Guardian 28,834 – Nutmeg

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I made a bit of a slow start on this, but Nutmeg’s impeccable clues meant that it all came out nicely in the end, despite a few obscurities. Thanks to Nutmeg.

 
Across
1 CAPUCHINS Monkeys with dirty child not right wearing hats (9)
URCHIN less R in CAPS
6 RISK Leader avoiding fresh hazard (4)
BRISK (as in a fresh breeze/brisk wind) less its first letter
8 DRUM ROLL Percussionist’s effect is diverting, full of spirit (4,4)
RUM (spirit) in DROLL
9 OXFORD Steer, following ring road to reach city (6)
OX (steer) + F + O + RD
10 DIK-DIK Small ruminant or two going west (3-3)
Reverse of KID (young goat, a ruminant), twice
11 MILITARY Landed on island, in custody of Catholic queen’s army (8)
LIT (landed) + I in MARY (queen who restored catholicism in England after the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI)
12 USED TO Familiar with international being dropped off outside ground (4,2)
Anagram of OUTSIDE less I
15 COARSEST Most vulgar broadcast coverage of the Oscars (8)
Anagram of T[h]E (the “coverage” of THE) OSCARS
16 FAREWELL I’m going to manage in style (8)
FARE (manage) WELL (in style) – though the “cryptic” sense is almost exactly what “farewell” as “goodbye” means
19 LUANDA University in country area yielding capital in Africa (6)
U in LAND + A[rea]
21 CREATION Making response, Charlie moves to the front (8)
REACTION (response) with C moved to the front
22 ASSIGN Post a second notice (6)
A S SIGN
24 NELSON Famous disabled London columnist? (6)
Cryptic definition of Horatio NELSON, who is honoured by Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square, and was “disabled” by being partially blinded and losing his right arm
25 IMPERIAL Army’s initial breaches endanger sovereign (8)
A[rmy] in IMPERIL
26 HENS Stephen Spender’s caged birds (4)
Hidden in stepHEN Spend
27 EXONERATE Clear Devon waters hosting unique rodent (9)
ONE RAT in [river] EXE
Down
1 CORGI Joe in US chasing my dog (5)
COR (my!) + GI (GI Joe, nickname for a US soldier)
2 POMADED Smooth, like well-oiled locks (7)
I think this is just a not-very-cryptic definition, with locks=hair providing some misdirection
3 CLOCK Could it be grandfather, white-headed — I’m blown away! (5)
Not sure about this: does “white clock” refer a dandelion clock, whose seeds are blown away by children?
4 ISLAMIC Religious doctor claims one should get injected (7)
I in CLAIMS*
5 STOOLBALL Dropping the lot after club’s last game (9)
STOOL (dropping) + [clu]B + ALL (the lot)
6 REFUTES Proves false and won’t take son out for tea, we’re told (7)
REFUSES (won’t take) with the first S replaced by T (homophone of “tea”)
7 SURPRISED Startled schoolmaster forced to speak (9)
Homophone of “Sir prised”
13 SEA BREEZE Outsiders to stage child’s play, a blow for Brighton? (3,6)
S[tag]E + A BREEZE (something easy, child’s play)
14 OBEDIENCE Jesse’s father forced niece’s submission (9)
OBED (father of Jesse, who is the father of David in the Old Testament) + NIECE*
17 ELAPSES Passes England’s opener, run out close to stumps (7)
E[ngland] + LAPSE (run out) + [stump]S
18 LENTIGO Patchy skin condition spreading into leg (7)
(INTO LEG)*
20 AUSTRIA Country fair Jack missed in song (7)
[J]UST in ARIA
22 AMPLE Generous porter letting politician in (5)
MP in ALE (beer, porter)
23 GRACE Grand people’s prayer (5)
G + RACE

62 comments on “Guardian 28,834 – Nutmeg”

  1. Hi Andrew. I think 13d should be S[tag]E + A BREEZE, and you’ve missed the second half of 14d. Found the whole thing a bit tough, which is how I usually feel about Nutmeg.

  2. I am wholly aligned with our blogger this morning: the clues all lead clearly to the solutions – even those I didn’t know like LENTIGO, DIK-DIK (maybe once encountered in a puzzle) and STOOLBALL – and there were a couple of raised eyebrows for FAREWELL and POMADED which do seem to have but the lightest of cryptic touches. I also took the reference in CLOCK to be to dandelion heads. This felt like Nutmeg giving us a gentle wind down to the week; is that softening us up for a monster tomorrow?

    Favourites included the aforementioned STOOLBALL, RISK, MILITARY, CREATION, ISLAMIC, SURPRISED, SEA BREEZE and the nicely done AUSTRIA.

    Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew

  4. Came here to see if there was any more to POMADED. For 13D don’t we need StagE – both outsiders to stage?

  5. Having bothered to look it up, DRUM ROLL, MILITARY, HEN, OXFORD, SURPRISE, FAREWELL, CLOCK are all Haydn Symphonies

  6. We’ve had reeboks and now dik-diks this week… feels like only a matter of time before a stray eland or maybe a nyala shows up…

  7. Nothing to complain about here. A reasonably gentle end to the week. There a few new to me such as dik-dik and stool ball but they were gettable. I didn’t know Jesse/Obed but again it was gettable. Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew.

  8. Theme “in plain sight”?
    DRUM ROLL, OXFORD, MILITARY, FAREWELL, CREATION, IMPERIAL, HEN, CLOCK, SURPRISE. Also SCHOOLMASTER and QUEEN in clues.

  10. Thank you Andrew, especially for the dandelion CLOCK.
    Agree with your comment about POMADED in its entirety. Also thought that LAPSE and ELAPSES was a little bit close,

    My favourite was STOOLBALL which I was able to get from the clever wordplay. Lovely surface. A TILT for me, and its origins and alternative name ‘bittle-battle’.
    Also liked the notion of a religious doctor urging people to be injected in ISLAMIC, the surface in SEA BREEZE and USED TO, the simple, prosaic HENS hidden in Stephen Spender, and ASSIGN for its economy and misdirection.

    Not sure of the positioning of the homophone indicator ‘to speak’ in SURPRISED, but suppose it’s okay as a phrase.
    Didn’t know Jesse or his father.

    Thanks to Nutmeg, always a pleasure.

  11. Lovely puzzle! Yes a couple of newies on me too, namely 5d STOOLBALL and 18d LENTIGO as already mentioned in dispatches above. Sadly I didn’t put the theme words together – well spotted, Shanne@5 and 9 and Badaos@8!
    Many thanks to Nutmeg – I had ticks for 8a DRUM ROLL, 21a CREATION, 1d CORGI,
    7d SURPRISED, 13d SEA BREEZE, 14d OBEDIENCE and 20a AUSTRIA, so in agreement with some other solvers above. There was lots to like here, with or without spotting the theme.
    Thanks a million to Nutmeg and Andrew.

  13. Felt a bit like four mini-crosswords. Ticks for MILITARY, SURPRISED & STOOLBALL but POMADED and NELSON were a bit “that’ll do”

    Didn’t know OBED but found a rather fine bicycle company of that name in Tennessee while googling it

    Cheers all

  15. Somehow I managed to miss the theme, yet again, but a real belter from Nutmeg. I failed to parse ‘clock’, but my only niggle is that I wasn’t too impressed with the clue for ‘pomaded’.

  16. Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew. I’d argue there are a few clues here that are somewhat less than impeccable but it was an enjoyable solve, nicely challenging in places. Particularly liked MILITARY, SEA BREEZE, LENTIGO

  17. Some lovely clues with really nice surfaces, EXONERATE my favourite. CLOCK was also very nice, the dandelion clock calling to mind Shakespeare’s “Golden lads and girls all must / As chimney-sweepers, come to dust”.

    “My” for COR is becoming a regular – we had one with Pasquale the day before yesterday. And although in our day-to-day lives we probably don’t often refer to hair as “locks”, as soon as we see “locks” in a clue that’s what we think of, which is maybe why Andrew and some others found POMADED not very cryptic.

    Many thanks Nutmeg and Andrew.

  18. I must admit being a bit underwhelmed with POMADED and CLOCK. No stand out favourites although nice to see Obed whose mother was Ruth who has a whole book in the OT about her. Maybe I’m grumpy after a not very satisfactory DA.

  19. With one or two exceptions, I found this reasonably straightfoward. Somehow I was on Nutmeg’s wavelength. That said, and despite being a big fan of Haydn and familiar with all his symphonies and other major works (e.g. The Creation), I miserably failed to get the theme. (His Oxford was on radio 3 a couple of days back when it was said that the symphony was actually written in Paris and had nothing much to do with his trip to the city of dreaming spires). I must get into the habit of pausing around a quarter of the way through and review the answers so far. PS COARSEST at 15 A could only have been that, though I just couldn’t parse it as I didn’t pick up on the fact it was an anagram. I must also remember that broadcast can indicate an anagram or a sound. You live and learn. Thanks to both.

  20. A little trickier than the rest of the week for me, with a few NHOs (LENTIGO, STOOLBALL, LUANDA) but all ultimately gettable via a combination of wordplay, google and a bit of bunging-and-checking. POMADE I remember from a recent puzzle so was a lucky guess FOI, though like others I wondered if I’d missed the cryptic part. As ever I didn’t parse everything even when I got the right answer. This is why this blog exists! 🙂

    Thanks, and have a great weekend everyone.

  21. I meant to add that Nutmeg never fails to include the odd clue related to religion. I’m familiar with the Jesse tree, and that Jesse was the father of David. Obed was therefore David’s grandfather. Though I have a fairly extensive knowlegde of the Bible (for a non believer), I do think this is a little obscure! That said, it wasn’t too difficult to guess.

  22. Following Nuntius@21 re Jesse/Obed, I looked up Nutmeg on Meet the Setter, and found she sets/set puzzles for the Church Times. I’ll be awake to that in the future.

  23. Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew
    I too didn’t think much of the clue for POMADED, and ELAPSED was also a bit weak. I hadn’t heard of STOOLBALL either. Otherwise nice.
    NELSON had another disability. When Denis Compton used to commentate on Test Match Special, whenever the score reached 111, his fellow commentator would ask
    “Why is it called Nelson, Denis”
    “Because Nelson had one eye, one arm and….”
    “Thanks you Denis!”

  24. CORGI is a bit of an old chestnut especially as we are seeing COR for ‘My’ a lot recently and I thought POMADED was weak. Apart from that I really enjoyed this despite not spotting the theme which adds to my appreciation of what was (mostly) a very fine puzzle. Couldn’t pass CLOCK. Many thanks Andrew and Nutmeg.

  25. As Andrew says, always impeccable cluing (and wonderful surfaces) from Nutmeg, who is one of my favourite setters. By the way, is Arachne OK? I think I heard she was ill some time ago. Missed the theme of course, but loved the puzzle. Couldn’t understand CLOCK – thanks for the parsing Andrew.

  26. Lord Jim@17. Does anyone still say ”my” and ”cor” in your neck of the world? Agree they’ve become crossword staples, a bit like ”pi” and “U”. As a colonial, I’m a bit behind (or ahead) of the times.

  27. Very pleasant solve this morning, the last three in the interlocking AUSTRIA, ASSIGN and GRACE. When I rather cheated by looking up who Jesse’s father was, up came Ohed at first, which was confusing. Another source then gave Obed, which of course fitted the bill. Would probably not have got DIK-DIK without the K from CLOCK. Really liked FAREWELL. And another Cor! popping up this week with the Royal dog…

  28. paddymelon @26: no, sadly I don’t hear “my!” and “cor!” very often these days. Or indeed “bah!” which we had the other day (in fact I’m not sure that anyone ever really said that other than as a joke). But as you suggest with “pi” and “U”, in crosswordland we still live in a world of IT girls and Model T Fords, and long may that continue as far as I’m concerned 🙂

  29. Nutmeg must have thought that “It sounds like an Englishman in Australia helped to produce well-oiled locks” was too hackneyed. I always like to induce a bit of GK from a solution, in this case Jesse’s father.

  30. Nutmeg’s puzzles always provide twice the pleasure of solving. Seamless, apparently innocuous, and (seemingly) effortless surfaces that belie a clear formula for reconstruction. I visualise her(?) quiet satisfaction when the clue has been honed and sanded. The religious snippet always welcome too.
    Themes need to be blatant for me to spot them.
    Must look up stoolball (what would Paul make of that one?).

    Thanks to N and Andrew

  32. Tough puzzle. Solved SW corner last.

    I did not parse 12ac, 2d, 3d, 6d, 13d apart from SE.

    New: STOOLBALL, OBED = (biblical) father of Jesse.

    Liked MILITARY, OXFORD, EXONERATE.

    Thanks, both.

  33. Ah yes, dandelion CLOCK. I’d forgotten all about those. Thanks Andrew.

    I could have done without the ONE RAT in EXONERATE. We seem to be having a plague of them here because of the drought. Where’s the Pied Piper when you need him?

    Never heard of STOOLBALL. Seems cricket might have been derived from it. I’m watching The Hundred at the moment.

    And OBED. What a little treasure trove the Bible is for finding difficult letter groupings for setters. 😀

    Enjoyed the puzzle. Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew.

  34. Had a very quicki wiki re Obed, then wondered whether his mum Ruth was the same one who said “Whither thou goest etc ..” (it being a popular name and the OT having a cast of thousands) and, judging by Tim C’s and nuntius’s posts @18,21, it seems that she was.

  35. Had the Toy Symphony on vinyl, but as a special concession for kiddies, as Haydn was thought a bit lightweight chez the young ginf, so, even had the theme clicked, the Surprise would’ve been the only other one to resonate … hey ho.

  36. I had an odd moment when the town mentioned in 13d was my birthplace and the name mentioned in 14d is what I gave to one of my daughters!

    Otherwise I wasn’t quite on Nutmeg’s wavelength today. Was I the only one to write in CREATING at 21a? This seems to fit the clue (‘making response’=REACTING, though of course making is doing double duty), but not the “ghost theme”, and the final letter is included in the anagrist for 18d. LEGNITO? So, a dnf for me. As I have mentioned before, I find anagrams for unknown words very frustrating, as it is often not possible to put the solution in with confidence, without looking up the alternatives in the dictionary.

  37. Enjoyed that more than my usual experience with nutmeg, although the theme passed me by, I’m ashamed to say, and I learned three new things – OBED, LENTIGO and STOOLBALL. Favourite probably EXONERATE.

  38. LordJim, Paddymelon
    Being SE London born I hear ‘cor’ a lot among family and friends.

    ‘Cor blimey’ is the same as ‘my goodness’ just used by different people. You’ll find ‘cor blimey’ in Eastenders TV Soap, Barbra Windsor, and the 2000 film Cor Blimey, in UK redtop newspapers as an expression of surprise. ‘My goodness’is also an expression of surprise used by more refined speakers, Stephen Fry, and the Tories.
    So COR is now MY, a shortened expression of surprise?
    Before any one asks ‘Cor blimey’ is a minced oath and not cockney rhyming slang, it originates from God blind me

  39. Thanks for the blog, Sheffield hatter @36 , LENTIGO was in a Tramp puzzle last spring, surely you remember ?
    I thought white-headed made CLOCK a bit better, the yellow dandelion head turns white when the seeds are ready to disperse.
    Dare we hope for a big, bad wolf tomorrow ?

  40. STOOLBALL was played by POWs in Colditz castle in WW2 , probably very different to the traditional version.

  41. Anybody else have CRASSEST at 15a? No wonder I couldn’t parse it. I also had the equally unparsable ASSYRIA at 20d, wondering why there was no “old” before “country.” And some kind of mess where STOOLBALL ought to be. Phooey.

    Lord Jim@28 The phrase “the IT girl” makes me imagine Clara Bow having a career in computer science!

    sh@36 I put in CREATI n/o g/n, allowing for both until 18d joined the gang, a bit iffy since as you say it was an anagram of an unknown word, but somehow “LENTIGO” struggled up through the murk, Lord knows where I ever encountered it.

    Pleasant puzzle I finished last night, thanks Nutmeg. And thanks Andrew for the blog.

  44. hatter @36, a dnk for me too, but it was remembering impetigo from the ’50s, the “school sores” that some kids got, that got lentigo sorted.

  45. A nice entertainment as always from Nutmeg, and a great blog from Andrew. Thanks for sorting out 3down. I couldn’t see past W for “white headed”, which didn’t connect with CLOCK at all. Loads to like, with EXONERATE probably the favourite.

    I missed the Haydn connection (good spot Badaos @3); I’m no expert on classical music but do enjoy H’s Symphonies – just the right number of notes in all the right places.

    I had to guess at OBED being Jesse’s father though it was very clear from the definition and solution. But as a devout atheist I make it my business not to know obscure biblical stuff, and every time another example crops up (usually “book” meaning “OT”, “Acts” or similar), I am reminded of all that unwanted learning from school days.

    I realise that in order to solve our puzzles we need a wide variety of general knowledge in diverse areas – from cricket fielders to printing measures. But I do wonder if the emphasis on the bible (as opposed to texts of other religions) risks making crosswords slightly unwelcome to people of other faiths, or of none.

  46. Forgot to mention another favourite: SEA BREEZE, for the clever construction and the reference to Brighton, my home town, where I am currently sitting indoors out of the heat, with the breeze supplied by an electric fan (while I can still pay the bill).

  48. Nuntius@19 and Valentine@41: Since I didn’t spot the anagram for COARSEST either, I managed to make it CRASSEST which fits all the crossers and the def too.

    Missed the theme, didn’t know LENTIGO though I worked it out from the similarity to impetigo. Could do with a SEA BREEZE right now: it’s 35°
    around here.

  49. Grantinfreo @35: I think there’s some doubt now whether Joseph Haydn wrote the Toy Symphony. The money is now on Leopold Mozart (father of Wolfgang Amadeus), or possibly Joesph’s brother Michael. I say “now”, but I’m sure I had a recording with Leopold Mozart stated as the composer way back in the 70s. (1970s that is!).

  50. grantinfreo @44 – yes, if I hadn’t already “solved” CREATING (sic) my thoughts might have gone along the same lines, but I wasn’t flexible enough to look again at what was in hindsight obviously a wrong answer!

  51. Thanks to Nutmeg for a stimulating puzzle, and for introducing me to LENTIGO, DANDELION CLOCK and STOOLBALL.
    Thanks also to Andrew for his blog. [Stay cool and safe everyone]

  53. … hmmm yes, Nuntius @49, and I see from wiki that a monk called Edmung Angerer is also a contender …

  55. After a week off by the seaside, I struggled to get into this and missed the theme completely.

    Mostly good clueing although I share the doubts re 2d and 3d.

    My favourite was OXFORD.

    Now for a cold drink!

    Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew

  56. Even though I was just catching up with Round Britain Quiz and one of the answers referred to one of Haydn’s named symphonies, I still missed the theme. Thank God for 225 or I would have missed a whole dimension to this brilliant crossword.

  57. Yes! Sheffield Hatter @36 and Valentine @41: I had precisely the same frustration. Unaware of the word LENTIGO and have settled on CREATING, an impasse ensued.

    Plus, Valentine @41, talking of seven-letter countries with an ARIA around the outside, you may have visited Assyria…while I tried Armenia and Algeria…before arriving in AUSTRIA.

    Plus, I agree with Paddy Melon @10 and Muffin @23: “lapse” and ELAPSE are barely separate words.

  59. Thanks Nutmeg for a well-crafted crossword. I failed with CLOCK, STOOLBALL, and NELSON but I enjoyed most else with too many favourites to mention. Thanks Andrew for the blog.

  60. I scratched my head at STOOLBALL (not looked it up yet). POMADED and CLOCK: I thought I was missing half the reasoning but apparently not I see.
    Thanks Nutmeg and Andrew

  61. Several new words again. I was glad to see that the words I had trouble parsing mostly bothered Andrew as well.

    Not knowing about Nelson’s disabilities, and deciding that a wrestling hold wouldn’t qualify as disabling, I went on an internet search and found:
    a) This place, but since it’s in a small city in Michigan it seemed beyond unlikely.
    b) This ship, which was designed for disabled people to sail a tall ship and thought I had it!

  62. Late to this blog, so no surprise that all my remarks have already been made by others. My favourites were USED TO (smooth surface) and MILITARY (took a long time to equate ‘lit’ with ‘landed’). Thanks Andrew and Nutmeg.

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