The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28017.
At least there is one very simple clue, in 9A, but most of the rest took a fair amount of thought. There are a couple of anagrinds which I thought strange, but that is a minor quibble.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CAPITAL | Money is better — land contracts (7) |
| A charade of CAP (‘better’ as a verb) plus ITAL[y] (‘land’) minus the last letter (‘contracts’). | ||
| 5 | TURN OFF | Deviate from act in motion (4,3) |
| A charade of TURN (‘act’) plus OFF (‘in motion’). | ||
| 9 | CARET | Carpet Power’s removed mark (5) |
| A simple subtraction: ‘car[p]et’ minus the P (‘power’s removed’). | ||
| 10 | REPRESENT | Act on stage (9) |
| A charade of RE (‘on’) plus PRESENT (‘stage’, verb). | ||
| 11 | EXONERATED | Naughty individual goes in after energy is discharged (10) |
| An envelope (‘goes in’) of ONE (individual’) in E (‘energy’) plus X-RATED (‘naughty’). | ||
| 12 | ET AL | Worried about novice and others (2,2) |
| A charade of ETA, a reversal (‘about’) of ATE (‘worried’) plus L (‘novice’). | ||
| 14 | DECLARATIONS | Assertions from Aldi: ‘Tesco ran badly’ (12) |
| An anagram (‘badly’) of ‘Aldi Tesco ran’. | ||
| 18 | See 25 | |
| 21 | CARD | Vehicle needing day to book (4) |
| A charade of CAR (‘vehicle’) plus D (‘day’). Think a soccer referee. | ||
| 22 | ATKINS DIET | Cook steak dinner primarily? Win, having lost weight with it? (6,4) |
| An anagram (‘cook’) of ‘steak’ plus D (‘Dinner primarily’) plus ‘[w]in’ minus the W (‘having lost weight’) plus ‘it’, with an &lit definition. | ||
| 25, 18 | SATELLITE BROADCASTING | TV work to state Clare Balding is racing (9,12) |
| An anagram (‘racing’?) of ‘to state Clare Balding is’. | ||
| 26 | INCUR | Suffer through short treatment (5) |
| A charade of IN (‘through’) plus CUR[e] (‘treatment’) minus its last letter (‘short’). | ||
| 27 | SUPPOSE | Matter for reflection: sit and think (7) |
| A charade of SUP, a reversal (‘for reflection’) of PUS (‘matter’) plus POSE (‘sit’). | ||
| 28 | LOLLIES | I’m laughing with Tales For Suckers (7) |
| A charade of LOL (laugh out loud, textspeak for ‘I’m laughing’) plus LIES (tales’). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | COCKER | Dog with stick up on deserted Exmoor (6) |
| A charade of COCK (‘stick up’) plus ER (‘deserted ExmooR‘). | ||
| 2 | PARROT | Kitty eating a bishop’s bird (6) |
| An envelope (‘eating’) of ‘a’ plus RR (Right Reverend, address for a ‘bishop’) in POT (‘kitty’). | ||
| 3 | TITLE DEEDS | Backing up computer work, restoring deleted spreadsheet, initially for owners’ documents (5,5) |
| A charade of TI, a reversal (‘backing up’) of IT (‘computer work’) plus TLEDEED, an anagram (‘restoring’) of ‘deleted’ plus S (‘Spreadsheet initially’). | ||
| 4 | LARVA | Can run inside to get American grub (5) |
| An envelope (‘inside’) of R (‘run’) in LAV (‘can’) plus A (‘American’). | ||
| 5 | TOP SECRET | Doctor protects drug, making injection for certain people only (3,6) |
| An envelope (‘making injection’) of E (‘drug’) in TOPSCRET, an anagram (‘doctor’) of ‘protects’. | ||
| 6 | REEK | Smell bottom of toddler — it’s alarming! (4) |
| A charade of R (‘bottom of toddleR‘) plus EEK! (‘its alarming!’). | ||
| 7 | OVERTOOK | Went round green filling in two holes in order (8) |
| An envelope (‘filling in’) of VERT (‘green’) in O O (‘two holes’) plus OK (‘in order’). | ||
| 8 | FATALIST | Rich celebrity who believes in destiny (8) |
| A charade of FAT (‘rich’) plus A-LIST (‘celebrity’). | ||
| 13 | STANDSTILL | Gets up on time, not good getting rest (10) |
| A charade of STANDS (‘gets up’) plus T (‘time’) plus ILL (‘not good’). | ||
| 15 | LEASTWISE | American, however, is extremely thick (9) |
| LEAST WISE (‘extremely thick’). | ||
| 16 | ABACUSES | They reckon a bad copper enters section (8) |
| A charade of ABACUSE, an envelope (‘enters’) of CU (chemical symbol, ‘copper’) in A BASE (‘a bad’); plus S (‘section’). | ||
| 17 | DOORSTEP | Place for knocking shop at the back: make love with rest when light goes on (8) |
| A charade of DO (‘make’) plus O (‘love’) plus RSTE, an anagram (‘when light’?) of ‘rest’ plus P (‘shoP at the back’). ‘Goes on’ indicates the order of the particles, in a down light. | ||
| 19 | LITCHI | Fruity thing with desire to get laid regularly outside (6) |
| An envelope (‘with … outside’) of ITCH (‘desire’) in LI (‘LaId regularly’). | ||
| 20 | STORMS | Upset sergeant major goes off and attacks (6) |
| A reversal (‘upset’ in a down light) of SM (‘sergeant major’) plus ROTS (‘goes off’). | ||
| 23 | IDEAL | Standard paper to deliver (5) |
| A charade of I (‘paper’) plus DEAL (‘deliver’). | ||
| 24 | ALSO | Further part for choral society (4) |
| A hidden answer (‘part’) in ‘chorAL SOciety’. | ||
Well, I succeeded in completing the grid, but with a personal record number of unparsed answers, so thanks to PeterO for the explanations. Thanks also to Tramp for a good challenge, my favourites being EXONERATED, ATKINS DIET, and REEK.
In my experience, the use of LEASTWISE is largely confined to Appalachian regions and perhaps other rural parts of this country.
As today marks the end of my first year as a cryptic addict, I’ll take the opportunity to express my gratitude to all of the Guardian setters and bloggers, as well as the regular commenters on 15^2, who have been a constant and welcome source of informative and civilized discourse. Best wishes to all in 2020.
Very clever! A number of unexpected constructions and non-obvious synonyms made this tough but satisfying – more suitable for a prize I would have thought.
Today is significant for me, I’m retiring. Looking forward to a lot of tennis, some university teaching, and of course no end of cryptics. Happy New Year, everyone!
Tricky to get started, tricky to get finished. Steady solving in between, but not much fun.
Leastwise, there’s always tomorrow.
Thanks, PeterO.
I also had some trouble parsing today. As for anagrinds, I think “racing” is fine, but “when light” doesn’t make sense to me.
Dr. WhatsOn @2: Best wishes on your retirement. And happy new year to all.
Thanks Peter and Neil for great entertainmentHNY all.
happy new year to all.
Congrats to DaveinNCarolina for completing the year. I would also like to pass on my thanks and gratitude to the bloggers and commenters, having joined this blog for the past year or so, having lurked for a while before that. the parsing and the discussions are much appreciated.
thanks PeterO for the helpful blog- didn’t manage to parse abacuses. I agree with your comment.
Fave was ATKINS DIET.
thanks to Tramp for the fun
PS Best wishes to Dr WhatsOn for your retirement
Happy New Year to everyone, and best wishes to Dr. WhatsOn on retirement: I escaped the daily toil 23+ years ago and it was the best career move I ever made. Time to do some of the things you really wanted to do instead of the things you had to do.
I announce my retirement from Tramp puzzles.
DaveinNCarolina@1
I wondered about ‘American’ in 15d as LEASTWISE is fairly common usage in Scotland. Perhaps after being planted in Ulster it then made it’s way to Appalachia.
I found this site this year. I still don’t understand all the cryptic terminology, but getting there! Thank you all setters and bloggers. Enjoy the remaining Christmas-tide and Happy 2020 to all.
I am another who managed to solve mainly by the definitions, with far too many can’t parse marks. Mrs Job (PVB) got there before me and was able to explain most – thanks to Peter O for filling in the remaining gaps. Congrats to the retiring Dr Whatson but if you think you’ll have time on your hands think again. I am somewhat with Pedro on the retiring plan. Happy New year to all.
Well that was a proper post-Christmas workout of the old grey matter and no mistake.
I did enjoy myself so thank you to Tramp and PeterO and a Happy New Year to all
Not for the first time this year, exactly what crypticsue said.
I am also baffled by 17d’s “when light goes on”. Took it to mean – when you finally understand….
HNY to everyone, of course, but commiserations at the devastation in NSW and Victoria – truly terrible stuff and surely a wakeup call for all of us?
Apart from the unfamiliar (for me) spelling of LITCHI, I found this fairly straightforward. Hope we all enjoy 2020 vision with our Guardian Cryptics in the year to come. It’s always such a pleasure to be able to start the day with whatever the setter for the day has planned for us.
For the ‘simple’ 9a I put in ‘trace’, so not off to a great start. For many of the rest it was very much a matter of bunging in from the def first and trying to parse later. At least I wasn’t alone it seems. After a stab at ‘gelati’ at 19d, I had to enter the unheard of LITCHI from the wordplay which helped with ATKINS DIET, my last in. The surface for DOORSTEP wins my vote as clue of the day
I echo TerriBlislow @15’s comments about the terrible bushfires in this part of the world.
Thanks to Tramp and PeterO and to all the other setters and bloggers here for giving us such enjoyment over the last year.
Isn’t everything in the universe matter of one sort or another? Have we reached peak vagueness with PUS/MATTER? Snarkiness aside I enjoyed this workout. HNY to all
Thank you Tramp and PeterO.
At 17d I tried to find a synonym for ‘rest’ which would give RSTE when a synonym for ‘light’ was removed, but neither RESPITE (EPI) nor TRESTLE (TEL) worked.
Bodycheetah @18, both Collins and the COED give ‘pus’ as a synonym for ‘matter’.
Hm. I got it finished, at last, but with many unparsed. And I still don’t understand a lot of them.
Why does OFF mean ‘in motion’?
And I can’t remember coming across I for ‘paper’ before.
Oh well. Plod on to next year, i suppose.
PS, New Year Greetings in France are usually given in early January…
I’ve just realised OFF as in ‘and they’re off’. OK.
Thanks Tramp and PeterO
I have question marks of various sorts against 14 clues – a record, I think. Most were my inability to parse, but a few quibbles as well, some more pedantic than others.
5a OFF = “in motion”? 26 “treatment” and CURe aren’t necessarily the same. 1d COCKER is only loosely a dog without “spaniel” being added. 15d “most thick” would be better than “extremely thick”. Others have commented on the anagram indicator in 17d. 23d “deliver” = DEAL?
Favourite was FATALIST.
We crossed, Anna. “They’re off” did occur to me, but you wouldn’t say “they’re in motion”; you would say “they’ve started”.
As always, I’m impressed at the high level of erudition and general knowledge displayed by the FS folk. To be honest, more often than not I scrabble away at parsing only after having come up with a possible answer (either by solid deduction, or just inspired guesswork). Even then I sometimes can’t account for every single letter, which is why I’m so lost in admiration for the bloggers.
I, too, am a relative newcomer to cryptics and to this invaluable site, and am hoping my meagre skills will improve over time. Thank you Tramp for the mental-workout, and heartfelt thanks to Peter O for the explanations. And I hope setters, bloggers and commenters have a genuinely happy 2020!
Re 18: One of the meanings of “matter” is specifically “purulent matter or pus”, since c1400 according to the OED.
Thanks for the blog PeterO.
I don’t often read the comments here. On reflection, “light” is a weak anagram indicator and I probably won’t use it again. I think it means dizzy, as in “a light head”. I remember justifying it by referring to the dictionary. “In motion” is a direct lift from the dictionary as is “pus” for matter. So too is “cocker”.
Happy New Year
Neil
Also, deal as “to deliver” is also a direct lift from the dictionary.
I can recommend the Chambers apps.
… yes, as in delivering cards.
Thanks Tramp and PeterO
Well, I for one certainly enjoyed this, and while I didn’t think it was up with Tramp’s best I didn’t have any major quibbles.
Anna @ 20: (without knowing where you are geographically) the I is a UK daily (news)paper.
CAP = ‘better’ (verb) still escapes me.
Simon@30
Thanks, I didn’t know that. (I live in Helsinki).
Benington@31 – can you cap my score? = can you better my score?
Larry – thanks – got it now
I found this quite tricky, particularly in the NW. For some reason, TITLE DEEDS seemed very complicated but it turned out to be fairly straightforward. I was mystified by “when light” as an anagrind but I like the light = dizzy (or even light = agile, as in light fingers) explanation, so thanks for that, Tramp. I don’t think it’s weak, just a bit novel.
In retrospect, the only strange part of the puzzle is the fact that “carpet” (in 9) appears en clair!
Good end of year tester. Thanks, Peter, and all the 15^2 bloggers for your efforts to enlighten this plodding solver over the course of the last 12 months! Happy New Year, all!
My Lancastrian mother would refer to wounds as mattering, and then possibly apply a bread poultice
Not too many complaints here but my post-solution parsing rate was one of the highest. I do find I don’t get properly on Tramp’s wavelength with the wordplay and often find the order of things a bit confusing. After the fact I can always justify them so it’s me not him with the problem. As for the synonyms, again they stretch the imagination but not the dictionary. I found “caret” tricky for being too easy! Other than that, and the dodgy “light” anagrind, there was much to enjoy in solving this, so thank you Tramp, and PeterO. I think “litchi” is one of those spellings, like “shew” and “hindoo” which will be obvious to those whose reading matter tends to old editions of older authors. But even my 50 year old Constance Spry cookbook has “lychee” so no idea where I pulled that solution from!
Happy retirement Dr. WhatsOn and we look forward to even more contributions from you.
Nope. Far THFM. But thanks for the helpful and explanatory blog.
Annoying anagrinds, yes, but I hate it when words like LITCHI turn up – it has so many spellings.
Mr B and I enjoyed this with many of the same comments as others have already offered. Happy retirement to DrWhatson and thank you to all the bloggers who add so much to the fun of doing the crossword each day. Happy new year.
Enjoyable as always – thought COCKER was a brilliant clue.
‘Light’ in 17d seems fine to me.
Happy New Year to all.
Well said, Jim!
I loved the surface of 17dn and I’m quite happy with Tramp’s ‘light-headed’ interpretation – certainly better than some indicators we get.
Happy to end this year by completing this above average puzzle in terms of difficulty. FOI ET AL Best for me was REEK for amusing surface. Happy new year to you all.
Many thanks to all my well-wishers.
Unconnected to that, I have to say that being an ex-pat living in the US sometimes seems to be an advantage, in the sense of getting cultural references from either side of the Atlantic, but the down side is the time-zone difference: except for when PeterO blogs, by the time I have a chance to contribute most things worth saying have already been said.
One final thought to round out my comments for the year. I continue to be amazed at how many clues I have been able to answer only because of what I learned at O-level: primarily, but not only, Chemistry and Latin. Which leads to the conclusion that if you want to be better at cryptics, go and take some O-levels (or whatever they are called nowadays)!
Dr. Whatson
I forgot to congratulate you on your retirement – may it be long and lustrous!
[Latin was my best subject at school – in 2 end-of-year exams I dropped a total of 3 marks. Then I was given a choice between studying Latin or Chemistry….. the rest is History!]
I suppose I’m relieved that others had the same parsing difficulties as I had. I did complete this – having abandoned the last couple of Tramps-but I still found difficulties getting on his wavelength even when he lobs us an easy one- e.g. CARET. I couldn’t believe the answer was that straightforward,and CARD was a guess and- and ——!
Happy New year everyone
Happy new year everyone, from a regular solver and blog-reader.
My thanks to Tramp and PeterO. I really needed your help to parse 7d but the rest eventually yielded. A good workout and enjoyable, as always. Happy New Year to all fellow solvers.
New Years Day here has dawned with a slight orange tinge to the sun and I am over 2000 km east of Sydney.
My American wife has never heard of ‘leastwise’ and I have lived 50 years in Washington DC and never heard of it either.
Could someone shed any further light on LEASTWISE? It’s the only one I could not get, and when I saw the answer, I felt like I still didn’t get it.
Here in America, this is very unfamiliar to the point of not making sense. I must really be least wise! 🙂
Thanks to PeterO and Tramp
A pleasure as always with Tramp.
I sympathise with those who can’t see “leastwise” as “however”, I had the same problem with an Enigmatist puzzle a few months ago, but it is in Collins as American usage.
Perhaps it’s a little like living in Chipping Norton and doubting the existence of “Ee ba gum”
I’m sure I’ve seen “light” used as an anagrind as well but I can’t remember where.
In 5a I saw the def as “Deviate from”, but perhaps either works.
In 22a I’d lay odds Tramp considered “Cook steak dinner primarily in it?”, but thought it was fairer to extend the clue to include a ref to weight loss.
I prefer the shorter version but it’s a toss up.
Happy new year to all
I don’t know if “leastwise” is a common US expression, but it’s still a poor clue. “least” is a superlative comparison, so, as I suggested earlier, “most” would be much better than “extremely”.
btw, Tramp, I suppose you can justify strange usages by “it’s in the dictionary”, but I find it irritating when the dictionary is clearly wrong – viz. “epicentre”.
I’ve heard “leastwise” but it has almost meant “least of all”, not “however” (I grew up in the southern tip of Appalachia). That was one of several answers that left me with a great sense of dissatisfaction.
Thanks to Simon S for explaining what “I” was. Is that an abbreviation for The Independent or a completely different newspaper?
I also don’t see how act = turn, unless act = almost any other verb referring to physical movement.
I also didn’t understand book = card but since it’s a sports thing, I can’t bother to care.
This took 3 of us on and off but we got there and eventually figured out the parsings so it seemed a very fitting end to the crossword year. Many thanks to all setters, bloggers and commenters for their skill, illumination and enlightening contributions. Happy new year to all.
BlueDot @ 53
The Independent was a physical newspaper, but a few years back went online only. The owners sold the physical rights, which now appear as the I (or, in fact, as the i).
ACT / TURN aren’t verbs, they are nouns, ie an act or turn in, say, the theatre (especially music-hall) or circus.
hth
Muffin: you’re always right aren’t you? Who are you, again?
Thanks Tramp for your gracious concession.
I struggled with the parsing as well but I unravelled them all in the end, except for LARVA because I could only think of LOO instead of LAV. LOROA didn’t seem right.
[Dear Tramp/Neil@56 – one of the (lesser) reasons I’ve ceased commenting here is the ceaseless, baseless quibbling. With a certain contributor ever at the epicentre…!)
[Gaufrid – a bit weird; I cancelled first attempt when realised I’d not ended with a square bracket, and submitted corrected version. Can’t understand why first attempt went through. I presume you expunged the wrong (ie right) one! While on strange anomalies, how does one post a comment to General Discussion or Site Feedback – the comment forms have disappeared (as with older blog entries. Sometimes one happens on a blog for an old puzzle which may be helped by a comment even if years later..!) And here’s my chance to wish you personally the best for this Year – and my heartfelt thanks for all you do.]
William F P
On the General Discussion page you need to click on the ‘here’ link to go to the post that contains the comments.
Gaufrid, unfortunately clicking on the “here” link takes you to a page (General Discussion Page 4) which declares itself closed. Maybe you forgot to change the link when opening a new page?
Tony
Thanks for the heads-up, now rectified. Somehow the option ‘automatically close posts after 60 days’ in the WordPress settings had become checked. I haven’t done so but perhaps one of the WordPress updates in the last few months has caused it.
Glad you got it sorted. T
@59 I agree with you, William, and I for one miss your upbeat and intelligent comments.
At least the the site’s former serial troll admitted it when he was shown to be wrong. The poster to whom you refer seems to think he knows better than professional lexicographers and, quite frankly, is the most insufferable contributor to any web forum I have visited.