Guardian Cryptic 27,933 by Chifonie

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A little tougher than the usual Monday, and very neatly clued. Favourites 15ac, 7dn, 14dn, and 21dn. Thanks to Chifonie

Across
1 CASTLE Keep learner in class (6)
L (Learner) in CASTE=”class”
4 DRAUGHT A man‘s drink (7)
double definition: a piece or ‘man’ in a game of draughts; or e.g. beer pulled from a barrel
9 CHAROLAIS Beef about rail chaos? (9)
a breed of cattle
(rail chaos)*
10 IMAGE One gets the setter to adopt a good appearance (5)
I=”One” + ME=”setter” around: A + G (good)
11 PIOUS Having second thoughts about obligation to be devout (5)
PS (Post Script)=”second thoughts”, around IOU=”obligation”
12 ALUMINIUM Metal or salt containing little uranium (9)
ALUM=”salt” around: MINI=”little” + U (uranium)
13 TINTACK A small fastening can alter one’s course (7)
TIN=”can” as in a container + TACK=”alter one’s course”
15 SLAP-UP Lavish old Bob with drink (4-2)
S (shilling)=”old Bob” + LAP UP=”drink”
17 TROPIC King is absorbed by subject’s global line (6)
R (Rex)=”King” inside TOPIC=”subject”
19 BANGERS Food for Bonfire Night? (7)
double definition: “Food” as in sausages; “for Bonfire Night” as in fireworks
22 ALARMISTS Prophets of doom fabricated star’s mail (9)
(star’s mail)*
24 PASTE Ancient English gum (5)
PAST=”Ancient” + E (English)
26 LAIRD Many retreat before landowner (5)
D=Roman numeral for 500=”Many”, with LAIR=”retreat” before it
27 ACCORDION Agreement to one playing instrument (9)
ACCORD=”Agreement” + I=”one” + ON=”playing”
28 PENANCE Atonement for one captivated by money (7)
AN=”one” inside PENCE=”money”
29 MAYHEM Bedlam can appear on the border (6)
MAY=”can” + HEM=”border”
Down
1 COCKPIT Set up mine in the arena (7)
COCK=ready a gun for firing=”Set up” + PIT=”mine”
2 SHAKO Military cap is used: it’s a knockout (5)
SH (Second Hand)=”used” + A + KO (knock out)
3 LOOK SHARP Inspect small instrument and be quick about it (4,5)
LOOK=”Inspect” + S (small) + HARP=”instrument”
4 DISCUSS Talk about sporting event on Sunday (7)
DISCUS=”sporting event” + S (Sunday)
5 ALIBI A politician has one form of defence (5)
A + LIB (liberal)=”politician” + I=”one”
6 GRATITUDE Drug tea? It excited a feeling of appreciation (9)
(drug tea it)*
7 THELMA Girl gets thanks when taking control (6)
TA=”thanks” around HELM=”control”
8 DAMASK Fabric for attorney’s cloak (6)
DA (district attorney) + MASK=”cloak”
14 NARRATION People mobbing a bishop in Reading (9)
NATION=”People” around A + RR (Right Reverend)=”bishop” Edit thanks to Hovis
16 ANNAPURNA Sleep in a container on a mountain (9)
a mountain in Nepal
NAP=”sleep” inside AN URN=”a container” + A
18 CASCADE Situation in which bounder falls (7)
CASE=”Situation” around CAD=”bounder”
19 BASICS Groundwork used to catch fish — about a ton (6)
BASS=”fish” around: I=one=”a” + C=100 or “ton” in Roman numerals
20 STERNUM Reckoning to eat a bird — part of the breast (7)
SUM=”Reckoning” around TERN=”bird”
21 GALLOP Bitterness over work and career (6)
“career” as in move quickly
GALL=”Bitterness” + OP=”work”
23 MID-ON Note academic’s position in the field (3-2)
a fielding position in cricket
MI=”Note” as in do-re-mi; DON=”academic”
25 SWISH Pole’s longing to be fashionable (5)
S (South)=”Pole” + WISH=”longing”

33 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,933 by Chifonie”

  1. I enjoyed this very much – yes, tougher than the usual Monday but with Chifonie’s economy and wit as always. Favourites included DRAUGHT, ALUMINIUM and THELMA. Many thanks to C & m.

  2. Thanks Chifonie and manehi

    Nice puzzle. My favourite was CASCADE.

    I would have preferred 500 to “many” in 26a – I can’t see why he didn’t use it.

    ALUMINIUM and ALUM derive from the same root. “Alums” are generally salts containing aluminium (though the term has been extended to include salts with other trivalent metals, e.g. chromium).

  3. I couldn’t parse the SH bit of SHAKO.

    New word for me today was CHAROLAIS.

    My favourites were THELMA, ANNAPURNA.

    Thanks manehi and Chifonie.

  4. Yep beaut Monday puzzle. Liked draught, alum with mini u in it, Thelma, basics, and the mountain. Didn’t know tintack was a thing (other than getting down to tin/brass tacks), and didn’t parse laird, d’oh, a gimme. Nice one Chifonie and thanks Manehi.

  5. yes, some Monday fun- not quite a gallop for me but still relatively straightforward. Fav was THELMA. Thanks to Chifonie and Manehi.

  6. Agree tougher Chifonie than usual, but all gettable with a bit more thought.

    Last in swish mayhem, liked Thelma, she held out until realisation that the ‘a’ of ta could be the last letter.

    Ta Manehi and Chifonie.

  7. I was not sure of my answer in 1d – in what way is a COCKPIT an arena? Lots to like here though – my favourite was the surface for 5d ALIBI. I also ticked 11a PIOUS, 13a TINTACK and 7d THELMA (as others have previously mentioned). 2d SHAKO was an unparsed guess but remembered from previous crosswords.

    Many thanks to Chifonie and manehi.

  8. JinA

    A “cockpit” originally was a pit surrounded by tiers of standing areas, used for cock-fighting. Other usages derive from this.

  10. I can only parse 19d with the definition being “Groundwork used to catch”, although it’s a stretch. Otherwise the clue makes no sense.

  12. Thanks Chifonie, manehi

    I share poc @10’s doubts about 19d.  I think it takes the concept of bunging in any old words to make the clue sound ok to a whole new level.  Plus it’s got a for I, yuk.

    Otherwise pleasant and straightforward, 1, 4, 9ac all lovely and concise.

  13. I enjoyed this but grimaced at a couple on the way, as mentioned above. I would like to be able to accept poc@10’s extended version of the definition at 19dn, but it just doesn’t work. I think we have to swallow “used to catch” as superfluous joiner words but they don’t go down easily.

    I wonder if any of the downunder solvers made the connection that I did from 15ac to a favourite poem from childhood – The Play from The Sentimental Bloke by CJ Dennis.
    Doreen an’ me, we bin to see a show —
    The swell two-dollar touch. Bong tong, yeh know.
    A chair apiece wiv velvit on the seat;
    A slap-up treat.

    Thanks Chifonie, especially for that memory, and manehi.

  14. A study in contrasts, it seems to me. Yes, most clues were nicely economical, but a number of unnecessary words were peppered around. The dog’s dinner of 19d has already been mentioned a few times, but we also have “having” in 11a, “it’s” in 2d, “when” in 7d, collectively rather spoiling the effect.

    Thanks.

  15. I enjoyed this and did not find it too hard for a Monday.  I parsed 19d as manehi but share others’ disquiet.  I enjoyed GALLOP, COCKPIT, CHAROLAIS – although I was put off at first thinking there should have an E on the end – and BANGERS.  All in all a good start to the week!

    Thanks Chifonie and manehi.

  17. Plenty of quality, nice misdirections throughout with words having different meanings in the impressively clean surfaces – classic.

    I also fell for ‘one playing’ just like @11, thereby inventing a word, and i had underlined “used to catch” in 19d, which has been mentioned.

    I particularly liked PIOUS

    many thanks Chifonie and manehi

  18. KLcolin, ta for the reminder; bong tong, with its two-way high- and lowbrow nod, is a favourite expression, but even so, no, given that slap-up is so much part of the lingo (was it a CJ original? I’d be surprised) the connection didn’t occur.

  19. Shakespeare’s Henry V for Julie of Oz: “can this cockpit hold
    The vasty fields of France? or may we cram
    Within this wooden O the very casques
    That did affright the air at Agincourt?”

  20. Tricky ish for a dark, miserable Monday morn.
    Liked pious, struggled with draught and once again found myself wishing that compilers weren’t fixated on the ghastly game of cricket. Mid on grrrr

  22. Thanks to both.

    Not a typical Monday offering and all the better for that.  I enjoyed the experience of a slow, slow, quick quick solve.  CASTLE and DRAUGHT were favourites.

  23. grantinfreo, I am glad someone recognises the reference to The Sentimental Bloke. CJ Dennis didn’t coin “slap-up”, it must have been in use at the time (1915). But while you say “so much part of the lingo”, in my 40+ years since I left Australia I haven’t heard or read it. So it must be British/Australian usage, but was lurking in my memory thanks to that poem I knew by heart 50 years ago.

  24. Yes,a bit more difficult than usual for Monday but quite nice. SWISH held me up and was LOI. Liked CASCADE,TINTACM and PIOUS but COD for me was DRAUGHT.
    Thanks Chifonie.

  25. Nice puzzle, but we struggled to parse DRAUGHT: is each man in draughts a draught? I’ve never heard that singular use.

    And – DrW @ 14 – I fear that I may have lost the pedantry battle to preserve the distinction between dog’s breakfast = mess and (dressed up like a) dog’s dinner = in all one’s finery. Heigh ho! Thanks to Chifonie and manehi.

  26. I’m afraid I wasn’t as taken with this as many of today’s commenters. Lots of it felt a bit, well, clunky. The mess of 19D has already been discussed, and with 23D I really don’t care for the way that the Tonic Sol-fa notes get spelled in so many different ways – it just seems an unsatisfactory sort of parsing. And in 2D: I’ve never, ever come across S.H. being used to signify “second hand”. I presume some dictionary somewhere has these initials listed and therefore that makes it ok, but it feels weak to me….
    On the other hand, I really did like STERNUM, DISCUSS & THELMA. Thanks to Chifonie and Manehi.

  27. Wellbeck @26

    Mi is the original (i.e. correct) spelling, as sol-fa derives from this hymn (though some of the syllables were changed later):

    Ut queant lax?s    reson?re f?br?s
    M?ra gest?rum    famul? tu?rum,
    Solve poll?t?    labi? re?tum,
    Sancte I?hann?s.

    You often see S/H in adverts meaning “second-hand”.

  28. It was showing the correct letters when I pasted it in, but some have changed to question marks on posting!

    The third line starts Mira…

  29. ????? Muffin, you couldn’t repost the lot could you?
    I am with Welbeck, thought it was a bit boring as well, sorry Chifonie, did not think up to your usual delightful standards. Some spark missing somehow. Many thanks though, and to Manehi.

  32. [Thanks to muffin@8 and tenorclef@19 for the assistance with 1d COCKPIT. The Henry V reference was of particular interest because it was the Shakespearean set text when I was in Year 10. As that is now 50 years ago (sigh!), I guess I can forgive myself for not recalling that use of “cockpit”.
    I also appreciated KLColin’s references @13 and 23 to CJ Dennis’ “The Play”, which I do remember well, including fragments that I can still quote (“‘Peanuts and lollies!’ yells a boy upstairs.”). However like gif@18, I don’t particularly recall the use of “slap-up” in that context. We still use “slap-up dinner” to describe an elaborate and filling meal.
    (I hope those numbers are correct as I am working on my phone.)]

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