Guardian 27,708 / Chifonie

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We thought for quite a while that Chifonie had settled comfortably into the Monday slot vacated by Rufus but here he is for the second time in a row on a Thursday, the day when we used to expect more of a challenge.

A year ago, I quoted from, a previous preamble of mine: ‘It’s difficult to find anything new to say about Chifonie’s puzzles. They can usually be relied on to be straightforward, a medley of anagrams, charades and double definitions, all soundly and elegantly clued. Nothing has changed – thanks, Chifonie!

Definitions are underlined in the clues.

Across

7 Bishop always has time for a drink (8)
BEVERAGE
B [bishop] + EVER [always] + AGE [time]

9 More than one comrade touring Lima, an old city (6)
PLURAL
PAL [comrade] round L [Lima – NATO alphabet] + UR [the familiar crossword old city]

10 Courageous chap embracing sovereign (4)
BOLD
BOD [chap] round L [ pound – sovereign]

11 Time for skip to be transported (10)
SPELLBOUND
SPELL [time] + BOUND [skip]

12 Worries about second stroke (6)
CARESS
CARES [worries] round S [second]

14 Leave note without regrets? That’s horrible! (8)
GRUESOME
GO [leave] + ME [note] round RUES [regrets]

15 Patrol leader engulfed by storms in cataract (6)
RAPIDS
P[atrol] in RAIDS [storms]

17 Shortage of spun thread (6)
DEARTH
Anagram [spun] of THREAD

20 Wipe out an extensive area (8)
MASSACRE
MASS ACRE [an extensive area]

22 Writer entertains holy man in cafe (6)
BISTRO
BIRO [writer] round ST [holy man]

23 Length of time in the middle (10)
CENTIMETRE
TIME in CENTRE [the middle]

24 Enthusiast protects weak young animal (4)
EAWN
FAN [enthusiast] round W [weak – in particle physics]

25 Fathom the meaning of last month’s poem (6)
DECODE
DEC[ember] [last month] + ODE [poem]

26 Going round to corrupt a politician (8)
ROTATORY
ROT [corrupt] + A TORY [a politician]

Down

1 Gracious girl coming out and being broadcast (8)
DEBONAIR
DEB[utante] [girl coming out] + ON AIR [being broadcast] – ‘gracious’ is not among the first definitions to spring to my mind

2 Convey old Bob’s demise (4)
SEND
S [shilling – ‘old Bob’] + END [demise]

3 Father takes advantage of breaks (6)
PAUSES
PA [father] + USES [takes advantage of]

4 Computer giant hosting an American gets general approbation (8)
APPLAUSE
APPLE [computer giant] round A US [an American]

5 Irritable, having no more classes (3,2,5)
OUT OF SORTS
Cryptic definition – I associate this expression with the state of one’s health, rather than temper, but Collins gives both

6 Frenchmen, capturing a wild beast, showing bottle (6)
MAGNUM
M M [Frenchmen] round A GNU [a wild beast – or a wildebeest]
It’s only one week [exactly] since I said, in a comment on Knut’s puzzle, that I cannot see the words ‘wildebeest’ or GNU without automatically providing a link to the Flanders and Swann song and so this seems an appropriate time to resolve to try to resist 😉

8 Animation features design of green and yellow, initially (6)
ENERGY
An anagram [design] of GREEN and Y[ellow]

13 Former site of a trade fair (10)
EXPOSITION
EX [former] + POSITION]

16 Pam ceded building and made off (8)
DECAMPED
An anagram [building] of PAM CEDED

18 Man gets bounty for old insurgent (8)
HEREWARD
HE [man] + REWARD [bounty] – the insurgent is Hereward the Wake

19 One checking a canopy (6)
TESTER
Double definition – the canopy over a four-poster bed

21 Teresa treated sharp edges (6)
ARÊTES
An anagram [treated] of TERESA – a sharp ridge that separates glacial valleys, remembered from O Level Geography

22 Inspiration from touching in jacuzzi (6)
BREATH
RE [touching] in BATH [jacuzzi]

24 Tense when in charge for function (4)
FETE
T [tense] in FEE [charge]

33 comments on “Guardian 27,708 / Chifonie”

  1. Thanks Chifonie and Eileen

    I enjoyed this, but so much seemed so familiar that I wondered if it was another “Chifonie’s greatest hits”, as we had recently?

    Favourites were HEREWARD and my last two, CENTIMETRE and PLURAL.

    Not so keen on the two-stage sovereign -> L in BOLD.

  2. Yes muffin@1 I think we’ve seen very similar clues for xxx and xxx recently. Definitely Monday level of difficulty.

    Edited by Admin to remove entries relevant to a live prize puzzle

  3. Just checked. They were both in xxx.

    Edited by Admin to remove the reference to a live prize puzzle

  4. Even though I was not familiar with 18d HEREWARD the insurgent and that meaning of 19d TESTER (canopy), I got them from the crossers, wordplay and the DD, and I found not having to look up anything made this a satisfying solve for me. I liked 11a SPELLBOUND, 20a MASSACRE and 5d OUT OF SORTS. I didn’t like the overuse of the “single letter” fodder in the clues, e.g. “w” for weak (which has also been mentioned today in the blog of the Maskarade Prize blog), “s” for shilling in 2d and “t” for tense in 24d, among others. Like Eileen, I had a question mark against “Gracious” as the definition for DEBONAIR 1d. Nevertheless, thanks to Chifonie, and to Eileen for the usual meticulous blog.

  5. Quite an easy puzzle.  The only clues to make me think a bit were SEND and FETE.  Some of the clues, such as DECAMPED, were ridiculously easy.

    Thanks Chifonie and Eileen.

  6. Thanks Chifonie and Eileen. Loi was BOLD as didn’t see sovereign as pound. This was an enjoyable solve though we had to resort to paper as the online version did not appear on iPad or laptop – first time this has happened.
    Agree about gracious as DEBONAIR but happy with OUT OF SORTS as irritable.

  7. Gracious is the first def for debonair on wiktionary… If you believe that.
    debonair (comparative more debonair, superlative most debonair) (obsolete) Gracious, courteous. quotations ? Suave, urbane and sophisticated. (especially of men) Charming, confident and carefully dressed.
    debonair – Wiktionary
    https://en.wiktionary.org › wiki › debonair

  9. Another who thought this pretty easy. Not sure about politician=TORY – just because someone has political opinions doesn’t make them a politician. I did have to check TESTER, to remind myself of the bed-related meaning.

    muffin@1 – I had no problem with pound=sovereign=L, since sovereign is (among other meanings) a synonym for the monetary pound. I’d certainly agree that e.g. hammer=L would be unacceptable, even though hammer and pound can be synonyms.

    Thanks Eileen and Chifonie.

  10. beaulieu @9

    Yes, but it is a two-stage connection, as I said. L isn’t a symbol for “sovereign”. It can stand for pound, and “sovereign” can also mean “pound”. Minor quibble, though.

  11. Apart from the similarity to some prize clues alluded to above, the clue for BEVERAGE is more or less identical to one in Pan’s quiptic of 3 December. No fault of the setter (it’s a good clue with a fun surface after all and I’m sure they were arrived at independently) but a little disappointing to see it twice in the same publication barely a month apart.

    Other than that an enjoyable puzzle, thanks Chifonie and Eileen. Tea tray for SPELLBOUND and MAGNUM.

  12. Thanks to Chifonie and Eileen. Easy but enjoyable. I remembered TESTER from a previous puzzle and knew ARETES as ridges but paused over the “sharp” connection.

  13. Thanks to Chifonie and Eileen. A pretty steady solve for me, but nothing to dislike about it. I agree with JInA in that it’s nice not to have to go looking for obscure words (thinking about the medical references the other day). I liked gruesome, centimetre and Hereward and thanks again to Chifonie and Eileen.

  14. I think that the New Year confused the programming of puzzles this week with Monday (NYE) being a bit different and Qaos kicking off- a spicy if not very difficult offering, then Philistine and Puck so the “easy”Monday spot remained vacant.

    Chifonie’s puzzes are wonderfully neat and accurate but mostly not too demanding although he can turn the heat up a tad when he wants. But that was not the case today, causing a few complaints in view of it being Thursday. I would reckon that the setter himself had no idea what day the puzzle would appear.

    Hopefully there will be something tomorrow to silence  critics (Enigmatist?)

    Thanks Eileen and Chiffers

  15. Sadly I fell at the last hurdle, not knowing the canopy and being unable to decide between TESTER, VETTER or something else I hadn’t yet thought of. Any tips on how to choose between two equally-likely seeming answers when you don’t know half of a double definition?

  16. Yes, much easier than yesterday’s Puck, with chestnuts galore (dearth, massacre, bistro, inter alia), but fun nonetheless. Both 24s have questionable initials, w and t, but wth, it’s holiday time. And I’m sure we’ve had gnu recently, which makes me mourn the loss of my copy of our junior-high poetry anthology, including the ketchup bottle (“and then the lot’ll”), the vegetarian (“shoving peas in with a knife”…Chesterton?), and The New Gnu at the Zoo, who knew.

    Thanks Chif and Eileen.

  17. Yep, all good, clean fun. Fete the last to go in. Had to check aretes.
    Could have done with a laugh or two. Thanks Chifonie and Eileen.

  18. The canopy was new to me too, so unsurprisingly TESTER was last in. Apart from that all pretty straightforward.

    Thanks to Chifonie and Eileen

  19. Thanks both,
    It’s pretty hard not to be repetitious in crossword land. I had double ticks against 22a and 23a even tho these may have been around for some time. They weren’t familiar to me.

  20. Thanks to Chifonie and Eileen.

    A relatively gentle but enjoyable solve.

    No need for the Flanders and Swann link Eileen, as the song came roaring into my head as I solved the clue. When I was young my parents played Flanders and Swann a lot, and I remember being frightened at the way Flanders sang “I wish I could g-nash my teeth at you”. So I liked the “wild beast” reference.

  21. I had just the same problem as gothick@15, at the end. Wrote in VETTER first, made a rare use of the check button (rare not because I am too clever ever to need it, but because I normally solve online and thus don’t have it) – and then the second try was correct,

  22. Gothic asks for tips for choosing between alternatives. Now I’ll grant that everyone has their own threshold for how much help from external sources can be justified before it is “cheating”. (I used quotes there because in a non-prize context, the only victim is oneself, and if “oneself” doesn’t mind, there is no problem. This is a game, after all, and the only purpose is enjoyment.) I would assert that if you have a candidate word in mind, then looking it up in a dictionary to see if it has meanings you don’t know is the most benign of all kinds of assistance. You would have to be a real purist to deny yourself that.

    BTW when really stuck, I find the wildcard feature of Onelook to be very helpful.

  24. Both ARETES and TESTER were new to me and,while I got both from the crossers,I did look them up.I don’t think that constitutes cheating but even if it is, I don’t intend to act differently in future.
    The rest of this was pretty straightforward but enjoyable. I did like HEREWARD and BIRO.
    Thanks Chifonie.

  25. This should have been for Monday and Qaos’s today but it was full of Chifonie’s elegant surfaces. FOI 17a, LOI 21d which l remember from my geog lessons in 1981.

  27. Hedgehog@6 … I’m having the same trouble, and using Google Chrome in the meanwhile until the Guardian website is fixed.  I don’t know why this happens, but Google Chrome is also available as a browser on your iPad.  I found the puzzle much easier than yesterday – which is too bad because I now have a whole afternoon at work staring at me without a puzzle to conquer. Cheers to Chifonie and Eileen.  HNY to everyone.

     

  28. Far too easy for a Thursday surely.

    Don’t understand Muffin’s quibble with L for sovereign. L is an abbreviation for “pound Sterling” and “sovereign” was used to indicate a pound Sterling. (from 1817 to 1914 for definite) 😉

  29. Quick to complete, neat, precise and enjoyable. Thanks to Chifonie and Eileen. And as paulus says, Happy New Year everyone.

  30. Ah Lucy Lastik @ 26 – I had serate in for a while – but nothing worked with it – and difficult to get annoyed with English language – it seems to have a life of its own 🙂 Anyway this was pleasant – I am still on leave wondering what it is like to be retired – I assume the odd tipple at unusual times in the week is quite standard – at least that is the line I am pursuing! I still think have a memory of the first Chifonie puzzle I saw (a long time ago) being extremely difficult – I think C could be a lot more challenging if he wanted and I thought there were a few clues in this that reflected this – I think 7A was my first one in and 9A my last one in – thanks to C & E…

  32. My sincere apologies for inadvertently referring to the solution of another puzzle (and a still active Everyman at that) in my previous post.   I don’t know what I was thinking.  I guess I was just so surprised at seeing not one, but two nearly identical clues just a few days apart that I forgot the first rule of commenting here.

    Unfortunately, I don’t see any way of deleting one’s own post here.  Hopefully Eileen or the administrator can delete the post before it does too much harm.

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