Guardian 26,521 by Brummie

by

The puzzle may be found athttp://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26521.

This was one of the most difficult crosswords that I have had to blog – and I was out, and came to it late. After half an hour I only had three lights filled, and it did not get much easier after that. The grid shouts Nina, and for once I saw it in time for it to be some help; in particular, I would not have got 6D, a wicked clue, without it.

Across
7 EATABLES
Research centre lists consumer items (8)

A charade of EA (‘resEArch centre’) plus TABLES (‘lists’).
9 VOODOO
Cult of victory died in the Olympics, symbol­ically dismantled and curtailed (6)

A charade of V (‘victory’) plus OO plus D (‘died’) plus OO, where the OOOO[o] is the five-ring ‘Olympics symbolically’, with the D put in the middle (‘dismantled’) and with the last ring missing (‘curtailed’).
10,24down MEAN WELL
Don’t intend to upset excellent water container? (4,4)

A charade of MEAN (‘excellent’) plus WELL (‘water container’).
11 LOS ANGELES
City fails to make a profit — financial backer brought in (3,7)

An envelope (‘brought in’) of ANGEL (‘financial backer’ theatrical) in LOSES (‘fails to make a profit’).
12 EIGHTY
Substantial but not with significant age (6)

A subtraction: [w]EIGHTY (‘substantial’) without the W (‘but not with’).
14 MEANNESS
A close thing, fitting woman into dining area (8)

An envelope (‘fitting…into’) of ANNE (‘woman’) in MESS (‘dining area’).
15 EPARCH
The man full of nonsense rejected chief bishop (6)

A reversal (‘rejected’) of an envelope (‘full of’) of CRAP (‘nonsense’) in HE (‘the man’).
17 DIE OFF
Reduce in number, as something that’s spotted and rotten (3,3)

A charade of DIE (‘something that’s spotted’ antique singular of dice) plus OFF (‘rotten’).
20 HOSTELRY
Pub crowd rely on getting drunk (8)

A charade of HOST (‘crowd’) plus ELRY, an anagram (‘on getting drunk’) of ‘rely’.
22 SEESAW
Present and past spot for pitch (6)

A charade of SEE (‘present’ tense of ‘spot’) plus SAW (‘past’ tense).
23 THIRTEENTH
Count this as a bonus roll or omen of misfortune? (10)

Double definition: a baker’s dozen, or a Friday, say.
24 WINO
Drunk with hot love (4)

A charade of W (‘with’) plus IN (‘hot’) plus O (‘love’).
25 ARCANA
Mysteries have the power to break a god (6)

An envelope (‘to break’) of CAN (‘have the power’) in ‘a’ plus RA (Egyptian ‘god’).
26 THRILLER
Maybe Jethro Tull takes little time to make a hit album (8)

An envelope (‘takes’) of HR (hour, ‘little time’) in TILLER (‘maybe Jethro Tull’; not the band, but the agriculturalist after which the band was named), for Michael Jackson’s album.
Down
1 TAKE FIVE
Fiery Kate, female one has to break (4,4)

A charade of TAKE, an anagram (‘fiery’?) of ‘kate’ plus F (‘female’) plus I’VE (‘one has’).
2 HAIN
Preserve Scottish dynasty without independence (4)

An envelope (‘without’) of I (‘independence’) in HAN (Chinese ‘dynasty’). The Scots word was new to me, and I had to ,cheat on this one.
3 ILKLEY
Moorish town, sort with connecting line (6)

A charade of ILK (‘sort’) plus LEY (‘connecting line‘, new to me), for the Yorkshire town famous for the nearby Moor.
4 SVENGALI
Doctors slaving to secure end of the controller (8)

An envelope (‘to secure’) of E (‘end of thE‘) in SVNGALI, an anagram (‘doctors’) of ‘slaving’.
5 COME UNDONE
Meet with disaster, provoking demon on cue (4,6)

An anagram (‘provoking’) of ‘demon on cue’.
6 ROGERS
Ginger beer tip: goes off when infiltrated by rain? (6)

A charade of R (‘beeR tip’) plus an envelope (‘when infitrated by’) of R (‘rain’?) in OGES, an anagram (‘off’) of ‘goes’.
8 SESAME
Sort of oil — a mess all over earth (6)

A charade of SESAM, an anagram (‘all over’) of ‘a mess’ plus E (‘earth’).
13 HEARTBREAK
Try the northern-style holiday — agony! (10)

A charade of HEAR (‘try’) plus T (‘the northern-style’) plus BREAK (‘holiday’).
16 CUL-DE-SAC
Clued as “moving with the speed of light”, no two ways about it (3-2-3)

A charade of CULDESA, an anagram (‘moving’) of ‘clued as’ plus C (‘the speed of light’).
18 FLAUNTED
Put on a performance of Ran with relative incis­ion (8)

An envelope (‘incision’) of AUNT (‘relative’) in FLED (‘ran’). I suppose  ’performance’ is just connective tissue.
19 CYGNET
Sexless city gent choreographed ballet role (6)

A charade of ‘c[it]y’ without IT (‘sexless’) plus GNET, an anagram (‘choreographed’) of ‘gent’, for one of the four dancers from Swan Lake.
21 OTHERS
Rest after removing entrance to dams (6)

A subtraction: [m]OTHERS (‘dams’) without its first letter (‘removing entrance’).
22 SAHARA
An artist owns up: “A great waste” (6)

A reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of A RA (‘a artist’) plus HAS (‘owns’).
24  
See 10
completed grid

56 comments on “Guardian 26,521 by Brummie”

  1. Thanks PeterO and Brummie,

    Tough indeed – I was nervous about HAIN, not having spotted the NINA.

    I think that in the clue for VOODOO, “dismantled” refers to the Os being uncoupled from the Olympic symbol’s arrangement and put in a row.

  2. Such a shame to tarnish such a good puzzle with obscure Scots (2d) – I suppose it’s in Chambers – time that symbiosis was kicked out of the window.

    I suppose adjusting 2d would have meant 10a 24d would have had to be changed too – not the end of the world.

    14a – my woman was ANN with E being the fitting – the width fitting I take in shoes. I can see that ANNE is a bit more down to earth.

    But such a lot of nifty clues. I was slow to break in. On the qui vive for a Nina on account of the grid – then forgot that. Re-remembering sped things up a bit.

    Many thanks both.

  3. Thanks PeterO and Brummie.

    Unlike the others, I found this yielded quite steadily, and thought it was easier than the usual Brummie; this was helped by completing the Nina halfway through – from T__S/CROSS and a few other letters. This meant HAIN was pretty certain.

    I liked ILKLEY and ROGERS

    So to bed now.

  4. Missed out on 2 and 3 and didn’t spot the Nina which would have helped. Lots of good clues including 22a, 13 and 18 and I’d never heard of EPARCH, so I’ve learnt my new word for today.

    Off to the Indie…

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

  5. Thanks Brummie and PeterO
    I too thought that this was the hardest for ages (including Prizes), and, not having spotted the Nina of course, I failed on TAKE FIVE and HAIN.
    There were some excellent surfaces – for LOS ANGELES,THRILLER and ILKLEY for example – but I think that younger solvers might have struggled with references to Jethro Tull (the group rather than the inventor of the seed drill) and the album “Thriller”, SVENGALI as the “controller” in “Trilby”, and possibly even Ginger Rogers.
    Great fun, though!

  6. Many thanks, PeterO – I bet you’re sleeping well now!

    What a lovely puzzle! – great fun all the way through. It unravelled at a satisfying pace – I didn’t know HAIN but the amusing Nina [I remember Brendan pulling a similar trick] helped. [I’d have thought that Peter Hain was sufficiently well known to fill the bill.]

    R = rain is a new one [for me] to file away. I found it – but not in a dictionary – ‘used in Meteorology and Ocean Science’.

    Favourite clues: VOODOO [for the construction], LOS ANGELES and CUL-DE-SAC [for the surfaces], ILKLEY [Moorish town] and EPARCH – for the cheek. I also liked the bonus roll.

    [One minute quibble: did anyone else wonder at ‘doctors’ rather than ‘doctor’ in 4dn?]

    Huge thanks to Brummie – I loved it!

  10. Thanks Brummie and PeterO.

    This was enjoyable, but difficult, and help with some parsing was needed.
    New words were HAIN, EPARCH and LEY. I liked SEESAW, THIRTEENTH and ILKLEY among others.

    I took FLAUNTED here to mean ‘put on a performance’, to show off a jewel for instance.

  12. Tremendous puzzle – unusually for me, I spotted the nina (having earlier this morning explained to my wife what one was) which helped a lot with some missing answers. Yes, HAIN was a bit tough and had to be checked online. Favourites were SEESAW, FLAUNTED, ILKLEY and EPARCH.

  13. Brummie must only know cul-de-sacs that lead to scrapyards if there’re no two ways about them, all the ones I’ve encountered have both in and out.

  14. Thanks, PeterO

    Great puzzle – one of Brummie’s best. Rather tricky, as most posters have remarked. I suspected a Nina from the beginning, but my first half dozen perimeter letters were so unpromising that I forgot about it until near the end – when it helped with HAIN (why ‘Preserve Scottish’ and not the reverse? Very tricky clue for such an unusual word) and LOI ILKLEY (duh! – splendid clue).

    EPARCH was new to me but the wordplay led straight to it. I agree that 4a would be better with ‘Doctor’.

    Lots of characteristic Brummie misdirections. I liked ‘Ginger’ and ‘bonus roll’ as well as the Moorish town. HOSTELRY and THRILLER have great surfaces.

  15. A very devious puzzle indeed, and I agree that a clue referencing Peter Hain at 2dn would have been far less obscure, especially in a Guardian puzzle. Eileen@6 beat me to it with her comment about Brendan’s similar nina idea some time back.

    muffin@5 – although Svengali was a character in Trilby its usage is generic, and I was certainly aware of it and its meaning without knowing its origin.

  17. Thanks PeterO and Brummie
    Hard but very satisfying to complete. Like some others, I found the Nina in good time which helped with several clues. Lots of very enjoyable clues, not least 3d and 13d and 12a which all appealed to me as an ex-northern octogenarian.

  18. I was nina-spotting early on, thanks to a half-remebered chance comment on this blog a few weeks ago with a similar grid. Like Dave @3, I had the NE corner quickly (loved ROGERS!), which gave me good confidence to go for it, and it undoubtedly helped. All went smoothly until the NW, where EATABLES took far too long, HAIN was more hope than judgement (Peter would have been much better), and ILKLEY last in, though I’ve walked over the moors to get there, and it’s just as wonderful a clue as was ROGERS.

  20. Thanks Brummie, a bit of a slog as I stupidly missed the NINA.

    Thanks PeterO; despite Eileen’s sleuthing, I think r=rain is unacceptable. I well remember when I was new here and was perplexed as to why r=red couldn’t be used (Red Blood Cells, RBC; Red, Blue, Green, RBG etc) If it ain’t in Chambers, Collins or the ODE, it ain’t any good (unless you’re a meteorologist 😉 ), and it then put me in a grumpy mood. HAIN could have been Peter or (Goldie) HAWN.

    There were some very good clues here, so I feel less grumpy now. I had to cheat on ILKLEY as I thought it was some obscure Moorish town. 🙠I’ll go away and lick my wounds.

  23. Splendid crossword – thanks Brummie and PeterO.

    I knew EPARCH but was caught by the extra bit of deviousness in trying to parse it. I took -ARCH to be “chief” and the definition to be “bishop” (an eparch is usually defined as a bishop, even if of exalted status). Which left EP in reverse for the rest…well, should have spotted the CRAP, this being the Guardian. Clever, Brummie.

  24. In 22d, how does “an artist” become “a RA”? “An RA” or “a Royal Academician” surely? Is there not a step too may in this clue?

  25. chas @22

    ‘pitch’: among its many guises in Chambers – “to oscillate about a transverse axis” (think of a boat in a stormy sea). You can’t get much closer than that to SEESAW.

    R for ‘rain’ in 6D: I suspected a meteorological connection, but did not have time to investigate, so thanks for the link Eileen @6 and 11. But I still think it merits the question mark.

    Van Winkle @24

    Good point: it needs a little special pleading to justify the clue as given. ‘A painter, perhaps’ might dodge the issue.

  26. Thanks to all. More or less the entire upper left was a mystery to me. I’d figured out that our “Moorish town” was more likely in Yorkshire than Tunisia, but my English geography just isn’t that good, and I didn’t know “ley.” I was also defeated by “hain” (understandably) and “eatables” (embarrassingly). For some reason, I never got around to deconstructing “research centre.”

    Muffin @5, I consider myself a “younger solver” (I’m 40 now, so I guess it’s no longer really true—well, heck, age is just a number, eh?), and I certainly know both Ginger Rogers and Jethro Tull (who were before my time), and of course Thriller (which came out while I was in grade school). I think all three are fair for people younger than me, too. Thriller is still the top-selling album of all time in the U.S., and Ginger Rogers is one of the 100-or-so old Hollywood movie stars that everyone really should know. As for Jethro Tull–knowing the band made the clue harder!

  27. By the way, I read the definition of “flaunted” as “put on a performance,” thereby accounting for “performance.”

  28. Hi mrpenney
    Fair point about Jethro Tull, and I suppose Ginger Rogers films are frequently shown on TV. I was actually thinking about solvers even younger than you (are there any?), for whom “Thriller” might be fairly unknown.
    (btw, you probably know that he called his follow-up album “Bad” because he couldn’t spell “Appalling”.)

  29. Muffin @28

    There must be crossword addicts younger than me. Whether they’re also the kind that post comments to blog entries is another question entirely.

    I truly have difficulty imagining anyone between the ages of 20 and 60 (in this country at any rate) who has never heard of Thriller. True, the songs are no longer completely inescapable on the radio the way they once were. But you still hear most of them (“Beat It” and “Billie Jean” in particular) often enough that eventually even the youngsters would want to know what it was.

  31. Found this enjoyable but pretty tough, and failed on HAIN, which was new to me too. Liked ILKLEY, SVENGALI, VOODOO and THRILLER. Missed the nina too – that would definitely have helped…

    Thanks to Brummie and PeterO

  32. Thanks PeterO and Brummie. Yes, I agree with several of you above; this was quite tough (but fair).
    On HAIN: although I hadn’t heard of it before, HAINING (= enclosure) is quite common in the name of (usually) isolated farmsteads here in Northumberland.

  33. Young mrpenney @29 … take it down to 9 at least. Our (Welsh) daughter knows Thriller, without any parental prompting. If the clue had said “LP” instead of “album”, though, she would have been debarred by age from understanding the clue.

  34. Hi all – what a great puzzle, really enjoyed it! Thanks Brummie!

    One thing I’m hoping for your help with (cos I just don’t get it!) is: why is ‘the northern-style’ = T???!! V confused!!!

    I’m 38 btw – can I say I’m young?!!

  35. LilSho : It’s because Yorkshire folk are supposed to say T’ rather than THE. See verses of Ilkley Moor:

    Wheear ‘ast tha bin sin’ ah saw thee, ah saw thee?

    On Ilkla Mooar baht ‘at

    Wheear ‘ast tha bin sin’ ah saw thee, ah saw thee?
    Wheear ‘ast tha bin sin’ ah saw thee?

    On Ilkla Mooar baht ‘at
    On Ilkla Mooar baht ‘at
    On Ilkla Mooar baht ‘at

    Tha’s been a cooartin’ Mary Jane

    Tha’s bahn’ to catch thy deeath o’ cowd

    Then us’ll ha’ to bury thee

    Then t’worms’ll come an’ eyt thee up

    Then t’ducks’ll come an’ eyt up t’worms

    Then us’ll go an’ eyt up t’ducks

    Then us’ll all ha’ etten thee

    That’s wheear we get us ooan back

  36. Thanks Cholecyst! I’ve had that bloody song in my head since we solved ILKLEY, but being from the proper side of the Pennines, I didn’t get it…!! I’m waiting for the day ‘fert’ is an answer…as in (Manc) ‘I need fert finish this crossword’!!! Thank you for that tho – still learning & every little helps!!!

  37. LilSho: It depends where you are of course. Northern to me means Aberdeen or Inverness. The setter should say ‘northern English’ but the English have always had a very poor grip on geography. They think Manchester is in the north.

  39. Thanks to Andy B @ 21 for the close/mean explanation.

    Ley lines, for people who are unfamiliar with the concept, are a pseudo-scientific thing to do with random points in the land being linked up by lines that give off psychic energy. Or something.

  40. Thanks, Brummie and PeterO,

    As others have commented, a Nina was on the cards from the grid pattern. For once, I spotted it and very helpful it was, too.

    It made HAIN fall into place nicely! The clue for EPARCH made me smile – not a word in one’s everyday vocabulary.
    Like others, for ILKLEY I thought of Moorish towns and was mentally going round Spain etc. Ilk was good as part of the clue,too.

    Lots of fun here.

    Giovanna xx

  41. I always find Brummie a bit of a challenge and usually struggle to attune to the wavelength, but I’m glad I pressed on to the end of this as there were so many enjoyable ideas, including the Nina.

    Thanks PeterO, and Brummie for the mild headache!

  42. I’m in the slightly disgruntled camp on this one. Although guessable from the Nina, I felt that HAIN was too obscure for a normal daily cryptic. And I don’t think “rain” is an acceptable indicator for the letter R.

  43. Bloody hard and not very enjoyable. I accept that there are some good clues but I thought this was a case of being difficult for difficult sake-HAIN. I’m glad I wasn’t attempting this without recourse to any reference aids. Did like VOODOO though.

  44. Seriously, though, if HAIN is your only gripe, I don’t think you have too much to complain about. It didn’t actually hold up any crossers, did it?

    [But – Gervase @14 – since Brummie didn’t choose to use Peter or [Goldie] HAWN, I’d like to suggest ‘Scots preserve dynasty…’]

  45. I’ve never heard of HAIN so I failed on that. (Of course I didn’t look for or spot the NINA.

    I must agree with other posters that the use of obscure foreign words, even though indicated, is beyond the pale. 😉

    I finished and parsed all the rest so quite an enjoyable nearly solve. (I was rushing to watch Arsenal but missed the first 25 minutes.)

    I always thought that the R = Rain came from ships logs when indicating the weather. This may be related to meteorology but isn’t specifically meteorological.

    Some very clever cluing here so thanks to PeterO abd Brummie

  46. Here’s another one who liked this crossword very much.
    I’m afraid my PinC wasn’t all that enthusiastic about it today.

    I’m also afraid that we didn’t see the nina.
    In the Guardian, a nina-friendly grid isn’t always (mostly not, actually) a guarantee to have one.
    With hindsight, the nina did remind me of a similar one in a Brendan puzzle ages ago.
    I am sure Eileen might be capable of digging (deep) into her archive.

    It was me, the non-Brit, who came up with HAIN as a possible solution for 2d.
    But I agree with some that “Preserve Scottish” as a definition isn’t really elegant.
    I also agree with others that 2d should have perhaps been avoided.
    As the Jolly One @2 made clear, in that case 10ac (MEAN) had to be something else which would have been very welcome given the overlap with 14ac (MEANNESS).

    Despite all the merits of this puzzle which I didn’t find as hard as you PeterO [thx for the colourful blog], R = rain wasn’t brilliant.
    Why not clue it by ‘a drop of rain’?
    Just as good for the surface, perhaps even better.
    Choices, choices.

    Fine crossword.

  47. Thanks to Brummie and PeterO. Enjoyed this puzzle very much. Saw the Nina early which was
    unusual for me. Possibly because I recall a similar one from Brendan (that one) last year.
    Only new word for me was HAIN. Not a problem although it did take upwards of thirty seconds
    out of my busy day to confirm.

    Cheers…

  48. Van Winkle @ 24 — RA is for “resident artist.” This abbreviation comes up often in crosswords.

    Yep, tough one today. Tougher because I missed the nina.

  49. slipstream @24: is that a little joke??? The abbreviation RA does indeed come up often in crosswords, but most certainly stands for Royal Academician and not resident artist.

  50. slipstream @48 … and unless you would pronounce it specially as “a RA” my point still stands.

  51. Flavia @49: I am no doubt incorrect. Wouldn’t be the first time. I apologize. I thought it was for resident artist. And here it was so useful solving clues.

  53. [Re. the North and perceptions of it – some Londoners think it starts before you get to Birmingham (Warford Gap?). Road signs to the North are still present in places like Ullapool and Helmsdale. But to a newspaper with Manchester roots, surely Yorkshire should be East or North-East!]

  56. Thanks Brummie and PeterO

    Scored a fail on this one – getting both HAIN and EPARCH wrong. Had BA[I]RN – a bit of a stretch to get a Scottish child to equal dynasty – a barn for preserve I thought was OK. Had an unparsed EXARCH (the other bishop) at 15.

    Missed the nina that may have helped with HAIN – nothing was going to help with the other.

    Many excellent clues throughout that have been called out above. Did particularly like THRILLER and ROGERS.

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