Guardian Cryptic 26,781 by Paul

by

The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26781.

An excellent puzzle from Paul, with the theme of “disciplines”, which turn out to be gymnastics. It has been a good week at the Guardian.

Across
1 PERPLEX Floor reflecting groundwork by law (7)
A charade of PERP , a reversal (‘reflecting’) of PREP (preparation, ‘groundwork’) plus LEX (‘law’).
5 LUMBAGO Pain cutting ear, then doctor back (7)
A charade of LU[g] (‘ear’) minus its last letter (‘cutting’) plus MB (‘doctor’) plus AGO (‘back’).
10   See 23 and 6
11 GROVELLING Servile pair of lackeys starting to open vessel, accessing the ship’s drink (10)
An envelope (‘accessing’) of VELLIN, another envelope (‘to open’) of LL (‘pair of Lackeys starting’) in VEIN (blood ‘vessel’) in GROG (‘ship’s drink’).
12 ASHORE A pommel horse on terra firma (6)
A charade of ‘a’ plus SHORE, an anagram (‘pommel’) of ‘horse’.
13 ICE FLOES Masses drifting away, slice of cake ultimately getting wasted (3,5)
An anagram (‘getting wasted’) of ‘slice of’ plus E (‘cakE ultimately’).
14 ISLAND-HOP In store, get beyond Italy to explore by boat (6-3)
An envelope (‘in’) of LAND (‘get’) in I (‘Italy’) plus SHOP (‘store’).
16   See 17
17, 16 STILL RINGS Discipline suffering in part of the orchestra (5,5)
An envelope (‘in’) of ILL (‘suffering’) in STRINGS (‘part of the orchestra’).
19 STOWS AWAY Wave going over as two loose packs in the hold (5,4)
An envelope (‘going over’) of TOWS A, an anagram (‘loose’) of ‘as two’ in SWAY (‘wave’).
23, 10 PARALLEL BARS  Discipline shown by the whole island cutting fish (8,4)
An envelope (‘cutting’) of ALL ELBA (‘the whole island’) in PARRS (‘fish’).
24 CELLAR Wheels about 45 inches once, in vault (6)
An envelope (‘about’) of ELL (‘about 45 inches once’) in CAR (‘wheels’).
26 SARCOPHAGI Box for an emperor, Giza by the sound of it — more than one of those? (10)
Sounds (approximately) like TSAR (’emperor’) COFFER (‘box’) GUY (geezer, ‘Giza by the sound of it’). In the definition ‘those’ refers back to ‘box’.
27   See 29
28 CLOSING Winding up, caught behind (7)
A charade of C (‘caught’) plus LOSING (‘behind’).
29, 28 BALANCE BEAM  Discipline required to put scales on ray (7,4)
A charade of BALANCE (‘scales’) plus BEAM (‘ray’).
Down
2 ELAPSES Touring circuits, clock up passes (7)
An envelope (‘touring’) of LAPS (‘circuits’) in EES, a reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of SEE (‘clock’).
3 PESTO Sauce of patriot finally investing in foreign currency (5)
An envelope (‘investing in’) of T (‘patrioT finally’) in PESO (‘foreign currency’).
4 EGGHEAD Boffin Bill after something composed of yellow and white, gas (7)
A charade of EGG (‘something composed of yellow and white’) plus HE (helium, ‘gas’) plus AD (‘Bill’).
6, 10 UNEVEN BARS Say, 1, 3 or 5 score units, as a discipline (6,4)
A charade of UNEVEN (‘say 1, 3 or 5’) plus BARS (‘score units’ music).
7 BALALAIKA Music maker beginning to bark in the style of a dog who was out of this world (9)
A charade of B (‘beginning to Bark’) plus À LA (‘in the style of’) plus LAIKA (the first dog to orbit the earth in Sputnik 2, ‘a dog who was out of this world’).
8 GINSENG Nag about nines when one over the eight, stimulating stuff (7)
An envelope (‘about’) of INSEN, an anagram (‘when one over the eight’) of ‘nines’ in GG (horse, ‘nag’).
9 HORIZONTAL BAR Discipline, with ban on lying? (10,3)
Definition and literal interpretation.
15 ALLIANCES Capital distanced from affairs in unions (9)
A subtraction: [d]ALLIANCES (love ‘affairs’) minus its first letter (‘capital distanced from’).
18 TRAVAIL Labour Party clipped in the end (7)
An envelope (‘in’) of RAV[e] (‘party’) minus its last letter (‘clipped’) in TAIL (‘the end’).
20 WICHITA Close to Moscow I note, a US city (7)
A charade of W (‘close to MoscoW‘) plus ‘I’ plus CHIT (‘note’) plus ‘a’.
21 ARAMAIC Germany and Thailand have abandoned a theatrical old language (7)
A subtraction: ‘a’ plus [d]RAMA[t]IC (‘theatrical’) without D and T (‘Germany’ and Thailand, IVR).
22 SLIP-ON Margin required to fit in male shoe (4-2)
An envelope (‘to fit in’) of LIP (‘margin’) in SON (‘male’).
25 LIBYA Destination getting into Tripoli by air? (5)
A hidden answer (‘getting into’) in ‘TripoLI BY Air’.
completed grid

46 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 26,781 by Paul”

  1. Top stuff – quite tricky in parts – some really crunchy wordplays. Took a while to twig the them. Even when I had 17a 16a built from the WP it meant nothing to me.

    Many thanks both.

  3. Thanks Peter, including for sorting out LUMBAGO – I had the lug and the doctor but imagined ‘cut’ implied an insertion. Once a practitioner, I got the theme early on which helped. Stalled at the end in the top left corner until PERPLEX shone through as last in, after 2D: I still don’t see how see=clock. Big groan for the coffer guy, but Paul is always forgiven, and blessed.

  4. Just a Victor Meldrew comment that in the old days they were asymmetric bars. More dumbing down.
    Brilliant crossword, though.

  9. I did enjoy solving this one, got the theme quite early on which helped. I particularly liked the ‘something composed of yellow and white’ in 4d.

    Thanks to Paul for the Friday morning entertainment and PeterO for the blog.

  10. Thanks Paul and PeterO

    Not an easy re-introduction after a break. Very clever and enjoyable though. I raised an eyebrow at “pommel” as an anagram indicator in 12a, but once I had discovered that it is a valid alternative for “pummel”, this became my favourite. I also liked BALALAIKA very much.

    I didn’t parse LUMBAGO (I took LUG for the ear, not seeing the deletion), SARCOPHAGI (a bit too intricate for my taste), and ARAMAIC (a “ghost” subtractive anagram?)

  11. Re WICHITA: Thursday’s Times Crossword had the same solution reached by a very similar clue. We live in interesting times, eh?

  12. david @ 4: Most of the bars I go to are asymmetric.

    JollySwagman @ 6: appreciate the help on “clock” = “see.”

    Great puzzle, Paul, and thanks PeterO for the explanations.

  13. slipstream @12
    The bars I visit tend to be uneven, particularly when I’m trying to walk out of them!

    (Actually, I had only heard “asymmetric bars” before.)

  14. I looked up the definition of “ell” and the site I looked at said that it was equivalent to a cubit and measured 18 inches, not 45. Can’t remember now which site it was, but that bum steer put me off solving CELLAR for some time.

  17. Thanks Paul and PeterO.

    I got off to a flying start by entering PARQUET at 1a, with ‘law’ as the definition, but realised later that it only sort of worked in French. I needed help with some of the parsing, especially of PARALLEL BARS. ARAMAIC was my favourite clue!

  18. Thanks Paul and PeterO

    muffin @ 13: v droll 🙂

    Parallel bars and asymmetric bars are both gymnastic disciplines.

  19. Best Paul for a while, and pretty tricky, especially to start with, though it got much easier once the theme became clear. Last in was PERPLEX, favourite was BALALAIKA. The last four Guardian crosswords have been top class.

    Thanks to Paul and PeterO

  20. Like everyone else I thought this was a great puzzle. Favourites included SARCOPHAGI, LUMBAGO, PERPLEX, ASHORE and BALALAIKA. Many thanks to Paul and PeterO.

  21. That I saw the theme fairly early for a change was no help to me today as I haven’t a clue about gymnastics! However, as usual with Paul, the excellent wordplay made up for my ignorance and there were some really good clues. Favourites were 11 & 26a, 4d.

    Thank you Paul & PeterO.

  22. Thanks to Paul and PeterO for a not too difficult workout… Despite not being a gymnast I got the theme from 29, 27 right away, although knowing Paul I wouldn’t have put it past him to have one of the disciplines of a completely different variety.

    3d – I note pesto seems to becoming the sauce of choice for setters, no doubt washed down by a glass of Asti.

  23. Different strokes. I got the “discipline = gymnastics event” link before I’d even spotted it was a theme and am a fan, so this was mostly done before I had even to change into my leotard. To use an apposite term – routine. But enjoyable.

  24. Many thanks PeterO, needed you to sort out LUMBAGO, otherwise all went in and an enjoyable solve.

    Sorry to sour the tone slightly, but I didn’t think the surfaces were as smooth as some of Mr Halpern’s offerings of the past. “Wave going over as two loose packs in the hold”, “Boffin Bill after something composed of yellow and white, gas” & “Discipline required to put scales on ray” just seem assemblies of words rather than smooth surfaces. Just an opinion, a perfectly pleasant crossword nonetheless.

    Nice weekend, all.

  25. Thanks to Paul and PeterO. I had a lot of trouble getting started and my last in, SARCOPHAGI, took a long time (thanks to PeterO for the parsing), but I did finally see (clock?) how to read “discipline” and things fell into place (mostly). I got GROVELLING without seeing vein = vessel, knew the Laika for BALALAIKA (though I started with Balaclava), and did remember (after a pause) that ell = 45 inches. A tough solve for me but well worth the effort.

  26. Good stuff. The “pommel horse” (in 12a clue) was/is also a gymnastic discipline. Isn’t this a typical Pauline pangram, or have i missed some earlier comment?

  28. … there is also “floor” in 1a and “vault” in 24a, which I think complete the full set of disciplines.

  29. Not my favourite Paul. I know nothing about gymnastics and if I hadn’t puzzled out HORIZONTAL BAR and ST— RINGS, I’d still be searching for the theme. Still some nice non gymnastics- SARCOPAGI,BALALAIKA- my first two in- and PERPLEX.
    Still, a cut above the average.
    Thanks Paul.

  30. I enjoyed this very much. The fact that I completed it without looking anything up made me think this was an easier Paul than others, but I’m also finding that I can complete more and more puzzles – and that must be down to experience.

    A few clues were a bit tricky today. I didn’t parse 21D (ARAMAIC), so that has to go down as a guess – I wanted to spend time reading the blog rather than scratching my head any more over that clue and 26A (SARCOPHAGI).

    As for 26A, the definition part made this straightforward, and I was thinking about COPHA and GI as homophones, but I hit a blind spot with SAR. When I saw “by the sound of it” in a Paul crossword I wondered if the homophone was going to be liberal to the point of being dodgy – but I should have kept my head.

    I had no time even to start yesterday’s Picaroon offering, but, as the general consensus seems to be that it was a very good one, no wonder you said (PeterO) that it has been “a good week for the Guardian”.

    Thanks to Paul, and to PeterO for a clear blog.

  32. A good puzzle, but I struggled with it. I got stuck in the NE corner and eventually resorted to a wordfinder for BALALAIKA and GINSENG. I couldn’t quite remember the name of the Russian space dog. If I’d bothered to search for that, I might have solved that clue without any more help … but I didn’t. I couldn’t parse LUMBAGO. I was confused by all of LUG being there, so tried to ‘cut’ that with MB (Bachelor of Medicine), but couldn’t explain the A or O. The parsing of GROVELLING defeated me too.

    Although I’m a gymnastics fan, I didn’t know that the rings are actually STILL RINGS and I’d forgotten the full name of the BALANCE BEAM, but both were clear from the clues. My favourite clue was for SARCOPHAGI.

    Thanks, Paul and PeterO.

  33. Where many mention SARCOPHAGI as a favourite, I wasn’t really taken by it.
    SAR / TSAR, homophones? One voiced, the other unfortunately not.
    Apart from that, GI was rather unconventional.
    ‘Giza’ is a homophone of ‘geezer’.
    Then you turn that into ‘guy’ and you take one more homophone – why should I?
    Hmm, not sure.
    On top of that, GI is half of ‘Giza’ – not really great.

    That said, a nice Paul puzzle that took somewhat longer than usual.

    Thanks PeterO.

  34. Much too difficult for me. Only got a few despite having sussed the theme almost right away, and others I didn’t put in because I couldn’t parse them. I couldn’t remember the space dog’s name either, and was trying to find a good reason for Beethoven being the answer. And then I gave up. Mortified now that some that I didn’t put in were actually right. Brain ache.

  35. Sil

    I too noted that 26A (SARCOPHAGI) was a favourite with some people today, although it wasn’t one of mine. (7D and 20D were, to pick just two).

    I go along with much of what you say about the homophones and other aspects of the clue, but I still thought it was OK. The standard for homophones isn’t high, and with Paul particularly I would have to get the answer first and then see what crazy and amusing mental picture he has conjured up with a near-homophone. This one wasn’t brilliant, but I was happy with it.

  36. Meg @34

    I sympathise. Several clues today were quite tricky to parse. In half of all the clues today I ended up guessing the answer first and then going back to see how to parse the clue.

    Experience with more puzzles of this difficulty, like two others this week as I recall, will probably yield more success with time. It did with me.

    As it happens, 7D (BALALAIKA) was one of my favourites today. I got B and ALA, and as I had in mind either a composer or an instrument, it came very quickly. I actually remembered the name of the dog, and I thought of that in the same split second that I got the answer.

  37. Very late to the party here. (Visitors!)

    I found this at the harder end of Paul’s spectrum but very enjoyable with some great clues.

    I agree with the comment on 4D’s clunkiness. I took ages to get this because of the “extraneous” gas which threw me. I suspect the clue originally didn’t have the “,gas” at the end and this was inserted to please some erroneous thought that “HEAD” doesn’t equal “BILL”. This for me destroyed the surface and my train of solving/parsing.

    Thanks to PeterO and Paul

  38. Brendan @ 37

    I’ve tried but utterly failed to think of a place where HEAD could equal BILL, and Chambers e-Thesaurus doesn’t provide the equivalence in either direction. Where does it work for you?

  39. Simon S @38
    One meaning of “bill” is a narrow promontory, as in Portland Bill. Similarly, one meaning of “head” is a promontory, as in Beachy Head. Both links are to definitions at the Oxford Dictionary web site.

  41. Only just got back in.

    Thanks to jennyk for answering Simon S for me.

    Hope your heads feeling better Simon 🙂

  42. Thanks Paul and PeterO

    Completed this on Friday, but only got to do the final run through and check today. Agree with the consensus that it was a good ‘un !!

    Although I completed the grid, there were a couple that I didn’t parse properly – didn’t see VEIN for vessel in 11a (think that I went with VE as open vessel (not real good) and the IN came from somewhere) and went down a very different homophone path with 26a – ‘SARC OF A GUY’ as a geezer with the ‘Box of an emperor’ as the definition of SARCOPHAGUS.

    Last few in were BALALAIKA (don’t quite know why – familiar with both the odd-shaped instrument and the poor little dog that went spaeward), GINSENG (forgot about ‘over the eight’ meaning drunk) and LUMBAGO (‘cos it was hard to parse).

    Still bemused at how JH can keep up this standard with the prolific output that he has – hats off to him … and I’m just glad that he can !

  43. Not knowing anything about gymnastics, I found this very rough going until I finally realized what “discipline” referred to. After that, it all fell into place, though the parsing of one or two items eluded me (thanks PeterO!).

    However. Maybe I’m just a stupid American, but PeterO’s parsing of 8d explains precisely nothing for me. I see the anagram of “nines”, of course, but in what way does GG equal “nag”, and how on earth does “when one over the eight” indicate an anagram?

    Thanks in advance for any elucidation!

    Chris

  44. Chris Baum @43

    GG – or Gee-Gee – is a childish name for a horse, or ‘nag’, and ‘one over the eight’ means drunk, and as such a suitable anagram indicator.

  46. Thanks PeterO and Paul.

    Wow! That was tough but ultimately rewarding.

    I only had ISLAND HOP and WICHITA to show for my first pass and it took most of my train journey home before I twigged the theme.

    Some very complex parsings here and I was floored by the constructions of both SARCOPHAGI and ARAMAIC – always memorable from the mystic runes which told Arthur he could find the Holy Grail in the Castle Aargh.

    Good stuff!

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