Guardian Cryptic 28,340 by Puck

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Puck is playing games (well, a game) with us today.

I didn’t actually notice the “theme” until after I’d completed the puzzle, but once I had the completed gris in front of me, I could see why Puck had used CROSS instead of, say, “angry” in 18dn, as the theme is “noughts and crosses”, with “nought” and “cross” appearing in clues, as well as OX in ANOXIC. And to seal the deal, look at the letters in the top and bottom rows and left and right columns…

Thanks Puck

ACROSS
8 NOBILITY Lack of talent not a feature of Lord’s (8)
NO (a)BILITY (“lack of talent”, not A)
9 AMAZON Flower shop online here? (6)
For flower, think, “that which flows”, so a river, and of course you can shop online at AMAZON
10 OLID Foul-smelling old hat (4)
O (old) + LID (“hat”)
11 CONCERTINO Short piece needing correction, with name for one composer finally changed (10)
*(cornection) [anag:changed] where CORNECTION is CORRECTION with one of the Rs (composeR, finally) replaced by N (name)
12 UPTOWN Part of Manhattan, as far as two quarters will get you (6)
UP TO (“as far as”) + W (west) + N (north) (“two quarters”)
14 TIMBUKTU Name given to male deer, say? Originally, the ungulates in some faraway place (8)
TIM (“name”) given to homophone [say] of BUCK (“male deer”) + [originally] T(he) U(ngulates)
15 GESTALT Organised whole of largest alto section (7)
Hidden [section] in “larGEST ALTo”
17 SNIPING Veiled criticism of bargain gin supply (7)
SNIP (“bargain”) + *(gin) [anag:supply]
20 HALFWITS Stupid people undone by this flaw? (8)
*(this flaw) [anag:undone]
22 HI-TECH White chairs partially with designs using steel, glass and plastic, say (2-4)
Hidden in [partially] “wHITE CHairs”)
23 TOURNIQUET Device that prevents pouring out of claret (10)
Cryptic definition, “claret” being a slang word for “blood”
24 TOOT Nought drunk by small child? Just a little Coke (4)
O (nought) drunk by TOT (“small child”)

The Coke in the definition is cocaine, not the soft drink
25 SILENT Mum let sin get out of control (6)
*(let sin) [anag:out of control]
26 EX LIBRIS Sadly risible, keeping Times owner’s name inscribed in book here (2,6)
*(risible) [anag:sadly] keeping X (“times”, in maths)
DOWN
1 COLLAPSE Pass by failing to fail (8)
COL (“pass”) by LAPSE (“failing”)
2 RIND Bit of bacon some won’t eat — rejected if not Danish, primarily (4)
R(ejected) I(f) N(ot) D(anish) [primarily]
3 OILCAN Transported coal in another fuel container (6)
*(coal in) [anag:transported]
4 SYENITE Rock night broadcast, with Yes playing first (7)
Homophone [broadcast] of NIGHT with *(yes) [anag:playing] first

Syenite is a coarse-grained igneous rock
5 SALESMAN ‘Small beer’ — second fellow’s description of Miller’s Willy (8)
S (small) + ALE (“beer”) + S (second) + MAN (“fellow”)

Refers to Willy Loman, the protagonist of Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman.
6 EAR TRUMPET Behind short film supporting revised rate for hearing aid (3,7)
RUMP (“behind”) + ET (“film”) supporting *(rate) [revised]

The “short” may be indicating that the film is actually called E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial, but it could be considered superfluous as most people know the movie simply as E.T.
7 SONNET Lines up outside No 10 — speech just beginning (6)
[up] <=(TEN + S(peech) [just beginning] outside No. (number))
13 OUT OF ORDER No longer called brother that’s not working (3,2,5)
An ex-monk (brother} would no longer be in the order, so “out of order”)
16 LAID INTO Attacked an idol with tie clip? That’s 13 (4,4)
*(an idol ti) [anag:out of order (solution to 13)] where TI is TI(e) [clipped]

Don’t like “tie clip” to indicate shortened TIE
18 NECROSIS Cell deaths topped small number Puck’s got cross about (8)
[topped] (o)NE (“small number”) + I (“Puck”) got CROSS about

Shame that Puck didn’t use a synonym of CROSS as 5/8ths of the answer is in the clue.
19 ASSURES Fool includes certain guarantees (7)
ASS (“fool”) includes SURE (“certain”)
21 ANOXIC Gripped by sudden fear, topless opponents in game lacking vital element (6)
Gripped by (p)ANIC (“sudden fear”, topless] O and X (“opponents in game”, i.e. noughts and crosses)
22 HOTELS Where kippers can be found on vacation in Harwich (6)
H(arwic)H [on vacation] gives us H H (two hotels) which is where people sleep (kip) so “where kippers can be found”
24 TUBE One form of pasta if potato, say, is short (4)
TUBE(r) (“potato, say” is short)

 

73 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,340 by Puck”

  1. Thank goodness for the Nina which was a big help for some of the early down clues and for ANOXIC. Still, missed the parsing for HOTELS and didn’t know TOOT for ‘cocaine’.

    5d – surface and def – was a real classic.

    Thanks to Puck and loonapick

  2. Thanks Puck and loonapick.

    I gave up on this as I found it hard to complete – if only I had noticed the theme (despite looking), I am sure I would have finished quite easily.

    Thanks for the explanation to HOTELS – I missed the significance of the the two Hs, and I was asleep on the other part

  3. I had a nibble at this at midnight and ended up feasting to the finish. I was struggling until halfway through when the penny dropped with the Nina and I indeed thank goodness, WordPlodder@1. I liked TOURNIQUET, HOTELS and TIMBUKTU and my LOI was AXONIC, which covered the Nina perfectly. I agree with loonapick about the ‘clip’ device in LAID INTO but this was only a tiny quibble. Maybe I’m still a bit starstruck but I thought this was an absolutely brilliant achievement. I found it difficult to get off to sleep, just marvelling at what Puck had done. Thanks both.

  4. Woohoo!, for once I spotted the theme and it helped a lot – giving the last letter for 11a and 14a for example. Very enjoyable so thanks to Puck and loonapick!

  6. Difficult puzzle, which In my opinion would have been suitable in the Prize slot last Saturday.

    Favourites: NOBILITY, UPTOWN, ANOXIC (new word for me)
    New: NECROSIS, SYENITE, OLID, claret = blood

    11ac = what was the function of the word ‘one’? Could it have been omitted?

    Thanks, B+S

    * I did not notice the nina or the theme

  8. Stared dumbly at the last couple until twigging the ox to go into topless panic, thought ‘Oh it’s That game’ and only then read the thread, saw the ninas and got the t for tourniquet, so not an unaided solve. Had thought of q to go with the u, but I wince a bit when sports commentators call blood claret..might’ve put me off. Quite fun, thanks both.

  9. I did spot the nina, but only after filling three quarters of the grid, mostly because I always expect a theme from Puck and this grid is often used for perimeter ninas. It did help with a few of the remaining ones. An enjoyable challenge.

    Thanks to Puck and loonapick

  10. I don’t know how many times I’ve failed to spot a Nina – even when I’ve looked for one. And, of course, Puck is one of the most regular users of complete Ninas around the circumference (as noted by beery hiker immediately above). I spotted CROSSE across the top fairly early on and thought more of the Nina would come into view in due course – and then it slipped my mind to go back to it! And it would have helped a lot. Struggled to think of both SONNET and NECROSIS and ANOXIC was a dnk. Weird, the tricks the mind can play.

    A tour de force by Puck today. I share favourites with AlanC @3 and would add the nicely hidden GESTALT and COLLAPSE which is an excellent assembly. I’d agree with the ‘clip’ criticism and I raised half an eyebrow at the fairly loose definition of HI TECH.

    Given my miserable failure to spot the Nina, I shall give myself a NOUGHT today, about which I am, naturally, very CROSS.

    Thanks Puck and Loonapick

  12. Spotted the noughts and crosses, but not until it was nearly all over. Favourites were TOURNIQUET and TIMBUKTU, but SYENITE was also quite gneiss.

    Thanks Puck and Loonapick

  13. Fabulous fun – totally missed the theme and the double Nina! Couple of struggels – EX LIBRIS and ANOXIC were DNKs, NECROSIS was a bung-it-in-and-hope. FOI(s) CONCERTINO, TIMBUKTU and UPTOWN. TOURNIQUET completely evaded me.

    Really enjoyed this – that slow start/penny-dropping moment in spades today.

    Thanks Puck and loonapick!

  14. Completely oblivious to the theme so thanks to Loonapock for pointing out what was right under my nose. I was in fact chasing a pangram-that-never-was because my FOIs were AMAZON, TOURNIQUET, and EX LIBRIS.

    Challenging vocabulary today, but ultimately very fairly clued by Puck. A smart piece of work indeed.

  15. As PostMark @10 says, a tour de force. I missed the nina (as always)! It was quite a struggle – glad to get there in the end. Favourites were NOBILITY (LOI), TIMBUKTU and HOTELS (which I stared at for a long time). Wasn’t sure about ‘will get you’ at the end of the clue for 12a, but on reflection it makes sense. Many thanks to Puck and loonapick.

  16. Michelle @6
    You write: 11ac – what was the function of the word ‘one’? Could it have been omitted?
    You probably wrote this without reading loonapick’s annotation in the blog.
    He has made it quite clear why ‘one’ is used, I thought,.

  18. Very clever piece of work, but I do hate having to google to confirm when GK lets me down. Thanks both.

  19. Towards the end I thought I’d glance at the grid as a theme was likely. And Eureka. Thjat helped the finish
    LOI 21. Thanks Puck and loonapick

  20. What a clever Nina. Why didn’t I spot it (again)?

    Had difficulty parsing CONCERTINO and ANOXIC so thanks loonapick.

    Favourite today, with WordPlodder @1, was SALESMAN but HOTELS and NECROSIS were close also-rans.

    Thanks Puck.

  21. What a great Nina. (For the uninitiated it just means a hidden word or phrase, and it isnt an acronym).
    I couldn’t parse hotels because I thought the vacations had to be “hols”.
    Timbuctu is a common spelling though apparently dated, and makes the solution ambiguous.

  23. [yesyes @20: I’m sure you could get away with claiming 4d as a partial namecheck. 😀 Take them when and where you can!]

  24. Rishi @16
    Yes, I had seen it, but I thought it could do just as well without the word ‘one’ in the clue for 11ac?

  25. Thanks Puck and loonapick
    Cross with myself over HOTELS, as I was most of the way there, having spotted HH and “sleepers”, but still couldn’t get it to work.
    Didn’t see the theme or ninas, of course.
    I tried and failed to find the review of Death of a salesman in which the reviewer praises “Dustin Hoffmann’s pathetically small Willy”. btw I advise against doing as I did and entering “pathetically small Willy” into Google!

  27. Hitherto I have always been envious of those who have the confidence to say that a word is new to them but that it was clear from the word play, so I was pleased to be able to enter SYENITE and OLID without even Googling first. Like others, I really liked SALESMAN. For me this puzzle was very much in the spirit of a rock night with YES: it took a lot longer than it should have but there were some very pleasant moments.

  28. Failed to look for a NINA, so I made this more difficult than it could have been. Good setting to use a complete NINA with only a few obscurities.

    Cell deaths didn’t need to be plural, but I guess the setter was just following the Chambers definition. I was pleased to put together the unlikely SYENITE. I thought immediately of TIMBUKTU for 14 but I thought the ‘TU’ was in the middle, so missed it for a while. I wasn’t familiar with the ‘old slang’ of claret as blood, so the TOURNIQUET took some time for twisting. I was another that thought that ‘tie clip’ didn’t really work. I enjoyed the clues for ANOXIC and CONCERTINO.

    Thanks Puck and loonapick.

  29. [ravenrider @21: Timbuktu is home to the “Festival in the Desert” which has been the catalyst for the formation of some of the world’s best-known groups – Tinariwen, Amadou and Mirian, Salif Keita, etc. Due to the situation in Mali, the festival hasn’t run for a few years but next time it does, it will be amazing. http://www.thefestivalinthedesert.com/ ]

  30. Perhaps because I missed the theme, and its associated Ninas etc, completely, I wasn’t too impressed by this. I thought some clues very forced (e.g. ANOXIC, CONCERTINO, HI-TECH, TOOT, OUT OF ORDER, HOTELS). I nearly gave up but just managed to stumble to the end. For 14a, I wanted to put JUMBUCKS – ungulates in a faraway (from England) place, though I couldn’t figure out where Jum for male came from. Given I had that problem with other clues (see list above) I very nearly bunged it in anyway. Having a Geology degree, I liked SYENITE (both the word and the rock).

  31. Stumped by the misdirection in 8ac, so didn’t manage to get SYENITE. Didn’t know ANOXIC either. Found this tough and a DNF therefore. Needed the blog to explain the cluing of TOURNIQUET and UPTOWN, oh and CONCERTINO, which I found impossibly fiddly to untangle…

  34. I thought this was a corker! The recondite OLID and ANOXIC were gettable from the wordplay, so very fair. I biffed HOTELS, saw the H..H, but couldn’t find a parsing: now it’s been explained, I rate this a superb clue. Several of the surfaces were very skilfully crafted, e.g. “pass by failing to fail” and the Manhattan clue. Puck lobbed in quite a few easy ones (SILENT, OILCAN et al.) to keep us from getting bogged down, but then provided enough chewiness to keep us from complacency. Loved it.
    Thanks for the blog, loonapick.

  35. I thought this was fun despite completely missing the theme & nina.
    Enjoyed NOBILITY & HALFWITS and even an amused groan at OUT OF ORDER but COTD was HOTELS for me.
    And another outing for the setters favourite movie/alien ET! I found roughy 80 clues for ET films and 65 for ET aliens – I haven’t validated them all though!

  36. It’s funny, I habitually keep track of letters in case of a pangram (only 2 missing here!) but rarely look for a nina. So it wasn’t until I’d read Loonapick’s reliably-helpful blog that I realised this is even more impressive than I’d hitherto thought!
    OUT OF ORDER was delicious, as was NOBILITY, COLLAPSE was pretty darned neat – whilst SALESMAN was masterly. (And thanks to Muffin for the Dustin Hoffman anecdote.)
    I’m another who couldn’t parse HOTELS: I did start by thinking HH might be part of it – but then that idea was swamped by my brain insisting “vacation” = “hols”…
    Thanks to Puck for the fun, and Loonapick for the patient elucidation

  37. Wish I’d spotted the Nina… Having NE as opponents in bridge and therefore anemic as lacking in iron did not help! I’ve become so used to USA spellings these days I slip into them 🙁

  38. Given the grid, I was on the alert for a nina from the start. Rarely for me, I spotted it quite early and it helped a lot.

    Clever and enjoyable puzzle. Thanks to Puck and loonapick.

  39. Feeling quite pleased with myself for the steady solve of a fairly tricky puzzle but also rather cross that my life would have been much easier if I’d taken the trouble to look for / find the nina. As others have said, a tour de force.

    Raised an eyebrow at the ‘supply’ anagrind in SNIPING but I guess it’s been used before, probably lots. As for so many others, HARWICH was my unparseable. I know the town (as distinct from the port) quite well, it’s full of lovely old Georgian buildings and the café on Ha’penny Pier is recommended, but it’s a UKIP = Kipper hotbed, so I was trying to force in all sorts of connotations.

  42. Westdale @37 – I also almost fell for ANEMIC, but noticed that if you take out the NE you get (P)AMIC rather than (P)ANIC.

  44. Totally missed the theme and the Nina(s), as usual, and also have never heard of SYENITE. (Am I alone?) But the puzzle was lots of fun. Thanks Puck and loonapick.

    ravenrider @21 The spelling can be TIMBUKTU as loonapick has it, with “say” as a homopone indicator — BUK for “buck.”

    beLFRY bOY @41 There’s a good explanation of a Nina in the FAQ section of this site, which you can click on at the top of this page.

  45. I’m another helped by the NINA (though I almost never spot them). This time it helped me to solutions for 7d and 23a (and hence to 21d – I was another trying to get bridge opponents into ANIC).
    However, a DNF for me as I was another with TIMBUCTU.

  47. Puck is generally one of my favourite setters bit I missed my usual enjoyment in this one. I’m not denying its cleverness but when the number of words I have to reveal exceeds the clues that I tick as especially gratifying I leave dissatisfied. Thanks to both.

  49. On the contrary, Pedro@48, if you have a theme or a NINA or an alphabetic crossword, etc, I know as a compiler myself that this will tend to mean you have to seek out some obscure words to fit the extra restrictions. So themes can lead to obscurities. But I didn’t find this one very tortuous. It was a genius bit of compiling.

  51. …and there was I thinking that “necrosis” was a mash-up of S(mall) N(umber) I [=Puck] SORE [cross] C [=circa=about]. Can I claim extra credit for being inventive? But great crossword and blog: many thanks to all!

  52. Hi Mary
    It’s a message in the grid, often in unchecked outside squares, as today. See the links given earlier, or go to the FAQs on this site

  53. ANOXIC (which I got) and SYENITE (which I didn’t) were new to me. I didn’t see the nina until about three quarters done, but it helped with several of the remainder, especially CONCERTINO. Clever and enjoyable stuff.

  54. Timbuctu was a centre of culture and enlightenment when Europe was submerged in ignorance. The world’i first university was in Timbuctu. To use it as a synonym of “faraway place” is vile ignorant racism.

  56. Grim and Dim @54; dictionary definitions of Timbuktu:
    Chambers: Any distant place; Oxford: Used in reference to a remote or extremely distant place; Collins: any distant or outlandish place

  58. Re Timbuktu
    Please let me say in what context I have heard Timbuktu used in India.
    In Indian administrative service there are honest officers who will always work according to their conscience. Sometimes if they don’t go along with their political masters in any action that seems unacceptable to them, they are likely to be given a transfer order.
    When caught in an unpleasant situation, these officers would say they won’t put in their papers but are ready to work even if they are transferred to Timbuktu.
    In the sense of a distant place.

  59. [Grim and Dim @54: How is “faraway” in any sense vile, ignorant, or racist? To me it just means “not near;” I’m sensing a troubling misinterpretation here.]

  60. For 6D how about, RUM (RUMp short) PET (polyethylene terephthalate used to make plastic FILM) anagram of RATE on top.
    Just saying

  62. Me at 25
    On reflection, I think the quote might have been “the pathetic smallness of Dustin Hoffmann’s Willy”.

  63. OK, I give up, what was the theme??
    Pleased that I got close to finishing what by general concensus is a tricky puzzle. 7 left at the end.
    I have never spotted a nina as I never look for them.
    Thanks Puck and Loonapick.

  64. I had failed on two (and not written a third in because of not getting the parsing) but when I came here and saw Loonapick’s hint in the preamble I immediately entered ANOXIC, TOURNIQUET and HOTELS. So, not sure I would count that as properly finished, having not spotted the nina for myself. But thanks for the help!

    The clue for 1d looks clever, but I was a little disappointed with the solution as COLLAPSE and LAPSE both come from the same root word: lapsus.. I liked CONCERTINO with its very precise instruction for arriving at the anagrist. I had no problem with the definition for HI-TECH and I though ‘tie-clip?’ – with a slightly apologetic ‘?’ – was fine too.

    I join with others in saluting Puck for this very cleverly constructed crossword.

  65. Lovely puzzle. Thanks to Puck and Loonapick – I needed the blog for several parsings.

    Michelle @24. The ‘one’ in the clue is needed because CORRECTION has two Rs (composer finally), only one of which needs to be changed to n(ame). Bit late in the day but hope it helps.

  66. Just finished!

    Did most of it this morning but got stuck with about 5 to go. Then left it for the day, came back this evening and… yabadabadoo, the nina hit my eye like a big… well, like a big lump of SYENITE.

    And the moral of the story is: if you want to improve your crossword solving technique, just try complete abstention from crosswords for a while.

    Thanks Puck and loonapick, and gneiss as always to see Punfold @12

  67. Lovely Cryptic. Mary thomas @ 50 (and others). I am not sure the explanations of nina have been all that clear so far. I am just trying to get to grips with the terminology myself. In this cryptic, if you look at the letters on the perimeter for each side you get NOUGHTS on 2 sides and CROSSES on the other 2. Unbelievably clever. Needless to say that I did not spot it either. Many thanks to Puck and loonapick.

  68. I never notice Ninas, so I failed completely on this one.
    I think it’s stretching a point to say there is a theme when ‘nought’ and ‘cross’ appear only once in clues, and the letters OX in one solution.

  69. ILAN CARON@33 – No you’re not wrong to have entered TIMBUCTU. It’s an alternative/old spelling, which, although not appearing as frequently as BUK, is equally valid as a solution to 14a. (And Valentine@44, I would argue that BUC is as good a homonym as BUK for BUCK.)

    Admittedly, since we entered BUC, I guess we have to accept that we are vile ignorant grim and dim racists.

    I too missed the theme and the Nina. On learning of them here, my admiration for the cleverness of the setter went up a notch. But I loved the puzzle even without twigging the theme. Favourites among many were 11a CONCERTINO for the multiple misdirections and 5d SALESMAN for the surface (loved the Dustin Hoffman reference, Muffin.)

    Thanks Puck and loonapick

  70. I was defeated by TOURNIQUET, SONNET and HOTELS. While the first two were fine, I though the latter was a tad too convoluted to be truly fair.
    Great puzzle overall, though. And as usual I missed the theme; I am AWFUL at spotting these – how do you guys do it?!

  71. Annoyingly a DNF because I’d never heard of CONCERTINO and completely missed the (brilliant) Nina.
    And failed to parse the perfectly straightforward UPTOWN. This pandemic is evidently getting to me…
    Thanks to Puck and Loonapick.

  72. Interesting to note that Harwich is in the Council District of Tendring (Te) in Essex.
    Could this give another parsing of clue 22d ?

  73. Personally, I don’t like clues like 21down – “Gripped by a sudden fear, topless opponents…” where the ‘topless’ clue word refers to the word before it when there’s a comma in between and thus part of a totally different clause.

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