Guardian Cryptic 26,843 by Crucible

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26843.

I suspect that quite a number of people who were hoping for Rufus were in for a surprise. Me too: after the struggle with Friday’s Pasquale, I was hoping for an easier blog – not that this was in any way as tough, but again it was not the puzzle that I wanted to see when daylight savings time cut my solving time by an hour. Incidentally, that was my only real gripe with the Pasquale, and I was surprised by the vehemence of the dislike expressed by so many commenters.
As for this puzzle, Crucible has given us a centennial theme of the Easter Rising in Ireland (more or less – it actually started on Easter Monday, 24 April 1916: Easter is of course a moveable feast), together with the poem Easter, 1916 by WB Yeats meditating on it, and the Flight of the Earls thrown in for good measure. I hope the Rufusians are not too disappointed with getting a somewhat more difficult, certainly different, and well-crafted puzzle.

Across
1   See 13
5 APPROACH Near a swimmer, keeping very quiet (8)
An envelope (‘keeping’) of PP (‘very quiet’) in ‘a’ plus ROACH (‘swimmer’).
9 SUFFRAGE Mostly stand over tabloid franchise (8)
An envelope (‘over’) of RAG (‘tabloid’) in SUFFE[r] (‘stand’) cut short (‘mostly’).
10   See 26
11 INSURRECTION Superior bishop fills in part 10 (12)
An envelope (‘fills’) of U (‘superior’) plus RR (‘bishop’) in ‘in’ plus SECTION (‘part’).
13, 1 POST OFFICE Small aristo dislodges line of police in 10’s General HQ (4,6)
A substitution: ‘police’ with the L (‘line’) replaced by (‘dislodges’) S (‘small’) plus TOFF (‘aristo’), for the insurrectionists’ headquarters in the Easter Rising.
14 BETRAYAL Old carrier left to absorb another one in bad faith (8)
An envelope (‘to absorb’) of TRAY (‘another one’ i.e. another ‘carrier’, in this case just the usual meaning of something to carry e.g. food) in BEA (‘old carrier’ here the airline British European Airways) plus L (‘left’).
17 GUIDANCE Chap picked up ball control (8)
A charade of GUI, a sound-alike (‘picked up’) of GUY (‘chap’) plus DANCE (‘ball’).
18 POEM Author marks work by Yeats (4)
A charade of POE (Edgar Allen, ‘author’) plus M (‘marks’).
20 STREET VENDOR Barrow boy served rotten flounders (6,6)
An anagram (‘flounders’) of ‘served rotten’.
23 PEARSE Leader of 10 essentially guarding area (6)
An envelope (‘guarding’) of A (‘area’) in PER SE (‘essentially’), for Patrick Pearse, a leader of the Easter Rising.
24 UNIONIST Loyal politician, one controlling working lives (8)
An envelope (‘controlling’) of ON (‘working’) plus IS (‘lives’) in UNIT (‘one’).
25 ISOSTASY I call for help and stay working for balanced state (8)
A charade of ‘I’ plus SOS (‘call for help’) plus TASY, an anagram (‘working’) of ‘stay’.
26, 10 EASTER RISING “Erin is great!” — slogan originally spread by its leaders? (6,6)
An anagram (‘spread’) of ‘Erin is great’ plus S (‘Slogan originally’), with an extended definition.
Down
2 FOUR Number in favour of surrounding university (4)
An envelope (‘surrounding’) of U (‘university’) in FOR (‘in favour of’).
3 INFLICTED Delivered popular short film on time to cutter (9)
A charade of IN (‘popular’) plus FLIC[k] (‘film’) minus its last letter (‘short’) plus T (‘time’) plus ED (‘cutter’ – a change from journalist)
4 ELAPSE Apparently different Reserves go by (6)
An envelope (‘reserves’) of AP (‘apparently’) in ELSE (‘different’).
5 A TERRIBLE BEAUTY Oxymoron born in 18: 26 1916 (1,8,6)
The refrain of WB Yeats’ poem Easter 1916, “a terrible beauty is born”
6 PORTENTS Powerful society passes round Republican signs (8)
An envelope (‘passes round’) of R (‘Republican’) in POTENT (‘powerful’) plus S (‘society’).
7 ONSET Start limited by 10 bêtes noires (5)
A hidden answer (‘limited by’) reversed (’10’ – RISING) in ‘bêTES NOires’.
8 CANNONADES Reportedly, churchman assists shelling (10)
Sounds like (‘reportedly’) CANON (‘churchman’) plus AIDS (‘assists’).
12 VOLUNTEERS Offers made by very resolute rebels about noon (10)
A charade of V (‘very’) plus an envelope (‘about’) of N (‘noon’) in OLUTEERS, an anagram (‘rebels’) of ‘resolute’. The Ulster and Irish Volunteers were paramilitary groups at the time of the Easter Rising.
15 ASPIRANTS Colonists jail special “heirs of 1916”, ambitious types (9)
An envelope (‘jail’) of SP (‘special’) plus IRA (Irish Republican Army, ‘heirs of 1916’) in ANTS (‘colonists’),
16 ANATHEMA Curse a rioting man stealing articles (8)
An envelope (‘stealing’) of A plus THE (‘articles’) in ‘a’ plus NMA, an anagram (‘rioting’) of ‘man’.
19 ADVICE A scheme abandoned by English 17 (6)
A charade of ‘a’ plus D[e]VICE (‘scheme’) without an E (‘abandoned by English’).
21 EARLS In 1607 they fled opposing sides in stormy sea (5)
An envelope (‘in’) of RL (right and left, ‘opposing sides’) in EAS, an anagram (‘stormy’) of ‘sea’. The definition references the Flight of the Earls from Ireland in September 1607.
22 ISLE Paisley’s helping Ireland, perhaps (4)
A hidden answer (‘helping’) in ‘PaISLEy’.
completed grid

42 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 26,843 by Crucible”

  1. I did not have a lot of time to do a crossward today so I gave up on this – I also saw that the comments at the Guardian blog were a mix of like and dislike for various reasons.

    I was really looking forward to doing a quick Rufus today – but . . . . I guess some people have a lot of time on a public holiday, and know something of Irish history (i don’t have either of those options!)

  2. whoops – I previewed this comment but I still missed a typo!

    I meant crossword of course, not crossward 🙁

  3. Well I can honestly say that I liked this immensly-great clues and a sense of reality.
    Thanks Crucible and thanks peterO

  4. Thanks Crucible and PeterO

    I several times considered throwing this aside, as it’s a theme I know nothing about, and was struggling to parse several. However I did actually finish, though didn’t enjoy.

    Crucible seems to have invented a couple of abbreviations – M for “marks” and AP for “apparently” – for his clueing convenience.

  6. Muffin: M & S = Marks and Spencer’s.

    Thanks PeterO and Crucible. A bit trickier than Rufus but not much.

  7. cholecyst @6
    Of course, though in that case he’s been a bit naughty using “marks” rather than “Marks”!

  9. This took some doing and quite a bit of looking up references, but it was well worth the struggle and I learned a bit in the process. I liked 5d especially.

    Thanks for the blog, PeterO – appreciated your help with the parsing of 4d. Special thanks to Crucible for the reminder of the event.

    [For those missing Rufus, his alter ego is available, with a very accessible puzzle, in the FT today.]

  10. muffin @4
    No inventions, both abbreviations are in Chambers:

    m or m. – mark or marks (former German currency)
    ap. – apparent(ly)

  13. Thanks, PeterO. I managed to complete this puzzle correctly, though I couldn’t parse 23a, 24a, 3d, or 4d until you explained them. I’m still not enthusiastic about Crucible’s ad-hoc abbreviation AP “apparently”.

  14. Thanks Crucible and PeterO.

    First of all, Michelle’s typo @1, “crossward” is very evocative for a turf war…

    This was a hard solve for me. I especially liked EASTER RISING, INSURRECTION, POST OFFICE, CANNONADES, ASPIRANTS and A TERRIBLE BEAUTY

  15. Thanks Crucible & PeterO.

    Good setting to get all the references in, although I didn’t much like ‘oxymoron’ as a definition if you don’t know the poem.

    There’s been a lot about this on the news although that didn’t help much with flight of the Earls.

  16. What a delightful surprise for a Monday! I’m so glad I looked. Anticipating Rufus, I seldom bother. Interesting, well clued, and soluble without detailed knowledge of the event. Many thanks to Crucible and PeterO

  17. I had to go online to check my final few answers, ELAPSE BETRAYAL ASPIRANTS POET. I wonder, did Crucible get stuck with the AP in the first, go to his Chambers, and found it was to his surprise (and ours) an abbreviation? I am old enough to remember BEA but I did not twig it today. I see how 15d works now; and POET of course was POEM, my fault entirely – but I remember ‘marks’ abbreviated to DM (deutschmark) not just M, so maybe Crucible really did mean the Spencer partner!

    There was a bit of pulling teeth elsewhere too. But on clocking the theme, early enough, I was looking for theme words. Rather sadly I knew that the names of three heroes of the Rising, Pearse Connolly and Heuston, live on in Dublin railway stations, so I kept an eye out for them, and the first duly dropped in. Couldn’t parse it for a while until I saw the PER SE not PERSE, and immediately claimed it as my favourite clue.

  18. Good theme and enjoyed the challenge. I know little about the Easter Rising, but the clueing was very clear and I managed to solve most from the wordplay. Missed out on SUFFRAGE and PEARSE and couldn’t work out the parsing of 4d. Had a mental block for 17 and put in ‘Sundance’ as an interesting type of ‘control’ – just couldn’t see the correct answer!

    Thank you to Crucible and PeterO.

  19. I liked this one – the theme was well handled and not too distracting and the only unfamiliar solution ISOSTASY was clearly clued. A TERRIBLE BEAUTY suggested itself from the enumeration, and that and EASTER RISING got me started, after which the rest fell steadily.

    Thanks to Crucible and PeterO

  22. Thanks to Crucible and PeterO. I needed help parsing INSURRECTION and ELAPSE (ap for “apparently” slowed me down), and ISOSTASY (new to me) was last in, but I did know the Yeats oxymoron and, to my surprise, got PEARSE and POST OFFICE (though I had to use Google to check flight of the EARLS. I much enjoyed this puzzle.

  24. Interesting puzzle.
    But I am getting increasingly irritated by what seems to be a growing habit of all setters to use the first letter of any old word to flesh out a clue. Quite a few today.

  25. Got quite a long way with this but several of my pet hate clues in here eg 9. Had to check a few bits of general knowledge as well: 23 and 5d which always feels like cheating somehow. Pre-iPhone I’d have missed about 10 of these. In short, an amusing 90 minutes but a bit too difficult for me. Thanks as always to the blogger for solving the puzzle at midnight plus 2 – haven’t you guys heard of sleeping pills? ?

  26. What a treat. And what a lovely change to have a serious crossword that was nevertheless entertaining and a properly worthwhile theme. I knew more than I thought I did about the theme, so felt flattered too. Thanks Crucible and PeterO.

  27. I’ve read the mixed reactions up to this point – more in favour than not.

    I think the theme spoiled the puzzle today. Obviously that’s a personal view, and it’s only because I knew virtually nothing about the subject and didn’t want to spend time looking things up. Instead of abandoning it half completed I decided to get some-one to look up 5D for me. (I knew it was an oxymoron but had no way of knowing which one the setter had in mind.) I then found plenty to enjoy in the remainder of the puzzle. I failed only on 18A (a weak clue) and 23A (a themed answer that I was certain not to get).

    Not my sort of crossword, I’m afraid, but there were some good clues here that exercised my brain more than is usual on a Monday. My favourites were 24A (UNIONIST) and 26,10 (EASTER RISING).

  29. I completed this reasonably quickly once I settled down to it. A TERRIBLE BEAUTY was a write in which gave me the specific theme, but nothing else came quite so easily. I did know something about the Easter Rising but the puzzle seemed a bit clumsy to me. I can’t say I disliked the it but I didn’t enjoy it much.
    Perhaps this is because it compares unfavourably with Maskerade’s lovely prize puzzle which I finished first thing this morning and did enjoy!
    Thanks Crucible.

  32. Thanks for blogging, Peter.

    Mixed reactions today, weren’t there? I couldn’t finish it, because it was too hard for this solver; but the theme did engage me, so I cheated on the last few to see what was finally going on.

    What I liked about it was that it made me go and find out a bit more about the 1916 Rising. Although the centenary has been covered in the media, and although I knew the basic outline of what happened, I learnt some new stuff. And if a crossword makes me learn new stuff, it gets my vote.

    And since no-one has pointed it out so far, I will just say that – if I’ve got my facts right – Crucible is an Irish Setter. Thanks to him for a thoughtful crossword.

  33. Kathryn’s Dad

    You could be right. I’ve just followed the link to Crucible on the ‘Setters’ page, and it says that he lives in Northern Ireland.

    To the best of my recollection, Crucible has been known to visit this site, so he might do so again. I know I enjoyed a particular puzzle by him (I can remember something in it) – which is why I persevered with this one after nearly abandoning it.

    You have encouraged me also to find out a bit more about that part of the island’s history – and not just for the sake of bettering myself at crosswords.

  34. I enjoyed this even though it was hard work. I did complete the grid, but I couldn’t parse BETRAYAL or ELAPSE, forgot even to try to parse PORTENTS, and needed to check ISOSTASY, the correct spelling of PEARSE and the Yeats quote online. Yes, it was a big contrast to the usually-easier Monday puzzles, but fair enough as it is a Bank Holiday for most of is in the UK (though not for Scottish solvers). My favourite was STREET VENDOR mainly because I’m a sucker for a good surface.

    I am interested to see WordPlodder’s comment @18 as “sundance” got stuck in my head very quickly and took a lot of shifting to allow GUIDANCE to surface.

    Thanks, Crucible and PeterO.

  35. Thanks, PeterO.

    Rather late to the party – but I can’t not comment on a Crucible puzzle, which I ‘enjoyed’, as I expected, despite the sombre theme, which, as has been said, has had pretty wide media coverage in the last few days.

    I remembered A TERRIBLE BEAUTY in an earlier puzzle from Crucible: http://www.fifteensquared.net/2015/05/01/guardian-26560-crucible/

    My favourite today was ISLE – small but perfectly formed.

    Many thanks, as ever, to Crucible.

  36. Thanks PeterO and Crucible.

    On Sun Mar 27 even UK should have switched to DST but not Guardian.

    I got a form reply (email) from them when I had complained about pdf problem in Maskerade puzzle that they would be back on Tue March 29!

    This puzzle was uploaded an hour later than midnight London time (?)

    I did the puzzle only this morning (US time) after reading FT and its page 2 report on Easter Rebellion still fresh on my mind.

    So EASTER RISING and POST OFFICE went in first.

    Had to resort to Google to confirm answers but many non-theme clues were nice enough to enjoy.

    All in all a good start for the week.

  37. Easter Rising was my first one in, an easy but very apt anagram.
    Knowing what the event of 1916 was about but not knowing much about it, this was hard work.
    A Crucible puzzle is always hard work.

    Very well clued and doing justice to the theme.
    My lack of historical or cultural knowledge meant I had to google the oxymoron at 5d and 23ac’s PEARCE.
    The rest fell in place bit by bit, but soundly.

    Logophile @20: “Well, that was a cheery little theme. A solid puzzle, but not one that raised a lot of smiles.”
    To me, it is more important that a crossword is ‘solid’, precise, offering good/appropriate surfaces and being a linguistic challenge than that it makes me LOL.
    But we are all different, aren’t we?

    Crucible is one of my favourite setters and, for me, once more he did not disappoint.
    I find it really astonishing that someone who compiles crosswords day-in day-out (e.g. for the Daily Mirror) and meanwhile lifts himself up to a different level in the more serious dailies (as Radian (Independent) and Redshank (FT)) can come up with such an inspired work.
    Or am I taking crosswords (and compiling them) too serious now?

  38. Guardian, perhaps, is not aware that on Mar 27, 2016 UK Daylight Saving Time Started. #26844 is not uploaded yet, at 00:56 am, March 29. Or am I missing something?

  39. For what it’s worth, in my post @37 I made two mistakes.
    Of course, ‘Pearce’ should be PEARSE (which was just a late night typo).
    However, stating that our beloved setter compiles for The Daily Mirror is unforgivable.
    This should be The Daily Mail.
    Mea culpa.

  40. Nice solve as ever.

    I thought the theme was particularly well handled – cruciverbally of course – but also thought-provoking without any hint of partisanship.

  41. Thanks PeterO and Crucible.

    I can’t say that I enjoyed this but appreciate it as a well-crafted puzzle and learning experience (thanks Wikipedia yet again).

    I needed help to parse BETRAYAL, ELAPSE (both fair) and A TERRIBLE BEAUTY (a plainish cryptic clue so long as you know the poem – which I didn’t but worked out from the crossers).

    From what I’ve read about the Easter Rising, and despite claims by either side, the whole episode seems to have been overwhelmingly inglorious.

  42. Thanks Crucible and PeterO

    Actually did this one near the time, but it seems to have got lost in the back pile of others before I had checked it. Recall that I had found it pretty hard going – across two days according to my note and was unable to parse SUFFRAGE correctly or ELAPSE at all.

    It was one of those puzzles in which there was much learning of an event that I knew little about other than its name – so took the opportunity to read up on it as I was doing the crossword – certainly an interesting and pivotal part of history.

    Looks like I finished in the centre top area with the long ‘oxymoron clue’ (which I had to google the poem and read to find the phrase), SUFFRAGE (which was hard to pick up as ‘franchise’ at first and then still harder to parse) and the totally unparsed ELAPSE as the last one in.

    Ended up giving it my tick of approval for interesting entertainment.

Comments are closed.