Guardian 27,750 – Tramp

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I got off to a very slow start with this, and didn’t get much quicker as I went on. The grid didn’t help, with poor connectivity between the top and bottom halves. In retrospect everything is clearly clued (with the exception of 6d, which I’m unsure about), but I needed a lot of help from crossing letters, which were slow to come. An enjoyable challenge, and satisfying to finish. Thanks to Tramp.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. SCARED Salmonella primarily around raw chicken (6)
S[almonella] + CA (circa, around) + RED (raw)
4. WARNER He tells cricketer to get runs (6)
[Shane] WARNE + R
9. SITUATION COMEDY Friends say Tom indicates you must go out (9,6)
(TOM INDICATES YOU)* – with the immensely successful Friends being an example of a sitcom
10. CHEESE Tall actor removing line for hotel food (6)
[John] CLEESE (tall actor) with L[ine] replaced by H[otel] (In fact the family name was originally Cheese, but John C’s father changed it to Cleese)
11. BRAKE PAD Stop with this playboy in bachelor flat? (5,3)
RAKE in B PAD
12. FRAGMENT Tabloid workers filling in newspaper piece (8)
RAG (tabloid newspaper) MEN (workers) in FT (Financial Times)
14. CHORDS Pieces of music from guys on the radio (6)
Homophone of “cords” (guys, as in guy ropes)
15. CATNAP Caught a breath, lying back for rest (6)
C A + reverse of PANT
18. COALESCE Mix fuel source that’s key to get energy (8)
COAL + ESC (as found on a keyboard) + E[nergy]
21. GRIEVOUS Serious? You for French after German, religious studies and English (8)
G + RI (Religious Instruction) + E[nglish] + VOUS (French “you”)
22. ORPHAN Child that’s left hospital: men criticise nurses (6)
H in (nursed by) OR (Other Ranks = men) + PAN (criticise)
24. MAGNIFYING GLASS One blows things up in film, saying gang’s sorry (10,5)
(FILM SAYING GANG’S)*
25. ENTERS Comes in and puts on record (6)
Double definition
26. STRESS Trouble as married one dropped off lover (6)
MISTRESS (lover) less M I
Down
1. SLITHER Snake in hole there has shed its skin (7)
SLIT (hole) + [t]HER[e]
2. ACUTE Serious wound for joiner in hospital department? (5)
CUT (wound) replacing & in A&E (hospital dept)
3. EXTREME Last old male seduced by Olive? (7)
EX (old) + M in TREE (e.g. olive)
5. ARCHAIC Antique piece of furniture without Mr Chippendale’s initial (7)
ARMCHAIR less (separately) M and R, + C[hippendale]
6. NUMBER ONE Best single by group? (6,3)
I’m not sure about this: all I can come up with is NUMBER = group (as in a number/group of people) + ONE = single, with “best” as the definition
7. RED CARD Dismissal of place for meetings with daughter (3,4)
REDCAR (site of race meetings) + D – dismissal as in football
8. SORBET Happen to order sandwiches and sweet (6)
BE (happen) “sandwiched by”) SORT (to [put in] order)
13. GINGER NUT Mix egg in; turn to make biscuit (6,3)
(EGG IN TURN)*
16. AIR BASE Military land here in area Serbia lost (3,4)
A + SERBIA*
17. PROFFER Prince with sick queen to hold out (7)
PR + OFF (sick) + ER
18. CASH IN Profit from account, having turnover go up (4,2)
CA (AC=account “turned over”) + SHIN (to climb or go up, as in “shin up a pole”)
19. AMONGST Out of money — working in topless magazines with model (7)
M[oney] + ON (working) in [m]AGS + T (model, as in the early Ford car)
20. CHASSIS Body keeps appearing in crime drama on Sunday (7)
HAS (keeps) in CSI (TV crime drama) + S[unday
23. PULSE Beat United and regularly lose in games (5)
U + L[o]S[e] in PE (Physical Education, games)

56 comments on “Guardian 27,750 – Tramp”

  1. Very much a grid of two halves. I too parsed NUMBER ONE the same as Andrew. ARCHAIC and STRESS were my favourites today with beautifully constructed clues. Thanks to Tramp and Andrew.

  2. I couldn’t really make sense of 6d either, and I thought 19ac was a bit clumsy. I really enjoyed the challenge today, though. Thanks Tramp and Andrew.

  3. Really challenging puzzle and enjoyable I have to share concerns about 6d (its OK but not by Tramp’s’ standards)Maybe someone will enlighten.

    Thanks Tramp and Andrew.

  4. Quite tough going for me too, but steady and enjoyable – got 1ac easily but then worked up from the SW as the crossers became available.
    Particularly liked the multiple newspaper references in 12ac but I didn’t see ‘out of’ as the definition for AMONGST. Thanks for the assistance with that!

  5. Yep, pretty chewy number from Tramp, with a few scattered easies (scared, coalesce, stress) then a gradual fill, tho nothing too diabolical. Number=group, hmm; spose the ? excuses it somewhat. Plus shin itself needs up to = go up. And for ‘out of’ I’d prefer among rather than amongst, the latter meaning more ‘in amongst’, to me anyway. Quiblets merely, in a good puzzle. Thanks Tramp and Andrew.

  7. Many thanks to Tramp and Andrew. Enjoyable and satisfying to solve. 6 Down was my FOI – can’t see any problem with it at all: group + single = No 1 … LO1 and least favourite was 4 across: don’t like WARNER as a word, ‘he tells’ is scant definition, and cricket knowledge needed.

     

     

  8. Many thanks, Tramp and Andrew, for a great puzzle and blog [especially the information about the Cleese family].

    ‘Steady and enjoyable’ indeed – two clever [and helpful] anagrams and some ingenious constructions. My favourite was ARCHAIC and I also liked ‘child that’s left’, ‘bachelor flat’ and the RAGMEN, which I took together. I still think there must be more to 6dn, which I interpreted as Andrew did.

     

     

  9. Agree with the consensus that this was challenging/tough/satisfying – and very helpfully blogged; so, thanks to both Tramp and Andrew. Also agree with judygs @7 about the awkwardness of 4 across: not just teller = warner, but the fact that Warner is just as much of a cricketer name as Warne himself: Australia’s currently-suspended opening batsman David Warner and, equally, the England captain and long-term grandee Sir Pelham (Plum) Warner, whose name lives on at Lord’s in the newly-rebuilt Warner Stand. Forgive the digression, but any cricketing knowledge may come in useful one day in crosswordland.

  11. Grant @ 5: ODO equates “among” with “amongst”, suggesting the variation as follows:

    Old English ongemang (from on ‘in’ + gemang ‘assemblage, mingling’). The -st of amongst represents -s (adverbial genitive) + -t probably by association with superlatives (as in against).

    Baffled by this for a while too. And I’d just finished watching “8 out of 10 Cats”!

    6dn seems fine and has a neat &lit quality. Reminded me of The Beatles collection, 1, which includes a single that didn’t make No. 1, and misses one that did.

  12. A few pretty loose definitions – such as ‘slit’ for ‘hole’ – but not enough to spoil a tough, but very satisfying puzzle.

  13. Thanks for the blog, Andrew, and thanks to others for the comments. 6d is as you’ve parsed. The question mark is because the best single by a group could be a number one. It isn’t the best clue in the world but it’s ok. I could have clued the answer as “Piss myself (6, 3)” but I’ve used that before and I don’t think the Guardian would allow it.

    Admittedly the grid isn’t ideal.

    Neil

  14. Enjoyable puzzle.  For me, the left hand side went in quicker than the right.

    Looked awkward at first, but the long anagram at 9 ac and 6 dn got me started …

    Agree with comments about 6 dn but don’t think there’s anything more to it than has been said.

    Thanks for setting me straight on SORBET.  I had parsed it as orb in set and was wondering why ‘orb’ meant ‘happen’.

    Why isn’t there a ‘perhaps’ at the end of 3 dn.  Not all trees are olive trees.

    I liked BRAKEPAD, COALESCE; SLITHER, ARCHAIC.

    Thanks Tramp and Andrew.

    Didn’t know the cricketer.

  15. My post crossed with that of the setter himself.

    Pissed myself eh?  That would have been an interesting clue.  Funnily enough, I was just wondering what Paul would have done with it.

  16. Thanks for this Tramp, and the blog Andrew. Everything fell into place but with a rather hideous grinding of the gears. Sometimes I find that the first thing I think of fits the clue exactly and a puzzle drops out swiftly. This time the correct answer was the second, third or fourth thing I thought of. Sometimes that was down to some cunning misdirection – child that’s left, keeps appearing – sometimes because the definition was a bit weak (warner, olive? for tree) but mainly due to my own stupidity I think. My first pass left me with little until the bottom of the across clues and not much idea how to parse most of the clues. But bit by bit it revealed itself which I think is a sign of great setting.

    I was fine with 6dn as a bit &littish – gave it no second thought once it came to me. I loved archaic which pieced together slowly but then the whole picture jumped out beautifully. Lots of good surfaces here too.

  17. Hi Anna @14 – the question mark at the end of 3dn covers the definition by example.

    Thanks for dropping in, Tramp – I thought I remembered NUMBER ONE being clued along the lines of what you said but I couldn’t find it in the archive.

  18. Thanks for the among/st etymology Travatore; it’s one of those finicky distinctions that makes language endlessly fascinating.

  19. Thank you, Andrew, not an easy task this morning.

    Thanks also to Tramp for dropping in.  I rather wish you had recycled the alternative clue you mentioned!

    Some good stuff here but I’m not a fan of the Joda-esque constructions such as SORBET.  A long time to unravel it takes.

    Ticks at BRAKE PAD, RED CARD, ARCHAIC & ACUTE.

    Nice week, all.

  20. I took a while to get going on this and solved the bottom half first, then the upper half.

    For 6d I thought it might be single = ONE by/next to a group = NUMBER as in a number of people, things etc. Def – BEST.

    I needed help to parse 18d, 8d.

    Thanks B+S

     

  22. 9a Love that anagram!

    21a “you for French” is “vous”?  I’d have said it was “French for you.”  This order doesn’t make sense.

    13d  In the US we have ginger snaps.  They are, as the name implies, flat, thin and crisp.  “Ginger nut” sounds as if they’re more chunky or ball-like.  Are they?

  23. Valentine @22 “French” is shorthand as in “You for French (people)” or “You for (the) French”

    Ginger nuts are slightly bigger than half an Oreo and crunchy, if that helps

     

  24. Much the same for me as many others but without as much enjoyment – and probably more use of the “I wonder if that’s where it’s going” button. I finished with more ?s than ticks. I did like BRAKE PAD FRAGMENT and PULSE. I didn’t like GRIEVOUS at all because of the nonsense clue – this type of construction leaves me thinking “why bother” rather than “aha”. I’m still struggling with AMONGST equating to OUT OF but there seems to be plenty of evidence for it. I usually enjoy as well as appreciate Tramp’s puzzles so I hope I’m more on his wavelength when he next appears. Thanks to him for posting as well and to Andrew for the excellent blog.

  25. Thanks to Tramp and Andrew. Well I got there, but generally it was very tough going. The grid did not help, particularly because I had gaps in three out of four corners. Furthermore needed to come here to verify some parsing (e.g. 1d and 6d). Last ones were slither, sorbet and brake pad and favourites were orphan, coalesce and the aforementioned brake pad. Thanks again to Tramp and Andrew.

  26. Firstly, I really enjoyed this and found that it unraveled at a constant rate, which I always like.  Can someone help me with a question that I asked on the Guardian site, in case it crops up again: what does “that’s” in 18a mean?  It’s clearly just a link but I can’t work out how it works.  It isn’t an elision of “that has”, is it?

  27. Alliacol: Yes, A that has B. It’s a bit inelegant in this case as I then go on to use a “get”: (A + B get C).

    Is the clue for GRIEVOUS complete nonsense? I think it’s ok. Could someone not be serious in French after having had German, RI and English?

    Neil

  28. I can’t believe the cricketer was last in – he should have been one of the first that came to mind! Found this a moderately tough and very entertaining challenge.

    Thanks to Tramp and Andrew

  29. I really like it when setters drop in to explain contentious or mystifying clues; it’s too bad more of them don’t – in fact it’s too bad more of them don’t even seem to read the blogs.

    I didn’t like NUMBER ONE at first, but after the confirmation I thought about it some more and now think it’s better than has been given credit for. And the alternative clue, that’s just a hoot!

    On the grumbly side, I never like “synonyms” where in practice I would never treat the words interchangeably, even if they overlap in meaning, such as MIX and COALESCE. When two crowds/liquids first come into contact they coalesce, and following that they may well mix. Yes I know you can find dictionaries that support the usage, but the problem for the solver is that the “equivalence” is only seen retroactively, not predictively, which narrows the path to solution.

    Thanks Tramp and Andrew.

  31. I couldn’t agree more with quenbarrow@9…feel therefore that an excellent, teasing puzzle was slightly flawed…

  32. First time I’ve commented, though regularly visit to check out my answers – or gaps! 20d ” body keeps appearing ..”, answer chassis. Surely chassis is the substructure to which a car body is attached? Didn’t help myself with this by deciding 18 a was “calories” – anagram of coal plus wild guesswork

  33. My gripe is with “chassis” for “body”, because they are different things. The body of a vehicle is built on the chassis – although modern cars don’t have a separate chassis, it is certainly still the was commercial vehicles are built. And horse-drawn carriages, I think.

  34. Fatherfred @32, PeterG81 @ 33

    There is nothing in the clue to suggest that Tramp is referring to a car or other motor vehicle. He is using the following definition for CHASSIS in Collins (Chambers has a similar entry): “slang The body of a person, esp a woman”.

  35. Got stuck for quite a while half way through, but finally spotting the long anagram for 24 opened it up. Lots of thinking ‘this is impossible’ followed by ‘of course’ moments, which to me is the sign of good clueing. Thanks Tramp and Andrew.

  36. Had Garner for Warner, briefly. And gurning faux- teenagers to a cacophony of canned laughter failed to make Friends a comedy in my book!

  37. Thanks both,

    Tough going for me but I got there in the end.

    Gaufrid @24: as in a not-really-justified spoonerism of Shirley Bassy.

  38. Thanks to Andrew and Tramp

    It’s turning out to be a good week in the Guardian.

    I share the general sentiment about WARNER, but other than that very enjoyable – a few to get you started and a few more to chew on.

    Tramp@27

    Nice you post to give reasoning, if everyone starts it could get serious!

  39. as in a not-really-justified spoonerism of Shirley Bassy.

    Tyngewick @ 37 that was due to Terry Wogan, I think

     

  40. Grr! Please tell me since when has money been ‘M’, huh?
    Probably area has been ‘A’ before, but really…..
    What next? ‘K’ for kettle, ‘B’ for basin?
    Yes, I’m in the kitchen. Lacking imagination.
    I had COWARD for 1 across until I resorted to fifteensquared.

  41. First, apologies to Tramp and Andrew, who I failed to thank in my previous post – thanks! Gaufrid @34, thanks, I had forgotten that meaning of chassis. However, I think it’s slang from my childhood and teenage years, (50s and 60s) which I haven’t heard used in age, and, dare I suggest, in this day and age mildly offensive?

  42. I think 6d is quite valid! If we substitute ‘next to’ for ‘by’ it gives ONE next to NUMBER on the left-hand side.

  43. Hilt @ 40

    M = money has been an abbreviation since at least the 1960s, used by the Bank of England in its definitions of the money supply: M0, M1, M2 etc

    A = area is also a chestnut

  44. Thankfully, l’ve seen pics of Shane Warne when l flip through the sports pages of British broadsheets here in Kenya so 4a was gettable. FOI ENTERS, LOI SLITHER.

  45. Fine puzzle. Took me an age to see SITUATION COMEDY.
    I miss Tramp’s themes, or am I missing one here?
    Thanks, T and A

  49. While I sympathise with frustration caused by the requirement for obscure GK to solve a clue, using one of the most successful bowlers ever to build the solution feels reasonable (4a) – particularly when I think of all the fish, trees (flora in general actually) and antelope (see yesterday) that need building from the clue followed by resorting to a reference work to validate (or not).  Part of spending time on this pursuit surely has to be the new things that are learned.  Funnily enough, I wrote in 6d and didn’t think twice but SNAKE=SLITHER needed some focus.

    Thanks to Tramp and Andrew

  51. Finally getting here at the end of a busy work day.  I enjoyed this.  I was surprised to see how many struggled with 6d, because to me, that was one of the easier ones … but then again, that’s one of the things that makes reading the blogs and comments here on 15^2 so enjoyable: frequently it turns out that the same clue that vexed some solvers was a write-in for others, and vice versa.   SORBET was the clue that I found the most difficult to parse.  Favorite clues today included both long ones, MAGNIFYING GLASS and SITUATION COMEDY, and FRAGMENT.  My favorite TILT was John who might have been CHEESE.

    Many thanks to Tramp and Andrew and the other commenters.

  55. It does irritate me when people describe this puzzle as “tough”; I worry that crossword editors may get the wrong idea. I wouldn’t object if “in my opinion” or similar were added to these sweeping statements.
    IMHO, this was most certainly not tough. Enigmatist can sometimes be tough. But – again, in my opinion – it’s difficult to term a puzzle “tough” with clues like those for ENTERS, GINGER NUT, CATNAP……? Personally, the tricksier a Tramp the better.
    I, like others, enjoyed ARCHAIC (and, in my opinion, there was nothing wrong with GRIEVOUS, a good clue I thought, or WARNER though it was my LOI!).

    Many thanks, Tramp; not your best (in this person’s opinion) but still very good.
    And thanks to Andrew.

    [The above comments are purely this writer’s opinion and do not necessarily reflect the views of others…..!]

  56. John Cleese’s father did the opposite – exchanged the H for an L. His original name was Cheese.

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