Guardian Cryptic N° 26,084 by Pasquale

by

The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26094.

I found this not too difficult, which was a relief, as the end of daylight savings time meant that I got the puzzle an hour later than usual. It offered a pleasant mix of clue devices, with some light touches. As usual, definitions are underlined in clues, single quotes indicate portions of the clue, square brackets identify deletions, and bold indicates letters picked out by the wordplay.

Across
1. Abel’s murderer? It could be him (5,6)
THIRD PERSON In Genesis, Abel was murdered by his elder brother Cain, who, as the firstborn of Adam and Eve, was the THIRD PERSON.
9. The reverse of fat, the man’s held to be a hero in Athens (7)
THESEUS An envelope (‘held’) of HE’S (‘the man’s’) in TEUS, a reversal (‘the reverse’) of SUET (‘fat’). 
10. Way to avoid repeated note when having to in musical piece (7)
STRETTO A charade of STRE[e]T (‘way’) without the second E (‘to avoid repeated note’) plus ‘to’. A stretto is part of a fugue, typically its climax.
11. Study icon having moved away from general society (2,7)
IN CUSTODY An anagram (‘having moved’) of ‘study icon’.
12. Tried to win, sounding disagweeable (5)
WOOED Wossy’s pronunciation of RUDE.
13. Electronic publication about cricket? (4)
GAME A reversal (‘about’) of E-MAG (‘electronic publication’). The question mark points to the indication by example. 
14. Work at greyhound stadium to divert from the main point (5,1,4)
START A HARE Definition and literal interpretation. 
16. Pieces can get mixed up left in that school box? (6,4)
PENCIL CASE An envelope (‘in’) of L (‘left’) in PENCICASE, an anagram (‘mixed up’) of ‘pieces can’. 
19. Criticise possible achievement of East-West partnership (4)
SLAM Double definition; the ‘partnership’ is of bridge players.
21. Horse’s rump given whip around third part of course (5)
CROUP An envelope (‘around’) of U (‘third part of coUrse’) in CROP (‘whip’)
22. Hesitation about pamphlet before editor’s disowned (9)
RETRACTED A charade of RE, a reversal (‘about’) of ER (‘hesitation’) plus TRACT (‘pamphlet’) plus ED (‘editor’). 
24. Nuts fixed to secure centre of wheel — then I left behind tool (7)
UTENSIL An envelope (‘to secure’) of E (‘cenrte of whEel’) in UTNS, an anagram (‘fixed’) of ‘nuts’ plus ‘I’ plus L (‘left’). 
25. One knew about lines — something for pupil at school once? (7)
INKWELL A charade of I (‘one’) plus NKEW, an anagram (‘about’) of ‘knew’ plus LL (‘lines’).
26. Like employers waywardly ruling (7,4)
HOLDING SWAY A reverse clue – ’employerS WAYwardly’ is HOLDING SWAY. 
…
Down
1. Announcement of van’s arrival by jingly tune in street play (3,6,6)
THE ICEMAN COMETH Eugene O’Neill’s play cryptically pictured as the arrival of an ice cream van. 
2. Times spinning bits of news? (5)
ITEMS An anagram (‘spinning’) of ‘times’.
3. Give girl brief call (4,3)
DISH OUT A charade of DI (‘girl’) plus SHOUT (‘brief call’). 
4. Female tagger-on with philosopher, one making an effort (7)
ESSAYER A charade of ESS (‘female tagger-on’, a reference to the feminine suffix -ess) plus AYER (Alfred Jules, ‘philosopher’).
5. Inexperienced male put into position, inadequate person lacking substance (5,3)
STRAW MAN An envelope (‘put in’) of RAW (‘inexperienced’) plus M (‘male’) in STAN[d] (‘position’)  incomplete (‘inadequate’). 
6. Gambling system one I try? Not at all, silly (8,7)
NATIONAL LOTTERY An anagram (‘silly’) of ‘one I try not at all’.
7. Looking hard, having lost a thread (6)
STRING A subtraction: ST[a]RING (‘looking hard’) without (‘lost’) ‘a’. 
8. We hear fish’ll cook (6)
CODDLE A homophone (‘we hear’) of COD’LL. 
15. Girl I had upset, keeping quiet over dumping process (8)
DISPOSAL An envelope (‘keeping’) of P (‘quiet’) plus O (‘over’) in DISSAL, a reversal (‘upset’) of LASS (‘girl’) plus I’D (‘I had’). 
16. Answer phone in truck (4-2)
PICK-UP Double definition. 
17. Musical arrangement leader ignored — bad upset for composer (7)
CORELLI A charade of [s]CORE (‘musical arrangement’) without its first letter (‘leader ignored’) plus LLI, a reversal (‘upset’) of ILL (‘bad’). 
18. Pasquale’s work environment (7)
SETTING Double definition. 
20. Many inches around theologian’s waist (6)
MIDDLE An envelope (‘around’) of DD (‘theologian’) in MILE (‘many inches’, 63360 of them to be precise) 
23. Presumably having lots of plants wonky? (5)
ASKEW AS KEW Botanical Gardens near London. 

  1. Thanks PeterO. A very nice start to Friday with some good clues especially 1Ac. After not seeing Di for ages ahe appears twice in 2 days!
    I don’t like to be too picky on definitions, but I think that you have confused stretto and stretta in 10Ac. A stretto is a fugue where the second part of the tune comes in before the first one finishes. A stretto is a musical climax. Sorry to be a pedant!

  2. Thanks PeterO and Pasquale,

    Not the Don at his most testing – no particularly obscure words or phrases and all meticulously clued (of course) – so a pleasant distraction as I wait for breakfast to be delivered on my birthday!

    Not having a pen and paper to hand made sorting out the long anagram of NATIONAL LOTTERY much more difficult, but I still couldn’t believe the time it had taken me when I finally spotted it! Another slapped-forehead for SLAM – I was looking for a reversal.

    THIRD PERSON and THE ICEMAN COMETH both made me smile.

  3. Thank you, bloggers. A long time to wait for feedback today. The GU crossword site (never terribly generous to Pasquale!)seems to have wiped out all comments on all puzzles, not just any that I might have had overnight — is this my computer or is something else going on?

  4. Thanks to Pasquale and PeterO

    Quite straightforward, though still enjoyable. I was delayed by entering ITEMS for 2d at once, then striving (unsuccessfully!) to fit CAINE MUTINY in 1ac. THIRD PERSON is of course much better, though I have a vague memory of seeing “Cain” used to define “third person” previously.

    It seems that AYER is the only philosopher to appear in crosswords recently.

    ASKEW my favourite.

  5. Pasquale@3

    My computer is also affected by an absence of any comments on the Guardian’s puzzles, but I suspect that everyone else is enjoying the usual mix of oblique banter and idiosyncrasy.

    Thanks for the blog PeterO and to Pasquale for a splendid crossword. My favourites were THIRD PERSON, HOLDING SWAY and Mr Whippy. ESSAYER and WOOED made me smile too.

  6. Put in ‘EMAG’ at 13a until the checkers made it clear that it was t’other way round. No real problems or hold-ups this morning, except for gnashing my teeth over ‘slam’ – nothing wrong with the clue, I just loathe anything to do with card games.
    Many happy returns to Mitz: I’ve made a start on your puzzles and completed No.1 o.k. Apart from misspelling one answer, where I should have taken the time to work through the anagram (I won’t say which as others will probably be trying the puzzles too).

  7. Hi Pasquale
    I can’t get any Guardian comments either, and that applies to all Guardian pages, not just the crossword ones.

    I enjoyed the puzzle – smiled at Third person, Holding sway and Askew.

    Happy birthday Mitz.

  8. When I saw that it was Pasquale this morning I was quite pleased – I felt up for it. My commuter train was Standing Room Only so I was in “non-filling in” mode for the first quarter of an hour. Solutions were hard to come by at first but it fell in to place, anti-clockwise startimg with The Iceman Cometh. As usual, all fair and all sound.

  9. My first in was CROUP, which I recognised from the long boring poem about carrying news from Aix to Ghent, from whence I have recently returned.

    Comments are now enabled at The Other Place.

  13. George Clements @6

    Your comment on Mitz’s puzzle is in contravention of site policy.

    I hasten to add that I do not want to be censorious of you or Mitz. I commented on the puzzle Mitz brought to Sheffield. (#22 on Wednesday). I should not have done so. There is lively ongoing discussion of Mitz’s and others’ puzzles in the other place.

    Mitz, your comments here on the Guardian puzzle are very welcome. Happy birthday.

    And apologies to all for my earlier breach of etiquette.

  14. Thought of “start a hare” -which I’d not heard of – then changed to “start a race” because of the reference to main=race=fast-moving current of water, such as that which powers a mill wheel.

  15. Thanks, PeterO, for the blog and Pasquale for the puzzle, which I enjoyed, especially 1ac and the clever [&lit, I suspect] anagram at 6dn.

    CROUP was the only new word for me in that sense. I only knew it as the frightening thing that attacked my baby one night. I think that must have eliminated any lingering memory I might have had of the poem.

    [Happy birthday, Mitz, and belated thanks for your nice comment on Monday – I didn’t recognise myself! 😉 ]

  16. The Guardian site seems not to be the only one with problems today – immediately after publishing this blog, I went to review it, got as far as the home page (which at least verified that the publication had gone through), and then the site went offline. Normal service seems to have been restored all round.

    Shirley @1

    It appears that I am not the only one to confuse stretto and stretta (your typo is telling). Many dictionaries list the two words as synonyms, although Chambers does suggest the latter variant just for the uptempo climax. Grove (the original edition, the only one I could readily access online) only lists stretto, and starts out:

    A term used in two ways. Firstly in Fugue, where it designates the following of response to subject at a closer interval of time than at first. This device is usually employed towards the end of a fugue, so as to give some impression of climax. …

    The second usage seems to pick up on this last bit.

  17. Thanks for explaining 26. I had a very confused idea that maybe “employers” = HOLDINGS and “waywardly” meant attaching WAY to that, but the reverse-clue udea definitely makes more sense.

    I like “tagger-on” as a marker meaning “suffix” (although I didn’t properly understand that one at first either!) All in all, a very nice puzzle.

  18. Thanks, PeterO.

    Nice puzzle from Pasquale – not one of his trickier crosswords, but as precisely clued as ever.

    1d was a write-in for me, as I knew the title (although I’ve never seen the play – not one of O’Neill’s jollier efforts, by all accounts), but Pasquale has followed the sensible rule of a fairly easy clue for a less well known answer.

    Favourites were 5d, 6d and (of course) the reverse clue at 26a.

    DI has appeared two days running, after something of an absence, but not, gratifyingly, as ‘princess’.

  19. Thanks, Pasquale, for the enjoyable puzzle. 1A is rather clever, but went over my, somewhat secular, head.

    I’m a bit curious about the parsing in 3. SHOUT doesn’t seem to need CALL to be brief, so I wondered whether it might be DISH {GIRL} + OUT {(SH)OUT, BRIEF CALL}. Just a niggling itch, not a criticism of the blog, for which many thanks, PeterO.

  20. Thanks Pasquale and PeterO. I did not know STRETTO and like Eileen @15 only knew CROUP as an affliction of babies and not as part of a horse.

    I thought of PRIME SUSPECT for 1ac, but it did not fit of course and liked THIRD PERSON when the penny dropped. The clue for the THE ICEMAN COMETH took me back to my childhood and the sound of the ice cream van jingles (there were two visited my street). I thought CODDLE was nice. It got me wondering if you could coddle fish – or just eggs; I shall investigate.

  22. Took a long time in the NE corner today, until STRETTO finally clicked. All in all though a pretty decent puzzle. ESSAYER probably my favourite, with CODDLE up there too.

    I’m with PaulT @21 re 3d.

  23. phitonelly @19

    I take it you mean that ‘brief’ is superfluous to ‘call’ for SHOUT, and perhaps you are right; but if so, I would go with PaulT @21, since ‘brief’ suggests cutting short the end, not the beginning.

  25. @12 “GU is back up with comments now, but some of the usual crowd (mercifully!) will be asleep by now”

    Meaning exactly?

  26. Another one that was so near, and yet so far for me today as I hadn’t heard of ‘start a hare’ and went with PaulW @14 with ‘start a race.’ Thoroughly enjoyed solving the rest, with THE ICEMAN COMETH’ as my COD. Still, only having one clue out on a Friday is not bad for me. Luckily, AYER was mentioned in yesterday’s comments, so didn’t have to trawl the recesses of my mind to deeply to solve 4D. I’m still not brave enough to try the prize crosswords!

  27. Saran @ 26

    Don’t be afraid of prize crosswords – sometimes they provide light-ish relief after a rigorous week 🙂

  28. Good to see for once (well, more or less) a Pasquale puzzle being praised unanimously.

    While most of us are always captivated by the indeed excellent surfaces in Arachne’s puzzles, we shouldn’t forget that Don Manley’s surfaces are also proper sentences that read very well.
    Perhaps, a tad less adventurous and lacking in mentioning certain body parts.
    I, for one, can do without these.
    And, as always, everything’s so precise – always a plus for me.

    My thanks to PeterO and today’s birthday boy.
    Mitz, at last I know that your crossword is #22 – I don’t think I took one with me last Saturday.
    And rhotician, where’s “the other place”?

  30. Sil, I’d do a link if I were competent. As I’m not here are directions.

    Google Guardian. Click on Crosswords. Click on Cryptic. Bookmark it.

    I go there if I want to solve a crossword online. They’re published at midnight. Soon comments pour in.
    I’d better not say more about them. You can judge for yourself. You can sign up if you want to comment yourself. Our own Eileen has very recently done so. There are lots of features available like Avatars and comment history and stuff. There’s a separate place for the prize.

  31. I got 1ac and 1dn as soon as I looked at the clues and the rest of the puzzle fell into place quickly. However, I didn’t know the expression at 14ac and I went with “start a race”. When I clicked the “check all” button after I completed the puzzle and saw that I was wrong I then thought of “hare” for the last word, and with greyhounds I suppose it makes much more sense. My ignorance, not Pasquale’s cluing.

  32. Thanks PeterO and Pasquale. I enjoyed this one. Accurate clueing, as ever, from the Don. However, I sometimes find his puzzles a little humourless – not this time, as 12a (WOOED) made me lol. Great stuff!

  33. Psst! Am I allowed to say “thank you” for all of the birthday greetings? Yes? Good.

    Thanks very much for all the birthday greetings!

  34. Thanks peterO and Pasquale.

    I am usually less than enthusiastic about Pasquale’s crosswords. I enjoyed this one, and liked especially the ones already praised: 1a, 1d (when I eventually got it third from the end) etc.

    I spent a long time convincing myself 13a was GOLB, but couldn’t really believe it.

  36. Another enjoyable puzzle from Pasquale.

    I must admit I started with trepidation as I usually don’t enjoy the “Don’s” puzzles. However this was another pleasant diversion. I think that’s three in a row. (Perhaps I’ve seen the light 😉 )

    My only quibble is that it was too easy for a Friday! (Of course that’s nothing at all to do with Pasquale)

    Thanks to PeterO and Pasquale.

    Now I’m off to see what going on in General Discussion. I hope it’s disgracefully scandalous!

  40. Thanks all
    Although I agree entirely with Simon’s helpful reply to Saran @26
    perhaps s/he should be warned that Philistine is at his fiendish best on Saturday.

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