Guardian 26,379 by Pasquale

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The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26379

This came across as an exercise in the envelope form, and did not give me any great dfficulty.

completed grid

Across
1 ART EDITOR Publishing employee left page out, modern technology getting nothing right (3,6)
A charade of [p]ARTED (‘left’) without the P (‘page out’) plus IT (‘modern technology’) plus O (‘nothing’) plus R (‘right’).
6 RUTH Religious book of knowledge, origin undiscovered (4)
A subtraction: [t]RUTH (‘knowledge’) without its first letter (‘origin undiscovered’), for the Old Testment book.
8 CORNICHE Gosh! Cosy place is visible from coastal road (8)
 charade of COR (‘gosh!’) plus NICHE (‘cosy place’).
9 SQUEAL Cry from queen nipped by mammal (6)
An envelope (‘nipped by’, curious inclusion indicator) of QU (‘queen’) in SEAL (‘mammal’).
10 FROGGY Like amphibian in river, when it’s very misty outside (6)
An envelop (‘when it’s … outside’) of R (‘river’) in FOGGY (‘very misty’),
11 CELLARED Worried about English litres left in wine store (8)
An envelope (‘about’) of E (‘English’) plus L (‘litres’) plus L (‘left’) in CARED (‘worrtied’).
12 SPAT ON Spring fashion treated with contempt (4,2)
A charade of SPA (‘spring’) plus TON (‘fashion’).
15 LIE ABOUT Before a fight have pork pie in lounge (3,5)
A charade of LIE (‘pork pie’, rhyming slang) plus ‘a’ plus BOUT (‘fight’).
16 SANDWICH Snack with traditional jam providers brought into school (8)
An envelope (‘brought into’) of AND (‘with’) plus WI (Women’s Institute, ‘traditional jam providers’. One of the original aims of Women’s Institutes was to promote food production during the First World War) in SCH (‘school’).
19 THROAT Passage that is lined with rolled gold (6)
An envelope  (‘lined with’) of RO, a reversal (‘rolled’) of OR (‘gold’) in ‘that’.
21 CANNABIS Interrupting major or minor star, seize drug (8)
An envelope (‘interrupting’) og NAB (‘seize’) in CANIS (‘major or minor star’. Canis major and minor are actually constellations, but each contains one particularly bright alpha star, Sirius and Procyon respectively).
22 MEDWAY Education expert’s method in local authority (6)
A charade od M ED. (Master of Education. ‘education expert’) plus WAY (‘method’), for the local authority in an area around the mouth of the Medway River in the Thames Estuary.
24 MOZART Musician from Australia in the marketplace (6)
An envelope (in’) of OZ (‘Australia’) in MART (‘the marketplace’).
25 THOROUGH Rigorous to the end, letting nothing get in the way (8)
An envelope (‘letting … get in the way’) of O (‘nothing’) in THROUGH (‘to the end’).
26 NECK Impertinence that the head’s on top of (4)
Double definition.
27 REGRETTED The definition of this sounds rude! (9)
The play is on RUED as a homophone (‘sounds’) of ‘rude’, which then provides the definition.
Down
1 AMOUR Without love it’s a strange upsetting liaison (5)
An envelope (‘without’) of O (‘love’) in ‘a’ plus MUR, a reversal (‘upsetting’ in a down light) of RUM (‘strange’).
2 TONIGHT Later, when darkness comes on, drunk hangs round (7)
An envelope (‘hangs round’) of ‘on’ in TIGHT (‘drunk’).
3 DECOY Lure of French, affectedly shy (5)
A charade of DE (‘of French’) plus COY (‘affectedly shy’),
4 TIERCEL Hawkish type in row with half the Scottish team (7)
A charade of TIER (‘row’) plus CEL[tic] (‘half the Scottish team’, soccer)
5 RESILIENT Tries somehow to hold tricky line, reluctant to cave in? (9)
An envelope (‘to hold’) of LIEN, and anagram (‘tricky’) if ‘line’ in RESIT, an anagram (‘somehow’) of ‘tries’.
6 RHUBARB Sound of extra nonsense (7)
Double definition, but with a common idea: the word traditikonally repeated by extras in theatrical crowd scenes to give the impression of general converasion without drowning out the principal characters – and hence speech with no particular meaning, or nonsense.
7 TRABECULA Brutal ace found out, put in cell? (9)
An anagram (‘found out’) of ‘brutal ace’. A trabecula (‘originally singular, with plural trabeculae, although sometimes treated as a neuter plural trabecula with singular trabeculum) is an element of tissue in the form of a rod with supportive and connective functions in various organs. I think the definition, whether ‘cell’ or ‘in cell’ ‘put in cell’, definitely requires the question mark.
13 PHALAROPE Chum with a cord securing foot of awkwardish bird (9)
An envelope (‘securing’) of H (‘foot of awkwardisH‘) in PAL (‘chum’) plus ROPE (‘cord’).
14 NAIL BITER One anxious when making digital contact (4,5)
Cryptic definition.
17 DENMARK Country retreat given visible sign (7)
A charade of DEN (‘retreat’) plus MARK (‘visible sign’).
18 HASHTAG New style identification has revolutionised biblical city (7)
A charade of ‘has’ plus HTAG, a reversal (‘revolutioonised’) of GATH (‘Biblical city’).
20 RIDE OUT Survive defeat, admitting inadequate notion (4,3)
An envelope (‘admitting’) of IDE[a] (‘notion’) incomplete (‘inadequate’) in ROUT (‘defeat’).
22 MOOSE Report of wee animal or a much bigger one (5)
A refeerence to Burns’ “Wee, sleekit, cow’rin tim’rous beastie”.
23 ALGID Glad to be spoilt when one’s caught cold (5)
An envelope (‘when… caught’) of I (‘one’, Roman numeral of impersonal first person pronoun) in ALGD, an anagram (‘to be spoilt’) of ‘glad’.

 

27 comments on “Guardian 26,379 by Pasquale”

  3. PeterO – I think 5D is just an anagram of Tries and Line isn’t it?
    Some new words in this one – my favourite is 16Ac. The WI famously don’t like being known as jam providers since they do so much more than that nowadays

  4. Thanks Pasquale and PeterO

    I liked SQUEAL with the “nipped” indicator, a nice change. In 16a assume the S…..CH come from school.

    CANNABIS made me laugh, fields of it are grown near us (hemp for ropes), and I recently saw an American tourist absolutely gobsmacked staring at one.

  5. Thanks Pasquale and PeterO. Very enjoyable and almost finished. Defeated by Trabecula and Rhubarb – the latter though was down to putting in ACTS for 6A = [f]ACTS. Anyone else make this slip?

    Last successful entry was REGRETTED, nice clue too.

  6. More words that should not be in a daily puzzle: ALGID, PHALAROPE, TRABECULA. Why are they allowed?! And FROGGY I think is a rather weak inclusion.

  7. Thanks Pasquale for the puzzle, nd for dropping by.

    Shirley @3

    Yes, 5D RESILIENT is an anagram of ‘tries’ and ‘line’; I presented it as an anagram-within-an-anagram, following the way Pasquale’s clued it.

    Cookie @4

    Yes, in 16A I omitted to post the envelope – now corrected.

    Urieka @5

    I agree that ACTS is a very reasonable answer for 6A; it so happened that it did not confuse me, as I got 6D RHUBARB first (the final B was enough of a hint).

  8. @6 Well, we have hedgehoggy, so why not FROGGY. Think a few unknown words add to the interest. New to me were ALGID, and TRABECULA (words I’ve probably met in the past and forgotten), and HASHTAG, a word only included in dictionaries this year I read.

  9. Seeing a Pasquale always produces mixed feelings; I know it’ll be hard but fair. No exception here. one fo those that defeated me was 7d, which suggested something beginning BACTER-. A fine misdirection if intended.

  10. @hedgehoggy I agree with you, for a change, about trebucula and algid, but not about phalarope. It’s a perfectly well known word to bird watchers.

  11. I found this pretty hard work – looked at it for at least five minutes before could I even make a start, and there were a few obscurities. There is no way I would have known that TRABECULA was right without looking it up, and I needed that to get my last in, THROAT. ALGID was also unfamiliar, but obvious once I had all of the crossers – though understanding the M.Ed. in MEDWAY took some time too. Liked CANNABIS, REGRETTED and HASHTAG

    Thanks to PeterO and Pasquale

  12. almw3 @10. Think quite a few people must know PHALAROPE. It is in the title of a book which stays in the head, “Too Late the Phalarope”, as does “Cry, the Beloved Country” by the same author, Alan Paton.

  13. almw3 @10, hedgehoggy @6 – I think that all of these words are fair game, given that they are clued using familiar components – after all it’s nice to learn something from a crossword every now and again. PHALAROPE and TIERCEL were a little obscure but vaguely familiar, and I might have struggled with CORNICHE too had I not remembered being told about them on a trip to the south of France when I was 7 or 8…

  14. Thanks Pasquale and PeterO
    I found this un-engaging, and didn’t bother to work out the MEDWAY/MOOSE crossers. I though TRUST = KNOWLEDGE a bit tenuous. I did like SANDWICH, though.

  15. Thanks PeterO and Pasquale, especially for the apology, makes much more sense with the plural.

    P seems to have reverted to a harder puzzle after his more recent ones; I never seem to be on his wavelength when he is in this mode.

    CORNICHE: I had this niggle we had “coastal road” not long ago but I couldn’t recall it – I should have done, as I made a bit of a thing about Logogdaedalus’ clue for it on April 9 this year.

  16. I had ACTS instead of RUTH at 6A too. Fortunately solving 6D was eventually able to put me straight!

  18. I found this a little tricky, particularly in the SE, and the MOOSE/MEDWAY crossers were my last ones in. It took me much longer than it should have done to get THOROUGH and REGRETTED.

    As for the “controversial” words, I thought PHALAROPE could be easily deduced from the wordplay, ALGID had to be the most likely arrangement of the anagram fodder once the checkers were in place, and TRABECULA was pretty much the same.

  19. Well I found this more than tricky,in fact I came very close to slinging the paper across the room. I thought it very difficult to parse and found myself guessing answers. I had to look up ALGID, PHALAROPE and TRABECULA,and I wouldn’t like to admit how long it took me to get MEDWAY-although the latter was very well clued. I liked REGRETTED though.
    I can’t say I enjoyed this one!

  20. Referred to Chambers twice (“algid” & “trabecula”) – but had them cornered nicely.
    Actually, three times (“cellaret” – which does exist, but very lazy parsing by me). So, I was out by one letter.
    Thanks Pasquale & PeterO.

  21. Very hard work, but I like them that way. Eventually got almost all of it. Particularly liked HASHTAG and PHALAROPE. Thanks to Pasquale and PeterO.

  23. Thanks Pasquale and PeterO

    Enjoyed this round with the Don in his more typical role of including the handful of lesser known words. Last couple in were ALGID and MEDWAY.

    I had SANDWICH confidently entered … had the SCH but had absolutely no idea with the ANDWI bit … so thanks Peter for putting me out of that misery.

    Lots to like … including the quick appearance here to acknowledge the issue with the stars!

  24. I finished this more puzzled than when I started. ‘Trabecula’ is a new one to me, and ‘algid’, though I knew ‘gelid’ as meaning much the same. The WI connection passed me by.

  25. Gerry @24 – you’re not the only one who thought about gelid before realising it wouldn’t parse…

  27. Huw @26

    In Burns’ Scots dialect, it is not so far off: the Wikipedia article renders the poem’s title in Scots as “Tae a moose”; or listen to a recitation such as this one, where Burns apostrophises the “mousie” just before the famous lines

    The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
    Gang aft agley,

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