Guardian 26,595 by Chifonie

by

The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26595.

An easy puzzle, but with several little niggles – nothing I thought individually worth commenting on at the time, just their overall number.

Across
1 MAMMAL
Mother childishly left animal (6)

A charade of MAMMA (‘mother childishly’) plus L (‘left’).
4 PANACHE
Criticise pounding in dashing style (7)

A charade of PAN (‘criticise’) plus ACHE (‘pounding’).
9 REPROBATE
Villain gets money returned without spin doctor (9)

An envelope (‘without’) of PRO (public relarions officer, ‘spin doctor’) in REBATE (‘money returned’).
10 TANGO
Dance beat has drive (5)

A charade of TAN (‘beat’) plus GO (‘drive’).
11 CHEAT
Charlie’s passion for fraud (5)

A charade of C (‘Charlie’) plus HEAT (‘passion’).
12 FLAGSTONE
Draws attention to quality of paving (9)

A charade of FLAGS (‘draws attention to’) plus TONE (‘quality’).
13 ENTHUSE
See hunt sabotaged and wax lyrical (7)

An anagram (‘sabotaged’) of ‘see hunt’.
15 ENTIRE
Hospital department’s anger is complete (6)

A charade of ENT (ear nose, throat, ‘hospital department’) plus IRE (‘anger’).
17 SONNET
Boy to take home poem (6)

A charade of SON (‘boy’) plus NET (‘take home’).
19 DESSERT
Coarse-sounding son’s in the wilderness (7)

An envelope (‘in’) of S (‘son’) in DESERT (‘wilderness’), with no true defiunition: DESSERT is a COURSE (‘coarse-sounding’) of a meal.
22 REHEARSAL
Judges interrupt actual run-through (9)

An envelope (‘interrupt’) of HEARS (‘judges’) in REAL (‘actual’).
24 AISLE
A key for the passageway (5)

A charade of ‘a’ plus ISLE (‘key’).
26 DRONE
Doctor married a sponger (5)

A charade of DR (‘doctor’) plus ONE (‘married’).
27 ACTRESSES
Bill gets hair for players (9)

A charade of AC (‘bill’) plus TRESSES (‘HAIR’).
28 THEATRE
Scoff king in the audit­orium (7)

An envelope (‘in’) of EAT (‘scoff’) plus R (rex, ‘king’) in ‘the’.
29 STOLEN
Nicked wrap that’s new (6)

A charade of STOLE (‘wrap’) plus N (‘new’).
Down
1 MIRACLE
Wonder, when seeing car overturning in the distance (7)

An envelope (‘in’) of RAC (‘car overturned’) in MILE (‘the distance’).
2 MAPLE
Man keeps parking in wood (5)

An envelope (‘keeps’) od P (‘parking’) in MALE (‘man’).
3 ABOUT TURN
Complete reversal in a fight with performer (5,4)

A charade of ‘a’ plus BOUT (‘fight’) plus TURN (‘performer’).
4 PREFACE
Umpire in step at the start (7)

An envelope (‘in’) of REF (‘umpire’) in PACE (‘step’).
5 NATES
Put a bit of newspaper over the bottom (5)

A reversal (‘over’) of SET (‘put’) plus ‘a’ plus N (‘bit of Newspaper’).
6 CONCOURSE
Meeting place for many on racetrack (9)

A charade of C (Roman hundred, ‘many’) plus ‘on’ plus COURSE (‘racetrack’).
7 ERODES
Wears down ’eart-throb of the French (6)

A charade of ‘ERO (”eart-throb’) plus DES (‘of the French’, if what is ofed is plural).
8 RAFFLE
Lottery is a service, initially for the French (6)

A charade of RAF (Royal Air Force, ‘service’) plus F (‘initially For’) plus LE (‘the French’).
14 TOOTHSOME
Otto’s home cooking? Delicious! (9)

An anagram (‘cooking’) of ‘otto’s home’.
16 TESTAMENT
Will examine the last word given time (9)

A charade of TEST (‘examine’) plus AMEN (‘the last word’) plus T (‘time’).
18 TO SCALE
A closet designed proportionately (2,5)

An anagram (‘designed’) of ‘a closet’.
19 DILATE
Little girl slow to develop (6)

A charade of DI (‘little girl’) plus LATE (‘slow’).
20 TREASON
Nora set off rebellion (7)

An anagram (‘off’) of ‘nora set’.
21 CREDIT
Tory tried wrecking reputation (6)

A charade of C (Conservative, ‘Tory’) plus REDIT, an anagram (‘wrecking’) of ‘tried’.
23 ALERT
Porter’s right to be vigilant (5)

A charade of ALE (‘porter’) plus RT (‘right’).
25 SISAL
Girl touring Italy upset plant (5)

An envelope (‘touring’) of I (‘Italy’) in LASS (‘girl’), all reversed (‘upset’).
completed grid

32 comments on “Guardian 26,595 by Chifonie”

  2. Thanks to Chifonie and PeterO. I was slowed down a bit by the parsing of NATES and ERODES, but this puzzle was finished very quickly (and it’s only 10PM Wednesday US time).

  3. Thanks Chifonie and PeterO

    Aha … a Monday puzzle sneaking into the Thursday time slot !!! Not sure why the Guardian doesn’t take a leaf out of the FT book where they circulate 2-3 of the setters who typically set easier grade puzzles into the Monday paper.

    Anyhow, it was a pleasant enough solve with that same niggling overall feel that a number of the definitions were ‘a bit off’. The elegant word play ensured that there was no doubt as to what the correct answers were though !

  4. Apart from failing to solve 5d NATES (never heard of it), this puzzle was rather like an ideal Quiptic.

    New word for me was TOOTHSOME, and my favourite was 7d.

    Thansk Chifonie and PeterO.

  5. DRONE: marries DR and A (one). Otherwise, why does ONE = MARRIED? And I’m baffled by KEY = ISLE.
    All a bit too straightforward for Thursday, I agree! Solved without actually writing in.

  6. Ponticello @ 5

    I always think of the Bogart movie, Key Largo

    from my online dictionary:

    key 2 |ki?|
    noun
    a low-lying island or reef, especially in the Caribbean. Compare with cay.

  7. Neatly clued but over too soon – for faster solvers it will have been a write-in, I suspect. Thanks to Chifonie and PeterO.

  8. Ponticello@5 think of the Florida Keys.

    Agree with the comments so far, I enjoyed it, just surpised to see it on a Thursday. My only niggle was that to my mind (and taste buds) Ales and Porters are very different types of beer.

    Thanks to Chifonie and PeterO.

  9. Sorry Michelle@6 – must hit refresh to check what others have posted before offering my own meagre thoughts.

  10. Thanks Chifonie and PeterO.

    A crossword I could finish and parse, except for NATES which must have been forgotten by me. The FT crossword today is also a good one for beginners the blogger says.

    26a, “Doctor married a sponger”, I parsed “a” as ONE (I saw this done in the FT or Indy recently, will check).

  11. ONE = “a”, and vice versa of course, is probably what PeterO assumed we all knew; I have only consciously seen it on June 5th in the FT crossword 14,949 by Io, blogged by Gaufrid.

  13. “Marry” can mean “to make one”, so married = one.
    That was one clue in this write-in that I had no niggles about

  14. Meic @13, yes, via the word ‘unite’ – ‘union’. I had thought of that, though the root of marry is the Latin maritus for ‘husband’. The clue seems to work both ways.

  15. Couldn’t see DESSERT at first and when I did I realised I hadn’t done DILATE which was my LOI. I thought it rather Mondayish too. Not unenjoyable though.
    Thanks Chifonie.

  16. Thanks Chifonie and PeterO.

    Chifonie for me is always elegantly clued with not a superfluous word – I enjoyed this even though it was on the easy side.

    An easy Thursday is usually the prelude to a Friday stinker.

    Does anyone ever use the word “toothsome” as in “That 19ac was toothsome”?

  17. Meic @13

    That’s how I took it, but I have no objection to the reading given by Ponticello (to whom welcome) @5 – and it does give a meaning in life to the otherwise superfluous ‘a’.

  18. I also found it neatly clued albeit on the Monday end of difficulty. It does however have two elements that I find annoying in puzzles and would love to hear others’ opinions:

    1. The arbitrary expectation that the solver should guess that ” a bit of newspaper” signifies just the first letter. I would have thought that unless a letter actually represents an accepted abbreviation, c for caught p for piano etc, it should not be used.

    2. 19a, although very gettable from the neat clue actually does not contain a definition: “coarse sounding” is a clue to “course” “son’s in the wilderness” is a clue to “dessert”

    What do you all think?

  19. We can maybe criticise the Editor for publishing this on the wrong day of the week, but clearly that is no fault of Chifonie’s. As michelle said, this is a lovely little Quiptic, and would make an ideal crossword for an intermediate solver.

    Personally I find Chifonie’s concise clueing style attractive and endearing. Although (mercifully!) free of CDs/DDs, I always see a slight similarity between Chifonie and Rufus. You feel with both that they don’t have to agonise over their work – that it comes very naturally, and they could keep spinning out clues more or less indefinitely. The David Gowers of the crossword team, if you will!

    Thanks to both.

  20. gsol @18, perhaps these ‘annoying elements’ are among the ‘little niggles’ PeterO encountered.

    DESSERT had me thinking too.

    I guess we are encountering ‘a bit of’ so frequently now that we assume it is the first letter, but I am not sure that sometimes the first two, or even three, letters are meant – can anyone remember such a clue?

    DESSERT, still thinking about that…

  21. gsol@19

    I agree with you on 1.

    On 2 maybe we need a new definition DC the Double Cryptic, I liked it and think that if you have two elegant wordplay definitions and can’t decide which one to use, then you should be allowed both of them without the need for the “straight” definition. And some “straight” definitions are fairly cryptic although not wordplay (e.g. swingers’ bar from earlier in the week).

  22. All pretty straightforward and unexciting, though as always with Chifonie the surfaces are polished. Last in was DRONE, I wasn’t familiar with it in the sponger sense and One=married didn’t entirely convince me.

    Thanks to PeterO and Chifonie.

  25. Andy K @ 21 and Cookie @ 23 Thanks for your replies. As mentioned earlier I did like the clue and I like your new category of Double Cryptic. I wonder if any editors looking at the blog would like to comment whether they would accept or reject such clues.

  27. Nates was new to me, as was drone as sponger, though I liked one as married.

    Otherwise all satisfactory, thanks to Chifonie and PeterO.

  28. I thought I had vaguely remembered the nates thing.

    Picaroon used it 23 Aug 2014:

    13 Latin America’s revolutionary reserves behind Muslim nations (10)
    SULTANATES

    And Paul 5th April 2014:

    16 One getting fuel emptied into buttocks, blows up (8)
    INFLATES

  29. I really don’t care what Collins says, drone does not mean sponger, it means mindless worker, almost the exact opposite. Bah!

  30. Honey bee drones are male bees who take no part in nectar gathering or honey production, they could certainly be considered as spongers.

  31. I have a better suggestion for 19A

    Instead of “Double Cryptic” how about “Incorrect”

    It’s wrong on so many levels.

    First of all it has no definition.

    Even if we allow for this in a “libertarian” mood the grammar is wrong. “Coarse sounding” is adjectival whereas the answer is a noun. (But we can probably throw all that rigour nonsense out of the window as we haven’t got a definition anyway. 😉 )

    I can imagine these “Double Cryptics”/”Incorrects” becoming so vague that they will often break the golden rule. “When one has solved a clue one is at least 99% certain that the answer is correct!”

    I suggest we ask setters to be creative within the “rules” we already have. Lots of our other brilliant setters show it can be done on a regular basis.

    I also suggest that the puzzles are editted before publication.

    If this is supposed to a nice easy puzzle for beginners surely it should be easy but follow the “normal” rules of cryptics. How else can a newbie learn these yet still have the satisfaction of completing a puzzle? I honestly feel that a puzzle like this with so many flaws is sending the wrong message.

    Here endeth the sermon!

  32. I’ve never presumed to make a comment before – such august company! – but surely the one in drone 26A comes from being a synonym for “a”, and married is suggesting that the DR and ONE are together.

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