Guardian Cryptic 27,164 by Paul

by

The puzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27164.

I found this harder than usual for Paul, with the gateway clue 5A CARDINAL coming somewhat late and reluctantly. My entry point was 20D XIMENES, which I guessed from the crossers (but parsed much later) – and which, of course, led me in quite the wrong direction at first! Several of the references to ‘5 across’ in the clues indicate reasonably well known Cardinals of the Roman Church, but other meanings of cardinal with a small c are included.

Across
1 HYSSOP Herb, hint of scent in bouquet recalled by husband (6)
A charade of H (‘husband’) plus YSSOP, a reversal (‘recalled’) of POSSY, an envelope (‘in’) of S (‘hint of Scent’) in POSY (‘bouquet’).
5 CARDINAL Main, where hearty rounds Horn in the end (8)
An envelope (’rounds’) of N (‘HorN in the end’) in CARDIAL (‘hearty’, of the heart – not in Chambers, but in the OED, for example).
9 HUMANISE 5 across pinching a 5 across from behind — that’s tame! (8)
An envelope (‘pinching’) of ‘a’ plus NIS, a reversal (‘from behind’) of SIN (‘5 across’, CARDINAL, the former Archbishop of Manila, or allusively) in HUME (another CARDINAL),
10 WOLSEY 5 across absolutely despicable, looking back (6)
A reversal (‘looking back’) of YES (‘absolutely’) plus LOW (‘despicable’).
11 TEAL Shade quite a little bit (4)
A hidden answer (‘bit’) in ‘quiTE A Little’.
12 COMPROMISE Settlement is after US event income (10)
An envelope ( the ‘in’- of ‘income’) of PROM (‘US event’) plus ‘is’ in -‘come’.
13 RED TOP Doubly 5 across news­paper (3,3)
RED and TOP are two meanings of CARDINAL.
14 ROOT CROP Ferret cut turnips, perhaps? (4,4)
A charade of ROOT (‘ferret’) plus CROP (‘cut’).
16 ACAPULCO A top university lecturer coming over, heads for Mexican city (8)
A charade of ‘a’ plus CAP (‘top’) plus ULCO (‘University Lecturer Coming Over heads’).
19 FIXATE Focus attention on fortune, stealing one kiss (6)
An envelope (‘stealing’) of I (‘one’) plus X (‘kiss’) in FATE (‘fortune’).
21 UNDERPANTS Where member held vacant seat, nun and padre distraught (10)
An anagram (‘distraught’) of ST (‘vacant SeaT‘) plus ‘nun’ plus ‘padre’.
23 MEEK Timid male, I’m frightened! (4)
A charade of M (‘male’) plus EEK! (‘I’m frightened!’).
24 NEWMAN 5 across, caring and sensitive chap? (6)
NEW MAN (‘caring and sensitive chap’).
25 BIANNUAL Every six months, a bun with nail is hammered (8)
A anagram (‘is hammered’) of ‘a bun’ plus ‘nail’.
26 PLATYPUS Flat-tailed animal also embodies a tailless sort (8)
An envelope (’embodies’) of ‘a’ plus TYP[e] (‘sort’) minus its last letter (‘tailless’) in PLUS (‘also’).
27 ESSAYS Studies English student’s opening remarks (6)
A charade of E (‘English’) plus S (‘Student’s opening’) plus SAYS (‘remarks’).
Down
2 YOU NEVER CAN TELL It’s impossible to know, so safeguard that information always! (3,5,3,4)
Double definition, more or less.
3 SCARLET Immoral shade like 5 across? (7)
Double definition.
4 PRINCIPAL 5 across moral, say? (9)
Sounds like (‘say’) PRINCIPLE (‘moral’).
5 CREAMER Still producer endlessly carrying about powdered substitute (7)
An envelope (‘carrying’) of RE (‘about’) in CAMER[a] (‘still producer’ – unless it is a film camera) minus its last letter (‘endlessly’).
6 ROWER Holder of a bladed item, one in dispute? (5)
Double definition.
7 ISLAMIC Embracing pietism at last, is “secular” religious? (7)
An envelope (’embracing’) of M (‘pietisM at last’) in ‘is’ plus LAIC (‘secular’).
8 AVERSION THERAPY Jerusalem gets the blame in a really shocking treatment (8,7)
An envelope (‘in’) of SION (‘Jerusalem’) plus THE RAP (‘the blame’) in ‘a’ plus VERY (‘really’).
15 OBFUSCATE Confuse most of our facts — be confused (9)
An anagram (‘confused’) of ‘ou[r]’ (‘most of our’) plus ‘facts be’.
17 PRE-EMPT Homework holding me up, little time to get in before the rest (3-4)
A charade of PREEMP, an envelope (‘holding’) of EM (‘me up’) in PREP; plus T (‘little time’).
18 OMNIBUS Book writer to break up wrestling (7)
An envelope (‘to break’) of NIB (‘writer’) in OMUS, a reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of SUMO (‘wrestling’).
20 XIMENES 5 across imprisoning opponent, not entirely upstanding as 5 across (7)
A reversal (‘upstanding’ in a down light) of SENEMIX, an envelope (‘imprisoning’) of ENEM[y] (‘opponent’) cut short (‘not entirely’) in SIX (‘5 across’ CARDINAL number).
22 PIN-UP Flag raised for pretty girl (3-2)
A charade of PIN (‘flag’ – perhaps on a golf green) plus UP (‘raised’).
completed grid

37 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,164 by Paul”

  1. This was a lot of fun. My favourites were HUMANISE, PRE-EMPT (loi), OMNIBUS, AVERSION THERAPY.

    I was unable to parse the SIX bit of 20d, thinking that maybe the SIX was 51X (letter 5 looks like letter S + a=1=I + cross=X). Probably inspired by seeing the word cipher written as C1PH3R. I totally forgot to think about cardinal numbers (and usually forget what they are anyway!).

    Thank you Paul and PeterO.

  2. Thanks PeterO and Paul.

    Sorry Paul, couldn’t enjoy this. Even after getting CARDINAL it was no fun as I couldn’t unravel the contrivance in all 5a clues, or the names of cardinals that I see here…

    Don’t know why Newman is caring and sensitive chap.

    ..so much so, it washed away any fun in solving other clues as well…

  3. ilippu@2

    my impression was that NEW MAN is like a new type of man who is caring and sensitive as opposed to old style of man who is macho or whatever.

  4. Michelle and ilippu – NEWMAN was one of the two clues I failed on. I’ve never heard new man used in that sense before – the closest I’ve heard is snag, aka sensitive new age guy.

    CARDINAL was one of my last in. XIMENES was no help (I’d guessed based on crossing letters) and it wasn’t until WOLSEY that the penny dropped.

    Overall a tough solve. These puzzles with a key clue can go either of two ways – either you get the key early and the other clues fall easily or today’s example.

    There were a few enjoyable parts here though – especially UNDERPANTS which made me lol!

    Thanks to PeterO and Paul.

  5. Lovely stuff!

    Like PeterO, I was thrown off the scent by XIMENES until my feeling that 13a must be RED TOP made me rethink.

    UNDERPANTS was the stand-out clue.

    Thanks Paul and PeterO.

  6. I think Michelle has NEWMAN correctly: “Honey, I know I’ve been a jerk in the past, but I have changed, and you will find me a new man from now on.”

    Not that I have ever said anything like that . . .

  7. Thanks Paul and PeterO

    I didn’t really enjoy this either, finding it too contrived and nonsensical in places – what is 25a supposed to mean, for instance? My entry point was the same as yours, Peter, though I never got round to parsing XIMENES (COMPROMISE was another unparsed entry).

    I did like ISLAMIC and OMNIBUS.

  9. This was a bit tricky, but I enjoyed it as I do all of Paul’s puzzles. Like PeterO it took me a long time to get CARDINAL, but XIMENES came quite early on (although I couldn’t parse it). Loved HUMANISE, AVERSION THERAPY, OMNIBUS and UNDERPANTS – which reminds me that Paul would undoubtedly have taken a different line with Pasquale’s clue for PISCES yesterday!! Many thanks to Paul and PeterO.

  10. I doubt whether 20d would have been impressed by 12a and for me this took the gloss of the puzzle. I don’t know why Paul feels the need to do this, especially when the resulting surface is still somewhat less than scintillating. On the other hand, 25a is just so silly that it made me laugh and here I imagine Ximenes would have approved too since he had nothing against an occasional “puzzling sort of nonsense”.

    Just as an aside, it struck me how this puzzle uses an interesting grid in that all the across solutions are even-lettered and all the downs odd. Or maybe more such patterns exist and I’ve just never noticed before.

    Thanks to Paul and PeterO.

  11. [Cardinal Newman is probably less well-known than Hume (a recent English cardinal) or Wolsey (Henry VIII’s chancellor for a while, and builder of Hampton Court); Newman is best known for writing the poem that Elgar used for “The dream of Gerontius”.]

  12. Interestingly, it was getting the New Man that enabled me to see what 5a had to be.

    I enjoyed the solve – thank you to Paul and Peter

  15. Without being too pedantic, I think we all know that cardial has now been replaced by cardiac. No one would, I think, say a cardial surgeon. The OED entry quotes two nineteenth century references, one from Insect World! If a medical dictionary is consulted for ‘cardial’ it says: ‘Pertaining to the esophageal opening of the stomach.’ The ODE, which gives contemporary usage does not have cardial and as pointed out above, it’s not in Chambers either.

    Anyway, thanks Paul and PeterO. I did like the typical Paulian clue for UNDERPANTS.

  16. I wrote in YOU NEVER CAN TELL straight away and assumed that this was to be a Chuck Berry themed crossword. Was I disappointed? A little.

    However, I did enjoy 21a (UNDERPANTS)!

  17. Thank you Paul and PeterO.

    I, like Michelle @1, found this puzzle fun, but I did have trouble with some of the parsing.

    Solving SCARLET led to CARDINAL, this I could not parse, neither ‘cordial’ nor ‘cardiac’ could be made to fit the answer. However, having solved 5a helped me find the other related answers.

    NEWMAN was also an enigma, I knew of the Cardinal, but NEW MAN was confusing, the COED gives “a man who rejects sexist attitudes and the traditional male role”.

  18. A bit of a Spanish inquisition, but all the more satisfying to complete it, though wIth a few unparsed. Cardial does seem unfair; did anybody else notice cordial nearly works for hearty?

  19. Howard @ 18: Yes, I did notice the ‘cordial’ issue, but couldn’t find cordinal in the dictionary!

  20. “Cardial” seems to have put some folks off and I can see why as Chambers is usually the crossword bible.
    It didnt spoil it for me, being a hooligan rather than a purist. I think google allows it.
    And being the cornerstone of the puzzle I thought a bit of subterfuge helped.
    I got XIMENES first as I had the X etc and parsing bavkwards gave me SIX- number. main… ah CARDINAL.
    But my Chambers is falling to bits and I havent bothered to but a new one or an app(havent even got a smart phone-the dim one suits me fine)

    So- maybe a marmite but I was in the like camp.

  21. A bit trickier than most of Paul’s recent puzzles, and quite an entertaining challenge. Took me ages to see CARDINAL, and it was NEWMAN that gave it away. I would have struggled more if they had all been church cardinals. Liked the typically Paulish UNDERPANTS

    Thanks to Paul and PeterO

  24. We are hooligans too but you didn’t need me to tell you that. Loved underpants and laughed out loud. We always enjoy Paul’s puzzles and this was a goodie. Thanks to everyone.

  25. A day when I’ve had to keep on returning in order to make progress, but it was well worth it. SCARLET and RED TOP just had to be, and were my way in to CARDINAL. Only then did NEWMAN et al follow, though I did have XIMENES early without realising why.

  26. I got “cardinal” about halfway through, and managed rapidly to fill in the cardinals who weren’t Cardinals.

    My familiarity with British Cardinals begins and ends with Wolsey, though I had vaguely heard of Newman. Disappointed not to see Richelieu or any of the lovely red birds. If this had been an American crossword, you probably also would have seen the likes of Stan Musial or Bob Gibson, but that’s a meaning of Cardinal that’s unknown on your side of the pond.

  27. Not one of Paul’s best in my view. I have to admit that I struggled to get CARDINAL. I did get XIMINESE and thought I could work backwards but I went up the obvious blind alley. I did know both WOLSEY and NEWMAN but they still took a while to go in and I found some of the cluing really convoluted. Of course there were some goodies- this is Paul after all-ROOT CROP and OMNIBUS spring to mind- but this was too much of a struggle to be really enjoyable.
    Thanks Paul.
    Ps A Chuck Berry themed puzzle would be good. How about it?

  28. Have to admit that I had XIMENES from the crossers, and like others he added up the garden path. Then pencilled (well, lightly penned) PRINCIPAL and RED TOP, but still didn’t get it. Resorted to Web to discover Cardinal Ximenes. Never did parse CARDINAL.
    I also loved UNDERPANTS.
    For some reason NEWMAN was LOI.

  30. mrpenney @26:

    Talk about weird associations: your post brought to mind a snippet of radio baseball commentary from many years ago in which a Cardinal by the name of Darrell Porter hit a home run in a World Series game. If I remember right, Porter was unusual in that he was a catcher who played wearing spectacles.

    I wonder whether any setter in a British national daily would be audacious enough to offer a baseball-themed crossword – possibly as a prize puzzle? Personally I’d be all in favour: it’s one of the great joys of crosswords that they help expand one’s general knowledge.

  32. As usual with Paul we felt we’d been in a battle rather than an entertaining diversion. Clues with partial synonyms do nothing for me – other than frustrate! We were happily romping down the Ximines garden path as well, and disappointed not to finish there. We thought the CARDINAL device was worthy of better (less tortuous) clues. I’m in the hooligan underpants camp (Mrs W has different tastes), and along with that my favourite today was ROWER which says much about the type of clue I prefer.
    Thanks for the challenge Paul and to PeterO for the parsing assistance.

  33. Thanks to Paul and PeterO. I’m late to the discussion owing to travel problems and have nothing of significance to add to what’s been said. I started with FIXATE, got XIMENES from the crossers, found that he was a CARDINAL from Google, knew WOLSEY and NEWMAN but not HUME, and, like others, could not parse several items. I don’t think that anyone has mentioned Hawthorne’s novel, The SCARLET Letter.

  34. I too had Ximenes early so thought 5a would be compiler. Surprised no-one else mentioned this. So it too ages to get the topside as i took the scenic route through any compliers i could remember. Fell at last hurdle. Humanise.

  35. Super fun as ever from Paul. I didn’t find this contrived – found all the various 5 linked solutions tumbled in delightfully.
    Thanks to the Ps.

  36. I found this more difficult than usual too. 3 clues unsolved. Favourites aversion therapy and the classic Paulsean underpants.

  37. Re 25 across, there’s something about nailing hot cross bus to the wall every Good Friday in some parts of England.
    I enjoyed puzzle despite not being good enough to finish.

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