Guardian Cryptic 26745 by Qaos

by

The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26745.

I am in the depths of a cold, and am not feeling at my brightest. So the best I can say is that if I managed to finish the puzzle, it cannot have been too hard.

Across
9 ALLERGIST
Doctor healing great ills (9)

An anagram (‘healing’) of ‘great ills’.
10 PRICE
Soft or hard water rejected over cost (5)

A charade of P (‘soft’) plus ‘[o]r’ without the O (‘rejecting over’) plus ICE (‘hard water’!).
11 HAYDN
Handy sort of barman? (5)

An anagram (‘sort’) of ‘handy’, for the composer.
12 TREATMENT
Handling exotic matter, CERN regularly gets tritium (9)

A charade of TREATM, an anagram (‘exotic’) of ‘matter’ pluses EN (‘CERN regularly;) plus T (‘tritium’).
13 SURFACE
Fellow abducted by flying saucer outside (7)

An envelope (‘abducted by’) of F (‘fellow’) in SURACE,an anagram (‘flying’) of ‘saucer’.
14 COUPLES
Company happy to flog 75% back to partners (7)

A charade of CO (‘company’) plus UP (‘happy’) plus LES, a reversal (‘back’) of SEL[l] (‘flog’), the first three of the four letters (‘75%’).
17 OWNED
Had wicket nicked by 1d? (5)

An envelope (‘nicked by’) of W (‘wicket’) in ONE D (‘1d’).
19 DAY
Record not even 86,400 seconds (3)

D[i]A[r]Y (‘record’) without its even numbered letters (‘not even’).
20 STYLO
Pen (see writer) (5)

A charade of STY (‘pen’) plus LO (‘see’).
21 STRANGE
Funny gag’s line unleashed (7)

A subtraction: STRANG[l]E (‘gag’) without the L (‘line unleashed’).
22 STEWART
Found directions inside Scottish house (7)

An envelope (‘inside’) of EW (‘directions’) in START (‘found’).
24 LOADSTONE
A lot of earth doesn’t form a magnet (9)

A charade of LOA[m] (‘a lot of earth’) plus DSTONE, an anagram (‘form’) of ‘doesn’t’. I am more familiar with the spelling LODESTONE.
26 DALEK
Who has this enemy? (5)

Cryptic reference to Dr Who.
28 VODKA
5 + 0 + 500 + 1000 + 1 has strong proof? (5)

A charade of V (‘5’) plus O (‘0’) plus D (‘500’) plus K (‘1000’, no longer Roman numbers) plus A (‘1’).
29 DINNER SET
President blows top, upset about new table service (6,3)

An envelope (‘about’) of N (‘new’) in DINERSET, an anagram (‘upset’) of ‘[p]resident’ minus its first letter (‘blows top’).
Down
1 BACH
Composer‘s single — 50% off! (4)

BACH[elor] (‘single’) halved (‘50% off’).
2 PLAYER
Sportsman ascending unknown mountain expresses hesitation (6)

A charade of PLAY, a reversal (‘ascending’) of Y ALP (‘unknown mountain’) plus ER (‘expresses hesitation’).
3 IRON MAIDEN
Group involved in torture? (4,6)

Double definition (or definition and allusion): a heavy metal rock group and the (probably fictional) torture device.
4 LITTLE
Short story about dry lake (6)

An envelope (‘about’) of TT (‘dry’) plus L (‘lake’) in LIE (‘story’).
5 STRETCHY
Flexible chest? Try exercise (8)

An anagram (‘exercise’) of ‘chest try’.
6 SPAT
Quarrel that’s over a shoe? (4)

A TAP is a shoe, but I am not sure how to account for a the S.
7 FIRE CLAY
Give Ali the sack for making pottery (4,4)

A definition and literal interpretation, referencing Muhammad Ali, originally Cassius Clay.
8 BEAT
Hit by 4 central characters of 60s’ pop group (4)

Central characters of The BEATles.
13 SCOWS
Bully on board boats (5)

An envelope of COW (‘bully’) in SS (‘on board’).
15 UNSTEADIER
Building under a site is more rickety (10)

An anagram (‘building’) of ‘under a site’.
16 SCOTT
Explorer specifically to climb side of Everest (5)

A charade of SC (scilicet, ‘specifically’) plus OT, a reversal (‘climb’?) of ‘to’ plus T (‘side of EveresT‘).
18 NORMANDY
Caesar’s code for M or L and X in France (8)

Caesar’s code replaces letters by the ones following in the alphabet, so that ‘M or L and X’ becomes N OR M and Y (evidently the words are not treated likewise).
19 DYEWOODS
Dead trees, containing orange, ochre and dun initially, like these? (8)

An envelope (‘containing’) of OOD (‘Orange, Ochre, and Dun initially’) in D (‘dead’) plus YEWS (‘trees’), with an extended definition.
22 STERNE
Small bird perched on English novelist (6)

A charade of S (‘small’) plus TERN (‘bird’) plus E (‘English’).
23 ALLISS
Everything is special for this themed commentator (6)

A charade of ALL (‘everything’) plus ‘is’ plus S (‘special’). The ‘commentator’ is golfer Peter Alliss; I can only see 2D PLAYER, and possibly 6D SPAT (for the criticism of some of his more trenchant comments) to justify the ‘themed’ if it refers to this particular person. However, there are a number of more or less famous Peters in the crossword (SCOTT, DAY, STRANGE, STEWART, LITTLE, LOVE).
24 LOVE
Nothing  fancy (4)

Double definition.
25 SHAW
Author has enigmatic wife (4)

A charade of SHA, an anagram (‘enigmatic’) plus W (‘wife’).
27 KITE
Aircraft’s 5th gear? (4)

A charade of KIT E (‘5th gear’).
completed grid

57 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 26745 by Qaos”

  2. Thanks Peter. As not one of those, I missed the theme untuil near the end, nutting out 23D – although Fred did gleam inconsequentially as I solved COUPLES midway through. Amazing, entering golfer/answer how many Google threw uop, bravo Qaos.

  3. Had fun after a long time. Needed parsing help for ‘strange’ and ‘Scott’. Loved 7d, 18d, 19d, 25d and 27d, The theme escaped me in spite of ref in 3d. Thanks PeterO and Qaos

  5. Found this entertaining and little tricky in places, with SCOWS last in. The theme was clear pretty early. Liked 17d – was trying to make something out of BACH for too long. Will leave it to a golf expert to name the golfers – think I spotted most of them…

    Thanks to PeterO and Qaos

  6. Thanks Qaos and PeterO

    Being a golfer myself, I found this very easy. I spotted PRICE, COUPLES, DAY, STRANGE, STEWART, LITTLE(r) (if this counts), SCOTT, dyeWOODS, STERNE (South African golfer, pronounced stern ee), LOVE and KITE (and ALLISS, of course); there may be more!

    Favourite was OWNED for the misleading reference to 1d.

    STRANGLE is the same as GAG for me – different parts of the anatomy affected.

  9. It’s amazing how many times I think I’m typing “isn’t” and it comes out as “is”. I was trying to say that STRANGLE and GAG aren’t the smae.

  12. First two in BACH and HAYDN. Theme sorted.
    Perhaps not, as it turned out.
    Thanks to Q and PeterO; I can’t wait for K’s dad to pop in…
    Worth mentioning that Pete DYE(woods) is a famous golf course architect and that the IRON of IRON MAIDEN is prob not an accident

  13. I missed the golfers even though I got ALLISS – ’twas ever thus). Was getting a bit frustrated early on by the tricky cluing, but by the end I thought it was a really good puzzle. Favourites included LITTLE, LOVE, KITE and FIRE CLAY. Many thanks to Qaos and PeterO.

  14. Thanks to all for the help with the theme (I also jumped too quickly at BACH and HAYDN). Caesar’s code was new to me as was scilicet. I also failed to understand that The Beatles have a definite article.

    One question, though. In 24A, how is “a lot of earth” LOA(m)? Does “a lot” imply 75%? It seems a little flabby to me.

  15. Thanks, PeterO.

    A good example of a puzzle where knowledge of and / or interest in the theme made no odds. I got the theme from ALLISS [thanks for the generosity, Qaos] and then recognised a few others but certainly couldn’t be bothered to chase up any more.

    Theme aside, I thought this was a really good puzzle. I particularly liked 17 and 25ac and 18 and 27dn. Like PeterO, I’m more familiar with LODESTONE, so spent a minute or two trying to parse that.

    Many thanks to Qaos for an entertaining solve.

  16. I found this one difficult, probably because I have quibbles about too many clues to mention. (I expect to be hearing from HH!) My hopes were raised when I got ALLISS, but apart from Alliss himself I know very little about golfers, so it wasn’t much help. (Not a complaint, just an observation.)

    Favourites were VODKA and STYLO (once I had read PeterO’s parse, which I had failed to see for myself).

    Thanks to P and Q.

  17. Thank Qaos and PeterO.

    I enjoyed the puzzle, but as for the golf, the ball went way over my head. I did like the ‘mathematical’ clues, especially DAY and VODKA! I can remember a few elderly gentlemen wearing SPATS in London, to be seen in Bond Street and such places.

  18. Surprised that no-one has picked up on 26a as it is a regular beef – Doctor Who is the name of the programme, not the character. Who is this “Who”? Perhaps Roger Daltrey has also been bothered by daleks in the past.

  19. Bloody golf. What is the absolute fricking point of hitting a small round dimpled ball with a stick seventy times in the course of three hours? I’d rather eat my own kidneys than watch golf.

    The theme went a million miles over my head, of course, so I quite enjoyed the puzzle. Thank you to Qaos and Peter O (to whom get well soon). The less said about the sexist Peter A, the better.

  21. Golf was it? I admit I didn’t see it, but as stated that doesn’t matter, unless like me you don’t like poor entries. Another one of those puzzles that advertise the compiler’s inconsistency, some things work, others are inelegant or just wrong.

    9a ‘healing’ could have been ‘given new treatment’ or something else that works; 10a ‘rejected’ unnecessary and clumsy using past tense; 13a why not ‘carried by’ which actually works?; 14a ‘to’? Very clumsy again; 17a ‘nicked’ is not really working; 21a ‘unleashed’, why not just have ‘removed’ which works; 24a ‘form’ will have to be a plural verb, which feels clumsy to me; 2d poor cryptic grammar; 3d if DD the second def is in wrong part of speech; 7d a horrible entry. Obviously the theme is more important than having a nice puzzle, definition too is poor, but then how would you define such an ungainly phrase!; 8d why not ‘made by’?; 15 another dodgy entry, really poor; 16d just about, with t+o justifying the plural thing. ‘North face of’ instead?; 18 compileritis gone mad; 19d suggests ‘dyewoods’ are dead.

    HH

  22. Pedants corner:- Julius Caesar used a shift of 3 letters earlier in the alphabet, so the answer to 18d is JORIANDU

  23. Shirl @22, agreed, but the term “Caesar’s code” is used for any substitution cipher where each text letter is replaced by a letter at a fixed number of places further down the alphabet.

  24. @hedgehoggy- when can we expect the pleasure of a puzzle set by you?-I think you owe it to us!
    And we will treat it with all due consideration.

  25. Cheerfully uninterested in anything to do with golf here, but the puzzle didn’t require any specialist knowledge to be solvable, so I was happy enough. Had to come here only to check ALLISS, whom I’ve never heard of in my life, was correct, but at least the wordplay there was rather straightforward! Thanks blogger and Qaos.

  26. Van Winkle: as a lifelong fan, I’d say, that while I’d never dream of referring to the character as “Who”, I often refer to the show thusly, and I think it’s fair to say that the show contains enemies, including the fascist pepperpots in question.

  28. I look forward to it @hh-I think I know your rule book-picaroon and paul on a good day for starters.
    Hit me(us) with your rhythm stick!

  29. Thanks to PeterO for the blog.

    I did not spot that Dr Who is the name of the programme rather than the character. I fancy that the doctor has had many enemies so the clue to 26 is a bit weak.

    I was going to suggest that 2d could indicate a specific sportsman then I came here and saw that I had totally missed the theme! 🙁

  32. Thanks to Qaos and PeterO. I did not know Caesar’s code but correctly guessed NORMANDY from the crossers, and I got SPAT and ALLISS from the clues (though not the golf theme – I too was looking for something musical with BACH and HAYDN) and was delayed by trying to squeeze in Lodestone. An enjoyable solve.

  33. Loved this! Admittedly didn’t spot the golf theme until ALLISS, but then they all jumped out – apols if I’m repeating any previously mentioned but there’s also Terry PRICE, Payne STEWART, Chris KITE, Tom SHAW and Jason DAY. Brilliant!

  34. Lots and lots of quibbles. Never met Caesar’s code, dyewoods or sc…whatever it was in 16d. Would not include THE in the Beatles, don’t spell LODESTONE that way and strangle does not equal gag. After all that, the fact that I know nowt about golf pales into insignificance. Not up my street at all today.

  35. @ gladys

    Normally I wouldn’t bother but your statement “Would not include THE in the Beatles” is just so utterly preposterous I can’t help myself. You just did include “the” in “The Beatles” in your own denial that you would!

  36. gladys @ 34: are those your quibbles? If so, I’d say that only one of them is fair criticism.

    The fact that you have never met Caesar’s code and dyewoods (neither have I, or if I have they have since slipped my mind) or sc (which I have) is surely not a reason for criticising the crossword. We can’t know everything, and the clues were gettable without that knowledge, at least with the assistance of crossers. I’ve now learnt (or re-learnt) about Caesar’s code, which is not uninteresting. That’s part of the joy of solving, for me at least.

    Whilst you may not include THE in The Beatles, the fact is that THEY did: they weren’t just called ‘Beatles,’ just as ‘The Cure’ were not just ‘Cure’ etc. The clue is spot on.

    I agree with you that strangle does not equal gag, though.

  37. Thanks Qaos and PeterO

    I found this very enjoyable.

    Q. I’m not familiar with the use of sc (abbr. of scilicet) as found in 16d, out of interest, is this a commonly used abbreviation in crossword puzzles?

  38. In the absence of a quibble about obscurity, I am happily presuming at least that gladys does rock to Iron Maiden.

  41. Thanks PeterO and Qaos

    @9 and @10 you’re really muffin it today!

    shirl @ 22. Sinking deeper into the pedants’ corner (and I realise at the risk of being corrected), I don’t think it could be JORIANDU as the Latin alphabet lacked J and U.

  42. I was very off my game today and missed some of the more obvious clues (my environmental engineer’s mind could not process hard water as ice even after entering the correct answer), but I did learn a lot. I’ll forget most of it – because golf (gag, indeed) – but hopefully I’ll remember Caesar’s code, “load”stone and scilicet for the next hour or two.

    Thanks for a good challenge.

  43. Sport,sport,sport. I’ve never heard of Peter Alliss or any of the others. I know nothing about golf and I couldn’t name about 99% of the famous ones. Needless to say I didn’t identify any of the famous PETERs and despite there being some clever clues- NORMANDY,VODKA and IRON MAIDEN( a truly dreadful group if ever there was one) I found this much more of a slog than yesterday’s.
    Thanks Qaos.
    P.S. I hope the “sexist” Peter A didn’t refer to me!

  44. A generally enjoyable puzzle, though some of the clues felt a little clunky. I struggled with some parsings. I couldn’t explain the R in PRICE, the LOA in LOADSTONE or the SC in SCOTT, though the clues were fair. Although I parsed them both, I’m not convinced that a COW is really “bully” or that STRANG(l)E = “gag”. I missed the theme as usual, even with the hint.

    Favourites included SURFACE, OWNED (for the misdirection), IRON MAIDEN and LITTLE.

    Thanks to Qaos and PeterO.

  47. Not at all, Peter A! Only to the curmudgeonly Alliss, who seems incapable of opening his mouth without coming out with some sexist comment. And I only know that because it’s been in the papers, not because I’m a closet golf fan …

  48. I enjoyed this immensely.

    Of course I didn’t see the theme even when I got ALLISS!!! (I just assumed the “themed” was referring to the quirky style of his commentating.)

    I particularly liked 18D. Very clever and it made me laugh anyway. Of course the criticism of this @22 is incorrect as “Caesar’ code” is one on the names used to describe the Shift Cipher. See Wiki for instance.

    In cryptography, a Caesar cipher, also known as Caesar’s cipher, the shift cipher, Caesar’s code or Caesar shift, is one of the simplest and most widely known encryption techniques. It is a type of substitution cipher in which each letter in the plaintext is replaced by a letter some fixed number of positions down the alphabet.

    Thanks to PeterO and Qaos

  49. Thanks Qaos and PeterO

    An enjoyable puzzle although I got 8d wrong, having gone with Little FEAT as the 1960’s band (formed in 1969) – the rest of the clue nearly works ! Also had a higher number than usual clues that I didn’t parse properly, including 10a (saw the P and sort of the ICE, but not the R), 19a (did the maths but didn’t see the diary bit), 24a (didn’t find ‘loam’) and 18d (hadn’t seen Caesar’s code before). Many of the other clues required deeper thinking than usual to parse as well.

    Got the theme and most of the golfers, maybe because there were quite a few Aussies in amongst them :-).

    Finished with PRICE, IRON MAIDEN and DYEWOODS as the last few in.

  50. Re 21a, strangle and gag can both be used intransitively to mean choke. The former is only vaguely familiar to me in that usage. I looked this up just now – at the time of solving I could only think of metaphorical meanings (both can be used to mean something like suppress, silence, squash etc., though again strangle would be rarer and the equivalence seems a bit approximate).

  51. 21a, I do not see the problem with ‘strangle’ and ‘gag’ – ‘strangle’ can also mean to hamper or suppress a cry.
    COED gag v.tr. 2 silence, deprive of free speech.
    COED strangle v.tr. 2 hamper, or suppress (a movement, impulse, cry etc.).

  52. Herb @50, sorry, we crossed, but you are dealing with the intransitive aspect, I with the transitive aspect. I think this settles the matter, whichever way you look at it, the clue 21a is fine.

  56. I got stuck with 22ac because I had SLOPE for 16d.

    Tomé Lopes was an explorer with Vasco da Gama. I then thought “specifically” might be “S” so when that climbs in Lopes you get SLOPE which is the side of a mountain, eg Everest.

    Ho hum.

  57. Thanks PeterO for the blog – hope you’re feeling better soon – and Qaos for the puzzle.

    This started as a bit of a slog and then I gathered pace to the end.

    I hadn’t heard of Caesar’s Code before – one to commit to memory I think – so needed help to understand NORMANDY – clever!

    I think that other contributors have already spotted all the golfers so won’t add to the list.

    But musing to myself, I do wonder what the collective noun is – perhaps a BUNKER?

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