Guardian 27,145 – Tramp

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I found this much harder than usual for Tramp, and some of the parsing eluded me for some time even after I’d filled in the answers. There’s an error in 8d, but it shouldn’t have caused major problems.

I thought while solving that there was a vague sporting theme in the clues, but Tramp’s tweet clarified this: almost all of the clues relate to George Best and his footballing career and general notorious behaviour. Nice one – thanks to Tramp.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. BLURRY Short words on book, lines not clear (6)
BLUR[B] (words on book) + RY. I spent ages trying to justify LUR = short words..
4. TALKIE Picture of old heavy drinker after time (6)
T + ALKIE
9. EGOS Is Best essentially keeping fit? (4)
GO (to fit) in [b]ES[t] – the definition is the plural of ‘I’
10. BELLYACHES Persistent complaints left by Chelsea wags (10)
(L BY CHELSEA)* – to fit the footballing theme, perhaps we could have had capitalised WAGs here
13. ESPRESSOS Force down extra large tablets before strong drinks (9)
ES (ecstasy tablets) + PRESS (force down) + OS
15. VAMP Five in the morning with quiet attractive girl (4)
V + AM + P
16. ONCE Former Catholic entering United (4)
C in ONE
17. BARBITONE Go to sleep with this bimbo model (not about to split) (9)
Reverse of NOT in BARBIE
21. STUPIDER Less sharp, bladdered, I put some bottles back (8)
Hidden in reverse of bladdeRED I PUT Some
22. HOBART “Port‘s stolen”, boozer admitted (6)
BAR in HOT. Hobart is the capital of Tasmania
24. SATURNALIA Almost down a shot, sporting great entering wild party (10)
TURN (shot) + ALI (sporting great) in SA[D] (down) + A
25. SPIN Turn around second leg (4)
S + PIN
26. TWEEST Goes stretches dry — most affected (6)
WEES (‘goes’) in TT (teetotal) – a strange-looking word, but ‘tweeest’ would be even stranger
27. STRING “Round-on-way” line (6)
ST (street, way) + RING (a round)
Down
1,11,12. BEGGARS CAN’T BE CHOOSERS Accept what’s offered in cash — George Best cons bar when drunk (7,4,2,8)
(CASH GEORGE BEST CONS BAR)*
2. UPSET Put out film collection (5)
UP (film) + SET (collection) – I spent a lot of time trying to get an anagram of PUT into this..
3. RUBBERS Protection for an American series of games (7)
Double definition – condoms (‘chiefly N. Amer’ says Chambers) and the term from Bridge. I think we need to read ‘series’ as a plural
5. ANYHOW Doctor on way, heroin injected carelessly (6)
(ON WAY H)*
6. KICK-START Gives up bitter? Get going! (4-5)
KICKS TART
7. EYEDROP Optic to discharge relief for bad spectator? (7)
EYE (optic) + DROP (discharge)
8. ELECTORAL ROLL List of constituents each with large, smooth cut by Hannibal (9,4)
LECTOR in EA L ROLL (to smooth, e.g. a cricket pitch). LECTOR is intended to mean the Silence of the Lambs character, but he is actually Hannibal LectEr. Tramp has already apologised for the error in the comments on the Guardian site and elsewhere, but surely this is the sort of thing that should be picked up in the editing process. However the definition is a bit of a giveaway, so I don’t think anyone would have been seriously held up by this
14. RECAPTURE United captain first to fill double on recovery (9)
CAPT + U in RE RE (‘on’, doubled)
16. OUTCAST Wretch finished with model (7)
OUT + CAST (to model)
18. BY HEART Past: pluck from memory (2,5)
BY (past) + HEART (pluck, courage)
19. NURSING Career over? Confess getting treatment (7)
Reverse of RUN + SING (confess)
20. ADONIS Trouble with greed, perhaps around looker (6)
ADO + reverse of SIN (greed is one of the Seven Deadly Sins)
23. BASSI Singers from US behind AC/DC covers (5)
ASS (American ‘behind’) in BI[sexual]

42 comments on “Guardian 27,145 – Tramp”

  1. Thanks Andrew and Tramp (small error at 8d easily overlooked) ; loved the crossword and the theme and favourite was 9ac. Unlike some commentators thought 26a was fun and fine

  3. Thanks for blog. I had STUPIDER parse as I PUT rev in REDS(bottles) but blog has corrected my thinking.
    Quite a tricky Tramp this but very enjoyable.

  4. Are there precedents for UP as ‘film’, as a two-letter alternative to the by-now old faithful ET? This could start a trend. The fact that 2d UPSET contains both UP and ET (in addition to the distraction of ‘put’ as possible anagram, as noted by Andrew) made this a really tricky one to sort out.

    The George Best theme in the clues was neat, and 16ac would have been perfect if only he had come from the Catholic community in Belfast and changed sides! (not so). Clue to 27ac reads oddly, but perhaps there is an allusion here that escapes me.

    Many thanks to Tramp and to Andrew. Up (sic) to the high standard of Crucible/loonapick yesterday.

  5. Quite a feat, to shoehorn all the clues like that. I liked vamp, egos, talkie, bellyaches, hobart. A few I thought were slightly clunkily stretching the point – eg. barbitone, saturnalia. A tough one.
    Thanks, Tramp, Andrew

  6. Thanks, Andrew.

    I found this harder going than usual for Tramp, particularly the bottom half, but, as often, couldn’t really see why once I’d finished.

    I had exactly the same thought about WAGS, Andrew – not like Tramp to miss a trick!

    Having noticed nearly a dozen references to drinks / partying, I thought that was the theme. It was only near the end that I noticed George was mentioned twice – great stuff!

    Not having read the books and only having heard the films mentioned, I can forgive Tramp’s spelling mistake at 8dn, since I thought it was ‘Lector’ for quite some time [though it should have been picked up somewhere] but I’m afraid, huge fan as I am, I simply can’t accept 26ac and can’t imagine how that one got past the Editor. The regular way to form a superlative is to add ‘est’ to the adjective, in this case TWEE, to give, however bizarre it might look, TWEEEST. Since the word doesn’t actually exist, that doesn’t seem any stranger to me than TWEEST. Any suggestions as to how to pronounce it? [Sorry, Tramp. 🙁 ]

    In spite of all that, the rest was a lot of fun – many thanks as ever to Tramp!

    [quenbarrow @4 – I’ve seen UP as a film at least once quite recently.]

  7. Quenbarrow @4 UP is a Walt Disney film of 2009; looks as if we must add it to ET in future. Eileen @6 “UP” again!!

  8. Thanks for the blog, Andrew, and thanks to others for their comments.

    I wrote this in January 2014. I’ve used UP for the film quite a few times before; maybe those puzzles haven’t appeared yet.

    I apologise for the mistake in 8d. I can only think TWEEST was entered during the automated grid-fill. I intended 10a to read as Wags.

    Thanks

    Neil

  9. Thank you Tramp and Andrew.

    This was hard going for me, especially the SE corner. ELECTORAL ROLL, however, with some of the crossers, was a write in, I would not have been able to parse it anyway without googling.

    As regards TWEEST, perhaps somebody could check in the OED, Memidex give this but the link is not adequate

    twee [British] | tweer [comparative] | tweest [superlative] | tweely [derived] | tweeness [derived]
    excessively or affectedly quaint, pretty, or sentimental (7 of 56 words, 1 usage example, pronunciations)
    oxforddictionaries?.com?/definition?/english?/twee

  10. Hi Tramp

    Thanks for dropping in – I’m really glad to hear you had ‘Wags’ but it’s an annoying piece of editing for you!

    I’ve just looked at Word Wizard and it suggests, along with half a dozen other words, TWEEST for that combination of crossers, so I’m apparently wrong to say it doesn’t exist [somewhere]: my apologies – but I don’t have to like it! 😉

  11. Eileen @6: thank you for quick response re film = UP. The only daily crossword I do is The Guardian, and I don’t recall a precedent there, though I may be wrong, and clearly there are precedents somewhere else – any examples?

    I suppose AI could be another two-letter film title, though that is already pretty well covered by the familiar AI = sloth.

  13. Really enjoyed this, as usual. I’ve got a dreadful memory, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen “Up” for film before (probably in a Tramp).

    Strangely I didn’t question Tweest. I was probably distracted sniggering at “wees” though. (I really am very easily amused 😀 )

  14. Thanks Tramp and Andrew.

    Eileen @6; the superlative of free is freest, which you will find in many dictionaries, so the superlative of twee ought to be tweest, and can be found if you Google it.

    I found this pretty tricky.

    I liked the BEGGARS CANT BE CHOOSERS.

  15. Hard work this one, not up to yesterday’s entertainment levels; clueing a bit forced in places. I saw the drinking theme, but like Eileen thought the George Best references were tangential.

    So every time we see ‘film’ we have to think ‘up’ now, do we? Well, if I could cope with Pope for ‘he wrote’ yesterday, I suppose I’ll manage, and it is at least a charming film.

    And it seems we have an alternative to TSETSE too.

  16. Thanks, Robi @14 – ‘freest’ didn’t occur to me: I still find the pronunciation a problem, since it appears to be a monosyllable – but I’m prepared to let it rest there [please! 😉 ].

  17. Quite a stiff test this one, partly because it took me a long time to solve the long anagram in the NW corner. I also needed Andrew’s input to fully parse BLURRY and EGOS.

    For what it’s worth I didn’t question TWEEST when I solved it and neither did I spot the mistake in 8D.

    My personal favourites were KICK START and HOBART (I’m a simple fellow really!)

    Thanks to Tramp and Andrew for a busy morning.

  18. O (LIVER) Tweest.Mexican orphan?
    I tried to ignore any booze connections to one of the greatest footballers I have ever seen. He was once tripped but instead of claiming a penalty, kept his balance just long enough to bury the ball before finally falling.Sheer class. And so was this puzzle.Thank you to Tramp and Eileen.

  20. Thanks to Tramp and Andrew. Like lancsolver@17 I had trouble parsing BLURRY and EGOS. BARBITONE (as opposed to Barbitol) was new to me and RUBBERS as condoms was preceded by “waterproof protective overshoes” that also fits. Great fun.

  21. As always with Tramp there were a few tricky parsings here, but nothing that held me up for too long. Liked BEGGARS CANT BE CHOOSERS. ADONIS was last in.

    Thanks to Tramp and Andrew

  22. Yes, this was a hard slog but lots of great clues: BELLYACHES, TALKIE, TWEEST, ANYHOW. Many thanks to Tramp and Andrew.

  23. As others have said, definitely a bit of a slog – but I guess that adds to the pleasure of filling in the last answer (our friend TWEEST in my case).

    Thanks Tramp (and Andrew)!

  24. I’m loathe to repeat the term ‘slog’ but that’s what I thought about this. I found the bottom half especially tricky but I didn’t object to TWEEST . I have to admit the word does look odd,though.
    BASSI was a guess and I had trouble parsing a few more.
    This was not Tramp’s finest hour!

  25. Gave up slogging at this, so was grateful to Andrew for the blog. To be fair, the clue constructions are rather less cumbersome than usual for this setter; however, some of the surfaces still don’t seem to make much sense, two examples being 26a and 27a.

    Unlucky that the spelling error at 8d involved a crossing letter. As pointed out by someone on the Guardian site, the same clue would be fine with the addition of a homophone indicator.

    On a general point: is it just the case that – based on the number of postings which follow each blog here – Guardian puzzles come under greater scrutiny … or is the Guardian crossword editor really so incompetent in comparison with his counterparts at other publications?

  26. Eileen@16, et al,
    We don’t like triple letters in English (unlike German in which monsters like “Balletttänzerin” are now correct according to Duden). As a young chemist I was advised to use “odourless” or “smell-less” to describe chemicals with no pong.
    It has been pointed out that “freest” is pronounced “free-est”, and “zoology” is usually pronounced “zoo-ology”, so I think we have to swallow “tweest”, pronounced “twee-est”. I think I would write it hyphenated too.

    I know nothing about George Best, so the theme did not distract me, although like several others, I found it was “a game of two halves”!

    Thanks to Tramp and Andrew.

  27. Tweest sounds like something Trump would do.

    Up is a charming movie indeed. Obviously there are many films, so a qualifier might be more user-friendly
    – the clue is great as is but might not lose much with e.g ‘put out animated film collection’

    Many thanks tramp and Andrew (who was much needed)

  28. Thanks Tramp and Andrew

    I came here hoping to find the significance of the LUR in 1ac too! Several others I didn’t parse as well, though 8d was one of my early ones in – I’ve only seen the film, so missed the spelling mistake. Overall I found it a slog too – not much to smile about.

    I’m a bit concerned about OUTCAST – does “out” mean “finished with”, and surely any modelling has been done prior to casting?

    UPSET confused me too, as I assumed that ET was the film. I’ve seen “Up”, and agree that it’s a great film, but I can’t watch it again, as I was in tears about 20 minutes in to it.

  30. Thanks to setter and blogger.

    I didn’t get much pleasure out of this, eventually throwing in the towel when trying to parse SATURNALIA. There is a limit to the number of elements my small brain can juggle towards a composite answer and that defined the limit. Just too complicated and not much fun, for me anyway.

  31. I don’t like words like tweest as they are illogical. If something is free, can something else be freer? Worst of all, can someone be the freest of all? You are either free or you’re not. I dont care whether it appears in the dictionary or not. It’s illogical, Captain.

  32. Tenerife Miller @ 31: I suppose if we were to compare three different translations of the same original text into a foreign language, a contrast could be made along the cline from literal to free. Likewise there are varying degrees of sexual behaviour and morality.

    Having said that, I don’t like “tweest” as a word form either.

  33. muffin @28, I assumed that ‘model’ and CAST related to clay, for example, using the potter’s wheel – too tired to express myself more clearly…

  36. Cookie
    UPS and ET crossed my mind, but I don’t think it works.
    I’m thinking of “cast” as to pour metal into a pre-formed mould, in which the modeling has been done.

  37. I get you, muffin, but with the potter’s wheel it is the other way around, you cast the clay on it, then model it – the words are given as synonyms.

  38. I set off with a couple of smilies in the top half (10a and 6d) but finished up in the too tricky to be much fun camp. I didn’t finish the SE and only got 24a with e-help(!) and I didn’t get and don’t like tweest – although spellchecker doesn’t seem to object. Oh well, tomorrow (or today) is another day – thank you Tramp and Andrew.

  39. Sour grapes as I didn’t finish this, but surely ONCE=’formerly’, not ‘former’ (The Once and Future King notwithstanding).
    Thanks for the elucidation and the challenge.

  40. A great crossword, as ever, from Tramp (I didn’t think it one of his toughest). No problem with the validity of TWEEST, a delightful clue by the way. I can’t see how its weirdness as a word has any direct relevance to Tramp’s construction. I assumed my spelling of Mr Lecter must have been wrong. Lucky I came here before entering this year’s Thomas Harris triviafest….!
    Good fun all round. I can’t help wondering if we’d have won more world cups if only we fielded a UK team replete with the likes of George Best (not that there any likes of George Best!)
    Thanks Tramp (can’t wait for the next one) and Andrew too, of course.

  41. Too many virtually unparsable clues for us (eg 8d, 14d and 24a) and obtuse use of words ( eg career, = run?)

    Shame because it looked promising at first with the G.B. theme but ended up having to cheat too much.

    I think Alphalpha @ 30 sums it up pretty well.

  42. Re 8d – as a former electoral administrator and a communicant of the Church of England, I often pick people up on the difference between the Electoral Register or Register of Electors – the list of voters (constituents) at local and parliamentary elections; and the Electoral Roll – the list of members of a particular Parish Church who elect the PCC and Church Wardens.

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