Guardian Cryptic 27,424 by Chifonie

by

A very nice mix of clues with strong surfaces, with particular favourites 12ac, 20ac, 1dn and 16dn. Thanks Chifonie.

Across
7 BADINAGE Teasing gets unpleasant in advancing years (8)
  BAD=”unpleasant” + IN + AGE=”advancing years”
9 ANNUAL Cancel without a regular publication (6)
  ANNUL=”Cancel” around A
10 NIKE Greek goddess starts to natter in king’s ear (4)
  starting letters of N[atter] I[n] K[ing’s] E[ar]
11 OVERHAULED Hero valued assembly that’s repaired (10)
  (Hero valued)*
12 MIRAGE French fighter‘s motorway madness (6)
  =fighter as in military aircraft
MI=M1=”motorway” + RAGE=”madness”
14 PREVENTS Puts an end to advertising performances (8)
  PR EVENTS=”advertising performances”
15 ADVICE Notice weakness after promotion (6)
  AD=”promotion” + VICE=”weakness”
17 RESENT Take exception to topless show (6)
  [p]RESENT=”show” without its top letter
20 INCREASE Where the striker stands for more pay (8)
  IN CREASE=where a cricket batsman stands while on strike
22 CATNIP Jazz fan shot — found in the garden (6)
  CAT=”Jazz fan” + NIP=”shot” of an alcoholic spirit
23 MAGISTRATE Scholar has sense to respect officer of the law (10)
  MA=Master of Arts=”Scholar” + GIST=”sense” + RATE=”respect”
24 TRUE Time to regret being faithful (4)
  T[ime] + RUE=”regret”
25 ACCESS Admission of cocaine being hidden in a variety of cases (6)
  C[ocaine] inside (cases)*
26 TEARAWAY Delinquent having a means to follow career (8)
  A WAY=”a means” after TEAR=rush, hurry=”career”
Down
1 BASILICA Sailor swept up sand in church (8)
  AB=able-bodied seaman=”Sailor” reversed/”up”; plus SILICA=”sand”
2 RIDE Spain supports free travel (4)
  E[spana]=”Spain” after RID=”free”
3 PAROLE Plebeian accepting one’s word of honour (6)
  PROLE=”Plebeian” around A=”one”
4 CASHMERE Fabric ruined? Search me! (8)
  (search me)*
5 INDUCEMENT Incentive to produce popular Dutch bond (10)
  IN=”popular” + DU[tch] + CEMENT=”bond”
6 TALENT Transposed Bible story showing flair (6)
  NT=New Testament=”Bible” + TALE=”story”; with the two parts transposed, putting the second part in front
8 EXEMPT Release many to drill under river (6)
  EXE=”river” + M[illion]=”many” + P[hysical] T[raining]=”drill”
13 ADVERTISER Promoter and mentor keeping Egyptian leader right (10)
  ADVISER=”mentor” around E[gyptian] + R[igh]T
16 CHASTISE Scold is indecent (8)
  IS “in/decent” or in CHASTE
18 TRIBUNAL Nuisance to eat cake in court (8)
  TRIAL=”Nuisance” around BUN=”cake”
19 REPAST Soldier’s gone for a meal (6)
  R[oyal] E[ngineer] + PAST=”gone”
21 NUANCE Refinement shown by sister touring a church (6)
  NUN=”sister” around A, plus C[hurch of] E[ngland]
22 CAESAR Autocrat creating a scare (6)
  (a scare)*
24 TRAP Carriage in ambush (4)
  double definition

48 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,424 by Chifonie”

  1. Thanks to Chifonie and Manehi. I thought this was beautifully constructed. Added to your choice Manehi, I liked 6d, which seems also to allude to the parable of the talents. Very neat.

  2. Best Chifonie I’ve seen. Matching some of Rufus’ best for clever concise cluing.
    ( is it Rufus’ or Rufus’s?)

  3. I also liked this puzzle, though with hindsight I think it took me longer than it should have. Agreeing with you, manehi, I ticked both 1d BASILICA and 16d CHASTISE. And I also concur re the allusion to the parable in 6d TALENT, Norbrewer@1.
    I needed to come here to parse fully both 23a MAGISTRATE and 5d INDUCEMENT.
    Much appreciated, Chifonie, and thanks to manehi.

  4. I think Rufus’ is technically correct, Rewolf@2, but I think it sounds better as Rufus’s. I have a niece called Tess, and just received her 21st Birthday Party invitation. It says Tess’s 21st. I thought twice, but then
    I thought that Tess’ 21st sounded a bit precious and pedantic.

  5. Thanks Chifonie and manehi

    Very nice. CHASTISE was my favourite too.

    I’m not seeing the equivalence of ADVICE and “notice”. Could someone explain please?

    To quibble, I didn’t like the definition for PREVENTS; “put an end to” implies that the thing has started; “prevent” means “stop it starting”.

    [Rewolf: Rufus’s definitely.]

  6. Enjoyed this more than some Chifonie’s, perhaps because it required a bit more thought, but the last few fell very quickly.

    Thanks to Chifonie and manehi

  7. Yes some neat clues. i particularly liked 25a.

    Couldn’t parse 26a though.

    I for one hope to see Chifonie as a regular Monday offering.

     

  8. muffin@5: I’m afraid I can’t give you something authoritative but I was comfortable with the equivalence.  I have a sense in which giving advice of, say, an intention to evict or to end a contract would be the equivalent of giving notice.  I think it’s an archaic usage.  Interesting that advice comes from the Latin ad (to) visum (past tense of see) which seems connected with notice.

    Very enjoyable today.  Agree with the earlier plaudits.

    Favourites MAGISTRATE and, like others, CHASTISE.

    Thanks to the excellent Chifonie and manehi

  11. I could not parse CHASTISE (very clever!) and failed to solve 3d (not familiar with PROLE) and 20a (also very clever!)

    Thanks blogger and setter

  13. The rule as I’ve learned it is that even if the word ends in an S, it is pluralized by adding an apostrophe-S.  So Rufus’s is correct.  At least in the United States.

    As for the crossword, nothing to add.  I started it after the Super Bowl and found it heavy going, but then when I finished it just now, I wondered just what I had found so challenging last night.  Blame alcohol and tiredness.

  14. A nice gentle start to the week, as it should be.

    I was perfectly happy with “notice” for ADVICE. Chambers includes for the latter: “formal official intelligence about anything”.

    [Yes it is “Rufus’s” because the name Rufus ends with an S sound. Where a proper name ends with an S that is pronounced as a Z sound, the possessive can be spelt without an additional S. The Penguin Dictionary of Punctuation gives for example “Ulysses’ companions”.]

  16. Thanks Chifonie and manehi.

    A little more challenging than the normal Chifonie with excellent clue surfaces.

    It took me a long time to see that CASHMERE was from an anagram, doh!

    I particularly liked CHASTISE.

  17. Smooth stuff from Chifonie this morning but I must confess to mangling the parsing of ADVICE & TRIBUNAL.  I took the ad for the notice and was trying to equate trial with court.

    Ran out of time with CATNIP so biffed in CATKIN with no plausible reason.

    Many thanks, Chifonie, nice week, all.

  19. I agree with what has been said above. A nice puzzle for a Monday and a steady solve for me. That said I spent a long time on parole, tribunal and chastise (parsed after the event). I think it was the terminology in trial/nuisance and prole/plebeian that slowed me down. Agree also with the plaudits for chastise and thanks to Chifonie and manehi for a pleasant beginning to the week.

  20. I thought there was something going on with DESERT / DESSERT at 19d which led to a minor delay, resolved when I saw the charade leading to MAGISTRATE. All in all, nicely set, and good Monday fun.

  21. Yes, a really smooth puzzle – lots of excellent clues. My favourites were BASILICA (LOI), CHASTISE and CASHMERE. Many thanks to C & m.

  22. Thank both.

    This was unusual in not having an answer hidden in the letters of the clue. A nice easy solve for a Monday.

    Gower’s revision of Fowler’s Modern English Usage says it is now usual to add an apostrophe and an s to form possessives of names ending in s, except in ‘verse poetic or reverential contexts’. So Rufus’s is correct.

  23. Thanks to Chifonie and manehi. I’m yet another who found this puzzle very enjoyable and just right for a Monday. I had some trouble with the parsing of TALENT, and the DU for Dutch in INDUCEMENT was new to me. Like mrpenney my solving coincided with the Super Bowl (several tricky plays there worthy of a cryptic).

  24. Thanks to Chifonie and manehi.

    I’m in slow mode today so this was a Big Ben for me, with solves occurring regularly but well spaced, and with a possibly audible “bong!”.  I think this grid adds a degree of difficulty with all the outlying unches [(?)(anyway no much any starting letters!)].

    Biffed PREVENTS albeit sharing Muffin’s@5 reservations and came here to find I’d missed the parsing completely, so one up to Chifonie and a curtsy to manehi.  That aside favourites were CATNIP (great surface), RESENT, CHASTISE, INDUCEMENT.

    All in all with the unhelpful grid and not much concession in the cluing I felt this was on the difficult end of the scale for “easy Monday” but very enjoyable for that.

  25. Tyngewick @22 and indeed many posts back to Rewolf @2 … my favourite examples of the singular possessive of a name ending in s relate to James … the park in London is St James’s Park, while the home ground of Newcastle United FC is St James’ Park.

  26. Cryptic 20 & Quiptic 13 both have the solution INCREASE. Do we think this is the sort of coincidence the editor should try to avoid?

  27. Trailman @25.  Well said!  Usage trumps all.  And I’ve just remembered that Exeter City’s home ground is St James Park!

  28. Well, I thought the example of that boy’s school vs a boys’ school was set in stone as an example of where to put the apostrophe for plurals.

    Now I am confused since Jim (@14) is saying its simply because the latter ends in S. Maybe Eileen can offer advice.

    As an aside, a few years ago there was a car shop with a massive lit up sign outside which must have cost £100s. It said ‘Jaguar’s‘

  29. All been said really. I enjoyed this and only got stuck on PAROLE which was my LOI. I didn’t know this meant ‘word of honour’. I know CAT= jazz fan in crossword but as a jazzer, I don’t think it’s how I’d describe myself!
    Thanks Chifonie.

  30. pex@28

    What you say is perfectly correct. Today’s discussion has been about words ending in “s”. The example you gave (boy) doesn’t enter that category.

    Very enjoyable puzzle. Thanks to Chifonie and manehi.

  34. Most usage guides, at least in the US, do indeed prefer “Rufus’s” over “Rufus'”. Oddly, some make an exception for Biblical or classical names (e.g., “Jesus'” or “Socrates'”). This rule goes back at least to the book “Elements of Style” by Strunk and White, which many of us had in school but which is (justly, in my opinion) criticized for containing silly rules like this with no adequate justification.

    I always use “‘s” in these situations. I think that the reverse is particularly silly when the extra “s” is pronounced as an additional syllable. For instance, if you pronounce the possessive as “Rufuses” and not as “Rufus”, then spelling it “Rufus'” makes no sense to me.

     

  36. A lovely Monday jobbie. I couldn’t parse TALENT, but other than that it unfolded nicely, starting with TRUE and ending with BASILICA.

  37. [muffin @35, the Hebrew  is Yeh?šua, Joshua in English, I don’t think it was ever meant to have an ‘s’ at the end, it is Isa in Arabic.]

  39. muffin @ 38 Because the Bible came to us from Hebrew and Greek through Latin, and Jesus is a Latinized plural.

    Julie @4 —  If there were two Rufuses (or Rufi), something belonging to them would be Rufuses’ (or Ruforum).

     

  42. muffin @ 41

    Because there were more than one of them. Only, (at least) one of them wasn’t the messiah, he was a very naughty boy.

  43. Many years ago when, as Dylan Thomas put it, I was so high and much nicer I was taught that Rufus’ was correct and Rufus’s was a sign of ignorance but usage has changed, perhaps because Rufus’ always felt wrong. An exception would appear to be established place names such as St James Infirmary.

  44. I guessed CATNIP, which turned out to be right (of course, I see it now), and I forgot to go back to NIKE (which I failed to get when I first looked at it).

    This was a very satisfying solve, in which the right side yielded more readily than the left.  I admired TALENT and don’t think I would have had the imagination to come up with such an apt clue.  Very neat.  I also liked BASILICA and CHASTISE very much.  The definition of PAROLE took me by surprise, and I liked that original way of defining PAROLE rather than something more obvious like ‘conditional release’.

    Thanks to Chifonie and manehi.

  45. A bit late in the day to say so, but I always thought the adjective from Rufus should be Rufous, so by referring to a Rufous crossword you can avoid any apostrophal uncertainty.

  46. Very late (again) to the party.  An enjoyable start to the week from Chifonie.  I’m not sure if there was any intention behind this, given that this setter is not typically known for themed crosswords, but there seemed to me to be a lot of answers that were words related to (or that commonly appear in) legal practice or legal scholarship: MAGISTRATE, TRIBUNAL, PAROLE, ADVICE, EXEMPT, INDUCEMENT, NUANCE.

    I was, of course, thrilled to see another turn on the stage by one of The Three Most Important Rivers in Crosswordland, in 8d.

    Many thanks to Chifonie, manehi and other commenters.

  47. Me too – very late starting (only picked it up last night and then put it aside after writing in a couple of words).  Very much in the ‘gentle Monday’ Rufus tradition – unlike last time when I seem to recall asking whether ‘Rufus Mondays’ were extinct….  At any rate, another 20 minutes or so at breakfast this morning put it to rest.

    The only quibble I have is BASILICA and this is me speaking from pedant’s corner (or perhaps my former geologist’s hat): not all silica is in the form of sand.  “Silica” is the name of the mineral, whilst “sand” is the name of the type of rock (honest!) which may be formed of it.  So perhaps a definition-by-example indicator is called for?  But I’m sure others would argue about that!

    More general question – is this type of puzzle that other solvers want to see in the Guardian?  On Mondays in particular?  I’m easy about that, although I prefer the toughies!  A reasonable mix of hard and not-so-hard, that’s probably for the best.

    Thanks Chifonie and Manehi

     

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