Guardian Cryptic 27,454 by Nutmeg

by

A fine puzzle, slightly tough for a Monday with neatly misleading surfaces. Favourites were 11ac, 25ac, 28ac, 3dn, 19dn, and 24dn – thanks Nutmeg.

Edit thanks to Rullytully who spotted the Nina…

Across
1 BACKS UP What contentious folk often get for seconds? (5,2)
contentious folk often get their BACKS UP i.e. become irritated or hostile
also =”seconds” as in gives support to a suggestion, or acts as a second in a duel
5 FINE ART Miserly investment in worthy sculpture, for instance (4,3)
NEAR=”Miserly”, invested in FIT=”worthy”
9 TORSI Is rubbish put back in trunks? (5)
IS ROT=”rubbish”, all reversed/”put back”
10 DISCOLOUR Get dirty, menacing look after party (9)
LOUR=”menacing look”, after DISCO=”party”
11 EXTRICABLE “Almost clean” Brexit arranged, that can be delivered (10)
“delivered” as in rescued or set free
(clea[n] Brexit)*
12 GOYA Painter‘s energy always returns (4)
GO=”energy” plus AY=”always” reversed/”returns”
14 ULTRAMARINE Wild animal with truer colour (11)
(animal truer)*
18 RINGLEADERS Rein in twins, those running the enterprise (11)
LEAD=”Rein” inside RINGERS=”twins” as in ‘dead ringers’
21 MOOD What Jersey did, presumably, banning English humour (4)
a Jersey cow may have MOO-[E]D, minus E[nglish]
22 REFRACTIVE Whistleblower runs, busy and able to change direction (10)
=able to change the direction of e.g. light as it passes through
REF[eree]=Whistleblower in sport; plus cricket abbreviation R[uns]; plus ACTIVE=”busy”
25 COMPLIANT Grouse when main road’s used the wrong way — playing ball! (9)
COMPLAINT=”Grouse”, with AI=A1=”main road” reversed inside it
26 ALONE Audacious League of Nations enterprise originally unsupported (5)
first letters of A[udacious] L[eague] O[f] N[ations] E[nterprise]
27 SUNDECK Here at sea might one see son strip off? (7)
S[on]; plus UN-DECK=”strip off?” given that ‘deck’=cover or clothe
28 HUNCHED Bent journalist beyond suspicion (7)
ED[itor]=”journalist” after HUNCH=”suspicion”
Down
1 BUTTER British state’s contribution to continental breakfast? (6)
B[ritish] plus UTTER=”state”
2 CURATE Minister‘s canny, calling in the artillery (6)
CUTE=”canny” around R[oyal] A[rtillery]
3 SPIRITUALS Music from Southern religious ceremonies? (10)
S[outhern]; plus PI[ous]=”religious”; plus RITUALS=”ceremonies”
4 PODIA Here we go for relief — relief coming up in stages (5)
=plural of podium
PO=chamberpot=”Here we go for relief”; plus AID=”relief” reversed/”coming up”
5 FUSILLADE Barrage‘s fluid seal broken (9)
(fluid seal)*
6 NEON Gas, once found, regularly discharged (4)
regular letters from [o]N[c]E [f]O[u]N[d]
7 APOLOGIA A game soldier first to attempt a written defence (8)
A; plus POLO=”game”; plus GI=”soldier”; plus the first letter of A[ttempt]
8 THREATEN Cow with last of clover to chew coming in later (8)
last letter of [clove]R, plus EAT=”chew”; both in THEN=”later”
13 DAISYCHAIN Any child is mad giving pound for a necklace (5,5)
(Any chi[l]d is)*, replacing the l[ibra]=”pound” for another ‘a’ into the anagram fodder
15 TRADEMARK Characteristic craft revolution­ised nameless country (9)
ART=”craft” reversed/”revolutionised”, plus DE[n]MARK=”country” minus n[ame]
16 GRIMACES Charming qualities masking Nutmeg’s ugly looks (8)
GRACES=”Charming qualities” around I’M=I am=Nutmeg is=”Nutmeg’s”
17 UNCOMMON In Montmartre, a joint seldom found (8)
UN=’a’ in French; plus COMMON=”joint”
19 KIBOSH Put paid to king, moving bishop not pawn (6)
K[ing] plus (bishop)* without the p[awn]
20 BEHEAD Top husband in contest getting promotion (6)
H[usband] in BEE=e.g. spelling bee=”contest”, plus AD[vert]=”promotion”
23 RETCH Punster’s last to cut gag (5)
last letter of [Punste]R, plus ETCH=”cut”
24 CLUE This is oddly coloured (4)
odd letters from C[o]L[o]U[r]E[d]

56 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,454 by Nutmeg”

  1. Thanks Nutmeg and manehi

    Unusually, I had a couple of question marks. Why “presumably” in 21a? (the clue works perfectly well without it, I think). You have to really contort the grammar to get the A/L substituion the right way round in DAISY CHAIN.

    Favourite were REFRACTIVE and KIBOSH.

  2. I found this difficult, especially for a Monday! I still miss Rufus. . .
    I failed to solve 22a and could not parse 27a – I have never heard of undeck = strip off so I thought maybe there was some other way to parse this?
    New word for me was KIBOSH.
    My favourite was TRADEMARK.

    Thanks Nutmeg and manehi.

  3. Yes, tough for a Monday but good fun. Favourites were RINGLEADERS, MOOD and COMPLIANT. Got rather involved with REFRACTION and REFRACTING, which messed up BEHEAD, but eventually realised it was REFRACTIVE. Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi.

  4. Quite hard for a Monday but Just About Managed to finish it. Many thanks Nutmeg and manehi.

    Michelle@2: KIBOSH strikes me as rather dated and is used in the phrase put the kibosh on something, i.e. ruin/destroy it.

  5. I found this quite hard, but enjoyable nonetheless.

    Nobody’s mentioned the Nina yet

    Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi.

  6. Agree with Manehi and previous comments that this was difficult for a Monday. I think I’m not quite on the same wavelength as Nutmeg. Still, I like a challenge.

    LOI was PODIA. I was a bit dim parsing it. I find lavatorial humour a bit tiresome after a while and we usually get enough of that from Paul.

    Got there in the end, and really liked KIBOSH.

    Thanks to Nutmeg & Manehi

  8. Rullytully – thanks for the hint!

    michelle@2 – I think the question mark in “strip off?” is meant to indicate that ‘un-deck’ is not a standard usage

  9. Martin@4 Where would we be without dated words in crosswords? Does anyone say AY for always (12a)? KIBOSH is still used from time to time in my household, but I’ll cheerfully admit to living in the past. 🙂

  15. Thanks, muffin. Only has the penny dropped, and there Nina is. A tricky crossword for a Monday and all the better for it.

  18. Thank you Nutmeg and manehi.

    Quite a challenge for Monday. Loved 24d, the GUARDIAN certainly has chosen queer colours for its crosswords…

  19. Thanks Nutmeg; I’m glad others found this tough – so did I.

    Thanks manehi; I agree with muffin @1 that ‘giving pound for a’ seems the wrong way round for a substitution. I lazily put in ‘complaint’ at the beginning until 15 didn’t work.

    I’m not sure why it was continental breakfast; is this a reference to the butter mountain, or is it something else? I failed to spot the ‘po’ and also the NINA. I thought my brain had stopped working but it was enjoyable in a masochistic sort of way.

  20. Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi. Like some others I found this quite tough. After first couple of passes I had little in. Then at one point I had all the top in and very little at the bottom. Eventually after I twigged refractive (seen the ref whistleblower many times) the SE yielded and eventually the SW. That said some guess and then parse for me and was not aware of the French joint. Of course missed the Nina and last ones in kibosh and uncommon. I did like trademark, podia (very Paul like) and kibosh and thanks again to Nutmeg and manehi.

  21. I really enjoyed this but needed the blog for a couple of clues; so many thanks to Nutmeg for the fine crossword and manehi for the excellent blog.

    I too missed the Nina (but then, I almost always do so).

    With regards to the puzzle being a bit tough for a Monday, I’m not a great fan of the convention (if it exists) that the Monday puzzle should necessarily be easier. After all, we have the Quiptic on a Monday and that should be (and usually is) a bit easier than the normal Cryptic; I do recommend today’s Quiptic by the way (a very fine puzzle in my view).  I normally attempt the Quiptic first (to let the brain warm up a bit) and then move on to the Cryptic.  I sometimes feel a bit let down when the Cryptic’s easier than the Quiptic.

     

  23. Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi.

    I don’t seem to be on Nutmeg’s wavelength and found this difficult, Monday or no.  DISCOLOUR is an example of my discomfort: I don’t equate “disco” with “party” and “lour” is, for me, a somewhat arcane version of (the not much more familiar) “lower”; “KIBOSH” for “put paid to” doesn’t quite work for me either nor does “cow” for “THREATEN”. As for “un-deck” the least said etc.

    But there was much to enjoy and favourites were PODIA, COMPLIANT and SPIRITUALS.

     

  24. Top half flew in, bottom half didn’t. Like others I’m not sure where ‘continental’ fits in 1d.
    Is there more to the NINA than meets the eye? There’s another concealed word sitting vertically, but perhaps it’s coincidental.
    Very good fun for Monday. Thanks to setter&blogger

  25. This was a long-winded solve for me; I was thick as a brick with several clues. Like Robi@19, I put in COMPLAINT at 25a, an error which ignored the correct parsing and so created problems.

    Missed the Nina, so as ever I am glad to have the forum to add to my appreciation of clever setting – thanks to Rullytully@5.

    Being an intuitive solver, I liked HUNCHED at 28a, though today intuition didn’t help a lot. At times I reread the fodder over and over and still didn’t have a 24d CLUE!

    Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi.

  26. Meant to say, I did like the paradox in 16d GRIMACES. It was a very “Nutmeg”-type clue, I thought.

  27. Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi. I did not find this puzzle as difficult as suggested above, but I did have trouble with the PO in PODIA, the undeck in SUNDECK, and the ringers = twins in RINGLEADERS. Very enjoyable.

  28. Thought this was going to be easy at first, but some of these were pretty tough to parse, particularly by Monday standards. Thanks for the parsing of PODIA – I was overthinking that.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi

  29. Unexpectedly difficult for a Monday, but nothing wrong with that – a fine puzzle nevertheless. My last two in were 3d and 18ac, the latter which really should have fallen sooner. If only I’d spotted the Nina, but I rarely do.

  30. There was I settling down for my usual Monday canter through the crossword only to have to draw three uncompleted clues in the SW to Mrs T’s attention over lunch. “I need a country without an N in it to follow TRA.” “Denmark?” Boom boom boom and finishing with the otherwise unlinked BEHEAD, “top husband” getting a chortle in the circumstances.

    The nina wouldn’t have helped, even if I had seen it.

  31. Enjoyable puzzle this! Thanks to Nutmeg and to manehi for the blog. Favourites were CLUE and COMPLIANT. I wondered whether there was going to be a theme of non-S plurals, with APOLOGIA, PODIA and TORSI, and I suppose there was a micro-theme.

    Aside from the puzzle itself, has the “highlighted clue” colour for any other online solvers changed from blue to yellow? I’m a fan.

     

    Thanks again N &m

  32. This was a very enjoyable puzzle – just right for me, giving me plenty to think about, but all doable.  The only bit I didn’t work out was the PO in PODIA – I completely forgot that it was a word and what it meant.

    Either I need to create a single-click way of typing “I missed the Nina” or I should stop saying it!  This time, though, I have a really good excuse.  I lost my pen shortly before I finished, and I solved my last four clues without writing them in; two of those would have given me the GU of GUARDIAN.  Hard to credit, I know, but it’s true.

    In answer to muffin’s query about ‘presumably’ in 21a MOOD, I thought a word like that is needed either because ‘Jersey’ is an example of a cow, a creature that moos. or because a Jersey, being a cow, presumably mooed – but might not have done.

    Among many good clues I liked GRIMACES and UNCOMMON most of all.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi.

  33. An absolutely lovely puzzle, which was a joy to solve, and a Nina to boot which I missed of course. Many thanks Nutmeg, and many thanks manehi

  34. Missed the Nina and couldn’t parse the PO in PODIA which was LOI. I agree with those who found this difficult for a Monday but I thought this much easier than usual for a Nutmeg. I rather enjoyed the puzzle and I often don’t with this setter. I did like REFRACTIVE and MOOD.
    Thanks Nutmeg.

  35. ‘What Jersey did’ is a bit loose for me. Even with ‘presumably’ tagged on. ‘Jersey’s comment’ or something would surely have been clearer. Anyway, not much to moan about in any Nutmeg puzzle, for she (I think) is a clever compiler.

    Where puzzles go in terms of day is up to the ed as far as I know, and it is his wisdom that this puzzle is a Monday slotter. Whoops?

  36. Meph @ 31

    The crossword is classified as Lifestyle in the G’s headers, so the links are now purple rather than blue. I don’t know why the crossword lights have changed to a rather lurid yellow, but I think someone ought to remind the G that purple & yellow are UKIP’s colours.

  37. Martin @ 4:  I use KIBOSH quite a bit (usually in reference to my hopes and dreams), but I have no doubt that I would strike you as dated as well!

    I really enjoyed this puzzle. I didn’t get PODIA and couldn’t parse SPIRITUALS but everything else was a nice challenge.

  38. Brain ache for me and Mr Paddington Bear. Not helped by me having done about 10 clues on the Guardian app which appears to have turned up its toes. So I had to remember what I’d done and use the other app. I miss my gentle introduction to the week with Rufus. But it was enjoyable once we got into it.

  41. I missed the nina – as did others, it seems! 🙁

    Certainly no picnic with Nutmeg (or any other flavour), for a Monday.  But very clean and polished.  If I have a quibble, I wasn’t sure if TORSI was a valid plural – but Chambers says it is, albeit “rare”.  At least it’s more valid than, say, “octopi” or “stati”.

    I remembered the word LOUR from only one setting – but it’s a very well-known setting:

    “Now is the winter of our discontent/Made glorious summer by this sun of York/And all the clouds that lour‘d upon our house…”

    That helped a lot!  Bard-haters have my sympathy!

    Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi

  43. I found this extremely difficult. Wrestled with it miserably for hours and hours. I see from this site that several of the answers turned out to be a tad arcane – which makes me feel a little better about having failed with them. But on the whole, if this is to become the standard for Guardian cryptics on Mondays, then I may as well give up. Better that, than spending the day lowering miserably…..

  44. Muffin and others

    Any child is mad giving pound for a 

    “Any child”, subject of man clause, is mad (anagram) giving, referring to subject of main clause, pound (l) (in exchange) for a.

    What’s awkward about that?

     

  45. Very late to this, as Monday was busy. I agree with all who found it tough for a Monday, but thanks to Nutmeg for a workout. I needed the blog for a few – and still didn’t like undeck. Thanks to Manehi for much needed help. And thanks lastly to Rick@40 for the explanation of Nina. Now I just need to know what tea trays have to do with crossword solving …

  47. Yes, harder than the usual Monday, but none the worse for that. LOI was podia; not knowing po for chamberpot, I concluded that it stood for post office, where you go to pick up your dole check (or used to go I think – as a Canuck I’m not sure of the procedure). Missed the nina, of course – I was going to ask the origin of the word, so thanks, Mazza at 39 for asking, and Rick at 40 for the answer.

    Thanks Nutmeg and manehi.

  48. Arriving late to the party … again.  Having said that, I’m an hour earlier than I would have been otherwise (today and for the next couple of weeks), thanks to the US having gone to Daylight Saving Time this weekend.  I enjoyed this puzzle, but — like others who commented above — it turned out to be a real struggle in the southern half.  I think my favorite clue today was BACKS UP, which was also my FOI.

    I failed to spot the Ninas (the horizontal one in manehi’s blog, and the vertical one that Dp @24 alone seems to have mentioned).  I always enjoy the extra effort the setter must have invested into making some added fun with the uncrossed letters like that, but it is not clear to me if there might be some theme, some occasion (such as commemoration of a person or event from history), or other non-random reason for Nutmeg to have wanted to hide GUARDIAN and CLERIC (or “U CLERIC” — U for University?) in the grid.  Has anyone come up with a plausible explanation, or guess, about this?  (Does anyone know Nutmeg and can ask her this question directly?)

    Many thanks to Nutmeg and manehi and the other commenters.  Crossing my fingers to get “48” – one of my favorite numbers!

  49. Only just finished before midnight – and discovered Arachne waiting just after! Tough and rewarding – a great puzzle. Thanks Nutmeg and manehi.

  50. @44 I think you repair the clue unconsciously! Exchanging would have been a much better word to use.

  51. Too tough for me…I got about half and was going to have a second bite but left my paper at home…glad I didn’t, there’s a few there I’m never getting, with super stretched definitions and use of grammar…

    On the subject of the Quiptic, is that online subscribers only? I am a paper subscriber not sure how to get it…I know that makes me old fashioned but it’ll be a bit annoying if the only ‘easy’ cryptic of the week isn’t available to print readers at all…

  52. Ignore my previous follow up I seem to be able to access the Quiptic not sure why I was struggling before

  53. Ha!
    I could solve but not parse 16dn & 20dn, so I had to come here to find the (totally fair, and not-unusual) parsings.

    I forgot (again) about ‘bee’ as in ‘spelling’, and I totally fell for the booby trap of ignoring the setter’s nom de guerre and using ‘mace’ as a crosswordland (i.e. inaccurate) substitution for ‘nutmeg’, so then could not see how the word ‘gris’ could mean ‘charming qualities’.

    So for me, just as with my school reports, it’s another conclusion of ‘Must try harder’! 😀

  54. crimper @50

    No, I’m not “repairing” the clue in my unconsciously. It’s a perfectly reasonable cryptic clue.

    The logical conclusion to your way of thinking would be.

    Necklace, (the answer is daisy chain) 😉

    I won’t even start to talk about what your suggestion would to the clue surface. (Total rewrite required!)

  55. Only just finished it! Am I alone in putting DISHONOUR at 10A? Of course I couldn’t parse it but then nor could I fully parse PODIA. Nor did I see the NINA.

  56. 15d arts and crafts are not the same or the movement that William Morris led would be the Arts or the Crafts and not the Arts and Crafts Movement.
    Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi

Comments are closed.