Guardian Cryptic 27,206 by Chifonie

by

As usual from Chifonie, not too difficult, nicely clued, and fun to solve. Favourite 19dn.

Across
4 PUTRID Turned and set free (6)
PUT=”set” and RID=”free”
6 NAUTICAL Marine upset a lunatic (8)
(a lunatic)*
9 AGREED Gave approval for silver musical instrument (6)
AG=chemical symbol for “silver”, plus REED=”musical instrument”
10 RUDIMENT Weakling keeps small coin of necessity (8)
RUNT=”Weakling” around DIME=”small coin”
11 MAINTENANCE Inane men act badly? Get support! (11)
(Inane men act)*
15 CHARIOT Talk about Spanish river transport (7)
CHAT=”Talk” around RIO=”river” in Spanish
17 LITHEST Incline to keep article that’s most flexible (7)
LIST=slope=”Incline” around THE=definite “article”
18 PROBABILITY Odds favouring bishop’s competence (11)
PRO=”favouring”, plus B[ishop] the chess abbrevation, plus ABILITY=”competence”
22 ATHENIAN Attic in which Anita foolishly keeps hen (8)
=relating to Attica or Athens
(Anita)* around HEN
23 MINNOW Swimmer cut grass round hotel (6)
MOW=”cut grass” around INN=”hotel”
24 SEDATELY With composure and cunning to embrace oriental girlfriend (8)
SLY=”cunning” around E[ast]=”oriental” and DATE=”girlfriend”
25 SLEEPY Agent commandeers shelter for dwarf (6)
=one of Disney’s seven dwarfs in Snow White. SPY=”Agent” around LEE=”shelter”
Down
1 DIRECT Order credit to be changed (6)
(credit)*
2 SATURNALIA Wild Australian orgy (10)
(Australian)*
3 STRIDENT Unpleasantly rough walk by conservat­ionists (8)
STRIDE=”walk” plus N[ational] T[rust]=”conservationists”
4 PHARMACY Hurt when in lively shop (8)
HARM=”Hurt” in PACY=”lively”
5 TERMINAL Deadly connection (8)
double definition: as in terminal illness; Edit, thanks to comments, an electrical connection… or as in airport terminal
7 CREW The gang boasted (4)
double definition: a group; or a past tense of ‘crow’=boast
8 LATE Apprentice dined and departed (4)
=deceased.
L[earner]=”Apprentice” plus ATE=”dined”
12 NOTIONALLY Desire to join forces, in theory (10)
NOTION=”Desire” plus ALLY=”join forces”
13 DEFIANCE Opposition of Parisian’s intended (8)
DE=”of” in French, plus FIANCE=”intended”
14 STAY AWAY Avoid or support a plan (4,4)
STAY=a prop or “support”, plus A plus WAY=”plan”
16 IMPUNITY One politician gets agreement for exemption from punishment (8)
I=”One” plus M[ember of] P[arliament]=”politician” plus UNITY=”agreement”
19 ICICLE This eavesdropper will run away, if the situation heats up (6)
cryptic definition: an ICICLE might drop down from the eaves, and will melt/run away if heated
20 LASS Female section of the National Assembly (4)
Hidden in [Nationa]L ASS[embly]
21 SHAD Mum gets a dead fish (4)
SH=’keep quiet’=”Mum”, plus A, plus D[ead]

31 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,206 by Chifonie”

  1. Would have been a good Monday puzzle, either as a Rufus substitute or a Quiptic, but Picaroon yesterday created unrealistic expectations for the rest of the week and this was very straightforward. As I have said before I have no problem with some easy puzzles appearing, but it would be nice to know when to expect them…

    Thanks to Chifonie and manehi

  2. I thought of an electrical terminal for 5D which is closer to the definition of “connection” ??

  3. Yes, a bit Mondayish but good fun. Favourites were ATHENIAN, SLEEPY and ICICLE (LOI, which took a bit of time to click). Many thanks to Chifonie and manehi.

  4. Agreed, fairly straightforward, as usual with Chifonie, but I was held up for a time at the end, top left, with the intersecting 4a PUTRID and 5d TERMINAL – incidentally isn’t the ‘connection’ reference, in the latter clue, more to electronics than to travel? Thanks anyway to both.

  5. (@4 above, re TERMINAL: had not seen @2 Malmesbury Rd, who got in two minutes earlier…)

  6. Thank you both.

    A little bland for my taste I’m afraid. No complaints re hard/easy, plenty to enjoy in both, but this seemed to lack any sort of wit or wryness.

    I did however like the poetic description of an icicle as an “eavesdropper”, and TERMINAL was nicely defined.

    Surprised to see reed for musical instrument. A component of one certainly, so perhaps that’s good enough. I’ve been around orchestras for donkey’s and I can’t say I ever heard someone say they play “one of the reeds”.

    Hey-ho all part of The Graun’s rich crosswording tapestry.

    Nice week, all.

  7. Meant to add that I saw TERMINAL as others did; like a battery, although the airport reference works pretty well, too.

  8. Agree with Malmesbury Road@2 and Quenbarrow@4 – that’s how I parsed TERMINAL, 5d.
    Agree that ICICLE 19d was good, manehi and, like drofle@3, I took a while to see it.
    Agree beery@1, maybe a bit unexpectedly easy for later in the week, especially following yesterday’s tough but fair Picaroon.
    But I must say I also liked 4a PUTRID, 25a SLEEPY and 13a DEFIANCE.
    However, my top clue, parochial as it sounds, was of course the unexpected and close to home anagram in 2d, SATURNALIAN!!!!

  10. Julie @8 – the SATURNALIA anagram has been used before – I remember a very difficult Araucaria Easter special (25604) which used run-together clues to solutions that were anagrams of each other, and these were two of them. Chifonie used an identical clue back in 2003, and I found two more that were very similar:
    Chifonie 22826: Wild Australian orgy (10)
    Rover 24926: Exotic Australian festival (10)
    Rufus 25078: Dreadful Australian orgy (10)

  11. To William@6:
    ‘Reeds’ – usually in the plural but heigh-ho – is common in jazz line-ups for saxes & clarinet: “The reeds just repeat that riff in thirds here…”

  12. Thanks, beeryhiker@10: it may have been done before, but it was just gold for me today.

    I was not a Cryptic solver back in 2003, although when I was a workaholic teacher, I used to try to relax (!) by having a go at an Araucaria in my local Murdoch paper. The Guardian Cryptic must have been syndicated in those days before “The Courier-Mail” became such a dreadful rag. I recall writing a very grumpy email to the Editor when they dropped the Guardian Cryptic. These days I will no longer buy it on principle because of its terribly skewed and sensationalist editorial line.

    Beery, I deeply appreciate this backstory and your incredible contribution to the forum in terms of building that data-base, being our honorary historian and giving us the longer view in terms of our favourite hobby!

  13. Thank you Chifonie and manehi.

    A pleasant solve, but more appropriate for a Monday, I guess it is like The Times Quick Cryptic Crossword? As for drofle @3, ICICLE was my last in, thus my favourite.

  15. My take on 5 down was railway terminal, rather than airport terminal. Did wonder a little about the connection with connection, but one person’s terminal is another person’s connection.

  16. Thanks to Chifonie and manehi

    As others have said, not too hard and some nice surfaces.

    I find that the Guardian quite often lobs in a Monday style later on in the week: it usually means it is sandwiched by two really challenging ones Wed/Fri or Thurs/prize.

  17. Thanks Chifonie and manehi
    I had to do this entirely without resources (online or otherwise), so I was lucky that it was a Chifonie! All very pleasant, with SLEEPY my favourite. I too wondered about REED for musical instrument – I’ve heard the “reed section” or “the reeds”, but not “the reed”, I think.

  18. Easy following tough Picaroon.

    I thought it would be a container-fest, but the down clues were not quite as predictable. Not bad, quite fair, and Chifonie is, of course, one of the lighter compilers.

    I don’t think there is a plan, if there ever was one, to have a sliding scale of difficulty as we move through the week. I think even the best editors would struggle to get that, and in any paper.

    I think perhaps ‘for’ could be part of the def in 9A.

  20. Thanks to Chifonie and manehi. I always look forward to this setter’s puzzles no matter when in the week they appear – and this one was no exception. I got through most of it quickly but then paused over ICICLE and RUDIMENT, my LOI. Not daunting but for me very enjoyable.

  21. Yes, this was pretty easy- although it took me some time to get the STRIDENT/RUDIMENT cross! Indeed, we seem to be having an easyish week. Not that I’m complaining: we seem to have had a couple of weeks of quite difficult puzzles. And now that I’ve tempted providence, expect a stinker tomorrow!
    Thanks Chifonie.

  22. crimper @19
    If “A REED is a wind instrument of course”, which one is it?

    I agree that it’s a type of instrument, but that’s not what the clue said.

  23. Hello muffin, REED is actually defined as a ‘wind instrument’ in Collins, so I side with crimper on that one. Although it doesn’t say which sort!

    I enjoyed the gentle simplicity of Chifonie’s puzzle today. I hard a hard time with FT however, but didn’t until today realise that baerchen, a contributor to these boards and I think The Guardian’s thread, is ‘Julius’. A well done to him for crossing the rubicon anyway! Is he anybody else as a setter?

  24. Chambers has “reed” as synonymous with “a musical instrument”, so I think 9ac is quite fair. I’m sure I’ve come across this usage in poetry but can’t think where at the moment! However, I do remember that Pan turned Syrinx into a reed which vibrated in the wind & made music – hence his pipes.

    All that apart, this was a pleasantly fair crossword & just right for a busy day – I found it quite a relief after today’s offering in the FT! Thank you Chifonie & manehi.

  25. Yes, I agree it would be nice to have Chifonie on a Monday and perhaps a hard(er) Rufus mid-week.

  26. Some of us like predictability, some of us like surprises, and probably some of like both – whatever our preference The Guardian continues to plough its own furrow and I’m happy with that.
    Like others I enjoyed the more accessible nature of Chifonie’s offering. PUTRID was our loi and that meaning of turned only came to mind when the answer went in – nice definition. And ICICLE has to be a contender for clue of the week – did anyone get where the clue was going without the crossers to get the answer? Brilliant definition.
    Thanks Chifonie and manehi.

  27. crimper @9 Really? Which instrument? I’m happy with the possibility suggested by Grant @11 as a collective plural but I don’t know of any instrument called simply “a reed”.

  28. The Oxford Living Dictionaries online give for REED

    literary A rustic musical pipe made from a reed or from straw.
    ‘as if thy waves had only heard the shepherd’s reed’

  29. Very “Rufusian” and quite dull on the whole.

    Howvevr I must defend 5a re reed = instrument.

    OED has

    Reed

    …

    8.

    a. A simple musical pipe made from a reed; (also) one made from the hollow stem of another plant. Freq. in oaten reed (see oaten adj. 2).

    …

    9

    …

    c. Any wind instrument with a reed. Also (in pl.): such instruments or their players considered collectively, esp. as a section of an orchestra or band. Cf. string n. 3c.

    So two perfectly valid entries there

  31. [@featherstonehaugh 23
    also Knut in The Independent; I have a puzzle this coming Monday – more irreverent Trumpery, I’m afraid, but with the impeachment % probability soaring, the opportunities may be limited!]

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