Guardian 28,608 / Paul

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A typically fun and enjoyable prize puzzle from Paul – thanks!

Across

7. Mushroom bake’s filling consumed by Muslim (8)
SHIITAKE
[b]AK[e] = “bake’s filling” in SHIITE = “Muslim”
Definition: “Mushroom”

9. Quiet sound as a double knocked back? (6)
MURMUR
RUM + RUM = “a double” reversed (“knocked back”)
Definition: “Quiet sound”

10. State of Connecticut a horror (4)
UTAH
Hidden in “[connectic]UT A H[orror]”
Definition: “State”

11, 2, 1. Lying on cloth, white meat I cut, odd bits of herb scattered about (10,4,3,5)
ECONOMICAL WITH THE TRUTH
(ON CLOTH WHITE MEAT I CUT H R)* – the H R in the anagram fodder is from “H[e]R[b]” – “odd bits of herb”, and the anagram indicator is “scattered about”
Definition: “Lying”

12. Reportedly plod back (6)
LUMBAR
Sounds like “lumber” or “plod”
Definition: “back”

14. Tug circled by cruisers getting bow clipped — that’s inauspicious (8)
UNTOWARD
TOW = “Tug” in [c]UNARD = “cruisers getting bow clipped” (Cunard Line is a cruise company)
Definition: “inauspicious”

15. Exhausting at university struggling to make ends meet (4,2)
HARD UP
HARD = “Exhausting” + UP = “at university”
Definition: “struggling to make ends meet”

20. Ninja elected by Charlie and Wally (8)
ASSASSIN
IN = “elected” beside ASS = “Charlie” (as in “a proper Charlie”) and ASS = “Wally”
Definition: “Ninja” (I think this is arguably an unindicated definition-by-example)

22. Get lost following European character in Asian capital (6)
MUSCAT
SCAT = “Get lost” after MU = “European character” (a Greek character, specifically)
Definition: “Asian capital” (Muscat is the capital of Oman)

23. Nine kids author Charles initially mistreated — shabby of him? (10)
DICKENSIAN
(NINE KIDS A C)* – the A C in the anagram fodder is from “A[uthor] C[harles]” = “author Charles initially”
Definition: “shabby of him?”

24, 16. 21 November this year says: ‘I turn pud when mixing’ (4-2,6)
STIR-UP SUNDAY
(SAYS I TURN PUD)*
Definition: “21 November this year” – I’d never hard of this before, but the last Sunday before advent is Stir-up Sunday. As Wikipedia says, “It gets its name from the beginning of the collect for the day in the Book of Common Prayer, which begins with the words, “Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people”. But it has become associated with the custom of making the Christmas puddings on that day.”

25. African country spent money? (6)
GUINEA
Double definition: “African country” and “spent money?” – the past tense “spent” suggest it’s currency that isn’t in use any more

26. Mould blocking drain on the surface (4-4)
SKIN-DEEP
KIND = “Mould” (e.g. “of the same mould”) in SEEP = “drain”
Definition: “on the surface”

Down

3. Calling nurse, ankle finally bandaged up (6)
CAREER
CARER = “nurse” around “[ankl]E” = “ankle finally”
Definition: “Calling”

4. Paul’s stout, kind of firm? (8)
IMPORTER
I’M = “Paul’s” + PORTER = “stout”
Definition: “kind of firm?”

5. Supporter with popular, swell ideas (10)
BRAINWAVES
BRA = “Supporter” + IN = “popular” + WAVES = “swell”
Definition: “ideas”

6. Young home help, OO I say? (2,4)
AU PAIR
An AU PAIR sounds like “an O pair” or OO
Definition: “Young home help”

8. Flight due, so desperately stealing kiss (6)
EXODUS
(DUE SO)* around X = “kiss”
Definition: “Flight”

13. Stick turned wheels secured by nuts (10)
BARRACKING
CAR = “wheels” reversed in BARKING = “nuts”
Definition: “Stick” (e.g. “to give someone stick”? Although I’d have thought that would be “a barracking”)

18. Saw is, after all, not quite cutting grass (8)
REALISED
IS after AL[l] = “all, not quite” all in REED = “grass”
Definition: “Saw”

19. Garment is resurrected? (6)
UNDIES
Double definition: “Garment” and “is resurrected?” (UN-DIES)

21. Setter imbibing drink way down in Austria? (3,3)
SKI RUN
SUN = “Setter” around KIR = “drink”
Definition: “way down in Austria?”

22, 17. Player, owner of small vehicle, we hear? (6,6)
MINNIE DRIVER
Sounds like “Mini driver”
Definition: “Player” (as in an actor)

24. Team’s wing (4)
SIDE
Double definition: “Team” and “wing”

43 comments on “Guardian 28,608 / Paul”

  1. This was fun. Got SHIITAKE and UTAH quickly and so the long one. Rest took a while but got there.

    Favourites were BRAINWAVES, REALISED, SKIN-DEEP, DICKENSIAN.

    LOI was UNDIES with a groan.

    Thanks Paul and mhl

  4. I enjoyed this a lot, despite not finding it terribly easy. Typical Paul unobvious synonyms or instances, but all good.

    My first thought about the definition of DICKENSIAN, “shabby of him?”, was that it was quite loose, despite the question mark, but my second thought was different. “shabby” alone is a decent synonym, and “of him” taken separately refers back to author Charles, so the whole expression is rather clever.

  5. Thanks mil. Seems the splendid euphemism for lying (11,2,1) was coined by Edmund Burke – and was made famous nearly two centuries later when the UK cabinet secretary admitted to it under grilling in the Spycatcher trial by a future Australian prime minister. Most difficulty for me here was in the SW where UNDIES got a tick and SKI RUN was last to be found.

  6. I got barracking from the clue, but I couldn’t see how it related to “stick”. I’ve only heard of it in relation to supporting a sporting team.

  7. Thanks mhl. Typically fun and enjoyable sums it up nicely. Most of it yielded readily enough but the SW corner held me up, not for any good reason that I can see now. My years at Sunday School were not entirely wasted, Stir Up Sunday has stuck in my memory for its quaintness. 13d was my LOI, I knew what the answer had to be but it took some time to understand why. I take some comfort here from your point that it needs to be preceded by the indefinite article.

  8. I think my only complaint was realise with an S. Petty pedantry of course so don’t shout at me. Otherwise as enjoyable as ever. Thank you Paul. I loved undies when the penny finally dropped.

  9. Got there, but with a couple – UNTOWARD and BARRACKING – unparsed (I justified the latter mostly because it fitted and I could just about see the ‘stick ‘ meaning). I did like DICKENSIAN, which I thought was wordplay plus two definitions: “shabby” and “of him” , all working nicely together. I could see ECONOMICAL WITH THE TRUTH (lovely phrase!) must be an anagram but had to get it from the crossers and memories of Spycatcher. It was only then I worked out the fodder. I remember reading Spycatcher and deciding it rang true from a description right at the start of the spook’s working day starting with crosswords and an informal agreement that after some hour of the morning it was considered. Ok to ring your colleagues for help. I don’t have my copy anymore, so that’s from memory.

    Thanks Paul, thanks mhl.

  10. SW corner hardest for me.

    11/2/1 was a long anagram but the surface was not much fun to read in my opinion. Ditto many of the other surfaces.

    New for me: STIR-UP SUNDAY (thanks, google), LUMBAR (loi).

    Thanks, both.

  11. Thanks for the blog , much to enjoy here and thanks to molonglo@5 and Keith@9 for the Spycatcher reminder.
    STIR UP SUNDAY was great and Paul’s puzzle only one day away from the actual date.
    I did like UNDIES but is it really garmentS and not singular? I know trousers and knickers can be a single garment but I think of undies as knickers, bra etc.

  12. Thank you mhl for the background on STIR UP SUNDAY, I had heard of it but for some reason thought it was from American friends and referred to a recombination of leftovers on the Sunday after Thanksgiving – now I fully appreciate what a fantastic clue and surface it is.
    Roz@11 if I complained about having a hole in my undies I am sure (after berating me for providing TMI) you would associate the word with the single pair currently performing its duty, would’t you?
    Anyway thanks for the fun Paul.

  13. Thanks, Paul, for quite a tricky one, I thought. I eventually got there on Monday after some struggle, like others finding the SW hardest. Thanks, mhl, particularly for parsing UNTOWARD, which I failed to do.

    With DICKENSIAN, I took a while to work out the anagram, and then could not follow the definition. I see now that it can mean squalid, and so, in a sense, shabby, but I cannot find a dictionary defining it as ‘shabby’. Any views or help, anyone?

    I knew of STIR-UP SUNDAY, and got it quickly. A friend sent a photo of her pudding in production, so I was able to reply with the clue from the day’s crossword.

    I think BARRACKING means jeering, mhl, and so does not need ‘a’. As for supporting a team, Greg@6, Collins gives (Brit and Austr, informal) ‘criticize loudly or shout against’ first, then ‘shout support’ but needing to be followed by ‘for’. Let’s discuss further when the Ashes begin!

  14. SW was the last to yield for me which seems to be the trend although those clues were all fair. I am 100% with Roz@11 that UNDIES is a plural which loosely, as Gazzh@12 says, can stand in for the singular but that is surely primarily short for “one of the (plural) undies”. Anyway, that takes away from the fact that it was a lovely clue nonetheless with the whimsical definition which I feel sure I’ve seen before.

    Thanks mhl for the blog and Paul for the “Prize” challenge.

  15. SW last to yield for me too.

    Enjoyable and appreciate the above comments especially in the dual singularity / plural of the “unmentionables”

    Bravo Paul and thanks mhl for the clarity

  16. Many thanks, Paul and mhl. I don’t understand the stick about UNDIES and BARRACKING. When used to indicate more than one item, UNDIES is short for underwear which seems happy enough in the singular. There was BARRACKING from the terraces. No article needed. Both really lovely clues.

    I knew STIR-UP SUNDAY from The Archers … an addiction finally broken by the pandemic.

  17. Like Fiona Anne @1, I got going with SHIITAKE and UTAH, which (also with CAREER, my first in) enabled me to get the long phrase. There was further enjoyment to be had with everything that followed, with some clever clues to savour. STIR-UP SUNDAY was new to me, and I was pleased to learn it and where it comes from.

    Thanks Paul and mhl.

  18. I thought “shabby” was a second and therefore redundant anagrind, but I like Dr WhatOn’s idea better. Isn’t UNDIES a gendered thing? When a man puts his undies on, he pulls up a single garment,while for a woman, as Roz says, it is two. For a long time I tried to make CARJACKING work for BARRACKING.

  19. Thanks Paul and mhl. I enjoyed this very much, but it was a DNF – unlike others, the SW corner was no trouble, it was the SE corner that hamstrung me. I even thought of “mini driver” but failed to recall the homophonic actor (and for once, this is surely a homophone that no one can complain about?). I also thought of “undead” but couldn’t make the leap to UNDIES. And SKIN DEEP just wouldn’t appear in my mind. Total brain fart. They all look so obvious when you see the answers. Oh well, onwards and upwards!

    Some fun clues here – I enjoyed SHIITAKE, STIR-UP SUNDAY (which, unlike the ones I failed on, simply leapt off the page at me), SKI RUN, LUMBAR, IMPORTER… quite a few, really. Lovely stuff, Paul.

  20. I couldn’t believe that Paul passed up an opportunity for his toilet humour with SHITAKE. Perhaps an original clue was banned.

    All the main dictionaries give UNDIES as a plural noun, so I think one would say: “My undies need washing”, rather than using needs. Anyway, I liked that one, together with UNTOWARD, BRAIN WAVES, AU PAIR and BARRACKING.

    Thanks Paul and mhl.

  21. Got off to a great start and completed half quickly but then hit the buffers. DICKENSIAN, BRAINWAVES, SKI RUN,ASSASSIN and BARRACKING all proved too elusive, but no complaints as they were all excellent and fair clues. Thanks Paul. Discovering the solutions this morning was just as enjoyable as completing those that went in last Saturday.

  22. I remember a crossword a few years ago in which people were up in arms about whether stout and porter were the same. Wikipedia thinks not, and goes so far as to underline the difference with initial caps: Stout wrote Before Midnight, but Porter wrote Night and Day.

  23. Lots to enjoy here, especially the fodder fitting the clue at 24a,16d.
    The long one I got from the H crossing with UTAH and the enumeration. Strictly speaking it means “misleading” by only telling part of the truth rather than “lying”.
    23a Petert@13. I too thought there were two anagrinds until I read Dr WhatsOn @4. I’m not so sure that “shabby” is a decent synonym for “Dickensian” though I’m familiar with the phrase “Dickensian squalor”.
    4d. I was going to point out that porter and stout aren’t the same because they use different types of malt but the distinction seems too blurred to quibble and Chambers (1995) describes stout as “an extra-strong porter”. Try Googling “stout porter” if you’re interested.
    Thanks to Paul and mhl.

  24. The definition in 11, 2, 1 is ok because ECONOMICAL WITH THE TRUTH is unfortunately sometimes used as a euphemism for lying. I say “unfortunately”, because its original (and I would suggest proper) meaning is, surely, failing to tell the whole truth (and thereby creating a misleading impression). I think that this was the sense in which both Robert Armstrong and Alan Clark intended it, though they were perhaps misunderstood.

    Thanks Paul and mhl.

  26. Blaise @21 – brilliant! That made me LOL.

    I don’t claim to be an expert, but I have written a book about beer and I had no problem with the stout/porter equivalence. (Beer snobs are even more tedious than crossword snobs.)

  27. Most enjoyable and lasted most of the week with LUMBAR and BARRACKING holding out to the end (because I couldn’t cross the homophonic bridge to “lumber”).
    I thought MINNIE DRIVER was a bit of a GK stretch (a golfer/other sportsperson? that lady who sang “My Boy Lollipop“? – aah: an actor says Google).
    Favourites included BRAINWAVES and REALISED but the prize goes to…….. AU PAIR for it’s surface reminiscent of Dick Emery (or an androgynous someone else who won’t come to the frontal lobe).

    Thanks Paul. Thanks mhl.

    widdersbel@26: A meeting between the two?: “Have you got 9 down?” “Only sheven sho far..”

  28. I had only vaguely heard of Minnie Driver, but eventually the light dawned. Yes, being ECONOMICAL WITH THE TRUTH is breaking the witness’s promise to tell the WHOLE truth – lying by omission – but I got it fairly quickly and decided that life was too short to parse it from that laborious clue. I didn’t spot Cunard lurking in UNTOWARD.

  30. I enjoyed it all. I’ve never heard of Stir-Up Sunday, so I enjoyed its story as well — always nice to learn a new bit of folklore.

    Thanks, Paul — I didn’t attend your zoom session because I hadn’t completed the puzzle last Saturday, or any time till this morning when I could use the check button. And thanks mhl for the companionship.

  31. Thanks Paul and mhl.
    On checking the dictionary to see if UNTOWDRY was really a word, I spotted UNTOWARD and kicked myself a bit. Does that count as cheating? Either way, technically a DNF for me because I didn’t realise LUMBAR was spelt like that (and consequently didn’t understand the homophone indication).

  32. UNTOWARD is a bit of a stretch as a synonym for inauspicious, though I know the thesaurus allows it. Inauspicious is generally used with a forward looking element lacking in UNTOWARD. I would think there are fairer alternatives that still allow a good surface ?

  33. LordShortcake@: I had a question-mark against “inauspicious” as well and that it’s certified by the thesaurus matters not a whit to me. It remains for me, as you say, a bit of a stretch.

  34. LordShortcake & Alphalpha. I’ve not checked the thesaurus, but looking in Chambers under ‘inauspicious’ we have “not auspicious ( 🙂 ), ill-omened, unlucky”; under UNTOWARD we have “inconvenient, unlucky, unfavourable [etc]”.

    “A bit of a stretch”? Looks pretty close to me.

  35. widdersbel@26
    I don’t think I’m a beer snob, I just prefer some to others and am mildly interestd in the history. I suspect I could be a bit of a beer bore which is why I didn’t go into detail. The distinction beween ale and beer has become similarly blurred.

  36. sh@34: but there is a temporal difference which is a defining factor – UNTOWARD has immediate effect, “inauspicious” has a latent effect. (As LordShortcake has put it, but betterly.)

  38. Great puzzle, with Paul in top form with unusual clues like OO for au pair and the excellent anagram for STIR_UP SUNDAY. I’m another one who hadn’t heard of that, but I built it from the fodder with the help of crossers then looked it up to confirm it. Fascinating bit of etymology, for which, thanks, mhl.

    Thanks also for the explanation of BARRACKING. I couldn’t make head or tail of it, failing to come up with CAR for wheels and not sussing the definition. I think mhl has a point, because I think you would give someone ‘some’ stick’ but ‘a’ BARRACKING, so the meanings don’t overlap entirely and indeed not even enough for me to understand that “stick” was the definition once I had filled the boxes with the only word that fits.

    I think it is arguable that “undies” can stand for ‘pair of underpants’ (especially children’s?), which is a garment.

    Lordshortcake@32, under UNTOWARD, Collins has “2. not auspicious; adverse; unfavourable”. Seems to cover it, doesn’t it?

  39. I have just realised (for the first time as far as I remember!) that I mentally spell certain words when I use them. I therefore tend to think I pronounce differently spelled words, such as LUMBAR and LUMBER, differently. I suspect what comes out of my mouth is indistinguishable.

  40. I meant to say, UNDIES is a great joke but we definitely have had it before, not so long ago. I think it may have been in a Philistine puzzle.

  41. Very late to post after a busy weekend. Thanks Paul – lots to like here – best part was when I got the brainwave about BRAINWAVES at 5d. Thanks also to mhl for the blog.

  43. Sh@42, that won’t have been where I saw it. It is most likely it was in a Guardian Prize, which is the only newspaper puzzle I do regularly. I have tried to track it down without success. I think the 15² search facility is fairly basic and doesn’t allow searches which have two terms. “Undies” itself seems to be quite a popular word generally in puzzles covered here 😉

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