Guardian 26,590 – Tramp

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A welcome return by Tramp after a couple of months’ absence, and a very enjoyable – and quite challenging – puzzle …

…based around the film Jaws, which is forty years old this month. As is often the case with Tramp’s themes, little or knowledge of the film is needed, but the clues are brimming with references to it. Many thanks to Tramp.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
9. ARRAY Display 26 across fish (5)
AR[gon] + RAY
10. ERADICATE Destroy one caught — time to see catch (9)
I C in ERA (time) + DATE (to see)
11. IN THE MAIN Primarily at sea (2,3,4)
Double definition
12. ENEMY Time unknown — crew returning to east (5)
E + reverse of Y (unknown) + MEN. “The enemy” as a metaphor for time comes up occasionally in crossword – Araucaria used to use it, for example. See here for some backgound.
15. REACTOR Second note by Roy Scheider, say — one who responds (7)
RE (second note, as in do-re-mi) + ACTOR (e.g. Roy Scheider, who played Police Chief Body in Jaws)
17. RISKS Dangers rule lives — case of shark making comeback (5)
R + IS + reverse of S[har]K
18,13. ROD STEWART Faces Chief Brody’s unlimited time in rough waters (3,7)
[B]ROD[Y] + T in WATERS* – a very nice penny-dropping moment when I spotted the definition, referring to The Faces, of whom Rod Stewart was the lead singer
20. KEATS Shark ultimately swallows one that worked with lines (5)
[shar]K + EATS
22. MAJORCA Opening sequence of movie (Jaws): ocean killer eats leading character from Amity Island (7)
A[mity] in M[ovie] + J[aws] + ORCA
25. OCTOPUS Sea being cold, to work harbours (7)
C TO in OPUS – another cleverly-concealed definition
26. ARGON Note: at stern of legendary vessel is gas (5)
ARGO (legendary ship) + N
27. PIKEPERCH Diving position to settle swimmer (9)
PIKE (diving position) + PERCH (to settle). The name of this fish is hyphenated as pike-perch in all the references I can find
30. TEARS INTO Re station at sea, attacks physically (5,4)
(RE STATION)*
31. RATEL Measure length of animal (5)
RATE + L – the Ratel is also known as the Honey badger
Down
1. TAXI Show stress on island (4)
TAX (to stress) + I – the show is the American TV series Taxi
3. BYTE State shark attack? It’s part of the memory (4)
Homophone of “bite”
4. MEGASTAR Cruise for one mile, say, like sailor (8)
M + EG + AS TAR – this looked like a definition-by-example at first glance, but the “for one” fixes that
5,2. WARNER BROTHERS Robert Shaw performing — grandeur oddly missing inside film studio (6,8)
[g]R[a]N[d]E[u]R in (ROBERT SHAW)* – sadly, Jaws was not producer by Warner Brothers, though Robert Shaw starred in it
6. LIFE JACKET It’s blown up in the sea — fiction about fine sailor on Spielberg film (4,6)
F in LIE + JACK (sailor) + ET (Spielberg film)
7. RAWEST Most biting great white shark, initially not good when swimming (6)
Anagram of GREAT less G + W[hite] + S[hark]
8. BEVY Group drink (4)
Double definition – the drink meaning is short for “beverage”
13. SCRAM Small crowd go away (5)
S + CRAM
14. ABSURDNESS Sailors turn on way and head for folly (10)
ABS + U (turn) + RD + NESS
16. RASPS Introduction to Shark, found in upended box files (5)
S[hark] in reverse of SPAR (to box)
19. DOORKNOB Dr No book (novel) — with a twist, it offers an escape (8)
(DR NO BOOK)*
21. ASPIRATE In character of bad one at sea? Sound at start of horror (8)
AS PIRATE
23. JIGSAW Picture cut up — Spielberg ultimately is outside during film cut (6)
[spielber]G in IS, in JAW[S]
24. APPEND Join American dad, heartlessly getting wind up (6)
A + P[o]P + END (to wind up). – I originally put ADDEND, which caused trouble with 27 – it does exist, but only as a noun
26. ANTS Conservationists seeing that about social creatures (4)
NT (National Trust) in AS (seeing that)
28,29. PORTHOLE Ship’s opening close to Matt Hooper struggling with line (8)
Anagram of [mat]T + HOOPER + L[ine] – Matt Hooper is a character in the film

31 comments on “Guardian 26,590 – Tramp”

  1. Thanks, Andrew, for another great blog and Tramp – welcome back! – for a super puzzle, indeed brimming with allusions – and I actually managed to see them all.

    Some simply stunning clues – my top favourites were 18,13ac and 4, 6 and 23dn. I also liked DOORKNOB and the appearance of my favourite poet, KEATS.

    Interestingly, in the paper version, the clue for 26dn is ‘Conservationists like to protect social creatures’, which I think is better.

    Huge thanks to Tramp for a lot of fun.

  2. Thanks Tramp and Andrew. I second all the compliments, particularly for the concealed definitions in 18/13 and 25a. Collins online and ODO both give pikeperch as one word so I’ve got not complaint there.

  3. Got completely thrown with 10 across, when I thought that an anagram of “one caught” gave CHUEOTANG, a type of fish…

  4. Thanks Tramp and Andrew.

    I was surprised I managed to complete this puzzle, though complete parsing of each answer was another matter; extra thanks to Andrew, especially for explaining ENEMY.

    OCTOPUS, MAJORCA, JIGSAW, ASPIRATE and DOORKNOB among others were fun.

  5. Thanks Tramp, great crossword.

    Thanks Andrew for a good blog. Some great misdirections, such as ‘Faces Chief’ and ‘sea being’ [I actually checked to see if there was an octopus sea.] 🙁

    JIGSAW was difficult but good. I would normally spell BEVvY with an extra ‘v.’ I see the ODE [current usage] doesn’t give the single ‘v’ alternative for the drink, although Chambers does.

    I particularly liked the twisty DOORKNOB as well as the OCTOPUS and ROD STEWART.

  6. I failed to solve 7d and 8d. New word for me was PIKEPERCH (one word according to the online dictionary that comes with my Mac).

    I liked 21d.

    Thanks Tramp and Andrew.

  7. This was indeed challenging, but enjoyable for all that – too many good clues for me to itemise. Didn’t know of the pikeperch, but it was easy to get from the wordplay. To me, the joy of a good cryptic crossword is to discover new words after a good mental workout (and checking in a dictionary, of course!).

    Many thanks to Tramp & Andrew.

  8. An excellent puzzle as has been said. There might be some who think that TAXI is a tad obscure to be clued as “show” considering it finished in 1983, but it ran for five years with a cast that included Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd and the late Andy Kaufman and if it isn’t better known these days I would argue that it should be.

  9. Great puzzle and thanks for blog. Very impressed that he managed to work an anagram of Robert Shaw into a meaningful clue……even more so had WB produced the film.

  10. Thanks Andrew for the splendid blog and thanks to all for your comments.

    I wrote this puzzle in April 2013. Jaws was released in June 1975 so I asked Hugh whether he could run the puzzle to commemorate its fortieth anniversary and he kindly obliged.

    Originally, I wrote the following clue for ANTE at 26down but I couldn’t have it as that particular solution has been used recently in another puzzle:

    Stake runs through ocean terror (4)

    The first effort at an alternative clue for ANTS was ok but at the last minute, when reviewing the final proof, I realised I’d already used “like” for “as” in 4down so I changed the clue to the version that was published online. As Eileen spotted, I mustn’t have changed it quick enough to make it into the paper version. On reflection, it’s a pretty poor clue.

    My twin brother and I once printed out the script for Jaws and we learned every word: “it’s not like going to pond chasin’ bluegills or tommycods”. My brother can still rattle off most of the Indianapolis speech which was apparently ad-libbed by Robert Shaw.

    Some people don’t like these heavily themed puzzles but I like setting them. I have slowed down recently as I’m running out of theme ideas but I still have around twenty puzzles with the Guardian — some of which are based on themes I know little about and/or don’t even like.

    Thanks again

    Neil

  11. Good technique throughout, and that is nice to see, but still with puzzles like these, which only have a theme in the clues rather than in the grid, I think the clues really suffer because they are in thrall. The setter has to ‘force’ them to reflect the idea, which looks laboured.

    Just two things: rule = r I found obscure, and you could argue about Rod being any kind of ‘chief’ in a band he was asked to join by the surviving members.

  13. Thanks, Tramp, for dropping in and explaining about 26dn. By the time I read Andrew’s blog, I’d forgotten you’d used ‘as’ already.

    PS: I’m kicking myself for missing the brilliant ‘sea being’ from my list of top favourites – that’s always the problem when there are so many.

    When I first found 15², time = enemy seemed to crop up quite frequently – it seems ages now since we’ve seen it.

  14. Splendid fun thank you Tramp – as others have said nice to have a themed crossword where you don’t have to have special knowledge of the theme to solve it.

    Thanks to Andrew too.

  15. Enormous fun, and some lovely definitions as others have pointed out, sending me off in the wrong direction: 18,13, 20, 22, 6dn (did anyone else struggle with “mine” something?), 19dn and favourite of all (and last one in) 25ac.

    Many thanks to Eileen and Tramp. I do like it when the setter drops by.

  17. A good, fun puzzle. I don’t so much mind themed crosswords like this one where the theme weaves in and out of the clues; in the end, you don’t really have to know anything about the film, although if you haven’t heard of it you must have been living on another planet for the last four decades. I didn’t like it (but then I’m a scaredy-cat when it comes to horror).

    Thanks, both, and good weekend to all.

    [Marienkaefer, you might want to thank Andrew instead of Eileen … although she is an omnipresent on 225 – and often omniscient – she didn’t actually write the blog. I like it when the setter drops in too.]

  19. Oops Andrew – I am so sorry! I was led astray by Eileen’s comment at 13, just as I was led astray by so many of the definitions.

  21. For the third time in four days I failed to finish this on paper and had to resort to a bit of guess and check, so either I’m out of form or this has been a tough week. The NE corner was particularly tough and RAWEST was last in. I normally enjoy Tramp but found this a bit of a slog. PIKEPERCH was new to me. Liked ROD STEWART.

    Thanks to Tramp and Andrew

  22. Not a theme for me, but it didn’t stop me so well done Tramp.

    Andrew, minor detail, but there is nothing in 9 to say remove letters from AR[gon]. AR is simply the chemical symbol so no need to delete anything. OK, that is how we derive the symbol, but that is a given, not part of the clue.

  23. I had several false starts here (e.g., “addend” rather than APPEND), was stalled on BEVY as drink,, had to look up the link between Rod Stewart and FACES, and had trouble parsing the non-orca part of MAJORCA, so thanks to Andrew for the blog and to Tramp for the challenge. As to Time as enemy, I was familiar with the link from previous puzzles but had thought the connection was to Shakespeare’s sonnets. Yes, there is no single line to cite, but the association is everywhere, most notably in sonnets 63, 64, and 65 – e.g., “Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate, / That Time will come and take my love away” (64).

  24. Very enjoyable solve. At the outset I was afraid that the need for cinematic knowledge would spoil it but it didn’t do that at all as it turned out.

    Time for enemy I don’t recall seeing for a while – used to be an everyday occurrence.

    I didn’t know PIKEPERCH

    COTD 18,13

    Rule is of course fine for R. ODO gives it as used in law – it also indicates the rule (ie the years) of a monarch in history books etc. Collins gives this as ruled but it means the same thing. Pretty commonplace.

  25. Yes, it is ‘fine’, but that is not the argument. There are so many single-letter indicators legitimised in the dictionaries that compilers can have more or less what they want to fit their surface. If R as defined here was okay for you JS, all well and good, but I’m a fan of limiting the sort of usage that makes you guess stuff instead of get stuff. ‘Pretty commonplace’ I think is really stretching the truth 😀

  26. I was concerned when I realised what the theme was as I’ve never seen the film, only clips, but that turned out not to be a problem. For me, this is a mixture of very good clues and unsatisfactory ones. The worst (IMO) is RAWEST, and my favourites are probably WARNNER BROTHERS, ROD STEWART and LIFE JACKET.

    Thanks to Tramp and Andrew.

  27. I’m with Beery Hiker @21 on this. I found it rather a slog. Yes there were some nice clues e.g. MAJORCA and there is clearly some cleverness here but this is one to admire rather than like I think.

  28. Probably quite a few people trying to shoehorn a MINE into 6d (I was certainly one). I sympathise with hedgehoggy about the initials/abbreviations – any word, it seems, can mean its first letter, and some obscure profession somewhere will have used it that way to legitimise it. I’ve given up trying to argue.

    Anyway, thanks Tramp – especially for DOORKNOB, OCTOPUS, ASPIRATE and ROD STEWART.

  29. A welcome return for Tramp.

    I enjoyed this immensely. It did look at first like it was going to be all over very quickly thanks to the excellent cluing. However the last 5 or so held me up to prolong the fun. LOI TAXI. (My first thought was a three letter word for stress followed by “I” but of course it took me eons to come up with TAX. Dummy!!!)

    I’d never seen BEVY in the drinks sense with one “v” but the SOED has 🙂

    One very minor quibble is that I would have liked a question mark at the end of 12A.

    Thanks to Andrew and Tramp

  30. Thanks Tramp and Andrew

    Another great ‘surface-themed’ puzzle by Tramp which provided a decent sort of challenge on and off throughout today. Thought that there may be a movie based theme in the answers when TAXI and ANTS appeared, but not to be.

    Loved the cleverly disguised definitions for OCTOPUS, ROD STEWART and JIGSAW.

    Finished up in the NE corner with ENEMY, BEVY and RAWEST the last few in.

  31. Thought this was brilliant – i am incredibly impressed with theme puzzles that are solvable without specialist knowledge ( versus themes on obscure butterflies, etc). Some very nicely disguised definitions ( faces chief, cruise for one). Loved the Robert shaw anagram – too much more to like to mention.

    Many thanks tramp, especially for joining the conversation, that is so nice for solvers. Interesting this was done a few years ago.

    missed 1d and 7d, thanks for the enlightenment Andrew

    Many thanks Tramp, look forward to next

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