Guardian 26,013 by Puck

97 comments on “Guardian 26,013 by Puck”

1. Thanks, UY. Classic Puck puzzle, this. I made steady progress through it, probably because I was lucky enough to twig the theme almost immediately but there certainly weren’t many clues that I would call easy.

   I think the anagram in ALAPACA is A CAR PLANT I minus TR(a)IN. I can see how you can get mixed up in this very convoluted clue!

   As Puck notes, you could add an asterisk to 6ac as the GRANada was also a model.

2. There’s one classic Ford model noticeable by its absence, by the way. I think it may have been edited out late on from 1dn due to an unfortunate juxtaposition…

3. This puzzle took me longer to solve than I had hoped. I enjoyed its theme of Ford motor cars, although I did need help from Wikipedia to confirm the existence of certain Ford car names. It was interesting that the Model T Ford only managed to make a small appearance in 17d.

   I particularly liked 1a, 13d, 26a, 17a, 4d, 7d, 6a, 15a (last in).

   New words for me were TAPPET, ACINI, and AIT = islet.

   Thanks for the blog, Uncle Yap. I needed your help to parse 22a, 24a, 11a, 5d.

4. Thanks Uncle Yap. Last in was 5d, quite an ingenious clue, with added doubt about the crossing PEA SOUPS: only now do I see the ‘head of state’ relevance. Toying with 5d I thought of ‘president’ and looked up Gerald Ford: sure enough, he was born 100 years ago, another Ford anniversary. Otherwise the puzzle was a pleasant workout, with a lookout for ‘Prefect’ and ‘Anglia’ amongst others en route.

5. Nice Puckster – and in his regujlar style pretty well. Always good to see that name on the puzzle – and thanks UY.

   AIT I didn’t know.

   Fairlane was easy for me but is it known in the UK? It was, until recently the top version of their family car range over here.

6. Thank you UY and Puck liked the general ‘motors’ theme throughout 🙂

   Dagenham in 6a chosen, for those who don’t know, as it’s home to a large Ford plant.

   I was hoping to find Capri, and kept trying to squeze it in 21a.

   Plus, I wonder if Pucky knows, Wolfie Smith is now married to whatsername from Come Dancing – Rosemary FORD

   Very entertaining crossword. Thanks again.

7. [[ps It’s actually RosemarIE Ford. They produced nearly 11 million cars at the Dagenham factory including my favourite car ever, the Ford Capri.]]

8. [[ of course I mean Ford produced the cars,
   not Robert Lindsey and his wife ]]

9. morphiamonet, I think there’s a reason why the Capri was excluded, thus my comment @2. [Trying not to break one of the site rules! ;)]

10. NeilW@9
    Your comments @2 and @9 are so cryptic I have no idea what you mean! Well, at least I finished the puzzle…….

11. Good stuff as always from Puck.

    @Morphianmonet I was a bit hung up on Capri as well. Obliged for Wolfie Smith info. Crosswords do broaden the mind :0)

12. Great crossword, just up my street, even if I drive a Toyota.

    Thanks UY; once I had FIESTA and GRAN, I thought at the beginning it was going to be a, well, GRAN FIESTA in Spain! Once ESCORT and SCORPIO were in, I realised that we were talking about FORD. Then I thought maybe Turismo might make an appearance.

    I suppose we all have our favourite Fords, but what a pity the iconic Mustang was not included. 🙁

13. P.S. Not sure I understand NeilW’s point @2, but CAPRI could have been fitted in with, say, CATCHES UP for 1a, HOSEA for 3d and SPEAKS TO [just about] for 8a. 🙂

14. Thanks Puck and Uncle Yap
    I found quite a lot of this hard work rather than fun – I at least had never heard of the “Fairline”, so abandoned that one (though I see that the clue works very nicely). I also had “president” instead of “prevalent” for a while, thinking of another Ford reference and assuming without checking that it was also a name of a car.
    However there were some really amusing clues too – FIESTA was the standout for me.

15. Very clever and lots of fun – taxing initially, but I almost got there. Thanks Puck and UY. Couldn’t get PREVALENT (spent a long time wondering how a PRELATESS could be a man).

16. Michelle and Robi, (he says with tin hat on) take at look at this week’s prize!

17. “Tis a Custom more honoured in the breach than the observance” as Ophelia said.

    (Fill yer boots @Rho) 😀

18. Ah… that’s how those smileys are generated!

19. PS – Well impressed by the Ford-Lindsay tabloid knowledge.

    Playboy of the Weston world?

20. aztobesed
    Please explain how your two comments @17 are relevant to the puzzle being discussed or the preceding comments.

21. @ Admin

    There’s a make of Ford called the Custom. I mis-attributed a quote to Bardolph yesterday, when Rhotician correctly idenitified the speaker was Falstaff. It is surely within the spirit of the site to have a friendly dig in the ribs of a poster who has pointed out an error within the last 24 hours? The clue was in the capital C.

22. Hi aztobesed
    Thanks for the explanation. I have no problems with a bit of (polite) banter (provided it doesn’t get out of hand) but I do think it should be put in context so that all visitors can understand it and not be bemused by what appears to be a totally random comment.

23. Point taken, Gaufrid. Just crypto-gagging.

24. Thanks Puck and UY: needed you for ‘fairlane’, I’m afraid, though it would appear to have been an American model. A most enjoyable puzzle.

25. At first it felt like this wasn’t going to be a fun puzzle to solve, but it grew on me as I got into it. At 21ac I was trying to think what citizens of Capri are called before the CYPRIOTS penny dropped. Although the anagram clue for ALPACA was a little convoluted I got there in the end. I knew, but had forgotten, ACINI, but the answer was clear enough from the wordplay. I needed aids for my LOI, CILANTRO, because the anagram fodder gave a few options. However, that was a gap in my knowledge and not a particularly unfair clue.

26. Andy B @ 25
    Funnily enough CILANTRO was my second one in, and immediately gave me CORTINA and thus the theme. I have tried to cook from US cookbooks occasionally though!
    One of the Dilbert compilations has the reassuring message inside the front cover “This book contains no cilantro”.

27. Thanks, UY.

    Entertaining puzzle from Puck, as usual. FIESTA was my first themed answer, which was a bit mystifying until I cracked 13d. After that, knowing the theme did help a lot, though FAIRLANE was unfamiliar (but the wordplay gave the answer). And (like others) I did spend rather too long looking for ANGLIA and PREFECT.

    A lot of good clues here; I particularly liked 10a, 27a and 7d for their surfaces and construction.

    Why is CILANTRO ‘Orlando’s coriander’? This is the Spanish name for the herb, and thence also the name by which it is usually known in the US. But ‘Orlando’ is an Italian name – the Spanish equivalent is Rolando – and the Italians call the herb ‘coriandolo’. Am I missing something?

28. Of course: Orlando is a city in Florida. I’ve been reading too much Ariosto…

29. NeilW@16
    thanks- having solved this week’s Prize, I understand your comments now. Wow, you have a great memory! I’d already forgotten it.

30. An excellent puzzle.

    A bit of a shame that you gave away the theme of the puzzle in your opening remarks shown on the main page. I think I other people have commented on this as regards some of your previous blogs.

31. In the spirit of inclusion, my comment at #19 referred to the fact that Robert Lindsay was the long-term partner of Diane Weston before he took up with Ms Ford.

32. Like Admin I thought your comments were a bit weird, azto, but what a fun puzzle! Some of the wprdplay is a ‘bit bitty’ (!) or complex, but thereare many good ideas in the clues too. Of course, as you wouls exoect, I like 16, 29 & 27 best : really simple and nice.

    Thanks
    Roqly

33. Hi Bracoman @30

    They [/we] have indeed – more than once.

    I was too grumpy to comment earlier and went off to do Gaff’s FT ‘birthday puzzle’. It was well worth the trip – it restored my good humour and I’d recommend it.

    Many thanks to Puck for a great puzzle and to morphiamonet for the extra information re Wolfie Smith.

    Thanks also to UY [and NeilW] for the blog – but not the spoiler. *Please* don’t do it again! 😉

34. PS

    I mentioned the Gaff because it, too, is a birthday puzzle – but Punk in the Indy is at the top of his form today, with a stunning puzzle.

    It’s been a great day – thanks again to all.

35. Tough but got there, and ta for the blog as the proper explanations were definetly needed.

    And as many will remember, it wasn’t actually “army”, it was “Liberation Front”. So that’s a pity, as there is surely a clue and answer somewhere that could have made use of Front as an indicator, and used the proper name of Wolfie’s gang.

36. Eventually got there but only with the help of aids. A bit of a toughie for me.

37. Great puzzle. I think 17 deserves a little further mention. Check out Model T/Ballinascarty on Google. A truly wonderful clue.

    Thanks for the blog, UY, and for the puzzle, Puck

38. Further to Eileen’s comment @34, I completed Gaff’s puzzle first and stupidly assumed that the same anniversary was being celebrated by this, Puck’s, puzzle. When FIESTA was my first themed answer I concluded that I was looking for synonyms of the Gaff theme. If you’ve done the FT X-word, you’ll know what I mean.

    Puck defeated me with a few clues, today, giving rise to embarrassed groans as I went through Uncle Yap’s (and NeilW’s) explanations – for which, many thanks.

39. Thanks for the pointer, phitonelly. What a clever chap Puck is!

40. DL @35 – it was actually the Tooting Popular Front, but you’re right, it wasn’t an army. It certainly wasn’t armed in the way of Liberation Armies and I don’t recall a military structure as in the Salvation Army.

41. Can someone (especially Eileen) please tell me how I had spoiled with the blog? I took extreme care to ensure I did not give anything away … reading it a few times before I send

42. Hi UY
    I suppose they are referring to this appearing on the Home page, before the blog is opened.
    “Today’s themed puzzle celebrates the anniversary of the birth of a great industrialist and Puck was able to fit in 8 marques of products from his creation which lives on after him.”
    I don’t have a problem as the Guardian is the only blogged crossword that I do, so I never come here until I have either finished or given up. However people could accidentally see hints to this crossword while looking for blogs for other ones?

43. Good afternoon UY.

    I waited a few minutes for Eileen to post but if she feels there is anything to add, no doubt she will do so .

    Firstly you say that the anniversary is that of a birth. That cuts out a few such as the anniversary of England winning the World Cup. Next you say it was that of a great industrialist. If asked to name such a person most people’s choice would be Henry Ford. Finally in using the noun – marques- this implies cars which again leads to our main suspect.

    I hope this clarifies my comment.

44. UY @41
    I will save Eileen, or anyone else, the trouble of having to reply to your query.

    As I said in the email I sent you this morning, the special instructions only indicated that this was an ‘anniversary’ puzzle. You expanded on this by saying that it was the anniversary of the birth of a person, rather than any other historical event. You made it clear by the use of ‘his’ that the person was a male and you gave away the fact that he was an industrialist whose products are still being manufactured. By using the term ‘marque’ in connection with those products clearly indicated that they were in fact cars (even though marque usually refers to the manufacturer, eg Ford, rather than the model name).

    There are not many car manufacturers who have sufficient renown to warrant an anniversary puzzle so the gentleman in question was readily apparent from your preamble. This made 13dn a write-in along with many/all of the undefined thematic entries.

45. Sorry Bracoman we crossed. I spent too long typing my reply.

46. On Tue, 30 Jul 2013 10:17:18 +0100, Gaufrid wrote:

    >Hi UY
    >
    >When I first visited 15² this morning I was most disappointed to see the
    >theme of today’s Puck clearly indicated on the home page. You did not
    >mention the person by name but you made it clear that it was a person who
    >was born on this date, his occupation and that he was someone who had
    >”marques of products”.
    >
    >The preamble simply stated that this is an “anniversary puzzle” and so it
    >could have been themed around any event from the past. You have been asked
    >previously to avoid spoilers appearing on the home page and I am now asking
    >you again to be more circumspect with regard to the opening, or in this case
    >only, paragraph of your preamble.
    >
    >Regards
    >
    >Geoff
    >

    send a bloodhound to smell blood
    you are always looking for faults from me and you will always find it
    i am still waiting for your apology for you ill-founded comment re-C**T
    Gaufrid, get a life
    make peace with your children
    and stop bothering me

    Frankly I think you should resign as captain after your c**t comment at the spider woman blog
    players always look for support from their captain
    but with us, we have to watch out for the captain
    I have absolutely no confidence in you as captain
    please ride into the sunset

    Edited by Admin to remove two offensive words

47. Oh dear!

48. This is getting ridiculous. Uncle Yap, I always enjoy your blogs – I hope you can settle your differences and continue your fine work here. If not, best of luck anyway.

49. I had always assumed people came here for clarification with parsing – I certainly would never look here before either solving or getting stuck on a puzzle, so I don’t see any problem with hints in the preamble.
    If not to provide answers and badinage between solvers and sometimes setters, what is the point of this site?
    Perhaps you should put a banner warning – This site may contain spoilers (or nuts.)

50. UY

    [My third attempt at a reply, as I keep being overtaken while typing.]

    As Mitz says, this is getting ridiculous.

    Some considerable time ago, bloggers agreed to give no information at all about the content of a puzzle in the first paragraph of their preamble, which appears on the home page. That seems a very reasonable thing to dask, since we have every opportunity to expand in subsequent paragraphs, if we wish.

    As far as I can see, Gaufrid simply expressed disappointment that you had [again] taken no account of this. I was not going to comment this time and then someone else did, so I followed it up with a polite request that you do not do this again. I can’t see why you should have taken exception to that.

    Your subsequent outburst is quite inexplicable and unacceptable and I think it is you, and not Gaufrid, who should be offering an apology.

51. Hi SteveO [We crossed.]

    Your point has been made before. I can think of several reasons why commenters visit the home page before attempting a particular puzzle: this morning, for instance, I wanted to catch up on overnight comments on my Rufus blog. I would not have opened the Puck blog until I’d finished the puzzle.

    However, that’s really irrelevant: as I said above, this is an agreement that we made and, as far as I’m aware, all other bloggers adhere to it. [It’s only the first paragraph we’re talking about!]

52. With reference to SteveD’s point at #49, I’d give the example of a solver tackling two puzzles. Having finished one, he can read the blog on it, without seeing spoilers revealed re the second one. Just a practical point really.

53. Re #46, I’ve full confidence in our captain. When one opens a UK newspaper you will very rarely if ever see the word that you have decided to put in capitals there. There are good reasons for this that I think I don’t have to elaborate on here.

54. Not into cars so didn’t really enjoy the puzzle.
    The comments @46 are outrageous in light of a very reasonable request. Mr Yap, I think you have outstayed your welcome here.

55. Hadn’t seen this but was alerted by our internal bloggers email list. What part of not showing dirty washing in public….

56. I second Eileen’s comments at #50. That’s all I will say on a public forum.

57. Wow.

    @46 … Has Uncle Yap’s account been hacked? He writes eloquently in his blog, and his reply (@41), but @46 does not read with fluency at all, never mind the expletives. Has someone else posted as him??

    As more of a novice solver, I was glad of the spoiler and I’m in awe of those that wanted to / were able to solve the puzzle without knowing the theme beforehand! I was straight onto Wikipedia to find all the significant anniversaries of July 30th, then subsequently onto their helpful list of Ford cars! Never would have stood a chance otherwise.

    When solving a puzzle with undefined clues, how do you work out which are the undefined ones?

58. speckledjim@57: in answer to your question, it is something that comes with experience. If no definition is obvious from the wordplay of a particular clue then there is a good chance that that clue is one of the undefined ones. When I used to do the FT puzzle years ago they would asterisk the undefined clues in a themed puzzle of this nature, but I have never seen the Guardian use that convention, and as a more experienced solver nowadays I would not want them to.

    As far as the above kerfuffle is concerned, if UY did indeed make the post @46 and didn’t have his account hacked, all I can add is “oh dear, oh dear!”.

59. Oh yeah, thanks, rho, too long ago I guess.

60. Thank goodness for a crossword question rather than one about cross wrods.

    Speckledjim – the “clue that lacks definition” will sometimes stand out from the crowd, and on other occasions will hide more carefully. Usually (but by no means always) it will be short. For me (and I think a few others today) the first in was FIESTA, in my case before I had spotted the theme even, because the wordplay just set off a light bulb. “Half of Wolfie” had to be either “wol” or “fie” and then we had a clear indication of some initials for “sta”. No definition, but clearly a theme word. After barking up the wrong tree and looking for various synonyms for “celebration” I spotted SCORPIO in a similar way, the penny dropped with HENRY FORD and the rest was history.

61. Andy B @58 – there was a Guardian puzzle a few years back by Paul that had undefined clues (word play only) indicated by asterisks.

    From what I can remember, some clues were obvious stars (sirus etc.), but one (of several other different alternatives/variations) that stuck in my mind was:

    Germany at war. {Meg Ryan}

    It was a brilliant puzzle.

    Nick

62. Hello Eileen and nmsindy, and thank you for your replies – I will say no more on this sensitive subect.

    However I do come here for clarification, and so far ANCINI remains fairly vague. I have only a Chambers Concise dictionary to hand, in which the word does not appear, and further online research leads me to cavities in glands or regions of the lung. Looking further I find that it is the Latin plural for berries, which would fit the clue, at a pinch, but seems rather obtuse even for a Guardian cryptic. Have I missed someting?

63. Sorry, ACINI of course

64. Thank you to setter and blogger.

    I enjoyed this puzzle, though even when I’d got the HENRY FORD gateway clue I struggled a bit to get all the themed answers. I have the sense that Puck was trying to give us some easyish answers in each of the quadrants so that we could finally finish. Bravo to Punk.

    As for Uncle Yap, bravo is not what I have in mind. Your comment at no 46 is completely out of order. It was in fact Gaufrid as site administrator a few years ago who did some clever techie stuff which meant that bloggers could post their first paragraph, then start a new one which would appear under ‘read the rest of this entry’ and therefore avoid giving the game away. So it’s not too much to ask that you don’t reveal the theme or content of the puzzle in your preamble, and your reaction to Gaufrid’s comment is, as others have said, outrageous.

    If there is anyone who should be riding off into the sunset, it certainly isn’t our ‘captain’. Given the popularity of this site, I’m pretty certain there would be a number of other people who would put their hands up for writing the Tuesday Guardian blog.

    More importantly, what the hell must our infrequent contributors and lurkers be thinking reading this blog? They presumably come here to find out what people thought about the puzzle, to understand some clues that they couldn’t get, and to get involved in a community of people who enjoy cryptics and are trying to involve others in our harmless hobby.

    And your comments, UY, aren’t helping that cause.

65. SteveD Onelook Dictionary Search is useful. Enter acini and click on Collins.

66. Hi Jim

    Having unflagged undefined clues in puzzles was at one time a very popular sport in The Guardian, and I must say that the practice never really bothered me as I slid along my learning curve. The clues concerned have a tendency to reveal themselves as particularly refractory, but there are always lots of normal ones to help provide crossing letters.

    PB

67. rhotician – thanks for that, I’ve bookmarked the site, but it still seems fairly esoteric for a daily Guardian crossword. An AZED or Genius, perhaps….

68. When I visited Fifteensquared this morning – to check a recent Nimrod blog – I noticed that there was a very long preamble for this puzzle. I scrolled down very quickly not to see anything. Glad I did. As I knew that Gaff also had an anniversary puzzle, I thought let’s not come back here until later today.
    That ‘later’ is now, after I read all those emails in the internal circuit.
    It’s just incredible, there is no excuse for it.
    “Blogger showing insane lunacy with extreme pleasure (5,3)”.
    [sorry, Rowly, it’s not completely ‘pure’ 🙂 ]

    And now for the puzzle which was indeed a corker.
    A lot has already been said but when I looked at the clues I immediately spotted the London/Tube and other transport related surfaces. So, I thought: is it ‘perhaps 100 Years of the London Underground or something similar?
    King’s Cross for HENRY FORD is brilliant (perhaps done before, who knows, but even so). Puck putting St Pancras and Euston into two of the themed clues was nicely misdirecting.

    Even my PinC, who is not into cars at all, enjoyed this immensely.
    Great puzzle, one of the highlights of 2013 so far.

69. Oh, sorry PB, there is an apostrophe in front of one of the perhapses which shouldn’t be there …… 🙂 🙂

70. Hi Sil

    “Blogger showing insane lunacy with extreme pleasure (5,3)”.

    That is brilliant!! Thank you so much. x

71. I was going to email you about that one Sil …

72. Very clever, but still rather sad – I am clinging to the hope that he has been hacked.

73. Thanks UY and Puck

    Unfortunately, I only got to this in dribs and drabs during the day and this evening. I found it really quite hard, despite having seen the theme quite early on. I managed to finish it, however, and understand most of it (I missed the proper parsing of 25a – one of my last in – even though I originally thought of fast lane).

    I had to check ‘cilantro’ and ‘acini’.

    The above squabble is quite regrettable. I had thought the days of giveaway blog headings were over.

74. We’re sitting here wondering what new visitors will think if they visit the site today. Puck’s crossword was good fun and seems to have been overtaken by comments which should never have been aired publicly.

    Crosswords are things to be enjoyed and it is such a shame that Uncle Yap chose to ‘vent his spleen’ on a forum which is open to all.

    We have utter faith in Gaufrid and the gentlemanly way that he administers this site.

75. Hi muffin

    “I am clinging to the hope that he has been hacked.”

    A forlorn one, I’m afraid: he quotes @46 a genuine email sent from Gaufrid – see comment 44.

    This is, as tupu says, a sad day.

76. Hi Eileen
    I fear you are correct – as I said earlier, “Oh dear”.

77. Sticking to the positives first – Puck is always good value, and apart from stalling through having POPPET (a type of valve, and its having allusions to Ford Pop)for a while rather than TAPPET, it was fairly easy cruising, I thought. Nostalgic reminders too of setting tappets in my air-conditioned garage – i.e. at the kerbside on my first car (Escort).
    Sorry to see that UY appears to have had a brainstorm (whatever he thinks, the blog header is a giveaway).
    He’s not necessarily the only miscreant in recent times.

    I envy those with the time to tackle several crossword per day 🙂
    Gaufrid ok with me

78. Thanks, Puck, for an excellent puzzle.

    I have enjoyed, and benefited from, many blogs from Uncle Yap. If the comment @46 is really from him, I am afraid I have no wish to see any more. It may be an old-fashioned view but I think internet postings should be subject to at least as strict codes of accuracy and politeness as written or face-to-face communications.

79. SteveD @67

    There’s nothing wrong with having one or two esoteric words in a daily puzzle. In this case we have CILANTRO and ACINI. Most setters, having to fill the grid first, sometimes find themselves obliged to clue obscurities. I think the Don regularly puts in a couple of unusual words even when he doesn’t have to.

    Solvers generally don’t mind either. Sometimes we learn something interesting. Michelle actually welcomes all words new to her.

    The usual practice is that the setter should make the wordplay straighforward. (ACINI conforms well, CILANTRO less so.) Then the solver should be able to confirm the answer by reference to their trusty Chambers or Collins. Every home should have one.

    As someone who began solving before the PC, let alone the web, was invented I dislike stuff like ACASTUS in the recent Qaos, which of course is not in Chambers. Some posters even went straight to Wiki to solve the clue rather than just confirm an answer. Typical of the lack of moral fibre of every younger generation.

80. Thanks, Puck, for a super puzzle.

    I thought we were in for A Midsummer Night’s Dream when Bottom appeared (in a manner of speaking!)and that maybe it was one of your own anniversaries.

    HENRY FORD was a super clue and it was all good fun.

    Good night all and pleasant dreams,

    Giovanna xx

81. But, Rhotician, there is a difference between ACASTUS and CILANTRO.
    The former was very clearly clued by CAST inside AUS.
    Perhaps never heard of our Argonaut but it had to be him.
    CILANTRO is less obvious though: (CORTINA)* around L.
    Having ?I?A?T?O with C,R,N,L as the missing letters is not that easy if you’ve never heard of it.
    Yes, it’s probably ?I?A?TRO.
    Fortunately, we thought CILANTRO sounded the most plausible but strictly speaking there are five more options.

    A minor minus in an otherwise splendid crossword.
    BTW, ?I?A?T?O would fit (Roberto) DI MATTEO.

82. Sil – Not everyone thought that ACASTUS was very clearly clued. AUS for faraway land?
    I’ve already said that CILANTRO was less straightforward than ACINI, even though I actually knew it without needing Chambers. Must have remembered it from a puzzle of long ago.

83. Thanks for the several constructive comments regarding undefined clues – I can appreciate they, being unmarked, must form part of the satisfaction of solving a puzzle like this for the experienced solver. At my current level, however, knowing that some of the clues lack definition meant that all clues were ‘untrustworthy’ and therefore that I had to try to check, by trial and error, against a list of Ford cars, every clue in case it was one of the ‘car’ clues, until I had eliminated all eight of them! Still, I enjoyed the challenge, so I suppose that’s the main thing…

84. Yes, and Ford not the most hip make. I drive one, of course.

    I agree with Sil re CILANTRO, with Rho re AUS & ACINI, but found FAIRLANE the most difficult steer of them all. Was it ever sold in UK?

85. Dear All,

    If you were in my shoes, you will understand the meaning of the word “persecution”. Our glorious captain has been on my case since he came on and there will be “the straw that broke the camel’s back”

    Yes, I was high from Glen Morangie after last night’s hash run;
    yes I used intemperate language for which I apologise;
    but hear me out

    Some weeks back at a Arachne blog, I explained clinically the etymology of Berk (Berkeley Hunt etc), quoting verbatim from no less a source than Chambers. The next day, (Tuesday is my hash run day and I am usually away from my pc until about midnight when I return) I read the “outrage” expressed by some people at the use of the word “c**t”. I set about correcting this by rewording as c**t.

    Imagine my flabbergast when Gaufrid publicly chastised me.
    That is not what I would expect from my captain. I realised my political incorrectness, made amends and then got slapped in public by my captain. Ouch !

    As for yesterday’s forward, read again my preamble. Anyone who can unravel the cryptic language would be intelligent enough to suss out the theme. Why the righteous moral outrage? Is it from your own sense of achievement being diminished or is it what you think someone else’s sense of achievement would be diminished? Not everyone knows the meaning of “marque” … I know from the five years I worked for Volvo, Malaysia and for those who know, they do not need the alleged leg-up from my preamble … they would have cottoned on to the theme before they came to the blog.

    Some months ago, we were all left “in the lurch” when our captain was incapacitated, which brings the subject of man’s mortality and the need to have another person at the helm who can take over. My take is that the time has come for this. No man is indispensable. If Uncle Yap should be suspended or banished, so be it … the sky will not fall down and FifteenSquare will carry on merrily.

    The important thing to note is that we are all here for fun and recreation in the pursuit of a challenging and entertaining pastime. If we can remember this, there is no need for overbearing government and cross words (which I am sometimes guilty of)

    Once again, I apologise for my intemperate words but I do hope you can empathise with me on what caused my unfortunate outburst.

    Edited by Admin to remove an offensive word.

86. Well said UY – I hope this can be patched over.

87. UY, in case you have lost the plot, the reason that people commented on your spoiler preamble is that many commenters here do more than one puzzle a day. So when I had finished the Indy and came here to look at the Indy blog, I stumbled across your comments, which spoiled the Guardian puzzle for me because you gave away the theme. People who came to Fifteensquared to catch up on comments on the previous day’s puzzles would have had the same experience.

    And it’s not your place – or anyone else’s – to suggest who administers Fifteensquared. If you don’t feel comfortable being one of the bloggers here, then hash off.

88. I was unwilling to add to the heat already generated, but my naturally inquisitive nature has been stimulated. So perhaps someone could explain to a casual reader what a “hash run” is, whether it is legal in the blogger’s jurisdiction, why it requires Glen Morangie afterwards, and why that and not the hash caused Uncle Yap to become “high”.

89. I’ve received a satisfactory explanation from aztobesed on the Guardian site, for which many thanks.

90. Thanks, UY, for your view on this matter.
    Apologies for this outburst are accepted (at least by me) but, I fear, I cannot really empathise with what caused it.

    Kathryn’s Dad is spot on in his comment @87.
    It looks that this is something you still don’t get.

    “Some months ago, we were all left “in the lurch” when our captain was incapacitated, which brings the subject of man’s mortality and the need to have another person at the helm who can take over. My take is that the time has come for this. No man is indispensable.”

    Did I really read this? Yes, I did.
    I find this quite a shocking statement about someone who puts his heart and soul into Fifteensquared, day in day out – even at a time when health problems crossed his way.
    It looks like you have no idea what Fifteensquared means to Gaufrid and what Gaufrid means to us.

91. I second K’s @87 and Sil @90. Well said, both!

92. Well what a great puzzle from Puck again.

    No it didn’t take me 24 hours to solve but last night due to being “high” not on Glen Morangie but on Marston’s Pedigree I decided it was not wise to attempt the crossword.

    I take one night off and miss all the shenanigans above. It’s very sad to see the how UY has reacted but I must agree with other posters that his reaction seems OTT. Also he seems unable to see that he was at fault both times.

    Surely just an “Ooooops sorry!” would have sufficed.

    Anyway thanks to UY and Puck. Let’s hope it is all sorted out.

93. Late to the party but I would also like to voice my support for and appreciation of Gaufrid and all he does on this site.

    What is the meaning of “(ninth of theme)” in 6ac? I understand, though didn’t get, the rest of the clue but that hasn’t been explained.

94. Thanks Val
    There were eight Ford models in the grid, a ninth (Ford Granada) identified which Spanish city you needed to remove ADA from.

95. Val @93 – Ford Granada? Much loved by Regan and Carter in “The Sweeney”!

96. Sorry, Gaufrid, we crossed.

97. First I have to say it’s a shame this anniversary did not occur on a Saturday. The puzzle is a toughie and complex, with a hard grid. Perfect for a Prize. But, well, perfect for the day on which it appeared.

    Hard for foreigners, as many of the models are UK-only.

    Many wonderful “Prize” level clues that were a bit tough to chew on for a Tuesday. I only got six of the cars and had a LOT of pencil in the clues I did get.

    Great puzzle, though, Puck, and thanks for the blog, UY.

    As to the “controversy”, I think it might even have been I who asked the bloggers not to post “spoilers” in their first paragraph. I have since learned (since I am often days behind or solving old unfinished puzzles) to look for the number, not words.

    As to the other “controversy”, isn’t there a level of politeness defined by the nature of the content we are commenting on?

    I hope our dear Uncle Yap gets over his frustration at how some of these comments went, and I respect his “Glen Morangie” excuse, since, after four doubles I can’t solve a single clue, myself – and am prone to intemperate comments.

    Cheers, all.

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