Guardian Cryptic 26088 Otterden

by

 This is the Guardian Cryptic debut, I think, for Otterden, setter in the New Statesman, with a surname meaning an otter’s den.  Welcome, and thanks for an enjoyable puzzle, and, not having tried your other crosswords, a style to look forward to.  (And hopefully by then they’ll be able to fill in the blank that now goes for your pseudonym on the first page of the online Guardian crosswords.  Edit.note:  I now see the gap has been filled in since I posted the blog.)  Definitions are underlined in the clues. [[The pictures at the bottom have unidentified links to the puzzle. Please enclose any comments on them in double brackets. Thank you.]]

Across

1 Penniless in London and Cairo away in the distant past (7)

BORACIC : Anagram of(away) CAIRO contained in(in) B.C.(abbrev. for “before Christ”;the distant past).

Answer: Cockney rhyming slang for penniless;skint, from “boracic lint”, a kind of poultice.

5 Remarkable section of pie diagram reconciled (7)

TALLIED : TALL(remarkable;impressively difficult, as in a “tall order”) + IED{hidden in(section of) “pie diagram”}.

Answer: As with bank account reconciliations.

9 Clown reported to drink at bedtime (5)

COCOA : Homophone of(reported) “Coco”(the clown persona famously created by Nikolai Poliakoff).

Defn: As a noun.

10 Liam Brady played like this (9)

ADMIRABLY : Anagram of(played) LIAM BRADY. For non-football fans, he was an Irish international.

11 Bombard factory crusher (6,4)

PEPPER MILL : PEPPER(to bombard;to shower with small missiles) + MILL(a factory;buildings containing manufacturing machinery).

12 Recall being in the chorus (4)

ECHO : Hidden in(being in) “the chorus “.

14 Respiratory problem a normal one — all going back to drink (12)

SARSAPARILLA : SARS(abbrev. for “severe acute respiratory syndrome”, a deadly viral pneumonia) + A + PAR(equal to the norm, as in “par for the course”) + I(Roman numeral for “one”) + reversal of(going back) ALL.

Answer: A non-alcoholic drink made from the roots of the plant of the same name.

18 Half-mile restriction on one who makes rain said to be for tree (7,5)

LEBANON CEDAR : The last 2 letters of(Half) “mile ” + BAN(a restriction;a sanction) + ON + homophone of(said to be) “seeder”(one who seeds clouds to make rain).

21 Good bearing from new mine (4)

MIEN : Anagram of(new) MINE.

Answer: The bearing;air of a person, showing the character, mood, etc. of a person. I’m not sure that “good” is necessary in the definition.

22 Return to London hospital is indicative of bad relative to a squint (10)

STRABISMAL : Reversal of(Return to) ST. BARTS(short for St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, the oldest in London) + IS + MAL-(the prefix that’s indicative of “bad” in compound words, as in “malpractice”).

Answer: Adjective from “strabismus”; squint.

25 Opposed to to previous duck course (9)

ANTIPASTO : ANTI(opposed to) + PAST(previous) + O(the letter representing 0;a duck in cricket scores).

26 One is in nave, wide-eyed (5)

NAIVE : I(Roman numeral for “one”) contained in(is in)NAVE.

Defn: Innocent and credulous, as represented by one with eyes wide open. Is this a double-bluff of a clue?

27 Composer gripped by overdose worked too hard (7)

OVERDID : VERDI(Giuseppe, Italian Romantic composer) contained in(gripped by) OD(abbrev. for “overdose”).

28 Provide reassurance about rumoured vacation (7)

RELIEVE : RE(abbrev. for “with reference to”;about) + homophone of(rumoured) “leave”(vacation).

Down

1 Indicates two mushrooms for lifting (6)

BICEPS : BI-(prefix indicating “two” in compound words, as in “bisexual”) + CEPS(another name for the porcino mushroom).

Answer: Muscles having 2 heads or origins, especially those at the front of the upper arms, used for lifting things.

Too much of a good thing?

2 Epic TV series up to formula (6)

RECIPE : Reversal of(up, in a down clue) [EPIC + ER(American medical drama TV series, named after the abbrev. for “emergency room”) ].

3 “I hate to clean”, reveals housekeeper (10)

CHATELAINE : Anagram of(reveals) [I HATE plus(to) CLEAN].

Answer: The mistress of a castle or a fashionable household, who may be considered a sort of housekeeper, I guess. Also, if they ever divorce, she keeps the house.

4 Entrance passage going onto church (5)

CHARM : ARM(a branch;a passage by or through which something might flow, eg. an inlet or cove;an arm of the sea) placed below(going onto, in a down clue) CH(abbrev. for “church”).

Defn: As a verb. Nice misdirection.

5 Emit pleas about type of photography (4-5)

TIME-LAPSE : Anagram of(about) EMIT PLEAS.

http://world.time.com/timelapse/

6 It can be played in early retirement (4)

LYRE : Hidden in(in) “early retirement “.

7 I am shortly to be taking part in a council election — what an idiot! (8)

IMBECILE : I’M(contraction of;shortly “I am”) plus(to) BE + CILE{ hidden in(taking part in) “a council election “}.

8 Not like night now routinely (3-2-3)

DAY-TO-DAY : DAY(antonym of;Not like “night”) + TODAY(the present time;now, in relation to a longer time period).

13 Girl losing her head about allowance a nonsense (10)

IRRATIONAL : “Girl ” minus its 1st letter(losing her head) containing(about) [ RATION(an allowance, say, of food) + A ].

Defn: As an adjective, as in “nonsense talk”.

15 Stains die out, when clinically cleaned (9)

SANITISED : Anagram of(out) STAINS DIE.

16 Plant having soft joint problem (8)

PLUMBAGO : P(abbrev. for “piano”, the musical direction to play softly) + LUMBAGO(a medical problem involving the muscles or joints in the lower back).

17 Be seen at dance — not here! (8)

ABSENTEE : Anagram of(dance) BE SEEN AT.

Defn: One who is not present here.

19 Arbitrator of impure fashion (6)

UMPIRE : Anagram of(fashion) IMPURE.

20 Swindle has outside chance to run (6)

FLEECE : The 2 outermost letters of(outside) “chance ” placed below(to, in a down clue) FLEE(to run from).

23 Loved one to roam free around the university (5)

AMOUR : Anagram of(free) ROAM containing(around) U(abbrev. for “university”).

24 Rushed to spend without limitless money (4)

SPED : “spend ” minus(without) the innermost letter of(limitless) “money “.

 ===========================================================

     

 

40 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 26088 Otterden”

  2. Great to see Otterden in the G. His many fans over at the New Statesman are well aware of his ability to set puzzles of any degree of difficulty, from the sub-quiptic to the Mephistopholean and beyond.

    This is a nice gentle introduction, and I hope we will see a lot more of him

  3. Very enjoyable – and I fully agree with your preamble scchua.

    [[Pushed for time (best excuse I could come up with) so I’ll pinch the easy ones.

    #4 represents the golden ratio – which is 1/2(1 + sqrt(5)) and so it’s an IRRATIONAL number

    plus

    #1 is a CHATELAINE

    ]]

  4. Thanks scchua. Big welcome to the new setter. Just wish there had been fewer giveaways like 26a. Some challenge though, in eg 1a which hasn’t travelled around the world. Did like 18a.

  5. Thanks scchua and Otterden

    I found this quite difficult at first read through, but the obvious anagrams got me started.

    I don’t like what he has done in TALLIED and IMBECILE – given a bit of word play, then tagged on a bit of “hidden”; a bit lazy, I think. The “to” inside the anagram fodder for CHATELAINE is unfortunate as well. CEDAR sounds like “seeder” = “rain maker” was stretching the chain of logic quite far!

    The NW corner was the last to fall, with BORACIC being my favourite.

  6. Thanks, scchua, and welcome, Otterden. An pleasant puzzle with which my only quibble is that a few clues could easily have been a bit less obvious (e.g., NAIVE) and extended my enjoyable solving time.

    [[JS, I’m glad you got “the easy ones” as I wouldn’t have. If 6 is Kurosawa, I see that he directed a 1951 film called “The Idiot,” linking to 7d IMBECILE. (If it isn’t Kurosawa I’m out of ideas.) 3 looks like a rain dance, linking to “one who makes rain” in 18a. And I can’t make out 5, no matter how STRABISMAL I am from trying.]]

  7. [[As the best I could make of 5 was that it was some sort of membrane spread over some plants, I’ve made myself more strabismal by reading up on gardening and discovered that such a thing is called a FLEECE. Fancy that.]]

  10. Nice puzzle, and I enjoyed being reminded of Liam Brady, one of the greatest midfielders of the days before the Plutocracy.

  11. Thanks, scchua.

    My sentiments are precisely as muffin’s @5: this looked tricky at first sight, but all those anagrams cracked the grid open quite easily and it was all over disappointingly soon. Apart from the NW corner, which took a little longer. And my favourite was also BORACIC.

    Araucaria is the only other setter to get away with the ‘part of’ device as in 5a and 7d – not very elegant.

    BTW, BICEPS is the singular form of the word as well as the plural form commonly used; the Latin plural is ‘bicipites’.

  12. [[JollySwagman, Ian SW3, George Clements (sorry), they are CHATELAINE; golden ratio/IRRATIONAL number; FLEECE; Kurosawa/The Idiot/IMBECILE, but it’s not “rainmaker” for #3.]]

  13. [[3 are the Bacup Coco(a) Nutters, are they? (Morris-type dancers based on the Britannia Inn, Bacup) No, I didn’t think they were!]]

  14. I thought the ‘new’ setter had provided an easy one to start with, after I had filled in quite a few on my first quick run through the clues, but then at some point I slowed down and found some much harder e.g. BORACIC as I didn’t know the cockney rhyming slang connection. I liked BICEPS and PLUMBAGO very much.

    Thanks scchua for explaining so clearly several parsings that I was stuck on.

    [[You’ve foxed me with the pictures this time. Like Ian @6 I guessed a Native American rain dance in 3.

    I am certain 6 is Akira Kurosawa as when I visited Japan earlier this year I had instructions from my brother to purchase something connected to one of his favourite film directors. I managed eventually to make myself understood in a book shop that I wanted a book about Kurosawa with photos in. The lad took me to the relevant films section where I was confronted with many books with only kanjis and no English in or on them! I had to spend some time pulling them all out one at a time and looking through the pictures for something/someone I recognised. I wondered if RAN could be a synonym of SPED and then I remembered that in the film ‘Scandal’ there is a plot involving a magazine called ‘AMOUR’. Is that the connection?]]

  17. Nice introduction to the Guardian.

    Thanks scchua; the 9 or so anagrams helped the solve enormously (although maybe too many for the Friday slot?) Generally good cluing although the clue for NAIVE was a bit, well, naïve! 😉

    I particularly enjoyed BICEPS

    [[ I bow to JollySwagman @3’s superior knowledge about #4 but it also looks like sections of a pie diagram to me
    #6 is Kurosawa, and Ian SW3 @6’s The Idiot is probably the link as is his #5 FLEECE
    #2 is the evil wizard Gargamel from the Smurfs, maybe has a squint now-and-then?]]

  20. Always good to see someone new, or at least new to the Guardian. Best wishes for the future, Otterden!

    But I hope we don’t have too much of the ‘section of’ etc device that Muffin @5 and Gervase @11 also remarked on. Any Statesman solvers out there know if it’s part of his regular style?

    Enjoyed BORACIC most. And I can now spell SARSAPARILLA, couldn’t before.

  21. [[muffin, george, Ian SW3 and Robi, yes, that’s Native American/ABSENTEE-Shawnees of Oklahoma (Morris dancers!?), and that’s Gargamel/?. BTW, I forgot to mention that Kurosawa’s The Idiot is an adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s novel of the same name. I thought the former would have been harder to recognise than the latter.]]

  22. It was odd to see a ‘prtial-hidden’ clue here, but the clues are quite well made, though very many anagrams, so it is noce to see Ottherden.

  23. Thanks to scchua for the blog.

    I found some of these clues so simple they took hardly any thought at all e.g. NAIVE and AMOUR.

    When I looked up BORACIC all I could find was references to Boron. I see from George@14 a mention of cockney rhyming slang. Can somebody please enlighten me.

  24. I agree with Muffin @5 – 3d is a lovely clue spoilt by the “to” in the middle of the anagram. I think it could have been made clearer, although perhaps at the cost of the great surface.

    [[#2 is Hank Azaria as Gargamel in the Smurfs movie. From what I heard, he OVERDID his role, but beyond that, I’m clueless as to the connection. Gargamel is MIEN and a LYRE, of course…]]

  30. Rowland@27, could you please explain – I don’t think anyone has said that 3d is an &lit nor even anywhere near an &lit.

  32. I enjoyed this one, but found it remarkably easy for a Friday as I usually struggle by the end of the week. Last one in BORACIC as I didn’t realise it was rhyming slang and always thought it was BRASSIC. Good to learn something new again. Hope to see more of Otterden and thanks to sschua for helping me out with the parsing for TALLIED. I totally agree with the sentiment on housework put forward by muffin @ 29!

  33. Thanks all
    I too found the hidden bits rather dubious (Muffin, Gervase)
    I did not know there is a’r’ in sarsaparilla. Also boracic was only a very vague memory and the rhyming slang was completely new.
    Last in was ‘fleece’.

  34. Thanks Otterden & scchua

    As others have observed, a bit of a mixed bag, but enjoyable nonetheless.

    Like Saran @32 I got BORACIC from the wordplay: I had always thought it was BRASSY, from BRASSY GLINT = skint, so am happy to have learned something new.

  35. I always enjoy locking horns with a new setter, but there were too many giveaways in this puzzle for me to have been completely happy with it. I won’t list them because people have already done so. From what has been said by contributors above who have done Otterden’s puzzles before it sounds like this setter is very capable of setting harder challenges, so I look forward to the next one.

    This wasn’t my fastest Friday solve ever because Chifonie puzzles sometimes appear on a Friday and I am usually very much on that setter’s wavelength.

    Saran@32 – until a few years ago I also thought the expression was spelled “brassic lint”. Then I finally saw it in writing.

    Scchua@30 – I agree. The old “Guardianisms” chestnut got rolled out again as well. Why bother?

    Back to the puzzle, I raced through the top half and the SW, and was only delayed slightly in the SE. Like RCWhiting@33 FLEECE was my LOI.

  36. Yes pleasant enough with some strange constructs.

    Far too easy for a Friday though.

    The only challenge was remembering how to spell saspirella 😉 (This reminds me of a town centre pub in my youth where the beer was awful. The landlord hit on the idea of selling Saspirella (sic) which was half bitter, half cider with a dash of blackcurrant cordial! Truly awful but very popular for a time.)

    I’m looking forward to one of Otterden’s “Mephistopholean and beyond” puzzles already, 🙂

    Thanks to Scchua and Otterden

    P.S. Isn’t Otterden a village in Kent.

  37. I had the same quibbles as muffin @5 re: 5a, 7d, 3d. Also, 20d didn’t really work for me — “to” as an indicator that CE should follow FLEE? But I did learn the correct spelling of 14a; I had always heard it as “sasparilla”.

    [[If we’re still looking for the connection in pic 6, I’ll go out on a limb: Gargamel was the mother of Gargantua in Gargantua and Pantagruel, the 4th book of which (according to Wikipedia) can be seen as a comic retelling of the story of Jason and the Argonauts, who went in search of the Golden FLEECE. If that’s right, I’ll be shocked.]]

  39. Strange for a new compiler – congratulations to Gordon Holt, then – to have all the traits of the compilers I tend not to like. Another candidate for my Black Book, I’m afraid.

    I couldn’t dig this one, disliking six of the across clues for various reasons, and more in the downs. Generally, and for me only I stress, it felt a little artless – I was treated like a dumbass somehow.

Comments are closed.