The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26199.
Apart from 3D, where I seem to be missing something, this is a typical Chifonie, straightforward and precise.
| Across | |||
| 1. | Help to retain wide deviation (6) | ||
| SWERVE | An envelope (‘to retain’) of W (‘wide’ in cricket summaries) in SERVE (‘help’). | ||
| 4. | Career creates small impression (6) | ||
| SPRINT | A charade of S (‘small’) plus PRINT (‘impression’). | ||
| 9. | Pretty loud voice (4) | ||
| FAIR | A charade of F (‘loud’) plus AIR (‘voice’). | ||
| 10. | Gail enters medley race (5,5) | ||
| SAINT LEGER | An anagram (‘medley’) of ‘Gail enters’. | ||
| 11. | Give evidence as Tory leader in an investigation (6) | ||
| ATTEST | An envelope (‘in’) of T (‘Tory leader’) in A TEST (‘an investigation’). | ||
| 12. | Out playing during experimental lesson (8) | ||
| TUTORIAL | An envelope (‘during’) of UTO, an anagram (‘playing’) of ‘out’ in TRIAL (‘experimental’). | ||
| 13. | Fruit sadly aren’t nice (9) | ||
| NECTARINE | An anagram (‘sadly’) of ‘arent nice’. | ||
| 15. | Fish experiences having head cut off (4) | ||
| EELS | A subtraction: [f]EELS (‘experiences’) without its first letter (‘having head cut off’). | ||
| 16. | The fashion in Romeo’s time (4) | ||
| RAGE | A charade of R (‘Romeo’ phonetic alphabet) plus AGE (‘time’). | ||
| 17. | Penny’s allowed in separately for dessert (5,4) | ||
| APPLE TART | An envelope (‘in’) of P (‘penny’) plus LET (‘allowed’) in APART (‘separately’). | ||
| 21. | Scrap copper item (8) | ||
| PARTICLE | A charade of P (penny, ‘copper’) plus ARTICLE (‘item’). | ||
| 22. | How tuna is cooked in Texas? (6) | ||
| AUSTIN | An anagram (‘cooked’) of ‘tuna is’. | ||
| 24. | Passed away consuming liquor when low (10) | ||
| DISPIRITED | An envelope (‘consuming’) of SPIRIT (‘liquor’) in DIED (‘passed away’). | ||
| 25. | Primate holds beginning of service in church (4) | ||
| APSE | An envelope (‘holds’) of S (‘beginning of Service’) in APE (‘primate’). | ||
| 26. | Material noticed clothing a model (6) | ||
| SATEEN | An envelope (‘clothing’) of ‘a’ plus T (‘model’) in SEEN (‘noticed’). Sateen is a material with a hand like satin, but made with cotton rather than silk. |
||
| 27. | Play for time with weapon (6) | ||
| TRIFLE | A charade of T (‘time’) plus RIFLE (‘weapon’). | ||
Down |
|||
| 1. | Make one’s home outside a US city (7) | ||
| SEATTLE | An envelope (‘outside’) of ‘a’ in SETTLE (‘make ones home’). | ||
| 2. | Mysterious English lake (5) | ||
| EERIE | A charade of E (‘English’) plus ERIE (great ‘lake’). | ||
| 3. | Tourist sees peak when touring Italy (7) | ||
| VISITOR | I am not sure of the wordplay here: V is ‘see’, so is VS ‘sees’? There is I for ‘Italy’ inserted, and TOR, ‘peak’. That leaves the second I unaccounted for. Chifonie is generally so precise in his wordplay that it must be that I am overlooking something. All suggestions gratefully received. |
||
| 5. | Dainty Italian beset by boy (6) | ||
| PETITE | An envelope (‘beset by’) of IT (‘Italian’) in PETE (‘boy’) | ||
| 6. | I approach home resolutely (2,7) | ||
| IN EARNEST | A charade of ‘I’ plus NEAR (‘approach’) plus NEST (‘home’). | ||
| 7. | Article on trees is a classic (3,4) | ||
| THE OAKS | A charade of THE (‘article’) plus OAKS (‘trees’). A partner to 10A. | ||
| 8. | In an ideal situation for a meeting? Quite! (7,6) | ||
| SITTING PRETTY | A charade of SITTING (‘meeting’) plus PRETTY (‘quite’). | ||
| 14. | Kitty put on clothing in an awkward situation (5,4) | ||
| TIGHT SPOT | A charade of TIGHTS (‘clothing’) plus POT (‘kitty’). | ||
| 16. | Cultivated a desire for cash (7) | ||
| READIES | An anagram (‘cultivated’) of ‘a desire’. | ||
| 18. | Spare the German channel swimmer (7) | ||
| LEANDER | A charade of LEAN (‘spare’) plus DER (‘the German’). We had Hero, Leander’s reason for swimming the Hellespont, in a Crucible ten days ago. | ||
| 19. | Soldier finds controversy in new edition (7) | ||
| REISSUE | A charade of RE (‘soldier’) plus ISSUE (‘controversy’). | ||
| 20. | Many in shock but hard to find (6) | ||
| SCARCE | An envelope (‘in’) of C (Roman numeral for 100, ‘many’) in SCARE (‘shock’). | ||
| 23. | Mark on fine clothing (5) | ||
| SCARF | A charade of SCAR (‘mark’) plus F (‘fine’). | ||
Thanks Peter. As for 3d I thought envelope of IT(aly) in VISOR (peak).
Thanks, Peter.
VI is “vide infra” – “see below” – the problem with using abbreviations is that there are so many of them that you can find anything to suit your purpose if you look hard enough: my least favourite crossword device. 🙁
Sorry, JPR, your comment only appeared when I submitted mine – you may well be right, although IT is normally used for Italian rather than Italy.
Perhaps VIS (OED has this as vision, sight) and TOR around I?
JPR @1 is right. A peak is another word for a visor on a cap.
I found this to be the easiest crossword we’ve had for quite a while, although I did have to look up online why “The Oaks” is a classic (it’s a horse race.) I was also wondering whether VIS could mean SEES! Thanks Chifonie and PeterO.
.it is the internet domain for Italy, It is Italian.
Generally pretty straightforward, but I also struggled with the parsing of ‘visitor’. Regarding precision in definitions; at 19d, I do not regard a ‘reissue’ as a new edition, the first implying that a work has been made available without alterations after a period of non-availability, while the latter indicates that some revision has been undertaken. Too pedantic perhaps, or maybe I’m just wrong.
Thanks for the blog, PeterO.
I read 3dn as JPR did. It’s a pity that IT was used for Italian in the very next clue.
I agree with the assessment ‘straightforward and precise’ but, out of 29 clues, I counted 13 which involved the addition of a single letter, 3 which needed two letters added and 1 one-letter subtraction so, on this occasion, I’m afraid I would add ‘tedious’.
Hi George @8
I wasn’t intending to contradict you: I hadn’t seen your comment when I wrote mine. I take your point re REISSUE.
Isn’t “vis” the same as “viz”? Vis + I + Tor. I didn’t give this a moment’s thought when filling in, but clearly shoud have!
Typically neat Chifonie, perhaps a bit on the unchallenging side, but being totally prejudiced and unreasonable I am willing to cut Chifonie slack that I would not dream of cutting for Rufus or Gordius.
Thanks PeterO and Chifonie
Generally quite easy and, as usual, neatly clued.
I assumed ‘peak’ was defining ‘visor’ as in its (peak’s) common usage of a front projection of headgear espeacially of a cap. Collins supports this.
Thanks all
A little too easy to be a real enjoyment. 3d fuss seems contrived.
Thanks JPR; your parsing came to me came to me, as occasionally happens, this morning before I got out of bed, and it is surely more satisfactory. I had been fixated on TOR.
Thanks Chifonie and PeterO.
In 14 I thought ‘put on’ in a down clue meant A on top of B, not B on top of A. Or is it read as an instruction to the solver? Perhaps someone can clarify.
Thanks for the blog, PeterO.
Eileen @9 You beat me to it! The first thing I did when I finished this puzzle was to count all the clues that required the addition of one letter. 13 was too many for me. While most of these had neat and elegant surfaces, I found the repetition of the device a little monotonous.
3dn Visor for peak, as in peaked cap, seems perfectly straightforward.
Thanks to PeterO for the blog.
I had no trouble with 3: I simply assumed IT(aly) inside VISOR.
At first I read ‘put on’ in 14 as meaning the verb dress: it was quite a while before I saw the proper meaning.
IT in VISOR for me too.
Two of the ‘classic’ horse races mentioned led me to look for the others. I already had the 5 letter answers so no DERBY but, with the cash reference, I did try GUINEAS for 16d.
I parse “visitor” as “visor” (peak of a peaked cap) around “It” for Italian.
All very straightforward and uncontroversial, though I wasn’t entirely convinced by any of the parsings of VISITOR either. If the editorial policy had still been increasing difficulty as the week goes on, Rufus would have had to move to Tuesday this week (and can anybody remember a Rufus that wasn’t on Monday – it certainly hasn’t happened since 1999).
Thanks to Chifonie and PeterO
For an exciting moment I thought we might have a new (in crossword world) type of fish … but no.
IMHO this would have been an ideal Quiptic or Everyman, but thin gruel indeed for a Tuesday Cryptic. As near-as-dammit a top-to-bottom solve with PARTICLE my LOI after SCARCE.
This is the fastest solve I’ve had in many a long week.
The clue for “The Oaks” was extremely unsatisfying. Breaking down a two-word phrase into a bland definition for the first word and a bland definition for the second is really not what I’d call any fun at all. I’m surprised to see (skimming the earlier responses–sorry to any I’ve missed) that I’m the first person to bitch about that.
After the recent run I suppose we should have expected a non-Monday easy puzzle and this was it with a vengeance.
As regards IT for Italy see ISO Country Codes
Only vaguely interesting hold up was 14d where I had the T and G and instantly entered TIGER and was looking briefly for clothing in *P** !!!
Quite amusing but brief 🙂
Thanks to PeterO and Chifonie
P.S. I have updated the Guardian Crossword Archive Spreadsheet to the end of Feb 2014. See General Discussions #363 if you’re sad enough to be interested. 😉
Yes, in general agreement with most, and I too was on the V…TOR track, erroneously, I think, with 3d.
Still, Sue and I enjoyed this over a couple of pints just now.
Thanks Chifonie, PeterO and all.
Thanks Chifonie and PeterO
Only got to this one today and also found it pretty straightforward with SAINT LEGER as the last one in. Went the IT in VISOR for 3d as well – without even thinking of the alternate parsing.
Often wonder why this setter doesn’t share the Monday slot with Rufus as he does produce the type of crossword that novice solvers would learn well from.
8d and 10A were useless clues. Thanks for the blog PeterO and everyone else, and for the puzzle, Chifonie.