Guardian 27,541 – Crucible

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Another excellent puzzle from the ever-reliable Crucible.

Perhaps not quite up to the brilliant “Seven Ages of Man” puzzle in Tuesday’s Independent by his alter ego Radian, but there’s another theme here of board games of various kinds: CHESS, CLUEDO, DRAUGHTS, SCRABBLE, SNAKES and LADDERS and LUDO, with a thematic hint in 23d. Thanks to Crucible.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
9. HEADLINER Cast her in lead? (9)
(HER IN LEAD)* &lit (that is, the whole clue is the definition as well as the whole of the wordplay)
10. CHESS Mate ends this old duty husband introduced (5)
H in CESS (an old tax)
11. LADDERS Runs large 21 down (7)
L + ADDERS (snakes)
12. TACTILE Performance in hat likely to touch people (7)
ACT in TILE (hat)
13. LINGO Baffling old cases that can be hard to interpret (5)
Hidden in baffLING Old
14. MESSENGER Envoy to dine with English earl now and then (9)
MESS (to dine) + ENG + alternate letters of EaRl
16. INCIDENTAL MUSIC Scores of cinemas include it, oddly ignoring echo (10,5)
(CINEMAS INCLUDE IT)* less one E (echo) – not quite an &lit, but the wordplay and definition do overlap
19. SACRAMENT Posted over a pack for confirmation maybe (9)
A CRAM in SENT
21. SIREN Temptress wrong to restrict touching (5)
RE (about, touching) in SENT SIN
22. LYING-IN Arriving at airport, female leaves confinement (5-2)
FLYING IN less F
23. BRAMBLE Blackberry jam for one in authority (7)
BIBLE (authority) with I (one) replaced by RAM (to jam)
24. DEALT Passed round plank, first of twenty (5)
DEAL (wood, plank) +T[wenty]
25. TRAVELLER Cashier collecting rabbi’s fare (9)
RAV (a rabbi) in TELLER (cashier in a bank etc). A fare is how a taxi-driver might describe a passenger, or traveller
Down
1. CHILBLAINS Digital problem Bill fixed in series (10)
BILL* in CHAINS
2. SARDONIC Cutting as printed describes a radical lecturer (8)
A R DON in SIC (“as printed”)
3. CLUEDO Game could spread across Spain (6)
E (Spain) in COULD*
4. ONUS Old newspaper put up charge (4)
O + reverse of SUN
5. PROTESTANT Lutheran‘s one for his books, not me (10)
PRO (one [who is] for) + TESTAMENT less ME
6. ICE CREAM Diamonds? Pick 99 maybe (3,5)
ICE (slang for diamonds) + CREAM (the pick)
7. SEWING Crude TV family close to top getting stitched up? (6)
EWINGS (the family in Dallas, who make their money from oil = crude) with S (the close) moved to the top
8. ISLE Feel sick to some extent, heaving, sailing here? (4)
Hidden in reverse of feEL Sick – another &littish clue
14. MONKEY NUTS Capital hoards 1,000 bananas and legumes (6,4)
K (1000) in MONEY (capital) + NUTS (mad, bananas)
15. RACONTEURS Royal courtesan condemned yarn spinners (10)
R + COURTESAN
17. DRAUGHTS Daughter’s unwell, losing energy, needing these? (8)
DAUGHTERS* less E – draughts in the old sense of doses of medicine
18. SCRABBLE Grub that is given to hoi polloi (8)
SC (scilicet – namely, that is) + RABBLE (hoi polloi)
20. CLIMAX This writer’s one among 160 to reach peak (6)
I’M A in CLX (160 in Roman numerals)
21. SNAKES Endless plain in central Russia generating winds (6)
NAKE[D] (plain) in [ru]SS[ia] – winds to rhyme with minds
22. LUDO Game I play in Rome once (4)
LUDO is Latin for “I play” – also the origin of the name of the game
23. BOAR Brief supporter of games above and other game (4)
A truncation of BOARD – the “supporter” of the thematic games “above” (i.e. above this clue)

64 comments on “Guardian 27,541 – Crucible”

  1. A difficult puzzle for me but I was greatly helped by the theme.
    I failed to solve 23d correctly having guessed it to be the card game BRAG which I attempted to parse as BRA (supporter) + G (1st letter of games / “of games above”) but had no idea what to do with the word BRIEF in the clue. Oh well, at least I tried!

    New for me were CESS = tax/levy and 99 ice cream.

    Thanks Crucible and Andrew.

     

     

  2. I am a few days behind with my Indy solving so have not yet got round to this week’s Radian offering. Having thoroughly enjoyed this one, I am now really looking forward to the challenge based on your recommendation Andrew. So thank you and of course thanks to DA

  3. Thanks Crucible and Andrew

    I found this difficult, not helped by confidently (and carelessly) writing CHILLBLAIN at 1d to start with. I didn’t see how BRAMBLE worked, and I’ve never heard of RAV for “rabbi”. A DNF for me, in fact, as I had a mostly parsed BRAG at 23d.

    Why “sailing” in 8d?

    Favourite was LYING-IN.

  4. That was tough! Really hard to start, but a bit easier towards the end. Theme helped.

    Thanks to Crucible for the challenge and to Andrew for a couple of explanations.

  5. Sorry, I missed your comment, michelle. That was exactly how I got BRAG. I took the “brief” as being a shortened form of “brassiere”.

    I was relieved that 6d didn’t involve the argument about 99 in Roman numerals (though I thought at first that it might).

  7. Yes, fairly hard but a great puzzle. I couldn’t parse BRAMBLE; loved the games theme. Favourites were HEADLINER, MESSENGER, CHILBLAINS and CLUEDO. Many thanks to C & A.

  9. Martin @6  – you are right, of course: now corrected. (I was obviously still thinking about the previous clue)

    muffin @3 – I think the idea is just that you might be seasick – and “heaving” – when sailing to an isle

     

  14. Thanks, Andrew – your preamble says it all.

    Re 8dn: I read ‘sailing here’ as a reference to Cowes, on the Isle of Wight.

    My favourites today were SCRABBLE, CLIMAX and BRAMBLE, which brought back happy memories of the long-standing and never-resolved argument I used to have with my Scottish husband, with me maintaining that a bramble was a bush which bore blackberries and him equally stoutly declaring that it was a blackberry. We didn’t have a Chambers in those days, but I now see that it gives both definitions, the latter being ‘Scottish’. Apparently, it can be a verb, too, meaning to gather blackberries – which sounds like a rather charming portmanteau word, suggesting a leisurely stroll, foraging on the way.

    Many thanks, as ever, to Crucible for a lovely puzzle – as with so many other words, the Northern Irish definition is obviously the same as the Scottish. 😉

  15. A massive dnf for me today. The long anagram and the north-west went in easily enough, then it was a slog. Huizinga’s ‘Homo Ludens’ is on my bookshelf but still didn’t parse ludo! Dnk the 99 icecream (thinking rather Maxwell Smart), nor the Latin for ‘that is’ (other than i.e.), nor cess for duty. Hey ho, it’s never too late to learn.

    Thanks Andrew and Crucible.

  16. Thanks to Crucible and Andrew. Enjoyable, but tough going for me. I did know cess = tax, but did not know rav = rabbi, 99 as ICE CREAM, and MONKEY NUTS. I did correctly guess BOAR (my LOI) but could not parse it.

  17. Thank you Crucible and Andrew.

    Tough going for me also, but twigging on to the theme helped a little.

    I could not parse BRAMBLE. Eileen’s post @14 reminded me of blackberrying with the farm dog, a springer spaniel, he too would ‘pick’ the blackberries, but spat them into the basket –  my mother finally provided him with his own basket which was kept on the ground while mine was hung on my arm!

  18. Got the theme very early but still DNF. RAV & CESS were new to me. Tough, challenging and very enjoyable. I liked ICE CREAM (I’d kill for a 99 right about now).

    Thanks Crucible & Andrew.

  19. I’m yet another who had BRAG for 23D. And (michelle @1) it parses, I’d claim, since “bra” is of course short (in brief) for “brassiere”.

     

    That’s a lovely reminiscence, cookie @17!

  21. Some beautiful clues in this one, with BRAMBLE being the stand-out star for me.  A fine effortless surface and a great example of this type of clue.

    I had difficulty with parsing a number of these:  LUTHERAN, TRAVELLER (I thought it was REB as the shortened form of rabbi. I didn’t know RAV) and BOAR (I also got to BRAG first but it didn’t really work).  In the latter, I took the “above” in the clue as indicating that the board is below the game that is being played.

    We do seem to be expected to know quite a bit more Latin of late!  Fortunately LUDO was readily guessable.

    Great stuff.  Thanks, Crucible and Andrew.

  22. Thanks to Crucuible and Andrew. Another toughie for me to continue the theme of the week. A slow start, but once I had identified the theme, it unfolded much better. That said solving was easier than parsing, and needed Andrew’s help for a few of them. However a DNF for me because I was yet another with brag for 23d. A classic example of how the theme did not help but actually hindered the correct solving. I thought snakes was very good, or maybe it was just me trying to shoehorn steppe in after getting ladders. Overall still an enjoyable challenge and thanks again to Crucuible and Andrew.

  23. A DNF for me, as I had LIDO instead of LUDO at 22d and BRAS at 23d (also fell into the underwear supporter trap). I failed to parse the CESS part of 10a CHESS, the BIBLE part of 23a BRAMBLE, the EWINGS in 7d SEWING and the NAKED part of 21d SNAKES. I also missed the reverse hidden in 8d so ISLE was just a lucky guess. Pathetic performance really with so many biffs. Nevertheless, I did enjoy spotting the BOARd games theme in the mudst of a very patchy solve. 1d CHILBLAINS and 15d RACONTEURS were favourites.
    Wonderful stories from both Eileen and Cookie based around the Blackberry/BRAMBLE clue.
    Many thanks to Crucible, Andrew and all other participants.

  25. I didn’t do Mon and Tue cryptics so wonder if a serial theme started yesterday with MONKEY SUIT and continues today with MONKEY NUTS. Should we expect to see e.g. ‘Primate affairs (6, 8)’ tomorrow?

  26. Thanks to s & b. A good workout, with some witty constructions. I could not parse 23a – well done Andrew for working that one out.

  27. Thanks both,

    A pleasant solve with an unmissable theme. 23d seems to be one of those clues which has a genuine alternative solution. It would be interesting to know what the setter thinks.

  28. A top class puzzle and a very satisfying one to solve. Took a while to get properly started but the theme definitely helped. BRAMBLE was last to parse and probably my favourite in retrospect.

    Thanks to Crucible and Andrew

  29. I’m a little in doubt on 23 down where, like several other people, I put Brag, not Boar. Others have considered that to be a dnf but I’m not sure I agree. It satisfies the clue-“bra”=brief supporter as others have said, “g” might be “games above” as it is the first letter and it is certainly another game. I doubt we would have howled in protest if that had been the answer although I accept that the “g” bit is a little clunky. It doesn’t seem to me that we need pretend to be mind-readers in our solutions.

  32. I got INCIDENTAL MUSIC first, but after that it was a bit of a grind, and I filled in BRAMBLE, SEWING and BOAR just from their definitions (and crossers). I was slow to discover the theme, but it did help with LADDERS towards the end.
    I liked TRAVELLER, SIREN, ICE CREAM, SNAKES and SCRABBLE very much.
    Thanks to Crucible and Andrew.

  33. Raindog @30 – having just checked, ‘grub synonyms’ in google brings up scrabble, amongst many others. And it’s meaning is as Dougal @31 states.

  36. Well, I got BRAG as well and I think it works and fits in with the theme which I got for once. BOARd is very clever now it’s been pointed out but ‘supporter’ is often BRA and G for game and BRAG is a game albeit singular..Oh well. Found the rest difficult until CLUEDO gave me the theme. I liked SARDONIC.
    Thanks Crucible.

  38. I’m surprised that so many had brag for 23dn, for several reasons: being a card game, it doesn’t fit the theme, which, as Andrew said, is BOARD games [games above];  I don’t remember ever seeing G as an abbreviation for game and I really can’t imagine Crucible using ‘games above’ to indicate the first letter! And surely the clue would have read ‘ANother game’, if brag had been the answer? [Occam’s razor? 😉 ]

  40. A thoroughly enjoyable puzzle today – thanks to Crucible.

    I didn’t know CESS or RAV for Rabbi.  And my LOI was, embarrassingly for a linguist, LINGO.

    Today we have Latin LUDO and on Tuesday we had Latin HOC and French JE.  Has anyone had any thoughts about what foreign languages solvers may be expected to know?  I’m not knocking it mind – I think it’s wonderful!

  42. The problem for me was that, as Lingo is a mobile phone game, Monkey Nuts is an educational game aimed at helping young children learn spelling, and Traveller was a science fiction roleplaying game from the 1980s, I didn’t think the theme was only board games. So Brag made more sense than Boar for 23d.

  43. The problem for me was that, as Lingo is a mobile phone game, Monkey Nuts is an educational game aimed at helping young children learn spelling, and Traveller was a science fiction roleplaying game from the 1980s, I didn’t think the theme was only board games. And so Brag made more sense than Boar for 23d.

  44. Eileen @38

    While it’s true that all the correct games are board games, the clinching answer that confirms that is BOAR(d), so if we haven’t got that (having BRAG instead), it still leaves “games” as the theme…

  46. (I crossed with Hornbeam. I haven’t heard of those games, but if they are games, as he says it makes BRAG even more likely.)

  47. Eileen @38

    You make a very good point about BRAG/BOAR for 23d.  This was my last clue to solve, and I didn’t want to dwell on it.  I had about 15 words in my head that could go there, of which only BRAG and BOAR fitted any part of the clue.  It was precisely ‘other game’ vs. ‘another game’ that ruled out BRAG in my mind, and I filled in BOAR before even seeing how the rest of the clue worked.

  48. Sorry, I’ve not made my point very clearly. What I meant was it’s not obvious that they’re all board games until you’ve got BOAR, hence BRAG isn’t as unreasonable an answer as you thought @38 (I agree that BOAR is better, though).

  49. My Chambers app does not give sc = scilicet but, under scilicet, it says it is abbreviated as scil. or sciz.
    “Sc” may also = Scottish and, around here, legend has it that the 99 was invented in an ice-cream shop at 99 Portobello High Street.

  50. Yes. I had BRAG and still think it’s as good as BOAR.

    “The other game”

    Of course I didn’t notice the theme as I never look for them as I don’t want the unwelcome help they may offer.

  52. Perhaps, the best puzzle of the Guardian week so far.

    Last one in was TRAVELLER (25ac) because it was the only word that fitted. We assumed that ‘rav’ for rabbi had to be right but didn’t see how the answer to this clue could equate ‘fare’.

    Not really enthusiastic about the definition for ISLE (8d) nor the definition of ‘deal’ (plank) in 24ac but all in all a lot more adventurous (and up my street) than Tuesday’s Radian in the Independent.  To each their own, I’d say.

    We missed the theme which was signposted in such an obvious way (that we missed it).

    9ac (HEADLINER) – typical to this setter in his Redshank outfit – and 22ac (LYING-IN) were perhaps favourites.

    [my solving partner objected that having a lie in (on, for example, a Sunday morning) wasn’t a kind of ‘confinement’ – but then, she doesn’t have children]

    Many thanks Andrew & Crucible.

  53. lurkio @50

    The clue to 23d has ‘other game’, not ‘the other game’.  That’s why BOAR is the better fit – and it fits the rest of the clue better as well.

  55. me @54, that should be ‘scilicet’, cannot think how that happened, spell check did not react …

  57. A game (crosswording) with a theme of games — more fun than a barrel of MONKEY NUTS!  Good (and rare) news for me today:  I managed to solve and parse every clue in the puzzle with no outside assistance, not even a post-solve Google-confirm.  Less good news: It took me 2 or 3 weeks (or so it felt, doing it in fits and starts throughout the day) to get there.  BOAR was my LOI.

    I have mentioned this in past blogs, that the board game CLUEDO is known here in the US simply as “Clue”.  I know the word “Cluedo” only from having encountered it in Guardian Cryptics, and would never have been able to solve 3dn without that prior familiarity.  Similarly, CESS = tax or duty was something I recognized from (and only from) prior crosswords.  I vaguely recall that CESS was a solution, or part of one, in at least one Guardian Cryptic during the past year or so.  And finally, “that is” being used to clue SC (instead of the usual IE) is a device that appeared VERY recently — looking back, I see that it was in Paul’s Prize puzzle from June 9 (blogged here on 15^2 on June 16), not in the daily Cryptic. 

    CotD for me was the entire SE corner.  To me, it contained some of the most challenging (yet satisfying) clues in the puzzle, and also inspired the most entertaining comments above.

    Many thanks to Crucible and Andrew and the other commenters.  Is it Saturday yet?

  58. Me @ 57-

    I forgot to mention that 99 = ICE CREAM was another example in this puzzle of something that, as a US solver, I was able to solve *only* from having encountered it in prior Guardian Cryptics (and Googled afterward to learn more).  Utterly mystifying to me the first time I ever encountered it, but now familiar.

    I have often mentioned TILTs (Things I Learned Today), which to me is one of the great pleasures of solving the puzzles and then following the blogs and commentary on this forum.  A fabulous bonus quality of TILTs is that they often become TICSTFSMTNTOTISIIAPAIINTDAMs (Things I Can Solve Tomorrow (Figuratively Speaking, Meaning The Next Time Or Times I See It In A Puzzle, Assuming It Is Not Too Distant A Memory))!!

  59. Yet again my putting in an answer without carefully checking the anagram fodder caught me out as I put HARDLINER instead of HEAD… which I thought worked as an &lit as the lead lining of a casket! This meant I rejected Mrs W’s suggestion of SARDONIC and so dnf.
    I checked BRAG so knew it wasn’t right and then had BOAR which fitted with game but I didn’t make the connection to board games nor did I see the blindingly obvious theme.
    I didn’t parse BRAMBLE and whilst I had RAM for JAM I again rejected Mrs W’s suggestion that BIBLE could be a synonym for authority and I’m surprised (disappointed?) it is regarded as such even in crosswordland. TRAVELLER and SCRABBLE also remained unparsed with RAV and SCilicet unknown to me.
    Thanks to Crucible for the challenge and new learning, to Andrew for the blog, and apologies to Mrs W for not listening better to her!

  60. Alan @56, please notice that the second line of my ‘comment’ was written in the past tense!

  61. Alan B @53

    OK I’ll cater for your pedantry.

    I actually meant the ‘other game’.

    The problem with your “best fit” theory is that when one comes up with a perfectly good answer that parses then one doesn’t bother checking for a better answer. (This is a problem with the setting/editing)

     

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