Guardian Cryptic 27,804 by Nutmeg

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Found this a little tricky, getting stuck a few times, but it all came together very neatly. Favourites were 21ac, 6dn, 15dn, 19dn, and especially 16dn. Thanks, Nutmeg

The clues for PEGASUS and NOSEBAG are directly linked to 4dn HORSE, and there are some other connected solutions such as NAG, FOREQUARTERS, EQUERRIES, and VAULTING.

Across
1 FURNISH Supply source of tea during course (7)
URN=”source of tea” inside FISH=”course”
5 HEMLINE Gas left in mine that fluctuates around the knees (7)
HE (Helium)=”gas”; plus L (left) inside MINE
9 CADET Police recruit in motorcade threatened (5)
hidden inside motorCADE Threatened
10 REGICIDAL Murderous soldier detectives caught in old Spanish capital (9)
GI=”soldier” + CID=Criminal Investigation Department=”detectives”; inside REAL=former Spanish currency/capital [wiki]
11 ABSORBENCY Receptive nature of abbey treated with scorn (10)
(abbey scorn)*
12 NAG Potential beast of burden no good with a load (3)
N (No) + G (Good), with A loaded inside
14 FOREQUARTERS More than just two legs of quadruped making the whole, we’re told (12)
=the front part of the body of e.g. a horse
homophone/”we’re told” of ‘four quarters’=”the whole”
18 INADEQUATELY Lady Anne’s last antique restored in shoddy fashion (12)
(Lady e antique)*, where e=”Anne’s last”
21 HAL One Shakespearean prince can’t have met another (3)
=Prince Hal, or Henry V in Shakespeare
HAmLet=”Shakespearean prince”, without met
22 PROLONGING Continuing desire to follow master (10)
LONGING=”desire”, following PRO (professional)=”master”
25 CRINOLINE King Charles wearing old brand, outstanding period clothing (9)
=an undergarment [wiki] supporting a skirt’s shape outwards from the body i.e. “outstanding”
CR (Charles Rex)=”King Charles” + IN=”wearing” + O (Old) + LINE=”brand” as in ‘clothing line’
26 AMAIN Area seized by dictator with force (5)
A (Area) inside Idi AMIN=”dictator” [wiki]
27 PEGASUS Strictly control a small American 4 (7)
=mythical winged HORSE
PEG=”Strictly control” at a fixed price, as in a ‘pegged currency’; plus A + S (small) + US=”American”
28 NOSEBAG What could feed Brummel’s 4, asks Spooner? (7)
Spoonerism of ‘Beau’s Nag’, referring to Beau Brummell [wiki] and 4dn=HORSE
Down
1 FACIAL China regularly invested in river cleansing process (6)
regular letters from ChInA invested into FAL=”river” in Cornwall
2 RADISH Vegetable pot used as base by artist (6)
DISH=”pot” underneath RA=Royal Academician=”artist”
3 INTERWOVEN Inseparable Bury ladies, five not married (10)
INTER=”Bury” + WOMEN=”ladies”, with V=”five” in Roman numerals switched in for M (married)
4 HORSE Drug runner at Folkestone? (5)
double definition: HORSE is slang for heroin; and Folkestone is a racecourse
5 HIGH COURT Many cases taken here on a trip by royal household (4,5)
HIGH on drugs=”on a trip” + COURT=”royal household”
6 MACE Head of management with excellent official staff (4)
=a rod or “staff” held as a symbol of authority
Head letter of Management + ACE=”excellent”
7 INDENTED Like some text from scriptures, truly gripping (8)
NT (New Testament)=”scriptures”, gripped inside INDEED=”truly”
8 EULOGIST Person acclaiming EU record holds work up (8)
EU + LIST=”record”, holding GO=”work” reversed/”up”
13 SRI LANKANS Island people, thin and weak, among Middle Easteners short of yen (3,7)
LANK=”thin and weak” inside SYRIANS minus Y (yen)
15 EQUERRIES Points raised online about Republican aides in high places? (9)
=officials in royal households
E-QUERIES=”Points raised online …?”, around R (Republican)
16 NIGHTCAP Approaching bargain counter for final drink (8)
NIGH=”Approaching” + PACT=”bargain” reversed/”counter”
17 VAULTING Going over stonework in medieval roof, perhaps (8)
double definition: vault can mean ‘leap’ or ‘an arched roof’
19 BICARB Cook’s agent in Caribbean, two-thirds sozzled (6)
=bicarbonate of soda, used as a raising agent
(Caribb)*, taking two-thirds of the letters from Caribbean
20 EGGNOG Alcoholic drink, three gallons, one drunk (6)
(G G G one)*, where each G is one of three gallons
23 LIE IN Pork pie — popular weekend indulgence? (3-2)
“Pork pie” is rhyming slang for LIE; plus IN=”popular”
24 BOWS Part of ship‘s equipment for launching missiles (4)
double definition: =the forward parts of a ship; and =equipment for shooting arrows

42 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,804 by Nutmeg”

  1. Thanks Nutmeg and manehi

    A slow start for me too. I had a partly parsed HOMICIDAL at 10a until I decided that 4d had to be HORSE; then it went a bit more smoothly. I didn’t see the reverse PACT in NIGHTCAP.

    Favourite was INTERWOVEN.

  2. I couldn’t parse EULOGIST as I had EU and LOG – what’s the IST for? So thanks for that, manehi. A nice puzzle which yielded steadily. Thanks to Nutmeg.

  4. Thanks, manehi – I echo your favourites yet again, with the addition of EULOGIST, because I initially made the same mistake as drofle and 28ac for being a meaningful Spoonerism.  21ac is a gem and I loved the surface of 19dn particularly, though they were all beautifully polished, as usual.

    Lovely puzzle – a bit tougher than usual but that’s not a complaint! Many thanks, Nutmeg.

  5. Similar – 8d confused over log, and hadn’t picked pact in 16d, tried homicidal  but had to reconsider after getting 4d. Slow start too, and then quick to pick 24d, 27a.

    Minor pick at 12a, ‘with a load’ as only one of the words appears sufficient to inject the ‘a’ into n-g.

    Gentle horsey theme, with ‘Beau’s nag’ to cap it off.

    Much enjoyed, thanks Nutmeg and Manehi.

     

  6. My favourites were HIGH COURT, NOSEBAG, EQUERRIES, HAL, INADEQUATELY.

    I failed to pick up the reverse PACT in NIGHTCAP, could only parse as far as NIGH.

    Thanks manehi and Nutmeg.

  8. Thank you Nutmeg and manehi.

    I liked the horsey theme. CRINOLINE also fits in, its second meaning in the COED is “a stiff fabric of horse hair etc. used for linings, hats, etc.” – the French crin for a horse’s mane made me suspicious.

  9. Very challenging today..particuarly as I am on my own.
    Liked FOREQUARTERS best I think.
    Struggled with a lot of the passing so grateful to manehi for the help.
    Thanks as always to Nutmeg for the entertainment.

  10. Enjoyed it all, and particularly the two three letter words 17a NAG and 21a HAL. I liked the horsey theme.

    Ticks from me (echoing some others) for 5a HEMLINE, 27a PEGASUS, 28a NOSEBAG, 5d HIGH COURT and 19d BICARB. I can’t believe I had to come here for the parse of 7d INDENTED, after all the times NT and OT have been used in cryptics for “scriptures” or “books”.

    13d was a sobering clue, as I have been feeling very deeply for SRI LANKANS following the Easter atrocities.

    Thanks for the blog, manehi, and to others for comments in the posts. Special thanks to Nutmeg for a very enjoyable puzzle that took me a while but was ultimately very satisfying.

  12. Rather similar experience to muffin @1; good crossword a long way away from Nutmeg’s previous Quiptics.

    I ticked REGICIDAL, FOREQUARTERS, HAL, CRINOLINE and INDENTED.

    The SRI LANKANS are having a truly horrible time at the moment; my thoughts are with them.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi.

  13. Glad of the usual struggle with Nutmeg, pleased that I persevered to the end, and is that a typo in 13 down, or part of a clever cluing that I missed?

  14. Fun and tough in equal measure. Could the issue with 8 down be that record is not referring to log but to list, giving us an inverted go in the middle. But whether go can be alluding to work I’m not so sure. Get up and go maybe. That sense. Otherwise I can’t parse it either. Nice theme. Thanks Manehi and Nutmeg

  17. That, I felt, was tougher than Nutmeg often is, but a bit easier than some of the puzzles this week. Some lovely surfaces which took a second or third look to unravel, but piece by piece it came together with odd solutions appearing around the grid before much infill – like the ribs of a vault perhaps…

    One query – is “G” a proper abbreviation for “gallon”? I only know of “gal” and my (ancient) Chambers agrees. Nice theme (though I might also need a lie-in and a bicarb after too many nightcaps of eggnog!)

  18. I found this hard and was defeated after a lengthy struggle by not knowing AMAIN and missing BICARB and VAULTING. I enjoyed the equine theme and the REGICIDAL and ‘King Charles’ cross-reference.

    My thoughts are also with the Sri Lankans, both at home and abroad, after the terrible events of earlier this week.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi and to Cookie @16 for the interesting ‘Horses in War’ link.

  19. Folkestone WAS a race course.

    It is a standard joke for etymologists that equerry is not derived from Latin equus – horse.

  20. I think bargain counter is the best bit of word-play I’ve seen in a while. It tells you what to do, but it doesn’t shout.

    Thanks both.

  21. I found this very tough. All the clues are perfectly fair and there is nothing convoluted about any of them. I eventually had many ticks with HEMLINE and EQUERRIES being my top picks. It was also a dnf as I gave up on AMAIN (obvious although unknown) and BOWS (just obvious now). I should have enlisted MrsW’s help. Many thanks to Nutmeg and manehi (I’m another who missed PACT).

  22. Excellent puzzle. In my hurry I didn’t ‘get’ PACT in NIGHTCAP (a pity), but I did get all the other gems like HAL, CRINOLINE and NOSEBAG.
    Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi.

  23. Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi. I started off like a house on fire with this and thought it seemed a bit easy for Nutmeg. However soon came to a grinding halt and a tough finish for the final third. I got bogged down in the NE and the SW in the end. However managed to see indented (eventually) and that just left the SW. Last ones in were equerries, Pegasus, bows and crinoline. Favourites more or less the same as manehi and thanks again to Nutmeg and manehi.

  25. I found this much tougher than Nutmeg normally is, but enjoyed the challenge. AMAIN was unfamiliar.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi

  26. Yes, I didn’t know AMAIN either, but it was my favourite sort of clue – make up a word and find out that it is correct!

  27. I didn’t know AMAIN and didn’t get it: I put AGAIN which sounded right but–. Nice puzzle,though,a tad harder than usual for Nutmeg. I wanted 10ac to be HOMICIDAL but HORSE put paid to that.I didn’t realise how apposite the HORSE connection was so thanks to those who pointed it out. Liked HEMLINES and NOSEBAG.
    Thanks Nutmeg.

  30. The only time I’ve ever actually voiced AMAIN is when singing the last verse of ‘I saw three ships come sailing in’: ‘Then let us all rejoice amain …. on Christmas Day in the morning’.

  31. Thanks to manehi and Nutmeg

    Smooth as silk let down only by 4a and 28a. I know what we are supposed to do with both, but A LOAD doesn’t really put A in NG does it? And NOSEBORSE doesn’t fit.

    In 21a, does the surface mean that they can’t have met because they lived at different times or that one never existed at all? Just wondering.

    thezed@17 yes, G for GALLON(S) is in both my Collins and Chambers

  32. Me@31

    12a not 4a and I’ve just realised it is rather a good &lit so a little latitude is warranted.

  34. I completely flopped on Sri Lankans because I was convinced that the Middle Easterners were Yemenis so minus yen, the solution had to contain either “emenis” or “emis”.

     

  35. jeceris @33

    Are you wondering about Syrians? They don’t live in the Near East (Israel, Jordan etc.) or the Far East, or the “sub-continent”, so “Middle East” seems fair?

  36. Does anyone else quibble with 24D? I feel the number disagreement between clue and answer is dubious. “part of ship” doesn’t equal BOWS, even if you make it “ship’s”.

  38. I did like FOREQUARTERS and HIGH COURT though. I enjoyed visualizing a trial at a “high” court. 🙂

  39. Thanks Dansar – didn’t spot that.

    glenn @36

    The bows of the ship is the front  (pointy bit). I don’t think ” bow of the ship” is all that common.

  40. Muffin, see Collins:

    bow in part of a ship
    (ba?  )
    The front part of a ship is called the bow or the bows.

  42. Part of ship /is/ equipment…

    Definition is ‘part of ship’, not ‘part of ship’s equipment’. Bows, collectively, are ‘equipment for launching missiles’.

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