The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26910.
I had to make more use of Chambers than usual for this one (LOVELOCKS, CORBEAU, STAMMEL, SARTORIAL).
| Across | ||
| 1 | LOVELOCKS | “Flowing hair“, as the canal flight fan said? (9) |
| I suppose that a ‘canal flight’ is a lock, which justifies the clue, but does not make it easy to categorise. | ||
| 6 | SCAM | Do back up computers (4) |
| A reversal (‘back up’) of MACS (‘computers’). It could be the other way around, but this seemed more likely. | ||
| 10 | COROT | Painter turned to fabulous bird (5) |
| A reversal (‘turned’) of ‘to’ plus ROC (‘fabulous bird’). | ||
| 11 | REAL MCCOY | Don’t doubt this sphere at high speed, retiring (4,5) |
| A charade of REALM (‘sphere’) plus C (‘high speed’ of light) plus COY (‘retiring’). | ||
| 12 | RESERVE | Page missing from bottle book? (7) |
| A subtraction: [p]RESERVE (‘bottle’) minus the P (‘page missing’). | ||
| 13 | MALWARE | Fighting in island capital not good for a PC (7) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of WAR (‘fighting’) in MALÉ (‘island capital’ of the Maldives). | ||
| 14 | CYBERBULLYING | Cow on the internet to perpetrate this (13) |
| Cryptic definition. | ||
| 17 | IDENTITY THEFT | What’s special about you being taken wrongly? (8,5) |
| Cryptic definition. | ||
| 21 | OKAYING | Authorising omission of a king from old water sport (7) |
| A charade of O (‘old’) plus KAY[ak]ING (‘water sport’) minus A K (‘omission of a king’) | ||
| 22 | BUSH TEA | Stand-by counter with varying heat for beverage (4,3) |
| A charade of BUS (‘stand-by counter’, but I do not see why) plus HTEA, an anagram (‘varying’) of ‘heat’. | ||
| 24 | SARTORIAL | Relating to a thigh muscle of sailor turning round craft (9) |
| An envelope (’round’) of ART (‘craft’) in SORIAL, an anagram (‘turning’) of ‘sailor’. The less common definition refers to the sartorius muscle. | ||
| 25 | IN ONE | Combined in vain on expedition (2,3) |
| A hidden answer in ‘vaIN ON Expedition’. | ||
| 26 | HICK | Rustic, impenetrable, timeless (4) |
| A subtraction: [t]HICK (‘impenetrable’) without the T (‘timeless’). | ||
| 27 | HORSEPLAY | Tomfoolery from Arab given latitude? (9) |
| A charade of HORSE (‘Arab’, with the question mark justifying the example) plus PLAY (‘latitude’). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | LICORICE | Sweet, lyrical, inventive introductions by Company songwriter (8) |
| A charade of LI (‘Lyrical Inventive introductions’) plus CO (‘Company’) plus RICE (Tim, ‘songwriter’). | ||
| 2 | VIRUS | It spreads through — right for one American (5) |
| A charade of VIR, formed from VIA (‘through’) with the A replaced by R (‘right for one’) plus US (‘American’). | ||
| 3 | LITERARY EDITOR | Ideal territory, perhaps, for a reviewer? (8,6) |
| An anagram (‘perhaps’) of ‘ideal territory’. | ||
| 4 | CORBEAU | Blackish-green new look of Eurocab (7) |
| An anagram (‘new look’) of ‘Eurocab’. | ||
| 5 | STAMMEL | Coarse cloth coverings lifted by Mr Gibson (7) |
| A charade of STAM, a reversal (‘lifted’) of MATS (‘coverings’) plus MEL (‘Mr Gibson’). | ||
| 7 | COCKAIGNE | Land of luxury makes Willy different in age (9) |
| A charade of COCK (‘willy’) plus AIGNE, an anagram (‘different’) of ‘in age’. | ||
| 8 | MAYHEM | Bedlam seamstresses __ __ ! (6) |
| Seamstresses .. may .. hem. | ||
| 9 | SMALL INTESTINE | Mint essential to move round large digestive organ (5,9) |
| An envelope (’round’) of L in SMALINTESTINE, an anagram (‘to move’) of ‘mint essential’. | ||
| 15 | BRIC-A-BRAC | Barbaric tours — cold whatnots (4-1-4) |
| An anagram (‘tours’) of ‘barbaric’ plus C (‘cold’). | ||
| 16 | STRATEGY | Game requires holder to contain speed and gravitational constant (8) |
| An envelope (‘to contain’) of RATE (‘speed’) plus G (‘gravitational constant’) in STY (‘holder’). | ||
| 18 | TIGRISH | Is right to be represented as fierce (7) |
| An anagram (‘to be represented’) of ‘is right’. | ||
| 19 | TUBULAR | Vasiform old boat Laura, sternless, is wrecked (7) |
| A charade of TUB (‘old boat’) plis ULAR, an anagram (‘wrecked’) of ‘Laur[a]’ without the last letter (‘sternless’). | ||
| 20 | BORSCH | Appliance manufacturer right in soup (6) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of R (‘right’) in BOSCH (‘appliance manufacturer’), for the beetroot soup, often with a T at the end. | ||
| 23 | TROLL | To use an angling method needs time and bread (5) |
| A charade of T(‘time’) plus ROLL (‘bread’). | ||
For 22, ‘Stand-by counter’ = SUB(stitute) reversed. Thanks for the parsing of REALM MCCOY which I had no idea about, and like you I’d never come across CORBEAU, STAMMEL (guessed ‘scammel’) and the term LOVELOCKS before. COCKAIGNE was also new to me.
Lots of computer nasties about.
Thanks to Brummie and PeterO.
The sartorius muscle helps you to sit cross legged as the tailors used to do.
Thanks Brummie and PeterO
This didn’t really engage me, for some reason – no real standout clues. I didn’t know CORBEAU, but it was easy enough to get; also STAMMEL (or scammel, as Wordplodder guessed!); nor did I know MALE as an island capital, or SARTORIAL as relating to a muscle.
I would always write TIGERISH, but Chambers does give the alternative spelling.
I didn’t like STRATEGY – very loose to define it as “game”, and “holder” (of pigs, presumably) for “sty” also very loose.
Beeryhiker will probably be able to tell us how often the SCAM/MACS clue has been used – this isn’t the first time!
Thanks Brummie and PeterO.
I’m rather with muffin overall on this one, especially re TIGRISH, STRATEGY and ‘sty’.
I knew CORBEAU as French for crow / raven but not as a colour. And thanks to Audrey @2 for the derivation of SARTORIAL.
Still smarting at having missed Nutmeg’s theme on my blog yesterday until early evening and having suffered the effects of a nasty computer virus fairly recently, I did manage to spot the crop of computer nasties that WordPlodder points out – and that didn’t particularly endear the puzzle to me!
…COCKAIGNE I did know, from the Elgar overture “Cockaigne: in London Town”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockaigne_(In_London_Town)
Apparently the term was used as a metaphor for gluttony and drunkenness rather than luxury – see “Description” in the link!
In 1a, a series of locks in a canal is called a flight (also a staircase or a ladder).
I visited the extraordinary flight of locks outside Devizes just the other day.
Liked this one – thanks Brummie! I too got caught out trying to parse ‘stand-by counter’ – thanks WordPlodder.
Re. Theme, I think I could spot six, though there are bound to be more I’ve missed!
Thanks Brummie and PeterO
I have vague memories that there used to be a board game called Strategy, which appears to be confirmed by google. I probably last played it over 50 years ago!
Thanks for the blog, PeterO. I think I must have a touch of the curmudgeons this morning, but I found this really irritating, with Brummie in maximum ‘show-off’ mode. The charade for REAL MCCOY was so ambiguously clued that it was solvable only from the crossers and in hindsight. This, plus some of the esoteric vocabulary (STAMMEL, CORBEAU)and meaningless surfaces like 1,11, 21, made it, in my opinion, an exercise in clever-cloggery that gets only a slow handclap from me. There, I feel better now.
Nice, clear blog, PeterO, many thanks.
All do-able but share Muffin and others’ misgivings re sty, TIGRISH and STRATEGY.
Could someone explain special in the IDENTITY THEFT clue, please.
Don’t understand the surface in Page missing from bottle book I’m afraid.
Audrey @2 My GP tells me I have Tailor’s bunnions which I believe they got from sitting in this way.
I thought BORSCHT was spelled with a T?
Enjoyed looking up COCKAIGNE, CORBEAU & STAMMEL.
Enjoyable crossword, many thanks, Brummie.
Nice week, all.
Thanks Brummie and PeterO enjoyable puzzle and blog.
Also thanks to WordPlodder for the explanation of BUS in 22a. We were unsure about sty as holder, but it didn’t detract too much.
Dropping in here not to comment on 26,910 (I found it relatively enjoyable and challenging in places), but to ask whether there is a blog on yesterday’s Quiptic in the 19dn pipeline. I ask only because I have an issue with one of the clues (13dn) and was wondering if it was just me.
The crossword in the iPad edition this morning had for 22ac [Electrical conductor with varying heat making beverage]. I assume that the square brackets indicate that this was a provisional version of the clue which was entered by mistake.
There having been no blog on yesterday’s Quiptic so far, may I ask here if anyone else had an issue with 13dn therein? Unless I’m missing something, Pan has got the definition wrong.
PeterO, this was one of the rare occasions when I took the Chambers off its shelf, to have beside me as I solved. I went one further than you, to confirm BUSH TEA, and it disabused me of my intended SCAMMEL too.
It was all fairly done (despite some dodgy surfaces), though I had ‘retiring’ as a reversal indicator in REAL MCCOY, therefore it made no sense – I bet I’m not alone. But yes, another theme spotted – two in a row! It would be hard not to get this one however. Yesterday’s nina was well over my head of course.
Sorry: duplication – my first post didn’t appear for a while, so I assumed that it had failed.
…and I now see from yesterday’s comments that the Quiptic did not appear online (it was on the iPad edition however).
For those who haven’t seen it, 13dn read
Real friend gets restaurant reservation (9)
…and the solution (checked) is PALATABLE.
???
Rog @13/14
Your comment #13 was intercepted by the spam filter for some unknown reason, hence the delay. A blog for yesterday’s Quiptic will be published when/if it becomes available online. Currently the latest Quiptic shown is last week’s Moley.
Gaufrid @ 18. Thanks for the explanation – how appropriate, given today’s theme!
Given that the Quiptic is STILL not up on the Guardian website, I won’t hold my breath, but thanks.
I thought this was a good puzzle; perhaps we’ve become used to a Tuesday puzzle that’s more demanding than Monday’s, but less so than those for the rest of the week?
The bottom half came more easily, and I finally admitted defeat on STAMMEL, despite having all the crossers. I hesitated over COCKAIGNE, since the setter wasn’t Paul.
I think there is ample justification for “game” = STRATEGY: apart from Simon S’s dimly remembered board game, the British strategic policy in India and Afghanistan was the “Great Game”, and we have expressions like “What’s his game?”
William @11 – what is general about us is gender, age, city of residence, ethnic group, profession; what is “special” is our name, date of birth, specific address, bank account details -all the things that are involved in identity theft.
On a positive note, I thought 7 was an impeccable surface for a brilliant anagram!
Thanks Brummie & PeterO.
Good puzzle with a few new words to look up. I think the surface of 1a would have been better by omitting ‘flight’ from the clue, which didn’t seem to be required. The ‘retiring’ in 11 was cleverly misleading.
Thanks to Brummie and PeterO.
Some enjoyment here but even what I did solve took a while.
No joy in NE I’m afraid. Only clue I got was 6a SCAM. Have not heard of CORBEAU, STAMMEL, COCKAIGNE, and could not see REAL MCCOY, MAYHEM, or MALWARE.
Appreciate the blog and the discussion.
Tomorrow is another day!
Thank you Brummie and PeterO.
I first tried SACKING at 5d, STAMMEL being new to me, not in my Collins or COED. The Free Dictionary on the Web tells me it is obsolete, I should think so too, it was invented 5000 years ago in Mesopotamia! The word comes from”stamen”, a thread.
Perhaps of interest, a CORBEAU in French can mean a writer of poison-pen letters.
William @11, yes, BORSCH appears to be a variation of “bortsch”.
Thanks both
I read the definition in 16d as “game requires” (i.e game requires strategy). Then it makes sense to me.
I found this puzzle a bit of a slog, with little amusement to lighten the load
Robi @ 21
If you omit ‘flight’ from 1A you’re just left with ‘canal fan’, which doesn’t give any pointer to LOCKS. It’s possible to have canals without locks (eg Panama, Suez, Corinth, I believe), so I think it’s essential.
Thanks to Brummie and PeterO. I had the same problems as those already cited with BORSCH (without the final t), sty, and Male as a capital along with several terms new to me (including BUSH TEA), but I did get through. Note: I too tried to squeeze in “scammel” because the word turns up (and has not been glossed to anyone’s satisfaction) in The Tempest when Caliban promises to get Stephano “young scamels from the rocks.”
Here are photos of the Caen Hill flight of locks between Rowde and Devizes on the Kennet and Avon Canal that Jason visited the other day.
Simon S the Panama Canal does have locks.
This was quite challenging – ran out of time and had to shortcut it a bit by doing the last few by guess and check, but in retrospect I should have seen REAL MCCOY annd MAYHEM earlier. CORBEAU and STAMMEL were new to me and COCKAIGNE was only familiar as part of an album title, so this was quite educational too.
Thanks to Brummie and PeterO
Thanks Cookie @ 27. I had a sneaking suspicion that Panama has locks, hence my caution, but I don’t think the other two do. I could be wrong.
I very much go along with the tenor of muffin’s comment @3. I jotted down much more in the way of rough notes for this blog than I usually do, but most of what I could have said has been said already. A few things were unexplained until I came here, but all is clear now (except for a few bits that remain unclear!).
I particularly liked 24A (SARTORIAL), 27A (HORSEPLAY), 7D (COCKAIGNE) and 9D (SMALL INTESTINE). All the new words, and (for me) new meanings of words, made this crossword a bit laborious at times, but there was enough entertainment in the clues to encourage me to finish it. It’s nice to discover the anatomical meaning of sartorial and how that relates to tailors (thanks Audrey @2).
Thanks to Brummie and PeterO.
muffin @3: the full list (including all clues for SCAM – MACS has only appeared once)
Brendan 25552: 15 and 19 returned email from Nigeria? (4)
Araucaria 22168: No relation to shellfish: it’s a trick (4)
Rufus 22732: Rogue quietly abandoned swindle (4)
Logodaedalus 23395: Lifting short raincoats is a crafty trick (4)
Taupi 23420: Overcoats with fleecing (4)
Paul 24143: Passage from Tosca, mainly fiddle (4)
Araucaria 24336: Retired Scotsman’s trick (4)
Gordius 24562: Burgers rejected a cheat (4)
Araucaria 24667: Counters Cameron’s trick (4)
Paul 24731: Computers set up for deception (4)
Orlando 25001: Fiddle starts to sound clear as mud (4)
Enigmatist, Paul & Shed 25247: Swindle detected in Cameron’s campaign (4)
Gordius 25893: Swindle over burgers? (4)
Paul 26091: Fraud no PCs will back (4)
Rufus 26706: Put up rainwear in a swindle (4)
Brummie 26910: Do back up computers (4)
@26: Anyone who has lived in the West Indies will be familiar with BUSH TEA, a herbal folk remedy for minor illnesses. Returning from Montserrat to England, I am sometimes asked to carry the herbs in question, and have been questioned about them by customs at Gatwick. I believe the expression is also used in South Africa for what I know as rooibos.
John @32
I’m a fan of rooibos (or redbush) tea – it is refreshing and caffeine-free. Whether it’s the same as bush tea, though, is another matter. According to Collins, bush tea and rooibos tea have different botanical names.
I thought this was a bit of a slog. There were rather too many obscure words for one puzzle and I wasn’t sure about all the surfaces. Some goodies though. I liked COCKAIGNE,LICORICE and MAYHEM but I don’t think this was one of Brummie’s best.
Thanks to the setter and blogger.
beeryhiker @31
Thanks; I was confident that we could rely on you!
I didn’t get to this yesterday, and it’s taken me a long time today – not surprising as I always struggle with Brummie’s puzzles. CORBEAU and STAMMEL were new words for me, I didn’t know the capital of the Maldives and I couldn’t parse VIRUS. REAL MCCOY was my LOI, mainly because I persisted in interpreting “retiring” as indicating a reversal.
Favourites are IDENTITY THEFT and LITERARY EDITOR.
Thanks, Brummie and PeterO.
Thanks Brummie and PeterO
Did this one last Thursday but back end of the week got busy and only checked it off today – and there was lots to check off with this one !!
Guess I’m not as fussy as some with the letter perfectness of the clues – my deal is that if I get the right answers into the grid with no ambiguity – then job done !! 5d gets the closest, but there was only the one answer to fit ‘coarse cloth’ and fit the word play.
Had no real problems apart for some reason initially writing in REAL MACOY at 11 … and only fixing it after working out the parsing of it !!
Finished in the NE corner with the ‘Pauline’ COCKAIGNE, that REAL MCCOY and MAYHEM (again a typical Paul device) as the last few in.
Thanks PeterO and Brummie.
I have to admit to giving up on this. Too much time taken and too much obscurity meant that CORBEAU, STAMMEL, COCKAIGNE, and REAL McCOY were left unsolved.
I think that I’ve seen MAYHEM similarly clued in the past.
Otherwise, and probably because I was beaten, I don’t think that this was terribly fulfilling.