Guardian Cryptic 29,241 by Pasquale

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An enjoyable solve, especially 15ac, 5dn, and 8dn. Thanks to Pasquale for the puzzle

 

ACROSS
7 COMPLINE
Firm policy when politician’s put in an hour of prayer! (8)
COMPLINE is a Christian prayer service at the end of the day

CO (company, “Firm”) + LINE=”policy”; with MP (member of parliament, “politician”) put inside
9 EOLITH
Old stone artefact, one displayed in new hotel (6)
I=”one” in anagram/”new” of (hotel)*
10 SKIN
Hide king wearing something wicked (4)
definition as in an animal’s hide/skin

K (king) inside/wearing SIN=”something wicked”
11 RESENTMENT
Not all are ‘sent’ men, terrible bitterness being shown (10)
some (Not all) letters from [a]-RE SENT MEN T-[errible]
12 CHUMPS
Pals keeping quiet may be fools (6)
CHUMS=”Pals” around P (piano, “quiet”)
14 ORGANIST
Musician roasting when playing (8)
anagram/”playing” of (roasting)*
15 PARADE
Dad about to hug a daughter in ceremonial event? (6)
PA=”Dad”, plus RE (concerning, “about”) around/hugging both of: A (from surface) + D (daughter)
17 ATRIAL
A judicial procedure in court (6)
definition: in or relating to an atrium/court

A (from surface) + TRIAL=”judicial procedure”
20 ABDUCTED
Pipe buried in a garden plot must be taken away (8)
DUCT=”Pipe” buried inside A (from surface) + [flower] BED=”garden plot”
22 TREATY
Deal with enemy finally to effect this? (6)
TREAT=negotiate terms=”Deal” + final letter of [enem]-Y
23 CHARACTERS
Letters maybe from people in play? (10)
double definition: letters of an alphabet; and people/roles in a theatre play
24 CHIN
Asian country lacking a prominent feature? (4)
CHIN-[a]=”Asian country”, lacking the letter ‘a’
25 CLOTHE
Silly person, the ambassador in dress (6)
CLOT=”Silly person” + HE (His/Her Excellency, “the ambassador”)
26 SCENTING
Somehow detecting coin in grass (8)
CENT=”coin” in SING=turn informant to the police/authorities=”grass”
DOWN
1 BOOKSHOP
Volume of trade passes through here! (8)
cryptic definition: referring to printed volumes as in books; rather than volume referring to a quantity
2 SPIN
Heartless country’s controlled messaging (4)
SP-a-IN=”country” without its heart/central letter
3 LITRES
Let sir get drunk with lots of wine? (6)
anagram/”drunk” of (Let sir)*
4 HEN NIGHT
Female party has high point with intrusion of two knights (3,5)
HEIGHT=”high point” with two N letters (N for knight in chess notation) intruding inside
5 CLEMENTINE
Mrs Churchill and Mr Attlee in England’s capital (10)
definition: Clementine Churchill [wiki] married Winston Churchill

CLEMENT (Clement Attlee [wiki]) + IN (from surface) + capital letter from E-[ngland]
6 STONES
Gritty bits one’s found at end of street (6)
ONE’S (from surface) after ST (street)
8 EUSTON
Station American in establishment near Slough (6)
definition: a London railway station

US=”American” in ETON [College]=”establishment near Slough”
13 MARGUERITE
Daisy, maiden to maintain religious procedure (10)
definition: a daisy flower

M (maiden, cricket notation) + ARGUE=”maintain” + RITE=”religious procedure”
16 DETACHED
Detective longed to be apart (8)
DET (short for Detective) + ACHED=”longed”
18 LATVIANS
Europeans in surprisingly valiant struggle initially (8)
anagram/”surprisingly” of (valiant)*; plus initial letter of S-[truggle]
19 ADDERS
Snakes less happy, beginning to slide to the bottom (6)
S-ADDER=”less happy”, with the beginning (first letter) sliding to the bottom end of the word

…or, the ‘beginning letter to S-lide’ moved to the bottom
21 BEHOLD
Bishop, he turned up to lead ancient see (6)
B (Bishop, chess notation) + HE (from surface) reverse/”turned up”; in front of/leading OLD=”ancient”
22 TASTER
Sample provided by plant after short time (6)
ASTER=”plant” after T (short for ‘time’)
24 CUTE
Endearing sort of accent, setting leader apart (4)
a-CUTE=”sort of accent” (e.g. an acute accent on the last letter of ‘café’); with its leading letter removed/set apart

68 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29,241 by Pasquale”

  1. Thanks Pasquale and Maheni.

    I found this straightforward, with only two somewhat unknown. I dragged COMPLINE from memory of Cadfael, and guessed EOLITH (the LITH part was obvious)

  2. Thanks Pasquale and manehi
    I had a problem with the first one I solved, as 9a was obviously NEOLITH – ONE* LIT in N H. Unfortunately it didn’t fit, though it does have the advantage of actually being an artefact rather than a product of geology.Why does “end of street” give ST in 6d? I know it’s at one end, but “end of street” is much more obviously T.
    Favourites ATRIAL and BEHOLD.

  4. 25a don’t get how “Ambassador” becomes “he”? cant be his/her adress, as thats ‘Your Excellency’?

  5. Muffin @2 I assumed the “end of” was indicating where to put the ONES
    I found this solid but not in a bad way. No real stand out clues but everything solved from first principles so no biffing required

    Thought their might be floral theme at one point but it never developed

    Cheers M&P

  6. Muffin@2 – Street is just ST and ones found after (at the end of) ST.

    Priscilla@4 HE is an abbreviation for His Excellency, a title used for an ambassador.

  9. A really enjoyable puzzle from Pasquale – rather more smiles than usual.

    I share manehi’s favourites, with the addition of 7ac COMPLINE, 9ac EOLITH, 22ac TREATY, 3dn LITRES, 13dn MARGUERITE, 19dn ADDERS and 21dn BEHOLD.

    Thanks to Pasquale and manehi for warming up a very clold morning.

  13. What Oofy@3 said. It’s unusual for me to finish a Pasquale puzzle within the hour.
    A gentle and enjoyable workout. Thanks, both.

  14. In a down answer, the beginning is at the top and the end at the bottom, so I don’t see a problem there. I have NHO a Marguerite daisy, so that – my LOI – was constructed then checked. COMPLINE was similar. Those apart, I found this pretty straightforward. I agree with muffin @2, though, that artefact is inaccurate. Thanks, Pasquale and manehi.

  16. I think 9a is fine on the basis that “something that was once believed to have been early evidence of human tool-making but is now widely accepted to have been naturally formed” would have made the clue a bit too wordy.

    Fun puzzle, definitely felt closer to one of Pasquale’s Quiptics than his usual offerings in the Cryptic slot but no less enjoyable for that. Thanks, Pasquale and Manehi.

  17. I seemed to be on Pasquale’s wavelength today and found this very enjoyable. Favourites were MARGUERITE (new word to me) and ADDERS (I usually struggle with clues that involving moving letters forward or backwards in a word) but I liked pretty much every clue.
    Thanks Manehi and Pasquale.

  18. The solutions to this one went in quite steadily. A couple of new words – the aforementioned 9a EOLITH (crossers needed) and Mrs Churchill’s first name , 5d CLEMENTINE (fortunately I had heard of Clement Atlee the PM so I worked it out). But I always appreciate learning new things through cryptic crosswords. I loved 13d MARGUERITE, which just happens to be my favourite flower. Thanks to Pasquale and manehi.

  19. Paddymelon@7: I suppose before long it will become Their Excellency, which will play merry hell with traditional wordplay…

  24. It’s always nice to construct a half-remembered word from the wordplay as with COMPLINE today. [In my juvenile mind it was confused with COMPLAN, both things which mainly seemed to be for my parents’ older friends.]

  26. The Don is such an elegant compiler, always a joy to tackle. I think it was he who coined the definition of a crossword as, “a gentle duel between setter and solver, which the latter is destined to win.”

    Many thanks, both.

  27. I solved this quicker than I often solve Pasquale crosswords – and as a result, was amused to see another reference to Mr Attlee in Slormgorm’s FT today. And also wondered about a flower, if not versions of daisies, theme when I had tASTER and MARGUERITE in early.

    I really like COMPLINE as a service, so was cross with myself when I realised I was trying to shoehorn MP into another of the monastic hours to mean firm, not the other way around.

    Thank you to manehi and Pasquale.

  28. CLEMENTINE took a bit of research, and EUSTON was certainly a bit of a challenge for us Antipodeans (although I had heard of the station). Everything else fell into place and was enjoyable, the only new one for me MARGUERITE.

  29. Very accessible puzzle from the Don. Rather a lot of clearly announced single letter additions or subtractions here, which made the solve quicker. I particularly liked TREATY, ATRIAL and COMPLINE (lovely word).

    MARGUERITE (with language appropriate spellings) is the standard word for the ox-eye daisy in French, Italian and Spanish, ultimately from the Greek for ‘pearl’ – which is also the etymology of Margaret, Marjorie etc.

    Chambers gives for EOLITH:

    A very early roughly-broken stone implement, or one naturally formed but assumed to have been used by man

    Which shows that you shouldn’t believe everything you read in dictionaries 🙂

    Thanks to S&B

  30. I agree that this was more straightforward than many of the Don’s previous ones.

    I sort of knew COMPLINE (probably from crosswords) and the stone was clearly a *LITH. I liked the extended definition of TREATY, the wordplay/definition of BEHOLD, and the good cd for BOOKSHOP.

    Thanks Pasquale and manehi.

  32. EOLITH: A flint axe head is an eolith…. not just old stone but also an artefact.

    Blimey, tho’! Did some if us get out of the wrong side of bed this morning?

  33. It seems reasonable that early hominins may have used naturally formed EOLITHs as tools before they discovered how to modify stones to make better ones, but that doesn’t make them artefacts.

  35. As others have said unexpectedly gentle for Pasquale.

    I liked EUSTON, MARGUERITE and BOOKSHOP

    Thanks Pasquale and manehi

  36. Reasonably straightforward and fun while it lasted.

    One query: why does 7a COMPLINE have the exclamation mark at the end of the clue? That had me looking for some kind of trickery that I didn’t find; it was a pretty simple charade/container combo.

    Thanks both “!”

  37. Enjoyable solve held up rather too long expecting 16D to start with DI. Will file Det for future reference.

    Thanks both

  38. Pretty much a write-in today, very rare for me, other than having to look up varieties of daisy. I really should spend more time in the garden.

  39. Stopinbed @32
    Did you look at the link I posted? There is no way that a stone axe head would be regarded as an eolith.

  40. Yes, what a pleasant, enjoyable solve this was. Have recently been doing an AF trial over 3 weeks for the medical researchers, so ATRIAL sprang to mind quickly. Though I do find it slightly strange that some complain about quick solves, sometimes in less than the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee, so they say. T.S. Eliot who famously wrote “I have measured out my life in coffee spoons” might have had something further to add to the conversation. Cotd for me was MARGUERITE. Years ago, searching in a graveyard for a simple metal cross for a nun I had always known as Sister Rita, I finally discovered it and that that of course had been her forename. But did wonder for a moment whether with just the M in place the daisy might be a Michaelmas one…

  41. muffin and Gervase, until 1905 – that’s pretty “old” – eoliths were considered to be stone artifacts. That and Chambers lets Pasquale off the naturally formed hook. 🙂

    Thanks P and m for a very enjoyable Thursday morning.

  42. Cellomaniac @41
    So what you are saying is that eoliths haven’t been regarded as artefacts for nearly 120 years?

  44. I used to find Pasquale fiendishly difficult, but he must be mellowing, to the extent that I found myself thinking this should have been a Monday puzzle, as I had almost half written in on the first go through. The clue for 19d looks like it was an attempt to invoke the game of Snakes and Ladders, but didn’t quite get there.

    Thanks to Pasquale and manehi

  47. An easier puzzle than usual. I got everything last night except EUSTON, and that stared me in the face this morning.

    Thanks to Pasquale and manehi.

  48. Thanks Pasquale for the master class in clue writing. Despite its relative ease (I was defeated only by MARGUERITE) this crossword was a joy for me. My top picks included PARADE, ATRIAL, SCENTING, SPIN, HEN NIGHT, DETACHED, BEHOLD, and CUTE. Thanks manehi for the blog.

  49. I started this when I got on the el at Sheridan, and am a bit sad that it was done as we were pulling into North and Clybourn–only halfway to my destination! Don, your puzzles should at least take me all the way to the Loop. C’mon.

    Just kidding–I enjoyed this, however gentle it was. Last one in was MARGUERITE, which was new to me. I learned along the way that Eton is near Slough (I’d heard of Euston, so got the clue by reverse engineering), and was reminded of Churchill’s wife’s name. (I’d read his memoirs many, many years ago, so it doesn’t count as new to me.)

    We’re pulling into Lake now–my own stop is next, in less than a minute.

  50. muffin @46 – “old” to indicate a historic meaning or use of a word (as in “formerly”) is pretty common in barred thematics, where obscure words abound, but less common in regular cryptics. But it is through this lens that Cellomaniac’s interpretation makes sense and I’m happy to give the Don the benefit of the doubt. Also the juxtaposition of “old” and “new” in the clue might have been too attractive to ignore.

    I’ve just reading finished his “Chambers Crossword Manual” (highly recommended) and presuming he follows his own advice regarding the precision of clues, it’s likely he chose the words very carefully 🙂

  52. Rob T
    I take the point, but I do dislike definitions that are just wrong, viz. (pace Bodycheetah) “epicentre”.

  53. Loved the slightly churchy feel of this one. COMPLINE is a wonderfully rich text… “thine adversary the devil … as a roaring lion … seeking whom he may devour… whom resist, steadfast in the faith.” Then ORGANIST, STONES and BEHOLD. St Mary, Haughton Green, Greater Manchester is full of images of MARGUERITEs in memory of the wife of the man who built it – Edward Sidebotham.

  55. I knew “margarita” was Spanish for daisy so I assumed early on that “daisy” was the definition, but I then decided I must be mistaken because I couldn’t figure out where a “U” was coming from. It all makes sense now.

  56. [Rob T @50: Thanks for the tip about Pasquale’s guide. I just ordered a copy. I’m beginning to put together my own crosswords and it looks like this may be useful.]

  57. [ Tony @ 56 – aha, you’re Gennaro! I’m Henri 🙂 Super debut! The book is excellent. I started setting 18 months ago but I should have bought Don’s book… 18 months ago! I actually only got it because I’m getting into setting barred thematics and his book covers those, but I realised that still had a lot to learn on setting regular cryptics too ]

  61. [Now now, let’s be circumspect. 🙂

    It occurred to me that the HE in Riga (are there crosswords there?) might be called in to elaborate on the slur implicit in 18D LATVIANS.]

    I was entertained so thanks both.

    EOLITH caught the eye: I’ve seen it before and filed it under nho. Now that it reappears is it reasonable to ask if the word is a neologism (or (even) an eologism?). (‘Neolith’ I get: new stone.)

  62. SimonS @31: I also read DEAL and TREAT in 22a as verbs. To deal with someone – aka to treat with them – is to seek agreement – i.e. a TREATY. Too close in meaning.

  65. I’ve seen from the list on this site that Pasquale does set Quiptics and I think this must have been intended as one of them. I’m not complaining: it takes all sorts.
    Thanks to Pasquale and manehi.

  68. [More “excessive pedantry” – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eolith is, or at least was, a neologism, a new word coined for a purpose.
    ‘The first eoliths were collected in Kent by Benjamin Harrison, an English amateur naturalist and archaeologist, in 1885 (though the name “eolith” was not coined until 1892, by J. Allen Browne).’]

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