Guardian 27,223 / Nutmeg

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Nutmeg’s crystal ball must have been working overtime when she set this one because of the various topical entries/references.

A well as the NI political party, currently much in the news, forming part of the wordplay in 23dn, she has given us many ways to spend our money now that the period of austerity is (allegedly) coming to an end.

I found this puzzle tricky in places because I haven’t solved a Nutmeg cryptic for a very long time (if I have ever done so at all) and so wasn’t familiar with her style. However I got there in the end, albeit with a little head scratching regarding some of the synonyms.

Across
1 National reps adjusted cost price (reduced) on charter (10,5)
DIPLOMATIC CORPS – DIPLOMA (charter) plus an anagram (adjusted) of COST PRIC[e]

9 Slob in bar, knocking it back? (5-2)
BOOZE-UP – OOZE (slob) in PUB (bar) reversed (knocking it back) – sort of &lit

10 Person responsible for laying out / poet (7)
SPENDER – double def.

11 Cardinal rejecting anything northern (3)
TWO – OWT (anything northern) reversed (rejecting)

12 Line lost in presenting account to posh colleague with forked tongue? (11)
BILINGUALLY – BIL[l]ING (line lost in presenting account) U (posh) ALLY (colleague)

13 Harry O’Brien and a Scotsman (10)
ABERDONIAN – an anagram (harry) of O’BRIEN AND A

15 Old Bill nabbing revolutionary for one (4)
AGED – AD (bill) around (nabbing) EG (for one) reversed (revolutionary)

18 Thoroughly weary / butcher (2,2)
DO IN – double def.

20 New blade flipped in deception’s getting sharper (10)
STEEPENING – N (new) EPEE (blade) reversed (flipped) in STING (deception)

23 Means of paying bill a peer’s pocketed (6,5)
POSTAL ORDER – POSTER (bill) around (‘s pocketed) A LORD (a peer)

25 Decline / to fix / number of games (3)
SET – triple def.

26 Pure Cockney politician reviewed top-class games venue (7)
OLYMPIA – [h]OLY (pure Cockney) MP (politician) AI (top-class) reversed (reviewed)

27 On boy’s return, adult leaves test for a breather (7)
NOSTRIL – SON (boy) reversed (on …’s return) TRI[a]L (adult leaves test)

28 Inconsistent rules accepted during matches (6,9)
DOUBLE STANDARDS – STANDARD (accepted) in (during) DOUBLES (matches)

Down
1 One way to fix bad credit? (5,4)
DEBIT CARD – an anagram (to fix) of BAD CREDIT – &lit/extended def.

2 Champion for second time close to failure (7)
PROMOTE – PRO (for) MO (second) T (time) [failur]E (close to failure)

3 Offers more than one penny, pre-decimal in ordinary words (8)
OVERBIDS – I (one) D (penny, pre-decimal) in O (ordinary) VERBS (words)

4 Dismay as a neighbour of Santa turns up? (5)
APPAL – A LAPP (neighbour of Santa) reversed (turns up)

5 Hardened criminal isn’t seen casing area (9)
INSENSATE – an anagram (criminal) of ISN’T SEEN around (casing) A (area)

6 Verbally stop item written by 10 (6)
CHEQUE – sounds like (verbally) ‘check’ (stop)

7 Danger signal featuring after 6 at Monza? (3,4)
RED FLAG – a chequeRED FLAG would be seen at the end of a motor race at Monza

8 Bad-tempered mare’s last to leave, no doubt (5)
SURLY – SUR[e]LY (mare’s last to leave, no doubt)

14 Annalist busy acquiring old papers (9)
NATIONALS – an anagram (busy) of ANNALIST around (acquiring) O (old)

16 Stimulant — love it, second boxer admitted (9)
DIGITALIS – DIG (love) IT S (second) around (admitted) ALI (boxer)

17 Person wanting to keep piano up played again (8)
REPRISED – DESIRER (person wanting) around (to keep) P (piano) reversed (up)

19 Promissory note imbued with a delicate blue — whatever next? (1,3,3)
I ASK YOU – IOU (promissory note) around (imbued with) A SKY (delicate blue)

21 Firm with policies making home safer? (7)
INSURER – IN (home) SURER (safer) with an extended def.

22 Pope’s restricting abbey’s latest provision for e-10 (6)
PAYPAL – PAPAL (Pope’s) around (restricting) [abbe]Y (abbey’s latest)

23 August men in provincial party rising (5)
PROUD – OR (men) in DUP (provincial party) reversed (rising)

24 Italian lady introduced to London nanny (5)
DONNA – concealed in (introduced to) ‘lonDON NAnny’

31 comments on “Guardian 27,223 / Nutmeg”

  1. Thoroughly enjoyed this but 9a doesn’t work for me. I did find out that ooze and slob can both refer to boggy ground although the latter was listed as an Irish term. Problem is that there isn’t really a definition as such. I was also unsure about DO IN meaning weary, as opposed to DONE IN.

  2. I also found this rather tricky – stared for a long time at a rather empty grid. But got there in the end, with favourites being BOOZE-UP, OLYMPIA, NOSTRIL and BILINGUALLY. Thanks to Nutmeg and Gaufrid.

  3. I think I only found one answer on a first pass, but that answer helped with another… which helped with another… until it all fell into place. LOI was DIPLOMATIC CORPS as I got fixated on CARDS despite the cues in the clue.

    Thanks, Nutmeg and Gaufrid.

  4. I got RED FLAG before 6, then assumed 6 was some sort of crash since you would see a RED FLAG at Monza if conditions were too dangerous to continue the race.
    Got it in the end, though, but couldn’t work out why.
    Thanks for clearing it up Gaufrid.

  5. Debit card is one of the neatest anagrams ever. Do in doesn’t work for me. But overall clever stuff.

  6. Hovis @1: 18ac (DO IN) works if you take ‘weary’ as a verb rather than adjective.
    Great puzzle altogether.

  7. The odd dodgy moment maybe but overall this is another classy outing from Nutmeg, of whom we should see more. I even twigged the theme, which helped with CHEQUE.

    With Auden not SPENDER, there would have been references to ‘Night Mail’ – ‘bringing the CHEQUE and POSTAL ORDER’ to Scots, including ABERDONIANS in ‘granite Aberdeen’.

  9. I really liked this; Nutmeg is definitely up there as one of my favourite setters. Embarrassingly, I missed the now really obvious theme, as I failed to pull back and consider the overall solve once I was finished. Duh!

    Like Hovis@1, I had trouble equating OOZE with “slob” in 9a.

    I appreciated the parsing of RED FLAG which I missed, as I guessed it before I solved CHEQUE at 6d.

    I liked DO IN at 18a (my LOI), as I eventually read “weary” as quenbarrow@6 did, as a verb.

    Other favourites were 10a SPENDER, 19d I ASK YOU (which I got but now see the clever linking of IOU to the theme), and PAYPAL.

    Many thanks to Nutmeg and Gaufrid.

    [Awful images on our news here of the dreadful fire in London. Thinking of those of you in Britain as I write this and wonder how much more tragedy London can take.]

  10. Had to reveal 2D and 11A. Still puzzled by Gaufrid’s explanation. “MO” for second in 2D . Half a mo? But men = “OR” (23D)???? Other ranks?

  12. Megster up there with the best.Thanks Gaufrid for blog.
    And dare I say that if Donna was a woman of easy virtue, she could be included in the mini-theme.

  13. Nutmeg is a very good compiler. Here though I had a few gripes, at 1 9 11 (could be either way, that one) & 12 in the across, and 1 (for the extended def, which I’m not really sure about — my debit card isn’t really a way to fix bad credit) in the down. So I’m not bowled over by this one, as I normally am with Nutmeg.

  14. Did anyone else try Caledonian for the Scot? I couldn’t parse it, but then I often can’t.

    I had no clue about ooze being slob. New one on me.

    Thanks, Nutmeg and Gaufrid, for an enjoyable puzzle and blog.

  15. As always, a high class puzzle from one of the Guardian’s best setters. Took me a while to get started properly, but the last few fell quite quickly once a few helpful crossers were in place.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and Gaufrid

  17. Thanks Nutmeg and Guafrid
    Nutmeg seems to be getting harder and harder! I was puzzled by “ooze”=”slob” too. Lots of great clues, though.

  18. Thanks to Nutmeg and Gaufrid. I did after many pauses get through, but I needed help parsing BOOZE-UP, ABERDONIAN, OVERBIDS, and REPRISE, though to my surprise I did spot TWO-owt. A challenge but lots of fun.

  19. A quality puzzle and a joy to solve. I needed to come here to check a couple of things post-solve, but all is now revealed. I liked 7d RED FLAG especially and was mystified at first because a Red Flag can also be shown at Monza – I didn’t see the Chequered Flag!

    Many thanks to Nutmeg and Gaufrid.

  20. I completely missed the reference to DUP in PROUD, having got it by the definition and crossers. I’m not a particular fan of this setter and this puzzle was fairly typical so the solve was quite agreeable but nothing to write home about. I did like APPAL though!
    Thanks Nutmeg.

  21. Black mark for any crossword that now uses the men=OR device. One either knows it straightforwardly from past crossword experience or it is totally baffling – no challenge for the aficionados and impenetrable for normal people. It is also no longer applicable, unless all the women in the armed forces are officers. So, obscure and sexist. File it in the “over the hump” cabinet with good=PI and recipe=R.

  22. I defend the ‘men’. And the other bits and pieces. Of course they are hackneyed like all ‘crosswordese’ items, but when used skilfully they can still deceive.

    A good puzzle from Nutmeg today, one of the stronger Guardian players, in my book.

  23. I also gave up trying to make sense of “OR” in 23d. Is it short for “Other Ranks” as wiki seems to suggest? Definitely not something I’ve ever heard of. There are so many other ways of cryptically clueing the letters O and R, surely a better clue could be devised?

    Otherwise fine.

  24. I thought this was a delightful puzzle with lots of clever clues. Special mention must go to ABERDONIAN, AGED, POSTAL ORDER, NOSTRIL, SURLY and I ASK YOU, and OLYMPIA gave rise to a genuine giggle. Many thanks to Nutmeg and to Gaufrid for a comprehensive blog.

  25. firmlydirac @23
    I’m a bit surprised; as Van Winkle intimates, OR for “other ranks” or “men” is a bit of a crossword cliche.

  26. Another great puzzle from a super setter. We really are fortunate, I believe. Thank you, Nutmeg!
    Loved learning the ooze(/slimy mud)/slob connection – if only for the onomatopoeic nature of ‘slob’ in this context. Or am I being too romantic, too onomato poetic? (I even find ‘glove’ sounds “right” – say it aloud and it sounds like something that fits – like a glove! So unlike, say, the prosaic German “handshoe”! Brrr…)

    Gaufrid – I would also have described INSURER in the same way as you have DEBIT CARD – &lit/extended def. (Or WIWD or even &littish. Or all three? Who knows?)
    I do know that such constructions are but a part of the Nutmeg concinnity!

  27. I got PayPal from the wordplay and the theme, eventually, but can someone please spell out for this clueless American what the E-10 have to do with it? I expect I haven’t read the news carefully enough.

  28. I think e-10 is e-spender (10 as in 10ac), someone who buys something on line, and hence pays using PayPal

  29. A day after everyone else, as per usual. FOI was 13a, LOI was 8d – because I didn’t have the S, having only just got 1a. Found the lower half easier than the upper. Couldn’ t parse 9a.

  30. A lot of nonsense on here about “OR” = other ranks.

    Of course thiis is one of the many crossword staples that have to be learnt. (We all had to do it) Typical of the “snowflake generation” to complain when they actually have to do a little bit of work.

    Of course “men” has no indication of sex so complaints about its invalidity in modern times.

    man ? noun. Pl. men m?n. OE.
    I
    1 A human being (formerly explicitly irrespective of sex or age), a person. Now chiefly in general or indefinite applications, as in every man, any man, no man, (in pl.) all men, some men, many men, etc. OE.

    With regard to the army see

    II

    …

    4 A member of a fighting force; now esp. a rank-and-file soldier or sailor as distinguished from an officer. Usu. in pl. OE.

    Again nothing to do with sex!

    I am surprised that our moaning posters haven’t included the very common use of “man” for a chess piece. If this nonsensical ignorance of the English language is continued to its logical conclusion we discover that the most powerful piece on the chess board must be a

    queen kwi:n ? noun. Also (esp. in titles) Q-. OE.

    …

    9 A male homosexual, esp. one of effeminate behaviour or appearance. slang. l19 🙂

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