Guardian 26,905 – Chifonie

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As usual with Chifonie, a fairly straightforward puzzle, though not as much as a write-in as I sometimes find him. There seem to be a lot of inclusion-type clues, with fewer of the charades that his puzzles tend to be rather full of. Thanks to Chifonie.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
4. BOWLER Delivery man‘s hat (6)
Double definition – a bowler in cricket makes “deliveries”. There’s another hat in 19d
6. BRACELET Couple hire out jewellery (8)
BRACE + LET
9. GREATS Greek devours the classics (6)
GR + EATS
10. IN FUTURE Unfit? Rue running after this! (2,6)
(UNFIT RUE)*
11. INTERCEPTOR Fighter doctored torn receipt (11)
(TORN RECEIPT)*
15. EMANATE English associate adopts an issue (7)
AN in E MATE
17. TO SPARE Extra rushed round resort (2,5)
SPA in TORE
18. REGULATIONS Tales about government united in red tape? (11)
GU in RELATIONS (tales, i.e. things that are “related”)
22. HANDICAP Give one international a disadvantage (8)
HAND + I + CAP
23. SPRAIN King entering the country gets an injury (6)
R in SPAIN
24. BEWILDER Confuse utterly, being crazy in drink (8)
WILD in BEER
25. LEGEND Superstar went ahead without the facts (6)
GEN (facts) in LED
Down
1. DEBTOR One has an obligation to gather up rubbish and litter (6)
Reverse ROT (rubbish) + BED (a litter)
2. GRAND TOTAL Old woman’s daughter getting child a quid? That’s the lot! (5,5)
GRAN +D + TOT + A + L
3. ACQUIRES Buys a hundred sheets of paper (8)
A C (100) QUIRES (measures of paper)
4. BAGPIPES Appropriate churchwardens’ instrument (8)
BAG + PIPES (a churchwarden is a kind of pipe)
5. WHEATEAR Don eats roast bird (8)
HEAT in WEAR – as I’ve said before, I dont think “wear” and “don” are really the same thing
7. LOUT Yobbo is left unconscious (4)
L + OUT
8. TEEM Rain when event is over (4)
Reverse of MEET
12. EVERGLADES Boy found in eastern borders of US swamp (10)
LAD in E VERGES
13. SABOTAGE Deliberately damage shoe given time (8)
SABOT (a clog) + AGE – the word sabotage actually derives from “sabot”, from the sense of “walking noisily”. The story that it comes from workers throwing their clogs into factory machines to break them is apparently a myth
14. SEASONED Mature offspring harbour an issue (8)
A SON (issue) in SEED (offspring)
16. ADROITLY Tory laid out with skill (8)
(TORY LAID)*
19. TOPPER Page wearing drunkard’s hat (6)
P in TOPER
20. CHUB See nerve centre of swimmer (4)
C (“see” – the letter C spelled out) + HUB
21. KNOW Recognise man immediately (4)
K (King, a chessman) + NOW

26 comments on “Guardian 26,905 – Chifonie”

  1. Thank you, Andrew, and good morning.

    As you say, fairly uncontentious stuff from Chifonie this morning although I did bridle at the unindicated homophone of ‘see’ for C in CHUB.

    I notice we have another chessman this morning – seems to be a bit of an epidemic.

    I am so disappointed to learn that early saboteurs did not apparently lob their footwear into machinery to intentionally damage it. Apparently this root ‘is not supported by the etymology’. In which case I’d love to know what the derivation actually is. I didn’t quite see how your “walking noisily” thing would slow down production.

    Held up with TO SPARE (LOI) by trying to shoehorn a cricket extra into the answer.

    Other than that, pretty straightforward as you say.

    Many thanks, Chifonie, nice week, all.

  2. Thank you Chifonie, thank you Andrew.

    The paper arrived early enough to complete before getting out of bed. Only tricky bit was putting ADROITLY in 14d instead of 16d.

    Interesting information about sabotage. I may have to eat my hat, having told many people about the myth.

  3. William – the third meaning of ‘see’ is the name of the letter C, so no homophone is involved.

  4. Thanks both. Short and sweet. I too had my doubts about ‘chub’, but now think it rather clever, with a subtle misdirection.

  5. This was a pleasant puzzle, after yesterday’s Imogen which I gave up on after solving only 8 clues I think!

    My favourite was SEASONED, and new word for me was CHUB. I could not parse CAP in 22a – and still do not get it. Is something like wearing/earning a cap in a Test cricket team?

    Thanks Chifonie and blogger

  6. After an epic fail on the Imogen yesterday, I have had my confidence restored by today’s puzzle.

    So thank you to Chifonie.

    Admit I was all over online encyclopaediae to track down the bird for 5d WHEATEAR which was incomplete for a long time.

    Put off a bit by entering TOPHAT for 19d without understanding the parsing. In the end saw TOPER, added the P for page (having been fully distracted by bell hops etc) and got it! Then saw 25a LEGEND, my LOI.

    Interesting that in yesterday’s puzzle, “dope” was the clue for “GEN”, while today it was “the facts” that led to “GEN”.

    Favourite was 4a BOWLER.

    Appreciate the blog, Andrew.

  7. Thanks Chifonie & Andrew.

    Horrible grid that should be retired IMHO; money for old rope! Anyway, good puzzle with smooth surfaces. I, too, was somewhat distracted by the ‘extra’ clue. I liked the ‘running after this,’ and forgot (again, I think) about the chuchwarden’s pipe.

  10. Thanks to the blogger and setter.

    I too raised my eyebrows a bit at “see” for C, but only because I’ve only ever seen the letter spelled “cee.” (Like most short words in which vowels outnumber consonants, it’s a staple in American-style crosswords; it’s usually clued as something like “mediocre grade.”)

    I also thought that the “US” in “US swamp” was unnecessary, and made the clue too easy. How many well-known swamps are there, worldwide, anyway? The EVERGLADES are a World Heritage site, so surely you shouldn’t need the locality to make the clue fair. And without the “US” there, “swamp” could be a verb, which might hold some people up a bit.

    On that note, I remember reading a piece by a setter saying that the key to making a good cryptic is to make your verbs look like nouns and your nouns look like verbs.

  11. Thank you Chifonie and Andrew.

    I found this puzzle harder than Imogen yesterday, I cannot think why. The churchwarden pipe was new to me, but I now seem to remember a puzzle a year or more ago when it was mentioned, and I had to check the international meaning of CAP.

    Among many fun clues, DEBTOR was neat.

  13. I also found this more straightforward than yesterday’s crossword, and everyting went in quite speedily today.

    I saw the ‘C’ in CHUB at 20D as the txt abbrev (as in “C u l8r”). It seems to be ok now not to indicate these forms. ‘K’ (king) for ‘man’ in 21D is likewise fair game now, apparently. So no gripes, then.

    In 14D (SEASONED) I thought ‘harbour’ should read ‘harbours’. Also, I agree with mrpenney @10 that ‘swamp’ would have been slightly trickier and less obvious than ‘US swamp’.

    Thanks to Chifonie and Andrew.

  14. Nothing wrong with this, but all a bit too straightforward for my taste.

    Thanks to Chifonie and Andrew

  15. Thanks to Chifonie and Andrew. I did not know “churchwarden” as a pipe but did see BAGPIPES from the crossers and finally saw CHUB and HANDICAP (my two last in). For me, a fairly quick solve – and very enjoyable.

  16. mrpenney @10. The “US” threw me for a while in 12d. I was looking for “AM” or “US” in the answer and I thought “swamp” may have been a verb before the (mr)penn(e)y dropped.

  17. Not much to add. Straightforward veering towards the easy,but pleasant enough. I got held up in the SW corner with the rather clever CHUB being LOI. I liked BEWILDER,BAGPIPES and SEASONED.
    Thanks Chifonie.

  18. mrpenney@10, EVERGLADES was one of my last ones in; this side of the pond, it doesn’t spring to mind with or without the US. In fact, the US was a distractor for me.

    I concur with Robi @ 7 about putting this grid to rest.

    Thanks Andrew and Chifonie

  19. In defence of those of us in the UK who paid attention in Geography at school, I thought, like mrpenney, that US was superfluous in 12D. In fact I hesitated before writing EVERGLADES in, in case I was missing something.

    I didn’t complete either yesterday’s or today’s puzzle, but unlike most I found today’s more difficult.

    Thanks Chifonie and Andrew.

  20. Yes, a pleasant surprise to be able to complete AND parse without too much juggling.

    I am bewildered that there was so much praise about yesterday’s puzzle which we gave up on.

  21. pex @20

    I just wondered if you found and solved the theme words in Imogen’s puzzle early on: GENTLEMAN, JEEVES and BERTIE WOOSTER. I got all of these from 21D (“3 11 19’s 19” – answer JEEVES). I had made slow progress until I got those, and then I found the whole crossword doable and mostly enjoyable. OF THE ROAD went straight in after GENTLEMAN, and AGATHA (a theme word) was also made easier.

    I would say Imogen’s puzzle depended a bit too much on the theme, particular as I found that a few of the non-themed clues didn’t quite work. I’ve lost the rough notes I made about these, but I remember the two that I commented on in the blog: SURVIVOR (in which the intended near-homophone didn’t work for me) and NYLON (in which the word ‘just’ is redundant – possibly inserted for the surface reading).

    Of course, this comment really belongs on the blog for Imogen’s puzzle (sorry Andrew and Loonapick!), but I wanted to address your point without having to redirect you.

  22. Alan Browne @21
    I hope no-one reads your post who had moved on to Chifonie’s puzzle leaving Imogen’s to finish later. I sometimes do that if I can’t finish a puzzle on the day so as not to get behind with the current puzzles and blogging (though fortunately not in this case).

  23. I didn’t get to this until late last night after a tiring day. I’ll blame that for the problems I had with it then, as the remaining answers came to me fairly smoothly when I got back to it this morning. INTERCEPTOR gave me the most trouble even though I quickly saw that it was likely to be an anagram of those words. I was looking for a type of human fighter (like a gladiator), and even when I thought of a fighter plane I was initially thinking of makes and models (and my ignorance thereof).

    My problems were of my own making, though, because as usual Chifonie had produced an enjoyable crossword so thanks, Chifonie, and thanks also to Andrew for the blog.

  24. myself @21, jennyk @22

    My humble apologies to all – having finished writing my comment on this page I decided to post it anyway, with a feeble apology at the end, before I went out, completely overlooking the possible consequences. With my experience of this site I should have cut and pasted my comment to the correct page and posted only a few words here for redirection. I hope I’ve been lucky and not spoiled it for anybody.

    Thank you for your salutary message, jennyk.

  25. Thanks Chifonie and Andrew

    A welcome easier one midweek to allow me to catch up. Generally find this setter like that and generally thankful for it. Still I like his no-nonsense and elegant clueing style.

    Full of his trademark single letter insertions and I think that he has made the single letter abbreviations of (chess) men his own as well !

    Thought that both ‘churchwarden’ pipes and WHEATEAR birds were semi classic crossword staples now. The former always reminds me of illustrations in Charles Dickens books for some reason.

    Finished with LEGEND and TO SPARE as the last couple in.

  26. Thanks Andrew and Chifonie.

    This was almost Rufus-like and with a total of only 26 clues I felt a little short-changed.

    I’m sure I learnt the shoes thrown into looms definition of SABOTAGE from QI – so it must be true!

    Enjoyable all the same.

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