Guardian 25,824 – Chifonie

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Very straightforward for a Thursday, without much misdirection in the definitions.

Across
1 ON TIME =”punctual” ONE=”Somebody” around TIM=”boy”
4 PEA GREEN =”colour” PEN=”Writer” around AGREE=”match”
9 ON EDGE =”Nervous” ON=”working” + EDGE=”creep” [as a verb]
10 STERNEST =”most austere” S[outh] TER[race] + NEST=”refuge”
11 AS MAD AS A HATTER =”crazy” (A star ashamed at)*
13 DINING ROOM =”mess” DIN=”Uproar” + IN=”popular” + GROOM=”union member”
14 CALL =”name” C[harlie] + ALL=”full”
16 COPE =”vestment” [a priestly robe] OP=”work” in CE=”church”
18 INSANITARY =”not conducive to health” INSANITY=”madness” around A R[ex]=”king”
21 DRESS REHEARSAL “final run-through” DRESS=”Don” + REAL=”actual” around HEARS=”tries” [in court]
23 NARRATED =”told the tale” rev(RAN)=”Hurried back” + RATED=”scored”
24 LENDER =”uncle”=pawnbroker [s]LENDER=”Poor beheaded”
25 ENTREATY =”Request” EAT=”dine” inside ENTRY=”lobby”
26 FIANCE =”Intended” FI[n]ANCE=”capital” with n[ame] removed
Down
1 OBOE =”Player” O=”ought”=zero inside OBE=”decoration”
2 TREASON =”act of betrayal” (Senator)*
3 MIGRAINE =”attack” MIG=”aircraft” + RAIN=”drop” + E[xplosives]
5 EXTRAPOLATE =”project from experience” PO=”Jerry”=chamberpot following EXTRA=”minor role”, + LATE=”after hours”
6 GERMAN =”European” GERM=”Shoot” + A N[orth]
7 ELECTRA =”vengeful daughter” from Greek myth ELECT=”Pick” + R[oyal] A[cademician]=”artist”
8 NATURALLY =”Of course” (aunt)* + RALLY=”motor race”
12 ARRANGEMENT =”understanding” (Aren’t German)*
13 DECADENCE =”Corruption” DE=”of [in] French” + CADENCE=”intonation”
15 DISRAELI =”old PM” DI=”girl” around ISRAEL=”country”
17 PIERROT =”Entertainer” PIER=”support” + ROT=”collapse”
19 ABANDON =”Leave” A BAND ON=”a group playing”
20 ESTATE =”car” (tea set)*
22 BRIE =”cheese” hidden in GaBRIElla

28 comments on “Guardian 25,824 – Chifonie”

  1. Thanks to Chiifonie and Manehi. I can hardly wait for RCW’s thoughts on the number of write-ins! 22? On a Thursday?

  2. Thanks manehi and Chifonie
    Mostly write-ins, though CALL gave me some more thought.
    New (to me)clueing of OBOE – I’ll watch out for “ought” for O in future.
    I thought (s)LENDER was a bit feeble.

  4. Fairly straightforward, thanks manehi and Chifonie.

    I didn’t know ought=nought or Jerry=po; I thought it must have been ‘can.’

  5. Thanks manehi and Chifonie

    With Xmas and its various preparations beginning to loom (though not unpleasantly), Chifonie’s easy – in more than one sense – style this morning was just the thing.

    Lots of quick write-ins but some characteristically neat cluing, though I can see Muffin’s point re (s)lender, nice as the uncle reference was.

    I particularly liked 13a, 26a, and 5d, and 13d was quite pleasing too.

  6. Thanks Chiifonie and Manehi. I could see that this was going to be very easy so set myself a target of 5 minutes to finish it. I failed because 1dn eluded me. Did anybody else finish it ALL in 2less than 5 mins.?

  9. Apparently ‘ought’ as ‘nought’ derives from a mistaken division of ‘a nought’ as ‘an ought’ cf. the more complex example of ‘eft’ and ‘newt’ and also, possibly via French, ‘orange’ and ‘naranj’. I came across the ‘ought’ case as a youngster in Manchester. I suppose ‘nought’ is ‘not aught’ or ‘n-owt’.

    🙂 After all that I must confess I missed all this when writing in the answer and assumed ‘o’ was simply an abbreviation for ‘ought’ as a verb!

  10. Thanks all
    I shall disappoint Dunscotus and concentrate on the one clue which took me longer than all the rest together.In fact I never did write it in because the only solution which occurred to me seemed so unlikely.
    In 24ac I am happy that uncle = lender but how is slender = poor?

  11. Thanks to manehi for the blog. I had DRESS REHEARSAL but failed to parse it.

    RCW@10 “He has a slender chance of winning” could be said as “he has a poor chance of winning”. But I agree that this clue was weak.

  14. Indeed, many write-ins. Lingered over the same three as Muffin @2; OBOE, as it’s something played rather than a player; LENDER, for the same reasons as everybody else; and CALL, because it was the best clue in the set.

    But after the exertions of the last two days – three or four clues left incomplete both times – a bit of relief is in order, surely?

  15. Rowland @13
    I think you have put your finger on the usage of “slender” that Chifonie was thinking of. There is a Muriel Spark novel called “The girls of slender means”.

  16. Nothing to add to the above, but I’ve just heard a, for me, highly unlikely American homophone: “..it was all futile (pronounced “feudal”!

  17. anyone still there? sorry to be thick but how does ‘germ’ mean ‘shoot’? I think I am going to be embarrassed as nobody else asked…..

  19. Trailman @14

    It is standard practice to refer to a player in an orchestra by the name of their instrument – first violin etc.

  20. Thanks, Chifonie and manehi.

    This was just the ticket after a day’s shopping and secret present-wrapping!

    I thought of RCW, too!

    Giovanna x

  21. Thanks for trying but I don’t think anybody has convinced me that slender = poor.
    In all the usages above slender has its usual meaning ie slim, thin.
    We have slim chance, slim pickings. Poor is a much wider adjective which can be just ‘not very much’ of anything of which I suppose width might be one but it is extremely vague.
    (I know I like vague, but there must be limits!)
    I do agree with those who highly rated ‘call’.

  22. OK thank you, Muffin, I see, though I don’t really think that a germ is a shoot, or a shoot a germ in any way, maybe a it is a bud
    …..anyway I get the idea, thanks.

  24. RCW @21:
    The ODE gives for ‘slender’ as its second definition: ‘barely sufficient in amount or basis’ plus as an example ‘people of slender means’.
    I think that comes close enough.
    Somewhere else I saw ‘slender wages’.

  25. Well!!! Two cracking crosswords, one even nominated for crossword of the year followed by this.

    Must be the easiest crossword of the year. Not expected on a Thursday.

    Thanks to Manehi.

    P.S. Accidentally posted this om Bonxie’s blog!! Whooops

  28. Re “ought” @ 2, 4 and 9, Dickens’s Mr. Micawber famously says: “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.”

    I thought this was a very easy puzzle, except for LENDER – because I couldn’t think what the beheaded word could be – and CALL (just no idea). Enjoyed it, though.

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