I’m always pleased to see a Tramp puzzle, especially when it’s my turn to blog.
A somewhat racy offering from Tramp this morning, with a number of references to amorous goings-on, accompanied by bubbly of one kind or another but nothing really, I think, to frighten the horses. Some really nice clues, with smooth surfaces, as usual from this setter and a brilliant anagram at 16/8 – my top favourite. I also liked 12ac DOOM, 8ac CONIFER, 17ac NO-NONSENSE, 20ac TENSILE STRENGTH, 6dn CASANOVA and 21dn NATAL.
Many thanks to Tramp for an amusing and enjoyable puzzle.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Pain initially going, massage heavenly figure (6)
CHERUB
[a]CHE (pain) minus its initial letter + RUB (massage)
5 Couple in Costa repeatedly like hot drinks (6)
COCOAS
CO CO (couple in CO[sta], repeatedly) + AS (like)
8 One with needles or fine tip for cotton reels (7)
CONIFER
An anagram (reels) of OR FINE + C[otton]
9 Caught a cheat having a fling? (7)
CASTING
C (caught) + A STING (a cheat)
11 Point of view that’s raised in comment put online (11,4)
OBSERVATION POST
Double definition – Edit: please see comments 10 and 11 for a better parsing
12 Make love then get married – terrible fate (4)
DOOM
DO (make) + O (love) + M (married)
13 Noted movie complex for capital (10)
MONTEVIDEO
An anagram (complex) of NOTED MOVIE
17 Frank with musician’s backing playing twice with feeling (2-8)
NO-NONSENSE
[musicia]N + ON ON (playing, twice) + SENSE (feeling)
18 Despondent: tending to vote Democrat (4)
BLUE
Double definition: blue is the colour of the US Democratic Party
20 Doctor then signs letter that deals with stress (7,8)
TENSILE STRENGTH
A fine anagram (doctor) of THEN SIGNS LETTER – great surface
23 Withdraw soldiers to front territory (7)
RETRACT
RE (Royal Engineers – soldiers) + TRACT (territory)
24 One preparing table, perhaps after opening of Bollinger: it’s bubbly (7)
BLISTER
LISTER (one preparing table, perhaps) after B[ollinger]
25 Musician in film on piano (6)
PLAYER
P (piano) + LAYER (film)
26 Most in pain, group swallowing tablets (6)
SOREST
SORT (group) round ES (tablets)
Down
2 Workers not working easily (5,4)
HANDS DOWN
HANDS (workers) + DOWN (not working)
3 Change what’s taught in school before class (6)
REFORM
RE (Religious Education – what’s taught in school) + FORM (class)
4 Pub to sing over Christmas karaoke’s final song (9)
BARCAROLE
BAR (pub) + CAROL (to sing over Christmas) + [karaok]E – this is perhaps the most familiar one
5 A part for erotic acting? Naturally they have fleshy bits in hot scene (5)
CACTI
Hidden in erotiC ACTIng
6 Lover with sex appeal turned on cracking open the bubbly? (8)
CASANOVA
SA (sex appeal) + a reversal (turned) of ON in CAVA (bubbly)
7 In the morning I pass friend (5)
AMIGO
AM (in the morning) + I GO (I pass)
10 Become a couple for party (3-8)
GET-TOGETHER
Double definition, the first minus the hyphen
14 Bowled in cricket match over one day: they might hold solution (4,5)
TEST TUBES
TEST (cricket match) + B (bowled) in TUES (one day)
15 See date go large, initially getting order for seconds (9)
DELEGATES
An anagram (getting order) of SEE DATE + the initial letters of Go Large
16, 8 Do I monitor racy act in shot? (8,11)
INTIMACY COORDINATOR
An excellent anagram of DO I MONITOR RACY ACT IN – &lit
19 Former partner that is into sister that’s hotter (6)
SEXIER
EX (former partner) + I E (that is) in SR (sister)
21 Alan confused about time of delivery (5)
NATAL
An anagram (confused) of ALAN round T (time)
22 Go on stage and record (5)
ENTER
Double definition
Always pleased to see Tramp and this was very enjoyable as ever. INTIMACY COORDINATOR is simply wonderful and my clue of the year so far. I also liked CONIFER, OBSERVATION POST, MONTEVIDEO, TENSILE STRENGTH, BLISTER, BARCAROLE, CASANOVA and NATAL for the namecheck. Bubbly stuff.
Ta Tramp & Eileen.
I think ‘that’s raised’ may be part of the definition in OBSERVATION POST.
Thanks Eileen, but 8a is an anagram of OR FINE + C for tip of Cotton…
As it is in the blog, Alan @2. 😉
Thanks, bdg @3 – that’s what I had originally!
Same favourites as Alan C and Eileen. Eileen there’s a slight error I think in CONIFER, it should be an anagram of or fine plus C – tip for cotton.
Thanks both.
Sorry Eileen, crossed with you and bdg
Blog amended now – careless error on the point of posting.
Eileen @4: I was thinking that an OBSERVATION POST is raised to give a better view and therefore Point of view that’s raised, should be underlined together. I’m confusing myself now 😉
Working my way through Guardian Cryptic Puzzle Book #3
so this website is invaluable. Great to be able to type in the clue and find the solutions and the explanations in the “blog”.
Anyway love the website so thanks to all setters and contributors
Worth it for 16/8 alone. A genius clue.
Overall quite easy for a Tramp but wonderful nevertheless.
Thanks all!
11ac. “Point of view that’s raised” is the def. Comment (observation) put online (post) is the fodder.
Thanks Tramp & Eileen.
AlanC@7
OBSERVATION POST
Agree with you that the def should include ‘that’s raised’.
I took the second part as the wordplay.
Comment=OBSERVATION
put online=POST
Edit: Adrian has beaten me to it.
Very much a belated Valentine’s Day puzzle (Tramp’s own ‘John Helliwell 80th birthday present’ Supertramp composition taking that slot this year). Hot stuff, thank you T&E!
Blog amended accordingly – thanks, all.
Lovely. I second the praise for 16/8 and also enjoyed the quintessentially Tramp definitions for BLISTER and CACTI among others
Cheers E&T
Superb stuff, adding my applause to the extraordinary 16,8. Thanks Tramp and Eileen.
Excellent offering from Tramp, as usual, with a lot of mildly ribald humour – it’s a pity that his puzzles appear so infrequently. Definitely a crossword for those of us who value good surfaces – that’s what elevates simple constructions like CASTING, DOOM, RETRACT and NATAL.
A lot of good clues here, with INTIMACY COORDINATOR the clear favourite, but AlanC @1 has saved me the trouble of listing the other gems.
Many thanks to Neil and Eileen (lucky again!)
Agree with all faves so far. 16/8 was my FOI – and then I had to pause and wonder at the brilliant mind that conceived the clue. Completed but failed to parse some so thanks Eileen for the blog and Tramp for a very enjoyable solve.
The two excellent long anagrams at 20across and 16,8 down greatly helped with cracking this puzzle open. Thereafter quite a straightforward Tramp offering, I thought. The last two in were REFORM and CONIFER. Many thanks this morning, Tramp and Eileen…
I have to concur: 16,8d clue of the year!
Thanks T&E.
Didn’t twig intimacy coordinator was a thing even after solving it ….dim! But yes I guess it’s a sensitive and important job, especially these days. Nice puzzle, thanks Tramp and Eileen.
A lot of good stuff today, INTIMACY COORDINATOR, NO-NONSENSE, CASANOVA faves. TEST-TUBES great construction but surface a little strange.
BLISTER was tricky – you had to think of a list as a one-dimensional table, and not get fixated on the common (and wrong) sense of bubbly (thank you, CAVA). It reminded me of puzzles of old where I was truly Trampled on!
Wonderful. As AlanC says @1, 16/8 is superb.
Having all the crossers, it had to be TENSILE, but then doubted there could be an 8-letter word with only one E. Is strengths the longest word with a single vowel, I wonder?
William@22 rhythmless?
Cheating, Andy, pressing Y into vowel service!
Andy in Durham @23: That’s cheating – the y is a vowel, even though it isn’t in the canonical list because it can also be a consonant (though strictly a ‘glide’).
William @24: You beat me to it 🙂
More approachable than Tramp can be – I was right on the wavelength this morning and found everything coming readily to mind. I am sure I shall get my comeuppance tomorrow to even things out. NHO an INTIMACY CO-ORDINATOR and 19 letters is a lot to juggle so I awaited crossers and, by the time I went back to it, I had all of them and the answer slotted into place. CONIFER, TENSILE STRENGTH, BACAROLE and CASANOVA my other faves today.
Thanks Tramp and Eileen
16/8 brightened my morning. A stroke of genius, thank you Tramp.
I’m always grateful if spared the need to refer to a dictionary to check the definition of a word no one other than a setter would ever use. This was playful and very well clued. A most enjoyable rollick.
Thank you Tramp and Eileen.
Andy @23: if your cheating were to be allowed, then why not rhythmlessly?
Tramp’s definitions generally show a lot of thought has gone into that part of the clueing rather than just the wordplay. The long anagram is of course a beaut but the rest of the puzzle is top-notch as well
Lovely puzzle to unravel from beginning to end. Thanks a million to Tramp. So many ticks and mine coincided with many favourites that others have already highlighted. I also thought 1a CHERUB was neat. Excellent blog too from Eileen.
Excellent puzzle. I had all the favourites that have been listed with 16,8 taking top prize.
Thanks Tramp and Eileen
Thanks for the hints, Eileen.
I tried ‘resort’ for 3D at first, it ‘sort’ of works. I liked the reels anagrind in CONIFER, the bubbly BLISTER, the Christmas karaoke for BARACOLE – surely Eileen, this is the most famous one!, the CASANOVA lover with sex appeal, and of course the exceptional anagram for INTIMACY COORDINATOR.
Thanks Tramp and Eileen.
Robi @34
🙂
Aside from OBSERVATION POST the long anagrams were the later entries for me. Even so, I found this relatively smooth sailing. Thanks Tramp, thanks Eileen!
I surprised myself today as I only used “phone a friend” twice, otherwise completed the puzzled in good time.
Eileen thanks for the parsing as I needed it for 1a, 26a, and 14d.
I am finding the anagram indicators interesting Doctor has been around a while, but reel and shot (to pieces) came out of left field.
Only managed 16,8 when I got 8d with the crosses. I had he crosses in 16d, so it was not hard to find the word.
Tramp has always been a mystery to me, so I was a bit reluctant to try this puzzle. Very pleasant surprise so thanks to Tramp, and Eileen.
Just been to see Anora which must have required lots of 16/8s. Brilliant clue.
Many thanks Tramp and Eileen.
[Actually, Lord Jim @38, apparently Mikey Madison declined the use of an 16/8 in making the film. This has sparked some controversy. I have not yet seen it, but it can be rented for a very modest sum on a streaming service to which I subscribe, so I shall probably get round to it.]
I found that tough in places but a load of fun. Really good puzzle.
INTIMACY COORDINATOR was not a phrase I was expecting to see in my crosswords today. A great clue.
Slowed down a bit by having an erroneous RECAST but that was eventually reformed to REFORM. An apt clue to do that on.
One of my favourite puzzles of the year. Nearly all could be clue of the day.
One of the best puzzles of the year so far. Great surfaces, lots of humour and a good mix of clue types.
Thanks Eileen and Tramp
16d,8d wins COTD 2d. — [It’s also bang-up-to-date and unhyphenated to boot.]
I have to add my huge appreciation for16/8. Genius. It would be my clue of the decade, never mind of the year, if it wasn’t for one of Paul’s a couple of years ago which involved the “gist behind poker” leading to “proctologist”.
Many thanks to Tramp & Eileen.
2017 – https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27337#14-across “Entering sport, degenerate retaining cards originally — general idea behind poker? (12)”
CACTI: I laughed out loud. What a fantastically non-racy answer to a racy clue. Sooooo funny. I also admired the brilliant long anagram, but CACTI is my favourite clue for at least a month.
Thanks Eileen, as always, for the blog and kind words. Thank you to others for the nice comments.
For 16/8, I read the phrase, I think in the Guardian, and thought there must be a decent anagram in there. It quickly fell out. One of only a handful (or so) of times in which I got a special glow knowing I’d written a good clue; if you throw enough balls, one day you’ll knock a coconut off and win a teddy.
Neil
Neil, I think you landed the Great Bear with that one. Thx for the fun.
Thanks for dropping in, Tramp – always welcome. Keep throwing those balls!
Thanks Tramp for a wonderful crossword. Tramp remains on my ‘must do’ list and this puzzle reinforces my choice. In addition to the rightly praised 16/8, I ticked DOOM, MONTEVIDEO, BLUE, BLISTER, PLAYER, and GET TOGETHER but there wasn’t a single clue that I didn’t like. Thanks Eileen for the blog and filling in my parsing gaps.
Like an idiot, I identified the anagram fodder for CONIFER and proceeded to make FIRCONE out of it. Oh well.
Perhaps on the easier end of Tramp’s scale: no big problems today. Doesn’t appear to have a theme but plenty of fairly risqué stuff, as in the clue for 5d, along with CASANOVA, BLUE, GET-TOGETHER, SEXIER, and INTIMACY COORDINATOR (yes I’d heard of the latter expression, thanks to the Grauniad explaining their duties in some detail. Plenty of ‘flesh’ indeed exposed in today’s movies, as I know from being a Netflix subscriber. Oops! I’ll say no more …. 🙂 ).
Yep I can’t fault 16,8: has to be one of the best &lits/long anagrams I’ve seen for ages. And I say that as one who in my (lapsed) setter’s hat, used to have a penchant for long anagrams… But much else to like too.
I’ve always been perplexed as to the USA Democrats being ‘blue’ while the republicans are ‘red’ – the opposite of what we have on this side of the Pond. I just can’t visualise the Labour party – however much it may have changed its spots – coming up with “The people’s flag is deepest blue…”
Thanks to Tramp and Eileen.
Unanimous (so far) praise for a crossword – not a single dissenting voice. Tramp certainly nailed this one, complete with a clue-of-the-year at 16,8, as everyone agrees. Well done, Neil, and lucky Eileen for getting to blog this gem.
Gervase@16 laments the infrequency of Tramp’s appearances. While I second that thought, I wonder if one reason is that he takes the extra time to create well-constructed and beautifully surfaced clues. His puzzles are certainly worth the wait.
[ Laccaria@50, in Canada our Liberals are red and our Tories are blue as well. I wonder if the Americans reversed this as a deliberate reaction to their colonial upbringing. ]
@50_Laccaria
Couldn’t resist the challenge…
The people’s flag is deepest blue
We’re sure that’s no surprise to you
We used to want a worker’s state
But now that effort is too great
With power has come a different hue
Not for the many but the few
The non-doms still will get their way
The power of money’s here to stay
If you require equality
Try barking up a different tree!
Great crossword, anyway, and saved spending time reading the news. Thanks Tramp and Eileen
Unusually mild for Tramp, but none the less enjoyable. I’m glad that the Grauniad appears to have sorted out the format problem so that I can once again scroll down the clues on my iPad separately from the grid: I had stopped attempting the puzzles because the changed format was too infuriating.
Oh, dear…have I read too much into the mini-theme? I thought of a porn film production: casting, blue, video, sex, and of course, Intimacy coordinator.
Really nice to see Mickey Jupp posting @8. But is it the actual Mickey Jupp of Southend and Eskdale, or just a fan? Or someone else entirely with the same name?
Laccaria@50 and Cellomaniac@52: When color TV came in, the news reports on the different broadcast stations used various color schemes to represent the different parties in election coverage. Then came the hotly-contested 2000 election, where the outcome wasn’t decided for weeks, and the reporting gradually standardized around maps showing the Republican-vote states in red and the Democrat-vote states in blue. There was so much coverage and discussion of how many votes were held by “the red states” vs “the blue states” that it became fixed in the American public mind, and now you couldn’t dislodge it with dynamite. (Details can be found in Wikipedia by searching “Red States and Blue States” – I don’t know how to do links.)
And thanks to Eileen and Tramp (one of my favorite setters). I, too, was a great fan of the clue for 16, 8.
Thank you for dropping in and sharing the special glow and the bear, Neil. ✴️ 🧸
Have to add my voice to the ovation for 16/8. A truly brilliant construction.
A couple I didn’t 100% lock down the parsing for, but overall a top, top crossword. (I think the football commentary in the background has infected my speech.)
[Pachy…@53: 🙂 ]
Completed after some shameless cheating
I’ll join the chorus in praise of the clue for INTIMACY COORDINATOR. What a discovery on Tramp’s part.
16/8 was, as noted universally, a thing of transcendent beauty. Tramp has surely entered the Araucarian pantheon with this one!
Stymied by 3d RESORT (instead of REFORM), which blocked 8a. Once I checked and corrected 3d, CONIFER came right away
Yes, INTIMACY COORDINATOR is a perfect clue that deserves all the praise it’s received. Even Tramp @45 knew he’d landed a gem. Many other great clues today. Kudos to Tramp!