Guardian 26,290 / Puck

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I didn’t particularly enjoy this puzzle when solving it shortly after dawn this morning and I enjoyed it even less when I had to write this post at short notice because the scheduled blogger had failed to turn up. Usually I find Puck’s puzzles fun and light-hearted but this one seemed to lack sparkle and some of the clues left a bit to be desired, at least for me.

With some help from Eileen I have been able (eventually) to parse all of the clues except 26ac, where the second part of the wordplay eludes me.

There would appear to be a theme involving 1, 5, 20, 25, 17, 23 and a further mini-theme of 21, 20, 25.

Across
1 The ultimate in non-celebrity? (7)
UNKNOWN – cryptic def. – at least I assume this is the intention as I cannot see any wordplay – Edit: DavidS @ 9 has a better explanation

5 Fighter is some giant, in more ways than one (7)
SOLDIER – GI & ANT can both be soldiers – as I said in an email to Eileen, “this is a Playtex clue too far”

10 Archbishop weds two intimate solvers near the 17 23 (4)
TUTU – TU TU (you, in French, twice {two intimate solvers}) – the ‘intimate’ implies the second person singular which would only be used if you know the person being spoken/written to

11 Gym users taking oxygen for energy are arguably a dispiriting lot (10)
EXORCISERS – EXeRCISERS (gym users) with O replacing e (taking oxygen for energy)

13 Nurse returned after putting in quiet hour working in kidney units (8)
NEPHRONS – SEN (nurse) reversed (returned) around (after putting in) P (quiet) HR (hour) ON (working) – “one of over a million functional units in the vertebrate kidney, responsible for reabsorption of water and nutrients and for the filtration of waste products from the blood” (Chambers)

14 Uniform colour of foreign boulevard, one taken for university (5,4)
OLIVE DRAB – an anagram (foreign) of BO[u]LEVARD I

16 Revealing pictures of 1 5s and other 1s (1-4)
X-RAYS – X (1 {unknown}) RA (5s {soldiers}) YS (other 1s (unknowns)

17,23 Monument to head crimper arranged (3,2,8)
ARC DE TRIOMPHE – an anagram (arranged) of TO HEAD CRIMPER

19 One may have a blowout meal after day out on the underground (5,4)
INNER TUBE – [d]INNER (meal after day out) TUBE (the underground)

24,12 Deserted child found by extremely 1 5 after note translated (6,6)
ENFANT TROUVE – an anagram (translated) of U[nknow]N (extremely 1) V (5) AFTER NOTE

26 Pigment from 17 23 location, featuring in advertisement (5,5)
PARIS GREEN – PARIS (17 23 location) GREEN – I have no idea how ‘featuring in advertisement’ gives ‘green’ – Edit: please see comments 1 & 2. Thanks NeilW & stanyel

27 Return of the French Lieutenant’s first 1 5 supporter (4)
ALLY – LA (the French) reversed (return of) L[ieutenant] (Lieutenant’s first) Y (1 {unknown})

28 Mentally prepares to pronounce name of Dickensian murderer (7)
PSYCHES – a homophone (to pronounce) of ‘[Bill] Sikes’ (name of Dickensian murderer {in Oliver Twist})

29 Like a colour that is reflected in a red glow (7)
BLUEISH – IE (that is) reversed (reflected) in BLUSH (a red glow)

Down
2 An Ulster deployment, initially starting out impartial (7)
NEUTRAL – an anagram, (deployment) of AN UL[s]ER (‘initially starting out’ indicating the removal of the S)

3 Island republic some guru annually turns up in (5)
NAURU – a hidden reversal in ‘gURU ANnually’

4 Small boy finally asked what could be long and dirty  (7)
WEEKEND – WEE (small) KEN (boy) [aske]D (finally asked)

6 Protest movement raised firm support at start of year (6)
OCCUPY – CO (firm) reversed (raised) CUP (support {presumably referring to part of a bra}) Y[ear] (start of year)

7 Run away with turncoat 5 (6,3)
DESERT RAT – DESERT (run away) RAT (turncoat)

8 Deviant tendency of drunk, heading off to drink another can (7)
ERRANCY – [b]EERY [m]ERRY (drunk, heading off) around (to drink) an anagram (another) of CAN – Edit: thanks Bad John @ 4

9 Went climbing with Ben before journalist comes round (13)
MOUNTAINEERED – MOUNTAIN (Ben) ED (journalist) around (comes round) ERE (before)

15 Pre-DVD CD programme divides round number by a hundred (9)
VIDEODISC – an anagram (programme) of DIVIDES around (round) 0 (number) by C (a hundred)

18 5s repeatedly sad, messed up studies again (7)
REREADS – RE RE (5s {soldiers} repeatedly) plus an anagram (messed up) of SAD

20 Girl group / going on for ever? (7)
ETERNAL – double def. – thank goodness for Wikipedia as I had never heard of this R&B girl group

21 Fish found in case of brass ornaments (7)
BANGLES – ANGLE (fish) in B[ras]S (case of brass)

22 Highest point I somersaulted in a gym (6)
APOGEE – EGO (I) reversed (somersaulted) in A PE (a gym)

25 Send rude online message to lover (5)
FLAME – double def.

43 comments on “Guardian 26,290 / Puck”

  3. Sorry – I can’t help with 26 – I was hoping for enlightenment on that myself.

    On the whole I found this entertaining and mostly straightforward once I had 17 23 and 1 5, so easier than Puck sometimes is. Last in was PSYCHES, one of my favourites along with EXORCISERS, BLUEISH and WEEKEND. Further to yesterday’s ECRU discussion NAURU is another candidate for a word that crops up far more often in crosswords than anywhere else.

    Thanks to Gaufrid for stepping in and to Puck for the crossword.

  4. I think that you might have a mistake in 8D. [b]EERY gives the wrong number of Es and Rs. [m]ERRY works better.

  5. Must have spent too long writing the reply – thanks to NeilW and stanyel for the explanation which looks right to me…

  7. I thought the theme was perhaps a little more military than just memorials and monuments with 14, 27, 2, 6 and 7 included.

  8. Thanks NeilW & stanyel @ 1 & 2
    It’s obvious now that you have pointed it out.

    Thanks also Bad John @4
    You are most certainly right. I must have still been half asleep when I originally parsed the clue early this morning and I was in a rush when writing the post so didn’t notice my error.

  9. Regarding 1 across, my explanation is this, for what it’s worth – the ultimate letter in “non-celebrity” is Y, which is commonly used to represent an unknown.

  11. I finished this but I must thank Gaufrid and others for explaining 1a, 5a, 14a, 24/12a, 26a, 9d, 20d. Perhaps my powers are waning. Or perhaps some of Puck’s clues are a bit over-contrived today – which would also account for Gaufrid’s disappointment.

  12. Thanks Gaufrid and all the others who contributed. I found several solutions hard to parse. In 6d, how can “protest movement”, a noun, be the definition of “occupy”, a verb?

  13. Hi crosser @12
    The definition, indicated by the bold italics, is ‘protest movement’ and I included a link with the answer which leads to a Wikipedia page explaining the connection.

  14. Gaufrid @ 8, I am pleased that I was some small help. I frequently read this blog but I am rarely able to contribute anything.

    @ 5, you could change your name to Merry Hiker but I like the joke in your name as it is.

  15. crosser @12 – Occupy is/was a specific example of a protest movement not a generic description – remember the Occupy Wall Street, Occupy London (etc) protests a couple of years ago…

  16. There’s some sort of hint at the Bangles hit ‘Eternal Flame’ in there. Perhaps the start of a theme which didn’t get anywhere unless I’m missing others.

  17. Sorry, Gaufrid @ 13, I hadn’t realised the blue capitals indicated a link, and thank you, beery hiker @15, for your explanation.

  19. Thanks Puck and Gaufrid
    I didn’t enjoy it much either.

    Although Chambers does have an entry for “enfant trouve”, the first four pages of Google hits are all to pages in French (or translation pages), so it doesn’t appear that this phrase, which I have never heard, is in common use in English. Is this fair?

  20. Hi NeilW @8
    That thought crossed my mind as well but they don’t exactly fit with 17,23 so I kept my interpretation of the theme to that indicated in the final paragraph of my preamble.

  21. Hi David Mop @11
    “Or perhaps some of Puck’s clues are a bit over-contrived today – which would also account for Gaufrid’s disappointment.”

    It is funny you should say that. The end of the first paragraph of my preamble originally read “… and some of the clues were rather contrived” but I changed this before publishing the post.

  23. Hi muffin @19
    I hadn’t come across ENFANT TROUVE either before today (I’m reasonably sure it didn’t crop up whilst I was studying for my French O-level) and I only got it by doing a wildcard search of Chambers.

    As for “Is this fair?”, in this instance I would say not. One of the reasons I started solving cryptics many years ago was to broaden my vocabulary, and I still enjoy learning new words, but this, I would say, obscure phrase was clued by an anagram with part of the fodder being deliberately misleading.

    There is a school of thought that says recondite answers should be given relatively straightforward clues and I tend to agree with this approach (except perhaps for the likes of the Listener et al).

  24. muffin @ 9; no I do not think it is fair. Quite complex french phrases seem to be creeping in these days in a kind of “pretentious moi” way which I think we should highlight when, as you write muffin, the word or phrase is not used regularly in English. Where might it end Icelandic couplets, Kiswahili limericks…..
    Apart from that rant, I enjoyed this more than most here seem to have done, so thanks Puck and very many thanks Gaufrid!!

  26. I noticed eternal flame by the bangles as well but not sure of the significance. Never heard of enfant trouve either and I lived in Paris for three years.
    Enjoyed the puzzle though and took me longer than usual – real trouble parsing 5a.

  27. Given up on this one largely because of what I now know is ENFANT TROUVE. I am delighted to find that it’s bugged other people too.

  29. @19 – if you google ‘Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arc de Triomphe’, you’ll see the link – an eternal flame burns there

  30. I got there in the end but it was hard work. Having said that, I quite enjoyed teasing out the answers. FLAME, from one of the two definitions, was my LOI after I finally saw ALLY and how it worked. Although I’d never heard of ENFANT TROUVE I was able to work it out from the wordplay, so I don’t think it was as poor a clue as some of you did. If I’d been asked to spell 28ac before this puzzle it would have been “psychs”.

  31. I’m afraid I found this not only too contrived but rather tedious. I eventually got all the solutions, but when I pressed the check all button it indicated initially that ‘flame’ was incorrect. As I entered it as a guess – having never encountered the word as a rude message, I thought I must have made an error, but when I rechecked it showed as correct.
    Confused of Northumberland.

  32. Most of this was too hard for me and I cheated a lot, but I did like WEEKEND. I worked out that 24,12 must be ENFANT something, and I know enough French to guess TROUVE as a likely second word, but like many here I have never met the phrase in English and coupled with the difficult clue this feels like too much obscurity even for Puck.

  33. Very late to the party – I’ve been out since before lunch, so didn’t know Gaufrid was doing the blog [I can’t believe we both missed ‘vert’ 🙁 ] – many thanks to him for standing in yet again.

    Nothing to add now, except to agree totally with Andy B @30: not only would I have spelt the answer as ‘psychs’, if I saw PSYCHES, I would pronounce it as two syllables. Yet again, both Collins and Chambers give this alternative, so I’m not blaming Puck.

    Thanks to him for the puzzle but I have to say that, if I’d been doing the puzzle ‘blindfold’ – you know what I mean – his name would not have been among the first half dozen I’d have guessed. Sorry, Puck!

    [Hi beery hiker @3

    “Further to yesterday’s ECRU discussion NAURU is another candidate for a word that crops up far more often in crosswords than anywhere else.”

    So you don’t watch ‘Pointless’, then? 😉 ]

  34. Eileen @33 – fair point – I probably have seen Nauru mentioned on Pointless at least a couple of times, and I don’t watch it that regularly. It probably scores quite highly in mentions per capita in the media because of its vulnerability to global warming – you certainly hear about it more than the likes of Tuvalu and Vanuatu. [and now I’m just trying to ignore the dying seconds of England’s world cup campaign]

  35. I think some of you have failed to realise how clever this puzzle is, because you bought into Gaufrid’s poorly paw – Aah.

  36. Tuck @35: I’m from out of town. What do the last three words of your comment mean?
    As for the puzzle – thanks to Puck and Gaufrid, etal for the parsing. New words or phrases for
    men included ENFANT TROUVE, NEPHRONS and PARIS GREEN. Liked 14ac having worn the color for
    two years as known soldier not unknown.

    Cheers…

  37. Made decent headway. So many interconnected clues, makes it very hard for me. Looks like some homage to D-Day. Ally, arc-de-triomph, field marshal rommel, unknown soldier, olive drab. Unknown soldier and the arch of victory forming the lynchpins that need to be cracked.

    Telegraph got 5 terms related to operation overlord seventy years ago, and scared MI6. No such problem this time though.

  38. Well, I solved this, without too much effort, either side of the England debacle.

    I agree with Gaufrid that this was not up to the usual Puck standard. Some weak clues and although we usually forgive his assumptions of our knowledge of Irish geography and folklore I’m not sure this will stretch to obscure French phrases!

    Thanks to Gaufrid and Puck.

    P.S. I hope your “poorly paw” gets better soon G. (I didn’t understand this either!?)

  39. One other complicated (if inconsequential, and perhaps too obvious) link between 21 and 20 is that the Bangles are also a girl group.

  40. Thanks Puck and Gaufrid

    Only finished the last couple – FLAME and ENFANT TROUVÉ last night.

    Certainly a bit tougher to parse many clues than normal for this setter, but none the worse for that. Needed to come here to divide GI-ANT, find the right bit of the fodder for the anagram at 24,12 (I was looking for UVE not UNV!), the VERT in 26 (brilliant clue when you see that) and to find [M]ERRY instead of my drunk [J]ERRY CAN.

    I wonder if the BANGLES was a cheeky after thought when ETERNAL FLAME went in as a part of the military theme. Notice that Puck didn’t make his usual appearance here.

  41. Saved for the weekend. I rather enjoyed this puzzle, unlike other commenters. “Paris green” is a very nice clue. My one quibble was just a question of taste; didn’t like O being the “number” in 15dn. But overall, I rated this much more than did others here. Oh yes! – and I really enjoyed ‘getting’ enfant terrible from the wordplay. So (and my first capitals ever here – to balance out the negative comments) ENORMOUS THANKS TO PUCK!!
    And enormous respect to Gaufrid for stepping into the breech (with accomplishment!)

  42. Neglected to mention how much I appreciated 1ac and 5ac. I was lucky to get “unknown” from the ‘y’ of non-celebrity which immediately suggested “soldier”. Thus I entered the main body with a great taste in my mouth. And perhaps such helped me to enjoy puzzle so much. Just my luck?!

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