Thanks to Philistine for an enjoyable Thursday puzzle…
… featuring a couple of his trademark “lift-and-separate” clues, one of them particularly outrageous (not a complaint).
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | SPARTA | While retreating, an ambush is what gets this ancient city state (6) Reverse of A TRAP’S (an ambush is) |
||||||
| 5 | COLLAPSE | Fall back, everyone, to hide among trees (8) Reverse of ALL in COPSE |
||||||
| 9 | CARDIGAN | Café noir starts to be served around resort of Agadir Bay (8) AGADIR* in C[afé] N[oir] |
||||||
| 10 | SPRITE | Performing with itself? (6) We have to read the clue as Per forming with its elf, so we get an anagram of PER + ITS |
||||||
| 11 | ACADEMY AWARD | Oscar Wilde’s last drama CD a way off (7,5) Anagram of [Wild]E + DRAMA CD A WAY |
||||||
| 13 | DAMP | Lantern’s opening by ten gets wet (4) LAMP (lantern) with the L (50) replaced by D (500 – ten times as much) |
||||||
| 14 | ORACULAR | Prophetic recent letters dispatched from nuclear reactor meltdown (8) Anagram of NUCLEAR REACTOR less the letters of RECENT |
||||||
| 17 | SOFT DRUG | Frequently seen within solid walls: carpet and pot? (4,4) OFT on S[oli]D + RUG |
||||||
| 18 | BRIO | Energy of mob riot (4) Hidden in moB RIOt |
||||||
| 20 | BACCHANALIAN | Provide support for a foreigner reported to be drunk (12) Homophone of “back an alien” |
||||||
| 23 | FOREGO | Take precedence in favour of self (6) FOREGO – meaning “to go before”; not to be confused with “forgo” = to give up, do without |
||||||
| 24 | IMPLYING | Meaning of one politician being ‘economical with the truth’ (8) 1 MP LYING |
||||||
| 25 | SYMPATHY | Corrupt PM, say, needing your compassion (8) (PM SAY)* + THY |
||||||
| 26 | REHASH | What’s in thoughtless use of old material? (6) EH (what?) in RASH (thoughtless) |
||||||
| Down | ||||||||
| 2 | PEASANTS | Striptease into underwear for workers? (8) Another lift-and-separate: we need to “Strip tease”, giving EAS, which then goes into PANTS |
||||||
| 3 | RED CARPET | Special welcome for Yorkshire cat? (3,6) The Yorkshire cat could be a REDCAR PET – I think I’ve seen this trick a few times |
||||||
| 4 | AEGEAN | A gene mutation follows a location for Rhodes (6) A + (A GENE)* |
||||||
| 5 | CENTER OF GRAVITY | In America, where an attractive force may be said to act for the capital of Virginia? (6,2,7) The “capital of Virginia” is V, which is the central letter of graVity. “In America” tells us to use the US spelling “center” |
||||||
| 6 | LAST YEAR | King holding a pen not long ago (4,4) A STY in LEAR |
||||||
| 7 | ARROW | What indicates the way for war or revolution (5) (WAR OR)* |
||||||
| 8 | SATURNALIA | Party is a natural disaster (10) (IS A NATURAL)* |
||||||
| 12 | LABORATORY | Test centre starts in leaps and bounds with rhetoric (10) First letters of Leaps And Bounds + ORATORY |
||||||
| 15 | URBAN MYTH | Order to run my bath — it’s apocryphal (5,4) (RUN MY BATH)* |
||||||
| 16 | BREAK OUT | Baker’s escape? (5,3) BREAK OUT = anagram of BREAK = Baker |
||||||
| 19 | DIAPER | Again settled up American youngster’s requirement (6) Reverse of REPAID, and another indication of an American usage |
||||||
| 21 | CREEP | Look Conservative leader up and find unpleasant smarmy person (5) Reverse of PEER C |
||||||
Fun. Please God no homophone quibbling about the wonderful BACCHANALIAN
Spoilt for choice for faves between SPRITE and DAMP
Double lift and separate!!
thanks p&a
That was fun, although I needed help parsing a couple, including the audacious SPRITE and DAMP, both tricks I haven’t seen quite like that before. Some of the surfaces are particularly amusing, but I expect that of Philistine and am always pleased to see his name on a puzzle.
Thanks to Philistine and Andrew fir the blog.
I found 5d disappointing. It’s not an American term, so why use the American spelling simply to make it fit?
> FOREGO – meaning “to go before”; not to be confused with “forgo” = to give up, do without
According to Chambers online:
forgo or forego verb (forgoes, forwent, forgone, forgoing) to do without something; to sacrifice something or give it up
In other words, it can be spelled like the forego meaning precede.
Enjoyable crossword. Thanks, Philistine. And Andrew for parsing.
Reasonably enjoyable and average difficulty. No particular favourites. Couldn’t parse RED CARPET nor SPRITE. And special congratulations to anyone outside the UK who got 3d or 9a.
Failed on 10a: too clever for me. I opted for ‘struth’, which, of course, I couldn’t parse, but seems a reasonable reaction in the circumstances.
I had confidently entered LIMP for 13 (L = Lantern’s opening and IMP= SPRITE), which stopped me from seeing 12d until I realised the error of my ways. And then I smiled at the BACCHANALIAN homophone and finished it off. I was largely on Philistine’s wavelength on this, so I did find it mainly straightforward, but there was some very clever cluing going on. I realise I hadn’t parsed SPRITE correctly, though. Thanks to Andrew and Philistine.
Don’t think I’ve seen a double trick as in SPRITE. (triple if you count ‘itself’ twice as having one in wordplay and one in the def) . Elfin deed!
Liked ADACADEMY AWARD for the disguise with Oscar Wilde’s last drama, SATURNALIA and SYMPATHY for the surface,
Particularly miffed about taking ages to parse SPRITE as I’d just the day before finished rereading Terry Pratchett’s Lords and Ladies, which is all about the ELF problem.
Mostly straightforward apart from 10a, whose parsing baffled me. My reaction to the answer for 5d was ‘Couldn’t get CENTRE to fit, eh?’
Maarvarq @12. That was my thought too.
I put a question mark next to ‘resort’ in CARDIGAN (no problem for this expat – I must have been on holiday there as a wee lad) thinking it was a bit of a funny anagrind, and have only just realised that it’s re-sort.
Favourites were PEASANTS, REDCAR (another that wasn’t a problem – horse races there?) and the delicious SPRITE.
Some very interesting and amusing clues, a few of which I didn’t manage to parse. But does 5 down really work? I can see that V is the centre (or center) of the word “gravity”, but how does it all come together as a clue? Or am I being slow? Anyway, many thanks Philistine and Andrew.
Did not finish – failed to solve 19d, 2/22d and I did not parse 10ac.
I liked RED CARPET, SOFT DRUG, IMPLYING, SYMPATHY, CREEP, DAMP.
Thanks, both.
I enjoyed that, and only needed a little outside help towards the end (SATURNALIA was new to me). I bunged in SPRITE without spotting the imaginative parsing but pleased to say that I did parse the Roman maths in DAMP! I agree with maarvarq and Crispy on 5d, the US spelling was probably forced by the rest of the grid (and maybe a deadline!)… having tried setting myself, I fully sympathise 🙂
Tiny quibblet: for BRIO, I generally expect to see a ‘hidden’ indicator word in such a clue, and for me this clue could just as well been written “Energy IN mob riot”, which would have satisfied my pedantic mind more than OF did…
A fun puzzle though, not too difficult for this stage in the working week. Cheers both.
Good fun with BACCHANALIAN and SATURNALIA to go con BRIO. I had no hope of parsing SPRITE which I just entered from seeing ‘elf’ in ‘itself’ so unknowingly I was vaguely on the right track.
Favourites were the lift-and-separate ‘Striptease’ bit of PEASANTS and the CENTER OF GRAVITY device.
Thanks to Philistine and Andrew
Thanks Philistine and Andrew
I didn’t parse SPRITE, so particular thanks for that. I liked the neat anagram for SATURNALIA – it’s also an anagram of “australian”, so that might come up some time.
Great fun! Philistine up to all his tricks.
There were not many clues that didn’t deserve a tick: some of those that did were ACADEMY AWARD, ORACULAR, both for the construction, BACCHANLIA, for the surely unequivocal homophone, IMPLYING and SYMPATHY, for the surfaces – and juxtaposition, CENTER OF GRAVITY, which, with the reference to Virginia, I didn’t see as contrived, SATURNALIA, which I’ve seen clued with AUSTRALIAN a number of times but this was a new slant and, of course, the wicked SPRITE.
Many thanks to Philistine for the fun and to Andrew for the blog.
muffin sneaked in while i wa typing!
No problem with CENTER OF GRAVITY, as it was clearly indicated, and is a more sensible spelling in any case. SPRITE was a bung and hope. Bodycheetah @1 – there would be every reason to… GDU@7 – here a non Pom who had no trouble with those (although, as Andrew indicates, REDCAR PET had been seen before, which helps). Thanks, Philistine and Andrew.
Seen REDCAR PET before but not the brilliant SPRITE
Thanks Phil and Andrew
Yes, muffin @19 and Eileen @20, when I did my “re-arrange letters of ‘isanatural’ in a random circle” I ended up with ‘Australian’ and tried to work out how it was a party….. but when I think about it…..
I persuaded myself that 10ac was ‘struts’ as in ‘struts its stuff’= performing. Mr B was unconvinced – and quite right as it turns out. Sprite is a much better answer!
I think it was very clever of Philistine to come up with the American spelling of CENTER if that’s what he needed to fit it in the grid, and then ‘in America’ and ‘capital of Virginia’ to make it work.
I wonder what came first, and what would the clue have been if he didn’t need to do that.
Where initially Victoria might have been the focus of attraction?
nnw@15 I attempted to reply but it ended up being almost as cryptic as the clue and now I’ve lost it. I see it pretty much a rebus, graVity.
I wonder if it helps to read it as the definition being ‘where an attractive force may be said to act’, and the rest as wordplay. Or the whole clue underlined with the question mark at the end, meaning to think outside the square.
(There’s a rebus for that too, but I can’t do the graphic here.)
That was fun, especially the surfaces. Spent way too long thinking of different types of ant to slot into 2, failed the Roman maths and missed a few of the tricky split word clues in the end. Thanks Andrew and Philistine.
Good, tricky cluing by Philistine.
Crispy @4 and others; I can’t see the objection to CENTER OF GRAVITY, it’s in Merriam-Webster and American Oxford. Lots liked, including the aforementioned C of G, CARDIGAN for the nice use of Agadir Bay, SOFT DRUG for the solid walls, BACCANALIAN for a good homophone, REHASH for the ‘what’s in thoughtless’. I didn’t parse SPRITE but it was a very clever find.
Thanks Philistine and Andrew.
Like Tomsdad @9 I was convinced that 13a was LIMP (with “wet” meaning “feeble”) until I couldn’t possibly make 12d work with it. This must surely have been deliberate on Philistine’s part – an example of what someone mentioned on General Discussion recently (@138): “clues that try to trap you into entering the wrong answer”.
I can’t recall having seen a double lift-and-separate like SPRITE before – fiendish. But my favourite was the “back an alien”, which brought a huge grin.
Many thanks Philistine and Andrew.
[By the way, I was looking on the Guardian page of 15² waiting for this blog to appear, and it’s still not there. I came across it by chance on the home page.]
Some great clueing amid the more straightforward, but all very enjoyable.
Top marks for SPRITE and BACCHANALIAN.
I’m afraid I’m not a fan of American spelling in a British edition of my favourite newspaper. But the clue itself was clever and funny so it’s a minor gripe.
Thanks Philistine and Andrew
Lovely puzzle and economical blog. Thanks Philistine and Andrew! 10 and 13 my CODs for parsing challenges. 24 and 25 raised a cheer. Politics and crosswords share a world in which words do not always mean what they appear to mean; and in the world of everyday discourse may not have any logical meaning at all. But one (like today) always leads to an edifying and satisfying, if sometimes contested, conclusion; the other practically never.
Robi @24 – I was simply disappointed that the setter resorted to the American spelling, for the same reason as Ark Lark. I don’t say it’s not clever or that it’s not indicated.
I was another confident LIMP for 13a [Goon Show – “he was walking with a L.I.M.P., pronounced limp”]
The centre of gravity of a body is the point through which the attractive force of gravity, i.e. weight, is considered to act.
Tim C @24, the first time I encountered SATURNALIA in a crossword, the clue was “Wild Australian party”.
I like some US usages, like eg “one through ten”, which removes the ambiguity in “one to ten” and is succincter than using “up to and including”; but otoh I like our distinction between eg metre and meter. As for the centerpiece here, great clue, no objections at all 🙂
I always get a lot of pleasure from solving Philistine’s puzzles and this one was no exception! I loved the misleading use of “Oscar Wilde” for ACADEMY AWARD at 11a, but also ticked lots more – as others have said, 20a BACCHANALIAN was delightful, and I enjoyed seeing the solution to 5d CENTER OF GRAVITY (I have to say that, like paddymelon@26, and unlike some other commenters, I really enjoyed the trick of using the U.S. spelling). I also appreciated 15d URBAN MYTH and 12d LABORATORY. In keeping with the American take on things found in 5d, I thought that it was entirely suitable that 19d DIAPER was my LOI. On the less successful side of the ledger, like some others above, I couldn’t parse 10a SPRITE, and I didn’t really understand “A STY” in LAST YEAR at 6d (although I get that a pen can be a stylus). Like muffin@19 and Eileen@, I also saw that 8d SATURNALIA anagrams to AUSTRALIAN, which made me smile: and as Tim C@24 says, we do like a party!
Thanks to Philistine and Andrew.
[Sorry I meant to type “Eileen@20” but got caught out scrolling up and back. Clearly I took too long typing or I would have acknowledged both Geoff@35 re partying and grant@36 re Aussies being perhaps more accepting of U.S. usages.]
Thanks Andrew and Philistine. I loved this – so much fun and downright silliness. My reaction to SPRITE was “This is the most Philistinesque clue I have ever seen!” – outrageous indeed.
BACCHANALIAN, ACADEMY AWARD and DAMP also made me laugh when the penny finally dropped. It helps if you remember who the setter is – you start looking for the tricks.
Julie in Aus @37 – the meaning of pen/sty we need here is an animal house, eg pig sty.
Great entertainment. Thanks both.
I did an alpha-trawl on S_R_T_ before bunging in SPRITE with a shrug at which point I saw the parsing (padoom!) – so clever.
Julie, a pigsty is a pigpen, yes?
Julie in Australia@38: both pen & sty as in enclosure (e.g. sheep pen / pig sty).
… aa Widdersbel said!
Sorry, overlapped with comments @39 & 41
Julie in Australia @37
Sty, as in Pen, eg Pig Sty = Pig Pen.
PDM – just saw PEN and STY as in pigs in 6d – how silly do you think I feel?!!!
Thanks All – I saw it just before you all came on to respond – I take too long to type! – now I feel even more red-faced that you all had to point out the bleeding obvious!
Thanks for the blog, super duper puzzle. CENTER OF GRAVITY only fits the grid this way, important to clue it well. The definition is perfect and two nudges to the American spelling , cannot be faulted. SPRITE is sensational , a rare double Playtex, wonder how you wear that? Another reverse anagram for BREAK OUT, neatly done, DAMP etc , I could go on ….
Just cracked “Per-forming with its-elf”! Some Guardian setters have a Johnson-ian respect for the rules, though I think the founders in the 1930s had a similar range. Nonetheless I did enjoy this, with a real exploration of the riches of the language. Many thanks to Philistine and Andrew.
One comment on a useful addition to my vocabulary NAGWARE earlier in the week was just the word I needed to convey the encroachment of sneaky adverts into every corner of the once-pristine wonder of the internet.
Caught out by per+its, but very impressed by the novel construction. Did get DAMP and can’t remember ever seeing two such novel (to me anyway) ways of clueing. Hats off, and thanks Philistine and Andrew.
DAMP was very good, but SPRITE was outstanding. Tx.
Just wanted to add a clap for sprite. Defeated me, but it;s magnificent. I’m wondering if two or more question marks could be used for such audacity. Contender for clue of the year, personally.
Thanks Philistine for an entertaining crossword. I had many favourites including DAMP, ORACULAR, BACCHANALIAN, PEASANTS, LAST YEAR, and LABORATORY. I couldn’t parse the mischievious SPRITE and needed to reveal SOFT DRUG and DIAPER, not aware that the latter was an Americanism. Thanks Andrew for the blog.
I had missed the final twist on 10A so I wondered where the definition had gone. P has a devious mind!
Tonys @53 The American for Nappy is diaper. the other meanings are a patterned fabric and a geological intrusion (not even mentioned in Chambers)
Great crossword. Especially 10ac SPRITE. Very enjoyable moment when the penny dropped and the parsing jumped out at me. Several other fun solves already mentioned above. Thanks Philistine and Andrew.
A lovely example of trademark Philistinian ingenuity. I was another who started with LIMP and had to backtrack later, but I did see SPRITE and the strip-tEASe ( though I don’t like the trick of splitting one answer into two unrelated ones in different parts of the grid: a different kind of lift and separate). Loved BACCHANALIAN.
Julie in Australia@47: sometimes the bleeding obvious is the hardest thing to see. Goodness knows I’ve done it often enough.
Housten Tony@55 – possibly because the geological term is a nappé.
I agree with Gladys@57. Why not two separate 4-letter clues?
Center may be a more sensible way to spell it, but Centre is from the French and I feel closer to France than the USA!
Thought this was brilliant so many thanks to Phil and Andrew. I loved C of G and the clue was a perfect indicator of the non Brit spelling. We see plenty of other languages in use in cryptics so have no problem with the Americanism. Was pleased to get damp unaided but needed to come here to confirm sprite. Just one step too clever for me, I guess.
Appropriately, it was only after a couple of beers that I clicked with “back an alien”, and this led me to reconsider my parsing of the hitherto obvious LIMP (as others have owned up to) to make room for the ‘test centre’ at 12d. A most enjoyable solve throughout.
Many thanks to Philistine and Andrew (especially for the parsing of SPRITE).
Houston Tony @55: Thanks for the reply. I live in the U.S. and I wasn’t aware that other countries don’t use the word diaper interchangeably with nappy.
(Unusually) I disagree with gladys @57 re PEASANTS.
I actually enjoy that particular kind of clue, which I consider rather clever – to find two words which combine in a totally misleading way. I spent some minutes, like Paul @27, working on ANTS (workers) to no avail – a lovely doh moment. I should have included this as one of my favourites.
The “lift and separate” clues got me. Wasn’t sure which way around 19d was, needed a crosser. BACCHANALIAN my favourite
Sorry – I just thought SPRITE was too clever by half. Other than that, I enjoyed this very much.
At first I wasn’t making any headway at all with this, but URBAN MYTH set me on my way. The next two in, SYMPATHY and LABORATORY strangely supplied the letter Y as useful crossers. Thought BACCHANALIAN great fun, swiftly followed by another orgiastic one in SATURNALIA. Shot myself in the foot when I didn’t twig the “In America” version of the spelling of CENTER for 5d, so couldn’t for a while write in ACADEMY AWARD. Couldn’t for the life of me parse DAMP, which it simply had to be. Left with 10ac, couldn’t get that. But a far from disappointing DNF, as there was some classy stuff here. Also couldn’t find FifteenSquaredGuardian in its usual place today, thought there might have been a bloggers boycott after certain critical remarks on here earlier in the week…
Got strip-tEASe (and am with Eileen @63 on finding split answers a nice trick) but failed to parse 10A and 13A although I guessed the right word to enter. A bit worried by the cryptic grammar of 13A – if something forms intransitively, isn’t it usually the result of the formation? (“The mob formed with the intention of storming the Capitol.”)
Really good puzzle, I thought – so many excellent clues. Weird objections to US spellings; it’s just another language.
For Andrew, our blogger, and those who’ve said they couldn’t find this crossword in its usual place, I had no trouble but I came in via the 15squared home page. I’ve just noticed that this blog is “Uncategorised” rather than “Guardian” which could account for that.
Loved SPRITE. Thought there might have been an ancient civilisation/myths theme with SPARTA, AEGEAN, SATURNALIA, OCULAR, but it didn’t help we with BACCHANALIAN.
…very much liked too how 23ac changed from a 3 syllable combination of For Ego to the 2 syllable word FOREGO…
I had my response to this super puzzle typed out at 7.45 this a.m. but have not been able to access the site until now!! Did anyone else have the same problem? Bizarre and very frustrating. SPRITE, BACCHANALIAN and SATURNALIA were wonderful amongst many.
Ta Philistine & Andrew
I struggled to parse SPRITE and DAMP and I couldn’t see BACCANALIAN despite all the crossers.
Great crossword so thanks both
AlanC @ 72 you are even worse than me. Someone put a little picture on this Chromebook for me. I think it is what people call the “home page” . I get the Guardian blogs, plus FT , Everyman , Azed etc, it never fails. If you need any technical advice , just ask .
I have only just found this (I only look at the Guardian page as that’s the only crossword I do). But I have to comment even though it’s so late. I absolutely loved this crossword. One of my favourites of all time. I don’t usually pick out favourite clues, but in this case I am going to. DAMP & SPRITE. So clever, and made me feel so happy (and yes smug) when I solved them.
+1 for the LIMP -> DAMP problem, which I didn’t parse. SPRITE was another DNP but is superb. BREAK OUT was my LOI, and reminded me of the controversy recently about ‘gegs? (9,4)’. Overall a real treat, and a very rare Thursday solve.
Enjoyed the challenge, thanks Philistine and Andrew.
I have no problem with American spelling so indicated – and appropriate for the surface too.
a toughie. I couldn’t parse SPRITE or DAMP and for the former I am in the (minority it seems) “too clever by half” camp rather than the “ingenious” one. Not sure about ‘resort’ as an anagrind, but I’ll add it to the list. LOI and favourite was LABORATORY. I am really dumb did not notice until here that 2D was one word; I filled it in from the clue and thought it was a kind of ant that I had never heard of, even though the clue states that the answer is an eight-letter word. Doh! However, don’t think that I like a single word being split across the puzzle in this way. Thanks Philistine and Andrew and everyone on here for the enlightening comments.