| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | JETSAM: SAM (American) after JET |
| 8 | ITCHIER: anagram of RICH TEa + I; you need to replace the “a” with an “i” (one for a) |
| 9 | HACKSAW: HACK (reporter) + SAW (has a point) |
| 11 | SWEEPING REFORMS: &Lit |
| 13 | SUPERSONIC: SIC (so) around U (classy) and PERSON |
| 17 | IDLE GOSSIP: anagram of PIGS SOILED |
| 18 | ESAU: USE (reversed) around A |
| 20 | CARBON FOOTPRINT: FOOT in CARBON PRINT |
| 23 | PINTADO: PINT (beer) + ADO (trouble); a pintado is a kind of sea bird |
| 24 | IN FANCY: a kind of double definition; to dream is to hold in fancy |
| 25 | BETTER: double definition |
| 26 | LAYMEN: anagram of MEANLY |
| Down | |
| 2 | ECCLESIAL: I don’t get this one. I think it is ECCLESIAL; it fits and is connected to church. |
| 3 | STIRPS: STRIPS with the “I” and “R” swapped to follow the change of heart |
| 4 | MERINGUES: anagram of MINERS + GUESs (without the final “S”) |
| 5 | EPHOR: EP (record) + H (hard) + OR (other ranks?). An ephor was a magistrate in ancient Greece. |
| 6 | PACIFIST: CAP (reversed) + I FIST |
| 8 | ITS A FAIR COP: &Lit |
| 10 | WEST COUNTRY: anagram of COWS YET TURN |
| 14 | EDITORIAL: sounds like EDDY and TORY and AL (does it?) |
| 15 | NESCIENCE: anagram of NICE SCENE, meaning ignorant |
| 16 | IGNORANT: I GRANT around NO |
| 19 | SPIFFY: SP (childless, sine prole) + IFFY (dubious) |
| 21 | RONTE: presumably referring to Bramwell Bronte, a brother of Anne, Emily, and Charlotte. The initial “B” needs to be dropped. Ronte is another word for runt, although it’s a new one on me. |
16 comments on “Guardian, 24317 (Gordius)”
Comments are closed.
9a I read as HACK’S has A W (point of compass) same result
2d I got ECCLESIAL as well: Eccles was a character in The Goon show, wasn’t he?? but I couldn’t figure the rest……….
19d I got but didn’t know sp= sine prole
21d I didn’t get, a tough one, & I’d never heard of ront/ronte for runt, I tried runte without success 🙁
I would appreciate some help with 12a- can’t see for looking!!
Eccles is the name of a comedy character, created and performed by Spike Milligan, from the 1950s United Kingdom radio comedy series The Goon Show. Very occasionally he was referred to as ‘Mad Dan’ Eccles.
Eccles was one of the show’s secondary characters, but like his counterpart Bluebottle (portrayed by Peter Sellers), Eccles became extremely popular and he is regarded as epitomising the show’s humour.
Milligan visualised Eccles as a tall, lanky, amiable, well-meaning, but incredibly stupid teenager who often found himself involved — usually alongside Bluebottle — in one of the nefarious schemes created by arch-villain Hercules Grytpype-Thynne
My friends and I couldn’t get 12A either. I just looked it up on the online answers and it’s FRIT. A quick google brings up this page
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3505707.stm
which shows it’s a dialect word for frightened which she used in some speeches (see the section ‘Frit’)
We got but didn’t understand ECCLESIAL. It is right, according to the online answers.
12a Margaret Thatcher used the word “frit” for frightened on one occasion (though whether on purpose or by accident, I am not sure)
I had Pintail instead of Pintado which left me reaching for the obvious answer to bloomer which I didn’t get.
Thanks Owenjonesuk for the answer to 12a. I can see the first half of the clue (Thatcher’s frightened) though I would never ever have guessed it from that: anyone care to shed some light on “of German detail” ?? something to do with the glass/pottery glaze meaning, perhaps?
Aha, maybe detail (part of) Fritz, for German??
Thank you Hillclimber for Eccles. Some members of church must be LAIty. Still, I think an ECCLESIAL is a church governor of some kind; an assembly (church or otherwise) is surely an ECCLESIA? Not sure.
Yes I think LAIty is correct, ECCLESIA is an assembly, and ECCLESIAL is the adjective pertaining to that; hence the definition “of church assembly” which neatly overlaps with “upset some members of church” for IAL.
Ecclesiast or Ecclesiarch would be a preacher or governor I suspect, just in case we get Goon/Church references in the future 🙂
Laic also means lay “upset some members of the church”
What confused us about 21D – apart from the fact we’d never heard of a ronte- was that the Bronte’s brother was called BraNwell not BraMwell!
We spent ages trying to find out who Bramwell was.
Is this a typo in the online version or has the editor let it slip through?
8ac is ITCHIER, so 3dn (Family undresses with change of heart) is S-I-P-. How do you fit in STRIPS, and where does family come into it?
Should be STIRPS, by exchanging the I & R (change of heart)in strips (undresses)
STIRPS= family, race, pedigree
hope this helps 🙂
3dn: STIRPS is an new word for me. Well, it’s a bad day when you don’t learn something new.
Shirley: the online version has “Bramwell” and wikipedia confirms that he was called Branwell.
The paper version had BraMwell too.
I also got stuck for a long time by putting PINTAIL instead of PINTADO for 23ac. – as far as I can see it’s an equally valid answer. And I had to give up on 21dn, though I’m pretty sure I’d have got it if Branwell had been spelled right.