Guardian 27,967 – Brendan

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I was confidently expecting today’s setter to be Paul, but it was certainly no disappointment to see Brendan instead (not that I have anything against Paul).

We have a theme, of course, pointed to by 10a: it’s the “3 Rs” of Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic. But there’s more to it than that: every row and column of answers contains at least one R, and usually several. Very nice – thanks to Brendan. As pointed out in the comments, another (probably better) way to look at it is that 14 of the 28 answers contain 3 Rs.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
8. DERRIERE Behind sound of Irish song, London initially put out (8)
Homophone of “[London]derry Air”
9. ERROR English are heard repeatedly admitting old mistake (5)
E + O in 3 times R (homophone of “are”)
10. TRIO Some industriousness is needed for today’s theme, for instance (4)
Hidden in indusTRIOusness
11. RED HERRING Interpreted, we hear, sign that woman’s married? Misleading clue! (3,7)
Yet another homophone, of “read” (interpreted) + HER RING (which may show a woman is married)
12. BRIBER Corrupt dealer has something worn at table hiding king and queen (6)
R (king) in BIB + ER (the Queen)
14. NOTECASE School backed legal action — there’s usually money in it (8)
Reverse of ETON (school) + CASE (legal action)
15. TERRIER Tenacious pursuer‘s blunder, entering bank (7)
ERR (to blunder) in TIER (bank)
17. CARRARA Source of marble artists placed on vehicle (7)
CAR (vehicle) + twice RA (artist). Carrara is an Italian city famous for its marble
20. POLISHER More stylish going over line, one who finishes nicely? (8)
L I in POSHER
22. UNSAFE Use fan improperly, creating hazard (6)
(USE FAN)*
23. ARITHMETIC Reckoning that I must be involved with crime (10)
(THAT I CRIME)*
24. BRRR British educational foundation’s reaction to freeze? (4)
B + RRR (the 3 Rs, supposedly the foundation of education)
25. RARER In summer are roasts not cooked as much? (5)
Hidden in summeR ARE Roasts
26. NARROWER More like canal boat, quickly moved around with oar (8)
Reverse of RAN quicly moved) + ROWER (oar). Canal boats are often called narrowboats
Down
1. RETRORSE Confused restorer turned back (8)
RESTORER* – retrorse is used in biology to describe something bent backward or downward
2. BRIO Vigour from writer after change of heart (4)
BIRO (pen, writer) with its “heart” reversed
3. TERROR Dread it disappearing from territory no end (6)
TERRITORY less IT and its last letter
4. READING Being a student in university city (7)
Double definition, though in fact Reading (Berkshire) is not a city. There are several US cities called Reading, so by separating “university” and “city” you could read it as a triple definition
5. DEMENTIA Detain me improperly, making problem for head (8)
(DETAIN ME)*
6. PRE‑RECORDS Eg tapes in advance piano note repeated on strings (3-7)
P[iano] + RE + RE (notes) + CORDS (strings)
7. URANUS Managed university in America, part of the system we’re in (6)
RAN U in US. Uranus is part of the Solar System
13. BARRISTERS Defenders sometimes put obstructions across street (10)
ST[reet] in BARRIERS
16. EPHEMERA They yield short-term interest, showing edge in record time (8)
HEM (edge) in EP (record) + ERA (time)
18. REFORMER Concerning previous person trying to fix things (8)
RE (concerning) + FORMER (previous)
19. WRITING Making corrections in speech or text (7)
Homophone of “righting”
21. ORRERY Unknown to mathematicians, supporting awful 9 in astronomical model (6)
Anagram of ERROR (answer to 9a) + Y (mathematical unknown). An orrery is a mechanical model of the Solar System
22. UNCORK Open bottle containing a French port (6)
UN (French “a”) + CORK (Irish port). “Containing” in the sense “consisting of”
24. BOOK A piece of 4 or 19 youth’s not completed satisfactorily (4)
An uncompleted BO[y] + OK (satisfactorily, as in “it worked OK”)

51 comments on “Guardian 27,967 – Brendan”

  1. A treat to brighten up this dull damp morning no end.

    Brendan on top form – a great theme and some wonderful clues – I’d particularly mention 8d and, my last one in, the splendid 24a

    Thanks to Brendan for the fun and Andrew for the blog

  3. Thanks Brendan and Andrew

    A DNF for me, as despite having the theme, I entered a slightly parsed BERG at 24a!

    URANUS was favourite.

    (I’ve been to the marble quarries at Carrara, so that one was easy.)

  4. Thanks both.

    I saw the theme in a different way, having not spotted the “three Rs” pointed out by Andrew, and not parsed BRRR fully. If I’ve counted correctly, fourteen of the answers actually contain 3 Rs. Clever. I probably wouldn’t have seen the theme if 10a didn’t explicitly indicate there was one.

    As a resident of READING (the UK one) I was going to make the same comment about its (lack of) city status as Andrew did. It is very much a wannabe city; even some of the street signage refers to the “city centre”.

     

  6. Another clever puzzle (and gridfill) from Brendan – I also thought Paul a racing certainty but welcome the change. CARRARA and my last in RETRORSE were unfamiliar to me and must have been dictated by the theme – the latter took some teasing out even with all the crossers in place as initially it didn’t look plausible enough.

    Thanks to Brendan and Andrew

  7. Exactly what crypticsue said – 24dn took me far too long!

    beaulieu @4 – check your 23ac: there are fifteen. 😉 Brilliant.

  8. Apart from retrorse, a tilt, more of a quiptic than a Friday, but yes clever nonetheless with the 14 three Rs. Trio and brio were fun, brrr we’ve seen before, notecase as purse or wallet is unfamiliar, book was neat, and hazard, or creating hazard, for unsafe is a bit of a substitution poser. All good, thanks A and B.

  9. Wanted 1d to be Retrousse, couldn’t make it happen, but made a lucky guess. Thought that the marble quarry was Carrera, but it made no difference. A cleverly executed theme, I thought. Looking forward to tomorrow’s prize, where the theme (in south-west Wales anyway) is again three Rs: rain, rain and more rain.

  10. So clever to get so many solutions in containing three Rs, and also to have Reading, Writing and Arithmetic as three of the answers. A superb puzzle and a good start to the day.

  12. Maybe Eileen has included the three R’s in the bottom right hand corner?  Is that deliberate I wonder?

    Excellent puzzle.  Thanks to Brendan and Andrew.

  13. Superrrb stuff from Brendan. I was mentally preparing a comment about how many Rs there were then saw the light.

    Favourite was EPHEMERA. The trio of downs (18, 19. 24) took an age to see – partly because of the frequency of AB tries!

    Thanks both.

  14. 8, 9, 11, 12, 15, 17, 24, 25, 26ac, 1, 3, 6, 13, 18, 21dn – I’ve checked my work half a dozen times and still make it fifteen!

  18. The thme remained invisible to me until it Larry@2 put me out of my misery.

    Was the originator of the expression being ironic or just illiterate?

  20. I forgot to mention that I spotted that 10a was a hidden, but I did wonder if the theme was going to be “His dark materials” (TV production starts on Sunday) and the hidden was DUST!

  21. My first three in were ERROR, TERROR and RARER, so I started looking for a theme relating to rhymes, but caught on in time to be helped with 23a, 4d and 19d. Didn’t quite finish, bunging in a partially parsed SCHEMERS at 16d, but I can’t blame Brendan for that. Thanks to him for his ingenuity and to Andrew for unraveling a few unparsed clues.

  23. @21 DaveinNC: bear in mind that although RARER may rhyme with ERROR and TERROR on your side of the Atlantic, it doesn’t here in Britain.

  24. Muffin @10. I had the same idea as you, but in my case it was because I’d just last night finished re-rereading the trilogy before starting The Secret Commonwealth. Luckily I didn’t get 24d BOOK early on, or I might have inked in DUST and spent the rest of the day trying fit Lyra and Will and daemons in somewhere. That said, His Dark Materials would provide a rich theme. Does anyone know if it’s been done?

  25. I kept seeing err everywhere and couldn’t shake off the idea that that was the theme. Can’t believe I missed the actual theme, but I did. Of course still enjoyed it all immensely even though I knew I was missing something.

  26. Should also mention I winced at the rather shallow definition for DEMENTIA. My stepmother and partner’s father endured this pernicious disease.

  27. In reading 8a left-to-right (as one does), I had “solved” it when I had got to the comma, since Derry is a perfectly good Irish name (in fact an alternative for Londonderry). So I’m wondering, wouldn’t you think the shorter version be preferred over the longer one, just because it’s shorter?

  29. I enjoyed the theme BRRR was also my LOI. I doubt many solvers had come across RETRORSE before, and two anagrams are indicated by improperly, but, otherwise, a great bit of compiling.

     

  30. Eileen, I don’t want to speak for Dr. W, but I think I see his point. The clue didn’t need to refer to that particular song, as Derry air = Irish song by itself. Having said that, I have no objection to the clue as it was written, although not knowing the song, I was unable to make sense of the last part.

  31. Many people might be more familiar with the song as Danny boy, though that wouldn’t work in the clue, of course!

  32. Yup, I see both points! Eileen explains why it’s good to keep the London mention, DaveinNC why it’s ok to leave it out. I would think its not often that you have truly optional extended parts to clues, like this. Thanks.

  33. An excellent puzzle and an incredible achievement. I noticed the traditional three Rs and lots of Rs elsewhere, but nothing like the whole extent.
    Of the many clues I liked 16d stood out for me. I had to stop trying to put RIM into a non-word and put HEM into a proper word. The whole clue read very smoothly.
    Congratulations Brendan, and many thanks to Andrew for the blog.

  34. RARER doesn’t even rhyme with ERROR and TERROR in Connecticut.

    Like xjpotter @25, I kept seeing ERR everywhere, and that let me to the 3 R’s idea.

    Delightful device, Brendan, who’da thunk it?  And thanks to Andrew too.

  35. There’s also a diagonal RRR NINA from the ends of 12A,15A & 20A – maybe just coincidental.

    Incredible setting, thanks Brendan and Andrew.

  36. OK, John Wells @23 and Valentine @34, I know when to raise the white flag. Regarding RARER/ERROR/TERROR, they don’t quite rhyme even in North Carolina. As an amateur songwriter I wouldn’t hesitate to pair any two of them, but on reflection and considering some of the “rhymes” used in popular songs, …

  37. Yes,very clever as one would expect from this setter. Unfortunately I didn’t get BRRR until the end so much of this eluded me until I’d finish with WRITING being LOI.
    Great fun mostly.
    Thanks Brendan.

  39. I thought the same thing as Dr. WhatsOn regarding 8ac: an Irish tune could be a “Derry air”, so the clue works even without the “London” part. I had forgotten that the particular tune is known as the “Londonderry Air”, which explains why Brendan chose to write it the way he did. It’s a perfectly good clue (with a cleverly hidden definition) either way.

  40. Mrs O and I never start until after evening meal and were surprised today to finish in record time even though we didn’t spot the theme – duhh! Nice mental exercise all the same. Easy to count one of the Bs in 12ac as another R. Thanks to Brendan and Andrew.

  41. AdamH @9

    `CARRERA’ s a  Porsche [currently available for $1.4m – in yellow:-] Fantastic puzzle – 8a’s a cockle-warming keeper. Perfect as it stands, otherwise where would the joke be? I enjoyed this, thanks everyone, especially BRRRRummie

  44. Iain Oldcorn @41 – ‘Easy to count one of the Bs in 12ac as another R.’ That’s exactly what I did – over and over again.

    And thanks, dirkybeee, re 8ac: I’ve been waiting all day for someone else to recognise this pretty old joke. It’s been exploited several times in crosswords – see the 15² archive [eg Picaroon a year ago [‘Capital radio’s bum tune’]  – my blog, where I said, ‘I first laughed at this joke when I was at school but still laughed at this clever take on it’] – and I’ll say the same again today. Thanks again, Brendan.

  45. Thanks to Andrew and Brendan

    I had “being a student in university” for “reading”. That doesn’t help with “city” though.

    All good fun but I hesitated before entering “narrowed” – whimsy stretched almost to breaking point.

  46. First laughed at the London Derrière pun in a 1960s puzzle set by Trevor Salisbury in the Liverpool Echo.

    (Were he around, GRHS, he could make Paul blush.)

    When I showed a more expert solver (my Dad) he said it was a chestnut; the basis of an army joke from WW2.

  47. Late to tackle this, but what a gem of a puzzle.  Fun all the way and so clever too.

    Many thanks to Brendan and to Andrew.

  50. So ingenious and what an original idea for a theme. Loved it. But I got brrr straight away and soon after trio, so it made the theme pretty obvious. As George Clements said to include reading, writing and arithmetic as well was the icing on the cake. Brilliant. Thankyou Brendan

  51. I thought this was an excellent crossword. Thank yous to both Brendan and young looking Andrew.

    I have discussed 22 across with my wife for a while and she is unconvinced by my preference to wanting “creating a hazard” to replace “creating hazard” in the clue.

    Am I being far too “pedanticus”?

     

     

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