Guardian Cryptic 26,850 by Nutmeg

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26850.

A most enjoyable puzzle, with the progression from a slow start to a steady midgame to a conclusion at a reasonable hour, despite the Guardian being apparently unaware of daylight savings time.

Across
1, 26 METRIC SYSTEM  Measures widely adopted using rhythm method (6,6)
Definition and cryptic definition.
5, 25 PUBLIC SECTOR Crucible’s top puzzle controlled by the government (6,6)
An anagram (‘puzzle’) of ‘Crucible’s top’. An interresting surface makes up for the awkward anagrind and the allusive definition.
8 CROATIA State thanks soldiers from the East infiltrating spies (7)
An envelope (‘infiltrating’) of ROAT, a reversal (‘from the East’) of TA (‘thanks’) plus OR (‘soldiers’) in CIA (‘spies’).
9 OLD MAID Game lady never joined (3,4)
Double definition.
11 BLACK MARKETEERS Illicit dealers want to trade in pints, perhaps (5,10)
An envelope (‘in’) of LACK (‘want’) plus MARKET (‘trade’) in BEERS (‘pints, perhaps’).
12 LAIN In absence of leader, Frank remained (4)
[p]LAIN (‘frank’) minus its first letter (‘in absence of leader’).
13 STEPLADDER Casting director, plastered, finds a way to get up (10)
An anagram (‘casting’) of D (‘director’) plus ‘plastered’.
17 SONG THRUSH Winger‘s shorts hung awkwardly (4,6)
An anagram (‘awkwardly’) of ‘shorts hung’.
18 COUP Commander heading for capital in revolution (4)
A charade of CO (‘commander’) plus UP (‘heading for capital’).
20 ONCE IN A BLUE MOON Having made the side, a sportsman’s idle very rarely (4,2,1,4,4)
A charade of ONCE IN (‘having made the side’), plus ‘a’ plus BLUE (‘sportsman’) plus MOON (‘idle’, verb).
23 EXIGENT Demanding chap behind English team (7)
A charade of E (‘English’) plus XI (‘team’) plus GENT (‘chap’).
24 DIGNIFY Honour daughter, mean son having scarpered (7)
A charade of D (‘daughter’) plus [s]IGNIFY (‘mean’) minus the S (‘son having scarpered’).
25   See 5
26   See 1
Down
2 EVOCATION Calling for online mission? (9)
A charade of E (‘online’) plus VOCATION (‘mission’).
3 RETAKE Director often wants one to get back (6)
Double definition, the ‘director’ being of a film.
4, 22 CHARACTER ACTOR  Theatrical make-up fellow dismissed by agent (9,5)
A charade of CHARACTER (‘make-up’) plus [f]ACTOR (‘agent’) minus the F (‘fellow dismissed’). The definition has ‘theatrical’ as a noun.
5 PLONK Cheap wine put new heart into board (5)
PL[a]NK (‘board’) with its middle letter replaced (‘put new heart into’).
6 BEDSTRAW A drop of dew in finest fresh flower (8)
Gallium asparine, Cleavers or Bedstraw
An envelope (‘in’) of D (‘a drop of Dew’) in BEST (‘finest’) plus RAW (‘fresh’). For once, ‘flower’ is an angiosperm.
7 IMAGE Idol from Nutmeg’s generation (5)
A charade of I’M (‘Nutmeg’s’) plus AGE (‘generation’).
8 COBBLESTONE Men at last striking right attitude for one paving the way? (11)
A charade of COBBLE[r]S (‘men at last) minus the R (‘striking right’) plus TONE (‘attitude’).
10 DISCREPANCY Recording agent initially calm during any difference of opinion (11)
A charade of DISC (‘recording’) plus REP (‘agent’) plus ANCY, an envelope (‘during’) of C (‘initially Calm’) in ‘any’.
14 POSTLUDES Final strains in furious duel between Poles (9)
An envelope (‘in’) of LUDE, an anagram (‘furious’) of ‘duel’ in POSTS (‘poles’).
15 DEODORISE Refresh last of those in party with invitation to get up (9)
An envelope (‘in’) of E (‘last of thosE‘) in DO (‘party’) plus DO RISE (‘invitation to get up’).
16 STAIDEST With two good men around, henchman’s most decorous (8)
An envelope (‘with … around’) of AIDE (‘henchman’) in ST ST (‘two good men’).
19 WEIGHS Considers speaker’s customs (6)
Sounds like (‘speaker’s’) WAYS (‘customs’).
21 CHIDE First bit of chapped skin? Tear off a strip (5)
A charade of C (‘first bit of Chapped’) plus HIDE (‘skin’).
22   See 4
completed grid

53 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 26,850 by Nutmeg”

  1. Thanks PeterO and Nutmeg.

    Thanks for parsing the long answers – 11a, 17a and 4,22d.

    Mini theme of sorts with RETAKE, POSTLUDES, CHARACTER ACTOR plus director, recording agent, theatrical make-up, casting director…

  3. Phew! That was a tough one for a beginner. Had to cheat in the SW corner to finish within self-imposed deadline. Only one question: does the grammar work (and should it) in 20a? If the soldier’s idle, he/she moons. Why not lose the ‘s? Not complaining, just trying to get the hang of this stuff!

  4. Excellent puzzle – real slow burner for me.

    Many thanks to setter and blogger.

    @Gillian – you take “idle” in isolation to get “moon”. The preceding ‘s can be read as “has”.

  5. @JollySwagman THank you. And thanks to setter and blogger, too. Without fifteensquared I would doubtless be staring for ages at solutions without too many pennies dropping.

  6. Thanks Nutmeg and PeterO

    Very enjoyable, though I gave up on COUP – I couldn’t get away from “revolution” as a cryptic instruction rather than the definition (and is “up” = “heading for capital”? – I thought it means you were there – “I’m up in London” rather than “I’m going up to London”).

    I didn’t parse CHARACTER ACTOR either, as I took the definition as the rather appropriate “Theatrical make-up fellow”!

  7. @Muffin (6) “Up” as in “up trains”

    Makes no odds, but I had a slightly different reading for 14D: “Post” as one Pole and S for South as the other.

  8. Many thanks, PeterO & Nutmeg.

    Most enjoyable puzzle, perhaps a little nearer the easy end of his spectrum.

    Loved learning POSTLUDE which I had to look up. It seems prelude, interlude and postlude are all based on the same latin root ‘ludere’ meaning ‘to play’ and the latter two were invented to provide the counterpart to prelude. Rather, I suppose, in the same way as we have added ‘prequel’ to the language as the counterpart to ‘sequel’.

    I wonder if this is the same root as ‘ludicrous’ meaning toy-like?

    Didn’t know about a ‘theatrical’ as a noun – nice clue.

    Also enjoyed the smooth ‘Winger’s shorts hung awkwardly’!

    Muffin @6, my wife is from the smoke and would often say she was going “up town” meaning going into London.

    Very pleasant solve solve this morning.

    Nice week, all.

  12. copmus @11
    “Anagrind” is a portmanteau (not universally welcomed) for “anagram indicator”, which in this case is “puzzle”. The “anagram fodder” is, as you say, “Crucible’s top”.

  15. Thanks Nutmeg and PeterO.

    An enjoyable puzzle, quite hard enough for me. POSTLUDES was new. STEPLADDER, SONG THRUSH, DIGNIFY and PLONK were fun.

    I cannot get my head around LAIN = “remained” (my English is getting very rusty) – can someone give me an example?

  16. After a slow start, this went very nicely. It took me a long time to see the parsing of COBBLESTONE, and I originally thought (f)ACTOR came from the “make-up” brand, only seeing the correct parsing after getting CHARACTER. Favourites included BLACK MARKETEERS, SONG THRUSH, ONCE IN A BLUE MOON, BEDSTRAW and COBBLESTONE

    Thanks, Nutmeg and PeterO.

  17. Cookie @15.

    How about:

    M tore a strip off Bond for aborting the assasination when his cover seemed blown. ‘Couldn’t you have lain in wait and finished the job?’

  18. Cookie @15
    I have doubts about “lain” too. My best example so far is when something has “lain/remained” undiscovered for a period of time but I’m not sure they are really equivalent in meaning.

  19. Thanks Roderick @17 and jennyk @18.

    [jennyk, I wondered the other day if you went to Brighton Technical College to study for A-levels?]

  20. [Cookie @19 – no, I did my A-levels at Tottenham Tech before heading for Brighton (University of Sussex).]

  21. A very fair and enjoyable crossword today. Thanks to Nutmeg and Peter. The only niggle would be that we definitely don’t go up to London from where I live.

  22. Thanks Nutmeg & PeterO; tricky but entertaining solve.

    I’m not sure that STAIDEST is much of a word – wouldn’t most people say “most staid?” It’s not in my BRB although the Chambers Word Wizard seems to recognise it.

  23. BTW, as capital can mean: ‘the upper part of a column or pier that supports the entablature,’ couldn’t ‘heading for capital’ just mean up, or is that too obscure?

  24. Tom Hutton @21, I don’t suppose anybody literally goes “up to London”, after all it is downstream and in the Thames Basin – it is just a figure of speech, like going “up to the university”…

  25. Thanks to Nutmeg and PeterO. I found this puzzle difficult and took a long time getting started. I did break through with ONCE IN A BLUE MOON (though the “moon” puzzled me) and then the other long answers (though METRIC SYSTEM as “rhythm method” took a while). A challenge.

  26. Some days, I would see PUBLIC SECTOR and METRIC SYSTEM straight off, but this was not one of them, and hence my late morning has had much frustration in it. Just one of those days when the brain wasn’t ticking as it might.

    Only realised the significance of the UP in 18a when I’d run out of words that could make sense of *O*P with a C to fit in somewhere. For those still wondering, in railway signal boxes across the land, the line to London is known as the UP line, and the line away as the DOWN.

  27. William @3. The difference between “prequel” and “postlude” as constructed words is that both “post-” and “-lude” are genuine word elements, but “-quel” isn’t. “Sequel” comes from the Latin verb “sequor” meaning “follow,” and “-quel” chops the word in two at a meaningless place.

  28. I should have added that it was a delightful puzzle, and thanks to Nutmeg and PeterO. It was the perfect degree of difficulty for me — hard enough not to be able to finish in bed last night, but easy enough to finish over breakfast in a second session.

  29. Started off filling in 2d as ‘searching’, presuming a straightforward double definition, which sums up my success with this puzzle in a nutshell.

    Once reconfigured, ‘song thrush’ fell in, ‘black marketeer’, ‘character actor’, ‘retake’ and a few more besides… but not enough to complete. Had ‘cobblestones’ without quite being able to parse it,too. Ah well.

  30. Another fine puzzle from Nutmeg full of wit and inventive misdirection, with a few tricky parsings. BEDSTRAW was last in and least familiar.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and PeterO

  31. What a lovely puzzle! Although I was troubled by LAIN and left 16d incomplete assuming(correctly) that the answer was unlikely to be BEDSTEAD.
    Such skillful surfaces. 8d will do as one beautiful example amongst many delights.
    Thanks to our Spice Girl and PeterO

  32. I went through this convinced there would be some sort of theme about measurements, but despite METRIC SYSTEM and WEIGHS, plus an allusion to “metric martyrs” in 11 and maybe cobbleSTONE, I think I was just seeing things. Thanks Nutmeg and PeterO

  33. A niggle, but surely “between” in 14d requires two different poles? I read it not as “poles” but as “pole” plus “S” (South).

  34. Folks here will be happy to see the response I got from Guardian on late uploading of the puzzle:

    “We are investigating the issue with the crosswords appearing one hour later than usual. We hope to fix this soon.”

  35. Couldn’t parse LAIN, which was my LOI, and don’t really like it much but P LAIN =FRANK is, I suppose, OK. Otherwise this straightforward enough but not really enjoyable for some reason. Liked BLACK MARKETEERS.
    Thanks Nutmeg.

  36. “Character” means “make-up”? Different to the “portray”/”represent” meaning I understand.

  37. TommoConnor @36

    That gave me a little pause, but the first definition of “character” in Chambers is:

    The aggregate of peculiar qualities which constitutes personal or national individuality

    which seems to me spot on for make-up.

    ilippu @34

    Do you think that “soon” means by about October time?

    rompballe @33

    My first idea for 14D, with only the S in place, was ‘in’ plus SN with a five-letter anagram of ‘duel’ in between. Needless to say, that did not have a long life. I think the parsing I gave works with ‘between’ as the envelope indicator and ‘in’ as a link word, but the ‘between’ suggests the you (and blaise @7 and William @10) are onto a better bet.

  38. It’s just one of those annoying traditions that we go up to London from anywhere else. And down from London. Also up to Oxford and Cambridge, which makes it moot what happens between say Oxford and London. A good puzzle but my pet peeve: a drop of dew, initially calm, last of those, first bit of chapped. Too many surely. Editor?

  39. Thanks both. ‘Lain’ gave me pause but I suppose it is OK with the past participle. ‘Boatyard McBoatface has lain/remained in Southampton this last month’ works either way.

  40. PeterO@37
    My email was sent on 3/29 and I got a response on 4/5. I can’t fathom what needs to be investigated here!

    But I like your idea of Oct as by then the problem will go away by itself as we move back to standard time :-

  41. PeterO@37
    My email was sent on 3/29 and I got a response on 4/5. I can’t fathom what needs to be investigated here!

    But I like your idea of Oct as by then the problem will go away by itself as we move back to standard time 🙂

  42. Thanks Nutmeg and PeterO

    Enjoyable puzzle from this consistently good setter which I found a tad easier than her normal offering. Started it on the train ride home and quickly mopped up when I got there.

    BEDSTRAW was a new flower for me. Mis-parsed COBBLESTONE by only having one COBBLER and using ST (a whimsical abbreviation of stance for attitude) and ONE – not nearly as good as the proper way. Still don’t see the ‘rhythm method’ definition of 1a, 26a – had thought that it was the hidden MM that indicated the METRIC SYSTEM.

    Finished in the SE corner with DISCREPANCY, DIGNIFY and that tricky COUP as the last one in.

  44. One of the trickier things for an American solving a cryptic is remembering to switch spelling conventions, so I was very proud of myself for catching the “rise” portion of 15D. I was sure, though, that the solution could not possibly be what I thought it was, because I also remembered that “odour” is spelled with a “u”! I’m beginning to suspect that you folks are just messing with me.

  47. Can someone please explain to this newby what you all mean by Lol? I always thought it meant laugh out loud but that doesn’t seem to fit in the context in which some of you use it.

  49. A really good puzzle, much enjoyed.

    Gillian at #3 re 20ac makes a good point I think. If the ‘a’ part, which is in the clue and the answer unfortunately, were not there, ‘idle’ without any apostrophe preceding would have been better. It works for me without as is, but I see how it is smoother with. ‘To idle’ could have helped, as the verb form is quite obscure, but a minor quibble really. Here’s to ‘s = has!

    Occasionally I have night work, to which I shall now return, more’s the pity. Thank you to Nutmeg for a most enjoyable diversion.

  50. I failed to solve 9a, 6d, 19d and needed help to parse 1a, 20a, 3d, 8d.

    My favourites were BLACK MARKETEERS & DISCREPANCY.

    Thanks PeterO and Nutmeg.

  51. A delightful solve – Nutmeg is increasingly a name that gets my crucijuices squirting when spotted atop a puzzle, so much so that I saved for my free afternoon today. And I wasn’t disappointed; it took a few minutes to get a toehold – I had to start in the lower half – but thereafter the climb was steady, and fulfilling, fun. It is clear that this is no lazy setter – and one with concern for the solver’s enjoyment – and distraction! Thanks again, Nutmeg – please keep ’em coming…..
    And thanks to Peter.

    [William@8 – Nutmeg is one of our – too few – girl setters.
    muffin@14 – I’m pretty sure bagel@13 intended the obvious (but good) grating joke….really no need for explanation – can dilute the fun, I find. :-)]

  52. Ah, thank you. Now I understand. I’d worked out most of the terminology but that one defeated me.

  53. Thanks PeterO and Nutmeg.

    Slow start for me too and nearly got there – except:

    I failed on the 2nd part of 1/26 and 19dn. I went for METRIC SCALES and an admittedly dodgy ZEUGMA at 19dn (a word that applies two different senses in speech). Made sense to me at the time!

    Not good enough! Must try harder.

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