Guardian 27,085 – Nutmeg

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Nutmeg can be quite a tricky setter when she wants to be, and I found myself making slow but steady progress with this one. (The fact that there are a lot of long ansewrs probably contributed to this). I enjoyed the challenge, though for my taste there are rather too many clues where a word is used in almost the same sense in both the answer and the cryptic reading – for example 14/13a, 4d, 8d, 15d. Thanks to Nutmeg.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. PAPERWEIGHT Secretary — person with importance that tops the pile? (11)
PA + PER + WEIGHT
9. INTAKES New classes seeing how films are recorded (7)
Films are recorded IN TAKES, and INTAKES refers to new pupils (i.e. clases) at a school
10. SAMURAI Drive back suspect, like top-class fighter of old (7)
Reverse of RUM (odd, suspect) + AS (like) + A1
11. GARLANDED Freshly crowned leaders of Greece and Rome put down (9)
G[reece] A[nd] R[ome] + LANDED (put down). “Freshly”, I suppose, because garlands are (or originally were) made of freshly-picked leaves and flowers
12. BRACT Little devil that’s caught cutting part of plant (5)
C in (cutting) BRAT
14,13. PEPPERCORN RENT Cereal crop cut at end of season for nominal fee (10,4)
PEPPER (season) + CORN + RENT (cut)
16,19. RETROGRADE STEP Great sport with deer — sadly it’ll set you back a bit (10,4)
(GREAT SPORT DEER)*
20. NEEDY Poor journalist longing to get back outside (5)
ED in reverse of YEN (desire, longing)
21. MELPOMENE Muse as setter consumes exotic lemon pie I overlooked (9)
Anagram of LEMON PIE less I in ME – the Muse of Tragedy, who makes rather fewer appearances in crosswords than her sister Erato (and maybe Clio, Rhea and Calliope)
23. ETONIAN Eg Boris‘s message rejected by Scotsman (7)
Reverse of NOTE + IAN (standard crossword Scotsman) – reference to Boris Johnson, the well-known Old Etonian and Leave campaign liar
24. HOT SPOT Good place for reception where trouble may flare up? (3,4)
Double definition – the reception is for mobile phones, sometimes contrasted with a “not spot”
25. FLYCATCHERS Slips in field, perhaps, chasing cunning wingers (11)
FLY (cunning) + CATCHERS (as slips on the cricket field may be)
Down
1. PETER AND THE WOLF New Father Ted plot curtly condemned as child’s work (5,3,3,4)
Anagram of NEW FATHER TED PLO[t]
2. PUKKA Authentic sound coming from cockle (5)
Homophone of “pucker” (to cockle is to pucker, as I did not know)
3. RUSHDIE Novelist‘s career to come to an end (7)
RUSH (to career) + DIE
4. EASED UP Chilled dessert served up after rest (5,2)
EASE + reverse of PUD
5. GAME BIRD Grouse, maybe, as valiant effort restricts runs (4,4)
R in GAME BID
6. TARZAN OF THE APES Eponymous man of Nazareth appearing randomly in records (6,2,3,4)
(OF NAZARETH)* in TAPES
7. FINGERPRINTED Criminal deferring pint, impressed by police? (13)
(DEFERRING PINT)*
8. SITTING PRETTY In office, reasonably well placed (7,6)
SITTING (in office) + PRETTY (reasonably)
15. HOLY CITY Cyclist skirting large metropolis, Rome perhaps (4,4)
L in (Sir Chris) HOY + CITY (metropolis)
17. ROMANIA One state‘s revolutionary broadcast blocked by another (7)
OMAN (a state) in reverse of AIR (to broadcast)
18. DELPHIC First to last, benefit in backing police is hard to fathom (7)
HELP, with the first letter moved to the end, in reverse of CID
22. OUTRE Bizarre public reaction, battle being lost (5)
OUT (public) + RE[action]

40 comments on “Guardian 27,085 – Nutmeg”

  1. Well, I found this surprisingly easy, which I do not put down to my crosswording genius but to the generous crossers provided by Nutmeg. Lots of lovely Fs and Ps and Ys rather than the more usual As and Es and Is. Thank you for that.
    Was held up at the end by an excess of cricketing knowledge, which should provide some rare comfort for those usually caught out by a dearth of such – re 25a, fly slip is a position in cricket, so “slips in field,perhaps” provided a complete cryptic definition, leaving me puzzling for a while over why FLYCATCHERS were particularly cunning wingers.

  2. Thanks to Nutmeg and Andrew. This was pleasant; I liked FINGERPRINTED and TARZAN OF THE APES.

    I agree with Andrew that one or two clues contained elements that were rather un-cryptic, particularly metropolis for CITY in 15d. By contrast yesterday’s quick crossword had at least a couple of clues that seemed distinctly cryptic to me!

  4. Thank you Nutmeg and Andrew.

    An entertaining puzzle with lovely smooth clues. I had forgotten cockle could mean to pucker and stupidly tried to connect Crécy to 22d before the penny dropped.

    The COED gives fly Brit. slang knowing, clever, alert.

    HOT SPOT being a “good place for reception” eluded me – my son who lives near Berlin in a converted spy training centre has no reception at all, the walls are lined with lead.

  5. [Bodycheetah, if your youths are anything like my grandaughter they will not be up yet, just checkd in my older COED, 1964, and the slang definition for “fly” is also there.]

  6. Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew.

    Re @1; well, I found this surprisingly difficult with only one answer in the first pass.

    Entertaining crossword; rather a shame that ‘up’ is in both clue and answer at 4. I didn’t know BRACT or Mel P, although the latter was my first one in after consulting the Muses. Also didn’t know cockle = pucker although once one of the Ks was in as a crosser, it couldn’t have been much else. I lazily tried PLANET OF THE APES, which of course didn’t parse.

  7. I’m probably being overly dim this morning, but 1a is still confusing me. Is PER short for person, or is the clue to be read as “(The ratio of) Secretary to person with importance” i.e PA per WEIGHT, with WEIGHT being a person of importance?

    Some nice clues here: I liked INTAKES and TARZAN OF THE APES (like Robi, I wrongly biffed PLANET OF THE APES too!). HOLY CITY was a little weak, IMHO, but I was struggling to see a better approach to it. Chris Hoy is rapidly becoming the cycling equivalent of Ernie Els in Crosswordland!

    Thanks, Nutmeg and Andrew.

    A belated Happy New Year to all solvers, bloggers and setters.

  8. It took me a while to get going, which is the way I like them. First in was Hot Spot without much confidence. I missed that particular reading of the cryptic definition. Then came Delphic with only a little more confidence, but that got me Melpomene and so I was in. I enjoyed this overall but agree with Andrew’s criticism. Again, where is the editor to save the compiler from these infelicities? I dismissed Eased Up not just for the reason Andrew gives but also because of the duplication of Up. A surprisingly poor clue for Nutmeg.
    Apart from the tiny niggles I really enjoyed this very much as I nearly always do with Nutmeg. Thanks to Andrew too.

  16. I still find that abbreviation too recherché, the usual one is pers., think I will stick with my parsing even if Nutmeg, Andrew and others think it wrong…

  18. I found this one relatively straightforward for a Nutmeg, mostly because of the helpful crossers. RUSHDIE was last in, favourite was TARZAN OF THE APES

    Thanks to Nutmeg and Andrew

  19. Cookie @17
    If one goes to https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/ and enters per. or pers. it redirects to the US version of the dictionary. Collins doesn’t have per. but it too indicates that pers. is an American abbreviation. Chambers has both per. and pers. without any qualification.

  20. Thanks to setter and blogger.

    I’m lost – what is the function of “battle being lost” in 22d? I got OUTRE, but thought it must be “outrage” (public reaction) minus “ag” but how is that a battle (short for Agincourt?)? In any event equating “re” to “reaction” seems over-elastic.

    Enjoyed a tea-tray moment with ROMANIA – might have come quicker if I’d known that Boris Johnson was an ETONIAN.

  23. Thanks Nutmeg and Nutmeg

    I always look at clues that give me lots of first letters, and FINGERPRINTING leapt out at me as I read the clue. After this good start, it didn’t take long to complete. I agree with the comments made on similarity between answer and cryptic reading (the “ease” in 4d being the worst example), and also I highlighted to question PERSON -> PER too. I didn’t know that sense on “cockle” either.

    Is “help” the same as “benefit” in 18d?

    GARLANDED was my favourite, for the “freshly crowned” definition, in fact, Andrew!

  25. Thanks to Nutmeg and Andrew. I got off to a good start (unusual for me) because I quickly saw PEPPERCORN RENT, MELPOMENE, FINGERPRINTED, and TARZAN, and (as noted by phitonelly #7) knew Chris Hoy from previous puzzles. However, I took a long time before getting BRACT (new to me) and INTAKES and last in (with lots of guessing) were ETONIAN and PUKKA. Very enjoyable.

  26. Gaufrid @19, the only conclusion I can come to, since neither the Collins nor the Cambridge dictionaries on-line have per. as an abbreviation for “person”, is that per. is an American English abbreviation for “person”, which seems to be borne out by only the US version of the Oxford Dictionary giving it and Chambers not committing itself.

  27. First in SAMURAI, PEPPERCORN RENT and MELPOMENE. As for muses, Erato certainly makes a lot of appearances, especially in non-cryptic puzzles, but I dunno about Clio or Calliope, haven’t seen much of them. LOI GARLANDED, with the NW being the last to fill in. I got less than half in last night, the rest today.

    I’ve thought of “fly” for “clever” as being from some decades back, when the crusty old family lawyer is a “fly old bird” (when he isn’t “downy,” same idea). That’s from old British detective story. I’m charmed to hear that the young folk have revived it, or maybe it never died.

    I enjoyed PEPPERCORN RENT for the expression itself, which I’ve always liked. I also liked ARZAN OF THE being an anagram of OF NAZARETH — the eponymous man coming as a surprise. Then again, what is Tarzan eponymous of? The Tarzan Era? I must have missed it.

  28. For a long time I was sure that the bird at 25ac must be SKY something, as I had the Y. This clearly didn’t help 1d either! When realisation finally did dawn, I soon had the P for PAPERWEIGHT too – I knew it was a WEIGHT, didn’t know which. Such are the frustrations of a solver, and pretty much explains why we do them.

    My slowness with 1ac was partly related to the PER, much commented on above. Congratulations to Nutmeg on finding a dictionary ref to an abbreviation which perhaps nobody amongst her solvers has ever used. Come on now, one counter-example shows me wrong.

  29. Completed bar one – which was a real kick myself moment when I turned to Andrew’s review: TARZAN OF THE APES! How could I have missed it? Actually, I know exactly how: like Robi @6 and phitonelly @7, I’d spotted that Planet Of The Apes fitted from checkers lower down, dismissed it as not fitting the wordplay and so dismissed Apes from my thinking!

    Whilst I acknowledge Andrew’s criticisms (echoed by others), I was only personally irritated by the repeat of ‘up’ in both clue and solution in 4d. The rest, I was happy to let pass. I’ve never really thought about the abbreviation for ‘person’ so, when ‘per’ helped me parse, I didn’t complain. Overall, an enjoyable challenge with some nice surfaces.

    I liked the clues for the longer solutions – I didn’t mind the anagrams and both PETER AND THE WOLF and TARZAN OF THE APES were clever and amusing. FLYCATCHERS and GARLANDED (first one in) are both excellent and share runner up spot. COTD: PEPPERCORN RENT – very elegant surface.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and Andrew

  30. Trailman @28
    “Come on now, one counter-example shows me wrong.”

    I’ll rise to the bait. When I was running my own business (country pub and restaurant) the bookings diary had many entries such as ‘6 per.’, ‘4 per.’ etc for a 6 person table and so on, most of them in my handwriting.

  32. Also, as Per is a Scandinavian forname, Per is as much a person as Mike is a man or Martha is a woman.

  33. EASED UP was LOI because of the repeated UP, and this seemed rather sloppy but the rest of it was Ok. I came to this quite late in the day and it took me a while to get started. I only did so when I checked on the Muses and then the answers started to come-rather slowly, it must be said- but somehow this wasn’t an especially satisfying solve. Perhaps I’m at a lower ebb in the afternoon!
    Thanks Nutmeg.

  34. Gaufrid @30, I’ll accept that, have a suspicion of having seen something like it before, lists somewhere or bed linen – if an abbreviation does not already exist for “person”, other than P, it needs to…

  36. This provided just the right level of challenge for me on a day when I needed a diversion. Once I got started, the answers appeared at a steady rate except for a few side tracks (particularly Planet of the Apes, and I see I was not the only one). Like Mark @29 and others, the only clue which niggled a little for me was EASED UP, because of the double use of UP, but it was only a minor niggle. Favourites included RETROGRADE STEP, ETONIAN, FLYCATCHERS, PETER AND THE WOLF and TARZAN OF THE APES.

    Thanks, Nutmeg and Andrew.

  37. A relatively quick solve – or it would have been if I hadn’t lazily stuck in Residue (end) for 3d without bothering to parse the whole clue. Only niggle was 4d and like others LOI was Bract. Thank you Nutmeg & Andrew.

  38. First pass last night yielded only two answers! Returned to it this morning and once I got 11a GARLANDED and 7d FINGERPRINTED, I was finally on my way.

    Took me so much longer than it should have, thus the late post, but I had lots of pleasurable moments along the way, with some of the same set-backs, favourites and slight niggles as aforementioned.

    Appreciation to Nutmeg, Andrew and other forum contributors.

  39. In case anyone is wondering, the occurrence counts of the nine muses in the Guardian archive are:
    ERATO 33, CALLIOPE 6, CLIO 5, TERPSICHORE 4, EUTERPE 3, MELPOMENE 2, POLYHYMNIA, THALIA and URANIA all 0

  40. I only solve the Guardian crossword the day after, between getting up, having a couple of cups of tea, ablutions, getting dressed and then walking down the road to get today’s Guardian.

    I tend to leave Mrs Phil a few answers. She has a creative spelling technique that can sometimes be relevatory.

    Prokofiev’s opus was one of the first I got, PEPPERCORN RENT was the first. It took us an age to get APES as the last of the one down on the right, even with T*R*A* in the first word! Doh!

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