Guardian Cryptic 27,822 by Qaos

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27822.

I found this a little easier than many Qaos puzzles (but none the worse for that), and with a theme that I not only spottted, but did so in time to help get 1D APOLLO. The theme is announced in 9A PLAYHOUSE (which is itself the name of a theatre). I take it that they are all intended to be London theatres (although a good many names are repeated elsewhere). PRINCE could refer to Prince’s Theatre, or the Prince of Wales, both defunct names. There being no NATIONAL in the puzzle, ROYAL would be the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. I see no trace of a theatre named after Sir Peter Hall; there should be. Even if I have not overlooked any, the grid comes out almost more coloured than not.

Across
7 APPETITES Desires a soft, small French salad for starter (9)
A charade of ‘a’ plus P (piano, musically ‘soft’) plus PETITE (‘small French’, feminine) plus S (‘Salad for starter’).
8 ROYAL Magnificent, faithful leader swapping sides … (5)
LOYAL (‘faithful’), with the first letter (‘leader’) changed from L to R (‘swapping sides’).
9 PLAYHOUSE … as you help construct a theatre (9)
An anagram (‘construct’) of ‘as you help’.
10 SAVOY Hotel, for example, housing 50? (5)
An envelope (‘housing’) of V (Roman numeral, ‘5’) plus O (‘0’) in SAY (‘for example’).
12 DOZENS Loads sleep with partners (6)
A charade of DOZE (‘sleep’) plus NS (‘partners’ eg at bridge).
13 GRANDADS Government managed 500 promotions for relatives (8)
A charade of G (‘government’) plus RAN (‘managed’) plus D (Roman numeral, ‘500’) plus ADS (‘promotions’).
16 VIOLENT Intense colour contains navy (7)
An envelope (‘contains’) of N (‘navy’) in VOILET (‘colour’).
19 OLIVIER Over 50? I struggle to get right actor (7)
A charade of O (‘over’) plus L (Roman numeral ’50’) plus ‘I’ plus VIE (‘struggle’) plus R (‘right’).
22 CODPIECE Physician returns US weapon in pouch (8)
A charade of COD, a reversal (‘returns’) of DOC (‘physician’) plus PIECE (‘US weapon’).
25 PRINCE Musician, one who used to tour with Queen? (6)
Double definition.
27 PENNY Write extremely neatly for money (5)
A charade of PEN (‘write’) plus NY (‘extremely NeatlY‘).
28 PALLADIUM Friend twisted dial — not sure it’s heavy metal (9)
A charade of PAL (‘friend’) plus LADI, an anagram (‘twisted’) of ‘dial’ plus UM (‘not sure’).
29 WALES Country with drinks (5)
A charade of W (‘with’) plus ALES (‘drinks’).
30 SINCERITY Las Vegas entertains Queen with candour (9)
An envelope (‘entertains’) of ER (‘Queen’) in SIN CITY (‘Las Vegas’).
Down
1 APOLLO Godfather recalled lines wearing glasses (6)
A charade of AP, a reversal (‘recalled’) of PA (-‘father’) plus OLLO, an envelope (‘wearing’) of L L (‘lines’) in OO (‘glasses’, a round pair).
2 VERY WELL Agreed, so healthy (4,4)
Definition and literal interpretation.
3 PILOTS Good many become Guides (6)
A charade of PI (‘good’; short for pious, generally in a derogatory sense) plus LOTS (‘many’).
4 MESSAGE Trouble being on time delivering letter (7)
A charade of MESS (‘trouble’) plus AGE (‘time’).
5 COWARD Yellow fish gobbled up, uncooked (6)
An envelope (‘gobbled’) of WAR, a reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of RAW (‘uncooked’) in COD (‘fish’).
6, 24 HAROLD PINTER  Playwright‘s shocking and her plot’s about independence, right? (6,6)
A charade of HAROLDPINTE, an envelope (‘about’) of I (‘independence’) in HAROLDPNTE, an anagram (‘shocking’) of ‘and her plot’; plus R (‘right’).
11 HALL Room for hire? Initially, everyone (4)
A charade of H (‘Hire initially’) plus ALL (‘everyone’).
14 ALI English bowler hat folds twice, centrally (3)
Middle letters (‘centrally’) of ‘hAt foLds twIce’, for Moeen Ali.
15 SIR Gentleman sent back fried meat dish — fish is off (3)
A reversal (‘sent back’) of RIS[sole] (‘fried meat dish’) minus SOLE (‘fish is off’).
16 VIC Small boy, about 4, does a cartwheel (3)
A reversal (‘does a cartwheel’) of C (circa, ‘about’) plus IV (Roman numeral, ‘4’).
17 OLD Antique is regularly oiled (3)
Alternate letters (‘regularly’) of ‘OiLeD‘.
18 NOEL Christmas sign up after 1st of November (4)
A charade of N (‘1st of November’) plus OEL, a reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of LEO (astrological ‘sign’).
20 VOIR DIRE Bad driver holds up 10 for judge’s preliminary examination of a witness (4,4)
An envelope (‘holds’) of OI, a kind of reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of ’10’ in VRDIRE, an anagram (‘bad’) of ‘driver’.
21 GELATIN On turning, whisk ain’t making jelly (7)
A charade of GEL, a reversal (‘on turning’) of LEG (‘whisk’ in the sense of move rapidly‘on’, cricket) plus ATIN, an anagram (‘making‘‘whisk’) of ‘aint’. A case of overlooking the obvious. Thanks to Gaufrid et al for  pointing this out.
23 OPERAS Campaigns not getting into corrupted works (6)
OPERA[tion]S (‘campaigns’) minus TION, an anagram (‘corrupted’) of ‘into’.
24   See 6
25 PALACE Priest’s after the style of church residence (6)
A charade of P (‘priest’) plus À LA (‘after the style of’) plus CE (‘Church’ of England).
26 COUNTY Region of land has no river (6)
COUNT[r]Y (‘land’) minus the R (‘has no river’).
completed grid

51 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,822 by Qaos”

  2. I was somewhere around half-way through when my eyes dropped unintentionally to the Guardian’s own comments section below the grid, an area where the rule is supposed to be No Spoilers. However, there was a mention there of a theme, which I hadn’t noticed yet in the puzzle itself. A clue or two later it was obvious, and in time to help with a few more. I would actually rather not have been given the helping hand, and am wondering what the editor thinks.

    10a SAVOY requires the digits of 50 to be interpreted in different ways, and we’ve seen other examples of this recently too. I rather like it – has anyone come up with a name for this device?

    Thanks all.

  4. I didn’t get all the theme words, but I did enjoy “playing around” with the ones I got! Should 23d OPERAS also be shaded? (To go with 27a PENNY? My favourite non-theme Words were 30a SINCERITY and 2d VERY WELLMany thanks to Qaos and PeterO.

  7. (Might be way off track with my suggestion – I guess my thinking was that the theme was more to do with plays than PLAYHOUSEs. Without “Three” somewhere to go with PENNY, and OPERAS plural rather than singular, I might be pushing the theme too far?)

  9. Not as difficult as some Qaos puzzles and, as Peter says, none the worse for that. I saw the theme early on, which was a help, and e joyed the inventive cluing.
    I meant to comment on yesterday’s puzzle Fifteensquared was not yet up and I forgot later in the day. What I intended to say was that it was another cracker of a puzzle from Nutmeg and I wish that the
    Grauniad would publish a collection of the puzzles of Nutmeg and Arachne as these two setters consistently produce top quality challenges that would reward revisiting after a period of time. No criticism intended of the paper’s male setters intended.

  10. Sorry about the errors in the previous posting, I’m having trouble with the iPad.

  11. Apart from the themed answers already mentioned, could 15d & 11d be a reference to SIR (Peter) HALL? Great fun from Qaos as usual. Thanks to him and PeterO.

  12. [George C@9. Great idea! Trovatore@8, I did not know Alexandra Palace or its abbreviation but do now due to you and the Internet! Thanks!]

  13. Thanks Qaos and PeterO

    Saw the theme, for once, though only when I was nearly finished. Favourite was APOLLO.

    I didn’t see “whisk” for LEG, and I’m still not happy about it. Also, isn’t there is mismatch in COWARD (noun) and “yellow” (adjective)?

  14. muffin @13

    21dn is LEG (on {cricket}) reversed (turning) plus an anagram (whisk) of AIN’T.

  15. muffin@13 – I parsed 21d as “On turning” = GEL (leg side in cricket (on side) reversed) and “whisk” as anagram fodder for AINT

  16. Impressed by the abundance of brilliant surfaces.

    I didn’t get SAVOY.

    I wondered if PENNY OPERA was part of a more general theatrical theme

  17. Muffin @13, as I was typing this, I see 2 posts have now beaten me to explaining the correct parsing for 21d. The quick and the dead applies here!

    I enjoyed spotting  the theatre names, most of which I could identify. Some of the devices, especially VO for ’50’ in 10a and the ‘God’ def as just part of a word for 1d, were also very clever.

    Thank you to Qaos and PeterO

  18. Thanks to all.

    For 21D isn’t LEG “on (as in cricket) turning”, with whisk being the anagram indicator for ain’t?

  21. 20 comments before 9am suggests the theme made this easier than normal for Qaos! For once I spotted the theme about half way through (yes, it jumped off the page and had me by the windpipe before I succumbed.)

    Another who thought Ali Palace part of the theme, and also “gelatin” being the name of the coloured filters placed on theatre lights (usually called “gels”). Is “hall” part of “County Hall” which has been used as a theatre, most recently for Agatha Christie’s “Witness for the Prosecution”?

    Good fun, and the usual playfulness from Qaos, especially with numbers – the “50” lift-and-separate was ok but not as special as “Apollo” which was obvious and devious at the same time.

    Bravo Qaos, you can take your bow, and applause for PeterO too.

  22. Thanks PeterO, for the blog and Qaos for a puzzle which I found quite delightful and enjoyed from start to finish.

    I loved the theme and thought the grid-filling was most impressive – the amount of colour in PeterO’s grid says it all – and the quality of the clues did not suffer at all.

    I didn’t note any weak clues but had big ticks for APPETITES, GRANDADS , OLIVIER, OPERAS, SAVOY*, all for both construction and surface and the biggest of all for APOLLO [straight into my little book of classics. [*Yes, there should be a name for this type of clue, the kind that Qaos delights in.]

    [I’ve been searching [unsuccessfully] for a hidden ‘Peter’ to complete SIR … HALL.]

  23. I had lovers for 12 across. Bit obvious and below the belt perhaps but it parses for me. Learnt voir dire today. Thank you for a most enjoyable puzzle.

  24. Thank you Qaos and PeterO.

    That was fun – agree with thezed @21 as regards COUNTY HALL.  VOIR DIRE is a play by Joe Sutton, perhaps this also fits the theme?

  25. I think ‘codpiece’, an essential item in theatrical costumery, could also be included.
    Thanks to PeterO and to Qaos

  26. Thanks both. Saw Qaos as the setter, thought “theme”, and I saw it! A minor miracle!
    Could “Sir” be Noel Coward?

  27. I always look forward to grappling with Qaos and his creative use of numbers. I haven’t seen IO for ten before, although it seems as though it should be a common device. I thought that VO for 50 was stretching things a bit, because the Romans didn’t use digits in the same way that we do. Perhaps that’s just sour grapes because I missed SAVOY. (Don’t know any of the London theatres, so of course I didn’t spot the theme.) Fun anyway. Thanks to Qaos and PeterO.

  28. Shirl @26 if we treat the theme strictly as London theatres, then I don’t think “sir” is part of it – there are theatres called The Noel Coward Theatre and The Harold Pinter Theatre so these names are in as places not people. The other terms – gelatin, voir dire, operas, codpiece – are, I suspect, a bit of set dressing by Qoas, peripheral to the formal theme but a sort of variation on it. Bit players if you will…

  29. With regard to ‘coward’ as an adjective: see Emily Bronte’s poem ‘No Coward Soul is Mine’.

  30. Thanks to Qaos and PeterO. As others have said, largely straightforward. However the last three or four seemed to take as long as the rest of the puzzle put together. Last ones voir dire (never heard of it) prince (tried for ages to justify player) and Savoy. I saw the theme early and I do not think I would have got Savoy without it. I guessed what it might be and then parsed with this one. I did like sincerity, Apollo and in retrospect Prince. Thanks again to Qaos and PeterO.

  33. thezed @28, there are at lest two opera theatres in London, apart from the Royal Opera House, there is the Opera Holland Park and the Highbury Opera Theatre, do you think these might count?

  34. With ROYAL and HALL in place, I was searching in vain for an ALBERT. Anyway, I do think OPERAS and HALL are part of the theme, at least as generic loose synonyms for PLAYHOUSE(s).

  35. Cookie @33 For me (and until Qaos tells us otherwise it is all opinion!) the theatres are all properly named (apart from “Palladium” which lacks “London”) so for now I am filing it, along with “Ali Palace” which is not quite Alexandra Palace, nor Ally Pally, nor really a theatre, as a fun outsider. But by Jove what a cast of theatrically-themed walk-ons to accompany the stars.

  36. Wikipedia (List of London Venues) provides nice lists both of West End and non West End theatres. All of those highlighted by PeterO are in the former category, and the distinctive parts of their names are represented in full. So I’m inclined to think West End is the theme, the others more incidental.

  37. @ Dr Whatson (don’t know number as using phone).

    If you bear in mind that Qaos *always* has a theme, I don’t think that a comment on the graun thread about the existence of a theme qualifies as a spoiler.

  38. A delightful puzzle.  I spotted the theme after my first four solutions – for me, that’s amazing.

    After solving ALI, I got OLD [but please don’t misinterpret that].  It’s curious that with only a slight modification, Qaos could have used his clue to ALI for OLD: “Former English bowler holds, centrally (3)”.  But that’s only for those who remember Chris Old, the former England bowler.

    I was another who tried to force PLAYER into the space where PRINCE had to go.  It had to be PRINCE, but I didn’t fully get it.  I also had SINCERELY instead of SINCERITY at first (the clue says ‘with candour’), but that corner would only work with PRINCE, COUNTY and SINCERITY, so I had to mess up that corner a lot in order to complete it.

    I enjoyed the whole puzzle.  I liked the numerical devices used in SAVOY and VOIR DIRE (as mentioned by others).

    Many thanks to Qaos and PeterO.

  39. Simon S you’re right, but this won’t placate newbies though (but I’m not a newbie),

    The reason I asked at the top for a name for what people are calling lift and separate is that the cognitive mechanism by which we parse numbers is different from how we parse text, so there is something else that happens before the lift part. On reflection this is probably all irrelevant because laymen especially have a hard time introspecting how we understand language, so the mechanisms appear to be the same, and that’s all that matters.

  40. Thanks to Qaos and PeterO. I got all the theatres but still missed the theme (as usual). I knew VOIR DIRE and did parse GELATIN with leg reversed and aint.

  41. Afternoon all – and a very nice and sunny one at that!

    Glad you enjoyed today’s puzzle. Definitely one for the thespians and hopefully providing some balance to the scientific themes. SIR OLIVIER in his CODPIECE was just a walk-on extra.

    Best wishes,

    Qaos.

  44. An update on dear old Ally Pally (thezed’s comment at @35). It does now qualify as a theatre, as the old Victorian theatre there has recently been restored after years of use for other purposes. Last summer it hosted one of the BBC Proms, of appropriately Victorian music including Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial by Jury. It has not been fully restored and looks fashionably distressed. A very atmospheric experience.

    This was a very enjoyable crossword. Needless to say, I missed even such an obvious and (to a Londoner) easy theme as this. I spent a lot of time looking for a musician named Philip as the Queen’s touring companion. And I’m another who thought LOVERS must be the answer to 12 without being able to parse it.

  47. [Shame about refusal to correct wrong parsing of GELATIN in spite of muffin’s comments, and Gaufrid’s explanation. This mars an otherwise typically excellent blog. I make this point primarily as I can imagine future visitors – perhaps from the Guardian archive – being very confused by the blog, especially if they’re learners!]

  48. William F P @ 47

    Apologies for the “refusal” to correct the “wrong” parsing of 21D GELATIN (actually I was out most of the day yesterday). Blog now amended.

  49. Thanks to PeterO and Qaos

    Very entertaining.

    I wonder if CAMPAIGNS NOTION WORKS @23d might have been another device in need of a name?

  50. Not forgetting the famous South American theatres in Pillaro and La Paz and the late lamented Elli theatre of Llanelli all hidden away in the grid.

  51. Nobody seems to have pointed out that SAVOY goes with OPERAS – the Gilbert & Sullivan entertainments that for many years were performed at the theatre of that name.
    An entertaining crossword, not too easy or too difficult. Thanks Qaos and PeterO.

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