Guardian 26,891 – Chifonie

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Chifonie seems to be getting the Monday slot quite often these days. Perhaps Rufus is (understandably) staring to take life a bit easier. Anyway, this is a nicely accessible puzzle to start the week. Thanks to Chifonie.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
5. CHILLY Cuba’s mountainous and unwelcoming (6)
C[uba] + HILLY
6. PIN-UPS Private eye turned round to see pretty girls (3-3)
PI (private investigator) + reverse of SPUN
9. CALLER Visitor found in the bingo hall (6)
Double definition
10. AVERSION Dislike adult adaptation (8)
A + VERSION
11. ATOM A cat that’s very small (4)
A TOM
12. LACERATION Cut Spike’s allowance (10)
LACE (as in to lace/spike a drink) + RATION
13. STICK INSECT Six-footer to remain in splinter group (5,6)
STICK IN SECT
18. DETERMINED Try to stop my old Dutch being resolute (10)
DETER (try to stop) + MINE (old version of “my”) + D[utch]
21. RANK Rotten Row? (4)
Double definition
22. ATHEISTS Godless individuals involved in robberies (8)
A familiar charade: AT HEISTS
23. MAPLES Sample fragments of trees (6)
SAMPLE*
24. RESULT Posh student staying in holiday development (6)
U (posh) + L (student) in REST
25. FORCED Contrived to get engineer into car (6)
CE (Chartered Civil Engineer) in FORD
Down
1. DIPLOMAT Embassy official gets certificate on time (8)
DIPLOMA + T
2. PLURAL Man left on river? More than one concerned (6)
P (pawn – chess man) + L + URAL
3. FINE ARTS Have convulsions about cheeseparing in cultural expression (4,4)
NEAR (stingy, cheeseparing) in FITS
4. OUTSET Start undesirable group (6)
OUT + SET
5. CHASTE Restrained Charlie’s impulsiveness (6)
C + HASTE
7. SPOT ON Time in club is precise (4,2)
T in SPOON (type of golf club)
8. MARCHIONESS Aristocrat to protest over troublesome noises (11)
MARCH + NOISES*
14. CAMISOLE Mice also damaged clothing (8)
(MICE ALSO)*
15. CARAPACE Vehicle rapidly becoming a shell (8)
CAR + APACE
16. PESTER Aristocrat tours street for badger (6)
ST in PEER
17. INDEED Actually denied arrangement (6)
DENIED*
19. EVEN SO Oscar quits first, nevertheless (4,2)
EVENS (quits, as in betting) + O
20. DAMSON Fruit for parent and child (6)
DAM + SON

42 comments on “Guardian 26,891 – Chifonie”

  1. Thanks to Chifonie and Andrew.

    For some reason I found this offering a bit uninspiring.

    Clues like 2d where P for Pawn (man) is used for the first letter of PLURAl, and 24a where U is used for Posh make for rather weak cluing (clueing?) IMHO – and yes I know the merits of both of these have been discussed/debated here on the blog before.

    I don’t want to be negative so think this is a case of “different strokes for different folks” and hope to read more positive comments from others. But feel like I missed Rufus today.

    Favourite was 13a STICK INSTINCT, for its enjoyable surface.

  3. Thanks Andrew,
    I enjoyed most of this but failed on PLURAL. The indirect man=pawn=p was too obscure for my liking. Still, I have only myself to blame as I recall this very same device was used recently by another Guardian setter.

  4. But on review, C for Charlie and O for Oscar in 5a CHILLY and 19d EVEN SO were also a bit weak. Today just didn’t seem to require “rocket surgery”, a mixed metaphor which I recently heard and found hilarious!

  5. Thanks to both Chifonie and Andrew!! I finished this in quick time but needed your help, Andrew, to parse 18a and 19d, although, I am still not convinced by EVENS= quits!!

    I thought STICK INSECT the best of the rest.

  6. Thanks Chifonie & Andrew.

    Good gentle start to the week.

    S Panza @5; yes, I think quits is more akin to ‘even,’ viz the Collins definition: on an equal footing; even ? now we are quits

    I, too, liked STICK INSECT among others

  9. One of Chifonie’s better ones – I think he is better suited to the Rufus slot than later in the week when I prefer something more challenging, though I understand the Guardian’s editorial policy on easier/more accessible puzzles. The bottom half went in very quickly, the top half took a bit more thought and FINE ARTS was last in because I struggled with the cheeseparing (though I’m sure Rufus has used near in this sense a few times). Liked SPOT ON.

    Thanks to Andrew and Chifonie. Thanks also to everyone who made the Derby S & B such an enjoyable day.

  10. Thanks Chifonie and Andrew
    In contrast to some others, I found this very difficult. First pass of the across clues yielded nothing; the downs were a bit easier, though. Baffled by RESULT and FORCED, and still not convinced by the latter (in what sense does it mean “contrived”?) The grid made it virtually two separate puzzles, too.
    Disagreeing with BH, I thought SPOT ON a very poor clue – SPOON for “club” is archaic even if “golf club” comes to mind. “Time in golf club is precise” would have been a bit fairer.
    STICK INSECT was my favourite.

  11. muffin @10 – serves me right for trying to say something positive, but quite often with Chifonie there is too little disguise, and the usage of spoon was what I liked!

  12. Well done for being positive, though, BH.

    In fact I guessed SPOT ON, but the parsing did come to me quite quickly. I think a spoon is what we call a 3-wood, but it might have been the (almost never seen now) 2-wood.

  13. Thank you Chifonie and Andrew.

    Like muffin, I found this puzzle difficult, but I enjoyed it. I thought the use of “spoon” rather fun, the only memories of golf clubs that I have are from more than 60 years ago, my mother’s set, so I was not aware that the term was archaic.

    muffin, I was thinking of a FORCED smile, a contrived smile – COED gives contrived adj. planned so carefully as to seem unnatural; artificial, forced…

  14. Thanks Chifonie and Andrew

    Found this on Chifonie’s easy side and all over quite quickly. Don’t mind this on a Monday … to warm up for the week!

    Am pretty sure that it was he that used the P=pawn=man the last time – so spotted that quite quickly as well today.

    FINE ARTS was my last in too.

  15. Thank you, Andrew.

    Not a huge fan of this setter normally and this rather confirmed it.

    I’ll start with those I liked which included PIN-IPS, LACERATION & DETERMINED, but they were the best of a somewhat lacklustre bunch.

    I’m going to sound a bit precious here, but ‘engineer’ is most certainly not synonymous with ‘Chartered Engineer’. Indeed the registration process was designed to establish the difference.

    I found ‘development’ = RESULT a bit of a strain, and, like Muffin @10 was not terribly convinced by FORCED. Now that I read it again, however, I suppose you could construct the sentence, “The geniality of his welcome seemed a little forced/contrived to me.

    On a more positive note, it’s nice to have an alternative for the Monday slot and give Rufus something of a break.

    Thank you, Chifonie.

    Nice week, all.

  17. Meant to say that two uses of the phonetic alphabet “C” and “O”, the chess reference “P”, and the obscure “U” for Upper Class just seem a bit OTT to me as single letter devices in the one puzzle.

    Enough from me! Sorry about the serial blog – should have been more succinct in the first place. Bloody Aussie whingers.

  18. Cookie @16 Ah, fair enough, thank you. In that case Andrew (if he agrees) may wish to amend the blog. Chambers also gives CE = Chief Engineer.

    Julie in Oz, there’s no limit to posting. You’re making valid points and you don’t come across as whingeing!

  19. I enjoyed this much more than many others here. Got off to a confident start with 20d, clearly PAPAYA, papa and ya, young adult. Then to 23a, clearly an anagram of ‘sample’. So all I needed to find was trees beginning with P. I thought perhaps an alternative of palms might be palmes. 18a got me back on track. Thanks all.

  20. Julie @17 – U=upper class is not at all obscure in Crosswordland, it is one of those standard devices we all had to learn once. Similarly man=chesspiece – you see man and you run through K Q N B R and P (admittedly P doesn’t exist in modern notation and will soon be as obsolete as the baffing spoon. I agree with the criticism that Chifonie overuses single letter devices, but C for Cuba is an IVR code – C is Charlie in the phonetic alphabet…

  21. At the risk of being slightly mischievous, after last week’s fusspot debate, I am surprised nobody has questioned pretty girls = pin-ups yet!

  22. Despite the various “carpings” above I rather enjoyed this puzzle – spent a few minutes failing to solve a clue then got going and quickly finished…. many thanks to Chifonie.

  23. Thank you Andrew and Chifonie.

    I enjoyed this puzzle and found it fairly easy. My father used to refer to a spoon, and it was a five wood rather than a three wood. The Internet disagrees about the definition of spoon as a golf club, but the Wikipedia entry fits my memory of my dad’s use of the term.

    And I would like to echo beery hikers comments about Saturday. Great day out.

  24. Thanks for the CE tip-offs: I guessed “chartered” without checking. Blog updated. (I see Chambers also gives “chemical engineer” and “chief engineer” for CE, listing them ahead of Civil.)

  25. I thought (speaking of single letters) that using Charlie and Cuba from two phonetic alphabets for the same C in 5a and 5d was too much of a not particularly good thing.

    On the other hand, my favorite clue was “determined”. I loved it for “my old Dutch”, separated into “my old” for “mine” and D for Dutch, even if it is another single-letter clue.

  26. Andrew @24, the COED only gives “civil engineer” for CE, there do not seem to be similar abbreviations for structural, mechanical and electrical engineers, perhaps Chambers gives them?

  27. Thanks to Chifonie and Andrew. I’m one who found this puzzle a quick solve (and enjoyable), though I did welcome help parsing FINE ARTS (I missed “cheese-paring” as near or stingy).

  28. Cookie – Chambers has ME for Mining or Mechanical Engineer, but nothing for Structural or Electrical, as far as I can see.

  30. muffin @10

    I had a similar experience to yours at first, but I got lucky at 13A (STICK INSECT – my first one in) going through the across clues. ‘Six-footer’ means an insect (crossword solvers always think of this before anything else), and on seing ‘splinter’ I thought of STICK straight away, even though this part of the answer was actually clued by ‘remain’. The bottom half then solved itself in what seemed like a couple of minutes.

    I’ve not seen C = Cuba or CE as an engineer before, but they are evidently ok. I just about remembered ‘near’ meaning stingy in 3D (FINE ARTS). I thought FORCED = contrived in 25A was ok, but I had doubts about OUT = undesirable in 4D (OUTSET) and evens = quits in 19D (EVEN SO).

    Julie @1

    I also found this a bit flat after a very good week last week (particularly the three days in the middle of the week). I found this puzzle less challenging, but I’m sure that’s the policy for a Monday as others have said.

    [By the way, Julie, I think I said some time ago that I would tell you where to find the Aussie forum for Times crosswords. On this site click on LINKS then, under ‘2 Solving Blogs’, click on ‘Times for the Times’, then scroll down on the right and, under ‘Syndicated Times puzzles’, click on ‘The Australian’. I know it means buying The Australian (which I do while looking the other way), but my daughter and I like to tackle the Times puzzles together. The puzzles appear 30 days behind the UK, by the way. Sorry it took me so long. I shall be on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland for the whole of July!]

    Thanks to Chifonie and Andrew.

  31. No problem with the pawns, the Charlies etc but I did want to have a moan at the two aristocrats at 8d, 16d.

    My, we’re a hard lot to please. Good standard Monday fare. Plenty of ticks for STICK INSECT I see but my clue of the day was DETERMINED.

  32. I don’t think there’s much to choose between Rufus and this setter. I think Rufus is rather wittier but other than that–!
    I thought this was Ok. Entertaining but not especially stretching- none the worse for that. After all it’s the Guardian and it’s Monday.
    I particularly liked ATOM and PLURAL.STICK INSECT was the most Rufus-like clue here.
    Thanks Chifonie.

  33. Thanks all
    A Rufus duplicate except I failed to get plural, and still do not see what the concerned is for?

  34. I got off to a slow start, working through the across clues as far as 13a before solving any. The later ones were kinder to me, so I finished the whole of the bottom with only 8d crossing into the upper half. Once I went back to the top, though, I couldn’t see why I’d found it so tricky, and I finished it quickly. No, it isn’t the most difficult of cryptic puzzles, but we should expect that on a Monday by now, and I still enjoyed it.

    Thanks, Chifonie and Andrew.

  35. jennyk @34

    That’s exactly how this puzzle came out for me (13A then bottom half then 8D then top half). What do they say about great minds?

  38. Flew through this, which means that either I am getting better….. Once I got started of course.

    FOI was ATOM which indicated: oh it’s an easy one. Enjoyed particularly the reference to spoon as a club; seemed to celebrate Rory’s great victory at the weekend – it was (per Charles Barnwell@23) a “spoon” he hit into the 18th! Spot on or what?

    Pin-ups are a thing of the past I suppose; also marchionesses, spoons, camisoles and, dare I suggest, fine arts?

  39. As a novice I’m just delighted to finish something other than a rufus even though I parsed plural as pal with l and the river ur. Back down to earth tomorrow no doubt

  40. I needed help to parse 3d.

    My favourites were LACERATION, SPOT ON, PIN-UPS & STICK INSECT!

    Thanks Chifonie and Andrew

  41. Don’t like golf references and chess abbreviations. At least there wasn’t cricket or football of various codes. C for Cuba? Nevertheless got most of it out. Couldn’t work out TE for impulsiveness after CHAS for Charlie. Or is that only Australian? (I know, get it now.) LACERATION and STICK INSET were good. Prefer Rufus.

  42. Thanks Chifonie and Andrew.

    Took a while to get going but then flew through with no real issues.

    The straightforward STICK INSECT across the middle unlocked most of the puzzle with PLURAL (oh yes, that tricky “man” = “P” again) my last in.

    A pleasant solve.

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