A toughie from Puck provides some midweek entertainment, but not one for those who don’t like toilet humour.
Puck is at his naughty best here with a few clues that rely on a bit of lowbrow humour (references to bum, boobs, shag…) but I enjoyed the puzzle overall. One or two of the clues were a little convoluted (TUTELAGE, for example), but it was a good mental exercise to parse them, which I think I have managed to do in all cases. The clue for MEMPHIS was only midly cryptic, but clever nonetheless.
The more observant among you may also notice a NINA, starting from the I in the SW corner, and reading clockwise from there.
Thanks, Puck.
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | AUDIENCE | Hearing bums on seats … (8) |
| Double definition | ||
| 9 | ENEMA | … mean the end of one nasty medical procedure (5) |
| *(mean e) [anag:nasty] where E is [the end of] (on)E | ||
| 10 | HE-HE | Bit of a laugh? It’s a gas, man! (2-2) |
| He (symbol for helium, “a gas”) + HE (“man”) | ||
| 11 | ASAFOETIDA | Forgetting name of out-of-date Asian cooking ingredient (10) |
| *(of date asia) [anag:out] where ASIA is ASIA(n) forgetting N (name) | ||
| 12 | TASSEL | Bit of a cover-up of boobs by some flipping topless attendant (6) |
| Hidden backwards in [some flipping] “topLESS ATtendant” | ||
| 14 | PEAGREEN | Writer about to match description of a literary craft? (3-5) |
| PEN (“writer”) about AGREE (“to match”)
Pea-green was the colour of the boat used by the Owl and the Pussycat. |
||
| 15 | MEMPHIS | Ruined city, one where a King was killed and another is buried (7) |
| Memphis refers both to an ancient city in Egypt and to the city in Tennessee where Martin Luther King was assassinated and where Elvis Presley (aka The King”) is buried. | ||
| 17 | REHEARD | Tried out eliminating two opponents, then tried again (7) |
| REHEAR(se)D (“tried out” eliminating S and E, (South and East, “two opponents” in bridge) | ||
| 20 | ABERRATE | Start to reduce speed east of Lincoln? Wanderer might do this! (8) |
| [start to] R(educe) + RATE (“speed”) east of ABE (Lincoln) | ||
| 22 | SPRITE | Hob, say, priest needed for cooking (6) |
| *(priest) [anag:cooking] | ||
| 23 | INFALLIBLE | During autumn, an unopened good book is perfect (10) |
| IN (“during”) + FALL (“autumn”) + (b)IBLE (unopened “good book”) | ||
| 24 | FAIR | Maybe Puck needs year off? That’s OK (4) |
| FAIR(y) (“maybe Puck”) with Y (year) off | ||
| 25 | MAGUS | Wise man or old woman with a musical cat (5) |
| MA (“old woman”) with GUS (one of the cats in the musical, Cats) | ||
| 26 | ROOFTREE | Jumper available to cover tip of tent’s ridge pole (4-4) |
| (kanga)ROO (“jumper”) + FREE (“available”) to cover [tip of] T(ent)
A roof-tree is a beam laid along the ridge where sloping sides of a roof meet. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | TUTELAGE | Guardian’s role initially, advocating ten essential glute exercises (8) |
| *(a t e glute) [anag:exercises] where A T E is [initially] A(dvocating) T(en) E(ssential) | ||
| 2 | MINE | Puck’s choice of pseudonym in evidence (4) |
| Hidden in [choice of] “pseudonyM IN Evidence” | ||
| 3 | ENTAIL | Involve volunteers in line-up (6) |
| TA (Territorial Army, so “volunteers”) in <=LINE [up] | ||
| 4 | REVAMPS | Makes new form of energy through river velocity? Some current! (7) |
| E (energy) through R (river) + V (velocity) + AMPS (“some current”) | ||
| 5 | RESONATE | Ring a tree surgeon, without great desire for treatment? (8) |
| *(a tree son) [anag:for treatment] where SON is S(urge)ON without URGE (“great desire”) | ||
| 6 | YESTERYEAR | Missing my puzzle in old version of the Listener in days gone by (10) |
| (my)STERY (“puzzle”, missing MY) in YE (“old version of the”) + EAR (“listener”) | ||
| 7 | WADDLE | Clumsy, rocking gait of bull that’s lost its head (6) |
| (t)WADDLE (“bull”, as in rubbish, that’s lost its head) | ||
| 13 | SUPERCARGO | Ship’s officer therefore rings RAC up, following matter arising (10) |
| ERGO (“therefore”) rings <=RAC [up] following [rising] <=PUS (“matter”) | ||
| 16 | IN A FLASH | Pub not closing before a half’s drunk very quickly (2,1,5) |
| IN(n) (“pub” not closing) before A + *(halfs) [anag:drunk] | ||
| 18 | RETAILER | Merchant banker finally meeting online follower? (8) |
| (banke)R [finally] meeting E-TAILER (“online follower”) (logically, if a follower is a tailer, then an online or electronic follower could be an e-tailer?) | ||
| 19 | SEABIRD | A bride’s desperate for a shag, perhaps (7) |
| *(a brides) [anag:desperate] | ||
| 21 | BENUMB | Deaden feeling in bottom, cycling around on tail of criminal, mostly (6) |
| (b)UM(B) (“bottom” cycling around) on tail of BEN(t) (“criminal”, mostly) | ||
| 22 | STEPON | Crush? Go faster, avoiding it (4,2) |
| STEP ON (it) (“go faster”, avoiding IT) | ||
| 24 | FETA | After serving it up, consumed fine Greek speciality (4) |
| [after serving it up] <=(ATE (“consumed”) + F (fine)) | ||
This one really hit the sweet spot for me, helped by ASAFOETIDA somehow jumping into my mind when I only had a couple of crossers. Also loved PEA-GREEN, WADDLE, BENUMB. Couldn’t parse SUPERCARGO as missed the ‘ergo’. Many thanks to Puck and loonapick.
A satisfying challenge! We enjoyed the nina.
Favourites were RESONATE and ROOF-TREE.
ASAFOETIDA was unknown, so LOI, we were lucky with our anagram guess!
Thanks to loonapick for the parsing of YESTERYEAR and MAGUS and thanks Puck for a great puzzle.
I’m not normally a voyeur but I once observed a couple of seabirds during the mating season. To my great delight I realised that I could truthfully say “I’ve just seen a shag having a cormorant on the beach.”
This one was a put it in (with the help of the check function) and try to parse, though now I come here I don’t really know why: the cluing is all very fair. I have never known the meaning of SUPERCARGO, I discover! Many thanks to Loonapick for the clear explanations and to Puck for a clever cross word. I love the Nina (which needless to say I did not spot).
Fantastic stuff. For full appreciation of the Nina, note that 24 June is Midsummers Day. Much appreciation to Puck and Loonapick.
Thanks for a great blog, loonapick.
Who better than Puck to prepare us for this evening? 😉 And in what style! – rounding it off with a quotation from the play as a nina, signposted in 2dn MINE, and revealing his Indy alter ego.
Sheer delight from beginning to end. I absolutely loved it., especially 1ac ASAFOETIDA, 14ac PEA-GREEN, 15ac MEMPHIS, !7ac REHEARD, 20ac ABERRATE, 23ac INFALLIBLE 5dn RESONATE and !£dn SUPERCARGO.
Huge thanks, Puck for the fun.
Apologies for the crossing, Sagittarius. I was relishing the clues again as I listed them.
A DNF for me, I am afraid. MEMPHIS, TUTELAGE and RESONATE defeated me – the latter being one of those awkward ones where all the crossers are vowels. Funnily my second in was ASAFOETIDA, much to my joy (though I had to check the spelling). I toyed with both HA HA and HO HO before settling on HE HE (could Aha or Oho be exclamations synonymous with Man!? PEA GREEN, ROOF TREE AND SEABIRD all tickled my fancy.
Yes fun, but Pucked by the cooking ingredient, got lazy about juggling the remnant grist between the crossers, so dnf. 19d reminds me of the old joke that ends “..it wasn’t the stork, it was the young shag next door”. Haven’t seen the nina yet, have to go back and find it. Thanks both.
I never think to look for Ninas, but now it’s been pointed out, this was very clever and fitting together with Hob and SPRITE at 22a and a couple of appearances of Puck himself in other clues.
Re 6d YESTERYEAR, is YE really an “old version of the”? It was clued as such in Crucible’s fondly-remembered “He wrote the Ancient Mariner (6)” (27,144). For a recent discussion of this contentious point see the blog for Brendan 28,147, comments 29, 49 and 53.
Many thanks Puck and loonapick.
Memphis was in Egypt, not Greece.
Very clever, very erudite, and very accurate cluing.
And I failed miserably. MEMPHIS and SUPERCARGO didn’t click at all, and I also resorted to gap-checking ASAFOETIDA despite the fact that I cook curries on a weekly basis and have a pot of the stuff in my larder. But no complaints about the setting – this one is purely on me.
TonyK – of course it was, don’t know why I wrote Greece – I even checked Wikipedia to make sure before writing the blog!!
Hi Lord Jim
Re YE: a very well-worn argument, as you say. It’s surely accepted in Crosswordland, as well as tea shops, as Pierre said only last week in his blog at 2dn here.
Another DNF, simply didn’t know SUPERCARGO, even though the crossers all indicated that as the solution. ASAFOETIDA also defeated me. Found some of these clues quite tortuous, for example TUTELAGE, which I did in fact manage to solve. But each to their own, and I really liked PEA-GREEN and MEMPHIS.
Thanks Eileen, I don’t normally do the Independent so hadn’t seen Pierre’s comment last week. But I think ye olde argument will continue to run…
The day is over here – already early evening. I started too late on this, solved only 8 clues. I don’t have time to work on this puzzle so I came here to read the blog. Tough stuff!
Have no idea what the nina is as I did not do all of the puzzle.
Thanks B+S
Okay, I see the nina
I filled in the crossword online to see it.
I found it very hard to get on Puck’s wavelength so struggled to complete this. Entirely my fault, not the setter’s! I thought “supercargo” and “aberrate” lovely examples of clues with hard-to-guess definitions which can be built (slowly!) from their parts. I don’t imagine many people knew the meaning of “supercargo” (I didn’t) and Puck would’ve been aware of that.
Thanks to setter and blogger – good work though a tough one for me and a lovely nina which I failed to spot.
I found this pretty straightforward (unlike many recent Graun xwords). The meaning of SUPERCARGO was new to me, but it’s one of these words that one knows exist, without knowing the meaning, so not too difficult. Held up slightly at 22a, having –R— and trying to parse “FERRET”, a hob being a male one of these as well as a SPRITE.
Schoolboy humour is always fun, and my favourite was SEABIRD. Didn’t spot the Shakespearen references.
Thanks both.
What Eileen @6 said! That’s two in a row where you’ve listed all your favourites, Eileen. If I now list my favourites – that weren’t included in your list – we could end up with most of the grid between us! But I would add two of the short ones: MINE and FAIR, SPRITE for it’s delightfully misdirecting definition, the cheeky and &littish TASSEL and the even cheekier and probably to-be-disapproved-of SEABIRD. I don’t even have complaints about TUTELAGE!
ASAFOETIDA was, I suspect unusually, the first curry ingredient I ever used! Opening evening of an Indian cooking course 25 years ago and we only had time to cook a quick dish following registration, introduction etc. Cabbage stir fried with said ingredient (introduced to us as ‘hing’), mustard seeds, chillis and cumin. Still a staple dish for us today!
Many thanks to Puck for a splendid challenge and loonapick for the comments
A puzzle to be admired — it’s a shame I couldn’t get in step with it. Couldn’t think of MEMPHIS, which I now like, along with ENEMA, HE-HE and FAIR. I wasn’t familiar with SUPERCARGO, ROOF-TREE, ASAFOETIDA, or the seabird, but all gettable from the wordplay. Thanks to Puck for the Midsummer Day’s entertainment and to Loonapick for enlightening me about a few parsings.
Not only a top puzzle from Puck but a great blog as some of the parsing was ultra tricky.
I was stuck in the NE and did Eccles (great too) to see if my head was screwed on correctly.
I came back to find that i had tentatively written in VASSAL which was wrong and it was then that I glimpsed the nina.
I was aware of asafoetida from a Krishna type cookbook which taught me that if you were short of garlic etc this stuff could be a substitute
but I am loth to follow religious rules in cooking. Common sense, yes.
And i thought-it must be about that time of the year- i remember being back in England in 2002 and seeing AMND at the Globe and it was still daylight. happy days.
Thanks Puck and loonapick
Completed this after a bit of a struggle and missed the nina, of course. TUTELAGE was not just convoluted, Loonapick, but lacking any indication that “initially” applied to the next three words in the clue. It’s possible to work it out, of course, but I know some people think that this device is inherently unfair.
A happy midsummer’s day to Puck and thanks to Loonapick for the thorough blog.
This was hard work for me, I don’t seem to be on Puck’s wavelength, but how satisfying to have completed it and understood the parsing AND to have seen and appreciated the NINA (although I confess to not realising that it is a quotation). Fav was ENEMA , for the ellipsis connecting it with 1ac, and, well, they are not the most pleasant medical procedure, so some humour in the anagrind choice. I also enjoyed a chuckle at MEMPHIS when the penny dropped. Plenty more to like, including favs listed by others.
Thanks to Puck and to Loonapick for the blog.
This was more of a challenge than any other Guardian crossword I’ve tackled in the last few weeks, and I was pleased to finish it. There were many quality clues here, the ones I enjoyed most being WADDLE, ABERRATE, FAIR and YESTERYEAR. I needed the blog to help me parse (or finish parsing) MEMPHIS, MAGUS and BENUMB.
The nina (which, naturally, I didn’t spot) was a bonus to appreciate afterwards. I became aware some time ago that Puck is Hob, and it was good to see both names come up in the clues.
Thanks to Puck and loonapick.
I did check for a NINA early on, but it didn’t look very likely at that time. Brilliant setting to get the NINA in without too many obscurities, although I found this very tough with the Eastern half looking decidedly blank for a while.
I think my mid-summer is about Aug 6th, and Eileen @6, wasn’t Midsummer’s Eve last night?
Thanks Puck and loonapick.
Robi @27. Yes, Midsummer’s Eve was last night, because today is Midsummer’s Day, so tonight will be Midsummer’s Night.
Got a good deal of this in last night, but not much of the NE quadrant. Most of it fell in this morning, with a bit of check button as needed. Thank you for the puckish puzzle, Puck, and for the elucidation, loonapick.
Literary craft — the Pequod? the Argo? the Bounty? the Caine? Huck and Jim’s raft? (Admittedly one of those is mythical and one historic, but they all feature in works of literature or plays or films.)
I couldn’t find a name or a type of vessel that fit — and Puck told me it was a description!
I think 24ac is a reference to Puck Fair, Co Kerry being cancelled this year. Hence Puck taking year off. Puck set a 400 yr Puck Fair anniversary crossword in 2013. Very enjoyable.
Very clever and amusing despite missing the nina as well as ASAFOETIDA which I was never going to get. SUPERCARGO is my favorite type of clue where parsing leads me to a previously unfamiliar word. Enjoyed ABERRATE and thought it might be a reference to Wanderer, a setter in the FT. STEP ON was fun. Thanks Puck and Loonapick.
Thanks Puck and loonapick
I was really not on Puck’s wavelength with this, and found it very hard. I didn’t know what SUPERCARGO meant either! I also had no parsing for YESTERYEAR.
I didn’t like the clue for BENUMB, the “bum” cycling was OKish, but having to gues BEN(t) for criminal was a bit loose.
PEA GREEN was my favourite.
Thanks to Puck and Loonapick.
Very enjoyable (but not perhaps as much as for many). SEABIRD got the Surface of the Month Awars – made me snarfle.
Award of course – aaaargh.
Tyro @30 I spent a lot of mental energy on trying to see how the puck fair fitted in, until I saw the y off fairy. I even knew it had been cancelled, and still didn’t see it. Thanks for that. And I’d forgotten the anniversary crossword.
I was sure there would be a Nina, but after starting logically in the NW corner, TME wasn’t getting me anywhere so I stopped looking.
I also missed the significance of the date, so what with failing to parse several others and putting VASSAL instead of TASSEL I really needed the blog today, so many thanks Loonapick. Puck always delivers, but without your help I wouldn’t have given it the appreciation it deserves. Hard work but worth it.
Thanks, loonapick. Echoing Job @36: one of the pleasures of this blog is that people spot nuances or details that I didn’t see.
A slightly melancholy theme, given that all the theatres are dark. I’ve worked in theatre for 30 years, and been a regular theatregoer for longer. When will there be bums on seats again?
(Or Bottoms on stages, for that matter.)
supercargo : Paul, May 1st 2013 and Screw, 22 May 2015 were the last outings, and guess, Eileen, who blogged them both.
I thought this was an easier Puck than usual. Didn’t know the Nina, didn’t spot it.
Thanks Puck, and loonapick, for YESTERYEAR explanation
I found it tricky, not helped by a bad night’s sleep and heat-induced lethargy and had to do a little cheating towards the end. So while I did enjoy my lengthy Puck, now I need a rest!
Thanks both.
Beautiful puzzle. SEABIRD was literally LOL. Loved it.
I saw the Nina near the end and I needed it to get MEMPHIS and AUDIENCE. Other favourites were ASAFOETIDA, RESONATE and YESTERYEAR. Thanks to all commenters for added details of Midsummer’s Day and the Puck festival. I remember the anniversary puzzle and seem to recall it featured a goat being hoisted aloft!
Thanks, Puck and loonapick.
Thanks to Loonapick for the blog, and to others for your comments.
Tyro @30 I hadn’t actually intended any reference to Puck Fair at 24ac, but I wish had thought of that myself now!
Tony Santucci @31 I am indeed that merry Wanderer in the FT, so well spotted. I thought perhaps I had made it a bit more obvious in today’s puzzle, but the cat is now out of the bag anyway. And yes, I am Hob in the Independent too, as noted by both Eileen @6 and Alan B @ 26.
Fun puzzle, thanks Puck, and Loonapick for the parsing of TUTELAGE and MINE (totally missed the hidden indicator ‘choice’.)
I remember ASAFOETIDA from the days when I used to cook Asian food ‘from scratch’. I had trouble deciding on the fodder and the grinder though, thinking ‘cooking’, might be doing double duty, when the little old ‘out’ was right up front.
Brilliant clue. Almost an &lit (in my case anyway).
Thought this was going to be my first weekday fail in weeks, but after a final fresh look following an internet outage the east finally gave out. Thanks Puck, and Loonapick for mopping up the parsing.