Guardian 26,217 – Otterden

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I’m sorry to say I didn’t find this very satisfying – as in previous Otterden puzzles there are some excessively obvious clues (e.g. 26a, 3d) and some rather dodgy constructions. There are some sound and reasonable clues as well, but nothing to get very excited about.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. ABSINTHE Eccentric bathes in spirit! (8)
(BATHES IN)*
5. WELDED United said to be finished a while ago (6)
I think this is supposed to be a homophone of “well dead”, in the slang sense of “very dead”, or “dead a long time”; the problem is that no one pronounces WELDED that way
9. SKEW-WHIFF Small gardens here a little bit out of place (4-5)
S + KEW (“gardens here”) + WHIFF (a little)
11. EXAMS Almost every other component follows past tests (5)
EX (past) + alternate letters of AlMoSt
12. HIRE PURCHASE Rogue hurries along with cheap way to pay (4,8)
(HURRIES CHEAP)*
15. OVEN It gets heated when weird group ousts leader (4)
COVEN (of witches) less its “leader”
16. DEATH SQUAD Killers hated working on the side (5,5)
HATED* + SQUAD (side, e.g. a football team)
18. PERSONAL AD Press invitation to meeting for young man after public image (8,2)
PERSONA + LAD
19. DEAN Chapter head in Pride and Prejudice (4)
Hidden in priDE ANd, with “Prejudice” being there just for the surface reading
21. PUBLIC SCHOOL Privileged place freely available to card players (6,6)
PUBLIC (freely available(unlike public schools..)) + SCHOOL (of card players)
24. OUIJA Board agreement expressed in two languages (5)
OUI + JA – a very hackneyed way of clueing this word, which in any case is derived from these two componets (it was originally a trade name for the board)
25. ENNOBLING Points to lack of showy jewellery as dignifying (9)
E + N + “NO BLING”
26. SADDER Dreads becoming even more unhappy (6)
DREADS* – “even” seems redundant, though it doesn’t do any harm
27. ASCENDER Small character part for someone on the way up (8)
Double definition – an ascender is part of a letter that extends above the middle (i.e. above the height of letters such as n and a).
Down
1. ALSO Too much of pals to finish off with round of golf (4)
This seems to ALS (“much of pals”) + O (round), with “of golf” being redundant, unless I’ve missed something
2. STEM Hinder the continuity of one’s main ancestral line (4)
Double definition
3. NEWBIE Could wine be drunk by new arrival? (6)
(WINE BE)* – the presence of “new” in the clue makes this rather weak, unless it’s intended as a double bluff; also the cryptic grammar is all over the place, with “be” doing double duty
4. HAILE SELASSIE Emperor replaced his allies with ease (5,8)
(HIS ALLIES EASE)*
6. EXERCISE Put in practice a duty involving Her Majesty (8)
ER in EXCISE
7. DRAMA QUEEN She goes over the top to get role of Titania (5,5)
Titania is the Queen of the Fairies (I initially tried to make FAIRY QUEEN work here..) in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
8. DESCENDANT Dances tend to be moved one further down the line (10)
(DANCES TEND)*
10. FRUIT MACHINE Product mechanisms often in place in pubs (5,8)
FRUIT (product) + MACHINES (mechanisms)
13. SOUP SPOONS Pittance provided initially to get spies back can be laid on the table (4,6)
SOU (a pittance) + P[rovided] + reverse of SNOOPS
14. JERRY-BUILD Pot reported to be advertised put up cheaply (5-5)
JERRY (chamber pot) + “billed”
17. MOTIVATE Test one against a note prompt (8)
MOT (test) + I (one) + V[ersus] A TE (note, in tonic sol-fa) edited -the I was missing
20. DOUBLE Spitting Image repeat (6)
Double definition (just about)
22. WILD Said to have passed time in the jungle, perhaps (4)
Homophone of “whiled”
23. AGAR A garden not a place where one might study a culture medium (4)
A GARDEN less DEN (where one might study) – biological cultures are grown in agar (or agar-agar) jelly

30 comments on “Guardian 26,217 – Otterden”

  1. Third consecutive cryptic finished before breakfast coffee had cooled enough to drink, no ‘aha’moment, nothing to grin at let alone giggle. Hope tomorrow is better.

  2. I enjoyed this, but there seemed to be a lot of anagrams. ABSINTHE, SKEW-WHIFF and SOUP SPOONS were good.

  3. Thanks, Andrew, I agree with your sentiments.

    I found it started quite easy, but then I had to do quite a bit of cheating, mostly because I couldn’t be bothered.

  5. In “WELDED”, perhaps the second syllable is supposed to sound like “did” instead of “dead”? I don’t find it very convincing either way. In any case, I went for WEDDED, though come to think of it it’s Wednesday today, so that wouldn’t really work for “a while ago”.

  6. Hmm. I’m not happy about 16a. A squad is more than a side, it’s what the side is picked from, e.g. in football a side of 11 from a squad of 20 or something.

  7. I found this a bit clunky throughout, and gave up with a couple to go. WELDED just doesn’t work for me; I put in WEDDED. Is a COVEN a ‘weird group’? If I prompt someone to do something, I’m not sure that I MOTIVATE them. OUIJA should be put out to grass. I could go on.

    Thanks to S&B.

  9. Thanks to Andrew for the blog.

    I had a slight difference on 25: ENN (three points) O (zero) BLING but it comes to the same thing in the end.

    On 19 I desperately tried to put C (Chapter head) into a 3-letter pride to get some sort of prejudice. No joy. Eventually I saw the proper way 🙁

    Andrew I see a small typo in your blog. In 17d you have omitted I (one).

  10. @7 Kathryn’s Dad

    In defence of Otterden re COVEN, the witches in Macbeth are referred to as the ‘weird sisters’ and I’m fairly sure ‘weird’ here is being used in its original sense. I’m also not sure I agree with you re motivate/prompt. The problem with this sort of puzzle is that if the rest of the clues are great you give the setter the benefit of the doubt and don’t quibble. Unfortunately, despite the presence of one or two strong clues (18a,14d) there are some real stinkers I’m afraid

  11. Thanks to Andrew and Otterden.

    I found this a quick solve apart from 5ac, which I still don’t get. I often struggle with homophones, as my native accent isn’t RP, but I don’t believe anyone pronounces unstressed ‘-ded’ the same as ‘dead’. More a ‘looks like’ than a ‘sounds like’. And ‘ouija’ …

  12. At 1d I had ’round of golf’ as the ’round letter in the word golf’, so it works, in a way.

    Quite liked ENNOBLING but it’s next to OUIJA which must be a reflex for most of us now. But I can remember the first time this cropped up and I thought it was quite clever. It’s like what they say about Beethoven’s Ninth, there’s always someone in the audience who’s never heard it before.

  14. All fairly straightforward – last in was WELDED which I read as well dead but I agree with the quibblers on that. The Qs and Xs in the NE corner had me thinking about the dreaded pangram, so I spent too long vainly trying to fit a Z in the last few.

    Thanks to Andrew and Otterden.

  15. Hello everybody and many thanks, Andrew.

    Not sure it’s fair to lambaste Otterden for a few less-than-strong clues. This is a relative newcomer doing his or her best to provide us with entertainment. No doubt the setter will hone his art in time.

    I actually chuckled at the “well dead” clue and thought PERSONAL AD well constructed.

    Thank you, Otterden, do press on.

  16. We didn’t like WELDED either – we tried MENDED & WEDDED. Actually think WEDDED is a nicer (better?!) answer!! New here, but we’ve been lurking for a while to check our answers… Hello to everyone – & thanks for your help the last few years!

  17. Thanks Andrew – Motivate was my last one in, I don’t really associate it with prompt – all in all a bit of a disappointment today. Let’s hope for a better Thursday and Friday

  18. Agree with William @15 – didn’t think it was that bad (although we went for WEDDED for 5a – without being able to explain it).
    As for being too easy, we’re not all solving wizards of the calibre of Andrew, Eccles et al (especially al), so what’s too easy for some is just right for others

  19. Welcome to LilSho, hope you continue to enjoy the blog and find it helpful.
    One wrong for me again today, I havered over ‘jerry-build’ or ‘gerry-build’ and chose the wrong one. I could have checked of course, but that would have spoilt the fun for me.
    I am a supporter of Otterden, but concede that this was not one of his best. For example, in 3d, why not ‘fresh arrival’ rather than ‘new arrival’ to avoid the clumsy repetition of ‘new’ in the clue and solution?
    I rather agree that 5a is a stinker for a homophone.
    I,agree with Bingybong @10. I also made the connection with the weird sisters in Macbeth, and thought that it made the clue pretty good, so one tick at least for Otterden.

  20. No problem with cOVEN at all, ouija well it doesn’t seem to be easily clued any other way, we jar would get the homophone haters out.
    As crosswords go I prefered yesterday’s but it’s not that bad.
    keep up the good work otterden and thanks Andrew for the blog for some that stumped my post work brain.

  21. Thanks all. I’m sorry but I can hear the lads perfectly clearly saying ”Oh my god ‘es wew dead”. Along with ”I’ve just wewdead my car” Nice one Ottended keep up the good work.

  22. I didn’t enjoy this puzzle as much as some others, and I agree with those of you who thought that some of the clues were unsatisfactory. Having said that, I liked the reference to the “weird sisters” in 15ac.

    WELDED was my LOI after I finally saw the extremely dodgy homophone. It was the only answer that made any sense after I discounted “wedded” and “melded” for their lack of parsability. DEAN took a while to see.

  23. Thanks Otterden and Andrew
    Got to this late today and didn’t finish (gave up on WELDED and WILD). Didn’t particularly enjoy it either.

    Is there a competition between setters to include ABSINTHE in the grid, then clue it in different ways? (I don’t think that “Sailors in the drink?” can be bettered!)

  24. I agree with Andrew’s comments as not much fun to be had here unfortunately.

    No aha moments though a few “raised eyebrows” at the dodgy cluing. Pretty easy to finish though as I was expecting this.

    Like Stephen @13 I too took “round of golf” to refer to the “o” in golf.

    I was pleased to see that the “pangram seekers” got so much help from this puzzle. (Sorry BH 😉 ) But my views on the pangram are surely well known by now.

    A very poor week up till now. We must surely be in for two cracking puzzles to finish the week. 🙂

    Thanks to Andrew and Otterden

  25. Didn’t quite finish this. Couldn’t bring myself to write ALSO and also found WELDED beyond me although, when explained, I thought it was funny in view of the current travails of Man Utd.

    Oh, and I thought OUIJA was funny and clever as well…

    Thanks, Otterden

  26. Re 5ac If I say ‘he’s well dead’ or ‘he’s welded my car’ quickly both sound the same so I didn’t have an issue with this. And as a lover of sport I found this clue amusing on a number of levels. One of my favourites.

  27. I didn’t finish this – WELDED and ALSO defeated me and I don’t much like the clues. On the other hand I thought SOUP SPOONS and PERSONAL AD were great!

  28. Jason@5 et al

    I (eventually) came down with ‘WEDDED’ from ‘Dead on Wednesday’ which made sense when I filled it in at 4am on Thursday. Ho hum.

    Also thought the construction of 3d very strange.

  29. Thanks Otterden and Andrew

    Did this one later in the week and didn’t find it as bad as some others here. Thought that there were enough good clues to rate it a credible pass. NEWBIE was actually my last one in, maybe falling a victim to the double bluff !

    Had no real problem with WELDED when I eventually saw the homophone.

  30. Overall I thought this was an excellent puzzle. Loved 5 across when I finally got it — definitely an Ah-ha! moment.

    No idea what MaIP@11 is on about — “-ded” and “dead” sound exactly the same to me.

    Good work Otterden.

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