THe puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26326.
I am happy to say that all the clues and all the lights have the right numbers. I had to spend quite a bit more time working out the wordplay (and not entirely successfully at that) than entering the answers.
Across
1 BLOODSHOT Red Book’s dosh distributed, when dividing swag (9)
An envelope (‘when dividing’) of ODSH, an anagram (‘distributed’) of ‘dosh’ in B (‘book’) plus LOOT (‘swag’).
6 AGON Try to gain entry to an old Greek competition (4)
An envelope (‘to gain entry to’) of GO (‘try’) in ‘an’.
10 EMERY It’s hard to recall ingredients of country remedy (5)
A hidden answer (‘ingredients of’) reversed (‘to recall’) in ‘countrY REMEdy’.
11 BONGO DRUM It’s beaten – Good Heavens! – with spirit (5,4)
A charade of BON (‘good’) plus GOD (‘Heavens’) plus RUM (‘spirit’).
12 KEEP-FIT Exercise time, though taking a quick look over the shoulder? (4-3)
A reversal (‘over one’s shoulder’) of T (‘time’) plus IF (‘though’) plus PEEK (‘a quick look’).
13 CONFINE Restrict inmate, given punishment (7)
A charade of CON (‘inmate’) plus FINE (‘punishment’).
14 FEATURE-LENGTH Like the film Roxanne? It’s central to the plot (7-5)
The film Roxanne is an adaptation of the play Cyrano de Bergerac, and the plot depends on the length of Steve Martin’s feature – that is, his nose.
17 NIGGARDLINESS Scrooge’s way so very old and slow, not quite retired (13)
A reversal (‘retired’) of ‘S[o]’ plus SENIL[e] (‘very old’) plus DRAGGIN[g] (‘slow’). with each element cut short (‘not quite’).
21 BETIMES Live by appearing early (7)
A charade of BE (‘live plus BY (‘times’).
22 CAGED IN Confined, I’d say – back behind bars? (5,2)
An envelope ( IN from the wordplay) of GEDI, a reversal (‘back’) of ‘I’d’ plus E.G. (‘say’) IN CAN (‘behind bars’).
24 SERENGETI Plain covers turning green in first class (9)
An envelope (‘in’) of ERENG, an anagram (‘turning’) og ‘green’) in SET (‘class’) I (one, ‘first’).
25 ODIUM Blame president coming off stage (5)
A subtraction [p]ODIUM (‘stage’) less (‘coming off’) P (‘president’).
26 DELI Giving up not very unusual food shop (4)
A subtraction: DELI[very] (‘giving up’) without (‘not’) ‘very’.
27 DANGER MAN The threat of bad anger management (6,3)
A hidden answer (‘of’) in ‘baD ANGER MANagement’.
Down
1 BREAK OFF Split balls – harsh sounds heard (5,3)
Homophones (‘heard’) of BRAY COUGH (‘harsh sounds’). I take it that the definition refers to snooker.
2 OXEYE Flower springing up out of nothing – the old roots (5)
This was one of my first entries, but I am not sure that I understand it even now. I think it is a charade of OXE, a reversal (‘springing up’ in a down light) of EX (‘out of’) plus O (‘nothing’);
plus YE (‘the old’; of course, YE, as i “Ye Olde Mobile Phone Shoppe” never really was a Y, but a thorn). Where the ‘roots’ come in, I’m not sure.
2 DAY OF JUDGEMENT Daughter’s unbridled joy augmented when fellow’s pulled in World’s End (3,2,9)
An envelope (‘pulled in’) of F (‘fellow’) in D (‘daughter’) plus AYOJUDGEMENT, an anagram (‘unbridled’) of ‘joy augmented’.
4 HABITUE Shouting about rather regular customer (7)
An envelope (‘about’) of A BIT (‘rather’) in HUE (as in “hue and cry”, ‘shouting’).
5 TEN-ACRE Occupying sizeable area, a centre for rehabilitation (3-4)
An anagram (‘for rehabilitation’) of ‘a centre’.
7 GARNISHEE A debtor’s last crime arises, when something’s clarified about it – he’s been warned (9)
An envelope (‘when … about it’) of ‘a’ plus R (‘debtoR‘s last’) plus NIS, a reversal (‘arises’ in a down light) of SIN (‘crime’) in GHEE (‘something’s clarified’ – butter, that is), with perhaps a touch of an extended definition.
8 NUMBER Song sung with not much feeling (6)
Double definition.
9 GOING GOING GONE It’s said to signal the dying moments for a lot (5,5,4)
Cryptic definition, the ‘lot’ being at an auction.
15 AU NATUREL Baking, two of you get real tan like this (2,7)
An anagram (‘baking’) of U U (‘two of you’) plus ‘real tan’, with an extended definition.
16 AS ONE MAN An heir, perhaps, to call up all together (2,3,3)
A charade of A SON (‘an heir, perhaps’) plus EMAN, a reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of NAME (‘call’).
18 AT SPEED Bowled out, top of the order went quickly (2,5)
I think this is [b]ATS (‘top of the order’) without the B (‘bowled out’) plus PEED (‘went’).
19 DICTION In this speech, one would have to be included as a token (7)
I suspect this is something to do with DICT[at]ION, but I cannot work it out satisfactorily. Your turn.
20 ABUSED Ill-treated, one’s no good between the sheets (6)
An envelope (another indication by wordplay) of US (unserviceable, ‘no good’) in A BED (‘between the sheets’).
23 DEISM Sitting in solitude is my belief (5)
A hidden answer (‘sitting in’) in ‘solituDE IS My’.
19a – I think it’s ‘In + ‘this speech’ (diction) with ‘a’ inserted ie ‘indication’, or token. You’re up and about early! Thanks for the blog and to Enigmatist for a superb puzzle.
I definitely was not on Enigmatists’s wavelength. I found this very difficult and could not even parse 10 of the clues I managed to solve. (20d, 4d, 11a, 2d, 19d, 24a, 17d, 1d, 22a, 18d). I’m very happy that PeterO’s blog appeared early as it had been quite a baffling start to my day before reading this blog.
New words for me were GARNISHEE & AGON, and my favourites were FEATURE-LENGTH & GOING GOING GONE.
I thought that the repeat of CONFINE(D) in both 12a and 22a was not such a great idea, but it did help me to solve 12a!
For 19d, does it have anything to do with ‘inDICaTION’ (= ‘token’) ? – but I still can’t parse it.
Thanks PeterO and Enigmatist.
endwether – sorry – I had not seen your post when I was fiddling about creating my own post!
I guessed quite a few of these without being able to parse them. I don’t seem to be on Enigmatist’s wavelength. Almost all is now clear, except 26. What’s unusual about a deli?? I used the same parsing (DELIVERY minus VERY), but it doesn’t seem right now. Does anyone have another explanation?
Thanks for the blog, PeterO, and for the brain work-out, Enigmatist.
I found this very tough – entertaining when the pennies dropped but maybe less so than some of this setter’s offerings in some of his other guises. Still good to see him back on the G after so long. I suppose as Enigmatist he has his reputation for toughness to defend.
19a #1 and #2 – that’s what I (eventually) thought.
@P #4 – the term “deli” seems to have different meanings in different places. Here in South Australia it always meant a kind of corner shop open all hours – a quickie-mart – the same thing in Victoria being called a “milk bar”. When I lived in the UK and they first popped up there they tended to be that sort of thing too, but usually with offerings of daring stuff which had previously been lumped together as “foreign muck”. Unusual vegetable, spaghetti (not in a can with Heinz written on it), olive oil (for cooking with – not for treating cradle cap on babies) – that sort of thing – hence “unusual”.
Of course all this stuff is now available in every supermarket so the emphasis has changed somewhat.
Many thanks to setter and blogger.
I think ‘unusual’ refers to the food, not the shop. Collins gives for delicatessen: “a shop selling various foods, esp unusual or imported foods, already cooked or prepared”
2 down. Oxeye (Leucanthemum vulgare) is a type of daisy, and “Daisy Roots” is cockney rhyming slang for boots. Immortalized in the 1960s Lonnie Donegan song “My Old Man’s a Dustman” which is about 45 seconds into https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sleSYZy-2GI.
Thanks to the setter and the blogger
Thanks Enigmatist and PeterO
Much more satisfying challenge than yesterday’s. For some time the only entry I had was a word that I hadn’t previously heard of (AGON), but progress was steady.
I was going to question the lack of a homophone indicator for “two of you” to give UU, but, on re-reading, I think it’s the “get” (as in “pick up” or “hear”).
Wow, a toughie for me this morning. None entered at all after three read throughs! Eventually got started in SE corner and worked my way round anticlockwise. Favourite was 9d.
Thanks, PeterO, for the blog, and Enigmatist for a lovely puzzle which restored my confidence after yesterday’s battering.
GARNISHEE was my new word, which conjured up an amusing picture – I was totally unaware of that meaning of GARNISH!
Favourites among many great clues: FEATURE-LENGTH and NIGGARDLINESS.
Thanks again – I really enjoyed it.
Agreed, very tough but fair, and I failed to parse ‘niggardliness’, ‘at speed’ and ‘diction’.
For what it’s worth, my parsing of ‘oxeye’ is ‘ex o’ as ‘out of nothing’ followed by (rooted) ‘ye’ for ‘the old’.
Good start to the day after yesterday’s fiasco.
Forgot to sat that ‘springing up’ is obviously the reverse indicator for the ‘ex o’ part.
Like others I couldn’t parse everything but it was a great puzzle. Thanks to Enigmatist and PeterO.
Thanks, PeterO
Good one from Enigmatist – up to his usual standard of difficulty (I found his last few a wee bit easier). At least I managed it in one (long) sitting, unlike yesterday’s, which I didn’t finish until first thing this morning!
I parsed 19d as IN (the first word in the clue) DIC(A)TION. A typically Enigmatic clue, in which the definition is nested in the wording, rather than appearing at either end. One of my favourites, alongside FEATURE-LENGTH, NIGGARDLINESS and AU NATUREL.
GARNISHEE was a new word for me, though I did have to check AGON as well.
Took me two hours to finish and needed the above posts to explain five answers but a good puzzle and I did finish it correctly !
Sometimes (if not often) I come to the blog having had a real struggle only to find that the blogger, and pretty much all the comments, characterise the puzzle as ‘straightforward’ or some other faint praise. Well, today my planned opening gambit was to be something like ‘Enigmatist must be getting soft as I found this much easier than his usual level’ only to find myself in a minority of one. Must be something about wavelength – although it took me till DELI to get started, a couple of long down clues came quickly afterwards, and I was away. Must be due a struggle tomorrow I guess.
SERENGETI provided the chuckle moment and led to DICTION, my last in.
I gave up after doing about half of it. Just too much of a slog for me. Thanks to PeterO and everyone else for the parsing quite a few of the clues.
The ‘roots’ in OXEYE simply means the YE appears at the bottom of the entry. Although not strictly necessary the surface would be odd without it.
Pleased I’m not the only one who found things difficult to parse, but I suppose there’s something to be said for the clarity of his definitions that people could arrive at answers without necessarily understanding the wordplay.
I am confused as to why IF = THOUGH, though. Juts can’t think of a way they’d be interchangeable. Any one got an example?
FEATURE LENGTH gets clue of the day in my opinion.
JA @ 19:
Is this a reasonable, if/though dull example?
Thanks, JS@5 and endwether@6. It never occurred to me to check Collins! It’s hard to see spaghetti and olive oil as unusual these days! A sign of the times, I suppose.
I parsed OXEYE slightly different, with “roots” as the definition, with the “flower” being the “EO” river, springing up out of (outside) “X” (nothing). Not entirely satisfactory (the Eo isn’t exactly a famous river, and I had to Google just check that it really existed), but at least it got me the answer (I also tried to do something with the Exe, but couldn’t work out how to lose the extra “e”).
I agree that this was a hard one, but at least the longest clues tended to be the easiest, which made this puzzle much less daunting than it could have been. DAY OF JUDGEMENT, NUMBER (that old chestnut!), AU NATUREL and GOING GOING GONE were my first ones in – although for 9d, surely you need crossers to tell you whether the answer is GOING GOING GONE or GOING TWICE SOLD. Either one can signal the end of an auction.
Like Trailman @16 I was definitely on the Enigmatist wavelength today. A thoroughly enjoyable solve so thank you to Peter O for the blog and to Enigmatist for the entertainment. I do hope we don’t have to wait quite as long until you appear here again.
At 20d, did anyone else think, as I did initially, that the solution might be “banged’.
Hi George, yes, this was an early red herring for me.
I’m another who was not on Enigmatist’s wavelength. Or was it that he was not on the wavelength of the audience for the Guardian Cryptic puzzle? I note that even regular contributors here had difficulty with some of his wordplay.
Anyway, thank you PeterO et al for explaining 11a, 2d, 7d, 15d, 18d, and 19d for me.
As someone familiar with the law, GARNISHEE was not new to me, but certainly the spelling of JUDGMENT as opposed to JUDGMENT held me up for a while. Got NIGGARDLINESS and DICTION but failed to parse both. Thanks, PeterO and Enigmatist.
In the days when I used to write style guides, it was always JUDGEMENT for me. Chambers gives them as alternatives, but lists the E form first.
Thanks to endwether @1 for the parsing of DICTION – indication for token, while perfectly valid, is not an equation that came to my mind.
Jeff Cumberbatch @27
Evidently JUDGEMENT is so unfamiliar to you that you cannot even bring yourself to spell it. The OED also lists the primary spelling with the extra E, and without as a variant.
Muffyword @20: A spot-on, if/though dull example! Cheers.
That was a struggle alright! Got all but two finally, although I couldn’t parse quite a few of the ones I did get (a not uncommon experience going by some of the earlier comments!).
I can’t honestly say I enjoyed it fully – I found some of the wordplay too convoluted for my liking – but, in retrospect, I must say the clues were fair.
Thanks to Enigmatist, PeterO, and all the commentators who have helped in parsing of the not-so-accessible clues!
Bats for ‘top of the order’ (if that what it is, and I think Peter is right) is a bit loose, given that all eleven players in a cricket team are permitted to bat. However, I take it John intends the sense of those who *can* bat – who are batsmen AKA bats/batters rather than bowlers or all-rounders – which just about works…always discounting the first Test in the current England-India series.
Tough but entertaining so exactly what I have come to expect from Enigmatist. There were a few I couldn’t parse – last in were GARNISHEE (I wasn’t familiar with the legal term) and OXEYE (which I shouldn’t have taken so long to remember). Favourite clue was FEATURE LENGTH.
Thanks to Enigmatist and PeterO
I don’t think I have ever heard a collection of batsmen or batswomen being referred to as bats any more than I have heard of bowlers being referred to as bowls. The bats were prodding forward too much and the bowls were short of a length?
And another of those clues that were vulgar without being funny to boot.
You hear ‘batters’ quite a bit in cricketing circles and bats is in ODO, so obviously it is use, if not so much.
I didn’t do the puzzle, mainly because I was short of time today and partly because Enigmatist always roughs me up, but on the subject of ‘bats’ …
‘Bat’ for ‘batsman’ is certainly current on the field itself, as is ‘ump’ for ‘umpire’. ‘Two legs, please ump.’ ‘That is two legs, bat.’ And when a batsman prods the ball down just in front of him and offers to pick it up to return it to a close fielder, he will wait to hear ‘Thanks, bat’ before doing so, in order that he’s not given out for handling the ball (one of the eleven ways to get out in cricket).
That’s enough cricket. Sounds like you all enjoyed the crossword.
Ridiculously difficult – AGON for example. just what percentage of Guardian crossword readers get anything out of something as impossible as this. Hurrah for Rufus. It’s not about how difficult you can make a crossword it’s how often it makes you smile. This one not once – try harder Enigmatist.
PeterO@29 -Touche [acute on the e of course]!
Both GARNISHEE and AGON caused me a great deal of trouble, and there were quite a number that I got more by some sort of osmosis than anything else.
Quite enjoyable once I-eventually- got going
Steve @37
As I said earlier, AGON was my first (and, for some time,only) one in. I had never heard of it, but GO for “try” in the middle was obvious, and of possibilities to go round it, the “an” was in the clue – then all it took was Wikipedia to check what it meant!
Too tough for me.
My theology was never that good, but GOD=HEAVENS? Apart from one being plural and the other singular, we wouldn’t be able to say “God in heaven”, and such like, if they are synonyms.
I enjoy Rufus but if we had his level every day of the week I’d give crosswords up!
I enjoy Enigmatist because I know he’s going to cause me trouble, but equally I know if I persevere I’ll get there in the end, as happened today…and I did dredge AGON up from somewhere in the depths of my knowledge of Classics 🙂
Just my 0.02, of course…to each their own
This puzzle didn’t take me as long as a lot of Enigmatist’s other puzzles, but I confess that some of the answers went in from checkers and definition only. The GARNISHEE/AGON crossers, although not exactly common words, were both eminently solvable from the wordplay IMHO. The ABUSED/BETIMES crossers were my last ones in.
Yes, glad that all the clues and all the lights have the right numbers today. Ironic, therefore, that there are 2 12acrosses in the answers above 🙂
Pop Spencer @44
Well spotted. Now corrected to 13.
Derek Lazenby @41
I suppose the pairing Good Heavens/Good God is sufficient for the purpose.
I got there in the end and thoroughly enjoyed the struggle.
Nice to see I was in good company with George Clements and Trailman with “banged” for 20d. This made the SW corner very difficult. I was trying to think of a “plain” beginning with G and ending AI for ages!!
I don’t understand the complaints on here as the cluing is fair. (Just difficult in some cases) I am always happy to persevere with Enigmatist as I know that it is almost certainly my failure to see the obvious.
Thanks to PeterO and Enigmatist
PeterO, nope, don’t get it. They are both oaths of a nicer sort, but not the same.
Good Horse, Good Stable. Not the same.
I think Derek has a valid point.
I would agree that Good Heavens is a synonym for Good God but as mathematical rules don’t apply the subtraction of God from both sides doesn’t maintain the equality. 😉
So unless someone can convince me that “Bon God” is a synonym for “Good Heavens” I must agree that this clue a a little flawed.
More easily solved than parsed, I found. A few subsidiary indications needed some mulling over.
‘though’ for IF – got there by way of ‘albeit’ (rather like Muffyword did)
‘top of the order’ for BATS – well I’ve heard “opening bat” for ‘opener’ but “opening bats” just doesn’t sound right.
‘Heavens!’ for GOD is fine. They can be used to express surprise even without “good”. Rather like the familiar ‘goodness’ for MY.
‘you get’ for U would be more accurate as ‘you got’, albeit detracting from the surface.
‘out of’ for EX and ‘Good’ for BON just don’t work. The connections are obvious but they do not pass what someone here called the intersubstitutivity test, as applied by Muffyword.
Parsing Scrooge’s way, on the other hand was a real pleasure. And 14a is outstanding, in more ways than one.
Heavens, is that the time?
One has to separate the two.
BON means ‘good’, and GOD is ‘Heavens’ (interjection to express surprise or amazement).
For us, actually, a highlight in this great puzzle.
Great Puzzle.
And, rhotician, ‘out of’ can mean ‘without’ (Chambers). And ‘without’ often equals EX – perfectly all right.
Also, BON for ‘good’ is in Chambers.
‘You’ = U [think text messages] is by now accepted in Crosswordland, I guess.
And certainly in the Guardian.
I seem to remember a column by Hugh Stephenson on this.
Sil
In a double definition clue, ‘wordA wordB = wordC’, A can mean C in one sense and B can mean C in another. That does not mean that A and B are synonymous. Indeed if they could be the clue would condemned as “con-cryptic”.
Chambers’ entry for ‘bon’ is immediately followed by (Fr) to indicate that this is not in itself an English word and is used as way of grouping various phrases adopted from French. Collins has separate entries for each phrase and nothing for ‘bon’ on its own.
‘ex’ and ‘bon’ both fail the example test, unless you can show otherwise.
If text-speak is acceptable then ‘get’ in the clue serves no purpose. These text things are essentially homophones. They don’t have entries in proper dictionaries. I agree with muffin @8 that in a crossword they should have a homophone indicator. ‘you,say’, say.
Ridiculous effort. Straining after gnats with many of those clues. No fun at all.
Rhotician, I agree that my explanation A=B and B=C leads to A=C doesn’t make always sense in the world of words.
So let’s have another go.
Deus ex machina, a god coming from a mechanical thing onto the stage. “Coming from”. To come “out of” something, that’s what it is – close enough for me/us. “Ex warehouse” (straight from the warehouse).
I am afraid I will stand to my view on “bon”.
Yes, it’s French and used here in a adjectival way (as it should).
The much missed Araucaria used it more than once.
As did other setters in the past.
I know, that is not a justification.
But I find your view on the use of “bon” a bit narrow-minded.
Like we don’t want no foreign elements in a crossword.
It’s similar to “mal” for sickness which also turns up quite regularly.
I also stand by my view on the use of text language.
Some setters use indeed an indicator, some don’t – it also depends on whether it fits in the surface.
But as I said in the other post, it’s The Guardian.
Language is not always like it was a hundred years ago.
Some (modern) things have crept in – perhaps, for some (or many), unfortunately so.
But it is like that and I appreciate the Guardian’s policy to be open to these things (or should I say, bend the rules?).
You also question the use of “get” in that clue but how can Enigmatist do without? The clue wouldn’t be a proper sentence, would it? You should just equate it to “+”, as simple as that.
YY U R
YY U B
I C U R
YY 4 me
When I was first shown that, many years before the invention of the mobile phone, I was amused.
But I have put away childish things. So I don’t do text. And I don’t do smileys.
Was tough. Glad to see others say it too. Liked a few once the answer clicked.
Thanks Enigmatist and PeterO
Very late to do this one – probably having to psyche myself up to him :).
Although it was solid going – it wasn’t as daunting as I’d built it up to be – a train ride and a lunch hour.
There did seem to be an unusual number of reversals going on – 10a,12a,17a, 22a (part), 2d (part), 7d (part) and 16d (part).
Many clues to like and many a challenge to parse – really enjoyed it!
Bruce@aus. I dips my lid. We too enjoy the challenge of the guardian weekly cryptic . But last week’s Enigmatist – a lunch hour and a train ride! You must be a slow eater and commute to Alice Springs. We enjoyed it also, but oxeye had us stumped.u