Guardian 28,008 / Philistine

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A characteristically ingenious and witty puzzle from Philistine, which, as usual, I thoroughly enjoyed. Many thanks to him.

There is an unfortunate and inexplicable error in the enumeration of 5,23,15, which should be 5,15,23. I hope this didn’t hold you up too long or spoil the fun.

Definitions are underlined in the clues.

Across

8, 9 Ability to buy, until replacing shop contents wore off (8,5)
SPENDING POWER
PENDING [until] replacing ho [‘contents’ of S[ho]P] + an anagram [off] of WORE

11 Why potions get mixed, as instructed in the Old Testament (4,2,4)
SHOW NO PITY
AN ANAGRAM [get mixed] of WHY POTIONS – the reference is to Deuteronomy 19:21, setting out the principle of ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’: you can see various translations here

12 Sharp boozer needs a place to sleep (6)
BARBED
BAR [boozer] + BED [place to sleep]

14 With reduced fat and sugar + 7 = two Rs (8
LITERACY
LITE [with reduced fat and sugar] + RACY [EROTIC, answer to 7dn] gives two [reading and writing] of the Three Rs

16 Set up an unusual source of protein (7)
PEANUTS
A neat anagram [unusual] of SET UP AN

18 Serious four score at shallow end (7)
WEIGHTY
[shallo]W + EIGHTY [four score]

21 Posted filth back inside — that’s harsh (8)
STRIDENT
A reversal [back] of DIRT [filth] inside SENT [posted]

23 Take a punt with light shop (6)
BETRAY
BET [take a punt] + RAY [light]

24 Mostly understanding about old man’s body, mortician leads funeral (10)
ENTOMBMENT
ENTENT[e] [mostly understanding] round the first letters [leads] of Old Man’s Body Mortician

27, 28 Right to take a break with cart in river, overturned in a kind of fluid (13)
EXTRACELLULAR
A reversal [overturned] of R [right] + A LULL [a break] + CART in EXE [river] – for this fluid

Down

1 Out of bed to court contemporary (2,2,4)
UP TO DATE
UP [out of bed] + TO DATE [to court]

2, 10 Wild encore drowns second encore (4,4)
ONCE MORE
An anagram [wild] of ENCORE round [drowns] MO [second]

3, 17, 25 He boasted about being caught in fog and arrived too late (6,3,4)
MISSED THE BOAT
An anagram [about] of HE BOASTED in MIST [fog] – lovely clue

4 Base soldier comes up with prize for tail twisting (7)
IGNOBLE
A reversal [comes up] of GI [soldier] + NOBLE [NOBEL – prize – with the last two letters reversed {‘tail twisting’}]

5, 23, 15 Wild hen parties are missing courage to play this? (4,3,6)
SPIN THE BOTTLE
An anagram [wild] of HEN P[ar]TI[e]S minus ‘are’ + BOTTLE [courage] – there are several YouTube links illustrating how to play this party game 😉

6 With 22, like this one visible rag? (5,5)
SWIPE RIGHT
WIPER [rag] in SIGHT [therefore visible] – see here  for an explanation of this and the reference in 22dn

7 A left ear — and ear’s sexy! (6)
EROTIC
E[a]R [a left ear] + OTIC [ear’s – of the ear] – my favourite clue

13 Bill’s partner imprisoned by outlaws (Australians) (10)
BANDICOOTS
COO [Bill’s partner, as in ‘to bill and coo’] in BANDITS [outlaws]

19 Time to drink and eat? (3,5)
TEA BREAK
I’m not sure how this parses: TEA is an anagram [break?] of EAT and tea can be eaten and /or drunk but I can’t quite see how it works

20 Heave supporting stone for a period (7)
STRETCH
ST [stone] + RETCH [heave]

22 Kindling for romance? (6)
TINDER
Double /cryptic definition – see 6dn for the explanation

26, 26 across It means happiness for sad creature (8)
BLUEBIRD
BLUE [sad] + BIRD [creature] – referring to the ‘bluebird of happiness’

36 comments on “Guardian 28,008 / Philistine”

  1. I think you have effectively parsed 19d, Eileen. TEA BREAK is “A time to drink” and “eat” is TEA BREAK i.e. anagram of tea.

  2. Thanks Philistine and Eileen

    B****y Guardian! “5,23,15” was LOI, as I eventually worked out that the order must be wrong.

    I thought TINDER was marginally unfair, and SWIPE RIGHT definitely so – after guessing from the crossers, it took Google to explain it.

    I didn’t understand TEA BREAK fully either. I wonder how many other solvers went first for BEN as “Bill’s partner”?

    Favourite was EROTIC

  3. Re 19, isn’t it simply that a TEA BREAK is a time to drink (during working hours), and as you said, TEA is an anagram of EAT.

    Neat puzzle, thanks Philistine and Eileen.

  5. I spent a while looking for a word beginning BEN for 13dn, he being Bill’s partner for my generation.

  7. Oh dear – spent ages trying to figure out how sugar divided by 7 was racy! Better ask santa for some new glasses

  9. At first I thought this would be a write-in, but it was better than that – some early clues giving lots of crossers that allowed the more complex clues to fall steadily. Thanks Phiistine for that pleasant balance.

    14ac – I guess terms such as LITE and EEZIKLEEN are working their ways into the dictionaries so I feel obliged to accept this in spite of my natural tendency towards fuddiduddiness….

    Similarly confused by the “BREAK” element of 19dn

    27,28 ac – the parsing was a little too complex for my poor brain before my first cup of coffee, so thanks to Eileen for this and other explanations (how come the bloggers are so alert early in the morning? Do they give you something in your tea?  🙂 )

    Was similarly grateful for the reference for 6dn, 22dn – perhaps I’m too old for that approach, though I should be aware of my children’s preferences….

    And I loved 7dn, but more so the use of “BET” for “punt” in 23 ac – an old crosword classic, I know, but having had to play Rugby at school I am invariably  misled into thinking of drop-kicks – doh!

    Thanks again both.

  10. Fortunately have recently discovered from members of the younger generation what Tinder is all about, but struggled finally with LITERACY and whether 24 ac should have been IN- or EN-TOMBMENT. But found this in general more straightforward than is usually the case with the excellent Philistine…

  11. Yes, having decided Ben was Bill’s partner I had BANDIBENTS as some obscure Australian until the end when I couldn’t come up with a solution to 24a. Then ENTOMBMENT came to mind and BANDICOOTS was loi. 24a and 27/28 remained unparsed with 19d not fully understood. Did anyone else try and make the 26s an anagram of creature? Clever misdirection along with ASTRAY as mentioned above. Favourite was SPENDING POWER. Thanks to Philistine for the puzzle and Eileen for the much needed blog.

  12. Thanks all. For 19, I wonder if ‘break’ means ‘eat’. As in to break bread with. So it would be tea and break for drink and eat. ‘tea break’ = time to do both?

  13. Thank you Eileen. Now I can see how clever 27/28 is, hats off to the learned gentleman. 13dn similarly just went over my head, and I can now see it works perfectly. I had been wondering if BENDIGOANS had a particularly bad reputation in Australia – though it didn’t parse anyway. I think Eileen is right in parsing TEA BREAK – it’s one of those reverse anagram clues we see more and more.

  14. I always enjoy Philistine and have more success with him than with most setters (i.e., I can complete the grid more than half the time). As soon as I noticed that TLE wasn’t a word, I suspected that the order of 5,15,23 might be wrong, and ENTOMBMENT confirmed my suspicions. My favourites were the above-mentioned EROTIC along with EXTRACELLULAR when I finally figured out how it worked. Had to come here for the parsing of a few others, so thanks to Eileen.

  15. Thanks Philistine and Eileen.
    Re 6d I included ‘one’ also as part of definition, ‘like this one’ meaning like the image of this one..then you SWIPE RIGHT, as you interpreted, for visible rag

  16. Unless my eyes are deceiving me, there is a second glitch with the 5,15,23. In my grid, there is a solid bar in the middle of 23d suggesting BOTTLE is two 3-letter words, which of course it isn’t.

    Does anyone feel uncomfortable with the construction in 4d “prize for tail twisting”? “prize with tail twisted” is what is actually happening.

    Thanks.

  17. Really dislike those double clues in NW and SE corners.

    8 letter lights with only 2 crossers strike me as unfair.

  18. Thanks, Eileen, for the parsing of bandicoots, which tripped me up three times until I reluctantly inked it in. First off, I had the B and N crossers so assumed it began with BEN. Then I had the spark of inspiration that OUTLAWS = BANS, which gave me the outer four letters. Finally I remembered the marsupials and looked up the Australian connection in Chambers, only to find that, according to them, they are to be found in India and Sri Lanka (!). Eventually accepted that Chambers was wrong and BANDICOOTS must be the answer, and then wasted yet more time trying to find out whether a Detective Inspector Coot was the partner of some other policeman featuring in The Bill. The most annoying thing of all is that the next word after bandicoot in the dictionary is, of course, BANDIT, and I never noticed it.

  20. Another fine puzzle.  MISSED THE BOAT was very good.  I did so with the parsing of TEA BREAK, thinking it was only a weak CD (many apologies to Philistine for such an 4 thought).  I had to look up Bill and Coo to get BANDICOOTS, but it couldn’t have been anything else.

    WhiteKing @11, I tried to make an anagram of “creature” too.  The clue seems to be a more specific reference to Judy Garland singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” to me.

    Lots of fun as always.  Thanks, Philistine and Eileen.

  22. Thanks both,
    Very enjoyable until I got held up by the 26s and 19. I tried very hard to make an anagram of ‘creature ‘ fit the 26s. 27,28 was indeed very clever, but before I got them, I wasted time trying to parse ‘Bendigoans’ for 13. Still, being led up the garden path is all part of the enjoyment.

  23. Loved this. And another wonderful blog from Eileen. I wonder if Philistine smiled when he saw the possible misdirection of Ben in 13d or whether it was pure chance?

  24. In 5d etc. I puzzled over three-letter words ending with E and made out of letters in “hen parties are.”  All I could think of were PIE and ARE and IRE, none of which seemed a likely third world in a phrase.  Finally decided the grid-makers had just got it wrong.

    muffin, I also thought of the Ig nobel prize, but your reference added greatly to the fun!  I listen to it on the radio each year on a program called Science Friday — never knew till today that you can also watch it.

    How does pending = until?

    Thank you Philistine and as ever Eileen.

  25. An ingenious and witty crossword as you say, Eileen, and a pleasure to solve. I liked most of all the long words and phrases spread over multiple entries. The enumeration for 5/15/23 down was clear and correct, so the error in the clue numbering didn’t put me off.
    I guessed SWIPE RIGHT before getting TINDER, and it took me a few seconds longer to realise how on earth they were connected!
    The clues were excellent. EXTRACELLULAR, though, took me a while to get (having just 3 crossers for it), as the definition for it was somewhat loose.
    Interesting that Chambers found bandicoots in India and Sri Lanka, whereas Collins found them in Australia and New Guinea!
    Many thanks to Philistine and Eileen.

  26. Alan B @25, there is the bandicoot (in full bandicoot rat) of the Indian subcontinent – the COED gives them both.

    Thank you Philistine for a challenging puzzle and Eileen for a very helpful blog.

  27. The see this and that initially scared me but once I got 21ac (my FOI) everything went well. Thanks Goliath and Eileen.

  28. Cookie @26
    Thank you for that additional information. I’ve just looked up the origin of the name bandicoot – it’s from Telugu (India) and means pig-rat literally.

  29. I’ve been out since mid-morning – thanks for all the comments in the meantime.

    Trismegistus @9 – not always alert enough! I thought I’d got away with no slips today. I began solving this soon after midnight, typed in the answers and parsed them in my head, ready to complete the blog when I got up. Sometimes, that gap enables the subconscious to parse those I didn’t originally see, while asleep, while at other times, it means I momentarily forget my original parsings when I wake up – which is what happened today with 6dn – thanks Ilippu @15: I’ve corrected it now.

    Dr WhatsOn @16 – when I solved the puzzle, online, I noticed the bar in 23dn but, when my paper arrived, it wasn’t in there, though the incorrect order for 5,15,23 was. Both errors have now been corrected on the website.

    I count myself lucky that I wasn’t beguiled by the Flowerpot men, as I easily could have been – but I’ve seen the bill and coo connection in crosswords several times before [though I don’t think I’ve ever hard the expression actually used] so, fortunately, that was the first to spring to mind.

  30. [I should have got “coo” rather than “ben” much earlier – I knew a couple of medical students in the 70s who were called Bill and Sue, but (for reasons we don’t need to go into) wree always known as “Bill and Coo”.]

  31. I used to watch the Flowerpot men so I tried to get BEN into 13dn but of course it wouldn’t. I’ve heard of BANDICOOT but I didn’t know the Aussie connection. I found most of this pretty straightforward although EXTRA CELLULAR was a bit of a struggle and was only parsed after the event. BLUE BIRD was LOI.
    My 75th birthday today and the puzzle was completed while listening to a collection of Shostakovich symphonies courtesy of Mrs PA. Great stuff!
    Thanks Philistine.

  32. [Many congrats, PeterA. His fifth is my favourite, though I once saw a fascinating programme by a conductor (I forget exactly who – Michael Tilson Thomas perhaps?) who pointed out how ironic his “response to valid criticism” was; i paricular he rewrote the ending as Mahler might have done it!]

  33. Valentine@24: ‘The vice-president is in charge pending the election of a new president’.
    Thanks Philistine for the puzzle and Eileen for the blog. Another tempted by Ben here 🙂

  34. Re tea break I assumed the ‘and eat’ was a reference to the second meal break in Test cricket, I don’t think break as an anagrind really works in this clue (tea breaks would be fine).

  35. “Too late,” she cried (i.e. to add anything of significance), but just wanted to thank Philistine for a sparkling puzzle and Eileen for her dedication to the cause. It was also a great blog to read in terms of comments. I loved 13d, the much-discussed BANDICOOTS (naturally).
    [Hope you see this, PeterA: Sending you very best wishes for your birthday and for lots of enjoyable solving in the year ahead.]

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