Guardian Cryptic 28,752 by Brendan

by

Brendan is a welcome visitor to the Monday Guardian slot.

A thematic puzzle with almost every clue having some reference to mythology, with references to priests, priestesses, Greek myth and popes throughout the puzzle. Even for an atheist for me, everything was accessible and easily parsed, so as far as Brendan puzzles go, this was very straightforward and great fun.

Thanks, Brendan.

ACROSS
1
See 9

4 LEGATE
For example, interrupting tardy representative (6)

E.G. (for example) interrupting LATE ("tardy")
9, 1 HOLY LEAGUE
Religious alliance in turbulent age he and you’ll put together (4,6)

*(age he you'll) [anag:turbulent]
10 CLOISTERED
Closed with rite in unusual order, like monks in monastery (10)

*(closed rite) [anag:in unusual order]
11 VICTOR
Follower of uniform writer of history? (6)

Double definition, the first referring to V in the phonetic alphabet and the second referring to the idea that history is written by the winners.
12 THEMATIC
Like some puzzles in mathematics (8)

Hidden [in] "maTHEMATICs"
13 FENDED OFF
Resisted leader of flock repeatedly going outside closed circle (6,3)

[leader of] F(lock) [repeatedly] = FFF going outside ENDED ("closed") + O (circle)
15 IDOL
One old-fashioned object of veneration (4)

I (one) + *(old) [anag:fashioned]
16 CLAY
Caught, unlike priests — in court, sort of (4)

C (caught) + LAY ("unlike priests")

Tennis, especially around this time of year in the run-up to the French Open, is sometimes played on a clay court
17 SCENARIST
Ecstasy among RC saints confused scriptwriter (9)

E (ecstasy) among *(rc saints) [anag:confused]
21 INNOCENT
Elected with no change in Washington, pure and simple (8)

IN ("elected") with NO + CENT ("change in Washington")
22 TROPES
Figurative expressions translated by 11, 21, and 27, say, apart from first page (6)

Tr. (translated) by (p)OPES ("Victor, Innocent and Martin, say", apart from first P (page))
24 VALENTINES
A period of fasting among sources of fruit and sweeties (10)

A + LENT ("period of fasting") among VINES ("sources of fruit")
25 JOHN
American throne for English king (4)

Double definition, the first referring to a toilet.
26 ROSARY
Religious aid on which one can count (6)

Cryptic(ish) definition
27 MARTIN
Swallow cocktail the second one’s left (6)

MARTIN(i) ("cocktail", with the second I (one) missing [left])
DOWN
1 LEONINE
Like some big game one bungled in series (7)

*(one) [anag:bundled] in LINE ("series")
2 AS YET
A fifth of money put in collection so far (2,3)

A + [fifth of] (mone)Y put in SET ("collection")
3 UNCURED
Not successfully treated, a priest abroad died (7)

UN CURÉ ("a priest" in French, so "abroad") + D (died)
5 EASTER
Time to remember rising in Dublin and Rome? (6)

Refers to the Easter Rising of 1916 and the story of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
6 ALEXANDER
A lover of priestess carrying cross for great king (9)

A + LEANDER (the "lover of" Hero, a "priestess" in Greek mythology) carrying X (cross)
7 EZEKIEL
Prophetic text in final letter going into East European port (7)

Z ("final letter") going into E (East) + E (European) + KIEL (German "port")
8 PONTIFICATING
Gift I can point out — what preacher’s good at (13)

*(gift I can point) [anag:out]
14 DEACONESS
Role for Catholic woman once in charade — a con, essentially (9)

Hidden [in] "charaDE A CON ESSentially"
16 CENTAUR
Curate muddled about name for mythical creature (7)

*(curate) [anag:muddled] about N (name)
18 NATASHA
Name of woman the Devil upended with triumphant expression (7)

<=SATAN ("the Devil", upturned) with HA ("triumphant expression")
19 STEPHEN
Monarch once put foot down on female party member? (7)

STEP ("put foot down") + HEN ("female party member")
20 PESTER
First in a certain line, second cutting in — bother! (6)

S (second) cutting in(to) PETER ("first in a certain line" i.e of Popes)
23 OBJET
Ring on bishop, with gemstone, ornamental article (5)

O (ring) on B (bishop) with JET ("gemstone")

61 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,752 by Brendan”

  1. Many thanks, loonapick, too dim this morning to get all the papal gags.

    Don’t usually romp a Brendan puzzle but this was straightforward and fairly clued.

    Smooth start to the week, which I’m sure will get tougher.

  2. Thanks loonapick and Brendan. This was a sheer joy to solve – very gentle by Brendan’s standards but no less elegant than his trickier work. Favourites for me were VALENTINES and MARTIN.

  4. There were a few clues made me laugh out loud: PONTIFICATING and DEACONESSES in particular, but PESTER raised a wry grin. Nice romp for Brendan, with a surprising number of clues write ins, to be held up by those that weren’t. Didn’t parse TROPES but as that, with MARTIN and VICTOR were my last three in, I didn’t go back to it to work it out when I had the last two. Not sure it would have helped as Pope Victor was not on my radar, and Martin wouldn’t have leapt to mind (unlike STEPHEN or JOHN).

  5. I counted 8 Popes, ALEXANDER, VICTOR, INNOCENT, VALENTINE, JOHN, STEPHEN, MARTIN and LEONINE (Leo IX) along with PONTIFICATE.
    Favourite was CLAY

  7. Gentle Brendan on a Monday; very nice way to start the week. And an impressive collection of religiously themed clues. The two successive early anagrams – HOLY LEAGUE and CLOISTERED – were my favourites, along with widders’nomination, VALENTINES.

    Not Brendan’s fault but I feel SCENARIST shouldn’t be allowed to be a word. Yuk!

    Thanks Brendan and loonapick

  8. Thanks loonapick and Brendan. Re 11ac and VICTOR, the alphabet invoked has absolutely nothing to do with phonetics.. A phonetic alphabet is a written one designed to uniquely identify speech sounds. The alphabet involved here – sometimes called ‘NATO’ – is a spoken one designed to uniquely identify spellings.

  9. JABIRU

    Hail from downunder. My first try to post here. Great puzzle, and I missed many of the popes. One criticism though on 5d. The rising occurred at Golgotha in Judea, which is several hundred kilometers from Rome.

  10. Arthur Maynard @9: welcome to fifteensquared. Looking forward to seeing more of you. In response to your quiblet, I read the reference to Rome as being a place where the resurrection of Christ is remembered rather than suggesting it’s where it happened. Does that work?

  11. I don’t think the theme can fairly be described as mythological, whatever loonapick’s religious views. It is a Catholic theme, with particular reference to popes, all of whom are indisputably real, as are the Holy League, legates, deaconesses, and the Easter holiday.
    AM@9 – I think 5d is suggesting that Rome is a place where they celebrate a rising at Easter, irrespective of where that Rising may have occurred.

  12. Arthur @9 – I took the reference to Rome to simply be to the Catholic Church. Although other denominations celebrate it.

    I twigged a religious theme, albeit not its density. All the more impressive that it was eminently solvable without specialist knowledge. 16A was my pick of the bunch

    Thanks Brendan and loonapick

  14. Congratulations to VALENTINE on the namecheck. (I promise not to refer to her as Sweetie from now on!)

    Congrats also to Tim C @5/6 for spotting all the popes, especially Leo IX and the PONTIFF(F). Like Sagittarius @11 I felt the THEMATIC element today was more Popes & Catholicism than mythology. Given that, I wondered if Brendan was being rather mischievous with the central position given to the IDOL with the (feet of) CLAY.

    Epeolater @8 – well said! Unfortunately however the alphabet in question is commonly called the ‘NATO phonetic alphabet’ – including by Wikipedia. 🙁

    Thanks Brendan & loonapick.

  17. essexboy @14 and Widdersbel @15 – both the allusion to feet of clay and idols crashing down come from the Book of Daniel. I’d have to check if it’s an apocryphal bit or not, because the more entertaining bits of Daniel are not in the standard 66 book Protestant Bible, but are found in the 73 book Roman Catholic Bible.

  18. essexboy @16 – I really did read that clue as a wry comment on the progress of women in various churches (big piece on Radio 4’s Sunday about the way various parts of the CofE are holding women back. I blame the PEVs/Flying Bishops for empire building).

  19. I struggled with MARTIN, and ended up consulting a list of Popes. I know swallows and martins are one family (unlike swifts), but I have never heard of a swallow being referred to as a martin, (the RSPB specifically calls the family ‘Swallows and Martins’). Picky I know. Maybe I should just have concentrated on cocktails 🙂

  21. Sagittarius @11 Maybe to some people Catholicism is a mythology? It is to me at any rate. But that didn’t interfere with my enjoyment of the puzzle.

  22. Maybe unintentional, but I remembered English actress, NATASHSA Pope, was sadly in the news in 2017 with the tragic loss of her daughter in Dorset.

  23. I agree with Sagittarius@11 that the theme was more nearly a Catholic or religious one rather than mythological. However, I was stumped by VICTOR, scratching my head with all the crossers in place and unable to see why my incorrect Sister, which nearly fitted the theme, I thought, should go in at 11ac. Failed with CLAY, TROPES, OBJET and MARTIN, so a very poor Monday effort from me. Brendan had raised the bar a little too far with his as ever excellently clued puzzle. I think I was too much in the Monday mentality today to do this proper justice…

  24. Mike came into the bar with a bloody nose and a tooth missing.
    Shaun said “What happened” and Mike said he had uttered the words fxxx the Pope to Paddy.
    “You eejit, Mike, didnt you know Paddy was a catholic?”
    Mike says”Yeah but I didnt know the Pope was!”

    Thanks again Brendan for brightening my day and putting a bonny face on!
    Great puzzle.

  25. Great puzzle though I needed help with that pesky scriptwriter! I totally agree with PostMark @7. I also agree about the Catholic theme.
    Thanks all

  26. Tough puzzle. I gave up on 9/1ac, 16ac and 1d.

    Liked NATASHA, MARTIN.

    Did not parse 14d.

    Thanks, both.

  27. Very enjoyable Monday puzzle, perhaps a little on the tough side and certainly no write in. Thanks Brendan. I didn’t parse TROPES and now that loonapick has explained it it is my favourite of the day. Also missed Peter as first in the line of popes – I thought that there was some kind of Peter Line in naval speak for some reason. Thanks loonapick. And extra thanks to @14 essexboy for the brilliant feet/ clay spot!

  29. Not the strong suit of a crusty old atheist but, via lit and osmosis, most were known. Not Victor, he was a shrug. Nice to have a bit of a chew on a Mundy, ta both.

  30. MarkB@21. Whatever one thinks about the truth of Catholicism, all the Catholic-related answers in the puzzle are historical figures or actual objects (like a rosary). A centaur (16D) is a mythological figure, which may be why loonapick’s mind went to mythology, but there is no other mythological answer in the puzzle (whether or not a literal Ezekiel existed, somebody must have written the Old Testament book ascribed to him.)

    I like the idea from essexboy@14 et al about idols with feet of clay; personally I think Brendan simply meant that idols are often made of clay, and Catholics have in the past been described as idol worshippers (eg by 17th century Puritans), because a Catholic Church will normally contain statues, particularly of the Virgin Mary or saints, that may be venerated.

  31. Another impressive grid-fill from Brendan.

    Thanks to Tim @5/6 for the list of popes. I realised once INNOCENT was there what was going on. TILT from Shanne @17 is that the Protestant and Catholic bibles are different.

    I liked INNOCENT for the change in Washington, MARTIN for the cocktail, and UNCURED for the priest abroad.

    Thanks Brendan and loonapick.

  32. Bizarrely what this puzzle and the comments above made me think of was the late Ian Paisley and his cries of “No Popery ! “

  33. Requiring a break midway through is becoming a routine for me and this was no exception. The top went in fairly easily over early morning coffee but I had to go for a walk before making progress on the bottom. I can’t say the the lower half clues were any more difficult so it be must be my brain!! A lovely puzzle from Brendan and excellent blog from loonapick. Many thanks.

  34. Thanks to Brendan for an enjoyable start to the week and to loonapick for the provocative blog. Enjoyed all the comments especially post from compus@24 Favourite of the day is CLAY

  35. Sagittarius and Shanne @ several. Thanks for your contributions (from this Protestant). Must listen to the R4 piece on catchup.
    Thanks also to Brendan & Loonapick

  36. Good old Brendan has produced another fine puzzle. FENDED OFF was my favourite.

    Copmus@24: It’s fascinating to meet Shaun, Paddy and Mick again after such a very long time. And they haven’t changed much: still the drunken, ignorant, foul-mouthed, violent, priest-ridden thickos they always were.

  37. Very glad I tuned in on this Monday as I found this a lovely puzzle from Brendan. The subtle interweaving of the Roman Catholic theme really appealed to me, as I remain a cultural Catholic despite my rejection ot the clerical institution these days.
    In the end, half the clues were ticked on my print-out, the sign of a stimulating and satisfying engagement with the setter and the grid.
    Deo gratias for Brendan and many thanks to loonapick for tidying up a couple of “not quite sure how this works” moments for me. Also thanks to contributors for adding to the richness of the theme with your comments.

  38. [P.S. So pleased to see one of my favourite contributors to this site, Valentine, honoured at 24a VALENTINES. I still wish that I had somehow organised to meet you when I visited Boston and Concord Ma back in 2019, Valentine].

  39. [Just saw that my comment@38 was foreshadowed by essexboy@ (also grateful, as others were, for the list of popes by Tim C @5 and 6)]

  40. I would never have got the UNIFORM/VICTOR NATO alphabet device if it hadn’t appeared in the last day or two in a different puzzle.

    Thanks for the namecheck note, essexboy@14.

    Julie@38 You’re also one of my favorite contributors, and I join you in that wish.

    Thanks for the puzzle, Brendan, and for the blog, loonapick.

  41. Thanks loonapick especially for the French priest, and various contributors for extra depth. I thought this was nicely judged as everything was gettable even if I needed online help to learn what eg a Holy League actually was. PostMark@7 agree re 17A which Brendan used in the plural last year and I only didn’t complain at the time because the presence of A*n R*nd in the grid drew my ire – at least it helped me get it a little quicker this time! Thanks Brendan again.

  42. PS Moth@19 i sympathise, MARTIN was one of my last in and did raise an eyebrow at precisely that equivalence BUT, since I can never remember the difference between swallows and house martins when spotting something of that ilk hunting your relatives, I decided not to complain!

  43. Like Moth@19, MARTINI was my LOI. I enjoyed the thematic puzzle, and like others admired CLAY (and TROPES) in particular. Thanks to Brendan and loonapick.

  44. Does ALEXANDER count twice, as both Pope Alexander and Alexander Pope? Nice to see my name clues without reference to a safe. Did anyone else put the X in Princess Lea and wonder where the nder came from?

  45. So good to see a nice puzzle with nice ideas, so well-clued. Really excellent.

  46. Another blank.
    On a particularly bad run at the moment.
    Know next to nothing about religion, but no excuse.
    Looking forward to the parsing and hoping one day to complete a crossword.
    Thanks both.

  47. Perhaps Luna thinks that all religion is mythological. Well really. Well harumph. Well 😀

    Nice to see Brendan, to see Brendan, nice.

  48. Thanks Brendan for an excellent crossword. Like Widdersbel @2 said, “no less elegant than his trickier work.” Favourites included FENDED OFF, IDOL, INNOCENT, JOHN, MARTIN, NATASHA, and the nicely hidden DEACONESS. I had the sane thought about the latter as essexboy @16 regarding the surface being a “wry comment.” Thanks loonapick for the blog.

  49. paulb@47 et al

    All religion is of course mythological. I have no doubt that Christianity, Islam etc play an important part in many people’s lives, but so did Jupiter to the Romans, Zeus to the Greeks, Odin to the Norse, Ra to the Egyptians, etc etc. In a couple of millennia (and probably less if current trends continue), people will consider Christ and Mohammed in the same light as these other venerable myths. Of course, I won’t be around to see if my prediction is true, but it’s what I believe, and atheism has as much (I’d go so far as to say, probably more) validity than any other belief system, predicated as they are on blind faith and personal “experience”. (Enough PONTIFICATING from me, as it really was a fun puzzle).

  50. Sagittarius @30

    Despite my comments in 49 above, I do take your point that all of the people and objects mentioned in the puzzle were real, apart from centaurs and the Devil. I don’t know if Ezekiel was real or not.

  51. I shot myself in the foot by entering PONTIFICATION without thoroughly checking the anagrist. This made me unable to solve the ‘sweeties’ at 24a, for which I should probably be grateful, as it’s a word that really grates when I hear it used. Usually to small children in my experience, but even worse if it’s between adults, surely.

    Apart from that this was a fairly smooth solve, and the theme was well enough signposted that even I had no troublke tripping over it. Never heard of Pope Victor, though.

    Thanks to Brendan and loonapick. (Well done for bravely sticking your head above the atheist barricade!)

  52. hatter @51: I’m sweet enough to pop in to commiserate with you over your PONTIFICATION … and that’s just between us adults 😉

  53. loonapick@50

    Many thanks for the response and the blog. I have no idea if Ezekiel existed as a person, but the Biblical book of that name certainly exists, and the crossword accurately defines it as a prophetic text (implying nothing about the accuracy or value of said prophecies)!

  54. Thanks all.
    As a lapsed Irish Protestant, I won’t get into any of the religious issues, but I do remember a good story about George Brown, the gaffe-prone Labour politician of old, and his visit to the Pope. As they engaged in small talk, he asked the Pope “How’s the missus?”. He was taken aside and given an explanation, to which he responded “What’s all the fuss about? Anyone can make a mistake. Nobody’s infallible”.

  56. Ditto hatter@51 applauding luna@49. Every people on the planet has a creation myth. Me, I love that the universe is unfathomable; its infinite vastness and complexity sort of deserve that.

  57. Nice crossword for a Monday. Probably best for people to respect others beliefs rather than rubbish them. It is just a puzzle, not a debate

  58. ArkLark @57. I don’t think it’s disrespectful to say that religions are based on myths. I remember as a small boy that I realised that the stories in the bible were just that. But I appreciated them anyway, for what they were, and went on to enjoy the myths of other cultures; I especially enjoyed the Norse mythology when I was a pre-teen. It’s not “rubbishing” something to say that it’s based on myth.

  59. I really enjoyed this, a DNF as I could not parse CLAY. This puzzle is just about my level at the moment so a nice Monday introduction to what is usually more challenging puzzle- wise as the week progresses. Spotted the theme which helped.

  60. I had convinced myself that I had finally spotted a pangram, which led me to give up with no place to put a Q or a W in the NW corner!

    Didn’t help that I had left “TO NOW” (unparsed) in for far too long for 2D.
    My other stumbles have been mentioned by others.

  61. Argh, fell down on CLAY, which I really should have got. Perfectly fair clueing, and a delightful puzzle … I raced through the top few, then spotted the theme and having ALEXANDER and EZEKIEL next to each other sent me on a wild goose chase for the Q.

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