Guardian Cryptic 28,011 by Brendan

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28011.

A pleasant surprise, as Brendan has been offering just one puzzle a month recently. As announced in 17A, the THEME is THE RAINBOW, and, sure enough, all seven of the traditional colours have been worked into the answers (with WHITE and BROWN thrown in for good luck). 14 also points to another aspect of the theme: THE RAINBOW and SONS AND LOVERS are novels by D H LAWRENCE (2D).

ACROSS
9 OBAMA Nobelist in job, a man avoiding extremes? (5)
A hidden answer in ‘jOB A MAn’ minus the outer letters (‘avoiding extremes’).
10 SUEZ CANAL Preserve a lake after divine leader backed waterway (4,5)
A charade of SUEZ, a reversal (‘backed’) of ZEUS (‘divine leader’) plus CAN (‘preserve’) plus ‘a’ plus L (‘lake’).
11 HORSETAIL Plant variety of rose ahead of time in bad weather (9)
An envelope (‘consuming’) of ORSE, an anagram (‘variety’) of ‘rose’ plus (‘ahead of’) T (‘time’) in HAIL (‘bad weather’).
12 WHITE Couple holding hands, consum­ing punch or wine, not 18 (5)
An envelope (‘consuming’) of HIT (‘punch’) in W E (west and east, couple holding hands’, but not one another’s, in bridge, say).
13 DONATED Given old hat on entering (7)
An envelope (‘entering’) of ‘on in DATED (‘old hat’).
15 WORN OUT All in our town changed (4,3)
An anagram (‘changed’) of ‘our town’.
17 THEME Miles covered by you earlier — today it’s 14 (5)
An envelope (‘covered by’) of M (‘miles’) in THEE (‘you earlier’).
18 RED Far from right, it may be taken as read by listeners (3)
Sounds like (‘it may be taken as … by listeners’) ‘read’.
20 IDAHO Part of Florida house, home to some Americans (5)
A hidden answer (‘part of’) in ‘FlorIDA HOuse’.
22 HAVE A GO Endlessly vacillate before a game try (4,1,2)
A charade of HAVE[r] (‘vacillate’) minus its last letter (‘endlessly’) plus ‘a’ plus GO (board ‘game’).
25 EARSHOT Contrived to share what’s within it, we hear (7)
An anagram (‘contrived’) of ‘to share’.
26 BROWN 5, 8, and 18 mixed for PM once (5)
A reference to pigments of the respective colours.
27 See 29
30 REED ORGAN Arrangement of 18 24 for keyboard instrument (4,5)
An anagram (‘arrangement’) of RED ORANGE (‘1824’).
31 GREEN Immature party type (5)
Double definition.
DOWN
1 NOAH Performances in Japan around a skipper 14 cheered (4)
An envelope (‘around’) of ‘a’ in NOH (‘theatrical ‘performances in Japan’), with a somewhat cryptic definition.
2 LAWRENCE Writer and architect clad in decorative fabric (8)
An envelope (‘clad in’) of WREN (Sir Christopher, ‘architect’ of St Paul’s Cathedral, among may other buildings) in LACE (‘decorative fabric’).
3 SAGE Wise kind of 31 (4)
Double definition.
4 ISLANDER Irishman, for instance, Brendan badmouths (8)
I SLANDER (‘Brendan badmouths’)
5 YELLOW Utter expression of pain, like coward (6)
YELL OW (‘utter expression of pain’).
6 ECO-WARRIOR One concerned about climate, or a crew at sea outside port (3-7)
An envelope (‘outside’) of RIO (‘port’) in ECOWARR, an anagram (‘at sea’) of ‘or a crew’.
7 INDIGO I like nothing about new source of dye (6)
An envelope (‘about’) of N (‘new’) in ‘I’ plus DIG (‘like’) plus O (‘nothing’).
8 BLUE Oxbridge student in team of 21 down (4)
A definition, hardly cryptic.
13 DUTCH Like house of 24‘s spouse (5)
Double definition, the first being to the Royal House.
14 THE RAINBOW Work of 2 that’s a kind of 16 (3,7)
Double definition.
16 TROUT Recommend cast across river for fish (5)
An envelope (‘cast across’) of R (‘river’) in TOUT (‘recommend’).
19 DREADING Not looking forward to start of dance lesson, say (8)
A charade of D (‘start of Dance’) plus READING (‘lesson, say’).
21 ATHLETES Area rented in the south for people having events (8)
A charade of A ))’area’) plus THLETES, an envelope (‘in’) of LET (‘rented’) in ‘the’ plus S (‘south’).
23 VIOLET Flower girl is very strong (name withheld) (6)
A subtraction: VIOLE[n]T (‘very strong’) minus the N (‘name withheld’).
24 ORANGE Fruit from African port, for example, sent north (6)
A charade of ORAN (‘African port’ in Algeria) plus GE, a reversal (‘sent north’ in a down light) of EG (‘for example’).
26 BIRD Time for chat, say (4)
Double definition, the first being to a prison sentence.
28 ORGY Wild party first four in 14 initially arranged (4)
In traditional order, the ‘first four’ colours of the rainbow (’14’) are Red, Orange, Yellow and Green; an anagram (‘arranged’) of their first letters (‘initially’).
29, 27 SONS AND LOVERS Confuse no solvers about French author’s novel (4,3,6)
An envelope (‘about’) of SAND (‘george, ‘French author’, nom de plume of Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin) in SONLOVERS, an anagram (‘confuse’) of ‘no solvers’.

 

image of grid

56 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,011 by Brendan”

  1. Festively colourful and clever, thanks Brendan and thanks PeterO. I was slow to get Zeus as the divine leader (he weren’t no saint!), and didn’t help myself by bunging in Bevan at first for the PM instead of mixing the colours as per on the tin. A most enjoyable additive to cricket watching and turkey stuffing.

    [Just as well my Crouch End kin are here, they can help this ignorant Aussie with the Maskarade!]

  2. I was concerned about all the linked clues, but the puzzle worked out beautifully once the the theme(s) became apparent, and made it a most enjoyable exercise.

  4. Lovely neat crossword after the pain of a thoroughly unenjoyable Christmas “special”. Thank you Brendan for restoring my sanity.

  7. Yes, what everyone else has said: a lovely puzzle. I couldn’t parse ORGY, but now I see! Many thanks to Brendan and PeterO.

  10. Nice, as always, to wrestle with my namesake and immediately spotting the theme we rattled it off quickly. I got a bit obsessed by the fact that there was no ‘purple’ and had elaborate theories about it perhaps being impossible to have a grid which included all the colours or that it was a subliminal nod to Toni Morrison who died in August. Except it was Alice Walker who wrote The Colour Purple! The truth was far more prosaic.

  11. What everyone else said (minus the queries).
    And I liked the side-theme with Lawrence and his novels.
    Thanks to Brendan and PeterO.

  13. What a clever puzzle this was, so many of its components interconnected. Though it may have appeared before somewhere, BIRD was most economically clued. Came to the ORGY as LOI, but had enjoyed myself thoroughly along the way. Thanks, Brendan for providing such a colourful start to a Monday…

  14. Thanks Brendan and PeterO

    Yes, very good.

    At an early stage I was sure that 28d was going to be RAVE, hence 14d started AVE R?????? !

  16. I certainly agree with all the comments concerning the high quality of this puzzle, but at the same time it was an inevitable anti-climax following yesterday’s magnificent Prize crossword, surely the most challenging fun of 2019.

  17. To answer Bonnilass and add something about WHITE: Noah was cheered when the rainbow appeared, accompanied as it was by a promise of no more floods. Use of passives without part of to be involved is OK in the sense that composers often use headlinese. On 12ac: yes, W and E are partners, but so are “We”. Bridge markers or score pads are (or have been) printed with We and They to indicate the partnerships. Maybe a bit pernickety regarding case, but perhaps anything is better in these tribal times than promoting a feeling of Us and Them?

  18. lovely puzzle as is typical of this setter. Unusually, the interconnectivity was intriguing rather than off-putting, very well done. Favourite? 13d of course

    Thanks Brendan and PeterO

  19. I generally enjoy working my way through linked clues, provided that at least one or two are easy enough to offer a way in, as was the case today. I’ll echo the praise of others here.

    I agree with Dansar @15 regarding VIOLET.

    ORGY went in readily from crossers, but isn’t it a forbidden indirect anagram?

    Thanks to Brendan and PeterO.

  20. Noah last one in for me and got from the theme rather than the Japanese theatre. However, as others have said, a lovely puzzle that was a very enjoyable solve. Thanks to both Brendan and PeterO.

  21. Great fun. I’m interested to know whether Brendan intended the linked clues to be solved in a certain order? For example I assume the idea was to solve 18,24 and then get 30 from the anagram. But I had ???? Organ first, then Red, which got me to Reed Organ, and then reverse engineered Orange from that.

  23. Loved the double theme and the links to other clues as well, eg GREEN and ECO-WARRIOR

    Thanks to Brendan for an early Christmas treat and to PeterO

  24. Thanks both,
    As others have said beautifully constructed and not too hard to solve. Moreover 31peace’s boat is called 14,6 with an electronics firm departing.

    Not sure I cba to tackle Saturday’s prize.

  27. One of the cleverest and most enjoyable puzzles in ages. I almost never spot a theme but got this one quickly and scampered through with a happy smile! Thanks to Brendan.  Tyngewick – the prize from Saturday is not as bad as it looks – I usually give up with Maskerade but this one was ok.

  28. Clarification of 8. Dansar (15) is right — it is a double definition, the second being “down” (= sad). The cross-reference is to 21, not 21 down, since there is no 21 across.

    Thanks everyone, and happy whatever you celebrate at winter solstice.

  30. Yes, one of the classiest offerings of the year. I really only unravelled the theme(s) right at the end, which I suppose is slightly better than my usual which is failing to spot the theme until I come here. What a gift 225 is. It’s a pleasure reading the comments even when I heartily disagree. Thanks today to PeterO and Brendan.

  32. Very enjoyable crossword — thanks Brendan. Favorite clue was 10ac. Thanks PeterO for the blog — both definitions of BIRD were new to me. Generally I do the FT crossword on Monday but today’s by Armonie had neither a grid or answer lengths — that seemed too much to tackle.

  33. Rankamateur @31, I’m not sure what you mean about ORGY, as it was not given as a double definition. Regarding SAGE, wise = sage = kind of green = kind 0f 31.

  34. This was lovely. Brendan is a classy setter and no mistake. LOI was BIRD which I now think is one of the best clues on offer here.
    Thanks Brendan.

  35. Copmus said it. A brilliant puzzle from a favourite setter.

    With two themes and cross referenced clues, you d forgive the odd poor one….but there isn’t one in sight.

    A masterpiece!

  36. I thought that only weak point in this delightful puzzle was the non-cryptic 8dn, but now that I’ve been set straight by Dansar @15 and Brian Greer @28, I see that this was actually an outstanding clue, with a particularly clever bit of misdirection of a sort I don’t recall seeing before.

    By the way, Isaac Newton, who separated white light into its constituent colours and hence first understood the rainbow, has a birthday coming up on Christmas Day. Keats lamented that Newton was guilty of “unweav[ing] the rainbow.” Richard Dawkins took that as a book title, back when he was a good science writer instead of an obnoxious crank. And JRR Tolkien evoked it when Saruman changed his cloak from one of pure white to one containing all of the colours. Gandalf tells Saruman that “He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.”

     

     

  37. I had time only for a short comment earlier (which I wrote emulating some others!), but I’d like to come here again to say how well the rainbow theme, the Lawrence sub-theme and the other interconnected clues were incorporated into this puzzle. Picking up pavement’s comment @21, I found that I got the theme only after getting three elements of it, and I got REED ORGAN after ORANGE but before RED. There were many ways, of course, of breaking into the theme(s), and that’s what made this puzzle both solvable and enjoyable.

  38. Ted @37
    I also meant to highlight BLUE as an outstanding clue, as you put it, with its subtle misdirection.
    [And on a different subject, with reference to the blog of a fairly recent puzzle: I have requested that Chambers review their definitions of W and the W and Z particles. Sorry I couldn’t post this on General Discussion, which is closed for comments. I believe I am addressing the Ted who commented.]

  39. There’s an interesting link (intentional or not) between ECO-WARRIOR and THE RAINBOW: The first GREENpeace vessel dedicated to environmental guerrilla action (specifically the whaling industry) was named RAINBOW WARRIOR.

  42. I enjoyed the Christmas Prize Puzzle (which incredibly featured my home town) but all my Christmases would come at once if Brendan was given the job just once.

  43. I’m surprised that two people have commented that they liked Saturdays’ Prize, though I suspect that rodshaw’s tongue was firmly in cheek.

  44. I was remiss in not thanking Brendan – when I saw his name on the puzzle, I knew we were in for a treat – and PeterO for adding the extra visual element to the solve, and for the blog. Thanks also to all the contributors who enhanced the discussion in positive and interesting ways.

  45. @muffin – my comment re Saturday’s Prize reflects the fact that is the first Maskarade puzzle I have ever solved! It was not anywhere close to the class of this one and “cba” is my usual reaction to his offerings. Luckily I had plenty of spare time on Saturday to dredge through Google Maps. Not my usual tool of choice for crosswords but I battled through!

  46. Since several of us seem to have wandered off-topic, getting ahead of ourselves by mentioning yesterday’s Prize, let me try to reassure doubters by saying it was the most enjoyable solve I have had in a long time. For two reasons: it is one of the rare jumbo specials that can be completed online and, while still cryptic, it involves a refreshingly different working method from any other.

    Not that today’s Cryptic wasn’t enormous fun too. Thanks PeterO, and bravo Brendan!

  47. …and two other reasons: it spoke to my homesickness, yet taught me many things about the country of my birth that I never knew.

  48. Brilliant puzzle, beautifully clued. My LOI was SONS AND LOVERS. I think that one would perhaps not have taken so long to get if there had been an explicit cross-reference to LAWRENCE. It seems strange that there wasn’t one, seeing as the puzzle was riddled with them.

    I really liked the clue for 26d, BIRD. Also 13a, DONATED for the change in parts of speech between surface and cryptic readings. 25a, EARSHOT too, for the way the definition misleadingly suggested a homophone clue.

    Pleased to see my favourite game appearing in 22a, as well.

    @DaveinNCarolina, 28d might perhaps be an indirect anagram technically, but couldn’t really be clearer about what letters need to be rearranged (the initial letters of the first four colours of the rainbow: “first four in 14 initially arranged”), R,O,Y,G.

  49. Thanks, btw, @Roger for tipping me off that the Masquerade can be done online. I haven’t even looked at it, as I assumed I would need a working printer, something I haven’t got at the moment.

  50. Thank you, Eileen @42! Tyngewick @24 beat me to it. I hardly ever get to comment because most of the 15^2 crowd are fast asleep by the time I do the puzzles. I always consult the blog though, and feel as if I know many of you. I certainly respect the erudition you all bring to the table.
    Happy holidays to all!

  51. A joy to solve clues— thanks, Brendan (and thanks to PeterO for translating the unsolved ones)

    Is 23d a triple clue since Violet is also a girl’s name? (Perhaps that is what at Dansar is saying more compactly)

  52. The more I look at the ingenuity of this puzzle, the more I love it. Genius.

    And to clarify my thoughts on the prize, I felt it was a long way from the spirit of a cryptic crossword – mainly an exercise in trawling though Google Maps. Still a feat of compilation to have every answer a place name, but I maintain the only way to find many of them was by reference to a map. Yes, more solvable than some of the fiendish offerings, but not my cup of tea.

    No offence to Maskerade. At least it was finished before Christmas!

  53. Am I the only one who does the crossword later than most? Hard for me, but I’m persevering. Happy New Year!

  54. You’re not the only one, Devonhousewife!  I start the Monday puzzle most weeks but often don’t finish it till Wednesday or Thursday.

  55. I also tend to do the crosswords later (often from the Guardian Weekly, but also at random when I have a spare hour – or many!). I really enjoyed this, and the interlinking themes. Surprised no-one has mentioned the name Roy G Biv – the mnemonic for the colours of the rainbow we all (here in Oz, at least) learnt at school. And I love coming to 15^2, even if very late, to read the blog and comments.

  56. Just found this in heap of carefully preserved unattempted crosswords. Lovely crossword, need more like this as now in depths of cheerless definitely unfestive Lockdown 2 about to ‘progress’ to Tier 2. Many thanks, Brendan and Peter O for the colourful blog.

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