Guardian 26,482 by Pasquale

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The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26482.

A goodly number of uncommon words here, but very well clued. 14D BOTHERED gave me the most trouble in parsing.

Across
4 MEAGRE
Pasquale given less than full assent? That’s mean! (6)
A charade of ME (‘Pasquale’) plus AGRE[e] (‘assent’) cut short (‘less than full’).
6 FLOUNDER
Struggle, having run aground crossing lake (8)
An envelope (‘crossing’) of L (‘lake’) in FOUNDER (‘run aground’).
9 SOLEMN
About original moon-lander, boy gets serious (6)
An envelope (‘about’) of LEM (Lunar Excursion Module, ‘original moon-lander’; the Apollo landings were not the first craft to reach the moon, so perhaps ‘original’ refers to the acronym) in SON (‘boy’).
10 FETCHING
Attractive task for one on an errand? (8)
Double definition.
11 IL TROVATORE
Traitor mixed up with love in opera (2,9)
An anagram (‘mixed up’) of ‘traitor’ plus ‘love’, for Verdi’s opera.
15 EROSIVE
Following pagan god, this writer has to be caustic (7)
A charade of EROS (‘pagan god’) plus I’VE (‘this writer has’).
17 TANGELO
Fruit to set around throne? (7)
 An envelope of ANGEL (‘throne’) in ‘to’. I had long been puzzled by the ecclesiastical use of ‘throne’ in conjunction with angels, but on looking it up, I find that one definition of ‘throne’ is an angel of the third order.
18 SUDDEN DEATH
Dad enthused about extra period of play (6,5)
An anagram (‘about’) of ‘dad enthused’.
22 PTOMAINE
Self-consumed radical polemicist producing poisonous stuff (8)
I am surprised that I have not seen this one before: TOM PAINE is the ‘radical polemicist’, so it is an envelope (‘consumed’) of TOM in PAINE. The word PTOMAINE lingers on even though the theory of food poisoning from which it derives has long been superceded.
23 RAPIER
Turned back when pierced by very good sword (6)
 An envelope (‘when pierced by’) of PI (‘very good’) in RAER, a reversal (‘turned’) of REAR (‘back’).
24 RIFLEMAN
Soldier runs, if pursued by old lover (8)
A charade of R (‘runs’) plus ‘if’ plus LEMAN  (‘old lover’).
25 PENTAD
Ten awkward in accommodation for five (6)
An envelope (‘in’) of ENT, an anagram (‘awkward’) of ‘ten’ in PAD  (‘accommodation’).
Down
1 A RUM DO
Fuss about drink — situation causing disapproval? (1,3,2)
An envelope (‘about’) of RUM (‘drink’) in ADO (‘fuss’).
2 BLUEBOTTLE
Fly low with courage (10)
A charade of BLUE (‘low’) plus BOTTLE (‘courage’).
3 PUNCHEON
Drink a very long time — one has several gallons (8)
A charade of PUNCH (‘drink’) plus EON (‘a very long time’). The PUCHHEON was a variable unit of volume, but most commonly 84 gallons, which may be stretching ‘several’ a little.
4 MISSIVES
Fails to pen four letters, maybe (8)
An envelope (‘to pen’) of IV (Roman ‘four’) in MISSES (‘fails’).
5 ABLATION
Removal of a charitable offering presented without love (8)
A charade of ‘a’ plus [o]BLATION (‘charitable offering’) minus the O (‘without love’).
7 DAIL
Irish house cleaner with no end of blarney (4)
A subtraction: DAIL[y] (‘cleaner’) without the Y (‘no end of blarneY‘), for the lower house of the Irish parliament.
8 RAGE
Student event with energy and passion (4)
A charade of RAG (‘student event’) plus E (‘energy’).
12 ABERDONIAN
Scot had one bairn, struggling without husband (10)
An anagram (‘struggling’) of ‘one bairn’ plus ‘[h]ad’ minus the H (‘without husband’).
13 LEGALIST
Stickler getting on with the most celebrated people (8)
A charade of LEG (‘on’, side in cricket) plus A-LIST (‘the most celebrated people’).
14 BOTHERED
Troubled and more like an invalid, it seems (8)
An indirect envelope: OTHER (‘more’) in BED (‘like an invalid’).
16 IN SPADES
Decidedly snide, nasty about Harrogate, say (2,6)
Anenvelope (‘about’) of SPA (‘Harrogate, say’) in INDES, an anagram (‘nasty’) of ‘snide’.
19 DRAWER
Artist showing a bit of chest
Double definition.
20 SPUR
Prompt jet has cut time (4)
A subtraction: SPUR[t] (‘jet’) without the T (‘has cut time’).
21 ROOF
Page from mathematical demonstration that may go over one’s head (4)
A subtraction: [p]ROOF (‘mathematical demonstration’) without the P (‘page from’).
completed grid

35 comments on “Guardian 26,482 by Pasquale”

  1. Thanks to both Pasquale and Peter O. I got there in the end but completely failed to parse 14d so am very indebted to you Peter O. I’m still not sure it is exactly fair, but no doubt others will tell me I’m dead wrong. COD for me 2d

  2. Thanks PeterO. Tough one but finally got there. Needed parsing help with 9, 13, 14 and 23. Thanks to Pasquale as well.

  3. Is a vessel run aground properly said to have foundered? I think of foundering as sinking beneath the sea (or lake in 6a), which wouldn’t happen if it’s aground.

  4. Thanks Pasquale and Peter O – we couldn’t understand 14D either.
    Re 7D – we thought it amusing that the housekeeper in Father Ted was called Mrs Doyle – she could be “an Irish House cleaner with no end of Blarney”!

  6. Couldn’t parse BOTHERED or PTOMAINE, so thanks Peter O. “Radical polemicist” as a clue for Tom Payne is a bit mean! Typo; superceded should be superseded.

  7. 3dn EON is the US spelling for AEON and should be indicated as such in the clue. Agree that OTHER for MORE in 14dn is dubious. Otherwise fun.

  8. I didn’t know the angel/throne meaning but TANGELO was the obvious answer from definition and checkers, and PUNCHEON was only vaguely remembered so I decided to trust the wordplay and hope there wasn’t another drink besides “juice” that fitted ?U?C?.

  10. Thanks Pasquale and PeterO

    Crossbencher @ 7: Chambers gives both as alternatives without any regional reference. I guess aeon has been superseded over time 😉

  11. Thanks Pasqule and PeterO.

    LEMAN and PUNCHEON were new words. I needed help with the parsing of several (in the PUNCHEON gallons sense) words.

    I liked BLUEBOTTLE, DAIL, SPUR and ROOF among others.

  12. Thanks to Pasquale and Peter O.

    Only thing I wanted to say is that this puzzle oozes quality and is easily the one I have enjoyed most from Pasquale that I can remember.

  13. Thanks Pasquale, but what a horrible grid.

    Thanks PeterO; I’m another with lack of parsing of BOTHERED.

    I liked the Harrogate spa.

  16. The grid seems to have had an effect on Pasquale, A RUM DO, PTOMAINE, ABLATION, SUDDEN DEATH, SOLEMN, BOTHERED, MISSIVES, LEGALIST and, to finish off the corpse, BLUEBOTTLE.

  18. Cookie @16

    … and Il Trovatore is not the lightest of operas.

    Morbid as it may be, I would agree with Mitz @12. Pasquale is on top form here.

    Eccles45 @5

    I have not come across angel for loo, and have not been able to track down the connection. In any case, the mediaeval orders of angels are well attested – some more/other kinds are Dominions, Virtues and Aeons, according to some.

  19. A nice puzzle, but not particularly difficult. Only ‘legalist’ gave trouble, as _ E _ is not particularly helpful. Only after going through the alphabet did I recognize the cricket clue.

    ‘Oblation’ is a rather obscure word, but the phrase ‘alms and oblations’ might ring a bell in some noggins.

  20. A mixed bag for me. I was 80% there until the SE, plus the ABLATION/SOLEMN crossers, held me up, the latter the lingering fault of trying ADNATION (which, I’ve found, is something to do with addition, not removal).
    Given the setter, I had Chambers to hand, but only EROSIVE and ABLATION were genuinely new to me, with even PUNCHEON filed deep away somewhere.

    Strange how the mind works. Tom Paine was immediately in mind as a radical polemicist, so no problems there, but SOLEMN, which isn’t really that tricky, even though I’d forgotten the LEM bit, should not have been a nightmare.

  21. I had some trouble with this and I am grateful for the blog. TANGELO, PUNCHEON and SOLEMN were all head scratches. I loved PTOMAINE though. I got BOTHERED but I couldn’t parse it,and, while there were some good clues here, I was left feeling vaguely dissatisfied.
    Probably a bad day!

  22. Thanks, PeterO

    Some nice clueing here. I rattled off the LHS (though, like Trailman, I toyed with ADNATION for a while) but the RHS proved more recalcitrant. It took me ages to see FLOUNDER and BLUEBOTTLE, for some unaccountable reason, after which the rest yielded.

    I particularly liked the unusual container clues for PTOMAINE (which I saw easily) and BOTHERED (which took longer to fathom), and ABERDONIAN has a beautifully apt surface.

  23. @Vinyl1

    I kicked myself regarding “oblation” having come across it relatively recently, as will have anyone who has read Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. The General Oblation Board in book one is on the face of it a charitable organisation with the aim of helping poor children, but the kids know better – it becomes clear that the GOB is actually abducting children for nefarious purposes and earns the nickname “Gobblers”.

  24. PS At first glance I thought 11a must be Trav, but obviously the letters weren’t right and it turned out to be Trov.

  25. Britishisms galore today, though I managed to finish it anyway. “Daily” is a cleaner in what sense? And how is “PI” very good? Not an abbreviation I know. Is a “rag” a party or something? And those were just the new ones for me–I’m learning.

    “Bothered” and “ptomaine” were pretty clever.

  26. Re Derek L @17, yes, I remember Leonard Skinner, he got ptomaine poisoning last night after dinner! From Allan Sherman’s 1963 hit song Hello Muddah, Hello Fuddah. Sadly, Allan died ten years later aged only 48. Incidentally, the P is silent, as in bath.

  27. Mrpenny @25, a “daily” is a lady, also known as a “charlady” who comes to ones home daily to clean it. “Pi” equates to “pious”. A “rag week” is a week of fund raising events and stunts for charity, held by many colleges and universities.

  28. Thanks all
    Favourite was 22 across.
    I often struggle with this setter but not this time, except perhaps 14 down.

  30. Thanks for the blog, PeterO.

    Don’t beat yourelf up re supercede/supersede. Despite – or, I think, as a result, of my [state-educated, as I always maintain] Classical education, for years I assumed that it was derived from ‘cedere’, to go [cf precede, to go before, recede, to go back, intercede, to go betweeen and then I discovered, quite late on, that it’s from ‘sedere’- to sit above. The correct spelling still seems odd to me.

    Hi Simon S @10

    Nice one! I wouldn’t stick out for aeon [eon appears really quite often in crosswords, anyway] but I would always write ‘mediaeval’ – but that’s perhaps another story entirely. I’m off to bed now.

  31. Although I finished and parsed this I hated it.

    This was like Rufus on LSD.

    The usual esoteric words from The Don to make a difficult puzzle. The most unfair clues have already been indicated. Not much fun. In fact the “.. this puzzle oozes quality…” comment made me laugh out loud. It does ooze something but it’s certainly not quality.

    Thanks to PeterO and Pasquale

  32. I can’t possibly let the last comment be a negative one on a superb puzzle by my favourite setter! Difficult, yes, although the NW corner filled itself in surprisingly easily for me … but the wit, the erudition, the, yes, fun! One mark deducted for EON, though, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen, though unlike Eileen, I do write medieval … has this also happened to aegis (egis?)?

  34. I’m a bit late to this one – did it on the train and found it quite enjpyable, but failed on ABLATION (mostly because I had no access to a dictionary or Wifi over the weekend.

    Thanks to Pasquale and PeterO

  35. Thanks Pasquale and PeterO

    Only got to this one today and although there was a bit of grist to it, I found it not as tough as he can be – even the obscure words weren’t ‘as obscure’ as normal !

    Was only able to half-parse 14d inasmuch as having invalid as in BED, but didn’t click to OTHER being equivalent to ‘more’.

    Thought PTOMAINE was ultra clever notwithstanding not knowing TOM PAINE as the ‘radical polemicist’. ANGEL as ‘throne’ was also new.

    Enjoyable puzzle.

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