Guardian Cryptic 27,989 by Crucible

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A themed challenge from Crucible.

I would need to check back, but I don't remember blogging a Crucible before (when I do check, I'll probably find I've done quite a few – think my grey cells are deteriorating more and more quickly these days!). I found this very difficult, and (speaking of deteriorating grey cells), still haven't parsed MOORCOCK

There was a sporting theme here, with words like SWIMMING, SKATER, etc and I think the setter's effort to get in as many themed clues and answers led to some awkward constructions, and at least in my opinion, a couple of surfaces that don't make a lot of sense (a bat screening an old vessel? a state picking up an ENT problem?), but there were also some excellent clues, including the very clever 17dn.

Any help with the parsing of MOORCOCK would be appreciated.

Thanks Crucible

ACROSS
9 WHALEBOAT With sound, bat screens old vessel after 12 (9)
 

W (with) + HALE ("sound") + BAT screening O (old)
10 ADEUX One avoids bye by involving a couple (1,4)
 

I (one) avoids AD(i)EU + X ("by", multiplication in maths)
11 MAIDENS Girls manufactured poles I installed (7)
 

MADE ("manufactured") + NS (North and South, "poles") with I installed
12 RORQUAL Rare question in exam: ‘What’s another name for a finback?‘ (7)
 

R (rare) + Qu. (question) in ORAL ("exam")
13 INDUS Asian banker‘s attempt to quit business (5)
 

TRY ("attempt") to leave INDUS(try) ("business")
14 FLAGSTAFF Pole identifies Welsh runner (9)
 

FLAGS ("identifies") TAFF ("Welsh runner" i.e. a Welsh river ("that which runs"))
16 GIVE THE GAME AWAY What kind shooters do on Glorious Twelfth, snitch? (4,3,4,4)
 

On August 12 (and the following few months), generous shooters may give away the game birds they bag.
19 YACHTSMAN The Caymans managed to expel English sailor (9)
 

*(th caymans) [anag: managed] where TH Is "the" with E (English) expelled
21 TUTTI All at once, last pair leave, expressing disapproval (5)
 

The last pair (of letters) leave TUTTI(ng) ("expressing disapproval")
22 MARBLES Game people lose these going round the bend (7)
 

Going mad (around the bend) = losing ones marbles.
23 CATARRH Gulf state picked up ENT problem (7)
 

Homophone [picked up] of QATAR ("gulf state")
24 OVERS Finds missing disc deliveries (5)
 

(disc)OVERS ("finds", missing DISC)
25 NO CHICKEN Problem for poultry farmer who’s getting on? (2,7)
 

A poultry farmer with no chicken would indeed have a problem and someone who is getting older is "no (spring) chicken"
DOWN
1 SWIMMINGLY Regularly play sport, coming first like clockwork (10)
 

[regularly] (p)L(a)Y with SWIMMING ("sport") coming first
2 KAPIL DEV Indian cricketer liked a VIP I ejected roughly (5,3)
 

*(liked a VP) [anag: roughly] where VP is "VIP" with I ejected
3 SEVENS Spanish golfer’s bracing new ball game (6)
 

SEVE'S ("Spanish golfer's") bracing N (new)
4 POTS Finish circulating scores in the poolroom (4)
 

<=STOP ("finish", circulating)
5 START AGAIN Stumped, falls over, limiting time to resume (5,5)
 

St. ("stumped", in cricket) + <=NIAGARA ("falls", over) limiting T (time)
6 LACROSSE Article in L’Equipe about a hybrid game (8)
 

LE ("article in L'Equipe" (a French sports newspaper) about A CROSS ("hybrid")
7 BELUGA British haul in each caviar supplier (6)
 

B (British) + LUG ("haul") in EA. (each)
8 AXEL Cancel large jump on rink (4)
 

AXE ("cancel") + L (large)
14 FREEMASONS Release mother and children, occupants of lodge (10)
 

FREE ("release") + MA ("mother") + SONS ("children")
15 FLY FISHING Affair involving Yankee swimmer’s sport (3-7)
 

FLING ("affair") involving Y (Yankee) FISH ("swimmer")
17 TOTALISE What summers can do to a stile that’s rotting? (8)
 

*(to a stile) [anag: that's rotting]
18 WATERSKI Skater trained in West Indies to practise another sport (8)
 

*(skater) [anag: trained} in WI (West Indies)
20 CORNER Sort of kick gutless officer investigating deaths (6)
 

[gutless] COR(o)NER ("officer investigating deaths")
21 TITBIT Dainty milk supplier pens Italian book (6)
 

TIT ("milk supplier") pens It. (Italian) + B (book)
22, 23 MOORCOCK Game guy controls more than one private company (8)
 

Sorry, the parsing for this has me beaten for now?
23 See 22
 

39 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,989 by Crucible”

  5. I agree about the theme rather spoiling the crossword. Anagrams where parts of the word appear in both solution and fodder (“man”) are weak, “swimmingly” was an example of “could be anything”, “fish” as noun and verb is hardly cryptic. All a bit forced for me I fear.

    “moorcock” threw me too. I have “mock” = “guy” and “co” = company. “private” = “or” (other rank, army term) perhaps?

  7. I spose a nation could have an epidemic of something ENT-related, but no I couldn’t parse moorcock either, forgot about other ranks, and it such a chestnut, d’oh! Otherwise quite a pleasant sporty solve I found, but I looked up orrqual thinking ‘surely not’ and saw the correction, so a dnf. Should’ve juggled a bit. The Glorious Twelfth another dnk, the closest I’ve been to a shoot being James Mason’s last film, and a Rod and Gun shirt I bought in an op-shop; but no prob, the clue said enough. Bit more cricket stuff to make non-lovers’ teeth grind and, not knowing the river I went all the way back to Mother Goose in which, along with a lot of other non-pc stuff, there was a Taffy who was a thief. Hey ho, mental meandering is part of the fun, for which thanks C and L.

  8. My favourite was FLYFISHING.

    I could not parse MOORCOCK – thank you Ram and others for explaining that one.

    New for me were CORNER KICK, RORQUAL, TAFF river.

    Thanks B+S

     

  10. Thanks Crucible and loonapick

    I found this mostly straightforward, though I didn’t parse START AGAIN – now my favourite!

    Yes, a bit clumsy in places. In particular, including “fish” in wordplay for FLY FISHING was unsatisfactory.

  12. TILT: the glorious twelfth. Took me a while but eventually parsed MOORCOCK(LOI). Otherwise mostly straightforward.
    Thanks to Crucible and loonapick.

  13. Thanks both,
    Funny how experiences can differ. I found this straightforward except for the parsing of ‘moorcock’. Couldn’t find a ‘fish’ in the clue for 15d and didn’t like ‘totalise’ as a word, although I agree it exists. I’d be willing to accept it the origin of the Tote, tho’.

  16. I thought there were two themes going on. An aquatic one: WHALEBOAT, RORQUAL, INDUS, YACHTSMAN, SWIMMINGLY, BALUGA, FLY FISHING, WATERSKI, MOOR; and the games one as hinted at in 6ac: MAIDEN(S) OVERS, MARBLES, KAPIL DEV, SEVENS, POTS, LACROSSE, and several references in the clues.

     

    Thanks Crucible and loonapick

  17. … hmm, subtle point; the swimmer is alluded to in the wordplay and is also the target of the solution/activity… not sure how to adjuticate this…

  18. I enjoyed it but that’s probably a halo effect from finally finishing a Crucible cw. Reading through, I take on board the quibbles but, overall, a lot of fun I thought. FLAGSTAFF is (intentionally or unintentionally I don’t know) a little richer than first thought, because Flagstaff, Arizona is, apparently, something of a hot-spot for top level runners.

    Thanks Crucible and loonapick

  19. Generally I found this unpacked quite readily in terms of the solving. However the parsing took an awful lot longer, with a lot of solve then parse. For some reason 4d (loi) took me ages to see with a doh moment when I saw it. I liked give the game away, and thanks to Crucible for the challenge and loonapick for the blog.

  20. Well, the theme is obviously games. It looks like BELUGA is a games company and RORQUAL is some kind of a mining vessel in a computer game according to Google. FLAGSTAFF is also a game and I expect there are other references in there,  apart from the games/sports.

    I found this more straightforward than yesterday’s Vlad. I thought ‘Gulf state picked up ENT problem’ made sense; eg finding out about a flu pandemic etc.

    Overall, very enjoyable; I particularly liked the ‘falls over.’

    Thanks Crucible, loonapick and Ram @2.

  23. Yachtsman … five consonants in a row and seven in total in an anagram of nine letters. Impressive.

    I guessed moorcock might be a game bird but wasn’t certain, and couldn’t parse it either. Nice misdirection in that one.

  27. Took us a little while to get back on to Crucible’s wavelength, but when we did…loved it!! Couldn’t parse MOORCOCK either!! Thank you everyone!

  28. muffin @26 that would make sense as “moorcock” is an alternative name for the Red Grouse, whose shooting season opens on the 12th. A common misconception is that all shooting starts then, but different birds have different seasons, and some can be shot year round.

  31. Midas @30. Yes, in my wild days, played chicken with cars. Stupid looking back. Ref: that answer, I’ve only ever known the phrase as NO SPRING CHICKEN. So it took a while for the penny to drop.

  32. Enjoyable crosswortd but the games theme eluded this poor slogger.

    The moorcock features in the Burns poem Now Westlin’ Winds:

    Now westlin winds and slaught’ring guns
    Bring Autumn’s pleasant weather;
    The moorcock springs on whirring wings
    Amang the blooming heather:
    Now waving grain, wide o’er the plain,
    Delights the weary farmer;
    And the moon shines bright, when I rove at night,
    To muse upon my charmer.

    Thanks, both, nice week, all.

  33. I agree that some of this was a bit forced but I quite enjoyed it. So far as I remember I’ve never heard of MOOR COCK until I looked it up- didn’t parse it either. I did see the theme(s) but the games manufacturers completely eluded me! POTS was LOI.
    Thanks Crucible.

  34. Completed this one in the morning, so quite straightforward for me. I remember first hearing of Seve Ballesteros in 1978 when I was in my last year of primary school. 25 ac my favourite.

  35. Just a nit. Beluga sturgeon is the caviar supplier. Beluga itself is a whale and I don’t think produces any eggs, mammal and all that.

  37. I found this fairly hard but more because I feel the clues were forced rather than clever. Is ‘swimmingly’ really ‘like clockwork’? Also as Howard@24 says Seve Ballesteros is going back a bit, as is Kapil Dev. But then I like to think cryptic crosswords require a range of knowledge and not just of present day. I liked ‘rorqual.

  38. Keyser Soze@31 is spot on: without SPRING, NO CHICKEN doesn’t really work. We started very late, so it may be us, but seemed less fun than yesterday’s testing Vlad. Liked CATARRH – great word – and would quibble over FLY FISHING being a sport; nobbut a pastime, surely? Liked INDUS and TUTTI also.

  39. 1 down’s definition is “like clockwork” not “like”, although I’m not convinced that’s the same as “swimmingly”. Had no difficulty with MOORCOCK. There are plenty of online references to “the sport of fly-fishing” but people say the same about darts. Didn’t like “article in L’Equipe” at first until I read it as L’E without the apostrophe, rather than the unabbreviated form of LE.

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