I believe this is my first blog of a Grauniad ‘Pangakupu‘ puzzle, although I have met his alter ego in many a ‘Kcit‘ EV and a few ‘Phi‘ Indy Saturday Prize puzzles…
This certainly seemed ‘prize-worthy’ in terms of difficulty, in that it took a couple of sittings and some polishing off, with several parsings that didn’t yield until I was writing up the blog.
No obvious Nina, theme(ette) or narrative, unless a STURDY LEPRECHAUN took a RAILCAR to HOUSE-SIT for his DUTCH UNCLE, encountering some NASTINESS due to an AMATEURISH ANTEDEATED ACT OF PARLIAMENT, causing him to SPEED WELL away from the situation until a RESCUER chose to STEP IN and save him from the CUSP of disaster.
Not really then, but a tight and challenging set of clues, with some interesting surface reads…an MP having a ‘nasty altercation’ about an ACT OF PARLIAMENT, presumably after spending too long in a subsidised House of Commons bar?!; the ‘fifth bargain’ as SNIP E; the AMATEURISH actor struggling as a ham; getting from SATURDAY to STURDY by ‘deleting the articles’…
I’m sure others below will have their own favourites…and hopefully I have covered it all reasonably clearly below…with the usual thanks to Pangakupu for the challenge…
[I won’t be golfing tomorrow, as there are more pressing matters concerning my Dad’s and my son’s beloved Hull City being involved in the small matter of a footie match at Wemberley to decide who goes up to the Premier League next season…I will be with them, hiding behind a tree and recording proceedings…
As such, please talk amongst yourselves and answer any queries/quibbles as you see fit – I will be monitoring from Row 13 Seat 306 in a block somewhere, and will check back in on my (triumphant or otherwise) return home…]
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
| 9A | ESOTERICA | Mysterious stuff in complex eco satire (9)
anag, i.e. complex, of ECO SATIRE |
| 10A | IN REM | Fellows I backed to retain right against property (2,3)
ME_N (fellows) + I, around (retaining) R (right) gives MER NI, all backed to give IN REM |
| 11A | RESCUER | Liberator to regret grabbing key troublemaker finally (7)
R_UE (regret) around (grabbing) ESC (‘escape’ key on computer keyboard), plus R (final letter of troublemakeR) |
| 12A | RAILCAR | Feel bad about blocking Bishop’s carriage in America (7)
R_R (Right Reverent, bishop) around (blocked by) AIL (feel bad) + CA (circa, about) |
| 13A | CASED | Assessed possibilities of legal action with daughter (5)
CASE (legal action) + D (daughter) |
| 14A | ANTEDATED | Insectivore swallowing head of dragonfly, not tail – head of drone came before (9)
ANTE_ATE( |
| 16A | ACT OF PARLIAMENT | A nasty altercation with MP about fine piece of legislation (3,2,10)
A + CT_O_PARLIAMENT (anag, i.e. nasty, of ALTERCATION + MP) around (about) F (fine) |
| 19A | NASTINESS | New points accepted by fool in malice (9)
N (new) + AS_S (fool) around (accepting) TINES (points) |
| 21A | SYLPH | Still empty, going to pub, drinking unknown spirit (5)
S_L (StilL, emptied of inner letters) around (drinking in) Y (unknown value, maths), plus PH (public house) |
| 22A | CLEARER | College student erasing note offering greater comprehension (7)
C (college) + LEAR( |
| 23A | NEUTRON | Particle the source of trouble in part of nervous system (7)
NEU_RON (part of the nervous system) around T (source, or first letter, of Trouble) |
| 24A | SNIPE | The fifth bargain gets criticism? (5)
a bargain can be a snip; the first bargain might be ‘snip A’, making the fifth one SNIP E! |
| 25A | SPEEDWELL | Veronica’s son went to source (9)
S (son) + PEED (went, urinated) + WELL (source, of water) [speedwell being a plant of the genus Veronica] |
| Down | ||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/parsing |
| 1D | LEPRECHAUN | Tricksy unreal chap concealing a treasure, ultimately? (10)
[full &lit? the whole clue is wordplay and definition…with a tricksy leprechaun sitting on the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow] |
| 2D | HOUSE-SIT | Work for overseas employers? It supports Home Office functions (5-3)
HO (Home Office) + USE_S (functions) + IT [the employers being overseas temporarily, hence the house-sitter] |
| 3D | GERUND | Broadcasting, say? Head of BBC upset about end of fine series (6)
G_D (DG, Director General, head of the BBC, upset) around E (end of finE) + RUN (series) |
| 4D | PIER | Support rat-catcher not using a piano (4)
PI( |
| 5D | HAIRSTYLES | Cuts song penned by associate of Z Malik? (10)
I believe Zayn Malik was in a popular beat combo, One Dimension(?), with Harry Styles, m’lud. So H_STYLES around (penning) AIR (song) = HAIRSTYLES, or cuts!… |
| 6D | AIR INDIA | Transport company, excellent in two directions, seen around outside (3,5)
AI_IA (A1, excellent, in two directions) around R_IND (skin, outside) |
| 7D | BRECHT | Church welcoming British and French playwright in Germany (6)
BR (British) + E_T (et, and, French) around (welcoming) CH (church) [Misleading punctuation, ‘church-welcoming’ might be more accurate] |
| 8D | EMIR | Arab leader in revolutionary memoir I’m editing (4)
reversed hidden word, i.e. in and revolutionary, in ‘memoiR I’M Editing’ |
| 14D | AMATEURISH | True, a ham is struggling, being this? (10)
anag, i.e. struggling, of TRUE A HAM IS [&lit-ish again?…or is ‘this’ the definition?…] |
| 15D | DUTCH UNCLE | Wife’s confused, not a right nag? (5,5)
DUTCH (Cockney slang for wife, Duchess of Fife!) + UNCLE( [a dutch uncle being someone who criticises and reprimands unsparingly] |
| 17D | FRIARIES | Gets hot without rising draught in convents (8)
F_RIES (gets hot) around (without, or out-with) RIA (rising air, or draught) |
| 18D | ENLARGED | Article about student in University course mostly taken up and expanded (8)
DEGR_E( |
| 20D | STEP IN | Intervene, with second recording in the can (4,2)
S (second) + T_IN (can) around EP (Extended Play, vinyl recording) |
| 21D | STURDY | Robust articles deleted during part of weekend (6)
S( |
| 22D | CUSP | Point succeeded in competition (4)
CU_P (competition) around S (succeeded, genealogy) |
| 23D | NOEL | Christmas: last in cricket team still missing? (4)
the last batter in a cricket team is the No 11, or NO EL( |
Enjoyed this, although it took a couple of sessions. Liked the &lit. LEPRECHAUN.
I learned a little Maori when in NZ earlier this year, but not enough to translate the ninas, for which online help was required. Apparently both PUREIREI and TAUTAU mean cluster. That would seem to be too unlikely to be a coincidence, but I can’t relate it to Pangakupu’s numbering scheme.
Took quite a while but got there in the end. SNIPE was LOI which I suddenly got when out walking the dog. Did not parse LEPRECHAUN
Liked: RESCUER, SPEEDWELL, HAIRSTYLES, BRECHT, PIER, AIR INDIA
Thanks Pangakupu and mc_rapper67
My faves: RAILCAR, ANTEDATED, LEPRECHAUN, AIR INDIA and NOEL.
Thanks Pangakupu and mc_rapper67.
This was no. 47, which is simultaneously a cluster prime and an isolated prime. So words suggesting clusters, with PUREIREI being tagged as an ‘isolated cluster’.
Although I completed this one in one day, it still provided plenty of challenges. A satisfying and enjoyable solve
My loi 24a took ages. First to get a handle on the wordplay (“fifth [blank]” = “[blank] E”), then to find the synonyms for “bargain” (SNIP) and “criticism” (SNIPE), both of which were the last (obscure?) definitions listed in their respective entries in Chambers
Everything else was excellent! Favourites 12a RAILCAR (“Feel bad about”), 25a SPEEDWELL (I guess he had to go badly?), 1d LEPRECHAUN (“unreal chap” anagram and the CAD), 2d HOUSE-SIT (triple-threat: surface, definition, and wordplay), 5d HAIRSTYLES (“Cuts” definition), 21d SaTURDaY
Couldn’t parse 23d NOEL — APCR (Another Pesky Cricket Reference)! 🙂
mc_rapper67, slight typo in 8d EMIR — “memoiR I’M Editing”
Thank you mc_rapper67 for a great blog, and Pangakupu for a fine puzzle, and for stepping in early @4 to clarify the ninas!
Thanks for the blog , very neat set of clues . LEPRECHAUN an excellent &Lit , I like the SNIP E style of clue and fortunately I always say snip for bargain , AIR INDIA had clever use of rind with outside to deceive .
NEUTRONium first proposed by Antropoff in 1926 , one hundred years old next month . Discovered by Jocelyn Bell in 1967 .
Thanks Panga, and thanks rapper for the extra entertainment. Hope Hull get up …
[.. and Roz, thanks for your generous disquisition on polarity etc on Wednesday’s Brendan …]
Comment #9
oh bugger, forget you saw that everyone …
Still don’t get LEPRECHAUN. Why remove A and add E?
Unusually, I found the clues I liked most were the ones that held out to the very end – NOEL (only the parsing there once the crossers were in), GERUND, and the clever little LEPRECHAUN. I did need to check on Veronica, I really could not place Z. Malik, and I needed to check that IN REM meant what the clue suggested. I didn’t spot the NINA, sorry Pangakupu, but I did enjoy the crossword, and mc_rapper’s blog.
Crispy@11 – unrEAl chAp has A twice and E once . lEprEchAun has the opposite
Thanks for the comments so far – much appreciated as usual…
Minor typo for EMIR fixed, thanks, Mig at #5
Crispy at #8 – I have changed the description to ‘substitutive’ anagram – as Roz points out UNREAL CHAP isn’t quite an anagram of the tricksy little feller, so we have to substitute an E for an A
Pangakupu at #4 – I forgot to mention in the blog that you usually contrive to include a Maori/NZ word or two in your puzzles – sometimes in plain sight, sometimes a bit hidden, as here. (Well spotted Dr WhatsOn at #1!) Not sure where 47 comes in – is this your 47th Grauniad puzzle?…
Anyway, my train awaits…come on the Tigers!…
Thanks mc_rapper67. 9 and 11a wrote themselves in immediately and I thought I was in for a stroll in the park but quite a lot more work and some resource to Google were necessary before LOI 18d. I enjoyed it.
Roz @13, mc @14. Okay, I see that. But what I don’t get is what part of the clue tells me to substitute an E for an A? Surely concealing is an insertion indicator?
I steadily worked through this and enjoyed it but wanted to come here to find out what the ninas were about. Thanks Pangakupu for the explanation, but then I had to look up what a cluster prime is! Turns out that all odd primes up to 89 are cluster primes, so not so unusual.
Anyway, thanks to Pangakupu and mc_rapper67.
Crispy at #16 – yes, sometimes an extra letter is ‘concealed’ within another word, but here I took ‘conceal’ as in to hide, remove from view…and technically it is not a substitution, the anagram fodder is UNREAL CH(A)P with an A concealed plus an extra E from treasurE…
Crispy@16: concealing is a subtraction indicator here. I didn’t understand it, either, before reading the blog
Thanks mc. I think it will just have to remain as one of those clues that I don’t like, particularly as concealing seems to be saying remove an A and add an E.
[PS – Up The Tigers!]
Actually it’s my 48th daily puzzle but the last two appeared in reverse order! I do try to use the sequence as inspiration for the Māori word, so start thinking about 49 for June now. No clues from me because I can’t recall it myself at the moment.
I found this a little easier than I generally do P’s puzzles.
GERUND I thought was very well clued, even if DG for the BBC’s so-called top (but easily removed eh, Greg?) banana is a bit media in-speak.
Thanks for the blog and puzzle.
My comment didn’t appear. Oh well, briefly, I liked it, I had to look up DUTCH UNCLE, veronica and IN REM.
I liked NEURON, HAIRSTYLES, AIR INDIA and HOUSE SIT.
I didn’t like the syntax for BRECHT.
Thanks Pangakupu and mc_rapper67 (good luck to the Tigers)
Oops me @24 *NEUTRON
LEPRECHAUN: I thought of the E being written on a very small, round sticker and applied on top of the letter A, concealing it and substituting for it at the same time.
Crispy @20. If it is any consolation, I didn’t like it either, and reopening the puzzle this morning I found that I actually hadn’t entered it on the grid. So a kind-of wilful DNF from me.
Thanks Balfour! It’s always good to know it’s not just me.
For LEPRECHAUN I do not think you need to substitute the E .
It is tricksy – unreal ch p e .
[ Why are Hull called the Tigers ? It is short for tiger sharks ? ]
After an encouraging start and completing around half I found the rest well above my pay grade. “Broadcasting, say” as the definition for GERUND is a bit much, and I would never have picked up on Z Malik or the DUTCH UNCLE clue had i stared at them all year. And how are we supposed to know or care that this is the setter’s 48th daily puzzle ?
But I’m posting mainly to restore a bit of balance to this uncharacteristically one-sided forum.
Up the Boro.
We don’t mind Lions (Millwall) or Tigers (Hull) being in the play-offs, but we draw the line at Cheetahs.
I believe Zayn Malik was in the popular beat combo ”One Direction” rather than One Dimension.
To assist in the levelling up, I’ll add Up the Boro.
[Regarding the playoffs, one of these days, someone may come up with the bright idea of having each team in the Championship play each other team twice, home and away, and promoting the three teams with the highest number of points at the end of the 46-game season.]
Dohhh! Thought that I had finished it, but I had misspelled LEPRECHAUN’. I was wondering about the seemingly redundant rest of the clue. I knew the term DUTCH UNCLE, but not the alternative cockney rhyming slang for the ‘Trouble and Strife’. Enjoyed the puzzle overall. Lots of nice clues. I cannot see the nina. Too obscure for me. Up the ‘Boro!
[Roz @29. Historically, Hull City played in amber tops and black shorts, sort of Tigerish colours. These days they probably play in different colours every game]
Thanks P and MC. Beaten by GERUND, and I cheated to get LEPRECHAUN. I feel bad about that because I think I would have eventually got it if I had persisted. Oh well, no pot of gold for me!
I liked the nasty altercation with MP to produce ACT OF PARLIAMENT, the DG using a GERUND, and the ENLARGED student article. To me, ‘Church welcoming British and French’ in the 7D clue for BRECHT seems to be the wrong way round. I would have put welcomed by or ‘Church, British and French welcoming.
Thanks Pangakupu and mcr, hope the match goes well for you.
[ Thanks Crispy @ 34 . So Dorothy Parker was a Hull supporter , fascinating fact of the day . ]
Many thanks, Pangakupu and mc_rapper67
I couldn’t parse a couple. Not surprising in one case as I had FECUND (broadcasting, say?) rather than GERUND. Not impressed by the definition for HOUSE-SIT.
Was detained in the SW corner by having FRESHER (REFRESHER less RE) instead of CLEARER. SNIPE made up for all. A brilliant clue. And it was good to learn the proper meaning of DUTCH UNCLE.
I am probably being thick, but how does “church welcoming British and French” lead to CH inside BRE..T? I got the answer from the crossers, but I do not understand the parsing!
Jrsee@39 it is really the wrong way round but sort of works , think of Church-welcoming as one block , the British , plus ET are church-welcoming
It is a bit like a – child welcoming pub .
Star Wars nerds call it Yoda-speak .
Thanks Roz – I now see that. But, just because a pub is child wecoming, it doesn’t mean that will be any children in it 🤔 I’m probably over interpreting the recent cryptic crossword course I went on where we were told that the word play was an instruction (or several) to the solver – “church friendly” as used (with or without hyphen) doesn’t actually tell the solver to put CH (or CE or RC) inside BRET, but just says, to me, that it might be inside. Live and learn as they say!