Guardian 26,248 by Chifonie

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Fun and nicely clued, but on the easy side for Chifonie. Favourite was 5ac.

Across
1 PRIMROSE Sprinkler required after Penny gets border plant (8)
=”plant”. ROSE=a perforated nozzle=”Sprinkler”, after P[enny] plus RIM=”border”
5 BARONS Members of the aristocracy lounge on Sunday (6)
=”Members of the aristocracy”. BAR=”lounge”, plus ON, plus S[unday]
9 OPEN FIRE Begin hostilities in a hot place (4,4)
=”Begin hostilities”; =”a hot place”
10 PAST IT Wine stored in port and aged (4,2)
=”aged”. ASTI=”Wine” in PT=”port”
12 PULSE Seeds taking some beating (5)
=”Seeds”; =”some beating”
13 PHONETICS Pinochet’s muddled analysis of speech (9)
=”analysis of speech”. (Pinochet’s)*
14 SHEARING SHED A place for cropping trials in Slough (8,4)
=”A place for cropping” sheep. HEARINGS=”trials” in SHED=”Slough”
18 ASPIRATIONAL Ambitious and venomous reptile, one that’s intelligent (12)
=”Ambitious”. ASP=”venomous reptile” plus I=”one” plus RATIONAL=”intelligent”
21 POLISH OFF European’s gone? Put away (6,3)
cryptically =”European’s gone”; =”Put away”
23 LOOSE Promiscuous European after the toilets (5)
=”Promiscuous”. E[uropean] after LOOS=”toilets”
24 NEUTER Doctor broke tureen (6)
=”Doctor”. (tureen)*
25 PERVERSE Wayward congressman rejected poetry (8)
=”Wayward”. REP[resentative]=”congressman” reversed (“rejected”), plus VERSE=”poetry”
26 REEFER Mention hiding earl’s jacket (6)
a short thick double-breasted “jacket”. REFER=”Mention”, around E[arl]
27 STARTLED Pioneer showed the way in a state of shock (8)
=”in a state of shock”. START=”Pioneer” as a verb, plus LED=”showed the way”
Down
1 PROMPT Quick and easy victory in gymnastics (6)
=”Quick”. ROMP=”easy victory”, in P[hysical] T[herapy]=”gymnastics”
2 IDEALS High standards of ladies become corrupted (6)
=”High standards”. (ladies)*
3 REFRESHER Drink in training review (9)
=a “Drink” that refreshes; =”training review” or refresher course
4 STRIP CARTOON Presently about to fall over transport — drawing amusement? (5,7)
=”drawing amusement”. SOON=”presently” around TRIP=”fall over” plus CART=”transport”. Edit thanks to DavinNCarolina
6 ADAGE Saw one’s daughter get on (5)
=an old “Saw”. A=”one” plus D[aughter] plus AGE=”get on”
7 OUTRIGHT Absolutely impossible Conservative (8)
=”Absolute”. OUT=not to be considered=”impossible”, plus RIGHT=”Conservative”
8 SET ASIDE Dismiss Greek characters in team (3,5)
=”Dismiss”. ETAS=”Greek characters” in SIDE=”team”
11 DOMINO EFFECT Chain of events making me infect food, accidentally (6,6)
=”Chain of events”. (me infect food)*
15 GEAR LEVER German aristocrat always found in a car (4,5)
=”found in a car”. G[erman] plus EARL=”aristocrat” plus EVER=”always”
16 DAMPENER Lady reading about writer is a spoilsport (8)
=”spoilsport”. DAME=”Lady” plus R[eading] (the first of the 3 R’s), both around PEN=”writer”
17 APPLAUSE Primate accepts Paul’s dubious accolade (8)
=”accolade”. APE=”Primate”, around (Paul’s)*
19 CORRAL Enclosure puts Rex in the pink (6)
=”Enclosure”. R[ex] in CORAL=”pink”
20 BEHEAD Ambassador in sight of guillotine (6)
=”guillotine”. H[is] E[xcellency]=”Ambassador”, in BEAD=”sight” of a gun.
22 SWEDE Foreigner is initially Sheffield United player (5)
=”Foreigner”. S[heffield] initially, plus WED=”United” plus E[ast]=”player” in bridge.

 

27 comments on “Guardian 26,248 by Chifonie”

  1. Agreed that this was fun. My favourite was OPEN FIRE. Last in was BEHEAD – very obvious in hindsight, although I didn’t know before that BEAD is the sight of a gun. Thanks Chifonie & Manehi.

  2. Thanks, Manehi, for explaining a few that I couldn’t parse.

    In 4d, I believe that the transport has to be CART.

  3. Thanks, manehi. I’m afraid I don’t agree with you. I found this was considerably harder than the usual Chifonie standard. That’s not to say it was difficult, though! 😉

  4. Two references to ‘earl’ and two ‘PT’ envelopes, clued differently.

    Just saying…

  6. The first time I have completed a Chifonie! Just want to say thank you all for this site and those who contribute. My solving has improved dramatically over the last year. At least I can hope to keep the dementia at bay a little longer. Lots to enjoy in this, especially the accurate cueing.

  7. Good fun as usual from Chifonie. Plenty of neat clues.

    Cryptocyclist – “plenty of accurate cueing” – you must have been watching the snooker!

  10. For 22, I kept trying to find a footballer named either Wede or Wiss* – the wordplay fell into place only after I filled in Swede through the crosses and the “wed” jumped out at me!

    [*Interestingly, googling reveals that there are footballers called both Wede and Wiss, and that the latter played for a team called Tampere *United* in Finland!]

    Like almw3, my LOI too was 5ac. Once spotted, so very easy, but took ages to see it!

    Great time overall – thanks to Chifonie, and to manehi.

  11. Thanks manehi and Chifonie

    Like Abhay I too was held up parsing Swede and finding obscure (to me) footballers and other sportsmen called Wede! Like him too I only saw it when I wrote it in.

    I ticked 14a, 11d and 20d.

    Re ‘bead’ for ‘sight’ I recently recalled a somewhat bloodthirsty 1950s song ‘Shotgun Boogie’ by Tennessee Ernie Ford, which has the line ‘Look out Mr Dove when she draws her bead on you’.

  12. Thanks Chifonie and manehi

    Found this mostly straightforward and held up for a while in the NE with PAST IT and BARONS the last two in. Took a little time to see the parsing of SHEARING SHED and STRIP CARTOON. Also SWEDE took a while … going down the Sheffield Wednesday path till the penny dropped – not all that good with English football!

  13. Thanks Chifonie and manehi.

    I made rather heavy weather of this. I couldn’t see DAMPENER even with most of the crossers. I liked SWEDE with the nod to Sheffield WEDnesday as well as United. BARONS was also my LOI.

  14. Think I’m pretty much with most others in finding this a little more testing than some Chifonies – or perhaps, seeing the name, got overconfident and expected loads of write-ins, which there aren’t (not to me anyway). Good crossword though, with SWEDE my favourite too, though it was only very lightly inked in for a very long time till the parsing penny dropped.

  15. Thanks to manehi for the blog.

    I have a couple of problems here. 12: PULSE is a singular word but the clue says seeds in the plural.

    10: how does one derive PT from port?

  16. Thanks all for the comments – I must just have been on the right wavelength today.

    chas: Chambers gives PULSE as either singular or plural. It also lists “port” as one of the meanings of ‘pt’ – together with part, past, past tense, pint(s), point, and post-town.

  18. Thanks to manehi for the explanations.
    I was sitting at my computer when I looked up pulse online. The first three dictionaries I tried omitted the vegetable meaning entirely and the fourth had seed in the singular.

    My Chambers is on a different floor so I did not walk up there to look. 🙁

  19. I’m with NeilW @3 – Chifonie is normally fairly straightforward and this required more thought than the last couple of his. Took me a while to see PROMPT and PULSE (my last in). BEAD=sight was new to me so I failed to parse BEHEAD. I liked the misdirection in SWEDE, especially the use of Blades rather than Owls to define SWED.

    Thanks to manehi and Chifonie

  20. Count me as another who thinks that this was slightly more difficult than most of Chifonie’s puzzles. The SW quadrant held me up the most and DAMPENER was my LOI after the NEUTER/SWEDE crossers.

  21. Well a little more difficult than the usual Chifonie.

    I’m afraid, unlike some, I found the cluing a little clunky!

    Still not convinced about “seeds” = “pulse” in this context or indeed “dampener” = “spoilsport” in any context?

    It’s probably just me. Perhaps my biorhythms are wrong 😉

    Thanks to manehi and Chifonie

  23. Dampener is from dampen

    Damper is from damp.

    I’m still not convinced by either Pulse or Dampener!

  24. So we need damperer!

    But you have to concede pulse from the first sentence of the link…

  25. Still not convinced that the use of Pulse as a plural is valid in this context.

  26. I’m new to Guardian crosswords (and fifteen squared).. a refugee from the Times. I enjoyed this; I was all set to complain about pulse = seeds but I see the setter is right after all, one pulse sometimes being a podful of seeds. No problems with dampener, even if not precise it is obvious enough what the answer is.

  27. re 12ac, Seeds = Pulses, then ‘taking some’ means ‘removing the s’, which leaves you with pulse = beating

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