Guardian 26,464 by Brummie

by

Really enjoyed this…

…especially the theme around Mervyn Peake’s GORMENGHAST – as well as the castle itself, I spotted:

TITUS GROAN, the central character and the title of the first book

FUCHSIA FUSCHIA GROAN, his sister & GERTRUDE, his mother

STEER/PIKE, Mr FLAY and Abiatha SWELTER, who all work at the castle.

Favourite clue 12ac

Across
1 FUCHSIA
Height restricted by splitting a ficus plant (7)
=”plant”. H[eight] restricted inside (a ficus)*
5 IMPUGNS
Using mobile to ring representative is critical (7)
=”is critical”. (Using)* around MP=”representative”
9 GROAN
Good horse beef (5)
=complain, “beef”. G[ood] plus ROAN=”horse”.
10 OUTSKIRTS
Margins revealed on Minis? (9)
=”Margins”. OUT=”revealed” plus [Mini]SKIRTS
11 OVERWORKED
Deliveries were successful — but taxed unreasonably (10)
=”taxed unreasonably”. OVER=cricket “Deliveries”, plus WORKED=”were successful”
12 URIC
Related to number one product of Swiss city’s inner area (4)
=Related to urine i.e. “nunber one product”. [Z]URIC[h]
14 CIGAR HOLDER
Characteristically, Churchill’s gold chair repaired by Her Majesty (5,6)
=”Characteristically, Churchill”. (gold chair)* plus ER=”Her Majesty”
18 GORMENGHAST
German involved with ghost story set in a fantastic castle (11)
=the castle setting for the fantasy series. (German ghost)*
21 FLAY
Skin’s fine deposit (4)
=”Skin”. F[ine] plus LAY=”deposit”
22 ARCTOPHILE
Operatic production interrupted at intervals by hard left teddy bear fan (10)
=”teddy bear fan”. (Operatic)* interrupted at separate intervals by H[ard] and L[eft]
25 INUKTITUT
Aspect of main UK tit utilising tongue (9)
=an Inuit tongue. Hidden in [ma]in UK tit ut[ilising]
26 STEER
Direct cowboy’s charge? (5)
=”Direct”; also =cattle=”cowboy’s charge”
27 SHYSTER
Unscrupulous professional in distress, hysterical (7)
=”Unscrupulous professional”. Hidden in [distres]s hyster[ical]
28 SWELTER
Southern flounder stew (7)
=”stew” in the heat. S[outhern] plus WELTER=”flounder”, move jerkily
Down
1 FAGGOT
Meat roll which is commonly smoked and secured (6)
=”Meat roll”. A FAG i.e. cigarette is “commonly rolled” plus GOT=”secured”
2 CLOSET
Cabinet’s mean temperature? (6)
=”Cabinet”. CLOSE=miserly=”mean” plus T[emperature]
3 SANDWICHED
Was hidden plastic, encasing canine opening, like a filling? (10)
=”like a filling?”. (Was hidden)* around C[anine]
4 AMOUR
Beloved’s mail not registered at first? (5)
=”Beloved”. A[r]MOUR=”mail” without the r[egistered]
5 IN THE AREA
A three in rummy, coming to a close (2,3,4)
=”close”. (A three in)* plus A
6 PIKE
Fish posture of diver (4)
=”Fish”; also =”posture of diver”
7 GERTRUDE
Become rough restraining right drama queen (8)
Is Hamlet’s mother i.e. a “drama queen”. GET RUDE=”Become rough”, around [R]ight
8 SASH CORD
Band crew/outfit leaders on road — useful for light adjustment (4,4)
Useful for adjusting the light from a window. SASH=”Band” plus C[rew] O[utfit] plus R[oa]D
13 TOOTHPASTE
Tense before osteopath’s administered oral application (10)
=”oral application”. T[ense] plus (osteopath)*
15 GAG-WRITER
Censor’s on to author, who supplies stand-up material (3-6)
supplies stand-up material. GAG=”Censor” plus WRITER=”author”
16 EGG FLIPS
Drinks made from good or bad type snaps (3,5)
=”Drinks”. You can be a “good or bad” EGG=”type”, plus FLIPS=”snaps”
17 TREASURY
Hear about revolutionary plan to secure a valuable collection (8)
=”valuable collection”. TRY=”hear” (think ‘trial’ and ‘hearing’) around a reversal (“revolutionary”) of RUSE=”plan”, and all around A
19 DIVERT
Channel bird at tide’s edge (6)
=”Channel”. DIVER=”bird” plus T[ide]
20 TERROR
Blunder into hill monkey (6)
=”monkey”, a young scamp. ERR=”Blunder” in TOR=”hill”
23 TITUS
Emperor’s bird houses lacking garden tools (5)
=Roman “Emperor”. TIT=”bird” plus [ho]US[es] minus hoes=”gardening tools”
24 STET
Half of certain instrumental groups going north ignore changes (4)
=an instruction to “ignore changes”. Reversal (“going north”) of e.g. [quar]TETS

58 comments on “Guardian 26,464 by Brummie”

  1. Thanks manehi. Finished this with nil knowledge of the theme so the clueing had to be precise. Last in was 22A, and then I did have to check, guessing ‘cratophile’. Good work Brummie.

  2. I loved this Titus Groan / Gormenghast themed puzzle with its references to Fuchsia, Flay, Steerpike Gertrude and Swelter as well as the two book titles although I only realised the theme when I had completed more than half the puzzle (including the Gormenghast, Gertrude, Fuchsia & Flay clues!)

    My favourites were 7d and 18a, and new words for me were SASHCORD, URIC, INUKTITUT & ARCTOPHILE.

    I needed help to parse 19d DIVERT (LOI).

    Thank you Brummie and manehi

    BTW manehi, initially I also misspelt fuchsia in the same way as you have in your preamble, and could only solve “sandwiched” when I corrected my spelling to FUCHSIA

  3. All good stuff (got stuck on GERTRUDE and URIC). Particularly liked GORMENGHAST and ARCTOPHILE. Thanks to Brummie and manehi. Didn’t spot the theme, as usual.

  4. Thanks for a great blog, manehi.

    Like you, I really enjoyed this – but without knowing anything about the theme [not my genre]. Since Brummie’s puzzles usually have one, my heart sank when I solved GORMENGHAST!

    This puzzle is a good example of one where knowledge of the theme enhances the solving, rather than being essential to the completion or understanding of the puzzle. I’m content to stand back in admiration, having had all the links pointed out – clever stuff.

    In the past, I have commented on a certain clunkiness in Brummie’s clues but much less so recently. I thought there were some great ones here, notably 5, 12 and 22ac and 13 and 17 down. Many thanks to Brummie.

    [I’ve had no problem spelling FUCHSIA since learning, many years ago, that it was named after Leonhart Fuchs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonhart_Fuchs ]

  6. Thanks Brummie and Manehi.

    Nicely worked theme. I was familiar with Peake’s work (although I have to admit more through the BBC’s adaptation than the books, which I have shamefully never got round to reading), but I did wonder how it with sit with people with no knowledge, so I’m glad to see that the consensus so far was that it was a bonus for those who had come across it rather than a hindrance for those who hadn’t.

    I did wonder whether 4d might have been ALONE to complete the trilogy. The only word I can find that would have fitted 11a is OVERWEENER which is maybe a little inelegant, but I think it could have been justified.

  7. Thank you for the blog. An enjoyable solve, quite a bit quicker than yesterday’s. The same setter’s current Genius puzzle (no. 139) is causing me a lot more difficulty, however…!

  10. I don’t think a sash cord is any use for adjusting the light from a window. “Light” here = “window”, surely?

  11. Thanks Brummie and manehi.

    The word GORMENGHAST rang a bell, but like Eileen my heart sank since I guessed the puzzle would have a theme I knew nothing about. However, I enjoyed the solve, and later googled to see what it was.

    New word was ARCTOPHILE, should have known it being a teddy bear fan (mine is now over 70 years old). I did like STET.

    Agree with oboist @10, a SASH CORD raises and lowers sash windows.

  12. For once I saw the theme mid-solve and it helped. I guessed that ARCTOPHILE was the correct arrangment of the anagram fodder and was pleased to see it was correct post-solve, although anyone who went for “cratophile” has my sympathy.

  13. Re improved clunkiness I agree. There were a few technical glitches that irked, in particular which R to remove from ArMOUr, GAG WRITER using writer in the sense of the answer, but not bad. Also good not to have too many weird words in the grid due to the theme. I confess to enjoying this one, and being surprised about that.

  14. Thanks manehi and Brummie. GOMENGHAST went in easily, but as I’ve never seen/read it, the theme passed me by. As with Yesterday’s the only clues I fell down on were works I didn’t know – ARCTOPHILE (another who’d guessed the anagram incorrectly), EGG FLIPS and INKUTUKTINTKIUTNKIT or whatever.

  15. @hedgehoggy

    You must be kidding re: 4d – how could the answer have been “armou”? I thought 5d was worse, using the word “in” in both anagram fodder and solution…

    Agree with you on GAG-WRITER.

  16. Thanks Brummie, I knew everything about GORMENGHAST (once I had consulted Google!)

    Thanks manehi, I must remember ARCTOPHILE for Scrabble, in case anyone puts down ARC first – nice word. I also agree with oboist @10 that light=window.

    URIC was very Paulian, and I liked Churchill being a CIGAR HOLDER.

  17. I had no problems with ARCTOPHILE, from the Greek for bear – a favourite pub quiz question. ‘Arctic’ is derived from the Greek ‘arktikos’ – ‘relating to a bear’, hence ‘relating to the Great Bear’, which points towards the Pole Star.

  19. That was another toughie, in keeping with the last two, and once again I needed Check to finish it after giving up doing it on paper due to time constraints. Most of the themed ones were straightforward (I did read the books but that was a long time ago), but I’d never heard of INUKTITUK or EGG FLIPS (my last two in). Liked URIC and TOOTHPASTE

    Thanks to Brummie and manehi

  20. Well Mitz, precisely because the clue legitimately leads to either, AMOUR or ARMOU. And I don’t think it’s good enough to make the excuse that you ‘know the word’: so what? You may not always, it’s bad form, and easily corrected.

    You’re about 5D of course.

  21. Surely the clue for 11a should have been “delivery was” not “deliveries were”. Both work with the rest of the clue, and I wasted a lot of time trying to think of a word that started with “overs-” until “sandwiched put me straight.

  24. With respect to the A(r)MOUR, I took ‘not registered at first’ meant that the ‘R’ that was not there was next to (at) the first (=a.) Or alternatively it could just be the first ‘R.’ Either way, it seems clear which ‘R’ is to be removed, I think.

  27. Cookie @26 – are you suggesting it must be beloved to somebody? That would have been a really obscure answer!

  28. @Cookie

    Is your village near Paphos known affectionately by the locals as “????????”? If so I will retract my incredulity and concede that the clue is indeed ambiguous.

  29. That’s a shame – would have been a really good gag if Greek script was supported here. The question marks you see @28 should be the Greek word for “beloved” – something like “agaphtos”.

  30. Thanks all
    Failed to parse treasury. Gormenghast very early entry and I did read it many years ago, still totally missed theme!
    Last in 5ac/8d.
    Quite enjoyable.
    25 across remarkable word to fit into a cryptic, so well done.

  31. Mitzi @28, my village is known very affectionately by the locals, its name in latin, Es Cannabetum, means where cannabis is grown. Who knows what’s grown in Armou? Can’t see how any registered, or unregistered, mail is going to get to AMOUR.

  32. I have often expressed my dislike of themes. Today it struck me that an amazingly high proportion of them completely pass me by until I come here!
    Any suggestion why this should be and are there many other theme missers.

  33. I have often expressed my dislike of themes. Today it struck me that an amazingly high proportion of them completely pass me by until I come here!
    Any suggestions why this should be and are there many other theme missers.

  34. @cookie 28
    I just checked that reference on the website. Wonderful. Explains a lot about some of the inhabitants…

  37. For once I got the theme but as I was listening to R4 Extra’s Titus Groan while doing the puzzle, I suppose that’s not surprising- a touch of serendipity though. I liked most of this although I could kick myself about INUKTITUT,my LOI.
    Thanks Brummie.
    I didn’t get the chance to do yesterday’s puzzle which, on a fleeting glance, looks quite tricky. I’m about to start that now.

  38. @RCW

    For me, with themed puzzles it depends on the approach.

    If one of the answers is the subject matter and several of the other clues refer to it, it can be a bit of a Google slog. If Brummie today had clued STEERPIKE, FLAY, FUCHSIA etc as “character from 18”, anyone with no knowledge of the novels would have quite legitimately cried foul. Most themed puzzles at one time used to be like this, but they have (thankfully) fallen out of fashion in favour of Brummie’s approach today – to find a theme with many connected words, or in this case characters, that can be clued entirely independently of the theme. That way, as I said at #6, the theme is a bonus for those familiar, avoids being a hindrance for those who are not, and may well result in a PDM for both.

    Taking it one step further, setters like Qaos always have a theme, but rarely if ever make it explicit, even with a key solution. His recent effort where 12 or 13 of the solutions were cricketers was a fine example – none of the clues mentioned cricket at all, so anyone not interested in the sport (that subset of the human race known as “utter philistines”) would have been none the wiser and hopefully would have simply enjoyed the puzzle in the vanilla sense, whereas those who love the most beautiful pastime ever devised by man would have had a gradual realisation of what was going on.

    If all themed crosswords were of the old-fashioned type then I would be firmly in your camp of not liking them. But puzzles like today’s Brummie, and those of Qaos et al, really do give the solver something extra if they are on the look out, whilst not taking anything away if they miss it. Win /win if you ask me.

  39. Like Eileen @ 17 I had no problem with ARCTOPHILE, as I new ARCT from Arcturus, the 5th brightest star in the sky, near to the constellations of URSA MAJOR and MINOR. Arcturus means “Guardian of the Bear”. However, ” ‘relating to the Great Bear’, which points towards the Pole Star” is not quite correct; it is the stars Merakh and Dubhe in that constellation that are the pointers to Polaris.

    Like Mitz @ 15, I had problems with the “in” in 5d – I was so convinced it could not possibly be in the answer I was quite delayed in solving it.

  40. Mitz @ 38

    I’ll second what you say about themes where no specialist knowledge is required, and in addition add a fond memory of one by the apparently MIA Brendan, where in 8 clues he moved from BLACK to WHITE changing one letter at a time.

    I also like puzzles by Tramp, where he uses themes as a link between clues rather than solutions, so again there generally isn’t a need for specialist knowledge (remember the one where he used all the song titles from Dark Side Of The Moon, which itself was a solution to a non-linked clue?)

    I very rarely spot themes, or ninas come to that.

  41. Mitz @39 and Simon @40 – I agree with everything you say, except I do enjoy the ones with linked clues too, unless the theme is particularly obscure, and my Shakespeare knowledge wasn’t always good enough for somf of Araucaria’s.
    I find that I can usually spot a theme if the subject is familiar, but with Qaos I know there’s likely to be something there but the ghost themes can be far from obvious. I picked up today’s theme pretty early and most of the themed answers went in before I had many of the others. Ninas are more hit and miss unless the choice of grid suggests one.

  42. Mitz @38 and Simon S @40

    Very well put – hurrah!

    Dave Ellison @39

    Quite right – just my ‘shorthand’!

  44. Thanks for your interest.
    I do not like any of the GK types.
    I do like ones who use grammar or language links.
    The most recent was Philistine’s negatives?? Eg (de)molish, (in)couth.

  45. Sorry, uncouth.
    What sort of thought process leads to total lack of awareness of a theme? It is not , as in this one,due to lack of knowledge of the constitukjokents.

  48. I enjoyed this although I didn’t think it as difficult as some seem to have.

    I am usually like RCW in that I almost never spot a theme. However in this case as one of the answers was GORMENGHAST and one was TITUS I was alerted to the possibility and then noticed FLAY, STEER, FUCHSIA etc which were already in place!

    I also go along with Simon S and Cookie in that I don’t notice themes as I am concentrating on the clues.

    Strange that Eileen hasn’t read the Gormenghast Trilogy as it is not her genre. The series is often described as one which defies genre. It’s not really sci-fi or fantasy or even magical realism. It’s just “fiction”. Perhaps you stick to non-fiction Eileen? If not I do recommend at least the first two books Titus Groan and Gormenghast as the writing and storytelling is superb whatever “genre” it may or may not be! (The third book Titus Alone does however seem to reflect Peake’s deteriorating mental state at the time he wrote it! (only my opinion of course))

    Thanks to manehi and Brummie

  49. Brendan @48

    “Perhaps you stick to non-fiction Eileen?”

    Not at all – but “it’s not really sci-fi or fantasy …” confirms that there is presumably enough resemblance for me to be sure that this is not my genre.

  50. Thanks manehi and Brummie

    I only got to this this evening and solved it fairly quickly. However, although I had heard of 18a, I missed the theme. I particularly liked the inclusions in 12a and 25a.

  51. Enjoyed the puzzle although, like some others, missed the theme even after finishing, despite having really enjoyed the trilogy. INUKTITUT was new to me and I kicked myself when I did get it.

  52. OK Eilleen @49.

    Perhaps I shouldn’t have used “really”.

    Of course it’s your decision not to read any book. I was only trying to point out that this work has nothing to do with magic or technology. It’s just about human behaviour, ambition etc. Much more akin to Dickens than E.E. Doc Smith or Michael Moorcock.

    Definitely a book for grown ups as opposed to the fantasy, heroic fantasy, sci-fi genres which appear to be targetted at early teens!

  53. SASH CORD – I was going to object but then I realised the clue was not only a lot cleverer than me, but also totally accurate. A ‘light’ is a window so the cord is indeed useful to adjust a sash window.

    Also, OVER = deliveries is perfect clueing since an over is a set of deliveries (previously eight in Australia, wasn’t it, Mitz?)

    Ol’ ‘hoggy’ seems very happy these days!

    Timmy

  54. Just finished! A day late but I thought it valuable to keep going!
    Just two clues missed this week. How many contributors manage a straight six solutions I wonder?

  55. Ref: Mitz. As one of the subset you mention,May I say that cricket is probably the most pointless pastime in the known Universe. Inferior to staring into a bucket of live eels!

  56. re Gormenghast
    I’ve read a lot of science fiction and fantasy. The Gormenghast trilogy is certainly not the former, and not really the latter either; it is ………..difficult to read…………and, it seems to me, self-indulgent (I didn’t enjoy it).

  57. I surprised myself by finishing this one today, having got stuck half-way yesterday evening.

    Just want to say that it seems a pity that many of you say you haven’t read the Gormenghast novels. I first read them in my twenties and thought then and still think they are great literature. The comparison with Dickens is apposite, though Peake is sui generis.

    Coincidentally, when I walked into Waterstones today my eyes immediately fell upon ‘The Illustrated Gormenghast Trilogy’. I sat in one of the comfy chairs reading and had to make an effort to drag myself away and pick up the book I’d ordered. Give it a try!

  58. Thanks Brummie and manehi

    One from the back pile that I finally got to … and what a delight.

    Haven’t heard of the Gormenghast trilogy and never ceased to be amazed at the amount of ‘well-known’ literature that I am still ignorant of. Needless to say that the theme played no part in my solving of the puzzle.

    Had to fix both CLOSET (from cooler) and DIVERT (from direct) in my final parsing pass to get it all correct.

    Many great clues with my cod being CIGAR HOLDER – priceless !!

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