Guardian 27,551 / Tramp

52 comments on “Guardian 27,551 / Tramp”

1. Thanks for stepping in Gaufrid.

   Failed to parse DONATES so thanks for that.

   A BABY here and also blundered in with beekeeper instead of BEEFEATER which held up SOWETO for a while.

   Otherwise, a good romp around centre court.  Struggling to find time to watch the footie, the tennis and also Le Tour.  Just have to retire, I suppose.

   Many thanks Tramp, nice week, all.

2. Thanks for the blog. William @1 yes I pencilled in a partially parsed beekeeper at first as well.

3. I found this easier than Tramp normally is, but an entertaining solve. I went for BABY too, and felt that clue should have been clearer. Unusually for Tramp a small amount of theme knowledge was required, but not much.

   Thanks to Tramp and Gaufrid

4. Super puzzle with brilliant exploitation of a theme, yet again.

   Loved the McEnroe clues, especially SUPERBRAT.

   Thanks to T and G.

    

    

5. I definitely agree with Gaufrid about BABE/BABY, but it was a wonderful puzzle. Super/b clues included USELESS, ARCHDEACON and DONATES. Many thanks to Tramp and Gaufrid.

6. Apologies! My name somehow became minnow, back of beyond, chastity belt! Sound familiar?

7. I’ve a feeling I’m being a bit dim here, (especially with Crossbar being my name) but can someone explain how in 2d centre means CROSS?

   Otherwise an enjoyable puzzle. I too had BABY, because BABE didn’t occur to me. But now I like BABE better. I think these days it’s the more usual form of the term of endearment.

   Thanks to Tramp, and Gaufrid for stepping in.

8. Thanks Tramp and Gaufrid

   A very satisfying solve (though I had BABY too). FOI, reading the clues in order, was CRAMP, but I then worked slowly but steadily W and N from there, finishing with SPOD, a new word for me. Favourites were WIMBLEDON and BEEFEATER.

   I didn’t see where the ON in DONATES came from (and am still not entirely convinced that “cooking” means ON!). I didn’t parse HUBCAPS at all.

   Only slight question: Monica SELES (no longer an active player) was a bit GKy in USELESS, which would have been a bit obscure if you didn’t know of her.

9. Crossbar @7

   A CROSS or CENTRE is a ball from the wing into the penalty box in football.

   btw, whatever has John McEnroe done to offend Tramp?

10. Many thanks, Gaufrid, for filling in. I really needed help with parsing some of the clues. I enjoyed the puzzle, esp. 10a & 14d. Agree on 26d. Learned a new word at 1d.

11. A bit meatier than yesterday’s Vulcan but with plenty of chestnuts to get along with (cower, donates, cramp, etc.).

    Having discovered what a spod is, I guess I’m probably a bit of one. Also have never seen “no more” for “sh”, but it sort of works, and I’ve always thought of apercu as more like bon mot, but no, there it is in my ancient SOED as “a summary exposition, a conspectus [also new!]”

    Thanks Gaufrid and Tramp, and I do hope the missing blogger is alright.

12. Thanks both,

    Muffin @9 ‘Superbrat’ was a nickname conferred on JM by the press in about 1979 – according to Google.

    I wouldn’t, personally, have called an apercu a summary, more a pithy and pertinent point.

     

13. Thanks muffin @9. A football term – no wonder it passed me by 🙂 I don’t follow the tennis much either, but agree that McEnroe’s bad boy days are long gone. Why, he’s even doing commentary now.

14. Crossbar@7, yes I missed it too, World Cup notwithstanding. Was vaguely thinking something like cross=x marks the spot=centre.

15. Thanks for stepping in, Gaufrid.

    My favourites today were WIMBLEDON, BEEFEATER, COMMANDEER and BASSET HOUND [for the surface].

    My only gripe is that I can’t come to terms with the spelling of 26ac. I don’t see how that spelling could lead to the required pronunciation.

    muffin @8 – I would routinely say, ‘The potatoes are on’ – unless they were roast or baked and then they’d be ‘in’. 😉

    Many thanks to Tramp, as ever, for a great puzzle. [I know knowledge of your themes is not essential but this one was right up my street – I’ve had to tear myself away to write this – and so it added to the pleasure.]

16. Very enjoyable – the more obscure words were all deducible.

17. Enjoyable, and tricky in places.  I didn’t know HIBACHI, but the clue made it possible to get and then check.  I didn’t think of the dual (BABY) for BABE at 26d.

    I appreciated the various neat and clever ways in which the theme was inorporated.  In only a couple of places was it advantageous to know a bit of history about certain top players (Seles and McEnroe).

    Thanks to Tramp and Gaufrid.

18. Like beery@3 I thought this was at the less challenging end of Tramp’s repertoire with plenty to enjoy although with fewer ticks than usual. SUPERBRAT, ASTERISK, ARCHDEACON and BASSET HOUND were the ones I picked out. I went with BABE because it’s contemporary usage and thought that would be more Tramp’s style – but it’s unusual for Tramp to create a clue with this ambiguity. My TILT was also SPOD; I didn’t think of a football CROSS but “x marks the spot” which isn’t necessarily the centre; and I also thought APERCU was more pithy than a summary so thanks grantinfreo@11 for the SOED reference.

    Thanks to Tramp for the appropriately themed offering and to Gaufrid for stepping into the breach.

19. I had BABY too but on reflection I think BABE is more current usage, certainly in this country. BABY is more nineteen fifties and before. Check out pop lyrics. I did enjoy the puzzle despite never having heard of SPOD or HIBACHI, although the former couldn’t have been anything else, and PERTH was a guess- but with P R and H in it could hardly be otherwise. I liked SUPERBRAT and remember it being used of the boorish McEnroe, despite not being a lover of tennis. Laugh of the day was KIT!
    Thanks Tramp.

20. I too put baby. I agree with Eileen about 26a

    Apart from that I thought it a wonderful crossword.

    Thanks to Gaufrid for standing in and to Tramp for the fun

21. Thanks Peter Aspinwall. Being a bit dim I completely missed the connection between tackle, length and kilt and am now chortling.

22. Thanks to Tramp and Gaufrid and echo the sentiments that the intended blogger is ok. As others have said very nice puzzle and I was another who was held up by putting in beekeeper,
    until I realised it did not make sense (eventually have learned to read the clue carefully with this setter). Last one hubcaps and had not heard of Spod, but did like superbrat and even remembered the nickname. Thanks again to Tramp and Gaufrid.

23. A great crossword for those who like surfaces to make sense – and very apt and amusing for all the tennis people named. I also thought 27ac (Wimbledon) was a terrific clue.

    Like others I had problems with Babe/Baby, tried to fit in Beekeeper, and was surprised to find that Apercu was OK.

    Thanks to Tramp and Gaufrid.

24. Thanks for the blog and for the comments.

    Sorry for ambiguity at 26d.

    Neil

25. I’m another who really liked this. Good use of a timely theme. As usual with Tramp puzzles, not much specialist knowledge of the theme was required. I bunged in BABE without thinking of the other option. Favourite was BASSET HOUND – clever!

    Thanks to Tramp and Gaufrid.

26. Thanks for a great crossbar (I mean crossword), Tramp, and don’t mention it. Although I opted for baby, I’ve just found another reason to prefer babe. As you mixed football and tennis in 2D it’s only fair that baseball’s superstar Babe Ruth should get a mention too.

27. I have come across the babe/baby ambiguity several times before.

    I thought superbrat was in very bad taste.

     

28. I loved this (although I also put BABY at 26d).  Great themed clues with some really clever wordplay.  I thought the McEnroe clues were masterfully constructed, and I enjoyed the skillful misdirection in Tramp’s use of common phrases, e.g., tennis elbow, picnic hamper, Australian Open, and my favorite, pre-paid envelopes.

    drofle @6, I was almost disappointed to read your “revealing” comment, after getting a(nother) good laugh from your name @5!  [See my comment @44 in the blog of last Friday’s Vlad puzzle, where I first expressed my appreciation for your “pseudonym”!]

    Many thanks to Tramp and Gaufrid and the other commenters.

29. I see I’m the only one who isn’t keen on wit for sense. Wits yes but not sure the singular works for me.

30. I enjoyed this one, no quibbles here:  my brother calls his partner BABE, so I didn’t even think of the Y-version, with babe and love being terms of endearment.  “The potatoes are on/cooking” and “he hasn’t the wit/sense to shut up” were OK  but it took me a while.

    Many thanks to Tramp and Gaufrid

31. Tc @29 – Chambers: ‘intelligence, sense [as in have the wit to]’

    I can’t believe that my friend crypticsue @20 and I @14 are the only ones to demur at ABUSES.

    I spent hours with successive groups of repeat O Level / GCSE students explaining why ‘dinning’ and begining’ were linguistically impossible – a vowel before a double consonant is shortened [eg – relevant here – fused / fussed.] When blogging, I always have to say that, if it’s in Chambers [not my favourite dictionary] the setter is let off – and so it has to be today: Chambers, amazingly,  has ‘busing [or less commonly!! – my italics -] bussing n [chiefly N Am] the transporting of people by bus…’, which, I suppose, although it’s not listed, has to justify ‘bused’ – but it’s so wrong!

    I’ve taken so long to type this that I see I’ve crossed with Freddy about the potatoes – chuffed that we used the same example – and the wit / sense.

32. Eileen @31

    In this week’s Quiptic there’s a solution where I (and my Chambers of respectable vintage) double the consonant, but the answer doesn’t.

    I didn’t mention BUSED as I am always confused on how to spell the past participle of “to focus” – is it “focussed” (which just looks wrong, but would be pronounced correctly), or “focused”, which could be reasonably pronounced incorrectly?

33. Eileen @31

    Forget the indirect reference in Chambers, Collins and the ODE both give the alternatives bused or bussed.

34. Thanks to Tramp and Gaufrid. Like PetHay @22 I had never heard of SPOD but well remembered SUPERBRAT – and I’m another who balked at “busing.”  Lots of fun.

35. Thanks, Gaufrid @33 – today, I didn’t even look at any other dictionary, since Chambers seems to be the accepted authority here and justified Tramp, which is the accepted criterion, and so he’s totally exonerated.

    BUT – 0n this occasion, I’m going to say that I don’t actually care how many umpteen dictionaries give ‘bused’. It can’t be right, for the reasons I started to explain above. I don’t want to start WW3, so I’ll leave it there and be comforted by knowing that at least two other people know what I’m on about. ;=)

36. In my experience, the double-S “bussed” or “bussing”, here in the US, typically means the act of kissing (as in, “bussed on the cheek”).

    Speaking of American usage, I meant in my earlier remarks to protest (mildly) the characterization in 17ac of THRU as the American version of “through”.  In text-speak, or on some road signs where letter space is limited, or in some advertising/commercial contexts, thru certainly appears from time to time.  But in ordinary usage, the American version of “through” is “through”.

37. We had BABY too at 26d (which is probably a better answer (we think)) but hey-ho, a great crossword nonetheless.

    Indeed, somewhat at the easier end of Tramp’s scale (so I agree with the beery one @3).

    More importantly, I fully endorse the first line of (the mighty) Jim T’s comment @4.

    Many thanks to Gaufrid & Tramp.

38. Fun puzzle and interesting blog. Thanks All. Liked 9a PERTH [hometown of grantinfreo]. [I am with you all the way re BUSED, Eileen! Just looks and “sounds” wrong. A local school is advertising “Curiosity-fueled learning” and I feel like it should be “fuelled”, but not sure?]

39. Eileen@15 et seq. I’m another on your side over 26a but @35 I chose Chambers when I first bought a dictionary because the Manchester Guardian said that the answers to all its crossword clues, apart from proper nouns, were in it. I rarely use a dictionary and then it’s usually for Guardian cryptics so I have only ever needed one.
    Crossbar@7. It was the other part of 2d that concerned me. court=BAR? According to Chambers the bar of a court is where a prisoner is arraigned. It’s not the whole court.

40. I meant to add my thanks to Tramp and Gaufrid.

41. muffin @32, Julie @38

    I think you’ll find that focused and fuelled are correct in the UK, but focussed and fueled are correct in the US.  All somewhat paradoxical, but true – unless I find that I’m corrected!

    For what it’s worth, I too think BUSED is wrong, and I wouldn’t use it in a crossword, but the setter here has authority for his choice, as Eileen has fully explained.

42. BUSED is in Chambers, Oxford and Collins – all three of them.

    So, why is BUSED ‘wrong’?

    Because you don’t use it that way in everyday life?

    This is Crosswordland and if it’s in one of major dictionaries it’s fine, full stop.

    [perhaps I’m a bit more easy-going because I’m not a Brit]

     

     

43. @Sil,

    It’s to do with a spelling convention in English, whereby a vowel is long before a single consonant which is followed by a vowel. So, e.g., to preserve the short vowel of ‘run’, the present participle has a double ‘n’: running (else you’d read it “rooning”) It’s a spelling rule some of us learnt at school here. Eileen wants the ‘s’ doubled in ‘bus(s)ing’ to conform with it. I think it’s the perhaps relatively recent verbification of ‘bus’ which is at the root of the inconsistency. Even the thing itself was still an “omnibus” for quite a bit of the C20th, I believe, and then a “‘bus”. Of course omnibus is Latin for ‘for all (everybody)’ and is actually a dative plural adjective if I remember correctly.

    @Eileen,
    Should the plural of ‘bus’ be ‘busses’ or ‘buses’?

44. As an aside, I used to teach short sound, double letter. Remembered by the drink association. (not appropriate for kids these days I suppose).

    So BUSED certainly goes against the grain even if it does appear in a book of words.

     

45. As another late edition to the matter of double consonants, I recall that about 30 years ago I was sent on a course for programming Vax computers made by the American DEC company.  Of course, all the messages the computer produced were with American spellings – color, center, etc.  One of them was “The program has exited”.  The tutor – English – insisted this should be spelt with a double t, and persisted in reading it as “The program has excited”.  Chambers assures me a single t is the correct spelling.

46. What’s all this about football, tennis and “La Tour”? England were playing India at cricket! I liked the crossword, apart from BABY and SPOD.

47. Thanks to Tramp and Gaufrid

    Tony@43: bus is an unusual 3-letter word ending in “s” and takes “-es” in the plural to avoid confusion.  “Gas” and “Yes” are others; similarly for 4-letter words (“bias” “buss” “hiss” “iris” – you get the picture). But the treatment of the nounal verbs (I’m drowning here) can’t imho be equated for argument purposes with pluralisation practice.  Taking “”Gas” for example would “gased” be acceptable as the past participle? Do dictionaries support “gased”?

    I’m on Eileen’s side with regard to this one defo.

48. @Alphalpha,

    Good point about ‘gas’, but according to the spelling ‘rule’ set out above, perhaps the plural should be ‘gasses’, just like the 3rd pers sing of the verb? Otherwise, Eileen et al will want to read it as a homonym of ‘gazes’.

    I didn’t know ‘buss’, but in looking it up in Chambers, I see ‘buss’ is also an obsolete alternative to ‘bus’. Clearly, the etymology triumphed over the spelling rule.

49. [Tony, Alphalpha and others

    FWIW, I have just posted an item on the General Discussion page about BUSED vs. BUSSED and a couple of similar ‘problem pairs’.]

50. Eileen @31 “a vowel before a double consonant is shortened” — but a vowel before a single one isn’t always long.  Tony @43 “a vowel is long before a single consonant which is followed by a vowel” — except when it isn’t.  Don’t panic or fear punishment for being thought erratic.  You surely have the serenity and polish to produce explanatory material with elegant brevity, and the threat of admonishment will rapidly vanish.

    Having said that, I have to say that “bused” looks like “bewzed” to me.  Ought to rhyme with fused.

    DaveMc — thank you for speaking my mind about THRU being “American.”  At times, not normally, as you say.

51. I forgot to add that that plural of bus is neither buses nor busses, but bi. (Rhymes with pie.)  If you don’t believe me, google “motorum borum” and read the whole poem on the decline of the motor bus.  I’d post it here but I’ve done that already and I don’t want to be tedious.

52. @Valentine

    Most amusing! I think you mean “declination of motor bus” rather than “decline of the motor bus” (the poem actually refers to its rise)?.

    “It takes off from puns on the English words “motor” and “bus”, ascribing them to the third and second declensions respectively in Latin, and declining them.” (Wikipedia).

    But ‘bus’ is in fact, as I said, an abbreviation of the third declension dative plural of omnis (all), not the nominative singular of a second declension noun.

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