Guardian 26,497 / Brendan

61 comments on “Guardian 26,497 / Brendan”

1. Re 13ac: I had some problems getting the link for STRINE – here it is:
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strine

2. Thanks Brendan and Eileen
   Fairly straightforward solve, but naturally I didn’t see the Nina and hence the second definition for DIAMONDS – thanks for that.
   I hadn’t heard of RUNAGATE, but it was clearly defined.
   I confidently wrote in TEE OFF (drive as in golf) for 7d, then was a bit upset when I couldn’t confirm that Tennessee had a three-letter code of TEE (in fact, it seems that only 2 and 4 letter codes are used; TN and TENN in this case). “Checking” showed up my error.

3. P.S. you have an extra R in the wordplay for BRUNEI, Eileen – just B for British this time, I think.

4. Thanks, muffin – careless proof-reading. 🙁

5. Sorry Eileen – another misprint. Brunei is part of the island of Borneo.

6. Thanks again – I think I’d better go back to bed [and stop this habit of staying up to solve puzzles].

7. Thank you Eileen – the NINA would have escaped me without you – and thank you Brendan for a sparkling offer. My last one in was 21ac. I’m used to a bit of French in the cryptics, but German always takes me by surprise – probably because I am German and desperately trying to forget my mother tongue when solving…

8. Thanks, Eileen.

   A much longer solve today. I recognised the relevance of the periphery early on (it is after all a Brendan). I guessed FRIEND from what I had – FRI; and then G_RL quickly gave the rest. Given the fairly horrible grid, this certainly helped me solve the rest.

9. Thanks Eileen and Brendan.

   Brendan always has a theme. This is known. Seemed fairly light for him as I was solving this – not very meany of the solutions involved, but nicely linked up nevertheless. Got 1 without really noticing the “peripherally defined” bit, so guess what I completely missed… In my defence, I don’t really associate Brendan with ninas so much, but I still can’t believe I didn’t even look for it.

   Lovely work.

10. Cheers Eileen and Brendan. Got the theme and theme words, but not CRETONNE, ECHT or RUNAGATE, all new to me. As such the phrase on the periphery passed me by too (didn’t help that I was looking for something clockwise).

    Not keen on the grid though. It’s pretty much 13×13 with some sticky out bits.

11. Thanks to Brendan for the puzzle and Eileen for explaining where I got stuck.
    I stymied myself ‘cos, as soon as I read the first two words of 9a, the word Mirage popped into my head and I wrote it straight in. Figured it was an anagram of i arm + eg
    Thanks again

12. Thanks Brendan and Eileen

    Good to see another one by this setter again. I got the obvious DIAMOND theme with the words but even with the telegraphed hint at 1d and the nina-friendly grid, I still missed it !

    A couple of new terms with ECHT (is it actually used in English writing?) and RUNAGATE (which I had to look up after deriving it). Embarrassingly missed STRINE in 13a and had to come here for the parsing of it.

    Finished with CRETONNE that I vaguely remembered, but did need to check it too.

13. I actually saw the nina for once, and it helped with my last few answers. ASTRINGENCY went in from checkers and definition because I had forgotten “Strine”, and RUNAGATE was my LOI with fingers crossed because I don’t recall having come across it before and the checkers weren’t overly helpful.

14. This is the first time I’ve ever spotted a Nina on my own! The grid just struck me as a likely candidate for it and 1d gave it away. The rest of the puzzle was relatively straightforward, apart from the SE corner with CRETONNE, ECHT, and RHOMBI (as opposed to rhombus) all new to me and crossing, although the Nina fill definitely helped there.

    Thanks Eileen and Brendan

15. Hi Bruce @12

    Re ECHT: I don’t know about English writing – as so often, I’ve only come across it [several times] in crosswords – but it’s in Chambers [though not Collins or my SOED].

    Re 13ac:I suppose you know this story about the writer Monica Dickens [Charles’ great-granddaughter] which I heard many years ago – and thus learned about STRINE. [From Wiki]: “In late 1964 Dickens was visiting Australia to promote her works. It was reported in the Sydney Morning Herald on 30 November 1964 that during a book signing session in Sydney she had been approached by a woman who handed her a copy of her book and enquired, presumably in a broad Australian accent, “How much is it?”. Dickens reportedly misheard this as an instruction as to the name which she should include in the inscription (“Emma Chisit”) and thus was born the phenomenon of “Strine” which filled the newspaper’s letter columns and subsequently was the subject of a separate weekly article and, later, a series of humorous books.”

16. Thanks Eileen and Brendan.

    Apart from the Nina, I think there is a little more to the DIAMONDS theme…

    ‘The parting at Richmond was very painful, and Lady Fawn had declared herself quite unable to make another journey up to London with the ungrateful RUNAGATE’, The Eustace DIAMONDS by Anthony Trollope.

    Then there are the Queen’s DIAMONDS in The Three Musketeers, one of whom is ARAMIS.

    RHOMBI of course are often called DIAMONDS as indicated by the RED CARDS.

    DIAMONDS are often called STONES and are on baseball FIELDS as Eileen has pointed out.

    Then there was the affair of the Sultan of Brunei’s DIAMONDS…

17. Eileen @15, echt is in the OCED.

18. Cookie @16: There is also CARBON, of which diamonds are a pure form. We have CARBON, STONES, FIELDS and RHOMBI in words almost perimetrical; I had thought this was what 1d referred to (having dismissed the actual perimeter as containing the NINA, looking the wrong way).

19. Thanks Eileen and Brendan.

    One small comment on the word “particular” in 3d. It doesn’t seem necessary for the clue to work and reminds me of the girl who when asked if she had a particular boyfriend replied that “all my boyfriends are particular”

20. And around the DIAMONDS theme, there is a lot of SHOWING OFF going on, in GOWNs, wearing EYELINER, with your CLIQUE scented with ARAMIS… or am I reaching too far?

21. Coochiemudllo @19: It’s possible that “particular” meant “of a particle” – to give some hint that we were looking for a chemical. Nice way of phrasing it, I think.

22. Cookie @16

    “RHOMBI of course are often called DIAMONDS as indicated by the RED CARDS.”

    Exactly as Brendan clued them @17 / 14dn.

    and John Appleton @18 – CARBON is clued as ‘What’s in 1’.

    Hi Coochiemudllo

    I smiled when I read your comment: one almost daily complaint from one or two commenters is about unindicated ‘definitions by example’. ETHER is not the only anaesthetic. 😉

23. John Appleton @10 and @18, sorry, so you had, perhaps I shouldn’t have given the game away citing three of those almost perimetrical words, not too serious perhaps since Eileen has had to cite some in her blog. The Nina is still a secret.

24. There is a Virgilius crossword in the i today. A clever theme and worth the 30p to buy the paper.

25. Eileen @22, yes, I was trying to recapitulate, should have made myself more clear.

26. Cookie @23 and 25

    And I was trying to say that there is nothing ‘secret’ about the theme, which, as I said in the preamble, is clearly indicated at 1dn and all the examples are cross-referenced in the clues, so there’s no question of giving the game away.

27. logophile @20, remember the nail ENAMEL…

28. Thank you Eileen, and bravo at finding the nina. I didn’t, of course, but enjoyed the thrill of finding it once you’d suggested there was bound to be one.

    Your response to Coochiemundlo made me think of the politically correct cautions one comes across in daily life these days, such as, “other ____ are available”.

    This was not a difficult solve and, once again, Brendan shows that to be satisfying and enjoyable, a crossword doesn’t have to be.

    Cookie @16 crumbs, well-spotted, most impressed.

    Bravo, Brendan, more please.

29. Eileen @26, but it was good the way you did it, often the blogger states in the introduction what the Nina is, you gave those who had missed it a chance of searching for themselves, they still do.

30. Thanks, Eileen.

    Nice one from Brendan, whom we have not seen much of lately.

    I did spot the Nina – he did flag it up, after all – which helped with a few clues toward the end. But, like muffin, I confidently entered TEE OFF for 7d, which I couldn’t shake; this scuppered 6a and I couldn’t see 3d either. I should have seen the significance of ‘number’ – it’s a fairly common ploy. ETHERISE (though spelled with a zee) is a word I have only come across in TS Eliot’s ‘The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock’. Duh!

    Typically good mix of well-constructed clues here. I particularly liked 5a, 14d and the novel construction for BRUNEI, a word which pops up quite frequently. Any idea why 9a needs two anagrinds? The clue would be fine without the ‘somehow’.

31. That was good fun! It felt like a sort of mini-crossword cameo, having only 26 clues but multiple links. My favourites were my last ones in, ETHERISE and CLIQUE.

    I think 14d is the first time that I’ve seen “one down” instead of “1 down” for a cross-reference. Does anyone know if that’s common practice in the Guardian? I think the Times insists on numerals and I guess they’re usually preferable just to make the print version more compact. I’m not bothered by it either way, just curious.

32. Hi Cyborg

    I meant to comment on 14dn, which was very nice wordplay, exploiting the expression ‘getting one down’ – which I suppose getting a red card would do!

33. Thanks to Brendan & Eileen – I was, for once, able to see the Nina for myself, as it was indicated in a clue. I wish that would be a more common practice – just a hint that there’s something to look for. I’m sure I must have missed many in the years before I started reading this site, and many people must still be missing the pleasure, and sometimes help, of finding them.
    Not everyone knows that Brendan has a theme, or even that Ninas exist.
    Enjoyed the crossword – only runagate new to me.

34. I don’t know about Cookie’s fanciful extras, nor about Strine really, as despite the fact that I have Afferbeck Lauder’s book it feels very obscure indeed, but here is a puzzle without any grammatical problems. My only quibble is with the seemingly unnecessary ‘somehow’ at 9a. Why have two indicators when one will do?

    Thanks
    Hoggy

35. Put me down as another one who thought 9a was MIRAGE for a while. Didn’t get ETHERISE, RHOMBI or CRETONNE and couldn’t parse ASTRINGENCY. Enjoyed the theme/Nina though.

36. Enjoyable as Brendan always is. Spent too long trying to read the perimeter clockwise, but got there in the end. Last in and possibly favourite was ETHERISE. RUNAGATE was at best vaguely familiar, but quite guessable.

    Thanks to Eileen and Brendan

37. Lovely crossword – thank you both.

    It was clear from the grid, 1dn and your preamble that there was a Nina, but I STILL couldn’t see it! 🙁

    I don’t know what’s wrong with me…I was trying to find all sorts of clever interlocking diamond-shaped patterns of letters, and there it was all the time…aargh!

    Ah well…there have to be SOME morons in the world. 🙂

    ‘Particularly’ enjoyed my LOI, which was ETHERISE and the ‘getting one down’ (amazing that no one’s thought of that before) in RED CARDS.

38. Thanks to Eileen and to all who spotted the many clever links – and of course to Brendan, for putting them there in the first place.
    I didn’t spot the nina. Wouldn’t have anyway, but stopped at “peripherally DefineD” – giving D and D, or diamonds. I’ve a feeling this makes Brendan doubly clever, and me doubly foolish.

39. I solved this last night—and, in my defense, I’m ill with a cold/flu thing. But for some reason, all I could come up with for the “peripherally defined” was that a baseball field isn’t actually diamond-shaped. The “diamond” is the periphery of the basepaths, not the field, which can vary in size and shape quite a bit.

    Boston’s notably funny-shaped Fenway Park

    Oakland’s Coliseum has the most foul territory in the majors

    And just to prove it’s not only here: the legendary Koshien Stadium, near Osaka

    That last one also brings up the point that it’s always a little disconcerting to see baseball defined in a way such as “for some American players”. Not that it’s an error, of course; I’m not complaining. But like cricket, baseball has long been an international game—and also like cricket, it’s now more popular in other places (Cuba, Japan, Venezuela, the Dominican, Taiwan, etc.) than it is in its original homeland. Baseball isn’t even America’s most popular sport any more…but it IS for each of those other countries.

40. Nice to have Brendan again – especially after the joy of an alphabetical at the weekend.

    I thought the point of a Nina was that it was not referred to at all in the clueing, unlike here?

    Thanks Brendan and Eileen.

41. mrpenney @39: You’re right that baseball is more popular elsewhere than in its homeland – which is Britain. Great Britain, in fact, won the first baseball world cup. This only serves to solidify your point, of course. For my mind it’s a fair enough clue, as America is the country most associated with it these days.

42. SO excited to say that I, too, spotted the nina on my own–but not until I had filled in the grid. And didn’t notice the ‘peripherally defined’ hint till I came here. As a baseball fan I was pleased to see the diamond clue and didn’t parse it further.

    I did have to double check the red card clue, however. Serves me right for being U.S.-centric in my sports knowledge.

    Runagate was a new word for me.

    Thanks to Brendan and Eileen.

43. Thanks Eileen and Brendan
    Special thanks re the ‘Nina’ which I saw only after Eileen’s initial hint. Some excellent clues and just the right level of difficulty for my taste.

44. For a change I spotted the theme very quickly but, as usual, missed the nina. Had to retrieve my finished puzzle from the recycling bin to look for it; memo to self: always look at the perimeter before discarding, particularly when it’s Brendan!

    Thanks to Brendan for an enjoyable puzzle and to Eileen for yet another excellent blog.

45. Well, I got all these but often without knowing why. DIAMONDS was one of my last ones and I didn’t see the theme until the end. I didn’t see the nina until being told there was one and then it started to make sense, although CARBON and RHOMBI gave me an inkling. I’ve only encountered ECHT in crosswords and RUNAGATE was new to me- lovely word though. Altogether a much better crossword than I thought while doing it!

46. Hi Marienkaefer @40

    “I thought the point of a Nina was that it was not referred to at all in the clueing, unlike here?”

    I’m not sure I’ve seen that suggested before. It’s my understanding that a Nina can take any form that its creator wishes and I think that, with Brendan, at least, it’s more likely than not to relate to the theme.

    I hope it’s safe enough to mention a Brendan puzzle from over six months ago [http://www.fifteensquared.net/2014/07/07/guardian-cryptic-no-26305-by-brendan/] that had a Nina in the outside columns referring directly to the theme.

    One of my favourites goes back over four years – I remember it particularly, because I blogged it here: http://www.fifteensquared.net/2010/10/25/guardian-25150-brendan/

    The key clue was ‘Problems in other acrosses needing setter’s attention’ and you can see how it worked here: http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/25150 – very clever.

47. Sorry, here’s the link to the first puzzle I mentioned: http://www.fifteensquared.net/2014/07/07/guardian-cryptic-no-26305-by-brendan/

48. Thanks Eileen – I was going by this link:

    http://www.crosswordunclued.com/2009/10/what-is-nina.html

    which says “the existence of a Nina is not announced”. I suppose it depends what you mean by announced (and it may be that this is just the opinion of the writer).

    Anyway I enjoyed the puzzle very much, and didn’t need the Nina to solve it – though I would have been quicker had I spotted it.

49. Eileen @46 & 47, you’re safe. Thanks again for a helpful blog.

50. Thanks for that, Marienkaefer. I have great respect for shuchi’s crossword site – she used to be a blogger here.

    I don’t think I’ve ever really thought about it – probably because I’m not good at spotting them. 😉 I shall keep a look out from now on to see what the different setters do.

51. I couldn’t finish because I couldn’t get ‘cretonne’, which I had never heard of. Came back in the morning, saw how the cryptic worked, and put it in.

    Missed the theme, missed the ninja.

    If you’re going to T.S Eliot for ‘etherise’, there’s an occurrence of ‘echt’ in The Wasteland…..so it’s not only in crossword puzzles. Critics of The Wasteland will say it might as well be….

52. Hedgehoggy, if you want to let yourself go after two days running of being good, have a look at today’s Indy by Hob.

53. Hedgehoggy @34 et al
    Yes – wouldn’t this be better for 9a?

    French fighter I arm, as ordered. (6)

54. Thanks Eileen, mostly easy was on the lookout for the Nina but only got it at the end with a groan for 14 when I twigged. Took ages for the last 3.
    Good stuff Brendan enjoyed that.

55. Vinyl @ 51: That appearance of “echt” in The Waste Land is from an entire line of untranslated German:

    “Bin gar keine Russin, stamm� aus Litauen, echt deutsch.” Roughly, that’d be: I’m definitely no Russian; I’m from Lithuania, pure German.

    Anyway, that’s not an example of “echt” being used as an English word.

56. I’ve never come across ‘echt’ in British English, and I suspect it’s out of fashion in the US. Heard it used once by Ra�l Juli� in ‘The Addams Family’.

57. Here is a reference for ‘echt’…’Diamond infused his prose with dramatic tones…Columbia’s bearded and rousle-headed students, he said, summoned to mind the New Left’s favourite echt-revolutionary, Che Guevara’. from ‘Smoking Typewriters’ by John McMillian

58. Echt is really not a very obscure word. I don’t think I know anyone who wouldn’t understand it, and you can certainly come across it in the Guardian (for whose readers this crossword was presumably compiled).

59. Herb @58

    Echt? 😉

60. Hi Cookie. It’s okay. It’s Boatman today, so I’m sure I’ll have some fun.

61. Thanks Eileen. Always enjoy it when you do these. Runagate also new to me but no problem. Cheers.

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