Guardian 26,180 – Chifonie

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I see it’s been corrected now, but when I went to the Guardian crossword page earlier this morning it said that today’s puzzle was by Philistine (though the puzzle itself had Chifonie’s name on it). There’s been a lot of this kind of thing on the site lately, with the Genius missing its special instructions, no Azed on Sunday and a late appearance for the Quiptic yesterday. Anyway, this one is unquestionably in Chifonie’s style, with lots of charades, and sound but generally very straightforward clueing, though the name at 18d might cause some head-scratching.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. TUSSLE Lusts wickedly and earl creates conflict (6)
LUSTS* + E
4. UNKEMPT Scruffy punk met disaster (7)
(PUNK MET)*
9. APOLOGIST Defender gets a game point (9)
A POLO GIST
10. ARRAN Artist returned and administered the island (5)
Reverse of RA + RAN
11. PRESS Shanghai journalists? (5)
Double definition
12. LEGISLATE Member is slow to pass laws (9)
LEG IS LATE
13. DETRACT Belittle Germany and Spain with monograph (7)
D + E + TRACT
15. THREAT Danger for doctor taking heroin (6)
H (slang for heroin) in TREAT
17. HELPED Mind about record being promoted (6)
LP in HEED
19. DITHERS Hesitates, for the reading is set in hell (7)
THE R (reading, as in the Three Rs) in DIS
22. OBSERVING Died in employment while celebrating (9)
OB (died) + SERVING
24. ENTRY Guard decapitated candidate (5)
[S]ENTRY
26. ARRAY Order a queen to skate (5)
A + R[egina] + RAY (fish)
27. PASO DOBLE Affected a bold pose in dance (4,5)
(A BOLD POSE)*
28. TIDDLER Workman eats divine little fish (7)
DD (Doctor of Divinity) in TILER
29. AMUSES A fabulous Greek nonet entertains (6)
A + MUSES (of whom there were nine in Greek mythology)
Down
1. TRAPPED Tenor performed hip hop in a tight corner (7)
T + RAPPED
2. SHORE Stay beside the sea (5)
Double definition – the first as in “shore up”
3. LOOK SHARP Inspect small instrument and be quick about it (4,5)
LOOK (inspect) + S HARP
4. UPTIGHT Anxious when riding neck and neck (7)
UP (on horsebck, riding) + TIGHT (neck and neck)
5. KEATS Poet and knight feast on Sunday (5)
K[night] + EAT (feast) + S[unday]
6. MARMALADE Horse carries mother and boy in preserve (9)
MA + LAD in MARE
7. TENDER Nurse turned up coloured fabric (6)
Reverse of RED NET
8. VIOLET Woman is cruel after losing bridge partner (6)
VIOLENT less N (South’s partner in Bridge)
14. TREASURED Walk round stable that’s highly thought of (9)
SURE in TREAD
16. ROTTERDAM Carnivore died in butt of port (9)
OTTER D in RAM
18. DNIEPER Flower not properly ripened (7)
RIPENED* – I’d heard of this river before (it’s the fourth longest in Europe), but it had temporarily slipped my mind, so this was my last one in
19. DIGEST Understand girl gets made up (6)
DI (girl) + GETS*
20. SHYNESS Toss cape through timidity (7)
SHY (throw, toss) + NESS (cape)
21. HOBART Passionate about hostelry found down under (6)
BAR in HOT. Hobart is the capital of Tasmania
23. ROYAL Play orchestral pieces in reverse order — that’s splendid! (5)
Hidden in reverse of pLAY ORchestral
25. TUBAS Instruments are found in containers (5)
A (abbreviation for are, one hundredth of a hectare) in TUBS

29 comments on “Guardian 26,180 – Chifonie”

  1. Completed o.k. but felt a little dissatisfied with this puzzle. I was unconvinced by some of the definitions, though I expect they can all be found in the dictionaries, and the surface of 6d just leaves me scratching my head.
    Perhaps I’m just Mr Grumpy this morning.

  2. Thanks Chifonie and Andrew
    I found this quite hard, particularly the LHS. There are rather too many clues in which a word in the clue stands for a letter in the answer for my taste (Earl, Tenor, Are, Reading, Died etc. – some of these are more “standard” than others).
    I would also question “violent” = “cruel” and especially “digest” = “understand” – surely “digest” rather means, in this context, “reflect on something in an attempt to understand it”?
    Some nice clues. I read the wrong anagram indicator in 4a at first, so that amused; I liked PASO DOBLE as well.

  3. Thanks Chifonie and Andrew,

    Re TIDDLER: How does DD (Doctor of Divinity) equate to “divine”?

    I liked HOBART and ROTTERDAM.

  5. Thanks Andrew and Chifonie. I found this surprisingly difficult, though I’m not sure why. In 2dn, I took stay/shore as nouns in their sense as “a support”.

  7. Thanks Andrew and Chifonie

    An enjoyable puzzle, generally very well clued. I found the top half rather easier than the lower half. ‘Paso doble’ was nice.

  8. Fascinating how some found this easy, others hard. For me, very much on the easy side (this doesn’t always happen), except for the NW corner until the Rufusian dd of SHORE finally yielded. VIOLENT was last in; not particularly convinced by N = bridge partner unless you happen to be S yourself.

  9. Thanks Chifonie and Andrew.

    Fairly straightforward I thought although I forgot the a=are for a while.

    Trailman @8; I guess if partners=NS, partner could be either one (?) Yes, the surface for 6 seems to be rather nonsensical. In 21, ‘found down under’ seems to be an indirect definition, so shouldn’t it have a QM or ‘perhaps’ or something?

  10. Found this fairly straightforward as Chifonie often is, but the SW corner held me up for a while – in retrospect I’m not sure why, and ROYAL was last in. Thanks for the parsing of TUBAS – I thought A must be an abbreviation of ARE but didn’t know the context.

  11. In medical terminology SHARPs are scalpels, needles etc. which have to be disposed of carefully and could be described as small instrmuents. I didn’t notice the parsing of 3d as …S HARP.

  12. I think the surface of 6d makes sense if you think of a wildlife preserve.
    I agree with muffin that several of the definitions are rather unsatisfactory.

  16. I was thinking along the same lines as PeterM @12. Unfortunately the usual expression is “game reserve” (no P).

    “Game preserve” turns up a lot on Google, but it seems to be an American firm selling computer games!

  17. “I was thinking along the same lines as PeterM @12. Unfortunately the usual expression is “game reserve” (no P).”

    Maybe on your side of the Atlantic.

    Here, we have game preserves, wildlife preserves, forest preserves–you name it.

  18. Interesting, mrpenney – presumably why the computer game firm chose the (to us) unusual name.

    Preserves over here mean jam, pickles etc.!

  19. I raced through most of the top half of the puzzle but then slowed down considerably, particularly in the SW. I usually finish Chifonie’s puzzles very quickly so this made a pleasant change.

    OBSERVING was my LOI after TREASURED.

  20. By the way, thanks to those of you who commented on that particular US meaning of “preserve”, which was very easily confirmed by a quick search on Google. One lives and learns …….

  21. Like tupu @7, I found the top half easier than the bottom. Mind you, I was the author my own misfortune by misspelling the Russian river in 18 as DNEIPER rather than DNIEPER. Doh!

  22. I assume TENDER in 7dn is supposed to mean someone who tends (nurses), i.e. a nurse, but has anyone ever heard the word used this way? I am also among those irritated by the indiscriminate use of initial letters as abbreviations. To me it’s unimaginative cluing.

  23. 22@jeceris

    Re usage of TENDER: you could certainly say something like “He was a tender of cattle”, but it does sound rather odd.

  24. Was I delighted when I saw it was a Chifonie (in my league).Then I found it much harder than usual and the sw corner defeated me.I liked 18d and 9a amoungst many others.Thanks to Andrew for your explanations

  25. Thanks Chifonie and Andrew

    Another who found this harder than normal from Chifonie and also a little put out with the ‘seemingly random’ initial letters. However enjoyed the puzzle overall – DNIEPER was the last in.

  26. I’m in the “unsatisfactory somehow camp”.

    Far too many dodgy definitions.

    Am I being thick as I can’t see the point of the “of” in 15d. As nobody else has mentioned it I assume it’s obvious. Unless of course Rotterdam is an adjective. If so this could lead to lots of “ofs” in clues in the future.

    Thanks to Andrew and Chifonie

    P.S. Deeply upset when I came to the crossword this evening when I saw that the morning promise of Philistine had transmogrified to Chifonie. A totally differnt beast.

  27. Thanks all
    In spite of an early entry of 25d = drums (quite jutiiable) which held me up for some time, I did complete it.

  28. Just finished this in the Guardian Weekly. Also found the SW corner trickiest, but because we entered “gopher” for 21d. I think I prefer it to Hobart.

  29. I found this puzzle tough but do-able and very satisfying. I cannot for the life of me understanding the whinging about the surface of 6 down. What on earth are people going on about “game preserves” for? Preserves are the results of home canning, e.g. jams, jellies, and ***marmalades***!!!

    The reverse hidden “royal” (23 down) foxed me; this was my LOI.

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