Guardian 26,271 by Chifonie

26 comments on “Guardian 26,271 by Chifonie”

1. Online version gives MEDITATION for 6d, which I can’t make sense of. I too had MEDICATION.

2. That makes three of us. Thanks for the early posting manehi

3. Thanks Chifonie and manehi

   A bit of a breather from yesterday with the typical crisp clueing style of this setter.

   No real holdups with COMPLY the last one to go in.

4. Thanks to Chifonie for a well-done, fairly easy puzzle (although I was held up for a quite a while by PRECARIOUS because I had inadvertently transposed the L and the U in the crossing VOLUME!).

   Stephen@1: I too wondered why the Check All feature insisted it was MEDI*T*ATION!

   Thanks for the blog, manehi.

5. 6d is a Grauniad lash-up. The web site indicates ‘meditation’ as the answer, though the clue clearly requires ‘medication’. Perhaps the compiler, or editor, had a change of mind and failed to make all the necessary corrections.
   I found this a capable, if somewhat pedestrian, puzzle – especially after yesterday’s treat.

6. Sorry Abhay, we crossed.
   By the way, I’m not convinced by the definition for 23a.

7. George Clements@6: I found the definition a bit iffy too, but then remembered that in US TV serials, lawyers (even defence lawyers) often refer to themselves as “officers of the court.” I guess that must have British roots, so it should be okay!

8. A nice and smooth puzzle, even though fairly easy.

   Have a doubt on the wording in 25a: does ‘Political leader’ amount to ‘leader of Political’? Have seen a bit of fuss made about this in some places insisting that it should be ‘political’s leader’ for the cryptic translation to work correctly.

9. Started well but then got a little bogged down. LOI was GALLOWAY.

   Thanks manehi; I don’t think MEDITATION is a very good cold remedy, but then neither are most supposed MEDICATIONs.

10. Thanks Chifonie and Manehi. Very enjoyable. Anyone else get held up by inserting ‘common’ at 3d?

11. Thanks to manehi for the blog.

    On 17 I had the right answer but failed to parse it because I was trying to insert the name of a river, e.g. EXE, into something and got nowhere. 🙁

    I found this puzzle much more to my taste than yesterday’s: that was hard work for me.

12. xjp @10: “Anyone else get held up by inserting ‘common’ at 3d?”
    ha ha, yes 😀

    Seemed to work well enough – it was only after struggling with 11a starting M_E that we looked for alternatives

13. Robi @9 – maybe meditation helps you forget that you have a cold (or has a placebo effect). Is it Monday again already – this seemed very straightforward to me. Last in was FEATHER.

    Thanks to manehi and Chifonie

14. On 6d I complained to the Reader’s editor.
    I had a reply saying the crossword editor is fixing it.
    I have just checked and now the Guardian agrees it is MEDICATION. 🙂

15. Well done chas, finished this a couple of hours ago but only just got back to post. Don’t know what I would have thought if I’d been doing it online. Happened to be my last in too.

    Like others, found this an enjoyable relief after yesterday’s magnificent but tough work out.

    4d probably my favourite for I couldn’t decide whether the s was going to start or finish – I’d been flirting with SOUND OUT at 8, don’t know why.

16. Thanks all
    I now feel quite reassured that my only omission was 6d.

17. For me this was a typical Chifonie puzzle, MEDICATION was my LOI, and by the time I did the puzzle online the problem with the wrong answer had been fixed.

18. Like beery i did wonder if it was Monday again. Doing dead tree meant i never saw the 6d problem.
    Thanks s&b, a mixed week on the G side.

19. Thanks manehi and chifonie

    Started this enjoyable and not too difficult puzzle late today.
    Favourite clues were 15a 19d, and 22d.

20. Pedestrian indeed. 🙁

    Although I was held up by STICKY. Nothing else would fit so it had to be. I still can’t see “get on” = “stick”. Obviously I’m being stupid but can someone give me a sentence where the two are interchangeable?

    Thanks to manehi and Chifonie

21. Re stick, I suppose you could say “I started the crossword, but couldn’t stick with it”? I too didn’t spend long thinking about that though.

    Yes, a neat, straightforward puzzle, like one of the better Everymans maybe.

    Thanks all.

22. The previous puzzles by this setter were slightly more tricky – on the scale of Chifonie that is, of course – and I liked that.
    This crossword was a breeze but one has to say it’s all very smooth.

    The only time I did something with my eyebrows was in 17ac (STRINGY).
    Not sure whether flower = river = R is 100% fair.
    No problem with it as such, however flower is a kind of cryptic description of river and then we have to shorten it to R?
    In my opinion, a two-layered thing which I myself wouldn’t use.

    Apart from that, enjoyable if short entertainment.

23. I share the misgivings expressed above about ‘get on’ for STICK, ‘flower’ for R and ‘Political leader’ for P.

    And in 9/10 I don’t think ‘Couple’ for DUET is right. ‘duo’ is a synonym for both but that does not make them synonyms of each other. Also the ellipses are neither functional nor decorative. They serve only to make the incomplete 9 into a sentence. And one that turns out to make little sense.

24. Brendan(not that one)@ 20
    I think it is get on with = stick. Though usually in the negative, as I can’t stick . . . Name your choice!

25. Thanks Anon @24

    This is a good theory and the closest yet. Although I didn’t think of “get on with” I’m still not happy with it. “Get on with” suggests a good relationship even if a limited one. “Stick” in this sense however suggests some kind of tolerance or endurance on the part of the “sticker” in my opinion.

26. 23: thanks rhotician, for saving me my customary comment on ellipsises like that.

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