Guardian 26,909 / Nutmeg

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We’re more used to seeing Nutmeg in the Quiptic slot on a Monday but it’s always a pleasure to find her name on a puzzle.

The usual blend of wit and elegance, with silky-smooth surfaces throughout. I thought initially that some of the definitions were rather loose but I think they can all be justified.

Many thanks to Nutmeg for an enjoyable puzzle.

 

Across

1 Warning — horse out of control in the Strand (9)
FORESHORE
FORE [warning before a golf shot, which used to be pretty common in crosswords but I don’t think I’ve seen it for quite a while] + an anagram [out of control] of HORSE

6 Oppose money for statesman (4)
BUCK
Double definition: I think I’ve only ever met the first in ‘buck the trend’ but Collins tells me it’s chiefly US, Canadian and Australian – which fits nicely with the second, money for a man from the States

8 Scottish banker with very old investment, surely (8)
FORSOOTH
FORTH [Scottish river – banker: this usually causes comment but it seems to be fairly commonly used now] + SO [very] + O [old]

9 Customer‘s coin of little value — about £1 (6)
CLIENT
CENT [coin of little value] round LI [£1]

10 Threatened cut briefly in question (2,4)
AT RISK
TRI[m] [cut briefly] in ASK [question]

11 They’re at ease performing sung role (8)
LOUNGERS
Anagram [performing] of SUNG ROLE

12 Poet’s local police coming round (6)
BARDIC
BAR [local] + a reversal [coming round] of CID [police]

15 Buoys let loose without much reason (8)
OBTUSELY
Anagram [loose] of BUOYS LET

16 Man making delivery drove a bit close to corner (8)
RANSOMER
RAN [drove – as in ‘I’ll run you home’] + SOME [a bit] + [corne]R – I thought this definition was rather loose but it does make a very nice surface

19 Deodorant? I hope it soon will be! (4-2)
ROLL-ON
Double definition, the second not needing a hyphen

21 Prepare to brew up for celeb? (4,4)
STAR TURN
START URN [prepare to brew up?]

22 When pressed, manages  passes (4,2)
GETS BY
Double definition

24 “Dirty” biography stops editor retiring (6)
DEFILE
A reversal [retiring] of LIFE [biography] in [stops] ED [editor]

25 Expression used after rugby player gets time off (4-4)
HALF-TERM
TERM [expression] after HALF [rugby player] – I know scrumhalf and flyhalf but is ‘half’ used by itself?

26 Jobless indulged from time to time (4)
IDLE
Alternate letters [from time to time – we’re used now to seeing ‘regularly’ used like this and I suppose this means more or less the same but it seemed a bit odd at first] of InDuLgEd

27 Backward regions taking off, though lacking some support (9)
STRAPLESS
Reversal [backward] of PARTS [regions] + LESS [taking off]

Down

1 Back on street, temperature below zero (5)
FROST
FRO [back – as in ‘to and fro’] + ST [street]

2 Desires Cinderella needs to set aside (7)
RESCIND
Hidden in desiRES CINDerella

3 Small crocodile hunter alarmed (5)
SHOOK
S [small] + [Captain] HOOK, crocodile hunter in ‘Peter Pan’

4 Shakespearean greeting to returning heads (7)
OTHELLO
Reversal [returning] of TO ahead of HELLO [greeting]

5 Do battle with foreign noble blocking Frenchman’s return (9)
ENCOUNTER
COUNT [foreign noble] in [blocking] a reversal [return] of RENÉ, the familiar crossword Frenchman

6 German among potential union members crosses over (7)
BRIDGES
G [German] in BRIDES [potential union members]

7 Singer needing endless discipline to retain key (9)
CONTRALTO
ALT [key] in CONTRO[l] [endless discipline] – I particularly loved the surface of this one

8 Pirate had dreadful racist policy (9)
APARTHEID
Anagram [dreadful] of PIRATE HAD

14 Reduce unfilled roads for regular travellers (9)
COMMUTERS
COMMUTE [reduce] + R[oad]S [unfilled roads] – COMMUTE really means to [ex]change: it only means ‘reduce’ in the case of eg the death sentence being changed to one less severe

17 Maintenance that gets the set going? (7)
SERVICE
Cryptic definition, referring to the service in tennis

18 Big farmer typically got a move on and caught the girl (7)
RANCHER
RAN [second appearance – got a move on this time] + C [caught] + HER [the girl] – I wondered what ‘typically’ was doing but I think it’s a reference to ‘the cowboy always gets his girl’, in which case it’s rather clever

20 Song title tweaked by Elvis, originally (3,2,2)
LET IT BE
Anagram [tweaked] of TITLE + B[y] E[lvis]

22 Dance work substituted for last element of festival (5)
GALOP
GAL[a] [festival] with OP [work] substituted for the ‘a’

23 Running water north of the border  gets overheated (5)
BURNS
Double definition

48 comments on “Guardian 26,909 / Nutmeg”

  4. I was really looking forward to Rufus today and maybe that is why I could not get on Nutmeg’s wavelength. I failed to solve 22a and 23d and I could not parse 5d, 17d, 25a (I know nothing of rugby and I asked a friend of mine who is a rugby fan for help on this but he was stumped), and 6a – I am Australian but I still don’t understand BUCK in 6a. Also I still do not understand the second def of ROLL ON.

    I liked STAR TURN.

    Thanks Nutmeg and Eileen.

    PS and on top of all that, the Quiptic is not appearing online today 🙁

  5. All went well for most of this – but as usual for me – missed the very last! Frustrating!

    Could not for the life of me get RANSOMER 16a. I had the A, I had SOME, I had the R. So near and yet so far!

    Liked 21a STAR TURN.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and Eileen.

  6. jvh@3
    yes, you are right – the crocodile was pursuing Capt Hook! I had not remembered that till you posted.

  7. Hi Michelle @4

    Re BUCK: Chambers gives ‘to resist, to be in opposition to’ and Collins ‘often followed by ‘against’ or ‘at’, chiefly US Canad. and Austral. inf to resist or oppose obstinately’.

    Re ROLL ON – here we have the expression ‘Roll on the holidays / Christmas’ – or any eagerly-awaited event. Chambers has ‘may [a specified event] come quickly’.

    Yes, jvh. you are right!

  8. Thanks Eileen and Nutmeg
    A good puzzle.
    Re ‘Buck’ – the common expression ‘Buck the trend’ comes to mind.

  10. Thanks Nutmeg and Eileen

    Harder than a Rufus, but enjoyable. START URN was my favourite. I didn’t see the first definition of GETS BY, so was confused by this.

    Not happy about “temperature below zero” for FROST – surely the former causes the latter? Also, in what sense is LESS “taking off” in 27a? Wouldn’t that be “lessen”?

    Eileen – southern hemisphere rugby commentators call the “fly half” “first five-eighth”, so the “scrum half” is just called the “half” (or “halfback”).

  12. More difficult than the usual Monday fare.

    Pity about 3d. Remembering that the croc had swallowed a clock (was it an alarm clock?), I was trying to make sense of the clue, but couldn’t.

    Running water isn’t a burn just north of the border, but in Northumberland and Durham too.

    But all in all, some good stuff here.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and Eileen.

  13. Thank you Nutmeg and Eileen.

    This was fun, but I was held up for a while in the SW corner. I particularly liked FORESHORE, RANSOMER, SERVICE, CONTRALTO, RANCHER and STAR TURN.

    HALF is colloquial for half-back, so the COED tells me.

    typos 27a, reversal of parts, not regions; 20d, just Song for the definition ?

  14. Thanks Nutmeg & Eileen.

    Entertaining solve and good blog. I took the definition in 20 to just be ‘song,’ the backward regions in 27 are parts, which I’m sure was supposed to be typed. Chambers gives HALF as a halfback, which is also given as (in rugby) either of two players …

    Good surfaces; I particularly liked RANSOMER.

  15. I don’t see why ‘ransomer’ is man making delivery? Surely he is keeping something back, not delivering it? That apart, I found this very enjoyable. Thanks to both.

  16. Parky @15
    I thought that too, but I concluded that a kidnapper (for instance) is paid a ransom by a “ransomer”, who thus “delivers” the kidnapped person from capture?

  17. muffin @10

    Re LESS: I thought of it as, say, 100 less / taking off 30 = 70. I thought there might be comments about FROST!

    Parky@15

    I think RANSOMER is the one paying the ransom and therefore delivering. Collins has ‘redeem, rescue’ for ‘ransom’.

    Typos corrected now – thanks.

  20. In 18d I took “typically” as part of the definition. It’s necessary because there exist small ranches.

    I feel like the definition of “star turn” as “celeb” is a bit off–isn’t the star turn the celeb’s performance, not the celeb herself?

    Shared same quibble with others about “frost”.

  22. Thank you Eileen, I enjoyed this.

    I thought the RANSOMER was the one holding someone/thing against a sum required for redemption. Is it really the one who pays the ransom? New one on me.

    I share your misgivings about frost. I can’t construct a sentence where ‘temperature below zero’ and ‘frost’ can be interchanged.

    This one and Capt Hook clues don’t quite work for me.

    The term ‘half’ for my rugby-loving friends down-under has pretty much disappeared. Muffin @10 is quite right…the only ‘half’ left is the scrum half and he is almost ubiquitously referred to as scrummie.

    Took an age over my LOI which was GETS BY. Nice clue, and I also enjoyed ROLL ON.

    Pleasant change for a Monday, many thanks, Nutmeg.

    Nice week, all.

  23. I don’t see the problem with FROST, one might hear on the wireless “the temperature below zero in Kent has damaged blossom on fruit trees”, “the frost in Kent has damaged blossom on fruit trees”.

  24. My English is rusty, perhaps this is clearer, “a FROST can damage blossom”, “a temperature below zero can damage blossom” ?

  29. A bit more challenging than the usual Monday fare. I wasn’t sure RANSOMER was right – that was last in. All very pleasant as we’d expect from Nutmeg

    Thanks to Nutmeg and Eileen

  30. RANSOMER had me stumped for a long while too, and I needed the crosser to help me with today’s refugee clue from a Rufus, SERVICE. BUCK was a bit of an act of faith as well. Seems that puts me in line with just about everybody else. Those apart, the surfaces were great I thought.

  31. RANSOMER was my LOI and I thought it rather loose as some others have. Other than that,I thought this pretty good. Indeed, I thought SHOOK quite clever. Entertaining!
    Thanks Nutmeg.

  32. Thanks to Nutmeg and Eileen. I’ve nothing to add to what’s already been said (e.g., about RANSOMER and FROST), though BARDIC as a stand-alone term was new to me. Very enjoyable.

  33. I agree with Eileen’s summary – there was a lot appreciate in this puzzle. I allowed myself to be pleasantly misled here and there, giving me time to savour those clues even more (well, that’s my story). For some reason, my route to the completed grid was strictly clockwise, from NE to NW!

    The ‘simple’ BURNS (@23D) was one of my favourites, along with 1A (FORESHORE), 8A (FORSOOTH) and 20D (LET IT BE). 3D (SHOOK) delayed me a bit (that was before I got 10A (AT RISK)) – I thought only of Steve Irwin as the crocodile hunter, having been to Australia Zoo on Steve Irwin Way in Queensland a few times!

    Thanks to Nutmeg and Eileen.

  34. Spooky! 16a would have provided a perfect summary for the insurance claim that I have submitted this morning after having been cut up at a junction by a Jewson lorry delivering bricks. Nutmeg, should I now proceed to put the kettle on for the imminent visit of a celebrity (21a) or was that act of clairvoyance an exception?

  35. Thanks Nutmeg and Eileen

    It was the Queen’s Birthday holiday down here, so it was good to have something that was going to take a bit longer than the normal Monday. Although having struggled with the previous weekend’s Enigmatist on Saturday (with still more to go), I really shouldn’t be saying too much !

    This was a very pleasant journey – even when it doesn’t take as long as others, it still feels like you’ve had a good tussle with this setter.

    Finished that journey up in the NW corner with FROST (and its loosish definition), FORSOOTH (cleverly convoluted construction) and my favourite SHOOK (after not being able to shake off Steve Irwin for a while as well and when it finally twigged to see that the crocodile did have an alarm clock that warned HOOK of its presence – just about perfect – a pity that he was the hunted rather than the hunter, else it would’ve been perfect!)

  36. Thanks for the blog Eileen, seeing the atatesman reference in BUCK I thought of President Harry Truman who kept a sign on his desk saying “the buck starts here”. As buck is also “money” and “oppose”, could this make the clue a triple definition?

    Can’t see quiptic online yet – does anyone have a link to it?

  38. Oh dear from me, too. Blogger’s nightmare – I missed the theme!

    I was on the bus on the way to choir practice, subconsciously mulling over the puzzle, I suppose, and FROST, BRIDGES and BURNS popped into my head – too much of a coincidence, surely?

    Sure enough, as soon as I looked at the puzzle again, when I got home, there it was, spelt out in the middle row – and BARDIC was one of the answers, too! Further searching revealed RANSOM, BUCK and SERVICE and there may be more. [And Eric Idle wrote lyrics!]

    Does Nutmeg usually do themes? I certainly didn’t think of looking for one. My sincere apologies to her – and I hope at least someone sees this!

  39. Well found, Eileen, brilliant. None of us, I think, spotted the theme. There seem to be several BUCK poets, for instance, but the only BUCK that comes to my mind is Pearl BUCK, not a poet. However, I do now recognize Robert BRIDGES, let alone Robert BURNS.

  40. PS: I’ve just done a bit of delving in the archive and discovered that there was a Nutmeg puzzle themed on board games a couple of months ago – which, most unusually, I missed, being out all day – but it’s the only one I could find.

    I shall be more vigilant in future. 😉

    Cookie @39
    I knew of Pearl Buck only through ‘The Good Earth’ but I found that she was a poet, too – see here:
    https://musingbymoonlight.com/2016/02/18/celebrating-american-women-poets-4-pearl-buck-words-of-love/

  41. Thank you, Eileen, for that. I knew several people who were children of missionaries to China, all rather remarkable, sadly now passed on.

  42. Taking the theme a bit further. Bridges, Burns and Service are all Roberts and Internet tells of Robert Buckinghamshire the lyricist.

  45. Brilliant – I didn’t see or even suspect any of that. In hindsight, something should have clicked with Burns, Bridges and Service, but I’m unlikely to have spotted ROBERT and POET as well.

    If memory serves, I’m sure I have seen at least one puzzle by Nutmeg with a Nina before.

  46. Certainly not as easy as a typical Monday Rufus, but no less enjoyable. I missed the theme, of course. RANSOMER was my LOI, and I am still a little doubtful about it, but it does seem reasonable that it would be the person paying the ransom.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and Eileen.

    P.S. I wonder whether this week’s Quiptic will appear a day (or more) late or be lost forever.

  48. Thanks Eileen and Nutmeg.

    I actually thought several of the clues were typically Rufusian – 19ac and 22ac stand out in that respect.

    Otherwise missed the theme.

    Fun.

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