Guardian Cryptic 27,592 by Nutmeg

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The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27592.

I thought this distinctly harder than we have come to expect for a Monday, but none the worse for that.

Across
1 BELGRADE The Spanish invested in second-rate capital (8)
An envelope (‘invested in’) of EL (‘the Spanish’) in B GRADE (‘second-rate’), for the capital of Serbia.
5 PHASIC Borne by lymph, a sickness occurring in stages (6)
A hidden answer (‘borne by’) in ‘lymPH A SICkness’.
9 HOLY COW When speaking comprehensively, subdue expletive (4,3)
Sounds like (‘when speaking’) WHOLLY (‘comprehensively’) plus COW (‘subdue’).
10 LANTERN Light note introduced to night-time service (7)
An envelope (‘introduced to’) of N (‘note’) in LATE (‘night-time’) RN (Royal Navy, ‘service’).
11 NIOBE Weeping mother returned popular award (5)
A charade of NI, a reversal (‘returned’) of IN (‘popular’) plus OBE (Order of the British Empire, ‘award’). In Greek mythology, Niobe boasted of her fourteen children to Leto, who only had two; however, those two were Apollo and Artemis. Apollo killed her sons, and Artemis her daughters, leaving Niobe to weep over their loss.
12 TRIMESTER Three months guarding border’s a tricky problem (9)
An envelope (‘gusrding’) of RIM (‘border’) in TESTER (‘a tricky problem’).
13 SCATTERBRAIN Relaxing in bar after shower, one can’t concentrate (12)
A charade of SCATTER (‘shower’) plus BRAIN, an anagram (‘relaxing’) of ‘in bar’.
17 IMPLEMENTING Executing rogue, sorrowful earl replaces head of axe (12)
A charade of IMP (‘rogue’) plus LEMENTING, which if LAMENTING (‘sorrowful’) with the A replaced by E (‘earl replacies head of Axe’).
20 THIRSTIER River running through this stratum is increasingly dry (9)
An envelope (‘running through’) of R (‘river’) in ‘this’ plus TIER (‘stratum’).
22 WHIST Game first introduced by married couple? (5)
A charade of W H (wife and husband, ‘married couple’) plus IST (‘first’).
23 RAT RACE Drivers collectively cutting speed in hectic competition (3,4)
An envelope (‘cutting’) of RAC (Royal Automobile Club, ‘drivers collectively’) in RATE (‘speed’).
24 IMMORAL Sinful convert ultimately abandons old god (7)
A subtraction: T (‘converT ultimately’) removed from IMMOR[t]ALm (‘old god’).
25 CORTEX Detectives reported on my little grey cells, perhaps (6)
A charadeof COR (‘my’) plus TEX, sounding like ‘TECS (‘detectives’).
26 CYANOSIS Any wrinkling in lettuce is a result of oxygen deficiency (8)
An envelope (‘in’) of YAN, an anagram (‘wrinkling’) of ‘any’ in COS (‘lettuce’) plus ‘is’. A bluish discoluration of the skin as a result of lack of oxygen in the blood.
Down
1 BEHIND Responsible for what’s inside fuse (6)
An envelope (‘inside’) of EH (‘what’) in BIND (‘fuse’).
2 LOLLOP Make ungainly progress, turning two lengths in lido (6)
A reversal (‘turning’) of an envelope (in’) of L L (‘two lengths’) in POOL (‘lido’).
3 RECHERCHE Choice role void — US entertainer almost beside herself! (9)
A charade of RE (‘RolE void’) plus CHER (‘US entertainer’) plus CHE[r] (‘herself’) minus her last letter (‘almost’).
4 DOWN TO THE WIRE Dieter who won’t set off until the very last minute? (4,2,3,4)
An anagram (‘set off’) of ‘dieter who won’t’.
6 HINGE Moveable part in breathing equipment (5)
A hidden answer ij ‘breatHING Equipment’.
7 SPECTRAL Insubstantial small muscle, one failing in test (8)
A charade of S (‘small’) plus PEC (‘muscle’) plus TR[i]AL (‘test’) minus the I (‘one failing’).
8 CONFRONT Tackle Tory cover-up (8)
A charade of CON (Conservative, ‘Tory’) plus FRONT (‘cover-up’).
10 LEICESTER CITY Premier team cracked it secretly, pocketing diamonds (9,4)
An envelope (‘pocketing’) of ICE (‘diamonds’) in LESTERCITY, an anagram (‘cracked’) of ‘it secretly’.
14 BONDWOMAN Old slave‘s link with sultanate (9)
A charade of BOND (‘link’) plus W (‘with’) plus OMAN (‘sultanate’).
15 HISTORIC Choir with its quavers breaking new ground (8)
An anagram (‘quavers’) of ‘choir’ plus ‘its’.
16 SPLINTER Sellers turned up bearing dressing material for minor wound (8)
An envelope (‘bearing’) of LINT (‘dressing material’) in SPER, a reversal (‘turning up’ in a down light) of REPS (‘sellers’).
18 CITRUS Fruit — it’s wrapped in rind for the most part (6)
An envelope (‘wrapped in’) of ‘it’ in CRUS[t] (‘rind’) mminuls the last letter (‘for the most part’).
19 STALKS They usually hold up tails (6)
Double definition.
21 SHAVE Third of Austrians are obliged to use plane (5)
A charade of S (‘third of AuStrians’) plus HAVE (‘are obliged’).
completed grid

32 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,592 by Nutmeg”

  1. Thanks for the early blog PeterO, as I have to go out. And thanks Nutmeg for the Monday workout, yes a bit harder than usual. In fact, being in a hurry, and staring at the unfinished SE, I looked up synonyms for sinful to get immor[t]al, and the rest fell out; pity, as all gettable.

    I took ‘occurring’ to be part of the def in 5a, but moot perhaps. I looked at whist post-entry thinking ‘are the w and h Will and Harry?’ Double d’oh! Have’nt heard ‘tecs’ as detectives, didn’t remember cyanosis but the printer ink and cyanobacteria gave me the cue. Wasn’t familiar with ‘choice’, as in ‘rare’ for recherche, but it works, and thanks to the contributor who used the word here recently–made it easier.

    Thanks again Nutmeg and PeterO.

  2. Thanks PeterO. As you say, no bad thing to have a kick-start the old 25 on a Monday, and only a few answers were ‘recherché’ for me: eg, NIOBE and BONDWOMAN being on the very fringes of my consciousness, thus gettable without Googling. Thank you Nutmeg for a bracing and thoughtful workout.

  3. Agree that it seemed more of a challenge today. However, all good clues apart from not liking cortex. Took a while for bonds woman to emerge but Niobe came out of the depths somehow.
    ‘Have’ for ‘obliged to’ also took a while despite working on lathes rather than aircraft. Surely smust is a word!
    Thank you, Nutmeg and PeterO.

  4. I found this a challenge but enjoyable with it. I really liked the B-GRADE capital, BELGRADE at 1a, with no insult intended to people from Serbia. “HOLY COW” was a lot of fun at 9a. Fortunately I knew NIOBE from Hamlet’s scathing attack on his mother who had mourned his father, “Like Niobe, all tears”, yet had then married Hamlet’s uncle with unseemly haste. The wife and husband combination in 22a WHIST was clever. The ‘tecs in CORTEX at 25a raised a smile, and made me think of the little Belgian detective Poirot, with his “order, method and the little grey cells”: not sure if this was deliberate on Nutmeg’s part.
    I took ages to parse 21d SHAVE as I was trying to use three of the letters (a third!) from “Austrians” instead of using the third letter!
    Lots and lots to like here. Not-so-easy for a Monday, as you said, PeterO – thank you for the blog. And of course thanks and praise to Nutmeg for such a great puzzle.

  8. Thanks Nutmeg and PeterO

    Yes, quite hard. I didn’t parse IMPLEMENTING or IMMORAL, and having seen the parses I’m not surprised!

    Favourites were BELGRADE, HOLY COW, and CORTEX (sorry, Hedgehog!)

  9. And yes I’m sure Nutmeg was referencing Hercule’s little grey cells. Loved the way Ustinov said it, tho loved Suchet as well (first seen in Blott On The Landscape…superb!)

  10. What JinA [in toto] and copmus said.

    I’d just add praise for the amusing SCATTERBRAIN, RATRACE for its surface [though these were superb throughout, as ever], BEHIND, LOLLOP [because it’s a lovely word] and, of course, my home team LEICESTER CITY. 😉

    Many thanks to Nutmeg for a super start to the week and PeterO for a great blog.

     

  11. Slight change of mentality with this excellent puzzle, more grey cells engaged than normally on a Monday…

  13. Assumed being a Monday I’d be out of the house by 9am but had to stay in to complete a really enjoyable puzzle.

    Never heard of 3, 11 or 26 but the wordplay was so elegant just required a check with la Google. So many gooduns but best was 9 for me.

    Thanks Nutmeg and PeterO for the very informative blog

  14. Wow again from me because this was so ingenious and way beyond me, especially on a Monday. Many thanks Nutmeg and PeterO for the helpfully clear blog.

  15. Thanks to Nutmeg and PeterO. Great fun (no surprise from this setter). I did not parse WHIST, and CORTEX was my LOI (though I much liked it when I finally got it)

  16. Thank you Nutmeg and PeterO.

    Quite a challenge for a Monday, but very enjoyable.  DOWN TO THE WIRE was new to me but gettable from the anagram once the crossers were in place.  LEICESTER CITY is easy to remember now after its recent win (and because it is where Eileen lives).

  17. Thanks to Nutmeg and PeterO. Like others I found this a lot tougher than usual for a Monday. Stalks was last one and I just could not see the DD until just now. Another fan of both holy cow and cortex. Thanks again to Nutmeg and PeterO

  18. Always such lovely clues from Nutmeg. I also found this fairly hard; LOI after a good hour’s work was the excellent CORTEX. Other favourites were SCATTERBRAIN and RECHERCHE. I had QUEUES initially for STALKS (works reasonably well), but the U at the end of two across clues looked unlikely. Many thanks to Nutmeg and PeterO.

  19. A top class puzzle that would have been a worthy prize, but a little tough for the Monday slot. NIOBE was last in, had to check CYANOSIS and PHASIC.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and PeterO

  22. Thanks to Nutmeg and PeterO, especially for parsings of LANTERN, IMMORTAL and LEICESTER CITY (this last being indicative of my lazy Monday CORTEX – also needed parsing for that.)

    An enjoyable and chewy solve albeit a DNF thanks to NIOBE.  Greek Mythology/Shakespeare on a Monday – fair enough I suppose (-ish). Favs were IMPLEMENTING and THIRSTIER.

  23. There is also a secret message in the Down clues – BEHIND HISTORIC LOLLOP, SPLINTER! RECHERCHE. SHAVE DOWN TO THE WIRE, LEICESTER CITY!. HINGE, BONDWOMAN! SPECTRAL CITRUS; CONFRONT STALKS!

  25. I thought this very difficult. Not too difficult in that I could do it give or take the odd parsing but a bit stiff for a Monday. I couldn’t parse LANTERN and I didn’t bother to work out LEICESTER CITY. I liked LOLLOP,WHIST and BELGRADE and I was pleased to get both CYANOSIS and CORTEX.
    Thanks Nutmeg.

  26. I found this very tough. I got LANTERN through mis-parsing: Note = LA (as in Doh Ray Me…), Night Time = NT and Service = RN. I didn’t notice I’d missed an E! What a maroon (to quote Bugs Bunny).

    Thanks to Nutmeg and PeterO

  27. Good start to the week — nice one, Nutmeg.  I just finally had my PDM on CORTEX, my LOI, which took me a very long while to get, even with all of its crossers.  Now that I see it, it became one of my favorites, together with HOLY COW, BEHIND, DOWN TO THE WIRE, and top of the bunch for me, HISTORIC.

    Many thanks to Nutmeg and PeterO and the other commenters.

  28. Oof! What a string of tough days. Friday’s Paul with all the cross references. The Saturday prize: I’d got three clues – two obscure general knowledge and one archaic word before I put it down and did something else for 24 hours, and now this from Nutmeg. A massive DNF for me today with only about half completed and most of that with help from Google.

    Hugh: could we please have something a little more straightforward do you think? Ta. ?

  29. LOI was Cortex.  Read PeterO’s: “A charade of COR (‘my’) plus TEX, sounding like ‘TECS (‘detectives’)” and remained baffled. Googling the definition of Cor – an exclamation of surprise, I said COR! (as I was surprised) but still would not have come up with this for my, though maybe for my-my. 🙂 . TECS remains inscrutable to this Canadian.

     

  30. I didn’t get round to commenting yesterday but thoroughly enjoyed this excellent puzzle – many thanks to Nutmeg for creating it and to PeterO for the blog. Despite it appearing several times recently I once again forgot about what being eh and like others didn’t parse CORTEX. P

  31. Paulus @29

    You are not alone in having trouble with 25A CORTEX, although your puzzlement seem to have lasted longer than most. “My, my!” (the hyphen just looks odd to me) has a slightly different “feel” – less emphatic than either “My!” or “Cor!”? Anyway, all three are now more likely to be found in crosswords than in real life. ‘Tec for detective is, I think, fairly well known, at least in English English. It is, of course, just an abbreviation (as I tried to indicate with the apostrophe, although my use of the same symbol for single quotes from the clue might obscure that).

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