “way out”: to him, “way out” meant the same as “far out” in the old hippyish sense. Psychedelic tube stations?
    I struggled the see the painter (haven’t heard of him) and tried out “bottom” (= rear) in 1d for a long time before finally getting EMMA then MUSHROOMS.
    I’m another who failed to see the now obvious ELSA.
    Good puzzle.

    Thanks, Puck and Eileen

    Valentine @ 19
    The definition is No, an abbreviation for Number.

  22. I have completely the opposite problem to Valentine @ 19.

    I am pretty new to the world of cryptic crosswords so I am slowly picking everything up but I am lost as to the parsing of 2d – H for horse/heroin is fine but how does “box?” = “tree”? I fail to see any “definition by example” and hence I assume this is either something very cryptic crossword specific or (more likely) I am being very dim.

    Likewise in 1d, how does “grows big” = “mushrooms”.

    Any help would be appreciated!

  23. Confused @22

    From Chambers:

    box – an evergreen shrub or small tree (Buxus sempervirens) with hard smooth yellowish wood, often used to border garden-walks and flower-beds

    mushroom – to increase or spread with remarkable or disconcerting rapidity

  24. Thanks Puck and Eileen. An enjoyable solve waiting in Terminal 5 for daughter to arrive home from Japan. May need a 6 down (airport version).

  25. Thanks Puck and Eileen

    Straightforward to finish; trickier to complete the parsings. I didn’t see ELSA either. Favourites were EMMA and GANYMEDE. I too thought it a bit naughty to omit the “.” in 2d, but I did get it.

    Another old codgers’ crossword though (suits me!) – Mellow Yellow released in 1967, “Born free” from 1966; the footballers Beckham and Terry are admittedly more recent, but both retired.

    What is the “falls” doing in 18d?

  31. Fun but difficult. I was unable to parse LIONESS or THREE, and my knowledge of soccer players is somewhere around zero, so I didn’t get TERRY either. But I giggled at TUSCALOOSA (and I’m guessing that I’m the only regular on this site who’s been there). Incidentally, it’s the home of the University of Alabama, who uses an elephant as one of their mascots (though the “tusker looser” pun is not what they had in mind when they made that choice!).

    I also quite liked GANYMEDE.

    Thanks to Eileen and Puck.

  32. It had to be LIONESS but I didn’t spot ELSA either. I struggled with ETTY
    and I groaned when I got MELLOW YELLOW- I’d groan more if I had to listen
    to the thing- which I bought back in the day. I loved the puzzle though
    and thought it one of this setter’s best. TUSCALOOSA and BUTTON MUSHROOMS
    were my faves but there were no duds here.
    Thanks Puck.

  33. Thanks to Puck and Eileen. Like mrpenney my knowledge of UK footballers is limited, but I did know TERRY and knew Beckham (but not Becks). Like others I missed Elsa (though I correctly filled in LIONESS), did not know TUSSORE or MELLOW YELLOW, and took a long time before spotting EMMA (my LOI).

  34. A very enjoyable crossword with some masterful clueing. Thanks Puck, and Eileen for your blog.

    My level of general ignorance prevented me from getting THREE (although having seen the answer I now remember seeing H = ‘heroin’ on this forum not long ago), and Mrs B is to blame for leaving 19a ETTY unsolved because she told me that the single at 8/20d was ‘yellow mellow’ instead of MELLOW YELLOW!

  35. Valentine @19: true, of course, of Old and Middle English, but in the seventeenth century when the thorn was obsolete, ‘the’ is very often found abbreviated to ‘ye’, though always with a superscript ‘e’ to indicate the abbreviation and distinguish it from ‘ye’=you.

    Sorry to make my very first post here (though I read most days) such a pedantic point!

  36. Welcome, Sarah! You should feel at home among us pedants here. 😉

    Re ye: it’s been explained and discussed so many times here that, from shortness of time, I took the coward’s way out in the blog today.

  37. Thoroughly enjoyed this. Like Sarah @35 I’m a longtime reader and first time poster. This puzzle has clearly brought the lurkers out of the woodwork. TUSCALOOSA made me laugh, I got LIONESS without being sure why, seeing ELSA was a forehead slapping moment.

    Many thanks both to Puck and Eileen (and the various erudite commenters on this thread for their illumination)

  39. Struggled and eventually failed on 10, never heard of it. Never heard of a couple of others too, but worked those out.

    Now Eileen, I’ve requested this before of you blogger people. H is the abbreviation for HORSE. Refer to any stud book, race card, or anything to do with horses. The connection with the slang term for heroin is utterly spurious, so can we please stop mentioning it?

  40. I still don’t understand THREE. I understand that it’s a horse in a box tree (nice picture), but what ultimate three-ishness is meant?

  41. Valentine @40
    Three is a “number”, abbreviation no. – It’s been said before that it was naughty to leave out the “.” after the “No”.

  42. Valentine @40: No. is the abbreviation for number. So the definition is just No, with the period (or the full stop, rather, if you insist on British English) left off. No = three in the same way that they use “boy” as a definition for words ranging from Alan to Zeke.

  43. …not that the whole ‘using “boy” to mean “any boy’s name in the entire universe” ‘ thing bothers me any–oh, no, it does not. Not in the slightest. Also, Americans DO understand sarcasm, contrary to popular belief.

    In other news, I just got the same captcha twice in a row.

  44. Humble apologies, Derek @39. I’ll try to remember. [I only got the horse = heroin thing from finding this site!]

  45. Separately and tangentially, how did we end up with different names for a dot, anyway (period vs. full stop)? In this case, I’m willing to admit that “full stop” is a better name for it.

  47. [Eileen @44
    An early Len Deighton book was entitled “Horse under water”, and part of the plot was a search for a German sub sunk off the coast of Portugal at the end of the war, when some bigwigs were trying to escape to South America, with funds in the form of heroin – my introduction to the slang.]

  49. I thought some of this was Puck-drop sleight-of-paw delightful. I admired TITTLE-TATTLE and THREE was a real cracker.
    Many thanks – and Happy Christmas – to Puck and Eileen.

  50. Peter Aspinwall@32. I agree that ETTY is worthy of a groan, rather like that indecisive poet Alfred NOYES, familiar only to the crossword fraternity (and sorority of course, whereby adding my name to Eileen’s list of pedants).
    mrpenney@43 – and using “single” as a definition for every track ever issued on its own? 8,20d.
    Thanks to Puck and Eileen

  51. Both puzzle and blog very enjoyable.

    I had to give up on the puzzle with just over half of the clues solved as I ran out of time and just wasn’t cracking the rest. That said, it was still fun. I appreciated the steeper challenge on this one.

    Great to have new participants coming into the forum. Welcome to Sarah@35 and Matt Fallaize@37.

    I really really enjoyed the full stop/period discussion and want to thank cholecyst@48 (if you are still reading the forum) for the fascinating link.

    Still interested to hear what was your second favourite, Eileen, as there is no 28d. You write a terrific blog every time and your participation in the forum interactions is much-valued, especially your hospitality, openness to others and your polite and often droll responses. Thank you.

    Have to agree with several others that 8/20d MELLOW YELLOW was my favourite. I love music clues that take me back to my youth…

  52. And just to add, Pino@50, possibly the vagueness of “A single” for 8,20d added to the satisfaction of the PDM for me…

  53. Though I take mrpenny@23’s point about the annoying use of the vague “boy” clue (also often “man”, “woman”, “girl” to indicate names in clues – Anne, Ron, Ken, Bill, Val etc etc)

  54. Hi Julie @51, if you’re still there

    Sorry – I need new glasses! I meant 23dn: some people don’t like ‘lift and separate’ clues but I thought this was a particularly clever one, with a great surface.

  55. Thanks, Eileen, if you are still there. Yes I liked that one too, although I thought it was “shudder” without its first two letters.

  56. Thank you all for your warm replies following my post (@1).
    I can honestly say it was a case of entering LIONESS in the grid first (the only logical solution
    I could think of), and only then scratching my head for about 5 minutes to find how to parse it.
    I would have given up hadn’t Eileen needed help with the parsing. So the grid and I had a long tete-a-tete until the penny dropped 🙂

  57. What you said, Julie, about Eileen. I always enjoy your blogs, Eileen, and Julie said what I couldn’t find words for.

  58. I only got around to finishing this today so I wasn’t going to post, but I just want to third Valentine’s seconding of Julie’s comment about Eileen. If I had to name my favourite blogger (which would be an unfair thing to do as they are all wonderful), it would be Eileen.

    To make this more on topic, I’ll just add that I too had (sh)UDDER rather than (j)UDDER. I felt that there should be a 6-letter word, but I couldn’t think of it.

    Thanks, Puck and Eileen, and seasonal greetings to all.

  59. Been catching up on so many crosswords, having been incapacitated by cold/flu/lurgy since Nov 19th … and then Christmas. Wonderful but oh so busy. Found this Puck a bit underwhelming – not sure why. Probably me rather than the puzzle – I need to recover my energy. Belated Christmas greetings to you Eileen and thank you.

  60. Sorry to post so late – guardian weekly readers – just wanted to express our amazement that nobody else was thrown by the use of “neat” for cattle! We found it – eventually – thanks to wikipedia, but only after reading Eileen’s parsing – thanks Eileen! Thanks too to Manu, like pretty much everyone else we put in Lioness but couldn’t see why! It also took us ages to get Shopping trolley, because we wrongly had Prey (custom painter of cars and “pretty” (fair) without the double T pair) instead of Etty! Once we realised our mistake by getting shopping trolley, we just could NOT think of an artist for *t*y, so thanks again!

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