Guardian 26,491 by Crucible

by

Much as you may have wished it, Eileen has not hijacked the blog, and you are stuck with me in my turn today. The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26491.

This one required quite a bit of thought, and many more references to Chambers than is usual for me. There was the odd thing that raised an eyebrow, but on the whole I found it a good challenge.

Across
9 ANECDOTAL
An English record broadcast a lot, as the story goes (9)
A charade of ‘an’ plus E (‘English’) plus CD (‘record’) plus OTAL, an anagram (‘broadcast’) of ‘a lot’.
10 APSIS
Astronomical point perhaps isn’t grasped (5)
A hidden answer (‘grasped’) in ‘perhAPS ISn’t’, for the nearest or farthest point in a satellite’s orbit.
11 TITANIA
Dream Queen Titian represented close to Padua (7)
 A charade of TITANI, An anagram (‘re-presented’) of ‘Titian’ PLUS A (‘close to PaduA‘), for the Queen of the Fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A .very simple anagram – hardly one atall – to get my way into the crossword.
12 PRIMULA
Early growth developed in Lima, Peru — not Spain (7)
An anagram (‘developed’) of ‘Lima P[e]ru’ without the E (‘not Spain’).
13 ORRIS
Iris — first one replaced by yellow variety of it (5)
‘Iris’ with the first I (‘one’) replaced by OR (‘yellow’, heraldic). Orris root is the dried rhyzome of some irises, and is used in perfumery for its violet-like smell, and in flavouring some gins.
14 OSTRACODS
Main dish of fish, as doctors ordered (9)
An anagram (‘ordered’) of ‘as doctors’. The cryptic definition would seem to suggest that the tiny creatures are a food of sea fish, and I found this reference, but they do not seem to be a common fish food. Indeed, it may be the intention to suggest the reverse – that some ostracods can prey on fish.
16 ITS ALL GREEK TO ME
I can’t fathom this Athenian attitude to Cyprus (3,3,5,2,2)
Definition and literal interpretation (with a little political commentary).
19 HETERONYM
Three worked on my back — it’s bowed, for example (9)
A charade of HETER, an anagram (‘worked’) of ‘three’ plus ‘on’ plus YM, (‘my back’), for a word, such as ‘bowed’, that had different meanings with different pronunciations.
21 NONET
Olivier et al keep working with English players (5)
An envelope (‘keep’) of ON (‘working’) plus E (‘English’) in NT (‘Olivier et al’; the Olivier Theatre is one of the three stages which make up London’s National Theatre – in full the RNT, Royal National Theatre).
22 ADRENAL
A medic’s way over somewhere near the kidneys (7)
A charade of ‘a’ plus DR (‘medic’) plus ENAL, a reversal (‘over’) of LANE (‘way’).
23 HOMERIC
Heroic, possibly involving origin of myths (7)
An envelope (‘involving’) of M (‘origin of Myths’) in HOERIC, an anagram (‘possibly’) of ‘heroic’. Another anagram that almost isn’t. The definition is extended.
24 STELE
Early column carried by wireless telegraphy (5)
A hidden answer (‘carried by’) in ‘wirelesS TELEgraph’.
25 EARPHONES
Doc’s western pal? He’s recruited about two auditors (9)
An envelope (‘recruited’) of ON (‘about’) in EARP (‘Doc’s western pal’; Doc Holliday was friend to the the Earp brothers, particularly Wyatt, and took part in the gunfight at the OK Corral) plus ‘he’s’.
Down
1 GASTROLITH
That girl’s managed to swallow nothing in food grinder (10)
An envelope (‘to swallow’) of O (‘nothing’) in GASTRLITH, an anagram (‘managed’) of ‘that girl’s’. Gastroliths are stones swallowed by some creatures – hens, for example – which lack grinding teeth, and which are held in a muscular sac in the intestinal tract called the gizzard, to aid in the grinding of food.
2 HECTARES
Large area runs round European court (8)
An envelope (’round’) of E (‘European’) plus CT (‘court’) in HARES (‘runs’).
3 ADONIS
Endlessly rebuke male put away for striking boy (6)
AD[m]ONIS[h] (‘rebuke’) without its last letter (‘endlessly’) and the M (‘male put away’).
4 STOA
Old entrance to Salvation Army houses (4)
An envelope (‘houses’) of ‘to’ in SA (‘Salvation Army’). A stoa in classical Greek architecture is a colonnade, which may act as an entrance to a building.
5 SLIPSTREAM
Wash undergarment beside river (10)
A charade of SLIP (‘undergarment’) plus STREAM (‘river’).
6 TAXI RANK
Charge one standing where fares are collected (4,4)
A charade of TAX (‘charge’) plus I (‘one’) plus RANK (‘standing’).
7 PSEUDO
Quack doctor used Post Office boxes (6)
An envelope (‘boxes’) of SEUD, an anagram (‘doctor’) of ‘used’ in PO (‘Post Office’).
8 OSSA
When extremely upset, some toss away the bones (4)
Definition and two wordplays: a reversal (‘upset’) of AS SO (‘when extremely’); and a hidden answer (‘some’) in ‘tOSS Away’.
14 ORGANELLES
Dubious legal reason area’s lacking cell units (10)
An anagram (‘dubious’) of ‘legal re[a]son’ without an A (‘area’s lacking’).
15 SCEPTICISM
Doubt lovelorn patient eating porcino is married (10)
An envelope (‘eating’) of CEP (‘porcino’, an edible mushroom Boletus edulis, French and Italian names) in ST[o]IC (‘patient’) without the O (‘lovelorn’) plus ‘is’ plus M (‘married’).
17 LARYNGES
Where cords strangely vibrate, not tense (8)
An anagram (‘vibrate’) of ‘s[t]rangely’ without the T (‘not tense’), with an extended definition.
18 OWN BRAND
Private Russell’s cheaper product (3,5)
A charade of OWN (‘private’) plus BRAND (‘Russell‘).
20 TURNER
Artist in a lather? (6)
A cryptic definition, ‘lather’ being whimsically someone using a lathe.
21 NYMPHS
Stirring hymns about debut of pretty young women (6)
An envelope (‘about’) of P (‘debut of Pretty’) in NYMHS, an anagram (‘stirring’) of ‘hymns’.
22 APSE
Where primate holds beginning of service? (4)
An envelope (‘holds’) of S (‘beginning of Service’) on APE (‘primate’), with an extended definition.
23 HERO
Someone who’s admired lady’s ring (4)
HER O (‘lady’s ring’).
completed grid

50 comments on “Guardian 26,491 by Crucible”

  1. This was a fine themed puzzle. A tip of the hat to Crucible for the number of Greek words he managed to work in. Since I am still able to stumble through Homer and Plato with the aid of a lexicon, I was at least somewhat familiar with most of them. The pure Greek words: Adonis, stoa, ossa, larynges, hero, stele, apsis. The words that adapted from Greek: gastrolith, pseudo, Homeric, nymphs. The words of Greek etymology: heteronym, scepticism, nonet. Words of partial Greek etymology: earphones, hectares.

    There may be more. The only ones I can definitely rule out are ‘Turner’, ‘slipstream’, and ‘taxi rank’.

  3. Oops, sorry about that, the Greek word for nine is ennea, of course, so you can scratch ‘nonet’. Plotinus is definitely on my case.

    However, ‘ostracods’ are in, they’re from the Greek word for pottery, ‘ostrakon’, which also refers to the hard outer shells of sea creatures.

  4. Thanks PeterO and Crucible. Needed parsing for 25ac. Many new words (all Greek to me, really) for me, but clearly clued.

  5. Quite a slog today! A number of words that needed checking with a dictionary, but all manageable (eventually!) with the wordplay.

    As is usual for me, I missed the theme! Many thanks to vinyl1 for the elucidation.

    Thanks to Crucible for an enjoyable, if difficult, start to the day and to PeterO for his unenviable task in producing the blog.

  6. Thanks Crucible and PeterO

    Some fine clues (for NYMPH, SCEPTICISM, EARPHONES for example), but also some feeble ones, as PeterO points (almost not anagrams). HOMERIC was particularly unfortunate, as it shares a first letter with HERO and includes “heroic” in the clue.

    I don’t think that “wash” = “slipstream” (and Chambers is with me on this). A wash is found on water, whereas a slipstream forms in air; also an advantage can be gained from travelling in a slipstream, but travelling in a wash is uncomfortable.

  7. Thanks Crucible and PeterO.

    I knew all the words today save ostracods and orris. I thought 16a was referring to the green line in Cyprus for a while. It wasn’t till much later when I thought there were a lot of Greek sounding words that I realised its significance.

  9. Thank you PeterO.

    Also to Vinyl1 for the Greek – not nearly enough of a classicist to have spotted that lot!

    The explanation of TURNER caused a groan – had to write that one in unparsed.

    Loved learning GASTROLITH – just a pity I’ll have so few opportunity to use it.

    Yet again missed OR = yellow. When will I ever absorb that one?

    Excellent, rather high-brow puzzle – thank you Crucible.

  11. Gave up with about four or five to go, but what a great puzzle with an excellent theme. If there’s any problem, it might be that a number of words are fairly obscure, but that’s a subjective thing and possibly par for the course on a puzzle like this.

  12. Thanks Crucible, nice idea although it was mostly Greek to me. 😉

    Thanks PeterO, I wondered who Doc’s Western pal was. Quite a few unknown words but most, like STELE, were well ‘telegraphed.’ 😉 With my extensive research, I have found that male OSTRACODS have two penises. I don’t suppose they know which way to turn!

    I’m sure it must have been done before, but I liked APSE.

  13. The theme went over my head but I certainly enjoyed the challenge. The only answer that went in with fingers crossed was OSTRACODS because other arrangements of the anagram fodder were feasible, albeit less so.

  14. This seemed a try-too-hard, or ‘compileritis’ puzzle, to me. I had numerous problems with the clues, some of which actually were very good I should say, but gems surrounded by cheaper stones. 9a cd is a recording, not a record; 10a has a tense problem; 11 is too easy; 14a is good but should not be an anagram (too obscure); 16a 2nd def is a bit odd; 23a sort of okay but too easy; 7d has a grammar problem; 14d like 14a should not be anagrammed; 17d why strangely? There is nothing weird about vocal cords vibrating; and 18d has dbe.

  16. Quite a surprise, further evidence that solving cryptics can be a mysterious business. Some days I feel stupid that I failed to see something that turned out to be ‘obvious’. Today it was almost the opposite: after a slow start, I finished this one in about an hour without aids – and parsed it – whilst fighting to stay awake. And, looking back, it wasn’t an easy one, with the main difficulty being the number of uncommon words. Maybe I should try to do more while I’m half asleep!

    Thanks, Crucible and PeterO.

  17. Thanks PeterO and Crucible

    And thanks to vinyl1 for elucidating the theme which I somehow managed to miss and which enhances the puzzle – though it was an enjoyable challenge nonetheless.

    I think ossa comes from Latin though there is a Greek cognate.

    Ostracod seems to share a common origin with ostracise despite the extremely tenuous link between thei meanings.

  18. Thanks Crucible and PeterO.

    Thanks also to Vinyl1 @1 for the Greek.

    I found this hard going. Some words, surprisingly, were not in the OCED, e.g. HETERONYM.

    I took TURNER to be a double definition, the artist Turner, RA, and a turner, a person who works with a lathe, a lather, so does PeterO. It must be more appropriate in this instance to call it a cryptic definition?

  19. Thanks, PeterO

    I really liked this one. Fortunately, I spotted 16a immediately from the enumeration, and just a few more entries showed that we were in for a pan-Hellenic puzzle. (To vinyl1’s list @1 I would have added TAXI RANK: I always thought that ‘taxi’ was related to the Greek ‘taxis’, but apparently it’s an abbreviation of ‘taximeter’, where the ‘taxi’ bit means ‘charge’, as in the word ‘tax’ itself, and therefore Latin in origin).

    Finding the theme quickly helped a lot with the solutions. I’m no Greek scholar myself, but as a scientist with an interest in language I’m familiar with a lot of the Greek roots in scientific words.

    The clues are rather uneven, with a lot of anagrams and charades +/- a single letter, and some that are very transparent – but I imagine this was deliberate on Crucible’s part, to compensate for the rather recondite vocabulary scattered through.

  20. Thanks, PeterO, for a fine blog and vinyl1 for your magisterial comments.

    Much to my chagrin, I had to go out first thing and so had no time to comment [though I had made time to solve the puzzle, once I knew it was a Crucible] before I went. And now so much has been said already. In fact, I’ve had several goes at writing this, because more comments have been added since I started.

    Just my cup of tea, of course. But who’d be a setter, eh? Some unfamiliar words and it’s ‘too hard’. Throw in a few gentler ones to help things along and they’re too easy!

    Just a couple of things to add:

    Hi Tupu @17 – yes, OSSA = bones, as in the clue, is Latin, but there’s OSSA the Greek mountain, source of the expression ‘piling Pelion on Ossa’ see Hamlet Act V Scene 1 http://gigantomachia.typepad.com/gigantomachia/2004/07/pelion_and_ossa_1.html

    [or vice versa, as Virgil has it]

    and ‘ostracism is derived from the ancient Greek practice of banishing by popular vote, whereby citizens wrote on a potsherd [see vinyl1 @3] the name of the person they wanted to get rid of.

    Huge thanks, as ever, to Crucible – I loved it, of course. 😉

  22. Hi Gervase – you posted while I was typing.

    I had the same idea about taxi / taxis – until I looked it up.

    ANECDOTAL [anecdota – things unpublished] is another, though.

  23. Gervase @ 19 I am impressed – how did you rule out “get the worst of it” and “let the world go by” from the enumeration alone?

  24. Hi Eileen

    Thanks. I was aware of the etymological connection between the two words and was simply struck by the lack of connection between their meanings in contemporary usage. Such cases are probably more common than I realise.

    Re ossa, your point about the mountain had not struck me.

  27. I thought this was a great puzzle, even with my very limited Greek. I started out irritated by the obvious TITANIA, got 16a as my second one in and really enjoyed the rest once the theme became apparent. In my opinion the easy clues balanced out the hard words very nicely, with only OSTRACODS requiring a lucky guess. Thanks to Crucible and PeterO.

  28. Setter is making a rod for his own back however, in having so MANY difficult words. It is not as if they are in common usage really. Then you get inconsistency in the clues due to this problem, apart from any technical queries arising.

    Or maybe that’s just my hubris hahaha 😀

  30. I found this hard work but enjoyed it, and got there apart from ORRIS. I don’t think a working knowledge of Greek was needed – just a bit of perseverance.

  31. First time I’ve had a chance to look at a crossword since early January and as I should be doing other things I cheated on several to speed up my progress. I really enjoyed the puzzle and popping in here to see the names of some familiar contributors.

    Before I go and start my packing I must admit to a soft spot for 14a. A friend who did his Ph.D on OSTRACODS used to keep small aquaria with them in around the laboratory on the windowsills. The tiny crustaceans ate phytoplankton, but were also excellent at cleaning up bones of animals found in the wild; in skulls they could swim in to all the nooks and crannies and consume any remaining soft tissue. As members of the zooplankton they form part of food chains in which the vast majority of fish larvae are their consumers, as well as the adults of some species such as anchovies, herring and mackerel. Ostracods are indeed ‘Dish of the day’ everyday for many fish.

  32. Gervase@29 I must have misunderstood what you meant.

    “‘Athenian’ and ‘Cyprus’ in the clue were a very broad hint, surely?”

    Yes, indeed, but as originally you said “I spotted 16a immediately from the enumeration” I assumed you had not already read the clue.

  33. I certainly learned a few new words today – STOA, OSSA, STELE, APSIS, GASTROLITH, ORGANELLES, OSTRACODS and ORRIS were all pretty unfamiliar to me, but ORRIS (my last in) was the only one for which my first guess was wrong, so I think they were all fairly clued, but this one would definitely have failed my train test – maybe Crucible was trying to out-Pasquale the Don. Liked HOMERIC and EARPHONES.

    Thanks to PeterO and Crucible

  34. PS I completely failed to see the Greek theme – doh! Needless to say it’s not a language I’ve ever tried to learn – it wasn’t on offer at my comprehensive.

  35. Like beery hiker, I was very pleased that this wasn’t a day to be travelling. The chance to check which of various credible alternatives was correct came in handy more than once, notably with the various possible anagram combinations.

    A good example though of precisely why it is that I enjoy crosswords so much: dusty corners of the brain have been searched, unlikely conjectures have been tested and found to hold, and on completion I looked back on the grid with pride. I even twigged the theme early on!

  36. I managed to do this without being aware of the theme. ITS ALL GREEK TO ME went in quite late in the proceedings,as did TITANIA which I thought was too obvious to be true until I got the crossers. GASTROLITH and OSTRACODS were entirely new to me- just as well they were anagrams. My LOI was EARPHONES and I could kick myself for not seeing it earlier. I thought of Doc Holliday but didn’t make the connection to WYATT EARP.
    Nice puzzle though.

  37. Thanks PeterO and Crucible

    Can someone explain how “two auditors” defines EARPHONES, please? As far as I knew earphones only play audio, they’re not ‘listeners’ or ‘hearers’ – which are the nearest definitions for ‘auditor’ I can find in the reference works I’ve checked. All I’m seeing here is praise for this clue, so I feel I must be missing something.

  38. Interesting. I completed this very quickly, without recourse to any reference material, despite not being familiar with several answers.
    I thought Crucible had made the clues generally quite easy to compensate for the obscurity of the solutions. But as Gervase pointed out maybe having a science background helped make some of the constructions a little more recognisable. Anyway, great to have some variety. Thanks all.

  39. It was possible to beat it to death with lots of electronic aid but it just felt like hard work. Far too many esoteric words, they’ve already been listed, and convoluted wordplay. Too clever by three-quarters for my taste.

  40. I really struggled with this at first, so had a really good laugh when “It’s all Greek to me” was the only solution entered!

  41. I enjoyed this and actually found it a little easier than usual for a Crucible.

    Of course I didn’t notice the theme as my Greek is limited to the modern variety used to say please and thank you etc on holidays!

    Everything was well clued in my opinion, nothing too contrived.

    I was expecting the usual scattering of classical references or obscure references but of course a word is only obscure if you don’t know it 😉

    I failed to parse ADONIS but having seen the parsing now feel a bit of a thickie!

    Thanks to PeterO and Crucible

  42. Thanks for including me in the puzzle, Crucible!

    Re Muffin @6: WASH is used for air currents created by aircraft: prop wash, jet wash, rotor wash (but not for wingtip vortices, which are the most hazardous). It’s equivalent to SLIPSTREAM: a current of air or water driven back by a revolving propeller or jet engine.

    In solving the puzzle, I had to stop and think about the division of Cyprus. And I learned a few new words. It’s good to stretch the mind once a day.

  43. Thanks Crucible and PeterO

    Interesting puzzle with a theme that completely bypassed me.

    I haven’t seen this setter before hand off two gimme clues as with TITANIA and HOMERIC. I guess compensated with the 4-5 words that were new to me. Thought that the clue to one of them, HETERONYM was excellent.

    There did seem an unusual number of hidden answers (3) and the use of single letters in clues(16).

    Still an enjoyable solve. Big ticks to vinyl1 for not only calling out the theme, but for the comprehensive breakdown and listing of the themed words.

  44. George @31

    Thanks for the information about ostracods. I had come across them from an interest in plankton many years ago, but knew little or nothing about them, and the bit of research I did while writing the blog was not very helpful.

    Eileen @20

    I would have brought up the Greek Ossa if you had not. I still have vivid memories of going through the Tempe valley (fifty years ago – the road was still under construction). There had been a wild thunderstorm the night before, and the clouds reached down to the top of the cliffs, so we could not see Ossa, Pelion or Olympos, but it was still very spectacular.

  45. I enjoyed this although I was not able to come up with gastrolith or orris. I had hectares but thought it might not be right as the answer was large area rather than large areas. No one else seemed to have a problem with that one, is it just me?

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

  47. I found this incredibly hard especially as I studied Latin not Greek. However did get It’s all Greek to me but much of this puzzle was all Greek to me. However liked earphones which I got a long with a few others. Thank you Crucible and PeterO and respect to Eileen and many more if only I was as erudite . Am really hot on football but apologise for lowering tone but would love that type of puzzle once a year!

  48. Beautiful young man said no to cock (6)

    Congratulations to Crucible for avoiding that one, and for producing an excellent puzzle.

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