Guardian 27,990 – Tramp

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A nice mix of clues from Tramp today, with nothing too obscure; perhaps the old jumper may be unfamiliar to younger or non-UK solvers. No theme or Nina that I can see, though it can be a hostage to fortune to say that. Thanks to Tramp.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. INSTEP Part of foot stumped English player, initially batting first (6)
IN (batting) + ST[umped] + E + P[layer]
5. JET BLACK Judge film — British want something extremely dark (3,5)
J[udge] + ET (film) + B + LACK (want something)
9. SCORPION Tail of this one concerning, going over back of body (8)
Last letter (tail) of thiS + CORPS (body) with its “back” replaced by I ON (concerning) &lit
10. ACACIA Plant in America around spies (6)
A + CA (corca, around) + CIA (spies)
11. STRETCH MARKS Signs of growth in tax records (7,5)
STRETCH (to tax) + MARKS (records)
13. ALOO Ace place to go for Indian food (4)
A + LOO (toilet, a place to “go”)
14. AIR RIFLE One is fired: character to get sack (3,5)
AIR (character) + RIFLE (to sack)
17. HANDSOME Large bunches of bananas over us (8)
HANDS (bunches of bananas) + O[ver] + ME (=us, as in “give us a kiss”)
18. PACK Prepare to leave group (4)
Double definition
20. GIVE IT A WHIRL Try that Viagra, mostly while worried about sex (4,2,1,5)
IT (sex) in anagram of VIAGR[a] WHILE
23. DOSAGE Measure and cook herb (6)
DO (cook) SAGE
24. REPRISAL Salesperson returning city gentleman’s payback (8)
REP (salesperson) + reverse of L[os] A[ngeles] + SIR
25. ASBESTOS Harmful stuff when former footballer so drunk (8)
AS + [George] BEST + “anagram” of SO
26. CANCEL Drop sign having changed hands (6)
CANCER (astrological sign) with R changed to L
Down
2. NICK Can do (4)
Double definition – nick=can=prison for the first; for the second, Chambers gives “to defraud” (i.e. to “do”) as a meaning of NICK: perhaps slightly obscure, but it makes for a nicely terse clue
3. THRESHOLD Dawn French very hot inside reserve (9)
H[ot] in TRES (French “very”) + HOLD (to reserve)
4. PLIERS Morgan, when entertaining live, is a tool (6)
L (live) in PIERS (Morgan, journalist), with maybe some commentary in the surface..
5. JONATHAN EDWARDS Dad going out with hat, worn jeans and old jumper (8,7)
Anagram of DAD HAT WORN JEANS, giving the former Olympic triple jumper
6. TEACHERS Long to run into class that’s coming up? Do they? (8)
ACHE (to long) + R in reverse of SET, with an &littish definition
7. LLAMA One male, totally revolting animal that might spit at you? (5)
Reverse of A M ALL
8. CHICK FLICK Release for women with it? Primarily kiss fellow with tongue (5,5)
CHIC (fashionable, with it) + K[iss] + F + LICK – “release” in the sense of a cinema release
12. OLEAGINOUS Supply, eg oil? No, USA is rich in oil (10)
(EG OIL NO USA)* with “supply” meaning “in a supple way”
15. IMPULSION Drive and change oil in sump (9)
(OIL IN SUMP)*
16. FOOTREST Support for member to pay balance (8)
FOOT (pay, as in foot the bill) + REST (balance, remainder)
19. BIOPIC Personal feature of writer covering current work (6)
I (electric current) + OP (work) in BIC (pen, writer)
21. ERASE Bottoms of wee babies are turned over for wipe (5)
Reverse of [we]E [babie]S ARE
22. PALE Drink up Earl Grey (4)
Reverse of LAP + E[arl]

41 comments on “Guardian 27,990 – Tramp”

  1. Don’t quite get 9ac. If ‘ ion’, from ‘one concerning’, is to take out the ‘s’ at the back of corps, you need something meaning ‘eliminating’ instead of ‘going over’, unless I’m being dim (which would be nothing new).

  3. Great blog Andrew – thanks! I agree with you and copmus@2 that it was a fine puzzle; so thanks to Tramp as well for the entertainment.

    grantinfreo@1: I don’t know if this helps. Imagine SCORPS written down on a piece of paper and you then put another piece of paper with ION written on it over the last S. I accept that there are other possible interpretations of “going over” but putting the ION on top of (and obscuring) the S works for me.

  4. My favourite was DOSAGE.

    New for me was JONATHAN EDWARDS. I failed to solve PALE and I could not pass the SCORP bit of SCORP/I/ON.

    Thanks B+S.

  5. I just read 9ac as pure cryptic definition ( with a bit of Rene Higuita maybe). Would never have worked out that wordplay.

  6. Thanks Tramp and Andrew

    asBESTos may also give younger/overseas solvers a problem. I didn’t like “us” to gives ME (plural to singular?) or “do” for NICK. I didn’t parse SCORPION.

    [17d is a lovely word, and it reminded me of this limerick:

    There was a young man of Calcutta

    Who coated his tonsils in butter

    Which muted his snore

    From a thunderous roar

    To a soft, oleaginous, mutter]

  9. Well that kept me entertained for a good while. I was unconvinced by “us = me” and thought “scorpion” with its “going over” a bit forced for the &lit but it’s the kind of forcing I think is acceptable to make the surface. It’s not wrong or impossible, just a tad strained. For me “going over” meant something like “overwriting” which works the same way.

    Other than that, I thought this beautifully judged – lots of clues which had me thinking “what on earth..?” and which eventually yielded to much lateral thinking, with many well-disguised definitions and anagrams. Thank you Tramp, and thanks Andrew for the careful description of it all.

  10. Thanks Tramp and Andrew.

    I liked the (slightly non-PC?) CHICK FLICK, and OLEAGINOUS. Also PLIERS for the surface.

    For 23a, I had an unparsed “lovage”, which the check button showed to be incorrect, so I tried the equally wrong “borage”, then gave up, so a dnf.

    Regarding the parsing of SCORPION, while I agree with Andrew’s explanation, I think it’s a bit clumsy and unsatisfactory.

  11. Thanks to Tramp and Andrew.

    I liked 11a STRETCH MARKS, 20a GIVE IT A WHIRL and 8d CHICK FLICK. I also didn’t know the “old jumper” for 5d but it was work-out-able from the word play. And there was lots more to like.

    [I must say I enjoyed this much more than the last two days’ puzzles which were both dnfs, and while I have kept trying all week to gain traction with last Friday’s Enigmatist I eventually gave it away and just appreciated the blog instead,.]

  12. Great puzzle, great blog – many thanks, Tramp and Andrew.

    My favourites today were ALOO, GIVE IT A WHIRL, THRESHOLD and JONATHAN EDWARDS. I really liked ASBESTOS, too: it reminded me of Mrs Merton’s classic quote when interviewing the heavy-drinking George Best –  “If you hadn’t done all that running around playing football, do you think you would have been so thirsty?”.

  15. [P.S. muffin@6. Because it is a crossword stand-by, most Antipodeans unfamiliar with George BEST as a footballer would probably have been okay with 25a ASBESTOS, IMO. And yes, what a lovely word is OLEAGINOUS at 12d.]

  16. After getting Jet from 5ac, Morgan in 4dn made me wonder whether there was going to be a ‘Journey into Space’ theme.

  18. November seems to be a good month for crosswords including splendid words – another of my favourites appearing at 12d today

    I enjoyed solving this very much, so thank you to Tramp and Andrew

  20. Thank you, Andrew, fine blog to a fine crossword.

    LOI NICK took ages as I was hung up on NICK as steal rather than ‘to con’.

    Rick @3:  Yes, that must be how SCORPION works, thanks.

    Muffin @6:  Cracking limerick!

    COTD – STRETCH MARKS!

    Re PLIERS…just occured to me…the link with the French plier = to bend.  Hmm?

    Many thanks, Tramp, nice week, all.

  21. Nick = do is in the Chambers Thesaurus under the meaning of arrest as Dansar @14 pointed out.

    Good crossword; I particularly liked STRETCH MARKS, and PLIERS and ERASE [for their surfaces.]

    Thanks Tramp and Andrew.

  24. Loads to enjoy from Tramp today. Favourites were CHICK FLICK and STRETCHMARKS. Still not sure I can visualise the parsing of SCORPION though.

    Very much agree on OLEAGINOUS although I always thinks of it as an educated synonym for smarmy applied to a person – MIchael Gove say.

    Whenever I see ALOO I picture Inzy-ul-Haq the rotund batsmen and the hilarious incident below.

    Thanks to both for a great start to the morning.

    https://www.odds.com.au/news/cricket-rewind-potato-boils-over/

  25. Thank you Tramp for a fun puzzle and Andrew for a helpful blog.

    Unlike others, I find the word OLEAGINOUS repulsive, it reminds Eileen @19 of Uriah Heap and me of Obadiah Slope…

  26. Sorry to beat a dead arachnid, but I still can’t get 9a to work. There still seems to be a bit of a problem with “body”, imo. If “back of body” equates to the S which is overwritten, then there is nothing that is actually introducing the rest of the body into the clue. If it said “body with back gone over” that would make the wordplay sort of work, but the surface would be nonsense.

    Thanks all.

  27. Dr WhatsOn @26; I think Andrew has shown the parsing – you have to think of a five-letter word for body and then overwrite its back letter. I think the fact that it’s an &lit or extended definition clue makes it easier to solve, notwithstanding, of course, that ‘back of body’ could have meant Y.

  28. I really enjoyed this. Very little on first pass, but gradually unfolded over time. NW was last to fall for me and I had to come here to clarify some parsing. Lots of nice clues, but I am other fan of stretch marks, threshold and chick flick. Thanks to both Tramp and Andrew.

  29. I queried “Nick” as “do”, until I read the comment by Robi @21 – I wanted to ask if it were in any dictionary with that meaning, but my fears have been laid to rest. 9ac, I think, works – but at a stretch (in the sense of taxing – as at 11ac).

    OLEAGINOUS – yes a lovely word as it conjures up so many images. Like Eileen @19, I think of Uriah Heep, then Anthony Shaffer’s play (since renamed to the perhaps more PC “Whodunnit”) and then the once-ubiquitous antimacassars on every armchair. Now muffin’s @6 limerick is added to the list of associations.

    Needed outside help with 5d, so I guess technically a DNF

    Thanks to Tramp and Andrew for the brain workout and the parsings – and also to Robi @21

     

  30. Boffo @5 – thanks for the reminder of the great Rene Higuita! How many kids must have hurt themselves trying that the next day at school?!! Nearly a quarter of a century ago… God I’m getting old… For those not in the know, see this:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCxe4r6SjH0

    Great puzzle. A little unusual to have the same fodder (OIL) in two anagrams? There were a couple I got but couldn’t fully parse, so the blog was a great help.

    Thanks to Tramp and Andrew.

  31. Thanks Tramp and Andrew. Challenging puzzle. ALOO, ERASE, PALE and STRETCH MARKS were favourites. Guessed SCORPION and ASBESTOS but could not parse them till I saw the blog.

  32. LOI PAL-E. George Best was well known here as I remember my school mates saying that he was the best after Pele’s retirement in the seventies.

  33. This was quite hard work, but enjoyable nevertheless. Some wordplay seemed somewhat strained, but there were more than enough clues that were tricky but solvable (without needing to guess and bung in the answer first) to make this a very satisfying experience. I liked GIVE IT A WHIRL, CANCEL, OLEAGINOUS, THRESHOLD and BIOPIC in particular.
    Thanks to Tramp and Andrew.

  34. Rumour has it that, when young, Jonathan Edwards was sacked by his manager from his day job for practising the triple jump during his working hours

    He came out of the manager’s office and cleared his desk.

  36. I found this really tough – but then I suppose that should make me feel all the more chuffed for managing to finish it. I thought for a while there might be a sports theme. I liked CHICK FLICK and the double-layered reference to Piers Moron (as Lord Gnome calls him). Thanks to Tramp and to Andrew for the invaluable help with some of the parsing.

  37. Thanks to Tramp and Andrew.

    Not for me really, and I didn’t have the time to savour it anyway.  Didn’t like SCORPION in spite of the various attempts to salvage it – it’s just impenetrable: “I’ll show you an “S” and I’m thinking of a word (CORPS) – now I’m doing something with it behind my back but I’m not going to tell you what; now I have another word – can you say what it is?”  It’s the old Russian doll – you have to solve a clue and then manipulate that out of sight to get to the end point.  And “us” is now “me” – not for us it isn’t.

    No big deal really and much to enjoy as many have noted.  When asked to compare himself and Pele, George Best said that Pele told him that he (Best) was the best he had ever seen – clever.

  38. Thanks both,
    A dnf for me with several unsolved clues. I parsed the ‘me’ at the end of handsome as ‘we’ rotated 180 degrees about a horizontal axis.

  41. Too late for a comment but I know Tramp keeps an eye on this site. Got completely stuck having confidently entered CAPITAL GAINS for 11ac

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