Guardian 26,558 by Otterden

by

The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26558.

I found this one quite a struggle. Partly this is due to Otterden’s style, which has been criticised before. The circular references between 12A and 16D will not be to everyone’s liking, there are several places where the wordplay asks for some help from the solver, and the puzzle does require a range of general knowledge. However, I did manage to get through it, which is always a satisfaction.

Across
1 SNOWDON
Photographer has similar facility to that of 17 (7)

Double definition: Antony  Armstrong-Jones, Lord Snowdon, is the photographer, and Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales, like Snaefell (17D) has a mountain railway to its summit.
5 SANDBAG
Attack weapon used by Thatcher to start afresh (7)

[h]ANDBAG (‘weapon used by Thatcher’) with a different initial letter (‘to start afresh’) – but it is left to us to provide that letter.
9 ASPIC
A form of stock illustration tacked onto articles (5)

A charade of AS (plural of a, ‘articles’) plus PIC (‘illustration’).
10 GALAPAGOS
Unique group celebrations securing leading place in the past (9)

An envelope (‘securing’) of P (‘leading Place’) plus AGO (‘in the past’) in GALAS (‘celebrations’).
11 ELECTORATE
German ruler once took in voters (10)

A charade of ELECTOR (‘German ruler’; the electors, some of whom were German rulers, formed an electoral college within the Holy Roman Empire) plus ATE (‘took in’).
12 SERF
One who was bound to come back in 16 (4)

Hidden reversed in 16D.
14 LAKE ONTARIO
Get an irate look from the last in the chain of five (4,7)

An anagram (‘get … from’, presented as the fodder being an anagram of the answer) of ‘an irate look’. The ‘chain of five’ is of course the Great Lakes.
18 LINEN CLOSET
Little room for dressing containing girdle (5,6)

An envelope (‘containing’) of ENCLOSE (‘girdle’) in LINT (‘dressing’).
21 RHEA
Bird said to be back (4)

A homophone (‘said to be’) of REAR (‘back’).
22 AMANUENSIS
Man with an issue to resolve records what’s said (10)

An anagram (‘to resolve’) of ‘man’ plus ‘an issue’. The definition implies “someone who …”.
24 SHEMOZZLE
Female spy sleep-in causes a rumpus (9)

An envelope (‘-in’) of ZZ (‘sleep’) in SHE (‘female’) plus MOLE (‘spy’).
26 QATAR
Drug ends drear state (5)

A charade of QAT (‘drug’) plus AR (‘ends dreAR‘).
27 ORLANDO
Ronaldo playing for US city (7)

An anagram (‘playing’) of ‘Ronaldo’.
28 EVEREST
Opening partner remains in top place (7)

I think this must be a charade of EVE (‘opening partner’) plus REST (‘remains’ as a noun).
Down
1 SLATER
One who criticises celebrity chef (6)

Double definition; the chef would be Nigel Slater.
2 OSPREY
Bird rings before end of the day (6)

A charade of OS (plural of o, ‘rings’) plus PRE (‘before’) plus Y (‘end of the daY‘).
3 DECATHLONS
Events over two days have not clashed badly (10)

An anagram (‘badly’) of ‘not clashed’.
4 NIGER
Long-distance runner tearing about with no little thanks (5)

An anagram (‘about’) of ‘[t]e[a]ring’ without TA (‘with no little thanks’). ‘Runner’ makes a change from “flower”.
5 SOLUTIONS
Explanations get souls into trouble (9)

An anagram (‘trouble’) of ‘souls into’.
6 NAP
Tip for winning card game (3)

Double definition.
7 BUGBEARS
Virus supports ongoing problems (8)

A charade of BUG (‘virus’) plus BEARS (‘supports’).
8 GO SOFT ON
Fall for the ending of 10 — frequently it can be told (2,4,2)

A charade of GOS, the last three letters of 10A (‘the ending of 10’, indefinite perhaps, except that 8D intersects with 10A, which probably means that the first three letters of 8D, and the last three of 10A, are involved) plus – what? – is it intended that OFTON is a homophone (‘it can be told’) of OFTEN (‘frequently’). Even by the standards of homophone clues, that is a wild stretch. Otherwise it would have to be OFT (‘frequently’) plus ON (‘it can be told’?? I do not see the connection).
13 STATUESQUE
Dignified way to get queue shortened on a weekday (10)

A charade of ST (‘way’) plus ‘a’ plus TUES (‘weekday’) plus ‘que[ue]’ without its last two letters (‘shortened’).
15 KALAMAZOO
I’ve got a gal here in Michigan (9)

A song from 1942 recorded by Glen Miller.
16 ALFRESCO
Outside firm after a large return for 12 (8)
A charade of ‘a’ plus L (‘large’) plus FRES, a reversal (‘return’) of SERF, the answer to 12A, plus CO (‘firm’).  Since the clue to 12A refers to 16D, we have an element of circularity here. Still, it is solvable – at least, I managed it with a little help from the final O here.
17 SNAEFELL
Manly height can be got up on track (8)

Cryptic definition: Snaefell is the highest peak on the Isle of Man, which may be scaled on a mountain railway.
19 TSETSE
Fly in Thailand direction, twice (6)

A charade of T (‘Thailand’ IVR) plus SE (‘direction’) repeated (‘twice’).
20 ESPRIT
Wit especially getting slower (6)

A charade of ESP (‘especially’) plus RIT (ritardando - or possibly ritenuto – in musical notation ‘slower’).
23 NIECE
“Fashionable” Med resort said to be a relative term (5)

A homophone (‘said’) of NICE (‘”fashionable” Med resort’).
25 OWN
Have leaders of the opposition waiting nervously (3)

First letters (‘leaders’) of ‘Opposition Waiting Nervously’. The ‘the’ does not really belong.
completed grid

55 comments on “Guardian 26,558 by Otterden”

  1. I felt 1ac and 17d were unfair clues; guessed 1ac from cross letters, just did not know Snaefell even though I had all the crossers. 22ac is a new word for me; needed parsing help with 11ac. Tough one. Thanks PeterO for the blog and Otterden, for the puzzle.

  2. Thanks Peter. Though 1A was fine, I agree with ilippu that 17D is if not unfair then far-fetched. But otherwise there was a lot to like here, especially SANDBAG. For some reason all the longish ones went more or less straight in.

  4. I also found this to be a struggle. The best thing about it was finding a fabulous video of “I’ve Got a Girl in Kalamazoo” – if you persevere to the end, the dancing is really superb – https://www.youtube.com/watch?hl=en-GB&v=fFv_PoZ2iP0&gl=SG

    I gave up on solving 5a, 6d, 17d. I still do not really understand 5a – did Margaret Thatcher use her handbag as a weapon?

    I needed help to parse 11a & 2d.

    My favourites were 24a, 13d, 22a, 7d.

    I agree with Peter on the parsing of 28a and I also supposed that 8d was a homophone.

    Thanks PeterO and Otterden.

  5. Well this was a letdown compared to yesterday’s, although that puzzle was going to be a tough act to follow anyway. Once again, some actual wordplay would’ve helped in getting 1 Across and 17, so having a double and a cryptic definition, respectively, was annoying. I don’t mind learning about mountains I’ve never heard of, but being expected to just *know* them is another story. On the other hand, the anagrams for DECATHLONS and LAKE ONTARIO were cleverly hidden, and I would have gotten them a lot quicker had I been paying attention. (I feel especially ashamed since I live relatively close to Lake Ontario.)

    On a curious sidenote, I put HOOPOE (HOOP + O + thE) for 2 and was taken aback when it disappeared after using the Check button. Then I realized I completely neglected the “day” in the clue. Anyone else have this happen? No? Just me then? 🙂

  6. Thanks Otterden and PeterO
    I’m really not on Otterden’s wavelength; I finished (with LINEN CLOSET and EVEREST unparsed), but it was like drawing teeth. I hadn’t heard of QAT either.

    I did know Snaefell, but not that it has a railway to the top – I do now!

    I think OFT ON in 8d is intended as a homophone – I agree that it’s not a close one (for me, anyway).

    AMANUENSIS was my favourite – known from Eric Fenby, who, perhaps unfairly, is now known invariably as “Delius’s amanuensis” – see
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Fenby

  7. Michelle @4
    It was a sort of running joke that Thatcher kept her cabinet in order by swinging her handbag about. The term now appears in sport (especially rugby) commentary – a fairly trivial spat is usually referred to as “handbags”.

  8. @4,7
    Yes, and there was also a recent west-end hit about Thatcher called Handbagged. Very funny, apparently.

  9. PeterO
    As you say in 25d “The ‘the’ does not really belong.” You could say the same about 2d as well – but I suppose the end of “the day” is Y.

  10. Excellent puzzle – very enjoyable.

    Within classical music the term classical has a special meaning (ie it refers to a particular period) and within the realm of cryptic crosswords the term cryptic also has a particular meaning – often reflected in the idea of a cryptic definition clue. That’s how I’d classify 17d (ie the use of Manly to mean “of the Isle of Man”) which was my LOI and also my COTD.

    Good PDM because once twigged it’s clear that it’s not really such a stretch at all. And kudos also to any setter who manages to squeeze trains into a puzzle.

    Ignoring the occasional (if not all) occurrence of “the” was a standard part of cryptic licence for setters in the past – Ximenes did it too – maybe only on noun-noun translations – probably invoking the “dictionary excuse” – which for me doesn’t wash with definite articles except in special cases. The point of the old idea was to allow proper sentence-like surfaces. Nowadays we are more accustomed to headline/telegram style surfaces and you go through a lot of puzzles before encountering a single instance of “the” these days. Just a different style of setting.

    Many thanks to setter and blogger.

  11. Quite difficult. Liked it. A fair amount of it empty for some time then it all fell in to place. The cross-referencing of 12a/16d was a bit “Spectator” so I can see might not necessarily be everyone’s cup of tea.

  12. Thanks PeterO and Otterden
    I found this less irritating and more accessible than some of Otterden’s offerings. I failed to parse 8d as a partial homophone – despite being pretty liberal about them I don’t think this one will do. I assumed a special sense of ‘on’ must be involved.
    I suppose there is a mini theme of major geographical features – three mountains, a Great Lake and an island cluster, but it remains undeveloped.
    As PeterO says, completing the puzzle gave a feeling of satisfaction (which isn’t always the case).

  13. This one beat me hands down – but there was still lots to enjoy.
    Agree with JollySwagman @10 that the definition in 17d is fair and clever.
    Steve B @5 – me too! I lost 10 minutes trying to lose the “day”.
    Really liked 28a, and agree with PeterO’s parsing.
    The hidden anagram in 14a is terrific.
    Less keen on “leading place” (10a) and “ends drear” (26a).
    But thanks to Otterden for the puzzle, and to PeterO for a very helpful blog.

  15. I usually have difficulty with Otterden but I thought this pretty much a breeze. The only one I had to guess was (Nigel)SLATER of whom I’ve never heard. Most enjoyable and I loved KALAMAZOO.
    Thanks Otterden.

  16. 15d was easy, look at map of Michigan, write in only 9 letter place name you can see, still not sure about the parsing though.

  17. I don’t often use the word ‘awful’ for a puzzle, but I’m afraid for me this was just that. Since we’re expected to justify our complaints or praise, here we go.

    SNAEFELL: all very clever, but the surface is rubbish. GALAPAGOS ditto. GO SOFT ON? Give me a break. KALAMAZOO? Ditto. And I could go on, but I don’t want to morph into hedgehoggy.

    I don’t think Otterden and I are ever going to be BFFE. And if he is looking for advice, I will quote Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel: Come up and see me, make me smile.

    Thanks to Peter and Otterden.

  18. Thanks Otterden and PeterO,

    Enjoyed this puzzle, especially SANDBAG. Maggie Thatcher references are coming up quite frequently now.
    She once told an interviewer “Of course, I am obstinate in defending our liberties and our law. That is why I carry a big handbag.” Handbagging has made its way to the OCED, handbag v.tr. treat (a person, idea etc.) ruthlessly or insensitively.

    I also liked AMANUENSIS. LINEN CLOSET, NIGER and OSPREY (yes, I nearly entered hoopoe).

  19. I found this a struggle but got there in the end. SNAEFELL was biffed once I’d got the SNOWDON/SLATER crossers and RHEA was then my LOI. IMHO the clue read like the answer should have been “rear” but I decided to wait until I had 17dn. Would someone describe anything coming from the Isle of Man as “Manly”, even jocularly?

  20. ‘osprey’ had me stumped; I was convinced that’HOOPOE was the feathered freak to be stalked the rings we’re .hoop’ and ‘O’ before the end of ‘thE’; just leaving ‘day’ to be ignored as the irrelevant in the room.
    thanks Peter
    O: clarity and enlightenment as ever . . .

  22. There is a posh suburb in Sydney called Manly. It is home to a school which was once called the Manly Girls High School.

    Sadly it changed its name when it went co-ed.

  23. Thanks Otterden for an interesting puzzle, even though I didn’t much like the circular 1a/17. Failed the general knowledge test with SNAEFELL, ELECTOR & KALAMAZOO.

    Thanks PeterO; in slight defence of the ‘often’ homophone, if you click on the American pronunciation here, it does sound a bit like ‘oft on.’ I’ve heard people pronounce something similar over here for ‘often times.’

    Unlike SeanDimly @13, I didn’t appreciate the anagram construction in 14. ‘Get from X’ seems to be fine as an anagram of ‘X,’ but ‘get X from’ suggests to me that the fodder follows.

    I liked the LINEN CLOSET.

  24. Muffin@7, Herb@8 & Cookie@18 – thanks for the info about Thatcher and her handbags.

    Sean @14 – I’m glad you enjoyed the link.

  25. You all know what I’m going to say about RHEA, so I won’t. The only reason why no one has said it is that GO SOFT ON doesn’t work in any standard dialect.

    I got KALAMAZOO right away, as I know the song (and the city!), but didn’t have to wait long to find out what would happen if you knew neither, since I hadn’t heard of SNAEFELLS or SLATER, and while I do know of Mt. SNOWDON, without those other two I didn’t have enough else to be able to guess it.

    I got KALAMAZOO and STATUESQUE nearly back-to-back early on, and (proud of myself for spotting a pangram for once) spent the rest of the puzzle looking for an X and a J (and a V, come to that) that never showed up. Was I the only one?

  26. I preferred this to Otterden’s recent offerings; perhaps I was just more on his wavelength today. About 8 clues went unsolved and I did think that more of a theme on geography might be developing.

    Wasn’t keen on RHEA, it being one of those where the checkers were left to show us which side of the clue held the definition.

  28. mrpenney @25; I also thought we were on for a pangram, but no!

    Incidentally, what do solvers generally think about pangrams. It involves the setter in a lot of additional work, which I’m not sure always gives pleasure. Any comments??

  29. I’m a bit in two minds about this – it was a reasonable challenge, but there were a couple of parsings I couldn’t see due to lacking the general knowledge (my last in QATAR – the drug was new to me, and KALAMAZOO – knew the place but not the song). Probably one of Otterden’s better ones, but that may be faint praise. Liked the Manly height though I had to get Snowdon first to see it.

    Thanks to PeterO and Otterden

  30. Is it Brendan who is vociferous about their pointlessness? I forget.

    I seem only remember to look for a pangram when it turns out not to be present (as in this case!). (The same is true of ninas.)

  31. A slight defence of the setter, I don’t think GO SOFT ON is supposed to contain a homophone of OFTEN, but quite how “it can be told” = ON is dubious to put it mildly. I suppose a news item that hadn’t been confirmed could be described as ON once it had been.

    End of defence, it’s an awful clue though. The definition seems to be a dialect usage of the phrase, I heard it in Gloucestershire but the only dictionary that I can find that contains the phrase defines it as to be lenient with.

    Too many other criticisms to mention, well, apart from The Great Lakes not being in a chain.

  32. sidey @31
    In North Devon, when I was young, at least, “he’s soft on ……” meant “he fancies…..”; I don’t remember hearing it with “go”, though.

  33. muffin @30 – yes it is Brendan you are thinking of – another “why does anyone care about pangrams” rant may be on the way! I think Robi may be right that they appeal more to setters than solvers, but can very occasionally be useful.

  34. muffin @6

    Thanks for the link. If I had had more time, I might have pointed out that Fenby was the only amanuensis that I had come across.

    5A bring this to my mind. The expression “handbags at dawn” or “handbags at ten paces” seems to have a soccer or rugger connection, but, even if the line may not be so clear as for spam, I wonder if Monty Python is at the root of this also (and then there’s Hell’s Grannies).

    Robi @23

    Over 14A I agree with SeanDimly: if A is an anagram of B, then B is an anagram of A. I am happy with a clue telling me that you can get ‘an irate look’ from the answer, rather than the other way round. Maybe it goes against expectations, but is that not the brief of a cryptic clue, to go against expectations?

    sidey @31

    A number of online dictionaries give for “be soft on” to feel affectionate or amorous towards, (Cambridge for example suggesting a US usage). “Go soft on” would make me think first of leniency.

    That’s enough of the hyperlinks, or I will have to moderate my own comment.

  35. Sidey @31:

    I’d say it’s close enough to a chain, particularly if you accept, as most hydrologists do, that Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are actually the same body of water (separated not by a river but by the Straits of Mackinac). So: Lake Superior: the St. Mary’s River: Lake Huron/Michigan: the St. Clair River: Lake St. Clair (the much smaller “sixth Great Lake”): the Detroit River: Lake Erie: the Niagara River: Lake Ontario. How is that not a chain?

    Sure, there are only four Great Lakes on the chain, not five (since no one really counts Lake St. Clair).

  36. Thanks to Otterden and PeterO. Yet again I got solutions without the parsing. I did not have trouble with OSPREY (I started with the Y and worked out the rest) and enjoyed LINEN CLOSET and KALAMAZOO (I remember the song), but I am not strong on card games so that I took a while to get NAP. Ditto for NIGER where the answer was clear but I did not initially equate “runner” and flower-river. I knew Mount SNOWDON but not SNAEFELL and was slow getting SLATER because 1) that chef’s name, which was lodged somewhere in my memory, did not emerge at first and 2) “slate” as “criticise” (a UK term that I also knew) also did not readily surface. I second Robi@23, for in the US I regularly hear “often” pronounced off-tun (TON) though how that pertains to a Guardian puzzle without a signal is beyond my ken. Actually, over here one rarely hears the “t” pronounced in “often” so ….?

  37. Two days in a row I’ve had to resort to this website for salvation. One of the most awkward cluer ever. Disliked intensely

  38. muffin@30: Yes, I looked for x and j to complete the pangram, and was valiantly trying to stuff those letters into 1ac and 17d. Then I got 1ac, and was still left with 17d unsolved.
    I did like 3, 13 and 28.

  39. Sure, there are only four Great Lakes on the chain, not five

    So the clue is wrong no matter how it’s read.

  44. I also think that SNAEFELL really isn’t a good clue, but there were some good ones (e.g. SHEMOZZLE, AMANUENSIS and LINEN CLOSET). I was another HOOPOE misfit. Thanks to Otterden and PeterO.

  45. Finished this ğŸ™

    We must be in for two corkers Thursday and Friday to make up for the suffering we’ve had so far this week.

    Thanks to PeterO and Otterden

  46. Have to agree that SNAEFELL is a bit obscure to leave the solver with no wordplay.

    Everything else is very tricky but they can’t all be Rufus, can they?

  49. Oh well. Had to look up all Michigan cities and still thought the delightful Kalamazoo completely out even if it did get me crossers ( Rev Bayes, he say…) until Spouse got home, who of course had heard of song, as also Qat (que?) Equally, had to look up all mountain railway systems, said Spouse having miserably failed to mention Isle of Man theory he’d been secretly harbouring.
    Yesterday’s crossword was clearly much better: he did not get a look in.4

  50. I enjoyed this. Otterden has an original style that should be nurtured and encouraged. I am saddened that he gets so many negative comments. There were two unfair clues today. One was the clue for Kalamazoo, where you had to know the Glen Miller song, but I did and got it instantly. The other was for Snaefell but I was looking for a mountain after Snowdon and Everest so I did not need to know that it was on a railway line on the Isle of Man to guess the answer. I particularly liked Sandbag and Amanuensis and any crossword that includes Schemozzle gets my vote.

  51. Kathryn’s Dad used the word ‘awful’, lenny ‘enjoyed it’, Jolly Swagman thought this was ‘excellent’ and beery hiker moved around somewhere in the middle – as we did.
    One can feel that Otterden tries to entertain us, that’s a clear plus.
    But 21ac alone makes me want to run away.
    These homophone clues with the indicator in the middle, I hate them so.
    The editor should not accept them and the setter should not want to write them.

    Unfortunately, 21ac wasn’t very helpful for finding SNAEFELL, our last entry (after looking on a map – so, the idea was clear, which is a plus).
    Just like KALAMAZOO (15d) it’s a general knowledge thing, not a cryptic clue.

    There are some technical things I do not like at all: ‘leading place’ for P, ‘sleep-in’ for inserting ZZ (but I can see the twinkles in Otterden’s eyes), ‘ends drear’ for AR, “Fashionable” being completely superfluous in 23d.
    In my opinion, 25d (OWN) is just wrong. It leads to ‘town’ and not to ‘own’. I think it’s different from what happens in 2d, although I would have used here ‘end of day’ to avoid confusion.
    And the homophone? Let’s forget about that.

    And yet, despite all this, we think Otterden’s heart at the right place.
    Funny, ain’t it?

  52. Thanks Sil. There was me thinking that a height considered admirable in a man can be got up on track. And that’s the thing about surfaces that make no sense: they don’t really help.

    But what an opportunity for a nice bit of wordplay that splendid definition provides (as long as it gets its QM to let us all know it is fanciful)! Bit of a shame it wasn’t pushed further, as we shopping-trolley thieves often say.

    All in all, and as others have said, not sure I dig the Otterden groove.

  54. In 23d “Fashionable” (complete with quote marks) might allude to the slogan “Nice is the new black” – which would explain the quote marks – hence making the clue more or less a triple.

    It refers to the notion that nice (as opposed to dangerous/sultry etc for girls – bad boy/blokey/tough etc for blokes) is now OK and cool.

    Needless to say I’ve been doing that for years – good to see that the rest of the world has finally caught up.

  55. 23d is just a very poor clue (among many others I did not like), that can lead to Nice or niece. The wordcount should not be needed to give the answer, the ‘fashionable’ bit is inexplicable, to me.

    I have been ill with the pneumonia, which was viral, and I had to go on oxygen!

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