Guardian 26,135 / Paul

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A real crossword-puzzler’s crossword puzzle from Paul today…

…celebrating the centenary of (probably) the first published puzzle. I found most of the clueing quite gentle by Paul’s standards, though entertaining as always, but some of the names and references might be somewhat obscure to those who are not as much steeped in the history of the 19a as some of us. It’s perhaps rather surprising that this puzzle is appearing today: the actual anniversary is on Saturday (and I hope to see many of you at the Sloggers, betters and other cruciverbalists’ centenary convention then). I wonder if we have another special puzzle in store? Anyway, thanks to Paul for this one, and here’s to the next 100 years. Oh, and Merry Christmas everyone.

 
 
 
 
Across
1,7. MONKEY PUZZLE Araucaria‘s day — important with a 9 (6,6)
MON[day] + KEY (important) + PUZZLE (crossword) – a nice touch that the first clue mentions Araucaria, whose pseudonym is the name of the Money-puzzle genus
4. ROLL-TOP Some bread on better sort of desk (4-3)
ROLL (some bread) + TOP (to better)
9,14. CROSSWORD CENTENARY Our moment the mark of love — guarantee a number captivated by 100-year celebration finally coming around (9,9)
The answer was pretty obvious, but this one took me a while to explain: I think it’s CROSS (X = kiss being a “sign of love”) + WORD (guarantee) + TEN (number) in anagram of C (100) YEAR [celebratio]N
10. WALTZ Steps taken to back fringes in Zionist decree (5)
Z[ionis]T LAW, reversed
11. USING Neanderthal’s comment about evildoing (5)
A “lift and separate” clue: SIN (evil) in UG (Neanderthal’s comment)
12. CELESTIAL Heavenly composition of Satie — little room to accommodate it (9)
SATIE* in CELL
13. TACTILE Dr Seuss’s hat-wearer brought back hat — that’s touching (7)
Reverse of CAT (from the Dr Seuss book “The Cat in the Hat”) + TILE (hat)
15. GRANGE Farm managed to divide farm produce the wrong way (6)
RAN in reverse of EGG
17. ENIGMA 7 good to keep in a dark hole? On the contrary (6)
G in A MINE, reversed, and an enigma is a puzzle
19. ART FORM 9s, we could argue, in part for mankind (3,4)
Hidden in pART FOR Mankind
22. IDENTIKIT Range of features I knitted together with one suspect? (9)
(I KNITTED I)*, the definition referring to the fact that Identikit pictures were originally made from a collection of different eyes, noses, etc.
24. PEWIT Flier — something to take with it (5)
PEW (“take a pew”) + IT. The Pewit is aka the Lapwing or Green Plover.
26. ALACK A jet won’t start, I’m sad to say (5)
A [b]LACK
27. ABUNDANCE Wealth in a Bath or Chelsea trip? (9)
A BUN DANCE (ref to Bath buns and Chelsea buns)
28. KEYWORD In New York World’s case, 25’s ultimate access to cipher (7)
Anagram (“New”) of YORK + W[orl]D + [wynn]E, and a keyword might give access to a cipher. Wynne’s puzzle was indeed published in the New York World, on 21 December 1913.
29. ASSESS Judge the character of Jenny? (6)
A Jenny is a female donkey, so (maybe) an ASS-ESS
Down
1. MACNUTT Far from pure setter perhaps outlining principles (we hear) in academic cruciverbalism, named Ximenes (7)
A[cademic] C[ruciverbalism] N[amed] (“principles (we hear)” being the principal letters) in MUTT (a mongrel, so not a pure Setter (say)). Ximenes was the pseudonym of Derrick Somerset Macnutt, successor of Torquemada in The Observer and predecessor of Azed.
2. NAOMI Biblical character, model from Somalia, eating nothing up (5)
O in IMAN, Somali model; Naomi is the mother of Ruth in the OT.
3. EASY-GOING Relaxed and informal — though hard on the way back? (4-5)
If it’s EASY GOING, then in might be hard coming back
4. RED FLAG Standard wine label (3,4)
RED (wine) + FLAG (label)
5. LEWIS Solver‘s Scottish isle (5)
Double definition – the “isle” is actually just a part of the largest island of the Outer Hebrides. The “solver”, I presume, is Inspector Morse’s sidekick and successor, so a “solver” of cases, and/or “Mrs B Lewis”, aka Dorothy Taylor, a Ximenes and Azed solver, after whom Colin Dexter named the character.
6. TALKING-TO Reproof left man tired at first, during the course of life (7-2)
L KING T[ired] in TAO
8. LOUCHE Shifty hooligan not entirely revolutionary (6)
LOU[t] + CHE [Guevara]
16. ANTIPODES Extremes in a despot, remarkable (9)
(IN A DESPOT)*
18. AWKWARD Difficult few days in trophy (7)
WK (week – “a few days”) in AWARD
19,25. ARTHUR WYNNE Right this day in New York initially, a new, extraordinary 9 inventor (6,5)
R THUR in (NY A NEW)* – “this day” being Thursday makes the cryptic reading work nicely, so perhaps a reason why this puzzle was published today, but surely it isn’t right for the surface, as it makes it two days early. (I checked the date in John Halpern’s Crossword centenary book, among other sources, so there’s no ambiguity about the date of Arthur Wynne’s puzzle)
20. MATHERS Torquemada‘s hamster tortured (7)
HAMSTER*. Torquemada was the pseudonym of Edward Powys Mathers
21. HIJACK Take over something at the top of the flagpole, say? (6)
Homophone of “high jack”
23. TOKYO Country’s capital city its old capital has moved to (5)
KYOTO, which was the capital of Japan for over a thousand years, with the TO moved

43 comments on “Guardian 26,135 / Paul”

  1. Completed successfully, but definitely a puzzle for crossword obsessives only. Specialist knowledge or guesswork essential. Undoubtedly clever, but I found some of the clues very 18d in construction, to the extent that I could not be bothered to parse them, especially 9,14. Not familiar with Somali models, so I had to rely on the Biblical character being pretty obvious from the checking letters.
    I must remember that ‘ug’ is a Neanderthal’s comment.

  2. Loathed this. Loathe self-referential and self-reverential puzzles. Don’t know what Ximenes and Torquemada’s real names were, and don’t see why I should have to to fill out a daily crossword. Although I approve in principle of signed crosswords it does lead to this sort of thing. Who can forget the “celebration” of Roger Squires’ birthday? It means nothing to day to day solvers. If you want to wish Roger Squires a happy birthday, send him a card. There’s a celebratory article in G2 today – that’s where it belongs. In the features section, not the crossword itself [I could have lived with a single answer, buy the way, as long as it wasn’t “Crossword Centenary”, which is a mde-up phrase).

    Late contender for Most Miserable Git on the Web 2013…

  3. Thanks Andrew. I didn’t know any of the Xword heroes except 1A. On the other hand I finished this otherwise straightforward puzzle without aids. Not as much fun as usual from this setter, who is a bit of a hero of mine.

  6. Vaguely remembered Macnutt, knew I knew 19 25 but had to resort to my copy of Secrets of the Setters, thank goodness Mathers was pretty much the only anagram that made sense.

    Didn’t we have ASS-ESS, similarly clued, quite recently? Thought it was quite good the first time, bored by familiarity the second.

    Still, none too difficult, and not too perturbed by its appearing two days early. The Christmas special isn’t printed on Cristmas Day, is it?

  7. I liked it, but part of me agrees with you Mr Payn – if a novice crossworder read today’s article in G2, then decided to have a speculative go at the cryptic crossword, I doubt that they would come back in a hurry.
    I’m sure it’s possible to write a crossword-themed crossword without relying upon knowledge such as Ximenes’ real name, and, as such, I worry that this may have been a bit of a missed opportunity.
    Still, some enjoyable clues.

  8. Ah c’mon it’s only once every 100 years! Cut him some slack – I take the points above but it’s just a couple of bits of knowledge that could have been useful. (But not absolutely necessary – I certainly didn’t need to have heard of Mathers, and is sounds like matt didn’t either. Not sure I’d heard of Arthur Wynne either, or if I had I’d forgotten – surely it would have spoilt the clue a bit if I’d been able to get it straight from the definition?)

    Like matt I quite liked it overall – but I parsed 9,14 like Andrew and still can’t see an indicator – “coming”??

    Ian Payn @2
    You didn’t need to know anything at all about Roger Squires to solve the crosswords dedicated to him. It really isn’t fair to pretend otherwise.

  10. I agree with George @1.

    Thanks, Andrew.I certainly needed you for explanations today – never known so many I couldn’t work out (or couldn’t be bothered to).

    I got 1, 7 instantly which gave away the theme; and 9, but not 14, which had to wait for further solutions. ARTHUR WYNNE and the three setters were a google job, which I didn’t regard as cheating.

  11. Great fun, I thought. Paul doesn’t always have to do ‘smut.’

    Thanks Andrew; I had to look up MACNUTT but I think most people will have seen in the centenary articles the name of ARTHUR WYNNE. I don’t see the problem of it being two days before the ‘official’ celebration.

    I liked the KEYWORD clue with its misleading (at least for me) ‘New York’ and IDENTIKIT, among others.

  12. We enjoyed this, but resorted to online research for the compilers and in particular Arthur Wynne – we knew the pennames of the others. The clue for Macnutt was a bit complex – even when we had researched the answer. But overall quite enjoyable, and now (thanks Matt@7) we have time to look at G2.

  13. @Herb, I don’t think I wrote that one did have to know anything about Roger Squires to solve his birthday puzzle. I wasn’t pretending anything. I said that I didn’t like self-referential/-reverential crosswords of which that was a prime and self-indulgent example.

  14. I finished this, with the help of guesswork, and Google for 1D, 19 25D, and 20D. But even with the answers I couldn’t solve 13A, 22A, 28A, 1D, 2D, 6D, or 19 25D – so thank you Andrew for explaining them.

    George Clements @1 sums it up nicely.

  15. Well I enjoyed it very much. Probably helped by the fact that I’ve been reading my Christmas present to myself (I can recommend Mr H’s book, if you haven’t got it yet) and remembered some of the key names.

    Thanks to Paul and Andrew – see you on Saturday.

  16. Herb @8 re 9,14: I think “coming around” is the anagram indicator – the inclusion indicator is “captivated by”.

  18. Thanks Paul and Andrew
    I thought this was fair enough, perhaps because I found most of it very easy (the SW took longest), though I had a bit of help from Google for the real names of Ximenes and Torquemada.
    I had thought that “solver” for Lewis of Morse fame was a bit weak, so I was interested to hear of the other Lewis. Colin Dexter, of course, is a crossword enthusiast.

  20. I believe that Sir Jeremy Morse and “Mrs B Lewis” were regular winners of the Observer crossword. And Lewis calls itself “Isle of” even though part of the physical island is Harris. It is a place of magical beauty.

    I enjoyed the puzzle but do have a complaint. There is no evidence that Neanderthals said “Ug”. They had larger brains than we do, and could almost certainly speak, probably in a high-pitched voice. (You could clue it using Uig – part of the Isle of Lewis with the most beautiful beach in the world).

  21. So apt that Araucaria was referred to in 1 Across which is the name of the magazine he founded.

    Well done Paul.

  22. I share some of the reservations expressed above. Not up to Paul’s usual standard on the scale of enjoyment per unit of effort.

    I cannot help adding that the similarity of the names of the old and new capitals of Japan is no coincidence. Kyo is the romanization of the kanji character for capital (also occurring in the Chinese name for Beijing). The To in Tokyo means East which is an accurate if mundane description of the city. The -to in Kyoto on the other hand indicates its status as a prefecture unto itself, just as Tokyo is correctly Tokyo to.

    Thanks to Andrew. You filled in a few blanks that I couldn’t be bothered with today.

  23. (Sorry – a bit off topic)
    Marienkaefer @20
    I had a week on Harris this year, so we went to Lewis as well, of course.

    It seemed to me a bit odd that the division of Harris from Lewis was not at the very narrow bit at Tarbert. Instead all of the mountainous area was part of Harris (i.e. stretching quite a bit bit further north than the neck). As you seem to know the place, can you explain why this is the case?

    btw I agree – fabulous place.

  24. Muffin – I fear that I have no knowledge as to why Lewis and Harris are divided. I just know that the western part of Lewis is meltingly beautiful, having now been there twice. Just to add to the complication, Harris tweed is also made in Lewis.

  25. Like some others, I had to resort to google. But isn’t it quite fun to find out about things? I am now an expert, so thanks Paul! I wouldn’t have known about the centenary without it. The Rev sent me scampering to sources on a number of occasions, and I always found it worthwhile.

  26. I’m not sure what the crossword equivalent of an autodidact is but I’d been attempting the crossword for years before I’d even heard of Ximenes let alone understood all of “the rules”. I found this fair and relatively straightforward and enjoyed it – I did not know Arthur Wynne or Mathers but in both cases the wordplay was clear enough, even when doing the paper version on the bus without any reference material. I saw Macnutt straight away (without checking the parsing) so I must have heard of him. I liked the Araucaria reference at the start even though that made for a write-in. I wasn’t familiar with the alternative spelling of peewit but was happy enough to write that in without checking too. Thanks (and Happy Christmas) to Paul and Andrew…

  27. I agree with MartinD@25. I had to google the names, but it was very enjoyable and Paul deserves a bit of latitude as it’s clearly a one-off. Cryogenics apart, I don’t expect he’ll be around to do a 200th anniversary puzzle.

  28. I enjoyed this puzzle a lot even though some of Paul’s trademark cluing was conspicuous by its absence, and I thought it was a decent stab at a CROSSWORD CENTENARY puzzle. I’m not sure why this particular made-up phrase, if indeed it is one, should rankle more than any other made-up phrase, and its etymology certainly doesn’t invalidate it.

    The wordplay for the three setters was clear enough so I don’t understand why so many people disliked those clues. The HIJACK/KEYWORD crossers were my last ones in.

  29. Felt a bit like I was gate crashing someone’s party with some of the setter based clues to be honest. Still it’s only once every century!

  30. I agree that this was very poor for a Paul.

    On the whole it felt very contrived and wasn’t particularly enjoyable. Of course it was obvious what the theme was.

    I knew Macnutt and Mathers but couldn’t remember the surname of Mr Wynne. The problem is that if I had remembered it the clue was a boring write in and as I hadn’t it was nigh on impossible to derive from the wordplay. (Not helped by the fact that I had PIPIT for 24A which annoyingly also works for the wordplay.)

    Thanks to Andrew and Paul

  31. Kinda seems up its own behind, if I may put it that way madam, in talking about a Paul puzzle, but you have to allow that a crossword about crosswords hasn’t a snowball’s chance in that respect. I had no idea with some of this, and got bored, so pressed the cheat button and reverse-engineered the clues.

  32. Astonished at some of the humbuggery here today. Completely agree with MartinD @25 – isn’t it fun to learn new stuff? Similar to Crypticsue @15, I got Paul’s book recently, but even if I hadn’t I would, I’m sure, have gladly spent the time necessary to understand the references. It isn’t every day that one’s hobby can be measured as being exactly 100 years old.

    Thank you, Paul, for today’s puzzle, and for taking up the reins of those that have gone before. And thank you Andrew, as always, for an impeccable blog.

  33. I think some posters are missing the point of the complaints.

    The problem isn’t that the puzzle contained arcane answers that needed to be researched. It’s that in almost all cases it’s obvious what has to be looked up. This isn’t really how a cryptic puzzle usually works!

  34. Thanks to Paul and Andrew

    I’m with Mitz @ 32 – really enjoyed this despite the ‘theme’ becoming apparent early one – and I was doing it on a train, so had limited access to external aids.

    Cruciverbalism is a quasi-interactive hobby, and the setters, I am convinced, put a lot of effort into crafting something that will give us varying measures of pleasure, frustration, write-ins, tea-tray monets and so on. In a niutshell, my view is if you don’t like one occasionally, don’t whinge. If you don’t like ’em consistently, find a different hobby!

    nfn (’nuff for now, not normal for norfolk!)

  36. Really liked it. I have recently read Hugh Stephenson’s book in an attempt to get the hang of Guardian crosswords so got a handle on this one quite early.

    Took a knight’s move to NAOMI who is in the book of Ruth but is also a super-model and Paul’s LEWIS of financial website fame but, hey, all roads lead to KYOTO.

    LOI was ABUNDANCE (almost LOL).

    Many thanks, Paul and Andrew.

  37. Paul has been at the helm of promoting the Crossword Centenary this year. Now he produces a puzzle celebrating this special occasion and see what happens.
    Many solvers don’t like it.

    Perhaps, some cannot be bothered at all by the history of crosswords but we are where we are now because of people like Torquemada and Ximenes.
    Some time ago, I won a prize after solving an Anax crossword – it was a Torquemada book (from the collection of Rufus) and I must say it is a fascinating read.
    Of course, the content is very different from what is going on nowadays but still.

    MATHERS and ARTHUR WYNNE were easily gettable from the wordplay. But I must confess that I had to look up MACNUTT – but then I am not a strictly Ximenean. 🙂

    Nowadays Paul’s crosswords are not as hard as they used to be and this one was no exception.
    This puzzle perhaps fell short in that it didn’t have the usual wit. The clues are good but mostly, let’s say, clinical. No ‘trademark’ clueing though. No bottoms, no sexual references [not a problem for me, I got a bit tired of these].
    A weak puzzle? Don’t know – not for me, I think.
    One cannot fault Paul’s clueing.

    Thank you, Andrew, for the metaculous blog – hope to see you the day after tomorrow.
    And many others too!
    Mitz (@32), I agree – also with your first line, even if I stopped using this kind of language a while ago.

    Let’s see what Saturday (the actual celebration day) will bring – well, we know already that it will a Christmas special by Maskerade [announced on the Guardian website, so no secret].
    As this setter is the editor of Araucaria’s 1 Across magazine, I think it’s only apt.
    And, btw, he will be in the FT as well for a Christmas puzzle (as Gozo).

    Thanks Paul – hope you will find the time to join forces coming Saturday.

  38. I loved this puzzle – not too hard, being a crossword geek and also trying to promote the centenary over at Times for the Times I’m pretty familiar with the subject matter.
    So kudos to Paul, I thought this was spot on. Isn’t the guy on the proverbial Clapham omnibus supposed to be a regular solver?

  39. Actually Sil, I think we are where we are now (or at least the good bits of where we are now) is thanks more to L S Dawe (whose name Paul struggled to remember on the radio the other day) and of course Araucaria, as well as many other uncredited early Guardian setters and those from other papers. In fact in his book Paul records that Araucaria’s first advice to him was specifically not to read the Ximenes book.

    That said I had the impression that when Paul started to promote the xword centenary idea it was very much his own initiative. He doesn’t seem to network the way some setters do but his diplomacy and professionalism obviously keeps him well in with his editors – and his puzzles with his public. So surely he can be allowed a tiny bit of indulgence on this one occasion.

    As a crossie geek obviously I was OK with the theme. I tried to imagine how it would run for a non-crossie-geek. Fine is what I thought. No different from having to construct names you don’t know from a themed novel or suchlike; they were all easily constructible from the clues.

    So – a departure from normal but for me a perfectly good puzzle in its own right and an appropriate moment for it to appear. Just a shame about 2 out 3 the guys he chose.

  40. JS @38

    “No different from having to construct names you don’t know from a themed novel or suchlike; they were all easily constructible from the clues.”

    I would have to disagree with your “easily” here JS. WYNNE even with crossers was fairly difficult as the wordplay was quite ambiguos. Without crossers I would say nigh impossible as it’s an unusual name.

    I think you are being a little fooled by hindsight.

  41. I think Paul would have been damned in some quarters, whether he did or didn’t.

    We on this thread might forget, that perhaps a large majority of solvers just do the crossword, without much interest in the history of the puzzle form, or biographies of the setters. To them, the matters needing research would not have been apparent, and it would have been as cryptic as any other.

    With Araucaria’s passing, the timing of this has meant that of late, the medium has rather been the message. It’s not for long, though.

    Thanks one and all.

  42. @BNTO #40 re ARTHUR WYNNE

    I don’t say it’s a doddle but with crossers in and the right bits and pieces chosen (which are fairly well defined – especially to a regular Paul solver) you know you’re looking for a person’s name – ARTHUR should come easily enough leaving Y & N to be placed in the only places which will make something pronouncable. Post-solve googling no doubt to see whether you’re right but no worse than many themesters.

  43. This was, for me, a fun little puzzle.

    I do have one minor peeve, though. Frank LEWIS set the weekly puzzle in The Nation magazine from WW2 until his death in 2010. Just change the clue from “solver” to “American setter” or some such…

    Thanks for the blog Andrew et al, and for the puzzle, Paul.

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