We have a puzzle from Tramp in the Guardian today.
Parsing POTPOURRI (10 across) was a bit of a struggle for me, until I decided TEEM, a homonym of TEAM, could mean POUR, as in TEEM or POUR with rain.
I wonder if I was the only solver who couldn’t understand for a while why ‘dark green’ might relate to IVORY (a creamy white colour) at 12 across, before realising that ‘ dark green’ actually went with IVY as part of the wordplay.
I liked the definition for ASTROLOGY (2 down), relating it to horoscopes mainly printed in tabloid newspapers.
Tramp delved into his toolbox a few times to come up with terms to describe the outer letters of words used as part of the wordplay. I counted three: ‘boundaries on CrickeT‘, ‘on both sides of PenaltieS‘ and ‘skirt for ModestY‘. Many selections of first or last letters of words in clues also contributed to the wordplay throughout the puzzle.
I foolishly banged in MAIDENS at 5 down, but, not surprisingly, it clashed with obviously correct crossing answers. A closer look at the clue showed there couldn’t be an M in the answer, so I changed it to NAIADES after checking it was a valid plural of NAIAD.
No doubt Tramp will not be the only setter who chooses ‘Reform’ as an anagram indicator when faced with the possibility of an anagram of NIGEL!
This puzzle was an entertaining challenge, especially so with the four thirteen-letter entries around the outside of the grid and the hints of sauciness throughout.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | To Marilyn, A Miller not half struggling in marriage (13)
MATRIMONIALLY (relating to [in] marriage) Anagram of (struggling) TO MARILYN A and MILler excluding (not) LER the second 3 of 6 (half) letters MATRIMONIALLY |
| 10 | Medley in pool – team caught with sprint in the middle (9)
POTPOURRI (miscellany; mingled and confused mass; medley) POT (pool) + POUR (teem [with rain, for example], sounds like [caught] TEAM) + RI (central letters of [in the middle] spRIng POT POUR RI |
| 11 | England’s opener concerned with boundaries on cricket pitch (5)
ERECT (pitch, as in ERECT or pitch a tent) E (first letter of [opener] England) + RE (with reference to; concerned with) + CT (outer letters of [boundaries of] CrickeT) E RE CT |
| 12 | Soldiers hiding in plant of dark green colour (5)
IVORY (a colour) OR (other ranks) contained in (hiding in) IVY (a dark green plant) IV (OR) Y |
| 13 | Individuals entering country for another (9)
INDONESIA ([another] country) ONES (individuals) contained in (entering) INDIA (a country) IND (ONES) IA |
| 14 | Did have to follow doctor that’s inundated (7)
DROWNED (inundated) DR (doctor) + OWNED (did have) DR OWNED |
| 16 | Son with appropriate way to provide barrier (7)
SANDBAG (a bag of sand or earth, used especially to protect against bomb blasts, floods etc.; a barrier) S (son) + AND (with) + BAG (seize; steal; appropriate) S AND BAG |
| 18 | Pass your piece of chicken back – getting space in freezer (7)
CRYOGEN (a substance used for obtaining low temperatures; a freezer) (GO [pass [from one place to another] + YR [textspeak for your] + C [first letter of {piece of} Chicken]) reversed (back) + EN (a printing term denoting a space the size of a letter n) (C RY OG)< EN |
| 20 | President – idiot making American flyer (4,3)
BUSH TIT (a small long-tailed bird of Western America) BUSH (surname of one of two Presidents of the United States, George H W BUSH [1924 – 2018] and George W BUSH [born 1946]) + TIT (idiot) BUSH TIT |
| 21 | Keep going south: what rag and bone man wants around east (7,2)
SOLDIER ON (continue doggedly in the face of difficulty; keep going) S (South) + (OLD IRON [what a rag and bone man wants] containing [around] E [East]) S OLD I (E) RON |
| 23 | Live sound close to record at first (5)
DWELL (reside; live) D (last letter of [close to] recorD) + WELL (in good condition; sound) D WELL |
| 24 | Odd route when travelling (5)
OUTRÉ (beyond what is customary or proper; extravagant; odd) Anagram of (when travelling) ROUTE OUTRE* |
| 25 | Examples of batting positions (9)
INSTANCES (examples) IN (batting, if a cricket team is IN, it is batting rather than bowling) + STANCES (positions) IN STANCES |
| 26 | Past teams go out: penalties on both sides which are often stuck in the top corner (7,6)
POSTAGE STAMPS (items that are often stuck in the top corner of an envelope) Anagram of (out) PAST TEAMS GO + PS (outer letters of [on both sides] PenaltieS) POSTAGE STAM* PS |
| Down | |
| 2 | Movement of stars described in tabloids got royals in trouble (9)
ASTROLOGY (study of the supposed influences of the movements and positions of stars and planets on human and terrestrial affairs, basically scientific tosh but beloved by some newspapers; movement of stars described in tabloids) Anagram of (in trouble) GOT ROYALS ASTROLOGY* |
| 3 | Large jumper over skirt for modesty (5)
ROOMY (spacious; large) ROO (kangaROO, a large jumper) + MY (outer letters of [skirt] ModestY) ROO MY |
| 4 | Male came, no Viagra initially taken (7)
MARRIED (taken) M (male) + ARRIvED (came) excluding (no) V (first letter of [initially] Viagra) M ARRIED |
| 5 | Horrible ladies man primarily ignored beautiful women (7)
NAIADES (river or spring nymphs, described as beautiful women. NAIADES is given in Chambers as one of the plural forms of NAIAD) Anagram of (horrible) lADIES and mAN excluding (ignored) the first letters [primarily], L and M, of each word NAIADES* |
| 6 | American coins term for gun going inside range (9)
APPENINES (1200 kilometre range of mountains running down the spine of peninsular Italy) A (American) + (N [last letter of [terminal letter [term] of guN] contained in [going inside] PENNIES [coins]) A PENNI (N) ES |
| 7 | Escorts picked up in city (5)
LEEDS (city in England) LEEDS (sounds like [picked up] LEADS [escorts]) LEEDS |
| 8 | Boxing result when cut second – one twice knocked out (5,8)
SPLIT DECISION (a DECISION that is not unanimous but is arrived at by a majority, especially in awarding victory in a boxing match) SPLIT (cut) + an anagram of (knocked out) SECOND and (I [Roman numeral for one] + I [and again, to give one twice]) SPLIT DECISION* |
| 9 | It will probably take poker money fair and square (8,5)
STRAIGHT FLUSH (a sequence of five cards of the same suit [royal flush, if headed by the ace]; a hand that will probably win and take the money in a game of poker) STRAIGHT (fair) + FLUSH (having the surface in the same plane as the adjacent surface; square with) STRAIGHT FLUSH |
| 15 | Thoughtless man supporting Nigel for Reform (9)
NEGLIGENT (careless; irresponsible; thoughtless) Anagram of (for reform) NIGEL + GENT (man) NEGLI* GENT |
| 17 | Flatter borders start to constrict plant (9)
BUTTERCUP (plant) BUTTER UP (flatter) containing (borders) C (first letter of [start to] Constrict) BUTTER (C) UP |
| 19 | Tending to go over grass (7)
NURSING (looking after; tending) RUN (go) reversed (over) + SING (cheat; grass) NUR< SING |
| 20 | Benefits paid for by cutting public transport (7)
BONUSES (extra payments; benefits paid) ON (by) contained in (cutting) BUSES (examples of public transport) B (ON) USES |
| 22 | Free rent on leave (3,2)
LET GO (free) LET (rent) + GO (leave) LET GO |
| 23 | Tot and adult play (5)
DRAMA (play) DRAM (a tot of whisky) + A (adult) DRAM A |
Thanks so much for this blog. I came here to find a parsing for APENNINES. (Incidentally, I think you might have made a little typo writing that definiton.) I kept thinking of PENS for “coins term”. Durr! Great puzzle and blog. Thanks
JamesG @1, I think your parsing also works. Wiktionary lists “nine” as a term for a 9mm gun, so NINE in A+PENS yields APENNINES as well.
I have often struggled with Tramp’s puzzles but found this one very accessible and pleasing. Now I don’t know what to do with the rest of my morning commute.
Many thanks to Tramp for the fun and to Duncan for the excellent blog!
A very enlightening blog, thank you, Duncanshiell.
In BONUSES, how is by on? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of tit/idiot — is it a British thing? Come to think of it, I might have seen it in one of these puzzles many moons ago.
Hadn’t heard of NAIADES.
Good fun, more smiles than groans. My favourite was ROOMY.
Great stuff from Tramp. Couldn’t parse POTPOURRI or SPLIT DECISION so thanks for the blog.
Two words related to marriage and IVORY is someone celebrating an anniversary? Probably not but as they were amongst my first few in it did jump out!
Liked CRYOGEN and BUSH TIT
Thanks Duncan and Tramp
I could not parse 18ac & 17d and I agree with Duncan that it took me a while to parse POTPOURRI with pour = teem.
New for me: SPLIT DECISION; NAIADES.
Geoff@3 – for 20d maybe this works: the house on/by the lake?
11ac is an absolute cracker of a clue. Top notch!
@ geoff #3 it’s “paid for by” = on. the drinks are on the house. you tit 🙂 🙂
Thanks frinton@7 for clarifying that.
GDU@3 tit=idiot is indeed quite common mildly vulgar UK slang. Good puzzle. My favourites
include MATRIMONIALLY for the implicit reference to the failed marriage of Ms Monroe and Arthur Miller.
Thanks Tramp and duncanshiell.
Agree frinton @7, and the def is just ‘benefits’. (But I wouldn’t call GDU a tit 😉 )
Ah, frinton@7, that makes sense. I wonder whether our blogger missed it. (Your emojis confirm that we can still be friends.)
Thanks Tramp and duncanshiell
Nice puzzle. Only hold-up was the plural of NAIAD – I didn’t know it could include an E.
Although I had By ≡ On like Frinton @7, Michelle’s version @5 is more elegant. I live on the South Coast where on-Sea and by-Sea seem to be randomly distributed among place names.
Couldn’t parse POTPOURRI and kudos to anyone who got CRYOGEN without much difficulty (I saw what I thought might be a ‘cryogel’ taking shape, and got it in my head that the ‘piece of chicken back’ must be a leg).
(The wordplay in POTPOURRI uses a device that isn’t to my taste – for mine, ‘team caught’ can suggest something like ‘sighed’ or the ‘crue’ in accrue; I can see I grumbled about this before when commenting on 30126)
MATRIMONIALLY is a delightful clue with the reference noted by beaulieu @8. SOLDIER ON raised a smile, as did MARRIED and how could I not like POSTAGE STAMP? A super puzzle by one of the Guardian’s masters.
Thanks both
BONUSES
I agree with frinton@7 and grant@9.
I also agree with Michelle@5 about “on=by”.
She has given an example and the equivalence
has adequate dictionary support as well.
I didn’t realise you’d done 1,000+ blogs Duncan. Thanks for this blog and your long term support.
The crossword was a decent work out with some good misdirection for IVORY, ROOMY etc. The two long across clues made it quite accessible. Thanks Tramp.
On=by would work if that was what it was, but for BONUSES I agree with Frinton@7: the drinks are on/paid for by the house and the def is just “benefits”.
Couldn’t parse POTPOURRI (a synonym of a soundalike was a bridge too far) and didn’t know there could be an E in NAIADES. I liked INDONESIA (which I was trying to force to be Austria/Australia), BUTTERCUP, POSTAGE STAMPS, SOLDIER ON and the NEGLI-GENT.
A magnificent crossword, packed full of clever, witty and elegant clues.
I agree with Rats@6 about ERECT, am equally impressed with INSTANCES, POSTAGE STAMPS, NEGLIGENT and DROWNED – but the rosette goes to MATRIMONIALLY: superb surface to a classy clue.
Thank you duncan for the help parsing POTPOURRI, and a 21 gun salute to Tramp.
The perimeter clues went straight in and we were off to the races.
I liked the extra level of indirection in POT POTPOURRI and CRYOGEN was fun to tease out
Cheers D&T
I must have been on Tramp’s naughty wavelength, as this fairly flew in this morning. MATRIMONIALLY was first in and it all flowed from there. I did laugh at BUSH TIT, which described the younger President succinctly. Other favourites were the long perimeter clues, the risque MARRIED, POTPOURRI and SOLDIER ON. Great fun.
Ta Tramp & duncanshiell.
My favourites were POSTAGE STAMPS, for the clever surface with the penalties being stuck in the top corner, and SOLDIER ON, for any OLD IRON and the reminder of the song. (I think it was Picaroon a while back who had a clue for “napper” which features in the same song.)
It’s sometimes easy to overlook the surfaces, but for example “Live sound close to record at first” is really good with the image of a band reproducing the sound of their record when playing live.
Many thanks Tramp and duncanshiell.
I am another who was unable to/too lazy to parse POTPOURRI. A fine puzzle with ERECT, SOLDIER ON and the colour misdirection in IVORY the highlights.
A welcome return from Tramp!
I agree with Duncan re the clever misdirection and with wellbeck @18 for the summing-up of the puzzle.
I liked the use of the rather old-fashioned colloquialisms in SOLDIER ON at 21ac* and BUTTER [c}UP at 17dn (*especially for the clever inclusion of OLD I[e]RON), which made me smile, remembering this (mentioned, I see, by Lord Jim @21: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=a4GdWK_WoNs )
Other favourites were INSTANCES, POSTAGE STAMPS, ASTROLOGY, MARRIED and NAIADES and – top of the tree – MATRIMONIALLY for the construction and the splendidly allusive surface.
Many thanks to setter and blogger.
Thought POSTAGE STAMP was brilliant and really enjoyed this. Thanks to D and T.
Lots to like here. The parsing of CRYOGEN and POTPOURRI escaped me. Like many others, I loved the surface for MATRIMONIALLY.
One quibble: according to my internet search engine, BUSHTIT is one word. Perhaps more ornithologically-inclined solvers can weigh in?