Guardian Cryptic 27,390 by Pasquale

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Sorry for the late blog – post-Christmas fuzziness is my only excuse!

A gentle puzzle for those of us recovering from the excesses of the last two days.  Most of the solutions slotted in fairly quickly, and the parsing wasn’t terribly onerous either (thanks, Pasquale!).

I did have one minor quibble at 12ac, and some of the clues were a bit wordy, but they read well.

I don’t think there’s a theme or a NINA, but happy to be corrected on that (or any other faux pas I may have made)

Thanks, Pasquale

Across
1 GOGGLE Stare and laugh, one giving way to love (6)
  G(i)(O)GGLE – the I (“one”) of GIGGLE, replaced by an O (“love”)
4 WARBLE Swelling vocal sound (6)
  Double definition – as well as being a word for birdsong, a warble is also an abscess caused by certain fly larvae.
9 BURN Poet denied sun and water (4)
  BURN(s) (“poet” denied s(un))
10 WARDRESSES What’s worn by Amazons as custodians? (10)
  Amazons were famale warriors, so they presumable may have worm WAR DRESSES
11 BATTLE Bundle must keep dry, as must powder in this? (6)
  BALE (“bundle”) must keep TT (teetotal, so “dry”)
12 FACTIOUS Truth backed by notes of confession making one quarrelsome (8)
  FACT (“truth”) backed by IOUs (“notes of confession”)

The grammar in this clue is wrong, in my opinion, as the “one” in the clue is at best superfluous, as it leads the solver to look for a noun ie “one (who is) fractious”, rather than the adjectival solution.
13 GIBBERISH Husband, father, British and fat, put about nonsense in speech (9)
  <=H + SIRE + B + BIG 
15, 16 FAKE NEWS  Phoney dope “safe” — knew that must be wrong (4,4)
  *(safe knew)
16   See 15
 
17 JOBSWORTH “The ___ doing for a bob”, said the old scout, a stickler for rules (9)
  As in “the JOB’S WORTH doing for a bob”, which a scout may have said during “bob-a-job week” back in the day when a shilling was worth something.
21 ROSEBUDS Girl and close friends — they have yet to blossom (8)
  ROSE (“girl”) + BUDS (“close friends”)
22 LAVABO Basin in toilet with a nasty smell (6)
  LAV (“toilet”) with A + B.O. (body odour, so “nasty smell”)
24 MARGUERITE Daisy contrived to present truer image (10)
  *(truer image)
25 RATE Judge in old car heading off (4)
  (c)RATE (“old car”, with its heading off)
26 ENDURE Go on, aim to get to river (6)
  END (“aim”) to get to URE (“river”)
27 ATHENA Wise female has article in literary collection (6)
  THE (“article”) in ANA (“literary collection”)

In Greek mythology, Athena was a virgin goddess endowed with great wisdom.
Down
1 GOURAMI Foodie French friend being met — fish is served (7)
  GOUR(met)(AMI) (The French friend (AMI) replaces “met”)
2 GENET Author presenting information concerned with outer space (5)
  GEN (“information”) + ET (extraterrestrial, so “concernesd with outer space”)

Refers to Jean Genet, 20th century French playwright an novelist.
3 LOW GEAR Miserable stuff that will get you going? (3,4)
  LOW (“miserable”) + GEAR (“stuff”)
5 AFRICA A monk shortly catching cold where it can be very hot (6)
  A + FRIA(r) catching C(old), so A-FRI(C)A
6 BASTINADO A pain that doesn’t end in wicked old form of torture (9)
  A STIN(g) (“a pain” that doesn’t end) in BAD (“wicked”) + O(ld)
7 EXECUTE Flower given to darling creates effect (7)
  EXE (river, so “flower”, ie that which flows) + CUTE (“darling”)
8 PROFESSORSHIP Chair for shoppers is broken (13)
  *(for shoppers is)
14 BOW-LEGGED Having a problem walking, maybe, being dismissed? Oval is enthralled (3-6)
  BOWLED (“dismissed”, in cricket) with EGG (“oval”) enthralled
16 NEONATE One neat, newly delivered young infant (7)
  *(one neat)
18 SALIENT Main thoroughfare invaded by visitor from space? (7)
  St. (street, so “thoroughfare”) invaded by ALIEN (“visitor from space”)
19 TABITHA Woman is pretty in fancy hat (7)
  A BIT (“pretty”) in *(hat)
20 AUTEUR Film director‘s ’aughtiness (6)
  (h)AUTEUR (haughtiness without the “H”)
23 VERVE Vitality of revolutionary always having internal resistance (5)
  *(ever”) with V (versus, so “resistance) inside (indicated by internal)

*anagram

27 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,390 by Pasquale”

  1. Thanks for the blog. I don’t think 23 VERVE is an anagram of “ever (always)” – that would be unfair. I think it is a cyclic rotation of “ever” containing “v”.

  2. Thanks for blog. As far as 23D is concerned:

     

    Vitality very limited, ever faltering

     

    Apologies and Happy New Year

  3. Thanks Pasquale and loonapick.

    I didn’t think it was very gentle, but my computer and I solved it in the end.

    I liked the Amazons’ clothes.

  4. I’m still wrestling with Maskarade so it was great to have a more gentle puzzle today – but one that still has enough challenge to make it enjoyable for us. As usual with Pasquale there were a couple of new words – FACTIOUS and GOURAMI, where I needed Loonapick’s blog to see the parsing. My favourite was WARDRESSES which I vaguely remember having seen as a solution before, but I liked the surface here.
    Back to the double trouble.
    Thanks to Pasquale and Loonapick, and season’s greetings to all.

  6. Robi@3 – great minds think alike (or fools seldom differ!) – our posts crossed so I’m sorry for not referencing your comment.

  7. I think I only got AFRICA on the first pass and only GOGGLE on the second. At that point the “Reveal” button was looking very large and appealing. But then PROFESSORSHIP dropped out and, bit by bit, it all fell into place.

    GOURAMI was new to me, and VERVE a bit puzzling.

    Thanks, Pasquale and loonapick.

  8. Thanks for the explications as always, loonapick.

    Maybe I’m just having a brainfart, but I still can’t work out where the ANA came from in 27A. Australian National Archives? No: that’s apparently the National Archives of Australia, NAA. Help!

  11. Loonapick @9 Many thanks! A new word to me. I went <i>back</i> to <i>Chambers</i> and found that I hadn’t spotted it first time because they’ve stuffed the word into the entry for the “-ana” suffix.

    We live and learn. Thanks again.

  14. Thanks to pasquale and loonapick for the parsing. Found it quite tough, failed on warble which meant I also struggled with 7d. That said had all the rest and still an enjoyable solve and there is always tomorrow.

  15. I did not notice the issue with 23d when I solved the puzzle, but, looking at it later, I wondered whether the parsing was meant to be: anagram of ‘ever’ as an envelope for ‘v’ = Voltage for resistance. I know that vootage isn’t the same as resistance, but thought it might be close enough for crosswordland.

  16. Thanks Pasquale and loonapick

    When I printed out the puzzle I noted the supposed alteration to the clue for 23d, so I compared the printout to my paper copy, to find the clue was the same – they had forgotten to alter it in the print version!

    This felt a bit more like work than fun. FACTIOUS is OK – it can mean “prone to dissension”. However I don’t like the wording of 24a – “present” is superfluous to the cryptic grammar, though needed for the surface. I didn’t know ANA as a literary collection either.

  17. Thanks to Pasquale and loonapick. I didn’t know GOURAMI, WARBLE as swelling, or JOBSWORTH, was puzzled by VERVE, and needed help parsing BOW-LEGGED but still got through and enjoyed the process.

  18. A definite DNF for me – the NW corner defeated me.

    BURN: Had the right idea but was trying to remove SUN from a poet’s name.

    BATTLE: actually got BALE in but the TT eluded me.  What could I have been thinking?  I’m almost TT myself!  D’oh!

    GOURAMI – never heard of it.  Perhaps the combination of tricky wordplay and an obscure word were too much.  Is ‘being’ good enough to indicate substitution?  Too tough for me, anyway.

    GENET: now I see it, I remember the name, but I had only one crosser to work with.

    So there we have it.  I realised there was something wrong with 23D early on – indirect anagrams are definitely a no-no in Grauniad cryptics.  The Graun‘s own webpage solved that little mystery at least…

    So what’s to like?  JOBSWORTH was amusing, even if the clueing wasn’t of the best.  I remember when the Scouts used to knock on our door demanding “bob-a-job!”.  GIBBERISH perhaps the best clue.

    Thanks to the Don, but I find it hard to forgive 23D.  Typos and misprints are excusable, but this one should have been picked up on a second read-through.  Just as anagrams need to be double-checked!  Thanks also to loonapick, especially for ingeniously coming up with a parse for the erroneous 23d.

  19. ACD@17 – re BOW-LEGGED – the fact that “Oval” is in the clue should have helped with the parsing of BOWLED!  Assuming that you follow the game…

  20. Thanks to both for the work.

    I think I tend to agree with copland@13. FRACTIOUS has quarrel as part of it’s definition but FACTIOUS only hints at the possibility by mentioning seditious, turbulent and prone to faction. Well, in my Chambers at any rate. I suppose in the stretch that is often crosswordland that is enough but it does not sit well with me.

  21. Found it hard. I had nothing on the first pass before I went to bed last night Australian time, but solved a few first thing this morning with a fresh brain. Then, like Chris in France@7, cracking 8d PROFESSORSHIP proved very helpful for getting me going!

    Along with some other commentators, I had not heard of 17a JOBSWORTH (though I knew “bob a job”) or 1d GOURMANI. Also missed parsing several of my answers, so thank you to loonapick for the blog. LOI for me was 20d AUTEUR which I would not have seen without the crossers.

    Thank you to Pasquale for an interesting and challenging crossword.

  22. Julie@21 – I think JOBSWORTH is a peculiarly English word.  It originates from the supposed remark “It’s more than my job’s worth, for me to [break a rule etc.]”  But it’s very common over here.  Particularly when referring to Health & Safety know-it-alls! 🙂

  24. Thanks for the extra info, FirmlyD@22. As I have said a couple of times on the forum, I am aware that I will encounter many “Englishisms” in tackling the Guardian cryptics, and I actually enjoy learning more about language usage in your part of the world, as well as other geographical, political, sporting and cultural aspects of life in the UK. Perhaps I can import the use of “jobsworth” (one word) into the Land Down Under?

  26. I agree with those who thought “fractious” a much better synonym for quarrelsome than FACTIOUS. This concerned me on solving and, given the untidiness of 23dn, I wondered whether the Don had had an atypically bad day.
    I still wonder whether Pasquale was mistaken (and confusing the two similar words) and would be grateful if he has the kindness to either rebuff my assumption or else admit to this rare error…..
    I notice that loonapick has used both words in his excellent blog, thus confirming the ease with which the two may be confused.
    Still enjoyable – though completed with an arched eyebrow – so thanks to Pasquale, and loonapick.

  27. Late getting to this, but I think that the definition in 12a is “making one quarrelsome”, which resolves loonapick’s grammar concern. That seems to me close enough to “dissident; disruptive; seditious” (Chambers’s definition for FACTIOUS).

     

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