Guardian Cryptic 26,922 by Bonxie

by

Very enjoyable – favourite was 26ac…

…but much of the fun was looking for hidden fish – the ones I’ve found are highlighted in red below. Thanks, Bonxie.

Across
9 A BIT FISHY Hit, as if by design? That’s dubious (1,3,5)
(Hit as if by)*
10 AIRER Clothes horse in legionnaire regalia (5)
Hidden in [legionn]AIRE R[egalia]
11 SUMAC Small coat draped around Posh Spice (5)
S[mall] plus MAC[kintosh]=”coat”, around U[pper class]=”Posh”
12 CACOPHONY One in two hundred initially order counterfeit racket (9)
A=”One”, in CC=”two hundred” in Roman numerals, plus O[rder], plus PHONY=”counterfeit”
13 CONSOLE Sympathise with panel (7)
double definition
14 MARLINE Fighter grabs large rope (7)
a small rope wound around a larger one. MARINE=”Fighter” around L[arge]
17 ARUBA Rescue service overcomes obstacle to Caribbean island (5)
A[utomobile] A[ssociation]=”Rescue service”, around RUB=”obstacle”
19, 27 DAB HAND  Expert press writing (3,4)
DAB=”press” plus HAND=”writing”
20 DIGIT It appears after regularly adding a number (5)
IT, after regular letters from [a]D[d]I[n]G
21 SHADOWS Tails begin to stop wagging — how sad! (7)
=follows closely. S[top], plus (how sad)*
22 SMELTER Industrial plant hummed before last energy cut off (7)
SMELT=”hummed”, as ‘hum’=to have an unpleasant smell; plus ER[e]=”before”, with the last E[nergy] cut off
24 PERCHANCE Maybe salesman returns with fortune (9)
REP=”salesman”, reversed/”returns”; plus CHANCE=”fortune”
26 ROACH What’s left of joint account is donated to London arts venue (5)
the butt of a marijuana joint. AC[count] inside R[oyal] O[pera] H[ouse]=”London arts venue”
28 SPIKE Pierce an ear (5)
double definition, the second meaning an ear of corn
29 UNCONCERN Indifference to strange new European research centre (9)
UNCO=”strange” (Scot); plus N[ew]; plus CERN=”European research centre” [wiki]
Down
1 BASS Voice sounds camp on the radio (4)
sounds like ‘base’=”camp”
2 HITMAN Liquidator gives pound to staff (6)
HIT=”pound”, plus MAN=”staff”=provide with workers
3 AFICIONADO Fan finds trouble follows a heartless lie (10)
ADO=”trouble”, following A plus FIC[t]ION=”heartless lie”
4 PSYCHE Mind if a horror film’s given new ending? (6)
PSYCH[o] is the horror film, given a new ending
5 LYNCH MOB Director has way of working with British vigilantes (5,3)
David LYNCH [wiki] is the film “Director”, plus M[odus] O[perandi]=”way of working”, plus B[ritish]
6, 16 CARPENTER  One fixing deal? He tends to be confined inside (9)
“deal”=a soft wood. CARER=”He tends”, with PENT=”confined” inside
7 DROOLING Pavlovian behaviour — young animal left, captivated by sound of bell (8)
Ivan Pavlov [wiki] did experiments on dogs’ salivating. [kanga]ROO=”young animal”, plus L[eft], inside DING=”sound of bell”. Does ROO=young kangaroo?
8 FRAY Sally ain’t got nuffink to wear (4)
FORAY=”Sally”, without O=”nuffink”
13 CHARS They clean tables when last of breakfast is removed (5)
CHAR[t]S=”tables”, with [breakfas]T removed
15 RED HERRING Diversion created when derringer shot outside hotel (3,7)
(derringer)* around H[otel]
16   See 6
18 UNAFRAID Confident swimmer, heading off following attack (8)
[T]UNA=”swimmer” with its head off; plus F[ollowing]; plus RAID=”attack”
19 DISANNUL “Cancel order”, said Greek character entering the Netherlands (8)
(said)*, where “order” is the anagrind; plus NU=”Greek character” inside NL=”Netherlands”
22 STENCH Beat chest when claiming third in ping-pong (6)
(chest)* around the third letter of [pi]N[g]
23 TUAREG African travellers are boarding boat (6)
African nomads. ARE, inside TUG=”boat”
24 PUSH Knock over hot drink (4)
H[ot], plus SUP=”drink”; all reversed/”over”
25 HEEL Maybe boxer’s order the last bit of bread (4)
HEEL can also be an order given to a boxer dog
27   See 19 across

34 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 26,922 by Bonxie”

  1. Thanks Bonxie and manehi

    I didn’t see the fish, of course (or should that be “coarse”?). I cheated on ROACH and even then didn’t see it at all, and was puzzled by SPIKE. I don’t think the word order quite works for PUSH – why should it all be reversed?

    A little unfair giving strange = unco without a Scots indication, and I don’t think charts and tables are the same – though they could be different ways of displaying the same information.

    Favourites were SHADOWS, CARPENTER and STENCH (for the “ping-pong”!).

  2. Thanks manehi and Bonxie for great blog and puzzle.17 is a fair haul-STENCH was possibly my favourite.

  4. Excellent puzzle and a theme to boot. Difficult initially and the grid remained blank for quite some time before a few started to go in. Missed 8d, and MARLINE and HEEL for ‘last bit of bread’ were new. Of the many good clues, LYNCH MOB, STENCH and TUAREG were the standouts for me. I also had some doubts about the use of ROO for ‘young animal’ in 7 (as I understand it ‘ROO is a general term for a kangaroo, young or old) but I’m being picky.

    Many thanks to Bonxie and to manehi.

  7. Thank you, manehi, fine blog to have fished out that little lot.

    I missed them all, of course. Never seem to spot themes – probably because I’m not looking for them. In my workshop, all my my fixings are in jars that I’ve accumulated over the years. The other day I dropped one and had to put the screws in a different jar. I can now never find those screws because my mind still has a mental picture of its predecessor. I suspect the psychological term for this phenomenon is thick.

    Theme notwithstanding, I really enjoyed this puzzle, with SHADOWS, ROACH (which I failed on), FRAY & (the best) STENCH.

    DISANNUL is a strange word isn’t it? Sounds like a double negative that should mean quite the opposite of cancel.

    Tyke @3 I feel sure you’re right – too good to overlook.

    Top job, Bonxie, many thanks.

    Nice week, all.

  8. …by the way, I feel sure we’ve had the roo debate before haven’t we? I seem to recall we agreed it was another word for a joey. Perhaps Beery will drop in with the guff.

  9. Thank you Bonxie and manehi.

    Great fun – I wonder if we solvers were meant to be the LYNCH MOB Catching the Big Fish.

    I could not fully parse UNCONCERN, but unco, Sc., is given in the COED.

    SHADOWS, STENCH, FRAY and ROACH were among my favourites.

  10. Good puzzle. I was mystified by “spike,” not knowing the “ear of corn” definition. Count me as another who liked “stench.”

    I’m another one that rarely spots the theme, especially one like this where most of the theme items are hidden. He even did us the favor of splitting “carpenter” so we could see the fish, and I still didn’t cotton on! I think my problem is that I tend to treat crosswords as 28-32 little puzzles, rather than one big one.

    And yes, we have the “roo” debate pretty much every time the word appears.

  11. Thanks to Bonxie and manehi. Enjoyed this greatly while entirely missing the theme. Favourite, like other commenters, was 22d.

    Bonxies eat fish but can’t be bothered to catch them themselves, so they steal them off other seabirds.

  12. Thanks, Manehi, for your enlightenment

    I enjoyed this puzzle but failed in a couple of places in the south-west corner. I’d never heard the word “disannul” before and, as William has already said, it sounds as though it should mean “cancelling your cancellation” – i.e. letting your order stand not the opposite. Chambers tells me that the “dis-” prefix can mean to intensify. That was news to me but I have to accept it. I also failed on “spike” and, therefore, on “push” too. I kept toying with “port” for it, thinking that “trop” might be twisted to mean “hot” – possibly linked somehow to the tropics as a hot place or the French word.

  13. Entertaining as always from Bonxie, but either I was below par or this was pretty difficult. Had to resort to guess and check to make progress with the last few, and gave up on SPIKE (the ear definition was unfamiliar). Did see the theme and it did help a little.

    Thanks to Bonxie and manehi

  14. William @8 – this is the best I can do:
    Paul 26260: Parent welcoming a little less conversation with young Australian swell (8)

  15. Great fun. Hard to start with and didn’t get the theme until it was done. Perfect for an extended lunch.

  16. Beery @14 Strewth. Is that your best shot, Beery? I’ve obviously become spoiled by your usual page and a half of previous references.

  17. William @16 – not the easiest of searches to define and automate – we are looking for a component of a solution for which there may be a number of synonyms, so it’s fuzzy.

  18. I’ve never finished a Bonxie puzzle.
    Usually, it’s his clever complexity that beats me – and that may explain why, in my desperation to fill in my last empty boxes, in 19d, I didn’t even think of a simple NL for ‘the Netherlands’. Didn’t even think of it. I thought instead it must be ‘Dis’ – as in the place in Dante’s netherworld. So, the 8-letter word had to end in an S … and I came undone. Like William @7 (whose post made me smile), I must have a screw loose.
    Grrr, you win again, Bonxie! But what a great puzzle – thank you. Difficult to choose favourites, but I’ll go for 19,27 and 21.
    Despite the big hint in 9, I failed to spot the theme. Thanks to manehi for doing so, and for an excellent blog.

  19. William @7
    I too rarely spot themes. In my case, I think it’s because once I’ve solved a clue, I forget all about it! A BIT FISHY was my FOI, and I certainly had forgotten it by the time I got to my next fish.

  20. For once I found the theme about halfway. Didn’t finish as I had never heard of heel of bread. Not sure about push and knock. Fun theme.

  21. I’ve been rather distracted by the various political dramas that are unfolding before our very ears today,so I didn’t give this the attention it deserved and found it hard going. I didn’t complete the puzzle until a few minutes ago with CARP ENTER and it was only then that I thought there might be a theme-It would be untrue to say I spotted it though. Favourites were STENCH and TUAREG.
    Today’s only light relief came when I heard that the appalling Jeremy Hunt fancies his chances as Tory leader!
    Anyway, thanks Bonxie.

  22. I had ‘condole’ for 13 across. I haven’t found ‘sole’ meaning ‘panel’ whereas ‘on the panel’ means ‘on the sick’ and so ‘on the dole’. Also ‘condole’ is a better fit for ‘sympathise’ than ‘console’ is. No fish however.

  25. This actually went more quickly than I expect from a Bonxie, but it might have been quicker still if I’d seen the theme (which of course I didn’t). I enjoyed it a lot, but with a couple of small quibbles. I’d have preferred ROO clued as “small animal”, and I think the clue would have worked just as well. Also, I agree with muffin @1 that UNCO would benefit from an indicator.

    The strange DISANNUL was new to me. Favourites included A BIT FISHY, DIGIT, LYNCH MOB and TUAREG.

    Thanks, Bonxie and manehi.

  26. Thanks to Bonxie and manehi. I lost my internet connection for most of today (it stayed with me just long enough so that I was able to download this puzzle last night). I had more than the usual trouble parsing items (e.g., ROACH, UNCONCERN) and overall found this item a challenge (most of my difficulties have already been discussed).

  27. DISANNUL also new and strange to me. Agree with William @7. Missed the theme, although not surprising as many of the fish are more familiar in the northern hemisphere.

    ROO is just plain wrong, and previous (mis)use doesn’t justify it. Agree it needs some kind of diminutive form indicator, rather than defined as a young animal. If it’s from Winnie the Pooh then perhaps there should be some reference.

    Enjoyed the solve. Favourites 26, 22d. Thanks Bonxie and Manehi.

  28. Got totally stuck in the southeast and had to cheat on 19 and 23 to finish the puzzle. Several I couldn’t parse. Didn’t see the correct theme, but briefly thought it was going to be about boxing, perhaps as a tribut to Ali.

    Was this challenging enough for you, Cherrycheeks?

  30. What a clever puzzle, but no satisfaction here as I could not get into it at all. So a learning exercise only; thanks for the blog, manehi, which was very informative, as were with the comments.

  31. Thanks Bonnie and manehi

    Found this quite tough and had to work on it throughout the day to finally get it finished tonight – satisfying once it was done though. Classy clueing was the message that kept coming at me all the way through the solve – tough but always very fair.

    Particularly liked STENCH and also thought that SHADOWS was quite good.

    Didn’t spot the theme, although with HERRING, ROACH and DAB I can remember thinking that is also a fish … just didn’t join the dots.

    Had holes all around at the end and finished with the clever DAB HAND, ROACH (where I needed that last H and then reverse parsed it to find the Royal Opera House) and FRAY (which was the trickiest).

  32. Enjoyable puzzle.
    ROACH my favourite – FRAY good fun too.
    (Roo is not a young animal – even our great compilers can make the occasional mistake?!)
    Many thanks.

  33. Thanks manehi and Bonxie.

    Generally enjoyable but I had qualms about me lasr two in – SPIKE and PUSH – I wasn’t confident about either.

    I share other’s concerns about UNCO at 29ac. And surely drooling was observed by Pavlov – not his own behaviour!

    On the plus side, I spotted and enjoyed the theme. Favourites were STENCH and TUAREG side by side.

  34. Roo, the character in the Winnie the Pooh books is described as a young kangaroo – so I think that it is fair enough.

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