Guardian 26,240 – Qaos

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A nice mixture of clues from Qaos in this one, with some easy ones to get me going and others that took a bit of working out. I have quibbles about a couple of constructions, but nothing too serious. Thanks to the setter.

Another “ghost” theme, as we’ve come to expect from Qaos: I stared at the completed grid for ages, thinking I wasn’t going to spot it, but suddenly Mrs WILBERFORCE led me to the LADY KILLERS, giving the famous, and wonderful, Ealing Comedy (hinted at in 13d), which includes the characters Professor MARCUS, MAJOR Courtney, LOUIS Harvey, HARRY Robinson and “One-Round” LAWSON. Are there any other references? (I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Mrs Wilberforce had an ASPIDISTRA.)

 
 
Across
1. SYMPTOM Sign that Tommy’s upset about Penny (7)
P in TOMMYS*
5. LATTICE “Line the loft” (Energy Grid) (7)
L + ATTIC + E
9. HARRY A royal badger? (5)
Double definition – Prince Harry, and harry=badger=pester
10. JEWELLERS Managers of the Stones swapping Elton John initially with the Modfather and Sabbath (9)
J E (Elton John’s initials, swapped) + [Paul] WELLER (known as “the Modfather”) + S[abbath]
11. NEUROGRAMS Note: money — 1,000 pounds for impressions (10)
N + EURO + G (grand = 1000) + RAMS (pounds). A neurogram is a (hypothetical?) “impression” made on the brain to create a memory
12. LADY Knight strips off outer layers to reveal inner woman (4)
GLADYS (Knight, singer) with “outer layers” removed
14. DISHWASHERS Domestic appliances: the plate was his but the _____ (11)
The plate was his but the DISH WAS HERS
18. WILBERFORCE Abolitionist deals fierce blow to suppress the onset of racism (11)
R[acism] in (FIERCE BLOW)* – William Wilberforce campaigned against the slave trade
21. NEED Miss Elizabeth enters study doing a pirouette (4)
E[lizabeth] in reverse of DEN
22. ASPIDISTRA Stomach of wasp I distracted with flower (10)
Hidden in wASP I DISTRActed
25. ESTRAPADE Violently separated from a racehorse? (9)
SEPARATED* – Estrapade is “a horse’s attempt to throw its rider” so I don’t think the cryptic grammar quite works here
26. LOUIS French monarch‘s solution? Fighting not fleeing (5)
SOLUTION* less NOT
27. KILLERS King and queens imprison evil murderers (7)
ILL (evil) in K + ERS – can you have more than one ER? Elizabeths the First and Second, I suppose..
28. SOYBEAN Spooner’s youthful environment produces oilseed (7)
Spoonerism of “boy scene” – Chambers only gives this as two words; the one-word spelling is an American usage according to Wikipedia, which also tells me that it is classified as an “oilseed”.
Down
1. SPHINX Fabulous creature puts hearts in a whirl with kiss (6)
H in SPIN + X
2. MARCUS Maybe Antonius, Roman consul under senate leaders? (6)
First letters &lit, referring to the Consul Marcus Antoniusm, perhaps better known to us as Mark Antony
3. TOY SOLDIER Plays idle or plays with action man, perhaps (3,7)
TOYS (plays) + (IDLE OR)* – “action man” should perhaps be capitalised, as it’s the name of a specific toy soldier
4. MAJOR Officer‘s trouble over his men? (5)
Reverse of JAM (trouble) + OR (Other Ranks)
5. LAWNMOWER Latin woman struggles with beard, regularly gets cutter (9)
L[atin] + WOMAN* + W[ith] + [b]E[a]R[d]
6. TOLA In India, weight that’s lifted a great deal (4)
Reverse of A LOT – it’s an Indian unit ofweight
7. ITERATES Before a setter compiled, one goes from 1 to 2 to 3 … (8)
I (one) + (A SETTER)*
8. ESSAYIST Writer who claims S, perhaps, equals T? (8)
ES (spelling of the letter S) + SAY (perhaps) + IS T
13. ESPECIALLY Ealing’s first endless caper. Silly? Criminal? Very! (10)
E + (CAPE[R] SILLY)*, with a reference to the film of the theme
15. SAFE SEATS Politicians and passengers love them (4,5)
Double definition
16. SWAN NECK Ex-England spin bowler knocks out no boundaries with two turns (4,4)
[Graeme] SWANN, spin bowler + [d]ECK[s}
17. CLIENTAL As a customer, I can’t sell shears without spades (8)
(I CAN’T SELL)* less S[pades]
19. ATTUNE Become familiar with ABBA’s debut song on the radio (6)
A[bba] + homophone of TUNE
20. LAWSON Former chancellor was hopeless, dividing half the capital (6)
WAS* in LON[don], for Nigel Lawson, former Chancellor of the Exchequer, and more recently Climate Change denialist
23. ITEMS Following current, river delivered components (5)
I (symbol for electric current) + homophone of “Thames”
24. LANE Perhaps Earth’s off limits for Superman’s girlfriend (4)
PLANET (of which the Earth is an example) minus its “limits”. Lois Lane is Superman’s girlfriend

25 comments on “Guardian 26,240 – Qaos”

  1. Thanks, Andrew.

    Mostly easy but entertaining, except for the last couple where I did have to stop and think – LADY and ITEMS. (It took a while to twig “delivered”!) The little difficulty at the end is my excuse for completely missing the theme! 🙁

  2. Surely iteration is a repetitive process, whereas going “from 1 to 2 to 3” is an incremental process. Or have I got that wrong?

  4. @Shirl: To iterate is also to make repeated use of a mathematical procedure, applying it each time to the result of the previous iteration; thus, “+1” performed continuously would give us 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.

    Thanks to Qaos for a good time, and to Andrew for a great blog. I completely missed “lady” since I didn’t know Gladys Knight (I kept “stripping” Lancelot, Galahad, etc to see if they would reveal a woman!). Also had trouble with estrapade – completely new to me.

  6. Entertaining puzzle, although I missed the theme completely.

    Thanks Andrew; like Shirl @2, I don’t think the definition of ITERATES really works. I especially liked the JEWELLERS and SWAN NECK.

    When is note=N used?

  9. Not long ago one of Qaos’s homophones, ‘submits reports’ for PRESENCE, caused much debate. Here ‘current,river delivered’ for ITEMS is just as dodgy. In my book homophones should be exact unless there’s a redeeming feature, such as a good joke, as in the recent very approximate SUPERCALI etc. And I have no objection to those that rely on a non-rhotic pronunciation. The Listener Guidance for Setters discourages them on the grounds that the audience is increasingly international. I think that is too restrictive for daily non-specialist puzzles, and deprives the setter of too many chances to write elegant and/or amusing clues.

  10. Thanks to Qaos and Andrew. Enjoyed this puzzle. Was unfamiliar with ESTRAPADE but not
    1941 U.S. Triple Crown winner Whirlaway which I confidently entered for a while. Missed
    the theme. Favorite was LOUIS.

    Cheers…

  11. Some clever stuff here in a crossword I enjoyed, though I had no idea where LADY and ITEMS came from till I read your blog Andrew, despite knowing of both the singer and the river. HARRY and TOY SOLDIER gave me problems at the end too.

    Mixed feelings about 10a’s surface – Elton John to [Black] Sabbath is quite a stretch … By the way, what does the Listener Guidance for Setters have to say about knowledge of 70s/80s English rock stars for an international audience?

  12. Thanks all
    Favourites 14 & 25 across.
    Last in was ‘swan neck’ which I had early but failed to spot ‘decks’ to confirm.
    I failed to spot ‘Gladys, even though Ms Knight is very familiar.

  13. Thanks Andrew and Qaos
    I really enjoyed this one (particularly as I just had time to finish it before I went out this morning). ESTRAPADE was a new word for me, but it so nearly works as an &lit that it was my favourite – I also liked DISHWASHERS and LOUIS.

    (Pedants’ corner: in a medical consultation, SIGNS and SYMPTOMS are distinct from each other. Signs are what the doctor discovers from examination(s); symptoms are what the patient describes to the doctor.)

  14. Didn’t understand items, d’oh! And missed the ghost theme, must be 30 years since i last watched and estrapade was frankly a lucky guess even if the anagram could hardly go otherwise.
    Thanks Andrew and the chaotic one.

  15. Thanks Andrew and Qaos

    Missed the theme which I wasn’t looking out for. Had to check Gladys and estrapade.

    Overall an enjoyable puzzle.

  16. Just done this online from a pub in the Highlands – must admit that without reference material the “check” button was needed a few times and we’d never heard of ESTRAPADE, and we didn’t see the ghost theme. Last in was NEED, after SWAN NECK made it obvious. Entertaining as ever from Qaos.

    Thanks to Qaos and Andrew

  17. I enjoyed this puzzle but missed the theme. With the exception of LADY, which was my LOI, I found the top half a lot more straightforward than the bottom half. ESTRAPADE was entered as the most likely arrangement of the anagram fodder, and when I checked it post-solve I appreciated what a good clue it was.

  18. An enjoyable puzzle from Qaos as ever though not too difficult.

    I’d never heard of estrapade but it was the only anagram that worked with the crossers.

    I can’t see what the previous complaints about knowledge and homophones are really about. Apparently it’s expected occasionally for me to know allusions to esoteric Greek mythology (which I rarely do) but I’m not supposed to know who the Modfather is (which of course I do!)

    People get a little confused with these “so called” homophone clues. In fact the label “homophone” is being applied by the complainers as ever. The clues often use heard, radio etc but don’t say homophone. Surely this implies “can be heard as” and not “this is a homophone for”. In this case radio is obvious and by coincidence IS a homophone and “delivered” can be loosely interpreted as “received as”.

    Thanks to Andrew and Qaos

  19. Yes quite hard in parts but all solved. An ASPIDISTRA isn’t grown for its flowers which are almost invisible and at soil level, however.

    Thanks Qaos, Andrew and all.

  20. Nothing to add to the observations already made which, as usual, are excellent and informative. I completed o.k. but missed the theme, though the film is one of my favourites, and a genuine classic of British cinema.

  21. I really enjoyed this, despite missing the theme, two answers (25ac, 15d), and a couple of rationales (4d, 23d). My biggest beef, though, was with 19d, as I can’t see how “ttune” is a homophone for “tune” unless spoken in fear, or unless (to take another pronunciational tack) a “tea tune” is something one may hear on British radio. 🙂

    But the Paul Weller reference more than made up for all of that. Many thanks to Qaos, and to Andrew for the helpful explanations.

  22. Excellent puzzle, which I made more difficult for myself by thinking 16d must be TONY LOCK, an even more ex-England bowler. Showing my age again.

    I also thought the river in 23d must be the Ems, so thanks for parsing it for me.

    Annoying not to have spotted the theme, since it is a favourite film of mine, shot not far from where I spent much of my youth collecting the numbers of those grimy locomotives as they pounded up the bank from Kings Cross.

  23. Hi all,

    I didn’t get a chance to comment yesterday, as work was off the scale. So many thanks for all the comments and to Andrew for the detailed blog.

    I’m also glad the (stricter) Listener rules aren’t applied in the Guardian! I can think of a few more publications that wouldn’t allow partial homophones (re: i+”Thames”), but that’s what makes the Guardian fun :-).

    Best wishes,

    Qaos.

  24. Thanks for turning up Qaos (and for the blog Andrew)! Around the middle of this one I was really delighting in many clues – such as gLADYs, etc.

    Worked around and around, but get stalled at the racehorse and the cricketer. No real way to solve those without General Knowledge.

    Much enjoyment though!

  25. Estrapade completely defeated me. Indeed the bottom corner I found difficult. After a run of relatively easy puzzles- which Brummie continued the following day-this was rather taxing.

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