Guardian 26,493 / Tramp

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I found this very hard, and a bit of a slog – I seemed to be staring at a virtually empty grid for ages. Even getting the long answer at 11,2 didn’t make things much easier, though looking back there’s nothing particularly tricky in most of the clues. Tramp is one of my favourite setters, but somehow this one didn’t hit the spot as much as usual. Maybe it’s just me. Thanks to the setter.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
1. PROVERB Saw spin deliveries bowled (7)
PR (spin) + OVER (deliveries, in cricket) + B
5. FIREBUG Arsonist to axe tap (7)
FIRE (to sack, axe) + BUG (tap, as in espionage)
9. SUDAN Feature of soap, Neighbours, primarily, about Australian nation (5)
A in SUD + N
10. IN ORDER TO For the purpose of editor, right, no changes (2,5,2)
(EDITOR R NO)*
11,2. YOU CAN’T TEACH AN OLD DOG NEW TRICKS Sadly, clean-cut Roy Hodgson attacked — win impossible to change the mindset (3,4,5,2,3,3,3,6)
(CLEAN CUT ROY HODGSON ATTACKED IN)* – a remarkable anagram, but not really much help in solving. As almost always with clues like this, I guessed the answer from the definition and enumeration and worked backwards to the anagram (which I probably wouldn’t have bothered to do if I wasn’t blogging the puzzle)
13. HONE Endless love is perfect (4)
HONE[Y]
14. DEAD-PANS Late shift initially boxes style of pizza — delivers without emotion (4-4)
PAN (type of pizza) in DEAD (late) + S[hift]
17. LAWSUITS Order costumes for cases (8)
LAW (order) + SUITS
18. SPAM Junk food (4)
Double definition. I confidently entered MESS here early on, which wasn’t a help..
21. BURY THE HATCHET “Lay to rest”, he interrupts ex-PM briefly. “Time to stop the war” (4,3,7)
BURY (lay to rest) + HE in THATCHE[R] + T
23. RECIPIENT One getting rent, housing cold with one tart (9)
C + I PIE in RENT
24. UPEND Overturn winning goal (5)
UP + END
25. HOSTESS Ordinary end to Mrs T — “Nazi” to describe woman running party (7)
O[rdinary] + [MR]S in [Rudolf] HESS
26. SWEETIE Commitment follows second tiny baby (7)
S + WEE + TIE – sweetie and baby here, honey in 13: did this start out as a Valentine’s day puzzle?
Down
1. POSH Classy footballer’s wife (4)
Double definition, referring to “Posh Spice”, aka Victoria Beckham, nee Adams
3. EUNUCH Virtually untouched: cut to balls for ineffective man (6)
Anagram of UNTOUCHE[d] less TO, with “balls” as the (appropriate) anagram indicator
4. BAIRNS British and Poles need state to feed kids in north (6)
AIR in B + N S
5. FROSTIES Possible McDonalds order: “wraps, large tea (each to go) and cereal” (8)
OS + TEA less EA in FRIES. They’re Grrrrrrrrrrrrrreat!
6. RED PANDA Animal raped and murdered (3,5)
(RAPED AND)* – I’m not usually prudish about clues, but this made me a little uncomfortable
7. BIRTHDAY PRESENT Party? Bender? Turned up with this box? (8,7)
(PARTY BENDER THIS)*
8. GOODNESS ME Fit daughter in one with two sons, us and boy (8,2)
GO (fit) + D in ONE + SS + ME (us, as in “give us a kiss”) – definition as in “oh boy!”
12. CHILDBIRTH Fooling Brit: leaders of Lib Dems/Conservatives have hastily identified end of Labour? (10)
Angram of BRIT L[ib] D[ems] C[onservatives] H[ave] H[astily] I[dentified]
15. MULTIPLE Many left empty, swallowed by drug runner (8)
L + TIP (empty) in MULE
16. STEEPENS Is more inclined to watch pounds around model (8)
[Ford Model] T on SEE PENS. Perhaps “becomes more inclined” would be a more accurate definition
19. PASTES Hand over empty tube for gums (6)
T[ub]E in PASS
20. SCOUSE South Colombia to take drugs from Liverpool (6)
S + CO + USE
22. EDGE Balls up, say for side (4)
ED [Balls, Labour politician] + reverse of EG

37 comments on “Guardian 26,493 / Tramp”

  1. Thanks, Andrew. I agree with you that this was (a little) less fun than most Tramps.

    For EUNUCH, I explained “virtually” as E, followed by UN[to]UCH[ed] – that is both to and ed (Balls) are cut out…

  3. Thanks Andrew for the blog.

    I wrote this puzzle way back in May 2012. There are a few things that I would shy away from now (like the introduction of the punctuation in 5d and the clue for RED PANDA). I think it’s a decent puzzle though. I have about twenty puzzles awaiting publication (if deemed good enough) and I think most of them are better than this one. Anyway, I’d better get back to the day job.

    Thanks

    Neil

  4. Thanks for the puzzle and the blog. I enjoyed this one although there were a couple I couldn’t parse until I read the blog. In 25a, you’ve missed the ‘T’ from your explanation. In 9a, why does AUSTRALIAN = A (or is ‘primarily’ doing double duty with the N and the A)?

  6. Thanks Tramp and Andrew

    I enjoyed this, though I did wince a bit at 5D.

    My only slight quibble is that ‘pan’ isn’t a type of pizza per se, it’s generally ‘deep pan’ as opposed to the flat base or oven floor usually used. But no matter, really.

  7. Thanks Andrew. Agree with you 100%. The puzzle annoyed me the further along I went with it, hard to explain why. Some of the LOI were 5D, 8D and 16D..

  9. Thanks, Andrew.

    Well, like Simon S, I enjoyed it [and googling ‘pan pizza’ produces plenty of examples, perhaps mostly American, admittedly] with the same reservations re 6dn. I’m puzzled as to why Tramp left in a clue that he wasn’t entirely happy with – or maybe this one has been sitting with the editor for all that time. [Good news about the twenty-odd in the offing, though.]

    I thought 1ac was an excellent clue [I think ‘saw’ is one of the first cryptic devices I remember learning but it’s still good] but my particular favourite is 12dn. It reminded me of a clue in Philistine’s first Guardian puzzle, nearly four years ago [Blimey!] which tickled me: ‘End of term party [6]’, which I remember particularly because I blogged it.

    I also liked 21 and 25ac and 3, 5 and 7dn.

    Many thanks, as ever, to Tramp.

  10. Tramp@3
    Thanks for taking the trouble to pop in, as well as (obviously) the puzzle but …..
    …. you normally make me grin or even giggle. As the blogger – ta Andrew – indicated, 6d produced a wince. Best for me was 21a, which produced a snorted “in her head”. Thanks especially for that.

  11. Thanks, Andrew.

    I also found that this took a little while to get into, but once I had a bit of a purchase the puzzle yielded fairly easily. I found the LHS trickier than the RHS. The long anagram clue is well constructed to give a plausible surface, though I got the solution after a few crossers and didn’t bother to verify the letter correspondence. I couldn’t parse GOODNESS ME: I didn’t see the dialectal ‘us’ for ME.

    I agree with Simon S @4 that ‘pizza’ is not equivalent to PAN, per se, but I saw what Tramp was getting at and it didn’t hold me up.

    Tramp’s crosswords are often pervasively thematic, but this example not so (unless I am missing something). I guess in this instance he had worked out an anagram for 11,2 and filled a grid round it. Many complex charade clues with a (more or less) narrative surface, typical of the vagrant. However, my favourite was the concise and polished 1a: I never thought I would be praising a ‘simple’ clue, particularly with a cricket theme, over many more ingeniously constructed charades, but that’s the effect of age, I suppose.

  12. Thanks Andrew and Tramp. I’d agree with our estimable setter, a decent puzzle.

    I’m sure I’ve heard deep pan pizzas described simply as pan pizzas; indeed, I’ve never heard of a shallow-pan pizza. It was suitable enough for me.

    I agree with Andrew’s alternative definition for STEEPENS. This was my last in, and I was trying to think of something synonymous to “prefers” (“he prefers to drink coffee”/”he is more inclined to drink coffee”).

  13. I struggled with this one for a while, although once the long answer finally went in the rest followed fairly quickly. Count me as another who solved the long anagram from the word count once enough checkers were in place, and in my case getting FROSTIES opened it up because it gave me the first letter of T?A?H, but that takes nothing away from the fact that it was an excellent construction.

  14. Well I don’t like these ‘narrative’ clues anyway, they’re too fussy and contrived, you can see the compiler trying so hard to get a surface meaning that isn’t really available. I far prefer something like 1a – that’s a proper and good clue (to the hedgehoggy way of thinking of course).

  15. Thanks Tramp and Andrew.

    I found this hard but enjoyable. Liked PROVERB and FIREBUG among others.

    As Gervase @11 says the puzzle is not pervasively thematic, but YOU CAN’T TEACH AN OLD DOG NEW TRICKS is a PROVERB and BURY THE HATCHET an idiom.

    Ed Balls does lead a double life.

  16. Thanks Tramp, nice of you to pop in.

    Thanks Andrew; I also thought this was a bit of a slog and I couldn’t be bothered to parse the long one. I didn’t understand, GOODNESS ME, so thanks for that parsing.

    I enjoyed CHILDBIRTH (although vicariously 😉 )

  19. Thank you, Andrew, and Neil for the good solid puzzle and for popping in.

    Much admired the smooth PROVERB at 1a.

    Less keen on A for Australian, and I’m being a bit dim on mule for runner in MULTIPLES. Perhaps someone will explain…Oh! hang on, is it the shoes, perhaps?

    “Is more inclined…” for STEEPENS seems OK to me. “After 2 miles the road is more inclined” or “After 2 miles the road steepens” seem interchangeable, but I agree the “becomes” might be better.

    Thanks again, Tramp.

  20. I agree with Andrew that this seemed tough to crack initially, but it got a lot easier after seeing the brilliant long anagram, and in retrospect it all seems fair, so quite an entertaining challenge. Last in was PASTES, liked STEEPENS and HONE too.

    Thanks to Tramp and Andrew.

  22. Liked this–and once the long answer went in, things went more smoothly.

    The cereal is here called “Frosted Flakes,” so that one took a little bit of massaging.

    As a resident of a city that prides itself on its very heavy pizzas, I would definitely say that “pan pizza” is a type–it’s thicker than thin-crust, but not as thick as deep-dish. Pan pizza is sort of the bastard cousin of deep-dish, for people who can’t hack the real thing.

    Lastly, I just wanted to mention that I need to stop doing cryptic crosswords. Today’s New York Times headline is “Leaders in Ukraine Talks Announce Cease-Fire Plan”; you know you’re a crossword addict when your first reaction is to take the letters UT and start looking for homonyms of synonyms for “cease” and “fire” BEFORE you zero in on what the headline means!

  23. Well, I found this quite easy although I can’t say I was meticulous with the parsing. FROSTIES and PASTES were both guesses and I still don’t understand the latter but it really had to be the answer. Anyway I enjoyed this.
    Thanks Tramp.

  24. William @19 – I think that’s a fair point for STEEPENS. It’s one of those things where, although the two phrases carry ever so slight a difference in meaning, will mean much the same to a person who’s wondering about the road’s elevation. Nothing worth being to pedantic about, I suppose.

  25. Thanks Tramp and Andrew
    I’ve complained before about “clever” long anagrams that are only really solvable from the word pattern, and this was another example. I assumed that there was an anagram there, but (as I wasn’t blogging, Andrew!) I didn’t bother to work it out.
    I didn’t parse HOSTESS or MULTIPLE, the latter because I read “left empty” as LT, so I had an unexplained “ip” leftover.
    It was EUNUCH rather than RED PANDA that made me wince (“cut to balls”!)
    Favourite was EDGE.

  26. mrpenney @22 – you only need to worry when the headline says:

    Leaders in Ukraine Talks Announce Cease-Fire Plan (6)

    Try as I might, I couldn’t find a UT… or a UTA…. word of any length to even remotely answer a contrivance of the clue.

    Folks, this is what three days in bed with flu leads to…

  28. Thanks all. Always good to see Tramp’s name, but there were a couple here where the answer was quite obvious and didn’t quite justify the complexity of the clue.

    (In a parallel universe – Leaders in Ukraine talk German right into treaty.)

  30. Thanks tramp, but I made heavy weather of this. Down to me as Andrew says, it’s fine. 6d is an oddity, rape and murder doesn’t really go in a bit of fun for me.

  31. I found this hard, especially the SW corner which was the last to be solved.

    BURY THE HATCHET was there but although I had posited MULTIPLE and HOSTESS I couldn’t be sure enough to enter them until I saw the parsing.

    A good challenge though and nothing to complain about except my failure to “see the wood for the trees”

    Thanks to Andrew and Tramp

  32. As somewhat of a newcomer to cryptic crosswords, and one who generally struggles with the Monday edition, this was probably my most successful attempt. As usual, I solved two or three clues from definitions/the grid, and then retrospectively tried to figure out the how the cryptic clue fitted, but overall this was probably the most enjoyable to date. I will keep an eye out for more Tramp puzzles.

  33. None of my dictionaries have the word SUD. (SUDS, sure, but not SUD.) Just wondering if anyone else was bothered by that.

  35. Thanks Tramp and Andrew

    Second Tramp puzzle for the day … and although not as good as the other (the Myleenie Klass rant), it was still pleasant enough.

    Didn’t crack the long one until nearly half way, after which life got a whole lot easier. Couldn’t parse GOODNESS ME or MULTIPLE (I also went down the L(ef)T path).

    Last one in was FROSTIES – I find the use of commercial products an interesting angle in a daily puzzle like this. I guess that they are just words all of the same and another variation on the use of living people.

  36. I offer my comments very belatedly, not in the expectation that they will be read, but, rather, that expressing them is a sort of way of relieving some of the bitter disappointment I felt on reading one of the clues.
    I refer to the clue for 20 down.I am sure that the solution to this could have been clued without a reference to the drugs trade and the implied correlation with the city of Liverpool.I am in the habit of shrugging my shoulders on hearing the various attacks on my city, but I regard this considered slighting as a step too far.

  37. (Even later). Don’t think Tramp wanted to disparage Liverpool, John Lydon. He just constructed a clever clue, making use of the word Scouse, which can be either positive or negative towards your city, depending on the point of view of the user. As for drugs and Liverpool, I’d have thought they are associated more strongly with Colombia, that benighted country. In our house, we think of your great city for warmth and football – but then my nephew has bought a house there with a wonderful local girl (she’s blue!).

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