Guardian 29,830 – Anto

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A fairly typical Anto, with some nice clues, but also some where I raise an eyebrow because of inaccuracies and strange cryptic grammar. Thanks to Anto for the puzzle.

 
Across
1 PLUMBS Measures showing vitamin in fruit (6)
B (one of a number of vitamins) in PLUMS
4 ABUNDANT A pastry poet hasn’t finished – that’s more than enough (8)
A BUN + DANT[e]
9 COLONY Half of London at home in reserved community (6)
LON[don] in COY
10 DIRT POOR Scandal broke but with practically nothing behind it (4,4)
DIRT (scandal) + POOR (broke) – the definition seems a bit vague (what is “it?”)
11 FAIRY GODMOTHER Force breezy mafiosa to become a benefactor (5,9)
F[or]ce + AIRY + GODMOTHER (counterpart of a Godfather, a mafioso)
13 UPHOLSTERY Surprisingly lush poetry that contains a lot of padding (10)
(LUSH POETRY)*
14 DRAG Sentry abandons uniform and retreats – it’s a nuisance (4)
Reverse of GUARD less U
16 HYPE Excessively praise ingredient in mushy peas (4)
Hidden in musHY PEas
18 WET BLANKET Flat part of silly wager will spoil the fun (3,7)
LANK (flat?) in WET (silly) BET
21 THERMAL IMAGING It displays heat from lighter magma in flux (7,7)
(LIGHTER MAGMA IN)*
23 HEADROOM Clearance given for Crown allowance (8)
HEAD (crown) + ROOM (allowance)
24 PARDON What’s a common alternative to standard academic request for repeat (6)
PAR (standard) + DON (an academic). Anto seems to be suggesting that “what?” is a common (i.e. lower-class) alternative to “pardon?”, though according to the standards of U and Non-U the reverse is the case
25 DETRAINS Prepares to follow detective’s case, so gets off at Waterloo? (8)
D[etectiv]E + TRAINS (prepares)
26 HERMES Messenger getting stuck into another messenger (6)
Hidden in anotHER MESsenger, Hermes being the messenger of the gods in Greek mythology
Down
1 PECK Small volume that has some bite (4)
Double definition, though the peck is actually quite a large volume, about 9 litres, or a quarter of a bushel
2 UNLEASH Free houseplant, wilted and missing plastic pot (7)
Anagram of HOUSEPLANT less anagram (plastic) of POT
3 BANKROLL Finance Spooner’s class stadium in the US (8)
Spoonerism of “rank bowl”
5 BUILDERS’ BUM Crack appearing because construction worker is bent (8,3)
Cryptic definition of a synonym of “plumber’s crack” or, slightly more daintily, buttock cleavage. More synonyms here
6 NOTION Idea that’s impossible for one to get into (6)
I in NOT ON
7 ANOTHER Alternative way to ask about buying more drink? (7)
Double definition. Saying “another?” is a way of asking someone if they want another drink
8 TURN RIGHT Go off authority and become less liberal (4,5)
TURN (go off, as in rotten food) + RIGHT (authority)
12 GET WELL SOON You will be sick hearing this (3,4,4)
If someone tells you to get well soon it means you must currently be ill
13 UNHITCHED Single or just divorced? It could be both! (9)
Double definition, relying on two slightly different meanings of the prefix “un-”. A plain “not” for the first, and “a removal of process” (Chambers) for the second
15 LANGUAGE English for example long for Scottish union over time (8)
LANG (Scots “long”, as in “Auld Lang Syne”) + U[nion] + AGE
17 PRECAST Woven carpets already fashioned (7)
CARPETS*
19 KINGDOM Country that includes a huge variety of creatures (7)
Double definition – the second as in Linnaean biological taxonomy, e.g. the Kingdom Animalia
20 OMERTA In central Rome, clergy retain vow of silence (6)
Middle letters of rOMe clERgy reTAin
22 ENDS These men had ideas finally to deliver objectives (4)
Last letters of thesE meN haD ideaS

72 comments on “Guardian 29,830 – Anto”

  1. Thanks Andrew. I agree with your quibbles. I had PLUMBS and PECKS straight away but wasn’t quite certain on either and the volume of the peck certainly didn’t help. DIRT POOR was LOI.

    I still enjoyed it though. Another fairly easy one this week. I liked FAIRY GODMOTHER, BUILDERS BUM and GET WELL SOON.

    Thanks Anto.

  3. BUILDER’S BUM was very funny, with the surface suggesting a crack appearing in the building because the builder is a bit dodgy, and the other reading of course suggesting what we might see when he is literally bent over. Brilliant.

    Many thanks Anto and Andrew.

  4. Andrew, I’m surprised to see that Wikipedia claims that “What?” Is the posh version of “Pardon?”. I’m with Auto on this one. I didn’t think much of the clue for ANOTHER. Wet/silly is a bit of a stretch, methinks. Is “showing” necessary in the clue for PLUMBS?

  5. A solid puzzle from Anto, I thought. Faves were UNLEASHED (I love the kind of surface that tells a story) and WET BLANKET (note lank/flat hair).

    I didn’t see the need for such verbosity in PARDON so thanks to our blogger for spotting that there are two definitions. In hindsight I think it’s a fine clue (and I take common to simply mean frequent, although the class register may have been intended).

    BANKROLL was a weak spot, for me. Spooner’s class US stadium doesn’t match up with Anto’s rank bowl; they don’t mean the same thing when taken as complete phrases. To my taste, a cryptic spoonerism is a mangling of the original phrase uttered in other words but without changing its meaning; I don’t think you can split the phrase up and synonymise the pieces independently. Something like “Finance corrupt stadium” would have worked better.

    Also, I agree with our blogger about DIRT POOR and indeed even having got it I came back several times to try to make it work properly. You/he/she/they can have nothing behind you, financially – but “it”? The cat’s mother, perhaps.

    Thanks both for the fun

  6. I feel I have not properly solved DIRT POOR for the reason you point out, Andrew. I hope someone can shed some light. I struggled to sort out the WET BLANKET but finally got there after spotting “lank” for flat (only after thinking “I need to wash my hair today”). I particularly enjoyed the sport and wit today after yesterday’s walk over. Thanks all round.

  7. I see the quibbles but I enjoyed this. Entertaining surfaces. I laughed at the over praised ingredient in mushy peas.

  8. Agree with Andrew that the clue for DIRT POOR is a bit vague. I had the answer for a long time before entering it as I didn’t think it fitted the wordplay and wondered if there was a scandal I hadn’t heard of involving a fake ‘lift door’. Oh well. Otherwise mostly straightforward and I also agree with Andrew that the definition for PECK is a bit misleading, though I suppose it could be small in relation to the volume of a warehouse. Thanks to Anto and Andrew.

  9. Enjoyable puzzle, tricky in parts but not too difficult.

    Like Andrew, I also wondered about 10ac, 24ac.

    Favourites: FAIRY GODMOTHER, COLONY.

    New for me: BUILDERS BUM; WET = silly (18ac).

  10. A likeable and amusing puzzle which I enjoyed solving. 4a ABUNDANT and 26a HERMES were good. Thanks to Anto and Andrew.

  11. Stared at this for quite a while before I began to make inroads. Helped initially by the inviting anagram of UPHOLSTERY. Along the way I wasn’t that convinced by the precision of UNHITCHED or TURN RIGHT. BUILDERS BUM naturally made me smile as I’ve seen plenty of those unexpected treats from time to time. This was actually a DNF as couldn’t ultimately fathom DIRT POOR. With all the crossers in place, my Lift Door had nothing to do with what the clue suggested. Many thanks to the two A’s this morning…

  12. Fairly standard fare from Anto here, some good clues and some vague underbaked ones. DIRT POOR, ANOTHER and BANKROLL weren’t up to the mark for me. I’m afraid I almost always find Anto’s puzzles unsatisfying.

  13. Thanks both. I had turn(er)over for 4a which slowed me down. I am sure the discussion that a bun is technically a pastry has been had before, but think a turnover is more pastry like and generally they are nicer than buns.

  14. I didn’t get DIRT POOR or WET BLANKET (tried long and hard to think of something with “bracket”, either teeth or an emoji 🙁 ). But I generally liked the rest of it, especially FAIRY GODMOTHER and the wordplay in ANOTHER and GET WELL SOON (what’s going on with all the congratulations/congrats/get well soons in the recent crosswords?!) Thanks Anto&Andrew

  16. I agree with all the quibbles mentioned by others, and have a small one to add – I think of animals as creatures, but not members of the other KINGDOMs (plants, fungi, etc.) I suppose if you believe in the Creation myth, all life was created and thus qualifies as “creatures”.
    This seemed like the third Mondayish puzzle in a row.
    I thought thought UPHOLSTERY and DETRAINS, and a few others, were good straightforward clues.
    Thanks Andrew and Anto.

  17. This was easier than it first looked and I enjoyed it immensely. I’ve always championed Anto and this was up there with his best. BANKROLL is fine, so I don’t understand the quibbles, but I agree with Andrew that ‘it’ seems strange in DIRT POOR. BUILDERS BUM was a cracking clue and I liked THERMAL IMAGING plus the pairing of FAIRY GODMOTHER and OMERTA.

    I wish I had a penny for every time my mum said, ‘don’t say what, say pardon’.

    Ta Anto & Andrew.

  18. Hornbeam@15, hmm. For me, rank and class aren’t exact synonyms when used as verbs. I have less objection when used as nouns and hence adjectives though – an internal inconsistency which, upon thinking about it, doesn’t make much sense even to me 😅. Accordingly I withdraw my quibble!

  19. Did anyone else enter ‘Unmarried’ instead of UNHITCHED at first?

    Favourite clue: GET WELL SOON.

    Thanks to Andrew and Anto.

  21. I had always assumed that a peck was a small amount, though I was only aware of it from the Peter Piper rhyme, which in my mind makes it sound small.

  22. Yes, Median @19, I did! Loved and laughed at BUILDER’S BUM and generally found this a pleasing and not-too-taxing workout. Thanks, Anto and Andrew.

  25. Quite a few quibbles, as others have mentioned. 11a should at the very least have had a ? added to the clue., UNMARRIED was my first thought for 13d and works just as well, why is “buying” part of 7d? Couldn’t for the life of me parse WET BLANKET and think it’s pretty poor. I think recent Anto puzzles have been rather better than this.

  26. I’m a touch surprised by some of the negativity here. Though I too had a little unease in the ways already mentioned (though I’ll admit the size of a PECK didn’t even register as a quibble!), I actually found this an enjoyable solve. It took me quite a while to get going so I wouldn’t liken it’s level of difficulty to any of the recent anachronistic Monday-like crosswords….
    Many thanks, Anto and Andrew

  27. A minor quibble here, for UNLEASH. Plastic suggests that a rearrangement of the letters of pot are removed from houseplant before it gets anagrammed, but they are not consecutive there, in any order. It’s more of a breaking apart or scattering before removal, isn’t it? I’m not convinced that the wilted saves the day.

  28. I’m on the side of the quibblers here. I think BOWL for “stadium” is just plain wrong; surely a Bowl is a _match_ not the stadium it’s held in. DIRT is not a scandal, it’s the evidence you dig up to suggest that there might be a scandal. Surely the point of OMERTA is that it _doesn’t_ involve any explicit vow, it’s just a shared understanding that You Don’t Do That. TURN RIGHT could just as well have been VEER RIGHT or BEND RIGHT or BEAR RIGHT or something. WET means weak and ineffectual, not silly. The clue for PARDON involves two definitions that are basically the _same_ definition. The clue for UNHITCHED, likewise. I don’t mind DIRT POOR as much as some people apparently do but it’s certainly not great. Sorry, Anto, but this is just not very good work.

  29. I was another UNMARRIED, though “unmarry” isn’t a verb and “unhitch” is. “Unmarry” sort of works as a joke verb — “she unmarried him in a hurry.”

    Thanks, Anto and Andrew.

  30. 10 ac having already used ‘poor’ for broke in the clue, it is indeed poor practice to repeat it with less force in the answer. And yes, what is ‘it’?

  33. Shame to see Anto bashing back in fashion. Still, the pettier the quibble the better the crossword

    I don’t have time to address them all but g@28 here’s Hampshire Cricket Club’s stadium the Utilita Bowl and there are many others

    poc@25 why does 11ac need a ?

    Cheers A&A

  35. An amusing puzzle with some good challenges and great surfaces. Laughs for 5d BUILDER’S BUM (a cracking clue indeed AlanC@17!) and 12d GET WELL SOON, and ticks for 1a PLUMBS (vitamin in fruit), 23a HEADROOM (crown allowance), 17d PRECAST (great surface, and anagram misdirection — is it woven “carpets” or “already” fashioned?), 20d OMERTA (had this early but couldn’t parse until later)

    Andrew, thanks for explaining 24a. I started out with GARDEN (“What’s a common alternative”) and couldn’t figure out the rest. When I changed it to PARDON I couldn’t figure out the first part!

    We seem to have had a lot of DETRAINing lately!

    With Alia yesterday, I wonder if they’re now publishing the setters in alphabetical order! 🙂

  37. SimpleS@13 In Belfast, a bun is a pastry. I suspect it’s the same in Dublin, where I believe Anto comes from. Would you like a wee bun? = Would you like a pastry?

  39. The discussion of Rank Bowl stirred something in my memory, which, after some research turned out to be Top Rank ten-pin bowling. So Rank Boll is almost a thing in its own right.

  40. > surely a Bowl is a _match_ not the stadium

    It all started with a stadium called Yale Bowl Stadium. It claims to be the first bowl shaped stadium in the US. Some years later a match called the Tournament of the Roses was hosted at a new stadium in Pasadena. That stadium’s name soon changed to Rose Bowl (as did the match). Another new football match took the lead of the Rose Bowl, calling itself the Cotton Bowl. The stadium hosting the match changed its name from Fair Park stadium to the Cotton Bowl. A few other stadiums followed the pattern, such as Stadium Bowl, Sun Bowl, Crampton Bowl and The Glass Bowl.

    Various matches also followed the lead of the Rose Bowl match and adopted Bowl in their names. Some share their name with the Stadium, such as the Sun Bowl. Others not, such as the Pop Tarts Bowl.

  41. I understand a lot of the quibbles above (I think some could or should be fixed by the editor) but I do enjoy Anto. Like Paul he is trying to do something a bit different and occasionally non-ximenean. I think the downside of that is you do get the occasional clue which doesn’t really work or doesn’t work for a lot of people.

    No quibbles with ANOTHER I say it at the pub the rare times I’m getting a round in.

    Like BUILDERS BUM

    Thanks blogger and setter.

  43. Bodycheetah@33: It needs a ? because ‘godmother’ has never to my knowledge been used to signify ‘mafiosa’ (which in itself looks like a stretch, though that’s beside the point). I believe that the term Godfather to mean a mafia don or capo was dreamt up by Mario Puzo for his novel of the same name, and no corresponding feminine version exists as far as I know.

    Anne@42: It’s a (very) minor quibble but offering a refill need not involve buying. I’m on the side of Occam in cryptic clueing: entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity.

  44. poc @43 – the OED has citations going back 50 years for the use of godmother to mean “… a woman who runs a criminal organization; esp. a female head of a Mafia family …”.

  45. Geoff Down Under @4
    “Pardon” – like “toilet” – is one of the non-U words abhorred by the British Royal Family.
    Lesser mortals like me were told by our parents never to answer “What?” as this was considered rude.
    Other gross non-U blunders: lounge, couch, perfume.
    It’s a fascinating and (to me).very amusing subject.

  46. poc@43 I see your point and certainly loads of Anto’s clues (today) are verbose but is “Would you like another?”, “Will you have another?” not “pub script” rather than “guest in home script”?

    Maybe I’m wrong? I think I’m wrong 😉 At home I would ask a guest, “Would you like another cup/glass?”, which I guess boils down to the same “script” 😉

  47. Anne @34, I think the issue is that ‘broke’ in the wordplay has the exact same meaning as in the answer. The ‘it’ could be defended by saying that a town or something is ‘dirt poor’, but i do agree that broke = without money in both the wordplay and the answer is weak. Enjoyed the puzzle overall, despite some quibbles. Thanks Anto and Andrew

  48. TomShunt@47 But surely in the wordplay, broke is verb while in the solution poor (as in broke) is adjective. And broke-verb and broke-adj. mean different things.

    Sorry, is there something I’m not getting? It wouldn’t be the first time.

  51. Anne@48 You’re right, they do have different meanings. I dont really know why I found it irritating (probably just because it was my LOI). I think I was just looking for a different meaning e.g. bad = poor and without money = poor but bad doesn’t = without money. Realising that broke just meant broke was annoying. Wrong side of the bed probably.

  52. I parsed 24 as “What’s a common alternative to standard” = PAR + “academic” = DON, yielding PARDON defined by “request for repeat”. Thanks A & A.

  53. Anne @48: I entirely agree. In the surface, “broke” is the past tense of “break” meaning (of news) suddenly to become generally known (Chambers). I have no idea what Croc and TomShunt mean.

    And well said bodycheetah @33 and Van Winkle @44. There are an awful lot of quibbles today that are either baseless or very petty.

  54. Petty quibbles? On the Internet!? Surely not.

    Liked bits of it. Didn’t like DIRT POOR. I commonly (or not!?) use PARDON. Thanks to Anto and Andrew.

  55. Very enjoyable, just DIRT POOR did for me, NHO and the wordplay seemed pretty obscure.
    I dont understand what PLASTIC is doing in 2d? Surely just “MISSING POT” means take the letters P,O and T from the anagram fodder.
    Thanks both.

  61. I don’t know how you describe the clue for DIRT POOR. It relates to the scandal (dirt) in the surface. I get it. Maybe a bit quirky but that’s okay.

  62. I read HEADROOM as potentially a double def and/or the whole clue, with the misdirection of the capitalised Crown.

  63. I enjoyed this and agree that most of the quibbles have little substance. I confidently put in THE LAST RITE at 12, but I guess it’s really last RITES plural, so my bad. Liked HERMES and OMERTÀ the best.
    HIYD@55, setters used to be hauled over the coals for leaving out the second anagrind in cases like this, so I suppose they can never win.
    Thanks, As

  64. HIYD @ 55

    It’s “plastic” because the letters P O & T are not consecutive in HOUSEPLANT, so it’s telling you to change the sequencing.

  67. Thanks both.

    In that Netflix series about the UK royal family (‘The Royals’?) the Princess Anne character explains that ‘We never ask for pardon’ or some such. I suppose you don’t have to be polite if you don’t leave a ‘scent’ in the ‘loo’.

    I’ve nho DIRT POOR. If someone told me they were ‘dirt poor’ I would assume that they were trying to tell me that they were clean and, by implication, that I was not. Piss poor. That’s what I grew up with.

  68. My understanding was that “U” abhorred French derivatives (hence Lewis Carroll’s looking glass, rather than mirror).

  69. Funnily for someone who rarely completes crosswords beyond Tuesday I finished this one.

    Dirt poor seemed fine it can be used for objects or even ideas that have nothing much behind them/it

    Re pardon… I was reminded of the quote from the late Jilly Cooper in her book on Class: “mummy says pardon is a much worse word than f*** […] .the upper classes just say “what”

  70. bodycheetah@33 The clue specifically calls for a US usage, but given the existence of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Bowl_(stadium) and Raver’s comment @40 I stand corrected and retract that criticism. I still think lots of other things in this crossword are unsatisfactory or just plain wrong. But (in response to your reference to “Anto-bashing” I’m not passing judgement on the _setter_, who for all I know may generally set excellent crosswords, but on _this particular crossword_ which I think was 10a.

    (But … if in fact “Anto-bashing” is a thing, it’s worth asking what it might be about Anto’s crosswords that provokes a lot of bashing. I suppose it _could_ just be prejudice against the setter, but FWIW I have no recollection of previous crosswords from Anto and was feeling “ugh, I really don’t like this crossword” before I so much as looked at the setter’s name.)

  71. Surely “Sorry, could you please say that again” would be better than either than “pardon” or “what”?
    I was a DNF, as I also had GARDEN (as in common or….). Another mixed bag from Anto, though I did like UNLEASH and NOTION.

  72. “What” is only ‘posh’ if said in a ‘posh’ voice, surely?

    I thought that this was pretty good all round, with plenty of fun as others have said.

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