Guardian 26,468 by Chifonie

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The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26468.

I found this went down very easily and with minimal contention.

Across
1 CANDIED
John passed away and was sweetly preserved (7)
A charade of CAN (‘john’) plus DIED (‘passed away’).
5 SKETCHY
Unfinished boat in the Seychelles (7)
An envelope (‘in’) of KETCH (‘boat’) in SY (‘Seychelles’ IVR).
9 LOVAT
See vessel in shade (5)
A charade of LO (‘see’) plus VAT (‘vessel’). The colour is in the blue-green range.
10 ELEMENTAL
Cooked eel with crackers is basic (9)
A charade of ELE, an anagram (‘cooked’) of ‘eel’ plus MENTAL (‘crackers’).
11 INCOMPLETE
Money allowed in wages is short (10)
An envelope (‘in’) of P (pence, ‘money’) plus LET (‘allowed’) in INCOME (‘wages’).
12 SHOT
Go for a drive (4)
Double definition.
14 DISGRUNTLED
Sulky girl sent dud contrivance (11)
An anagram (‘contrivance’) of ‘girl sent dud’.
18 CONSTRAINED
Reticent prisoners studied (11)
A charade of CONS (‘prisoners’) plus TRAINED (‘studied’).
21 ONUS
Working with the Guardian is a burden (4)
A charade of ON (‘working’) plus US (‘the Guardian’).
22 PLAINCHANT
Music popular when having tea in factory (10)
An envelope (‘in’) of IN (‘popular’) plus CHA (‘tea’) in PLANT (‘factory’).
25 NUTRITION
Fluid I turn into food (9)
An anagram (‘fluid’) of ‘I turn into’.
26 TRIPE
Note about epitaph is nonsense (5)
An envelope (‘about’) of RIP (requiescat in pace, ‘epitaph’) in TE (‘note’ of the sol-fa).
27 SKY BLUE
Colour for barrel acceptable in Scottish island (3,4)
An envelope (‘in’) of BL (‘barrel’) plus U (‘acceptable’) in SKYE (‘Scottish island’).
28 REDRESS
Help on with clothing (7)
A charade of RE (‘on’) plus DRESS (‘clothing’).
Down
1 COLLIE
Dog having depression? Make up a story! (6)
A charade of COL (‘depression’) plus LIE (‘make up a story’).
2 NOVICE
Virtuous student? (6)
NO VICE (‘virtuous’).
3 INTIMIDATE
One disease initially harboured by friendly cow (10)
An envelope (‘harboured by’) of I (‘one’) plus D (‘Disease initially’) in INTIMATE (‘friendly’).
4 DWELL
Glen keeps wife in lodge (5)
An envelope (‘keeps’) of W (‘wife’) in DELL (‘glen’).
5 SHEET IRON
Beginner breaks Polish fabricating material (5,4)
An envelope (‘breaks’) of TIRO (‘beginner’; I am more familiar with the alternative spelling tyro) in SHEEN (‘polish’).
6 EWER
Vessel found in a brewery (4)
A hidden answer (‘found in’) in ‘brEWERy’.
7 CATCHALL
Burglar on college building covers everything (8)
A charade of CAT (‘burglar’ of a particular kind) plus C (‘college’) plus HALL (‘building’). The definition is more of a description.
8 YULETIDE
Season of good will, yet I duel anyway (8)
An anagram (‘anyway’) of ‘yet I duel’.
13 UNEDUCATED
Ignorant of a French coin? Ted’s empty-headed! (10)
A charade of UNE (‘a French’) plus DUCAT (‘coin’) plus ED (‘Ted empty-headed‘)
15 SMALL-TIME
Give out 50 pounds in recession? That’s unimportant! (5-4)
 A charade of EMIT (‘give out’) plus L (Roman numeral, ’50’) plus LAMS (hits, ‘pounds’), all reversed (‘in recession’).
16 ACCOUNTS
The books of a peer in the Civil Service (8)
A charade of ‘a’ plus an envelope (‘in’) of COUNT (‘peer’) in CS (‘the Civil Service’).
17 INDUSTRY
Effort getting river sample (8)
A charade of INDUS (‘river’) plus TRY (‘sample’).
19 MALICE
Married woman shows animosity (6)
A charade of M (‘married’) plus ALICE (‘woman’).
20 ATHENS
Capital has ten comp­onents (6)
An anagram (‘components’) of ‘has ten’.
23 INNER
Wrongdoer decapit­ated? That’s concealed! (5)
[s]INNER (‘wrongdoer’) minus its first letter (‘decapitated’).
24 VIAL
Small vessel going through lake (4)
A charade of VIA (‘through’) plus L (‘lake’).
completed grid

55 comments on “Guardian 26,468 by Chifonie”

  1. Thanks Chifonie and PeterO

    New word for me was PLAINCHANT.

    I was unable to parse 27a, 15d, 26a.

    My favourite was CANDIED.

  2. Thanks setter and blogger.

    I think 13d is ‘Ignorant of’ (definition) and Ted (empty headed) is (T)ed.

    A pleasant, though rather brief, diversion.

  3. Agree with morphiamonet @2 re 13d.

    Thought NOVICE referred to a trainee nun (dd) rather than NO VICE – reckon it works either way.

    Yes, I am surprised to be finishing Wednesday as quickly as this, if we all believe the ‘rule’ that the Grauniad crosswords get harder as the week progresses. But is that an urban myth created unconsciously by 15×15 bloggers??? Does anyone have definite knowledge that this really is a policy?

  5. Thanks Chifonie and PeterO
    I didn’t find this very entertaining – quite easy, and no chuckles or “aha” moments. INDUSTRY was my favourite, though I think I have seen it before.
    Some quibbles: I think the word order in the clue for ACCOUNTS gives CACOUNTS – the A is in the wrong place.
    DISGRUNTLED is given as “sulky” in Chambers, but if someone is disgruntled it is because something has displeased her (pace Arachne) or him, whereas people (especially teenagers!) can be sulky for no valid reason.
    The clue for ATHENS was rather feeble.
    I wonder what the Guardian style guide says about “mental” = “crackers”?

  9. Not a great delight for a mid seeker. Agree with above re uneducated. Spent some time on “small beer” for 15d, as it had 50 pounds nicely embedded. Let’s hope for more tomorrow.

  12. Agree not much fun, but there weren’t all that many errors. ‘Was’ in 1A seemed iffy, LOVAT very obscure, BL for barrel, and some others, but not too bad for style.

  13. Thanks PeterO and Chifonie. This does seem more the Everyman/Quiptic level but I’ve no real problem with that. LOVAT held me up for a bit as it was new to me, but things otherwise fell into place very quickly.

  15. I can’t disagree with the consensus. I found this very straightforward-perhaps a little too straightforward-but not a bad puzzle by any means. I loved NOVICE.
    Thanks Chifonie.

  16. As many have said above, a simple crossword, but I found it enjoyable all the same. I liked many of the clues. Learnt a new word too – PLAINCHANT.

    I agree with morphiamonet and Tim Phillips about the parsing for UNEDUCATED; as muffin has pointed out, PeterO’s parsing makes “ignorant” superfluous. Also, ignorant works better as a synonym; an uneducated person is not empty-headed!

    Thanks to Chifonie and PeterO.

  17. Thanks Chifonie and PeterO

    I enjoyed the puzzle, especially NOVICE, but needed help parsing SMALL TIME (at first put beer).
    Parsed UNEDUCATED as did Morphiamonet @2.

  18. Thanks Chifonie and PeterO

    muffin @ 5: I’ve read on more than one occasion that the graun crossword blog some time ago said that the style guide didn’t apply to crossword setters, as it would constrain them unduly. Hence we seem to get nuts / nutty, bananas et al fairly frequently. There’s another that I can’t quite remember that also gets some folks’ knickers twisted.

  19. Re muffin@5: As a print subscriber to the Guardian, and therefore by definition one of the “PC” brigade, I am always a bit uneasy about clues like 10ac (“mental”=”crackers”). I wonder if it time to find other clues for such words. It would be nice to hear from any setters reading this.

  22. Thanks Chifonie and Peter O. On the easy side, obviously, but enjoyable.

    My Gran knitted endless lovat cardigans and sweaters; the shade was very popular in the fifties, and the term not at all obscure.

    When I find what I think might be an infelicity on the part of the compiler, I do not immediately categorise it as an ‘error’. But then, I’m a confirmed libertarian.

  23. Thanks Chifonie and Peter O.

    Went in steadily although I didn’t know PLAINCHANT.

    I flirted with SMALL beer but realised it didn’t parse. In fact, the clue for SMALL-TIME was quite good. In response to hedgehoggy @12, ‘candy’ can be used as a verb [meaning to preserve,] so I don’t see the issue with ‘was.’

  24. [Hedgehoggy @12, isn’t it time to give up your New Year’s Resolution, two weeks have gone by, and thing are getting kinda dull around here.]

  25. Abhay @16: You’re right that an uneducated person isn’t necessarily empty-headed; I recall once being told that, being in possession of a BSc, I was “clever, but not educated” – whereas if I’d had a BA, it’d be the other way around. Indeed, not having had a classical education, I’ve long referred to myself as “classically uneducated”.

    Now, 3 – ? = 2 …

  26. Hahahaha! 😀

    ‘Candied’ means ‘in a candied state’, i.e. things ARE candied, so you’d need the ‘was’ to create the past tense in a genuine way I would say. It didn’t ‘candy’ itself did it?

    I’ve irked dunsscotus I see, but I agree that it’s my style sheet that’s been offended, not anyone else’s. I thought you guys (and gals pace Arachne, but I say guys is unisex) had worked that out!

  28. Three fairly straightforward offerings in a row – I was rather surprised that we got Chifonie today. Indeed, with no hold-ups of any sort, this was the easiest of the three. No doubt something steelier is in hand for tomorrow.

  29. [10ac
    Nice effort, Cookie. How about?

    A gnome, perhaps, lent me ale constituents. (9)

    (A gnome is an example of an “elemental” spirit, along with salamanders, sylphs and undines)

    ]

  31. Muffin @ 29: clue of the year so far for me. But given how many people seem to have been unware of “plainchant” I think the number familiar with the elemental sprirts of the Golden Dawn magical system may be rather small!

  32. Too kind, too kind!

    I’m surprised about “plainchant”, though – I hadn’t thought it to be obscure. A few tears ago the monks of Saint Silos had a top ten (classical chart) double CD of plainchant.

  34. I don’t see the difficulty with 1A:

    It was candied / it was sweetly preserved

    A jar of candied peel / a jar of sweetly preserved peel

    All seem to work fine for me.

  36. Maybe I was a little off form today but I found this slightly less straightforward than Chifonie can be – last three in were LOVAT, SHOT and VIAL. So no complaints from me today – I didn’t even think of questioning CANDIED.

    Thanks to PeterO and Chifonie

  37. But you need the ‘was’ extra to the word ‘candied’, Simon, in your comparison. That’s the point! ‘Was’ in the clue is extraneous as far as I can see.

  38. John passed away and was sweetly preserved + CANDIED

    John passed away, sweetly preserved = CANDIED

    Both work

  39. ‘This carrot was sweetly preserved’ has to equal ‘this carrot candied’ then? If you say so Simon!

  41. hedgehoggy @ 39 I think you are being deliberately obtuse: you have omitted the comma I used in my example. Grow up.

  44. morphiamonet @2 et al

    Yes, it was a slip, now corrected, to underline ’empty-headed’ in 13D rather than ‘ignorant’ (I would not include the ‘of’). On reflection, I think it would be safer not to underline ‘was’ in 1A. I think this is problematical only if you assume that ‘was’ implies that, say, CANDIED no longer has the meaning of ‘sweetly preserved’ – but is it not well-nigh the brief of setters to nudge the unwary into making false assumptions?

    hedgehoggy @26

    Actually, I had got the idea that you were expressing your opinions. However, I am surprised that one so exacting in criticism of setters’ usages should be so loose in using “error” @12 for something that merely goes against your preferences.

  45. Well, at least I’ve said as much above. Acknowledged!

    CANDIED means ‘sweetly preserved’ (if you like that definition, I think it’s okay), but why on earth, in isolation, would it ever mean ‘was sweetly preserved’? In what sentence, on its own, can it mean that?

  51. Perhaps too easy for most, but I certainly enjoyed it and answers didn’t just go in. Thank you, Chifonie, and PeterO for explaining how to parse a couple of the clues.

  52. According to OED “candy” can be intransitive (though surely very rarely), so you could say “this fruit candied when I left it mixed with sugar for a month”, meaning this fruit was rendered crystalline, sugar-encrusted etc. – or, I suppose, “was sweetly preserved”. I didn’t know this, and I’m not sure Chifonie did either.

  53. I liked 1A, then 5A was OK. From thereon it was mainly downhill and all over in a trice.

    Far too easy for Wednesday.

    Shirl @19

    What’s wrong with “mental” = “crackers”. If you really insist this can be a synonym without any reference to mental illness. But even if it is please tell me where the harm is? These are words and this is a crossword not a dissertation?! If there is to be a list of disallowed words for crosswords then that surely is mental/crackers. 😉

    Thanks to PeterO and Chifonie

  55. Thanks Chifonie and PeterO

    Typical offering from this setter for me … certainly easier than other setters, but find that his clues leave no doubt as to what the answer is. CANDIED was my first in … and had no doubt that it was correct – so found it interesting as to why it has generated the majority of the discussion here.

    LOVAT was new to me. INDUSTRY was last in.

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